Wow, things are coming up faster than I thought it would. There's a lot for me to do this month! So on that note, posting might slow down in November and December, maybe even January depending on how out of my skull I am by the time my wisdom teeth are taken out.

Thanks again to Ghost, Nico, Yen and Killer for beta reading my stuff, I did make a few edits because I'm getting nitpicky about this sciency stuff despite not really studying ANY of the science disciplines involved and this is science fiction after all so anything goes haha!

Disclaimer on all things

It was quiet all throughout the Tardis. No shuffling of feet, tools clanging around or little robots hiding under his chair. The Tardis' engines were like white noise to him, having traveled with her for so long and his own footsteps could only drown out so much of the silence. Of course he didn't stay cooped up in that blue box of his for long. Nothing stopped him from roaming about time and space as he pleased. He revisited the Renaissance period in England for a day or two and a few hours on the Titanic before it was doomed to sink. He found himself drinking wine at a feast in ancient Greece one evening but the thing he had found to be the strangest for him was checking in on Donna.

Of course he couldn't just walk up to her and say hello but it was still comforting to see her. Wilfred had gotten a dog it seemed and he could hear his former companion going on about something.

"Well of course he's gonna have an accident if you leave him alone and cooped up in the house all day! He can't help it. What do you want him to do when he needs to go and no one's around to take him out? Hunker down in the loo with the sports section?"

The argument was beyond strange and he couldn't help laughing about it on his own at first. But then he got to thinking. More specifically about the lieutenant back in Blackridge. The thought of her still made his jaw clench but the more he thought about it, the more he thought she couldn't help it. Like the Noble's dog, she had been stuck in a particular situation and perhaps there was a clear answer to him but there was something preventing her from avoiding 'accidents'. She couldn't help the orders that Central Command handed to her.

The Tardis had gotten to scanning Caligo once she realized that she would be spending some time on board with him. The old girl had confirmed that the funny silver spots on the back of her neck were more than just some sort of discoloration or, the gods forbid, some sort of patch for an old injury. Those metal plates were fused to her body that definitely affected her behavior. He could've kicked himself for not thinking about it sooner and more so for their last encounter. How long it had been since that day didn't matter but he honestly didn't want her to still be cross with him when he came back. "Two weeks ought to give her time to cool off don't you think?" The Tardis groaned as he flipped the switch.

-Blackridge Observatory: December 24th, 02:47 am-

The ride and landing was much smoother this time around thanks to the shield system the lieutenant had put in for him on their last meeting. The Doctor figured he had landed in what was probably her bedroom. It was early morning according to the clock sitting on her nightstand and she wasn't in her bed. Lit candles were placed around the room and with the sheets a complete mess, he was starting to wonder if perhaps he had come at a bad time for her…

Pushing that thought aside he moved on, navigating halls lined with even more candles and eventually came to the observatory room. At the end of the hall he could see a familiar figure standing in front of several brightly glowing monitors, completely unaware of his existence. The Doctor almost called out to her when a familiar steel blue drone abruptly blocked the doorway. His face scrunched up a little when he saw that it was one of the lieutenant's personal drones, Wilhelm. He couldn't believe he was actually having a stare down with the hovering nuisance…when the machine backed down first, much to his surprise. The Doctor proceeded with caution into the barely lit room. "You should turn on a light. Bad for your eyesight, all this," he said, hoping to startle her just a little.

"The observatory's power grid is on reserves until I am able to fix the main grid in Pillar."

She didn't sound the least bit surprised that he was there, nor did she seem to care. The Doctor might've been hurt by the notion that she couldn't care less about his presence but the mention of that backwards city almost made him cringe. The lighting from the monitors was just enough to see little cuts on the side of her chin but not the full condition of the previously bruised flesh.

"Or," he said, carefully removing his sonic screwdriver from his coat and aiming it at the observatory's main light, "I could do this." The large bulb suddenly clicked back on and flooded the room with light much to Caligo's surprise. "Stubborn piece of work. Couldn't make it easy on yourself, eh?" The Doctor turned back to face her and once again questioned whether or not he would've possibly interrupted something when the Tardis landed in her bedroom earlier. If he were being honest, he thought the lieutenant slept in her uniform but the too-big steel blue blazer and mussed hair said otherwise. Too big but not big enough apparently, inwardly questioning if that was in fact all she had for sleepwear. Underneath it she had black shorts and a white tank top but that was far too thin for the chilly weather here.

Caligo, noticing and taking advantage of his sudden lack of babbling, snatched the sonic screwdriver out of his hand and examined it. "Interesting device… I would like to have one of these."

"Well you can't have that one," the Doctor replied, snatching it back and tucking it away safely in his pocket. "Besides, tool's only as good as the person holding it, right?" She didn't smile – not that he was expecting it but he could still hope – or so much as make a sound to his remark. The thought that she could possibly be holding some form of a grudge against him from their last encounter did weigh in somewhere in the back of his mind… Caligo moved past him without a word, back down the hall he'd come from while the two drones worked on extinguishing the many candles lighting the way.

"The solar storm from your initial arrival flared up again and has been a constant nuisance ever since. Central command has been issuing constant warnings and updates to the public. Their most recent update was to inform civilians that the power restriction would be lifted one level effective today but the constant use of the system caused the computer to short out the city's power grid to maintain shield integrity. Hence the blackout just now," she explained. Caligo didn't waste time with shutting the door to her room and opted to change into something a little more appropriate right away.

The Doctor hung back in the hallway near the door when he caught sight of the blazer being tossed onto the edge of her bed. "I'm still trying to figure out if I'm offended by the welcome or lack thereof."

"What is the reason for this visit Doctor," she asked. No nonsense,as he had expected her to be.

The Doctor shrugged despite that she wouldn't have seen it anyway. "I just thought you could use a break from work. You need one and seeing that you're more or less incapable of taking one on your own," he said as casually as he could manage. The rustle of clothes and booted footsteps was all he could hear for a while. He hoped that it was just a lot of thinking that she was doing and not dressing up to kick him out.

"Should I be dressing any differently than usual?"

The Doctor couldn't help the grin that broke out across his face and dared to stroll back into her room. "That all depends on where you wanna go~" It was her choice. It needed to be. Their first trip he had taken her from one place to another in hopes of seeing that glimmer of wonder in her dull eyes again but it never quite seemed to work. He could guess at what she wanted but in the end never seemed to really be able to hit his mark. If he could just give her the freedom, the choice, then maybe this time around there didn't need to be any good-byes…

Caligo studied her reflection in a long mirror, searching for any sort of imperfections possibly lurking in her uniform. "Patricia shared some old records with me at my partner's funeral," she said, choosing her words with a little more care, "She thought that it might make me feel better if I drowned out the silence in the observatory." In a box behind the door to her room was a pile of old, essentially ancient vinyl records caked in layers of dust. "It's unfortunate to say that many of these are too damaged to be played." There was only one album that she had picked up, brushing enough dust to reveal the album art to him. "I want to know more about this band. The one called Kiss."

The Doctor was genuinely surprised that she pulled out a vinyl rock album, the format practically archaic and more importantly completely unrelated to her work. Genuine curiosity. Maybe that little inhibitor couldn't block out all of her emotions after all. "And here I thought you were going to ask me to do something a little harder like finding the lost city of Atlantis~"

"We can do that later. Will you take me to see this band?"

The Doctor grinned. "Allons-y~"

Roberts Municipal Stadium – Evansville, Indiana: November 23rd, 1975

Materializing backstage in what appeared to be an equipment storage, the two crept out of the Tardis cautiously.

"I was expecting this to be more exciting," Caligo murmured, following the Doctor with all the stealth years of training and experience gave her.

"We're backstage~ Do you know what lengths people go to just to get backstage with their favorite band?"

"I imagine many acts of desperation and degrading oneself," she deadpanned. The mood was dying fast and it would probably just go downhill from there if they didn't find their way to the music and soon. Lucky for the both of them, it could be heard in the distance.

The Doctor gestured for her to follow, eventually leading her up to the entrance behind the stage where the band was playing. All it took was a few simple flashes of their 'backstage V.I.P.' psychic paper pass and they had probably the best seats in the house. "Gonna go deaf if we get any closer to those amplifiers," he warned above the roaring music. It only added insult to injury when he realized that Caligo was flat out ignoring him in favor of watching the lead singer and guitarist.

"Why would they pick costumes like this? It's a little intimidating…"

"It's rock and roll! You're supposed to be edgy and rebellious." The Time Lord froze pretty much the second he finished that sentence. Clearly he would need to find a better way to explain rebelliousness to the lieutenant. "Right. Anyway, you came here for the music didn't you? What do you think?"

Caligo's eyes never left the stage, her gaze now trained on the lead guitarist and his instrument. Her expression looked as if she were watching him from under a microscope in a lab. She couldn't quite decide which was more fascinating; the man or the machine he manipulated? "I think that it's quite interesting," was all the response the Doctor could manage from her for most of the concert.

Hours later, when the concert had finally come to an end, Caligo and the Doctor joined the other lucky backstage pass wielding fans to get a little up close and personal with the band.

"Excuse me," Caligo called, stopping the lead guitarist she had been keeping a keen eye on throughout the night, "Would you perhaps have a moment to sign this for me?"

"Just that? Second easiest thing I've done all night," he laughed, searching for a pen. Caligo produced one in an instant much to his surprise, making the guitarist a bit hesitant to take it at first.

The Doctor's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he heard the man call over his bandmates to look at the dusty old vinyl record Caligo had supplied for the autograph.

"Yknow I don't think this is our album?"

"Right, sorry for the mistake there! She was just so excited to get to the concert she just grabbed the first thing she saw on the way out," the Doctor cut in suddenly, yanking the album out of the guitarist's hands.

"Ah, yes. It seems I was more careless than I thought." Catching on quickly to his game, Caligo pulled a notepad out from her belt and handed it to the man with a blank page open. He signed it, giving them odd looks from time to time but eventually gave it back and the two beat a hasty retreat.

"What'd you go off and do that for?"

"I don't understand."

"Well for starters they probably haven't produced that album yet considering he didn't recognize it."

"I had no idea." She was surely being honest, but she couldn't help but feel just a twinge of annoyance with his outburst. The Doctor visibly rolled his eyes at her while she did it more to herself. Little moments of exasperation and annoyance flared up every now and then but they seemed to be happening more often than not these days…

The Doctor huffed slightly and handed the album back to her. "Make sure you do your homework before you start having people sign things. Don't want to drastically alter the future now do you?"

"Indeed. What would become of Earth if such rebellious, anarchy endorsing music still existed in my time," she responded dryly.

The Doctor cringed a little as they entered a 24-hour diner and promptly took a booth seat with her. "Blimey! Your humor's so dry I think I need something to wash it down with."

"A rather rude comment."

"I'm also not ginger but proud to say it's been a good while since I've gone on about that until today." The Doctor noticed the way her eye twitched just a little while she tried to focus more on the menu than him. Eye twitching, he had realized early on, was a sure sign the little patience she had was wearing thin. "You liked it though didn't you? Can't tell me you didn't have fun."

"It was interesting," was all she said, keeping her eyes glued to the menu like the food they had was more interesting than him.

"That's it? Just interesting," he asked incredulously. "You're really making me work aren't you?"

Caligo finally set the menu down so that she could properly look at him. "It isn't that I don't appreciate the trouble you go through to bring me here. I just don't have the ability to feel much about it."

"It's that thing, isn't it," the Doctor said, gesturing very vaguely to her neck and trying to phrase it as a question but his tone showed he was still quite bitter about its existence.

The very edges of Caligo's lips quirked up as she came to a realization. He was bitter about it and she was the one who had to live with it stuck in her neck, constantly under its influence, being bent to someone else's will she may or may not have agreed with… She felt her head physically jerk to an odd angle, definitely not something she would've done of her own volition, a sharp pain in the back of her neck translated to something as a warning with teeth in her mind. The Doctor had noticed the odd twitch and while she was glad he didn't say anything of it, she had the feeling that he already knew what had caused it. "It does its job, Doctor. It's no different than what your sonic screwdriver does. It does what it's programmed to do."

"Then let's change that."

"You can't."

"Watch me."

"I mean that you literally couldn't. This isn't just an implant. It completely replaces this section of my spine and is a part of every other vertebrae. If you tamper with it, who can say what else would happen." Caligo looked down at her hands on the table. With her gloves off, the difference between metal and flesh were staggering to look at but it didn't help that it didn't feel – what would be a good word? Ah, yes - human. She felt she was almost as much an object as people made her out to be. "Machines don't always readily adapt when operating outside of their parameters," she murmured quietly.

The Doctor could've kicked himself at that moment. He nearly almost did if it weren't for the fact that it would probably definitely make the mood that much worse. He had come back to patch things up with her, not start the same old argument from last time again. But the thought of the incident in the diner two weeks ago wouldn't stop bugging him. "Well we're in no hurry to get you back to Blackridge, right? We'll get there eventually but we've got a time machine so no excuse not to take the long way around eh?" If he were being honest though, he didn't want to go. He didn't want her to have to go either because he didn't need anything more than that one experience in Pillar to know that going back there was like going back to a prison.

Caligo did her best to try and follow the Doctor's train of thought through the look in his eyes alone. She had learned to focus on people's eyes after so many years because when she was constantly surrounded by people who were practiced liars or the occasional unfortunate Draugr, it was always hardest to keep the emotion from their eyes. She might've once heard that the eyes were the windows to one's soul, but how could that be if Draugr were soulless beings? "I'm not sure I understand what the "long way around" entails. The length of this trip? Or do you intend on coming back repeatedly?"

"As long as you like. We'll go back anytime and I'll be right there waiting the moment you wanna leave again. Knowing you we might pop back every five minutes or so to make sure the city hasn't completely burned to the ground," he teased and he was just the slightest bit relieved to see a hint of exasperation on her face. Settling right back into a familiar rhythm between them, the Doctor ordered up some fish and chips for them which had to be grievously explained to the waitress.

"Perhaps fish and chips haven't been brought to America yet in this era," Caligo suggested, albeit he couldn't figure out for the life of him why the little spark in her eyes made him think she was making a jab at him for earlier.

"Oi. That's different," he started but soon realized that she wasn't quite listening to him. Something was on her mind but if there was one thing he'd learned in the time he'd already spent with her was that she didn't share when it came to herself. Now I suppose the better question is whether this is just her own traits bleeding through or they 'programmed' her to keep to herself, he thought, studying her dark eyes as she gazed out the diner window.

Caligo hadn't realized it right away but she found her thoughts drifting to Wilhelm. It wasn't a strange occurrence, seeing as they were constantly transmitting data between one another along their own private network so to speak. The danger in this was the fact that it wasn't the drone that preoccupied her thoughts, but the man he used to be. The concert, albeit a brand new experience and something she probably never would've had the chance to have with Wilhelm, was the first time she had heard any sort of live music in nearly seven years, perhaps longer. The pain at the base of her skull had been nagging at her since the Doctor's unexpected arrival and had steadily grown as the concert progressed, the twinge it had caused only being a matter of time. At the rate she was going, it was likely to continue to cause her pain through the night. She had gone through her best efforts to keep the steadily growing ache at the base of her skull at bay, reminding herself only briefly that dwelling on the past was dangerous but the memory of the man she once knew won out in the end. Wilhelm always did, she recalled, and something indescribable swelled in her chest before another more potent shock pulled her from her thoughts.

The Doctor nearly jumped out of his seat when Caligo suddenly lurched forward, the sound of grinding gears and protesting servos was alarmingly loud compared to the usual, almost inaudible hum even he barely picked up on when she simply stood idle. What worried him the most however was the way the nails of her fleshy fingers carved deep lines into the wooden table; wood shavings curled up as her hand balled into a tight fist. Her jaw was clenched tightly and muffled grunts slipped through gritted teeth. Caligo stayed doubled over for almost a full minute before the tension in her body had finally begun to dissolve. The Doctor took the opportunity to check her pulse – slowing down, thankfully, but coming down from what felt like she'd just ran a marathon.

"Cal? Lieutenant, say something."

"I'm fine, Doctor," she answered almost immediately. There wasn't there barest hint of, well, anything in her voice. No exasperation, irritation, nothing.

The term 'factory reset' had briefly popped into his mind as he guided her from their booth and back to the Tardis for a more thorough exam.

"They shouldn't be messing around with your brain like that," the Doctor muttered as he carefully observed the readings he'd taken with his sonic.

Caligo sat on the exam table, her posture having been rigid for nearly an hour now and very few signs of easing up. She was watching him with nearly the same intensity he did his equipment. Her two drones hovered annoyingly close by at her feet and around him like they were trying to involve themselves somehow. Reading the tension in the Doctor's posture, she silently ordered her drones into a sleep mode of sorts. "It was a forceful reset Doctor. It occurs when it is detected that a Draugr unit is not obeying its base protocols. You may compare it to punishing a disobedient child or perhaps restarting a computer system, I suppose."

"What rule could you have possibly broken by eating fish and chips in a diner!" Worry and annoyance came together in a volatile mix inside his gut, churning violently as he fought to keep himself from taking it out on her in lieu of the fool who'd put this blasted thing in her spine to begin with. It wasn't doing either of them any good and he certainly didn't want a repeat of last time… Convinced that she wasn't about to keel over again anytime soon, the Doctor pocketed his sonic and looked at her, brow slightly furrowed in thought.

Caligo's gaze tilted just a little as she observed him in turn. "You will surely be constantly aggravated by these occurrences the longer I remain. I don't think I can understand why you would constantly put yourself in such an unpleasant situation for my sake."

"It's a little complicated when you look at it. At least through your eyes I figure. But when I look at it all I see is something wrong that ought to be right instead."

"Perhaps. Though I believe you just look at things in a very… Human fashion for someone who is an alien."

"I've been around the Earth for a long time you know! But even then I still run into things that I don't understand from time to time…"

"Like me," she finished. "Or rather this situation." Caligo looked down at the steel blue drone sitting quietly at her feet. "Perhaps it isn't such a bad thing though. I might be in hysterics if not for this. How troublesome would that be? An excitable woman cooped up in your ship with you."

The Doctor nearly choked on his own spit, thoughts wandering a little trying to figure out exactly what it was that she meant by excitable. "Cal. Please." He could almost see a spark. Something in her eyes flickered like a candle flame. Oddly enough he got the feeling that she was amused by his reaction despite the reset having wiped out any trace of a personality. The resets were only temporary, it seemed, and so long as she felt that she was still within her role as the dutiful soldier it probably wouldn't happen again. It was an easy conclusion to come to, that he would have to manipulate her to an extent in order to give her just a little more freedom. The irony in that, he thought. But the Doctor was clever. Terribly so and as much as he hated to say it, he could easily work with even these restrictions.

"Well seeing as I've got a knack for running into trouble and you don't seem to think one way or another about it, maybe I ought to keep you along for a little extra protection? That's your job isn't it? Protect the civilian and you certainly need to keep yourself in shape lieutenant. There's a gym around here somewhere probably but nothing like fresh air." Even though there was, but that wasn't his point. "Keep me in line for a while lieutenant."

Caligo's gaze fixed more firmly on his eyes as she contemplated what it was exactly he was insinuating. Stay with him, that much was clear, but under the pretense that he constantly needed someone to help him get out of trouble? The very notion caused some apprehension somewhere in her mind. It had been years since she had been in the field last and trouble was something they were never short of. But Wilhelm and I survived much of it. Even Yuki, for a time. The more she thought about it too, the more she came to realize that the Doctor had never once raised a fist to someone even when it was surely appropriate (she couldn't help thinking of their first trip out to that human colony in space). He had talked his way out of it which meant he really didn't need her to get out of trouble but here he was, asking anyway…

"The damsel in distress act really doesn't suit you. Not entirely at least." Caligo could feel the corners of her lips quirk up just the slightest bit when he gaped, surely at least partially offended by the insinuation before he caught on to her.

"Am I gonna have to put up with all your sass or do you just take a stab at everything?"

"Perhaps you'll have to wait and see Doctor."