THE LOVESICK COBBLER OF PADLUCK
Chapter Eleven
As Tegan and I bid Nash farewell at the TARDIS door, Mish returned, toting a plain bag labeled "Mishmorlaksi's Shoe Repair and Cordwainery," which he placed carefully under the hat rack.
"What's that?" I asked but he shook his head and headed across the console room, directly to the sleeping Doctor. Tegan and I looked at each other, then followed him.
"How is he?" he asked, his hand on the Doctor's forehead.
"Not good," I said, "but not in crisis. I am going to try to figure out a possible cure that won't kill him."
"Killing him," admitted Mish, "would not be much of a cure." Tegan laughed bitterly.
"Tegan, you come and get me if there is any change, all right?"
"You've got it." She sat back down on the wicker stool and took the Doctor's hand."
"Settle," I told Mish. "I need to concentrate."
"I don't just love you," he said. "I also admire you. Look at you. You're going to save him, aren't you?"
"Shush. Sit." He sat in the fan chair.
"I think I know what I need to do. I can use the blue powder as is. I think we can skip the yellow packet altogether. The clear packet would kill him but we need the juniper berries, and we need something to help the skin adapt. I think I can synthesize something like sulfur but juniper berries…. I don't suppose you have gin on this planet?"
"Gin? Liquor? Of course we do!" Mish jumped up from the fan chair. "Do you want me to get some?"
"Oh, yes please!" He ran from the room, but I had barely gathered the materials I wanted when he reappeared, looking quite embarrassed.
"I got lost."
I came to the door and pointed the way for him, but instead of running off again, he put his hands on my shoulders. I didn't shrug them off. He leaned only very slightly down to kiss me briefly on the lips, and then, moving his hands around to my shoulder blades and pulling me to him, he kissed me rather fervently. I can't begin to explain how I responded. Let's just say I did not pull away. When he let me go, I caught my breath and said, shakily, "It changes nothing. Go on. Bring me a bottle of gin." What I don't understand is why, when I was trying to put together a viable sulfur compound I felt myself grinning like a fool.
Then I cried aloud, "I am a fool!"
I raced to the tea room and found an old spice rack. "Come on, come on!" Oregano, no. Paprika, no. Shalafanga, what is that? Anyway, no. There it is: garlic powder! I carried my prize back to the lab and began to mix the powders together.
"He's in and out," said Tegan. "No real change. He's no worse but he's no better. At least he hasn't morphed since we got back into the TARDIS. Not unless you count his hair growing." She stood up and stretched.
"You must be tired," I said, sitting and putting my hand on the Doctor's forehead.
"Aren't you?"
"I can't feel it," I admitted. "I am sure it will catch up with me." I brushed away a stray white lock from the Doctor's face. "Don't worry, Doctor. I think I have the powders worked out. Now I just have to wait for the gin."
"Gin?" Tegan wrinkled her nose. "Vodka's better!"
"I just hope it all creates some fumes. I am not sure how the Doctor is supposed to breathe this mixture. I don't know which part should cause vapors. Maybe the grigna saliva. I wonder what a grigna is." I'd rolled out the cart and had found a handkerchief, but had not mixed anything. The blue packet I would be using intact. The yellow one I hadn't even brought out. The clear one I'd returned to Nash; there was no use keeping something around that could harm the Doctor.
We hadn't been looking at the scanner, but a rap on the door told us Mish was back. Tegan let him in and he handed her a bottle of gin, which she brought to me. "They have gin on this planet? I thought you were joking, Nyssa!"
I stood up, opened the bottle and sniffed at it. "Evergreen!"
"I wonder if it's like Earth gin?" Mish, sitting on the other stool, some distance away, laughed. "Well, I don't know! How would I know?" Mish, chastened, was once more silent.
"Same basic ingredients, I think. Would you like some?" Tegan shook her head. I set up a beaker and shook in some blue powder and all of the garlic from the spice jar. Then I carefully poured in a small amount of gin. It frothed, as Nash's mixture had. "That's a good sign," I said. I picked up the handkerchief, then set it down again. "Maybe… do you think he should drink some of this? It is intended to be a beverage, right?"
Tegan shrugged and Mish said, "I can't guess. I'm just a humble cobbler."
"And cordwainer," I said, wondering briefly what was in the bag by the hat rack. "How much gin do gin-drinkers usually drink?"
"Oh, I can tell you that," declared Tegan. "Too much!"
"My mother," offered Mish, "drinks something called a gin Richard. I've watched her mix gin, alfrak juice, water that bubbles and sugar. I tasted it once. Not for me."
"I'd better wake him up."
Before I could awaken him, though, he opened his eyes and said, "Gin Ricky." He looked at me and smiled. "Also known as a gin fizz."
"Would you like one, Doctor?"
"Not for me, either, Nyssa. Why? Oh…." He frowned at his hand. "Will it help? You're yourself again! Oh, and Tegan, you too! But for me the cure went wrong, right? Is that what happened?"
"Yes, Doctor, but I think I have fixed that. I'm going to give you some medication to inhale, Doctor. It is somewhat mind-altering. One component is juniper berries, and the closest we can come is gin, but because it is only flavored with berries, I think to get as much juniper as you need, you should drink some of this gin."
"All right," said the Doctor, trying to sit up. I helped him and handed him the open bottle. He sniffed it. "Pine." I watched him take a gulp, screw up his face in distaste, then take several gulps more. "Is that enough?" He handed me back the bottle as if ridding himself of something vile.
"I hope so, Doctor." I capped the bottle and handed it to Tegan, who handed it to Mish, who I guess didn't know what to do with it, so he clutched it anxiously as he watched me soak the handkerchief with my concoction. "I'm going to put this over your face, Doctor. You need to breathe it in."
"Brave heart, Doctor," said Tegan, as I supported him with one hand behind his head and pressed the cloth over his mouth and nose. He obediently breathed as I had instructed and I saw his eyes roll back in his head, then close. I didn't remove the handkerchief immediately - I wanted to be sure – but I didn't keep it there long. I gently let his head fall back against his pillow and he lay perfectly still. Nothing was happening. My heart was in my mouth.
"Did it fail?" The gin bottle was shaking in Mish's hands so Tegan took it and put it on the cart.
"Have we killed him?" she whispered, horrified.
"No, he is breathing, but…." I lay my head on his chest. "Both hearts are beating, a little slowly, but I'm sure…. Oh!" I jumped back as the Doctor arched his back, froze, then flailed. "Doctor!" I cried, distraught even as I reached out to turn him onto his side. I couldn't do it alone. Mish came to help me.
The Doctor seized for two and a half minutes. Then he lay still, but panting and, I soon discovered, sweating… and hot, hot to the touch, his panting breath hot on my hand.
"Is he changing back?" asked Tegan, fearfully.
"No," I said. "He hasn't changed at all. "If I have harmed him, if I…." The last thing I remember is someone catching me as I fell.