The Doctor:

Space ships, not a bad shout for Mickey's first trip, and Jace was the one to choose it. She was getting really good at TARDIS flying, nearly as good as me, not that I'd ever tell her that. "It's a spaceship. Brilliant! I got a spaceship on my first go."

"It looks kind of abandoned." Jacey muttered, looking at all the abandoned machinery, befoer turning on a radio with her hands. Of course. "Anyone on board?"

I shook my head, kissing her head. "Nah, nothing here. Well, nothing dangerous. Well, not that dangerous." Better safe than sorry. "You know what, I'll just have a quick scan, in case there's anything dangerous."

Rose looked over, tucking her short blonde hair behind her ear. "So, what's the date? How far we gone?"

"About three thousand years into your future," Jace said, looking out of a small porthole. "Give or take."

I found a light switch on the console and part of the ceiling showed the stars, meaning that I knew exactly where we were, though Jace was better at telling the year. Apparently space resonated time similar to the TARDIS. "Fifty first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey. Two and a half galaxies."

"Mickey Smith, meet the universe." Jace grinned, and he rested his arm on her shoulder like a proper big brother. He was good for some things. "See anything you like?"

He was just staring into the dark abyss of the unknown. "It's so realistic!"

"Dear me, had some cowboys in here." I muttered, looking through a monitor and seeing everything was half done. "Got a ton of repair work going on. Now that's odd. Look at that. All the warp engines are going. Full capacity. There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe, but we're not moving. So where's all that power going?"

"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked after a moment, while Jace took over on the computer. My little hacker.

"Good question. No life readings on board."

"Well, we're in deep space." She muttered, her eyes reflecting everything. She looked so much older, and she was nearly 16. I wish that I could have found her as a baby, maybe then I'd have changed her life. "They didn't just nip out for a quick fag."

Disgusting habit. "No, I've checked all the smoking pods. Can you smell that?"

Rose nodded, sniffing. "Yeah, someone's cooking."

"Sunday roast, definitely."

A door opened behind us and Jace held her hands up. "I didn't mean to!"

We laughed and pulled her along with us, all laughing a little until we saw a large, ornate fireplace. "Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship. Eighteenth century. French. Nice mantle. Not a hologram. It's not even a reproduction. This actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double sided. There's another room through there."

Rose, the taller girl, looked through the porthole in the same wall. "There can't be. That's the outer hull of the ship. Look."

"Hello." I smiled at the young girl who was now kneeling by the other side of the fireplace, looking to be just a bit younger than Jace, no more than 10.

"Hello."

Jace smiled more, and I saw that they looked pretty similar. The same eyes and Jace's hair was just a little darker and a lot more frizzy. "What's your name?"

"Reinette."

Definitely French. "Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?"

"In my bedroom."

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?"

She looked at us like we were insane. "Paris, of course."

Jace nodded, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Paris, right!"

"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, what are you doing in my fireplace?"

Ah, now that was interesting. "Oh, it's just a routine fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?"

She smiled brightly. "Of course I can. Seventeen hundred and twenty seven."

"Right, lovely." Just a bit. "One of my favourites. August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night."

"Goodnight Monsieur, Mademoiselle."

We got back up and she went off to bed. "You said this was the fifty first century."

"He also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temporal hyperlink."

Everyone stared at her, including me. "What's that?"

"No idea." Jace giggled. "Just made it up. Didn't want to say magic door."

"And on the other side of the magic door is France in 1727?"

I nodded, running my hands through my hair, making it stand on end even more. "Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too."

Mickey frowned a little. "She was speaking English, I heard her."

"That's the TARDIS. Translates for you."

"Even French?"

"Yeah." Mickey looked impressed.

Jace had been messing with the fireplace, and had found something. "Gotcha!"

"Jace!" I managed to grab a hold of it as it rotated, and we went around into Reinette's bedroom, where she awoke with a start. "It's okay. Don't scream. It's me. It's the fireplace man. Look. We were talking just a moment ago. We were in your fireplace."

My little girl lit a candle with a wave of her hand, while the girl looked at us in confusion. "Mademoiselle, that was weeks ago. That was months."

"Really?" I frowned a little, while Jace was looking at the clock. "Oh. Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in."

Reinette was still confused at who and why. "Who are you? And what are you doing here?"

And then I got hold of why Jace was confused, the clock was broken, yet there was still a heavy, booming ticking noise that she'd once told me resonated in a light grey, that edged nearly black. "Okay, that's scary."

"You're scared of a broken clock?"

"Just a bit scared, yeah." She nodded, and her hair swishing softly across the top of her light green shirt. "Just a little tiny bit. Because, you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room, then what's that?" I left it to her as sound her her domain. She could see it, hear it, sense it. Control it. "Because, you see, that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance, how it echoes. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. The size of a man."

And now Reinette was scared. "What is it?"

Which was where we got to my point, where we reached alien recognition. "Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticked and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do, break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone. Stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge, Jace, sit on the windowsill." She just went over to the other side of bed. "Or not."

We waved things either side of the bed, and then Jace was thrown back into the wall. "Reinette don't look round." I whispered, looking to her, seeing she was unconscious. Oh, he was not going to survive that. "You, stay exactly where you are. Hold still, let me look." I held her head lightly, looking into her eyes, through her eyes. "You've been scanning her brain. What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"

"I don't understand." The little girl asked. "It wants me? You want me?"

"Not yet. You are incomplete." The droid told her, his voice cold and calculating.

But I had not a clue what that meant. "Incomplete? What's that mean, incomplete? You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, incomplete?"

The android walked around the bed, ignoring Jace as a blade came out of its hand. "Monsieur, be careful."

"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares." It slashed at me and I dodged it easily. "Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?"

The blade got stuck in the mantlepiece. "What do monsters have nightmares about?"

"Me!" And then I turned it around, getting it away from Reinette and Jace as Rose saw me coming back, letting me grab a fire extinguisher and used it to freeze the android, seizing the joints.

"Excellent. Ice gun." Mickey laughed as I threw it to him.

I shook my head. "Fire extinguisher."

"Where did that thing come from?"

That was a question? Super high tech place, or the French Renaissance. "Here."

"So why is it dressed like that?"

"Field trip to France." Obviously. "Some kind of basic camouflage protocol. Nice needlework, shame about the face." I took off the face to reveal the clockwork. "Oh, you are beautiful! No, really, you are. You're gorgeous! Look at that. Space age clockwork, I love it. I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart, and, by the way, count those, it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you. But that won't stop me." Until it beamed away. "Short range teleport. Can't have got far. Could still be on board."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

I didn't have time, time moved faster on the other side of the wall, and I didn't want to lose anymore time with her growing up. "Don't go looking for it!"

"Where're you going?"

"Back in a sec." I turned around and looked for my daughter, no longer lying against the wall like I left her, but the room was aalso a lot bigger, a big, plus, split level room. "Reinette? Just checking you're okay. And getting Jace, my daughter."

I then plucked a string on a large, ornate harp before someone cleared their throat. "Ahem." She was tall, beautiful, with ashen blonde hair that was curled in loose waves, pinned back from the front. Her eyes were a dark, stormy blue.

"Oh. Hello. Er, I was just looking for Jace and Reinette. This is still her room, isn't it? I've been away, not sure how long."

"Jaclyn, Reinette! We're ready to go."

"Go to the carriage, Madam Poisson." The girl called, and my eyes widened as another joined her, with honey gold hair and brighter, brown eyes. "We will join you there. Doctor, it's been a long time."

"Jace, Reinette! Well. Goodness, how you've both grown." I stared at my daughter, probably about 25 now, though Time Lords aged 3 times as slower once we reached the age of 21, and god, she was amazing... "God, Jace..."

Reinette raised a single eyebrow. "And you do not appear to have aged a single day. That is tremendously impolite of you. Jace became my maid, more like a friend for me, until she became part of the family. Mother liked her more than me when she started to play music."

"Right, yes, sorry. Listen, lovely to catch up, but better be off, eh? Don't want your mother finding you up here with a strange man, do we? Jace, come on." I went to take her hand but she just stood there. "Jace?"

"Strange? How could you be a stranger to me? I've known you since I was seven years old, when you brought my best friend to me."

Jace was not looking happy, her eyes mostly dead and ill as I tried to catch them. "Yeah, I suppose you have. I came the quick route." My daughter didn't look happy. "Jace? I didn't... I didn't mean to do this. I left you for just a moment, it was 2 minutes for me..."

She shook her head. "And it was 10 years for me. I woke up with no memories. It took months for me to be able to even remember my name, by which point they had already called me Jacqueline. I just... I'm Jace. And for months, I couldn't be that."

"I didn't know, I, I thought it would be an hour, maybe a day or so, but Jace..." I reached out to touch her but she backed away again. "Jacey. My Jace..."

My daughter reached forward to push me a little. "You seem to be flesh and blood, at any rate, but this is absurd. Reason tells me you cannot be real, because no one ever comes back for me. I'm a fully integrated French Lady, I perform nightly and I have the freedom to choose whether or not I marry." Which I knew she never would.

"Oh, you never want to listen to reason, because I will always be here, the fact that time went so quickly... I'm sorry, Jacey, please..."

"Mademoiselles!" Another voice shouted. "Your mother grows impatient."

"A moment!" Reinette shouted back, and I saw Jace smooth down her skirts, getting ready to go. No, no way, she was coming back with me. "So many questions. So little time."

Until Reinette kissed me, pushing me up against the wall and I joined in on instinct. Until they both ran out on me when the servant came in. "Mademoiselle Poisson et Smith!"

Hang on a moment. "Poisson? Reinette Poisson?" Oh you were kidding me. "No! No, no, no, no, no way. Reinette Poisson? Later Madame Etoiles? Later still mistress of Louis the Fifteenth, uncrowned Queen of France? Actress, artist, musician, dancer, courtesan, fantastic gardener! Best friend of the most famous French singer, Lady Belle Voix, who has to be Jace!"

"Who the hell are you?!"

"I'm the Doctor, and I just snogged Madame de Pompadour, and I'm Lady Belle Voix's father. Ha, ha!" I laughed to myself, turning around the fireplace, wanting to tell the other two. "Rose! Mickey!" Nope, they'd wandered off. "Every time. Every time, it's rule one. Don't wander off. I tell them, I do. Rule one. There could be anything on this ship." Including a horse. As you do.

"Rose?" I called, and then heard the horse still behind me. "Will you stop following me? I'm not your mother." I opened a new pair of new, gleaming white doors, showing a bright white light. "So this is where you came from, eh, horsey?"

It was the Verailles gardens, and again I could see Reinette and Jace, walking arm in arm with parasols. She seemed happy here, at peace, but I could also see she was restless, used to the constant adrenaline of first being on the streets and then with me, her arms tensed at all times, and a small tattoo like mark across her arms where she was getting withdrawal from time, the thing that made us great.

"Oh, Jace, you are too wicked." Reinette laughed, pushing her lightly.

She smiled back, looking around with her eyes brighter, looking at all the colours, so I made sure to not make a noise. "Oh, speaking of wicked, I hear Madame de Chateauroux is ill and close to death."

"Yes. I am devastated."

"Oh, indeed. I myself am frequently inconsolable." Yeah, right. "The King will therefore be requiring a new mistress. You love the King, of course?"

Her friend nodded. "He is the King, and I love him with all my heart. And I look forward to meeting him." I hid again quickly as they came close, but Jace caught sight of something. "Is something wrong, my dear?"

"Not wrong, no." I felt her stare, and knew she probably didn't want to come home, though I needed her too. Time Withdrawal... It could be deadly, even though she was only little over half Time Lord. But she ignored me too, and kept walking. "Every woman in Paris knows your ambitions."

Reinette smiled slyly. "Every woman in Paris shares them."

"You know of course that the King is to attend the Yew Tree ball? I shall prepare a special song to perform when you first meet him, one that he will have to dance with you for." So some sound manipulation was going on there.

I left them too it, knowing that Jace wouldn't come quietly, pardon the pun, and went back to looking for the other two, knowing that she could look after herself. Besides, she must have been about 30 by now. Rose and Mickey had found another time window, and were staring at Reinette's future partner. "Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?"

"The King of France."

"Oh, here's trouble." Rose laughed. "What you been up to? Where's Jace?"

Not explaining that yet. "Oh, this and that. Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat, found out I'm the father of France's most famous singers, Lady Belle Voix, picked a fight with a clockwork man." Arthur neighed. "Oh, and I met a horse."

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?"

Enough with stupid questions, Ricky. "Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective. See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history." Reinette and Jace entered the room, curtseying to the King, Jace in a very ornate, TARDIS blue dress. "Theirs. Time windows deliberately arranged along the life of two particular women. A spaceship from the fifty first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth, as well as a woman who shouldn't be there. Why?"

"Who is she?" Rose asked, then realised who the other was. "Is that Jace?! She looks older than me!"

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette, as well as Lady Belle Voix Smith, her best friend. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived, refused to marry, and took the Capital by storm with a voice that could literally bring down a roof if at the right note."

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then? I mean the other one, Jace doesn't like boys. Or girls." Very true.

I shook my head. "No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress. And Jace, well, Belle Voix goes where she does, becomes the Court singer."

"Oh, I get it. Camilla." Oh, someone read the gossip mags.

"I think this is the night they met. The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, and Belle Voix as the greatest singer ever known, with her own rooms at the palace. Even her own title. Madame de Pompadour, and The Lady Belle Voix."

The King and his servants left. leaving Jace and Reinette to check their appearances in the mirror/window, which Jace hated, because make up made her eyes itch. "The Queen must have loved her."

"Oh, she did. They get on very well."

Mickey raised an eyebrow. "The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?"

Was that so strange? "France. It's a different planet."

And then Jace turned to see a woman in the corner, and narrowed her eyes. "How long have you been standing there? Show yourself!"

It was an android, and I acted quickly, grabbing the extinguisher from Mickey and heading through the mirror. "Hello, Reinette, my Jacey Jacey Jay. Hasn't time flown?"

"Fireplace man!"

I sprayed the android quickly, and threw the sprayer back to Mickey as it started to creak. "What's it doing?"

"Switching back on." Jace said, looking around it quickly. "Melting the ice, and I can't stop it, only slow it down."

"And then what?"

"Then it kills everyone in the room." She told him, her voice deadly serious. "Focuses the mind, doesn't it? Long time no see, Mickey."

Oh, god, about 15 years for her, but an hour for us. She could have forgotten us all, but she remembered. "Who are you? Identify yourself." It didn't say anything, so I looked at my daughter and Reinette. "Order it to answer me."

"Why should it listen to me? Or Jace?"

"I don't know. It did when you were a child, and it's following Jace as much as you, I've checked. Let's see if you've still got it."

Reinette hesitated before speaking. "Answer his question."

Jace did it without pause. "Answer any and all questions put to you."

"I am repair droid seven."

"What happened to the ship, then?" I asked it, and went to take my daughters hand, but she didn't let me. But she didn't move far away like the last time. "There was a lot of damage."

The Droid was more than happy to reply this time. "Ion storm. Eighty two percent systems failure."

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"

"We did not have the parts."

Mickey laughed a little. "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts."

"What's happened to the crew?" Jace asked. "Where were they? They weren't there last time." Last time, it was the same time, you just decided to take the long way back.

"We did not have the parts."

That wasn't the right answer. "There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?"

"We did not have the parts."

Tell me! "Fifty people don't just disappear. Where-."

But Jace got it first. "Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew."

"The crew?" Mickey looked disgusted.

"We found a camera with an eye in it, and there was a heart wired in to machinery."

I shook my head. "It was just doing what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Someone cooking."

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque." Jace muttered, and I knew this sort of thing was why she was a vegetarian. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, letting me get stuck through one, and every time I tried to get out, I couldn't. That takes colossal energy, especially to trap someone who controls sound. Why come here? You could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"Two more parts are required."

"Then why haven't you taken them?"

"They are incomplete." What?

"What, so, that's the plan, then. Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning their brains, checking to see if they're done yet."

Rose frowned a little. "Why them? You've got all of history to choose from. Why specifically them? Jace isn't even from this time?"

"We are the same."

Jace's eyes hardened, and her hands were coated in a light purple. She was too powerful, it wasn't safe to use the ability in this time, and it was building up. "We are not the same. We are in no sense the same. I am Lady Belle Voix, and I am from this time!" No... You weren't.

"We are the same."

"Get out of here. Get out of here this instant!"

"Jaclyn, no." I cried as the droid teleported away, and the mirrors around us shattered. "It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey and Arthur. Get after it. Follow it. Don't approach it, just watch what it does."

Jace, looking a lot paler, and the thin black marks up her arms, known as just a birthmark in history, resembled thorns that were well and truly wrapped around her. 15 years outside the TARDIS, it was taking its toll. "Arthur?"

"Good name for a horse."

Now Rose rolled her eyes. "No, you're not keeping the horse."

"I let you keep Mickey. Now go! Go! Go!" They left and I closed the mirror door behind them, looking at my daughter and her friend. "Jace, Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for. There's only one way I can do that. It won't hurt a bit."

I reached out and touched each of their foreheads, looking at them both at once. "Fireplace man, you are inside my mind."

"Oh dear, Reinette, and my Jacey. You've had some cowboys in here."

"You are in my memories. You walk among them."

"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and close it, especially you, Jace, with what you've been through. I won't look. Oh, actually there's a door just there. You might want to cl. Oh, actually, several."

My daughter tried to pull away, but I held tight. "To walk among the memories of another living soul. Do you ever get used to this? Because... I'm normal here..."

Oh, she was never meant to be normal, she said so herself. "I don't make a habit of it."

"How can you resist?"

"What age are you? You too Jace, I'm not sure."

"So impertinent a question so early in the conversation. How promising."

"No, not my question, theirs. You're twenty three, and Jace, you're 31 and for some reason, that means you're not old enough. Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect, and Jace, I am very sorry..."

My daughters head shook a little, her long ashen hair brushing my fingers. "Oh, such a lonely childhood."

My poor baby girl... "It'll pass. Stay with me."

"Oh, Dad. So lonely. So very, very alone."

Wait what? "What do you mean, alone? You've not been alone in about 18 years, Jaclyn. When did you start calling me Dad again, its been Doctor the last few times we've met?"

"Such a lonely little boy." She whispered, her eyes suddenly opening again, the brighter, more sparkly blue back and the thorns retreated a little bit as contact with me healed her slightly. "Lonely then and lonelier now. How can you bear it?"

I took my fingers back, stepping away. "How did you do that? Jace, I never showed you that."

Her eyebrow raised a little. "A door, once opened, can be stepped through in either direction. Oh, Father. Mon père solitaire. Dance with me."

"I can't."

"Dance with me."

"This is the night you sing for the King. where you become the most famous singer in history."

"Then first, I shall get my fathers blessing on my career choice."

She definitely had her mothers determination. "I can't."

Her lips curled into the most beautiful smile and I could help but smile back, just a little. "Doctor. Doctor who? It's more than just a secret, isn't it? Even for me, though in your head, you're supposed to tell your child on their 21st birthday. I'm 31."

"What did you see? Jace?"

"That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy must learn how to dance, if only to teach his daughter."

I didn't stand a chance.

DW

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night and still have begged for more. I could've spread my wings and done a thou." Jace, adult French, Jaclyn, my little Calliope, was amazing, she knew how to get a party going. "Have you met the French, my newly French daughter? My god, they know how to party."

Rose and Mickey were strapped to a table, and I was there with a glass of wine and my tie round my head. I was going to regret this in the morning, but it was Jace's fault. "Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm. Where's Jace, she not French!" Debatable with her way to party.

"Oh, you sound just like your mother."

That wasn't really helping. "What've you been doing? Where've you been?"

Now where to start. "Well, among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early, as well as Jace making the best ever rock music in the 18th century. Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before. Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good." Then I grinned at the head droidy droid man thing. "Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It's you. You're my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad. Do you know what they were scanning Reinette and Jace's brains for? Their milometers. They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty seven, and Jace however old she is when they need the brain, when she's complete, then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain and a voice. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix Smith will do."

"The brain and voice are compatible."

"Compatible?" You were kidding me, her voice was the most Time Lord part of her! "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." I took off his mask and poured my goblet into the head, and the clock work seized. "Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't." And then turned the rest of them off through the console and freed the other two. "Right, you two, that's enough lying about. Time we got the rest of the ship turned off."

Mickey looked at the other robots. "Are those things safe?"

I nodded, sorting out my tie. "Yeah. Safe. Safe and thick, way I like them. Okay. All the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down. Zeus plugs." I patted down my pockets. "Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago. I was using them as castanets for Livin La Vida Loca." Don't ask why Jace wanted to do that song, in fluent French.

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty seven? And Jace said they trapped her there."

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century. Trial and error after that. And they knew her genetic coding, so they could stop her activating it on one side. "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

A bell rang around us, and we all looked up. "What's that?"

How should I know? "I don't know. Incoming message?"

"From who?"

"Report from the field. One of them must still be out there with Reinette and Jace. That's why I can't close the windows. There's an override." But then the first droid, Mr Thick, expelled the anti-oil through his finger, right onto my cream converse. "Well, that was a bit clever." And he turned his friends back on. "Right. Many things about this are not good. Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?"

And the reply send a shiver of panic through my hearts. "They are complete. It begins."

"What's happening?" Rose asked me as they all teleported out.

No, no, no, no, no... "One of them must have found the right time window. Now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head and Jace's voice, that's her life."

I sent Rose to talk to the pair of them, as my daughter refused to come back yet, as she was still a crucial part of history, up until her disappearance the year of Reinettes death. I knew that would happen, it always happened as she was only mortal.

"You found it, then?" She asked as she ran up to us.

I nodded, looking down as the scene unfolded. "They knew I was coming. They blocked it off."

"I don't get it. How come they got in there?"

"They teleported." I replied, looking at my daughter, the thorns back on her arms, thick and twisted, leaving her weak, her voice not letting her defend herself. "You saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick."

"Well, we'll go in the TARDIS!"

Did no one ever listen to me?! "We can't use the TARDIS. We're part of events now."

Mickey frowned a little, staring at the little sister who was now older than him. "Well, can't we just smash through?"

I would have already done that. "Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck."

"We don't have a truck."

"I know we don't have a truck!"

"Well, we've got to try something."

Think, think, think, think... "No. Smash the glass, smash the time window. There'd be no way back."

"Could everyone just calm down? Please." Jace shouted, trying to get everyones attention, and her voice was still strong enough to control the masses of panicking people around her. "Such a commotion. Such distressing noise. Kindly remember that this is Versailles. This is the Royal Court, and we are French. I have made a decision. And my decision is no, I shall not be going with you today. I have seen your world, I was part of it for a while, and I have no desire to set foot there again."

There was a pause from the droids "We do not require your feet." They pushed her and Reinette to their knees, and she was too weak to fight. I needed to get her back into the TARDIS and fast.

"You think I fear you, but I do not fear you even now." She said darkly, her eyes going brighter as she struggled for control. "You are merely the nightmare of my childhood. The monster from under my bed. And if my nightmare can return to plague me, then rest assured, so will yours."

At that point, I leapt up onto Arthur, and used him to gallop through the mirror, wanting my daughter safe as they moved the blade closer to where her voice lay. "Lady Belle Voix, Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day, though Belle, you should really remember to call your dear old dad."

"What the hell is going on?" King Lois demanded, getting to his feet also.

"Oh." Reinitiate muttered. "This is my lover, the King of France."

I wasn't impressed. "Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time, father of Lady Belle Voix Smith, and I'm here to fix the clock." I took the mask off the main droid, and it pointed the blade at my throat. "Forget it. It's over. For you and for me. Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand." There was a brick wall where the portal lay, and I had no way to help her, without giving her my immunity. But that was fine. My Legacy.

"The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart, huh? A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. I'm not winding you up."

They all wound down, one even falling apart and shattering before I took my daughters hands, helping her to her feet. "You all right?"

She replied by hugging me, and I squeezed her tight, no longer able to pick her up with how light she was. "What's happened to them?" Reinette asked, getting to her feet with the aid of her lover.

"They've stopped." My little girl whispered. "They have no purpose now."

DW

Later on, I left the party for a while, looking up at the night sky as Jace was with Reinette now, and I listed their names in my head. Until they came up behind me. "You know all their names, don't you? I saw that in your mind. The name of every star, dad."

"What's in a name?" I asked her softly, hugging her tight and kissing her even fluffier, corkscrew curled hair. "Names are just titles. Titles don't tell you anything."

"Like the Doctor. And The Seer."

Sort of. "Like Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix."

Reinette smiled too, and looked up at the sky with us. "I have often wished to see those stars a little closer. Just as you have, I think."

"From time to time."

"In saving me, you trapped yourself, dad." my little girl muttered, and I felt her two hearts thrumming in her chest, needing that connection to time that the TARDIS could give her. "Did you know that would happen?"

"Mmm." I sighed. "Pretty much."

Reinitiate raised an eyebrow. "Yet, still you came."

I smiled at the pair of them, loving that my daughter knew I didn't abandon her, that I made sure she was safe, and knew she did amazingly. "Yeah, I did, didn't I? Catch me doing that again."

"There were many doors between my world and yours." Reinette told us softly. "Can you not use one of the others?"

Even Jace shook her head. "When the mirror broke, the shock would have severed all the links with the ship, I felt it, saw the jade shatter. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid, wherever there was a time window."

Oh, that reminded me. "I'll, I'll pay for any damage. Er, that's a thought, I'm going to need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?"

She smiled a little. "So, here you are, my lonely angel, and my angels gift, stuck on the slow path with me."

"Yep, the slow path. Here's to the slow path." We all toasted, all drinking the same, thick, clove filled wine.

Until she sighed. "It's a pity. I think I would've enjoyed the slow path."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere, not without Jace, anyway."

"Oh, aren't you? Take my hand." I did so, and Jace held mine as we went into her bedroom, and saw the most amazing sight ever. "It's not a copy, it's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail, while Jace was on tour around the city."

Both of our eyes widened as Jace stumbled a little, the thorns peeking up from the top of her dress up her neck. She didn't have a choice any longer, I was taking her with me if I could get out. "The fireplace. The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?"

"Many years ago, in the hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor, or a girl will need her father. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?"

"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it, which means it was offline when the mirror broke." I told her, holding Jace up. "That's what saved it. But the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here. Which might just mean, if I'm lucky. If I'm very, very, very, very, very, very lucky." Tap tap. "Ah ha!"

"What?"

"Loose connection." Jace smiled weakly, touching the wall lightly with her index finger, a slight whistle coming through. "Need to get a woman in." Then she hit it. "Wish me luck!"

But she just shook her head. "No."

The fireplace turned and took us away, but we crouched the other side of fireplace. "Madame de Pompadour!" My little girl called, that small amount of time travel giving her more strength. "Still want to see those stars?"

"More than anything, my sister."

"Give me two minutes." I grinned, patting my adult daughters shoulder. "Pack a bag."

Reinette frowned a little. "Am I going somewhere?"

Oh, you were going everywhere. "Go to the window. Pick a star, any star."

And then we ran back to where the other two were stuck waiting, they leapt up to hug us, me and Rose, and Mickey with Jace, who was now taller than him. "How long did you wait?"

"Five and a half hours."

Ouch... "Great. Always wait five and a half hours."

"Where've you been?"

"Explain later." I told her, running the TARDIS and grabbing a syringe quickly and running back out to Jace. "Into the Tardis. Be with you in a sec."

They did as I said for once, and then I jabbed a the needle into Jace's arm, making her yelp before she relaxed, the thorns of Time Poisoning retreating to nothing. That was much better. Then we went through the fireplace again, and saw the room dark and cold. "Reinette? You there, Reinette?" Jace went on ahead, knowing her way around the palace. "Reinette? Oh, hello, your Majesty."

"You just missed her." He said sadly as Jace curtseyed. "She'll be in Paris by six."

Oh God... "Ah."

"Good Lord." The King gasped. "She was right. She said you never looked a day older, and you. Lady Belle. So many years since I saw you last, but not a day of it on your face, and you were 9 years her elder." He took a sealed letter from the drawer. "She spoke of you many times, we all did. of your amazing voice. Often wished you'd visit again. You know how women are." He gave her the envelope before looking back out the window, where a hearse was driving away in the pouring rain. "There she goes. Leaving Versailles for the last time. Only forty three when she died. Too young. Too young. Illness took her in the end. She always did work too hard. What does she say?"

Jace, tears in her eyes, tucked it inside a small bag at her hip. "Of course. Quite right. Sisters are as close as can be. Final words should be private between them."

I took her hand and lead her back through the fireplace, and back into the TARDIS where Rose and Mickey were still waiting. "Why them?" Rose asked us. "Why did they think they could repair the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour and Lady Belle Voix?"

"We'll probably never know." I whispered, seeing the pain and the hurt in my daughters eyes as she went through the console with ease, even after 30 years away. "There was massive damage in the computer memory banks. It probably got confused. The TARDIS can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble."

Rose put her arm around her old friend for a moment, but she pulled away. "Are you all right? God, you... You're older than me now." That wasn't exactly helping.

"I'm always all right." She said stiffly.

Mickey understood, and pulled his ex back. "Come on, Rose. It's time you showed me around the rest of this place."

They left, and Jace took the letter back out, and unsealed it, reading aloud. "My dear sister Jace, and your father, Doctor. The path has never seemed more slow, and yet I fear I am nearing its end. Reason tells me that you and I are unlikely to meet again, but I think I shall not listen to reason. I have seen the world inside your head, and in my sisters past, and know that all things are possible. Especially that a voice can be a deciding vote. Hurry though, my sister and friend. My days grow shorter now, and I am so very weak. God speed, my lonely angels."

She took a deep breath, then opened a panel under the console, where she'd seen me put things I cared for most, including Jacks key, and Lynda's records from the Game Station, and placed the letter there with it. It was her first loss, and unfortunately, it would never be her last. The SS Lady Belle Voix and Madame De Pompadour.