Sorry for the wait! The next storyline's been giving me a bit of trouble. Enjoy the second half of Asylum!

The Dalek Asylum. They were in the Dalek Asylum and had been separated from their friends. To make things even better, Jay was with the member of the group who probably - as rude as it felt to even think it - would have been his last pick to be stranded with alone in a hostile environment.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

"So what now?"

Aliya didn't answer his question, and instead was inching towards the Dalek nearest to her with her arm outstretched. She was biting down hard on her lip, and looked ready to burst into tears from how much she didn't want to do whatever it was she was doing. In fact, there were a few tears in her eyes.

Finally her hand met the bronze casing and she was able to push the Dalek back a few feet. Her body relaxed a fraction.

"Definitely not active, at least for the moment," she said to Jay with relief.

"You're really terrified of these things, aren't you?"

"Whatever gave it away?" She asked wryly. As she came to stand next to him, she wordlessly took his hand in hers like she had on the parliament ship. They cast their eyes around the room at the various Daleks just sitting there, unmoving. "These things tore down my home world like they had done to so many before, so many since, and will do to countless others. The only thing I have to be thankful for is that I wasn't there to see it."

"Where were you?"

She opened her mouth to answer, only to freeze. Jay followed her gaze to a Dalek whose eyestalk had begun to glow blue. She put a finger to her lips with the hand that wasn't holding his and began to very slowly pull him towards the far door with the one that was.

Around them, the other Daleks began booting up, the glows returning to their eyestalks as well.

"EG, EG, EG, EG," the first one said. "EG, EG, EG, EG, EG."

"Er, what?" Jay asked, frowning at it. "Does it want eggs?"

Aliya looked at him like he'd lost his mind. "No, Jay, it doesn't want eggs! That's just the beginning of their favourite word!"

"EG. STIR. MIN. ATE."

"Did it just say what I think it said?"

"EX-TERM-IN-ATE."

"EX-TERM-IN-ATE!"

"Yes, it is, now run!" Aliya shouted, all need for stealth gone as the Daleks started firing at them, the bolts of light that were probably death rays missing Jay's head by only a foot.

"Keep going to the door at the end!" A voice said over the intercom. Oswin. "They're waking up, but they're slow. Just keep running!"

"Way ahead of you!" Aliya replied. Jay yanked her out of the path of a Dalek blast just in time, and then to the floor so that they could slide underneath the partially open door.

It shut behind them and they lay on the floor, panting.

"Thanks," Aliya said, shutting her eyes for a moment and getting her bearings while Jay got back to his feet and offered her a hand up.

"No problem."

"So, anyway, I'm Oswin. What do I call you two?"

"Jay."

"Aliya."

"Aw, lovely names. First girl I ever fancied was called Aliya. Well, no, she was called Nina. There was a nice boy called James as well, though. That's close to Jay."

"How nice for you," Aliya said politely.

"Just flirting to keep you cheerful."

Through the door, the Daleks could still be heard. "EX-TERM-IN-ATE. EX-TERM-IN-ATE." Aliya folded her arms over her chest and took a deep breath in what had to be an attempt to keep calm.

"Feel free to keep the flirting up, Oswin, I'd appreciate it," she said, swallowing.

"Can do, beautiful."

Aliya's eyebrow arched, but the corner of her lips quirked into the fraction of a smile - the first since before they had landed on Skaro.

Jay was relieved, because she was so scared that it made him want to reassure or protect her, but that notion was simply too ridiculous. Firstly because she was obviously the more knowledgeable of the two of them when it came to Daleks, and he wasn't going to be any decent defense against death rays. Secondly because he'd realised he already thought of her as the mother figure of their little group. She was the one always trying to keep him and Jenny safe, not the other way around.

"Oswin?" Aliya asked after no more quips or instructions came. "Hm. Must be somewhere else. Helping the Doctor and Jenny, maybe. I hope they're together too." She looked at Jay. "You make sure you stay where I can see you."

He laughed at her. "Yes, Mom, because I was really going to run off."

She blinked at him, clearly thrown by his joke, and something flashed through her eyes that made him wonder if perhaps it had been a mistake. But then she softened and smiled at him.

"It's funny you said that, actually," she said, glancing at the floor as she folded her arms over her chest, "I was telling the Doctor just the other day that you remind me of my son."

Caught off guard by that, Jay had no idea how to respond. "Oh," was all that came out of his mouth. She has a son? How old is he? Where is he?

"You have the exact same look of surprise that he used to get. Absolutely identical even though the two of you couldn't look more different overall," Aliya said, smiling, "And you're the kind of young man I like to think he would have been."

Oh. He suddenly remembered her words in Manuel's cabin. I never got to raise any of my kids, remember?

"Korean with sick guitar skills?" Jay asked lightly, making her laugh.

"Definitely the qualities I was referring to," she said, grinning at him, "But there are a few others in your favour too."

"Not to interrupt...whatever this is, but there's a door behind you I need you guys to go through," Oswin said to them. They sobered a little, remembering where they were.

"Thanks," Jay said as they went through the door that she lifted for them.

"Great. Now, pop your shirts off, quick as you like."

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Does there have to be a reason?"

Aliya snorted and shook her head before bending to example the circular piece of technology that formed a sort of platform near their feet. "I think this is a teleport." When nothing more came from Oswin, she added, "She's as bad as River. Well, no, she's not, but she's only just met us, so it evens out."

"Bit of a chick magnet, are you?" Jay teased.

She turned pink and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No. Maybe a little. Only when it's no good to me, apparently!"

"Why's it no good to you?"

She gave him a funny look. "Well, there's a multitude of reasons, one of the most obvious being that neither weird girls in the Dalek Asylum nor your best friend's wife are great romantic prospects."

"Fair point."

"Plus I'm-" Embarrassment crossed her face again and she made some non-committal hand gestures. "Demi. Really, painfully demi, in all respects."

Jay in that moment immensely thankful for his sister's educating him on LGBTQ matters. "Ah. You don't need to be ashamed of that."

"Oh, I'm not," she said quickly, "It's common for my people, we just...aren't good about talking about this sort of thing. I don't even know why I just told you that, I'll never understand your species' need to advertise sexuality, when really it only concerns me and, well-"

An explosion back in the direction they had come rocked the room.

"Oswin? What was that?"

When the doors opened, Jay went to run and see, but Aliya grabbed him by his t-shirt and shook her head. Eventually, through the smoke, the Doctor emerged and entered the corridor, a groggy Jenny in his arms.

"Oh, thank god," Jay said as they came into the teleport room, but took another look at Jenny and frowned. "What happened to her?"

"She got her wristband taken from her," the Doctor explained, setting her down gently on the teleport pad. "She started hallucinating. Losing some of her finer mental faculties."

"Why?"

"That's what the nanocloud is, it's a bunch of tiny robots that convert any organic matter into a Dalek puppet. That's why we were given the wristbands in the first place." As the Doctor spoke, he took off his own and put it on Jenny's wrist. "There. She should be alright soon."

"But now you're going to start converting," Oswin said, sounding alarmed.

"Nah," the Doctor said, grinning, "Time Lord. We're not so easily taken over. Never really needed mine, but the Daleks up above didn't need to know that."

"Besides, subtracting love and adding anger is how you make a Dalek," Aliya said, eyes on the floor, "That's not something that he'll let happen. I'm not convinced Jenny would have gone easily either."

The Doctor glanced at her hopefully. "Does this mean you're not angry with me anymore?"

She didn't even gratify that with an answer, simply giving him a look that made it entirely clear to everyone present that she very much was.

"How about you, Oswin?" The Doctor asked, turning to the nearby speaker instead. "How come you're okay?"

"I mentioned the genius thing, yeah? Shielded in here."

"Clever of you. Now, this place. The Daleks said it was fully automated. Look at it, it's a wreck."

"Well, I've had nearly a year to mess with them, and not a lot else to do."

"A junior entertainment manager hiding out in a wrecked ship, hacking the security systems of the most advanced warrior race the universe has ever seen," the Doctor summarised, visibly impressed, "But you know what really gets me about you, Oswin? The souffles. Where do you get milk for the souffles?" He looked at his friends, who were frowning at him. "Seriously. Is no one else wondering about that?"

"No, I'm a little preoccupied with being in the middle of the Dalek Asylum with no TARDIS," Aliya said scathingly.

"So, Doctor, I've been looking you up," Oswin said, "You're all over the database. Why do the Daleks call you the Predator?"

"I'm not the Predator, I'm just a man with a plan."

"You've got a plan?" Oswin asked at the same time Jay did.

The Doctor smiled. "In no particular order, we need to neutralise all the Daleks in the Asylum, rescue Oswin from the wreckage, escape the planet, and maybe in the process think of a gesture that might help Aliya forgive me for getting us into this mess."

Aliya rolled her eyes. "Let's just worry about the first three for now, alright?"

"Seconded," Jenny groaned as she came to and pushed herself up onto her elbows. Aliya moved to sit on the edge of the teleport near her, so that she could bring Jenny's head to her lap and stroke back some of her hair.

"Hey, slowly," she said softly, "You got Dalek nanogenes in your head, that can't have been fun."

"No, it wasn't."

"Wait, but if Time Lords are immune, why did it affect you?" Jay asked Jenny, confused as he glanced up at the Doctor. The man in the bowtie was busy explaining to Oswin that the Daleks above were waiting for him to turn off the forcefield so they could blow up the planet, with them on it, and asking how quickly she could drop said forcefield.

"I'm not a Time Lord," Jenny said weakly, "I just have some of the base genetic components. Biologically Gallifreyan, not a Time Lord. It's complicated and I don't entirely get it myself."

"Oh."

"Once the forcefield is down, I can use it to beam us right off this planet," the Doctor was meanwhile saying, and Jay figured he had to be talking about the teleport they were currently sitting on.

"Wait, but you said the Daleks would blow us up as soon as they can," he said.

"We'll have to be quick."

"That's reassuring," Jay replied, lifting his eyebrows, "Where are we teleporting up to?"

"Only place within range. The Dalek ship."

"They'll kill us on the spot," Aliya pointed out, frowning, "I'm all for any kind of escape plan, but this is sounding like one that will only keep us alive for about ten more seconds."

"What's wrong with ten seconds?" The Doctor grinned at her. "You can do loads in ten seconds. Oswin, how fast can you drop the forcefield?"

"I can do it from here, as soon as you come and get me."

"No, just drop the forcefield and come to us."

"There's enough power in that teleport for one go. Why would you wait for me?"

The Doctor blinked at her question. He seemed genuinely surprised that she would ask, and stared at the speaker where her voice was coming through as if somehow it would give him the ability to see through it and understand her mistrust of him. "Why wouldn't I?"

"No idea. Never met you. Sending you a map so you can come get me."

"This place is filled with Daleks!" Aliya protested.

"Yeah. Kind of why I'm anxious to leave. Come up and see me sometime."

"You're going, aren't you," Aliya said to the Doctor, with a resigned look. He pointed out that he didn't have much of a choice. "Okay, well, I'll stay here with these two. Safer that way."

Jay also figured her decision had a fair bit to do with it meaning her getting to opt out of encountering any more Daleks directly for the moment, but didn't point that out.

"Good plan," the Doctor said to her, and knelt to make some adjustments to the wiring of the teleport before using his sonic on it for good measure, "Now, as soon as the forcefield is down, the Daleks attack. If it gets too explodey-wodey in here, you go without me, okay?"

"That's not happening," Aliya said, with Jenny echoing similar sentiment at the same time.

"Aliya-"

"Don't Aliya me, just make sure you hurry back so that we don't have to argue about this, alright?" She told him firmly.

His shoulders sank in defeat, but then he smirked. "Careful. You'll make me think you're worried about me."

"Get going before I throw something at you," she replied, glaring until he did exactly that. The moment he was gone, she muttered 'insufferable prat' under her breath.

"And calm," Jenny said, lifting an eyebrow at her.

"He doesn't make that an easy concept for me."

"I can't believe the most deadly race in the universe are giant bronze pepper pots with guns that look like whisks." Jay muttered, more to himself than them.

Jenny gave him a grim smile while Aliya simply snorted. "Dangerous things don't always look it. Stick around with us long enough, you'll see a lot of examples of that."

"Right, because that's why I travel with you guys, for the homicidal aliens. You feeling better?" Jay asked. She nodded and sat up, stretching her limbs and sighing.

"How much longer do you think Dad will be?"

"I don't know," Aliya said, worry crossing her face, "We're not the ones with the map, we don't know how far he has to go to get her. Or how many Daleks there are along the way."

"But he'll be okay, they're scared of him, they call him the Predator," Jay pointed out, "Which, by the way, is kind of freaky, or would be if he weren't so, you know. Him."

"Predators aren't invincible." Aliya ran a hand through her hair as she got back to her feet. "I shouldn't have let him go on his own, you two would have been fine here, I should have-" She trailed off, a desperate hopelessness to her. "I don't know. I should have done something."

"No offense, Aliya, but you wouldn't really be any help to him," Jenny said, giving her a sympathetic look, "Probably the opposite. I don't think any of us going would have helped."

"Yeah, I know," the other blonde whispered.

Jay couldn't help but find her change in tune rather amusing. "I thought you were angry with him because it's his fault we're in this mess?"

Aliya laughed lightly. "Oh, I am. That doesn't mean I could stand anything actually happening to him. I'm very capable of worrying about him while furious with him."

"He'll be fine," Jenny assured her, "He's the Doctor. Surviving is what he does."

"Is it?" Jay was vaguely relieved when they both nodded at him. "Oh. Well, that's good to know, I guess."

That was when the room shook. Jay nearly fell on his face but managed to right himself just in time. It remained less stable as Jenny also got to her feet and grabbed the small box with the button that would teleport them away.

"So that'll be the ship overheard starting their attack," she said, frowning. "Dad better be close by."

"We're teleporting back to the Dalek ship, right?" Jay asked. "What are our chances of surviving that, exactly? You didn't seem too hopeful, before, Aliya."

"I was just being ...prickly," Aliya said, and a tiny glint entered her eye, "If I know the Doctor, there'll be something he hasn't told us yet, maybe because he's not sure he can pull it off."

"That would be very Dad," Jenny agreed.

"Well, that would be good," Jay said, making a face, "Don't really want to get killed by a bunch of angry pepper pots."

That was when the door slid open and the Doctor ran in, with no small number of explosions going off behind him. They all let out breaths of relief and Jenny readied herself to press the button as soon as he got onto the pad.

"Wait, where's Oswin?" Jay asked, realising he was alone.

"Not coming, I'm afraid."

"Did you cut it close enough?!" Aliya asked the Doctor, her jibe not carrying much weight when she was laughing from sheer relief at the same time. The moment he stepped onto the pad she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely. He let his face drop into the crook of her neck as he hugged her back just as hard.

"Jenny, the teleport," Jay reminded his friend, and she looked away from her father and was quick to press the button.

It took a few seconds to work, but then light flared and next thing Jay knew they were in the TARDIS. He laughed with relief and was quick to hug Jenny in his excitement about still being alive.

Nearby, he heard the Doctor say, "Er, Aliya, not that this isn't nice, but there's still the problem of the whole Dalek parliament outside."

Aliya opened her eyes without letting go of him and blinked with obvious surprise. "Oh. Not dead, and not about to be dead because not in Dalek parliament. That's nice."

He laughed at her as he pulled away, and tapped her on the nose. "Thought you might appreciate it. Won't be a second, I just need to check something."

He moved to turn on the scanner, and Dalek voices immediately came through. They seemed confused as to what and who had just teleported out of the Asylum.

"You know, you guys should really have seen this coming," he said to them through the comm, "The thing about me and teleports, I've got a really good aim. Pin-point accurate, in fact. Or, to put it another way-" He ran to the door and stuck his head out of it. "Suckers!"

"I-DENT-IF-Y YOUR-SELF! I-DENT-IF-Y YOUR-SELF!"

What? Jay wondered. It seemed like every single Dalek knew who he was. How could they have forgotten so quickly? What did he do?

"It's me," the Doctor said, "You know me. The Doctor. The Oncoming Storm. The Predator."

"Titles are not meaningful in this context. Doctor who?"

The Daleks all began to echo that question, much to the bemusement of the three companions inside the TARDIS. The Doctor, however, grinned and pulled his head back inside, shutting the door and racing to the console to begin taking off.

"Am I hearing things, or was that the Daleks not having a clue who you are?" Aliya asked incredulously. "Is this a dream? Did we die and go to a version of reality where the Daleks don't know you?"

"Nope, definitely alive, that's just Oswin's handiwork," the Doctor said cheerfully as he operated the controls, "She hacked into the Path Web, their hivemind, and deleted every bit of information relating to me. She made them forget me entirely."

"I'm sorry, I didn't get past she hacked into the Path Web."

"Well, like she said, genius." He turned around to look at them more solemnly. "Well, genius and...a Dalek."

"What?" All three of them asked in unison.

"They'd converted her completely because of how clever she was. She imagined a different reality because her actual one was too terrible for her to conceive. She didn't know until I got there, and-" He trailed off, swallowing. His eyes were large and sad. "She was a Dalek and she was human. And she saved our lives."

There was a moment of silence for her.

"Oswin Oswald," Aliya murmured, a thoughtful look crossing her face, "It's familiar, somehow. Does anyone else feel like they've heard that name before? Or seen it, somewhere?"

They all gave her blank looks, Jenny offering her a shrug.

"I hear a lot of names," the Doctor said, "And as much as I might try, I can't remember everyone. I don't think any of us had met her before. She could see us, she would have said."

"I suppose so," Aliya said, sighing. "Well, now what?"

"You know what I feel like?"

"What?"

"Pancakes. I believe I promised a diner a while back with the best pancakes I've ever tasted. How does that sound?"

Aliya's face lit up. "Really?"

"Really really."

She was quick to hug him again, and Jay and Jenny laughed at how excited she was about something as simple as pancakes. But then, as Jay recalled her mentioning it to him after America, she had apparently been waiting a while.

"Actually, can we stop somewhere where I could call my sister?" Jay asked.

"Your sister?" The Doctor repeated, turning to look at him with surprise.

"Yeah. I've just been thinking about how her and Mum don't know where I am, and I'd like to let at least Evy know I've gone travelling in case something happens to me. Or if something goes wrong and I come back late or something like that. I just don't want them to worry."

"Ah." The Doctor smiled widely. "Give me your phone for a second." Jay got it out and handed it over, and the Doctor fiddled with it and gave it a quick sonic before giving it back to him. "There. Now you can call anyone in time and space. You can call your sister from here."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. Wifi signal no matter where we are, too. You could update your Twitter from on top of a Martian mountain if you liked."

"Woah, thanks!" Jay looked at his phone with new wonder.

"What's a Twitter?" Aliya asked, only for the other three to give her amused looks and no answer. "Oh fine, be like that. Being patronising doesn't suit any one of you, you know."

"You run along and call your sister while Jenny and Aliya get changed into something more sixties. Then, pancakes."

"Sounds good."

Jay headed up the stairs, dialling the only personal number he knew by heart as he went. It only rang twice before Evy picked up.

"Finally! You haven't been active on Facebook Messenger for days, I've sent you like five messages!"

"Sorry, I'm kind of...overseas, only just got my phone working and wasn't anywhere near free wifi," Jay said, telling himself it wasn't really a lie. The switch to Korean was effortless and rather comforting.

"Overseas? What the hell are you doing overseas? You don't have the money for that."

"No, I kind of...met some people who do. They're letting me tag along. It's complicated but it's incredible, Eves. Totally insane, but great."

"Okay, if you say so," Evy said, not sounding completely convinced, "You better take loads of pictures so I can live vicariously through you."

"Of course."

"Who are these people you're travelling with?"

"Let's just say...foreign lesser nobility, sort of," Jay said, considering the Doctor's being a 'Time Lord' and running with it, "It's not that important. They're great. I mean they're ridiculous, but in a good way."

"Foreign lesser nobility, huh? I don't even want to know."

"That's bullshit, of course you do. But I can't say more than that. If we end up coming your way, I'm sure you could meet them."

"You better end up coming my way, if you're travelling around for free. San Fran has heaps of incentive for them to come here, it should be easy."

"To be honest, I think they'd probably take us to San Fran just if I asked."

"Jesus H Roosevelt Christ, how did you meet these people?"

"It's...complicated. And travelling with them gets kinda crazy, which is why I really wanted to tell you." Jay took a deep breath and recalled how close he had come to being killed by Daleks earlier in the day. "They get into trouble a lot, Evy."

"...trouble?"

"Not like, legal trouble, but just...trouble. And, like, I should be fine, but it's possible that something bad could happen to me and you'd never know and just not hear from me again. So I wanted you to know. This is what I'm doing. I've made the choice to take the risk because it might be dangerous but it's amazing."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"Just...be careful, okay?" Evy's voice was quieter, plainly concerned, but they had learned years ago to not argue with each other when their minds were made up.

"Definitely," he promised, "And if it helps at all, they're pretty protective of me."

"I'm not sure it does, but good to know, I guess."

They chatted after that, him settling himself on his bed and letting her tell him all about how she was going, everything from cafes she'd found in San Fran to how her transition was going (she'd been on estrogen for eight months). It was so good to hear her voice again. It was always his greatest source of comfort even though she had worked to change it a lot over the last year. High or low voice (not that either of them had naturally low voices to begin with), it was still her and that was all that mattered.

"Okay, I gotta go, time for work," Evy finally said reluctantly, "You keep your social media going and we'll talk soon, okay?"

"Sounds good," Jay replied, "I love you. And you stay safe too." He might be the one out nearly getting killed by aliens, but trans women had a one in twelve likelihood of being murdered in the US and it was a statistic that had had him immensely worried about his sister ever since she had come out.

"Don't worry about me, my friends say I'm passing pretty well most of the time."

"I bet you look beautiful."

"You're a sweet talker. Go hang out with your weird rich friends. And I love you too."

"Bye."

"Bye."

The call ended and Jay pocketed it with a smile. Somehow, the reality of what he'd done - run away with aliens - felt more real now that he'd half lied to his sister about it. But she knew he was travelling now. It felt right, and worry he hadn't even realised he had been carrying was quick to leave his body.

He left his room to go and find the others, and didn't succeed for almost ten minutes. He found the Doctor and Aliya curled up on a sofa in comically fluffy pajamas, Tangled on the TV in front of them. Jenny was nowhere was to be seen, but Aliya's head was resting on the Doctor's shoulder as she dozed, and his fingers were lightly tracing over her temple.

"Hey," Jay said, leaning on the doorway.

The Doctor took several seconds to focus on him, and seemed surprised to see him there. "Jay! Everything alright with your sister?"

"Yeah, all good. What happened to pancakes in the sixties?"

"Oh, uh, we decided to leave it for another day."

Jay glanced at Aliya. "She was pretty...freaked out by the whole thing today, wasn't she? The Daleks, I mean."

"Yeah, but she'll be okay," the Doctor said, smiling softly, "It's not the first or last we've seen of them, unfortunately." A look of concern crossed his face. "What about you? And Jenny? Are you okay? I know Daleks can be-"

"I'm fine," Jay was quick to say, "I mean, it was scary as hell, but...it's not personal for me like it obviously is for you and Aliya. So I think Jenny is probably okay too. She's super brave. And tough."

"I know she is." The pride in the Doctor's eyes was blatant. "All the same, would you go check on her? Just to be sure. I'd go, but…" He nodded towards Aliya. "Don't want to leave her alone right now."

"Yeah, sure," Jay said, nodding.

Aliya whispered something without opening her eyes, and the Doctor murmured something in reply, in that language that Jay didn't understand but liked the sound of the more he heard it. His tone was soft and reassuring. It got the job done if the way the frown on Aliya's brow eased slightly was any indicator.

"She's lucky to have a friend like you," Jay told him.

The Doctor gave him a tiny smile. "When River died, Aliya was the only one that stopped me from, well...losing it. Or rather, I did, but she pulled me back. At no small personal cost, either. I wasn't good company back then, or even really company at all. At one point I just didn't speak to her for a whole six months even though we were both still around each other - sorry, rambling." He made a face. "Point is...I was lucky first, I think."

Jay ignored the didn't speak to her for a whole six months because it was a bit much for him to process. He focused on the last bit.

"I hope one day I have a friend like that," he said.

The Doctor smiled, a knowing glint in his eye. "Jenny said she was going to the library."

Jay tapped his fingers on the door frame in a triplet rhythm as he hesitated. The conversation didn't quite feel finished for some reason, he felt like he still wanted to say something else even though he had no idea what. But the Doctor had shut his eyes and rested his head on top of Aliya's, apparently not sharing the sentiment.

Jay took a moment to smile at the sight of them resting together after facing the monsters that plagued their past. It wasn't something he could understand, the Daleks and the extent of the horror surrounding them, but it seemed the Doctor and Aliya had each other for that.

The library wasn't too hard to find, and when Jay called out, Jenny's voice led him through the maze of shelves until he found her curled up on the floor with stacks of books in some of system all around her.

"Hey," he said, lifting his eyebrows, "What's all this?"

"Research," Jenny replied, without looking up.

"Research?"

"It's every volume I could find with any sizable section on Daleks. A good soldier is prepared, and you prepare yourself by knowing your enemy," the girl said, biting her lip, "So that's what I'm going to do. And then next time, I'll be ready. We were at their mercy today. We got lucky. But I don't believe in luck."

It took Jay a few seconds after she stopped talking to realise that she was shaking. He dropped to the floor next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"I was coming to see if you were okay, and I thought you were, but obviously you're not," he said, frowning.

Jenny exhaled slowly, the kind of breath that one uses to force one's body into submission. "You know, I wasn't scared?" A laugh escaped her. "Parliament of the Daleks, at their mercy, and I wasn't scared. Not until I saw Dad's face. Not until I felt Aliya trembling as she tried to shield us even though we all knew it was pointless. I wasn't even scared for myself, or for you, I was just scared for them."

"Fear isn't always rational."

"I've never seen them scared like that," Jenny said, shaking her head, "I just wanted it to stop, I'd have done anything to never see those looks on their faces again."

The dismay on her face, which was at its core a young girl's care for her family, made Jay pull her into his arms for a tight hug. Her head tucked itself under his chin and she clutched him automatically.

"I'm going to learn how to fight Daleks," she whispered, "I'm going to keep us all safe."

"Learning about them is a good idea," he said, "But you know they'll never let you fight alone. Your dad's fought them before and won, right? You need to work together. Me and Aliya can hide at the back if need be."

She let out a shaky laugh. "Okay. Yeah. That sounds good." She shifted a little and he rubbed her back as her breathing evened out and he felt some of the high emotion leave her body.

"You alright now?" He eventually asked.

She nodded and pulled away from him, giving him a slightly embarrassed smile. "Thanks."

Jay just smiled back. "Any time. My hugs are free of charge."

Jenny's smile turned into a genuine grin and she hit him on the arm lightly (well, he had a feeling lightly had been the idea, but it hurt more than he was going to admit). "You're an idiot," she said fondly.

"Good, it'll balance out the average IQ on this ship," he joked, before turning to the books, "Now come on, it's time to learn about Daleks. What have you found so far? Get me up to speed."

"Well, basically, apparently it all started on Skaro with a war between the Thals and the Kaleds…"

I hope that wasn't too dull for anyone who doesn't like episode AUs. I try to get rid of the repetitive/irrelevant material.

Next storyline is one I'm pretty excited about even if it's been a lot of work, and it's set in New Zealand, in my home town, which has been really cool to write. I've also brought back some classic monsters that have yet to appear in New Who, that some of you might be surprised to learn are a canon part of the Whoniverse. ;) If anyone's dying to know what they are, ask in a review and I might just let you know!

Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought!

-MayFairy :)