Wanna know who you are, Wanna know where to start , Wanna know what is real , I wanna know everything
Donna can't stop staring at her boss. "It's true. You're an alien. And you travel through time."
Sam coughs. "Yeah. Basically."
She shakes her head. "I don't believe it."
"Oh, it's not that unbelievable," the Doctor begins. Rose elbows him in the side.
Sam sighs and sits down on his desk. "All right. Time to come clean, eh? I'm from a planet called Nocklyn. Just outside this solar system."
"How long have you been a time agent?" the Doctor asks.
"Oh, years now. They recruited me when I was young and stupid. I came to this time and place on a mission. I liked it. Decided to stay." Sam shrugs.
"And became a movie producer?" Rose asks. In her mind it's an unlikely leap from time agent to movie producer. Although, if she imagines Jack in this position...she can't quite stop the smile that crosses her face. Jack Harkness as a movie producer would be, well, hilarious.
The Doctor is eyeing her like he knows what she's thinking. Which he very well might. Rose keeps smiling and he gives in and grins back.
"He'd make the most horrific movies imaginable," he tells Rose.
"I know." Rose starts to laugh. "Like the time on Mor-"
Sam is looking closely at Rose. "What's your name again?" he interrupts her.
"Rose. Rose Tyler."
"Pete Tyler's daughter?"
"Yeah."
"He ever think of investing in the movie industry?"
Donna slaps Sam over the head with a file folder. "Focus for a moment! The studio's shut down! Everyone's gone and Mason Tate is looking for you!"
Sam looks horrified. "Mason Tate knows?"
"He knows you've been gone, you idiot!" Normally Donna would never, ever speak to her boss this way, but circumstances are a bit extenuating today.
"See, that doesn't make sense!" Sam complains. "It was a routine assignment. Why you're all getting worked up..." Sam's voice trails off as he glances at his desk. "What's the date?"
"You're a time agent," Donna says scathingly. "You don't know?"
"Time agents are not born with an instinctual understanding of time," the Doctor starts, but Donna cuts him off.
"Whatever, Dr. Lunatic."
"How long have I been gone, Donna?" Sam is taking in the papers that are piled up on his desk. Scripts, memos, unopened mail, magazines...
"Four weeks."
"What? No!"
"Four weeks," Donna repeats pleasantly. "Maybe now you can appreciate the stress we've all been under."
"Routine mission," Sam mutters. "I was only supposed to be gone for a few hours."
"Traveling through time can be very tricky," Rose says sympathetically. She catches the Doctor glaring at her. "I wasn't commenting on anyone's driving skills," she says indignantly.
"It's an art form, Rose, and sometimes-"
"Sometimes? All the time, try."
"Anyway," the Doctor says, dragging back the conversation to the proper note with an effort, "you've been gone a while and we've caught Donna up. Now why don't you tell us what you know?"
Sam is still in shock. "Four weeks," he mutters. He walks around the desk to collapse in his chair.
"This has never happened before?" Rose asks, moving to stand in front of the desk. "Lost time, getting lost, coming home late?"
"No, never." Sam looks up. "Donna, could you open that cabinet for me?"
Donna looks at the cabinet she was about to smash open with a hammer. "Er..."
"Just touch the side," he says.
Donna does so and the doors spring open. Inside are three shelves filled with small glass bottles. She picks one up and hands it to Sam. Behind her, the doors close as if on a spring.
"Thanks." Sam unscrews the top and drinks the contents of the bottle in one gulp. "Liquidized protein from my home planet," he explains to them. "I need it sometimes. We can live in your atmosphere but it's very trying on our lungs. This helps us maintain our systems."
"Yes, that's wonderful to hear." Donna sits down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. "Now can someone explain what happened?"
"Your friend Janet was worried for your safety," the Doctor says bluntly. He sits down on another chair. "She was afraid that the council on your world had disposed of you."
"The council," Sam says under his breath.
"What is that, exactly?" Rose drags an extra chair over to sit beside the Doctor.
"My planet is very insular," Sam says. "We come and go, of course, everyone does. Movement from planet to planet is quite common. When I came to Earth, a few friends and family members followed me. All quite ordinary. But when I had the idea for a movie, and then I became famous and the movies gained more notice, the council got worried."
"But why?" Donna asks in confusion. "If they were movies, everyone had to know they weren't real."
"Well of course they weren't real. But they were based on events I had seen while working. Things that had happened, or will happen in the future. Nocklyn got very scared that I would reveal something at the wrong time. They feared exposure, especially because so many of us were working here at the studio."
"Is Mason Tate an alien?" Donna whispers.
"No. He's human."
"And do you think the council is involved somehow?" Rose asks him.
Sam shrugs and leans back in his chair. "I doubt it. But I don't know what else it could be. Someone sabotaged my manipulator somehow. It's never been off by so much time before."
Rose nods slowly. "Your vortex manipulator. And Janet said that your car was filled with oxygen before you left this last time."
Sam shifts in his chair. "Yes."
"Anything else happen?"
He frowns. "Maybe one or two things. Things I didn't think anything about at the time."
Rose sighs. This seems to be a bit of a mess. Looking at Sam, then looking at Donna looking at Sam, she draws a few, non-dangerous-council-related conclusions. Sam is tall, handsome, famous and powerful. Her dad is all of those things, of course, but Sam's hair is thick and dark, with some grey thrown in. If Donna has any personal feelings for him, it wouldn't be surprising.
The Doctor is thinking hard. "Either the threat is something from the agency or from that ruling council. Either way, you're not safe here."
"It could be from something else, you know," Donna says, annoyed. "Just because those two are the most obvious doesn't mean that's it."
"What else could it be?" the Doctor demands.
"Well, I don't know! You two are the alien experts!"
"Thanks, Donna, you're being very helpful," the Doctor says in mild exasperation.
"I'm as safe here as anywhere, no matter who's behind this," Sam says. "It's harder to break through the security measures I've installed here. Anyway. Who's left?"
"Janet," Rose says.
"Who else?"
"As we've said," Donna says, barely managing to keep her patience, "they're gone. All of them. Poof."
"They've done a runner," Rose says bluntly. "Janet thinks they're next."
"Next. Next for what?"
"For whatever happened to you."
"Nothing happened to me. I was on a mission."
"No one knew that. Not even Janet."
"You've not told anyone, have you?" the Doctor asks.
"No. It's not the sort of thing we advertise." Sam glances around. "So you're the only one left here?" he asks Donna. "Where's Clive?"
"He's gone, too."
Sam sighs. "I thought Clive of all people would stay."
"Why?" Rose asks. "Is he a time agent, too?"
Sam rolls his eyes. "Clive is an idiot. He should never have left his family's house. He gets lost on the motor way. Still. He's not one to run away without a fight." He stands up. "We need to find Janet."
"All right," Rose agrees.
"But first I need to go home and change."
oOoOo
Sam lives in a very posh flat in a very nice part of London. A valet takes Rose's car and whisks it away someplace, and the doorman at the entrance stares hard at each of them before allowing them admittance into the lobby.
"Very nice," the Doctor murmurs, looking around at all the black and white marble. "What do you think?"
"What, for us?"
"Yeah. Good security, nice location. Your mum would be over the moon."
"You are joking, yeah?" Rose has to check on that point, because if he really thinks is the kind of place she wants to live in, she'll have to have his brain scanned for damage.
"Yeah, I'm joking." The Doctor holds the door to the lift open for her. "This isn't exactly..." His voice trails off as he notices Sam listening with an expression of exaggerated interest. "This is a very nice building," he finishes.
"I doubt you could afford it," Sam says flatly.
The Doctor isn't man enough to be stung by that. If he wants something he'll figure out a way to get it. A flat in this pretentious, ostentatious building isn't something he wants.
"Government employees don't make very much," he agrees blandly.
Rose rolls her eyes. She's glad, most of the time, that he doesn't always understand everything a normal human male would understand.
"Here we go." Sam glances at them. "Top floor."
"Of course," the Doctor murmurs.
"Shh," Rose whispers.
Sam unlocks the door. "Come on." He walks inside and turns on the lights.
"This is very nice," Donna says, looking around at the open room. It's done in shades of blues and browns, and she fancies it immediately.
Sam takes a few steps in and stops suddenly, a sharp exclamation stopped almost before he's started speaking.
Janet de Lancie is sitting there in his living room, legs crossed and hands folded primly in her lap.
"You took your time," is her greeting to him.
"Hi," he says, caught off-guard. "What are you doing here?"
She shakes her head and stands up. "You idiot. How do you think I'm here? I finally saw you. When you're out of our time I can't see you, but once you returned I could trace the path you were taking."
"What's she talking about?" Donna whispers to the Doctor. "Is she some kind of new-ager?"
"Something like that," he whispers back. "She can see the future."
"No way."
"Well, she's an alien. Who knows what they can do?"
"Where were you?" Janet is asking Sam. They're standing very close together. Rose notes again that Sam is tall and very good-looking, even in wrinkled clothing. Janet is also tall, and rather attractive. Glancing over at Donna, Rose sees that Donna has also noticed this, and is watching Sam and Janet with slightly narrowed eyes. The Doctor appears oblivious to any undertones in that conversation. No surprise there.
"I was on a mission. I was only going to be gone a few hours. Someone tampered with my vortex manipulator."
"Someone," Janet says.
"Hold on," Rose interrupts. "Janet, you knew he was a time agent?"
"Yes."
"And you didn't mention it to us?"
Janet looks confused. "Time agents do not operate on Earth. You would not have understood."
"Oh, we would have understood! And it would have made a lot more sense!"
Janet shrugs. "I needed your help, and I needed to keep Sam's cover safe. I'm sorry for lying to you."
"That doesn't matter now," Sam says. "What matters is that we still don't know who's behind it."
"We need to find out," Janet says. "That's why we're here."
"I don't have time to find out! I have a movie to make!"
"Never mind your movie! Our people are in hiding. You are in danger. I can see that much!"
"We can't live our lives in fear."
"It's either live in fear or go home. If you're not willing to solve this there will never be an end for us."
"Janet-" Sam runs a hand through his hair.
Janet turns to the Doctor and Rose. "Well, he's back. Thank you for finding him."
'They didn't find me. I found them, in my office."
"Even so. Can you help us?" Janet asks Rose. "We need to discover who is behind this."
"I told you, I have a movie to make. I've already lost four weeks. I need to call Mason."
"Mason!" Janet cries. "Your friends and family - my friends and family - aren't coming back to make your movie until they know it's safe! What would you have us do?"
The Doctor drops down onto a brown leather chair. He swings his legs up over the arm and smiles. "I think we can do both."