Prologue

The Doctor lay on the floor of the TARDIS, head under the console, sonic screwdriver in hand as he dismantled the tracking device he'd cobbled together. It had been built in haste, modified in even more haste, and only led them where the Master wanted them to be. Taking it apart would help pass the time until they arrived at their destination: his past, and Susan's future.

He spared a moment to glance over at her, to reassure himself of her presence. She lay sleeping in a small cradle near the interior door, within easy reach if necessary. He found it impossible to let her out of his sight. Soon enough she would be gone, but for now, he wanted her nearby.

He raised himself on one elbow, listening with a faint smile as Susan continued to sleep, undisturbed by his noisy actions. "You can come out now," he called. "If I was going to send you home, young lady, believe me, you'd be there already."

The interior door opened slowly, and Noni poked her head around the corner. Leela and Andred's daughter sounded curious, unafraid of his reaction to her presence and unfazed by his knowledge that she was on board. "How did you know I was there?" She glanced down at Susan and allowed a brief, satisfied smile to cross her face.

"I didn't leave the door unlocked, and the only way anyone could open it was if they had a key. Ace's key was with her belongings when I packed them, and it was missing when I put them in her room on the TARDIS," the Doctor replied.

"You're not angry?" Noni ventured, squatting down next to the Doctor's tool kit.

He shook his head and grunted as the bolt he was attempting to remove stuck fast. " Could you hand me that?" He pointed without looking, and Noni picked up the exotic-looking tool he'd requested, placing it delicately in his hand. He grunted again, this time in appreciation, then returned to work. "Your parents know where you are, I presume?"

"I left them a note," Noni hastened to assure him. He glanced over at her, suppressing a smile. Like her mother, her most prominent accessories were a brace of daggers tucked into both boot-tops, and one on her hip as well.

The Doctor nodded at the largest dagger. "Can you throw those as well as your mother?"

"Better," she boasted, then blushed.

The Doctor felt another smile tugging at his lips. "Of course," he murmured. Then, in a louder voice: "After you're done helping me, you can take care of Susan. I'm sure it'll be a comfort to her to have a familiar face around, at least until we take her to my first self."

Noni smiled in relief. "Yes, Doctor."

He returned to work, the smile fading as he struggled anew with the recalcitrant bolt. A frown dug furrows between his eyebrows. It wouldn't hurt to take Noni to see his first self; he didn't specifically remember anyone else being there, but all the memories hadn't fully returned just yet, so he refused to worry about it. After everything was settled with Susan, he'd take Noni back home again. After all, she'd gone to a lot of trouble to sneak herself on board.

The frown deepened. Dropping Noni back on Gallifrey would be the easy part. Not only was he going to be asking his first self to take on an enormous responsibility, but he was going to ask him to help figure out another way to locate Ace and Kyris. He'd need all the help he could get.

Especially since he'd managed to destroy the data retriever Romana had so painstakingly built for him.

oOo

Ace's eyes fluttered open. Blearily, she saw the base of a TARDIS console, with Kyris lying motionless next to it. Motionless, but still breathing, she noted, her thoughts fuzzy, unfocused. What had happened to her, to them? She struggled up on one elbow, stretching her hand toward the Doctor's son, then collapsed back to the floor as a wave of dizziness surged over her. Her head ached, she realized dimly. Someone must have hit her.

A sharp tapping sound caught her attention, the rat-a-tat-tat of heels against a floor. The sound came closer, closer, until it stopped, and she realized hazily that the feet were right in front of her. A woman's feet, in black heels. Then a woman's voice, nasal Australian tones hammering Ace's ears almost as sharply as the shoes had: "Who the bloody hell are you? And what did you do with the Master?"

Then, mercifully, darkness.

ooooOooo

The sounds of a baby fussing drifted through the corridors of the Doctor's TARDIS, followed immediately by a young girl's voice crooning some soft lullaby, then silence. A silence that only lasted as long as it took Noni to bring Susan to the Console Room. The baby was sucking contentedly on a bottle and expertly swaddled in a soft green blanket. Noni smiled down at the baby, then looked over at the Doctor, who was standing at the Console, fiddling with the controls as usual.

What wasn't usual, however, was the presence of Susan's stroller and diaper bag sitting near the base of the Console, which Noni saw as a bad sign. A very bad sign.

It had only been a few days since they'd left Gallifrey on their quest to bring Susan to the Doctor's first self, and as far as Noni was concerned those days had passed all too quickly. She still objected to the Doctor taking the baby away from Gallifrey, to be raised by a man she, for all intents and purposes, had never met. But the Doctor had made up his mind to bring Susan to his first self while he searched for her parents, so Noni had stowed away on his TARDIS, determined to keep watch over the baby for as long as possible. However short a time that was now appearing to be.

The Doctor glanced at her, summing up her appearance with a flick of an eyelid. Sandy brown hair, neatly braided. Leather boots and vest over sturdy trousers and modest blouse. The knives he could see, strapped low on her hip and tucked into the top of each boot, accompanied no doubt by a few knives he couldn't see. Worried green eyes, normally generous mouth tightened into an equally worried knot. And Susan, the one accessory she was never without, at least not since sneaking onto the TARDIS. The one he was about to part her from, permanently, with two simple words: "We've arrived."

Noni lowered her head as she fussed with Susan's blanket. "Arrived where?" Let it be anywhere except where I think it is, she prayed.

"Arrived here, of course," was the Doctor's unhelpful answer. "Where we've been aiming for." At her blank look, he clarified: "Earth." Noni's heart sank as he shrugged Susan's diaper bag onto his left shoulder and opened up the stroller. He'd found the items in the TARDIS storage area, along with a crib and other baby furniture that looked vaguely familiar in a way that made him suspect he'd made use of it before. And, obviously, would again. Gods of the Universe how he hated paradoxes!

"Your first self was on Earth? Why?" She hadn't known that, and had deliberately refused to ask their exact destination. As if not knowing would keep it from being real.

The Doctor shrugged. "I don't remember, and it really isn't important right now."

"It is if he was here because of some disaster or emergency." Noni's tone was belligerent. She held Susan protectively. "We're not dropping her off with him if he's in the middle of saving the world."

"No, it was nothing like that," the Doctor assured her, then paused. "At least, I don't think it was...no, no, no, definitely not," he decided. "I'd been doing some research in a borrowed TARDIS." He glanced around affectionately. "This one, to be accurate."

"Borrowed from whom?" Noni's tone was skeptical.

"That's not important now," the Doctor evaded as he pulled the lever to open the outside door. He reached down and scooped up Susan's belongings, staggering under the load. Amazing how much stuff was considered vitally necessary for such a small person. "It doesn't matter in the long run since I obviously never returned it." He strode out the door, leaving the stroller for Noni to load the baby into.

oOo

It was quite an ordinary house they'd landed next to, ordinary for Earth, Noni assumed. A bit exotic to her eyes, used as they were to Gallifreyan architecture, primitive, even, but she'd seen pictures of Earth during this time period and nothing about this small white house made it stand out in any way.

The Doctor paused before marching up to the front door, rapping on it smartly with the end of his brolly. After a moment the door opened, and Noni craned her head to get a good look as the Doctor's first self peered out at them. An old man with white hair, almost frail looking until you looked closer and saw the strength in the lines of his face, his posture and stance. "Yes? What do you want?"

So much for the pleasantries. "I've come to discuss your future with you," her Doctor replied, indicating the stroller. Susan had fallen asleep.

The Doctor's first self regarded them suspiciously. "Do I know you, young man?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. But you will, in about six regenerations. Could you do us the courtesy of inviting us in? We've a lot to talk about and it will get rather uncomfortable standing out here while we do it."

Grumbling, the older man stepped back and allowed the door to open fully. "I expect a complete explanation as to what you're doing here, my boy. You know very well that crossing your own time stream is as dangerous as it is illegal."

"Yes, yes, spare me the lecture." The Doctor's current self was as tetchy as his past self; irrationally, this comforted Noni. A little. He breezed through the open door, leaving Noni to negotiate Susan and the rest of her gear.

The entrance hall was narrow and cramped, and the Doctor's first self opened a door to the left that led into a modest study. Noni poked her head in doubtfully, then looked up at him. "Do you have a larger room? Susan's belongings won't fit."

"Susan's belongings don't need to fit," came the tart reply. "Susan's belongings, and Susan herself as I assume the baby to be named, can remain in the hall for all I care, and you with her."

Noni glared at him. "She is your granddaughter." She turned her glare on the Doctor's current self. "You can't be serious about leaving her with him!"

While both Doctors sputtered indignantly, Noni wheeled the stroller around as best she could in the tight quarters. "I am taking her back to the TARDIS, Doctor. You can't leave her here with this beastly old man!"

The Doctor's seventh self reached out and put a gentle but firm hand on her arm, stopping her in her tracks. "So much for easing into the circumstances of our visit," he murmured, but his voice was not unsympathetic. "Noni, please take Susan upstairs, there's a good girl. My first self and I need to arrange a meeting of the minds, and it would be best if we were alone for a few minutes. Helps the concentration."

Noni jerked her arm away from his hold, and with one last glare scooped Susan up in her arms and dragged the lightweight stroller up the stairs behind her. Her very posture radiated outrage, and the two Doctors watched silently until she disappeared from sight.

"Let's get this over with, shall we?" the younger looking man said with a sigh. He indicated the open door of the study, and his older-looking self slowly entered, a gleam of speculation in his eyes.

"This should prove quite interesting," he might have been heard to mutter before the door closed shut behind them.