"Ex Memoria"

35. In Pocket

London, England – in the year 1958

Amy and Rory had asked the Doctor if they might be taken home for a day or two, without anyone knowing, just so they might rest and relax after their very long day dealing with the museum situation. They needed time to find who they were again, and that was not going to happen on the TARDIS. The Doctor had hesitated some, but eventually he had relented. He was going to take them home.

So when they opened the door and found themselves in what definitely looked like London but not at all in the correct time, there was some amount of arguing at first, but eventually the exhaustion had won out, and the Doctor had orchestrated them a place to stay.

He'd tried to sit and rest his eyes and all that, too, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, so eventually he'd gotten up and moved to the window. How many times he'd been to this city, how many ways he'd known it, and it still surprised him… even now.

He'd spent far too much time already looking for her, spotting her out of the blue, not to recognize her when he saw her. Down on street level, she was sitting at a table outside a restaurant, the picture of casual dining. Of course it couldn't be coincidence that she was there, which would mean she was there to see him. The fact that their little game had progressed from the point where she would follow him in shadows, unknown and unseen, to where they were now, with her so casually waiting, knowing he'd see her and come to her, was possibly unsettling.

Even then, he had approached her as though he meant to sneak up on her, unseen… right until he exited the hotel and found that she had changed seats, the better to be facing the door through which he'd appear. When he stopped, realizing this, she held up her glass to him with a smile. He frowned, walking across the street and taking the seat she'd only just vacated.

"Hungry?" she asked, offering her plate. The Doctor didn't reach. "Look, I know what I must look like to you. You're probably not all that happy to see me most of the time, and well I can live with that."

"I never said I wasn't… Doesn't mean I am, either. How could I have any opinion at all if I don't know who you are, why you're here…"

"I realize that," she nodded. "Really, I do."

"Why are you here?" he cut to the chase.

"I just… I wanted to know how everything turned out in Chicago," she told him. She would have liked to say she had managed not to show her hand in any way with this statement, but if she could hear the mild concern in her voice, then surely the Doctor had to have heard it, too. She looked up at him, but his face was not victorious, nor had she expected it to be. He wouldn't rub it in, though he would still make note of it.

"Turned out as well as one could hope," he answered her. "At least, if you're not Mr. Brown. The infection is gone, all memories have been returned to their rightful owners. The worst anyone thought to have happened was that there was a gas leak at the museum. Most people didn't understand what they were going through, as is generally the case. In a matter of days, it was as though none of it had happened." The woman sitting across from him took this all in with a continual nod.

"Good, that's good," she declared. The Doctor leaned back in his chair for a moment before leaning forward.

"Is it?" he asked, and she looked at him. "Why, exactly?"

"I don't understand," she sat up, looking at him like she knew she had to, in order to sound credible.

"Oh, but you do," he pointed at her face. "You could have come at any time and seen for yourself how things had turned out in Chicago, but you didn't. You waited until we'd gone, which tells me you knew exactly the kind of risk you'd run if you set foot in that city at that precise time, and you weren't going to risk it, no, not a girl as smart as you, is that it?" She said nothing. "But you care, I can see that, too. So what was it?" he asked.

"You don't honestly expect me to tell you that, do you?" she kept a strong face.

"No, maybe not, but then it's always worth a try, isn't it?" he shrugged. They were quiet for a moment, and the Doctor watched as his shimmer girl picked at a scratch on the table. "There's something else?"

"You could call it that," she looked around before looking back at him. "Just thought I'd let you know… I know you've been wondering about all this, why I've been following you… obviously," she bowed her head, acknowledging their conversation. "It will all become clear someday, I promise."

"And this day…" he asked.

"It'll come, soon," she promised. "As relative as 'soon' might sound," she added. "I never really know with you, do I?" He shook his head in agreement. "I have to go now," she stood, and he remained seated.

"Just like that?"

"You have ways to track me and follow me," she held up her wrist, where the vortex manipulator was strapped on. "You know it, and I know it. But you've never done it, and it's not like I haven't given you the chance the last few times I've come to you. So yes, just like that, because no matter how much some part of you will not want to trust me, there's a bigger part that understands the big picture, so you do. See you around, Doctor." And she was gone.

TO BE CONCLUDED (TODAY)