I'm gonna apologize, I really didn't think anyone was reading this! I also apologize b/c this is what I will define as a "Chapter Dump". I've been splicing this into chapters, but that takes quite long and I think you guys would like to read this all at once. So here it is; all that I have in this story as of September 11th 2013.
"Well this is it. It isn't much but it should do until your true home is fully grown," Jack told Aileas as he opened the door to the sparsely furnished flat. Aileas looked over the small flat, taking in the kitchenette and sitting room, "The bedroom is just through that door there," Jack continued, apprehensive of the Time Lady's silence.
"It will do, thank you Captain. Now let us head off and get me some suitable clothing," Aileas turned and headed straight out of the flat and down the several flights of stairs that lead the two back to ground level.
"You don't want to look at the place more?" Jack questioned, trying to keep up with the woman in front of him as she strode across the square heading towards the shop area of the city.
"I don't need to Captain. I require clothing that will fit into this part of the galaxy, at least, as well as some technology. I'm also guessing that you will be able to get me into the Hub of Torchwood 3 once all of the other workers have left for the day, am I correct?" Aileas spoke quickly as she walked next to the tall man that easily caught up to her.
"Yes I can, but why do you need to get in there?" Jack asked Aileas as they neared the centre of the shopping district.
"I need to build a sonic device in order to shatterfry the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabiliser to a foldback harmonic of 36.3, which will ultimately accelerate growth of my ship by the power of 59," Aileas explained quickly and quietly as they had neared a densely populated area.
Jack stopped in his tracks as Aileas continued walking, baffled by her explanation, he quickly caught up to her once again, though, in order to continue the conversation, "But I know for a fact that we don't have enough technology in the Hub to create a sonic device."
Aileas frowned at Jack before she entered a thrift shop, filled to the brim with clothes from eras gone by, "Well then I will need to call a friend in order to fiddle with your Vortex manipulator so I can go and get the materials I require then won't I?" Aileas then turned away from Jack and started to pick over the racks crammed-full of clothing. She handed Jack an article of clothing every so often to hold as she scoured the entire store. They left the thrift shop with a low-cut grey tweed jacket that had slightly ruffled lapels and many pockets, a pair of dark dress pants and dark purple suspenders.
Jack was left to carry the bags as Aileas led him to the next thrift shop, even more disorganised than the last one, "Who do you know to call during this time period?" Jack inquired as Aileas looked at the shoe rack at this thrift shop.
"One of my husband's former companions lives on this stalwart island and she always found me amusing. She also was wonderful with the Doctor's and my children whenever we would visit each other," Aileas told Jack as she chose a pair of well-worn deep purple combat boots with faded flowers covering the shoe.
"The Doctor travelled with his children when he was younger? How many children did you have?" Jack asked, astonished, as Aileas handed him her boots and then followed as she went to look at shirts.
"Oh Rassilon no!" Aileas exclaimed, "No I travelled with the children, the Doctor got into far too much trouble for him to travel with children. No, the children and I would travel and I would teach them, all eight of them, all how to pilot a TARDIS. We would meet up once every relative month at the Eye of Orion to visit and chit chat. Sarah was always very obliging to watch our children while the Doctor and I… discussed circuitry," Aileas explained as she pulled out a lilac collared dress shirt, while she smirked less than innocently. She then led Jack and made him pay for her clothes, "We have one more stop for clothes Captain, and then I will need to go and find some technology. I will require the most recent computer on the market, as well as a mobile, and a satellite. Also a microwave."
Jack smiled and chuckled to himself as he followed the determined Time Lady out of the store and quickly went into another thrift shop across the way, "That sly old dog, I knew he was more worldly than what he let on."
"What was that Jack?" Aileas asked as she shuffled through a rack of clothing.
"Nothing, Mum. By the way what do you need those antiquated pieces of technology for?"
"Their circuitry will help me-oh," Aileas trailed off as she stopped in front of a beautiful antique bureau with minimal wear. Aileas looked at the wardrobe reverently as she walked slowly towards it and touched the dark, worn wood.
Jack found her moments later still standing in front of the piece of furniture, "What are you doing Aileas?"
The Time Lady jolted herself out of her stupor and looked at the man behind her, "I need this," she told Jack urgently as she pointed at the cabinet wildly, "Get someone from Torchwood to come and pick it up to take it back to my flat. This is it. I need this wardrobe."
"Okay Aileas, don't freak out, I will make a few calls," Jack told her calmly, disturbed by Aileas' sudden intensity.
"Good," Aileas replied as she visually relaxed, though her eyes still danced with concealed excitement, and then smiled at Jack widely, "Well now that's settled I need to take a peek at one more thing and then we can go. I don't believe we will need any of the current technology after all, just the mobile," Aileas said as she moved away from the bureau, "Jack you stay by this wardrobe okay?"
"Of course Aileas, and don't worry about the mobile; Torchwood has one all set up for you and it is waiting in your flat," Jack said, leaning against the piece of furniture.
"Oh they do? That's good. So long as it isn't tapped or anything. Well, I can just fix that anyways once I get a hold of Sarah," Aileas' muffled voice drifted over to Jack, "Aha! There it is, it's perfect!" Aileas came back to the wardrobe and Jack with two giant handfuls of socks in all different colours, bras hung off of her arms at the crook of her elbow, and a purple-striped bow-tie dangled around her neck, "We'll just need to stop at a Boots for knickers but I believe I have all I need, thank you Jack!" Aileas exclaimed as they purchased Aileas' findings. She then turned to the owner of the shop and told her some of their people would be by to transport the bureau.
With that settled, Aileas and Jack left the thrift shop smiling. They were walking back to the flats when Aileas realised something, "I need carving tools!" she shouted, startling Jack, "Oooh I almost forgot, stupid Aileas."
"What do you need carving tools for?" Jack enquired, looking at Aileas like she had two heads, not for the first time.
"For my ship, duh. And you're supposed to be smart. We need to get to a hardware store, quickly," Aileas told him as she rushed from the square towards where her Gallifreyan sense of direction told her there was a hardware store. Jack followed tiredly behind her, wondering where in God name this humanoid got her energy from is.
After they spent quite a bit of money at the hardware store and ran into the Boots across the street, Jack and Aileas finally went back to the Time Lady's flat, Jack dropped Aileas' bags unceremoniously onto the floor and flopped onto the small couch provided by Torchwood, "Well you sure aren't different from an Earth woman. You certainly like to shop."
"Are you kidding? That was agony! If I just had access to my usual funds and my ship completely grown I would have just bought all of the clothes in those thrift stores and called it a day," Aileas complained, "But still, I'm very glad we've found the outer shell of my TARDIS, I just have to get to carving it. Also, where's that mobile you were talking about?" Aileas asked Jack as she puttered around the small flat, putting the small piece of TARDIS she had been holding all day safely into the wardrobe.
"It'll be on the counter in the kitchen," Jack wearily replied, and feebly gestured towards the aforementioned room.
"Ah! Here it is! Now let us see if I can call her number up…" Aileas said as she quickly closed her eyes and tapped into the phone networks' satellites surrounding the Earth, "Ah there it is! Alright, off to make that call," Aileas said as she picked up her new clothes and walked into her small bedroom. Jack fell asleep quickly on her couch, oblivious to the conversation going on in the next room.
"Hello, Sarah Jane Smith how can I help you?"
"Hello Sarah. Gosh it has been a long time hasn't it? I didn't think you would ever leave Ted," Aileas said fondly down the phone.
"Hello, who is this?" Sarah Jane's musical voice echoed warily down the line.
"This is Aileas, Sarah Jane Smith, the Doctor's wife. You cannot have already forgotten me have you?"
"Oh god, Aileas? Is it really you? Where are you? Why are you calling dear? Is the Doctor with you?" Sarah Jane gasped on the other end of the line.
"I'm in Cardiff in the year 1991. I'm calling because I need to borrow your sonic lipstick in order to grow my own TARDIS and the Doctor is alive but still travelling. He is in mourning from the Last Great Time War and in a sense so am I," Aileas told her calmly.
"Oh of course you can borrow my sonic lipstick dear! I cannot wait to see you dear, I need to hear everything that has happened, but you must be exhausted," Sarah Jane quickly replied.
"I am actually. I only came out of stasis twenty-four hours ago and I have been running around all day. I will see you tomorrow. I can meet you in Roald Dahl Plass; you know on Bute Place, around noontime if that works for you, dear," Aileas said patiently, "Also, if it is any consolation, my husband never meant to leave you. He loved travelling with you and would have until you wanted to leave. I'm sorry and so is he that he had to leave. I'm even sorrier that he never came back for you; he was just so worried you would be too angry to want to come back with him again. Ted explained the re-meeting in the Death Zone and used that to justify not returning for you. I think its rubbish, though, you would have loved to travel again regardless of how angry he made you," Aileas explained to her old friend.
"Yes that is exactly right," Sarah Jane chuckled through her tears, "Although he would have had his hands full with me and that Tegan woman travelling together at the same time. He'd never get a word in edgewise!"
"Oh and he couldn't have that! He would no doubt explode from all of the pent-up gibberish he couldn't say!" Aileas replied laughing with her old friend once more.
"Thank you Aileas, very much," Sarah Jane sniffled down the line, returning to the serious nature of the conversation, "See you tomorrow."
"See you tomorrow," Aileas agreed with a smile as she hung up the phone. She stood looking at the mobile fondly for a moment, then shook her head and quickly changed into her new clothes. She braided her long strawberry-blonde hair and then walked back into her temporary sitting room, "Tah-da!" the Time Lady exclaimed, and then frowned as she observed the sleeping form of Jack. "Captain, you stand at attention when I am talking to you!" Aileas shouted sternly, withholding a giggle as Jack jumped to attention and hurriedly saluted in her direction, "You should see your face right now Captain," Aileas laughed after a moment of silence. "So what do you think Jack, how do I look?" Aileas asked as she gestured at her completed outfit, and then self-consciously adjusted her purple bow tie, "Is there too much purple?"
"Not at all, you look… well absurd. But it works for you," Jack replied smiling.
"Thank you Captain, now get out of here. We'll sneak into the Hub say oh three hundred, which gives you around six and a half hours of sleep. Well six hours twenty-two minutes and thirty-nine seconds give or take fifteen seconds for travel time, but who's counting? Now shoo!" Aileas told Jack, ushering the weary captain out of her flat. She shut the door behind him and leaned up against the wood. Heaving a sigh, she closed her eyes for a moment, then pushed off of the door and started to prepare her piece of TARDIS. By cannibalising her stove and abusing the kitchenware left for her by Torchwood, Aileas had set up a temperature stabiliser for her ship as well as an initial place of growth. I always was better at tinkering than the Doctor. I mean after all that was my job for centuries. Aileas noted as she looked at the wreck she has made of her flat. Oh well, I'll be gone in a few days anyways; she thought as she placed her devices into the wardrobe. Aileas then worked on carving the Tree of Life from Norse mythology into the back of the cabinet. Into the doorknobs she soldered the seal of Rassion with her familial addition of the Greek symbols of theta and sigma. The Doctor was always attached to that name, Aileas thought fondly as she worked, So much in fact it ended up becoming symbols of rebellion on Gallifrey! She wrapped up her work on the wardrobe and is surprised to find that she still has a solid four hours, three minutes and forty-five seconds until the Captain showed up on her doorstep once more. The Time Lady heaved another weary sigh as she stood up and walked into the small bedroom and lay down on the small bed. The weary woman finally allowed herself the moment she had repressed since she woke up in Leadworth a lifetime ago, it seemed. In reality it had only been that morning that she was looking into the young eyes of Rory Williams. He's a good lad, Aileas thought, stalling for time when she knew that she had put this off for far too long already. Aileas slid to the floor and propped herself up against the Torchwood supplied bed and reached out with her mind to a unique and exclusive Time Lord frequency. Her mind stretched to every nook and cranny of the open universe, trying to reach a current regeneration of any mind at all.
All she heard is emptiness.
A complete void of thought, save the wall her husband had constructed in order to keep his sanity after he ended the war.
Aileas realised that the Doctor, the man she married, the man that loathed war and fighting with every fibre of his being, executed his last-resort plan. The man she loved more than anything in the cosmos, the soul that Aileas mated with in the High Court Room of Gallifrey, killed their people and time-locked them all into the horrible war. Aileas was suffocated by her once completely comfortable clothes; she ripped off her bow tie and jacket, and hurled them across the room. Time started to spin and stretch as the Time Lady spent the next four hours in a blur of uncontrollable painful sobs, retching into the toilet after she stumbled into the loo, and walling up her own mind in order to keep from going completely insane.
Her pale purple shirt and dark pants, luckily, had been spared from bile and snot and she threw on her jacket and bow tie haphazardly and opened the door for Jack at approximately a quarter after three in the morning. With blood-shot eyes and a watery smile Aileas apologised to Jack, "I'm sorry Captain for making you wait; you didn't need to keep knocking after the first few minutes."
Jack observed the Time Lady's dishevelled appearance warily, "Aileas, are you okay?" the Captain asked, holding Aileas' shoulders and looking into her red-rimmed eyes.
"Fine enough sir, thank you. Now let's go through some alien tech," Aileas smiled a little more convincingly as she shrugged off Jack and lead him out of the doorway of her flat.
The pair hurried towards the secret entrance behind the building of Torchwood flats that lead to Torchwood 3. The false cement block opened up, released a puff of stale air and revealed cobwebs covering the hidden opening, into the Research and Development division of the Hub.
"This is tremendously convenient," Aileas remarked as she followed Jack down the rickety metal ladder that lead into the room.
"It would be if anyone remembered this area of the Hub. I told you that this was the R & D division and it is, but it is the original department Torchwood used in the 1800's. It has recent technology, though, because I collect all of the alien technology that could throw Earth far too out of the correct timeline of growth," Jack explained as he turned on the lights, the lone light bulb cast a dim glow about the musty room, and then helped Aileas down into the room.
"Oh Jack this is absolutely amazing!" Aileas exclaimed as she gazed about the room. The Time-Lady started flitting around the sturdy wooden tables, her depression actively suppressed for the time,, "Oh look at you! You are beautiful! This is an Artron Energy Converter; did you know I would need this?! Oh Rassilon, a Rift harness? You have a Rift harness in here?! You silly monkeys could be using this!" Aileas rambled on in wonder while she picked her way through the machinery.
"That's a Rift harness? You're kidding. I thought it was some sort of kinky advanced S&M thing," Jack told the Time Lady incredulously as she continued to pull out gadgets from storage, ignoring the layers of dust covering the technology.
"I call dibs, so don't go getting any ideas Captain," Aileas warned him, elbow deep in wires and metal.
"Wouldn't dream of it, Mum," Jack replied sarcastically as he settled into a well-worn leather chair and kicked his feet up onto one of the many tables.
"I'm serious, this will be one of the key components to my ship and if you so much as look at it funny I'll have you drooling into a cup within minutes," Aileas threatened, releasing some of her pent-up despair, darkly fixing Jack with a look that she had developed during her brief time of battle during the Time War.
"Okay Mum, don't worry about it," Jack squirmed under Aileas' gaze.
"You don't have to keep calling me 'Mum' you know, Captain," Aileas informed him, all darkness repressed once more, as she returned to her work, "When I travelled with the Doctor he would always introduce me as Mrs The Doctor, and I would always correct him and give my name, so either is good sir. Oooh, look at this organic growth accelerator it's almost brand new!"
"But you have gone through so much Aileas, and you deserve the respect your title demands," Jack replied to her.
"Oh hush!" Aileas' muffled voice called back to the Captain as she dove under the table to look at more devices, "Did you ever call the Doctor 'Sir' or 'Lord'? Heaven forbid, his ego would be too big for his body and he'd explode! No Jack, Aileas is fine and will always be."
"If you say so Aileas. To be fair though, you actually act like a noble, while the Doctor just broods like a five year old," Jack responded.
"Oh you beauty! This is it this is the last thing I need that I couldn't have made on my own! Oh thank you Jack!" Aileas stood up and went to hug the Captain, but got tangled in wires and fell hard onto the granite floor, "Owww."
"Aileas! Dammit you gave me a heart attack!" Jack rushed over to pick her up, "The Doctor would have my head if you got hurt on my watch."
"Oh Jack, I'm of tough Gallifreyan stock don't worry," Aileas groaned to the Captain as she rubbed her sore elbow, "And you cannot tell the Doctor you've seen me. Not at all. We have a meeting point that cannot be altered and as such you will not mess it up by gossiping." Aileas sternly told Jack as he steadied her and picked up the last piece of technology she needed off of the floor.
"Alright, I won't. Now it doesn't seem that you've hurt the technology. Now this is an artificial airfield creator right?"
"Yes Jack now let's get these four beautiful lumps of metal up into my flat before Gamma shows up, it is almost oh five hundred," Aileas pointed out as she started climbing up the ladder with the Artron energy converter and organic growth accelerator in her arms. She stopped in her tracks halfway up the ladder. She climbed back down and placed the Artron energy converter and organic growth accelerator carefully onto one of the tables, "Oh! Never mind Captain, I have had a magnificent idea! Jack you spot me as I go walk these up the ladder and then into my apartment.," Aileas commanded the Captain as she hefted up several magnetic field generator nodes and a controller from under a pile of wires, "I really don't know why this is down here but it is extremely useful. So, Captain I am going to hike my butt up to the flat and put these magnetic field generator nodes onto my beautiful cabinet. I will then control its descent into this secret underground office; that way my ship can grow with nobody trying to snoop in on it. You won't tell anyone about this Research and Development area and watch over my ship, won't you?"
"Yes of course I will watch your ship, and that is a beautiful idea, sure, but get back here quickly so nobody sees you floating a cabinet under the cement got it?" Jack told Aileas, "Also what if the cabinet doesn't fit down the hole? It is a tight squeeze after all."
"Don't worry Jack, it will be fine, the piece of TARDIS coral is already affecting the temporal structure of the cabinet, and as such it will grow and shrink to fit where I need it to," Aileas explained to Jack, smiling. Then Aileas climbed up the ladder with the nodes and remote wedged in between her arm and her body and jogged to the flat building and up the stairs, getting back into exerting her body and using her muscles after many years in stasis. Attaching the nodes to her cabinet and making sure the technology within was stable she activated the magnets, causing the cabinet to levitate a foot off of the ground. She walked it down the stairs of the flat building and then out right next to the open segment of the cement. The cabinet looked to be too big to fit down the hole by six inches long-ways, but Aileas took down a bit of her defences surrounding her mind to reach out to the TARDIS coral, Can you hear me honey? She asked her ship and felt the faint positive response emanating from the cabinet. Oh good! Now can you shrink yourself a smidge just to fit down this hole? It will be for no more than two relative Earth minutes, Aileas asked her ship nicely. She felt in her mind and saw the cabinet shrink to just fit into the hole and hover down into the room and she beamed from ear to ear. Thank you beauty! I knew you could do it! Now don't work yourself too hard okay? Oh, before I leave, here is the bare-bones blueprint for your interior, dear. But please do have fun with the design, I can't wait to get to know you better, now no more parlour tricks I promise, just nice growing time for you dear. Aileas promised her ship as she climbed down into the forgotten room while projecting the TARDIS blueprints she had created years ago on Gallifrey into her growing ship. Jack quickly moved the tables around to make space for the newly restored cabinet and Aileas set it down gently as she turned off one node after another, "There we go, right as rain!" Aileas proclaimed happily as she put the remote down and clapped her hands together, "Now, Captain, let us get out of here before General Gamma gets curious about where we are."
The pair quickly climbed up the ladder for the last time and closed the cement door securely. They then walked into the main entrance of the Hub and smiled at the members of Torchwood 3 that were already in there, "Hello everyone, may I introduce our temporary extra-terrestrial liaison, Aileas Sigma," Jack announced and the other members smiled and greeted Aileas, with wary enthusiasm.
Gamma came stomping in behind Jack and Aileas, "You two are late, we expect our workers to be here at oh six hundred, not an hour later," Gamma stated behind a clenched jaw.
"I apologise Gamma, it won't happen again, I promise," Aileas replied sweetly and then turned her back on the angry man, "Jack if you don't mind I will need to borrow your Vortex Manipulator today, I will get it back to you by dinner time, okay?"
"Of course Aileas, just as long as I get it back," Jack smiled as he took the technology off of his wrist and handed it to the Time Lady.
"Jack what are you doing giving a hostile alien force one of our most important technologies!" Gamma sputtered as Aileas fastened the brown leather around her wrist.
"Oh come off it Dave," Jack snarked back at his boss.
"Dave? That's a good name, but Gamma is a lot more fun to say. After all it reminds me of my third son," Aileas smiled fondly, if a bit teasingly, at the red-faced man behind her.
Dave did not know what to say and just stood there until Jack and Aileas gently pushed past him and walked out of the Hub, strolling to check on the Time Lady's flat.
"Holy shit Aileas, this is a mess!" Jack exclaimed as he surveyed Aileas' apartment with the stove ripped to shambles and wood shavings and hunks of metal littering the floor.
"Yeah I should probably hide the fact that I demolished the stove shouldn't I?" Aileas asked contemplatively, unaware of Jack's shocked face.
"I should think so!" Jack replied turning his head to face Aileas, "And of course you want me to help, don't you?"
"Oh Captain you're a doll," Aileas smiled as she walked over to the stove and started plugging wires back into the kitchen appliance, "I've altered it so gas isn't feeding back into the building. You're welcome," Aileas told Jack as he started to sweep all of the debris into the middle of the room.
"Oh thank you so much Lady Aileas," Jack sarcastically replied as he found a garbage pail to sweep the wood shavings and minute metal pieces into.
"There is no need to get cheeky Captain," Aileas replied testily, but smiling at Jack with a familiarity that Jack found abnormal.
"You are very relaxed with me Aileas," Jack noted as he set the now full garbage pail by the front door. Aileas looked up at him from the stove with a puzzled expression, "Most people find me abrasive, rude and cocky, in all senses of the word. What makes you different?"
"Oh Jack, you are exaggerating," Aileas responded, turning quickly away to fiddle once again with the kitchenette.
"Are you sure you haven't met me before?" Jack asked Aileas suspiciously, moving to sit in one of the wooden dining chairs in the kitchen.
"I am one hundred percent positive that you and I have not met before Captain Jack Harkness," Aileas replied, looking at Jack square in the face, "I usually remind former companions of the Doctor of other people, he is always looking for travellers similar to me and tends to pick up humans with many of my characteristics or mannerisms, even when he doesn't mean to. It's a subconscious thing that happens frequently when a Time Lord or Lady loses their mate. Let me guess, the Doctor really didn't invite you on-board the TARDIS."
"No, he didn't, not really," Jack, told her, thinking about his joining of the Doctor and Rose.
"I didn't think so. My guess is that he really didn't like you, but the girl he was travelling with found you charming and interesting. She thought you were smooth, and maybe tried to use you to make the Doctor jealous, am I right?" Aileas asked, smiling bemusedly at the befuddled captain.
"Yes that is exactly what happened."
"Now when did you travel with the Doctor? Did you ever figure out what regeneration number he was on?" Aileas asked as she finished tidying the mess she had made.
"Regeneration? No, but he was really messed up when the Daleks showed up on Satellite Five," Jack said off-handily to the Time Lady.
Aileas turned to face Jack sharply and gave him a venomous look, "What did you just say about the Daleks?"
"Well the Doctor thought he got rid of all of them but then they came back," Jack explained.
Aileas got very quiet, "Jack you need to leave. Thank you for the vortex manipulator, I will let you know when I need to talk to you again."
"But Aileas," Jack started.
"NOW JACK!" Aileas shouted at the captain, glaring harshly and clenching her fists. Jack jumped at her shouting and quickly left the flat, closing the door behind him. Aileas then proceeded to sink to the now-clean floor, her legs failing her. He did it for nothing. All of those people, my friends, my family. All… for nothing. It isn't fair. IT'S NOT FAIR. Aileas hit the floor with her fists at the injustice and then shouted all of the Gallifreyan insults and swears she knew, also throwing in the language of Skaro when she ran out of insults in her native tongue, not caring who heard her anguish and rage. After her voice had gone hoarse with shouting the Time Lady slumped once more upon the floor and wept for her species and her husband.
Sarah Jane Smith walked quickly from her car into Roald Dahl Plass, looking for the familiar red hair of her old friend. When Sarah did not spot the Time Lady she took out her mobile and placed a call to Aileas.
The Time Lady was shaken out of her stupor by the jingle of her mobile in the other room; she got off of the floor in order to pick it up, "Hello?" Aileas asked her voice only slightly scratchy from her shouting jag hours before.
"Hello, Aileas? This is Sarah Jane Smith, are you in the square? I cannot seem to find you."
"Oh no, Sarah, I will be down in just a moment, don't worry I will find you," Aileas told her as she rushed out of the bedroom, remembering to grab the hand-held blow torch she used the night before on her ship, double-checking that Jack's vortex manipulator was secure on her wrist as she tromped down the stairs and out into the square, quickly identifying Sarah Jane. Aileas beamed as she ran over to her old friend and saw her smile reflected back from Sarah Jane's face. They engulfed one another in a hug and laughed with joy at seeing each other once again.
"Oh I thought I would never see you again!" Sarah Jane told Aileas once they had separated from their embrace, "And you look so different! I like the change in your hair! It fits your face so much better!"
"Thank you Sarah Jane and you haven't aged a day! What is your secret! Seriously you aren't part Time Lord are you?" Aileas responded to her long lost friend, "Oh it has been ages."
"So are your little ones all grown up? Off saving the world just like their Mum and Dad?" Sarah Jane inquired.
"Oh… yes of course you know us; we can't stay still for a minute," Aileas lied, not ready to relive the loss of her family.
"Now as much as I love getting to see you again, also thank you once more for explaining the Doctor's abrupt leave, it really has helped. Though it would be nice to hear it from the horse's mouth so to speak," Sarah said to her friend.
Aileas nodded understandingly, wanting that for her close friend too. They stood for a moment contemplating Aileas' husband, before Sarah Jane shook off her melancholy and smiled, "Well, Aileas, not that I am not glad to see you, but if I recall correctly, I came here to lend you something decidedly sonic," the dark haired woman dug through her purse for a moment and then triumphantly held out her sonic lipstick to the Time Lady, "Ah ha! Here it is, good as new! Use it safely, Aileas, please."
"Always Sarah-Jane, always," Aileas assured her friend, "Well, back in two ticks! Relatively speaking that is," and Aileas disappeared with a crackle of electricity.
The Time Lady crackled into existence in the 29th Century on Starship UK, pleased that Jack's Vortex manipulator got her to the correct place she programmed. The traffic that initially was halted by Aileas' appearance had picked up once more, continuing to move around her. She smiled kindly at the thought of the Humans surrounding her, and then quickly made her way over to an ATM. With a quick buzz of Sarah's sonic lipstick, Aileas had replenished her funds and with a spring in her step, joined the bustle of traffic. She quickly stopped into a store to purchase a burgundy leather identification wallet and a pack of normal blank paper, and smiled sweetly when the shop owner looked at her puzzled. With the precursors of her psychic paper purchased, Aileas decided that the next thing required was her own sonic screwdriver. The air surrounding the Time Lady crackled once more, and Aileas materialised in the lobby of a posh looking hotel. "Hallo, I will need a room for quite a bit of time, actually. Is there something like a penthouse suite, here?" Aileas asked the red-hued man with a ridge on his head and webbed hands behind the desk.
"Yes there is ma'am, but I am not sure you will be able to rent it for long," the desk attendant replied in a cold voice, looking at Aileas' clothes with distain.
"Oh you'd be surprised sir," Aileas replied sweetly, "How much will it cost to rent for a year?"
The concierge looked at her with surprise for a moment, but then schooled his features and replied, "Two billion in the Common Currency."
"Great! I'll take it," Aileas replied, handing the astonished man a credit stick, and smiling as the surprised man ran it through the computer and handed it back.
"Right away, ma'am, is there anything else you will need?" the concierge asked the Time Lady, shakily.
"Not right yet, sir, but when I will I won't hesitate to call," Aileas replied as she walked away and rode the elevator up to her suite. The doors opened and Aileas surveyed the place she would call home for the next year. The suite was bright; windows covered two of the main walls and the carpet and furniture were all cream or white coloured. The kitchen had all stainless steel appliances and would have been impressive to most; Aileas walked past it without a second glance, though, as she had an infinitely better kitchen when she was travelling before. The bedroom was glanced over as well; the soft pillows, dark blue comforter and large mattress not a draw for the Time Lady, who rarely slept. Aileas rounded back to the front room and smiled, taking off her jacket and rolling up her sleeves and placing the hand-held blow torch on the coffee table. She then moved the furniture from the centre of the room to the sides, which gave her more room to work on the most important thing, her ship. She surveyed her work and smiled at the empty space in the middle of the front room. She set the door sign to Do Not Disturb and took the elevator downstairs. She walked past the snooty desk manager and out into the hot Barcelonan sun.
The planet of Barcelona was as bustling as ever, and Aileas slid in seamlessly with the flow of foot traffic. Turning down several allies, she ended up in a district that was very familiar to her. The technology district had a different bustle than the shopping district; there was a lot more shouting here, and gone were the vibrant colours of people on holiday, they were replaced by greys and browns of tinkerers and people who worked for a living on the planet. She smelled the oil and grease as she browsed through the booths selling all different types of machinery from all of the known galaxies. She picked up components from a sonic pulse emitter and smiled widely at the deep green Silurian man behind the booth she came to after thirty minutes of wandering through the district. The Time Lady paid for the sonic pulse generator and the looping battery and waved as she walked away from the cheerful Silurian. With the internal power obtained for the sonic screwdriver, Aileas looked for good casings and sonic conductor to complete her screwdriver. The conductor was the easiest part to find; the bronze metal surrounding the clear dome casing looked both refined and worn, just as the Time Lady was. The lime green glow the screwdriver would produce made Aileas smile, as it was quirky and offbeat, she paid for the conductor and a large tarp and was off once more, spurred on by her great purchases. Aileas loved hunting for the components to any sonic screwdriver she made; they all were special to her and she fondly remembered the first one she built in the Academy, she finished two days before everyone else in her class. The trigger mechanism matched the bronze metal on the conductor; the trigger was a thumb press lever that was a dingy and used silver, against the bronze it looked even more worn. The trigger had gears jutting from the sides of the tubing, and the setting indicator would glow the same lime green and with a little tinkering, would count in Gallifreyan. The handle to her screwdriver was shaped for easy handling, and with silver that matched the thumb-trigger and a deep burgundy leather, Aileas couldn't walk past it. Her screwdriver components purchased she milled around for a little longer in the technology district before heading back to the hotel. The sun was low in the sky when she reached her destination, and she climbed the stairs to the hotel lobby. With a smug look at the desk manager, who looked as if he would blow a blood vessel at the Time Lady walking through the lobby with her sleeves rolled up and grease smudges on her hands and one errant smudge on her cheek, Aileas got onto the elevator and rode it up to her suite.
After laying the dark blue tarp out in the centre of the front room and placing her sonic screwdriver components on the tarp lovingly, Aileas walked straight to the back of the suite. She shucked her clothes and filled the bathtub with hot water. With the tub full she threw in three of the unique Barcelonan vanilla and green cinnamon bath beads and sunk into the tub. As she closed her eyes and relaxed deep into the tub Aileas thought about the last time she was on Barcelona.
"Happy Honeymoon, sleepy," her husband whispered as she relaxed in the tub.
"Mmm, it's about time you got here, where did you leave the kids?" Aileas asked her husband, as she looked up into his young face.
"I left them with Nyssa and Tegan on the outskirts of town. They'll be fine, don't worry," The Doctor replied, "Now shift over, the bath looks great," the blonde man added, taking off his traditional cricket gear.
"Oh, so bossy, you must be learning from Tegan," Aileas replied, her dark red hair almost brown in the bath, as she shifted forward to make room for her husband.
"I'm sorry dear, I did forget the please, didn't I? Oh say you'll forgive me," The Doctor jokingly begged as he kissed a trail up his wife's neck. Aileas sighed and cocked her head to the side to give her husband better access.
"Oh, Ted, you know I always forgive you," Aileas said between sighs and moans as her husband lavished attention on her neck. His hands slowly slid from resting on the tops of her thighs up to her breasts and he smiled as she moaned louder, his name echoing off the walls of the bathroom.
"You must've been aching for me, huh?" the Doctor asked his wife as she grabbed the back of his damp blonde hair, no longer the dark curls she had gotten used to, trying to get him as flustered as she was. She finally got fed up and turned around to face her husband quickly, sloshing water out of the tub, and latched her lips to his. The surprised Doctor moaned into his wife's mouth. Aileas smiled with triumph at wringing a moan out of her husband. She straddled the skinny man, spilling more water out of the tub, and grinned at the impressive erection pushing against her bottom.
"I forgot that this was one of my favourite parts of regeneration," Aileas managed to mumble as she kissed her husband's neck and prominent collarbone.
"What's that?" the Doctor gasped as Aileas found a sensitive spot on his collarbone, rubbing her waist almost absently.
"All new parts, all new erogenous zones, so many discoveries to make, and yet still the same soul I fell in love with," Aileas replied as she ceased her ministrations on his neck and climbed out of the tub. The Doctor moaned at the loss of contact, but quickly got out of the tub as well, following his naked wife into the other room.
Aileas reluctantly pulled herself out of her memories, realizing that she will most likely miss some of her husband's regenerations. Those discoveries won't be able to be made for those bodies, or, even worse, the discoveries might be with another woman. With that sad realization, Aileas pulled the plug on the tub and quickly got out and wrapped herself in a robe. Aileas walked into the front room that was now awash with colours from the setting sun, the internal lights slowly went on as Aileas watched the sunset, still trying to shake off the maudlin feelings she unintentionally exposed herself to. When the Barcelonan sun had sunk behind the horizon, causing the lights inside her suite to glow a soft white, Aileas shook herself out of her musings and turned to face the deep blue tarp. She crossed her legs and sat down on the edge of the tarp, getting excited to finally do some serious work with her hands. The creation of a sonic screwdriver was a personal process for a Time Lord and while most of the pieces were easy to click together, Aileas had a great time calibrating her sonic emitter against Sarah's sonic lipstick. She once more used her blow torch to weld the pieces of her screwdriver, smoothing the metal with a steel spatula from the kitchen. When the Time Lady finally finished she lifted her screwdriver and proceeded to brighten and dim the lights in her suite for a minute, happy to have a connection once more with her Gallifreyan roots. She hopped up from the floor and walked to the bedroom, her downtrodden thoughts finally gone for the time being. She put on her travelling clothes once more, and with a sonic screwdriver in each hand, Aileas typed in her destination in the Vortex manipulator and crackled out of the bedroom.
Sarah Jane Smith had turned to leave the Cardiff square when she heard the same crackling noise that signalled Aileas' departure moments before. Sarah turned back around quickly to find Aileas beaming at her with her lipstick in one hand and a new sonic screwdriver in the other, "I figured you'd need this before you left Cardiff," Sarah's friend explained as she tossed the sonic lipstick to her.
"Thank you Aileas! Now, let me see your new toy," Sarah replied, easily catching the device and then walking to meet her friend.
"Isn't it nice? I got the parts for dirt cheap in the Technology district on Barcelona," Aileas explained as Sarah held and examined the Time Lady's new screwdriver.
"How did you find technology like this in Spain?" Sarah asked incredulously as she buzzed the sonic experimentally.
"Oh, no darling. The planet Barcelona, not the city. They've got the best off-market technology equipment in the galaxy," Aileas explained as Sarah handed back her screwdriver, smiling.
"That makes more sense, actually. I love the green, so nice, especially with your hair," complimented Sarah as the friends stood in the square.
"Hey I have to do a bit of work on my ship, would you like to see what it looks like so far?" Asked the Time Lady, excited to show off her ship.
"I would love to actually! I haven't seen a TARDIS in so long," Sarah replied. The pair walked to the secret entrance behind the Torchwood flats and Aileas gave a cursory glance before opening the false cement block and ushering Sarah down the ladder. Once both women were inside the room and the faux-cement door was shut tightly, Aileas used her sonic screwdriver to turn on the lights in the room. She smiled fondly at the large bureau, and Sarah gasped at the detail put into the wood cabinet.
"Oh honey, this is beautiful! Do you plan on keeping it like this all of the time?" Sarah asked.
"No, I plan on installing a functional Chameleon circuit, but that doesn't mean that this won't be my default setting, as it were," Aileas replied as she walked over to her ship and opened the front doors. The piece of coral that used to fit easily in the large silver bowl provided by Torchwood had grown large enough to almost completely fill the bowl.
"Oh it's been growing extremely well, at least since last night," Aileas exclaimed to Sarah, smiling in delight. Now sweetie, this might hurt a little bit, but it will increase the speed at which you grow even more, so I can come fly with you sooner, Aileas warned her ship telepathically. The piece of coral rumbled an assent into the Time Lady's mind and she beamed once more, then turned to her friend, "You'll want to sit down Sarah and find a pair of goggles for your eyes, this is going to be quite bright," Aileas warned her friend.
Sarah looked around quickly for a pair of goggles, and finding a pair on one of the tables she sat down in the chair Jack had been sitting in almost hours before. Before Aileas began her work the thought Time Travel makes building your own TARDIS infinitely easier ran through her head. Her screwdriver began to glow green as Aileas changed the settings rapidly, altering the plasmic shell surrounding her growing ship. She felt the wince from the coral in her mind as the shell gave way and Aileas hushed her ship gently, trying to soothe the pain. The rapid buzzing continued as the Time Lady focused on changing the settings on her screwdriver. The room began to fill with a white glow, the light quickly becoming blinding as she modified the dimensional stabiliser. Aileas, finally done with altering her screwdriver's settings, shut her eyes tightly and reached out to her ship with her mind. She could feel the pain in her ship and siphoned some of it into her body in order to let the ship be able to focus its attentions on performing the other half of the modification. The light slowly dimmed as her ship and Aileas worked in tandem to get the harmonic feedback level to the proper calibration, and when they held it steady at 6.3 the light disappeared completely, both heaving a sigh of relief.
Aileas leaned back on a table and turned to face a stunned Sarah Jane Smith, "That was astounding! I can't even, just wow!" the human exclaimed as she stood up from the chair and took off her goggles.
"Yeah, it's really great," Aileas replied wearily, giving a weak smile before turning to face the table and slumping over, bracing her hands on the old wood.
"Honey, are you okay?" Sarah asked as she guided her friend into the seat she had just vacated.
"Yes Sarah, I'm fine. Just a bit worn thin is all," Aileas rasped as she sat down in the chair with a groan. Her vision swam as Sarah knelt in front of her and Alieas closed her eyes warding off the blurring and multiplication of her friend.
"Okay Ali, is there anything that I can get for you? Something you need?" Sarah fretted.
"No, but thank you. Actually, yes there is something; could you tell me exactly what time it is? Down to the seconds?" Aileas asked of her friend, while breathing deeply and relaxing the muscles in her face, trying to stave off the migraine that she knew would come on if she continued to tense up.
Sarah looked at her watch quickly, "It's one 'o five and 24 seconds in the afternoon."
Alieas winced softly, a small smile hidden in the pain, "Thank you honey. You should go and meet Jack. I will be coming back at two in the afternoon, but I'll be about a half an hour away; you'll need to drive there, okay?"
Sarah nodded, "Alright I will see you then," she stood up and squeezed the Time Lady's shoulder softly and started walking to the ladder.
"Sarah?" Alieas called to her friend, who was half-way up the ladder, "I'll be calling Jack's phone in ten minutes, alright? Tell the girl at the front that I've sent you and let him know okay?"
Sarah smiled, "Of course darling, anything for a great friend," and she quickly climbed the rest of the ladder, pushing the trap door out and shutting it quickly and quietly after leaving the secret room.
The Time Lady continued to slump in the chair and buzzed her screwdriver quickly to turn off the lights in the room. She sat in the darkness for a half an hour, still trying to stave off the hell a migraine is to a Time Lady. When the dull pain ebbed from the left side of the Time Lady's brain, she slowly opened her eyes and sat up straighter in the chair. She wearily pushed the button on her sonic screwdriver, turning the light back on in the small room. She slowly moved her head to look at the vortex manipulator, and typed in the co-ordinates for her hotel room again, and she crackled out, forgetting to turn the lights out.
Crackling back onto Barcelona, she fell hard on the floor of her hotel room. Groaning loudly she stood up and stumbled down the hallway into her bedroom where she flopped onto the once disregarded bed.
"Oh thank Rassilon you exist," the Time Lady groaned into the dark blue bedding, and she grunted with strain as she reached higher up on the bed to pull the pillows down to where she had landed. She closed her eyes and slept the sleep of the dreamless.