Leadworth, it turned out, was not a very big town. When Jay had first arrived, backpack on her shoulder and Jack at her side, she'd not really been sure of what to do with herself. She'd expected some kind of bustling city, if she was being perfectly honest. Not this small, well-mannered town made up of mostly middle-aged or older residents. There weren't many people near her age. "Or near mine," Jack had joked, making her grin.

He'd helped her immensely in the beginning, helping her find a place to stay and exploring Leadworth with her. Not that there had been too much to explore. Still, she found she liked the quiet air, and she'd been quite comfortable there, even as the other residents of the place had eyed her with confusion, not used to having younger people actually come to live among them.

Eventually, however, Jack had returned to Cardiff, leaving her to her own devices. She offered what help she could when someone asked, and sometimes left for a few days here and there to help Martha or Jack with something. Martha was kind enough to offer her some money when she did so, giving her the means to pay for her temporary place of living, as was Jack. Jack had even taken her on a few trips to other places with the vortex manipulator, though she'd started thinking the Doctor had been right to get rid of it after their last trip.

She'd not forget the sight of a spider so big ever again, and even now, Jay often checked under her bed before going to sleep for the night.

Jay had yet to figure out what was so important about Leadworth that would point her in its direction though. The Doctor had made it seem as if she'd find something here, but she had yet to find much. Excluding the angry Scottish red-head that had nearly ran right into her on a regular basis, muttering about something or another.

"Amy Pond," an elderly man had told her after spotting the run in one day. He'd invited Jay to sit with him in the small local park, and she'd been more than willing. "Surprised she never left Leadworth. Good girl, but fiery. Good to have her around. Keeps the energy of the place going. Bit a couple of people growing up."

Whatever that had meant.

Jay tapped her fingers mindlessly on the table she sat at, her eyes following various people as they came and went outside the tiny little shop she'd been working in. A laptop was settled on the table before her, courtesy of Mickey. Jack had brought he and Martha to visit the last time he'd stopped by, and Mickey had spent hours showing her how to properly use it so she could help out more until she understood what the Doctor had intended for her here in Leadworth.

"Jay, did you hear what I just said?"

"No," admitted Jay aloud, grimacing as she looked back at the faces displayed on the screen before her. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

Martha looked amused; Mickey was exasperated. Apparently, UNIT was putting them in charge of some big investigation and they wanted to know her opinions on what they should do. Jay wasn't sure why. She wasn't a member of UNIT, nor did she really think she wanted to be. They were a little too quick to jump into violence for her taste, though Martha and Mickey did their best to focus on settling things without it.

"I said," Mickey repeated with a heavy sigh, voice emanating from the earpiece Jay wore, "they've not mentioned their intentions yet-"

Jay frowned at him. "So wait until they do that."

"Let me finish. They've not mentioned their intentions yet, but they're leaning towards the gun route."

"They always do." Jay rolled her eyes, frustrated. They were dragging her into UNIT problems again. They'd done this more often than not as of late. "Look, I can't tell you what to do, but you really ought to consider leaving UNIT. Both of you. They've been pushing a lot lately with things like that."

Mickey and Martha both grimaced, looking as if they were trying not to agree with her. Jay softened. "Seriously," she continued, resting her chin in her hand and studying them. "Honestly, consider leaving. Jack would let you right into Torchwood, and we all know that they do way more good for this planet than UNIT does, whether the Doctor's around or not."

The pair hadn't asked much regarding what had happened in the supposed week she'd been missing. Jay wondered how long it had taken the Doctor to get everything situated for the heist they'd made at the Bank of Abraxos, but when she'd called Jack, he'd been relieved and annoyed until she'd explained everything to him. He'd been as confused as she was about a lot of it, but had simply been pleased that Jay was unharmed - and that there was a clear difference in her now that she was back. He'd commented on it; she'd told him to leave it be, though she'd smiled as she'd said as much.

"UNIT does plenty of good, too," Martha told her. "We just can't tell you about most of it."

"And I have no interest in knowing, but trust that whatever you do, it's for the benefit of all involved unless there's no other choice," Jay said firmly, smiling warmly at her friends. "Now," she continued after they agreed, falling quiet for a few moments. "Mickey. I've been having this issue with the computer. It keeps telling me that the Wi-Fi disconnected, but-"

She jolted in her chair, caught off guard when her friends' faces disappeared and were replaced by a singular massive eyeball that seemed to pierce right through her. She heard similar shouts of surprise from around the little shop as people on their own computers and phones saw similar things, accompanied by a loud message that emanated from all of them.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated. Repeat. Prisoner Zero…"

The message continued to repeat, over and over, and Jay's stomach flipped anxiously when she couldn't get back to her chat with Mickey and Martha. She tapped at various things on the computer, but the message wouldn't go away. When she gave up and tried to call instead, it did the same thing, the voice echoing in her ear. "What the hell?" she muttered, eyes wide.

"Do you know what's going on?" asked the frightened mother at the table nearby, her dark eyes wide as she cradled a young child to her chest, showing Jay the phone in her hand. It also had an image of a large eyeball rolling this way and that, as if staring at them.

"No," answered Jay firmly, glancing outside. People had stopped in their tracks, looking around or frowning at the phones in their hands. Jay's lips parted when she saw that the sky had begun to darken, the sunlight beginning to fade. "But I'll find out." She grabbed the computer, slamming the laptop shut and shoving it into the leather bag Jack had given her, and then bolted from the building without hesitation, shouting over shoulder as the door began to shut behind her, "Stay inside!"

She looked up at the sky immediately once outside, and she pressed her mouth into a hardline, puzzled by the black disc that had slid over the sun. It was like a solar eclipse, but not. She'd seen one just once; it had been one of the smaller adventures she'd taken with the Doctor, not long after they'd lost Martha. He'd thought she'd like it, and he'd been a hundred percent right. It was beautiful.

But this, combined with the ominous message coming from every speaker in Leadworth, it seemed…

Time to get to work.


There were, by far, too many things on the Doctor's mind as he briskly walked down a road. Only a car or two passed as he strode along, looking desperately around the area with some frustration evident on his face. The red-haired Amelia Pond - who he could have sworn was around seven years old the last time he'd seen her - was no more than half a step behind him, her brow furrowed.

She was, of course, one of those things on his mind. Amelia Pond had been seven. Seven. Now, twelve years later, she was nineteen and very much less trusting than she'd once been. Even now, there were hints of distrust there in her eyes, which he couldn't necessarily blame her for. He had promised her a trip to the stars, and he was a little late. Maybe a little more than a little late. Well, maybe more like really late.

Alongside his thoughts on Amy were those on the Atraxi and Prisoner Zero. He had twenty minutes to figure out what he was doing regarding the danger to Earth, and he wasn't sure where to begin. Leadworth was a tiny town, as he was finding out. No airport. No nuclear power station. The nearest city, Gloucester, was thirty minutes by car, which they didn't have. The one thing they did have was a closed post office, which was oh, so useful. He'd have handed Prisoner Zero over to the Atraxi on a silver platter, but he couldn't. The shape-shifter was missing.

There was also his regeneration, of course, which had taken place less than an hour or so ago. He was still "cooking," as he'd called it, and he needed significant rest to recover, but couldn't. Not now. He'd caught a brief glimpse of himself here and there, but hadn't been able to take a good, long look. He had a thick mop of dark hair - which he was disappointed to find wasn't ginger - and quite a chin in comparison to the last face he'd worn. He certainly sounded different. His taste buds had yet to sort themselves out, though he was confident he'd always hate apples, and he was stuck in the same ruined suit he'd been wearing since the TARDIS had first crashed. Holes peppered the fabric, and he'd lost his suit jacket somewhere along the way. He needed a change of clothes soon. If not before he'd fixed Earth, because he couldn't say he'd look very stern and professional in what he was wearing now.

And speaking of missing things and people...

Jay.

Sure, the TARDIS needed time to recover, and he had an angry Scottish girl with a fairytale name agitated that he'd broken his promise to her, but he needed to find Jay. If he was twelve years late for Amelia, who knew how long he'd been gone for Jay. He'd promised to come back for her. What if something had happened in the time he'd been away? He'd trusted Wilfred to take care of her until she could find her way back to Jack or Martha, but she was Jay, after all. She attracted trouble more than anyone he'd ever met. Well...excluding himself, of course. Actually, he'd not have minded her company and help right now. He hoped she was alright. But first-

"What's happening?" Amelia - Amy - suddenly fretted. He blinked, realizing that he'd been so lost in his thoughts that the sky had gone dark and he'd not noticed. The Doctor's gaze flashed skyward, and he frowned. "What's wrong with the sun?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said, studying the black disc that had slid over the sun. He pressed his mouth into a hard line, realizing what was happening. "You're looking at it through a forcefield. They've sealed up your upper atmosphere. Now, they're getting ready to boil the planet. Oh, and there they come," he said with no small amount of annoyance and disgust, scowling at the humans that had emerged, recording the sky on their phones. "The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to, on a video phone."

Amy seemed nervous, dark eyes flickering uncertainly as she looked hopefully to him. She looked like the child he remembered her as for a moment, dressing up as a police woman for Halloween in the black and white blouse and skirt she'd donned. "This isn't real, is it?" she said almost hopefully. "This is some kind of big wind up."

The Doctor blinked at her, puzzled. "Why would I wind you up?"

"You told me you had a time machine."

"And you believed me," he pointed out.

"Then I grew up."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, you never want to do that." A thought suddenly occurred to him, and the Doctor snapped his head around, eyes darting this way and that. It was late, the thought, but he'd seen something of importance just then. He struggled to recall it for a few moments before he whirled around and found the one he was looking for: a young man, photographing a man with a dog rather than the sky. Bullseye.

"Twenty minutes," he said, grinning impishly to Amy. "I can do it. Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me."

And once he was done here...Jay.

"No."

"I'm sorry?" He was confused, and further so when Amy grabbed him by the mangled tie still worn on his neck and hauled him forward, ignoring his immediate protests. "No, no, no, what are you doing? Amy?!" Had she missed the part where he'd said twenty minutes until the end of the world?!

She ignored him, hauling him right up to a car and slamming his tie in the door. The car's owner, a middle-aged man with a round, shocked face, spluttered when Amy snatched the keys from his hand and locked the door before the Doctor could free himself. Annoyed and angry, because he didn't have the time for this, the Doctor shouted, "Are you out of your mind?!"

"Who are you?" she barked, standing there with a hand on her hip and the car keys in the other. Her eyes blazed with wary anger, and the Doctor couldn't blame her. He'd broken far too many promises as of late. Jay was going to kill him for what he'd done, he was sure of it. Amy might beat her to the punch though.

"You know who I am."

"No, really. Who are you?"

He made a wild gesture to the sky, yanking desperately at the tie trapping him in place. "Look at the sky! End of the world, twenty minutes!"

"Better talk quickly then."

"Amy," the car's owner said nervously, "I'm going to need my car back."

She flashed him a look, and the Doctor got the feeling that most of Leadworth had learned the hard way to simply do as Amy Pond said, for he mumbled that he'd go get some coffee. She turned her attention back onto the Doctor, willing to wait until the world ended if she needed to. He scowled at her, giving the tie a final yank. "Amy," he began, glancing longingly after the car owner, as if he'd be able to help the Doctor out.

The words he'd been about to utter died in his throat, and for just a moment, the Doctor forgot that Amelia Pond even existed. For a woman had stepped out of the coffee shop the car owner was entering, holding the door open for him with a tight-lipped smile, her eyes locked on the darkened sky.

He'd have recognized her anywhere, of course. Blue eyes studied the sky with awe despite the clear danger that was being announced in every which direction, from every speaker in the area. At the same time, she looked determined to put a stop to what was happening. She looked almost identical to what he remembered her looking like when he'd bid her a silent farewell not too long ago, though she'd cut her hair short again. It still seemed to glimmer gold in the missing sun's light. And, of course, there was the coat, the oversized sleeves rolled up to free her hands like a child might have. A leather bag had been shouldered, heavy with whatever was held within.

Jay.

It was Jayden O'Connors. Here, in Leadworth, alone. His mouth went dry at the sight of her, hearts skipping painfully. Then again, that could be the unfinished regeneration process. What was she doing here?! How long had it been since she'd been left with Wilfred? Why here? He had a million questions, and no answers. He absolutely hated that.

"Hello?" Amy snapped, waving her hand to get his attention. Her sharp voice caught Jay's attention, and those familiar blue eyes turned on them with amused curiosity for just a moment. He gawked somewhat at her, unsure of what to do or even say to her. "Doctor?"

Amusement turned to shock, and Jay's lips parted for a moment. He yanked irritably at the tie still trapping him, wanting nothing more than to start explaining, though he didn't really know what he intended to say to Jay. He was a new Doctor, after all, and even Rose had struggled for some time afterwards, not sure if she could trust him as much as she'd trusted the previous incarnation. But the longer Jay looked at him, the more she realized what was going on, because she suddenly wavered, dozens of emotions racing over her features. Grief was the leading one as she took in his familiar, raggedy suit. He went to say something as Amy realized something else was starting to happen, turning to look, but Jay suddenly pressed her mouth into a hard line, anger replacing grief, and simply walked away.

No, no, no, no. That wasn't a good sign. And now wasn't the time for Jay to be running off alone. "Amy," he said desperately. "Let me go."

"Not until you tell me who you are," she said sternly, and he stared desperately after Jay, frustrated. Couldn't they do this later? Even so, Amy was looking back, too, curious about the fact that something was going on between them.

He forced his attention onto Amy. Her, first. Jay, second. Atraxi and Prisoner Zero, third. One step at a time. "Catch." He tossed her something, and Amy almost dropped it. But then she peered at the apple he'd dug out of his pocket, and she stared at the freshly carved face in its peel with surprise. "I'm the Doctor. I'm a time traveler. Everything I told you twelve years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over."

Amy stroked the apple with the pad of her thumb, uncertain. "I don't believe you."

It sounded as if she wanted to though, and the Doctor pleaded, "Just twenty minutes. Just believe me for twenty minutes. Look at it, fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes."

She searched his gaze for a few moments, uncertain, and then nodded curtly, unlocking the car. He beamed at her in delight as he straightened, back popping, and began looking in the direction Jay had gone almost immediately. "Right!" he declared. "First things first: I need to get Jay."


Her stomach was rolling, and Jay's head was a confusing mess of thoughts and feelings as she blindly stormed across the park. One thought lingered at the forefront of her mind, of course: the Doctor's here. He'd come back. Sort of. Why she'd thought he'd not make an appearance during this mess that was currently happening was beyond her. Why else would his future self tell her to come here?

She'd been waiting of course, and she might have forgiven him to some degree, but seeing him again like this...here...in that suit with a different face

It was a little bit too much without preparation. At least she'd been prepared for something weird in the Bank of Karabraxos. This was another story. This was Leadworth, where nothing weird ever happened...okay, so maybe with the arrival of the eyeball on every screen in Leadworth she should have considered the possibility, but still!

This was her Doctor. It was obvious. The suit gave it away if nothing else did. The look of wide-eyed realization had said enough, too, and she found that she couldn't figure out if it was because he'd not wanted her to find him just yet or if it was for some other reason. He came back for her; Jay knew he came back for her. The other Doctor and Clara had pretty much promised that. But this...this wasn't coming back for her. This was clearly an unexpected run in. One his future self had clearly known about when he'd told her to come to Leadworth.

Still, it was a little surprising to realize she'd not been ready for it after nearly a year and a half of waiting for it.

"Jay!"

Her shoulders tightened at the sound of her name being shouted. She wasn't sure what she thought she was doing, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him, not with tears burning in her eyes like they were. She didn't want him to see that. She wasn't sure she was ready to start fully accepting the other Doctor was gone either. Sure, she'd seen another face already, but she'd still thought of her Doctor with a different face. A face she'd not gotten to say goodbye to.

The Doctor shouted her name again, and she felt rather childish as she took a sharp turn to avoid him, attempting to get back to her apartment and maybe do something as ridiculous as hide away until he was done with everything else. She wasn't sure how she felt about the Doctor clearly knowing Amy either. It explained a lot about Amy Pond, of course, and the odd song that echoed from her and her boyfriend, one Rory Williams, who Jay had run into here and there like she had everyone else in Leadworth. It worried her though. It was a silly worry, but a worry nonetheless, that the Doctor had somehow found someone else he'd rather have accompanied him now that he wore a new face.

"Jayden!" A hand caught her arm and yanked her to a halt. She whipped around immediately, trying to yank free, but the Doctor held fast, and despite her inner turmoil, Jay found herself glaring up at him furiously. Anger suddenly wiped everything else out of her head. She clamped her mouth shut. She didn't know what to say to the Doctor, but if she opened her mouth now, it wouldn't be something nice.

He looked different, she noted. Of course he did. His hair was darker and longer, eyes a shocking green rather than brown. Everything was different, but she'd expected that when it came to physical appearance. She'd known what to expect in that manner when she'd come face to face with his future regeneration.

But what bothered her was the look in his eyes. It told her this was her Doctor, the same man who'd abandoned her over a year ago. He might have looked different, but he was the same man underneath all the looks and bravado. She'd accepted it some time ago, and had even begun to move on from the sting, but the guilty expression he wore was so fresh it brought it all back. He'd only just recently done it, and he knew he'd broken his promise to her. He had done so on purpose, and just as she'd been unprepared for this meeting, he wasn't ready either. He clearly had as much of an idea regarding what to tell her as she did him.

That made it so much worse.

He didn't even have a good excuse ready.

"Jay," the Doctor began again, and she narrowed her eyes silently. He faltered, nervous, and she scowled at his hesitance. If he was going to abandon her like he had, the last he could do was actually apologize. He briefly glanced over his shoulder, frowning when Amy, who'd followed him and was nervously looking at the sky, cleared her throat pointedly. He ignored her, turning his attention back on Jay, who'd lifted a brow. "How long?" he asked instead of explaining how he knew Amy.

Jay briefly looked skyward herself, admitting that now wasn't the time for this conversation. There was a potential attack on Earth taking place, and while she wanted nothing more than to demand answers from the Doctor, it could technically wait. But the Doctor, still gripping her arm, gave her a gentle shake and demanded, "How long?"

"Depends on what you mean," Jay said, voice hoarse. Technically, it had only been a few months since she'd last seen the Doctor. That wasn't what he meant, and she knew it though. "One year," she admitted after another pointed look. "One year and six months. Almost to the day. Give or take. Time goes a little wobbly when you hang out with an ex-time agent." And a Time Lord who takes you out of time for a heist. She got the feeling she should keep that to herself though.

The Doctor flinched. "Right," he muttered, wincing. "One year, six months."

"And twelve years," added Amy, and Jay sucked in a confused, sharp breath, lifting her brows as she looked at Amy curiously for a moment before turning a sharp, accusing look on the Doctor. Twelve years? What had he been doing?

The Doctor gave Amy an exasperated look, and Jay sighed heavily, getting the feeling that those twelve years had been unintentional. She took a critical look at his clothing, too. He couldn't have left her with Wilfred more than a handful of hours ago, no matter how torn those clothes were. The Doctor tended to be rather like a well-feathered bird, preferring to keep himself looking pristine and ready to impress at all times. From the charring…

"Did you crash the TARDIS?" she demanded, and he rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"Regeneration can be unpredictable," he said quietly in return. Jay blinked at the sincere, apologetic smile that appeared on his face as he searched her gaze. An explanation, she realized. She'd guessed as much, might have even known this was the reason. The Doctor - the future him, anyway - had stated it was dangerous.

"Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated."

Jay glanced over as someone walked by, frowning at their phone as it announced the message. Right. The world was at stake. She snapped her attention back to the Doctor, shifted her grip on her bag, and lifted her chin again. She would wait to have this discussion with him. There were much more important things. "What's going on? The sun doesn't just go dark when aliens start talking about incinerating Earth for no reason."

"There's an escaped prisoner here," he explained quickly. "Prisoner Zero. The Atraxi want it back and think Earth is harboring it as a fugitive."

"And have you seen Prisoner Zero?" she fired back, looking around.

"No," the Doctor said at the same time that Amy shivered and said, "Yes." The Doctor grimaced at Amy. "Well, sort of. It was hiding in Amy's house for twelve years, maybe more. Some sort of perception filter."

Jay nodded to herself, eyeing Amy. Amy looked between them, alert and ready for whatever came next. Jay found herself exchanging an unhappy smile with her. Clearly, they were in a similar boat, and they'd focus for now, but later...there would be no promises. So, Jay turned her attention back onto the Doctor, face serious as she tightened her hand on the strap of her bag. "What do we need to do first, Doctor?"

The Doctor furrowed his brow, thinking, and then sputtered, "Nurse!" He took off at a run, and Jay couldn't help herself. She grinned at Amy and ran after him. Amy huffed as she followed suit, clearly not excited to be running again. Jay hoped she got used to it very quickly; there would always be running when the Doctor was involved.

She flexed her fingers thoughtfully as they nearly tumbled to a halt in front of a shocked Rory Williams, who stared at the three of them in confusion. His phone was in his hand, and he yelped when the Doctor yanked the phone right out of his hand, demanding, "The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?"

His song was louder, too, now that he and Amy were near each other. Jay listened curiously, tipping her head to the side. She loved to hear the songs when the pair were with each other. They blended beautifully, and it gave Jay a good feeling about their relationship.

"Amy?" Rory asked, confused, looking between her, the Doctor, and Jay.

"This is Rory," Amy told the Doctor, her dark eyes widening briefly. "He's a...friend."

"Boyfriend," corrected Rory, and Jay's lips quirked into a hint of a smile.

"Man and dog. Why?" The Doctor stared harshly at him, but rather than answering, Rory's eyes grew wide and he gasped, "Oh, my God, it's him." Amy groaned, pleading that he just answer the question, but Rory cried, "It's him though! It's the Doctor, the Raggedy Doctor." Rory stared at the Doctor in awe, and Jay almost laughed at the look on the Doctor's face. He was clearly frustrated, wanting to know the answers to his question. "But he was a story-"

The Doctor, impatient, grabbed Rory's shoulders and gave him a small shake, making him jump. "Man and dog! Why? Tell me now."

Rory shook his head to clear it, focusing. "Because he can't be there. He's in a hospital, in a coma."

The Doctor stared at him, and then whirled away, facing the man he'd been talking about. Jay blinked; she'd not realized the man was still there. She studied the person Rory had been photographing, taking in the odd appearance. The man looked out of place, in a blue jumpsuit and a heavy-set Rottweiler at his hip on a chain. Her heart ached for the real person, who was apparently in a coma. She hoped he recovered. Jay might have done a slight double-take when the man barked. Not the dog, but the man.

"Multiform, you see?" the Doctor said smugly, and Jay rolled her eyes. The Doctor had always been a little arrogant, but now he was openly so, and she could have slapped him for it. "Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a live feed. A psychic link with a living, but dormant mind."

Jay faltered then, touching her own head. "Do I need to be worried?"

"No," the Doctor said with a firm, reassuring look. "Your mind isn't dormant. And it would need a significant amount of time around you." He suddenly frowned at her. "How are your hands?"

Jay flexed her fingers, studying them as if she could see the venom that coursed through her veins. "Iffy. Could or couldn't happen. Depends on how much running I do." The attacks came a little more frequently than they once had, and they were worse than they once had been. Martha had been frantic the last time she'd been around for one. Jay found herself worrying that there'd come a time rather soon where she wouldn't wake up at all.

"Might be a lot of running," the Doctor said almost sorrowfully, and Jay shrugged.

"What's new?" she said.

Amy glanced between them, exasperated. "Are you going to keep chatting about things we don't know about, or are you going to tell us what the eyeball in the sky is doing?"

The Doctor whirled around to look almost immediately and sputtered. Sure enough, the eyeball Jay had seen show up on her laptop was there in the sky, scanning and skimming the area. "It's looking for Prisoner Zero," she realized aloud. "Right?"

The Doctor smirked at them all. "And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver." He fished the blue-tipped sonic screwdriver out of his pocket, and Jay immediately went from somewhat saddened and excited about seeing the familiar device to concerned. She wasn't sure it was a good idea to use the screwdriver when it was so beat up. It was covered in a layer of slime and a little charred like the rest of him. But the Doctor pressed the button anyway, and Jay couldn't stop herself from smiling as the world went wild around them. Streetlights exploded as he stared down Prisoner Zero. Car alarms blared. A fire engine rumbled by on its own, two firemen chasing after them. "I think someone's going to notice," he told Prisoner Zero, who bared both mouths' teeth at him. "Don't you?"

A red telephone box on the street corner sparked, and that was when it started to go downhill. The sonic screwdriver exploded in the Doctor's hand, and Amy hissed, brushing at her white blouse when a few sparks struck her. The Doctor yelped, dropping it. "No, no, no," he cried, snatching it back up and glaring at the broken sonic screwdriver.

"It's going," remarked Rory, looking unnerved as he stared at the spaceship disappearing from view.

"Come back!" the Doctor hollered at the sky as if it would hear him from down below. "He's here! Come back! Prisoner Zero's-"

"Gone," muttered Jay, grabbing his arm and pointing as the creature seemed to melt and disappear into a drain a few feet away. By the time the Doctor looked, it was gone, and he angrily glared at the drain, raking hands through his hair. Of course it had. "Could the TARDIS find it?"

"We don't have a TARDIS," he muttered rather sharply, scowling at the drain.

Jay pressed her mouth into a hard line, not appreciating the attitude. She dropped his arm and rather than demanding to know where the TARDIS was, Jay glanced over as Amy asked warily, "So that thing. That hid in my house for twelve years?"

"Multiforms can live for a millennia," the Doctor said, still not looking at them. "Twelve years is a pit-stop."

Amy folded her arms, and she looked about as pleased as Jay felt. "So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do? Same minute!"

"They're looking for him," the Doctor explained, "but they followed me. They saw me through the crack, got a fix, and they're only late because I am. Nurse boy, give me your phone," he suddenly added, whirling on Rory, who reeled back.

Reluctantly, Rory handed it over, and the Doctor began skimming through it as Rory muttered to Amy under his breath, "How can he be real? He was never real. He was just a game. We were just kids - you made me dress up as him!"

Jay couldn't help but grin at that. Temporarily bypassing the attitude the Doctor had given her, she shook out her wrists and questioned curiously, "So you met the Doctor when you were younger?"

Amy looked her up and down, defensive, and Jay couldn't figure out if Amy disliked her or if she was simply trying to figure out where she fit in with all this. Jay would have put her money on the latter as Amy said, "Yeah. He crashed his time machine into my shed - and broke it," she added somewhat accusingly under her breath, and Jay nodded wisely, fully believing it. "What about you?"

Jay waved her off as the Doctor perked up, finding what he was looking for. "Born in another year, imprisoned and poisoned by some creature we know nothing about, found out my dad sold me to the person who put me there, and decided life with the Doctor was better than going home." She could have added that the Doctor had ditched her, too, but she decided against it as the Doctor showed Rory several pictures of people in the street.

"These photos, are they all coma patients?"

"Yeah."

"No," the Doctor disagreed, and Amy and Jay peered over his shoulders on either side of him to look. The people in the images all looked rather similar in expression: blank-faced, with a dark look in their eyes. "The same multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero."

Amy frowned at the image of the man they'd just seen, still holding onto a fierce-looking Rottweiler. "He had a dog though. Is there a dog in a coma?"

"No," Jay murmured, recalling a few conversations she'd had here and there with Jack, Martha, and Mickey about different aliens and various other pieces of information she'd likely find to be useful. "If it's a psychic link, the coma patient probably has a dog he's dreaming about. If the multi-form gets its disguises from that patient, it'll take on whatever the patient's dreaming of."

"If he dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog," the Doctor agreed, turning a proud smile on Jay. She only shifted the grip on her bag, determined to keep it with her. She was still a little miffed that he'd snapped at her. Briefly, Jay wondered if the attitude was simply going to be a part of this Doctor. If that was the case, she'd have to warn him to think before he opened his mouth.

"Laptop!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, making all three of them jump. He turned to Amy. "Your friend, what was his name? Not him," he added with a frown at Rory. "The good-looking one?"

"Jeff," supplied Amy, and Rory looked even more annoyed by the statement.

"He had a laptop in his bag. A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop." The Doctor was bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to start running. "Right. You two, get to the hospital and get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me," he held up Rory's phone, "when you're done."

Amy didn't hesitate to start dragging Rory away. "Your car. Come on."

The Doctor spun around to face Jay, eyes gleaming with mischief. "We need that laptop."

"No need." Jay held up her bag with a hint of a smile, proud to have been one step ahead of the Doctor for a change. "I've got one in here. We just need to go back to that coffee shop. I was connected to the internet there." She furrowed her brow, admitting to herself as they started off at a slow jog for the coffee shop, "I still don't know what the internet actually is."

The Doctor burst into the shop without a hint of hesitation, and Jay smiled sheepishly at the stares they immediately got. They all gawked at the Doctor for the most part, though one or two gave Jay the usual wary looks. Jay shrugged to herself; it wasn't up to her to decide who they should trust. She had her own issues to figure out first. "That table has the best connection," Jay informed the Doctor, pointing, and he flew to the spot, yanking her laptop out of her bag. He studied it for a moment, interested, and Jay said, "Mickey got it for me. He showed me how to use it."

The Doctor wrinkled his nose as he slid into a seat, Jay snatching the one beside him. She found that though she was closer than she would have usually allowed herself to be, given that she acknowledged she still had some rather fierce feelings that had refused to go away despite the Doctor's actions, she didn't mind at all. Rather, she liked the closeness as she leaned in to watch as he yanked the laptop open and began typing furiously, pulling up various windows on the screen. "What are you doing?" she asked.

The Doctor flashed her a smile, eyes gleaming. He looked as if he'd been waiting for her to ask. Lowering his voice so the other people wouldn't get too nosey, he said, "The sun's gone wibbly, so there's going to be a big old video conference call somewhere out there. All the experts in the world are panicking, all at once, and do you know what they need?"

Jay couldn't help but roll her eyes. "I'll take a wild guess and say you?"

"Me," he confirmed, and Jay shook her head. Definitely a little more openly arrogant now, she thought to herself even as faces began appearing on her laptop's screen. She blinked at them as he said rather smugly, "NASA, Jordell Bank, Tokyo Space Center, Patrick Moore." The Doctor faltered, suddenly patting himself down when the people on the screen instinctively began asking who the hell he was. His eyes grew wide when he couldn't find what he was looking for, and with a heavy sigh, Jay fished the psychic paper out of her coat pocket and waved it in his face.

"I think they need someone who doesn't forget what they left behind," Jay chided as he smiled brightly at her again and took the psychic paper gratefully. There was a hint of sadness that flickered to life before he focused on the situation at hand.

"Hello. You should switch me off," he told the people on the screen as he flashed the psychic paper at them, "but before you do, watch this." He began rapidly typing on the phone he'd stolen from Rory after tossing the psychic paper back at Jay, and she neatly pocketed it. The professionals the Doctor had contacted grew befuddled by what the Doctor was throwing at them as he grinned and said, "Fermat's Theorem, the proof. And I mean the real one, never seen before Poor old Fermat." He paused with a somewhat saddened frown. He glanced at Jay and explained, "He got killed in a duel before he could write it down. It was my fault. I slept in. Oh, and here's why electrons have mass…" He fired off a few other examples, and Jay sat back to watch it all with some exasperated amusement.

"Sir," said one of the men with a deep frown as the Doctor moved on, having proven himself clever enough to listen to, "what are you doing?"

The Doctor's smug look vanished and he said seriously, eyes darting across the tiny screen, "I'm writing a computer virus. Very clever, super fast, and a tiny bit alive." The last bit was said under his breath. Clearly, he didn't want the people he was speaking with to know that. Jay didn't blame him; government entities seemed to get rather upset over that kind of thing. "I'm sending this to all your computers. Get everyone who works for you sending this everywhere. "E-mail, text, Facebook, Twitter, whatever you've got. Any questions?"

"What does this virus do?"

"It's a reset command, that's all. It resets counters. It gets into the Wi-Fi and resets every counter it can find. Clocks, calendars, anything with a chip will default at zero at exactly the same time." The people looked rather uncertain of if they could trust the Doctor, who began to look frustrated, so Jay rolled her eyes and snatched the laptop from the Doctor, planting it in front of her.

Jay said fiercely, "Give me one other idea you have." When none of them did just that, she glowered. "Get to work then," she snapped and slammed the laptop shut, huffing sharply through her nose. Why did people always try to argue? Ignoring the Doctor's excited grin, she shoved herself to her feet, pushing the laptop into her bag. "Come on," she said, "I don't know Amy very well, but she seems like she'll fit right in with the lifestyle."

In other words, Amy was going to attract as much trouble as the Doctor did.

"You think so?" the Doctor mused in a way that she recognized. He'd worn the same expression before Donna had tagged along, and Jay only shook her head. She couldn't help the smile that threatened to break out over her face. It'd be a long time before she could properly forgive him, but at the same time...stars above, she was happy to be running alongside him again. Actually, she was happy about a lot of things right now.

"Here," the Doctor said when the phone he'd stolen began to ring, and Jay furrowed her brow when he skidded to a stop. "Answer that phone and wait here. I'll be right back."

He began to back away a few steps, but she grew incredibly nervous and reached out to grab his wrist, effectively stopping him. She bit her lip as she searched his gaze, saying in what she considered to be an annoyingly small voice, "You won't leave again?"

The Doctor blinked at her, as if he'd not considered that, which almost made her feel worse about it. But he shook off his surprise and stepped close again, gently reaching up to cradle her face in his hands. Her heart ached; the last time he'd done this had been just after he'd tracked down the Master following her kidnapping. The action was so similar to then that she found herself nearly ready to cry. "I won't leave without you again," he said firmly, searching her gaze. "I promise."

"You promised last time," she pointed out quietly.

"And I would do it again." The sentence was like a stab to her heart, but he said gently, "Pushing off regeneration...it makes it harder. It destroyed the TARDIS from the inside out. It's why we don't have the TARDIS, why my time has been off." Jay wrinkled her nose in slight disagreement; he'd always been bad at ensuring he made it to a certain location at the right time. He hastily pushed on, recognizing what she was going to say. "I'm still regenerating. It was too dangerous."

"You could have told me," she protested.

"And you wouldn't have stayed." His voice was firm, and she hated it. Mostly because as she looked at the Doctor, she realized that he wasn't entirely wrong. She'd never know what she would have done, she realized, because he hadn't given her the chance to choose. But there was more than a hint of a chance that she might have pushed against the decision. Would have argued when the Doctor didn't have much time as it was.

She could recognize that, but it didn't mean she couldn't stay upset about it.

"I promised I'd come back," he pointed out, and she instinctively touched the pocket that still held the letter he'd had her take to Wilfred - a letter meant for her in the end. "And here I am."

"You didn't come back," she huffed, frowning at him. "I found you. By accident, might I add, because-" She cut off, not sure if she was allowed to tell the Doctor that she'd met a future version of him. "Because I was told to come here," she finished.

He looked mildly interested in knowing who, but she gave him a pointed look. Not only would she not say anything, but they didn't have time for the conversation to last much longer. So, she decided to suck it up and do as he told her. She was an adult, not a lost child. She would do her best to accept the promise he'd offered, even if she didn't trust him entirely to follow through. "I'm giving you less than five minutes," she warned.

He smiled widely. "Good. We have less than five minutes to get to Amy and Rory." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, lingering there for a heartbeat. Her eyes fluttered shut. And then he was gone, racing away and shouting over his shoulder, "Call Amy back!"

Jay sighed, watching him go, and then looked down at the phone in her hand. The call hadn't gone through and the ringing had ended, so Jay eyed the phone uncertainly before going to work on trying to figure out how to dial the number that had called. She only knew how to use her own phone now that she thought about it, so it took a moment longer than she'd have liked to admit.

"Amy?" she asked after she'd figured it out, phone pressed to her ear. "It's Jay. Everything okay on your end?"

"Yeah," Amy said, sounding distracted. "Just finished. Is the Doctor on his way? You're going to need a car to get here faster."

"I don't know," she admitted, grimacing. "He just ran off." Amy uttered a sound of frustration. Jay didn't blame her one bit. She was confused by the Doctor's actions, too. She sighed heavily. "He runs off all the time. I'm sure he's plotting something he hasn't - you've got to be kidding me." Jay couldn't help the laugh that escaped her as she bounced on the balls of her feet, disbelief written across her face. Only the Doctor, she thought as a massive fire engine pulled up alongside where she stood on the curb. He looked incredibly proud of himself as Jay shook her head at him. "He's here. We're on our way, Amy."

"Be quick," Amy said firmly.

Jay clambered up into the fire engine, slamming the door shut behind her. She settled into the seat with awe, admittedly excited to be sitting in such a vehicle. She'd seen a couple, but she'd never thought she'd sit in one. It was much higher than she was comfortable with, but she didn't mind too much. More so, she was worried about the fact that the Doctor was the one driving the vehicle as the fire engine rumbled off. "Where are we heading?"

"Hospital," he told her firmly, eyes on the road. "We need to get to Prisoner Zero and that's where it'll go."

"That virus," Jay said as she stiffened, displeased when he took a corner rather sharply. "The one you wrote. You said it resets things like clocks. So when the virus gets to work, it'll literally turn everything on Earth into zero?"

"Everything," he confirmed. "And you've got the central point in your hand."

"So they'll trace it." He nodded and Jay slowly tipped her head to the side, starting to get the idea of what he was going for. "Hopefully it works," she murmured. "I still need to call Martha back and make sure they're okay. I was in the middle of a call when this all started. Do you think they might have heard the message, too?"

"I don't know." He paused, and then questioned somewhat hesitantly, "You were with them?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes I was with Jack, not always on Earth. We went on a few trips, but I wasn't really that keen on leaving." She shrugged, fists clenching when he took yet another sharp corner. "Slow down a bit, would you? I know we're in a rush, but getting there alive is kind of important, too." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "I mostly kind of helped out on Earth. With aliens and such. We saved a few that UNIT weren't too fond of. Chased a few off. That kind of thing. Martha wanted me to tag along with UNIT, but I wasn't really wanting that, so...I just kind of wandered a little bit, I guess." Jay sighed, raking a hand through her shortened hair with a thoughtful look. "Mostly, I was on my own. My own doing, I think. I could have made more of an effort, but…" She'd simply not known how to make a life that wasn't one with the Doctor or under the thumb of overly controlling parents. She'd found herself with a wide variety of choices and couldn't make one on her own. She hated admitting that.

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the ringing of a phone. Jay answered without hesitation. "How's it looking?"

Amy's voice trembled a fraction on the other end, and Jay couldn't blame her for being a little scared. As fierce as Amy appeared to be, she was still rather new to all of this. "We're in, but so's Prisoner Zero."

Jay put it on speaker immediately as another voice came distantly over the other end of the phone call - a woman's voice. "He was so angry. He kept shouting and shouting - and that dog! The size of that dog."

A child's voice spoke up next. "I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone. Where did he go - did you see? Has he gone? We hid in the - oh. I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I? I always do that. So many mouths."

The Doctor snatched the phone from Jay, eyes hardened with worry. "Amy? Amy, what's happening?" Jay jumped when there was a loud crack on the other end of the call, and the Doctor said loudly, "Amy, talk to me!"

"We're in the coma ward, but it's here! It's getting in."

The Doctor pushed the phone back into Jay's hands as they rounded a final corner and came across a massive building. The local hospital, Jay recognized. Precisely where they'd been trying to get to. "Which window?" he demanded, and confused, Amy asked for clarification. "Which window?"

"First floor, on the left, fourth from the end."

The Doctor waved for Jay to hang up and said, "Hold onto something." Jay stared at him, and he gave her another wide smile that made her roll her eyes. Still, Jay knew better than to not listen, and she gripped the handle of the door warily. The Doctor aimed the fire engine with great care and pulled it to a sharp stop only feet away from the building, sending the ladder at the top of the vehicle slamming through the window overhead. "Out! We've got less than five minutes!"

Jay scrambled out of the fire engine and swore under her breath when she realized he wanted her to climb up the ladder. Her stomach flipped at the idea. She still wasn't that good with heights. There wasn't time to find the stairs though, so she took a shaken breath and did as she was told, scrambling up the ladder with quavering limbs. She hissed when she cut her hands on broken glass while clambering through, the Doctor only a step behind her.

"Right!" the Doctor said as he popped upright, bouncing with energy as he grinned at all those around. "Hello. Are we late?" He checked a clock to their right, nodding to himself. "Three minutes to go, still time."

Jay glanced between the people in the otherwise empty room. The room itself was filled with abandoned hospital beds, papers scattered on the cement floor in the rush to get everyone out. She grimaced, not liking the hospital much. It seemed to be a rather sad place to spend one's time. On their left was Amy and Rory. Rory looked terrified while Amy was only a little nervous, albeit fairly relieved to see the Doctor. On their left was who Jay presumed was Prisoner Zero. The alien had taken on the appearance of a mother and her two children, all three holding hands. Prisoner Zero hissed at them, all three mouths baring teeth.

Not at the Doctor, Jay realized, but at her. It was hissing at her, even stepping back, and Jay forced herself to ignore it, her stomach flipping. She regretted not demanding more information from the future Doctor, though she'd known it wouldn't have done her any good to ask for information from him. He couldn't have told her anything useful, with time being as wobbly as it was. Still, she raised her chin, hiding her uncertainty, and the Doctor snatched Prisoner Zero's attention with a frown, clearly having noticed the alien's response to Jay. "Take the disguise off," he told Prisoner Zero, "and they'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies."

Prisoner Zero was effectively distracted. The oldest of its three faces, the woman's, curled a lip. "The Atraxi will kill me this time. If I am to die, let there be fire."

"Okay," the Doctor amended, and Jay got the feeling he was trying to find the least violent method of action. "You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave."

Jay glanced at Amy, recalling the Doctor having mentioned a crack before. A my clearly recognized what crack he was talking about, and she looked forward to talking with Amy a little more. Twelve years was a long time to wait, after all, and Jay was sure Amy had one hell of a story behind it. "Somebody had to have opened a crack," Jay said hesitantly when Prisoner Zero denied that it had opened the crack. The Doctor nodded, agreeing. "That kind of thing doesn't just happen. Right?"

Prisoner Zero looked genuinely surprised. "The cracks in the skin of the universe...don't you know where they came from, daemon?" Its gaze darted from Jay, to Amy, to Rory, and then to the Doctor, glee materializing on its face. "You don't, do you?" The voice shifted from the mother to the younger of the children, mocking in a sing-song voice, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know." The creature shifted its voice back to the woman, and Prisoner Zero sneered, "The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall."

A shiver ran down Jay's spine. What was that supposed to mean? Before she could try prying information out of Prisoner Zero for her own interest, however, and maybe protest that she wasn't a daemon, the Doctor suddenly grinned and declared, "And we're off! Look at that."

He pointed to the clock on the wall, and Jay blinked, realizing it was set at a specific time - reset. When she checked the borrowed phone she had kept in her hand, it, too, was set at 0:00. Her lips curved into a wide smile, and she was pleased to find that the Doctor's plan had worked.

"Just a clock," the Doctor said, "but do you know what's happening right now? My team is working. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. The word is "Zero." Now, me," he continued, jerking a thumb in the direction of the broken window, "if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able to track a simple old computer virus to its source in...what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right there." He pointed at the phone in Jay's hand. A bright light emanated from the broken window, blinding, and he hummed, "Oh! And I think they just found us."

Prisoner Zero bristled at him, hissing. "The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone. Not me."

"Yeah, but this is the good bit." Jay was grinning as the Doctor rambled on. She could hear his previous self in that tone of voice, in the way he was rambling, and though she was still upset with him for what had happened, it was a relief. "I mean, this is my favorite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right there." He wiggled his fingers, and she tossed him the phone. He tapped something out and then showed the phone to Prisoner Zero. "And that's being uploaded about now. And the final score is: no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare!"

Prisoner Zero seethed for a few moments before suddenly giving a sly smile. Jay wasn't too fond of seeing that smile on all three faces. "Then I shall take a new form."

"Oh, stop it." The Doctor rolled his eyes. "You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link."

"And I've had years."

They were all briefly confused as Prisoner Zero gave them a charming smile, filled with surprisingly sharp teeth. But Rory's cry of surprise dragged Jay's attention back to him, and then Amy, who'd collapsed quite suddenly. "No, no, no!" the Doctor shouted, sprinting over. He dropped to his knees beside her, checking her over to see what he could do.

Rory, who Jay thought to be the smartest of all of them, didn't take his eyes off of Prisoner Zero for an instant, and it was in the instant that Jay saw his face change to one of alarm that she spun back around. She was caught off guard to find the Doctor standing there, hands clasped behind his back, studying them all smugly. No, she realized. Not the Doctor. Prisoner Zero.

"Doctor," she choked out, nervous, and he wrinkled his nose as he rose to his feet cautiously, gesturing for Rory to tend to Amy. He didn't hesitate to kneel beside her, stroking his girlfriend's hair soothingly.

"Well, that's rubbish," commented the Doctor. "Who's that supposed to be?"

Jay cleared her throat. "You," she told him. He looked befuddled, and she guessed he'd not really taken a look in the mirror between the TARDIS crashing and Prisoner Zero causing them issues. "But why copy you?"

"I'm not," a small voice said. A child's voice - a girl's, for a girl with bright red hair and a sweet face stepped out from behind the Doctor's form. Her hand held tightly to his. "Poor Amy Pond. Such a child inside. She's dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been. Hasn't he?" Prisoner Zero added with a triumphant, knowing look at Jay, who flinched.

The Doctor didn't panic. Rather, he whirled back around and grinned at the real Amy. "No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me." He bolted back to Amy, kneeling beside her and giving her shoulder a gentle shake. "Amy," he murmured in a voice Jay could just barely hear from where she stood. "Don't just hear me. Listen. Remember the room. The room in your house you couldn't see. Remember how you went inside. I tried to stop you, but you did. You went inside, right into that room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw."

Jay's gaze snapped to Prisoner Zero when the alien suddenly hissed, struggling. Its form rippled away after a few seconds, and Jay cringed at the sight of the creature that was left behind. It was a massive worm-like creature, with slimy gray skin and big bulging eyes. Its teeth were razor sharp, and she grimaced at the idea of what it would feel like to have those teeth tearing a chunk out of her.

She couldn't help but smile as a light shone in through the window, focused on Prisoner Zero. "Looks like you've impersonated yourself rather nicely," she commented smugly, and Prisoner Zero turned a nasty look on her as a voice echoed overhead, "Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained."

"Silence," hissed Prisoner Zero in response, staring her down with those nasty, angry eyes, and her face paled as a chill ran down her spine. Something in her surged forward at the challenge, urging her to glare back, and Prisoner Zero only bared its fangs. "Silence will fall."

It vanished, rippling right out of existence, and the light faded, too. Jay took a step over to check the window and reported, trying to forget what she'd heard, "The sun's back to normal." Even as she spoke, her phone began ringing, signaling that someone was trying to get ahold of her. Martha, more than likely. Or Mickey. They could wait. For the Doctor was scowling at the windows, annoyance clear in his gaze.

As Amy came to, groaning quietly, he stormed over to Jay and held his hand out impatiently. "The phone," he demanded, and she arched a brow, pressing Rory's phone right into his hand.

"What's wrong?" she asked quietly, confused. "You just saved the planet. Again."

"It's not over," he answered, typing furiously on the phone. "Sorry in advance," he added over his shoulder to Rory as he helped his confused girlfriend to her feet. When he questioned what the Doctor was sorry about, the Time Lord shrugged. "The bill," he said, pressing the phone to his ear.

His expression darkened briefly as he snapped into the phone a moment later, "I didn't say you could go! Article fifty-seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? Did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now." He hung up then, slapping the phone into Rory's hand when he and Amy moved closer to figure out what was going on. "Right," he declared as they gawked at him. "I need a decent shirt."

Defensively, tugging self-consciously at the borrowed coat she was wearing, Jay muttered, "I liked that suit, thank you very much."

The Doctor flashed her an almost rueful grin. "It doesn't fit anymore."

She almost found herself asking what that meant about her fitting in. She kept it to herself, however. Jay thought it might upset him a little too much. Still, as the Doctor trotted off to find some new clothes somewhere in the now abandoned hospital, Rory helping Amy to follow him, Jay hesitated to do so. She got the feeling that this adventure was drawing to its end and the last thing she wanted was to turn around and find that the Doctor had left her once again.

It was as she took a single step forward, finally deciding to catch up, that there was a sharp, searing pain against her chest. She grunted, yanking instinctively at the spot. Her fingers clasped the TARDIS key, and she was startled to find that it, of all things, was what had hurt her. It was burning hot, and glowing a beautiful gold that made a slow smile cross her face. The TARDIS was calling her.

So, rather than following, Jay began retreating. First one step, and then another, and then she was running for the doors of the hospital.

The Doctor had things handled here.

She had a time machine to visit.


The Doctor quite liked the outfit he'd chosen to wear. Tweed pants, complete with a tweed coat to throw over a button up shirt. Suspenders - he liked those immensely. Simple brown shoes that wouldn't stop him when it came time to run. Finally, a bow tie, which he found himself struggling to decide on. He was definitely keeping the bow tie.

He fiddled with a few as he stepped onto the roof, casting a small look over his shoulder to make sure his entourage were all there. His brow furrowed slightly when he realized that Amy and Rory were there, but Jay wasn't. She'd disappeared, he realized, after he'd gone to get changed. His hearts skipped nervously in his chest. He'd find her as soon as this was done, for there was a ship, silver and large, with an eyeball at its center, hovering overhead.

"So," said Amy nervously behind him. "This was a good idea, was it? They were leaving."

"Leaving," he told her, "is good. Never coming back is better." He stepped further ahead, glaring at the Atraxi's ship now. "Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now."

He smiled in a silly manner at his own joke as the eyeball fell from the ship and stopped a few feet ahead of him, hovering above the roof. It scanned him, unsurprisingly, and he casually inspected the series of ties he'd found and was trying to choose from. That bow tie would complete his look, he just needed to choose one.

"You not of this world," a mechanical voice told them, and the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"No, but I've put a lot of work into it." He wrinkled his nose, tossing a tie over his shoulder.

"Is this world important?"

He paused, fingers lingering on another tie he'd been about to throw aside. The Doctor frowned in disapproval. "Important? What's that mean? Six billion people live here. Is that important? Here's a better question. Is this world a threat to the Atraxi?" Nothing happened, so he prompted, "Well, come on. You're monitoring the whole planet. Is this world a threat?"

A projection was cast between them. The Doctor tossed aside the tie as the planet of Earth appeared on the projection, large and as beautiful as he knew it to be. "No," it confirmed.

"Are the people of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?"

It quickly began flipping through images, from the beginning of time to the present. "No."

"Okay," the Doctor said smugly, admittedly showing off to the pair behind him as he threw a final tie over his shoulder. One glance told him Rory had caught them all. He liked Rory. A simple man, not quite as clever as some when it came to knowledge, but much more clever in other ways. He and Jay would have gotten along rather well. "One more. Is this world protected? Because you're not the first lot to come here, and there have been many."

The projection shifted and this time, showed a wide variety of aliens and other such things. The Doctor recognized the majority of what he saw, though there were a few instances he didn't. He cringed lightly when the Master's face even appeared here and there, grateful for just a moment that his missing companion wasn't there. He couldn't imagine the fear she held for that particular Time Lord, even now that he was apparently gone again.

"Now," the Doctor continued, nimble fingers swiftly tying the tie into what he'd initially wanted. "What you've got to ask is…what happened to them?"

He was both saddened and delighted by the faces that began slowly flickering across the projection. He could hear Amy and Rory murmuring in confusion to one another. He recognized all of them, even the one he didn't want to see. He shivered just once at the sight of that old face, with its haunted eyes. The projection lingered in particular on the face he'd been wearing only hours ago, the face Jay had known. All eleven of his past faces had flickered over that projection.

And finding that he wanted to be dramatic, the Doctor adjusted his bowtie and grinned, stepping through that projection, a few steps closer to the eyeball. "Hello," he said cheerfully as the eyeball cringed away, horrified. "I'm the Doctor. Basically…run."

He almost laughed when the eyeball did just that, zipping back up to its ship. Within seconds, the Atraxi ship had vanished from view into the sky, and he smugly turned back to face the pair. They were speaking over one another, amazed, but too focused on the fleeing ship to realize that he had started running, a hot, glowing key in his hand.

He didn't mean to abandon them. He simply forgot to take notice, too excited to find that the TARDIS was summoning him, indicating she was ready for him. He ran and ran, through the town of Leadworth and back to the garden in which he'd left her. The TARDIS was humming loudly even before he reached the yard, and when he did, he slowed to a halt, panting for breath. She hummed again in greeting. "Hello," he breathed, running a hand fondly over the blue wood. Its color had changed, a lighter blue than before but close enough that most wouldn't have noticed the difference.

"Okay, he murmured, unlocking the door. "What have you got for me this time?" He pushed the door in one swift movement and stepped inside, his green eyes lighting with wonder at the TARDIS's new look. He closed the door behind him, locking it.

She had kept her rather orangey-blue glow, and he merely had to take a few steps to reach the glass platform on which the console resided. When he looked down, he could see through to the mess of technology beneath. It was all sleek and new, with those silly little hexagons lingering in its wall. Several staircases spiraled off of the platform, leading off to various hallways. Silver circular plates spun slowly over his head, and he patted a leather seat that had been planted quite firmly beside some railing. There were two, he realized. Two seats.

Good, because Donna had always complained about there being only one.

"One test drive," he declared, knowing the TARDIS was reluctant to do so. They had to find Jay after all. But rather than protesting as he expected, the TARDIS hummed her agreement and he immediately fell upon the console, reorienting himself to a new interface. It was rather easy, as most things were where they were supposed to be. Each merely had a different look. Even his little screen that he often took readings on was there, ready to be used.

He was more than pleased with the new and improved TARDIS. He just hoped Jay wouldn't mind when she saw it. He wasn't blind; he'd seen her nervous reluctance as she'd followed him around Leadworth. She might recognize him as the Doctor, but she still wasn't sure what to think or how to interact with him. It wasn't something that surprised him, and the Doctor was fairly sure after an adventure or two, she'd be as back to her old self as she could be. But then…

A year and a half was a long time for a human. He was annoyed with himself for that - and for Amy's twelve years. He was supposed to be a Time Lord, yet here he was, struggling to keep up with it. Time was wibbly wobbly, yes, but not this wobbly. He had a time machine. He should have been able to get where he needed.

Suddenly a little frustrated with himself, the Doctor caressed the console, distracting himself efficiently with the controls that he began to fiddle with. A slight, lop-sided smile returned as he spun a dial, rang a bell, and then whirled around to the other side to use a pump of some kind that had appeared. The TARDIS ensured to help guide him, just as she always did when her interface changed.

And when the TARDIS took off, heading for a quick trip to the moon, he tipped his head back to grin at the central glass column, where an orb moved up and down alongside the beautiful, familiar sound of the TARDIS dematerializing. The trip was a little rockier than normal, but not too bad, and the landing was a smooth one. He was nearly skipping as he rounded the console again, intending to put in the coordinates to return to Leadworth at the correct time. He would check it a dozen times before the TARDIS took off, just to make sure.

"Your idea of promises must be very different from mine."

The Doctor would never admit to anyone how much the voice spooked him. He nearly jumped, but forced his body to keep from doing so as he stilled. After a moment of comprehension, he whirled around and found none other than one Jayden O'Connors seated at the top of a set of stairs, her chin propped on a fist and her elbow on her knee. Her other hand dangled loosely, though he could see her flexing her fingers and curling them into a fist repetitively. She looked rather glum, face unreadable outside of that. She still wore that coat, and her bag was gone, likely left somewhere on his ship.

The Doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. "When did you get on board?"

Her lips tightened into a hard line, irritation flickering over her gaze. He winced. It had been the wrong thing to say. "A while ago." She'd been waiting then. For him, to see what he'd do, more than likely. She rocked to her feet, thumping down the metal stairs. Her gaze averted his as she came to brush her touch over the new console, fiddling with a small dial there.

Rather than pressing her for her thoughts, he asked instead with some hesitation, "What do you think?"

It was a double-sided question, of course, and she saw right through it. "I don't know yet," admitted Jay, tipping her head back to look up as he had moments before. "I haven't decided." For some reason, that hurt him. An awkward silence fell, and the Doctor found he didn't like it. Not one bit.

So, of course, unable to help himself, he began rambling. "There's this planet, with an ocean. The water's so black, you can't see anything but the bioluminescent life forms that live in it. And at night, the coral and some of those lifeforms begin to dot the sea like stars. It's supposed to be the top planet to visit in that galaxy, a popular tourist destination. Well," he amended, his words quick and nervous, "until this big creature they call the Leviathan showed up and started eating the tourists, but the TARDIS can hold up, and what better way than to test her out by going-"

"Doctor," Jay interrupted, taking a deep breath. She finally looked at him, her eyes wary and sharp. "You should have told me you were leaving me behind. I don't care that you think I would have argued. I probably would have. But you should have told me. And, if you were really that dead set on not telling me, you should have left me somewhere better than where you did. It took me months to find someone other than Donna's family, and even then, I didn't see Jack for nearly half a year. I had to find a number of someone I didn't know to get where I needed to be. I was terrified Donna would come home early from her honeymoon and I'd be the reason she burned up."

The Doctor grimaced. He supposed he could have done a little better on that part. He could have done better in general.

"And then you were intending to leave again." Her voice grew angry, and she gestured to the TARDIS. "The only reason I didn't get left behind a second time was because the TARDIS was clever enough to warn me."

"She did?" He cast a curious look at his TARDIS's console, and she hummed in disapproval at him. He frowned back. "I was making sure-"

"No excuses. You were leaving again." She snapped it at him, and he rubbed his hands together anxiously, not entirely pleased with himself, because she wasn't wrong. "Intentional or not, you were going to leave again."

"I know." He sighed softly, guilty. He didn't like admitting to things very often. He was a proud man, proud to a fault in some cases. But in times like this… "And I'm sorry. That promise meant a lot to you."

"It did," she agreed. "And it should have meant more to you. I'm not sure if I can trust any promises you make now."

Confidently, he said, "You can. It's not going to happen again." She pointedly glared at him, arching a brow. "Starting now," he amended, knowing she was referring to this test flight. He faltered a moment later. "That is if you still want to come with me." He was, after all, a new Doctor, with a new TARDIS. He couldn't blame her if she mourned his past face enough to decide otherwise. Especially with her attachment to the coat he'd left with her.

As if reading his thoughts, she ran her fingers fondly over the fabric of the coat. "Of course I'm coming." Jay met his gaze evenly. "It might take me a bit to get used to it all. The new you and the new TARDIS. But you're still the Doctor." She moved to say something else, and then changed her mind, closing her mouth for a moment before trying again, her eyes darting away. "This life means everything to me. Especially since we don't know how long it'll last." She finally looked his way again, smiling faintly and sadly.

"The poison," the Doctor realized, immediately stepping closer and motioning for her to remove the coat. She shrugged it off, pulling her arm out, and offered it to him to look at. The Doctor frowned at what he found.

The crease of her elbow had once held a few black veins that had slowly grown to about a quarter more of its original size. Now, they ran up and down her arm, disappearing beneath the T-shirt she'd donned beneath her coat. He'd be willing to bet they ran the way up her legs now, too. He gently took her wrist in hand and ran his fingers along them, curious and concerned, and Jay shivered, but let him. After giving him a few moments of investigation, she withdrew and pulled her coat back on.

"The attacks haven't been as frequent, but they've gotten worse," she said quietly, and he clenched his jaw, annoyed with himself. He'd have to be more careful. With a lot of things, but with Jay especially. And he needed to figure out what was happening. He'd start with new tests, though they'd never been all that helpful to start off with. New tests, and then maybe they'd start hunting for somewhere to find help again.

Regardless…

"We'll worry about that later. Let's have some fun first." The Doctor beamed at her, hiding the concern behind his usual mask, and he knew she wasn't fooled, but she still offered a smile in turn. "I promised Amy a trip. Where should we take her?"

"I think you should try and pick her up first," said Jay wryly. The Doctor agreed and moved to start directing his TARDIS again, but Jay cleared her throat to stop him. "Three rules," she said warningly. "I have three conditions. One, I call the TARDIS, you answer. Two, no splitting up unless absolutely necessary, because the last time I let you go off on your own, you ditched me for a year and a half. Three," she continued, even as he protested that he'd said several times it'd not happen again - and he was absolutely confident he wouldn't do so, even if he regenerated again. "Three, you teach me how to drive starting now, because the TARDIS looks different, and it's been a while. And four-"

"You said there were three!"

"Four," she said, ignoring his complaint, "I have yet to get my hug." She hesitantly extended her arms, looking rather nervous about demanding as such, and the Doctor found that he was grinning at her. For someone who'd initially been somewhat against them due to not having them very often, if at all, she'd grown quite fond of them. At least, she had when he'd last seen her.

Still, the Doctor was never one to refuse a hug, and he didn't hesitate to step forward and engulf her smaller frame in one. He gave a small laugh when her arms wound around the Doctor's neck tightly, and he even lifted her off the ground a little. He tightened it into a squeeze when she did so first, mumbling in his ear, "I missed you."

His grip tightened again. It was good to have her back. "You don't mind the new face?" he asked, setting her down again.

She pulled back slightly, offering a hint of a sad smile. "I'll always be sad I didn't get a proper goodbye from the other you, but it's not too bad, I suppose. The bowtie's an interesting choice." She playfully tugged at it, and he immediately released her, intent on fixing it. It made her snort in laughter.

"But no, I don't mind the new face," she said firmly. "Same person, different look. Maybe a few other different things, too, but you're still the Doctor. I know that."

He was relieved. He'd been terrified that she'd not see him. She still wore his old coat, a fact that he'd been unable to ignore, but the Doctor didn't mind so much. As she'd said, he'd taken away her ability to say goodbye. He wouldn't deny her something that clearly comforted her. The Doctor beamed at her and then whipped around to face the console again, nearly bouncing as he said, "Right! Let's go get Amelia. We'll show her the stars a bit, and then we'll do some tests again."

Jay knew immediately what he meant and her face twisted in distaste, but she didn't disagree. Grumbling, she drew closer to him, bumping his shoulder with hers. "Alright, start teaching then, spaceman."

The Doctor grinned and threw a lever near his hand. Geronimo.


The eleventh Doctor is here! And with him, we have a hell of a lot of progress with Jay's condition and some emotional stuff. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait. And some original content, of course, including one particular chapter I've been planning from the beginning. ;)

As usual, thanks to the lovely reviewer (savethemadscientist) as well as those who favorited and followed! I really do appreciate it more than I can say.