Chapter 22 – Night Fever

After they'd sponged him down, Rose had found him some fresh thin pyjamas and dressed him in them, before covering him with a thin blanket and kissing him for good measure. He was beginning to mumble, talking incoherently about things Rose couldn't make sense of, words and sounds that had utterly no logical progression from one to the other. Jackie came down for a visit that evening to help in what way she could.

"No... With the... Eyes... Not her's... The thing in the back... Green, I think..." the Doctor murmured quietly to himself, eyes closed, the words somehow merging altogether into one word.

"Oh God, poor thing," Jackie said softly, staring at the Time Lord.

"Rose..." he suddenly whined.

"Yeah?" Rose asked, squeezing his hand.

"The..." He took a deep breath, and tried again. A string of incomprehensible words came out.

"What's he sayin'?" Jackie wondered.

"I dunno," Rose confessed. "His Dad said he might start hallucinating."

"Please..." he gasped. "Hurt..."

"Oh, sweetheart," Jackie muttered. "Can you hear me? It's Jackie."

"Jackie..." he breathed, opening his eyes just a little to look at her. "'M sorry..."

"What for, sweetheart? You've got nothin' to be sorry about."

"It's called... regeneration. Rose's mad. Love her... I hurt..."

"He thinks this is after he changed his face?" Jackie realised.

"I should get his parents..." Rose muttered, already getting to her feet. "This is gettin' bad."

"Hurry," Jackie told her as she ran out the door.

"Jackie!" the Doctor suddenly yelled, grabbing her arm.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"I couldn't... I couldn't... Hurt so much... It's a lie, all a lie... I tried but he stopped me... Rose... Protect her... My mind... It's all changed... He's a lie, he's bad, he'll kill us... He's behind you!"

Jackie blinked, looking behind her. There was no one there. "I'm sorry, Doctor, I don't understand," she told him gently, stroking back his hair. The sudden heat was like touching a hotplate and she yelped in surprise, drawing her hand away. She stared down at him in absolute horror.

"Bloody hell!" she exclaimed, pulling back the blanket to reveal his recently changed clothes were absolutely drenched in sweat. "Oh god, Doctor..."

"My head, it hurts..." he croaked.

"Rose is gettin' help, okay?" Jackie told him. "You'll feel better soon, it's okay..."

Rose came back in accompanied by Penelope, who took one look at the situation, and launched into action. "Rose, get water for him to drink, and plenty of it. He's going to end up dehydrated. We're going to soak him in the bath." Rose nodded and ran out the door as Penelope turned to Jackie. "Jackie, could you start undressing him please, I'll run a cold bath."

Jackie nodded, and started trying to peel off the sweat-drenched clothes. Every time her hand accidentally brushed his skin it felt like she'd been burnt.

"Mother..." the Doctor gasped, looking up at Jackie in a daze.

Jackie paused to consider this. "Well, I sorta am," she reasoned, finally getting off his pyjama shirt. "What is it, love?"

"I don't wanna go to the Academy today..."

"Don't worry, you're not, sweetheart," Jackie assured him, just as Penelope came running back in. Jackie finally got his pyjama trousers off, and without even discussing it she took his upper half and Penelope took his lower being careful not to jolt his legs, and they carried him to the bathroom. They slowly eased him down into the cold water, and alarmingly the water hissed like dropping cold water onto the cooker.

The Doctor felt pretty alarmed at this. What were they doing to him? What was this stuff? Really, what was it?

"Acid!" the Doctor shrieked in realisation, trying to fight them off but he didn't have any energy left to use. "Get me out," he gasped. "Not the acid!"

Someone said something to him but it was like his ears were clogged up. Like a plug in the bath. Wait a minute, he was in a bath. Why was he in a bath, exactly?

Suddenly time seemed to blur out for about five seconds until he found himself lying in the water, two people sloshing cold water over him. His entire body still felt like it was on fire, the water sizzling ineffectually around him. He was like a sausage, he thought.

"I like sausages," he murmured quietly.

"It's not cold enough," one of the people said to the other. "We need ice..."

The other person nodded back, and ran out of the door just as someone else came running in. God, it was busy in here, he thought. Why was everyone running around his bathroom? It was his. He didn't say they could come in here...

"Get him to drink that, he's losing a lot of fluids," the person sloshing water on him said.

"Doctor," a voice said next to his ear. He knew that voice, but for some reason he couldn't quite place a name to it. "Here, drink up."

He found a straw suddenly in his mouth, and for a moment he forgot what to do with it. He frowned, looking at the person next to him. It was a young blonde woman. She was really pretty. He decided to tell her that.

"Eon'hao chea'kola," he murmured.

"What did he say?"

"He said you're pretty."

"Thank you, Doctor. You're pretty too. Now drink the water."

"The what?" he asked, dazed.

"The water. Suck on the straw."

Then he realised he had a straw in his mouth that was in a glass of water. He obediently sucked, and ended up sucking too hard and choking on the water, coughing it back out again.

"Slower," the pretty woman said gently.

He did so, gulping down the water just as someone else came in.

"I hope this is enough," the new person said.

"Should be, throw it all in."

"Keep drinking," the pretty woman told him, kissing his forehead. His feet had suddenly turned very cold. Then the cold spread rapidly up his legs and to every other part of his body, spreading until the fog began to disappear slowly from his mind...

They were still sloshing the freezing water onto him, then he realised the pretty woman was actually his wife. Well, that was good. The people washing the water onto him were, in turn, his mum and his mother-in-law. And he was only wearing a pair of boxers that were soaked and really struggling to contain everything he had.

"Whoa!" he yelled, pushing the water away from his mouth and quickly covering himself.

"He's back," Rose giggled.

He looked at her, wide eyed. "Rose!" he whined.

"Stay still, Theta," his mum said gently. "We're cooling you off. Your fever spiked and you started hallucinating."

"Mum, can you change the bedsheets?" Rose asked her mum anxiously. "They're in the bottom drawer."

Jackie nodded, and ran out of the bathroom.

He was forced a little more water which he gulped down, taking Rose's hand for reassurance.

"My head's killing me," he muttered through chattering teeth.

"It's okay, when you've got your temperature down I'll wrap you up warm and dim all the lights," Rose told him gently, kissing him.

"Rose?" he asked quietly after a few seconds.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," he croaked.

"Because gettin' an infection was completely your fault," Rose said sarcastically. "It's okay, we're dealin' with it. Just concentrate on gettin' better, yeah? I don't like seein' you like this."

He started shivering, looking up at her caring face, so beautiful. "I love you."

"I love you too, Doctor," she whispered, and kissed him once more. "Just relax. I'll look after you."

"Okay, let's get him out," Penelope said, lifting his lower half as Rose took the upper, moving him out of the tub and sitting him on the floor. Rose wrapped a towel around his shoulders, rubbing him over and drying his hair, making it all stand on end.

"Here we go," Jackie said, coming back in holding a bundle of clothes, giving them to Penelope. The Doctor caught sight of some underwear on top of the pile, and quickly realised that meant Jackie had gone through his underwear drawer... "The bed's changed."

"Okay," Rose began, taking him under the arms and pulling him up so his bum was off the floor. "If I lift him under his arms then can someone pull down his..."

"Hold on!" the Doctor yelped.

"Doctor, seriously, we need to change you else you're gonna have an icy groin. You can't stand up so it's a two-person job, okay?"

"And I think everyone here's seen it all already, sweetheart," Jackie told him seriously.

"But..." the Doctor began, looking up at Rose pleadingly.

"Do you want my mum or your mum?" Rose interrupted smoothly.

A loud whine tore out of his throat. "That's like choosing whether to die by poison or stabbing..."

"Choose one!" Rose demanded.

"Oh, blimey, err..."

"Oh, for god's sake, give it 'ere," Jackie suddenly exclaimed, grabbing his boxers and doing the job. The Doctor shrieked as Penelope and Rose both giggled at his expense.

They'd laid him back into a freshly changed bed, Rose having changed his bandages and casts. The pus from the infection of his burns was clearing, but they were still swollen and red. After she finished she tucked him in as though he were four-years-old and kissed his forehead gently.

"The way my mum used to take my temperature," she told him, grinning. After his little burst of energy after the bath he'd quickly weakened again, now just lying on his side under the covers with his eyes already half-closed in a state of lethargy. "Do you need anythin'?"

"Turn off the lights," he grunted.

"Still got that headache?" she asked, her voice dropping to a whisper out of courtesy as she reached to the bedside lamp and dimmed it as low as it could go.

"Yeah," he croaked.

"I'll get you somethin' to help," she said, kissing him again before getting up to leave.

She met Leah in the corridor with Alex, and quickly realised in the blaze of the evening she'd completely forgotten about them. She quickly dropped down to take Alex in both arms, kissing him.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, you two. Daddy came down with a fever."

"S'okay," Leah insisted, smiling. "Uncle Jack got a pizza for me and him and he mushed up cereal in lots of milk and gave it to Alex."

The man himself appeared in the corridor, giving her a smile and a wave.

Rose beamed at him. "Thanks Jack, you're a lifesaver."

"How is he?" Jack asked, moving forward to scoop up Leah, who yelped and quickly grabbed into his neck.

"We got his fever down but now he's all sleepy and headachey again," Rose muttered.

"He'll be all right," Jack assured her. "You just concentrate on him, I'll put Leah and Alex to bed."

"Penelope could do that..." Rose said quickly.

"No, it's okay," he told her.

"You're wasted in Torchwood, you need to be a nanny," Rose joked, laughing.

He just grinned at that, taking Alex from her in the other arm. "Come on, you two. Let's leave your mommy to it."

The Doctor woke up the next morning to a fresh new shooting pain in his legs and a toddler in the crook of his arm. Rose wasn't there. He looked down to see Alex lying there, curled up under the cover. The instant Alex realised his daddy was awake he opened his eyes and grinned up at him.

The Doctor smiled weakly and kissed him, barely having any energy with his headache still pounding behind his eyes. "Did you sit on my legs, Alex? Cos that bloody hurts."

Of course, Alex didn't reply. Instead, he sat up and reached inside his pyjama shirt, pulling out a piece of paper.

"What's that?" the Doctor asked. Alex gave it to him, and the Doctor opened it.

'REMEMBER' was all it said.

The Doctor frowned. Alex didn't write this. It was... his writing. His own writing. It was shaky and diagonal and the size and shape changed as it went along, but it was definitely his writing. He couldn't remember writing this. What was he supposed to remember exactly? The awkward writing would imply he was... in pain or fighting weakness at the time he wrote it...

Surely he'd remember that?

The door suddenly burst open, and Alex squealed and dived under the cover again, snuggling up to his father for protection as Ulysses strolled in, and saw the Doctor lying there with his eyes open.

"Good morning, Theta," he said, and then saw the note in the Doctor's hand. "What's that?"

"I don't know," the Doctor confessed, holding it up. "It says remember. It's my writing."

"Hmm," Ulysses murmured, and took the note from his hand, looking at it. "Probably nothing, my boy. You were very feverish last night, so I'm told." He folded the piece of paper back up and slipped it inside his breast pocket. "Your mother sent me to ask you if you'd like breakfast."

Then the Doctor realised Alex was tugging on his pyjama shirt. He looked down, and Alex was now sitting up next to him, tugging on his shirt and pointing at Ulysses.

"Alex, hold on a sec," he said, looking back at his father who was gazing at the boy. "Yeah, I'll get up. Alex, why are you..."

"I will put him in the nursery, shall I?" Ulysses asked very quickly with his eyes fixed on Alex. The second he'd finished the sentence Alex burst into tears and held onto his Dad even tighter...

Then everything neatly clicked into place in the Doctor's head.

"You..." he began with wide eyes, staring at Ulysses...

He made to yell for Rose, but suddenly his father's hand was on his mouth. He got a horrible sense of deja vu...

"I'm sorry, my boy. I'll tell your Mother you can't make it to breakfast."

He put his fingers on the Doctor's temple, and very soon the Doctor began to feel very sleepy, and not quite sure what had just happened... Had it all been a dream?

His father was standing over him, his fingers drawing away from the Doctor's temple. He frowned slightly. What was his father doing? Why was he...

Then he saw his father's eyes flicker to his right. Alex, the Doctor realised. Alex was... crying? He could see his son now, sitting there next to him crying a fountain... He was absolutely terrified. Terrified of... of Ulysses.

Ulysses began to reach forward to the boy.

Then suddenly a paternal instinct kicked in. The Doctor didn't know why, but he knew Alex was suddenly in mortal danger. He launched out and grabbed his father around the neck, squeezing as hard as he could and screaming for him to get away. His father looked surprised to say the least, but his strangulation didn't seem to be doing anything. Ulysses easily peeled the Doctor's hands from his neck, so the Doctor sent his fists flying instead, launching up to body slam him into the floor. His body was screaming in pain but that didn't matter. He was going to do whatever it took to get Ulysses away from his son.

Finally Ulysses threw him off, and he hit the wall. He was on his feet in seconds, his legs absolute agony, grabbing a chair and hitting his father with it. It broke on impact, sending Ulysses crashing to the floor in a rain of wood.

"Don't touch him!" he could hear himself screaming, but it was like it was someone else completely. His headache was somehow even worse than before, to the point of completely blinding him. But he couldn't worry about that. His son was in massive danger. He could still hear the boy crying in his ears and with every second that ticked by the Doctor was getting angrier and angrier that this thing lying on the floor in front of him was terrifying his son...

He launched forward and starting kicking the man on the floor as hard as he possibly could. Then suddenly his father grabbed his leg in mid-swing and yanked it to one side. The Doctor screamed in pain and collapsed sideways, hitting the floor so hard he was knocked out for a brief moment. Then he opened his eyes, and found a tranquilliser gun being held to his face.

The door burst open, and he heard a crash of footsteps and exclamations.

"Ulysses, what are you doing?" a woman's voice gasped.

"He's turned violent," his father said, still holding the tranquilliser gun to his face. The Doctor was quite pleased to see he'd done a bit of damage to him, blood pouring out from a split lip. "He just started attacking me when I asked if he wanted breakfast. We need to put him into confinement and keep him restrained until we can analyse his mental stability."

Then before the Doctor had a chance to answer that, Ulysses lowered the gun and fired a dart in his neck, and all went black.

A/N: Here we go, things are gonna get gritty...