Fic: Hollow World, Chapter 8
May. 1st, 2009 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
veldeiaTitle: Hollow World
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Doctor Who
Spoilers: Takes place before Blink. Nothing worth mentioning, really.
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, OCs. Gen.
Rating: PG
Genre/Category: Adventure, hurt/comfort, drama.
Warnings: WIP
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making money. Will return everyone good as new once I'm done.
Summary: The 10th Doctor and Martha, stuck in a cave, utterly unprepared and separated from the TARDIS - what else could go wrong?
8. Hope Passage
Martha's jeans were soaked halfway up her thighs, her shoes were full of water, and she was convinced she would never, ever want to see another cave after they got out of this one. In a way, she could understand why people came to these places - after all, she did something similar herself. Travelling with the Doctor was dangerous, but she loved the adventure and all the incredible things they saw. Still, that horribly tight tunnel and the river with its countless hazards had been so trying that she wouldn't want to face anything like those again, not if she could avoid it.
Brian and Joseph helped her up a series of high steps, onto solid ground, where they went through a narrow opening into a completely dry chamber. Grant was already there, sitting on the floor. He had taken off his boots, and was wringing out his socks.
The Doctor - Martha almost missed him at first, because he had turned off his torch. He was leaning on a wall, looking tired and queasy, hunched forwards, with his arms crossed and his palms pressed against his sides. If she hadn't known it was his head that was injured, she might have suspected something else entirely. She hadn't had the time nor the chance to check him out after that plunge he had taken. Had something changed? Had he sustained new injuries?
"Doctor?" she called out.
"Hmm, how long have I been here?" he muttered, sounding slightly confused. His face lit up when he saw her. "Oh, Martha! Hello."
Without even bothering to ask him if he was all right, she placed her fingers on his neck to check his pulse. Instead of the alien but familiar double beat, she found something even stranger: a rapid, varying pattern of double and single beats. She frowned at him.
"You know me, always a little offbeat," he joked. "It's nothing serious. We should keep going."
"I'm not having any of that anymore. You might be in a hurry, but I'm not," she told him firmly, and dug the stethoscope out of her pocket.
"Hey, that's mine, isn't it? How did you get it?"
"Doesn't matter." She brandished the instrument at him as if it was something really sharp. "Just hold still and keep quiet."
He huffed and pouted, but did as she asked. She unbuttoned his sopping wet jacket and pressed the bell against first one side of his chest, then the other. The constant low hum of the river made it impossible to listen to any fine details, but she could hear that his left heart was beating almost three times as fast as his right. No wonder he had been looking queasy - she couldn't imagine what that would feel like.
"Seriously, Martha, it's not serious," he said once more. "Just uncomfortable."
She shook her head at him. "I'm done with you dodging all my questions, mister! What's really wrong with you? I may not be a doctor yet, but I know concussions don't cause arrhythmias."
"Not in humans. Well, not in Time Lords, either, not directly," he said. She thought he was actually sounding apologetic. "This is more of a chain reaction, cascade effect sort of thing. But it's still a concussion, nothing more, nothing less. You know what a concussion is, right?"
"Of course I do. It's a mild form of traumatic brain injury that happens when -"
"Yes, yes, but I'm talking about the details here. The important thing is, when you hit your head hard enough, bang!" He clapped his hands together to imitate the impact. "It muddles up the normal processes of your brain, metabolism, neurotransmission, a dozen important little things."
Martha nodded. The fine mechanics of a concussion weren't all that well understood yet, so the Doctor probably knew a lot more about the subject than any human doctor did. "It can take days or even weeks for everything to return back to normal, right?" she asked.
"If you're human. Slow and inconvenient. I could do it a lot faster. Twenty hours, I think, that would do the trick. Twenty hours in a healing coma, that is. Which is something I can't have, not here and now, not until we're safely back in the TARDIS."
"And before that..."
"Yup." The Doctor made a very unhappy face. "I'm not going to get any better. I'll only get worse. Which is why we need to stop wasting time and get going." He stood up straight, but kept one hand on the wall for support.
"But that still doesn't explain the rest of your symptoms!" Martha insisted.
"It does, actually. Chain reaction, like I said. Complicated physiological response. This," he tapped his chest, "And the sleepiness, and the blackouts, like that one in the river, and a number of other things - that's my body trying to convince my mind that I need to go to sleep. Well, not as much convince as command, at this point. Actually, we're not even on speaking terms anymore. It's down to fighting, tooth and nail, and there's really only one possible outcome. But, I'm fairly certain we can reach the TARDIS before I keel over, so all's well. Allons-y!"
He started shuffling towards the one large tunnel leading out of the room. He looked so unsteady on his feet that Martha placed herself by his side, and draped his arm over her shoulders to help him. The three cavers followed them, keeping quiet, probably listening in curiously. Martha didn't pay them any attention.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier?" she hissed at the Doctor.
"What good would it have done? There's nothing you could've done to help me. You would've just been overly worried for nothing."
"And you think I haven't been worried when I've watched you grow worse by the minute, without any idea why?"
"I was rather hoping you wouldn't notice," the Doctor said meekly. "Of course, I also assumed we would get to the TARDIS before it got this bad."
They had barely taken five steps, and he was already winded. It was no wonder, since the floor of the passage they were walking in was very steep. It felt strenuous to Martha as well. They were leaving a set of wet footprints on the ground as they went.
"For someone as old as you, you can be incredibly daft," she told him.
"Senile and concussed. Not the best of combinations."
She ignored his wisecrack. There really was nothing amusing about the situation. "When we do reach the TARDIS, what's going to happen?"
"Well, obviously, I'm going to sleep, twenty hours straight. You won't be able to wake me up, but that's nothing to worry about. It's a bit like hibernation. Very low body temperature and barely perceptible vital signs. And then I'll wake up good as new, and we can start worrying about the petromites."
She was really looking forward to seeing the police box again. Maybe she'd take a nap, too, once they got there, especially now that she knew what was going on with him. As annoyed as she was about how he'd kept her in the dark, she was relieved that it was nothing too serious after all, and that he would be getting better as soon as he got his badly needed rest.
"You were going to tell me all this sooner or later, weren't you?" she asked him dubiously. She could just imagine how anxious she would've been if he had never told her a thing - if he had just suddenly collapsed, seemingly lifeless, without her knowing about the healing coma.
"Of course I was."
"And when are you going to tell us a thing or two, then?" Grant's voice joined the conversation.
All Martha's attention had been on the Doctor, so the geologist had been able to walk up to them without her even noticing. He was standing right in front of them now. The tunnel was wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side, but the Doctor was leaning so heavily on Martha and the wall next to him that Grant effectively blocked their path.
"Because I'd really like to know what sort of lunatics I've been guiding around this cave," Grant went on. "For starters, what's a TARDIS? Since that's what we're looking for, right?"
Martha sighed. Of all the times to have this confrontation - couldn't they have waited just a few more minutes? She knew Grant was angry at the Doctor for taking matters in his own hands in the river. She hadn't been too happy about that, either, but now that she knew the Doctor's situation, she could easily understand why he had been in such a hurry.
"You'll see for yourself once we get there," she told Grant, and tried to take a step forward, but he just crossed his arms, a stern look on his face.
"But what is it, then?" Joseph asked. "What can be so strange that you can't even answer that question?"
"It's a big blue box. It travels in time and space," the Doctor told them, with barely half of his usual enthusiasm.
"No, but seriously," Joseph said.
"He's being serious. It's a spaceship and a time machine. I know that sounds crazy, but can we at least keep moving?" Martha pleaded. "He hasn't got much longer."
Grant held his ground. "And why's that, then? That talk about hibernation, what was that all about? Who are you, really?"
"I'm just a medical student," she replied. "Nothing mysterious about me, honestly. The Doctor..."
"The Doctor is about to become a big heavy extra weight you'll need to carry around," the Doctor declared. "If we don't move along."
"Grant, come on! We're almost there," Brian spoke up. Martha could've hugged him for standing up for them. "Shouldn't we at least go and see for ourselves, like she said? There's no harm in that."
"We can't really even know that for sure, can we?" Grant said, but nevertheless, looking reluctant, he stepped out of the way, allowing them to continue their ascent. "So, you have a spaceship. What does that make you, Doc? The man on the Moon?" he asked as they began walking again.
"That, and a few other places," the Doctor said. It felt to Martha that he was leaning on her more and more heavily with each step. "The Moon is nice, though, isn't it, Martha?"
"Really pretty," she agreed.
"Lunatics, just like you said," the Doctor announced triumphantly.
Grant shook his head. "I can't believe this."
"They did appear from out of nowhere into a previously unknown cave system that's supposed to be inaccessible at the moment," Joseph said, aiming his words at Grant.
"And the Doctor obviously isn't in perfect health, you can't deny that," Brian added. "Besides, why would they be making this up?"
"I've no idea. I guess we're about to find out," Grant said.
They walked on in a charged silence. Martha couldn't really blame the cavers for not believing her and the Doctor. She doubted she'd have believed herself either, had she been one of them. Luckily, it didn't matter - she was sure they'd be convinced as soon as they saw the inside of the TARDIS.
The last yards felt like they were moving in slow motion, but finally, the steep passage opened into a wide area with a level floor.
"Here's your cliff top now," Grant stated. "So, where's your spaceship?"
They moved ahead, the Doctor still leaning on Martha, and looked around, keeping an eye out for the edge of the chasm. The strange thing was, the room they were in wasn't all that big. Their lights could reach most of it. She would've thought they'd be able to see the TARDIS already.
After a few more steps, the Doctor sank to his knees. "But - no! No, no, this isn't possible!" he breathed, sounding desperate.
Following his gaze, Martha could spot the ledge that had broken under their weight - but the TARDIS was nowhere in sight.
9. TARDIS Square
Author: Veldeia
Fandom: Doctor Who
Spoilers: Takes place before Blink. Nothing worth mentioning, really.
Characters/Pairings: 10th Doctor, Martha Jones, OCs. Gen.
Rating: PG
Genre/Category: Adventure, hurt/comfort, drama.
Warnings: WIP
Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making money. Will return everyone good as new once I'm done.
Summary: The 10th Doctor and Martha, stuck in a cave, utterly unprepared and separated from the TARDIS - what else could go wrong?
8. Hope Passage
Martha's jeans were soaked halfway up her thighs, her shoes were full of water, and she was convinced she would never, ever want to see another cave after they got out of this one. In a way, she could understand why people came to these places - after all, she did something similar herself. Travelling with the Doctor was dangerous, but she loved the adventure and all the incredible things they saw. Still, that horribly tight tunnel and the river with its countless hazards had been so trying that she wouldn't want to face anything like those again, not if she could avoid it.
Brian and Joseph helped her up a series of high steps, onto solid ground, where they went through a narrow opening into a completely dry chamber. Grant was already there, sitting on the floor. He had taken off his boots, and was wringing out his socks.
The Doctor - Martha almost missed him at first, because he had turned off his torch. He was leaning on a wall, looking tired and queasy, hunched forwards, with his arms crossed and his palms pressed against his sides. If she hadn't known it was his head that was injured, she might have suspected something else entirely. She hadn't had the time nor the chance to check him out after that plunge he had taken. Had something changed? Had he sustained new injuries?
"Doctor?" she called out.
"Hmm, how long have I been here?" he muttered, sounding slightly confused. His face lit up when he saw her. "Oh, Martha! Hello."
Without even bothering to ask him if he was all right, she placed her fingers on his neck to check his pulse. Instead of the alien but familiar double beat, she found something even stranger: a rapid, varying pattern of double and single beats. She frowned at him.
"You know me, always a little offbeat," he joked. "It's nothing serious. We should keep going."
"I'm not having any of that anymore. You might be in a hurry, but I'm not," she told him firmly, and dug the stethoscope out of her pocket.
"Hey, that's mine, isn't it? How did you get it?"
"Doesn't matter." She brandished the instrument at him as if it was something really sharp. "Just hold still and keep quiet."
He huffed and pouted, but did as she asked. She unbuttoned his sopping wet jacket and pressed the bell against first one side of his chest, then the other. The constant low hum of the river made it impossible to listen to any fine details, but she could hear that his left heart was beating almost three times as fast as his right. No wonder he had been looking queasy - she couldn't imagine what that would feel like.
"Seriously, Martha, it's not serious," he said once more. "Just uncomfortable."
She shook her head at him. "I'm done with you dodging all my questions, mister! What's really wrong with you? I may not be a doctor yet, but I know concussions don't cause arrhythmias."
"Not in humans. Well, not in Time Lords, either, not directly," he said. She thought he was actually sounding apologetic. "This is more of a chain reaction, cascade effect sort of thing. But it's still a concussion, nothing more, nothing less. You know what a concussion is, right?"
"Of course I do. It's a mild form of traumatic brain injury that happens when -"
"Yes, yes, but I'm talking about the details here. The important thing is, when you hit your head hard enough, bang!" He clapped his hands together to imitate the impact. "It muddles up the normal processes of your brain, metabolism, neurotransmission, a dozen important little things."
Martha nodded. The fine mechanics of a concussion weren't all that well understood yet, so the Doctor probably knew a lot more about the subject than any human doctor did. "It can take days or even weeks for everything to return back to normal, right?" she asked.
"If you're human. Slow and inconvenient. I could do it a lot faster. Twenty hours, I think, that would do the trick. Twenty hours in a healing coma, that is. Which is something I can't have, not here and now, not until we're safely back in the TARDIS."
"And before that..."
"Yup." The Doctor made a very unhappy face. "I'm not going to get any better. I'll only get worse. Which is why we need to stop wasting time and get going." He stood up straight, but kept one hand on the wall for support.
"But that still doesn't explain the rest of your symptoms!" Martha insisted.
"It does, actually. Chain reaction, like I said. Complicated physiological response. This," he tapped his chest, "And the sleepiness, and the blackouts, like that one in the river, and a number of other things - that's my body trying to convince my mind that I need to go to sleep. Well, not as much convince as command, at this point. Actually, we're not even on speaking terms anymore. It's down to fighting, tooth and nail, and there's really only one possible outcome. But, I'm fairly certain we can reach the TARDIS before I keel over, so all's well. Allons-y!"
He started shuffling towards the one large tunnel leading out of the room. He looked so unsteady on his feet that Martha placed herself by his side, and draped his arm over her shoulders to help him. The three cavers followed them, keeping quiet, probably listening in curiously. Martha didn't pay them any attention.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this earlier?" she hissed at the Doctor.
"What good would it have done? There's nothing you could've done to help me. You would've just been overly worried for nothing."
"And you think I haven't been worried when I've watched you grow worse by the minute, without any idea why?"
"I was rather hoping you wouldn't notice," the Doctor said meekly. "Of course, I also assumed we would get to the TARDIS before it got this bad."
They had barely taken five steps, and he was already winded. It was no wonder, since the floor of the passage they were walking in was very steep. It felt strenuous to Martha as well. They were leaving a set of wet footprints on the ground as they went.
"For someone as old as you, you can be incredibly daft," she told him.
"Senile and concussed. Not the best of combinations."
She ignored his wisecrack. There really was nothing amusing about the situation. "When we do reach the TARDIS, what's going to happen?"
"Well, obviously, I'm going to sleep, twenty hours straight. You won't be able to wake me up, but that's nothing to worry about. It's a bit like hibernation. Very low body temperature and barely perceptible vital signs. And then I'll wake up good as new, and we can start worrying about the petromites."
She was really looking forward to seeing the police box again. Maybe she'd take a nap, too, once they got there, especially now that she knew what was going on with him. As annoyed as she was about how he'd kept her in the dark, she was relieved that it was nothing too serious after all, and that he would be getting better as soon as he got his badly needed rest.
"You were going to tell me all this sooner or later, weren't you?" she asked him dubiously. She could just imagine how anxious she would've been if he had never told her a thing - if he had just suddenly collapsed, seemingly lifeless, without her knowing about the healing coma.
"Of course I was."
"And when are you going to tell us a thing or two, then?" Grant's voice joined the conversation.
All Martha's attention had been on the Doctor, so the geologist had been able to walk up to them without her even noticing. He was standing right in front of them now. The tunnel was wide enough for three or four people to walk side by side, but the Doctor was leaning so heavily on Martha and the wall next to him that Grant effectively blocked their path.
"Because I'd really like to know what sort of lunatics I've been guiding around this cave," Grant went on. "For starters, what's a TARDIS? Since that's what we're looking for, right?"
Martha sighed. Of all the times to have this confrontation - couldn't they have waited just a few more minutes? She knew Grant was angry at the Doctor for taking matters in his own hands in the river. She hadn't been too happy about that, either, but now that she knew the Doctor's situation, she could easily understand why he had been in such a hurry.
"You'll see for yourself once we get there," she told Grant, and tried to take a step forward, but he just crossed his arms, a stern look on his face.
"But what is it, then?" Joseph asked. "What can be so strange that you can't even answer that question?"
"It's a big blue box. It travels in time and space," the Doctor told them, with barely half of his usual enthusiasm.
"No, but seriously," Joseph said.
"He's being serious. It's a spaceship and a time machine. I know that sounds crazy, but can we at least keep moving?" Martha pleaded. "He hasn't got much longer."
Grant held his ground. "And why's that, then? That talk about hibernation, what was that all about? Who are you, really?"
"I'm just a medical student," she replied. "Nothing mysterious about me, honestly. The Doctor..."
"The Doctor is about to become a big heavy extra weight you'll need to carry around," the Doctor declared. "If we don't move along."
"Grant, come on! We're almost there," Brian spoke up. Martha could've hugged him for standing up for them. "Shouldn't we at least go and see for ourselves, like she said? There's no harm in that."
"We can't really even know that for sure, can we?" Grant said, but nevertheless, looking reluctant, he stepped out of the way, allowing them to continue their ascent. "So, you have a spaceship. What does that make you, Doc? The man on the Moon?" he asked as they began walking again.
"That, and a few other places," the Doctor said. It felt to Martha that he was leaning on her more and more heavily with each step. "The Moon is nice, though, isn't it, Martha?"
"Really pretty," she agreed.
"Lunatics, just like you said," the Doctor announced triumphantly.
Grant shook his head. "I can't believe this."
"They did appear from out of nowhere into a previously unknown cave system that's supposed to be inaccessible at the moment," Joseph said, aiming his words at Grant.
"And the Doctor obviously isn't in perfect health, you can't deny that," Brian added. "Besides, why would they be making this up?"
"I've no idea. I guess we're about to find out," Grant said.
They walked on in a charged silence. Martha couldn't really blame the cavers for not believing her and the Doctor. She doubted she'd have believed herself either, had she been one of them. Luckily, it didn't matter - she was sure they'd be convinced as soon as they saw the inside of the TARDIS.
The last yards felt like they were moving in slow motion, but finally, the steep passage opened into a wide area with a level floor.
"Here's your cliff top now," Grant stated. "So, where's your spaceship?"
They moved ahead, the Doctor still leaning on Martha, and looked around, keeping an eye out for the edge of the chasm. The strange thing was, the room they were in wasn't all that big. Their lights could reach most of it. She would've thought they'd be able to see the TARDIS already.
After a few more steps, the Doctor sank to his knees. "But - no! No, no, this isn't possible!" he breathed, sounding desperate.
Following his gaze, Martha could spot the ledge that had broken under their weight - but the TARDIS was nowhere in sight.
9. TARDIS Square
