PERILS
Chapter Ten
The Doctor lifted A.J. to his feet and more or less carried him down the center of the track in the same direction the train had gone, somehow got him up the ladder at the end of the platform and managed to get himself up too. They both lay gasping on the platform as passengers waiting for the local rushed toward them. Among them was a doctor, who determined that A.J. had broken both his left arm and his left leg. "It figures," groaned A.J., "I can walk in the clouds but I can't handle a drop of a yard? I'll never live it down."
Lou came slowly forth, realizing that A.J. could pose no threat and yet hesitant to approach. "It's all right," said the Doctor, standing up so the doctor could move him farther away from the gap. "He's himself again. The shock wiped the influence clean away." Then she knelt down by A.J. where the doctor had deposited him. A.J. took one look at Lou and cried,
"What have I done?"
"I'm fine," Lou reassured him, although she clearly wasn't fine. "And it wasn't you; it was the Master, using you." A.J. refused to be reassured and turned his face away. Lou stood up, allowing the Doctor to assist her. She composed herself somewhat, then asked, "What now?
"I haven't had time to think," admitted the Doctor. "I suppose the police will want to speak to us." Said police were just then stepping onto the platform. "I suppose we had better tell them what happened, but we'll tell them on the way to the hospital. They'll need to talk to A.J. too, after all."
"Tell them?"
"Oh, um, not all of it. Just that you two were running and he went over."
"Will A.J. say that?"
"I have no idea. We shall see."
*0*0*0*
The Doctor was surprised that the E.R. doctors and nurses wanted to examine him. "I'm unharmed," he insisted, until to his astonishment he found his scraped right arm and knee being swabbed and was informed that his right wrist was sprained. He was not happy about the splint, but what could he do?
The police were trying to interview A.J., who was unwilling to speak to them. His arm and leg were indeed broken and he was in shock. The police happily ignored all of this and kept pressing him until the hospital staff kicked them out of the curtained cubicle.
Seeing the police wandering in their direction, Lou turned the Doctor's face toward hers, stood on her tiptoes and kissed the Doctor quite earnestly. He could do nothing much about this, as he had an arm requisitioned by one party and a leg in the possession of another, and he was being pulled to one side, rather. Lou drew back at last and panted, "I know it's after banking hours but we're open, briefly, for emergencies."
*0*0*0*
It was four in the morning before the three of them straggled in. The hospital had been quite distant from Mrs. Salt's place, but at least the rain had stopped. They had pooled their nickels and telephoned to find out how things stood there, and the Doctor was pleased to learn the outcome of the conflict but doubtful that the Master could be contained in a mere outhouse. Because A.J. couldn't walk, they had to take a cab (not from the hospital but from the police station, where they'd been taken after being discharged), and the cabbie let only Lou out of the taxi and held the men hostage until she came back out with the fare – and the all-clear; there was no Master in the house.
"A.J. can sleep on the settee," declared Mrs. Salt. "I'll get some bedding."
"No, I'll go," said Lou, rushing up the stairs.
"We think he's still in there." Mrs. Salt pointed from the kitchen door; they'd left A.J. on the couch. "We were watching together until it got late, and then we watched in shifts. It's my shift now. I'm afraid I left my post when you came in." She turned to the Doctor. "We turned the police away. We thought they might not take kindly to our having tied this guy up, and they'd ungag him and he'd… well, you know."
"Good thinking." The Doctor wasn't sure Mrs. Salt and her boarders were safe; eventually the Master would free himself and he wasn't going to give up trying to recover his tissue compression eliminator… unless he was more focused on finding the Doctor.
Mrs. Salt was not happy with the Doctor's plan, nor was Lou, who had tucked A.J. in on the settee and come into the kitchen. "He'll kill you," said Lou. "He'll kill you and then come back for us, so it won't even be a noble sacrifice. It will just be a waste."
"He won't kill me so easily. He's been trying for… I can't even say how long now." He had been about to say "centuries."
"It only takes once," reasoned Mrs. Salt.
"If he is really still in that outhouse," said the Doctor, "now is the time for me to go. I need a good head start."
"Where will you go? How will you go anywhere?" Lou sat down at the little kitchen table and put her face in her hands, looking up at the Doctor. "Courage isn't enough. You need a real plan."