Chapter 2: 2,020,000 BCE

"She doesn't look so good…" Ace muttered.

She cringed as the Doctor shot her a dark look. "It's hardly surprising. Unwittingly travelling two millions years through time gives quite a shock." He glared at her. "You should have said you were followed."

Ace floundered. "It happened so fast-"

"You should have said," he repeated.

The comment sank heavily into the air as they both regarded Kelly; Ace with guilt, the Doctor with a wary but calculating eye. Oblivious to their stares, Kelly sat crossed-legged peering out into a valley of ancient trees and pallet of greens. The landscape was starkly different to the one she thought she'd find on the other side of those doors; the warehouse was gone, the fences were gone, replaced by this… this mass jungle of trees, intertwining limbs and shrubbery that coated mountain after mountain within sight. The whole world she knew, gone. Not a single trace of civilisation to be found anywhere. Certainly no phone signal; Kelly had checked. Returning the useless hunk of plastic circuitry to her backpack, she withdrew the binoculars instead. She didn't look for anything in particular as she scanned the valley through them.

Strange cries from all around frequently brought her back to her senses and she studied the areas she thought the sounds had originated from. Those calls were unfamiliar and, like the landscape, hostile. Her mind conquered up images of images recreated from fossils and bones, of large carnivores that might call this place home however there was nothing to see bar the sea of trees. The foliage was so thick it was impossible to see more than a few metres from the edges. Whatever lurked within remained concealed from sight and the very thought made Kelly extremely nervous.

Something brushed past her leg and she whipped her head to see what monstrosity it was. She was relieved it was just the creature she had helped Ace rescue. It scurried around at her feet, pecking at her boots and shoelaces. Deciding it was not much of a threat, she relaxed slightly. When she had first seen it, she had assumed it had come from somewhere else and in a way it had. She had thought it was an alien but it wasn't from a different planet. It was native to a time and place long since gone. How it had ended up in a warehouse in the present, Kelly had no idea but she now understood how it had felt; petrified and a long, long way from home. She might as well be on another planet. The vibes the forest emitted made it clear that she was far from welcome.

She didn't turn her head when she heard dry earth crunch under boots. A sigh, scuffling of feet, small rocks scattered and rolled away. She tried not to acknowledge the weight that gently leaned against her shoulder, comforting as it was. Bringing the binoculars back up to her eyes, she focused her attention on the skyline and the vivid colours the descending sun cast on the sky's canvas, unwilling to reveal her face and whatever expression might be plastered to it.

"Wicked view, eh?"

She met the comment with stony silence.

"Yeah, looks like a hell of a lot of trees to me too. That's the problem with prehistoric forests; they're too green."

Ace glanced down at the rescued creature, reached into the pocket of her badge-covered jacket and offered it a piece of a fairly squashed sandwich. The creature tilted its head as if evaluating whether it was safe before it took the mouthful with its beck-like mouth. It smacked its beck against the ground several times before deciding the bread and filling was 'dead' enough to swallow. While it was busy eating, Ace stroked its back with a finger and ruffled a few small feathers near its forelegs.

She's rather trusting, thought Kelly. It's as if she's forgotten about the scratches on her arms that those claws gave her.

Kelly saw a look of puzzlement cross her friend's face before Ace separated the two slices of bread and frowned at the filling.

"Finding your descendants tasty?" Ace smirked.

It tilted its head at her, registering she had spoken but was more interested in the sandwich. Hesitantly, she pulled off another piece and held it on the palm of her hand then offered it to the creature. Kelly was almost certain it would peck her or rake its claws down her hand. It appeared initially reluctant to approach but, after a reassuring sniff that it was food, gently took it from her. The sandwich soon disappeared into its stomach. Not a mark was made on Ace's palm. As if jealous of the small creature, something grumbled from the hidden depths of the forest around her.

Ever the joker, Ace chimed in, "Vegetarian, you think?"

I doubt it, thought Kelly. The growl was heard again, this time louder and hungrier sounding.

"That sounded big," commented Ace, declaring the obvious. "Like, T-Rex big. I don't know what a T-Rex sounds like, do you?" she asked, glancing at Kelly.

Kelly knew that Ace was making an effort to break the ice but the casual brushing aside was not helping. Catching the silence as a blatant hint that all was not well, Ace went quiet and shuffled awkwardly. After a prompt from the man behind them, Ace took a deep breath and adopted a more serious attitude.

"Okay, I know you're not going to admit it, but you're way out of your comfort zone right now. I don't blame you. I've been there. It's not easy looking up to see a different sky."

She did not seem bothered by Kelly's continued silence. There was ample time to comment between her sentences but Kelly did not feel up to talking. What was there to say in the face of… this?

"It's harder to..." Ace paused to find a word. "...adjust when it happens without warning. Happened to me once. I ended up on an icy spaceport out the back of nowhere. In comparison, here's not bad. Apart from the bugs and the big meat-eaters," she corrected, swatting at an insect that had crawled onto her leg. "But at least you're not going to freeze to death or get brainwashed into a mindless zombie. I got there by accident but I had always wanted to get as far away from home as possible, a million, billion light years away. Turns out there is such thing as too far."

Kelly nodded slightly. They had needed to escape their pursuers but sharing the same forest as a Tyrannosaurus Rex was definitely a bit too far.

"Someone-," she stopped and corrected herself, "-something sent me there and at first, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I thought I was free, that I could do anything and go anywhere." Ace's tone became more mellow. "Then I realised I was wrong. I was twice as stuck as I'd been before."

Having never heard this story before, Kelly listened intently. It wasn't one of her happy tales. There was this glassy look in her eyes... Kelly looked away when she felt Ace meet her gaze.

"But it's alright, Kit. You're not stuck here. You're not going to be left behind. I won't leave you behind, I promise."

Promise, mused Kelly, you never make promises. You said you can't keep them.

"If you want," Ace continued, "we can get you back home right now." She gestured vaguely at blue box behind them. "We step inside, we shut the door, and a few seconds later it's hello 21st Century Earth."

That was indeed what Kelly wanted but she had her doubts. The proclamation made it sound too easy. Who was to say that she wouldn't end up somewhere completely different if she got inside that box again? "Right now?" Kelly asked, looking at Ace's face and searching for any trace of a lie.

"Right now," Ace insisted. "Guaranteed return express ticket from anywhere, anywhen."

Life has no guarantees, thought Kelly. But her friend believed she was telling the truth. The complete truth too for Ace had always been a terrible liar. Had she any thoughts of deception, they would have been scribed across her forehead, scribbled on her cheeks or traced over her nose. There hadn't been a twitch, not a letter of deceit. She blinked, noticing there was something off about Ace's face. Not an indication of a lie but something else. Having stared up at a photograph of her friend's face night after night, she knew what it was supposed to look like. She's aged, realised Kelly. Her eyes were still fiery but her cheeks weren't as full or rounded. Her hair had almost regrown to the length it had been when they had first met.

Kelly noticed Ace glance back at the strangely dressed man. He gave a slight nod of approval but kept his distance. The senior of the two, he was certainly the one in charge and Ace deferred to his judgement. Funny, she thought. Ace never gives a second's thought of what other people thought much less seek their approval for anything.

She lowered her voice. "He's the one you travel with, isn't he?" She bit her tongue before she could add 'The one you left for?' It would sound petty. The decision was made years ago. It had been Ace's choice. Nothing good could come of bringing it up now.

Ace was quick to nod. "Part time parental, part time accomplice, part time royal pain in the-"

The man coughed to remind them he could hear every word. Kelly heard the earth crunch softly as he approached. "What she means to say," he commented in a light upbeat tone, "was that she apologises for your unintentional temporal displacement."

Ace rolled her eyes and waved a hand, indicating that was exactly what she had meant.

A parental, thought Kelly. She rolled her shoulders and the tension there eased temporarily before settling again. Ace had said she viewed him as family. Funny kind of family in Kelly's opinion. She wasn't sure if she liked the company her friend kept. His was the face of an enemy. His eyes were disarming but calculating. There was certainly intelligence behind those blue eyes. A shiver ran down her spine as those eyes watched her unfalteringly. They were scrupulous in how they regarded her as though she were a puzzle he was examining and he was taking her apart piece by piece to determine how she worked. She hurried to don her emotionless mask and barricade her thoughts and emotions behind it. They had already been exposed to him too long for her liking. That gaze was something to be wary of. It was definitely sinister.

"Were she to introduce us properly..." the man prompted.

"He's the Professor," Ace began but a tired look from the man caused her to add, "but he prefers the Doctor."

She really does nickname everyone, thought Kelly. Sometimes the names she picked seemed odd but Kelly could see where this name had come from. Ace was right. Professors studied, doctors served. He did not resemble a medical practitioner in any way.

As quickly as the steely look in his eyes had appeared, it was dissolved and replaced with warmth. "You must be a friend of Ace's, Miss...?"

She hesitated, unsure how to address him. Usually neutrality or an attempt to charm would have been Kelly's strategy followed up with whatever she deemed necessary. She had not forgotten how Ace had spoken highly of him. He had been the reason she had up and left after all. Ace had described it as a kind of obligation, a voluntary yet necessary devotion to this man who she had said was the most important thing to her. This alien man, Kelly recalled with a jolt and the distance between them abruptly was not distant enough. Regardless of his planet of origin, anyone with that kind of influence over the unpredictable Ace deserved a healthy amount of reverence. It also would not do to make a nemesis of the designed driver of her only ticket home.

But she could not trust him. Their previous encounters continued to replay in her mind every time she looked at him. He was alien, just like the one who kept invading her life, just like the ones who continually invaded her country, her planet. Worse, he had stolen Ace from her and it was impossible to even look at him without thinking about it. There was no point in being overly pleasant or sugar coating anything. She abhorred him.

"Jones, Kelly Jones," she replied evenly.

Ace glanced at her. Her eyes flicked nervously between them. She remembers that tone, thought Kelly with an inner smirk.

"We went to school together," Kelly continued. She detected another cause of her friend's anxiety. She worries about what I might tell him, thought Kelly and concluded that Ace had told him nothing about her. That stang as much as a paper cut but Kelly focused on the positives. He knows nothing about me. Good. I shall keep it that way. That gaze is after information and so I must hoard it.

It also meant that he did not know about St Trinian's but that was to be expected. As an alien, he couldn't know anything about the kind of education she and Ace had had and Ace seemed to want to keep it that way. Kelly approved of that but wondered why she had kept it a secret. Could it be that she didn't completely trust her travelling partner either?

"You seem to comprehend recent events more clearly than I expected," the Doctor commented in an upbeat tone.

Good, thought Kelly icily. I thrive off surpassing expectations. The comment was somewhat barbed though. It inquired as to how much she knew. Kelly refused to divulge that information. "I have a few ideas," she replied. She nodded at the police box. "If I had to guess, I'd say that box is bigger inside because it isn't actually 'inside' the outside. It's somewhere else, but walking in and out those doors lets you come and go."

Ace blinked in surprised.

Just like your pockets, thought Kelly. Don't think I've forgotten how you tried to brush of the explanation of how they work. It was one of the few times you actually gave me any answers! "I'd even guess it was a different dimension," she added. That was an educated guess. She didn't understand how it worked but the look of surprise on the Doctor's face was exactly the kind of response she wanted. Now he would think she knew a lot more than she really did.

The Doctor looked bemused. "So Ace told you about time travel then?"

Pfft, well, 'told' wouldn't be how I'd describe it, she thought with a smirk. "I had a theory. She only confirmed it." She disregarded the fact that it had been among the dregs of her ideas.

The Doctor tilted his head and Kelly briefly felt like an animal on exhibit in a zoo. "She doesn't usually talk about what we do to others."

He might as well have said 'outsiders'.

"Again, we're sorry about the accidental kidnap and transportation across twenty-million years," the Doctor continued. "I suppose we better be getting you back to the present. Twenty-first Century London judging by your accent, circa 2008 I should think."

His attempt to one-up her did not go unnoticed. It gave Kelly a surge of satisfaction that he had felt the need to try. His estimate was a little off. Close, but not quite. "2009 actually," Kelly told him. She made eye-contact with Ace whose eyes were threatening to pop out of her head, either out of worry about the tension between her partner and her friend or the date. Probably the later. It's been three years for me, thought Kelly, but how many has it been for you?

Ace's expression morphed from one of confusion to a proud smile then paused on a particular look that caused alarm bells to start sounding in Kelly's head. Ace was looking thoughtful. This could either turn out interesting or disastrously.

"Professor," Ace began, drawing the last syllable out. It reminded Kelly of the twins and how they would use that tone to try and coheres someone into relinquishing something they were after. "Could we take the scenic route back?"

Kelly frowned. Scenic route? Why did those words make her feel nervous?

She failed to interpret their exchanged look. She watched the pair's eyes meet; golden brown staring into blue and blue staring back. The slightest hints of emotions zoomed across their faces faster than she could identify them. It was too fast and too unfamiliar, but not for them. A few seconds was all they needed to convey their thoughts through their facial expressions and only a few seconds to receive a reply. There had been no hesitation or wait as their gazes had locked seemingly at the same millisecond.

"It could be arranged..." replied the Doctor slowly, continuing to regard Ace with what Kelly assumed to be a look of bewilderment.

Ace beamed like a can of Nitro-9 had detonated and turned to face her. "How about it, Kit? A little side trip before going back?"

Kelly scowled at the use of her nickname in front of the Doctor then expressed her concern about whether it was really wise to take a hike in the Jurassic jungle.

"Triassic," the Doctor corrected.

Kelly shrugged non-committedly. "Same thing."

"You know, I was thinking of something a bit more exciting," Ace began.

"Not Disneyland," warned the Doctor, sounding extremely tired. "Once was enough."

Kelly raised an eyebrow.

Ace looked crestfallen. "But-"

"The Haunted Mansion?" Kelly interrupted with a knowing grin.

The Doctor nodded grimly and his eyes glazed over as he recalled the incident. "We shall not be visiting there again. Nine stitches, four concussions and a broken battleaxe prop."

Ace mumbled something about ghosts, monsters and clowns under her breath.

"Perhaps Kelly has an idea," the Doctor suggested. A quick stop anytime, anywhere, given reason."

The suggestion caught her off guard. Kelly knew she should insist on going straight back home. I never meant for this to happen and the quicker things return to the way they were, the better. And yet… She knew that was what the Doctor wanted. Petty as it was, to refuse was to let him win. It was a dare but was accepting it worth the risk?

She eyed the lure, entranced and suspicious. The opportunity to step foot onto another planet, the chance to live a day in history; Polly would kill for that. Where to pick...? Not that she was seriously considering it, but if she were, then where? Future or past? Another planet? No, she decided. Earth would be the only choice.

To take the dare… The temptation was certainly there. I could see what becomes of the agreement, thought Kelly, see if someone finds the loophole and how it works. No, not just the agreement, I could see what St Trinian's becomes a hundred, two hundred, a thousand years from now... but I could never share what I learned. I would know what happens and be unable to help or hinder. Perhaps the past then? Watch the pyramids being built, explore the lost cities, discover the truth behind the assassination of JFK... which, again, she would never be able to retell. It was a bit discouraging to realise there was very little to be gained from such a trip. She could never share her experiences with anyone else.

Ace looked hopeful and Kelly realised it wasn't just the dare itself that was coaxing her into accepting. To refuse was to turn down the opportunity Ace had persuaded the Doctor to give. Whatever the look between Ace and the Doctor had meant, Kelly sensed it had been a big ask. She would not have asked if she didn't want me around. It would be rude to turn it down. It would also disappoint her and then there was the clincher; agreeing would delay Ace's disappearance from her life. She was near impossible to track down. The chances of bumping into her again after this were miniscule. What if this was it? What if this is the last time I ever see her? I would always wonder what might have happened if I'd said yes…

"I may have an idea," she began before reason could talk her out of it.

Ace beamed.