The echo of the footsteps were louder now. He hoped that the soldiers would have passed him by this point, but there must have been many more halls than he had originally thought. He almost sighed. He had to get Melody out of here soon. She couldn't stay here. Even though...

He pushed that thought away. It wouldn't do to dwell on it. He could feel the threads of time bending around the child in his arms and he knew what had to happen. He couldn't stop it or change it. He turned his green eyes briefly to Melody and smiled sadly. "I am so sorry." He gently kissed her forehead, then ran.

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The Doctor was well aware that he was running directly into Jeckeln and his soldiers, but he knew so little about the compound that it made no sense to go anywhere else. If the soldiers came from the door he had originally gone through, which was likely, that meant that this direction was the way back to his TARDIS. He hoped that the surveillance system was still offline; it was his only hope of getting Melody out of here unscathed.

As he turned a corner, he heard a female voice from his left say, "Doctor, this way!" He turned to see the brown-haired woman from before standing in an open doorway. "Well come on!"

He quickly followed her into the room beyond, which was dark and had no light to speak of. The Doctor quickly pulled out the sonic screwdriver to use as a light. "Thank you," he said to the girl, watching the green light dance across her face. The girl was obviously afraid and she made sure that the door was shut completely. "You helped me," the Time Lord began. He reasoned that Kovarian would have told everyone about him, which also explained the woman's shock at seeing him outside Melody's room. What it didn't explain was why she had just helped him.

"You said she has parents," the woman replied softly, German accent quite thick. "Madame Kovarian said she was an orphan."

The Doctor frowned. "She kidnapped Melody." He turned to the screwdriver and shushed it, but the buzzing from the light did not quiet. The soldiers were almost upon them and he felt too exposed with the light and sound. He turned it off and they were plunged into darkness. "Shh..."

They were quiet for several minutes after the soldiers passed them by. The woman finally whispered. "Please return her to her family."

"I intend to," he replied quietly. He paused, then asked, "What's your name?"

"Adele," she replied nervously, smoothing her plain, gray dress with her hands.

He smiled in the darkness. "Thank you, Adele. You helped me and took care of Melody."

She nodded, though he couldn't see it. "I can take you back to your box."

He turned the light back on and raised an eyebrow at her. "How do you know about that?"

"I was down the other hallway, on my way to feed the child. I saw you... appear." She crept toward the door and opened it silently, looking from side to side. She motioned for the Doctor to follow her. They rushed as quickly as they dared down the winding halls and back to the TARDIS. Melody was asleep in the Doctor's arms the entire way.

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The Doctor almost crowed with glee as the TARDIS came into view. He gently shifted Melody to one arm and snapped his fingers, watching the doors open in, much to the TARDIS's admonishment that "police box doors open out".

He turned to Adele. "Are you coming?"

She suddenly looked alarmed, her blue eyes wide. "Coming where?"

"With me! I can get you out of here," he said hurriedly, gently rubbing Melody's back as she made a sound of discomfort. "You don't have to stay with me, but you won't have to help Kovarian any more."

Adele looked confused, but chanced a look into the open doors of the TARDIS. Her eyes grew even wider, if possible, and she backed away quickly. "I can't..."

"I could take you somewhere else. Do you have any..." he paused, aware of how the next word could affect her. "...family?"

"Everyone died," she said softly, shaking her head. "My family was Jewish. I am the only one left. Hiding here, pretending to be something I'm not."

"I could take you to England!" he offered suddenly, which seemed to interest her. "A place for you to live, freedom to do whatever you like. How does that sound?"

Adele frowned, confused. "But I have no money-"

"Ah, who cares about money? I'll fix it, don't you worry." He gently tapped a finger on her nose. "So? Coming?"

Adele's mind began to work frantically, but her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden shouts of soldiers. The Doctor spun on his heel to find both Jeckeln and Madame Kovarian converging on them from different directions, guns drawn. He quickly bounded into the TARDIS. "If you're coming, hurry up!" he shouted, running up the stairs as gracefully as he could manage with a two month old baby in his arms. He ended up flipping switches with a foot as Adele carefully followed him, making completely sure that she touched nothing.

"What is it?" she asked, yelping in surprise as the TARDIS doors behind her shut on their own.

"It's a..." he paused, trying to think of a way to explain a spaceship to a girl from a planet that would not have a man in space for almost two decades. "... vehicle, of sorts. It can move over long distances very fast."

"I see..." she carefully approached the console, not recognising anything that was sitting there.

The Doctor, unusually aware of the TARDIS's normal flight patterns, turned on the stabilisers to keep baby Melody asleep. As quickly as he could, he set the TARDIS into the Time Vortex and away from Madame Kovarian and her Nazi goons. He gave Adele a smile and then set off to find something for Melody to sleep in, calling over his shoulder. "Don't touch anything!"

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After Melody was properly tucked into bed and the TARDIS's monitor tuned exclusively to her bedroom as a baby monitor, the Doctor turned his attention to Adele, who was walking around the console in silent fascination. "So?" he asked excitedly, rubbing his hands together. "What do you think?"

"It's... strange," she finally said with an exhaled breath. She ran a hand over the buttons and levers, careful not to press or move anything. She noted the TARDIS's low hum and how it seemed to almost create a sort of song in the air.

"It's my TARDIS," he said while bouncing on his feet, finally able to give the woman a proper name for the machine, other than 'his box'.

"TARDIS," she repeated, tasting the word. She looked to the ceiling, then to him. "It's larger in here than the outside, how is that possible?"

"Well..." He scratched his head, confronted with the same dilemma. "It's complicated. Just know that it's possible and that it's real." He briefly paused to marvel at her amazement, then began running around the console, flipping and pressing. Adele watched in interest, then felt a faint thud beneath her feet as the machine landed.

The Doctor briefly used the screen to check the date and found himself not far from his mark. "It's April 1942 in England!" he declared. "Looks like London, if I'm not mistaken."

"But that's three months from now!" she declared, horrified. "How could we have been in your... TARDIS for three months?"

The Doctor scratched his head, then finally decided that explaining the TARDIS properly was the best course of action. He proceeded to describe in detail the exact nature of the spaceship, making sure to cover the "time travel" part. Adele seemed unbelieving, but she listened to his explanation without protest. Afterward, she seemed lost in thought. "Are you well?"

"Yes," she replied quietly. "It is a lot to take in, but I think I understand."

"Great!" The Doctor clapped his hands together. "Okay then, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Melody while I go... Well, out there." He pointed toward the TARDIS doors and bounded toward them.

"Doctor!" Adele said suddenly, when he was halfway out the door.

He popped his head back in. "Yes?"

"If.. Melody awakens, how should I find her?" The Doctor had briefly explained the many rooms and the fact that they liked to move around seemingly on their own.

"Oh, um... Just ask the TARDIS to move her room!" He affectionately patted the open door. "You can do that, can't you old girl?" And with that, he disappeared out into London in 1942.

Adele watched him go, then moved toward the screen that watched over Melody. She briefly thought that she really had no idea what she had just gotten herself into.

xxxxxxxxxx

The Doctor ventured forth from the TARDIS looking for a specific person. He knew this person would be somewhere here, in London. He had silently kept tabs on the man through rather sneaky means; a single hair afforded the TARDIS enough DNA to track anyone in any time, in addition to approximating their age. He rarely used this method of tracking because it wasn't often that people were not in their proper time periods. This man, however, was never where he should be.

The Doctor made his way through the streets of London, carefully avoiding large crowds. It was early evening and there were too many people out. It wasn't as though he disliked people; quite the contrary, but people tended to distract him, as he well knew, and he had a mission to complete. Adele needed a place to stay and money to start her new life and he knew exactly where to get it.

Well, relatively.

In reality, the DNA tracker in the TARDIS wasn't as accurate as he would have liked. It gave a location within a few miles, which made it almost useless to him. However, this particular person had the facilities to not be found if he didn't want to be, and so the alien required a bit of help.

The Doctor ended up visiting seven different bars during his search. Each time he was denied entrance because of his appearance. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't believe him when he said he was 909 years old. Eventually, he managed to convince them that he was indeed at least 18 years of age and old enough to be in the bar in the first place. He attributed it to his young, attractive looking face.

Finally, in the back of the seventh bar, surprisingly alone at a table, sat the man that the Doctor had been searching for. Normally, he would have had slightly more tact, but searching and being almost denied entrance to seven different bars had made him a bit cranky. He walked straight over to the table, pulled out the only other chair, and sat down. He quickly crossed his legs and folded his hands in an expectant manner, watching the human across from him with sharp, inquisitive eyes.

"Hello, Captain."