Hello, me again. With a new chapter. Horrah :)

Thank you for all those that reviewed. And all the smiley faces :) We like smiley faces a lot.

To Randi101- Happy birthday for today.

sailormajinmoon- Hope you had a great holiday.


Boom Town: Part 4

Half an hour later and I was fiddling with the screen, watching Rose and Mickey walk away towards the town, holding hands. I only envied them in that they could get away from the lady who was walking around the TARDIS silently and making everyone feel worse about themselves than they would care to admit. Either way, I was glad that her and Mickey were seeing more of each other. Even if the small voice in the back of my head worried me by whispering something about her leaving the TARDIS to stay with Mickey and Mum. I knew she wouldn't by any long shot, but the idea wouldn't leave me alone.

I turned the dial on the console, the camera showing the surroundings that mad up Cardiff Bay. No one could argue with the beauty of this part of Cardiff. The opera house was in one corner, the sea in the other and the silver fountain behind us, and all of it was lit up in the dark. Very different to the undertakers that we had visited in the eighteen hundreds, much more friendly, "I imagine it's not always like this," Margaret said to us, and I zoomed the camera around slightly more fiercely than I had before, "Having to wait. I bet you're always the first to leave, Doctor. Never mind the consequences, off you go. You butchered my family and then ran for the stars, am I right?" from the stiffening of the Doctor's shoulders, I could tell that she was getting to him, "But not this time. This time you have consequences. How does that feel?"

"I didn't butcher them," he said, not looking at her, and I snapped open my diary, reading the entry about the Slitheen over and over again. It was like when you're reading a book when you're extremely tired, and you just read one sentence over and over again, none of it actually ever going in. It was like that, but more unkind, "I didn't," he defended himself at Jack's look at him which was probably more to do with not answering her than anything else, "What about you? You had an emergency teleport, you didn't exactly teleport them to safety, did you?"

"It only carries one," she retorted, and the distress was quite evident in her voice. I did have to remember that her whole family did die in Downing Street, "I had to fly without coordinates. I ended up in a skip on the Isle of Dogs," I couldn't help but start to laugh at that, and the Doctor and Jack clearly were on the same wavelength as me as they burst into laughter as well, "It's not funny," we all quietened down at that, unable to get rid of a smile and I saw Margaret smile slightly from where she was sitting, "Do I get a last request?" she suddenly asked.

"It depends what it is," the Doctor said, bent over a piece of wiring, fixing it carefully, "We're not letting you go, and we're not going to let you wander around another planet where you can disappear and start another problem over there,"

"I grew quite fond of my little human life," she told us, "All those rituals, the brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way that they cook their food," she turned to look at us, "There's a little restaurant, just around the bay which became quite a favourite of mine. Could we go there?" the Doctor looked at her with a rather puzzled look on his face, "Don't I get rights?" she asked viciously.

"Is that what you want?" he asked her, "A last meal," he shook his head, "Like you're not going to try and escape over there,"

"Except I can never escape you, Doctor, so where's the danger?" she hissed viciously, "I wonder whether you could do it. To sit with a creature you're about to kill, and take supper. I wonder. I've seen you fight your enemies. Now dine with them," this was a bad idea, either way you looked at it. But at the challenge, the Doctor just looked rather resolved at doing just that, "I wonder how strong is your stomach,"

The Doctor only looked at her without any emotion, "Strong enough," he said calmly, folding his arms, and I swallowed slightly, "And you won't change my my mind, but there are people out there. If you slipped away for just one second, they'd be in danger,"

"Except," Jack grinned, "I've got these," he produced two silver bracelets, "They can also be used as handcuffs, I picked them up in a market while at the Time Agency. Basically you each wear one of these, and if she moves more than ten feet," he made a loud buzzing noise and Margaret jumped back slightly, "She get's zapped with ten thousand bolts," That was quite an insurance to make her not run away at any time while they were out there and the Doctor clearly thought so as he grinned, taking the two bangles and turning to Margaret.

"Margaret, can I take you out to dinner?" he asked her, "My treat?" Margaret smiled at him and I made a face at Jack who let out a laugh before quietening down when the Slitheen looked at her. The Doctor clipped one of the silver handcuffs to her, before fastening the other on his own arm, "Don't worry, we won't be out all night," he reassured us, "Definitely back before midnight," he pulled on his coat, "Come along, Margaret, we don't want you to wander off, now do we?" I waved sarcastically at her as they exited the TARDIS and I slumped immediately back on the seat, watching them walk away from the police box.

"Anything interesting on?" Jack asked, from behind me and I tapped the buttons to make the screen go blank immediately, "That interesting, huh?" he grinned at me before going back to the console where the extrapolator was beeping away, "You know that it's only dinner," he informed me, and I looked towards him with an innocent expression on my face, "They're only going out because she wants to try and convince him not to take her back to Raxacoricofallapatorius, other than that there isn't a reason that he's taking her to dinner. So don't worry,"

"Worry about what?" I inquired, "I'm not worrying about anything," he didn't look convinced at my defence, "I know he's only taking her to dinner because she asked him to. There's nothing wrong with that," I rubbed my hands on my trousers, "The man's nine hundred years old, he can do what he likes," I tapped the screen again, my hand going to the pocket watch that lay at the bottom of my pocket, clicking it open and shut it backwards and forwards again, "And even if he did take her out for dinner, it's none of my business. He can do what he likes,"

"Liar," he replied and I shot him a look, "Hey, it's nothing to do with me but I think you should tell him what you feel about him," I turned back to studying the screen intently, trying to put his words out of my mind, "He's only the Doctor,"

"Yes, that's exactly the point," I said to him, "He's the Doctor. He's my best friend, he's an alien and he's nine hundred years older than me," I sat on the seat, watching the screen, "So I've travelled with him to the year five billion, seen Charles Dickens with him, been to Downing Street with him, met my Dad with him," I rubbed my forehead, looking over at Jack, "He knows what scares me, what I love, what I hate, what my childhood was like, what I did with my life. He's my best friend but I don't have a good history of people reacting well to that sort of thing. Beside he..." I closed my eyes, thinking back to that day after the Slitheen, "Well...I think he already knows,"

"But you haven't said it specifically," he pressed, and I didn't answer him, "Trust me, you should tell him precisely. A man doesn't wait forever, you know, even if he might have forever to do so," he placed a hand on my shoulder, "Trust me, if he knows everything about you then he should know this. Bold print. I mean he already looks at you as if the sun has just risen after a rainy night,"

I smiled to myself at that, "I think everyone falls in love with the Doctor," I told him honestly, "They can't help it. He offers you the whole of time and space, and you see everything that's out there and it's amazing...fantastic and absolutely brilliant. Completely brilliant," I smiled, "You see everything so differently, see that even though you're running for your life, you don't care because it's the best feeling in the world...every world. And then you look at the Doctor and he is wonderful. How could he not be and I can't...I just can't tell him that I love him, knowing that he can't say it back to me. He is so old, older than me, by a long, long way. But I think he knows, I hope he knows. And you know," I moved around the console, "Perhaps one day, one day I will tell him," I ran a hand through my hair, "Listen to me, I've only known him for a couple of months,"

"I was with someone for two weeks," he answered me, "I mean we were trapped in a time loop for five years, but it was still...two weeks," his grin told me everything, "Besides, you can't help who you fall for. And you've fallen. I recognise the symptoms," I swatted him on the arm, and he recoiled back amused, "The Doctor and Miss Mary," his smile looked slightly worried at that, "You'll go on forever,"

I snorted amused, "Forever is a long time," I reminded him, "Not everything lasts forever you know," I looked at him speculatively, "When we first met, the first time you stepped onto this ship, I told you my full name," he nodded, still focussed on the extrapolator, "When I did tell you, you looked like you had seen a ghost," he didn't stop fixing the wires, now deliberately not looking towards me, "Almost like you recognised my name, but you didn't show any signs of recognition when you first saw me. Why did you do that?" Hesitate at my name,"

"In the Time Agency, you get to hear about the other Time Travellers that are around," he replied, "The Justice Department with their Tesselectas," I frowned at that, "Robots with miniaturised people inside that deal out justice through Time travel. I'm not too sure about how they do it," he waved a hand, "But there are others that have Time Travel. There are always rumours floating around about the others. Time Lords included," he finally looked at me, "I recognise your because there was a rumour floating around about someone named Mary-Anne Tyler,"

"What was it about?" I asked him, and he shook his head, "Jack..." I warned him, "It's my future, this is me that we are talking about. What did the rumour say?" he didn't answer me, "Is my future really that bad? Please tell me Jack,"

"Playing around with future events is dangerous," he reminded me, "One thing that we could say could completely rewrite something else, change time," he sighed, and I sat back in the seat, "You can't afford to change time,"

"The Doctor says that time can be rewritten," I argued, "If you change the in flux stuff leading up to the fixed point then surely the fixed point can change," he gave me a look that clearly told me that was a very bad idea, "So time is like a fast flowing river with stepping stones in it? When the water hits the stone is bends around the stone, but never breaks it down. And what you heard was about a fixed point?"

He put down his tools, holding my hands, "Things change, Miss Mary, you can't deny that time changes, but you'll be fine. Just stick with the Doctor and you'll be...amazing," I smiled at him, "Besides..." he turned back to the extrapolator, "You never know how much time you actually have left, so live today when you don't know about tomorrow," he fished around in his pockets, "And here..." he handed his squareness gun to me, "Take this,"

"But this is your squareness gun," I told him, taking it carefully, "I can't take this! And besides, I'm not going to shoot anyone in the face if I can help it,"

"Well it's a very good lock picking device then," he reasoned, "And you never know when you might need it. Good escape route," I sighed, before placing it on the console, "Besides I don't need it, I've got other guns lying around. It's always good to have a back up," a chill ran through me at those words and I rubbed my arms to try and warm myself up, "You all right, Miss Mary?"

"Yeah," I nodded, before standing up, still feeling like someone had walked all over my grave, "I'm just going to go get my coat, won't be a minute," I turned to walk out of the console room before catching the reflection of the console, "Jack?" I called, "Can you come here a second," I didn't my eyes off reflection, and Jack stood next to me, "What do you see when you look into that reflection?"

"The two of us," he said, before going back to where he had been working, "I thought you were going to get that coat of yours," I nodded distantly, before turning back. True enough, there wasn't anyone else there in the reflection. No sign of the thin man in the brown coat, watching me.

I walked into my room, smiling at the photograph that was hanging on the wall. It was of Rose, Jack, the Doctor and I all grinning at the camera. That had been a good day. We had been on a planet which had three suns in the sky, and we spent most of the day walking along the beach, Jack trying to build the best sandcastle in existence, Rose helping him. That had been a really fun day, nothing to worry about, just four friends having a great day. I loved the running, but equally it was great just to see everything there was to see about the universe.

When I walked back into the console room, instantly I knew that there was something wrong. Jack was running around the console, banging it frantically, "Something the matter?" I asked him, walking up to the console, and then noticed that the extrapolator beeping wildly, "Did you get it to wo-" the TARDIS gave a sudden jarring shudder and I grasped the railing, cutting off my sentence, "What the hell did you do?!"

"I don't know!" he shouted back at me "Don't look at me, I didn't do anything to it, it just went completely crazy," the TARDIS gave another shudder and suddenly the ground underneath started to rumble, "Now that really doesn't sound good," he ran over to the screen, "The Rift's open,"

"The what!" I demanded, stumbling over to the screen, "You mean you can actually read this?" he gave me a look, "Not helping, sorry," he was quickly ripping out the wires attached to the extrapolator, "What happened to it?"

"I don't know, I plugged it into the TARDIS trying to use it's power and it's now it opened the Rift," he pulled the final wire out of the case, but it continued to beep, "No good," he looked over to me, I've disconnected it but it just keeps..." he pressed it rapidly, "Ahh, can't get it to shut off!" he looked over to me, "We're just a little bit stuck,"

"Only in bloody Cardiff," I ran my hand through my hair, "Ok, I'm going to check outside," I ran towards the doors opening it and stepping outside. Instantly I grasped onto the outside of the TARDIS as the ground shook violently again and I looked around me as cracks appeared in the ground, "Ok, it's bad, it's very, very bad. There's an earthquake happening out there," I informed Jack running back inside, "Can't we just smash it or something?"

"We don't know what it will do if we break it," now Jack was getting anxious, "I don't know what it could do, you don't know what it could do. It could do anything, make the city implode or get vaporised," he looked at me, suddenly completely calm, "We're stuck in the middle of Cardiff that is about to explode with all the power of the Rift,"


So we are nearly to the end of this story. I apologize if the updates might be a little sporadic next week in advance cause I'm heading off to uni and I need to start packing. If anyone has any advice about what to bring to uni, other than usual things, I'd be grateful, cause other than normal things, I'm hopeless.

So long and keep those smiley faces coming :)

:)