Work Text:
Jumping to Conclusions
Only another half a klick. If he can keep going that long, it’ll all be fine. Fine... all be fine...
He stumbles onwards, struggling to stay upright, not to drop his burden on the ground, not to collapse himself. Only another few steps; surely he can manage that much, right?
It can’t be that much further now. Maybe if he counts to fifty paces he’ll be there? That’s it. One... two... three... four...
...forty-one... forty-two... forty-three...
There’s a splash of blue up ahead. Close enough?
His knees give way, and he tumbles to the ground, his cargo falling from his arms.
***
Something on the monitor catches the Doctor’s attention. There was a movement outside. He can’t see clearly on the screen, so he shrugs on his jacket and heads for the door.
Outside, the long grass, swaying in the wind, makes it difficult to see what could have caught his eye. Maybe it was just the wind? But... no. Over there, a glint of blonde hair. Rose?
She went out with Jack a couple of hours ago, to explore. He had some maintenance work to do which he told them would take about half a day. Jack offered to help, but there’s no way he’s letting a criminal and ex-Time Agent anywhere near the TARDIS controls. This planet’s uninhabited, so he figured there wasn’t much trouble the so-called Captain could get up to here.
It is Rose. A couple of paces brings him to her side and he drops down next to her. Her clothes are shredded and the side of one breast is bleeding. If he’s not mistaken, there are bruises on her thighs, and – yes, there’s blood under her fingernails.
Hell. What’s that bastard done to her?
He should never have left her alone with that worthless conman. He knew Harkness had his eye on her. He didn’t think the bloke would stoop to this, though.
If he gets his hands on Harkness...
A low moan from a couple of yards away makes him turn. What? It’s Harkness, in a heap in the grass just behind him. Looks like he’s in pain. Good. Rose must have kicked him where it hurt.
He glances down at the bloke for a second or two. Barely conscious, scratches on his face – figures – and his clothes are in disarray. Oh, yes, it all adds up.
The Doctor turns away, back to Rose, and after scanning her with the sonic screwdriver to make sure she has no contra-indicating injuries he picks her up and gently carries her into the TARDIS.
He lays her down on a bed in the med-lab and sets the scanner going, returning to the console room while it does its work. A few flips of the controls, and the TARDIS is dematerialising, gliding into the Vortex, leaving Harkness behind without a scrap of remorse – as he should have done in the first place.
***
Jack struggles to raise his head, staring in disbelief at the disappearing TARDIS.
Not that he didn’t expect to be thrown off at the earliest opportunity, but here? This place is uninhabited, except for those... A new wave of pain hits him, and he slumps to the ground again.
Rose... He can’t see her, or hear her. If that means the Doctor’s got her, that’s good...
His thigh’s burning, and now his whole body’s shaking. So cold... The sun’s shining, and his teeth are chattering.
Sun? No, two suns, right? He blinks, trying to focus. One? No, two.
Shivers overtake him and his eyes close as everything goes black.
***
The diagnostic result is puzzling.
Whatever happened to her, it’s not as straightforward as he thought. The scratches on Rose’s face and breast contain venom, a particularly virulent strain only found in a particular genus of plant. He wasn’t aware any of that genus was indigenous to this planet, but the evidence is clear. There’s no other way to explain its presence in those scratches as well as her bloodstream – and anyway, it doesn’t make sense that Harkness would have used the venom as a drug. It causes extreme pain, unconsciousness and then death, all within about an hour. Hardly a rapist’s narcotic of choice.
At the same time, though, there are the bruises, and the ones on her thighs and around her waist are clearly made by human hands. The marks are fingers, and the span is large: a male hand. Harkness.
Also, the blood under Rose’s fingernails is human, and it’s not her own. He could get a DNA sample from something in the room Harkness has been using; that wouldn’t be difficult. But it’s not necessary. There was only one other human on the planet, so of course the blood’s his.
But the diagnostic scan tells him there’s no evidence of sexual activity, or attempted sexual activity beyond the bruises. Why? Because, in the struggle, Rose fell into a clump of genus verticulas and got poisoned?
Which brings him to how the two humans ended up on the ground outside the TARDIS. Did Rose run back, trying to escape from Harkness? Or is it possible that Harkness panicked when he realised she’d been poisoned and tried to get her back to the TARDIS, hoping he’d be able to help?
If so... well, then, Harkness most likely saved her life. But then she’d never have been in danger in the first place if it wasn’t for him, would she?
All the same... He pauses after injecting Rose with the antivenin, considering. Harkness was barely conscious and clearly in pain. What if it wasn’t Rose who got him into that state? What if he’s infected with the venom as well?
The Doctor rests his palms on the edge of Rose’s bed and lets his head fall as what he saw rearranges itself to form a different scenario. Different causes. Oh, Harkness still attacked Rose, that much is obvious, but chances are high that he got her back to the TARDIS – the amount of venom in her system and the extent to which it’d already been metabolised tells him that she had to have been already unconscious by the time he went outside to investigate.
And if Harkness has been poisoned as well, which is more than just a possibility, the Doctor acknowledges, then he’s just abandoned the bloke to die.
***
Realising that he’s made a mistake and actually being able to do something about it are two different things. He can’t leave Rose until the antivenin’s worked. This is a tricky poison, and the antidote needs to be monitored carefully in case additional dosages are needed – but if he gives her too much it’ll do more harm than good.
Nothing he can do for the moment, then.
It’s almost forty-five minutes before Rose is sufficiently stabilised for him to leave her and return to the console room. It’s just as well he recalibrated the fast-return switch recently.
Harkness is unconscious and shivering when he reaches the man’s side, though there’s also sweat pouring from him. Blood loss – damn it, the grass beside Harkness’s thigh is soaked in blood – severe shock and, yes, poison.
With a bit of a struggle – Harkness is a big bloke – he hoists the so-called Captain over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, and carries him into the TARDIS and through to the infirmary. Patch him up, make sure he’s okay, and then dump him somewhere that won’t kill him but where he won’t be able to cause any trouble.
By the time he’s injected the antivenin, set up a blood transfusion and is stitching up the deep gash on Harkness’s thigh – which is where the venom entered the bloke’s system and, judging by the significant traces of genus verticulas in the wound, was somehow caused by the plant – Rose is stirring.
“Doc...tor?”
“Be with you in a mo.” He places the last couple of stitches and covers the wound with fast-healing gauze. The sooner Harkness is up and walking around again, the sooner he can be off the ship.
Rose’s eyes are clear when he turns to look at her. Good. That means the venom’s almost out of her system. Her breathing’s normal and her colour’s good. “Feel like tellin’ me what happened?”
She looks around, past him, and there’s alarm in her eyes. “Jack?”
The Doctor forces himself to take a deep breath. “I won’t let him anywhere near you.” He lays a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Had to bring him in here – he got poisoned too – but as soon as he’s better he’s out on his ear.” Or handed over to the Time Agency, depending on what Rose says.
“What?” Rose sounds confused. “Why?”
“He hurt you!”
She struggles to sit up, but he won’t let her. “No, he didn’t! What on earth gave you that idea? Jack...” She breaks off, coughing. Too much activity too soon, and he should insist that she lie down and stop talking, but what she’s just said...
“He didn’t attack you?”
“No!” She grips his hand. “Doctor, listen to me. Jack saved me! There was this plant. It was really pretty and I went to take a closer look, only somehow the branches and leaves started wrapping around me. It was almost like it wanted to drag me down into its roots. Jack fought it. There were these vicious thorns all over the place, and I know he got stabbed badly at least once-”
“An’ he had to grab you and pull you out? Legs, waist?” So not genus verticulas, but genus sirenicas. Damn. If only he’d realised. Obvious, now that Rose has pointed it out.
“Anywhere he could get a grip. I was trying to grab him, too.” She grimaces. “Think I hurt him – I’m pretty sure I scratched him while I was trying to fight my way out.”
“Yeah, he has scratches on his face.” Which the Doctor didn’t heal; he’d decided that the bastard deserved to have his good looks damaged. “Soon have those sorted.”
“Good.” Rose sounds relieved. “Just as well we took him on board, isn’t it?”
“Just as well,” he agrees, and hopes Rose can’t hear the hollowness in his voice.
***
He wakes to a familiar humming and the sensation of a hand holding his, with another hand resting on his shoulder.
“Good, you’re awake, lad. How are you feeling?” It’s the Doctor – who’s actually being friendly for once, and whose hand is on his shoulder.
“Like a horse kicked me.” He pulls a face.
“Well, you won’t be walking too comfortably for a couple of weeks, but you’ll be good as new after that.” The Doctor turns away, apparently to check some readings. “Thank you for what you did.”
“It’s only what anyone would have done,” he protests. But there’s more going on here than meets the eye, isn’t there? The Doctor seems to be avoiding looking at him, and he has a faint memory of seeing the TARDIS disappear...
“Rose, feel up to making us all a cuppa?” the Doctor asks, and as soon as Rose slips out of the room the Doctor comes back to his bedside. “Owe you an apology, I do, Jack.” He takes a deep breath and continues before Jack can ask. “Got it all wrong. Saw Rose’s injuries and jumped to all the wrong conclusions.”
What-? Oh. Cuts. Bruises. Bruises made by his hands. Easy to guess what it looked like. “Can’t really blame you, I suppose. Not with what it looked like.”
“Should’ve waited and asked. Instead, I took the TARDIS and left you unconscious on the ground.”
“And you came back when Rose told you what really happened?” He can’t be too surprised, can he? It’s not as if he didn’t know the Doctor doesn’t trust him.
“No. Realised you had to be poisoned as well once I saw Rose’s diagnostic readout. Went back for you then.” The Doctor bows his head in apology. “I did work out that you must’ve carried Rose back to the TARDIS – can’t’ve been easy on that leg – but I still assumed you’d attacked her. She set me straight.” He straightens and meets Jack’s gaze. “I apologise for misjudging you.”
Jack holds his gaze. “Thank you.”
The Doctor extends a hand, and Jack takes it. His hand’s clasped in a firm grip, and when it’s released there’s something small and rigid in his palm.
He looks down and sees a key.
The Doctor smiles. “Welcome aboard.”
- end