I know what adventure I'm going to do next. I'm not going to spoil it, but it involves a companion that more than one person has expressed a desire to see sooner than later.

The episode also has the bonus of having a key point where I can insert Marion Lore™. So that's a double bonus.

Anyway, are there any companions that you wanted to see? Tell me in the comments. Or through asks on tumblr. Or ping me in the looms discord if you're in it. Or like...idk, if you're someone who knows me irl and has been reading this, tell me in person or via my actual phone and give me psychic damage.

Also, iHateFridays sent one of those color palette and expression memes on tumblr for Marion. Here it is.

lunammoon (PUT A PERIOD HERE) tumblr (PUT A PERIOD HERE) com/post/652762308387504128/marion-d5-fistfight-with-god

I know there's a good number of y'all that follow me on tumblr. If you see me reblog one of those art things, feel free to request me to do one. They help me get out of my art funk. The worst thing that might happen is that I don't respond. The best-case scenario is that I get comfortable enough drawing Marion to do an animatic.

Enough rambling,

Here are the acknowledgements.

Thanks to the following people for following: blueandgraycastle, Tiana Yutani, chiara . giugliano . cg

Thanks to the following people for favoriting: Renard-Marxus-Young

TheImpossibleGirl22

Thanks to the following people for doing both: Akai38, Gremmals,

Thanks to TheGuestAlika for reviewing.

The walk (or more like jog) to the fenced area went by quickly. But it was long enough that no one felt the need to bring up Marion's early behavior. The group was soon standing on one side of a low concrete wall. They could see two men talking to each other in front of a shed through the wide net of the fence. The one whose face they could see wore dark grey with a greenish-tanish vest and the one who had his back to them wore a dark green outfit similar to the one that Jack wore.

Jack gestured his head towards the people. "There it is. Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important,"

Whatever the two men were talking about, they finished. The one dressed in green nodded sharply and then left.

"We've got to get past him," the Doctor said.

"Are the words 'distract the guard' heading in my general direction?" Rose glanced at Jack.

"No. I don't think that they are,"

"Oh what? You think you could do it?"

"Absolutely not," "I don't think that'd be such a good idea," Marion and Jack spoke at the same time.

"Well then don't worry," Rose nodded, "I can handle it,"

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town. Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him," Jack nodded and then slowly strolled away from the group and towards "Algy" "Don't wait up," he called over his shoulder.

"Be careful!" Marion called after him.

Rose stared at Jack walking away in disbelief.

"Right," Marion thought under her breath, "2005,"

"Relax," The Doctor nudged Rose, "he's a fifty-first-century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing,"

"How flexible?"

"Well, if you wait another decade or two from your time, humanity'll become pretty chill about that kind of thing. A good amount of it anyway. People dance with who they want. No one who matters cares,"

"And by his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy,"

"Meaning?"

"So many species, so little time,"

"What, that's what we do when we get out there?" Rose said in disbelief, "That's our mission? We seek new life, and, and,"

"Dance,"

In the distance, Marion couldn't hear Jack talking to Algy, he was too far away for that. But she could see them talking, and she could see Algy start to choke, and she could see when he doubled over. And then she looked away so that she wouldn't see what happened next.

She heard the Doctor and Rose move around her and rush to where Jack stood over the falling man. Marion quickly followed behind them.

"Stay back!" the Doctor shouted at the approaching soldiers.

"You men, stay away!" Jack yelled at the approaching soldiers making them halt.

The Doctor examined the man.

"The effect's become air-borne, accelerating," The Doctor said grimly.

"What's keeping us safe?" Rose asked.

"Luck mostly," Marion said, "Which is why we need to hurry before it runs out,"

In the distance, sirens went off.

"Ah, here they come again," there was a smile in Jack's voice. A hysterical one.

"All we need," Rose said under her breath looking up. And then, through gritted teeth, she said, "Didn't you say a bomb was going to land here?"

Jack nodded.

"Nevermind about that," the Doctor said before Jack could get a single word out. "If the contaminants airborne now, there's hours left,"

The conversation continued and Marion could hear faint singing in the shack to the left, and followed it, slipping away from the group. It was best to help Nancy sooner rather than later.

Marion carefully slid the door to the room to the side and then slipped through the opening as carefully and as quietly as she could. The room was dimly lit except for a single bright yet flickering lantern on the table. Nancy looked up at her when she came in.

"Keep Singing!" Marion mouthed as she slowly pushed the door behind her. She left it open a crack, just so that the Doctor would have an idea where she was.

Nancy looked at her pointedly and then shook her hand, making the handcuffs jingle loudly. Marion nodded and stepped forward. She approached Nancy and knelt down looking at the handcuffs. She frowned. She didn't actually know how she'd get it open without help. There weren't any visible screws for her to mess with, and she didn't know how to pick a lock.

'Note to self,' Marion thought, 'learn how to pick locks,'

Maybe she'd ask Jo the next time she saw her. She'd probably know.

Marion stood up. Held up a finger in the universal gesture for "wait a minute" and then walked quickly back to the door.

She leaned back outside and saw that the Doctor and Co were already approaching. Good. Marion waved them over.

"Marion, what's going-,"

Marion shook her head rapidly and put a finger to her lips and then gestured inside with her head. She pushed the door open the rest of the way and gestured towards the still frantically singing Nancy.

Nancy shook her hand again, calling attention to the handcuffs. The Doctor brushed past Marion and kneeled on the ground near the cuffed woman. There were a few seconds of buzzing from the Doctor and his screwdriver, and then Nancy yanked her arm. The cuff that had been connected to her arm dropped the dirty floor of the shack. Nancy quickly stood up and left the room, the Doctor not far behind. She wasn't running, but Marion could see from the way that she was moving that if she hadn't been concerned about waking the sleeping man up, she absolutely would have.

Marion was the last to leave the shack and slid the door shut behind her.

"So," Marion said, "Jack, you were going to lead us to that 'space junk' of yours right? That thing that you promise isn't' dangerous?"

"Right, that, follow me,"

Jack looked around the area for a moment before walking forward with a purpose towards a large field; empty if not for something big and covered in a wide tarp. As they approached, floodlights blinked around the perimeter; washing the area in a bright glow.

Marion and Jack yanked off the tarp and tossed it haphazardly onto the damp grass while the Doctor stood off to one side and Nancy and Rose stood off to the other.

Up close, the thing didn't look like a ship or any kind of ambulance. It looked more like something used on deep-sea expeditions than anything.

Then again, deep-sea ships were built to withstand a lot of pressure. So it made sense that a ship designed to travel through space would be built similarly.

"You see?" Jack stepped in front of the large metal hull and tapped it on the front, "Just an ambulance,"

"That's an ambulance?" Nancy asked in disbelief.

"It's hard to explain," Rose said slowly, "It's from another world,"

"Look up at the night sky," Marion said turning to face Nancy, "Some of those dots are stars. Some of them are planets. And on some of those planets, there are people, and some of them are looking back. Aliens," Marion gestured behind her with her thumb towards the ship. "Different planets, different people, different ambulances. Does that make sense?"

Jack looked at the hull and hissed through his teeth. "They've been trying to get in,"

The Doctor stood next to him. "Of course they have," Marion heard a loud beeping noise from the ship as Jack tried to type in the keycode, "They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon," he finally noticed that Jack was messing with the machine. "What're you doing?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it," Jack pressed a final button and the ship let loose a shower of sparks. The blue password panel began to flash a bright red and the ship let out an ear-piercing siren. Marion's hands automatically flew to her ears and covered them tight.

"Yeah, it's absolutely not supposed to be doing that," Marion said over the racket.

"Didn't happen last time," Jack insisted.

"It hadn't crashed last time," The Doctor reminded, "There'll be emergency protocols,"

Marion noticed something on the other side of the ship opposite the Doctor. When Marion had spotted it earlier, she had thought that it was a bunch of screws in a line. The light illuminating the field was decent, but it couldn't reach all sides of the thing after all. But now, those "buttons" were blinking red and making a noise!

"What is that?"

Then the flashing light was temporarily forgotten in favor of the loud banging noise coming from the direction of the hospital. The door was shuddering. It sounded like dozens of bodies throwing themselves at the door with the intent of brute-forcing their way out.

Which made sense, considering the sound was being produced by dozens of bodies throwing themselves at the door with the intent of brute-forcing their way out.

"DOCTOR!" Rose shouted.

"Captain, secure those gates!" The Doctor shouted, pointing.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Jack hesitated for a moment and then ran off in the direction that the Doctor pointed.

The Doctor turned to Nancy and Rose. "Nancy, how'd you get in here?"

"I cut the wire,"

"Show Rose," The Doctor threw the screwdriver at Rose who caught it, "Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight D,"

"What about me?" Marion asked.

"Go with Jack!"

Marion hesitated for a moment. Then she nodded and ran off.

"He sent you to keep an eye on me didn't he," Jack said as she approached.

"He-yeah," Marion said. She grabbed a fallen chain and wrapped it around the fence gate. She couldn't find an open lock padlock anywhere, so she held it in place with a fallen bit of rebar. It wasn't going to hold forever, and Marion knew that. It didn't need to. I hadn't originally, and she reinforcing it to make it impossible to get in would only complicate matters. It would hold back a non-super-powered-zombie army at least. "He'll warm up to you. He's just a little bit very annoyed about this whole-," Marion gestured to where the Doctor was near the ambulance.

"I'm telling you!" Jack insisted. He worked on chaining another gate shut. "That thing has NOTHING to do with me. The sooner your friend opens it, the sooner he'll see there's nothing in there, the sooner we can look for whatever is messing with the DNA of those people. I bet whatever's turning those people into those...things is having a real laugh watching us sniff around a red herring. Just because patient zero happened to be nearby when it landed doesn't mean anything. Something else could've followed the signal. I wasn't just broadcasting it to you guys to you know,"

Marion shoved some crates in front of the gate to make it that much harder for anything to get through.

"I believe you,"

"You-,"

"I mean. You're wrong," Marion cut him off before he could say anything else. The final gate locked as well as it was going to be so it was time to meet back with the Doctor in front of the medical ship. "That thing that crashed out there is absolutely the source of all this. Believe me, if I wasn't 100% sure, I'd say otherwise. But I believe that you believed that it was empty, harmless, space junk. I don't think that you'd knowingly turn the human race into a hivemind of gas-masked face zombies. You aren't the kind of man to do something like that,"

"How do you know that!"

"Know what? That the thing out there is the reason all of this is happening or that you aren't the kind of man to do this on purpose? Because the answers the same,"

"And what would that answer be exactly,"

Jack asked as they finally rejoined the Doctor back at ground zero.

"I'm only wrong about 5% of the time, and rarely about things like this,"

"Well Marion," Jack slid open the side panel of the ambulance and pointed inside of it. "I'm afraid this is one of the times that you're wrong. It's empty. Look at it,"

The Doctor crossed his arms and glared at him. "What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter? Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?". Rose looked up at the Doctor as she and Nancy approached.

"I don't know,"

Marion opened and closed her hands. "Yes, you do Rose. Look at your palms and think about it for a second,"

Rose's eyes got wide and she snapped her fingers and pointed at the ship. "Nanogenes!"

"Bingo!"

"It wasn't empty, Captain," The Doctor said sharply. He crossed his arms. "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species,"

"Oh God!" Jack said in horror.

"Getting it now, are we?" Jack looked down, then at the Doctor, then at Marion, and then back at the ship. Marion could see the implications of what he'd accidentally done dawning on him. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gas mask,"

"And they brought him back to life? They can do that?"

"It's not that hard to do really," Marion said, "You just gotta fix all the wounds, reverse the decay and the normally irreversible damage. Do that and all you really need to do is get the brain working and the heart pumping. It's like jumpstarting a car made of meat and bone,"

"Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though," The Doctor's voice turned cold. "These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like,"

"But lucky for them!" Marion said patting on the side of the hull with false cheer in her voice... "There's a fresh specimen right outside on the grass; barely more than a couple feet away. And yeah, its chest is oddly shaped and it's got an odd grove on the back of its hand and the skin that makes up part of its face is made of something different from the rest of his skin but hey, they've never seen a human before? Maybe that's normal? Yeah. It's probably normal. It is dead though, so they bring it back to life the best that they can. And pat themselves on their non-existent back. It's a job well done!"

"Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because, you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and I have NO idea what to do to stop it!" The Doctor was shouting towards the end.

"I didn't know!"

"You're right!" Marion said in a matter of a fact tone that said everything. "You didn't,"

The Doctor went to look back inside of the ambulance.

"Marion," The Doctor said under his breath. "Marion, what am I supposed to do? Is there anything I can do? What!"

Marion fidgeted with her bag strap.

"Do you remember what I said earlier about this? Back in the TARDIS I mean, when we first started looking for it," Marion lightly rapped her knuckles on the side of the ambulance.

"That it is something that could result in things getting really, really, really bad if we don't deal with it. Great. That's a lot of help!"

"Ah," Marion blinked. "Well, yeah I did say that. But I also said that if we dealt with it, then no one dies. And I meant that. In the Omega timeline, things ended really well. Like, really, really, really well. Like I told you. I'm making a conscious effort not to change much. Things are going the way that they're supposed to. This whole situation looks very-," Marion wiggled her fingers and made a sort of "Eh," noise. "But things can still end without the human race ending up all rubber masked and zombie-like as long as what's supposed to happen happens,"

"And that is…,"

Marion shook her head. "It's not something you can do. It's something that someone else can. There's a piece to this story that's missing. Once the person who took it puts things back into place, everything will be as it's supposed to be,"

"And what is that piece?"

"The full truth,"

Marion turned away from the Doctor and tilted her head to the side. In the distance, she could hear the whistle of another bomb drop nearby. It sounded a whole lot closer than it had before, and Marion couldn't help but feel worried even though she knew that things were going to end up alright. Then, Marion heard something else; something closer to the ground and less high-pitched. She followed the noise and walked past Rose and towards Nancy and looked at something just past her. Or better yet, some things. Someones?

The patients were there in the distance. That was the point.

Marion turned to see the look on Nancy's face. She'd seen and heard it too.

"Mummy. Mummy, Mummy? Mummy? Mummy,"

"ROSE!" Nancy called.

The blonde turned away from the ambulance and to the two of them.

"It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

"We set off the alarm on the ship," Marion said plainly. She tapped on the blinking red light on the side of it. For a moment, her vision swam. Marion shook her head lightly, and then stopped once she realized that it didn't help much. "That alarm had to be doing something right? Jack checked for weapons, remember? He didn't find anything. And it was a warship. An important one too. It was carrying medical supplies. No matter how good you fight. If you can't patch yourself up, it doesn't matter. So, if it's got no weapons, what does it do when it's attacked?" Marion asked rhetorically.

"It calls up the troops," The Doctor answered as he sonicked the inside of the ambulance, searching for answers, "Standard protocol,"

"But the gas mask people aren't troops!" Rose insisted.

"They are now," The Doctor looked up from the ship. "This is a battlefield ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you,"

"That's why there's a toddler running around punching holes through solid walls,"

"And why it could do that phoning scene?"

"Exactly,"

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them,"

The patients and soldiers stood surrounding them on the edge of the barbed wire. They didn't step forward even though, realistically, Marion was pretty sure that the barbed wire was about as big a barrier to them as a loose screen door was to her.

"Why don't they attack?"

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander,"

"The child?"

"Jamie," Nancy corrected Jack. She sounded close to tears.

"What?"

"Not the child. Jamie,"

"So how long until the bomb falls?" Rose asked. She glanced up at the night sky.

"Any second," Jack glanced towards the still army and then looked up at the sky.

"What's the matter, Captain?" the Doctor took a step closer to the man, "A bit close to the volcano for you?"

"He's just a little boy," Nancy wasn't crying yet, but her voice wavered, it was only a matter of time.

"He is," Marion agreed, "A scared and strong little boy,"

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy," Nancy repeated.

"I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can,"

In the distance, another bomb whistled and hit the ground with a loud thud. The high-pitched noise made Marion's vision swim for a moment and she suddenly felt off.

"So what're we going to do?" Rose asked.

"That depends," Marion said, stepping closer to Nancy.

"What does that mean!"

"Nancy?" Marion said slowly.

"It's my fault," The woman's voice was shaking.

Marion shook her head. And remembered why she wasn't doing that as she suddenly felt nauseous. "No. No, it's not. None of this is your fault, Nancy,"

"It is!" the woman insisted, "It's all my fault,"

She was crying now.

"How can it be your-"

The Doctor stopped. And then he looked back at the patients calling out for their mummy. Calling out to Jamie's mummy.

The Doctor looked to Marion who nodded her head ever so slightly. The Doctor turned to Nancy.

"Nancy, what age are you?" Nancy turned to look at him, "Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?"

Another bomb dropped. This one was close enough that Marion could see the ensuing explosion and feel the heat. Marion winced.

"Doctor," Jack said. His voice sounded just the slightest bit frantic, "that bomb. We've got seconds,"

As if to prove his point, another bomb dropped this one far far closer. Marion covered her mouth, fighting the urge to vomit.

"You can teleport us out?"

Jack shook his head. Marion could see the gears turning. "Not you guys. The nav-com's back online. Going to take too long to override the protocols,"

The Doctor looked up at him and looked him in the eye. " So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do,"

"Jack?" Rose asked.

"Good luck!" Marion said.

Jack took one more look at the four of them and sighed. He took something pen-shaped out of his pocket and clicked it. He fizzled out of existence like the picture in an old black and white TV after a sudden power outage and a loud "VWOOP" noise.

The Doctor went back to talking to Nancy. "How old were you five years ago? Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway,"

"Jamie's your son isn't he," Marion said softly. "I can't imagine what you must be going through. Becoming a mother as young as you did, and then losing your son. You never got to tell him the truth? As far as he knew, you were his big sister, watching over him in the place of his mom. But he's a kid. He's always going to want his mom. And he never stopped looking for her,"

With a large metallic crashing noise, the chains wrapped around the nearby gate shattered and fell to the ground.

Dozens and dozens of the patients stood crowded around the entrance. There were soldiers and nurses and civilians all crowded like a living wall. And standing in front of them all was a small child: Jamie.

"Are you my mummy?" The child asked. The voice wasn't any louder than it normally was, but it carried easily over the field. The child stepped forward towards them.

"You know how kids are Nancy," Marion said, lighting patting Nancy on the shoulder. "He's going to keep asking until he gets the answer that he's looking for. Just tell him the truth. Trust me,"

"Mummy?"

"Nancy," the Doctor looked at the woman. "Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him," The Doctor smiled softly while Marion gave the woman a thumbs up. Nancy sniffled and stepped forward towards her son. The Doctor patted her on the back.

"Are you my mummy?" the child asked. "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

Nancy stepped closer to him and the child stepped closer to her.

"Yes," she said firmly, "Yes, I am your mummy."

"Is this a good idea?" Rose asked leaning towards Marion.

"The best," Marion replied, watching the two approach each other.

"Mummy?" the child asked again.

In the distance, (but not distant enough to not make Marion nervous,) a bomb dropped.

"I'm here!"

"Are you my mummy?"

Nancy kneeled down so she was just about eye level with the boy.

"I'm here!"

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes!"

"Are you my mummy?"

"We were too late. There's not enough of him left for it to work,"

Marion poked in in the arm "Oh ye of little faith," she whispered loud enough for the Doctor and Rose to hear, but Nancy couldn't. "Today's gonna be one of those rare absolutely without a doubt 'Good Days' where everything ends the way that it should. Just watch,"

Nancy's voice was cracking as she spoke. "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry," the woman leaned forward and embraced her son as tight as she could. Jamie's arms went around her too and for a moment, he seemed more lucid than he ever had previously.

The child's brown hair glowed orange and the two figures were surrounded by nanogenes. The ones on Jack's ship had reminded Marion of flying sparks. But these? The only thing that came to mind watching them float around and settle on the mother and son were fireflies.

"What's happening?" Rose whispered. The lights continued to flicker and float around the two with very little visible change. Then, they began to glow brightly. "The nanogenes, they're changing her, we should-,"

"Calm down,"

Next to her, the Doctor stared straight ahead at the two and the light surrounding them. "Come on, please,". The Doctor was almost inaudible. Like he was scared that if he spoke too loud, he'd spook them and everything would be ruined, "Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out,"

"What's happening?" Rose asked.

"Nancy's given the nanogenes a new DNA template to work off of. She's the mother of their original model, so it stands to reason that her template would be the more accurate one."

Jamie let go of Nancy and she fell to the ground. The nanogenes faded out of sight making the yard seem darker in comparison.

Marion felt a deep pain in her arm, which confused her since she was pretty sure that her arm had unbroken itself earlier, so there shouldn't be any pain. Also, come to think of it, hadn't it been her other arm she'd fallen on earlier?

The Doctor ran forward towards the child.

"Oh, come on, Give me a day like this. Give me this one," the Doctor reached down to the kid and slowly removed the rubber mask from his face.

"Ha-ha!" The Doctor laughed excitedly. He picked Jamie up and swung him around. "Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it,"

"What happened?" Nancy asked. She was crying now, but they were tears of joy.

"Do you remember what I told you earlier Nancy? After you took the Doctor and me to the hospital. I said that if there was a way to bring Jamie back to normal we'd do it. I don't make promises that I can't keep,"

The Doctor was almost manic with happiness!

"The nanogenes recognised the superior information! The parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them!" The Doctor set the boy down "Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"

"Oh, Jamie," Nancy embraced her son again. Tighter than she had before.

Marion's vision spun and she stumbled.

"Doctor, that bomb," Rose reminded looking up in worry.

"Taken care of it," the Doctor smiled.

"How?"

"Psychology,"

A distance whistling grew louder and louder and louder and louder as something grey and round quickly came closer and closer. And then, something else flew by and the bomb stopped.

Marion no longer felt pain in her arm or like she was about to throw up. A significant improvement.

"Doctor!" The bomb that had been about to crash down on them was caught in a glowing blue tractor beam and sitting on top of the bomb like it was a horse was Jack.

"Jack!" Marion called up to him. "Nice to see you again!"

"I'd love to chat, but the bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long,"

"Change of plan. Don't need the bomb," The Doctor yelled up, "Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

Jack nodded.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Goodbye."

Jack and the bomb disappeared for a moment and then reappeared.

"By the way, love the T-Shirt,"

And then he was gone again. After a moment, so was his ship.

The Doctor looked down at his hands. Marion saw him make some kind of motion with his hands and the nanogenes swarmed around him.

"What are you doing?"

"Nanogene 1.0.1. Changelog: Fixed bug that turned humans into zombie-like beings with gas masks fused into their faces. He's sending out the update,"

"You want moves, Rose?" The Doctor laughed, "I'll give you moves,"

The Doctor thrust his hands forward towards the yet motionless lines of patients. The nanogenes followed his lead and swarmed around them. The patients collapsed like puppets whose strings had been cut.

"Everybody lives," The Doctor's back was to Marion, but she didn't need to see his face to know there was a smile on his face. She could hear it. "Just this once, everybody lives!"

The patients slowly staggered to their feet. Their faces were now maskless and the back of their hands unwounded.

Marion walked forward quickly and helped some of the patients to their feet.

The Doctor that didn't practice medicine helped up the doctor that did.

"Doctor Constantine," He patted him on the back, "Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now,"

"Yes, yes, so it seems," he looked around, bewildered, "They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Ah well, you know," Marion waved the concern off, "The fresh air and all that. Anyway, you might find yourself with a lot more free time soon. Whatever your patients came in for, they're fine now. If anyone asks, you're a really, really, really good doctor!" Marion patted him on the shoulder, smiled, and turned to walk back to what would've been ground zero. The Doctor quickly caught up with her.

Marion could hear people talking behind them, but she wasn't paying much attention, especially when their speech got quieter and quieter the further they walked.

The Doctor climbed on top of the ambulance hull and shouted at the crowd.

"Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state!" He crouched down and started sonickng the control panel on the side. "Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear," He said speaking to them and not the crowd "History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

"Usually the first in line!"

The Doctor looked up and smiled.

The Doctor set the ambulance so that it could be set off from a distance and made sure that Nancy and Jamie went with Dr. Constantine.

Marion made an offhand comment to Nancy that she had a distinct feeling that London was going to end up being PRETTY chaotic over the next several decades and it might be a good idea to, if possible, move elsewhere. Like for example, Bristol.

With that, the group retraced their steps back through alleys and back to the TARDIS.

The TARDIS hummed lightly under Marion's feet in greeting.

The Doctor all but skipped to the console. An excited pep in his step. "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto,"

"Hello, Honey," Marion said, pressing her hand on one of the coral columns.

"All in all, all things considered, fantastic!" The Doctor turned around.

People say that eyes are the windows to the soul. Even if Marion hadn't known about the Time War, she would've been able to tell you that something had happended. Two and Three and Four had a light in their eyes this current incarnation simply hadn't possessed. Marion hadn't noticed it before. But now that some of that light was back (not all of it, but some) the difference was easy to see.

"Someone looks happy!" Marion said instead of commenting on it. She walked forward and leaning against the console watching that Doctor all but bounce on his feet in excitement.

"Look at you," Rose smiled, "beaming away like you're Father Christmas,"

"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?"

"What?"

"Who else could carry all those gifts and give them out in one night?"

"Everybody lives, Rose!" The Doctor swung out his arms, "Everybody lives! I need more days like this,"

"Doctor?" Marion said slowly.

"What?" the Doctor turned to look at her, "What? Oh, I know that look. What am I missing?"

"What about Jack?" Rose asked, "Why'd he say goodbye?"

The Doctor's face fell.

"Why the long face?" Marion walked over to the console and put her hand over one of the levers. She felt it buzz and she pulled it down. "Let's go pick him up!"

Marion saw the Doctor hesitate.

"I know what it looks like, but I'm not changing history or anything. You picked him in the Omega Timeline too. We need him," Marion waved her hand over the console waiting for the TARDIS to signal her to pull or push or flick something. "Now come on,"

In a moment, the Doctor was moving quickly across the console and the TARDIS was in motion.

"How long until we reach Jack?" Rose asked.

"Not very long," the Doctor replied, not looking up from the console. "A few minutes? Maybe more?"

"So we've got a little time then,"

The Doctor looked up at her. "For what?"

"Dancing. Honey?"

Soft and familiar music began to softly waft through the room.

"I'll get Jack when the TARDIS stops," Marion said, standing by the lever she was fairly confident opened the door. "You two have fun!"

There was no grinding noise when the TARDIS landed. Just the sound of Jazz and Rose trying to guide the Doctor into a simple waltz. It was easier said than done.

Marion moved a lever and the doors opened into the ship. Marion could see Jack sitting on a chair with a martini glass in his hand. He was saying something, but Marion couldn't hear it. Then his head turned to face them.

"Well, hurry up then!" Rose called.

Jack didn't need to be asked twice. He all but lept out of his seat and ran into the TARDIS. Marion closed the door behind him.

"Okay. And right and turn," Rose guided the Doctor into spinning her. Rose winced, "Okay, okay, try and spin me again, but this time don't get my arm up my back. No extra points for a half-nelson,"

"I'm sure I used to know this stuff,"

"Well, I'm sure it's been a hot minute since you've danced. You were certainly a whole lot younger then," Marion turned to Jack and gestures around the room. "Welcome to the TARDIS Jack!" Marion said with a smile. "She's objectively the best ship in the cosmos. And if anyone says otherwise, they're wrong,"

The Doctor and Rose stopped dancing. He went back to the console and set the rotor in motion, quickly taking him into the time vortex and away from the oncoming explosion.

"It's bigger on the inside!"

"You'd better be,"

"I think what the Doctor's trying to say is you may cut in,"

Rose laughed and grabbed Jack's hand and smiled.

The Doctor tapped something on the large screen above the console and looked over at the two of them. "Rose! I've just remembered!"

"What?"

He pressed something and the music changed to something a bit more swingy.

"I can dance! I can dance!"

The Doctor's smile somehow got bigger. He moved back and forward and snapped his fingers to the beat.

"Actually, Doctor, I thought Jack might like this dance," Rose hinted.

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain," The Doctor said, still dancing, "But who with?"

Rose smiled and grabbed the Doctor's outstretched hand.

"Well Jack," Marion said, moving away from the console and holding out a hand, "We can't both be third wheels! It'd get awkward. Care to dance?"

Jack took Marion's hand and spun her around.

"Sure! Why not!"

Next Chapter: No Straight Answers Are Given

No one:

Marion: Honey is the best ship in the universe actually and if you disagree with me on this, you're an idiot.

Hope you had fun reading this, hope I catch all the typos, and I hope you have a nice day.