Chapter Eight:

An Opposing Side

"So, I didn't really aid in the making of the Agency." The Doctor was grinning, standing again on the balcony that would soon be the arriving grounds for the crafts that would bring the potential agents.

Andie grinned at that, looking around with a newfound awe she had not let herself feel before. Things just off, here, and she didn't like it. Her breath caught when Boe lifted her up in the air with a hug, and spun around. She was laughing, arms around him, and feet catching the ground when she could.

"I'm gonna miss you, Boe. You remind me so much of an old friend." She tapped his chest with a smile, her eyes catching his. "This was great. I didn't know so much. I mean, I knew someone who – well, anyway – I learned so much in our time together."

The Doctor came near them, smiling again. "What? Are you saying goodbye? Andie! There aren't ever goodbyes in time travel! Rule number… well, it's not really rule, but it's true." He saw Boe hide a grin before he shook his old friend's hand. "You make sure you're gone when everyone arrives. I don't want to have to clean up after you." He shook his finger, but was smiling the whole time.

The wind was blowing again, and Andie hid a shiver. Or, she thought she did. The Doctor saw and Boe noticed. Both looked at each other before watching as the sky seemed to darken with rain. All three smelled the current storm and they said their goodbyes before running off to shelter.

Andie stepped in, hot on the heels of the Doctor. She was warming her arms with her hands as the Doctor slipped his jacket over her tank topped shoulders. "You should dress for rain," he whispered good-naturedly. He wasn't serious, but he hadn't really been able to be frank with her and felt that she needed a good scolding for the unexplained shivering.

"It wasn't the rain," she mumbled back, turning around and wrapping the jacket closer. "I sometimes get a little cold when I run on adrenaline and learn new things."

The Doctor frowned, motioning for her to sit in her blue leather chair he had sonic'd for her. "That's not good at all, Andie. You should have told me that. Was that why you wouldn't let me see into your mind that first night?" One hand had come up and pushed a hair from her face, looking into her eyes. He put a finger, pausing a mo to lift out a tile and pulling up a box. He hadn't touched this in quite some time, but now he pulled out his stethoscope and walked over to Andie, listening to her heart.

…Which was not there.

She chuckled and moved his hand to the right side of her chest. "My heart is on the opposite side. I have situs inversus. All my organs are on the mirrored sides from their normal positions."

He looked up at her, pulling his hand away. "Is that normal in your family?"

Andie shook her head, shrugging a bit and leaning back in her chair. "No, but… well, I think it had something to do with the energy transfer at birth." She blushed, realizing who had actually given birth to her. "It's just a theory, though."

The Doctor sat across from her in his own chair, and didn't mind her thinking on her own. It was a sort of relief. "Andie, I'm not sure your shivers are from your organs on the opposite sides." He ran a hand over his face and through his hair.

Andie kicked off her shoes, and pushed herself up to lean back. Her careful, almost without thought movements caught the Doctor again with a rush of déjà vu. She was so completely at ease in all her characteristics that she probably had no idea of how much she was ingrained with the tenth incarnation of life.

Then the TARDIS made a wheezing noise, lights flashed, a bell rung in the distance and the Doctor was running around the console, fake cursing in that Doctor-y way he did. Wind from nowhere blew about the TARDIS, and Andie grabbed her chair, forcing herself forward and catching some semblance of balance before both were thrown to the ground and the lights cut off completely.

Andie looked around, still a bit shocked from the sudden jolt, and noticed that one, there were no lights. Two, the noise had stopped, and three, the Doctor was silent as he stared over at the top of the console. She shuffled into a crawl the couple of feet it took to get to him, and moved the hair from his eyes.

The Doctor looked up, starting to rise to his feet and carefully pull Andie up as well.

"This isn't good, is it, Doctor?" Andie tried to manage a weak smile to put some shine back in her friend's eyes, but the Doctor only shook his head and nodded over to her shoes. She obeyed the silent order, and walked down the stairs, glancing at the blue sky outside. Just because they were on earth didn't mean that they were safe. The TARDIS was silent and dark, and even Andie realized this was very, very bad.