3.
Jo ran a brush over her hair and grabbed up her purse, trying not to think about the hour. Not that it really mattered, she thought, she so often ended up with late hours with the Doctor. If it wasn't one thing it was another.
She went out, locking the door behind her and clattered down the darkened front steps, sending the neighbor's cat bounding off into the bushes.
--
Sergeant Benton finally gave in with resignation and started down the hall, glancing back at a sound, but it was only the young medic again, coming out of the Doctor's room. He didn't know if the Brigadier was still in the building though he'd indicated he would be working late; he rather hoped he wasn't.
He could imagine exactly the look he'd get from his C.O. and it wasn't a pleasant one. Rubbing at his forehead, he started up the steps, unaware that the medic, still standing by the doorway, was staring fixedly after him.
--
Something made a soft sound nearby in the quiet of the night. The Doctor looked up curiously to see a small green light blinking on and off.
He set aside the tools he'd been working with and went over to his TARDIS, kneeling to examine one of the constructs he'd attached to the various multicolored cables extending out the door. "What's this, old girl? Hm." He poked briefly at what appeared to be a series of plastic squares with lights on them and disconnected the one with the lit-up signal.
"Good work, something going on out there. I'll have to take a look at that later on. Who knows, could be someone interesting to talk to at least, hey?" He patted the blue box companionably then, humming a tune, pocketed the square for later decoding and went back to his tinkering.
--
"So glad you could come, Miss Grant. Again, I apologize for the late hour."
Jo smiled a greeting and slipped her purse from her shoulders, taking the proffered chair. "Or early," she said. "At least I got some sleep, something you look like you could do with. Now. Where's those papers?"
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart rubbed at an eye and fished through a pile of folders on his desk. "Early again already, is it? Ah, here we go. The devil take those demmed bureaucrats and their deadlines. If you can just sign here, here and here, we can get these reports off with the earliest couriers."
She leaned forward, reached for a pen and started signing. "I can't even read the Doctor's signature."
He snorted. "Better than some I've seen, and the odds are they won't even care. I tell you, if I weren't an honest working man, I'd just be forging everyone's names on this base. Oh, and here's one more."
--
In the halls below, a young medic moved slowly along, holding his wounded side.
He paused, glancing carefully around a corner, then turned towards the nearby laboratory, his lab coat strangely shifting colours beneath the flickering fluorescent lights.