I don't remember how long it's been since I updated, but if it's been more than a week, then I apologize. Thank you so much by the way for all the reviews, watches and faves! I appreciate them so much! Jelly-babies for everyone. :P

I hope this isn't too short. I'll try to start making them longer.

Unless you guys like the length. Just let me know :)

Madame Kovarian was occupying a ridiculously secure base on Destina, a small planet just on the outskirts of Galaxy Seven. She had spared no expense and pulled out all the stops, ranging from the highest grade alarms, cameras and locks, to guard dogs and fully equipped security guards to ensure her security was impenetrable.

It apparently wasn't enough, because he was sitting in her chair when she walked into her office, legs up on the desk, swiveling himself from side to side like a bored child.

She stood at the door, staring at him for a while with an unreadable expression. If she was surprised or concerned that he had showed up there, she was doing a good job of hiding it from him.

"You're the wrong Doctor," she stated.

"Hello to you, too," he greeted pleasantly, ceasing his spinning and standing up. He extended his hand to her.

He was surprised that she actually shook it, but didn't let it show on his face. He stepped away and offered her chair back to her, then sat down in the chair across from hers, crossing one leg over his knee.

Careful. She's as mean as she looks, the Doctor told him.

She looks pretty mean, James said.

Exactly.

He eyed her warily, but kept up his bored demeanor.

She took her time, finishing up what she had actually gone into her office to do. She made a few short calls, looked over a few files on the holographic computer that hovered over her desk and then finally nestled more comfortably in her chair, crossing her legs and lacing her fingers, resting her hands on her bare knee.

He couldn't help but feel nervous when she finally looked at him, smiling eerily. "This isn't part of your timeline, so how is that you're here?"

James shrugged. "Future me needed a hand."

He heard the Doctor laugh in his mind at the unintentional inside-joke and it took a little effort on his part not to smile.

"There's no record of this happening in your timeline," Madame Kovarian pointed out.

"Well, there wouldn't be. Hadn't happened yet."

She arched a brow at him.

"Timey-wimey," he said, as though that should be a sufficient explanation.

She seemed to accept it for the time being. She spent a few moments staring at him through the one eye that didn't have a silly looking eye patch, probably sizing him up. "So you've seen your future self then? Wouldn't the paradox that would create destroy the universe or something alike?"

"I've done it before and the universe didn't explode."

"Wasn't that different?"

"Not really."

Madame Kovarian smiled at him. "So has your future self brought you up to speed on the situation?" she asked, saying "future self" with a sneer.

Just say yes. It's easier.

I've got it, Doctor.

Right. Sorry. Continue.

He nodded.

She stared at him again. "And that's why you're here."

"Obviously," he said.

"Were you not concerned that we would kill you?"

"Not really. Your Silence have been around for a while... a long while. If you had wanted me dead back then, you would have done it. Could have done it. Quite easily. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it was important to wait until my eleventh regeneration. Why is the tricky part."

"What do you suppose, then, Doctor?"

James shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "There could be a lot of reasons, but if I had to guess?" he drawled, pursing his lips and looking up at the ceiling in thought, then, "I would say you needed certain events to happen before you could make a move against me."

"Very good," she said, her smile taking on yet another chilling degree of eerie. "Yes, there were certain things that needed to come to pass. Events that needed to be stopped by you in order for us to proceed. For example-"

He stopped her by raising a hand. "Oh, no need to go into details."

Her brow rose in surprise. "I thought you would be interested."

"That's very thoughtful of you, but you risk telling me something I haven't done yet, and that would be potentially paradoxal, something I'm trying very hard to avoid, for obvious reasons."

Ooh nice touch.

She nodded. "Of course." She smiled again at him. "You know... I quite like you. You're far more... tolerable."

Well, how rude! I've been nothing but pleasant to her... well, most of the time... some of the time... a few times... once or twice... the first time I met her.

Shh!

"I'm flattered," he said, grinning. "Charming. That's me."

She leaned forward. "That's not to say that you aren't an enemy. It was foolish of you to come here." She eyed him like a cat does a mouse. "Now tell me... where is the Doctor?"

He lifted his hands, palms up and opened his arms a bit.

"Your future self," she amended.

Don't tell her where I am!

I know Doctor! Will you be quiet and let me handle it?

I'm sorry. I'll stop talking.

"Oh, him! Not sure. Could be anywhere," he replied calmly, shrugging his shoulders in an oblivious gesture.

Her smile faltered. "Surely you don't think I believe you came alone."

"Some people don't believe in unicorns, but it doesn't mean they're not real."

"They're not," Madame Kovarian said.

"If that's what you want to believe," he replied evenly.

She frowned at him. "Just because I can't kill you doesn't mean I can't hurt you. It would be wise of you to answer my question."

"I've been called a lot of things, but wise has never been one of them. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever been called wise," he said in surprise, searching his memories for a moment. When he couldn't come up with anything, he shrugged and looked at her. "Isn't that interesting?"

"You're starting to test my patience, Doctor" Madame Kovarian said dangerously.

"I've had people say that to me before," James said. "I've also been called bonkers. And a dumbo. And mad. I've been called that one several times. You know I've actually been called pretty boy before? I wouldn't call myself a pretty boy. Sexy, yes, but pretty boy?"

"I take it back. I don't like you," she said, her voice becoming steely. "Did you come here just to be a nuisance?"

"Not this time, no," James said, letting his elevated leg drop to the floor and leaning forward in the chair. "I actually came to talk about your hit-man."

At the mere mention of him, Madame Kovarian's face grew cold with absolute loathing and her whole body seemed to stiffen.

"You know, I'm surprised you haven't fired him yet," James mused. "You obviously hate him. He's probably given you a lot of trouble and not just by humiliating you and taking a big fat chunk of your funds, but he's probably stirred up a lot of dissension among your... um... what would you call them? Would you call them minions?"

Her eyes were boring into him, cold and dangerous and it took a huge effort of will to keep from leaning back away from her. Instead, he met her gaze, not allowing any emotion into his eyes.

After what felt like ages, but was really only a few seconds, she spoke, jaw tight so that she was barely opening her mouth, "He's good at what he does. He'll get the job done."

He tilted his head. "But you don't want him to. If he succeeds, it will mar your reputation... maybe even ruin it. So why keep playing along?"

She stared at him silently.

And then it hit him. "Ooh... you're not playing along, are you? He's got you cornered, somehow. You actually can't fire him, can you? You can't even kill him. He's got you stuck."

She was glaring daggers, but they weren't really directed at James. "He got the Papal Mainframe to go along with him. I can't do anything without their agreement."

"Clever," James commended.

"He was very careful in his planning," Madame Kovarian admitted.

"Apparently. What do you know about him?"

Madame Kovarian laughed and it wasn't in the least bit pleasant. It was a cackling laughter, very much like a witch.

James just stared at her, trying very hard not to grimace.

"Oh, no, Doctor. I'm not going to help you so easily. I've told you only what you need to know; that he's going to do everything he can to kill you. If you want to know anything else about him, you'll have to try and ask him yourself."

James frowned, then shrugged, standing up from his chair. "Well, I appreciate your time anyway. I'd say it was nice meeting you, but it wasn't. In fact, it was a little unpleasant. You might consider getting rid of the eye patch. It adds a creepy factor that I just can't get over," he said, adjusting his trench coat so that it sat on his shoulders more comfortably. He turned, about to leave.

"And where do you think you're going?"

He looked around at her, pointed a thumb towards the door, "I'm about to go meet up with the Doctor."

"You think I'm just going to let you leave?"

"Weeell, I was hoping."

"I'm afraid I can't have you interfering," she said.

"I'm not interfering. I'm just trying to foil your plans." He paused, pursing his lips in thought. "Oh, wait... that's interfering... Okay, you got me, I'm interfering," he conceded.

"You're not leaving here," Madame Kovarian said.

He smiled. "Yes, I am. Because I have people that need me to protect them. And not you, or the Silence, or anyone else, is going to stand in my way."

And on that climactic note... Geronimo!

The lights went out.

The tall uniformed man walked up the hall towards the control room, swinging his arms back and forth, tilting his head up slightly so that he could see past the uniform cap that had been pulled down too far on his head.

The two guards standing at their post at the door to the security room watched him, one holding out his hand to stop him from entering.

"Hello, fellow guard people," the new guard said pleasantly.

"Where do you think you're going? This area is restricted."

"Is it?" the new guard replied. "Even for us?"

"Yes."

"He must be new," the other guard told his fellow.

The guard at the door frowned. "Where are you posted?" he asked, then glanced down at the officer's uniform, frowning when he looked at his shoes. "Those boots aren't standard regulation."

"Hm? Oh, these? I thought the other ones were rubbish. Far too heavy. These are more comfortable. I run in these."

The two guards looked at him, perplexed.

"You can't pick and choose what you get to wear! And what's wrong with your hat?"

"I like it this way. It's cool this way."

"You can't see. It's covered half your face."

"Oh yes, well, I have severe case of Pseudohypoparathyroidism. It's very unsightly. I've developed boils, my skin's starting to turn green and there's something that looks distinctly like bubble wrap. Believe me, it's better if I keep my hat over it. It may be contagious... but if you insist that I take my hat off..."

The two guards exchanged looks of fear and started backing away from him as he approached. "Um... no, that's fine. Keep the hat on..."

The guard suddenly started to cough uncontrollably, speaking in between each one that caused his body to double over spasmodically, "Oh no! I think... it's going... into phase... two!"

The guards' eyes widened and they covered their mouths.

"I'd get... to the... infirmary... if I we-... were you! It's too late for... me!" guard coughed and spluttered.

They didn't need much convincing. Dropping their guns so that they hung over their shoulders by the straps, the guards ran down the hall, holding their shirts over their mouths and coughing.

Rory and Amy peeked out from a corner.

"I can't believe that worked," Rory said, stunned. "Why are they coughing? You're not actually sick. Is Pseudo-whatever-it-was even actually an illness?"

"Yes, but nothing like what I was describing," the Doctor said, grinning like a loon, flicking his hat up so that it was out of his eyes. "They're experiencing Hypochondriasis. They became sick because they thought that's what would happen. But they'll be fine. Don't worry. They'll get down to the medical bay and find out nothing's wrong with them. Which is why we need to hurry." He walked past them, sonic-ed the door and stepped inside, wringing his hands excitedly as he looked around at all the controls and computer consoles.

The room wasn't very big and most of the space was occupied by three long consoles covered in little nobs, colorfully blinking buttons and dials. Above the consoles were three huge screens, each one split into twenty sections of camera angles. There was another screen off to the right that was currently running a screen saver.

The two men sitting in the room turned around, took one look at him, and stood up abruptly. "Hey! It's you!"

"It is. Hello. I see introductions aren't needed," the Doctor said. "Shame, though. I like saying my name."

The two men at the computer consoles gave each other alarmed looks and then turned around at their computers, frantically typing something.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic and aimed it at their equipment, which sparked and zapped them, making them jump out of their chairs in fright.

Rory stepped inside and aimed a gun at them (which was actually just a toy with the red tip removed, but they didn't know that). "Don't move," he said.

They nodded, complying immediately.

The Doctor clapped his hands. "Alright! Good. Amy, can you help me with these?"

While Amy and Rory tied up the two men to a pipe with some cords they found, the Doctor stepped into the control room and then sonic-ed the door closed behind them. He then plopped himself down on one of the chairs at the security desk. He popped his fingers and looked at the huge monitor above him. "Let's see if we can't take care of these cameras... oh, what am I saying? Of course I can." His fingers flew over the console for a second and then each camera flickered.

He then glanced up at one of the camera angles near the center of the screen, where he could see James and Madame Kovarian in her office, talking.

Careful, the Doctor told him, she's as mean as she looks.

She looks pretty mean.

Exactly.

The Doctor, Amy and Rory watched the screen as Madame Kovarian appeared to ignore James completely. It was several minutes before she finally sat down.

"What are they doing?" Amy asked, eyes fixed on Madame Kovarian.

"Just talking for now," the Doctor said.

"For now?" Rory asked.

The Doctor nodded, then suddenly laughed.

Rory and Amy gave him puzzled looks.

"What's so funny?" Rory asked.

The Doctor looked at them as though he'd just noticed they were there and managed to get over his fit of giggles. "Oh, nothing. Just something James said. Inside joke."

"Are you reading lips? Because there's no sound," Rory said.

The Doctor tapped the side of his head with two fingers. "We're communicating with a telepathic link between just the two of us."

"Can you hear what she's saying?" Amy asked.

The Doctor shook his head. "No. Just James. It's- hold on," he said, then went quiet for a minute before continuing, "It's sort of like the channels on a walkie-talkie, except... not really like that at all."

"Thank you for explaining that so well," Amy said with a roll of her eyes.

They watched the screen as the two talked back and forth and Amy and Rory would occasionally look over at the Doctor when he'd make faces as though he were in the middle of a conversation. At one point a panicked look came over the Doctor's face, but it quickly subsided.

The Doctor suddenly smiled. It made him look very much like a father. A proud one. He looked down at the dials and buttons in front of him and began letting his fingers loose among them. "And on that climactic note... Geronimo!" and with that, he put out the lights.

Reviews and comments are SUPER appreciated! They also help me through writer's block when it rears its ugly head. :)