Doctor Who_ History 101 - Mags L. Halliday [86]
‘No, please no,’ she babbled, trying to pull her knees up. She could only take in the blurred, flicking shape now. The blue and black that she so feared, the cold eyes of the man in the uniform. She hoped, briefly, that the pain would make her pass out.
‘Eleana?’
The Doctor was crouched next to her, carefully not touching her and shielding them from the mouth the alleyway. His red coat was half off his shoulders as if he had been about to wrap her in it. He looked perfectly normal, concerned. She sagged against the wall, putting her good hand up to the good side of her face and rubbing the eye carefully.
‘You blacked out for a moment then,’ the Doctor said gently. ‘The pain, it was so bad,’ she explained.
He put slim fingers under her chin and turned her head slightly, looking at the injured side. She winced as the tendons moved and tugged at the still peeling skin.
‘It’s burnt, but you were lucky. I think the stock blew out sideways and not backwards, otherwise it would have been much worse.’
From the corner of her eye she could see the shattered weapon lying in the alley. Then she remembered.
‘I think I was hallucinating.’
‘Just now? From the pain. That’s very possible, you may have been going into shock.’
Eleana managed a faint grin, just tugging at the left side of her mouth. ‘I thought you were not a medical doctor.’
The Doctor smiled back. He finished pulling his jacket off and made her lean forward so he could put it across her shoulders. She wanted to scream as he briefly touched her right arm, but managed to bite it down. The Doctor frowned.
‘This arm’s dislocated. Do you trust me to put it back? It would save you a lot of pain until we can get to a medical centre.’
She continued to watch him. What had she been thinking before? That he was working against them, that he was dangerous? Why had she been thinking that? It had seemed the right thing to do. She got a flash of his back, broad in her sights as she pulled the trigger.
‘Not only just now. Before. I thought I saw things. Monsters. You were a fascist and I tried to shoot you.’
The Doctor glanced at the fallen gun, pausing in rolling up the sleeves of his dark shirt.
‘Is that what you think?’ he asked.
‘No. It’s what I saw. But the pain, I think it was twisting how I saw things, exaggerating my fears.’
The Doctor took her dead arm in his hand and looked in her good eye. Eleana couldn’t tell their exact colour in the dim light of the alley but she could see they weren’t the dark cruel eyes she had imagined before. ‘Do you trust me?’ he asked again and she found herself nodding. There was a pull and a tug and a sharp agony in her shoulder, making her whimper. Then it was better. There was still an ache, her arm still flopped at her side, but the grinding pain had gone and she could move her neck more. Now the Doctor was taking her good arm and helping her to her feet. He glanced about, got his bearings and then started to guide her up the alley.
‘The nearest medics are on Las Rambles, close by Liceu Metro. I’ll get you there but then I’ve got to go on.’
As he led her into a covered passageway that would lead them back on to the main street, Eleana paused and looked back down the way they had come. The shaft of the broken rifle glinted in the cool shadows. It was strange, despite the pain of the burns, she felt calmer. Like she was free of something, some weight that had hung about her mind and dragged her down for the last few months. She had meant to shoot him. She clutched the arm underneath hers.
‘Doctor. Listen. It’s very important. You mustn’t trust anyone in this city. Not even your friends. Something is watching us, using us.’
The Doctor nodded grimly. ‘Yes, and I think I’ve finally realised how.’
* * *
Fitz was fantasising about cigarettes. Real manufactured straights made of the finest Virginian