Continuing from 'The Empty Child - Part III'

✧

LOOKING THROUGH A PAIR OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCED BINOCULARS HE TOOK FROM HIS JACKET, the Doctor scanned the area of soldiers as he stood on the stairs with Rose and Nancy. "The bomb's under that tarpaulin," Nancy explained and he saw through his lenses her pointing towards it. "They put the fence up overnight." She then pointed to another spot- a large and looming building. "See that building? The hospital."

"What about it?" The Doctor heard Rose ask her.

"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him."

"For now," The Doctor spoke, repocketing his binoculars. "I'm more interested in getting in there." He said, nodding to the tarpaulin.

"Talk to the doctor first," Nancy advised.

Rose crossed her arms. "Why?"

"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside."

The time lord looked up as Nancy started to walk away, ascending the stairs. "Where're you going?"

"There was a lot of food in that house." She explained without looking back. "I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

"Can I ask you a question?" Rose asked. When she reluctantly stopped and faced them again, he continued. "Who did you lose?"

She was taken aback. "What?"

"The way you look after all of those kids," The Doctor helped explain, seeing where Rose was going with this. "It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."

She gave a small nod. "My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. The same night that thing fell." She nodded to the tarpaulin with a hate-filled gaze. "I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just . ." This was clearly a hard topic for her. "He just didn't like being on his own."

Rose frowned and the Doctor saw her eyes soften. "What happened?"

She glared at her. "In the middle of an air raid?" Nancy exclaimed. "What do you think happened?"

"Amazing." The Doctor murmured.

Nancy turned to him. "What is?"

"1941." He began giving 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. 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."

✧

After sonicing the padlock they walked through the gate and up to the hospital doors. The Doctor led Rose through the halls. "This place isn't contaminated, right?" She asked, looking down the corridors.

"Nancy said you'll become like him if you touch." The Doctor reminded her. "So just don't touch anything."

They found themselves in one of the large wards and both stood in shock. Every single hospital bed had a patient- lying very still on their backs with gas masks on their faces. "They're all like the boy." Rose's eyes turned into slits as she looked closer but stayed at the Doctor's side. "Are those scars?"

"You'll find them everywhere." A voice sounded. An older man entered the ward, clothed in a doctor's coat and using a wooden walking stick to get around. "In every bed and in every ward. Hundreds of them."

"The entire hospital?" Rose asked, shocked. When the man nodded she questioned. "Why are they all still wearing gas masks?"

"They're not." He studied the pair of them quickly. "Who are you two?"

"I'm," The Doctor seemed to realize how odd and confusing it would be if he announced his title so he changed the conversation slightly. "Are you the doctor?"

The man confirmed, nodding his head. "Doctor Constantine. Are you?"

"Nancy? That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes."

"What do you want to know about it?" Constantine, leaning against his cane, walked around the duo.

"Nothing." He replied. "Why I was asking. What do you know?"

"Only what is done."

Rose gestures around the room. "Were these people all caught up in the same blast?"

"None of them were, my dear." He then started to violently cough. Hunching over and hacking forced him to sit in the nearest chair, facing the Doctor and Rose.

The Doctor was eyeing him. "You're very sick."

The man nodded. "Dying. I should think." He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and flooded it, wiped his mouth. "I just haven't been able to find the time." He looks to the time lord, still holding onto his walking cane. "Are you a doctor?"

He shrugged. "I have my moments."

Constantine looked around the room at the beds. "Have you examined any of them yet?"

"No."

"Don't touch the flesh." He warned as the Doctor made his way to the patients- not before putting a hand on Rose's arm, silently ordering her to stay still.

"Which one?" Rose asked Constantine.

"Anyone."

The Doctor chose the closest patient and used his sonic screwdriver, scanning them. "Conclusions?" Constantine asked.

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side." He replied. "Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask," He moved to the side of their face, lighting up where the mask met flesh. "Seems to be fused to the flesh but I can't see any burns."

Constantine nodded. "Examine another one."

The Doctor followed his order and widened his eyes in astonishment. "This isn't possible."

"Examine another."

The Doctor shook his head. "This isn't possible," he repeated.

"No." Constantine agreed.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked in confusion.

He exclaimed to her, still scanning patients "They've all got the same injuries!"

"Yes." Constantine coughed out.

"Exactly the same."

"Yes."

"Identical, all of them, right down the scar on the back of their hand." He turned to him. "How did this happen? How did it start?"

"When the 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 same 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?"

"Head trauma?" Rose asked.

"No."

"Asphyxiation?" The Doctor added, rejoining Rose's side.

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity."

"No."

The Doctor looked at him surprised. "All right. What was the cause of death?"

"There wasn't one. They're not dead." Constantine hit a wastebasket with his stick and all the patients sat straight up. They both jumped in surprise- the Doctor taking Rose's arm. "It's all right." The man assured them. "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?" Rose asked, watching them all lay back down simultaneously. "Nobody's doing anything?"

"I try and make them comfortable." Constantine sighed. "What else is there?"

"Just you?" Rose remembered how large the hospital was. "You're the only one here?"

Constantine nodded. "Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither." He straightened up as best he could. "But I'm still a doctor."

The Doctor nodded, swallowing. "I know the feeling." Rose looked at him with a sad face. "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 down and started coughing. Rose stepped forward to help. "Stay back!" Constantine warned her between gasping for breath. "Stay back!" The Doctor saw the scar on the back of his hand and took Rose's arm, pulling her back behind him. "Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two." Constantine told them in rushed words. "That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?" Rose repeated.

"It was her brother." Constantine wheezed, "She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me but he might. . ." He stopped. "Mummy?" The Doctor and Rose's eyes widened. They both slowly started to back to the door as the doctor's face shifted into a gas mask. "Are you my mummy?"

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

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- Kayleigh