[On the Run] Soldiering On

[captoftardis]

Walking through the hallways of the futuristic hospital was giving both the Doctor and Rose flashbacks from their time being here, although he made sure to come much earlier in the timeline before, well, everything happened

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[noblexcompanion]

Not her fault nobody warned her about the cat nuns, thank you very much, Doctor. He could've mentioned it before they left the TARDIS, but oh no, he lets her find out the hard way and then isn't happy when she mildly points out the fact there are CAT NUNS.

Donna hated hospitals. Even fancy futuristic ones. She had seen the inside of a hospital plenty of times when her Nan was ill, and then her Dad. Hospitals held bad memories. Not to mention the constant trips back and forth thanks to metacrisis induced migraines. She wrapped her arms around herself, a defensive action. "Can't you just wave your psychic paper and get us jumped to the front of the queue or sommat?"

[captoftardis]

"Was planning on it..." Could he finish his sign in in peace without both of them questioning him to death?

He pulled out his sheet of paper and flashed it to the Sister. " Excuse me, I was told to show you this?"

"Ohh! Part of the founding fathers! A direct descendant!?" She seemed rather impressed! "Yes, yes, please hurry!" She excused herself to go talk to the staff as the Doctor glanced between the two before finishing his sign in, in which Rose pointed out his handwriting was more atrocious than usual on a digital screen.

Finally, after waiting 10 minutes or so, they were waved in.

[noblexcompanion]

"Comes with the territory of being a doctor. Have you ever met a doctor with neat handwriting? I don't reckon they exist!" Donna teased, leaning in so only Rose could hear her.

"So then, this place have a shop? Could do with a little retail therapy." Or a bottle of water, at least, and escape from the strange looks the cat nuns were giving them. Donna didn't much like the feeling of being constantly watched.

[captoftardis]

"After all this is said and done, we can do all the retail therapy you want." He commented, walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Finally, they were shown a room and another nurse came in shortly afterwards. "How many I assist you?" She glanced at each one, but stopped at Rose. "Your leg...!"

"Yeah, It's broken." Rose waved her hand at it, "It'd be grand if I could run again." She glanced at the Doctor, knowing that was what they'd be doing very soon.

The Doctor had pulled off his jackets and was starting to unbutton his shirt (He hadn't bothered with a tie), knowing he'd have to do this eventually.

[noblexcompanion]

"What exactly are you looking for, Doctor?" Not that Donna was questioning his awesome hacker abilities, but it'd be nice to know exactly what he was after - maybe she could help. She was a master file finder, after all.

"You should leave a note saying we've been spotted on the moon or sommat, send 'em on a wild goose chase." She glanced at the screen over his shoulder. "Where to next? You still want to go back and see Kassia, or is it too risky with them on our tails?"

[captoftardis]

"We'll get her, but right now, I need to see if I can find where John is." His statement caused Rose to perk up and move even more closer to him to watch the monitor.

"Are you finding anything? Is he on a ship, or a planet....?"

"Don't lose track of time! I don't know what I'll find." His fingers moved furiously across the keyboard as he hacked his way deeper into the mainframe. "It's in a series of restricted, password encoded files." Which unfortunately required more time than what they had.

[noblexcompanion]

For a Time Lord, time really seemed to be against them all the darn time. You'd think time would be on their side once every so often but nope. "How long do you think it'd take to decipher it all?"

Donna ran her hand through her hair, frustrated. So close, yet so far from finding John. "Is there some way we could, I dunno, cloak the TARDIS's systems and crack the codes without risking detection?"

[captoftardis]

"Jus-- Just give me a tic!" The Doctor almost wanted them to step back and leave him alone, but finally told himself they were as anxious as he was about the situation.

"If in a better location and more equipped for time, yes. But the odds are rather against us right now." He passed through two encrypted areas thus far, and it looked perhaps two left.

"They know we want this information, and have gone a long way to prevent it from being known."

[noblexcompanion]

Donna really hoped it was good news like 'John is safely on a deserted island frolicking in the sea' or 'the Shadow Hunters left him at a spa' but she knew the chances of that were oh, about... zero! No. It was bound to be 'he's on the big old evil ship of doom and we're all going to die saving him'.

She gave a mock salute and headed off to Rose's room, knocking lightly on the door, pushing it open a fraction. "Rose? You awake? The Doctor wants us."

[captoftardis]

He was looking rather pensive when they returned and he slipped his feet down from the console and stood up.

"Don't look like that. Please don't look like that!" Rose spoke, automatically reading into his expression, which given Donna's own body language as well, she could only guess what it meant.

"We've found him." He spoke, monotone and without much expression, "But he's on this ship... Rose, I--" He paused to swallow. "I don't know if I can save him." He didn't move from his spot, only stood there watching her.

"Stop..."

"It's highly secured with advanced weaponry. They destroyed the TARDIS in one of their lesser ships, this one can oblit--"

"I said stop! You're talking like you're not even going to try!" She was becoming angry. Angry that he wasn't his cheerful 'Allons-y' self and rushing forward without a care.

"Rose... You don't understand..."

"Of course I don't understand what's going on in that grand brain of yours. Me, dumb human. And Donna is dumb human too, yeah? But what I do understand was, all that wouldn't

[noblexcompanion]

Donna was silent the whole time Rose and the Doctor were talking... arguing... whatever it was they were doing. And then she spoke up out of nowhere. "Right, here's what you'r going to do, Doctor..." She had her 'do not mess with me' face on.

"You're going to take Rose home, back to the parallel world, and then you're going to go to the Shadow Proclamation and tell them everything - about John, about the Hunters, everything. And you get them to protect you."

Before either could ask about her, she stared at the floor and spoke softly. "I'm going to find my son."

[captoftardis]

He looked over to Donna, not saying a word, and actually looking rather indescribable.

"No. You're not taking me back! You can't honestly consider it, can you? Doctor?" And after he still didn't reply, "Doctor!?"

"She has a point." He finally commented, maybe realizing turning himself in would be the best chance possible at this.

"You need me! You can't jus... Go off after all this! It's... You're so daft and it's all about you, isn't it!?" And the tears that were welling up began to fall and she didn't know whether to slap him or kick him in the leg.

[noblexcompanion]

"It'll be okay though, right? I mean, you're the Doctor, you can talk and charm your way out of anything..." Even if he did leg it from them on their last encounter and they currently thought he was responsible for ripping holes in time.

"Maybe they can do sommat about these Shadow Hunters. I mean, there must be some Galactic Legislation or something that says you can't go around terrorising planets right?"

[captoftardis]

He rubs his eyes as he sits on the edge of the jump seat, arms crossed. "They sort of work... hand-in-hand. The Hunters wait and watch to see who the Proclamation is after and targets who slip through the cracks after they're unable to get them. That's why they've been chasing us more than the Proclamation."

But he had a feeling the Shadow Hunters weren't telling the Proclamation of their capture of the metacrisis.He really hoped all this would work out.

[noblexcompanion]

"So they know about the reject Power Rangers and don't do anything about it? They let those space bullies get away with everything? I thought the Shadow Proclamation was there to protect people..." Donna frowned. "Maybe going to them for help isn't such a good idea after all..."

But who else could they turn to? They couldn't do this alone. It was just too much for three people to deal with.

[captoftardis]

He shrugged. "My guess is they do know about them and what they're doing, but since they work together sometimes, they don't want to ruin the relationship." The Doctor leaned back in the seat, "They know the Hunters could potentially end the Proclamation, given their weapons and technology. It wouldn't be hard to do."

[noblexcompanion]

Oh great. Taking the Time Boy and leaving the girls? This couldn't end well. They were doomed. They were so dead. Donna hoped and prayed that the Doctor remembered his manners. Pissing off the Shadow Proclamation was not a wise idea.

"Make sure you tell them everything, Doctor! And do not get yourself killed!!" Donna shouted from her cell. 'Or us' was silently added.

Now to play the waiting game... Donna was very bad at the waiting game...

[captoftardis]

For Rose and Donna, it must've seemed like hours being left alone and not knowing what was going on. The Doctor hoped they weren't worrying themselves to death over it.

For him, he was cuffed and forced into a chair in what looked to be some interrogation room, making him think of the council room of the Time Lord High Council back on Gallifrey, only drastically scaled down.But there he was in full display for everyone.

"The Time Lord known as the Doctor," His name was echoed throughout the room, spoken by an elderly man who leaned forward on the grand table in front of him, peering down with judgmental eyes. "We've been trying to trace you down all this time, and then you come to us. To what do we owe you this pleasure?"

And here the Doctor began pleading his case.

[noblexcompanion]

Worrying themselves to death? Check. It was hard not to worry, especially when Donna knew how much trouble the Doctor's mouth could get him into in situations like this. Oh, she rally, really hoped he wasn't spouting any nonsense to annoy the Powers That Be,

She had no idea how long he had been gone. At least a conversation through the bars with Rose had eased her mind about Rose's safety. And she tried to make herself comfy for the long wait. The bench-cum-bed of her cell left a lot to be desired as fr as comfort was concerned, and she was still flippin' freezing.

[captoftardis]

He had lost track of time, oddly enough. By the time they deposited him back at his cell, which the Judoon drug him by his shoulders as he was passed out and nearly drooling on himself, he hadn't a clue how long he had been in the the interrogation.

He could hear the shouts of concerns, but his head was spinning and he replied, but something told him it was just a babble that didn't make any sense. Whoever they took next, be it Donna or Rose, they would find out in true Doctor fashion his irritation and lack of patience during serious matters and having to repeat himself didn't go well during the interrogation. There might have been plenty of arm flailing and a raised voice that was misinterpreted and deemed threatening it, and was immediately dealt with.

The Doctor wanted to say more, to see and talk to both Rose and Donna, but his lids were too heavy and his brain too muddled, and the next thing he knew, he was out.