Disclaimer: Ever thought when look up at the night sky that you would like to own just a bit of that magic and wonder, just something you can place in a jar and keep forever? Well, I'm here to tell you folks that's just plain impossible. About as impossible as me owning the rights of these two dear shows.

Magnus was later informed that once she fell to the floor, and maybe even before, Smith had jumped out of his wheelchair and rushed to the outlets the devices were connected to. He worked fast, hands like the wings of a bee with the sound of his sonic screwdriver to accompany them. He pulled out wire after wire, biting off the insulation and twisting them together with lightening speed. More than once he received a shock, but he kept on working.

However, Magnus witnessed none of this. She was only aware of the pain. It felt like claws were ripping and tearing their way through her mind such as a savage abnormal would do on the hunt for a meal. A creature was trying to grab hold of something buried deep inside her head. It was the golden nugget of her psyche, the thing that once it planted its claws in, it would never let go, feasting until she was brain dead.

Magnus fought back against it with all her might. She kicked and punched, battling with the creature such as an ancient knight would do with dragon. But this dragon was too large, too tough, too strong, and nothing she did stopped it. Her attempts at fighting it only served in slowing it down, as it continued to slash and rip it way through her mind with no intent of halting its progress.

While she wrestled with the beast inside her brain, she was faintly aware of her cries of pain, the desperate shouts of her employees, and the rustle of anxious movement around her.

The creature soon reached the center of her psyche and began to stab its claws in, vying for a handhold. Magnus struggled madly to push it out and away. It was at that exact same moment that Smith was able to restart the electric field. Even though it wasn't until later she knew it was on, Magnus could feel it pull the beast out of her mind, but it was desperate and dug the few claws it managed to attach to her psyche in even deeper.

Magnus screeched in complete and unbearable agony. Through it all though, she managed to hear Smith's words of frantic encouragement:

"Come on Dr. Magnus! You're brilliant, you can do it. Keep fighting!"

That was exactly what she was doing, but she knew she couldn't continue for much longer. Its claws were sinking deeper and deeper with every second, grabbing more of a psychic hold and resisting the pull of the electric field with even greater force. She wasn't going to last. She wasn't strong enough.

But suddenly, she felt another presence there with her, helping to battle the creature. Together they were able to successfully fight back. Together they were able push its claws out, and leave the beast to the mercies of the electric field.

When it was gone, there was a brief moment, only a second, where the gap left by the creature was filled with mind of her helper. Far and unknown stars, terrible monsters made of unearthly flesh or metal, and distance burnt orange skies filled her vision. But they were gone in a flash and Magnus's mind was once again free and unoccupied by anyone else other than herself.

She gasped and shuttered and coughed and soon fell into the comfortable arms of unconsciousness.

))))

It was the buzzing that awoke her. It had drilled into the dark and let blinding light into her sight. When her eyes adjusted, she was immediately confronted with the concerned face of Will.

"Magnus, how are you feeling?" he questioned anxiously.

"I'm fine…I'm fine," she muttered in reply, sitting up.

Her whole body was aching and a monstrous pounding had started in her head, but other than that she didn't feel that much worse for wear. Behind Will, Henry stood, with a similarly concerned expression.

"Yep…a bit banged up, but perfectly healthy," added a voice to her other side.

She turned to see Smith, putting away his sonic screwdriver in his pocket. That must've been where the buzzing was originating from. And while the man was painting another smile on his face, she could see worry and fatigue in his eyes.

"And you can tell that from your screwdriver?" questioned Henry, instantly interested.

"Told you it does much more than put up shelves," replied Smith, with a wink.

"Where am I?" Magnus asked, ignoring the tech's line of enquiry. The ache in her head made concentrating on small details difficult.

"The infirmary," replied Will. She could practically see the relief washing over him. "We had just managed to get you down here when you woke up. Glad you're alright. We thought we lost you for a moment."

"Yeah, if it wasn't for Smith here, we'd have too," commented Henry, relaxing his tense shoulders as well.

"Well…she was doing a good job of fighting it off herself. Not many humans would've lasted that long. Now that's brain power," replied Smith.

"Thank you," responded Magnus, taken back but his unexpected compliment. "What about the Cerebrivore?"

"Captured. Once Smith turned the electric field back on, it was trapped in the larger device just as planned," answered Henry.

Magnus nodded, but immediately stopped for her head gave an agonizing throb. It felt like jackhammers were having a jolly good time in her brain. She placed a hand on her forehead and winced as the ache flared again.

"Are you sure you're okay?" questioned Will, his concern returning.

"Yes, I'm fine. My head just hurts that's all," she replied, looking away from the lights that were beginning to burn her eyes.

"That's to be expected. You just had to fight off an invading being. You're head's bound to hurt. Some rest will do you good," added Smith.

"Shouldn't I be telling you that? You weren't even supposed to be down in the catacombs at all. You should've been here in the infirmary," Magnus said.

"Ah…See, I couldn't miss out on all the fun! Plus, I wanted to be there if on the off chance anything went wrong."

"Well, luckily you were there to help," voiced Will.

"All in the job description, well…there really isn't a job description for what I do, but if there was one, I'm sure it'll be in there. Anyway, I should probably get going. Now that the Cerebrivore's captured, there's no reason for me to stay."

"No," stated Magnus, looking up to face Smith and squinting at the light. "You're still recovering."

If she was true with herself, that was only partly accurate. Yes, the man was up an about when he shouldn't be, the pale tone of his face was proof of that. Nevertheless, the secret and selfish reason she wanted him to stay was that he was still so full of unanswered questions. If he left now, she knew she would be wondering about him for the rest of her life.

"Don't worry, Dr. Magnus. I can take care of myself," replied Smith.

"And your recent actions are proof of that? I think not. No, you need to stay and rest at least until your stitches have begun to dissolve." Magnus winced again and turned away. The lights were burning her eyes and making the pounding ten times worse.

"Magnus, you need to lie down and sleep," said Will, noticing her pain and trying to gently push her down on the bed.

"No," she replied, resisting both the pain and her employee's hand. "Not until I'm sure that Smith won't run off prematurely."

"Magnus please," begged Will.

"I'm fine, I just-"

"Okay," interjected Smith, cutting her off. "I promise I won't leave until you are satisfied with my recovery. You're the doctor, here. Okay? Now can you relax and rest. That's what you need right now. I won't leave."

Magnus looked back up at him, braving the glare of the lights. She gazed into his dark eyes and knew undeniably that the man was lying through his teeth. He had already played this trick twice. She realized that there was no way she was going to keep him here unless she locked him up and she was not about to do that after he had just saved them all. Well, if she wasn't going to be able to stop him from running off, the least she could do was try to get some answers last minute.

"Will," she began, turning to her employees. "Could you get me a 10% solution of morphine? I believe it's in the room down the hall. And Henry, check on the Cerebrivore, will you? I want to you to double check it's completely secure. Wouldn't want it to escape after we went through so much to capture it."

They both nodded in response and were out of the infirmary in a matter of seconds. Magnus sighed and laid back down, the pain was very draining but she's experienced worse. She turned her head to watch Smith sit down on the bed next to her. He picked up his bloodied suit jacket that they had brought to him before the business with the Cerebrivore.

"I'm afraid that jacket's beyond saving. Blood is impossible to get out. I should know," commented Magnus, trying to strike up a conversation. From years of practice, beginning with talking about something seemingly meaningless was a great gateway into more important matters.

"Nah. I have something somewhere—if I can find it—that will get it out. I got it in a little…um…place a while back. Never had to use it before," Smith said with a sigh as he put it down. "Well, there's a first time for everything."

"Isn't that the truth," mused Magnus, stopping the wave of memories before they started and getting back to her purpose. "I know you're lying about staying."

"Yeah. Got that impression." The smile was still on his face.

"When the Cerebrivore was attacking me, it was you that helped me fight it off, wasn't it?"

It didn't take that much to guess that it was Smith that assisted her. Even though the moment she tried to think about what had happened when the creature attacked the pain grew to unbearable proportions, she still realized that she didn't fight off the Cerebrivore completely alone. And it was only a matter of simple deduction to conclude that it was Smith who aided her.

"Yep. You're a brilliant woman, Magnus, but you just don't have a completely capable mental defense. Not your fault. You are human after all…well mainly. You're a lot older that the average human."

"How'd you come to that conclusion?" For some reason she was not surprised that he had figured it out. He obviously contained enough intelligence to notice the signs. Then there was also the fact that he had wondered around the Sanctuary. Who knew what information he had discovered on his self-guided tour?

"It's in the way you walk and talk. It reminded me of an age long gone by. Then there's of course your eyes. You've seen a lot, haven't you Dr. Magnus? A lot more than anyone normally sees in the standard lifetime. I should know…" There was a note of strange melancholy in his words, his smile had disappeared, and he had taken to staring at the wall behind her.

"You're older than you look as well I'm guessing?" It was something she had a slight suspicion about before what with his unusual amount of knowledge, but wasn't completely sure of it until now.

"Yep, much older than you'd think. Though it's worth it when you get to see amazing things like this place."

"Funny you've never heard of the Sanctuary before. When one deals with 'dangerous creatures,' they tend to at least know of us."

"Well, I'm not exactly from around here."

"We have Sanctuaries all over the world."

"Yeah, but I'm sort of a…uh…hermit sometimes," replied Smith, clearly lying. "Plus, the creatures I deal with aren't exactly abnormals."

"What are they, then? In fact, what are you?" This could've been just more denial, but that feeling in her gut from before was showing itself again. Something was telling Magnus that there was more to it than just pure and simple denial.

"You must remember I'm not from here. In fact, I'm not even supposed to be here. It was a complete accident. Shouldn't even be possible."

"What do you mean?" She winced for another time as the ache in her head flare up again at the sudden on rush of questions from his words.

"Its…complicated. But I will tell you this. There's more to your world than what you think you know."

"Oh, I'm well aware of that, Mr. Smith."

During her 150+ years, Magnus remembered numerous instances where she encountered things she never thought possible before. And right now, based on his cryptic answers she was beginning to get a feeling that Smith was one of those things. However, she longed to know more.

But before she could say something else to try to push the man into giving her more than just riddles, Will walked in with a syringe and a small glass bottle labeled with the requested solution. While Magnus walked Will through administering the solution, Smith pulled a book off the cart full of reading material they had brought for him earlier, and began to read.

"Thank you, Will" Magnus said with a sigh as the diluted morphine solution took effect. The ache in her head was already beginning to fade.

"You're welcome. Is there anything else you need? Do you want me to stay or something?" questioned Will placing the surgical tube, used needle, and the left over solution on the nearby counter.

"No, I'm fine. But I believe you have some paperwork you have to do for me."

She adored Will, but she didn't need him hovering over her. Not only did she dislike the idea of somebody flapping around her like a mother hen, but she was also not done with Smith. There were still some pressing questions she was craving the answers for. Even though she was beginning to suspect that she was never going to get a straight answer from the man, she still wished to try. And it would be best to do that without Will in the room. Plus, that paperwork did need to be done and knowing her employee, he was probably procrastinating.

"Fine. But radio me if you need anything, okay?" replied Will.

"Of course."

And with that, Will left.