It was unbelievable how easy it had been to convince the military-looking men to give them a ride. Hell, all Amy had done was march up to them and introduce herself – though, she'd called herself Amelia Williams-Pond – and one of the soldier's eyes had widened and the next thing any of them knew, they were being loaded into the back of a truck with a milk company logo on the side.

The ride was awkward and silent, though at least most of the looks Steve was getting felt curious instead of angry.

Half an hour later, the truck finally stopped and they piled out into a small underground parking garage. There was a woman with large black plastic glasses wearing a brown leather coat and a long multi-coloured scarf waiting for them surrounded by several more United Nations soldiers. Who looked oddly familiar...

"Well, if it isn't our illusive UN liaison!" Tony declared as he climbed out of the back of the truck.

The woman smiled crookedly at him. "Hello, Mister Stark."

And then someone gasped. Steve turned to Amy. "Osgood!" she cried, looking delighted. "Does that mean you're here with Kate Stewart's team?"

The UN liaison grinned. "Amy, Rory, it's good to see both of you again," she said. "And, yes, I am. After our US headquarters were blown up by Kang, UNIT had to scramble to deploy a new team and Kate's was the most ready to hop a flight to the US. She's busy upstairs coordinating attack plans, but she's very excited to see you again."

With a bland, yet somehow still sincere, smile, Osgood then turned to Steve. "Don't worry, both of your teams are also upstairs. Everyone's of the opinion that we have more important things to concentrate on than the aftermath of the Sokovia Accords."

Steve nodded, letting his shoulders sag slightly in relief. "Are they alright?" he asked.

She hesitated. "They're all alive," she said in a tone that made Steve's throat close up.

"Who?" he asked, dreading the answer.

"Wanda Maximoff. She nearly burned herself out in order to buy everyone else enough time to escape. We managed to arrive just in time to momentarily drive off Kang's forces and extract her, but she's currently in a coma."

He clenched his fist and took a single, controlled breath. And then another.

"So, if your New York headquarters were destroyed, where is this?" he heard Rory ask and was happy for the distraction.

"One of our local, ah, contacts has been kind enough to let us use this building as a temporary headquarters."

"That was very generous of them," said Tony.

"Yes, it was," she said, her eyes lighting up with humour. "Anyway, the soldiers will finish up down here while I take you upstairs."

Four soldiers fell into step beside them, escorting them towards a service elevator. Steve automatically took them in, glanced at each of their faces so that he'd be able to recognize them later. And then he blinked and did a double-take. One of the soldiers' shifted his gaze and met his shocked eyes. He smirked at Steve before his face went blank once more and he looked straight ahead.

Steve looked over to the other side where the soldier's twin was walking beside Osgood.

"So... is this a special branch of UNIT or have you taken up cloning?" Amy asked as they stepped into the elevator.

Steve saw the moment Tony realized the nameless soldiers in the elevator with them were in fact two sets of identical twins. His double-take was hilarious.

Osgood merely shrugged. "A lot's happened since you were gone in... when were you exactly? Only the Doctor was never specific."

Rory was the one to answer. "1944," he said. "Well, technically the Weeping Angel assassin sent us to 1934 and then we lived there for ten years."

"The tale end of the depression and then World War Two? Ouch. Still, there are worse parts of history you could've ended up in, I suppose."

"Thankfully we just missed prohibition."

And that, Steve suddenly realized, was the closest any of them had come to actually admitting that Amy and Rory had come from the twenty-first century. As he watched the numbers on the elevator display continue to slowly increase, he tried to imagine what that must've been like. When he'd woken up in the twenty-first century it had been to a completely foreign world, a world that had moved on while he'd slept, progressed. Amy and Rory had done the opposite, gone to a world they'd read about in history books.

Dear God, they'd known the war was coming. Not just predicted: known.

What had that been like, waiting for the day that Hitler began his invasion of Europe? Had they been tempted to warn people about Pearl Harbor? And Timothy, the enthusiastic Captain America fan: had they been bracing themselves for the day that the radio announced his hero's death?

The elevator doors finally opened, shaking Steve out of his train of thought.

Osgood led them into a large conference room. The first thing Steve noticed was the large flatscreen television mounted on the far wall, wires coming out of it that hooked into a brown and yellow device that looked a bit like an extra large squashed football. In front of the screen was a blonde woman wearing a well-cut, but nonetheless modest-looking dark grey suit. Steve blinked as he realized it wasn't a video, but that she was in fact talking to a group of people on a three-way split-screen display.

"Oh, hey, they managed to take down the signal jammer," said Tony as he came to stand beside him. Steve could see him eyeing the device hooked up to the TV curiously.

"Uh, yeah, not quite," a familiar voice interrupted their thoughts.

Steve blinked and looked towards the voice, suddenly realizing there was a large conference table in the room, well-stocked with food and a large tray of coffee. Tony, apparently also just noticing the table, made a sound of excitement and immediately headed for the nearest coffee carafe. Steve, meanwhile, shook his head in amusement and walked over to where Scott Lang was sitting next to an unfamiliar dark-haired woman.

Scott sent him a small wave in greeting. Steve smiled in response.

"Scott, it's good to see you," said Steve. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Amy and Rory walking over to the blonde lady.

"Hey, Cap," Scott answered. "I'm pretty sure that's my line. I just wish I'd been there yesterday to help."

"It's okay, none of us were expecting Kang to attack us so quickly. Did you meet up with your contact?"

Scott jumped at the question, scrambling backwards to give Steve a better view of the woman sitting next to him. "Oh, yeah, I did," he said and then gestured to her. "Cap, this is Hope Pym. Hope, this is Steve Rogers. She's uh..."

"I'm the Wasp," she finished coolly, her sharp eyes obviously assessing him. After a moment, she stood and held her hand out to him. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Captain Rogers."

Steve reached out and shook her hand. "The pleasure is mine Ms Pym. But, please, call me Steve."

She smiled in amusement. "Steve, then."

"Wait, Hope Pym?" Tony suddenly cut in. "As in, the daughter of Hank Pym of Pym Industries?"

Hope raised an eyebrow at Tony. "Yes, that would be me. And you're Tony Stark, son of Howard Stark, the man who pissed my father off enough to make him leave SHIELD."

Tony blinked. "Pym was part of SHIELD? How did I not know that? Actually, no, you know what, nevermind. I didn't even know my father was a part of SHIELD until I built the Iron Man and Fury decided it was worth his time to tell me. Anyway, more importantly, if they haven't taken down Kang's jammer, how the hell are they video conferencing?"

Scott shrugged. "Uh, as far as I can tell UNIT's using that funky signal amplifier on our end to receive the signal, but it's mostly the other guys who've got the connection going. They weren't really talking enough technicals for me to figure out exactly what they were doing, but I gather the lady, Sarah-Jane has a guy named Mister Smith who managed to calculate a frequency they could use to get a signal through and then the other three used some sort of rift or something to amplify the signal and connect it to New York. They're in, uh, Cardiff, I think."

"Mister Smith?" Tony asked. "That's all you got? Mister Smith?! That couldn't possibly sound more like a fake alias if they tried."

Scott shrugged.

"Just make sure you don't mistake him with Mickey Smith, who is one of the blokes in Cardiff," Osgood interjected brightly, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "The English one. Also not to be mistaken with John Smith, who is an entirely different person altogether and there in spirit only. And Sarah-Jane is last name Smith as well. In short, there are a lot of Smiths in that conversation."

"So... Mister Smith is Sarah-Jane's husband?" Tony tried.

"Nope, not even close." Osgood sent Tony an amused smirk and then walked off to join Amy, Rory and the blonde woman.

Steve couldn't help his growing sense of confusion. He turned back to Scott. "What in the world is going on here?!"

Hope snickered.

"Okay, so I only got there after it was all over," Scott started. "But Wanda did some sort of super-mojo and forced Kang's, uh, floaters back while Vision distracted Kang. Then these UNIT guys showed up and evaced us the hell outta there and let me tell you, they had an actual solid escape plan and everything. Anyway, from what we can tell, Kang called his goons back shortly after we got outta there and those four smaller ships flew away. A little while ago, Sarah-Jane there confirmed that two were now above London, one hovering above Washington and the fourth's in Moscow."

Tony frowned. "The cities they're not expecting to co-operate?" he asked.

Scott shrugged. "Maybe. Either way, we've got one more day to come up with a plan and so far we've got next to nothing."

Steve looked over to the screen. "Maybe we don't, but maybe we do."

He saw Tony look over to the video conference. "Hm. They did seem to think we'd need their help, like they knew something we didn't..."

"Who are they?" Hope asked them, eyeing the group – and especially the three children who were watching the video conference with wide, amazed eyes. Like they'd never seen such a crisp, brightly coloured picture on a TV before.

Steve could identify with that awe.

Tony snorted. "That is the million dollar question. And, spoilers, but an ordinary family from the 1940s they most certainly are not."

"WHAT?!"

They all jumped at the loud exclamations from the television. On-screen four wide-eyed faces were staring down at Amy and Rory.

"Case in point, whatever said case or said point might be," Tony said before refilling his coffee cup and then casually walking over to where he could more easily eavesdrop on the conference.

Steve hesitated for only a moment before following.

Amy entered the conference room just behind Steve and Tony, sparing a glance for the strangers sitting at the end of the table before heading over to where Kate Stewart was conducting a video conference. Behind her, she could hear Rory telling the children to have a seat at the table and grab some food. Part of her wanted to go back and reassure them, make sure they were doing okay.

The other part of her was still reeling from her first sight of the giant ship hovering above New York, backlit by the bright white light from the crack stretching out across the sky. This was the part of her that knew time was no longer a luxury they had in abundance.

"And how long do you think it will take Mister Smith to hack the ship's systems?" Kate was saying.

The television screen was divided into two three sections. The first one showed a man in a UNIT Commander uniform, the second a group of four people who looked like they were staring down at the screen inside some sort of warehouse, and the third showed a woman not too much older than Amy herself sitting down with a backdrop of warm, peach-coloured walls, a green armchair and a bookshelf full of books and various knick-knacks.

It was the woman who replied to Kate's question: "Well, with the rift amplifying his signal, Mister Smith should be able to connect with the ships remotely, however we don't actually know anything about their systems..." She glanced to the side as she trailed off, her eyes moving as though she were reading something. Then she looked back to the camera. "Mister Smith says it shouldn't take him more than twenty-four hours, assuming Kang's men can't trace our signal and don't know about the rift."

"I doubt it," one of the men in the middle window said, his accent surprisingly American. "The Time Agency kept its existence pretty hush-hush. It's wasn't exactly top-secret, but only mid-to-high-level field agents were actively told about it. Unless Kang's lying about what time period he's from, not sure what purpose it would serve, although it would explain how he has time travel technology to begin with..."

"I thought you said he probably scavenged it," said one of the women beside him with a frown. She was dark-skinned with long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was also holding a rather formidable-looking alien weapon in her hands.

The man made a face. "That's my best theory, yeah, but it's not like I can google him or consult wikipedia."

"His real name is Nathaniel Richards and he was born on one of the Moon Colonies," Amy cut in.

The American frowned. "Wait, Nataniel Richards? As in the son of Kyle and Natalie Richards?"

Amy shrugged. "Not a clue. I'm just the messenger."

"Who are Kyle and Natalie Richards?" Kate asked.

"Oh, uh, they were botanists. They specialized in agricultural preservation, came up with ways to grow nearly extinct Earth plants on other planets and even re-created strains that had been lost." He grinned. "Thanks to them, the banana was able to make a come-back. And the tomato. I mean, others later used their methods to bring back a bunch of other fruits, vegetables and grains, but those are the two I can think of that they were definitely directly responsible for. They also revolutionized deep-space hydroponics with what was then called the Rich Water Method, which is how I remember their names."

He paused. "Unfortunately, I can't really tell you anything about their son."

"Still, botany is a bit far removed from time travel," Sarah-Jane commented. Then she look to Amy. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name, but you said you're fairly certain the technology isn't his?"

Kate smiled and placed a hand on Amy's shoulder. "I apologize for the late introduction," she said. "This is Amy Williams-Pond and her husband Rory. Like most of you, they're former traveling companions of the Doctor."

Amy's head snapped to Kate and then back to the screens where the motley group was looking at them with even more curiosity than before.

"Actually, technically we're his in-laws," said Rory casually as he put his arm around her.

"WHAT?!"

Amy rolled her eyes at her husband while the people on and off-screen gaped at them.

"The Doctor married?!" the dark-skinned woman finally said incredulously.

"When did that happen?" added the American.

"It's a long story," said Amy.

"It always is with the Doctor," said Sarah-Jane. "I don't suppose you've got any way to contact him then?"

"Once my phone's charged again, I will," said Amy.

"Oh, you've got one of those modified phones of his too then," said the dark-skinned woman. She frowned. "Mine got destroyed by an alien blaster a few years back, but I don't ever remember it dying on me."

Amy shrugged. "I haven't had a charger for it in ten years. It's really only sentimentality that I still own it at all. It was our last tie to the twenty-first century and, well, I could never quite make myself throw it out."

She felt Rory squeeze her shoulder and she brought her hand up to squeeze his hand, smiling up at him as she did so. It hadn't been easy, getting used to living in the thirties, but they'd had each other.

"So, Kang," he gently prompted her.

Amy shook herself out of her musing. "Right, Kang," she said. "His goal is to change the future. Obviously. The problem is that while he has time travel technology, he doesn't actually understand time travel. You know, the rules of what he can or cannot do. Like the reason why you shove Hitler into a storage cupboard instead of killing him."

"The twenty-first century is when everything changes," said the American, his eyes widening with dawning understanding. "By taking over the world he's casting too many ripples, disrupting too many fixed points in time. Shit."

"Okay, so this kinda sounds important," said Tony Stark, who was suddenly beside her looking irritated. "Someone wanna explain what you're talking about in something other than coded gibberish? Also, that Hitler story? You are so telling it if I have to tie you to a chair and employ tickle torture."

Several people on-screen rolled their eyes, but it was the American who once again took up the explanation. "Contrary to contemporary popular belief, time isn't a linear progression. The past and the future both affect the present and are interconnected like a..."

He trailed off as he searched for the correct words.

"Big ball of wibbly wobbly timey whimey," the dark-skinned woman interjected.

The American looked over his shoulder at her. "That sounds like something the Doctor would say." She nodded and he turned back to the screen. "We'll go with that. Anyway, within this ball there are a lot of things that can be changed, or altered and it's no big deal, the timeline adjusts and everything moves on. But, there are also certain events that absolutely have to happen in order for the timeline to continue without becoming an alternate universe of itself. 'Cause, yeah, alternate universes might exist, but when they start to overlap and collide you end up with a really big problem, which is what Kang's grand plan threatens to do. If he changes history and disrupts those Fixed Points in Time, the timeline could fracture."

"Not could, has," said Amy quietly. She pointedly looked out the window. "I'd say we have about two days at most." She looked back to the group. "The world has already cracked. If we don't stop Kang within the next two days or so, the timeline will shatter."

Every eye in the room stared at her in stunned silence.

"Fuck me, you can see it?!" said the American. "I didn't think that was possible."

Amy shrugged. "I grew up with a crack between time and space in my bedroom wall. Now I guess that means I can see them."

"That must be the time anomaly Kang's sensors detected," said Tony thoughtfully. Then he shook his head. "You'd think the difference between Cap here and a big-ass crack in the sky would be sort of obvious. Anyway, I'm out of the loop, what's the plan again?"

"Amy charges her phone and then calls the Doctor," said Kate. "In the meantime, Mister Smith will work on hacking the ships' systems and bringing down their shields."

"And we'll drive down to London where we'll meet up with UNIT command," the American added. "Once those shields come down, Martha and I will teleport to the ships and attempt to disable their weapons, or take them over, whatever, while Mickey and Gwen help UNIT deal with those guys in the hover chairs."

Amy raised an eyebrow at the word 'teleport', wondering if they were using a wrist device like River's or whether they had something else entirely.

Kate nodded. "Colonel," she said to the UNIT officer. "Have you heard from Torchwood One yet?"

The officer straightened. "Yes, ma'am, they're prepping ordinance as we speak and running checks to ensure all systems are green to go should they be needed."

"Good. Not that I want to have to shoot those things down on top of a populated city, of course, but I want to be prepared for any and all eventualities. Osgood is still negotiating with the London Elders I take it?"

"I haven't heard from her yet, ma'am, so I can only assume so."

Amy frowned and then looked to where Osgood was standing to Rory's left. Osgood smiled at her reassuringly.

"Wait, isn't the UN liaison named Osgood?" she heard Steve ask Tony quietly.

"Oh my God, is that Captain America?!" the American on the screen practically squealed.

Steve jumped and looked back up to the TV screen with wide startled eyes. "Uh, yeah."

"Oh wow, I remember sneaking into one of the shows you did when you were in England! You were still wearing that bright blue get-up with the wings on the side of your head and that silly medieval shield. Aw, man, that moment when you lifted the motorcycle over your head... such a shame spandex hadn't been invented in the 40s yet–"

"–JACK!" the two women in the frame with him yelled.

"What? Oh, don't worry, I liked Union Jack too. His uniform wasn't nearly as form-fitting, but I have plenty of imagination to figure out the rest." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and the other three with him groaned.

"And here I thought we were going to manage a miracle," said Sarah-Jane dryly. "An entire conversation with Jack Harkness without a single sexual innuendo."

"That would be a miracle," said the dark-skinned man sitting next to the dark-skinned woman just as dryly. He then looked out at Steve. "Sorry, Captain, it's just that Jack is Jack and you've got two legs and are breathing."

"I'm not sure having more than two legs would actually deter Jack," said the pale-skinned woman with a very pronounced Welsh accent. "It just might make him hesitate for thirty seconds longer."

"Hmm, the Androxians have eight appendages," said Jack thoughtfully. Then he grinned suggestively. "There are a lot of things you can do with eight appendages."

Sarah-Jane rolled her eyes. "Fantastic," she said. "Look, my son should be home soon and I need to start getting dinner ready. Is there anything else or are we done here?"

"I think we're about done," said Kate. She looked at her watch. "We'll attempt to make contact again at oh nine hundred your time and then again at thirteen hundred. Should we fail to connect, then proceed whenever you're ready after fourteen hundred. Sarah-Jane, Mister Smith has until sixteen hundred to hack the ships. If he hasn't done so, then Colonel you are to proceed with a silent evacuation and then contact Torchwood and tell them to fire when ready."

"Understood," said Sarah-Jane. Then her eyes softened. "Good luck, Katie."

"Thank you. You too, all of you, good luck and god's speed."

"Yes, good luck," Amy added. She smiled at the people looking back at her from the TV screen. "When this is all over and Rory and I are back in England, we should all meet for a pint and swap stories."

The dark-skinned woman grinned. "Brilliant idea! I'm Martha Jones, by the way, and this is Mickey Smith. I think we'll be needing that pint when this is all over."

Mickey snorted. "Pint my arse. I'll be going straight for the whiskey, thank you."

Amy laughed. It didn't make the knot of dread in her stomach go away, but it did loosen it.

Author's Notes: If you've read any of my other works then you all know I love my in-story cameos. Like Marvel, Doctor Who just has a wonderful wealth of characters to choose from. Having said that, I'd just like to make clear that while I did enjoy Torchwood: Miracle Day for the most part I don't really consider it part of Doctor Who canon – more like something that happened in an alternate universe. I know, I know, crazy things happen within the new Doctor Who series that people at large seem to easily forget about all the time, but Miracle Day just disrupted the world and the series' continuity a little too much for my taste. It doesn't fit within the universe for me and so, as far as this story goes, it didn't happen.