A/N: Since you were all so lovely with all those reviews last chapter saying lovely things, I feel obliged to get this one up earlier than usual :D

Chapter 23 – Psychosis Shmosis

The Doctor woke up as ever with a raging headache and painful legs. He felt sick in the pit of his stomach, aching all over and as though he was on a massive comedown from something.

He tried to move, but he couldn't. Then he realised that was because he was strapped down to the bed, with tubes and wires going in and out of him, things on his head attached to more monitors. What was...

"Doctor?" a timid voice asked, sounding very echoed and tinny. It was Rose. He looked around, but he was in a tiny metal room on a bed in the centre – a mirror along the side wall with prison bars on the front. Then he realised where he was.

"Rose? Why am I in the TARDIS psychiatric unit?" he asked, and dreaded the answer.

"You turned violent. You started attackin' your dad when he went in our room this mornin'. … Do you remember doin' that?"

The Doctor suddenly felt very cold. Because he couldn't. He really couldn't remember doing that. Had he? She couldn't be lying.

"No," he croaked.

"Oh god," Rose muttered over the comm, realising what that meant.

"... What did I do to him?" the Doctor asked fearfully.

"You... You tried to strangle him, then you slammed him into the floor..." her voice was trembling, like she was about to burst into tears... "Hit... Hit him with a chair and started kickin' him until he managed to get you off... You did it all in front of Alex."

The Doctor felt his blood turn cold at that last sentence. He wouldn't randomly attack someone, and even if he would, he definitely wouldn't do it in front of his son.

What the hell was happening to him?

"... Rose," he began.

"Yeah?" she croaked.

"... Am I insane?"

There was a very long pause after that.

"... I don't know, Doctor," she finally answered.

"Why can't I remember it?" he croaked. He could feel himself welling up now. "... What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Your dad says it could've been the fever. Maybe brain damage. We dunno if it's temporary or permanent. But you can't come out for three days. Just in case you... Have another episode and hurt someone really badly."

Another long pause. He couldn't really take this in. He'd always been so in control of his own mind even in a state of delusion. To even think he could have been that violent in front of his son and not remember doing it was absolutely terrifying.

Was this it? He was losing his mind. This was the beginning of the Valeyard...

"... Did you feel me through the bond?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah." There was another long pause. The struggle to find words. "You were... suddenly really, really angry. I mean kill someone angry. I've never felt you like that before. I ran into our bedroom and your dad had managed to pin you down."

Another long pause.

"... How's Alex?" the Doctor asked.

"It took an hour to stop him cryin'..."

He swallowed. More silence fell.

"Look, I'm gonna sort out Leah and Alex, okay?" she said suddenly. "I'm taking them to mum's, umm, Jack found her a place... She's gonna look after them for a few days while we sort this out. I'll come see you... Well, soon. Okay?"

"Yeah," the Doctor replied, staring into the mirror, through the glass where he knew Rose was standing. "Please don't tell Leah I'm... you know."

"Yeah," Rose croaked, then the intercom switched off.

He laid there in the dark completely alone for the next twelve hours. He understood why Rose hadn't come back. She was scared and ashamed of him, and she had every right to be, because right now he was scared and ashamed of himself. He couldn't believe he'd done that. Any of it.

God, his head was hurting.

But twelve hours gave him plenty of time to think things through, to analyse what was going on in his head. Things had been stressful for a very long time, what with his parents arriving, the alien problem, Alex, the TARDIS, the car, the fire, worrying about Leah... And he could barely remember much of the fever from the night before. Maybe all the factors had just built up and he'd blown his fuse? Psychogenic situation-specific amnesia? It seemed plausible. But that made him extremely dangerous.

Really hurting.

The fact he couldn't remember doing it was what worried him the most. If he could remember, that would be fine. He could pick apart the situation himself to analyse what exactly made him start attacking his father. But the last thing he remembered was Rose giving him a painkiller, a glass of water and a banana last night... Then absolutely nothing until he woke up here. The entire morning had gone.

Really, really hurting.

He wondered what the time was. Maybe in the AM. Around 9am, his body told him, but it wasn't like he was trusting that anymore.

He hoped Rose would come and see him tomorrow. Even just for a bit.

But what if she didn't want to be with him anymore?

Then just like that, his head exploded with pain. He screamed at the top of his lungs in complete agony, writhing and squirming on the bed trying desperately to get up, but he couldn't...

"ROSE!" he screamed, but he already knew she wasn't coming. She'd never come again...

Another stab of agony. He entire body jerked up and he felt something trickle out of his nose.

She'd take Leah and Alex away, to protect them from him...

Yet another ripping pain inside his head. Then he realised the thing coming out of his nose was blood, and it was gushing out at an alarming rate, his entire front was stained.

He'd be alone. Forever.

The final stab of pain was more like a bullet to the brain. He couldn't cling onto consciousness any longer. He passed out, completely alone and strapped to the bed, bleeding from his brain.

Rose awoke with a jump.

She had absolutely no idea what had woken her up. For a moment she wondered whether Alex was crying, but then she remembered her mum had taken Leah and Alex the night before. No one seemed to be at the door...

Shrugging it off, she turned over to the Doctor's side with her eyes closed, blindly fumbling to try and rest a hand somewhere on him. Then she remembered he wasn't there. He was strapped to a bed in the psychiatric unit...

She wanted to cry at the thought.

She sniffed back the tears, and tried to find a comfortable position. But she couldn't. Something was sounding an alert at the back of her mind, but she had no idea what it could be. Then she suddenly had a massive overwhelming urge to go and see the Doctor. Was he calling out for her? Through the bond?

She didn't want to see him again, not yet. It hurt too much. She had no idea what she was going to do about him. If he was dangerous she couldn't let Alex and Leah near him, but equally he was her husband... The man she'd loved since she was 19-years-old. Could she really just abandon him like that? Through thick and thin, she'd always swore, but she'd kind of meant through alien kind of things, not him becoming mentally unstable and massively violent.

She turned over to look at the wall, and her eyes connected with the clock. It was 10am. Maybe she should get up. So she slid out of bed, and found some clothes.

Even as she was getting dressed she still had that overwhelming urge to go and see the Doctor.

Well, it couldn't hurt, could it? And he might be asleep. She didn't even have to turn on the comm. She could just watch him.

Finally resigning to the urge, she went to the psychiatric unit.

She stepped into the observation area behind the one-sided mirror. She could see him, his head turned away. He was asleep.

Then without even realising she was doing it, she took the comm and turned it on.

"Doctor?" she spoke into it.

He didn't twitch.

"Doctor?" she tried again, a little louder. But he didn't move. She sighed, deciding to just leave him to it and putting down the comm.

But that niggling feeling was still at the back of her mind, so she didn't leave quite yet. She stayed and watched him a little longer.

Then she noticed something.

There was a stain of blood on his left shoulder. Just a bit. Had one of his wounds reopened?

She couldn't leave without dealing with it, so she stepped out of the observation area and around to the entrance to the room's area, her footsteps echoing, lonely on the floor. As lonely as she felt.

She reached his room, eyes fixed on the lock. She pressed in the code, took a breath, pushed open the door and looked up.

Then she screamed.

The pillow and its surrounding area were absolutely covered in blood, puddles building by the side of the bed as it trickled down over the side. It hadn't been visible from the angle of the observation area. The source of the blood was quite plainly the Doctor's ears and nose, which were still bleeding even now – practically caking his face in his own blood. There were absolute puddles of it...

"Oh god!" she gasped, struggling to stop herself hyperventilating, her hand over her mouth as she stared at him in absolute horror. She couldn't move, utterly paralysed... "Doctor, Doctor, oh god, Doctor..."

She ran over to him, resting a hand to his shoulder trying desperately to shake him awake. "Doctor!"

The Doctor's eyes flickered open, but only slightly. He looked up at her through slits, looking so pale it was making her feel sick.

"Doctor, you're bleeding," she whispered urgently, digging into her pocket to grab a tissue, and started wiping at the blood under his nose – which just seemed to dribble out more with every wipe.

"Rose..." he murmured, dazed. "I've got a headache."

"You really do, don't you?" Rose gasped, and quickly gave up with the tissue. "Okay, don't panic, I'm gonna get your dad or your mum or Martha or Jack or... just someone, okay? You'll be okay! Don't move!"

She spun on her heel and absolutely tore it out of the psychiatric unit. She run, arms flailing down the corridor, screaming for someone, anyone to help. Ulysses and Penelope were nowhere to be found inside the TARDIS, so she ran out into Torchwood, where she found Jack and Martha talking to Ulysses and Penelope, expressions sombre.

"It's the Doctor!" Rose gasped, barely able to breathe. "There's blood everywhere! Oh god, help him, help him please!"

Ten minutes later the Doctor was laid in the Torchwood medical bay, barely conscious. They still hadn't managed to get all the blood off of him yet, but at least he'd stopped bleeding. Rose was sitting beside him clutching his hand so tightly she was sure she was going to break it. But she didn't care.

"There," Martha said, fiddling with a bit of machinery. "The results of the brain scan should be with us in ten minutes, sorry for the delay."

Ulysses suddenly stepped forward, gazing down at his son wordlessly.

"I will take him back to the psychiatric unit."

"No," Rose sobbed, kissing the Doctor gently, affectionately.

"Rose, he may yet have another episode," Ulysses told her patiently. "There's no telling the extent of his brain damage until we see the results of his scan and have time to analyse it. Let me take him back and secure him. Just until we know. Then we can help him."

Rose swallowed. She knew Ulysses was probably right, but she didn't want to see him get strapped down like a rabid animal again.

But it wasn't like she had a choice.

"Okay," she finally said, pulling back and taking the wheelchair handles, ready to go.

"It would be safer for me to take him on my own," Ulysses told her gently. "If this is a form of psychosis then it may blur reality when he has an episode, even forcing him to harm his bonded partner."

Rose conceded he probably had a point about that too. She didn't have the strength to fight him off if he had an episode, and even if she did, she loved him too much to lay a single harming finger on him. She so swallowed, and let go of the wheelchair handles as Ulysses picked up his son and sat him in the wheelchair. The Doctor was utterly and completely limp.

Ulysses pushed him out of the door and into the TARDIS, the two of them completely alone.