She fingered the coins in her pocket, looking at the train schedule. She could feel the violinists eyes boring into her back. She saw him when she walked down, sitting with an empty case and a broken string on his instrument. She jingled her coins especially loudly as she strolled by, and rubbed her belly appreciatively while she was standing looking at the map, . 'I could use the money to go somewhere new, and turn over quite a profit. But where…' she worried her lip over her teeth. She really had no idea where to go, so she did the scientific thing.

She closed her eyes and struck the map with her extended index finger. She opened an eye to see where she hit. She cursed quietly under her breath, when she realized she struck a point outside of the map. She shook her head and tried it again. She peeked again, wishing, and saw she did hit somewhere. And was relieved when she saw ----HWARK poking out from under her nail. "Right," she said, squaring her shoulders and hefting her case. "Southwark it is." She rode the Jubilee line over, thinking of songs.

When she got there she found nothing short of a three piece mariachi band who were doing Disco covers. She could not stand the noise, and wondered how that was possible. 'This was the worst idea I ever had.' She thought glumly. Her jingling was nearly nonexistent, so emaciated that she could not afford to get back to her usual place. 'Well…' she looked at the map. "I can get back to Westminster… might have luck there. Should have gone there first… like he suggested." She sighed. "I just hate too do whatever people tell me to do. 'Kierra, go to school and become a dentist.' 'Kierra, you should marry that nice boy with the loaded parents.' Blather blather blather…" she waited for the next train and got on.

Westminster was strangely silent, with few people milling around, and those were leaving quickly. She checked her watch and saw much to her dissatisfaction that it was well into the night. 'Maybe there will be… oh… who am I kidding. There will be nobody here.' She threw her jacket onto the floor and sat on it, setting her guitar down in front of her. She toyed with the latch for a bit, thinking of something to do.

She did not realize that she fell asleep until she had slid sideways and her head tapped the floor. Her eyes flew open as she gasped, and held her hand to her temple. Her guitar was laying across her legs, and her case was sitting open beside her, with a pitying quid sitting in the bottom, that some touched person threw in on a whim, in order to make their conscious feel better. She blinked her eyes and stretched, looking around. The clock on the board above the platform said 11:56 PM. 'oh, joy.' She thought.

She was certain she had just imagined it, at first. Then the second time she was less certain. She tightened her grasp of her guitar with one hand and reached out for her money with the other. 'okay… so there is someone hiding in the underground. No person at the booth. And one homeless girl. Sounds lovely.' She pocketed the change, while listening to her own breathing. Suddenly, the heavy breathing of someone running came to her. She saw in the darkness ahead of her, movement, then the darkness was charging her. She yelped as she rose to her feet. "Hey, you freak! I have no money, you see? So get the fuck out." Her assailant stopped for a second, tilted their head, then suddenly broke out into a lumbering run. "Oh, you asked for it," she said, and drew back her guitar.

Her attacker wavered to the side minutely but straightened out and continued right to her. It lept as she swung. "I SAID," she yelled as her guitar connected with flesh. "GET THE FUCK OUT!" she stood over the form and swung again. Presently it was a still form, stunned. She wondered for a second, panting. "Who gets knocked out so easily?"

"A Flamboyant Locke." A voice behind her said. She jumped and swung herself and her guitar. "UMPF!"

She gasped. "Oh my god!" she said to the Doctor, crumpled up at her feet. "I am just.. Oh my god!" she tried to help him up.

"It is… okay… no… really… sokay…." He gritted out. "No… worr…worries…." He pointed behind her. "But please… just… use your…. Power… of… persuasion… to keep… that one here… alright?" She turned and saw the person crawling away.

"Oh, you think I should…" she started, and flexed her arm.

"Yes, I think you should. Now would be the optimal time."

"Right, its just.. well, you know… kind of rude—"

"SWING ALREADY!"

"Oh, right, yes, yeah.." she smacked the body of the guitar down on its skull, as a crack resounded around the platform.

"Oh good job! Did you crack its skull?" he asked.

"No… I cracked my guitar, instead." She held up the splinted instrument. "I am no professional or anything, but I think it might be beyond repair. Just saying." She set it down gingerly. "But the real question is, " she wiped her fingers on her shirt. "What the hell is going on?"

He sighed as he rubbed his ribs. "Its… complicated."

"Well, I have just lost my only means of supporting myself, so I have loads of time. So enlighten me."

"Alright then." He started unbuttoning his vest. "First off, thanks very much for helping me apprehend that thing. It has been bugging me for weeks. I could see it on my scanner, but it would not approach me." He leaned against the wall and slid down, groaning slightly, as he loosened his tie. "You were indispensable, truly."

She watched him as he unbuttoned his shirt. "How was I so helpful, then? I just smacked it.. him with my guitar."

He paused for a second. "Well, you took my bait. It could not resist my scent on that memory device. Ah, look what you did, I'm already bruising!" He touched his reddened side. She swung back and kicked him in the ribs. "HEEEY!" he gasped. "What was that for?!"

"You used me as bait!" she made to kick him again, but he scrambled out of her reach.

"Now, hold on, hold on."

"You could have endangered me! I wandered unsuspectingly into a trap and you allowed me to!"

He stood with his hands in the air, index fingers raised. "Hold on, now, you brought yourself here. I just was looking for that thing, you did not have to help." She advanced on him. "Besides! That thing is nearly harmless. Just been messing with my readings. It does not belong here and I wanted to take it home. But it is confused and would not allow me to capture it. I needed someone to help me, there was no danger. Do you think I would endanger people knowingly?" She paused for a second.

"Why do you keep calling this person a thing?" she asked.

"Ah, we have been paying attention. " He straightened up out of his defensive position. "Very observant, for a human. Kinda." He indicated the prone figure on the ground. "That, is no person, but an extraterrestrial visitor." She raised an eyebrow. "Well, go ahead and look, if you do not believe me. Go on, look."

She turned and looked down. The person did not look too threatening, in fact, it was not threatening at all, all sprawled out like it was. She knelt down slowly, but its face was hidden in shadow.

"Here, take this." He stood behind her and gave her his light. She fumbled with the switch, and shined it onto its face. She shrieked and dropped the light, and tried to scramble away. He caught her and held her in an embrace, as she struggled against him.

"Let me go, just let me go, will you! Let me… just…" a sob ripped up her throat, and she buried her face into his shoulder, the shock sending her into tears. He made reassuring noises in her ear as he looked down at the illuminated face of the alien. "Well, that is pretty hideous, even I have to admit," he commented.

After a few minutes she recovered and pulled away from him. He looked down at her. "Do you want to chance another look, or are you set?" She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, holding it for a second. Then she snapped them open and nodded her head.

"Let me see it again. It could still be a trick, some elaborate scheme of yours."

He chuckled. "No, not any scheme of mine. That part isn't anyway." He knelt down with her. "here, we shall look together." She knelt down beside him and looked again.

The face, she supposed it was, was, well.. "alien." The Doctor whispered in her ear. " A Flamboyant Locke, to be exact." It had several eyes scattered across an oval that served as its head. "These things here," he pointed at a pair of orange slits towards the middle, "they are used for getting nourishment. And this," he indicated a gash towards the top, "is apparently where you hit it the first time. Right on its nose-analog-thing. Pretty good hit, actually. Couldn't have done better myself. Is that enough on the anatomy lesson?" he asked lightly, and in answer she turned her face back into his shoulder. "I guess that is a yes… fair enough." He helped her to her feet.

"Doctor, can I ask something?" She said softly. "Why were you looking for that? What is it doing here? How do you know so much about it, this… whatever you called it."

"Hey, I thought you said something. One thing. Slow down a bit." He was digging in his pockets for something. "Your second question first. I have no idea how it got here, but I know that it needs to go. First question next, I was not looking for it, I knew where it was the whole time. Just like this," he announced when he pulled yet another silly looking gadget out of his pocket. "and your third question… because I know everything." He pulled a length of string out of the end of the item, making her gasp. "This is a superconductor field emulator. It is not really there, and so it is completely unbreakable." He grinned as he started to truss up the alien. "Look, I gave you a freebie on that one. I am just full of gifts today. Here we go, onwards to my ship, and home with you, you old Lockey you." He smiled, and threw the creature over his shoulder. He started walking away, leaving her standing alone. He did not turn around, but yelled back.

"So are you coming or what?"

She looked around her at the dingy platform, to her broken guitar and empty case, then at the retreating back of the Doctor. She knelt down, picked up her jacket, and ran after him, thinking, what the hell, why not? What do I have to lose?

Author's Note: I made up the Flamboyant Locke. I had the Flamboyant part all ready, and I went to Wikipedia and clicked 'random article' althought I have now forgotten what the article was. It was not John Locke, if you were wondering.