The patients continued to advance on the quartet, completely surrounding them. The Doctor stared sternly around at them. "Go to your room." he ordered as though he were addressing a disobedient child. The patients hesitated. "Go to your room!" the Doctor repeated. The patients all cocked their heads to one side. "I mean it!" the Doctor continued sternly, "I am very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross! Go... to... your... ROOM!" he thundered, pointing violently in no particular direction.
The patients all turned meekly away, their heads down as if they were sulking, and climbed back into their beds.
"I'm really glad that worked." the Doctor grinned in relief, "Those would've been terrible last words."
"At least they'd be better than 'Are you my Mummy?'" the Artist said dryly.
With the danger over for now, Rose went over to one of the beds to examine one of the patients, while Jack settled down in a chair. "Why're they all wearing gas masks?" Rose wandered.
"They're not. The masks are flesh and bone." Jack replied.
"How was yer con supposed to work?" the Doctor interrogated.
"Simple enough, really." Jack replied, "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth. Convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put 50% upfront, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for. Never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah, perfect." the Doctor muttered darkly.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners." Jack continued flippantly, "Pompeii's nice if ya wanna make a vacation of it, though. But you've gotta set ya alarm for volcano day." He laughed at his own joke, but stopped when he saw both Time Lords glaring daggers at him. "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Why don't ya take a look around this room?" the Artist told him icily, "This is what your 'harmless'..." She used air quotes. "'Space junk did'."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter, it was empty." Jack insisted.
The Time Lords just gave him dark looks and turned to leave. "Rose." the Artist called.
"We getting out of here?" Rose asked.
"We're going upstairs." the Doctor replied, he and the Artist heading for the door. Rose got up to follow them.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living, I harmed no-one!" Jack insisted, getting up too, "I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."
"I'll tell you what's happening." the Doctor retorted sharply, "You forgot to set yer alarm clock. It's volcano day."
A siren wailed in the distance. "What's that?" Rose asked.
"The all-clear." Jack replied.
"I wish." the Doctor scoffed and strode grimly out of the ward, the Artist hot on his heels.
——————————————————————————
The Time Lords were quick on their feet and Rose and Jack had soon lost them. "Mr Spock? Miss Artist?" Jack called.
"Doctor? Artist?" Rose called as they wandered the halls.
"Up here." the Artist's voice called and the humans doubled back to a flight of stairs to see the Time Lady leaning over the bannister.
The Doctor popped his head over as well. "Have you got a blaster?" he called.
"Sure!" Jack answered, and he and Rose hurried up the stairs to join the Time Lords outside the door to room 802.
YOU ARE READING
Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor
FanfictionFollow the adventures of The Last Time Lady, The Artist, saved by the eccentric time-traveler known as The Doctor at the end of the time war, which sees their home plant of Gallifrey lost, as they travel through all of time and space in his unique c...
