7

The worms bore down. The Doctor held his breath. It had to time out. Too soon and they'd slip the net. Too late and…they wouldn't be too late. The girls knew what to do.

Still coming. Patience…patience…

His hearts rose as the hum of the TARDIS filled the air. He looked up, watching as the midnight sky disappeared behind the materializing ceiling of his ship. In a moment, he was standing on the entry ramp. The time worms were on the main platform. They had stopped running; the click of their legs rang in non-rhythmic chaos as the program he'd set began to run. The TARDIS extended its temporal grace to integrate the creatures, enfolding them, wrapping its timelines round and round. They were outlined now in the fabric of Time that enshrouded them. Less worms than gigantic millipedes, resembling nightmares from this planet's Devonian Era. Eight feet long, six feet tall as they reared up, they writhed and twisted in their cage of absolute time, manifold legs jabbing at the air in their frenzy. They fought, writhed. And then, finally, they grew still.

The Doctor stared up at the statuesque outlines, head cocked, grinning.
"Hah! Malto bene! You two can just stay there for a bit." Turning on his heel, he strode out the door.

The Doctor stepped out to meet staring eyes. The Torchwood lot had made a semicircle around the door. He smiled, a wide, self-satisfied smile, stepping off the lintel.

"Creatures that feed on time, live on time. Take them and bung 'em into an area of complete temporal grace that supersedes the normal timespace they're used to, nothing to eat and nothing to do, and how do they react? Simply go dormant." He snapped his fingers. "Taken care of."

There was a clatter as Jenny bounded down the ramp, the grin of a hunter who's bagged her quarry wide on her face.

"You were right! Auxiliary control room worked perfectly."

"Course I was right." He replied serenely, tucking his hands in the pockets of his greatcoat, "I'm always right."

He turned on his heel, ignoring his daughter's raised brows. "Now Jack. You've been owing me a drink for the last…what, seven hundred years of your life? Really about time you paid up. Know any good pubs hereabouts?"

Jack grinned, but before he could reply, the Walker's voice drifted out of the TARDIS.

"Grandfather, you aren't leaving the insects in your control room, are you?"

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

"So what are you going to do with the bugs?" Gwen asked between gulps of her pint. They'd settled in a small pub where the music was loud but not too loud, the food wouldn't make the drinks taste foul and vice versa.

"Drop them on an uninhabited planet." Jenny said distractedly, biting into her shepard's pie with more enthusiasm than etiquette. "They can…change rocks an' trees an'…mm…lizards much as they want."

"Why not just…" Gwen mimed squashing something against the surface of the table. Beside her, Jack rolled his eyes.

"Nah." The Doctor said, leaning back in his chair, "It's not their fault they're the way they are. Nature designed them as perfect temporal predators; only problem comes in when they start hunting around sentient folks. So, no sentients around, bueno no problemo." With a shrug and another self-satisfied smile, he dug into his fish and chips.

"Sad that it took us so long to make our capture, though." The Walker said between sips of chocolate stout. "So many people."

A momentary ripple of quiet swept over the party. The Doctor looked away, out the window. It was something of an unwritten rule with him, and apparently with Jack and his lot as well, not to mention that. It was a wonder that his granddaughter hadn't picked the habit up in the last hundred years.

The light caught on his daughter's hair as she sat silhouetted by the window, making it glimmer. She was looking around the table, head cocked slightly, eyes studying.

"But can't we fix that too?" She asked in the quiet. The question brought the party's full attention on to her, though her inquiring eyes were fixed on him. The Doctor met them. She had to learn this.

"You know we can't." he replied. "Changing something that-"

"Yes, I know we can't change set timelines or interfere with anything that's fixed in time." Jenny said quickly, "But think about it for a bit, Father; these timelines are already disjoint, right? And they had to be in flux in the first place; I read the database and it said that they only feed on fluid time. So if they're fluid we can go back and redirect them back to where they're supposed to be."

"She has a point, actually…" the Walker said carefully, her brow furrowed. She looked up. "Grandfather, it is worth an attempt at least. We could-"

"Now-" The Doctor was interrupted by Ianto, leaning in with a furrowed brow.

"But how can you control where you're going to end up?" he asked. "There's no way to-"

"Oh yes there is!" Jenny replied with fierce relish, forgetting not to read minds in the grip of her idea. "We can land within a second's accuracy-at least most of the time-and tracking's an absolute skid-I mean, it's easy as anything in the TARDIS, and then we just land, and one look will show us where the problem is, they show up like neon signs the minute you look at them."

"It's not-"

"And then we simply manipulate events in order to redirect them into the proper line!" the Walker said eagerly, cutting her grandfather off in her enthusiasm. "Simple as falling into orbit! Grandfather, it really wouldn't be very hard at all. We could even split up, your ship and mine, dividing the incidents between us in order to undo the damage in half the time."

"Now wait a minute. We can't stop-"

"Well, of course we can't stop the creatures themselves, but we'll simply arrive in time to repair the damage. We'll manage to help the victims without interrupting our present timeline or running into ourselves at any point. It may be close, but-"

"Now just-" the Doctor was interrupted as Jenny jumped in animatedly. "But we can do it! This'll be a snap, and for once, we can repair absolutely every part of the problem! Father, come on, it's easier than the work we did on Yourta by a long stretch."

"Yes, and I saw you do far more difficult feats of temporal engineering a few hundred years ago."

"Doctor, if it's an issue of power, we can rig up something through our rift manipulator." Jack added, his eyes wide with the prospect of an all-too-rare chance to undo the damage that had been done.

"It is not an issue of power, but-" The Doctor stared in affront as his daughter laughed.

"Power? The TARDIS can handle way more output than that. And if you lot come along and we can tell you what to do, that could speed things up even more!"

" We're at your service."

"Great, then we can get right down to it! The tracking algorithm can be reset for trace interfaces to track the past attacks, Father, I can do that easy-"

"And if Grandfather's older TARDIS is having difficulties I can supplement-"

"All right!" the Doctor said in loud exasperation. "Fine! We'll give it a try." He glared at the circle of excited faces. "To shut all of you up if nothing else."

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Analisa Dimirov ran for the bus. She was late, so late, and terribly tired. No, don't think about that. The exam. Think about the exam. She needed to get a good grade on this one. She just had to. But she was so tired…this was her stop. She hurried off the bus. The station was bustling with people. She pushed her way into the throng

"Free coffe! Free coffee!"

Analisa grinned at the shortish young man in the business suit, who smiled affably back at her.

"Here you go, miss."

The cup he handed her was at least twice the size of a normal sample.

"Thanks!"

Her day had just gotten a bit better.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Christina jumped onto the bus. Her fingers fidgeted in nervous excitement. She was pretty keen to meet this fellow. He'd been so interesting on the phone, and really, it had been lovely for Zoe to set her up with her brother. She smiled to herself. And here was her stop. She jumped to her feet, ready to step off.

"Miss! Miss!"

Christina turned to see a pale woman with dark hair smiling at her, a red book held out in her hands.

"I believe you dropped this, miss."

………………………………………………………………………………………..

"I believe you're really going to be pleased with the new product."

The pitch was going perfectly. She was perfectly professional, a businesswoman. But on the inside she was a giddy girl hugging herself in sheer delight. The investors were eating out of her hand, even if she couldn't find her can of the product for the life of her. This was so very great.

"The Daffodil cordial is just the thing for a healthy growing child. And soon every mother in the UK is going to know it, with a little help from us, of course." She gave the cheeky smile that she'd practiced in the mirror, and raised a glass that she'd filled with something that was about the same color.

"To your health!"

They were all smiling at her.

"Well," their head man said, "I think that we'll have to take your offer."

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Dr. Rasheed handed his order to the nurse, who took it absently as she doled medications into the cups in front of her. He was about to move on, when a man in a long fawn coat stepped between them. He smiled at the young nurse in a friendly manner, chatting. Then he pointed at two of the cups in a casual fashion. The nurse glanced down, and visibly started. She started to speak, but the young man in the long coat shrugged, smiled, and walked off down the hall.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Danny squinted, holding his slingshot out for a better aim. The wood was cool in his fingers. He'd had to beg his mum for this slingshot for the longest time. The soda can he'd found to use for a target just sat there, daring him to hit it. He pulled back the band.

"You know, I used to shoot those a bit."

The boy turned, looking up at a dark-haired man in a dark, bulky coat, one like his granddad had left over from a long time ago. The man smiled down.

"And I think your aim's a little off. Here-" Taking the boy's hands, he helped Danny aim.

"Do it like that and you'll always hit your target."

"Really?'

"Yup."

Danny grinned, and let fly.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The crew was hard at work, so busy that they barely noticed the woman in the blue pea-coat who stepped onto the site until she was in their midst.

"Inspector Walker, pleasure to meet you." She said with a smile, speaking to the foreman. "I've been sent to do a bit of a check here. There's been a report of some safety violations in this project; specifically, some of your beams are apparently not being lifted properly or securely tied in place. This really must be addressed."

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Benny Holmes was a good runner. He had two strong wiry legs that carried him way faster than most eleven-year-olds could go. Right now his fast feet were flying across pavement. The crosswalk said 'do not cross', but the things were always a little slower than the light change.

A girl stepped right into his way just before he hit the edge of the sidewalk, making him skid to a stop.

"Hey!"

"Oh, sorry!" the girl said, brushing her pale bangs out of her eyes, But she didn't look sorry at all. In fact she was grinning at him like she'd just won a medal.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

For the second time in two days, laughter rang through the Hub. With boxes of pizza and bottles of wine and beer, six people were celebrating. The plan had gone to perfection. Every single attack victim, every single one, had been realigned with their proper timeline or something close to it. The little group had been laughing together for the last three hours, high on their success.

"I'll tell you-" Jack said loudly, "When we got into that room, naked, and-"

"Jack, stop that story right there!"

"Aww, c'mon, Doc!"

"I mean it, I really do!"

Gwen and Jenny laughed, and Ianto grinned at the exchange between the two remarkable men as they bantered like secondary-school children. His lover made an exaggerated grimace and turned to the youngest Time Lord.

"Sometime you'll have to come by here with your sister instead of your dad, and then I can tell these stories without-"

"Jack!" the Doctor warned, only half-joking. Jack grinned widely.

Soon Gwen and Ianto, Jenny and Jack had nearly taken over the conversation, laughing and bantering with abandon. The Doctor relaxed, smiling as he watched friends and offspring. The beer and wine disappeared in record time as they joked, drank and ate.

"Well damn!" Jenny said laughingly, "'S all gone." The Doctor shook his head with an indulgent smile. He was going to have to teach her how to control her alcohol metabolism next.

"That's all right." Jack said languidly, "We'll get more in."

"No need." The Doctor said, "Just let me pop into the wine cellar for a mo. Back in two ticks." Jumping to his feet, he headed for his ship, smiling to himself.

His wine cellar door took a little time to find. He unearthed it eventually, and, luckily enough, a case of Tyrene beer that he thought everyone would enjoy. He read the label as he carried the large case.

'Malkere's Battle Brew, 1567.'

Battle.

Battle.

'Give us a song for the battle, then.'

His smile faded into a thoughtful expression. Such a strange thing, that little bit of pre-ja vu. A song for battle. Where? When? It seemed strange, pointless even. And yet it had come across clearly. And he had heard his own voice too, even this body's voice, speaking of the kings and queens of the universe. What was that all about, then?

'Give us a song for the battle, then.'

There was so much power in that sentence. And what he had seen; so many time lines, so much possibility. Something as large and as threatening as a storm cloud on the horizon, pregnant with more power than any lightening.

Well, he could deal with storms. He was quite intimately acquainted with the storm.

He used one hand to open the console-room door, still thinking. He barely registered the Walker for a moment.

"Oh. 'Ello. Didn't notice you there."

"I was wondering if you'd need a bit of help."

"Mm, nope. Have it in hand." He smiled, though his mind was still distracted. His granddaughter's voice pulled him back to the moment.

"Is anything wrong, Grandfather?"

"Hmm? Wrong?"

"You seem preoccupied."

She'd gotten far too good at reading him, she really had. The Doctor stared at her a moment, then looked away, shrugging.

"Might be nothing."

"But it's bothering you."

The Doctor sighed.

"When I was unconscious, just for a bit there, I hit a state where I saw pure Time. I looked down my own timeline."

"And?"

The Doctor met his granddaughter's eyes, dark as his own.

"Something's on the way, I think. Something's coming. Powerful and full of change. I don't know what, but…"

Then he realized that he was frightening the young woman; her eyes were wide and nervous as she stared into his. He smiled and shrugged again, raising stronger mental shields. "But, no sense in worrying over spilled milk…or milk that's going to get spilled. Wonder why they chose milk for that phrase. It's more of a tragedy when mead or Fraxyan juice gets spilled, really. Oh, speaking of mead-" he hefted the case. "C'mon. Drinks delivery."

Very early the next morning, it was time to get on their way. The Walker needed to get back to her work, the members of Torchwood needed their sleep, and Jenny had learned quite enough from Jack as it was.

The Doctor shook Jack's hand. "Well, Captain, be seeing you."

He turned to Ianto, repeating the gesture. "Very nice to meet you, Ianto Jones. Take care of this madman for me , hm?"

The young man nodded with a slight, oblique smile. "Of course, sir."

"Not sir, just the Doctor, thanks." He turned to Gwen with a slightly awkward smile.

"Nice to meet you too, Gwen Cooper. Sorry 'bout the bit of a run through you got."

She smiled in kind, averting her eyes.

"Er-yeah. Thanks. You…you take care." The Doctor nodded.

"Well, I suppose we'll see you around." Jack said warmly. With a slight smile, he turned to the Walker.

"And how about you? Got anything to do at the moment? We have an opening here at Torchwood, and we could use someone like you."

The Walker smiled.
"Thank you for the compliment. But I do indeed have a position at the moment, though I'll bear the offer in mind."

"And if you keep trying to poach my progeny, I'll have to do something you won't enjoy." The Doctor muttered. Jack grinned, managing to make the expression obscene.

"How do you know I won't enjoy it?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Gah, I can't put up with you any more. Jenny, in the TARDIS. Walker, one more trip?"

The Walker tipped her head.

"Very well. One more. But…"

For a moment, he felt it again. He'd heard those words. But the familiarity swept away as she shrugged.

"Let's simply make sure it is short."

"Your wish is my command." Stepping beside his granddaughter, he closed the door of his ship.

After a moment, the Doctor stuck his head out the TARDIS door again. "By the way, I know I was a bit of a frustration just these last few days, so bless you lot who hang in there with this talkative - no; verbose - no; chatty - no; well, when I'm full of it…Joi de vivre that is, love of life, not the other kind of full of it. But maybe now that I think about it, perhaps both kinds. Anyway, thanks, and-

Someone inside was laughing. Jenny's voice cut the babble. "Father. Shut up."

The Doctor glanced behind him, into his ship. Then he grinned at the three humans in their subterranean fort.

"Right, I've been told. Well, bye for now!"

The door closed. The light on the roof glowed blue-white. And then the TARDIS slowly faded away, leaving a trace of a hum and a hint of laughter in its wake.