Molly's heart tightened in her chest. She'd barely known him, but he'd tried so hard to save all those people. She tried to get past the Judoon. "Let me see him. Let me check!"
One of the creatures put a hand on her shoulder, holding her back. "Stop," it told her. "Case closed."
Molly felt a wave of grief for the brave alien who'd tried to save them. Wait... the Doctor was an alien. "You drank his blood," she realized as she stared at the plasmavore. The Doctor had sacrificed himself so the plasmavore would assimilate his blood.
The Doctor might be dead, but maybe it wouldn't be in vain.
She grabbed one of the Judoon's scanners and pointed it at the old woman, turning it on. It let out the same rapid series of beeps it had when it scanned the Doctor. The Judoon beside her stiffened. "Non-human," he grunted.
Mrs. Finnigan's eyes widened in panic. "What?
"Confirm analysis," the Judoon ordered his troop. The rest of them lifted their scanners, various beeps filling the air.
Mrs. Finnigan began to back away slowly. "Oh, but it's a mistake, surely," she babbled nervously. "I'm human, I'm as human as they come."
The scanners were lowered. "Confirm: plasmavore," the Judoon growled. "Charged with the crime of murdering the child princess of Padrivole Regency Nine."
The old lady stiffened, her eyes suddenly gleaming with a cruel light. "Well she deserved it," she sneered. "Those pink cheeks and those blond curls, and that simpering voice." She straightened to her full height, her old face suddenly full of menace. "She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore!"
The Judoon seemed unimpressed with her speech. "Then you confess?"
"Confess?" the plasmavore scoffed. "I'm proud of it!" She turned to her Slab. "Stop them!" she ordered as she headed towards the MRI machine in the back of the room. The Slab advanced towards the Judoon, but the rhino-like creatures lifted their guns as one. Molly had to look away as the Slab was disintigrated.
The Judoon was still watching the plasmavore as she messed around with the controls on the MRI. "Verdict – guilty. Sentence – execution."
As the plasmavore plugged something together, a loud alarm blared out from the machine. She looked up from her work with a face wild with cruelty and menace. "Enjoy your victory, Judoon!" she sneered, eyes gleaming with a wild light, "Because you're going to burn with me. Burn in he-"
Molly didn't have to look up to know that she'd been cut off by a whole troop's worth of guns firing at her. All she was concerned about was the Doctor. She hurried to his side, sliding down onto her knees, quickly checking his pulse. At closer sight, he seemed far less pale than Mr. Griffiths, and though she could feel no pulse, he didn't seem dead to her.
"Case closed," one of the Judoon grunted.
She looked up at them from her position by the Doctor. "That thing she said. 'Burn with me.' What did she mean?" She shifted her gaze to the MRI machine, which was sparking madly, electricity zapping through it. "There's something wrong. She did something to that. We're still in danger."
The Judoon who'd spoken strode up to the machine and scanned it. "Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse," he informed her.
Molly drew in a sharp breath. "Can you stop it?" she asked fearfully.
The Judoon looked at her without emotion. "Our jurisdiction has ended," he told her unconcernedly. "Judoon will evacuate." Without another word, he and his troop headed out the doors, amidst Molly's protests.
She contemplated going after them, but she knew she couldn't convince them to come back. The Doctor had been right; the Judoon were thick. They couldn't be convinced to help now that the case was over.
The pathologist turned back to the Doctor, hoping with everything she had that her hunch about him not being dead was right. "We need your help, Doctor," she said quietly. Then she got to work trying to revive him with CPR. One, two, three, four, five, then breath. One, two, three, four, five, then breath. One...
She paused, the Doctor's earlier off-hand comment coming back to mind. "Two hearts. You've got two hearts." With that in mind, she switched to trying to start both hearts before giving him air. One, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, then breath.
Molly could feel her energy fading. She knew she didn't have long before she ran out of air, but the Doctor needed to live. He needed to save the hospital and everyone in it. So she drew in the biggest breath she could manage, giving the air to the Doctor, before slumping down beside him, too exhausted to go on.
Beside her, the Doctor sputtered back to life, coughing and gasping as he tried to get air back into his lungs. Molly let out a little relieved laugh, then winced at the loss of air. "Doctor," she rasped, desperate to get her words across before she passed out. "The machine. She did something to it."
The last thing she saw before she blacked out was the Doctor's nod of understanding, and all she was felt was relief that, even if she was lost, everyone else would be saved.
SCENEBREAK
After the Judoon sent the hospital back and the Doctor left Molly in the capable hands of the paramedics, he found himself pacing in his TARDIS. That wasn't unusual in this particularly manic incarnation, but this time was a little more frantic than usual. He went back and forth, his thoughts racing as his ship flew him through the Time Vortex.
He hadn't traveled with anyone since losing Rose. The idea had hurt too much, and it had always seemed like too much of a betrayal of the woman he'd lov... lost. But Molly Hooper had intrigued and impressed him from the moment he'd met her, and in the end she'd been willing to sacrifice herself to save everyone in that hospital. For no other reason than that, he'd be glad to have her on board.
And yet. He'd been lonely for so long, true, but his loneliness was his sacrifice for the woman he'd lost. He almost wondered if it'd hurt more to have someone around again, someone in all the places Rose had once been, at his side where she could no longer stand.
Finally he sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Oh, to hell with it," he muttered. Curiosity won out – he wanted to know more about this Molly Hooper.
The Time Lord bounded back over to the console, letting himself grin again. "Come on, old girl. Time to go pick up a friend.
SCENEBREAK
"I need to see him, Molly,"
The pathologist sighed, trying to ignore the headache that had started several minutes ago. "Sherlock, I told you, the hospital's closing. I can't get you in."
It was several hours after the hospital had been returned to Earth. The detective and his far more normal partner were standing outside of St. Bart's, inside the yellow tape, to the annoyance of the police. Sherlock seemed to have swallowed the press's story about every in the hospital being drugged, which surprised the coroner, but perhaps a man as logical and grounded as Sherlock Holmes couldn't accept something as impossible as aliens. He'd never seemed to believe the various reports of aliens in London either. Then again, Molly had never been sure they were real either. Not until now.
The detective let out an impatient huff. "I need the results as soon as possible."
Molly finally gave in to the temptation to massage her throbbing temple. "I just can't Sherlock, okay?" She was far too tired to deal with this. Normally she would've caved by now, but right now all she wanted was to go home and sleep.
The detective narrowed his eyes. "You said you'd let us see the body," he reminded her.
That was before the hospital got transported to the moon, wasn't it! But as always, she couldn't say anything of the sort to the detective, so she settled for a tired, "Just not now, okay? I'll get it for you tomorrow."
Sherlock started to argue again, but to Molly's surprise, John cut him off. "Sherlock, enough. We'll just get them tomorrow." The doctor shot Molly a sympathetic glance. She realized she must look as exhausted as she felt.
The detective looked annoyed for a moment, but after a few moments gave a curt nod. Without so much as an are-you-alright-after-the-whole-bloody-hospital-got-drugged, the detective whirled around and sauntered off, followed by John, who shot the pathologisr an apologetic glance over his shoulder.
Molly finally let out a sigh of relief, sinking a little against the wall she was leaning against. The conversation had left her feeling even more drained and less confident. All she wanted was to crawl back in bed and never come out again.
But then she looked up, and she saw him.
And this time with a slightly better idea of why, she followed him.
SCENEBREAK
The Doctor waited in front of his TARDIS as Molly came around a corner. She stopped in front of him, shooting the TARDIS a slightly confused glance, but turned back to him with a relieved smile. "You're alright then?" she asked.
"Me?" the Doctor asked incredulously. "I should be asking you. You're the one who nearly ran out of air."
The coroner blushed. "I'm fine," she mumbled, though she looked anything but. "So, thanks for saving everyone. We would have all died if it hadn't been for you. If you're ever in town again, or you ever need anything, I'll help however I can."
The Doctor felt a rush of affection for the truly selfless woman. "Actually, there is one thing I was wondering. Y'see, I've got my new sonic screwdriver here," he twirled it in his hand to make his point, "and I need to test drive it. And since you saved my life back there and everything, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come along with me for a bit?" He'd meant to only offer one trip, but after watching the tall man sneering at her, and her just taking it, he was feeling a bit guilty about not asking her on full-time. She clearly had some serious self-esteem issues, and she'd probably accept the offer of only one trip without realizing what he was really trying to offer.
Molly frowned in confusion. "Come with you? Where?"
"Anywhere," he told her with a grin. "Anywhere at all in time or space. Far-off planets, distant pasts, this box here can take you to all of them."
Molly gave the box a slightly critical look. "The blue box behind you?"
The Doctor nodded eagerly. "It's my spaceship. She's called the TARDIS – stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."
The pathologist looked a little dazed by his offer. "I... I can't, I've got work... and Sherlock needs to see that body tomorrow..."
The Time Lord leaned forward with an encouraging grin. "She travels in time too, remember? I can take you away for days on end and have you home five minutes ago." He didn't realize until now how much he wanted her to come. He'd been so lonely for so long. "C'mon, what'dya say?"
Molly hesitated, "Is your life always like this?"
The Doctor longed to lie, to reassure her, but he knew it wouldn't be fair. "Yes," he admitted.
Her eyes flicked back to the hospital behind her before she finally nodded. "Alright. If I can be of help, I'll come."
The Doctor was surprised by her declaration. Her self-esteem really was lower than he'd thought, if she was walking willingly into danger just with the intention of helping, rather than her own enjoyment. But he had a new companion now, so he could worry about her reasons for coming later. "Well then, Miss Hooper, welcome aboard." He opened the door of the TARDIS for her, watching with amusement as she made her way inside.
The coroner let out an audible gasp, whirling around to get a complete view of the interior. "No way," she breathed. "It's... this is impossible!... but it's..."
"Bigger on the inside?" the Doctor supplied cheekily, holding back a chuckle at his new companion's dumbfounded expression.
After the initial shock wore off, Molly let out a slightly breathless laugh, a huge grin creeping across her face. "It's wonderful."
The Doctor and his companion were ready to face their next adventure.
Well, that was probably a record on updating for me. I'll try to have the next chapter up soon, but I may update my other fanfics between then and now. Up next is the episode The Shakespeare Code.