Bill wakes up to Missy stroking her hair and humming. Which really isn't the worst way to start a day, even if she had fallen asleep in her clothes and has such has now slept with her bra on, which is less than ideal.

"Hey," Bill says, blinking up at her.

Missy turns to look at her and smiles. "Morning, Pottsie girl. How are you feeling?"

"Good," Bill tells her while she stretches her body sleepily. "You?"

"Yeah, good," Missy says absently. Bill realises her other hand is moving too, and sits up a bit to see that she's stroking the hair of Theo, who is still asleep. Nardole is still asleep against him, a content little smile on his face.

"Yeah?"

"I like watching him sleep," Missy says, eyes on Theo, "he makes the best little faces, sometimes kicks his leg. It's so sweet."

"Right," Bill says. A strange flash of memory hits her, of a few times that she thinks she can remember noises coming from Theo's room, noises that had almost made her concerned until she had seen him the next morning and he had been fine. "Does he… ever get nightmares? Like… really bad ones?"

Missy's face is difficult to read, but her smile becomes smaller, and sadder.

"Oh, I think we all have those sometimes," she murmurs, eyes never leaving Theo, her hand stroking him with a bit more care than before.

Bill doesn't get nightmares like that, not ever. She doesn't know how to feel about the fact that Missy thinks they're commonplace.

Luckily, she's saved from having to answer by the appearance of Clara and Ashildr, who stride in front of the fort and look down at them with amusement, arms crossed in bizarre unison.

"Not that this isn't adorable, but the Hell In High Heels video is dropping tonight, and I reckon you guys forgot all about it," Ashildr tells them.

"Which is fair enough, with everything that happened yesterday," Clara adds, "but yeah, we need you to get up."

"Cuddling time is over," Ashildr says, before grinning. "And on Instagram."

Bill frowns and gets out her phone. Sure enough, upon opening Instagram, the official Event Horizon account had posted a photo of the four of them cuddled up and asleep in the fort.

Event Horizon - statistics show that queer musicians huddle for warmth even in summer -pottsalotts -thedoctor -missymasters -eggman69

"Aw, sweet," Missy says, leaning over to take a look.

"What's this about the music video?" Nardole asks groggily.

"It's coming out today, you twat," Theo grumbles, eyes still shut. His accent is much thicker than usual. Bill has noticed that he's always significantly more Scottish when he's half awake, hence the swearing.

"Not gonna lie, I totally forgot," Bill admits, though vaguely recalls a conversation on the plane back to the UK where it had come up.

"Well, it is, and we need you up and getting your shit together so we can get you ready for the launch party," Clara tells them. "Also, you know, if you want to see the absolute final version and not just the really close to being the final version, Rigsy will be over here at about five."

"Five more minutes," Nardole mumbles into Theo's chest. Theo makes a noise of agreement.

"Fine, but after those five minutes, I'm getting a bucket of water," Clara warns.

She and Ashildr depart, and after four minutes and fifty nine seconds - somehow, Missy just knows without checking, it's fucking bizarre - the four sleepy band members get out of their comfortable cuddle pile and get ready to face the day.

horizongal - ok but how the fuck are they all so cute

punkprincess - this photo cleansed my skin and watered my crops, I'm so glad they're ok after yesterday's weirdness

meme_face - this is too wholesome it's making me feel an emotion

whifferdills - look at my boys all cuddled up this is so pure

meme_face (replying to whifferdills) - ISN'T IT JUST

queenbaloo (replying to meme_face) - I don't even ship Theodole but Nardole's little smile is adorable af here I support this

saxonite - kind of looks like Theo and Missy got third and fourth wheeled by Bill and Nardole tbh but yes cute regardless

potsyislife (replying to saxonite) - I mean it could just as easily have been Bill and Missy being cute and the boys coming and ruining it so

crystal_ss - shippers, please stop fighting over this good pure image. I will find you and hide legos in your shoes

doctahpants (replying to crystal_ss) - as a Missodore shipper, agreed

stirmypotsy (replying to doctahpants) - also agreed, as a mostly Potsy but also most of the others shipper

flossbucket - I'm so glad I got into this band and wish I had sooner bc this is so adorable wtf

angelbill - catch me crying over this

Kovarian is at the launch party.

"Oswald, what the-"

"Before you threaten to make soup out of my internal organs, Missy, I'll have you know that I tried everything to get her banned from this event, but I couldn't without it drawing way too much attention," Clara says through gritted teeth the moment that Missy grabs her arm. "She's too high up, and this event is too big. She's here. We have to deal with it."

Luckily, there are lots of other people at this party. Bill finds herself enthusiastically greeted by Johan, Charley, and Lucie (Chris never seems to be overly enthusiastic about anything, but he smiles at Bill when he says hello, so that's something).

"Oh my god, that's Rose Tyler," Bill breathes, as she spots her long time crush and her spiky haired boyfriend from across the room. "Someone hold me to make sure I stay upright."

"Do you want me to introduce you?" Theo asks.

"God yes," Bill says, "wait, no, I'll probably just make a total dick of myself-"

It's too late. They're heading over to Rose and James. Bill tries to stay the panic inside her, to calm her pounding heart, but Rose is in a deep pink dress that is form-fitting and rather low cut and Bill is just far too gay for all of this.

"Rose, James, how have you been?" Theo calls.

Upon seeing him, Rose's face absolutely lights up with a smile so luminous that Bill feels lightheaded. Rose Tyler's smile could power an entire sun, of that Bill is absolutely sure.

"Theo, oh my god, how have you been?" Rose asks, pulling him into a huge hug, which Bill is astounded to see that Theo actually returns.

"Oh, you know, busy busy," Theo replies with a little chuckle. "How's this idiot? He treating you alright?"

"Oi," James says, looking offended. He's wearing a pinstripe suit, which is the same thing he wears while performing. Come to think of it, Bill isn't sure she's ever seen a picture of him wearing anything else. Does he not have other clothes? Is it a comfort zone thing? Was he only dressed in pinstripe clothes from childhood and never learned to branch out? Didn't a bunch of children get dressed in pinstripes in a book once?

"Sorry, James, got to be sure, Rose deserves only the best, after all," Theo tells him, and James makes a face and doesn't argue, since he apparently agrees.

"And you're Bill," Rose says, turning to Bill, grin still going strong, and her hands reaching for Bill's arms. "I've wanted to meet you for ages."

Rose Tyler is touching me. She knows my name. Um. Wait. She's wanted to meet me?!

"Seriously?" Bill asks, somehow able to regain the ability to speak. "You wanted to meet me?"

"Wicked bass player, adorable lesbian, possibly the most iconic queer person in our entire industry, this last year or so?" Rose says, lifting an eyebrow. "Yeah, I've wanted to meet you."

"Right," Bill says, still bewildered.

A strange look crosses Rose's face, a little more bashful. "Also, I'll be honest, I was sort of hoping to ask you for some help. Or, I dunno, advice."

"What kind of advice?"

"Well, you never really had a big coming out, right? You were just gay from the get go," Rose points out, laughing a little.

"That's me," Bill replies, managing to smile awkwardly. "My lesbianism can be seen from space, and I'm not about hiding who I am for anyone."

"Exactly, and that's what makes you so amazing," Rose says, giving Bill's arm a squeeze. "But I wasn't as brave as you, when I started out, so I've kept quiet. Except… I don't wanna be quiet anymore."

James and Theo, having been chatting a bit among themselves, now look at Rose - Theo with curiosity, James with a quiet, shining pride.

"You want to come out? Publicly?" Bill asks.

"What can I say? You and Event Horizon have inspired me," Rose says, smiling. "And basically, I'm wondering about the method. See, part of me is thinking maybe I could just get a nice big fuck off transgender symbol tattoo on my wrist-"

Oh. Wow! That's some wicked new info.

"But also, I'm thinking maybe I owe it to my fans out there to like, make a proper little speech of it," Rose continues, making a face. "I dunno. What do you think?"

Bill takes a moment to consider this. The actual information isn't difficult to process, but the question is. "I mean, I don't know. For a start, I'm not trans, and your experiences before and after coming out are probably gonna be a lot different to mine. You don't need me to tell you that a load of people are going to be absolute arseholes to you."

"I know from before, and I don't care," Rose says, voice hard, eyes flashing with fierce strength.

"In the end, I just… you've got to do what feels right for you," Bill tells her. "Do it when you feel ready, if you want to, and not because you feel like you have to. I think that's… all the advice I can really give."

Rose nods, a little sigh escaping her. "I knew you'd say something like that. Guess I was hoping for some obscure lesbian wisdom for something I hadn't thought of yet."

"Obscure lesbian wisdom is totally a thing, but maybe not when it comes to stuff like this," Bill says, grinning. "Sorry. But you'll totally have my support, just so you-"

An idea hits her.

"What if we did some kind of charity fundraiser?" Bill asks, her mouth moving faster than her brain. "Like, we do a charity concert, to go to LGBT organisations, and we play and you play and we get River and Ashildr as well, maybe Neverland? And god, I dunno, even Elton John or something crazy like that if he's keen, and whoever else. Then if we wanted to do promo for it, we could like, take pictures with our pride flags. Then you wouldn't have to be like, on your own when you came out, because you'd be with all of us, and then you could do a speech at the concert if you wanted to, or leave it if you don't."

Rose stares at her. "Are you serious? Because that sounds… amazing. Beyond amazing."

"I'm fully serious," Bill says, before looking at Theo and losing some of her confidence. "We... could do that, right?"

Theo is grinning from ear to ear. "Oh yeah. We could do that. We'll talk to Clara about it in the morning, and have her talk to Harriet Jones, and River, and Elton if we can get a hold of him. It'll take a while to organise, mind, we've got to finish up the tour in the colonies first, after Glastonbury."

"Obviously," Bill says. "But if you don't mind waiting, Rose-"

"For this? I can wait," Rose says. "I'm not quite ready to come out yet. I'm just… I'm ready to start thinking about it. So that's perfect, honestly. Thank you so much."

She hugs Bill, who feels herself briefly transcend the mortal plane and has to take a deep breath in order to bring herself back.

"You're so welcome," Bill tells her, genuinely. "Seriously, anything you need, just let me know."

And that's how Bill ends up with Rose Tyler's phone number. Not even Kovarian watching them all from the sidelines like the sinister creep she is (especially Theo and River, who are trying not to end up next to each other too often since their chemistry can be a little too obvious) can bring Bill down, after that.

The music video, of course, is a huge success.

flossbucket - quick question how did we never realise just how hot EH's manager is until this video

rainbowrosie (replying to flossbucket) - I know? I guess because she's only ever really been in the background of shots of them together, if at all?

spaceacepupper (replying to rainbowrosie) - including her in the video is such a cool idea! Getting to see her and Ashildr flirting in the background was adorable

amatalefay - this is the gay Ashildr content we've deserved this whole time and I'm living for it

stirmypotsy - I like to think that this video accurately represents that Bill is a total awkward disaster when it comes to trying to pick up women

crystal_ss (replying to stirmypotsy) - oh, absolutely

crystal_ss - general note, I'm too bisexual for this video to be allowed to exist

queenbaloo (replying to crystal_ss) - THATS A MOOD MY GOD IM DEAD RN

meme_face (replying to queenbaloo) - this is a personal attack on us

stirmypotsy (replying to meme_face) - I mean I'm not personally into Theo like That but yes my bisexual ass still feels very attacked

starsthemselves - this video has fueled my Songsmith heart too much why must they encourage us like this also River was Way Too Hot in this video ahsjkgl

crystal_ss (replying to starsthemselves) - they know exactly what they're doing at this point, they're just teasing us because they can

songsmithfy (replying to starsthemselves) - they're so adorable help

The next day, Glastonbury is upon them, and they park the TARDIS among the other tour buses and set up a comfortable little lot of chairs outside for getting to enjoy the sun if they like.

The Neverland lot are nearby, as are Bad Wolves and Beetles.

River, arriving a bit later, isn't able to get a spot right next to them, but her and her band are only a five minute walk away. She's the final act on the Pyramid Stage for the first night, so they're more than ready to cheer her on.

First, however, they're doing a surprise performance on the Park Stage, in the afternoon. Sure enough, when they get out there, the people who had been waiting around to see who might turn up there on the small stage go wild.

"God, it's nice to be a small stage for once and to actually be able to see you all," Theo remarks into the microphone. "How is everyone today?"

Their small crowd cheers loudly.

"I'm so unbelievably stoked to be here, you have no idea," Bill says into her own mic.

They start their little set, and it's awesome playing to a crowd this small, even though it starts to grow a fair bit, no doubt as word spreads of them being here.

It's during the third song that Bill misses her intro into the second verse.

Star Girl is in the crowd. In the distance, staring right at her. Or, god, it's hard to tell from this far away but it looks like her. What if it isn't her? But what if it is? Bill's heart pounds, and she feels hope for the first time in weeks. Maybe what she'd said in the interview helped? Maybe she'd run out of money to follow them around America but could now make it back here?

Bill quickly falls back into the song, ignoring the curious looks from her bandmates regarding her slip up.

Problem is, the moment she looks back, she can't see her again. Too many people are here now, and it had been too far to begin with.

Doubt fills Bill's heart. Star Girl had always been at the front before. Did that mean this girl wasn't the right one? Had Bill just imagined it all? Or had she just not been able to get to the front, since it had been a surprise concert?

She plays the rest of the songs on automatic, doing her best to enjoy it but her mind buzzing too much for anything else.

It isn't until they're back on the bus that she's confronted about it.

"What happened out there?" Nardole asks Bill, frowning.

"... did you see her?" Theo asks. His voice is intent, his eyes curious.

"I dunno," Bill admits, biting her lip, running a hand through her hair as she shuts her eyes and tries to work out what the fuck she's even feeling, if she's excited or exasperated or hopeful or despairing. "I thought I did? But then she was gone, and now the more I think about it, the more I'm not really sure it was her at all. She was so far away, it could have been anyone."

"Well, we've got the meet and greets in a couple of days, if she's smart, she'll come then," Missy says.

"She's never come before."

"She also never missed a concert before," Missy reminds her, "so clearly something's changed. With any luck, it's something for the better. God, listen to me, you lot have me sounding like an optimist, it's disgusting. But god knows, we could do with some good news after everything that's been happening lately."

"Brave heart, Bill," Theo says, clasping Bill on the shoulder and giving her that look of warm reassurance that no one else can. "It'll come right eventually."

"You think?" she asks.

"I do."

River has a lovely luxurious tent set up near her bus, and naturally she has invited all of Event Horizon to come and visit her in there. It's wonderfully private, even with the flap partly open to let in the fresh air, compared to most of the rest of the festival.

It's a nice couple of days, hanging out with various other artists and sneaking around to watch them perform and trying not to get mobbed by fans too badly. Theo, of course, knows everyone, somehow.

There's a strange little man with a hat and umbrella who plays the spoons. His drummer is a very cute girl called Ace who wears a huge jacket covered in pins and flirts outrageously with Bill the whole time. It's brilliant. (Also, Bill isn't quite sure how their musical ensemble of rapping, spoons and drums works, but it just sort of does, weirdly.)

On a similar vein of weird ensembles, there's a dark haired man with a bowl cut and a recorder who has a younger Scottish man and his bagpipes to accompany him. Their keyboardist is an adorable girl with a bob who gives Bill a big smile but then goes back to taking a thousand snapchat pictures to somebody.

There's also a ridiculously tall man with an even longer multicoloured scarf. He has several instruments and a looping pedal, and just gives Bill an almost terrifying grin when she asks how he manages to keep track of them all at once.

The last group, however, bring a different surprise. The moment they enter the rather fancy tour bus, Theo stops dead.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asks a man reclining in the window seat, who looks at him with surprise.

"I could ask the same of you," the man replies, dryly. "Except we've always known that you go wherever you please, so what would be the point?"

"Now, don't you two start," warns a woman with long golden hair and a well tailored white summer dress with medium length sleeves. She only looks to be about thirty at the most, but speaks with the authority of someone twice her age. "I won't have any petty sibling rivalry in my bus."

Bill takes another look at the man, with his suit and moustache and smug little smirk. It clicks.

"Oh my god, you're Irving," Bill says. "You're the oldest brother."

"Yes, I am," he replies, smiling, "though call me Brax, everybody does."

"Why?"

"You do not want the explanation, it is long and nonsensical," says a brunette in a crop top who is sitting backwards on her chair and eating an apple with a knife. She regards Bill curiously. "I know you. You're the bassist everyone talks about. The one who looks at women like they're stars in the sky previously unknown to you."

Bill blinks at her. She's never heard her lesbianism described quite like that before, and yet, her chest feels rather warm at how this strange person could make 'you're super fucking gay, right?' sound like a Shakespearean sonnet.

"Uh, yeah, what of it?" Bill asks.

The woman shrugs. "It is… refreshing."

"Bill, this is Romana, Leela, and Narvin," Theo introduces. Romana is the blonde, apparently, while Leela is the strangely eloquent brunette with a knife, and Narvin is a rigid man with tidily cropped hair sitting in the corner on his laptop.

"Wait, Leela, I've heard your stuff, I think," Bill says, with realisation. "You're the one that does all those wicked dance breaks during your instrumentals, right?"

Leela grins. It's oddly feral. "You know my work."

"Love your work, your style is really unique," Bill says, sitting down opposite her, feeling her fangirl self kick into gear. "Because like, half the time you're singing about nature in this gorgeous, eerie sort of way, and the other half the time your stuff is really harsh and kind of violent which isn't usually my thing but the way you do it is so… neat."

"Thank you," Leela says, looking pleased.

"So, are you guys like, her musicians, or something? I thought you were a lawyer, Brax," Bill asks.

"We're all lawyers," Romana replies, shrugging. "With the exception of Leela, who is our… consultant. But she also wound up pursuing a music career when her talent became obvious, and so here we are."

"You bring your coworkers to your gigs?" Bill asks Leela. "That's… pretty weird."

Brax makes an odd coughing noise in his throat that sounds like laughter. Romana smiles a little.

"We're not just her coworkers, but I do actually play her synths, since she can't keep any other musicians because they're all terrified of her," Romana explains.

"They're babies, all of them, I barely touched them," Leela sniffs. For the first time, Bill notices how defined her biceps are. And, god, she has abs. This is an issue. Bill needs to find somewhere to look that isn't her abs.

Romana's hand strokes the back of Leela's hair as she goes past, an amused smile on her lips. "Of course."

Brax watches them with a warm fondness in his eyes. Even Narvin has a little smirk on his lips, even though he's barely glanced up from his laptop.

"Okay, wait, when you say you're not just her coworkers," Bill says slowly.

"They mean that they're my romantic partners, yes," Leela replies.

"And each other's, the entire world doesn't revolve around you, you know," Narvin says dryly, rolling his eyes.

"I did not say it did, Narvin, I was following the grammatical context," Leela retorts. "If you wish to start an argument for the sake of it, you could just ask me if I want to have sex and be done with it."

Romana facepalms and Brax chokes on the sip of water he had been taking from a nearby glass. Theo's cheeks are a little pink but he's grinning.

Narvin's gone bright red. "That's not what I-" He stops, considers, a hilarious frown overtaking his face. "Do you?"

Leela considers this. "I suppose so. Do you?"

"Yes, I think so, I'm getting nowhere with this report," he remarks, setting his laptop aside.

"An orgasm will reboot your brain, I'm sure that is how Romana said it works," Leela tells him, extending a hand as she backs up towards some doors that likely lead to bedrooms. "It is not good to look at a screen for so long."

Narvin chuckles a little, finally looking like an actual person and not a robot. "It's worth a try, surely."

They disappear into one of the rooms and shut the door. Silence reigns in their absence.

"Right, so, that just happened," Bill remarks, after about ten seconds.

Romana laughs and sits down next to Brax, snuggling into his side just a little. "Finally, some peace and quiet. We owe you two now, I believe."

"I think that might be our cue to go," Theo says, shaking his head.

"Perhaps," Romana agrees. "It was good to see you."

"Stay out of trouble, for god's sake, baby brother, I'm too busy to bail you out of anything at the moment," Brax tells Theo, sounding rather bored. Theo just snorts and glances around the bus.

"Busy? Is that what we're calling it now? I suppose three partners would keep you fairly occupied, but-"

"Out," Brax says, narrowing his eyes.

Theo grins. "Yes, big brother. Whatever you say, big brother."

River's performance on the Pyramid Stage on the 23rd is incredible, of course, and she gets Ashildr to come on as a surprise guest for one of her songs. Their voices together make for an ethereal, astounding sound, and the crowd goes nuts for it. Listening from backstage, Bill makes a note to ensure that they do a proper collab at some point, because the dynamic is too interesting to ignore.

Come the next day, since Saxon is apparently flying in for his performance on the Pyramid Stage, and then right back out, they're all relieved to actually be able to relax, more or less.

They still have Jack stationed outside the tent, since Theo and Missy have some serious trust issues at this point, but they're laughing and telling stupid jokes along with everyone else. The rest of Jack's team are with the TARDIS, as far as Bill knows.

"You were amazing last night, River, they all adored you," Bill tells River, who is half sitting in Theo's lap and happily flirting with him.

"The sheer number of people out there was… intoxicating," River says, a little breathlessly. "To know they were all there for me… it was rather a lot. Almost too much. But a good sort of too much."

"Suppose we'll see what that's like tomorrow night then," Nardole says.

Tomorrow is the last night of the festival, and they're the ones finishing the whole thing off. It's going to be amazing, and truly epic, Bill is sure. But you know, also moderately terrifying.

Closing Glastonbury? What the fuck? How did she get here?

Anyway, she's currently focusing on the way the curls of River's hair fall in different ways when she moves her head. That's working pretty well as a productive gay distraction.

Well, that and thinking about the meet and greets in a couple of hours. Her chest is a battleground where excitement and nerves are busy fighting it out to the death. What if Star Girl comes? What if she doesn't? Either way, Bill won't have any idea of what to do.

"Breathe, darling," Missy says to her out of nowhere, stroking a curl of hair out of her face. "Whether she comes or not, we'll work it out. We'll find her. Promise."

Bill has stopped questioning how she can always telling what Bill is thinking, or near enough. Maybe Bill will never be as enigmatic as she would like, maybe Missy is a mind reader. Who knows?

"Thanks," Bill says, sighing. "Do you think-"

She doesn't finish her sentence, because an unfamiliar figure walks into the tent.

They're wearing a suit, a press pass on a lanyard, and large sunglasses. Their long blonde hair looks a bit ratty, which could make sense in an eccentric fashion sort of way, but within a few moments Bill realises what's wrong with it.

"Hello, everyone, so nice to see all of you," the person says with a big grin and a rather fake sounding Eastern European accent. "What a good day!"

Everyone stares, having frozen at the strange intruder.

"No," Missy says under her breath.

"Oh, yes," comes the reply, the grin only widening.

The wig - because that's what it is, why it looks so wrong - and the sunglasses come off, and Harry Saxon smirks at them all as he throws them aside.

"Hello, you lot," he says, in his normal voice, "did you miss me?"

It's so fun to include the Gallifrey audios OT4. And yes, another cliffhanger, sorry!