The Doctor dances

Alyssa clung tighter to the Doctor's arm, shaking in fear as the gas masked zombies drew nearer, all of them chanting the same thing over and over again.

"Mummy, Mummy."

"Go to your room" the Doctor suddenly yelled out, causing the people in the gas masks to suddenly stop in their tracks "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room! " the gas masked zombies hung their heads in shame, slowly turned around and walked back to their beds as the Doctor turned to his companions, grinning " I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

"You're not wrong" Alyssa pointed out, breathing a sigh of relief. The Doctor then ran out of the ward as Rose, Alyssa and Jack followed behind him.

" Mister Spock?" Jack called out as they ran up a stair case.

" Doctor?" Rose yelled. When they reached the second floor, the Doctor turned to Jack.

"Have you got a blaster? " he asked him.

"Sure! " Jack said as the four of them ran towards a secure metal door.

" The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken" the Doctor told the American.

"What happened?" Rose asked as the Doctor attempted to open the metal door with his sonic screwdriver but was failing miserably.

" Let's find out" the Doctor said before turning to Jack "Get it open."

"What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?" Alyssa asked.

"Nothing" the Doctor replied as Jack used a small gun like object to disintergrate the lock on the door.

"Sonic blaster, fifty first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?" the Doctor asked, taking a look at Jack's blaster.

"You've been to the factories? " Jack asked.

"Once" the Doctor replied.

"Well, they gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot" Jack explained.

"Like I said. Once" the Doctor pointed out "There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

"They're not for me" Alyssa pointed out.

"Why do you say that, what's wrong with bananas?' the Doctor asked the small Twelve year old girl who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed.

"Nothing, it's just that I'm allergic to Bananas and if I eat one it can make me sick, really sick, even just a tiny bite trigger off an allergic reaction" Alyssa explained.

"Well I never knew that" the Doctor pointed out "don't worry, you have a really good reason to not liking bananas and I am not offended by it."

" Nice blast pattern" Rose said to Jack, referring to his Sonic blaster.

"Digital" Jack pointed out.

"Squareness gun" said Rose.

"Yeah" Jack replied.

" I like it" Rose replied with a coy expression. The four of them then entered the small room which contained a bed, some filing cabinets, children's drawings covered the walls and an observation window from across the room was smashed.

"It's very creepy in here" Alyssa said, hugging herself "and it's cold too."

"What do you think? " the Doctor asked.

"Something got out of here" Jack replied.

"Yeah. And? " the Doctor asked.

"Something powerful. Angry" Jack implied as a nervous looking Alyssa huddled next to Rose and the older girl put an arm round her.

" Powerful and angry" the Doctor pointed out as he looked all the child's drawings scattered around the room.

"A child? I suppose this explains Mummy" Jack pointed out.

"How could a child do this?" Rose asked. The Doctor turned on a tape recorder which played Doctor Constantine having a conversation with a child.

" Do you know where you are? "

"Are you my mummy? "

"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see? "

"Are you my mummy?"

" What do you want? Do you know"

" I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy? "

" Doctor, I've heard this voice before" Rose pointed out after hearing the child's voice on the tape recorder.

"Me too" the Doctor pointed out.

"So have I" Alyssa pointed out.

"Mummy?" the child's voice asked again.

"Always are you my mummy?. Like he doesn't know" Rose pointed out.

"Mummy?" the voice asked again.

"Why doesn't he know?" Rose asked.

"Are you there, mummy? Mummy?" the voice asked again " Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy? "

"Doctor?" Rose asked, her voice shaking.

" Can you sense it? " the Doctor asked.

"Sense what? " Jack asked. Alyssa shivered and zipped her Jacket up to the top.

" Coming out of the walls. Can you feel it? " the Doctor asked.

" Mummy? " the voice said again.

" Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?" the Doctor asked with a hint of annoyance in his tone.

"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species" Rose told Jack with a grin.

"Rose, I'm thinking" the Doctor replied in the same annoyed tone.

" He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than" Rose pointed out before the Doctor interrupted her.

"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food" he pointed out.

"Mummy, please? " the child's voice begged.

" Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?" the Doctor asked.

"It was a med-ship. It was harmless" Jack pointed out.

"Yes, you keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered? " the Doctor asked.

"Altered how?" Alyssa asked as the tape player ran out without them knowing because they could still here the child's voice.

" I'm here! " the child said.

"It's afraid" the Doctor explained "terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to it's room."

" Doctor" Rose said, her voice shaking as she heard something which sounded like a tape player that had just ran out "What's that noise?"

"End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago" the Doctor pointed out.

"I'm here, now. Can't you see me? " the child's voice asked.

"I sent it to it's room. This is it's room" the Doctor said in a shaky voice and the four of them tunred round to see the little gas masked boy stood in the room with them.

"Are you my mummy? Mummy? " the child asked, pointing at Rose.

"Doctor? " Rose asked, her voice shaking.

"Okay, on my signal make for the door" Jack told them.

"Mummy?" the little boy asked again.

"Now! " jack yelled as he accidently pulled a banana out of his pocket.

"Mummy?" the boy asked again as the Doctor pulled Jack's sonic blaster from his belt and made a nice square hole in the door.

"Go now!" the Doctor yelled as Alyssa and Rose made a bolt for the door before he turned to Jack "don't drop the banana."

" Why not?" Jack asked

"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor replied. The two men ran out of the room and Jack realized that there was still a huge hole in the door and the little boy was heading towards it.

"Give me that" Jack said, taking the blaster from the Doctor's hand.

" Mummy. I want my mummy" the boy said as he almost reached the door but Jack used his blaster to repair the hole.

"Digital rewind. Nice switch" said Jack as he and the Doctor joined the two girls who were standing further up the corridor.

"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate" the Doctor implied.

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that? " Jack asked.

" Bananas are good" the Doctor replied just as the wall began to crack

" Doctor!" Rose said nervously, looking at the cracking wall.

"Come on" the Doctor said, grabbing Alyssa's hand just as the gas masked patients appeared, walking towards them.

" Mummy. Mummy. Mummy" they chanted.

"We're trapped" Alyssa said, her voice shaking "they're going to get us."

" It's keeping us here till it can get at us" the Doctor implied.

"It's controlling them?" Jack asked.

"It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital" the Doctor explained.

" Okay" Jack said, getting out his blaster "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

" I've got a sonic, er. Oh, never mind" the Doctor said, feeling embarrassed about his sonic screwdriver.

"What?" Jack asked.

"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that" the Doctor snapped.

" Disrupter? Cannon? What? " a now impatient Jack demanded.

"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up" the Doctor said.

" A sonic what?!" Jack asked.

"It's coming" Alyssa yelled as the wall almost gave way.

" Screwdriver! " the Doctor yelled as the wall finally gave way and the little gas masked boy climbed out of the hole he had made in the wall and Rose grabbed hold of Jack's sonic blaster.

"Going down!" she said, making a hole in the floor and the four of them fell through the hole and onto the floor below. Jack repaired the hole in the ceiling so that the gas masked zombies couldn't follow them through.

"Doctor, Alyssa are you both okay?" Rose asked as the Doctor and Alyssa slowly stood up and dusted themselves off.

" Could've used a warning" the Doctor told Rose.

"Oh, the gratitude" she pointed out in sarcasm as Alyssa and jack looked at each other then back at Rose and the Doctor, giggling.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver? " Jack asked.

" I do" the Doctor replied as the girls went to look for the light switch as the room was dark.

"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic? " Jack asked.

"What, you've never been bored? " the Doctor asked the American "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?." The lights then came on after Rose found a light switch and there was more gas masked zombies, sitting up in their beds.

"Oh no not again" Alyssa moaned as they slowly stood up, walking towards them, chanting the same thing.

"Mummy, mummy."

"Door" Jack said as he attempted to blast the door open with his blaster but this time it didn't work "damn it, It's the special features. They really drain the battery. "

" The battery?" Rose asked as the Doctor used the sonic screwdriver to open the door and the four of them ran through it and into a storeroom "that's so lame!"

" I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory" Jack complained.

"Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew my job up. That's practically how he communicates" Said Rose, nodding in the Doctor's direction.

" Okay, that door should hold it for a bit" the Doctor said, choosing to ignore Rose's little remark.

"Are you sure it will hold them?" Alyssa asked "the wall didn't stop that creepy little boy in the gas mask from getting through."

"Well, it's got to find us first! Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!" the Doctor said.

"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves" Jack said.

"Window" the Doctor said as he walked towards the window, Jack and the two girls following him.

" Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories" Jack pointed out as he looked down at the long drop.

" And no other exits" Rose implied.

" Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it? " Jack asked.

" So, where'd you pick this one up, then? " the Doctor asked Rose who was giving him an annoyed look.

" Doctor" she moaned.

"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance" Jack explained.

"Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything? " the Doctor replied, still looking out the window.

"Yeah" Rose said "Jack just disappeared." The Doctor turned round to see that the captain was no longer standing in the room with them.

"What happened, where did he go?" Alyssa asked.

"I don't know" the Doctor replied.

"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that? " Rose complained.

" I'm making an effort not to be insulted" the Doctor pointed out in sarcasm as Alyssa smirked.

"I mean, men" Rose implied as Alyssa felt herself beginning to giggle a little.

" Okay, thanks, that really helped" the Doctor pointed out just as the Radio in the storeroom began to crackle to life and Jack's voice could be heard over it.

"Rose? Doctor?, Alyssa? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship" he explained to them over the radio " Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you, It's security-keyed to my molecular structure, I'm working on it. Hang in there."

"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked.

" Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill" Jack replied.

"Now there's a coincidence" the Doctor pointed out " the child can Om-Com, too."

"He can?" Alyssa asked.

"Anything with a speaker grill. Even the Tardis phone" the Doctor explained.

"What, you mean the child can phone us? " rose asked just as the child's voice began speaking over the radio.

" And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you" the child's voice said.

" Doctor, can you hear that? " Jack asked.

"Loud and clear" the Doctor replied as Alyssa looked nervously at the radio as if she was expecting the child to jump out of it and touch the three of them, making them like him.

" I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do" Jack reassured them.

" Coming to find you, mummy" the child said in it's creepy little voice over the radio.

" Remember this one, Rose?" Jack asked in a flirty tone of voice before a 1940s tune began to play over the radio.

"Our song" she pointed out before sitting in a nearby wheelchair whilst the Doctor was stood at the barbed window with his Sonic screwdriver "what you doing?"

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars" he explained.

"You don't think he's coming back, do you?" Rose asked.

"Wouldn't bet my life" the Doctor replied.

"Why don't you trust him?" Rose asked as Alyssa who was sitting on the table in the corner of the room listened to the Doctor and Rose's conversation.

"Why do you?" he asked her.

"Saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing" Rose pointed out only this time the Doctor didn't reply to that and she looked at him for a moment before continuing "I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing." The Doctor then stopped what he was doing and stared at Rose as Alyssa giggled and jumped off the table, walking towards the pair of them.

"What?" Rose asked, almost grinning.

"You just assume that I don't... dance" the Doctor pointed out, feeling rather vulnerable.

"What, are you telling me you do... dance? " Rose asked.

"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume that at some point I've danced" the Doctor pointed out.

"You?!" Rose asked with a grin and Alyssa was also grinning.

"Problem?" the Doctor asked.

"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you... dance? " Rose asked.

"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast" the Doctor replied as Rose got up out of the wheelchair and walked over to him, holding her hand out.

"You've got the moves? " she asked and the Doctor looked back at her "show me your moves."

"Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete" he told her.

"Jack'll be back, he'll get us out. So come on - the world doesn't end because the Doctor dances" Rose pointed out, her hand still in the air. The Doctor switched off his Sonic screwdriver and put it in his pocket before walking over to Rose, taking her hands and examining them.

"Barrage balloon?" he asked.

"What?" Rose asked, confused.

"You were hanging from a barrage balloon" he pointed out.

"How did that happen?" Alyssa asked.

"Oh... yeah. About two minutes after you two left me. Thousands of feet above London - middle of a German air-raid - Union Jack ALL over my chest" the older girl pointed out as the Doctor raised his eyebrows at her.

"I've traveled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy-friendly" he pointed out before he continued to examine her hands.

"Is this you dancing? because I've got notes" Rose said.

"Hanging from a rope a thousand feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise" the Doctor said as he continued to examine her hands.

"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up" Rose said.

"Oh, we're calling him 'Captain Jack' now, are we?" he asked.

"Well, his name's Jack and he's a captain" Rose replied.

"He's not really a captain, Rose" the Doctor told her.

"Oh where you expecting him to be from a time like the seventeenth century, wearing pirate clothes and speaking like this?" Alyssa asked before doing a pirate's voice " Ahoy me hearty, I is going to my ship to sail the seven seas and drink a big bottle of rum, yo ho ho ho." Rose couldn't help but laugh at the little girl's pirate impression before turning her attention back to the Doctor.

"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy" she stated just before the Doctor took her by the hands and started dancing with her and she continued on "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."

"If ever he was a captain, he's been defrocked" the Doctor pointed out as Rose grinned at him.

"Yeah? Shame I missed that" Rose replied before they heard a familiar american accent from behind them.

"Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock." The three of them turned around to find that they were in Jack's ship and he was sitting in his pilot's chair.

"Most people notice when they've been teleported" the Captain pointed out when he noticed the reactions of the other three "You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is" the Doctor told him.

"Oh, I do. She was gorgeous" Jack pointed out as the girls grinned at him.

"This is a Chula ship" the Doctor pointed out as he looked around.

"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only, this one is dangerous" Jack replied as the Doctor snapped his finers and his hands immedietly becamse surrounded by floating glowing particles.

"They're what fixed my hands up! Jack called 'em, um..." Rose pointed out, trying to think of the name for the floating particles.

"Nanobots? Nanogenes" the Doctor implied.

"Nanogenes, yeah" said Rose.

"What are Nanogenes?" Alyssa asked, looking at them.

"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed - all better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaw" the Doctor explained and the two girls smiled at him as the Doctor sent the nanogenes off with a wave of his hand before turning to Jack "take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

"As soon as I get the nav-com back online" Jack told him, not noticing the annoyed look on the Doctor's face "Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were...doing." The Captain gestured towards the Doctor and Rose with a wink and Alyssa was giggling.

"We were talking about dancing!" the Doctor defended as Alyssa smirked away, trying not to laugh.

"It didn't look like talking" Jack teased.

"Didn't feel like dancing" Rose replied as the Doctor looked at her with a naive expression before she turned to Jack " So, you used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"

" If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money" Jack replied as Alyssa gave him a look of confusion.

"For what?" the Twelve year old girl asked.

" Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back" Jack replied.

"They stole your memories?" Rose asked.

"Two years of my life. No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn't trust me" Jack implied, gesturing to the Doctor who was leaning against the wall, arms folded "and for all I know he's right not to. Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?." The four of them then left Jack's ship and started making their way to the bomb site. When they arrived there, they saw a guard standing by the gates.

"It's creepy round here" Alyssa whispered.

" There it is" Jack said, pointing over to the large cylinder which was laying over the other end of the fence before he noticed some one on guard "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

"We've got to get past him" the Doctor implied.

" Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction? " Rose asked.

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Alyssa asked.

"No, I don't think that will be such a good idea" Jack pointed out.

"Don't worry I can handle it" Rose replied.

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him. Don't wait up" Jack said before walking over to the man on guard.

"Relax, he's a fifty first century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing" the Doctor pointed out.

"How flexible?" Rose asked.

"Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy" the Doctor replied.

"Meaning?" Alyssa asked, turning her head sideways, looking at the Doctor.

"So many species, so little time" the Doctor replied.

"What, that's what we do when we get out there? That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and" Rose began.

"Dance" the Doctor said, finishing her sentence just before he noticed something was wrong with the man that Jack was talking too.

"What's happening?" Alyssa asked.

"I'm not sure, let's go and find out" the Doctor replied before he and the two girls headed over to Jack who was stood talking to Algy the guard.

"Mummy?" Algy asked, looking at jack as though he didn't recognize him.

"It's me, Jack" Jack said.

"Jack? Are you my mummy?" Algy asked before he fell to his knees and his face began to transform into a gas mask as more guards began running towards them as the Doctor, Rose and Alyssa came running from the side.

"Stay back! " the Doctor yelled.

" You men, stay away!" Jack yelled at the guards who stopped in their tracks and lowered their guns.

"The effect's become air-borne, accelerating" the Doctor explained as the air raid sirens started up again.

"What's keeping us safe? " Alyssa asked.

" Nothing" the Doctor said as Jack looked up at the sky.

"Ah, here they come again" he said as they heard war planes in the distant, approaching.

"All we need" Rose complained.

"Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?" Alyssa asked.

" Never mind about that. If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left" the Doctor explained.

" For what?" Jack asked.

"Until Nothing, forever. For the entire human race" the Doctor explained before he heard something in the background "and can anyone else hear singing? "

"Yeah, it's coming from that shed thing over there" Alyssa said, pointing towards a large shed "sounds like someone singing rock-a-bye-baby." The gang then headed over to the shed where they found Nancy handcuffed to a table and singing to a soilder who had been transformed into one of the gas mask zombies and he was slumped over the table.

"When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. Down will come baby, cradle and all" she snag before she noticed the Doctor enter the shed and he was gesturing her to keep singing which he did whilst he uncuffed her " Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops. When the wind blows the cradle will rock." After the Doctor had freed her, the pair of them left the shed and joined Jack and the girls where Jack had uncovered the cylinder.

" You see? Just an ambulance" the American implied.

"That's an ambulance? " Nancy asked.

"It's hard to explain. It's from another world" Rose told her.

" They've been trying to get in" Jack said.

"Of course they have. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon" the Doctor said before he noticed jack typing something in on his wrist strap.

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it" Jack replied as he attemped to type in the access codes but the access panel started flashing red " that didn't happen last time."

" It hadn't crashed last time. There'll be emergency protocols" the Doctor explained before Alyssa tugged on his jacked, a scared expression on her face "what is it?"

"Look over there" Alyssa said, pointing at the hospital doors, her voice shaking because the doors where rattling and they could here the gas mask zombies over the other end chanting "mummy, mummy."

" Captain, secure those gates! " The Doctor told Jack, pointing to the gates leading from the hospital to the crash site.

"Why?" the American asked.

"Just do it!" the Doctor barked at him before turning to Nancy who was standing with Rose and Alyssa "Nancy, how'd you get in here?."

"I cut the wire" Nancy replied.

"Show Rose and Alyssa" he said before tossing Rose his sonic screwdriver "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D."

"What?" Rose asked, looking at the Doctor with confusion.

" Reattaches barbed wire. Go!" the Doctor said and the three girls went down to were Nancy had cut a hole in the barbed wired.

"Who are you? Who are any of you?" Nancy asked as Rose mended the cut wire with the screwdriver as Alyssa kneeled beside her, watching.

"You'd never believe me if I told you" Rose told her.

"Yeah, it'll probably come as a bit of a shock to you" Alyssa pointed out.

"You just told me that was an ambulance from another world. There are people running around with gas mask heads calling for their mummies, and the sky's full of Germans dropping bombs on me. Tell me, do you think there's anything left I couldn't believe? " Nancy asked.

"We're time travellers from the future" Rose revealed and Nancy looked at the other two as though they had grown an extra pair of arms and legs.

" Mad, you are" she pointed out, shaking her head.

"It's true, we've got a time machine and everything" Alyssa stated.

"It's not that. All right, you've got a time travel machine. I believe you. Believe anything, me. But what future?" Nancy asked.

" Nancy, this isn't the end" Rose reassured her "I know how it looks, but it's not the end of the world or anything."

" How can you say that? Look at it" Nancy replied as war planes flew overhead.

"Listen to me. I was born in this city. I'm from here, in like, fifty years time" Rose told her.

"Me too, I'm from this city too, in the future" Alyssa stated with a grin.

" From here? " Nancy asked.

"Yeah, me and Ally here are Londoners, from your future" Rose implied, throwing her arm around a still smiling Alyssa.

"But, but you're not " Nancy began before struggling to finish her sentence.

"What?" Rose asked.

"German" Nancy pointed out.

" Nancy, the Germans don't come here. They don't win. Don't tell anyone I told you so, but you know what? You win" Rose told her.

"We win?" Nancy asked, looking confused as Rose finished mending the fence and the three girls went back to the Doctor and Jack were Jack had got the craft open.

" It's empty. Look at it" Jack said as he showed them.

" What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" the Doctor asked "Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?."

"I don't know" said Rose.

"Yes, you do" the Doctor implied and that caused Rose to remember.

"Nanogenes!" she pointed out.

"It wasn't empty, Captain" the Doctor explained to Jack "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

"Oh, God" said Jack.

"Getting it now, are we?" the Doctor asked "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask. "

"And they brought him back to life? They can do that? " Rose asked

"What's life?" the Doctor asked "Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gasmask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!."

"I didn't know" Jack replied apologetically as the gas mask zombies finally broke out of the hospital and slowly started making their way towards them.

" It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?" Alyssa asked.

" The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol" the Doctor explained.

" But the gas mask people aren't troops" Rose implied.

"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you" the Doctor explained.

"That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing" Rose said.

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them" the Doctor explained as the gas mask zombies surrounded them, outside the barbed wire.

"Why don't they attack? " Jack asked.

" Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander" the Doctor replied.

"The child?" Jack asked.

"Jamie" Nancy pointed out.

" What?" Jack asked.

"Not the child. Jamie" Nancy pointed out.

" So how long until the bomb falls? " Alyssa asked.

" Any second" Jack said, looking up at the sky.

"What's the matter, Captain? A bit close to the volcano for you?" the Doctor teased.

" He's just a little boy" Nancy said, almost in tears.

" I know" the Doctor told her.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy" Nancy implied, her eyes filling up with tears.

"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can" the Doctor explained.

" So what're we going to do?" Rose asked.

"I don't know" the Doctor said.

"It's my fault" Nancy pointed out, wiping her eyes.

" No" the Doctor told her.

" It is. It's all my fault" Nancy told him, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"How can it be your" the Doctor said before realizing something "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?."

" Doctor, that bomb" Jack said as the bombing planes drew nearer and a nervous Alyssa clung to his arm "We've got seconds."

"You can teleport us out" Rose said.

"Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols" Jack explained.

"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do" the Doctor told him.

"Jack?" Rose asked as jack vanished.

" How old were you five years ago?" the Doctor asked Nancy "Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He's not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him. " Nancy bit her lip as the gate opened and the little gas masked boy, Jamie stood there in front of all the other gas mask zombies.

"Are you my mummy? " he asked.

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop" the Doctor told her.

"Mummy? " the little boy asked, walking towards Nancy.

"Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him" the Doctor urged her. Nancy nodded and slowly started making her way towards the little boy in the gas mask.

"Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?" he asked.

"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy" Nancy told him.

"Mummy?" the little boy asked.

"I'm here" Nancy told him.

"Are you my mummy?" the little boy asked again.

"Yes" Nancy told him.

" He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left" the Doctor pointed out.

" I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry" Nancy sobbed as she threw her arms around her little boy as a cloud of golden particles surrounded the pair of them.

"What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should" Rose said before the Doctor shushed her.

" Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out" the Doctor urged the golden particles.

" What's happening?" Alyssa asked.

"See? Recognising the same DNA" the Doctor said as the nanogenes vanished and Nancy fell to the ground.

"Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one" the Doctor said as he removed the gas mask from the little boy to find him completly restored to a normal looking child and the Doctor laughed, picking him up "Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."

"What happened? " Nancy asked.

" The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best! " the Doctor explained, putting Jamie back down on the ground and Nancy pulled him into a hug.

"Doctor, that bomb" Rose implied.

" Taken care of it" the Doctor replied.

"How?" Rose asked.

"Psychology" the Doctor said as a bomb came hurtling towards them but it gets caught in Jack's light beam before it hit the ground and Jack was sitting on top of it.

"Look, it's Jack" Alyssa yelled out.

"Doctor! " Jack said, waving.

"Good lad!" the Doctor said.

"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long" Jack explained.

"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can? " the Doctor asked him and Jack nodded before turning to Rose.

" Rose?" he called out.

"Yeah?" Rose asked.

"Goodbye" Jack said before he and the bomb disappeared but reappeared again " By the way, love the tee-shirt." He then flew off again with Alyssa waving him off as the Doctor summoned some more nanogenes to himself.

"What are you doing? " Rose asked him.

" Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves" the Doctor told her before throwing the nanogenes at the patients who fell to the ground "Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives! ." The Patients where now restored to normal.

"You did it" Alyssa said in amazement " you saved everyone." The Doctor then ran over to the patients and Doctor constantine, all of them looking confused.

" Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now" the Doctor said cheerfully, gesturing to his patients.

" Yes, yes, so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that? " Constantine asked.

"Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay? " the Doctor told him before joining Rose and Alyssa who were stood with Nancy and Jamie.

"So where are you going now?" Nancy asked, still holding on to Jamie.

"I'm not sure yet, we might end up just anywhere" the Doctor replied before turning to his two assistants "Ok then ladies, let's be heading off." A little while later, the Doctor and the girls where back in the Tardis.

"The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic! " the Doctor said happily as he pranced around the consoles.

" Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas" Rose pointed out.

"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve? " the Doctor asked Rose who was giving him a look of confusion but he didn't notice it " And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this. "

" Doctor" Alyssa piped up.

"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire" the Doctor told her cheerfully.

"What about Jack? Why'd he say goodbye?" Alyssa asked "oh and by the way, I can dance." The Doctor and Rose then watched as Alyssa began doing some kind of ballerina dance around the console, twirling and leaping.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Rose asked.

"I used to do ballet lessons when I was six" Alyssa replied as she stopped dancing "I think I've still got it in me, well you will do if you had six years to practice."

"Come on you" Rose said as she grabbed hold of the Doctor "I'm going to teach you how to dance." Alyssa then sat on the pilots chair, watching as the pair of them danced around the console as Jack suddenly appeared and Alyssa ran over to him.

"What's happening here then squirt?" he asked her.

"Rose is teaching the Doctor how to dance" Alyssa replied.

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff" the Doctor pointed out before turning to Jack "Close the door, will you?, there's going to be a draft." Jack did so and walked back up the ramp.

"Welcome to the Tardis" the Doctor said, holding his arms out.

" Much bigger on the inside" Jack implied.

" You'd better be" the Doctor told him as Jack looked at him with confusion.

"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in" Rose told him before a dancing song came on.

"Rose! I've just remembered! " the Doctor said with a big grin on his face before he started dancing to the music "I can dance! I can dance!."

"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance" Rose stated.

" I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with? " the Doctor asked and Rose ran over to him, dancing away. It wasn't long before all four of them were dancing in the Tardis, all happy without a care in the world.