FIC: The Rutan Relics - Chapter 13
May. 18th, 2009 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nentariTitle: The Rutan Relics - Chapter 13
Author: Me
Beta-Reader:alouzon
Fandom: Doctor Who/M*A*S*H
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3138
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all its characters belong to the BBC; M*A*S*H and all its characters belong to Twentieth Century Fox. I own nothing - not even the Fourteenth Doctor.
Summary: The Doctor returns to a place he has visited in the past to stop some old enemies from recovering something that is best left forgotten.
Warning: Spoilers for Abyssinia, Henry/Welcome to Korea. This particular chapter also has spoilers for the last two episodes of M*A*S*H, As Time Goes By and the two-hour finale Goodbye, Farewell & Amen.
Chapter 13
"Where are we?" Jamie asked, the moment they stepped outside the TARDIS. Looking around all he could see were hills that felt somewhat familiar, and a wide empty field of dirt, with only some occasional vegetation here and there.
"It's the 4077th!" Hye shouted behind him.
Realisation dawned on Jamie. "Aye, so it is!" he exclaimed. This is why the hills looked familiar; the TARDIS seemed to have landed at the exact same spot it had just left, only any traces of the hospital or the nearby village seemed to have vanished a long time ago. "What happened here, Doctor?" he asked the Time Lord - whom he now noticed was carrying a couple of shovels.
"We've arrived in 1988," she said, "thirty-five years after the cease fire was declared."
Hye looked at her with wide eyes. "Thirty-five? You mean it's still going to go on for two more years?"
"Yes. I'm sorry," the Doctor said, looking at her with some sadness. "It lasted quite a while after we left." She turned to Jamie, handing him the shovels. "Hold these for me, will you, Jamie?"
"What are these for?" he asked, watching as she delved into one of her pockets, her arm jammed in right up to the elbow.
The Doctor activated a strange, Y-shaped contraption, which immediately began to bleep. "They're for retrieving the adapting device I gave to Radar, of course." She started to walk away from the TARDIS, guided by the bleeping signals of the machine.
"He buried it?" asked Hye as she and Jamie followed the Doctor.
"Not him, no." The bleeping grew stronger. "But it's buried here anyway." The device emitted an even louder and longer bleep, causing the Doctor to stop. She smiled as she pocketed it. "This is the place. Hand me a shovel, Jamie."
"Och, let me do the digging, Doctor." He was not going to let a wee lass like her do such hard work.
"Thank you, Jamie, but give me one of those anyway. It will be quicker if we do it together." Jamie silently debated arguing with her, but seeing that she was obviously not going to stop staring at him with her hand outstretched until he did what she asked, made him relent and he handed her the shovel. With her size, he doubted she'd do much beyond getting her fatigues dirty anyway. She looked at Hye, who seemed to be casting around vaguely for a third, non-existent shovel. "Only two shovels, I'm afraid, dear, but you can still help by keeping watch while we work."
"For what?" the lass asked, surprised.
"Oh, anything, really - though I'm especially concerned about the possibility of soldiers showing up, wondering what we might be doing here."
"Soldiers?" Jamie exclaimed, hunching down closer to the ground as if he expected to be fired upon. "I thought you said the war was over."
"Technically, yes, they're not shooting at each other." The Doctor's shovel struck the dirt by her feet. "And for several decades now. Most of South Korea has healed and is prospering magnificently. However, the border area is still heavily guarded - and even though the 4077th was dismantled when the truce was declared, there are other MASH units still in existence." She paused to wipe a spot of dirt from her trousers.
"But how do you know all this?" Hye asked, scanning the nearby hills for activity.
The Doctor smiled. "I travel in time, remember?"
"No, I mean... How do you know about the 4077th closing, or about the thing you gave Radar being buried? Did you visit the camp in the future?"
"Aye," Jamie continued, "and if you did, why did you not ask Radar for the..." he paused, trying to remember the right word, "...adapter or whatever it's called, then?"
"I didn't come back until this second visit, I'm afraid." The Doctor paused briefly, studying the pile of dirt she had already deposited to the side of the deepening hole, and comparing it to Jamie's with a frown. Jamie paused to do the same, and smiled smugly as he realized the frown was caused by the fact that his pile was about twice the size of hers. The Time Lord then spoke again. "Jack came here when the war was coming to a close, though. What I know, I learned from him."
"Jack?" Hye asked.
"Captain Jack Harkness," Jamie explained.
"Exactly, Jamie. He was travelling with me the first time I came to the 4077th. After we went our separate ways, he spent some time in the 20th century; when the war was winding down, he decided to return to Korea and see how everybody was. He spent nearly a month here, long enough to help dismantle the camp, and witness the burial of the time capsule."
Jamie stopped in mid-swing with his shovel. "Time capsule? You mean time-travelling?" From what he had seen of the camp and the technology they had, it didn't seem possible to him.
The Doctor smiled. "No, Jamie. Here, a time capsule is just a container where people place things they feel represent that particular point of space and time. They then either bury it or put it somewhere where it will remain untouched, in the hopes that people in the future will one day find it."
"Oh, I see!" Hye said, excited. "And the people from the future will learn from the objects in the capsule how people lived at that time." She beamed. "It's a great idea!"
"And Radar buried the thing you gave him?" It seemed a bit irresponsible to Jamie to have something alien, which the Doctor clearly did not want to be found by strangers, and place it inside something that although hidden, was meant to be found sooner or later.
The Doctor sighed. "Like I said before, it wasn't Radar. When Jack came back, Radar had already returned home - but he left the object in Hawkeye's possession, possibly for safekeeping until I could come back to retrieve it." She paused, after taking another shovelful of dirt. "I don't think Hawkeye knew what it was, though, or even that he had it. And Jack didn't realize what it really was, otherwise he would have taken it himself and given it to me later."
Jamie thrust his shovel into the dirt again, and was rewarded with a metallic clang as the shovel met resistance. "Hey, Doctor, I found something!" He kneeled down and, with his left hand, brushed the spot where the shovel had touched. "It looks like the corner of a chest."
"It's the capsule," the Doctor beamed. "Well done, Jamie!"
Under Hye's increasingly excited gaze, they started to dig and brush around the area - and, very shortly, they had completely uncovered an army green metal bound trunk, much smaller than the chest in the TARDIS console room, but large enough that it was impossible for one person to carry it alone. With Hye's help, they lifted the trunk to the surface and, under the Doctor's supervision, carried it to the TARDIS where they could inspect it without the risk of being spotted by anybody who might pass by.
"I'm sorry about the mess, old girl," the Doctor said apologetically as they entered. "I promise I'll tidy things up afterwards."
"Who is she talking to?" Hye asked Jamie in a near-whisper.
"To the TARDIS," the Highlander replied. "It's alive, you know." The room shuddered, as if offended. Jamie's eyes cast toward a point in the vast ceiling, and he patted the door frame affectionately as he closed the doors. "She. She's alive." The TARDIS gave a mollified rumble and settled quietly.
Hye's eyes widened, but before she could ask another question, the Doctor clapped her hands. "Well, shall we see what we've got here?" She opened the trunk. Jamie was afraid she might jump headfirst into it the way she did while rummaging through the old wooden trunk, looking for his watch; instead she sat on the floor and started to remove items with a reverent attitude, sometimes guessing at the items contributed, sometimes Hye identifying them.
And what a strange collection it was! The identified items included a helicopter fan belt; Father Mulcahy's boxing gloves; a slinky black dress ("Klinger!" the Doctor and Hye pronounced at the same time); and a spark plug. The Doctor's attention suddenly focused on the next item. "Aha. Here it is," the Doctor said triumphantly, removing a battered brown bear from inside. "Radar's contribution."
"A teddy bear?" Jamie asked, astonished. He knew a small, stuffed panda bear occupied a place of honour amidst the personal items in the Doctor's quarters, but he was still surprised to see a child's toy in an army base.
"Radar told me the adapter is inside the teddy bear; so based on what Jack had told me about the time capsule I knew this was where I should look." She placed the teddy bear reverently on the floor, next to the other items she had removed. "I'll remove it later."
The remaining contents of the time capsule included a pair of worn boots; some surgical tools; a bottle of cognac ("Someone in the camp had very good taste," the Doctor said approvingly); a couple of books; and what looked like a fishing hook with a strange plastic disc attached to it ("Colonel Blake used to have hooks like that on his hat," Hye commented sadly). At the very bottom lay a letter written in a neat, careful script, which the Doctor read out loud for her companions.
Silence reigned for a few moments after the Doctor had finished reading the letter. Jamie didn't know what to say; the only thing he knew of the war was the small glimpse he had just experienced, but it still had a great impact on him, partly because of his own wartime experiences and the way his memory of those seemed to have been stirred by it, and partly because of the way he had seen the people in the hospital trying to cope with the terror around them.
Eventually, Hye broke the silence. "Can... can I keep this?" Both Jamie and the Doctor looked at her. She was sitting on the floor next to the objects the Doctor had removed from the time capsule, and was clutching Radar's teddy bear. Jamie wasn't sure if she meant just the bear or all the objects around her, but he wouldn't have been surprised if it had been the latter.
The Doctor seemed to have assumed that was what the lassie had meant, and she smiled and said, "Of course, my dear. I don't think this is what they had intended when they came up with the idea of building a time capsule, but I doubt they'd object to it."
"Aye, they're still being remembered anyway," Jamie said gruffly as he got to his feet, and the Doctor gave him a big smile.
"Let me just take the adapter out of the bear, and I'll give it right back," she then said, taking the toy from the lassie's hands. They followed the Doctor to the power room where, to Jamie's surprise, Polly's old sewing box (which he had first seen her use when she made him a kilt to replace the plaid he had left behind in Atlantis) was nestled in the midst of a bunch of mechanical tools on a work bench. The Doctor opened the box and removed a small pair of scissors with which she carefully began to cut the newer-looking stitches on the bear's side, while Jamie looked on from where he leaned against the wall.
"Doctor..." Hye began, hesitantly, wringing her hands.
"Hmm?" the Time Lord asked, intent on her delicate task.
"You said your friend told you some things from his visit..."
"Yes?" The Doctor had managed to open a small tear, and was trying to remove the adapter without opening it too much.
"Well... What happened to everybody?"
The Doctor stared at the lass, bear in one hand and adapter on the other. Jamie could see she hadn't expected this question, though Jamie himself was unsurprised by it. He knew that, under the same circumstances, he'd feel the same way, which was why he had been so frustrated when the Doctor had refused to elaborate on the stories she had told him while he was still under the influence of the Time Lords' memory block. He could understand the reason why she had been cagey at the time, but since Hye was not suffering from the same problem and was not likely to see any of her old friends again, he saw no reason why she shouldn't know. "Aye, tell us, Doctor," he prompted.
The expression of sadness and hesitation on the Doctor's face made Jamie worry. He had seen her make that face before, when she told him about Donna Noble and was concerned about how he would react to what she had been forced to do to her friend.
"Please tell me," Hye asked quietly, unaware of what the Doctor's expression meant.
She sighed, threading a needle and starting to re-stitch the bear. "Well, I don't know many details. When Jack returned to the 4077th a lot of the people we had first met had already left, and he didn't give me many details of the newcomers. He told me he kept in touch with one of the surgeons - it might have been Captain Hunnicutt, but I cannot say for sure. I knew that Colonel Blake was no longer there, but I didn't know that he had died; Radar, Trapper and Major Burns were also gone, but I don't know what happened to them either."
"What about the others?" Jamie asked.
"Major Houlihan was still there, and according to Jack being away from Major Burns seemed to have done her a world of good. Klinger married a local girl shortly before the hospital closed, and Father Mulcahy was practically unchanged." She then paused, and Jamie saw the worried expression on her face again.
This time, Hye seemed to be aware of this and was beginning to sound worried. "And what about Hawkeye?"
The Doctor looked at the teddy bear for a few moments before saying, "He... had a nervous breakdown." She paused and looked at Hye. "Jack told me they had to hide at some point, and a villager was so terrified of being captured by the enemy she accidentally smothered her own baby while trying to stop him from crying. It was probably the straw that broke the camel's back."
Hye lowered her eyes for a moment but said nothing, while Jamie looked at the Doctor. He had heard of similar things happening in his own time; his friend Bruce MacLean had stopped a man trying to kill his own daughter to spare her what he believed the Redcoats would do with the lass if they got hold of her. And then, he remembered what Hye had said earlier about Captain Pierce - He worries too much. That's his problem. Jamie didn't understand it at the time, but now it was clear what she had meant; nobody was prepared to witness the inevitable atrocities of war, but Captain Pierce seemed to be even less prepared than most. What Jamie had assumed to be a callous and disrespectful attitude was actually a defence mechanism - and one that obviously didn't work. The Doctor's goodbye kiss to the Captain was very likely an apology for not being able to prevent his inevitable breakdown.
"I'm sorry, Hye," the Doctor eventually said. "Jack told me that Hawkeye recovered quickly and returned to the camp shortly before the cease-fire was declared, but I doubt those wounds will ever completely heal."
The lass sighed. "He should never have been sent here," she said sadly. "His heart was too big for this war." She then took the bear from the Time Lord's hands gently. "I can finish that, if you want."
"Thank you," the Doctor replied. "I'll put the other things back in the trunk for you, so that you will be ready to move after I have a word with Liz. In the meantime, you can check out the TARDIS wardrobe and pick anything you like; you can have at least a few changes of clothes in your new home."
Hye looked up, and in spite of the sadness that still glinted behind her eyes, she managed to smile. "Thank you, Doctor. That would be nice."
The Doctor took in the dirty, dishevelled appearance all three of them now sported, thanks to all the digging and grimaced. "And perhaps it would be better for us to get cleaned up and changed before we go."
"Aye," Jamie agreed. He did not want Victoria to see them like this - that would certainly make her refuse to join them again, no matter how convincing the arguments Jamie already had prepared in his mind. "C'mon, lass," he said to Hye, "I'll help you find the wardrobe. There's a shower there you can use."
She looked up from sewing a neat knot into the end of the stitch and eyed him suspiciously. "You won't be there peeking, will you?" she asked. "Because I left my bat behind."
"What?" Jamie spluttered indignantly. "I wouldnae do that! Why would you think...?"
"Don't worry, dear," the Doctor said to Hye with an ill-suppressed grin. "Unlike at the 4077th, the showers here allow for complete privacy - and even if they didn't, each of us will be getting changed in our own private quarters. And besides, Jamie is a gentleman. You can trust him."
"I hope so," Hye said, still looking at the Highlander dubiously, and receiving an offended glare in return.
Noticing this, the Doctor tried to smooth things over with the young piper. "Oh, Jamie, don't be like that." She patted his shoulder gently before moving toward the door. "Try to see things from Hye's perspective. She comes from a place where running water and privacy are both very scarce."
"Aye, I suppose," Jamie grumbled, still clearly insulted that the lass should think so ill of him. Nevertheless he waited for Hye to put back Polly's sewing tools, and escorted her to the wardrobe room. He was a gentleman, after all...
Author: Me
Beta-Reader:
alouzonFandom: Doctor Who/M*A*S*H
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3138
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and all its characters belong to the BBC; M*A*S*H and all its characters belong to Twentieth Century Fox. I own nothing - not even the Fourteenth Doctor.
Summary: The Doctor returns to a place he has visited in the past to stop some old enemies from recovering something that is best left forgotten.
Warning: Spoilers for Abyssinia, Henry/Welcome to Korea. This particular chapter also has spoilers for the last two episodes of M*A*S*H, As Time Goes By and the two-hour finale Goodbye, Farewell & Amen.
"Where are we?" Jamie asked, the moment they stepped outside the TARDIS. Looking around all he could see were hills that felt somewhat familiar, and a wide empty field of dirt, with only some occasional vegetation here and there.
"It's the 4077th!" Hye shouted behind him.
Realisation dawned on Jamie. "Aye, so it is!" he exclaimed. This is why the hills looked familiar; the TARDIS seemed to have landed at the exact same spot it had just left, only any traces of the hospital or the nearby village seemed to have vanished a long time ago. "What happened here, Doctor?" he asked the Time Lord - whom he now noticed was carrying a couple of shovels.
"We've arrived in 1988," she said, "thirty-five years after the cease fire was declared."
Hye looked at her with wide eyes. "Thirty-five? You mean it's still going to go on for two more years?"
"Yes. I'm sorry," the Doctor said, looking at her with some sadness. "It lasted quite a while after we left." She turned to Jamie, handing him the shovels. "Hold these for me, will you, Jamie?"
"What are these for?" he asked, watching as she delved into one of her pockets, her arm jammed in right up to the elbow.
The Doctor activated a strange, Y-shaped contraption, which immediately began to bleep. "They're for retrieving the adapting device I gave to Radar, of course." She started to walk away from the TARDIS, guided by the bleeping signals of the machine.
"He buried it?" asked Hye as she and Jamie followed the Doctor.
"Not him, no." The bleeping grew stronger. "But it's buried here anyway." The device emitted an even louder and longer bleep, causing the Doctor to stop. She smiled as she pocketed it. "This is the place. Hand me a shovel, Jamie."
"Och, let me do the digging, Doctor." He was not going to let a wee lass like her do such hard work.
"Thank you, Jamie, but give me one of those anyway. It will be quicker if we do it together." Jamie silently debated arguing with her, but seeing that she was obviously not going to stop staring at him with her hand outstretched until he did what she asked, made him relent and he handed her the shovel. With her size, he doubted she'd do much beyond getting her fatigues dirty anyway. She looked at Hye, who seemed to be casting around vaguely for a third, non-existent shovel. "Only two shovels, I'm afraid, dear, but you can still help by keeping watch while we work."
"For what?" the lass asked, surprised.
"Oh, anything, really - though I'm especially concerned about the possibility of soldiers showing up, wondering what we might be doing here."
"Soldiers?" Jamie exclaimed, hunching down closer to the ground as if he expected to be fired upon. "I thought you said the war was over."
"Technically, yes, they're not shooting at each other." The Doctor's shovel struck the dirt by her feet. "And for several decades now. Most of South Korea has healed and is prospering magnificently. However, the border area is still heavily guarded - and even though the 4077th was dismantled when the truce was declared, there are other MASH units still in existence." She paused to wipe a spot of dirt from her trousers.
"But how do you know all this?" Hye asked, scanning the nearby hills for activity.
The Doctor smiled. "I travel in time, remember?"
"No, I mean... How do you know about the 4077th closing, or about the thing you gave Radar being buried? Did you visit the camp in the future?"
"Aye," Jamie continued, "and if you did, why did you not ask Radar for the..." he paused, trying to remember the right word, "...adapter or whatever it's called, then?"
"I didn't come back until this second visit, I'm afraid." The Doctor paused briefly, studying the pile of dirt she had already deposited to the side of the deepening hole, and comparing it to Jamie's with a frown. Jamie paused to do the same, and smiled smugly as he realized the frown was caused by the fact that his pile was about twice the size of hers. The Time Lord then spoke again. "Jack came here when the war was coming to a close, though. What I know, I learned from him."
"Jack?" Hye asked.
"Captain Jack Harkness," Jamie explained.
"Exactly, Jamie. He was travelling with me the first time I came to the 4077th. After we went our separate ways, he spent some time in the 20th century; when the war was winding down, he decided to return to Korea and see how everybody was. He spent nearly a month here, long enough to help dismantle the camp, and witness the burial of the time capsule."
Jamie stopped in mid-swing with his shovel. "Time capsule? You mean time-travelling?" From what he had seen of the camp and the technology they had, it didn't seem possible to him.
The Doctor smiled. "No, Jamie. Here, a time capsule is just a container where people place things they feel represent that particular point of space and time. They then either bury it or put it somewhere where it will remain untouched, in the hopes that people in the future will one day find it."
"Oh, I see!" Hye said, excited. "And the people from the future will learn from the objects in the capsule how people lived at that time." She beamed. "It's a great idea!"
"And Radar buried the thing you gave him?" It seemed a bit irresponsible to Jamie to have something alien, which the Doctor clearly did not want to be found by strangers, and place it inside something that although hidden, was meant to be found sooner or later.
The Doctor sighed. "Like I said before, it wasn't Radar. When Jack came back, Radar had already returned home - but he left the object in Hawkeye's possession, possibly for safekeeping until I could come back to retrieve it." She paused, after taking another shovelful of dirt. "I don't think Hawkeye knew what it was, though, or even that he had it. And Jack didn't realize what it really was, otherwise he would have taken it himself and given it to me later."
Jamie thrust his shovel into the dirt again, and was rewarded with a metallic clang as the shovel met resistance. "Hey, Doctor, I found something!" He kneeled down and, with his left hand, brushed the spot where the shovel had touched. "It looks like the corner of a chest."
"It's the capsule," the Doctor beamed. "Well done, Jamie!"
Under Hye's increasingly excited gaze, they started to dig and brush around the area - and, very shortly, they had completely uncovered an army green metal bound trunk, much smaller than the chest in the TARDIS console room, but large enough that it was impossible for one person to carry it alone. With Hye's help, they lifted the trunk to the surface and, under the Doctor's supervision, carried it to the TARDIS where they could inspect it without the risk of being spotted by anybody who might pass by.
"I'm sorry about the mess, old girl," the Doctor said apologetically as they entered. "I promise I'll tidy things up afterwards."
"Who is she talking to?" Hye asked Jamie in a near-whisper.
"To the TARDIS," the Highlander replied. "It's alive, you know." The room shuddered, as if offended. Jamie's eyes cast toward a point in the vast ceiling, and he patted the door frame affectionately as he closed the doors. "She. She's alive." The TARDIS gave a mollified rumble and settled quietly.
Hye's eyes widened, but before she could ask another question, the Doctor clapped her hands. "Well, shall we see what we've got here?" She opened the trunk. Jamie was afraid she might jump headfirst into it the way she did while rummaging through the old wooden trunk, looking for his watch; instead she sat on the floor and started to remove items with a reverent attitude, sometimes guessing at the items contributed, sometimes Hye identifying them.
And what a strange collection it was! The identified items included a helicopter fan belt; Father Mulcahy's boxing gloves; a slinky black dress ("Klinger!" the Doctor and Hye pronounced at the same time); and a spark plug. The Doctor's attention suddenly focused on the next item. "Aha. Here it is," the Doctor said triumphantly, removing a battered brown bear from inside. "Radar's contribution."
"A teddy bear?" Jamie asked, astonished. He knew a small, stuffed panda bear occupied a place of honour amidst the personal items in the Doctor's quarters, but he was still surprised to see a child's toy in an army base.
"Radar told me the adapter is inside the teddy bear; so based on what Jack had told me about the time capsule I knew this was where I should look." She placed the teddy bear reverently on the floor, next to the other items she had removed. "I'll remove it later."
The remaining contents of the time capsule included a pair of worn boots; some surgical tools; a bottle of cognac ("Someone in the camp had very good taste," the Doctor said approvingly); a couple of books; and what looked like a fishing hook with a strange plastic disc attached to it ("Colonel Blake used to have hooks like that on his hat," Hye commented sadly). At the very bottom lay a letter written in a neat, careful script, which the Doctor read out loud for her companions.
For the past three years, the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital was stationed here. During this period, we've operated on thousands of wounded, and we're proud to say we've had a 95% success rate. We don't know how long this war will last yet, though I am sure you know the outcome by now. We hope it will end soon, and we hope that this time capsule will be evocative of the time we've spent here, the way we lived, and the way we served the US Army, the United Nations, and the nation of South Korea.
Major Margaret Houlihan (Head Nurse)
Ouijongbou, Korea, 1953
Silence reigned for a few moments after the Doctor had finished reading the letter. Jamie didn't know what to say; the only thing he knew of the war was the small glimpse he had just experienced, but it still had a great impact on him, partly because of his own wartime experiences and the way his memory of those seemed to have been stirred by it, and partly because of the way he had seen the people in the hospital trying to cope with the terror around them.
Eventually, Hye broke the silence. "Can... can I keep this?" Both Jamie and the Doctor looked at her. She was sitting on the floor next to the objects the Doctor had removed from the time capsule, and was clutching Radar's teddy bear. Jamie wasn't sure if she meant just the bear or all the objects around her, but he wouldn't have been surprised if it had been the latter.
The Doctor seemed to have assumed that was what the lassie had meant, and she smiled and said, "Of course, my dear. I don't think this is what they had intended when they came up with the idea of building a time capsule, but I doubt they'd object to it."
"Aye, they're still being remembered anyway," Jamie said gruffly as he got to his feet, and the Doctor gave him a big smile.
"Let me just take the adapter out of the bear, and I'll give it right back," she then said, taking the toy from the lassie's hands. They followed the Doctor to the power room where, to Jamie's surprise, Polly's old sewing box (which he had first seen her use when she made him a kilt to replace the plaid he had left behind in Atlantis) was nestled in the midst of a bunch of mechanical tools on a work bench. The Doctor opened the box and removed a small pair of scissors with which she carefully began to cut the newer-looking stitches on the bear's side, while Jamie looked on from where he leaned against the wall.
"Doctor..." Hye began, hesitantly, wringing her hands.
"Hmm?" the Time Lord asked, intent on her delicate task.
"You said your friend told you some things from his visit..."
"Yes?" The Doctor had managed to open a small tear, and was trying to remove the adapter without opening it too much.
"Well... What happened to everybody?"
The Doctor stared at the lass, bear in one hand and adapter on the other. Jamie could see she hadn't expected this question, though Jamie himself was unsurprised by it. He knew that, under the same circumstances, he'd feel the same way, which was why he had been so frustrated when the Doctor had refused to elaborate on the stories she had told him while he was still under the influence of the Time Lords' memory block. He could understand the reason why she had been cagey at the time, but since Hye was not suffering from the same problem and was not likely to see any of her old friends again, he saw no reason why she shouldn't know. "Aye, tell us, Doctor," he prompted.
The expression of sadness and hesitation on the Doctor's face made Jamie worry. He had seen her make that face before, when she told him about Donna Noble and was concerned about how he would react to what she had been forced to do to her friend.
"Please tell me," Hye asked quietly, unaware of what the Doctor's expression meant.
She sighed, threading a needle and starting to re-stitch the bear. "Well, I don't know many details. When Jack returned to the 4077th a lot of the people we had first met had already left, and he didn't give me many details of the newcomers. He told me he kept in touch with one of the surgeons - it might have been Captain Hunnicutt, but I cannot say for sure. I knew that Colonel Blake was no longer there, but I didn't know that he had died; Radar, Trapper and Major Burns were also gone, but I don't know what happened to them either."
"What about the others?" Jamie asked.
"Major Houlihan was still there, and according to Jack being away from Major Burns seemed to have done her a world of good. Klinger married a local girl shortly before the hospital closed, and Father Mulcahy was practically unchanged." She then paused, and Jamie saw the worried expression on her face again.
This time, Hye seemed to be aware of this and was beginning to sound worried. "And what about Hawkeye?"
The Doctor looked at the teddy bear for a few moments before saying, "He... had a nervous breakdown." She paused and looked at Hye. "Jack told me they had to hide at some point, and a villager was so terrified of being captured by the enemy she accidentally smothered her own baby while trying to stop him from crying. It was probably the straw that broke the camel's back."
Hye lowered her eyes for a moment but said nothing, while Jamie looked at the Doctor. He had heard of similar things happening in his own time; his friend Bruce MacLean had stopped a man trying to kill his own daughter to spare her what he believed the Redcoats would do with the lass if they got hold of her. And then, he remembered what Hye had said earlier about Captain Pierce - He worries too much. That's his problem. Jamie didn't understand it at the time, but now it was clear what she had meant; nobody was prepared to witness the inevitable atrocities of war, but Captain Pierce seemed to be even less prepared than most. What Jamie had assumed to be a callous and disrespectful attitude was actually a defence mechanism - and one that obviously didn't work. The Doctor's goodbye kiss to the Captain was very likely an apology for not being able to prevent his inevitable breakdown.
"I'm sorry, Hye," the Doctor eventually said. "Jack told me that Hawkeye recovered quickly and returned to the camp shortly before the cease-fire was declared, but I doubt those wounds will ever completely heal."
The lass sighed. "He should never have been sent here," she said sadly. "His heart was too big for this war." She then took the bear from the Time Lord's hands gently. "I can finish that, if you want."
"Thank you," the Doctor replied. "I'll put the other things back in the trunk for you, so that you will be ready to move after I have a word with Liz. In the meantime, you can check out the TARDIS wardrobe and pick anything you like; you can have at least a few changes of clothes in your new home."
Hye looked up, and in spite of the sadness that still glinted behind her eyes, she managed to smile. "Thank you, Doctor. That would be nice."
The Doctor took in the dirty, dishevelled appearance all three of them now sported, thanks to all the digging and grimaced. "And perhaps it would be better for us to get cleaned up and changed before we go."
"Aye," Jamie agreed. He did not want Victoria to see them like this - that would certainly make her refuse to join them again, no matter how convincing the arguments Jamie already had prepared in his mind. "C'mon, lass," he said to Hye, "I'll help you find the wardrobe. There's a shower there you can use."
She looked up from sewing a neat knot into the end of the stitch and eyed him suspiciously. "You won't be there peeking, will you?" she asked. "Because I left my bat behind."
"What?" Jamie spluttered indignantly. "I wouldnae do that! Why would you think...?"
"Don't worry, dear," the Doctor said to Hye with an ill-suppressed grin. "Unlike at the 4077th, the showers here allow for complete privacy - and even if they didn't, each of us will be getting changed in our own private quarters. And besides, Jamie is a gentleman. You can trust him."
"I hope so," Hye said, still looking at the Highlander dubiously, and receiving an offended glare in return.
Noticing this, the Doctor tried to smooth things over with the young piper. "Oh, Jamie, don't be like that." She patted his shoulder gently before moving toward the door. "Try to see things from Hye's perspective. She comes from a place where running water and privacy are both very scarce."
"Aye, I suppose," Jamie grumbled, still clearly insulted that the lass should think so ill of him. Nevertheless he waited for Hye to put back Polly's sewing tools, and escorted her to the wardrobe room. He was a gentleman, after all...
