STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
Chapter Three Luckily for me, the ceiling light was fairly dim so I could hide safely in the shadows at the back of the cell. I pressed myself up against the back wall, trying to ignore the putrid stench of old urine and sweat that wafted up from the straw. I could tell just by feeling it that it hadn't been changed in awhile. Jack was wearing an outfit similar to the other men in black. He had taken off his helmet and sunglasses and I noticed his hair was slightly longer than I remembered it. Other than that, he looked the same but there was a coldness in his demeanor and hatred in his eyes that was completely different to the Jack I knew. He sneered when he looked at the Doctor's penis but the Doctor calmly stood there at the cell door. "Paying a visit, Jack?" he said. "Seeing how you're old friend is doing?" "Old friend," Jack scoffed. "We're not friends, we never were. I'm better than you and you know it." I had a thought while watching all this. The Doctor was strong, far stronger than he looked. I'd seen him put Jack in a headlock before back when he was traveling with me and the Ninth Doctor. Jack was messing about and teasing him while the Doctor was working on his console and he finally grabbed him and got him in the headlock in order to make him stop. I was certain he was still capable of that so why was Jack able to subdue him long enough to torture him? Did they drug him before torture? Was the Doctor pretending to submit and allow himself to be tortured so it would throw everyone off guard? If so, it must have been painful to undergo all that, especially at the hands of his best friend. Jack came closer to the Doctor. He reached inside his trouser pocket and pulled out a tiny black remote. He pushed a button and to my horror, the Doctor groaned in pain, put his hand on the side of his neck and sank to his knees. He kept on groaning while Jack approached and unlocked the cell door. "Hurts, doesn't it?" Jack said to the groaning Doctor while he opened the door. "Don't worry, in a few hours you won't feel any pain from the microchip or anything else for that matter." "Microchip. The Doctor was holding the side of his neck so there must be something embedded under the skin. Suddenly, it all made sense and I realized this was how Jack and everyone else got the upper hand on the Doctor. Jack had a gloating look on his face as he entered the cell and stood over the Doctor. While his attention was focused on him, I slowly got to my feet. I watched while Jack briefly taunted the Doctor before raising his hand up to backhand him across the face. It was then that I made my move. I lunged forward at Jack, startling him so much that I was able to shove him and knock him off balance. He staggered back and I tried to grab the remote to turn it off while the Doctor struggled to get to his feet, fighting through the pain to help me. "Blondie! Long time no see!" Jack said before he backhanded me across the face. I grunted at the force of the blow and reeled back before my arse hit the floor. But Jack couldn't follow up with his assault because the Doctor was now trying to get at him. So I shook off the dazed feeling I had and leapt to my feet. I looked behind me at the weapons rack and selected a long wooden pike with an iron tip. I yelled a "Kiah!" and Jack turned just as I thrust the tip of the pike in his face. Jack turned his attention to me and the Doctor managed to fight his pain long enough to wrench his wrist and make him drop the remote. He dove for it while Jack hollered in pain. I kept the pike in his face but he growled at me and grabbed it, intending to wrench it from my hand. But the Doctor had turned off the remote and he was now pain free. He leapt back up and clocked Jack with a punch to the face. Jack reeled back and the Doctor kept up the attack, landing punch after punch until Jack fell against the wall in a daze. I put the pike in his face while the Doctor grinned. "Sorry, Jack, but I had help this time," the Doctor said to him. "You'll never get away with this," Jack snarled at him. "Oh, I think I will," the Doctor said. "You, on the other hand, are going to have a kip while Rose and I find my friends and sort this out." "You're not gonna kill me?" Jack said. "No, old friend, I'm going to keep you safe until I can undo what they did to you," the Doctor said. "You're on our side, you just don't remember that. And now…" He leaned over and pinched a nerve on Jack's neck. Jack gasped for a second before his eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped down, unconscious. I lowered the pike and turned it up on its end, leaning it against the wall beside Jack so I could help him undress our friend and then pull him into the cell. XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX When we finally got the clothes off Jack and he was secured inside the cell, the Doctor put on the helmet and sunglasses and asked me how he looked. "Better," I said. "The sunglasses hide your black eye and you look better with the clothes on." "I'm warmer as well. Cor, it's parky in here when you don't have any kit on," he said. He clipped his ident card to his shirt while I put my sunglasses and helmet back on. I also clipped on my ident card and we admired each other. "We look hip," the Doctor said. "Very hip, fascist commandos, that's us!" "I like the way the black outfit makes you look tough," I teased. "You're a proper yob now." "And I wasn't a yob before? Rose, that's insulting," the Doctor teased back. "I thought I was the epitome of yobbohood. Rape, pillage and kill, that's me." "Really?" I teased, raising my eyebrow. "Well, maybe not rape and kill, but definitely pillage," the Doctor teased back. "I pillage now, pillage is cool," he said while I laughed. "So, are we ready to take down the baddies?" "What about Donna?" I said. "What do we do with her?" "Well, it's sorta tricky with her." He explained about how Donna's memory had been erased and how it would be dangerous for her to remember the Doctor. I asked if maybe we could pretend to be someone else since the last time she saw him was in his previous body. The Doctor nodded. "That might work. It might take some convincing though to get her to work with us. She's very bloody minded when she wants to be," he said. "But didn't she know who you were?" I said in disbelief. "The papers called you by name and said you were a Time Lord." "Rose, Rose, Rose, I keep telling you, she doesn't see things that are right in front of her face," the Doctor said. "I'm sure she cared only that she had a job and not what went on here. I think this room is soundproofed as are all the cells so she can't hear the screams that come from here." "But I asked her where the torture chamber was and she didn't bat an eyelid," I protested. "She didn't?" the Doctor said. "Oh. Didn't know that. Well, maybe they did do a bit of brainwashing then. Donna can be a bit thick at times but even she would raise an eyebrow at working at someplace where there was a torture chamber. At any rate, we got to get out of here and find the others before Harkness wakes up. So, are you ready?" "Ready," I said and I smiled when the Doctor kissed my cheek for luck before we headed towards the door.
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