Alrighty then! My utmost apologies for the lateness of this update (I apologize about my updates way too much... sorry...) It would have been uploaded Tuesday, but it was my birthday and although I hadn't thought my family or friends had planned anything, they had, so I didn't get to update when I wanted. Then work and preparations for college and scholarships and yadda-yadda-yadda... aka, sorry. But it's up now and I feel it is of reasonable length, if not a little longer than the last couple updates I've posted. So... there ya go ;)

Btw, THANK YOU for the faves and watches! I've been surprised at the attention my story is getting. Next chapter promises to reveal a question I've left unanswered for a while now, so there's that. As far as this chapter goes, I reveal a bit more of Mr. Boots' identity! So please enjoy :)

"Ow!" James griped as an albino woman took a blood sample from his arm. "You could've warned me!"

She ignored him, taking the needle and walking swiftly out of the room.

Since being separated from the Doctor, James had been subjected to several tests to determine what he was, despite his explanations. He had tried to tell them, but they seemed to be determined to do the tests regardless.

He had been taken to a white sterile room and guided rather roughly into a chair. The cuffs around his wrists were removed, and several albino servants began their examinations of him, poking and prodding at him in a hurried, emotionless rush. They took samples of blood, saliva, hair, skin, then took him to another room where they took some X-rays and several scans. They did multiple brain scans and looked quite puzzled by the results.

Eventually he was sat in a detainment room, which was just a perfectly square, white room with two chairs and a table between them. There were cameras, of course, hidden in the walls, but James being, well, James, found them quickly and decided to spend the time he had alone making faces into them and signing gibberish in several sign languages.

Finally a Judoon entered the room, sitting down in the seat closest to the door.

James took the seat opposite him, putting his elbows on the table and resting his head in the palms of his hands, a bored expression on his face. "It's about time. I was beginning to wonder if you lot had forgotten about me. So, what next? Am I free to go yet?"

The Judoon growled at him and looked down at a clipboard he was holding. "Name." It was meant as a question, but spoken as a demand.

"James Smith. Hello, how do you do?" he said pleasantly, extending his hand to shake the Judoon's. When the alien made no move to shake it, he leaned back in his chair.

The Judoon jotted down the answer, then moved to the next question. "Age."

James laughed. "Um... that's actually a bit complicated. Can we just put non-applicable?"

"Age," the Judoon repeated.

"903," he answered, then pursed his lips in thought, then added as he waved his hand from side to side, "...and two months... ish... somewhere around there. I don't really know. Somewhere around there."

The Judoon glared at him.

"903," James reiterated.

"Gender."

James blinked at him, then guffawed. "You're joking right?"

"Gender," the Judoon grumbled angrily.

"Alright. Calm down, big boy. Male," he said, then added, "... obviously."

"Species identification."

James rolled his eyes, getting more bored by the second. "Half human, half Time Lord meta-crisis."

"Male origin."

James' brow furrowed. "What?"

"Male origin." it repeated.

James thought for a second, then raised his brows in realization. "Oh! You mean my father. Well, technically, I don't have a-"

"Male origin," the Judoon growled, its anger and impatience increasing.

"Oi! Steady there, Jumbo," he said, then sighed in resignation and replied a little bitterly, "the Doctor."

The Judoon jotted the answer down. "Female origin."

James hesitated. He couldn't tell them Donna was his "mother". They might want to do tests on her. He knew what had happened to her after the Crucible and knew the danger in her regaining her memory. He couldn't risk that. He needed another name, one that wouldn't really matter. Someone they couldn't get to.

"Rose Tyler," he said at last, before the Judoon could get any angrier.

It wrote the answer down.

"What is the square route of 9,466?"

James rolled his head back and groaned. Would this torture ever end?

River knew the TARDIS had been moved, but she had suspected it would. That didn't really matter. So long as Amy and Rory were able to talk to the Shadow Architect, this whole endeavor would go smoothly.

On the speakers she'd connected to Rory's earpiece, she heard him mutter, "Is he messing with us?"

She was about to inquire as to what was going on, when suddenly she heard ringing. It took her a few minutes to figure where exactly the ringing was coming from, because it wasn't the phone. Finally, she went to the screen and turned it on, causing Jack Harkness' face to appear in front of her.

He looked at her and then smiled seductively. "Well, hello there, beautiful," he said.

She smiled and shook her head. She knew Jack well enough to know that he would do the same to a tree if it had sexual organs, so just blew it off. "Hello, Jack. I'm afraid the Doctor's out at the moment. Can I take a message?"

Jack's smile changed to that of pride. "I know who Mr. Boots is."

River looked at him in surprise. "You're sure you don't have an alias?"

Jack nodded. "Positive. This is the real him. His real name is Roan Staggem. Born on Agora. Parents were Lona and Marvis Staggam. When he was fifteen, both of his parents died of what the local authorities called mysterious circumstances. It was never actually discovered what killed them. He disappeared after that. Not a month later, Grant Segoma appears out of thin air, goes into the army for a few years, then the Time Academy by another alias that was destroyed. After that he worked for a few years for the Shadow Proclamation as a bounty hunter under the name Greg Samanto, then as a full-blown assassin-for-hire as the Cowboy - aka Mr. Boots," Jack finished, smiling proudly.

"Jack, that's fantastic," River said, impressed. "Where did you get all of this information?"

"Actually, when you know what to look for, it's not all that hard to find. All of his alias are just his name scrambled up. It's just a matter of separating his names from the names of actual people. For that, I just figured out who appeared out of nowhere and who didn't."

"That easy?"

"Yeah, worried me too," Jack admitted. "But I guess if you're as good at killing as he is, you wouldn't be all that worried about people looking for you."

River shook her head. "No, I don't think its that."

"Then what do you think?"

"I think he left you breadcrumbs, Jack," River said.

"What?"

"Trust me," River said. "He wanted us to find that. I don't know why, but he did. Now, be a dear and see if you can find anything else out about his childhood for me, would you? Thank you," she said with a sweet smile, then turned off the screen before he had a chance to say goodbye.

Suddenly the earphone burst into a chorus of voices talking over each other in alarm and among them she heard Mr. Boots' voice. "Oh, now it's a party! Would you like some tea, Doctor?"

She didn't waste any time. She ran to the console and got the TARDIS going. There was no way in hell that assassin was going to get her Doctor.

It took the Doctor much too long to notice the booted man occupying the Shadow Architect's seat. When it finally registered in his mind, he took a step back and withdrew his sonic screwdriver from the inside pocket of his jacket, pointing it at the man warningly. It was a useless gesture, seeing as sonic screwdrivers didn't function as weapons, and even if they did he wouldn't use it, but it somehow made him feel more comfortable to have it there.

Mr. Boots raised his hands in submission, a huge, excited smile plastered to his face as he stared at the Doctor with what looked like pure awe and adoration.

Suddenly everyone started talking at once.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" the Shadow Architect exclaimed, surprised at the Doctor's alarm.

"Doctor, wait," Rory said, setting the cup of tea in his hand on the table.

"Where've you been?!" Amy asked in relief at the sight of him.

"Oh, now it's a party!" Mr. Boots said happily. "Would you like some tea, Doctor?"

"Amy, Rory, get behind me," the Doctor said, his voice steady, his ancient eyes set on Mr. Boots.

"Doctor, he hasn't-" Rory tried to explain, but the Doctor interrupted him.

"Is that tea? Are you drinking his tea?!" the Doctor asked.

"It's good tea," Amy said, taking a sip.

The Doctor stared for a moment, letting everything sink in. The tea, Mr. Boots' calm, nonthreatening demeanor, Amy and Rory both looking fairly calm, told him that he was missing something, but it was only after looking at Mr. Boots for a moment that he realized just what it was. Mr. Boots looked younger than he had last time, which could only mean one thing... this was the wrong Mr. Boots. Most likely one that hadn't met him yet, guessing by the look on his face.

With this in mind, the Doctor lowered the sonic screwdriver, then deposited it back into his jacket pocket. He fussed with his bow-tie for a second, then twiddled his fingers thoughtfully. "Well... it does look good, I suppose," he said, looking at the cup of tea in Amy's hand.

"Would you like a cup?" Mr. Boots asked politely.

The Doctor stared at him, trying to decide what he was up to. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I work here," Mr. Boots replied, taking a sip of his own tea, then held up a finger with an undecided expression. "Well, I'm employed here. I don't work here in the technical sense."

"Yes, and what are you still doing here, Mr. Samanto? I already paid you," the Shadow Architect stated, looking very irritated and more than a little confused by what had just occurred.

Mr. Boots blinked at her. "You did?"

The Shadow Architect glared at him impatiently.

The Doctor looked at her with fresh curiosity. "What did you pay him for?"

"Doctor, Shadow Proclamation business is none of your-"

"What did you pay him for?" the Doctor asked again and the authority behind the words actually got her to answer.

"He alerted us to Vahptilliorbus; the criminal hub I found you on," she replied coldly.

The Doctor nodded, his suspicion confirmed. But why would Mr. Boots have any of this so close to one of his own previous timelines and risk a paradox? He gave Mr. Boots credit for being smart enough to know to avoid anything like that from happening, so why teeter on the edge of it like that? Perhaps it was somehow important that the Doctor was to meet him in the past first?

"Well, actually, I'm here on a regular bounty," Mr. Boots said, then pulled a piece of folded paper out of one of the pockets in his pants, handing it to her.

She opened it and looked at it, a frown on her face. "Very well. Go get your money," she said icily.

Mr. Boots smiled and nodded his thanks, standing. He then held out a hand to Rory. "Rory Pond, it was a pleasure to meet you finally. I look forward to seeing you again in the future."

Rory hesitated a moment, looking flustered, but finally shook the hand awkwardly.

Mr. Boots then held his hand out to Amy.

Amy took it with less hesitation, although she did have a bit of a scowl on her face, which only increased when Mr. Boots brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it with a cocky expression. She pulled back indignantly, but it only made him chuckle.

Finally he went to the Doctor, his smile growing even bigger. "Doctor, it was an absolute pleasure. Big fan," he said.

The Doctor smiled. "Too big, if you ask me."

They stared at each other for a long minute, almost sizing each other up.

Rory, Amy and the Shadow Architect were all quiet, watching the transaction.

Mr. Boots relented. "Again, Doctor. A pleasure. I look forward to seeing you again sometime." With that, he left walked past and left them listening to his boots clink clink clink until the sound faded off.

The Doctor turned to Amy and Rory. "Were you two just having tea with my to-be-assassin?"

"Is that the weirdest thing we've done?" Rory asked.

"We have done stranger things," Amy agreed.

"What are you talking about, Doctor? How did you know him?" The Shadow Architect asked, annoyed at being lost from the conversation.

"He becomes an assassin later on and tries to kill me," the Doctor explained shortly. "Which is very likely why he employed himself with you so that later on he could call you and you would be more than willing to come to his aid and capture me and..." he stopped when suddenly it hit him. "Oh... well isn't that clever..."

"What? Doctor?" Amy asked.

The Doctor turned to the Shadow Architect severely. "Where are you keeping James?"

She glared at him. "Doctor, I am growing very tired of you and your antics. You cannot waltz into my Proclamation and do as you will. I will not tolerate it. I will no longer tolerate you."

"Not to be rude," the Doctor said his anger rising, "But without me, you wouldn't have a Proclamation. Without me, hundreds of worlds would have ceased to exist. No, scratch that. The universe would have ceased to exist. So sorry if I upset your perfect little world, but there are things going on that you do not fully understand and I absolutely do not have the time to explain to you. You and I may not get along, but we have the same goals in mind. I'm on your side. Now, please," he said, his voice now becoming softer. "I need to help my friend."

The Shadow Architect stared at him, into the ancient orbs of his eyes.

She relented.

"Follow me."

Okay, so the Shadow Architect and the Doctor are struggling to get along (as usual) but the Doctor being the Doctor is overcoming it somewhat. Please review and share your thoughts! I'd love to hear them. :)