Hi, guys! Sorry for the late post! I had writer's block all afternoon XD. Anyway, this chapter is sort of a fill-in, especially towards the end. Hope you all like it ^_^

Chapter 22: Arguments/Conversations

Our optimism and confidence was renewed instantly as the Doctor became more and more like his original self, bustling about, picking up bits and pieces and working on the satellite. Rose and Martha made sure River was okay, as she was unconscious, while I started tidying up the room just as I used to tidy up the TARDIS back home.

Again, thinking of home left a dull ache in my chest and I hoped that everything would work out and I could go back. I amused myself by imagining the Doctor's ecstatic face when I returned, and hoped he hadn't ripped up more of the TARDIS.

I was just putting the last few (now washed) tea cups onto a shelf when a loud and angry voice made me nearly drop them.

"Honestly, Doctor! You took your bloody time opening that door!"

River had woken up.

The Doctor turned, looking like a kid who had just been caught doing something naughty. "Well…I was kind of having a nap…"

"You didn't hear us breaking the door down?" she demanded, getting to her feet and stomping over to him, fixing him with her best impression of his Oncoming Storm look.

He seemed to shrink back from that look and I struggled not to laugh. I noticed the others were similarly trying. Mickey was doubled up with silent chuckles.

"Oi! It wasn't exactly my fault! I thought I was dreaming at first! You lot are the first visitors I've had in months, you dumbo!" He shouted.

Everyone gasped; he sounded so much like Donna! I'd forgotten that he had some of her human nature (pun intended) in him. We couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into laughter. He turned pink.

River flicked him on his forehead. "You are an idiot."

We couldn't stop for several minutes before, gasping, we all returned back to what we were doing. I glanced over at Mickey and saw numbers and symbols all over the computer screen that even I, who had studied computers a lot in school, couldn't make head or tail of them.

"Any luck?" I asked him as I moved past, folding a few ties over my arm. God! The Doctor was messier half human than he was full Time Lord!

"A bit." He replied. "It's one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It'll take at least another hour."

"Wow." I muttered, impressed that he had even made any progress. "Good luck."

River was now pressing her little device that looked like a tablet against the door. "They're gone." She announced, referring to the Xenomorphs, before going over to the Doctor and correcting him on several parts of his contraption, much to his annoyance.

Martha and Rose were discussing what they were going to do once the Earth was free.

"First of all, I'm going to paint my whole house white!" Rose cried. "I'm sick of the black and dark green that these things have infested us with!"

"I agree." Martha said. "But the first thing I'm going to do is get my family back together."

"Of course! I can't wait to see my family again!"

They continued in that manner and I decided not to bother them. I went and sat down against the door, pondering my own actions after our plan, if it worked, was carried out. Would the TARDIS bring me straight back? And what about this universe's Talia? Where was she? Was she dead? Something told me 'no' to the last one, but I didn't know if that was true or not.

To my surprise, Sarah-Jane came and took a seat next to me.

"You're so much like her, you know." she commented as though reading my mind. "Our Talia. She was exactly like you. Brave, loyal and intelligent."

I supposed that was a compliment. "Thank you. I think we must be very similar."

Sarah-Jane nodded. "Yes. But she was also sadder than you, I think, because she had lost her parents. Yours are back in your own world waiting for you, as well as your Doctor. I've got nothing against him." She added, indicating the Doctor standing by the satellite. "But he is only part Time Lord. If something goes wrong, he cannot regenerate."

She sighed.

"But besides that he's the same as the other Doctor." I said, trying to perk her up. "He's just as witty, just as intelligent and just as old, even though he won't live longer than the average human."

"Yes, I suppose, and I am happy that Rose has at least got him. She has been so different since the other one was captured. I was so worried for her. And then you came." She turned to me and her eyes were shining with renewed hope. Although that put more pressure on me, her appreciation brought tears to my eyes. "You came like a miracle and now it seems like we will finally be free again."

Trying not to let the tears fall, I nodded. "I promise, Sarah-Jane, I will do whatever I can to reunite you and your son."

She smiled. "Thank you." Then her face turned grave again. "We're going to have to say goodbye to you, aren't we? When this is all done?"

I nodded sadly. "Unfortunately, yes. But don't give up hope. If your Talia is not dead, you can find her, too!"

She opened her mouth to respond when there was a small explosion, filling the room with black smoke.

"Sorry, sorry!" The Doctor cried out. "Just a minor malfunction!"

"Minor malfunction?" River's confronting voice answered him from somewhere in the smoke. She coughed before continuing. "I told you not to put it there!"

"No you didn't." the Doctor stubbornly refused as the smoke cleared. He was glaring at River, both eyebrows pulled into a single lined frown.

"Of course I did, sweetie, but as usual you weren't listening!" River snapped back.

As their argument continued, getting absolutely nothing done, I giggled and turned to Sarah-Jane. "Say me old River, same old Doctor, same old fights."

"Does it happen back in your universe?" she asked.

"Sort of." I answered, deciding not to go into the Eleventh Doctor at that moment. "How much longer before everything's ready?" I called out to River.

"If he listened to me, about half an hour." She replied. "Because he won't…who knows?"

The Doctor pursed his lips. "Oi! It's my idea! My equipment! I think it would be nice if you were just a smidgen nicer yourself!" he then turned to me and grinned. "Not long, to answer your question. I've just got to recalibrate this."

He held up what looked like a blue bendy neon bracelet. He shook it and it promptly started glowing.

"What's that?" Rose asked, approaching. So did the rest of us. I couldn't understand what he had to recalibrate; the thing didn't have any buttons or metal parts, and he didn't exactly have his screwdriver.

"The one thing from the screwdriver I still have." He replied gleefully.

"But earlier you said you didn't have any sonic equipment!" Martha cried accusingly.

"I thought I didn't." he corrected. "I found this earlier stuffed underneath the bed and remembered that I'd kept it in a pocket after disassembling the sonic…"

"Get to the point, what's it for?" Rose knew better than to let him continue his monologue.

"Well, it's the part of the screwdriver that made it sonic. All the other stuff gave it the rest of its functions, but this was the part relative to sound! That's why if I attach this correctly to the satellite, and Mickey over there can get into the psychic network, this might actually work."

We all thought it was the best news we had had all day. Mickey seemed to increase his efforts to crack the network and the Doctor and River finally stopped arguing and worked together. I struck up a conversation with the rest of the girls when they asked where I had been with the Doctor.

I was just explaining about the Sahara Desert when a voice behind me cried, "Talia!"

I looked up, but the Doctor was engrossed in his experiment. But then who…

Turning around, I was shocked to see another Doctor behind me, only this one was fuzzy around the edges, see-through and kept blinking like a dodgy television.

"I got through! I'm sorry, it'll only last about a minute but I had to see if you were okay!" he cried.

I could do little more than stare at him. The back of my mind realised that no-one else was and, instantly, an answer appeared; this was a psychic message and no-one else could see or hear it. I was even unconsciously speaking psychically. Even though he kept blinking in and out of existence, I could see that there were dark shadows under his eyes and his suit had several burn marks on it. He had obviously not slept or left the TARDIS alone since I'd left.

"I'm – I'm fine." I gasped. "How…?"

"The TARDIS." He explained. There was a wild, desperate look in his eyes as he gazed at me and I had the funny feeling that he was close to destroying the poor girl just to get to me. "I'm sort of doing what I did for Rose, but I'm not burning up a star to do it." Just then he spotted Rose and mouthed her name, his expression getting, if possible, even more frazzled.

"It's a different Rose." I said quickly, aware of our short time span. "Not ours."

He seemed sad, but then turned back towards me. "I hope everything's going okay with you. If it were up to me, you'd be back here right now, but it's not. Stupid time machine!"

"Doctor!" I cried, shocked. "It's not her fault! I have to help them. Look, everything's going well. We're going to succeed, I know it, and she'll bring me back in no time."

"B-but what if you get hurt between now and then?"

In that moment, I realised quite how much he cared about me. Everything, from his obviously sleepless nights, to his frantic look, suddenly made sense. I wished I could hug him and tell him I would always be alright.

"I can take care of myself, Doctor." I reminded him.

"I know you can, but…" he trailed off as the connection got even fuzzier. "Oh no! Ten seconds! Sorry, Talia, I wish I could stay! Good luck!"

He said something else that sounded suspiciously like 'I love you', but it was lost. Oh come on, I thought, am I only going to get to hear him say it once?

I blinked and he was gone completely. Then I realised that everyone was staring at me.

"Sorry, guys!" I said quickly. "Psychic message from home."

I have to apologise, too, because I might not be able to update tomorrow morning :(. If not, I will definitely update some time during the day. It's only because I'm writing the chapters now. There should only be one or two more chapters of this part, however, and then I've got some more pre-written ones XD.