It is a rare morning where they are all in the kitchen at the same time. Layla is looking around at the different fruits looking for her favorite and having no luck as of yet, Rose and the Doctor are sitting at the table drinking their tea. The Doctor walks over and takes a banana from a bowl on the counter. "Layla? Rose? Either of you want a banana? These are from the best groves."

"Sure, I'll take one." Rose holds her hand out for one and he tosses it to her.

He looks towards Layla and she is looking at him with a face of disgust and he looks at her confused. "No, I absolutely hate bananas, they are the grossest things ever."

The Doctor backs up with his hand over his hearts and his eyes are wide and his jaw dropped open in horror. You would think she had just told him the Tardis was ugly and the worst ship in the universe and that Mickey was smarter than him. His reaction causes the girls the bust out in laughter. He crosses his arms across his chest defensively and demands. "How do you live?!"

She looks at him with a playful smile. "By not eating them, I live happily, but guess what?"

He turns his head to the side and turned up towards the ceiling, his lips pursed and eyes squinted. "What?"

"With me hating bananas." She laughs when he gasps like a scandalized old Victorian woman. "That means that there is more for you to eat." She tells him slyly.

There is a moment of silence then it is like he had been electrocuted because he shoots up shouting. "Fantastic!"

While this is happening, Rose is practically on the floor with tears in her eyes from laughing so hard at the ridiculous conversation and the mentality of the Doctor and his love of bananas.

"Oh! Doctor! Guess what her favorite fruit is though!" Rose says mischievously with tears still in her eyes.

"…What?" He asks warily having a bad feeling.

"Pears!"

The Doctor looks aghast and ready to hurl and looks at Layla like she betrayed him. "Is this true?!"

She looks at him slightly confused. "Yes, I absolutely am in love with pears."

The Doctor storms out of the kitchen shouting over his shoulder in outrage. "No pears on my ship!"

"That escalated quickly." Layla laughed. As the Doctor leaves he hears the girls giggling as Rose explains his hatred of pears from what he complained to her the other day.

Xxxxxx

Luckily the girls are done eating when the Tardis starts shifting and shaking like mad. They make a mad dash to the console room and see the Doctor running around the time rotor like a maniac. "What's the emergency?" Rose asks panicky.

"It's mauve."

"What the heck is mauve?" Layla asks.

"The universally recognized color for danger."

"What happened to red?" Rose asked a valid question.

"That's just humans. By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing."

"Wait, do you mean dancing or dancing?" Layla wiggles her eyebrows. Rose snorts and the Doctor wiggles his eyebrows back.

"It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the Tardis. Where it goes, we go."

Rose looked at him skeptically. "And that's safe, is it?"

He nods. "Totally." The console makes a loud bang and sparks shoot out. "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there. No, no, no, no! it's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"Doctor, you're supposed to play hard to get, not give into the chase. Tsk tsk." Layla shook her head in mock disappointment.

Rose laughs at the look on the Doctor's face. "What exactly is this thing?"

"No idea."

"Then why are we chasing it?" Rose didn't understand why he felt the need to go after this mauve item.

"It's mauve and dangerous, and about thirty seconds from the center of London."

"Why is it always London?" Layla wanted to know.

Xxxxxx

The Tardis materializes in a back alley between two terraces and the three-time travelers walk out the door. "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into earth?"

"With the way you drive?" Layla asks cheekily.

"Five days? Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

"Of all the species in all the universe and it has to come out of a cow." The Doctor complained. "Must have come down somewhere quite close within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago Maybe a month."

"A month? We were right behind it" Rose gaped.

"It was jumping time tracks all over the place. We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"

"Ha! Are you sure it was the time tracks and not your driving? I do seem to remember something about twelve hours being twelve months?" Layla nudged him in the side playfully and he mock glared but ended up smiling and nudging her back.

Rose cleared her throat. "Yeah. How much is a little?"

The Doctor shrugged. "A bit." He was enjoying annoying her. He was still upset about the reaper issue and had been more standoffish with her since.

"Is that exactly a bit?

"Ish."

Layla laughed. She could tell the Doctor was doing it to annoy Rose and it was working. Rose tended to complain when the Doctor messed up the times, but she didn't seem to realize that it wasn't the Doctor doing it, it was the Tardis taking him to places that needed help. Anytime they ended up in the 'wrong' time they ended up fixing or saving the day. She made the connection pretty early on from their numerous adventures they had been on. Look at how many times they had been to the wrong time and place and wouldn't you know, every time the Doctor ended up fixing something at every one of those wrong destination trips.

"What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

"That would make it too easy and then the adventure would be over too soon." Layla pouted and the Doctor had to grin at the cuteness of it.

"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a very loud bang. I'm going to ask." He takes out his psychic paper and shows her.

"Doctor John Smith, Ministry of Asteroids."

"It's psychic paper. It tells you…"

"Whatever you want it to tell me, I remember." Rose says sourly.

The Doctor shrugs. "Sorry." They come up to a door that is marked 'Deliveries Only.'

"Not very Spock, is it, just asking."

"Door, music, people. What do you think?" He asked her sarcastically and Layla snickered.

Rose looked at them annoyed. "I think you should do a scan for alien tech. Give me some Spock, for once. Would it kill you?" What is it with Rose and Spock? I didn't even know she liked Star Trek? Layla wondered.

The Doctor opens the door with his screwdriver and then something catches his eye that he usually doesn't notice. "Rose, are you sure about that t-shirt?"

Rose looked at her t-shirt that was a union flag top. "Too early to say. I'm taking it out for a spin."

"Why what's wrong with her shirt? Is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?" Layla asked him worried that they would be stoned for showing their ankles.

The Doctor looked at her outfit and admired how her black spaghetti strap dress with a puffy skirt fit on her with her under bust corset. "No, I know we are in the past, but not too far to be a worry. You look beautiful. Fine, you look fine." He coughed and turned around towards the door. "Although you might be looked at oddly for your jewelry. Come on if you're coming. It won't take a minute." He walks inside but Layla and Rose stay outside.

"Mummy? Mummy?"

Rose and Layla look around in confusion and the Doctor walks inside the building. They look at each other mentally asking if they heard that and they both nodded in agreement.

"Mummy?"

Rose looks up and sees a child with a gasmask up on a nearby roof. "Look up there! Doctor? Doctor? There's a kid up there!"

"He's not here, we can deal with this ourselves. Hang on kid I'm coming!" Layla takes off not looking to see if Rose was coming or not.

Rose does catch up though. "Are you all right up there?"

"Mummy?"

They run up a metal fire escape staircase nearby and get to a flat roof but the child is still above them.

"Mummy?"

"Okay, Hang on! Don't move!" Rose looks around trying to find a way up.

"Can you back away from the ledge, we don't want you to fall off, Sweetheart." Layla was worried he was going to fall and hurt himself.

Suddenly a rope dangle down in front of Layla and she takes a hold of it and pulls on it. Seeing that is seems secure she uses it to help her to climb up to the child. Rose follows up after her.

"Mummy. Balloon!"

The barrage balloon drifts and it pulls Rose and Layla away from the wall and the child causing them to dangle over the alleyway. "Doctor! Doctor! Doctor!" Rose shouts in panic.

Layla moans. She is worried too, but she knows that one, the Doctor is not here and two, there isn't anything he could do right now anyways. They were dangling too far above the ground and drifted away from the building. Next thing they know searchlights comb the sky. Explosions and fires start in various parts of London. A squadron of German planes head towards the girls.

"Okay, maybe not this t-shirt." Rose mumbles through trembling lips.

"Rose, just hold on tight, we will figure something out." Layla tries to sound encouraging, but there isn't anything in sight that can help them and she feels her heart drop. But tightens her grip anyways, refusing to give up just yet.

It feels like it has been forever and Rose's arms are starting to hurt, trembling with exhaustion, and she is losing her grip. She starts to squirm around trying to get a better grip but ends up falling instead. Rose and Layla are screaming when Rose is caught in a beam of light.

"Okay, okay, I've got you." They hear a man say.

"Who's got me? Who's got me, and you know, how?" Rose was scared, she was hanging in the air by a beam of light.

"I'm just programming your descent pattern. Keep as still as you can and keep your hands and feet inside the light field."

"Descent pattern?"

"Oh, and could you switch off your cell phone? No, seriously, it interferes with my instrument."

Rose gaped, was he ever going to answer my questions? "You know, no one ever believes that." She gets out her phone and turns it off before shoving it back into her pocket.

"Thank you. That's much better." The man sounds satisfied.

"Oh, yea, that's a real load off, that is. I'm hanging in the sky in the middle of a German air raid with the Union Jack across my chest, but hey, my mobile phone's off." Rose was getting a little hysterical.

"Be with you in a moment."

"Could you two kind of speed this up a bit, I am quite fit, but I am getting tired of hanging on this rope in a dress. Please and thank you." Layla snarked out.

"Hold tight!" The man told Rose.

"To what?!"

"…Fair point. Be with you in a second beautiful lady."

Rose was beamed up and Layla was left hanging by herself. Luckily, she workouts or she would be struggling like Rose had been and if she had been, she doubted that man would have been able to catch both of them before they dropped.

A bright light shined on her and the man's voice could be heard. "Now your turn Sweetheart, all you have to do is let go and you will stay in the beam of light, you'll be fine." He was talking to her soothingly like she was a scared child that he had to calm, but he had saved Rose when he didn't have to so she trusted him to save her. She let go with no hesitation and crossed her arms over her chest and her ankles with her dress tucked in between her legs to keep it from floating around. She goes hurtling down the light field like Rose was and lands in the man's arms, and she assumed Rose did as well. "I've got you. You're fine, you're fine. The tractor beam, it can scramble your head just a little."

She wraps her arms around his neck to stabilize herself for a second and closes her eyes to ground herself. She takes some deep breaths and then opens her eyes and looks at the man. "Thank you for the help."

"No problem, Sweetheart."

"…"

"…"

"You can set me down now."

"Oh! Right sorry." He coughs and actually feels a small amount of heat come to his cheeks. She hadn't reacted like other people and he was watching and waiting for her to and when she didn't, he spaced out watching her.

Layla looks around and sees Rose laying on the bed asleep. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, just fainted, she should be up and about soon." Layla goes and sits by Rose and runs her hands through her hair and looks around the ship not noticing the gaze of the man.

It doesn't take long before Rose finally stirs and Layla helps her sit up. "Better now?" The man asks her.

"You got lights in here?" She asks. He turns them on and she sees that it is small and cramped with a lot of wires hanging from the ceiling.

"Hello." The man said.

"Hello." This from Rose.

"Hello." This from the man.

"Hello." This from Layla, who gives them a cheesy grin and wiggles her fingers.

Rose laughs. "Let's not start that again."

The man nods his head with a laugh. "Okay."

"So, who're you supposed to be, then?"

The man flashes them a wallet. "Captain Jack Harkness, One-Three-Three Squadron, Royal Air Force American volunteer."

Rose read's it and smirks at him. "Liar. This is psychic paper. It tells me whatever you want it to tell me."

Jack looks at her surprised. "How do you know?"

"Two things, One, we have a friend who uses this all the time."

"Literally, all the time. He doesn't get invited anywhere. He wouldn't be able to have fun without it." Layla nods her head seriously and they laugh.

"And two, you just handed me a piece of paper telling me you're single and you work out."

Jack smirks at her but doesn't look upset that he was caught. "Tricky thing, psychic paper."

Rose gives him a cheeky grin. "Yeah. Can't let your mind wander when you're handing it over." She gives it back to him.

He reads it and gives her a sly smirk. "Oh, you sort of have a boyfriend called Mickey Smith but you consider yourself to be footloose and fancy free."

Rose looks stunned. "What?"

"And another one, very." Layla looks at Rose in disappointment, the least she could do is not string along Mickey Mouse, he deserves better than that.

Rose looks away from the handsome stranger. "Shall we try to get along without the psychic paper."

He shrugs, he does better without it anyways. "That would be better, wouldn't it?"

Rose puts her hands in her pockets and walks around the tiny spaceship looking around, trying to change the subject. "Nice spaceship." Layla sits on the bed and watches the interaction between the two, not really interested, but not rude enough to demand to leave either.

"Gets me around."

"Very Spock."

"Rose what is it with you and Star Trek, since when do you even like Star Trek? Or do you just have a thing for tall, big eared, short dark hair, clever, alien males?" Layla tried not to, but she couldn't help but burst out laughing at the look on Rose's face. It was so hilarious! Then Rose gave her the stink eye and it made it even funnier!

She completely missed the look of interest from Jack, but Rose didn't. Maybe I can use this to my advantage. She wasn't wrong about the Spock thing. If she spends more time with Jack, the Doctor would pay more attention to me. The Doctor is so interesting and I want to know more about him.

Jack looked at them confused. "Who?"

Rose blushed. "Guessing you're not a local boy, then."

"A cell phone, a liquid crystal watch, and fabrics that won't be around for at least another two decades plus the style, and facial piercings that are definitely not done for quite some time. Guessing you're not local girls."

Layla nods, and Rose smirks. "Guessing right." She reaches out to touch the console and hisses as she runs her hands along it.

Jack sits up straighter. "Burn your hands on the rope?"

A bomb whistles past and distracts Rose. "Yeah. We're parked in midair! Can't anyone down there see us?"

"No, can I have a look at your hands for a moment?" Jack has a scarf in his hands and is reaching for Rose's hands slowly.

Rose is hesitant to give him her hands. "Why?"

"Please? You can stop acting now. I know exactly who you are. I can spot a Time Agent a mile away."

Rose raises her brow. "Time Agent?"

Jack's back was facing Layla so he missed her raising her brow and the amusement that flashed across her face. Oh yeah, he could spot an Agent, so well in fact that he can spot them before they even hear and work for the place.

"I've been expecting one of you guys to show up. Though not, I must say, by barrage balloon. Do you often travel that way?"

"Sometimes I get swept off my feet. By balloons. What are you doing?"

Jack was wrapping his scarf around Rose's hands and wrists. "Try to keep still."

"That's kinky Jack, Rose is pretty vanilla, might want to ease her into it." Layla gives Jack a wink when he turns around and gives her a roguish smirk and Rose blushes.

He presses a button and a glowing bundle zoom into Rose's burnt palms. "Nanogenes. Sub-atomic robots. The air in here is full of them. They just repaired three layers of your skin." The glow dissipates and he unties her wrists.

"Well, tell them thanks." Rose looked at her hands and was glad that they were no longer burning.

Jack turned to Layla and grabbed her hands and was looking to see if they were burned. They were a little bit and he didn't want her to be in any pain. He decided to tease her and tied her wrists too. The smirk she gave him told him she knew what he was doing. "I'm tempted to leave you like this, it is a good look for you." He told her. She threw her head back in a laugh and he untied her when her hands were done being healed. Rose was grinning happily hoping that they were taking a liking to each other.

Layla had to admit that Jack was good looking and seemed like he was fun to be around, but he wasn't the Doctor, he didn't give her the same feelings the Doctor did. She was drawn to the Doctor, like a magnet. She constantly wanted to touch him and she wanted to know everything about him. She had never been attracted to someone as much as she was to him, and it wasn't just physical, it was emotional too, but it also felt deeper than that.

"Now, shall we get down to business?" Jack stood up and looked at the girls.

"Business?" Rose asked him confused, forgetting that he was confusing them with Time Agents.

"Shall we have a drink on the balcony? Bring up the glasses." Jack opens a hatch to the top of his spaceship and the girls follow him to the top.

Rose is walking with her arms out to the side like she is on a tightrope. "I know I'm standing on something. Jack uses a remote control and the ship appears. "Okay, you have an invisible spaceship.

Jack nods his head. "Yeah."

"Tethered up to Big ben for some reason." Rose looked at him confused.

"First rule of active camouflage. Park somewhere you'll remember."

Layla barks out a laugh. "Forget often enough to have to make that rule Jack? Or directionally challenged?" Jack opens the bottle of champagne and fills the glasses that Rose brought with her and notices that she only brought two. He looks at Layla questioningly.

"I don't drink." She tells him quietly. "Bad memories." While Jack doesn't know what happened, he isn't one to push and he doesn't want to upset this beautiful lady and wants to make her sad eyes go away.

Jack and Rose are quietly sipping their champagne and Layla is enjoying the night. "You know, it's getting a bit late, we should really be getting back." Rose wanted to get back to the Doctor.

"We're discussing business." Jack says smoothly.

Rose laughed. "This isn't business, this is champagne."

"I try never to discuss business with a clear head. Are you traveling alone? Are you authorized to negotiate with me?"

"What would we be negotiating?"

"I have something for the Time Agency. Something they'd like to buy. Are you in power to make payment?"

Layla looked at Jack thoughtfully. What would be the chances that we chase something that is hurtling through the time vortex at a massive speed heading straight for London, and at the same time when we get here, we end up meeting Jack, who just happens to be selling something to this Time Agency, and that they wouldn't be connected? The chances of that would be slim to none.

"Well, I, I should talk to my companion." Rose was starting to get distracted by the alcohol and his looks.

"Companion?"

That's right! The Doctor, the one I like. "I should really be getting back to him."

Jack pouted slightly. "Him?"

"Do you have the time." Rose asked randomly. Jack sighed and used his remote and the clock face on Big Ben lights up showing nine thirty. Rose was impressed. "Okay, that was flash. That was on the flash side." Layla sniggered; It really doesn't take much to impress Rose.

"So, when you say your companion, just how disappointed should I be?" Jack was trying to figure out if he would be able to seduce this companion or not to make his sale.

"Okay, we're standing in midair." Rose said ignoring his question.

"Mmm-hmmm."

"On a spaceship, during a German air raid."

"Do you like Glenn Miller?" Jack started to try to dance with her, but Rose had a brilliant idea and pretended that she was a little too woozy from the alcohol.

"I think you should dance with Layla; I think I need a breather from the champagne for a few minutes." She goes over to Layla and none to gently pushes her towards Jack who catches her gently and Rose smirks at her success.

Jack uses his remote and Moonlight Serenade plays. He takes Layla into his arms and they dance. He isn't upset about the partner switch, quite happy in fact, Rose is a pretty girl, but there is something about Layla that draws you in.

"It's 1941, the height of the London Blitz, the height of the German bombing campaign, and something else has fallen on London. A fully equipped Chula warship. The last one in existence, armed to the teeth. And I know where it is, because I parked it. If the Agency can name the right price, I can get it for you. But in two hours, a German bomb is going to fall on it and destroy it forever. That's your deadline. That's the deal. Now, shall we discuss payment?"

Layla didn't say anything and looked intensely into his eyes. It felt as if she was looking into his soul and made him feel like he was stripped raw. "Do you want to know what I think?"

Not really, your eyes tell me you know and see too much. "What?"

"You don't want to make an ethical deal with them, hence the champagne. You also don't care about it because you'd move it before the bomb destroyed it, so it's not worth it to you to try to find another buyer if we say no and the bomb will clean it up for you. Because of that, you don't want to show the product before discussing payment. So, revenge? Leverage? Blackmail? I think the Time Agency has something you need or want. Something they won't give you. So, you try to sell them things they might want in hopes of getting it or using it against them."

Jack swallows hard and his heart is pounding harshly. She sees too much. She is too perceptive. "So, this companion of yours, does he handle the business?"

Layla smiles at him softly, kindly, and apologetically. She knows that she is perceptive and it can make someone uncomfortable. She squeezes his hand and stops dancing. "Yes."

Jack looks away from her kind eyes. "Well, maybe we should go find him."

"And how're you going to do that?" Rose cuts in, excited that they are going to go see the Doctor.

Jack gives her a smug smirk. "Easy. I'll do a scan for alien tech."

Rose pumps her fist in the air. "Finally, a professional." Jack and Layla just look at her oddly.

Xxxxxx

The Doctor walks into the club and follows a waiter through a bead curtain to where a saxophonist and jazz band is accompanying a woman as she sings.

"For nobody else gave me the thrill. When I have upsold silence still, it had to be you, wonderful you, it had to be you."

The Doctor takes the woman's place at the microphone. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick. Hello! Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?" It goes completely silent and the Doctor doesn't understand why. All of a sudden everyone starts to laugh like he told the funniest joke in the world.

His eyebrows squish together. "Sorry, have I said something funny? It's just, there's this thing that I need to find. Would've fallen from the sky a couple of days ago."

He stops talking as loud air raid sirens start to go off and everyone starts to leave, the Doctor still not realizing the problem continues to try to get the answer to his question. "Would've landed quite near here. With a very loud…"

"Quickly as you can, down to the shelter." A man is hurrying people out the door. The Doctor finally looks around and spots a poster on the wall, 'Hitler will send no warning!'

"Bang."

Coming out of the club he sees that his companions are not there, he was glad that they didn't go in with him, that would have been embarrassing and they would have teased him about it for days. "Layla? Rose?"

The Doctor hears a cat meow nearby and goes towards it and starts to pet it. "You know, one day, just one day, maybe, I'm going to meet someone who gets the whole don't wander off thing. Nine hundred, who really knows, years of phone box travel, it's the only thing left to surprise me."

A phone starts to ring nearby and the Doctor looks around only to look surprised when he realizes it is coming from the Tardis. He looks at it oddly. He opens the small door revealing the antique phone. "How can you be ringing? What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

He gets out his sonic screwdriver and starts to mess with the phone to figure out why it is ringing when a young woman walks by him up the alleyway. "Don't answer it. It's not for you."

The Doctor stops what he is doing and looks at her. "And how do you know that?"

She turns and faces him. "'Cos I do. And I'm telling you, don't answer it."

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this. How can it be ringing? It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not…" The Doctor stops talking when he realizes that at some point, she ditched him and he had been talking to himself.

Seeing that the woman is gone, he is left with no answers on how the phone is ringing, and that the phone is still ringing, he decides to answer it. "Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor Speaking. How many I help you?" He says it cheerfully with a big grin.

"Mummy? Mummy?"

The Doctor's hearts clench as he hears the child's voice and the sadness in it. He softens his voice wanting to help the child find his mother. "Who is this? Who's speaking?"

"Are you, my mummy?"

Still talking gently, but starting to get a weird feeling about this whole thing he asks again. "Who is this?"

"Mummy?"

The Doctor's voice loses all the gentleness it once had and becomes stern, especially once he remembers that this is not a real phone and a child should not be able to contact him on it. "How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything."

"Mummy?"

The child hangs up and the Doctor hears the dial tone. He puts the phone back up and opens the doors to the Tardis. "Layla? Rose? Are you two in here?" He gets no answer back.

He hears a noise behind him and runs out of the alley towards it. He walks up towards a fence and sees a family coming out of their house, the husband complaining the whole time and the wife trying to get him in the shelter. "The planes are coming. Can't you hear them? Into the shelter. None of your nonsense, now move it!" The wife snaps at her husband and the Doctor snickers. He thinks that if Layla was here, she would be making a whip cracking noise. She told him that she does it to Mickey when he gives into Rose's whims on something he didn't want to do but she did.

"Come on, hurry up, get in there. Come on. Arthur! Arthur, will you hurry up? Didn't you hear the siren?" The wife isn't too hysterical for an air raid, the Doctor thought, this must happen a lot for her to act like this.

Her husband finally comes out of the house stuffing a roll in his mouth, chewing, and shouting up at the sky at the same time. "Middle of dinner, every night. Blooming Germans. Don't you eat?"

The wife looked around showing worry for the first time. "I can hear the planes."

The husband is still complaining to the sky though. "Don't you eat!"

His wife frowns and starts to push him towards the shelter. "Oh, keep your voice down, will you? It's an air raid! Get in. Look, there's a war on."

"I know there's a war on. Don't push me." He pouts like a child.

The Doctor sees that as soon as the family is safely in the shelter and locked up, the woman from before enters the garden and goes into the family's house. He goes to a window nearby and sees her nicking some tin goods.

The Doctor had watched as the young woman came back out of the house and whistled a couple of times and then a mass of children come running towards her and into the house. When the number slows down, he swiftly and quietly sneaks in and hides out of sight watching them, hearing the children call the woman, Nancy, before he sits at a spot at the table unnoticed.

"He told me about it." The little boy points to another sitting beside him.

Nancy smiles at him kindly. "Sleeping rough?"

He bobs his head. "Yes, miss."

Nancy picks up the plate of meat she had been carving and hands it to the child next to her. "All right, then. One slice each, and I want to see everyone chewing properly." All of the children eagerly dig into the food on their plates, making sure to chew properly, so they don't get scolded.

"Thank you, miss." One boy says.

"Thank you, miss." Another boy says.

"Thank you, miss!" The Doctor says with a big cheesy grin and continues to pass on the plate and goes on eating like nothing was wrong while the children panic.

Nancy calms them down. "It's all right. Everybody stay where you are!"

The Doctor looks at all the kids and his hearts clench at how small and thin they are, but he puts on a big grin anyways. "Good here, innit? Who's got the salt?"

Nancy has not stopped looking at him the whole time trying to decide if he was a threat or not, but this food was a good opportunity that she couldn't pass up just because of this stranger, who was also eating. "Back in your seats. He shouldn't be here either."

"So, you lot, what's your story?" The Doctor was curious, the children were supposed to be evacuated already, why were they still here?

One of the older boys looked at him suspiciously. "What do you mean?"

"You're homeless, right? Living rough?"

"Why do you want to know that? Are you a copper?" One of the younger boys asked and the Doctor gives him a soft smile at the cuteness.

"Of course, I'm not a copper. What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving?" That eased the tension and all the kids laughed. "I make it 1941. You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated, sent me to a farm." A boy told him.

"So, why'd you come back?"

The boy ducked his head as if he was ashamed. "There was a man there." The Doctor grit his teeth as he knew what the boy was not saying and he is glad that Layla is not here because then she would try to hunt this man down.

"Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago." Another told him pointing to the boy who looked at him suspiciously earlier.

Ernie gave the kid a dirty look. "Shut up. It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food."

"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us." They all looked up at Nancy like a big sister.

The Doctor looked at Nancy. "So that's what you do, is it, Nancy?"

She pursed her lips, but wouldn't really look him in the eyes very long. "What is?"

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down the air raid shelter and bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you."

She looked at him challengingly, daring him to tell her that what she was doing for these kids was wrong. "Something wrong with that?"

"Wrong with it? It's brilliant." He gives her a grin before he drifts off in his mind. "I'm not sure if it's Marxism or a West End musical."

Nancy just looks at him oddly not understanding what he was talking about. "Why'd you follow me? what do you want?"

"I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call. You seem to be the one to ask."

She turns away from him and starts to busy herself with the dishes of food. "I did you a favor. I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."

"Great thanks." He says sarcastically, that helps so much. "And I want to find a whitey in a black dress and a blond in a union jack. And I mean specific ones, I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. Well, I did for the white and black, but that's beside the point. Anybody seen two girls like that?" The kids laughed at him as he started to ramble about Layla, and they shook their heads.

Nancy walks up to the Doctor and snatches his plate away. His eyes widen and he pouts. "What have I done wrong?"

"You took two slices. No blondes with flags and no white with black." She just wanted this man to leave them in peace. "Anything else before you leave?"

Ignoring her sarcasm he nods his head enthusiastically. "Yeah, there is actually. Thanks for asking. Something I've been looking for. Would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere, and it would have looked something like this." While he was talking, he has a notebook out and was sketching what him and the girls had been following through the vortex. He shows it to her and he sees her eyes widen in recognition. Before she can talk though, a knock on the door causes everyone to jump, startled.

"Mummy? Are you in there, mummy?"

The Doctor walks towards a window and looks out it and can see a little boy with a gas mask on at the front door.

"Mummy?"

Nancy looks around panicked. "Who was the last one in?"

Ernie points to the Doctor, throwing him under the bus. "Him."

She shakes her head. Since he followed me then he came in the same way I did. "No, he came round the back. Who came in the front?"

"Me." One of the boys say quietly, afraid that he was in trouble.

Nancy goes to him and grabs his arms firmly, but gently. "Did you close the door?"

He tries to remember, but all he thought about at the time was eating. "Er."

She slightly shakes him. "Did you close the door?"

"Mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"

Not getting an answer from the child she runs to the front door and bolts the front door so the boy can't get inside. The Doctor walks up behind her and looks at her oddly. "What's this then? It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

"I suppose you'd know." She says blankly, too focused on the door.

"I do actually, yes." He says quietly.

Nancy shakes her head. "It's not exactly a child."

"Mummy?"

Nancy runs back into the dining room. "Right everybody out. Across the back garden and under the fence. Now! Go! Move!"

The children grab their coats and flee the house. Nancy is talking to the sole remaining little girl, who looks to be no more than four years old. "Come on, baby, we've got to go, all right? It's just like a game. Just like chasing. Take your coat, go on. Go!"

"Mummy? Mummy? Please let me in, mummy. Please let me in, mummy." The little boy shoves his hand though the letter box.

The Doctor walks closer to the door and squats down. He starts to reach towards the hand. "Are you alright?"

"Please let me in."

Before the Doctor can touch the child, a vase is thrown at the door and smashes. The hand withdraws quickly and the Doctor turns and looks at Nancy in shock. She is breathing heavily with a wild-eyed look. "You mustn't let him touch you!"

"What happens if he touches me?"

She pauses for a second, not wanting to talk about it anymore and not knowing how to describe it. "He'll make you like him."

"And what's he like?"

"I've got to go." She turns ready to run away. Her heart still hurts and she still can't grieve because her pain is still following her.

"Nancy, what's he like?"

She takes a deep shuddering breath and looks at him with vacant eyes. "He's empty." The telephone starts to ring and fear enters her eyes. "It's him. He can make phones ring. He can. Just like with that police box you saw." The Doctor picks up the phone wanting to confirm that it is indeed the child.

"Are you, my mummy?"

Nancy takes the phone out of his hands and slams it back down ending the call. However, the radio in the dining room starts up next. "Mummy? Please let me in, mummy?"

Next was a clockwork monkey. "Mummy, mummy, mummy."

Nancy was shaking her head and backing away from the electronics and towards the door. "Stay if you want to." She turns and leaves out the back door without looking back. The Doctor walks back towards the front door and the boy puts his hand back through the letterbox. The Doctor sees a scar on the back of his hand.

"Mummy? Let me in please, mummy. Please let me in."

"Your mummy isn't here." While he is worried about where Layla and Rose are, he is glad that Layla isn't here right now. This would break her heart to have to hear this and not be able to do anything about it.

"Are you, my mummy?"

"No mummies here." Maybe in the far, far, future he can make Layla a mummy and hear their children call her that. "Nobody here but us chickens. Well, this chicken."

"I'm scared."

The Doctor's face falls. To have to deny a child, especially one that is scared is a terrible feeling. "Why are those other children frightened of you?"

"Please let me in, mummy. I'm scared of the bombs."

The Doctor couldn't do it. He can't let this child suffer even if he is 'empty'. He is a scared little boy and he isn't going to deny him comfort anymore. "Okay. I'm opening the door now." The boy pulls his hand out of the letterbox and the Doctor unbolts the door. When he opens it though, the boy is gone and the street is deserted.

It wasn't hard for the Doctor to use his cleverness to figure out where Nancy was going and follow her. Nancy is scurrying up to a shack in some railway sidings and hiding the food she took from the last house she was in. When she stands up, she sees the Doctor there, smiling. "How'd you follow me here?"

"I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it."

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to." She is looking around for a way to escape him and lose him so he can't follow her again.

The Doctor just taps the side of his nose. "My nose has special powers."

Nancy looks at his nose and giggles. "Yeah? That's why it's…" She stops not wanting to continue.

"What?" Already knowing she is laughing at the size of it.

"Nothing." She looks away but giggles again.

"What?" He asks her innocently.

"Nothing. Do your ears have special powers too?"

He tilts his head to the side. Knew it, luckily, Layla still finds this daft old face attractive. "What are you trying to say?"

"Goodnight, Mister."

"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy, and it started about a month ago, right? The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?" He looks at her seriously, wanting her to know that he isn't going to give up asking until he gets the answers he is looking for.

"There was a bomb. A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station." She gives up and finally answers him.

"Take me there." He demands.

She shakes her head. "There's soldiers guarding it. Barbed wire. You'll never get through.

He gives her a slightly impish grin. "Try me."

"You sure you want to know what's going on in there?"

He nods. "I really want to know."

"Then there's someone you need to talk to first."

"And who might that be?"

"The doctor." The Doctor looked at her oddly, he didn't think it was a future him, but why would he need to talk to a doctor about a not-bomb, bomb?

Nancy reluctantly takes him to where the not-bomb, bomb was and waited there with him while he scoped it out. The Doctor is using his binoculars to scan the area. She points off towards an area that is behind the barbed wire. "The bombs under that tarpaulin. They put the fence up overnight. See that building?" She points in another direction. "The hospital."

"What about it?" He didn't understand why he needed to talk to this doctor, all he wanted was a look at the not-bomb.

"That's where the doctor is. You should talk to him." She was very firm.

"Why?"

"Because then maybe you won't want to get inside." She knew what happened when they took Jamie, what happened to the patients and the staff, and if he understood, he would leave well enough alone.

She turns to leave when he stops her. "Where're you going?"

"There was a lot of food in that house. I've got mouths to feed. Should be safe enough now."

"Can I ask you a question? Who did you lose?" While he admires that she is taking care of all these kids, in times like this, people usually don't do something like this without a reason, without going through it themselves or losing someone close to them.

"What?" She asks him softly.

"The way you look after all those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it?" It reminded him of why he does the things he does, because of the guilt. That by helping others, maybe, just maybe, it would lessen the guilt around his hearts. Before the war he helped out all kinds of species just to lend a hand. But since the war, helping people and Layla are the only reasons he hadn't fallen apart from the barely bearable guilt.

"My little brother. Jamie." Her breath hitches. "One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just. He just didn't like being on his own."

"What happened?" The Doctor figured he died, but wasn't sure if it was the thing they chased through the vortex or the air raids, or if she even knew.

"In the middle of an air raid? What do you think happened?" She asked him a little incredulous.

The Doctor looks up at the sky. "Amazing."

She looks at him confused. "What is?"

"1941. Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do. Save the world." Nancy just looks at him like he has lost his marbles and turns away to get back to work feeding the hungry and homeless of her tiny little home.

The Doctor decides to go talk to this doctor at the hospital. He walks to the hospital and gets to the gate and sees that it is chained up. He uses his sonic screwdriver on it and easily unlocks it. Going inside the hospital it is silent. Long, dark wards, every bed has a very still patient in it, and they are all wearing gasmasks. An elderly doctor comes into view leaning heavily on a walking stick.

"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them." Was the first thing the man said to the Doctor.

"Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gas masks?"

"They're not." He says simply. "Who are you?"

"I'm, er. Are you the doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine. And you are?" He asked again not giving up on trying to learn his name.

The Doctor ignores his question again though, he is a master at that. "Nancy sent me."

"Nancy?" Doctor Constantine looks at him in question. "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes."

"What do you know about it?"

The Doctor shakes his head. "Nothing, unfortunately. Which is why I was asking. What do you know?"

"Only what it has done." He sweeps his arm out gesturing towards the patients in the beds.

The Doctor looks around. "These people, they were all caught up in the blast?"

"None of them were." Doctor Constantine says, confusing him. He laughs at the look on the Doctor's face but his laughter turns into coughing. He sits in a nearby chair and waves off the Doctor when he moves forward to help him.

The Doctor looks him over carefully. "You're very sick."

"Dying, I should think." Calmly accepting his death. He has already made peace with it. "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?" Maybe this man can find the cure for these people?

The Doctor nods slightly. "I have my moments."

"Have you examined any of them?"

"No." He wanted to, but Doctor Constantine came in before he could.

Doctor Constantine gives his consent. "Don't touch the flesh though."

"Which one?"

"Anyone." He says gravely.

The Doctor points his sonic screwdriver at the nearest patient and Doctor Constantine looks on in fascination, wondering what results this man was getting, he decides to ask. "Conclusions?"

"Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh, but I can't see any burns."

Doctor Constantine nods having already expected those results, he points towards another patient. "Examine another."

The Doctor goes to the one he pointed at and examines them. Reading the results, the Doctor's eyes widen. "This isn't possible."

Doctor Constantine finds a little humor in the man's shock. "Examine another."

Examining another produces the same results. "This isn't possible."

"No." Doctor Constantine nods his head in agreement.

The Doctor looks at him baffled. "They've all got the same injuries."

"Yes."

"Exactly the same." He is starting to repeat himself like he did with Charles Dickens.

"Yes."

"Identical, all of them, right down to the scar on the back of the hand."

In his shock the Doctor misses Doctor Constantine looking at his own hand and seeing that he, too, had the same scar that all of the patient carried on their own hand. The Doctor had been pacing back and forth in a small line but stops and faces Doctor Constantine. "How did this happen? How did it start?"

"When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."

"Dead?"

He nods his head. "At first. His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those exact same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

The Doctor this about the list of injuries and goes for the one that would normally kill a human first. "The head trauma?"

"No."

"Asphyxiation."

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity." The Doctor asked getting a little exasperated.

"No." Doctor Constantine found it a little amusing because he knew that this man wouldn't be able to answer this correctly.

"Alright. What was the cause of death?" He gives up.

Doctor Constantine internally pouted that he gave up so soon. "There wasn't one. They're not dead." He uses his walking stick and hits a waste basket nearby. The noise causes the patients to sit up in their beds. The Doctor jumps startled watching them all sit up at once, a little freaked out.

"It's alright. They're harmless." Doctor Constantine soothes him. "They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."

The Doctor grimaces. "And they've just been left here? Nobody's doing anything?" He watches as the patients all at once lay back down.

"I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?" What am I? Chopped liver?

The Doctor realizes his mistake. "Just you? You're the only one here?"

"Before this war began, I was a father and a grandfather. Now I am neither. But I am still a doctor."

The Doctor thinks back on his own family that he had once had, while it was not a marriage of love with his late wife, he did think back on those years with some fondness, mainly towards his children and grandchildren. "Yeah. I know the feeling."

"I suspect the plan is to blow up the hospital and blame it on the German bomb."

The Doctor looked around grimly. "Probably too late."

Doctor Constantine shook his head. "No. There are isolated cases. Isolated cases breaking out all over London." He started coughing really bad and the Doctor started towards him. "Stay back, stay back. Listen to me. Top floor. Room eight oh two. That's where they took the first victim, the one from the crash site. And you must find Nancy again."

"Nancy?" The Doctor looked at the elderly man worriedly. He was coughing really badly and struggling to breath, but told him to stay back.

"It was her brother. She knows more than she's saying. She won't tell me, but she might…" He stops coughing and a gasmask starts to protrude from his mouth and form around his face. "Mummy. Are you, my mummy?"

Xxxxxx

Jack leads the girls to a hospital and it is eerily quiet. Jack is looking at his wrist with his own alien tech scanning for the Doctor and sees that he is getting close to the signal. "Hello?"

"Hello?" Rose is excited to see the Doctor again.

"Hello?" Jack smirks at Rose teasingly and chuckles when she blushes and looks away from him.

Layla groans quietly. "Please don't start that again."

Jack pats her gently on the arm as the door opens and the Doctor walks out. Jack sees the Doctor and walks up to him. "Good evening. Hope we're not interrupting. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over." Jack gives him a charming smile and shakes his hand.

"He knows. I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." Rose tries to get the Doctor to pick up what she is throwing down, but he is still confused.

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock." Jack says seriously before letting go and walks into the room the Doctor had left to go look at the patients.

Once Jack is out of ear shot Layla releases the laugh, she had been holding in. The look on the Doctors' face was priceless. Jack had said it seriously too, because he really thought that was the Doctor's name. The Doctor looks between Rose and Layla confused. "Mister Spock?" He lands his gaze on Rose though, figuring she had something to do with it from her comments from earlier.

"What was I supposed to say? You don't have a name. Don't you ever get tired of Doctor? Doctor who?"

"Nine centuries in, I'm coping." He huffed. Besides, he looked towards Layla, not everyone reacted that way. "Where've you two been? We're in the middle of a London Blitz. It's not a good time for a stroll." Especially with a handsome man like Jack, the Doctor thought jealously.

Layla pursed her lips and looked away from his searching eyes not wanting to tell him knowing he would be upset they put themselves in danger. Rose had no problems telling him though. "Who's strolling? We went by barrage balloon. Only way to see an air raid."

"What?!" His gaze snaps to Layla and looks her over for any damage and she meets his eyes meekly in apology and he softens seeing that she is safe and okay.

Rose missed this interaction though because she had been heading towards the room where Jack was. "Listen, what's a Chula warship?" She heads in leaving the Doctor pondering and Layla behind.

"Chula?"

"Yeah, he was trying to sell it to the Time Agency, thinks we were Time Agents. Something about his act though, there is something more involved in it than money for him, but I don't know what." The Doctor doesn't visually respond to her so she slips her hand under his jacket and rubs his back to get his attention. He startles slightly not expecting her touch.

"Sorry, let's go see what type of warship he was trying to sell, shall we?"

Xxxxxx

The Doctor and Layla walk in and see Jack scanning different patients with the alien tech on his wrist. He looks at the readings and his eyebrows rise up to the middle of his forehead. "This just isn't possible. How did this happen?"

"What kind of Chula ship landed here?" The Doctor demanded stiffly, a hard look in his eyes, already blaming Jack for this mess.

Jack's eyes widen as he looks at the Doctor. "What?"

Rose gives the Doctor a smug smirk. "He said it was a warship. He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer." See, I was paying attention.

"What kind of warship?" The Doctor's voice was getting slightly harsher.

Jack threw his arms out to the side. "Does it matter? It's got nothing to do with this."

"This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What kind of warship?"

"An ambulance!" He blurts out. He holds out his wrist and shows a hologram of the vehicle on it. "Look. That's what you chased through the time vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait."

"Bait?" Rose looked so offended at that moment.

Jack shrugged. "I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk."

Rose glares at him. "You said it was a warship."

"They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you."

Rose smirked at him. "Just a couple more freelancers." Layla looked at him sadly, she can see the tough act he is putting on, but he is genuinely upset and agitated. It must come back to what I said earlier, maybe I was more on track that I thought.

"Oh. Should have known. The way you are blending in with the local color. I mean, flag girl was bad enough, but U-boat captain?" He looks towards Layla. "And while that dress does look great on you Sweetheart, it does not go for this time period."

He turns back to the Doctor and faces his glare not realizing it is from his comment to Layla and not the situation. "Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

Rose looks at the patients in question. "What is happening here, Doctor?"

He didn't even look at her. "Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot."

"What do you mean?" She went to stand by him, but he walked away from her and he grabbed Layla's hand and pulled her away from a patient she was about to touch and shook his head.

"I don't know. Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

It was a good thing that the Doctor pulled Layla away because as soon as he finished talking all at once, all of the patients in the ward sat up and started talking at the same time. "Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?"

Rose ran behind the Doctor. "What's happening?"

The patients and Doctor Constantine all start to stand up. "Mummy."

The Doctor is holding onto Layla's hand tightly and his other hand is held out in front of Rose and Jack backing them up. "Don't let them touch you."

"Why? What happens?" Rose asked.

"Is that why you stopped me from touching them?"

"Yes Layla, if you touch them, you become like them." The Doctor told them worriedly as the patients started to crowd around and close in on them.

"Help me, mummy."

The Doctor was looking for a way out but they were blocked from all sides, there was no escape. They were going to be touched by the patients if he didn't think of something, he had to protect them.

"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."