I'm really pleased with the characterization in this one. Anyway, be sure to tell me what you think.

March 21st, 1500. Rome.

Ezio had finally found the time to sleep: a night in a bed rather than at a table in a tavern, surrounded by friends rather than cutthroat thieves, and despite the more than welcome opportunity, he couldn't make good use of it. He turned over and over in his bed (The Doctor had made it clear he wouldn't have any need for it) and willed for sleep with all his might, emptying his mind of everything but songs from his childhood in a vain attempt to lure himself into sleep - but nothing worked. Nothing. Unable to keep still for much longer, he sat up, glaring into the dark. Dio knew when he'd get a chance for some rest like this ever again, but here he was, awake and alert as anything. There was something bothering him – something in the undercurrent of his thoughts that was preventing him from sleeping.

This used to be so much easier when he was younger.

Pushing the thought aside, he resolved to do something constructive all the while sleep would not come. He grimly thought of paperwork detailing the Assassin expenses – the stack on his sister's desk down stairs had gathered some dust since their dealings with the Doctor and his friends, and Ezio supposed it would not take care of itself anytime soon. Sighing, he reached for the shirt he'd thrown casually over a chair, pulled it on and groped on his bedside table for tinder box to light the candle he'd put out hours ago. Once lit, he found his hidden blade and strapped it to his right wrist. The Assassin hideout – his home in Roma -was the last place he expected to be attacked, but if there was anything his life had taught him, it was always to expect the unexpected. It would do no harm to bring it. Satisfied it was tied securely, he took the candle and made his way out of his room and to the top of the stairs – and was surprised to see that someone was just as awake at this ungodly hour as he; the flickering light of a lit candle was pooling onto the bottom steps. If it was an enemy down there, he was a foolish one – no intruder would light up a room they wanted to meddle with, so Ezio emerged from the stairs and found neither friend nor foe but the Doctor instead, fiddling with strange coloured strings that sat in a heap on an armchair, spewing forth more strings that ended in a similar tangle on the Doctor's lap where he sat cross legged on the floor. His strange device – the screwdriver, he called it, was clamped between his teeth as he pulled the strings apart and examined the end of each critically before dropping them back into the pile again.

'Doctor?'

The Doctor looked up. 'Ehzihoh!' He said through the screwdriver. 'Whathre yhou dhoingh uhp?'

'I'm sorry, Doctor, but your Italian is terrible.'

The Doctor grinned with his gums at Ezio and took the sonic screwdriver out of his mouth. 'What're you doing up?'

'I could not sleep. There are some papers that need attending to.'

The Doctor pulled a face. 'Papers are boring – no, you don't want to do them!'

'Alas, Doctor, but expenses won't ever work themselves.'

'But there's got to be something more interesting to do – you could help me with this!'

Ezio smiled, entertained by the proposition. 'If you're sure I would not be intruding?'

As an answer, the Doctor hauled the mass of coloured strings from the armchair and abruptly dumped them onto the floor beside him. 'Take a seat,' he said, patting the armchair. Ezio blew out his candle so not to waste it, and took a seat next to the Doctor, who had resumed his fiddling as though Ezio were never there. Ezio watched him a little while before daring to ask.

'What are you doing?'

'Whorkhing ohout ah lhot ohf fhings.'

'I'm sorry?'

The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver out of his mouth again. 'Working out a lot of things,' he said. 'Things that need working out, and out of all the things that have ever needed working out this one is probably the most important.'

'And what is that?'

'Hweafer wher'he bheingh hwhatchedh.'

'Doctor – '

'Whether we're being watched.'

The room suddenly seemed cold. Ezio raised his eyebrows.

'You have reason to believe we are?'

'A whole lot of reasons.' The Doctor said. 'Plus, I've seen how they're doing it. With different eyes, but I know what I saw, and they're using that to watch us.'

'…Doctor, I don't understand.'

'Back in the future, they've got this machine. Its technology that they shouldn't have, but they've got it anyway – and when you get in it, you can relive the memories of your ancestors. You can be you one day and then your uncle a thousand years ago.' The Doctor's old eyes roved around the room in thought. 'You can drown in the centuries, loose yourself in the past and find the answers to secrets that have long been buried. And,' he turned to Ezio, and his voice dropped into a whisper. 'Relive moments exactly like this.'

Ezio was quiet for a moment as he turned this information around in his head. 'You mean to say, Doctor – '

'Yes, I mean to say that there might be someone watching us, right now, in the future. Through your eyes and ears.' The Doctor said so quietly that Ezio was forced to lean forward to hear him. 'And I need to stop them from doing that.' The Doctor's attention suddenly snapped back to his wires – he frowned at them, and then shoved them off of his lap to rummage in his pockets. What he pulled out was a ring that looked like a plain gold wedding band. 'This, Ezio, is a bio-damper.'

'A what?'

'A bio-damper, Ezio, do learn how to listen.' The Doctor gave Ezio a reproachful look before holding the ring up into the dim light. 'I've made some changes to it – whenever you wear it, your DNA'll be…dampened. So back in the future, whenever they try to find memories of me in your ancestor's DNA – '

'They won't be able to access any.'

The Doctor grinned. 'Exactly.' He held it out to Ezio and looked at him expectantly. Ezio eyed it warily.

'Doctor, are you sure this will work? Perhaps it would be better if you didn't involve me in your plans.'

'Ezio Auditore, your DNA is in the hands of people with technology way more advanced than anything you'll ever know five hundred years in the future, and they're using it to get at me. You're so very involved already.' The Doctor replied quite seriously.

Ezio considered him and the ring, and then took it from him. 'I assume you want to keep this a secret from the others.' He said simply, considering what finger to put the ring on. He didn't want people noticing it and asking questions.

'It'll, ah, probably be best we don't cause panic.'

Ezio found the thought of keeping something so important from his friends disquieting, but he knew it had to be done. After a moment's deliberation, he decided on slipping the ring over his thumb – surprisingly, it held over the knuckle. He hoped it would not be seen there. The Doctor watched him put it on and, seemingly satisfied, hauled the mound of coloured string back into his lap, sonic screwdriver already in hand. 'Now that's sorted, we can get down to business when everyone's awake.'

'Business?'

'A plan, Ezio! We need a plan! Did you really think we'd be sitting around for the entire time waiting for the Templars to get a move on?' The Doctor frowned at Ezio. 'No, no – we've got a lot to do and not long to do it, so off you go, back to bed.'

'But the paperwork – '

'Bhedh, Ehzihoh.' The buzz of the sonic screwdriver cut off any further argument. Ezio blinked, raised his hands, and got up. He was at the stairs when the thought that had been lurking in the undercurrent of his conscience suddenly made itself known, and he turned.

'Doctor?'

'Mhhhm?'

'My…descendant. Is he in any danger?'

The Doctor stopped working, and looked up. Ezio saw something move behind his eyes.

'Him? He's perfectly fine, don't worry about him.'

The buzz was abruptly resumed again. Ezio didn't move.

'Do not lie to me, Doctor.'

The buzz stopped. After a moment, the Doctor looked up.

'By now, and after the strain they put his biological makeup under, I doubt that there's very much of him left. He's in a lot of danger already, if the time for danger has not already passed.'

'If we ever have the chance – '

'I doubt we'll – '

'If we ever have the chance, Doctor – ' Ezio persisted. 'I would see him helped. That man is of my blood, as much as my sister and my mother. And I would like to think that I could watch the back of any kin of mine, despite the centuries between us.'

The Doctor considered Ezio's words –put them against his own memories. His fingernail tapped against the sonic screwdriver, knocking out four tiny beats in succession without him realising it.

'Yes – you would think that, wouldn't you?'

Silence fell between the two men.

'Buonanotte, Dottore.' Ezio said finally, and then went upstairs to bed. To his own surprise later in the morning, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Hopefully my updating will improve soon. But anyway yes, review! :D