The Tale of the Angry Man

[The Second Doctor]

“I... yes, I’ve heard the tales,” the Doctor said, remembering the many afternoons he’d spent listening to the Hermit relate horror stories of his own regenerations. As he recalled, they hadn’t made him eager to experience the process himself. But the Hermit was still there on Mount Cadon, alive and well, so far as the Doctor knew. The same could not be said of his brother.

“I’ve got to see him, that’s all." He paused with a sad smile as Correon piled on the (admittedly double-edged) praise. All he could think about was how utterly unprepared he was for something like this. “A pox on your tests, anyway. They don’t prove anything. And I did pass... eventually.” He glanced away from his old teacher; it had been a bone of contention between them, and Correon always managed to make him feel guilty no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.

The Doctor hesitated, the mention of that other student tickling some half-buried memory within him; but now was not the time to pursue it. Sighing, he bobbed his head one last time in Correon’s direction. “It’s been lovely seeing you again, though I wish it could have been under better circumstances. Maybe next time. Well, best of luck with all that,” he said, looking askance at the prodigious pile of papers before bustling out of the room. There was no time to be lost.

The Citadel was a large place, and well it should be as the capitol of Gallifrey, but sometimes the Doctor wished the Time Lords had seen fit to put in a transmat system that led somewhere besides the Death Zone. It took him a full twenty minutes’ walk at a brisk trot to reach the hospital. At least once he’d arrived, there were lifts travelling between the floors, which gave his racing hearts a chance to slow to a more normal pace.

A screen in the lobby had informed him of his brother’s room number, and he strode out of the lift as soon as it reached the right floor. In contrast to the dark corridors veining the rest of the capitol, here the walls, floors, and ceilings were gleaming white. The Doctor didn’t know how the surroundings affected the hospital’s residents, but they certainly put him at ease. Reaching the room where his brother’s name was tacked in a temporary fashion across the door, he knocked once before bursting in, not sure what to expect.

[The Tenth Doctor]

Correon nodded as the Doctor left his office. He hadn't expected his former student to stay, after all, when his brother was in such danger. He was actually pleased with this, smiling to himself. He had always admired the way that the two brothers had looked out for one another, and he had expected that the Doctor would do so in this instance. He went back to working on his paper work.

As the Doctor entered the room, the Hunter was asleep on the bed, unconscious, and hooked up to several different machines. One of these machines gave him oxygen while others regulated different organs and systems in his body. Various monitors reported his current condition -- and the one monitoring his hearts revealed that only one of the hearts was working, although he now had both of them.

[The Second Doctor]

There was a hush as he entered, the sort of hush endemic to all hospitals, broken only sporadically by the various monitors connected to his brother’s body. The Doctor approached the bed almost reverentially, head lowered, sharp eyes already assessing the situation, such as it was. Laying a hand momentarily over the Hunter’s chest confirmed what the monitors were already telling him. One pulse, one heart working. It was difficult to know whether, with the botched regeneration, he’d managed to grow a second, or if that was another problem on the Hunter’s already long laundry list of them.

“I’m here,” he murmured to the prostrate form of his brother. You never knew with these things; he might hear it. “Have they tried electricity, I wonder...” The Doctor mused aloud to himself, beginning to stare round the starkly furnished room as if a clue lay there. So far as he knew, the Hunter had never had any medical problems, but he’d left Gallifrey at such a young age that anything might have happened in the intervening years. In fact, he still was far from old, and too young for this sort of thing.

“Oh, bother!” He flopped into the chair standing by his brother’s bed, regretted it immediately because the chair was made of hard plastic. With a flourish and a fond smile, he drew out his recorder and began to play a tune, its aimlessness a decent metaphor for how he felt: flummoxed.

[The Tenth Doctor]

The Hunter remained where he was, completely unresponsive to the Doctor's words.

As the Doctor was playing an instrument, one of the doctors came into the room. "Hello there...you won't get an answer from that one," the man said, indicating Tyler. "I don't really think there is anything we can do for him. Do you know him, or are you just volunteering your time at the hospital?"

[The Second Doctor]

He had been playing with his eyes closed, lost in a sea of musical notes, but a sudden noise made him break off. A hospital staffer loomed over him, inquiring after his presence there.

“Volunteer? No, no... I’m his brother,” he explained, flinging a hand in the general direction of the bed, trying not to seem as flustered as he felt. “Hm, you’d have his medical charts, wouldn’t you? Perhaps you could tell me— has electricity been tried? You know, to get the other heart going?”

[The Fifth Doctor]

The General walked up to the hospital, he had heard that Tyler was sick, and he had decided to come see him. He was in his second body also, sporting black hair and a lean physique. He already knew the ward number, he had been here before, when he had first heard the news.

He walked into the ward, only to find the Doctor talking to one of the doctors. (:S)
"Ahh, hello Doctor, long time no see." He said to the Doctor.

((OOC: Capital= The Doctor.))

[The Tenth Doctor]

The doctor on staff turned to the Doctor and replied, "Oh.....yes....that's right, this patient has a brother. We tried contacting you on Gallifrey, but you weren't home. I'm glad that you heard about your brother's condition. We haven't tried electricity, sir...as that seemed to be something that lseser species' did. And you may see his medical files, yes."

The man handed the Doctor the Hunter's medical files. "There you are....not sure if these will be of help. I'm about to take a short break. Do you want me to get you any...."

He stopped abrubly when another person entered the room. He'd seen the General before, as he had been in to visit this patient before. "Ah...well, make that....can I get the two of you anything.....:"

Glancing at the Doctor, he added, "It's been rumored that you visit Earth often....would you like a beverage from there? Do they serve something like tea on Earth.....I can look it up and find you some, if that would please you."

[The Second Doctor]

The Doctor’s head turned at the sound of the opening door, and his eyes lit up as he saw who it was. “General!” he exclaimed, stepping past the doctor to clasp the General’s hand in both of his. “How have you been? Still in your first regeneration, I see... Lucky fellow to keep this body around so long. It’s holding up remarkably well, I must say.”

But now was not the time for catching up with old friends, much as they might have wanted to. The Doctor turned back to the medico and listened carefully as the man explained what they knew of the Hunter’s condition. “Lesser species— oh, of course. Well, it might be worth a try, as nothing else seems to be helping, hm?”

He accepted the medical files, flipping through them distractedly while the man kept talking. He glanced up at the mention of tea, eyebrows raised in pleasure, face crinkled in a smile. “Oh, tea would be lovely... if you wouldn’t mind. What do you think, General, how would you like to try some?”

ooc; Sorry for the delay. And yes, capitalization is important. xD

[The Tenth Doctor]

The medical doctor waited for the General to answer the Doctor's question. He'd let the Doctor look through the Hunter's file. He doubted that electricity would work, but perhaps his patient's brother would be able to learn something from the file.

"I very much doubt that electricity would help your brother...but if you insist, we might be able to try it." He didn't like the thought of using such a method on a Time Lord. "I will get you the requested tea."

The man looked to the General to see whether or not he would respond favorably to the question.

[The Fifth Doctor]

"Yes, my first, you need to take better care of yourself Doc." The General said.
"Tea? I'll give it a try, always good to try new things."

[The Tenth Doctor]

The medical doctor glanced at the General and smiled. "All right then, I'll get you both some. I believe that the cooks in our cafeteria have a recipe for it. I will be right back with your things."

Immediately after he said this to the Doctor and the General, he left the room, heading for the kitchen. As he arrived, he said to several of the cooks, "Please prepare two cups of an Earth drink called tea."

One of the cooks nodded while the other hunted for the interplanetary recipe book that included Earth recipes. Once the recipe was found, the cooks began gathering the necessary ingredients. The medical doctor waited outside of the cafeteria.

He thought to himself, "Well, it would be sad if the Hunter died just after his first regeneration. And that fellow is his twin....how hard it would be on him...."

[The Second Doctor]

“Good,” the Doctor said enthusiastically when the General agreed to try the Earth drink. “I think you’ll like it. And even if you don’t, it does perk you up wonderfully.”

As soon as the other man had left to fetch the tea, he began to browse deeper into his brother’s files, his brow furrowing. “You don’t happen to know anything more about this, do you?” he asked the General hopefully. “Of course I’m regretting it now, but I always left the medical things to my father, so I’m afraid I can’t be of much help here...” The Doctor let out a deep sigh. He did sometimes wish he’d gotten around to actually acquiring a proper medical degree, and not one from Lister in 1888, as delightful as that had been.

[The Fifth Doctor]

"Hmm," He said as he checked through the files "by all means, he should be normal, but yet..."
He scanned Tyler with his sonic screwdriver, he looked at the screen,
"A small fluctuation in his radiation levels, but not enough to kill, maybe..." He said, he turned the top of it around, and scanned again.
"Hello..." He said looking at the screen once more, "there's some sort of, parasite, normally it doesn't harm, but in these numbers, I have no idea how to get it out, they usually lay on the brain, feeding off thoughts, but thoughts aren't enough for this many..."

[The Tenth Doctor]

(he just always has regenerations that go badly, guys -- like the 9th to 10th Doctor regeneration -- but he always has bad ones, mostly related to the fact that he has asthma, and that contributes to him having bad regeneration experiences. So if there's anything else going on -- parasites or whatever, then that's in addition regeneration gone badly. Since this is the first time he regenerated, they don't know that he has a tendency for having bad regeneration experiences. I don't mind adding something to the bad regeneration, like what the General has done)

The file that the Doctor held included the fact that Tyler had asthma, which he'd had since birth. The tests that were run in this new regeneration confirmed that he still had it in the new regeneration. A closer examination of the file would also reveal that Tyler continued to have some of the same allergies that he'd had before he'd regenerated, including the allergy to aspirin. Since it had been known that he was severely allergic to it, no aspirin was given to him. Therefore, that was not a factor in his current condition.

Tyler remained unconscious on the bed as the two other Time Lords discussed his condition.

Meanwhile, the medical doctor waited for the kitchen personnel to finish getting the tea ready.

[The Fifth Doctor]

((Sorry for interrupting your plans))

"The asthma doesn't help either... he'll probably have bad regenerations all his life because of that, shame, but anyway, need to get this parasite off, it's developing on his brain, the only way, is to make him regenerate again."