ninewood: No of course she wouldn't, what a ridiculous thought! (wink).

A/N: No warning this time, just enjoy the chapter. And feel free to leave a review, the door is always open.

ooOoo

The cowboy kills the rock star, and Friday night's gone too far, the dim light hides on the years on all the faded girls. Forgotten but not gone, you drink it off your mind. You talk about the world like it's someplace that you've been. You see you'd love to run home but you know you ain't got one, cause you're living in a world that you best forgot round here.

Broadway is Dark Tonight- Goo Goo Dolls

ooOoo

Quickly composing himself, the Doctor put a hand on Jamie's shoulder and gave him a quick squeeze. "Now now Jamie, is it suddenly a crime to want to visit old friends?"

"I thought ye canna look back," Jamie whispered as he watched Bridget mix milk and tea for Alex and Carol.

"It's not that I can't," he coughed once. "It's just that I prefer not to. But I think perhaps it would be easier if we had some tea and discussed this later, hmm?"

"Aye, that sounds fine," Jamie and the Doctor both found spots on the couch and accepted mugs of tea.

"Doctor?" Carol chirped.

"Yes sweetheart."

"How do you know Mummy and Daddy?"

He smiled, set his tea mug down on the table. "They used to travel with me."

"Really?" she was becoming much more confident. "Where?"

"All sorts of places," he answered. "And when they didn't need me anymore, they got married and had you."

Confused, Carol's brow furrowed. "So they didn't want to be your friend anymore?"

"Oh no no, not at all," the Doctor offered her his hand, wiggled his fingers. "No, your mother and father are still my friends, but they couldn't travel with me forever."

"Oh…" Carol nodded her head, giving the Doctor a 'high five' slap to the palm. Content with the explanation, she challenged Alex to a race up the stairs.

The two children bounded out of the living room, laughing and shrieking.

Bridget's shoulders slumped in relief as she leaned back against the couch. The Doctor had been so close to revealing why they'd actually left, but, tactful as ever, he always stopped short of telling the whole truth.

The Doctor smiled, clapped his hands once.

"I never doubted you'd be able to make it work."

"Oh believe me, there are days," Bridget breathed as they heard a deafening CRASH.

Bridget sighed. "I'll go check."

Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, Alex shouted down telling them that they were both alright, no harm done.

"What dropped?"

"Nothing!"

"Well something did!"

"It was my shoe!"

Bridget could feel her mouth drop slightly. "Shoes stay downstairs in the shoe organizer! Why are you wearing your shoes upstairs?"

"I'm not!" Alex insisted.

"You just told me it was your shoe! If it wasn't your shoe, what was it that dropped?"

"Uh…"

Jamie got up and joined Bridget at the bottom of the stairs. "If ye dinna tell yer mother what dropped, I'm coming up there!"

The Doctor laughed.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Oh no reason."

"No really, why are you laughing?" Bridget smiled.

"I haven't been home in so many years. I miss this type of chaos."

Carol came running down the stairs. "Mummy! Mummy!"

"What is it?" she caught the young girl in her arms and set her on her hip. "Carol, what's wrong? What's happened?"

"Nothing," Carol kissed Bridget's cheek. "Just wanted t' know you were there."

"Of course I'm still here," she set her daughter back on her feet. "Now, if Alex is upstairs doing his homework, which he should be doing by the way," she shouted that one part of the sentence up the stairs, "I'd like you to go upstairs as well."

"But I don't have homework." And this was true, Bridget didn't know very many junior kindergarten students who have homework every single night, and she had checked Carol's backpack, if only for reassure herself.

"Maybe not, but you have my old copy of Winnie the Pooh, right?"

"Yeah…"

"I'd like you to go practice reading the first 10 pages."

She stuck out her bottom lip and reluctantly agreed. Going back up the stairs, she smiled at the Doctor and then disappeared.

ooOoo

"Now then Doctor," Bridget came and sat down on the couch again. "What's happened?"

"What makes you think something's happened?"

"Well you wouldn't be here otherwise. We've had sight nor sign of you for the past five years. And you wouldn't be here if something weren't wrong. Now tell me please, what's happened?"

"The Queen of Axapta…"

Bridget sent silent, her mouth taunt. "What about her?"

"She and her people have gone feral."

Somehow Bridget could not bring herself to care. Seven years before, while traveling with the Doctor, the three of them had landed on the alien planet of Axapta, where the Queen had ordered Bridget to fight for their freedom. They'd flogged and tortured her before throwing her into a coliseum and expecting her to fight. She'd done it, and had won their freedom, and afterward had gotten into a bath in the TARDIS, her back screaming at her for such an injustice.

It was that same day that she and Jamie had first established just how far their relationship would go. He'd helped her wash her back, and had laid beside her on her bed.

And it was later that same night that she and Jamie had first slept together, cementing their relationship through mutual experience and sensation. She could still remember how wonderful her first orgasm with Jamie had been, but of course she'd never reveal any of that to the Doctor.

In a way, she supposed that the Axaptan Queen, along with the Doctor, had brought she and Jamie together.

Still, even if that had happened, she couldn't bring herself to care about a woman who had ordered her tortured and forced to fight.

"And how is that our problem?"

"They've killed her, my dear girl," the Doctor answered matter-of-factly. "She sent out a cry of help, and I answered. Once I arrived, I was lucky to escape with all my limbs still attached."

"Och, aye? And what's that got t' do wi' us?" Jamie was just as skeptical as she was, thank God. While she was surprised that he wasn't leaping at the chance to travel with the Doctor again, she wondered why he'd suddenly developed such an aversion to the promise of adventure.

The Doctor's face fell. "Now Jamie, you don't expect me to wander in there on my own and risk dying unprotected, do you?"

"So ye came t' ask if I'd risk mine instead!" it was not a question, but a statement. A startling truth lay beneath the words, unsettling as it was. Of course, it had never been the Doctor's intention to put his friends in danger, but the danger was part of the Doctor's life, abandon hope all ye who enter here.

"Oh no no no Jamie, of course not," he realized what a mistake he'd made in the wording of his words. "No, I came to ask if you would come with me. I cannot help the people of Axapta on my own."

Bridget took a deep breath. "Which one, Doctor?"

"What do you mean?"

"Which one of us do you want?"

"Well surely you don't mean…"

"I don't say things I don't mean, Doctor, so please tell me, which one of us do you want to go with you and help?"

"Well, I…" he stumbled.

"I can't go, there's no one else to care for Alex and Carol," Bridget reasoned.

"An' I dinna ken if I want t' go either."

The Doctor's face fell.

Composing himself, he nodded once and went for the back door.

"Ah well, I won't force either of you. I'll just go."

"No no, don't leave!" Bridget grabbed his arm.

"Aye, dinna go!"

"If you can't come with me there's no point in me staying here."

Jamie looked to Bridget, chewing the inside of her cheek.

"Look, we haven't seen you in five years, and you promised the children you'd be here when they finished upstairs."

He managed a smile.

"Well I suppose I could stay a little longer," he agreed, closing his eyes.

"Good I'm glad," Bridget gave him a quick smile. "Besides, you haven't seen everything here yet."

"How do you mean?"

"Well we've got a riding school and the kids have over seven acres of land to play on and they want to have their own adventures as well. Can you imagine how excited they'll be when they find out about the TARDIS?"

"Surely Alex remembers his ride in the TARDIS?"

"We're not quite sure," Bridget admitted. "The memory is a fickle thing, as you've always said. His memory from the age of four till nine, I just don't know."

"And Carol?"

"I was thirteen weeks pregnant then. She was no bigger than a two dollar coin when you brought us back here," Bridget put a hand over her stomach, as though remembering the feeling of carrying Carol in her womb, unsure of where they were going and how they were going to survive without Jamie. He'd never had any doubt that she could survive on her own, she'd done it many times before, but she had Alex and the baby that would become Carol to think of. When he'd brought Jamie back he could still remember the look of gratitude and relief on her face, and it was a sight he'd never forget.

And now five years later, he'd come back and basically dropped a very dangerous, potentially deadly scenario in their laps. He couldn't honestly expect a warm welcome and an instant 'Okay, I don't mind risking my life for the eighteenth time', could he?

Speaking of Carol, the adorable five year old stood at the top of the stairs.

"Mummy, can I come down now?"

"Are you finished your reading?" Bridget asked, thankful for a distraction.

"Yes…"

"Alright, down you come."

Carol sat herself down, and came down the stairs on her bum, chanting 'bump, bump, bump, bump', counting each stair till she reached the bottom stairs.

She got to her feet and brushed imaginary dirt off her knees. "Hi Doctor!"

"Hello again, my dear," he smiled.

"Whatcha talking about? And what's a TARDIS?"

"Carol Louise Victoria, were you listening in?" Bridget gasped.

Carol stuck out her bottom lip, looked out of the corner of her eye. "Maybe…"

"Ye ken it's rude t' listen t' other people's conversations, aye?"

"Aye, but I wanted t' see the TARDIS."

"It's nae in the living room, ye ken that much. If ye'd like to see it, ye have t' ask the Doctor."

Smiling, Carol very politely did so, yelling up the stairs to Alex to come downstairs because they were going to see the Doctor's TARDIS.

"Alright, I'm coming!" he called back, sliding down the banister and landing on his feet.

Bridget watched as Jamie, the Doctor, Alex and Carol all donned their coats and shoes, preparing to go outside.

"Aren't you coming, Mummy?" Carol asked as she struggled with her mittens.

"No honey, I've seen the TARDIS many times already. You go on…" she smiled, swallowing a sob threatening to destroy her tough exterior.

She watched from the kitchen window as the four of them disappeared into the barn, sighed, and picked up the phone.

"Hi, I'm calling in response to an article about a man who jumped off a bridge into the Canal…"

"Yes…"

"That man was my father."

"I see. And your name is?"

"Bridget McCrimmon. My maiden name is Grey."

"Are you available to come to the morgue and identify the body, Mrs. McCrimmon?"

"No I'm not," she let out a sigh. "I live in Inverness now. Truth be told I've had no contact with him in over 5 years."

"I see. Then you have no idea what he was doing on the bridge."

"I have a theory, but I sincerely doubt it."

"The officers on the scene also found a bottle of whiskey on the bridge. Did your father have a drinking problem?"

"Oh yes, it's been severe since I was thirteen years old."

"There was a note sitting next to the bottle."

That's nice, Bridget bit back. A note from a pervert who sexually assaulted me for over six years.

"Is there something else I should know?" she heard the officer ask.

Bridget chewed the inside of her cheek. Yes, yes, there is lots you should know. He beat my mother to death, raped me repeatedly, beat me almost every night. Left me in the basement for days on end with no food or water.

But of course she'd never tell them that.

"No, there is nothing else," Bridget answered, bidding the officer goodbye and hanging up the phone.