The Doctor didn't give Alba a chance to protest his accusation. "You know how I know that you know? Well, we'll say I deduced, because I don't know for sure, but I'd frankly be surprised if i were wrong. It occurred to me though, how odd it was that you didn't press much at all about me calling you Romana or saying nursery instead of conservatory. You ask questions about everything usually, it seems. I thought it odd that you didn't ask more questions about either of those incidents, but then it occurred to me that you would have no reason to ask if you already knew the truth anyway. I'm not wrong, am I?" he asked, forcing her to turn onto her side so that they were looking at each other face to face.

"I had my suspicions," she said, hoping the answer was just vague enough to placate him.

"Suspicions placed in your mind by one Jack Harkness?" he pressed. When he received only silence in response, he just sighed. "I might've suspected. His mouth is as big as his heart sometimes, I should've known better."

"You aren't angry?" she asked quietly.

"Not at you," he said, and the tone of his voice left her slightly worried for Jack.

"Don't be mad at him. It was right after you...it was after that first night. On the floor in the library. He told me because he said he thought it might make me understand you better. He said he didn't want me to hate you, and I guess he thought if I knew about them that I'd be more inclined to be sympathetic towards you."

"You weren't supposed to know. You weren't supposed to know anything about me. That was the whole point of it, so I could let you go when the 'contract' was over with your memories in tact. If you know intimate details about my life, that makes it all a bit more difficult. And Jack has put me in the position of deciding how I'm going to handle it," the Doctor said, clenching his hands tightly.

"Does it matter? As long as you were actually planning on returning me to where I came from, New Earth doesn't believe in Gallifrey as anything other than a myth and a legend. What would be the point of me rattling on about it? No one would believe me, I'd just get thrown in Upper Bedlam. Doctor...I thought we had an agreement. You made it clear to me that if I cooperate, you'll make sure me and my mum are cared for. I have an incentive to be quiet for that reason."

"Not if I pay you and send you home. Once you have your money, you sort of lose incentive, do you not?"

"So then idon't/i send me home," she sighed. "As long as I know my mum is looked after...I'll stay with you as long as I need to. I won't fight it. The day I woke up in the slave exchange, I never expected to see my family again anyway. Hell, I wasn't sure if I would ever live to see another sunrise or sunset. It would be enough for me to know that my mother was okay. You told me from the get go that I was here as long as it took to convince the right people that you and I were genuinely in love, so I expected to be here at least a year or two, maybe even more. I mean you and I, we could even get along...if you'd just let me try. You have to stop lying to me about everything, though. I'm supposed to be here to help you, so let me help you. I can't do that if you won't be honest with me. Remember how well we worked together that night when Rani and your brother were over? I can do that again. And again. And again. Whatever I have to, whatever you need me to do. Because you try to be kind to me. Because you let me live. Because you promised you'd keep my mother safe. Just tell me what it is you need from me, Doctor, and I'll do it. I'd say no question asked, but I suppose we both know that isn't true," she said with a chuckle. When she looked over at him, she could tell he was trying not to smile.

"Suppose you have a point," he said, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. He sprawled out across the bed, his hands tucked behind his head on the pillow. "Jack said something to a similar effect. He told me you might be a for-show wife, but I had paid the price for you, I might as well talk to you like a real wife."

"Jack is wiser than I think you give him credit for, Doctor," Alba replied, reaching out to softly smooth her fingers through his hair. He leaned into her touch, and she let her hand drop to caress his cheek. "Talk to me. Please. You're going to try to help me, please let me at least try to help you."

"It's a long story. Hell, some of it is still classified. I wouldn't even know where to start," he said, pulling his right hand through his hair. His left was pinned underneath her at the moment, and she was still holding her hand pressed against his cheek.

"The beginning is usually a good place to start," she suggested.

He laughed. "That's the problem. The beginning as in when I was born? My childhood? Or the beginning of when things started to go awry. Come to think of it though, I suppose there isn't too much difference between those two things."

"What do iyou/i feel like talking about? I can sense that you're anxious, if there's something you want to get off your chest you can talk to me about it. I don't mind listening."

He sighed heavily, and brushed her hand away from his cheek so he could pull at his face. She'd noticed that seemed to be one of his many nervous habits. That, and running his fingers through his hair.

"I don't deserve you. You've got such a kind heart...I'm so sorry I've done this to you. Dragged you into the middle of all this. I've no idea when it'll even end, no idea if what I'm doing right now is even worth it. I'm just...I'm so, so sorry, Rose. If I could take it back, I would. I'm sorry this ever happened to you," he said, his voice cracking. He covered his face with his hands, either in anguish or shame, she couldn't tell. Probably a little of both column A and B.

"Well, whether you deserve me or not, here I am. And I'm listening," she said earnestly.

The Doctor seemed to consider this, silently. For several minutes. Finally, he spoke again.

"What do you know about time travel?"

"Another myth, like Gallifrey," she said. "They talk about it being possible one day, but not for thousands of years."

"Yeah...about that…"

In the bedroom, Andrea was growing hopeless. Her captor had left her hours ago, and she was no closer to escaping now than she had been then. It was no use-having both hands cuffed above her head, she had literally no way to escape, and the cuffs were just tight enough that she couldn't try to wiggle free of them. She was stuck there, indefinitely. She thought there might have been an old Earth horror novel about such a situation, but she didn't remember how the main character had ended up escaping, if at all.

She tried again to pull one of the bobby pins from her hair, and almost couldn't believe it when she felt her fingers close around it and pull it free. Still, without the ability to maneuver the pin into a key shape, having it did her very little good. She clutched it in her fingers, and made several vain attempts to insert it into the lock. Eventually, she gave up, resigned to her fate, whatever it was. She hoped that if her captor had intended to kill her he would've done it already, but she didn't know. Everything was a blur in her memory. One moment she had been folding clothes, and the next there had been a thunderous crash and roar that had shook the whole building. There had been a searing white light, and then nothing. Nothing, and then she had woken up here. She could only assume a similar fate as that that had befallen her daughter was about to befall her as well.

A few minutes later she heard someone returning to the apartment, and assumed it was her captor. When the footsteps tracked to just outside the bedroom door, her suspicion was confirmed. She closed her eyes, and pretended to be unconscious again. She heard the footsteps enter the bedroom and approach the bed, and the familiar voice again.

"So you're Rose's mom. Wonder what you're like," he mused out loud.

iRose? Who the hell is Rose?/i she wondered to herself.

"Well, she misses you," he said softly. "Shame you two can't see each other. Not yet, anyway. Maybe someday, eventually."

It was only when Andrea, who loved flowers, felt the needle sliding into the crook of her arm that she realized what the significance of the name Rose could possibly be. But it was too late. She felt the waves of the black ocean tugging at her once more, and as the waters enveloped her she had time to think one last thought:

iAlba!/i

Alba was sure the shock she felt was written all over her face. On top of not just being told, but shown physical proof that Gallifrey existed, she had just spent the past twenty minutes having the invention of time travel explained to her in layman's terms. She was still having difficulty wrapping her brain around it.

"So you...you invented a device that can travel through time and space...and it's only a little bit bigger than a wristwatch?" she asked, still unsure she believed what she was hearing.

"Yes. So far, only a handful of people know about it. But...if I lose financial control of my family's business and the patents to my inventions, it is almost guaranteed that they will try to pursue a commercial license for it. I don't even want to think of what the consequences would be if anyone with the money could get a hold of one," he said, letting his head flop dramatically against his pillow.

"Yeah," Alba said sarcastically, unable to help herself. "Then anyone at all could go to New Earth and fetch themselves a slave girl. Wouldn't that be terrible?"

He looked at her sharply. "It iwould/i be terrible. Which is why I have to stop it from happening. Do you disagree?"

"No. But how can you decry people using a time travel device for their own ends when that's exactly what you've been doing? You said yourself the reason you chose to take a girl from the slave exchange was so it wouldn't be traceable. But it's illegal, and you used a time travel device to conceal that activity. Why is it okay for you to do, but not for anyone else?" she asked. She knew what she was doing was probably playing with fire, but his guilty apology earlier had her thinking she could probably get away with pushing the envelope some as far as her questions went. He was right-she did question everything.

"That's exactly what Harry said," the Doctor muttered darkly. "And he and Rani are two of the board members pushing hardest for the commercial development of the vortex manipulator. But Rose...you've met him. And her. They're not right. If they got their hands on it, there's no telling what they would do. Right now, there are only three in existence. I have one, Jack has one, and the prototype is kept locked in a lab. If I lose financial control of the business, they get the prototype, the patent, everything they need. And they get access to everything else I've been working on."

"And to retain financial control of the company, you have to be married? Why?" she asked, not sure what one seemed to have to do with the other.

The Doctor sighed. "My father built his business from the ground up, from scratch. He clawed his way out of poverty by selling his first invention, and started his company. Eventually, he started losing his faculties, and he made a will. That heartless, stubborn man loved that company more than anything. Certainly more than myself or my mother-it was extremely important to him that it remain in the family, as his legacy. Never mind his son, the genius overachiever, that wasn't enough for him. My fortune is secure, but only if I secure the legacy. Which requires I be married before my thirtieth birthday."

"So what's the problem? We're getting married, fortune secured., yeah?"

"If only it were that simple. My father wrote that will before he knew he had another bastard son besides me. Harry didn't come out of the woodwork until after my father had already started to lose it a little, and then to top things off, Harry married Rani, who was one of the board members. Because Harry is technically my father's blood too, he has a claim to the company as well. So him and Rani are trying to fight me on it."

"Yeah, but if Harry's a bastard, doesn't that invalidate his claim? I'd think your case would be stronger, given you were your father's legitimate son," she replied.

"Yeah well, there are other factors at play here," he muttered, staring over her and out the window at the mountain.

"Factors such as…?" she prompted.

"My sanity. They want to fight my control of the company on the grounds that I'm not mentally sound, which I suppose they have a point. I may be mad...but it's never affected my ability to make sound business decisions. Besides that...there are other things they're trying to use against me as well."

"Of which you are apparently reluctant to tell me. Why?" she asked, reaching out to take his hand, hoping that the physical contact might help to make him feel more comfortable and secure with what he was struggling to express to her.

"Because I've already bollocksed up your life enough as it is, I already decided I'm not going to do anything more on that front. I can't."

"Why don't you let me be the judge of who has bollocksed my life up? Which, and I can't believe I'm saying this..but I don't know that I'd count you in the mix of bollocksing up my life. The way I came into your life is undeniably fucked up, for sure, but at the end of it we have a business arrangement that was intended to be mutually beneficial. It will benefit me to know that I'll be able to pay my rent and take care of my mum without having to worry about which bill will have to go unpaid or how we're going to put food on the table. So why don't you just tell me what it is that's really bothering you?" she said, knowing she was perhaps being a bit manipulative, but not caring if it got her the answers she wanted and needed.

For a long time he laid there quietly, evidently mulling whatever it was over in his own mind. She squeezed his hand gently to remind him she was there, and he cleared his throat. "Rani and Harry have found a surrogate. They're trying to have a child. If they succeed, they'll have one very important thing I don't…"

"An heir," Alba finished for him, then shuddered. "Eww. I can't imagine those two as parents. They don't even strike me as the sort of people who like children."

"They don't. They're both just power-hungry psychos who would do anything to get what they want. Including bringing an innocent child into the world, one who will likely go unloved because they're just using it as a means to an ends. They'll probably pawn it off on a nanny, send it to a boarding school, and laugh while they squat on top of their piles of plundered money," he said glumly.

"That's terrible," she whispered, imagining the poor child of that horrid union. She had no doubt that the Doctor's prediction of neglect would probably prove truthful if Rani and Harry were successful with their surrogate.

And then, she realized what it meant. "Oh. iOh/i. If you had an heir, they'd have a much harder time trying to lay claim to your father's company."

"Yes. But...I wasn't prepared to ask you to do that. A child would be a permanent tie for you to Gallifrey. That wasn't part of our original agreement. I honestly never even thought about it, because I know Harry and Rani hate children. I never imagined they'd be capable of sinking this low. That's how desperate they are to get the company."

Alba thought about the implications of this. Without a baby, the marriage seemed almost pointless. But he'd just said that he wasn't prepared to ask her to have a baby, too. So what did that mean in terms of their arrangement? "So...if we don't have a baby, what do you do? Find a surrogate? Try to adopt?"

"No. I can't adopt...for a couple of different reasons. Has to do with the sort of work I used to be in, but they won't adopt to someone like me because of my high-risk past. I suppose a surrogate would be an option, but people would raise questions. We're both young and fertile. Harry and Rani are older. People just think that they got the urge a little late in life. Plus Rani is known for her vanity, so no one would be surprised that she didn't want to carry her child in her own body, risk ruining her figure or some other vain claptrap. It'd be different for you and me. People would talk."

"I see," she said, swallowing. "So are we still getting married?"

"I suppose not," he said softly. "I'll still pay you, of course. For the trouble. It's all for naught now. I'll let you go home...soon. I just...I can't bear to be alone right now. I just want to keep you with me a while longer. I'm sorry, Rose," he said softly, shoulders shaking.

"But what about the company? The vortex manipulator? What will you do?" she asked, suddenly feeling concerned. The Doctor had a point. What would people as immoral as Rani and Harry do with the power of time travel? If they had no problem having a child just to gain control of something they wanted, who knew what else they were capable of? What histories they might try to go back and change for their own gain? She curled her fists thinking about it.

"Suppose I'll start from scratch. Find another girl, hopefully before Harry and Rani are able to have a baby and take my father's company out from underneath me."

He didn't sound especially optimistic. She gathered a lot of planning had gone into procuring herself the first time around, let alone having to go through the process all over again.

"No," she said softly.

"What?" he asked, propping himself up on his elbows to look at her.

"No, you can't send me away now. We have to stop them. I can't go away knowing that the integrity of time and history might be at stake and I didn't do anything to stop it. We have to at least try."

"So what do we do then?" he asked her.

"Whatever we have to," she replied, looking back up at him. "We're in this together now."