Fic: Near-Fatal, 1/1
Rating: All.
Characters/Pairings: Nine, Rose, Jackie.
Spoilers: Assuming you've seen series one, you're good.
Summary: ‘You’re moodier than normal,’ Rose said.
Notes: Written for the onetrueshipfest with the prompt "The Doctor nearly has a fatal accident with aspirin."
‘You’re moodier than normal,’ Rose said.
He looked up at her, curled on an armchair with a cup of tea clutched in her hands, and raised his eyebrows.
‘I find that rather insulting.’
‘S’true. What’s wrong?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with me, Rose.’ He glanced towards the kitchen door to see if Jackie was paying attention to them. Seeing that she wasn’t, he turned back to Rose and asked in a low voice, ‘How much longer are we going to be here?’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘For god’s sake, Doctor. We only got here half an hour ago. She’s making tea for us and we are staying to eat it. No arguments,’ she said a little louder, as he opened his mouth to protest. He shushed her, looking over his shoulder towards Jackie again. ‘My mum’s not that scary, honest,’ Rose continued, ignoring him.
‘I’m not scared of her.’
‘You’re a rubbish liar.’
‘I’m not!’
‘Then we’re fine to stay, aren’t we?’
‘That’s not -’ He sighed. ‘It’s not that. If you must know, I’ve got a headache.’
‘If I must know? What, is it embarrassing for you to have a headache? I suppose you’re going to tell me that Time Lords don’t get headaches, now, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, actually, I was.’
She shrugged. ‘S’nothing we can’t sort. I’ll go and get you some painkillers.’
‘I don’t need painkillers.’
‘And you call yourself a doctor.’
‘They’re primitive.’
‘They work.’
‘For humans, maybe.’
‘For Time Lords, too.’ She got up and left the room before he could protest anymore, and returned with a glass of water and two little white pills.
‘There you go.’ He looked at the tablets, then grimaced up at her. She tipped them into his palm and shoved the glass in his other hand. ‘Take them, they’ll make you feel better.’
‘What are they?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Just Anadin. Does it matter?’
‘S’pose not.’ He popped them into his mouth and swallowed. Rose sat down next to him.
‘I guess you do have a headache, if you’re willing to take our “primitive” medicine. I thought you were making it up to get out of staying.’
‘I wouldn’t do that. We might not get on very well, but she’s still important to you.’
She smiled at him. ‘Aww.’
‘Rose, love, would you help me set the table?’ Jackie called. Rose patted his hand and went into the kitchen. The Doctor could hear the clatter of cutlery as they exchanged stories - Jackie’s friend’s sister was going through a divorce at the moment, and Rose had almost been swallowed whole by one of the pink elephant beetles of Eruko. Rose’s story was considerably more exciting, he thought, even considering that he’d been there when it happened.
‘Swallowed?’ Jackie exclaimed. ‘If my daughter gets eaten you’ll have me to answer to!’ she shouted to him. Rose laughed.
‘It would have been fine, Mum, don’t worry. The elephant beetles can’t eat anything but these weird plant things; it would have thrown me back up in no time, right, Doctor?.’
Jackie made a noise of disgust. The Doctor coughed.
‘What was that?’ Jackie wanted to know.
He shook his head. ‘Nothing. I didn’t say anything.’ He coughed again. ‘Can I help with anything?’
This stunned her into silence, and the beetle incident was not mentioned again. The fact that he hardly touched his macaroni and cheese was, though.
‘What’s wrong?’ Jackie demanded. ‘Not good enough for you?’
‘It’s lovely, Mum,’ Rose said quickly, looking at him and widening her eyes.
‘Mm, lovely,’ he agreed, coughing again.
‘Then why isn’t he eating it?’ Jackie wanted to know. ‘It’s my mother’s recipe; she likes to add a bit of ginger to the white sauce. Not much, mind, just enough to -’
‘Doctor, are you okay?’ Rose asked, her voice concerned.
He was probably okay. Just coughing a bit. And struggling to breathe. He could handle it.
‘I’m fine,’ he wheezed.
Rose stood up and came to his side. ‘You don’t look fine. What’s the matter?’
‘I’m - Rose, what was that you gave me before?’
‘Just Anadin; why, what’s -’
‘Anadin,’ he choked. ‘What’s that? I’ve never heard of it.’
‘It can’t be that that’s caused it, it’s just caffeine and aspirin,’ Jackie snapped. ‘Now would you please both just sit -’
‘Aspirin?’ he gasped. ‘I can’t take aspirin! I’m allergic.’
‘Oh my god!’ Rose cried. ‘What do we do?’
Jackie jumped up and hurried to his other side.
‘Nadine’s daughter’s allergic to marmite; she used to come up in a rash all over her fingers whenever she ate Twiglets!’
‘But he’s not coming up with a rash!’ Rose pointed out, then looked at him. ‘Oh, wait, yes, he is.’
‘Would just some water do it?’ Jackie asked. She seized his glass from earlier and shoved it at him. He shook his head, taking deep, laboured breaths.
‘That won’t help, he needs one of those things, a whatsit -’ Rose clicked her fingers rapidly and then pointed across his lap at her mother. ‘Epi-pen!’ she cried.
‘A what?’
‘Epi-pen! One of those things with insulin or adrenaline or something; I don’t remember -’
‘Where are we going to get one of those?’ Jackie fairly shrieked. He winced and tried to speak, but only succeeded in making a gurgling sound.
‘Don’t we know anyone nearby who has one?’ Rose asked desperately. ‘The TARDIS! There’s got to be one in the TARDIS!’
He coughed at her. She sprang to her feet and ran out the door.
‘How bad is it?’ Jackie asked. ‘Is it fatal? Should I call the hospital?’
He shook his head again vigorously and concentrated on drawing air into his lungs. His respiratory bypass would kick in if he needed it, but it couldn’t help for long.
‘I don’t know anything about allergies; they’re not something I’ve ever had to deal with, not that I’m complaining, mind,’ Jackie was saying, ‘Rose never had one, just a bit of hayfever in the summer sometimes, although I can’t think why she was getting it here. She used to have Piriton. Cleared it right up, but I don’t suppose it would work for this.’
‘’M not sure I trust brand names anyway -’ he inhaled sharply ‘- after today.’
‘They’d cope much better with you at the hospital,’ Jackie said. ‘I’m going to phone -’
‘No!’ he rasped. ‘Alien, remember? No hospitals.’
‘Fine. Oh, where’s she gone?’
On cue, the door slammed.
‘I’ve got it!’ Rose yelled. ‘It was in a bag; I assume this is it, anyway - I told the TARDIS what was wrong and this was lying there and it definitely wasn’t there before, so -’
She tipped the contents onto the floor at his feet. He pointed out the correct antidote with his foot.
‘He must be delirious or something!’ Rose said to Jackie, her tone panicked.
‘Not delirious,’ he managed to croak. ‘Give it here. Trust me.’
‘No, no, which one’s the epi-pen? That’s not right, is it?’ Jackie said, rummaging through the pile on the floor.
Rose looked at him. ‘Are you sure? How can that work?’
‘Give it here,’ he repeated through gritted teeth.
‘It’s toothpaste!’
‘It works,’ he said.
‘Yeah, that’s what I said about the aspirin, and look how that turned out,’ Rose muttered, but she put it into his outstretched hand anyway. He squirted a blob onto his finger and put it in his mouth, swallowing as best he could.
‘Is it working?’ Rose asked anxiously.
‘Give it a chance,’ he said, but it was easier to speak already.
‘Breathe,’ Rose said, crouching at his side again. ‘Just keep breathing, yeah?’
He gave her a very sarcastic look. ‘Fantastic suggestion; I’ll keep that in mind.’
‘Oh, well, I won’t be supportive then. We’ll leave you to it, shall we?’
‘Actually, that would probably be best. I think I need to sleep. Recuperate.’
‘What if -?’ Rose began, but he shook his head.
‘I’ll be fine. Listen to me. Right as rain in no time, I can promise you.’
~~~~
He’d been asleep for five and a half hours - more than he’d usually have in a week - when there came a knock at his door, and Rose poked her head in.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Just checking on you. Are you feeling better?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, and waved her in. She sat on the edge of the bed and passed him a steaming mug of tea, which he accepted gratefully.
‘Toothpaste?’ she asked, after a few moments of silence.
‘Different physiology, Rose,’ he reminded her.
‘Right, yeah. Just seems weird.’
He shrugged. ‘Adrenaline seems weird to me, so we’re even.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were allergic to aspirin?’
‘Never came up.’
She grinned. ‘Any other allergies I should know about?’
He scowled into his tea mug. ‘No. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this.’
‘To who?’
‘Anyone we meet.’ He paused. ‘And your idiot boyfriend.’
‘Don’t be mean. Anyway, you might want to talk to Mum about that one. Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s on the phone telling people about it right now. And it’ll be one of those stories that gets exaggerated over time - this time next month you’ll have been close to death or something.’
He gazed at her as she laughed to herself. ‘You okay?’ she asked.
‘Fine.’ He swung his feet out of bed. ‘Shall we be off?’
‘I’ll go and tell Mum,’ she said. ‘She says the one good thing that’s come out of this is that you didn’t rush me off as soon as we’d finished eating. And she says she’ll put your macaroni into a tupperware so you can microwave it later.’
‘Right.’
She smirked at his less-than-enthusiastic tone. ‘She’ll be asking you how it was next time, so you’d better eat it. I’ll meet you in the console room in about ten minutes, yeah?’
He watched her skip out the door, aware that she had no idea of the significance of what she’d said. It could have caused a regeneration, the aspirin, but he was glad he hadn’t had to tell her that - not just because it was a silly thing that shouldn’t happen to a Time Lord but because he knew how terribly, terribly guilty she’d feel if she brought about his death, even if it wasn’t permanent.
It didn’t matter, anyway - he didn’t plan to go dying on Rose Tyler.
Characters/Pairings: Nine, Rose, Jackie.
Spoilers: Assuming you've seen series one, you're good.
Summary: ‘You’re moodier than normal,’ Rose said.
Notes: Written for the onetrueshipfest with the prompt "The Doctor nearly has a fatal accident with aspirin."
‘You’re moodier than normal,’ Rose said.
He looked up at her, curled on an armchair with a cup of tea clutched in her hands, and raised his eyebrows.
‘I find that rather insulting.’
‘S’true. What’s wrong?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with me, Rose.’ He glanced towards the kitchen door to see if Jackie was paying attention to them. Seeing that she wasn’t, he turned back to Rose and asked in a low voice, ‘How much longer are we going to be here?’
Rose rolled her eyes. ‘For god’s sake, Doctor. We only got here half an hour ago. She’s making tea for us and we are staying to eat it. No arguments,’ she said a little louder, as he opened his mouth to protest. He shushed her, looking over his shoulder towards Jackie again. ‘My mum’s not that scary, honest,’ Rose continued, ignoring him.
‘I’m not scared of her.’
‘You’re a rubbish liar.’
‘I’m not!’
‘Then we’re fine to stay, aren’t we?’
‘That’s not -’ He sighed. ‘It’s not that. If you must know, I’ve got a headache.’
‘If I must know? What, is it embarrassing for you to have a headache? I suppose you’re going to tell me that Time Lords don’t get headaches, now, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, actually, I was.’
She shrugged. ‘S’nothing we can’t sort. I’ll go and get you some painkillers.’
‘I don’t need painkillers.’
‘And you call yourself a doctor.’
‘They’re primitive.’
‘They work.’
‘For humans, maybe.’
‘For Time Lords, too.’ She got up and left the room before he could protest anymore, and returned with a glass of water and two little white pills.
‘There you go.’ He looked at the tablets, then grimaced up at her. She tipped them into his palm and shoved the glass in his other hand. ‘Take them, they’ll make you feel better.’
‘What are they?’ he asked suspiciously.
‘Just Anadin. Does it matter?’
‘S’pose not.’ He popped them into his mouth and swallowed. Rose sat down next to him.
‘I guess you do have a headache, if you’re willing to take our “primitive” medicine. I thought you were making it up to get out of staying.’
‘I wouldn’t do that. We might not get on very well, but she’s still important to you.’
She smiled at him. ‘Aww.’
‘Rose, love, would you help me set the table?’ Jackie called. Rose patted his hand and went into the kitchen. The Doctor could hear the clatter of cutlery as they exchanged stories - Jackie’s friend’s sister was going through a divorce at the moment, and Rose had almost been swallowed whole by one of the pink elephant beetles of Eruko. Rose’s story was considerably more exciting, he thought, even considering that he’d been there when it happened.
‘Swallowed?’ Jackie exclaimed. ‘If my daughter gets eaten you’ll have me to answer to!’ she shouted to him. Rose laughed.
‘It would have been fine, Mum, don’t worry. The elephant beetles can’t eat anything but these weird plant things; it would have thrown me back up in no time, right, Doctor?.’
Jackie made a noise of disgust. The Doctor coughed.
‘What was that?’ Jackie wanted to know.
He shook his head. ‘Nothing. I didn’t say anything.’ He coughed again. ‘Can I help with anything?’
This stunned her into silence, and the beetle incident was not mentioned again. The fact that he hardly touched his macaroni and cheese was, though.
‘What’s wrong?’ Jackie demanded. ‘Not good enough for you?’
‘It’s lovely, Mum,’ Rose said quickly, looking at him and widening her eyes.
‘Mm, lovely,’ he agreed, coughing again.
‘Then why isn’t he eating it?’ Jackie wanted to know. ‘It’s my mother’s recipe; she likes to add a bit of ginger to the white sauce. Not much, mind, just enough to -’
‘Doctor, are you okay?’ Rose asked, her voice concerned.
He was probably okay. Just coughing a bit. And struggling to breathe. He could handle it.
‘I’m fine,’ he wheezed.
Rose stood up and came to his side. ‘You don’t look fine. What’s the matter?’
‘I’m - Rose, what was that you gave me before?’
‘Just Anadin; why, what’s -’
‘Anadin,’ he choked. ‘What’s that? I’ve never heard of it.’
‘It can’t be that that’s caused it, it’s just caffeine and aspirin,’ Jackie snapped. ‘Now would you please both just sit -’
‘Aspirin?’ he gasped. ‘I can’t take aspirin! I’m allergic.’
‘Oh my god!’ Rose cried. ‘What do we do?’
Jackie jumped up and hurried to his other side.
‘Nadine’s daughter’s allergic to marmite; she used to come up in a rash all over her fingers whenever she ate Twiglets!’
‘But he’s not coming up with a rash!’ Rose pointed out, then looked at him. ‘Oh, wait, yes, he is.’
‘Would just some water do it?’ Jackie asked. She seized his glass from earlier and shoved it at him. He shook his head, taking deep, laboured breaths.
‘That won’t help, he needs one of those things, a whatsit -’ Rose clicked her fingers rapidly and then pointed across his lap at her mother. ‘Epi-pen!’ she cried.
‘A what?’
‘Epi-pen! One of those things with insulin or adrenaline or something; I don’t remember -’
‘Where are we going to get one of those?’ Jackie fairly shrieked. He winced and tried to speak, but only succeeded in making a gurgling sound.
‘Don’t we know anyone nearby who has one?’ Rose asked desperately. ‘The TARDIS! There’s got to be one in the TARDIS!’
He coughed at her. She sprang to her feet and ran out the door.
‘How bad is it?’ Jackie asked. ‘Is it fatal? Should I call the hospital?’
He shook his head again vigorously and concentrated on drawing air into his lungs. His respiratory bypass would kick in if he needed it, but it couldn’t help for long.
‘I don’t know anything about allergies; they’re not something I’ve ever had to deal with, not that I’m complaining, mind,’ Jackie was saying, ‘Rose never had one, just a bit of hayfever in the summer sometimes, although I can’t think why she was getting it here. She used to have Piriton. Cleared it right up, but I don’t suppose it would work for this.’
‘’M not sure I trust brand names anyway -’ he inhaled sharply ‘- after today.’
‘They’d cope much better with you at the hospital,’ Jackie said. ‘I’m going to phone -’
‘No!’ he rasped. ‘Alien, remember? No hospitals.’
‘Fine. Oh, where’s she gone?’
On cue, the door slammed.
‘I’ve got it!’ Rose yelled. ‘It was in a bag; I assume this is it, anyway - I told the TARDIS what was wrong and this was lying there and it definitely wasn’t there before, so -’
She tipped the contents onto the floor at his feet. He pointed out the correct antidote with his foot.
‘He must be delirious or something!’ Rose said to Jackie, her tone panicked.
‘Not delirious,’ he managed to croak. ‘Give it here. Trust me.’
‘No, no, which one’s the epi-pen? That’s not right, is it?’ Jackie said, rummaging through the pile on the floor.
Rose looked at him. ‘Are you sure? How can that work?’
‘Give it here,’ he repeated through gritted teeth.
‘It’s toothpaste!’
‘It works,’ he said.
‘Yeah, that’s what I said about the aspirin, and look how that turned out,’ Rose muttered, but she put it into his outstretched hand anyway. He squirted a blob onto his finger and put it in his mouth, swallowing as best he could.
‘Is it working?’ Rose asked anxiously.
‘Give it a chance,’ he said, but it was easier to speak already.
‘Breathe,’ Rose said, crouching at his side again. ‘Just keep breathing, yeah?’
He gave her a very sarcastic look. ‘Fantastic suggestion; I’ll keep that in mind.’
‘Oh, well, I won’t be supportive then. We’ll leave you to it, shall we?’
‘Actually, that would probably be best. I think I need to sleep. Recuperate.’
‘What if -?’ Rose began, but he shook his head.
‘I’ll be fine. Listen to me. Right as rain in no time, I can promise you.’
~~~~
He’d been asleep for five and a half hours - more than he’d usually have in a week - when there came a knock at his door, and Rose poked her head in.
‘Hi,’ she said. ‘Just checking on you. Are you feeling better?’
‘Yeah,’ he said, and waved her in. She sat on the edge of the bed and passed him a steaming mug of tea, which he accepted gratefully.
‘Toothpaste?’ she asked, after a few moments of silence.
‘Different physiology, Rose,’ he reminded her.
‘Right, yeah. Just seems weird.’
He shrugged. ‘Adrenaline seems weird to me, so we’re even.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you were allergic to aspirin?’
‘Never came up.’
She grinned. ‘Any other allergies I should know about?’
He scowled into his tea mug. ‘No. And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this.’
‘To who?’
‘Anyone we meet.’ He paused. ‘And your idiot boyfriend.’
‘Don’t be mean. Anyway, you might want to talk to Mum about that one. Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s on the phone telling people about it right now. And it’ll be one of those stories that gets exaggerated over time - this time next month you’ll have been close to death or something.’
He gazed at her as she laughed to herself. ‘You okay?’ she asked.
‘Fine.’ He swung his feet out of bed. ‘Shall we be off?’
‘I’ll go and tell Mum,’ she said. ‘She says the one good thing that’s come out of this is that you didn’t rush me off as soon as we’d finished eating. And she says she’ll put your macaroni into a tupperware so you can microwave it later.’
‘Right.’
She smirked at his less-than-enthusiastic tone. ‘She’ll be asking you how it was next time, so you’d better eat it. I’ll meet you in the console room in about ten minutes, yeah?’
He watched her skip out the door, aware that she had no idea of the significance of what she’d said. It could have caused a regeneration, the aspirin, but he was glad he hadn’t had to tell her that - not just because it was a silly thing that shouldn’t happen to a Time Lord but because he knew how terribly, terribly guilty she’d feel if she brought about his death, even if it wasn’t permanent.
It didn’t matter, anyway - he didn’t plan to go dying on Rose Tyler.