My Queen of The Garden

by aliceoakdown11

"This is where we've always been heading, you and I." The Doctor's daughter was always shunned on Gallifrey, now travelling with her father, can she learn to trust him while keeping from him her biggest secret? That she's unavoidably in love with his best enemy. The MasterXOC

40. Part 3 - Chapter 40

This is mainly a recap chapter! It includes all the 'flash forwards' from Chapter 20 – Chapter 38 to recap everything that's happened since Utopia. Feel free to skim over just to refresh, however, there's a new entry at the very bottom!

Enjoy!

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Hally woke up, her head was throbbing and the lights above her were flickering horribly. She rolled onto her side, pushing herself up and to the edge of the small uncomfortable cot she'd woken up on. Hally looked around. She was in a cell, it was small and all the walls were grey. In fact, everything in the room was grey. The walls, floor, cot. Even the small toilet and sink were a grey colour. Hally wrinkled her nose in disgust. It smelt weird, cold and medical.

She stood up slowly, her body protested painfully. She stumbled, catching herself on the edge of the sink. Hally looked into the small rectangular mirror that was just above the sink. She looked like crap, there were horrible dark circles around her eyes and her hair was lifeless and dank. She leaned in closer to the mirror, there was the remnant of a nasty green and yellow bruise across the top of the right side of her head. In the mirror she could see that she was also dressed in grey, an all in one grey prison suit. Hally tried to stretch out her body, groaning in pain. This wasn't right. She shouldn't be bruised and she definitely shouldn't be aching all over.

Hally sat back down on the cot, her body crying out in exhaustion.

Where the hell was she?

She couldn't remember how she'd ended up here, or how she'd gotten such a nasty bruise.

Hally tried to feel out around her for signs of life, for anything. Hally frowned, closing her eyes and trying again.

Nothing.

She focused inwards, trying to feel her own energy.

Hally opened her eyes.

She couldn't feel it.

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Hally looked closer into the mirror, finally noticing the thin, golden band that ran around her neck. She brought her fingers up to it, it didn't seem to have a clasp. No way to get it off. It shimmered brightly under the dim lights. She frowned at it, could it be some kind of dampener?

She lay back on the cot, staring up at the ceiling. Everything felt off, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. To be honest she couldn't really get her thoughts straight at all. Every time she tried to think, tried to work out where she was, or even remember the last place she'd been it was like the thought just floated away. Lost again.

Hally rubbed her hands over her eyes. After what must have been hours a tall, dark haired guard, dressed in black approached the bars of her cell. Hally sat up, watching him. He unlocked the door to her cell, opening it out, he beckoned for her to move out of the cell. Hally saw that he had cuffs and possibly a Taser on his belt. She stood and calmly exited. She frowned. Shouldn't she be running? A calm fog descended over her thoughts. No. Where would she run?

The guard escorted her quietly down the corridor, Hally realised that it was lined with cells just like her own, similarly dressed women in each one. She was led through multiple doors of the compound, there were minimal windows but the few present had thick bars in front of the glass. Hally could see glimpses of a blue sky, green in the distance. She frowned.

The guard stopped outside a plain, white door.

"The Doctor will see you now."

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Hally stepped forward into the medical examination room as the guard held the door open. It was a small room. Four, blank, white walls illuminated by harsh clinical lights. A tall, confident looking blonde woman looked up from her clipboard as Hally stepped into the room. She smiled kindly, gesturing for Hally to take a seat on the examination table as she approached. Hally's eyes flickered nervously around the room but she couldn't see anything particularly untoward. It seemed like a fairly standard, earth clinical consultation room. She looked back up to the woman in front of her, whose eyes were twinkling patiently. She was wearing a long white coat, her stethoscope balanced around her neck.

"My name is Dr Pearce, I just going to need to check you over. Please, take a seat." She motioned again towards the table.

Hally looked over her shoulder, the guard had closed the door behind her and was now stationed directly outside the door. She heard Dr Pearce let out a small sigh.

"Look, either way I've got to examine you, so we can do it the easy way… or I have to bring in our little soldier friend out there…" Hally looked back to the Dr, she gave Hally a small sympathetic smile.

Without saying anything Hally sat down onto the table, lying back so Dr Pearce continue.

Pearce smiled appreciatively as she approached Hally's right side. The pair were mainly silent while the Dr performed multiple examinations, just instructing Hally to lean forward, breathe etc. here and there. She placed two monitors on Hally's temples, checking something on the screen.

Hally watched the doctor's movements carefully. She went on to listen to Hally's heartbeats, test her circulation and reflexes. Hally frowned to herself slightly. After each reading, the Dr would jot down a few numbers and scribble some notes onto her clipboard. Hally could feel a fog stifling her thoughts of confusion. Shouldn't some of her vital signs be flagging something?

The thought floated off as Dr Pearce picked up a needle and vial.

"I just need to take a small amount of blood." Hally didn't say anything, Dr Pearce obviously took that as consent as she started feeling at Hally's arm to find a vein. She pressed the small needle into her skin, the vial slowly beginning to fill.

"Do you have any current sexual partners?" Dr Pearce asked, rather out of the blue.

Hally raised an eyebrow, sending her a scathing look. "Why do you need to know?"

"Any chance you could be pregnant." Pearce rephrased kindly.

"No." Hally bit back quickly.

"Do you mind if I check?" Dr Pearce raised an eyebrow slightly, unconvinced.

"I doubt I could stop you?" Hally quipped back, the sarcasm obvious in her voice.

Dr Pearce frowned slightly at that, her eyes flickered momentarily to Hally's neck. Hally noticed, and was suddenly reminded of the golden band that was seemingly a new permanent addition to her neck.

"What is it?" Hally asked, touching the cool, golden band lightly with her fingers.

Dr Pearce paused for a moment, looking warily at Hally. Hally frowned, bewildered by the look on Dr Pearce's face.

Dr Pearce, however, remained silent, removing the needle from Hally's arm, pressing a bud of cotton wool to the area.

Hally asked again, louder this time as if it was possible Dr Pearce hadn't heard her the first time.

"What is it?"

The Dr looked towards the door for a moment, considering something. Before she turned away from Hally to label the vial of blood, adding quietly. "It's to keep you stable."

Hally had no idea what that was supposed to mean. However, even as her confusion and anxiety over the matter grew. Hally felt it slowly fade away into nothing. Dr Pearce seemed to notice the change in Hally's demeanour and visibly relaxed. She jotted down a few extra notes on her clipboard, Hally cocked her head to one side to see if she could read any of it.

She couldn't.

After around 30 minutes, Dr Pearce knocked quietly on the door signalling for the guard to return. She slipped her notes into a brown folder passing them over to him, as she did so she brought a Dictaphone out of her pocket, quickly noting for herself. "Patient X19, seen on 4th November 2007. Vital signs are all within range. However, I'm picking up multiple emotional and physical traumas. The body is doing a good job of compensating but the patient would benefit from an intensive, personalised counselling course. I would also advise some sort of the physical release."

Hally stared at Dr Pearce. 'Emotional and physical traumas'? What?!

The guard took the folder, looking expectantly at Hally. She slipped off of the table, moving towards the door.

Dr Pearce clicked the Dictaphone off, nodding in the direction of the folder she'd just handed to the guard.

"It should all be in there, if you could pass it along to Dr Saxon for me?" The guard nodded and with a soft grunt, guided Hally out of the room and back to her cell.

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What she assumes is 5th November, 2007.

Hally woke up in her tiny little grey room again. This time it'd been by the unwelcome shrill of the morning bell. She let out a soft groan, swinging her legs out of bed.

"Breakfast in 5 minutes!" A guard called loudly, his voice travelling all the way down the corridor of cells.

Hally splashed some water on her face, sniffing at herself. She made a face, quickly changing out of one ugly beige top, into another. After 5 minutes the door to her cell clicked and swung open, Hally slowly exited the cell. She could see other 'inmates' doing the same to her left and right, all dressed exactly the same. She followed the line out along the corridor and into a large canteen. There must have been around 50 other young girls there, none of them could have been older than 18?

"Hey, keep moving…" A hushed whisper from behind her brought her out of her thoughts, she was pushed gently forward by a small hand. Hally looked over her shoulder to see a girl who looked around 15. The girl sent her a small frown and Hally looked back in front. The line followed the outside of the room, eventually getting to a small service hatch through which breakfast was being served.

Hally looked down at the grey mush in her small brown bowl as she set down her tray at a fairly empty table. She made a face and looked up, her eyes locked with the young girl who had been behind her in the queue, she was now sitting opposite, a few seats down. The girl stifled a small smile and without saying anything, started to eat.

Hally puffed out her cheeks, sighing. She picked up her spoon and sniffed a small bit. It didn't smell of anything. She popped it in her mouth and silently choked. She dropped the spoon, grabbing a long drink of water. Looking around the room, Hally noticed just how many guards were present. There were at least 25 currently, all dotted around the edges of the room. She frowned, looking back at the young women all sat calmly eating breakfast.

They hardly looked like they needed 25 guards to be on watch in a facility that was supposedly already secure enough to keep them all locked in. That reminded her, where the hell was she? What happened to make her end up there…?

Her head ached slightly as she tried to hold on to the thought, but eventually, it was sucked away. Like a fast-flowing river, her thoughts just slipped away before she could grasp onto them.

"Eat." A deep voice from behind made her jump. Hally looked back to see the tall, dark haired guard looming over her. His eyes were piercingly blue and his pale face was hard set and angular. Hally opened her mouth to say something, when she noticed that his right hand was hovering over what looked like a Taser. She closed her mouth, looking back up to his face which held no emotion whatsoever.

She turned back to her food, picking up her spoon and slowly bringing it to her mouth. She grit her teeth when she didn't hear him walk away. Feeling like a child as she forcefully finished the disgusting grey mush in front of her. Only when all of it was gone did she hear his heavy steps retreating.

After breakfast, most of them we escorted back to their cells. Just before lunch one of the guards unlocked her cell and escorted her to a newer part of the complex. Light panelled wood doors lined the corridor. The guard took her to room marked '09 Counselling Suite' – 'Dr Saxon'. He opened the door for her and motioned for her to enter.

"Dr Saxon will be with you shortly. Take a seat." With that the door had clicked shut. Hally could see the shadowy outline of the guard standing outside the door.

Letting out a soft sigh she sat herself down on the orange fabric sofa that was placed in the middle of the room. It looked a lot like an office, it was fairly large with a square window on the wall to the right. It looked out onto what she assumed was an exercise yard, an old rusty basketball hoop could be seen in the far corner. The walls were lined with bookcases and a large glass desk sat in front of her and behind that a comfy looking leather chair. Hally bit her lip, noticing the bowl of biscuits left invitingly on the desk. She leant forward slowly, reaching out a hand to grab one.

"Making yourself at home?"

She froze for a second, before leaning back into the sofa, stolen biscuit in hand. Without looking over her shoulder she answered.

"Well… I can't imagine you're going to eat all those yourself…?" She relaxed when she heard the short laugh from behind her and the soft footsteps as the man circled behind her to get to his desk. He sat down, a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes playing on his lips.

Hally bit into the biscuit and inwardly winced at how loud the noise was. The man was watching her intently, both his dark brown eyes swimming with dark amusement. He leant back in his chair an unreadable expression on his face. Hally looked away nervously, missing the smile that spread across his lips.

"Let me introduce myself." He spoke after a short while. Hally looked back at him, his handsome round face was pulled into a charming smile.

"I'm Dr Saxon."

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"I'm Dr Saxon."

His eyes flashed playfully.

Hally frowned and stayed silent.

He let out a short bark of laughter, his features cracking into a large genuine smile.

"I suppose you have some questions?" He cocked his head to one side. His eyes never left her face. It was almost unnerving.

She nodded slowly before replying. "Although, I was under the impression that that would be your job?" She tried, cautiously.

His mouth twitched in amusement. He brought his hands together, resting his chin on top of his fingertips as he sat further back into his chair.

"Well… why don't we do a trade, hmm?"

Hally raised an eyebrow.

"A question for a question… an answer for an answer." His eyes glittered excitedly.

Hally thought about it for a moment, quickly realising that she wasn't really in any position to barter.

"Fine."

He grinned happily. His behaviour was strange. Something about him didn't quite fit into the scenario she'd found herself in. However, despite this, she couldn't help but feel safe in the small strange little office. Much more so than outside with the guards.

"I'll go first." He grinned, eyes widening as he sat forwards, leaning his elbows on his desk. "How was your childhood?"

Hally frowned, that had seemingly come out of nowhere. "That's a rather broad question…"

He smiled in amusement, but didn't say anything.

Hally sighed and leant forward, grabbing another biscuit before settling back into the sofa. She brought her legs up off the floor and crossed them underneath her. She wasn't sure what it was that made her start talking, but she did. She explained for around fifteen minutes, in rather extensive, but non-specific, detail about her childhood. About her distant relationship with her parents, her struggle at 'school' and her inability to make friends.

Dr Saxon smiled, listening intently. "Do you think this feeling of abandonment is what made you so incredibly angry with the world?" He asked, once she had finished.

Hally looked at him, keeping her face schooled. "That's another question. It's my turn." She said calmly.

He smiled, nodding. "So it is. Ask away." His eyes sparked with something that looked like irritation.

Hally opened her mouth to speak, but found that she couldn't think of anything to ask. She knew she had one hundred questions, but her mind was foggy. Nothing was coming out.

"Take your time." Dr Saxon said, a teasing edge to his tone.

Hally let out a frustrated breath, shaking her head slightly and blurted out the first thing she could. "How did I get here!?"

Saxon cocked his head to one side with interest. Now that she had said it out loud, the question hung in the air. A sharp ache at the front of her mind twanged painfully. She winced but didn't stop looking at Dr Saxon for an answer.

After a few moments he ground his teeth lightly. "You were brought here after an incident occurred involving your father. You were travelling with him, remember?"

Hally nodded slowly, lots of memories were blurred, in the wrong order. The last thing she could remember was travelling with The Doctor, Martha was there. Something about Jack… and someone else? The pain in her head grew and Hally brought her hand up to her head.

"You are here for your own safety, but also for the safety of others." Saxon watched her closely.

The pain in her head faded slowly and she looked back up at him. "What incident?"

A slow smile crept up his face. "My turn."

Hally bit the inside of her lip, rolling her eyes.

"You said you had trouble making friends at school. That must have been difficult. Was there no one you could turn to? Confide in?" He took his own biscuit, snapping it in half, still not taking his eyes off her.

Hally turned her head and looked out of the window, sighing softly. "I said there was Persca."

"And you confided in her?"

"Not really…"

"So you had no one to turn to?"

She ran her tongue along the top of her teeth, shifting in her seat.

"No, I…"

It had started to rain outside, she watched the big, fat water droplets smack into the glass window.

"I did. There was someone else."

Dr Saxon was quiet.

"But he died."

He was quiet for a while, before…

"How?"

"There was a war…" Hally began. "Wait you've had like five questions now. It's my go!" Her eyes snapped back to his. He shrugged, motioning with his hand for her to go ahead.

"What incident?" She repeated.

He sighed loudly. "The mind is an interesting thing. Perhaps the reason you can't remember is because you are protecting yourself?"

Hally laughed in irritation, shaking her head. "What?!"

"You were hurt. Others were hurt. I think it's best that we revisit the topic when you're more stable." He said calmly, his face unreadable.

"More stable?!" Hally tensed. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Her jaw clenched, her breathe coming out in short, sharp bursts.

Dr Saxon waited stoically for her to calm down.

She rolled her eyes, slumping back into the sofa. "That…was not me demonstrating how 'unstable' I am." Her voice broke slightly as she regained her breath. "I'm just so confused." She ran her hands through her hair.

"I know." His voice was soft and low. "And that is why I am here. So you can talk to me. Confide in me. I will always be here for you. Your Doctor."

Hally looked up into his dark, chocolate eyes. They were whirling with intensity. Hally licked her lips nervously. She didn't know why, but she believed him.

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7 November, 2007

It'd been two days since her first session with Dr Saxon and she'd fallen into a dull routine at the compound. She'd be woken up at 07:00am by the awful morning bell followed by breakfast until 08:00. After that she'd either be escorted to the exercise yard, the activities room or to a session with Saxon.

It was already 11:45 that morning and Hally was lying on her back staring at the white washed ceiling of Dr Saxon's office. She'd been talking for around 30 minutes now about the Time War. She'd left out the… alien details, instead giving Saxon a normalised story of her experiences. He'd told her that she might find it useful to close her eyes whilst recounting the story. Hally had felt awkward sitting up and closing her eyes, hence why she in her current position lying sideways on the squidgy orange sofa. She hadn't spoken for a few moments and Saxon hadn't interrupted so she'd opened her eyes, looking at the weird ugly circles that were etched into the painted ceiling.

She twisted her head to look over at him, he was silently jotting something down in his notepad. Hally raised an eyebrow, for a counsellor he very rarely noted anything down. He looked up, locking eyes with her. For a split second Hally was sure something dark glimmered behind his eyes as he flicked a look down her body.

Before she had time to think about it, it was gone. Dr Saxon started to tap his pen gently on edge of the desk. "So you were reunited with this man, your husband?"

Hally nodded slowly, her eyes drawn to the pen. She felt her body relax as she continued with her story, the tapping of the pen gently easing her mind.

Tap, tap, tap, tap.

"…we were back home, in the main city when it fell under attack. We were trying to get out, find a way out but before we could..." The words stopped on Hally's tongue. She frowned, trying to remember. "Something hit me over the back of the head…" She finished.

"What was it?" Saxon asked dispassionately, Hally missed the suspicious look he was giving her.

"I don't know." She thought back to the moment before she'd blacked out. "He saw it though…" She started, remembering the look on Koschei's face. "He was looking right at it."

"And then?" He pressed.

"And then… I woke up with my father." Her jaw clenched slightly, remembering the initial pain she'd felt when she'd realised that she'd lost him.

"What was that like?"

Hally frowned at his question, turning back to look at him. She was getting a hint of hostility towards her and it unnerved her. "I… I guess I was angry. Confused. I didn't want to be there."

Saxon raised his eyebrows. "So what happened then?"

She let out a slow breath, closing her eyes again as she told him all about The Doctor, about Rose, the Daleks, the Cybermen, smiling fondly when she mentioned her father's ridiculous hairstyle when they'd travelled back to 1953. She briefly started to mention Martha when Dr Saxon interrupted her.

"You forgave him then?"

Hally opened her eyes, sitting up hastily, alarm written on her face. "Excuse me?"

Saxon watched her, his face void of any emotion. "For abandoning you. Before, remember?"

Hally frowned, biting her lip. "I suppose. It was different. He was different." She shifted uncomfortably under his unwavering gaze. His expression was hard, she couldn't decipher anything from it. Nerves were starting to worm their way into her stomach. Something felt wrong, very wrong. She let out a shaky breath, her eyes flitting around the room as the anxiety climbed its way from her stomach and up into her throat.

Why am I talking to him?

I shouldn't be… I shouldn't even be here.

Where. Am. I?!

She was struggling to let the air into her lungs. Dr Saxon's brow twitched with a small frown. Her head was swimming and the sharp pain was back, driving into her mind with an uncomfortable feeling of tension. Nothing was making sense. She couldn't breathe.

She grabbed at her throat instinctively, trying to force air inside. Her hand felt the golden bar that was around her neck. It shouldn't be there.

"What is this?" She managed to splutter out, starting to pull at it aggressively. "Get it off me!" She shouted, tears pricking her eyes. Dr Saxon got out of his seat, swiftly moving around his desk to kneel in front of her. His face was still unreadable but a flicker of uncertainty passed over his features.

Hally doubled over as a shockwave of pain battered through her mind. "Where the hell am I?!" She screamed, pressing her hands in on her head.

She felt Dr Saxon's cool hands rest over the top of her own, his voice was loud and commanding. "Calm down."

He rubbed his thumbs slowly over her hands. "Breathe." His said from above her.

Tears fell from her eyes onto the carpet below. She swallowed, letting in a weak breath.

"Let it go. The pain will stop when you just let go." He whispered softly. His right hand had started to tap lightly on the top of her left hand as she continued to cradle her head.

Hally let out a soft whine of protest. She wanted to fight it. She wanted to remember. She was so confused. Nothing was making sense but it hurt. It hurt so much and the tapping was nice. It was calming. She focused in on it, the thoughts and turmoil slipping away from the forefront of her mind as she let the soft rhythm guide her back into the room.

The pain ebbed away and slowly she uncurled herself from the position on the sofa. Dr Saxon's hands dropped away and he observed her as she calmed down. Hally blinked a few times, all the worry and confusion was gone. She was ok.

"Good girl." Saxon muttered, sending her a small appreciative smile. "I think that's all for today."

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27 November 2007

It had been a few weeks since Hally had seen Dr Saxon and after what had happened in his office the last time, Hally was starting to think that perhaps he was avoiding her.

Hally was sat on the cold, metal surface of what she assumed was a picnic table out in the exercise yard. She rubbed her arms through the thin jumper as the icy winter breeze bit into her skin. The yard wasn't overly large, just enough space for a few tables and a half sized netball court for anyone who wanted to use it. Most of the other girls who were outside with her were huddled around tables too, but there were a few groups who were dotted across the court, or leaning against the tall, wired fence that kept them all trapped inside.

Even though she was alone and quite obviously not causing any trouble, Hally could feel the burning gaze of the tall guard drilling into her back. She turned slightly where she sat to send him a knowing glare. His eyes never left her.

Deciding to ignore him, Hally scanned over some of the other girls. Over the past few weeks, she'd come to realise that most of them were harmless. There were a few with some quick and fiery tempers but most were quiet and obedient.

However, there was a small group that had started to grate on Hally. Led by a tall, strong, blonde named Courtney, the group of five seemed to take joy in picking on some of the younger girls. Starting fights they knew they would win. Hally watched as two of the group broke away from the fence, heading towards the other side of the court, where Hally's neighbouring cellmate sat with one of her friends.

Bethany, who Hally had learnt was only 13, had been nothing but kind to Hally since she'd arrived. So, seeing as she had nothing better to do, Hally had decided that she should take on the role of protector for her young friend. It seemed like the right thing to do.

Hally quickly slipped off the table, eyes pinned on the two girls who were approaching Bethany. Out of the corner of her eye, Hally noticed Courtney, flanked by her other two cronies, edge a little closer.

"Hey…" Hally called out, loud enough to get their attention. Bethany looked up at Hally, noticing the other five girls approaching. She quickly got up, quickly sensing something wasn't right.

"You'd think it'd get boring only ever picking fights with girls half your size…" Hally muttered, shooting Courtney a warning glare.

"Back off!" One of her sidekicks growled at her.

Hally rolled her eyes. "I've told you before. Leave them alone." Hally spat at her.

Bethany had already moved out of the way and was now safely in a larger group on the other side of the yard. A few of the other girls had stopped what they were doing to watch.

Courtney laughed, stepping up right in front of Hally. She was at least a head taller than her and took every pleasure in looking down on her as she sneered. "Well as you asked so nicely."

Hally crossed her arms defensively, quickly realising that she was now alone and facing the five of them. Courtney seemed to notice her predicament too because she smirked. "Tell me. What's so special about you then?"

Hally raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Courtney looked pointedly over Hally's shoulder towards the tall, blue-eyed guard who was watching them with interest. Hally's eyes twitched in confusion. Courtney's ugly snort of laughter set off a jolt of anger deep in her abdomen.

"Yes. Your own little personal guard over there." She looked Hally up and down as if in disgust. "He only showed up when you did and surprise, surprise… wherever you go, he does. So I'll ask again, what's so special about you? Because I don't believe for one second that you're all that dangerous." Courtney laughed loudly and the four other girls quickly chimed in with laughter.

Hally would have laughed in their faces at the irony if she wasn't currently so powerless.

"Oh! Or maybe he's here to protect her… she is rather weak and pathetic looking…"

Hally scoffed at that. "I really doubt that."

So far, the only interactions she'd had with the hulking guard involved him forcing her to eat and threatening to Taser her.

Courtney's face lit up like she'd just had an excellent idea. "Let's find out."

Before Hally could comprehend what the girl had just said, her fist made contact with the side of her face. Hally stumbled back, her vision blurring for a second. Another blow made contact with her ribs and Hally coughed violently as all the air was knocked out of her.

The guard didn't move a muscle.

Before Courtney could get another hit in, Hally jumped at her, crying out in fury as she sloppily aimed a hard punch at her jaw. Hally only had a small moment of victory as her fist made contact with the smug girl's face, when a thick arm forced it's way around her neck and she was yanked back into the body of the guard.

She struggled against him but he was rock solid behind her, he responded by tightening the chokehold he had on her neck, causing Hally to have to grab hold of his arm for support.

Within seconds he had pulled her away from the group and over to the other side of the yard, hauling her inside. As she gasped for breath and tried to struggle out of his vice-like grip, all Hally could see was Courtney's smug face as she was carried away. She had been right.

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1 December 2007

It had been a few days since her 'episode' as some of the staff were referring to it. Hally was sat in the miserable cafeteria on one of the uncomfortable blue plastic stools. Poking the powdery, grey porridge around the bowl in disgust.

She hadn't seen Dr Saxon in what felt like a long time. Irritation flared up inside her. He was definitely avoiding her. She'd been expecting to see him pretty soon after trying to attack Courtney, but seemingly she was wrong. Which made no sense whatsoever, but Hally couldn't shake the feeling that that was the point.

A brown, plastic tray was suddenly plopped down opposite her and she looked up into the smug face of the aforementioned inmate. Hally didn't even try to stop the unimpressed scoff that she made as Courtney sat down on the other side of the table, smiling knowingly as she started to eat her own breakfast. The bruise Hally had given Courtney on her jaw had all but disappeared by now, she noticed. A little bitter, considering her own bruise was still an ugly green colour.

Hally rolled her eyes, sending a look over to her 'personal' guard who was stood watching her a few meters away. His back firmly pressed up against the wall. He gave no indication that there was a problem, instead narrowing his eyes at Hally meaningfully.

She looked back down at her breakfast. Choosing instead to simply ignore the girl.

Courtney hummed in amusement, playfully waving at the guard who ignored her. "Well aren't you lucky, hmm?" She started.

Hally closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, she brought her spoon up to her mouth, chewing and swallowing the tasteless mush.

"I thought you'd looked so lonely over here all alone…" Courtney continued, Hally could feel her eyes burning into her head.

She sighed softly and looked up at her. "What do you want?"

Courtney smiled sweetly. "What makes you think I want anything? Just saying hi."

"Well… hi, please go away." Hally muttered, looking back down at her food.

Courtney let out a breathy laugh. "So brave aren't you? It must be lonely up there on your moral high ground."

"It's hardly a moral high ground to step in and stop you from attacking a 13 year old girl." Hally smirked, shooting Courtney a look.

She smiled cruelly. "Yes, but you see your efforts are so useless." She grinned when Hally's brow furrowed slightly in confusion. "Well, you see. You can't touch me." There was a dark glint in Courtney's eye. "But I can do whatever I like to poor little Bethany and no one will even bat an eyelid." Her smile widened and Hally's jaw clenched angrily.

"Don't you dare…" She muttered darkly under her breath.

Courtney grinned, twirling a piece of her long blonde hair through her fingers. "What are you going to do?"

Hally spared another glance over towards the guard, he just stared back at her.

Courtney followed her gaze, smirking. "You're weak. The nasty bruise on your face proves that I'm stronger than you, and our last little encounter proved that you can't even raise a finger towards me without our big friend there taking you out. So I ask again. What are you going to do?"

Hally hadn't taken her eyes off of the guard. She estimated that he was probably around 4 meters away. She'd have less than 3 seconds.

That should be enough.

Hally looked slowly back down at her own tray, the bowl of porridge sat neatly on top. "It doesn't matter what happens to me. You aren't going to touch her."

Before Courtney could say anything else, Hally grabbed the edge of the tray, yanked it up and smashed it into the side of Courtney's head. The porridge bowl clattered to the floor and a small spark of pride lit inside Hally's abdomen as she watched Courtney fall to the ground.

Her win was very short lived however and instantly Hally was tackled to the floor. It had been worth it. Even as she felt the sharp spasm of pain from the Taser being pressed into her back. It had been worth it.

Hally felt a large hand wind into the back of her hair, her head was pushed down suddenly into the floor and everything went black.

---

lllll llll

2 December 2007?

Hally had woken up, in her cell with a pounding headache the next day. At least, she'd assumed it was the next day. Looking in the small, square mirror above her sink, Hally admired the nice, new bruise along the left side of her forehead from where the guard had smashed her face into the floor.

Charming.

Hally watched as the guards opened the cell doors to take all the inmates to breakfast as usual. However, no one was there to let her out. She stood at the door of her cell, watching the others file out along the corridor, until the only person left on the other side of her cell door was her favourite friend, who had gifted her the new bruise. Hally decided that she would call him 'Idiot'.

He motioned for her to step back and he unlocked her cell, stepping inside. It was then, that Hally could see what he was carrying.

Hally stared at it for a second in disbelief, looking back up to her guard's face.

"No." She muttered, glaring at him.

"This will be a lot less painful if you cooperate." His gruff voice seemed to bounce painfully off of the metal bars.

"I said no." Her eyes were wide, she could feel a prickle of pride itching its way up her back.

"You're not permitted to leave this cell without it on." The 'Idiot' countered, emotionlessly.

Hally swallowed, her throat was dry. She looked back down to his hands, eyeing the item that could only be described as a human muzzle, that the guard was cradling.

Hally drew up a sharp breath, eyes flashing with hatred. "Go fuck yourself." She growled, throwing herself back down onto her bed in rebellion.

The guard just looked at her for a moment, before turning on his heel and closing the door to her cell with a resounding clang. She wouldn't see anyone else that day.

On the second morning, the 'Idiot' barely made it through the door before Hally had attempted to bite him when she'd seen that he was, yet again, carrying that archaic device. However, annoyingly he was much stronger than her and it'd taken only a mere push for him to shove her back into her cell. The door crashing shut.

On the third day, as her guard had made his way into her cell and released the metal clasp that held the muzzle closed, Hally had burst into tears. The 'Idiot' had barely managed to begin to fasten the part of the muzzle that would clamp her jaw shut, when Hally had let out a scream and had scratched at his hands until he'd dropped it and she'd thrown herself back onto her bed. Again, the door to her cell had crashed shut and she'd been left alone.

On the morning of the fourth day, Hally had woken early. Staring at the ceiling as her stomach growled painfully. She'd not eaten for days now and her body was starting to hate her for it. This time, when her guard entered her cell. Hally closed her eyes and focused on her breathing as she felt the cold metal pulled tight against her jaw. The 'Idiot' slotted the back piece into place behind her head and locked the two metal pieces together with a click. Hally clenched her jaw and tried to open her mouth, but she couldn't. The front metal plate covered her mouth up to her nose and locked her jaw into place.

Hally was shaking but she swallowed down the bile that was threatening to rise in her throat. She was so humiliated and angry… but she was just so hungry.

The guard grabbed her roughly by her upper arm and escorted her out of her cell. He didn't lead her towards the canteen area as Hally had so desperately hoped for, but instead he took her straight to Saxon's office.

Her guard didn't bother to knock on the office door, instead he pulled her inside and deposited her ungraciously onto the couch. Hally was surprised to see that Dr Saxon was already sat at his desk, his eyes never leaving her.

Hally glared at Saxon with all the anger and hatred she could muster. He simply stared back, his expression never changing from stoic. Although Hally was sure she could see a glint of amusement behind his dark eyes. Hally sat completely still as the 'Idiot' removed the contraption from her face, taking it with him as he left, closing the office door behind him.

Dr Saxon and Hally sat glaring at one another for what felt like a full 5 minutes, before Saxon sat back slowly into his chair. He brought his hands up, resting his chin on his fingertips as he so often did.

"I'm rather disappointed in you." He began.

Hally let out a hateful laugh. "Oh, disappointed are you? Well I can't apologise enough!" She spat out sarcastically. "What the hell is wrong with you people?! You can't do this to me! Honestly, you're lucky I'm so bloody useless right now because I would tear you and this place apart!" She yelled, leaning forward on the edge of the sofa.

He let her have her mini tantrum, just watching her patiently. He watched as she regained her breath and sank back against the back of the orange couch. He raised his eyebrows, waiting to see if she was done.

When he figured that she was, he opened his mouth. "Why do you think you attacked the girl?" He asked, coldly.

Hally scoffed as if it was obvious. "Because she was going to hurt someone."

"That isn't your responsibility." He quipped back.

"So, I should have just let her hurt someone weaker than her?" Hally spat back furiously.

Dr Saxon considered her for a moment. "Do you see yourself as a saviour?"

She rolled her eyes, a self-righteous smile tugging at her mouth "No. That's not what this is about. She deserved it."

"You say that she was going to hurt someone else? But so far, the only person who's been attacked is her?"

Hally scowled. "That's bullshit and you know it." Hally looked around the room, motioning to the door. "Is that what this is supposed to be? Some kind of excuse to protect the others from me?"

Saxon nodded slowly, his eyes glittering. "Yes. You've shown yourself to be a danger."

Hally let out a bark of laughter. "No I haven't."

He paused. "So you're not dangerous?" He asked, his tone betraying the obvious trap he was trying to lay for her.

Hally just glared at him.

Saxon took this as an opportunity to continue. "Do you want to hear what I think?"

"No, but I think you're going to tell me anyway." She muttered darkly.

Saxon leant forward, resting his elbows on the desk. He began slowly, quietly. "I think you're feeling powerless and vulnerable and you hate it." He raised both of his eyebrows slowly, watching her face intensely. "You're lashing out at whoever you think deserves it because you need to feel like you're doing the right thing." A small smirk played at his lips when he saw her flush furiously. "…When in fact you're just doing what you think will gain someone's approval. Namely your father." Saxon continued quickly when he saw her open her mouth to shout something at him. "Someone who, over a very short space of time, you've created a very strong attachment to, despite him being absent for most of your life. This change has altered how you see yourself, altered how you gain affirmation about who you are and how you should be. So you've altered your actions and opinions into those that would be approved by your father. Because you need his approval." Saxon sneered. "You need him to like you, to love you. But at the end of the day, you don't trust him. You don't trust that he isn't going to just abandon you again if you say or do the wrong thing. Isn't that right?" Hally's mouth had dropped open, anger and embarrassment was firing through her veins. "But you have to know, these rash actions that you take to prove yourself, you don't gain anything from them. It's only going to hurt you. At the end of the day, who takes the punishment? You do." Saxon finished bluntly.

Hally was totally silent. She couldn't make a sound. It was like he's paralysed her. Gently, one of her fingers began to tap therapeutically against the rough material of the sofa.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Saxon seemed to notice instantly, his eyes flicked from her face down to her hand and back again.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"What are you doing?" He demanded.

Hally looked down to her hand, pausing mid-tap as she became aware of what she'd been doing. She frowned. "Nothing…"

He watched her, Hally could see she'd sparked anger behind his eyes. "What was that?"

Hally's own anger spiked again. "What?" She ground out.

"That." He glared at her offending hand.

Hally shrugged dramatically. "I don't know?! Helps me think. It's comforting."

"Why?" Saxon sneered at her.

Hally growled, she'd had enough. "I don't know, you're supposed to be the expert. Why don't you tell me?"

Saxon fell silent and the two entered into another heated staring contest.

"I think we're done for today." Saxon snapped his notebook, which he'd written nothing in, shut.

"Fine by me."

Everyone was silent again as Hally's guard re-entered the room and replaced the muzzle onto her face. Hally let him drag her to her feet without much of a fuss, heading towards the door of the office.

Just as she was about to get to the door she heard Saxon's voice.

"You don't have to try and be perfect. Who you are, is enough. All of it, the light, the dark… and the insane."

Hally stopped, turning to give him one last glare before the 'Idiot' dragged her out of the room.

---

lllll lllll

20th December 2007?

Hally was sat on one of the round benches in the yard watching the humans. She rolled her jaw, wincing at the dull ache in her muscles. She'd seen the dark purple and green bruises that currently painted her jawline earlier that morning from the ridiculous muzzle device that she'd been forced to wear for the past 2 weeks. They'd taken it off yesterday. She supposed as a 'reward' for her seemingly good behaviour. Not like she'd had a choice.

Her usual guard was currently burning holes into the back of her head with his icy stare. He never left her side anymore. The very sight of him was starting to make Hally want to scream and do other violent things…

Although she supposed she had 'behaved' herself over the last few days. Whatever that meant. Saxon's words had shaken her the last time they had spoken. She'd hated him for what he'd said, but a part of her couldn't rid herself of the feeling that he was right. She had changed since Gallifrey. She was different. But was that necessarily a bad thing? Standing up for people who needed help wasn't a bad thing, if that'd been something she'd learnt from The Doctor then there wasn't anything wrong with that, was there?

There was a sharp smacking sound from the other side of the yard, Hally's eyes flicked up to see Courtney pushing Bethany into the metal fence that surrounded their outside space. Hally didn't even realise that she'd gotten to her feet before she felt the heavy hand of the guard on her shoulder. He squeezed painfully. A warning.

An ache started to pull in Hally's shoulders and she realised she had tensed up. Her eyes wondered back over to Courtney and Bethany, the arrogant taller girl was smirking. Bethany cowered slightly, trying to move away from the older girl, shooting Hally a small apologetic look. Hally's jaw twitched. She knew that this wouldn't end well for her if she intervened. But it wouldn't end well for Bethany if she didn't. Walking away would be easier.

I should just turn around…

But, of course, she couldn't. Her decision had already been made the moment she saw Courtney advancing on the younger girl. Hally moved. Her guard's hand was still gripping her shoulder tightly. She grabbed it with both of her arms and tugged as hard as she could, pulling his arm in front of her and yanking it down until she heard a snap.

Not wanting to waste the short window she'd have, Hally ducked and turned, grabbing what she figured must be his Taser from his belt. She brought it up quickly, connecting the handle with the side of his head. His head snapped to the side, not quite unconscious but the way he tilted and almost toppled over to the side told Hally that he was dealt with. Without a second thought Hally moved over to Bethany, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her roughly away from Courtney.

Hally could see that Courtney was laughing but she couldn't hear it over the sound of her own blood rushing through her head.

"You've really done it now." Her sickening voice caught her attention.

Hally growled at her, baring her teeth. She could feel her hearts hammering loudly in her chest, adrenaline beating violently through her blood. It was so loud. Not quite loud enough to completely cover the unmistakable weight of her fear. There was silence outside for a few moments.

Then suddenly, alarms were blaring and within seconds the yard was flooded with the guards, every single one of them had their own Tasers pointed at her, they fanned out in front of her and Bethany blocking any chance of escape. Not that Hally had ever considered escaping. She pulled Bethany behind her slightly, pushing her out of harm's way. Hally let out a shaky breath and lifted her own Taser up at the guards, she wouldn't go down completely without a fight.

But what she brought up wasn't the jet black stick.

Hally's blood ran cold and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

"You've really done it now." Courtney had said…

She hadn't grabbed the Taser.

She'd grabbed a gun.

Hally looked back up to the circle of guards in front of her, trying to keep her arm from shaking. The middle guards parted slightly and Saxon walked forward, flanked by two men in lab coats. Her eyes met with his, the usually sparkling deep brown were stone cold and menacing. A glint of metal caught her attention and her eyes flicked over to one of the men flanking Saxon, they were armed with syringes, the liquid inside a swirling bright orange.

"Place the gun on the ground!" One of the guards yelled, the semi-circle of men in grey took a tentative step forward, slowly boxing her in.

Hally's hand tensed around the gun. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't let them come near. Her eyes flickered around them, feeling more and more like a wild animal about to attack.

Could she take them down before they got to her? How many? What about Saxon…?

"Drop the gun on the ground." Saxon's voice cut through to her. There was no kindness there anymore. His cold eyes never left her face, she could almost feel him willing her to obey him.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that one of the lab coat men had started to circle behind her as the guards inched closer still.

"STAY STILL!" She cried, doing the one thing that made any sense. She pointed the gun straight at Saxon's head.

Suddenly everyone was still. No one moved. Not even Hally. The breath was caught in her throat. It felt like no one was breathing.

Saxon's eyes darkened on her. "Put it down."

She couldn't. She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't talk.

She managed to shake her head, her eyes stung with the salt of tears and she grit her teeth hard.

He must have seen something in her eyes, must have understood the pure state of panic that she was in because his expression shifted and he took a gentle step forward.

"Look at me." He whispered. "Just me."

She kept her gaze steady on his, her arm was burning now with the weight of the gun. She could see the trigger shaking in her hand.

Saxon lifted up his hand, motioning for the lab coats to move away from her. They did, slowly moving back to his side. His eyes never left hers as he gently took one of the orange syringes off one of them, holding it out so she could see it.

"It's just me. You're alright." He said softly, taking another tentative step forward, leaving the guards behind him.

"I won't let them hurt you. Let me help."

Hally let out a short breath, lowering the gun ever so slightly so it was now pointing just below his heart. He smiled encouragingly and took another step. He was just an arm's length away.

"That's it." He cooed.

Her eyes flickered behind him to the guards that were still encircling them, their weapons still pointed at her. Her hand twitched on the gun, gripping it tighter. She should shoot him.

"Don't look at them. It's just me." He whispered, before raising his hand behind him. "All of you, back off…" He murmured, loud enough for them to hear but not too loud, as if trying not to spook a frightened animal.

He looked back at her, holding out his free hand. "Give me the gun."

Hally felt tears prick at her eyes. Her pride stinging. She was so fed up of feeling so powerless, so alone. Something in her mind was screaming at her to just shoot him. To end it. But there was something burning behind his eyes. She wasn't going to shoot him. She couldn't.

Gently she lowered the gun fully into Saxon's outstretched hand but she didn't let go. Her hand was still wrapped tightly around the handle.

Saxon lifted up his other hand, holding the orange syringe up to her.

"It's going to be ok. I'm going to fix this for you. You're just going to go sleep. Ok?"

Hally watched him intently. He was giving her a way out. She could just stop fighting him and she could go to sleep. That sounded good. Right? He would fix it for her.

Hally gave him the smallest of nods and he took another step in closer.

She could smell him now, she wasn't sure if she'd smelt him before. Her grip must have loosened on the gun because she felt him gently pull it from her grip, dropping it onto the floor. His hand came up and gently brushed over her left cheek, before moving towards the back of her head, holding her still. She relaxed into his hand, letting him gently cradle her head.

"Ssshh, I've got you." He whispered softly, his eyes were dark and intense. There was something in them that Hally recognised. Something…

There was a sharp scratch at her neck as Saxon injected the syringe. Within seconds black fog descended over her eyes. She felt herself fall, hands caught her and everything went quiet.

---

lllll lllll l

Sometime after 20th December 2007

Hally woke up to complete darkness.

She blinked her eyes a few times to check that she'd really woken up.

Still, everything was black.

She lay still for a few moments, trying to figure out where she was. She was lying down on what felt like a bed. She slowly sat herself up, finding the edge of the bed, she let her feet dip down to the floor. It was cold, felt like stone.

She gingerly stood up, not just because of the darkness, but because when she moved she could feel a dull, painful ache deep in her muscles. Slowly she edged her way forwards until she found a wall. Cold, stone, again. It didn't take her long to feel around the perimeter of the room. No windows, one bed and one heavy metal door, with no handle on the inside.

She sat herself back down on the bed, her muscles stinging angrily at her after moving around the room. Leaning her back against the cold wall she stared into the blackness at where the door was. She supposed she had expected someone to arrive soon. Doctor Saxon, or anyone. But no one came. No one came for what felt like days.

7 days to be precise.

Not that Hally could have known that. Stuck in her pitch black prison with nothing to help figure out how many hours had past. She was so hungry. It was so dark.

Sometimes she would pace around the room. Muttering angrily to herself.

Sometimes she would sit on the edge of the bed, thinking. Trying to think her way out.

But her thoughts never stuck. As usual these days, any useful thoughts simply floated away into the blackness.

Then.

Finally.

Someone came.

She heard them first.

Footsteps, heavy footsteps outside the door.

Then she heard a bolt being pulled across and the heavy metal door being pulled open.

Light flooded through the door and she had to cover her eyes with her arm. The footsteps stopped and Hally slowly peeled her arm away from her face. Her eyes trailed up the long shadow on the floor to the silhouette of the guard. Her guard. Hally felt her jaw tighten. She wanted to jump at him, to scratch his piercing blue eyes out. But she was so weak. So hungry and so tired.

Instead, she let him grasp her upper arm and pull her out of the room. They walked in silence through a maze of corridors that she vaguely recognised. Perhaps they all just looked the same in this place. Eventually, he slowed outside the usual light panelled wood door. Number 9. He pushed open the door and pushed her inside, not even bothering to deposit her on the sofa as he usually did. Saxon was already in the room. Hally turned to look at him as she heard the door close and click.

Saxon wasn't looking at her. He was writing something in his notebook.

Hally suppressed a growl, his disinterest grating on her.

The man who had left her in a dark room for days.

She marched over to his desk, leant over and pulled his notebook out from under his gaze, slamming the book shut with a thud.

He paused, eyes still trained on the space where the notebook had been. A small smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth before he leant back in his chair, eyes finally rising to meet hers.

She had to force her voice not to falter. "What is it this time then, hmm?" She demanded. Irritation flaring up inside her at how small her own voice sounded.

Saxon smiled slowly and motioned towards the sofa behind her. "Sit. And Eat. You must be hungry." He was patronising her on purpose, she could see the dark glint of mischief in his eyes.

She looked behind her at the sofa, gritting her teeth. She was about to inform him that she would NOT be sitting when she noticed the sandwich and biscuits laid out on the coffee table just in front of the sofa.

She let out a huff and sat down. Not looking at him as she grabbed the sandwich and started to eat it quickly.

Saxon didn't say anything, the room was silent apart from the sounds of Hally chewing. Which seemed to be uncomfortably loud.

"I know what you're trying to do…" Hally started, half muffled by sandwich.

Saxon simply raised an eyebrow.

"…It won't work." She swallowed. "You can't beat or starve me into submission you know. People have tried way before you." She laughed. "If you'd learnt anything about me at all, you would have realised that by now." She shot him a smug smirk, popping a biscuit into her mouth.

His small smile was back. It unnerved her. His smile. It was so knowing, so calm. It made no sense.

"I suppose you're right." He stated slowly.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. He was mocking her again, she could tell.

"I don't help people because I want affirmation." She spat out. "I do it because I can." Her eyes flashed. "…and because it's the right thing to do." She added.

His eyes twinkled with concealed laughter. "Where do you think it comes from?" He cocked his head to one side. "Your need to do the right thing?" He was smirking fully now and Hally couldn't shake the feeling that he was toying with her.

She shrugged, trying to fain nonchalance. Gain some of the power back in the conversation. "What do you mean? It's just innate isn't it? The need to help." She said, as if he'd asked a stupid question.

His eyes darkened for a split second. "No not really. Even the most selfless of things, always have a selfish angle."

Hally frowned. "That's not true." She countered back instantly.

"Oh." He raised both his eyebrows, a look of genuine interest. "Really?"

"No." She confirmed.

He watched her for a moment, leaning further back into his chair. "So, when you joined the war, for your friend, was it? You were only doing that to protect him?"

Hally bristled slightly. She didn't like where this was going. "Yes. Of course. Because Persca loved him so I had to protect him." She explained, her voice short and sharp.

Saxon chuckled softly, motioning to her. "So there was no part of you that joined out of spite?" He tried. "Out of anger, a need to impress?" Hally frowned as he listed off options. Each one bringing more heat to her cheeks. "To gain back your friends love? To find your husband...?" He finished.

Hally's heart was hammering in chest. Was it anger? Or guilt?

"No…?" She hadn't meant for it to come out as a question.

Saxon shook his head. The teasing glint disappeared from his dark chocolate eyes and was replaced with something else. "No one ever does anything purely for the good of another." His eyes were locked on hers. Unforgiving. "You protect the girl because you want approval. Approval from her, approval from your father. You do it because you want to show you're powerful." He had leant forward, elbows resting on the table. Hally clenched her fists.

"You want to impress." He smirked. "You want to impress me."

Hally let out a strangled noise of anger. "No. I don't." Her voice cracked. She got to her feet and braced herself against the other side of his desk, squaring up to him. "I hate you." She hissed.

"I think we're done." She spat finally, turning to dramatically storm from the room.

He was on his feet and his hand was wrapped around her forearm instantly, preventing her from moving.

"I decide when we're done." His voice was cold, but Hally could hear the strain behind it. She could see the rage burning behind his eyes.

A thought flickered across her mind.

Who…?

The thought disappeared before she could even open her mouth.

They both stood, unmoving a silent. Staring the other down, each trying to force the other into the submissive position.

Hally relaxed under his grip, a gentle frown on her face. "I don't understand what you want from me?" She whispered, exhaustion creeping into her voice.

He didn't let go of her arm, but he loosened his grip. "I don't want anything from you." He spoke quietly, only just loud enough for her to hear. "I just want you to be yourself. Accept yourself. You can be good and bad and selfish all at once and it's ok. We're all contradictions. All of us."

She searched his face for a hint of a lie, the mocking smile that had been there before completely gone.

"I'm not going to stop fighting you." She muttered back.

He smiled slightly, sadly perhaps. "I know."

---

lllll lllll ll

Apparently, it had been Christmas a few days ago.

Not that anyone had told her. Saxon hadn't been seen by anyone for at least a week. That had annoyed her. She wasn't sure why. It wasn't like he owed her anything. Why would he have spent Christmas here? That would have been ridiculous. But still, Hally couldn't help but be a little pissed off that she'd been stuck in this place for Christmas.

Alone.

Everything was still blurry. Like she was watching her life through a screen of static. The closer she tried to look, the louder the noise became. She couldn't remember what it felt like to not have the fog that had descended into her mind. She was so tired.

She'd noticed that nowadays she seemed to carry around a heavy feeling of sadness that would sit on her chest. She couldn't remember when it first appeared or why it was there. But it hurt. It was so heavy.

Since her last meeting with Saxon, she hadn't fought back like she'd promised him. She wasn't sure why. The last week felt like she'd been walking through a dream.

Today felt a bit different though. Like when the morning fog finally clears and you realise how poor your vision had been before. Something had changed slightly.

Perhaps that was why the anger was suddenly back with a vengeance. This morning everything was pissing her off. Her thoughts swirling around in her mind, forever thinking but unable to catch onto anything coherent.

Lunch was finishing, and Bethany was chewing loudly. It was annoying. Her guard was staring at her. As usual. That was annoying. She could hear him breathing. That was the most annoying.

She really wasn't sure why she did it. It seemed petty even looking back on it. The guard had come over, most of the other inhabitants (is that what they were?) were getting up out of their seats or clearing away their trays.

"Up." He said, when she didn't move.

"No." Hally bit back.

Hally felt Bethany give her a look. The younger girl was probably right. But Hally was pissed off. How dare he leave her here alone?

"Get up."

"I said no." She snarled, turning to face him.

He rolled his eyes. Taking her refusal as a childish challenge. He grabbed her upper arm, roughly pulling her up.

Hally cried out in protest. Scratching at his face and struggling out of his grip.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?!" She suddenly screamed at him.

At this point, everyone who had been around Hally had realised that she was about to have one of her 'moments' and had swiftly moved themselves out of the way. The guard looked unfazed. He sighed and grabbed the Tazer off his belt.

It was Hally's turn to roll her eyes. "How original."

"You have an appointment to attend. I suggest you stop the tantrum and come with me."

Hally laughed. It was probably the longest sentence her guard had ever said to her. Almost like he was giving her a warning. Which was hilarious. He'd never done that before.

"If the 'good Doctor Saxon' would like to speak with me then he can come and get me himself." She spat.

The guard was silent for a moment, watching her carefully. She braced herself, expecting his advance any second now. But he didn't. Instead he turned to his right, towards the small group who were huddled by the edge of the table, keeping their distance from her. The guard reached into the group and to Hally's horror, grabbed Bethany. The young girl's eyes widened and she began to struggle against the guards grip but he held her tightly around the waist.

Hally took an instinctive step forward, her hand outstretched towards Bethany and a protest on her lips. But before she could make a sound, Bethany's scream ripped through the room as the Tazer the guard had been holding was forced into her side.

"Stop it!" Hally shouted. All anger forgotten. Replaced with white-hot desperation.

But he didn't stop.

"Stop it! Stop it! Please!"

Bethany was screaming and writhing. The guard didn't take his eyes off of Hally.

She didn't know what to do. She put her hands up, a sign of surrender. Begging him to stop.

It wasn't working.

"Please stop! You can't! Please!" Hally was shaking her head, eyes blurring with tears. Her body took over and before she really thought about what she was doing, she had moved onto her knees. Her hands behind her head and her eyes staring helplessly at the floor. A tear escaped her eye and fell onto the concrete floor below.

The screaming stopped. No one in the room moved. It was silent apart from the soft whimpers from Bethany.

Hally wanted to look up, to check she was ok. But her body was still stuck in panic mode and she couldn't bring herself to look anywhere but the floor.

She barely heard the guard order everyone out of the room. Bethany's screams were still ringing in her ears as everyone who had been in the canteen slowly shuffled out. The whimpering stopped, leaving Hally to assume that Bethany had been taken out as well. She closed her eyes tightly. Letting the remaining tears splash down her cheeks.

The room was now totally silent. She was alone.

She let out a long shuddering breath. Opening her eyes and lifting her head slightly. She wasn't sure how much time had passed. It felt like it could have only been a few minutes but also it felt like it had been an age.

She wasn't surprised to see him sat there. On one of the chairs. It was strange. He and his perfectly ironed suit didn't fit here. Sat, right leg crossed over the left on one of the blue plastic chairs. She almost smiled at it.

He was watching her. Again. How long had he been there?

Hally's hands were in her lap now, she was picking at one of her nails.

She must look pathetic, she suddenly thought. But she was so tired, so exhausted that she couldn't find the energy to care that much. Or be that angry.

She was definitely angry. She wanted to scream at him too. To call him a monster. To grab him by the collar and throttle him.

That was a thought. Why was the guard not in the room? Come to think of it. He never was when Saxon was here. That was strange right?

"Why are you here…?" Hally spoke first. Her voice tired from screaming.

His face was blank. Simply watching her.

"I don't mean right now…" She cocked her head to one side. This train of thought was trying its hardest to float away but she grabbed hold of it. Wanting to get her question out.

"I mean here at all. With me."

His eyes narrowed slightly. It was only because they were both staring at each other so intently that she noticed it.

"Because you're right." She croaked out. "No one is ever truly selfless. It doesn't exist. As much as we might want it to. We all do things because in one way or another we will also benefit."

He didn't move.

"So why… why on earth, are you here? What is it that you gain from being here with me?"

One side of his mouth twitched into the ghost of a smile. It was such a small movement. He looked so contained. But she could see it. She could see that he was burning underneath.

"Clever girl." He muttered. "Insufferably." He smiled fondly to himself.

She opened her mouth to demand an answer. But it disappeared. Her thoughts clouded over again and she lost her next thoughts.

Instead, she let out a frustrated cry. Bringing her hands up to her head as if trying to force the musings to stay inside her mind.

"I'm so tired." She whimpered.

"I know."

"Why won't you help me!"

"I will. I promise. Just not yet."

"What does that mean?!" The tears were back. Her words getting caught in the back of her throat.

He stood slowly, walking to her. He looked down at her. Still kneeling on the floor and held out his hand. She took it, slowly getting to her feet. Her legs aching as she stood up shakily.

He reached out with both his hands, cupping her face and wiping the tears off of her cheeks.

"That wasn't fair…" She mumbled.

He obviously cottoned onto her new train of thought because he gave her a small smirk.

"You said it yourself. No one can 'beat you into submission'." He quoted her own words back to her, a glint in his eye. "The only power I have over you, is the power you give me." He whispered.

She frowned, pulling her face out of his hands. "No…"

He chuckled softly. "Yes. You just said so. You agreed. There's no such thing as pure selflessness."

She frowned, not understanding.

"You know you'd fight me endlessly if it was just you, I was hurting. So instead, I can hurt your sense of moral. By hurting the girl it forces you to choose. What is worth more to you? Your own sense of freedom or your position up on that high horse of yours?"

She shook her head, scoffing at him. "You act like it's ridiculous that I wouldn't want an innocent girl to get tortured because of me?"

"Is she innocent?"

"Yes!"

"How would you know?"

"Because! I…" Hally let out a low growl. "Whether she's innocent or not is irrelevant. I'm not going to put myself above the life of another…"

"Why not?"

"I… I don't know! That's just… that's how I feel." She was too tired to deal with his circular talking today.

"Is it how you've always felt?" His face was expressionless now. Firing questions at her in quick succession.

"I mean, I guess so! I don't know!"

"So you'd sacrifice yourself to save someone else? No matter who they were?" He batted back.

Hally threw up her arms. "I guess so! I have no idea! I just think if it's within my power to help someone else, to stop someone else from getting hurt then I should, right?"

He paused for a second. "So why did you abandon everyone?"

Hally scoffed. "What?!"

"Your home. You said you left. You left everyone for dead…"

She shook her head. "No… that's not what happened."

"Yes it is. That's what you said. You left them to die and went travelling with your father." His eyes burned deeply in complete contrast to the stoic expression on his face.

Hally laughed incredulously. "That's not what happened."

"Isn't it?" He spat.

"No! I blacked out! I blacked out and I woke up with my father." Hally took a step back. This made no sense.

"And you didn't think to check on those you'd left behind?" He cocked his head to one side.

"Well… no, he… they were dead. They're dead!" Hally shouted back at him. Her throat scratching in protest.

"Hmmm." Saxon paused. He was quiet for a few moments, he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

Hally realised that she was breathing very hard, her face flushed. That feeling was back in her chest again. The sadness. God, it was heavy. It hurt.

Saxon eventually let out a sigh. Hally frowned. It wasn't a noise she'd heard from him before. He was usually so in control.

Then the moment was gone and his face morphed back into the calm, cold mask she'd grown used to seeing.

"Well. You have an easy choice then don't you. The girl will remain unharmed so long as you behave. Do you think you can manage that?" He couldn't hide the bite behind those last words.

"Yes." She nodded, slowly.

"Yes, … what?" He raised an eyebrow, expectantly.

"… What?" She asked, confused.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Exactly."

With that he turned on his heel and strode out of the canteen. Leaving Hally stood alone, and slightly baffled.

---

lllll lllll lll

28th January 2008

Hally was bored. This place was mind-numbingly boring without Saxon.

Wait.

Hally shook her head.

No.

This place was boring, full stop.

She was currently sat in a workshop room. She guessed one could describe it as a classroom, except there was nothing really in it apart from more plastic chairs.

You see, sometimes the inmates (perhaps inmates was the word?) would be 'encouraged' to attend workshops by guest speakers. All with the aim of helping them adjust to what life could be like in the outside world.

At least they weren't trying to make her do yoga again. That hadn't gone well.

Hally stared forward at the guest speaker, not really listening to what they were saying. However, she was trying her hardest to drown out Courtney's voice, which was muttering next to her ear.

"Oh look at you. So well behaved." Hally didn't have to imagine the smirk Courtney was wearing. She could hear it in her voice.

"You know, it's almost a shame. I was having so much fun."

Hally sighed softly, leaning back in her chair. Mouth firmly closed.

"Completely powerless now." Courtney sniggered darkly.

Hally looked pointedly over towards her guard, who was stood near the door, staring at her as usual.

He simply raised an eyebrow.

Courtney followed her gaze. "Oh dear, I don't think dark and brooding over there is going to help you."

Hally sighed softly.

"Don't worry. I'll put you out of your misery soon enough." Courtney grinned.

Hally frowned, shooting her a look out of the corner of her eye. Before remembering she was trying to ignore her, looking back at the speaker at the front.

"I'm coming for you." Courtney growled lowly. Hally grit her teeth together to stop herself from speaking.

Courtney made a noise of amusement, then sank back into her chair. She didn't say another word for the rest of the workshop.

At the end Hally let the guard escort her out. His hand was wrapped firmly around her upper arm, guiding her firmly but not painfully down a corridor towards her cell.

"Don't you get bored of just staring at me all the time?" She quipped.

He didn't reply.

No matter. Hally was feeling particularly chatty after forcing herself to sit in silence for 3 hours.

"What's your name?"

One of his eyebrows twitched. She rolled her eyes.

"Surely you can tell me your name?"

More silence.

"Really though, I promise it can't be half a bad as what I call you in my head." She grinned childishly.

He pulled on her arm roughly, turning the corner.

"Armitage." He said gruffly. They'd reached her cell now and he removed the keys from his belt, unlocking the door.

Hally pulled a face. "Oh, I am sorry." She smirked.

He didn't seem bothered by her childish taunts. Once the door was open, he pushed her inside. Probably harder than necessary. Then he locked the door and turned to leave.

"Where has Saxon been?" Hally blurted out suddenly.

Armitage paused, turning back to look at her through the gap in the door. He raised an eyebrow.

"He'll be back tomorrow." He stated, matter of fact.

Hally bit the inside of her mouth. Not sure what to say next, but certain that she didn't want Armitage to leave just yet.

"He's been away for ages." She added quietly.

There was rustling, from what Hally could see it looked like the guard had crossed his arms. "Mr Saxon is a busy man. He has many 'projects' to work on."

Armitage's face was fairly stoic, but Hally could hear a slightly teasing tone to his voice.

Hally clicked her tongue, feigning nonchalance. "You would think he wouldn't have the time." Then she added, generally curious. "In fact, if he's away so often how does he fit in all the other people?"

Armitage frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"

Hally waved her hand in the air, as if that made it obvious. "You know… doesn't he talk to all the others?"

Armitage smiled. Shaking his head slightly.

"Mr Saxon has been away because sometimes his other projects have to take priority." He spoke to her like he was speaking to a small child. "However, I'll let him know you've been asking after him." He smiled unkindly.

Hally scowled. "That's not what I was doing."

She paused. "I thought it was 'Dr' Saxon?"

The guard let out a short laugh, before turning his back on her and walking away.

---

lllll lllll llll

29th January 2008

"Someone's been feeling chatty." His eyes twinkled in that mysterious way that they always did.

Hally let out a long sigh, leaning back into the ugly orange couch, biscuit in hand. She had expected this.

"Not really." She muttered, taking a bite. Bourbons, her favourite.

Dr Saxon smiled, also leaning back into his chair. "That's not what Armitage tells me."

Hally rolled her eyes, the sound of the biscuit crunching seeming very loud. "I just figured that I should know the name of the man who spends 16 hours a day staring at me. It's only polite." She gave him a fake smile. Hoping he'd move on.

He didn't. "It's taken you almost three months to ask."

She sucked on her teeth. "So?"

He let out a small chuckle. "So…" He began patronisingly. "What initiated this change in attitude?"

She shook her head. Probably a little too quickly. "There is no change in attitude. I just asked a guy his name. There's nothing to look into there."

"You've never initiated an elongated conversation with anyone here before, apart from me."

Hally let out an audible groan this time. "Look. I chatted to my guard for 10 minutes. Well done me. Round of applause. Can we move on now?"

Saxon smiled, giving her a small nod of understanding. "Shall I tell you what I think?"

"Why even bother asking?" She sighed dramatically.

"I think, your new attitude has something to do with you coming to terms with your current situation. It's a positive thing." His hands were pressed together diplomatically. As if explaining something very simple to a child.

She bit into her tongue. Staying silent.

He seemed to take her silence as some kind of admission because his face split into a wide grin. His dark eyes glittering.

"You've been busy?" Hally tried. Intent on changing the subject swiftly.

His grin only widened. "Oh, did you miss me?" He stuck out his bottom lip slightly, mimicking a pout.

She almost growled at him. He was being insufferable today. "No." She ground out, her jaw clamped shut.

He moved his hands, placing one under his chin as he leant his elbow on the armrest of his chair. Considering her. She watched him, trying to keep the upper hand, as if she ever had it in the first place.

He had nice hands.

She frowned slightly at the thought.

Something shiny caught the light and her eyes were drawn to a gold band around his ring finger. She racked her brain for a moment, cursing her poor attention span.

"Did you get married?" She finally asked. Having convinced herself that the ring definitely hadn't been there before.

An echo of surprise passed over his face, quickly replaced with the mocking smile he usually wore when speaking to her. "Yes." He replied simply. Watching her intently.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh."

She wasn't sure why she'd asked him. But his answer had bothered her. An uncomfortable feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Her hand went absent-mindedly to her own neck where her wedding ring lay. Only her hand just connected with the gold band that was pressed against her skin. The chain wasn't there. Suddenly, she was extremely aware of it not being there. It hadn't been there since she'd woken up. How had she not noticed?

"My ring…" She said suddenly, her voice panicked. "Where is it?"

He barely reacted. "With all of your personal belongings."

"Can I have it back please?" She asked, her voice coming out strained.

"You'll get all your belongings back upon release."

She inhaled sharply. "No. I need it back."

He raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"It's a ring. It's not FOR anything. I just want it back. Please." Her hand was still pressed against her neck, the space between her collarbones now feeling unbearably empty. "Please."

He cocked his head to one side. Waiting.

Her face twitched into a wince. "I… whatever you want…" She paused. "I just need it back. I promise I'll be…" She let out a small whine of frustration.

Both his eyebrows raised and he cut in. "I'll see what I can do."

She let out a breath that she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"What did your father think?" He added.

She frowned. Mind not catching up with his new tangent. "About what?"

"You marrying his best friend. Isn't that what you said?" He continued, eyes never leaving her face.

She looked down, her face heating up. She didn't want to answer. But, if she wanted the ring back. She was going to have to give him whatever he wanted. "I never told him." She mumbled.

There was a pregnant pause. "Why?" Saxon finally asked, his tone seemed to be that of genuine interest rather than professional curiosity.

She shrugged, shaking her head. "It just never came up in conversation?" She looked back at him defensively. "Why would it, everyone we both knew was dead."

"You never spoke to your father about it? About anyone?" He pressed.

She shook her head again. "No, I think we silently agreed not to. Neither of us ever really brought it up."

"Why not?" There was a hard edge to his voice.

"I don't know." She let out sharp breath of exasperation. "I guess we were trying to move forward. Our past hadn't been particularly… I don't know - we didn't get along in the past, so we wanted to put it behind us. Start afresh." She settled on.

He countered quickly. "So, it was convenient?"

"What?" She frowned.

"Losing your home. Was convenient, in that sense." The twinkle had gone from his eyes.

She let out a sharp laugh. "No. I wouldn't call it convenient." She spat back.

How dare he?

"But it allowed you to get closer to your father..." He added, as if his train of thought was obvious. "Was that always the goal?"

"No!" Hally cried out. "Look. Our home was destroyed so we moved on. We made do. That was it!" Her face was fully flushed now, hands clenched.

"I see." He muttered, eyes narrowed slightly. He pretended to make a note in his notebook.

She was annoyed now. "How did you meet your wife?" She spat.

"A fundraiser dinner." He replied coldly, not looking up from his notes.

"Armitage says you've been busy." She tried a different angle. She wasn't sure what kind of reaction she was hoping to illicit but she'd keep trying.

He just smirked down at the pages. "Calling him Armitage now, are we?"

"Yes, that's him name." She growled. Why did he always manage to get the upper hand?

He chuckled. "Aren't you going to ask me my name?" He tilted his head up towards her, eyes meeting hers once again.

An unexpected blush crept up her neck. "I mean, Saxon is fine." She brushed him off.

He laughed. Going back to writing notes again. "It's Harold. My friends call me Harry."

She pulled a face, slightly disappointed that he didn't get to see her disgust. "It doesn't suit you."

"Thank you." He smirked. Finally, he stopped writing and closed his notebook. "Yes, I have been busy. You see, a man of my 'expertise', I'm in high demand." As he spoke he rose from his chair behind the desk. Making his way around to the front, leaning back against it. Just the coffee table in between them now.

She supposed she would bite on the obvious carrot he had dangled. "What are your 'expertise'?"

He just smiled. How was it possible that this human could make her feel so stupid? So, slow.

She thought for a moment. As much as she could considering her inability to sustain long trains of thought.

He had been here the whole time she had.

He seemingly only spoke to her.

She had her own personal guard.

No one else had a gold band around their neck.

Even through the fog she could manage to come to the simple conclusion that he was aware that she wasn't 'like the other humans'.

She narrowed her eyes at him questioningly. "Are you with Torchwood?"

"Sometimes." His eyes were twinkling again. The smug smile back.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not playing twenty questions with you."

He just laughed.

Pressing her tongue into the side of her mouth, she caved. "So, you know I'm a Time Lord?"

His small smile answered her question. "Well then, you must be with Torchwood, or UNIT or some other kind of Government faction." She carried on. This was progress, surely? She'd worked something out. Now that she'd said it, it seemed glaringly obvious.

He nodded slowly.

She feigned disinterest. "I guess that does explain a lot."

"I'm surprised you didn't think of it sooner." His voice lilted upwards.

She glared at him. He was teasing her. That meant he knew. He was somehow aware that her mind was being blocked.

She narrowed her eyes. "No you're not…" She hissed. "I might not be able to think straight but I'm not stupid." She traced the edge of the band around her neck. "I'm … this was you? Or who, - you 'work' for." She struggled to keep the words in order.

He just watched her. Face set in amusement.

She pushed on, gritting her teeth. The physical effort it took giving her a headache.

"Whatever it does… It blocks certain parts of me… muddling my mind, stopping my power and blocking my mental reach." She frowned. "It's like I'm just human…"

His silence was so infuriating. Just sitting there, watching her like she was a child who was discovering how to play in the sandpit.

She tried to school her expression. Tried to make it look like she wasn't burning up with rage on the inside. "So, what's the end goal here?"

He didn't answer. But this time she wasn't going to give in. They both sat in silence, staring intensely at the other. Finally, he replied.

"Why do you think I'd tell you?" Amusement clear in his voice.

She shrugged. "Might help you reach it faster?"

"Getting you out of here is the end goal." He said simply, leaning towards her.

She let out a loud sigh. "So why haven't you?"

He shrugged, crossing one ankle over the other. "Well you know, British Government. Lots of red tape. Have to have someone sign off that you're not a threat." He smiled at her, mischief behind his eyes.

She frowned. "But we both just basically agreed that you've completely neutralised any part of me that was a threat with this..." She motioned to her neck again.

He cocked his head to one side. "And yet…?"

"Uuuurgh! Smacking some playground bully in the face with a dinner tray doesn't constitute this level of security." She exclaimed, waving her arms around wildly. "If the Government wanted my help with something, why not just ask?" She pushed, determined.

He had obviously decided to go back to the silent treatment. Because he said nothing, simply smiling as usual.

She shook her head, exhausted. Her headache only getting worse.

"Fine. Keep your secrets."

---

lllll lllll lllll

Sometime in February 2008

Hally was lying on her back staring at the concrete of her cell ceiling. She was considering the conversation she'd had with Saxon earlier that week. The more she thought about it though, the heavier the pit in her stomach seemed to grow.

Why was she talking to him?

Something was screaming danger to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Now that she thought back on it, what she'd discovered in his office now seemed blindingly obvious. Of course, he knew she was a Time Lord. Of course, he worked for Government. Someone, somewhere evidently wanted something from her. But what? And why?

Still, despite the fact that she'd been considering this for the better half of the night, she didn't feel overly concerned. There was just that feeling.

Heavy in her stomach.

She'd told this man almost everything about herself and the people she loved. She'd never done that before. Not even to Rose or The Doctor. Sure, little pieces here and there. But she'd told Saxon everything. Slowly, over the course of a few months. But she'd still done it.

She supposed that she did feel safe when she was with him. That was strange too, surely? Especially after what he'd said. Especially after he basically admitted to having Bethany tortured in order to get her to behave. That was barbaric right?

What was wrong with her…?

And then, there was why she was here in the first place. What did he want her for? What did they want her for? It made no sense. Even through the muddle, she could find that conclusion.

Trying to think was like walking through a thick maze. In the dark. Thoughts would flicker past like fireflies, but when she tried to follow them, they'd disappear into the darkness again.

Where was The Doctor?

She gently touched the gold band around her neck. Letting her fingers circle gently over the outside, all the way around her neck. There was no clasp. Nothing connecting it together. It was simply one perfect circle resting against her skin.

How the hell had it been put there? And by who?

Her head throbbed. It had been doing so all week. She let out a long sigh and turned onto her side. Finally closing her eyes.

Still February.

Hally was outside, staring at the metal fencing that surrounded them all. She had perched herself atop what was a picnic bench, not that it had ever been used for picnicking. Her feet dangling over the edge. The others were scattered about the space, huddled together in their groups. The cold winter air was biting at her skin. But she, like all the others had decided that it was worth the cold to be outside rather than stuck staring at the grey concrete that was inside.

Also, if she was outside, then Armitage had to be too. And watching her guard freeze his arse off was definitely high on her wish list. She sent him a small smile as he continued to glare at her from his standing position to her left. His back against the wall.

Well, it might have been a glare. He always looked like that.

Looking away from her guard, Hally couldn't stop the growl of irritation that escaped as she noticed that Courtney was sauntering over to her, a smug grin on her face.

The human got as close to Hally as she could without physically touching her. From her seated position, Hally had to tilt her head up slightly to look the girl in the eye.

Neither of them said anything. Hally had to physically bite the inside of her mouth to stop herself from initiating. She had promised herself she wouldn't rise to it. She couldn't rise to it, because if she did, she knew someone else would get hurt.

Damn Saxon.

Courtney let out a laugh. "Oh, look at you."

Hally rolled her eyes. She shot a glare at Armitage. Honestly, what was the point in having your own personal shadow if they didn't remove 'threats'? Although, then she'd be admitting that Courtney was some kind of threat. Which she definitely wasn't.

"So submissive." Courtney reached out and ran her fingers through Hally's hair.

Hally's jaw twitched, eyes burning with anger. She raised her hand, instinctively going to bat the human's hand away. She stilled, seeing Armitage tense up in the corner of her eye.

Slowly she placed her hand back in her lap. "Didn't your parents ever teach you about personal space?" She spat.

Courtney grinned. "Oh come on. This is fun. I want to see what will make you snap."

Hally rolled her eyes and moved herself backwards on the bench, creating distance between them. "You can't. Sorry, I've promised someone I'll be boring." Hally gave her a sarcastic smile. "So you can run along now."

The sickening giggle made Hally's blood boil.

"Oh, really?" Courtney pouted and backed away slightly. She looked to her left and grabbed the nearest inmate she could. Putting the taller girl in a headlock with swift ease.

Hally sighed softly, rolling her eyes.

"So you're just going to sit there and watch, huh?" Courtney taunted. The brunette girl she'd grabbed was struggling against the tight headlock. Courtney grabbed and pulled at her hair, causing the girl to let out a pained cry.

Hally winced, she felt her body tense. She flicked a look over towards Armitage, his hand was already on his weapon but his eyes were burning into hers. A subtle twitch of his head. No.

She looked back to Courtney who was watching in amusement. Waiting for Hally to no doubt jump up and attack her.

"No." Hally growled softly, pushing herself off the bench and getting to her feet.

Armitage took a warning step forward.

Hally shook her head and raised her hand out towards him calmly, stopping him. She looked back to Courtney.

Her mind was moving too fast for her to keep up. What she wanted to do, what she really wanted to do was tackle the infuriating little bitch in front of her to the ground and proceed to smash her face in. But then… then someone else would take the punishment. And that really didn't sit well with her either.

Damn you Saxon.

Hally took a deep breath, trying to slow her racing hearts.

"No." She repeated to Courtney, who let out another hateful laugh.

"Oh…" She mocked. "And what are you going to do to stop me?"

Hally levelled her voice. "Absolutely nothing."

Courtney's eyebrows raised in genuine surprise, before an ugly scowl rested on her face.

"But that doesn't mean that I'm going to sit here and watch, either." Hally shot her a glare, before turning and walking back into the facility. Her fists clenched, body shaking as she forced one foot in front of the other, walking away from the fight behind her.

---

lllll lllll lllll l

February 2008

There had been no visits from Saxon for around two weeks. That was supposed to be good right? Hally figured that since she was now 'behaving', the visits weren't as necessary.

The morning after she'd walked away from the invitation to fight Courtney, Hally had awoken to find her wedding ring sat on her bedside cabinet. He'd returned it to her. After she'd asked. After she'd done as she was told. The thought made her sick to her stomach. It was a reward. A reward for good behaviour.

The notion was extremely irritating. Although, she was rather relieved to have the ring back in her possession. Hanging around her neck, tucked into her clothes once more. She had tried to rationalise with herself. Perhaps if she could pretend to behave she could gain other benefits for herself? Maybe eventually she could be free of the band around her neck, finally find out some answers to all the unanswered questions. Then again, every fibre of her being wanted to fight. She knew what they were doing was wrong, so she should be fighting them. Right?

Would The Doctor fight?

Perhaps not, if innocent lives were at risk…

Questions whirled around in her mind painfully as they had been doing ever increasingly for the past month. It had begun to cause a constant throbbing pain through her entire brain, emanating from the base of her skull.

Armitage was flanking her right side as escorted her to the canteen for breakfast. He stopped abruptly, grabbing her upper arm and forcing her to halt too when a siren-like alarm started blaring all along the corridor. Hally looked behind them, red lights were flashing angrily in the ceiling. Something, or someone had obviously triggered the alarm.

Hally looked back to Armitage who was looking at her blankly.

"I swear this isn't me." She smirked. He rolled his eyes, not speaking. Waiting, holding onto her arm tightly.

After a few moments, during which Hally assumed he was being passed information through his earpiece, he spoke. "There's been an incident in the canteen." He started marching forward again, pulling her with him. "You're going to the shower block while it's being sorted."

Hally let out a dramatic sigh. "Oh, but I have so many places to be."

He yanked painfully on her arm, not looking at her. "Like your cell?" He threatened.

Hally let out a small huff. Spoilsport. "Got it. Shower block." She rolled her eyes hopelessly. Anywhere was better than being stuck back inside her cell and if she was honest with herself, she could definitely do with a shower.

He led her along the grey, clinical corridor to the communal shower. As they reached the door, Armitage muttered to the other two facility guards that were positioned at the entrance of the showers. The guards nodded to Armitage and made their leave. Hally figured he'd sent them to help out with whatever 'incident' was transpiring. He moved through the door, hovering in the space between the door and the shower.

The shower block itself was a rectangular room with about a dozen water facets lining one wall. The other wall had basic shelves where Hally dumped her clothes and grabbed a small bottle of body wash. There weren't many in the block, just three other girls. Without really looking at them, Hally moved to the nearest facet and turned the water on. From where she was, she could see Armitage's back as he waited patiently near the door. That was one blessing at least. He let her shower without staring at her. Although, with a shiver, Hally figured there were probably cameras in the room anyway.

Considering that thought, Hally turned to face the wall while she continued to scrub herself down. Trying to run her fingers through her hair to get some of the nots out.

"I promised I'd get you."

Hally frowned at the familiar female voice, she made to turn towards Courtney but before she could, she was roughly pushed forward. Her face making a horrible cracking sound as it smacked into the wall in front of her.

For a split second, Hally was outraged and arched round to look at the girl to hopefully push her just as hard. However, she never had chance before a sharp pain sliced into her left side, just below her ribs.

She let out a cry of pain and clutched at her side. The human smirked slightly and backed away from her quickly. From the corner of her eye she could see Armitage advancing towards them, although he seemed to be doing so at a pace that did not match the urgency of the situation.

Hally knew even before she pulled her hands away from her side that there would be blood. What she wasn't expecting was the amount of blood. It rushed over the palm of her hands and was already streaking the floor. The running water making it look like a murder scene.

Hally couldn't help the small ironic laugh that escaped her lips. She supposed it might be a murder scene soon. She tried to press into her side to stem the bleeding, but that didn't seem to be helping. Her eyes were already glassy, dark fog creeping into view.

That was fast.

She'd expected to bleed out for at least a few minutes.

This wasn't normal.

Not that she'd been stabbed many times before but it wasn't usually this quick was it?

There was so much blood on the floor.

Armitage's rough hands were hauling her up and as his eyes met hers she was hit with the crushing realisation that something was indeed very, very, wrong.

Fear.

He was scared.

So scared.

Which probably meant she was fucked.

He was shouting now. Although she couldn't really make out what he was saying.

Her eyes closed for a brief second. He shook her violently. She could see Courtney. She wasn't looking so self-assured anymore. Fear. Again. Why would she be scared? That bitch had stabbed her.

She hadn't realised, but she'd already collapsed. The only thing keeping her upright was Armitage and his large hands. But he was evidently weakening because the world was tilting. The running water was rushing past her ears now. She was lying down in the pool of blood.

Oh yes.

It was her blood.

Woops.

Hally considered for a moment. Would she die like this?

It was possible.

Probable.

This felt a bit like dying.

No magical healing powers today.

She would have laughed if she could.

Above her Armitage was shouting at her. But she couldn't hear anything he was saying. The black fog was creeping further and further over her eyes. Maybe she was shaking. She was definitely cold.

It was like Hally had separated herself from what was happening above her, around her. Here, everything was quiet. It was almost peaceful. But outside of her looked to be terrible busy. Panic. That was what she saw in his eyes. Terror and panic.

That was strange.

The fog took over and Hally's eyes fluttered shut.

Peace.

---

lllll lllll lllll ll

2008?

The first thing Hally was aware of was that something was beeping nearby. Two high pitched mechanical beeps every few seconds.

Then, slowly she became aware of her body. It started with the ache in her side, slightly dull but chronic. Something felt tight on the back of her right hand. She swallowed, her dry throat scratching at the movement. She could hear her breathing and the beeping. Slowly she opened her eyes, blinking against the cold white lights above her.

She slowly raised her left hand to shield her eyes from the overwhelming light, turning her head to the side. Everything was varying shades of white, from the bed she was lying in, the beeping machine and the curtains pulled closed around her bed.

She let out a soft sigh, the movement sending a sharp pain deep into her left abdomen.

Not dead then.

The realisation was certainly a relief. Although, Hally wasn't too sure she was any better off in her current predicament.

The machine to her right beeped slightly faster as Hally gently tried to sit up. The pain worsened significantly, it felt like tiny needles were stabbing her every time she moved. Once she was in a vaguely upright position, Hally could take in her surroundings. It looked like she was in a hospital ward of some kind. Although it differed from the ward she'd visited with The Doctor. This ward was quiet, apart from the beeping of the machine tracking her heartbeats. Everything was white. It was quite unnerving to be in an environment so devoid of colour.

The only colour in the room came from him. Sat in the left hand corner of the room on a white armchair. He was watching her silently, face impassive as ever. Perhaps a hint of uncertainty.

Seeing him sat there caused two things to happen to Hally at once. First, her hand flew up to her neck where she felt the cold restrictive band still sat on top of her skin, underneath it she felt her ring still sitting against her chest on its chain. Second, was the pure, unfiltered rage that seemed to stem from her hearts and bloom outward until it had burned through her entire body.

"What have you done?!" Hally wasn't aware she'd spoken until the burning at the back of her throat jolted her into awareness.

He didn't move, one eyebrow just raised slightly as he continued to watch her. The beeping to her right had increased, as they both sat there staring at each other it started to slow again. As it did, Hally felt the familiar fog start to cloud her mind once more. She could have screamed with frustration, realising only for a moment that her mind had just been the clearest it had in months. But the heavy clouds descended into her mind and any thoughts she might have had seemed to retreat into the mist.

Her eyes left his and instead travelled downwards to her own body. She gently pushed back the bedsheets, wanting to get a better look at where the pain was coming from. She realised then that she was wearing clothes. Which she definitely hadn't been before. Again, a small relief.

She leaned back slightly, gently pulling up the white, lightweight long sleeved jumper she was now wearing to reveal her abdomen. Of course, she couldn't actually see where Courtney had stabbed her because the whole area was covered with dressings. She pressed gently on top of the dressing in the place she could remember the most pain.

Wincing from the throbbing that proceeded, she lowered her top, looking back at Saxon.

"How long have I been out?" She croaked.

Saxon's eyes left hers to look at something to her left. She followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at the bedside cabinet, on top of which sat a glass of water. She picked it up gingerly and took a sip, the liquid helping to sooth her burning throat.

Once her eyes had returned to his, he replied. "Not long."

How unhelpfully vague.

"What happened?" She pressed.

Irritation passed over his face. "Some moron stabbed you in the spleen."

Hally raised her eyebrows at the rage that had accidently leaked into his tone.

He seemed to have noticed too because he continued, tone changing to that of nonchalance. "Few more minutes and you would have bled out."

Hally watched him for a moment. "And I guess that was never part of the plan, huh?"

"Definitely not." He clicked his tongue against his teeth.

She looked back down at herself. Noticing now that the tightness in her right hand was due to there being a tube stuck into the back of her hand. She followed the tube to two clear bags of liquid hanging next to her bed. Again, she gently pressed on the wounded area through her jumper.

Pain.

Although it didn't seem to run as deep as it should. Had she been out for longer than he was letting on? Or perhaps she'd healed somehow?

"Can you walk?" She looked back up at him, frowning at the question.

"What?"

He rolled his eyes impatiently. "Has the blood loss left you brain damaged?"

"Excuse me?" She countered, his change in attitude leaving her utterly confused. "No, I'm not 'brain damaged'." She scrunched up her face.

He pushed himself out of the armchair, moving over to the right hand side of her bed. He gave her a stern look. "So, can you walk?"

She shot him a withering glare as she pushed herself more upright. Trying not to give him the satisfaction of showing how much of a struggle it was, she slowly turned her body to the right. Letting her legs hang off the edge of the bed.

Saxon watched her for a moment before turning to the beeping machine. He pressed a few buttons in quick succession, the machine gave one final beep before going silent.

Without asking, he took her right hand in his. Peeling away the tape that was holding the needle of the tube down against her skin. He then grabbed a small dressing from behind her bed.

She was about to mutter something clever, along the lines of 'I thought Doctor's had to ask permission before they touched their patients?' but before she could Saxon had pulled the needle our from the back of her hand without warning and was now pressing the dressing against her skin to stop the blood.

She looked up at him, sending him an unfiltered look of anger. He sent back a mock innocent expression that clearly said 'What?'

After a few moments he pulled the dressing away, checking her hand. It was then that Hally noticed a small bundle of wires were peeking out the sleeve of her jumper, following the wires she could see that there were attached to the previously beeping machine.

"There are five patches stuck to your chest. Remove them."

Hally looked back up to Saxon, his instruction taking a moment to sink in. She pulled at the neck of her jumper and looked down at her bare chest, seeing that there were indeed five patches connected to wires stuck over where her hearts lay.

Snaking her hand underneath her jumper she began pulling the sticky patches away from her skin. Once they were all loose, Saxon pulled the bundle out through her jumper sleeve.

He looked her up and down, checking she was free from all wires and tubes.

"Rate the pain from 1-10." He looked back up to her face, cocking his head to one side.

"Umm, like 6… 6.5?" Hally guessed.

He shot her a wide, fake, charming grin and pressed his hands together. "Great. Get up."

Hally pressed her lips together. She could argue with him. She really did want to argue with him but there was something about the way his eyes were glued to hers that kept her from it. Instead she let out a weak irritated huff and eased herself off the bed.

As she lowered some weight onto her feet and stood from the bed a sharp pain sliced at her side. She grimaced, letting out a gasp at the sudden discomfort. Hands were instantly on her upper arms, steadying her.

Saxon was watching her face intently, as the pain turned into a steady throb she relaxed slightly and his hands dropped back to his sides.

He raised an eyebrow, the question written all over his face.

She nodded. "Yeah. I can walk."

He smiled again, less fake this time. Still charming. "Good. Come."

With that he turned on his heal, pulled back the curtain and began to exit the room. Hally winced at the pace he appeared to be moving at. Knowing that her own pace would certainly be much slower. She followed as quickly as she could manage. Each step causing a new wave of pain to tug at her abdomen. He led her along a short white corridor, a small reception area at the end next to the exit. The person at reception passed Saxon a long, oversized, black coat. It was a stark contrast against the brightness of everything else in the space.

For a moment, it looked like he was about turn and just throw the coat at her, before his expression shifted slightly, he let out a small huff and circled around behind her. He helped her into the coat and Hally wrapped her arms around herself, as if somehow the coat would make her feel less vulnerable.

Perhaps he noticed this because a small frown appeared on his forehead and after a moment of deliberation, he reluctantly offered her his arm. She reluctantly took it.

He guided her out of the door and towards the waiting black car. As they walked, Hally was very conscious of where her arm and his were pressed together. There hadn't been many occasions when he'd physically touched her. She couldn't think of any moments when she'd voluntarily touched him. He opened the door to the back seat of the car, letting her leverage her weight against him in order to get inside in a way that would cause the least pain. She sat back against the seat, slightly out of breath.

Saxon walked around the car, getting into the back from the other side. Something felt different. It felt strange. Having him so close was off putting. Not that he hadn't been close before, because he had. The feeling wasn't a bad feeling. She realised with a blush that she liked having him near.

'Perhaps this is what Stockholm Syndrome is?' Hally mused to herself. Nothing about any of what had happened to her over the last few months made any sense at all and yet through all of it, he made sense. His presence made perfect, harmonious sense.

The car started to move away and Hally's eyes flickered finally to the driver's seat. She let out a weak laugh as she recognised who was driving the car.

"Have you been demoted to driver after nearly letting me die?" She snapped at him.

Armitage didn't react.

Saxon shifted in his seat next to her. "Actually, he's probably the reason you're alive." He grumbled.

Hally rolled her eyes, looking away from the two men and instead deciding to stare out of the window. "Still, he let me get stabbed in the first place." She muttered to herself, earning a low chuckle from the man sat next to her.

They drove for over an hour. Eventually, Hally recognised their surroundings as London. The car drove further and further into the city, finally stopping outside a large townhouse.

"Where are we?" Hally turned to Saxon.

"Home." He said simply, getting out of the car.

Hally frowned, Armitage opened her door and she managed to clamber out of the car. She followed Saxon, who was already a few steps towards the front door.

She raised her voice slightly, trying to get his attention back on her. "What does that mean?"

He reached the door and rolled his eyes dramatically. "God you're slow like this."

"Hey!" Hally called back at him, affronted.

He raised a finger to his lips mockingly. "Don't make a scene."

Hally growled. "I'm not 'making a scene', I'm just asking where we are." She stepped towards him joining him at the front door, poking him in the chest. "You're the one who's made me mentally incapacitated, so you'll deal with all the stupid questions!"

A smirk melted onto his face. "Fine. We're at my home. Where I live. It's now where you live." He cocked his head to one side as if patiently waiting for her to catch up.

She blinked a few times. "That… makes no sense…"

Her mind was whirring, the headache that had plagued her for the last few weeks reminding her of its incessant presence.

He stuck his bottom lip out at her. "It doesn't, does it?" He remarked playfully, although Hally could hear there was an element of bite behind his words. He lowered his voice, stepping in close enough for Hally to feel his breath on her face. "Had to improvise." He smiled dangerously. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about it." He tilted her chin up, bringing her face closer to his.

She felt her face burn as her insides summersaulted. Hally didn't notice that she did indeed stop worrying about the nonsensical nature of the situation. She was much too focused on the feeling of his hand on her chin. His dark eyes had her caught, unable to look away.

She barely noticed as his expression darkened, mask slipping. Fog rolled into her mind, until she was only just aware of the door opening next to them. Saxon didn't move. His eyes still held hers. Held her exactly where he wanted her. The pressure on her chin moved slightly and something pulled gently at her bottom lip. Gentle pressure, in her mouth. On her tongue.

The feeling was ripped away in an instant, the fog clearing. Hally realised that Saxon had turned and entered the townhouse, not looking back at her. She shook her head slightly, confused by the momentary loss of full awareness. She looked to her right, Armitage was still stood patiently waiting for her to enter the house. He turned his head back to look at her.

Why hadn't he been looking at her?

He nodded towards the door and Hally finally moved to follow Saxon.

He led her silently up the stairs, waiting patiently for her at the top as she struggled to ascend without causing too much pain. His face had changed into a blank mask. A stark contrast to the man who had been stood outside. Hally frowned and traced her bottom lip with her tongue, both tingling strangely.

Saxon stopped abruptly outside a door, he turned a key in the lock and pushed the door open, stepping aside to allow her to enter.

She did so. He'd led her to a small bedroom. A familiar bedroom.

Hally turned back to Saxon, a question forming on her lips.

However he cut her off. "Dinner at 7." He commanded, before the door slammed in her face and she heard the key turning back in the lock.

---

lllll lllll lllll lll

Maybe March 2008?

Hally stared at the door that had just been slammed in her face. Saxon's sudden change in demeanour was odd. Her head throbbed and Hally rubbed a hand over her forehead to try and ease the ache. She turned and surveyed the room she now found herself in.

It was familiar.

There was a single bed in the far left corner, with a desk and chest of drawers along the right hand wall next to the window and a full length mirror. To her left was a small ensuite and at the foot of the bed a wardrobe.

It was most likely a coincidence but the room was almost exactly the same size and layout at her room on the TARDIS. It was both unnerving and comforting at the same time. The furnishings were obviously different and her room on the TARDIS didn't have a window but…

Hally decided to ignore the similarities. It was after all, surely a coincidence.

She moved over to the window and noted the lack of handle or hinges. This window wasn't designed to open. Outside she could see the grey London sky and a small garden which backed onto other gardens. Townhouses backed onto townhouses, their matching white walls and slate rooves. Her eyes were drawn to the windowsill outside the window. She cocked her head to one side, noticing that on either side of the window were two thin black boxes with a small red light which flashed every few seconds.

The window was alarmed.

She frowned. Wouldn't that take time?

Her head protested the thoughts with an ebb of pain. She frowned and moved to sit on the bed, resting her head in her hands. Her skin was slightly clammy to touch and Hally was suddenly very aware of how gross she felt. She checked the time on the clock on the desk. 17:04.

She considered having a nap, but knew that what she really wanted was a shower and that was going to be difficult with the dressings on. Hally let out a soft sigh and shuffled her way into the bathroom.

Getting to a point where she felt clean had indeed taken more effort than she'd anticipated. She didn't want to get the dressing wet, having not seen any replacements and she didn't fancy asking either Saxon or Armitage for help.

Once she was done, Hally wrapped herself in the fluffy grey dressing gown she'd found on the back of the door to the bathroom, towel drying her hair as she headed back into the bedroom. She pottered around the room, opening the drawers and wardrobe to see if she had anything she could change into. There were a few items of clothing hung up in the wardrobe. Business type dresses, blouses and skirts. Hally ran her hand over the items, she could tell they were expensive. But none of them were anything like what she'd usually wear. Running around with The Doctor definitely wouldn't lend itself to dressing like this.

She left the clothes for now and instead sat herself down at the desk. She found a hairdryer and brush to dry her hair. Brushing out the knots took at least 15 minutes. With a small hum of delight, Hally had plucked her eyebrows using the small tweezers she'd found in the make-up drawer. It had indeed been a painful task but Hally found comfort in making herself look less like a prisoner.

Her eyes flicked over to the window, the visible sensors reminding her that she was definitely still a prisoner.

The make-up drawer contained far too much make-up for Hally to know what to do with, but again, it was strangely comforting to be able to cover the dark circles under her eyes and faded bruises in order to get her face back to one that she recognised. She checked the time. 18:50. She really needed to find something to wear before she was dragged to dinner. Looking again in the wardrobe she finally settled on a black and grey pinafore style dress with a loose white blouse underneath. It was probably the most comfortable thing on offer. Everything else looked like it would hurt her wound to wear.

"Not half bad…" Hally muttered to herself as she checked herself out in the mirror. "Considering."

Hally heard the key on the other side of the door turn and there was a definitive knock on the wood.

She approached the door and opened it, seeing Armitage waiting on the other side.

"You knock now?" Hally questioned, smirking slightly.

He ignored her, moving out of the frame and motioning for her to follow. She did, letting him lead her downstairs and into the dining room. A rectangular table sat proudly in the centre of the room. It could seat eight but just three places were set. Armitage led her around to the other side of the table, pulling out her seat. The other two places were laid on the other side of the table.

Hally sat, shooting Armitage an odd look. He ignored her and went to stand back by the door, waiting.

Saxon entered a few moment later, arm in arm with a woman. She was a little shorter than him, stunning and blonde. Her hair wrapped up into the stylish bun. Saxon led her into the room and the pair shared a soft kiss before taking their seats opposite Hally.

A strange ache pulled at Hally's stomach and she looked down at herself awkwardly, realising she was blushing. She looked down at her own choice of outfit, suddenly feeling very underdressed compared to the blonde woman who'd just sat down across from her. She was wearing a deep red pencil dress, highlighted by the red lipstick she also wore. It should have been too much, but somehow she pulled it off. Hally figured she probably looked like an awkward schoolgirl compared to the blonde who was smiling sweetly at her from across the table.

With everyone now sat, the blonde spoke. "Harry's told me so much about you." Her smile was kind, interested.

Hally's eyes flicked towards Saxon. "Oh?"

Saxon smiled. "Hally, this is Lucy. My wife."

His eyes remained trained on her as Hally nodded and looked between the two. Finally he looked towards his wife and the pair shared a knowing look, leaving Hally feeling slightly lost.

Two staff members entered, carrying plates. Plates were deposited in front of each of them, Saxon and Lucy didn't wait before starting to eat. Hally watched them for a moment, finding the situation extremely awkward. She thought back to when Rose had introduced Hally to the human notion of 'small talk'.

"You can a lovely home..." She added pathetically. It seemed like a conversation starter and the silence was starting to feel heavier and heavier.

Saxon chuckled softly. "Indeed. Now eat. You must be starving."

Hally picked up her fork and started to move the food around her plate, trying little bits here and there. It was difficult to eat when she felt like the pair in front of her were waiting for something. She looked over to Armitage, who strangely, wasn't looking at her. She frowned slightly, not remembering a time when the guard had remained with her when she'd been accompanied by Saxon.

Lucy's voice drew her attention back to the pair. "So, Harry tells me you're a traveller?"

Hally looked suspiciously at Saxon, wondering how much he'd told his wife. She assumed he wouldn't have told her everything they'd discussed in their 'confidential' sessions. "Sometimes, yes."

Saxon smiled, clearly amused.

Irritation pricked at Hally as she placed another forkful into her mouth. Her head throbbed again painfully and she couldn't hide the wince that blinked onto her face.

"Everything alright?" Saxon asked innocently, as if he wasn't aware of the multiple injuries she'd sustained under his 'care'.

Hally raised her eyebrow at him. "Yes. Just a headache."

He pouted sadly, resulting in her rolling her eyes.

"I'm sure it'll get better soon." He added unhelpfully. Lucy giggled softly to his left.

Hally looked between the two. "How reassuring."

Saxon laughed softly at her quip. "If it makes you feel any better, I've got one too. Keeping you like this is a lot more effort than I originally thought."

"I hope you like your room." Lucy changed the subject swiftly.

Hally nodded slowly, feeling like the pair were sharing some kind of private joke. "It's fine. Thanks."

Lucy smiled, it was almost convincing. "It's a good thing we had a spare room."

"Mmmhmm…" Hally responded, taking another bite.

Lucy continued, shooting Saxon an amused look. "It's a little small, I know. But, don't worry. We'll be upsizing soon."

Saxon smirked back at his wife.

Hally was wholeheartedly lost. She wasn't sure if Lucy was also engaging in this boring 'small talk' or if there was another meaning behind her words. "Right…"

"Somewhere a little more central." Lucy added.

Hally looked between them, her confusion probably evident on her face. "Okay…"

Saxon took pity on her and smirked. "It won't be long. So do your best to stay out of trouble for the next week would you?"

See, Saxon would always say something to make her feel stupid, but at least he was obvious about it. Hally shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "So long as no one tries to stab me again. I'll be good as gold." There was a sharp edge to her voice, she finished it off by sending him a sweetly sarcastic smile.

There was a hum from the door and Hally realised that she'd almost made Armitage laugh. She smirked slightly, looking back to the two in front of her. Lucy looked at Saxon, a hint of worry. He sent a reassuring look back at his wife before turning his attention back on Hally.

"Wonderful." The smile he gave her didn't meet his eyes, a dark warning glinting behind them.

Hally's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Harry…" Lucy whispered. "Are you sure about…" Her eyes flickered over towards Hally.

Hally put down her fork, raising an eyebrow.

"She doesn't seem like…. As you said she'd be….with…" Lucy's eye's flicked down to Hally's neck, where the gold band lay.

"You do know I'm sat right here?" Hally interrupted.

This seemed to alarm Lucy even more.

Saxon just smiled knowingly at his wife. "She's perfectly safe." He turned to look back at Hally. "Aren't you? Just no amount of tampering can fix that authority complex of yours."

Hally made a face of disgust. "Well so far I've not met an authority figure who wasn't an arsehole."

Saxon let out a bark of laughter, while his wife still frowned. Less than convinced.

"But you will behave." The dangerous glint was twinkling in his eyes again. Hally's head thumped. "Won't you?"

Hally bit the inside of her mouth. "As I said. Good as gold."

---

lllll lllll lllll llll

Definitely March 2008.

Hally was lying on her back staring at the ceiling of her room. A circular shadow marked the white, cast from the bedside table lamp that was providing the only light in the room.

She hadn't seen Saxon or Lucy for a grand total of 10 days.

For 10 days she had wandered around her cushy new prison, followed around by Armitage like some kind of heavy-footed ghost. By the third day, she'd officially explored every unlocked room in the house. Heavily supervised of course. And she hadn't seen anyone but Armitage and two members of staff for the entire time. The staff were seemingly charged with bringing her meals three times a day, wherever she was. At 8am, 1pm and 7pm on the dot. Every day.

On day five, Hally had tried to play a game of hide and seek with the unwilling staff. Timing how long she could hide before they found her to give her her preordained plate of food.

So far her best time was 4 minutes past the hour. They most likely had cameras tracking her every move. Plus Armitage was hard to miss.

She was bored.

So incredibly bored.

Plus her head was still pounding, which had really put her in a bad mood. She wasn't sleeping all that well either. Most likely due to the headache that never let up. In slightly better news, her stab wound seemed to be healing fairly nicely. All the lying around and moping was evidently doing her injury wonders. She'd removed her dressings the day before. Staring at the stitched-up gash in her side for a good while before moving on. Seeing her skin, now marred by a dark red scar was a strange experience. It didn't look like her body anymore. The body she was used to. The one she used to know. It was different now. She wasn't sure how she felt about it.

Hally looked over to the alarmed window, darkness had already descended outside. She could try to escape? Why hadn't she tried to escape?

Her head throbbed and she groaned.

The front door was definitely locked. She had tried that on day two. But she could try and smash the window, even if she didn't escape it would at least give her something to do.

She let out a weak chuckle at her own ridiculous musings.

Her doorknob rattled as the door was opened, she propped herself up on her elbows to see Saxon enter her room. He was wearing a white shirt and black suit trousers, the top button of the shirt undone, like he'd just come back from the office and made himself more comfortable.

He held his hands together, shooting her a patronising smile. "How are we this evening?"

Hally glared back at him, prickling with irritation. "Fine. What do you want?"

He smirked, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "Someone's in a bad mood."

She rolled her eyes. She was hardly going to admit to him that the main reason for her sour mood was his prolonged absence.

He stepped further into her room and sat calmly on the end of her bed. Instantly making himself comfortable. "Don't you want to talk about it?" He asked, cocking his head to one side a smirk on his lips.

"Oooh, are we pretending to be my psychiatrist again?" She sent him a sarcastic smile.

His smirk fell from his face. "Who said I was pretending?"

Hally frowned, not understanding his sudden U-turn. She sighed, already exhausted by his strange mind games. "I'm just bored and my head fucking hurts and someone bitch stabbed me." Hally snapped bluntly.

He looked pleasantly surprised by her outburst but his face swiftly turned back into one of smug satisfaction. He tutted playfully. "Now, now. That's hardly language for a Lady." He tilted his head forward, eyes darkening.

He chuckled when she didn't respond, turning and motioning towards the door. Armitage entered and handed Saxon a metal black box, about the size of a briefcase.

"Speaking of being stabbed…" Saxon opened the box, shifted up the bed and placed it on her bedside table. "I need to take your stiches out." His eyes twinkled.

For a moment, Hally considered picking a fight. But she found that she just couldn't be bothered. Instead, she flopped back down on bed, lying flat. "Fine. Whatever."

She stared at the ceiling as she heard him chuckle and felt the bed dip as he moved to sit right next to her hip, twisting to face her. There was a moment of silence and Hally felt his eyes burning into her skin. She frowned and looked at him.

"What?" She hissed.

He raised an eyebrow, looking down at her abdomen. "I need to be able to get to the wound."

She almost laughed. "Oh, we're 'asking' now." Grumbling, Hally gently lifted up the T-shirt she was wearing, resting it just underneath her bra. The cold air bristled against her skin.

He still didn't move.

She frowned, looking at him again, not bothering to hide the attitude in her voice. "Seriously, what?"

He was just staring at her abdomen, more specifically at her scar, immobile. A strange look passed over his face as he brushed her off. "Nothing."

Hally snorted, shaking her head. "I mean, I was definitely naked when I got stabbed, so you can stop pretending to be startled by the existence of my body. If you're worried your wife will mind or something you can always get Mr Moody over there to do it." She motioned her hand over towards the bedroom door, where Armitage's back was still visible.

Saxon laughed then. A real, genuine laugh. It seemed to snap him out of whatever deep thought he'd previously been in.

"Oh, trust me. My wife is going to be absolutely furious with me…" His voice was low, dangerous and Hally felt her insides flip, a deep blush creeping up her neck to her face.

She kept her eyes on his face, frowning. "Get on with it then." She mumbled, slightly concerned at how breathless she was.

He gave her a small smile, leaning over and grabbing a small pair of scissors and tweezers from the box. She felt him rest his arm across her stomach to leverage himself as he began to slowly cut and pull the stitches from her body.

He worked silently for a few minutes, the only sound in the room being Hally's breathing as she watched him.

He tugged on a stitch and Hally let out a soft whine. His eyes flicked up to hers.

She blushed. "Hurts…" She whispered, feeling rather small and pathetic under his intense gaze. He looked back at her marred skin and tugged again at the stubborn stitch.

Hally hissed and grabbed his arm, halting him. He looked back up at her again silently reprimanding her.

She squirmed slightly, but her grip on his arm relaxed allowing him to continue. He started again and they went back to silence for a few minutes. Hally's hand remained on his arm as he worked. He either didn't notice, or didn't mind because he never made to move her hand away.

"There's something I need to tell you." His voice was quiet, his focus still on her abdomen.

Hally hummed, signalling for him to continue.

"We're going to be moving the day after tomorrow. I'm getting a promotion." He smiled to himself.

Hally raised her eyebrows. "Oh? Congratulations, I guess? Where are we moving?"

"10 Downing Street." He pulled at a stitch and Hally hissed in pain, squeezing his arm hard.

He shot her a small knowing smile.

"Ow…" She frowned at him.

"Almost there." He said softly, as if talking to a child.

She just grunted in response. Relaxing the hand on his arm again.

He continued, a little more gently.

"I think… I've been there before…?" Hally was trying to think back. It sounded familiar.

"Hmm?" He hummed at her.

"Downing Street…"

"Oh?" He pushed playfully.

"Did you say 10?" Hally was sure she'd been on Downing Street when the Slitheen had attacked, but she couldn't remember exactly what number it had been.

"I did." He mumbled.

Hally frowned at herself, wishing she had paid more attention.

He looked up at her face and one side of his mouth twitched. "10 Downing Street is where the British Prime Minister lives…" He explained slowly.

Hally's face scrunched into a look of disbelief. "Is this you telling me that your promotion… is you becoming Prime Minister?"

He laughed lowly in response.

"Right." She stared at the ceiling, thoughts whirling around in her mind.

He gently rubbed something cool and wet over her wound. He sat up, Hally's hand falling away from his arm. "All done."

"So… you're somehow an alien specialist, running for Government and babysitting me all at once?" Hally was still looking at the ceiling.

She felt his weight shift and her T-shirt was gently placed back, covering her stomach. She sat herself up, looking at him. Their shoulders were almost touching now, as he continued to sit next to her on the edge of her bed.

He smiled, his voice quiet. "Indeed." His eyes didn't leave hers.

Her breath caught in her throat and she suddenly had an overwhelming urge to cry. She swallowed the feeling down. "Well… that obviously makes no sense at all." She muttered. "But the thing that probably should be worrying me most is my complete lack of concern about any of it." She sent him a weak smile.

He nodded slowly, his eyes burned with things unsaid. "Of course."

"I…" Hally narrowed her eyes. It was as if her body wanted to say something but her mind was standing in the way. She brought up her hands to her face, letting out a cry of frustration. "I can't…" Hally choked on the unshed tears that were forcing their way to the surface.

Saxon shifted towards her, taking her face in his hands, forcing her to look at him. "I know. Stop trying so hard to fight it. You'll only make it worse."

Hally blinked, a tear falling down her cheek. "I'm so lost."

He leant forward and pressed his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. "You're not lost. You're exactly where you're supposed to be."

Hally let out a sob. "Make it stop… can't you make it go away?"

He pulled back, opening his eyes. "Not yet." He dropped his hands from her face. Hally missed the contact instantly. She wiped her face and did as he'd suggested. Letting her feelings of confusion and worry drift off into the fog inside her mind. The pain in her head lessened slightly.

Saxon smiled, watching her face relax.

"Soon. I promise. Everything ends."

He shut the black box and retreated from the room, locking the door after himself.

---

lllll lllll lllll lllll

April 2008

She hadn't seen either of the Saxon's in three days.

She had been moved to Number 10, Downing Street the previous day. It must have been a Sunday, because no one had been working in the building. Everyone around was seemingly from a removal company, moving belongings from one residence to the next.

Hally had been woken by a member of staff bringing her breakfast. Then Armitage had told her to eat and dress quickly as they would be leaving soon.

She'd followed him downstairs and out to the car, watching as staff scurried around packing away items and workmen loaded furniture into the large lorry outside.

The Saxon's belongings were being packed away and moved out.

With Hally in tow.

Armitage had escorted her through the front door or Number 10 and straight through to another bedroom, where she'd been placed and left for the whole of yesterday and now all of today. Of course, they hadn't forgotten about her. Food had been brought at breakfast, lunch and dinner time as per usual. But Hally couldn't help but feel like a child who had been locked in their room to keep them out of the way.

With very little to do, Hally had spent most of her time sat with her back against the bedroom door. Listening. She'd heard the workmen finish in the late afternoon yesterday, the staff going home not long afterwards. But today had been much more interesting. The building had been filled with new voices, footsteps and noises she couldn't quite place. It had been a busy day at Number 10. She wondered how many of those downstairs were aware of the Time Lord locked in a bedroom inside the new Prime Minister's house.

She figured it must be getting close to nighttime and so Hally had decided to shower and ready herself for bed. These days sleep would rarely come to her due to the never-ending headache, however, when it did it would at least waste a few of the endless hours of the monotonous day. The room she'd been placed in was even more lifeless than the last. This time, there was no window. Just a simple, single bed, a wardrobe and the bathroom. The last bedroom had at least been filled with 'stuff'. She wasn't sure where the items had come from but she'd had small piles of books, notepads, and drawers full of skincare, makeup and hair-styling instruments that she could at least use to fight off the boredom. Here, there was nothing. Just a few days' worth of clothing hanging in the wardrobe. Perhaps her things would arrive soon? Or perhaps she wouldn't be in this room for very long.

She flopped down on the bed, her still damp hair cold through the satin blue pyjama set she'd found hanging in the wardrobe. She wouldn't be able to sleep yet. Not only was her brain stinging with the familiar pain, but she wasn't even sure she was tired yet, having spent so many days doing so much nothing. She stared at the ceiling. This one was smooth, with no strange circles. She sighed, the circles had been fun.

She wondered what The Doctor was doing.

Pain blossomed over her right eye. She winced.

Where was The Doctor?

Was he looking for her?

Was he even aware she was missing? That was always a possibility with time travel, perhaps for him, she'd only been away for mere minutes whereas for her it'd been…

How long had it been?

At least half a year perhaps? She wasn't sure.

She groaned and rubbed her hands into her eye sockets, trying to press away the headache to no avail.

She pulled her hands away and frowned, straining her ears. She could hear music.

Hally sat up and cocked her head as if somehow that would help her hear the sound better.

Music was definitely playing downstairs. The house had been quiet for a few hours now after the removal men had finished up for the day and the staff had all gone home. Which meant…

Hally got up off the bed, making her way to her door. She tried the handle, expecting it to still be locked, however, it turned freely and the door drifted open. The first thing she noticed was that Armitage's hulking presence wasn't anywhere outside her room. She paced quietly up and down the dark corridor, convinced that he was perhaps playing some convoluted game of hide and seek. That he would still be watching her somehow, around the corner, or behind a closed door. But no. He wasn't there. Hally eventually found the staircase leading to the lower floors and padded down the steps towards the music, guided by the few streams of light coming in from the road outside. The closer she got, the more she could identify the sound. It was definitely classical music, the melancholy notes of a cello drifted towards her.

She pushed open a heavy mahogany door, taking a step inside. The room, like most of the house this late at night was dark. Lit only by the warm light coming from the crackling fireplace. She could now see the source of the music. A sleek, black record player was propped open on the far side of the room, sat proudly on top of a dark wooden cabinet. Next to the fire, were two plush armchairs angled in towards the warmth.

From the doorway, she could see his profile. Legs stretched out towards the fire, glass in hand.

"Did I wake you?" He didn't look over at her, instead, he brought the glass to his lips draining it of the amber liquid.

"No." She answered honestly.

"Can't sleep?" His head turned, the fire illuminating only one side of his face as he looked at her.

Perhaps it was the warmth from the fire, Hally immediately felt her face flush, suddenly becoming very conscious of the cool thin layer of satin against her skin.

"No." She repeated.

He stood up slowly, turning his back on her as he filled the glass half full with the same dark liquid. She watched him as he came closer, holding the glass out. "Here."

She took the offered glass, looking down at the drink. The surface shimmered with the reflection of the fire. Placing the edge against her mouth she tilted her head back and let the contents slip down her throat. She swallowed, the liquid burning the back of her throat, a small cough forced its way up her throat.

She looked back up at him, expecting him to be smiling at her discomfort. He wasn't. His brown eyes, almost black in the low light were transfixed on her face. He wasn't wearing his usual suit, but rather a black round-neck jumper and black jeans. She bit her lip, her breath tripping as she squirmed under his intense, possessive gaze. She was thrown by the thought weaselling its way into her mind. He looked nice. She swallowed and quickly squished the urge to reach out and touch him.

He took the glass from her hands, never taking his eyes from her face, and placed it down on a shelf just behind her head.

"Dance with me." He didn't bother hiding the command from his voice. He took her hands and pulled her further into the room, taking one of her hands in his and placing her other hand on his shoulder before moving his to her waist. She let him pull her closer and lead her to the sound of the music. Sentiment blossomed inside her chest in an emotion she could only describe as yearning. The feeling overwhelmed her, not knowing where it had come from. Her eyes fluttered shut. There was a storm whirling inside her, feelings she couldn't possibly understand, the weight of them suffocating her. Her head dropped forwards and she felt soft warmth against her cheek as she rested her head against his chest. He was still moving them, slowly swaying and stepping in time with the deep whines of the cello.

His chest vibrated, grounding her. "You can feel it, can't you?" His fingers flexed against her waist, pulling her closer to him as if he was worried she would slip from his grasp.

His jumper muffled the soft whimper she replied with. She felt the weight of his head settle on top of hers. His voice was quiet, far away. As if he wasn't really talking to her at all.

"I could have ruined everything… being so reckless." He paused. "It was never part of my plan to wake you." His chest deflated. "I just couldn't help myself… I had to see you… had to… touch you." He growled lowly, moving to press his mouth to her hair. She kept her eyes tightly pressed shut, her fingers digging into him in an attempt to keep herself from being dragged into the maelstrom inside of her.

"You couldn't have just made it easy for me, could you?" He muttered against her, there was a strain in his voice. He tried to cover it up with a dark chuckle. "There were so many times when I thought you'd broken free. Worked it out. You got so close." He hummed desperately.

She released a helpless whine. "Please stop talking." She whispered breathlessly, opening her eyes and pulling back from him. Her cheeks were wet and she was sure that if she tried to speak, her voice would break.

Hally took a few desperate breaths. He patiently observed her, although his dark eyes were burning. She grasped at her chest, wanting to pull the heavy feeling from her hearts.

"I… it hurts… I need…" Tears choked her and she tried to swallow the pain back down.

"Just breathe." He had stepped back, but his hands remained on her, pressure over her arms.

It took all her effort just to pull the air in and push it out. The build-up of emotion inside her felt like it was threatening to drown her. She breathed slowly. In and out. His thumbs rubbed sharp circles into her upper arms.

"Tomorrow." His voice was deep, rough. "I promise."

He didn't give her a chance to wonder what that could possibly mean, his fingers were already at her temples and Hally's eyes fluttered closed as she succumbed to sleep.