She glanced down uneasily at the contraption on which their hopes rested. The primitive, lumbering balloon now filled with hot air and straining against its cables, her own careful needlework, thankfully, holding fast along the gash in its side, the thrusters of the repaired Skypig humming with a steady, confident note, the dispiritingly low-tech piece of string which was to be used for steering hanging loosely on the pig's back.
She watched the tight huddle of the elder Doctor and his two companions saying their goodbyes, their heads bent close together, their voices inaudible. She started at a light touch on her shoulder.
"Sorry."
Her own Doctor stood at her side and gave her an apologetic shrug.
"Anxious moments, eh? Hard not to wish they'd just wrap it up, say goodbye and get moving?"
"Half the time I've been thinking that," she admitted. "The other half, I just can't believe what they're doing. Flying off to certain death on that inflatable junkheap. All this nonsense about rolling back reality so they won't be dead after all doesn't make it any less amazing."
"You're right, it doesn't."
There was a pause, and Jasmine looked up to find the Doctor gazing down at her contemplatively. He bit his lip, started to speak, changed his mind.
"Jeff and Anna," he began at last. "You like them, right?"
"Um..." She glanced round at the couple over by the Skypig. "Well, yes, he seems nice. She's a bit, well..."
"Scary, yes. Well, she has a heart of gold. Ah..."
He hesitated, and in puzzlement she looked at him closely. He seemed nervous, diffident, unsure of his ground. Everything she knew he never was.
"What's the matter?"
"I wasn't going to tell you," he said. "Because... because you never knew them, and you never seemed that interested in finding out about them and I said to myself, what would it mean to you if I told you? You'd just be upset, and you wouldn't know what to do about it, and we have work to do. But now... because of what they're doing... I'm thinking perhaps you ought to know after all. Because I'd like you to be proud. Of your parents."
"My what?"
Jasmine's shocked, high-pitched reaction carried across the clearing, and she furtively looked about her as if she'd given away some secret. The Doctor winced.
"Right. I could probably have handled that better. But it's true, Jasmine. In two years' time, from their perspective, I'll return Jeff and Anna to Earth. They'll get married, and the following year they'll have you. It's the way it happened, it's the way it'll be."
Jasmine span, and stared at the two people across the clearing, while the Doctor's voice continued gently:
"The old man would probably come up with something wise and encouraging at this point. But since you're stuck with me, I'm afraid you're just going to have to work out for yourself what you're supposed to do next."
"Right." She watched her parents clasp the Doctor's hands, and the old man turn and hobble, shoulders bowed, away from them. "Right, here it goes."
Jeff and Anna looked round at her approach.
"Jasmine." Companionable as ever, Jeff gave her a welcoming smile. "Well, looks like we're off. Time to say goodbye."
"Yes," said Jasmine quietly. She stood there, looking from one to the other of them until they became uneasy and exchanged a conspiratorial glance.
"Right," said Anna. "Well, goodbye. It's been... oh."
Embarrassed and taken aback, she nonetheless returned Jasmine's silent embrace, and they stood for a second pressed together, Jasmine's dark curls against Anna's cheek, before they broke apart.
Jeff had watched the scene bemusedly.
"Well, it's nice you two have... oh."
He hugged the girl willingly, smiling through his puzzled frown. When Jasmine disengaged and stepped back she took a long look at the pair who stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the machine.
"Goodbye," she said. She reached out for the words. "I... I'm so glad I met you."
"Well, likewise," said Jeff, eyeing her closely like a scientific conundrum. "It's been, well, strange mostly, but I wouldn't have missed it."
"Look after the Doctor, won't you?" Anna chipped in unexpectedly.
"Oh yes," agreed Jeff. "You know what he's like. Someone has to keep an eye on him."
Jasmine nodded, and bit her lip.
"Goodbye," she said again, and quickly turned her back. She hurried away across the clearing to where the two Doctors stood quietly waiting. The younger stepped forward and placed a companionable hand on her shoulder.
"Nicely handled, Jasmine."
The three of them watched Anna help Jeff up onto the Skypig where he straddled its back and took up the loop of string like the reins of a horse. Then she kicked away the restraining pegs and, as the contraption lumbered into the air, scrambled agilely up onto its back to sit behind him. When they turned to wave, they each seemed different, Jeff's softly pleasant features sharpening with purpose, Anna's face transformed by a wide and dazzling smile at the excitement of it all.
Jasmine waved, and smiled back with barely a tremor as they floated up and away, dwindling by the second. They were receding into the sky and gliding determinedly towards the rift before she finally turned and buried her face against the Doctor's coat.