"They have it surrounded, shut the power off, I can't turn it back on!" Al tells Theodore how the affected soldiers took over the satellite, in their delirium they shut its power off, and Al can't turn it back off because of the satellite's age.
It's on a closed circuit, a safety precaution, Al guessed, while it's online, he has no problem doing his thing, but when it's off, he can't do much because there's no outside power that he can jumpstart.
"Why are they surrounding it?" Theodore asked Al why the soldiers took over the satellite, Al telling him that's probably their command post, that they see the UNIT base as the enemy base, that they fall back to the only place that makes sense to an affected soldier.
Cursing under his breath, Theodore inquired if there's anything they can do, but Al says that it's limited because of them having their M15 and a cache of ammo.
"Rubber bullets should do fine, oh, also handcuffs, lots of handcuffs," Al quickly gave a suggestion to Theodore as he went to reconvene with Lila as she's released from UNIT custody on official capacity.
Joining his side, Lila's chestnut eyes moved as she sees the soldiers working together on Brigadier Ramsay's commands as Brigadier Perry commanded the rest to corral the supplies as he tasked corporals to check the integrity of everything in the supplies.
Harkening back to what they learnt, Theodore called to Brigadier Perry and Ramsay, asking if they're aware of the meteorite falling from the sky the other day, but they said they weren't aware of that happening.
"I find it hard to believe you didn't know that happened, Brigadier Ramsay. You knew I was here the moment I was processed," Theodore found it impossible that Brigadier Ramsay couldn't known about the meteorite, but he insisted that he didn't know it happened until Theodore told him.
Biting a bit of flesh in his inner lip, Theodore then asked, "Who authorized the exercise?"
Sharing looks, Brigadier Perry mustered, "It was Captain Davies, he insisted on it."
Captain Davies wanted to ensure that the soldiers showed readiness for the evaluations, Brigadier Perry saw no reason not to grant him permission.
Looking around amongst the soldiers, Theodore didn't see Captain Davies, before asking them where he'd gone, but neither could answer.
"Al, we have a problem," Theodore called out to him, Al reaching out, asking what's wrong, now, before Theodore responded he thinks he knows what happened to the meteorite.
Confused, Al swore, "I know what I saw, it's parasites from slugs!"
It didn't make any sense, the scanners showed that it was parasites, but Theodore confirmed what he heard.
"Brigadier, did he go anywhere before the exercises?" Theodore struggled as he tried to piece together what role Captain Davies had in this.
Brigadier Perry replied that he knows Captain Davies went off-base one night, he didn't think anything of it, the paperwork cleared.
When Captain Davies returned, nothing stood out, Brigadier Perry didn't suspect anything, so he never thought to ask.
"Doctor, what are you getting at?" Brigadier Ramsay questioned Theodore on what he's insinuating, before Theodore told him what he came to learn.
Tilting his head, Brigadier Ramsay goes, "How could've he misled the science branch, much less cover up the meteorite's landing?"
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Theodore admits he doesn't know, but all he knows, that the captain's involved in this, and when it was confirmed, he wasn't among them, it uneases the brigadiers.
"How could've this happened, I've personally talked to him, the soldiers have talked to him, nothing was off about him!" Brigadier Perry found it difficult as he followed Theodore, wandering around, not seeing Captain Davies among the soldiers.
A frown, Theodore says it's possible that Captain Davies cleverly hid his exposure long enough.
It's an unfortunate possibility that Captain Davies's leading the affected soldiers, whether he's affected himself, hard to say, but without the meteorite, they can't be certain.
Overlooking the collected supplies, the two brigadiers talked amongst themselves with Theodore in attendance, giving his thoughts on their proposed strategy.
The brigadiers squabbled over possible strategies, worrying about how to take back the satellite without risking harm to their soldiers.
"If we send them out, we risk an all-out war," Brigadier Perry exhaled sharply as he brought up the fear that the sight of the unaffected soldiers would've incited a counterattack risking their lives.
Due to the geography, there isn't many areas to take cover and it would take time to dig trenches, that they're at an impasse.
"Brigadier Perry's correct, they'll expect an army," Theodore spoke up as he looked between the men as they attempted to find a strategy that didn't risk lives.
Looking towards him with his soft hazel eyes, Brigadier Ramsay inquires, "What do you think, Doctor?"
As he's pondering this himself, pushing his tongue against the inside of his cheeks, Theodore finally answered with, "Me and my companion will go alone, you provide a distraction."
The idea's that with the affected soldiers preoccupied with them, Theodore, and Lila sneak into the satellite, turning the power back on, and commencing their plain.
There's a frown on Brigadier Perry's face and Theodore asked what's wrong, only for Brigadier Perry to say, "We caught teenagers vandalizing the satellite a while back, broke parts off it and shorted the wires in the main building, we had to hobble together a workaround. You can only turn it on through the satellite itself. There are scaffoldings going up to the rooftop around the back, but you'll have to climb the one ladder up to the satellite from the tower. We didn't have much of a choice, they blitzed the damn building with their pranks, it's a miracle they didn't cause it to go up in flames. Almost lucky I didn't blitz them when we caught them graffitiing the walls!"
Ah, teenagers, never the ones with rational thoughts when they commit crimes such as vandalizing a military satellite.
"How do I power the satellite?" Theodore asked Brigadier Perry for instructions and the brigadier wearily told him how.
Once Theodore reaches the rooftop from the scaffolding and takes the ladder up to the tower that the satellite's attached to, there's a catwalk he stands on and there's an electrical box behind the satellite itself, once he accesses the electrical box, there'll be switches and buttons.
The one thing that'll stand out's the large switch on the side, he'll need to flip it once he's finished putting and flipping the buttons in the correct order.
Theodore needed to follow Brigadier Perry's instructions precisely or else it'll lock him out out and he won't be able to do it again, unless he overrode the security lock.
The brigadier proceeded to give him the instructions while he had Al memorize the instructions for his sake, then Brigadier Ramsay warned him.
"Per the regulatory bodies, all UNIT equipment's equipped with failsafes, meant to stop you at any time, any place," he informed Theodore that because of UNIT's concerns about the Doctor going rogue at any time, they fitted every equipment in every base with a failsafe that'll prevent him from doing anything without their explicit permission.
It's the first time Brigadier Perry heard this, not surprising as Al said that they kept everything secret.
There's hesitation in Brigadier Ramsay's voice as he added that they're sworn not to tell the Doctor anything of it, out of fear of him circumventing the failsafes.
"We have no choice, Walter," Theodore reminds him that while he understood the reasoning behind keeping the failsafe a secret, this wasn't the time, now, and Brigadier Ramsay knew this.
Exhaling sharply, Brigadier Ramsay nods as he hesitantly tells Theodore, "You'll need a special override key. It cannot be duped. It cannot be overridden by anything you're capable of fostering. However, on top of the key, it'll require a retinal scan, something even you can't dupe."
It was an attempt at thwarting anything going wrong, even if Theodore took the key, he couldn't necessarily override the failsafe.
UNIT figured he would do everything he could to use the key to his advantage that they added extra layers of protection, preventing him from tampering with their r equipment.
Knowing his penchant for lying, deceit, they used his qualities against him, and came up with tying the key to the operator, retinal scan, and all.
"It'll immediately lock you out if you attempt to use the key without passing the retinal scan, we made sure it was something you couldn't forge or tamper," Brigadier Ramsay tells him.
They thought about everything.
The brigadiers turned their attention as they're readying their soldiers, while Theodore relayed the information to Lila.
"Okay, pass the scanner, turn on the satellite, expose the soldiers to the mustard gas, cook the parasites," Lila summed as she crossed her arms as Theodore led her towards the map of the area, marked for their convenience.
"Corporal Dewitt!" Brigadier Perry's voice rang out as the two turned their heads seeing Jamie heading towards them, greeting them, before telling them that he'll be their driver for the mission, dangling the keys to Brigadier Perry's Jeep that he stole from him.
Raising his brow, Theodore inquired what led Jamie into volunteering his life to get them to the satellite.
He says to Theodore, "Don't ask me how, but I feel like I have to go with you."
Inexplicable reasons, Jamie couldn't explain why, but despite his and Ròs's reservations with Theodore and Lila, he wants to help them.
Maybe it was fated that he and Ròs met him and Lila, who knows, but it's something that he needed to do.
An unexpected twist, but if it means they have someone that knows what they're doing helping, Theodore accepted Jamie's help.
"Roslyn! Roslyn Agatha Ramsay!" Theodore heard Brigadier Ramsay raising his voice as Ròs joined their side, exhaling sharply after running pass the soldiers, readying to come with them on their potential suicide mission.
Lila asks her why she's coming with them and Ròs told them that she can beat the retinal scanner, Theodore asking how sure she was, leading her to inform him that despite UNIT ensuring that he couldn't mess with the controls, there's a hitch with the retinal scanner.
It's effective against most tricks done by the Doctor, but though UNIT attempted at proofing it, it can be suppressed by scanning her eyes, since she's related to Brigadier Ramsay.
More, there's one more thing that her father failed to mention.
The failsafe samples blood and looks for the necessary markers to tie the override key with the brigadier, something else the Doctor couldn't fake.
Nodding, Theodore thanked her for the volunteer, though she said she didn't trust him, she believed he's their only hope rescuing the soldiers and stopping a needless bloodbath.
Behind them they heard the respected brigadiers rushing after them, but they led Theodore and Lila through the confused soldiers, rushing them through the back door in the kitchen, escaping out into the open.
Jamie led them to the hanger lined with Jeeps, locating Brigadier Perry's Jeep.
Unlike the others, he had a unique key to his, perks of being a brigadier, and with the stolen key, Jamie turned the engine over with ease.
Al helped raise the hanger door and the Jeep sped through the opening.
"We're looking at roughly twelve armed men and women, Doctor, the bullets will shred it before we even get that far!" Ròs warns Theodore how they're at a disadvantaged.
Well-aware, Theodore assured her that they'll find a way, and using the radio on Brigadier Perry's Jeep, Theodore used it to splice Al through it, helping them identify the hotspots on the battlefield, while giving updates back at the base.
"They're mobilizing as we speak, the brigadiers know where every soldier is," Al informed them that he's keeping tabs on movement, alerting the brigadiers as he went.
Driving, Jamie asks about Al, Lila telling him, "You know Dean Stockwell?"
Recoiling, Jamie snorted as he responded with, "Of course, I do!"
Sharing looks with Theodore, Lila turned back as she says, "Let's just say, we have our very own!"
Jamie didn't understand what she meant, but he focused solely on driving, as the countryside field became uneven at spots, Jamie careful as he drove.
Ròs held onto the override key as she glimpsed through the windshield, they're coming closer to the hill, before Al stopped them, telling them that he's helping commence the decoy attacks.
"I dunno where Captain Davies's among them, I'm still working out how he's involved," Al warned that he can't pinpoint the captain, much less understand his role in this.
Discussing this with Jamie and Ròs, Theodore learnt that nothing about Captain Davies stood out.
"Had he visited the soldiers in the medical ward?" Lila asks if Jamie or Ròs if Captain Davies, at all, visited the soldiers after their exposure and learnt that he visited them more than once.
Only when the condition worsened, he was prevented from seeing them.
Before this, he'd periodically ask the passing nurses and doctors about the state of the soldiers, otherwise, he busied himself with his work at UNIT.
Never suspected him of anything, it's shocking.
In the distance, they see plums of smoke rising, enshrouding the area in a dark cloud of smoke, they see the affected soldiers shambling towards them, holding their M15s.
Al gave Jamie the command to continue driving and he did, following his instructions, as the Jeep lurched forward, amid the gunfire as the affected soldiers grew preoccupied by the nonaffected soldiers.
"What's the plan?" Lila asked Al how he wants them to get to the top of the satellite, briefly Al mumbled, before telling her that they needed to split up.
Theodore and Ròs go up to the satellite, while Lila and Jamie work to help Al with the mustard gas.
"I'll need help hooking them up while I work to get the satellite ready," Al tells them.
Once Al hits the button, it's only a matter of waiting once the mustard gas starts expelling.
The affected soldiers will fallback due to the smell, once they're corralled in the right spot, they'll start expelling the parasites, once they expel every one, it'll be up to the four to drag them away.
Push of a button, fried parasites.
"Anything we ought to know once the parasites come out?" Lila asks Al if there's anything they needed to know, be it that the parasites detach part of themselves in the soldiers' bodies, or something of that nature.
Al assured her that once they do this, the parasites won't leave a piece of them behind, they'll want every bit of them out of the soldiers in a bit to propagate in a chunk of asteroid.
Thankfully, they're evolved not to let every piece go to waste being stuck in a slug… or human.
Once the parasites are out of the soldiers, Al already posted the medical details to the doctors and nurses.
Minor hand movement and the like may be a problem due to the parasites burrowing into the nerves, but with science, the soldiers shouldn't have too much of a problem decently recovering.
Maybe some complications, but Al covered it in the details.
Otherwise, the corporals won't have a military career to speak of due to the nerve issues they'll sustain for the rest of their lives, but UNIT will understand the reasons, and they'll have an honourable discharge.
"What about our captain?" Ròs brought up that they don't know what happened to him and how he became a proponent to the parasites.
Mumbling to himself, Al says that there's a possibility that he'll recover from the parasite removal, if that's what got him, but the missing pieces aren't helping in the timeline.
He'll work on it, because they have work to do.
"We're arriving at your destination, please gather your things, watch where you're stepping, and mindful of the locals!" Al calls out as he instructed Jamie to stop as there's gunfire in the distance.
Getting out of the Jeep, with their instructions, the four split into groups of two, hurrying to their objectives, watchful of stray soldiers.
Theodore went with Ròs, the grey smoke making it difficult to see, but they pushed through, hurrying towards the scaffoldings.
Theodore let Ròs go first, she climbed up the ladders, he followed soon after.
Climbing the scaffolding, walking across the planks of wood, Theodore kept his eyes forward, as he went up the last set of ladders to the rooftop.
They see the ladder leading up through the tower the satellite's attached, to, and Ròs hurried towards it with him running behind.
Climbing up, Theodore sees the catwalk, it's big enough for both to safely walk around.
Reaching the top, their feet touching the catwalk, Theodore walked around the satellite until he sees the closed electrical box, Ròs hurrying towards it, reaching it, and yanking it open.
Joining her side, Theodore watched as Ròs found the hidden keyhole, using her father's key, and a circular hole opened, replaced with a scanner.
Ròs leaned forward and it scanned her eye, as she stated, it didn't see a difference, and she recoiled her bloodied finger, the hidden spike shot out, taking her blood, further identifying her.
There's a low sound and Theodore sees the failsafe disabled, allowing him to do as he's needed.
Ducking with Ròs pulled close to him, bullets flew overhead, their eyes widened as they turned around sharply.
"Get away from there!" they heard Captain Davies shouting at them as he held his M15, his finger wrapped around the trigger.
His face sickly green, his eyes lifeless, he hardly looked like the same man Ròs knew.
"You know who I am?" Theodore called out to him.
Watching Captain Davies' fingers, Theodore cautiously stayed in place with Ròs.
He heard back, "You are the Doctor."
Well, he wasn't wrong.
"Then you know what I am capable of," Theodore asserts that if Captain Davies knew him, then he knows what he can do.
Captain Davies followed his movement with his M15, he responded, "We know what you are capable of, Doctor."
Tilting his head, Theodore asks, "What happened to you?"
It wasn't a coincidence this happened, Captain Davies turned into this after his long exposure to the meteorite, though Theodore couldn't quite understand what drove the captain into doing this.
"He… told me…" the captain let out a stilted voice.
Someone told him to do it, to go out to the meteorite.
"Who?" Theodore kept it up, wanting answers, but the captain didn't know.
Tilting his head, Theodore then asked, "Why would he ask you to infect your own?"
Makes no sense!
He didn't get the answer, Captain Davies fired at them, Theodore and Ròs rolling for cover, watchful of the exposed sides leading down to their deaths.
Theodore sees Captain Davies about to fire on the electrical box and he rushed into him, grabbing the M15's stock, using his strength to force the M15 upright, as Captain Davies fired.
His grip around the M15, Theodore yanked it out of Captain Davies's hands, throwing it over the side of the catwalk, letting it crash into the metal beams, until it fell to the rooftop.
Leaving Captain Davies to fight Theodore while Ròs attempted to turn on the satellite.
Getting into a punching contest with Captain Davies, Theodore fought him, dodging his fists, every punch he landed, Captain Davies let out an audible groan.
Amid the fighting, Ròs worked to follow the instructions, of course, UNIT liked to make it complicated.
Seeing her almost finished, Captain Davies lunged at her, but Theodore stopped him, pinning him to the metal grate below, Captain Davies reached to his belt, grabbing a small knife, and attempted to stab Theodore in the gut, but Theodore prevented him.
Wrestling the knife away from him, Theodore received a punch to a face, temporary dazing him.
Captain Davies stood up, hobbling towards Ròs as she's about to flip the switch, Theodore barely recovered fast enough as Captain Davies attempted to grab her.
Theodore yanked him away, but Captain Davies escaped his grip, punching him in retaliation.
Blood running down his face, Theodore didn't waver, continuing putting up a fight with Captain Davies, before in one last push, he's sent over the side of the catwalk.
His large hands gripping the holes in the catwalk, the metal digging into his flesh, Theodore tried to hoist himself up, but the captain's at the ledge, attempting to stomp his hands off.
"Captain!" Ròs shouted at him, causing him to turn his head briefly, only to receive a gunshot from Ròs's pistol, sending him backwards, gripping the railings as he fell onto the catwalk, as she rushed to Theodore's aid.
"I got you!" Ròs grabbed Theodore as he clung to the ledge, her hands clammy, but she gripped his, attempting to pull him over.
The height alone enough to do more than immobilize Theodore, send his shins through his knees, it'll kill him, and the pain worse than having Daleks shrieking in his ears nonstop for hours on end.
It's difficult, but Ròs's determination shows, as she yanked on Theodore's hands, his arms over the side of the ledge, now.
Behind, Theodore catches sight of Captain Davies standing up, a gunshot wound to his chest, but undeterred.
He reached into his belt, pulling out his own pistol.
"Ròs!" Theodore shouts at her, warning her that Captain Davies has another gun, but she wouldn't let him go, she's almost got him where he can pull himself over the catwalk, where he can grab the safety bars that workers would've hooked themselves into while working.
There's a gunshot ringing, Ròs and Theodore froze, their minds catching up, they see that Ròs wasn't shot, someone's standing at the top if the catwalk having climbed the ladder quickly.
Ròs recognized him instantly.
It's her father.
He'd come to their aid.
"Brigadier," Captain Davies looked at him as he pointed his pistol towards him while Brigadier Ramsay pointed his.
While the men locked eyes, Ròs continued helping Theodore as he managed to find a grip, allowing him to use his strength to pull him over the ledge, back on the catwalk.
"What happened to you?" Brigadier Ramsay asked him the same question as Theodore, but this time, Captain Davies gave him an answer.
Captain Davies told him with a dry, "A higher calling."
Giving them orders, Brigadier Ramsay told Theodore and Ròs to finish turning on the satellite and escape the catwalk, but Captain Davies wouldn't let them go.
"It can only end one way," Captain Davies tells Brigadier Ramsay.
Recalling the blips in his memory, Theodore remembered someone telling Brigadier Ramsay something, but it wasn't something he wanted to hear.
"Kid! We're ready, where are we on the satellite?" Theodore heard Al's voice ringing out in his head, before Theodore told him what's happening.
Ròs hadn't flipped the switch, yet, she was focused on saving him, now they have an issue with Captain Davies and Brigadier Ramsay pointing their guns at each other with no hopes of talking down Captain Davies.
"I'll set off a distraction, but you gotta hurry, the soldiers are moving forward," Al says he'll cause a distraction to throw Captain Davies off, so to allow Brigadier Ramsay a chance to fire at him, and either Theodore or Ròs a chance to flip the switch on the electrical box.
Their guns pointed, Captain Davies and Brigadier Ramsay refused to move an inch, not wasting precious time, but then a shrill noise rang out, enough to cause the brigadier and the captain to turn their heads to look at the source of the sound.
Ròs rushed to flip the switch while Theodore covered her as he attempted to throw his voice in Captain Davies' head, hoping it's enough to make him turn his head fully, giving Brigadier Ramsay a chance to fire, but it didn't work.
Captain Davies turned his pistol on them, there Brigadier Ramsay charged at Captain Davies, forcing the men completely over the side of the railings, falling almost 45 meters to the rooftop below.
The sight mortified Theodore and Ròs, but he pushed her to finish the process, and she flipped the switch, the satellite turning on, giving Al the access, he needed.
With help from Jamie and Lila, he was able to expel the mustard gas, the affected soldiers stopped what they're doing, falling back to the building as the parasites forced them, like that, Theodore and Ròs barely heard the vomiting, Jamie and Lila yanking the unconscious soldiers away.
Theodore and Ròs made their way down from the tower, rushing to Captain Davies and Brigadier Ramsay as they laid limp on the ground.
Al put on the final touches, using the satellite to expel heat right where the parasites would've squirmed, of course, this had the effect of causing the satellite to separate from the tower, and land on the spot, in a smoldering blaze.
He did say they were retiring the satellite.
Once the confirmation came from Al that the parasites didn't survive, that was that.
Leaving Ròs to cradle her father as he laid on the ground, Theodore sees that Captain Davies's dead, his head cracked like an omelet, inside his skull, not a brain, but… a slug?
Mortified, Theodore didn't have words, instead he focused on Ròs and her father, he sees the shape the man's in, he's not leaving the rooftop, alive, that's a fool's errand, even if Al was able to take him to the best.
"No!" Ròs wept as she sees life in her father's soft hazel eyes faltering.
Gritting his bloodied teeth, Brigadier Ramsay tells Theodore in short spurts, "He… said… she… would… die."
With the context, Theodore realizes that the person he was talking to in the memory told him that his daughter would've been the one that died, but Brigadier Ramsay wouldn't let that happen.
Even despite their relationship far from being a father-daughter, he wouldn't let her die on this day.
"Who told you this, was it Captain Davies?" Theodore prodded the brigadier for answers, but the brigadier scoffed at him, telling him that it was a man as weird as him.
There's a reason he was rightfully paranoid when he gotten word that the Doctor showed up.
He didn't believe that it'd happen, but it did, it was as everything that he was told.
"No! No!" Ròs wept as she tried to cling to her father, but she saw his life wavering before her and he took the time to tell her how sorry he was for not being the father he should've been when her mother died.
He was shortsighted and because of it, it damaged their relationship, but even then, he wasn't going to let the prophecy come into fruition.
The man who told him never said anything about trading his life for hers.
So, he did just as that.
"I'm… sorry… baby… girl…" Brigadier Ramsay's voice rattled until life disappeared from his eyes, Ròs breaking down and crying.
Overhead they heard movement with Jamie and Lila climbing up the scaffolding, immediately they see the scene, Jamie rushing to Ròs's side and she wrapped her arms around him, weeping into his chest.
Lila reached Theodore's side, seeing him looking like he took a beating from Rocky, she gently reached up to his face.
It stung, but Theodore pulled her close as Ròs openly wept.
A few days after it happened, it would've been more because of the radioactivity, but Al worked his managed to soap it up for his own use, but the bruising and busted nose healed perfectly, the affected soldiers of the parasite made strides in recovery, but due to the parasites affecting their nerves, they'll face difficulties in functioning.
Though this didn't stop them trying and Jamie used his money to buy Owen a gift to hold him over when he returned home from being discharged, a book on how to play poker.
Theodore and Lila went to Brigadier Ramsay's funeral, there the service held under the grey skies fit the feeling among the individuals there.
UNIT's ramping up sending more soldiers to this base, more patrolmen, rules, and regulations that follow, wanting to prevent this from happening ever again.
Nobody knows for sure how Captain Davies had a slug in his skull, but Al made sure that it didn't leave any trace, either.
No answers on what drove Captain Davies to do what he did, if it was the work of the slug, it's difficult knowing, but UNIT incinerated his body just to be on the safe side, rather risk another issue down the line.
Another few days passed, Ròs's report became legitimatized when Theodore proved that she wasn't lying, the TARDIS's real.
Before Theodore and Lila's set to leave, Jamie stood in front of it, a peculiar look on his face.
"What's the matter, haven't you seen a police box?" Lila asks him as he stared at the TARDIS.
His dark eyes blinking, Jamie responded with, "I don't know… I… I feel like… I've seen this before… but… I can't remember."
Don't ask him how, but somehow, it's almost as if he knows what the TARDIS is, but he never knew what it was until, now.
Touching the painted sign on the side of the door, Jamie felt a tear roll down the side of his face, the feeling of sadness.
Why?
"Are you sure, corporal?" Theodore looked at him, his brow raised, but Jamie affirmed this, but he couldn't understand why there's tears running down his face, now.
Lila gave him a tissue and he thanked her.
He heard his name and when he turned his head, he sees Ròs coming towards him, she told him that they're on patrol duty, again.
"Aye, I figured as much," Jamie sighed.
Instantly, Ròs sees him crying, asking which one of them said or did something, but Jamie assured her that neither Theodore or Lila did anything to him.
For some reason, seeing the TARDIS just made him feel something he didn't understand.
"Maybe it's one of those residual memories from a counterpart?" Lila looked up to Theodore, he couldn't be sure, either.
Dabbing the tears with the tissue, Jamie says to them that they're probably ready to leave, which truthfully, they are, but they didn't want to leave until they were sure that Jamie and Ròs were all right.
"They're not sore about you two busting us out of prison, are they?" Lila asked them.
Shrugging his shoulder, Jamie told her, "I'll be corporal for another few months, at most, before they think about giving me a promotion."
Ròs then says, "I told them I didn't mind being corporal a little longer."
It's the simple things in life.
Nodding, Theodore decided the time's right, he and Lila bid the two farewell, and good luck.
If anything happens again, they're only a phone call away, and with this branch of UNIT friendlier to him, Theodore won't have problems of failsafe gumming up things.
Waving them goodbye, Jamie and Ròs watched the TARDIS disappear before their very eyes.
"Hey, Jamie," Ròs looked to him.
Jamie turned his head as he asks, "What's up?"
Ròs asks, "What's 'Ròs' mean, anyway?"
A smile on his face, Jamie tells her, "It means 'rose,' I dunno, I just liked it, I guess."
Hearing this, gave Ròs context as they conversed in the open field.
"Hey, Ròs," Jamie broached a question, "I heard they said you could leave, they'd understand. Why didn't you?"
A shrug, Ròs tells him, "To tell the truth, I wouldn't know where else to work. He only put me up to it because he could keep an eye on me."
Seeing a look in her eye, Jamie inquired more on her reason for staying with UNIT and she tells him, "As much trouble as you get up to, I'd be lucky to see you."
She didn't want to leave because of how much trouble Jamie gets into, but there's something else.
"Why did you join UNIT, anyway, it's not exactly a job I'd pick," Ròs asked Jamie why he went into UNIT, given his reputation for troublemaking, it hardly made sense for him to go into a military career.
Shrugging his shoulders, Jamie says, "I dunno. I just felt like I should."
Pulling her close, they shared an embrace, a kiss, as Jamie caressed her.
THE END