"No, of course I haven't forgotten, Jo. What's the problem?"

It was dark in the car, and steamy, at least Ramani felt quite flushed. Beside her, Jo twisted bits of Ramani's hair around her fingers, and then had to spend some time disentangling the hair from her rings, and stopping herself from laughing as Ramani's head played tug of war between Jo's rings and her mobile phone.

"Let him go," she was saying into the phone. "He didn't do it. I just know, trust me. No, I don't have solid evidence, but I'm convinced beyond all doubt that he didn't do it. Just do it, Jo - do I have to order you to? Right. I see. Well I know you're going to find this hard to believe but I don't think he has psych issues at all. Can we discuss it later? Well tell Terry it's all a misunderstanding and I'll explain it when I see him."

She hung up.

"Sorry about that."

Jo yanked a hair from the metal lacework of her thumb ring. "Is that it then? Are they going to let the Doctor go?"

"I think so. They're not happy about it. But I don't even know how to start telling them why."

She caught Jo's hand, and played with it. Their fingers got all entwined and there was a bit of a thumb fight, and somehow it ended up in more kissing.

After an appropriate interval, Jo said, "Ramani, when they release the Doctor I'll probably have to follow him about town looking for the Master. I don't think I'll be able to - you know - hang around."

"Should I have told Jo and Terry to leave him in overnight?"

"No," laughed Jo. "That would just be cruel. I'm not sure I'd ever be forgiven for that. Anyway. He is my friend."

Ramani was frowning. "Well do you have to do it tonight? This search for the Master, I mean - can't you leave it till morning?"

"That's up to the Doctor. And usually with him, it's go go go."

"He can do without you for one night, can't he?"

Overnight, tonight, one night - Ramani clamped her lips shut for her assumptions, or at least for how she sounded. The two things were in fact not the same. Her demands for Jo's company for the night were rooted in blind panic, that this new and wondrous thing would - like Cinderella's coach - suddenly disappear into thin air at midnight.

But Jo hadn't seemed to notice any lines being crossed or inappropriate assumptions being made, and was instead rather thoughtful. "If we don't go back," she speculated, "then I'm sure he'll assume I'll catch up with him tomorrow. We often get separated. As long as he knows I'm not in danger."

"Well, if he needs to know where you are, someone at the station can phone me. They have my number. Will he think to ask? I mean, does he know about mobile phones?"

"I should think so. The Doctor has a good idea about most things. I'm sure I don't need to worry."

"But will he miss your expertise? I mean, does he need you for certain tasks, or…"

"Not likely," said Jo with good humour. "The truth is that I'd probably just be in his way, although he never says as much. I'm not the best assistant he's ever had. I've ruined his experiments, nearly blown up his lab, and usually I haven't the first clue what he's going on about. I didn't even pass general science."

All of which sounded like recommendations to Ramani. Not to mention a really good excuse.

"Great," she said, looking sidelong at Jo. "By which of course I mean, I'm sure none of that is true."

"It is true," said Jo. "So I shouldn't say he'll miss me one bit."

She smiled at Ramani.

"But don't think I'm a complete cloth-head," she said, taking Ramani's hand. "You can't travel 4 million light years without learning something."