A/N: Thanks for sticking with me! Means a lot :D I shall review reply next chapter because that's the interesting one... :D

Chapter 10 - Hallucinations

"Question twenty. In physics, who discovered the Fifteen Dash Ten Barric Fields?"

The groups of soldiers intensely whispered for a moment, before furiously scribbling down answers on their pieces of toilet paper.

"Question twenty-one," John continued. "In the 21st century, which political leader was involved in the Watergate scandal?"

More furious scribbling. John shot a look at Rose, who offered him a weak smile. She wasn't feeling it. The Doctor hadn't woken up yet, and she'd had to reluctantly leave him help run this quiz. She wanted to be there when he woke up, but at the same time she also knew she would just wind herself up if she stayed there.

"Question twenty-two. who was the President of the Red Velvets?"

She had been of the impression that he would have been awake in time for breakfast, but he hadn't. Not even lunch or dinner. At least his hearts seemed to have resumed normal beating. All the good signs were there.

"Question twenty-three. In the holovid series 'Jupiter Rising', who is the Grexnix married to?"

"Lord Drayvole," a voice suddenly said from the doorway, and Rose looked up to see the Doctor standing there, looking decidedly pale but very much awake. She laughed in joy, jumping to her feet and running as fast as she could to meet him in a hug, almost knocking him over.

"Hey, not been to a pub quiz before? You don't yell out the answers," John joked. "Everyone, we're breaking for a drink, we need you pissed for the next half!"

As the soldiers began to get up to get a fresh round of drinks in, John moved to the Doctor to extend a hand. "Good to see you awake, Doctor."

The Doctor seemed to pause for a moment, gazing at John. Then he took the hand and shook it. "Thanks," he said. "How long was I…?"

"Six days," Rose told him, still hugging him.

"Then it's Christmas," the Doctor realised, looking around. "You did the quiz."

Rose nodded. "John did the questions."

"Of course, I'll step aside for the almighty Time Lord," John said, holding out his list of questions to the Doctor for him to take.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed slightly before he suddenly shone a weak smile and pushed the list away. "Oh no, it's all yours," he said. "I'll be a contestant."

"We're already halfway through," John pointed out.

"Doesn't matter," the Doctor dismissed.

John laughed and slipped the list inside his pocket. "See you in a minute," he said, and left to get a drink.

Rose pulled the Time Lord to sit down immediately, as she could see he was still shaky on his legs. "Are you okay?" she asked, resting a hand on his forehead. He felt a little hot.

"Yeah," he muttered, glancing at John as he left. "How does he know I'm a Time Lord?"

"I told him," Rose said, and immediately continued before he could reply, "relax, he's okay. He's really been helping me. He found out the poison and helped me get the antidote."

"Funny, that," the Doctor muttered so quietly Rose barely heard it.

"Hey, come on," she said seriously. "He saved your life. You were nearly dead."

"I left him in the room," the Doctor muttered. "I left him. He tainted the glass…"

"Our room was open all day while we were in the ward," Rose stressed. "He was the one that saved you. Why would he poison you and then save you? C'mon, you're confused and tired, we'll talk about this later. Go back to bed."

"I'm fine," he insisted, just as John returned with drinks for everyone.

"Didn't know what everyone liked, so I took an educated guess," he said, setting the drinks on the table. "Merry Christmas! How are you feeling?" he directed to the Doctor.

"Fine," the Doctor repeated, blinking hard again.

"I told him to go to bed, he's not havin' it," Rose said to John, grinning.

John considered this, and then considered the Doctor. "I'll take him to bed," he said, winking.

Rose giggled. The Doctor just blinked hard and pulled Rose close to him, hugging her. Rose obligingly held him. He clearly wasn't well and was doing his usual Doctor thing of utterly denying it. She didn't even care. So long as he was awake.

"Starting the quiz again, get your arses back in your seats!" John yelled, pulling out his list of questions once more.

'Team Terrance and Company' won the quiz, who had the now discharged Chris and Sol among their members. Rose presented them with their prize - a trophy made out of old bits of dismantled weapons she'd found in the storeroom, wrapped with bandages to fix it in shape. They laughed, others jeered, and even as Rose and the Doctor left they were attempting to drink out of it.

"Well, it worked," Rose observed as they left to go back to the medical room. For moment they both listened to the laughter of the soldiers, the atmosphere jovial.

The Doctor nodded as they reached the medical room. "Yeah."

They got inside, Rose shutting the door behind them. She noticed he was a lot stronger on his broken leg as he dropped to the bed, though he was still wincing.

"Need a painkiller?" she prompted.

"What?"

She indicated his leg. He realised what she meant, and shook his head.

"I'm fine," he muttered.

She decided to completely ignore him, retrieving and administering the painkiller anyway. "You're stronger on it," she observed.

"Yeah," was all he responded.

Concerned, she put away the painkiller and sat down next to him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine."

"I'm not an idiot," she told him firmly. "Are you just tired?"

"No," he said quickly, and for a flicker of a moment she saw panic flash through his eyes. She could have imagined it she supposed, but she concluded she probably hadn't.

"Talk to me," she said, impulsively taking his hand.

He looked like he was about to cry. He blinked hard again, and quickly turned away. She reached forward to hug him. He was shaking slightly.

"Come on," she prompted, an edge of steel to her voice now as she pulled back again, lifting his head to to her. "I cried into you now you cry into me, yeah?"

"I'm fine," he insisted, but his voice was breaking.

"I'm gonna get mad at you in a minute," she said seriously.

He didn't reply to that either, just staring at her.

"Doctor, please," she almost begged. "You're freakin' me out now."

"I'm sorry," he croaked, blinking again.

She offered him a wan smile, resigning to it. "Just get some rest. You'll feel better in the mornin'."

She forced him to lay down, taking off his shirt and trousers. It was a wonder he'd managed to dress himself at all in his condition. All the while he was blinking hard, his eyes flickering around the room.

She then got changed herself, turned off the light and climbed in next to him. He hadn't moved an inch, as though petrified. After some readjustment she leaned over him. His eyes were wide and fixed, staring at the ceiling.

"Doctor," she whispered. He didn't react. "Doctor. What's wrong? Please tell me."

"The dark," he muttered.

"D'you want me to turn the light on?"

"... Yeah."

She flicked it on and then turned back to him. "You're havin' nightmares, aren't you?"

"... Yeah."

"Me too," she said. "But we've gotta sleep."

"I know."

"It's gonna be okay," Rose told him. "You're still sick so I'm lookin' after you. Once you're better we can get out of here, okay?"

"... Okay."

She made a decision, pulling him to turn him over to face her. His eyes immediately drifted to a point over her shoulder.

"What are you lookin' at?" she wondered, checking behind her but there was nothing there.

"Nothing," he said shortly. "Night."

After a brief pause Rose sighed. "Night."

As Rose laid down her head and closed her eyes, the Doctor desperately tried to fix his gaze on her face. But not matter how much he tried to focus his vision, his eyes couldn't help but creep up to a point just behind her where his mother was standing, covered in blood and crying.

He fused his eyes closed, hugging himself as he mouthed repeatedly for her to leave him alone. After a moment of silent begging he checked again, but there she still was, standing over Rose, staring at him unblinkingly as she sobbed relentlessly.

She was going to stand there all night, crying. He knew that already.

Rose woke up, yawning and stretching widely. That had been the first night for a while without any bad dreams.

She instinctively moved to hug the Doctor for security, but abruptly realised that there was no one there. She sat up and panicked at sight of the empty bed, at least until the door opened and in he came, holding a tray of food.

"Look lively! Breakfast doesn't eat itself," he said, setting the tray down on her legs and sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Rose took in his smile and the slight blush of colour to his cheeks that hadn't been there the previous night. "You're feelin' better," she said, smiling back.

"Yeah, sorry. Never at my best when I come out of a coma," the Doctor replied, taking a piece of what appeared to resemble toast and eating it.

Then she realised something. "Did you just go out on your own?"

He got what she meant immediately. "C'mon, whoever's trying to kill me wouldn't be so stupid as to do it where massive crowds are."

"S'pose," she muttered. "Just be careful."

"I'm always careful," he insisted, making her giggle. "Ready to start planning our escape?"

She blinked, surprised. "Are you better?"

"Give it a couple more days, drug me up with painkillers and we can go. It'll give us enough time to plan anyway. Now eat your toast."

Rose grinned. "Already sounding like a good day today," she said, taking a piece for herself.

"Doesn't it just?" he teased.

She laughed. Suddenly it felt like a giant weight was being lifted off of her chest - a weight she hadn't even known was there. Escape. It was about time. She impulsively hugged him, but her heart sank as she realised he was shaking. "You're shaking…"

"I'm still recovering from the poison," the Doctor told her, pulling back.

"Okay. Y'know, I've been thinkin' about who did it… I can't think of anyone. Well, except Jack, but I think he needs you too much for medical stuff."

"What about John?" he suggested.

She was about to have a go at him, when she realised that maybe he had a bit of amnesia and really she should go easy. "He's the one that found out you were poisoned," she explained patiently. "We got the antidote together. He helped me look after you too."

"Okay," the Doctor said. That was all he said on it. "Eat up and we can do our rounds. Make sure the poisoner knows I'm still alive and now very annoyed."

Rose laughed again. "Yeah," she replied as he finished his half and got up.

"Rose," he suddenly said, looking thoughtful.

"Yeah?"

"Did I talk in my sleep in the coma?"

She frowned a little. "Sort of, well, not really... You were screamin' a lot. You kept havin' these attacks, well, that's what I called 'em. They were like fits where you screamed and convulsed. Why?"

He shrugged, nonchalant. "Curious," he said. "Oh, I forgot orange juice. Back in a tick."

Rose watched, slightly suspicious as he left.

Together the Doctor and Rose did the medical rounds. It didn't take too long, as more soldiers were being discharged. The worst of the injuries they'd treated in the aftermath of the base attack were now almost fully healed.

"Lieutenant!" someone suddenly said from the doorway and the Doctor and Rose turned to see a soldier standing there, snapping a salute. "The Captain is about to make an announcement and asks for all soldiers to be present in the canteen in two minutes."

The Doctor gave a mock salute back. "Thank you, Private."

The soldier turned on his heel and marched out of the door in prompt militaristic fashion.

"What does he want?" the Doctor mused.

"Dunno, but we'd better not be late," Rose said, getting up and offering her hand to him.

"You go, I'll catch up," he said, giving her a smile.

"Are you sure?"

"Yep, I'll just clean up here," he confirmed, gesturing to the table of medicines.

"Okay," she said, before leaving.

The Doctor watched her go, before getting up and hopping to the medicine cupboard, trying to ignore the crowd of dead Gallifreyan children standing by the door, their faces gouged out with burns.

After a few minutes of searching, he couldn't find an anti-hallucinogen. He groaned, his head dropping onto one of the struts of the metal shelves. After a moment he looked back at the doorway where the children were still stood, staring at him.

"Please stay in my head," he begged the children, but they just stood there, immobile and staring at him. He took a breath, straightened up, and walked through the crowd to the door. When he got there he looked back, but they were still staring at him, not moving.

They stayed there even as he left out of the door.

He reached the canteen just in time. Jack was standing on a table, waving his arms to signal everyone to be quiet. Rose pulled took the Time Lord's arm, pulling him to the side so they weren't obviously in Jack's vision.

"Shut up!" Jack yelled, and immediately the crowd fell silent. "From our friends at NeoCorp, we've got word of a surprise visit by one of the Majors tomorrow from HQ."

The crowd collectively jeered.

"He's bringing his entourage with red carpet and pink champagne, so everyone have a damn good wash tonight, go to bed early and wake up looking like you're enjoying your free holiday, all right?"

"Yessir!" the crowd collectively chanted, snapping salutes.

"Thanks for listening," he said, dropping down from the bench and leaving without another word.

The Doctor immediately stepped forward as the crowd began to disperse and tapped Chris on the shoulder.

"Wassup?" Chris asked, turning back. He grinned at the sight of the Doctor. "Aw, hey. Heard you were sick. How are you doing?"

"Good thanks," the Doctor replied, nodding and smiling. "Hey, d'you know which Major is coming?"

"Major Christian Slater," Chris informed him. "You know him? One of the biggest twats at NeoCorp."

The Doctor nodded. "Ah. Thanks."

Almost immediately he turned, took Rose's hand and limped out of the canteen.

She noted he seemed antsy. "Doctor?"

He pulled her to the medical room, shutting the door behind them. "We have to go, tonight."

Rose frowned, confused. "But you said..."

"Major Christian Slater," he said, his voice dropping to almost a whisper, "I told Jack was our commanding officer. I just picked a name, I didn't think he'd actually come here..."

"So?" she asked, confused.

"If he comes here… he's not going to recognise us."

Rose's jaw dropped. "Oh my God. We've gotta go."

"Exactly," he agreed. "Start packing painkillers and water. I'll see what plan I can come up with."

She nodded furiously. "On it."