Author's Note

I do not own Doctor Who.

She should have known this was all a bad idea.

Scratch that, she had always known this was all a bad idea.

First the Doctor, which wasn't so bad because he wouldn't hurt her, but now the Brigadier, who for all she knew might try to lock her up – or worse, knowing him.

And then there was Taltalian!

She knew nothing about the man, and he had quite clearly seen her fangs, if not her claws.

She should have quit after the autons, while she was ahead.

Liz occupied herself with coordinating with other space centres and investigating the data patterns of the recording while the Doctor gallivanted around with the Brigadier and his men organising the retrieval of the space capsule.

She could only hope he kept his mouth shut for the moment. They might have deterred the Brigadier for now, but it wouldn't be forever. Once all this drama with the Mars Probe, recovery pod and astronauts was over, he was still going to want answers as to why she turned into a 'snarling wolf monster' as the Doctor so nicely put it.

There was nothing else for it really.

They would have to tell him the truth.

Oh, he was going to be beyond furious that they hadn't told him sooner, but there was not much else to be done.

She frowned at the data printout. "Well, that can't be right."

The Doctor agreed with her theory that the message was an attempt at pictographic communication, though Taltalian's assistant doubted it. The Doctor shot him down, pointing out the repeated patterns.

Things got worse when they cut the recovery capsule open to find it empty. Liz climbed up to peer inside as the Doctor and Brigadier spoke to Cornish. It smelt like human, but there was something else as well. Not-human. Not not-human like the Doctor, not-human like something else, something she'd never encountered before. A more familiar smell lay over the top and she checked the Geiger counter without thinking. "The interior's radioactive. If anyone was in there, they're as good as dead."

Except part of her doubted it was the astronauts. They would smell like human, not like not-human and radiation. She told the Doctor of her suspicions on their way to Sir James' office.

"Yes, I quite agree with you. I had my own suspicions about that."

"So where are our astronauts?"

"If we're right about this, and they're lucky enough to still be alive, still in orbit."

The phrase if they're lucky did not inspire her confidence.

Sir James introduced them to a man called General Carrington, who smelt very faintly of space and more strongly of radiation. He explained the Mars Probe had passed through a high density radiation belt on its way back to Earth orbit and the astronauts had been infected with contagious radiation. They had been removed from the capsule in secret as the government didn't want the public to panic or anyone else to be exposed to the radiation.

Both of them smelt and acted entirely insincere and the longer Liz was in the room with him the more Carrington smelt of space and radiation. She clenched her fists to stop her drawing her claws.

Carrington offered to take them to the astronauts, but whatever came down in the capsule was gone by the time they got there. From there things were a bureaucratic nightmare, with hold-ups in every direction. Cornish, at least, was trying to help them get a capsule in go condition. The stench of radiation that had covered Recovery 7 had almost entirely faded and the Doctor swept it with a Geiger counter as Cornish bemoaned Sir James and red tape.

"It's the most extraordinary thing. The radioactive contamination has almost vanished. If you can't get Recovery 8 ready in time, you can use this capsule."

One of the soldiers strode over to pass her a message from the Brigadier, requesting they go to Hertfordshire to look at two bodies found dead of radiation poisoning in a gravel pit.

"Are you coming?" she asked.

"No, I'm going to stay and get this capsule fully operational."

So she'd have to face the Brigadier on her own then. Great.

"You can take Bessie if you want."

Now, if only she had a guarantee the Brigadier wouldn't shoot her on sight.

A car started following her about ten minutes into the drive. Well, wasn't her day just going from bad to worse? She spun Bessie around to go back the way she came and floored it. Unfortunately, while the Doctor's little roadster was nice, it wasn't made for car chases, and the newer vehicle quickly overtook her, stopping across the road.

The wolf under her skin snarled.

Here was not the place, she told herself as she ran, here was absolutely not the time or place. It was not the place, it was not the time.

The men were bigger than her, they had longer legs, and they were close now. She couldn't outrun them, and the wolf in her would never submit to being captive.

The Doctor hummed as he worked. Someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Doctor?"

He slid out from the capsule to frown at the Brigadier. "You're back soon."

"Well, I started back an hour ago."

"But Liz has just gone to meet you. We received a message asking us to join you. You didn't send it?"

This could not possibly be good news.

"I'll get after her."

It really was quite unnecessary. By the time the Brigadier caught up, he found Doctor Elizabeth Shaw covered in blood, trying to restart that ridiculous roadster of the Doctor's, and two dead men lying a short distance away.

"Miss Shaw!" he shouted, hurrying over to her. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm quite fine Brigadier. Can you give me a hand with this? I can't seem to get her started."

He stared at her. "Miss Shaw, you're bleeding."

She lifted an arm and studied it as though only just noticing the blood dripping from her hand. "Oh, none of that's mine."

He pointed at the dead men. "What happened to them then?"

She shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea."