Notes: And this is the final chapter! The mention of the green gems is a nod to the Doctor Who Legacy game, in which you frequently have to resolve paradoxes and temporal disturbances by matching gems. Thanks again to everyone who followed this fic!

I knew that my options were limited; somehow, I had to get word to the Doctor without getting sent further back in time. But, before that, there was something that I owed Ffinch; after receiving approval from his spirit, I set about the task of laying his physical form to rest—a burial at sea, after I had tricked the Angel into moving away from the door just enough so that I could get him out.

Shortly after the deed was done, just as I was pondering what to do next, I heard the telltale sound of the TARDIS. I froze for a minute as she materialized in front of the demon house, wondering how the Doctor had been able to find me, even without my sending a message to him.

And though I was mostly relieved that the Doctor had found me and I would no longer be stranded here, it still vexed me that if he had come just an hour before, he could've helped me get Ffinch out of the house before he had died. And there was the matter of how he had conveniently forgotten to mention, during the course of our lessons, of how my people had sold out.

I guess that was why, when he opened the doors to let me in, my reaction towards him was rather cold.

"Jamie!" he exclaimed, the relief evident in his voice. "Oh, Jamie, are you alright?"

"Took ye long enough to get here," I muttered, dodging out of the way as he attempted to place his hand on my shoulder.

The Doctor stood there for a moment, his hand still in the air after my rebuff, before he crossed back to the console and closed the doors again.

"I truly am sorry, Jamie," he said. "I'd have turned the entire expanse of space and time inside-out until I had found you. I'm just glad I did before it was too late—though I did have help."

"Help? Help from who—?" I asked, and then paused as I saw Lotte's younger son, staring up at me.

"Are you alright?" he asked, wide-eyed.

I managed a smile, not wanting to upset him with how upset I was.

"Aye, I'm fine," I lied. "I'm surprised ye came along for the ride."

"He insisted on it; he felt horribly guilty after you had vanished, and wouldn't even think of going home until we'd found you," the Doctor said.

"And he was the one who helped you find me?" I asked, confused.

"Uh-uh," the boy said. "It was one of the ghosts!"

"What…?" I asked, looking back at the Doctor for confirmation.

"Yes," he said, not meeting my gaze. "That troublesome ghost light that was pestering you told the TARDIS where you were—it was in contact with the door, which allowed the TARDIS to understand its thoughts. I wonder why that ghost light wanted to help you…"

I looked away now, sighing again. Even in death, Ffinch had found a way to help me so that I didn't suffer the same fate that he had.

I stood there, pondering this silently, as the Doctor threw the switch on the console again. After we dematerialized and rematerialized again, the Doctor opened the doors and then smiled at Lotte's younger son.

"They're waiting for you," he said, gently.

I watched as he ran out, eagerly, and could hear his joyous exclamations mingling with those of his brother and Lotte. Lotte practically dragged the both the Doctor and me out of the TARDIS, thanking us with teary eyes.

The Doctor insisted that her happiness was all we needed, but Lotte insisted on giving us food to partake in. I wasn't hungry, and the Doctor barely ate much at all; still, Lotte insisted that we take the food with us, which we did, seeing as though we didn't want to be too rude and refuse to do that, too.

But I was surprised that, upon leaving Lotte and her reunited family, the Doctor had the TARDIS land back in our office in Manhattan.

"What are we doing back here!?" I asked. "I thought we were going back to the house to figure oot how to free the ghosts!"

"That was the original plan," the Doctor sighed. "But I don't want to force you to go back. You must have had a horrible time going back to 1776, and the fact that you turned down food is enough to let me know that you're not well."

"Doctor, we have to go back!" I exclaimed. "We have to go back right now to 1776 and free the ghosts!"

The Doctor stared at me in surprise, and then sighed.

"I'm afraid that's not possible; if we do free the ghosts, it would have to be now, in 1980. The ghosts have been trapped here until this point in time—that was why they arranged for Lotte's son to be taken." He paused. "I should let you know, that statue fled before I had the chance to see it. The boy insisted that was what made you disappear."

"It was, but we cannae worry aboot that now!" I said. "Are ye sure there's no way t' free the ghosts before 1980!?"

"Really, Jamie, what has gotten into you?" The Doctor's expression softened. "What happened in 1776?"

"A lot of things," I said, not meeting his gaze again. "Ye know how, earlier, ye were saying that ye thought the ghost was pestering me because of something personal?"

"Yes."

"Ye were right, only he wasn't pestering me; he was trying to warn me aboot the statue," I said. "Because the statue killed him. Sort of. It sent him back in time while we were both in this house, in 1776, and by the time I found him, he died."

"He was a Redcoat, wasn't he?"

I now glanced back at the Doctor.

"How…?"

"The look on your face when I found you…" the Doctor sighed. "It was the same look I had when we encountered the Daleks together. You remember that, of course. But I had that look once even before that, when I encountered the Daleks just after I regenerated, before I met you at Culloden—"

He stopped short as I punched the wall of the office.

"Jamie!?"

"Doctor, just tell me one thing!" I said, turning back to him. "If a Dalek, who had fought alongside other Daleks that had killed yer family, ended up killing yer best friend, and then tried to kill ye and others ye cared for, suddenly turned up oot of the blue five years later, insulted ye, and then died to save ye, what would ye do!?"

The Doctor walked over to me and gripped my shoulder; this time, I let him.

"I'd be highly upset and confused," he said. "Does this Dalek… or should I say, Redcoat, have a name?"

"Aye, and ye met him. He tried t' execute ye and Ben, too, along with me and the Laird."

"Oh, my word…" the Doctor murmured. "Ffinch!?"

I nodded, and then explained the whole story.

"If I hadnae lost my temper and hit him, he wouldnae have followed me," I said. "But I was so angry when he said that I di'n belong in Scotland, I just…"

"Yes, I see," the Doctor said, silently glancing at where I had punched the wall.

"I mean… how would ye feel if a Dalek said that ye di'n belong on Gallifrey?" I asked, without thinking.

"I'd tell this Dalek that he was absolutely right," the Doctor said.

I slapped my forehead.

"Och, but ye ran away! I…" I trailed off, standing dumbly for a moment. "…I ran away, too, di'n I?"

"And we both only went home after Goth and the others at my tribunal forced us to," the Doctor reminded him. "But I think that this is not the time to discuss that."

"Aye," I said. "But there's one more thing I need to ask ye. If that Dalek who did and said all those things to ye had its spirit trapped… would ye go through the trouble of helping it after e'erything it had done t' ye?"

"I know what I would do, Jamie," he said, softly. "But you need to decide what you are going to do."

"Ffinch and his men killed Alexander," I said, flatly.

"Yes."

"And he tried to kill me—us!" I reminded him.

"Also true."

"And the only reason he helped us capture Grey and let us go was because Polly had his identity disc."

"Likely."

"…Then why do I want t' help him?"

"Why, indeed?" the Doctor mused. "We can ponder over that later; as you've made your decision, I suggest we return and help!"

"Aye," I agreed. "…Ye're sure we cannae go back in time and work on it? He'd have been waiting for more than two hundred years!"

"If we did, it would create a paradox—and the space-time continuum in the New York area is already weak and warped in many places," the Doctor sighed. "Other paradoxes have clearly happened here before, and if we created another paradox, it could destroy this area of space-time!" He placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know it seems cruel to have Ffinch and the other spirits waiting for so long, but we have no choice. There already is a temporal disturbance in that house somewhere—"

"The cellar!" I exclaimed. "Ffinch said it was in the cellar—he saw it with his own eyes! He said that the ghosts are afraid of it, and that it keeps them trapped there."

"Of course!" the Doctor hissed, his eyes flaring. "A temporal disturbance big enough would have a gravitational field; spirits don't have any mass—they wouldn't be able to leave a gravitational field like that!"

"Do ye know how t' make the disturbance go away?" I asked.

"Energy feedback—and we'd need a powerful, but concentrated, form of energy," the Doctor said. "I have everything we need in the TARDIS! Let's go!"

Soon, we were back in the demon house again; the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS with a small sack in his hand—holding, I assumed, what we needed to fix the temporal disturbance. The ghost light that was Ffinch immediately hovered near us as we arrived, seemingly relieved to see us.

"Ffinch," the Doctor said, with a reassuring nod. "Thank you for helping me find Jamie. We're back to free you and the others from this wretched house."

"Aye," I said. "But that void ye saw in the cellar—can ye take us to it? Once we get rid of that, ye'll be free."

Ffinch now hovered away, and the Doctor and I followed him, past the hole in the dining room floor that the Doctor and I had made the first time we had investigated the house, through the kitchen, and down to the cellar.

Ffinch now phased through a wall, and back again, hovering in front of us.

"Through the wall?" the Doctor asked. He took out his sonic screwdriver, waving it back and forth over the wall. "Well, it's not a very thick wall—just thin sheets of wood put up to seal this part of the cellar off; I think it was something that was hastily constructed to hide something that people didn't want to see. Oh, you humans do befuddle me sometimes; as if hiding the problem is enough to solve it…."

"Let me…" I said, and after venting my emotions with a few kicks and punches, I had made a sizeable hole through the wood. Through it, the swirling vortex of color that Ffinch had described was visible. "Doctor, there it is!"

"Yes…" the Doctor sighed. "It's definitely a temporal disturbance; that light is from within the Time Vortex itself—so don't look directly into it."

"Aye," I said. "But how do we get rid of it?"

"With these," the Doctor said, pulling a few green gems from the sack he was carrying. I had seen those gems before—the Doctor had taken them from Gallifrey, and had used them to attack beasties sometimes; the gems were volatile, and would unleash a powerful charge of energy if they were in groups of three or more.

The Doctor slipped through the hole and began hurling the green gems at the temporal disturbance; I followed him inside, reaching into the sack and also throwing gems at the disturbance, taking care not to look into it.

"How long do we have t' do this for?" I said, shouting due to the sounds of the energy surges being emitted from the gems.

"Until the temporal disturbance vanishes," the Doctor called back. "We might be here for a while—slow and steady, you know. A huge charge of gems might close it up all at once, but we can't risk getting too close; you wouldn't want to fall in and get pulled into the Time Vortex."

"Oh, aye… Are ye sure ye have enough gems in that wee sack?"

"Not to worry—it's bigger on the inside!" he chimed back, with a grin.

…Of course, it would be…

The Doctor and I continued to throw more gems into the disturbance; the colors kept changing, and it was getting smaller—a good sign, according to the Doctor. But it was after a while that Ffinch, who had been staying well back from the temporal disturbance, suddenly flew forward to get my attention. Turning around, I saw the angel statue halfway towards the hole that I had made in the wall, its mouth open and baring fangs at us.

It was then that I realized that the statue was not living under the same rules as the ghosts, and, for some reason, it did not want us fixing the temporal disturbance.

"Doctor…" I said, trying to make myself heard again. "Doctor, the statue—"

Again, by reflex, I looked back towards the Doctor before remembering that I wasn't supposed to look away. I turned back to see the statue inches from my face again, ready to send me back in time once more.

Thinking quickly, I reached behind me, grabbing the bag of gems from the Doctor, and then poured the gems onto the angel statue.

"Jamie—!?" the Doctor exclaimed from behind me, as sparks flew around the statue. "Jamie, look out!"

The Doctor wrapped his arms around me, pulling me down to the floor so that the sparks wouldn't pass any collateral damage on to me. This caused me to look away from the statue for a moment; desperate, I looked back up. I saw the statue falling forward, ending up passing face-first into the colorful void. The gem-created sparks surrounding the statue practically exploded as it fell through, and when it was all over, there was nothing left but empty air—the colors were gone.

And the Doctor and I continued to remain sprawled on the floor, the Doctor gripping my arm.

"Please tell me ye saw the statue that time," I said, staring up at the ceiling.

"I saw something of a humanoid, winged shape amidst all those sparks…" the Doctor admitted. "Unfortunately, I didn't get a good look at it."

I just grumbled and muttered.

"Well, if it helps, you did save me from that thing," the Doctor said. "Just one of the reasons why I keep you around."

I gave his shin another weak kick in response.

Epilogue: Things that Go to Make Up a Life

Neither of us moved for the next several minutes; we still were sprawled on the floor, still trying to grasp what had just happened. Apparently, our failure to do anything was rather concerning to the third party still in the cellar with us.

"Are you two quite alright?" a familiar voice asked.

We looked up to see Ffinch, looking like a transparent version of his living self.

"I believe we are," the Doctor said, as we got to our feet. "Thanks in part to you."

"It was the very least I could do after how I had treated the both of you during our first encounter," Ffinch said. "I've had a lot of time to think about what I'd done in life, and you were right, McCrimmon—even in the midst of war, a man's life should hardly be considered as an unimportant thing. After so casually dismissing your friend's death, I am quite surprised that you were willing to help me at all."

"I was asking myself why I was so willing t' help ye," I admitted. "I later realized that Alexander died because he tried t' save me and the others from ye—just like ye died t' save me from that angel statue."

"I'm not entirely sure why I did that, to be honest," Ffinch said, with a wan smile. "And I also apologize for what I said about you not belonging in Scotland."

"It's fine…" I said, with a quiet sigh. "I was angry at the time, but… I realized later that ye were right. I don' belong there. After the things I've seen and the places I've been… I know there's more oot there fer me to see."

"I'm sure that if I'd seen them, too, I wouldn't have been too quick to return home, as well," Ffinch admitted.

"Besides that," I said, nodding towards the Doctor. "This daft old man wouldnae last long withoot me."

The Doctor nudged me in the ribs now.

"Judging by how he was panicking after you had vanished, I'd believe it," Ffinch said, wryly.

"Ohhh!" the Doctor fumed. "Don't you have somewhere to go, Ffinch!?"

"I do now; thank you again—both of you." He paused. "I know it's inadequate, and I wish that there was more that I could do…"

"Ye saved me," I said. "That's enough."

Ffinch nodded in understanding, and with a final look back at both of us, floated off, phasing through the ceiling.

"Where do they go, Doctor?"

"Hmm?" he asked.

"The spirits. If they leave this world, where do they go?"

"Well… I'm not sure," the Doctor admitted. "I expect that, someday, we shall both find out. And I'd rather not think of that right now. Come on, then—back to the TARDIS."

The two of us headed back upstairs. We could see the spirits leaving the house in large numbers; some of them stopped to thank us before leaving—one of whom I recognized as the face in the wall. In the end, some of them stayed, deciding that they ended up liking it here, now that they could come and go as they pleased. The Doctor beseeched them not to probe people's minds for memories, which they agreed not to do.

And, at last, the Doctor and I bid farewell to the Home by the Sea, returning to our office.

"How are you feeling now?" he asked me.

"Hungry," I said, as my stomach started to let me know just how long I had gone without food.

"Well, you're feeling better, then," the Doctor smiled, bringing out the food that Lotte had given us.

"I'm also a little confused," I admitted, through a mouthful of food as we began to eat.

"About what?"

"…I was upset with Ffinch for killing Alexander. But I still wanted t' help him," I said. "But I'm still angry…"

"Anger is a perfectly valid emotion, Jamie," the Doctor said. "And it's also admirable that you put that anger aside to help him, in spite of everything. You could have abandoned him to that horrible fate."

"The thought did cross my mind," I admitted, quietly.

"But you didn't act on that thought," the Doctor reminded me. "In fact, I was ready to give you a long rest before we even considered going back, but you were the one who insisted on going to help him."

"If we had gone through this just after Culloden, I wouldnae have helped him; I'd have left him in there," I said, sighing.

"Now, Jamie… You cannot judge yourself on who you were—only on who you are. Five years ago, you were a different person. You were a war child fresh off of the battlefield, who couldn't read or write, and who probably didn't believe in life beyond Earth. And look at you now."

"Did I e'er apologize for pulling a knife on ye that day we first met?" I asked.

"No need to," the Doctor said, ruffling my hair. "I've done things that I'm not proud of now. But I changed. And so did you. We're a lot alike, you and I. …Don't scoff like that—it's quite true!"

"I think ye're a wee bit confused," I said.

"Well, besides the obvious differences," the Doctor said, waving a hand in dismissal. "We both left our homes for something better. I could never have gone along with the Gallifreyans' nonintervention policy; and you could never have joined the British Army. So, here we are—a family of two cosmic misfits, gallivanting through time and space. We've both changed quite a lot through our travels, as well—for the better, if I may be so bold to state it."

I chuckled, and then sighed.

"There is one mystery we didnae solve," I said. "We ne'er found out who this Mrs. Williams was—the one who hired us last time, and referred us to Lotte this time."

"Yes, well… She hid her identity from us because she is obviously from my future, and I'm not supposed to know her yet," the Doctor said. "And I think it's best if we don't attempt to figure out who she is."

"Are ye nae the least bit curious?" I asked.

"Oh, immensely. But not enough to risk another paradox; the last thing we need is another temporal disturbance popping up under that house—or another house."

"Aye, I'll give ye that…" I said, shuddering.

"Anyway," the Doctor said. "I'm glad to see that there are no more ghosts haunting you for the moment."

I continued to eat for a moment before pausing.

"What aboot ye?"

"Hmm?"

"Do ye have any ghosts haunting ye?"

"A few," the Doctor admitted. "Five hundred years is a long time; you don't live that long without picking up a few ghosts. Ghosts usually stay away, but sometimes they do come back."

"What do ye do when they do come back to haunt ye?" I asked.

"I have a nice, long talk with a fellow cosmic misfit who is very dear to me," he said, without missing a beat.

"Aye, Doctor," I said, conceding. "We willnae fight our ghosts alone e'er again."

And we continued feasting on the food we had been given, looking out the window and watching the busy city, eager for our next adventure.

The End