"Doctor?" Donna wasn't quite sure what to do.

"I need you to… take them out… please Donna?"

"They're going off!" Donna exclaimed as she saw another few of them twitch and heard the accompanying pop and whistle.

"Toxin coating the spines starts to cause the muscles to go into spasm. The muscle spasms cause the spines to compress and releases the toxin," the Doctor explained quietly.

"I have to grip them at the top?"

"Yes, and then just pull in the direction that they are going in, don't flex the spine, that will trigger it as well," the Doctor advised.

"Okay," Donna knew how much the one in her shoulder had hurt. How much it had hurt when the Doctor had pulled it out. How it was still stinging and throbbing and felt like her whole shoulder was going to burst into flames, and that was just one that had not triggered.

"Donna?" the Doctor groaned. "Take the ones that have not gone off, out first."

"Okay, right, good idea." Donna gingerly took the black tip in one of the spines that was protruding out of the back of his left shoulder. The poison sac was still intact on that one. She gripped the tip of it and then gave it a sharp tug. It came out easily. She had a sudden thought and she went and grabbed two flat glossy leaves. She put the spine on top of it so it was not lost in the undergrowth. "What does the poison do?" Donna asked him.

"It's not too serious," the Doctor assured her. "Not for me," he offered. "You'd have a hard time with more than four or five of them if they triggered. I can metabolise it. It will make me feel pretty rotten for a while, it will cause pain and headaches once it really gets going. Dependent upon the actual species and make up it could cause nausea and an upset stomach too, but it's not going to do me any harm and my systems will cope with it. In a human it could cause some nasty renal damage and in strong doses it could be fatal. My body will cope with it and then I will just excrete it and that will be it done for. I think our trip into the jungle will have to be over for a couple of days though," the Doctor suggested with an apologetic tone. He then grimaced and hissed as three more spines triggered as the toxin was starting to make his muscles twitch.

Donna was trying to get the spines out as quickly as possible, but she slowed down when she inadvertently set one off. She apologised profusely as she tried to drag it out at the same time as it was triggering. She tugged at it when it seemed to get stuck. The Doctor yelped when it ripped his skin as it came out spewing an oily fluid onto his shirt. Donna put that on the other leaf. She wanted to be able to check how many of them had gone in and how many had triggered.

She was pulling them out through the linen of his cream shirt. There were several spots of blood appearing on the fabric now, making it look polka dot. Donna tenderly took the ones out the back of his neck and out of his ear. They were on bare flesh and she could see the angry round red welts that had been left. They had merged together on his neck. She pulled left one in at top of his shoulder. It had triggered and she saw that the welt around the spine was a deep purple bruised colour. It looked incredibly sore.

"Donna," the Doctor groaned. "You need to… hurry up a… bit." He could feel the muscle spasms starting to come and he wanted to be back in the TARDIS before they hit him properly.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to rush and set them off." Donna gripped another spine and pulled it out. It remained intact. Donna increased her speed. Working across his back taking two or three of the spines out and then putting them on the leaf rather than doing one at a time. She had all the ones out that had not triggered.

"Okay, we're down to the ones that have triggered now," Donna advised. She grabbed one of them in the middle of his back as she had done with the others and just went to ease it out of his flesh but it didn't want to come out. "It doesn't want to come out."

"The spine splits when it triggers to form a barb so they can't be brushed off until it's delivered the full dose," the Doctor advised. "You're just going to have to yank them."

"Yank?" Donna picked the spine up that she had triggered and she saw what the Doctor meant. The bottom of the spine where it was embedded in the flesh had kind of split and sheared away from the tip. It had turned it into a barb? "What if the bits get left in?"

"Then we can deal with that when we get back to the TARDIS, but while they are in they the spines are covered in the toxin and it will still be getting into my blood stream," the Doctor advised.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Donna apologised as she took a firm grip on the tip of the spine in the middle of his back. She yanked it out. She could feel it grabbing onto the Doctor's flesh as she dragged it out of him. It then got caught on his shirt and she couldn't pull it through without ripping the cotton. She didn't care about that. She could take his shirt off when all of the spines were out. She grabbed the next spine and yanked it out, ripping his flesh and making him bleed. The Doctor was pressing his forehead into his hands down into the leaf litter trying not to acknowledge the horrendous pain, not only of the number of stings, the toxins that were now raging through his body, but also the barbed spines being yanked out of his back.

"How many… left to go?" the Doctor asked weakly. He was starting to tremble and he couldn't help it. It was a mix of the toxins and the pain. Donna counted quickly.

"Only twelve," she lied. There were thirty two of them still sticking out of his back. All of them had delivered a dose of the toxin and all of them were going to be barbed. She knew that she was ripping his back to shreds. She could see the blood spreading out into his shirt around each of the barbed spines that remained in the fabric.

The Doctor silently counted the twelve spines. His back was one horrible fiery pain so he could not tell where spines were and were not. He went to push himself up. "Oh, sorry, Doctor, there is another twelve there," Donna commented quietly and she put her hand on his shoulder and pushed him down. His shoulder felt red hot and inflamed through the fabric when he normally felt cool to the touch. He cried out both at the touch and also at the idea of there being another twelve. "They'll be out in a jiffy," Donna insisted. She had managed to block some of the horror of having to do it to him and she carried on pulling them out. "Last eight," she assured him once she had removed that twelve. She pulled them all out. "That is all of them."

"Lying?"

"No." Donna caressed the back of his head. "I need to take your shirt off though, I couldn't get the barbed ones through the fabric. Can you get up?"

"I think so," the Doctor gingerly got up to his feet. He felt a little light headed and his back was agony. He knew he didn't have long until the toxins really started to take hold. The spines that were still in his shirt scratched across his raw stung and ripped flesh and made him hiss. Donna undid the laces at the front of the Doctor's shirt and then she pulled it up over his head for him. She moved round to have a look at his back and then wished she hadn't. Through the back of his shoulders and down the middle of his back the angry sting marks had all but joined together. There were stings on top of stings, some were bright red and angry, others were deep purple and even more vicious. His entire back was bobbled and lumpy with the inflammation, and there was holes where she had ripped the barbed ones out. They were leaking blood that had been smeared as they had taken his shirt off, but in those still bleeding it was now running down his back.

"Have you got anything in your pockets that is going to help with that?" Donna asked him. "What about the anti-venom kit you said you have?" she checked with him. "Is there anything you can take or that I can rub into your back? Sting cream or anything? What about an antihistamine?"

"I don't think it will work," the Doctor commented. He fished in his pocket and pulled out the anti-venom kit. There would be no harm in taking a dose of the generic anti-toxin. He supposed it might take the edge off. He found the right one, but then his hands were shaking so much he almost dropped it down into the leaf litter.

"Give it here," Donna took the kit.

"It's the light blue one," the Doctor advised. "Just push the cylinder into the hole at the rear of the injector until it clicks." He watched as Donna did that. "Twist the end until a three appears next to the dose line."

"Okay, I've done that."

"Now, just press it against my thigh and fire the trigger," the Doctor advised. He stood as still as he could as Donna gave him the drugs. He flinched, but he didn't yell. "Thanks, well done. Hardly hurt at all," he fibbed. Donna put the kit back together.

"That will stop you getting poisoned right?"

"Weeell, I already am poisoned, but, it will take the edge off it maybe. I have got some cream you can put on your shoulder if you want?" he asked. It was only when the Doctor reminded her that she had got a spine in her shoulder as well that she realised just how much it was stinging. It felt like it was on fire.

"What about your back?"

"I can't use it. There is stuff in the TARDIS that I can use," the Doctor advised.

"Well, it's no bloody good there. Genius Spaceman you are? Get turned into a toxic porcupine in the middle of the jungle and the stuff you need is in the TARDIS?" Donna scolded and the Doctor smiled weakly. "Come on, we better get you back. Do you want to put your shirt back on?"

"I think I'd rather leave it off so it doesn't rub as I walk."

"Have you got any dressings or anything? Some of them are bleeding quite a bit." Donna winced on his behalf as she saw that the waist band of his shorts was starting to turn deep crimson with the blood that was running down his back.

"It is better they bleed," the Doctor offered. "It might flush some of the toxins out," the Doctor suggested. He knew it was wishful thinking but he didn't want to waste any time with Donna fiddling with dressings. He just wanted to be back in the TARDIS. As he turned his head swum and he almost lost his balance. Donna caught his arm.

"Are you going to make it back?" Donna checked suddenly even more concerned about him.

"Yeah, fine," the Doctor offered. "Let's go." He caught sight of the spine weasel still sitting on the tree though now minus all of its spines. "You know," he commented and went to the small creature that now looked like a flattened fluffy mole stuck to the tree. "That was completely uncalled for." He told it. "We were only just having a look, and now, look at you. Completely defenceless," the Doctor commented. He went to poke it to prove his point knowing that the spine weasel was stuck to the tree and would not be able to move away. That didn't mean that it could not turn its head and when the Doctor went to poke it he lunged and sunk a mouthful of razor sharp teeth into the end of his finger.

The Doctor yelped and pulled away. "Not that defenceless then?" Donna commented.

"Ow?" the Doctor whined. Blood poured from the deep teeth marks in the side of his finger where he had been bitten. He was fairly sure that it had punctured his finger tip right down to the bone. Donna got a bit of tissue and wrapped it around his finger.

"At least you didn't try to lick it." Donna chuckled.

"I don't like spine weasels," the Doctor grumbled miserably.

"I think it is pretty clear that spine weasels don't like you much either, at least that one doesn't."

The Doctor grumbled and tried to glare at Donna, but his vision was blurring out slightly and he just ended up blinking rapidly to try and clear it. "I think we should be heading back."

"Have you got a plastic bag or something in your pocket?" she asked. The Doctor gingerly got her a small bag out and then watched as Donna collected up the spines that she had pulled out of the Doctor's back from the leaves she had put them on. He was surprised to see so many. There was no wonder he felt like his back had been scored with knives and then washed in vinegar. It was taking a lot of effort not to break down crying and the toxins were still warring in his body trying to take over as his systems fought them. Some of the symptoms he was soon going to be experiencing were due to his body fighting others would be due to his body being fought. He knew he wasn't going to have a very good time over the few hours, but, if Donna had been hit full on as he had been then she'd likely be dead by now. She had done well to get as many of the spines out as she had without them being triggered, but he knew at least thirty five of them had gone off. That was at least 35 doses of poison.

The Doctor groaned as he staggered slightly and had to put his hand up to the bark of the tree behind the spine weasel in order to stop himself from falling. The blood from his finger had soaked through the tissue and as he braced himself, taking long controlling breaths, the blood trickled back up his hand and wrist to from where it dripped down onto the ground.

"Doctor?" Donna was concerned for him. She had no doubt that he was in a worse state than he was letting her see. She knew it was serious. If it was not serious then he'd have been jumping around complaining about it. He was pale and she could see the muscles across his back trembling and twitching in spasm. When the muscle across his shoulder twitched one of the wounds from a barbed spine opened and closed like it was talking, each time it shut its mouth it squeezed out another dribble of blood.

"How are you feeling, Donna?" the Doctor asked her seriously. "Any dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, headache, aversion to light, double vision, muscle cramps, stomach pain, nausea, excessive pain, urgent need to defecate, or to urinate?"

"No, Doctor, I'm fine," Donna assured him. "Is that what is coming for you?"

"Some maybe, all maybe, don't know, won't know until…" the Doctor started trying to sound confident and positive about it. "Donna?"

"Spaceman?"

"It's really hurting me," he admitted quietly.

"I'm not surprised. I know how much one hurts…" Donna started.

"Do you want some cream?"

"No, Dumbo, I want to get you back to the TARDIS where you're safe," Donna commented.

"Think that is a good idea," the Doctor offered. "Good idea." He managed to straighten up from the tree. He got his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "We didn't come this far in the most direct route. We kind of weaved in and out a bit as we explored," the Doctor advised Donna. He adjusted the sonic screwdriver. "I've linked sonic to the TARDIS. She's just over half a mile that way," the Doctor pointed. It was a slight angle to the way in which they had arrived and the way that Donna thought they would be heading back. If she'd led the way then they'd have missed the TARDIS completely.

"Of course, you can only go as far as the beach and then the TARDIS is there anyway, so it won't matter if we're a bit off course," the Doctor offered. "As long as we now keep the mountain to our right."

"Are you okay to walk?" Donna asked him.

"Are you offering me a piggy back?" the Doctor asked her.

"No," Donna scoffed then laughed. The Doctor laughed as well. "I think you need to build a come and get me protocol into the TARDIS," Donna advised the Doctor as they started walking back toward the beach. This time Donna had the scythe and she cut through the thickest bits of vegetation. She kept the Doctor talking as they went, but within fifteen minutes he was starting to sound a bit short of breath.

"Do you need to stop for a moment?" Donna asked him as she turned and looked at him rather than where they were going. His alabaster complexion was only marked by smudges of feverish red across his cheek bones and the darkening circles surrounding his tearing eyes. He was breathing quite quickly in an attempt to keep up with Donna even though she was not walking very quickly. Now she had stopped he mourned the loss of concentration as he had been focusing only on putting his feet in the same place as Donna had been putting hers. One step at a time had seemed manageable and now she had stopped and worse she was offering him the chance to stop. His entire body was screaming at him to stop, just to stop, not to stop for a moment, but to stop.

"Can't…" the Doctor gasped. He didn't stop moving his feet. He edged forwards. "Keep going."

"Doctor?"

"Please, just keep going."

"You're worrying me."

"Don't worry… just keep going," he breathed.

"Do you want to go first?" Donna asked hoping that he would accept so that she could keep a closer eye on him.

"Need to follow." The Doctor shook his head. It was the worst thing he could have done. Worse than stopping for the motion in his head triggered the dizziness he had been fighting and a kaleidoscope of colours burst into his vision blinding him as the forest swirled around him. He felt like he was being spun round on the spot, faster and faster, with no consequence for the pain he was in or how his feet were being rooted.

Donna rushed forwards to grab him as the Doctor's eyes tipped backward and slid closed as his knees bent and he folded down toward the ground. Donna caught him, preventing him from crashing down, but she felt the sticky blood on his back on her hands and forearms as she grabbed him. She didn't want him to end up lying on his back on the forest floor as all the bits of rotting leaf and the tiny insects running in and out of every centimetre of it if you looked long enough would end up sticking to the bloody mess.

"Doctor?" Donna held him as he sagged against her. His breathing remained ragged and she knew she had to get him back to the TARDIS. She also knew that she couldn't carry him. "Come on, Dumbo, you need to wake up," she told him. "Come on, you can't stay here," she insisted. "Doctor? Come on, please?" Donna didn't have the heart to be deliberately mean to him. She knew there was no doubt that he had done this to protect her and she expected that if she'd taken the same kind of attack as he had that she'd be in a much worse condition. That didn't mean that she wasn't worried about him. She was. "Come on, please, Doctor, it can't be that much further to the TARDIS now and then you can get in your nice comfy bed, but you can't sleep here."

The Doctor groaned. It was a deep pain filled groan and it made Donna's heart ache for him. She held him, rubbing the back of his head, as she knelt and supported his whole weight as he half knelt, half laid, and half sat against her, and she knew that was three halves and he'd have cajoled her for thinking it, but he was only semi-conscious and groaning into her bosom so he had no right to cajole her about anything right then.

"Doctor? Can you hear me?" Donna asked him. He groaned. "Come on, you need to get back up, it's not bedtime yet." She tried to pull him upward a bit so he'd get the message but he didn't budge. He simply rested against her, breathing quickly, and moaning his discomfort. She put her hand on his back lightly. She could still feel the heat from it. It felt like he was on fire and his moaning hitched up a little as a result of her touch. She'd hurt him. "I'm sorry." Donna kissed him on the top of the head. "You need to get up, Doctor. We need to get you back to the TARDIS."

"Donna?" the Doctor whimpered quietly.

"Hey, come on Spaceman, you can do better than this. We need to get back to the TARDIS."

"Urgh." The Doctor lurched to the side. Donna thought it was a strange unfocused attempt to rise to his feet again, but he braced himself on his knees and one arm. He clamped his left arm across his stomach as it cramped intolerably, if he had not been in the process of emptying his stomach onto the forest floor he would have cried out at the pain of the cramps twisting his guts. "Oh God?" the Doctor gasped in despair in between body jerking retches.

"You're going to be alright," Donna assured him. "Try to take deep breaths." Donna hooked an arm under him to keep him up when he started to sag down. He was still retching and dry heaving. His stomach empty but not allowing him the chance to regain his breath as he wheezed and heaved. The sound of him retching, his breath catching uncomfortably in the back of his throat, made Donna feel quite sick herself.

"Need… to sleep," the Doctor decided and started to allow himself to go back down.

"No, come on, you're not going to sleep here," Donna told him. "Least of all because you're going to end up lying in your sick and I am not cleaning that up. Anything else, but I'm not doing Spaceman sick, okay?"

"'kay."

"So, come on, we're not far from the TARDIS now, you need to get up," Donna insisted. "Now," she tried to be more firm with him. "If you do not get up now Martian boy then I am going to leave you here," she warned him.

"You'd… not leave… me," the Doctor whimpered.

"Wouldn't I?" Donna threatened. She released her grip on him very slightly so it might have felt to him like she was going. "You have got the count of three to get up and then I am gone. You hear me? There is a beautiful sandy beach just through those trees and the TARDIS is parked there and there is food and tea and all the good things, and instead you want to go traipsing through the jungle looking for lost scrolls, well, I have had it, so you either get up right now, or I'm going back to the TARDIS. I'm going to get myself a large glass of mixed tropical fruit juices, loads of ice, and a curly straw and I'm going to go and lie on that beach and leave you here. Count of three, you understand?" Donna asked him. He didn't answer her. "One… two…"

"Donna?" The Doctor groaned. "Don't leave… me." He tried to get his feet under him. He didn't want her to leave him in the jungle. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to avoid the bloodiest and sorest areas of his back. He could hardly stand up straight and when he tried the cramps seizing his abdomen visibly clenched. They were like solid ropes under his skin and he gritted his teeth, doubling over and almost going back down to his knees again.

"No, come on." Donna held him up. "It will pass," she assured him. She hoped it would pass. "I've got you, okay," Donna assured him. She dragged his arm over her shoulders and hung onto his wrist, then she slung her other arm around his lower back, grabbing hold of the waist of his shorts. "Come on Spaceman, you can do it, we've not got far to go now. How about you get sonic out again and double check we're still going in the right direction?" Donna suggested. She held him up as he did that. Pointing it.

"Three hundred… yards… that way."

"There, see, that isn't far at all is it? You can make three hundred yards," Donna insisted. She made sure she had a good grip of him and they set off. Some of the time he made a concerted effort to walk, but other times she had to slow because spasms ripped through him. Twice she had to stop because they were so severe she feared he was going to break something as he contorted and cried out as his muscles racked him. Other times it left him leaning on her as she near enough dragged him through the jungle. His breathing was a concern. It was getting worse and he made very little effort to hold his head up at all.

By the time they got to the top of the boulders that separated the jungle from the beach the Doctor was practically unconscious against her. He occasionally bleated in pain or he cried out if it was particularly bad. He was shaking uncontrollably and he was drenched in sweat. Donna was terrified that he had not been truthful with her about being able to cope with the poison and that he was going to die on her.

"God? How are we going to do this?" Donna worried. "Doctor?" she was still holding him upright. If she let him down she didn't know if she would ever get him back up again, but he was more out of it than with it. "Doctor, can you hear me?"

"Donna… we're nearly there… I can feel… her… she's close," he stepped forward with a renewed energy to reach his TARDIS. That was all he needed. His TARDIS. His TARDIS and his bed and then he could sleep and wake up and it will all be finished with and it will all be done.

"No!" Donna tried to hold him back, but the ground was dropping away and he started to skid and slide. She had two of her fingers tucked through the belt loops on his shorts so as she could not hold him back she couldn't let go either. They both tumbled over the boulders and onto the sandy ground underneath them. Donna cried out as pain exploded in her hand and wrist and shot through her arm as she landed awkwardly.

"Donna?" the Doctor moaned. He rolled across the mix of sand and leaf litter. It clung to the sticky blood on him to the point where it looked like his back was a lump of steak bread-crumbed ready for the oven. The Doctor curled on his side, crying out as he clamped both arms across his abdomen. He tried to gulp in air, but his lungs felt like they were bursting in his chest. He retched but he couldn't get up in order to be sick properly and he started to splutter and choke.

Donna couldn't allow a sprained wrist to stop her. She ignored it and went to him. She managed to get him up onto his knees, hooking her arm around him from behind to hold him up so he wasn't face down in the sand. They still had another hundred yards to go to the safety of the TARDIS. "Come on Time Boy, last bit now," Donna commented. "Did you hurt yourself when you fell over?"

"Did… I fall… over?" he wheezed.

"Yeah." Donna sighed. She couldn't grip him with her right hand. When she tried to move her wrist a sharp pain leapt up through her arm, and there was a dull, throbbing, gnawing ache settling into it even when she held it still. She didn't bother looking at it properly, she just had to get the Doctor to the TARDIS. He was so covered in sand now that trying to keep the wounds over his back clean was pointless. She grabbed hold of him the best she could. "Come on. Time to go."

"Where… are we going?"

"Can you feel the TARDIS?" Donna asked him.

"Yeah."

"That is where we are going. To your TARDIS. She is calling to you," Donna suggested. The Doctor tried to get to his feet. With his effort combined with Donna's brute force she got him up. Keeping him up was another matter. She couldn't grip him properly and within twenty yards he'd fallen again. He curled up. He was shaking violently and breathing in short rapid gasps. He grunted in pain and writhed uncomfortably. "Come on, Doctor, please?" Donna pleaded as her own tears finally broke. "We need to get to the TARDIS?"

"Don't… cry…" the Doctor whispered.

"Then get up, please?" Donna tried to drag him up but he cried out. He made as much effort as his body would allow him to get up but then he simply collapsed back down. His eyes were closed and his body went slack. He was still breathing, but Donna could tell that he had passed out.