Practically

Adelaide hated herself. She hadn't had that thought in some time, but if it was ever going to be true, it was going to be true at that moment.

She could have handled being in the dark. She could have handled being surrounded. She could have handled being submerged.

But being in the dark, surrounded, and submerged? If she'd dared to try...Adelaide didn't want to think about where her mind would go then. In a safer situation, where they were in control, perhaps she'd have been able to try. Not here. Not now. Not when there were actual lives in danger.

Even if she acknowledged that, even if she knew that it made sense to have someone waiting on shore in case something went wrong in the ice, Adelaide still hated herself.

She would have to rely on whatever the Doctor and Bill could report to determine what the green lights were and what they wanted. Adelaide never liked relying on other people's reports. It was one of the main reasons she'd supplied to the High Council when applying for permission to travel – if they wanted her to do good work for Gallifrey, she needed to be out in the universe making her own reports, not pouring over tomes created out of stories and likely baseless in fact.

If only this mystery wasn't underwater. If only it wasn't night. If only if only if only.

Adelaide glanced back at the half of her sonic she'd taken. Ever since she'd twisted it in half, her half had been blinking steadily. It was designed to flash quicker the closer the sonic pieces were to each other.

Ideally, the Doctor and Bill would barely take twenty minutes under the ice. Likely less. Adelaide would start tracking her sonic light soon, though she would stay off the ice as much as possible.

Now, she just had to wait.

The Doctor's TARDIS key was hot in her other hand. She supposed that had to do with the fact she was also wearing her TARDIS's key. The two must react with each other.

She'd never tested that before, with her own version of the Doctor's key. The moment she'd acquired an office in St. Lukes, she'd placed his key in a desk drawer and closed it. She hadn't opened it again. Been tempted to, just to look at it again, but had never allowed herself to.

She supposed that, if the Doctor hadn't revealed himself, she would have opened that drawer soon. Missing the Doctor had just hurt so much.

Now, she had the Doctor. And his key.

There was a cracking sound in the ice and Adelaide frowned in the dark. There was a point of light a bit away from the edge of the river. For a moment, she thought it was the Doctor, though she didn't know how he could have broken through a separate point of ice from below. But then she saw a fishing line and the man responsible's face caught the light. It was the pie seller that the Doctor had both angered and stolen from earlier.

She was still watching him when two people burst out of the hole he'd cut in the ice. Adelaide might have laughed.

As it turned out, she didn't need to use her sonic to find them. She was happy about that. It meant they were safe. Adelaide felt she could breathe again, though she hadn't remembered not being able to breathe.

Adelaide reached the Doctor and Bill just as the pie seller had turned and ran. "I love your work!" the Doctor called after the man.

"The sound it made," Bill said, looking back down in the ice. "I couldn't hear you, but that noise, it's like I felt it in my bones, you know? It sounded like...like..."

"Despair," the Doctor provided. "Loneliness. A prisoner in chains."

Bill frowned in the direction where the pie seller had run off to. "That guy. He said he caught the fish himself. I bought pie off that guy. Fish pie!"

Adelaide knelt and picked up one of the fish the man had caught. It looked like an Earth angler fish. The Doctor matched her height, one hand hovering over the fish. "Oh, hello. Aren't you magnificent?" He nodded at it. "As best I could tell, there's a large creature under the ice. I believe it's what's eating the people. And it looked like a bigger version of this."

Adelaide nodded. "Like the Star Whale."

"Except that it eats the children."

"I ate that pie," Bill mumbled. "I liked that pie."

"These aren't carnivores," Adelaide reported, looking at the smaller fish's mouth. "They must be cooperating with the creature, possibly the children or other relationship along the evolutionary tree.

"What did it take for you to evolve into that?" the Doctor asked the fish.

"Or what did it take for that to de-evolve into this?"

Bill turned back to the Time Lords. "The creature, do you reckon that's what's making London so cold?"

"Very possibly."

"What kind of alien messes with the weather?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "You're assuming that it's an alien."

"Of course it's alien."

"Or it's terrestrial and merely prehistoric." Adelaide looked to the Doctor. "You mentioned chains."

He nodded. "Who's keeping it in those chains?" He saw someone over her shoulder. "And perhaps our friend here can answer that."

The trio moved across the ice to the wharfside. The pie seller was attempting – and failing – at hiding behind a barrel. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"The coin trick. Just tell me how to do it, please!" The Doctor shook his head. "Okay. Not the time. Have you ever seen a man around here with a tattoo of a ship?" the pie seller made a face. "What's that face? Is that a no or are you against tattoos? I'm against tattoos, too. I think that we are bonding."

"We're stood by the docks, and you just asked me if I've ever seen a man with a tattoo of a ship."

The Doctor nodded. "Exactly."

Bill, however, understood the man's point. "Fair point."

"What point?"

"Look, forget the tattoos," Bill said. "Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously since the freeze?"

"Well, there's the dredgers."

"The dredgers?"

The pie seller nodded. "There's a workhouse upriver. They have men out there patrolling all hours."

|C-S|

The Doctor, Adelaide, and Bill watched the workers from behind a wall. "What are they dredging for?" Bill asked them both.

The Doctor grinned. "Let's find out."

"How are we getting in?" The Doctor held up his psychic paper. "You work for the palace?"

The Doctor glanced at it. "Haven't had that one in a while."

|C-S|

It was easier than expected to get inside the walls. The first time they were actually stopped was when the overseer spotted them. "Oi. How'd you get through here?"

The Doctor grinned at him. "Ah-ha! At last, someone in authority." He flashed the psychic paper.

The man's eyes went wide. "Oh, I do apologize, sir. Does Lord Sutcliffe know you're here?"

"Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here," the Doctor laughed before turning to Adelaide. "Does Lord Sutcliffe know we're here?"

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Lord Sutcliffe insisted we come. And, as I'm sure you know, we must obey Lord Sutcliffe when he insists." She clasped her hands in front of herself. "A tour, please, if you don't mind."

The overseer nodded. "Follow me, sir, ma'am." He turned and led them further into the facility.

"Take it inside!" a man shouted, though they couldn't see him. "Same as the last batch." The best they could see, the workers were packing mud into brick shapes, though they were wearing kerchiefs.

"Why all the fuss?" Bill asked, nodding at the kerchiefs. "It's just mud from the river, isn't it?"

Adelaide wrinkled her nose. Sometimes she could curse enhanced Time Lord senses. "I suppose mud works as a classifier."

"Is this even the right place? The creature's almost a mile away."

"The creature's head is almost a mile away." Adelaide looked to the human. "Since you actually saw it, I would hope you have some understanding of the scale." Bill picked up one of the bricks, smelling it. "We're at the other end now." Bill dropped the brick and looked at her hand as though it had betrayed her.

"These men," the Doctor asked the overseer, "why do we trust them?"

"Hired them all myself, sir."

"Ah." He nodded. "Why do I trust you?"

The overseer blinked. "Sir."

"You understand how important this is, yes? It is imperative that no one discovers where the stuff goes when it leaves here."

The overseer nodded, looking eager to prove his trust to the Doctor. "Oh, I know that, sir. We use unmarked carts."

"Are they ever followed?"

"Oh no, sir."

"Have you checked this personally?"

"Oh yes, sir."

"All the way to Hampton?"

The overseer frowned. "No, to the steel mill, sir."

"Hampton is code for the steel mill."

The overseer seemed even more confused. "Code, sir?"

"Yes." The Doctor nodded. "Yes, we need to use code. Otherwise anyone could walk in here and get you blabbing like a fool."

"That's a good point, sir."

Adelaide stepped closer. "What do the men know of this substance?"

"No more than I do, ma'am."

"Yes, but you are someone who knows more than he tells," the Doctor prompted.

"I'm not one to speculate."

"But you can't help it because you're a man of intelligence."

The overseer was not skilled at hiding his smirk at the complement. "They won't let us smoke in here, so I assume it's fuel. Fuel for the furnaces, sir."

"Excellent reasoning," Adelaide said, blinking. "Lord Sutcliffe appreciates an enquiring mind."

The overseer nodded. "Well, I keep my ear to the ground, you know."

"And what is the ground saying these days?"

The overseer leaned closer. "That this stuff burns a thousand times longer than coal?"

The Doctor nodded. "Very good."

"Hotter, too. Hotter than they can measure."

"Excellent!" the Doctor pointed at him. "First class."

"I'm right, aren't I, sir?"

"Oh, there's no stopping you. You keep this up, you won't be working in this yard for very long."

The overseer rolled his shoulders, prideful. "Oh, you think not?"

"I can almost guarantee it."

The overseer stepped closer again. "You know what else they say? They say it even burns underwater."

Bill's eyes widened. "No sh..." the human was cut off by a horse.

|C-S|

The Sutcliffe House was as grand as Adelaide expected. Now that they had his name, it had been quite easy to find. Apparently, he was well known in the city.

"So," Bill said, looking up at it with her hands on her hips. "This guy has a pet monster that turns people into fuel and we're just rocking up at his door?"

The Doctor nodded at the house. "That's his door, this is us knocking." They moved up the stairs to the door and the Doctor rang the bell. "If we're going to stop him, we need to know where he started."

"Meaning?"

"Which planet."

That time, Bill and Adelaide frowned at him together. "Which planet?" Adelaide asked.

Before the Doctor could answer, a manservant opened the door and the Doctor flashed his psychic paper again, grinning. The manservant ushered them in and into a drawing-room to wait for Lord Sutcliffe, taking the psychic paper with him to show the lord.

Once they were alone, Adelaide faced the Doctor again, though the man was busy adjusting an orrery. "You honestly believe Sutcliffe is an alien?"

"Possibly."

"Because the creature is an alien," Bill said.

Adelaide glanced at her. "The creature is more likely terrestrial than alien." Back to the Doctor. "Why do you think Sutcliffe is an alien?"

"It appears to be producing fuel suitable for interstellar travel."

"Or for powering an England dreaming ahead at the end of the Industrial Revolution."

The Doctor turned from the orrery, looking to the human. "Either way, Bill, I need you to leave the talking to me."

"Why?"

"Because you have a temper."

Bill shrugged. "Oh okay, well, I lost it a tiny bit."

"You're about to meet a man, alien or otherwise, for whom human beings are raw material," the Doctor explained. "Who grinds up children for profit. What we are here for is one thing. Information. We get that with diplomacy and tact. Charm, if necessary. I am responsible for the charm, Adelaide is responsible for information management."

Bill sunk onto a nearby armchair. "Okay. I get it."

"Always remember, Bill. Passion fights, but reason wins."

Adelaide glanced at the Doctor. "You'd do good to remember that as well, Doctor."

He opened his mouth to speak again, but Sutcliffe entered before he could. "Doctor Disco, from the Fairford Club!" Sutcliffe said, looking only at the Time Lord. "Obviously, one aspires to membership, but to actually be considered for..." his gaze fell on Bill and his expression immediately changed to a grimace, surging forward. "Who...who let this creature in here? On your feet, girl, in the presence of your betters."

The Doctor tapped Sutcliffe on the shoulder and, when the man turned, punched him very hard in the jaw. The man went down fast.

Adelaide was barely shocked. Despite what the Doctor had said, she knew the Time Lord too well to think he would begin relying on charm and reason instead of passion. Yes, he was generally more skilled at negotiation than she was, better understanding necessary changes in direction than her own approach of just staying polite, but he also tended to let his emotions get the better of him.

"He's human," the Doctor said, shaking the fist he'd used. "Thirty-one years of age. Low on iron."

Bill nodded, standing. "Yeah, that was pretty convincing racism for an extra-terrestrial."

"My thoughts exactly." Larger men entered the room, acting essentially as Sutcliffe's personal guard. "Oh, hello," the Doctor said, smiling at them. "Can I just say, this is very unlike me. I don't normally do this."

"Yeah, he was aiming for charming."

The Doctor nodded. "Basically."

|C-S|

By the time Sutcliffe regained consciousness, the men had all three time travelers' hands behind their backs, tied and secured. Normally, Adelaide may have said it was a bit extreme, especially for her and Bill, but the Doctor had punched someone.

Sutcliffe rubbed his jaw as he stared at them. "Well, you're not from the Fairford Club."

"No, we are not from the Fairford Club. Are you aware of where the creature in the river is from?" Adelaide asked. Even if the Doctor was best at questioning, she was not going to let him take control again.

"Nowhere!" Sutcliffe flung up a hand. "It's always been there. The secret's been passed won in the family since, I don't know when. As far back as records go."

"Indulge my curiosity. Do you keep a record of how many it's killed? Even a rough estimate?"

"Please," Sutcliffe waved a hand. "People know the ice is dangerous, yet they will insist on their festivities. That's hardly my fault."

"This is the biggest Frost Fair in decades, is it not? And you're responsible."

Bill frowned at her. "He is?"

"The man holding the Doctor has a tattoo on his left hand. Added, Sutcliffe is the wealthiest man in London. He's responsible for the circus performers, the elephant, everything that truly draws the crowd."

Sutcliffe shrugged. "I made the most of the situation. It's the first proper freeze it's caused in years."

"Why?" Bill asked. "Production down, huh? Not enough people dying?"

"Bill..." Adelaide warned, but Sutcliffe spoke first.

"Girl, you show the ignorance of all your kind. Without that beast, my mills would rely on coal mines, and men die in coal mines all the time."

The Doctor shook his head. "I preferred it when you were alien."

Sutcliffe looked to him. "When I was what?"

"Well, that explained the lack of humanity. What makes you so sure that your life is worth more than those people out there on the ice? Is it the money? The accident of birth that puts you inside the big, fancy house?"

Sutcliffe bristled. "I help move this country forward. I move this Empire forward."

"Human progress isn't measured by industry, it's measured by the value you place on a life. An unimportant life. A life without privilege. The boy who died on the river, that boy's value is your value. That's what defines an age. That's what defines a species."

Sutcliffe was quiet for a moment. "What a beautiful speech. The rhythm and...and vocabulary, quite outstanding. It's enough to move anyone with an ounce of compassion." He grinned. "So, it's really not your day, is it?" He looked to his men. "If they know about the beast, then others must, too."

"That is not sound logic," Adelaide mumbled.

"We bring the plan forward," Sutcliffe insisted.

"When, sir?" one of his men asked.

"Now! In daylight."

|C-S|

The trio was shoved inside a carriage to be transported back to the Frost Fair. The Time Lords ended up next to each other opposite Bill.

The human was staring at the Doctor with what looked to be a mixture of pride and wonder. "No time for outrage," Bill said, repeating the Doctor's previous statement. "You've never had time for anything else, right?"

"Don't be smug. Smug belongs to me."

Bill smiled. "Are you really two thousand years old?"

"Why?"

"I just wanted to know how long it takes before you can make a speech like the one you just made. It was worth the wait." She looked to Adelaide. "How old are you? Two thousand?"

"Approximately."

|C-S|

When the carriage finally came to a stop, the trio were pulled out by the man Sutcliffe had sent. "Come on, out," he prompted, pushing them into a tent. "Get in there! Sit down and shut up." He made them sit and adjusted how their hands were tied, situating them around the main pole, beneath a wire panel. Bill and the Doctor were placed back to back, with Adelaide between them, facing front.

Bill eyed some of the barrels she could see, which were connected to the wire panel above Adelaide. "It could be rum. Rum came in barrels."

"Notice everything," Adelaide said. "It's a type of rocket fuel that they're repurposing as explosive."

"It's a little reckless, don't you think?" the Doctor asked, turning his head as Sutcliffe ducked into the tent. "Half the fair disappears into the river, the secret of your success won't be a secret anymore."

Sutcliffe nodded. "Hardly. The city will pause to mourn a fireworks display gone tragically awry, and the creature will be fed. By spring, this will be a footnote in history. That is progress." He leaned out, looking at the crowds. "They're bringing the elephant out presently. We won't get bigger crowds than that, so make sure you're off the ice by noon."

Bill frowned. "Noon? There's no way you can keep us here that long. We'll just scream our heads off."

Sutcliffe didn't respond, leaving them. Adelaide leaned her head closer to Bill. "I trust you were capable of hearing him when he mentioned an elephant and crowds? No one will hear us scream."

Sutcliffe's follower grinned at that, clearly agreeing, and left the tent as well, though they could see his silhouette standing guard.

"I think my sonic is easier to reach," the Doctor told Adelaide, attempting to jostle it from his pocket. Her response was to bend to the side, allowing him the proper space to dislodge the sonic, only he sent it too far. Adelaide stretched her legs out until she managed to catch the sonic with her foot, sending it skidding back across the ice to their hands. "Yes, thank you," he said, grabbing it and aiming it at their ropes.

"Um...Doctor?" Bill said, making Adelaide turn.

A green light was moving towards them. "The fish must be drawn by the sonic frequency," she guessed. "It's how they choose their victims."

"What are you doing?" Bill asked, having never properly seen either Time Lord using their sonic.

"Just...just a little more."

The man outside the tent burst in a second after a larger rush of the fish below the ice, brow furrowed. "What are you..." he bent down, reaching between their hands to grab the sonic. "Give me that!" Immediately, the fish circled him. "What the..."

"Turn it off," the Doctor prompted, nodding towards the device. "There's a button on the side." The man searched for it. "Here! Give it here!" On instinct, the man tossed it to the Doctor as the fish concentration grew. The Doctor, hands already free, caught it just as the man fell through the ice. "Afraid it has a knack to it." He turned and held out a hand to help Adelaide stand. For once, the Time Lady took it, the two holding their gaze.

Something needed to be done. Just like the Vardi, some interference was needed. Some protection.

They turned to look at Bill in unison. "Bill." The human didn't look. She was still staring at the spot of ice where the man had been swallowed. "Miss Potts? We need you with us."

"I...I..."

"Things to do, Bill. Decisions to make." The Doctor helped her stand. "What are we going to do about Tiny?"

Bill shook her head. "Tiny?"

"The creature. The lock-less monster. The not-so-little mermaid. Are we just going to leave her down there?"

Bill's eyes widened. "We can't set her free. She could burst up out of the water and eat a hundred people right off of Southbank! She could eat half of London!"

Adelaide nodded. "She might. It's a risk."

"So, what do you want to do, Bill?"

Bill looked between them. "We already know the answers. Why are you even asking?"

"We don't know the answers," the Doctor corrected. "Only idiots know the answers. But if your future is built on the suffering of that creature, what's your future worth?"

"Why is that up to me?"

"Because it is not up to us," Adelaide told her. "This is your people, your planet. We have provided you as much information as we can acquire, but it is your decision."

The Doctor nodded. "I serve at the pleasure of the human race and, right now, that's you. Give me an order. Not long till noon." Bill was silent, her mouth hanging open. "I need an order."

"There is no right choice. But it is one you must make."

Bill looked near tears, but she looked prepared for a fight. There was something comforting in that. "Save her."

The Doctor nodded at the tent. "I'll take care of this. You and Adelaide, you get everyone off the ice." He looked to Adelaide and the Time Lady nodded.

She reached into her dress again and took out her sonic, twisting it in half again.

|C-S|

It was surprisingly effective to have the children get the people they'd gotten onto the ice back off of it. As it happens, a group of children running around shouting about ice melting and people falling through was enough to frighten people for the shores. But the majority of people didn't care about the worry of children.

Adelaide checked her half of her sonic every few minutes for the Doctor's signal that he'd finished below the ice.

Bill rushed up to her as Adelaide checked it, grabbing Adelaide's shoulder. "They're going to do it now."

Adelaide spun. "Ensure the children are off. I'll find the Doctor."

Bill nodded and rushed off to find where she'd stationed the orphans. Adelaide pressed the sonic to signal to the Doctor, alerting him to a change. Thankfully, he responded in kind almost immediately.

There was a rumble beneath the ice, but nothing broke on the surface. A moment later, there was something stronger. "Bill?" Adelaide called. "We need to go. Now!"

"Coming!"

Adelaide took that as an answer. She turned until the sonic signal was strongest and rushed in that direction, picking up the pace once she heard the ice beginning to crack.

"Doctor!" Bill called from behind her, spotting the Time Lord as he appeared at the edge of the ice, still mostly wearing his diving suit. "You did it! She's free!"

Adelaide reached the Doctor first and he pulled her onto the dock, allowing them both to lift Bill as the cracks finally reached them. Bill didn't stop for long, rushing to watch as the creature breached the surface of the broken ice. "Go!" Bill cheered. "Where will she go?"

"Somewhere cold, I imagine," the Doctor smiled. "Hopefully, she's smart enough to avoid you lot now."

Adelaide frowned at the bit of the creature she could see. "I recognize it. Is there a section of Earth called Greenland?"

Bill's eyes widened. "What if we just like...doomed Greenland?"

"Greenland itself was fine," Adelaide said.

The Doctor still shrugged. "We can still check in on Greenland, just in case."

Bill looked down at the creature. "How long is she?" Before either Time Lord could answer, the creature splashed them with its flipper. "Ah." She moved to the edge of where they stood, watching as the creature breached beyond the London Bridge. "Can you hear that?"

The Time Lords looked to each other and remembered the song of the Star Whale.

|C-S|

Altering Sutcliffe's will was the Doctor's idea but, to his surprise, Adelaide didn't fight him on the idea. She didn't directly help him, but she did advise him on his handwriting choice.

Bill led the orphans into the dining room once they arrived. The table had been filled with food. "Go on. Eat as much as you like."

The Doctor looked up, focusing on the boy. "Er, you, boy! Remind me, what's your name?"

The boy responded, mouth full, but even the Time Lords couldn't understand him.

Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Swallow before you speak. That will be important."

"Perry," Kitty told them. "His name's Perry. Why?"

"Apparently, Lord Sutcliffe's long-lost heir can't be a girl," Bill told her. All of the orphans froze, mouths and hands full of food, to stare at the Doctor as he grinned.

|C-S|

"What about the butterfly effect?" Bill asked the Time Lords once they'd returned to TARDIS, beginning the travel properly back to Bill's Earth period.

"I told you earlier," Adelaide said, "time has methods of maintaining itself, especially when humans are responsible."

Bill shook her head. "We must have changed something. I mean, people saw a monster in the Thames."

The TARDIS landed and Adelaide checked the scanner before nodding, allowing the three of them to exit. Bill was the first one out. "Well, it doesn't look any different."

The Doctor moved to his desk, picking up a pile of papers, as Nardole entered with his tray of tea. Bill pulled out her phone to search the internet.

"All right," Nardole said, not looking up at them yet. "There you go. There's your tea. I put a bit of coffee in it, as well, just to give it some flavor. See, it's much better when you stick to your oath." He looked up and noticed their distinctly period clothing. "Oh sir, no...this is unacceptable. This is beyond unacceptable. This is naughty."

The Doctor pointed at him. "Language."

Bill shook her head. "I don't get it. London, 1814. Monster, sea creature, serpent, really, really big fish. Nothing."

"Sir, you said you wouldn't be going off-world."

Adelaide restrained her smile. "These aren't off-world clothes, Nardole."

"Not you too!" he looked exasperated. "You said you'd be coming back to your office!"

The Doctor gestured to the room. "Look, here I am. I'm in my office." He picked up a cup. "I'm drinking my tea, my specially chosen tea clothes."

"I don't understand. How could it not have been headline news?"

"Never underestimate the collective human ability to overlook the inexplicable." The Doctor shrugged. "Also, the Frost Fair involved a lot of day drinking."

Adelaide pulled out her own phone. "Let me try." After a moment, she turned her phone for Bill to see. "Papers tend to miss the true headline."

"Lord Sutcliffe drowns in snap thaw. Shock as steel fortune is passed to street urchin!"

Nardole moved closer to the Doctor, trying to whisper for only the Time Lord could hear. "Sir. We need to talk. Your oath..."

"Give us a coin."

"What?"

"The new Lord Sutcliffe was found starving on London's streets," Bill continued. "The inheritance was contested, everyone got super mad, blah, blah, blah, urchin boy deemed legitimate." Bill laughed. "Oh my God, it worked! You did it. You saved them!"

Adelaide took her phone back. "It was you, Bill. Your decision."

"Sir..."

"Give me a coin. We'll toss for it." The Doctor glanced up at Adelaide. "Heads, my TARDIS stays put. Tails, you leave me alone."

|C-S|

Nardole went off in a huff after the coin flip, mumbling something about checking on the Vault. Bill looked ecstatic for the idea of another trip, but the fact the Time Lords went silent when Nardole left was enough for her to understand that now wasn't the time for traveling.

Now, two Time Lords who'd hoped to and dreaded never seeing each other again needed to talk to each other.

Adelaide took the seat meant for visitors opposite the Doctor's desk, picking up the cup of tea that Nardole had brought, though she didn't drink. "I hope you don't mind that I'm surprised. You let Bill make the decision."

"It's her planet. Her right." He studied her. He hadn't even bothered to pick up his cup. "What would you have done, if you were alone?"

"I would have waited for the TARDIS to finish its scan for immediate threats in the surrounding. Once I realized it was under the ice, I would have attempted to use the TARDIS to identify the creature and its species, as well as its situation."

"And then? How would you have found Sutcliffe?"

"Because the creature was clearly trapped, I would have spoken with the crowds. Found those acting strange. Followed the same path we had to Sutcliffe. If I'd determined that he was taking advantage of the creature and posed an immediate threat, I would likely have used my TARDIS to transport the creature somewhere safe."

"So you would have helped."

Adelaide nodded. "You may phrase it as such, yes."

"And you would have been okay with it."

She nodded again. "Because it was not interfering with time."

He raised his eyebrows. "You told Bill that her actions were already established in the timeline, but we both know that was a lie." Adelaide was thankful that he didn't then also begin what seemed his embedded pattern of how lying was rude. "Traveling in time at all has a high chance to alter events."

"There is a difference between altering events accidentally by your natural presence, and intentionally changing something you already know the outcome of." She held his gaze. "The Time Lord Victorious is wrong. Just because we have the power to do something does not mean we have the right to do it. If anything, it means we have the responsibility to restrain ourselves."

"What a good protector you are."

"It is not the role I ever desired to hold, but it is the one I must." She placed the cup down again. "If we want to travel together more, if we want to try this again, we need...boundaries. Rules. Things we never had before."

"Establishing things now won't matter in the moment."

She nodded, conceding the point. "But it matters now."

He was quiet for a moment. "You want me to stop interfering."

"With time, yes. Leave time to itself. But I will not force you to stop saving lives, solving problems." She wondered if he noticed the bracelet she still wore. "It is why I fell in love with you."

"But..."

"But if I tell you that you have to stop, before you continue, you must try to explain it to me. I have to understand why you have to do something before I can let myself allow you. I may not agree, I will allow that, but I have to understand."

The Doctor nodded. Adelaide was glad. "And if you are refusing, you must explain why we can't interfere. Both sides of the situation."

She smiled. "Deal." They both knew that this conversation, though important, was only the beginning of the one they truly needed to have. The Time Lords had a history. They needed to establish how it would affect their present. "Are we friends, then?"

"If you would like to be." He wasn't smiling. "If you are able to be."

"If we're going to be traveling together, I believe that would best." Another moment of silence. Even on Gallifrey, it was not required that Aligned Time Lords maintain any type of romantic relationship, with Alignment so common that a myriad of relationships was common. But when Time Lords were Aligned so strongly that it was said that stars sang when their paths crossed, when they had countless fixed events dotted through their timeline...the ideal was romance. The ideal was love. Not...whatever this had become. Not whatever had made Adelaide miss and hate the Doctor so strongly. "One of us should explain to Bill about our history. At least, some of it. To ensure she understands. You know her best."

He nodded. "I will try."

"Thank you." That time, when she began to smile, he matched it, though it was small. "When we travel terrestrially, we can use my TARDIS. It hasn't been off-planet in so long, I want to do it in small jumps." His eyes brightened at the idea of seeing another TARDIS. "But, before even that, before I show you..." his smile dimmed. "What is in the Vault, Doctor? What is your oath?"

The Doctor did not want to tell her. But he did.

She was thankful for that.

A/N: Quite a positive step for our Time Lords Victorious. Who would have known the wonders of proper communication! ;)