The Doctor parked the TARDIS outside Powell Estate. He had found a lot in the hour he was gone, and though not all of it was good – most of it wasn't, if he was perfectly honest – he now knew more about what was going on and could start handling it.

A small smile rose to his face at the sound of the TARDIS door opening.

"Okay, so I lied," he said. "I went for a look. The whole crash-landing's a fake. I thought so – just too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben, come on! So I thought, 'Let's go and have a look at the pilot.'"

"My mum's here," Rose said, coming to stand next to him.

"Oh, just what I need," he sighed. "Don't you dare make this place domestic!"

"You ruined my life, Doctor," a voice called out and he turned around to see no other than Mickey Smith looking at him. Great. "They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

"You see what I mean?" he asked Rose, rolling his eyes. "Domestic!"

"I bet you don't even remember my name!"

"Ricky," the Doctor said with a small smile. Now that would teach him.

"It's Mickey."

"No," the Doctor shook his head. "It's Ricky."

"I think I know my own name!" Mickey called out angrily. Oh that was just too easy.

"Think you know it?" he questioned. "How stupid are –" The Doctor stopped, straining his ears at the sound of a phone ringing. "…you?" he finished slowly. "Is that yours?"

"Not mine," Mickey said.

"Me neither," Rose replied.

"Must be yours," Mickey said.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ricky," the Doctor said, rolling his eyes. "I don't have… a phone…" He paused again, looking at the door and slowly heading towards it. "No…"

But, impossible as it should have been, the TARDIS phone was ringing.

"Told you it was yours," Mickey said.

"It can't be mine," the Doctor muttered. "This isn't… that's not an actual phone."

"Apparently it is," Rose said, before running after her mum as the older woman ran out.

"Well," Mickey said, "Are you gonna pick it up or what?"

The Doctor hesitated for a moment before putting on a smile and picking up the phone.

"TARDIS phone," he said cheerfully. "This is the Doctor speaking. Now who are you, how did you get this number and how did you call a phone that's not a phone?"

"My line is the only call that can pass through and you know it," a voice said from the other end of the line and the Doctor looked at the phone for a moment in shock before returning it to his ear.

"Professor?" he asked in disbelief.

"It's Spencer now," Spencer said, sounding annoyed. "I told you that already."

"Spencer, yes, right," the Doctor said. "Wow! I haven't heard from you in… too long. Why are you calling?"

"Well, a spaceship crashed into the center of London," Spencer shrugged. "Figured you'd be right in the middle of it."

"Oh." Of course that was why Spencer was calling… he should have known better than to hope the other Time Lord called because he actually wanted to talk to him. "Right, yes, of course I am," he said, forcing the smile back on his face.

"Did you check on the body yet?"

"Not alien," the Doctor replied. "Someone messed up with a pig, stuffed it into a spaceship and made it crash. The tech is definitely alien, though – nothing Earth would have for a good couple of centuries."

"So we've got aliens, who made a spaceship crash on Earth with a fake alien inside?" Spencer asked.

"Pretty much," the Doctor summed it up, looking up as Rose ran back towards him. "Listen, I gotta go, but I'm giving Ricky here your number so that he'll update you."

"I don't work for you!" Mickey called out. "And it's Mickey!"

"Shut up and take the number," the Doctor said, handing him a slip of paper. "He'll call you if there's anything new," he added into the phone.

"Thanks," Spencer said. "And… Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Maybe…" Spencer cleared his throat. "Maybe you can call later anyway. You know, even if there's nothing new."

For the first time since he picked up the phone, the ghost of a real smile crossed the Doctor's face.

"I will," he said. "Bye, Pro- Spencer."

"Talk to you later, Doctor," Spencer said, hanging up the call and closing his eyes.

This phone call, although necessary, was a lot more exhausting than he thought it would be. A fake pilot, not fake aliens and the name of one of the Doctor's companions, who now also had Spencer's number.

And talking to the Doctor – actually having a real conversation with him that didn't involve the War, or other Time Lords or anything of that sort. Just the two of them helping to defend Earth from aliens. Just like old times.

It wasn't the best, but it was certainly more than he had hoped for.

He was brought back from his thoughts as a voice spoke from behind him.

"The Doctor?"

Spencer turned around, opening his eyes to see Prentiss looking at him, shocked.

"The Doctor is your friend from UNIT?" she asked.

"Emily, I can explain –"

"Did you remember?"

Spencer paused, looking at her in confusion. "What?"

"Meeting me," she explained. "You are him, aren't you? The Professor?"

Spencer swallowed hard. "Yes," he said, seeing no point in lying as she already figured it out herself.

"Did you remember?" she asked again. "Did you remember meeting me?"

For a moment, Spencer closed his eyes. He vaguely remembered the meeting she spoke of earlier. It wasn't as much a meeting as it was a departure party for the Brigadier, who had decided to retire from UNIT in favor of becoming a teacher.

He knew he met a girl there, and that they talked. But he didn't know her name.

"I didn't know it was you," he finally said. "And I don't really remember what I said when we met."

"Don't you have eidetic memory or something?" she asked.

"Of a sort," he shrugged. "Mostly, it's just the easiest way to explain my Time Lord memory and brainpower."

"Time Lord?" she asked.

"That's… that's what I am," Spencer explained. "What I'm called."

"Are there any more of your… kind?" she settled on the word after a couple of moments of thought.

"Just… Just the Doctor," he said. "Everybody else… they're gone."

"How?"

"There was a war," Spencer said. "The biggest war you could imagine, and then some – the Last Great Time War, it was called."

"What happened?" Prentiss asked.

"The cost of the War became too big," Spencer said. "The Universe was burning, galaxies were burning… so the Doctor ended it all. He… he killed them all."

"So…" For a moment, Prentiss looked confused. "How did you survive?"

"We ran away, when the War began," Spencer explained. "We didn't want to fight it. But I was hit, and my regeneration went wrong."

"Regeneration?"

"It's what we do when we die," Spencer said. "A way to cheat death. That's why I look differently than you remember. But it went wrong… I ended up as a baby."

"So, when we say you're twenty four…" Prentiss started, uncertain of how to continue the question.

"This body is twenty four years old," Spencer said.

"How old are you?"

"Er…" Spencer stretched his brain, trying to remember. He hadn't thought of his real age in quite some time, but he remembered he was a couple of years above the age of six hundred when he regenerated, which meant… "Six hundred and forty three."

"Wow," Emily breathed out. "And to think we joke about you being the youngest… Oh, Spencer – I mean, Professor – I mean…"

"Spencer is fine," he quickly said. "I don't go by 'The Professor' anymore. I left that person behind." He cringed slightly when he remembered the events of that day. "Well, as much as I can, at least."

"And no one else knows?" she asked.

"No one else can know," Spencer replied. "This is important, Emily. You've seen how our teammates are when it comes to aliens, and if word got out that there was another Time Lord that survived the War – and that it's me, no less… I have enemies in galaxies you don't even know exist. If they found out, they'll come after me, and they wouldn't care who they have to kill to get to me."

"Okay," Emily nodded. "I won't tell anyone. But as soon as this whole spaceship-crashing-into-Big-Ben thing dies off… you have some things to explain, mister."

"I will," Spencer promised, before glancing at his watch. "We need to go back inside or the others might come after us."

"Okay," Emily said. "And… Spencer?" He turned around to look at her. "I want lying when I said I worked with UNIT a couple of times. I read your file, and the Doctor's file, to convince myself that I didn't imagine it. I read about all you have done, and I just wanted to say… thank you."

"I didn't do it for gratitude," Spencer told her.

"I know," Emily said. "And that is why you deserve it even more."

A/N: Will you be interested in Prentiss/Reid shipping? This chapter made me think that this story could pull it off, even if only just for a while, but I'd love to know what you think about it. Review/PM me about it and let me know :)