The Doctor stared at the closed apartment door for a moment. He knew he was going to have to find some way to get through to her. The psychic connection he'd been experiencing was tied to her somehow and he had high hopes that it was a "her" inhabiting his universe. He sighed and decided to check in with the TARDIS. Maybe if he gave Dayle a chance to calm down she'd more easily take in what he'd told her as well as what she'd witnessed with her own eyes.

The TARDIS sat undisturbed at the end of the hall. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be blocking any exits or walkways but her presence there was a mystery and a novelty to the residents of this floor. He spotted an elderly woman poking the blue box with her cane. When he approached, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Do you have something to do with this strange cabinet?" she demanded. "It wasn't here when I checked my mail earlier." She leaned in conspiratorially, "I swear, it's like it's alive. You can feel a humming when you lay your hands on it."

He cleared his throat, smiled brightly, and the Doctor did what the Doctor does best- he improvised.

"Miss, I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the box. It is VERY very dangerous."

The woman gasped and ambled some distance away- quite fast for someone of her age. The Doctor was impressed.

"Is it a bomb!?" she squeaked, eyes wide.

Oops. He didn't want to start a panic in the building.

"Oh no no no" he assured her, flailing his arms a bit. "Nothing like that. It's just an... electrical box. Somewhat like a generator but it's been installed to... help make the building more energy efficient."

She stepped a bit closer again. "Are you with the electric company then?" She looked him up and down, taking in his torn sleeve and blackened clothing. "You boys used to at least wear a uniform shirt. And generally it had two sleeves."

The Doctor nodded, "Yes, well, I'm more of an underground repair man, you see. Been working away in those tunnels. Getting all the wiring hooked up for the new electrical box. Very dirty. And electrical." He silently berated himself. Not his finest bit of improv.

The lady seemed to be buying it though. "Is that the way that works? Huh. Well, I hope you have good benefits. Looks like a dangerous job." She finally headed down the hall to the elevator.

The Doctor slammed his face into his palm. Ridiculous.

Once he ascertained there was nobody else around, he dug in his shoe for a spare key.

He took a deep breath. Come on Old Girl. Let me in.

He jammed the key into the lock and it turned easily. The door swung open and he was thrilled to see that the TARDIS had completed the healing process.

Closing the door behind him, he rushed to the scanner. He knew the TARDIS would have stored any data from the time of the collision in the data core. Something like a black box on an airplane.

He pressed a few buttons and a readout appeared on the screen. He squinted at the figures, calculating space time coordinates in his head. Well they were certainly all over the place. Beneath all that were the results of a scan the TARDIS had automatically performed on the stranded ship he'd been trying to save. A single word caught his eye: Hologram.

"What the..." he whispered. He tapped a few keys on the console and the scanner answered his next question.

Origin of technology: Tregannon

The Doctor narrowed his eyes at the screen. So, the technology used to project the hologram of a stranded ship had belonged to a species called the Tregannon. The Doctor frowned, remembering that he'd encountered them once before, back in another lifetime. Back when he had curly blonde hair and an atrocious multi colored coat. He and his companion at the time, along with the Brigadier had found a Tregannon named Sancreda who had been abandoned on earth centuries before. The creature had wreaked all sorts of havoc on Lanyon Moor before he had been destroyed by the Brig.

"But they are nowhere near the Malum System." He scratched his head, puzzled. Their planet was in the Spulion System, an area the Doctor stayed far away from and with good reason. The Tregannon were a psychic species and the whole of the Spulion system was made up of psychoactive minerals which fueled their technology. The Tregannon were able to project images of themselves in addition to being telepathic and telekinetic.

So it would seem he had purposefully been lured to the Malum system at the exact moment of the stellar collision. Had he been specifically targeted or had he just been the unlucky one to have answered the distress signal?

He patted his pants pockets. He needed to see if his Sonic had finished its assessment of this alternate world. Strange. It wasn't there.

Perhaps it had fallen out of his pocket while he slept?

About then, the Doctor heard the sound of muffled shouting coming from the hall. He changed the scanner to camera mode once more and gasped when he saw Dayle running at full speed away from her apartment, holding the Sonic Screwdriver aloft. There appeared to be soap suds pouring into the hallway.

Uh oh.


Dayle sat on the edge of the bed drying her hair with a motel towel that had seen better days. After the incident at Waffle House, she had grabbed her grilled cheese to go and hopped on a bus to an affordable motel just outside of town in Kirkmore. She had chosen it because she didn't want to chance running into any people from her old life. Cheap motels and druggies are often synonymous unfortunately.

She felt more herself after a shower and a phone call with her baby girl Ember. Lynette had sounded cautiously optimistic to hear that Dayle was holding down a job, going to regular meetings and had already saved up a small stash of money. Naturally she nagged her to get it into a savings account as quickly as possible.

Ember loved spending time with Dayle, though perhaps she didn't understand that they should be spending much more time together than they did. After some typical four year old goofiness, Ember had asked when she'd get to see Dayle again. Netty had taken the phone then and promised that this weekend, they could all take a trip to the park together.

Dayle was heartened by her sister's final words before the phone call ended. "Keep it up Dayle. I am rooting for you".

Dayle pulled one of the mystery books she'd checked out today from her bag and leaned back against the stiff pillow to take advantage of the bedside lamp's light. She'd had enough of quantum theory for one evening. She was ready to lose herself in some Martha Grimes and was grateful she had the room all to herself. She'd had enough of men to last a lifetime.

Barely into the second chapter, she heard a strange sound, like electricity being discharged just outside and she looked up curiously. There was a tap at the door. Dayle didn't need to use her gift of intuition to know who it would be.

She opened the door to River and glared at the strange woman. "Are we quite done with the fucking scavenger hunts now?" Dayle scoffed. She stood back and allowed the visitor to enter.

"You know, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be troubling you if it wasn't very important." River sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I need your help."

"So who is he?" Dayle blurted. "This is about the guy right? The one with the bowtie."

River looked somewhat astonished that Dayle knew so much. "Uh, right. Well. Let's keep it simple for now. His name is The Doctor."

"The Doctor?" Dayle looked at her incredulously. "The Doctor. That's his actual, literal name? What is he, a member of the fuckin ratpack? Does he spend time with The Chairman of the Board and Mister Show Business?" She crossed her arms and looked ceilingward. "Why can't I just make normal friends!?"

River looked as if she was fighting laughter. She cleared her throat. "Dayle sweetie. You are more important than you can possibly know. The Doctor is trapped in a parallel world and you are the only link from our world to him." River looked at her expectantly.

Dayle stared right back, waiting for the punchline. "Aaaand...?"

"What do you mean 'and'? You are literally a quantum anomaly. You have made a connection with a parallel universe, from this universe! That doesn't just happen." River looked positively exasperated that Dayle couldn't appreciate her role in all this.

"'And', who is he? What does he got to do with me?"

River seemed to consider that. "He looks out for this whole planet. For hundreds of planets. He has saved you all so many times, I can't even explain. He is a hero and he is brilliant. I'm not sure what our universe would do without him."

Dayle had grown thoughtful. She sat heavily on the arm of a peach upholstered chair.

"Then what on earth could I possibly do for him?" Her voice broke. "I can't even help myself for chrissakes. I'm a junkie. I'm homeless. I couldn't even take care of my own kids..." With that, Dayle lost it. She sobbed heavily into her hands.

River watched her quietly. She didn't try to comfort her. She didn't offer words of understanding. She didn't pat her or hug her. She gave her instead the things that all strong women need when they are broken. Silent solidarity and space to grieve. Dayle was grateful.

When Dayle's sobs had ceased, River said gently, "We have all made mistakes. We have all let people down. Even The Doctor."

River crouched down in front of Dayle, touched her knee. "You can't take back the past. You can't erase it from time. You can't change every single person's mind about you, no matter how much it hurts. You can do this though. You must. Because you are an empath with a special gift. And because you are the only one who can."

Dayle raised her head, her eyes tired and red-rimmed. "You love him. And it's impossible for him to love you." She whispered sadly.

River smiled a melancholy little smile. "Nobody's perfect."

After a pause, Dayle asked "What do I have to do?"