Good grief, two weeks until The Day of the Doctor...uh, so I decided to finally update this before the anniversary. I may be able to squeeze in another chapter before then, hopefully. Anyway, I decided to go with a favorite! I'm afraid it is a little Jamie-centric.

3. My Highlander

For several months now, Jamie had been meaning to clean up the mess that had accumulated in his room of all the things that he had collected in the year or so that he had traveled with the Doctor, but of course, nothing came out of his intentions when there was always some trouble or adventure just around the corner to distract him from his monumental task. Now that there seemed to be a break, a lull in the action, Jamie settled down to his work, rummaging through his things and organizing them as best he could, putting things away or throwing them out if he didn't like them anymore or they had gotten nasty. (Why had he decided to collect plants? Fruits? Things of that nature?) However, in the middle of all this, Jamie paused and smiled to himself as he finally unearthed something that he had missed most dearly in the past few months. He grabbed his prize with both hands, holding it close to him, and raced into the console room, hoping to find either Zoe or the Doctor there.

Zoe was there, which was a little bit of a disappointment to Jamie, as he had hoped the Doctor would be there as well. The Doctor would appreciate this sort of thing more. Zoe was still relatively new to the TARDIS, and while she was a good girl, very smart and all, and she had helped them out a lot, she seemed to have…well, an attitude of sorts, Jamie supposed one could call it. And more often than not, it seemed like he disappointed her when he wasn't as smart as she was, even though he had saved her life once or twice, or tried to anyway, when she got angry and upset with him.

"Look what I found!" He cried out, still acting enthusiastic as he held up his bagpipes, although he could tell that she wasn't really interested.

"Oh, that's nice." She said, not really paying attention to him as she examined the TARDIS controls and then wrote down several notes in her journal.

"All right then." He said, nodding to himself, before he placed the mouthpiece up to his mouth and started to blow, squeezing the bagpipes for all he was worth, and his heart ached as he listened to the familiar tones of his home in the Highlands.

"Agh!" Zoe cried, covering up her ears with journal and pen. "Jamie, will you please stop that racket? I'm trying to concentrate here!" Zoe said.

Jamie stopped blowing and lowered the mouthpiece. "Racket? That's music! Real, bloody, proper music from my home! I'm a piper, I'm supposed to play, you know. It's what I'm meant to be doing. I should have been practicing and playing for all of these months, but with one thing or another, I just haven't found the time. Not to mention the fact that I just found my instrument again, when it's been lost for ages now."

"I'm happy that you found your instrument again, Jamie, but can you please play it another time? Maybe in another place? Preferably your room or the Doctor's room even?" Zoe asked.

"The Doctor doesn't have a room, at least as far as I'm aware of." Jamie said and then frowned to himself. "Does he? Maybe he does. I haven't seen it, though. He does go off somewhere sometimes, when he isn't in here, but I haven't really thought about following him to find out where he goes."

"Neither have I thought about following him, especially without his permission." Zoe said. "The Doctor knows his way around, and it's a veritable maze in here. I could lose track of him very quickly, I bet, and get lost."

"Don't I know it. I've gotten lost in here a few times." Jamie remarked. "I think the corridors change."

"Right, another reason…" Zoe muttered, looking back over the controls.

"What are you doing?" Jamie asked, coming over to her.

"I'm trying to memorize the controls and their operations. Just in case the Doctor is ever incapacitated." Zoe remarked.

"Incapacitated? Do you think it's possible?" Jamie asked, slightly worried.

"It's possible, of course it is. Ever since we came back from the Land of Fiction, he hasn't been entirely himself. He seems to be resting a bit more. It was a drain on him, I suppose. Something happened to him in there." Zoe muttered. "In any case, I think we should be prepared, just in case we ever have to pilot the TARDIS by ourselves, or I suppose, if I ever have to pilot the TARDIS by myself."

"What do you mean 'by yourself'? What, do you think I can't pilot the TARDIS just as well as you can?" Jamie asked. "I've been here longer than you have, I know my way around-"

"What does this button do?" Zoe asked, pointing to one of the controls.

Jamie paused, staring at the button and licked his lips. "That button there. That button does…the doors?" He asked.

"No. What about this lever?" Zoe asked, pointing at another control.

"I know this one!" Jamie cried, rubbing his hands and laughing as he stared down at the button. "It makes the time…rotor…thingy go…up and down?" He asked.

"No. Good guess, though." Zoe said and then sighed. "These controls are complex, though, far more advanced than anything I ever encountered on the Wheel, and that was the most advanced space station Earth has ever created. It even overwhelms me, and that is saying something."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "If only we can get you overwhelmed more often."

"Oh, hush. Imagine the technology, the creative genius that went into designing and creating this ship, the imagination and wonder and…it makes me wonder where the Doctor came from. How he got this ship. And just who is he." Zoe whispered. "Or what."

Jamie frowned to himself and glanced around, the questions starting to bother him as well, especially as he had never thought to ask anything like that. He just assumed that the Doctor was a crazy genius, who had created this marvel, but what he was or who he was or where he came from…Jamie never thought much about it, especially when he was overwhelmed, more often than not, by what was going on around him, and trying to adjust to it all.

He still had a rough time, every now and again, trying to fight or run away and understand half of what the people around him were saying, even after a year or two of this crazy, crazy life. He just tried to keep up, that's all. He never asked any questions beyond what was going on, because that was enough of a question for him to handle and deal with. But the questions about the Doctor…those were unfathomable, weren't they?

"Hey." Jamie said, brightening up a bit as he thought of something. "You know, no matter where he came from, or what he and his people were capable of doing, you still have to figure that…if he was so smart, why can't he do anything right to fix anything?"

Zoe smiled. "I suppose you are right about that, although that does make me worry a little bit more about his capabilities."

"Ah, well, you can't please people all of the time." They heard the Second Doctor's voice say, and froze as they turned to him. "Oh, don't worry, I didn't overhear much." He said, coming over. "Now shoo away a bit, please, I have to make sure everything is set right. We are about to materialize." He said, fumbling with some of the controls and humming to himself, switching on the viewer as well.

Jamie and Zoe stepped back, glancing up at the screen, as Jamie said, "I hope we haven't landed on some space station or underwater base again. I'm starting to get a little sick and tired of being stuck in some base or station with some outside monster menacing us."

"Oh, dear. I can't really help that, can I?" The Doctor asked, turning to Jamie. "It just turns out that way, you know."

"That hasn't happened that much, has it?" Zoe asked, glancing back and forth between the two guys.

"Well, not too much…" The Doctor started to say.

"It has happened quite a bit." Jamie remarked. "First with Ben and Polly, then Victoria, and now with you."

"Jamie. Please don't contradict me like that." The Doctor said, slightly huffy. "It doesn't happen all of the time."

"You have been with the Doctor for awhile, haven't you?" Zoe remarked.

"I can't get rid of him, you know, we're stuck together." The Doctor said. "Best of friends, right?"

"Yes, well, I don't have any place else to go." Jamie remarked. "Home is far away and a long, long time ago. I don't want to get lost out here without a way back. Plus, I do enjoy traveling with him, even though it is quite dangerous, and he can't get my face right when I was jumbled up like a puzzle!"

"The nose was a problem, I do have to admit. I just couldn't get the nose right. Or the eyes. Or the hair. But I was close, right?" The Doctor asked.

"Right enough, and you did eventually get it right, thanks to Zoe, I bet." Jamie remarked.

"You're quite welcome." Zoe said, smiling.

"Even she knows me better than…" Jamie muttered.

"Hold on, just a moment." The Doctor said, glancing up at the screen. "There. We've landed. Come on." He said, heading for the door, grabbing his felt hat on the way.

"Where are we? When are we?" Zoe asked as she and Jamie raced over.

"Earth, London, the year 2008, if I'm not mistaken." The Doctor said as he walked out of the TARDIS and glanced around with the other two following after him. "Yes, this does look familiar. I was around here, at this time period, not that long ago. That was a grand adventure and a half." He remarked as Zoe wandered down the sidewalk a little bit, glancing into windows.

"London, 2008…that's a little over forty years since we were here last." Jamie said, shaking his head. "Amazing. It doesn't look half bad. That Professor Edward Travers, he was talking about some kind of war with the Russians that was going to destroy half the planet, but I don't think…"

"Hey, you two, come over here!" Zoe called, waving them over to a shop window. "This looks interesting."

The Doctor and Jamie came over as Jamie looked at all of the items on display in the window and then stared up at the sign. "What type of store is this? What are they selling?"

"Books, Jamie." The Doctor remarked. "Books have gotten better cover designs over the years. Some of them are already available on tablets as well, like…miniature computers with television screens."

"Oh." Jamie said, recalling some of the vague future technological innovations that he had seen.

"Which one are you pointing at?" The Doctor asked.

"This one, Starry Highlands." Zoe said and grinned. "Look at the name, is that…"

"Victoria?" Jamie said, seeing the name as well.

"Oh, yes." The Doctor said, nodding. "Mr. and Mrs. Harris adopted her, she's now Victoria Wakefield-Harris." Zoe slipped inside the store, meanwhile, and picked up one of the copies on display as she flipped through it.

"But that's…2008. And she was born in the 1800s!" Jamie said, astonished. "What year was it when you dropped her off after the sea-base fiasco?"

"1988 or so. It's been twenty years, Jamie." The Doctor said.

"Twenty years? Has she aged?" Jamie asked.

"Of course she has. Everybody ages." The Doctor said, glancing down as Jamie stared at him in shock.

Zoe opened the bookstore door and read aloud from Victoria's book, so that both Jamie and the Doctor could hear her, "'And so I stood there on the gray shore of the north, the tide rolling in and out as always with its grating roar as my highlander rode away,'" Zoe paused as Jamie felt a lump in his throat, "'back to higher ground near heaven in his village by the loch, while I remained by the tranquil bay, free of fear and yet of so much more. The End.'" Zoe said, closing the book. "She's here, you know." She whispered.

"What?" Jamie asked as the Doctor looked up.

"A book signing today." Zoe said, pointing at the sign displaying the time, date, and author's photograph. "Do you want to go?"

Jamie stared at the picture of Victoria, aged twenty years, but still the sweet-faced young woman that he had known not that long ago…the Doctor and Zoe glanced at each other before Jamie whispered, "All right. Let's go see her."

Victoria was starting to get a little tired, her hands ached, but she continued scribbling out her name as best she could for one customer-uh, reader-after another, hoping to get a break soon. As another book was laid down before her, she asked, "Who do I make it out to?"

"Jamie." The voice said and she stopped, staring up at…him. And the Second Doctor. And another young woman, standing right behind him. But she was focused on the two boys, who hadn't aged a day since she had last seen them. Her two crazy, hair-brained boys, she used to think of them, out on another adventure in the Doctor's TARDIS…Jamie and the Doctor.

"How long has it been?" Victoria asked him.

"Not very." Jamie said, staring at her. "I'm sorry."

"Time travel for you." Victoria said with a smirk. "It's been long enough for me. Hello, Doctor."

"Hello, Victoria." He said, waving at her as the other woman glanced around, probably feeling awkward about this whole encounter.

"Are you doing okay?" Jamie asked her.

"I'm fine enough. It's been a few hectic years, a lot of alien activity. I've made some friends who used to travel with the Doctor, though. I met Ben and Polly." Victoria said, grinning.

"You did?" Jamie asked, astonished. "How are they?"

"They're married. Ben was an admiral before he retired, Polly used to write columns for the newspaper. They've had some trouble recently, Ben was a little glum and agitated after he met…well, another Doctor."

"Oh dear." The Second Doctor said. "I hope I didn't upset him too much."

"What does that mean?" Jamie asked.

"Did Ben and Polly ever tell you about how the first Doctor that they met changed into this Doctor?" Victoria asked.

"Yes, they did, although it was kind of vague." Jamie said, frowning. "They said he changed. They weren't sure he was the Doctor, but…"

"Well, he's done that, a lot, or he will do that a lot in his future." Victoria remarked. "This Doctor here, he is…the Second Doctor?"

"Yes, thereabouts." He said.

"And there have been eleven Doctors, all gathered in one place, from the First Doctor that Ben and Polly met to the Eleventh Doctor. Eleven Doctors, Jamie. Your Doctor is just one of the first, quite young, as a matter of fact." Victoria said.

"My Doctor…is young?" Jamie said, staring at the other fellow in shock.

"Relatively young. I'm not even middle-age. I do get older. Although I look younger when I get older. Which is quite fascinating, I really must explore that more." The Second Doctor said.

"This is insane." Jamie said.

"Nothing's impossible with him, you should know that by now," Victoria said, and then softened. "It has been good seeing you again, Jamie."

"You, too," He said, lowering his head and shuffling his feet slightly.

"Doctor?" Zoe called and they turned their heads. "What is that?"

They stared at the strange alien creatures dressed in suits that staggered across the bookstore floor, followed by a middle-aged woman in a dress suit, with dark lipstick and eye-shadow, hair gathered in a bun on top of her head, and wearing an eye-patch. "What a touching reunion." The woman, Madame Kovarian, smiled and then frowned. "Take them." She hissed at the alien creatures, who staggered forward once more.

I know...but I finally came up with some villain ideas! Stay tuned.