The Doctor grabbed the videoscreen in both hands. "It can't be you...it looks like you, it sounds like you, but it's not possible." He started to walk away, then turned back sharply. "Is it possible?"

Michelle's face was expressionless. "Possible: that may or can be, exist, happen, be done, be used, etc. That may be true or may be the case, as something concerning which one has no knowledge to the contrary." The mouth spoke from the videoscreen, but with no inflection, unlike what the TARDIS had just said.

He laughed. "Yes, it's fun to play dictionary. But please stop joking around. How did you get in there?"

"Does not compute."

"Well, obviously my TARDIS had something to do with it. Answer me, Michelle. You've got to have some clue."

She stared flatly, but sang out, "Don't answer me, don't break the silence, don't let me in... Don't answer me, stay on your island, don't let me win..."

The Doctor fell silent for a moment. "What's your nickname for me?"

"Spaz. Undesired nickname, Spaz, not politically correct or acceptable in United Kingdom. No issues in American culture." Static briefly appeared on the screen. "Not politically correct..."

"Why do you want to travel to the 1980's?"

The image parroted, "Erm...the pop culture, I guess. I love the music and the movies. It was so much...happier then than it is now. Not filled with whiny teenagers and punk bands that pretend to stand for something when all they want is money. I belong there. I want to be happy for a change."

The Doctor balled his hands into fists. "Enough, TARDIS! Let her speak for herself...free her from the computer."

The TARDIS spoke the English language yet again. I cannot. The computer is the only thing that is keeping her alive.

He shook his head in disbelief. "She's not 'alive', she's a bloody computer program!"

She lives in me. I have absorbed her. But only you can resurrect her. Disturb me no longer. I have done my part. There was an audible hum, and then the presence, which always seemed to be in the TARDIS, folded into itself.

The Doctor was alone now, having sunk to his knees, and begging for someone, anyone, to talk to him. The pleas went unanswered.

***

The Present Day

And that was how it went for several weeks. The Doctor investigated Michelle's essence in the TARDIS computer, and determined she was fused in the network. The painful part was that he could not set her free. So he did everything he could to keep her neural patterns active, by playing music videos she was familiar with on the computer and making her part of them. He would sometimes alter the imagery and place his likeness within it, if only just to let her know that she was near and always in his thoughts.

The day had come when he had to make a choice between hitting the delete key or the "save and file" command, and he simply couldn't do it. It was at this point when he had broken down and cried his eyes out...until he thought of the Lux Industries device. Then, he finally made up his mind.

The TARDIS was not a giant Library, like the data core of the CAL computer, but she could have consciousness this way. And she would have consciousness.

***

He kept an extra communications device from the Library. Strackman Lux had given him one after everyone had been rescued from CAL. Hours later, he had wired it to the modified sonic screwdriver (one of many extras he kept on board), and inserted the contraption into the computer, just underneath the console.

"I can't make that choice of life or death for you, Michelle. Only you can make it." He held his breath, and waited as the system came online.