UNIT HQ, London, England

The TARDIS materialized in the corner of a rather untidy office. The room's sole occupant rose to his feet, startled by the unexpected--and unexpectedly familiar--sound and sight of the deceptively simple blue box. Once the TARDIS had completely materialized, a grin broke over his face and he stepped around his desk as the doors of the unlikely police call box opened, to reveal a stranger that was nonetheless as familiar to the middle-aged MD as his unconventional means of travel. The Doctor glanced around, his eyes lighting up when he spotted the other man. "Harry Sullivan!"

"Doctor! Is that really you? You've gone and done it again, I see. Regenerated, I mean." Harry Sullivan, RN, MD visibly took hold of himself as he strode forward and clasped the Doctor's hand warmly. "How marvelous to see you again! And what good timing!" he added.

"Good timing?" the Doctor echoed as Ace emerged from the TARDIS and looked around the office with a critical eye. "In what way?"

"We've got another visitor just now, and I rather think he's someone you should meet," the Doctor's former traveling companion replied, glancing over his shoulder at the door to his examining room. He turned his attention back to the Time Lord and the young lady who he judged to be the Doctor's current traveling companion. "Terribly sorry, how rude of me not to introduce myself. I'm Dr. Harry Sullivan. Please, call me Harry. And I can assure you that I don't generally babble like an idiot," he added ruefully as he extended his hand. He ignored the Doctor's murmured comment, which sounded suspiciously like disagreement.

"I'm Ace," the young brunette replied with a grin as she shook his hand. "So who do we need to meet?"

"Hmm, that could be a bit difficult to explain, actually," the MD murmured hesitantly. "No offense, Miss Ace, but I think it would be best if I were to bring the Doctor in alone for this meeting. If you don't mind," he added hastily, his cheeks turning a distinct shade of pink. "It has absolutely nothing to do with you, I can assure you--"

"Ace will be perfectly fine by herself for a while," the Doctor interrupted, rescuing his flustered friend. "Won't you." It was not a question.

Ace shrugged. "I can wait," she agreed, trying to keep her voice from becoming sullen. Another test of her carefully cultivated patience. "But remember, I hate being kept in the dark!" With that warning, she turned with elaborate casualness and began studying the lab charts festooning the doctor's office walls with an interest usually reserved for paintings in the Louvre.

"After I've met this person," the Doctor added as Harry ushered him toward the examining room, "there are a few things I need to discuss with you." They disappeared behind the door, Ace wasting no time in pressing her ear against it hopefully.

oOo

The person waiting in the UNIT examining room was a young man about the Doctor's height, with short black hair and suspicious blue eyes. He seemed nervous; his hands fiddled constantly with a coin of some sort and he was unable to sit still on the edge of the chair he was ostensibly occupying.

The Doctor noted all of this in the time it took for the door to open and then close once again, and waited patiently for Harry to perform the introductions. The young man came to his feet, looking the Doctor over critically as the two men approached him.

Harry cleared his throat, studying the other two surreptitiously. No sense putting things off... "I think this is someone you really need to meet. If he can't help you, no one here can." He turned to face the Doctor and took a deep breath. "Doctor, allow me to present Kyris Smith."

The Doctor's expression of polite interest froze as he heard the stranger's name, and Kyris' expression had become decidedly hostile as Harry performed the introductions. "Kyris is a Gallifreyan name," the Doctor said neutrally. "Isn't it." Once again, it was not a question.

The young man nodded, his eyes flashing resentfully at Harry. Who merely shrugged and backed toward the door. "I think I'll leave you two to sort yourselves out," he murmured, fumbling behind his back for the handle. "I'm sure you have a lot of things to discuss." The door finally opened, and he escaped into his office with an audible sigh of relief.

"Well," the Doctor said, not quite sure what else to say. "Gallifreyan. It would be too much of a coincidence, I suppose, to hope that you weren't here with Romana?"

It was the wrong thing to say; the Doctor could tell by the way the young man stiffened, and his angry glare spoke volumes. "Romana was my mother," he said, enunciating each word clearly. As if he wanted no misunderstandings from the start.

It was the Doctor's turn to stiffen as he examined the boy more closely. It was obvious to him, had been obvious, from the start, that this was, indeed, a boy. Apparent age was always deceptive with Time Lords, but there was an aura of youth about the stranger facing him that could not be counterfeited. It was equally obvious that he was telling the truth, and that he expected--no, demanded--that the Doctor figure out the rest of it himself.

It wasn't difficult to divine, the Doctor thought in sudden weariness. "Why didn't Romana tell me?" His eyes met those of the angry young man before him. "Why didn't she try to contact me?"

Kyris shrugged, trying to appear indifferent, but the Doctor could read every emotion on the boy's expressive face. He'd have to learn to control that, the older Time Lord thought distractedly. It could get him into serious trouble...

"What would you have done?" Kyris countered. "Stayed with her in E-Space, when you'd already made it abundantly clear that you disapproved of her doing so? Tried to make her come home with you, when she'd already committed herself to helping the Tharils? The only reason we left at all was because of the Master," he continued bitterly. "She didn't tell you about me before you left because she didn't know, but she didn't tell you afterwards because she didn't want to force you to make a choice that would either make her miserable, or make you miserable. She always figured on telling you eventually, on taking me to Gallifrey," Kyris finished on the same bitter note, "but the Master made sure she waited too long."

"The Master." Kyris nodded, watching his father carefully. "I should've known," the Doctor whispered, closing his eyes to hide the pain and guilt that threatened to overwhelm him. Then he opened them again, because suddenly he wanted his son--his son!--to know that Romana's death and the manner of her dying hurt them both. They held each other's gaze for a long moment, then Kyris broke it by deliberately turning away. He resents me, the Doctor thought with a flash of realization that staggered him almost as much as the pain that realization caused.

Pain, he told himself resolutely, he had no time to deal with. Not right now. Not with the Master loose on Earth for some vile purpose, a purpose that included the vicious murder of a woman who had once meant quite a lot to him...the Doctor shook his head, turning his thoughts back to practical matters. He would mourn later. "Why?" he asked, his voice sounding cool and remote to his own ears. "Why did your mother return to Earth? Instead of someplace less...conspicuous."

"Are you traveling with anyone right now?" Kyris asked.

"Yes, I am." The Doctor answered the apparent non-sequitur without hesitation. Kyris did not strike his father--now that would take some getting used to, thinking of himself as a father--as someone who wasted time on inconsequentials. The question must have some bearing on their current situation.

"Are they here?"

The Doctor nodded. "There's only one, a young lady named Ace who's been with me for about five years now. She's in Harry's office, waiting for us with what I imagine to be quite a bit of impatience."

Kyris glanced over at the door. "Maybe she and Dr. Sullivan should come in, now that the awkward introductions are over," he said slowly, as if reaching a decision even as he spoke. "What I need to tell you concerns them as well; I haven't told Dr. Sullivan anything, not really, just who I am and that I needed to find you. To let you know what's been happening." Not, was the implied statement, for any other reason.

The Doctor's lips tightened, then he reached for the door without saying anything.