It always takes me by surprise when I find my plot wander off somewhere I didn't expect it too. Then I have to take time to find it and place it in the right place, or at least into something.
Anyway, here we go! And as always a big thank you to every brilliant people out there!
Both the Doctor and Jack cautiously entered ward's 26 waiting room, where the terminal was located. They found Rose, or in the current state, Cassandra, pacing impatiently, her arms folded.
"'Thought would never see you again," she shot in her arrogant voice.
"Yeh. Well," the Doctor began nonchalantly. "Was a bit surprised." The Doctor went further into the room, rubbing the back of his neck. "By some unasked for gesture."
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "I thought you liked it," she said in a mock.
"You're not exactly my taste, Cassandra." The Doctor shook his head blithely.
"Not your taste..." she murmured, when she froze backing away in defence.
"Game over, Cassandra." Jack stepped from behind the Doctor.
"You again!" she hissed. "How did you get out so fast?"
"I have my ways." He smirked at her meaningfully.
"I don't even want to know," she muttered under hear teeth.
"Get out of Rose's body, Cassandra," the Doctor ordered her darkly. "Before I get really serious," he added with dark eyes.
"Can't I just...stay?" Cassandra asked slyly.
"No," the Doctor cut her sharply. "Now get out." He pointed the sonic at her. "Brain is a delicate thing, and you're compressing her to death."
"Don't worry, I don't see a thing as it is." She made a frustrated face.
"Move! Before you try to pull out one more trick of yours." The Doctor raised his voice at her.
"Oh, don't blame me for that." She defended herself. "That was not my own doing." She paused to look into the Doctor's eyes.
"It was this body that acted upon." She gestured and it was enough to stun the Doctor for a moment, processing the meaning of her words, as Cassandra pulled the perfume out of her decolletage. The Time Lord down on the floor.
"All good," she breathed in satisfaction, as she put the bottle back to its rightful place.
"Forgetting something?" Jack's voice startled her, as his figure was now clearly visible before her eyes with the Doctor down.
"Oh. Hehe." Cassandra laughed nervously. "You, you still can't hurt me though, remember?" she squealed, as Jack was steadily moving forwards, blaster pointed at her.
Jack smirked at her, making Cassandra dread the man. She glanced at him warily and as he was just a step away from her, he tossed the blaster in her grasp, confusion filling Cassandra and a hard side of the palm striking her on the neck - resulting in her losing conciousness herself.
"Sorry, Rosie." Jack leaned over to Rose's body. A gasp from behind made Jack stand up again.
"Wha-" Novice Hame began.
"Captain Jack Harkness." Jack made his way to the nurse, offering his hand. "We've got a little situation here." He gestured. "I need this one woken up." He pointed at the Doctor's still form. "And that one, restrained. Can you do that for me?" Jack pleaded with a tease.
"We," nurse began, a bit uncomfortable with the man. "We've no more available space in the ward 26, but I can direct you to ward 100."
"Just what we need. Thank you!" Jack beamed, shaking her hand fiercely.
The Doctor was first to wake up. He was still a bit dazed, when Jack's face came into view.
"Done sleeping?" Jack teased him.
"Don't start," the Doctor chided him. He sat up on his bed as his awareness came back to him. "Rose," he breathed and briskly got out of the bed.
"All under control." Jack's voice reached his ears. "Had to restrain her a little bit, though."
The Doctor glanced to the bed beside his to find Rose's body wrapped in restraining belts. His eyes narrowed darkly at the sight of her still unconscious form.
"Look, I had no choice." Jack began to defend himself, as he saw the Time Lord's rage making its way to the surface.
"There's always a choice," the Doctor shot back sharply, making Jack shiver slightly.
"I want her safe same as you," Jack said cautiously not to provoke him.
"What can I say?" The Doctor shrugged nonchalantly. "Not good enough." His brows furrowed even more at the sight of restraining belts pressing tightly into Rose's flesh. He could stand it no more. Before Jack could even form a thought of protest, he stormed towards Rose, pulling his sonic screwdriver out, as he adjusted the setting to set Rose's body free.
Jack stifled the sharp retort he was going to express. He breathed out to talk in a calmer voice. "She can take care of herself."
"Yeh, she can," the Doctor agreed faintly. "But not when she has no free will over her body, as someone is compressing her mind." He pointed the last word. "And certainly not while staying restrained in sharp belts on the hospital bed laying unconscious," he ended in a half-whisper.
Jack didn't say more. What could he say? Telling him the truth about Rose was out of the question and even if she was already past this experience, he just wasn't aware of how much. Was this even part of the events? Seeming as his appearance was not expected this time round, it certainly didn't seem to be the case. So Jack just sighed.
Cassandra stirred from her sleep and started slowly opening her eyes. Besides the still blurry vision ahead of her, she found herself with yet another unpleasant sensation.
"Oh, my God. The migraine!" she cried hysterically, clenching at her temple. The Doctor's body stiffened at the words.
She sat up ungainly, frowning. "Time for you to go, Cassandra." The Doctor's ice cold voice made her shiver. She glanced upwards to see him standing besides the bed.
"But I've nowhere to go!" she cried, trying out pity. "My skin fried up."
"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air," he said blithely, looking down at her. "Now, get out." He pointed the sonic at her once more. "Give her back to me." Uttering each word meaningfully.
"Something is going on in this hospital, you said so yourself. But I need this body and your mind to find it out," Cassandra stated.
"You're not staying the-" the Doctor began darkly, when Cassandra yelled out.
"Her head!" she leaned forward. "Something is freaking wrong with it!" she breathed sharply. "Oh, I hate her. Can't even access her memories." She frowned in pain.
"Seems like someone doesn't want you there," the Doctor joked lightly, pride in his voice of the human in thought.
"Doesn't matter. You can't hurt me anyway." She straightened up. "The Flirt boy already tried," she spat, looking at Jack, who gave her a warning look. "At worst I'll just let her mind whither just before I move on to the next," she sang.
"Don't even dream about it." The Doctor's voice was very low.
"Then you better cooperate with me," she suggested, her voice back to fake high.
"We're not cooperating with you," Jack shot back.
"I think you have no choice. Either lead me to the Intensive Care department or she burns out," Cassandra threatened.
The Doctor hitched a breath. "You're aware of what's awaiting of you once you're back in the open, right?" The Doctor's voice without remorse.
"I'm good at vanishing." She smiled in a fake way.
"Better be. Or you will come to face just why I am known as the Oncoming Storm among the stars," he said lightly, but it made her dread him even more. She gulped.
"Right." She laughed nervously. "Now, back to the terminal."
The weird newly formed trio made their way back to the terminal and with a bit of Cassandra's assistance and the Doctor's sonic'ing, they quickly found their way into the Intensive Care.
The whole place was lined with the cells, thousands of them, a bit like the Tomb of the Cybermen. The Doctor opened one at random. It contained a very sick looking man.
"That's disgusting." Cassandra frowned in disgust. "What's wrong with him?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," the Doctor said faintly in an apology to the man, not paying attention to her.
The Doctor closed the door and moved on to the next. It contained a young woman.
"What disease is that?" Cassandra asked cautiously.
"All of them. Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything." The Doctor talked, his eyes wide with rage making its way up.
"This is wrong," Jack breathed.
"What about us? Are we safe?" Cassandra asked the Doctor warily.
"The air's sterile. Just don't touch them." Then he closed the door. He walked over at the railing, as he rested his hands against it, watching towards the distance at thousands of cells.
"How many patients are there?" Cassandra asked, walking over to him.
"They're not patients," the Doctor replied harshly. "They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats," he said in disgust and anger at the source responsible for all of this. "No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything," he said sarcastically. "They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm," he spat.
"Why don't they just die?" Cassandra asked, gaining a sharp glare from the Doctor.
"It's for the greater cause." Hame spoke up, coming from the shadows. She seemed to have followed them.
"Did you agree to this?" Jack asked her, clearly disappointed in her.
"The Sisterhood has sworn to help." She answered softly.
"What, by KILLING?" the Doctor shouted at her.
"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses," she started in a sorrowful voice. "We couldn't cope. We tried everything." The Doctor looked at her in disbelief of her inhumanity. "But the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are," she breathed, smiling softly.
"Flesh."
"These people are alive!" The Doctor gestured at the cells, blame in his voice clearly visible.
"But think of those Humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us."
"If they live because of this, then life is worthless," the Doctor continued.
"But who are you to decide that?" Hame asked him faintly.
"I'm the Doctor," he whispered, storming his way to stand in front of her. "And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority." He raised a warning eyebrow at her. "Then there isn't one. It stops with me."
"Just to confirm." Cassandra butted in slyly, the Doctor taking calming breaths, as he turned to face her and back to Hame, moments later. "None of the humans in the city actually know about this?"
"We thought it best not," Hame said.
"Hmm-" Cassandra trailed off, when a sharp gasp escaped her mouth, her eyes wide as she staggered, nearly falling on the ground, but managed to catch on the metal bar of the railing to keep herself on foot.
"Do you need help?" Hame asked in concern, the Doctor didn't pay attention to her as he moved briskly towards Rose, or her body.
"I'll get some help" With that, Hame left the department.
The Doctor looked at Rose's uneven body in great concern and anger. He held her up, to steady her. "Don't try my patience, Cassandra," he warned her.
"Sorry," she breathed. "Have to disappoint you." A soft voice came from her mouth. The Doctor looked at her in disbelief.
"Rose?" he exhaled in awe.
A weak smile formed on her face in assurance. The Doctor smiled at her at that moment, relief starting to fill him up. It didn't last long, as another wave hit her, making her gasp. Cassandra was back once again.
"Yuck, that was weird. Can't she just stay put!?" she complained. The Doctor frowning at once, as he loosened his grip on her.
"Don't play games with me," he warned.
"Anything we can do to help?" Two, previously unseen, nurses came to face the trio. "We've heard about the disturbance."
"What happened to getting help to the unwell?" Jack asked.
"You're not allowed to be here." One of the cats spoke.
"Straight to the point, Whiskers." Cassandra came forward. "I want money," she stated arrogantly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes, as he shook his head.
"The Sisterhood is a charity. We don't give money." The nurse laughed. "We only accept."
"The humans across the water pay you a fortune, and that's exactly what I need. A one-off payment," Cassandra sang. "That's all I want. Oh, and perhaps a yacht," she added. "In return for which, I shall tell the city nothing of your institutional murder." She glanced at the nurses meaningfully. "Is that a deal?"
"I'm afraid not," nurse countered.
"No need to worry about this one." The Doctor stepped beside Rose's body, giving her a warning look.
"I am certainly certain of that," nurse stated.
"I'd really advise you to think about this," Cassandra warned.
"Oh, there's no need." The cat-nurse shrugged lightly. "I have to decline."
"I'll tell them," Cassandra yelled out hysterically. "You're not exactly Nuns with Guns. You can't stop me."
"Oh, come on-." the Doctor began, but was interrupted by a nurse.
"Who needs arms when we have claws?" As Matron unsheathed her claws.
"Well, nice try." Cassandra laughed nervously. "Chip? Plan B." She turned to face Chip near the lever.
"Where did that fellow come from?" Jack asked in disbelief.
"I'm always in the shadows, looking after my Mistress," Chip stated, as he pulled the lever, all doors on that level opening. Nurses backing away cautiously.
"What've you done!?" the Doctor yelled at Cassandra, watching the scene in horror.
"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up," she spilled quickly.
"Don't know about you, but I get a hell of a nasty deja vu," Jack said lightly, laughing nervously. "Almost like with the masked people at the Blitz of London, just neither calling for their mummies," Jack ended in a mutter.
"Yeh, and just this time there's no "mother" to save them," the Doctor agreed in a low voice.
"See you!" Cassandra's voice could be heard, as she turned to run along the corridor.
"Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch!" the Doctor warned everyone frantically. "Jack, inform the hospital!" He gave him one last look before running after Cassandra and Chip, Jack dashing in the opposite direction, maneuvering between the flesh.
One of the men of the flesh put his hand into a socket and as he got electrocuted, the locks on all the cell doors blew, freeing the people inside. It was advancing to every cell fast, quickly catching up to the running Doctor and Cassandra, her yelling loudly.
They stopped for a moment to see every cell of the department, every one of those thousands, opening up.
"Oh, my God" she breathed.
"What the hell have you done?" the Doctor shot at her.
"It wasn't me!" She defended herself.
"One touch and you get every disease in the world," he began frantically. "And I want that body safe, Cassandra." He told her sharply. "We've got to go down."
"But there's thousands of them!" she cried.
"Run!" he yelled at her. "Down! Down! Go down!" As they began descending the stairs. Her first, followed by Chip and lastly the Doctor.
"Keep going!" the Doctor yelled out for them.
As they entered the basement, Cassandra tried to call the lift but soon found it not working because of the quarantine, making them run further inside, passing the group of flesh. Unfortunately, Chip was a bit slow and got trapped.
"Someone will touch him." The Doctor began to move towards Chip.
"Leave him! He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half life." Cassandra grabbed the Doctor's arm, urging him. "Come on!"
"Mistress!" Chip cried.
"I'm sorry, I can't let her escape." The Doctor looked at him frantically, apologizing, as he dashed after her.
Cassandra ran to the back door, but there were people there, too. She slammed the doors shut.
"We're trapped!" she cried. "What am I going to do?"
"Well, for starters." The Doctor tilted his head, his eyes wide. "You're going to leave that body." As he began walking. "That psychograft is banned on every civilised planet." He pointed at the object in question. "Now. You've learnt about the Intensive Care. Our deal is over," he warned her.
"You asked for it," she said slyly, as an energy ball came out of her mouth to rest inside the Doctor.
Rose staggered a bit. After taking a few breaths she glanced over at the Doctor, who was now...not.
"Oh, my." Cassandra walked weirdly in the Doctor's body. "This is...different." she said, amused.
"Get out of him," Rose warned.
"Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts. And hardly used." Rose eyed her, or him. "Oh, oh, two hearts!" she gasped, as she shook his body. "Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!"
"Cassandra, get out!" Rose yelled.
"Oo, he's slim." She placed Doctor's hand down his torso, inspecting. "And a little bit foxy." Cassandra shot her head up to face Rose, lifting his eyebrows suggestively at her. "You like it." She began to move towards her. "You may have hidden your thoughts, but your body moved at him on its own," she ended in the Doctor's voice, leaning forward to Rose. Rose ducking her eyes to not face him.
As the doors burst open to reveal the flesh making their way in, Doctor-Cassandra began to panic again.
"What do we do? What would he do?" She was poking Rose's arm frantically. "The Doctor, what the hell would he do?"
"We've got to get up," Rose said. "Ladder." She turned to face one behind them.
"Out of the way, blondie!" Cassandra-Doctor pushed her harshly aside to climb first.
"Please, help us. Help," the flesh woman pleaded.
"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something," Rose said from behind the Cassandra-Doctor, as they climbed upwards. Even if Rose could think of something, it was still wiser to let the Doctor look after Rose's body with Cassandra's mind than other way around.
"Yap, yap, yap." Cassandra began mumbling. "God, your both heads are so boring. Both hiding your thoughts."
As they reached the doors on the next level, it wouldn't open.
"Help us." A flesh man's voice came from behind them.
"Now what do we do?" Cassandra-Doctor cried.
"Use the sonic screwdriver," Rose stated.
"You mean this thing?" As Cassandra pulled it out of the Doctor's suit.
"Yes, I mean that thing," Rose said, annoyed. "Now, go back to me. The Doctor can open it."
"Hold on tight." As she breathed the energy ball back to Rose.
"Oh, chavtastic again," she complained. "Open it!" she yelled at him.
"Not till you get out of her," the Doctor threatened her.
"We need the Doctor," Cassandra-Rose countered.
"I ORDER YOU TO LEAVE HER!" he shouted at her.
"Don't shout at me!" she cried. "I'll fall down, making this body crumble, if you keep complaining," she warned.
"You're asking for it." The Doctor gritted his teeth, as he turned to face the controls to open the lift doors. Both the Doctor and Cassandra-Rose inside.
After passing a hallway, they found themselves back at ward 26, Frau Clovis lunging at them with a metal stand.
The Doctor shoot his hands ahead in defence. "We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean! We're clean! Look, look."
"Show me your skin," Clovis ordered.
"Look, clean. Look." Both him and Cassandra-Rose circled their wrist around. "If we'd been touched, we'd be dead." That seemed to be enough for Clovis.
"So how's it going up here? What's the status?" the Doctor asked while placing his screwdriver back inside his suit.
"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left," she stated. The Doctor furrowed his brows at that. What the hell was Jack doing? "And I've been trying to override the quarantine," Clovis continued. "If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad."
"You can't do that." The Doctor dismissed it at once. "If they forced entry, they'd break quarantine. Now turn that off!"
"Not if it gets me out," she spat.
"All right, fine," the Doctor said faintly, nodding. "So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me," he said lightly. "Rose, novice Hame, everyone!" he called out for them. "Excuse me, your Grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!" he instructed everyone.
Everyone grabbed drip bags, while the Doctor collected a long piece of heavy silk rope and started hanging the bags on his body.
"How's that? Will that do?" the Doctor asked Cassandra-Rose's opinion.
"It better will." She grinned at him while sticking the bags on him.
"Rose?" The Doctor blinked at her.
"Hello," she said, beaming.
"Good to have you back again." The Doctor looked at her happily. And suddenly the situation seemed to be not so severe. Even if for another second. "Come on." He grabbed her hand, as he went towards the lift, sonic'ing it open.
"What're you planning?" Rose asked him expectedly.
"Oh, just a little trick." He shrugged nonchalantly at her. He then ran back inside the room, placing his sonic between his teeth, as he dashed back towards the lift, jumping on the cable.
Rose gasped a bit at the sight, but soon eased up, leaning forwards inside the lift, measuring the hight.
"Looks high," she calculated.
"No problem." The Doctor attached a round piece of equipment to the cable sonic'ing it. "Fancy a trip down?" The Doctor looked at her suggestively.
"Any time." Rose beamed at him, jumping towards him and wrapping her arms and legs around him.
"Uff," the Doctor gasped. "So much weight," he breathed.
"Don't you even dare," she warned him.
"To the cable!" He excused himself. Rose pinched him.
"Going down!" The Doctor informed her, as the improvised wheel he had attached to the cable took them down the shaft. After a short sequence of screaming and laughing, the Doctor put on the brake and they came to a gentle stop on top of the lift.
"Huff," she breathed. "You're completely mad. I can see why she likes you," she ended.
The Doctor turned around abruptly. "Peekaboo," Cassandra-Rose sang. The Doctor lowered his head, glaring at her from bellow.
"When I say so, take hold of that lever," he instructed her coldly.
"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't-" she began to reason.
"Hold that lever!" the Doctor shot back at her, making her jump.
"I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself." The Doctor poured the contents of the drip bags into the lift's disinfectant tank.
"Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got." He told her while opening the ceiling of the lift.
"What about you?" Cassandra-Rose asked, concerned whether he was trying to abandon her.
"I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in," he told her cheesily, as he dropped down into the lift itself.
He opened the doors with his sonic screwdriver. The diseased people, sitting inside the hallway, turned to look.
"I'm in here! Come on!" The Doctor urged them.
"Don't tell them," Cassandra-Rose shot at him.
"Pull that lever!" the Doctor instructed her.
"Come and get me. Come on!" The Doctor kept urging the crowd as they started to shuffle towards the lift.
"Commence stage one disinfection," the lift announced, the contents of the disinfectant tank poured onto him.
"Come on, come on." The first of the humans joined him, then another and another. After getting sprayed as well - leaving.
"All they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!" the Doctor told them, jumping around.
"Pass on what?" Cassandra was yelling from above.
"Pass it on!" The Doctor jumped in a light of hope.
As the disinfected and wet humans touched their diseased comrades their skin started to emit a steam, which gradually cleared the skin clean of the infections. The Doctor looked at them with sheer joy on his face.
Once the Doctor helped Cassandra down, she was fast to ask.
"What did they pass on?" she whispered. "Did you kill them? All of them?"
"No." The Doctor shook his head. "That's your way of doing things." As he walked out of the lift grandly.
"I'm the Doctor, and I cured them," he announced walking further inside the hall, smiling at the crowd.
A woman came over to hug the Doctor. "Oh, that's right." The Doctor laughed, hugging her back tenderly. "Hey, there we go, sweetheart." He looked at her like a proud father. "Go to him. Go on, that's it," he whispered faintly, pushing her slightly to pass on the cure.
"It's a new sub-species, Cassandra." He placed his both hands on another man looking at him, beaming. "A brand new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look!" he exclaimed. "Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely ALIVE!" he exclaimed with so much joy and happiness that it was contagious.
"You can't deny them." He turned at Cassandra, pointing at her. "Because you helped create them." Cassandra just had her lips pressed together. "The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! HA!" He jumped in happiness.
Cassandra smirked at the sight. Oh, she just knew what her new plan was. The Doctor was too immersed in this new human life form to take notice of that, when he heard a sharp gasp come out of Rose's mouth, her almost fainting. The Doctor's face quickly shadowed, as he ran towards her to catch her.
"Ca-" he began, when she interrupted him.
"She left me," Rose breathed faintly, before her legs gave out, and she was literally inches from the ground, the Doctor almost going down with her too, as he grabbed her close to him to steady her on her foot.
"Woah." As he placed her back. "You okay?" he whispered to her, her head resting on his shoulder.
"Yeh," she breathed a few deep breaths, and lifted her head to face him, smiling at him.
"Welcome back." He beamed at her fondly, still holding her firmly against his body.
"Doctor!" Jack's voice made them turn to face the source, as the man made his way through the crowd.
"Jack! Where have you been? They all thought you were dead." The Doctor had to let go of Rose now as he walked towards their friend.
"I kept quite a few visitors inside the ward 100, we once were held at." He uttered the last words meaningfully.
"Held at?" the Doctor asked him, confused.
"Apparently, it's like a holding cell. So, no wonder if you heard no word about me. It's completely sound-sealed," Jack said, when he spotted Rose. "What about her?" He pointed.
"Oh, Rose's back," the Doctor announced all happily, walking back to Rose and placing his hands around her shoulders to move her forward to Jack.
"Oh, Rosie!" Jack laughed while flinging himself at her, the Doctor stirring a wee bit uncomfortably, as he slowly retreated his hands.
"Hey, Jack." Rose smiled in his embrace.
"Good to see you finally in your right mind," Jack joked, making Rose laugh at his remark. Then he pulled away suddenly. "But where's Cassandra then?" He looked around.
"Oh." The Doctor came to a realisation. He sprung around to filter the room. It was filled with newly made human life forms.
"Where's she?" Rose asked faintly.
"She ran," the Doctor said darkly. "Took the body of another living and ran."
Rose frowned at that. Now that was not what she had expected of this trip.
It got already dark, when after making a few trips there and there to check on people and newly made humans, they came back to ward's 26 entrance just to see Hame being taken away by the police. The Doctor glanced her with twisted emotions.
He looked around the room, when it hit him.
"The Face of Boe!" he breathed, as he dashed inside the ward.
"Well, hello," Jack joked, the Doctor already leaving them. Rose raised an eyebrow at him.
"Let's go after him?" Jack suggested. Rose smiled, as both of them ran inside after the Doctor.
They found the Doctor already standing near the container of the big face.
"You were supposed to be dying." The Doctor smiled at him suggestively.
"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait," Face told him, when he spotted the two other people behind him. "Oh, this is not good." He chuckled.
The Doctor sprung around to face Jack and Rose watching him.
"Oh, I know he's not good. I can constantly feel the timeline being in a mess with him near," the Doctor joked, turning to the Face of Boe again.
"Oi!" Jack shot back. "Better than a giant face in a container," Jack joked, when moments later, his face fell, mouth open slack.
"No!" he gasped. The Doctor turned around to face Jack's pale face. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, this is just so so..." Jack shook his head and hands as he backed away. Before long, he ran out of the room.
The Doctor chuckled. "What did you tell him?" he asked the Face proudly. "Could never take that type of reaction out of him."
The Face of Boe chuckled inside their heads. "There are just some things."
Rose walked up to the Face. "Hello." As she placed a hand on the container.
"Hello, my dear." The Face spoke in her head. "I see you had a big journey yourself."
"You know?" Rose thought in her mind.
"The timeline is quite a bit tangled up. There're many things happening that weren't supposed to happen. Everything is new and still not settled. You shall heal that wound of time yourself."
"Me? But how?" she asked him, confused.
"You'll know," he finished faintly, as he continued their talk with the Doctor.
"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew."
"There are legends, you know." The Doctor approached him, looking at him expectedly. "Saying that you're millions of years old." As he squatted down next to Rose, facing the Face.
"There are? That would be impossible." Face chuckled.
"Wouldn't it just." The Doctor grinned, amused. "I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me." He looked at him with big expectant eyes.
"A great secret," the Face whispered.
"So the legend says," the Doctor agreed.
"It can wait." The Face dismissed it with ease.
"Oh, does it have to?" The Doctor complained, lightly.
"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day." As he beamed away.
"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic." The Doctor nodded at the sight. Rose chuckled as she stood up together with the Doctor.
He beamed at her meaningfully. "Off we go then?" He gestured towards the doors with his head.
"Off we go." Rose replied, taking the Doctor's offered hand, as they left the ward together, grinning.
They found Jack leaning on the TARDIS doors, face without any colour.
"I've got to take the recipe from the Face of Boe," the Doctor joked, shaking his head. "What did he do to him?" he cried.
"I've no idea." Rose joined him.
"Got a bit of a scare, eh?" the Doctor teased Jack, as they reached the TARDIS, the Doctor unlocking it. "You better not provoke the legendary creature or you'll get its wrath!" The Doctor and Rose both laughed at that.
"I used to be a poster boy, when I was a kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula," Jack began, his voice blank. "Tiny little place." He stopped in nostalgia. "I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me." He laughed. Rose and the Doctor smiling at him.
"The Face of Boe, they called me." Jack shrugged blithely, as he walked up into the TARDIS, leaving Rose and the Doctor gaping at his back.
"No." The Doctor shook his head in disbelief.
"It can't be," Rose breathed.
"No. Definitely not. No. No." The Doctor began denying it until a snort escaped his mouth, Rose soon following him.
"Impossible," he cried. "How brilliant is that," the Doctor cried through laughter.
"I can't believe it!" Rose squealed, laughing herself.
"Oi! Enough! Come on in!" Jack's voice could be heard from inside the TARDIS.
As the Doctor and Rose walked inside, they came to a stop near the doors. Turned to face each other, their faces calm. When they twitched.
"Stop it." Rose chided him in the whisper, her lips twitching.
"You stop it," he countered her, his lips quivering too. When they turned from each other, laughing until their stomach hurt.
"Good you're having fun," Jack said sarcastically. "But could you please now tell me how in the world am I going to became that?"
The Doctor cleared his throat, calming down, as he pressed his lips together, his brows furrowed.
"Doctor," Jack called out for him.
"Rose," the Doctor said faintly.
"Yeh?" Rose looked at the Doctor.
"It was Rose," the Doctor repeated, as he walked over the console.
"What?" both Jack and Rose said in unison.
"When she opened the heart of the Tardis and absorbed the time vortex itself," the Doctor stated.
Rose began to remember her time as the Bad Wolf. She could feel some kind of life energy after she just woken up. Was it Jack all along?
"What does that mean, exactly?" Jack countered him.
"No one's ever mean to have that power," the Doctor said softly. "If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god. A vengeful god." He turned to face Rose, who was now standing besides him. "But you were human."
Jack had a flashback of his own. He remembered his first coming back to life at Satellite 5.
"Everything you did was so human." He squeezed her hands into his, calming her down, as he felt her tense up, understanding the meaning of all of this. Then his hands released its grip, as he turned to face Jack again.
"She brought you back to life, but she couldn't control it. She brought you back forever," the Doctor said softly. "That's something, I suppose." He trailed off. "The final act of the Time War was life," he ended softly.
Jack tried to grasp the truth. "Do you think she could change me back?" he breathed.
"I took the power out of her," the Doctor said apologetically.
"I'm sorry," Rose whispered, her face filled with guilt. Jack moved towards her at once, cupping her face. "None of that." Jack smiled at her. "I should be thankful instead. You wanted me alive. And forever. That's something nobody had done for me before," he joked, Rose half-smiled.
"But you want to die, no?" Rose asked softly. Jack looked at her sadly.
"I thought I did." Jack considered, as his palms left her face. "I don't know." He shrugged. "But this lot. You see them out here surviving, and that's fantastic." He smiled at her.
"That's...lonely life," Rose whispered faintly.
"Won't be lonely forever." The Doctor patted on Jack's shoulder.
And with the last pat, the Doctor jumped over to work on the console. "So, joining us for a trip?" he called out to Jack.
"Ah. No. Next time." He smiled at them. "I got a bit of things to do first."
"Well, we certainly have no need to worry about meeting you again," the Doctor sang, stifling his laughter.
"Right, right." Jack nodded, smiling himself.
"Where do you request to be escorted to?" The Doctor grinned at him.
"Cardiff would be sweet." Jack smiled back.
"Cardiff is it, then." The Doctor beamed, as he came to rush about the console, pressing various kinds of buttons.
"Rose," he called out for her and she immediately came over to assist him. Before long, they set the coordinates and now only had to wait a little bit to land.
"How about a cup of tea before you depart?" Rose suggested. "Could tell us your story." She smirked at Jack.
"Sure, why not." Jack beamed at her and the trio disappeared inside the TARDIS hallway.
to be continued...
And that's how Jack's secret got out. What about Rose's? Well, you'll have to wait a bit longer for that.
Reviews would be nice. "bows"
P.s. By the way! Have a brilliant day, people! :P