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The Doctor left Jack and Rose to handle Slade, hoping the two of them wouldn't get into too much trouble. In the past, Jack had either balanced out Rose's propensity for trouble, or trebled it. But things had changed, and there was no telling what would happen now. Hopefully, they would go better.

Getting in the facility where the children were supposedly being held wasn't hard work. The building was something of an office block that formed a complex with the warehouse that the TARDIS was in. Initially, he passed some dusty rooms with desks, chairs and the occasional computer that had been sitting there for a good long while. Apparently operations were closer to the centre of the building. As he moved, he started to pass rooms that stood out against the earlier ones.

This was no make-shift operation. Despite the disuse of the other rooms, these new ones, showed signs of a long settled operation. Was this a proper section of the Time Agency – then why the state of the other rooms, surely the agents had some use for them, even if it wasn't immediate? Or was this Teller Slade's private operation, where he could carry out his own missions to his requirements? The Doctor resolved to investigate once his daughter was safe and sound.

He'd largely left the Time Agents to their own selves. After all, preventing paradoxes had been once fulfilled by the Time Lords, and the Doctor was incapable of managing on his own. Incapable and largely unwilling – so he'd let them be, avoiding them as they seemed to avoid him. But if corruption was rife in their ranks, maybe it was up to him to do something. Maybe. He'd worry about it later, after he had Beth, and after he had…fixed things with Rose.

Slade, or someone else, had taken the time to improve what had obviously been a lax security system, but it still had a number of easily exploitable weaknesses that the Doctor could work with. A little messing with the locks, a generous use of his sonic screwdriver, some good old fashioned sneaking and he had headed off to find the children along the winding corridors.

He hadn't gone far when someone walked out of a room, and the door clicked shut behind him, a lock settling in place. The Doctor decided just to keep going, maybe the other being wouldn't notice. When in doubt, act like you know what you're doing. He shouldered past the tall, green-skinned Shelkyen.

"Wait," the voice stopped him, and inwardly he cursed.

"Is there something I can help you with?" the Doctor asked pleasantly. Never give anything away until you were sure it didn't matter anymore.

"You're not supposed to exist!"

"And yet here I am." He had no time for silly lesser beings who were interrupting his search for his daughter. Even if they came from an unusually talented and peaceful race – just what was this Shelkyen doing here, amongst a bunch of kidnapping Time Agents?

The Shelkyen – a healer, by the colour of his feathers, shook his head. "Your kind has been believed to be long destroyed, and today I have met two. It is no coincidence." The gaze of the alien was steady. This one could hear the beating of the Doctor's hearts, the rush of blood in his veins, and smell the scent the separated him from every other living thing in the universe. More than any, the Shelkyen knew what he was talking about.

However, the healer was clearly unready for the Doctor's response, and before he could blink, he was pressed up against the wall, his oxygen restricted. The Doctor was not violent, but this was his daughter, and she was important.

"Where's my daughter?" There was no need for them to identify who he might be referring to. There was only one being around that could fit the description. Plus it was highly unlikely that there were many children in here. At least the Doctor sincerely hoped there weren't many children, it would be infinitely worse for everyone involved if there were any number in these parts.

"Room 3-B, down that way," he said without preamble, but with a slightly husky note caused by the hand at his throat. The healer seemed to not to be alarmed by the actions of the Time Lord, his eyes looking down calmly, even with sympathy.

Suddenly, though, the pressure was released, and the Doctor took off to get his daughter, heedless of trouble that might be in the way.

"Time Lord."

The Doctor froze and turned back. The implication that he shouldn't exist had been stated, but now this being had chosen to use his title to catch his attention.

The Shelkyen indicated the door. "Do you not want the boy also?"

A long second passed until it occurred to the Doctor that he meant Kelan. He stepped forward as the Shelkyen unlocked the door. Inside, lying on a bed, shackled to the wall was Rose's son. The boy's eyes were closed, and his face relaxed in sleep. Nowhere in the child could he see the boy's mother. He almost resisted taking the boy, as dark jealousy rose in him.

He pressed it down. Kelan was Rose's, and he couldn't abandon something that was part of Rose. Deeper than that, he could not abandon a child to such a situation, as what kind of monster would that make him, what kind of beast?

Using the sonic screwdriver, he undid the boy's bindings and lifted him into his arms. Kelan settled against the Doctor's shoulder with a sigh, still deeply asleep. The sensation reminded the Time Lord so much of when Beth was younger that he almost forgot who he was holding.

The Shelkyen held the door open as the Doctor passed through, seemingly unconcerned with the fact that what he was doing probably constituted as treason. Of course as holding children like this was apparently contravening a bunch of laws anyway, the Shelkyen wasn't likely be punished should his actions become known to his superiors. Except perhaps a bullet in the brain, if he was unlucky.

Once again, the lock slid into place as the door shut. The Doctor shifted Kelan to a slightly more comfortable position and headed off, not bothering to thank the Shelkyen, who despite his help, had still been part of the conspiracy to hold the children.

"Time Lord."

He almost didn't turn back.

"Your daughter will be highly guarded. Slade regards her as a troublemaker, and is determined to keep her until he can get what he wants."

The Doctor nodded, accepting this piece of information, and maybe conveying a touch of thanks to go with it this time.

"Good luck." The words followed down the corridor and around the corner.

He was not unprepared for the agents he met, but the number of them were too many to counter with a drugged Kelan in his arms. Cursing inwardly, he turned and ran in the opposite direction, Time Agents hard on his tail.

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