Be warned, guys: spoilers for the Fiftieth.

This fic is all Osgood's fault for being a brilliant minor character.

When Janet Osgood was four, her father, Tom, would tell her stories of his work at UNIT. Her sister, Alicia, wasn't very interested in this, since she was more focused on other things, such as arguing with Janet.

Janet, however, loved the stories. And when a man began cropping up in the tales, a man who seemed to be able to change faces like humans change clothes (though Da was exaggerating about that, wasn't he?), her interest in the stories grew, and so started a slight obsession with a time-travelling madman called the Doctor. Alicia didn't understand her.

Well, Alicia never did.

When Janet Osgood was eight, her father decided to take her to see the UNIT headquarters. "Stay out of trouble, Janey," he said sternly. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Janet nodded, and promptly wandered off. She would have been worried about getting lost, but she was more focused on seeing if she could find the Doctor.

Suddenly, a large, khaki colored wall appeared in front of her, and she collided with it. Strangely enough, it wasn't hard, it was-

It was someone's leg.

Janet looked up nervously. "Sorry!" she squeaked in an unnaturally high-pitched voice.

A tall man with a moustache and brown eyes looked at her. "You're Tom's daughter, aren't you? I'm the Brigadier."

Janet nodded cautiously.

The Brigadier laughed. "No need to look so worried! I wouldn't hurt you! Tom'd have my head if that happened. Unless you're a Zygon, of course, but I doubt it." His eyes twinkled. "Have you heard of the Zygons?"

Janet shrugged. "Da's told me a bit."

The Brigadier smiled and started talking, when he seemed to spot something. He straightened up. "Doctor, you bloody idiot, where've you been?" The Brigadier took off running after a man with silver hair wearing and opera cape.

Janet blinked. That was the Doctor?

When Janet Osgood was twelve, she was nearly run over by a car. She had stopped in the road to tie her shoe (which, in hindsight, wasn't very smart) when she heard the roar of a car rushing toward her. Instead of running like a rational person, she stood frozen to the spot, muttering to herself, "The Doctor will save me, the Doctor will save me. . ."

Alicia shoved her out of the way. "Janet, you idiot!" she screamed in her face as the car zoomed past. "You can't just depend on the Doctor to save you, he's just a silly story Da told us! If he were real, would he have left so many people at UNIT to die?"

Janet shouted straight back at her. "Well, Da wouldn't lie to us!" She folded her arms. "The Doctor is real! I saw him."

"Yeah, that's nice, Janet," Alicia huffed, dragging her back onto the sidewalk. She turned to face her. "Listen, Janey, you have to be able to trust yourself. You can't be a coward all the time. There is no knight in shining armour."

"The Doctor doesn't wear armour."

Alicia sighed. "Grow a spine, Janet."

When Janet Osgood was twenty-four, she returned to UNIT as a personal assistant and found out exactly how much it had changed. During the whole ATMOS mix-up, she spotted a red-headed woman and a man with spiky brown hair wearing a pinstriped suit arguing with the general. Finally, the general exploded and yelled something about shutting the Doctor up.

That was the Doctor?

She craned her neck to see him, nearly knocking a cup of coffee off someone's desk, but all she caught was a glimpse of a swishy brown coat and a pair of Converse.

One day, when chatting casually with a colleague, she suddenly burst out, "Why are you all so violent? This used to be a scientific organization!"

The colleague stared at her uncomprehendingly. Suddenly, a voice behind them rang out. "Well, I'm glad someone here shares that belief, I was beginning to think I was the only one!"

Janet turned around to see a woman with short blonde hair and familiar brown eyes. She held out her hand. "Kate Stewart. I'm taking UNIT back. Care to join me?"

In response, Janet nodded jerkily and pulled out her inhaler. Finally, she cleared her throat and said, "I'm not sure if the general'd be up to that plan. . ."

Kate smiled. "Don't worry, just act confident."

Janet just mentally relied on the Doctor to help change things round.

When Janet Osgood was twenty-five, one day stuck out firmly in her memory.

The day had begun normally enough, with Janet in a mad dash to make it to the Tower of London on time. When she stepped off the bus, though, she nearly collided into an elderly man with a distinctive nose, mad eyes and a ridiculous scarf. "Sorry," she said.

The man gave her a toothy smile and something suddenly clicked into place. The pictures she had seen in the UNIT archives, the reports. . . "Doctor!" she exclaimed.

The man chuckled. "Nobody's called me that in a very long time, young lady. Call me the Curator."

Janet nodded weakly. "Right- wheeze - uhm- Curator, yeah."

"Inhaler," said the Curator with a twinkling eye.

Janet pulled it out.

The Curator looked at her appraisingly, then pulled off his scarf, nearly getting tangled in it in the process. "It's a rather cold day, young lady. I should think you should be wearing a scarf." He draped it around her shoulders.

Janet giggled a bit girlishly. "I can't, Doct- Curator. It's your scarf!"

The Curator grew serious. "There is no knight in shining armour, Janet. Remember that."

Janet blinked. "There's always you."

The Curator chuckled. "Not always. Everything comes to an end. Take the scarf, Janet Osgood, and remember me, remember what I do, and know that you can do it yourself."

Janet stared at him, absently looping the scarf around one hand.

Janet Osgood figured that she'd forget the Curator's advice (after all, she wasn't a time-travelling madman in a box, she couldn't save people like he did!), but in the end, her usual mantra of "The Doctor will save me" failed.

The Doctor didn't save her from that one Zygon.

Janet saved herself.

Albeit with a little help from that scarf.