A/N: This is like 4000 words or something ridiculous. I'm sorry! :o

Chapter 11 - Escape

It was 6pm, and the Doctor and Rose were sat in the mess eating and talking quietly about menial things.

The Doctor had an escape plan. Albeit, not a great one, but it was still an escape plan and right now Rose would take what she could get. She wasn't oblivious, she knew what would happen when the General got here. He'd take one look at them and declare them as spies before they'd be arrested and dragged away, then possibly tortured for information before being shipped off to some sort of penal colony for hard labour. Then they'd never get home.

According to the Doctor, the guards on the main door worked in shifts, and the shift with the least amount of eyes was at 1am. The 1am guard was usually late, meaning the door was left unguarded for a few minutes. That was when they'd run, get out, find a jeep and drive back to the TARDIS.

They were just finishing up dessert, when suddenly Jack appeared in the mess doorway. Rose inadvertently caught his gaze. He looked incredibly annoyed. He suddenly focused on them, marched straight up to the Doctor and grabbed him without hesitation around the neck. The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise and alarm as Jack lifted him bodily up.

"Jack?!" Rose yelled in alarm, but Jack wasn't listening. He slammed the Doctor down onto the table with alarming force, his hand still tightly around the Time Lord's neck.

"I want answers!" Jack yelled, spittle flying into the Doctor's face. "Who the fuck are you?!"

"We're from the medical corp!" the Doctor gasped, struggling.

"I think we're a little bit beyond that now, honey," Jack said calmly, his eyes boring into the Doctor's.

"Captain..." the Time Lord gasped.

"I want the goddamn truth!"

The Doctor was beginning to turn a funny colour, struggling to gasp for air through Jack's hold on his neck. Rose didn't know what to do. Jack was terrifying, but the Doctor was choking...

"Fucking answer me!" Jack screamed, bringing out his gun and pointing it straight into the Doctor's face, finger poised on the trigger.

"I... can't..." the Doctor rasped, trying desperately to get Jack's hand off of his neck.

"You want me to shoot you through the head?!" Jack yelled, pressing the barrel of the gun right up against the Doctor's forehead.

Rose couldn't watch this anymore. She leaped forward and tried desperately to pull Jack's hand off of the Doctor's neck but it was completely unrelenting, his fingers like steel. Jack didn't move his eyes from the Doctor's as he turned the gun and pointed it at Rose instead. "Back off, sweetheart," he said coolly.

Rose sprang back instantly, eyes wide. She looked at the Doctor, listening to the sound of unsuccessful strained gasps for air. He was completely purple...

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Jack informed the Doctor, tightening his grip ever so slightly. There was a momentary silence, filled only with the Doctor still struggling to breathe. Seconds ticked by. It felt like hours to Rose, her eyes playing tennis between the Time Agent and the Time Lord...

The Doctor's eyes were beginning to close, all the fight in him having evaporated as he laid limply on the surface of the table. Jack was killing him...

"Please let go of him," Rose begged.

Jack ignored her. "Talk!" he yelled at the Doctor. But the Doctor couldn't have answered even if he wanted to. He was on his respiratory bypass now, as his chest as stopped moving but his eyes were wide open, staring at Jack as he struggled with renewed vigour to peel the Time Agent's hands off of his neck.

Every soldier was watching the confrontation. Rose could see them all - Chris, Sol - just standing there staring, clearly anxious to help but absolutely terrified of their own self-preservation at the same time. She couldn't blame them for doing nothing.

The Doctor's respiratory bypass ran out, his eyes closed, and he fell utterly limp. Jack finally let go, but the Time Lord didn't move. He was unconscious from asphyxiation Rose realised, and now Jack was turning to her instead for answers. Immediately her insides turned to ice. She started backing away but he moved forward as quickly and precisely as a striking cat, raising the gun at her head.

"Captain!" a voice suddenly cut through the crowd. John, Rose realised, strolling into the mess. "How about you stop pointing guns at beautiful young ladies? There's only so many of them left, you know."

"They're feeding information to the Exes!" Jack yelled at John. "There's a whole lot of them heading straight for us!"

Rose gasped. "They're comin'?" she choked out.

"You should know!" Jack spat at her. "They'll be on us tomorrow afternoon!"

A ripple of reaction ran through the surrounding soldiers.

"We haven't done anythin'," Rose begged, but Jack couldn't seem to hear her through his temper. Either that or he didn't care. Probably the latter.

"Oh, be realistic, sir," John suddenly said, stepping up. Immediately Rose was terrified for his life. Jack could and would probably shoot him at any moment. "Look at them. They're not Exes, they're not spies, they've been working hard to save lives."

"Then how the hell do the Exes know we're here!?"

"I don't know but it's not them," John said calmly. "Look, the General's coming tomorrow so he can tell you who they are then."

Jack shook his head, frustrated. He grabbed the still unconscious Doctor and hauled him over one shoulder.

"No, what are you doin'?" Rose asked, terrified.

"This way," he grunted, gesturing to the door.

"What? Why?"

"You're spending the night in the holding cells. When the General gets here tomorrow he can identify you but until then you're both under arrest. So follow me or I'll just shoot you here and now. Okay, Barbie?"

Rose couldn't seem to move; frozen to the spot in pure fear and the realisation that this was it.

They wouldn't be able to escape.

She could barely look at John as she was taken away by two soldiers, straight to the cells.

The Doctor woke up from thankfully a dreamless sleep.

He jerked awake, pulling open his eyes to meet the sight of a metal ceiling above him. He abruptly realised he was lying on a cold, hard floor, and that someone else was close, pacing. He turned his head in the direction of the pacing to see Rose through some bars walking back and forth, her hands entangled deep in her hair.

"Rose?" he asked.

She looked up. She looked like she'd been crying.

Almost immediately she dived to her knees next to the bars, reaching through the gap to him. He obliged by getting to his knees and taking her hand.

"Jack arrested us," she muttered. "The Exes are gonna attack tomorrow afternoon and he think we told them. Says he's waiting for the General to recognise us tomorrow..."

She trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging in the air.

He nodded. "Don't worry," he said. "I'll get us out, okay?"

"How?" she asked, her voice breaking.

"I don't know, but I will," he said firmly. "We must still be in the base...?"

She nodded. "We're in the holding cells."

The Doctor pushed himself up, wincing at the pain in his leg. He hopped up to the door of the cell, grabbing the bars.

"Hello! Captain! Hello!" he yelled, shaking the bars of the door loudly. "Jack!"

It took a few minutes, but eventually Jack appeared in the corridor. He walked up to the cell, gazing at the Doctor. "What?"

"This is ridiculous," the Doctor told him. "What proof have you got that we've been informing the Exes?"

"You turn up, the Exes know where we are all the time," Jack spat back, his eyes narrowed.

"The first time was a mistake, and this one we've got nothing to do with," the Doctor insisted.

"You got any evidence of that?"

"Have you got any evidence of us?" the Doctor countered immediately. "Guilty until proven innocent around here, then?"

Jack stepped right up to the bars, staring hard at the Doctor. "I can arrest who I like when I like for whatever reason I like and I don't need a damn shred of evidence. I don't even know who the hell you are. Actually it's bad practise I didn't arrest you sooner."

"You didn't because you need us," the Doctor stressed. "Without us you've got no medical."

"When the General gets here and verifies who you are then you'll be out in time for the attack to do all your bandage stuff, won't you?" Jack spat.

"No, Jack, just stop and look," the Doctor said, gesturing to himself and Rose. "Do you really think we look like Exe informants?" The Doctor pulled down his collar, exposing his neck before turning, presenting himself. "No bites, no infection. We haven't even been eating the red meat. Why would two humans, uninfected be working with the Exes? It doesn't make any sense because it's not happening."

Jack suddenly laughed, startling the Time Lord. He looked the Doctor, panning up and down. "You've got no idea, have you?"

"What?" the Doctor asked quickly.

"This should be easy as hell," Jack muttered, and with that he turned on his heel and left before the Doctor could even fathom what he'd said. As soon as the Doctor regained his senses he grabbed the bars and began shaking them again, calling out the Captain's name. After a few long moments it was clear Jack wasn't coming back.

"Doctor?" Rose asked quietly in the ensuing silence as the Doctor gave up. "What did he mean?"

The Doctor sighed, dropping to sit against the bars separating them. "I'm missing something. Something's happening which I've missed…"

"Like what?"

"I dunno," he breathed, pausing for a moments as his brain quickly skipped from one impossible resolution to another. When he came up with nothing he looked at her, offering his hand through the bars for her to take. She obliged, taking it in both her hands.

"We've gotta get out," she suddenly whispered.

He nodded. "Shouldn't be too hard." He reached into his jacket pocket with his free hand and pulled out the sonic, flipping it in the air and catching it. He grinned at her, and she smiled back as he slipped it back inside.

"So what do we do now?"

"We wait."

It reached 12:55am. They had both pretended to be asleep for the hourly patrol, before getting up and going to doors of their cells. The Doctor checked the corridor, but winced and shrank back.

"Lots of guards," he muttered. "We're going to have to run."

Rose's eyes widened. "But… they'll shoot us."

"I know," he muttered. "We need a distraction…"

He checked the corridor again, and as if on cue suddenly John appeared in amongst the throng of guards. He had a short conversation with them that the Doctor couldn't hear, and almost immediately they dispersed.

John then looked down the corridor, catching the Doctor's eye. He grinned and advanced.

"Thought you might need a hand escaping," John said.

"Who's escaping?" the Doctor asked defensively.

"Doctor," Rose said sternly.

He gave her a look. He was aiming for the look that said, 'seriously, I know what I'm doing' but she completely ignored it. Instead she beckoned him towards her and grabbed his shirt, pulling him against the bars.

"Trust him," she hissed. "He's saved my life, your life, what more d'you want?"

The Doctor gazed at her, looking down at her hand clutching his shirt. Her knuckles were white. He looked back at her - she was glaring at him quite unlike anything he'd seen before from her.

She was changing as a product of her constant terror. He could see that. They had to leave. He didn't trust John, but equally they needed his help to get out.

"Okay," he muttered and turned to John. "Is the way clear?"

"Yes," John replied as the Doctor whipped out his sonic and buzzed the lock of his cell door. It opened immediately and he stepped out, cautiously checking before opening Rose's door.

"Stay close," he muttered, slipping the sonic back in his pocket and sticking out his hand for her to take. "Be quiet."

She nodded fervently, taking his hand and letting him lead her up the corridor after John. They passed through the outer door, past the interrogation room and to the door that led into the main room. The Doctor quickly pushed her back as some soldiers walked by.

"No, no, no," the Doctor muttered suddenly.

"What?"

"The 1am guard's early…"

Rose stared at him. "But… he can't be."

"Don't worry about him," John said, winking. "He's a bit simple. I'll get rid of him."

And with that John strode across the room and engaged the guard in quiet conversation. After a moment the guard laughed, turned and left his post.

John did a quick scan of the room before beckoning them over. They darted out from their hiding place, running across the main room to the exit where Rose met John in a hug.

"Thank you so much," she said, smiling.

"Hey, less hugging and more running," John said, grinning at her and pointing at the exit.

Rose nodded. "... Good luck," she eventually said and started down the corridor. She was so eager to get out she let go of the Doctor's hand, leaving him in her dust.

The Doctor looked at John. "Thank you," he said seriously.

John gave a mock salute. "No problem."

"And I'm sorry for... You know."

John laughed. "Oh, you're so cute with your apologies. Get going already."

The Doctor nodded, and left in a hurried limp after Rose.

Being outside was weird, Rose decided.

Sure, she'd been out on missions, but that had never felt like outside. That had felt like inside; a cage, keeping them locked inside. She could swear the air was different to usual. It was stronger and had some sort of taste to it. And the way it hit her face, rustled her clothes and blew her hair gently was something she'd never stopped to notice before.

Freedom, she decided. This was freedom.

"Rose!"

The Doctor's voice drifted to her on the wind and she smiled, turning back to him as he limped out of the gate, clearly in some pain. She gasped and dived to him immediately.

"Sorry!" she said, offering him some support. "Anxious to get out," she admitted.

"Don't blame you," he said, but he was frowning.

"What?"

"That was easy," he muttered.

"You sound like you're complainin'," she said, still clinging to his arm.

"It was just too easy."

"Shut up and take a bit of good luck, yeah?" she said. "We're out, that's all that matters."

He sighed. "Suppose so," he said, before straightening up. "Okay. Let's get a jeep and get out of here."

Rose nodded, leading him over to a jeep. Then she paused.

"Yeah, so, um... problem," she said, staring at the jeep.

"What?"

"I can't drive. Well I drove once," she said thoughtfully. "One of Mickey's work ones. Crashed it and had to help Mickey fix it before anyone noticed."

"Okay," he said. "I'll drive, but you'll have to break and accelerate."

"Wait, you can drive?"

He sniffed. "I used to have a car."

"What? Seriously? When?"

"Back in the 70's... Or was it the 80's? I had her in Unit."

"Her," Rose repeated.

"Beautiful yellow-plated Edwardian roadster," he suddenly launched into without prompt, looking like a boy with an ice cream. "Stainless steel silver hubcaps, carbon fibre dashboard, built-in increased gravity stabiliser, packing infinite horses with a minimum inertia hyperdrive, anti-theft force field and remote control. Nought to light-speed and back again in a nanosecond."

Rose stared at him. "You and Mickey need to hang out more. C'mon, get in."

She helped him into the jeep, letting him get into position before she climbed to sit on his lap, hovering her feet over the pedals. The Doctor turned the key, and the engine jumped into life.

After some co-ordination and a few minor collisions, between them they managed to drive the jeep back to the building Jack had taken them from so long ago. With the Doctor's arm slung around Rose's shoulder, together followed the Doctor's instinct for the TARDIS; up stairs, through corridors and holes in walls until they reached a room Rose recognised - the dining room where she had begged Jack for her life.

"She's close," the Doctor muttered, panning his eyes around the room.

"I know where," she said quickly, pulling him into the corridor.

It surprised her how vividly she remembered running this way dragging his body. But she knew every twist and turn she'd taken and now she retraced her steps, right back to the TARDIS. She was still half-buried until concrete, exactly as they'd left her.

Immediately they both began to shift the rubble, until eventually they got it cleared just enough to access her.

Rose then pulled the key out from around her neck. She felt a little naked without its warm ebb against her heart. She looked at the Doctor, who grinned and nodded; gesturing for her to continue.

As though opening the door to a pirate's treasure trove, she slowly slid in the key, turned, and swung the door inwards.

At the sight of the beautiful innards of the ship, Rose couldn't help but let go a cry of pure relief. This was it. They were out.

She ran into the ship and felt compelled to hug the console, so she did. She threw herself at the time rotor, hugging and kissing it repeatedly

"Love you! Love you!" she told the TARDIS, despite the utter absurdity of declaring love for a machine. But she didn't care. In reply, the machine simply continued to ebb her beautiful colours and vibrate beneath Rose's feet. Ready to go. Ready to get them out of here.

She'd half expected the Doctor to make a joke about getting slobber all over his precious time machine, but he hadn't.

"Not worried about my slobber?" she asked, but her voice seemed to echo into nothing. She turned, and saw that the Doctor hadn't entered yet.

She moved forward immediately to the door. "Doctor, c'mon," she said as she reached the door, "I need a bath and you've gotta pilot to Tesco so we can get some salts, so…"

She trailed off as she realised why the Doctor hadn't entered. Jack was standing there flanked by soldiers, pressing a gun to the restrained Time Lord's head.

"No!" Rose screamed out, every pore of her body seething anger, fear and hatred for Jack. "Let him go, let us go!"

"God, you can scream," a familiar voice suddenly said from her left.

John.

Her heart turned to ice.

"... How could you?" was all she managed in the little breath she had.

"Rose, get in the Tardis, get out!" the Doctor shouted urgently.

She completely ignored him, utterly enraged at John. "You sold us out!"

John pulled an insincere, 'oh, what a shame' face. "Well, darling, is it really selling out if this was the plan all along?"

"What!?" she gasped.

"Allow me to introduce myself. The name's Captain John Hart," he said, taking her hand and kissing it.

She pulled it away in disgust as Jack laughed. "Captain?" he repeated sarcastically.

"Can't I have a play-name too?" John whined facetiously.

"Wait, you're not a Captain?" Rose asked Jack, open-jawed.

"She catches on fast, doesn't she?" John teased, looking at the Doctor. "I can't believe you fell for that. Seriously, I can't. Jack, he apologised to me. Me!"

"You got an apology?" Jack wondered, laughing.

"Get on with it," the Doctor suddenly spat.

"What? No back-story? A little ex-position as to how we got into this complete clusterfuck?" Jack asked him. "It's pretty quick. John's my partner."

"Don't ask what kind, the list takes too long," John advised them.

"I wanted to know who you were so I got him to get close to you," Jack explained. "Well, not you. Your girlfriend. Easier target."

Rose flinched. "... You poisoned him, didn't you?" she realised, staring at John.

He nodded. "Once you told me what species he was I just had to go to a library…"

"Oh please," Jack interrupted. "You've never been to a library."

John ignored him and continued, "... find a poison that would take him out for a while and administer it. Once you told me you were time travellers and Jack and Plax, that was all I needed. I woke pretty boy up, we pretended the General was coming so you'd scream your pigtails off, then we pretended we were about to be attacked and arrested you so you had to escape and give us a reason to keep you here. Breaking out of the cells, naughty naughty," he said, tutting and waving his finger. "That's a death penalty."

"What do you want?" the Doctor asked dully.

"Well, that's easy," Jack said, and inclined his head to his soldiers. "Take the time machine."

Rose quickly slammed the door closed, but deliberately left herself on the outside. "Don't think so," she spat.

"Get the key," Jack drawled.

Immediately soldiers swarmed her, frisking her for the key.

"Get off!" Rose cried, desperately trying to push them off. They didn't, at least, until they found the key around her neck and pulled it off, the string breaking.

"Open the door," Jack said to his soldiers. Rose looked desperately at the Doctor, whose eyes were on fire.

"You won't get in," he grated.

"Wanna bet?" Jack asked. "Open the door already," he directed to his soldiers. After a few moments it became clear it wasn't opening.

"Isomorphic, cute," John concluded, taking the key from the soldiers. "Okay, let's try it this way."

He raised his gun and pointed it directly at Rose's head as he gazed at the Doctor. "Open the door, or I'll shoot her."

"No, don't," Rose said quickly. "Doctor, don't do it."

"Please, Doctor!" John said mockingly in an imitation of her voice. "Open it! Save me please!"

The Doctor's eyes flickered between the Time Agent and his companion. Rose locked her eyes onto his.

'It's okay', she tried to communicate through her eyes. 'Don't give her up.'

The Doctor looked like he was in a considerable amount of pain, until suddenly his eyes widened. Fear, desperation, panic.

Sadness.

Resignation.

"Rose," he whined. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Rose was about to ask him what he was talking about, when suddenly she realised she felt so incredibly cold. Her chest was tightening, her body feeling heavy and tired...

"What-" she began, but was interrupted by a pain suddenly exploding inside her head. She screamed and clutched her skull as agony pulsed inside it so badly she dropped to her knees, gasping, coughing, retching...

The Doctor could do nothing but stand there, watching as Rose Tyler - the girl he'd sworn to protect - turned into an Ex.