Note, I made an error with Theo's brothers/family in an earlier chapter. What is stated here is the correct information and the previous chapter has been edited.

The waiting is agony.

Bill would never have thought that a room consisting of herself, Nardole, Jack Harkness and Clara Oswald would ever fall short of anything to say - but there's a first time for everything. She knows now, that sometimes, there are moments when most words would only seem hollow, like some kind of lie or denial of the circumstances.

And frankly, the four of them are well and truly done with withholdings of the truth at this point. Quiet isn't always honest, but this one is, almost desperately so.

It ends up being about half an hour before River comes back downstairs and finds them, which isn't really that long, but it feels like the longest half hour of Bill's life.

"Well, that was a lot like trying to talk to a brick wall," River jokes weakly upon her arrival. It doesn't reach her eyes. They're too sad.

"Are they okay?" Bill asks.

River gives a little shrug, a half smile on her lips that remains unconvincing. "They're together now. I think they need to be alone for a little while."

"You know what happened, between them and Saxon, don't you?" Nardole asks her.

Any pretence of a smile drops from her face.

"Yes, I do," she says quietly.

"And? You can't tell anything?"

River swallows. "Not my place." Her lip trembles and she crosses her arms like it'll hold in the emotion that's taken up on her. She lets out a shuddering breath and shuts her eyes. "The devil himself is going to have to help that man if he makes the mistake of getting within arm's reach of me."

"Are you alright?" Clara asks. "Probably a stupid question, but-"

"I'm fine," River replies. "For god's sake, don't worry about me."

Her phone starts ringing and she pulls it out. Her face grows pale.

"I'm sorry, I have to take this," she says, chewing her lip as she answers the call and puts the phone to her ear. "Hey." Her voice is quiet, unsure, and it seems like she bites her tongue at the last second to stop something else coming out, a name perhaps.

There's a pause.

"Yes, I'm with them." Another pause, and River bites her lip harder, closing her eyes. "No, you can't come here - no. Listen to me - no, we're not at the townhouse - no, I'm not lying, and don't you dare-"

River hangs up without warning, and she's wearing the strangest mix of guilt and exasperation on her face.

"Um, who the hell was that?" Jack asks her.

"Nobody, it doesn't matter," River mutters, already dialing another number and heading out of the room as it rings. "I'm handling it, it's nothing for you to worry about."

Jack gets up. "It's my job to handle it, and that sounded like a security threat to me-"

A strange sort of laugh escapes River at that. "Shut up and let someone who actually knows what she's talking about handle it, alright?" she tells him sharply, before leaving the room.

Jack stares after her. His hands clench briefly at his sides. "You know, I'm getting really sick of being left in the dark," he says, sighing. "I'm sure they have their reasons, but how the hell am I meant to do my job like this?"

"You'll figure it out, you always do," Clara tells him.

"I hope so."

River goes out not long after her phone calls, not disclosing where she's going and saying she'll be back some time later.

Ashildr arrives shortly after that, and Clara hugs them a lot longer than usual, which is absolutely fair enough and goes unquestioned by her usually sparingly physical partner. Upon finally letting go, Clara updates them on everything that had happened since the interview.

"Well shit," Ashildr says once she's done.

"Where have you been, anyway?" Bill asks them.

They shrug. "Around."

"Are you actually capable of giving answers to questions that aren't either pedantic or totally abstract?" Nardole asks, frowning at them.

Ashildr just grins. "I don't know, am I?"

Nardole rolls his eyes, and ruffles their hair, making them protest even though the grin doesn't leave their face.

They head into the kitchen to search for food, and find canned baked beans and spaghetti along with bread in the freezer, so a rudimentary lunch is created, thanks to Nardole.

River returns after about an hour and a half of being gone on her mysterious errand, and she finds them all easily enough, walking into the kitchen with that little confident swagger that Bill always has to admire.

"Everything's sorted," River says, with a little smile.

"You're seriously not going to say what the problem was? Or, I dunno, who it was?"

River simply shrugs and moves to get a glass of water. After downing it, she moved to a liquor cupboard and pours herself a measure of whiskey before downing that too.

Her phone pings and Ashildr glances at it.

"Whoever 'Trouble' is, they just texted you," they tell River flatly, before glancing at it again and rolling their eyes. "What a shocker, you don't have message previews. Never saw that one coming."

"Oh, that's Missy," River says, and grabs the phone, but moves away to reply.

Bill lifts an eyebrow. "If Missy is 'Trouble', then what's Theo?"

"'Husband', obviously," River replies without looking up. She's still typing, and a few more pings come in. "Alright, he's coming downstairs."

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Theo appears in the doorway. His eyes are a bit red, and he looks so stiff and exhausted that Bill just wants to hug him and never let go. But at least he seems to be still holding it together.

"Hey," he says quietly, doing his best at a smile.

"Hey," Clara says, coming up to him and hugging him, eliciting a noise of protest out of sheer base reaction before he properly registers and hugs her back with surprising fervour. "You okay?"

He doesn't reply, he just holds her tight. When he finally lets her go, he turns to River.

"Is everything really okay?" he asks.

River nods, and then rolls her eyes. "We almost had a crisis on our hands, but I had backup and neutralised the situation. Check in later, when you're feeling up to it."

"Okay, well, I hate to miss out on this super interesting and not at all coded conversation," Jack says as he gets up, his tone sarcastic and bitter, "but since I'm being told squat about what's going on, I'm going to go make Glastonbury preparations since I have to work around the giant gaping holes of shit I don't know because certain people think that their secrets are more important than their wellbeing."

"Jack," Theo says, stepping towards him, expression pained.

"No, look, you do whatever you got to do, Doc," Jack tells him, lifting his hands. "But I need to go and do what I got to do."

"Yeah, what he said," Clara murmurs, touching her hand to Theo's arm. "I'm glad you're… well, I hope you're okay. But we have a lot to do now. I'll catch you later."

"Okay," Theo says, and watches her follow Jack out. Ashildr, after several moments of consideration, heads to follow, with their only farewell a little mock salute at the group with their fingers.

Bill and Nardole remain, sitting at the kitchen counter with their mostly empty bowls of baked beans, River and Theo standing on the other side.

"Anyone else?" Theo asks, arching an eyebrow.

"Nah, I'm with you, always," Bill says, glancing up at him and giving him a little smile. "Besides, my job is to turn up and play, I need to practice with you lot, remember?."

"Same here," Nardole adds, smiling at Theo. "You're stuck with me."

Theo looks at them with soft eyes full of affection, and Bill gets up to hug him tightly. Nardole moves to join in.

"I'm sorry," Theo murmurs to them more than once, as he hugs them back. "Thank you both."

River and Theo go about making lunch together (though where they found the ingredients, Bill has no idea), falling into the natural flirting and bickering as they move around the kitchen. There's a strangely beautiful harmony to it; Bill can't quite take her eyes off how they move with a natural coordination, how they never bump into each other and seem to know where the other is going to go next.

It's a relief to see some light come back to Theo's eyes, to see them spark as he chuckles and rolls his eyes at some of his wife's more ridiculous lines.

Bill finds herself smiling, and she snaps a couple of shots of them being adorable when they're not looking, just to preserve for herself.

As she's moving them to her 'Private' folder on her phone, a text comes in.

Queen Bitch: come up?

Lesbian Princess: yeah sure, do you want any food from down here?

Queen Bitch: no, thank you, just you

Bill stares at the screen, and bites her lip as she tries to work out if the reply contains an innuendo. She can't be sure, but she supposes there's only one way to find out.

"Missy wants me to go up," Bill says, sliding out of the bar stool she's been sitting on.

Theo looks at her. "Understandable." She's almost to the door when he adds, "Bill" in a slightly strained voice, making her turn around and lift an eyebrow at him. "Look, you're an adult, I'm not going to tell you what to do, but - on the very small offchance she tries to… initiate something. You know. I don't think that's the best coping mechanism for you to encourage."

"Look, I know Missy and I have-" Bill pauses, and makes a face, "history. But her having sex with me to make me feel better isn't anything like this. I'm not stupid enough to think sex with me is going to help her with what looks to be some pretty serious emotional trauma."

Theo, unsurprisingly, seems immensely uncomfortable about having the conversation at all, but now also looks immensely relieved. "Glad to hear it. She knows that too, deep down, but she's not exactly at her most rational at the moment. I just thought I'd… make sure."

"Fair enough," Bill says awkwardly. "Right, well, I'm gonna go. Back in a bit, maybe."

She heads out of the kitchen, into the entrance hall, and up the stairs. She is fairly sure she remembers which bedroom is Missy's, and so heads down the corridor until she reaches it.

The door is shut, so she knocks.

"Hey, it's me."

"Come on in, then."

Bill opens the door, and sees Missy sitting up in her bed, a ukulele in her lap that she is absently strumming without looking at.

"You stealing my instruments now too?" Bill asks, shutting the door as she comes inside.

Missy snorts. "Hardly. You don't have ownership of ukes, you know. I was playing these before you were even born. Besides, this is not yours, this is mine. I didn't realise this was where I'd left it until today, though."

"And you figured now was the time to pick it back up?"

"I've hardly lost the knack," Missy says wryly. "But no. I just find it… comforting. It was a gift."

Bill comes to sit on the edge of the bed. "From who?"

Missy frowns at her. "Why on earth are you sitting so far away? I shuffled over to this side specifically so there'd be room for you to come sit next to me."

"Oh, right, sorry," Bill says, wondering if her evasion of the question about who had gifted her the ukulele had been deliberate or not.

Bill climbs up onto the bed properly, and sits so that there's less than an inch between their shoulders. Now that she's close, she can take a proper look at Missy.

Her eyes are red and raw, of course, and there's stains of dried tears on her cheeks. Her mascara has held up better than expected but is still smudged around her eyes, just not too badly (it sort of just looks like she's gone for a grunge look or something). Her hair is only a bit more of a mess than usual. Her right hand is now bandaged, much to Bill's relief.

Despite all this, she certainly seems more composed than earlier. Not shaking, not crying, not as horrifically quiet or the exact opposite.

"How are you doing?" Bill asks slowly.

Missy lets out a funny little snort. "How do you think?"

"I don't really know, since I don't know enough about the situation," Bill says pointedly, "and that isn't meant to be a guilt trip or anything, just a fact."

"Fair enough," Missy murmurs. Her fingers play a new little riff. There's something soft and aching and longing about it. It makes Bill think about Star Girl. Just for a brief, gut-wrenching moment.

"That's beautiful, did you write that?"

"What?" Missy stops playing, before glancing down at the ukulele. "Oh. Yes. Been mucking around this last hour or so. It's… helped."

"That's good, at least."

"I suppose."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Missy's phone rings, making Bill jump a little with surprise. It's resting on the covers between them. The screen reads Private Number. Missy stares at it, the strangest mix of pain and shame and longing sparking in her face. A moment later she looks at the ceiling, closing her eyes and looking like she's holding back more tears.

She picks up the phone and declines the call, biting down hard on her lip. She's shaking again.

"You don't want to talk to them?"

"Don't," Missy says softly, sighing as she sets the phone and then the ukulele on the bedside table. The ukulele she handles with an astounding care, more reverently than Bill has ever seen her treat anything.

When she looks back at Bill after doing so, a deep exhaustion has taken up in her, seemingly held back until now.

"Hold me?" she asks, quietly, only meeting her eyes for a moment before directing them at the bedspread.

Bill swallows, nods, and shuffles a bit so that they can lie down properly on the bed. She holds Missy to her tightly, feeling Missy's entire body shudder at the contact. Missy tucks her head into the crook of Bill's shoulder and murmurs a thank you of sorts.

"It's going to be okay," Bill tells her.

"Ever the optimist."

"Not sure that's true, actually. But it's going to be okay because we're going to make it okay. All of us. Anything else isn't an option."

Missy lifts her head to look at her with an odd kind of disbelief, and then lets out a derisive snort. "God, you people are ridiculous. How the hell did I end up friends with a bunch of valiant optimists?"

"Opposites attract?"

Missy lowers her head to kiss Bill's collarbone, and hums. "Probably."

Bill stiffens at the gesture, just a little. "Missy, I should probably make something clear. I am absolutely not having sex with you."

Missy pauses, and then makes an amused little noise against her skin. "That's alright. Probably for the best, even. Good girl for stopping me before I could properly get the idea in my head. You're just - very pretty. And soft. And lovely. It distracts one from sense."

"Well, thanks, but-"

"But you're right. Bad idea. This is fine. This is good. This is… better." Missy sighs a little. "This is what I needed. Thank you."

"Any time," Bill promises. "Seriously. I am fully available for cuddling, pretty much 24/7."

She glimpses a smile on Missy's lips. "Noted. You might come to regret offering that."

"Doubt it. You're a solid half of like, all the physical contact I get, and that scientifically means you're responsible for at least part of my mental wellbeing being fairly decent," Bill says.

"You know, my ego won't get that big if you just say 'it's okay, Missy, I like cuddling you too'."

"I like science."

"Me too. I'm just saying. A bit of direct language never hurt anyone."

"Oh my god, you did not seriously just say that, you of all people, with how you've been acting lately."

"Ah. Fair point."

"I can't believe you."

"Love you too, Pottsie."

"Hmph."

Eventually, Missy and Bill come downstairs and find River, Theo and Nardole laughing about some part of the Vegas story that Bill can't begin to grasp from the tiny bit she catches. They fall quiet when they see the new arrivals.

"Hey," River says, seeming to be aiming it as Missy specifically. There's something cautious about it.

"Hey yourself," Missy replies, similarly uncertain. "Um. Thanks. For what you did earlier. Dealing with-"

"Don't mention it," River says.

Missy nods, looking more than happy to never do so again.

She wanders to Theo's side and lingers in front of him like she doesn't quite know what to do, mouth slightly open as if to say something, hands knotted in front of her.

He gently takes her face in his hands and kisses her, chaste and lingering. He keeps his hands there afterwards. She blushes, just faintly, like a besotted schoolgirl, and he gives her a little grin. She grins back.

"Does anyone feel like Mario Kart?" she asks out of nowhere. "I'm sure we've still got a console around here somewhere, and I'm feeling a powerful need to destroy all of you."

"That sounds like a great idea, but I think I'll pass," River laughs.

"It sounds like you might have given Helen a bit of a fright when you left," Theo says to her. "Maybe you should go and give some kind of explanation. She's probably worried."

"Yes, you're probably right," River admits, and reaches to touch his arm. "Are you alright for me to go?"

"Yes," Theo promises, and kisses her hand. "Thank you for coming."

Missy, while this is going on, has climbed on top of the kitchen counter and is rummaging through an otherwise out of reach shelf.

"Missy, what the hell are you doing?" Bill asks.

"I just know I left it in - aha!" Missy holds out a cookie jar shaped like a cupcake.

Bill isn't really sure what she had been expecting but - oh.

The cupcake jar contains a giant bag of weed, which Missy is now waving over her head like the spoils of war. That makes much more sense.

"Seriously?" Bill asks.

Theo chuckles to himself. "This could be a very interesting combination with Mario Kart."

"Oh thank god, you do still remember to have fun," Missy says with relief, getting down from the bench and moving to kiss him firmly, with just enough tongue to make Bill avert her eyes and River say a final farewell on her way out of the room.

"I never said I encouraged this idea," Theo tells her with exasperation. "But really, Koschei, how have I known you?"

"Oh, an immeasurable amount of time, surely," Missy says with a smirk.

"Right," he says sarcastically. "Well, since we were eight? So what, forty two years?"

"Look, you might be fifty, but I prefer 'ageless goddess of chaos'," Missy remarks. "But sure. Forty two years. Your point?"

"Point is, we've in that time fought about just about every possible thing there is to fight about, and even invented a few more just for the hell of it," Theo says, snorting. "And by now, I know how to recognise the rare instance of my facing a battle I have no hope of winning."

"I know this is meant to be all deep and philosophical, but honestly it's just sounding like you know I'm going to beat you at Mario Kart and want to be able to blame the weed," Missy says, cocking an eyebrow at him.

Theo scoffs, but Bill recognises it as the one he does whenever he is trying to lie to Nardole about not doing whatever questionable thing Nardole has caught him doing. That thing is often Missy, actually.

There's one more thing in this exchange that is a bit more interesting than that, though.

"What did he call you? Koschei?" Bill asks, frowning.

Theo flushes a bit. "Didn't mean to."

Missy smiles oddly. "Oh, that. Have you never wondered why I sometimes call him Thete? It's not a derivative of Theo, exactly, it's from Theta."

"The Greek letter?" Nardole asks with confusion.

"Exactly," Missy says. "It was a game we played as kids. He was Theta, and I was Koschei, and we had this whole wide universe to explore. We were fancy alien nobility and went off to wage war on-"

"You wanted to wage war, I just wanted to go exploring with you," Theo mumbles.

Missy rolls her eyes. "Anyway, it was a right good time, and the names have stuck a bit. We also managed to rope his brothers into playing a bit. Max indulged us a lot more than we expected, and actually got really into it - but he'd deny it if any adults came along. Couldn't have the eighteen year old be seen to be having fun, after all."

"He was Maximus Petullion, in our world," Theo recalls, grinning. "I think he got the name from some old Roman musician or something. History nerds, you know?"

"His name actually is Maximus anyway though, right?" Bill asks.

"Yep," Missy says with delight. "Irving, Maximus, and Theodore. Our one here got away lightly, I think."

"What's Irving like, anyway?"

Theo shrugs. "Pretentious older brother. Suit, stupid moustache. Occasionally bailing Max and I out of trouble. I dunno. Anyway, he's a lawyer, hence the suit, in case you needed any idea of how boring he is."

"Isn't he our lawyer?" Missy asks.

"No, he's my lawyer, because I believe he said he wouldn't go near any of your possible wrongdoings with a ten foot pole," Theo says, making Nardole laugh with delight.

"There's something weirdly adorable about you being the baby brother," Bill says, grinning. "It suits you."

Missy ruffles his hair fondly. "It does, doesn't it?"

"Not that I'm not loving this conversation, but can we light that stuff up or what? Now that you've put it in my mind, it's all I want to do," Nardole says, eyeing the bag in Missy's hands.

"I'll roll two if you lot get the console set up," Missy promises, fluttering her eyelashes for an extra effect of undetermined purpose.

"Don't flutter your eyelashes at me, Missy, you know it'll get you nowhere," Nardole grumbles, even as he gets out of his seat and heads for the lounge, Theo following him.

"Staying to see my tongue at work, Pottsie?" Missy asks Bill, voice quiet and teasing, and she grins when Bill looks at her with a mix of gay panic and exasperation. "I know you're a fan."

"Shut up," Bill snorts, and Missy scrunches her nose at her in a gesture of affection that, while abstract, makes Bill smile because of its familiarity.

Bill decides that it probably is better for her gay sanity to not be present for Missy rolling joints, and heads to the living room, where Nardole and Theo are bickering about the Wii setup.

Sometimes Bill thinks that their bickering - which usually consists of Theo being a cocky shit and Nardole telling him as much - sounds weirdly like flirting. Other times, she thinks that she's a nutcase for ever holding the previous opinion.

Today her brain hurts too much too care one way or another, but there's something comforting about their behaviour that makes her heart feel warm. She stands in the doorway and watches them, unable to hold back her fond grin as Nardole playfully whacks Theo with a remote.

Theo gets to his feet and whirls around to point his finger at Bill. "I have just had an excellent idea."

Bill blinks at him. "Oh yeah?"

"Pillow and blanket fort. In here. Right now. Perfect for Mario Kart and snacks, which is inevitable if we're going to be breaking into Missy's stash."

"Oh my god, can we actually?" Bill asks.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my entire life," he says gravely, and she laughs with delight. "Come on, help me."

By the time Missy comes in, the console is set up and Theo, Bill and Nardole have almost finished the blanket and pillow fort.

"Oh for god's sake, you can't be serious," she says flatly, making the others lift their eyebrows at her. "You can't do it like that, the structural integrity is pants, it'll fall on us and then probably catch on fire. Someone hold these and I'll fix it."

Bill volunteers to hold them, along with the lighter, and takes the chance to light one of them as she watches Missy and Theo bicker about the building techniques of blanket forts. Nardole comes to join her, and they stand there smoking the now lit joints.

Finally, Missy is satisfied, and the four of them climb inside and settle on the pillows (though Bill takes a picture of the fort first, because she's proud of it). It's insanely comfortable, and there's not loads of room so Theo ends up sort of between Missy's legs, reclining back against her with his head on her torso. She seems more than happy with this arrangement, since her hand is now able to comb through his hair.

Bill and Nardole take up on each side of her, and they pass the joints between them for the better part of twenty minutes.

"This was one of the best ideas I've ever had," Missy says. "And you know, that is really saying something. I've had some truly spectacular ideas over the years."

"I'd forgotten you get even more up yourself when you're high, jesus christ," Bill says, taking the joint from her and having another drag.

"Can we play Mario Kart now?" Nardole asks.

Theo, whose eyes are shut because Missy has been petting his hair the whole time and apparently sent him into a state of utter sleepy content, mumbles a disagreement to this idea.

"It's alright, honey, you won't have to move, just your hands," Missy tells him.

"Fine," he grumbles.

It's been a while since Bill has gotten high, and the strange, light sensation has started to fill her. Her head feels like a balloon on a string. It's weird, but nice. And god, if she didn't need to fucking relax after the last few days.

Mario Kart begins. Now, Bill has always considered herself a bit of a Mario Kart whiz, but it quickly becomes apparent that Theo and Missy are on a completely different level. Nardole is laughably inconsistent, in that he usually comes dead last but then inexplicably comes first a few times, and usually on the harder tracks. He also shrieks like a tiny child confronted with a monster in a horror movie any time he gets hit by any of the power up attacks.

Missy is the strongest, but she keeps getting distracting by touching Theo's hair, especially at the start of each race, but occasionally in the middle.

"How did you lot get in front of me?" she asks every time.

Of course, being Missy, it doesn't take her long to find a new tactic.

When he gets a particularly good lead on her for the second time, she leans down and whispers something into Theo's ear and he swerves right off the track, making an odd noise in his throat as he does so. Missy chuckles, low and smug, and Bill feels uncomfortably warm as she realises what kind of thing Missy had probably said.

She spends the next half an hour praying that Missy doesn't try to distract her in the same way. Maybe she deliberately stops herself from getting too close to the front for that exact reason.

Now, given the small noises of disgust that have occasionally escaped him, Bill has gathered that Nardole's keen ears have partly overheard a couple of Missy's distracting murmurings to Theo.

But then, when Theo and Nardole overtake Missy by a wide margin, Missy whispers something a little louder than usual - not loud enough for Bill to make out, but apparently enough for Nardole, who to her amazement, squeaks and turns a bright shade of pink and starts weaving incoherently across the track for a few moments before he gets under control. Theo, meanwhile, lets out an odd noise and tilts his head back to stare at Missy with disbelief.

Bill has no idea what Missy just said, but gets the idea that she never, ever wants to know.

Their tournament continues, and with all the sabotage going on, Bill and Theo and Missy are all pretty close to the top.

Problem is, Bill has expectedly found herself in the lead on the final race.

As she'd feared, Missy leans into her space, her mouth grazing Bill's ear.

"Do you know how many times I've gotten myself off thinking about the noises you made while I fucked you?" she murmurs.

Bill thinks her heart actually gives out, just for a moment, and her kart swerves completely off the track and into a wall. She takes several moments to take deep breaths and gets herself back on track, pointedly ignoring Missy - who has leaned out of her space and is now completely focused on the game - as much as she can.

The damage, however, is done, and Missy soars over the finish line first, claiming the overall title for herself at the same time.

"That," Bill says slowly, feeling a horrible flush up her neck because fucking hell the image sewn into her mind just won't go away, "was cheating."

"You have no idea," Theo says weakly. For the first time, Bill notices that he's crossed his legs rather firmly and looks a bit pained. She's going to resolutely not think about that and go back to being angry at Missy on her own behalf.

"Sorry, love, all's fair in love and war," Missy tells Theo, a lazy, wicked grin on her face as she keeps playing with his hair and kisses his temple.

He makes a 'hmph' noise.

"Right, well, Bill, do you want a rematch with just the two of us? Since these two are being idiots," Nardole suggests.

"Definitely," Bill agrees, praying that Missy being excluded from the match will mean she doesn't try to distract Bill again.

Thankfully, Missy's entire attention seems to have been taken up by Theo's hair at this point, and she combs her finger through it, petting him until he's snoring quietly and she's smirking.

Bill and Nardole find themselves getting too sleepy as they keep playing, and start zooming at a leisurely place instead. Missy's head has ended up on Bill's shoulder as she too has fallen asleep.

"Can we sleep now too? I'm so tired," Nardole says.

"Sleep sounds good," Bill agrees.

With that, she curls up to Missy and Theo, and Missy half wakes up for a moment to put an arm around Bill and pull her closer. Nardole, meanwhile, shuffles down so that he's more cuddled up to Theo than Missy.

Bill has a few hazy moments to consider how warm and comfortable and safe she feels here, with these people, and how full her heart feels, before she drifts off to sleep.

Some wholesome fluff to break up the angst. I adore them all.

Thanks so much for reading, let me know what you thought!

(Irving is Irving Braxiatel, the Doctor's brother from the EU, for those who aren't familiar with the character at all. He's great and will turn up at some point.)