A/N hey guys, so this is the sequel to Saving the Doctor, if you haven't read that story then I suggest you go and read it before you read this. Also I have posted a one shot of the time between the two stories called Nineteen hours and Thirty-five minutes, you don't have to read that as I will write some of the important stuff from that into this story.

Anyways hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own nothing other than Ari.

Ari stood with her hands lightly clasped before her as the Director of Torchwood, Pete Tyler, spoke to her in a very disapproving voice.

Twenty hours ago she had been sat at her desk reading through a report hoping to finalise a treaty between the humans and a race known as the Smiubos, but nineteen hours and forty seven minutes ago she had left her desk as alarms went off throughout the building and she like everyone else had headed to hanger eight where her life changed yet again

For over fours years she had been living on earth, she had made something of a life for herself, she had a job, an apartment, friends in the form of Rose and John and though she seemed settled with her knew life she knew that when that blue box showed up once again that she would leave this half life in a second.

But she hadn't.

For the past nineteen hours and thirty-five minutes she had been within that blue box, with a man she had thought she would never see again, a man she had loved for over a hundred years and she had forced herself to leave just so that she could get back to the work she had been working on twenty hours ago.

There was however a problem. Pete Tyler was not impressed with how one of his most trusted employees had just upped and left in the middle of important work, but the worse part was that the report she had been working through, the one that detailed everything the humans and Smiubos had been working on had gone missing.

"The Smiubos treaty is very fragile. If that report ends up in the wrong hands…" She muttered to herself as she looked down at her desk once again, something she had done countless of times since she had searched for it before Pete had arrived in her office.

"Then we can have a war on our hands." Her boss said his face becoming emotionless as he looked at her and she almost took a step back as a wave of anger and disappointment hit her. "Find it and make sure that nothing has gone wrong."

"Yes sir." She said nodding her head at the same time.

Once he left the room she fell back on her chair and put her head in her hands. How could she be so stupid? She knew how important that report was, she knew that only she, John and Pete had full access to everything that was going on with the Smiubos, and she knew that if anyone got their hands on that report there would be hell to pay.

"So this is your office?" A voice said interrupting her thinking. Looking up she couldn't help but smile as she watched the man she had missed so much in the last four years walk into her office his eyes taking in everything. He was wearing a sharply cut black suit with a white shirt, his tie was also black but it held a pattern that she could only see when the light hit it just right. Following him with her eyes she couldn't quite believe that he was here, her Doctor, her mad man with a box and he was standing in her office, a place she never pictured him in.

"Yep, at least it is for now." He looked at her then as her voice gave away how worried and frustrated she was.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, well I say nothing, but I seem to have lost a very important report and if I don't find it soon something really bad could happen."

"Right, when did you have it last?"

"Yesterday just before you arrived. I was reading through it right here, and then well you appeared and I got a little distracted."

He smiled at her as she spoke the last and she couldn't help but smile back. "I didn't mean to be so distracting."

"I'm sure, but you where and now something really bad could happen."

"How bad?"

"What do you know about the Smiubos?"

"Oh, horrible race, very volatile, but very clever. Why?"

"I've been working on an alliance between them and the humans." She saw his eyes widen causing her to sigh and lean back in her chair. "I knew I should have cut of the communication the first time I got the report."

"Yes you should have! Ari those creatures can not be trusted, big bugs with brains." He shuddered slightly. "Why didn't John tell you not to?"

"His universe doesn't have them, he had never heard of them before and he couldn't even find a species that remotely resembled them."

"Okay, what did the report consist of?"

"Everything, every line of communication, every piece of information we have been able to gather about the Smiubos themselves, every offer made that has been declined between both races as well as new terms that have only just been written up." She paused a moment before looking away from the Doctor as she couldn't look at him as she told him the next part. "It also holds a file on weapon technology that we where willing to share with the Smiubos if an alliance was made and in return they where going to share their shield engineering."

An uncomfortable silence fell on the room and in the end she had to look up at him. Slowly as she lifted her eyes to his she realized he had been waiting for her to do just that, because as soon as he caught her eyes with his he started to speak.

"The Smiubos are clever, brutal and savage yes, but so very clever. They can also be very patient. Like a spider waiting for a fly to be caught in its web." As he spoke he walked around her desk until he was stood to the side of her. Slowly he reached down and turned the chair she was in till it faced him. "They wait and they plan and when that fly lands in their web they pounce. Did you know they possess a hive mind?"

"Yes, I picked that up from them straight away."

"And did you know they also have a form of venom that can connect any living being to that hive mind."

She swallowed and shook her head her eyes wide.

"How many envoys have come to earth?"

"Only one."

"Well that I guess is a small mercy. The venom can only be made every few weeks, so once used it takes a while to build it up again. How long did they stay?"

"He's still here. He arrived about four weeks ago."

"Okay then, and in that time how many people have had access to him."

"A lot."

"You need to get a full list of every single person that has been with him and then you need to find who he had infected and what they know. Because if they have that report and they have read it in full, then you are going to have an invasion on your hands."

.*.*.*.

A few hours late The Doctor was sat watching Ari as she typed away on her keyboard her eyes following what she was writing. He found himself watching her a lot in the last twenty-odd hours, his eyes still not believing that she was really there, different, but alive. Smiling to himself as he messed about with his sonic screwdriver, he thought on the last day of his life and found himself more happy than he had ever been. Even before the war, and long before he had even stolen the TARDIS, he had never been this happy. Sure his children brought him happiness and he would always love each of them. But when it came to Ari he couldn't help but smile at the thought of her or shiver at the thought of what she did to him. He was totally in love with her, and just like her he hadn't realized how much until the day he thought she had died.

Pushing himself up from the small sofa she had in her office he walked over to the desk pulled her chair back from her desk before pulling her up into his arms and kissing her. She resisted at first, her mind obviously not catching up with her bodies reactions fast enough, because even as she tried to talk her arms wrapped themselves around his neck her hand finding its way into his hair and then her lips stopped trying to talk and she started to kiss him back.

Smiling against her lips he pulled her whole body against his causing a moan to escape her lips and he knew that if he didn't stop now he would take her on her desk. Damn the Smiubos and the humans, let them fight. But he knew she had to fix what had gone wrong so rather than taking the kiss to the next level he pulled back and just watched her face as she opened her eyes and stared at him while she caught her breath.

"You should get back to work." He said pointing at her computer before returning to the sofa. Falling onto it he crossed his legs and started to fiddle about with his sonic again.

"But…umm…yes…what was that for?"

He glanced up at her then shrugged. "Felt like it." The reaction those words got was brilliant, her eyes widened even more and a smile that lit up her face completely, formed on her lips.

"Well…then feel free to kiss me when ever you feel like it again."

"Oh don't worry, I plan on doing just that." He responded with a grin of his own.

She was still staring at him as she straightened her clothes her blue eyes almost alight with the golden light that seemed to ignite every time he touched her. When she sat back down he was tempted to go over again just to mess with her a little, but before he could move her computer beeped at her and all her attention returned to the screen.

"I have the list." She said, frowning as she read it.

Standing he went to join her, looking at the screen from over her shoulder. Upon the screen was a list of names, times, and the day each individual saw the Smiubos represented.

"Is there anyone that seemed to go a lot."

"Not really." As she scrolled through the names she sighed.

"How many of those people have access to your office?"

"Most of them, they all have high level access clearance. Even the cleaners could get in here."

"And there is no one that you can think off that has changed in the last four weeks."

"No, everyone seems normal."

He stood up straight flicking his hair out of his eyes before tapping his sonic to his chin.

"How advanced is your ability now?"

She turned to look up at him with a frown. "Why?"

"You said you recognised that the Smiubos had a hive mind."

"Yes."

"How? A single Smiubos would not connect to the hive while on another planet, the distance is too great."

"Umm well that can not be true because when I first met the representative I could sense it. Also how would they get the information back to the others…oh."

"Yes oh, they may have a hive mind but they also have advanced technology, they would just have to phone home. But also, because you could sense it, it means that who ever he had infected had already joined with him."

"I was one of the first, before me were only a few others."

"Who?"

"Pete the Director, John, Rose, Malice and then myself."

"So it could be any of them."

"It couldn't be Pete, he was so angry when he found out I had lost the report. John and Rose would have noticed a difference in the other; they are far too close not to notice."

"So that leaves Malice, who is?"

"The head of security."

"One of the only other people that has totally access to everything."

Ari pushed back her chair and ran out the door. A second later she popped her head back around. "You coming?"

He smiled as she held out her hand to him.

.*.*.*.

Ari sat biting her lip as she waited along with the Doctor and Pete for Malice to arrive. As soon as they had narrowed it down to who could have been infected Ari thought back trying to work out if she had noticed any difference in Malice since he had met the representative from Smiubos. He had never show any outward sigh of changing but now that she thought about it his surface thoughts had become more shielded, why she hadn't noticed that she didn't know.

As the head of security entered the room he paused upon seeing the Director wasn't alone, but quickly covered up any shock he had by closing the door and just walking up to Pete's desk.

"You wished to talk sir?"

"Yes, it would seem we have a very serious security issue on our hands. You know about the alliance we are trying to make with the Smiubos?"

"Of course sir."

"Well all the paper work and online files have gone missing."

As Pete talked to Malice Ari slowly skimmed over his mind, at first she got nothing, not even thoughts about what he was saying or about what Pete was talking about so she started to push harder.

Breaking through the first layer she started to get his surface thoughts but she wasn't totally interested in that, she wanted his memories. However when Pete spoke about the Smiubos possible infecting someone Malice's thoughts became erratic and suddenly another voice joined in with the mans own thoughts and then Malice repeated everything that was first said within his mind.

Pulling back she looked at the Doctor. *It is him, I can hear the Smiubos in his mind.*

*Could you block him.*

*Maybe, but then wouldn't that just alert the Smiubos?*

"Pete." The Doctor said his green eyes alight with mischief which made Ari shake her head slightly. "Have the extra guards arrived yet?"

Ari frowned at this. No more guards had been sent to the Smiubos out of fear of alerting the alien creature. But as Malice's thoughts changed once again Ari understood what the Doctor was doing.

"No…" Pete said his face confused.

"Well then I suggest you get them there fast." The Doctor recommended with a smile.

As Pete pressed a button on his phone to order more guards to the Smiubos's rooms Ari turned all her attention to Malice. As she delved back into his mind she became unsettled with how little surface thought there really was. It was like the man she had known was gone, and because the Smiubos had taken its attention away from its puppet all that was left was a shell with little thought of its own.

Searching though his mind Ari soon came across the memories she had been searching for before, but they where hazy and lacking in detail, but that didn't really matter, she knew Malice was the one to be poisoned and she know knew that because of that the security guard was technically no longer alive, so distorted was his mind that the person she had known was gone.

After a few minutes she found a sort of path way that led into his mind but it was only one way meaning that she wouldn't be able to follow it to the Smiubos, but she could sever the connection. However the only problem with that was that she was unsure weather the alien had the weapon details that had been in the report and as she searched Malice's memories again she found nothing to indicate whether the man had been in her office or not.

"I don't know if his memories have been whipped but I can find nothing about the report. But the Smiubos did become uncomfortable when it was mentioned." She said as pulled her mind back slightly to talk to Pete. "I found the connection though."

"Can you follow it? Get into the Smiubos's mind."

She went to say she couldn't when the Doctor spoke up first. "No, that is too dangerous. Their minds are nothing like a humans, it would catch you and keep you there if you even attempted to enter its mind."

"It doesn't matter anyway, the connection is only one way."

"Can you break it?" Pete asked.

"Yeah." She said nodding but as she looked at the Director her voice became sad. "But I think in doing that Malice would become brain dead."

"We have no other choice Ari."

Ari sighed and lowered her head as she bit her lower lip, she was about to go back into the mans mind when the Doctor closed the gap between him and the security guard and placed his hands on the mans temples.

"What are you doing?" She asked looking up at the Doctor.

"I'll do it." He said his eyes closing as he entered the other mans mind, less than a second later the large man crumpled to the floor and the Doctor just stood there looking down at him his face sad.

"I would have done it." She said as Pete called in medics to deal with Malice.

The Doctor looked at her then and shook his head. "No, you have been through enough already."

She frowned at that not fully understanding what he was getting at and as she went

to ask what he meant he just stared at her and her mouth closed as she swallowed back the question. She understood what he meant and she knew that soon they would be having a very lengthy conversation about it.

"Right well the security team have the Smiubos envoy and are taking him to integration room three."

"Right well make sure you keep an eye on that thing, it could cut down half the people in the building before you could even begin to stop it."

"That's why it's been taken to three." Ari said quietly.

"What do you mean?" The Doctor asked frowning slightly.

"Three is designed to hold high threatening hostiles."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that if it shows any threatening behaviour it will know that we wont stand for it." This came from Pete and the Doctor turned to him.

"Send it home, don't keep it here, just send it home and let that be that."

"But we don't know if it knows about the weapon tech yet." Pete said his eyes narrowing slightly. "He wont be going anywhere till we know everything."

"That creature in there needs to be sent home, because if the hive hears nothing from it in the next few hours or days then you will have an invasion on your hand." The Doctor had closed the gap between him and Pete and all Ari could do was watch as the Director got the full force of the Doctors anger. "A hoard of Smiubos would decimate this planet is hours and none of you would stand a chance, do you really want that?"

"If they could do that, why would they want our weapon technology?"

"To make it easier, to adapt their shield engineering so that their losses where minimal."

"Then I can not let it go until I know if it has that information."

Ari stood then and got between the two men her eyes going from one to the other until they both looked at her.

"Let me talk to it?"

"Ari no, it's too dangerous." This came from the Doctor.

"I was going to ask you to." This came from Pete and again they both looked up at each other and glared.

"Men." She said sighing before turning on heel and walking out of the room. As she made her way to Three she could hear the Doctor running to catch up with her and once he did he grabbed her arm turning her to face him.

"Ari don't." He said anger still clear in his eyes.

"I have to; I'm probably the only one on this planet that could get through to it."

"But you don't have to."

"No I don't." She said almost laughing. "But if I have learnt anything from you it's we always do things we don't have to do."

He stared at her for the longest time before he let go of her arm. "Fine but I'm coming in with you."

"Of course you are." She muttered before walking back towards Three.