A/N: No actual new content this chapter for anyone who's got a story alert, but just a reworking of chapters one and two that I've broken down and tried rewriting several times. Despite all that I'm still not happy with them. I'm just really struggling to write the Doctor in character, even though I can't exactly pinpoint what it is I'm doing wrong. I find I'm having to force myself to imagine David Tennant saying the words I've written rather than the image of him naturally arising from reading them, and I'm just not satisfied with it. But I've just decided to plough on and hope I get more into the swing of things as the story progresses.

Reviews with suggestions would be appreciated, because these first few chapters are proving really difficult to write. I'm hoping it'll get easier as I go on.

Chapter Three – Confrontation

Spinning round, Dominie quickly took her hand out of her pocket and shot a ferocious glare at the man standing behind her. It was the man she'd just bought a cake for minutes ago. He must have followed her, and she gritted her teeth angrily. Why did he have to go and do that? She'd had everything under control but now he was going to turn everything into a complete mess just by being here. "Did you follow me?" she snapped.

"Did you just kill that man?" he countered, not seeming particularly scared but most definitely angry.

She scowled as she realised that his accusation carried a lot more weight than hers, but really it was none of his business. "If I did, do you really think it's a good idea to be confronting me about it?"

His expression was a mixture of anger and astonishment. "Yes, I think if you committed murder you should be confronted about it, although I'm surprised you actually did it. That's the last thing I was expecting to happen when I followed you. Well, maybe not the last thing but it's pretty close. You bought me cake and then killed someone. Aside from being completely immoral and illegal that's odd, to say the least." He was glaring at her angrily. "Why did you do it?"

She just continued to glare right back, avoiding the question. "Why did you follow me?"

"Because you said you didn't feel well and I wanted to make sure you were alright," he replied, giving her a straight answer as if he thought it would help make sense of what had just happened. "After all, you had just bought me cake. But then you went and killed someone, and that's..." He left the end of that sentence hanging and just gave her a hard look, his contempt for her actions evident. "What am I supposed to make of that? I mean, I've heard of the Friendly Assassins of Chidoo who'll buy you a present before killing you, but you just did something nice for one man and then murdered another in cold blood. Why?"

She rolled her eyes, wishing he'd just shut up and go away. Even though she'd thought she quite liked him earlier, this was really nothing to do with him. "Well, you were nice whereas he tried to kill me," she said bluntly. "I think that makes things pretty straightforward. Now, if you don't mind, I think it would be best for you to forget that this ever happened and just go and enjoy the rest of the festival. "

She was about to turn and walk away again, hoping he wouldn't follow her, but he carried on talking. "No, I can't do that."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, what else do you plan on doing? I don't see that you have many options."

"I just witnessed you murder someone," he said, still sounding angry and not the least bit frightened. "Maybe he did try to kill you, but you still can't be allowed to just walk away from something like that. If I went to the festival security police they might have something to say about it."

She cocked her head to give him an 'Oh really?' sort of look. "Feel free," she said, taking out the ID card she'd used earlier. "They won't be able to do anything. That kill was authorised by the IFA."

He eyed the ID card sceptically. "Let me get a better look at that."

She gave an indignant scoff as she handed it over to him. "You think it's fake? 'Cause you're gonna be disappointed."

He held out the ID card in front of him to examine it, and then reached into the pockets of his coat to take out a strange device that Dominie thought looked like some kind of high-tech pen. He pressed a button on it and the end of it flashed blue as he used it to scan the ID. Dominie scowled, not liking the fact she didn't know what he was doing but still feeling confident she had nothing to worry about.

He finished the scan and placed the device back in his pocket, before handing her back her ID. "Satisfied?" she said mockingly as she took it back off him and put it away.

"Well," he replied, "You were right, it's definitely not a fake. Although the chip on it does say that the holder of that card was terminated seven years ago, so I don't think it's as legitimate as you'd have me believe."

She suddenly went very still, unable to respond for a couple of seconds. How the hell…? "How could you tell something like that without a chip scanner?"

He shrugged. "Well, I have a sonic screwdriver instead, and that sort of does the same thing."

She glared at him. He definitely knew enough to be trouble for her now, but perhaps not so much that she was unable to divert the threat. "Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm quite clearly still here and not terminated, so there must be an error there somewhere. So now I'm going to get back to enjoying the festival and you're going to keep your nose out of federal business."

"Alright," he said casually, "And since this quite clearly has nothing to do with federal business I'm going to carry on trying to find out what exactly it is. So, do you mind telling me who he was and why you killed him?"

Her glare was still fixed firmly in place. "You just witnessed me murder a man," she said threateningly, "Has it not occurred to you that if you don't leave me alone I might do the same to you?"

His response was perfectly calm. "It's occurred to me, yes, but I know you aren't going to do that."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And what makes you so sure?" she said, taking out the laser pistol again and pointing it at him.

He glanced briefly at the gun, but didn't seem at all bothered by it before looking past it to make eye contact with her again. She suddenly felt rather uncomfortable when he looked at her like that. It was as if he knew something about her that even she herself didn't know. "Because you bought me cake," he replied calmly. "You did something nice for me, and I really don't think you're the kind of person who could shoot me without finding a good justification for it."

She didn't respond, but kept the gun pointing at him while he continued to look at her like that for a couple more seconds. Eventually though, she realised he was right and lowered the weapon again. He did seem like a nice guy and she didn't want to kill him. "Alright," she sighed, "But I'm still not going to let you cause trouble for me."

"There doesn't have to be trouble," he said, and his tone sounded much less confrontational now that she'd lowered the gun. "If you tell me who that man was and what your justification was for killing him then maybe I can help you."

Even though he now appeared to be trying to reason with her, that was still none of his business and she didn't want to tell him. "Look," she said, sounding more than a little exasperated, "Let's just assume there's a good reason the chip on my card says 'terminated', and there's a good reason that I killed that man but I'm not allowed to tell you. Can't we just leave it at that?"

He didn't look satisfied with that response. "Those are quite large assumptions."

"But they do make sense," she rebutted, "Taking into account the Intergalactic Secrets Act and all, so can't you just let it drop?"

He shook his head. "No," he said seriously. "I just watched you kill someone, and even if there is a good reason for it I can't just 'let it drop'."

She was getting more and more frustrated with him."If it bothers you so much why didn't you do something to stop me?"

"I wish I had done. Should've followed you more closely, then maybe I would have got here more than just a few seconds before you shot him." A hint of contempt had crept back into his voice, but he was still managing to remain completely calm.

She just smirked at him. "Oh yeah? Easy to say when you can't travel back in time and change what happened. What exactly do you imagine you would have done when you aren't even armed?"

"Oh believe me, I would have thought of something," he said in a tone that was full of confidence, "I still might, if you really want to find out what I'm capable of."

What the hell is that supposed to mean? There was something about the way he was talking that bothered her. He was far too self assured for her liking; she preferred people who she knew she could exercise control over, which generally speaking was most of the population. However, this man, whoever he was, was certainly nothing like most people. "Who exactly are you, anyway?" she suddenly snapped.

"I'm the Doctor," he replied, not really seeming angry now, but more as though he was just keen to get some answers. "And I would ask who you are, but according to your ID you're First Lieutenant Dominie C. Nova of the Intergalactic Federal Authority, although I'm not sure if I should believe that"

"Yes, you should," she replied indignantly.

"And should I also believe that you died seven years ago?"

She looked at him rather sourly. "Evidently not."

"Alright. So, Lieutenant…" he began, managing to keep up the reasonable tone, but broke off as a loud bang suddenly sounded in the sky above them. They both looked up to see the upper layers of the atmosphere illumated with flashes of light, sparks and patterns. "Ah, fireworks!" the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, turning round to get a better look. A joyful grin spread across his face at the sight of them and he seemed to forget all about what it was they'd just been discussing. "This is the bit I was looking forward to! Apparently, they're so good you can see them from two of the moons. How brilliant is that?"

"Three of the moons," she corrected, going along with his temporary distraction. "I booked a ride to one of them to watch the fireworks last year."

He looked back at her and his expression darkened somewhat again. "Fantastic as that is, we probably shouldn't get into a lengthy discussion about it while we're stood next to the corpse of the man you just shot. So back to the point, why did you shoot him?"

She gave a slight huff and dodged the question. "Why should I have to answer that when you're the one who started spouting off about fireworks? If you're going to go off topic I'd rather talk about moon rides instead of this."

He kept up the stern look for a couple more seconds, but then seemed unable to prevent the grin from returning to his face. Although he was trying to remain serious, it appeared his enthusiasm for the fireworks was overruling him. "Oh alright, but I promise you just a few seconds on this and then I'm going to get back to that. Which moon?"

She pointed to a spot in the sky behind him and he turned to look. "That one."

His grin broadened even further as he saw the purple crescent shape hanging just above the horizon below the fireworks. "Is that one Sero or..."

He didn't get chance to finish the sentence. Dominie had stepped up behind him and raised the butt of the laser pistol to hit him hard round the side of the head, causing him to fall to the floor unconscious. She knelt down next to him just to make sure he was alright; she genuinely didn't want to kill him.

He was breathing normally, and although she could see a small bruise was already beginning to form on his right temple she didn't think she'd done much damage. "Sorry, Doctor," she said with a sigh as she straightened up again, "But I told you I can't let you cause trouble for me."

Turning away from him she put the pistol away and reached into her pocket again, this time taking out a small glass bottle with a medical screw cap. She opened it and dispensed some of its contents into the palm of her hand: two small white pills, which she dry swallowed before replacing the lid on the bottle and putting it back into her pocket.

What had just happened? Well, it didn't matter. In a couple of hours she'd have disappeared into the Edmus Fest crowds again and the Doctor wouldn't have a chance of finding her. It didn't make any difference anyway.

She quickly pushed the incident to the back of her mind and went to find a better spot from which to watch the fireworks.