"Cardiff?" Amy gave the Doctor an expression that bordered on disgust and disbelief. "Your solution to figuring out Alex's pain attacks is in Cardiff?"
"Scoff all you want," the Doctor dismissed as he plugged in the coordinates, "but Torchwood has the most advanced medical equipment than any other place in the 21st century." He threw down a lever and stared at the central column. His eyes darkened. "And we don't have any more options."
Amy and Rory exchanged a glance, both keeping their mouths shut. They could tell that the Doctor was just one step away from snapping as he tried to figure out the source of Alex's mysterious pain attacks, and neither of them wanted to witness that.
They almost had just under twelve hours ago, after the Doctor brought Alex in from their ruined date on the Eye of Orion. While Alex had gone off to bed to recover from her latest attack, the Doctor had stalked and stormed in the control room. How long he had done that for they had no idea, since their minds were mostly on Alex. Fortunately, after a long night, they had come in just a few moments ago to see the Doctor hanging up the console phone before announcing that he had a possible solution to figuring out what was wrong with Alex.
"So. . ." Rory said slowly, gauging the Doctor's mood. He wanted a little information on these Torchwood people, but he didn't want to make the Doctor testier than he already was by asking probing questions. "These Torchwood people friends of yours?"
The Doctor looked up at him, the darkness in his eyes diminishing a bit. "One of them is," he replied. "And thank you for bringing that up, Rory. I do need to warn you two about Jack."
Amy tensed. "What's wrong with him?"
The Doctor couldn't help but laugh at her defensive, worried posture. "Nothing bad, Pond, don't worry. But Jack's a bit . . . experienced."
Amy and Rory raised their eyebrows. "Experienced?" Rory echoed.
The Doctor cocked his head, trying his best to figure out how to explain Jack. "Jack's originally from the 51st century," he began. "By that point, you human lot have spread out across the stars and . . . danced quite a bit."
Amy thought for a moment on what 'dancing' could mean. Then she got it. Her eyes widened. "Oh! You mean—"
"Yes."
A glimmer of recognition slowly lit up in Rory's eyes. "Hold on! Do you mean 'dancing' as in. . ."
"Sex, Rory," a new voice said. The three turned to see Alex leaning against the railing at the top of one of the staircases. She looked somewhat refreshed from almost twelve hours of sleep, but they could still see dark circles under her eyes beneath the makeup she had piled on top of them. She'd changed into a rather casual outfit consisting of a black tank-top, a long-sleeved dark blue knit-sweater, dark skinny jeans, combat boots, silver hoop earrings, and a black leather jacket. The TARDIS charm of her necklace was just visible beneath the knit-sweater.
As the Doctor rushed up the steps to her and helped her down to the platform, Rory pondered Alex's words. "So, this Jack bloke has . . . danced . . . a lot?"
"Him and many others in that time period," the Doctor confirmed. He smirked at Rory's stunned face. "So many species, so little time."
Rory made a little noise in his throat that sounded pretty close to a gag. Amy giggled a little, though she had to admit that she was also rather shocked about the information the Doctor had given them. As the Doctor led Alex to one side of the console, Amy leaned against the other side and eyed him through the rotor. "So, this Jack bloke? Is he like an ex of yours?"
The Doctor flicked a few switches and snorted. "No, but I'm sure he wishes."
"I rather liked him," Alex commented. She didn't notice the frown the Doctor gave at that statement.
"You've met him?" Amy exclaimed. "When?"
"Remember how I told you about those Shansheeth faking the Doctor's death?" When Amy nodded, Alex continued. "I used my sonic necklace to call Jack at Torchwood to see if UNIT had told him about the Doctor's 'death'. He hadn't known and he was going to join me at the funeral, but his team had to deal with a bunch of aliens. The Doctor and I talked to him again after we stopped the Shansheeth."
"Well, then he can't be too bad," Amy shrugged.
"He's not," the Doctor said. He rushed around the console, flinging levers and adjusting dials as the TARDIS, for once, flew steadily through the vortex. "But remember that when he tries to flirt with you two."
"Wait, what—" Rory started, but he was cut off as the TARDIS landed with a sound thump.
A second later, there was a loud knocking on the time machine's door. "Hey, Doctor!" a male American voice called out. "Let me in!"
The Doctor glanced up at the rotor, which was humming rather irately. "It's okay, old girl, let him in," he urged.
Alex raised an eyebrow as the TARDIS let out a rather annoyed hum, clearly reluctant to do as the Doctor requested. "Does she not like Jack or something?" she asked as she began to rub the console soothingly.
"It's because he's a fixed point," the Doctor explained. Outside, Jack continued to bang at the doors. "The TARDIS is sensitive to things like that."
Alex's brow furrowed. "But I'm a fixed point. Shouldn't she hate me, too?"
"You're different," the Doctor assured her. "You're the kind of fixed point the TARDIS is drawn to." He gave her a saucy little smirk. "And so am I."
Alex felt her cheeks starting to turn red. "Behave, Doc," she chided, trying to keep up her composure. She didn't want to give the Doctor the satisfaction that his comment had affected her so much.
No such luck. Instead, the Doctor chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist. "Don't I always, Ally?" he murmured in her ear, right before biting her earlobe.
A tremor ran through Alex, and she felt her heartbeat increase slightly. "This is not you behaving," she remarked, her voice coming out much steadier than she thought it would.
"Me not behaving would involve me throwing you down to the floor and snogging you till you couldn't remember your name," the Doctor growled. His eyes darkened and he smirked when Alex let out a breathy little gasp at his declaration.
"Wow!" a voice broke out. "You can practically taste the hormones coming off you two!"
The Doctor pulled back from Alex, his eyes closing as he cursed under his breath. Alex's cheeks reddened even further, and she slowly turned to look at the owner of the familiar voice.
Standing on the other side of the console, grinning like a lunatic at what he'd walked into, was Captain Jack Harkness. He looked just as he had the last time Alex saw him. Perfectly styled brown-black hair, blue eyes, and the kind of rugged good looks that would make anyone, man or woman, swoon. He was dressed sharply in a light-blue collared shirt, black trousers and a long, gray, WWII-style coat.
Alex had to admit, a few years ago, before she met the Doctor, she would have been on Jack like a deer-tick. Now though? Nothing. She only had eyes for the bowtie-wearing man currently glowering at the new arrival.
"Look who I had to let in," Amy said dryly, giving the couple a look that matched her tone. She leaned against the railing and crossed her arms. "Since the two of you were too busy flirting to notice that the TARDIS didn't unlock the doors for him."
"Nah, it's alright," Jack dismissed. He gave the Doctor a wink before whirling around to grin at Amy. "Besides, I'd rather be let in by a gorgeous Scot any day of the week."
Amy's face turned as red as her hair, and she giggled. Damn, Jack was good.
Rory's face noticeably tightened at his wife's giggling. He immediately crossed over to her and wrapped an arm possessively around her waist, just like he had seen the Doctor do countless times to Alex. "Hi," he greeted, his smile fixed and his voice hard. "I'm Rory Williams, her husband."
Unfortunately, Rory's attempt to get the suave immortal to back off Amy didn't work. Jack simply continued smiling. "Really, you're her husband? Well, no wonder! You're gorgeous!" He grasped Rory's hand and shook it, either ignoring or just not noticing the flabbergasted expression on the man's face. "Captain Jack Harkness, nice to meet you."
Rory shook his hand, but he turned his astonished expression to the Doctor and Alex as if seeking clarification for what just happened. The Doctor smiled innocently. "I did warn you," he reminded his companion.
Jack twirled on his heel to face the Time Lord. "Doctor!" he exclaimed. He walked over and enveloped the man in a hug. Alex couldn't help snickering at the Doctor's suddenly stiff frame. "Good to see you in the flesh!"
"Jack," the Doctor grunted. He awkwardly patted the immortal on the back before managing to extract himself from Jack's grip. "Good to see you, too."
"You're late, by the way."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Am I?"
Jack rolled his eyes. This was the Doctor alright. "You were supposed to be here at noon. It's three o'clock now."
The Doctor turned to examine the console controls. "Ah, well, you know how temperamental the TARDIS is," he said with a wave of his hand, dismissing the subject. Seconds after he said that, the console hummed in what was clearly an insulted manner.
Alex patted the console. "Actually, she and I both think it's something to do with the pilot."
"Oi!" the Doctor frowned, giving her a hurt look.
Jack just laughed. "Truthfully, I'd be surprised and a bit worried if he was right on time," he confided. He ran his eyes up and down Alex, partly to check her out, and partly because he was mega-curious about her and her connection to the Doctor. Anyone whose name made the Daleks rattle like they had during the Reality Bomb fiasco had to be someone very powerful, someone who was very much feared.
But as he stared at the brown-blonde haired, hazel eyed, 5'4 girl in front of him, he couldn't figure out how she could be that someone in the future. Maybe it's because she's a fixed point, Jack thought. He would have to remember to ask the Doctor later. He knew that the Time Lord had to be extra determined to figure out Alex's fixed-point status when her life was currently on the line.
But for now, he smiled at the pretty brunette. If he wasn't with Ianto, and if Alex wasn't clearly with the Doctor, Jack knew he'd definitely be trying to add her as a notch to his bedpost. But that didn't mean he couldn't do a little mild flirting, if only to get the Doctor riled up. "Alex Locke," he greeted, his accent enunciating the consonants in her last name. "You get prettier every time I see you."
Right on cue, the Doctor glared sharply at him. "Harkness," he warned before Alex could get a word out. He remembered when he told Alex about Torchwood and she had asked him if they could visit sometime. He'd pictured the flirting Jack would do with her and visualized punching the handsome former Time Agent in the nose. At the time, he'd thought that the image was an exaggeration of what would really happen, but now it appeared that his imagination hadn't been totally off target.
"I'm just saying hello!" Jack protested.
"With you, that's enough." As he said this, the Doctor moved closer to Alex. He wrapped an arm around her waist and clutched her to his side. He allowed himself a little smile when he felt Alex automatically sink into him. He knew that if he looked down, he would see her smiling upwards reassuringly, letting him know without words that she only wanted him.
Jack eyed the Doctor's very possessive move, knowing that it was his way of saying 'the brunette's off-limits'. Jack had to admit that it was very strange seeing the Doctor this possessive of somebody. His ninth self had been like that with Rose, but nowhere near the intensity Eleven seemed to have with Alex. The Ninth Doctor would have probably burst into flames if he wrapped an arm around Rose's waist. What's different about this girl?
"It's nice to meet you properly," Alex said, pulling Jack out of his ponderings. "The Doctor's told me a lot about you."
"Really?" Jack wondered if he sounded as surprised as he felt. The Doctor wasn't one to really reminisce about past companions. Martha hadn't known about him when he met her. But it was becoming very clear very quickly to Jack that Alex was not your typical companion. She made people different, in a good way, the Doctor being the most noticeable.
"Yep. Along with stories you've told him, too."
Jack couldn't help but grin. "And he made them all sound bad, didn't he?"
"Don't blame me," the Doctor jumped in. "I didn't have the bright idea to flirt with and shag the ambassador of Levian's wife."
"In my defense, I didn't know she was married."
"You should've been able to tell by the cuff on her wrist. Levian's wear marital cuffs that can only be taken off by their spouses."
Wonder if Levian is a sister planet or something to Vivuldi, Alex absently thought, recalling the marriage jewelry she'd seen on the latter planet.
"No one goes to Levian!" Jack protested. His tone made it sound as though this was something he'd said many times. "It was voted the third most boring planet in the Yasmin Cluster."
"And then," the Doctor went on, ignoring him, "you somehow managed to find a wild Borbos beast . . . and lose your clothes in the process."
Jack smiled at that memory. "Ah, good times," he sighed.
Amy and Rory, who up until this point had been watching and listening attentively to the conversation, stared at Jack in amazement. "Wait, what was that?" Amy cut in.
"You met a Borbos beast?" Rory exclaimed. They had met one of the bear/rhino hybrid-looking creatures during an unfortunate safari expedition in the 33rd century. Rory was still amazed that they'd managed to make it back to the TARDIS before they were all torn limb from limb by the fierce creature.
"Yeah, nasty things," Jack confirmed. "Nearly took a bite out of my leg. . ."
For a few minutes, Alex was engrossed in Jack's tale about his encounter with the Borbos beast, and more than a little amused with the Doctor's sarcastic comments at irregular intervals. But her attention was soon pulled away as she became aware of a poking sensation on the left side of her chest. It was faint at first but quickly became more prominent and sharper. And then came the feeling of someone stabbing something sharp through her flesh.
"AH!" Alex screamed. She stumbled back, a hand clutched to her chest as the pain became even more unbearable. She would have fallen over if the Doctor's arm hadn't been wrapped around her. Alex squeezed her eyes shut and hunched over, wrapping her arms around her chest as though it could somehow counteract the unknown malady.
"Damn it!" she heard the Doctor shout in frustration. "It's happening again!"
"Get her inside Torchwood," Jack ordered, his flirty manner suddenly replaced by a very authoritative one. "Now!"
Before Alex knew it, the Doctor had scooped her up in his arms and was dashing across the control room, Jack and the Ponds following close behind. The TARDIS doors opened by themselves, and Alex caught a murmured 'Thanks, dear' from the Doctor as he ran out.
Luckily for Alex, the Doctor had managed to park inside Torchwood Three, thus saving time in getting her to the nearest medical bay. He rushed past the Hub and down a gray-brick hallway.
"Second right!" Jack called from behind them.
The Doctor didn't break his stride. If anything, his running seemed to speed up a notch. He looked down at Alex. Her eyes were still squeezed shut and he could see a few teardrops running down her cheeks. Her hands were clenched around the lapels of his jacket, and she was whimpering in pain. The Doctor mentally cursed whatever was causing her such suffering and forced his legs to move faster, harder, towards where they could get some answers.
So caught up in doing this, he didn't even notice Gwen Cooper coming out of a nearby conference room. She looked up in confusion from the pile of papers she was reading as the Doctor ran past. "What's—"
"Not now, Gwen!" Jack shouted over his shoulder as he and the Ponds passed. Gwen, not one to be deterred so easily, merely dropped her papers in a messy pile on the floor and hurried after them.
All too soon, but not soon enough for the Doctor's liking, they arrived in one of Torchwood's many medical bays. The room was a small, compact one with white brick walls and a tan tiled floor. In the center was a hospital bed with nothing but a thin white sheet and a pillow on it. Straps dangled off the sides for the more unruly patients while several monitoring screens had been set up on the wall above it. Carts cluttered with various medical instruments sat along the perimeter of the room, along with a few white medicine cupboards. As the Doctor and Co. ran into the room, they saw that another member of Torchwood was already in there: Owen Harper, Torchwood's medical officer.
Owen turned on his heel when he heard the several sets of feet run in. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the shaking Alex, but his doctor training quickly took over. "Put her on the bed," he ordered the Doctor, who was already in the process of doing that.
As the Doctor placed the whimpering, writhing Alex on the bed, Jack, the Ponds, and Gwen all skidded in. "No, no, too many people," Owen objected. He moved forwards and started pushing the Ponds and Gwen out the door. "Out, out, out! Into the hall."
"But she's our friend!" Amy argued. She moved to shove him out of the way, but Owen easily side-stepped her, causing her to slam into Jack.
"Sorry, Scotty, but he's right," Jack told her. "Too many people in here will make it too hard and distracting to figure out what's wrong with her."
Amy went still, considering his words.
"We'll let you know when we know something," Jack assured her. He glanced at the Doctor for agreement, but he was too busy watching Alex to notice much of anything else.
"Come on, Amy," Rory said quietly. He grasped Amy's arm and pulled her to the door. "Do as he says." Amy silently nodded and without another word, allowed herself to be led out into the hall.
Jack watched them go for a moment before turning to Gwen. "Hey, Gwen, could you get them some coffee or tea or something?"
"Sure, but where's Ianto?"
"Out with Tosh checking on the Weevil monitors she set up. Let me know the second they get back, okay?" Gwen nodded and stepped out, shutting the door behind her.
With that having been taken care of, Owen and Jack dashed over to the hospital bed. Alex was now kicking and thrashing erratically, despite the Doctor's attempts to hold her still. Tears were running down her cheeks and her cries of pain seemed amplified in the small room. Jack and Owen scrambled to hold down some of Alex's limbs, but nothing they did stopped her from thrashing for very long.
"This is no good," Owen grimaced as Alex's hand involuntarily swiped his arm away from her. "We'll have to sedate her."
Anyone could see that the Doctor was not thrilled with the idea, but he nodded his consent nevertheless. "Do what you need to," he said quietly. Jack was sure that it wasn't his imagination that the Doctor sounded tired and weary.
Owen dashed across the room to one of the carts. He frantically picked up vials and bottles for several seconds, the glasses clinking against each-other as he set stuff back down, but finally, he found what he was looking for. He grabbed a syringe already lying on top of the cart and filled it with a clear liquid. "Move!" he shouted as he ran back to Alex. The Doctor and Jack moved back a few steps as Owen grabbed Alex's right arm. He pulled her wrist towards him, exposing a long blue vein. Holding Alex's wrist tight in his hand, he injected the needle into her skin.
"Fast-acting sedative," he smiled at the Doctor. "If it moves, it doesn't."
"How fast-acting?" the Doctor inquired.
"Less than a minute."
The Doctor looked down at Alex's currently neon-green eyes. At some point when he hadn't noticed, she'd opened them. He studied them. Instead of getting foggy or drooping, they were crystal-clear. "Doesn't look so fast-acting to me," he remarked, a note of warning in his voice.
Owen frowned at Alex. "She should be halfway unconscious by now!"
Jack eyed Alex critically. "Alex, do you feel tired?"
Alex shook her head. "No, I don't— AHH!" She suddenly arched forward as a shocking, slicing sensation began in her abdomen. She let out a sob and clutched the Doctor's arm. "Oh, God, make it stop!" she begged, her eyes clenching shut and the back of her neck becoming damp with sweat.
The Doctor gave Owen a hard look. "HELP HER!" he shouted, his voice thundering in the small room.
Any lesser man might have pissed his pants. Fortunately, Owen was used to working under high-pressure stakes. He ran across the room to another cart and grabbed a different bottle of liquid and syringe. He hastily poured a mucus-green colored liquid into the syringe before rushing back over to Alex and jamming the needle into her wrist. They waited a few moments. When Alex's back arched and she let out another squawk of pain, Owen zipped over to a medicine cabinet and started rummaging through boxes of spare medical supplies.
Meanwhile, Alex continued to flail about. The pain was horrible. Now, instead of just a horrible slicing, stabbing sensation, she felt like someone was actually foraging her organs. Invisible fingers fluttered over something on the right side of her chest, another pair at her lungs. As if that weren't enough, her head started aching, as though to protest what was happening to her body.
Her neon-green eyes traveled over to the Doctor. "Doc," she sobbed, tears going down her cheeks and neck and landing in her hair. It made her cringe. She hated that there was so much water touching her skin right now, but when compared to the cutting, slicing, touching feelings currently going on beneath her skin, it wasn't a huge concern.
The Doctor knelt down and brushed some teardrops away from her blotched, red skin. "Shh, it'll be okay," he soothed, trying his best to make her believe that as well as himself. He ran a hand through her hair and relaxed marginally when Alex leaned into his touch.
Seeing that Alex had mollified somewhat, he raised his head. "What the bloody hell is taking so long?!" he snapped. He glowered darkly at Owen and Jack. If looks could kill, Owen would be permanently dead, and Jack would have died at least five times by now. "How damn hard is it to find a blasted sedative?!"
"It's damn hard when the patient can't be knocked out!" Owen yelled back.
"Calm down, both of you!" Jack shouted.
At that moment, someone knocked on the door. "WHAT?!" all three men shouted. Alex, for her part, mewled a little.
The door opened and Gwen cautiously poked her head in. Even though the walls at Torchwood were pretty thick, it was next to impossible to keep from hearing the men's shouts down the hall. "Ianto and Tosh are here," she said quietly, as though her voice could set off another outburst.
Jack sighed in relief. "Show them in."
A second later, Ianto and Tosh were being shoved through the door. "What's going on?" Tosh asked. She quickly surveyed the room. Owen had his head partially stuck in a medicine cupboard, Jack was standing by the foot of the bed, his knuckles gripping the frame so hard they were turning white, and the Doctor was standing at the head, one of his hands robotically running through Alex's tresses.
Owen didn't even bother to remove his gaze from the depths of the cabinet when he answered. "We're trying to sedate her, but nothing we've tried works!"
Ianto looked at Alex. His heartstrings tugged painfully as he watched her writhe around in torment, tears running down her face as fast as the Doctor could wipe them away. "But why? She can't just not be sedated, can she?"
"I don't know," Owen growled through gritted teeth. "I'll be happy to answer that when she's finally knocked out!"
"Okay, okay," Tosh jumped in. She held up her hands in a calming gesture. "What did you use on her?"
"The fast-acting sedative and the Daxon 12 stuff."
"Here." Tosh went over to a cart and grabbed a pouch full of purple pills. She crushed them with a nearby water-glass. "The Rixium pills we confiscated from that place in Ealing!"
Owen jumped to his feet and grabbed the powder and water-glass from her. After filling the glass with water from a nearby sink, he poured the powder into it. He swirled the purple water around a little, then dashed to the bed. "Here," he said, handing the glass off to the Doctor. "Get her to drink that."
The Doctor waited for Alex to make a little retort, something like 'She is right here', but nothing came. Alex really was in agony if she couldn't make her familiar quips and sarcastic remarks. He leaned over her and put the water-glass to her lips. Alex obediently drank it, though her nose wrinkled in disgust as she did so. The second the Doctor placed the glass down, Alex allowed a full grimace to cross her features. "That's disgusting." She shot a mild glare at Owen and Tosh. "That tasted and smelled like dirty, sweaty socks!"
"But you feel drowsy now, right?" Owen asked hopefully.
Alex was silent for a moment as she analyzed her body's responses to whatever they had just given her. "Not just—" she started, but she was cut off at the sensation of something gripping one of her lungs. It was horribly uncomfortable, even more so when she felt it being tugged. Involuntarily, a loud yell passed her lips.
Everyone stared at her in alarm. "Nothing's working!" Jack shouted over Alex's yells.
"Do something!" the Doctor barked. His hearts constricted in terror at the sound of his Ally's helpless screaming. They had to do something to stop this, stop her suffering. Otherwise . . . he wouldn't know what to do, and that was something he did not want to think when it came to Alex.
Owen looked around in frustration, wracking his brain for any other sedatives Torchwood had. Tosh hurried to one of the monitoring screens and switched it on, typing in various commands on the holographic keyboard the second it came up.
Jack continued to stand at the foot of the bed. He felt so helpless, watching the Doctor, one of his oldest and closest friends, look on in anguish at the girl who had clearly captured both of his hearts. He had brought her here, hoping that Jack and the rest of the Torchwood team could figure out what was wrong with her, but they couldn't even sedate her.
There wasn't anything they could do.
"Fuck," Owen groaned. "There's nothing else in here." He ran his hands through his short brown hair and let out a few more swear words before finally collapsing against the wall, his forehead bouncing hard off the bricks.
"Not necessarily," Ianto's voice rang out. Everyone (other than Alex, who was crying and kicking around in agony) looked up at him. All of them so busy with their respective tasks, none of them had noticed him slipping out of the room and returning with a frying pan. He marched over to the side of the bed the Doctor wasn't standing beside; all the better so that the Time Lord couldn't stop him.
"Ianto," Jack said slowly, "what are you doing?"
"Helping," was all the reply they got. He continued striding over to the other side of the bed, looking like a man on a mission. He raised the pan as he got closer to Alex. "Sorry, Alex, this'll hurt me more than it hurts you." And before anyone could stop him, Ianto swung the pan at Alex's head. With a sharp BOING, the frying pan slammed against her skull. Alex's head abruptly fell back against the pillow and her limbs quickly followed. Ianto had knocked her unconscious.
For a moment, everyone just stared at him. Bristling under the intense scrutiny, Ianto shrugged and said, "She needed to be unconscious, didn't she?"
"Not with a bloody blow to the head," the Doctor muttered as he opened one of Alex's eyes and started scanning it with his sonic.
"Where'd you get a frying pan?" Jack frowned.
"In the kitchen," Ianto answered. "Leftover from that time you decided to try cooking for us instead of ordering a curry."
"She's fine," the Doctor announced before Jack could formulate a reply. He rose and tucked the sonic screwdriver back in his jacket pocket. "Knocked out, just as you said. Luckily, you only gave her a glancing blow to the head."
"How long will she be out?" Tosh asked.
"Probably an hour or two," Owen hypothesized. He moved to the monitoring screens and started switching more of them on. "Which means we have no time to lose. Okay, Tosh and Ianto, we need room, so go out and keep the others company." Knowing better than to argue, Tosh and Ianto went out the door, Ianto still carrying the frying pan.
Owen went to one of the carts and picked up another syringe, along with an anti-septic wipe and a roll of gauze. "I'm going to take a blood sample from her. I'll run it and see if it can tell us anything about why she's having these attacks. Then while it's running, we'll scan her with the monitoring screens to spot anything."
The Doctor merely nodded. He wasn't too concerned with what had to be done just so long as it helped Alex.
It didn't take long for Owen to get a vial of Alex's blood and to go and start the blood test in the medical room across the hall. Upon returning, he began typing a bunch of directions into the monitoring screens. "This is basically like an X-ray, without the actual rays," he told the Doctor. "Very advanced stuff."
Only then did the Doctor realize that this equipment was more advanced than he'd originally thought. "Where did you get this stuff anyway?" he asked.
"I confiscated a lot of stuff from Torchwood One after Canary Wharf," Jack explained. "The government didn't really object. After the battle, they were eager to disband Torchwood as quickly as possible."
"Shouldn't have formed it in the first place," the Doctor muttered, but before he could say anything else on the subject, one of the monitoring screens beeped. He hurriedly looked up, searching out the one that went off. "What is it?"
Owen was staring at one of the screens in confused shock. "I-it's saying that. . ."
"What?" the Doctor demanded.
"Spit it out, Owen!" Jack ordered.
Owen gulped before finally saying, "It's saying that Alex's internal organs are both there and not there."
The Doctor's gaze shot to the very top screen. Sure enough, just like the pregnancy scans he'd been running on Amy, the words YES and NO were flashing over an outline of Alex's body. "What?" he breathed.
Owen nodded. "I know. I can't believe it myself."
"Is the screen broken?" Jack checked. "Or malfunctioning?"
"Tosh upgraded them two weeks ago, but I can get her to check if you'd like."
"Do that."
Once Owen left, the Doctor ran a hand through his hair. "This cannot be possible," he mumbled. He began pacing the room. "This is just what happened to the scans I did on Amy. And every scanning of Alex has yielded negative results."
Jack's brow furrowed. "What do you mean, this is what happened to the scans you did on Amy?"
Before the Doctor could answer, Owen returned, Tosh in tow. "It's that one," he said as they came in, pointing to the screen that was still alternating between YES and NO.
Tosh stared at the screen in surprise for a moment before quickly jumping into action. "Okay, hold on," she requested as she rushed over to the holographic keyboard and started typing commands. Above her, the monitoring screen abruptly switched to a black background with several green computer symbols running down it. Tosh pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and typed a few more commands in. After almost a full minute of this, she reached up and turned the screen off. "I issued a basic update," she explained to Jack.
"Did you see anything wrong in the programming?"
Tosh shook her head. "No, but it may have just needed a reboot. We haven't used the monitoring screens for a while now, after all."
A few moments later, the screen was ready to turn back on again. Tosh stood up on tiptoe and switched it back on. It took a minute for the screen to switch over from black. But when it did, it went right back to the image of Alex's outline, with YES and NO taking turns flashing across it.
Tosh stared at it blankly. "I don't understand," she said in confusion. "There's nothing wrong with the software. Why's it doing that?"
But before anyone could answer – not that they even had an answer – a distant beeping rang out. Owen immediately launched into a jog across the room and to the door. "Blood test," he called in explanation over his shoulder. He returned a moment later, deeply engrossed in a sheet of paper.
"Well?" Jack said as the Doctor rushed over to peer at the blood results.
"It says her blood is resisting testing."
The Doctor shook his head. "Wonderful!" He swiveled around and started pacing again. "Think, think, think!" he snapped to himself, punctuating each word with a hit to his forehead. "Internal organs that may or may not be there, blood that can't be tested, random attacks of pain, stabbing feelings, feeling like someone's fondling your organs. . . There must be some explanation!"
Jack looked at Tosh. The Doctor was right. There had to be some explanation for Alex's symptoms and weird test readings. "Tosh, I want you to check our database. See if there's been any symptoms like these reported before."
"Got it."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Forty-five minutes later, they still hadn't heard anything from Tosh, who had holed herself up at her computer station in the Hub and was refusing to let anyone in until she found something. The last the Doctor heard, Amy, Rory, Ianto, and Gwen were in the kitchen, although what they were doing in there, he had no idea. To be honest, he didn't really care. His whole focus was on Alex. She was still unconscious, but so long as she was, she wouldn't feel any pain if more came.
He sat on the bed, legs crossed, and an arm wrapped around Alex's head. His fingers were absently playing with strands of her hair. He regarded her peaceful face. He had always thought she was beautiful when she was asleep. Well, she's always beautiful, he thought, tucking some strands of hair behind her ear.
On the other side of the room, Jack sat in a chair he'd dragged in, unabashedly watching the Doctor. He was pretty sure the Time Lord had forgotten he was there or else didn't really care that he was witnessing a private, personal moment. Jack couldn't help but smile softly when the Doctor looked down at Alex with an expression that could only be described as devotion. It was a look Jack had never seen on the Doctor's face before, not even with Rose. And he couldn't help but be glad that Alex was the one to bring out this new expression.
He's gotta be in love with her, Jack thought. He could tell. He had been around a while and had been in love a couple of times, so he could instantly tell when a man was like that. And the Doctor, for all his past declarations of being a 'superior Time Lord', supposedly above that kind of thing, was still a man.
Jack was pulled out of his musing by the door opening a crack. Owen poked his head around the doorframe. "Hey, Tosh found something."
By the time Jack stood up, the Doctor was already halfway across the room. Finally! Something that could tell them what was wrong with Alex! He all but pushed past Owen as he rushed out of the room and headed to the Hub.
Tosh was at her computer station, typing something with one hand while the other lifted a tea-mug to her lips. It was clear that she had been working hard for her glasses were askew, her hair was slightly messy from raking her hands through it, and there were a bunch of notepads on the table in front of her, all of them scribbled on with different colored pens. She barely looked up when the Doctor approached. "I've found it," she told him as Owen and Jack came jogging up. "Took a lot of digging and analyzing, but I finally found it." She paused to sip some of her tea. When she was done, she set about using both hands to type in a command. A moment later, an image of Alex lying in her hospital bed was on one screen, most likely part of security camera footage. Another screen showed a digitalized file labeled FLESH.
"This is from one of the files Jack filled out when he first began working for Torchwood," Tosh explained, nodding to the FLESH screen. "You probably don't remember it, Jack."
"Probably not," he agreed. "That was two centuries ago to me."
"Well, the files you filled out back then weren't put into the computer until shortly before Canary Wharf. After that, the government put them in the hands of UNIT, and they kept these tightly guarded. Password encryptions, trick back-doors, you name it. It took me a while to get in there and copy them to our system, but I did it."
The Doctor struggled not to snap at her to get on with it. "So, what is FLESH?" he questioned.
"Right, sorry. This file describes a material called the Flesh. It's a substance that won't exist until the next century. It's used to create copies of people. It can copy the molecular structure of any being and can perfectly replicate the organism's physical characteristics."
"I remember this," Jack nodded, his brow crinkled in thought. "It's used as a way to safely do dangerous jobs or tasks."
The Doctor stared at the screen, somewhat unable to believe what he was hearing. "A-are you saying that Alex is actually a Flesh duplicate?" he stammered bewilderedly. How could that be possible? She'd been with him for almost a month, technically four months if you considered the time she spent counting the Silence in 1969. He would have noticed if something like that had happened . . . wouldn't he?
Tosh looked at him sadly. She could only imagine the thoughts running through his head. "I'm sorry," she said softly, "but it appears so. Alex's mind is here, her thoughts, feelings, and memories, but not her physical body. It's . . . somewhere else."
"It explains why her test readings are so wonky, too," Owen jumped in before the Doctor could ask the question that was now plaguing his mind. He leaned over Tosh's chair to better examine the screen. "According to the file, the Flesh are really only meant to be a mind-suit, hold a person's consciousness. It mimics the feelings of other organs and bodily functions, but they're not really there."
"This is insane," the Doctor muttered, but he knew they were telling the truth. After all, what reason did they have to lie to him? But even this knowledge didn't make it easier for him to accept this rather bizarre explanation.
Suddenly aware that Owen was still talking, he forced himself to tune back in. " . . .and all of that's not even counting the signal Tosh detected."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Signal?" he echoed.
The Doctor's brow furrowed. "What signal?"
Owen blinked. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." He looked at Tosh expectantly. "Show 'em the signal, Tosh."
Tosh began typing again. A second later, the FLESH file was replaced by a black background with a green line moving up and down along it. "Our systems detected a signal being beamed directly in here. It's almost undetectable unless you're looking for it, and even then, it's still really well hidden. Our Rift monitoring systems caught it. Specifically, it's being beamed directly into the med-bay where Alex is now."
The Doctor leaned closer to examine the signal, his forehead nearly touching the screen. "If what you're saying is true," he said quite seriously, "then this signal has been beaming directly into the TARDIS regardless of where we were in time and space."
"So very clever people then," Jack surmised.
"Extremely clever," the Doctor corrected. He turned away to pace. Who was it that had Alex? The Doctor knew he had many enemies, but even this was a little unorthodox for them. What did they have to gain in kidnapping Alex, other than making him very pissed off? He ran a hand through his hair, his mind coming at a standstill. He just didn't understand it. This was so crazy! It barely made sense!
He continued pacing for several minutes, mulling over the facts he had, until he heard Tosh distantly say, "Wait. I'm getting two signals coming in here."
He whirled around, nearly falling over in the process, and sped back over to the computers. "What? Where? Another signal?" he questioned rapid-fire style.
"Yeah," Tosh nodded. She pulled up the image showing the green signal line, only this time, there were two of them. The Doctor leaned closer to the screen. "They're beaming in here right now," Tosh revealed. "One going to Alex, and the other going into the kitchen."
The Doctor slowly straightened. Pieces of the complex puzzle they'd found themselves in were sliding into place, forming a picture that was almost too frightening for words. "Who's in the kitchen right now?" he demanded, even though he already knew the answer.
"Ianto, Gwen, Amy, and Rory," Owen replied.
Jack gave the Doctor a wide-eyed look. "Doc, didn't you tell me that Amy had been resisting scans as well?"
The Doctor stared at the signals. "Yes. Amy thought she was pregnant, but she later took it back. I scanned her just to check, but it started—"
"Flashing YES and NO like Alex's scan," Jack finished.
"Precisely."
"So, Amy's a Flesh duplicate, too?" Owen exclaimed. He shook his head in amazement. This was positively the craziest thing he had encountered so far in his time at Torchwood, and that was saying something.
"We could run tests to check and make sure," Tosh offered, "but based on what the Doctor just told us, I'd say yes."
"But why?" the Doctor groaned, turning away from the group to pace again. "It doesn't make sense! Why take two young women and replace them with duplicates? There's no good reason!"
"I wouldn't speak too loudly if I were you," Tosh cut in. When the Doctor turned to look at her questioningly, she said, "I can't analyze the signals that well. They're pretty difficult to scan. I can only tell where they're going. And since these signals are very powerful, it's possible that whoever's behind this could be listening in right now."
The Doctor faltered. Oh God, rage was blinding him to very important facts. Tosh was right. Alex and Amy's kidnappers could be listening in. Of course, it was more likely that they could only eavesdrop in rooms where the duplicates were, but still, Tosh had a point.
He was about to congratulate her for saying that when the kitchen door on the other side of the room opened. Amy – or rather the Flesh Amy – bounded out, dragging Rory along behind her. "Well?" she demanded, bustling up to the computer station. So focused on the Doctor, she didn't even notice Tosh hastily clearing the computer screens, all of them now showing the Torchwood logo on a gray background. "Have you found out what's wrong with Alex yet?"
It took the Doctor less than two seconds to figure out an answer. He couldn't tell Amy and Rory about the Flesh duplicates in case the kidnappers were listening through Amy, and he also couldn't tell them because he knew the couple would freak out. Therefore, he had to do what was the first rule with him: he had to lie.
"I'm afraid not," he answered, forcing his mouth into a grimace. "We still couldn't determine what's wrong with her."
Amy groaned while Rory muttered a few swear words under his breath. "Isn't there anything else you can do?" he asked desperately.
"One or two things," the Doctor said vaguely. And this wasn't even a lie. There were definitely a few things he could do now that he knew what was going on with the girls, the most important one being to find them, rescue them, and utterly destroy the people that had taken Amy and his Ally away from him.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
"Here's the whole file on the Flesh," Tosh announced. She leaned back in her chair, rubbing her eyes tiredly. She pushed her glasses to the top of her head and massaged her temples. She couldn't remember the last time she'd looked at a computer screen for this long.
She, Jack, and the Doctor were currently holed up in Jack's office. It was a glassed in one that looked out over the Hub, offering them plenty of privacy, but also an advantage in seeing when everyone came back.
Shortly after the Doctor lied to Amy and Rory about what was wrong with Alex, Jack had sent the couple, along with Ianto and Gwen, out for some sightseeing and dinner. It would be easier for the Doctor and them to research the Flesh without the risk of Amy and Rory coming up behind them and seeing what they were doing. The Ponds hadn't been too thrilled with the idea, wanting to stay there with Alex, but ultimately surrendered and went out. Gwen and Ianto had promised to keep them out for several hours, but the trio still felt like they were on a severe time limit.
Now, the Doctor leaned over and peered at the screen closely. "There's not much in here," he observed, his eyes quickly running over the information. "Just that the Flesh is used on dangerous job sites, which we already know."
Jack, sitting in a chair across from his desk, desperately tried to remember what he knew about the Flesh. "I don't think anyone knew very much about it," he said after a couple of minutes of hard thinking. "The government tried to keep it top secret."
"You said it first started to be used in the 22nd century, right?"
"Yeah."
"And it's on dangerous job sites. . ."
Jack quickly caught on to what he was suggesting. "You want to track down a place where the Flesh is being used so you can check it out?"
"Precisely. Examining the Flesh in its natural state will give me more information on it and how to end the signal to Amy and Alex." He couldn't help but remember the time he'd had to end the signal to a clone of Martha that the Sontarans had created. Even though the clone hadn't been on their side, it still pained the Doctor to see an image of his friend suffering as he ended the signal and killed her. If the Flesh were anything like the Sontaran clones, he wanted to end the signal to Amy and Alex in a way that wouldn't cause them to suffer.
Jack jumped up from his chair and came around the desk. "I'll send the file to the TARDIS," he said, gently nudging Tosh out of the way. "She can surely track down a place that's manufacturing the Flesh."
"I'll go down and check on Owen and Alex," Tosh volunteered.
Jack waited until Tosh was out of the room before speaking again. "So, changing the subject onto Scotty," he began, ignoring the Doctor's eye-roll at his nickname for Amy, "you said you were running a pregnancy scan on her?"
"Yes."
Jack raised his head up from the computer to meet the Doctor's eyes. "Do you think she really is pregnant?"
"100% positive," the Doctor replied. He'd thought it all out. The timing fit pretty good, more or less. "The Flesh signal tampered with the scans, making them inconclusive. It's why we couldn't find anything wrong with the girls. And when Amy started experiencing morning sickness, that was just reality bleeding through to her."
"But why take her? Why take Alex?"
The Doctor sighed. "I have no idea, but mark my words, I'm going to find out."
Jack nodded. He had no doubt about that. Even though the Doctor was keeping up a pretty good façade, Jack knew that the man was furious about what had happened. If the people behind this knew what was good for them, they'd start running once the Doctor came after them.
"Hey," Owen greeted as he suddenly stepped in. "Couldn't help but overhear."
"Couldn't help but eavesdrop is more like it," Jack retorted.
Owen shrugged, not really denying the accusation. "I heard what you said about Amy's morning sickness bleeding through to her Flesh duplicate. Is the same thing happening with Alex? Is that why she's experiencing pain?"
"Yeah," Jack realized. "Why is she experiencing pain anyways?"
On this, the Doctor's eyes darkened. "According to Alex, she's experiencing slicing, stabbing pain at irregular intervals, like someone's cutting into her." He remembered when Alex was dissected by Malohkeh, how she had been put through agony for over an hour. But this pain was nothing compared to that time. The image of her suffering through her pain attacks played in his mind as he continued speaking. "And recently, she's felt like someone's touching her organs or shoving them around and squishing them together. She felt it once a while back and it's only just started up again." He pressed his lips together, tightening them until they formed a thin line. "Alex's mind is strong, stronger than Amy's. While some aspects of reality bleed through to Amy, Alex is almost unfiltered. Almost every time they do something to her, she feels it."
"You mean. . ." Owen trailed off. Both him and Jack started to look sick. "She's being. . ."
"Experimented upon, yes," the Doctor growled. "They've probably not even bothered to sedate her because she's unconscious, controlling the Flesh. That's why she feels everything."
"But . . . what could they be doing to her?" Jack questioned. Really? What did these people, whoever they were, have to gain by experimenting on a young woman? To his way of thinking, all they really seemed to be accomplishing was pissing the last Time Lord off, not something anyone should aspire to do.
Before the Doctor could answer – not that he even had an answer – Tosh suddenly poked her head in. "Hey, Alex is starting to wake up."
The darkness in the Doctor's eyes abruptly vanished at this news. He hurried past the Torchwood members and practically ran back to the med-bay. He skidded to a stop at the doorway and peeked inside before entering.
Over on the bed, Alex was blinking wearily, a hand rubbing the back of her head. "Hey," the Doctor murmured as he stepped inside. He walked over to the side of the bed, leaned down, and lightly kissed her on the forehead. "How're you feeling?"
"Like I was body-slammed in the back of the head," Alex grumbled. She shifted back down onto the bed, carefully arranging the back of her head on the pillow. Her currently topaz-colored eyes stared up at the Doctor. "Did your scans get anything?"
The Doctor didn't say anything. It made Alex worried. Was there something wrong? Was she going to die?! Calm down, Alexandria! she mentally drilled, though she knew that her mental pep-talks wouldn't work. Only a verbal explanation from the Doctor would.
Finally, the Doctor said something. But it wasn't what Alex was expecting. "Do you trust me, Ally?" he asked. His voice was serious, and he was looking her right in the eye, indicating that whatever he had to tell her was something not to be taken lightly.
Despite this realization, Alex stared back at him, unable to not feel surprised that he was asking her this question again. "Don't you already know?"
"I'm asking you this for a different reason," he clarified, now sounding rushed and a bit panicked. What the hell's going on? Alex wondered. "Not because we're about to do something potentially dangerous, but because. . ." He trailed off and closed his eyes. ". . .because if we didn't, I could be endangering your life."
"Doctor, you're scaring me," Alex whispered.
"Don't be scared, love," he murmured. He leaned down and pressed a light kiss to her lips, but it didn't feel the same as it had before he knew her current body was a duplicate. "Just tell me you trust me."
Alex was silent for a moment, wondering what this was all about. But the only way she'd find out was if she told the Doctor she trusted him. And she did. With her life. "Yes," she answered, nodding adamantly so that her point was clear. "Of course I trust you, Doc. Like I told you on the Byzantium, yes, always, absolutely."
The Doctor smiled, but it seemed a bit forced. He placed his fingers on her temple and suddenly, Alex felt a presence in her head.
She gasped and jumped a little in shock, but the Doctor didn't remove his hands. Alex eyed him, wondering what he was up to, while also concentrating on the presence in her head. She knew it had to be the Doctor, but it didn't feel like when he'd gone into her mind before. Those times, his whole mind was there, filling up a hole she hadn't known was in there. Now it felt like there was only a small piece of him.
"Doctor, what are you—"
'Ally?' a familiar voice questioned.
Alex gaped at the Doctor. His lips hadn't moved and his eyes were closed. But she had heard his voice. "Doctor?"
'Ally, you need to stop speaking out loud. It's vitally important.'
"Doctor, what is going on?" Alex demanded, still staring at the motionless Time Lord.
What sounded like an aggravated sigh rang out inside her head. 'Alex, please stop speaking out loud, for both our sakes. Now, I've established a temporary psychic bond between us. It's mostly impossible to do with humans, though your mind provided me with a lovely exception. If you want to talk to me, you have to do it mentally. Don't worry, it won't be that difficult for you.'
Alex nodded even though she knew the Doctor couldn't actually see her. She closed her eyes and focused on the Doctor's mental presence. She felt a warm feeling embrace her. It was the Doctor.
'That's my clever girl,' he praised. 'You're doing good, love. Now, try saying something. You've done it before. I know you can do it again.'
That was true. She hadn't really thought about it before, but she had spoken to the Doctor mentally during his lesson on mental shielding after their adventure on Base Diana. She concentrated on the Doctor's mental presence, feeling the warmth and little glow that radiated off it. A moment later, her slightly hesitant 'Doctor?' resounded throughout her head.
'Aha! Atta girl!' the Doctor enthused. 'I knew you'd get it!'
'Thanks,' Alex replied, her cheeks flushing a little at his praise. 'Now that we've got that established, Doctor, what the hell is going on?!'
'Ow!' the Doctor cried, his warm, telepathic presence flinching back a bit. 'Not so loud!'
'Just answer the question.'
The Doctor let out a mental sigh. 'Alright, I'll tell you, but you have to promise me to be calm, alright?'
'I always love it when you tell me that. It means something horrible is about to happen.'
'Alexandria.'
'Okay, yes, I promise! Now what's going on?'
'This isn't going to be an easy thing to take in,' he warned her. 'But I guess I'll just spit it out.' He sighed again, sounding rather resigned to what he was about to say. 'Your body is actually a duplicate made up of a material called the Flesh and your physical body is currently being held elsewhere.'
The words echoed in Alex's head. What the hell? That couldn't possibly be true! It was crazy! The Doctor must have finally snapped or something, for how else would he come to that conclusion?
'I haven't snapped, Alex,' the Doctor gently retorted. Unbeknownst to Alex, her thoughts were perfectly clear and readable to him now that he was in her head.
'But it's not true!' Alex cried. She knew she was grasping at straws, but it just couldn't be true. She didn't want it to be true. She wanted her reality to be right here in the Doctor's arms, not being held captive on a distant star somewhere at the mercy of an unknown enemy.
'Yes, love, I'm afraid it is,' the Doctor said sadly.
Alex felt tears running down her face. She opened her now neon-green eyes and hesitantly reached up to touch one. She pulled her finger back and stared at the droplet of water on top before angrily wiping it on the sheet. 'No, it's not!' she mentally wailed. She looked up at the Doctor's physical body. His eyes were still closed, but there was a wrinkle in his brow that showed he was just as upset as she was.
At that moment, the Doctor's eyes opened. He looked down at her, his eyes filled with all the sorrow in the universe. One hand still placed on her temple, he reached out with his other arm and pulled her into a much-needed embrace.
Alex wrapped her arms around him and buried her head into his chest. Tears ran down her face and onto his clothes, but he didn't even stir. 'Shh, love,' he murmured in an attempt to console her.
Alex pulled back to wipe her wet cheeks with her sleeve. Was that even real water? 'Why are you talking to me in my head?'
'Because I'm worried that whoever has you could be listening in right now. They can't listen in when I'm talking to you in your head though.'
Oh, good lord. In that moment, Alex realized that the Doctor was telling the truth. She knew he would never make something like this up, even though it was a bit too crazy to be real. This realization caused her not-even-real-tears to double, running down her face as fast as she could wipe them away. 'Doctor, who has me?' she asked fearfully. 'Why did they take me? What are they doing to me?'
'I'm afraid they're experimenting on you,' he replied. His voice was gruff, sounding dangerous and threatening. Alex shuddered at the anger behind it and at the thought that somewhere, in some time, somebody was actually carving into her chest.
'I-is that why I feel that slicing sensation all the time?'
'Unfortunately, yes. The control signal they're beaming to your Flesh body is weak because of your mind. You can still feel what's happening to your actual body. It's reality bleeding through, though on a greater level than with Amy.'
Alex pulled back so that she could stare up at him in shock. 'Amy's made of Flesh, too?' Though really, she shouldn't be surprised. It would explain Amy's suddenly forgotten pregnancy and maybe even that eyepatch woman she claimed to have seen back at Graystark.
'Eyepatch woman?' she heard the Doctor question.
'I'll tell you later,' Alex dismissed. There were more important things to discuss. 'So, Amy and I are both made up of Flesh?'
'Right. And wherever you two are, I'm pretty sure that Amy's pregnant and is going to be giving birth in a matter of weeks.'
Alex groaned, both physically and mentally. That was just what they needed. 'Well, we have to find us, er . . . you have to find us, I guess?'
'Don't worry, Ally, I will,' the Doctor promised. 'Once I learn more about the Flesh and how to end the signal, I'll cut it from you two and I swear, I'll find you and bring you back home.' His voice had become angry again, filled with a fierce determination that guaranteed that whoever had taken her and Amy would be punished severely and with no mercy.
'I know you'll find me,' Alex said, knowing that the 'you' part of his vow had been referencing her more than Amy. 'And Amy.' She beamed up at him. 'I have the utmost confidence in you.'
The Doctor chuckled, both mentally and physically, and pulled her closer to him. 'Thanks for that,' he whispered, before removing his hand from her forehead and leaving her mind. The two shuddered at the abrupt loss of connection but continued to keep their arms around each-other. The Doctor bent his head down to place a light kiss on the top of Alex's head. It didn't feel the same as it did before he knew this body of hers wasn't real, but they couldn't do anything about that right now.
Neither were sure how long they stayed like that, but it must have been awhile for when they ultimately pulled apart, their bodies were stiff and aching. The Doctor grimaced as he rolled and stretched his neck. On the latter action, something in there cracked.
Alex giggled as she stretched her arms above her head. "Need me to call that chiropractor?" she asked cheekily.
The Doctor laughed, remembering what he'd said to Alex after smashing the Grav Globe and landing on the Byzantium. "No, it can wait," he quipped, though there was an underlying truth to his words. He swung his legs over the side of the bed. "I'm going to run back to the TARDIS and see if she's. . ." He trailed off, trying to find the right words to say without tipping the possibly listening kidnappers off to what they knew.
Fortunately, Alex came to his rescue. "To see if she's found information on that planet you were telling me about? Drusilla 3, wasn't it?"
"Yes, that's right." He winked at her and stood. "You stay here and rest, okay? No arguing." Alex rolled her eyes but complied.
The Doctor walked out of the med-bay resolutely. His brain was already working out ways that he could examine the Flesh without taking Amy, Rory, and Alex along, as well as who would want to take Amy and Alex and why. His purposeful stride paused as he shut the med-bay door. He turned, ready to run back to the TARDIS, only for him to nearly slam right into Jack.
He jumped back in surprise. "Oh, don't do that!" he cried, frowning at the immortal. "I see you still have a penchant for eavesdropping then," he remarked, recalling how Jack used to listen outside doors when his ninth self and Rose were talking in the hopes of catching them snog.
Jack smirked. "Old habits die hard, Doc."
"Don't call me Doc," the Doctor said firmly. "Only Alex is allowed to do that."
On this, Jack's smirk fell, replaced by a rather curious and understanding expression. "You love her, don't you?" he observed, nodding to the closed med-bay door.
The Doctor's eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. He felt the overwhelming urge to run as fast as he could to the TARDIS. He really didn't want to have this conversation, not now, and certainly not with Jack. "W-what?" he stammered. "The door? Don't be crazy, Harkness, I'm not in love with a door. It's not possible to be in love with a door! Although there is a tribe on Helestia in the 33rd century that would certainly challenge that—"
"You're rambling, Doctor," Jack interrupted, rolling his eyes.
"It's none of your business, Jack."
"So you do love her?"
The Doctor sent an aggravated look up towards the ceiling. "I . . . I don't know! We only just got together! It's too soon to say anything for sure."
But Jack was nothing if not persistent. "The way you looked at her told me you loved her."
The Doctor shot him a glare. "Oh, so you've increased to spying, eh?"
"Doctor, do you love her?"
The Doctor pursed his lips and continued glaring at Jack but didn't say anything. After a full minute of this, Jack nodded to himself. "Thought so," he said, smiling. "It's pretty obvious."
"Nothing's obvious," the Doctor muttered.
Jack ignored him. "Well, at any rate, I'm glad to see that you've moved on from Rose." He paused, thinking over his words. He eyed the Doctor, who hadn't even blinked at the mention of his one-time love. "Doctor, you are over Rose, right?"
The Doctor hesitated before answering. Jack and Rose had been close when they were traveling together, like best friends, and he was pretty sure Jack still felt the same way towards the former shop-girl. "Yes, Jack," he said finally. "I am over Rose. I do still love her and a part of me always will, but Alex. . ." He trailed off. There were no words adequate enough in any language that fully conveyed just what Alex meant to him.
Jack was silent for a few minutes. He thought over the Doctor's words. He had no doubt that the Time Lord had loved Rose and would always treasure her, but he also knew that the current Doctor was completely caught up in Alex. Whether he realized that yet or not didn't matter; Jack could tell. Rose, and any other past loves, were just a distant memory now.
But Jack couldn't bring himself to be upset by that knowledge. The Doctor was one of his oldest friends and all friends wanted their friends to be happy. And, based on the scene he'd witnessed between the two in the TARDIS, Alex made the Doctor really happy.
"Well then," he said finally, "you two need to go out on a date."
The Doctor blinked. Of all the things he'd expected Jack to say, that wasn't one of them. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me. Alex has been through one hell of a trauma and needs to relax. And I'm guessing, with your lifestyle, you haven't been able to have a relaxing evening out, have you?"
"Well, not lately. . ."
"Then it's settled!" Jack beamed. "You two are going out, right now. Contrary to popular belief, Cardiff has an amazing night-life. And some of it's legal, too!"
The Doctor rolled his eyes at this latter part. "Jack, I can't go out. What about Amy and—"
"I'll distract Scotty and Beaky. I'll tell them a few lovely stories about my Time Agency days and throw in a few of Ole' Big Ears for good measure." He pretended not to notice the Doctor's offended scowl. "Now go!" Without further measure, Jack whirled the Doctor around and frog-marched him back to the med-bay and forced him inside. "Have fun, kids!" he called as he hurried off in the other direction, ignoring Alex's puzzled expression and the Doctor's look of resign.
Alex swung her legs over the side of the bed. "What was that about?"
"Jack thinks we should go out on a date."
Alex raised her eyebrows. "Really? Well, that's—"
"I know," the Doctor sighed. "It's horrible timing and quite ridiculous with everything going on and—" He was suddenly cut off by Alex hopping off the bed and placing a finger over his lips.
"What I was going to say before you interrupted," she smiled cheekily, "was that it's a marvelous idea."
The Doctor gaped at her. "Really?" he questioned, his voice coming out slightly muffled since Alex's finger was still on his lips.
"Yes." Alex removed her finger and wrapped her hands around his jacket lapels. "I've never been to Cardiff before. You can show me around. Besides, it'll be a nice distraction from everything." She widened her eyes at him like she used to do when she was a kid and wanted something. "Please, please, please, please, please?"
Despite himself, the Doctor chuckled at her begging. "Oh, alright," he agreed, laughing some more when Alex squealed and threw her arms around him, crying 'thank you, thank you, thank you,' into his jacket. "Come on, you."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A few hours later, Alex leaned against the railing of the bridge she and the Doctor were standing on. She looked out over the calm water, feeling the sea brine seep into her skin. Normally she'd be very nervous about being around the water, even on a bridge, but as long as the Doctor was with her, she was okay.
They had been walking all around Cardiff for hours, probably not what Jack had in mind when he suggested they go on a date. But in Alex's opinion, this evening was a date, and it was one of the best she'd ever had. She hadn't really been up for eating (finding out that your body was made up of some strange alien material rather ruined your appetite) so she just had the Doctor lead her around, pointing out various attractions and things he had noticed during his visits to Cardiff. He pointed out the sight where the funeral parlor he blew up with Charles Dickens had once stood, the restaurant where he'd nearly been killed several times by Margaret the Slitheen, and other little spots he'd encountered over his long life.
It had been fun, and Alex was sorry to see it end. She didn't want to go back to thinking about where she and Amy actually were and why they had been kidnapped. She didn't want to think about being experimented on and why it was happening. She especially didn't relish the thought of those awful attacks happening again, forcing her to go through that horrible, wrenching agony with the only difference being that she would know exactly what was causing them. That was why she was lingering on the bridge, tuning out the Doctor's shuffling and longing looks back towards Roald Dahl Plass, as she'd learned the space above Torchwood Three was called.
The Doctor eyed Alex. He really wanted to go back to the TARDIS and see if she had found somewhere for him to investigate the Flesh more thoroughly, but Alex didn't seem to share this desire. Instead, she was looking out at the water, her face pensive. "What are you doing?" he asked softly.
"Thinking," was all Alex said, not even so much as glancing at him.
"Oh, that's dangerous," he joked. Alex's lips turned up in a little smile, but she didn't say anything else.
The Doctor leaned against the concrete railing beside her. He reached out and cupped her chin, turning her face towards him. "Care to tell me what you're thinking about?" he prodded.
Alex sighed, knowing he wouldn't let it go until she told him. "Stuff," she answered. "Just . . . a lot to think about, you know."
The Doctor nodded in understanding, knowing that she was referring to all the revelations made today. He wasn't surprised. Flesh duplicates and unknown pregnancies and an unknown kidnapping were a lot to think about, especially if you learned them over the course of an hour. "Are you okay?"
Alex thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I think so," she said quietly. She smiled up at him, her eyes switching from topaz to forest green. "I will be, at any rate, as long as you're right next to me."
The Doctor beamed. "So much faith in me."
"You haven't let me down yet."
"And I never want to." He pulled her into his arms, wrapping them tightly around her, as if he were trying to block out whatever was hurting her. He looked down into her eyes. The irises had switched from forest green to honey-colored in just a few seconds. "I swear to you, Ally," he murmured, "I'm not going to let you down. I'm going to be there for you."
Her smile strengthened into a dazzling grin. "Very good to know," Alex whispered as she hugged him back.
The Doctor pressed a kiss to the top of her head and, ignoring the non-stop, chattering thoughts in his mind, continued to lean against the concrete railing, holding Alex tight in his grasp.
Getting back to the TARDIS could be put on hold for a few more minutes.