I'M SORRY!! REALLY!! I've not had any time to write!! Please don't kill me!!

Rest assured, that the next chapter will DEFINITELY come soon, because I've very nearly finished it!

REPRISE:

A young boy watched them walk away as their voices faded...

TIME SHIFT

THE GIRL

As they walked in, Owen grabbed a basketball off the side and chucked it over his head. Gwen caught it and immediately threw it to Jack. He threw it to Tosh, who had been talking to The Doctor and missed it because she had not been paying attention. They both ignored it and continued speaking avidly, so Martha picked it up and joined in. After a few minutes, Owen scored in a net high on one of the walls. He whooped, and they continued.

"So how did you get here?" The Doctor asked Tosh.

"I made something that didn't work," Tosh replied.

"You…made something that didn't work?" The Doctor repeated.

"No, what I mean is," Tosh began with a laugh, "I made something from plans that were wrong, except I made it work." The Doctor nodded approvingly, then his head jerked up to look at one of Tosh's screens. Tosh followed his eyes as he narrowed them.

"He one of yours?" he asked.

"I didn't see anything," Tosh replied honestly. "I'll look…" She ran the tape backwards a few seconds.

"There," The Doctor said, as she froze the tape. There was a blurry figure; a man, with short dark hair. He seemed to be frozen in the act of turning as he walked, as though he was looking around him.

"But there's nobody moving," Tosh said, running another scan.

"No body heat. He's not there. Whoever he was, he disappeared as quickly as he appeared. Jack!" she called. "There's something weird going on."

"Isn't there always?" he replied, coming over. His face became more serious as Tosh explained what had just happened.

"Have there been any more? Were there any when we were out?"

Tosh did a few quick scans then turned back to Jack. "One," she replied. "But there's no camera where it was, just a freak heat signature. Body temperature. No more than a few seconds. I'd say it was a glitch, if not for this."

"Alright, keep an eye on things. We'll go down and see if we can catch one of these people."

"Wait a second," The Doctor said. He took the keyboard off Tosh. Tosh and Jack watched him. "AHA!" he cried loudly. "Rift spike, just a small one, at exactly the moment of that heat signature, and when we saw that man!"

"Is it the same as when that man saw his wife?" Tosh asked.

A pause, as he checked, and then, "Exactly the same." He looked up at her, and Tosh knew he was thinking exactly the same as her.

"Parallel universe," they said together.

Jack promptly caught up with what they were thinking.

"So that man's wife didn't come back from the past, she came from a parallel universe."

"Well, it can't be another universe entirely, because she looked like his wife," The Doctor said.

"And it can't be a time thing none of the people we saw in here have ever been here," Jack put in. "There goes my dinner plans."

"You had dinner plans?" Tosh asked.

"No, but if I did have them, they'd be gone. Doctor, what do you think?"

The Doctor ignored him for a moment, staring into space, then suddenly looked up and inhaled quickly. "I think we go and have a chat with one of them. They'd better not be using the…" He mimed hitting his chest a few times, as though waiting for them to provide the words. "Anyway, the most amount of people have been coming out here, so it must be to do with the Rift. We can search the corridors down here. Tosh can keep a watch up here and if she finds anything she can tell us."

"Then we go talk to them?" Jack said.

"Then we go talk to them," The Doctor agreed with a grin. "What I do best! We need to know who these people are and if it's deliberate or not."


"There's someone!" Martha heard Tosh exclaim over her earpiece. She'd been teamed up with Owen to try and catch one of the people. She'd wanted to go with The Doctor, but he had gone with Gwen, whilst Jack had gone with Ianto.

"And, it's gone again…" Tosh finished. "That was just a visual. I only saw it because I happened to be looking at the screen. There was no heat signature or anything."

Gwen was starting to feel a little uncomfortable at the highly disapproving glances that The Doctor was throwing her way.

"Do you have a problem?" she asked finally.

"I've never liked guns," he replied distastefully, wrinkling his nose.

"I'm not going to shoot you with it," she pointed out, as they turned a corner.

The Doctor fixed her with a piercing look. "That's not the point," he told her. "They're only people, aren't they? What are they going to do to you?"

Gwen shrugged, but put the safety catch on her gun and stuck it in her gun anyway.

"Thank you," The Doctor said sincerely.


"So how long have you been here?" Martha asked Owen after a while.

"A few years. Don't think I could ever leave - it sorta gets inside your head. Though, I'd probably get retconned in the very next drink I had, so it wouldn't make much difference anyway.

"What's…rectconned?" Martha questioned.

"It's this tablet Jack made up. Makes you forget stuff."

"How did you join though? I'm guessing it wasn't an advert in the local paper!"

Owen gave a short laugh and replied; "No, it was my girlfriend."

He would say no more.

A minute later, out of the corner of her eye, Martha saw something again. It was a figure, just down one of the side corridors. She stopped and stared. ((OneRepublic would have been proud of her.))

It was a blond girl. About 20 years old.

As the girl faded again, Owen turned.

"What are you staring at?" he asked.

"Nothing," she lied, catching up with him.

TIME SHIFT

Please review!!

((sorry again for the delay…))

PS - Chapter four will break your heart