Chapter 4: Infiltration

oOo

"Is the shadow presence active at all?" the Doctor asked.

Jack shook his head. "As far as I can tell, no. It seems to be dormant, for the time being; waiting to strike at the right moment."

"Wonderful," Donna muttered sarcastically.

"Is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment, Doc," said Jack. "But if there is, I'll call you on that mobile phone Martha, here, gave you."

"Great, thanks, Jack!" said the Doctor. Shaking Jack's hand, he added, "Goodbye for now. And no fixing up that Vortex Manipulator. I know you've been doing something to it."

"But I need it!"

"Jack," said the Doctor firmly, looking him in the eye.

Sighing, Jack rolled his eyes. "Oh all right."

"Good," said the Doctor. "See you later! Come on, Donna, Jamie."

With a last wave of the hand, the Doctor, Donna, and Jamie crossed the threshold into the TARDIS. After closing the doors behind them, the Doctor took the TARDIS back into the vortex, where he, Donna, and Jamie decided what to do next.

oOo

"So should we bust into this place, guns blazing?" Jamie suggested.

"Now you're beginning to sound like Jack."

"Sorry, Doctor," said Jamie.

"Shooting the place up wouldn't help us discover whatever is going on in this place, anyway," the Doctor said. "It would only make the dark presence run away and set up shop at another location."

"Yeah, true," said Donna. "So what are we going to do? We could use perception filters and waltz in like we own the place."

But the Doctor shook his head. "I figured you could, Donna, since women aren't allowed in, but as for Jamie and I... Well, I figured we could just go in along with all the other blokes, as if we're just one of the crowd. Well, two of the crowd."

"But they'll probably know right away that we don't belong with them," said Jamie. "It might've worked for those two blokes a few years ago, but I don't think we should take that chance."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" the Doctor asked.

Jamie grinned.

oOo

"Last time I wore this, disaster struck," the Doctor complained. He and Jamie were in the console room, each wearing the uniform of a restaurant waiter. It had been decided that the Doctor and Jamie would pass themselves off as waiters at the Grove, while Donna would take the TARDIS into the Grove at a secure location and wait there for nightfall, when Jamie and the Doctor would come and give Donna whatever news they had. Donna would also have a perception filter, on the off chance she had to go outside; that way, she could move around without anyone being the wiser. At the moment, however, Donna was busy inspecting Jamie and the Doctor, so as to make sure everything was put together just right.

"No cybermen will show up," Donna said consolingly.

"How do you know?" the Doctor asked. "They could be waiting just behind a tree, hiding until the right moment to jump out and "delete" me."

Donna rolled her eyes. "If they do, tell them I'll come and kick there shining arses."

Jamie laughed. "I don't deny you're fierce enough for that," he said.

Donna grinned at him. After a few finishing touches, she stood back to admire her handiwork. "If only Marianne could see you now."

The Doctor sighed exasperatedly. "Don't even bring that up."

"All right, space man, all right." But Donna was laughing.

"Well, Jamie, you ready?" the Doctor asked his long-time traveling companion.

"As ready as I'll ever be," came Jamie's reply.

"Then, Donna, do us the honors."

"Way ahead of you, Doctor."

Donna twiddled some dials and flipped a few switches on the console; the TARDIS was soon on its way to the Grove in Sonoma County, California. She landed just outside of the Grove, in one of the main parking lots where the Grove's attendants kept their cars. The lot was almost full, but Donna did find a space to park the TARDIS. She let Jamie and the Doctor out and after making sure they were ok, piloted the TARDIS to a secluded section of the Grove to wait until nightfall.

oOo

The TARDIS had just dematerialized and so Jamie and the Doctor were left in the parking lot, all on their own. They gazed around at their surroundings then, hearing a rather large vehicle making its way toward the parking lot, went towards it in hopes that it would take them to where they needed to be. The vehicle in question looked rather like a large pickup truck, and in the truck bed were many bales of hay for people to sit on, rather like farmers who went to the fields to tend the crops. No one was in it, except for the driver, and as soon as Jamie and the Doctor saw him, hailed him and waited for him to approach them.

"Well, here goes nothing," the Doctor muttered under his breath.

The truck approached them and the driver, leaning out the window, asked, "Shouldn't you two be at the encampment already?"

"Yes, but we got…delayed," said the Doctor. "Something came up that prevented us from getting up there on time."

"Well, hop in the back," said the driver. "I was down here looking for any last minute guests, but they all seem to have gone up to the encampment already. So I don't see any harm in bringing you up there, since I'm already down here."

"Good man," said the Doctor. He and Jamie climbed into the back of the truck and each sat down on a bale of hay. As the driver started the truck and drove up to the encampment where everyone else was, he struck up conversation with his two passengers.

"You're not from around here, are you?" the driver asked rhetorically.

"No, we're from the United Kingdom and-"

"England and Scotland," the Doctor finished, giving Jamie a look. For Jamie had almost revealed that the Doctor was from Gallifrey.

"Right on," said the driver. "I didn't know that they hired foreigners, begging your pardon, but that goes to show that you learn something new everyday."

"We're here on a work-exchange program," said Jamie.

"Fascinating," said the driver. "So where are you staying when you're not working?"

"We have a place nearby," said the Doctor. "A friend of ours lives in Monte Rio, and she's allowing us to stay with her for the summer." It was true, after all. He, Donna, and Jamie were in Monte Rio, and they would be staying in the TARDIS.

"Do you have a picture of her?"

"Um… let me see," said the Doctor. He dug into his pockets and felt around; his fingers came into contact with his sonic screwdriver, a mousetrap, a yoyo, and an old bag of jelly babies before latching onto a photograph. It had been taken of him and Donna when they were on a far distant planet, before she had become a Time Lady. The Doctor pulled it from his pocket and showed it to the driver, who looked at it for as long as he could before having to pay attention back to the road or risk driving off it accidentally.

"Wow," said the driver. "She's a babe!"

"I…what?" the Doctor sputtered.

"She's hot! A very fine looking woman, if I may say so," said the driver. "I'd love to meet her."

"Why do you want to meet her?" Jamie asked.

"Oh, I dunno," said the driver. "I figured I could take her out to a movie and dinner, then afterwards back to my place."

"Why back to your place?" Inside, Jamie was grinning. He had a feeling what the driver was going to say in response, and he very much wanted to see the Doctor's reaction; meanwhile, the Doctor remained clueless.

"I like to see how my dates are in bed before I take them out again," said the driver. "I like to bang them up, so to speak, then if they want more, I give it to them. But it depends on how well they satisfy me whether or not I take them out again, or just bang them in bed."

Jamie was not disappointed. The Doctor's face, which had been a picture of calm relaxation, morphed into an expression of shock, then just as lighting-quick, into an expression mixed between shock an incredulity that someone could ever say something like that. The Doctor's jaw had dropped open, his eyes wide, as he struggled for something to say.

Feeling somewhat sorry for the Doctor, Jamie spoke up. "This woman is his girlfriend."

"Oh, really?" said the driver, not the least be concerned with what he had just said. "Well, she's definitely bangable, that's for sure. How is she in bed?"

"Er…I'll let you know, shall I?" the Doctor said, rather uncomfortably.

The driver, still taking no notice of anyone's discomfort, prattled on about the issues of sleeping with one's date all the way to their destination, throughout the whole drive, of which Jamie and the Doctor were quite glad to be finished with. They gladly bade goodbye to the driver then, turning away, went towards the restaurant where they were to be working at during the day; for the Doctor, before exiting the TARDIS, had looked up the eateries there were in the camp and found out where they all were, so he and Jamie would be able to go from one to the other as they needed to glean information. There were not that many, but at the moment, that did not matter.

"Interesting chap," Jamie commented once he and the Doctor were far enough away from the truck.

"Let's not tell Donna what he said, shall we?" the Doctor replied.

"For her own safety?"

"No, for his," said the Doctor. "I have no doubt that she would see to it that he would never be able to "bang" anyone ever again."

"I almost feel bad for him," said Jamie. "Almost."

The Doctor laughed. For the next few minutes, as they walked toward where they would be working, the Doctor and Jamie laughed and joked about various things, including Donna's possible reactions to various situations. As they walked under the leafy canopy of countless trees, they passed by various buildings all made of wood. Some of these buildings were cabins, lounges, or places to get a good drink, and all of them had at least a few people standing around in front, chatting and catching up with each other.

As the Doctor and Jamie made their way to the café restaurant, they passed by several very well-known political and financial figures, and it was all Jamie could do to not shout out a greeting to Britain's prime minister; he was stopped by a light shove in the side via the Doctor's elbow.

"Thanks for that," Jamie said, rubbing the place that had been elbowed.

"I couldn't let you give us away," said the Doctor. "Sorry."

"Quite all right," said Jamie.

The two continued chatting, and didn't stop until they were already at the restaurant café.