The first thought the Doctor had was that Eostre's octopus had attached its very dead and stir-fried suckers to the back of his throat and pulled, ganging up with the cinnamon candy to create a vicious, painful combination punch.

In his dream, the octopus was bright red and looked rather like a cartoon and then he was a cartoon as well, and god this was wayyyy too much like that time with the sake and the holographic monsters in Kyoto. Because there was a dance sequence involving chili peppers, and the octopus was about to bite off his head even though cephalopods did not have teeth and

The Doctor woke up, silent and sweating.

It hurt to swallow. He couldn't remember the last time it had hurt to swallow, possibly when he was intubated in San Francisco. It hurt just to swallow spit, and he found himself physically wincing every time he did. And he couldn't breathe through his nose, his sheets were damp, which was weird, and why was he so bloody hot all of a sudden?

He pushed off some of the sheets, staggered to the bathroom, and tried to drink some water, but he couldn't get more than a cup down without nearly retching with pain.

He went back to his cot and pulled the sheets back up, teeth nearly chattering but not because that would wake up Ace and also would cause more saliva which meant more swallowing. Besides, this was probably one of those twenty-four hour colds. Nothing for her to worry about. Just wouldn't get out of bed unless need be.

The next dream involved House and a giant cinnamon candy cane, and well, he was naked and...leave it at that.