A week or two after Samhain passed, Matt and Diana went on a trip to visit Matt's family while Karen and Arthur went to a concert. All living their lives and Ripley remained where she always been since ever, in her shop.

They haven't used the police box much, caught up in the goings of life, and the fact that Matt didn't want to risk having to explain to Diana about the police box. So, it remained where always been, sitting in the back.

This week, busier than normal, lot of people coming in and out of the shop, wanting to sell or buy, and Ripley aptly dealt with them as she always done before. She sold almost a couple thousand pounds worth of of merchandise and with persuasion bought future merchandise for less than they're actually worth.

Around noon, Ripley planned to close the shop for lunch. She didn't feel like going out and decided to order in. Her usual place closed for renovations and she needed another to order from, so she found some pamphlets of menus to sort through. All she wanted, something spicy, flavour was optional, she hardly tasted anything anyway. If it was spicy and reasonably priced, she didn't care.

Early this week, she went to Mr. Whiskers for her usuals, a couple of bottles of aged bourbon, something he recommended, and a free bottle he threw in because how much Ripley spent at his shop. She spent so much, it did't hurt him financially to give her a free regular sized bottle of a different brand of bourbon that he recommended. Ripley had enough to last her until the next week, depending on her mood.

Yesterday, she stopped by the drugs store and bought more sleep aid, she needed enough to last her for a while, but due to reasons, she couldn't buy more than three bottles of the sleep aid. Any more, she'd incur suspicion from the pharmacist, so she played it safe, only buying three bottles, and with her switching back and forth drinking and taking them to sleep, she'll have enough to last for a couple of weeks.

With that said, Ripley did everything she needed to do for the week and had no interest in going anywhere. In honest, she only ever went places if Matt and the others talked her into it, but since the trio had their own lives, she didn't want to come off as needy and avoided questions on the matter outright. She didn't want to bog the mood down with her moodiness and her inability to hold conversation with other people.

Business started slowing for the day and Ripley prepared to close the shop for lunch, she had the pamphlets out for her to sort and she looked through them for a bit until she heard someone coming inside the shop.

Ripley didn't bother to make eye contact with them, she just said, "Do you need help with something?"

She heard a voice, "I do, actually."

Ripley looked up to look at her customer and froze.

Standing before her, her sunburnt hair tied in a bun with curly ends sticking out, visibly tanned recently, and wore a burgundy formal attire.

Starring at her closely, the feeling of loathsomeness towards came over Ripley and she shifted in her spot to look at her closely.

"How did you get here?" Ripley asked her in a low voice.

Her burgundy lips flashed a smile as she replied, "I was on a trip and found my way here."

Mallory Malloy, someone they occasionally ran into and caused them headaches along the way, somehow found her way to their neck of the woods and Ripley wasn't happy with that at all.

"How did you get here?" Ripley slowly repeated her question for Mallory.

Mallory waved her hand and told her that she just took a tram. Literary. She took a tram and used it to find Ripley. Ripley, showing considerable distain towards Mallory, asked if anyone missed that tram and would've started looking for it. She wasn't playing around, Ripley never did. If Mallory incensed someone again, they're after the tram, and they're tracking here, Ripley would've began beating Mallory with her cane until it plum breaks into tiny splinters. She wasn't joking, she would do it if Mallory brought danger upon them, in their own home world no less.

It only caused Mallory to laugh at this and told Ripley nobody cared about a rundown tram. "Believe me, I'd steal something flashier," Mallory told her. Ripley gave a soured look in return.

"Speak your piece," Ripley ordered her. Of all people to get the brunt of her short temper, Mallory was no exception.

Glimpsing around, Mallory asked where Matt and the others were, which Ripley promptly told her that they were enjoying themselves. Mallory asked Ripley why she's still in the shop when she could've easily been out and having fun too. Dryly, Ripley told her, "I'm told I'm too much of a sourpuss."

She sharply asked Mallory, getting agitated with her presence, "Is there a reason you're here?"

Mallory's burgundy smile faded and she looked distress. She explained her woes, "My husband, he's missing, I can't find him anywhere."

Due to her penchant in lying, Ripley didn't believe a word she said. She informed Mallory of this, but Mallory insisted she was telling the truth. Mallory always insisted she told the truth. Ripley eyed her and pointed out, "I didn't know you were married."

Mallory smiled, showing her pearly whites, as she affirmed that she indeed was married, very happily at that. Ripley looked at her with suspicion and summed, "Let me guess, you're leading him on and when the time comes, you'll swindle him out of his fame and fortune."

It wasn't the first time Mallory did something like it, but she informed Ripley that was her job, this was her actual husband whom she adored. Ripley didn't believe a word she said and asked sharply, "What idiot married a swindling thief like you, Malloy?"

Mallory smiled, awestruck, as she replied, "My idiot."

She affirmed that she really was married and the times where it looked like she was, it was just her job, nothing to it, really!

"And he doesn't mind that his blushing wife is running around, making an enemy of herself to every alien and human in the known galaxies?" Ripley called out the times Mallory committed crimes and the times she almost got her and the others almost killed for her trouble.

Mallory chuckled as she responded, "He knew going in that I was a little naughty."

Ripley kept starring at her before proceeding to look down at her pamphlets of menus, Mallory spun tall tales all the time and she wasn't in the mood for it. She just wanted to take her lunch in peace and go back to working the shop before she closed for the night, go up to her flat, and probably drink until she gets tired and goes to sleep.

Mallory pouted and crossed her arms. "I thought you'd help me," she looked at Ripley who sorted the menus and looked them over. Ripley responded, "Oh sure, I'll help you, Malloy, I'll send you back where you came, you and your tram."

She flipped open a menu for a pub and looked through it, expecting Mallory to go away. Mallory didn't and she refused to leave until Ripley helped her.

"Well, tell me where the others are, I'm sure Matt will help me," Mallory suggested. Ripley looked up briefly to tell her, "He's got a girlfriend now. Don't even try, he's not that sort who'd roam for the likes of you."

Ripley wouldn't tell her where the others were and it became obvious Mallory wasn't leaving her shop willingly.

"What do you want from me, woman?" Ripley sharply asked Mallory. "Haven't you hoodwinked enough people as it is?"

Mallory protested that she wasn't hoodwinking Ripley, she really wanted to find her missing husband.

Groaning, Ripley rubbed her dry eyes and asked, "Where was he last?"

Mallory told Ripley that her husband wanted to surprise her for their wedding anniversary. He didn't tell her anything about where he was going or what he was doing, but told her just before he left that he wouldn't be long. It's been a couple of hours but he hadn't turned up.

"Surely he's taking a stroll by the Churchill Memorial?" Ripley suggested, it seemed like a good guess as any, many people strolled by the memorial each day of every hour, maybe Mallory's husband took the time to make his way over.

It's near a Windsor Marketplace that used to be the area where Buckingham Palace stood before the Germans bombed it back in WW2. The royal family evacuated in time, but their once grand palace was no more, turned to rubble. Unable to rebuild the palace due to the rebuilding efforts of New London taking most of the building material, the royal family allowed the area to turn into a food commerce for the builders and the victims of the bombings.

Since, it's become the Windsor Marketplace, the largest food market of all of the United Kingdom, where merchants and food vendors set up shop and sell their wares to tourists and locals all around.

Ripley suggested he gone to the marketplace for something to nosh on, she's heard plenty of good things about the marketplace, despite never going there herself. Too much foot travel would've bothered her knee.

She proceeded to look down to the menus, waiting for Mallory to leave, she's given her some ideas on where to look, but Mallory didn't seem satisfied with Ripley's responses.

Ripley stopped looking at her menus and annoyingly looked up. "I'm sure you can steal a cab and go over, your penchant to stealing and all," Ripley dryly told Mallory how she could reach Windsor Marketplace.

Mallory took offense to Ripley's claim that she'd sooner steal a cab. Shaking her head, Mallory gestured as she begged, "But I need your help, I thought your sort cared to help those in need."

Ripley sharply talked down to her, "We do, but we don't get swindled, attacked, abandoned, robbed, by the people we help!"

Her disdain for Mallory showed on her face. She didn't want to help Mallory and simply wanted her to blissfully return whatever hovel she called home and never come back again.

Mallory was relentless and offered, "Help me find him and I'll be on my merry way."

Ripley retorted, "To what, rob the United Kingdom Gold Repository?"

She knew Mallory well that if she smelled something good, she'd run towards it, gleefully willing to break laws to obtain the objects of her affection.

Mallory crossed her arms and huffed. She complained that she came to Ripley, in need, but Ripley continuously turned her away. "Well if you don't want to help, point me towards the others, I'm sure they'll help me," Mallory demanded that Ripley tell her where she could find the others.

Ripley swiftly interjected, "I will not let you ruin their time because you want to send them on a goose chase."

The women had a stand off and it ended when Mallory made an offer. Ripley helps her find her husband and they'll take their leave, Ripley can even watch them depart to make sure Mallory kept her end of the bargain. She didn't want to do any stealing anyway, she was on vacation.

"Vacation, you," Ripley eyed her. "I'm supposed to believe that?"

Mallory informed her that she and her husband wanted to take a vacation. They've been working diligently that they wanted to unwind and relax, so they sprung at an idea of taking a tram. "Well it was my idea, tickets are expensive you know," Mallory smiled as she talked about the idea of taking a rundown tram and using it as a vessel in their vacation. Nobody would've cared about it, since it's abandoned and rundown, and technically, Mallory didn't steal it.

"And how, dare I ask, did you come to the conclusion to come here?" Ripley became curious how Mallory and her supposed husband used the tram to travel here. She grew concerned at the implications. When Mallory informed her that they themselves made the tram take them here. It normally only did interplanetary travel, traveling between all curves of the planet, but Mallory and her husband's ingenuity saw it capable of taking them where they pleased.

"So why here?" Ripley inquired.

Mallory shrugged and responded, "I wanted to go to the beaches of Monte Crisco, but he wanted to come to London."

Ripley informed her that in these parts, London wasn't its own name anymore. It's New London and surrounding areas Old London, London on its own, a bygone.

Mallory shrugged and told her, London, New London, or Old London, it didn't matter, it's still London. "I don't know why, you been to one London, you seen them all," she sighs. "But I love that man too much."

It sounded romantic, but also far fetched, and Ripley couldn't deny she wanted Mallory gone. So in a compromise, she went along with it. If she helped Mallory, at least she can send her back and not have to explain to the others.

Sighing, Ripley, despite her internal discontent with Mallory, bowed to her pleas, and went to close the shop. Mallory thanked her profusely for helping her, but Ripley sharply told her it wasn't because she felt sorry for Mallory, she just wanted her gone.

Ripley checked her messages, making sure they didn't send her anything, and she made sure they weren't coming by the shop unexpectedly. Karen and Arthur were still at their concert and Matt and Diana were dealing with embarrassing stories of Matt's youth.

"Right, if you said is true, he should be in the marketplace still," Mallory clasped her hands as she hurried out of the store while Ripley locked it up. Ripley turned her head to see Mallory waving down a cab and hobbled towards her. "What if he's not at the marketplace?" Ripley inquired on the possibility that Mr. Malloy wasn't in the marketplace.

Mallory was sure that if he wasn't, he'd want to go the museum. Which Ripley informed her, theirs is undergoing renovations of their own. "I'm sure he's about," Mallory said optimistically. "He's probably making his way through Main Street as we speak."

Ripley told her that Main Street's closed for roadwork, meaning he couldn't go down it, even on the sidewalk.

Getting into the cab, the two took the trip to the marketplace and Ripley paid the faire before getting out and hobbling with Mallory through it. "What does he look like?" Ripley inquired about Mallory's husband.

Mallory smiled as she told Ripley about her husband down to a fine detail. He had soft gentle eyes, a silly smile, dark hair, and had an eccentric taste in clothes, which Ripley thought would've helped them find him much easier.

"You must care about him," Ripley noted as Mallory walked with her through the crowds. Given how Mallory usually treated dopey men who fell in love with her, the fact she happily married someone without the intent of taking everything from them, seemed all too cheesy, even for Mallory.

Mallory nods, her burgundy lips glistened in the sun as she told Ripley that her husband is her better half and a wonderful man. Which Ripley sarcastically asked how he handled the fact Mallory married plenty of other men for their money or something of value, dissolving it once she obtained what she wanted, and left men with broken hearts.

"My husband knows about it," Mallory responded as she proceeded to explain that her husband knew everything about her and yet, stuck by her side despite it. Which Ripley sarcastically responded, "Either he's amicable or an amicable idiot!"

Ripley hobbled behind Mallory as she looked up and down Windsor Boulevard, lined with stalls and the smell of food wafting through the open air. They searched high and low for Mallory's husband, but he wasn't anywhere in sight.

Ripley's knee started acting up and she took a seat at one of the outdoor chairs. "Where did that cheeky man gone off to?" Mallory wondered as she sat across from Ripley. Ripley replied, "Down a rabbit hole, perhaps. If he's as crazy as you say for trusting that much."

It bothered Ripley that Mallory, of all people, had a loving husband. Then again, they told her love's blind. Blind enough to overlook Mallory's penchant for thieving, it seems.

"So, my little Matt's got himself a girlfriend?" Mallory audibly gasped as she asked about Matt. Ripley nodded. Mallory asked her, "Well what's her name, what's she do, what's she like, come on, I need all the details!"

Ripley frowned and shrugged. "Her name's Diana. She works at the university. I don't know, she seems nice. Matt seems to like her," she only said. Details that didn't help with running a shop or surviving an onslaught of laser beams usually don't last long in Ripley's mind. Ripley sighed, "Matt's happy, so, don't matter much, right?"

Mallory asked about Karen and Arthur and Ripley shrugged again. "They're together now. I suppose opposites really do attract," she summed their relationship.

A sense of intrigue appeared on Mallory's face as she heard how the gang faired while she was elsewhere.

When Matt was single, she might've acted naughty and toyed with him, it was easier said and done, he couldn't help it. Now, he's an honest man and that meant he wouldn't roam, even tempted.

Arthur didn't fall for her tricks, anymore, because Karen smacked him more than once whenever he looked at Mallory funny until she couldn't get him to drop his jaw. Now they're together!

"Well, enough about them, what about you?" Mallory looked towards Ripley.

Ripley flatly told her, "I run a shop and I deal with people like you."

Mallory stared at her, Ripley stared at her back, and shook her head. "Well, what else?" Mallory gestured.

Ripley shrugged, she told Mallory, that's all. Mallory's mouth dropped as she summed, "That's all?"

Affirming this, Ripley shrugged, she responded, "Woman, do you not see me, I'm not the type to go out to clubs like you probably do. I highly doubt anyone's as foolish as your husband will sweep me off my cane. If they try, they're more foolish than he is. I just run an antique shop, that's all."

She didn't care. She didn't care she'd be the odd one out. All she does is run a shop and go on adventures in the police box, once a while.

Mallory pointed out the absurdity of this claim, but Ripley remained firm on her stance. "As long as they're happy, they're safe, they're not in any trouble, and they're enjoying themselves. That's all that matters," Ripley told Mallory. "They don't have to check on me all the time, it's not like I'm going anywhere."

Tilting her head, Mallory told her it sounded like something a madwoman would say to make herself feel better. Ripley scoffed at this claim.

Ripley blinked several times before realizing they've been talking for a good while. "Wait a minute, why am I even talking to you about this!" Ripley's eyes flared with anger as she leered at Mallory. "You gonna use this for the next time we meet?"