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.

9. Closing Time

Closing Time

"So," the Detective spoke as she and the Doctor waited outside the door of a quaint house, her arm linked through his, absently rocking back and forth on her feet while they waited. The Doctor had knocked on the door for whoever was inside to open it, but they were taking quite a while, "Who's this one then?"

They had spent the last near-200 years on a farewell tour of sorts, or at least that was how the Doctor was dramatically looking at it. He was avoiding Earth, or at least this particular date on Earth, due to the closeness of his 'death date' on the shores of 'Lake Silencio' or some rubbish like that. The only reason he'd set down so close to it was that one person on his farewell tour had apparently only just met him and so he was giving it a year before he popped in to say hello. He couldn't go back farther or else the man wouldn't have known who he was.

He'd travelled back to say hi to some past companions, all those still living that he could reach without much worry about timeline complications, find a way to 'say goodbye' to them without saying goodbye lest they worry for him. It had put a bit of a spanner in her plans to try and investigate his feelings, it seemed like every day they were off meeting another person or having another adventure in between.

Still she had enjoyed it. She'd absolutely LOVED meeting all his past companions, they were brilliant. She especially liked that Donna Noble woman, even if Donna had no idea who she or the Doctor was. He'd just bumped into her in a shop as she was complaining about something, though in defense of one of the temps working there and not AT the temp, which she appreciated. Donna had vaguely recognized him as a friend of her mother's she'd seen once or twice, apparently he would stop in to check on Donna by speaking to her mother when Amy or Rory were asleep, but no recognition beyond that. HE couldn't stay around Donna too long, but that had not stopped her from offering to get a coffee and pastry from the shopping center's café in thanks of how she'd stood up for the temp worker. They'd had quite the chat about the little idiosyncrasies their 'guys' had that drove them up the wall as Donna had gotten started on that tangent and pulled her into it. Apparently the woman was pregnant which made her all the more cranky about things that she normally had no problem with.

Not having a 'guy' of her own, she'd talked about the Doctor and a bit about the Master. Which had made for an interesting 'confrontation' when Donna had to go, where the ginger woman had pointed a warning finger at the Doctor and told him to 'treat her right, you hear me!' before she stormed off.

She loved Donna.

The others were amazing too, but there was something about Donna's personality that just made her smile a bit more. Martha had been very smart and mature, Sarah Jane too, Jo Grant was a hoot and a half, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack…she may have frightened the man a bit. But that wasn't her fault! The Doctor had explained a few adventures Jack had been a part of and what was so wrong about her nitpicking every flaw in the Master's plan for world domination and pointing out ways he could have succeeded? Nothing, that's what. But Jack just kept looking at her like he wasn't sure whether to laugh at her or lock her up.

The others were alright in her book, some a bit boring, some a bit slow, others funny, others dull, a mixed sort.

And then there were the people from off-world, all across the Universe, friends he'd made that he wanted to introduce her to.

She wasn't sure what it said that, in all the centuries he'd been travelling, it only took him about 200 years to introduce her to the important ones.

He needed to get out more is what she thought.

And he was SO dramatic during it all.

As though he didn't have at least 5 plans on how to survive his supposed death.

As though she didn't have 20 more on how he could survive his supposed death.

But he kept walking into each place like it would be the last time and it was starting to annoy her.

She thought she had more patience than this…

Ok, that's a lie. She had next to no patience, but she made an effort for the Doctor and the Master and honestly it was a miracle in and of itself she'd gotten through 200 years of this without killing him herself and showing him that he couldn't die at the lake now because he'd already died so there, shut up.

She refrained, just barely, because of the regenerations he'd already been through and where he was now. But she wasn't sure how much longer she could take of this walk down memory lane of his. She was at the point where, if he had anyone else to visit after this trip she was liable to tie him up, duct tape his mouth shut, and either hunt down Patchy to blow up her entire division or blow up Earth so this Lake Silencio wouldn't exist just to shut him up.

She was still debating which would be more entertaining to do.

The Doctor would probably push for the first, if it came down to that, he wasn't big on blowing up planets, but still! If that was how he felt, he had better get off this 'I'm dying!' kick or else she'd take the quickest option over the less destructive.

"Craig Owens," the Doctor spoke, nudging her, seeing where her thoughts had gone towards the end with a soft smile on his face.

It wasn't…easy, to read the Detective's mind, not always. When she was focused on a task or a mystery, like when they were separated or the humans around them were getting scared and they had to be careful to not make them more so, her mind was wider open to him and it was easier to get a read on her. In those cases, there were less, not none but less, other thoughts that came through to distract her. But when there was nothing going on, her mind was such a jumble of things that it was hard to catch any one thought. But she'd been thinking about it more and more and so it came through clearer to him.

A lot of people would see a thought like that and think she was just getting fed up with him and his antics, but he knew her better than a lot of people. For as annoyed as it would come across, it was covering up a number of emotions.

The first her faith in him, that she didn't know why he was acting like this when he would find a way out, because he WOULD find a way out, he always did and that wouldn't change now. And if he didn't, she would, in whatever manner she had to to ensure he was safe. Then there was her anger at Kovarian and the Silence for putting him in this position. And finally, the tiniest spark of fear and worry for him. She hid it well, she buried it deep, she ignored it to an extreme extent, so much so it was like she didn't even feel it, truly he wasn't even sure it was a conscious thought that could break through the barriers of her mind but...it was there. She was afraid what would happen if it was all true and he did die at the lake side.

Her faith in him was 99.99999 percent stronger than her fear, but it didn't erase the fact that there was a .00001 percent fear for him in there.

"That name means nothing to me," the Detective spoke, getting them on track.

He chuckled, patting her hand on his arm, "Someone was trying to build a TARDIS, disguised it as the second floor of Craig's flat, and was trying to find a new pilot. I posed as a renter, lived there for a few days, got it all sorted."

"I'm surprised you're still alive," the Detective gave him a look, "This Craig must be remarkable to put up with you trying to act like a human…"

…and then the door flew open to reveal a somewhat portly man, with a bit of stubble on his chin and cheeks, short light hair, shouting, "I'm coping on my own!"

"Alright."

"Hello, Craig!" the Doctor grinned at the man, "I'm back! And, look! I've brought a friend, this is the Detective."

"Sigma," she offered.

But Craig was more focused on gaping at the Doctor, looking both stunned and betrayed, "She didn't? How could she phone you?"

"How could WHO phone him?" the Detective asked, before eyeing Craig, stepping very close to him, eye to eye, before narrowing her eyes and taking a deep breath, before stepping back, "Oh, your wife!" she realized, turning to the Doctor, "He wants to know if his wife phoned you."

"Your wife?" he blinked at Craig, before beaming, "You and Sophie got married!"

"What?" Craig shook his head, "Um, I mean, no, not…not yet, I…how did you know…" he pointed at the Detective.

She reached out to grab his pointing finger, shaking it like a handshake, "The Detective," she reintroduced herself, "It's what I do," she winked a little over the top, "I should get business cards!" the thought popped into her head, nodding to herself, "Yeah, 'THE Detective, like THE Library, best in the universe.' I'm SO gonna put that on a business card. Question."

"Um, what?" Craig looked bewildered now.

"How does one go about getting business cards?"

The Doctor chuckled, shifting to put his arm around her shoulder instead now, "We'll take a quick pop to the shops after this," before he turned back to Craig, "No one phoned me, Craig," he reassured the man, "I'm just here," and then he caught sight of the inside of the house, "You've redecorated! I don't like it."

"He moved," the Detective stated, having seen a glimpse of the house's exterior and interior in his mind from his memories of his last visit.

"Yeah," Craig nodded, "Doctor, what are you doing here?"

"Social call," he smiled, "Thought it was about time I tried one out. And, my friend here," he nodded at the Detective again, "Rude not to introduce her to my mates. How are you?"

"I'm fine."

"He's coping," the Detective corrected, in a loud whisper that everyone could hear.

"This is the bit where I say 'I'm fine, too' isn't it?" the Doctor tried, "I'm fine, too."

"He's 'coping,'" the Detective nodded, "But yes, also fine. As in, he is freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional."

"…is that good?" Craig asked, genuinely not seeming sure what was 'normal' for aliens.

"Good," the Doctor answered before the Detective could, "Right, love to Sophie, bye!"

"Ooh, look at that!" the Detective stopped as the Doctor had just turned to pull her off, whipping out her magnifying glass to examine a light above the front door that began to flicker, "Interesting."

The Doctor, of course, knowing what sort of things her mind classified as 'interesting' immediately ran back with a shout of, "Something's wrong!" and shoved past Craig into the house, rushing through the room with his sonic out, "On your own, you said," the Doctor caught a reading and headed for the stairs, "But you're not...you're not on your own!"

"Shh!" Craig tried to quiet him, racing after the Time Lord, the Detective following at a more sedate pace with her glass as she looked around the surroundings.

"Increased sulfur emissions. And look at the state of this place. What are you not telling me?"

"Doctor, please!"

"Ooh, I know!" the Detective shouted, her hand in the air.

"Shhh!" Craig nearly sounded like he was begging, "Doctor!" he broke his own request, yelling it out when the man threw open a particular door in the upstairs hall and dashed into the room.

…a room that was a nursery, filled with stuffed toys and cloth hangings on the walls.

"Whatever you are, get off this planet!" the Doctor demanded, not seeing any of it, brandishing the sonic as though it were a weapon.

Craig groaned as the baby in the crib began to cry, "Oh, you've woken him!" he lamented, walking over to try and calm the baby down.

"It's a baby," the Detective spoke as the Doctor gaped at the sight, "He smelled like baby powder and vomit," she shrugged when the Doctor looked at her with wide eyes as to how she knew when he hadn't, "Also, we walked past rubbish bins with diapers in it, and there was a bottle sitting next to the stove. Hmmm," she hummed, "I could go for a sandwich."

The Doctor could only shake his head when she turned to head downstairs to make herself a sandwich.

~8~

The Doctor smiled to himself as he sat at the kitchen table of Craig's house, the man standing across from him, holding his son, the boy now calm, though he was keeping an eye on the Detective who stood off to the side, making herself her promised sandwich…with a rather large knife. A knife he knew Craig didn't have in his kitchen…he really was going to have to sort through her pockets one day. The last thing he needed was her to nick herself rooting around in there and bleeding out.

How that hadn't happened before was a mystery to him.

"So when you say on your own..." the Doctor began.

"Yes," Craig huffed, "I meant on my own with the baby, yes. Cos no one thinks I can cope on my own. Which is so unfair. Because..."

"You can't cope on your own?" the Detective guessed as she turned, the knife gone, but with a sandwich in one hand, a plate in the other.

"No," he pouted, "I can't. He just cries. All the time. I mean, do they have off-switches?"

"I've asked myself that every time there's a baby around," the Detective nodded, "Apparently they don't," she sighed, stepping forward and placing the plate down before the Doctor.

He beamed, seeing that she'd made a sandwich for him too, with the crust cut off! AND cut diagonally just how he liked it. He reached out to snag her hand as she pulled back, placing a kiss on her palm in thanks.

Though…he did hesitate to eat a piece, not sure if this was a trap to see if he'd eat her food, but when she turned back to move over to the counter, leaning against it and eating her food, he chanced it and was not met with something thrown at him.

He watched as Craig put the fussing baby in its highchair, swallowing his food, "Sometimes this works though," he leaned forward and put his finger to his lips, "Shhh…" he said, and the baby instantly quieted.

"Can you teach me to do that?" Craig stared at the Doctor.

"A human?" the Detective spoke through a mouthful of food, "No."

"Oh, please," he looked between the two, "Come on, I need something, I'm rubbish at this."

"Going to need you to be a bit more specific," the Detective spoke up, "People are rubbish at lots of things and…"

"Being a dad," he cut in, "You read all the books, they tell you you'll know what to do if you follow your instinct. I have no instinct! That's what this weekend's about, trying to prove to people I can do this one thing well."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, Stormy thinks you're funny so…well done?"

"What…Stormy?" Craig gaped at her.

"Yes, him," she nodded over at the baby.

"His name's Alfie!"

"And he likes that, Alfie," the Doctor nodded, cutting off the Detective about to say it was a rubbish name and how he'd not done that well, "He just, personally, prefers to be called Stormageddon, Dark Lord of All."

"I approve," the Detective called, from where she'd moved to the fridge and was now…drinking milk from the carton.

"Oh, don't do that!" Craig rushed over, grabbing it from her, "That's disgusting," and sighed, putting it in the back of the fridge and making a note to get more milk.

The Detective wiped the milk moustache from her face, shrugging, before she pointed at the baby, "What are your thoughts on enslavement via electroshock collars?"

"Sigma," the Doctor sighed, shaking his head, "He's a baby."

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, I'll wait till he's five to talk about that."

"He's not enslaving anyone!" Craig cut in, "And…and his name is Alfie! How do you even know he wants to be called…Storm…Stormdon?"

"We speak baby," the Doctor finished his sandwich and stood, moving to put the plate in the sink.

"And it's Stormageddon," the Detective corrected, "Very important to get names right, James."

"…who?" Craig shook his head, looking behind him as though there might be another person in his house he hadn't seen.

"You," the Detective pointed at him.

"I'm Craig."

"Sure you are, James."

"I don't…I'm not…Doctor, what is this?" Craig turned to the Time Lord, really at his wits end with trying to cope and feeling like it was just getting worse

"Sigma," the Doctor said, as though it answered anything at all.

"As I was saying," the Detective moved over to Alfie, her magnifying glass out as she examined the baby with it, "Very important to get the name right."

Craig rubbed his head, "So I got his name wrong then," he muttered, feeling like a failure that his own son didn't like his name, "Of course I did! I don't even know when his nappy needs changing," he dropped down onto one of the chairs, "I'm the one supposed to be his dad and I can't even…"

"Oh, yeah, he wants to know where mum is," the Detective murmured, absently lifting some of Alfie's hair to get a closer look at it, the boy swatting at her.

"Gone away with Melina for the weekend. Needs a rest."

"No," the Doctor came over to the boy, his hand moving to the Detective's back, "He's your dad, you can't just call him 'Not-Mum.'"

"Not-Mum?" Craig gaped.

"That's you."

"Could call him James," the Detective offered, which made Alfie laugh.

The Doctor chuckled and patted Alfie on the head as the Detective finished and put her glass away, "Also, Not-Mum, that's me and Simga. And everybody else is..."

"Peasants," the Detective translated, "I approve as well. Hmm…an interesting baby, isn't that wizard?" she smiled at the Doctor.

He had to smile in return, she really wasn't big on babies, for a lot of the reasons she'd told Amy and Rory, among other things. He also knew part of it was him and the Master and how they were 'overgrown babies' for the most part, according to her. She'd had her fill of it. But it appeared Alfie was becoming an exception.

"That's a bit unfortunate," he joked.

"Call me when you're older, Stormy," the Detective told the baby, "We'll talk world domination."

Craig nearly sagged at how the boy seemed to perk up at that, clapping his hands eagerly, as though he could understand them. He didn't want to think about his son growing up to take over the world or anything, "What are you here for?" he asked, hoping they might leave him to his failure in peace. It was one thing to fail his child on his own, it was another to have witnesses.

"I just popped in to say hello," the Doctor answered, sliding his arm around her shoulders, "Introduce Sigma."

"Hello," she waved.

"I checked downstairs when I moved in," Craig cut in, "And next door, both sides, they're humans. Is it the fridge? Are there aliens in my fridge?"

"I can check!" the Detective volunteered, about to step for the fridge again, when the Doctor reached out to grab her by the hood of her hoodie and tug her back, knowing if she went to 'check' the only thing any of them would find was her with her mouth full of whatever food she could get to.

"I just want to see you, Craig!" the Doctor insisted, "Cross my hearts," he crossed them too for good measure, "Sigma and I have been knocking about on a farewell tour. One last thing, popping in to see you, then we're off to the Alignment of Exedor."

"Boring," the Detective sing-songed, moving to hop up on top of one of the counters, swinging her legs and feet.

"The Alignment of Exedor?" Craig repeated.

"17 galaxies in perfect unison," the Doctor smiled at the thought.

It was quite a 'romantic' place to go, really. He'd been trying to pick a few more 'sweet' places to go in between meeting his past companions and friends recently. It was just...it had been almost 200 years and every day Amy's words came back to him and he was just...well...he was just trying to see if the Detective might be a bit more open to a relationship with him than he'd thought. It had taken nearly 150 years to reach that point but...if he was going to die at the Lakeside, if he couldn't find a way out, he needed to know that one last thing and he wanted her to know the same.

"Meant to be spectacular, we can't miss it. Literally can't. It's locked in a time stasis field, we get one crack at flying my TARDIS straight into it, if I get my dates right," he glanced at a newspaper, "Which I have."

"Sounds nice."

"Sounds boring!" the Detective countered with a huff, letting her head fall back against the upper cabinet behind her, "It's a bunch of lights! A screensaver would be cooler than that."

The Doctor just turned to stick his tongue out at her, a gesture she returned.

"YOU were the one who said you wanted Exedor," he pointed out.

"No, I said I wanted extra seltzer," she countered, before turning to Craig, "Never join in a hotdog eating contest, James," and patting her stomach, "Upsets the tummy."

The Doctor snorted, "That's why parents teach their kids to chew their food, not inhale it."

"Well, then you shouldn't have dared me to do it!"

"I never dared you! I said 'remember that time you ate 12 cheeseburgers and swore off cheese?' How did THAT equate to 'go eat those hotdogs?'"

"The hotdog is the cousin of the hamburger, which is the younger sibling of the cheeseburger. It would be rude to exclude it from family gatherings."

Craig blinked and stared at her. Was that some sort of alien logic because that made…no sense to him. At all.

But the more he stared, the more he couldn't help but look between the two of them at their bickering. They sounded like an old married couple just then, needling and nitpicking each other about their habits and not listening. And, well, they were close, weren't they? At some point during their argument, the Doctor had wandered over to her, leaning against the counter she was sitting on, his elbow across her lap, both of them facing HIM, but talking to each other. And even though they were 'fighting' there was this soft fondness in their eyes, a smile on their faces.

"When did you get married?" Craig found himself asking, the question just slipping out before he could stop it.

"What?" they both looked over at him.

"Nothing," he said, looking away, glancing up when the lights flickered slightly. He turned back to them, having come up with a different question, when it flew right out of his mind at the expression on the Doctor's face, the small frown, the way his eyes narrowed as he looked at the lights, the crease in his forehead, "What?" he asked them instead.

"What, what?" the Detective countered.

"You've noticed something," he said.

"No, we haven't."

"You have your magnifying glass out," Craig pointed out, and indeed the woman had it out, in her hands, like she'd been about to use it before he'd caught them.

"...no, I don't," the Detective said, moving the glass behind her back…like it did anything at all to erase the fact that he'd seen it.

"It's nothing," the Doctor tried to cast it off.

But Craig shook his head, standing, "No, you noticed something. You've got your noticing face on. I have nightmares about that face."

"Nope!" the Doctor called reaching out to put a finger over the Detective's lips to keep her from saying anything, "Given up all that, done with noticing things," he glanced up as the light flickered again, "Didn't even notice that, for example."

"I did," the Detective said, pulling his hand away from her mouth, "It's…"

"Time to go!" the Doctor cut in, holding her by the hand she'd used and tugging her off the counter, "Good seeing you, Craig," he reached out to awkwardly shake Craig's hand with his nondominant one, unwilling to let go of the Detective, "Goodbye, Stormageddon," he blew an air kiss to the baby, who began fussing.

"No, no, wait, wait!" Craig called, now more concerned with trying to calm his fussing baby than anything the aliens might have noticed, "Could you do the shushing thing? Shhh."

"Only works once on lifeforms with underdeveloped brains," the Detective told him bluntly.

"Hang on," another thought struck Craig as he followed them to his front door, "You said farewell tour? What do you mean, farewell?"

The Doctor just turned to him, a finger on his lips, "Shhh," he did the thing to Craig too, the man now finding himself unable to talk.

"Laters!" the Detective called, waving, as the Doctor pulled her out of the house, leading her down the street towards where they'd set the TARDIS down.

"Just go," he was muttering to himself, wincing when the Detective's thoughts began to filter over to him about the newest mystery to solve with the flickering lights, "Stop noticing," he begged her, before talking to himself, "Just go!" and then to her again, "Stop noticing! Just go. Stop noticing. Just go. Stop it!" he spun to face her.

She held her hands up in surrender, "You know I can't," she reminded him, easily, not at all upset with how he'd snapped at her or forgotten how her mind worked, "My brain doesn't stop, it doesn't not-notice things, like that," she nodded to the side, where a streetlight was flickering now, "And it won't stop till I solve this. So either you can put up with me constantly thinking about this for the next thousand years, or you can put on your big boy boots and help me work it out."

The Doctor sighed, seeing in her mind the various theories she'd already put together for why the lights flickered, ranging from faulty wiring to impending invasion. And he knew she was right, her mind never turned off. Sometimes, it was like the only way to get some semblance of peace was when her body stopped moving and she could sleep, but even then her dreams were always more vivid and disjointed, because of all her thoughts swimming in her head. So many people took her scatterbrained moments and her lack of attention to be an oddity, but they were only human and saw it from the scope they were used to. She was fast, her mind was so fast, it took in so much information so quickly that she could move from one topic or thought to another faster than a human. She saw all she needed to see and learned all she needed to learn from usually a glance, and then she could move on to the next topic, whatever it may be. But that didn't mean she hadn't focused and learned and paid attention, it was just why should she spend more when she didn't need to? It did make it hard because there was always so much going on and so much to take in once one was done. There was never peace for her, it was why she'd chosen to be the Detective, because it became even the tiniest bit less cluttered when she worked out the mystery and could put it to rest, all the theories and clues tied up in a bow and stored away. It was easier when she viewed the world as a Detective, her mind would naturally and had been trained to make connections between what she saw and noticed, which made it easier to sort and store, or delete if needed.

She wasn't joking when she said she'd be thinking about this for the next thousand years, he wouldn't do that to her.

He turned and flicked the sonic on, "Scanning for electrical fluctuations. And…" he nodded, "A patina of teleport energy."

"Well then," she smiled, "The game is afoot."

She hurried over to him, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the TARDIS to officially begin her investigation.

~8~

There was nothing better than being surrounded by smiling, happy children, unless a part of it was being the reason they were happy and smiling, which, the Doctor was happy to say, was happening right now as he stood in a toy department of a store, showing them how to operate a remote control helicopter. Honestly, he should probably be trying to find the Detective right now, they'd stepped into the store, taken a look around, and then split up to cover more ground and gather more clues…only he wasn't quite sure where she'd got to. He'd become rather distracted by the children who wanted to play and he was sure she was fine.

Relatively sure.

Hopefully.

"It goes up-tiddly up, it goes down-tiddly down-down!" the Doctor cheered, making the copter move as he spoke, "For only 49.99 pounds, which I think is a bit steep but then again it's your parents' cash and they'll only waste it on boring stuff like lamps and vegetables, yawn!" he tried to do a loop with the copter only it wasn't quite made to do so and now it was veering significantly off course, "Nobody panic, but I appear to be losing control!" he winced when it flew right into Craig as the man entered the department, pushing Alfie in a pram, "Oops," he quickly dropped to his knees, gathering the kids closer, "Guys, guys, ladies and gentlemen, while I deal with this awkward moment you go and find your parents/guardians! Try in lamps!" he laughed, giving one girl a highfive as they all dispersed to do just that, jumping to his feet to smile at Craig as he approached, "Craig!"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Craig gaped at him, of all places to run into the Doctor a toy store was…ok, a toy store was probably the number one place, but still! He thought the man had left along with the other one.

"I'm the Doctor, I work in a shop now," he tapped his nametag, which read 'the Doctor,' "Here to help. They gave me a badge with my name on in case I forget who I am, very thoughtful, as that does happen. Sigma took a bit advantage of it though. If you see someone running around named 'No One' don't be fooled, it's her."

Craig shook his head, "Where is she even?" he looked around, as though expecting her to jump out from behind a display.

"Right, should find her, shouldn't I?" the Doctor nodded and began to walk off.

"You were leaving..." Craig remarked, following quickly, "The alignment of Exeter, what about that? One chance to see it, you said."

"Well, Sigma and I were on our way, but then we saw a shop, got a job, you got to live in the moment, Craig," he reached out to tug Craig to the side before he could walk into a display, "Mind Yappy."

"What?"

"Yappy. The robot dog. Not so much fun as I remember," he glanced back at the display, now a bit relieved that the Detective hadn't chosen to work in the toy store too. She was fond of upgrading. Give her time and a paperclip and she'd probably have that dog shooting lasers out its eyes as a joke, "You look awful!" he added when he turned back to Craig.

"I haven't slept, have I?" Craig snapped, "I still can't stop him crying. I even tried singing to him last night."

The Doctor winced at that, hearing Alfie complaining about it as they spoke, "Yeah, he did mention that...he thought you were crying, too. He didn't get a wink. Granted," he looked at the baby, leaning in to speak more to him, "Count yourself lucky it wasn't Sigma. Tone deaf moose who swallowed a kazoo I always say," he paused as they reached the end of the toy department, looking around to sense where the Detective was, before freezing, seeing something whiz across the floor, something small and gray and metal, "What was that?" he hurried in the direction it had gone, trying to get a better look at it.

Craig was more concerned with other things though, "You're here for a reason, aren't you? You noticed something, and you're investigating it. Because it's you, it's going to be dangerous and alien."

"It might not be," the Doctor sighed, frowning when he lost sight of it.

"Doctor, I live here, I need to know!"

"No, you don't," he waved it off, resuming his walk to where the Detective ought to be.

"My baby lives here, my son."

"Craig, I promise you, you're fine. Nothing is wrong…"

And, because it was the Doctor, the second those words came out of his mouth, a very loud BOOM rang out. The two men took off running, only to skid to a halt when they reached another department, a small café…now filling with smoke.

"Not my fault!" the Detective was shouting, backing away from a very angry woman wearing an identical red apron that the Time Lady was now sporting.

"You blew up the oven!" the woman was screaming "Get out!"

The Detective rolled her eyes, "You should probably put a sign on it then, how was I to know it was the oven and not the cleaning cupboard?"

The Doctor dropped his head into his hand and shook it, piecing together what had happened. Apparently, the Detective had put cleaning chemicals in the oven to store them, and when the oven turned on and the chemicals heated up…kaboom.

"It says OVEN!" the woman shouted at her, pointing over to where there was a white cloud of fire extinguisher material still wafting around in front of the oven, a giant sign that said 'Oven: Caution HOT' stuck on it just barely visible.

"So what I'm hearing is that I should take my 15 minute break?" the Detective didn't even blink at the woman's ire.

"Take all the time you want, you're fired!" the woman half screamed, a little vein starting to throb in her neck and temple.

The Detective laughed, reaching out to pat the woman on the shoulder, "Good one. The OVEN was on fire, not me, but thanks for the concern. See you in 15!" and spun on her heel to walk over to the Doctor, "Well, it's been a few centuries, but I've still got it."

"You just…" Craig pointed past her to the half destroyed café, "You blew up the oven."

"I know," she sighed, "I'm losing my touch. Last time it was the entire café. Still, not as bad as the building, eh, Theta?" she nudge him, recalling the stories Mickey Smith had told her about how he blew up his first Companion after the war's job and then blew up a school too, "Well, come on, got an investigation to complete and I've only got 15 minutes."

"She's not serious, is she?" Craig turned to the Doctor, honestly not sure if she was planning to go back to work after she was so very clearly fired.

The Doctor sighed and just nodded his head to the side, turning to walk away with the Detective skipping beside him, "There IS a reason why we chose this store, Craig," he could give the man that at least, because he was right, it wasn't just Craig in danger but Alfie too, and he knew what it was to be a father wanting to protect your child.

"Sheila Clark went missing from here on Tuesday," the Detective listed, "Atif Ghosh, last seen here Friday. Tom Luker, last seen Sunday just before he clocked out at the Toy department…"

"Why wasn't that on the news?" Craig frowned, not having heard about it, "Or in the paper?"

"It was," the Detective turned, pulling the paper from her pocket to show him, "Page 7, 19, 22."

"No one's noticed yet," the Doctor plucked the paper to show him page one was a story about a Britain's Got Talent contestant named Nina, "They're far too excited about Nina's emotional journey, which in fairness, is quite inspiring."

"And what else?" Craig asked as they stepped into the kids' department.

"Power fluctuations," the Detective began tugging at the strings of her apron, twisting and turning to try and tug it loose, which only served to, somehow, get one of her arms caught, "Records say they happened right when the disappearances did."

"That's just the council, putting in new cables. Isn't it?"

The Doctor watched the Detective in amusement as she tried to reach behind her to move a strap of the apron, her right arm behind her neck…and got caught, but he didn't make a move to help because when she was determined she could do something on her own, stepping in without invitation only made it worse.

"Oh, yes, that's it, mystery solved," the Doctor mused as they came to a stop before a lift blocked by caution tape, "Wasting our time here Sigma, now you can go home, Craig, and," he flicked the sonic at the lift to activate it, "We can go to Exedor, goodbye, and here's a lift."

"It says out of order," Craig pointed out.

"Not anymore," the Doctor pulled the tape down, "See? Here to help," and stepped in when the lift doors opened.

"Theta," the Detective sighed, following him in, "Help?"

He chuckled, turning her to help get her untangled, leaving Craig little option but to push the pram in with them before the doors shut.

"It says, 'danger,'" Craig added, more worried about that than the trap the Detective had gotten herself into.

"Oh, rubbish, lifts aren't dangerous," the Doctor remarked, giving one final tug to the ties of the apron, releasing her.

"Do I look like I'm stupid?" Craig huffed.

"Yes," the Detective answered, turning around, now able to get the apron over her head, though instead of taking it off, she just turned it so it was draped over the back of her like a cape.

"Hey!" Craig glared at her.

"What?" she shook her head, "You asked a question, I gave an answer."

"You're not supposed to actually answer like that," the Doctor told her.

"Stormy agrees with me though!"

"Sigma."

"Fine," she huffed, but didn't take back her words, "Look, I'm Super Sigma!" she struck a pose, her hands on her hips, wiggling a little to make the 'cape' billow.

The Doctor just patted her on the head as Alfie gurgled and clapped.

"What ARE capes actually good for?" the Detective had to wonder, looking over her shoulder at the apron, "I mean, what do they even DO?"

"No idea," the Doctor replied.

"They don't even help you fly," she huffed, considering her 'cape' now, "Last time I wore one..."

The Doctor snorted, "That was not the cape's fault," he reminded her, "That was your parachute."

Skydiving accident, wearing a cape because it would be funny, and a too-late-discovered malfunctioning parachute. Not a fun way to regenerate.

"And I've no idea what's going on," Craig cut in, a frown on his face, "So could one of you please tell me what's going on? Why are we in the lift?"

"Because," the Detective huffed, "Someone's been using a teleport relay in the store and the missing people were last seen in this area and we can't be sure where or what happened because CCTV's been wiped."

"A teleport?" Craig began to stammer, latching onto that part of it, "A teleport? Like a beam me up teleport, like you see in Star Trek?"

"Exactly," the Doctor chuckled, "Someone's been using a beam me up Star Trek teleport. Could be disguised as anything."

"We're about to 'bravely go' where no one's gone before," the Detective beamed, before considering it, "Or, well, where other people have gone before but never returned from. Whichever way you want to look at it."

Before Craig could get up in arms about how she'd phrased it, the lights flickered again and, when they came back on, they were not in the lift any longer, but standing outside of what looked like a large spaceship that had crashed into part of the earth.

"Oh. That. Is. BRILLIANT!" the Detective cheered, actually doing a bit of a run in place while she clapped her hands excitedly.

The Doctor, was a bit more wary.

Craig…didn't even notice at first, "What was that? Was that the lights again?"

"Yes, that's it," the Doctor spoke, his voice squeaky, his eyes wide and on the ship, which, thankfully, was behind Craig's back, "That's all, it's the lights."

"Why did you say that like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you've just inhaled helium," the Detective said, before trying to rush off towards the ship, only for the Doctor to manage to grab her 'cape' and hold her back, "Oh, Theta, come on!"

"Nope, no, need your help here, Sigma," the Doctor cleared his throat to talk normally again.

"Help with what?" the Detective sighed.

"Distracting Craig."

Craig frowned at that, "Distract me from what?"

"Nothing!" the Doctor shouted.

If only the Detective hadn't said, at the same time, "The spaceship behind you."

"What?!" Craig spun around, nearly stumbling back at the sight of the ship that was literally behind him, "What is happening?" the man gaped.

"Ooh, look, a Cyberman!" the Detective cheered, pointing at their robotic enemy as it appeared in the distance, just beside the ship, "Hello!"

"A what?" Craig seemed like he wanted to look back and forth between them and the ship/robot thing, but couldn't seem to make himself turn away from it, "A cyber what?!"

"Hmm, looks like it might be broken…" the Detective murmured, her magnifying glass out, looking at the advancing Cyber through it, but before it could get close enough to get a better glimpse, the Doctor had whipped out the sonic to trigger the teleport, sending them back to the lift, "Well, that was rude!" she huffed, putting the glass away and crossing her arms, "Barely got a good look…"

"Quick reverse," the Doctor explained to a shell-shocked Craig.

"What the hell just happened?" Craig breathed, tense and shaking at the same time, nearly running out the lift doors the moment they opened, the Time Lords following him back into the kids department.

"That was a Cyberman in a Cybership," the Detective pouted, kicking a small toy that was in the aisle, "Using Cyber tech to link the teleport relay to the lift."

"But I've fused it!" the Doctor rushed to reassure Craig, "They can't use that again. Stuck up there on their spaceship."

"Spoilsport," the Detective continued to huff, "Always shorting out the teleports."

"Ship?" Craig shook his head, struggling to keep up, "Spaceship? We were in space?"

The Detective sighed, "You explain this to him, Theta, my break's over."

The two men could only watch as she twisted her apron around to the front and moved to tie it as she walked in the direction of the café.

The Doctor winced, "Might be best if we regroup at your place," he told the man, "I should…" he gestured at the Detective and hurried after her, about 95 percent sure she would end up being forcibly removed from the property if she tried to 'go back to work' right now.

~8~

The Doctor glanced back at the Detective as they gathered in Craig's backyard later that night. She had, in fact, gotten escorted off the property by security, and it would have been fine…had she not decided to bite the one officer on the nose. She'd ended up in jail and he'd had to put in a call to Martha to see if she could get UNIT to do something to get her out. He trusted UNIT to be more diplomatic than Torchwood in that situation. It took a few hours, but she'd gotten out. He could have gotten her out easy, but thought maybe it would be a bit of a lesson not to bite people if it took a bit of time.

Oddly enough, she'd waltzed out with three new 'friendship bracelets' she and the other prisoners had made for each other with some twine from her pockets.

He didn't ask.

Now they were back with Craig, the man having been waiting on edge for them to show up at his house so he might get some answers. The Detective had grabbed a banana out of a fruit bowl on the counter and sat down on a lawn chair, claiming she was tired, and left him to do the final part of their scanning, his sonic up in the air as he tried to get a reading in the sky about where the Cyber ship might be.

"It's got to be up there somewhere…" he muttered, frowning at the sonic when the reading came back inconclusive, "Can't get a fix, it must be shielded."

"Or the sonic's broken," the Detective called, but he ignored that, quite offended she would think he broke the sonic.

"You fused the teleport," Craig frowned, now feeling even more on edge. He'd thought they'd come back and say it was all safe, say why those robot things had tried a teleport, not continue to worry and investigate. That meant it wasn't over, "You sorted it. They can't come back."

"They're like cockroaches," the Detective snorted, "They always come back."

The Doctor had to nod at that, even if he agreed more with the sentiment than the example, "I've just bought us a little time. Still got to work out what they're doing before Sigma and I can stop it."

"But if they've got the teleport and they're evil, why haven't they invaded already?" Craig frowned.

"Craig..." he looked at the man, "Take Alfie and go."

"No!"

"No?"

"No, I remember from last time, people got killed, people that didn't know you. I know where it's safest, for me and Alfie. And that's right next to you."

"Is that so?" the Doctor offered him a small, though touched, smile.

"Yeah, you always win, you always survive!"

"Those were the days."

"I can help you, I'm staying!"

"Craig..." the Doctor rubbed his head as he shook it, before letting out a long sigh, seeing the man would not be moved, "Craig, alright, alright...maybe those days aren't quite over yet. Let's go and investigate. I mean, there's no immediate danger now, right Sigma?" he called, noticing she'd been silent for more than 30 seconds, which had to be a record…unless she…

"Sigma?" he turned, and couldn't stop the snort that escaped him.

She was lying on the lawn chair, looking dead asleep, but with her mouth half open, part of the banana resting on her lip, as though she'd fallen asleep mid-chew.

"Did she just…did she just fall asleep eating a banana?" Craig stared at her.

"I'm not asleep," the Detective muttered, "My mind is alive."

The Doctor could only shake his head fondly, knowing it meant she really was on the cusp of sleep, and moved over to her, scooping her off the chair and into his arms, laughing again at how her hand immediately went to the banana, to keep it from falling away from her, before she brought it to her chest to cuddle it, "Come on," he sighed, "Let's get you comfy."

Craig hurried forward to get the back door for the Time Lord so he could bring his friend…girlfriend…wife?...into the house and set her down on the sofa for her nap.

He didn't know what the woman was to the Doctor, but, judging from the look in the man's eyes, he was right fond of her.

~8~

Luckily for them, the Detective never needed much sleep to restore her energy and so she was up and about before the hour was up, the three of them returning to the store, to the jewelry department this time, trying to keep as far away from the café as possible. Though it hadn't stopped the Detective from donning a disguise since she, technically, was banned from the property.

Craig had actually been a bit interested to see what she would do, given her name, he thought she must be a master of disguise or something, a super sleuth.

So when she stepped out of the TARDIS, in a pair of jeans instead of her shorts and a pair of big sunglasses on with her hood up…he was a bit let down.

The Doctor had only laughed and asked her why she didn't go with the moustache too, apparently she had been debating that in his head for five minutes straight.

Eventually they made it back to the store though, the Detective keeping her head down, her arms crossed, sunglasses on, which really only made her less inconspicuous than the two grown men pushing Alfie along in the pram while walking through the one department of the store they probably wouldn't be needing anything from since neither of them were wearing jewelry.

"Good afternoon, Val!" the Doctor greeted as they approached one of the counters, a lovely older woman working behind it.

"Hello!" Val greeted, though she cast an odd look at the Detective, who quickly turned to lean against the counter, her back to the woman as she looked around the department.

"Um, Detective," Craig murmured to the woman as the Doctor began to talk to Val, "Where am I investigating?"

"What are you asking me for?" she asked.

He gave her a look, "You're the Detective," he repeated.

"Shhh!" she put a finger to her lips, glancing at the Doctor before she stepped away with Craig, her hand on his shoulder, "No, right now I'm Rebecca Morgan."

"Rebecca Morgan?"

"Yes, two first names," she glanced around as though expecting someone to be listening, "Mild mannered librarian by day, secret bank robber by night."

"Ok, what does that…"

"Shhh!" she hissed again, "Right, if we're gonna do this heist, we're gonna do it properly."

"Heist? I thought…"

"Ok, here's the plan, you look round. Ask questions. Use Alfie, humans seem to like babies for some reason. They'll talk. You listen. And be careful, anything could happen. Remember, very important James, you get hurt, you hurt them back. You get killed, you walk it off. Right? Right. Meet back here in 10, ok, synchronize watches!"

"I…I don't know how to do that…" Craig called when she began to make her way back towards the Doctor.

"And I don't wear a watch," she yelled back, before holding up both hands, her fingers splayed and mouthing 'ten!' to him.

Craig had to look on for a moment longer, honestly trying to wrap his head around that conversation, before he sighed and shuffled off, assuming that was some complicated and overdramatic way to tell him to ask about the disappearances.

The Doctor smiled as he watched the interaction, absently fiddling with the sunglasses and having a rather boring conversation with Val, waiting for the Detective to come back, he didn't want to start the small interrogation without her there to hear the clues that might come about. He shook his head when she made it over, turning and 'casually' leaning against the counter, her back still to Val, her elbows out on either side of her on the corners, giving him a firm nod to begin.

And she called him dramatic.

"You've not noticed anything unusual around here lately, Val?" he asked, leading into the conversation as she began to speak about how rude it was for the customers to leave their rubbish or even the products lying about everywhere for her to trip on.

"Well..." Val began.

"Yes?" the Doctor asked, catching sight of the Detective in the corner of his eye turning and lightly moving the sunglasses down her nose to peer at Val over them.

"Mary Warnock saw Don Petheridge snogging Andrea Groom outside the Conservative Club on his so-called day off 'golfing.'"

The Detective blinked and, in a stunning rendition of a rewind, moved back to her original position in complete reverse of how she'd moved before.

"Yeah," the Doctor sighed, getting her point from her action, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all…" he'd thought Val would be the go-to person, being older and as chatty as she was, she was bound to notice something and gossip about it, but maybe he'd been a bit wrong there.

"And then there's that silver rat thing," Val continued as though she hadn't heard him, which, considering he'd muttered that last part, she might not have.

The Detective mimicked what she'd done before, turning to face her, pulling the glasses down her nose to peer at her over them, "Silver rat thing?"

Val nodded, "I keep seeing it over there by the table," she gestured, "Thought it was a can or some sort of thermos someone lost, but it turned to me with these red glowing eyes…"

The Doctor was already at the table, crouched down and scanning under it with the sonic while the Detective ambled around the perimeter, eyeing the floor with her sonic sunglasses set to magnify, not wanting to draw more attention to herself by pulling out the actual magnifying glass, "A silver rat…" the Doctor muttered, not seeing anything and standing, "Glowing red eyes."

"Yes, then it zizzed off!" Val gestured, "I wanted to get one for my nephew, but stockroom say there's no such item."

"I bet they do," the Doctor muttered, putting the sonic away.

"Well, what was it then? Answer me that," Val challenged, about to talk about a few other toys that her nephew might like, since the Doctor worked in the toy department after all, when a small commotion sounded across the department, where women's clothing was, "What's all that hullabaloo?"

The Time Lords didn't answer, just rushed over when they heard Craig's voice, pitched with worry, to see a young female retail worker glaring at him, a security guard with a bandage across his nose next to her, with Craig looking very stressed before them. The Detective immediately halted her run, turning on her heel so the guard wouldn't see her and ducked behind the nearest clothing rack to get closer without being spotted.

"He's a pervert, look at him!" the worker was accusing.

"Hello, everyone! " the Doctor called, "Here to help."

"Hello, Doctor," the woman smiled at him, the guard giving the same greeting.

"Hello," he smiled, "Has anyone seen a silver rat? No, ok. Long shot, I see you've met my friend, Craig. Nice uniform, George," he complimented the man, still feeling terrible about the wound to his nose.

"Thank you, Doctor," George the guard nodded, "If he's with you, that's alright then."

"Sorry. I thought he was hassling me," the woman apologized as George walked off to get back to his post, "Cause that's the last thing I need today. 'Cause Shona's not turned up, right, so I'm doing twice the work for the same money."

"Shona?" the Detective popped up from the middle of a circular rack of clothing a few feet away.

"My supervisor," the woman eyed her oddly for that, "She's meant to be in today but never showed up."

"Hmmm," the Detective hummed, "Two questions. First, where did you see her last?"

"Um, the changing rooms?" the woman frowned.

"Good, right, second...how do you get out of here?" the Detective looked down at the rack, it was honestly so packed with clothing she wasn't sure how she'd even gotten through them in the first place, "Theta? Help, please?"

The Doctor shook his head at her and walked over to help her climb over the top of the rack.

"Thank you!" she beamed, pressing a kiss to his cheek, "Now," she thrust a pointed finger into the air, "Off to the women's changing rooms!" and turned to march in that direction.

Craig almost called out to the Doctor when he moved to follow her before he bodily sagged and shuffled after them. Two men stepping foot in the women's changing room was not going to end well...

~8~

"How do you do that?" Craig asked as he followed the Detective and the Doctor through the changing rooms, the Detective now more sure she wouldn't be discovered. The Time Lady had moved her glasses to the top of her head and had her magnifying glass out again, checking the room and the stalls as they passed by, "It's a power, isn't it, some sort of weird alien hypnotic power, I bet you excrete some sort of gas that makes people love you."

"He does," the Detective nodded absently, it worked on her.

"Would that I could," the Doctor chuckled.

The Detective frowned when she opened a curtain to hear a woman scream, tilting her head to look at the dress she was holding up in front of her to block herself, "I'd go with blue," she told the woman, "Brings out your eyes," she winked, before turning to walk off.

The Doctor winced, hurrying to shut the curtain on the stunned woman, "Sorry madam!" he called through it.

"I'm right though, aren't I?" Craig kept on, focusing more on the Doctor, because, honestly, he wasn't sure his head could take another conversation with the Detective, "I mean, I did exactly what you would have done and I nearly got arrested!"

"Nearly doesn't count," the Detective quipped.

"You love me, I've never excreted any weird alien gases at you."

"I don't love you!"

"I do," the Detective called, examining another stall, "But, to be fair, he and the Master both excreted some very weird gasses over time so, who knows?"

The Doctor flushed at that dig, thankful Alfie began to gurgle and give him a way to change the subject, "Stormy thinks you should believe in yourself more."

"Great, now my baby is reviewing me," Craig muttered.

"Ooh, found it!" the Detective cheered, entering the last stall, "Hurry up, come on!"

The Doctor laughed, moving to join her in it, though it was a bit too cramped for Craig to join so he stood in the doorway with Alfie to watch, "It was here," he confirmed, scanning around with the sonic, "Right here. Last night, a Cyberman took Shona."

"A CyberMAN," Craig frowned, "I thought it was a little silver rat?"

"Cybermat," the Detective corrected, grimacing, "Not very original, are they? Cyber ship, Cyber man, Cyber mat. What's next, Cyber car? Ooh," she straightened, "I need to renew my license."

"You…have a license?" the Doctor blinked at her, startled.

She nodded, "Bit outdated," she reached into her pocket for a Ninja Turtles Velcro wallet to show him she did in fact have an Earth license…for Japan, and it was at least 50 years old and a different incarnation of her which didn't say much given time travel.

"I'm not sure I want to know why you're licensed to operate a Heavy Vehicle in Japan, Sigma."

She patted his arm as she put the wallet back, "Good call."

"Well," Craig cut in, feeling a bit put out, "What I want to know is what, exactly, a cybermat is?"

The Doctor gestured for the Detective to step out of the stall, the two of them heading back out into the women's section, the Detective replacing her glasses on her nose as they went, slipping the magnifying glass back into her pocket, "Cybermats are infiltrators," he explained, "Very small, very deadly..."

"Well…" the Detective remarked, "Not VERY deadly. Only mostly deadly."

"They collect power like bees collect pollen. One of them's been sucking the electrical energy from this area. But why a shop, you know, why not a…"

"Nuclear power station?" the Detective finished, "I've been wondering that too. SO boring! A little shop. So much more fun to be running about a nuclear power station."

Craig eyed her warily, "Um…so, why have they come to the shop?"

"Could be a number of reasons," the Detective sighed, shrugging, "Need more data."

"Ok," the Doctor nodded, "We wait for the shop to shut, we stake the place out, and grab ourselves a Cybermat."

"Oh, this is going to be brilliant!" the Detective beamed, bouncing on her toes in excitement.

"And this is just a coincidence, is it?" Craig sighed.

"You're bringing down the mood, James," the Detective frowned at him.

"What is?" the Doctor asked.

"Aliens in Colchester?" he elaborated, "Aliens twice in my life, happening to me just when you turn up."

"This is not my fault, Craig."

"Well…" the Detective began, about to launch into her theory about alien attraction and the universal theories of luck, when Alfie began to fuss.

"Shh, shh," Craig tried to comfort him, "Look what you've done!"

"HOW has Theta made him go number one in his nappy? Because, honestly, I've only managed that twice with grown humans."

"There's a changing station over by electrical goods…" the Doctor tried to diffuse the situation.

But Craig seemed more like HE was the grouchy toddler, "And of course, you'd know that. Come on, Alfie," he turned and headed off with the baby.

The Doctor had only just let out a sigh, when he was suddenly jerked to the right and behind a rack of clothing by the Detective, "Sigma, what…"

"Shhh," she put a finger to her lips, and he glared at her when he found that he couldn't speak now. Though she wasn't smug or smirking about how that worked, her gaze narrowed , her glasses half down her nose, as she observed something ahead.

He turned to look, his eyes widening when he saw Amy and Rory shopping, Rory carrying Amy's many bags as a girl hurried up to Amy with a pad of appear and a pen. They watched as Amy signed the paper, exchanging a few words with the girl before they walked off. The girl hurried back to her mother, pointing at Amy and then over towards them, causing the Detective to duck down and pull him with her. They turned in the motion of crouching, and caught sight of something in the corner of their eye, something that had been behind them, a very large promotional ad featuring Amy's face, for a perfume called 'Petrichor.'

"Rubbish name," the Detective grimaced, "Who would ever want perfume that smells like wet dust?"

The Doctor could only chuckle at that, moving his arm around the Detective's shoulders as they sat there, waiting for Craig to finish.

~8~

Craig eyed the Detective a little oddly…or a lot oddly, which was starting to become his normal expression around her he was realizing, as she sat on the other side of the Doctor, he and the Time Lords crouched low behind a perfume counter after hours. Somehow, he didn't know how or even when because it felt like he'd turned for a second and when he looked back, she'd changed her clothes. She was decked out in all black. Black cargo pants, black combat boots, black gloves, black sweater…and a black ski mask over her face.

She was really taking this 'heist' theme to the next level wasn't she?

He'd really just thought she was using 'heist' as a poor choice of cover word for investigation.

"Ok," the Doctor nodded, having peeked up to see George walking past on his rounds. "Shh," he whispered, the three of them falling silent as George came nearer.

'I can take him…' the Detective offered in the Doctor's mind.

'No,' was his short reply.

'I won't hit him with a bat or anything,' she promised, 'I have a taser and…'

'No!'

'Spoilsport,' she huffed, pouting as she crossed her arms to wait out George passing by.

The Doctor could only shake his head at her, before getting up to scan the area once George had left, the Detective following, her magnifying glass in her hands, "Right. Let's be having you then, Cybermat."

Craig winced when Alfie began to cry at the buzzing noise, disturbing him from where he'd been dozing, "Can't you put that on quiet?"

"Sonic means sound," the Detective remarked, the answer obvious.

The Doctor sighed, "Here," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a strappy sort of sling thing, "Take this. I got it on my discount, 10 percent off. It's a papoose."

"Why do I need a papoose?" Craig asked as the Doctor began to help him put it on and set Alfie into it.

"Alfie wants to attach you to him. You're far too slow when he summons you."

"I'm telling you, electroshock collars and you wouldn't have that problem," the Detective remarked, though she was halfway across the department already, looking around with the glass.

"When's he going to stop giving me marks?" Craig huffed.

"Never," the Doctor said simply, "That's parenthood. Couldn't you have got a babysitter?" he glanced at Alfie when he made a noise, "No, any babysitter...doesn't have to be a hot one."

Well, that wasn't quite what the baby had said. He'd specifically mentioned he wanted the Detective to babysit him, because she was funny and hot.

"Thank you, Stormy!" the Detective called back, having heard what the baby said even if the Doctor hadn't fully translated it for Craig.

"I told everyone I know I didn't need their help this weekend," Craig lamented, "They won't answer my calls. I didn't know there was going to be an invasion of Cyberman," he began to bounce slightly as Alfie fussed, "Shh…"

"It's ok," even the Doctor tried to sooth the boy.

"Oh move over," the Detective muttered, striding over to shove the Doctor aside, leaning forward a bit to get eye level with Alfie as she tugged her mask up to her forehead…and proceeded to make funny faces at the boy.

It was actually quite impressive the face she was able to pull without needing her hands to assist holding them a certain way.

Alfie was smiling, giggling, and clapping in no time.

"There," she straightened, tugging the mask down, "That's how you do it."

"How'd you know that would work?" Craig asked, putting that information away in the back of her mind.

"That's how the Master used to stop me crying," she shrugged and walked off.

Craig, again, sent her an odd look, not sure if she'd just called herself a baby or that she had a baby's mentality when it came to cheering up at simple things.

"Yes," the Doctor nodded, recalling that, "I used to just bring her food."

Different tactics, but they both worked in the end. In the early days of her initiation, when touch was still difficult for her, that was how they'd both try to help her. HE always felt comforted when his mother would give him a small treat, a cookie or a muffin or fruit, when he was sad so he tried to use that to help her. The Master hadn't wanted to go the same route and just copy him, so he would try other ways to make her laugh and found out the funny faces worked pretty well. He wouldn't tell Craig that the Detective hadn't been talking about 'when she was a baby' but straight through school and into adult hood and a number of regenerations too.

It was funny, now that he thought about that method, about how it worked no matter what incarnation she was in. Because it made him realize, not for the first time, how similar all her incarnations were to each other. Not in physical appearance. But in personality. She was always excitable, always manic and energetic and far too curious. It was like nothing about her changed except her outward appearance, whereas, normally, everything about a Time Lord changed with regeneration. Though she had always been unique.

Hmm, he'd have to see what the next her was like to confirm that.

"Well," he clapped his hands, rubbing them together, and picking up the net he'd set aside to help Craig, "Time to catch ourselves a Cybermat!"

~8~

Three hours later and they were still looking. Which meant only the Time Lords were looking because Alfie was getting cranky from such little sleep and Craig had to stand rather still, if swaying, to keep the boy asleep, so he was useless.

"I don't understand," the Doctor huffed as they regrouped, "It should have sensed us here and come after us by now."

"Maybe there's only one Cybermat," the Detective suggested.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, if there's only one, it explains why we haven't seen another one."

"How does that…"

The Detective merely reached into her pocket…

And pulled out a Cybermat.

"What…how…when…" the Doctor stuttered, taking the creature from her and gaping at her.

"When I was hiding in the clothing racks," she shrugged, "I accidently sat on it, might have broken it," she looked between them, "I'm a whole lotta woman," she informed them.

"Why didn't you say anything then?" the Doctor huffed, turning the creature over.

"You said you were looking for A Cybermat, not THIS Cybermat. And how was I to know Stanley was the only one left?"

"Stanley?"

"Yes, I've named him Stanley."

The Doctor shook his head, "Well, it doesn't look broken at least, must be on low power."

"Is that it?" Craig came over to eye the small creature, smiling a bit at how it looked more like a toy than anything as dangerous as they'd made it out to be, "Oh, it's quiet cute look at that. Look, Alfie," he gently woke the boy, "Look."

…only for the Cybermat to open its mouth and snap at them, revealing rows and rows of sharp, deadly teeth that had Craig screaming and pulling back with Alfie.

The Doctor whipped out the sonic to try and short it out, only for the Detective to knock it out of his hand…and bring a mallet down on top of the thing, stunning it even if it didn't break its metallic shell.

"Ok, give it here," the Doctor turned to her after picking up the mat, holding out a hand to her and making a 'gimme' motion.

"But, Theta, I didn't hit anyone with it!" the Detective pouted, cradling the mallet to her chest.

"No," he cut in, holding his hand out more.

She sighed and huffed but slapped the mallet into his hand for him to confiscate. Oh well, at least she still had the hammer and axe.

"Alright there Craig?" the Doctor asked, seeing the man panicking as he put the mallet into his own pocket.

Craig shook his head, "Metal rat," he breathed, before growing more frantic and loud with each word that left him, "Real mouth! Metal rat, Real mouth, metal rat, real mouth!"

"Stop screaming," the Doctor lunged forward to cover Craig's mouth with his free hand, "STOP SCREAMING!" he sighed, "Put it away, Sigma," he called, not even needing to look over his shoulder to know she'd brought out the duct tape from her pocket.

"Always, always spoiling my fun," she muttered, but put the roll back in her pocket.

And then someone screamed in the distance.

"I take that back!" she cheered, and took off like a bullet in the direction of the yell, the Doctor and Craig hurrying after her. She led them right down to the store's basement, sure that was where it had originated. She pulled a very large UV light out of her pocket, the halls completely dark, and went on, not at all cautious.

"George!" the Doctor shouted, when he spotted a torch on the floor, one assigned to a security guard and George was the only one on duty tonight. It wasn't even a moment later that the light revealed George on the ground, not moving, "George…" he hurried over to check on him.

"Duck!" the Detective shouted, a very large gun now in her hand, having shoved the UV light into Craig's hand as he reached them, and fired at a Cyberman that appeared in the doorway just behind the Doctor, blasting it back.

"Ooh," she pouted, looking at the gun, turning it this way and that, "That was supposed to be much cooler," she looked at Craig, "Obliterate it and all," before she sighed, "That's what I get nicking a Cyberiad Class Weapon off the black markets of Shan Shen. Rubbish," and tossed it over her shoulder.

"We need to go," the Doctor said suddenly, standing and hefting George to his feet to help the man along. George was clearly out cold, dead weight, but alive.

"That was a Cyberman," Craig realized, pointing down at the doorway, before turning and rushing after the two time Lords, the Detective moving to help carry some of George's weight, "It was here! But you said…"

"Yeah, I know what I said," the Doctor muttered, "I say a lot of things! But I DID fuse the teleport, and that should have taken them days to repair."

"So they aren't using the teleport then," the Detective assessed.

"Even better," he mumbled, shaking his head. Because that meant they didn't need the teleport to get to earth, and that meant the Cybers were already ON earth and could attack at any time. Brilliant.

"I can guess why they're taking people though," the Detective continued, "That Cyber was damaged, it should have blasted us the moment it saw us. It's been using the missing people, changing them to spare parts."

"They changed the missing into Cybermen?" Craig grew a bit green at that.

"But why are they using spare parts?" the Doctor frowned, "Why? Everything I find out makes less sense!"

"Welcome to my world," the Detective remarked.

"Hold on," Craig shook his head, "If the Cybermen are here, then we're not safe, we've got to go. We've got to go back to base."

"We've got a base?" the Doctor looked at him, "When did we get a base?"

"Well, I've got a base," the Detective smirked at him.

"Having the TARDIS create a literal cave for you to hide in is not a base," the Doctor countered.

The Detective just stuck her tongue out at him for that.

~8~

The Doctor had to admit, he missed this, standing around a mad concoction with the Detective (and even the Master), mixing things up to see what he'd get. Granted, the Detective either had gotten worse or he was just misremembering those times, because as he stood at Craig's kitchen and tried to mix something up on the table, she kept trying to subtly reach over and add something or another to it. He never said a word, but he would just reach out and lightly push her hand back, ignoring her pout when she got caught.

They had gotten lucky, earlier, finding George when they had, stunning the Cyberman. They'd carried the human to his security room and locked him in. He would wake up come morning and be able to get out from the inside, safe from the Cybers for the night. Even if the Detective's weapon hadn't been functioning properly or fully, it would still do significant damage and the Cybers wouldn't risk a second attack in case she had the weapon ready for a second go.

"I'm going down the shops," Craig called as he passed through, "We're out of milk thanks to someone," he shot the Detective a look, "You know what to do if he cries," and tossed the baby monitor to the Doctor, only for the Detective to snatch it mid-air first.

"No!" the Doctor called back.

"Me neither," Craig shouted as he reached the hall.

"Pick up some pears while you're at it!" the Detective requested, sticking her tongue out at the Doctor for his grimace. If she wasn't allowed to add trinitrotoluene to the concoction, then he would just have to endure her munching on pears.

It was only fair.

Not even a moment later Alfie began to cry.

The Doctor looked at the Detective pointedly.

"What?" she asked, giving him a look in return.

"I wouldn't trust you with a baby," he began and, in the most unoffended way ever, the Detective nodded along as though it made perfect sense, "But I trust you even less with this," he gestured at the mixture he was working on.

And, really, so long as she didn't drop Alfie there wasn't much she would actually DO to the baby…maybe scar it for life, but with therapy he could overcome that. It would be harder to explain why the house or even the entire block had blown up in a fiery explosion or why the 'weird blonde girl' was shouting 'didn't do it!'

The Detective rolled her eyes, "Just for that, I'm demanding you split a pear tart with me later," she pointed at him.

He shook his head, more amused than disagreeing because he also crossed his hearts in promise he'd do so if she saw to Alfie.

The Doctor continued to work on the mixture, now a bit faster as he didn't have to keep his attention on the Detective and her penchant for adding explosive materials to things…honestly, people thought HE was bad with explosives? He snorted at the thought, though his ears perked at the sound of the Detective coming over the baby's monitor.

"What up, Stormy?" she asked the baby, "It's your favorite babysitter!" she laughed when the baby gurgled, "Really, keep that up and you won't need electroshock collars to enslave the world, your charm will do it for you."

…ok, maybe he SHOULD have gone after the baby and risked the house…

"Now…story time, yeah? That's what humans do to go to bed, right? Hmm…once, in the very far future, you'll be an adult. The end."

Alfie did not seem pleased.

"Oi, I can't give more than that or I'll spoil it! Who wants to know the future anyway, rubbish! It's the same for all you humans though, grow up, get a mortgage, get a job to pay for the mortgage, all the while living out a meaningless existence."

Alfie seemed even less pleased with that.

"Well I'm not done yet, am I?" she huffed, "You can change it though. Be anything. Go anywhere. Do anything. Just…" the Doctor paused in his work, hearing her sigh, hearing a note in it that meant she might actually venture into serious and mature, which was a rarity, "Don't do it alone. Find someone, a…a friend or someone more than that. And stick with them, Stormy. The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and be loved in return," she let out a weak laugh at that, "Love doesn't always mean love-love, it can mean being the best friend anyone ever had."

The Doctor frowned when she fell quiet.

"I had that," she murmured, "Both kinds. Or at least, I felt it on my end. Not so sure about him. And then things changed, things were lost. I didn't hold on tight enough. Don't make my mistakes, Stormy."

The Doctor's eyes widened at that, sitting up straight in his chair, nearly dropping the Cybermat in his hand at her words. He knew he was oblivious at times, but even he picked up on what she meant.

All through her life, she had two best mates, and only two best mates. She hadn't wanted to 'waste time on something that wasn't the best' so she never bothered making other friends. It was only him and the Master.

…and she loved one of them, as more than a friend.

He swallowed hard, feeling a flash of hope bubble in him before centuries of self-depreciation set in.

It wasn't him.

It couldn't be him.

It was the Master, it had to be.

Because it had been almost 200 years and she hadn't acted any differently around him than before. And she was talking about how she'd lost things, and the Master was the only one lost, so it had to be the Master and not him.

He was almost grateful for the zinging pain in his finger that happened right as his hearts began to crack at the thought.

He jumped to his feet, dropping the Cybermat as it reactivated, having bitten his finger to be released. He only vaguely heard the Detective starting to talk about 'James' and how another mistake she'd made was never giving people a chance, when the mat zoomed off in the direction of her voice.

"No!" he shouted, rushing after it, racing up the stairs and around a corner to where the nursery was, managing to flash the sonic at the mat just in time to keep it from lunging at the Detective. He rushed in, grabbing her hand, the arm not holding Alfie securely, and pulled her from the room, "Come on, run! It's only stunned!"

He pulled her onward, back down the stairs, and out the kitchen door to the yard, slamming the door shut to lock the Mat in the house, buying them time.

"I take it it reactivated?" the Detective guessed at his franticness. He nodded, "Ok," and then looked around and began pointing up at the sky, at the just barely visible stars, "That there is the big dipper…" she began to give the boy an astronomy lesson.

The Doctor nearly blanched at her utter lack of concern for the mat being loose in the house, before he realized she was doing it on purpose to distract Alfie from the danger in his safe space. He shook his head and turned to sonic the lock on the door for more security, when he saw the sonic had fallen inside the house in his scramble. Ok, that was bad. He quickly pulled out the cordless house phone he'd put in his pocket for some reason, and tried to call Craig's mobile, the man would be coming back soon and he needed to make sure he wouldn't walk into the Cyber's trap.

"Come on, Craig, pick up, pick up, pick up, pick up!" he muttered, huffing when it went to voicemail, "Craig, don't worry, Alfie is fine, but on no account enter the house…"

"Too late," the Detective called, pointing past his shoulder at something inside the house.

He spun around to see Craig inside, the Cybermat in his hands as the creature was trying to chomp into him, the human struggling to keep it back.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" he moved to rattle the door again, but it wouldn't budge.

"My time has come," the Detective beamed, stepping forward to pull him back, placing Alife in his arms, "Let the expert getting-through-wallser handle this," she looked at the doors, took three steps back, picked up a large, decorative rock…and ran for the glass door with a battle cry…

The Doctor winced and covered Alfie's eyes as she crashed through the glass window, just barely managing to launch the rock at the glass before her body reached it. Alfie did not need to learn such methods.

"Where's Alfie?!" Craig's strangled voice called out, "Where's Alfie?!"

"Hold on a mo…" the Detective looked around for the sonic, spotting it and picking it up.

"Get it off me!"

"Need to get the right frequency," she remarked, calm and cool, bashing the sonic on her hand, "Don't want to blow your head up…" she trailed off, and turned to look at him slowly, her expression asking him if that was right.

"NO!" Craig agreed.

"Ok, yes, thought it was that," she nodded, "Ah ha!" she cheered, "Got it…hold still…"

Craig glared at her, not able to hold still as his life literally depended on it.

She rolled her eyes but flashed the mat in his hands…it did nothing, "Huh. Must be shielded from metastatic energy. Well, isn't that wizard?"

"NO IT ISN'T!" Craig grunted, starting to turn blue.

"Should have an app…" she remarked, calling over her shoulder, "You DO have an app, right Theta?"

"Under A!" he yelled back.

"Got it!" she nodded, turning to Craig, "Got it this time, and…pew!" she flicked the sonic at the mat, which sparked and fell to the ground, unmoving. She walked over to it and nudged it with her shoe, "Well, that was anticlimactic."

"That was amazing!" the Doctor ran in with Alfie, now that it was safe to bring the boy in, patting Craig on the back as he gasped for breath, "You must be really, really strong. That thing should have had you easy."

"Is it definitely dead?" Craig panted.

"Inactive, yes," the Detective nodded, "Though, robot, not really alive to begin with."

"It was 'playing possum' before," the Doctor added, "To take us by surprise. Bravo," he clapped Craig on the back, but the man just reached for his son, taking him into his arms and patting the boy on the back, worried for him more than himself. So he turned to the Detective and scooped her up into a celebratory hug, spinning her around, beaming at the laughter that sprang from her for the surprise move.

~8~

The Doctor sat on the opposite side of a small coffee table in Craig's sitting room, the Detective on the other side, watching as she examined the mat with her magnifying glass. He probably should have let her give it a more thorough examination before, but he'd thought it had run out of power and was safe. Now he was being extra cautious and letting her look first.

"I'm knackered," Craig muttered as he entered with Alfie, moving to sit on the sofa, "So that thing was eating up the electricity?"

"And transmitting it up to the Cybership," the Detective nodded.

"But why?" the Doctor wondered.

"Because they're out of power, duh."

"Why are they out of power?"

"I'm guessing the ship is damaged, at the very least, explains the equally damaged Cybermen."

"And why are those conversions not complete yet?"

"Well, if the power is low, they can't exactly waste it on conversions till they have more."

"What else are they doing up there?"

"Having a hen night."

"What?" the Doctor laughed at that.

She shrugged, "I don't know what else they might be doing besides repairing their ship. Could be anything."

"A hen night?"

"What, you don't think some Cybermen could be CyberWOmen?"

He just shook his head at here, Cybermen erased gender upon conversion.

"You said you were going to look at its brain," Craig cut in a bit, "Wouldn't that tell you what they're doing?"

"The pulse before wiped its brain," the Detective told him, sliding the mat over to the Doctor with a nod that it was clean and safe now.

"Now I can reprogram it," the Doctor beamed, rubbing his hands together, "Use it as a weapon against them."

"The Cybermat came after us?" Craig frowned.

"No, after US," he gestured between him and the Detective.

"They sent it after us?" Craig continued, subtly trying to tell them it wasn't just on the two of them, he was in it to the end for this adventure.

"After US. Because of US, you and Alfie nearly died."

"Yeah, not fair," the Detective turned to look at Craig, "You got to have all the fun fighting it off, thanks for that."

"You can wrestle the next one," Craig offered, to which she nodded happily in acceptance.

"Do you still feel safe with me, Craig?" the Doctor wondered, looking at the man.

"You can't help who your mates are."

"No," the Doctor shook his head, "I am a stupid and selfish man," he sighed, it was true, even more true now that he had the revelation about the Detective, "Always have been."

He'd been stupid not to see the signs that she had loved the Master and not him, but he'd ignored it. He'd been selfish to hope she'd pick him over the Master. Maybe he never should have left Gallifrey, left her to have to placate the Master so often, of course something would have formed between them. He got the impression she hadn't told the Master though and he felt even worse. Because it had been her greatest thing, never picking one of them over the other, and he'd wanted her to. He'd wanted her to pick HIM so badly…he should have seen…

"I should have made you go," he said aloud instead, hoping the quick change in the topic of his thoughts would keep him from thinking about it, keep the Detective from picking up on it, "I should never have come here."

"Well, I DID say we should have stopped at Melissa Majora for some honey…" the Detective remarked, nudging his leg with her own, though there was a minute forced quality to her words. She had seen his thoughts spiraling before, not what he was thinking about, only that it was making him very upset, she wanted to make him smile again…it wasn't working this time.

"What would have happened if you hadn't come?" Craig countered, "Who else knows about Cybermen and teleports?"

"UNIT, Torchwood, The Smith Freelance Investigators, Sarah Jane Smith…doesn't always have to be Theta."

"I put people in danger," the Doctor rubbed his forehead.

Craig yawned, "Stop beating yourself up! If it wasn't for you this whole planet would be an absolute ruin."

"Craig…" the Doctor began, "Very soon I won't be here..." he moved his leg away when the Detective moved to kick it for saying such a thing, "My time is running out. I don't mean Exedor. Silence will fall when the question is asked. Don't even know what the question is. Always knew I'd die still asking. Thing is, Craig, it's tomorrow. Can't put it off any more. Tomorrow is the day I..."

They both turned to look when a tiny snore sounded, to see both Craig and his son had fallen asleep on the sofa, Alfie resting on Craig's chest.

"You're not allowed to die at the hands of anyone else but me, Theta," the Detective reminded him, getting up to place a blanket over the two, before turning to him, crouching down and draping her arms around his shoulders to cross her wrists before him, resting her hands on his hearts, her chin on his shoulder, "And if you even try, I will take the TARDIS and fly it into whatever afterlife you've gone to, and drag you back, kicking and screaming if I have to."

"I know," he nodded, reaching up a hand to grab one of her wrists and squeeze, taking a breath, "It's been a rough time, got a bit dramatic, didn't I?"

" A bit?" she gave him a look, "I could put on a whole one woman show based on that last ramble."

He chuckled and twisted, holding out a hand to her to help him up as they took the mat and moved into the kitchen so as not to wake the sleeping Owens.

~8~

The Detective looked up from where she was petting the Cybermat as the Doctor closed the front door to Craig's house that next morning, the remote control for the mat clutched in his other hand. Apparently he didn't trust her not to cause chaos with the mat by giving her the control. Spoilsport.

"We good?" she asked as he turned.

"Left the note," he nodded, gesturing her on ahead of him like a proper gentleman. It was a quick note scribbled and stuck to the fridge to let Craig know they'd gone to stop the Cybermen, nothing too alarming, they'd probably have this all sorted before breakfast! Which was good, they'd worked through the night to get the mat prepped and he knew the Detective could get a bit vicious when she didn't eat.

Hopefully that viciousness would be turned on the Cybers and not him…

…perhaps he should have snagged a granola bar or something for her…

Oh well, they headed straight for the shop on foot, not willing to risk taking the TARDIS anywhere near the Cybermen, but luckily the shop was quite close to Craig's house, just two blocks and around a corner so they arrived just as the store was opening for the morning. They hurried to the women's department, Val was already there.

"Morning!" she called out, smiling brightly when she saw them.

"How do you do that?" the Detective asked, her hoodie and sunglasses back up, though she was peering a Val through them.

"Do…do what?" Val blinked.

"Be so chipper so early?" she eyed Val suspiciously, "Is that normal for humans?"

The Doctor chuckled and patted her arm, the Detective was a notoriously non-morning person. There had been a time or two where he and the Master had to team up to literally drag her out of her bed and not just to the floor of her bedroom at the Academy but to the bathroom, the shock of the cool tile waking her up. The Master, when he was in a foul mood, would sometimes scoop her up over his shoulder, throw her in the shower and set the cold water running…and then HE would be running out of the room while a soaking wet Detective chased after him and threatened him with a pair of scissors.

…he really had had the weirdest friends, hadn't he?

"Teleport's still fused," the Doctor reminded her, gently taking her elbow to lead her off towards the changing rooms, though Val began to walk with them, mistaking his words for a conversation with herself, "They didn't repair it. So the Cyberman last night, how did it get down here, how did it get out? And why…" he looked at Val, who his head had been turned to in politeness, "Why am I asking you?"

"You found the silver rat!" Val gushed when she spotted it in the Detective's hand.

"But where are the silver men?" the Doctor muttered, turning to the Detective this time, Val about to speak when she saw a customer at the counter and hurried back.

"Oh, sorry, are you talking to me now?" the Detective groused.

"I was just being polite," he muttered.

"To Val," she pointed out, "Ignoring me, in the middle of a conversation WE were having, is rude."

"I'm sorry, Sigma," he sighed, leaning down in habit to drop a kiss to the top of her hair, "Should I re-ask you the questions?"

"Please," she scoffed, "I'm not a human, I DO have a better attention span and memory than they do."

He nodded slowly, amused now, "And the questions were…"

"I wasn't finished," she cut in, "But if you insist, in the name of being polite, please do repeat them if it'll make you happy."

He had to laugh at that, knowing she hadn't been paying attention at all when he'd begun to speak to Val and hadn't heard a word he'd said, "How did the Cyberman get down here? How did it get out? Where are the silver men?"

"If getting down is impossible, then it came up instead. It got out because it was never in. And I'm going to assume the basement where the ship crashed."

The Doctor blinked at her.

She smirked, patting his arm, "Detective," and turned to enter the changing rooms, heading for the last stall and pulling out her magnifying glass to show him what she'd seen last time on the mirror, "A disillium-bonded steel door disguised as a wall."

"Oh, that is cheating!" the Doctor huffed, moving to the side to find the trigger to open the wall.

"That's a Cyberwall. A Cwall? A Call?" the Detective mused, growing silent as she began to think about other names for it even as the mirror swung open on a set of hinges, showing the tunnel carved out behind it.

"You were right," the Doctor nodded, "It didn't teleport down. It climbed up."

"What is tuna tartar?" she asked, out of nowhere.

"It…what?" the Doctor asked, having taken a step into the tunnel but turned to face her again, "Where did…HOW did you get on that?" honestly, even having a connection to her mind he sometimes got lost in how her thought process worked.

"Well, I was naming the wall, and I thought of call, which made me think of phones, then phone boxes, then the TARDIS, then TARtar, and different kinds of it and I don't know what it is. Do they even make tuna tartar?"

"Yes?" he offered, though he should have expected her mind to turn to food at some point, it inevitably always did, "We'll get some after we stop the Cybermen. Come on," he nodded to the side and began to head down the tunnel once more, walking slowly and cautiously, scanning around with the sonic, both of them choosing to forego the UV light as they would need as much cover as they could find in the dark.

"Wee!" the Detective squealed quietly as they slid down a small part of the tunnel and into a larger cavern beyond, clearly where the Cybership had either crashed or been moved to make repairs, it was quite damaged. She looked over at the Doctor, grinning, "Race you!" she shouted and ran off towards the ship, the Doctor right behind, catching up in time for them both to try and cram through the single doorway, grunting and huffing before they smushed through.

Another doorway would bring them to a conversion room of sorts, but it looked like a patchwork version of the ones they'd seen in the past, "Well, well, well," the Doctor whistled, "You have been busy."

"Well, now we know Shona won't be in," the Detective mused, spotting something in the dirt of the floor, the woman's nametag.

"You have come to us," a metallic voice said behind them, not that it shocked them, they could hear the stomping of Cyber feet a mile away let alone a few feet away.

The Detective stood and turned, standing beside the Doctor as she observed the metal man. It wasn't the first time she'd ever seen one, so it wasn't like it was a curiosity to be explored or get excited about, but it WAS obviously damaged and any damage she could work out would tell her more about its situation and weaknesses.

"Took us a while," the Doctor shrugged, "A lot on our minds…" he smiled when the Detective snorted at the understatement it was for her, "Sigma, what have we got?"

She shrugged, not needing to look around, having gotten a good enough glimpse earlier, "Ship's centuries old, crashed, no survivors since the power went out, systems dormant. Then the council starts work, gets the juices flowing, and Stanley does what he does best to scout out more power for your battery. You start digging your way to the shop, but you just don't have enough power or parts to get the ship in order."

"When we are ready we will emerge," the cyber stated, "We will convert this planet to Cyberform."

"What, the six of you?" the Doctor scoffed, his sonic having picked up the signs of 6 Cybers in total.

"You know that is enough. You know us. You are the Doctor."

"Correct."

"Oi, what about me?" the Detective huffed, crossing her arms, put out at not being recognized.

"You are Time Lord," the Cyber stated, scanning her.

"I'm the Detective, thank you very much, or Sigma, or Rebecca Morgan, or…"

The Doctor reached out to cover her mouth, knowing she could get on a tangent about all the different aliases she'd used over her time. Sometimes she would jokingly make up a name for herself, different each time, but he always tried to beat her to the punch in introductions when they had to pass as human to irritate her by calling her Shirley Holmes.

"We're the Doctor and the Detective, and lucky for you, the Doctor always gives you a choice," he spoke, "Deactivate yourself, or I let my colleague here deactivate you herself."

The Detective grinned quite evilly at that, rubbing her hand together as she imagined what she could do to them…before she spun around, pointing at a Cyberman that had 'tried' to sneak up behind them. Really, how did they ever think they could do that if they didn't switch their legs to silent, "No," she pointed at the Cyber, "You stay back or I blow this entire place!" she dropped Stanley to pull a stick of dynamite out.

"You would kill yourself," the Cyber stated.

"And then I regenerate, what would you do?" she challenged, and the Cyber took a step back.

"They must be converted," the first Cyber ordered.

"No," another countered, "They are not like us. Brain and binary vascular system incompatible. They will be discarded. Other body parts may be of use."

Suddenly, Craig raced into the room, holding up some sort of device in his hand as though it were a gun though it looked more like a piece of rubbish he'd picked up from somewhere on the ship, "Oi, Cybermen! Get off my planet, or I activate this."

"That's a…" the Detective began, about to identify the device as a scanner that would do literally nothing to the Cybers, when the Doctor cut in.

"Craig, stop this, get out!" the Time Lord ordered.

Craig refused, "It's like you said, Doctor, got to believe you can do it!"

"You located us?" the second Cyberman turned to Craig.

"Teleport in the lift, bit rubbish. That little Cybermat never stood a chance. See what you're dealing with?"

"You are compatible. You are intelligent."

"James, duck!" the Detective shouted when the second Cyber put a hand to its chest panel, shooting out electricity at Craig who was too slow to react, causing him to drop the scanner and fall to his knees.

The Doctor lunged forward to try and help the fallen man, but a third Cyber grabbed his arm and held him back.

"No!" Craig cried out when the first Cyber approached and hauled him to his feet, half dragging him across the room, "I'm not intelligent, you don't want me."

"Really, he's not," the Detective tried to 'help.'

But the second Cyber would not be deterred, "Do not fear. We will take your fear from you. You will be like us. You will be more than us."

"No, no, no, no!" Craig struggled when a chamber door of some sort opened, looking like it was human in shape, with straps and other manacles meant to hold him down.

"Your designation is Cyber Controller. You will lead us, we will conquer this world."

"Help!" Craig yelled to them as he was forced into the device, "Do something! Please!"

"Stanley, time to shine," the Detective looked down at the Cybermat as the Doctor began to operate the creature, clamps coming down on Craig's arms and legs.

"Don't worry!" the Doctor tried to reassure Craig, "I've reprogrammed the Cybermat, it'll drain their power!"

The Detective gasped, a hand to her hearts, when the second Cyberman stomped on the Mat as it scurried past, "Nooooo! Staanleey!" she cried dramatically.

"You have failed," the second Cyber stated, "Begin conversion! Phase one. Cleanse the brain of emotions."

"Craig, listen!" the Doctor shouted as more clamps came down on the man, "Fight it! They can't convert you if you fight back! You're strong, don't give in to it!"

"You've got to make him more emotional, Theta," the Detective remarked, calm, "The more emotions the better the chance."

"Think of Sophie!" the Doctor added, "Think of Alfie, don't let them take it all away!"

"Make it stop," Craig begged, wiggling to try and escape but he was too caught, "Please make it stop!"

"Please, listen to me! I believe in you, I believe you can do this! I've always believed in all of you, all my life!"

"Well…" the Detective began, but wisely kept quite. There had been a phase where the Doctor was learning about the darker periods of human history where he'd spiraled into a well of despair over how cruel humanity could be…

She had been at her wits end about his grumbling and complaining and lamenting the fall of the 'greatest species after Time Lords' and put together a monster of a, well, like a PowerPoint, to show him the best in humanity and how the good always came after the bad.

"I'm going die, Craig!" then the Doctor got dramatic, "Tomorrow, I'm going to die, but I don't mind if you just prove me right! CRAIG!"

"Begin full conversion," the second Cyber stated as the helmet piece around Craig's face began to seal shut.

"Ok, give me that," the Detective turned, putting her back to the second Cyber and reaching out to take the sonic from the Doctor, "Must be here somewhere…" she muttered, flicking it at a nearby monitor, tapping into the security footage around the shop, moving through different cameras with every flick until…

Alfie appeared, in Val's arms, crying as the woman tried to soothe him.

But the Time Lords could hear what he was saying, who he wanted, his daddy.

"Unknown soundwave detected," one of the Cybers reported.

"It is the sound of fear," the second cast if off, "It is irrelevant. We will remove all fear."

"Alfie! I'm so sor…" the Doctor began shouting, as though the baby could hear him, only for the Detective to cover his mouth with her hand this time.

"You're ruining the plan, Theta," she told him dryly, "You have to be quiet for this to work."

'For what to work?' he asked her in her mind.

'He's a new dad,' she rolled her eyes at him, 'Even as poorly as he thinks he's doing, he's a dad. What would YOU do if your child was crying and scared?'

'Anything,' the Doctor answered, before his eyes widened, realizing what she had.

She had known Craig would not part with Alfie or leave him at home alone unattended, he'd taken the boy with him to the shop, and he had to have left the boy somewhere, with someone. Alfie, for all his complaining about his dad, it was still his dad and he wouldn't want to be left with a stranger, especially not knowing his father was running into danger. The boy would be upset and crying and want his dad, and that sound, that hearstberaking sound, would break through anything and reach Craig. And all his paternal instincts that struggled to break through, WOULD break through.

Because Alfie wasn't crying from a nappy or hunger or being annoyed…but because he was scared, it was a different sound, one even Craig would realize on a subconscious level.

"Emotions eradicated conversion complete," the first Cyber had just begun to make the report, when Craig's fingers twitched and an alarm began to blare.

Though Alfie's cries could still be heard through it, with a little boost from the sonic.

"Alert," the second Cyber turned to the controls, "Emotional subsystems rebooting. This is impossible."

The Doctor let out a whooping laugh when energy crackled around Craig's headpiece, "He can hear him," he realized, the plan was working, "He can hear Alfie! Oh, please, just give me this! Craig, you wanted a chance to prove you're a dad. You're never going to get better one than this!"

"What is happening?" the second cyber demanded as the headpiece began to split open, as though the entire chamber was moving in reverse and releasing the prisoner within.

"You really need to upgrade your encyclopedia," the Detective snorted, "That's a baby crying, HIS baby. Never separate a parent from their child, you metal morons."

"Alfie!" Craig called out, the headpiece now entirely open, the man struggling and fighting even harder than before to overload the system and break free, "Alfie, I'm here! I'm coming for you!"

"Yes!" the Doctor cheered, the Cybers around them staggering, having already connected themselves to the conversion system to bring the 'new Cyber' into their data banks, now they were getting the resurgence of emotions.

"Alfie!" Craig shouted again, the Doctor yanking free and rushing to help Craig get out of the last parts of the machine.

"Emergency!" the second Cyber shouted, "Emotional influx!"

"Sigma got you to trigger a feedback loop into their emotional inhibitors!" the Doctor explained to Craig very quickly, "All that stuff they cut out of themselves, now they're feeling it! Which means a very big explosion!"

"Yes!" the Detective cheered, using the sonic to flick the end of the dynamite, sparking the end of the detonation cord to begin burning.

"Not that kind of explosion!" the Doctor shouted, now a bit more panicked because the Detective was standing there with a lit stick of dynamite. He ran over, taking it from her and turning to the now-malfunctioning Cybers, putting it in one of their hands, before grabbing her hand and yanking her off, "Come on, Craig!" he shouted.

They ran for the doors as the Cybers began to overload.

"Get this open, we need to get to Alfie!" Craig demanded when the doors didn't budge.

"They've sealed the ship!" the Doctor stated.

"Hmm…probably should have waited to light that stick then," the Detective mused, before laughing, "But that is bloody brilliant! Look at that!" she pointed to the Cybers as one of their heads exploded, "I guess feeling new emotions was quite…mindblowing," she smiled at the two men, "Get it, mind-blowing?"

Craig just turned back to the Doctor, "We've got to get out of here!"

"I know!" the Doctor cried out, ignoring the explosion noises the Detective as making when two more Cyber heads blew up, "The teleport!" he realized, reaching out to take the sonic back and holding it up, activating the teleport remotely right as the dynamite cord reached the stick…

The lift they appeared in shuddered just slightly with the combined explosion of the Cybership and the dynamite, but it kept moving, dinging open on the shop floor and letting them out.

Craig immediately raced through the store, back to the women's department, where Val was shushing Alfie, the Time Lords close behind.

"How did you get in there?" Val stared at him, having sworn he'd gone off in a different direction before.

"Alfie!" Craig called, more concerned with taking his son back than answering anything.

"Here's your daddy," Val chuckled, handing the boy over to Craig, who immediately cuddled him and swayed with him, hugging him tightly.

"That was another review," the Doctor told the man as he and the Detective approached, "Ten out of ten."

"I would have given it a 7," the Detective wiggled her hand in a so-so motion, "I mean, that entrance could have been a bit better and maybe a little less screaming during the middle and…"

"He did wonderfully," the Doctor cut in gently, nodding to Alfie.

"Oh," she nodded, "Right yes, 9 and a half out of ten then."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at her.

"The Cybermen..." Craig turned to the aliens, "They blew up. I blew them up with love!"

"And a stick of dynamite," the Detective reminded him.

"It's also impossible, to blow them up with love," the Doctor added, "And also grossly sentimental and over simplistic. You destroyed them because of the deeply ingrained hereditary human trait to protect one's own genes which in turn triggered a...uh...yeah. Love. You blew them up with love."

"And dynamite," the Detective repeated, "Seriously is no one going to compliment the dynamite?"

The Doctor chuckled, "The dynamite was dyn-o-mite!" he offered, trying to put a bit of slang and swag onto the play on words.

"Yes," the Detective said slowly, eyeing him as though HE were the mad one now, "It IS dynamite. That's what I just said, wasn't it?"

He shook his head and put an arm around her shoulder, "Come on, let's get you a croissant," he offered, leading her to the café, chuckling as she put her sunglasses and hood back on along the way.

~8~

"The building should be totally safe," the Doctor found himself explaining the situation to Kelly a short while later, the Detective happily munching on her chocolate croissant and sipping her coffee beside him, "Structurally, and of course the bonded disillium contained the explosion."

"Right," Kelly nodded slowly, "Why you telling me all this?"

"I don't know."

"Because Shona won't be showing up for work, ever again," the Detective told her after swallowing the last bite of her food, "So…extra shifts for you."

"Great," Kelly huffed, turning to walk off and complain to one of her coworkers that they were going to be pulling double duty till a replacement could be found.

"Come on," the Doctor nodded towards where Craig had bought a different shirt, the other one was covered in sweat stains and dirt, and was purchasing it by Val. He put his arm around her shoulders and they headed to join him.

"You've got a new shirt," the Detective noted as they approached, Craig beamed at how she'd noticed it, "I don't like it."

And then pouted at her remark.

The Doctor chuckled to try and ease the slight and turned to Val, "Thank you for your help, Val. Good noticing. Keep 'em peeled."

"I will," she nodded, before turning to Craig, "I think the shirt is lovely," she remarked, "Your sister's just teasing you, it's what they do."

The Detective looked at the Doctor as they walked off, having heard that last bit of the conversation, "Craig has a sister?"

The Doctor chuckled, "I think Val thinks you're his sister."

She considered it a moment, "Ew," she decided on, "Humans," and shook her head. She thought humans were funny and entertaining, but she didn't love them quite as much as the Doctor did. She'd rather be a Time Lord's sister than a human's.

The Doctor's small grin began to fall slightly, catching her last thought, and swallowed hard. Ok, he could...he could deal with that. The woman he was quite sure he loved only saw him as a brother. Ok. Fine. It at least meant he had some form of love from her that was different than just friendship.

He could deal with that.

He could!

~8~

It was torture. Pure and basic torture. The Detective was quite sure the Doctor's name should have been 'The Torturerer' or something.

"Don't be so dramatic," the Doctor laughed, she was purposefully sending him her thoughts on all this, "It's just cleaning!"

And indeed that was all it was, the two of them had taken a bit of a hop in the TARDIS, gone back a few hours so that they could get Craig's house all sorted out, all cleaned and swept the glass out and even replaced the back door. It wasn't even that bad, a bit of broken glass and some things on the floor, but it wasn't like the room was in shambles or they were building a new house.

…though given the state of her room in the TARDIS, cleaning anything probably was equal to torture for her.

Honestly, he wasn't even sure what color the carpet was, he couldn't see her carpet.

They had just stepped through the back kitchen door to see Craig had arrived home with Alfie, looking quite stunned, "See?" the Doctor smiled, "I do come back."

"How did you..." Craig gestured around at the clean and orderly setup.

"Time machine," the Detective reminded him, before crossing her arms, "Of course, I said we should just go back to before the Mat attacked to avoid the mess in the first place but Theta was all, noooo, we can't do that, crossed timelines and all."

"Even with the time travel we could manage, getting glaziers on a Sunday, tricky," the Doctor smiled at the fixed door.

"You went back in time?" Craig looked between them, "That means you used up your hours. What about Exedor?"

"What about you being in trouble with Sophie when she comes back? I couldn't let that happen."

"Well, we COULD have," the Detective countered, "But he'd feel bad about it."

Craig was so touched by the gesture he didn't even care that the Detective had said the Doctor would be the only one who felt bad, "You used up your time for me?"

"Course I did," the Doctor smiled, "You're me mate. I notice Stormageddon's very quiet and happy."

"Oh don't do that, Stormy!" the Detective complained, letting out a huff at his babble, "And now he prefers the name Alfie. Great."

The Doctor patted her on the shoulder, as though Alfie accepting his name was the greatest tragedy to befall her, "And he's very proud of his dad," he added, cheering up Craig even more.

"He calls me dad?" Craig's eyes widened.

"Yes, of course he does now! Yeah, I know," he added to Alfie, "He's a bit thick, isn't he?"

"Shut up, you two!"

"Well..." the Doctor took a deep breath, putting an arm around the Detective's shoulder, "Now it's time. We have to go."

"Doctor," Craig called just before the Time lord could turn to go, "I know that something's wrong, I can help you."

"Nobody can help me."

"Well…" the Detective began, but the Doctor kept talking.

"I hope Sophie won't mind, I need these," the Doctor held up a handful of blue envelopes from his pocket that he'd nicked before.

"Where are you going to go?" Craig asked.

"America."

Both men ignored the loud groan the Detective let out at that.

"Sophie will be home any second, are you sure?"

"I can't miss this appointment, Craig. Goodbye, mate."

"Wait there. One second," Craig hurried out of the room and came back moments later with a Stetson hat, "From Sean's stag," he reached out to put it on the Doctor's head.

"Wow," the Detective blinked at him, "Your eyebrows look invisible with that thing on."

Craig chuckled at that, "You ride 'em, pardner."

"Oh, thanks," the Doctor chuckled himself, snapping his fingers at Craig and pointing them like they were guns before turning to head out with the Detective, waving back when Craig said goodbye.

The TARDIS was only down the street, but the walk there felt like it took ages with how solemn the Doctor was.

"Ok, that's enough," the Detective stopped in the middle of the road, grabbing his arm to stop him and force him to face her, "You are not dying."

"Sigma…"

"You. Are. Not. Dying," she repeated, poking him in the chest with each word.

"The Teselecta said…"

"You die, I die."

He froze at her words, his face paling, his eyes widening as he stared at her, "That's not funny."

"Really, I thought it was hysterical," she deadpanned, crossing her arms, "You want to go die at the lake, I will drown myself in it. Is that what you want? Hmmm?"

"Sigma, that's not…"

"I am NOT going to be alone, Theta," she cut in, "I will NOT be alone again. I will not be one half for the rest of my lives. So either you finally get onboard with helping me figure out a way around this, or you condemn me to die with you. What'll it be?"

It was a trap, he knew, the moment she uttered those four words before. She knew that if he didn't care about himself, he would always care about others more, he would always care about her more than himself. The same way she cared about him more than herself too. If he was resigned to die, she had to make him find the will to fight it.

Even if it meant threatening her own life.

"You wouldn't," he murmured.

"Try me," she challenged, serious, "You won't be here to stop me."

He swallowed hard, but nodded, "Neither of us goes."

She held up a pinky to him, causing him to crack a smile, linking his pinky to her in promise.

"Right," she nodded, "Then we need to get started," they had numerous plans already, but the Doctor's were more half hearted thoughts that he cast off too quickly, NOW they were going to find one and make it work.

He shook his head fondly at her when she grabbed his hand and nearly dragged him to the TARDIS, a few children who had been playing nearby stopped and stared at the funny man in the cowboy hat as they approached.

He tipped his hat to them, "Hey. I'm the Doctor. I was here to help. And you are very, very wel…come!" the last part came out as a shout, for the Detective had entered the box, then reached out to grab the front of his shirt and yank him in after her.

A/N: I know I usually get the chapter up on Fridays, was a bit late this week. My mom had a very minor surgery to correct a deviated septum and I was the one taking her and waiting and making sure she was ok the last day or two so it took a bit longer to get things edited. She's doing fine, it all went well :)

As for this chapter...

Poor Craig, having to put up with the both of them and his cranky baby :) Well, I like to think if he can survive Sigma and an alien invasion, he can survive Alfie when he's hit the terrible twos and his teenage years ;)

So it's been nearly 200 years for the Time Lords, and they're still not together :/ Not for lack of trying on both ends, but they're both sort of going about it the wrong way and testing the waters. The Doctor has been sort of wallowing and trying to distract himself from his looming death, then trying to subtly judge the Detective's level of interest with 'romantic' sites. But, problem is she probably doesn't realize it's meant to be romantic places and not just places. The Detective, on the other hand, we haven't really seen her methods and how they may have changed because the Doctor hasn't noticed them either. She's going for a long haul here, but trying to balance the investigation of his interest with their new adventures and meeting new people and his wallowing. She's gone a very subtle road, like letting her touches linger or hugging him longer than normal, more extensions of what she normally does but he hasn't noticed that change. Normally she's very focused during an investigation, but since this isn't an 'official' one, she often lets it fall to the backburner to get through the main mysteries that pop up during their trips, so it's been an on again off again attempt on her part.

It will all come to a head very soon though, because we get River next and a new take on the 'wedding' episode :)

I can say that chapter will also be where we really start to see some aspects of her madness come out. We've seen parts of how she was friends with the Master peek out through the story, how easily and ok she is with harming other people even if it's in defense of the Doctor, she'll have no issue taking a shovel or a bat to someone's head if it's the fast way. We've seen her sort of lack of concern with the danger others put themselves into too, the Doctor will fret and she'll more be like 'well they went along with this so...it's on them.' We've seen her sort of get a little too excited at the prospect of massive destruction and an eagerness to either see it or cause it.

Next chapter we'll see an even 'darker' edge to her.

That's one thing I'm looking forward to exploring with Sigma as the series goes on, that dark edge. Time Lord Victorious came about when the Doctor sort of got to the end of his rope, the Fury of a Time Lord comes about when he's angry, that's when he goes too far or does something extreme. But for Sigma, it's not the Fury or that being pushed too far that can lead to her own extreme measures. It's just her. It's just her deciding that method is easier or faster or 'cooler' and that's sort of terrifying, because you don't know what method she'll go for, there's no warning sign, there's no build up to anger, there's no trigger, it's just whatever she decides to do in that moment.

Next chapter we'll see the Companions sort of realize that }:)

On a lighter note though, lol, got another hint of her past regenerations, skydiving accident :) We'll find out how she died that led to the current Sigma in the next chapter ;)

For this chapter there are 5 intentional quotes and 2 little references :) The references, though, are quotes but not from a book or movie or TV show but more on the side, in interviews, so I've classified them as little references than full on quotes ;)

Quotes from the last chapter:

I want my tears back. I want my tears back now - lyrics from a song by Nightwish

Stars, not in position. Can't do it. Not today - The Road to El Dorado

Carry on my wayward son, there'll be peace when... - Song by Kansas (also, from Supernatural)

You spin me right round, baby, right round. Like a record, baby, right round, round, round - Song by Dead or Alive

References from the last chapter:

Rufus - From Kim Possible, the naked mole rat

Gollum - Lord of the Rings

Metallica - Could be the band, but I took it more from Dean in Supernatural ;)

A black Chevy Impala from 1967 - also Supernatural

I had Hogwarts and Watson as a tie, for Harry Potter and Sherlock ;)

Congrats to anyone who spotted them! :)

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, it is a very good excuse to use to not have to do something ;)

I'm so sorry if Sigma and her personality came across like that, it is not and was never my intention for her to seem like anyone who struggles with ADHD or any other disorder isn't sane or that there's anything wrong with them, I'm so sorry if it came across like that :( I think I get too into the characters that, sometimes, I forget the real world connections people can make to them. Sigma does have some similarities to ADHD, from what I understand of it, she also has some dissimilarities in areas too. We will, though, start to see some very big differences, throughout the series that will hopefully add to that. While she displays some similarities to it, she does not actually have it. As you pointed out, it's not something she was born with, it was not something naturally occurring in her mind, but the result of a trauma in her past and, sort of, damage to her mind in how the Schism caused it to essentially shatter. I think that is something to keep in mind, as similar as she may be, the history behind her personality is not a naturally occurring disorder but trauma :( When she says to the humans that there is 'more wrong with her than they can count' it's not just how she is in general, how she comes across to them, she is right in what she says to Rory that 900 years is a long time to develop other issues outside of what the Schism did and we'll see more of those as the series goes on. I probably also didn't make it clear, because of how she responds to humans around her, but she's had centuries of understanding how people outside of Gallifrey view her and her personality, that she overwhelms them sometimes and their natural reaction is 'what's wrong with you?' so she goes along with it from their perspective and not her own. Because she doesn't owe it to them to lay out all those things or justify how she is, she brushes it off with the fastest thing to get them to drop it because she has no time for it. Part of is is her not actively holding back or even trying to be serious but emphasizing it more, because it's an asset to her if others underestimate her attention or focus or smarts as she observes them. On Gallifrey though, there is nothing actually wrong with Sigma, or even with the Master really. Because it is a natural way that children go, they are either inspired, run, or go mad, and that is normal by their standards. Even having a skewed triumvirate, it's still normal for Sigma and the Master to be mad. They weren't introduced to one key area that seems to help more of the children cope (having someone inspired in their triumvirate), but that still doesn't make them wrong. They are, to be technical, mad, in the sense that their trauma caused their minds to shatter and re-piece themselves differently than before. The Doctor, also, has some similarities to ADHD identifiers, he calls himself a madman and is called mad by others many times too. When Sigma was forming, she came across to me as more of a Doctor who's more hyper and has a harder time developing care for humans as quickly and of a Master who is less homicidal and better able to handle her emotions and anger. I will try to do better conveying that there isn't actually anything wrong-wrong with Sigma in terms of her own culture and what madness means there. I'll also try to be clearer in how some things that come across to humans as being an oddity are more just her being faster than them. Her attention span is often her already having paid attention to something and moved on to the next topic before the humans can catch up. Her losing the thread of a conversation is her deeming the topic not important enough or redundant or something else more important. Being a detective, her mind naturally makes connections so for all she knows she may start thinking of a song and end up solving a murder just based on how the connections move down the line, so she's more inclined to let herself get carried away there. Her forgetfulness is a conscious decision that what she should remember isn't important enough to remember. Her hyperactivity more her wanting to be out there and more up close to the mysteries, because there are SO many mysteries to solve and she just loves solving them so much, her curiosity and zest for life is one thing I love about her :) Her emotions are largely under control and rarely does she ever get angry, contrary to the Master, because her madness manifested as eccentric genius while his was more criminal mastermind. I really am so very sorry if it came across like I was saying that anyone with an attention disorder is wrong or insane, that was not my intention at all and I'll try my very best going forward to clear up the context and cultural views things occur in :(

That's something I love about her too. It's like when you're in school and there are 10 questions on the board and you have to answer them all. Sigma might glance at them and then do something else, and everyone else thinks she's just lost focus or isn't paying attention, but really she's already solved the questions and has moved on to something else :) It's taken her a very long time, but she's gotten her mind to the point where she can make connections between things she sees, hears, and notices and sort them into the right places without needing to put much effort to it, so it makes it easier for her to solve the problems the Doctor might need more time for. She notices more and faster because she's always been overwhelmed with it all and spent time building it up :) And very true, just because she doesn't really connect to someone, doesn't mean she'll just let them die (unless she's identified them as a very bad person), but normal people she'd sort of be like 'here's what you do to live, you don't do it, don't cry to me' sort of thing. She sees it as, if you're here and going along with this, you've brought whatever happens on yourself if you don't put an effort in on your end too.

Sigma's room was filled with squirrels :) So she was very keen to avoid it ;)