A/N: So I forgot to mention in the previous chapter that Missy is placed in between "Death in Heaven" and "The Magician's Apprentice", and the place she takes Diana to is called Two Medicine Lake. Also, I'm going on vacation in about two days and that might mean that the next chapter is slightly delayed. Either way, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!

"Martha, would you please let me in?"

"I already said no. I'm not budging."

"I need to see her!"

Confused after being woken by the loud voices outside my door, I groaned as I turned onto my side and pulled my blanket tighter around me.

"You'll see her when she's ready and actually wants to see you."

"You don't understand. I need to talk to her. I have to explain-"

"And you'll be able to. But only when she says it's okay."

"Martha, please, I need to talk to her now!"

"And I told you to wait! So shut up and leave her alone until she's ready to talk to you!"

The Doctor fell silent then and a few moments later I could hear him trudging away from the door and down the stairs. Rubbing my eyes as I sat up, I readjusted myself on the bed so I was sitting comfortably with my legs extended in front of me. It was already early morning and sunlight was shining through the curtains to pour across the opposite wall.

Wait, how did I get here? I asked myself as I glanced around the room. I don't remember… I didn't fall asleep here. I was with Missy by that lake… She must have taken me back when I fell asleep.

"Hey," I heard Martha mumble outside my door.

I started in surprise, thinking maybe I had made too much noise when I woke up. I really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. After those long hours with Missy, I needed some time to myself to gather my thoughts.

"Hey," a voice that I recognized as Sarah's replied.

"You're still here, then."

"Yeah."

"I thought you were angry at your mum?"

After a brief pause, Sarah sighed and said, "I was."

"So why did you come?"

I heard the sound of muffled footsteps and then the creaking of the wall as someone leaned against it. "I don't know. I guess… When you called and you told me what she was doing, just staying in her room and hardly eating or speaking, I felt… guilty."

"You should."

"Yeah, not really helping, Martha," Sarah grumbled.

"I'm just saying."

Sarah sighed. "I know."

"So… You came just because you felt bad?"

"Of course I felt bad. It's just that things have always been complicated with us. I never really felt much of anything for the Doctor because he left when I was young. But Mum would try and visit us sometimes and she'd tell us stories about her adventures and all the people she met. I wasn't always happy with her because she's my mum, she's supposed to stop bad things from happening to me and she still let the Doctor give me up."

"You know she would have stopped that from happening if she could."

"I suppose."

The two women fell silent for a few seconds until Martha spoke up again. "She thinks you hate her."

"She said that?" Sarah asked, sounding only mildly curious instead of worried.

"If you had a kid and they did to you what you did to Diana, you'd think they hated you too."

"I was angry," Sarah said after a heavy sigh. "And bitter. Wouldn't you be?"

"Yes."

"But I… I never…"

"Maybe you should tell her that," Martha suggested after a moment.

Sarah scoffed and lightly tapped against the wall with what sounded like her foot. "I don't think so."

"Sarah, what you did absolutely destroyed her," Martha said.

"And what she did destroyed me. We all have our problems, Martha."

"She needs you, now more than ever. She regrets what she did. You know that, you heard what she said."

"Yeah and I'll bet you planned for me to hear it."

"You really think I care so little about Diana that I'd arrange for her to basically get her heart broken just so you could watch?" Martha snapped. "I called you because I knew if she continued acting the way she was, she'd just spiral into depression. What happened between you two was bad enough and now she has to deal with the Doctor. I know you care, Sarah, that's why you came back. That's why you protected her last night. That's why you're still here."

"So?"

"So help her. I can only understand so much of what she's gone through. But you understand so much better than I ever could. And you're her daughter. You two need each other."

"Look, maybe you're right. Maybe I do care. But I can't just forget what happened."

"I'm not telling you to forget anything, just to understand-"

"I understand perfectly," Sarah snapped. "You have no idea what I've been through. None of you do."

"I'm only trying to help," Martha sighed.

"Well I don't need your help. I don't need anybody's help. I'm all grown up and I can take care of myself. I don't need you or the Doctor or my mother telling me what to do. So butt out."

I could just make out the sound of Sarah storming down the stairs as Martha sighed heavily. I fell back so my head landed against my pillow and let out a sigh of my own as I stared up at the ceiling. I didn't have long to dwell on everything I had heard though because Martha suddenly knocked on my door, making me start in surprise.

"Diana? You awake?" she asked softly.

"Mm, yeah," I mumbled as I moved to sit up in bed again.

The door creaked open and Martha stuck her head in through the opening. "I'm sorry," she said as she stepped inside the room. "We probably woke you with all that yelling."

"No, it's fine," I answered with a shake of my head.

"Did you hear everything?"

I glanced briefly at the spot on the door I had been staring at earlier and sighed. "Yes," I admitted. "But it's fine. You were just trying to help."

Martha bowed her head and walked over to the bed, sitting down on the edge with a saddened expression. "Everything I've done to try and help has just turned out all wrong."

"No-"

"It has though."

"But you tried. You wanted to help me. That's more than anyone else in this house has done for me. Although," I added as an afterthought, "I probably shouldn't ask for anything from Sarah after what I did to her…"

"That wasn't your fault though," Martha said.

"Wasn't it?"

"I know you'd never leave Sarah behind on purpose. Whatever happened, I know it wasn't because of you."

I nodded in silent understanding as I turned my head to look out the bedroom window. I couldn't quite manage to look Martha in the eyes after knowing that she had tried to fix everything for me when it was Missy who helped me instead. I almost wished Missy hadn't taken me back and just let me travel with her for a while instead because the thought of facing Sarah or the Doctor made me feel sick.

"How are you feeling?" Martha suddenly asked. "I didn't want to bother you last night, so I didn't come in. I thought you might need your space."

"I did. But I'm… I'm feeling better."

"You sure?"

I nodded and forced a smile, briefly meeting Martha's eyes. "Yeah. Not great, but better than I did last night."

"Do you want me to make you something and bring it to you? The Doctor's sulking in the living room."

"N-No, it's fine," I said weakly.

"Diana-"

"Really. I… have to face him sometime," I sighed.

"But you don't have to do it now if you're not ready."

I shook my head and gently rubbed my hands over my face. "No, I've been whining about this for days now. I need to just get over it and shut up," I said as I pushed the covers away. I got out of bed and stretched a little before flashing Martha a mostly unconvincing smile. "I really hope you have toast."

I quickly ran my hands through my hair to make sure I didn't look like a complete mess and then headed for the door. Martha followed close behind me in silence, just keeping her eyes on me as if she was waiting for me to say or do something. As I walked down the stairs, I mentally prepared myself for the Doctor to immediately ambush me. I knew he felt bad for what we said to each other and I knew he wanted to apologize and explain himself, but I wasn't sure how much of it I could take before I broke down again.

However when I walked into the living room, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. My heart skipped a beat and I started to panic almost immediately. Had he left again? Had he gotten tired of waiting for me and just decided to leave? I rushed around the living room in a blind panic, worried that the Doctor was gone for good this time, when I heard an exclamation from the kitchen.

"Doctor?" I called, my voice caught between hopeful and worried.

I ran into the kitchen to find the Doctor sucking on his left index finger, his brows drawn together in pain, while a skillet laid overturned on the still burning stove behind him. As soon as he saw me, the Doctor pulled his finger out of his mouth and rushed towards me.

"No, no, no, no, no!" he exclaimed as he put his hands on my shoulders. "No, you weren't supposed to come down yet!"

"What?" Martha and I asked in unison.

"This was supposed to be a surprise! Go back upstairs!" the Doctor pleaded as he turned me around. "Go, go, go!"

"Doctor!" I exclaimed incredulously as the Time Lord pushed me out of the kitchen.

Martha was still in the kitchen and was trying to clean up the mess the Doctor had made. She turned the fire off and fixed the skillet so it was right side up, leaving behind half scrambled eggs all over the stove. The Doctor ran his hands through his hair and ran over to Martha, elbowing her aside to turn the fire back on.

"No, Martha, you've ruined it!"

"The eggs are all over the stove!"

"That's okay!" the Doctor replied. "Just… Out! Both of you!"

"Doctor, wait a second," I tried as I re-entered the kitchen. He was trying to sonic the eggs, although I wasn't sure what he thought that would accomplish, and was completely ignoring Martha and I. I put a hand on his forearm and tugged lightly so he would turn to face me. "Doctor, wait. What are you doing?"

The Doctor stared wide-eyed at me for a few seconds. "I'm… making you breakfast," he said slowly.

"Why?"

"Because I knew you'd be hungry. And… I wanted to show you that I still care."

I stared up at the Time Lord in silence, unsure of how to respond. A part of me knew that of course he still cared and that he was hurting just as much as I was. But another part of me was still both furious and hurt about what he had done. Although I had cried enough the day before, I could feel my eyes start to sting as tears started forming. I immediately looked away from the Doctor and blinked quickly to remove the unshed tears.

"Diana, please," he said gently. "Can I talk to you?"

"About what?"

"You know what. Please, just listen to me. You don't have to say anything, but at least listen."

I didn't want him to see if I started to cry again, but I didn't want him to think I didn't care about what he had to say. So I nodded once and turned so my back was partially facing him, crossing my arms over my chest. "Alright. I'm listening."

The Doctor sighed and I could hear him fidgeting with the sonic. "I'm sorry," he said slowly. "What I did was wrong and I realize that. I should never have left you, especially when you were so vulnerable. There's… nothing I can say to excuse what I did, but I need you to understand that I was absolutely terrified and ashamed of what you told me. My life on Gallifrey is a secret I keep very close to my heart and telling you even the slightest detail is one of the most difficult things I could ever do. Even after all these years that we've been together, I still find it difficult to speak about Gallifrey and everything that happened there."

He stopped for a moment and my heart nearly skipped a beat in the pregnant pause. I waited anxiously for him to continue, wondering what else he might say.

"That said, I shouldn't have left. You and Sarah are right, I abandon people. I don't like to think I do, but it's something I can't deny. You had every right to say what you did because all of it was true."

I looked over my shoulder at him and instantly felt guilty upon seeing the pained expression on the Doctor's face. "Theta-"

"I'm not saying this to make you feel bad," he interjected. "I just want you to know that you're not wrong and that I don't blame you for what you said."

"But aren't you angry with me?" I wondered.

"No. The things you said, although true, were said in the middle of a fight. Of course it hurt to hear them, but I deserved it and I absolutely don't blame you or hate you."

"But what you said- Last night, you told me-"

"I was angry too. Angry with myself for leaving you, for leaving Sarah, for what I did all those years ago, and I took it out on you when none of it was your fault." The Doctor closed his eyes for a moment and bowed his head. "I should never have said that. But, Diana, I didn't mean it. That was my anger and my frustration talking, not the real me. And believe me, I have never been more ashamed of myself than I am now."

As I gazed sadly at the Time Lord, I could see how much his actions were affecting him. He was so distraught about it that he couldn't even look me in the eyes, just like I could barely even look at him. The Doctor was still staring at the floor in silence with his chin pressed against his chest and a pained expression poorly hidden on his face.

"I believe you," I whispered. "And I understand. That doesn't mean that I forgive you, but I do understand. And I'm sorry for what I said, even if it was true."

The Doctor nodded in silence a few times before raising his eyes to look at me. "Thank you," he murmured.

I fell silent again and watched as the Doctor turned so his back was facing me. He looked in the direction of the stove and stared at it for a moment before suddenly stepping forward and starting to clean up the mess he had made. I considered helping him and wondered if that might ease the sudden tension between us, but I felt frozen in place. I didn't know what to say to him or what to do, and I didn't know if staying to help him would make matters better or worse.

Martha had seemingly disappeared during our discussion, but I didn't move to go after her. After considering my options, I decided to stay with the Doctor despite the fact that I desperately wanted to be on my own again. I stepped forward and stood beside the Doctor, reaching out for the skillet and bringing it to the kitchen sink so I could rinse it out. Once I cleaned the skillet, I set it on the countertop to dry and moved back to the stove. The Doctor had cleaned up the half cooked eggs and thrown them away already, and was already wiping up the remaining mess.

"Here," I said softly, extending my hand for the towel he was using. "Let me."

I very slowly wrapped my fingers around the towel and pulled it out of his hand. The Doctor took a half step back as I leaned forward and cleaned off the stovetop.

"I can- If you want, I could do that for you-"

"It's fine," I said with a half smile. I looked over my shoulder at the Time Lord and gestured to the stove. "See? I'm already done. Now did you want something for breakfast as well?"

"Diana, you can go back to bed if you want to. You don't have to-"

"I want to." I reached for the skillet and placed it on the stovetop again. "How many eggs do you want?"

The Doctor awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Well… Er, I-I guess… ten?"

I immediately whirled around to face the Time Lord and stared incredulously at him. "What?"

"Ten," he repeated, the tone of his voice suggesting that the high number was completely normal.

"Ten eggs?"

"Yes, ten eggs."

"Why the hell would you want ten eggs?"

The Doctor just shrugged. "Because it matches my incarnation."

I stared at the Doctor in exasperation for at least a half minute, almost unable to believe what he had just said. "Are you… serious?" I asked slowly.

"Yes," the Time Lord responded casually.

"So when you're at incarnation number 50, you'll eat fifty eggs for breakfast?"

"Well, not quite because technically I wouldn't be able to reach incarnation number fifty, but I suppose if I could reach incarnation number fifty then… yes, I would eat fifty eggs."

I continued to stare at him for another minute before I finally rolled my eyes and looked back at the stove. "Well if you want fifty eggs, you can make them yourself. But if you want to eat like a normal person, I'm going to make us both three eggs." I glanced around the kitchen in confusion then. "Where are the eggs?"

"In the cupboard."

"Doctor, eggs don't belong in the cupboard."

"Don't they?"

"No, they go in the refrigerator."

The Doctor made a semi frown-y face that suggested the idea had never occurred to him. "Why would I want cold eggs?"

I stared incredulously at him and said, "So they don't go bad, maybe?"

"Why would they go bad?"

"I thought you were some kind of scientist?"

"I'm every kind of scientist."

"Do you not understand the science of how eggs spoil?" I wondered.

"Of course I do."

"Okay… So what is the problem here?"

The Doctor shrugged again and gestured to the cupboard with a nod of his head. "Food goes in the cupboard with other food," he said slowly.

I extended my arm in the direction of the refrigerator and asked, "So what's in there, a chemistry set?"

"… Milk?"

"That's food!"

"It's baby food and, you know, adult drink."

"Eggs go in the fridge, Doctor! What kind of Time Lord are you?"

As soon as those words left my mouth, I instantly regretted them. I had only meant to imply that the Doctor was acting stupid by putting the eggs somewhere other than the refrigerator like most normal people, but had instead said something that could be taken very badly. The amusement in the air fell away immediately and was replaced with tense silence. I stared at the stove in shock, not daring to look the Doctor in the eyes, and begged every deity in existence to let the ground swallow me whole.

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-… I'm sorry," I said quickly before darting out of the kitchen.

I barely made it into the living room when the Doctor's hand suddenly snaked around my elbow and pulled me to a halt. His grip was gentle, but still firm enough to tell me that he wasn't letting me go anywhere, and he slowly turned me around to face him.

"Diana, it's okay," he assured me. "I know what you meant." When I refused to look him in the eyes, the Doctor moved his hand from my elbow to lightly cup my chin and he tilted my head up. "Hey. It's okay."

"I'm sorry."

"No, no, no, no, no, it's alright. I know what you meant, it's okay."

"I didn't even think," I said quickly.

"No, I know. It's fine-"

"Alright," Martha called from the kitchen, "who left the fire on?"

The rest of the day was spent with the Doctor and I trying awkwardly to avoid each maintaining eye contact for long periods of time or even speaking very much around each other. Martha left for work in the afternoon after we assured her that we could handle being in the same house together. I stayed in my room for the majority of the day, looking through some of the books scattered across the room and occasionally glancing through my phone, while the Doctor stayed downstairs. It wasn't until Martha returned home later that evening that she gave us both a thorough scolding.

"Look, I know you're both on edge around each other and I get why. You need your space and time alone, and that's fine, but there are things that we have to take care of and you two need to work together to get it all done."

"What things?" I asked in confusion.

"The folder Sally Sparrow gave me before Martha and I got stuck here," the Doctor told me. "It has a whole mess of information, most of it easy to understand, but it would help if you could go over it with me," he admitted.

I nodded. "Of course. Anything that I can do to help."

"Good." Martha smiled appreciatively at the Doctor and I. "Now I have to go to bed because I have an early shift tomorrow morning, but you two figure out whatever it is you need to do. Can you do that?"

"Yes," I said as the Doctor shyly mumbled the same answer.

"Thank you," the other woman sighed. "I'll see you two in the morning."

Martha headed upstairs immediately while the Doctor wandered over to the coat rack by the front door. I trailed along behind him and watched as he pulled a see through folder out of one the bigger-on-the-inside pockets in his brown coat. Although I didn't remember all the details of what was going to and had already happened, I recognized the folder as Sally's almost instantly.

"Did you want to look through it?" the Doctor asked, holding the folder out to me.

"Yeah, sure."

I grabbed the folder and wandered back into the living room where I plopped down on the couch. The Doctor watched from across the room as I began looking through all the different items in the folder and pulling them out to see them better. There was a small coffee table in front of the couch that I spread the items across and, once I had organized them all, I looked up at the Doctor.

"You can sit, if you want," I said softly. "I… don't mind."

"No, no, it's fine."

"Really. It's okay," I assured him. "But it's whatever you want."

We looked at one another in awkward silence before I finally glanced down at the table. There was a small stack of photographs of the writing on the wall that Sally would discover in her time, a list of DVD titles, the transcript of Sally and the Doctor's conversation, as well as a very old letter with a few black and white pictures attached to it, and a few pages of lined paper with various notes written in what I assumed was Sally's handwriting. As I leaned forward to pick up the transcript, the Doctor walked across the room and moved to sit on the far end of the couch.

"What's that?" he asked as he tried to look over my shoulder at the papers.

"The transcript."

"Oh, right. I've read that one a few times already," he said as he pulled his brainy specs from his jacket pocket and slipped them on.

I read over each line of the transcript, remembering most of what was said from when I had seen it all back home. I noticed that according to the notes, I never appeared on camera but was mentioned by both Martha and the Doctor. "How are you going to record this?" I asked as I finished reading.

"Martha's saving up some of her money so we can buy a camera. As soon as we get the camera, I'll record it."

"Are you just going to memorize everything?"

"Well, I guess so. It's not that hard. It's just the timing that I'll have to get right."

"Timing?"

The Doctor nodded and pointed to the transcript. "Yeah, knowing when Sally and Larry say their lines and how long I have to wait in between."

"I could help," I suggested. "I mean, I can remember how most of the lines are said and how long they are and everything."

"That would help," he admitted. "If you wouldn't mind, we could read through this together. Not now, but at some point. But only if you want to. I won't make you."

"No, I know. But I have to be useful somehow, right? And if I can help you get the TARDIS back and save Sally from the angels, then I'll do what I can. Although I can't promise to remember everything perfectly or to know everything."

The Doctor smiled and nodded. "I know, Diana. But what you do know and remember is more than enough for me."

We continued talking about the different items Sally had put in the folder and I told the Doctor whatever background information I could remember. I forced myself not to dwell on anything other than the task at hand because I knew if I thought too long and too hard about everything that had been said between the Doctor and I, even the apologies we had made to each other, I would only start to get emotional again. And I certainly didn't want to cry in front of the Doctor and make him feel worse.

It was very late when the Doctor and I both decided to finish talking about the folder's contents for the night. The Doctor gathered everything together and put it back into the folder and when he got up to replace the folder in his coat, I decided to leave to keep things from being even more awkward between us. I had been around the Time Lord for the majority of the day and despite feeling glad that we had come to an understanding, I knew I was ready to be alone with my thoughts for a while. I started up the stairs before the Doctor returned to the living room and hurried into my bedroom before he could call me back.

I started to pull off my jeans and prepare to sleep in just a shirt and underwear when I noticed something sitting at the foot of the bed. A small pile of fresh clothes had been neatly folded and left for me, along with a note that rested on top of the clothes.

"No need to thank me, dear. Just promise to call soon.

xx Missy"

I smiled as I read over the note a dozen more times, looking between the note and the clothes Missy had gifted to me. I set the note down on the comforter and sorted through the pile of clothes. There were two pairs of dark denim jeans, a black knee length skirt decorated with a lovely pattern of pink roses, four different shirts, a light blue cotton nightgown decorated with tiny moons that reached mid calf, and a new leather jacket to replace the one that had been fully battered while I was on Gallifrey. At the base of the bed I found two new pairs of shoes, the first a pair of black flats with tiny black bows attached at the toes, and the second a pair of black converse.

I quickly changed into the nightgown and left my dirty clothes in a pile on the floor by my bed, while I moved my new clothes to rest on top of the shoes. I made myself comfortable in bed and typed out a quick text to Missy.

"Thank you so so much for the clothes. They're all so beautiful. I promise to call and thank you properly, but it's late and I'm exhausted. And thank you for bringing me back after our trip. Talk to you soon :)"

As soon as I sent the message, I rested my phone on the nightstand and pulled the comforter up to my chin. It wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep and despite everything that had happened, I was happy because the Doctor and I had come to an understanding. And I had someone looking after me.

A/N: Please please please leave a review, my lovelies!