The patients were almost within touching distance. “Go to your room.” The patients in the ward stood still. “Go to your room. I mean it. I’m very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!” The patients hung their heads in shame and shuffled away. The patients got back into bed. “I’m really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words.”
“I'm glad too.” Maddie comment.
--------------------
Rose frowned. “Why are they all wearing gas masks?”
“They’re not. Those masks are flesh and bone.” Jack replied.
The Doctor looked at Jack. “How was your con supposed to work?”
“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 fifty percent up front, 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.”
The Doctor nodded. He was being sarcastic. “Yeah. Perfect.”
“The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners.” Jack comment, frowning. “Pompeii’s nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you’ve got to set your alarm for volcano day. Getting a hint of disapproval.”
The Doctor looked around. “Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did.”
“It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty.” Jack told him.
“Yeah, right.” Maddie snored.
The Doctor looked at the girls. “Maddie. Rose.”
“Yeah.” Maddie comment, looking at him.
“Are we getting out of here?” Rose asked to him.
The Doctor looked at them. “We’re going upstairs.”
“I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn’t land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don’t know what’s happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it.” Jack told them.
The Doctor looked at him. “I’ll tell you what’s happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It’s volcano day.”
Suddenly they heard a siren sound. “What’s that?” Rose asked confused.
“The all clear.” Jack replied.
“I hope so.” Maddie comment.
The Doctor looked grim. “I wish.”
---------------------
“Mister Spock?” Jack asked.
“Doctor?” Rose also asked.
They ran past the staircase. The Doctor was the next flight up. “Have you got a blaster?”
“Sure!” Jack replied.
“Why would need it?” Maddie asked confused. The Doctor winked at her, she blushed.
They ran up to join him outside a secure metal door. “The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This was where they were taken.” The Doctor told them.
Rose frowned. “What happened?”
“Let’s find out.” The Doctor glanced at Jack. “Get it open.”
Maddie frowned, looking confused. “What’s wrong with your sonic screwdriver?”
“Nothing.” The Doctor replied as she rolled with her eyes. Jack’s blaster disintegrated the lock. “Sonic blaster, 51st century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?”
Jack looked at him. “You’ve been to the factories?”
“Once.” The Doctor replied to him.
“Well, they gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot.” Jack told him.
“Like I said.” The Doctor looked at him. “Once. There’s a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good.”
“Always good.” Maddie added.
“Nice blast pattern.” Rose remarked.
“Digital.”
“Squareness gun.”
“Yeah.”
“I like it.”
--------------------
They were in a room that had filing cabinets, electronic equipment and a big mess. An observation window across the room was broken. They looked around. “What do you think?” The Doctor asked them.
“Something got out of here.” Jack replied.
The Doctor looked at him. “Yeah. And?”
“Something powerful. Angry.”
“Powerful and angry.”
There were child’s crayon drawings scattered on the floor and a Steiff teddy bear. “A child?” Jack exclaimed. “I suppose this explains Mummy.”
“It does.” Maddie agreed.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “How could a child do this?” The Doctor turned on a tape machine.
“Do you know where you are?”
“Are you my mummy?”
“Are you aware of what’s around you? Can you see?”
“Are you my mummy?”
“What do you want? Do you know...”
“I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?”
“Doc, I’ve heard this voice before.” Maddie told him.
The Doctor nodded. “Me too.”
“Mummy?”
“Always are you my mummy?.” Rose told them. “Like he doesn’t know.”
“Mummy?”
“Why doesn’t he know?” Maddie wondered.
“Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?”
Rose looked at the Doctor, he was quiet. “Doctor?”
“Can you sense it?” The Doctor asked as he felt something.
“Yeah.” Maddie nodded. She felt uneasy.
Jack frowned. “Sense what?”
“Coming out of the walls.” The Doctor replied. “Can you feel it?”
Maddie nodded. “Yes.”
“Mummy?”
“Funny little human brains.” The Doctor looked at Rose and Jack. “How do you get around in those things?”
“Oi! Half human.” Maddie scolded him.
Rose looked at Jack. “When he’s stressed, he likes to insult species.”
“Rose, I’m thinking.” The Doctor scolded her.
“He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he’s cleverer than.” Rose continued.
The Doctor was in thought. “There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food.”
“Mummy, please?”
Then the Doctor looked at Jack. “Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?”
“It was a med-ship. It was harmless.” Jack defended himself.
“Yes, you keep saying harmless.” The Doctor frowned. “Suppose one of them was affected, altered?”
“Oh, like its something wrong with it.” Maddie comment. The Doctor nodded to her.
“Altered how?” Rose asked confused.
The tape ran out. “I’m here!”
The Doctor looked at them. “It’s afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn’t know it yet, but it will do. It’s got the power of a god, and I just sent it to it’s room.”
“Oh.” Maddie exclaimed.
Rose was confused. “Doctor.”
“I’m here. Can’t you see me?”
“What’s that noise?” Rose asked.
“End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago.” The Doctor replied.
“Oh, oh.” Maddie comment.
“I’m here, now. Can’t you see me?”
“I sent it to it’s room. This is it’s room.” The Doctor told them.
“Oh, bloody hell.” Maddie groaned.
The child was there. “Are you my mummy? Mummy?”
“Doctor?” Rose asked worried.
“Okay, on my signal make for the door.” Jack ordered them.
“Mummy?”
Jack aimed his blaster at the child. Except it was a banana. “Now!”
“Mummy?”
The Doctor pulled Jack’s blaster from his belt and makes a nice square hole in the wall. “Go now! Don’t drop the banana!”
“Why not?!” Jack exclaimed.
“Good source of potassium!” The Doctor shouted.
--------------
They rushed out of the room and into the hallway. “Give me that!” Jack shouted as he got his blaster back.
“Mummy. I want my mummy.”
Jack used his blaster to repair the hole in the wall. “Digital rewind. Nice switch.”
“It’s from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate.” The Doctor told him.
“There’s really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?” Jack asked him in disbelief.
The Doctor had a cheekily smile. “Bananas are good.”
Just then the wall started to crack. “Doctor!” Maddie shouted.
“Come on!” The Doctor shouted back as he grabbed her hand. He felt the light burns that were on her hand.
But the patients were coming at them from the other direction. “Mummy. Mummy. Mummy.”
“It’s keeping us here till it can get at us.” The Doctor told them.
“Oh for gods sake!” Maddie exclaimed.
Jack looked at the Doctor. “It’s controlling them?”
“It is them.” The Doctor glanced at the patients. “It’s every living thing in this hospital.”
Jack looked at him. “Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?”
“I’ve got a sonic, er.” The Doctor looked sheepishly. “Oh, never mind.”
Jack frowned. “What?”
“It’s sonic, okay?” The Doctor told him. “Let’s leave it at that.”
“Disrupter? Cannon? What?”
“It’s sonic! Totally sonic! I am soniced up!”
“A sonic what?!”
“Screwdriver!”
The child broke through the wall. Rose grabbed Jack’s blaster and pointed it at the floor. “Going down!” They all fell.
-----------------
They landed in ward 2. Jack repaired the hole in the ceiling. Rose looked at them. “Doctor, Maddie, are you okay?”
“Could’ve used a warning.” The Doctor groaned.
Maddie grabbed her head. “Urgh.”
The Doctor looked at her. “Are you alright?” Then he grabbed her hands. “Your hands are burned.”
“Just a bit yeah.” Maddie replied. “Its okay and I’m fine, Doctor.”
“You are hurt.” The Doctor told her.
“Slightly.” Maddie comment. “But we need to focus.”
The Doctor looked at her, he had still her hands in his hands. Then they glowed golden as he healed her. Maddie was confused as to why he would do that. “I just used my regeneration energy to heal you.”
“Why?” Maddie asked confused.
“I can't see you hurt.” He replied to her.
They were in their own bobble as Rose spoke up, sounding jealous. “Oh, the gratitude.” Then they were pulled out and looked at the others.
“Who has a sonic screwdriver?” Jack asked to the Doctor.
“I do.” The Doctor replied.
“Well, I like it.” Maddie comment as the Doctor blushed.
“Lights.” Rose sounded irritated.
Jack looked at the Doctor. “Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?”
“What, you’ve never been bored?” The Doctor asked back.
“Men.” Maddie muttered.
Rose sighed. “There’s got to be a light switch.”
“Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?” The Doctor asked to Jack.
The lights turned on as the patients sat up in their beds. “Mummy. Mummy.”
“Door.” The blaster didn’t work. Jack shouted. “Damn it!”
“Mummy.” The patients called.
“It’s the special features. They really drain the battery.” Jack told them.
“The battery?” Rose asked confused.
Maddie looked irritated. “Who has batteries?”
----------------
The screwdriver got them into the storeroom. “That’s so lame!” Rose exclaimed.
Jack glanced at the Doctor. “I was going to send for another one, but somebody’s got to blow up the factory.”
“Oh, I know.” Rose nodded. “First day I met him, he blew my job up. That’s practically how he communicates.”
“Okay, that door should hold it for a bit.” The Doctor told them.
“Well, I hope so.” Maddie comment as the Doctor looked at her and gave her a look.
“The door? The wall didn’t stop it!” Jack exclaimed.
“Well, it’s got to find us first!” The Doctor countered. “Come on, we’re not done yet! Assets, assets!”
Jack looked at him. “Well, I’ve got a banana, and in a pinch you could put up some shelves.”
Just then the Doctor noticed a window. “Window.” He walked towards it and climbed up a table to get closer to it.
“Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories.” Jack told them.
“And no other exits.” Rose added.
“Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn’t it?” Jack asked.
“So, where’d you pick this two up, then?” The Doctor asked back.
“Doctor.” Rose comment.
“They were hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance.” Jack replied to the Doctor.
“Ha, in yours dreams.” Maddie comment.
“Okay.” The Doctor comment. “One, we’ve got to get out of here. Two, we can’t get out of here. Have I missed anything?”
Rose looked next to her. “Yeah. Jack just disappeared.”
--------------------
“Okay, so he’s vanished into thin air.” Rose complained. “Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?”
Maddie glanced at the Doctor. “Not that good looking.”
“I’m making an effort not to be insulted.” The Doctor told them.
“I mean, men.” Rose comment.
“Some men.” Maddie added.
“Okay, thanks, that really helped.” The Doctor told them sarcastically.
Suddenly the radio crackled into life. “Rose? Maddie? Doctor? Can you hear me?” Jack asked. “I’m back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn’t take you. It’s security-keyed to my molecular structure. I’m working on it. Hang in there.”
The Doctor frowned. “How’re you speaking to us?”
“Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill.” Jack replied.
The Doctor frowned. “Now there’s a coincidence.”
“What is?” Jack asked confused.
“The child can Om-Com, too.” The Doctor replied.
“Oh.” Maddie comment.
Rose was confused. “He can?”
“Anything with a speaker grill. Even the Tardis phone.” The Doctor replied.
Maddie made a face. “Well, that’s creepy.”
Rose blinked. “What, you mean the child can phone us?”
“And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you.” The child told them creepy.
“Doctor, can you hear that?” Jack asked to him.
“Loud and clear.” He replied.
“I’ll try to block out the signal. Least I can do.” Jack told them all.
“I hope so.” Maddie comment.
“Coming to find you, mummy.” The child told them.
“Remember this one, Rose, Maddie?” Jack asked them.
Moonlight Serenade came through the radio. Maddie rolled with her eyes as then she walked towards a table and laid on it. She closed her eyes as then she heard Rose. “Our song.”
-------------------
A little later, Rose was relaxing in a wheelchair while the Doctor was at the barred window with the ever-versatile sonic screwdriver. “What you doing?” Rose asked as Maddie was still laying on the table, her eyes closed. She relaxed a bit until the next problem came.
The Doctor glanced at her. “Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars.”
“You don’t think he’s coming back, do you?” Rose asked to him.
“Wouldn’t bet my life.”
“Why don’t you trust him?”
“Why do you?”
“He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that’s up there with flossing. I trust him because he’s like you. Except with dating and dancing. What?”
“You just assume I’m...”
Maddie snored.
“What?”
“You just assume that I don’t dance.”
“What, are you telling me you do dance?”
“Nine hundred years old, me. I’ve been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I’ve danced.”
Maddie snored again.
“You?”
“Problem?”
“Doesn’t the universe implode or something if you dance?”
“Well, I’ve got the moves but I wouldn’t want to boast.”
Rose turned up the volume on the radio. It was still Moonlight Serenade. “You’ve got the moves? Show me your moves.”
“Rose, I’m trying to resonate concrete.”
“Jack’ll be back. He’ll get us out. So come on. The world doesn’t end because the Doctor dances.” Rose held out her hands and the Doctor looked at her palms.
“Barrage balloon?”
“What?”
“You were hanging from a barrage balloon.”
“Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest.”
“Oh, bloody hell.” Maddie groaned.
“I’ve travelled with a lot of people, but you’re setting new records for jeopardy friendly.”
“Is this you dancing? Because I’ve got notes.”
“Hanging from a rope thousands feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise.”
“Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up.”
“Oh, we’re calling him Captain Jack now, are we?”
“Well, his name’s Jack and he’s a Captain.”
“He’s not really a Captain, Rose.”
“Do you know what I think? I think you’re experiencing Captain envy. You’ll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them.”
“If ever he was a Captain, he’s been defrocked.”
“Yeah? Shame I missed that.”
----------------
Maddie felt a shift as then she sat up from a bed and looked Jack and the others. She felt a pang if jealously as she looked at Rose and the Doctor. Just then Jack spoke up. “Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they’ve been teleported. You guys are so sweet. Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security.”
The Doctor glanced at Maddie. “You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is.”
“Oh, I do.” Jack nodded. “She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes.”
The Doctor looked around. “This is a Chula ship.”
“Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous.” Jack told him.
The Doctor snapped his fingers and the golden glow envelopes his hands. Rose looked at him. “They’re what fixed my hands up Jack called them er...”
The Doctor looked at her. “Nanobots? Nanogenes.”
“Nanogenes, yeah.” Rose comment.
Just then Maddie spoke up. “That’s the word.”
“Sub-atomic robots.” The Doctor looked at them. “There’s millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head’s sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws. Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk.”
“As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing.” Jack told them.
“We were talking about dancing.” The Doctor comment lightly.
“It didn’t look like talking.” Jack remarked.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “It didn’t feel like dancing.”
Maddie made a face of jealously. “Blah.”
Then Rose looked at Jack. “So, you used to be a Time Agent now you’re trying to con them?”
“If it makes me sound any better, it’s not for the money.” Jack replied.
Maddie frowned. “For what?”
“Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they’d stolen two years of my memories. I’d like them back.” Jack replied.
Rose blinked. “They stole your memories?”
“Two years of my life.” Jack nodded. “No idea what I did. Your friend over there doesn’t trust me, and for all I know he’s right not to. Okay, we’re good to go. Crash site?”
-------------------
Not much later, they went to the crash site. “There it is. Hey, they’ve got Algy on duty. It must be important.”
“We’ve got to get past him.” The Doctor told them.
Rose looked at him. “Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?”
“Of course you would think that.” Maddie muttered.
Jack looked at Rose. “I don’t think that’d be such a good idea.”
“Don’t worry, I can handle it.” Rose comment.
“I’ve got to know Algy quite well since I’ve been in town. Trust me, you’re not his type. I’ll distract him. Don’t wait up.” Jack walked off.
The Doctor looked at them. “Relax, he’s a 51st century guy. He’s just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing.”
“Different world.” Maddie comment.
Rose frowned. “How flexible?”
“Well, by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy.” The Doctor replied to her.
“Meaning?” Rose asked.
The Doctor sounded cheery. “So many species, so little time.”
“What, that’s what we do when we get out there? That’s our mission? We seek new life, and… and...” Rose stuttered.
“Dance.” The Doctor finished. Just then Algy started to retch, then fell to his knees before his face turned into a gas mask. Rose, Maddie and the Doctor ran forward from the sidings. “Stay back!” He shouted.
Jack looked at the others. “You men, stay away!”
“The effect’s become air-borne, accelerating.” The Doctor told them. The air raid sirens started up.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “What’s keeping us safe?”
“Nothing.” The Doctor replied.
“Lovely.” Maddie muttered.
Jack looked up. “Ah, here they come again.”
“All we need.” Rose had her eyes widen. “Didn’t you say a bomb was going to land here?”
“Its going to land here.” Maddie replied to her sarcastically.
“Never mind about that.” The Doctor groaned. “If the contaminants airborne now, there’s hours left.”
Jack frowned. “For what?”
“Till nothing, forever.” The Doctor replied. “For the entire human race.” Then he frowned. “And can anyone else hear singing?”
“Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops.”
“I hear it too.” Maddie comment, but the Doctor rushed off.
--------------
They light up and uncovered the spacecraft. Jack pointed at the thing. “You see? Just an ambulance.”
“That’s an ambulance?” Nancy asked confused.
Rose looked at her. “It’s hard to explain. It’s from another world.”
“Its alien.” Maddie comment.
Jack looked at it. “They’ve been trying to get in.”
“Of course they have.” The Doctor told him. “They think they’ve got their hands on Hitler’s latest secret weapon. What’re you doing?”
Jack was keying in the access codes. “The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you’ll know I had nothing to do with it.” Bang! It sparked and there was an alarm. The access panel had a red flashing light. “Didn’t happen last time.”
“It hadn’t crashed last time. There’ll be emergency protocols.” The Doctor told them.
“Oh no.” Maddie breathed.
Rose was confused. “Doctor, what is that?”
“The people with masks are coming.” Maddie replied instead.
Just then they saw the patients coming and they started battering at the hospital doors. “Doctor!” Rose shouted in panic.
“Captain, secure those gates!” The Doctor ordered to Jack.
Jack frowned. “Why?”
“Just do it!” The Doctor shouted as then he looked at Nancy. “Nancy, how’d you get in here?”
“I cut the wire.” Nancy replied.
“Show Rose. Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty eight D.” The Doctor throws Rose the sonic screwdriver.
Rose grabbed it. “What?”
“Reattaches barbed wire. Go!” The Doctor shouted as they hurried off.
Maddie frowned. “What do I need to do?”
“Help me!” The Doctor called.
-------------------
Later Jack got the ambulance open. “It’s empty. Look at it.”
The Doctor looked at it. “What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Maddie? Rose?”
“Nanogenes!” Maddie shouted.
The Doctor glanced at her. “It wasn’t empty, Captain. There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species.”
Jack’s face went pale. “Oh, God.”
The Doctor looked at him. “Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gasmask.”
“They brought him back.” Maddie concluded.
Rose was confused. “And they brought him back to life? They can do that?”
The Doctor looked at them. “What’s life? Life’s easy. A quirk of matter. Nature’s way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they’re not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don’t know what a human being’s supposed to look like. All they’ve got to go on is one little body, and there’s not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they’re programmed to do. They patch it up. Can’t tell what’s gasmask and what’s skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it’s time to fix all the rest. And they won’t ever stop. They won’t ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!”
“I didn’t know.” Jack said truthfully.
The Doctor worked on the ambulance while the patients approached. “Mummy. Mummy.”
“Rose!” Nancy shouted, sounding afraid.
Rose looked at the Doctor. “It’s bringing the gas mask people here, isn’t it?”
“The ship thinks it’s under attack.” The Doctor replied. “It’s calling up the troops. Standard protocol.”
Maddie frowned. “But the gas mask people aren’t troops.”
“They are now.” The Doctor countered. “This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don’t just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you.”
Maddie looked at the Doctor. “That’s why the child’s so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing.”
“It’s a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes.” The Doctor nodded. “All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four year old looking for his mummy. And now there’s an army of them.”
The patients surrounded them, outside the barbed wire. Jack looked at them. “Why don’t they attack?”
“Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander.” The Doctor replied.
Jack frowned. “The child?”
“Jamie.” Nancy corrected him, making the others look at her.
“What?” Jack asked confused.
“Not the child. Jamie.” Nancy repeated.
Rose looked at the others. “So how long until the bomb falls?”
“Any second.” Jack replied.
“What’s the matter, Captain?” The Doctor looked at him. “A bit close to the volcano for you?”
Just then Nancy spoke up. “He’s just a little boy.”
“I know.” The Doctor told her.
“He’s just a little boy who wants his mummy.” Nancy comment.
The Doctor nodded. “I know. There isn’t a little boy born who wouldn’t tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can.”
“So what’re we going to do?” Rose asked worried.
The Doctor sighed. “I don’t know.”
“It’s my fault.” Nancy told them, feeling guilty.
The Doctor shook with his head. “No.”
“It is.” Nancy disagreed. “It’s all my fault.”
The Doctor frowned. “How can it be your...”
“Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy.” The patients spoke.
The Doctor looked at Nancy. “Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty one? Older than you look, yes?”
The bombs got closer. “Doctor, that bomb. We’ve got seconds.” Jack told him.
Rose looked at him. “You can teleport us out.”
“Not you guys.” Jack sighed. “The nav-com’s back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols.”
The Doctor looked at him. “So it’s volcano day. Do what you’ve got to do.”
“Jack?” Rose asked as Jack vanished.
The Doctor focused on Nancy. “How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. He’s not your brother, is he? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him.”
The bomb site gate opened and Jamie stood there. “Are you my mummy?”
“He’s going to keep asking, Nancy. He’s never going to stop.” The Doctor told her.
“Mummy?”
“Tell him.” The Doctor encouraged her. “Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him.”
Nancy and Jamie walked towards each other. “Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?” Jamie asked.
“Yes. Yes, I am your mummy.”
“Mummy?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you my mummy?”
“I’m here.”
“Are you my mummy?”
“Yes.”
“Are you my mummy?”
The Doctor frowned. “He doesn’t understand. There’s not enough of him left.”
“I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I’m so sorry. I am so, so sorry.” Nancy hugged Jamie and a cloud of nanogenes surround them.
“What’s happening?” Rose asked in panic. “Doctor, it’s changing her, we should...”
“Shush!” The Doctor shushed her. “Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she’s the mother. It’s got to be enough information. Figure it out.”
“What’s happening?” Rose asked.
“See? Recognising the same DNA.” The Doctor sounded happily. Jamie let go and Nancy fell on the ground. “Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one.” The Doctor removed Jamie’s gas mask. He hugged the boy. “Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music... you’re going to love it.”
“What happened?” Nancy asked.
“The nanogenes recognised the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn’t change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!” The Doctor replied.
Nancy smiled softly. “Oh, Jamie.”
“Doctor, that bomb.” Rose comment worried.
The Doctor looked at her. “Taken care of it.”
Maddie looked at the Doctor. “How?”
“Psychology.” The Doctor replied.
The bomb hurtled towards them, and got caught in Jack’s light beam just before impact. Jack was sitting astride the bomb. “Doctor!”
“Good lad!” The Doctor called to him.
“The bomb’s already commenced detonation. I’ve put it in stasis but it won’t last long.” Jack told them.
“Change of plan.” The Doctor looked at him. “Don’t need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?”
Jack looked at the girls. “Rose? Maddie?”
“Yeah?” Rose asked.
“Yes?” Maddie also asked.
“Goodbye.” Jack and the bomb vanish then reappeared. “By the way, love the tee-shirt.” And vanished again. The spaceship sucked up the light beam and flow off.
The Doctor summoned some nanogenes to himself. Rose and Maddie looked at him. “What are you doing?”
“Software patch.” The Doctor replied. “Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose, Maddie? I’ll give you moves.” He throws the nanogenes to the waiting patients, who fell to the ground. “Everybody lives, Maddie, Rose. Just this once, everybody lives!” The patients stood up again, back to normal. “Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn’t want to get by without you just yet, and I don’t blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now.”
Constantine looked at him. “Yes, yes, so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?”
“Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks. Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you’re probably going to find that they’re cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don’t make a big thing of it. Okay?” The Doctor leaves them. Then he walked up to others. “Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don’t forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody’s clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?”
Maddie smiled. “Usually the first in line.”
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Back in the Tardis. The Doctor was jumping around happily. “The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All-in all, all things considered, fantastic!”
Rose and Maddie smiled. “Look at you, beaming away like you’re Father Christmas.”
The Doctor looked at them. “Who says I’m not, red bicycle when you were twelve?”
“What?” Rose asked confused.
The Doctor looked at them. “And everybody lives, Maddie, Rose! Everybody lives! I need more days like this.” Maddie smiled at him.
Rose frowned. “Doctor.”
“Go on, ask me anything. I’m on fire.” The Doctor told her.
Rose looked at him. “What about Jack? Why’d he say goodbye?” The Doctor’s face fell.
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Moonlight Serenade played. Jack looked down the spaceship and through the open doors of the Tardis, where the Doctor and Maddie were dancing. Rose looked at him. “Well, hurry up then!” Jack rushed in.
“Okay.” Maddie comment to the Doctor “And right and turn. Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don’t get my arm up my back."
“No extra points for a half-nelson.” Rose comment sarcastically.
The Doctor frowned. “I’m sure I used to know this stuff.” Then the Doctor looked at Jack. “Close the door, will you? Your ship’s about to blow up. There’s going to be a draught.” Jack shut the door and the Doctor started up the engine. “Welcome to the Tardis.”
“Much bigger on the inside.” Jack looked around.
“You’d better be.” The Doctor comment.
Rose looked at Jack. “I think what the Doctor’s trying to say is you may cut in.”
“Not with me, you can dance with Jack.” Maddie told her.
The Doctor looked at Maddie. “Maddie! I’ve just remembered!”
“Huh?” Maddie asked confused.
The music changed from waltz to swing... Glenn Miller’s In The Mood. “I can dance! I can dance!”
Rose ignored the Maddie part. “Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance.”
“I’m sure he would, Rose. I’m absolutely certain. But who with?” The Doctor asked.
“Ha, with Rose. I’m not gonna dance with him.” Maddie comment.
The Doctor looked at her. “With me then?”
“Yes.” Maddie nodded as she danced with the Doctor while Jack and Rose watched. This style he can do, and Maddie loved it when he dipped her.
YOU ARE READING
Lost Souls (1)
ФэнтезиAu from Home, the long way round. Where Maddie met the 9th Doctor instead of the 11th Doctor, but her family is also different. Read to find out! What's up with Bad Wolf? Why does it follow them? What would that mean for Maddie and the Doctor?
