The door to the morgue opened slowly as Teddy's head appeared around it. He smiled upon seeing that no one was there. He looked at the sonic in his hand, grateful that pickpocketing was one of his favorite hobbies. Yestin hadn't even noticed him leaving, much less taking the funny pen thing.

Teddy wasn't so sure the Doctor was dead. Katie had talked about him as though he were invincible, so he couldn't really be gone. After all, the good guys never die, right?

Finding the dented door didn't take too long. He zapped it with the pen, liking the whirring noise it made. The door swung open and the tray slid out automatically. Teddy stood on his toes, looking at the Doctor's face. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now.

The Doctor took a great, heaving breath, nearly choking on the air. Teddy grinned. "I knew it! I knew you were still alive!"

The Doctor pushed himself up on his elbows, looking quizzically at the boy. "What are you doing here?" He looked around. "Am I in the morgue?"

"Yep. The staff musta poisoned you or something. Kat said something about…sala-cycle acid and she thinks you're dead, but I knew better."

The Doctor seemed to get a shot of adrenaline because he quickly got off the sliding tray. It was more of a roll, and he couldn't really stand straight, but his eyes and mind were certainly not asleep.

"Where is she?"

"I dunno. She told me and some guy named Yestin to get out, because she was going to do something really horrid." Teddy looked questioningly at the Doctor. "Doctor, Kat was acting really weird when you were dead."

"Weird how?"

"Her eyes were all different colors, and she looked really angry."

The Doctor seemed worried for a moment, then noticed the sonic in Teddy's hand. "Why do you have that?"
"Kat gave it to Yestin to get out, and I took it from him."

The Doctor took the sonic back from Teddy, and seemed about to say something when Teddy asked another question. "Doctor, what's the Scorch Project?"

"How do you know about that?"

"Kat said she had something to do with it."

The Doctor stared at the back wall of the morgue. "They found her."

"Who found her?"

The Doctor suddenly bent to be on eye level with Teddy, grabbing his shoulders. "Tedeschi, I want you to leave. I want you to get out of here and don't try coming back."

"What about Kat?"

"I'm going to save her, I promise, but this is…" the Doctor's voice trailed off, not sure how to explain.

"It's big?" Teddy offered.

"Yes."

"Is this the part where the hero saves the girl and beats the bad guys against all odds?" The Doctor couldn't help but smile.

"Yes. This is that part. Now go."

The Doctor used the sonic to follow the energy spike that was Katie, growing increasingly disturbed by the amount of bodies along the way. He'd counted four so far, and had no doubts there would be more.

He found the sixth one in front of a door down in the basement. The lock had been shot off the door, another sign that Katie was inside. He hoped she didn't still have the gun, but doubted it. Why carry weapons when you are one?

The Doctor opened the door to the room, revealing some kind of scientific laboratory. It was mostly machines that reminded him vaguely of cyber converters, but he didn't really care about that at the moment. What drew his attention was the unconscious Katie in the chair, and Randalls over behind a table working on something. He looked up, seeming a little peeved.

"I had hoped you'd stay in the morgue for a few more hours. Oh well, we must work with these things as they come up." He bent back down. "You may as well take her. There were one or two more things I wanted to do, but the most important part is over."

The Doctor was slightly taken aback. He had expected a confrontation. He always had one. No one ever just returned his friends. Usually they fought and he was forced to destroy them to save a planet or something.

Randalls looked back up at him and nodded towards Katie. "Go on. I'm not going to stop you. It would be useless to try. I have to thank you for bringing her though. I'm glad I had a chance to look her over. It is good to see my creation working so well."

"You made her?" the Doctor asked. Randalls smiled, looking almost like a proud parent.

"I certainly did. There were others helping of course, but I was the lead designer. Took nearly twenty years, but we finished her." Randalls pointed sternly at the Doctor with the instrument in his hand. "Take care of her. She was expensive, and I can't have her getting damaged yet."

The Doctor walked cautiously over to the table and pulled over a nearby stool, perching on it and facing Randalls. "Why? What is she for?"

"Come now, you went through all those files on her," Randalls said, spinning away on his chair to the table behind him to put something into an electronic pad. "Venture a guess."

"I know what she does; should have seen it earlier really. What I want to know is why. There was nothing on the end result. Why go through all that trouble to make her?"

"That piece of information is the most safeguarded secret known to the Rahki, and only a handful of us really know." Randalls locked eyes with the Doctor. "In other words, I wasn't told what she's for. Only what she had to do." He turned away from the Doctor again.

"Once I leave, what will you do?"

"We're finished with our tests here, so I'll be leaving. Frankly, I'll be glad to get home."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment. If he was honest with himself, he didn't know what to do. Everywhere he went, the people he was fighting protested until the end, struggling so hard that they died. No one ever just gave up, and no one turned their back on him. It wasn't a matter of pride; he was just too dangerous to look away from. So…now what?

"I'd be much obliged if you'd leave, Doctor," Randalls said, his voice taking on a tight sound.

"That eager to be rid of me?"

"In truth, yes. None of the Rahki much like you Doctor, and on a personal level you make me…uneasy."

"What are you going to do with the energy you've been storing here?"

"I'll take it with me when I leave. Having gone through the trouble to harvest it, it would be a shame to let it go to waste. It'll be put to good use."

"What is 'good use'?"

"I'd tell you, but that would require knowing the end result." Randalls gestured at Katie. "Take her! I can't finish what I was planning with you here, so you might as well have her."

The Doctor got up off his stool and went over to Katie, releasing her from the chair. She still hadn't moved.

"How did you manage to put her out?" the Doctor asked.

"Small electric shock. It overloads her cells. A short circuit, if you want to put it that way. She'll be alright soon."

The Doctor absorbed this information and picked Katie up bridal style. She was much lighter than he had thought she would be.

"Doctor," Randalls said suddenly. The Doctor turned back to face him.

"A piece of sporting advice; her temporal side is almost done charging. We'll be running into each other again very soon, and when that happens things aren't going to be nearly as pleasant. Enjoy the time you have left together."

Teddy waited just up the hill, watching the front door of the Institute, waiting for something spectacular to occur. Maybe the entire building would burst into flames, or maybe collapse in on itself, or maybe it would simply explode. It would be so cool, whatever it was.

He was puzzled when the Doctor came out the front door, pushing Katie in a hoverchair. He was walking, as though nothing had really happened, just another person taking a relative out. He took a turn and headed up the hill, though Teddy didn't think it was because he had seen him. After all, it was still pretty dark, and Teddy had night vision goggles to help him see.

Katie started to move in the chair, as if she was waking up. The Doctor flipped some sort of lever on the hoverchair and it set itself down as he moved in front of the chair to face Katie. Teddy just knew that whatever it was they were going to talk about would be important, so he dug through his backpack and pulled out his long range listening device. He had had to save up for six months to buy it, but it was worth every credit. Teddy quickly put it in his ear and turned the dish towards Katie and the Doctor, watching them through the goggles.

Katie woke up slowly, her head foggy. It took longer to recover from the electric shock than before, and she wondered why.

"Kathryn? Can you hear me?"

She immediately recognized the Doctor's voice, and her head cleared instantly. Before she knew she had done it, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"You're alive! Oh hallelujah, you're alive!"

The Doctor embraced her as well, not saying anything. He could only think of the files he'd seen, wondering if he should tell her. She pulled back and put her hands on either side of his face, her eyes demanding his attention.

"Don't you ever, ever, ever do that to me again. Do you hear me? Don't you ever die on me again."

He smiled. "No promises."

"NO. Don't you ever say that. Don't even joke." She hugged him again, and he could hear the tears in her voice as she spoke. "Don't. Just don't. I can't lose you like that again."

"Oh, come on, I'm not that easy to kill."

"Stop it," Katie commanded. "Just stop. It isn't funny." She let go of him suddenly. "Where's Randalls?"

"Down in the basement Lab."

"Did he hurt you?"

"That's usually my question."

"Well now I'm the one asking. Did he hurt you?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. I came in as he was working on something and he told me to take you."

"And what did you do to him?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Katie asked incredulously.

"Kathryn, he wasn't a danger."

"What the hell do you mean, not a danger?" she shouted, her demeanor shifting. "He's been killing hundreds of people down there! You can't just let him continue!"

"He's finished Kathryn."

"So he is dead."

"No! But he's done with his work. He'll be gone in the morning. So will most of the staff. They're finished."

"You can't just let him go!" Katie protested. "Tell me you at least found a way to get rid of the energy he's stored up."

"No."

"What! Doctor, that's the life blood of hundreds of victims, and you're letting him keep it?"

"If I'd gotten rid of it, they would only have gone somewhere else."

"Do you have any idea what he's going to do with it?"

"No," the Doctor lied, "but it isn't worth hundreds of more lives to collect it again!"

"They're the ones who slaughtered the E'akru! There's thousands dead right there, plus all the pain they went through at the hospital! You heard the song then Doctor, don't you dare deny it. He's at fault for it!"

"Not by the laws of his people."

"Since when have you cared about planetary law? You always said that you were the law!"

"And…what?" the Doctor asked. "I should start executing people because I don't like what they've done?"

"Haven't you always done that?"

The Doctor couldn't have looked worse than if Katie had punched him. She looked away, trying to calm down, obviously regretting her words but too proud to apologize.

"Doctor, he's the lead designer on the Scorch Project," Katie said, trying to convince him. "Whatever he's got that stuff for, it's not good. We just—"

"What are you looking for, Kathryn?" the Doctor said, his voice caring a deadly note. "Revenge? Satisfaction?"

"I thought they'd killed you!"

"How many Kathryn?" the Doctor demanded. "How many more will satisfy you? I counted six bodies on the way to retrieve you, obviously not dead by normal means."

"There was—"

"Six Kathryn. Six more to add to the hundreds this place has already claimed. How many more will it take to satisfy your bloodlust? How many deaths will it take? Randalls? The staff? The entire race?"

Katie stared at him, unable to look away but obviously scared. For once, the Doctor was glad to have someone scared of him. She had to stop, and maybe now it would stick.

He did a half turn, as if preparing to walk away. "I don't care how loudly you protest. You are as human as they come, Kavrin," he said, biting out her old nickname.

Teddy set down the goggles as the Doctor walked off, leaving Katie standing alone. Now he was confused. He thought that Katie and the Doctor were the good guys. Could he have been that wrong?

*Constructive critisisim welcome, praise happily accepted, flames not wanted*