"Alice, are you alright?" the Doctor asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. She nodded and shrugged his hand off.

"I'm fine," she answered, voice tight. "Thinking, that's all."

"Okay," the Doctor returned to the pile of weapons.

"So what are we going to do?" Tabitha asked "Just run in and kill as many as possible?"

"Too risky," the Doctor replied. "We could all get killed before we even make a dent in their ranks. This is an empire they're building here. No matter what we do, it probably won't be enough. We need to get rid of all of them at once."

"And how are we going to do that?"

"I have no idea. The only sort of large scale anything I can think of will destroy the entire Earth. And that is definitely not an option."

"Doctor," Alice said. "We've got a problem. The robot's been noticed."

The Doctor and Tabitha joined her to look at the screen, and found that they were staring straight at a Dalek's eyestalk. There was a sound of a laser firing and the picture went.

"Were you able to locate the point of origin?" Davros asked

"YES!" the Dalek replied.

"Establish visual contact" Davros ordered.

The picture returned, this time showing Davros. "It seems we have survivors" he said.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Hello Davros" he said.

"Doctor!" Davros said, sounding pleased. "I wondered when you'd show up. You're just in time to see the rise of my new empire."

"I won't let you do it. I've stopped you a million times, I can stop you again."

"Oh but can you?"

"Listen Davros, there doesn't need to be a battle" The Doctor said, voice urgent. "What if we just stop this, right here, right now? We're both tired, we've been fighting for ages. We could end this, I'd leave you alone if you'd leave me alone. A treaty. We're both on the verge of death, probably won't live another fifty years. Could you just leave the universe alone?"

"THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE!" one of the Daleks said.

"I THOUGHT THAT YOU HATED DALEKS!" another said.

"Maybe I did," the Doctor replied. "But now, I'm just sick of this. Can't we just stop?"

"NO!"

They broke the contact.

"It was worth a shot," the Doctor mused.

"So you seriously don't think you'll live another fifty years?" Alice asked.

"At the rate I've been dying, I'll be surprised if I make it another ten" the Doctor replied.

They all moved away from the computer screen.

"Sorry Tabitha, but I forgot to ask," the Doctor said after a moment. "Did anyone you know get killed? Any family, friends?"

"No," Tabitha said after a moment. "I moved up here so I could get into college. All of my friends stayed back down on the planet. I never made any new friends here." She paused, thinking hard. "Well, besides this one guy. But he's not dead."

"You sure?" the Doctor asked.

"Positive. I'd tell you how I know but, you probably wouldn't believe me."

"I'd believe more than you think I would"

Tabitha laughed and shook her head. "It's just too crazy. Besides, there's a more pressing matter at hand. What are we going to do about the Daleks?"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do!" the Doctor said. "We're going to make an even bigger weapon to get rid of them." He grinned, and set to work on doing so, using the weapons he had scavenged.

"Doctor?" Alice asked when Tabitha left to go get some more parts.

"Yeah?" he replied, not looking up from his work.

"How old are you?"

The question wasn't as random as it seemed. It was just part of the big mass of thought that was going through Alice's head at the moment. One that she might have to talk herself out of soon.

"Nine hundred thirty-seven" he replied, then paused. "I think, I did lose track a while ago, so it's possible I might be a thousand two hundred something."

"Why don't you just use a number that's roughly in the middle?" Alice suggested. "Like, I don't know, nine hundred seventy-four."

The Doctor turned to grin at her. "I never thought of that. I might just consider doing that."

"Glad I could be of help" Alice said, but she really wasn't paying attention. Her mind had gone back to the thought that was going through her head.

I'm in love with an alien who's older than me by at least nine hundred years. Probably closer to nine hundred and fifty. This is just ridiculous!

But maybe that's why I'm not backing down from the idea so soon. Just because it's so ridiculous. It's also… I don't know… different?

Well, that's obvious.

But what would the people back home say if they found out? They'd probably shun me for life!

But then again, what if they don't find out? There's nothing saying I HAVE to go back home. I could stay with the Doctor for the rest of my life if I wanted to.

If he would let me…

She was pulled abruptly out of her thoughts. "Alice, can you pass me the Biological Inver- well… that thing there!" the Doctor pointed at an object. Alice picked it up.

"This one?" she asked

"Yeah!" he said. She passed it to him.

Tabitha came back about then. "I could find much" she said, handing the Doctor what she had found. "But what I did find should be extremely useful."

"Ooh! Yes, they should be!" the Doctor attached a few of the things that Tabitha hand handed him to the device and got to his feet. He walked across the room and attached a few more things from over there.

"Now if you excuse me, I'll be going to go stop the Daleks. You're not coming," he told Alice before she could even ask.

"Why not!" she asked instead.

"Because it's dangerous" he told her, still messing with the device.

"Like that's ever stopped me before" she retorted.

He sighed, but ignored her.

"You could at least give me a good reason!" she said.

The Doctor fumed for a few seconds, before putting down the thing he was holding. "You know what! Fine!" he turned to look at Alice and took a deep breath."I'll do my best to explain this as quickly and thoroughly as possible, okay?"

She nodded.

"Brace yourself" the Doctor warned, but he didn't exactly give her time. Because the next thing she knew, he was kissing her.

It didn't last long. Alice started to ask him something once they broke apart, only to realize he had run off. She stared at his retreating figure, unsure if she should be glaring at him, or grinning.

"You know," Tabitha said, "that expression on your face is quite amusing."

"Shut up"

"On the bright side though, at least this answers your question."

Alice groaned. "Men!"

"Tell me about it," was Tabitha's only reply.