Note: Well the other day I went off the deep end of the fandom...I now have the start of a large Gallifreyan tattoo on my forearm. I love it. It's just the line work, colour in three weeks! I'm phoenix-cry over on deviant art if you want to see it (search for Lemkin Factor to find my page, it's the easiest way).

Anyway, it's readers and fans like you that truly make me love Doctor Who enough to get it inked on my skin for all time. More than a show, it's a community and I really enjoy interacting with you guys! I got my Stargate tattoo for the same reasons and I still love it.

Now then...on with the show!

Chapter Ten

"Doctor...Doctor who?"

Dace stared down at his palm as if it held the answer. River had snatched his wrist through the bars and spelled out 'Doctor' against his palm, but she hadn't had time to explain. Seconds later she had been dragged out of her cell by Travis and Nick. Dace had watched helplessly as she was forced down to the hall and towards an abysmal fate. As she was being taken away River had looked back over her shoulder and for a brief moment it looked to Dace like she was more worried about him than herself.

Dace rested his forehead against the bars with a heavy sigh. He shivered slightly, after River had woken she had offered him his shirt back but the thin cloth was no match for the dank room. He closed his eyes briefly but snapped them open when images from the last two months of his life assaulted his sense. There hadn't been a single moment through all of this that he hadn't been sick to his stomach, but now there crushing weight on his heart as well. His inability to handle the Market had started with the woman he had saved and had finally reached a tipping point with the woman that he had just failed.

"I'm so sorry, River." Dace sighed. "I hope the Emperor didn't get you."

The solitary confinement had been difficult before, but after his brief encounter with River being alone again was maddening. It had been less than an hour since she had been taken but Dace had lost his concept of time long ago. If someone told him he'd been trapped here for years he would believe them. With a sudden cry of rage Dace lashed out at the bars that still held him. Gripping the bars he jerked at them in a desperate attempt to tear them free. He battled pointlessly with the bars until his muscles burned from the strain. Sinking to his knees Dace finally broke down into tears.

"Help me! Someone, anyone! Get me out of here!" Dace screamed to no one. "I can't do this anymore! Please!"

Dace's voice echoed off the concrete walls. Reduced to an incoherent screaming Dace continued until his voice was raw. Forced to stop Dace stayed on his knees staring at the floor as tears slipped silently down his face. When the elevator doors opened he found himself numb to the approach of the four armed men who poured into the tight space. The men expertly swept the room with their pulse riffles held at the ready. They wore tactical black uniforms with smokey black face guards on their headgear that hid their features.

The leader signaled that all was clear and they moved to the cell that held Dace. With a bright flash they destroyed the lock that kept the door closed. The first man opened the door but Dace stayed kneeling. The leader knelt down to Dace's level and pulled off his helmet. When Dace still didn't react to the rescue the man reached out and carefully placed his gloved hand on Dace's shoulder.

"Are you okay, Agent?"

Dace looked up, but he didn't respond. It wasn't that he couldn't find his voice to answer, he simply couldn't find the words.

"Dace? You with us, man?" He asked with growing concern before he looked to one of the other men. "Get a doctor down here now."

"Doctor..." Dace repeated with a hollow voice before he gasped. "River!"

"What?"

Dace jumped up and pushed past the men. He could hear them protesting but he didn't care. Racing to the elevator he slammed on the button that would take him one floor up. Coming to the long corridor that he'd dragged Tanya down he ran to the teleport room at the far end. River would have been the last prisoner they had teleported away and the computer would know where they had sent her. Dace burst into the room, which was foolish. Five armed men raised their weapons at him. Dace threw his hands up in instant surrender.

"Don't shoot!" Dace held his hand up higher. "I'm one of you!"

"Agent Harper?" The team leader asked as he gave the signal for the others to stand down.

"Yes." Dace nodded as he lowed his hands.

"You look like death, you need to get to medical."

"I need to get into this machine." Dace corrected.

"What in the name of stardust is this thing?" Team leader demanded as he looked at the teleport that dominated the room.

"It's a teleport. It can send people from one place to another in seconds."

"That's insane."

"Alien tech." Dace growled as he stepped up to the console.

"I've seen a lot of alien tech, never seen anything like this before."

"Trust me, it works...or at least it did."

Dace flicked at the controls but nothing happened. It wasn't even powering up. Ripping off the access panel Dace looked down into the wiring. Seeing the mass of melted wires that were still smoking Dace swore.

"Damn it!" Dace snarled as he kicked the worthless machine. "They must have set it to self destruct when you breached the door."

"We took the place as quick as we could, but this is out in the middle of nowhere. They saw us coming."

"I know." Dace sighed. "I always knew help wouldn't come quickly when called. I just...never mind, it doesn't matter now."

"You really do need medical, Agent You look like you're about to drop."

"I'm fine."

"You can't be." The older man said seriously. "Not after what you've been doing. Undercover work always takes its toll, but this...this had to be hell."

"I'm fine." Dace insisted.

The team leader stepped forward to put his hand on Dace's shoulder causing Dace to jerk back. The last thing he wanted right now was to be touched. Turning around he left for the elevator alone. He knew that the team leader was only trying to help. He could feel the sweat rolling off his skin, and the flushing from his fever as the open wounds in his back continued to burn with infection. The field support personal were used to seeing him as the young, ambitious, clean cut Agent Dace Harper, not the human trafficking scum 'Dace Stevens'. His boss hadn't wanted him using his first name, but he had insisted.

"It has to look real, I have to be able to react naturally." Dace muttered the reasoning he had given his superiors when trying out for the assignment. "I don't react to someone calling my name just once and I'm a dead man."

No one had liked anything about this attempt to infiltrate the Ivory Market. They had placed undercover agents as buyers before, but this was going to be different, this was going to involve not just standing by while innocents lost their freedom but actively participating in it. Dace swallowed the bile that rose to the back of his throat as he stepped on the elevator to bring himself up to the ground level.

"All for nothing. You just had to try and help her, didn't you? Stupid, Dace, stupid."

Dace shook his head sadly at the failed mission. It had been hoped that if he worked hard enough that eventually he could learn how the Market was organized, learn who the boss was, maybe even see him. However he hadn't worked there long enough to be trusted with any of that kind of information. They had just started to relax around him when Tanya showed up. Even when he'd lost their trust due to his 'accident' with the teleport he felt that he might get a second chance to prove himself. After all finding employees you can trust in this business is hard work and you don't want to be too quick to throw one away.

"And then River had to show up, and I gave in." Dace sighed. "...didn't even manage to save her."

Deep down Dace knew it didn't really matter who had been brought into the cell next to him, he had already reached his limit. Even if they had given him a second chance he would never have been able to stand by and watch another person sold, let alone participate in the sale. The smart thing would have been to have scrubbed the mission the instant he had been brutally beaten and thrown in a cage for sale. Pure stubbornness had kept him from contacting the support personnel for the raid at that time.

He had kept telling himself that if he could bring down a major player in the Market then the lives that he had help sold wouldn't have been lost in vain. Calling for help early would land a handful in prison, but it wouldn't even put a dent in the Market. Dace had told himself every moment of the day and night that what he was doing was going to be for a greater good in the end.

"I was delusional from the start."

The elevator opened and Dace was greeted by yet another armed response by the man posted at the ground floor. The man quickly recognized him and allowed him to pass, pointing out where command had set up. There were six floors to the structure but only the one above ground which appeared like a normal country home from the outside, but was just a digital camouflage facade. The ground floor had four main room that were mostly just empty spaces.

Dace was allowed into the next room where he discovered Nick and Travis along with the others who worked at this site kneeling on the ground with their hands bound behind their backs. It gave Dace a small amount of satisfaction to see them captured, but these were just small fish, the big sharks were still out there. Nick looked up at Dace with a sneer.

"I should have beaten you to death." Nick hissed.

Dace ignored Nick and went directly to his superiour, a man named Tamor, who was already approaching him. Tamor looked at Dace with a mixture of relief and concern. Even though the mission had been Tamor's idea he had never really wanted to see it placed into action, knowing the risks it would pose to any Agent who accepted it.

"Dace are you al..."

"How many survivors did you find?" Dace interrupted.

"Seventeen survivors, and fourteen scum arrested. This place is huge, I thought there would be more people held here."

"Stock is low," Nick sneered from his place on the floor "just had a big auction. One girl in particular went for a nice high price, well I say 'girl', but that one was all woman...wasn't she Dace?"

"Be quite." Tamor spat at Nick. "Remember all that stuff about what you say can and will be used against you."

"Shame your boys weren't quicker, Agent." Nick continued calmly "You almost saved that one from spending the rest of her life as someone's plaything."

"Shut up." Dace snarled.

"She acted tough but her new master will break her...or at the very least he'll enjoying trying. I bet if she still had her voice she'd be a screa..."

Nick didn't get a chance to finish, Dace was on him in a flash. Blinding by rage Dace punched the smug trafficker hard enough to knock him off his knees and to the floor. Tamor held his men back for a moment and allowed Dace to get in a few more solid blows before he ordered them to pull Dace off the now senseless man. The other men being held in the room said nothing, none of them cared what happened to Nick they only cared about what happened to themselves.

"Dace," Tamor said gently "you really need to be taken to the hospital. We can do the briefing later."

"No. I want to go home."

"I really think you need to be under observation for a few days."

"So I'm still a prisoner?" Dace asked darkly.

"No," Tamor shook his head "of course not."

"Then I'm going home." Dace said firmly as he turned to leave.

"You did good, Agent." Tamor said sincerely.

"Not good enough."

Dace was sure that Tamor had wanted to say more, but he didn't give him the chance. It took a few hours to get back to the city. Dace had hoped that he would feel better the closer he got to home, but instead his stomach twisted more painfully. By the time he made it into his studio apartment he had to rush into the bathroom where he spent the next half hour being violently sick. Spitting bile into the toilet Dace finally got his stomach back under control.

Turning the shower on to near scalding Dace peeled off his clothes and stepped under the spray. The hot water caused the wounds on his back to flare angrily. Ignoring the pain Dace did his best to scrub his skin with a richly lathering soap. Getting out of the shower Dace was irritated by the fact that he felt like he still reeked of the underground market. Pulling on a pair of black slacks and a white t-shirt Dace paced around his apartment. It was nearly four in the morning and he was exhausted, but he knew that he would only have nightmares if he laid down.

"I need a drink."

Dace didn't have any alcohol in his apartment, he never drank. Hoping to find a place that was open late he grabbed his coat and headed out. It wasn't raining, but it had been and the sidewalks were wet. The street lamps caused the wet pavement to glitter and the still air allowed the scent of wet pavement to invade Dace's senses taking him mentally back to the concrete and steel cage he'd just escaped. Lost in thought Dace just kept walking. He wasn't sure how long he wandered the dark and mostly deserted city streets in the pre dawn hours. He wasn't even sure exactly where he was when he finally paid attention to his surroundings.

Looking around the back alley Dace decided that he should just go home, or possibly a hospital. Stepping down off the curb to cross the street a wet sheet of paper stuck to the bottom of his shoe. Glancing down Dace furrowed his brow at the image that looked up at him from the page. Moving his foot he bent down and picked up the glossy flyer. The outline of the woman in the black dress stabbed at his memory as he recalled River turning to look back at him. Staring at the image he didn't even notice as it started to rain once again.

"Miranda Afterglow...the Golden Nightingale."