The golden strings of fate
"No, listen, though." Martha insisted.
Rose cast Jack an unconvinced look as they sat together in the Tardis kitchen. There was just no way.
"I'm telling you." Martha said again, one-hundred percent confident. "You didn't see how desperate he was to save the Doctor when he collapsed in 1913. I was so sure Tomas knew him from somewhere. So, I asked the Doctor and he said no, but it just didn't seem right."
"Martha…" Jack began apologetically.
"Give me a chance." she said, and Jack held up his hands in surrender. But Rose had to admit, she was with the Time Agent on this one.
Martha sighed. "Look, when John Smith turned into the Doctor, Tomas knew that was dangerous - he was yelling at him that he 'was going too far'. And when we were in the barn and the Doctor went into cardiac arrest, when Tim found us, Tomas knew exactly what to do to turn him back into a Time Lord. Then after he fell asleep for ages - he said it was a medical condition, but what if it was because he was overdoing it too. And it's not just that, when the Family had you, and that little girl turned on the Doctor…" She trailed off, her mind in the past. "There was this look on Tomas's face… it just looked like the Doctor looks when he gets all Time Lord-y. I'm telling you, I think Tomas is a Time Lord."
Rose and Jack both looked at one another. Martha hadn't pulled the evidence from thin air... but there was just no way.
Still, it played on her mind. Enough that, when the Doctor led them to a disused terminal deep underground - leaky and falling apart, with no natural light at all, where it smelt damp and most of the shops were boarded up, with a few people around, either really dodgy looking, or poverty stricken – and split them up, she decided just to ask him out right and put it to bed.
Because, of course, there was no way.
"So… I was just thinking." she began cautiously. "You know Tomas?"
The Doctor's guard instantly shot up. "What about him." he asked levelly, his focus fixed on her.
… Nah.
There was just no way.
But then why that reaction?
"He's not… well, there's no way he's a Time Lord is he?"
The Doctor paled, his expression answer enough.
Rose gaped, stopping in her tracks. "Oh my God, Martha was right!" Then it struck her, agitation coloured her voice. "And you knew, and you didn't say." Her memory flashed back to the fight they'd had, and her anger grew. "And after you promised you'd talk to me about this stuff."
She folded her arms, waiting for him to speak.
"I only found out last night." he stated flatly, his shutters all the way up, his face turned away from her.
Now Rose felt bad for snapping at him. If that was true, he hadn't really had the chance to tell her. It wasn't fair to be angry at him.
But then his nose scrunched up, something crossing his mind. "Hold on. How did Martha work it out? How come it wasn't you? You're the one who's worked with the guy."
That caught her off guard. "Well… well, I dunno." she admitted. "He talks to you, but not about the really personal stuff." She paused, just for a moment, wavering on whether this was the right time to make a joke. "Guess that should've been my first clue, though, since you're exactly the same."
His breath hitched as, for a second, he gaped at her, only to barricade his shutters to maximum and turn away.
The reaction startled Rose completely. She studied him as a group of people walked passed them and went into one of the only shops left in business. She'd hit the mark, a direct hit… but… "What?" she asked.
He stayed silent, his body stiff as if he was scared the slightest movement would give himself away.
But she had no idea. "Doctor, what?" She tried to decipher him. "Is he… I dunno… trouble."
"No." he said sharply, surprising even himself. His guard went up again, and he looked away. "No, nothing like that." he said, forcing himself to be calmer.
Whoever Tomas was, the Doctor clearly knew him. There was history there.
Her expression softened, and she reached for his hand. He didn't resist, interwinding their fingers. For a long time they just stood there amongst the run-down terminal and boarded up shops.
"He's Feet." he said at last, barely audible.
Her brow furrowed. She tried to work out what he really said, because it couldn't be about feet. 'He's free', maybe? So Tomas was a Time Lord now. But –
"My Pete, I mean." he said, just a tiny bit louder.
It took an embarrassing amount of time to process. Rose was sure drool was dripping onto her chest. "Wha-" she began, but couldn't finish. It was just too mad. One, Martha was right, and two 'his Pete'… his dad?! His actual father. But how was that possible? Never mind being possible, she'd been sharing a barn with Tomas for a month!
"Yeah." he said with a sigh, which brought her back. He didn't sound happy. He didn't look happy. He wasn't the last, he wasn't alone. He had someone in his family back. How much she wanted that. Why did he seem so... deflated?
"But… isn't that good?" she asked tentatively, worried for him.
He stared at where their hands met.
"It's complicated." he admitted.
An ache pinched her heart. The Doctor was always so sad, so lonely. He never talked about his family. She only knew he used to have kids - and even then she didn't know if 'kids' on his planet were the same as 'kids' on Earth. And he never talked about his parents… maybe there was a reason. Maybe Time Lord Tomas wasn't so nice… but then, why deny he was 'trouble', and deny it in a way that made it sound like the opposite was true.
"He –" the Doctor began, his voice catching. This was tough for him; he was really upset yet was trying so hard to talk to her. She couldn't help but feel the guilt over snapping at him worsen, like a knife twisting in her side. Like she was forcing him to speak. She hastened to comfort him, stroking his arm with her free hand.
He took a fortifying breath. "He doesn't know what I've done." he said. "And he – they – there's this - " He slumped, mad at himself. He couldn't do it. It was too much. Too painful.
She hugged him, rubbing his back, hugging him, reaching up and kissing his cheek. Anything she could think of to help him. "It's okay."
He sighed into her, holding her tight, staying like that as life continued around them.
"It's good to have you back, Rose." he said in her ear, pulling away.
She smiled, bittersweet. He was still hurt, still worried. "It's good to be back." she said, meaning it with her entire being, because at least she was here with him, and she would help any way she could.
He brightened, just a bit, then stepped back. Rose could pinpoint the second the amour went back on. "Now." he said enthusiastically, stretching on the balls of his feet to survey the area. "There's meant to be a little robot in a shop who's the go to for information." He spotted a little kiosk at the corner of the terminal, by what looked to be the doors to the toilets. He lit up. "Ah! I think that's it." he said, already bounding towards the desk.
She watched him, her mind unable to ignore the feelings of her own family. What was her mum doing now? Were they okay? If she somehow managed to see them again, would they be older? Would Tony have heard about her?
Suddenly, someone grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth so she couldn't cry out. They pulled her – away from the Doctor. Oh, Rose, sloppy, so sloppy. Her Torchwood training kicked in and she slammed her feet to get his attention, at the same time trying to elbow and wrestle her attacker.
The Doctor spun around, horror on his face for a second before burning rage took over, his voice low and dangerous. "Let her go or, I promise you, this'll be your biggest regret."
A sharp pain hit her neck, and everything went black.
When she woke up she felt… stuffy. Like she had a cold. She tried to get up, but her body was so weak.
There was a voice, searching for each word like they didn't know the language. It took a few seconds for Rose to realise she didn't know it either. Her eyes popped and she shot up. The Tardis wasn't translating! Dizziness instantly hit her, and she slumped back down. Her head spinning, she felt her hands bound behind her back.
"Doctor!" she cried, sheer panic in her voice. She frantically looked around for any sign of spiky hair or brown coat. "DOCTOR!"
A woman took up her field of vision. Built like a rugby player; tall with long scruffy ginger hair and blue eyes. She was kneeling close to Rose, stripped down to a t-shirt and underwear, her hands also bound. There were cuts on her arms and a painful welt on her leg.
The pieces of the puzzle clicked together. The Doctor had shown them all a picture before they left the Tardis.
"Penelope?" As Rose moved closer, the skin of her legs could feel the coarseness of the ground. She'd been stripped down to her knickers and bra and a baggy top had been put on her. At the realisation, her priorities shifted. "Where're- Where're my clothes?" she asked, nightmare thoughts whirling through her mind.
Penelope breathed a sigh of relief, switching to English with the confidence and flow of a well practised speaker, and, surprisingly what sounded like a London accent. "They took them in case you had any way to contact your friends. Nothing dodgy happened, though… in case you were worried. They searched you here, I saw it."
Rose nodded distractedly, checking what she could see of her body just in case. "Yeah, yeah, thanks."
Now that worry was off her mind, she was instantly focusing on the next problem. Where she was. A cell; no, a cage. Four panels of thick iron bars with a rough concrete floor. As her vision focused, she noticed the whole of the outside was covered in a plastic sheeting. No obvious way of escape. No sign of her captors. No way to work out a location. And no phone meant no way to communicate with the others. Panic bubbled. If he wasn't here, then it was because he didn't know where she was, or for some reason couldn't get her out – like they'd hurt him. She needed to fill in the blanks - needed more information. She turned to Penelope.
The Time Agent was staring at her, half in a dream, half in calculation. An odd mix of hope and suspicion. "How'd you all get here?" she prompted.
After her time in Torchwood Rose liked to think that she was pretty good at making things up. But Penelope was looking at her so intently - so desperately - that it threw her. "What do you mean?"
"There was an exchange while you were out -"
Rose spilled out the words as fast as she could. "- was there a man in a brown coat? What did he say? Was there a Black woman in a leather jacket with her?! Or a guy in a WWII coat? Were they hurt!?"
Penelope went rigid, turning away. She opened her mouth, but words didn't come out. She rocked slightly and grabbed her bare feet, trying to calm herself.
Dread spiked in Rose's gut. She was meant to be a trained Time Agent. Like Jack. She'd heard enough of his stories. They were meant to be quick thinkers, problem solvers, people not easily fazed in the face of danger.
What had Penelope seen to make her like this.
"Err… yeah. They were all there. The brown coat guy…" She faltered, rocking again. "'The Doctor' spoke most of the time - saying about letting you go. He err…" It took her a while, like she was trying to contain some deep-rooted emotion. It made Rose's gut horridly twist - more than it already was. "He seemed really upset." Her lower lip trembled. She had to take a breath to keep it in. "And there was another guy there - Tomas… but." She paused, calming herself again.
Panic was taking over. "Penelope, what happened?" Rose demanded.
The dam Penelope was trying so hard to hold back broke catastrophically. Tears spilled as she turned her body away from Rose. She could see Penelope's shoulders shaking. She knew she was sobbing, really, properly, sobbing. But the odd thing was…. she was silent. There was no sound from her at all. Nothing.
The whole of Rose's insides dropped. No, he couldn't be dead. He couldn't be. She moved, desperate for answers. "Penelope, I need to know."
No answer.
She hastily moved closer, pulling Penelope's shoulder to get her to turn around. "Where's the –"
"No." the Time Agent hissed, barely understandable. "Don't touch me." She curled in on herself more, the rocking getting more pronounced.
Shocked, Rose stared for a second before shuffling back. Had… had whoever had taken them been torturing her… worse? She glanced worriedly around the cage, waiting for their captor to appear and complain about the noise. Rose held her breath, but nothing appeared.
"I -" Penelope began, and Rose focused on her like a hawk, but it was a false start. Rose was forced to listen and wait.
… and wait.
Penelope hugged her knees to her chest, breathing slowly in and out, as Rose's mind filled with more unspeakable things, and with it a fear that she'd be next.
Penelope opened her mouth, only for her voice to quiver. This time, she fought through it. She was trying. "I - I thought, I wouldn't know." she said with a shaky breath. "That I'd miss - there's been so many times I've …." She stopped, the words lodging in her throat. Breaking them. "But it's them. I know for sure this time, it's them." She broke down again and hid her head in her knees.
The statement seemed so random to Rose. The connection between her words and her friends were too far apart in her mind for the dots to join together. Her face scrunched up in confusion.
"They're alive. They made it. Both of them… and he –" Penelope was trembling. "The Doctor… he even still sort of looks like me." She sobbed again, completely losing control as she hugged her knees tight to her chest.
Rose stopped. Two floating ideas in her head came crashing together. Slowly, Rose's eyes moved towards Penelope, studying her. Really looking at Penelope for the first time. Her eyes were the same shape, their expressions were similar. Her nose was a more feminine version of his. They both had freckles and the same sort of skin - not the tone, she was paler because of her ginger hair, but the texture.
She looked like the Doctor… the Doctor looked like her.
She'd say it was impossible… but if a Time Lord could change into a human, then maybe they were similar enough to humans to…
Penelope wiped her nose on her t-shirt, focusing on some dot on the ground to help keep her emotions in check. Sort of like how the Doctor would avoid looking at her when…
No.
But the more she thought about it the more it rung true. It wasn't just the similarities in mannerisms and looks, it was that she'd said 'both', 'them'. She knew Tomas was a Time Lord too, she knew Tomas was the Doctor's dad. And if Tomas was like John Smith, then... his wife on Pete's world... nobody had actually seen her. He joined Torchwood after the fact. From passing comments, she knew she was ginger, that she was strong, had a strong sense of justice, was honest to her detriment.
Rose looked at the woman breaking down in front of her. Penelope fit all the physical descriptors.
Rose hesitated, but this time it was due to distrust. Did she speak and tell Penelope what she knew? She didn't know the story of how Penelope ended up on this planet, or how she got separated, or why she'd been taken, but she did know one thing. An important thing. Penelope was crying because she'd found out the Doctor and Tomas were alive, and with that thought, a rolling relief washed over Rose. The Doctor was alive, not dead.
The decision was easy. "The Doctor's your son." she told Penelope,
Penelope wiped her face. "He is, I know it."
Her comment made Rose remember, the Doctor had regenerated, and since he himself didn't recognise Tomas straight away, Tomas must've too. "But how? He's changed. Both of them."
Penelope sniffed, still focusing on the ground. "It's how they look at you. It's something in their eyes - you can just tell. He didn't know me, but I can tell it's him, it has to be. He's with Ulysses." Her eyes became lost in the past. Tears fell, and she forced herself to refocus. "I know it's him. I know it." She took a bracing breath despite the quiver, then faced Rose, a plea in her eyes. "But – but Ulysses… err… Tomas, there's something off – wrong, I don't know." She hugged her knees tighter to her chest, replaying whatever happened while Rose was knocked out in her mind. "He's acting weird."
"There's this watch thing -"
"A chameleon arch?" Penelope guessed instantly.
Oh, she knew Time Lords. "Y… yeah."
Penelope thought for a moment, more composed now she had something else to focus on - a problem to solve. Oh, so like the Doctor, that made it easier for her to push things away. "That fits." she said distractedly. She looked directly at Rose. "Is he human – like is that what he changed into?"
"Yeah." she said. "You?" Rose looked her up and down. "Like, really?"
Penelope sniffed and wiped her face, returning to staring at the spot on the floor. "I'm human... always have been" she said, her face puffy and wet, her t-shirt soaked.
"But also, he's from a parallel world… Tomas is, I mean, not the Doctor. So things might be… different... yeah?" Rose said, giving Penelope the warning she wished she'd gotten. After the 'you're alive' glow died down between her mum and Pete, there were so many fights, so many 'my Pete wouldn't' or 'my Jackie isn't'.
"Gallifrey and Time Lords aren't meant to exist on parallel worlds, at least that's the propaganda."
Rose blanched. "Sorry?"
"Time Lords. They are only meant to exist in this universe or in alternates, but not parallels."
Rose's face scrunched up. "What's the difference?" she asked.
Penelope opened her mouth, but then her face fell, and she raised her palm at Rose. "Give me a second to think." she said instead.
Rose watched the woman stare at that same spot on the floor, flicking her hand as her mind turned.
There were a few false starts where Penelope opened her mouth, only to stop and return to her thoughts, but, eventually. "A parallel is created from a decision - two separate versions of the same scenario. I turn left in one world, and right in the other." she began.
"Apart from that single decision, they're not connected in any way." As she talked her voice wobbled less. "They're not influenced by each other – time travel in one doesn't affect the other. But an alternative is a split from one world into two or more different realities- generally due to time travel, but not always. Oh, you would've turned left, but this person from the future came along - or one of the trickster brigade hit a big catch - and now things are a bit more chaotic. They wither or strengthen all the time until one becomes dominant and the other fades away. They can become a sort of parallel world if the change is big enough, but they're always connected to that point of change."
"Right."
"So…, cos he knows me at all, because 'the Doctor' exists, then… I think…"
"Tomas is from this universe." Rose said, and as soon as the words left her mouth she realised that, yes, of course, because Mickey had told her Time Lords used to be able to travel from parallel to parallel. The Doctor didn't mention Tomas being from Pete's world. She knew him; he'd tell himself anything to lessen, or to brush off, facing Tomas if he could. But he didn't, because he knew Tomas was really from here.
"Yeah." Penelope said.
The silence seemed to get heavier, the elephant was taking up the whole room. Rose couldn't bare it. "But what happened?"
Penelope let out a long and shaky sigh. She'd been expecting the question. "I wish I knew." she said, tears seeping through. "It was just a regular day. We used to take him to this messy art group. They let them paint on anything, with anything - the walls with their hands, the floor, their clothes – just let them be a bit organised-wild for an hour." A smile quirked on her lips, in contrast to the pain on her face.
The Doctor had lived a normal life. It was almost impossible to picture. Tomas, a Time Lord, had worked, had a job.
"He loved it. Usually, it was me who took him cos it started in the morning and Ulysses was either asleep or was still on shift." Tears fell and she wiped her face on the t-shirt, now so damp there was no section of dryness left.
Rose's imagination conjured up a little spiky haired kid prancing around with the same wild excitement the Doctor did as he and Tomas spotted the bus approaching. A little kid with not a care in the whole universe.
"But it was the second day of my period. I was tired, so Ulysses said he'd take him, and I fell straight asleep. I woke up to a knock at the door. They told me there'd been an accident." She laughed coldly, scoffing. "I was sure it was a mistake. We were, so, so, careful. We knew the risks. I brushed them off… but –" Her breath hitched. "- there was this dread –" She pointed to her stomach. "- in my gut, and when I checked my phone to call him, it was chaos. Nearly every Time Lord we knew had gone dark, or were calling out for help." She took another steadying breath, tears fell, but she kept her composure. "I found out later, there'd been some sort of mass recall of all the Renegades. The few that avoided it, were the ones in unmapped areas." Penelope wiped her face with a loud sniff. At first, she had control. It crumbled.
Rose didn't know what to say, her brain found it difficult to contemplate the two opposing lives Penelope was describing. A normal, slow path life, full of art classes and jobs and taking the bus, paired with the adventure of knowing other Time Lords, of being caught in the middle of some civil war, and having her family torn away from her.
Penelope took long breaths in and out. "I -" her breath caught, and she focused back on the spot on the floor. "We tried to go back… but it -." She rocked, exhaling and inhaling slowly. " -it didn't work out." She sighed, more determined, now, to focus. She closed her eyes and crossed her legs, meditating.
Rose wanted to comfort her, but the woman had jerked so violently away when she reached out before, she dared not touch her or disrupt her attempts.
It was a long wait, the space between Penelope's breathing filled with the buzz from the extractor fan above them. At moments Rose worried about interruptions and glanced fearfully around.
With a final exhale, Penelope opened her eyes. "But now we're all together. Out of the whole of time, space, and the parallel worlds" she said, all business. "And that can't be a coincidence."
Rose automatically opened her mouth to protest, or maybe to explain, only for the words to get stuck. Now that Penelope had mentioned it, she realised how right she was. They had all somehow met up in the same year, on the same planet, in the same place, in the same universe. Her, Martha, Jack, Tomas and the Doctor.
Penelope went to say something, then stopped, like she was innerly debating with herself. "I'm going to guess and say you've seen something involving a Bad Wolf?"
Rose's jaw went slack.
"Looks like I'm right."
Rose's breath hitched. Know it? She lived as the Bad Wolf. Was the Bad Wolf, was going to become the Bad Wolf, yet could only remember through a blinding fog, or murky dream. Something not meant to be revisited. Something forbidden.
"Yeah." she breathed shakily.
Penelope regarded her carefully. "I don't think it's dangerous… well that's my theory at the moment, anyway." she said. "I think it's more a guide. It's wanting us to do something, something we need to all be together for. Something connected to the Time War."
They sat there, still, the buzz of an extractor fan somewhere the only sound filling the room. Her mind had already been put through the blender enough today with meeting his parents, but now the Bad Wolf…
And it was true, there'd been hints, even after satellite five. The werewolf, the odd phrasing on posters, that time on a Torchwood mission where she swore it was the escaped wolf that saved her from the alien, and not the robot like Mickey said.
"How – but how do you know it?"
There was a hint of mistrust in Penelope's eyes. "There was one way we could go after them. It needed the others who'd been taken to Gallifrey to open channels for us to slip passed all the defences, but when we finally set everything up, the coordinates they sent was way in Gallifrey's future – the Time War."
Rose gaped.
"Yeah, tell me about it." Penelope said. "Was it a trick by the other side to get us to break the time lock and let everything out? Or, did our friends need us to fight? Did they need us to stop the Daleks or the Time Lords doing something really stupid? Or were we the 'something stupid'?"
"And did you?" Rose asked. "Did you fight?"
Penelope looked right at her, answer enough. She nodded to Rose. "What about you? How do you know about it?"
Rose needed time to push the confession passed her lips. "It was me."
Penelope's face scrunched up. "What do you mean?"
"The Bad Wolf, it's me – it was me."
The Time Agent was startled, but it didn't last long, nor did she question how or why it happened, only study her, in a way that made Rose wonder if she'd somehow already put it together.
"The Doctor was trapped with an army of Daleks." she found herself saying. "He sent me away, but I couldn't just leave him. The only way I could think to get back was to look into the heart of the Tardis… but -" Rose squirmed slightly. "I did it. But I got it wrong… I brought Jack back to life for good – the Time Agent with us." Regret and guilt coloured her voice. She hadn't meant to make her friend suffer. "He can't die cos of me… and the Doctor… he had to take it out of me… but." Her lip quivered. "But I killed him. I'm sorry."
Penelope didn't say anything for a long time, instead looking directly at her, like she was trying to read her heart; to suss her out.
It made Rose uncomfortable.
"I don't think something that cosmic is ever a one-time thing." the Time Agent said at last, her reaction neutral. She glanced around the cage. "We should plan for likely scenarios - how and why we've been brought together like this. I'd guess it'd be, if you've already stopped the Daleks, something to do with the Time Lords. But Ulysses and the Doctor are our best sources for that, so, yeah, getting out of here is our first point of call."
Rose refocused quickly. It was a well-practiced skill. "But they must've come here, yeah? For you to see them. The Doctor has a Tardis, so why hasn't he just landed around us?"
"They jabbed you with Puyuiplex." Penelope explained. "It's safe - the only side effects for humans is that you pass out and feel a bit bunged up and dozy for a few days. But it mimics the effects of Overlife, which isn't so safe. It's a nasty engineered poison that can be activated on a trigger. And the Doctor… well, he was too panicked to see it was a trick."
Rose felt a lump in her throat. That's why he wasn't here, he thought she was dying. She tried to push it down. If he was too frazzled, then she had to step up. "Did they say what they want with us?"
"They're after this group called 'the Family'. Something about them being good trackers, I think they're bounty hunters, so it makes sense for their enterprise. And they must have a good source because they know you're connected to them somehow… are you?"
"Yeah…" Rose said dozily, her mind focusing elsewhere. "But, then why have they taken you?"
Penelope sighed in frustration. "Before all this stuff happened, I was thinking it must be something to do with me being a Time Agent. The possibility people think time travel presents always attracts the power-hungry nut-nuts. Maybe they thought they could trade me off or something."
Well, it was possible. Jack had always said time travel outside of the Tardis was cut-throat.
"But, it's annoying, because they don't have my bag, or my vortex manipulator – my fancy one that Ulysses made, which is only meant to work for me and my close friends. So, do they not know enough about Time Agents? But then how do they have such precise information about you?" She sighed heavily, hurt replacing her frustration. "Someone else must've took my stuff before they took me, just before… or maybe, I chucked it somewhere." She grabbed her feet and looked at the ground. "I've not been doing so good."
Rose remembered that Son of Mine had said she was passed out drunk in some bar and her expression softened. After Bad Wolf Bay, she didn't leave her bed for weeks, and when she did it was to find the Doctor and only find the Doctor. "I'm sorry."
Penelope sniffed, keeping her gaze on the ground. "It's okay."
Rose reached out to touch her leg, but Penelope quickly moved her leg out of the way. "I meant it when I said I don't like stuff like that." she said.
Rose pulled back, unable to help wondering why.
Penelope saw it on her face. "It's not like that… well, not this specific no-touch rule, and it's not that I don't like all forms of touch -" She huffed, stopping herself from rambling. "But… you know, this isn't exactly the place to have a discussion about boundaries and love languages. So, yeah, Jack. He should know it's a play; it's a pretty standard trick. And more so, we've both had the same training, so there's a few plays we could use ourselves without needing to communicate that much."
Rose wanted to be relieved, she tried not to let the doubt that niggled in the back of her mind show - something, that for a niggle, was pretty intense.
Martha had painted a very different picture of her Doctor to what she remembered. He seemed rageful on a hairline trigger. Angry and throwing himself into danger without thinking. Jack was level-headed, but what Penelope didn't know was how loyal he was to the Doctor. He wouldn't challenge him, not unless it was extreme, and not when she was involved. And even if he did, she didn't think the Doctor would listen to him.
This was going to be difficult.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed!
