Who Fic - Recurrence 2/2
Title: Recurrence 2/2
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating/warnings: PG-13
Genre: angst
Character/s: Rose/10.5
Spoilers: up to JE
Summary: When a Torchwood employee seemingly becomes afflicted by the same force that the Doctor faced on Midnight it’s a race against time for him to try and save her life before the situation escalates out of control.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all it’s associated characters/situations etc do not belong to me, I’m just borrowing them.
<- Part One
~*~
After nearly an hour spent in Laboratory 260 poring over glass slides, computer readouts and various pieces of (frankly) primitive machinery trying to get some sort of result - the Doctor had discovered that this thing, whatever it was...did not seem to affect the blood.
“Sorry I couldn’t be much help,” Dr. Thomas Neville said morosely. He had turned out to be a balding man who despite his advanced age sported the sleekest, most fantastic pair of tortoiseshell glasses the Doctor had ever seen. He was very tempted to ask him where he’d gotten them from - his own brainy specs had been left in his brown suit and he still often found himself reaching for them only to come up empty handed. “Seems that whatever this thing is it doesn’t affect the blood.”
“So it seems,” the Doctor clapped him on the shoulder grimly. “Thank you Dr. Neville. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Me?” Neville chuckled uncertainly. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Gave me someone to bounce ideas off,” the Doctor grinned. “Always helpful! Anyway, must be off. Next step is...well look at the brainwaves I suppose. See how they’ve progressed. Maybe do an examination of the body.”
“Good luck!” Neville waved even as the Doctor charged out of the door, pulling his mobile from his pocket as he went.
Rose’s phone rang twice before it was picked up. Not even waiting for her to say hello, he leapt straight into the conversation.
“Rose,” he said as he came up short in front of the elevators. “I’m coming back down again. I can’t get anything from the blood so I was thinking that maybe...”
“It’s Seb actually,”
The Doctor paused as he clambered into the elevator and pressed the basement level button. “Oh,” he said. Then, “Where’s Rose?”
“She’s...well she’s...” Seb coughed. “She’s with Jodie.”
His stomach felt like it had dropped right out of the bottom of him, plummeting down to the basement level where he so desperately wanted to be.
“What the hell did you let her go in there for?” the Doctor spluttered as he began to frantically pummel the button for the basement level to no avail. The lift continued on just as smoothly as before. “I told you - all of you - that nobody was allowed to go in there until...”
“I told her not to go in,” Seb said irritably. “But she didn’t listen to me - as usual. Bloody stubborn woman. Don’t know how you can live with her.”
“I don’t care how stubborn she is,” the Doctor snapped as the lift doors finally opened. He burst out into the corridor and began to sprint towards the stairs. “Seb, listen to me - you’ve got to get her out of there. Now.”
“She’s only trying to help Jodie...” Seb mumbled, sounding put out.
“Oh trust me,” the Doctor said grimly as he began to jump down the stairs three at a time. “She’s not helping Jodie by being in there.”
“Well what exactly does this thing do John?” Seb demanded. “It can’t be anything good or you wouldn’t be so bloody worried.”
“Look I’ll explain later!” the Doctor all but shouted. He was beginning to get a bit breathless from all the running and talking. “Just get Rose out!”
Hanging up abruptly he concentrated on the path he had taken earlier with Rose. Left, right, right again, down the stairs, through the door...or not. Coming up to a screeching halt in front of the first security door the Doctor patted frantically at his pockets then swore loudly when he realised that he hadn’t thought to borrow Rose’s swipe card. He was locked out.
“Sonic it is,” he muttered, pulling it out and quickly disabling the lock. Two doors later he finally lost his patience and merely began blowing up the control panels. Torchwood could fix them later - Rose was not expendable.
Exactly two minutes and thirty six seconds later he burst into the observation room accompanied by a flurry of sparks and smoke.
“Oi!” Seb said, affronted. “You can’t just blow up the...”
“Too late,” the Doctor said as he came to the observation window. “I just did. Three of them actually. Now tell me Seb,” he turned back to him, teeth gritted and with the air of a man very close to punching a wall. “Why Rose is still in there with Jodie?”
Seb shifted uncomfortably. “Just after you hung up they started talking at the same time.”
The Doctor snapped his attention back to the window, horrified. Rose was kneeling in front of Jodie, gazing intently at the young girls face and then right on cue they both spoke simultaneously, their voices slightly tinny on the speakers in the observation room.
“It’s amazing,” Kile breathed. He glanced up at the Doctor before refocusing his attention back to the two women in the isolation chamber. “Isn’t it? It’s almost like its...learning, progressing.”
“Oh yes,” he agreed grimly. “That’s exactly what its doing.”
“She knows exactly what Rose is going to say at the exact moment she says it,” Julia was just as dumbstruck as her counterpart. “How is she doing that? Dr. Smith?”
But he ignored her, instead reaching for the button that allowed them to broadcast their voices from the observation room back into the isolation chamber beyond.
“Rose?”
Rose and Jodie both turned towards the window at the same time.
“Can you hear what she’s doing?” they said at the same time, clearly still Rose’s words. “She’s saying what I am at exactly the same time! How’s she doing that?”
“Rose you need to stop,” the Doctor said, trying not to let his voice sound too desperate. The last thing he needed was to start a panic. “I need you to stop talking and come back out again. There’s nothing more we can do for Jodie right now.”
“But it’s changing,” Rose and Jodie said, turning back to face each other. “First she was copying and now she’s saying what I am only at the exact same time.”
“Rose...”
“But why’s she doing it?” Rose wondered, Jodie a frightening monotone chorus. “How’s she doing it?”
“Please Rose,” he pleaded. “Just come out.”
“Oh Doctor, really. I’m fine,” the two of them snapped. “She’s not even dangerous - just look at her!”
“Look,” he said shortly. “Please, just come out. I promise I’ll explain everything to you but...”
“I don’t care,” Jodie said suddenly.
Everyone in the observation room froze.
“I don’t care,” Rose said slowly.
“And she doesn’t want to come out.”
“And she doesn’t want to come out.”
“Oh no,” the Doctor pushed a desperate hand into his hair and soon enough it was followed by the other. “Oh this is...this is not...”
“It’s gone into Rose,” Seb breathed. “Now she’s repeating!”
“Yes,” Jodie nodded sagely, slowly rising to her feet. Rose stayed crouched, eyes wide and hair swinging forward to obscure her face but as Jodie continued they could all hear her voice, repeating just as Jodie had done. “I’m free now. I’m safe. It’s gone into her.”
“It hasn’t gone into Rose,” the Doctor argued. “That’s not how this thing works! It’s still inside Jodie, don’t let it fool you.”
“But just...look at them!” Seb said.
“Yes,” Jodie agreed, followed shortly by Rose. “Look at me. I can move. And now she can’t.”
“That’s only because the thing inside Jodie has stolen Rose’s voice,” the Doctor argued.
“No, it passed into Rose,” Kile argued. “I saw it.”
“Oh my God,” Julia gasped suddenly. “What if it’s contagious?”
“Well it seems to have gone into Rose now,” Kile said, suddenly worrying at his fingernail. “Which means that it has the potential to pass from one person to another. Maybe...maybe it’s a new kind of disease?”
“Look stop it!” the Doctor said, furious. “None of you have ever seen this thing before or been possessed by it - you don’t understand what it’s doing!”
“It is contagious!” Julia shrieked suddenly, pointing a shaking finger at the Doctor. “You gave it to Jodie!”
“I did what?” the Doctor said, baffled.
“You must’ve done!” she continued to blather. “You just said you’ve seen this happen before - you’ve been exposed to it haven’t you? You must’ve passed it on to her!”
“Whoa, now wait, hold on...”
“But he cant’ve infected Jodie,” Seb interrupted. “He’s never even met her until today.”
“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed, relieved. “If anyone should be under suspicion it should be you lot, not me!”
“You’re right!” Julia immediately turned on Seb. “You were out there all alone with that poor girl - anything could’ve happened!”
The Doctor was aghast. “Seb wouldn’t have...”
“I didn’t - why would I ever,” Seb began to splutter. “What kind of person do you think-?”
“He did it,” Jodie said suddenly, edging towards the glass. Behind her Rose continued to repeat her words. “He spoke to me. He progressed the virus.”
“It’s a virus,” Julia whimpered and crossed herself. “Oh Lord help us - we’ll all be infected!”
“It’s not a virus and I didn’t progress it this far,” Seb babbled, pointing an accusing finger towards the observation window. “Rose did!”
“Well we should get rid of her then before it moves on from her.” Kile stood abruptly and put his hand out to Seb. “Where’s your gun?”
The Doctor’s jaw dropped. “You can’t just - what do you think - Seb don’t give him the gun!”
Seb gripped the firearm in both hands, clearly torn.
“Please let me out,” Jodie pleaded from behind the window, laying her palms flat against it. “Please. I don’t want to get re-infected.”
Julia made as if to move towards the door but stopped when the Doctor all but spat at her, “Don’t. Move.”
“But Doctor she’s frightened, can’t you see?” Julia looked hopelessly at where Jodie stood, staring desperately through the window. “It’s alright darling,” she called. “We’ll get you out in a jiffy.”
“No,” the Doctor insisted. “We need to get Rose out...”
“But she’s infected!”
“She’s not infected!”
“Then why’s she acting like that?” Julia demanded. “She’s doing exactly what Jodie did! Look, she can’t move.”
“No. She can’t,” Jodie agreed, glancing back at Rose who was still immobile, still repeating. “It’s taken over her - like it took over me. But I’m better now. So much better. Please let me out? Please?”
“I still say we get rid of her,” Kile muttered. “Get rid of Rose and we can stop this thing right now before it goes any further.”
“We’re not getting rid of anyone,” the Doctor snapped. “Now just shut up for a minute and listen to me.”
Julia and Kile both glared at him but they didn’t argue any further so he pressed on, trying to keep his voice calm despite the thundering of his heart.
“This thing - whatever it is - it meddles with your thoughts,” he explained slowly. “It twists things around, makes you paranoid - it makes you suspect people.”
“Yeah?” Kile said viciously. “Well I suspect that your girlfriend is infected with some alien life form and if we don’t stop it now then it could be one of us next!”
“How many...it’s not in Rose!” the Doctor said exasperatedly.
“So you keep saying,” Julia said suspiciously. “How do we know if you’re even telling the truth? We don’t even know you!”
“And then there’s all those rumours about you,” Kile chipped in unexpectedly.
“What rumours?” the Doctor demanded as everyone shuffled about awkwardly and avoided his gaze. “What rumours?”
“About you,” Seb said eventually, he was still gripping onto his gun but as he spoke he took it in one hand. “That you’re not really human at all. That you’re from another whole universe even.”
“Oh don’t be ridiculous,” the Doctor scoffed. Both he and Rose were used to being subjected to questions about whatever nonsense the tabloids had printed up about them but it didn’t make it any easier to lie about - especially when those who were doing the writing were often very close to the truth. “You honestly don’t believe all that do you?”
“Dunno,” Kile grunted. “You tell us.”
“He is,” they all jumped at the sound of Jodie’s voice. “He’s an alien. He’s from another world. Another universe.”
The Doctor blanched. “Stop it,” he said. “Just stop it now.”
“I know all about him,” Jodie continued, eyes glinting. “Because she knows all about him. He’s a freak of nature. An abomination.”
“He’s a freak of nature,” Rose’s voice echoed blankly and hearing the words coming from her mouth, repeated or not, made the Doctor go cold. “An abomination.”
“Well that’s it then,” Kile said.
The Doctor jumped as he felt cold glass and realised that he’d somehow managed to back himself up against the door leading into the decontamination chamber - when had he done that? In front of him Seb, Julia and Kile were moving into an unmistakable semi circle - a defensive shape.
No way out.
“He infected me,” Jodie said, smiling gleefully now. The echo of Rose’s voice was growing smaller and smaller. “He planted the container. The canister in the field. He made it implode.”
“I didn’t!” he protested. “She’s lying!”
“And now Rose is infected,” Jodie said. “And you all will be too if you don’t get rid of them both.”
“From her own mouth,” Kile said. “It’s him. It’s been him all along - coming down here, pretending he could help when all along he just wanted to spread this virus!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” the Doctor was really struggling to stop himself from going into a full blown panic. Both his adrenal and his sweat glands were working overtime and he couldn’t do anything much to control them. Fight or flight was a human trait that he still hadn’t mastered control over. “Why would I put Rose into danger? I love her!”
“Don’t be stupid,” Kile sneered. “Aliens can’t fall in love!”
Seb raised his gun with trembling hands and Julia watched him with an unhealthy amount of anticipation.
“I’m sorry John,” Seb whispered. “I’m so sorry...”
And it was this that finally prompted the Doctor to cut and run.
Pressing the release button on the door, he ducked inside the decontamination chamber just as Seb recovered his wits enough to fire. Luckily, the bullet couldn’t penetrate the glass and the Doctor laughed.
“Ooh I love this unbreakable glass,” he patted it fondly and grinned cheekily, ducking when Kile’s face twisted and he snatched the gun off Seb to shoot another three bullets into the door in rapid succession.
As the vents overheard flooded the room with foul smelling antiseptic he calculated exactly how much time he would have inside the isolation chamber before the others could come in after him. These cells had been specifically designed so that only one door could be open at a time but he would still be cutting it quite fine.
“Nineteen point zero three seconds,” he concluded grimly, positioning himself by the next door which he had already calculated would take just over four seconds to open and another four to close once he was inside.
The antiseptic hissed to a stop and he slammed his hand down on the panel, willing it to work faster.
“Please, please, please,” he muttered. The panel bleeped at him and the door slid open. Moments after he had slipped inside, he heard the other three come barrelling into the decontamination chamber behind him and then cry out angrily when they realised they had to wait to come in after him.
Twenty seconds of disinfecting and they’d go for the panel too. Four point zero one five seconds for the door to open fully. Somehow in twenty four point zero one five seconds he had to convince this thing to get out of Jodie and to give Rose back her voice.
Well...he’d done more impossible things in less time.
Jodie had turned to face him, smiling craftily as he dropped to his knees beside Rose, arms curling automatically around her shoulders.
“Leave her,” he said imploringly. “Take me if you want but leave Rose. She doesn’t deserve this.”
Underneath his hands he felt Rose shudder and he turned to glance at her. Although she couldn’t move, she looked utterly terrified, eyes wide and - his single heart clenched painfully in his chest - tears running down her cheeks and plopping gently on the floor.
“Oh I don’t think so,” Jodie smiled, and Rose mumbled the words in return. “She’s mine now. Soon she will die and then I will move on.”
“Move onto what?” Jodie said nothing and the Doctor felt a surge of anger. She was wasting time of which he had precious little. “Move onto what?!”
Jodie merely smiled even wider. She looked quite demented now, eyes wide and staring.
“What exactly is it that you want from us?” the Doctor tried a new angle. “You must want something to have travelled so far.”
“Of course I want something,” Jodie said primly. “But you’re in no position to give it to me.”
“Anything,” the Doctor insisted. “It’s not too late. If you stop this - if you release Jodie and Rose - then I can help you. I’ll get you whatever you need and then you can go back home to Midnight where you belong.”
“And miss all the fun here?” Jodie shook her head pityingly at him. “You don’t know us very well do you?”
“I know you well enough,” he said grimly. “Now this is your last chance. Leave these people be.”
“Or you’ll what?” Jodie looked suddenly amused. “Stop me?”
“Yes,”
Jodie laughed. “Oh Doctor,” she said emphatically and cold sweat broke out across his brow at the knowing look in her eyes. “Not even you can stop us!”
“What did you just call me?” he whispered.
Jodie laughed again as the door behind him whooshed open.
“Stand aside!” Kile yelled. “Or I’ll shoot you too!”
“Yes!” Jodie said gleefully. “Shoot him too! He’s contracted the virus as well.”
“Yes,” Rose agreed, voice trembling. “Shoot him too. He’s contracted the virus as well.”
The Doctor pushed himself to his feet, words dying in his throat as Kile levelled Seb’s gun at his head.
“Any last words?” he said.
“Please,” the Doctor said quietly. “Don’t make me do this.”
Kile looked momentarily confused at his choice of words before redoubling his hold on the gun and preparing to fire.
A shot rang out, startlingly loud in the confined space.
Julia screamed.
And then Jodie collapsed to the ground.
Authors Note: Before anybody yells at me for leaving this story on such a cliffhanger - there will be an epilogue. Cheers =)
Epilogue ->
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating/warnings: PG-13
Genre: angst
Character/s: Rose/10.5
Spoilers: up to JE
Summary: When a Torchwood employee seemingly becomes afflicted by the same force that the Doctor faced on Midnight it’s a race against time for him to try and save her life before the situation escalates out of control.
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all it’s associated characters/situations etc do not belong to me, I’m just borrowing them.
<- Part One
~*~
After nearly an hour spent in Laboratory 260 poring over glass slides, computer readouts and various pieces of (frankly) primitive machinery trying to get some sort of result - the Doctor had discovered that this thing, whatever it was...did not seem to affect the blood.
“Sorry I couldn’t be much help,” Dr. Thomas Neville said morosely. He had turned out to be a balding man who despite his advanced age sported the sleekest, most fantastic pair of tortoiseshell glasses the Doctor had ever seen. He was very tempted to ask him where he’d gotten them from - his own brainy specs had been left in his brown suit and he still often found himself reaching for them only to come up empty handed. “Seems that whatever this thing is it doesn’t affect the blood.”
“So it seems,” the Doctor clapped him on the shoulder grimly. “Thank you Dr. Neville. You’ve been very helpful.”
“Me?” Neville chuckled uncertainly. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Gave me someone to bounce ideas off,” the Doctor grinned. “Always helpful! Anyway, must be off. Next step is...well look at the brainwaves I suppose. See how they’ve progressed. Maybe do an examination of the body.”
“Good luck!” Neville waved even as the Doctor charged out of the door, pulling his mobile from his pocket as he went.
Rose’s phone rang twice before it was picked up. Not even waiting for her to say hello, he leapt straight into the conversation.
“Rose,” he said as he came up short in front of the elevators. “I’m coming back down again. I can’t get anything from the blood so I was thinking that maybe...”
“It’s Seb actually,”
The Doctor paused as he clambered into the elevator and pressed the basement level button. “Oh,” he said. Then, “Where’s Rose?”
“She’s...well she’s...” Seb coughed. “She’s with Jodie.”
His stomach felt like it had dropped right out of the bottom of him, plummeting down to the basement level where he so desperately wanted to be.
“What the hell did you let her go in there for?” the Doctor spluttered as he began to frantically pummel the button for the basement level to no avail. The lift continued on just as smoothly as before. “I told you - all of you - that nobody was allowed to go in there until...”
“I told her not to go in,” Seb said irritably. “But she didn’t listen to me - as usual. Bloody stubborn woman. Don’t know how you can live with her.”
“I don’t care how stubborn she is,” the Doctor snapped as the lift doors finally opened. He burst out into the corridor and began to sprint towards the stairs. “Seb, listen to me - you’ve got to get her out of there. Now.”
“She’s only trying to help Jodie...” Seb mumbled, sounding put out.
“Oh trust me,” the Doctor said grimly as he began to jump down the stairs three at a time. “She’s not helping Jodie by being in there.”
“Well what exactly does this thing do John?” Seb demanded. “It can’t be anything good or you wouldn’t be so bloody worried.”
“Look I’ll explain later!” the Doctor all but shouted. He was beginning to get a bit breathless from all the running and talking. “Just get Rose out!”
Hanging up abruptly he concentrated on the path he had taken earlier with Rose. Left, right, right again, down the stairs, through the door...or not. Coming up to a screeching halt in front of the first security door the Doctor patted frantically at his pockets then swore loudly when he realised that he hadn’t thought to borrow Rose’s swipe card. He was locked out.
“Sonic it is,” he muttered, pulling it out and quickly disabling the lock. Two doors later he finally lost his patience and merely began blowing up the control panels. Torchwood could fix them later - Rose was not expendable.
Exactly two minutes and thirty six seconds later he burst into the observation room accompanied by a flurry of sparks and smoke.
“Oi!” Seb said, affronted. “You can’t just blow up the...”
“Too late,” the Doctor said as he came to the observation window. “I just did. Three of them actually. Now tell me Seb,” he turned back to him, teeth gritted and with the air of a man very close to punching a wall. “Why Rose is still in there with Jodie?”
Seb shifted uncomfortably. “Just after you hung up they started talking at the same time.”
The Doctor snapped his attention back to the window, horrified. Rose was kneeling in front of Jodie, gazing intently at the young girls face and then right on cue they both spoke simultaneously, their voices slightly tinny on the speakers in the observation room.
“It’s amazing,” Kile breathed. He glanced up at the Doctor before refocusing his attention back to the two women in the isolation chamber. “Isn’t it? It’s almost like its...learning, progressing.”
“Oh yes,” he agreed grimly. “That’s exactly what its doing.”
“She knows exactly what Rose is going to say at the exact moment she says it,” Julia was just as dumbstruck as her counterpart. “How is she doing that? Dr. Smith?”
But he ignored her, instead reaching for the button that allowed them to broadcast their voices from the observation room back into the isolation chamber beyond.
“Rose?”
Rose and Jodie both turned towards the window at the same time.
“Can you hear what she’s doing?” they said at the same time, clearly still Rose’s words. “She’s saying what I am at exactly the same time! How’s she doing that?”
“Rose you need to stop,” the Doctor said, trying not to let his voice sound too desperate. The last thing he needed was to start a panic. “I need you to stop talking and come back out again. There’s nothing more we can do for Jodie right now.”
“But it’s changing,” Rose and Jodie said, turning back to face each other. “First she was copying and now she’s saying what I am only at the exact same time.”
“Rose...”
“But why’s she doing it?” Rose wondered, Jodie a frightening monotone chorus. “How’s she doing it?”
“Please Rose,” he pleaded. “Just come out.”
“Oh Doctor, really. I’m fine,” the two of them snapped. “She’s not even dangerous - just look at her!”
“Look,” he said shortly. “Please, just come out. I promise I’ll explain everything to you but...”
“I don’t care,” Jodie said suddenly.
Everyone in the observation room froze.
“I don’t care,” Rose said slowly.
“And she doesn’t want to come out.”
“And she doesn’t want to come out.”
“Oh no,” the Doctor pushed a desperate hand into his hair and soon enough it was followed by the other. “Oh this is...this is not...”
“It’s gone into Rose,” Seb breathed. “Now she’s repeating!”
“Yes,” Jodie nodded sagely, slowly rising to her feet. Rose stayed crouched, eyes wide and hair swinging forward to obscure her face but as Jodie continued they could all hear her voice, repeating just as Jodie had done. “I’m free now. I’m safe. It’s gone into her.”
“It hasn’t gone into Rose,” the Doctor argued. “That’s not how this thing works! It’s still inside Jodie, don’t let it fool you.”
“But just...look at them!” Seb said.
“Yes,” Jodie agreed, followed shortly by Rose. “Look at me. I can move. And now she can’t.”
“That’s only because the thing inside Jodie has stolen Rose’s voice,” the Doctor argued.
“No, it passed into Rose,” Kile argued. “I saw it.”
“Oh my God,” Julia gasped suddenly. “What if it’s contagious?”
“Well it seems to have gone into Rose now,” Kile said, suddenly worrying at his fingernail. “Which means that it has the potential to pass from one person to another. Maybe...maybe it’s a new kind of disease?”
“Look stop it!” the Doctor said, furious. “None of you have ever seen this thing before or been possessed by it - you don’t understand what it’s doing!”
“It is contagious!” Julia shrieked suddenly, pointing a shaking finger at the Doctor. “You gave it to Jodie!”
“I did what?” the Doctor said, baffled.
“You must’ve done!” she continued to blather. “You just said you’ve seen this happen before - you’ve been exposed to it haven’t you? You must’ve passed it on to her!”
“Whoa, now wait, hold on...”
“But he cant’ve infected Jodie,” Seb interrupted. “He’s never even met her until today.”
“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed, relieved. “If anyone should be under suspicion it should be you lot, not me!”
“You’re right!” Julia immediately turned on Seb. “You were out there all alone with that poor girl - anything could’ve happened!”
The Doctor was aghast. “Seb wouldn’t have...”
“I didn’t - why would I ever,” Seb began to splutter. “What kind of person do you think-?”
“He did it,” Jodie said suddenly, edging towards the glass. Behind her Rose continued to repeat her words. “He spoke to me. He progressed the virus.”
“It’s a virus,” Julia whimpered and crossed herself. “Oh Lord help us - we’ll all be infected!”
“It’s not a virus and I didn’t progress it this far,” Seb babbled, pointing an accusing finger towards the observation window. “Rose did!”
“Well we should get rid of her then before it moves on from her.” Kile stood abruptly and put his hand out to Seb. “Where’s your gun?”
The Doctor’s jaw dropped. “You can’t just - what do you think - Seb don’t give him the gun!”
Seb gripped the firearm in both hands, clearly torn.
“Please let me out,” Jodie pleaded from behind the window, laying her palms flat against it. “Please. I don’t want to get re-infected.”
Julia made as if to move towards the door but stopped when the Doctor all but spat at her, “Don’t. Move.”
“But Doctor she’s frightened, can’t you see?” Julia looked hopelessly at where Jodie stood, staring desperately through the window. “It’s alright darling,” she called. “We’ll get you out in a jiffy.”
“No,” the Doctor insisted. “We need to get Rose out...”
“But she’s infected!”
“She’s not infected!”
“Then why’s she acting like that?” Julia demanded. “She’s doing exactly what Jodie did! Look, she can’t move.”
“No. She can’t,” Jodie agreed, glancing back at Rose who was still immobile, still repeating. “It’s taken over her - like it took over me. But I’m better now. So much better. Please let me out? Please?”
“I still say we get rid of her,” Kile muttered. “Get rid of Rose and we can stop this thing right now before it goes any further.”
“We’re not getting rid of anyone,” the Doctor snapped. “Now just shut up for a minute and listen to me.”
Julia and Kile both glared at him but they didn’t argue any further so he pressed on, trying to keep his voice calm despite the thundering of his heart.
“This thing - whatever it is - it meddles with your thoughts,” he explained slowly. “It twists things around, makes you paranoid - it makes you suspect people.”
“Yeah?” Kile said viciously. “Well I suspect that your girlfriend is infected with some alien life form and if we don’t stop it now then it could be one of us next!”
“How many...it’s not in Rose!” the Doctor said exasperatedly.
“So you keep saying,” Julia said suspiciously. “How do we know if you’re even telling the truth? We don’t even know you!”
“And then there’s all those rumours about you,” Kile chipped in unexpectedly.
“What rumours?” the Doctor demanded as everyone shuffled about awkwardly and avoided his gaze. “What rumours?”
“About you,” Seb said eventually, he was still gripping onto his gun but as he spoke he took it in one hand. “That you’re not really human at all. That you’re from another whole universe even.”
“Oh don’t be ridiculous,” the Doctor scoffed. Both he and Rose were used to being subjected to questions about whatever nonsense the tabloids had printed up about them but it didn’t make it any easier to lie about - especially when those who were doing the writing were often very close to the truth. “You honestly don’t believe all that do you?”
“Dunno,” Kile grunted. “You tell us.”
“He is,” they all jumped at the sound of Jodie’s voice. “He’s an alien. He’s from another world. Another universe.”
The Doctor blanched. “Stop it,” he said. “Just stop it now.”
“I know all about him,” Jodie continued, eyes glinting. “Because she knows all about him. He’s a freak of nature. An abomination.”
“He’s a freak of nature,” Rose’s voice echoed blankly and hearing the words coming from her mouth, repeated or not, made the Doctor go cold. “An abomination.”
“Well that’s it then,” Kile said.
The Doctor jumped as he felt cold glass and realised that he’d somehow managed to back himself up against the door leading into the decontamination chamber - when had he done that? In front of him Seb, Julia and Kile were moving into an unmistakable semi circle - a defensive shape.
No way out.
“He infected me,” Jodie said, smiling gleefully now. The echo of Rose’s voice was growing smaller and smaller. “He planted the container. The canister in the field. He made it implode.”
“I didn’t!” he protested. “She’s lying!”
“And now Rose is infected,” Jodie said. “And you all will be too if you don’t get rid of them both.”
“From her own mouth,” Kile said. “It’s him. It’s been him all along - coming down here, pretending he could help when all along he just wanted to spread this virus!”
“That doesn’t make any sense!” the Doctor was really struggling to stop himself from going into a full blown panic. Both his adrenal and his sweat glands were working overtime and he couldn’t do anything much to control them. Fight or flight was a human trait that he still hadn’t mastered control over. “Why would I put Rose into danger? I love her!”
“Don’t be stupid,” Kile sneered. “Aliens can’t fall in love!”
Seb raised his gun with trembling hands and Julia watched him with an unhealthy amount of anticipation.
“I’m sorry John,” Seb whispered. “I’m so sorry...”
And it was this that finally prompted the Doctor to cut and run.
Pressing the release button on the door, he ducked inside the decontamination chamber just as Seb recovered his wits enough to fire. Luckily, the bullet couldn’t penetrate the glass and the Doctor laughed.
“Ooh I love this unbreakable glass,” he patted it fondly and grinned cheekily, ducking when Kile’s face twisted and he snatched the gun off Seb to shoot another three bullets into the door in rapid succession.
As the vents overheard flooded the room with foul smelling antiseptic he calculated exactly how much time he would have inside the isolation chamber before the others could come in after him. These cells had been specifically designed so that only one door could be open at a time but he would still be cutting it quite fine.
“Nineteen point zero three seconds,” he concluded grimly, positioning himself by the next door which he had already calculated would take just over four seconds to open and another four to close once he was inside.
The antiseptic hissed to a stop and he slammed his hand down on the panel, willing it to work faster.
“Please, please, please,” he muttered. The panel bleeped at him and the door slid open. Moments after he had slipped inside, he heard the other three come barrelling into the decontamination chamber behind him and then cry out angrily when they realised they had to wait to come in after him.
Twenty seconds of disinfecting and they’d go for the panel too. Four point zero one five seconds for the door to open fully. Somehow in twenty four point zero one five seconds he had to convince this thing to get out of Jodie and to give Rose back her voice.
Well...he’d done more impossible things in less time.
Jodie had turned to face him, smiling craftily as he dropped to his knees beside Rose, arms curling automatically around her shoulders.
“Leave her,” he said imploringly. “Take me if you want but leave Rose. She doesn’t deserve this.”
Underneath his hands he felt Rose shudder and he turned to glance at her. Although she couldn’t move, she looked utterly terrified, eyes wide and - his single heart clenched painfully in his chest - tears running down her cheeks and plopping gently on the floor.
“Oh I don’t think so,” Jodie smiled, and Rose mumbled the words in return. “She’s mine now. Soon she will die and then I will move on.”
“Move onto what?” Jodie said nothing and the Doctor felt a surge of anger. She was wasting time of which he had precious little. “Move onto what?!”
Jodie merely smiled even wider. She looked quite demented now, eyes wide and staring.
“What exactly is it that you want from us?” the Doctor tried a new angle. “You must want something to have travelled so far.”
“Of course I want something,” Jodie said primly. “But you’re in no position to give it to me.”
“Anything,” the Doctor insisted. “It’s not too late. If you stop this - if you release Jodie and Rose - then I can help you. I’ll get you whatever you need and then you can go back home to Midnight where you belong.”
“And miss all the fun here?” Jodie shook her head pityingly at him. “You don’t know us very well do you?”
“I know you well enough,” he said grimly. “Now this is your last chance. Leave these people be.”
“Or you’ll what?” Jodie looked suddenly amused. “Stop me?”
“Yes,”
Jodie laughed. “Oh Doctor,” she said emphatically and cold sweat broke out across his brow at the knowing look in her eyes. “Not even you can stop us!”
“What did you just call me?” he whispered.
Jodie laughed again as the door behind him whooshed open.
“Stand aside!” Kile yelled. “Or I’ll shoot you too!”
“Yes!” Jodie said gleefully. “Shoot him too! He’s contracted the virus as well.”
“Yes,” Rose agreed, voice trembling. “Shoot him too. He’s contracted the virus as well.”
The Doctor pushed himself to his feet, words dying in his throat as Kile levelled Seb’s gun at his head.
“Any last words?” he said.
“Please,” the Doctor said quietly. “Don’t make me do this.”
Kile looked momentarily confused at his choice of words before redoubling his hold on the gun and preparing to fire.
A shot rang out, startlingly loud in the confined space.
Julia screamed.
And then Jodie collapsed to the ground.
Authors Note: Before anybody yells at me for leaving this story on such a cliffhanger - there will be an epilogue. Cheers =)
Epilogue ->