Misery Loves Company

As far as planning processes went, the one to break into 10 Downing Street was the quickest the Doctor had ever seen. Everyone seemed to be in super-efficient mode. Everyone, that is, except Owen and Katie, who had developed an odd habit of disappearing periodically for an hour or two, and then returning, acting as though nothing had happened. However, sometimes when Katie was on the other side of the room, or speaking to someone else, the Doctor would catch Owen watching her with a very different expression than his infatuated dreamy smile. Something much closer resembling intense misery.

In only two days, a viable operation had been planned. First, a small force of ten would travel up the main road in front of Number 10, force entry through the front door and take out any immediate threats. According to Juliette, there had been no signs of life from the building (or anywhere else in the city), but as the Doctor's account attested that there were quite definitely still people inside, they weren't taking any risks.

At the same time, the Doctor, Juliette, Alex, Katie, Owen, Gwen and Tosh would enter though the back and endeavor to locate and disable the epicenter of the time shift.

The night before the plan was set to take place found the Doctor and Juliette once again standing atop the steps overlooking the now much more lively refugee camp. They were silent for a long time, neither feeling the particular need to converse. The Doctor observed that in this light, with the dim moonlight shining down from the street above, Juliette really looked quite lovely. The silvery beams tinted the caramel streaks in her hair, making her head glitter when she moved.

After several minutes, Juliette asked, "Are you scared?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Are you?"

Juliette shrugged. "Even if the building's empty, there's still the Toclafane. There's no guarantee any of us will make it out of there tomorrow."
The Doctor eyed her critically, as though x-raying her. "That's not it," he said shrewdly.

"What?"

"You're not afraid of dying. You're not even afraid of the others dying."

Juliette furrowed her brow, focusing on a random spot in the crowd. The Doctor seemed to be waiting for her to confirm his words, but she said nothing.

"You're afraid that even if we do fix the time shift, that you won't get your son back."

Juliette blinked, and a single tear dripped from the corner of her eye. "This camp started with a little over a thousand people. We couldn't find anyone else. Even with half the city gone, there should have been at least five million. And if the Toclafane are killing here, what if they're killing on the other side, too? Danny's got no one, he's only seven, what if he-" she clapped a hand to her mouth, crying in earnest.

"Hey, hey." The Doctor folded her into a hug and let her press her face against his shoulder.

"I can't live without him," she mumbled into his jacket. "His father died last year and I just…"

They stood motionless for a minute or two more, while Juliette calmed herself down. She pulled away, wiped her hand against her eyes. "I was a geography teacher," she said wryly. "I don't think knowing the capital of Liberia is going to help anyone tomorrow."

"You never know," said the Doctor.

oOo

"Never thought I'd make it to Downing Street," Juliette whispered as she and the Doctor and the others padded down the carpeted hallway. "I was gonna be Prime Minister, you know. Be the first country to legalize same sex marriage and everything."

The Doctor was about to reply when his screwdriver beeped, just as they passed a door halfway down the hall. He held up a hand, and everyone came to a halt. Alex was once again immersed in his DS. They would need all the warning they could get. Owen took Katie's hand in his and held it firmly.

The door handle was unlocked. That should have been the first clue. Inside, looking just the same as ever, was the TARDIS. The Doctor smacked his palm to his forehead. "Of course! Stupid me!" How had he not realized it before? What other technology was there on Earth with the ability to physically shift time? How did they actually know time had been shifted at all, he wondered suddenly. They'd gone in to see Katie and Owen, and they'd already known. How? And he'd just taken their word. He hadn't even checked for the source. He'd just known. Why did he feel like he was being led by the hand? And to where was he being led?

"Can you fix it, Doctor?" asked Gwen.

"'Course I can," said the Doctor indignantly, all traces of doubt gone from his mind. He flashed Juliette a cocky grin. "I'm brilliant."

They were inside the TARDIS. The Doctor had a tangle of wires resting in his lap which he was twisting and sonic-ing them in a complicated manner. Juliette watched him, so impressed by his brilliance she wasn't even gaping around at the TARDIS. Alex was. He stood off to one side, DS held limply by his side. His mouth was shut, which was unusual, but his dark, calculating eyes swept over every inch of the control room, taking in each detail, filing it all into a head already far too full of the impossible.

"Good!" the Doctor cried as the wires sparked and the TARDIS engines whirred. "Got it." He stuffed the tangle back down beneath a panel and threw a lever on the console, kick starting the old grinding wail, music to the Doctor's ears.

Pew! Pew! Pew! What triumphant escape would be complete without a horde of bloodthirsty metal spheres firing at your retreating backs? The control room shook violently with each blast, knocking Juliette to the floor. Sparks exploded over head. And then it was over.

The Doctor bounded down the ramp with the others in his wake, pulled open the door, and peeked outside. He looked over his shoulder at everyone, face inscrutable.

"Doctor?" asked Juliette tentatively. She and Alex moved to stand in the doorframe next to the Doctor.

The Doctor pulled the door the rest of the way, revealing a London street. It was packed. Hundreds of puzzled looking people stood blinking in the sunlight, staring around.

"Alex! Alex!" A young woman with unkempt blonde hair and an American accent shouldered her way to the bewildered crowd to where Alex stood, a little behind the Doctor and Juliette. She was beaming and, looking at Alex, the Doctor saw him smile too. The woman threw her arms around him and squeezed so hard the Doctor thought his spine might snap.

"Oh, thank God. Thank God, are you alright, are you hurt?" The woman pushed back Alex's hair, ran her hands along his arms, checking for injuries.

"Stop fussing," said Alex, the affected impatience tweaked by undeniable fondness. "I'm fine. For once." He turned to the Doctor, gave him a brief nod, which the Doctor returned, and Alex and the woman moved off into the crowd.

"Yes!" Juliette cheered. She placed her hands on either side of the Doctor's head and pulled his lips to hers. When they broke apart, he stared at her with wide eyes and opened his mouth but-

"Mummy!"

"Danny!"

A tiny boy with long skinny legs and jet black hair was sprinting toward them, impossibly fast, dodging between legs and around backsides. When he reached them, Juliette swept him up into her arms and held him tight, covering his head in kisses, crying all the while.

The Doctor smiled to himself, shoved his hands in his pockets and walked off through the crowd. But his smile faded as his brain ground into proper action for what felt like the first time since they'd escaped. London was huge. What were the odds they happen upon the only five hundred people left alive? What were the odds two random people, with little to no scientific background, could suddenly realize they were in a time shift. What were the odds that the leader of the last refugees in the city just happened to be someone who trusted one of them, was married to one of them. Something was very, very wrong.

Katie.

The Doctor whirled around, searching for Owen, and spotted him standing near a brick wall, one arm around Katie's shoulders.

"Owen!" the Doctor cried. "Come with me now!"

Frowning, he and Katie started forward but the Doctor flung up a hand. "You stay," he said to Katie. When he and Owen had reached a safe distance from her, watching them with a concerned expression, the Doctor asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing's wrong with her," Owen snapped.

"She's not supposed to be here," the Doctor persisted. "She's wrong. I didn't realize it until now. She doesn't make sense."

"There is nothing wrong with my wife." Owen spun angrily on his heel and began walking away.

"Except she's not your wife." Owen stopped dead in his tracks. The Doctor looked terribly grim. "I've been through the Torchwood records. You're not married."

He could see in Owen's eyes that he knew what he was talking about. "Owen, this could be life or death. Tell me what's wrong with her."

"Nothing."

"Owen, I-"

"She's dead!" Owen cut himself off as he realized how loudly he'd shouted. "My fiancée died, a few weeks before our wedding."

The Doctor nodded. "I thought so."

His brain was on full alert. Every molecule of it was racing at light speed, working through the clues. With Katie, it seemed incontrovertible. They were-

"Doctor!"

He didn't have to turn around to recognize the speaker. A wide smile spread across his face, wiping the turmoil from his mind, as he wrapped Martha Jones in a bear hug. Also beaming, she began explaining the harrowing months during which she'd worked tirelessly all on her own to find a way to rescue him, and how one day, half the world had been gone. The Doctor listened with distinct pride as she told him how she'd organized a medical relief effort and saved dozens.

"…and I knew that it had to be something weird and timey, " Martha concluded, "so I kept telling people that you could fix it, and here we are!"

"And here we…" the Doctor trailed off, staring at a point in the crowd, "…are." It had to be his imagination. No, there it was again.

Without an explanation, he started off, walking, then jogging, chasing after the blonde head bobbing away down the street. He brushed past Owen and Katie without sparing them a glance. He was sprinting now. Almost. Ten feet.

"Rose!"

Wham! He collided with a solid concrete wall.

oOo

He could hear Owen screaming in the corner of his mind. The thumping of his fists on the door, bellowing Katie's name. Now, of course, it all made sense. The way time had seemed to slip sometimes, the inconsistencies, the lack of people - a cyberlock could only maintain a finite number of individual entities at once - the way they'd known things they couldn't possibly know. Ianto had been guiding them through the whole time. Alex had never been real. Juliette had never been real. The Doctor was surprised how sharply the realization stung.

"We were out!" Owen sobbed. "Katie!"

At last, he stormed himself into exhaustion. Tosh and Gwen had long since fallen silent.