A familiar sound roused James. Can't be. As he opened his eyes the sound faded. Hallucinating. He could feel his body losing blood with each beat of his heart. My brain must be suffering from lack of blood.

He could feel the bullet inside of him. It entered through his back and nicked the lower, left chamber of his heart. Not enough to kill him right away and he was pretty sure his body was trying to heal itself, only, he healed at a much slower rate, not as slow as a human, but it would take time for his body to repair, time he didn't have. He couldn't even be sure he would heal fast enough to keep his body from dying.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position. Pain lanced through his chest with each movement, but he had to get to a phone. Had to call Pete and give him a description. Their attacker's image was etched into his mind's eye. With all of Torchwood at his disposal Pete should be able to find the guy and in turn find Rose.

He heard footsteps and looked up to find a man walking through the kitchen. Not their attacker, but a man he'd never seen before. He wore a black suit, similar to a tuxedo, but without the bowtie. His jacket was heavier and longer. He must have heard the gunshot and came in to check or he could be a detective, but then how long had it been since Rose was taken? Was he lying on the floor unconscious for minutes…hours? No, couldn't be hours. He'd either be healed or dead by now.

"The…the phone…I…I need the phone," James insisted through gasps of pain.

Every word was torture and he realized that his lung on the left side must have been damaged too. Stupid human body. Too many organs all clustered together.

"Now, this is interesting," the man said, crouching down in front of James.

They stared at each other for a moment. What was this bloke doing? Even if he called someone James still needed the phone. Needed to call Pete. He was about to ask for the phone again when his realized that the man wasn't looking at him with concern. Instead he was gazing at James with curiosity, as if he hadn't seen anything like him before.

The man reached out and grabbed James' face, turning it from one side to the other as if examining his features.

"It's you…"

James pulled his face out of the man's grip.

"Who are you?" James asked as he tried to force his body to ignore the pain.

"Oh, this is fantastic!" he exclaimed, ignoring James' question. "I've been looking for you for a very long time and here you are living in a flat, a nice flat, but still…so where is it?"

Looking for him? Why was he looking for James?

"Where is…is what?"

"Don't play games with me."

"I…" James sat up a bit more, wincing at the pain in his chest. "I don't know what…you're talking about."

"Your TARDIS, Doctor. Where is your TARDIS?"

Doctor? He thought James was the Doctor, but that meant… How could he know about the Doctor? They were in a parallel universe. The Doctor didn't exist here.

"I'm not the Doctor."

"I've seen that face, your face, don't try to lie to me."

"I'm not…lying. I'm…I'm not the Doctor. Please, I need the phone…I need to call…"

But before he could tell the man who he needed to call the bloke's hands shot out to either side of James' head. He felt the man force his way into his mind. What the hell? He shouldn't be able to do that.

"You're…a biological meta-crisis…a human biological meta-crisis-"

"Stop!" James yelled trying to pull out of the man's grip, but his body was growing weaker with each passing minute.

"If you're a meta-crisis then where is the Doctor?"

James felt memories resurface. The man was digging around, trying to find what he was searching for, trying to find the Doctor.

"Get…get out!"

"He's…he's…"

James tried to shut his memories away. He wasn't sure who the man was, but he couldn't let him root around for information about the Doctor.

"Do you really think you can hide things from me? You're not strong enough."

James tried to hold the doors shut, but the man was right. He wasn't strong enough, not while his body tried to heal. The doors burst open and he was buried in an onslaught of memories.

"He's not here…he left you here and went back through a gap in the walls of reality, but…wait…he didn't leave you here alone…he left you with-"

"No!" James yelled. "Get out!"

With every ounce of strength he had, he pushed the man's mind. Pushed him back…back…and suddenly he was inside another mind. The man's mind, but no, not a man. He was…James' eyes snapped open. How? How could he be there? Then, with the force of a tidal wave he crashed back into his own mind.

"Nice try, but I'm afraid you're just not strong enough," the man said with a smirk, before closing his eyes to concentrate.

"Stop," James pleaded, too drained to yell.

"A girl…he left you with a girl…a human…but not just any human…the Doctor's…Oh, this is fantastic!…the Doctor's in love with her…and she's…oh…she's with child, a Time Lord child…and the Doctor doesn't know…oh that is marvelous," he said with glee.

"Please."

"The Doctor's child…fantastic! I could…but wait…what is that?"

"No!"

Adrenaline flooded through James' veins. He reached up and grabbed the man's hands, pulling them away from his face.

"You think you can fight me? Me?"

"For her? Yeah," James said, gritting his teeth through the pain as he stood up, holding onto the counter for support. He couldn't let the man find out about the time energy, about how Rose changed. He would want to use her and James couldn't let that happen.

The man got to his feet, facing James.

"Are you actually deluded enough to think you stand a chance against me?"

"I supposed I am," James said, but his legs wavered, betraying him.

"You were shot through the chest, damaging both your human heart and your lungs, you've been bleeding out, I'm sure your vision has started to blur, if not, it soon will and still you're fighting me?"

"I will fight you to my last breath if it means keeping you away from her."

"Fascinating," he mused, staring at James for a moment. "The thing is, I already have enough information. Whatever you're hiding I can find out from her."

"Stay away from her," James growled, launching himself at the man.

In the next moment the man grabbed James, spun him around, and slammed him into the wall next to the doorway. The man pressed his arm against James' throat, glaring into the half-Time Lord's brown eyes with a burning hatred.

"You are insignificant. Not even an echo of an actual Time Lord."

"Stay away from her!"

"I take what I want and right now I want her and his child and there is nothing, NOTHING, you can do to stop me."

James struggled, trying to free himself as his vision swam.

"Don't you dare touch her!"

"Fascinating. You sound just like him." The man leaned in so their faces were nearly touching. "I just want you to understand that when I find her, and I will find her, I'll discover what you're hiding and I'll make sure that the Doctor never sees her again.

What did that mean? Was he going to kill her? Not if he found out about the time energy. Unless…he couldn't use her. Then he very likely would kill her.

"Please, don't," James rasped as he struggled to breathe under the pressure of the man's arm against his throat.

"I just wanted you to know that, before I kill you," the man hissed before giving James one final, shove with his arm and stepping back.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blaster. Then he pointed it at James and with a hollow laugh, fired the weapon.

I don't own Doctor Who, any of its Characters, any of its Story Lines, however I do own a fez.

Thank you to all my brilliant readers and if you have time reviews are always welcome! :)