Emerald Green
Chapter Thirty-Six
Reunion
Molly slipped her pajama top on, and glanced at her door again. The Doctor hadn't said much after they said goodbye to Merry, and when they got to the TARDIS he was still quiet. She was exhausted, so she'd said goodnight, but she was still worried about him. He had a habit of retreating when something serious was on his mind. She did, too. That was why she was so concerned.
She looked to her bed, and then grabbed the blanket off the top to wrap around her, and headed back to the console room. The Doctor was seated on the stairs, facing away from her, staring at the azure-colored TARDIS light with his fingers entwined together, sitting still as a statue. She took a few steps down, and sat beside him, and silently hooked an arm through his, and leaned her head on his shoulder.
Of course, she wanted him to talk. But this was something enormous and heavy and astonishing that he had to carry by himself. It was his race. His people. And one of them had been trying to reach out to him for a very, very long time. She couldn't make him talk about this one. And she had her own revelations to carry.
He shifted some, to draw her a little closer and hook his arm further into hers. It was a small movement, but said much about how he was feeling. He needed her now. She was glad she came back.
She stared up at the TARDIS light, too, trying to process everything they'd learned. Had she been watching the show, discovering a Time Lord other than the Master was still out there would have been incredibly shocking. She'd have gasped, ran around her living room shouting about it, and then jumped onto the forums or Tumblr, back in the day. But this was reality. It was still exciting, but also somber, and also terrifying. They didn't know what kind of Time Lord it was. One of the good ones? One of the bad ones? Somewhere in-between? This wasn't her situation to be involved in, so she kept opinions and thoughts to herself. Maybe she was finally learning about boundaries.
And then, of course, there were her own concerns. People had been watching her, since before she had even arrived here. They'd seen her ruin that wedding reception. They'd seen her be shot. They'd seen her abandon Isla without a word. What else had they seen? What had happened between those things? Her struggles at the physical rehab center, all those nights lying in the bed in the dark alone and scared and anxious she might never walk again? All those times she fell in the bathroom, and cried into the tiles on the floor? When the anger came with the despair, and she snapped at the nurses and therapists? How she'd shoved her wheelchair down a stairwell when she'd been told she'd need it for at least another month, breaking it? How excited she'd been when Isla brought her bright, fun patterned socks because there was so little left for her to be excited about? When she threw her breakfast tray at the doctor who almost never bothered to see her himself, though no one else would answer her questions about her recovery? When she started singing showtunes the first time she walked five feet on her own? Did they see her go to that motel where some of the darkest of humanity lived, to anonymously meet the man who made her fake identity? Did they see her take the Xanax she'd stolen from Isla on the plane? Did they see her little dance in the seat when she saw London through the plane window? When the cab driver had to pick her up off the ground on the way into the hotel, because her cane and bag had been too much for her to navigate after the long plane trip, and the pain made her collapse? Did they hear her prayer? Did they see these things now, because they could see her thoughts?
There were so many thoughts she'd had, before she'd arrived and after, that she wanted desperately to believe no one else had heard. Even if she never met them.
And who were 'they', anyway? Just the readers of the book she was in? Or was there someone else? Pythia seemed to imply that there was another person, or group of people, who had helped direct the power to get her here. Who were they? Why did they want her here? Why did anyone want her here?
It was frightening, and confusing, but she found she still felt grateful. Whatever the reason, even if the reasoning was malevolent, this was the best of her life. The adventures, all the new things she'd seen and experienced, all the people she'd helped. She had always wanted to save the world, but she'd never known how, and here she was, finally able to actually do something. And of course, there was the Doctor. Her first real protector. Her first real friend.
"You're quiet," he said softly.
"You're one to talk."
She couldn't see his face, but heard the small smile in his voice. "You're usually trying to make me talk."
For once, she took a moment to think of what to say next, rather than just blurting out whatever came to her mind first. "I don't think there are words for this. These situations. These feelings."
He was quiet again for a moment. "I didn't notice," he said, eventually. "How did I not notice?"
Molly opened her mouth to reply, but again paused. In this situation, she needed to actually say the right things. "How could you notice something when you didn't know there was anything to look for?"
"All I do is notice things," he said with a sigh. "How could I not notice this? Another Time Lord, reaching out to me? I remember the lights now. How they flickered, so many times. How they went out. It's been well over a thousand years he – or she – or they have been trying to contact me. To give me a sign."
"They didn't give up," Molly replied. "That's good. If they were angry you didn't go and find them, they would have given up eventually."
"Maybe…" he admitted. "Still. I should have known."
She sat up, so she could look at him properly. "You know now. That's what matters. Everything you do from this point on, now that you know, that's what matters. Not what happened when you didn't know better."
"Hm." The Doctor looked down at his hands as he tangled and detangled his fingers. "You're probably right. You usually are."
She felt a faint smile on her lips. "You know I'm going to hold that over you later."
"Yep," he said with a sigh. He looked back at the light. "I don't know where to start looking."
Molly looked at the light, too. "Maybe ask the TARDIS. She knew to bring us to Ahkatan. Maybe she'll know where to start looking. Or…find some sort of energy signal, or something." She paused, a sheepish expression coming over her face. "I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to science-y stuff. Go ahead and make up something better and pretend I said it."
The Doctor turned to look at her, finally. "No. Actually, you're right. I could do a scan. Searching the whole universe at once would be impossible, but sections at a time…I could try that. It's better than doing nothing at all."
Molly felt elated she actually got a science thing right, and decided to push her luck. "Maybe start near Earth? The flickering lights always seemed to be around there. Or maybe that's just because you were always around there."
"Good a place as any to start," he said. He turned back to the console. "I'll get a scan going. You go to bed."
She nodded, and extracted her arm from the Doctor's. She stood, and patted his head as a goodbye, then paused. Well, she'd always wanted to try this while watching the show. Why not?
Molly ran her fingers through his hair. "Wow. Yeah. Your hair is really soft."
He looked up at her, and she wasn't sure if he was about to laugh or not. "Yours, too, you know."
"Thanks," she said, smiled, patted him on the head again, and then headed off to bed.
"Molly! Molly, wake up!" There were hands on her arm and shoulder, shaking her. "Wake up!"
"Aaahhh!" she screamed, pushing the hands away and sitting up quickly. She was faced with the Doctor's excited expression. She put her hand over her chest and took a deep breath to try to keep her heart from pounding, though she noticed finally it didn't hurt when it raced anymore. "Dude, you have got to stop barging in here to wake me up."
"How else am I supposed to wake you?" He waved a hand dismissively. "Doesn't matter. I found something."
"What did you find?" she managed to ask before yawning.
"I don't know!" He replied, his tone still excited. "There's some sort of strange time ripple. I mean, it's not like a ripple at all, but it might be easiest for you to picture a ripple."
She blinked at him. "A…not really a ripple time ripple?"
"Yes," he replied, rubbing his hands together. "Something strange disturbing a sort of pool of time, then reaching out. But there's a signature to it I don't recognize. I don't know if it's-" He stopped suddenly, and seemed hesitant to even say what it was he wanted it to be, for fear he'd be wrong.
"The other Time Lord?" she supplied.
He nodded. "The TARDIS picked it up in the scan for any kind of time signature. If this Time Lord doesn't have a TARDIS – which I don't think they do, or they would have been able to physically come to me by searching history books – then they might have built something similar, or adapted a Time Vortex manipulator, or any number of other science-y things you wouldn't understand."
Molly chose not to be insulted, given she'd admitted to not understanding anything science-y just the night before. "And it's on Earth?"
"Yes! Earth, London, Victorian era."
"Are we there now?"
"Not yet. I came to wake you first."
Molly pulled the covers off. "Okay. You get us there, I'll get dressed."
"Victorian clothes, remember," he said. "I'll change in a mo, too."
And he was off. Molly stood, stretched, and headed towards the door to go to the wardrobe. Then she paused.
The names. When had been the last time she recited them first thing in the morning? She'd been doing it for most of her life. How could she have forgotten?
And why didn't she feel the need to feel guilty over it?
"Phoebe, Heather, Olivia, Eleanor, Nina, Ivy, Xyla," she said. It felt wrong now. Foreign, sacrilege, wasteful.
Molly thought of everything she'd done since she'd arrived on the TARDIS. The people trapped by the Vannique, the Mechanas and the people of Everywhere, the moons, stopping a wave of impossibly strong Vashta Nerada. How could any of those women have done any of that? They were all limited on an Earth where there was none of this. She had put more good into this universe than she ever thought was possible. It may have been in the wrong universe, but it was as important a universe as her own.
Her oath was fulfilled. She'd thought she would die still owing them. But she was done, now. She'd put the good into the universe that she'd owed them, and then some. She didn't need to recite the names of the women her father had murdered anymore. She didn't need the reminder anymore.
It was time to leave the past in the past, at last.
She thought this was a huge revelation, in a series of huge revelations, and that she ought to take a moment to think about it. But what was there to think about? It felt more meaningful that it was simple. She was done. That was all.
Molly took a deep breath, and left the room – and Phoebe Jones, Heather Haven, Olivia Lyons, Eleanor Marx, Nina Vasconelles, Ivy Noelle, and even her mom, Xyla Quinn Phoenix – behind her.
She'd thought dressing up in costumes would be fun while she watched the show, but now she was actually doing it, she was a bit annoyed with it. The red dress was restricting and uncomfortable, and the hat got in her way, the bun on top of her head felt like it was pulling all the bottom layer of her hair out, and she had to go without her red lipstick; but she was dressed for the era, and she would have to cope.
The Doctor looked more comfortable, and she was jealous, and it took everything in her not to pout.
"So, we're in Victorian London?" she asked to confirm.
"We will be once we step out of the TARDIS."
"How are you going to find the signature? Will the sonic track it?"
"I hope so," he said, pulling the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket. "I've used it for this sort of thing before, but after the house, I'm not completely confident in it."
"It'll be fine," she assured him. "The sonic did its best at the house. And even if it doesn't work, how long could it possibly take to search all of London?"
"A few weeks, at least," he replied, not quite catching that she was joking.
She headed for the door. "Better get started, then."
They stepped out, and Molly locked the TARDIS, and they headed down the street. It looked exactly as it did in historical dramas – cobblestone roads, buildings too close together, carriages, couples walking arm-in-arm. Molly looked around as they went down the street, and saw in history her own time: here a clothing shop, there a bakery, a mother struggling to control a toddler that desperately wanted to run into the street. They were all just people, living their lives. The Doctor and her went largely ignored in favor of their own lives.
But as they began down the next street, a carriage stopped beside them, and the door opened. "Doctor?"
Molly recognized that voice instantly, and had to fight to keep from squealing in excitement. She turned and saw what she knew she'd see: a woman in a black mourning dress, with a dark veil covering her face. Behind her, Molly could see a woman in a dark blue dress and black hat with white flowers. She peeked at the driver's seat, and saw exactly who she'd hoped: Strax.
"Madame Vastra! What an excellent development for the day," the Doctor said. "I could use the help of the Great Detective looking for something. Or someone. Possibly both."
"I could say the same to you," she replied. "Come inside, you and your…new companion."
The Doctor grabbed Molly's hand and she followed him into the carriage, and they arranged themselves, with the Doctor across from Jenny, and Molly across from Madame Vastra. She tried not to stare at them both, in fear they thought she was judging them, or weirded out by Madame Vastra who was now pulling her veil back, and not out of sheer excitement at meeting two of the three people she'd signed a petition to give a spin-off show for (okay, maybe she'd started the petition).
"Lovely to see you again, Doctor," said Jenny with a smile.
"Lovely as always to see you, Jenny, Madame Vastra," replied the Doctor. "This is Molly Quinn."
"Hi," she replied, then bit her lips closed in fear she would start gushing about how much she loved them. Then she realized just 'hi' might be rude. "It's aweso – great. Great to meet you. Both. Both of you." She should have kept her mouth shut.
"You, too," Jenny said, friendly, though her gaze seemed a little suspicious as she looked from one to the other.
Madame Vastra was less subtle. "Another girlfriend, Doctor?"
"This version of you seems to have a way with the ladies," Jenny added.
Molly's eyes widened, as the Doctor objected in a voice that was just a little too high-pitched, "She's not my girlfriend!"
"No?" Madame Vastra questioned, and looked down at their hands. Molly had not noticed that the Doctor was still holding her hand.
The Doctor pulled his hand away suddenly. "Sorry – ah. Sorry," he said, flustered. "No, no, Molly and I are friends. And traveling companions. That's all."
Molly hoped the heat in her cheeks wasn't a blush. This was the second time someone had assumed they were together like that, and it was embarrassing. "We're not like that," she explained. "Besides, the TARDIS is his real girlfriend."
"If that isn't true," agreed Jenny.
"What are you doing here again, Doctor?" Madame Vastra was quick to get them back to the point.
"Tracking something. Saw an unusual time disturbance." When Vastra and Jenny glanced at each other, he added, "You know about it?"
"We think so," said Jenny.
"We've been tracking it, too," added Vastra.
"Do you know what it is?" Jenny and Vastra would think the excitement in his voice was about solving the mystery itself, but of course Molly knew what it was really about.
"We think it is a rogue Time Agent," replied Vastra. "A supervisor of sorts came to our door a few days ago to ask if we had seen him."
"Apparently, he got in a bit of trouble, and he's trying to escape the consequences," explained Jenny. "He's been using some sort of miniaturized device for time travel."
"Like a Time Vortex manipulator?" asked Molly. She hoped to buy the Doctor a moment to hide his disappointment that this was probably not the other Time Lord.
"Yes, but he made it himself," said Jenny, "And we think it might be malfunctioning."
Vastra leaned back in the carriage. "There are sudden bursts of energy that fade away quickly. We think he's been trying to leave this time, but the device is failing him."
"We've tried to track it, but he's stayed on the move," said Jenny. "Maybe the sonic could help us?"
"Hmm?" The Doctor seemed distracted for a moment, and then nodded. "Oh. Yes, the sonic is tracking the signature now. Stop the carriage, and I'll hop up next to Strax and direct him."
Vasta signaled for the carriage to pull over, and the Doctor hopped out. She heard him greeting Strax before they were on the move again.
And now she was alone in a carriage with Madame Vastra and Jenny. Molly wondered if she should have followed the Doctor to the driver's seat. Maybe it would have looked weird, but no weirder than this could potentially be. There were a few questions people usually asked others when they first met, and there were some things that maybe she shouldn't say, and Molly was a terrible liar.
"So, where'd you meet the Doctor?" asked Jenny, almost immediately.
"Uh." She tried to think of a response that didn't sound suspicious, or tell too much. Again, she wasn't sure if she should go around telling people she was from the wrong universe. She had to think of something close enough to the truth that she could get away with lying. "Well. I sort of just…ran into him one day. Or night, I think it was night, technically. It was space, I don't know."
"You're a space traveler?" asked Vastra, sounding a little surprised. "I haven't known the Doctor to travel with many humans from so advanced a time."
"Oh, uh, no," Molly said quickly, and then cursed herself. It would have been a good cover. But then how to answer any questions they'd have about her time, and fill the Doctor in on her cover story without being noticed? "There was this sort of…accident…and I ended up in space and then I met the Doctor."
"An accident? Out in space?" She didn't need to be familiar with Vastra's voice to hear the skepticism. "But you are not a space traveler?"
"No. It's complicated. I wasn't out in like, the void of space, obviously. I was…" Words. Molly remembered the one-word test. Lies were words, words, words, and all Molly had was too many of the wrong words. She looked from Vastra's suspicious face to Jenny's cynical one. "…Yeah, I'm doing a terrible job of this, aren't I?"
"If by 'this' you mean lying," began Madame Vastra, and Molly didn't like the chill in her voice. "You are doing a spectacularly abysmal job of it, yes."
Molly sighed and tried to run her fingers through her hair, but couldn't make it far between the bun and the hat. "I just don't know who the Doctor wants me to tell or not. But I know you're all very close, and the Doctor trusts you, so I guess it isn't a big deal."
"If the Doctor wants something kept a secret, you shouldn't tell us," said Jenny. "The Doctor's secrets are meant to be kept."
Vastra leaned forward. "Tell us this. Does the Doctor trust you?"
Molly sat with the question a moment. Of course, she knew the answer was 'yes'. And it was the fact that 'yes' was so obvious that made her pause. Again, part of her could hardly believe this was real. The Doctor – the Doctor – trusted her. "Yes."
"You considered your answer for a moment."
"Yeah," she replied. "The Doctor doesn't trust very many people, and I don't think he wholly trusts anyone. But as far as the Doctor does trust someone, he trusts me. I'm sure of it." Where had that self-doubt gone? She never thought she'd hear herself claim that the Doctor trusted her as much as anyone without adding any of her insecurities to the statement. Her doubt that the Doctor could trust her the way she trusted him. But she felt no need to add anything else. That was strange.
"If the Doctor trusts you," said Vastra, sounding satisfied with Molly's description of the Doctor, "Then that's all we need to know."
"Thanks," she said, and then hesitated. She sat across from Vastra and Jenny, and Strax was just outside. They were on a mystery together. And knowing how terrible she was at lying, if something slipped, if she said something about them she shouldn't know – well, the Doctor would try to cover for her, saying he'd told her. But Molly was a terrible liar, and now both Vastra and Jenny knew it.
Besides, it wasn't just the Doctor's secret to keep. "Actually, the secret belongs to both of us," she said, now confident this was the right choice. "And I think it's just going to be easier if everyone knows, going forward."
"Knows what?" Jenny asked.
"I'm not from this universe," said Molly. "We don't really know how I got here, except that the universe wanted me here, so somehow…I'm here. And in this universe, I'm a TV show. Ah – that's, uh, sort of like a play, except-"
"The Doctor told us about television," said Vastra. "When I asked what he was doing with his time here, while he was on a sort of sabbatical."
"He wouldn't stop talking about this one…" began Jenny, and then she frowned. "Wait – did he say your name was Molly Quinn?"
Oh. He'd talked to them about it. She was really starting to believe he actually had told everyone who stood still long enough. "Yeah. That's me. I'm Molly Quinn, from the…the show he really likes."
They both stared at her blankly for a moment, before Jenny asked, "Are you sure he had nothing to do with you coming here?"
Molly almost laughed. "Yeah. Pretty sure. He was…very confused when I got here. Almost as confused as I was, seeing as there's no…well, any of this, in my universe. Plus, he's the TV show in my universe, so finding myself suddenly in a fictional world was…alarming."
"I'd imagine so," replied Vastra. She almost seemed to hesitate a moment. "Were we on this…show?"
Molly smiled. "Yeah. You're very popular characters. Everyone wanted you to have your own show, you and Jenny and Strax, but it never happened. Anyway, that's why I decided to tell you. I'm obviously the world's worst liar, and-"
"If you said something about us you shouldn't have known, you wouldn't have been able to lie about how you knew," finished Jenny.
"Exactly." Molly watched as both Vastra and Jenny struggled with the news that in another universe, people had watched their lives. Strangely, it was an expression Molly was starting to recognize. "It's weird knowing people know you and things you've done without you ever meeting them. You'll adjust, I swear."
"I certainly hope they never showed anything too…personal," said Vastra.
Molly shook her head. "There was nothing really personal on the show," She thought about the scene in A Good Man Goes to War when it became very clear why Jenny put up with Vastra, and Molly decided not to mention it. "It was just a couple adventures with the Doctor, that's all."
Jenny sighed. "That's a relief."
There was a knocking sound as the carriage came to a halt so sudden Molly had to grab the wall to keep from falling over onto Vastra. "It seems we've arrived," said the Silurian, as she pulled the veil back over her face and opened the door.
They stepped out into the sunlight as the Doctor moved towards an alley between two buildings with the sonic outstretched and buzzing – she noticed it no longer echoed inside her head – and Strax was getting down from the driver's seat.
"The Doctor believes he has found the source of the energy pulses," Strax explained to Vastra and Jenny, and then he turned to Molly. "Hello there, boy."
"Girl," Molly corrected, weirdly thrilled to be part of the club of people misgendered by Strax. "But that's fine. It's nice to meet you, Strax. I'm Molly."
"Yes, right, of course," said Strax. "The Doctor told me to call you 'girl'."
"And you still forgot!" exclaimed the Doctor, from partway down the alley. "Nevermind. There are energy pulses going off in this direction, one right after the other. If it is a time travel device, the Time Agent would seem to be on to us, and is desperately trying to get out of here."
"Well, we better catch him before he does," said Jenny as she moved to follow the Doctor down the alley. The rest of them turned and followed, and picked up speed once the Doctor darted around a corner.
Molly was surprised at how fast Vastra and Jenny could move in their dresses, but then, they'd had significantly more practice than she'd had. Even Strax, with his height disadvantage, was moving faster than she was. She fell behind pretty quickly, much to her frustration. So, knowing the fate of her feet on every adventure, she reached down and took off her shoes, and lifted her skirts higher to make it easier for her to run. She was decent at running in heels usually, but the mix of the skirts and crinoline and kitten heels were a bit too much.
She caught up just in time to see a man with long, scraggly mousey brown hair and a dark brown suit dart around a corner. She saw the Doctor spin around it, and the group followed, and each crashed into each other when they realized the Doctor was holding out an arm to stop them.
"Back! Get back!" he said, trying to push them back around the corner.
Molly was just able to peek through the space between Vastra and the Doctor to see why. The Time Agent had pulled a small, silver object, only a little bigger than a floppy disc and just as flat, and was pressing buttons on it. It seemed to be working this time, or so Molly thought, as what looked like blue ripples appeared around him. So, the 'ripple' comparison had been somewhat correct.
"It's going to work this time," the Doctor was saying, quickly, "It's unstable, we're too close, and there's too many of us, we might-"
But then the blue extended around them and Molly felt like she was drowning. There was no oxygen available, and around her were blurs of blue and orange and stars that reminded her of the opening of the show. It was oppressively cold, then hot, then cold. It felt like her head was going to implode and she was becoming genuinely concerned it might when she suddenly hit the ground hard.
She took a deep breath of air, though something in it made her cough. "Oww," she groaned. The world above her was spinning fast as a top, but eventually it slowed enough that she could sit up, though immediately she clutched her stomach as it began to do handsprings.
Looking around, what made her choke seemed to be smog. It was visible as clouds over her. She gripped the wall of the brick building next to her – now noticing she was in a different alley entirely – and got to her feet as slowly as she could, as her head spun every time she moved, and just the air around her made her head ache. When her vision stopped blurring when she moved her gaze around, she realized that, wherever she was, her shoes had been left behind.
"Of freaking course," she muttered, and turned her head towards the closest opening out onto the street. She carefully made her way there, avoiding bits of the glass on the ground, until she could look out. It seemed similar, with all the buildings close together, and an uneven road, though it wasn't made of cobblestone. The carriages were replaced by cars that seemed vintage to Molly but were probably modern for the time. The clothes were drastically different, with shorter skirts, fewer layers, and a few modern-looking blazers. The hats remained.
"Oh. Good." She looked down at her glaringly obvious Victorian-era clothing. She wasn't going to blend at all.
In fact, a boy that looked to be about 12 with a bag full of newspapers stopped to stare at her as bold as anything. "Why are you wearing such funny clothes?"
"Oh, uh…" Molly looked around, hoping some miracle would appear so she didn't have to attempt to answer this question, but nothing came to her, of course. "I was, um…"
"Are you in the movies or something?"
"Yes!" This was a stroke of luck. "I'm in the movies. I do films. I'm an actress. That's definitely it. I got a bit lost. Have you seen anyone else wearing-"
"Molly! There you are!" She heard the Doctor's voice coming from behind her. The boy looked almost as star-struck as she'd been at seeing what he thought was a movie star, and when the Doctor smiled and waved, shyness seemed to take him over, and he ran off. The Doctor turned to Molly. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Bit sick," she said.
"Time travel without a capsule. It'll do that."
"Where are we? Or, I mean – when?"
"'Where' is as fair a question as 'when'," the Doctor said quickly, taking her arm and leading her down the alley the way he'd come. "Apparently his device transported us in space, too. We're in New Jersey. Jersey City, to be exact."
"New Jersey?" That seemed a bit random. "Why New Jersey?"
"We'll have to ask the Time Agent," said the Doctor.
"And we're in…what? The 1940s?"
She was pleased with the Doctor's own pleased expression that she'd guessed correctly. "Yes! 1941. Pearl Harbor will be attacked soon, America enters the war, and…Dumbo comes out next month."
"Great. Love Dumbo," she replied, dryly. "Where's everyone else?"
"They're probably nearby somewhere," said the Doctor. She realized he already had the sonic in his hand, and he started scanning. "With such a makeshift device and so many of us, I was worried it wouldn't be strong enough to pull us all through and we'd get trapped in the time vortex. Luckily, we should all still be alive."
Molly wished he hadn't mentioned getting trapped in that tunnel of hell. They stepped out on the street, and immediately got confused – and somehow accusatory – looks. "How do we find-"
"That potato guy was really angry!" said a young boy to his friend as he shoved past the Doctor.
"Yeah, let's get out of here!"
"Ah," said the Doctor, pointing towards the small side street they'd come running out of. "That'll be Strax."
Molly followed the Doctor onto the street, which thankfully seemed to be empty save for the Sontaran turning around and shouting, "I claim this land in the name of the Sontaran Empire! Surrender now and your deaths may be swift!"
"Strax, what did Madame Vastra tell you about threatening the general population?" scolded the Doctor as they caught up to him.
Strax looked confused for a moment. "…not to?"
"That's right," said the Doctor. He patted Strax on the head, which Strax grimaced at. "Good to see you made it."
"What's happened? Where are we?"
As the Doctor explained where and when they were, Molly headed down the street and peeked around the buildings. "Jenny! Madame Vastra!" She called out. She glanced back at where the Doctor was arguing with Strax, and stepped onto the next side street, which only held a few people quickly making their way down the road, as though late for something.
Then she heard a sound, like a laser weapon from most scifi shows, coming from down the street. She quickly ducked back onto the side street. "Doctor! Someone's shooting a laser over here!"
The Doctor and Strax quickly made their way to her. Strax moved to stand straight in the middle of the road, and the Doctor grabbed his collar and moved him back behind the wall. He scanned with the sonic, and checked the results. "Standard weapon for a Time Agent. He's right down there."
Molly felt dizzy again. "What if Vastra and Jenny are down there?"
The Doctor's expression told her he was already wondering the same thing. "They're both…very dangerous. Chances are…" He glanced at Strax, then back at Molly. "They're probably fine."
"If Madame and Jenny are in trouble, I must go to them!" Strax tried to pull free, but the Doctor held onto him tight. "Unhand me!"
"Give me a moment." The Doctor seemed frozen while his mind raced for a plan. "Okay. Okay. Here's what we'll do. Strax, you'll cause a distraction of some sort. Molly and I will go back to the main street, and loop around him. We'll separate and find Vastra and Jenny. Vastra should be able to get his gun and incapacitate him. We just need to find you a weapon…"
"I have one," said Strax, immediately producing a small, futuristic-looking gun from his pocket.
"Of course you do," sighed the Doctor. "So, Molly and I will go looking for Vastra and Jenny, and-"
"Or you could just turn around." A voice came from behind them.
Molly turned her head, and breathed a sigh of relief. Jenny was walking just ahead of Madame Vastra.
"Madame! Jenny! Glad to see you're okay." Strax exclaimed with relief, and then arranged his face in a scowl. "I was ready to declare war for you."
"I'm certain you were," said Vastra, stopped in front of them, and pulled back her veil. "I heard the Time Agent firing a weapon of some sort."
Molly looked between Vastra and Jenny, and the Doctor. "If he wasn't firing at them, who was he firing at?"
"Now we're all together, we should chase him down, try to disarm him," said the Doctor.
Molly tried not to sigh. Great. More running. Barefoot.
They wandered the streets for maybe an hour, with no luck. They never heard the weapon again, never saw the marks it left, never found the Time Agent.
"Well, we know he's here," said the Doctor. "He made it through. We'll just need to search the whole city."
"That could take days, and by then he may have escaped again," objected Vastra.
"What else can we do?" asked the Doctor.
Molly glanced around. "We should set up some sort of base of operations. A place we can regroup and come up with a plan. Maybe get a map and cut the city into sections for each person to search. Plus, if it takes days, most of us will need a place to sleep."
"That sounds reasonable," said Jenny. "Where can we go?"
"I think we passed a hotel a few blocks back," said the Doctor. "I don't have any money on me; we'll have to rely on the psychic paper."
They turned and headed back to the hotel. The Doctor got them in pretending to be an Ambassador from London, with his staff. He also asked for clothing to be brought up to their rooms, and shoes for Molly, and a map for him. Vastra and Jenny would share a room, of course, and the Doctor agreed to share with Strax, leaving Molly with her own.
She went straight to the bathroom, took off most of the layers of clothes, and rinsed her feet. She took off the hat, and let her hair down. By then the clothes arrived. A 1940s dress of blue cotton was much more her style.
Molly, Vastra, Jenny, and Strax all met a few minutes later, in new clothes – save for Vastra's veil – in the Doctor's room. He let them in, and then went straight back to the table with a map and a pen. "Did the supervisor mention the Agent's name?"
"He just called him Robert. He never gave us a surname," said Jenny. They all moved to stand around the table.
"Alright," said the Doctor. "If we'd had his name, it would be easier to find him. He was scared, and cornered, and more than likely thought of going home. In which case, he may live in New Jersey, might even originally be from this time."
"A Time Agent from the 1940s?" asked Molly skeptically.
"Now and then the Agency will pick up Agents from different time periods, if they're impressed by someone on a mission," said the Doctor. "Of course, I could be wrong."
"It's the best theory we have to work with for now," said Vastra. "Shall we search residential neighborhoods first?"
"Exactly what I was thinking," said the Doctor with a smile. He finished circling an area. "For safety, I think we should travel around in groups. The most obvious would be you three in one, and Molly and I in another."
"I am not afraid to travel alone," said Strax. "Three groups will be faster."
The rest of the group looked at him for a moment. Strax wandering a human city in the 40s alone didn't seem entirely safe. "No," said the Doctor. "No, that's alright, Strax. While three groups would make this much quicker, Madame Vastra and Jenny may need your, ah…combat expertise."
The Doctor handed Vastra and Jenny a second map with their section marked, and they all headed out into the city to wander the residential neighborhoods.
After a few minutes of trying to get a good look into the windows without looking like a Peeping Tom, Molly turned to the Doctor. "How are we going to search the houses?"
"I'm keeping the sonic constantly scanning for any kind of energy signature. A device like that, though small, will constantly put out a low level of energy," he explained. "Strax also has a scanner."
Molly looked around the neighborhood. "What if we don't find him?"
"We'll find him."
"What if we don't? How do we get back to the TARDIS?"
"I'll figure something out," he said. "It'll work out. It usually does."
"You know I hate when you say that, right?"
He grinned over at her. "I know."
They searched until the sun started to set and the blisters on Molly's feet started to feel as though they would burst. She limped back up the stairs to her room, said goodnight to the Doctor, and waved goodnight to the Paternoster Gang, and went inside. She took a bath, wincing as the hot water irritated the blisters, and then decided to skip trying to comb through her hair. She didn't have any night clothes, so she slipped under the covers nude, grateful the door had a lock. Between the walking and running they'd done today, and all the adrenalin rushes, she thought she'd be asleep in an instant.
She was not. Instead, she tossed and turned as her mind raced. What had the Agent – Robert – done that got him into so much trouble? Why was he running? Was he going to hurt someone? What if they didn't find him? Should they separate into three groups? What if he left New Jersey, and there was just no hope of catching him? It was probably the job of the Agency to track him down, but she knew she wouldn't give up, and neither would the Doctor, or the others. And what exactly was the Agency, anyway?
Two hours later, Molly sighed and kicked the covers off, and went to the bathroom to splash cold water on her face. If she was going to be awake, she may as well be awake. There wasn't much to do in the room, but maybe she could do some stretches, or try meditation, or go to the lobby and look around. It wasn't as though she could watch TV or go on a walk. Not that there was much sight-seeing to do in New Jersey.
An idea came into her head, very suddenly. She quickly dressed in her blue dress, slipped on her shoes, and headed for the front desk. She spoke to them for a while, wrote something down, and then asked if there was any way she could get some coffee. They offered to bring it to her room, which she was grateful for. She headed back up, and paced and paced and paced, hoping it was a good idea and not a complete disaster. The coffee arrived, and she took a few sips, and was grateful she'd gone downstairs.
The next day, they had no luck, and everyone was becoming visibly frustrated as they headed back to their rooms for the night. Strax was especially upset over it, and wondered if they shouldn't just bomb the city.
This wasn't efficient, two small groups wandering up and down streets all day. During the night she heard the Doctor pacing back and forth in his room, and now and then the buzzing of the sonic as he was clearly trying to come up with a better solution. They needed more people, but no one else was there. She thought about telling him about her coffee trip, but decided it was best not to mention it – mostly because she was a coward that thought she might have made a huge mistake and didn't want the Doctor to be angry with her. But she also didn't want him to make her undo it. And, at least, the coffee had been good.
The next day, they decided to search until the afternoon, then meet at the hotel again to be certain no one had found him and had to wait until the end of the day to report it. No one had much hope, and that appeared to be for good reason as they all met outside the front door.
"Anything?" asked the Doctor, the frustration clear in his voice.
"Nothing," said Jenny with a sigh.
"There must be something better we can do," insisted Vastra.
Strax opened the door for them. "I still think grenades may assist us in driving him out."
"No grenades," Molly insisted as she walked into the building. "Any other ideas?"
"Venom raptors."
"No."
"Acid smoke."
"No."
"Knife balls."
"I don't even want to know what those are."
"What abou-"
Vastra turned to him. "No weapons, Strax."
Strax was clearly pouting as he headed towards the stairs. "Well, there must be a more efficient way to do this."
Vastra and Jenny headed up, while Molly stopped at the front desk to ask for another coffee. When she turned, the Doctor was behind her.
"What's up?"
"Strax is right. I mean, not about the venom raptors. There must be a better way to track him, but we don't have the people, or the equipment. I think I need to make another scanner, something stronger for Strax. Do you want to come with me to get materials? I could use the extra hands."
Molly nodded. "Yeah. Sure. Whatever I can do to help. I just…" She paused, as something behind the Doctor drew her eye.
"What?"
"I just…"
"You just what?" the Doctor asked.
Molly couldn't keep the bright smile from forming on her face, and she hoped no one would notice the tears forming in her eyes.
"Molly?" the Doctor asked, sounding concerned. "What's wrong?"
Molly shook her head. "Nothing. Just…"
"Just what?"
Instead of replying, she stood and waited, and she knew what the person standing behind the Doctor was going to say before they said it.
"Raggedy man."