Changes Chapter 29: Midnight part 3, a doctor who fanfic

The shuttle sounds like it has exploded as it rocks side to side and sparks fly. He hears the music system start again, as the lights go out and they are thrown to the ground. He picks himself up and examines Kiam and then himself. "Arms, legs, neck, head, nose. I'm fine. Everyone else? How are we? Everyone all right?"

"Earthquake. Must be." Hobbes says.

"We've got torches. Everyone take a torch. They're in the back of the seats." He retrieves one and turns it on.

"Oh, Jethro. Sweetheart, come here." Val says.

"Never mind me. what about her?" Jethro ask.

He looks towards the front row and sees the seats have been torn up. Amongst them sits Sky, her hands covering her head.

"What happened to the seats? They've been ripped up." Val panics.

"It's all right, It's over. We're still alive. Look, the wall's still intact. Do you see?" He gestures towards the wall which is intact but dented.
The Hostess walks to the intercom and presses the button. "Joe, Claude? Driver Joe, can you hear me? I'm not getting any response." She opens the driver's door and bright light floods the cabin and the alarm sounds. She closes the door again.

"What happened? What was that?" Val says panicking again.

"Is it the driver? Have we lost the driver?" Biff ask.

"The cabin's gone. There was nothing there, like it was ripped away."

He heads over to the panel by the door and starts to work on it.

"What are you doing?" Biff says aiming his torchlight at him. "Ah, that's better. Little bit of light. Thank you. Molto bene."

"Do you know what you're doing?" Val asks?

"The cabin's gone. You'd better leave that wall alone." Biff says.

"No, it's safe. Any rupture would automatically seal itself." He says and removes the panel and looks at the wiring. "But something sliced it off. You're right, the cabin's gone."

"But if it gets separated?" The hostess says.

"It loses integrity. I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust. The driver and the mechanic. But they sent a distress signal. Help is on its way. They saved our lives. We are going to get out of here, I promise. We're still alive, and they are going to find us."

"Doctor, look at her." Jethro says speaking up.

He looks towards Sky. She hadn't moved from her position, her head sill in her hands. "Right. Yes. Sorry. Have we got a medical kit?" He ask.

"Why won't she turn around?" Jethro asks.

"Sky? Can you hear me? Are you all right? Can you move, Sky? Just look at me." He moves closer to her and kneels just behind her placing Kiam by his side as he does so. "Sky? It's all right, Sky. I just want you to turn around, face me." She slowly turns around and stares into the torchlight.

"Sky?"

"Sky?" She repeats.

"Are you all right?"

He tries again. "Are you hurt?"

"Are you hurt?"

"You don't have to talk."

This was getting irritating. "I'm trying to help."

"I'm trying to help."

"My name's the Doctor."

"Okay, can you stop?"

"Okay, can you stop?" she says back to him

"I'd like you to stop."

The other's start freaking out and she copies all of them perfectly.

"Shush, shush, shush, all of you."

"Why are you repeating? What is that, learning? Copying? Absorbing?"

"The square root of pi is 1.7724538509055160272981674833 41. Wow." She repeats it back perfectly. He was starting to get scared. Nobody should be able to repeat it back perfectly, it was impossible.

People start talking over each other, with Sky still repeating their words. They are getting more and more frantic until finally the lights come back on and everyone goes quiet. He stands up picking Kiam up in the process and stares at Sky.

"That's the back up system." The hostess says.

"Well, that's a bit better." Hobbes replies.

"What about the rescue? How long's it going to take?" Val asks.

"About sixty minutes, that's all." The Hostess says calmly.

"Then I suggest we all calm down. This panic isn't helping. That poor woman is evidently in a state of Self induced hysteria. We should leave her alone." He hears Hobbes and Sky say at the exact same time.

"Doctor." Jethro says.

"I know." He replies not taking his eyes off of her.

"Doctor, now step back. I think you should leave her. Alone. What's she doing?" Hobbes and Sky say.

"How can she do that? She's talking with you. And with me. Oh, my God. Biff, what's she doing?" Val freaks out.

"She's repeating, at exactly the same time." Jethro says.

"I think you should all be very, very quiet. Have you got that?" He says with Sky.

"How's she doing it?" Val yelled with Sky. He was getting very annoyed with Val. "How can she do that? She's got my voice! She's got my words!"

"Just stop it, all of you." He says and turns his attention back to Sky. He kneels in front of her again. Placing Kiam slightly behind him and out of her line of sight. "Now then, Sky. Are you Sky? Is Sky still in there? Mrs Silvestry?" He says with her. "You know exactly what I'm going to say. How are you doing that?" He decides to try random words. "Roast beef. Bananas. The Medusa Cascade. Bang! Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Tardis. Shamble bobble dibble dooble. Oh, Doctor, you're so handsome. Yes, I am, thank you. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O." He stops and smiles at her as she stops on the exact same letter. "First she repeats, then she catches up. What's the next stage?" He wonders aloud.

"That's not her, is it. That's not Mrs Silvestry any more." Jethro says.

"I don't think so, no. I think the more we talk, the more she learns. Now, I'm all for education, but in this case, maybe not." He stands up and picks up Kiam again and starts to back away from Sky as she continues to talk with him. "Let's just move back. Come on. Come with me. Everyone, get back. All of you, as far as you can." He herds the people towards the back of the bus.

"Doctor, make her stop." Val says to him.

"Val, come with me. Come to the back. Stop looking at her. Come on, Jethro. You too. Everyone, come on. Fifty minutes, that's all we need. Fifty minutes till the rescue arrives. And she's not exactly strong. Look at her. All she's got is our voices." He says trying to calm everyone down.

"I can't, I can't look at her. It's those eyes." Val says.

"She's just a very sick woman." Hobbes says matter of factly.

"Maybe that's why it went for her. Think about it. That knocking went all the way round the bus until it found her. And she was the most scared out of all of us. Maybe that's what it needed. That's how it got in." Jethro says, Sky still repeating the whole time.

"For the last time. Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight." Hobbes says.

"Professor, I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own, hmm? Now trust me, I've got previous. I think there might well be some consciousness inside Mrs Silvestry, but maybe she's still in there. And it's our job to help her." He tried to explain to them.

"Well, you can help her. I'm not going near." Biff says.

"No, I've got to stay back, because if she's copying us, then maybe the final stage is becoming us. I don't want her becoming me, or things could get a whole lot worse." He shudders to think of her taking on a Timelord mind.

"Oh, like you're so special."

"As it happens, yes, I am. So that's decided. We stay back, and we wait. When the rescue ship comes, we can get her to hospital." He says not wanting to tell the panicking crowd that he wasn't human and Kiam was only half human.

"We should throw her out." The Hostess says suddenly, startling him.

"Can we do that?" Val asks.

"Don't be ridiculous." He says.

"That thing, whatever it is, killed the driver, and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet." The Hostess says. "Look at her. Look at her eyes. She killed Joe, and she killed Claude, and we're next."

"We can't throw her out, though. We can't even open the doors." Biff says.

"No one is getting thrown out." He says firmly.

"Yes, we can. Because there's an air pressure seal. Like when you opened the cabin door, you weren't pulled out. You had a couple of seconds, because it takes the pressure wall about six seconds to collapse. Well, six seconds exactly. That's enough time to throw someone out. " Dee Dee says.

"Thanks, Dee Dee. Just what we needed." He says

"Would it kill her outside?"

"I don't know. But she's got a body now. It would certainly kill the physical form." Dee Dee responds.

"No one is killing anyone." He says.

"I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we've got that one. All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out." The hostess says.

"Now, listen, all of you. For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, than what's it found? This little bunch of humans. What do you amount to, murder? Because this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?" He says trying desperately to get through to the group of frightened people.

"I'd do it." The hostess says and the rest agree with her.

"What?" he asks not sure he heard them right.

"I want her out." Dee Dee says. "I'm sorry, but you said it yourself, Doctor. She is growing in strength."

"That's not what I said." He says trying to remain calm.

"I want to go home. I'm sorry. I want to be safe." Dee Dee tells him.

"She's dangerous. It's my job to see that this vessel is safe, and we should get rid of her." The hostess says.

"Now, hang on. I think perhaps we're all going a little bit too far." Hobbes says.

"At last. Thank you." He says relieved he is getting through to at least one person.

"Two people are dead." The hostess says.

"Don't make it a third. Jethro, what do you say?"

"I'm not killing anyone."

"Thank you."

"He's just a boy." Val says.

"What, so I don't get a vote?"

"There isn't a vote. It's not happening. Ever. If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get past me first." He says hoping to stop them but they shock him by saying okay. "Oh, now you're being stupid. Just think about it. Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?" He challenged them.

"Calling me a coward?" Biff challenged him back.

"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Val asks. They start bombarding him with questions and he tries answering them, getting more and more desperate as he can tell they don't believe him until finally the Hostess says.

"Even if he goes, he's practically volunteered."

"Oh come on, just listen to yourself, please."

"Do you mean we throw him out as well?" Biff ask.

"If we have to." She replies.

"Look, just. Right, sorry, yes, hold on, just. I know you're scared, and so am I. Look at me, I am. But we have all got to calm down and cool off and think." He was truly frightened. He didn't like being stuck here without the Tardis. He wanted desperately to be back on it.

"Perhaps you could tell us your name." Hobbes ask him.

"What does it matter?" He asks.

"Then tell us." The hostess says.

"John Smith." He gives the name he used so many times before.

"No one's called John Smith. Come off it." Biff says.

"Now listen to me. Listen to me right now, because you need me, all of you. If we are going to get out of this, then you need me."

"So you keep saying. You've been repeating yourself more than her." Hobbes says.

"She's stopped." Dee Dee says noticing that Sky isn't talking with them anymore.

"When did she? No, she hasn't. She's still doing it." He says as Sky continues to repeat him and only him.

"Why me? Why are you doing this?" He ask her. He kneels in front of her again with Kiam back at his side.

"She won't leave him alone." Dee Dee says.

"Do you see? I said so. She's with him." Val says.

"How do you explain it, Doctor, if you're so clever?" Hobbes asks him.

"I don't know. Sky, stop it. I said stop it. Just stop it." He yells at Sky. "Sky, I'm trying to understand. You've captured my speech. What for? What do you need? Whatever you want, if it's life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And I'll help you. That's a promise. So, what do you think?"

"Do we have a deal?" Sky says and he hears himself copying her in a haze. Everything sounds like it is underwater as she talks to the others. His mind feels numb and he is terrified as he tries to fight the creature off and move or talk but to no avail. He can see her just fine though as she stares at him and he sees Hobbes take her hands and help her up away from him.

He is stuck kneeling there as he feels hands grab him roughly from behind and start to drag him. His foot gets caught on the seat and he finds himself staring up at Biff. He moves his eyes to the side and feels anger grows along side the fear as he sees Val holding Kiam and him fighting her crying and reaching down towards him. They get his foot loose and he can tell he is getting closer to the door as he still struggles to fight the creature.

He watches as the hostess grabs Sky and rushes her towards the entrance door. She presses the button and everyone screams as the bright light floods in. He is screaming with the creature as pain rips through his body. Then as The hostess and Sky are sucked out and the door closes, his mind is released and he is free again. The men drop him roughly and all he can do is lay there and say. "It's gone." Val releases Kiam and he feels little hands grabbing on to his coat. He pulls himself up into a sitting position, comforting his son.

"I said it was her." Val says and he looks at her with hatred in his eyes until she looks away.

-DW-

They returned to the spa. He walked over to Donna and hugged her tightly taking comfort in the fact she cared about him. He wanted to leave immediately but she wanted to know what happened, so he told her everything. Then he told the Leisure Palace staff, telling them to move the Palace and hoping they would listen.

He led Donna back to the Tardis and climbed aboard happy to be home.
"I'm going to take a shower," He says, setting Kiam down in his play pen. He stands under the hot water for almost an hour trying to wash away the days events. Failing that he went to his room, got dressed for bed and climbed under the covers. He laid there in shock. He was disappointed in the humans he had saved so many times. When he had been at his weakest they had tried to kill him.

His door opened as Donna entered the room. She had camped out her a lot recently. He lay there pretending to be asleep as she got into the bed. "Spaceman," She said quietly.

He turned to look at her and noticed Kiam wasn't between them like normal. He looked at her confused. "He is asleep in his playpen," She answered his unspoken question and opened her arms. He moved over to her and she held him as the tears flowed down his cheeks and he cried silently. He cried until there were no tears left and then he fell asleep in her arms finally feeling safe for the first time since the whole ordeal began earlier that day on Midnight.