However, this time they went through the hospital hallways, it was different. The possible-Doctor's confident strides began to slow down and sooner than Rory had excepted he could have lead the way easily if hadn't been for the man's aura of authority holding him back.

"Tom, I know there's something bothering you and I think it's best if you told me about...", the nurse tried as he was now walking at the other's side instead of always trailing after him.

"I really just want to help, by any means possible."

The older man slowed down even more and stopped eventually in the corridor, not too far from Sarah's room. "What's bothering me is that my mind isn't working properly.", he said, sighing, then turned to face Rory. "So yes, you're right; I might be in need of help, but I'm not so sure I can get it from you; The last thing I need right now is for time to shift or turn back on itself because of something said or done that I shouldn't know of right now."

Wondering whether Rory should tell the man that he would go on to invite himself to his own death, only to have time collapse, and then cheat on what he had called a fixed point in time, the nurse figured that it was too much of a spoiler to confront him with.

"Actually, I'm still not entirely certain that you are who I was thinking of...", Rory replied instead. Yes, he was very much suspecting the stranger to be the Doctor. His assumptions being footed on parts of his personality and extensive knowledge of things humans didn't usually talk about. Not to mention that the man had almost called himself by the title, and definitely reacted to it when called. But still there was the thing about his physical appearance which Rory didn't understand. He would have asked, but it was highly unlikely that he would get a straight answer from him.

"Great! Keep that uncertainty in mind, then."

Yes, the possible-Doctor just wanted Rory to keep believing that they didn't know each other at all. Tom took another step towards the door of patient room 254, but stood still again almost immediately. Apparently, the nurse wasn't the only one with uncertainty on his mind...

"Alright, then. I won't say a word about what I know.", Rory reassured him. "But you can speak freely, still."

With a troubled and tired expression the older one re-established eye contact with him. "The problem is that… Ah, how do I put it...?", he paused and sighed, and let the pause drag on a while longer before eventually continuing to speak.

"I believe that Sarah and I are stuck in a vicious circle of some kind."

His gaze was now full of concern for the young woman and his eyes didn't stray once from Rory while he went on to explain.

"She's been traveling with me for over three years now. She's been frightened and threatened and running for her life and fearing for other's over and over again with barely as much as a break in between." He shook his head, and slightly lowered his view in what seemed like a feeling of guilt. "She's asked me to bring her home already, and I tried to – or so I said – but in the end we've always kept skipping on the opportunities to part ways."

Finally, Tom had started to talk about what needed to be heard by, really, just anyone who was willing to listen and wanted to help. He examined Rory's face for a bit, possibly wondering if the nurse was criticizing him for not letting go as he should have.

"Oh, I'm not judging you...", he commented quickly, "There could have been a lot of reasons why you didn't."

"Obviously, neither of us really wanted to go, despite the hardships we've faced." At first, he avoided to look at Rory's face, but when he began to speak about his companion, not only did he pick the eye contact back up, but there was also a light smile appearing on his face while he praised, no – admired – her virtues.

"Sarah's… She's so full of concern. And she catches on so quickly. She even finishes my sentences sometimes, it's impressive! Have you ever seen a human that could be frightened and brave at the same time? Well she can. And now she's become like me, doesn't want to stop traveling and helping and I've grown to enjoy having her around more than anyone so far..."

But then the smile faded and anger appear instead. Tom lifted a fist and knocked himself lightly on the forehead as if to punish himself for an act of stupidity.

"The worst thing of all is that with 750 you're supposed to know better than to just keep going until the bitter end!"

Rory had been right with his very first assumption. Yes, he was blaming himself for all of this, wasn't he? Now how could he make it better for him? First of all, the nurse had to break this line of thought, get the possible Time Lord to think more clearly again.

"But if that's what she wants and if you can keep her safe from harm, then why not? Why not just keep going?"

"Because of accidents like today's." Tom responded with a very sincere tone in his voice. "When I saw the jacket she had been holding for me, sticking out of that pile of debris, I thought of her having been crushed underneath, and I felt a shock like…" Instead of finishing that sentence, he just gasped for air, then took a deep breath and shook his head while discarding the image in his mind.

"I thought that was it. One stupid little accident, and all was over."

"You thought she was dead...", Rory concluded. 'You were scared. To think that the Doctor could be scared of anything… but he never did lose a companion by death, or did he...?' Such a strange thought, even for one of the Doctor's latest companions. No wonder the Time Lord couldn't think straight. He wasn't used to being frightened like that… It just made Rory feel even more sorry for him than he already was.

"Yes. Yes, I did!" The confession came fast and clear. His tone was a strange, but definitive mix of anger and sadness now. "But you know what? It doesn't matter – because whatever I do, if she just keeps being with me, I'm bound to see her die anyway, whether it will be my fault or not. I will outlive her, that's a fact."

"Being outlived is better than to be killed, anyway. In the end, it's just one of different ways a journey can end… isn't it?" Death occurred naturally, and when it did it wasn't necessarily the worst thing to happen to the person it happened to, although it was almost always a though situation for family and friends. One thing that you could learn at a hospital...

Rory wondered how he would react if he told him that now, in 2012, Sarah would be past 60 years old, and that human barely ever made it to a full hundred. Then again, he was probably just too painfully aware of that.

The other gave him a displeased look. "Still a grim one that I'd rather not see. Either way, I don't like to worry like this, it clouds my mind and leads me to doing the worst kind of mistakes." He allowed the thought to settle before he continued.

"And she's just the same, you know? She's running after me because she worries that I won't make it without her… Silly little thing; Of course I can manage by myself."

Despite his monologuing, he didn't continue much further and Rory tried hard to think of something to say, so in the meantime silence began to settle between them. It wasn't easy arguing with him. Obviously, that's just what arguing with the Doctor would be like. How did you contradict the beliefs in the mind of someone hundreds or thousands of years older than you? But this man, Doctor or not, he wanted to be contradicted - No, for the sake of his state of mind he had to be.

"So, if you were running away from her… would that really fix the issue?"

"Assuming this was, say, 1979, yes. She could go back to the life she's had before me, wiser with the knowledge gained on her travels, and continue to help the people of Earth like the curious and brave girl she is.", argued Tom, who stood up a little straighter, staring down onto Rory as if he had to insist that his intention was the right one.

"And forever stay mad at you for ditching her like that, too." It was fairly easy to produce a counter-argument like that. Rory could see the Time Lord frowning about it before he had even finished the sentence. "What's the hurt in telling her good-bye? If you and her share thoughts like you said you do, she will understand." That should be obvious, but it was usually the obvious thing which the Doctor overlooked, wasn't it?

His conversation partner didn't say anything, but kept waiting for Rory to explain further. He seemed very much interested in whatever that would be, so the nurse tried his best to think of something.

"Look, she's made it out alive and well. There's no need to worry about her well-being for now. And if anything, this is just the beginning of a new adventure like it always is, right?" Rory clearly was referring back to how he had told him that they always ended up in the right place, except they never knew why. And before they could continue lives on their own, whatever it was this time most likely had to be settled first anyway.

"Look, you don't have to part ways just now. Just when the next opportunity arises… don't pass it up. Take it. Say your good-byes and then… I don't know. Visit her sometime, I guess. Girls like the occasional visit, to rest assured that they aren't forgotten. If she's anything like Amy... she will wait when you're gone, you know?" he suggested and couldn't help but think of how Amy had accused the Doctor of weaning them off of him. That was probably a good way to do it. And now Rory was wondering if the Doctor was doing that because of what he had suggested right now and if he was suggesting it because… Ouch!

Was that the kind of paradox Tom didn't want to happen?

"You're right, Rory. She's a clever girl, she will understand. And you know what else?"

Tom turned to the nurse with a smile forming on his face again and he stared at him with a sudden look of enlightenment, if not even excitement. "We weren't just lucky not to get hurt. We were spared! That object she pulled out of the rocks must have had something to do with it! It used Sarah to get out of the quarry!"

So typical, yet still puzzling how the possible-Doctor just brushed past what Rory had just said and seemingly focused on something else instead. But his mood had lifted a lot now, and at least for that the nurse was thankful. For all he knew, Tom had listened to his advice after all and just didn't want to admit to any more than he already had.

"So, uh, when you make it to 1979..." Rory tried to get a straight answer from him, anyway.

"Ssh! Listen! Listen!", the man with the scarf interrupted him rudely, "I'm going to find someone to let me into the pathology right now. Someone like I shouldn't need the authorities to figure out what it was that she pulled out of the rocks! Now, in the meantime, I want you to look after Sarah. But don't let yourself be seen when she comes to – in case she's visiting this hospital later in her life again."

The nurse blinked at him confused. Yeah... there was no way of getting something out of him if he didn't want to tell… "So, uh, what do I do then when she comes to?"

Tom shrugged and grinned wide now.

"Simple; you come and tell me as fast as you can!"

"Alright, I will."

"Good man. I'll be looking forward to travel with you in the far future!"

While Rory still stood there trying to catch up with the man's new ideas, the 'almost-certainly-a-Time-Lord' patted his shoulder like a comrade and gave him a trustful smile before he rushed off.

Rory would never fully understand them, he thought. Although there was still a lingering uncertainty to which category the man belonged. Doctor(s), Time Lords, aliens…

Still, now he was left again to watch over Sarah-Jane. When the nurse stepped back into the room, he took a deep breath, somewhat relieved that Tom had left him with a brighter outlook on his future.

To his surprise however, a pair of eyes was staring back at him when he lifted his head and meant to look at the patient.

"Oh, Miss Smith! Feeling better already?"

The woman wasn't simply awake. She stood next to the bed, and she had even traded the hospital gown for her own clothes already; A white and red striped overall that lacked any common sense of fashion, but looked almost adorable on her, anyway.

However, there was something very, very odd about her other than her clothes...

The look on her face.

She wasn't smiling and her eyes were fixed straight ahead as if she was still in a state of shock or trance.

Rory wanted to say something else, ask her about it, but what happened next was that the young woman rose the hand she had held cramped before to his face. Just for a brief moment Rory caught sight of a ring with a big, blue crystal embedded in it, before he was struck by a blinding light and collapsed to the floor.

He had been out instantly. Only a full hour later would he come around and by then, neither Sarah nor Tom were to be found anywhere.

Leaving him wondering about what happened for a long time to come, this concluded Rory's encounter with the two mysterious travelers…