Worth A Thousand Words - Chapter Four [4/9]
‘I got you away from that other time, didn’t I?’
DISCLAIMER & OTHER WARNINGS
‘What am I doing here?’ the stranger repeated, confused. Then he seemed to do a double take, like he was really looking at the Doctor for the first time. Confusion turned to irritation. ‘Never mind that! What are you doing here?’
‘Doctor - you know him?’ Rose asked. When it came to the alien, there were other things less plausible than running into someone he knew on a deserted, exploding island.
‘We’ve met,’ he grunted, at the same time the funny little man insisted, ‘Intimately.’
They glowered at each other again. The volcano continued its ominous rumble..
‘Um…’kay. Introductions?’ she prompted.
‘Rose, this is Doctor Galloway,’ the Doctor grumbled, putting strange emphasis on the name. ‘He’s a… volcanologist that I became acquainted with in my travels.’
Guess he must visit the nineteenth century a lot, she decided as she offered the older man her hand. ‘S’nice to meet you. I never meet friends of the Doctor.’
‘Good to know he hasn’t changed, then,’ Dr Galloway harrumphed, even as he gave her fingers a brief shake. ‘Still needlessly throwing yourself into dangerous situations, it seems.’
‘Still stopping to inspect every fool thing that catches your fancy, I see,’ the Doctor shot back.
The little man reddened, and started to retort, but Rose quickly stepped in lest whatever this was came to blows.
Superior Time Lord anything my arse. Still a bloke.
‘Listen, I dunno what you two are in the middle of, but we don’t have a lot of time. See, it’s um… really important we get a drawing of the Doctor here, yeah? And then we’ll be off and leave you to your observations - or, well, maybe not, cos this place is gonna blow up at some point.’
‘You came here for a photo opportunity?’ Galloway snorted, shooting the Doctor a disapproving look. ‘Couldn’t have chosen somewhere more scenic? The Yellow River floods, perhaps?’
‘Be a bit rude, I figured, considering Rose doesn’t have respiratory bypass.’
Something clicked, and Rose momentarily forgot all about the volcano.
‘Hold on! He knows?’
‘Knows what?’
‘That you’re a time travelling alien.’
‘Of course I know that,’ Galloway answered. ‘I’m h -’
‘Like I said, he’s a passable scientist. Probably seen loads stranger than me,’ the Doctor interrupted.
Something else occurred to her. ‘Hey, how comes he’s not wearing a mask like me?’
‘Dunno. Might be he’s got a death wish,’ the Doctor answered distractedly.
‘Doctor -’
They were interrupted by a particularly violent tremor and a thundering crack in the distance. About a kilometre away, they watched a split appear in the rock face of the volcano, and a wave of heat whooshed past them. Seconds later, steam and molten orange light spewed violently out of the various cracks in the mountain face.
Dr Galloway swallowed uneasily, and slowly said, ‘When I say run-’
‘Run!’ the Doctor interrupted, seizing Rose’s hand and hauling her back toward the TARDIS. Galloway scrambled to catch up behind them.
‘Looks like my timing was a bit off again,’ the Doctor remarked conversationally.
‘You think?’ Rose puffed.
‘It’s not my fault!’ the Doctor protested. ‘The TARDIS is supposed to avoid these kinds of things!’
‘You sure you just can’t drive?’
‘Oi! I can drive fine, but if there’s a problem in the navigation systems -!’
‘Might we keep the domestics until after we’ve finished running for our lives?’ Galloway demanded, having caught up to them.
Which was the exact moment that it all went wrong.
There was a dull thunk noise, and suddenly the Doctor wasn’t running beside Rose, but crumpled in a heap in the ashy sand. A large rock lay a few feet away, the roughest part of it slick with a dark, wet substance. A substance that looked worrying similar to a thin stream of dark orange trickling down the back of the Doctor’s neck.
‘Oh my word,’ Dr Galloway sighed, ‘that’s not very good, is it?’
‘Doctor? Doctor!’ Rose was on her knees in an instant, frantically trying to turn him over to examine the wound. ‘C’mon, Doctor, you have to wake up!’
‘Easier said than done,’ Dr Galloway called over the din, crouching down as well and reaching for the blood covered rock. ‘Ballistic rock, ejected from the volcano - if he’d been human, he’d be dead. Out cold, I should think, and a skull fracture at the very least -’
‘We have to get him out of here!’ Rose cried, eyes flitting about to take in the darkening cloud above them. ‘This place will blow any minute!’
‘Oh, my word, do you really think so?’ Galloway snarked.
‘Shut up and help me!’
Rose crouched down to loop her arm around the Doctor’s back, while Galloway helped to hoist him upright. The Doctor’s lanky form drooped heavily to one side, and as they staggered forward, his boots dragged in the ash and rock.
Dr Galloway was muttering something under his breath that she couldn’t quite make out - words like “timing” and “recklessness” and something about the CIA. But Rose was too focussed on the hammering of her heart to really pay close attention. That and the impression of the Doctor’s blood against her face and hair when his head lolled onto her shoulder was making her want to sick up.
She had never seen him injured before, let alone unconscious, and even without her barely passable first aid skills, she knew she wasn’t qualified to help an injured alien. Especially one that was the last of his kind.
The only chance of helping him was getting to the TARDIS and hoping there was some kind of alien tech that could fix the bleeding wound in his skull.
It was a slow procession through the ash littered island, and even though Galloway appeared stronger than he looked, they weren’t moving as fast as Rose wished. The TARDIS was still too far away, the rocks they had hidden it behind not even visible yet.
There was a thunderous, explosive crack, and for a moment the world seemed to spin on its axis. She and Galloway struggled to find purchase somewhere on the tremoring ground, but even as they did it seemed to break apart beneath them.
A sudden hissing roar interrupted this, and a burning pain ripped up the side of Rose’s right leg.
‘Oh!’
White arced across her vision as she staggered, losing her grip on the Doctor as she fell backward onto the ground. Beneath her, the earth splintered and she only just rolled away before she took a tumble into its depths.
Ahead of her, Galloway swung the Doctor forward, using that momentum to propel them far enough ahead that they avoided the same fate. They landed in a heap about two feet from the chasm which continued to spout scorching hot steam from down below.
‘Rose!’ Galloway called once he recovered, letting go of the Doctor for a second to look back at her. Dismay and horror crossed his face, and she knew why.
They were separated good and proper now, the gaping chasm between them several feet too far to jump. It wouldn’t do to go around either, considering the split in the earth seemed to stretch a hundred metres or so in either direction.
Wouldn’t be able to try anything even if it wasn’t there, she thought in disbelief as she stared down at her leg.
Horror threatened to bring up the contents of her stomach as she considered the angry, oozing stretch of skin that encompassed almost the entire limb. It reminded her of what waxed candles resembled when they got too close to a flame. The escaping steam hadn’t exactly melted the skin and muscles in her leg, but it was so covered in puckered boils and blisters that it might as well have.
She was beginning to shake as the pain permeated her sense of disbelief, and she knew her body was probably going into shock.
There wasn’t any time.
‘Go!’ she ordered through gritted teeth.
Galloway looked stricken. ‘No!’
‘I can’t… I can’t keep up with you,’ Rose gasped. ‘You have to go.’
‘Nonsense,’ Galloway blustered. ‘You said it yourself, it’s not that far away. We simply need to -’
There was another deafening clap of sound and a tremor that rocked the island again.
‘You need to get the Doctor out of here,’ Rose insisted doggedly, once the roar died down a bit. ‘The ship - our ship, it’s only… a few minutes away - ’
‘We have perhaps that long before the volcano erupts!’
‘Yeah - you need to get there! I’ll try to catch up,’ Rose panted, trying to pull herself into a standing position despite the buckling of her leg, if only to convince Dr Galloway to move. ‘But if I can’t, at least you two’ll be safe!’
‘Now see here, young lady - I’m not about to leave you here while the sky is falling all around us -’
‘There’s no time to argue!’ Rose shot back. ‘You have to get him to safety. Even if you can’t wake him up, the two of you will be fine in the TARDIS.’
The pain was dizzying now, and she found it hard to force oxygen into her lungs. Whether that was from the shock or the ash in the air, she couldn’t tell.
‘Rose -’
‘I don’t matter!’ she yelled. ‘I’m just some nobody, some ordinary shop girl he picked up in London and it doesn’t matter if I die! But the Doctor - the Doctor has to live! Because he’s amazing and brilliant and… and saves the universe every day! Because he’s the only one around who actually cares enough to do it! So please, Dr Galloway, please just take him and go!’
Galloway was staring at her, an inscrutable look in his eye, before nodding.
He hoisted the Doctor back up and shot her one last look.
She watched with desperation as Galloway and the Doctor moved farther and farther away, fighting off the pain trying to overtake them. If they made it around those dark rocks, they would be safe.
At least that’s what she told herself when they finally managed it.
Tears gathered in her eyes, a combination of frustration and the acrid black smoke all around her, and she angrily brushed them aside.
If she was about to die, she would not do so crying like a child.
She held onto that assertion until the dark spots in front of her eyes became a solid blackness. Before silence completely overtook her, she imagined she could hear the TARDIS taking off, and she smiled.
The Doctor had woken then.
He was alive.
And she was -
· ΘΣ ·
The Doctor groaned as he came back to awareness, feeling rather like his head was leaking brain matter. The ceiling of the TARDIS medbay loomed before him, and he became aware his ship insistently nudging at his mind.
Something was wrong.
Memories flowed back to him in quick succession as he swung his legs over the bed, nearly knocking into the Advanced Diagnostic Terminal.
‘Rose?’ he called, grabbing his jacket from where it had been unceremoniously tossed by the doorway.
There was no answer, and the uneasy feeling in his stomach turned to dread as he headed for the console room.
His younger self was there, crawling out from the grating beneath the console, humming. When he saw the Doctor, his wry smile took on an edge.
‘There you are, my good fellow! I wasn’t able to find your Zero Room, so I was forced to make use of the sickbay. Good to see the injury required little in the way of healing - I suspect you have a hard head.’
‘Where’s Rose?’
‘You’ve redecorated,’ Mop-Top went on, looking around the room. ‘I -‘
‘- don’t like it, I know,’ the Doctor cut him off. ‘You never do. Now shut up and tell me where Rose is.’
‘Out of reach at the moment, I’m afraid,’ his second self answered grimly, pulling the screen around to show the Doctor what was going on outside. The grainy resolution showed exploding inferno outside the TARDIS’ outer shell, and the Doctor felt his hearts constrict. His companion’s lack of presence suddenly made horrible sense.
‘You left her!’ he roared, some wild part of him actively considering laying into the little gremlin.
‘There wasn’t a choice. It would have taken far too much time to go back. Even without the necessity of returning you here, there’s the matter of the massive paradox that had to be avoided - Doctor Galloway indeed!’ Mop-Top lectured with a scowl. He absently dug something out of his pocket - his recorder - and continued. ‘I do hope it’s that knock on the head that’s addled you, and not old age, because if it’s the latter I very much pity myself -’
‘If you don’t want me shoving that recorder down your throat or up some other orifice -’
‘Oh, do calm down, you’re missing the very obvious in all of this.’
‘Oh? And what exactly is that?’
That I’m still here, being yelled at by you,’ his previous incarnation harrumphed. ‘If the volcano rendered my TARDIS unreachable, you wouldn’t have been able to come here in the first place. The fact that you’ve been gallivanting around the universe for however long you have been means that somehow, I get back to my ship. And considering you’re still here and have access to a fully functional TARDIS…’
‘Means I can still go back and get her,’ the Doctor caught on, already vaulting to the opposite side of the console. ‘As long as we arrive right after you get out of range with me, we can avoid a paradox. Just.’
‘Exactly. Which we’ll do as soon as we finish dealing with the glitches in the navigation system - honestly, it looks a mess down there. Much as I’m loath to admit it, it might be time to return to Gallifrey for maintenance.’
Pain lanced through the Doctor at that suggestion, and his mental shields clamped down tightly lest that spill over and affect his younger self.
‘Not gonna happen.’
‘Oh, well, suit yourself. It’s your choice if you want to keep landing wrong. I’m surprised the yearometer hasn’t started registering months instead of hours,’ Mop-Top mused.
‘As if you’ve never got a landing wrong,’ the Doctor shot back.
There was a sparking noise from beneath the keyboard, and Mop-Top let out an exclamation of triumph.
‘There we go! You can pick up your assistant and drop me off at my TARDIS. We can be gone long before the eruption,’ Mop-Top said smugly. The smugness vanished, and he considered the Doctor carefully. ‘What possessed you to bring her here?’
‘Only came to close a minor time loop,’ the Doctor admitted. ‘She insisted on coming along. You’ll learn there’s no arguing with her.’
‘She’s remarkable,’ Mop-Top agreed. ‘How long has she been with you?’
The Doctor’s fingers skimmed past a stream of Gallifreyan writing on the screen and reached distractedly for a nearby dial. ‘Mm, ‘bout a week.’
‘A week?’ his younger self repeated, looking surprise. ‘I would have guessed a lot longer.’ His gaze turned far away. ‘She has a good heart.’
There was a beat of silence.
‘There’s a… brightness to her that I’ve never seen before,’ the Doctor admitted after a moment, slightly uncomfortable revealing such a thing, even to himself. ‘Not in a human. And I’m not sure if she simply has a low opinion of her self-worth, or if she comprehends my - our - lifestyle better than most.’
‘I have a suspicion she will surprise you.’
‘She already does.’
Another silence, although this one was one of agreement.
The Doctor cleared his throat, breaking it off before it could become some heart-warming bonding moment between the two of him. ‘So, I’d forgotten about all of this. You’re relatively new in that body, yeah?’
‘Mh-hm.’
‘You’re travelling alone? Or - no, Ben and Polly, was it?’
‘Yes. They’re both in my TARDIS. I left them sleeping when I came out here.’
‘Humans. Snorin’ their lives away.’
‘Such a waste,’ Mop-Top agreed.
They didn’t speak again after that, rotating around the console to get the coordinates exactly right. Twelve months for twelve hours was unacceptable right now.
Once they rematerialised, the Doctor left his previous self to man the TARDIS.
Darting outside, he discovered their landing had been perfect; three feet away Rose was just beginning to go still.
The Doctor ignored the blistering heat washing over them, trying to steal his breath, and the cracking roar of the island breaking up beneath their feet.
He bolted from the TARDIS and was at her side in an instant.
Even as he scooped her into his arms, he was assessing her condition. Her entire body was covered in ash and her skin was an angry red beneath it. The worst of it was the third degree scorch burn all up her leg.
She’d be fine, of course, provided there wasn’t too much ash residue in her lungs, but every second’s delay hurt.
He kicked open the door in his hurry to get to safety. His second self didn’t look up until after he initiated the dematerialization sequence, his expression no doubt a reflection of the Doctor’s. They were both more than relieved that they had managed to get to her in time.
The TARDIS was good enough to bring the sickbay right to the edge of the console room. The Doctor wasted no time in setting Rose down and reaching for the universal antibiotics and tissue regenerator.
It took a bit longer than he liked, especially getting her core temperature back down to an acceptable human level. But soon Rose looked no worse for the wear, barring a bit of a tan. Aware that this would be a bit painful until the drugs kicked in, he gave her a mild sedative as well, before leaving her dozing in the medbay.
He had a temporal anomaly to deal with before he brought her to her room.
He stalked back to the console room, entering just in time to see his younger self lean back in the jump seat and prop his feet up on the dash.
‘Oi! Makin’ yourself comfortable, I see.’
‘Just awaiting your return,’ Mop-Top retorted disapprovingly. ‘Given your appearance, one would never think you were the type to condone bedside manner.’
‘Don’t you have somewhere to be?’ he answered, pointing at the view screen outside that showed the still rumbling volcano. Now that Rose was safe, his earlier annoyance at the situation was returning fully. ‘Off you pop.’
‘Beyond the usual unpleasantness that these situations bring with them, you’re awfully keen on getting rid of me,’ his second self said innocently. ‘Almost like you don’t want your charming friend to know that I’m you.’
‘Say hello to Ben and Polly for me,’ the Doctor hedged.
‘Ah, avoiding the topic. I really haven’t changed, have I?’ Mop-Top chuckled, getting to his feet. ‘Well, goodbye.’
And he was gone from the TARDIS.
The Doctor stared at where he had been for a moment, and finally exhaled and shook his head. As far as visits from himself went, this had been one of the less troublesome ones.
He wandered across the grating and stood beside the console, blinking as something caught his eyes.
There, pinned to the Time Rotor, was a quickly done sketch of himself standing on the island. One of his Post-Its had been stuck to it as well.
‘I do hope I got the ears right,’ the note said in hastily scribbled Gallifreyan.
“Idiot,” the Doctor scowled.
· ΘΣ ·
‘And he just drew it from memory?’ Rose asked, staring at the sketch in her hands.
‘Not exactly a difficult thing to do,’ the Doctor answered as he examined Rose’s leg the next morning. ‘Could’ve done it myself without us ever going to that island.’
‘But then we wouldn’t’ve run into your friend. You’re sure he’s all right?’
‘Yes, yes, I dropped him off safely on his ship with his crew and they are no doubt far away from any exploding islands right now.’
‘He was strange,’ Rose remarked thoughtfully. ‘Nice, but strange. And you never explained why he wasn’t wearing a mask to breathe through like I was.’
‘Because volcanologists of the time period didn’t clue in to the fact they were breathing ash and other poisonous gases. Not ‘til years later,’ the Doctor said, masking his lie with a bit of truth. ‘Until then, they counted on luck not to suffocate. Not that a mask kept you out of much trouble…’
‘Yeah, I’m thinking we should maybe avoid the eighteen hundreds for a bit. I always almost get killed there.’
‘Noted. But right now, you’re good as new. No sign of infection, all muscles in working order - you, Rose Tyler, are fit for duty.’
‘This is amazing,’ she told him, swinging around on the sterile sick bay bed and examining the unblemished skin of her leg. ‘Can’t even tell there was anything wrong. S’ppose you really are a doctor after all.’
‘I was always a doctor!’
‘But you never got an actual degree in medicine, did you?’ she prompted.
‘Mm… not in the technical sense.’
‘Ha! I guess it’s really down to all the impressive gizmos in here,’ Rose kidded, hopping down. ‘You’re just the man reading the directions.’
‘Hmph - catch me ever unmelting your skin for you again.’
Rose laughed in response to that.
‘All right, all right, you’re the best doctor I’ve ever had,’ she placated. Before he registered what she was about to do, she leaned up to peck him on the cheek. ‘Can we get a move on, then? Lots to do today! Most famous ship in the world!’
The Doctor beamed at her retreating back. It was just like her to bounce back so quickly. Of course, she hadn’t known exactly how close to dying she had been, and he didn’t tell her. Mostly because he had been studiously ignoring that little fact as well while fixing her up.
He hurried after her, already anticipating the excitement of another adventure as he settled in front of the console.
‘Right then - Southampton, 1912,’ the Doctor declared, yanking the requisite lever and punching a few keys. ‘Lingering Victorian morals, rampant classism and a doomed cruise liner!’
‘Just a typical day for us then?’
‘Exactly!’
Rose hummed appreciatively from where she hung onto one of the coral struts.
· ΔΩ ·
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