"Hold it right there," Laura said, taking the newspaper away from Elaine. "You can't just hand this over to Mrs. Tyler. There's some news here which will be of major concern to her, and she deserves an explanation for it."

"An explanation? What do you mean, Laura?" Victoria asked, although she had a feeling that she understood what she meant. A couple days before, she'd had a nightmare where she found a dead woman in the bathroom of a random house, and then heard the voice of a girl calling out for help. However, whenever she tried looking around for the girl, she wasn't able to find her, seeing only the gruesome body of the dead woman. Upon waking up, she couldn't remember what had been so terrifying about her dream, and settled on thinking that it must have been another nightmare on being attacked by Deleks or Cybermen. However, she then saw a news report of the murder of a young woman in her flat, where she'd lived all alone, which triggered back her memories of the awful dream. Could it be that this was the news Laura was referring to, since it had been reported exactly two days before?

"That's none of your concern, Laura," Elaine responded firmly. "As I'm sure Truman has already told you dozens of times, guests and visitors are not allowed to interfere in the affairs of employees. Whatever trouble Mrs. Tyler is facing, I'm sure that she can handle it on her own, without some woman she barely knows getting involved."

"Well, this isn't any ordinary trouble," Laura said angrily. "One of Mrs. Tyler's friends was involved in a serious crime which I happened to be a witness of. I believe that gives me every right to inform her on what happened."

"I'm sorry, but that still doesn't give you permission to do so unless you inform Truman first," Elaine said, just as insistent as she was before. "Now, would you please hand the newspaper back to me and let me…?"

Just then, Victoria flung an arm around Elaine's back, shoving her right into the floor and grabbing the newspaper as she went down.

"Let's get in, Laura!" she then yelled, grabbing the handle of the door and flinging the door open, letting herself and Laura in before Elaine could get up.

"That's it!" they heard her screaming once they were in and the door was shut. "I'm reporting both of you to Truman; maybe that will make you two sorry for being such dreadful visitors."

Upon hearing this, Victoria looked scared, temporarily regretting what she'd just done. "Oh, no. Laura, do you believe she's serious? I didn't want to provoke this much trouble, I just got…"

"Don't worry too much, Victoria," Laura said with a chuckle as she clasped a hand over Victoria's shoulder. "I don't believe Truman could kick us out of Northern Horizons for what could come off as a little misunderstanding if we're convincing enough. Besides, what you did to Elaine was just hilarious; something I would have been willing to do myself if I was bold enough. I never thought you were that physically strong."

Victoria couldn't help but laugh a little despite her unease. "I never realized I was that strong either! Perhaps my dislike of Elaine got a little out of hand and I just had to stand up to her one way or another. After all, I did witness an awful lot of physical matches at one point in my life, so I must have picked up a lot more on fighting then I realized at the time."

"Do you happen to have brothers?" Laura asked. "I have two, so I both saw and took part in more than enough faux wrestling matches growing up. Helped me a lot later on, as you can probably tell by my professional choices."

"I don't, unfortunately," Victoria responded. "What I saw mainly came from male friends who helped me a lot when I lost my father. Actually, come to think of it, only one of them was really into fighting. My other friend was more of what you'd call a pacifist; didn't believe in getting into fights to solve conflict. He preferred to use his wit to bring anyone down anyone who caused us any trouble."

"Sounds like this friend of yours was a pretty clever chap," Laura remarked with a smile.

"He was. Both of my friends were, actually, but in very different ways," Victoria said nostalgically.

It was then that they heard a little girl calling out, "Mummy! Mummy, they're here! Miss Benton and Miss Harris are here!"

Victoria suddenly looked startled. That voice. It sounds strangely familiar, she thought. Where could I have possibly…?

She then recalled the eerie voice from her dream, calling out for help in such an innocent, helpless way even though Victoria wasn't able to get even a small glimpse of her. Could this possibly be the girl, and if so, how had she'd been able to…?

"Victoria, are you okay?" Laura asked in a concerned voice. "You're looking a little nervous again."

"Oh, it's nothing," Victoria lied. "I was just startled by the girl's voice, that's all."

"Well, that girl's Rose Tyler, who's Jackie Tyler's daughter," Laura explained, and then smiled as she saw the delighted little girl run up to her. "Why, hi there, Rose," she told her, shaking her hand. "My name is Laura, and it's nice to finally be meeting you. And this here is Victoria Harris. Do you mind if I ask how you knew both our names already?"

"Mummy told me," Rose answered, sounding to Victoria as if she too was trying to hold back the truth. However, none of this was evident in her facial expression, since she smiled and then reached her hand out to Victoria, saying in a very sweet voice, "Hello, Miss Harris. My name is Rose Tyler, and it's a pleasure to meet you today."

Victoria smiled, shaking her hand warmly as she said, "Hello to you too, Rose. I happen to be a teacher, so I always love getting the chance to meet children." Never mind the fact that teaching teenagers was awfully different from teaching young children, although Victoria still liked meeting younger children as much as she did while growing up the nineteenth century.

"Do you teach at one of the schools where teachers live in the school?" Rose asked.

Victoria laughed. "No, Rose; I teach at a private day school, where students are there for pretty much the same amount of time as they are in public schools. However, you must be thinking of boarding schools. That's where children actually live within the school, although teachers there usually get the chance to return to their homes after teaching for the day. But the group which Laura and me are a part of does have a couple of boarding school teachers in it, so you might get the chance to meet one of them."

"Cool!" Rose said excitedly. "I mean, I like being able to meet you, but Mummy already told me that I'd be meeting teachers that are very different from the one I have at my school. She said that some of them are doctors, vicars, nuns, and even soldiers."

"I actually happen to be one of the soldiers, Rose, although I'm not actually a teacher," Laura chimed in. "But your mum is right about the group having many kinds of teachers, including some who are religious sisters, in ministry, or with a doctoral degree, which is the highest level of education a person is able to have. However, I think there actually is a lieutenant from a military academy who is part of it as well, isn't that right, Victoria?"

"Yes, Laura," Victoria answered. "It's Sergeant Lieutenant Jordon Wills from the London Military Academy for Boys. I'm surprised you weren't already aware of that."

"As someone who's mainly part of the group as an advisor, I don't get the full details of every member, Victoria," Laura explained.

Then, they saw Jackie Tyler walking in, looking more formal than they'd ever seen her before with a navy blue buttoned blouse, dark trousers, brown boots, her blonde hair tied up in a neat bun, and her face covered in makeup which hid all the traces of stress and fatigue they'd noticed before. In some ways, she looked like an older version of Elaine and Sandy with that appearance, yet there was no trace of their strict adherence to authority in the way she acted towards them right now, shaking both their hands and saying, "Hi there, you two. It's good to see that you've finally gotten the chance to meet each other."

"Oh yes, Jackie," Victoria said. "It's been a lovely experience for us both, indeed."

Jackie laughed. "Have you been able to get accustomed to Victoria's rather formal way of speaking yet, Laura?"

"Actually, being a part of the military, I'm used to hearing formal speech all the time, so it's nothing for me," Laura answered cheerfully. "It looks like Victoria and I are becoming good friends so far, Jackie."

"That's great to hear!" Jackie said. "Now, where should we start?"

Victoria gave Laura a knowing expression, reminding her of what they were originally intending to do. Laura nodded slowly in response, with both of them failing to notice the curious glances they were getting from Rose, who appeared to have some sort of strange understanding that something was possibly going wrong.

"Jackie, there's something we need to tell you," Laura said with a serious expression.

Jackie looked back at her worriedly. "What is it, Laura. Is it something bad?"

"I'm afraid so," Laura said. Then, taking a deep breath, she went on, saying, "I've been living next door to your friend Hannah for several months. Since last month, I noticed that something must have been going wrong with her, because she stopped leaving her flat and started spending most of time just lying down in bed or on the couch. Sometimes, she didn't want anyone coming in to see her, insisting that she was too sick to talk to anyone. And if she did let people in, she would go on about how depressed and scared she was feeling all the time, and how she sometimes as if she just couldn't go anymore."

Jackie shook her head as she listened to this, looking as if she was on the verge of tears. "Oh, God," she said in a sad voice. "I knew there must have been something wrong with her! And there I was, thinking that she must have gone back to work and moved on from this whole mess I got her into. But no," and she then had terrified expression on her face. "Something happened to her, isn't that right? Did she start injuring herself, or did she attempt to…"

"Even worse," Laura responded, shaking her head sadly. "You can read about it here if you'd rather see for yourself." She then held up the newspaper, which Jackie grabbed a hold of right away, walking up to the desk to sit down and read this. Laura looked sadly in Victoria's direction, who looked just as unhappy about it. Victoria then put an arm around Rose's shoulder, since she looked as if she was about to start crying herself.

Rose soon looked Victoria straight in the face, with tears already running through her eyes. "Victoria, is Hannah dead?" she asked nervously.

Victoria hesitated for a while, wondering whether it was best to hold back this information, as adults sometimes did when they thought the truth was too much for children to handle, or to be straight forward with her. However, there was something about Rose's expression which gave off the fact that she already knew the answer to her own question; that she only wanted confirmation from another person so she'd be aware that this was all real. She also hated deliberately hiding important information from young people, making sure to be truthful about her student's skills without discouraging them from trying a little harder if it was needed or convincing the students who did well that they were geniuses.

As a result, Victoria went ahead and said it: "Yes, dear," she whispered softly. "She is dead."

And at that exact moment, she heard Jackie starting to let out heavy, uncontrollable sobs. "No!' she cried out. "How could it be? Who could possibly have wanted to murder Hannah? She was just an innocent woman who'd never meant to do any harm to anyone!"

Laura walked up to her and put her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, Jackie," she said in an attempt to console her. "But these things can happen to anyone, regardless of what they may have done."

Jackie didn't say anything, but went on crying and clinging to Laura. There was no way she could have explained what happened, how she'd gotten Hannah involved in the death of a young couple, how the two of them had been able to get away without being physically harmed, yet faced endless emotional torment ever since, even being haunted by some strange being or force. No, it was best to leave her responsibility for Hannah's death aside for a while and just face the moment for now; let all the pain out and then examine what had caused all this to happen.

Rose, meanwhile, looked gravelly at Victoria "Did you already know about this?" she asked.

"Well, I…" Victoria started, wondering what she should tell the girl.

"Because I think you had a nightmare about it the night it happened," Rose went on, leaving Victoria feeling shocked. "I dreamed about it too, but I forgot that I did until I saw you two coming here with the newspaper."

"How do you know that I dreamed about it?" Victoria asked, believing that what she'd originally suspected about this girl understanding more about this situation than she could ever know must have been true all along. But how exactly she did this was what she wanted to find out, as well as why they both forgot about the dream after waking up.

Rose suddenly looked nervous, and started staring at the floor with an anxious expression on her face. "I don't know," Victoria could hear her mumbling to herself. "I don't know, I don't know!"

Victoria then placed her arm around Rose's shoulder, sorry about how she'd wanted to get too much information out of her just a while before. "Listen," she said gently, "if you don't want to tell me about it, I understand. This situation is scary enough as it is, and I don't want to make it any harder for you by forcing you to tell me things you're not comfortable with."

Rose then shock her head and looked at her again, saying, "No, I can't do that. I have to tell you the truth, even if you won't believe me."

"If you do want to go ahead and tell me, you don't have to worry about me not believing you," Victoria reassured her. "I've seen many unusual things over the years, and had to deal with people who simply refused to believe anything I told them. I don't want to behave the same way towards you."

"Okay," Rose answered, sounding a little less scared. "I think I know what you mean. So, the truth is that I'm able to…"

But before she could continue on, Michael Truman burst into the room, clearly outraged over what Elaine must have told him. "Laura, Victoria," he said in the sternest tone anyone in that room had ever heard him use before. "I want you both out of this hotel right now. I will be going over this situation later on with all my workers, and will decide on the best course of action for the teacher's group party. But as of now, what I heard from Elaine is one the most appalling reports I've heard of a visitor's conduct towards employees. I find it best for you two to go right now before you cause any more emotional harm to Mrs. Tyler and her daughter, and I'll call you both on our decision within a couple of days."

"This is ridiculous!" Laura protested. "I wanted to inform Mrs. Tyler over what had happened to her friend, and I'm pretty sure that if you had let me speak with her before, this would never have happened!"

"She's right," Jackie said, trying to back her up. "She was telling me about…"

"Jackie, you can tell me later about this, Truman said. Then, looking sharply at Laura and Victoria, he said, "As of you two, neither of you has any right to speak on behalf of yourselves, since it will be used against you later on. Now, get out of my hotel this instant, or I'll call the police and report you both for harassment and assault!"

Laura and Victoria, realizing he was serious, then started running out of there as fast as they could, with little Rose looking at them in dismay, and Jackie now going from severely saddened to staring angrily at Truman, as if just now realizing how awful he really was.

Once they made it outside, Victoria took a seat on the nearest bench and started quietly crying, covering her face so that Laura wouldn't see how upset she really was. However, Laura was soon by her side, putting an arm around her and saying, "It's all right, Victoria. Truman's just being a ridiculous old ass; I don't believe anyone other than the two blonde clones will be taking him seriously if he really is going be consulting every Northern Horizons employee on what we did."

"No, you don't understand, Laura," Victoria sobbed. "When I first saw Truman, I thought there was something unusual about him, but because he was so charming and polite, I was thinking that maybe he was just a little uptight. But now I realize that I was wrong, that there's nothing normal about his insistence on strict obedience. If anything, it could even be a sign of madness, and this is all my fault for not knowing better!"

"Oh, don't go too far on it, Victoria," Laura said. "Yeah, I have seen cases like this with fellow soldiers who went overboard on how controlling they were, but their problem was usually having too big of an ego on account of their positions. If Truman were truly mad, he might have accused us of something more far-fetched, like conspiring to hurt Jackie or bring ruin to his hotel, or he could have physically threatened us, perhaps literally throwing us out into the road. What he did was problematic, but perhaps some of his more sane employees could talk some sense into him."

"I hope you're right," Victoria said, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief which she carried with her at all times just in case her old blubbering habits returned. Then, she gave a small chuckle and said, "Oh, look at me, crying like a baby because Michael Truman went overboard on us. You must think I'm acting ridiculous, don't you, Laura?"

"Maybe a little," Laura said, laughing and patting Victoria's shoulder. "But I don't blame you for being afraid of him. Truman's scared me more than once already, and he certainly did a good job of it today, so don't think you were the only one he managed to scare. However, once he has his ego checked by the people who know him best, I think he'll start cleaning up his act a little. So, put the insane hotel owner theories aside for a little while and wait and see what he decides to do with us. I'm sure he'll be reasonable by then."

Victoria smiled. "Thank you for the reassurance, Laura."

"No problem, Victoria," Laura said. "And thank you for standing up to the old clone a while ago. I don't think I'll ever forget that anytime soon, and you should think about it too before calling yourself a baby again."

The two of them laughed, enjoying each other's company so much that even Victoria stopped worrying about what Truman had just done.

"So," Laura then said, looking at her watch. "It's close to noon, and I told my Uncle John that I'd be coming over to his place for dinner. So, if you had nothing to do right now, would you like to come with me, Victoria?"

"Of course!" Victoria said, looking delighted. "It would be a pleasure to have company for meals rather than having to eat alone whenever I'm not teaching."

"Well, in that case, I'm glad to be doing you a favor," Laura said smiling. "Perhaps you'll even be making a new friend in the process."

And the two of them walked over to Laura's car (Victoria took the bus around the city, never having learned to drive despite all the other things she'd learned to do in the twentieth century, so Laura offered her a ride home in addition to having dinner with her), thinking that at least something good came out of what had been a difficult day for the both of them.

Next, is Laura right? Will Truman's other employees, a large number of which we haven't met yet, be able to talk some sense into him, or will they be just as blindly devoted to him as Elaine and Sandy are? Will Jackie or Rose be able to do anything on behalf of Laura and Victoria, or will it take convincing from someone else for Truman to change his mind about what they'd just done?