"Hold his head back for me."

The man behind Dot quickly complied, grabbing him by the hair and chin with both hands and forcing his face upwards. The fluorescent lights stung, drawing out burning tears from his panicked eyes.

The Doctor came up to the front of Dot and wiped his tears away with a tissue. She held a small, plastic pipette in one hand, holding his left eye open with the other as she angled herself over it with the pipette.

He struggled, trying to turn away desperately. He almost succeeded- the man behind him lost his grip for a few seconds, meaning the first drop of light pink liquid that the pipette contained dripped harmlessly onto his cheek instead of into his eye.

"For God's sake- I gave you one job, Jasper." The Doctor addressed the man holding him with an irritated tone, grabbing Dot's hair herself to demonstrate how he should be doing it.

Jasper swiftly fixed his mistakes, and Dot found himself unable to move away from the pipette again.

She wiped the fresh tears and finally put in the first drop, immediately following the action up with a second, then a third. Once she was finished, she stepped away to clean the equipment and instructed Jasper to monitor the results.

The liquid burned, turning into acid on the surface of his eye and scalding it. It felt like an imaginary hand was scratching sandpaper down into the eye, clawing nails digging and pushing down with no remorse, leaving dirty trails and weeping cuts.

He bit down on his lip, a desperate to try and keep still to avoid tugging on the bolts through his wings and calves as he continued to feel his eye swelling and burning, all coherent thought leaving his mind as the scratching sounds of a pen writing filled the air.

His lip finally failed, the skin bursting as he bit down ever harder and flicked his head forward and away from the man behind him. The sudden movement shocking her, the Doctor slapped him harshly around the face as he writhed in pain.

The bolts holding him down tore straight through his wings when he jolted, the fresh horror of an open wound causing him to completely lose focus. He wasn't aware of what was happening to him anymore, his only real thoughts were primal bids to flee, to get away from this place- but that wasn't possible. He squirmed with an open mouth in silent agony until something in him finally snapped, taking him away from the conscious world as his head fell limp.

Blood continued to ooze from his torn lip and wings as he hung from the chair, Jasper watching in pale shock while the Doctor kept her face neutral.

"I... s-shouldn't we..." Jasper's words failed him and he excused himself from the space, running to the nearest bathroom.

While he was gone, the Doctor proceeded to silently undo the restraints holding Dot in place and administer another dose of the clear liquid she had used to heal him for years. This, combined with expert stitching and bandages, tied his body together again as it repaired itself.

She tilted his limp head upwards and checked on the eye she had put the chemical in, taking notes on how he had reacted to it. The eye looked foggy, and was severely damaged even with the healing liquid she had given him. She decided to to inject another dose directly into the eye to see if some of the damage could be repaired.

Someone knocked on the door, so she answered it to find Jasper there, still looking rather sickly. "Nimue, uh... was that really necessary?" He shuffled his feet and rubbed the back of his neck before continuing. "I just... I don't think..." His voice faded away under her harsh glare, eyes purposely looking everywhere but at the hybrid lying on the table behind her.

"This is what I pay you to do. If you don't like it, quit." She spoke unforgivingly, not sparing an ounce of sympathy for the man that trembled in front of her.

Jasper removed his lab coat, looking slightly more confident. "I- uh. I think I will do that." He handed her the white clothing and hurried down the corridor, away from what he had just witnessed.

Nimue gripped the coat tighly, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she thought. Another assistant gone.

She spun back around to face Dot, banishing that thought from her mind. At least he would never leave.

His eye was still damaged, seemingly beyond repair. It may heal, given enough time, but from the looks of things she didn't think he would be able to see out of it again.

Grabbing her clipboard from a nearby desk, she sat down near him and rested his head on her leg as she worked. His hair was soft, so she gently stroked the black tresses as she continued to take notes in silence.

a/n: another shorter chapter, sorry 😞