Author's notes: Hello, sorry I have taken so long to update, I have been a bit busy with finishing this story, which I still haven't done... It would seem as though my episodes are getting longer and longer. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, I will let you decide on that.

So, just a little formality, I use some song lyrics in this chapter, and I by no means whatsoever have the intention to make people think that I was the genius to come up with them. I will give you a list of the songs at the end of this chapter. No copyright intended.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter :D

Oh, and I have been watching the Tom Baker years on tv (I love Foxtel for broadcasting all of his episodes so very much!), so I have been finding that they have been influencing my writing style a little bit. Not so much these early chapters, but moreso as they progress. Anyway, I am rambling. Allons-y!

The Doctor felt the TARDIS become still and he rushed to get his overcoat that hung in its usual place over the arch near the doors. He glanced back to the console as he put his arms in the sleeves with a worried expression on his pale face. The TARDIS didn't sound right. She sounded almost strained and overworked. She sounded sick.

"I will have a look at you as soon as I've found Bella, okay old girl?" he promised truthfully, turning and heading out the doors, trying to ignore the guilty feeling in his stomach.

They had landed on a dark, two-lane street that had very few streetlights lighting the road. He glanced further down the street and saw an old bookstore, a small corner shop, a little fashion boutique that looked as though it clothed people from two to one hundred and two, as well as a large, stone pub. The pub was the only thing open and the Doctor glanced uncertainly back to the TARDIS, wondering if whatever was wrong with the TARDIS meant that they had arrived in the wrong spot. He couldn't imagine Bella being in a pub, but if this was her home town, perhaps she had come with her friends?

Knowing that there was only one way to find out, the Doctor set off down the dark street, hoping that he had found her, but afraid of the state that she was in; would she remember him or had she forgotten him completely, just like the Trickster said she would?

As he approached the pub, he read the name above the door, the Sleeping Policeman, and saw a picture beside the sign of a rather large police officer fast asleep leaning back on a wooden chair. He could hear a live band playing from within the walls as people walked out the front door. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the doors and walked in.

There were people everywhere; older people, younger adults (or at least he hoped they were young adults), families and friends all enjoying the warmth of the roaring open fire in the middle of the large room and a good pub meal and drinks while listening to good, live music. Much too domestic, he thought distastefully as his eyes moved over the large crowd, passing over the spectacular wooden bar and the elderly man who stood behind it before finally resting on a familiar young woman, whose eyes passed straight through him without any sign of recognition as she lifted a microphone to her lips. She didn't know who he was, he thought, his hearts sinking painfully.

"Now this one is called Defender," Bella said, before the band behind her slowly began to play.

"When nobody's listening,

When you get lost in the crowd,

When you don't have the answer

"I'll help you figure it out.

I won't let you down,

As long as I live I will keep you from harm,

If they want to get to you,

They'll have to get through me first."

The Doctor watched as Bella sung, her eyes showing a great deal of emotion that no one but the Doctor seemed to notice. He didn't need to ask her to know that she was signing about him… Maybe she did remember me, the Doctor pondered to himself hopefully before someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"Nice of you to join us, Doctor." said a very familiar American accent behind him.

"Jack?" the Doctor asked incredulously, turning to face Captain Jack Harkness who was standing with his arms folded across his chest. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" he asked the Doctor in a light tone, but the Doctor could tell that he was suspicious with him. "I was called by a very concerned Sally Brenner, you know, the girl who called your TARDIS a piece of junk?"

The Doctor nodded, wincing ever-so-slightly at the memory.

"She called me this morning," Jack continued. "Apparently Bella turned up on Sally's doorstep six mornings ago with no memory of you at all."

The Doctor flinched fully this time, and Jack's suspicious expression softened.

"You didn't wipe her memory?"

"No I did not!" the Doctor said hotly, feeling slightly hurt that Jack had thought that he had wiped the memory of yet another companion. "Why would I do that?"

"You wouldn't," Jack said apologetically. "I just didn't know what to think. C'mon, come and sit down, you look awful. Gemma," he called to a young, blonde woman at the bar, who looked up and smiled. "Can we have another glass of water over here please?"

The woman behind the bar nodded in response.

"Jack," the Doctor groaned, sounding exhausted, thinking he couldn't handle Jack's friendliness at the current time.

"Relax Doctor," Jack sighed rolling his eyes, wondering why the Time Lord had such little faith in him.

"So just remember,

I am your defender,

I won't let you stand there on your own,

No matter what they tell you,

I will not surrender,

Now until forever,

You'll never be alone."

Jack led the Doctor through the crowd as Bella continued to sing towards the back of the pub where two young adults were sitting expectantly, obviously waiting for Jack's return. One the Doctor recognised as Sally Brenner, Bella's best friend who had indeed called the TARDIS junk the first time that they had met. The other at the table was a fairly tall man (though not as tall as the Doctor), well-built man in his early twenties who was sitting looking at the Doctor with an angry frown.

"I know that you are strong,

When the tables are turned you'll be back by my side,

And if they want to break us,

Well, just let them try."

"So you're the Doctor," the young man said coldly. "You're the one Bella's been travelling with, you're the one who abandoned her?"

"Dylan, don't!" said Sally desperately before looking up to the Doctor apologetically. "Sorry, my brother and I are just really worried about her. She isn't herself, in case you haven't noticed. She wouldn't normally be such a show pony; even Jack agreed that something is definitely off with her."

"He still dropped her off here with no memory!" Dylan snapped, glaring at the Doctor now.

"You didn't leave her, did you?" Sally asked looking to the Doctor with wide, trusting eyes, something he wished she would stop doing.

"Trust me, Dylan," Jack said sternly after the Doctor failed to speak and Dylan turned to him. "Like I said before, he would never do that to her."

Dylan gave an immature 'whatever' laugh and slumped back into his chair, as the Doctor slowly sat down beside Sally on the end of the table, just watching Bella sing, such emotion in her voice and her eyes.

"Half Life by Imogen Heap," Sally said quietly, she too watching her best friend as the blonde waitress gave Jack another glass of water.

"It's one of her favourites," the Doctor said quietly, Sally nodding in agreement.

"The stickler is you've played not one beat wrong,

You never promised me anything,

Even sat me down, warned me just how they fall,

And I knew the odds were I'd never win…"

The Doctor felt his hearts sink even lower as he listened to the words that had so much meaning that no one else understood and he felt Jack's gaze on him. The Doctor knew that Jack heard the relevance in her words.

"You've got a schedule to stick to,

Got a world to keep sweet,

It's so much to everyone all the time,

Will you ever slow down? Will I ever come first?

The universe contracts decide…

…You know you'll never be lonely,

You know you'll always be loved,

And maybe you'll never need more than that…"

"Drink?" asked Jack, handing the glass of water to the Doctor, who accepted, feeling sick. Jack had hoped that he would be proving a good enough distraction for the Doctor, but he doubted it very much.

"She's just got one more song, and then we can go home and sort all of this mess out." Sally said quietly, hoping that they could sort it out.

"What is she doing singing in a pub anyway?" the Doctor asked, trying not to listen to the words of the new song that Bella had just started to sing that seemed to be making guilt eat away at his very soul. Her words sounded so true and so full of pain, pain that he had no doubt caused.

"I don't really know myself," Sally admitted quietly. "When she arrived at my house she said she had received a job here, bar tendering during the week and singing on a Sunday night. Edwin Milton had needed someone for ages and apparently she accepted…"

"The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out,

You left me in the dark,

No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight,

In the shadow of your heart,

"And in the dark I can hear your heartbeat,

I tried to find the sound,

But then it stopped and I was in the darkness,

So darkness I became.

"I took the Stars from our eyes and then I made a map,

And knew somehow I could found my way back,

Then I heard your heart beating,

You were in the darkness too,

So I stayed in the darkness with you…"

When the song finally ended, which took an agonisingly long time in the Doctor's opinion, everyone in the vicinity applauded and cheered, except for the Doctor, Jack, Sally and Dylan. They watched Bella smile modestly before moving backwards, letting the two guitar players, the pianist and the violinist take the spotlight.

The Doctor refused to take his eyes off her but he didn't know what he was going to do, how he was possibly going to get her memory back, if it was even that simple. As Bella quietly spoke to the older, larger man behind the bar both of them laughing quietly with each other, the Doctor also remember that he had to figure out how the Trickster had gotten her here. What was the Trickster planning?

"Hiya," Bella said as she approached their table smiling at her best friends before stopping in between the Doctor and Sally.

"Good show," Jack said with a smile, the Doctor glaring at him. "Did you have anyone in mind while you were up there singing?"

"Anyone that I know?" asked Dylan suspiciously.

Bella smiled with a kind of 'far away' expression on her face. "You've never met him."

"So there is someone?" said Dylan as Jack and Sally exchanged a startled glance.

"No – I mean," Bella said, her brow creased in confusion. "I'm not sure… Anyway, I'm starved!"

The Doctor frowned, his concern for his best friend growing with each minute that passed. He felt Sally's eyes on him so he looked to her and she gave him an 'I'll-tell-you-everything' look and he nodded.

"Hi," Bella said suddenly, the Doctor looking up to her beside him. "I'm Bella Lumic," she told him with a friendly smile, holding out her right hand.

The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a few times before quickly getting to his feet and taking her hand. "John Smith," he said awkwardly, shaking her hand firmly. This was just as hard as it had been with Donna, he thought painfully.

"I knew a John Smith once," Bella said absentmindedly.

"Really?" he asked, wondering what she would say next.

"Mmm," she nodded. "He was a school teacher at an all-boys school a few years ago. Are you a family friend of the Brenner's too?"

The Doctor stared at Bella wordlessly. He had been a school teacher at an all-boys school, although, it had been a bit more than a few years ago.

"Yeah, he is." Sally said quickly after the Doctor failed to answer her.

"I think you can let go of her hand now, Smith." Dylan said sourly, making the Doctor look down to discover he was still holding firmly onto Bella's right hand.

"Sorry," he said, letting go of her hand, yet she hardly noticed.

"Are you coming around for dinner too?" she asked him airily.

"He heard that your corned beef is delicious!" Jack complimented her, making her blush slightly.

"Maybe you should wait until you try it to give me compliments." Bella laughed.

"C'mon, let's get going home," Dylan said as he stood up. "Dylan's taxi service is about to leave."

"I'll make my own way, thanks." The Doctor said stiffly.

"Good," Dylan said shrugging, beginning to walk away.

"I shot gun the front seat!" Bella suddenly cried, running after him.

Sally sighed, thinking that her best friend wouldn't normally be one to call 'shot gun', let alone would she normally have failed to notice the hostility between the Doctor and Dylan; she normally was a very perceptive person…

"I am really sorry about Dylan," Sally said quietly, looking to the Doctor's troubled expression. "Hopefully he'll ease up on you once we all sit down and work things out after dinner. I'll see you back at my place; do you know where it is?"

"I know," Jack said and Sally nodded turning and following Bella and her brother out of the crowded pub.

From behind the bar, the pub's owner, the older, chubby, grey-haired man that Bella had stopped to talk to earlier, Edwin Milton stood watching the two newcomers stand silently for a few moments before the one with the long, brown overcoat nodded to the cocky American and they both walked out without another word.

Milton's stomach churned uncomfortably and it wasn't because of normal bodily functions; the man in the brown overcoat looked a lot like the description he'd received from the Trickster. Tall, stand-up-ish brown hair and a dash of over confidence, the Trickster had said, that was the Doctor.

Milton turned and walked into the now empty kitchen, wiping his sweaty brow with a pale blue handkerchief from his pocket.

"Milton," said a voice from the mirror beside him.

Milton gave a small jump before turning around to the mirror behind him, seeing the familiar hooded figure that had saved his life as he lay dying on a muddy battlefield not too long ago.

"She mustn't remember him!" The Trickster said urgently.

"So that was the Doctor." Milton said dully.

"Of course it was!" the Trickster snapped impatiently before continuing more calmly. "You must remember your part of the bargain. Admittedly it took the Time Lord much longer to find her than even I expected, yet he is here none the less."

"I thought you said that Bella wouldn't be able to remember him anyway," Milton said with a frown.

"He might try to start their friendship again when he realises that she no longer has any memories of him at all," the Trickster said. "You mustn't let him do that. Remember why you are here, Milton, remember what I have given you!"

Milton grimaced as the feared chaos maker disappeared, leaving his own, unfamiliar human appearance in the small, plain mirror.

Author's Note: The songs are as follows in order of appearence;

Defender - Gabriella Cilmi

Half Life - Imogen Heap

Cosmic Love - Florence + the Machine