The Doctor claps his hands together and rubs them in excitement. He succeeded. He got both Layla and Rose to join him. "Right then, Layla Stevenson and Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

Layla looks towards Rose and nodded her head towards her. She didn't care where they went. She was just excited to be able to travel like this. She also wanted to get to know the strange and intriguing man that had promised them adventures. Rose thought to herself for a minute. She was still slightly skeptical that it could travel in time and she wasn't sure if she was ready to see the past, so, she decided to go to the future. "Forwards."

"How far do you want to go?" He asked getting ready to put the coordinates in.

She throws out a number. "One hundred years."

While Rose and the Doctor were talking, Layla was getting this humming sound in her head. She was slowly walking around listening to the soft hum. She brushed up against the column and the humming got louder. Is... is the humming coming from the Tardis? As soon as she thought that the humming got louder. Are you trying to communicate with me? The humming change as if in confirmation. She can hear the Doctor and Rose talking, but she was more interested in the Tardis right now. She was getting different feelings coming from the Tardis that it was hard to pinpoint what they were. She was getting feelings of being welcomed, happiness, and gratefulness were the feelings she could pick out. There were more though, but more complex than what she understood. She kept going around touching the railings, walls, anything that was the Tardis and trying to communicate back with her.

The Doctor finishes piloting a hundred years. "There you go. Step outside those doors, it's the twenty second century."

Rose was astonished. "You're kidding!"

He could see that Layla wasn't paying attention, she must have thought that one hundred years was boring. Hmm let's try... "That's a bit boring, though. Do you want to go further?"

Rose looks over at Layla and sees that she doesn't care and shrugs. "Fine by me."

The Doctor does some more button pushing and lever moving. "Ten thousand years in the future. Step outside, it's the year 12,005, the new Roman Empire."

"You think you're so impressive." Rose flirts with him.

"I am so impressive!" The Doctor says indignantly. He said it a little loud because he wanted to get Layla's attention and didn't want her to believe that he wasn't impressive.

"You wish." Rose flirts again not realizing that the Doctor wasn't flirting back. This man was definitely catching her attention.

"Right then, you asked for it. I know exactly where to go. Hold on!" The Doctor furiously pumps a lever several times and the Tardis is shaking like mad with a huge grin on his face.

The Tardis stops moving and Layla looks at them. "Have you two decided on where to go?" Finally having Layla's attention on him, he points towards the door with a small smirk on his lips.

"Where are we? What's out there?" Rose asks in excitement. She doesn't wait for an answer as she skips to the door.

"Wait! Are we dressed okay for wherever we are? Like we aren't going to be called harlots for showing ankle like in the 18th century?" Layla asks, wanting to make sure that what her and Rose are wearing isn't inappropriate.

The Doctor looks at Rose seeing that she is wearing jeans, a t-shirt and a jacket. The Doctor hardens his reserve as he looks at Layla's outfit again, pretending to take it into consideration like he hadn't already ogled her at her flat. He swallows hard at seeing the tightness of her pants and shirt, showing her curves. He jerks his head in a nod. "Yeah, you two will be fine. No problems with what you are wearing. Good job looking out though. There will be times where you have to wear period era clothing. I will let you know when though."

"Great! Now, onward Rose! We have exploring to do, one step for aliens, one giant leap for us." Layla points dramatically towards the door. Rose laughs and links her arm with Layla's and they go to the door and push it open.

xxxxxx

As Rose and Layla go down a flight of steps, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to open a large shutter in the wall descends to reveal an orbital view of the earth. He walks over to them. "You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five-point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day, hold on." He pauses for a second and looks at his watch. The sun flares and turns red. "This is the day the sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world."

Rose looks upset, which the Doctor expected, however, Layla looked at the sun in curiosity. It's not surprising, Layla thinks, it took millions of years in their own era for things to evolve. It is five billion years past that, so things would have had to evolve even more. Besides, the sun is a star, even stars die.

They look out the window and see a pair of small spaceships approaching the space station. "Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation, and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine."

Xxxxxx

The Doctor, Layla, and Rose walk along a corridor. The girls are fascinated by the platform and the Doctor is excited for their first adventure off earth. "So, when it says guests, does that mean people?" Rose asked.

"I would assume that it means aliens. The Doctor is an alien, the Consciousness was also an alien, why wouldn't there be more aliens? Although, I don't know why they would want to see the earths death, unless of course, the people on earth got their heads out of their arses and welcomed species that are different from themselves?" Layla directs that question to the Doctor.

"This isn't really a spaceship, more like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn. To them, it is for fun, and by the great and good, I mean the rich." He replies as he uses his screwdriver on a wall panel.

They walk into a large area with a few display cases and view of space to the front and above. "But, hold on. The sun expanding, that takes hundreds of years." Rose states in a matter-of-fact way.

"Millions, but the planet's now property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. See down there? Gravity satellites holding back the sun. The continents shifted, but the Trust shifted them back. So, there the classic earth there." He talks like a teacher giving a lecture to a student.

"Why would they hold back the sun and shift the continents? Didn't they think that they would be holding back humans' evolution if they did that?" Layla asks inquisitively.

"I don't think they really cared. They had the money to do it, so they used it up. Humans left a while ago though, it came down to the point that money was running out and they knew they needed to find somewhere else to go, so they did. They set out exploring to find other planets they could survive on."

Rose, glad that no one was left on the planet to die asked, "how long's it got?"

"About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted." He says cheerfully. However, in his eyes, he is having flashbacks of his own planet burning and the crushing guilt because it is his fault that it died before its time.

A blue-skinned person with golden slit eyes strides towards them. He asks all of them, "who the hell are you?"

"Oh, that's nice, thanks." The Doctor snarks.

The Steward was confused and slightly panicked. "But, how did you get in? This is maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

The Doctor gets a fantastic idea. "Wait, that's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look. There, you, see? It's fine, you, see? The Doctor plus two. I'm the Doctor, this is Layla Stevenson and Rose Tyler. They are my plus two. Is that all right?"

The Doctor was showing the Steward a piece of paper in his bifold. Rose was gawking at the Steward and Layla was looking between the Steward and inwardly laughing at Rose's reaction. The Steward looks hard at the paper and then looks at the Doctor and Rose, but lingers a little on Layla. The Doctor bites the inside of his cheek to hold back from saying anything more.

"Well, obviously. Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy." He quickly walks away to the lectern with a slight blush darkening his blue skin. That was an embarrassing way to talk to a guest. The white-haired girl was very pretty too.

Rose is still in shock. "He's blue."

"Yeah." The Doctor agrees amused.

"And the Doctor is attractive." Layla says with a sly grin. They both look at her in disbelief and shock. "What? I thought we were just stating obvious things?" Her eyes light up when she sees the redness in his ears. "How did you get an invite?" Layla asks questioningly.

The Doctor shows Rose his physic paper first, because she had walked in between him and Layla when the Steward showed up. "The paper's slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time." Rose looks at it interestedly. He goes to show Layla, however his mind slightly wanders like usual when he looks at her, and before she can read what new writing was on it, he pulls it back before she could and pockets his bifold.

From the glimpse that Layla got at the paper showed her that it was blank, but couldn't get a better look before the Doctor puts it away. "That must save you from some trouble. Use it often to get into places you're not supposed to be?" She asks with her eyebrow raised and her lips quirked up.

The Doctor looks slightly sheepish at being called out. He goes to answer when the Steward announces them. "We have in attendance The Doctor, Layla Stevenson, and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions." He claps his hands together and a lot of small people appear. "Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honored guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees, namely, Jabe, Lute, and Coffa."

The three newest invitees look as a bark-skinned woman enters with two larger male escorts. They hear the Steward continue. "There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next from the solicitors Jolco and Jolco, we have the Moxx of Balhoon." More aliens are lined up to be announced.

The trees walk up to the Doctor, who is standing between Rose and Layla, Jabe holds out her hands and in them is a rooted twig in a small pot. "The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my grandfather." She hands the pot to the Doctor, who then hands it to Rose. Jabe looks at the Doctor expectantly.

The Doctor begins to pat his jacket pockets, trying to think of a gift he could give. "Thank you. Yes, gifts. Er, I give you in return air from my lungs." Right after he blows air onto Jabe's face. He winces inwardly when he realizes he accidentally flirted with her when he didn't mean to. He just panicked about not having a gift and now his breath gift encouraged Jabe and the attraction to him she seems to have from the look on her face. He looks at Layla and see that she looks amused at what just happened. He is only hoping that she doesn't have the opinion of him that he flirts with everyone. He is also slightly disappointed that she wasn't jealous, but remembers that with her being human, that side of the bond will take longer to appear in her. But his side of the bond wasn't too happy with him and his apparent flirting.

"How intimate." Jabe says breathily while staring at the Doctor coyly.

The Doctor looks sheepish, and stiff. "Er, there's more where that came from?"

Jabe doesn't notice the tension in the Doctor, or how his statement came out as a question. "I bet there is."

After Jabe and her escorts leave, they see the Steward announce another guest. "From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe." Layla is immediately interested in the Face of Boe.

The Doctor was grinning at all the new species the girls get to see. However, when the Face of Boe comes out, he sees how interested Layla is in him. "Interested in the Face of Boe, are we?" He asks Layla, his face somewhat close to hers.

"Yes." There was no hesitation in her answer. She didn't even turn to look at the Doctor, too fascinated with Boe. How often do you see a giant humanoid head with straggly hair that looks like a demented science fair project or potions ingredient? Maybe even a member of the Addams family? Since she didn't look at the Doctor, she didn't see that Doctor's smile become strained and the slight jealousy flash across his eyes from not having her attention.

"The Moxx of Balhoon." The Doctor says as a little blue alien that is sitting on a transport pod approaches.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily saliva." He then spits right into Rose's face.

"Thank you very much." The Doctor says with a laugh as Rose wipes her face in disgust and Layla turns her head and chuckles. The next group appears. "Ah! The adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you air from my lungs." The Doctor doesn't really have a choice and repeats his 'gift'. However, he doesn't think that anyone else would consider it flirting like Jabe did.

A large metal hand holds out a silver ball to the Doctor. "A gift of peace in all good faith." The Doctor hands the ball to Layla to look at, she then passes it to Rose for her to look at.

The girls get the shock of a lifetime when the last guest is introduced. "And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen, and trees and multiforms, consider the earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen."

A face in a piece of thin skin stretched in a rectangular frame is wheeled in by two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital white hazard suits. "Oh, now, don't stare. I know. I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me. Moisturize me." One of her attendants uses a pump spray on the skin.

People all around her are looking at her in slight disgust. Seeing this, Layla realizes that this is something unique to the individual, not the whole race of humans in this time period. What would cause someone to be so delusional as to remove everything that made someone a human, and think that this is the better way to look and live. In that moment, Layla pities Cassandra. Because she must have lived her life relying on her looks and peoples' comments on her looks. She must have aged, and thought she wasn't beautiful anymore, so she resorted to this to be beautiful again in her eyes. She must have relied on other people's views of her to judge her self-worth.

"Truly, I am the last human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry." Her attendant blotted under her eyes. Rose crept closer to Cassandra as she talked and started to slowly walk around her. She is standing behind Cassandra when she continues on. "But behold, I bring gifts. From earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines." People around her are laughing politely, some were a little confused as to what she was talking about though, not being that familiar with human history. Rose was looking at her in disbelief. She glances over to Layla and the Doctor and gives a 'what the fuck', look. The Doctor looks amused at her reaction and grins. Layla started to grin, but then she could see the meltdown about to play out in Rose's eyes.

Cassandra presents her last gift; they wheel out an old jukebox from around the 70's. "And here, another rarity. According to the archives, this was called an iPod. It stores classical music from humanity's greatest composers. Play on!" One of the little attendants presses a button. Track 45 is selected and the strains of Tainted Love by Soft Cell rings out.

Layla grimaces at the music, but that turns into a grin when she sees the Doctor bopping around. "Refreshments will now be served. Earth death in thirty minutes." The Steward announces. Rose seems to finally be at her breaking point and runs from the room.

Layla moves to follow after her to make sure she is okay. The Doctor goes to follow when he is held up by Jabe. "Doctor?" A bright light flashes from the device in her hands. "Thank you."

xxxxxx

When Layla catches up with Rose, she sees that she is talking to the twig. "You know Rose, talking to inanimate things is okay, but if they start to talk back, you need to get some professional help. Well considering Jabe is a tree woman, and that was her grandfather, I guess he won't always be inanimate. You doing okay?"

"Yeah, I guess. I was just thinking about how we just hitched a ride with this stranger. We didn't really even think about it. We don't even know who he is. A complete stranger."

"Yeah, I know, but…" Layla gets cut off as they hear the Doctor call for them.

"Layla? Rose? Are you two in here?" He enters the room and walks over to them. "Aye, aye. What do you think?"

Layla smiles. "I think this is fantastic."

Rose sighs. "Great. Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. The aliens are so alien. You look at 'em and they're aliens."

"Eloquent, Rose." Layla says drily.

The Doctor laughs. "Good thing I didn't take you to the deep south."

That snaps Rose out of her melancholy. "Where are you from?"

"All over the place." The Doctor says this like it is no big deal, but he swallows hard at the question.

Layla can see that Rose is going to go on her question tirade, but stays out of it so she can wear herself down from her anxiety of being with a stranger and so far from home. She would probably feel the same, hell, she might not have even come along if it was anyone other than the Doctor. She just knows that she can trust him to have their best interest and safety in mind. She doesn't know how she knows that; she just does and she trusts her instincts. They have helped her many times in her life.

"They all speak English, why is that?" Rose asks seeing as he was really the only one to ask that to.

"No, you just hear English. It's a gift of the Tardis. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translate." He very much loved his ship and the help she gave his companions to be able to go on these adventures easier. However, Rose's reactions are the opposite of what he was expecting.

Rose looked horrified. "It's inside my brain!?"

The Doctor was definitely perplexed. "Well, in a good way."

"You are telling me that your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind, and you didn't even ask?" She was almost to the point of shouting. Layla looked between Rose and the Doctor. Rose was like a whoopee cushion, all the air had to deflate out of her before she started to think rationally. However, she could see the Doctor was confused at Rose's reaction. She reaches out and gently grabs a couple of his fingers and gives them a slight squeeze.

"I didn't think about it like that." The Doctor turned his hand around and holds hers while lacing their fingers. He sighed in relief, and some tension left his shoulders.

"No, you were too busy thinking up cheap shots about the deep south. Who are you, then, Doctor? What are you called? What sort of alien are you?" Rose demanded.

The Doctor's hand tightened against Layla's. "I'm just the Doctor." He said emphatically.

"From what planet? Where are you from? Tell me who you are!" She asked, not letting it go.

"Well, it's not as if you'll know where it is! Why does it matter? This is who I am, right here, right now, alright? All that counts is here and now, and this is me!" The Doctor squeezes Layla's hand in gratitude, but let's go to step away from Rose and try to calm down.

"Yeah, and…" Rose started to say when Layla grabbed her hand and squeezed it to get her attention.

"Rose, calm down. Listen, we just met the Doctor, he doesn't have to tell us something that is obviously a sore point to him. That would be like him demanding answers from you about something you find personal and don't want to talk about…like your dad. Just let it go, he will tell us when he is ready." Layla tells her softly and rationally. While she is curious, she wouldn't demand answers if someone didn't want to open up.

Rose huffs, but realizes that Layla is right, and arguing with the Doctor over something that doesn't really mean anything won't help. She doesn't want to ruin this trip so she goes up to the Doctor to apologize. "Alright. As my other mate, Shareen, says, don't argue with the designated driver." Rose mimics with her phone as if she is going to call someone. "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit."

The Doctor, not one to stay angry, accepts Rose's somewhat apology. "Tell you what." He takes Rose's phone apart and messes around with it for a minute. "With a little bit of jiggery pokery."

"That a technical term?" Rose asks while chuckling. Layla looks on at the two fondly. She loves Rose, she really does, but she is just like her mother at times. She was also starting to care for the Doctor, and didn't want him upset at something Rose said and did.

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery. What about you?" He asks.

"No, I failed hullabaloo." She flirted slightly, glad that the Doctor wasn't mad at her anymore.

"Okay, here you go. You can call home." The Doctor walks over to Layla to give Rose some privacy with her mum. "Here, give me your phone, I will do the same."

Layla gives the Doctor her phone. "Thank you. I'm sorry about Rose, I know I don't have to apologize for her, but she gets like that when she has a hard time accepting something or wants to know information. So, thanks for accepting her somewhat apology."

The Doctor smiles at her gently. "It's alright, I'm used to human's and their reactions to shock. It won't take long before she isn't so surprised and overwhelmed. Why are you doing so well though? You don't seem as freaked out."

"Hm. Well I am shocked and surprised, but I guess I just hide it better. I am also interested more in learning and seeing about these experiences than freaking out that they are happening. I mean, how often would I run into a time traveling alien that is willing to take me out for adventures? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, and I don't want miss out because I can't handle it from shock."

"Well, for what it's worth. I am glad you are here. I mean the both of you." The Doctor stammered and tried to recover from his slip. Rose finishes talking to her mom and walks over to Layla and the Doctor with a look of incredulity.

"Thank that's amazing, you want to see the bill." The Doctor grins at Rose's look of surprise that it worked.

"That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead." Rose says softly.

"Rose, if we were back on earth, and the Doctor came here without us, we would be dead too, but I am sure we would have lived a great life before our deaths." Layla tries to get Rose to see the reality of their lives and be positive that they were happy.

The Doctor's hearts clench in distress that had he not gone after the Autons, he would have missed out on meeting his Promised One and then she would have lived without him and him without her, until her death. Thankfully something happens that distracts him. The space station shakes. "That's not supposed to happen." He muses.

xxxxxx

"Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf Scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse…" The Doctor, Layla, and Rose hear as they pass Moxx talking to a small group around him.

Layla looks around as they enter the room. She sees the Face of Boe and remembers that he is sponsoring the event. She grabs the Doctor's hand and pulls him to a stop. "I am going to go talk to the Face of Boe and see if he knows anything since he is the one sponsoring this event. You take Scooby-doo here and go talk to others to see if they know anything, and gather some clues." She points to Rose at the Scooby-doo remark and fake winces when Rose punches her in the arm.

The Doctor pouts at her going to talk to the Face of Boe. He tries not to get jealous, but she was so fascinated with him. "Alright, that's a good idea. I'm going to walk around and talk to others and see if they can show me the maintenance area." He sends one last lingering glance towards Layla as she walks away, but turns back to get to work.

"That wasn't a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that." The Doctor starting saying when Jabe walked up to him and Rose. "What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?"

"It's the sound of metal. It doesn't make any sense to me." She says confused, while being somewhat distracted by the attractive Doctor.

"Where's the engine room?" He knows that she has taken a liking to him, but he doesn't want her to misunderstand anything about them.

"Hm? I don't know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite, I could show you and your…wife." She says calculatingly.

The Doctor looks instantly disgusted and Rose looks shy. "She is not my wife!" He states firmly.

Hm. If she isn't his wife, and didn't say that they were in a relationship, like a partner, what relationship do they have? "Concubine or prostitute?" Jabe wanted to make sure they weren't physically together since it appears that they are not romantically.

"No!" He tries, he really does, but the disgust is leaking into his voice more and more and his face has already given away how he feels about those ideas. Jabe is taking his disgust that he is available and is pleased that he is not with Rose. She didn't think he was with the white-haired girl either, because she felt that he would have said so, and she wasn't here with him like Rose was.

"Whatever I am, it must be invisible. Do you mind? Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." Rose was fuming at Jabe and annoyed that the Doctor didn't stand up for her. She sees that Layla is still talking to the Face and didn't want to interrupt, so she continues on her way to Cassandra.

Xxxxxx

Layla walks over to the Face and clears her throat slightly. She is super excited to be able to talk to him, but unsure if he can really communicate with her since his head is basically in a giant fish tank filled with water.

"Hello my sweet Layla, it is good to see you again." Layla jumps as a foreign thought enters her head. She looks at the Face and sees a small smirk on his lips.

"Your sweet? Wait, again? We have met before?"

"Yes. You will learn that when traveling with the Doctor, you will not always meet people in the right order. If I am correct, this is your first trip with him, yes?"

Layla accepts that there is still more to learn about time travel and answers. "Yeah, we just got done dealing with the Nestene Consciousness." Boe's eye turn slightly sad, worrying Layla. "How long has it been since you last saw me?" She just had a feeling that this was why he was sad. When he first talked to her, he sounded very happy when he said that he was happy to see her again.

"Always so perceptive. For me, it has been a very long time since I had last seen you. So happy, and enjoying traveling with the Doctor, you were. However, I know that this wasn't the reason you came over to talk to me. What is it that you wanted to say?" Boe quickly changes the subject before she could ask more insightful questions about the past. He had momentarily forgotten how she was able to piece together things easily and how perceptive she was.

Layla takes the shift is conversation in stride recognizing when someone doesn't want to continue a line of discussion. "Right, so the Doctor says that the trembling wasn't a gravity pocket. I thought that since you were sponsoring this event, that you might know something or be able to point us in the direction to go to dealing with this issue?"

"Unfortunately, I do not know much about this station. I just set this up to say goodbye to the earth. However, knowing the Doctor, it won't take him long to 'sniff' out the problem." Layla can hear the amusement in his voice and realizes the quip he just made in reference to the Doctor. She shares an amused grin with him. She looks over to see the Doctor and Rose talking to Jabe, however she wonders what they were talking about. The Doctor looked disgusted, Rose was getting angry, and Jabe looked pleased?

"Your Doctor is certainty a lady killer. Too bad for them, he focuses his attentions on other things. Anyways, tell me what you think of your first adventure and meeting all of these species?" Layla and Boe continue to talk about different and random things. Layla doesn't see Rose storm off from Cassandra, nor does she see the Doctor leave with Jabe after one last glance at her

xxxxxx

The Doctor and Jabe leave to the maintenance duct. With the Doctor asking questions along the way to pass the time, and to try to keep Jabe from flirting with him. "Who's in charge of the platform? There a captain or what?" He asks as he ducks under some dangling wires.

"There is just the Steward and the staff. Everything else is controlled by the metal mind. That is controlled by the corporation. They move the platform from one artistic event to another." She is walking behind him and is glad for it, she can check him out without him knowing.

"Hm. So there is no one from the corporation on board? No one to help us if we do get in trouble?" He ponders. Looks like I will have to fix this problem then. He grins. "Fantastic!"

"They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic. The height of the alpha class. Nothing can go wrong." She is confused though. "Why is that fantastic?"

"So, tell me, Jabe, what's a tree like you doing in a place like this?" The Doctor asks while looking for something that can give him a clue as to what is going on.

"Respect for the earth." She replies primly.

The Doctor derides. "Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform is worth zillions. I'm guessing it's a publicity stunt; in case your share prices drop? I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land." Money is usually involved.

"All the same, we respect earth as family. Mankind is just one of the species that evolved from there. My ancestors were transplanted from there, and I am a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest." She says with pride. The Doctor finally finds what he is looking for. He uses his sonic to scan a door panel that is stamped as a guide. He fiddles around trying to get access to the maintenance logs, but is denied.

"What about your ancestry, Doctor? I'm sure you can tell me a tale or two." She asks nosily. "Perhaps a man only enjoys when there is trouble when there is nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. My scanner had trouble identifying you and refused to admit your existence. I am sorry for intruding, but it is amazing you even exist. I want to say how sorry I am." She gently places her hand on the Doctors arm. She feels him tense up, but thinks it is from what she said.

He is irritated that she looked into him and is touching him, but her words make him think of his home. His eyes start to burn and fill with tears. He takes a shaky breath and a tear drop falls down his face. He clears his throat and blinks his eyes rapidly. He pulls away from her and opens the door and gets back to work. They walk around and he can feel the air conditioning running strong in the room. He walks over to a panel and scans it. "Gotcha." He pulls it off and they see a spider scuttle out and up the wall. "What the hell is that?" He aims his sonic at the spider, but it starts to fall before Jabe lassoes it. "Hey, nice liana."

"Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public." Jabe says bashfully.

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." He assures her. He looks at the spider. "Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?"

"What does it do?"

"Sabotage." He says ominously. "And the temperature's about to rocket. Come on."

"Earth death in ten minutes"

Xxxxxx

Rose was not having a fantastic time. I should have just gone to Layla and the Face and talked to them instead of Cassandra. She raises her head upward as if asking for patience as Cassandra continued to talk and degrade the 'mongrels', ha, like she is any better. "You call them mongrels, but they changed themselves into 'new-humans' and you changed yourself into what you think is beautiful. How is what you did any different than what they did? You both did something to change how you were, maybe to better yourselves, but it is still the same."

"You know nothing child. I am pure, they are not. There is a difference." Cassandra says snidely.

"Well, if this was the future of human kind, I would rather be a mongrel than a bitchy trampoline. Besides, you aren't the last human on this platform. My best friend and I were born on that planet. So was my mum and dad, and that makes us, officially, the last humans. You had all the humanity nipped and tucked out of you. You are just skin, Cassandra. Just lipstick and skin. Nice talking." Rose walks off in a huff. Last human my arse. She decides to walk around the platform to calm down. Then she will go and sit with Layla and the Face and talk to them and wait for the Doctor to come back. However, she doesn't see the Adherents follow after her.

Xxxxxx

The Doctor and Jabe are running down the corridor. Smoke is filling the area and a glare is coming through a small glass panel in the door. The little assistants have gathered around the door. "Hold on get back." The Doctor uses his sonic on another small panel.

"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"Is the steward in there?" Jabe asks horrified.

The Doctor glares darkly at the door. "You can smell him. Hold on, there's another sun filter programmed to descend." He takes off running hoping no one is in the room about to die.

xxxxxx

Rose wakes up from being knocked unconscious by the Adherents. She sees the deadly glare begin to fill the room. She tries to leave but the door won't open. She starts hammering on the door and screaming. "Let me out! Let me out!"

"Sun Filter descending."

The Doctor runs to the door and starts working on the panel. "Is anyone in there?" His hearts drop as he hears Rose scream at him to let her out. His breath immediately freezes in his lungs. Where is Layla?! "Rose! Are you alright? Where is Layla?"

"The sun is starting to burn the room! There aren't many places for me to hide!" She was panicking and not really listening to the Doctor.

The Doctor was working faster trying to get the shield to rise. "Where is Layla, Rose? Is she alright?" He was starting to panic that something was wrong with Layla and that Rose didn't want to tell him bad news.

"She is okay Doctor; she was with the Face. I, however, am about to be fried. Get me out of here!"

The Doctor sighs and feels simultaneously relieved that Layla is safe, but concerned about Rose as well. Jabe however, heard the emotion in his voice when he asked about Layla. She realizes that while he didn't feel anything for Rose, he did feel something for the white-haired girl, Layla. While she has developed a liking towards the Doctor, she is glad that the person he has feelings for is safe.

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending."

"Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"Sun filter descending."

The Doctor grunts in panic and irritation. "Just what we need."

"Stop mucking about!" Rose screeches, lowering as slow to the floor as she can.

"I'm not mucking about! It's fighting back."

"Open the door!" Rose was crying and went down the stairs to get to low ground and laid down. She was so scared.

"I know! I am working on it."

Rose looks up at the door when the sun glare hits it. "The lock's melted!" How am I going to get out now? The Doctor, at his wits end, jams his sonic into the panel and quickly works that way.

"Sun filter descending. Sun filter descending." The computer somewhat glitches. "Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising."

"The whole thing's jammed. I can't open the doors. You will have to stay there for now!" The Doctor tells Rose.

"Where else am I going to go, Ipswich?" She snarks.

"Earth death in five minutes."

xxxxxx

The Doctor and Jabe run back to the main room where everyone else were waiting. The Doctor is immediately looking around for Layla. He sighs in relief seeing that she is okay. Layla sees him and Jabe run in with panic on their faces. She heads over to them. "What's wrong Doctor? Where is Rose?" She started to worry more when he didn't answer right away.

The Doctor was just happy that she was okay and staring at her for a minute. Then he registers her questions. "Rose is stuck in a room; I just barely got the sun filter to rise back up before I came here. This platform has been sabotaged and we are all in danger." He whispers quietly in her ear so others don't hear him.

Layla slightly shivers from feeling his breath on her ear, but realizes the danger of his words. "Do you know what happened and/or who is responsible?"

"I don't know who in control, but I do know that the temperature is about to rise. Shall we see who is responsible?" He asks solemnly.

"The metal machine confirms. The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of platform one." Jabe says while holding said spider in her hands.

Cassandra gasped. "How is that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturize me, moisturize me."

"Summon the steward!" Moxx demanded.

"I'm afraid the steward is dead, someone killed him." Jabe says sadly.

"This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face." Cassandra cried out dramatically.

The Doctor shrugged. "Easy way of finding out. Someone brought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to his master." He puts down the Spider that Jabe was scanning, and it scuttles off to Cassandra and scans her, then goes to the Adherents.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. J'accuse!" Cassandra cries out theatrically. Everyone gives different reactions from raised eyebrows of incredulity to snickers of amusement, they were sure that had she any hands, she would have been pointing towards the group overdramatically.

Layla looked at Cassandra in incredulity. Did she really think that no one had seen the spider bot go to her first and she shifted her eyes off to the side? She looked at the Doctor and he huffed in amusement at the look on her face. "That's all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it." He goes over to the Adherents and grabs an arm as they try to hit him. He gives a tug and rips the arm out and pulls out a cable in the arm, causing the Adherents to collapse. "Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo. Go Home." He nudges the spider with his foot and it scuttles over to Cassandra and sits in front of her.

Cassandra glares at the Doctor, or at least trying to. With only eyes and a mouth, it is kind of hard to tell her facial expressions. However, you can hear the contempt in her voice. "I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed. At arms!" Her attendants raise their spray guns.

Layla raises her brows, looking at the Doctor, she can tell he could have been a lady killer if he wanted to. He was very attractive; she is positive he has done more than kiss anyone. Even during this situation, the Doctor is amused at people assumptions. "What are you going to do, moisturize me?" He says sarcastically.

"With acid?" Cassandra says snidely. This causes the Doctor to make sure that Layla was out of the way if they were to get trigger happy. She continues. "Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face." That statement caused everyone to slightly blanch.

"Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid's that?" The Doctor scoffs.

"Well, I had hopes to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims. The compensation would have been enormous."

The Doctor glares at her. She is risking the life of his Promised One and everyone else here for money? "Five billion years and it still comes down to money." He sneers.

"Do you think it's cheap to look this good? It costs a fortune. I am the last human, Doctor. Me. Not those freaky little kids of yours."

Layla had enough. "You think you look good? Looking like a tortilla? Money is not worth everyone's lives here, get your head out of your arse and stop being so conceited. Oh wait, you don't have an arse anymore." The Doctor grabs her hand and tried to calm her down, which she surprisingly does when his hand squeezes hers.

Cassandra looked at her in envy, why does she get to be so beautiful without having to go through the trouble I went through? "I should have locked you in there with your friend, how is she by the way? A little toasty?" She laughs a little, only to slightly flinch back, as much as she can, from the stone-cold glare she was getting from the Doctor.

"Arrest her, the infidel!" Moxx cries out like arresting her would fix the issue.

"Oh, shut it, pixie. I've still got my final option." Cassandra says smugly.

"Earth death in three minutes."

"Here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. Well, except the Doctor and those heathens, but the satisfaction of them dying is good enough for me. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old earth song go? Burn, baby, burn." She taunts.

Jabe scoffs. "Then you will burn with us."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders! Activate!" A series of explosions happened around the platform. "Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me."

"Safety systems failing."

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings." Cassandra laughs as she and her attendants beam out.

"Heat levels rising."

"Reset the computer!" Moxx demands.

Jabe shakes her head. "Only the steward would know how."

"No. We can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Layla, go sit with the Face of Boe and stay out of the way of the suns glare. Jabe, come on. You lot, just chill." The Doctor and Jabe quickly leave the room.

"Heat rising."

"Earth death in two minutes. Earth death in two minutes."

Xxxxxx

Layla goes over towards Boe. She is about to sit next to him when she hears his voice. "Everything will be alright, Layla. However, not all of us are safe. Heat levels are rising, and will get worse the further inside the maintenance area. The Doctor would be okay with his biology… however Jabe…"

Layla listens to what he says and knows what he is hinting at. With Jabe being made of wood, she would be at risk of catching on fire. She kisses Boe's tank. "Thank you, I will take care of it." She didn't know what the Doctor and Jabe had to do to reset the system, but she wasn't going to let Jabe die if she could stand in her place and be okay with her fleshiness.

xxxxxx

"Heat levels critical."

"Heat levels critical."

The Doctor and Jabe make it to the engine room and look around for a switch. The Doctor groans. "Oh, and guess where the switch is." Jabe looks over to where he is staring at as sees that the switch is on the other side of the turning razor-sharp fan blades.

"Heat levels rising. Heat levels rising."

The Doctor sees a breaker lever and pulls it down, slowing the fans down a little, but as soon as he lets go, it resets and speeds back up again. Who designs a ship like this? In case of emergencies let's play chicken with giant, sharp, fan blades?

"External temperature five thousand degrees."

Jabe sees the problem. She doesn't think she would be fast enough to get past the fans, and doesn't want the Doctor to get burned, grabs the breaker, and holds it down. The Doctor's eyes widen seeing this. "Jabe, you can't. The heat's going to vent through this place."

Jabe looks at him solemnly. "I know."

He tried one more time to get through to her. "You're made of wood."

"You have someone waiting on you, stop wasting time. Time Lord." The Doctor was surprised, but nodded his head and runs towards the fans.

"Heat levels hazardous."

Xxxxxx

Layla is running through the platform, following the signs, to get to the maintenance area. She finally makes it and sees that the Doctor is jumping in between fans but she looks for Jabe and sees that she is really struggling with holding down a lever with the rising heat. She runs over to Jabe and puts her hand on her shoulder first to get her attention.

"What are you doing here?!" Jabe asks surprised.

"You are going to die if you stay longer, but I won't. I might get burned and be dehydrated, but I can live through that. You won't live if you burn to ashes. Let me take over."

Jabe thinks about denying her and staying, but she looks and sees the determination in her eyes, and she really is starting to feel the heat a lot more. She decides to let Layla take over. "Okay, you have to grab this lever and hold it down to slow the fans." She waits for Layla to grab it, but Layla does something unexpected first.

Layla kisses Jabe's cheek. "Thank you for trying to save us all." She grabs her shirt and takes it off. Layla knew that putting her bare skin on a hot metal lever would be a terrible idea. She wants to use her shirt as an oven mitt as long as possible to help with the heat and to protect her skin as best as she could. She knows that doing this would leave her in just her bra, but when it comes to saving lives and trying to protect her hands, modesty is not important. Besides, she isn't very modest to begin with anyways. She feels no shame or embarrassment to be seen like this, so she really doesn't care.

"Heat levels critical."

The heat is extremely hot and Layla grimaces at the burning she can feel in her hands. She is glad she used her shirt, but she can see that the heat from the lever is starting to cause her shirt to deteriorate. Which is a shame, because it is one of her favorites. Sweat was running off her body until she started to get dehydrated. Her mouth is dry and she desperately needs a drink of water. She looks over and sees the Doctor run past the second fan. He still has a small run to get to the third fan, but now her shirt is gone, and bare skin is touching the lever.

"Planet explodes in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four…"

The Doctor dashes past the last fan and runs to the switch. When the countdown gets to one, he is able to flip the switch. "Raise shields!" He yells out. A forcefield envelopes platform one as the earth start to boil, then explodes.

"Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair."

The fans in the room slowed down as cool air flooded through the room. The Doctor is easily able to walk back towards where he thought Jabe was, but his eyes bug out and his mouth slackens when he sees Layla there, and with no shirt on. He is torn between looking away and staring. That is, until he smells burnt flesh and sees her face scrunched up in pain, with tears running from her eyes, and still holding onto the lever. He runs over as quick as he can and realizes her hands are stuck to the lever. He can see that there is no sign of Jabe. He gets upset and starts burning with fury that she is hurt, but even he knows that if she hadn't taken over, Jabe would have died.

He carefully grabs her hands, and as gently as he can, pry's her hands from the bar. He can tell that she is trying to keep her pain to herself, but a few grunts and whimpering escape causing his hearts to clench. He gets her hands free and looks at the damage. She had lost skin when he had to pry her hands off the bar, but what he didn't have to pry was badly damaged. Raw flesh, black in some places, and clear liquid was oozing across; her body's way of trying to heal the damage.

He clench's his jaw and takes off his jacket and wraps it around her shoulders, distractedly noticing that she has another tattoo on her ribs and a belly button piercing. He doesn't want anyone else to see her without a shirt on. Layla makes an exclamation of surprise when he easily lifts her into his arms and starts to walk back to the main room.

Layla glances at him through pain filled eyes, but sees that he is pointedly looking away from her and the tips of his ears are bright red. Even in the amount of pain she is in, she notices' his awkwardness and can't help but chuckle when she realizes why he is acting like that. She gathers as much saliva as she can in her mouth and licks her lips to moisten them before she talks. "It's similar to a bikini Doctor. Nothing to be embarrassed about. I gave my consent to be seen when I took my shirt off. It was a matter of the shirt and trying to save my hands, or my hands would be worse than they are now. It wasn't a hard choice to make. I don't regret it, and it is just skin." She teases. At her gentle teasing, the Doctor starts to sputters and his cheeks turn pink. Layla finds him cute when he is embarrassed.

He can't really correct her though. Looking at her was too arousing, not embarrassing. So, unfortunately, he has to let her think that since he is afraid that if he says that, she will slap him, and he doesn't want a slap to the face. Wanting to change the subject. "It was a good idea to use your shirt to try to protect your hands. I can heal them when we get back to the Tardis, after we deal with Cassandra." After saying this, it brings his mind back to the matter at hand and why she is hurt and in pain to begin with and his fury rises again.

They enter the main room to see it in chaos and that some people have died. Rose rushes over to them and she is slightly jealous when she sees Layla in the Doctor's arms and wearing his jacket. The Doctor sets Layla down in a nearby chair and Rose watches her wince in pain and then sees her hands. Rose gasps and stands beside her; she sees that Layla doesn't have a shirt on and that is why she is wearing the Doctor's jacket. "Layla, are you alright? What happened?" Rose asked worriedly. Jabe comes over to them and she has a bottle of water in her hands and helps Layla drink it knowing that she would need it to rehydrate.

After she drains the bottle, she gives Jabe a grateful smile. "Thank you Jabe."

"No, thank you Layla, for saving my life." She gives Rose another water bottle to help Layla drink and walks back over to her escorts and stands with them.

"I'm alright Rose, the Doctor says he can heal me after we get back to the Tardis. I took Jabe's place helping the Doctor with something and got a little crispy from it. Besides, it is only a flesh wound." Rose snorts but the Doctor looks at Layla blankly before his face sets in stone and he walks to the middle of the room.

"Is the Doctor okay?" Rose whispered to Layla.

However, the Doctor heard her and answered for himself. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm full of ideas. I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden somewhere nearby." He goes over to the ostrich egg that Cassandra gifted everyone and smashes it. Inside is a small device. "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed."

"Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces." Cassandra says smugly as she is beamed back to the spot where she left. "Oh."

"The last human." The Doctor grits out through a clenched jaw. His anger just increased from what he heard.

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join the, er, the Human Club." She stutters trying to play the whole thing off.

"People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them." If possible, steam would be rising off his head from his anger. You could have killed my Promised One and her friend Rose.

"It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter." She says smugly, thinking she was going to get away with this.

The Doctor smirks darkly. "And creak?" Rose is a little scared of the Doctor's face at this moment, but Layla, even in the pain she is in, is slightly turned on. While she is not a cruel person, she isn't like the Doctor in thinking that everyone should have a second chance.

The smug smile drops off her face. "And what?"

It is the Doctor's turn to be smug. "Creak. You're creaking."

"What?! Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!" She panics.

The Doctor looks at her with a blank face. "You raised the temperature."

"Please, have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."

Rose, who hadn't been there when Cassandra was first caught, develops pity for her. She didn't want to see someone die in front of her, she pleads with the Doctor quietly. "Help her."

The Doctor side eyes Layla and sees her hands. "Everything has its time and everything dies." No one gets away with hurting my Promised One.

Layla, while having felt pity for Cassandra when they first met, feels none of it now. She made her choices and this is the consequences, this was just karma in her opinion. Besides, even if someone wanted to save her, there was no water or anything that could help her nearby, besides the one she needs herself to rehydrate after helping to save everyone here.

"I'm too young to die!" Were Cassandra's last words before she was torn apart.

xxxxxx

The Doctor, Layla, and Rose are standing at a large window, looking at the asteroids that were once the earth as they float past the red giant.

"The end of the earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history. And no one was even looking." Rose said with a slightly quivering lip. Layla would have grabbed her hand in comfort, but since she couldn't, she brushed her shoulder against Rose's, to show she was there for her.

The Doctor looked at them sadly, he thought that this would be an awesome trip, but it turned out wrong. "Here, come with me." He leads them to the Tardis and puts in coordinates. He walks to the door and opens it. The girls follow him out, they hear a baby cry and a man laugh. People are bustling around going on about their lives. They smile seeing the earth teeming with life.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't. One day, it's all gone. Even the sky" The Doctor takes a deep breath and looks pained as he continues. "My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time." Layla and Rose look at him in compassion. I thought it must have been the war he talked about before with the Nestene Consciousness, Layla thought.

Layla wasn't going to ask for confirmation, but Rose decides to. "What happened?"

"There was a war… and we lost." He said the last bit quietly.

"A war with who? What about your people?" Rose asked obliviously. Layla couldn't believe how Rose was not understanding what happened based on his tone and the look in his eyes. She is usually more observant.

Not wanting to think or answer any questions about who they were fighting, ignores the first question. "I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I was traveling on my own 'cos there was no one else." Layla bumps him with her hip. She may not know him well or really at all, but she has a feeling she will be with him for a while. He is a good person, and he can count on her. The Doctor looks at her in appreciation.

"I'm here." Rose says peppily. She looks at Layla and gives her a sheepish smile. "So is Layla."

"You've seen how dangerous it is, do you want to go home?" The Doctor hoped that in spite of that, Layla would stay, he would understand if she didn't. He also wouldn't be surprised if Rose left either.

"I'm staying. Even with the danger, it is still fun to travel and help people." Layla says with a grin.

Rose looks a little hesitant. "I don't know. I want…" She gets distracted by something she smells. "Oh, can you smell chips? Want to get some?"

The Doctor and Layla laugh, but Layla winces when she accidentally bumps her hands. The Doctor sees her hands and realizes he never treated them. "I need to treat Layla's hands, so I will pass, but you can get some. We will wait for you, and I will show you a room when you come back."

Rose flashes Layla a guilty look for forgetting about her hands, but she nods. "Alright, I will get some and then wait in the console room for you." She walks out the door with a pep in her step anticipating her chips.

The Doctor looks at Layla in guilt. "I'm sorry for forgetting about your hands. Let's go treat them." He wraps his arm around her shoulders and guides her to the medical room.

"It's alright Doctor, you were telling us something deeply personal, I wasn't going to interrupt you for my own needs. Besides, the parts that are burnt the worse are numb now." Even with her words the Doctor still felt shame that he forgot about his Promised One being in pain because of his shame and guilt.

xxxxxx

They walk into the medical room and the Doctor guides Layla to sit on the bed. He has a naughty thought that he wants to see her on his bed for a different reason. He goes to a cabinet and rummages around for a minute. He pulls out a tube. "This is a regenerative healing gel that will repair the nerves and flesh in your hands and regrow the skin at an accelerated rate. It will also numb the pain as it is spread across the wound." He goes to another cabinet and easily plucks out a syringe and a vial of medicine. He measures out a dose in the syringe. "This here, will help with the dehydration."

The Doctor stands in front of Layla and slightly freezes. With her on the bed she is sitting higher than she stands. Because she couldn't put her arms in his jacket, it is just draped over her shoulders and open. Her chest is on display and the Doctor is having a hard time concentrating, he feels his cock twitch. Layla is amused that even though the Doctor is an alien, he is still a male, and it is amusing what a pair of breasts does to a lot of them. She isn't embarrassed or shy that she is just in her bra, but she thinks that the Doctor is embarrassed so she decides to help him out. She reaches her left arm out displaying her hand to try to get him back on track.

It works when he clears his throat roughly and grabs her wrist and pulls it closer to him. However, in doing so, his jacket slips off her left shoulder and he gets a clearer vision of her torso. Before he can get distracted again by her breasts, he sees a scar that runs diagonally across her breast bone. He hadn't noticed it before because he was distracted and was trying to his hid arousal from her. Then there was the matter with her hands and dealing with Cassandra, it isn't surprising that he never noticed until now.

He gently runs his fingers over the scar with a look of distress on his face. "What happened?" He asks softly. When the Doctor first touched her scar, she had goose bumps rise along her arms. But then she registers his question and looks at him thoughtfully. He told us about his planet, it is only fair that I share something from my past as well.

"When I was born, I was left at the hospital. The woman who gave birth to me left as soon as she could after delivery. She had given the doctors there a fake name and didn't even name me. The nurse who took care of me after I was born was allowed to name me before they took me into the foster system. Growing up I was moved from foster home to foster home. Some were good, but I had to leave due finances or job relocation or even medical, little things like that to where they couldn't take care of us and some were bad. However, there were three that were the worst I had been to." The Doctor had a feeling that he knows where her story is going though and feels dread.

"They started off mainly with just neglect. I was able to fend for myself food wise for the most part, but they weren't really involved much at all. However, with the first really abusive home, the 'dad' lost his job and took up drinking. He became violent and would attack us. Luckily there were only three of us at the time, two boys that were older than me, and they always tried to protect me. We became pretty good at doing first aid to each other, even stitches. It didn't take long for the 'dad' to screw up and hit us in public. That was when they took us away from him and moved us to another home."

The Doctor stays quiet so she can finish her story. He knows there is more. He grits his teeth in anger that someone would abuse his Promised One. As she was telling him her story, he had given her the injection so her body could start working on getting hydrated and started working on her hands, she was so far into her memories that she didn't really even notice.

"The second abusive home, the woman was just a bitch, but no less abusive than the first. Similar things happened with that one, but one of the other kids in the house got tired of being abused and told his teacher and his teacher starting collecting evidence because before that without 'evidence' there was no case. We were moved immediately. The third, that was the worst one though."

During this whole time Layla had just been talking normally. She wasn't angry, or sad, resentful, or ashamed. She had dealt with her feelings towards the abuse a long time ago, and it made her into who she was today, and she didn't think she turned out so bad. Sometimes she had bad days, but she is thankful they aren't often and are getting rarer as she gets older. However, had she stayed with them, she did not think she would be as okay about it as she was. Thinking about the third home though, always made her a little sad, but not for herself.

"I went to my third most abusive home, and last, was when I was twelve. That was when I also met Rose and we became best friends. For two years I dealt with the abuse. I was the oldest one there this time, and it was my turn to protect the younger ones. A boy that was eight, and a darling little girl that was six. I was able to get the 'parents' negative attention to stay on me to try to protect them. They amped up the abuse though. There were cigarette burnings and cuts." She vaguely points to the areas where he can see the a few, small circular burns, and small white lines here and there that he could see even against her pale skin, barely, but still visible. Luckily, her tattoos caught the eye more than the scars did, so people wouldn't always be asking her about them.

"However, there was one day that was by far the worst I had ever had to deal with. I had gotten home late from school and walked into the 'dad' beating on the little girl, the boy wasn't there though or he would have been next. From what I could see, he had already broken her arm, she was bleeding from her head, and she was unconscious. The 'dad' was beyond drunk and screaming. I ran over trying to get in between them before he could do more damage to her. He became enraged and pushed me down. He grabbed a knife and cut me across my chest. It was bleeding pretty good. I fell unconscious, but woke up at the hospital. The neighbors had called the police because of the noise."

She paused here because she could see that the Doctor was affected by what she was saying. She assumed it was because of her being a child and innocent. His neck was turning red from the anger he was feeling and the sorrow for what she went through. "What happened after that? What about the little girl?"

"Well during my time with dealing with the abusive homes, I had to talk to the police after each one so our cases were documented. After the third one, the police lady that I regularly dealt with felt pity for me and helped me get emancipated. After I got emancipated, Jackie begged me to live with her and Rose. Well, she really guilted me, but whatever. I was a mess though, I would flinch at loud noises and have panic attacks if I did something wrong, expecting to be hurt. Jackie helped me get into therapy and that helped out a lot. The therapist helped me move past the trauma and open up more. She made me realize that the abuse wasn't my fault. She also helped me find outlets for my emotions."

Layla stopped and took a deep breath as she thought about the little girl that she had once lived with. "As for the little girl, she was in a coma for a swollen brain for six days, but when she woke up, she was okay. There were no complications she had to live with, she healed up well. I had first checked on her a couple of years ago after I had healed myself and found out that she had been adopted by a loving couple and they moved to America for a job relocation and she was happy and healthy. I went to visit her, she actually remembered me and wanted to see me. I think it was because I protected her as much as I could and we were close because of it. I have a picture of her and her parents somewhere in my room."

The Doctor was angry, but he couldn't help but smile when he seen the tender smile on Layla's face. However, there was one question he wanted to ask, but didn't know if the answer he got would be the one he wanted. "Was it only physical abuse?"

Layla had expected that question and wanted to put him at ease. "There were a couple of close calls, but there was never any sexual abuse, Doctor. Nothing to worry about there. Anything that I have done sexually has always been consensual." She said with a sly smirk trying to ease the tension, not realizing what her words would do to him. The Doctor was relieved that there was not any of that kind, but he was also jealous at her previous involvement with others sexually.

"That is why when I got emancipated, I started doing mixed martial arts. To protect myself so I won't be in that position again and it also helped with my control over my emotions. There are rare times when I relapse to how I would act as a child, the flinching and such, but I have not been abused since then. That is also why I am always thinking about children's safety, adults should always protect children."

The Doctor looked Layla straight in the eyes. He stared at her intensely. "Layla, I promise, with me, you will never be in that position again." He says fiercely.

Layla knows he can't really promise that, but is happy that he cares, and she believes that he will try his best to keep that promise. She leans over and gives him a kiss on his cheek. Her lips tingle afterwards. "I believe you."

The Doctor feels where she kissed him heat up pleasantly. "Well, your hands are done. They will be slightly sore, but should be fine by tomorrow."

Layla looked at her hands in surprise and awe. "Wow, you're like madame Pomphrey. You have magic potions." She says with mock seriousness.

The Doctor, forgetting the first time she teased him about magic, balks with indignation. "There is… no such thing as magic!" He goes on another tangent about how superior Time Lord science is when he hears Layla laughing and realizes she was teasing him again.

"Are you sure it isn't magic? I still think the Tardis is magic too." She busts up laughing at the Doctors pout. However, the pout doesn't stay long and a fond smile appears on his face from looking at his Promised One.

"Alright enough teasing, but there was one more thing I wanted to ask about. Just more of a curiosity thing for me really." Layla nods her head giving him permission to ask away. "I was just wondering what your rib tattoo said."

"That's all? That's simple. It is just a quote that seemed to fit my life pretty well, I think. I found it in a book. Here you can read it." She turns and shows her side to the Doctor giving him a view of the saying.

The Doctor's face heats up a little at being close to her without her having a shirt on and reads the quote aloud:

"Scar tissue does more than flaunt its strength by chronicling the assaults it has withstood. Scar tissue is new growth. And it is tougher than skin innocent of the blade -Shelley Jackson"

He thinks about it for a minute and realizes that she is right. It really does fit her. He gives her a smile and moves back from her. "I agree, it does seem to fit you pretty well. Here, you can use my jacket until you get to your room and the Tardis will have clothes in a closet for you to pick from. Now, let's go see if Rose is back and I can show you both to your rooms." The Doctor guided her back to the main room. He leers at her, although, if I had it my way, it won't be your room for long.