Winnie Is Not Okay

1.23

Winnie whipped her head up to look at the Doctor who was looking at the patients - who had stopped - dead-seriously and just repeated his words, "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, all at once, and slouched away like sad children. Winnie hung her jaw, "You told them off. Like they're children. Like they're all the- the child."

He grinned down at her, "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

Winnie released the breath she was holding and loosened the grip her hand had on his. She breathed unsteadily for a few seconds and the Doctor kept looking at her, waiting, until her breathing had normalised. Then he smiled at her, more gently than before. He squeezed her hand shortly and then led the way out of the ward.

Rose stared at them in shock, having analysed the scene. Then she smiled to herself. She pushed out a breath and went back on topic, "Why are they all wearing gas masks?"

"They're not", Jack popped up next to her as they both followed the Doctor and Winnie, "Those masks are flesh and bone."

"Wait", Winnie halted her steps causing everyone else to do the same, "You knew? And you haven't done anything?"

He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, stuck in a breath, until he said, "Well- What was I supposed to do?"

Winnie scoffed, "American."

"Hey!"

"How was your con supposed to work?", the Doctor interrupted.

"Simple enough, really", he was smiling now, proud of his work, "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! 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 rolled his eyes.

Winnie snapped her index finger against Jack's forehead. He put his hand against his forehead and yelled, "Ow!"

"Your harmless piece of space junk created zombies with gas masks of flesh and bone! And it's contagious! You complete nutter", she yelled at him.

"How was I going to know?", he yelled back.

Winnie's eyes widened as she raised her brows in shock, "That is, like, not the lesson."

"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano", he laughed a little bit, then he noticed that their faces still held the same look, "Getting a hint of disapproval."

"I wanna hit him", Winnie pursed her lips and tightened her grip on the Doctor angrily, "Can I hit him?"

The Doctor pulled her back, "Take a look around the room. This is what your harmless piece of space junk did."

"It was a burned-out medical transporter. It was empty", he said as if that excused him.

The Doctor and Winnie looked at each other with hard faces, then they walked away from him, "Rose."

"Are we getting out of here?", she followed.

"We're going upstairs", the Doctor told her.

Jack quickly caught up, "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."