Promised One 2

by arielle.dawnn

A continuation of season one with my OC Layla.

2. New Earth

This one has a little spice in it. Enjoy =)

Xxxxxx

It's early in the morning and Layla is walking down the halls towards the console room. She had just gotten done getting ready for the day after doing her exercising in a room the Tardis provided with a lot more equipment than she normally is able to use. She knows it won't be much longer before Rose comes down ready to go and Layla still had to say her goodbyes. She was surprised at how patient the Doctor was being. Walking into the console room she sees him 'fixing' her again. Which he obviously did wrong because she shocked him.

"Tsk. Tsk. Don't you ever learn Doctor." She smirks at him as he yelps, startled.

"I didn't do anything wrong. She is just moody today." He denies any wrongdoing. Layla looks at him unimpressed and he is shifting around and fidgeting and he avoids eye contact with her. So, he changes the subject. "There is something I wanted to ask you about. It's about yesterday…"

He trails off and she looks at him curiously. A lot happened yesterday. There are many things he could ask her about. "At dinner, when the press conference was on, you looked at Harriet with sympathy. May I ask why?" Layla thinks about his question and is wondering how to word it to where he won't get angry at her for her own thoughts on the matter. Understanding her hesitance, he quickly cuts in. He doesn't want her to hide her thoughts from him, no matter what they are. "Anything you tell me will stay with me, and I won't get mad because of your thoughts and how they make you feel. I won't hold your feelings over your head and say that mine are superior."

Glad that she can explain, she just hopes he keeps his word. "I don't want you to think I condone what she did, because I don't. However, I do understand why she did it. She was right about you not always being here Doctor. You are a great man, but you are only one man and you are not always here. You don't live here every day. I could understand her fear that the Sycorax would leave and tell others that earth was defended. But with you only being here part time, someone could take that as a challenge. They could come here expecting a fight and earth would be in trouble. Look at what happened yesterday. Earth sent out a small probe and the first random ship that comes across it was hostile and it comes here and wants to enslave us. And when two people tried to talk to them to make peace, they were outright killed. I can see why it would scare humans, especially ones that were involved with it into doing something rash.

What if what Harriet did yesterday is what keeps earth safe to where we were able to make it to our first adventure off the planet together to where the human race survived as long as it did because no aliens came to take earth like it almost was yesterday. We could be gone on an adventure and earth could be challenged and possibly destroyed like the Slitheen wanted to do and by the time we got back, it would be too late to do anything about it. So far you have come back when earth has needed you, but there is never a guarantee that you will always be on time, even with a time machine. She was a scared human who was doing what she thought was best to protect the people who elected her. Just my thoughts on it."

The Doctor is leaning against the console quietly as he thinks on her words. After some thought, he could understand it as well he supposes, at least from a scared human perspective. He just doesn't like that it was a fleeing species that had to die. "Thank you for telling me your feelings on it. I appreciate your view on it. Oh! I wanted to ask you, how is your back? Do I need to take a look at it?" He was half hoping he needed to and half hoping he didn't need to. He didn't know if he could take the temptation of having her shirt off again, especially with this new, happier, untested regeneration. He was fiddling around the console and not looking directly at her unsure of what expression would be on his face.

"No. I'm okay. Jackie said it was like a minor road rash. So, not too bad. Plus, the Tardis had this jar of stuff in my room and the label on it told me to take a bath with it and it helped. When I looked at my back this morning, it was almost gone and there was no pain. Thank you though. I'm just glad that I don't have any tattoos there yet. Would be a shame to have them messed up to a killer tree."

The Doctor was half relieved and half disappointed. "Good. Good! Yes, my ship is the best in the world. And yes, that would be a weird story to tell others. Also there was something I wanted to say. I am sorry about yesterday, after regenerating. I am sorry for causing you fear."

"It's okay Doctor. I understand that things didn't go as planned. I am just glad that everything is okay now. But please, don't do that again." She looks at him meaningfully.

The Doctor understood her meaning. She wasn't talking about scaring her or the regeneration. She was talking about sending her home. But he can't make any promises not to, because he will always do his best to protect her. So instead, he moves on. Now!" He claps his hands together, his sullen mood now gone. "Time to get Rose and then we can head off." He starts powering up the Tardis and Layla heads out to say her goodbyes and see Rose, Mickey, and Jackie already waiting outside.

"Have you two got everything?" Jackie asked them, unhappy that they are leaving again, but wants them to be prepared.

"I've got everything, don't worry, mum."

"I'm good Jackie. If I forget something again, I can always pick it up along the way or like last time the Tardis provided me with what I needed."

Jackie grabs both girls in a hug. "Be careful."

"Okay, we're going now. I love you!" Rose gives her mum a kiss and goes to Mickey.

"Bye Jackie, I hope you liked your gifts. I'll bring you back more stuff." Layla gives her a kiss on the cheek as well and turns to give Mickey his goodbye when she hears the end of their conversation.

She sees Rose kiss Mickey and then turn away. Mickey looks at her. "Love you."

"Bye." Rose walked into the Tardis without another look back.

Layla walked over to Mickey and gave him a tight hug knowing that he was hurting again and it didn't help that Rose was stringing him along. "Call me Mickey Mouse. Keep me updated on things. Love you!"

"Love you too, Layla. Have fun. Bring be back more cool things." He was really happy that she had thought about him on during her traveling and got him several souvenirs.

"Will do! Bye!"

While Layla was outside talking to Mickey and her mum, Rose thought she would take the opportunity to talk to this new, and if she might add, incredibly attractive Doctor. "So, where are we going?"

He was about to go into detail when he looked up and seen that Layla was not back yet. He didn't want her to miss out on knowing either. He gives Rose a quick look before going back to working on the console and all he said was. "Further than we've ever gone before."

When Layla came in with a smile on her face, the Doctor felt one grow on his. He has to say, since regenerating, and hearing how she never gave up on him, he can tell that he has incredibly deep feelings for her. He already knows how Rose feels, and while he doesn't care about that, if Rose developed them in that amount of time, he is hoping Layla did as well. He will have to test the waters and see how things would go.

The Doctor sets the coordinates and the Tardis starts to shake as they travel through the vortex. It isn't long before the land and walk to the door. Opening the door, they all step out and look around. They see a river and a massive city, and there are flying cars zooming in the sky. The Doctor looks at the awe on Layla's face and gives her a fond grin. He is happy that he can show her these amazing things. "It's the year five billion and twenty-three. We're in galaxy M87, and this? This is New Earth."

"That's just… That's just…" Rose is just speechless.

"It's beautiful." Layla was soaking in the sights and one descriptive word just encapsulates what she is seeing.

The Doctor looked at her and sees her eyes shining, the wind gently blowing through her short hair, the wide smile on her face. He has to agree with her, but he isn't talking about the planet. "Yeah, beautiful." He whispers softly as he looks at her. He turns and looks out towards the city again and clears his throat. "Not bad. Not bad at all."

"That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet, different sky. What's that smell?" Rose starts sniffing like a dog on a trail.

He shrugs. "Apple grass."

"Apple grass?" Rose bends down and breaks some off smelling it and passing it to Layla to smell.

"Yeah, yeah." The Doctor is amused that grass is capturing Rose's attention.

"Is it edible?" Layla asks him. If it smells like apples, does it taste like it?

He breaks some more off and gently chews it. "Yeah, not for nutrients though. Just tasty."

Layla has a flashback to Jackie wanting to cook him dinner and wanting to know what he eats. At least she can now tell Jackie that he does indeed eat grass. That thought alone has her snorting. She will definitely one day, bring this up again, and use it to tease him.

"It's beautiful. Oh, I love this. Can I just say, traveling with you, I love it." Rose wraps her arm around his and he twitches. His lip curls and his nose wrinkles. He grabs Layla's hand, and stiffly agrees. "Me too. Come on." He starts to run across the field pulling Layla with him and Rose follows after them.

Xxxxxx

The Doctor finds a nice spot to relax and give the girls a bit more on the history of the planet. He takes off his long coat and spreads it out on the ground. Rose sits down and then he follows keeping distance between them. Layla was too busy looking around to notice anything other than that they had stopped moving. The Doctor waits for her to join them, and he is hoping she will sit close to him.

After watching her and seeing that she still didn't notice, he leans up and pinches her the back of the knee where a lot of humans are ticklish at hoping she was too. What he didn't expect was for her to collapse on him laughing from it, but he was relishing in it.

"Sorry, sorry. Back of my knee is the most ticklish. Rose used to do it all the time growing up and I would just drop to the ground." She gets off of him, but doesn't move very far. He leans back and stretches out his legs and is somewhat laying on his side. She reclines against his stomach.

Rose wasn't happy about the flirting and them cuddling together, but she ignores it for now and gives Layla a smirk. "And don't you forget I can still do it to you. You'll be on guard now. I'll get you when you forget."

Layla chortled. "That's only if you remember to even do it, it's been a long while since you have."

"That's fair."

The Doctor watched the girls talking and had a small smile on his face. He wanted to test the waters with Layla and be more open with his affections, but he didn't want to have to deal with a jealously issue from Rose. "So, the year five billion, the sun expands, the earth gets roasted."

Rose looks around with a dreamy smile. "That was our first date."

Layla's body tenses at the thought of Rose and the Doctor on a date. She didn't think it was a date for them, why would Rose? Besides, she was still with Mickey at the time. The Doctor tenses when he feels Layla tensing. It wasn't a date, at least, not with you. He really hoped that if he doesn't comment on it or agree, that Layla will see that he didn't think it was one either. "So anyway, planet gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, spread out across the stars. Soon as earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic, big revival movement, but then find this place. Same size as the earth, same air, same orbit. Lovely. Call goes out, the humans move in."

"What's the city called?" Rose wondered.

"Well, they call this New Earth. I wouldn't be surprised if they would be unoriginal and reuse names for the states."

The Doctor pinched her side. "Quit stealing my thunder, you do that a lot. How can I be impressive if you guess the answers." He narrows his eyes at her, but the upturn of his lips shows his humor. "However, you are correct. It is New New York."

"Oh, come on." Rose scoffs believing the Doctor is pulling her leg.

"It is. It's the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original, so that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York. What?"

Rose was looking at him oddly and a bit sadly. "You're so different."

He shrugs, not concerned with it. "New New Doctor."

"Doctor, you only said New in the New New York fourteen times, not fifteen. Can't count with this new body now?" Layla poked him in the side.

"Oi!"

Rose was ready to move and explore, and she wanted the Doctor and Layla to stop touching. They were too comfortable like that and she didn't like it. She stands up and brushes her hands together. "Can we go and visit New New York, so good they named it twice?"

The Doctor stands up and offers a hand to Layla. Getting an idea, he pulls harder than necessary causing her to fly into his chest. "If you wanted a hug, all you had to do was ask." He whispered to her in her ear before moving away from her. "You alright?" He asks her but she can see the faux concern and the mischievous look in his eyes.

"Of course, I am. Now, where to first?"

"Well, I thought we might go there first." He points to a pair of skyscrapers that are standing apart from the city.

"Why, what is it?" Rose raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sun's glare so she could see better.

Layla was squinting as well. She wishes she had some sunglasses. It was too bright for her and was starting to give her a headache. Getting an idea, she goes up to the Doctor and reaches into his coat pocket and chuckles as he yelps in surprise as he feels her moving her hand around and it brushing against his body occasionally. "What are you doing?"

"I know you have some sunglasses in there, and I need to use them, the sun is too bright for my eyes." She gives him an innocent look.

He narrows his eyes playfully. "You could have just asked for them."

Layla shrugs and gives him an impish grin. "I didn't want to interrupt what you were going to say."

He clears his throat and hands her the sunglasses for her to wear. "Right, here you go. That building is some sort of hospital. Green moon on the side. That's the universal symbol for hospitals. I got this. A message on the psychic paper." He pulls out his wallet and shows them showing it says: ward 26 – please come. "Someone wants to see me."

Rose pouts. "Hmm. And I thought we were just sight-seeing. Come on, then. Let's go and buy some grapes."

"Oh! Don't forget about the pear!" Layla guffaws at the Doctor's face and Rose snickers that the Doctor still gets a queasy look on his face when pears are mentioned with the amount of times Layla has eaten one around him.

Rose looks at him and in fake concern. "Well, it is a good thing we are going to the hospital. You don't look so good Doctor."

"Oi! Why are you two ganging up on me?!"

Xxxxxx

"Bit rich coming from you." Rose pointed out the irony.

"I can't help it. I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps." The Doctor whined like a child.

"If you're a good boy while we are here, you can have a lolly, Doctor." Layla tells him with a serious face for a few seconds before it cracks and she laughs.

The Pleasure Gardens will now take visitors carrying green or blue identification cards for the next fifteen minutes. Visitors are reminded that cuttings from the gardens are not permitted.

Rose is looking around and compares the hospital here to the ones at home. "Very smart. Not exactly NHS."

The Doctor looks around and then frowns. "No shop. I like the little shop."

"Use your psychic paper and make yourself someone important. Then tell them they have to build one, then you can have a shop." Layla tells him wanting his frown to go away even if was for something as silly as this.

"I thought this far in the future they'd have cured everything." Rose said.

"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an ongoing war." He shrugged like 'what can you do?'

"Not surprising, mutations are happening in our time too and when they get a cure for that, it mutates again. It will be a war that will never end." Layla pointed out the similarities between the two time periods.

Rose's eyes widen as she gets a good look at one of the nursing staff. They were dressed similar to nuns with the way their nun-like wimples are designed but they were cats. "Now, don't stare. Think what you look like to them, all pink and yellow." The Doctor chided Rose. He looks over at Layla and sees that while she was fascinated, she wasn't staring at anything or anyone rudely. He gets Rose's attention. "That's where I'd put the shop. Right there." He leads the girls over to the lifts, but doesn't realize that one of them is lagging behind. He puts his hand on Layla's lower back and guides her in first and then steps in. "Ward 26, thanks!"

Rose looks around when she hears the Doctor and sees that he is already in the lift and it is closing. "Hold on! Hold on!" The doors are closed and headed up by the time she makes it over there.

"Oh, too late. We're going up." The Doctor shrugs carelessly.

"It's alright, there's another lift."

"Ward 26." He reminded her. "And watch out for the disinfectant."

"Watch out for what?"

"The disinfectant!" He shouts down to her.

Rose still can't hear him very well. "The what?"

"The disin… Oh, you'll find out." He gives up realizing they were too far away. Well, she will be in for a surprise. He turns towards Layla who was looking at him with her brows raised. "What?"

"The disinfectant?"

"Standard procedure, it might be a little cold though so prepare for that." He doesn't give her any more information.

Commence stage one disinfection.

Both the Doctor and Layla are drenched in the cold liquid and Layla gasps at the temperature. She looks over to the Doctor and sees him scrubbing himself like he is taking a shower and she does the same. "You know, it's been a while since I've showered with a man and now, we're doing it in public. My, my, Doctor. How bold."

The Doctor felt a growl rumble in his chest at the thought of her and another man like that. Well, that just won't do. It will be a memory I have to replace with one of us like that. This way when she thinks of a situation like this, she is thinking about me. "Well, you know what they say. What's life without a little bit of adventure." He tries to joke around, but he can hear that his voice was lower in pitch than normal. Layla sees the reaction the Doctor had to her words and she would be lying if she said she wasn't pleased.

Please report to reception.

Following the instructions, they meet a veiled nurse. She escorts them through the ward to see if they can find the one who sent the Doctor the message on his physic paper. The Doctor is looking around, just happy to spend time with Layla. He looks at the nurse. "Nice place. No shop downstairs. I'd have a shop. Not a big one. Just a shop, so people can shop."

The nurse stopped walking and turned towards him. She removes her veil so she could talk easier. "The hospital is a place of healing." She scolded him.

Layla chuckled at the Doctor being reprimanded like a child. "A shop does some people the world of good. Not me. Other people." He tried to defend himself.

"The Sisters of Plentitude take a lifelong vow to help, and to mend." The nurse informed them.

They walk past an open area where a man was lying on a hospital bed. A woman storms out and gives them a glare. "Excuse me! Members of the public may only gaze upon the Duke of Manhattan with written permission from the Senate of New New York."

Layla and the Doctor looked at her in surprise. She had just appeared out of nowhere before getting onto them. The Doctor gets a look at the Duke of Manhattan and sees what is causing him to be in the hospital. "That's Petrifold Regression, right?"

"I'm dying, sir. A lifetime of charity and abstinence, and it ends like this." The duke moaned.

"Any statements made by the Duke of Manhattan may not be made public without official clearance." The woman snapped at them again. Layla's eyebrows raised up on her forehead, she is super aggressive, like her career depends on it. Either that or she is jealous of anyone who has the duke's attention.

"Frau Clovis! I'm so weak." The duke whimpered.

"Sister Jatt. A little privacy, please." She glared at them one more time before returning to the duke.

"He'll be up and about in no time." Sister Jatt reassured them as they walked away.

"I doubt it. Petrifold Regression? He's turning to stone. There won't be a cure for oh, a thousand years? He might be up and about, but only as a statue." It was not in the Doctor's nature to let people continue on with life without being informed of something he knew they were wrong about. Layla just thought it was a reason to talk and boost his ego, but she didn't mind. She liked hearing him talk and teaching her things. And like she said before, confidence is sexy, and he has loads of it.

"Have faith in the Sisterhood." She said it with a small smirk, like she knew something that they didn't. "But is there no one here you recognize? It's rather unusual to visit without knowing the patient."

The Doctor looks around at the different patients and his eyes light up as he sees someone familiar. "No, I think I found him." Layla looked towards where he was facing and her face light up at seeing the Face of Boe again. She speed walks over to him with the Doctor following with a pout. He had forgotten that she was very fascinated with him.

Next to the Face of Boe is another one of the nurses. Jatt looks at her. "Novice Hame, if I can leave these two in your care?"

Sister Jatt was turning away and leaving when the Doctor stopped her again. "Oh, I think our friend got lost. Rose Tyler. Could you ask at reception?"

She bows her head. "Certainly, sir."

"I'm afraid the Face of Boe's asleep. That's all he tends to do these days. Are you a friend, or…" The nurse trailed off.

"We met just the once on Platform One. What's wrong with him?" The Doctor asked her.

She gives him a look of sadness. "I'm so sorry. I thought you knew. The Face of Boe is dying."

Layla bites her lip as she looks at Boe. The Doctor was right, they had only met him the one time, but he knew them from his past and our future. He was so nice and kind. But he was also seemed sad as well. And now that I think about it, Boe does seem familiar when thinking about their conversation on the platform.

The Doctor grabs Layla's hand seeing that she was upset and gently squeezes it in reassurance. "Of what?"

"Old age. The one thing we can't cure. He's thousands of years old. Some people say millions, although that's impossible."

The Doctor squats down in front of Boe's tank and lays his free hand on the glass. "Oh. I don't know. I like impossible. I'm here. I look a bit different, but it's me, it's the Doctor. And Layla is here too."

Hope, harmony, and health. Hope, harmony, and health.

The Doctor had left to get a drink. He walks back to Layla, Boe, and Hame. He gives Layla a cup of water first then hands another to Nurse Hame. "Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate the thought." Layla told him as she drained the cup. The Doctor pouted slightly. He didn't want her to thank him for taking care of her. He wanted to do it and he is always thinking about her and anything she might need. He had even asked the Tardis to give him an outfit that Layla would like and put it in his pocket so if she ever needs clothes, he has as set for her.

Nurse Hame took the cup and gives the Doctor a smile. "That's very kind. There's no need."

The Doctor shrugged, he had only brought one because he knew it would be rude if only, he and Layla had one. Then Layla would tease him about being rude. "You're the one working."

"There's not much to do, just maintain his smoke. And I suppose I'm company. I can hear him singing, sometimes, in my mind. Such ancient songs." She told them softly showing how attached she was with the tone of her voice.

"Are we the only visitors?"

"The rest of Boe-kind became extinct long ago. He's the only one left. Legend says that the Face of Boe has watched the universe grow old. There are all sorts of superstitions around him. One story says that just before his death, the Face of Boe will impart his great secret, that he will speak those words only to one like himself."

The Doctor's face scrunches up. "What does that mean?"

"It's just a story."

"Tell me the rest." He urged.

"It's said he'll talk to a wanderer. To a man without a home. The Once Lonely God.

The Doctor froze as he heard that and his hearts were pounding. Many thoughts were going through his mind. If Boe knew me from the past, then he probably would have known Layla too. Does that mean I was unable to bond with her? That she wasn't traveling with me anymore? He bites the inside of his cheek to focus on that instead of the pinch in his hearts.

Layla looks at Boe sadly, but maybe... Maybe he is happy if he has lived that long, the only one of his kind and by himself if he has had no other visitors. She looks around the ward to distract herself and to wait for Boe to wake when she realizes that Rose still wasn't here and she was starting to worry. "Doctor, Rose still isn't here. Do you think we should call her?"

The Doctor thought about it and realized that it had been a while, he was just enjoying spending time with Layla that he didn't pay attention to how much time had passed. "Do you have your phone? I'll call her and see if she needs directions."

Layla hands it to him, happy that the Tardis reminded her to bring it and he finds Rose's number quickly. It rings a couple of times and when she answers, he doesn't even give her time to get out a greeting. "Rose, where are you?"

"Er, wotcha."

"Where've you been? How long does it take to get to ward 26?"

"I'm on my way, governor. I shall proceed up the apples and pears."

The Doctor looked at the phone oddly, but shrugged it off. If something was wrong, Rose would have told him. "You'll never guess. We're with the Face of Boe. Remember him?"

"Of course, I do. That big old boat race."

The Doctor thought she was being odd again, but a celebration had caught his attention. "I'd better go. See you in a minute." He tells her distractedly.

He grabs Layla's hand as she stands from her chair and they walk over to where the Duke of Manhattan is very happy. The duke looked at them and smiled. "Didn't think I was going to make it. It's that man and the lovely woman again! They're my good luck charms. Come in. Don't be shy."

"Any friendship expressed by the Duke of Manhattan does not constitute a form of legal contract." Clovis told them, once again aggressively.

"Winch me up. Up! Look at me. No sign of infection." It takes a few people to life the large man into a seated position, but he still has a jolly smile on his face.

A waiter comes over to them and on a tray are some drinks. "Champagne, sir? Ma'am?"

Layla looks at the waiter. "No, thank you though."

The Doctor was still looking at the duke when he gave his answer. "No thanks. You had Petrifold Regression, right?"

The duke points a finger at them. "That being the operative word. Past tense. Completely cured."

The Doctor's eyes were wide and mouth was gaping like a fish. "But that's impossible."

Layla leans over towards him and whispers in his ear. "This is reminding me of Satellite Five." Grinning impishly, she made sure that her breath out goes against his ear, and her torso was pressed against his arm and she felt him give a slight shiver. She pulls back with an innocent expression on her face. Looking at his face, his gaze causes desire to flood her system, but he nods in agreement to what she said.

Another nurse walked over to them. "Primitive species would accuse us of magic, but it's merely the tender application of science."

The Doctor narrows his eyes as he looks at the nurse. "How on earth did you cure him?"

The nurse gives him a sly look. "How on new earth, you might say."

"What's in that solution?" He demanded. This is supposed to be impossible. How do they have a cure a thousand years early?"

She shrugs. "A simple remedy."

"Then tell me what it is." He pushes again.

The nurse gives him a sad look that they could tell was fake. "I'm sorry. Patient confidentiality. I don't believe we've met. My name is Matron Casp."

"I'm the Doctor, this is Layla."

"I think you'll find that we're the doctors here."

Nurse Jatt comes over to them and gets the matrons attention. "Matron Casp, you're needed in Intensive Care."

Matron Casp bows her head towards the Doctor and Layla. "If you would excuse me."

The two of them watch as the nurses walk away. Layla watches them leave with narrowed eyes. "She's hiding something, all the nurses are. Earlier when you said the cure wouldn't be around for a thousand years, Nurse Jatt was giving you an almost mocking look when she said to have faith in them. And now, they won't tell you the cure. Since when are cures patient confidentiality?"

He nods in agreement. "Come on, let's go see other patients and if they have cures that are too early in the time period for them to have."

Xxxxxx

Rose finally understands what the Doctor was trying to tell her. The disinfectant. I bet he is having a good laugh at this. She shrugs deciding to go with it and finally gets the hang of it and straightens herself out when she the lift opens.

There was a man there that had what looked like tattoos all over his body. He bowed to her. "The human child is clean."

"Er, I'm looking for Ward 26?" Rose looked around and she didn't think where she was would have any type of patient.

The man ignores her. "This way, Rose Tyler." Rose's heart jumped, how does he know my name? She was hoping that maybe the Doctor had said something to someone so they could direct her to ward 26, but she wasn't sure. She looks down and sees a metal bar on the floor and picks it up, ready to defend herself if need be.

They walk into a more open area. Rose sees a screen and a reel projector showing a fill of a party. There is a woman there that the camera seems to focus on, but when the woman talks, she has a flash back to one person. "What a minute, that's…"

"Peekaboo!" Cassandra said to Rose. Rose had missed her before because she was watching the screen.

"Don't you come anywhere near me, Cassandra." Rose looked around for another exit since where she came in from was being blocked by the man.

Cassandra rolled her eyes, one of the few facial expressions she could still do. "Why? What do you think I'm going to do? Flap you to death?"

Rose shivers, she didn't want any part of Cassandra to touch her. "Yeah, but what about Gollum?"

"Oh, that's just Chip. He is my pet."

"I worship the mistress." Chip said and Rose was surprised he wasn't on his hands and knees bowing to her.

"Moisturize me. Moisturize me." Chip walks over and sprays her down. "He is not even a proper life form. He is a force grown clone. I modeled him on my favorite pattern. But he's so faithful. Chip sees to my physical needs."

"I hope that means food." Rose said as her face scrunched up in disgust. "How come you're still alive?"

"After you murdered me…"

"That was your own fault, and I asked for help for you."

"The brain of my mistress survived. And her pretty blue eyes were salvaged from the bin." Chip said as he looked at Cassandra adoringly.

"What about the skin? I saw it. You, you got ripped apart."

Cassandra looked away slightly from her. "That piece of skin was taken from the front of my body. This piece is the back."

A startled laugh escapes Rose. "Right! So, you're talking out of your a…"

Cassandra glares, or it looks like a glare, hard to tell with only a mouth and eyes. "Ask not."

"The mistress was lucky to survive. Chip secreted m'lady into the hospital."

"So, they don't know you're here?" Why would she have to hide? Why not just come in as a patient?

"Chip steals medicine. Helps m'lady. Soothes her, strokes her." Chip was close to Cassandra and acted out what he said in the air a few inches from her.

"You can stop right there, Chip." Rose definitely did not want to know more.

"But I'm so alone, hidden down here. The last human in existence."

Rose huffed. "Don't start that again. They've called this planet New Earth."

"A vegetable patch." Was the disdained reply.

"And there's millions of humans out there. Millions of them."

"Mutant stock."

"They evolved Cassandra. They just evolved, like they should. You stayed still. You got yourself all pickled and preserved, and what good did it do for you?" Rose didn't know why she was saying all of this, telling Cassandra that evolved humans were still human was like talking to a brick wall.

Cassandra ignored what she said and looked at the screen that showed her past self. "Oh, I remember that night. Drinks for the Ambassador of Thrace. That was the last time anyone told me I was beautiful. After that it all became such hard work."

She says that and still can't see how she ruined herself by doing all of those surgeries? Does she not wonder why that night was the last night if she started these ridiculous surgeries right after and ended up like this? I doubt anyone has told her she is beautiful since. "Well, you've got a knack for survival, I'll give you that."

"But I've not been idle, Rose, tucked away underneath this hospital. I've been listening. The Sisters are hiding something." Cassandra tells it to Rose like they were conspiring together.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, these cats have secrets. Hush, let me whisper. Come close." Cassandra watches in glee as Rose does the opposite of what she said.

"You must be joking if you think I'm coming anywhere near you." She took a step back and freezes as energy grabs her and holds her still.

"Chip, activate the psychograft." Cassandra orders.

"I can't move. Cassandra, let me go! What're you doing?" Light starts to stream from a contraption overhead. Rose was panicking, something was about to happen to her, and the Doctor wasn't around to save her.

"The lady's moving on. It's goodbye trampoline, and hello blondie." Energy from Cassandras form flies towards Rose's and then everything shuts up causing Rose to fall to the ground.

"Mistress?" Chip approaches carefully not wanting to be attacked by the human child if the psychograft did not work right.

Cass/Rose lifts her head. "Moisturize me." Chip started to head towards the liquid but realize she said it out of habit. He watches as Cass/Rose looks and touches different parts on her new body. "How bizarre. Arms, fingers, hair! Let me see! Let me see! Oh my god. I'm a chav!" She walks over to a mirror and goes over her new appearance like a fine-toothed comb. "Look at me. From class to brass. Although, oh, curves. Oh, baby, it's like living inside a bouncy castle!"

"The mistress is beautiful." Chip complimented her.

"Absolutement! Oh, but look." She is looking at her old body and seen that it was all dried up and dead.

"Oh, the brain lead expired. My old mistress is gone." Chip looked at her old body slightly sad.

Cass/Rose pointed to her head. "But safe and sound in here."

"But what of the Rose child's mind?" He was worried about two people sharing one body and how it would affect his mistress.

"Oh, tucked away. I can just about access the surface memory. She's. Gosh, she's with the Doctor and that white haired girl. Rose calls her Layla. The man though, he's the Doctor. The same Doctor with a new face. That hypocrite! I must get the name of his surgeon. I could do with a little work. Although nice rear bumper. Hmm." She is running her hands all over her new body enjoying feeling like a woman again. Ringing comes from Cass/Rose back pants pocket and she looks at it confused before pulling it out. "Oh, it seems to be ringing. Is it meant to ring?"

Chip looked at the device and made a guess at what it was. "A primitive communications device."

Cass/Rose answers the mobile and puts it up to her ear and the person calling talks before she can say anything. "Rose, where are you?"

Cass/Rose looks to chip and slightly panics. She doesn't want the Doctor to realize anything was wrong with Rose. "How does she speak?" Clearing having forgotten what Rose sounded like not even five minutes ago.

"Old earth cockney." He whispers to her.

"Er, wotcha."

"Where've you been? How long does it take to get to ward 26?"

"I'm on my way, governor. I shall proceed up the apples and pears."

"You'll never guess. I'm with the Face of Boe. Remember him?"

Cass/Rose grits her teeth at the reminder of her death on the platform. "Of course, I do. That big old boat race." The Doctor says his goodbyes and Rose shoves the phone back into her pocket.

"This Doctor man is dangerous." Chip was worried for his mistress.

"Dangerous and clever. I might need a mind like his." She starts to primp and mess with her hair and clothes. She tugs down her shirt to show more cleavage and fluffs up her hair. "The Sisterhood is up to something. Remember that old earth saying, never trust a nun? Never trust a nurse. And never trust a cat. Perfume?" She holds her hand out and he gives her a vial which she tucks down inside her cleavage. She leaves Chip and goes back towards the lift and heads up to ward 26.

Ambient temperature stands at fourteen degrees. This temperature is designed to promote healing and well-being.

Cass/Rose walks out of the lift and sees the Doctor and Layla going around to all the patient areas. The Doctor is facing her so he sees her first. "There you are. Come and look at this patient. Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it. they've invented a cell washing cascade. It's amazing. Their medical science is way advanced. And this one." The Doctor walks them over towards another patient that is as white as his hospital gown. "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine. I need to find a terminal. I've got to see how they do this. Because if they've got the best medicine in the world, then why is it such a secret?"

The Doctor never really notices what Rose is wearing or how she looks so he didn't catch what Layla caught. Layla watched her friend and sees how her shirt is adjusted lower and she is swaying her hips more than normal. She also has this look in her eyes that doesn't look good to Layla. A hint of maliciousness.

Cass/Rose rolled her eyes, another thing Layla caught, and looked at the Doctor uncaringly. "I can't Adam and Eve it." Cassandra hadn't realized that she did her normal expression of disdain that she did when she was in her previous body, it was so ingrained because she didn't have many expressions that she could do.

The Doctor stops looking around and looks at Cass/Rose oddly. "What's, what's... What's with the voice?"

Cass/Rose sways up closer to the Doctor. "Oh, I don't know. Just larking about. New earth, new me."

Whether the Doctor was playing at being oblivious or not, Layla wasn't sure. But Layla knew something was wrong with her friend, and she was not happy that she has been messed with. "Well, I can talk. New New Doctor."

"Mmm, aren't you just." She says with a sultry tone and grabs his head and smashes her lips against him. She isn't paying attention to how he is reacting, just enjoying kissing him. Letting go, she is breathing hard and her cheeks are pink. "Terminal's this way. Phew."

The Doctor was looking at her in horror as she turned around. The bond was fighting against him, the bond knew that kiss was wrong, until he is bonded with Layla and it settles, he can barely even touch anyone else without cringing. His face contorts into one of disgust and takes his hand and rubs it across his mouth as if to wipe the kiss away. His head then snaps to Layla realizing she hadn't made any type of comment, whether to tease or not.

Layla herself is in a state of shock. As soon as she seen Rose kiss the Doctor, her stomach lurched and she felt as if she could get sick. Her mouth is thinned out and she is tense. For a moment there she had wanted to rip Rose off of him, not caring how it would affect her and she felt the self-loathing for that. She didn't own the Doctor and had no claim to him. She didn't want to look at the Doctor. She didn't want to see his pleased expression at the kiss, but her mind decided to torture her and she turned and looked at him blankly. She is surprised by the expressions on his face and his actions.

Layla finally looks at the Doctor and he is pleased by what he saw. He isn't happy about how and why it happened, but the outcome makes him happy nonetheless. He could see her tense frame, the jealously in her eyes. He is happy that she is jealous. If she is jealous, then that means she has at least some feelings for me, right? But he doesn't want her to get the wrong idea. He has been trying to lay out more hints and testing the waters with her and the bond was already wanting to move on and he kept holding back from straight out telling her. He thinks the time to tell her is coming soon though. Just a gut feeling.

He decides to make a bold move. "I wish she hadn't done that. I never want to do that with her again. Next time pull her off, please." There. Now she has to know that he doesn't have any feelings for Rose. If she knows that, maybe she will see how he is acting towards her is different than Rose and wonder why and it will go from there.

Layla's body relaxes at the honesty she can see in his eyes. So, he doesn't return Rose's feelings. That's good. As she thought that she felt guilty that her friend will be hurt by unrequited love, but it still doesn't take away all of the happiness that he could one day develop feelings for her. She gives him a smirk. "Alright, if Rose does it again, I'll step in for you."

The Doctor didn't just mean Rose, he meant all females, well besides her of course, but he felt if he said something like that, it would be too bold and he wouldn't be testing the waters anymore and have just cannonballed into it. He looks at her seriously. "Good now with that settled, I can tell you that something is wrong with Rose."

"I know. I noticed from the moment she came up here. Rose's mannerisms are not matching up to how she normally is."

"Alright, well, all we can do now is follow her and try to find out along the way what's wrong. I do have to wonder if it has something to do with this big secret that the Sisterhood is hiding." The Doctor grabs her hand and sighs with relief. The bond settles slightly at the contact. It had reared up and tightened around his entire being when Rose kissed him. He hopes he never has to deal with something like that again.

Xxxxxx

The Doctor and Layla follow after Rose and she leads them to a computer terminal by the lift. The Doctor starts working right away trying to find this secret, but can't find anything. "Nope, nothing odd. Surgery, post-op, nano-dentistry. No sign of a shop. They should have a shop."

Layla smiles, and would have been more amused had she not been worried about Rose. The Doctor is good at playing oblivious. Now, how often is he truly oblivious and how many times is fake? Hard to tell with him, he hides behind masks all the time, and he also likes to mess with people.

"No, it's missing something else. When I was downstairs, the nurse cat nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?" Cass/Rose was happy that they seemed to believe that everything was okay and they were working on going to the nurse's big secret.

"You're right. Well done." The Doctor praised, but Cass/Rose ignored it wanting to speed this along.

"Why would they hide a whole department? It's got to be there somewhere else. Search the sub-frame."

The Doctor was trying to figure out what happened to Rose. She wouldn't know what a sub-frame even was, let alone tell him to search it. He looks at her out of the corner of his eye as he faces the terminal. "What if the sub-frames locked?"

"Try the installation protocol." She said in a 'duh' way.

"Yeah. Of course. Sorry. Hold on." He uses his sonic on the interface and a whole wall slides down revealing a hallway. "Intensive Care. Certainly, looks intensive."

Cass/Rose leads the way down a staircase. They look around and see that the area is filled, top to bottom, with cells. Thousands of them. The Doctor goes to one and uses his sonic on it causing the door to open. Inside contains a very sick looking man. The Doctor looks at the man in growing horror at where his mind is leading him.

"That's disgusting. What's wrong with him?" Cass/Rose said while stepping away from the cell and her face scrunched up.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor looks at him sadly and goes to another door and opening it. Inside it contains a woman who looked sick like the man.

"What disease is that?" Cass/Rose wanted to know.

"All of them. Every single disease in the galaxy. They've been infected with everything." Layla could hear the tremor of suppressed rage in the Doctor's voice and puts her hand on his back like she has done before and feels him instantly relax.

"It's okay Doctor, we know about this, and we can find a way to fix them. If they are doing what I think they are, we can use the cures that they got because of them to heal them."

"What about us? Are we safe?" Cass/Rose was really showing the Doctor and Layla that something was wrong with Rose. It was like she wasn't even trying anymore.

"The air's sterile. Just don't touch them." He closes the door and he looks at the woman sadly at the pained look on her face.

"How many patients are there?"

"They're not patients."

"But their sick." Cass/Rose didn't understand where this was going.

"Rose, why would they be infected with every disease in the galaxy and then be kept in a cell like this. Then the nurses have a cure for diseases that shouldn't exist yet. It's not a coincidence." Layla pointed out while looking at her intensely.

"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the sisters have got a cure for everything. They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A human farm." The more he talked the angrier and disgusted he became.

"Why don't they just die?" Cass/Rose said unkindly. A brilliant idea was forming in Cass/Rose's mind. This place would be a perfect opportunity to get revenge. She was glad that the diseases were not airborne. She did not want to get it. She was beautiful again. She didn't want that to go away. Of course, she has thought about using Layla instead of Rose. She likes the way she looks better than Rose, but she has seen Rose's memories and she saw how the Doctor acted around Layla and that Rose was jealous of the attention she got. Using Layla's body would be a good revenge against the Doctor, but what a better revenge than to find an empty pod and dump them in it and he can watch as she suffers with him.

"Plague carriers. The last to go." The Doctor was clenching his teeth and his eyes were narrowed, but his body was relaxed as Layla continued to rub his back softly. It pleased him that she seemed to know instinctually what to do to calm him down.

"It's for the greater cause." Came a soft voice from further down the walkway.

"Novice Hame. When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" He didn't see how anyone could do this to someone.

"The Sisterhood has sworn to help." She wants him to understand that they didn't have a choice, they had to do it to help the people out on new earth.

"What, by killing?" Because that is what it was. He knew that eventually these people would die from the sickness they were subjected to, only slower than others. Then they would be replaced with another.

"But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence."

"What's the turnover, hmm? Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years. How many!"

"So, they only have proper existence when they are given life and then subject to this torture? You gave them life, the fact that they don't fight you is because they don't know to do that and the fact that they are so sick that they most likely can't move." Layla was just as angry as the Doctor. These people were grown, they are like children. They might have an adult body, but they are new to the world like a child. And she refused to let anyone harm a child if she could stop it.

"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with so many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone-meat and bio-cattle, but the results were too slow, so the Sisterhood grew its own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh." Hame pleaded with them to understand.

"These people are alive." The Doctor didn't care. They didn't sign up for this and were forced to do it.

"But think of those humans out there, healthy and happy, because of us."

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless." Besides, they were messing with the history of humans. It was unfortunate, but people needed to get these diseases naturally so they can work towards a cure in the future, like it is supposed to. The future is now affected because of what they are doing.

"But who are you to decide that?" Hame didn't know who this man really was and how he had any power over them.

"I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me."

Cass/Rose steps forward gaining everyone's attention. "Just to confirm. None of the humans in the city actually know about this?"

"We thought it best not." Hame said not realizing the irony.

"So, you kept it hidden because you knew that people would through a fit. They would fight you to free these people and the Sisterhood would lose everything. You might have had good intentions in the beginning, but when you grew what are practically children and use them to experiment, well that's where the Sisterhood seemed to go corrupt." Layla stepped forward and this time it was the Doctor who started to rub her back gently and a part that he shoved aside to think about later was happy that she instantly relaxed just like he does when she does it to him.

"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. One thing I can't understand. What have you done to Rose?"

For the first time, Hame's expression went from a serene one to one of confusion. "We haven't done anything."

"I'm perfectly fine." Cass/Rose waved her hand carelessly.

"These people are dying, and Rose would care." He may not know Rose as well as he knows Layla, but that was one thing he knew for sure.

Cass/Rose grumbles and gives up the act, she didn't like having to pretend to cared, so it wasn't hard to figure it out honestly. "Oh, alright, clever clogs. Smarty pants. Lady-killer." She says the last bit with a husky voice and pulls on his tie again like she did earlier. The Doctor leans away from her and Layla steps forward to help if he needed it.

"What happened to you?" He was hoping that Rose could tell him what was wrong so he could fix it.

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out."

Now he understood what happened to Rose, and he wasn't happy. At all. "Who are you?" Layla seemed to understand as well and stepped closer to the Doctor.

Cass/Rose raises up on her toes and leans over the already leaning away from her Doctor and whispers in his ear. Well as close as she can get to his ear. "The last human."

His eyebrows raise up. "Cassandra?" He says at the same time that Layla asks. "The tortilla?"

Cass/Rose glares at Layla and turns back to the Doctor. She removes the perfume from her shirt and squirts it up his nose causing him to pass out. "Wake up and smell the perfume."

Layla glares at Cass/Rose and tries to find a way to help this situation. Cass/Rose just smirks at her knowing that Layla wouldn't try anything that would harm Rose. But she is surprised when Layla tackles her causing the perfume to fall out of her hand and skid away from them. Layla figured that if she got the perfume, she would use it on Cass/Rose until the Doctor woke up and found a way to get the tortilla out of her best friend.

What she wasn't expecting was for Cass/Rose to utilize the moves she taught Rose for self-defense against her and she is winded as Cass/Rose hit her in the throat and the stomach. Cass/Rose crawls to the perfume, but Layla wasn't going to give up and grabs her ankles, pulling her back. Layla starts to grapple with Cass/Rose, but Cassandra is better at using the defensive moves than she expected and she wasn't giving it her all because she doesn't want to hurt Rose's body. What she hadn't seen was Chip pick up the perfume and wait for an opportunity and when it came, he quickly sprayed it in Layla's face causing her to pass out. Cass/Rose groans and pushes Layla off of her and Chip helps her up.

"Good work Chip." She praises and he soaks it up.

"You hurt them. I don't understand. I'll have to fetch the matron." Novice Hame wanted out of this situation. She didn't want to be around the Doctor and Layla in their anger and whoever this woman is, she has intent to harm.

"You do that, because I want to see her. Now, run along. Sound the alarm!" Cass/Rose reaches over and pulls on a power cable causing the alarms to go off and watches as Hame runs out.

Cass/Rose and Chip look for an empty pod and are in luck that they find one pretty quick. The both pick up the Doctor and grunt at the weight. They carry/drag the Doctor to the pod and put him in and lock his hands in the shackles in the pod. They go over and pick up Layla and are happy that she isn't heavy like the Doctor was. They stuff her in the same pod facing the Doctor. Cass/Rose figured she might as well give the Doctor a little parting gift before he dies. She's nice like that. They struggle with keeping her up and closing the door, but they eventually get it and lock them in.

Xxxxxx

It isn't long when the Doctor wakes up and his body works on clearing the fog. He can feel that something is pushed up against him and he can't move his arms. Opening his eyes, he has to blink a couple of times to adjust and sees that Layla has been pushed up against him. He tenses as he feels his body react to her. His hearts start to speed up and he is feeling too warm. He is doing everything he can to keep his cock from waking up and jabbing into her. He needs out. He needs air. All he can smell is Layla and it just increases the desire running through his body. He clears his throat and tries to wake her, and he can hear the gravelly tone. "Layla. Hey, wake up. I need your help. Layla!"

He is getting desperate and she isn't waking up and his desire is starting to cloud his mind. He tries to reach her sides with his hands, but they are too far away. He doesn't have many options left. His mind and body are a mess and he can't think straight with her pushed up against him like this is such a confined space. He doesn't want to scream at her either and scare her into head butting him. He leans his head forward a bit and hesitates for a second and before he can talk himself out of it, he leans forward more towards Layla's neck. At the juncture of her neck and shoulder he opens his mouth and puts his teeth on her skin. He pauses to see if she would wake from the unfamiliar touch, but she doesn't move. He breaths out of his nose heavily before he bites down hard, trying to wake her up. Benefit for him is that he can do this, and he is enjoying it more than he should, and he is out of her range of a headbutt.

What he doesn't expect was for her to practically come alive with a moan and arch into him pressing herself against him harder. He hadn't let go of her neck, and he can feel her pulse race. His tongue has a mind of its own when it touched the skin in between his teeth. She whimpers and he closes his eyes tightly trying to tame his physical reaction. This is torture. Blissful torture.

Layla finally wakes up and her senses and body are going haywire. She can feel the desire coursing through her and the wetness between her legs. Her nose is filled with the Doctor's scent and her heart is pounding. She opens her eyes and moves her head around as much as she can. She can see that she and the Doctor are pressed up close against each other and she can feel his teeth on her neck and she has to hold back a moan, not knowing she had already done it once. "Doctor? What's going on? Where are we? If you wanted a nibble, you could have asked. Didn't need to wait for me to be knocked out to do it. Fair warning though, I won't be responsible for what happens afterwards if you do it again."

"I'll take the warning into consideration, love." The endearment sliding out before he can catch it. He quickly moves on so she doesn't say anything about it. "Cassandra seems to have put us in one of those pods and my hands are shackled down. Yours should be free. I need you to find my sonic and get my hands free so I can then get us out of this pod. You look for it and I'll try to keep Cassandra distracted so she doesn't leave with Rose's body."

Layla looks down because she doesn't want him to see her impish grin. "Alright, I'm ready."

The Doctor looks out of the pod and sees Cass/Rose standing with a guy. "Let us out! Let us out!" He semi shouts at her, not wanting to hurt Layla's ears, but needing to get her attention.

Cass/Rose turns towards him and smirks as she walks over. "Aren't you luck there was only one spare? Standing room only of course. But I figured you wouldn't mind your pod-mate."

Layla is actually having some fun in this situation. She is pressed against the one she has feelings for and gets to feel him up on his say so to look for something? She'll take it and enjoy every second. She of course has to tease him a bit, she wouldn't be herself if she didn't. She reaches forwarded and her hands touch his waist. She slides her hands up his chest, slowly, teasingly. She can feel his hearts pounding under her hands. She starts to pat him down trying to find his screwdriver. She isn't sure which pocket it is in. He changes where he puts it at times. She goes down towards his hips and then towards the front feeling his pockets to see if she feels it. She gives a husky laugh when he squawks when her hand got a little too close to his cock. She then goes towards his coat pockets and finds it rather quickly, but she is glad she didn't check there first, especially when she can feel that he enjoyed it as well. She turns it on and points it to the shackle trying to open it.

Cass/Rose looks at him oddly when he squawks but he ignores it. "You've stolen Rose's body." He tries to get back on topic and not what Layla is doing. The Doctor struggles to keep his eyes open and not give into the pleasure. He is definitely enjoying her hands on him, but too bad he can't enjoy it more because of Cassandra. However, he can tell that he is enjoying it a little too much. He just hopes that Layla doesn't mind. She is too much of a temptation to resist. He has given up hope on trying to keep himself from hardening, especially with her hands on his body.

"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor. And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about three left. Enjoy."

"Just let Rose go, Cassandra." The shackle on his right hand opens and Layla passes him the sonic knowing he could use it more effectively. He decides to tease her back though and slides his arm in between their bodies and right above her groin, he runs the back of his hand along her and smirks at the slight whimper she gives him.

"I will. As soon as I've found someone younger, and less common, then I'll junk her with the waste. I had thought about taking Layla's body, but I figured that more revenge against all three of you would be better." The Doctor tenses and glares harshly at Cass/Rose. She is glad that he is trapped because the look in his eyes frighten her. She clears her throat and her voice is only a little shaky when she talks again. "Now hushaby. It's showtime."

He can hear the matron talking to Cass/Rose and takes advantage to pay more attention to getting out. He puts his mouth against Layla's ear. "You're playing with fire, Layla." He pulls back and his eyes are drawn to the bite on her shoulder and he feels a primal satisfaction at her wearing a mark from him.

She can feel his chest rumble as he talks, the breath against her ear, and the deep husky tone of his voice. She leans back so she can see his eyes and they are dilated almost to where you can only see the black of the pupil, and she figures hers are the same. She bites her lip and almost smirks when his eyes instantly drop down before they slowly meet her eyes again. "I'm not afraid to get warmed up, Doctor."

He groans as he imagines her saying his name, his real name on her lips in the same tone. He knows that his hardened cock was push up against her, low on her stomach, and it twitched against her. He doesn't think she minds though when she doesn't say anything or threaten to slap him. With his mind so distracted, he had only just gotten the shackle off his left hand. He quickly grabs her hips and holds them tightly to keep from losing total control. His fingers dig into her hip and he grits his teeth as she whimpers softly, she is not helping my control at all.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, depending on how you look at it, their pod door opens and he quickly wraps his arms around Layla to keep her from falling backwards. They get out and look around in horror, multiple cells had been open releasing the victims. He looks towards Cass/Rose and glares. "What've you done?"

She just smirks at him. "Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake them up, See you!"

"Don't touch them! Whatever you do, don't touch!"

"You better keep Rose's body safe, tortilla, or I will kick your ass."

Cass/Rose freezes when there are more victims in front of her than what Chip had released. "Oh, my god."

The Doctor looks around and sees that all of the pods were opening up and letting the sick people out. "What the hell have you done?"

"It wasn't me." She denied, conveniently forgetting that she had Chip release some.

"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and we want that body safe, Cassandra. We've got to go down." He grabs Layla's hand tightly and pulls her along not wanting her to be left behind and get infected.

Cass/Rose and Chip follow after them. "But there's thousands of them!"

The Doctor ignored her. "Run! Down! Down! Go down!"

This building is under quarantine. Shutters slam down across the doors and windows keeping people both in and out of the building. Repeat, this building is under quarantine. No one may leave the premises. Repeat, no one may leave the premises.

The Doctor is leading them through the hospital trying to find a way to escape the infected. "Keep going! Go down!"

Cass/Rose spots the lift and runs towards it to call for it, but the Doctor calls out to her. "No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine. Nothing's moving."

Cass/Rose huffs, but she remembers where she and Chip had been hiding. "This way!" She leads the Doctor, Layla, and Chip towards her den; however, Chip gets cut off from them and the infected victims started to crowd around him.

The Doctor stops and was about to go run and help when Cass/Rose grabs his arm, and he pulls away from her quickly. "Leave him! He's just a clone thing. He's only got a half-life. Come on."

"Mistress." Chip cries out in distress.

The Doctor looks back at him sadly and Layla does as well, but gives the Doctor's hand a squeeze in reassurance. "We're sorry. We can't let her escape." They run off after Cass/Rose and miss Chip jumping down a chute labeled as waste.

They get to Cassandra's den and she runs to the other exit and opens the door. She squeals and shuts the door and locks it when she sees more infected people on the other side. "We're trapped! What am I going to do?"

The Doctor stormed up to her. "Well. For starters, you're going to leave that body. That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet. You're compressing Rose to death."

Layla freezes and then turns a hardened glare onto Cass/Rose causing her to flinch slightly. "I took it easy on your earlier because you have my best friend's body and I didn't want to hurt her. But if you kill her, and she can't ever come back, I don't care that you look like her, I will kick your arse!"

Cass/Rose backs up from them. "But I've got nowhere to go. My original skins dead."

The Doctor shrugs. "Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out. Give her back to us, and don't you dare go into Layla's body."

His voice was deep and dark. Cassandra looks at him and sees that the glare he gave her earlier when he was in the pod was a lot milder than the one her is giving her now. She nods fearfully but finds a loophole in what he said. She takes a deep breath and her energy from Rose leaves her body.

"Blimey, my head. Where did she go?" She stumbled and Layla quickly caught her before she could fall. She lets go just as quickly. She had almost dropped her herself when she flinched at the contact they had.

"Oh, my. This is different they hear the Doctor say in a higher pitch than he normally talks and look over to see him looking at his hands and body.

"Cassandra?" Rose asks having an idea of where she went.

"Get out of him tortilla!" Layla says hisses.

Cass/Doctor ignores her though. "Goodness me, I'm a man. Yum. So many parts. And hardly used. Oh, oh, two hearts! Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba!" She does this weird dance type move in her excitement. She isn't able to get as many memories as she did with Rose, but she was able to see an interesting piece of information. Now I am glad I heeded his warning and didn't go into Layla. His anger is dark and scary, and if someone were to harm her in anyway… well it won't be me.

"Get out of him." Rose shouted.

"Ooh, he's slim, and a little bit foxy. You've thought so too. I've been inside your head. You've been looking. You like it." Cass/Doctor teases Rose wanting to cause some tension between this love triangle. The infected victims burst into the room and Cass/Doctor panics. She slaps Rose on the arm pathetically. "What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor, what the hell would he do?"

Rose looked around for an exit, and spotted one. "Ladder. We've got to get up."

Cass/Doctor pushes Rose out of the way. Layla pushes Rose to go next and then she follows. She hears one of the infected victims call out to her. "Please, help us. Help."

Layla looks at her sadly. "We will fix this, don't worry. You won't be hurting much longer." She quickly starts to climb the ladder so she doesn't get touched by them.

"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something." Rose tried to reason with Cassandra.

"Yap, yap, yap. God, it was tedious inside your head. Hormone city."

"We're going to die if…" Rose is cut off when Layla yelps in surprise.

Looking down fearing that one of the infected victims touched her, she was happy to see it was just the nurse. "All our good work. All that healing. The good name of the Sisterhood. You have destroyed everything."

"Go and play with a ball of string." Cass/Doctor snarks.

The nurse suddenly falls and she is screaming on the way down, looking down they see the infected victims are closing in on them. Rose looks up to Cass/Doctor. "Move!"

Maximum quarantine. Divert all shuttles.

The reach the lift doors on the next level and Cass/Doctor stops. "Now what do we do?"

"Use the sonic screwdriver." Rose hollered at her.

Cass/Doctor pulls it out and looks at it oddly. "You mean this thing?"

"Yes, I mean that thing."

"Could you two please hurry up, we don't have much time left." Layla warned them seeing the victims getting closer.

"Well, I don't know how. That Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts."

"Cassandra, go back into me. The Doctor can open it. Do it!" Rose ordered, not really wanting her to do it, but not wanting to get infected either.

"No, go into me, Cassandra. You have already compressed Rose enough for today, I can take some of the burden, and by burden, I mean you."

Cass/Doctor's eyes widen is fear at what the Doctor would do if she went into Layla. While the Doctor isn't happy about her in Rose, it would be even worse if Layla was compressed. "Hold on tight." She says not letting them know which one she was going to go into.

The energy transfers again and Cass/Rose is back and yells at the Doctor. "Oh, chavtastic again. Open it!"

"Not till you get out of her." He glared down at her.

"We need the Doctor." Is this really that important right now? We are about to be infected.

"I order you to leave her."

"We need you, Doctor. I can either stay in Rose or I can go into Layla. Now, you see, I chose Rose, because I know. But if you want to fight me on this, then I can go into her, and I know you won't do anything to hurt her." She threatened with false bravado. "And she doesn't have much time left, the infected people are closing in on her. If you want her to live, you will open the damn doors!"

The Doctor gives in seeing how close they really are to Layla. And while he is sorry about Rose, Layla will always come first for him. He opens the doors and quickly pulls Cass/Rose in before hurriedly helping Layla in and closing the doors again before the victims could come through.

Cassandra is leaning against the wall when the Doctor storms over, his face darkened in his anger. He gets close enough to whisper so Layla doesn't hear, but not close enough to touch. "If you ever, and I mean ever threaten Layla again, I don't care whose body you're in, I will end you. The only reason I am letting you stay in Rose right now is because we don't have time to deal with you when there are infected people walking around. Don't push me, Cassandra. You think you know what she means to me? You don't know anything, and you don't want to know what lengths I will go to protect her. Do you understand?" He pulls back and he is satisfied to see fear in her eyes as she nods quickly.

The Doctor walks over towards Cass/Rose and whispers something in her ear, and Layla could see the fear on Rose's face at whatever he said and she nods rapidly. He turns and she sees the hardened angry glare he had until he looked at her and then his face softened. He grabs her hand and pushes Cass/Rose in front of them where he can keep an eye on her. They go back to ward 26 and enter but are stopped by Frau Clovis lunging at them with a metal stand trying to keep them out. "We're safe! We're safe! We're safe! We're clean! Look, look."

"Show me your skin." She demands.

The three of them all show her different parts that were easily accept to show and she could see that their skin was free of the infections. "Look, clean. Look, if we'd been touched, we'd be dead. So, how's it going up here? What's the status?"

"There's nothing but silence from the other wards. I think we're the only ones left. And I've been trying to override the quarantine. If I can trip the signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad."

"You can't do that. if they forced entry, they'd break quarantine." The Doctor said angrily.

"I am not dying here."

"We can't let a single particle of disease get out. There is ten million people in that city. They'd all be at risk. Now, turn that off!"

"Not if it gets me out." Clovis was so busy arguing with the Doctor that she didn't see Layla come up and take the device from her hand.

Layla quickly threw it on the floor and stomped her foot into it, causing it to break. "You really are a stupid woman, Clovis. If any of the infected get out, sure you can get out as well, but how long could you stay safe before they found you and touched you? They are surviving with the infection because they were born to it, you however, wouldn't survive being touched with only a couple of fingers. They would end up killing millions of people and then where would you be without the resources those people provide for you?" Clovis just stood there gaping like a fish and the Doctor smirked. His Promised One sure was blunt, and didn't hold back from the truth.

The Doctor looked around and realized that he could fix this. "Alright fine. So, it seems that we have to stop you lot from trying to kill millions of people. Suits me. Cassandra, Layla, novice Hame, everyone! Excuse me, your grace. Get me intravenous solutions for every single disease. Move it!"

Layla feels her heart pound at the commanding tone from him. She sees him gather a long piece of rope and hanging the medicine bags on it. She goes up to him with hers, and works on putting it on him herself. "You love taking control of things, don't you, Doctor? Would you like it if someone called you sir? Maybe you'd like to use this rope for other things as well if an order was disobeyed?" She said it seductively and the Doctor felt his body heat up with his imagination. He doesn't say anything as he stares at her with darkened eyes, but finishes gathering the medicine from everyone. Once it is all strapped to him, he turns to Layla and Cass/Rose. "How's that? Will that do?"

"I don't know. Will it do for what?" Cass/Rose asked dumbly. And Layla wanted to facepalm at her. She came up with this plan of stealing a body and getting money, but can't seem to understand why the Doctor wants medicine to infections when he said he was going to fix this situation of infected people.

The Doctor walks over to another lift than the one they came up and opens the doors. Cass/Rose looks at him like he is an idiot. "The lifts aren't working."

"Not moving. Different thing. Here we go." He jumps and grabs the cable line with something he found from the ward.

Cass/Rose looks at him in disbelief. "What do you think you're doing?" How was he going to fix this problem if he died in this damn lift. Not only that, what is the purpose of going to the lift in the first place.

"I'm going down! You're coming with me. If I leave you up here, you might run." He looks towards Layla and gives her a look of apology. "Sorry, but I need you to stay here and make sure no one in the ward tries to break the quarantine. Someone has to watch Cassandra and I need help. I'm sorry."

She doesn't know why he is saying sorry to her, but she nods to what he wants her to do. She isn't comfortable though with how Cass/Rose will have to hold onto him though, and she doesn't want to see it so she goes into the ward to wait for the Doctor to save the day. Cass/Rose shakes her head. "Not in a million years."

"I said I needed another pair of hands and I don't trust you to stay here. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive, why don't like live a little?"

"Seal the door!" Clovis shouts and quickly closes the door leaving Cass/Rose trapped with the infected victims approaching her. "No!" But she jumps anyways and holds onto his back. "You're completely mad. I can see why she likes you."

The Doctor was fighting a full body shiver and Rose's body touching him and what Cassandra just said didn't help. He has never and will never see Rose like that. He wishes Layla was the one with him instead, but he knows that if Cassandra was left alone, she would leave the first minute she thought it would be safe. "Going down!" The thing he grabbed from the ward acted like a wheel and with it attached to the cable, it takes them straight down the shaft and Cass/Rose screaming in his ear. Towards the end the Doctor applies the breaks and slowly lowers them to the top of the lift.

Cass/Rose fixes her shirt and hair. "Well, that's one way to lose weight."

"Now, listen. When I say so, take hold of that lever."

"But why?"

"Hold that lever!" He snaps at her tired of dealing with her and needing to be around Layla for the bond to calm down. "I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit about medicine myself." He started to open the medicine bags and empty them into the lift's disinfectant tank. "Now, that lever's going to resist. But keep it in position. Hold onto it with everything you've got."

"What about you?" Was she worried about him? No, but he was her only chance of getting out of this hospital alive.

"I've got an appointment. The Doctor's in." He drops down into the lift and uses his sonic screwdriver to open the doors. The infected people turn and look at him. He looks at them and smiles. "I'm in here! Come on!"

"Don't tell them." Cass/Rose yelled to him.

The Doctor ignored her. "Pull that lever!" The infected people start to come closer to him. "Come and get me. Come on! I'm in here! Come on!"

Commence stage one disinfection.

"Hurry up! Come on!" The medicine that he put into the tank is now spraying all over him and the infected patients that were close to the lift and had come inside with him, they leave when they see that they are being healed and want to help the other infected people. The Doctor gives a beaming smile. "Come on, come on! All they want to do is pass it on. Pass it on!"

"Pass on what? Pass on what?" Cassandra asked from the top of the lift, not wanting to come down with the infected still around.

The Doctor sighs heavily, she really is an idiot. "Pass it on!" He watches happily as the disinfected and wet humans touch those who are still infected and there are hisses and steam coming off their skin as they too are healed when the medicine touches them.

The Doctor motions for Cass/Rose to come down and reluctantly helps her down and wipes his hands along his clothes as if to get rid of her touch. She looks at him, not noticing the humans. "What did they pass on? Did you kill them? All of them?"

"No. that's your way of doing things. I'm the Doctor, and I cured them." A woman comes up to the Doctor and gives him a hug and he doesn't flinch, the bond seems to know that it is a hug to someone who, like Layla said, was a child. "That's right. Hey, there we go, Sweetheart. Go to him. Go on, that's it. That's it. It's a new sub-species, Cassandra. A brand-new form of life. New humans! Look at them. Look! Grown by cats, kept in the dark, fed by tubes, but completely, completely alive. You can't deny them, because you helped create them. The human race just keeps on going, keeps on changing. Life will out! Ha!

The quarantine is lifted and the authorities storm the place. The Doctor explains what had happened here and some of the NNYPD goes around to collect the nurses, other stay to help the new humans.

This is the NNYPD. Please step away from the shuttles.

All staff will present themselves to the officers for immediate arrest. I repeat, immediate arrest. All new life forms will be catalogued and taken into care. All visitors to the hospital will be required to make a statement to the NNYPD.

The Doctor heads back up to ward 26 dragging Cass/Rose with him. He looks around for Layla and spots her talking softly with the Face of Boe. He speeds walks over to them. "The Face of Boe! You were supposed to be dying."

"There are better things to do today. Dying can wait."

Cass/Rose groaned and grabbed her head. "Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face."

Layla and the Doctor glare at her. "Shh!"

"I have grown tired with the universe, Doctor, but you have taught me to look at it anew."

"There are legends, you know, saying that you are millions of years old." The Doctor hints wanting to get any confirmation to whether this was true or not.

"There are? That would be impossible." He says it with a hint of mischief in his voice.

"Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me."

Boe smirks at him. "A great secret."

"So, the legend says." The Doctor waiting semi patient.

"It can wait." He says teasingly.

The Doctor's face falls. "Oh, does it have to?"

"We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time, for the last time, and the truth shall be told. Until that day…" He gives Layla a smile, glad to see her again, and beams out of the ward.

"That is enigmatic. That, that is, that is textbook enigmatic." He turns to Cass/Rose. "And now for you."

"But everything's happy. Everything's fine. Can't you just leave me?" Cass/Rose pleads with him.

He shook his head. "You've lived long enough. Leave that body and end it, Cassandra."

"I don't want to die." Tears welled up in her eyes, but it didn't garner any sympathy from the Doctor or Layla.

"No one does." He tells her softly.

"Help me." She begs.

"I can't." He wasn't going to let her ruin someone else's life by taking them over if he could help it.

"Mistress!" They all turn and see Chip running towards them with a giant smile on his face.

Cass/Rose looks surprised, but happy as well. "Oh, you're alive."

"I kept myself safe for you, mistress."

Cass/Rose looked at him with a calculating gaze. "A body. And not just that, a volunteer."

"Don't you dare. He's got a life of his own."

"Hasn't he done enough for you Cassandra; doesn't he deserve freedom?" Layla asked her.

"But I worship the mistress. I welcome her." Chip gives his consent to Cassandra, not that she needed it in the first place.

"You can't, Cassandra, you…" The Doctor stops talking as energy leaves Rose and flies towards Chip.

Rose sways a bit and the Doctor steady's her and let's go when she looks okay. "Oh! You alright? Okay?"

"Yeah. Hello!"

"Hello. Welcome back."

Layla goes to Rose and gives her a hug. "I'm glad you're okay. I really didn't want to have to beat up your body if Cassandra refused to leave it." This startles a laugh out of both Rose and the Doctor.

"Oh, sweet lord. I'm a walking doodle." Cass/Chip complains.

The Doctor steps forward. "You can't stay in there. I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the city. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

"Well, that would be rather dramatic. Possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat." She reaches up and taps the hat on her head. "But I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life, and he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last…" She collapses onto her knees.

"Are you alright?" He might not like Cassandra, but he likes to think he has grown since Platform One and he didn't want her to die like this.

"I'm fine. I'm dying, but that's fine." She says it softly, finally accepting her end.

"I can take you to the city." The Doctor offered her.

"No, you won't. Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore. You're right, Doctor. It's time to die, and that's good."

The Doctor looks at her with slight pity. "Come on. There's one last thing I can do."

He takes the girls and Cass/Chip to the Tardis and he works on the controls sending them to a place unknown to them. When they arrive, the Doctor opens the doors and Cass/Chip look on in amazement, she looks at the Doctor gratefully. "Thank you."

"Just go. And don't look back."

"Good luck." Rose said. Layla doesn't say anything but gives her a soft look, feeling a small amount of sympathy for her. They don't stay to watch her die and head off to the vortex.

The Doctor looks at Rose. "Right, so you might have a headache right now. I'll have the Tardis put some medicine in your room, but sleeping will help you recover from being compressed."

"Alright, thank you Doctor and you as well Layla. I'll see you in the morning. Night!"

Layla looks at the Doctor with concern. "Are you alright? You were compressed as well."

"I'm fine. She wasn't in me long and my Time Lord biology protected me some."

"That's good. Were you aware of what she did when she was in you?"

"Not the whole time, why?"

Layla gives him a smirk that causes sweat to break out on his forehead. "Oh nothing, just… She said some interesting things is all." She turns and walks away from him to go to her room. Inwardly she is cackling at the panic he is going through.

"What… wait Layla! What did she say? Layla!" She doesn't come back and he huffs. He hopes that Cassandra didn't say anything about their bond, or what happened in the pod. Thinking of that experience again makes his blood heat up. He knows he needs to talk to Layla soon, but needs to find the right time where it can just be the two of them and they don't have to worry about Rose disturbing them or overhearing. He isn't too worried though, based on what happened today, she definitely has some feelings for him, and that thought makes him grin as he starts to work on their Tardis.