Scratching the back of his neck, Owen sighed, watching the charged air where Jack was just standing start to settle. "See. Knew the kid was a spaz."

Toshiko pushed up her thick rimmed glasses and tugged down the sleeves on her light pink jumper. "Jack trusts him."

Owen slapped a rolled-up bundle of papers on the desktop. "Jack trusts the Doctor. That doesn't say much. And you all accuse me of getting lead around by my dick."

Unrolling the tight bundle, Toshiko mentally cursed Owen's fascination with paper as she skimmed the highlighted portions of the readouts. "Just let it rest. Unless you plan on starting a mutiny, Jack's our leader and that means we have to deal with the TARDIS contingency and all the problems that go with. And if you are going to mutiny, just let it go until AFTER we're no longer being invaded." Putting the abused papers down, she kept her finger on one set of numbers in particular. With her other hand, she began pecking away at one of her keyboards. "These readings either aren't right, or something else is happening."

Folding his arms over his lab coat, Owen made a face. "I'm not going to mutiny. But I can bitch about it all I like." He squinted at the data his coworker was collating. "Yeah, I thought that's what that was doing. Course, this information does us no good—we can't stop what's happening in the ship, and all this does is tell them how much worse it can get."

XYZ

Violet sat on a park bench on the side of a small path, watching her mother and the Doctor. They were across from her, seated on a brick retaining wall, their heads close together while they were talking. It was a sunny day, the green leaves rustled overhead, causing warm yellow rays to peek through the canopy now and again.

Her mother was rolling her eyes over something, and the Doctor grinned, sliding an arm around her waist. His hand rested long her side, and they sat for a while in silence, drinking the contents of fast food cups, pointing in amusement as little animals scurried by.

"When's the last time you did that?" a voice asked from behind the bench's sole occupant.

A previous incarnation of the Doctor sat down beside her. "You know I hate that version of you," she told the figure. "And none of your business. Mum doesn't bug me about this."

The Doctor with the short hair, annoying voice and comical ears folded his arms over his chest, watching the couple sitting on the retaining wall, happy and as oblivious as a memory should be. "This me wasn't very fond of the old you either."

Across the small path, her mother shook her cup, sloshing the ice around, then hopped off the wall. She took the Doctor's cup from him and walked to the black trash receptacle about ten feet off. "Well, I'm just going to have to stay here. It happens."

Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his brown trench coat, the Doctor looked down at his shoes. "That's just…" he sighed. "I guess its picket fences and all that. House with carpets." He shuddered, as if the idea was repulsive, but there was some part of the gesture Violet wasn't so sure about.

Her mother rolled her eyes again. "We could get a flat with hardwood floors—no carpets, no fences, no gardens. But really. It's not like we're joined at the hip you know." She raised a finger, cutting off the Doctor's potential snide remark. "Just shut it."

Seeing that his companion was not going to sit back down the Doctor stood, still awfully interested in his shoes. "What? I'm saying I'm going to do all of the stupid Earth things that come along with this package, and you're mocking me."

Violet's mother kicked his shoe with her own. "I'm not mocking you. I'm proud of your offer to sit still for five minutes. Really. I am."

Next to Violet on the bench, the other Doctor shifted uncomfortably as Rose ruffled her Doctor's hair. "I forgot about that."

Her mother slid her hand into his, and Violet once again wondered what the point of this exercise was. They should be trying to get out of here. They should be trying to stop their respective ships from doing the rumpy pumpy. Not trying to persuade Violet that people weren't all bad.

The pair walked for a moment, only taking a few steps before the Doctor stopped and turned to his companion, standing very intimately close, his lips hovering over her hairline. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to get rid of me, Rose Tyler."

"Yeah. That's it. Left my mum and my kid in another universe so that I could run off with Captain Jack, I did." She couldn't see her mother's face, but she could hear the eyes rolling around like marbles, practically.

The Doctor rested his lips on top of her head for a moment. "Knew it," he muttered. "It's the dinosaur. All I can offer is all of time and space. He has one lousy pterodactyl hanging around his secret base, and suddenly it's goodbye, Doctor, hello Captain Jack!" He chuckled. "So you're going to take him up on his offer?"

No—really. Violet wanted to know the point. Why was she being subjected to this now? They had other things to worry about—real-world things. The effects of the ship were becoming stronger. That was evident with how intense and real these little mind-jaunts were becoming. She could feel the sunlight warming her shoulder where it fell and smell the humidity on the grass. And she was saddled with this other Doctor, this figment that wasn't even part of this memory; he only appeared to be here to torment her.

Her mother shrugged. "Might as well. It'll be something different for a little while. If you want to hang around Torchwood, you're welcome to, but I'm not going to chain you down." Turning a bit, she began dragging him away, right past Violet and the other Doctor. "Seriously. I'll be fine. Which isn't to say that you can't visit, or whatever. I'd be miffed if you didn't."

Something about her was as pleased as a small child at Christmas to see her mother and the Doctor so…warm and personal. Another part of her wanted to scream and throw things at him. The TARDIS was going to fry their brains to nothingness, but everything'd be well if the Doctor just made his point about her life and choices.

Clasped hands swinging between them, the Doctor sighed dramatically. "Yes, yes. Rose Tyler's addicted to cuddles. We know, we know. But you'll have Jack for that…" He prattled on as they walked away, hand-in-hand.

Watching them walk over the slight rise in the path and down toward a grove of flowers she couldn't readily identify, Violet eventually turned back to the leather-clad Doctor with the self-satisfied smile on his face. "And the point of that touching bit of domesticity?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I was just thinking about it. Got us out of the white room, didn't it?"

The leaves rustled overhead as Violet stood. For the first time, she looked behind her, at the rolling hill lined with tombstones. Leave it to her mother and the Doctor to have a mushy, touching conversation about their future in a cemetery. Pretty backdrop—despite all that death, she supposed. "I want to get out of here. I think I hate your head as much as I hate mine."

"Why did you come back?"

She'd been expecting some snide response to that comment—especially from this Doctor. He'd been nothing BUT snide remarks during their one encounter, which had been far too long for Violet. "Because the Void opened up. Because I could. And Greg deserves to see his family."

Sitting back against the hard wood bench, the Doctor nodded. "And not because you're going to leave him here."

Turning on the bench to face him, she almost slapped him across the face, but thought better of it. "NO! Why the hell would I do something like that?"

But he just stared at her, looking down his prodigious nose, as though he had seen into her heart and was waiting for her to deny it further. "Because he makes you happy."

Coldly, she looked back to the path, no longer interested in the conversation. "Well, that's a stupid reason. Might be your reason for doing the stupid things you do, but it's not mine."

"But you were going to do it. So what's your reason?" His tone was so calm, so quiet. Nothing smug there—even if she could sense his satisfaction at walking her right into an admission.

So much for having outgrown him. He still knew her too well. Even this old him, that she hated so dearly. "I don't know. It wasn't forever. Maybe…take mum to see gran. Then…once he's settled everything with his family, then come back for him. We're not joined at the hip, you know. Mum leaves you all the time."

When she noticed that he was studying her, possibly reading her body language, she forced herself to unfold her arms. He kept staring, though. "And maybe take a century or two to get back. That's what you've been doing with your grandmother, haven't you? And Jackie hasn't caught on."

Why was she being grilled like this? Why was every portion of her life suddenly under a microscope? It wasn't like the Doctor was so emotionally intelligent that he had any sort of right to question her actions or motives. "I visit every Sunday, her time. Might be a month, might be a year for me. I'm sure she notices. She just doesn't say anything."

He didn't flinch or waver from his assault on her motives, he simply ploughed straght on ahead. "Because she's afraid you won't come back, if she does. Probably afraid she's already lost you." There was something sad in those normally cold-looking blue eyes of his. It made Violet wonder if she looked as unapproachable as this Doctor's self. "You have a chance to not make the mistakes I've made. To escape that."

Before she could stop herself, her arms were folded defensively across her chest again. "I thought I told you—they're my mistakes to make. Go make your own." Her jaw clenched and unclenched for a moment as a small brown bird picked at a worm in the moist grass at her feet. "And what the hell do you know? Mum hasn't aged a day since the last time I saw her. Right now I just look like an impressionable nineteen year old hanging out with a dirty twenty-nine year old. In a couple of years? Or ten more? Or fifteen?"

There was an almost surprising lack of empathy in this Doctor's face. "There's something else. You know something, or you saw something, and you're determined to drag out the remainder of your time together."

Violet stood up, looking for some way out of the empty recording of someone elses' memory. "I'm not talking about this. I'm getting out of here. You can criticize me and how I live my life later. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of you getting in my head and acting like you know me, then thinking I should—should listen to you. You! As if you haven't…never mind. Just. Never mind." She swatted his hand away when he reached for her arm. Whether it was to comfort her, or stop her from bolting down the path, she didn't know.

"I used to know you!" he called after her, but didn't follow.

XYZ

Purpley-green aliens with tentacles for hair were not how Jack wanted to go. Somehow, he thought he could even resist the urge to shag 'em. Mostly it was the angry look in their eyes.

That being said—they were ugly looking, and a tiny bit incompetent-looking. If someone could have that look about them.