Injuries
The Doctor hissed as he cut himself with the small saw he had been using, instantly pulling away to examine the new cut on his hand.
It was deep and stretched across his palm, but nothing a good night's rest couldn't fix, so he ignored it and went back to trying to build a sonic from scratch.
He finally bandaged it a couple hours later, when he realized that the bleeding hadn't stopped, which caused him to frown a little, but once again he ignored it as he climbed into bed.
The next day, he realized, his hand had gotten worse.
It was now puffy around the cut and turning a sickly blue color, but he just shrugged it off, it'd be fine in a couple of hours he was sure of it. Almost sure. Not so sure.
When he walked into Torchwood that day no one noticed how he favored his left hand over his right or how he kept it stuffed in his jacket pocket most of the day and he was okay with that.
At least he told himself that he was okay with it, but on the inside he was begging someone to notice and help explain to him why it wasn't healing, because he didn't understand what was going on. Didn't understand why his hand wasn't healing and he was trying not to panic.
By day three his hand roared in pain, but he just gritted his teeth and moved forward, because it would be okay and he didn't want to bother anyone. He could take care of himself.
On the fourth day someone noticed, and he was embarrassed when it turned out to be Jackie.
It had been an accident of course. He had been playing with Tony on the floor when the toddler had lost his balance and landed on the Doctor's hand, causing a howl of pain to escape his lips.
Which caused Tony to cry and the Doctor panicked, because he knew for a fact that Tony crying never ended well for him and honestly he didn't feel like getting slapped by Jackie anytime soon.
But of course Jackie was already in the room and screaming at him. Asking what he had done and the Doctor was just trying to frantically explain that Tony had just fallen over as she calmed him down.
That's when she noticed the way he was cradling his hand.
"Something wrong with your hand?"
"What? Oh no of course not, Tony just stepped on it, well I say stepped it was more like he fell, well I say fell—"His sentence ended with a gasp of pain as Jackie grabbed his hand.
"Calm down, I barely touched it," she told him as she knelt down next to him and pulled back his sleeve, instantly her face tightened. "Doctor what happened?"
"Just cut myself," he told her casually. "Nothing serious."
"Nothing serious! Doctor it looks like you're hands is about to fall off!"
He winced, "I'll be fine," he told her. It was a lie, and she knew it and somewhere inside him he knew it too. So he switched tactics, "I didn't want to have to bother anyone," he whispered. "You guys were all so busy, Rose with work, Pete with Torchwood, you with Tony, I didn't want to be any trouble."
"Any trouble?! You're kidding me, if anything this is going to be more trouble!"
He flinched, but Jackie didn't noticed, too wrapped up in the Doctor's hurt hand.
"We're gonna have to go to a hospital now, do you have any idea how long that's gonna take?! All that time wasted if you had just come to us in the beginning this never would've—"
"I didn't know!" The Doctor shouted, the On Coming Storm arising to the surface as he began to panic and feel corner. Jackie's eyes widened and startled she pulled back and away from him. "Oh gosh, Jackie I'm sorry I didn't, I shouldn't have…" he trailed off, pulling his hurt hand to his chest. "I can go on my own if you'd like, I'll be fine."
"Don't be silly of course I'm going with you."
The Doctor blinked, "but you just said it was going to be trouble and a waste of time."
"That's just me complaining you plum," she told him. "Besides it's more the fact that I'm worried about you."
He looked up at her, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion, "you're worried about me?"
Jackie looked at him in astonishment, "of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You slapped me," the Doctor deadpanned. "And yelled at me, and threatened me."
Jackie blinked, once, twice, her mouth opening and shutting, but she wasn't sure what to say, before finally two words slipped past her lips.
"I'm sorry."
The Doctor blinked, "What?"
"I said I'm sorry, I won't slap you anymore, it was just that my daughter had been missing for a year and then you showed up with her, well not you, I mean it was you, but oh never mind," Jackie rubbed her head in annoyance. "The point is I was scared and worried, and I needed someone to blame and you got the worse of it. Well, you and Mickey, you should go ask him sometime, it was quiet an ordeal had the cops on him and everything. Poor Mickey, I wonder where—" She stopped suddenly her eyes going distant. "Oh right, he stayed, of course he did that idiot."
They sat there in awkward silence, staring at each other, before Jackie stood up, Tony in her arms.
"Alright mister, let's get you to a hospital."
The Doctor winced looking around, "Do you really think that's wise? Me being part Time Lord and all."
"Don't worry it will be fine, I know a great doctor, she's amazing, helped treat Rose a while back."
"But Jackie, what if—"
"It'll be fine, now come on."
The Doctor sighed following after her.
*l*l*
The Doctor fidgeted nervously in his seat as Jackie talked to a nurse, he didn't like hospitals, too many bad memories. Ranging from cat nuns to being accidentally given Aspirin, either way it seemed like whenever he ended up in a hospital he almost died, or really did die, it was ironic really.
"Oi! Doctor get over here!" He jumped when Jackie's voice entered his thoughts, before standing slowly and shuffling over. The nurse was gone and he tried to hide his relief.
"It's not too late Jackie, we could still leave," he tried to convince her. "I'm sure I'll be fine, everything should sort itself out, Time Lord healing and all—"
"Well you're Time Lord healing obviously isn't helping you," Jackie snapped.
"Hello," The Doctor jumped as a new voice entered the conversation. He found himself turning quickly, his hand instinctively searching for a sonic screwdriver that wouldn't be there. "Oh, um, sorry I didn't mean to frighten you."
"Frightened? Me? Nonsense," the Doctor said quickly and the nurse laughed.
"Right of course, I'm Nurse Williams by the way," he told him. "And you must be—"His eyebrows came together, "Actually you never did give us his name Mrs. Tyler." He turned towards the Doctor, waiting.
"James Smith," The Doctor supplied off handily.
"Well then Mr. Smith right this way," Nurse Williams told him and the Doctor smiled, he liked this man.
"Please call me James."
"Right then, James, this way please."
The Doctor followed and noticing the shining new engagement ring on the nurse's finger smiled, "you get engaged?"
The nurse seemed surprised at this question, but nodded, "ya, to a childhood friend she's brilliant."
The Doctor laughed thinking of Rose, "I bet she is."
He wanted to ask more, but the nurse had opened the door and ushered them into a room, "Don't worry James, Mrs. Tyler, the Doctor will be right here." Jackie and the Doctor nodded and soon Nurse Williams was gone and leaving him with only Jackie and Tony for comfort. Well really only Jackie, seeing as Tony had fallen asleep in the car and never really woken up.
"Oh stop fidgeting, they're not gonna dissect ya," Jackie scolding and the Doctor stopped.
"How do you know?"
"Oh please, that's just silly."
"Not for me it's not."
"Well maybe you should've thought of your fear of hospitals before you cut open your hand."
"It wasn't that bad a cut, I would've been fine!"
Jackie arched an eyebrow and the Doctor flinched.
"Alright, so maybe not, but I didn't realize that it wouldn't heal alright. I mean I've had worse, everything usually just sorts itself out."
"Had worse, what do you mean had worse?"
The Doctor looked at the floor, his shoulders tensing as his mind raced with images of Daleks and fallen Time Lords.
"Doctor? Are you okay?"
"Oh don't mind me, just caught up in the past," The Doctor said happily pulling his mask back into place.
"Like what?"
The Doctor was saved from having to explain when a young black woman walked into the room, "Alright Mr. Smith, I'm Doctor—"
"Martha," The Doctor whispered, as if her name was holy. "Doctor Martha Jones, oh this is brilliant."
Martha blinked, "have we meant?"
"No, no, no, of course not I just um, I uh read your name tag," the Doctor said quickly noticing the small clip on her clothes.
"Right yes of course, now Mr. Smith what's the problem."
The Doctor held out his hand, suddenly feeling much calmer, because there was no way that Martha Jones would hurt him, didn't matter if she was from a parallel Earth.
Martha's eyes widened, "What happened?"
"I cut myself."
"And when did this occur?"
The Doctor winced, "three days ago, four if you count today."
Martha frowned, "the original cuts been infected and it hasn't been treated at all."
"I didn't think it was that bad," The Doctor replied honestly as Martha examined the wound.
Martha's frown deepened, "Not that bad," she muttered, "if I had a quid for every time someone said that." Sighing she straightened. "I'll get you something for the infection and then you're probably going to need stitches. Are you allergic to anything?"
"Aspirin."
"Right, a few notes were jotted down, be right back."
*l*l*
After an hour or so the Doctor is released and he smiles as the throbbing in his hand dies down. He's honestly just happy that the medience is working and for once he's thankful for his new human metabolism.
Finally Jackie breaks the silence, "Why didn't you come to any of us when you realized you weren't healing?"
The Doctor shrugs, "like I said before, I didn't want to bother anyone."
"Doctor we're here to help you, that's what family does for another."
The Doctor blinks, "family?"
"Well ya, I mean obviously sooner or later you're gonna get up the courage I can see it in your eyes," she smiles, and the Doctor could tell that she was somewhere far away, lost in memories. "Same look Pete had."
"But family?" The Doctor's voice is soft now. "I haven't had a family since…" He trailed off his eyes staring into the distance.
Jackie looks at him, her expression sad, she knows that look. It was the same look she used to get after Pete passed away. "Well you got one now," Jackie says smiling, "Whether you like it or not."
The Doctor's face lights up and Jackie's smile widens because it's the first time she's seen it stay that way.
So as promised an update on Tuesday :D
So this story actually was revised a couple times so I figured why not share what changed:
1) Orginally this was going to be the chapter where the Doctor got the name James Smith, which is why the nurse asks for his name/his name wasn't given right off the bat, but it was scraped and I moved everything (almost word for word) over to the chapter Panic Attack
2) Nurse Williams (*hint hint*) was orginally never going to tell about his bride to be, but I wanted one last shout out to the Ponds, before I tucked them away forever (yes sadly Pond fans Nurse Williams and his mysterious childhood friend turned bride to be will not make another appearance)
3) Orginally Tony was going to be a baby before I realized that it didn't make any sense, at all, so it was changed to a three year old toddler. This is the reason however, Tony falls, doesn't speak, and is asleep in this chapter :P
And there you have it some quick trivia I suppose
Suggestions/Prompts are Always Welcome :D
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