CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

HEALER MODE REVISITED

“Stay with me, Major,” Jason said sharply. “You need to concentrate so I can hear you.” He had returned to his human form and was attempting to stabilize his patient’s condition.

The Major gave the Alterran an unfocused look and had to struggle to get his thoughts back in order. “Very…tired.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” came the gentle reply. “The pain killers are probably kicking in.”

“Yes.”

“Forgive me for pushing you. I don’t know how long this telepathic link will stay open.”

“Not too long, I hope. It’s difficult enough to guard my actions without having to worry about guarding my thoughts, too.”

“Major, there’s nothing of a secret nature in your head that’s still secret in the Twenty-seventh century,” Jason said knowingly. “I should think the Doctor proved that rather effectively already.”

Klaus gave him a dark look. It wasn’t just intelligence information he was guarding. “He’s a show off.”

To Jason’s surprise, the reply was in Russian. “Just how many languages do you speak?”

“Fluently? Or with a passing ability?” came the reply in French.

“Now who’s showing off?” Jason replied. “It doesn’t matter. Once you’ve been in the TARDIS, she translates for you.”

The Major’s eyes grew wide. How had this piece of information gotten past him? Twice? “Translates…how?”

“Well…what language are you hearing now?”

“German.”

“Interesting, don’t you think, since I’m actually speaking Alterran.”

“Then why do you sound like an American?”

Jason sighed. “I have no idea. The TARDIS can be a bit eccentric at times. The old girl is not without a sense of humor.”

The Major reflected on this. Technology of this order had incredible potential.

“Just think how frustrated you’d feel,” Jason said, breaking the Major’s train of thought, “if I couldn’t hear you at all.”

“I’m sure that was the intention.”

“Yes. Obviously that thing doesn’t realize that the Doctor and I are telepathic.”

The Major’s eyes narrowed as a sudden thought struck him. “Why? Why doesn’t it know?”

Jason stopped what he was doing and looked at him. “What?”

“If it can read minds, why didn’t it know already?”

“And it didn’t know what I intended when I was crossing the room,” Jason said in a quiet voice. “And when I confronted it, it gave me the strangest…” He caught his breath, looking the Major in the eye. “The Doctor can shield his thoughts, but I can’t. Major, I don’t think it can read my mind.”

“Perhaps you can make use of that.”

“Perhaps. Just now, you’re more in need of my making use of my medical training.”

“That I am.”

Jason gave his patient a quizzical look. “Are you always this subdued when you’re this badly injured?”

“This surprises you?”

“Yes, to be honest, it does. Especially since we haven’t exactly been on the best of terms. I was under the impression that we were working under a truce. Was I wrong?”

“No. But my life is in your hands. It would be unwise to provoke you.”

Jason actually laughed at this. “Oh, you have matured.”

A pause.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It was meant as one.” Jason gave the officer a steady look. “Now, I need you to do something for me.”

The Major’s eyes narrowed. “What…?”

“Go to sleep.”

The Major blinked. “What?”

“You’re bleeding internally. Not a lot, but I’ll have to operate to stop it. So…”

“You’ve already drugged me.”

Jason’s eyes flickered at the accusing tone. He found it amusing but did not allow this to show. “No, actually, that would be unprofessional.”

Another pause.

“I apologize if I offended you.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open. “Did I just hear you correctly?”

“You’ve treated me as a professional this whole time. You deserve the same from me.”

Jason was momentarily at a loss for words. “Major—” He broke off, looking his patient in the eye. “Klaus,” he said firmly. “I need you to do more than treat me as a professional. I need you to trust me to keep you alive.”

“I don’t think you can.”

This was not what Jason expected to hear. “Why not?”

Klaus closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. “I know what that thing did to me. It…cooked my insides with electricity. And no amount of surgery will fix it. You can stop the bleeding, repair my cuts and bruises, but you can’t fix that, can you?”

Jason’s mouth dropped open. This was all true and he was amazed at how matter of fact the man was about it.

“I’m going to die,” the Major went on calmly. “You know it, and I know it.”

The concerned look on Jason’s face deepened into worry. “I know nothing of the kind,” he lied. “What I do know is I will do everything in my power to keep you alive. No matter what.”

“I believe you’ll try to work another miracle. I’m just not sure that you’ll succeed.”

“Damnation, Klaus! This is not the time for your fatalistic attitude. If you give up, I can’t save you, miracle or not.”

The look the Major gave Jason in reply made his hair stand on end. It also spoke volumes. This was a man who had looked death in the face more times than he could count. A man who knew that one day the odds would catch up with him. It seemed that the Major had decided that this was that day.

“Don’t stop fighting now,” Jason pleaded, meeting his patient’s intense gaze. “Please, don’t give up on me.”

Klaus was silent a long time. “I won’t give up if you won’t,” he said finally.

* * *

This last thought finally penetrated the Major’s consciousness. Safe. Safe? He so rarely allowed himself to feel safe. Only on those occasions when he was between missions and in the confines of Schloss Eberbach, and even then, he did not always let his guard down.

Klaus struggled to concentrate, to take stock of his current situation, to recall exactly what was happening. He was on a mission, that much he remembered. Something had gone very, very wrong, he remembered that, too. Vaguely. Had he been injured or captured? A voice in the back of his mind told him the answer was both. Both! Injured and captured. That was a disconcerting thought. But in what order had it occurred?

Klaus became aware of the sensation of floating accompanied by an equally odd sense of peace. This could only have been accomplished with drugs. Drugs. Yes, that would make sense. He had been drugged. Why? He tried to concentrate further. Why couldn’t he remember? Because you’ve been drugged, you idiot!

Klaus started to claw his way to consciousness. As he moved through the layers, more and more facts returned to mind. You are not safe, he told himself over and over. You’re in Moscow surrounded by the bloody KGB. In the Goddamn Lubyanka, for Christ’s sake. Then he became aware of the fact that he was not alone. Someone was standing beside him and was…

Jason was in the process of repairing the innumerable cuts on his patient’s inner thighs when the Major came awake all at once.

“Get your fucking hands off me, you Goddamn pervert!”

Jason almost jumped out of his skin. He let out an alarmed cry, dropping the instrument in his hand. “Shit!” he exclaimed, a hand going to his chest. “Don’t do that! You scared the hell out of me.”

The Major was still trying to get his thoughts in order, to remember exactly what had happened to him. He tried to move, only to discover he was strapped down. His legs had been spread an indecent distance apart and were secured at the ankles and knees. This only seemed to verify that he was still a captive of the alien and that his rescue had been an illusion planted in his mind. Just as the attack on Eroica had been.

“What are you doing to me?” he demanded, fighting the restraints holding him immobile.

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Jason moaned, switching from English to German, since this seemed the language his multi-lingual patient preferred at the moment. He put a hand on the struggling man’s shoulder. “I’m trying to save your life. What the hell do you think I’m doing?” he said firmly. “Now calm down.”

“Fuck calm down, you Goddamn—”

“Stop right there, Klaus!” Jason snapped, his voice suddenly cold and hard. “And give very serious consideration to what you about to say and to whom you are about to say it. Or have you reconsidered not provoking me?”

The Major’s mind cleared enough for him to register where he was and who was standing over him. He gave Jason a dark look, but did not reply directly. He did, however, respond in English, something the Alterran took particular note of.

Why does he think he needs to speak to me in English? It’s that wretched American accent, isn’t it? I have got to talk to the Doctor about that.

“Why have you started calling me by name?” Klaus demanded.

A small smile came to the Healer’s face. “Because, like your native language, you respond to it when you’re not fully cognizant,” he said, switching back to English. “So long as you’re my patient, you have no rank. Not in here.”

The officer gave a low growl of disapproval.

“Major,” Jason said pointedly, “has it escaped your notice that you are talking to me? Not thinking, talking. And in English.”

The Major’s eyes grew wide. It had escaped his notice. Goddamn drugs. What had not escaped his notice was the fact that he was lying naked on an examining table in an indecent position and unable to move. “Why have you strapped me down?” he demanded.

Jason heaved an exasperated sigh. The man was as predictable as ever. “So I could work on your injuries. And don’t you dare start accusing me of—” He broke off as a sudden thought struck him. He chose his next words very carefully when he asked, “Klaus, that thing didn’t…molest you in any way, did it?”

“No. I said I would kill it with my bare hands if it tried.”

Jason’s eyebrows went up. “Really? And it backed off?”

“Yes.” Klaus was about to ask why this surprised him when he realized what the Alterran meant. There was no reason for the creature to have backed off. He had been completely helpless, yet his captor had not crossed the line, despite the fact that it could have at any time. It had, however, played a very nasty game—down there—instead.

Jason was looking at the gashes he had been in the process of repairing. They covered a good portion of the Major’s inner thighs, and some had come perilously close to his genitals. It was obvious that the alien had been taunting the captive officer, but had stopped short of inflicting any serious damage on his…er, manhood. Jason closed his eyes as this last thought crossed his mind. Jesus, is this man’s Victorian modesty catching?

“Klaus, I have to finish working on your legs,” he said calmly.

“I know,” the Major replied with a growl.

“Then you also know I’m going to have to…touch you.” Yes, it’s definitely rubbing off on me.

Klaus gritted his teeth. This was one of the reasons he hated doctors. They were always putting their hands in places…

“That’s why you’re strapped down,” Jason informed. “You’ve been semi-conscious the last hour, and fighting me the whole time.”

“And now I’m awake, so you can let me go.”

“I’m not so sure about—”

The Major responded with an angry growl followed by a stream of curses. He pulled at the restraints in rage.

Jason observed this display without surprise. “Klaus, I know I told you not to stop fighting,” he said calmly, “but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind. You’re weak enough as it is. You’ll exhaust yourself if you keep this up. And I can’t see it helping the damage you’ve already done to yourself.”

Finally, the fog fully lifted in the Major’s mind and he stopped fighting. He recalled the conversation with Jason just prior to being sedated. Sedated. Yes, that was when he’d been drugged. Then he remembered how he felt just prior to waking. Safe. To his annoyance, he realized he still felt safe. Safe! Even strapped to a table, stark naked with an alien standing over him telling him he was about to start— He still felt safe. God fucking dammit! Had his instincts completely deserted him?

The Major was startled out of his thoughts when a sheet was suddenly thrown over him. It was then positioned so that only the area Jason was working on was exposed.

“Does that meet with your approval?” the Healer asked calmly.

Klaus chose not to point out that the only thing that would meet with his approval would be for him to be fully clothed and armed. “It will have to do,” he said sourly. He had to fight to keep his voice even as he asked, “Are you gonna keep me tied down?”

“Are you gonna keep fighting me?” Jason countered.

This was a fair question to which Klaus had no answer. Fighting back was automatic. To not do so would seem like surrender. “Why are you even bothering?” he asked finally.

Jason rolled his eyes. “So much for not giving up on me.”

“Don’t patronize me, Jason,” Klaus shot back. “That thing kept me alive the same way it did Turlough. Obviously, its influence has worn off. So, why am I still alive?”

Jason met the Major’s accusing gaze steadily. “You’re still alive because I have you on full life support,” he informed startlingly. “That’s what this bed does. It keeps you alive. It’s taken over just about every one of your major life functions.”

This was not what Klaus expected to hear and he fell into a stunned silence.

“Now, do you have any other questions?” Jason said calmly. “Or can I finish what I was doing?”

Klaus had several hundred questions, but did not want to ask them until his head was clearer. “Just get on with it,” he growled, forcing himself to relax.

“Will you give me your word you won’t fight me if I remove the restraints?” Jason asked cautiously.

Klaus gave another low growl. “Yes,” he said between clenched teeth.

Jason had to fight not to smile. “I’m trusting you on this one. As a professional,” he said as he removed the restraints.

“A wise move.”

Jason did not reply, turning his attention to the gashes on his patient’s legs. He reached down, stopped, and straightened, looking the Major in the eye again. “Um, just one thing…”

“Now what?”

“Don’t kill me with your bare hands until after I’ve finished. Okay?”

Klaus’s eyes flickered and he could not prevent the edges of his mouth from curling upward in amusement. “That would be unprofessional.”

* * *