Part Three

Sarah Jane was getting a little impatient with the Doctor and his scarf traipsing around this not so interesting ship. She looked over to where Harry was trailing along with her and she rolled her eyes. They had been on the ship for just over an hour and a half without any sign of danger, or life whatsoever. But it seemed like the Doctor was on a mission. And it looked like he'd found what he was looking for when he lit up at the sight of a locked door.

It didn't take him long to unlock the door and once he had the door open, the Doctor shot both Harry and Sarah Jane a smile. He raised a hand to indicate that they should go through before him. Harry went through first and as she was heading through after him, Sarah Jane shot the Doctor a questioning look.

"Why did you bring us here? Oh great, you've led us to the prison block…" Sarah Jane said, before she trailed off. She had caught sight of two women in one of the cells – the older woman was cradling a younger woman's head in her lap. Harry's eyes also widened at the state the younger woman was in – bruises in various stages of healing were littered all over the exposed skin (and most likely there were hidden ones as well). But that wasn't the worst of it. The woman was barely recognizable because of the half healed cuts and burns on her face. The older woman looked up as they came in through the door, but she barely noticed the first two people. Her attention was on the second man: the man with brown curly hair and the ridiculously long scarf. And although she had never met the Doctor in his fourth body, Susan knew right away who it was.

"Grandfather."

The Doctor glanced over the younger woman before fully turning his attention to the older woman. "Susan."

"Grandfather?" Harry mouthed to Sarah Jane.

She shrugged. "I didn't know he had a family."

In record time, the Doctor had the cell door open and was crouching beside Susan. "My dear Arkytior. What are you doing here?"

"No time for that, you need to help Melody."

Rose moaned slightly as if she could sense the Doctor (even though it was a younger version of the man she'd married) and turned her head toward the Doctor's voice. "Doctor?"

The Doctor looked down at the semi-unconscious woman and he frowned. It was as if this woman in his granddaughter's arms knew him somehow. She was reaching out for him subconsciously – both physically and mentally – and that scared the man.

"Who is Melody?" the Doctor asked.

'Love…' a soft voice whispered at the back of the Doctor's mind. He first looked at Susan to see if she was the one speaking to him in his mind. She shook her head slightly and then looked down at Rose's face in her lap. 'Help me. Please.'

Harry had finished his preliminary scan of Rose. "I can't tell if anything's broken; she doesn't look good, Doctor."

"Who is Melody?" the Doctor repeated, directing his question at his granddaughter. "To me?"

'Marriage bond,' Rose answered in his mind. The Doctor took in a sharp breath and looked down at the woman lying in his granddaughter's lap. 'Future.' The man in question deepened his frown, ignoring all else around him now and solely focused on the young woman that would come to mean so much to him. That was, if she was telling him the truth.

'How do I know?' he asked back along the link she'd established.

With the last of her strength, Rose roused herself enough to catch hold of the Doctor's scarf. She pulled his face down to hers and whispered a single word in his ear. None of the other three people in the room heard what Rose had whispered, or really saw the Doctor's reaction to that word. But once he had loosened his scarf from around his neck – Rose seemed to refuse to let it go, even in her unconscious state – the Doctor was different. Susan saw a look of amazement pass across his features, and she knew that whatever Rose had said convinced her grandfather of the woman's identity.

The Doctor took in Rose's face intently before he ran his eyes up and down her figure, taking in all the bruises and all the signs of torture – physical scars could be mended easily. He wasn't so sure about the emotional scars this incredible woman would carry from her ordeal. Yet one thing he knew for certain: she must have been spectacular for him to allow himself to grow close enough to share his name with her. Not even his wife on Gallifrey knew that much about him – in fact, he hardly knew his first wife at all, and hadn't even seen the woman since before his first regeneration.

Setting his jaw, the Doctor looked up at his granddaughter. "Susan, how long has she been like this? How long has she been here? Actually, how long have you been here? Shouldn't you be with David?"

"She's been here five and a half months. I've been here two and a half years – and I lost David a long time ago."

The Doctor settled his gaze on Rose's growing belly – and the child that was growing within her. A soft smile graced his features as he reached out and laid a hand over her womb. The child within gave his palm a firm kick and the Doctor couldn't help but smile. "His?" he asked softly.

"Yes," Susan replied, realizing that the Doctor was asking if the child was from his future. But she knew that this wasn't the time to ask.

"Doctor, do you think we can get out of here now?" Sarah Jane asked.

The Doctor looked up at his two companions and gave them a bright smile. "Of course, Sarah." He looked back at his granddaughter and asked, "Are there any other telepaths imprisoned here?"

"They took the last of the other prisoners off yesterday. It's just Melody and me."

The Doctor nodded and shifted so he could lift Rose into his arms. Once he was standing with her resting against his chest, Rose shifted slightly and buried her face in his neck and fisted her right hand in his clothing, right over his left heart. The Time Lord took a deep breath; he hadn't expected Rose to shift herself closer to him. Her left hand still clutched his scarf tightly. "Harry, lead the way back to the TARDIS. Sarah, help Susan. And, try not to be seen."

NTLNTL

Jack and the 12th Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS and onto the Way Station outpost set up on Pluto's surface. The place was filled with traders – many of them illegal – and buyers. The Doctor raised a silver eyebrow as Jack seemed to be in his element. But the Time Lord stopped when he recognized a woman that seemed to be watching them.

"Did you find it, Doctor?" the woman, Missy, asked. Jack spun around to find the woman. A half smile started to spread over his face as he went to introduce himself. Missy smiled sardonically and added, "Oh, and you bought the freak with you."

"Do I know you?"

The Doctor gave a single nod. "Meet the Master."

"Please," Missy pouted. "It's Missy now."

Jack looked taken back. "Really? I thought he died on the Valiant."

"Oh, you wish, freak. Now, where is that lovely wife of yours, Doctor? Oh, I know! I may have let the telepath traders know where you were and may have suggested that she was a strong telepath."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "So it was you that told them where to find us? They won't be able to get anything from her or for her."

"What?" Missy asked.

"You didn't know that she's not a telepath?" The Doctor pursed his lips. "Except with me. And, even if she was, there's no way to prove that. The TARDIS made sure that there could be no one, ever again, messing around with my Bad Wolf's head." He then looked down at his fingernails as if he wasn't interested. "Do you know what a wolf does when she feels threatened?"

"Why would I care what a silly little canine would do if it's threatened?"

"Because you had a hand in the kidnapping and subsequent torture of my Bad Wolf. I would not want to be in your position when she comes for you." The Doctor gave his longtime friend turned enemy a hard smile. He started to walk past Missy and he was almost smug when her face fell – he knew that she wanted to really hurt him and have him despair when he couldn't get his wife back. But there was one thing she hadn't counted on: Rose and her connection to the TARDIS. The Doctor stopped as he brushed passed Missy. "They attack. And yes, we found 'it'." The Doctor knew, though, that he had yet to find Gallifrey, but he never wanted Missy to realize he hadn't.

Jack raised his eyebrows. His respect for the Doctor just shot through the roof – and his worry for Rose just multiplied by ten.

Missy stopped them before they got too far. "You found Gallifrey? Where?"

"Why should I tell you? You'll only take it from me again."

Missy grinned. She knew then that the Doctor and Rose hadn't found the planet – or else they wouldn't have been still touring the galaxy. "If you are here for that child of the machine, Doctor, then you're too late." The two men turned back to the rival Time Lady and she gave them a sweet smile. "I'm afraid that – Jenny was it? – has already been sold." With that, Missy left the two travelers on Pluto and the Way Station.

The Doctor's face fell. Jenny had already been sold? He started making his way through the crowded Way Station to the area designated for slavers to sell their 'goods'. Jack was hot on his heels. But Missy had been right; they were too late. Jenny was nowhere to be seen.

"So, what do we do now, Doctor? If Jenny's not here, then where do we find her?"

The Doctor's expression darkened. "We stop all trade on this station. Now."

"And how do you plan to do that?'

Looking around, the Time Lord saw a nearby terminal and smiled. Pulling out the data stick he had taken from Arubem Prime with all the data marked 'Bad Wolf', he uploaded it all to every single data pad and electronic receiver in the station. Jack laughed as he looked around and found that every single person, alien or otherwise, broke out into a riot. The Doctor gave Jack a hard smile. "Just like that. Now, you remember what I said about what wolves do when they feel threatened? Well, it's far different from what they do when they feel threatened and they're protecting their cubs." Jack nodded, and the two of them shared a knowing grin. They both knew that Rose would do anything to protect her family, and it seemed that it included what was left of the Doctor's family. "Let's find out where Jenny's gone. I'm not going to give up yet."

NTLNTL

Rose felt safe for the first time in months. 'Doctor?' she reached out for him. When she didn't feel him respond, she started to shift around and roused herself from sleep. She couldn't work out why her 'pillow' had soft outer layers and was also firm. She could tell that it wasn't the ground, because she was also upright. Her breathing hitched – were the slavers going to come back and get her for more of their 'sport'? She tried to get away from the firm hold that was pressing her against this unyielding surface.

"Shh," a voice she didn't recognize whispered against her hair. "I've got you. You're safe, Melody."

That soft voice, and the double heartbeat underneath her fingertips, seemed to draw Rose out of her fog induced mind. "Doctor?" she asked aloud, though in barely a whisper.

"I'm here."

"TARDIS?"

"We're trying to get back there now."

"I think the coast is clear," Sarah Jane said from her vantage point by the door.

Rose recognized the voice of her longtime friend and former compainion to her husband. "Is that Sarah Jane? She sounds so young." Slowly opening her eyes, Rose was met with a multicolored scarf and some kind of tweed waistcoat and a burgundy neck piece.

Sarah Jane looked over to where Rose was enveloped in the Doctor's arms, and felt jealous – how she wished it was her in the Doctor's arms, not this strange woman. "Do you know me?"

"Yes."

"How? I would remember meeting you."

The Doctor felt Rose lift her head slightly from his shoulder and he looked down at her. It was the first time that Rose really had a good look at his face. "You look so young, Doctor."

"I'm really not, you know."

Rose giggled softly and buried her face in his neck again. "Oh, you really are." She stopped laughing as her body protested at the pulling of various wounded muscles. 'It hurts to laugh, Doctor.'

'What's so funny? Hmmm?' the Doctor questioned through their open link. He found that he could only communicate with this wonderful woman when she first started the link from her end. And it seemed to occur naturally to her.

'Just remembering when we first said that to each other and you were much older then than you are now.'

The Doctor smiled and rested his chin on Rose's head. 'I can see why I like you.' Aloud, the Doctor addressed Sarah Jane's question. "Sarah, Melody is my wife from the future."

"I don't know about you, Grandfather, but I can speak for Melody and me – we've spent enough time aboard this ship. Can we leave?"

Harry nodded. "Please. Sarah Jane?"

"No, wait; there are guards out there now. Oh no! They must know that we're here!" Sarah Jane crept backward and away from the door as two guards stopped outside their vantage spot. One of them was pointing in their direction.

Rose's grip suddenly grew stronger on the Doctor's collar and she turned to view the doorway. She was not going to get captured again. Harry, Sarah Jane and Susan looked at the woman in the Doctor's arms with something akin to shock or horror on their faces. The Doctor, unable to see Rose's face, felt power radiating from the woman he held tight to his chest.

If there was any doubt in any of their minds about Rose being human – it was gone now. Rose's eyes were glowing slightly as she called out to the fourth Doctor's TARDIS.