Discovery

by LizzeXX

11/OC -Time Lady- The Doctor has lost all his people again after his confrontation with House...or has he? When a mysterious contact appears that leads to an old friend, the Doctor might just find himself with more than he bargained for. A dear friend who went Mad at the Untempered Schism, a friend of his AND the Master's. What will happen? First in the Mysteries of Space and Time.

7. The Girl Who Waited

A/N: So it seems FF has been experiencing some glitches this past week and a lot of new chapters for many people were uploading, but not allowing people to actually read them :/ Normally I would post the chapter on my tumblr, just so people can read it, but Sigma's chapters are usually 20k words or more and I don't want to post something that long or break that into pieces on tumblr, so I won't be posting it there if this happens again :( I do have an AO3 account, but I am posting there in order of stories/series/fandoms here and as a trial for the site. I'm on Evy, and would rather not skip ahead, and I really don't want to make a new story just to post one chapter for Sigma there when there's no other chapters for her to go off of. I'm sort of stuck, in that sense. I can only ask for patience if it happens again for the site to work it out.

I'll be posting here only and just hoping that the glitch has been fixed and that you all enjoyed the last couple chapters once you can see them :) I'm sorry that kept happening, I was aware of it but when Chapter 5 became visible, I thought it was fixed, then chapter 6 wasn't but now it is so fingers crossed :(

~8~

The Girl Who Waited

"Apalapucia?" the Detective frowned when the Doctor announced where they were heading on this latest adventure, the man himself whizzing around the controls to set the coordinates while Amy and Rory looked on, "Really?"

"What?" the Doctor glanced at her, at the disappointment and whine in her voice, reaching out to take her hand, "What's wrong with Apalapucia?"

"What even is Ap…ap…" Amy tried to pronounce it.

"Apalapucia."

"Apalapu..."

"Cia."

"Apalapucia," Rory got it.

"It's a beautiful world," the Doctor beamed, tugging the Detective closer to him by her hand, giving her a spin, before speaking more to her, as though trying to remind her why it was worth going to, "Apalapucia, voted number two planet in the top ten greatest destinations for the discerning intergalactic traveler."

"Why couldn't we go to number one?" Rory asked, noting the scrunched up expression the Detective was making at the description.

"It's hideous. Everyone goes to number one."

"It's brilliant," the Detective defended with a light huff, taking the Doctor's hand in both of her own, her eyes wide and pleading, "It's a planet made of nothing but coffee shops. It's lovely!"

He snorted, reaching out to tap her nose with his finger, "You're just saying that because the shops have cafes in them."

Drat, she thought, he knew her so well.

"I can't help it if I'm hungry," she huffed, "I could go for a bear claw right now. Or a muffin. Maybe those little cookies half dipped in chocolate…mmm…" she started to smile, "Please, can't we go there, Theta?" she turned to him, trying to give him even wider puppy dog eyes that just ended up looking like she was perpetually surprised by something, "I get a discount!"

"How do you get a discount?" Rory asked, though he was starting to wonder if he should just stop asking questions because half the time he wasn't sure he even wanted to know when it came to her.

"I got bored of Theta and the Master fighting all the time, so I got a job as a barista."

"What?" Amy started laughing, that was…sort of ridiculous, a ridiculous reason to go out and get a job like that.

The Detective shrugged, letting the Doctor wind an arm around her shoulder and guide her to lean against him at the reminder of their lost friend, "I got fired. Well, they TRIED to fire me, but they couldn't pin the espresso machine blowing up on ME so they let me resign with a lifetime discount."

The Doctor gave her an amused look, "They only offered you that because you refused to leave and just kept working and more machines 'mysteriously' exploded."

"Well, of course I took them up on that offer," she continued as though he hadn't said a word, "A lifetime of cheaper food compared to having to stand there for hours on end while people went batshit crazy over there being a single drop of chocolate sauce not melted into their hot chocolate? Or ranting about how they wanted that one specific cookie that JUST came out of the oven when you legally can't serve them it and they throw a tantrum?"

"Remind me again HOW you found out it was illegal to give someone scalding hot food products again?" the Doctor teased.

She rolled her eyes, "Well, it's not like they TOLD me not to give people things fresh out of the oven, Theta! How was I to know?"

"It's common sense," Amy deadpanned.

"It would burn their mouth," Rory agreed with a wince, just imagining it.

"They could have been a species that breathes fire for all I knew," she huffed, crossing her arms in defense, leaning back more when the Doctor shifted to wind his arms around her waist, knowing that hadn't been a particularly great job for her considering how many rude customers there were, she'd spent 6 months after complaining about each of them, "And really, if you're going to complain about service not giving you what you want, because god forbid the customer ISN'T always right, then don't complain when I maliciously comply with your request and you burn your tongue on it!"

"Ok, Sigma, it's ok," the Doctor gave her a gentle squeeze around the middle, turning his head to press a kiss to her temple, amused at how worked up she was getting over coffee, "We'll go there after Apalapucia."

"We better," she sniffled a little, "All we get there are sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades," she made a sour face, "I'd take a massive grilled cheese over that any day."

"Not all of us can be as simple as you, Sigma," the Doctor teased, before sliding away from her, taking her hand to lead them all to the doors and throwing them open with a cry of, "Behold!"

There was nothing there except a stark white room with a set of grey double doors.

"Doors," Rory remarked.

"Yes…" the Doctor winced, ok, he'd probably accidently set down in a cupboard again, but that was fine, because... "On the other side of those doors, I give you sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades!"

"Have you seen my phone?" Amy called as they stepped out of the TARDIS.

"What do you need your phone for?" the Detective eyed her as though she were the mad one.

"Sunsets. Spires. Soaring silver colonnades. It's a camera phone," Amy answered.

"You can use mine…" the Detective offered.

The Doctor began to nod, before her words caught up to him and he turned to her, "You've got a phone?"

"Yeah?" she shrugged, pulling it out of her hoodie pocket to show him, quite a high-tech one, likely from New Earth really if he was recognizing the model. Not much different than a modern mobile, thinner, flatter, could project holograms of whoever was calling you, universal roaming, much better games, but pretty similar.

"Why have you got a mobile phone?"

"Why have YOU got a mobile phone?" she countered, nodding at the TARDIS.

"I live there."

"Well, you see, Theta, mobile phones are often great for communication and keeping in touch."

"You don't have any contacts on it at all, do you?" he deadpanned, it wouldn't surprise him if she'd gotten one for the games.

"I'll have you know, I've got the TARDIS's number!" she defended, holding up her contacts page to show him.

He snorted, noting the contacts also listed before and after the 'TARDIS' one, "And the numbers of literally any food delivery place within five miles of anywhere you set foot, eh?"

She nodded, not even a little ashamed, "Girl's gotta eat. So what do you say, Thing 2?" she asked, holding up the phone.

"That'd be great, thanks," Amy smiled, moving to take the phone and try to bring up the camera, "Um, it's not working. Am I doing something wrong?"

"It's isomorphic," the Detective said.

"Which means what?"

"Only Sigma can use it," the Doctor explained, "Like having a fingerprint lock, but more."

"Then why offer me the phone if I can't use it?" Amy gave her a look, tossing the phone back.

"Dunno," she shrugged, "Isn't that what humans do when they try to be polite?"

Amy just shook her head, "I think I put it by the by the DVDs, you go on, I'll catch up," she waved them off, going into the TARDIS to retrieve her mobile.

"How do we get in?" Rory asked as he looked around at the set of doors they came to, not seeing a handle.

"Oh Thing 1," the Detective sighed, as though deciding something, patting him on the shoulder consolingly, "You'll never be Watson, sorry."

"What?"

"Push a button," the Doctor said instead, nodding to two set into a panel just beside the door. One green button with an anchor in it, and another red with wavy lines. Rory pushed the green one, since it was on top, the doors sliding open to reveal…

Another room.

Still stark white, but with a chair set up before a table that had a large magnifying glass on top of it.

"Ooh, look at that!" the Detective squealed, running in to peer around the glass…even pulling out her own magnifying glass to use on it.

"Wow," Rory deadpanned, "Look at those spires."

"Ok," the Doctor sighed, "So, rain check on the soaring silver colonnades."

The Detective looked over when they stepped in after her, the doors sliding shut behind them, her one eye huge as it peered at them, "You would look giant if I…" she didn't even finish, just scurried around to the other side of the stationary glass and peered through it at them with her magnifying glass too, "HUGE!" she laughed, "Ooh, we should go to Ravan-Skala!"

The Doctor chucked, "After the coffee shop," he promised.

"Hey?" Amy's voice called through the door, "Hey, it's locked."

"Yeah, push the button," Rory told her, moving over to the door. But when Amy didn't step in, he called out, "Come on, Amy!" and opened them, frowning when he saw no one there, "Where is she? Where on wherever we are is my wife?"

"Was she miniaturized again?" the Detective appeared beside him, squatting down at the door to peer through her glass at the floor, "Wouldn't be the first time. Honestly, you two have such a bad record with miniaturization, don't you?"

"Actually, I think I found her!" the Doctor called, and they looked over to see him sitting by one of the chairs, pointing at the glass on the table. They walked over to see Amy in the glass, peering into it at them, like she was sitting just on the other side of the table but wasn't in the room.

"Whoa," Rory frowned, "No, but, she's not..." he moved around to the side Amy should have been on, still nothing, "She's not here! I can see her, but she's not here."

"Where am I?" Amy called to them, "In fact, where are you?"

"Well," the Detective shrugged, not even jumping when the doors slid open and a very white robot, with no face but with life-like hands, appeared and began to enter, actually moving to sit down as the Doctor jumped up and backed away from its sudden appearance, Rory leaping back too, "We're in the Green Anchor room, and since there was only one other button, it's pretty obvious you're in the Red Waterfall room. Right, Theta?" she looked over at him, unperturbed as the robot approached.

"Hands!" the Doctor was, of course, more fixated on the robot than her question, "Hello. Hands. Handbot with hands, Rory."

"Welcome to the Twostreams Facility," the robot spoke, "Will you be visiting long?"

"Um, Detective," Amy called out, her voice strained, "Something's happening…"

The Detective frowned as the image in the glass went a bit static and fuzzy for a second, reaching out to tap the top of it with her own sonic magnifying glass, "Time went a bit weird on your end, Thing 2, it should settle in a mo."

"Will you be visiting long?" the handbot spoke again, thrusting its hand out at the Doctor and Rory, who kept backing away.

"Good question," Rory remarked, "Bit sinister. What's the answer to not get us killed?"

"There you are, Thing 2!" the Detective beamed when the picture settled, to reveal Amy sitting curled up on her chair.

"Will you be visiting long?" the handbot repeated.

"So how long's it been?" the Detective asked Amy, ignoring the bot.

THAT got the Doctor's attention and he whipped around to face her, "How long what?" he abandoned Rory to join the Detective at the table, his hand resting on her one shoulder as he leaned in more to look at Amy.

"I JUST said time went a bit weird on her end," the Detective rolled her eyes, "Wasn't going in reverse so it could only go forward, by how much?"

"I've been here a week!" Amy snapped with a huff.

"Wicked," the Detective smiled, nodding her head, at the same time the Doctor exclaimed, "A week!?"

"A week?!" he repeated, before it hit him, "Oh, same room, different times. Two timestreams running parallel but at different speeds. Amy, you're in a faster timestream."

"Doctor, it's going again!" Amy winced, looking uncomfortable.

"Doctor!" Rory shouted, the handbot thrusting its hand out again.

The Detective sighed, "One mo," she murmured to the Doctor, before getting up, striding over to the handbot and, before Rory could blink, pulling out the largest pair of hedge sheers he'd ever seen, snapping the bot's hands and head off.

Rory cleared his throat, "Um, I guess that's one way to do it," he muttered, before frowning, "Why has it got hands?" he asked, looking down at the fallen parts of the robot, a little creeped out by how life-like the hands were, even being as pale as they were.

The Detective squatted down, examining it with her magnifying glass, "Organic skin," she muttered, "Ultimate universal interface, grown and grafted, not born. Oh, that is wizard, it sees with its fingers! It scans the room like that!" she then looked at its fallen head, "Weird they didn't just give it eyes though," she shrugged and got up, heading back to sit at the table like nothing odd had happened.

Rory shook his head, now able to move over to them and talk to Amy.

Another tap from the sonic magnifying glass and the image of Amy was back, the ginger girl sitting with her feet up on the table, looking bored.

"Amy, what exactly did you do?" the Doctor asked.

"I just pushed the button and came in!" she defended.

"The red waterfall button," the Detective added for clarification.

"Great," Rory huffed, moving to step out of the room, though he was back not even a minute later, "I pressed Red Waterfall, and she wasn't there!"

"Which means you can't follow her directly. Interesting."

The Doctor nodded absently, knowing she was more gathering clues as to how this place worked while he was a bit more focused on the fact that it meant they couldn't go after Amy directly, which posed a problem, "You know, it's never simple! Hear that, Handbot?" he called over, not sure if it could even still function being so decapitated, "She just pressed the wrong button. We're aliens, we didn't know."

"Statement...rejected," the head did continue to speak though, "Apalapucia is under planet-wide quarantine. This is a kindness facility for those infected with Chen7."

"You know I've always wondered what…" the Detective began, but the Doctor had already wound one of his arms around her face, lightly covering her mouth and nose with his elbow as he used his other hand to lift his jacket to cover his own. Both to protect her and get her to not finish that thought, if he had to guess.

It was quite clear where her line of thought had been heading, given how she'd been 'wondering what being a living doll would be like' with George. Though even she knew this time that there would be no coming back from Chen 7, much like with the Poison of the Judas Tree.

"What?" the Doctor nearly shouted, his eyes bulging.

"Chen7?" Rory quickly moved to mimic them, covering his mouth and nose too, the nurse in him recognizing when someone didn't think it was safe to breathe the air, and given what the robot had said so far, about quarantine, there might be some illness around them right now.

"Ehundhpg!" the Detective spoke, her voice muffled by the Doctor's arm.

'What?"

"The one day plague," the Doctor repeated for her, a little clearer through his jacket.

"What, you get it for a day?"

"Ohthngun," the Detective seemed to be shaking her head at him.

"No, you get it, and you die in a day," the Doctor stated, Amy quickly moving to copy them through the glass as well as she heard that.

"There are 40,000 residents in the Twostreams Facility," the handbot's head continued to speak, "Please remain in the sterile areas. Visiting hours are now."

The Detective reached up to lower the Doctor's arm, "See, sterile area," she remarked.

He nodded, lowering his jacket too, "We're safe," he breathed, absently dropping a kiss to the top of her head in his relief. Rory eyed them a moment, before he, too, lowered his hands.

"What about me!?" Amy demanded, smacking the glass to get their attention.

"Chen7 only affects two-hearted races like Apalapucians."

"And, you know, Time Lords," the Detective added, as though none of them had already realized that.

"In that facility, Sigma and I are dead in a day," the Doctor frowned, looking at the glass, "Time moves faster on Amy's side of the glass. Amy, you said you'd been here a week. What did you eat?"

"Really Doctor?" Amy huffed, "I expect that from her, not you," she gestured at the Detective.

"It's a fair question," she shrugged, "Food always is though."

Amy sighed and actually considered it, "Nothing. I wasn't hungry."

"Probably cos Red Waterfall time is compressed, that's how it moves faster."

"The Time Glass syncs up the timestreams for visits," the Doctor realized, "You could be here for a day, watch them live out their entire lives."

"And watch them grow old in front of your eyes?" Rory frowned, "That's horrible."

"No, Rory, it's kind. You've got a choice. Sit by their bedside for 24 hours and watch them die, or sit in here for 24 hours and watch them live. Which would you choose?"

"Well, that would depend on the person," the Detective answered, almost serious, considering the question, "If it's an arch enemy or someone truly despicable, why would you want them to live out their life to the fullest? There's a special level of hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk at the theater."

Rory and Amy could only look at her, truly not sure if she was serious or not.

The Doctor, though, just picked up the glass, and moved to look around the room with it.

"Doctor?!" Amy called out, "Doctor, don't leave me!"

The Doctor turned around the room once, before moving the glass towards the table where he could see Amy, now from the side, sitting there with her head buried in her hands, "I'm here, Amy. I'm right here."

"Where are you? Am I looking at you?"

The Detective, who had gotten up to follow him, to see what he saw, if there were any more clues around the room, called out, "Turn…" she blinked, before hurrying around the Doctor to where Amy would be, looking at her hands, at the 'L' shape her hands were making as she held them out with her fingers together and her thumb out, and then turned to him from how Amy would be gazing, "Left," she smiled, "About a quarter way."

She moved back to the Doctor just as Amy turned to face them completely, "Eye to eye?" Amy asked.

"Eye to eye to eye," the Doctor nodded.

"To eye," the Detective added as Rory joined them.

"Hello," Rory spoke to his wife.

"Amy, I'm taking the Time Glass back to the TARDIS," the Doctor warned, "Like satnav, I'll use it to get a lock, then…"

"Smash through!" the Detective cheered, "HULK SMASH!" she began punching the air like she was smashing through things.

The Doctor shook his head, focusing back on Amy, "Using the TARDIS to get you out. Until then, you're on your own."

"What are you doing?" Rory asked when he began to sonic the glass, though he kept casting worried glances at the Detective, who had just flipped the table and now had kicked what was left of the robot to the ground so she could put her foot on its chest in victory.

"Locking onto Amy," the Doctor said quickly, "Small act of vandalism…"

"Rubbish," the Detective hopped off the robot, brushing her hands off, "Go big or go home, Theta."

"No one'll mind," the Doctor added…right as an alarm began to sound.

"Oh, brilliant!" the Detective cheered, beaming.

"Ah, that will be the small act of vandalism alarm," the Doctor winced. People would assume he did these things on purpose, but he really DID try not to get into too much trouble on his trips. The Detective would have done all this solely to set the alarm off, while he did it only go help Amy, "Amy, we need you to go into the facility just for a bit."

"Yes, enter the facility!" the Detective stated.

"Find somewhere safe…"

"Safe."

"And leave us a sign."

"X marks the spot!"

"Sigma, could you stop that?" the Doctor huffed, rolling his eyes when she pouted, "Remember, Amy, you're immune to Chen7, but don't let them give you anything. They don't know you're alien. Their kindness will kill you."

"Well, that gives a whole new meaning to kill 'em with kindness," the Detective quipped.

"Now go!" the Doctor ignored her, watching Amy through the glass as she hit the 'Check In' button on the doors at the other end of the room, which slid open, allowing her in.

She turned to face them, "Rory, I love you. Now, save me. Go on."

"Aww, sweet," the Detective remarked as the doors slid shut, before looking at the Doctor, "Time for the running now?"

He let out a long breath but nodded, "Yup!" and bolted out of the room, the Detective and Rory following close behind as he dashed into the TARDIS.

He tossed the glass to the Detective to insert it into the console while he got to work at the monitors and with the controls, "This is locked onto Amy permanently. Play the signal into the console, the TARDIS'll follow it."

"Not my fault!" the Detective shouted when she connected a cable to the glass that set off sparks and a good helping of smoke from the console, before continuing to work.

The Doctor rushed over to a small box, sorting through it as he mumbled to himself, "Now then, I know you're in here. Um...erm…ha!" he pulled out a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, setting them on his nose and turning to the others, "How do I look?"

"Ridiculous," both Rory and the Detective said.

"WHY do you still have those?" the Detective had to ask, recognizing them instantly. This old box hadn't been the first TARDIS the Doctor had ever stolen, he'd made a habit, when they were still in school, of nabbing one every so often (more like every week) to go whizzing off in with her and the Master. One time they'd landed on Earth during Halloween, the boys had been going through a comic book phase thanks to one of their classes that was exploring different forms of literature on different worlds and time periods, and they'd outvoted her on what their 'group costume' should be.

HE had been Superman, but just before he changed into his costume. So he'd had the glasses of Clark Kent on, with an unbuttoned shirt, tie askew, and the iconic Superman S under it. She had ended up being Wonder Woman, probably because she'd had black hair in her first incarnation, had actually looked quite a bit like some woman who was famous for playing her on Earth apparently. And the Master, he had ended up as Batman. He'd liked the aspect of a person based on night-creatures, who was rich and smart and didn't need actual powers to do what he wanted.

"Glasses are cool," the Doctor defended, pulling them off and setting them on Rory's face instead, "See? Oh, yes. Hello, handsome man."

"Oh, hello," Rory smiled a bit.

The Detective snorted, "He's talking to himself," she called out, turning the monitor for Rory to see there was a camera in the glasses, showing what Rory saw, which was the Doctor.

"Oh, you can see what I see," Rory nodded.

"We're breaking into Twostreams," the Doctor reminded him, "Sigma and I can't go in, the Chen7'll kill us, no regeneration," he pointed a warning finger at her, as though to remind her of that fact, "You will be our eyes and ears."

"And…" the Detective hit one last command to stabilize the connection, "We are a go for Rory-Cam. Oh, that's rubbish, isn't it? Roryvision? The Two Wise Rorys?"

"The…what?" Rory shook his head, struggling to follow that last one.

"Well you're not a monkey and there's only 2 of the 3 with eyes and ears so…"

"Nevermind," he cut in, "Rory-cam," he decided, "Rescue Amy. Got it."

"That's the spirit!" the Doctor clapped him on the back, "Now, smashing through a timewall could get a bit hairy."

"Is it safe?"

"Not remotely," the Detective piped up, far too cheerful for Rory's taste, "Hold onto your knickers!" she shouted, reaching out to yank a lever, causing the entire console to go up in flames as the box began to buck and jerk.

Rory threw himself against the railing, holding on, and wondering where, at what point in his life, he'd gone so wrong as to end up here, hanging on for dear life, while the Doctor and the Detective laughed madly at the console, holding on while they flew their out of control box through a different timestream.

He didn't even let go of the railing when the box settled down, not for another minute at least, his stomach had to settle after that. He didn't want to go into the Red Waterfall stream and vomit and have someone appear thinking he was sick. Once he was steady, he got up and moved for the doors, pushing the glasses up on his nose and putting the time glass the Detective had tossed him into his belt to free up one of his hands, holding onto the Doctor's sonic with the other.

The Time Lords watched on the monitor as he stepped out, into a stark white room, like all the others, but this one filled with odds and ends, like a gallery in a museum.

The Doctor let out a breath, relieved to see it worked…when he heard a crunching noise beside him, "Really?" he scoffed lightly in exasperation.

"What?" the Detective defended, "Breaking into another time stream is tough work," she looked down at the very large bag in her hands and over to him, holding it up in offer, "Pretzel?"

He sighed, but took one to munch on, feeling it was safer than if she'd offered him crisps, while they watched Rory step further out, closing the door behind him.

"Red Waterfall!" Rory's voice echoed through the TARDIS, the image on the monitor showing him looking at that very icon on the wall of a gallery, "We made it."

"Good old us!" the Doctor said.

"How do we know that we're in the same Red Waterfall as Amy?"

"Well, we were locked onto her timestream, so it would take us to her," Sigma answered, swallowing her mouthful of pretzels, "What is with the male obsession with breasts?" she asked, when Rory's gaze was pulled to a replica of the Venus di Milo's chest area.

"What?!" Rory startled, snapped out of it and quickly looked away.

"Sigma!" the Doctor hissed at her, "You can't SAY things like that."

She rolled her eyes, "I think the ones who have breasts are the ones allowed to decide when to talk about them, Theta. Regenerate into a woman and then we'll talk."

He blushed scarlet, not because of her words or the thought of regenerating into a woman, but because, when she'd said 'the ones who have breasts' she'd pressed both her hands to her own chest to emphasize her point, and how was he supposed to cope with that?! Granted, she had her hoodie on now, an…odd blue one that said 'Gallifrey Academy' on it, he didn't know where she'd gotten it, but it wasn't like he could see anything distinctive. It was just the thought of it and the action and how it was intended to draw his attention to her…assets…that was getting to him.

He wouldn't lie and say he'd never thought she was attractive. Really, when it was a choice between her and the Master and the man was always so insistent to grow such a rubbish beard, who would anyone pick but her? And, well, all boys went though that phase where they began to notice others in an attractive light. The Detective had always been a lovely woman, an attractive man too once in one body, he never really understood why her little flings throughout school never lasted…

Ok, he knew exactly why.

HE was just looking out for her, making sure those partners were decent sorts for her, and the Master, well, the Master just never wanted to share his friends with anyone.

She never seemed upset when those relationships ended, in fact he had gotten a feeling near the end that she would purposefully find people to court so that it could be broken off later, so she could be 'dumped', so she could use it as an excuse to guilt them into letting her eat cake. It was like she knew exactly what they were doing and, if they were going to ruin her chances at a relationship, the least they could do was let her eat cake.

That or she just really wanted cake.

Could go either way.

But it wasn't like he'd never noticed her before. And it wasn't like he had never, for a moment or two, considered asking if she would like to date HIM. It was more that, each time he seemed about to, she would do something or distract him or say something to cast the thought from his mind. Not in a bad way, but more in a subtle 'ok, not the right time' way, and they'd go on being friends.

THAT was the part he didn't fully understand. Because Amy wasn't completely wrong to imply she thought the Detective might have feelings for him beyond friendship. There were times she said something or did something or even looked at him a certain way and…he would swear it was like she was trying to tell him she liked him, as more than friends. But then all those little times of distraction would come to mind. She'd always been more observant and quicker to make connections than him, especially when it came to him and the Master. She would have noticed when he was about to do something like that, she would have known, and it made him wonder if she purposefully avoided it. Which made him question everything else. Maybe he had just been reading those moments wrong?

It hadn't stopped him thinking about her that way though, he was just…very good about pushing things to the back of his mind or forgetting about them after time.

"Apalapucians," the Detective continued, though this time speaking to Rory, "Claim to be the great cultural scavengers, Thing 1, I'm sure they meant for this gallery to be a collection of their favorite places."

"Meant to?" Rory asked, eyeing the bits of Earth art and alien art, it looked quite brilliant to him.

"It looks like an art gallery exploded," she huffed, "No sense of coordination at all."

The Doctor snorted, "You're one to talk about coordination."

"What is THAT supposed to mean?" she huffed, though there was a playful glint in her eyes.

"Your second incarnation, rubbish, rubbish fashion sense. And that's coming from a man who wore rainbows and celery on his jacket."

"I will have you know, polka dots and stripes go fabulously with neon," she stuck her nose in the air, making him laugh.

"Um," Rory's voice broke through their teasing, "Where...is everyone?"

"Good question, Thing 1," the Detective remarked, "They said 40,000 people, they should be there…unless…"

The Doctor nodded, hitting a few buttons on the console and calling out to Rory, "Rory, switch the Time Glass on and sonic it. I'll send a command to the screwdriver."

Rory did so, sonicing the glass and holding it up, revealing the shadows of dozens of people milling around, fuzzy at the edges, "What's that?"

"The 40,000," the Detective stated, "Red's timestream isn't the only one there, each individual person has their own."

"Red?"

She shrugged, "Would you prefer Beaky or Thing 1?"

"Um, I'd actually prefer Thing 1," Rory admitted, having had enough people mocking his nose as a child, even the Doctor had done so.

"Ok, then Thing 2's timestream isn't the only one there, each individual person has their own."

"Amy's here somewhere," the Doctor added, "If I can just get a lock on her. I wonder what happens if we mix the filters?"

"Let's find out!" the Detective beamed, rushing to the other side of the console to help him.

"Are they happy?" Rory's voice wondered over the speakers.

"Oh, Rory," the Doctor smiled, "Trust you to think of that. I think they're happy to be alive. Better than the alternative."

Rory suddenly let out a shout and they rushed back to the monitor to see he'd lowered the time glass to see someone in what looked like armor patchworked from bits of handbot, charging at him with a katana in hand.

"I come in peace!" he threw up his hands, "Peace, peace, peace, peace!" he stumbled back, falling to the ground on his back, a sword aimed at his throat.

"I waited!" the warrior above him snapped, its voice slightly masked by a computerized tone, but it couldn't hide it's long red hair.

"Sorry, what?"

"I waited for you!" it repeated, yanking the sword away, "I waited!" it hissed, pulling the visor of its mask off to reveal Amy, but an older one than the one they'd left.

"Well, you aged well, Thing 2," the Detective remarked easily, not really alarmed, the moment she'd seen the hair it had bene rather obvious who it is, no one else with red hair would be there waiting for Rory than Amy, "Or is that bad?" she looked at the Doctor, "Never mind, better to say well. More polite."

"Amy," Rory breathed, "Doctor, what's going on? Amy?" he began to stand.

"I think the time stream lock might be a bit wobbly…" the Doctor tried to explain.

Amy pulled her sword back, ready to swing it at Rory, who ducked, "No, please. Please!"

Amy just ordered him to, "Duck!"

Rory dropped to the ground, keeping his eye on Amy, as she put her sword through a handbot's head, the robot having snuck up behind him. He watched it fall to the floor, backwards, before she went to work on it.

"Handbots carry a black box in case they go offline," Amy muttered, "I've changed the cause of termination from hostile to accidental. Easy to reprogram. Using my sonic probe."

The Detective sniggered, "She said probe."

The Doctor could only shake his head, watching as Amy expertly replaced the black box.

"Amy," Rory began.

Amy stood and faced him, "Rory."

"Why?"

"I've survived this long by making the Handbots think I don't exist. Don't touch the hands," she looked down at the fallen bot, "Anesthetic transfer, if they touch you, you go to sleep."

"But you're still here?"

"You didn't save me."

"Oh, she is right pissed," the Detective muttered, watching as Amy strode away, Rory rushing after her.

"THIS is the saving!" Rory told her, "This is the us saving you! The Doctor just got the timing a bit out!"

Amy shook her head, looking away from Rory, "I've been on my own here a long, long time. I've had decades to think nice thoughts about him. Got a bit harder to stay charitable once I entered decade four."

"40 years?" Rory breathed, "Alone?"

"I'd say more 36," the Detective corrected, noting some subtle changes in her face and matching it with what she knew of human growth rates.

"Right," Rory shook his head, "I mean...you look great. Really. Really."

"Eyes front, soldier," Amy muttered.

"Still can't win then."

"In fact, I think I can now definitely say I hate him," Amy stated, "I hate the Doctor. I hate him more than I've ever hated anyone in my life," they watched her gaze flicker on the monitor, to look at Rory, but to look at the glasses instead of him, "You can hear every word of this through those ridiculous glasses, can't you, Raggedy Man?"

"Yes, putting the speaker phone on," the Doctor called.

"I'm quite disappointed I'm not ranking in this hatred scale, Thing 2," the Detective stated.

"Don't you start," Amy snapped at her, "I'm half convinced YOU did this on purpose because it would be 'so wizard!'" she tried to mimic the Detective.

"Yes, because dealing with an old crotchety grouchy Amy is SO much more fun than dealing with your normal peeved self."

Amy glared at her over the monitor.

"Amy…" the Doctor began, trying to diffuse the situation.

"You told me to wait," Amy cut him off with a snap, "And I did. A lifetime."

"Amy..."

"You've got nothing to say to me."

"How about 12 o'clock?" the Detective deadpanned.

Amy spun around in Rory's view to see two handbots closing in on them. She tossed Rory a staff in her hands and ducked down, pressing the handbots hands together, causing them to shake and power down a moment, "Feedback. Knocks them out. Learned that trick on my first day."

"Honestly, Theta," the Detective sighed as Amy turned to stalk off again, Rory hurrying after her, "You've been rude in the past, I'm thinking she's giving you a run for your money."

The Doctor could only nod at that.

"Ok," Rory spoke, clearly trying to work this all out, "So we just take the TARDIS back to the right time stream, yeah? We can stop any of this happening."

"This IS the right timestream," the Detective pointed out, "We're locked on, can't go back or forward."

"This is so wrong."

"I got old, Rory," Amy scoffed, "What did you think was going to happen?"

"Hey!" Rory reached out to grab Amy's arm, turning her to face him, "I don't care that you got old! I care that we didn't grow old together. Amy, come on, please."

Amy shook her head, pulling her arm away, "Don't touch me. Don't do that," before she continued walking.

"It's like you're not even her."

"Well, it's been 36 years," the Detective pointed out, "And 3 months," she added, working it out more specifically, "Four days."

"Of solitary confinement," Amy added to the end.

"I once spent 52 years alone and locked in a staring contest with a Pyrovile, that's a rock monster, in case you were wondering," the Detective commented with a shrug, "Didn't see me turning into a rock monster."

"No," the Doctor muttered, "You just ended up blind, somehow didn't realize it, then fell into a volcano because you couldn't see where you were going."

Truly, she had been supremely lucky that she'd survived long enough to regenerate afterwards.

All she'd cared about was the fact that she'd 'won' the contest.

Amy ignored them, coming to a stop before doors that read 'Arrivals' above it, before turning to face the glasses, "This facility was built to give people the chance to live. I walked in here and I died. Do you have anything to say? Anything, Doctor?"

"Where did you get a sonic screwdriver?" he asked.

"I made it. And it's a sonic probe."

"You made a sonic screwdriver?" Rory seemed impressed.

"Probe!" Amy corrected, entering the doors.

"Thing 2 is NOT clever enough to make one on her own," the Detective stated, "She had help. Which means she wasn't completely alone."

Rory nodded, following Amy through another door, to a Temporal Engine Room, according to the sign. He followed her down past the engines, through a curtain made of patchwork cloth, into a small living quarter she'd made for herself. He nearly jumped back when he saw a handbot in the corner.

"Oh!" he gasped, frowning though when the bot turned to reveal a smiling face and a tuft of hair drawn on it's blank face.

"Don't worry about him," Amy brushed it off, "Sit down, Rory."

The Detective had to bite her fist when both Rory and the handbot moved to sit down, clearly both were named Rory.

"You named him after me?" Rory stared at the robot.

"Needed a bit of company."

"Better name than Wilson," the Detective remarked, "Probably more helpful than a stupid old volleyball too. Though…maybe not, how does it do anything without hands?"

Rory looked down to see what she had, that the handbot's hands had been removed.

"It's safe," Amy repeated, glancing over to see Rory shifting uncomfortably at the sight, "Don't get sentimental, it's just a robot. You'd have done the same."

"I don't know that I would have," the Doctor remarked.

"And there he is," Amy huffed, striding over to Rory to look through the glasses, "The voice of God. Survive. Cos no one's going to come for you. Number one lesson. You taught me that."

"Is that really all I taught you?"

The Detective opened her mouth to ask what SHE had taught Amy, if anything at all, but Amy had already begun to speak, "Don't you lecture me, blue-box man flying through time and space on whimsy. All I've got, all I've had for 36 years, is cold, hard reality. So, no, I don't have a sonic screwdriver because I'm not off on a romp. I call it what it is, a probe. And I call my life what it is...Hell."

The Detective let out a whistle, "We have VERY different views on what Hell is, apparently. Try being stuck with the Master when he's off on a rant about this one," she nodded at the Doctor even though Amy and Rory couldn't see her, "Especially when he's drunk. Now that is literal hell."

Amy just scoffed, turning her back on them.

"Amy Pond," the Doctor called out, more affected by Amy's words than the Detective was, but, then again, he knew that was why the Detective had said what she had, why she was treating it the way she was. She knew it would get to him more, she was actively trying to make it feel less horrible to him, to make it feel lighter. It was…always odd, how people took her sometimes. They would assume she was being serious in how little she appeared to care or concern herself with Amy's plight, but only those who knew her knew she did it to help HIM. She would let people think whatever they wanted about her if it would make it easier for HIM to cope with a situation. Well, that and she genuinely didn't care what anyone but him or the Master thought of her, "I am going to put this right. You said you learned from an Interface. Can I speak with it?"

"Doesn't work in here," Amy stated, checking her watch, "2:23, the garden'll be clear now," she glanced over at Rory, "Stay or go?"

"Sorry, me?" Rory spoke, unsure if it was to him or the robot, "No, I'm coming with you!"

"Then try not to get killed. Or do. Whatever."

The Detective snorted, "Reminds me of you and me," she nudged the Doctor.

"The good old days," the Doctor laughed, slinging an arm around her shoulder, recalling the tiffs they'd had over the time they'd known each other. His laughter faded just a moment when he caught a stray thought that flittered past her mind.

Amy still loved Rory, very much, even after all those years alone.

He cleared his throat, pushing his own thought to the side so she wouldn't catch his, catch him wondering if she was still thinking about the two of them compared to Amy and Rory or if her train of thought had turned, because it could and had that fast before. He shook his head and focused on the monitor once more.

~8~

The gardens were…

"There's something very wrong with Apalapuchians," the Detective tilted her head to the side to try and observe the odd shaped hedges and objects set up along the garden of the facility. She knew she didn't always make sense to people, but if something didn't make sense to HER, that had to be saying something, right?

Odd.

The gardens were odd. There were weird shaped hedges and a fountain and pillars that didn't fit with the rest of the aesthetic. It was as though they had taken their favorite parts of other architectures and mixed it all up into something that was…lovely, but weird.

"When I first came here, I had to trick the Interface into giving me the information," Amy spoke as she led Rory through, "But I've reprogrammed it now. It'll tell me anything except how to escape."

"You hacked it?" Rory turned to her, "That's genius!"

"Sorry to interrupt that beautiful moment," the Doctor cut in, "But temporal engines have a regulator valve, which has to be kept from the main reactor or there's feedback. Interface, where's the regulator?"

They watched as a series of print and words began to appear on the monitor, a hologram of something appearing in the facility in answer to the question, "The regulator valve is held within," a computerized voice added.

"Ah!" the Doctor carefully studied it, "Oh, very, very 'ah!' Isn't it 'ah?'" he looked at the Detective, who froze, mid-chew, her hand pressed to her mouth as she tried to get a handful of pretzels into her mouth before he'd notice.

"Yup," she managed to say, her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk so she could answer clearly, "So, 'ah.'"

"Interface," the Doctor rolled his eyes, turning back to the monitor, "I need to run through some technical specifications. Rory, give me to Amy a minute."

"Here you go," Rory handed the glasses over, moving to try and put them on Amy's face himself, but she pulled back, leaving him to hand them over instead.

"They look ridiculous," Amy muttered.

"That's what the Detective and I told him. Still, anything beats a fez, eh?" they both laughed at the remark.

"A fez?" the Detective whispered to the Doctor.

"Fezzes are cool," he defended.

"What is it?" Rory asked, when Amy stopped laughing.

"I think that's the first time I've laughed in 36 years," Amy answered.

"Clearly doesn't have a sense of humor then," the Detective remarked.

"I don't think anyone has your sense of humor, Sigma," the Doctor defended, recalling a time when the woman had literally burst out laughing because 'the spot on the wall looks cross!' It was a speck, not even a spot, and she'd found it hilarious.

Though, to be fair, he didn't think she'd slept in a week, exams and all.

"I'll just, um, leave you geniuses alone," Rory spoke, looking at both them and Amy through the monitor, "I'll be back in a minute."

Amy watched as Rory walked off, the Doctor speaking when her attention lingered on him longer than it had before, "There's still time, Amy. There's still time to fix everything."

"How?" Amy scoffed, "You can't fix this, it happened. This isn't like with Kazran, you can't go back and rewrite it."

"Kazran?" the Detective remarked, thinking about what the Doctor had told her to catch her up on his adventures, "That grouchy old man with the fish obsession?"

The Doctor snapped his fingers and pointed at her, though he spoke to Amy, "We won't need to rewrite it," the Doctor explained, "We just need to find a way to get to you in your past…"

"36 years with Rory, all back," the Detective remarked, trying to appeal to her, because they wouldn't be able to do anything if this Amy fought them at every turn. It was so clear to her how Amy felt about Rory, even still. The way she looked at him, how she saved him, how she couldn't let him touch her or look him in the eye for fear of the emotions that would flare up.

She'd experienced that herself, at times, with the Doctor and the Master, both different emotions, but they'd flare up and she'd have to look away or pull away, or she'd either kiss them or kill them, probably respectively.

"Where has Rory got to?" Amy latched onto that at least, and began looking around, starting to run in the direction he'd gone when she couldn't spot him any longer.

It was a good thing she had, too, for they came upon Rory, on the ground, a handbot looming over him, its headspace open, a round of darts sticking out of it, about to fire at Rory when Amy swung her sword and cut its head off.

"Oh," Rory moaned, hearing the noise and coming around.

"Rory?" Amy knelt beside him, reaching out to touch his face as he blinked, trying to wake up more.

"Glasses…" he mumbled.

Seeing he was alright, Amy stood up, "You stupid..."

"Oh! You saved me."

"Don't get used to it."

Rory pushed himself to his feet, trying to move in front of her, "Have you been crying? A little bit?"

"Shut up, Rory," she tried to look away.

"You have, haven't you?"

"Woman with a sword. Don't push it."

"Oooh," the Detective started to smile, a smile that made the Doctor tense as though a terrible decision was about to be made.

"No," he pointed a warning finger at her.

"I should get a sword!"

"No, Sigma, no."

"What's wrong with a sword, Theta?" she put her hands on her hips, "I've got a shovel, that's like…like a sword that's just sharp only on the end."

"Should I remind you how you died that third time?"

She pouted, "That was…"

"Not my fault," he finished at the same time as her, "You challenged Vlad the Impaler to a duel!"

"He was looking at my bum!"

The Doctor had to laugh at that, "You were a spitfire in that incarnation."

He couldn't help but picture those cartoons with little pipsqueaks challenging huge buffoons to fights and swinging at them, only for the larger character to hold them back with a hand to their forehead. She had been the embodiment of 'fight me!' in that incarnation, as the kids would say.

"See, not my fault! That was on Vlad."

"He stabbed you through the gut!"

"Exactly, his entire fault, it's even in his name!"

The Doctor shook his head, "NO sword, Sigma, none."

She huffed, before challenging, "Let me eat a slice of cake and I'll give up the sword."

He fell silent, truly weighing the pros and cons to that.

"Um, we can still hear you," Rory called out.

"Right, yes," the Doctor nodded, getting back to the main issue at hand, "Ok, so here's the plan. Time is always a bit wibbly-wobbly, but in Twostreams it's extra wubbly. I've worked out how to hijack the temporal engines and Sigma's got a pretty good idea of how to fold two points of Amy's timeline together."

"Which should either bring her out of the then and into the now," the Detective remarked, "Or, possibly, smush the two Amy's together, which isn't a BAD thing, 4 arms are better than 2!"

"What?!" both Amy and Rory demanded.

"It's a very small possibility!" she defended.

"Yeah, not helping with that last part," the Doctor muttered to her, "That won't happen," he reassured the humans, sending the Detective a look not to say a word, "Amy, I just need to borrow your brain a minute, it won't hurt, probably…almost probably..."

"Yeah, cos that was SO much better," the Detective scoffed.

"And then, Amy Pond, we're going to save you," the Doctor declared, ignoring her.

Amy, who had given Rory back the glasses, was just staring at them, glaring, "No!" she snapped, pulling her sonic probe out of her pocket, "Time's up, Handbots coming," before she turned to storm off again.

"You know, while Thing 2 is probably an attractive woman," the Detective began, "I'm getting rather tired of seeing her backside."

Rory hurried after Amy at her words, pulling his gaze away from where it had lingered.

"Amy, you've got to help us help you," the Doctor insisted, "We need you to think back 36 years ago. Amy? Amy!?"

But Amy just ignored him, striding back the way they'd come to her hiding spot, stepping through the doors to the Engine room.

"Thing 1!" the Detective called out before Rory could follow, "Hold up the glass a mo?" there was something smudged on the door, it looked old, but she couldn't make it out completely.

Rory lifted the glass to reveal Amy's handwriting, in lipstick, on the door, 'I'm Here!' He had to look away at that, "You told her to leave us a sign. And she did. And she waited. Oh, Amy."

With a newfound resolve, Rory pulled open the doors and ran after Amy, demanding, "Why won't you help yourself?"

Amy scoffed, "They want to rescue Past Me from 36 years back, which means I'll cease to exist. Everything I've seen and done dissolves, time is rewritten."

"That's...that's good, isn't it?"

"I will die," Amy put it bluntly, "Another Amy will take my place, an Amy who never got trapped at Twostreams, who grew old with you, and she, in 36 years, won't be me."

"But you'll die in here."

"Not if you take me with you," Amy's gaze shifted from Rory to the glasses, to the Time Lords watching on, "You came to rescue me, so rescue me."

"Leave her and take you?"

"Well, we COULD take this Amy," the Detective remarked.

"But if we do, our Amy has to wait 36 years to be rescued," the Doctor warned.

Rory let out a breath, "So I have to choose…which wife do I want?"

"She is me," Amy insisted, "We're both me."

Rory shook his head, "You being here is wrong. For a single day, an hour, let alone a lifetime. I swore to protect you...I promised."

They could only watch as Amy turned and disappeared through the curtain blocking out the living quarters she'd made.

"Rory…" the Doctor tried.

But Rory cut him off, "This is your fault."

"Ooh, that takes me back," the Detective remarked, moving to rest her elbow on his shoulder, thinking about all the times that phrase had been thrown around as she grew up with the Doctor and the Master.

The Doctor shook his head at her, silently signaling not to get distracted, before he focused on Rory, "I'm so sorry, but Rory..."

"No!" Rory huffed, "This is your fault! You should look in a history book once in a while, see if there's an outbreak of plague or not."

"That is not how I travel."

"That's not how we ride," the Detective agreed, she'd take a plague and danger over boring old Eye of Orion any day.

"Then I do not want to travel with you!" Rory shouted, ripping the glasses off his face and throwing them to the side, the spectacles tumbling onto the ground and rolling away.

"Wasn't me!" the Detective shouted when a very high-pitched feedback rang out in the console room.

"Yeah, this time," the Doctor muttered, rubbing his ear from the sudden burst, frowning when the sound of someone sobbing became noticeable, "Rory, is the time glass still on? If the link's still active, I think we can hear Amy. Our Amy."

The glasses, the odd angle they were at, meant they could only just barely see Rory lift the time glass and look around the room with it. There, right in the middle of the glass, hard to see for them, but noticeable with the red of her hair, was Amy, younger, crying.

"Oh, Amy…" Rory sighed. They watched as he stepped through the curtain, losing sight of him, but not the audio, "Look me in the face and say you won't help her."

"I will not help her," Amy stated, her voce firm.

"Ok, ok," he went quiet a moment, "Look me in the face and say it now."

"Rory?" Amy, younger Amy's voice called out, "Rory is that you?"

"Ooh, clever," the Detective remarked, "Using past her to convince present her."

"Rory, where are you?" younger Amy called out.

"Same place as you," Rory answered, "And a bit ahead."

"I remember this…" the older Amy murmured.

"But who's she?" the younger Amy gasped, "There's no one else here, but...me."

They could see Rory stepping past the curtain once more, back in sight, though it appeared the handbot version of him had retrieved the glasses, they were looking at him from a different angle. They hadn't noticed, too focused on the audio, but Rory at least took the glasses back even as he walked off to give the Amys privacy.

Speaking of…

"Should we mute it for a bit?" the Doctor asked the Detective, both curious to know what Amy might say to herself, but also conscious that this may be 'girl talk' territory and asking a girl's opinion.

The Detective snorted, "Please," she scoffed, holding out another bag to him, this time of popcorn, "We're in for a show, Theta."

He could only sigh and take a handful to munch on while they waited to see if this would work.

"Why are we still here!?" the younger Amy demanded.

"Because they leave you," the older Amy stated, "Because they get in their TARDIS and they fly away."

The Detective shook her head, she knew she had her fair share of delusions herself, but this wasn't one of them, this was an excuse people said to try and convince themselves of something, something they didn't believe even after.

"No, Rory wouldn't, not ever. Something must have stopped him."

"You did. Or rather, the old version of you. The Me version of you. I refuse to help them. I won't let them save myself."

"Why?"

"If you escape, then I was never trapped here, the last 36 years of my life rewrites, and I cease to exist. That's why Old Me refused to help then...that's why I'm refusing to help now...and that's why you'll refuse to help when it's your turn. Nothing you can say will change that."

"Three words. What about Rory?"

"Rory? I...I called my robot Rory."

"You called your robot Rory? You didn't call it the Doctor, or Biggles, our favorite cat?"

"I'm deeply offended," the Detective muttered, pouting at how she hadn't ranked in a list of robot names, "See if I ever name anything Thing 2."

The Doctor just chuckled and patted her on the back in amused sympathy.

"Do you, um...remember that summer when he came back to school with that ridiculous haircut?" older Amy spoke.

"He said he'd been in a rock band," the younger Amy laughed along with her older self.

The two of them muttered, "Liar," at the memory.

"And then he had to learn to play the guitar," the older Amy continued.

"So we wouldn't know he couldn't play it. Mhmm."

"All those boys chasing me, but it was only ever Rory. Why was that?"

"You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful, and then you actually talk to them, and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, and you meet them and think, 'Not bad, they're ok.' And then you get to know them...and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful?"

The Doctor had to smile at the description, it was…similar to how he'd come to think of the Detective. Of course, his first impression hadn't really been 'not bad, they're ok' but more, 'she seems cool' though he HAD been about six years old. And everyone was a different person after the Untempered Schism, once she'd started getting better and he'd gotten to know the new her, it had shifted to 'there is something very wrong with this person, I LOVE IT.' Still, it had progressed from there, she'd gone from someone that amused him and made him curious, to someone he liked being around, to someone he preferred being around, to someone he just wanted around all the time.

When school had ended, they all went their separate ways, out into Gallifrey, but they kept in touch. There were times she and the Master would appear and just whisk him off, no matter what he had planned. Even if he had a date lined up with someone.

No one…no one really held his interest and kept him on his toes like the Detective did, no one ever shared his sense of curiosity and excitement like her. But…he had found love, here and there, had written off his feelings for her as a fledgling school crush, grown to love another, married her, had children. His wife hadn't been thrilled with how he'd disappear every so often with the Detective, even the times the Master was with them, before it all fell apart. Before he'd begun to realize how she viewed the two other people most important to him beyond her, that had been a wedge he couldn't pry away from between them. He'd loved his wife, but it always sort of felt, in the back of his mind, that it was more…expected.

He was a Time Lord, he'd graduated, the next steps were get a job, find a partner, have a family.

Find another person who Ran Away from the Schism, that was how it tended to go.

Relationships could form within a triumvirate, when they did, more often than not, those who went mad and those who were inspired would gravitate towards each other, both sharing that way of looking at the world differently. Even outside a triumvirate, that was how it tended to go. The ones who ran would often find each other, bond over that sheer terror and utter fear they felt at the Schism, something only another who ran could understand. That wasn't to say that there weren't different relationships that formed, one who ran with one inspired or so on, that wasn't even to say that a triumvirate couldn't form into a relationship of its own with all three together. It was just more common, how it typically formed, the mad and inspired together, either from the same triumvirate or usually different ones, and those who ran together as well.

It just so happened that the Master and the Detective never found a relationship with others, and he had found one with another who ran.

So many people looked at him as though he was the Time Lord who broke all the rules, but he'd tried, at first, to follow them. He'd done what was expected of him, and it was just…so boring. He would never, ever, call the family he created boring, he loved them all so much, missed them more than words could say.

But, a tiny part of him, the smallest part, would whisper that it wasn't enough to keep him on Gallifrey. That if it had been right and what he wanted, he would have stayed and been content, but he hadn't been, not fully. It was never what he wanted to do, he wanted to explore, see new things, but he'd squashed it down to do what a proper Time Lord did. His family had been concerned, his mother especially, for how the skewing of his triumvirate had affected him and she worried so much that he'd be alone and not find love. He had always been a bit of a mama's boy, as the humans would say, so he'd tried his best. Eventually he just…it just bubbled up too much and he couldn't stand to be on the planet anymore. It chafed him every day, the monotony of it all. He'd at least waited till his children were older and off on their own, till he had grandchildren, even, before he made the move to leave the planet.

His wife hadn't been enthusiastic, but, they'd grown apart during the course of their marriage. It wasn't rocky, there weren't fights, they didn't make each other miserable, they just…didn't work any longer. She couldn't be what he wanted, a partner to explore the universe with, and he couldn't be what she needed, a stable and dependable grounded husband. She hadn't understood that his bond with the ones of his triumvirate could be just as strong as hers with her own even though his was skewed, and he hadn't understood the resentment she seemed to have for the Master and the Detective and it ate away at him. They parted amicably, and she kept him informed of anything happening with their children on his adventures, even more so with Susan with him.

It was good, he'd had a good life, but it had never really been the life HE wanted. He partly blamed parental guilt, his parents lamenting about him and him wanting to reassure them. He'd done what they wanted as long as he could before it was too much and he wanted to just be HAPPY with himself and his choices. He'd rather take chances than regret the ones he didn't take.

He'd probably made a terrible mistake in asking the Detective to travel with him before asking the Master. The man found out and went on a rampage after, how he was picking her over him, and how that was so typical, and not fair. It put the Detective in a terrible position too, either accept his offer (which he, at that point, refused to extend to the Master because why would he want some baby throwing a tantrum at every turn there?), and earn the Master's wrath as well, or reject it and disappoint her other friend.

In the end, she'd had to reject the invitation, she'd made it clear to them that she was neutral in all this. She would travel with both or neither of them and that was that.

Which, of course, only served to make the Master even more furious that now she wouldn't travel with HIM either because of the Doctor. His brilliant idea was, 'Well, if I get rid of the Doctor, then she can travel with me and it'll be fine' which, admittedly, was foolish. Because she cared about them both and if one of them ever did actually kill-kill the other, she'd never speak to the one who did it. But the Master's mind always worked in odd ways.

It was why he'd never really had the hearts to off the Master the times he had, and that he would only do so when he had a reasonable idea the man would be able to regenerate. The Detective would never forgive him if he killed the Master.

All in all, she did sort of still travel with them both. Whenever they had confrontations, she would be there, off to the side, sometimes with popcorn, watching, waiting, ready to try and comfort the loser.

It was a little unfair though, because, in the end, she also did sort of travel with the Master more than HIM. He understood why though. The Master was far more unstable and she had to keep him as in check as possible. He couldn't imagine the carnage the man would cause if there was no one to talk him out of things or try to rein him in a little. He could ignore those times, those moments she shared with the Master, if it meant the Universe as a whole was better off.

There were times, though, where he almost felt like the Master lost on purpose, that he intentionally put some sort of giant loophole or gaping crack in his plans, so that he would lose and the Detective would hang out with him. He could never prove it though.

"Rory's the most beautiful man I've ever met," both Amys said as one, shaking him from his thoughts.

The Doctor glanced over at the Detective…who was using a finger to try and pick a popcorn kernel out of her tooth…and had to agree with the sentiment, if not the person it was directed at.

"Please," the younger Amy begged, "Do it for him."

"You're asking me to defy destiny, causality, the nexus of time itself, for a boy?" the older Amy asked.

"You're Amy...he's Rory...and oh, yes, I am."

The image on the monitor changed, Rory, who had been staring at a wall, spun around, hearing something, to see the older Amy step out past her curtain.

"I'm going to pull time apart for you," she told the boy, before leaning in to kiss him.

"Ergh," the Detective grimaced, "PDA guys!" she called out, not really caring if she ruined the moment.

The Doctor could only chuckle at the irony of her saying that when, according to Amy, the two of them apparently engaged in quite a fair bit of 'PDA' even just being friends. His smile grew a bit sad when Amy pulled away and hugged Rory instead, the woman finally let tears fall for all she'd lost and all she might gain back.

~8~

"Ok, Doctor, Twostreams is back on air," Amy declared as she led Rory down the hall, heading for the doors out of the engine room, now composed and ready to go, "Right, ok, so this is big news, this is temporal earthquake time. I am now officially changing my own future. Hold on to your spectacles. In my past, I saw my future-self refuse to help you. I'm now changing that future and agreeing. Every law of time says that shouldn't be possible."

"Pshh," the Detective waved it off, "Who listens to laws of time? Not us. And humans, sorry, Thing 2, but you have a very limited understanding of time and how it works."

"Yes," the Doctor had to agree, "Sometimes knowing your own future is what enables you to change it, especially if you're bloody minded, contradictory, and completely unpredictable."

"So, basically, if you're Amy, then?" Rory asked as they stepped out of the doors.

"Well, I was going to say Sigma, but Amy works too," the Doctor joked, laughing lightly, "Yes, if anyone could defeat pre-destiny, it's your wife."

"It's not about what I'm doing, but who I'm doing it for," Amy cut in, looking more at Rory than them, "I'm trusting you to watch my back, Rory."

"Always," Rory nodded, "You and me, always."

"Cos here's the deal...you take me too in the TARDIS. Me too."

The Time Lords looked at each other for that, frowning.

"But that means that there'll be two of you, permanently, forever," Rory realized.

"And that way we both get to live," Amy nodded.

"Two Amys together. Can that work?"

"Told you," the Detective sighed, "Limited understanding."

"I don't know, it's your marriage," the Doctor offered, trying to cover up the more negative answer the Detective had made. Right now it was a precarious spot, Amy had agreed to help, for Rory's sake, but clearly with the intention that she would come out of it, too. If she didn't help them, they'd never be able to get to the first Amy and stop this ever happening to this Amy.

"Doctor!" Rory huffed.

"Yes," the Detective answered, "It would work, both of them could step foot in the TARDIS."

"Great," Rory sighed.

But the Detective wasn't finished, "Which would then create a paradox that would rip the ship apart, causing it to explode, again I'm told, and destroy the whole of creation. So, yeah, if you're ok with say...10 to 15 seconds of victory before dying a grizzly death, it works perfectly!"

"What?!"

"We might possibly be able to make it work," the Doctor lunged forward to press a hand to the Detective's mouth to keep her from contradicting him, "If we shunted the reality compensators on the TARDIS, re-calibrated the doomsday bumpers, and jettisoned the karaoke bar, yes, maybe, yes. It could do it. The TARDIS could sustain the paradox."

'Rubbish!' the Detective seemed to try and say against his hand. He just shot her a look to keep her quiet about his very big lie.

"Right," Rory took a breath, "Amy..." he began, holding up the time glass for them to see the younger Amy had gone with them, just in her own time stream, "And Amy. The wife and the wife, right."

"Ok, Amy," the Doctor tried, still giving the Detective the look as he lowered his hand from her mouth, going to need both his hands for what came next.

"Then Thing 2," the Detective added, as though it helped clarify anything.

"Stand by the door. Future Amy…"

"This Thing 2."

"You, too," the Doctor rolled his eyes, muttering, "You're not helping," ignoring the tongue she stuck out at him, before he continued, "Future Amy, can I borrow your sonic scr…probe?"

The Detective giggled, "You said probe. The alien said probe."

"Sigma!" he huffed.

"It's a screwdriver!" the older Amy cut in, handing it to Rory to use.

"Rory, sonic it, double our power," the Doctor instructed, waiting till he'd done so before tossing it back to Amy, "Amy Now, you're our link to Amy Then. We need to get a signal through. That signal will be a thought."

"ONE," the Detective added, "Just ONE thought otherwise who knows what'll happen."

"Amy Now and Amy Then, share a thought. Something so powerful that it can rip through time."

"Think about Thing 1, if it helps. WHO you're doing this for, who you're ripping time apart for. Might work best."

"Yes, Rory, sonic the plinth front," the Doctor instructed, guiding him over to a case attached to the wall of the arrivals hall, "Inside you'll find three levers and a jumble of wiring. That's the regulator valve. After we've rebooted, you have ten minutes to get back to the TARDIS."

"Ok," Rory nodded.

"Pull the red and green receptors," the Detective instructed, "You're not colorblind are you? Probably should have asked that first. It's the one on the…"

"I can see red and green," Rory huffed.

"Ok, then reroute the blue into red and the green into blue. Leave red loose. And don't touch the yellow!" she suddenly yelled, even though his hand wasn't near anything of the color, "From now on, yellow works as well here as in snow. Don't touch it."

"Ew," Rory muttered at the analogy, before staring at the red and blue wires.

"Come on, Rory," the Doctor urged, the faster they did this and got the others here the less chance there was of the others finding out that he'd told a rather large fib about saving both Amys, "It's hardly rocket science!"

"It's just quantum physics," the Detective agreed.

"Yes, right," Rory grumbled, his tone indicating he did not think that was any easier, "Blue into red..."

"Now the lever," the Doctor began once he'd completed that, "Throw them in order! Amys, start thinking the most important thought you've ever had. Hold it in your head and do not let it go!"

"Pull the lever, Kronk!" the Detective ordered.

It took Rory a moment to realize she meant him, but he pulled the first lever, his eyes on Amy though as she seemed to start mumbling about the Macarena.

"She's doing the Macarena," Rory realized, Amy actually starting to do the dance as well, "Our first kiss."

"Lever two, Rory," the Doctor shook him out of his thoughts, a hand reached out to cover the Detective's mouth, waiting till Rory pulled the next one, watching as a faint image of Amy began to flicker across from her older self, "Lever three."

With the last lever pulled, the time glass shattered, sparks flew up within the TARDIS, setting the console on fire.

"Wasn't me!" the Detective defended as she and the Doctor jumped back, his hand falling from her mouth at the reaction the old box had. They frantically worked at trying to calm the box down, barely paying attention to the two Amys now speaking to each other, to Rory celebrating his Amy being back, as they tried to keep the TARDIS from flying away. In fact, it wasn't till Rory let out a startled cry of pain that they were even able to get around to the monitor to see what happened.

"Thing 1 take the glasses off!" the Detective shouted out, seeing sparks appearing on the monitor, making the camera was picking up sparks from the glasses.

"You're getting temporal feedback," the Doctor warned, trying to wave away smoke that was wafting about the room from the tantrum the TARDIS was now throwing, "Whoa! Calm down, dear! Oi!" he pointed a finger at the Detective as she pulled a mallet from her pocket and began to whack the console with it, "No hitting the TARDIS, Sigma!"

"I think we have bigger things to worry about right now, Theta!" she snapped back.

"Right," his eyes widened, turning back to the audio feed, "Rory, Amys, we've created a massive paradox and the TARDIS hates it. She's self-phasing, trying to get out of here."

"Oi, cool your jets, missy!" the Detective shouted up at the rotor as the box let out a loud grinding sound.

"Rory, you've got eight minutes left. I'm sorry, you're on your own now."

And they truly were, for just after he'd said it, the glasses let out one last massive spark, cutting off the last visual and audio they had of the now-trio. There was nothing but static.

"A little help, Theta!" the Detective yelled, pulling him away from his gnawing guilt as he stared at the screen, jumping into action to try and help her stabilize the box.

"Just 8 more minutes, old girl," the Doctor tried to sooth the box.

He really hoped they'd get there before then though, he hated to see the box in such pain.

That and he was fairly certain the Detective's patience and attention span only ran about 3 minutes and then he'd have to contend with her trying to actively pilot the box away too.

~8~

"NO!"

It was that shout that drew the Time Lords' attention to the doors of the TARDIS, the muffled call getting through to them and the noise the box was making.

"Was that Thing 1?" the Detective called over the grinding noises.

The Doctor ran to the doors, peering out the window to check, not wanting to let a handbot in on accident, to see Rory scooping the younger Amy up into his arms, the woman clearly knocked out by one of the two handbots now shorted out beside her, the man running for the doors of the TARDIS. He could see the older Amy at the other end of the gallery, fighting off a handful of handbots with her sword and staff, giving them time.

He just managed to unlock the door with time for Rory to kick it open, not having expected the Time Lord to be right there, and hurried to help Rory get Amy all the way in. They deposited the woman on the floor, the Doctor covering her with his jacket, as the Detective came to examine her with her magnifying glass.

She shot the Doctor a look before she knelt down, the man nodding subtly and getting up to 'give her space' even as he hurried towards the doors.

"Anesthetic," the Detective told Rory, trying to distract him from the Doctor.

The Time Lord caught sight of the older Amy, throwing her weapons away and making a break for the box, whispering, "I'm sorry," before he slammed the doors closed on her and locked it.

The sound of the slamming, however, was enough to reach Rory, who turned, his eyes wide as he stood, "What are you doing?" he demanded, running over to the door to stop him.

"We lied to her, Rory," the Doctor told him.

"Doctor?" the older Amy was pounding on the door, "Let me in!"

"There can't be two Amys in the TARDIS. The paradox is too massive. Sigma was right, it would destroy the whole of the universe."

"She'll die!" Rory argued.

"She'll die, and so will you and This Thing 2 if you let her in," the Detective warned him, getting up, trying to haul Amy's dead weight up with her to move her somewhere more comfortable.

"Doctor, let me in!" the older Amy demanded.

"If we leave, she'll never have existed," the Doctor told Rory, the man staring at the door, "When we save our Amy, this future won't have happened."

"But she happened!" Rory pointed, "She's there!"

"Doctor!" the older Amy screamed, "I trusted you!"

"No," the Doctor shook his head, "She's not real."

"She is real!" Rory insisted, "Let her in!"

"Thing 1," the Detective walked over, absently dragging Amy by the arm along with her, "We let That Thing 2 in, we throw This Thing 2 out. There can only ever be one of them."

"Which one do you want?" the Doctor asked, stepping past him to go scoop Amy up to move her, before the Detective decided to just lug her up the stairs, "It's your choice."

"This isn't fair," Rory frowned, "You're turning me into you."

"Why do you think we said what we did, Rory?" the Detective asked, in an uncharacteristic moment of sincerity and seriousness, "WE chose for you. So you wouldn't have to. THIS was our choice, you get Amy and that Amy never has to live this life, ever. But if you think we were wrong," she shrugged, nodding at the lock, "Go for it. You either swap your wives or kill them both."

"Doctor!" the older Amy was shouting, now banging and kicking on the door as the Detective walked away, "Doctor? Doctor!" there was a moment of silence, before her hand appeared on one of the windows, "Rory? Please…" she trailed off when he placed his hand over hers on the glass, "The look on your face when you carried her. Me. Her. When you carried her away, you used to look at me like that. I'd forgotten how much you loved me. I'd forgotten how much I loved being her. Amy Pond, in the TARDIS. With Rory Williams."

"I'm sorry," Rory sniffled, "I can't do this," he moved to turn the latch.

"If you love me, don't let me in," the older Amy spoke, stopping him, "Open that door, I will, I'll come in. I don't want to die. I won't bow out bravely. I'll be kicking and screaming, fighting. To the end."

"Oh, Amy," Rory's voice broke, "Amy, I love you."

"I love you too. Don't let me in. Tell Amy, your Amy, I'm giving her the days. The days with you. The days to come."

"I'm so, so sorry."

"The days I can't have. Take them, please. I'm giving you my days."

"I'm so, so sorry," Rory sniffled and turned back.

The Doctor quickly reached out to grab the Detective's hand, seeing her about to start slow clapping, her internal thoughts telling him she thought that was 'one hell of a speech' and he didn't think Rory would appreciate her 'gesture' right now.

"Do not be alarmed," they could hear the handbots through the door, "This is a kindness."

"Come on," the Doctor tugged the Detective over to the console, both of them getting to work while Rory came back, moving over to where they'd placed Amy on a chair, to hold her hand while they sent the box off, erasing the timeline and the woman outside…

~8~

Rory was doing his best to ignore the Detective as she stood behind the Doctor and him, as they sat on the stairs of the console room, watching Amy sleep on the captain's chair. The Time Lady had grown bored of their vigil, had fallen asleep on the Doctor's shoulder till he nudged her awake and said she was being rude. So she'd gotten up and was spending her time trying to toss pretzels into the air and catch them in her mouth, while they just…watched on.

The way she could be so nonchalant about it all, when even the Doctor appeared somewhat guilty, it just made Rory more ill at ease, because it reaffirmed that the Time Lords had known they couldn't save the older Amy, but still lied about it.

"Did you always know it would never work?" he had to ask though, because thinking and knowing…they were different, and they had to have had a damn good reason for putting him in the position they had, "Saving both Amys?"

"I promised you we'd save her and there she is," the Doctor said, not quite answering, but giving an answer, "Safe," he nodded at Amy on the chair, patting him on the shoulder as he stood.

"Yeah," Rory sighed, "There she is," he quickly got up and hurried to Amy's side when he saw her starting to wake, "You alright?" he smiled as she hummed in agreement, still a bit groggy, "How you feeling?"

"Where is she?" Amy answered instead, looking around.

"Um…" Rory floundered, glancing over at the Doctor as he tried to sneak away.

"Doctor," Amy called, frowning at him, "Where's the other me?"

"Well, you see, Amelia, paradoxes…" the Doctor tried to come up with an explanation.

"You left me there to die!?" Amy accused.

The Doctor's eyes widened, "No, no, no, you see, what happened is…"

Rory shook his head, stepping back to allow the Doctor to explain to Amy how no, he hadn't left her to die, when his gaze caught on the Detective again, watching her a moment before heading over to her.

"I get it, you know," he started, his eyes widening when he spooked her and caused her to jump, sending her pretzels flying in the air, some of which landed in his hair, "Sorry."

"It's fine," she shook her head, picking a pretzel off her shoulder and munching on it, "What did you get?"

"Not wanting to pick between two people," he finished, thinking about how he'd had to pick between two Amys, "But…there's something I think you missed."

The Detective snorted, "Please, Rory, I'm called the Detective for a reason. I suss out clues, I find hidden things, I solve mysteries. There is nothing that I miss, ever."

Rory nodded slowly, but chalked it up to the fact that she didn't seem to consider this a mystery to solve as to why she hadn't seen the missing piece, "It's just…you didn't want to pick the Doctor because you didn't want to upset the Master. But…the Master's not here anymore to upset."

He didn't say more than that, just walked off to leave her to her thoughts.

The Detective frowned as his words sunk in. He wasn't...wrong, she could admit that. If her entire reason for not really picking the Doctor was because of how the Master would react…and he wasn't there to react any longer…well, YET. The Doctor was sure the Master was gone, but she wasn't so certain, he always had a way of coming back. But...if he was trapped on Gallifrey just before the Time Lock, then he was frozen there or trapped as it was being destroyed and...there was no telling how long it would be before he found a way to escape. Even then...he wasn't THERE and there was no saying how long it would be before he did come back.

And even if he was there, seeing Rory fretting so much over his wives reminded her that...technically the Master had gotten married to a human so it wasn't like he could get angry with her if she did 'pick the Doctor.'

There really wasn't a reason to not make her intentions known.

And it wasn't like it was anything startling, they weren't new emotions, they had been there for a while, centuries, that affection she held for the Doctor that were different than what she felt for the Master. It was a difficult situation to be in, she wanted the Doctor to know, when they were younger, that she cherished him in a different way than the Master. But every move she made, every word she said, even every look she gave him had to be carefully done so that the Master wouldn't realize and go off. She would be more free with her touches with him, which she could defend because the Master grew less touchy as they aged. She would look at him when the others weren't paying attention, and claim there was something on the wall behind him that she was examining or some thought that got away from her. She would even say she loved him! Which she never did with the Master, or at least not as much. But she was always careful to use it in a light, grateful tone, and only after he'd done something for her. And there were some things she would do with him and not usually the Master, go on walks, talk about things just the two of them, really deep and important things she never really brought up to the Master. She'd seek him out when she had nightmares, citing he was a Doctor it was his job to help more than the Master, which the man did appreciate because he hated being woken. She agonized over gifts to give him more, having too many ideas and second guessing herself till he opened it.

She just...she always had to be careful, not to let on too much, not to let the Doctor notice, because if HE noticed, the oblivious fool, then there was no way in any planet's hell that the Master hadn't noticed. The older she got, the more cautious she became, because...they grew up, they moved on, and then...he was getting married. It became even more important not to let on then, because they met up less frequently than in school and her best mates would notice things off with her even more and...he was getting married, he wasn't hers. Eventually she'd just spent so long pushing down every single non-platonic emotion that ever rose up around the Doctor the second it happened, because it was just too risky to let herself really feel it.

It was hard, now, to admit what she felt for him wasn't platonic at all.

And there was no real saying he felt the same way either.

Because, did she mention, he'd gotten married? To someone else? Someone not her?

Yes, she never said anything and, no, they'd never dated on Gallifrey before that point. But, even not knowing if he felt the same...SHE hadn't had any serious relationship with anyone else, yes a few short-lived ones, nothing serious, nothing like marriage. If he had feelings like hers, for her...wouldn't he have not gotten married to someone else?

And if he had loved someone enough to marry them on Gallifrey...then clearly she was just a friend to him, wasn't she?

She knew she could be a bit much for people. She was too energetic, she ate too much, she crashed too hard, she was too scatterbrained, she was too reckless, and so much more. She was too much.

...for most people.

But the Doctor (and the Master) had stayed, had kept her in his life for the whole of it. That meant something right?

She paused to consider that thought, it was...like a mystery of sorts, she supposed, whether the Doctor might have feelings for her in return.

And if there was one thing she was good at, it was solving mysteries.

A/N: Quick note, I'll be putting up a poll of pairing names for Sigma and the Doctor when I post the next chapter, so if you have any suggestions, be sure to drop a review ;)

Now, bit of a rant first:

Amusing story about Sigma's little rant about working in a coffee shop, literally only the tip of the iceberg of some of the people I've dealt with when I worked as a barista in a cafe. I'm not sure if people are politer in other countries, but in America...really, don't ever get between someone and their order or they will cut you. Not...not literally cut you, but you get the idea.

I once had a man call me a 'god d**m f**king c**t' all because, literally in our store's rotation policy, I could not give him the one specific blondie (like a vanilla brownie) he wanted. Our rotation policy was we pull from our backups first, which could mean we baked a cookie that morning, then baked more in the evening, and we had to pull the morning cookie first if there were still some left, otherwise we throw out the morning cookie if it's still there at the end of the day. No donating the food, no whoever wants it can take it home, into the garbage. (HATED that). We would get written up if we didn't adhere to the policy. I tried explaining that to him, and he began yelling at me, cursed me out, stormed off threatening to call his lawyer.

Had another man who argued with me that he was being gypped. Because, get this, in our store a small or medium expresso drink had ONE shot of expresso in it, a large had 2. He was flipping out because, according to him, Starbucks has 2 shots of expresso in their medium and how dare we charge him extra to put 2 shots in his medium drink?! I had to explain to him, our cafe, while we had a license to sell Starbucks beverages, was NOT A STARBUCKS. We had tea from two other brands, food not sold in Starbucks, and our recipes, because we didn't have Starbucks sized pumps or machines, were different than Starbucks. I offered to show him the literal recipes we were told to follow per his drink and size cup to show him there is only one shot of expresso. He flipped, refused to pay, threatened to call his lawyer on us, and stormed off.

...I'm now starting to see a pattern. Male 'Karen's threaten to call their lawyers, female Karens just demand the manager. Hmm.

(and I mean literally no offense to anyone named Karen, I use that name here in just the 'slang' sense of the word. I know two Karens, one of whom is like a surrogate aunt to me, who are the kindest most understanding people I've ever met.)

And don't get me started about the female patrons. One woman threw her drink at me, because it was made wrong. She wanted SKIM milk, not SOY milk, and the person at the register (a new girl) had accidently marked the cup as S. Which in our cafe meant SOY milk, N for Nonfat meant Skim. I don't know why, that's just how it was. So I made the drink with Soy, as it was marked, she took one sip, spat it out, started screaming about incompetence, and 'can't you read!?' while pointing at the cup and the S. I explained, 'yes, I have a Masters in Literature, I CAN read, and the S means SOY, N would mean Nonfat/skim,' so she threw her drink at me and demanded a new one. Thank god it was an iced drink. She got banned from the store for it.

Yeah, people are literally, as Sigma said, batshit crazy when it comes to how they treat retail and food service people. And after Black Friday till like 2 weeks into January...pray for the souls of those workers. The lines never end, which means no break at all from the harassment or rudeness of some customers.

-takes a deep breath- Ok, moral of the stories kids, be kind to retail and food service people.

Onto the chapter!

Bit shorter than normal, but there wasn't really much for the Doctor or Sigma to really do while they were trapped in the TARDIS, not much trouble for Sigma to get into either so I hope she was still amusing to you :)

We now know 2 more ways that Sigma regenerated in her past. 'Impaled' by Vlad the Impaler, and fell in a volcano. Oh boy, I definitely get why she would want much 'cooler' ways to go lol :)

We got more of a look into the Doctor's relationship with his wife, more about the triumvirates and relationships, and a bit more of his own little crush on Sigma. Given what she said to Rory last chapter, we sort of understand what was happening while they were in school compared to what he interpreted of it. He thought maybe he misread her signals, maybe she didn't like him like that and wanted to just be friends. Really though, she wanted the same but knew more about how the Master would react and, through knowing the Doctor and noticing his tells, could sort of keep him from actually asking her. She wanted to be with him, but for the sake of all their friendships, she put it to the side and just stuck with friendship but tried in little ways to share that she cared deeply for him.

But what Rory said, I think, is going to be something she'll be thinking about a lot. Because he does have a point. He may not be entirely right, that the Master is 'gone' when (the way her mind is wired) she 'knows' the Master will be back one day, but he has a point that the Master isn't THERE right now and she doesn't know how long it will be until he eventually pops up again. And, hearing about his exploits on Earth, how he got married, to her means he had a relationship with someone else so...if he could, why can't she?

It was sort of the opening she needed to make that connection between being able to be with the Doctor and how the Master can't gripe about it any longer. The Master can't say 'you chose him!' because she can throw Lucy back at him. HE chose someone else 'over her' first, and a human to boot!

It may take a tiny bit more time before she actively tries to really flirt with the Doctor or try for a relationship, admitting how she feels to him, because she needs more data. Right now she's got a new mystery to solve: does the Doctor love her that way in return?

Once she solves that and is SURE about it, she'll be just as ready to jump in with both feet as she always is. This is just too close, there's too much at risk, and she's been being cautious in this one area of her life for so long it's just second nature to not rock the boat. She just won't risk her friendship unless she's sure ;)

For this chapter there are 3 intentional quotes and 1 reference ;)

Quotes from the last chapter:

Fake, fake, fake. Fake, fake, fake. Fake your booty, fake your booty - A spoof of the 'Shake Your Booty' song ;)

Some notes on reviews...

I'll be using bits of Carol mostly in Endgame when she appears in the Avengers series yup :)

I know :( The website is so stupid sometimes :( But I won't be putting the stories up on AO3 at the moment, even with the glitches. I'm still sort of posting Evy's series as a trial period, whether I like AO3 or want to keep them there or not. A lot of me being reluctant to post my work on other sites is that it just makes it easier for it to be copied on those sites, it's on more platforms and more people can steal it and the idea that if someone took my work and posted it on a site, and then I post on that site, THEY can actually try and claim that I stole their work on that site :/ I get nervous just posting my older works on AO3 so I'm still debating whether to keep that going, or just post my work everywhere, or just keep it here. I'd end up having to delete it off of AO3 as soon as the chapter was available here and so I'd feel more comfortable just waiting till the glitch is fixed no matter how frustrating it is :(

I know, the site has been glitching everywhere apparently :( Hopefully this chapter shows up :)

I'm glad you like it! The site has been glitching and not showing many people's new chapters :( I think both the last 2 should be available to see now and hopefully this one will be too :)

Lol, oh yes, her deaths ARE that ridiculous lol :) Sort of plays into her one remark about how being electrocuted on a high tower would be 'cooler' than her other deaths ;) You can just imagine other ways she's regenerated due to that lol :) I never really thought of it that way either till the 2005 film when we saw the kids at the end and I was like 'geez, ouch!' Yup, Sherlock exists in this Universe ;)

That gets me too, the entitlement. The Detective will have a few more moments through her series calling companions out on that, because, unlike them, she's BEEN there for most of his life so she might feel a little entitled to things but sort of IS entitled to them because it likely involves her or she was there for it or doesn't have the whole story of something she should know. But she'll definitely be the sort of person to remind the companions, in various ways, that they aren't the be all end all to the Doctor, they aren't the first, they aren't the last, and reminding them they don't know everything and, like you said, aren't entitled to know everything, just the way that the Doctor doesn't get to know everything about THEM either :) I'm glad you like the pockets! :) I tried to drop a little hint of that in my Angel Story, near the end, with her daughter pulling a torch from her pocket and being like 'Pockets!' as a hint of what quirk the Detective would have ;) Lol, I think Sigma, Mary Poppins, and Newt Scamander should have a competition one day for the most things they have in their various pockets/bags :)