Jessie ran into the console room a few hours later, after she'd had a shower and changed into the first thing she could throw on: a Union Jack T-shirt and dark jeans with her combat boots. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.
"It's mauve!" the Doctor replied, moving around the console wildly.
"Mauve?" she repeated.
"The universally recognized color for danger."
"What happened to red?" she asked, moving to help him.
"That's just humans," he replied as he kept moving. "By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing . . . it's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the TARDIS. Where this thing goes, we go."
"And that's safe, is it?"
"Totally."
Part of the console exploded, and sparks showered everywhere. Jessie leaped away with a soft yelp before glaring at the Doctor. "Totally?"
"OK, reasonably," he corrected. "Should have said reasonably there." He looked at the monitor, and his eyes widened. "No, no, no!" She looked up as he began going around the console in his odd dance once again. "It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us!"
"What exactly is this thing?"
"No idea."
"Then why the hell are we chasing it?" Jessie yelped.
"It's mauve, and it's dangerous," the Doctor replied, looking at the monitor. "And about thirty seconds from the center of London!"
"WHAT?!"
***
"Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?" the Doctor asked as they got out of the TARDIS.
"Five days?" Jessie guessed, then grinned at him mischievously. "Or is that just when we're out of milk?"
He shook his head. "Of all the species in all the universe, and it has to come out of a cow."
"What did they ever do to you?" Jessie joked.
"Down, girl," he warned, smiling as she giggled. "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."
Jessie looked at him incredulously. "A month?" she gasped. "We were right behind it!"
"It was jumping time tracks all over the place," he replied. "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"
"Yeah," she replied, smirking at him. "How much is a little?"
"A bit," he replied.
"Is that exactly a bit?"
He paused. "Ish."
Jessie chuckled. "What's the plan, then? You gonna do a scan for alien tech or something?"
He looked at her. "Jess, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask!"
She snorted when she looked at the psychic paper she was offered. "Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids. You're kidding me."
"Psychic paper. It tells you - "
"Whatever you want it to tell me," Jessie finished, throwing him a smirk. "Yeah, I remember."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow when they made it to a door with "Deliveries Only" on it. "Sorry," he said.
"Not very Spock," she commented. "Is it? Just asking."
"Door, music, people," he replied. "What do you think?"
"I still think you should do a scan for alien tech," Jessie replied, and the Doctor scoffed, working at the door handle with the sonic screwdriver. "Give me some Spock for once. Would it kill you?"
The door opened, and the Doctor eyed her shirt warily. "Are you sure about that T-shirt?"
Jessie looked down at the Union Jack, then grinned and shrugged. "Too early to say. I'll take it out for a spin."
"Mummy? Mummy?"
She frowned, looking up when she heard the voice. "Come on if you're coming," the Doctor told her, going inside. "It won't take a minute."
"Muuuuuummy . . . "
She gasped when she saw a little boy in a gas mask on a nearby roof. "Doctor!" she called. "Doctor, there's a kid up there!" She began walking closer. "Are you all right up there?" she shouted up.
"Mummy?" She ran up a fire escape staircase and made it to a flat roof still below the child. "Mummy?"
"OK, hang on. Don't move!"
***
The Doctor pushed through what seemed to be a hidden nightclub, looking around. He saw the woman singing into a microphone and raised his eyebrows, going over and taking it from her. "Excuse me. Excuse me." He looked around at the audience. "Could I have everybody's attention for just a mo? Be very quick." He waved as they all looked to him. "Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"
He frowned as everybody began laughing. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."
He looked up as a siren began going off, and people began leaving. "Would've landed quite near here," he continued. "With a very loud - "
"Quickly as you can!" someone shouted. "Down to the shelter!"
"Bang," the Doctor finished when he saw the poster on the wall: Hitler Will Send No Warning!
Hope you don't mind being caught in WWII, Jess.
***
Jessie looked around desperately, then found a dangling rope hanging close by. She grabbed it and began using it to help climb up to the child. "Mummy! Balloon!" he called to her.
"What?" she yelped.
She looked up, realizing she was dangling from a barrage balloon a few seconds too late. It began drifting away from the wall, and she screeched, realizing she was hanging over London with absolutely nothing to break her fall besides crashing into the alleyway. "Doctor!" she began screaming. "Doctor! Doctor!"
She blinked as search lights began raking through the sky. She heard explosions going off and saw fires begin. "Oh, hell no!" she gasped, realizing where they were even as German planes began heading for them. "Maybe not this T-shirt." She looked down. "World War II?" she shouted. "Not funny!"
***
"Jessie?" the Doctor called, running out of the nightclub. A cat meowed nearby, and he sighed, looking at it. "You know," he began. "One day. Just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole 'don't wander off' thing. Nine hundred years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."
He jumped when a telephone began ringing. He walked over to the TARDIS and opened a small door, frowning at the telephone there. "How can you be ringing?" he asked. "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?" He pulled out his sonic screwdriver to fix it.
"Don't answer it." He jerked, standing upright and turning quickly. A young dark-haired woman stood there behind him, eyeing the phone warily. "It's not for you."
"And how d'you know that?" he asked.
"'Cos I do," she replied. "And I'm telling you, don't answer it."
"Well, if you know so much, tell me this," the Doctor told her, folding his arms. "How can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone! It's not connected, it's not - " He faltered, seeing that she'd gone. He shrugged, then answered the phone. "Hello?" he asked. "Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you?"
"Mummy? Mummy?"
He frowned. "Who is this? Who's speaking?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"Who is this?" he repeated.
"Muuuuummy?"
"How did you ring here?" he demanded. "This isn't a real phone! It's not wired up to anything!"
"Mummy?"
He jerked back when he got the dial tone. He knocked on the TARDIS door, then belatedly remembered he hadn't given Jessie her key back. "Well, then you're not in there."
He heard a noise at the end of the alley, then ran off to follow. He saw the girl heading for a house, and he followed her. He climbed onto a dustbin, then looked over a wall into a back garden to see a middle-aged woman shepherding a young boy into an air raid shelter. Her husband joined them, and the Doctor watched them get into the shelter. He was next distracted when the young woman he'd seen earlier entered and went into the house."
***
Jessie winced as the rope continued to burn her hands. Her grip slipped a little too much, and she screamed, finally letting go and falling -
And she was caught in what seemed to be a beam. "OK, OK," an American male voice said, and she looked up and around. "I've got you."
"Who's got me?" she demanded. "Who's got me, and . . . well, how?"
"I'm just programming your descent pattern," the man replied. "Keep as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field."
"Descent pattern?" she echoed in disbelief.
"Oh, and could you switch off your cell phone?" Jessie snorted. "No, seriously, it interferes with my instruments."
"No one ever believes that," she grumbled, bringing out her Galaxy and doing just that anyway.
"Thank you. That's much better."
"Oh, yeah, that's a real load off," she commented sarcastically. "I'm hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air rad with the Union Jack on my chest, but hey, y'know what? My phone's off. Ain't that great?"
"Be with you in a moment." There was a pause. "Hold tight!"
"To what?" Jessie screeched.
"Fair point."
She felt herself being hurtled down something, then crashed into someone's arms. "I've got you," the voice said, and she looked up, startled when she met a pair of blue eyes. "You're fine, you're just fine. The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little."
"Hello," she said warily.
"Hello," he repeated.
"Hello," she repeated right back, then groaned, rolling her eyes. "Sorry. That was twice."
"Are you all right?" he asked worriedly.
"Fine," she replied as he put her down. "Why, are you expecting me to faint or something?"
"You look a little dizzy," he commented.
"What about you?" she asked hazily. "You're not even in focus - "
She broke off, falling in a dead faint.
***
The Doctor walked into the house, smiling a little when several little kids ran in. He poked his head into the dining room to hear kids talking.
"It's got to be black market!" one of the boys was saying. "You couldn't get all this on coupons."
"Ernie, how many times?" the young woman asked with a smile. "We are guests in this house. We will not make comments of that kind. Washing up."
They all laughed, and the kid exclaimed, "Oh, Nancy!"
So her name was Nancy. The Doctor stood in the back of the room, making sure no one saw him. There was more discussion, then Nancy held up a plate of meat. "All right, then. One slice each, and I want to see everyone chewing properly."
The Doctor sat down at the end of the table as it was handed around. "Thank you, miss," one of the boys said.
"Thanks, miss," another said.
"Thank you, miss," a third said.
The Doctor finally got it and said brightly, "Thanks, miss!"
The kids all began panicking, and Nancy glared at him. "It's all right," she told everyone. "Everybody stay where you are!"
"Good here, innit?" the Doctor asked, smiling at his plate. "Who's got the salt?"
"Back in your seats," Nancy ordered. "He shouldn't be here, either."
The Doctor nodded as everyone retook their seats. "So, you lot, what's your story?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" the first boy asked.
"You're homeless, right? Living rough?" the Doctor guessed.
"Why do you want to know that?" another boy asked suspiciously. "Are you a copper?"
The Doctor snorted. "Of course I'm not a copper. What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" He leaned back in his chair. "I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."
"I was evacuated," another boy told him. "Sent me to a farm."
"So why'd you come back?" the Doctor asked.
"There was a man there - "
"Yeah, same with Ernie," the boy who accused him of being a copper told him. "Two homes ago."
"Shut up," Ernie, the first boy, told him. "It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food."
"Yeah," Copper Boy agreed. "Nancy always gets the best food for us."
The Doctor looked at Nancy. "So that's what you do, is it, Nancy?"
"What is?" she asked.
"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raid shelter, and bingo!" He snapped his fingers. "Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you."
"Something wrong with that?" Nancy asked.
"Wrong with it?" the Doctor echoed with a laugh. "It's brilliant! I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical."
"Why'd you follow me?" she asked. "What do you want?"
"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call," the Doctor replied. "You seem to be the one to ask."
"I did you a favor," Nancy replied. "I told you not to answer it. That's all I'm telling you."
"Great. Thanks," he said sarcastically. "And I want to find a brunette in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving." He looked at the other kids. "Anybody seen a girl like that?" He started when Nancy took his plate away. "What have I done wrong?"
"You took two slices," Nancy replied, like it was obvious. "No brunettes, no flags. Anything else before you leave?"
The Doctor nodded. "Yeah, there is, actually. Thanks for asking! Something I've been looking for. Would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Probably just buried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would've looked something like . . . this." He pulled the rough sketch from his pocket and showed it to the others.
There was a knock on the door, making everybody jump. "Mummy?" a child's voice asked, and the Doctor remembered it from the phone call. "Are you in there, mummy?" He looked out the window to see a little boy in a gas mask standing there. "Mummy?"
"Who was the last one in?" Nancy demanded.
"Him," Ernie replied, pointing to the Doctor.
"No, he came round the back," Nancy denied. "Who came in the front?"
"Me," the boy from the farm replied.
"Did you close the door?" Nancy asked.
"Er . . . "
"Did you close the door?"
"Mummy? Mummy? Muuuuummy?"
Nancy ran out of the room, and the Doctor heard the bolting of the front door. He followed her out to see her doing just that. "What's this, then?" he asked. "It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."
"I suppose you'd know," Nancy muttered.
"I do, actually, yes."
"It's not exactly a child."
"Mummy?"
Nancy ran back into the dining room. "Right, everybody out," she ordered. "Across the back garden and under the fence. Now! Go! Move!"
The Doctor watched the children leave, then looked back to the door. "Mummy? Mummy?" the child asked. "Please let me in, mummy. Please let me in, mummy."
The Doctor slowly approached as a hand came through the letter box. "Are you all right?"
"Please let me in."
Something smashed into the door, and the hand quickly withdrew. "You mustn't let him touch you!" Nancy shrieked.
"What happens if he touches me?" the Doctor demanded.
"He'll make you like him!"
"And what's he like?"
Nancy hesitated. "I've got to go."
"Nancy, what's he like?"
"He's empty." When the telephone rang, her eyes widened. "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw."
The Doctor picked up the phone curiously. "Are you my mummy?" the voice came through.
Nancy took it from him and slammed it back down onto the hook. Various other things started up, asking for mummy as well. "You stay if you want to," Nancy told him, going for the back door.
The Doctor watched as the boy put his hand back through the letter box. This time, the Doctor noted the scar on the back of his hand. "Mummy?" it asked. "Let me in, please, mummy. Please let me in."
"Your mummy isn't here," the Doctor told him gently.
"Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor would've snorted. He was pretty sure he wasn't a mummy. Jessie would be, though, he thought, and he swallowed at the thought that something had happened to her. "No mummies here," he told the child. "Nobody here but us chickens. Well . . . this chicken."
"I'm scared."
"Why are those other children frightened of you?" he asked.
"Please let me in, mummy," the child pleaded. "I'm scared of the bombs."
That did it for the Doctor. "OK. I'm opening the door now."
The child withdrew his hand, and the Doctor slowly unbolted the door. He opened it, then blinked in astonishment.
The boy was gone.
***
Jessie groaned, rolling her head around when she woke up. "Better now?" the man asked from a little ways away.
She sat up wearily. "Have you got lights in here?"
Lights flickered on a moment later. She nodded her appreciation, then raised an eyebrow at the man, who had his arms folded and was looking at her. "Hello."
"Hello," she replied.
"Hello."
"We are not starting that again," she told him.
"OK," her replied easily.
"So who're you supposed to be then?" Jessie asked.
"Captain Jack Harkness," he replied, handing her an ID card. "One Three Three Squadron, Royal Air Force. American volunteer."
She burst out laughing when she saw his "ID." "Liar," she accused, handing it back. "I know it's psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me."
"How do you know?" Jack asked in surprise.
"Two reasons," Jessie replied, holding up two fingers. "One, I have a friend who uses this all the time. And two . . . " She raised an eyebrow, snickering as she looked down at it. "You're telling me that you're single and you work out." She handed it back. "Nice attempt, but I don't date. Haven't for years."
"And why does it say you consider yourself footloose and fancy free?" Jack asked, looking at it.
Jessie sighed. "I was a freelancer before I started working as a fed."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "The feds. Really?"
Jessie snickered. "How about we try and get along without the psychic paper. That work for you?"
Jack nodded. "That would be better, wouldn't it?"
Jessie slowly stood, twisting so she got the kinks out of her back. "Nice spaceship," she commented.
"It gets me around."
"Very Spock," she added.
"Who?"
Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Guessing you're not a local boy, then."
Jack shrugged. "A cell phone, a liquid crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades. Guessing you're not a local girl."
"Good guess," Jessie confirmed, then gasped a little when she put her hands down on the console.
Jack looked over in concern. "Burn your hands on the rope?"
Jessie looked up as a bomb went past. "Yeah," she replied hazily, then blinked. "We're parked in midair!"
"Yep," Jack confirmed, popping the "p."
Jessie shook her head. "Definitely not local if they can't see us."
"Can I have a look at your hands for a moment?"
Jessie narrowed her eyes. "Why?"
"Please?" he asked, and Jessie sighed. "You can stop acting now. I know exactly who you are."
"Oh, please, do tell."
"I can spot a Time Agent a mile away."
Jessie blinked. "Time Agent?"
"I've been expecting one of you guys to show up," he told her, taking his scarf from around his neck. "Though not, I must say, by barrage balloon. Do you often travel that way?"
Jessie snorted. "Nah. Sometimes I just get swept off my feet. By barrage balloons." She narrowed her eyes as he wrapped his scarf around her wrists, and she had a sudden memory of others tying her hands so she couldn't move. "What are you doing?" she asked, her voice a pitch higher.
He looked at her in concern. "Try to keep still." Jessie did, and he pressed a button. She gasped in delight when glowing gold things wrapped around her burned palms. "Nanogenes," he explained. "Sub-atomic robots. The air in here is full of them. They just repaired three layers of your skin."
"Well, how about that?" she asked as the glow disappeared and Jack untied her wrists. "Tell them thanks."
"Shall we get down to business?"
Jessie blinked. "Sorry, business?"
"Shall we have a drink on the balcony?" He popped a hatch open, then nodded to a tray nearby. "Bring up the glasses."
Jessie stared at him incredulously, then shook her head. God, Doctor, where are you? She nevertheless took the glasses and followed him up.
Her jaw dropped when she found herself standing on what appeared to be nothing. "Invisible spaceship," she commented, and Jack nodded. "Just like the Helicarrier."
Jack used a remote control, and the ship materialized underneath them. "Yeah."
Jessie looked behind them, then smirked. "Tethered up to Big Ben for a reason only Odin knows why."
"First rule of active camouflage," Jack supplied, popping open a bottle of champagne, and she eyed it warily. "Park somewhere you'll remember."
"You are not giving me a full glass of that, just saying."
***
The Doctor found Nancy again, storing food from the kitchen in a shack. He stood there, smiling, and she started when she saw him there. "How'd you follow me here?" she asked.
"I'm good at following, me," he replied. "Got the nose for it."
"Yeah?" Nancy asked with a snort. "That's why it's - "
She cut off, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow, mildly offended. "What?"
"Nothing."
"What?"
"Nothing." She gave him a little smile. "Do your ears have special powers, too?"
"What're you trying to say?"
She shook her head. "Good night, Mister."
The Doctor stopped her as she tried to leave. "Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right?" She stopped, and he knew he hit it right on. "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's where it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"
She slowly nodded. "There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."
He nodded back. "Take me there."
"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"
"I really want to know."
"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."
He raised an eyebrow. "And who might that be?"
"The Doctor."
What?
***
Jessie looked out over London. "It's getting late," she told Jack. "I should be getting back."
"We're discussing business!"
She smacked him on the back of the head. "Yes, champagne is definitely business!"
"I try to never discuss business with a clear head," he bluffed. "Are you traveling alone? Are you authorized to negotiate with me?"
"What would we be negotiating?"
"I have something for the Time Agency," Jack replied. "Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"
Jessie snorted. "Nah, that'll be my companion."
"Companion?"
She smirked at the look on his face. "Yep. And I really should be getting back to him."
"Him?"
Jessie nodded. "Do you have the time?"
Jack checked something on his remote, and Jessie raised an eyebrow when the face of Big Ben lit up. "Twenty-one thirty," she commented, then grinned. "OK, that was flash."
"So when you say your companion," Jack asked, standing. "Just how disappointed should I be?"
Jessie looked around. "Uh . . . we're on a spaceship, during a German air raid, and you really think it's a good idea to try and come on to me?"
"Do you like Glenn Miller?"
She yelped when Jack took her in his arms and Moonlight Serenade began playing. She glared at him in annoyance but went with the flow. "It's 1941," he told her. "The height of the London Blitz, the height of the German bombing campaign, and something else has fallen on London." Jessie's head snapped up. The Blitz? Didn't Boe say something about seeing him at the Blitz? "A fully equipped Chula warship," he continued as her eyes widened in surprise. "The last one in existence, armed to the teeth! And I know where it is, because I parked it." He looked back at her. "If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever."
"Now you're just talking."
"Two hours, the bomb falls," he told her. "There'll be nothing left but dust and a crater."
Jessie rolled her eyes. "You used to be a Time Agent, and now you're some kind of freelancer, and you're talking about promises?"
"Well, that's a little harsh!" he told her. "I like to think of myself as a criminal."
Jessie sighed. "Yeah, I bet you do."
"So, this companion of yours . . . " Jessie groaned in mock annoyance, throwing her head back. "Does he handle the business?"
"I delegate a lot of that," she muttered.
"Well, maybe we should go find him."
"And now how're you going to do that?"
"Easy. I'll do a scan for alien tech."
Jessie's jaw dropped, and she stared at him in astonishment. "Finally, someone does that!"
***
The Doctor used a pair of super binoculars to look around the area, listening to Nancy talk. "The bomb's under that tarpaulin," she told him, pointing. "They put the fence up over night." She pointed to another place. "And see that building? The hospital."
"What about it?"
"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."
"For now, I'm more interested in getting in there," the Doctor replied, pointing to the tarpaulin.
"Talk to the doctor first," Nancy advised.
"Why?"
"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside."
He looked up as Nancy began to walk away. "Where're you going?"
"There was a lot of food in that house," she explained. "I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."
"Can I ask you a question?" he asked. "Who did you lose?"
She stopped short. "What?"
"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."
She nodded a little. "My little brother, Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me. I told him it was dangerous, but he just . . . he just didn't like being on his own."
He guessed what had happened, but asked anyway. "What happened?"
She glared at him. "In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?"
He shook his head. "Amazing," he murmured.
"What is?"
"1941." He began launching into details. "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one tiny, damp little island says no. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion." He shook his head. "You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go, then. Do what you've got to do. Save the world."
He watched Nancy go off, then approached the hospital. He sonicked the padlock, then went in through the doors. He found one of the wards, and he blinked in surprise. Every bed was full, and the patients were all still.
And they were all wearing gas masks.
"You'll find them everywhere," an old voice told him, and the Doctor turned as an elderly man in a doctor's coat walked in, using a walking stick. "In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."
"Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?" the Doctor asked.
"They're not. Who are you?"
"I'm, er . . . " He paused. "Are you the doctor?"
"Doctor Constantine. And you are?"
"Nancy sent me," the Doctor replied, evading the question.
Constantine nodded. "Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."
"Yes."
"What do you want to know about it?"
"Nothing," he replied. "Why I was asking. What do you know?"
"Only what it's done."
The Doctor looked around in surprise. "These people . . . they were all caught up in the blast?"
"None of them were."
He looked back as Constantine began coughing hard, and he sat in a chair by the desk where the ward sister would usually be. "You're very sick," he told him.
Constantine nodded. "Dying, I should think. I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"
The Doctor, he thought, but didn't comment on that. "I have my moments."
"Have you examined any of them yet?"
"No."
"Don't touch the flesh."
The Doctor looked around. "Which one?"
"Any one." The Doctor chose the nearest patient and pointed his sonic screwdriver at it. "Conclusions?" Constantine asked.
"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side," the Doctor replied. "Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. Thee's some scarring on the back of the hand, and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh . . . but I can't see any burns."
Constantine nodded. "Examine another one."
The Doctor did just that, and his eyes widened in astonishment. "This isn't possible."
"Examine another."
The Doctor shook his head in amazement. "This isn't possible," he repeated.
"No," Constantine agreed.
"They've all got the same injuries!"
"Yes."
"Exactly the same."
"Yes."
"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand." He turned to Constantine. "How did this happen? How did it start?"
"When that bomb dropped," Constantine began, "there was just one victim."
"Dead?"
"At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"
"The head trauma," the Doctor guessed.
"No," Constantine denied.
"Asphyxiation?"
"No."
"The collapse of the chest cavity?"
"No."
The Doctor looked at him in surprise. "All right. What was the cause of death?"
"There wasn't one. They're not dead." Constantine hit a waste basket, and the Doctor jumped in surprise as all of the patients sat up straight. "It's all right," Constantine assured him. "They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat. No life signs of any kind. They just don't die."
"And they've just been left here?" the Doctor asked as they all laid down again. "Nobody's doing anything?"
"I try and make them comfortable," Constantine replied. "What else is there?"
"Just you? You're the only one here?"
Constantine nodded. "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I'm still a doctor."
The Doctor nodded, swallowing as he remembered Susan, his Arkytior. "Yeah. I know the feeling."
"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on a German bomb."
"Probably too late."
"No. There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." Constantine suddenly bent over double, coughing. The Doctor stepped forward to help. "Stay back! Stay back!" The Doctor then saw the scar on the back of Constantine's hand, and he stopped short. "Listen to me! Top floor. Room 802. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."
"Nancy?" he repeated.
"It was her brother," Constantine wheezed. "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might . . . " The Doctor looked at him. "Mummy?" The Doctor's eyes widened, and he slowly began backing away towards the door. "Are you my mummy?"
The Doctor watched as a gas mask encased Constantine's face from the mouth.
"Hello?" an unfamiliar male voice called out from the ward.
"Hello?"
The Doctor turned in surprise. "Jessie?" he shouted.
"Hello?" the first voice called out.
***
Jessie looked around, trying to figure out where the Doctor went, when the sound of running drew her attention towards one of the wards. The Doctor came running out, approaching them quickly. "Good evening!" Jack said brightly, holding out a hand. "Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."
Jessie rolled her eyes. "And apparently he knows about us being Time Agents."
"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock."
The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Jessie as Jack went back into the ward. "Mister Spock?"
"Well, I wasn't just going to call you the Doctor, was I?" she snorted. "Don't you get tired of that? The Doctor? Doctor Who?"
"Nine centuries in, and I'm coping," he replied. "Where've you been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll."
Jessie was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Jack was possibly a face she saw five billion years later, but she managed a good answer. "Who's strolling? I went by barrage balloon." She smirked. "Only way to see an air raid."
"What?!"
She laughed at the startled look on his face, then headed towards the ward again. "So, what exactly is a Chula warship?"
"Chula?" he echoed.
"This just isn't possible," Jack was saying as they went in. "How did this happen?"
"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" the Doctor asked.
"What?" Jack repeated.
"He said it was a warship," Jessie supplied. "He stole it, parked it somewhere out there. And supposedly, there's going to be a bomb falling on it unless we make him an offer."
"What kind of warship?" the Doctor repeated.
"Does it matter?" Jack asked. "It's got nothing to do with this!"
"This started at the bomb site," the Doctor replied, and Jessie blinked as she took in all of the gas mask patients in surprise. "It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"
"An ambulance! Look." Jessie peered at the hologram beamed from a device on his wrist. "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle - love the retro look, by the way," he added. "Nice panels." She snickered as he continued. "Threw you the bait."
"Bait?" Jessie yelped in surprise.
"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."
Jessie growled lowly. "You said it was a war ship!"
"They have ambulances in wars," he replied absently. "It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am. I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"
"Well, I'm an agent traveling in time," Jessie offered, and the Doctor snorted.
"Oh, should have known," Jack snorted. "The way you guys are blending in with the local color. Flag Girl was bad enough - "
"Oi!"
"But U-Boat Captain?" Jack shook his head. "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."
"What's happening here?" Jessie asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot," the Doctor replied, glaring at Jack.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"
The patients all suddenly sat up straight. "Mummy?" they all began asking.
Jessie got into a defensive position as she looked around. "Doctor," she asked, grabbing Jack's arm. "What's happening?"
"I don't know!"
There were various calls of "mummy" as the patients all stood and began backing the three into the corner. "Don't let them touch you!" the Doctor demanded.
"What happens if they touch us?" Jessie asked nervously.
"You're looking at it."
***
Hello, Jack, and hello, Empty Child! Nine, Rose, and Jack are absolutely hilarious. I love that trio, they're awesome.
The Doctor Dances is up next, and I'll think about posting Boom Town later as well. :)