A/N: Sorry that I haven't updated for a while. I kind of got distracted. Yeah...so, here's the next two chapters. Please enjoy.


CHAPTER THREE: SEEING DOUBLE

Sandra peered out through the windscreen of her car, squinting past the sheets of water spraying out from underneath the windscreen wipers. Trees flashed by the road, half-obscured by the rain. The vehicle's headlights hardly illuminated five metres of the road in front of the car; beyond that, it was darkness.

Sandra changed the gear a little too sharply, but she hardly noticed. She was far too busy reliving the events of the past few days. A couple of days ago, on Tuesday, she had driven into Cardiff like usual, to start her working week. Her job was fairly simple; she was a scientific consultant to the biological sciences section of a university in the city. She got to do experiments and work on science projects. It was a fairly easy job, paid well and was definitely never boring.

But of course, she didn't have a job, not any more. She'd been fired. All she had done was walk in when she wasn't supposed to, and see something she wasn't meant to see. Sandra wasn't worried yet; she could easily find another job with her qualifications. She was angry, angry at her boss, angry with the university and, most of all, angry with herself.

Whatever she wasn't meant to see must have been important if it had gotten her fired, but the thing was, she couldn't actually remember what she'd seen. She could remember opening the door to one of the labs, but her next memory was of walking down the hallway to the office for the head of the science division.

It was as if large portions of her memory had just been wiped clean, but whatever had done the wiping hadn't been very thorough. There were still snippets of information that she could recall.

There had been a gurney of some kind in the science lab, but she couldn't quite make out who or what had been on it. There had been three people she hadn't recognised, but she couldn't remember any faces. One of them had forcefully pushed her out of the room, a man, as she recalled.

Sandra shook her head ruefully. She couldn't remember, and she probably never would. No use dwelling on it. What she needed to do right now was find a new job so she could keep paying off the mortgage. The bills don't pay themselves, as her mother used to say.

Her eyes had been wandering around the interior of the car, so she resolutely locked her vision back onto the road. She spotted the three figures almost too late, and slammed on the brakes, her car fishtailing wildly on the wet surface of the road.


Captain Jack was the first to notice the car roaring along the road towards them. Thinking quickly, he went to grab Brittany and drag her into the bushes. However, the Doctor had already pulled her into the bushes on the other side of the road. All three pressed themselves flat into the undergrowth as the car swerved past, tyres squealing as they sought traction on the wet tarmac. There was a crash as the car slid off the road and into a tree, and captain Jack and the Doctor were off and running before Brittany had a chance to react to being roughly thrown into the bushes.

The Doctor was the first to reach the crash, and was relieved to see that it didn't look too bad. The bonnet of the car had a considerable dent in it, but other than that, the vehicle was undamaged. The driver's door opened, and a tall, auburn-haired woman fought her way out of the car. Both Jack and the Doctor rushed over to help her to her feet, but she brushed both of them off.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she shouted, placing both her hands on her hips haughtily.

The Doctor rubbed the back of his neck. "We didn't see you coming, that's all. Actually, we're kind of lost."

"I can see that," Sandra said, surveying the damage done to her car. It was just one more disaster to add to her growing list. "Looks like we'll have to walk."

"Walk?" Brittany queried curiously, having dragged herself out of the bushes. "Where?"

"To the nearest town," Sandra said, grabbing her personal belongings out of her car. "You lot can come with me, since you have nowhere else to go. Unless you want to have a go at that Welsh forest yonder." She pointed at the trees across the road.

"Wales," the Doctor muttered. "At least that's one mystery solved."

Sandra continued, oblivious to the Doctor's strange comment. "Anyway, it's only a ten minute walk down the road. It's not that far out of the way."

Brittany groaned, but the Doctor smiled cheerfully. "Love a good walk, me. By the way, what's your name?"

Sandra gave the Time Lord a quick glance; taking in the brown suit and coat, muddy white trainers and idiotic expression. "Smith," she said, sticking her hands in her pockets. "Sandra Smith."

Brittany groaned again as the others set off up the road. "Great. Now there are two of you."

"Nice to meet you Sandra Smith," captain Jack said with a disarming smile. "Captain Jack Harkness." He offered his hand, and Sandra shook it reluctantly.

Brittany jogged to catch up to the Doctor. "I'm Brittany Harvey," she said with a little wave. Sandra raised an eyebrow, then turned to the Doctor.

"And you are?" she asked.

"Me?" The Doctor pointed to himself with a grin. "I'm the Doctor. Pleased to meet you."

"And that's Doctor…"

He shook his head. "Just the Doctor."

Sandra shrugged. "Alright Doctor, tell me. What are you three doing out here in the middle of the night?"

"We're lost."

"Doctor, you can't lie to a liar. So, tell me truthfully, what are you doing here?"

This time, it was Jack who answered. "We are well and truly lost. We have absolutely no damn idea of where the hell we are, and all we want to do is get home. Is that a good enough explanation for you?"

"Someone's tetchy," the Doctor whispered to Jack.

"I haven't had enough coffee to deal with being yanked into the middle of nowhere," Jack replied.

"Fair enough," the Doctor said with a grin.

Sandra glanced between the two men, trying to tell if they were lying or not. "So you're telling me that you have absolutely no idea of where you are?"

"That's exactly it." Jack said. "Doctor?"

The Time Lord frowned at the captain. "Yes Jack."

"Do you happen to have any coffee in those pockets of yours?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"Pity."

"Yeah."

There was a very long silence, broken only by the sound of the raindrops pattering on the road.

"Sandra?"

"Jack?"

"Do you happen to have any coffee?"