I thought of this idea, in this chapter, with the help of our fellow friend - Akua. Always grateful for inspiration "bows". Now then, off we go.
They were getting closer and closer, cornering the trio, with no way out. Rose was already starting to prepare herself to give them some of Tylers special scoldings, as she made a step forward. But in the same second the Doctor started ahead of her, leaving her with mouth half opened.
"Go to your room!" Was his first words.
"Go to your room!" He tried again, making the masked people bend their heads on the side, questioningly. "I mean it."
"I'm very, very angry with you." The Doctor gazed at the group with a father's like attitude. "I'm very, very cross."
"GO. TO. YOUR. ROOM!" he shouted at them.
It seemed to work. Before long, every masked person in the room was turning around with their heads lowered down in shame. Step by step they closed the distance to their beds. When they finally reached them, they obediently laid down.
It was sad, looking at people - men and women, elderly and young, being so unlike themselves. Having no will over their body, but a child's mind. Rose looked at them with a half-smile. She could only be glad that this time round everybody lives.
"I wanted to do that," Rose said complaining to the Doctor. As much as pitiful the situation looked like, in the end, everything would work out. So for now, she could certainly use her time to the fullest.
"How did you know that would work?" the Doctor asked her, narrowing his eyes.
"Same way as you did." Rose shrugged.
"But I didn't!"
"Well, neither did I!" They locked their gazes intensely for a moment, but then Jack coughed.
"Guys guys! We don't have time for this!" He put his hands ahead in defence.
"You're right." The Doctor turned his gaze away from the two of them, but seconds later he returned to face Jack. "Did I just say you were right?"
"Yeh, I guess you did." Jack beamed at him.
"I take that back," the Doctor said while walking away further into the room. Jack's face twisted to an unhappy one.
"I thought men don't take back their words?" Rose asked, following the Doctor.
"That's right - men," he agreed. Rose rolled her eyes.
"How was your con supposed to work?" the Doctor asked Jack harshly.
"Simple enough, really." Jack came to sit on the chair. "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, and name a price. When he's put 50% up-front, oops, a German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever," he said nonchalantly. "I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect, self-cleaning con."
"Yeah. Perfect," the Doctor said sarcastically.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it, though. But you've got to set your alarm for Volcano Day." Jack joked. But the Doctor's face didn't look amused at all. Quickly Jack stopped laughing.
"Take a look around the room," the Doctor told him. "This is what your piece of harmless space junk did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter, it was empty!" Jack defended himself.
"Rose." The Doctor called out for her while walking towards the doors.
"Coming!"
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living," Jack said to their backs. Rose looked back to him and gave him an understanding smile. "I harmed no-one! I don't know what's happening, but I had nothing to do with it."
"I'll tell you what's happening." The Doctor looked back at Jack. "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's Volcano Day!" he exclaimed.
Soon an alarming sound echoed from the outside.
"What's that?" Rose asked in reflex.
"The all clear." Jack tried his luck.
"I wish," the Doctor said sarcastically before running through the doors.
They ran through the hallways, the Doctor ahead of Jack and Rose.
"Mr. Spock?" Jack called out. "Doctor," Rose corrected. "This way." She lead them to the stairs.
"You got a blaster?" the Doctor asked Jack, when the two caught up to him.
"Sure," Jack said with enthusiasm. Before long, he was pointing a blaster towards the door, creating a big hole in it.
"What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked cheekily.
"Nothing," the Doctor answered simply.
"Sonic blaster, fifty first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?" the Doctor said in a smart tone.
"You've been to the factories?" Jack asked, interested.
"Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good." The Doctor smiled and entered the room. Rose just shook her head, smiling when following his back with her gaze.
"Nice blast pattern," Rose said teasingly to Jack.
"Digital," Jack told her proudly.
"I like it." Rose beamed to him and heard Jack chuckle.
Inside the room Jack and the Doctor were both gathering information about the angry and powerful. When moments later, the Time Lord pressed on the switch.
"Are you my mummy?" the child's voice asked in the recorder. "I want my mummy. Are you my mummy?"
The people with masks were not the real pitiful ones. Jamie was. Nancy. His mother, giving birth to him in her teens, in twentieth century... the poor child just wanted his mum.
"He doesn't know who his mum is..." Rose said faintly.
The Doctor wore an unreadable expression. He couldn't grasp what was going on. Shortly after, he started pacing around the room, his anxiety rising.
"Can you sense it?" he asked frantically. I can't sense, but I can remember.
"Sense what?" Jack asked.
"Coming out of the walls. Can't you feel it?" He raised his voice. Rose turned her gaze towards the doors - they were half open.
"Mummy?"
"Funny little human brains! How do you get around in those things?" The Doctor mocked them.
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species," Rose told Jack in a hurry.
"Rose, I'm thinking!" the Doctor shot back. And at that Rose saw how the doors slowly opened more widely and a small figure could be seen.
"There are these children. Living rough, round the bomb sites. They come out during air raids looking for food."
'Mummy, please?' Rose saw Jamie standing behind the tape.
"Doctor," Rose called out.
"Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed," the Doctor continued, not paying attention to Rose's call.
"It was a med-ship, it was harmless!" Jack dug in.
"You keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered."
"Doctor," Rose said in a more firm voice.
'I'm here!'
"It's afraid, terribly afraid. And powerful," the Doctor continued his rambling. "It doesn't know it yet. But it will do. It's got the power of a god and I just sent it to its room!"
"Doctor!" Rose shouted.
"What?" The Doctor looked at her, confused.
"The tape!" Rose cried.
"What ta-" he began, but then the realisation came. "Ah." He pressed his lips together.
'I'm here! 'Can't you see me?'
"What's happening?" Jack asked both of them.
"The tape ended 30 seconds ago...I sent it to its room. This is its room!" The Doctor laughed nervously.
And at once he turned around to face Jamie.
'Are you my mummy? 'Mummy?' Rose could see Jamie looking directly at her. I'm sorry. I'm not your mummy.
"OK, on my signal, make for the door," Jack said, after calculating the situation, his voice low.
"NOW!" he shouted, pointing a banana towards the doors. When he noticed what he was holding, he looked at it in horror. The Doctor grinned at the sight, satisfied with his successful trick. Moments later, he was searching his pockets for the blaster.
He took it out and pointed towards the wall, wanting to make the door space, but found another banana in his hands.
"What?" He looked at it in same horror as Jack.
Shortly after, a space appeared at the same place where the Doctor was pointing at seconds ago, Rose holding the blaster.
"Hurry!" she shouted out to them, going out first, Jack just behind.
"Don't drop the banana!" the Doctor warned Jack just before going out himself.
"Why not!?" Jack cried.
"Good source of potassium!" the Doctor answered.
"Switch!" Rose called to Jack as they tossed their objects to each other, and now Jack having a hold of his blaster, was making the wall whole again.
"Nice switch." Jack beamed at Rose, making her grin.
"Okay. If you are done flirting, we might as well move," the Doctor said sarcastically, clearly not happy with the view.
At his words the wall started breaking.
"Come on!" the Doctor shouted as they ran, just to be stopped in their tracks by another army of masked people.
"This way!" Rose called out and ran back to the breaking wall. Going down again, it seems.
The trio ran back and as the last time another side was blocked. They were trapped from all the sides.
"OK." Jack tried to sum up the situation. "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon and it's a triple-enfolded sonic disruptor," he announced, pointing it from one side to another. Rose tried to grab it from his hands, but he was waving it too quickly. "Doc, what you got?"
"I've got a sonic-!" the Doctor exclaimed enthusiastically. "Uh,...Never mind." He turned back.
"What?" Jack repeated the question.
"It's sonic, OK, let's leave it at that." The Doctor began buzzing the sonic, frantically pacing about in place.
"Disruptor, cannon, what?" Jack was getting nervous. One more time Rose tried to grab the blaster, but Jack just wouldn't stop moving.
"It's sonic, totally sonic, I am sonic-ed up!" The Doctor was making no sense.
"A sonic WHAT?" Jack now shouted.
"Screwdriver!" The Doctor shot back, turning to face Jack, looking a bit embarrassed. As Jack looked back to face him, he was making a surprised puppy's face. Lucky enough, he froze for a moment and finally Rose could grab it from his hands.
"Going down!"
With a big thud they crashed one floor below, Jack filling the ceiling seconds later.
"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose leaned beside him.
"Could've used a warning," the Doctor replied, standing up.
"Oh, the gratitude," Rose said sarcastically.
"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack asked simply.
"I do," the Doctor exclaimed.
"Lights," Rose muttered, walking in circles.
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?" Jack mocked the Doctor, both not paying attention to Rose.
"What, you've never been bored?" The Doctor challenged him.
"There's got to be a light switch." Rose talked to herself, it seemed. Why did it felt like such a deja vu. Like a bad idea...
"Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?" the Doctor still continued.
And then Rose found the switch only to have a vision in her head of the fully equipped hospital room, with masked people waking up. Oh, hell.
"Mummy. Mummy." The patients sat up in their beds.
"Door." Jack rushed towards it. He tried to use the blaster, but it wouldn't work.
"Damn it!" He hit it in frustration.
"Mummy."
The army was slowly making their way towards them. The Doctor was already at the doors, buzzing them.
"It's the special features. They really drain the battery." Jack talked in excuse. Rose just rolled her eyes. The battery.
They soon ran outside the doors, the Doctor sonic-ing them shut, as they found themselves in a dark storage room.
When the Doctor pressed the lights on, Rose grinned at the sight. It was hers and the Doctor's dancing hall.
"Am I missing the inside joke here?" Jack asked, looking at her. Rose just shrugged nonchalantly, making Jack even more intrigued, but got no chance to ask more, as the Doctor spoke up.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit," the Doctor announced.
"The door?" Jack felt shaken by the words. "The WALL didn't stop it!" Jack shouted in disbelief.
"Well, it's got to find us first!" the Doctor said like it was the obvious. "Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!"
When they ended the talk about no other exists, the Doctor looked at Rose, annoyed by Jack.
"So, where'd you pick this one up, then?"
"Doctor," she chided him.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance," Jack joked, smiling at Rose.
That clearly hit the nerve, the Doctor didn't feel like listening anymore. "Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?" the Doctor asked them.
"We-ll... " Rose trailed off.
"What it is?" the Doctor asked her frantically.
"Jack kinda disappeared." She bit her lip.
"Okay, he just vanished, without a word of explanation," Rose said in a bit angry tone, pacing about the room. "Why is it always the good looking ones who do that?" Rose asked the question in general.
Always making the decision on their own. He hated when her Doctor done that.
"I'm making an effort not to be insulted." The Doctor looked at her meaningfully.
"I mean... men." Rose looked at him softly.
"Okay, thanks." He looked at her softly as his grin was all over his face. "That really helped." They locked their gazes for a moment, before a voice disturbed them.
"Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship." Jack's voice echoed in the room. In a flash the Doctor ran to the speaker.
"Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure."
"How're you speaking to us?" the Doctor asked, pulling the cables out of the speaker.
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill."
"The child can Om-Com, too," the Doctor said. "Anything with a speaker grill. Even the Tardis phone."
"So, the child can phone us?" Rose formed an innocent question.
"And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you."
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do," Jack announced.
"Coming to find you, mummy."
"Remember this one, Rose?" Jack said lovingly, as Moonlight Serenade echoed through the radio.
The Doctor looked around, from Rose to radio suspiciously.
"Our song." Rose nodded, biting her lips. The Doctor just nodded in fake understanding and a forced smile.
Your song, eh?
Rose was spinning around in a wheelchair, listening to Glenn Miller and watching her Doctor focus on buzzing his screwdriver in an attempt to loosen the bars.
"What're you doing?" Rose asked softly, barely holding out a chuckle.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," he answered, not looking at her.
"You don't think he is coming back, do ya?"
"Wouldn't bet my life," he said sarcastically. "Why do you trust him?" He somehow found himself interested in the latter bit more than he would admit.
"He saved my life. But well mostly because he is like you. Except for dating and dancing," Rose muttered the last words, but loud enough to be heard.
He looked at her. "What?" Rose asked teasingly.
"You just assume I'm-"
"What?" Rose persisted.
"You just assume that I don't dance."
"Are you telling me you do dance?" Rose grinned at him.
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced," he ended with a duh voice.
"Never saw you dance..." Rose sang.
"Well, I've got the moves, but I wouldn't want to boast," he ended with a hidden meaning.
Now you've done it.
Rose stood up to turn the volume on the radio. Moonlight Serenade echoing in the room. The Doctor turned his head around a bit nervously, but quickly was facing the bars again. Anxiously waiting, but pretending not to notice.
Rose walked up to him and held up her hand. "You've got the moves?" Rose asked teasingly. "Show me your moves."
"Rose, um, ah, I'm trying to resonate concrete." He still tried to back away.
"Jack'll be back. He'll get us out," Rose said lightly. "So come on," she urged him. "The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."
That's all the Doctor needed or that was the point where his rational part of mind snapped. Because soon enough, he jumped from the windowsill and the chair, leaving his eyes on Rose.
He took her hands abruptly into his, still facing her, but then glancing at her palms. "Barrage balloon?"
"What?" Rose said softly, too immersed in the view in front of her.
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon," the Doctor stated, inspecting her palms.
"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest," she joked.
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly." He looked at her while raising his eyebrows, still her hands into his, not letting go, as he continued to inspect them.
"Is this you dancing, Doctor?" She chuckled at him.
"Hanging from a rope thousands feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise." He turned her palms around for a few times.
"Yeah, I know." Rose bit her lips. "Captain Jack fixed me up." She looked at him innocently.
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?" he snapped a bit.
"We-ll, his name's Jack and he's a Captain," Rose said slowly.
"He's not really a Captain, Rose." The Doctor shook his head.
Rose chuckled while grinning at him. "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them." She told him like he was a kid, while placing her hands into his and slowly swaying around.
"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked." The Doctor told her in a low voice, being close to her now as they moved around a bit.
"Yeah? Shame I missed that," Rose said ironically. She locked her eyes to the Doctor's as he was looking tenderly at her now, forming a faint loving smile on his face.
"Actually, I quit." Jack's voice startled them, making the Doctor only look up a bit, but not move away from her.
Oh, second time and still didn't feel the teleport. Rose thought while closing her eyes and smirking.
Rose looked up at the Doctor who was now once again looking at her, possibly unaware of him still holding her hands.
"Most people notice when they've been teleported. You guys are so sweet." Jack pointed at them and finally Rose backed away reluctantly from the Doctor, turning her head down, and the alien himself just looked sideways.
She didn't want to let go. It was only those small rare moments when they were so close together back then or, as she should call it, now.
"Sorry about the delay," Jack continued.
"This is a Chula ship," the Doctor exclaimed.
"Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous."
The Doctor snapped his fingers and nanogenes surrounded his hand.
"These fixed my hands up." Rose pointed and started to open her mouth to talk again.
"Nanogenes," they said in unison. The Doctor just nodded. "There's millions of them in here, see? Grazed my hand while landing before. All better now." He moved his hand to send nanogenes away. "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk," he told Jack.
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were... doing." Jack waved his hands gesturing to the both of them.
"We were talking about dancing," the Doctor told him innocently, in a fully-believing-that voice.
"It didn't look like talking," Jack countered him.
"Didn't feel like dancing." Rose shook her head while grinning at the Doctor. He just stared at her in bewilderment.
They talked about Jack's motive behind his conning, about his lost memories and soon found themselves at the crash site.
"There it is," Jack began. "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."
"We've got to get past him," the Doctor said.
"You should go distract him then, Jack," Rose said innocently, grinning meaningfully at him.
"I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Jack made a worried face.
"What? Why not?" What is happening?
"Yesterday, Algy and I...kinda had a...well, misunderstanding let's just say. I would be punched if I go there now." He made a nervous laugh.
"That's still a distraction," Rose persisted.
"Thank you, but I want to keep this face intact," Jack said sarcastically. "Besides, we already got a volunteer." Rose began to mouth a "what", when she saw where Jack was pointing at. The Doctor was steadily moving towards the infected Algy, all free of worries.
"No," Rose whispered in horror.
"It's alright. He is Algy's type." Jack tried to reassure her.
"He can't come near him!" And with that she started running towards the Doctor. She could hear Jack call her name in a warning, but she wouldn't be stopped.
For all she knew, nanogenes may have repaired the infected humans, and Time Lords may have similar DNA, or as the Doctor said, they came to look like that before humans, but if nanogenes were to fix him after Nancy, he could very likely become human. Or couldn't he? Either way, she was not gonna risk that chance.
She shook her head violently before finally reaching the Doctor. Unfortunately, Algy was facing his back on them at the moment and the Doctor was holding his hand to pat him to turn around. It was not enough time.
"Don't touch him!" she yelled out, as the Doctor turned to face her in confusion.
Rose managed to toss the Doctor aside, making him fall on the ground, but she herself staggered and then, as Algy turned around, he caught her to steady her.
Game over.
"Are you my mummy?" When those words came from his mouth, the Doctor could feel shiver go down his spine.
Rose touched him. Or he touched her. But the aftermath was the same. Rose was...
"Oh, God." Jack now was standing near them and looking at Rose.
Algy started coughing moments later, and he fell on the ground, his face forming into a mask. Rose looked at the view in a pained expression.
"Great, one time without face, now with a few corrections. Just my luck," she muttered to herself. At the same time the Doctor stood up.
"Rose," he said warily. She didn't dare to look at him, she couldn't tell him everything is going to be alright, it was not her place.
"Rose!" he said in a louder voice and began walking towards her. Once she felt that, she quickly moved away, finally turning to face the two of them.
"Don't touch me!" she warned them. The Doctor was trying desperately to say something, but each time he failed.
"I'm so sorry, Rose," Jack said with a comforting smile. And seconds later an alarm echoed, informing of the upcoming army. "We gotta move," Jack said silently, but firmly.
"It's alright." Rose tried to shrug it off, but her voice was starting to sound weak, and she was already sweating. "Oh boll," she said while wiping her sweat off her face.
"Nothing is alright here!" the Doctor shouted out angrily. Rose's forehead wrinkled.
"Doctor..." Rose said softly.
"You are being transformed into a masked monster and I can't even touch you." He looked down on the ground frantically looking for the solution.
"Can I-"
"I'm still just an image."
She could hear and feel herself back at that same moment. So desperately wanting to hold him, even if that was for the last time. But being robbed off even from that. She knew better than anyone here, how did that feel like and she wanted to make him better. But was there a way?
Cough.
Cough.
It was starting.
The Doctor looked back up at her with eyes filled with horror.
"You have to go," Rose said while panting.
"I'm not leaving you here." The Doctor was making a step forward, but Jack held him back.
"You have to." She smiled weakly at him "I wish nanogenes could fix this fever of mine," Rose joked lightly. And the next moment she felt losing herself.
"Mm-.." She tried to force her mouth shut, she didn't want them to see this sight. And they were still not moving away. So she made a choice herself. She ran from them with her last strength.
"ROSE!" The Doctor's frantic voice could be still heard from the distance, but it was not getting closer. She thanked Jack silently.
"Someone is singing," Jack stated blankly.
"So? Let them sing," the Doctor said harshly.
"No, but seriously." Jack made his way towards the tent. "In here!" he shouted out to the Doctor. He was not moving. "Doctor!" it made him make a look at him, but soon he was in the tent with Jack, getting Nancy out of there.
They made their way towards the ambulance, and as Jack showed them that it was empty, it sparked and sounded an alarm.
"Didn't happen the last time," Jack said, annoyed.
"What is happening?" Nancy asked nervously.
Soon the banging sound on the gate could be heard. They were here.
"Jack, secure those gates!" He pointed to Jack.
"Nancy, how did you get in there?" he asked her in a hurried voice.
"Cut the wire," she replied.
"Show Rose-" he began, but then fell silent.
"Rose? Who-" Nancy began.
"I need you to do something." He walked towards Nancy as he gave her his sonic screwdriver with an already adjusted setting. "Hold this button down while pointing at the cut wire, it will grow back."
"Wha-? How can it grow back?" Nancy asked in disbelief.
"Just do it! Please." She still looked at him questioningly, but soon took the sonic and went towards the wired fence.
Once she was done, she gone back to where the Ambulance was at, with Jack and the Doctor standing beside it.
"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops?" the Doctor began sarcastically. "It wasn't empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."
"Oh, God."
"Getting it now, are we? 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."
"All would be good, except one problem. These nanogenes 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." The Doctor was raising his voice.
"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 shot back.
"Your excuses will not exactly bring Rose back now, will they?" he shot sharply at him. Jack lowered his gaze.
"Mummy. Mummy."
An army of masked people were getting closer to them from all sides. No gate stopped them anymore. They were out in the search of their mummy. And somewhere in between the group, blonde hair could be seen, being scattered by the wind.
They discussed the ship siren being a sign of it being under attack, and that way making it gather its troops.
"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 patients surrounded them, outside the barbed wire.
"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked, looking around.
"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander."
"The child?" Jack said.
"Jamie," Nancy said softly.
"What?"
"Not the child. Jamie," she corrected him. "He's just a little boy who wants his mummy," Nancy stated.
"I know," the Doctor agreed. "There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."
"So what're we going to do?" Jack asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor said faintly.
"It's my fault," Nancy began.
"No," the Doctor said firmly.
"It is. It's all my fault." She started sobbing.
"How can it be your-" The Doctor was cut short by patients crying for their mummy. He looked around frantically to see everyone react to her tears.
"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."
"Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?" the Doctor asked her.
The bombs exploded somewhere not far away from them.
"Doctor, that bomb. We've got seconds." Jack was beginning to pace about.
"So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do," the Doctor said, not looking at him.
And the next moment Jack vanished.
"How old were you five years ago? 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."
The bomb site gate opened and Jamie stood there at the front.
"Are you my mummy?"
"He's going to keep asking, Nancy. He's never going to stop," the Doctor told her softly.
"Mummy?"
"Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."
Nancy and Jamie walked up towards each other.
"Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"
"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy," Nancy told him, while bending on her knees to see him face to face.
"Mummy?"
"I'm here." Nancy looked at Jamie with soft eyes.
"Are you my mummy?" he kept asking.
"I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." And with that she hugged her child with full motherly love. Apologizing and loving.
In that moment nanogenes surrounded them. The view was spectacular. Both of them were glowing - a mother and a child. The Doctor looked at the sight with big eyes.
"Oh yes..." he began faintly. "Oh yeh!" he shouted out. "Oh, Rose. Fantastic." He talked with a proud smile on his face. "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," he urged them frantically.
And with that Jamie let go of Nancy, letting her fall on her back with Jamie standing there.
"Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." The Doctor walked towards the child to take his mask off. When he saw the kid's face, he couldn't suppress his victorious exclamation.
"Ha-ha!" He took Jamie into his arms, as he swung him around. "Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."
"What happened?" Nancy asked with a happy smile on her face.
"The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"
"Oh, Jamie."
In a few seconds a bomb was making its way towards them, but then Jack's beam suspended it into air, showing the Captain sitting right on top of it.
"Doctor!"
"Good lad!" The Doctor beamed at him approvingly.
"The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis, but it won't last long," Jack announced.
"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?" the Doctor asked.
"Doctor, about Rose..." Jack began.
"No need to worry. She will be back to normal in a sec." The Doctor beamed at him while saying that.
"You kidding." Jack's face twisted into a smile. "Never doubted you, Doc." He smirked at him. The Doctor nodded to him in understanding. "Tell her goodbye for me."
And the next moment he was gone with a bomb, just to come back seconds later. "Oh, and, Doc?" The Doctor looked up. "Tell her, I loved the t-shirt." He grinned one last time.
Maybe he will not tell her that, - the Doctor thought.
The Doctor looked at his palms starting to glow with nanogenes. And he just had an idea of his own...
"You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves," he muttered happily. "I'll sweep you off your feet." He grinned and passed a bunch of nanogenes towards the masked army, making everyone fall down.
He watched in ecstasy as people started to stand up. "EVERYBODY LIVES! JUST THIS ONCE, EVERYBODY LIVES!"
He ran towards the doctor to help him stand up and told him to look after his patients.
And then he spotted Rose, coming forward to meet him. He hurried to her to hug her tightly. It made Rose chuckle. It felt so familiar, this feeling. After a long adventure, just the two of them. Together.
"That was a close one," the Doctor told her while breaking away from the embrace.
"Nah. I knew you would think of something." Rose just beamed at him. She took his hand and squeezed it. "You made this happen, everybody lived thanks to you."
"With you together." He smiled at her tenderly. "Still got the moves."
"Oh?" Rose raised an eyebrow. "You better show them to me once more. I was a bit out of it just now." She grinned with tongue between her teeth.
"Right, then! Back to the TARDIS!" he exclaimed.
Back inside their magnificent ship, the Doctor was full of energy. He felt so alive to be able to save everyone for once.
"And everybody lives, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this."
"Doctor," Rose called out.
"Go on, ask me anything. I'm on fire." He was indeed full of fire.
"What about Jack?" she asked him softly.
"Oh, that lad asked to tell you goodbye," the Doctor said absentmindedly.
"Why?" Rose asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Had to take care of the bomb..." He trailed off.
"We can't leave him," Rose insisted. The Doctor stopped in his fiddlings with the controls to spare a look at Rose.
"Oh, alright alright," he sighed. "After all, everybody lives today." He reluctantly set the coordinates for Jack's ship.
"Now then." He turned the music on. "Shall we continue where we left off?" he asked her teasingly while making his way to her. Rose laughed out loud.
Glenn Miller was echoing in the TARDIS with Rose and the Doctor moving into rhythm. Or at least the Doctor tried to synchronise their movements.
"Let's just try another song," Rose suggested lightly and began to move towards the switch, but was soon grabbed by the Doctor, him drawing her closer to his chest, holding her with his hand on her back.
Thump
"Doctor?" Rose asked softly.
"We can do this." His voice low. "That lad could, there is no way I'm any worse."
Oh.
"You know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy," Rose teased him.
"I don't envy him, Rose." He shook his head. "I know I'm better." And with that he tried to spin her around, but failed.
"Okay, really not this song." Rose chuckled, moving away from his embrace. She spotted Jack looking at them in bewilderment. "Come on in!"
"I'm sure I used to know this stuff," the Doctor muttered to himself. "Close the door, will you? Your ship's about to blow up. There's going to be a draft."
Jack shut the door and the Doctor started up the engine.
"Welcome to the TARDIS."
"Much bigger on the inside," Jack noted and moments later spotted something else moving its way from the inside. "I see you got one more companion for yourselves." He pointed.
The Doctor turned around to look behind him with narrowed eyes. "Oh! Jimbo, boy!" the Doctor exclaimed and walked up towards the piggy. "Come on, dance with us."
"Jimbo?" Rose asked while shooting him questioning daggers.
"Yep, good ol' Jimbo boy."
"You named him Jimbo," Rose stated, her voice clearly annoyed.
"That's right. Common name," he answered innocently.
"You are not naming him after Cassandra's pet," Rose said in a deadly voice while making her way to face the Doctor face to face.
"Why not?" the Doctor asked simply. Rose let out an exasperated sound. They stood there for a few seconds, looking intensely at each other, when Jack cut in.
"Woah woah. Sorry to disturb your lovers spat, so soon after I just came on board, I gotta note, but the little one here, is getting nervous." He pointed lightly at the pig.
At the same moment the music changed from waltz to swing - Glenn Miller's In The Mood.
The Doctor's face lit up at once, all intense emotions flowing out of the window.
"Rose! I've just remembered!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm.
"What?" Rose asked him a bit sharply, still unhappy about Jimbo.
"I can dance! I can dance!" He began moving into rhythm, snapping his fingers, his face beaming all happily.
Rose tried, she really tried to maintain her serious face, but who could possibly resist the Doctor?
"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance," Rose said, already softened up.
"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain. But who with?" The Doctor looked suggestively at Jack. Jack looked at him a bit lost whether to accept the offer.
"I'll take Jimbo then." Jack nodded lightly and went towards him.
Rose could barely suppress her chuckle. In seconds time she joined the Doctor, placing her hands into his, while moving about, laughing happily, until the Doctor ended the dance with making her back fall down at the last accords.
to be continued...
I just gotta love those songs.
Today, while I was making this chapter and re-watching the episode, I heard Glenn Miller somewhere inside my home. I thought I'm hallucinating one more song, but shortly after I spotted the music coming from the TV! At some sort of medical program. DW is successfully haunting me. Lol Not like I'm complaining.