The Doctor didn't understand it. He'd asked quite a reasonable question, hadn't he? Someone must have seen something large falling from the sky in the middle of London. It was a strange thing to happen, wasn't it? He was sure Earth never had large metal objects falling from the sky on a daily basis, so why was everyone in the club laughing?
"Sorry, have I said something funny?" he asked as all the well-dressed patrons continued laughing, pretty much ignoring him. "It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."
A loud siren started sounding. They all continued to ignore him, not answering his questions at all, as they finished their drinks and all stood up to leave.
"Would've landed quite near here," he called after them with the hope that someone, anyone would answer him. "With a very loud..." He looked up at the ceiling, his brows furrowing. That sounded very familiar. What was it?
He watched the crowd leave, still unsure of what was going on, until his eyes landed on the posters stuck to the wall.
Hitler will send no warning!
"Bang," he finished off before shaking his head. No wonder no one was listening to him. He should have checked to see when they had landed. It was a rookie mistake, Danielle had been right. He was in World War 2 asking people if something had fallen out of the sky with a rather large bang. He was an idiot, and she would have seen him do that as well.
Not that he was entirely bothered about whether she thought he was an idiot or not. He just didn't like anyone seeing him be stupid.
He quickly headed for the door with no intention of heading down into the shelters with the rest of the population. Rose was stood there, a little smirk on her face which said she'd seen him flouder up on the stage.
"Not a word," he warned her before frowning. She was on her own. "Where's Danielle?"
"There's a kid, up on the roof," Rose explained quickly. "She went on to try and help 'im and told me to come get you."
The Doctor's eyes widened slightly. "And you let her go on her own?" he exclaimed. "Rose, there's an air raid on out there!"
"Yeah, one that neither of us knew about because you wouldn't pull out any of the alien tech," she countered. "Because you wanted to show off to Danni."
He was already striding towards the exit and she had to jog to fall back into step with him. "Danielle," he corrected without much thought. "And I wasn't showing off. I didn't have time to show off? Why would I show off?"
"Oh, you claim to be all non-domestic, but I know a bloke showing off when I see 'im," she told him. "You wanted to be all big and smart..."
"That's enough of that," he said firmly. "Now where is she?"
"She's up th..." Rose trailed off, frowning to herself as they looked up at the building above them. "Well, she was up there."
"Great." He chucked his arms up at his sides as he turned around, trying to spot the red head. It shouldn't have been difficult with that bright ginger hair of hers, but there was obviously no sign of her anywhere. "We've lost her, in the middle of a war, with an air raid going on!"
"She'll 'ave just gone after the kid," Rose replied. "She was hell bent on trying to catch them up. She'll head back to the TARDIS when she can. She grew up in London, she knows her way around."
"The streets have changed since you two were born," he reminded her, although he knew she was probably right. Danielle wasn't stupid, far from it. She'd either catch the kid and take them home, or give up when she couldn't and head back to the TARDIS. Either way she'd go back and wait for them.
Still, he'd feel a lot better if he could find her. But he also needed to sort out this large bomb-type thing that wasn't a bomb, that had landed in a city full of bombs.
He hated choices like this.
"Call her," he commanded, shooting Rose a look to let her know he wasn't joking around. "Let her know what we're doing and tell her to come straight back to the TARDIS."
Rose rolled her eyes but did as he said. Danielle's phone didn't even ring, it went to voicemail. "Hey Danni," she said cheerfully. "When you get this ring us back, would ya? The Doctor says head for the TARDIS, but we're going out looking for this metal thing. Be careful, though. He's managed to bring us to the middle of a world war..."
The Doctor snatched the phone out of her hand. "Enough of that," he warned her before holding the tiny phone to his ear. "Danielle, it's not safe out there," he told her. "Head back to the TARDIS and wait for us there. And no more wandering off."
He handed her back the phone before looking around. He wasn't sure what had landed in the city before something bad happened to it, or the population around it. Could he just wander around during a blitz? Even he knew that was a rather ridiculous idea.
Then again, he couldn't exactly just fly the TARDIS through the blitz, either. Short distance travel wasn't exactly the time machine's strong suit, after all. Last thing he needed was a bomb dropping nearby and him landing exactly underneath it.
And then there was the rapidly increasing nervous feeling he was getting. A deep feeling of dread that just seemed to get worse when he thought about her being out in London where there were bombs falling and no one around to save her from it.
"She wouldn't be stupid to walk around for too long," Rose reasoned. "Just, you know, in case you're worried."
His brows furrowed as he looked down to her, only to see the smirk on her face. She was obviously implying something that, as a nine-hundred-year-old alien, he knew all about. He rolled his eyes and walked away towards the TARDIS, not dignifying the implication with a response.
"Why does everyone wander off?" he asked no one in particular. "Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."
Rose joined him at his side as they headed up the alleyway. "Maybe you're not the boss that you…"
Ring!
The Doctor held up his hand to cut her off. There was definitely the distinct sound of a phone ringing coming from the blue police box. Rose nodded towards it. "That'll be her," she told him factually.
He shook his head, motioning at her to be quiet as he gingerly approached the TARDIS. His bewildered look confused her as he opened the small door on the front revealing the old-fashioned phone on the other side. Rose wondered for a moment if the TARDIS had changed it to fit the time period, but then remembered the blue police box it was currently pretending to be and dismissed the thought.
"How can you be ringing? What's that about, ringing?" he asked it. Rose was reminded yet again how alien he was. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"
"It's a phone, it's what they do," Rose told him slowly. She felt like she was talking to a toddler sometimes.
He looked at her like she had two heads. "It's not a real phone," he told her.
She pulled a face, defensive. "Well, how was I supposed to know that?"
"Don't answer it."
Rose jumped a mile at the new voice. They both looked down the alley to see a young woman, roughly Rose's age, walking towards them. She had her hair in braided pigtails and a long dark blue coat.
"It's not for you," she finished.
The Doctor and Rose shared a look before he turned to the woman. "And how do you know that?" he asked.
"'Cos I do," she replied with the typical cryptic firmness a lot of the people he encountered. "And I'm telling you, don't answer it."
"He said it's not real," Rose replied. "How can it be ringing if it's not real."
"Don't answer it," the woman repeated.
"But it's not even connected," the Doctor told her, turning to the phone. "It's not…"
"She's gone," Rose told him. The woman had turned and dashed when he'd turned his back. "What is going on?"
The Doctor didn't really have an answer. But, there was one way to find out. He picked up the phone. "Hello?" The phone crackled, as if there was a bad connection and he frowned. "Hello?" he tried again, but still there was no answer, just more crackling. "This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"
"Mummy? Mummy?" a child's voice asked.
Well, that wasn't worrying at all. A child that could phone a dummy phone, on the TARDIS, had to be incredibly powerful. "Who is this?" he asked. "Who's speaking?"
"Are you my mummy?" the child asked. They sounded scared, but it still didn't answer any of his questions.
Danielle had gone after a child. What if it meant she was in danger. "Who is this?" he demanded firmly.
"Mummy?"
"How did you ring here?" he pressed. "This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."
The child asked for their mummy one more time before they hung up and all he could hear was the dial tone. A dial tone on a phone that wasn't actually a phone. Something more than a misplaced bomb was going on here, and he knew it had to do with the thing that fell out of the vortex and into London. It could be anything, hurting anyone, luring young kind-hearted women away from safety and…
He quickly hung the phone up with more force that was properly necessary. He needed to work out what was going on and find Danielle. He knocked on the door. "Danielle?" he asked before opening the door. "Are you in there?"
There was no one and he slammed the door shut. "Who was it?" Rose asked him. "Was it Danni?"
"Danielle," he corrected. "And no, it wasn't. It was a child."
Rose's own brows furrowed. "Do you think it's the same one?" she asked.
"I don't know," he admitted. "But hanging around here isn't going to help." Something in the alleyway moved, knocking over a bin and they both turned their attentions to it. "That sounds like the right place to start. Come on."
As he ran to the end of the alleyway and Rose quickly followed. She knew he was worried about Danielle, as was she now that she'd found out they were in the middle of an air raid, but why couldn't he just admit it? It would make this running around a lot easier to bear. She was a sucker for a Rom Com.
~0~0~0~
They'd followed the young woman into an empty house, finding her looking after a gaggle of young girls and boys, making sure they were fed and watered. It was incredibly endearing, and showed that fighting spirit that made humanity the Doctor's favourite race, despite the fact that their actions could make them one of his least as well.
This young woman had taken it upon herself to look after as many homeless children as she could just because, in times of need, people helped each other. The Doctor knew grander and older races who wouldn't even dream of helping the most in need. He loved it.
It did occur to him that the group of kids may have known the one Danielle had been following, but that ended up being a dead end. It was while he was asking them about the bomb-that-wasn't-a-bomb, though, that there was a knocking on the front door.
"Mummy?"
Instantly the whole atmosphere of the room changed. The Doctor recognised the voice from the phone, but it was obvious the children all knew it as well.
"Are you in there, mummy?"
Both the Doctor and Rose shared a look before getting out of their seats. The Doctor pulled the curtain back on the window to see a little boy outside, gas mask on ready for the bombs that were going to fall.
Rose laid a hand on his arm. "That's the kid," she told him. "The one Danielle followed."
"Then where is she?" he asked in reply.
"Who was the last one in?" Nancy asked. The Doctor only had to take one look at her to see that she was panicking.
Ernie, one of the children, motioned at the pair. "Them two."
"No, they came 'round the back," she replied. "Who come in the front?"
"Me," a small lad spoke up, sounding shy, like he was going to get in trouble.
"Did you close the door?" she demanded. She was terrified of the child on the other side, they all were. She ran out of the room, locking the open front door before the child could get in, backing away from it the moment she could.
Rose and the Doctor followed her. "What's this, then?" the Doctor asked her, startling her.
"He's just a kid," Rose added. "We can't just leave him out there!"
"We can't let him in," Nancy told them both. "It's not exactly a child."
"What does that even mean?" Rose retorted, the maternal angriness Jackie Tyler portrayed so well coming out in her daughter. "Listen to 'im! He just wants his mum!"
Nancy's gaze dropped, but she didn't deviate from what she thought was best. She rushed into the dining room and ushered the children out the back door.
The child continued to cry for his mum, going as far as sticking his hand through the door, reaching for a parent he obviously couldn't find.
Rose gasped at the sight of the large gash on the back of his hand. "He's 'urt!" she exclaimed, moving closer to him. "We can't just…"
She reached out to check his hand but a vase had her moving out of the way. Nancy, now back in her large coat, had thrown it at the door. "You mustn't let him touch you!" she told them back.
"What happens if he touches you?" the Doctor asked lowly.
"He'll make you like him." This sounded like a terrible thing, although neither Rose nor the Doctor knew why.
"And what's he like?"
Nancy shook her head. She'd obviously already said more than she wanted to and she started backing away. "I've got to go."
"Nancy, what's he like?" the Doctor asked again.
"He's empty." The phone in the hallway starting ringing and Nancy instinctively backed away from it. "It's him," she said, desperate to get away. "He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw."
The Doctor didn't doubt that at all. The TARDIS phone didn't just ring on its own, the child was obviously using whatever it could find to communicate. He still couldn't understand why she seemed so terrified of the little boy. He picked up the phone.
"Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor didn't have a chance to reply as Nancy ripped the phone from his hand and slammed it back on the hook. Almost instantly the radio in the dining room sparked into life, music blaring out of it along with the child's pleas for his mummy.
"How's he doing that?" Rose asked the Doctor as a clockwork monkey started clapping its cymbals together. The Doctor tried to change the channel on the radio but while the music behind it changed, the child's voice didn't even flicker.
"You stay if you want to," Nancy declared before rushing out after the children. Rose didn't even wait for a look from the Doctor.
"I'm on it!" she cried, rushing out after Nancy. He didn't mind this time, because they needed to make sure that they didn't lose her. Nancy held a lot of answers they needed about the item they'd chased through the time vortex.
First, though, there was a scared little boy who needed help. That was why Danielle had gone off after him and the Doctor wanted to find out why.
"Please let me in," the child begged. The Doctor walked over to the door and crouched down in front of it.
"Your mummy isn't here," he broke to the child. Immediately the music came to a halt.
"Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor shook his head. "No mummies here. Nobody here but us chickens. Well," he looked over his shoulder to where everyone else had exited, "this chicken."
"I'm scared."
The little boy reached out, trying to grasp hold of something. The Doctor couldn't understand it – what did 'he's empty' even mean? From what he could see it was just a little boy who wanted him mummy.
"Why are those other children frightened of you?"
"Please let me in, mummy." He didn't seem to want to answer, which was more disturbing than frightening. There was a chance that he was so scared that all the little boy could ask for was him mummy. On the other hand, though, it could have been the only thing he could say, and that was what worried the Doctor.
If Nancy and the other children were scared of him, what had happened to Danielle?
"My friend went to help you. Do you know where she is?" he tried.
"Please, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs," the child begged, not giving an answer as the Doctor had expected. And, for every part of the Doctor that told him it was a terrible idea, there was a part that said that he really should let the child in.
"Okay. I'm opening the door now." The child pulled its hand from the letterbox and the Doctor undid all the bolts keeping the door locked. But when he opened the door the child was gone. No sign anywhere, or of Danielle.
~0~0~0~
They followed Nancy to her little hideout, where she was keeping food to help the kids she was looking after. Rose had to admit that she was rather impressed that, despite the war and the bombs, the girl was still trying to do her part. It was something that really was lacking in her time at large, but also something that she knew was still around in smaller communities.
She knew that, when she'd been away for the year she'd not meant to miss, people rallied around Jackie and took care of her. Apparently, she'd been inundated with cakes and casseroles and help that she'd had to start making excuses just to stop people coming around. They took care of their own on her little estate and stuff like this, the 'wartime effort', just reminded her of home.
Nancy had taken them to where the bomb-that-wasn't-a-bomb had landed. The Doctor still didn't know what it was, and therefore Rose didn't know either. All she could see was a large lump hidden under a tarpaulin. But there was obviously something underneath it, something that the soldiers around it didn't want them to see.
She lowered the binoculars the Doctor had given her to look into the area. "They don't want people in there, do they?" she commented as she handed them back."
"They put the fence up overnight," Nancy explained before motioning to beyond where the bomb was sat. "See that building? The hospital."
The Doctor raised his head, looking through the binoculars at the large, dark building. "What about it?"
"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."
The Doctor used the binoculars to examine the building, but saw nothing out of the ordinary for the time and place. He lowered his gaze back to the bomb. "For now, I'm more interested in getting in there."
"Talk to the doctor first," Nancy insisted.
"Why?" Rose asked. She couldn't help it. Now that she had met the Doctor, every time she even heard the word 'doctor' her first thought was him. Was he sat in that hospital, helping out those in need?
"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside," Nancy replied before she started heading up the stairs of the railway bridge and away from them
"Where're you going?" Rose asked her. "We need your help."
"There was a lot of food in that house," she replied. "I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
She turned her back again. "Can I ask you a question?" the Doctor asked without looking away from the bomb. Nancy didn't reply, which meant she wasn't objecting. "Who did you lose?"
"What?" she asked, confused.
The Doctor finally looked at her. The confusion wasn't real, it was just a mask she had on. He understood that all too well. "The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."
"My little brother. Jamie." It took her a moment, but no one could resist the Doctor's kind face. "One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just..." She looked ready to cry, but she was smiling fondly at the thought of her little brother. "He just didn't like being on his own."
"I'm sorry," Rose offered her. Nancy shot her a sad smile, appreciating the platitude.
"What happened?"
Rose nudged the Doctor in the side. "A bomb fell," she said, telling him off for a lack of tack. "What do you think happened."
To his credit, he did look a little sheepish and Rose felt the slight exasperation at his question fall away. She could see why Danielle liked him so much, he could be sweet at times.
There was a long pause. "What about you?" Nancy countered. "Who are you looking for?"
"What makes you think I'm looking for anyone?" the Doctor replied.
"The fact that you said so?" Nancy reminded him before her snarkiness fell away. "Because you keep looking," she explained. "Me? I know my- my brother ain't coming back. But you? You know they're out there."
"Our friend Danielle went after the little boy who came to the house," he said. "And we've not seen her since."
She nodded slowly to herself, almost as if she'd expected him to say that. "Go see the doctor," she insisted again. "He'll help you find her."
The Doctor watched her for a moment and, even if she felt uncomfortable, she didn't shift under his gaze. There was more to this human than she was letting on because she'd read him incredibly well. Now that there was a chance Danielle was up in that hospital he was all ready to disregard the unidentified object just to make sure she was alright.
He wasn't sure when she'd managed to pull such a desperate feeling from him, but he hated to think what his life would be like without her. Without either of them, really.
He shook his head, chuckling to himself. "Amazing."
"What is?" Nancy asked, because she really hoped he wasn't talking about what had happened to Jamie.
"1941," he replied before looking up. Fire exploded in the sky as a battle raged on around them. "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here." He chuckled again. "A mouse in front of a lion." He turned to Nancy. "You're amazing, the lot of you." Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me." He grinned. "Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world."
Without another word, Nancy turned and walked away. Rose, on the other hand, nudged him with her shoulder. "We scare you?" she asked teasingly.
The Doctor looked at her like she was stupid. "Have you met your mother?" he asked. He started heading down the stairs they were stood on and to the path that would lead them to the hospital. "Or Danielle? After watching her with your mistake of a boyfriend-"
"Adam wasn't my boyfriend."
"- would you want to be on her bad side?"
No, she didn't. She still found it rather hard to associate that whirlwind of anger with the quiet girl she'd barely noticed at school, but her anger wasn't exactly calm and collected. A red-head's temper, as her mum would have said.
"It's strange, though," she replied with a grin.
"What? The mysterious woman taking care of the runaways of the war? The military hoarding an alien craft? Or the child who's not a child asking for his mummy?"
"No, the way that your mind immediately went to Danni," she replied knowingly. "Like she's always at the front of your mind."
He looked positively affronted. "Or, perhaps, it's the fact that we still haven't found her," he pointed out. "You humans, always looking for a good gossip."
He stormed forward, keeping a pace that was slightly too fast for her to keep up with. She shook her head. God, it really was like living in a soap opera.
~0~0~0~
"What's wrong with them?" Rose hissed.
The Doctor didn't really have an answer for her. The wards in the hospital had been dark, but that was because of the air raid going on outside. But each ward had lines of beds, and in each bed was a patient. None of them were being monitored, none of them were moving. They all also had a gasmask on. Some of them weren't even in hospital clothing. They'd just been laid down and left. Each ward they'd checked had patients that all seemed to be the same. Lifeless and abandoned.
"You'll find them everywhere," a voice told them from the doorway, making Rose jump but the Doctor barely flinch. An older man with a white jack and a walking stick came into the room. "In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."
"Yes, we saw," the Doctor replied. "Why are they still wearing gas masks?"
"They're not," the man replied. "Who are you?"
"I'm, er," the Doctor started before thinking better of it. There were always people on the lookout for him, and he really didn't want to get Rose into more trouble than he did normally. "Are you the doctor?"
"Dr Constantine," he said. "And you are?"
"Nancy sent us," the Doctor offered, obviously trying not to give any more information.
"Nancy?" Dr Constantine said, a knowing tone in his voice that said he'd had visits like this before. He walked past them and towards the table in the middle of the room. "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."
"Yes."
"What do you know about it?"
"Nothing. Why we were asking," the Doctor explained. "What do you know?"
"Only what it's done." His pointed look at the patients said everything.
"All of them were hit by the bomb?" Rose asked, horrified. "But there's hundreds of them!"
If Dr Constantine was taken aback by the loud t-shirt and strange clothes she was wearing he didn't let it show. He'd probably seen enough to not care anymore. "None of them were," he replied. He chuckled, like he had told some sort of joke, before it quickly turned into a hacking cough. Rose immediately moved forward to help him sit down, but he stopped her with a wave of his hand.
"You're very sick," the Doctor commented.
"Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time," Dr Constantine replied. "Are you a doctor?"
"I have my moments," the Doctor replied with a shrug.
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No."
"Don't touch the flesh," Dr Constantine warned.
"Which one?" the Doctor asked.
"Any one." With a rather confused look the Doctor walked over to one of the patients.
"Has a young girl been brought in?" he asked as he pulled his sonic screwdriver. "Red head? Would have been in the last hour or so."
"We've not had any new patients in weeks," the man replied as the Doctor scanned the patient. Rose leaned over from the other side, but also took the doctor's advice and didn't touch the flesh. They were incredibly creepy looking. She guessed it was the gasmask.
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns," the Doctor listed off.
"Examine another one," Dr Constantine commanded. The Doctor moved around to the next bed, doing it again. Rose watched the bewilderment flash on his face.
"This isn't possible," he declared before moving onto another. "They've all got the same injuries."
"Yes," Dr Constantine confirmed.
"Exactly the same!"
"Yes."
"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand."
"But that can't be possible," Rose said, agreeing with him. "There must be- must be some difference."
"They're all identical," the Doctor told her before turning to Constantine. "How did this happen? How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim," the doctor started.
"Nancy's little brother?" Rose guessed and he nodded. "The one who died?"
"He was dead at first," Constantine corrected. "His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that?" he asked the pair, who didn't say a word. There wasn't a way to explain it and he obviously didn't expect them to. "What would you say was the cause of death?"
"The head trauma?" the Doctor guessed. Constantine shook his head. "Asphyxiation?"
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity?"
"No."
"All right. What was the cause of death?" he asked.
"There wasn't one. They're not dead." He whacked a bin with his cane. Every single patient, in unison, sat up in bed. Both the Doctor and Rose jumped away from them, the Doctor moving them both back towards the door. "It's all right. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."
"And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" the Doctor asked, horrified. If Danielle had touched the little boy, even for a second…
"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?" Constantine replied, sounding both offended and defeated.
"Just you? You're the only one here?"
"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor," the man retorted with conviction. The Doctor nodded.
"Yeah. I know the feeling," he muttered.
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb," Constantine said.
"And just kill them?" Rose asked. "But they're not dead, they can't be!"
"It's probably too late anyway," the Doctor said.
"There are isolated cases... Isolated cases breaking out all over London," he explained before coughing, choking on his own breath. They both stepped forward to help again, but he held a hand out to stop them. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she mi-mi- mi-" His hand flew to his neck and he looked up at them with painfilled eyes. "Mummy. Are you my mummy?" he gasped painfully before his whole face morphed, first with the mouth. Rose held a hand to her mouth in horror as he turned into another one of the patients, his features twisting horrifically.
"Hello?" a male voice called out from the hall.
"Doctor?"
Rose barely had time to register it was Danielle's voice. The Doctor was already out of the door and down the hallway and she had to jog to keep up with him. Down the hallway Danielle was almost jogging as well, trying to keep up with a rather good-looking man dressed in an overcoat.
"Doctor!" Danielle cried again, rushing the rest of the way. The man joined her, reaching out and shaking the Doctor's hand as he looked the man up and down, looking more than a little suspicious.
"Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness," he greeted. "I've been hearing all about you on the way over."
"Really?" Rose asked, looking at Danielle amused. She blushed slightly, shifting on the spot.
"I had to tell him about both of you," she said pointedly, even though she'd barely mentioned Rose at all. Jack knew this and didn't say a word though. "You know? How we're Time Agents and everything."
"It's a real pleasure to meet you, Doctor," Jack greeted before winking at Rose. "You as well, doll. Fine job you've both down with this beauty of an apprentice."
"I told you to stop that," Danielle muttered, looking down at her shoes. Rose could barely contain her laugher. Jack had obviously been flirting with her quite a lot, and while she would normally have stepped in and helped her with her discomfort, they'd both been rather worried about her and she'd just been hanging out with some rather handsome American man. She deserved to squirm a little.
Jack didn't hang around, walking straight into the ward and leaving the three behind. The Doctor immediately turned to Danielle.
"Where've you been?" he demanded. "We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time to run off."
"Yes, I'd noticed that," she snapped back. "I was trying to help a kid. Sue me for being worried."
"You should have waited," he continued to scold. "Anything could have happened."
"It did," Rose said cheekily. "She managed to find herself a man."
Danielle flushed harder as the Doctor looked alarmed for the moment. "Who is he?" he asked.
"A con man, I think," Danielle explained. "I was walking in the street and then, suddenly, I was beamed up onto his ship. He started talking about Time Agents or sommat, so I just went along with it."
"Beamed you up?" Rose asked, suddenly even more intrigued. "You mean, proper alien tech?"
Danielle nodded. "I think he was just showing off, to be honest. He was all champagne and dancing until he realised that I wasn't the one who could help him…"
"Hang on, hang on," Rose declared, hands out in front of her. "That's the bit you should have started on. Look at you! Danielle Song, picking up mysterious men from space."
"It wasn't like that," Danielle protested but the Doctor had heard enough. He could feel himself raging at the American man who had walked past him like he didn't have a care in the world. He normally would have been grateful someone had looked after one of his friends, but it sounded like he just wanted to take advantage of a girl out of her time.
"Did he say where he was from?" he all but snapped. Danielle frowned, shifting slightly. He seemed angry. Was it because she had disappeared? She hadn't meant to, she'd just wanted to save the kid from the bombs.
"Um, I think he's just from America," she explained. "But- But he said the thing we chased was a Chula war ship?"
With a nod, the Doctor spun on his heels and headed into the room. It didn't matter that the bomb was a Chula warship. It didn't matter there was a room of seemingly infectious dead people who weren't really dead. The man had beamed Danielle up from the street and had… had flirted with her.
And she'd blushed!
Well, it wasn't like he could blame her. This Jack was definitely younger than he was, and more good looking than he was, but he was the one she'd been amazed at before. He was the one who was supposed to hold her attention…
He shook his head, slamming the door open and he disappeared through it as well.
Danielle looked up at Rose. "I didn't mean to make you worry," she said softly. "And I didn't mean to make him mad."
Rose chucked her arm around her shoulders. "He's not mad at you," Rose replied. "He's mad about you. Honestly, he was ready to give up looking into this bomb just to find you." Danielle really didn't believe her and told her so. "Fine, don't believe me. We have more to worry about anyway."
She led Danielle into the ward, where Jack was already looking over one of the patients, his weird bracelet beeping as he seemed to scan it. He looked up briefly and winked at Danielle. "Everything alright, Danni?" he asked.
"Stop it," she replied shortly, like she'd had to tell him to stop quite a look. The Doctor crossed his arms in annoyance.
"Examine another one," he snapped and Jack nudged him on the way past.
"Don't worry, Doctor. She's all yours," he promised. He scanned another body and a frown appeared on his face.
"That's not possible," he declared, moving onto another patient.
Danielle looked to the Doctor. "What's wrong with them?" she asked him.
"They've all got the same injuries. It spread through touch," he explained lowly. She walked over to one of the beds, looking the person over. She didn't have fancy tech to check them out like Jack did, or a sonic screwdriver like the Doctor did, but she could see that whoever she was looking at was seriously hurt.
"The kid I followed had a gasmask on as well," she commented before gasping, looking up. "You don't think… That's not going to happen to me as well, is it?!"
"We don't know," Rose reassured her kindly. "Only if you touched them."
"This just isn't possible!" Jack exclaimed, walking into the middle of the room before turning to the Doctor. "You said by touch? How did this happen?"
The Doctor had the overwhelming urge to not answer him to just be spiteful, but it was a childish thought that he had to quickly push away. He couldn't help but glance at Danielle, though, who had moved away from the patients. She looked a little sad and that annoyed him even more.
"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" he asked Jack, who immediately turned around.
"What?" he asked a little too quickly.
"A warship, apparently," Danielle spoke up. "He said he knew where it was but that we needed to pay him off before he'd tell us."
Her voice sounded snippy, like she was telling a teacher on him. The Doctor appreciated it. "What kind of warship?"
"Does it matter?" Jack retorted, which was a sure sign he was hiding something. "It's got nothing to do with this."
"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it," the Doctor said. "What kind of warship?"
"An ambulance!" Jack exclaimed in exasperation. He walked over to him, pressing a couple of buttons on his wrist device. A projection of the thing they'd chased appeared. "Look. That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle—" he glanced up with a smile, "-love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait…" He waited for them to put the pieces together but while the Doctor's face darkened, the blonde looked confused. Danielle looked outraged. "I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
"I knew it," Danielle all but snarled. "You eyed me up and down until you realised I didn't have any money. Well, guess what? We're not bloody Time Agents. Your con failed!"
"That's what I am. I'm a con man!" he replied. "And I didn't see you turning me away, Danni-Girl."
"Yes I did!" she exclaimed. "I was trying to be nice!"
Jack chuckled. "The universe eats nice gals alive, doll," he told her. "Whatever's happening here had got nothing to do with that ship!"
Danielle couldn't look at him, turning away to walk to one of the bed. She didn't fancy him. She could appreciate a good-looking man, but it was rare that they ever caught her attention like the Doctor had. But he'd flirted with her. Offered her booze and danced with her. She knew that she never offered anyone a second glance, but it still hurt when they faked one towards her.
"What is happening here, Doctor?" Rose asked the Time Lord.
"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot," the Doctor explained. "Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"
Danielle screamed as the patients all sat up, springing into life. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy?"
Jack was the nearest to her and, as if he couldn't help himself, he jumped forward and grabbed her arm. He yanked her back and away from the beds and towards the group.
She really didn't want to smile, but she just couldn't help it. The patients all climbed out of bed, moving towards them, a threat to all of their safety. One touch would turn them all into gasmask wearing zombies calling out for their mothers.
But all she could think was that Jack had tried to save her. This man, who put up this flirty facade, couldn't help the instinct to help someone in need. Perhaps he wasn't as sleazy as she'd first thought.
"What's happening?" Rose asked as they all backed slowly towards the doorway.
"I don't know," the Doctor replied. "Don't let them touch you."
"That's the idea, yeah," Danielle replied, twisting her arm so that she could take Jack's hand. He seemed a little surprise, but she barely noticed. She was just terrified of the mass of zombies advancing towards them. It really was like something out of a horror movie and she'd never done well with those.
The Doctor noticed, though. He noticed and his blood boiled and the jealousy that hit him made absolutely no sense. But he knew he needed to break them apart before the con man hurt her again.
So he did the first thing that came to mind. He stepped forward, his eyebrows furrowed, an angry look on his face. This child was looking for his mother. He couldn't give them that, but he could be a father any day.
"Go to your room," he told them in his best angry voice. The advancing immediately stopped. "Go to your room," he repeated. In unison all their heads tilted to the side like a sad child who was being told off. "I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I'm very, very cross." The people didn't move, but they didn't continue their advance either. "Go to your room!"
He pointed upwards, as if he was sending them upstairs. And, to everyone's surprise including his own, they all slowly turned around and headed back to bed.
The Doctor stepped back into the group. "I'm really glad that worked," he said, looking to Danielle. She had a grin on her face, looking at him in absolute happy wonder. That was more like it. "Those would have been terrible last words."
She giggled, nodding as she let go of Jack. "That was amazing!" she exclaimed. "You have to show me how to do that sometime!"
The Doctor met Jack's gaze for a moment and couldn't keep the smugness off his face. He held none of the red-head's attention, and that was just how the Doctor wanted it.
~0~0~0~
I'm so sorry about the gap between the chapters. I hadn't realised it had been so long. All I can do is promise try and be better.
Either way, I hope you enjoy the chapter xxx