Chapter Eleven:

Footballers and Andie

Andie was sitting in a spinny chair in Torchwood's computer room – or, rather, the Doctor's computer that was a whole room. It looked a whole lot like a certain Smith's computer she had encountered. This one didn't talk, though. She was reclined back, having changed into someone's spare pants. She sipped at a drink he had bought her to keep her occupied and to make sure she told the story.

"They showed up earlier to the stadium. Days before it was actually allowed to be opened for any country to start training. They just came out of the blue, playing like zombies. I went to them as soon as UNIT heard. Jack – Um, Captain Jack Harkness – he came with, booked Torchwood class trips."

She pushed the list over to the Doctor, her eyes hardly scanning the names. She had met them all, looked for any indications of any sort of trace of bad.

1 Lionel Messi, Argentina

2 Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal

3 Wayne Rooney, England

4 Kaka, Brazil

5 Xavi, Spain

6 Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast

7 Robin van Persie, Netherlands

8 Fernando Torres, Spain

9 Steven Gerrard, England

10 Frank Lampard, England

11 David Villa, Spain

12 Carlos Tevez, Argentina

13 Wesley Sneijder, Netherlands

14 John Terry, England

15 Cesc Fabregas, Spain

The Doctor looked down, recognizing the names of them all. He and the rest of Torchwood had been adamant watchers of the Cup, and he grinned at the memory. The lot of them had tuned in on the biggest monitor in their offices to watch, and boy, was it awesome.

"Anyway, we show up, and they're all playing outside again, uniformed and all. Practicing with each other, giving each other pointers. They were nearly hypnotized. Only it was subtler than that. Jack said he had seen it once before, but on a much bigger scale." She shrugged when the Doctor looked up at her with wide eyes. "I stayed with them while Jack went to look for anyone he could find. I talked to them, played a bit, – was beaten by their skill, of course – and found out it was just a human in the end. They were so concentrated on the Cup that they didn't feel when someone was slowly making their way into their minds."

She remembered the mystery, the searching, and the feel of relief when she and Jack had found out who done it. Her grin was wide and happy as she looked at the Doctor, seeing a bit of this version in the Doctor she knew.

He didn't bother getting up when he heard the sonic unlocking the doors of the office. He didn't blame the Doctor when he stormed into the room completely flustered.

"Doctor, did you know Andie worked for Torchwood and UNIT?"

The Doctor nodded, looking for any signs that Andie was hurt. "I left her in Jack's care. He's had children, and I trusted that he would take care of her. He did. Well, mostly."

She rolled her eyes, pushing his hands away from her face. "Jack took fantastic care of me. Fantastic. He didn't push me into UNIT, I found out about it from an attack I fought off at school and UNIT tried to erase it from my memory. It didn't work. Torchwood – Really just Jack, now – argued, but I was brought into UNIT to become a part time secretary. I mostly did the filing, but I read a lot before actually filed them. Jack used his Torchwood abilities in UNIT, and I had two jobs. Torchwood paid me, and I was under UNIT pay list."

The Doctor's looked impressed, and the proper Doctor didn't think that she had that much experience with aliens. He had told Jack to protect her, but it sounded like she stood and provided for herself. She was certainly Donna's daughter. He wondered, though, how Sylvia took that her granddaughter probably saved the world on her own.