The final report of what had taken place in the New Forest over the past few days would not be completed for another several weeks.
Salvage teams had only just managed to locate what remained of the creature's ship and, even if they could get it out of the cave, scores of scientists, officials and experts of varying fields would still have to be summoned in order to make sense of it all.
Until then, there were only four people alive who knew the full extent of what had transpired down there.
Handwritten on UNIT headed paper, Peter Argent's account wasn't even half completed, and it only currently took the reader as far as their less than subtle arrival into the cave. But most of the words and the blank bottom half of the page were shielded from view by Peter himself.
He was laying across it and the pile of paperwork that was littering his desk, fast asleep with his head resting on the crook of his arm.
Snoring softly, he was oblivious to the world around him and did not wake even as a slight breeze picked up, causing the papers he was not leaning on to waft up into the air and flutter off of his desk.
The TARDIS had not made its usual noisy arrival. But even so, the Doctor hadn't expected his ship and him to have remained unnoticed as he stepped outside and into the tent. Peter had not woken up, and still did not as he walked over to his desk and stood there, watching him as he slept.
The lieutenant had scrubbed himself clean and put on a fresh uniform. But the layers of grime and muck had hidden the pure exhaustion on his face, and the hardened look of a seasoned soldier had been washed away along with it.
The powerful, formidable wolf had been reduced to nothing more than a slumbering cub.
Carefully, the Doctor settled himself down into the vacant chair opposite him. Wincing as it creaked beneath him, he waited expectantly for Peter to sense his presence and wake up. No doubt he would shout at him, but what he had to say to him was important.
But still, the young Saiyan did not wake up.
Smiling, the Time Lord then noticed the unfinished report tucked under Peter's arm.
Daring to be bold, he reached out and tried to take it from underneath him.
This time Peter did move, but it was only to shuffle in his sleep as the paperwork came away unnoticed in the Doctor's hand. Pausing for a moment to check that he'd gotten away with it, the Time Lord smiled again as he read what had already been written down.
Kensington hadn't been lying about Peter's hatred of writing reports.
Despite all that had happened, what had been written down was only a very brief summery of the facts. Also, now with the lieutenant soundly asleep, there wouldn't be much else added to it anytime soon.
Noticing the pen that was lying abandoned next to Peter's right hand, the Doctor picked it up and twirled it around his fingers for a moment as he thought. Then, laying the piece of paper down in front of him, he began to write.
Ten minutes later and even the surly Major Harrison would have nothing to complain about as the now comprehensive account of the operation was completed and set down back next to it's supposed author.
Peter was still sleeping, but the Doctor already knew how he was going to rectify this as he swung his legs up onto the desk, just as he'd done the previous night.
He'd deliberately kept on the same pair of shoes he'd been wearing in the cave, and watched with delight as Peter's nose started to twitch and wrinkle upwards as he caught a whiff of the damp and muddied footwear that was placed just inches away from his nose.
For a moment, the Doctor saw the yellow in his eyes as they fluttered open and blinked several times. With a groan, Peter lifted up his head and immediately winced as though it weighed a ton.
"Ow!" He hissed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Doctor?"
"You look exhausted." The Doctor told him. "Rough night?"
Peter barked out a small laugh.
"I'd say that you wouldn't have the faintest of ideas." He said. "But you were there. Feet off my desk, please."
"Oh, yes." He apologised, swinging his legs down from the table. "Sorry."
Sitting himself up properly, Peter was fighting to stay awake as he leaned back in his chair. Smiling faintly, he did not do or say anything but study the man sat before him as he tried to wake up as best he could.
"How's Rose?" He eventually asked. "She had to go and lie down in the ambulance, didn't she?"
"She's fine. Just tired and in need of some rest."
"Good. I'm glad to hear it."
"What about you, lieutenant?" The Doctor questioned. "How are you feeling?"
The soldier drew in a deep breath.
It had been a long and testing night, even for someone of his physical strength, and there had been multiple times where he had been seconds away from death.
But then again, he was a military man, and had the metal prowess to shrug it all off.
"It's been a tough one, but not the worst I've had." He replied casually. "Everyone came out of it alive, and we saved Miss Wilson."
"You never found out what those creatures were though?" The Doctor asked, folding his arms. "Where they came from?"
"I don't care." He said bluntly. "A name might have power, Doctor. But it's not always the most important thing, not when those things defined themselves by their actions and hurt and killed innocent people."
"True, and you did give them every chance. Especially when it came to Karina and Karugon."
"It's never easy taking a life in the field." He admitted. "But I was out of options down there, and I'm sure that will be reflected once I've finished my report."
The Doctor smiled at this.
"I'm sure it will."
It took him a moment, but Peter seemed to sense his amusement. Realising with a unconscious touch of his hand that the paper that had been tucked underneath his left arm had moved, he looked down and saw that the report was now sitting a few inches to the left of him.
"Oh, you didn't?" He sighed, quickly picking it up. "What did you write?"
The Doctor said nothing as Peter skimmed though the additions he had made, smiling as the lieutenant seemed to become more and more reassured the further he read on.
"Satisfied?" He questioned. "Will Major Harrison be happy?"
"Erm, yeah." Peter muttered, still reading. "Yeah, this is…good. It's really quite good."
"You should see what I wrote about the Battle of Trafalgar."
Peter's head shot up.
"Don't tell me, you and Nelson were mates?" He asked, almost sarcastically.
"Well, now that you mention it…"
Peter sighed again and set the report back down in front of him, rubbing his eyes wearily.
The Doctor watched him with slight worry. "You need sleep, a proper rest." He told him. "Soldier or not, you're not invincible."
"What are you doing here, Doctor?" He countered back. "Really, though, why not just leave like you normally do?"
By way of answering him, the Time Lord pulled out the A4 sized brown file which he'd had tucked away in the folds of his coat.
"I've just been reading this." He said. "Recognise it?"
Peter immediately spotted the neatly typed name on the label that was stuck onto the end of the binder.
"You read my file?" He questioned, only half surprised. "Why?"
"Because I was curious."
"Liar."
"Okay, maybe I just decided to get to know you a little bit better." He admitted. "Get to know who the real Peter Argent is."
"By reading a highly classified military file?" Peter pointed out. "What you possibly get out of that?"
"Well, I guess you have to read between the lines."
The Doctor had in fact spent the last few hours learning about the young man sat in front of him.
His career in UNIT was distinguished and it was not hard to see why he had achieved the rank of lieutenant so early on. As Peter himself had earlier told Rose, he really had dealt with some very nasty aliens over the years.
The list of his other completed missions were mostly based in the U.K, but as his reputation and seniority had grown, there had been several occasions where he had specifically been requested for operations further afield.
Austria had been about eighteen months ago, and now the Doctor knew what the giant stingers belonged to.
Still, any invading alien would struggle again the lieutenant given his impressive and long listed skill set.
Aside from indeed speaking four languages, Peter was highly proficient in several different sports, had expertise in handling many forms of weaponry and had indeed shown great intellectual promise in subjects that would make for any capable investigator.
"Did you find anything interesting?" Peter asked him. "Between the lines?"
"More than enough to impress me." He replied, sitting back in his chair. "Much more than enough for you to earn your way through that door."
Peter frowned, sightly bemused, as the Doctor pointed his thumb over his shoulder towards the TARDIS.
"Oh, as your companion?" He questioned with a smirk. "I didn't know you were hiring?"
The Doctor shrugged.
"I only take the best, and that's you."
"So it's got nothing to do with the fact that you still want me to go back to Vegeta?" He asked suspiciously. "Or am I just a charity case that you feel sorry for?"
The Doctor didn't have to think about his response.
"No, you are definitely not that." The Time Lord chuckled. "Down in that tunnel you didn't even hesitate to risk your life for mine."
"I was just doing my job."
"No, you were willing to die in order to get me out of there." He corrected. "Not a lot of people would do that."
Peter shrugged the notion of his heroics away.
"Maybe that's true." He admitted. "But you are still going to ask me, aren't you? One last time?"
"Yes. I am."
A flicker of annoyance briefly crossed Peter's face, but he chose not to act on it this time.
"You do realise that you're asking me to give my entire life up?" He pointed out. "The one I have here on Earth, for one of Vegeta that may or may not even exist."
He had a point, the Doctor had to admit that. But so much more was at stake here, and he needed to try and make Peter see that.
"I wouldn't ask if I didn't think…" He began. "I just wanted to give you the chance, that's all. A wolf needs a pack, Peter."
"A pack doesn't need to be made up of the same species."
"True, but -"
"But you still think I should go and check it out?" Peter guessed. "Forget my parents, Emma and Stefan and everything I have here so I can meet some random strangers who couldn't keep their kid safe."
The Doctor said nothing against this. Perhaps there was a truth to it, but saying so would not help his case right now.
"Okay, so you're going to stay here?" He questioned. "Hiding and lying to almost everyone you know?"
"That's not fair, you know I can't tell people what I am."
"Humans are more accepting than you think."
"They're also more dangerous than you think." Peter countered. "One glimpse of me on four legs and... Well, I don't want to think about it."
"But think about it you do." The Doctor mused. "Plays on the mind, doesn't it? Always scared that someone is going to find out what you -"
"Alright, you've made your point." He snapped bitterly. "Yes, it is a concern."
The Doctor nodded understandingly, and for a moment neither of them spoke.
"So, what now?" The Time Lord eventually questioned. "Another day and onto another mission?"
"That's generally how my job works." Peter replied. "What about you, Doctor? Back to the TARDIS?"
"It's home. Well, what's left of it."
Peter had read the Doctor's file enough times to know the facts.
Every UNIT officer could access it, and they were expected to know all about the Time Lord just in case of an encounter with him. It listed everything from his previous companions, his involvement over the decades here on Earth and the aliens he had defeated along the way.
But when it came to his origins, only a single word was printed. Only the name of his planet existed to explain where such an extraordinary man came from.
Peter knew that the planet was called Galifray, but he suddenly was overcome with a bad feeling as he saw a sadness creep onto the Doctor's face.
"You never talk about where you come from?" He asked quietly. "I mean, I've always had the excuse of not knowing. But you..."
He stopped himself, unable to intrude any further into what might have happened. The Doctor nodded, leaning forward and placing his clasped hands on the desk as he looked up at him and smiled sadly.
"There was a war, and we lost." He said simply. "Everyone lost in the end."
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." Peter told him. "But is that why you're so keen on me going back to Vegeta, because I have the option to?"
The Doctor could see that he was fiddling with his ring again, the blue moonstone gleaming brightly as the two lines embedded within faded in and out of view.
"I left my world long before it was destroyed, and chose to leave it." He said seriously. "You're different, Peter. You didn't have a choice."
The lieutenant almost replied. But then he changed his mind about what he wanted to say and considered the Doctor's words. Brushing his ring against his lips, he swallowed and managed a small smile as he looked away for a moment.
"But now I do." He said eventually. "Because no matter how much I pretend, I am different. I'm not human."
"You're a wolf, Peter." The Doctor told him. "That is never going to change or go away."
"I know, and I don't want it to." He admitted. "But I can't risk being on my own on that world. What I have on Earth might be all there is for me."
"Even if that was true, is it still enough? Is Earth enough for you?"
The Doctor was an expert on being on his own, and even when he was traveling with Rose and the other wonderful companions he'd had over the centuries, the emptiness he felt sometimes would still hurt and burn away on the inside.
Looking at young man sat in front of him, he could see the same pain lingering within.
Peter suddenly let out a small laugh.
"It's stupid, isn't it?" He asked him. "I have two wonderful parents, friends who are more like siblings to me and a job that actually helps people. But here I am, considering giving it all up just to meet a few strangers who happen to be the same species as me?"
"Would you give it all up?"
Peter then seemed to realise how much he'd been swayed by the prospect.
"I don't know." He said. "Because until today I didn't think it possible. Then you swan in and..."
It wasn't an answer, but the Doctor knew that it would not take much more on his part to pry one from out of him.
"I don't know what it is like to be a wolf, Peter." He ventured. "But I promise you, if you come with me, I won't ever leave you somewhere you don't want to be."
He waited with baited breath as Peter considered this.
"How would it even work?" He eventually asked. "Would I just run into the TARDIS with you and never return?"
"You could." The Time Lord said with a slight smirk, leaning forward. "But I can take you anywhere in the entirety of space and time. You can be back in ten seconds or ten years, and you'd hardly be the first member of UNIT to travel in the TARDIS."
"The brigadier, right?" Peter guessed. "Though that was decades ago."
"Indeed, times do change." He said. "Still, at the very least you can think of this as a opportunity to add a bit more to this file of yours."
There was a spark of interest in Peter's eyes now, but he was still hesitant in jumping towards a decision.
"But there's a catch, isn't there?"
"All I ask is that you visit Vegeta, just once. Just to see it."
Now the Doctor wanted an answer from him.
Yes or No. It was time to decide once and for all if Peter wanted to know anything about his home planet or not.
With somewhat of a disbelieving shake of his head, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Damn me for a fool." He breathed. "Fine. You have yourself a deal."
"Excellent!" The Doctor cheered. "So, when would you like to go? It can be today if you wanted to. We could go right now?"
"Whoa, slow down." Peter laughed as he shook his head. "I have conditions of my own, Doctor."
"Oh, right. Of course." He agreed. "Go ahead."
"Firstly, how the hell would I explain my sudden leave of absence?"
"The TARDIS travels in time as well as space. Like I said, you'd be back in ten seconds if you wanted to be?"
"Yes, and the last time you used that line, your companion vanished for a whole year."
"Yes, well... That was just a small miscalculation."
"Doctor," Peter said bluntly. "If I come back to Earth after deciding Vegeta isn't for me, which is still almost certainly going to be the outcome. I have to make sure that I still have a life to come back to."
"I'm sure that wouldn't be hard to arrange."
Peter shook his head at him.
"Oh, no. No running off to the brigadier, he'll say yes to you straight away. I want you to persuade Major Harrison to start with."
"Well, that won't be a problem."
Something about the way the Doctor was smiling at him immediately put Peter on edge, and he suddenly realised why.
"You've already spoken to him!?" He growled. "When?"
But before the Doctor could reply, he watched as Peter's head turned sharply towards the entrance to the tent. Someone was approaching it, their shoes squelching in the mud as they walked. The noise stopped just on the other side of the rolled down flap.
Seconds later, Major Harrison pushed past it and walked in.
"At ease, Argent." He said as Peter immediately stood to attention. "I can see that the Doctor couldn't wait to tell you in person?"
"Sir?" Peter questioned, relaxing his stance. "I wasn't quite -"
"We haven't really discussed it completely yet, major." The Doctor intervened with a smile. "Maybe you'd like to explain the finer points of my offer?"
"Very well." Harrison said, nodding. "Argent, I won't beat around the bush. This is highly irregular, and I almost didn't agree to it."
"Sir." Peter stated.
"But the Doctor has told me of how grateful he is to you and Sergeant Amell for your work last night." The senior officer continued. "Especially after you saved his companion's life."
"Multiple times, I might add." The Doctor said. "As well as mine."
"Yes, so he's asked if you'd like to spend some time aboard to the TARDIS?"
Even though he'd been expecting it, Peter didn't seem able to process what it was he was being offered. He knew that Major Harrison had no idea the true reason why the Doctor had made such an unusual offer, it was almost unheard of for a soldier to travel with the famously pacifistic Time Lord.
"In what capacity, sir?" He managed to ask. "To do what exactly?"
Major Harrison laughed.
"Not as his companion, Argent. So you can stop panicking." He reassured his subordinate officer. "No, I made it clear to him that he is not stealing one of my best men. It would be short term collaboration, six months at the most."
"As I said, Peter. I thought it might be useful for your future?" The Doctor added. "Broaden your horizon a little bit."
"Well, it's certainly a generous offer." Peter replied. "I would..."
"I understand I'm putting you on the spot a little here. Harrison told him. "But, maybe the Doctor is right. At the very least you'll gain a perspective of what is out there, and what we might have to defend this planet from."
"Yes, sir." He said. "It would certainly be a unique opportunity."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I've already spoken to command, and they've given it the approval seeing as it's the Doctor asking." Harrison said with a nod. "But they were keen on you not disappearing for very long, Argent. I know it won't be your fault if you do. However, try and be back no later than the summer."
Peter knew that this was his last chance to back out of going.
"Very good, sir." He heard himself reply. "But I would need a few days to put my affairs in order."
"Of course, your family and such." Harrison agreed. "Very well, I'll leave you to arrange things with the Doctor. I'll go and brief your team of your new assignment."
"Sir."
Peter stood back to attention and kept his stance as Harrison walked back out of the tent.
Once he had gone, however, the Doctor saw the lieutenant's eyes land squarely on him as the his brow creased with irritation.
"Now, before you get very angry. I did technically do as you asked." He quickly pointed out. "I persuaded Major Harrison, and he is none the wiser of anything."
"Yes, you did." Peter muttered back. "But that was only my first condition, Doctor."
"Oh, well. Fire away."
"I need time at home, with my parents and Stefan and Emma." He continued. "They need to know the truth, and I'm not sure how they'll take to it."
"I'm sure they'll support you." The Doctor answered sincerely. "Just as they've always done. Anything else?"
"Yeah, don't be late." He told him. "Three days from now."
Picking up his pen, he quickly scribbled something down on a blank sheet of paper, which he then folded into a neat square and held out towards the Doctor.
"Your address?" He guessed. "In Kent?"
"Before I get persuaded otherwise." Peter told him. "Don't let me down Doctor, that's really all I'm asking of you."
"Oh, Peter Alexander Agent. I wouldn't dare dream of it."
Smiling at the lieutenant one final time, the Doctor stood up and turned on his heel. Not looking back once as he walked back over to the TARDIS, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Peter had never seen the TARDIS aside from in old photographs in the notorious Code Nine file, and he watched in awe as the spaceship quickly faded from view as its whirring engines powered it back into the depths of time and space.