The Doctor's Idea of Domesticity

Chapter 8: The Conscience

The trio rushed to the TARDIS, and when they got there the Doctor made a noise of indignation. "They gave her a parking ticket! Nine hundred years of time and space, and this is the first time they've given me a parking ticket!" He crumpled it up and tossed in the trash bin nearby. Shaking his head, he followed Martha and Rose into the TARDIS. Without a word, Martha handed the Doctor the syringe full of orange-tinted blood. He carefully removed the cap off the needle and squirted a few drops into a little blue dish before emptying the rest of the syringe into the TARDIS's special compartment for DNA tracking. "Now, hopefully she'll realize I'm looking for the EGF component in the blood—which, in case you were wondering, is a decreased level of lymphocytes—and not the DNA of Gallifrey." He pulled a level and pressed several buttons. The whirring noise started, and the TARDIS flung them all in different directions. As suddenly and violently as it started, it stopped. The TARDIS door flung open, revealing a red light. The Doctor and Rose stepped out, Martha close behind.

"This isn't...it can't be!" Rose exclaimed at the same time the Doctor said, "this is impossible!" They both laughed a little.

"What is it?" Martha asked. "Where are we?" They were parked in a little corner, out of the way of a man in his forties and a young, blonde girl with a man hugging her knees. "Who are they?" Martha stepped forward before the Doctor tugged her back.

"They're us," Rose supplied for her. "In two thousand and five. That's me, there, obviously, and that's Micky, hugging my knees. Oh, my God, he was such a baby! Do you remember, Doctor? Oh, you were so jealous of him," Rose whisper-laughed. "And that there's the Doctor." Rose pointed at the ninth regeneration.

"There's no way this is how you got poisoned. How did the Conscience poison you with a dead disease?" The Doctor squinted at the Conscience and the original trio. He grabbed a pair of glasses out of one of his pockets, the frame lime green and the lenses blue and pink. "No," he said.

"Let me see, Doctor," Rose whispered. He silently handed her the glasses, never taking his eyes off the Conscience. "Oh, my God," she said. Too loudly, apparently, because the old Doctor and Rose looked up. Time seemed to bend around the room, create a little fold that could change everything. "Doctor, what am I looking at?" Rose asked when everything returned to normal, the old Doctor and Rose just staring at the old TARDIS when the Conscience got mad. Through the glasses, though, Rose could see something swimming in the Conscience. It was old and grey but alive and neon lights at the same time.

"The time-space continuum, all smooshed into one little bowl of melted plastic. Of course, the energy leaves as soon as we kill it, but I'm vaccinated against EGF and Micky doesn't travel enough to let the disease take hold. He's safe." The Doctor pulled another pair of glasses out of his coat pocket and handed them to Martha, then grabbed yet another pair. He put the last pair on and the three of them waited in anticipation for the Conscience to infect Rose. The serum was dumped into the Conscience and it dried up, but not before the great swirling continuum rushed into the air, brushed past the Doctor, straight up into the night sky.

"I don't understand, Doctor. The continuum didn't touch me! How did I get infected?" Rose's face scrunched as she continued to watch her life play out. She watched as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the TARDIS. She watched the swirling neon colors transfer from the Doctor's fingertips to hers.

"Rose," the Doctor next to her whispered. "Rose, it's my fault. Entirely my fault. I poisoned our son." His voice was quiet and raspy, coated in emotion. Tears welled in his hazel eyes behind his tinted glasses. He ripped the glasses off and shoved them in his pocket.

"Doctor," whispered Rose. "It's alright. Gallifrey will be alright, I promise."

"I was vaccinated against EGF, Rose. I wasn't even supposed to be a carrier of the disease. But the Conscience infected me, and I infected you, Rose, and you infected our son. We have to go back to him, Rose, and sit with him at least. I've only seen one or two serious cases of EGF, and I don't want our son to be one."

"Doctor," Martha cut in. "Doctor, there's another EGF case in the hospital. She said her name's Lyra." Martha looked expectantly at the Doctor. His face went from passive and angry to shocked and angry.

"Did you say Lyra?" He asked, his voice incredulous. "We have to go back, now." The old Doctor and Rose had left nearly fifteen minutes ago, so they were safe to move around, but the Doctor ushered them all back in the TARDIS. The old whooshing noise started up as soon as the door closed, as if she knew where they needed to go.

"Doctor, who is Ly—," Rose started, but was cut off by the Doctor.

"Don't say her name. Names are a dangerous thing, Rose, and hers is deadly. Call her Queenie only. You too, Martha. Her name's Queenie." The Doctor sat on the chairs by the console, thinking about his first trip without Rose. With Shakespeare. And how she wasn't there, but she was, in his memory, and those blasted witches knew that and tried to use her name against him. "Names are a dangerous thing."

"Alright, then. Who's Queenie?" Rose asked. Just then, the TARDIS landed in their parking space again. The Doctor rushed out of the TARDIS, and Martha and Rose had no choice but to follow. He marched straight up to the receptionist, Miss Linden, and started talking.

"Alright, Linden, you're going to tell me which room Lyra Queenie is in, and you are going to allow me access. Now." The Doctor's face was angry and closed-off, his voice clipped.

"I'm sorry, Miss Linden, he's had a bad day. We're here to visit Miss Queenie, and he hasn't seen her in a while. He's a bit upset with her, but he really does need to see her," said Rose behind him. Linden nodded and told him the room number and he rushed to it. "We're just here to visit Gallifrey." Martha and Rose smiled and walked to Gallifrey's room, trying to ignore the crying children in the hall.