Chapter 3

Jamie wasn't sure how long he'd been gone, exactly. The fact the sun had slipped a bit lower in the sky seemed to reveal it had been longer than he'd expected. He'd taken a walk along the water's edge, following it straight down until he reached the widest part of the sandy crescent of the beach.

He'd hoped the walk would help clear his head, but in truth it hadn't done much good at all. He was still in almost total disbelief over the argument between himself and Kathryn. He was also quite hurt by her assumption that he had feelings for Sarah when he couldn't have been more committed to Kathryn herself. They just got married, for goodness sake.

Recalling what she had told him about that fateful day the Doctor changed, he didn't know she had arrived at UNIT HQ so early and had witnessed him comforting Sarah. It would explain her behavior when he finally met up with her, though.

He still didn't understand what reason she had to be jealous. It wasn't as if he had spent a lot of time with Sarah, or that Kathryn had seen them together at all. He considered the other woman a friend and nothing more.

Still, he felt responsible for her disappearance. He was the one who had found the stone and brought it to HQ. He was the one who allowed Sarah to look at it. If this little thing had special powers and had caused her to disappear, it was his fault. He needed to help them figure this out and get her back safely.

A realization suddenly hit him and he groaned. Kathryn wasn't happy that all his time seemed to be taken up by "these people", as she had put it. Perhaps she was right. They hadn't been spending a whole lot of time together recently, mostly due to what happened to the Doctor on Metabelis 3 and the radiation poisoning leading to his regeneration. Then there was that nasty robot business.

Several times they had had plans to go out after work that had to be postponed. Kathryn didn't seem too pleased but hadn't said very much. It was now clear this had built up inside her for some time. Perhaps Jamie should have paid more attention, but he had been so distracted by all that was going on.

It was bad enough she'd worried they would have to postpone their wedding but Jamie had assured her it wouldn't happen. Luckily, by this time things had calmed down. The fact remained however that they hadn't spent much time alone together at all.

Jamie angrily kicked a large pebble, sending it flying into the water with a sploosh!. What kind of husband was he? He couldn't even give her a proper honeymoon! Why had he been so insistent on heading back to London, anyway? The Doctor and UNIT seemed content for him to provide them with as much information on the stone as he could. He could have simply shared it via the communicator. He wouldn't even have had worry about whether anyone else could hear. They were in their own little remote cottage by the sea, not some cramped hotel room with paper-thin walls.

He really needed to apologize to her. Neither of them were innocent in this whole thing and they needed to talk and clear the air. As he made the trek back to the cottage, he wondered whether Kathryn would want anything to do with him at the moment. After all, she had been quite angry and upset. He didn't blame her but hoped she would give him half a chance to explain himself.

In short time, the cottage came into view and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his mouth twitch into a slight smile. Traversing the slate stepping stones leading to the front door, he'd nearly expected to find Kathryn sitting out on the deck or at least waiting in the doorway. Jamie felt his smile fade as he discovered she was not there and nearly wanted to kick himself for even assuming that in the first place.

Entering the house, he poked his head inside the living area and frowned upon finding it empty.

"Kathryn?" he called out.

Receiving no answer, he headed for the bedroom and bathroom which also turned up empty. Jamie felt his heart speed up as panic began rising inside him. He frantically searched every nook and cranny inside the cottage, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"All right, Jamie, calm yerself. Get yer breath," he spoke aloud, scrubbing his hands across his face. "Mebbe she jus' went for a walk." He sauntered back to the living room and sat heavily down on the sofa. "She'll be back shortly."

A mere two minutes had passed and he was back on his feet again, pacing the room madly. A pit formed in his stomach as he considered the possibility she could be in danger as well. Without a second thought, he rushed back outside the cottage and circled the entire surrounding area, calling out to Kathryn.

Once again, he was met with no answer and there was neither hide nor hair of her to be found. Jamie tried to keep himself from panicking further as he tried to think where she could have gone. She couldn't have gone walking in the same direction he had; he would have seen her at some point. He then recalled having seen a nice path lined with trees in the other direction some yards behind the cottage. It bordered a wooded area and Kathryn had seemed to take an interest in it during their taxi ride out here. He could certainly see her exploring this area.

As Jamie quickly headed for the path, he silently prayed he would find her here, preferably unharmed.


Having returned to the cottage, Jamie removed the communicator from his luggage, his hands trembling somewhat as they moved over the switches. His search for Kathryn along the wooded path proving fruitless, he had decided to ask the cottage owner if he'd perchance seen her. The older man had given him an apologetic smile as he shook his head.

Jamie had done all he could not to lose his composure in front of the man, but he was out of options. The man then kindly suggested phoning the police and allowed the young Scot – who was quite annoyed with himself for overlooking such common sense – to use his phone. The police had started a search and instructed Jamie to go back to the cottage; they would contact him whenever they had any information.

Feeling utterly lost, Jamie had gone back and just sunk onto the bed. Gazing at it he realized not twelve hours earlier, he and Kathryn had laid here in each other's arms, taking in the glorious morning sunrise. They had kissed and done most of the things newly married couples had done, and it had felt so wonderful. Kathryn had told him again how very much she loved being here and how she loved him.

The pit inside him grew deeper, supplemented by his feelings of despair and regret over what had happened since then. She was gone and it was his fault. Although the police had begun a search and would be in touch with him, he didn't have much faith she would turn up. He wasn't sure where else to turn.

He briefly took his forlorn gaze off the bed and noticed his suitcase lying open on the floor in the corner. The communicator was sticking out and it finally hit Jamie: He had to let the Doctor and UNIT know. Perhaps in some way, they could help. To what extent he wasn't sure, but at the moment he was so desperate he'd try anything.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for the screen to flicker to life and the placid countenance of the Brigadier to appear.

"Ah, McCrimmon." The corner of his mouth twitched into a faint smile. "How goes the honeymoon?"

Jamie tried a smile but it didn't quite make it to his face. "Not good at the moment," he replied. Embarrassed about how raw his voice sounded, he cleared his throat. "Er, Kathryn is missing."

"What?" the Brigadier replied after a beat.

Jamie sighed and smoothed his hair back from his eyes. "Aye. We had an argument earlier an' I'd left fer a bit. When I got back, she was gone –"

"Jamie, this is the Doctor," a familiar face suddenly exclaimed, rushing into view and nearly pushing the Brigadier away. "Kathryn is missing, you say? What happened?"

Jamie bit his lip to prevent himself from making a sarcastic comment; he was not too pleased with the Doctor at the moment and really didn't feel like repeating what he had just said.

Fortunately, the Brigadier saved him the trouble."He said he'd taken off after an argument and she was gone when he returned."

"Oh, dear," the Doctor muttered grimly.

"Aye," Jamie replied, his tone matching the Time Lord's. "I searched the entire cottage for her an' the grounds. Even asked the owner if he'd seen her but he hadnae. I phoned the police an' they started a search but they havenae found her." He sighed again, lowering his gaze. "I feel terrible. 'Tis all my fault."

The Doctor had a small smile that seemed sympathetic in nature. "Jamie, don't blame yourself. It's a pointless exercise."

"But -"

The Doctor's eyes suddenly widened. "I've got an idea." He then regarded Jamie almost curiously. "Were you planning on returning to London?"

"Aye, I'm gannae try an' take the next train back."

"Don't. We'll come out to you. I have a feeling we should search the surrounding area a bit more."

"But, Doctor, I already looked there an' couldnae find her! The police can't seem tae find her either ..."

"Ah, but that's only because none of you have what you need!"

"What's that?"

"My train of thought, my dear Scotsman," the Doctor replied with a grin.

His face was gone from view and it sounded as if he were discussing something with the Brigadier. The latter finally reappeared and Jamie could make out the Doctor behind him, humming away as he seemed to be gathering materials. The Brigadier had briefly regarded him with a raised eyebrow before turning back to Jamie.

"McCrimmon, we're on our way. Stay where you are."

Jamie nodded and quickly blurted out the location of the cottage. The Brigadier made note of it before the video transmission finally ended.

Placing the communicator heavily back onto the bed, Jamie sat with his head in his hands. Regret and worry had festered inside the pit of his stomach, threatening to completely overwhelm him. Suddenly they were both eclipsed by a new feeling: curiosity. Jamie felt his brow furrow in confusion as he thought back to what the Doctor had said moments ago.

My train of thought, my dear Scotsman.

His train of thought? What was he on about? Part of him decided cynically that it was just a side effect of the Doctor's scrambled brain and persona still relatively soon after his regeneration, that it wouldn't amount to anything helpful.

But another small part of him still believed in the Doctor. It was never a good idea to underestimate him; he had come through for them time and again. Now was not the time to doubt him. He couldn't help feeling so pessimistic regarding what had happened to Kathryn, but maybe, just maybe, the Doctor was onto something.

As he sat and waited for them to arrive, Jamie really hoped so.


The first thing Kathryn noticed when she woke up was the sheer darkness of the area in which she now found herself. It was broken only by what appeared to be crude lanterns a short distance away and lit torches and candles ensconced on the walls. The floor underneath her was no more than a moist, finely-packed dirt.

A sudden, sharp twinge of pain reached the base of her skull and it suddenly dawned on her that she'd been hit on the back of the head at some point. It all came back to her now: the big argument she and Jamie had had, culminating in his storming out of the cottage. She had taken a walk herself and happened upon that tree-lined path. She had decided to return to the cottage when someone had attacked her from behind.

The sharp pain had dulled to an annoying ache and she tried to reach behind to see if her head was bruised, but something was keeping her from doing so. Her gaze dropped to her wrists and she found they were held fast by shackles. She had been shackled to a wall made of some dark, hard material: whether it was brick or stone, the darkness kept it a mystery. Turning back around, she saw the unmistakable view of prison bars in front of her.

She struggled against her bonds, hoping they would loosen somehow and set her free. They certainly appeared old and rusty enough. She'd also noticed her ankles had been shackled to the floor as well. Why on Earth had she been brought here? And by whom?

"Ah, you are awake at last," a deep, raspy voice suddenly spoke.

Kathryn squinted against the darkness as she tried to make out her captor. He was a thin man of pale complexion – or at least he seemed to be a man. She swallowed hard and began to feel fear welling up inside her as she took in his appearance. His skin was a grayish tan color and was rather shriveled but pulled tautly across his cheeks, much like the skin of a drum. He almost resembled the mummies in photos she'd seen in magazine articles. His sunken, deeply set eyes were a dull blue and his short, gray hair framed his face in the manner of an old rug. His lips were thin and reptile-like. She couldn't tell much about his expression to decide whether he was friendly or sinister.

"Who are you? Why have I been brought here?" she demanded.

"I am Nathar," he replied. "We are the Grom."

Kathryn furrowed her brow in confusion. "Is this your home?"

Nathar nodded. "This is our lair. We have lived here for many millennia, completely hidden from your people. We have peacefully lived beside you or, rather, beneath you, all this time. We have not had any need to seek you out. Until now."

Kathryn simply gazed at him, confused.

Nathar briefly looked at the wizened flesh on his arm and then back at her. "This is not our true form. We are much more pleasing to the eyes with the aid of the Life Stone."

"The 'Life Stone'?" Kathryn repeated incredulously.

"Yes. It is an object rather dull in appearance until it meets the light, in which it sparkles with many colors. It is our life source. Its absence turns us into this wretched form. Without it, we shall soon die."

A realization smacked Kathryn upside the head. The 'Life Stone.' It was that stone Jamie had found. The one he had given to her and the one he'd shown the Doctor. Sarah Jane had taken such a liking to it, and she was now gone.

Just as Kathryn herself was.

"So this is why you brought me here? You thought I'd stolen this stone from you?"

Nathar held her gaze. "The Stone has a homing beacon attached to it. Some time ago, it had picked up on you, but for only a brief moment. It led us to believe you were associated with the one who had taken it."

"The one who had taken it? You mean, Sarah?"

"If that is the other female's name, then yes. The beacon had picked up on her as well. It fed us images of her holding the Stone."

"But ..." Kathryn trailed off as she watched Nathar pick up a torch and walk towards what appeared to be some sort of elevated platform. He'd picked up an object atop the platform and when he approached her cell once again, she got a good look at it.

It was the stone.

She regarded him in confusion. "I don't understand. You've got it, right there." She pointed to the stone.

Nathar shook his head. "It is merely one of the Life Stones. There are two, and we require both in order for the life source to pour forth and nourish us."

For a moment Kathryn allowed herself to feel just an ounce of pity for these creatures, but she still had to get to the bottom of what was going on. Why had they captured her, here in Cornwall? She stopped to realize she didn't know exactly where 'here' was, now. She could be miles away from there, perhaps not even in England but in a completely different area altogether.

"So why are you holding me here? You assumed I would feed you information about Sarah? Help you locate her if you believed she was the one who had stolen it from you?" She narrowed her eyes in defiance. "Well, I've got nothing to tell you. And I've no idea where she is. Now, let me go!" She struggled once again to free herself from the shackles.

"Don't even try to escape," a tired voice suddenly uttered a short distance to her left. "There's no way out."

Furrowing her brow in confusion, Kathryn turned in its direction and found an identical cell next to her own. The captive turned to face her and she could make out the dirty, haggard face of Sarah Jane Smith.


Jamie sighed as he sat glumly at the bench inside the UNIT lab. He didn't think they were any closer to finding Kathryn, let alone Sarah. When the Doctor and UNIT had first arrived in Cornwall, the Time Lord had brought a slew of equipment with him as well as scientific data, eager to get to the bottom of this. Jamie had told him of the wooded path Kathryn liked and had led him down there. Unfortunately, they hadn't turned up anything useful. The Doctor had muttered something about traces of an 'enriched carbon compound.' He told them it matched the one he'd discovered on the underside of the stone.

Jamie had no idea if that was supposed to help them or not. The Doctor sounded optimistic as he and Harry had taken samples along that path of the dirt, plants and even the air. He'd told Jamie he believed something useful would come out of all this; he'd had a 'feeling' about it.

Jamie scoffed. As if that were really going to help them. The tiny part of him which still believed in the Doctor scolded him for thinking this way, but Kathryn had been gone for over five hours now; potentially longer. What if she was in real danger?

His ruminations were interrupted by the sound of another stool being scraped across the floor. Jamie turned to his right and found Harry Sullivan seated next to him, regarding him in concern.

Jamie acknowledged him with a soft grunt.

"Just wanted to make you aware the Doctor thinks he's onto something," Harry told him.

Jamie rolled his eyes. "That's wha' he said an hour ago," he grumbled.

He caught a hint of an amused grin on Harry's face as he shook his head. "I know, old chap. I know." His grin faded and his concerned expression was back. "We will find them; Sarah and Kathryn. You know that, don't you?"

Jamie uttered a humorless chuckle. "I don' know what tae think anymore."

Harry frowned. "Oh, come now! Chin up. I know it may not appear that way, but I'm just as concerned about them as you are." Jamie regarded him dubiously. "No, honestly I am. Kathryn is a sweet girl. I see how happy she makes you. And I certainly can't get along without the Old Girl." His mouth twitched into a lopsided grin.

Jamie allowed himself a faint grin of amusement for just a moment before it faded upon the surface of a rather unpleasant memory. "Did ye know when we had that argument, Kathryn had asked me if I had feelin's for Sarah?"

Harry appeared nonplussed. "Why?"

"Well, I'd given the stone tae Kathryn an' when I brought it here for the Doctor tae study, Sarah had been so interested in it. She thought it was pretty. Kathryn found out an' assumed I jus' gave it to her. An' then there's the fact she'd seen me holding Sarah when the Doctor was first changing."

Harry stared at him, slack-jawed. "B-But you both just got married," he said incredulously. "Why the devil would she think you had romantic feelings for Sarah?"

Jamie merely shrugged, avoiding his gaze.

"Particularly when I'm the one who has feelings for her," Harry said bluntly.

Jamie turned and regarded him in surprise.

Harry's cheeks had flushed and he awkwardly gazed at his hands. "As I said, I know it may not appear that way, but it's true. I just don't show it much because I didn't think a girl like her would take an interest in a chap like me, if you know what I mean."

The side of Jamie's mouth twitched into a quick smile. Suddenly the Doctor, Brigadier and Benton rushed into the room.

"We're back!" the Doctor declared.

"Where were ye?" Jamie asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

He noticed the Doctor regarding him incredulously. "Where have you been all this time, Jamie?" he said, nearly flummoxed by Jamie's question. Jamie felt his cheeks grow hot. Had he been out of it this long not to notice what they were up to?

"We decided to expand our search for any traces of Miss Smith," the Brigadier volunteered. "We happened to find something interesting one-quarter of a mile down the road." He reached into his pocket and produced what appeared to be a hair clip.

"That's Sarah's!" Harry exclaimed.

"Yes indeed," the Doctor replied. "We've collected some samples in the area just as we had done in Cornwall on Kathryn's path." He placed several containers and bags down on the bench. "It's time for a little analysis to see if things match up. If they do, and I expect they will, I think we may have reached a breakthrough, gentlemen." He grinned excitedly and then set to work, grabbing his equipment and setting it down.

Jamie watched as he grabbed his samples and set about analyzing each of them according to the sample type. He soon stifled a yawn, realizing how very exhausted he was after this trying day. Before long he'd sat with his arms folded atop the bench, resting his head on them. His last thought before he succumbed to sleep was that the Doctor's 'feeling' was correct and something would lead them closer to finding Kathryn and Sarah.


"Why did you think Sarah had taken the stone?" Kathryn asked Nathar. He wasn't very forthcoming with his information and she was getting quite frustrated.

She decided to change tactics. "How does your homing beacon work?"

"The stones are connected, even when apart," Nathar replied. He then gestured to the stone in his hand. "This one was able to pick up the signal from the missing one." He gaze suddenly turned accusatory and it made her nervous. "How did it come to be in your possession?"

"We just … found it! Lying on the ground!" Kathryn blurted. Nathar appeared skeptical and she groaned inwardly.

"It's true!" Sarah suddenly exclaimed. She had shared a quick look with Kathryn and turned back to Nathar. "We didn't know what it was, and so her husband ..." She pointed to Kathryn.

Nathar cocked his head in confusion, as if he were unfamiliar with the term.

"My mate," Kathryn clarified. Understanding finally seemed to be reflected in Nathar's wizened face and he nodded.

"Yes, her mate had taken it to our friend to be studied," Sarah continued. "That was all. Had we known what it was, we would not have touched it."

Nathar's eyes narrowed. "I do not believe you," he said flatly. "You had stolen it."

"Oh, for heaven's stake, we did not steal it!" Sarah insisted.

Kathryn nodded. "Of course not! Look at us. Do we look like someone who would intentionally steal something so valuable to you?" She quickly turned to face Sarah, the other woman's expression as desperate as her own.

Nathar seemed to study them for a moment, briefly assuming a thoughtful expression until his eyes darkened and his jaw set. "Some of the best thieves have innocent faces," he replied. He had then turned to walk away.

"Oh, come on!"

"We must confer with our leader. Then we shall decide what your punishment must be," he stated coldly.

"Punishment?" Kathryn repeated, her eyebrows nearly threatening to leap off her head.

But Nathar had since walked away, leaving the two women sharing a look of extreme frustration before turning away in defeat.


A/N: I know that Jamie's faith or lack thereof in the Doctor seems almost inconsistent, but I chalk it up to his being so worried about Kathryn.