TURLOUGH'S TALE

Chapter Twenty-Three

The unconscious boy is half-frozen; his friends had nothing with which to cover him. As I set him down not far from the Doctor, the ax woman declares, "I took care of him. Do what you like."

I ignore her and kneel by the Doctor. "Tegan, can you get some first aid stuff for this boy, and some blankets?" One glance at him is enough to convince her; she scoots off to the TARDIS interior. I open the Doctor's eyes one by one, feel his pulses, determine that there's been no change in the short time I was gone. Once more I am numb. It's not that I don't care what happens to the Doctor; it's that this confusion of feelings is too much for me and I won't be able to help him if I allow them to take me over. I must remain detached or I will be useless.

Tegan returns with a rolling cart containing all I requested, plus a basin of water, some wash cloths and two more canisters of oxygen for the Doctor. "Who is he?" she asks, giving me the canisters and tending to the boy. Alexandra helps her wrap him up. "I wish Nyssa was here. This was her forte."

"He is one of the boys who did this to the Doctor." Tegan sits back on her heels as if she's just discovered that the puppy she's petting is a rattlesnake. "Kids," I sigh. "Kids who will do anything to survive." She looks at me, back at the boy, back at me. "I'm not saying it's okay. I'm saying it was probably inevitable. The Doctor was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Tegan looks once more at the boy and leans in to clean his wounds. The boy sputters, covers his face with his arms, opens his eyes wide and tries to escape Tegan's ministrations. Alexandra holds him down. Ax woman lifts her weapon. "You!" I address her sharply. "Put that down!" She drops the handle and backs up almost to the door. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Verna."

"Verna, your job is done. It's our turn, now. Do you want to leave?" She shakes her head, looking sorrowfully from the Doctor to the struggling boy, then to me. She has no more business here but it's warm in the TARDIS. "Then settle somewhere, don't touch anything and don't interfere."

She sits down right by the door, where Alexandra has once more left her bow. Alexandra leaves the boy and goes to fetch her weapon before Verna can decide to lay hands on it. She lays it on the floor just by the console and returns to help Tegan with the still-struggling boy. "Easy," she says.

"It's funny," says Tegan, "we can clean the cuts but the bruises, well, the proper treatment is to ice them, but I don't think that's a good idea under the circumstances!"

"The bruises will heal," Alexandra agrees, "but the wounds can become infected."

I have not seen any open wounds on the Doctor and am not inclined to unwrap him again to search for any. The blows to the head and neck are what worry me. His arm may have nerve damage, but there is nothing I can do about that. I hold the oxygen mask to his face and silently wonder whether it's doing him any good. As if in response, his eyes open and stay open. "Tegan!" I whisper. She abandons the boy and comes to us "Look!"

"Doctor!" He turns his eyes to her. They are expressionless but focused. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, he winces. He's back and has all that pain to welcome him. "You're safe, Doctor! You're in the TARDIS and we're all here."

"You're safe," I echo. The Doctor turns his eyes back to me and smiles, then winces again. He tries to roll over onto the bruised arm, cries out, then allows us to turn him onto his other side, and this brings the boy, no longer struggling, into his sightline.

"Who is that?" he croaks.

"That's the boy who hit you," I say, impassively.

"He's hurt. Help him." With that he closes his eyes and seems to drift off into a natural sleep, breathing more or less normally. Help him, he says. Not help me. Help him. How do such people exist?