Note: The digital painting that goes along with this story is done over at my home page on deviant art. Just search for Lemkin Factor, you'll find it right off.

Enjoy! I really should have been sleeping, but I decided on sacrificing my health for my readers instead.

Chapter Fourteen

"I'm confused." Rory admitted. "Are they going to end up here with us or back in the future?"

"I don't know." The Doctor replied annoyed as he pulled the top off the large bridge console. "What part of the Haldon Time Flux Uncertainty Spacial Principle didn't you understand?"

"All of it really." Rory admitted.

"It's simple, these people are stretched out across Time with two anchor points, the present and the point in the future where they initiated the jump backwards. Think of it like a rubber band behind held at two ends and stretched, except it's not like that, now if I can stress that stretch just a little more one of the ends should come free. Then SNAP! They will instantly end up back at either the start or the end."

"Or the rubber band will just break."

"That...is also a possibility." The Doctor admitted begrudgingly.

"What happens in that case?"

"No idea." The Doctor swept the inside of the console with the sonic before he turned on Rory. "Have you got a better idea?"

Rory just looked at the Doctor blankly.

"I didn't think so." The Doctor pulled a brightly coloured wire out of the control panel, snapping it in half in the process. "Hold this."

Rory automatically took the offered wire.

"Don't let the end of it touch anything else, it's got about a jillion volts of electricity running through it." The Doctor warned casually before looking down into the console and pulling at some more wires and tubes.

"What?!" Rory's voice cracked in fright as he held the wire out at arm's length.

"Hey, I said be careful. Just hold still."

Holding the wire like the deadly object that it was Rory remained frozen in place. Unconcerned the Doctor crawled all the way down into the console and disappeared. He had lowered the gravity inside so that he could 'swim' around in among the wires, tubes, and panels more easily. Rory could hear him mucking around and rearranging things along with the high pitched noise that the sonic screwdriver made. Too terrified to even breath Rory kept his grip on the wire as his palms started to sweat. Eventually the Doctor surfaced and grabbed the wire Rory was holding by the exposed end.

"Doctor!" Rory cried in alarm.

"What?"

It took Rory a second to realize that the wire wasn't hurting the Doctor despite the fact that he had a hold of the frayed metal end. The Doctor's eyes were gleaming with mischief as he looked at Rory in amusement.

"You said that wire was live." Rory growled.

"I lied." The Doctor chuckled.

"I hate you." Rory said sourly.

"Just keeping you on your toes."

"I don't need to be 'kept on my toes' by pranks," Rory complained "there are plenty of real threats around you to do the job."

Smiling brightly the Doctor put the wire between his teeth to hold it and disappeared back down inside the tangle of wires and conduits again. Rory pantomimed strangling the out of sight Doctor for moment. Turning around Rory crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the console that the Doctor was rooting about inside.

Rory caught sight of Amy coming back to the main deck and pushed himself away from the console. Rory was high up on the suspended bridge so Amy was a good distance away but Rory still sensed that something wasn't quite right. She didn't walk in a straight path from the entrance to the base of the stairs to join them. Instead she wove a path like a winding river across the empty floor before getting to the stairs. Joining Rory on the bridge she stared out the forward window at Gallifrey below.

"Such a beautiful planet." Amy purred.

"Amy?" Rory asked in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Never been better."

"You were gone longer than I expected."

"I couldn't find a lou, rather than pee on the floor I decided to just go back to the TARDIS."

"Amy?" The Doctor called from inside the console. "Is that you?"

"Yes, Doctor. Who else would Rory be talking to?"

"Good point. I need a hand."

The Doctor had meant the request quite literally and reached his hand up out of the interior of the console. Amy reached out and took his hand. Rory furrowed his brow, he could have sworn that he'd seen a slight golden glow for a moment when they'd touched that hadn't been there before. He looked closer at the pair holding hands, but couldn't see anything now.

"Ah, yes, that's much better." The Doctor reported from inside the console. "I can see why this isn't working now. Hang on."

Amy found herself pulled shoulder deep into the console while the Doctor attempted to fix the problem.

"The technology on this ship is fairly impressive even by Time Lord standards." Amy noted as she looked around.

"How do you know that?" Rory asked.

"Isn't it obvious? They must already have highly advanced technology or how else could the Doctor effect a time redistribution to maximize the distortion stretch with just some minor adjustments to the hexonal ionic variable power flow converter?"

"Amy, how do you know that?" Rory asked again with growing concern.

"Because she was paying attention when I explained it." The Doctor replied as he released Amy. He pulled himself up out of and onto the edge of the console. "Amy's always been such a good listener."

Sitting on the edge of the console the Doctor brought one leg up and crossed it over his knee so that he could untie his shoe. Dropping the shoe he pulled off his sock and wiggled his toes. He offered his now barefoot to Amy but she just raised an eyebrow and looked at him blankly.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked.

"I need both my hands to fix the problem, but I also need to 'see' and our connection works best with skin to skin contact." The Doctor explained.

"You expect me to hold on to your foot?"

"It's not like it's got any diseases, that I know of." The Doctor said in a hurt tone as he inspected his foot. "If anything it's a good sight cleaner than my hand. Hands are always touching things, picking up bacteria and what not, disgusting things hands."

"He has a point, Amy." Rory agreed.

Amy sighed and hesitantly reached out and took a hold of the Doctor's foot.

"Ack!" The Doctor exclaimed as he jerked his foot away from her almost losing his balance.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," the Doctor held his foot crossed over his knee and looked it over "I just never knew I was ticklish. It's delightful and horrible all at the same time. I don't think I like it."

"You're kidding...right?"

"No." The Doctor replied seriously. "This could be a problem."

"Oh, just suck it up."

Amy grabbed the Doctor's foot with one hand and shoved his chest with the other to send him tumbling back into the open console. Amy kept her grip on the Doctor's ankle as he twisted and worked his way to where the inner panel he needed was. A vulpine grin suddenly slipped across Amy's face and she brought her free hand up to properly tickle the sole of his foot. Unable to pull away in the cramped low gravity space inside the console the Doctor squawked in protest as he laughed.

"Oy! Sto...stop that! Oy!" The Doctor gasped through his giggling. "Amy! I'm trying to work!"

"You're a cruel woman, Amy Pond." Rory smiled.

"You love it." Amy stopped tormenting the Doctor and gave Rory a quick kiss.

"I do actually." Rory replied as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"What is going on out there?" The Doctor ask.

"You don't want to know." Amy informed.

"When this is done I'm checking hormone levels on you both." The Doctor threatened.

Rory was starting to think that might not be such a bad idea. He was having trouble pin pointing what was wrong, but he felt that Amy being so affectionate was definitely part of it. Before Rory could think too long on the subject the Doctor announced his success and climbed out of the console with the end of a thick black wire in hand.

"Okay, next step we need to get this up there." The Doctor held up the wire and gestured up towards the ceiling. "It needs to be tied around anything metal up there to act as a conductor."

"That's got to be over a hundred meters up," Rory guessed "how are we going to get it up there?"

"Like this..."

The Doctor aimed the sonic at the panel on the other side of the narrow bridge and it lit up. Amy yelped in surprise as she was suddenly set free from the artificial gravity. Feeling like he was suddenly on the deck of a pitching sailboat Rory put his arms out to keep his balance. More comfortable in a gravity free environment Amy took the end of the wire from the Doctor and then took Rory's hand.

"Ah, Amy, I don't thin..."

Rory's protest was cut off as Amy pushed off the bridge floor and sent them both up into the air. The Doctor reached out and held onto the edge of the console with one hand to keep himself grounded and fed them the wire with the other. Amy laughed with delight as they rose higher while Rory concentrated on keeping his stomach under control. When they got near the ceiling the Doctor pulled back on the line to slow them down. Amy helped Rory make a somewhat graceful landing on the ceiling where he instantly gripped down on the first solid object he came in contact with.

"Do not like." Rory reported as he held onto the pipe for dear life.

"Relax, Rory." Amy smiled. "We won't fall, we can't. Come on, everyone dreams of flying."

"Not me." Rory said stubbornly.

Amy tied the wire to pipe that Rory was clamped down on. She tugged on his collar until he agreed to let go. He looked down at the floor far below and weld his eyes shut once again. Amy pulled him away from the ceiling so that they could more fully experience the weightlessness. She coaxed him into opening his eyes with a kiss which worked.

"Better?" Amy asked.

"Much."

"Oy!" The Doctor teased from his place on the bridge. "I did not turn off the gravity so that you two could snog!"

"Too bad." Amy smiled and kissed Rory again.

"Okay, not that I'm complaining, but you are definitely acting...off." Rory said.

"I'm just feeling so..." Amy searched for the right word "alive."

"And that's good, but don't you think it's a little strange?"

"Maybe I'm just happy. After all I'm getting to see the world through the eyes of a Time Lord and it's indescribable. It's unlike anything. I can't get enough."

"It sounds like a drug."

"You can't understand, in a lot of way I don't think you ever really have. You'd rather be home than here."

"Of course I woul..."

"Is everything okay up there?" The Doctor called up.

"Everything's fine, Doctor." Amy replied. "We were just coming down."

Amy twisted out of Rory's grip and pushed off the ceiling to send herself back towards the suspended bridge. Rory shouted in alarm fearing that in her anger Amy had given herself way too much momentum. The Doctor snapped to attention as he noticed the exact same thing.

The Doctor jumped up to catch Amy before she crashed into the metal bridge. He managed to slow her down, but their combined momentum still drove them down onto the bridge fairly hard. The Doctor slammed back first into the deck with Amy on his chest. He felt a sharp crack and feared that he may have just broken a rib or two, but by the time he sat up there was no pain. Still weightless they had a little difficulty staying in place sitting on the floor while Rory climbed down the wire to join them.

"Sorry." Amy said sheepishly.

"It's okay." The Doctor replied as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Amy?!" Rory called from half way down the wire.

"We're fine." Amy replied.

"He's only asking about you, Amy." The Doctor pointed out.

"He's used to you being basically immortal."

"What were you two fighting about?"

"Nothing."

The Doctor was about to try and get a better answer when something caught his eye. Amy was wearing a button down blouse and the top few buttons had been torn free. Without thinking he reached out to open her shirt to get another look at what he thought he'd seen. Amy didn't hesitate to slap away his hand with the speed of a striking cobra.

"Amy..."

"Don't get cheeky on me now, Doctor." Amy warned.

"Amy, I need to see the skin over your heart." The Doctor explained. "Please, show me."

Amy gave the Doctor a confused look for a moment. However she reached up and pulled away just enough of the fabric to expose the left of center of her chest. The look that fell across the Doctor's face made Amy nervous to look down. When she did she gasped at the faint pink marks splashed across her skin. The pattern wasn't nearly as large or prominent as the one over the Doctor's heart, but it was clearly the start of the same marking. Rory finally joined them on the bridge and stared at the scar.

"Oh my God." Rory breathed in horror.

"Amy, when did that get there?" The Doctor asked calmly.

"I...I don't...know."

"Think. This is important, how long?"

"I don't know. Honest."

"Since we all woke up?" The Doctor pressed.

"I don't think so, but maybe, I really don't know." Amy repeated as she stared down at the marks. "I don't remember, but I don't remember a lot of things lately."

Switching the gravity back on the Doctor suddenly lept to his feet and paced back and forth looking like he wanted nothing more than to put his fist through the nearest solid surface. Managing to control himself somewhat he tangled his fingers into his hair and pulled at it before forcing himself to calm. Amy looked to Rory in concern as he knelt down next to her. Despite the Doctor's best efforts he finally lost his temper and tore the glass top off the nearest console and shoved it off the elevated bridge. After a long fall the glass shattered noisily on the floor below, but it had done nothing to sooth the furious Doctor.

"Doct..."

"How can I still be so stupid after all this time?! I watched my kind make this mistake over and over, it's half of the reason why I left, and yet I am guilty of it myself so many times over! Why can't I seem to learn?!" The Doctor snarled at himself. "The Time Lord's greatest fault, and every time I pretend I'm better that that I only makes it worse!"

"Doctor, calm down." Amy said although on the verge of panic herself. "What are you talking about?"

"The one Time Lord trait that stands out above *all* others: arrogance."

"Arrogance? I don't understand."

"I'm so sorry, Amy." The Doctor sighed. "I was so focused on the idea that they were experimenting on me that it never occurred to me that they might have been doing something similar to you."

"What? Why me?"

"I plan to find out, and I'm becoming less and less in the mood to ask nicely."