It was evening. Sara, Len, Mick and Joanne were sitting on Joanne's veranda, more out of habit than anything. None of them had felt much liking talking and were not drinking very much either. The rest of the group had already turned in.

Further up the valley, they could see the Survivalists' campfire. Their allies had moved their dead to a fairly secure place in the nearest barn and announced they would stay the night.

''How she doing?'' Mick glanced up to one of the first-floor windows.

''She's asleep. I gave her something.'' Otherwise, Sara thought, Naomi might have cried all night. The girl had barely been able to walk when Sara had brought her down the hill, away from Floyd's body. It seemed so unfair after the life the girl had had so far, that her happiness be snatched away from her. Sara resolved to be there for her in the days to come.

For a moment, they were all thinking about their other loss - Eve. Neither Sara, Len nor Mick had known the woman all that well, but their recovered memories had shown that she could be a good ally.

''At least Savage lost quite a few'' Mick said savagely, then added ''I can't get over how well Nora coped with - him.'' He couldn't bring himself to say the name.

It was time to come clean, Len thought. He rubbed a hand over his face and then said ''She didn't. Oh, she stopped him aiming his gun. But I got in his head and made him go back on board the jump ship.''

''What?'' They all said. They both looked at him.

''My psychic stuff's been stronger since the timeline was changed. One of the side effects.''

''You can control minds?'' Sara stared at him.

''It's more complex than that. I've always been able to sense trouble, danger, know when people were thinking about me. Now I can do something about it. I guess I need the adrenalin to do things''. ''he shrugged.

They were all still looking at him. It was a familiar experience. People generally weren't comfortable with the thought that he knew what they were feeling, thinking about. He was going to have ride out whatever awkwardness this caused. He'd had a chance to talk to Nora, although neither of them could really work out why this had happened to him. She'd been shocked, he could sense, that he'd felt her mental scream on Earth X and been able to reach across the dimensions to her.

''It did give me a headaches'' he'd told her.

She chewed at her lower lip for a moment. He knew what she was thinking and agreed with it. It didn't make sense for Caspar and Dronon to have caused that change in his abilities - but who else could have done so?

X

Elsewhere in the house, Ray and Nora had curled up together, having eventually fallen asleep, as had Carter and Kendra.

Rip shared the wakefulness of the quiet whose voices he could faintly hear outside. I am the last Time Master, he thought - he didn't regard Caspar and Dronon as belonging to that category anymore.

He lifted his glass - brandy from Joanne's store. ''To you, Eve. ''