Part 03 - Chapter 11 - Rescue
Jack and Rose made their way down the hall toward the ammunitions room, Rose moving slightly ahead of him, and the defenseless Doctor cradled in his arms. Jack hated that Rose had to take point as he desperately wanted to protect both of them but there was no way she would have been able to carry the Doctor. As they reached the next door, Rose began to fiddle with the sonic screwdriver, as the first setting hadn't worked. As she tried another setting without any luck they heard the noises of the guards working their way back toward them. As a third setting failed she began to feel the fear building. Sending a panicked look back toward Jack, who was still holding the Doctor, she gave him a wane smile as he nodded encouragingly at her.
Just as she was sure they were going to be captured the lock clicked open and she moved quickly, clearing the way for him to enter. On entering she reversed the setting, relocking the door then burning out the panel as she had seen the Doctor do many times before.
Jack took in their surroundings in a quick military fashion. The room was relatively spacious and the walls were hung with a large variety of weapons, in the corner was the computer terminal he was hoping to find. He laid the Doctor down carefully on the wide bench that ran the length of the room, realizing as he did so the Doctor’s lack of clothing. Quickly he took off great coat he retrieved from a chair in the guard room, lying it over the Time Lord to afford him some protection from the cool temperatures that seem to be preferred by the Essarrians, though why a bunch of people who looked like they were half snake would like the cold he had no clue, before he moved to the terminal to try to find out information. Rose immediately moved to the Doctor’s side, gently caressing his forehead as she was worried about touching him most anywhere else because of the proliferation of bruises and broken bones. She bit her lip in distress when she heard his hoarse garbled pleas for her to forgive him in his obviously delusional state. The grief that began to roll off him in waves so strong it made her feel light-headed and at the same time made her suddenly realize she could hear again. “Jack! I can hear him.”
Jack replied over his shoulder in a compassionate voice “Yes, I know, I can hear him too.”
“No! Jack I can hear him in here.” She said tapping the side of her head, “I can sense his feelings again, that means that if I can feel him maybe the TARDIS can too!”
“Rose he is very weak, and you’re sitting right next to him…” He replied trying to not get her hopes up. “If we can just find out where we are maybe we can get back to the shopping area…” His voice trailed off as he found that for which he had been looking and realized that they were no longer even on the same planet.
“Jack what is it?” she said when he stopped speaking.
He only contemplated for a moment not telling her how bad things were but she would need to know if they were to have any chance of getting out of this in one piece. “Rose we’re not even on the same planet any longer,” He informed her with intense sobriety, then, after a pause and realizing how alarming that might be, he stated with false cheer, “But it does look like we’re at least still in the same solar system.”
“Well, that’s something I guess,” she said trying not to sound as disheartened as she felt.” Refusing to be discouraged she said assertively, “Guess we will just have to find us a transmat or steal us a shuttle.” Remembering their conversation from the hospital when they were trapped she said, “Well what do we have for resources? I got a sonic screwdriver,” she said poking her tongue out in a cheeky manner and holding it up.
Catching her attempt at levity he replied waving at the walls and smiling, “And I have a sonic blaster, or two or three dozen…” just as quickly the smile vanished as he felt the building being rocked by a short series of explosions.
Rose instinctively leaned over the Doctor to protect him, fearing for his safety and trying to protect him from possible falling matter as Jack braced himself near the terminal he had been using. When the explosions stopped, he looked over at the Doctor and Rose, "You okay?" he asked, more to reassure than really expecting them to have been hurt.
"Yeah, think that was our friend?"
"Probably, not sure who likes you enough to take on Essarrians but you have obviously made some good friends" Jack replied
"How do you know it isn't someone you know?" she replied confused as to why he assumed it was someone they knew.
"Rose, I don't have friends like that.” He said in a flat voice that spoke of past betrayal. “I was a con man remember? But you and him, well he's a Time Lord and you, well you’re more than worth this kind of effort, the way you love and care for people,” he said the last passionately, “regardless of how much they deserve it." Thinking about how, in spite of him nearly destroying the human race, she had still prevailed on the Doctor to save him.
Rose blushed at that statement, turning away embarrassed, "Nah, I'm nothing special, has to be some one the Doctor knows.”
"Trust me, you’re more special than you know,” he said with intensity while looking her in the eye. “He obviously thinks so too,” he said gesturing to the prone man. With that he returned to trying to figure out where there might be a means of escape, trying not to think about the jostling around the Doctor would get when they made their break for another location. He hoped for his sake he didn’t regain consciousness and have endure that as well. It would be much better if he stayed unconscious till they got back to medical facilities. As if reading his mind Rose asked, "Do you think he will be okay?" She said fearing his response.
Putting on a bit of false cheer he replied, "Yeah, Time Lords are made of tough stuff from what I've heard." Glad for the fact Rose didn't know how little he really knew about Time Lords. “But he will need medical attention. Does he have anything like that onboard the TARDIS?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how to operate most of the stuff in there. The dermal regenerator is about the extent of my knowledge of his equipment I’m afraid. Up till now it’s been mostly just the occasional cuts and bruises, but this…” she waved her hand over the Doctor, shrugging with a look of despair on her face.
“Don’t worry about it Rose. I’m from the 52 century, lots of medical advances and I’ve assisted the field medics lots of times.” With that his face clouded over as he thought of a few occasions when he had been pressed into that role. He quickly finished with forced cheer; “We will figure something out to get him right as rain again.” Trying not to think about the times when things didn’t turn out well in the past.
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Verity had been mentally searching the planet for any sign of her missing Time Lord and her other two new friends four hours now. When she became convinced they were no longer on the planet she began to reach out to the other inhabited planets and moons in the solar system again cursing her inability to see her own immediate future.
She had been separated from Theta thousands of time and knew how fraught with trouble his life was. Even when he didn't look for it trouble, it seemed too seek him out, drawn to him it like a magnet. But she had become much more worried about him than usual when she had seen the Essarrians were involved. They were a warlike race known galaxies wide for their extremely brutal use of physical and psychological torture. They both may have recovered physically from the injuries they had sustained during the war but the emotions were a still raw barely scabbed over wounds easily ripped wide open for both of them. She knew how little pressure it would take to break him if it was applied in the right way. He was still so fragile, but she reminded herself he was also one of the strongest people she knew, even surprising her at times with what he had endured and kept going after experiencing. She had to believe that he would survive this too, that she would find him in time or he would find his way back to her. He did have Rose and Jack with him after all. Rose she knew would trade her life for him in an instant and she actually regretted not introducing herself to Rose as she had to Jack, something she would have to fix once she found them again, she refused though to believe that she would be unable to do so. Jack she still wasn't sure why she had taken such a liking to. But she knew with a certainty she couldn’t explain that he was important to all of their survival.
It worried her though that it was taking so long for her to find him usually she could find him with little effort, the bright silver shine of his intelligence even easier now to spot in her mindscape than when his kind were many. In months since the war she had sought out that bright beacon his mind made frequently, as much to comfort him as herself. Her inability to find him now could only mean one of three things one, he was being hidden from her, two he was deeply unconscious either naturally or from being drugged or three… well three she refused to consider.
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Jack had been working on trying to find out where they might get transport just as he discovered the site of an inter planet transmat system the Doctor began to jerk and tug at Rose’s gentle hold that kept him on the bench. Rose had gently tried to soothe the Doctor as he began to thrash and cry out and it seemed like nothing she did seemed to help if anything he seem to be getting worse crying out a garbled mockery of her name through his damaged mouth interspersed with repeated cries of no. Finally Rose turned to Jack in distress, “Jack I can’t hold him!”
Quickly he moved to her side to shift the injured man from the bench to the floor. But as he did so the Doctor stilled and groaned out Jack’s name in agony, and began to cry mumbling what Rose was sure was, didn’t mean to and repeatedly tried to say what she thought was the word sorry. Jack was stunned he didn’t know what the Doctor had thought he had done that had warranted that kind of response, in fact he didn’t think that the Doctor really cared about him except as something he had done to make Rose happy reminding him of the strange turn of events that had led to the Doctor offering to let him stay. To say he was confused was an understatement.
For the few moments it had taken Jack to digest this new information the Doctor had been silent. Then he began to cry harder, murmuring Rose’s name over and over interspersed with the garbled words sorry and so sorry. As this had transpired Rose had pulled back almost pinning herself against one wall as the anguish the Doctor was projecting hit her like a freight train. She had curled herself in a tight fetal position arms clamped over her head trying hard to shield herself from the Doctor’s pain. As Jack registered her movement and her now cowering form he looked back and forth between his two incapacitated companions and wondered how in the world he was going to be able to get them both to safety. He began to hear banging on the doorway as well as a string of curses about locks as the General announced in a loud voice, “I know you’re in there! Know this I will have the Time Lord back and you will pay for trying to remove him from the premises! If you come out now I will give you an easy death if not…”
Chapter 12 - Reunion
Stories Index
Just as she was sure they were going to be captured the lock clicked open and she moved quickly, clearing the way for him to enter. On entering she reversed the setting, relocking the door then burning out the panel as she had seen the Doctor do many times before.
Jack took in their surroundings in a quick military fashion. The room was relatively spacious and the walls were hung with a large variety of weapons, in the corner was the computer terminal he was hoping to find. He laid the Doctor down carefully on the wide bench that ran the length of the room, realizing as he did so the Doctor’s lack of clothing. Quickly he took off great coat he retrieved from a chair in the guard room, lying it over the Time Lord to afford him some protection from the cool temperatures that seem to be preferred by the Essarrians, though why a bunch of people who looked like they were half snake would like the cold he had no clue, before he moved to the terminal to try to find out information. Rose immediately moved to the Doctor’s side, gently caressing his forehead as she was worried about touching him most anywhere else because of the proliferation of bruises and broken bones. She bit her lip in distress when she heard his hoarse garbled pleas for her to forgive him in his obviously delusional state. The grief that began to roll off him in waves so strong it made her feel light-headed and at the same time made her suddenly realize she could hear again. “Jack! I can hear him.”
Jack replied over his shoulder in a compassionate voice “Yes, I know, I can hear him too.”
“No! Jack I can hear him in here.” She said tapping the side of her head, “I can sense his feelings again, that means that if I can feel him maybe the TARDIS can too!”
“Rose he is very weak, and you’re sitting right next to him…” He replied trying to not get her hopes up. “If we can just find out where we are maybe we can get back to the shopping area…” His voice trailed off as he found that for which he had been looking and realized that they were no longer even on the same planet.
“Jack what is it?” she said when he stopped speaking.
He only contemplated for a moment not telling her how bad things were but she would need to know if they were to have any chance of getting out of this in one piece. “Rose we’re not even on the same planet any longer,” He informed her with intense sobriety, then, after a pause and realizing how alarming that might be, he stated with false cheer, “But it does look like we’re at least still in the same solar system.”
“Well, that’s something I guess,” she said trying not to sound as disheartened as she felt.” Refusing to be discouraged she said assertively, “Guess we will just have to find us a transmat or steal us a shuttle.” Remembering their conversation from the hospital when they were trapped she said, “Well what do we have for resources? I got a sonic screwdriver,” she said poking her tongue out in a cheeky manner and holding it up.
Catching her attempt at levity he replied waving at the walls and smiling, “And I have a sonic blaster, or two or three dozen…” just as quickly the smile vanished as he felt the building being rocked by a short series of explosions.
Rose instinctively leaned over the Doctor to protect him, fearing for his safety and trying to protect him from possible falling matter as Jack braced himself near the terminal he had been using. When the explosions stopped, he looked over at the Doctor and Rose, "You okay?" he asked, more to reassure than really expecting them to have been hurt.
"Yeah, think that was our friend?"
"Probably, not sure who likes you enough to take on Essarrians but you have obviously made some good friends" Jack replied
"How do you know it isn't someone you know?" she replied confused as to why he assumed it was someone they knew.
"Rose, I don't have friends like that.” He said in a flat voice that spoke of past betrayal. “I was a con man remember? But you and him, well he's a Time Lord and you, well you’re more than worth this kind of effort, the way you love and care for people,” he said the last passionately, “regardless of how much they deserve it." Thinking about how, in spite of him nearly destroying the human race, she had still prevailed on the Doctor to save him.
Rose blushed at that statement, turning away embarrassed, "Nah, I'm nothing special, has to be some one the Doctor knows.”
"Trust me, you’re more special than you know,” he said with intensity while looking her in the eye. “He obviously thinks so too,” he said gesturing to the prone man. With that he returned to trying to figure out where there might be a means of escape, trying not to think about the jostling around the Doctor would get when they made their break for another location. He hoped for his sake he didn’t regain consciousness and have endure that as well. It would be much better if he stayed unconscious till they got back to medical facilities. As if reading his mind Rose asked, "Do you think he will be okay?" She said fearing his response.
Putting on a bit of false cheer he replied, "Yeah, Time Lords are made of tough stuff from what I've heard." Glad for the fact Rose didn't know how little he really knew about Time Lords. “But he will need medical attention. Does he have anything like that onboard the TARDIS?”
“Yes, but I don’t know how to operate most of the stuff in there. The dermal regenerator is about the extent of my knowledge of his equipment I’m afraid. Up till now it’s been mostly just the occasional cuts and bruises, but this…” she waved her hand over the Doctor, shrugging with a look of despair on her face.
“Don’t worry about it Rose. I’m from the 52 century, lots of medical advances and I’ve assisted the field medics lots of times.” With that his face clouded over as he thought of a few occasions when he had been pressed into that role. He quickly finished with forced cheer; “We will figure something out to get him right as rain again.” Trying not to think about the times when things didn’t turn out well in the past.
**********************
Verity had been mentally searching the planet for any sign of her missing Time Lord and her other two new friends four hours now. When she became convinced they were no longer on the planet she began to reach out to the other inhabited planets and moons in the solar system again cursing her inability to see her own immediate future.
She had been separated from Theta thousands of time and knew how fraught with trouble his life was. Even when he didn't look for it trouble, it seemed too seek him out, drawn to him it like a magnet. But she had become much more worried about him than usual when she had seen the Essarrians were involved. They were a warlike race known galaxies wide for their extremely brutal use of physical and psychological torture. They both may have recovered physically from the injuries they had sustained during the war but the emotions were a still raw barely scabbed over wounds easily ripped wide open for both of them. She knew how little pressure it would take to break him if it was applied in the right way. He was still so fragile, but she reminded herself he was also one of the strongest people she knew, even surprising her at times with what he had endured and kept going after experiencing. She had to believe that he would survive this too, that she would find him in time or he would find his way back to her. He did have Rose and Jack with him after all. Rose she knew would trade her life for him in an instant and she actually regretted not introducing herself to Rose as she had to Jack, something she would have to fix once she found them again, she refused though to believe that she would be unable to do so. Jack she still wasn't sure why she had taken such a liking to. But she knew with a certainty she couldn’t explain that he was important to all of their survival.
It worried her though that it was taking so long for her to find him usually she could find him with little effort, the bright silver shine of his intelligence even easier now to spot in her mindscape than when his kind were many. In months since the war she had sought out that bright beacon his mind made frequently, as much to comfort him as herself. Her inability to find him now could only mean one of three things one, he was being hidden from her, two he was deeply unconscious either naturally or from being drugged or three… well three she refused to consider.
************************
Jack had been working on trying to find out where they might get transport just as he discovered the site of an inter planet transmat system the Doctor began to jerk and tug at Rose’s gentle hold that kept him on the bench. Rose had gently tried to soothe the Doctor as he began to thrash and cry out and it seemed like nothing she did seemed to help if anything he seem to be getting worse crying out a garbled mockery of her name through his damaged mouth interspersed with repeated cries of no. Finally Rose turned to Jack in distress, “Jack I can’t hold him!”
Quickly he moved to her side to shift the injured man from the bench to the floor. But as he did so the Doctor stilled and groaned out Jack’s name in agony, and began to cry mumbling what Rose was sure was, didn’t mean to and repeatedly tried to say what she thought was the word sorry. Jack was stunned he didn’t know what the Doctor had thought he had done that had warranted that kind of response, in fact he didn’t think that the Doctor really cared about him except as something he had done to make Rose happy reminding him of the strange turn of events that had led to the Doctor offering to let him stay. To say he was confused was an understatement.
For the few moments it had taken Jack to digest this new information the Doctor had been silent. Then he began to cry harder, murmuring Rose’s name over and over interspersed with the garbled words sorry and so sorry. As this had transpired Rose had pulled back almost pinning herself against one wall as the anguish the Doctor was projecting hit her like a freight train. She had curled herself in a tight fetal position arms clamped over her head trying hard to shield herself from the Doctor’s pain. As Jack registered her movement and her now cowering form he looked back and forth between his two incapacitated companions and wondered how in the world he was going to be able to get them both to safety. He began to hear banging on the doorway as well as a string of curses about locks as the General announced in a loud voice, “I know you’re in there! Know this I will have the Time Lord back and you will pay for trying to remove him from the premises! If you come out now I will give you an easy death if not…”
Chapter 12 - Reunion
Stories Index