"Cardiff!" the Doctor exclaimed as the TARDIS shuddered to a halt.

"Cardiff?" Martha complained, following him around the console. Barry looked up and grinned from where he'd been sitting on the jump seat, reading a book on aerodynamics by a man called Victor Vigny that Max had given him in 1913.

"Ah, but the thing about Cardiff," the Doctor began, "it's built on a rift in time and space, just like California and the San Andreas Fault, but the rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines, soak up the energy and use it as fuel."

"So it's a pit stop," Martha smiled. "How's it going there, Barry?"

"Yeah, fine," he agreed absent-mindedly, then looked up.

"Hey, Doctor?"

"Yeah?"

"Is this when we left? With Martha?"

"Yup! Well, just a few months before, to be precise. Late January '08. Why?"

Barry scratched his neck. "I'd kinda like to run over and visit my mom's grave, if that's okay. I haven't in a while, and…"

"Yeah. Sure," the Doctor nodded. "I understand."

"We won't leave without you," Martha promised, and Barry grinned.

"Back in a minute. Martha, keep him out of trouble."

With a flicker of lightning and a burst of wind, he switched into his suit, and was gone. And when he returned, the TARDIS—along with the Doctor and Martha—was gone too.

"Oh…"

Poor Barry. In any universe, he always has the worst timing. Goes away to visit his mom for fifteen minutes, and in the meantime, Captain Jack made the most hammy entrance ever, and the TARDIS flies all the way to the end of the universe to escape him. Though, honestly, I needed Barry out of the way-there is no way he wouldn't have stopped Yana from opening the watch, ergo no Master, and that's a bit more than I'm comfortable with changing, especially given my plans for everything else.

A note on the setting: Utopia is obviously concurrent with Torchwood: End of Days. There's no exact date given, but it seems to be late January/early February. If you're confused, as always please feel free to comment, and I'll provide a more detailed explanation.

So what will Barry do for the next seventeen weeks or so, until the Doctor, Martha, and Jack return in June? Well, tune in next time to find out!