Juxtaposed by Patti Keiper.
Intro scene by Sarah Adams.

(Circa 2013-2017)

**This story is currently airing with images and music tracks at
Emergency Theater Live, Page Two.


(Sarah's turn)
------------------------

The squad rumbled down the 405 at half the speed of regular traffic because Roy and 
Johnny were actually off duty in uniform, returning from a education presentation at a 
nearby school on the way back to the station to drop off the rig.

"Roy, are we nuts?" asked Gage, fiddling with his helmet's strap.

"Nuts about what?" DeSoto asked.

"We're not getting paid." Johnny retorted.

"About doing this?" asked Roy, holding up a fistful of fire safety pamphlets.

"We aren't PR specialists." Johnny spat tiredly, rubbing his chin.

"Johnny, you like to talk." Roy said, a grin spreading across his face.

He pursed his lips and glared at Roy. "You're a barrel laughs, Pally."

Roy stuttered as he clarified his meaning. "No, I- I mean. Cap knows he can rely on you 
coming through for the department in a pinch, especially in public. This afternoon, you 
were great. You had all those kids stopping, dropping and rolling inside five minutes."

"Well... I do have a way with kids." Johnny said as he looked out the window and pouted.

"But not with women, eh?" DeSoto retorted with amusement.

Johnny looked over him sideways. "I haven't found the right pussy cat to charm!"

Roy choked back a snicker. "I thought Betty was your recent pussy cat."

Gage glared at him... "Very funny... Really... you are not funny."

"She was your date last night, right?" Roy wondered. "I was just trying to be social. Don't 
be so sensitive when a guy asks whether or not you had a fun time." Roy glanced over at 
Johnny from the corner of his eye. "Really." Roy glanced over at Johnny from the corner of his eye.

"Just drive.. Sheeesh!" Gage grumbled, to match the deep rumble of the squad.

Roy looked over at Johnny quickly and strengthened his grip on the steering wheel as the 
squad started to pull to one side and the road started to wave in undulations.

"Roy watch out!" Gage yelled.

"Whoa!" DeSoto gasped, fighting to keep from suddenly careening into a crash wall on the 
freeway. "It's an earthquake!"

Johnny braced his arms against the dashboard as he watched Roy struggle to bring the squad 
to a halt.

A strange fog appeared, and it stank, foul, like fish. Dust mingled with the smell of gas and 
oddball chemicals. Johnny started to try and open his door, but found it stuck. He moved 
upward in an attempt to pound his shoulder against the window of the door to budge it when 
he looked up and saw a strange mist heading towards them. "What on earth is that?"

"We're sixty miles from the nearest pier, why are we smelling the ocean?" DeSoto countered, 
equally shaken.

Johnny looked over at Roy."Yeah.. we are. Just weird..."

"What are we jammed up against?" DeSoto asked, turning up their radio in puzzlement at the 
lack of emergency calls coming in about the tremor they had just experienced. DeSoto opened 
his driver's side and stood up on the landing to peer up over the roof of the squad's cab. A 
tall, blue box looking like an outhouse loomed out of the thick fog, a flashing light on its top. 
"Holy cow! Where did that come from?! It's blocking your side." he said.

Gage crawled over to the driver's side and followed DeSoto out.

"WOW.. What is it?" Gage's eyes widened as he saw the strange blue box. He smiled when a red 
headed woman peeked out the door. "...and why is it in the middle of the freeway?"

Amy peeked out the door and saw a red truck and two men in blue looking at the Tardis.

"Ummm, Doctor... There are two firemen looking at the Tardis."

A youngish voice thick with a British accent spoke up, addressing the fireman who had asked the 
question.
"Ah, that's because the TARDIS put herself there. Don't worry. She wouldn't endanger any passengers. 
Or.. uh, innocent bystanders. My,..." Dr. Who said, tweeking his bowtie around his tweed jacket. 
"Is this an emergency truck? No lights on. So no emergency call on rescue. Got it." he rambled. 
Then he held out his hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. This is Amy."

"The Doctor? My name is John Gage... and my partner, Roy DeSoto." Johnny looked over at the red 
head and tilted his helmet. "Hello, Amy."

"Are any of you two hurt?" Roy asked.

"Us? Injured? Why would we be? Couldn't be better. On a vacay, gentleman. Only just arrived." 
said the man who called himself a Doctor.

Gage looked at him in wonder. "What is that thing? Doctor Who?"

The Doctor retorted back to the dark haired fireman. "No, it's a who and she's not a Doctor. I guess 
I am. Of a sorts." he frowned.

Gage looked at him as he wondered what he said that led to his reaction.

Roy wouldn't be deterred. "Look, an earthquake happened just a minute ago and stopped traffic. 
Now there's this oddball weather change. We..we thought this box slid off a truck or something 
nearby in the sudden stop like a crash. Why else would you two be standing in the middle of a road?"

"Why not? The two of you are." Dr. Who shrugged, dragging out a skinny metallic device which 
glowed and made a buzzing sound as the man took a reading of the fog in the air.

Amy leaned up to the Doctor's ear... "Ummm, Doctor...he does have a point."

Johnny took a step back as he watched the strange man with the metallic object as he felt a wave 
of dizziness come over him.

Roy watched in horror as his partner suddenly crumpled and began falling to the ground. "Johnny?!"


(Patti's turn)
-------------------------

Amy Pond startled just as badly. "Doctor?!"

The wild haired young smooth faced Timelord grumbled over his shoulder at her interruption while he 
was trying to concentrate on getting a tachyon reading off of his sonic screwdriver. "What?!" he 
hissed, "I'm trying to get a-  The air and gravity's all fine for England."   Then he turned around 
and saw the younger of the two American medics was on the ground, quite unconscious. "Oh! 
He's the one who's not all right. Well, why didn't you say so?" And then he knelt, flipping over 
the setting on his screwdriver to full blown med scan. 

"I tried." Amy snarled through tight teeth while still trying to smile encouragingly at their new 
companion, Mr. DeSoto who also was on his knees, quickly tipping back Johnny's head and feeling 
for a carotid as he listened for any breath coming from Johnny's mouth.

The Doctor's device whirred and began warbling alarmingly.

"He's not breathing." Roy told them. "And he doesn't have a pulse any more?!  Sh*t!" he grunted, 
leaping to his feet to the squad for the defibrillator and oxygen powered resuscitator.

"Whoa.. whoa.. no strong language before a lady, please. Shite if you must. What are you doing?"  
the Doctor asked Roy.

"Get out of my way. Johnny's in cardiac arrest." the blond haired man fretted, working urgently 
to set up his equipment. "We've got to countershock and get a rhythm back. Look, I don't know 
if they teach CPR in England, but could you help out a little here?! Miss. Take this mask, it's positive 
pressure powered. Fit it over his nose and mouth and punch that button every five seconds."

Amy had already picked up a bit of Roy's panic, and she complied by taking the demand valve and 
filling Gage's lungs. "Doctor, I know this. Rory taught me how to bring him back last year, remember?"

"How can I forget.." the Time Lord murmured, growing thoughtful, peering scientifically at the probe 
end of his sonic. "Wait!!" he said, snapping out of it, just as DeSoto ripped open Johnny's shirt and 
placed two gelled up charging paddles over his chest. The Doctor snatched away the grips from 
Roy's hands. "What in Hades are you think you're doing?! This man's not dead. His heart's just 
not beating that's all."

"I know! Are you crazy? Give those back." Roy said, beginning urgent chest compressions around 
Amy's ventilations. "He'll die without defibrillation!"

"He can't die. Not like this. Not in his current state. There's not enough time around him to live, 
or die." said the Doctor taking Roy by the shoulders and dragging him to his feet less than gently. 
"See? The Local Group tachyons are totally absent an inch above his skin." he said, smacking 
his sonic screwdriver into Roy's hand as if the paramedic could understand its flashing coloration 
lights and electronic patterns.  "Amy, you can quit resuscitating safely. We'll move Mr. Gage 
into the Tardis, and their vehicle, too. I don't want another car risking a crash into us while I 
figure out why this happened to him."

Roy's mouth dropped right open when the Doctor easily picked up Johnny into his arms, while holding 
his sonic screwdriver in between his teeth. A deft twist of the TARDIS key
and a kick with a free foot and both double doors were opened wide into a strangely darkened 
interior.

"Kay.." Amy said, going with the flow, she folded up all of Roy's medical gear and put everything 
back away in the same spots she saw the paramedic take them from. "Paramedic er.. and Firefighter 
DeSoto.." she said peering at Roy's name badge. "Sir, the steering wheel's on the wrong side 
of the car for me. Would you mind?" she said, indicating he open the driver's door. 
Then she prompted got into the squad, climbing into Johnny's seat. "Just pull her round and back 
on in. I'll spot ye from here." she encouraged.

Still stunned and a bit disoriented himself, Roy did as he was told.  He didn't wrap his head 
around the incongruency of the size of the squad versus the width of the blue box's swung in 
wooden doors, he just drove and suddenly they all were inside.

The Doctor had already set Johnny down onto a convenient fainting couch next to the main 
console as the squad came to a halt. As soon as the limp young paramedic's body hit the seat's 
cushions the cloister bell began to sound and the TARDIS emergency lights kicked on, providing 
dim, fire orange like illumination to all eyes.

Roy froze in mid stride on his way back over to his partner's side. "Did I just check out right 
now?" he asked his two strangers with overseas accents.

"No, you still have your truck's key in your hand. We've only just arrived." the Doctor replied, 
milling about the console, turning on various instruments and the main viewer to outside.

Roy marvelled at the dimensions of the TARDIS room they were in. "How did we get inside a 
huge building? Looks like a museum exhibit of some kind. There wasn't one anywhere near us 
on that freeway..."

Amy and the Doctor both grinned in nostalgia at each other about the dimensionally 
transcendental effects every new passenger to the Doctor's conveyance noticed.

The Doctor smoothly bypassed the usual. "You're just worried. About your partner.. But don't 
be. He's being well cared for. She won't let anything happen to him now that she
realizes that there was a time eddy or pocket at work."

"Who's she? Amy, your friend?" Roy asked, still partially angry that circumstances were still 
spiralling well out of his control.

"No, my.. my ship. You told me you could smell the ocean. Look.. where we are's not important. 
Not really. Let's just get your friend situated and then, we can have a chat about us in more 
detail."  the Doctor promised.  He finished putting on the TARDIS's defenses. Then he returned 
a green glowing sonic screwdriver, whirring softly, and laid it on Johnny's chest like a talisman.  
The urgent sound of the faintly echoing cloister bell from the Zero Room, died away into silence.

"I really need to get him on an EKG. I..I..have to know if--"  Roy said numbly, overwhelmed by 
all of the changes.

"Already done." the Doctor said, pointing to the main viewer. On it, was a normal rate sinus 
rhythm heartbeat being sketched in blue light on the screen. "My TAR-- my machine has 
accelerated time back up to normal around Mr. Gage.  You'll find he's sleeping it off. Amy, 
how about fixing our guest.. guests... some tea. If it helps, Mr. DeSoto, go ahead and do 
whatever paramedic thing you need to reassure yourself that this is true." 

Roy peeled back Johnny's eyelids and checked his pupillary responses. "Normal and reactive 
to light." he sighed. "If he had been without oxygen for even a few seconds--"

"..his pupils would have been dilated from hypoxia. Yes. But they aren't now, are they? Trust 
me that they never were." smiled the Doctor. "No jeopardy to his health exists, Roy. Not now 
or in the future. Not while I'm around." he said, growing more serious at the American who 
still was harboring doubts about his ample abilities.

"Okay.." Roy said quietly, reluctantly placing some trust out into the open. Trembling, his 
weak legs folded and he sat suddenly down on one of Johnny's cushions as his pure 
adrenaline rush faded away.

Amy Pond coughed low in her throat. "Oyii.  Crumpets or scones, gentlemen? Come eats while 
it's hot." she invited, wheeling in a solid silver Victorian tea cart complete
with white linens and a rose bouquet in a crystal vase. "Plenty more where this lot came 
from."
 
Roy was mumbling something at her when in mid-thanks, he toppled over onto the couch 
next to Johnny in a dead faint.

Amy frowned, setting down the tray of pastries that she had been handing out. "Is my accent 
coming on too strong again?" she asked.

The Doctor chuckled, "A bit, Pond. But that's not the trouble. No, the man checked out because 
of being ripped out of his proper time and place so rudely. In his case, not so extensively as 
his friend, but still he was done a nasty, none the less. I'm fairly certain they've both been 
victimized by an extremely long distance sent transmat beam." he said, flipping a few switches 
and studying the results graphs he generated on the flight console.

Amy considered the two paramedics' pale faces for a moment. Then she neatly snatched off 
the white linen table cloth on the serving tray without disturbing their tea items. 
"Sent by whom?" she wondered, covering up both men snugly to conserve their body heat.  
"Can you trace it?"

"I don't know and no. It's left no trace behind to follow." the Doctor replied, moving to accept 
a cup of steaming darjeeling tea from Amy. "Who dunnit's the question of the hour, now isn't 
it?"

Amy thoughtfully pulled on the hem of her black leather jacket over her red mini skirt. "Okay,.. 
ah,... start from where these two blokes originate?" Amy suggested, double checking Roy's 
pulse in his wrist when he let out a soft moan as he slowly fought for wakefulness.

"That seems the right point to begin anyone's adventure story, eh? I've already analyzed the 
petrol in their vehicle's fuel tank. Late 1970s Earth, Torrence, California. And the wording on 
its side over there names the exact building in the town they call home." he grinned. "Station 
51." he grinned, adjusting his bright maroon colored bow tie.

"I can do better than that." said Amy. She rose and went over to Squad 51 and reached inside 
long enough to grab up Roy's handy talkie radio. "How about zeroing in on the exact day it is 
on the other side by tapping into this?"

"A homing beacon. Bravo, Pond. Love everything Motorola. Built to last." he said, catching the 
HT she tossed to him.  The Doctor turned it on and plugged it into a charging port on the 
console that already fit it. "That's why I adapted some of their tech into this universal 
communications tether. Here we go..."  he breathed sending the Tardis into follow flight deftly.

Amy grabbed onto the nearest solid object for dear life. She was disappointed when neither one 
of them began to get tossed like ragdolls in unexpected turbulence. 

The Doctor made a hurt face at her. "Already on Earth, remember? Only changing the latitude and 
the date."  He expected Amy to scoff some return fire at his snark, but she didn't.
 
Pond continued to hang on to the Tardis hand rail, tightly. "Doctor? Do I have to mingle with this 
particular past and place?" she asked, internalizing deeply inside of herself.

"That's never stopped us before. Why does it matter now?" the Doctor wondered, his curiosity 
shining fully in his eyes.

The look on Amy Pond's face became haunted, and very, very old. "Because.. I remember Station 
51. Its layout, its equipment, its crew." she said, suddenly startled and spooked more than just 
a little. Pond tried to shake off sudden cold fingers of memory. "But how can that be? I've never 
been there."

The Doctor looked about and addressed the TARDIS directly. "Ah, girl. Is that what the cloister 
was for, my beautiful? Are we in danger?  Are we entering..." the Doctor sucked in a small breath. 
"... a Companion's causality loop?"

There was a pause in all sounds the time machine was making while in travel mode. And then the 
cloister began to sound once more in earnest.

The Doctor and Amy blanched as they understood the new warning their telepathic vehicle was 
sharing, looming larger and larger, as they got closer to their final destination. 

"Do we still land?" Pond whispered, shivering. 

"We have to." the Doctor said, acknowledging the cloister bell with a toggle to silence its voice 
from audible.

"It seems now that it's my personal history that's on the chopping block." she whimpered.  Her eyes 
began to fill with water and fear.

The Doctor took her into his arms protectively, trying to hug away her tears. "Shhh.. Easy, Amy. 
I'm not going to cut out anything of time holding a claim to you or yours. I made that immutable 
Time Lord promise to a little girl we both knew long ago, over fish sticks and custard." the Doctor 
snapped, biting a worried fingernail. "Yes. These two men were torn out of their proper place in 
the time stream." he said, gesturing at the sprawled out firefighters on the couch. "But it's our 
responsibility to restore them back, even if we... and the Tardis... are absolutely terrified out of 
our minds."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was an hour later in 1976. The Tardis was parked just down the block from the fire station on 
the corner of 223rd Street and Wilshire under a Spirit of 76 gas station globe.
Its sphere was spinning like some grotesque planetoid on the internal Tardis monitor.  Already, 
a few passersby had mistaken it for a phone booth. ::So far so good.:: thought the Doctor.
::No direct attack yet from the unknown quarter.  But one fact's solid stone. Our two paramedics 
are bait we went for.::

Amy Pond was seated on a stool next to the Victorian leather couch Roy DeSoto and Johnny 
Gage lay on. She smiled when the darker haired, Native American fireman finally opened his 
eyes. "How do you feel?" she asked.

Johnny Gage sat up in some confusion, his hair mussed on one side. "I'm okay. But I think I 
lost some time."

"Truer words were never spoken." grumbled the Doctor from where he was staring at the gas 
station globe revolving slowly on the screen.  "You are an excellent paramedic on diagnoses."

"Huh?" Johnny sputtered. But then he noticed Roy lying flat out next to him. "Roy!" he shouted, 
moving instantly to his head to feel for a carotid.

"He's fine." Amy said. "Just like you, Mr. Gage. No harm done."

"Only a bit of time suffocation, er... sorry, you're a firefighter.. It's like smoke inhalation in a 
fire. Can't live without air. Time's like that, too. You both were without its flow... but only...
for the briefest spell, I promise you. Uh,..she promises you." he amended, adding the Tardis's 
dialog. The Time Lord was now highly disturbed by the circumstances within which they were 
all caught up as neatly as fish in a net.

Johnny didn't let go of his partner's pulse. "Where are we, mister? I thought I saw Big Ben 
out there a while ago."

"We're in your backyard. At your station. In Los Angeles County.." hinted the Doctor. "We've 
already parked the squad out there for you."

Amy's eyes unfocused. "I can hear Cap bellowing about it." she giggled.

"Pond, stop 'listening' !" the Doctor hissed sharply at her. "Mustn't encourage that brain 
twist. You're the minnow now."

"Never.." she hissed back, sotto voce.

Johnny Gage openly ignored the two bystanders who seemed unbalanced both mentally and 
emotionally. He was used to that. ::People always freak out whenever they think a medical 
emergency is going on.:: he figured. "Look. Thanks for taking care of us and bringing us to 
our crewmates. They'll definitely get us squared away via Rampart. Now if you'll excuse me, 
I'm going to go get a stokes, and them, over here, to fetch Roy. I don't know why he's 
unconscious."

"I just told you why. In very clear detail." the Doctor said, throwing up his hands.

Amy shushed the Time Lord and turned back to Gage warmly. "Okay. The door's that way, Mr. 
Fireman. See all of you in a minute." she invited.

The Tardis obligingly opened her outer portals. 

Johnny saw the handy talkie jammed into the console and he retrieved it swiftly. He spoke 
into his radio. "Squad 51 to Engine 51 and L.A., I've a Code I. Lifesigns stable."

"We're next to your friendly neighborhood petrol station." said the Doctor told him with a 
sigh. "See?" he said pointing to the view screen. 

Johnny looked up and saw the orange globe sign. He nodded thanks. "Requesting an ambulance 
to my location at 2055 East 223rd Street and Wilshire."

##Squad 51, 10-4. Responding a Mayfair. E.T.A. of five minutes.##

##Squad 51. This is Engine 51. Share details of your incident immediately. Last transmission 
I received showed you 10-7 from a public PR engagement two minutes ago.## Hank 
called into the channel. "Did you suffer a vehicle collision?##

The Doctor and Amy nodded enthusiastically. "With the Tardis."

Johnny tuned them out. His worry for Roy was greater than his need to figure out how a 
small blue box was somehow as big as an airport hanger inside. "No crash, Engine 51. Grab 
a stokes. I can meet you guys out front with him in half a minute." In a few seconds, he had 
Roy hoisted over his shoulder into a fireman's carry snugly and was gone.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   

The moment they had gone, the Doctor swiftly closed the main doors. 

"Now what are you doing?" asked Amy as she watched the Doctor turning dials
and taking measurements on the center console intently.

"Being triply sure of our coordinates." he replied. "Don't want a quibbly wibbly
timey wimey putting a spammer in our works."  He snatched the goose neck
axled monitor that was hanging down nearby and seemed to get lost mentally 
as he stared down the hissing white noise static nonsense 
currently registering on its screen.

"Can we talk about it?" asked Amy after half a minute of silence.

"Sure. Why not? It's their time stream." he grunted, slapping away the 
glass telly viewer.  "Those two medical men dragged us screaming and kicking 
right into the middle of a real class A muddle." he declared. 

"But how could they?  It's 1970's Earth. Nobody knew about time travel in
America back then. It wasn't even a concept." Pond snorted.

"H.G. Wells." the Doctor countered. "Ring a bell? They made a movie written
by him in 1960 called The Time Machine using one of their Hollywood moguls. 
Sounds a LOT like what we're currently standing inside of, eh?  Oh, I shudder 
to think that these two firefighters probably watched that when they were kids
and still have those temporal ideas floating around in their heads." he frowned.

"Oh, dear." said Amy. "Are paradox monsters feeding off of their imaginations?
Like the Silence? Or some Weeping Angels?"

The Doctor rushed to a floor panel and lifted the roundel by its handle until
he had exposed the Eye of Harmony at the heart of his craft. "Nothing
so clear cut as that, Pond. This involves you just as much as it did
Roy and Johnny an hour ago when we met them."  The Doctor slammed
down the decking over the singularity powering the T.A.R.D.I.S. and
leaped up to a wall alcove cabinet marked with a big, fat red cross. 
He opened it, exposing extensive medical gear inside. "I'm going to have
to tap directly into your cerebral cortex to sift through those ghost
memories you have of this timeline's inhabitants."  he shared.

Amy immediately reacted. 
"Oh, no, Doctor. I'm nobody's guinea pig. Especially not yours."
Amy said, scrambling away quickly in her boots and mini skirt.

"Says who?"  the Doctor smiled, still digging among the pile
of scary probes and machines that were looking more and more
like surgical tools in Pond's eyes. 

"Exactly." Amy sputtered, snatching up a nearby handy umbrella
and brandishing it at him, to protect herself. "You said it. Just now.
And you're a Who." she snarled.  

"And sometimes a when, or a how..." he added, laughing, 
still buried in the round hole in the wall, hunting for invasive 
body equipment.

With a leap, Any managed to reach the door control and she jerked
it open in seconds. "I'm leaving with my skin.. er.. scalp intact, mister. 
Sayonara, Sawbones."  And with a final parting jab of her brolly, she 
escaped outside.

The moment her presence left the ambience of the TARDIS, the
cloister bell began sounding again.

The Doctor's continuous rattle of reassurances to Amy choked off
at the sound of the TARDIS's voice, and his head shot back out into 
the open with intense alarm."What? Again?" he quivered. "Amy, did 
you just--" he broke off, realizing that his companion was no longer 
with him. Anywhere.

"Oh, bloody H*ll!" he swore. He hastily grabbed a classic black leather
doctor's bag from the roundel closet along with his sonic screwdriver
and ran after her.  "Why does she always have to be so squeamish?!"
he blurted out loudly to the primitive oil driven civilization that greeted 
him beyond the door. "She should know by now that I would never,
ever hurt her."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amy managed to intercept the firemen crew from Station 51 as they loaded 
up their blond haired paramedic into a waiting Mayfair. Pond nimbly 
climbed up after Gage into the ambulance, plopping down onto the rider's 
bench. "I'm going with you." she declared.

"Uh, miss. You can't be in here." Johnny grumbled at her.

"And why not? I'm a witness as to what ails him. I'm useful!" she snapped, 
folding her arms after slamming the doors shut behind them and ducking out of 
sight so the Doctor wouldn't have a chance to spot her through one of the 
windows.

"But.."

"Just go." growled Cap, who was seated in the front cab passenger's seat. 
"The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get him to Rampart to where the docs 
can have at him to figure out what his problem is. She's not hurting anything by 
coming along with us, so shut the mouth, Gage."

The force of Hank's sharp order stunned Johnny into sudden, stuttering silence.

"Not. Another. Word." Cap punctuated. "Now, Miss? I don't think we've been 
properly introduced. I'm Hank Stanley, Roy's captain at Station 51."

"I'm Amelia Pond of the U.K. via Scotland."

"You're a long way from home." Gage gaped.

"A lot farther than you think, gents. Now.... Is there anything I can do to help 
out with him while we're waiting to get him in hospital?" she asked.

The Mayfair departed on its way to Rampart with a lurch.

"Can you count a pulse and respirations?" Gage wondered.

"I'll have you know that I'm married to a nurse. Of course I can." Amy glared, 
grabbing up one of Roy's damp wrists. "Rory was a fine teacher. I can even resuscitate
when necessary."

"Ah, no thanks. He's good." Johnny said quickly, glancing at the EKG monitor he had set up
that was showing a slow sinus rhythm. "No CPR on this bus without my say so."

Amy's face fell into a glower. "You're not related to any M.D.s are you? Any doctors in 
the immediate family?"

"No. I....  only work with a few for my job." Johnny said with perplexity, beginning to 
take a blood pressure on his partner on auto pilot.

"Good. Now all I need is an apple to munch on and I'm all set." 

"Oh, my G*d. Are you a diabetic, Amy?" Johnny asked, his eyes shooting up to 
appraise his young companion intently.  "I didn't even think to ask."

"No, no.. no." the young woman laughed. "I was just referring to an expression, 
you know, 'An apple a day helps..'

"...keep the doctor away." Johnny finished with a grin. "OhhHhhh, I get it now.
Boy, can I relate to that. I hate getting dragged in to see doctors whenever I get
sick or hurt."

"That's why I'm here." Amy mumbled to herself about her narrow escape from
the Time Lord.

"Huh?" 

"Never you mind. How long until we get where we're going?" she asked.

"We're three minutes out. How about handing me that oxygen mask? We'll get 
him going on some."

Gage pointed to the counter near Amy.

She nodded and did so, handing one over and connecting it deftly.

"Bugs me that he's still not waking up even after a full dose epinephrine shot."
he told her.

Pond got the vital signs Gage had requested she get off DeSoto. "Pulse is regular 
and strong at fifty. Respirations are twenty five and shallow. But he's still a very 
pretty pink, Johnny."

"Thanks." Gage sighed, some of the worry leaving his face in some relief. 
He began writing down their figures.

----------------------------------------------------------------


Rory Williams jolted out of his Roman drapery canopied bed next to the T.A.R.D.I.S. 
swimming pool lounge when the cloister bell was suddenly amplified right next to
his ear.  "OhmyG*d!" he blurted out. "What in bloody blazes!" he said as his
blankets tangled around his feet, causing him to fall flat on his face when he
tried to leap off the cushions.  Groggy with sleep, Rory quickly put two and two together.
"Oh, no. That bell thing means H*ll in a hand basket and mighty quick, too!" he
roared angrily at the T.A.R.D.I.S. "Why can't you use words like normal sentient
beings do, you bloated, blue--!"

*DONG*... echoed the cloister urgently, making Rory whip up his hands to his
ears protectively. "All right! I'm up! What's such a big emergency that you had
to interrupt a passenger's nap?!"

*D--*  The cloister immediately cut off once Rory made it out of their private
room and into the T.A.R.D.I.S. corridors.  He was shocked that the console room
doorway was open and located right next to their home suite. He could have sworn
that it had been at least a three minutes' walk to reach the pool the night before.

Rory pulled on a convenient ski vest from off the Doctor's hat rack along with a pair
of cowboy boots that he remembered leaving there.  He spun around in place, calling
out loud. "Doctor! Amy! Where are you? What the h*ll is going on around he--?!" 
He broke off when he noticed the emergency medical roundel was open and ajar
and the Doctor's field care satchel was missing from within. "Sh*te!" he swore, 
reaching in and grabbing an Earth stethoscope and jamming it into a snug 
pocket.  "Got it. Tell me where they went, girl." he spoke out loud to the T.A.R.D.I.S.
"If there's a crisis like you say, they're going to need help."

Dutifully, the viewing screen on the swivel monitor kicked on and showed their
exterior. 

Rory eyed up the view of Station 51 and an Earth street, showing a departing angle
of an American ambulance pulling away with full lights and sirens. The Doctor
appeared to be chasing it on foot, shouting his wife's name.

Williams ran full tilt out the door and onto the boulevard. "Doctor! What's the
matter?!" he said, chasing after him. "Is Amy in that ambulance?"

The young Doctor ran out of steam and stumbled, catching himself with his
hands on his knees, leaning over, seriously out of breath. "Yes, I think so."
he admitted, puffing heavily. 

Williams grabbed the Doctor by the shoulders and literally shook him.
"What do you mean you think so?!" Rory roared. "Is she hurt? Sick?"

"Uh, no, she's not a patient, Rory. She's.. well, something's not right in her
head."  the Timelord said, plopping his black doctor's bag onto the curb as
the two of them watched the Mayfair get away. "The T.A.R.D.I.S. detected
it an hour or so ago after we ran into some American paramedics in London,
and warned me of it by using the cloister bell."

"What's the issue?! You're beating around the proverbial bush. 
This is my wife you're talking about. And I don't care what I have to do to you to 
get an answer!" Rory said, grabbing the Doctor by the collar of his shirt. 

The Timelord easily broke free using some Venusian Judo and straightened up
his bow tie again while Rory was recovering from his tingling, arms suddenly
gone limp. "It's this timeline. 1976. Earth. Amy remembers a whole fire station
of people she's never met. I was going to examine her brain to see what
she thinks she remembers for some clues, when she ran away from me. In that!"
the Doctor said, jerking a finger at the distant Mayfair finally turning a corner
and out of their sight. 

Rory finally regained use of his fingers by shaking out his hands vigorously.
"Fine! Why run like stupid? We know where they're going. That's an ambulance.
They'll be going to the nearest hospital. Can't we just fly to the closest
one on a map?"

The Doctor sat down on the curb of the street in Station 51's driveway next
to his doctor's bag. Rory joined him, oblivious to the 1970s traffic whizzing
by in both directions down 223rd Boulevard mere feet from the ends of their 
toes. "The T.A.R.D.I.S. can't do micro hops in space inside the same time
line. Especially not now. She's too worried about Amy. I don't want us
to get lost away from this exact here and now by trying."

Rory slumped in his plaid shirt in stunned disbelief. "Is Amy in serious danger?"

The Doctor just looked at him with dull eyes. "Remember how the Pandorica
was for me when it opened?"

"Well, let's go find her right now!" Rory said, shooting to his feet.
The Timelord leaped up likewise, grabbing his arm to stop him.

"Hey! Is everything all right with you guys?" shouted a voice from behind
them. It was Mike Stoker standing on the lawn. Station 51's garage door was 
punched open with Marco and Chet both staring suspiciously at their two strange
visitors, from the driveway.

"It's Amy's folk!" stage whispered the Doctor to Rory. "We have to be careful
how we interact with them. They are pivotal to whatever paradox pitfall is
effecting her."

Rory whirled to face the firefighters. "Uh, yeah. Whatever gave you the idea
that anything was amiss?"

"That doctor has a medical bag in his hand and he's still looking right at you, 
sir." the mild mannered firefighter said to Rory. "Is this some kind of crisis 
house call going on?" asked Stoker. "If so, we've more medical gear inside the 
bay if you need it. We can also get some paramedics en route by calling in a 
still alarm for you." 

The Timelord sputtered, "Ah.. Ooo, hhmm. yeah.. Rory's my patient, gentlemen,
uh, I mean firemen, sirs.  As you can see he's a bit stirred up mentally and 
emotionally but that's going away. A spot of tea will set him firmly to rights
next, I should think. Got any?" he dangled, crossing the fingers of his free
hand behind his back and over his two hearts for luck on the diversionary tactic.

Chet finally frowned, scratching his head. "I think we do. Yeah.." said the 
Irishman. "Left over from when that Brit M.D. rode along with our outfit
last year, don't we fellas?"

"Oh, that would be smashing!" said the Doctor, taking Rory's arm as if he
were guiding him.  "Lead the way. Thanks for the assist with my client."

Rory played along, his face twitching in irritation whenever he knew the firefighters
weren't looking. He spoke up. "Uh, if I do need to be evaluated further, where's the 
nearest hospital I'd be taken to?"

"Rampart General." Marco replied. "It's just three miles that way in Torrance."

"Would you like another ambulance called, doctor?" Mike asked the Timelord.
"You just missed a ride that was taking one of our own in."

"No, that won't be necessary. Perhaps just the address. I...don't work in this
city as a practice." replied the Doctor. "I can take him in using my personal
...uh, conveyance. Won't be a problem."

"Our kitchen's right this way. We can kill two birds with one stone. Tea for
everybody plus writing down those directions to Rampart. Sound like a plan?" 
Mike asked.

"Quite. Beats sitting out in the street in traffic. Somebody might get killed out 
there." said the Doctor ominously, with dark humor.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
Dixie McCall met the Mayfair ambulance as it pulled back into the emergency entrance at
Rampart. She had decided to intercept Station 51's Code I call because Drs. Morton, Early 
and Brackett were all tied up with other patients at the moment who were worse off than
Roy. 

She stood back and waved two orderlies forward to steer and navigate DeSoto's gurney
for Johnny so she could get more information for his E.R. chart. "Johnny, how's he doing?
Dr. Brackett's on his way." she said, following the party down the hall.

"About the same. Syncopal and hypotensive a bit. It's a real mystery, Dix. I have absolutely
no idea what his problem is."

Beside him, jumping down from the rider's bench to the loading lane, Amy mumbled under her
breath. "I do. It involves me."

"Huh?" startled a nervous Gage. "Miss, did you say something?"

"I said, it must be." she covered neatly.

"What?" asked Johnny, torn between watching the orderlies wheel Roy away and paying
heed to Dixie's requirements as his intercepting receiving nurse for his patient.

"The same issue that effected you when you passed out right in front of us." Pond said, loud
enough for Dixie to overhear.

That did it. Dixie snapped her fingers quickly at a passing intern for a wheel chair. "Him, too.
Get him seated. They're both going into Five. Johnny, now. No arguments. I'm sure Captain 
Stanley here agrees with me one hundred percent. You're a patient, too."

"Pronto, Johnny. Sit!" said Cap, glaring at Gage when he learned that whatever was ailing Roy
was also bothering him.  "Before you fall down."

Amy Pond quickly grabbed the handles of Johnny's wheelchair to be the one to push the paramedic
inside. "I got this. I'm a witness. From the very beginning." she snorted ironically.

Hank drilled her. "Exactly what happened to my men, Miss....?" said Cap, retrieving all the 
medical gear that had come along for the ride deftly.

"Pond. I'll tell you on the way to the care room..." said Amy to Hank, grinning with fierce 
concentration. "I'm afraid, you both are not going to believe this." she promised, hiding the 
stress she felt from her face.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I don't believe it!" spouted the Time Lord as he walked into the kitchen and detected 
the aroma of Earl Grey tea already set to boil on the stove of Station 51. He took in a 
great big appreciative breath. "Is that bonafide Twinings I'm smelling? Oh, bravo. 
Thank you, gentlemen. We really appreciate your graceful hospitality."

A hot teapot had already been boiled to rolling steam and mugs were distributed all 
around the kitchen table. Cookies baked earlier in the day sat on a plate on top of a 
daisy flower ring of paper napkins. Nearby, a pitcher of ice water await with crackle 
glass tumblers stacked along side. 
 
Lopez asked a question of Rory and the Timelord. "Is there anything else
you need for your exam on him? We can pull a trauma kit off the engine that's got a 
BP cuff in it." he offered as he poured fragrant tea into their mugs first.

The youth faced Doctor emitted a puff of air politely. "Sure."

"I'll go get it." offered the engineer. 

"Thank you my fine, sir. After that, I believe I have everything I require for this issue."

"Except Amy." Rory spat out of the corner of his mouth.

"Who's Amy?" asked Chet, gesturing to the cookies he was offering on a plate in
invitation.

"My wife." answered Williams. "We were travelling."

"They are my companions." began the Doctor. "Through thick and thin, gentlemen.
Although today might be considered rather-- umm." he struggled.

"...messy." concluded Rory. "Alienated once again." he said in irritation.

The Doctor looked at his alien human friend in earnest agreement. "You see,"
he explained to the firemen. "We got ourselves a bit lost just around the time
..your two paramedics... found us." he skirted in generalizations.

Rory gushed. "And that was definitely not a good thing, guys." he said, still
unhappy with the mysterious crisis situation the Tardis had hinted at about Amy.
"What your men stumbled into is very complicated."

Mike Stoker took charge of the conversation. "Just what happened to Roy? Whatever
it was upset our captain enough to ride with him to the hospital in the ambulance."

"Yes, Doctor." Rory led on, biting into a cookie sarcastically. "Do tell. Why did Amy
suddenly have to be his medical eye witness? That other American medic was right
there. He could have easily provided an adequate history on his own. He's probably
a lot like me with not wanting to sit whenever the shite hits the fan. Doctor, get 
us out of here now."

The Doctor piped up. "Ah, yes. Forgive my client. Prone to emotional outbursts due 
to his,,, uh, ongoing mental state of maritalpsychosomaticphobia."

Chet Kelly frown sympathetically. "Sounds serious."

"Today it is." the Doctor admitted, accepting two cups of tea that Mike Stoker poured 
for both him and Rory Williams. "Nothing like worrying about the wife when she's run 
off." 

"Doctor!" Rory protested. "That's our problem, not theirs!" he hissed.

"Not to worry, dear Rory. We'll soon set you to rights." the Doctor fauned, opening up 
his medical bag just for show. "Still got that stethoscope I let you hold onto for comfort's 
sake?" he crooned, still in the role of a psychologist in crisis interviewing mode. "Time 
for me to use it now."

Rory, the nurse, shot a few daggers in the Doctor's direction and pulled out the one he 
had placed looped around his neck from beneath his ski vest earlier when he had mad dashed 
out of the T.A.R.D.I.S. after Amy. He turned his look to kill into sheepish submission when 
he felt firefighter eyes watching them closely as the Time Lord began rolling up Rory's 
sleeve to take a blood pressure.

The stethoscope's rubber tubing was covered with little family photos of Amy in every 
possible intimate, family moment imaginable.

"See?" the Doctor whispered, being careful not to mar any of the photo memories taped 
on it.

"Oh!" the 51 gang trio cringed in sympathy, Chet reacted by not getting overly curious, 
and Marco began some exaggerated, un-necessary hovering like Rory was suddenly made 
of glass.

"I'm married. I wholeheartedly understand." said Stoker to Rory, placing a gentle hand on 
his shoulder. "I feel the same way whenever she bolts at the worst possible times."

"You have no idea." Williams sighed at the engineer's remark. "It's far worse than that for 
me, mate. I once waited two thousand years for her to show up again."

Kelly choked in humor. "You mean it felt like two millenia."

"No, it was actually was t--"

"Hush, Centurian. They'll think you're crazy..." the Doctor hissed at Rory, sotto voce'. He
accepted the blood pressure cuff Mike Stoker handed to him.

"It's the truth, Doctor! Why should I hide bald faced truth from anybody?" Rory spat at 
him.
 
The Doctor suddenly whipped out his sonic screwdriver and buzzed it in front of 
Chet, Marco and Mike's faces, hypnotizing them each into freezing in place in a pico.
The Timelord let go, leaving the sonic suspended in mid air to do its diapause task
uninterrupted.  Then he whirled on Rory angrily.
"Rory, listen to me. And listen to me very carefully. All of this, the fire station and
its men, are somehow very key layers in Amy's primary time line, the one I cannot
ever, ever alter or tamper with. It is Gallifrey's highest temporal law concerning
Tardis companions and it is always absolutely obeyed on pain of death. Permanent 
death. No second chances. No mercy. No forgiveness."

Rory made a face. "You are the last survivor of your race. I don't think anyone back
home is going to find out if you just tweak-- ackk!" he choked as the Doctor grabbed
him by the collar in deadly earnest. 

"Any Timelord companion currently under a Tardis' grace field, experiencing paradox, 
must be guarded against contaminating anyone else in that time stream's history or 
future! And that, includes you. So shut up and let me do all the talking. You're mute 
until further notice." And with that, the Doctor flashed out a pair of fingertips to strike
Rory's adam's apple lightly.

Rory gurgled wetly and shot two hands up to a throat suddenly gone numb. His
eyes reflected shock back at the Doctor when he realized that he couldn't utter
a sound. 

"Drink your tea and smile." the alien warned him icily. "I'm waking these
three up again."

Once Rory had regained his composure, the Doctor stuffed a cookie into both
his and Rory's mouths jauntily. "Hmm. So good. Right?"

Rory got angry and yanked it out, spitting out crumbs onto his plate. 

The Doctor grabbed his wrist so he wouldn't make a physical change 
big enough for the firefighters to notice. "We don't want to break
anything while we're staying here." he warned dangerously about the time line.
"Amy might get irreparably damaged."

Williams finally began chewing, cleaning up his plate until it was a clean as
it had been originally, a little healthy fear for his wife lending him the proper
caution the Doctor wanted.

"Think, before you act!" the Doctor said. Then he yanked his sonic screwdriver 
back into his lapel pocket deftly, releasing the firefighters from limbo.

Mike Stoker answered Rory's earlier question about Amy's role in the Mayfair.
"Sir, that's because Paramedic Gage was still recovering from something 
himself. He was looking very pale. That's why Cap hopped on board to
supervise. Gage usually lies about how hurt he is. We all know it."

"I have a tendency to do that myself." the Doctor admitted. "And so do you."
he said softly to Rory. "And Amy."   Finally, the doctor touched Rory's
neck in a show of affectation masked as a pulse check, restoring
Williams ability to speak. 

Rory stuttered, and tried to keep whatever he said neutral. "That....  Okay,
that makes sense, happening like that." he smiled wanly at the engineer.

The Doctor clasped his hands together briskly in conclusion. "So.. Your squad's
not damaged. Safely parked out back. Now tell me. Exactly where do Rory and
I have to go to get to--" he led on with a prompting gesture at the firefighters.

"Rampart?" Marco offered. "Oh, that's easy. It's just down the boulevard about
nine blocks. Hang a left, then an immediate right into the E.R.'s parking lot
past the heliport landing pad."

"Oh, fun!" the Doctor's eyes lit up. "I would love to see a whirly bird. Rory,
those flying machines are like ornithopters."

"I know what they are. I'm from Earth, remember?" Williams groaned.

"Oh, yes.." murmured the Doctor. "Try not to forget."

Mike Stoker finished drawing a map of directions to the hospital on 
a snack napkin and passed it over to the Timelord. "Need a ride? We
can take you there on the engine. We need to go pick up Cap and bring
him back to the station anyway."


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 
Kel arrived with his chart from the base station right at that moment. "Johnny,
what seems to be Roy's issue?" he asked quickly, holding up the medical record.
"Nothing's adding up."

"I don't know, doc. Not for sure." he replied reluctantly.

Dr. Brackett blinked as he moved to Roy's head to feel for his carotid pulse as 
a counter to what he was seeing on the EKG monitor.  "I don't believe I've
ever heard those words come out of your mouth before, Johnny. Ever."

"Yeah, I know." the dark haired paramedic sighed as he sat down on an exam
stool gingerly. "That's probably because whatever is effecting him, got me, too,
eariler."

"They weren't geared up when we were introduced." Amy volunteered. "They weren't on
a call."

"They were put on inactive duty this morning from what I remember." Dixie replied.
"Because they both spent all day yesterday fighting a brush fire."

Gage still looked puzzled from where he was sitting. "That's right, we gave a talk to a bunch
of kids on fire safety then...er.. or was that today? I'm so confused."

"What you guys did today will scramble a few brain cells, Mr. Gage. Try not to think about
it. You'll adjust soon." Amy promised him.  "Remember what your Aunt always used to say."

"Wait a minute, how do you know my Aunt? Are you sure we haven't met before on a past date?" 
Gage asked.

Amy blanched and her bravado evaporated. "Uh, no. We're... uh,..pub buddies from....college. Only
you.. don't go for redheads like me you go for blonds like..." and she pointed to Dixie McCall, who
was concentrating right at the moment on her chart writing.

It was Johnny's turn to blanche and turn pale. He fell back in the wheel chair when he realized that
Amy somehow shockingly knew about his long ago crush he once had on Dixie that he had
never told anyone about. Ever.

Dixie saw the change from the corner of her eye. "Johnny? What's the matter? Nurse!" she snapped,
pointing to the oxygen port on the wall. A supporting staffer immediately got a mask slid on 
and high flow going over Gage's face. 

"I'm fine. I just, uh.. got a little shock there for a moment." the dark haired paramedic admitted,
staring at Amy with a mix of stunned amazement and a little bit of fear. "I guess my memory's 
really horrible today."

Brackett's eyebrows rose. "So it wasn't any fumes on a call."

"No." replied Cap for Gage. 

"Heat?" Kel groped at straws. "Johnny, slow your breathing down. And that's an order."

Stanley shrugged at Johnny to answer the question as he helped open Roy's shirt for better 
access to his chest area for auscultations. 

Gage studied the black tiled floor without seeing it. "I can't understand what happened enough 
to even begin to verbalize it." he gestured helplessly.

Amy spoke up, gripping the rails of Roy's wheeled bed. "It was time. They both didn't have
enough of it." she said, watching DeSoto's sweaty face.

Kel's forehead furrowed in confusion. "Was Roy respiratory arrested? That could explain
why he's still unconscious."

"No."   
"Yes."  said Amy and Johnny at the same time.

Brackett's face immediately went hard as stone. "Well which is it?!" he snapped.
"He either quit breathing, or he didn't! Dixie, draw arterial blood gases. Stat!"

The red haired girl with the Welsh accent was unwavering before the doctor's
frustrated ire. "This may be hard to believe, doctor, but your patient did neither.
You see, his ability to change or stay the same was deliberately taken away from 
him." Pond said evenly. 

"By whom? You're not making any sense. Either of you!" he said, derisively. 
Brackett turned back to Roy, ignoring the others totally. "Dixie, on the off chance that
our second patient is still being medically effected by a mysterious condition, would
you please take a vitals set on him? My hands are tied up."

"Not yet, they aren't." mumbled Amy under her breath, thinking of a whole slew of 
temporal tampering adversaries who would like to do just that to the Doctor and any 
near by companions. "So far so good." Pond whispered, taking a peek outside the 
treatment room door through a crack.

Next to her, Dixie stuffed the vials of blood she had obtained from Roy into an ice bin so
she could examine Johnny, beginning to pump up a blood pressure cuff around his arm.  
Listening with her stethoscope, she began to let out the pressurized air which hit zero,
rather suddenly, as the inflation bladder fell empty.  Frowning, McCall tossed that 
sphygmomanometer aside. She snatched the one from a basket on the wall and took
another reading.

Very soon, the nurse swore. "What the h*ll?" She ripped off her ear plugs and dug a few 
fingers quickly into the groove of Johnny's neck in a pulse check. "Johnny, are you feeling 
dizzy at all here?" she asked him.

"No. Not especially. Why?"

Dixie didn't believe his carotid artery. "Because I can't get a systolic BP on you to
save my soul." she huffed, counting the beat on her watch impatiently. 

Johnny laughed.

Kel grunted as he carefully examined Roy's pupils under his pen light's beam. 
"Equipment failure?"

"On two different cuffs?" Dixie exasperated.

Amy couldn't resist. "Maybe it's a nurse failure." she said shortly.

"Oh, ha ha. Sit down, please. You're next." Dixie told her coolly. She got a prompt
reading on the girl using Johnny's cuff and valve. "122/70. Huh.."

She grabbed Amy's elbow when Pond tried to stand again, thinking she was finished. 
"Not so fast. I'm grabbing another BP on your other arm with this one." she said, 
snatching back the first BP cuff set she had tried to use on the paramedic. It worked 
easily. She looked up, surprised.

Gage finally asked McCall the question. "What did you get on that first set?" he 
wondered, jerking his head towards Pond and her arm as it was being unwrapped 
from the cuff.

"Same thing. Clear as a bell."
Dixie fell silent, eyeing up the two of them suspiciously. "These aren't malfunctioning
at all. Tell me, were you in shock a short time ago before you brought Roy in, Johnny?"

"Well, I--"

Amy replied. "Gage did collapse on the freeway after we met."

"On the freeway?!" Kel gruffed. "What were the two of these guys doing there?"

"Stopping to help my friend and I, because we were suddenly blocking their squad's 
driving lane." Pond shrugged.

"A crash?" Kel guessed.

"Nope. Just a small....er... velocity drain or two. Across the board." Pond twitched.
"Pretty much."  she shrugged, thinking of how the Tardis had neatly protected
the two firefighters from a collision against her landing zone.

"Did somebody hit the brakes too hard?" Brackett theorized. "Can't rule out inertial
related trauma yet."

"No bruising took place." Amy disagreed neatly. "There was no collision. That's 
impossible with the TARDIS."

"What did you say?" Kel blinked.

"Uh, that's impossible, even at the hardest... force I saw." she corrected to 
hide the verbal slip.

Dixie added more. "What she's saying must be true, Kel.  I haven't found even so
much as a scratch on either of them."

"I'm fine, doc." Johnny insisted. "At least, for now."

"Maybe not later." Hank told him. "That's why I came in with you."

Johnny rolled his eyes. "You're over reacting. A faint's a faint, Cap. It's usually no
big deal."

Amy huffed as Dixie finally stopped fussing with examining her. "No. It was an accident, 
for sure. Just not a vehicular one. More like an entropic one."

Brackett's head shot up from a vial of epinephrine from which he was drawing another
dose to use on Roy. "Excuse me, miss, but did you say ectopic? Gage, was his EKG
telemetry showing anything on the trip in?"

"Steady as a rock. Normal sinus rhythm the whole way." the paramedic shared.

Pond popped her lips nervously, realizing that she'd said too much. "I said entropic, you 
know as in entropy? It wasn't his heat that couldn't escape, it was his linear time. At 
least, that's what the Doctor told me." Amy shared.

Dr. Brackett scowled deeply. "Yeah? Well I'd like to meet this doctor of yours who
apparently got to treat these men before I did. Pronto. Just what kind of physician
would abandon his patients in mid transport?"

Amy sighed, rubbing her face. "My kind." she muttered. "I was afraid you were 
eventually going to say that. Any way, can I change your mind?"

"NO!" roared both Cap and Kel.

"Can we draw some blood?" Dixie barked at Gage, not expecting any refusal in the 
slightest.

"Yes." replied a soft groan from the next bed. 

"Roy?" Dixie whirled, peeling off DeSoto's O2 mask down to his neck so she could hear 
him a little better. "Can you hear me? It's Dixie."

"And Amy Pond."  DeSoto murmured.  "She was my best friend even before I met 
Joanne." he smiled weakily.

"That's right?" Amy Pond said, with a look of growing horror at the memory suddenly 
awakening in her mind.

"How?" Dixie asked, looking from the Welsh woman to DeSoto. "I thought the three of 
you just met for the very first time today."

"That's a very good question." Amy remarked. "I think we need a Doctor."


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory and the Doctor were within eyesight of Rampart Hospital as they walked
swiftly down the sidewalk.

"Tea and cookies." remarked the Doctor. "Now that, was the perfect lunch."

Rory impatiently dodged passersby, made room for bicyclists, dog walkers
and joggers wearing earphones. "It's only a short hop, you said." he groaned,
hurrying to catch up with the Timelord, who seemed to not encounter any
obstacles at all, living or otherwise. "We should have taken Mike up on
his offer of a lift. Or we should have taken ours."

"In the Tardis? Nope. That's one of my girl's few limitations." the Doctor
scoffed grandly.

"You mean your wife's." quipped Williams, remembering when the Tardis had
come alive.

"You should talk! Your wife's a runaway."

"Oi! She was only trying to keep from being your own personal vivisection
project. Avoiding you is a high skill, Doctor. Not a flaw."

The Doctor was decent enough to look crestfallen. "Yes, well. I'm over that
now. Want to try the easy fix of just snatching Amy back and trying to fly out
of this time zone? Can't mess up what you're no longer in."

"Is that even possible any more?" Rory asked. "Amy's inserted herself right in
the thick of things by buddying up to her two mind ghosts."

"You mean our two new paramedic friends."

"Yeah, Ray and Jonesy." Williams said, frustrated with the walk even more as
the evening smog grew thicker.

"Ah, that's Roy and Johnny." gently corrected the Doctor.

"Whatever! Can't say they've formally introduced themselves before they
stole my wife away." he spat, spinning neatly in a circle to avoid someone's
Doberman's leg lift and urination on a fire hydrant as they passed by.

"They didn't steal Amy. She chose to go with them. Willingly."

Rory stopped the Doctor's progress with a hand on his chest. "Why?"
he pegged, almost growling in anxiety.

The Doctor looked sheepish and he tried to draw Rory to the curb for a
sit down to continue the chat.

"Oh, no." Rory protested, keeping on his feet. "The last time we did that, we
had three do gooder, pesky fire brigaders sticking their noses--"

"That's firefighters." offered the Doctor.

"Firemen!" roared Rory, "..barking up our very own, personal.."

"...temporal..." interjected the Doctor.

"...tree!" Mr. Williams concluded. "I felt invaded, Doctor. It's our problem.
Not theirs." 

"Not a bad thing, their interest. We got some really wonderful free food." 
shrugged the Doctor, continuing his breakneck pace down the busy sidewalk 
of Torrance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The Doctor walked up to the main reception desk of Rampart’s Emergency Room with Rory in 
tow, looking uncomfortable being in a hospital setting. “Why the long face?” the Timelord 
asked Williams. “Amy’s most certainly here. That’s her ambulance.”he said, jerking a hand 
over his shoulder without looking at it.

“How can you tell?” the young man asked, seeing about three parked outside, all appearing 
identical to each other.

“The one on the end right, is trailing Amy’s DNA.”he said, discreetly using his sonic 
screwdriver like a divining rod. “She’s in room 2. Cover me.” 

Rory stuttered in surprise but then pushed forward to a white haired male doctor sipping 
coffee at the desk while he read a patient chart. 

Dr. Early looked up. “I can help you for a minute. The reception nurse will be right back if 
you’re a relative.”

“I’m looking for a runaway adult female. My wife.” he announced boldly.

“Rory!” The Doctor admonished, totally blowing his cover as he tried to steal a white coat 
he spotted draped over a stool nearby.

He neatly recovered, throwing on the white lab coat with a flourish. “That’s no way to 
think of her.” he hinted. The Timelord whipped out his psychic paper and held it out to 
Joe to see what he made of it.

“You’re the new hospital administrator?” Dr. Early grinned, pointing at him. “There’s no need 
to wear white when you visit us small folk down here. You’re management.” he grinned. “So… 
what can I do about your friend’s wife? Got a name? I think I can track her down without a 
nurse’s help.”he said, picking up a notebook and pen.

“Amy Williams. I’ve heard she’s a witness to an unusual double firefighter medical incident.” 

“Oh, you must mean Roy and Johnny. Yeah. They just came in together. She’s in 
Treatment 2.” Joe smiled.

“Fine.” said Rory and the Doctor, turning to leave the desk. “Thank you, doctor.”

“But you can’t go in there just yet. Dr. Brackett’s not finished with them. He’s the primary 
on call for their case.”

“Why not?” asked the Timelord, surprised. “Aren’t I your boss?”

“You are.” Joe said, nodding. “But that rule of no interruptions is one of your policies that 
you’ve asked that no one breaks. Two days suspension is a hefty write up for a first offense. 
I learned that the hard way. Now I won’t enter anyone’s patient territory without a face 
to face invite, or an intercom page to consult.”

The Doctor sighed and studied his shoes. “Look, Dr....Joe.” he said, reading Early’s name 
tag. “Absolutely can not wait. This situation is a serious emergency.”  

Dr. Early chuckled. “They all are. But you still can’t go in there, or I’ll call YOUR boss. 
Wait until Kel’s through first, or there’ll be H*ll to pay. And not by my doing. You know how 
Dr. Brackett gets. He would eat even you alive, Mr. Administrator, if you two go barging in 
there.” Joe shrugged. The Doctor and Rory watched as the older physician turned back to 
his reading and coffee sipping.

They moved away into the direction of the waiting room.

“So how are we going to get in there?” Rory ansed. “I’m really, really missing her with all 
of this going on.” he warned, feeling protective of Amy.

“Shh. Yes, the time paradox and false memories.” the Doctor chided. “Why don’t you just 
shout out to the whole planet that we’re here to monkey with their metaphysical mojo 
while you’re at it.”

“Might work.” Williams shrugged, opening his mouth.

The Timelord stuffed a wooden tongue depressor from his pocket into Rory’s mouth to 
shut him up before he could crow. “Come on, Town Crier, I’ve got an idea.”

Rory’s face broke out of an expression of sour annoyance into a satisfied grin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
“Candy strippers?” Amy laughed uproariously when she saw her husband and the Doctor 
enter the treatment room wearing striped clothing while pushing a metal cart full of current 
magazines and flowers.  

“That was fast.” Dr. Brackett commented, looking up from Roy and Johnny’s lab results. 
“How’d you know I’d be admitting these two?”

“It was more than a hunch. Time pressed a little on making an accurate guess.” said the 
Timelord, tongue and cheek.”My admin acquaintance,..” he gestured at Amy.”…is rarely wrong. 
Where she runs, is usually trouble.” he smiled.


“Not anymore.” Dr. Brackett offered up the chart he had just completed.”Both of their vital 
signs are stable and whatever first effected them, is going away.”

At that, Rory reached out and clutched Amy’s hand, just to feel her close. Amy felt a wash 
of fear then, and her eyes watered. “I won’t run any more.” she whisper promised her husband 
and the Doctor. 

The Timelord nodded. “This is too big to escape. You’re not alone.” he said sotto voce. Then 
louder. “I would never hurt you, Amy.”

Dr. Brackett looked up from where he and Dixie were discussing care notes. “Did you need 
something?”

“Nope. Just getting out my wares.” Rory play acted, rearranging the daily news and the 
most recent magazines into a pretty half circle. 

Dr. Brackett looked away with a nod. 

One headline caught all three of the Tardis travelers’ eyes. “What th—“ Rory gasped. “That 
can’t be right.” The Doctor snatched up the Time issue magazine. It showed a big, roiling 
tsunami smashing into the familiar white cliffs of Dover, England. “Cardiff destroyed? London 
inundated?”

MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATES THE SOUTH UK declared the magazine’s cover. IS 
AMERICA NEXT?

Suddenly, the whole treatment room began shaking. 

“Duck and cover!” shouted Dixie, bending over the still groggy Roy in case some ceiling 
tiles fell down from the earthquake tremor gripping them.

Dr. Brackett guided Johnny back on his stool away from the x-ray machine that was dancing 
across the floor. Kel hastily unplugged it so it wouldn’t tip after its power cord ran out of 
slack.“Easy does it.” he mumbled to the earth. “You’re not so bad.”

“No, this is all good!” celebrated the Doctor, on his stomach underneath the exam gurney 
along with Amy and Rory.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Dixie exclaimed in disbelief. “Foreshocks?”

“Yeah.” burbled the Doctor. “That means we’re not where I think we are.” 

McCall’s eyebrows shot up. She shook her head, not understanding the comment. 

Noticing the nurse noticing them, Amy, Rory and the Doctor entered into a jittering huddle 
of linked arms like a football team so they could talk without being overheard by the time 
line’s people. The rumbles coming from the ground masked their voices.

Dixie’s attention focused away as Dr. Brackett began ordering seismic hospital protocols 
over the red wall phone receiver that had dropped down and hit him in the face as the 
earthquake continued to shift everything around them.

The Timelord was ecstatic. “This never happened!” he shared happily with Amy and Rory. 
“Not in the real 1976.”

“What do you mean? It’s happening right now! Oh, my shins!” Amy flinched as her knees 
got bruised from where the floor bounced underneath her hands and the rest of her.

“No earthquake's ever touched England. So this one’s got it wrong, too. It appears we’re 
actually in a history paradox of some kind. But not your personally own locked nightmare, 
Amy. One that was critically tied to your existence, would never manifest signs in the 
physical environment like this.”

“But the cloister bell went off.” Rory insisted.

“Yes, that’s because the Tardis sensed that Amy’s memories were changing without 
matching her current perception manifestations.  She remembered the firefighters she’s 
never met. What are their names again?” he prompted her.

“Roy, Johnny, Chet, Mike, Marco, and Henry. No, make that Hank. He likes it b—“ she 
broke off, not liking the fact that she knew them.

The Doctor sympathized. “Oh, it’s true that you remember a lot of people here falsely. 
And likewise, those two paramedics of ours might remember you in their own set of 
false imprints, past what their minds have created today from normal reality.” 

“But is this really?” Amy asked.

“Really what?” asked the Doctor.

“Normal reality. I thought once before you said that Cardiff was a virtual cornucopia 
of temporal disturbances.”

“Well, I—“ the Doctor broke off, suddenly thinking along new veins.

Just as suddenly as it came, the earth trembler faded away.

Rory Williams dragged Amy Pond out of Roy DeSoto's treatment room at Rampart. "I'm so 
proud of you." he said, hugging his wife fiercely.

"Proud of me? For what?" she said, half hugging him back in puzzlement, slightly embarrassed as 
passing Rampart medical staff grinned at the sight of their embrace politely as they walked by.

"You finally avoided him. Probably for the first time since both of us were uncraftily knicked into 
that TARDIS of his." he said, beaming.
 
"Huh? Oh." she pouted. "That was only because he wanted to chase after me with knives and 
scalpels." Amy began twirling her hair nervously.

"What did h--?!  Oh, that. He told as much. I know about why you ran already." Rory sputtered, 
only half hearing her last comment as he stuck his head into the drinking fountain alcove for a sip.

Amy bit her lip, kicking herself for it, too. "Rory, love, we really have to talk about this whole thing that 
might be happening to me. Buy me some tea from the cafe?" she suggested, pointing down the 
hall at Rampart's cafeteria entrance. 

"Righto. Lead the way. I have a few words to spout on it myself." he said, wiping his mouth with 
his plaid shirt sleeve. Once they were seated, Rory didn't want to let go of his protective grip on Amy. 

She finally muttered dryly. "Can't drink with you hanging on to both of my hands for dear life. My tea's 
going cold."

"Oh!" Rory released her with alacrity. "Sorry, I just--"

"..feel like guarding me again. Got it. I guess doing it for two thousand years wasn't 
enough for you."  she smiled, her love for her husband full in her eyes.

Rroy did a double take and then grinned as he blew the steam off of his own tea cup. 
"I'll never get tired of worrying about you, Amy. It's because I'm more than just in love with 
you."

"You're obsessed beyond all hope." she winked at him, flirting. She flipped her wind blown 
red hair back over her shoulders.

"Nail on the head, my heart." Rory blinked back, as he kissed both of her hands. 

Their emotional break was suddenly over. "So.." Amy sighed.  "What did the Doctor tell 
you so far about what's going on with me?" she said, rubbing her forehead wearily.

"He told me about the fake memories that seem real to you and those firefighters from 
whom we can't seem to escape." he said sarcastically.

"It's hard not to believe what's filling my head. They feel like they're a part of me." she 
agonized.

Rory got mad. "Well, if it wasn't the Doctor's doing, who put those memories there?"

"That's the question of the hour now, isn't it?" Amy said, retreating behind the steam 
cloud of her own tea mug.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"Are you sure you're not an escapee from the psychiatric ward?" Kel Brackett asked the 
Timelord evenly over his crossed arms. "I mean, come on. Do you really expect me to 
believe that the three of you travel through time--"

"And space." added the Doctor cheerfully.  

"And outer...uh,...out there." Brackett quickly muttered. "You just happened to have 
run into my two paramedics' rescue squad with your time machine just outside 
London, England this morning?"

"Precisely, doctor." the Doctor smiled.

Dixie McCall and Brackett frowned.

Roy sat up a little higher on his gurney in the Timelord's defense. "It's all true, you 
guys. I was there."

"Shush." Brackett growled at his only recently awakened second patient of two. "You 
could be hallucinating due to hypoxic effects, Roy." 

"What are the odds that the two of us are hallucinating the same thing, doc?" Gage 
asked Kel.

"Good question." the Timelord gestured. "You just think on that." he said to Brackett 
and McCall. "I'll be right back." He made his way across the room to where Gage was 
sitting next to DeSoto's bed on a stool. "Johnny, Roy, I offer you my deepest 
apologies. I thought I could solve our mutual Amy-knows-you-and you-know-her 
memory anomaly problem by running away from it all, but it's becoming clear that 
we won't be able to leave this timeline any time soon."

"Well, why not?" Johnny wondered. "I thought you said your TARDIS fixed whatever 
was wrong with us."

"She did...er.. it did." he shared. "But something else near by must still be 'broken'. 
Do you see how your doctor and nurse are having to struggle trying to digest the 
issue and us? That's because they're so immutably involved inside their normal time 
stream. Can't think outside the box. They probably won't ever be able to grasp our 
situation." he explained. "You two, on the other hand, have been temporally... um.. 
adjusted,.. You can perceive these new quantum effects and comprehend how they're 
effecting you from moment to moment. The TARDIS has opened your eyes for the 
duration. I'm beginning to think that something or someone's slipped us a little 
sideways into another time stream, different from your world's original."

"What do you think he and I can do about it?" asked Johnny, indicating the two of 
them with his head while taking Roy's pulse as he lay blinking at the ceiling. 
"We're just two ordinary firefighters from Los Angeles County, California." he 
shrugged, grinning crookedly.

"Go U.S.A..." agreed the Doctor with a nod. The Timelord's gaze was piercing in 
its intensity. "For starters. You two can come with us. We have to go find whatever it 
is that's snared us all into its nasty little net." the Doctor said. "And I think I know 
just where to start looking." he frowned, his mouth firming into a hard line of 
concentration.

"My men aren't going anywhere. They haven't received medical clearance yet." Hank 
Stanley challenged. His height was equal to the Doctor's. 

"Easily fixed. Isn't that so Nurse McCall?" he said, whipping up his sonic screwdriver 
up and zapping a green light into her eyes. "Tell Kel their medical statistics and 
other findings if you please."

Dixie blinked, and began sharing her information with Kel where he stood reading 
Roy and Johnny's medical chart sheets.

"Did you just hypnotize her?" Hank asked the Doctor.

"No. I merely made the suggestion sound like a really good idea to not put off 
any longer. Big difference." the jovial Timelord shrugged. "I can't force anyone 
who's got free will against themselves."

Seconds later, after Dixie's recited report, Kel reached his mentally convinced 
threshold. "Okay." He looked up at DeSoto and Gage. "I know how this is going 
to turn out. I can't force you two to stay overnight for observation with these vital 
signs. They're all too disgustingly normal for emergency cases. You can go home. 
However, I'm leaving it up to your boss to make the decision of your fitness for 
returning back to work at the station."

The Doctor grinned hugely.  So did Roy and Johnny. Only Cap kept a serious face. 

"How say you, Captain Stanley?" asked the Doctor. 

"I say let's go." Hank muttered. "The sooner this day's over with, the better I'll 
feel."

"Wonderful. You two get discharged and dressed. Then we'll go collect Amy and 
Rory from the cafeteria. I'm absolutely sure they're there because it's nigh on tea 
time."  the Timelord chuckled.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

It was a few minutes after Dr. Brackett and Dixie had left Roy's treatment room after getting their signed 
discharge papers from the two paramedics.

"Do we have any choice in the matter about going along with you two?" Johnny asked the Timelord as he 
helped Roy off the gurney.

"No." said both Amy and the Doctor simutaneously, with conviction. They both glanced at each other in 
grudging, affirmative agreement of their mutual replies.

DeSoto laughed. "Sounds like we're back home at the station, Johnny."

Gage grumbled. "Anywhere else, doing anything else, would be better than this weird place."

"There's only twenty four hours in a day. This one will be over soon enough." Roy sighed, testing his arm 
and leg muscles experimentally.

The Timelord stepped over to Cap, standing toe to toe, and peered at him. "I wish things were 
otherwise, too, believe me. But they're not. Being linked brain to brain through memories like we are, 
however falsely, is nothing to shake a stick at. There exists a very real danger to all of us and potentially 
to every living thing who isn't us. We have to go find the source of the bad a.s.a.p. Call me being a 
captain of my own crew if it helps you, I'm usually right. Just ask them." implored the Doctor 
encompassing himself, Rory and Amy into a sweep of his hands.

Hank narrowed his eyes and leaned into the Doctor. "How do I know you guys aren't making all of 
this up? Plenty of crackpots running around this part of town. Can't this wait until morning? It's
been a long day and a very long doctor's check up for my men."

The Doctor cleared his throat in sympathy. He took in a deep breath and folded his hands together, 
nibbling a knuckle impatiently. "Sir, listen to me, please. To make any kind of difference at all, we 
must leave immediately before it's too late to do anything to save ourselves."

Those were very, very odd words coming from a perfect stranger, but Stanley was a level man. 
He picked a course of action to follow. "I think I can identify with ...most of that." Captain Stanley 
eyed up the Doctor uneasily, but he made his next decision quickly. He got on his handy talkie. 
"L.A., HT 51, 10-8 at Rampart. I have further on CC."

##HT 51, this is L.A. on requested captain's band.## came his dispatcher's reply.

"L.A., I need Engine 51 and the rest of my crew sent here from home base for an.... investigation of 
unknown duration." Hank found himself saying.

He widened his eyes when the Doctor overheard his transmission from an impossible distance away 
and threw up a pair of gesturing fingers measuring a little increment. "Only for a short time." the 
Timelord reassured the tall firefighter. "I can make it as short as we need afterwards when our normal 
lives can resume." he promised ruefully, and deadly serious.

Stanley finished broadcasting as his feeling of lack of control grew in bounds inside of his head. 
"Have them rendevous at Rampart."

##10-4, HT 51. I copy your non-Code-R roll out to Rampart General Hospital..## 

Stanley only half heard the tones begin to sound for his station. He turned to face his firefighters. 
"Whoooeee. Now how am I going to explain all of this to the gang when they get here?"

"You won't need to." Rory conmiserated. "If your worrying's as plain as mine, they won't be asking 
any questions."

"Awww, sweety.." gushed Amy, giving her husband a loving peck on the cheek. "I'm so sorry 
about all of this."

"It's not your fault." Williams melted. "Let's go find out whose it is. I'm more than ready."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The new portion of the gang still hadn't climbed out of the engine once it had been driven into the 
Tardis along with Squad 51. It had been a full five minutes since they all had driven the Ward inside.

"Are they all right?" Amy Pond asked as she stood shoulder to shoulder with the Doctor while he set 
in flight coordinates that sniffed out only the freshest temporal rifting in their part of the Eye of 
Harmony. "Those three look completely freaked out."

The young Timelord regarded them. "I imagine so. Probably a little of both. But they're fire brigade, 
Amy. Nothing rattles them for long. Sort of like soldiers.." he grinned. But then his glance fell on Rory. 
"Or so I thought." he reflected.

Amy smacked him on the arm. "My hubby was a special kind of soldier. No one in the history of the 
universe ever had to wait as long as he did for his beloved while fully conscious the whole time. He's 
earned that worry spot about me, Doctor."

"I'm sorry, Amy. Yes, he has. And I hope never, ever to get into a pickle like that of waiting for a 
resolution or escape to a problem for eons every again." the Doctor said, crossing both of his hearts 
for luck.

"Shhh! Don't talk about it, or you'll make it happen." Pond admonished.

"Rubbish." the Doctor scoffed. "Talk can't tempt fate. It's all just noise."

"Your shoe's untied." said Chet, saundering next to them, pointing down.

"What?" the Doctor looked down at his foot and immediately, he hit his head on the slide track 
monitor screen that he had forgotten he was looking at, for checking his shoelaces. "Ow!" he 
exclaimed, feeling the point of injury.

"See? Words can, too,  change what happens to you." Kelly chuckled. "Your lady friend's one 
hundred percent correct on that score. We firefighters all, call that karma."

The Doctor examined his fingers to look for non-existent blood from the bump that was rising on his 
forehead. "I know what karma means from the Earth American perspective. What you just did to me 
is called a deception, an entirely different type of cause and effect."

"Speaking of effects. Do you need to see a paramedic for that?" Johnny quipped, pointing at the 
Doctor's goose egg.

"No thank you. I'm a fast healer. All gone in five minutes, Mr. Gage."

Nearby Nurse Rory Williams agreed, crossing his arms confidently. "Tops."

"That's only if you don't let yourself get tricked into giving yourself another one." Kelly poked.

The Doctor looked at the fireman as they laughed. "Is he always this nasty?" he asked, gesturing 
to the Station 51 gang, about Chet.

"Yep.  Consider Chet Kelly your instant reality check, Doc." Cap answered. "He'll sort of grow 
on you. Give it time." 

"Like a fungus." Johnny added.

"Hhmmm. That's if we have the time." the Doctor said, changing tack.

Kelly had managed to coax Lopez and Stoker out of the engine cab. Slowly, the two new arrivals 
stopped gaping around them about the impossibility of the time ship's internal architechture and 
joined the others where they were gathered.

"Welcome aboard!" the Doctor greeted them. "This is a Tardis, a sort of plane.. er... with perks." 
Then he whirled around. "So, Amy Pond,.." he prompted brightly, "How are those memories of 
the boys coming along? Feel any different now that we're back in the vortex?"

The red haired girl peered up at the giant red Ward fire engine, parked next to the center console, 
that she was walking around with curiosity, and frowned in a pout. "They're still there." she said in 
a small voice. "I can see mentally, every sordid detail we've ever shared of our lives together."

"And I can recall her honeymoon escapades?" Roy shook his head distastefully.

"Oi!  I'm not that bad. I was.. Never.That. Bad!" Pond shouted.

"Not any more. We've been practicing." Rory murmured aside to her. "Roy, would you mind getting out 
of my wife's head?!" he asked DeSoto. "Spouting off about our love life, even its history, is getting 
rather personal over the home plate, don't you think?" he snarled dangerously.

"I can't help it. She and I are best friends in my recollection. Nothing's sacred." Roy shot back.

Amy coolly pegged her false bestie with a look. "I won't talk about yours if you stop talking about 
mine." she suggested strongly.

"You-'d... talk about Joanne and-- Uh, okay, okay, okay! I'll think about something else then." 
DeSoto made a concerted effort to change some brain waves. A second later, puzzlement filled his face. 
"Why am I thinking about fish sticks and custard all of the sudden?"

"That sounds disgusting." murmured Marco, watching the by-play between paramedic and Welsh gal.

Amy Pond tuned out the hispanic and flung a few eye daggers at DeSoto. "Because that's my strongest 
memory past my wedding night, buster! Eating those happened on the very first night I met the Doctor."

"You were dating the Doctor?" Rory asked.

"Rory Aidan Williams, curb that turning green aspect right now! I was just a little girl that day." Amy shot 
back. "The skinny guy was regeneration sick and hungry, so I fed him. That's all!!"

"..oh."

"Everybody! Hey! Just... TRRUUCCEE!! Time out, take a breather for Pete's sake!"
The Doctor was smiling at the banter. For being inside of a scary temporal paradox experience, he was still
in a fairly merry mood. "Right, first things first. Everybody, how about not voicing all your private thoughts 
so we can get down to business?" he suggested.

"What can we do?" Marco asked, "We're all just hanging around watching that washing machine 
piston thing go up and down."

"The Tardis is not a clothes washer, my good man! She's... well, yes, she can clean things, but not in the 
way you think! My ship of sorts can clean time if she puts her mind to it."  the Timelord told them. "That's 
what she did for your Roy and Johnny here when she rescued them from the side effects of a long distance 
transmat beam."

"A long distance transit what?" Chet wondered. "Sorry, man. Your accent sounds pretty bad to us."

The Doctor scoffed at the Irish firefighter in the blue uniform with a single note of disbelieving incredulity. 
"There's no way you're not getting what I'm saying. There's a universal translator at work, too, through
the Tardis's telepathic circuits. Have you ever watched Star Trek on TV?  Viewed Scotty's transporter in 
action as it made Captain Kirk and his luckless red shirts disappear into little dots?! A trans-por-ter?" 
he syllabically spelled out with exasperation, in mock midwestern American dialect.

All of them shook their heads in denial. Then Stoker raised his hand politely. "We have watched Adam-12. 
Now that's a good show." The others burbled happily in agreement with the engineer's answer.

The Doctor just glowered, dumbfounded, at the lot of them.

Cap shrugged when he saw the scowling look appear on the Timelord's face. "Sorry, Doc. Guess we've 
been far too busy on the job to log in much time on the boob tube."

The Doctor gave up and stomped back over to the viewing monitor still scanning the singularity powering 
the Tardis. "Akk! You try. I don't think there's a glimmer of comprehension yet in any of our six guests 
about what we're facing." he said grandly to Amy.

"Right then." Pond replied and took the proverbial bull by the horns. "Gentlemen, Mr. Gage, Mr, DeSoto.. 
Again. This is what happened to you just before we met." And she took in a deep breath. "You were konked 
out by person or persons unknown and then the two of you, along with your pretty red truck were forcibly 
dragged to England by the means of your kidnappers' choice while all of your senses were still befuddled. 
The Tardis detected that move, which is totally against our version of the law of the land, and took action 
to stop the criminals by blocking their crime attempt. In short, you were rescued from being abducted. 
Follow me?" 

Finally, came a desired reaction. "You mean Johnny and Roy were almost taken by aliens?!" Chet exclaimed, 
being faster at understanding than any of them. "Far out!"

The Doctor's mouth flopped open in a gape at the presence of a really old Earth stereotype prejudice. 
Then he leaned over to whisper a conspiratorial into her ear. "Should I ever tell them that I'm alien, too?"

"Nodefinitelynot." Amy warned at warp speed."They're having enough trouble as it is with just the basics." 
Pond hissed back.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The gang moved a short distance away from their three guides who were engrossed in whatever it was
that they were viewing on their TV screen over the control console. 

Mike Stoker was the first to speak inside of their huddle. "Just how is any of this possible, Cap? I drove
a full sized Ward La France P-60 Ambassador through that teeny tiny double door over there. And I broke
absolutely nothing."

Gage just smirked. "Maybe that's because you're a totally awesome driver and can't crash into things."

"Oh, come on. Do the math, Johnny. How does 22 inches width on the door frame equate to Big Red's
132?" the engineer scoffed, a little piqued. "I know that's all it was because I got really close to them
and eyeballed it."

Roy touched his arm, wearing his game face. "It doesn't matter how we got here. What matters is that
we've been told that we're all in some kind of danger that's about to get worse, if we don't help those 
people, right over there." DeSoto said, pointing to Amy, Rory and the Doctor. "All this, is simple. We're 
on an unknown hazard call in a new part of the city. We've never been here before, but we'll soon learn
how to get around and fix issues, like we always do."

Chet Kelly nodded. "I'm with Roy. We need our priorities kept straight."

Marco Lopez rubbed his arms in a warming gesture. "Well, that's easy. I can get those figured out
right now." he said. He turned and marched over to the center console, tuning out the oddball
whirrs, rattles, and other noises it was making. He cleared his throat when he got to the Doctor's
side. "Excuse me, sir. Are you free to talk to us yet?"

The young Timelord eyed up the Hispanic firefighter and suddenly cringed. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I've been 
such a bad host. I didn't notice what time it was." he said eyeballing a device on his wrist that didn't 
look anything like a wristwatch. "You must all be totally famished. It's way past your dinner hour. 
Rory, could you show our guests to the kitchen? Get them squared away on bed space, too?"

Williams glanced up from the monitor he had been monitoring. "Uh, sure. Right this way, guys." he
gestured, heading for the interior door leading into the main Tardis corridors. 

Amy winked at them. "Food and rooms are definitely ready. They always are." she promised.

"But, Cap.." Kelly began.
 
Captain Stanley fluttered his hands at his men. "Go on, ahead. I'll... get some real answers and join up 
with you in a bit. I think I have an inkling about what's going on. I ran into a few hints at Rampart. And
I'm sure Roy and Johnny can tell you a few things from their point of view."

The gang left, following Rory's lead, but trusting Hank more to lead them to eventual safety.

Hank took point in front of the travelers. "Okay, spill it.  I can handle anything you dish out."

"I know you can, Mr. Stanley. I'm just not so sure that we can handle, what out there, might have in 
mind for us next." the Doctor said, tapping his sonic on the screen nearest them.

"How so?" Cap wondered, taking an interest in the TV monitor showing a strange fluxing fractal
in multiple colors. The lines and shades were so sharp and bright, it appeared almost like a live
image. 

"There are only two ways passengers on, or near, my ship can be effected by the environment 
immediately surrounding it. Either someone got aboard the Tardis as a hijacker and is tampering 
with the equipment, or someone with godhood is majorly messing with the time stream of the universe 
directly. I likely believe the first possibility because nobody but Timelords had the capability to do 
the second option, and they're all dead, except for me."  the Doctor explained.

"I"m so sorry, Doc. That couldn't have been easy losing all of your friends and family."

The young not-a-man stood quietly in front of his circumspect guest for several long moments.
"Yes, well. It wasn't and still isn't, captain. I'm reminded of them every single second I live."

"What happened?"

"War. My fault.  All due to a bad choice in an act I made when I was younger,.. and far more stupid 
than what I think I didn't do,...today." the last Timelord admitted finally realizing a clue from earlier
on in their experience.

"You made a mistake? What did I miss?" Hank asked.

Amy snapped a look at the Doctor. "The earthquake in Cardiff."

"Yes. Quite.We should have gone investigating as soon as we realized where the first false history
earthquake epicenter originated." he said with a lot of guilt.
 
"Cardiff's in England, isn't it?"  Stanley surmised.

"Yes! You get two gold stars for your geography, my fine, fire brigader. Now, Cardiff is significant
to us because it is ...er... was a place where temporal fractures in the space/time continuum 
intersected with Earth regularly."

"That's where you lost me right there. Are you talking about H.G. Wellsian stuff? But that's a work of fiction
or ..or.. a movie that people created." Cap complained. "Time traveling isn't real."

"I wish I could say the concepts are fictionalized. Truly." the Doctor sympathized. "Take us at face value. We 
are not from your time period. Someone else who isn't, either, is seriously wrecking yours, and is trying to take 
down me and my companions with it."

Hank blinked a few times, and thought back a minute or two. "How can you have an intruder aboard and not 
know it?"

The Doctor settled his nervous hands gently on top of the console. "When that intruder is a friend. Such a one
has free rein in the Tardis forever more, as far as the security systems are concerned. It's a weakness Type 40s
have, that apparently took me a very long time to remember." he self admonished.

Amy Pond was practical. "Internal cameras? Past Footage?"

"Off line." the Doctor grumbled. "Whenever I have a female aboard, I allow extra privacy that way."

"Thanks. I think." said Amy. "I'm not modest. Jolly well flick them back on, Doctor. Let's find this creep."

"With our indefinite, endless interior architecture? Yeah, that won't be hard at all to accomplish."

Amy got testy. "I thought you deleted over a quarter of the total mass of the Tardis a while back. 
Can't you do more?"

"I promised her I wouldn't." he replied.

Cap was practical. "Why don't we figure out a lure and make that person come to us? My men and I
do that all of the time flushing out arsonists."

The Doctor and Amy paused in mid comment with their mouths gaping. Pond suddenly grinned.
"That might work."

"What might possibly be an irresistible lure for someone trying to keep themselves hidden?!" the Doctor
said with exasperation.

"Start a fire.  No one is immune to those in any kind of a structure." Cap replied, gesturing at the
Tardis's ceilings and walls.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rory helped himself to an apple from the golden fruit bowl on the white table. Surrounding them were
brick walls and bunk beds with low set windows out of which Tardis light streamed.

"Hey! How did you guys do that?  This is like home!" Chet shouted, immediately jumping back
first to land already comfortably sprawling on top of the bed he knew was his.

Marco, Roy and Johnny all grinned. Stoker walked over to one wall and tapped it. "Movie screens."

"Uh, yeah, something like that." Rory muttered, not wanting to tell the firefighters about holotechnology.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"She's going to hate me, captain. Thoroughly."

"Who's she?" Cap asked the Timelord.

"My ship. I was referring to how fires and ships never mix well together. Don't you Americans address 
your fire engines similarly in the feminine?"

"Uh, yes. I guess we do. My engineer, Mike Stoker sure does. How's your ventilation system? If we're 
going to start a blaze, it won't do to suffocate ourselves to death in the process." Hank replied.

"We've an excellent one, I can seal off this console room and any residential spaces wherever they
may be. We're also equipped with subatomic level tight bulkheads at every door." the Doctor 
promised.

"Good. Because our air bottles only hold air for ten minutes at a pop." Cap answered, jerking a thumb
back at both the engine and squad parked by an open section of Tardis wall. "But can you really rig an 
instrument failure and cause a fire realistic enough to seem like a genuine accident?"

"If we ourselves fake taking an injury or two, yes. Whoever it is hiding out in here with us won't be 
able to deny their roots of curiosity, no matter how far they may have fallen in a villain capacity. I find 
that trait to be true in every species but one." the Timelord answered.

"Who's the one?"

"Weeping Angels. They have no heart at all. Just hunger."

Hank winced in sympathy. "Sounds like quite a gang by the name."

"Oh, you have no idea." Amy said softly. 

"We have one in town that's supposedly good. They call themselves the Guardian Angels. 
Their favorite spot to hang out and fight crime is in the subways."

"You have subways in Los Angeles?  In California?" the Doctor blinked. "That's not right."
he muttered.  "You've always been earthquake country, Captain."

Hank's face fell in confusion when he found himself completely unable to deny recalling seeing 
underground trains in his boyhood.

A small white light began flashing on the temporal relay board that warned of more singularity
tampering from within.

"He's at it again. That's another false memory being created!" the Doctor shouted, getting angry.

He hurried over to the central synapse circuit matrix panel and fiddled with an important looking 
navy blue cabling web at the bottom. "These wires handle all our lighting. How about a blackout 
and a fire? Starting immediately?"

"That definitely would be scary to anybody other than a firefighter, Doc." Cap agreed.

"Get set. When I yank these free, an alarm might go off. A very big one." said the Timelord.

"That kind of noise won't bother us. We hear multiple company alarms all of the time." Hank replied. 
"We'll be ready to roll with both trucks, Doc. On your cue." he promised, holding up his HT that was 
tuned into the ones his crew carried.

The Doctor patted the edge of his console tenderly. "I am so sorry, sweetie, in advance." whispered
to his Tardis. "But it's completely necessary. We've a baddie aboard and you don't even know it."

"What about your other companion? Shouldn't he be warned ahead of time?" Hank asked.

"No. He'll already know what to do when the time comes. We've... laid down certain ground rules 
over the years. He'll have to act natural in all things or this ruse of ours won't work."

"He'll be fine. He can definitely take care of himself." Amy nodded in agreement. 

"Hang on to your hat in fifteen seconds, 14, 13, 12..." the Doctor said quietly, gripping the largest, 
brightest conduit in the web.

Cap snatched up his helmet from the engine cab and put it on. Then he grabbed an elbow arm 
hold onto the rear hose rail on the back of Engine 51 firmly. 

The Doctor yanked out the living wire with both hands in a sea of orange and purple sparks.

The console room immediately went dark and gave a violent shudder as light speed flight slammed 
to a crawl.  The force threw the Doctor off of his feet and he barely hung onto the wire he had torn free 
from its connectors to keep himself from sliding away and falling off of the edge of the passenger deck. 
"Whoa! That was a bit too strong! Quit bucking like a bronco!" he said, grimacing half in fear, half in 
crisis exhilaration. "It only stings." he shouted to the Tardis.

The time machine would have none of it.  A whole wall of the console room flashed orange in every 
roundel. Their circles' cracks caught on fire and flames began to lick upwards at each top edge 
through the glowing translucent covers. The Tardis cloister bell began to toll heavily.

"Not in here! I thought you understood what I m---!"  the Doctor's retort broke off when the floor heaved
again, slamming his chin into the heavy metal grating. He didn't have to feign being injured after his
chin had cracked soundly on the deck. His face came up bloody, from a bitten tongue and split lower lip.

"Doctor!" Cap shouted from his place with Engine 51. 

"I'm okay. This is more minor than it looks." he said, spitting out blood and working back onto his feet.
"Call your men to start dealing with this!" he said, pointing to the wall of fire. "She's just throwing a 
gargantuan fit to spite me, that's all." he grinned lopsidedly, shaking his head. "Mind that temper, girl.
You're singed, not b---"

The Tardis jolted to a halt in her programmed flight, tossing the two against whatever they had grabbed 
to steady themselves. Cap wasted no time on the radio. "Engine 51! Squad 51!  There's been an 
explosion in the--" he pointed to the Doctor who continued where he had left off. 

"...console room, power bay twelve alpha. We've suffered a time crash!" the Doctor shouted, out of
breath. "Everybody abandon ship! Abandon ship!" he said urgently, getting into it with gusto.

The Tardis cloister bell began to sound.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
The gang in the holographic residential rooms threw themselves onto the floor spread eagle 
when the deck beneath suddenly rolled like a storming sea. Rory blanched at the sound
of the cloister bell roaring into life at the edge of his perception. "Not again!" he moaned.

Roy DeSoto, sprawled next to him, startled. "Does this happen that often?!"

"Yes!" Williams panicked, "I mean, no! Oh, all right. Yes, to chaos. No, to crashing!" 

Stoker, already thinking ahead. He had snatched off his belt to use as a safety strap for dragging 
everybody in a little bit closer together into a shuddering huddle in the center of the room, away 
from any falling obstacles. 

"What's happening?!" Chet demanded from the shelter of his arms and elbows flung over his face
and head. 

Then the HT attached to Marco's hip crackled into an emergency broadcast. It was Cap and the
Doctor, shouting at the top of their lungs. ##"Engine 51! Squad 51!  There's been an 
explosion in the--"  
"...console room, power bay twelve alpha. We've suffered a time crash! Everybody abandon ship! 
Abandon ship!##

Rory shot to his feet in spite of the pitching floor moving up and down. "Uh oh. The Doctor never 
kids. Let's go, guys!"

Johnny Gage said "Cap's in trouble?!" in the same breath and scrambled after him.

"Lead us back there!" Marco shouted, gripping Rory's wrist as he slid by. "We can
help!"

"I will! I am! Follow me!" commanded Williams. 

Roy Desoto gripped his radio tightly in a hand as he staggered after them. "10-4! Engine 51.
We're coming back to the trucks now!" he said, hitting the talk button.

##10-4, Squad 51.## Hank replied. ##The Doctor's got something called an escape pod ready. 
Got to hurry.##

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Amy Pond scrambled to the Doctor's side at the console as the Tardis began an emergency
hover mode. "What else can we do?" she whispered.

"Nothing more." replied the Doctor, setting controls to blow out a wall to expose the escape
pod bay room. "Here goes nothing.." 

"Or something." Amy hoped, her eyes on the door leading to the interior of the Tardis's
ever changing reaches. She watched as the fire captain's men and Rory dashed into
the console room. "Cap, they're here." she shouted.

Hank unhooked his jacket buckles from the fire engine's climbing rail and began organizing 
an attack on the wall full of burning roundels. "Doctor, is foam all right? Don't know if you
have electricity or fossil fuels powering up things back there." 

"FR-20's fine, Captain Stanley. Rip away. My ship will regenerate what you take down as soon
as it's safe to do so." he instructed.

The gang got to work fighting the fire inside of the wall quickly.

Rory noticed the Doctor's face. "Are you healing that okay, Doctor?" he asked the Timelord
about his injured face as he watched the viewing monitor for signs of movement in the 
corridors beyond their control room door.

"Oh, quite. The Tardis let me have one for the dirty trick I played on her. I deserved it."

"Going to be quite the shiner." Rory admired. "Has anyone flushed out?"

Amy Pond's concentration on another panel was absolute. "Not yet. Whoever it is on
board is still hiding."

The Timelord hit the deploy button on ejecting the escape pod room's outer walls. He
watched dispassionately as they drifted away into outer space, leaving the transparent 
alumosteel walls, floor and ceiling of the passenger escape pod room exposed. He 
toggled the internal intercom relay system into active."The pod's open! Everybody get 
inside. We only have two minutes to escape!" he lied.

His elbow toggled a life support monitor that began to read out his own injured condition's 
vital signs audibly Tardis wide. An automated female Tardis voice began to speak. "Hearts 
rate: 60 and 156. Facial blood loss decreasing to 90 ccs. Regeneration threshold holding at 
3% of critical limit. Consciousness level improving. Lungs : Toxic gas levels increasing. 
Concussion force was not detected." 

"Come on. Be coaxed!" the Timelord mumbled, watching the monitor screen. "Where are
you?" he wondered as he watched a sooty gray smoke layer begin to fill from the floor
level on up in all of the Tardis corridors.

Station 51 fought the fire the Doctor had set with the foam hose, axes, and pikes in their 
air bottles. Cap shouted encouragement when the wall fire surged up as the backside of 
the charred Tardis wall fell away into the corridor running parallel behind it in a jumble of 
red hot debris and flames.

Long minutes passed by with no signs of movement showing up in the corridors on camera.

"Perhaps we need more bait, Doctor." Amy suggested. "Rory and I can run around a little 
back there and wave our arms around in a blind panic."

"Yeah, we can scream a little, too." Rory agreed.

"Wellll...." the Doctor drawled. "Okay... Let's try that. I'll keep this roiling smoke at waist level 
high, don't duck your heads lower than that or you'll be in real trouble with our fake
pyrotechnics." he warned as he fiddled with the life support ventilation controls. 

Amy and Rory ran out of the room. "Blood curdling shrieks of blind panic coming up."

Cap saw them leave. "This wall has collapsed, Doc. I sure hope they know to avoid entering 
the effected hallway behind it."

"Can't miss two meter flames. They're not so stupid." the Doctor quipped, checking his 
internal motion monitor again.

A big booming masculine voice suddenly erupted out of the intercom speaker. "Oh, yes. They
are. Thank you so much for making this easier, Doctor."

"What!? Waitasecond. I think I know who this--- Tenor voice. Flippant. Teeth that go on 
forever."

"And always immune to fire, ...er..eventually. Especially after I die, Doctor.
Hi again, it's me!" said the voice cheerfully. "Don't bother looking on your instruments. 
I can't be found unless I allow it. Having a Timelord's wrist watch comes in handy."

The Doctor's face drained of all color around the blood on his mouth. "Jack Harkness.."  

"In the flesh. And in the Tardis, too."

"How did you get in?"

"Let's just say I'm a friend for life. She seems to think so, too. She's the one who let
me in when I knocked three times."

"Why are you here?" the Doctor asked, holding very still.

"As usual, you have something I want. Two somethings actually. I have an urgent need
for both of them. And they're so conveniently ending up where I planned for them to go." 
said Jack Harkness's voice. "You might say we're leaving on a little trip down memory 
lane together."

The Doctor sucked in a breath and tried to shout out an intercom 
warning to his companions. "Amy! Rory! Get out of there!" 

It was too late. Amy and Rory, jogging and yelling in their guinea pig luring roles rounded
a corner into a dead end corridor that had a pair of ugly wired and red light blinking devices 
stuck at opposite ends of the hallway on the center of their walls.

Rory instinctively recognized them as bombs. He threw Amy forward to the middle of the
corridor and fell down on top of her to protect her with his body. That was when the devices 
blew up in a deafening roar of shearing forces.

The last thing Amy and Rory knew, both they, and the corridor in which they found 
themselves, was severed at its end points from the Tardis's architectural main frame. 
Its whole length and the two humans inside of it went spinning deep into the yawning 
time vortex over which the rest of the Tardis was suspended.

The Doctor screamed even as he heard theirs diminishing from the telepathic
influence of the Tardis. "Boobytrapped!  Jack, tell me they're still alive!"

There was no reply to that for long seconds. "Why should I keep them that way, Doctor?"
came Captain Jack Harkness's voice over the Tardis intercom. "You abandoned me on
that space ship intentionally the first time we met. So now I make you abandon them, for 
all time."

"Jack, you had a way out. I left you the transmat wrist watch!!"

"I didn't find it until those pirates killed me over and over again for months! Do you think
that was at all fun for me?" came the immortal man's voice. "You left me behind like
an old shoe." he growled. "No, it was worse than that. I was mud. I was the mud 
ON your shoe. I didn't even realize until you scraped me off!"

"Why 1976?" the Timelord spat, desperately grasping at straws. "Why falsely alter Amy's 
memories to include this fire fighting crew from 1976?" he demanded, furious.

There was no answer in the loud silence that followed. Jack Harkness being quiet
quickly became the scariest experience the Timelord had ever encountered.

The Doctor yelled at the Station 51 gang. "Captain Stanley! How long until the fire's out? 
We can't fly until it's completely snuffed!"

Cap whirled to face him. "Problem?"

"Yes! We've crew fallen overboard times two!" he said, setting coordinates for the Tardis 
to go diving after the ejected part of herself that was still registering as containing 
passengers.

It killed him to not be able to press the follow button.

"Five minutes!" Hank promised, throwing up five gloved fingers.

"Jack!" the Doctor said to the air, knowing that the Tardis pick ups were conveying his
voice to the farthest reaches of the time machine.  "Give me a reason. Answer why!"

"I can't tell you that, Doctor. There's something they need to do and only I can bring 
them back to the moment they need to be in order to get it done." said Harkness's 
stressed, breathless words from the speaker.

"Laws of Time." the young Time Lord blanched. "Did you meddle? I'm already running 
totally against all of Creation even talking about them!"

Again, the silence stretched even over the roar of the machine spewing out the foam
the gang was applying generously to the fire around the collapsed Tardis wall. 

The Doctor's throat felt tight as he waited for Jack to speak again.

"My reply to your question might effect their personal temporality." came a smug reply.

"Stop being a cocky, pompous immortal man from turn of the century Earth! I warned 
you that immortality would make you drunk with power." the Doctor shouted. "You didn't
listen, you wouldn't listen, you NEVER... listen... to the one who knows!" he said, hitting 
his own chest with a hand full of spread wide fingers.  "Your condition is a trap, Jack. 
Built in! Don't lose yourself inside of it."

"How would you know?" Jack's voice finally came, suddenly breaking with a clear sadness.

"Because I have lived long enough to experience the tiniest taste of it myself through
my regenerations. Let me help you with whatever it is that's torturing you."

The Doctor's breath rattled sourly in his chest as he strained to hear Jack's next words.

There came the faintest sound of agonized sobbing over the intercom. Jack's voice was 
barely audible, soaked in grief.  "I've got to save her,  Doctor. But we both know that 
neither one of us are legally allowed to do it. We're too close."

"Who's her? Who's she, Jack?" the Timelord urged angrily. "Is this person the reason 
you've entwined yourself with me and mine, and six other strangers?"

Jack's audio only connection to the Tardis snicked off.  Then the Doctor's horrified look
briefly caught Jack's through the Tardis monitor as the man who could not die 
suddenly leaped into camera view inside of the escape pod room. 

"No, Jack! Don't! You can't ever enter finite time."

"I'm sorry, Doctor. This time doing things my way is the way it has to be." Jack Harkness' 
hand hit the launch button. The pod room fell away, tumbling after the spinning corridor 
containing Amy and Rory. 

Both of their silhouettes disappeared into the heart of the Time vortex and vanished.

"What can he do out there? He's just a man in a room all by himself." Cap asked the 
Doctor.

"He can completely alter all time for Earth, everywhere." the Doctor hissed. "Just by existing.
He's an abomination against nature. All things die, captain. Jack can't. Now he's so 
bored with living that he's playing with others' memories by using the temporal transmat 
watch I gave him. I don't even think he realizes yet that Amy, knowing you six gentlemen, 
when she was never meant to have any knowledge of you, has already changed Earth's 
timeline in your 1976. All of England is a ruin of earthquakes.  Most of America will most 
likely fall down, too, because of the repercussions. We felt the beginnings of it at the 
hospital."

Mike Stoker shut off the nozzle on the reel line pumping out foam. "That's it! We've got
everything extinguished!" he said of the flames that had been burning along the
glowing wire the Doctor had ignited to draw out Captain Jack Harkness. The engineer
firefighter startled, and took a few steps backwards towards Engine 51 when he
saw the Tardis's white flooring begin to suck up and absorb the fire retardant he had
laid down, like a water puddle sinking into sand.

Captain Stanley gaped in awe as the still steaming, fire melted walls reinflated and
neatly grew back together into the roundels and flat surfaces identical to the originals.
All sooty brown black stains, slowly returned to softly glowing unmarred alabaster.
Hank addressed the Doctor. "I think we've knocked out your fire completely, Doc.
Things, ah...appear to be growing back like new?" he guessed.

"Splendid! That was faster than five minutes. How good are you and your crew with
search and rescue operations?" the young Timelord gasped, rapidly running around
the center console, flipping on tracers and reactivating his ship's flight controls.

Captain Stanley stood up a little straighter in defense of his men, who actually
looked up at the comment in surprise. "We're trained and fully equipped to handle
the unexpected, Doctor. We're L.A. County Firefighters. So where's our next call
going to be?"

"To whereever Jack's taking Amy and Rory. I've locked the Tardis into following
her last two escaping parts. All she'll focus on now is getting close enough to 
reintegrate the missing components back into a whole craft."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the gang had put away their equipment back onto the trucks and it
was only ingrained habit that made them gather back around Cap afterwards for 
an accounting check.

Mike Stoker was the first to speak. "You're never going to believe this, Cap, but uh, 
we're....not... missing any water from the tank."

The Doctor turned from where he and Stanley had been huddled by the viewing monitor.
"That's because the TARDIS is well behaved and put back what was borrowed, my
fine fellow boffin. Same goes for your breathing bottles. They're all topped off to perfect 
pressures, I assure you."

Cap was the only one whose forehead didn't screw up in confusion at that bizarre report.

Chet Kelly leaned into Hank. "Just how are you so accepting all of this blahooey, Cap?"
He pointed to the view out the Tardis door windows. "I think that's outer space." Then
he pointed to the wall that no longer was burned down to a cinder. "I'm still
smelling the fire we just fought. But nobody's seeing any leftover char from it. It's like
it never happened!" Then he indicated the Doctor. "And why the heck are we still hanging 
around this guy who let a criminal blow up part of his...  er  ....flying saucer?"

"Time ship.." whispered the Timelord to Chet sotto voce.

Stanley didn't even bat an eye as he squared up on his men. "If we're all sharing a 
hallucination due to poisonous fumes right about now, we'll pass out soon enough, 
and then some paramedics somewhere will just wake us up out of our shared 
nightmares." He shrugged. "Until then, I'm going to keep us fighting fires and rescuing 
people who need rescuing, until reality finally bails all of our butts out of here." he said, 
matter of factly.

"That assessment's right on the mark about reality being the final judge." the Doctor 
chimed in ominously, with a hint of worry.

The Station 51 crew ignored him. Pointedly. For their sanity if nothing else. 

Hank spelled it out for them. "Amy and Rory are missing. They were in the bit
of this building that...er... got ejected. Somehow, our friend the Doc, is following where 
it's going to land."

The Timelord broke in sincerely. "And they most likely will get hurt from the sudden stop."

Chet looked at him like he was a buffoon. "Yeah. Falls do that, buster. Just be glad we're
here already. Why don't you go call the cops or something on Jack. He's a lunatic."

Kelly's statement stunned the young Timelord to the core. His face brightened into a smile.
"What a fabulous idea! I AM going to need some more help with him." The Doctor beamed.
"Thanks for the gray matter donation, Mr. Kelly." he said, shaking the curly Irishman's hand
in full blown, genuine appreciation. "This is totally why I still keep humans around."

Chet's brain refused to work any more after hearing that comment, for about half an hour.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage were in serious discussion while pretending to double
check the contents of their drug box by the squad a short distance away from the Tardis's
center console.

"Should we sedate the weird guy and take him down? He's obviously kidnapped us."
Gage wondered with a little heat.

"Nah." said Roy. "He helped us, remember?  We both fainted. He went and got the guys
for us. He's a do-gooder so far in my book. Besides, does anybody else know how to
fly this spinning museum ..thing? Doesn't look like anything else I've ever seen."

"Maybe Mike can do it." Johnny suggested.

Stoker had overheard them with his engineer's super sharp listening ears. 
"In your dreams. Not a single chance in Hell." he replied briskly in the negative.
"Leave me out of it, fellas."

"This is a private chat, do you mind?" Gage grumbled.

Mike coughed and turned away, getting mesmorized by the real time live sights on the 
console's monitor again. He appeared to be admiring Earth there, that was growing ever
closer.

Johnny tried not to dwell on the fact that he had no recollection of how they had
gotten off of Earth in the first place.

DeSoto reached over to their oxygen apparatus and stole a snort of pure O2 from
its mask wholeheartedly with his eyes clenched closed tightly.  Then he reopened them
again after he exhaled it all from his lungs. "Nope. Everything's still not looking right
with the world here. Maybe we should stop fighting it and start learning from it, Johnny.
What else can we do about it?"

"Nothing." Gage grudgingly agreed. "I think I'll help ya. Give me that." he said,
reaching for the demand valve. "Maybe it'll work for me."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack Harkness awoke from self inflicted dead amid the rubble of what was
left of Los Angeles. He sat up after screaming once or twice in residual pain and then 
checked his temporal watch. It was reading 1976-trans. ::Right on the money.:: Jack 
thought, levering himself up onto legs that still felt shattered into a million pieces. His 
ears were still ringing and bleeding from the impact that the jettisoned escape room had 
made against the soil of Earth.  ::Earth-trans.:: He fiercely corrected himself in his mind. 
::An offshoot. A sport.::  Finally, he was in a time line which led to her...  "She's here." he 
sobbed, still feeling pulverized in body and soul, from the leftover echoes from his latest of 
endless deaths. ::Hang on, Rose. I'm coming for you.:: he thought, feeling the weight of 
this newly quake destroyed world resting heavy on his heart.

Jack knew he had to get away quickly or the Tardis would orient on his position
while trying to reintegrate itself back together into one piece. ::The Doctor won't be able 
to pass through the quantum barrier layer from real infinite time. He's not me.:: Harkness 
thought gleefully of the Doctor. ::But time's a wasting! I have to go find them first.::
he decided, thinking of Amy Pond and Rory Williams. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy staggered from where he was crouched on the floor over their medical gear. "Amy!"
he shouted.

The Doctor glanced up sharply from the flight controls. "What about her, Mr. DeSoto?"

"I...can feel her. I think she's hit her head really hard." he answered.

"Is she conscious?" Johnny asked his partner, holding his shoulders in support.

"No." Roy gasped. "Not even close. And I'm.. Ughh.. *cough* I think,... I'm smelling natural 
gas."

"Fossil fuels? So they've reached their destination. And it's back on Earth. It's the only planet 
that can smell like petrol.  But which one?" the Timelord hissed to himself, stabbing at the 
spinning, unsettling temporal measurement readouts.

Hank Stanley snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. "They were in a falling corridor...
How far can a rectangle bounce when it hits the ground, Doc?"

"Either right or left of center!" the Doctor exclaimed, catching on. "It won't fall and stick 
itself upright on an end for that's nearly impossible, physics wise. Brilliant! Captain. 
That narrows down where the Tardis needs to look. Earth-Trans 1976 or Earth-Cis 1976."

"Which one are we from then?" Marco asked. 

Briefly, the Doctor looked up from his control fiddling in confusion at the question. "What?"

"Which Earth....because Amy knows us and we know her?"

Then he got it. "Oh, you're all from Earth-Meso. The one these two bounce distance 
Earths from Cap's idea, parallels and mirrors."

"But aren't we from your Earth with its accurate history?" Mike Stoker wondered.

The Doctor realized how things sounded to his guests. "Well,...no... But it doesn't
matter, not really. Thing's'll always feel true and right for anyone living, as long as they're
on their own Earth of origin, regardless." he tried to pass off convincingly. He failed.

"What aren't you telling us?" Johnny finally pegged.

The Doctor minced with his bowtie around his neck and swallowed uncomfortably.
"It's a well known time law...that....people have to keep to their correct birth planet 
universe or the whole planet, pastwards or futurewards or... sideways...like the ones 
we're headed to, will soon cease to exist."

Johnny's eyes narrowed in growing anger. "How soon, is soon?"

"One day? I'm guessing?  No one really knows for sure, because it's never happened 
before now. Anyone who was effected if it has happened before, plus their whole world,
would have become extinct, leaving behind no record or account of it, for others to find."

"Why just 24 hours?" Chet Kelly gruffed.

The young Timelord took a stance, with a grip with both hands on the lapels
of his tweed jacket. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface 
of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, 
“Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, 
and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” 
and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was 
morning—the first day."  the Doctor spoke.

"That's the creation story from church I heard once when I was a kid." Chet
said. "It's a myth about God we created to explain how we came to be. Are 
you saying the Creation's First Day is some kind of law of physics?"

"It is the First Law. He said so. I met Him personally." the Doctor whispered, 
studying his feet. "And I believe Him. He's the one who told me which Tardis 
was mine."

The gang became affronted and angry and everybody began to talk at once,
entirely convinced now that their host was utterly manic or crazy, to be
claiming to have met God.

"Maybe he's sick." Roy theorized, eyeing up the Doctor.  

"Oh, I don't doubt that at all, not since I lost Gallifrey." he mumbled at DeSoto.
"But that won't effect us accomplishing what we need to do. Are you with me?"

"Do we have a choice?" Gage said sarcastically.

"Always." said the Doctor, tenderly and a bit hurt. "I never keep travelling 
companions against their will. When they want to go, I ...let them go." he said, 
his lip trembling with remembered sadness.

"Who have you lost, who was a companion, whom you couldn't return back home?" 
Hank asked, almost accusingly, feeling the tug of a captain's responsibility for his 
crew.

The Doctor saw a brief flash of memory of blond hair, tears falling from black
masacara wet eyes, and hands pounding on an empty warehouse wall in a forever 
empty world that had locked her up. Away from him... for all time. 
He dropped his head and couldn't look at Stanley. "I paid the harshest penalty of all 
for my sins. It was...entirely her choice, captain, to my absolutely ..horrified dismay." 

Roy stepped forward in sympathy, reaching out, but not...quite.. touching the Doctor. 
"I'm sorry. What was her name?"

"Rose Tyler. And I will never, ever, forget her."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack Harkness mumbled to himself, even as he stumbled over crushed city
and freshly dead bodies from Earth-trans, killed by a truly pan-global earthquake.
It was broad scope death, caused by all the underground fault lines of the planet 
giving way all at once over the course of seven days. "I have not forgotten her, 
Doctor. Her arrival here killed this world and all of its people, and you... Didn't. 
Care!" he spat.

Back in the Tardis, the Doctor heard the telepathic rage Jack's temporal watch sent
to the Tardis. "But I did care. It tore me down to my bare roots." he whispered, 
touching a control panel to feel the message more clearly. 

"Not enough!" Jack shouted into his watch. "You left her all alone and just walked 
away."

Sucking in a breath, the Doctor lifted his hand away from the console to break the
connection. 

DeSoto noticed. "You okay?"

"No. But I'm going to handle it." the Timelord told him. "I must. The issue is being
forced."

"By Jack?" Chet asked.

"Oh, yes." said the Doctor.  "It seems that if I want to save Amy and Rory, 
...and Rose, I have to give myself up to him in the end, for their lives."

Captain Stanley was practical. "But how are we going to find him? You said you
couldn't reach where he was going. That he went into a world wide disaster of 
some kind."

"A dead Earth, destroyed by earthquakes. Earth-trans."

"Weren't tremors happening on our Earth? Middle Earth or whatever you called it?"
Chet asked. "I thought you said Cardiff, England was gone."

"On Earth-Meso. Yes. But that was just a ripple, a mere shadow of the 
planetary extinction event that's already coming, for breaking the First Law."

"So what can we do? We're just firefighters." Marco Lopez shrugged. "All of this
science fiction is almost outside of our ability to understand it."

"You don't have to. There's only one task facing you. Go save their lives."
 
The Tardis finally thunked down with a thud, jarring everybody's balance off of their feet.

"We're there." said the Timelord. "The Tardis says we're about fifty meters away from the 
jettison room. The corridor segment should be located within a quarter mile of it. Use 
your fire trucks. I can't go outside, but you can, since you're from a corollary Earth.  
Go save Rory and Amy. And I'll do what I can for Rose from here."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jack Harkness aimed his wrist watch about like a GPS tracker and soon came up with
two blips on a map. "They're still alive. And that means there's still plenty of blood to
get from them." he chuckled gleefully. "She'll come for that. It's the smell of home,
all of that surging companion blood. Right, Rose? And any companion scent, she knows, 
means the Doctor's near. She'll come running!"

Harkness found the Tardis corridor next to an office building fire in a smashed parking lot
in downtown Los Angeles. Broken sky scrapers leaned like a pile of sticks off of each
other, barely visible in the vast clouds of smoke rising from the destruction.  He
crawled inside and found Amy and Rory tucked safely away from any flames under
an angle of cracked and tented roundel wall.  They were both unconscious. Rory had
a hideously broken arm below the elbow. Amy had a large bruise on her forehead.

Harkness quickly felt for their pulses, "Good carotids, kids. You'll be fine." Jack set about
repositioning them carefully so they could breathe freely in the rarified air the Tardis
components were providing for them.  "I just need a pint each. That should be enough
paint for me."   He dragged out needles and two I.V. transfusion bags to fill.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the firefighters had donned their coats and had driven their vehicles out of the Tardis 
Code 3 with their lights and sirens, the Doctor reluctantly moved over to a box recessed 
into the Tardis console. He tapped the box lid once and its lid auto-opened. Inside, was
a test tube of cave water from a very special place.

The Tardis cloister bell began to sound. 

The Doctor glanced around the ceiling and the walls of his time machine and 
shouted. "I know this isn't the smartest idea, girl! But it has to be done! And
I can think of no better blood hound to track Jack than a weeping angel. He has
more life energy available as food for one, than any being ever born. I'm only 
a close second."

The bell tolled louder.

"Too late! I've already made up my mind!" the Doctor yelled at the Tardis.
He popped open the tube's cork with a thumb and quickly poured the liquid
contents into one of his eyes. "One embryo weeping angel, down the hatch!"

Before he felt the angel bite down on his optic nerve, he slammed a hand
down onto the Tardis's telepathic circuit board. "Not so fast, dearie. Look
at what I'm sensing. Do you sense Jack, too? He's a virtual smorgasboard.
Go get him through the watch's TV. Jack's tuned in. I know you can do it."

The Doctor screamed horribly as the weeping angel dimensionally shifted
out of his retina and into the telepathic frequency connecting the Timelord
to Jack Harkness.  He felt his hearts falter under the strain, and finally snap.

Darkness descended.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Stanley and the gang roared out of the Tardis in the Engine and Squad 51 with their lights flashing and 
sirens on full.  Hank squinted painfully the instant they were out in the open air.   ::There's no smog here?.:: Hank 
noticed. ::That can't be right. :: 

Next to him in the driver's seat, all thought Mike Stoker had of how they managed to fit back out the Tardis' door 
fled, when the first sight of this Earth hit them. Both vehicles screeched to a gravelly halt on a fractured avenue, 
stunned frozen at a view of disaster on a global scale.  Death and absolutely total destruction was brought into 
sharp relief under the hideously clear, white sunlight.  Stoker sucked in a deep breath and tightened his grip on the 
Ward's steering wheel, his eyes darting left and right. He tried to find anything even faintly familiar. Or anything alive. 

Heavy clouds of dust blew, howling faintly in the utter silence of what was left of an entire city. . All of the sky 
scrapers were shattered ruins, choked with perpetual fire or falling water from ancient, ruptured utility lines. Rubble, 
and crushed, rusted out shells of cars, were strewn in every direction. Snapped off palm trees were splintered into 
flattened shards and dried up brown. A fog bank of smoke and haze rolled continuously in a sharp, surprisingly cold 
wind. Breaks in it revealed buckled faultlines fissuring deep into the ground. The firefighters began to spot huge, 
debris covered crevasses every few yards. Some were still rumbling non-audible, body felt geological 
subsonics that terrorized their nerves. 

"Whoa.. No more driving!  Not over those." Stoker warned over their HT radioes, seeing the danger.

They stumbled out of the trucks and gathered instinctively into a protective circle with their backs turned towards 
each other' as they tried to cope with earthquake destroyed surroundings on a massive scale. A sour, dry odor
that Station 51's crew already knew very intimately, invaded their sinuses. What they thought were bits of building
among the mummified plants and trees were actually dismembered skeletons laying partially covered in tattered 
clothes by the thousands, amid the ruins.

"Madre De Dios!" Marco spoke in a whisper. "Is everybody dead?"  

Hank took in an analyzing breath of the stench."It's been more than a few days, guys. Or even a few months." 
Cap spoke quietly to the gang, to calm them. "Far more."

"It's got to have been many years since it happened." Roy added. "These corpses are stripped. No flesh left." he 
said, squatting down over one of them.

"I'm not seeing any insects. So what ... ate them?" Chet wondered, shivering.

"Whatever else that didn't die right away when these earthquakes came." Roy replied, squatting down to take a 
closer look at the nearest one littering the ground at their feet. "Probably scavengers, or if it was really bad, 
other...p--."

"Impossible... This is.... downtown L.A., Roy!" Gage gasped as he picked up a crushed and bent street sign that 
declared, "R-deo Dr--v-".  "Don't tell me nobody's left!  Even in the biggest catastrophes we've known, there were 
always survivors." 

"Does it feel like we'll find somebody to you?" DeSoto asked Gage seriously. 

Johnny looked away, feeling his gut instinct telling him that the answer wasn't just no, but also a resounding 
never again.

They were on a completely dead Earth. And it did not feel good at all to be standing on it.

Hank Stanley stepped between them to end the paramedics' continuing horrible debate. 
"Doesn't matter. These dead are dead. And all of the rest of whatever happened here, happened a very long time 
ago. It's time to protect and save the still living, okay? That's us and the four the Doctor said were here." 

"What do you mean four, Cap? Isn't one of them the dude that was hiding out in the ship that tried to blow us 
up?" Chet asked.

"Him, too." Hank barked. "We're not going to make any distinction between the good guys and bad guys. 
Any life is a life to be saved. We're firefighters, not Timelords or whatever the Doctor thinks he is." The cloying odor
of decay and traces of natural gas from a violently disrupted La Brea Tarpits immediately made them cough when 
the wind shifted and started blowing from directly downtown. "Masks!" Cap ordered. "Assume anything liquid is 
toxic! Pace it off in teams of two. Fan out in a search in a 360 from here!" he shouted, swinging a brightly 
colored fire axe down to bite and stick upright in the gray and white charred soil as a visual marker. "Stoker, you're 
with me. The Doctor said the ejection room landed very near the Tardis corridor that Amy and Rory were in 
when it broke off and....uh,.. fell to the ground. Keep on your radios and for God's sake, keep in line of sight! We're 
all we've got!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Jack Harkness splashed the last of the blood samples he had taken from Amy and Rory onto another line of rocks 
pointing the way towards the Tardis. "Come on.. Find me." he murmured. "Can't be hard. This is the smell of 
home, Rose. Where are you?" He spun about in place and eyed the horizon but saw nothing but gray stillness 
and dust. An inner part of him goose pimpled in morbid attraction for what he could never have, being surrounded 
by an entire world full of the dead. He finally started shouting after five minutes of impatient waiting. "Rose Tyler! 
Can you hear me?  I've finally found a way here!  I've come to bring you back!"

Harkness' voice echoed and bounced around the ruined skyscrapers surrounding him. But only silence answered. 

That, and the lonely wind.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Young Rose Tyler had found Harkness's irresistible alternate universe lure and had transmatted there.  How 
could she not?  The smell of blood in this world meant people were around. The thought of a body scent being 
used sickened Rose to her very core once she fathomed it. Grunting, she cast off the spent and smoking transmat 
watch that she had carried for so many years. It had served its single use purpose for which she had fiercely 
preserved its power. ::Am I still human?:: her mind whispered.  She had so very nearly forgotten herself.

Soon, she found them.

"I can h-hardly remember my family any more. B-But I remember that I was once a Companion." Rose said, her 
voice rough and cracking from disuse. She rushed over and crouched near where Amy and Rory lay unconscious 
in the shattered Tardis corridor. "I have to help them. They still have their Doctor. I will not deny their experiences 
with him." she sobbed, feeling their faces and necks and torsos, finally convincing herself that they were still truly 
alive and breathing. It was so, so strange to see flush, pink skin on someone else other than herself after so many 
centuries alone.  Rose Tyler grew alarmed over Rory's shocky pallor. She covered him with one of her tattered vestments, 
made from scavenged building flags, to give him much increased warmth. She didn't know these newcomers' names, but 
she still cared deeply and instinctively for the young man and the flame haired young woman all the same.  Her eye fell 
on the pair of wedding rings they each wore on their fingers. Rose unexpectedly started crying. She immediately 
understood that these two latest Tardis travelers, were husband and wife. It was a bond she thought she had craved 
during the final seconds she felt with the Doctor through the warehouse wall before the permanent dimensional rift closed 
down between them.

Every night following the cataclysmic armageddon of this universe's Earth, Tyler had been haunted over and over 
again by the last interrupted conversation she had had with the Doctor on that lonely beach in Norway on regular Earth. 
The Doctor had burned up all the power of his Tardis to reach her to have just another two minutes together. Then, Tyler 
had still been absorbing the enormity of her sacrificial consequence when she told the Timelord that she loved him. He 
had gotten a look in his eye that both warmed and wounded her as he opened his mouth to reply to her confession. ::I---::
was the last word she heard spoken from his lips. Even roiling now in her abandonment trauma, newly awakened because 
of Jack's arrival, Rose would not go to Harkness face to face. Not yet. She remained completely hidden from his line of sight. 
From what little she knew of the man, he could not be trusted when he was in one of his....moods. It usually happened 
after he had died and then lived again. ::Brain scrambling. Happens to Timelords, too, when they regenerate.:: she
remembered more clearly than pictures.

A scuffle of feet on rocks startled Tyler. Rose shrank down behind a cracked roundel, jarred from its place on a corridor 
wall. ::Jack found me anyway?!:: she quailed, cringing lower and lower.  Suddenly the shadow on the wall doubled, 
and quadrupled and kept on dividing until six figures were outlined on the wall in the lurid sunlight. Tyler suddenly knew 
them for what they were.  Rescuers!  She shot to her feet and went runnng forward. "They're over here! Hurry!" Rose 
shouted, weeping and frantic. Her mind was racing. ::How did the Companions who were a married couple, get separated 
from the Doctor?:: she wondered. ::Did something happen to the Tardis?::

At her feet, Amy Pond began to moan faintly. "Hey,.. you..." Rose urged, shaking one of the woman's shoulders firmly.
"Can you tell me who you are? Wake up!"  

Pond didn't open her eyes.  Rose left her and ran outside.

It was only then the Station 51 gang saw her frantic arm waving from the opening in the end of the Tardis corridor and they 
rushed towards her with medical gear and rescue equipment. 

'Hang on! Don't move!" Cap shouted at her as they carefully closed the distance between them from the torn road to her.
"Now show us the way."

Rose did, pointing out the safe places to step on the debris piles. 

Soon they were there.

'So glad you're here. I don't know what else to do for them.." Rose sniffed, very worried as Roy and Johnny each took
a patient. 

Roy quickly felt for a carotid on both. "They're alive. He's the worst of the two. Acute shock, Johnny. She's hypothermic."

Gage took off his turnout coat and passed it over to Rose. "Cover the girl with this. Try not to move her head and neck 
when you do it. See that forehead injury on her?"

"Yes..." Tyler replied. "It's from when they fell after the bomb went off."

Cap guided Rose to her feet once she was through with Amy, to give his men more room to work. "How did you 
guess that, Miss--?"

"Tyler. Rose Tyler. It's because I know the both the Tardis and not so much about the creep who's here after me."

"Are you talking about Jack?" Mike asked as he got some oxygen set up for Amy and Rory off their engine's resuscitator.

"Who else? Captain Jack Harkness. Born in 5094, he linked up with the Doctor and I uninvited one day.  Under a Dalek 
influence, I brought him to life, and I guess he stayed that way. Fell in battle once in 1892 but didn't die. Guess 
he's been a thorn in the Doctor's side ever since..." she broke off, suddenly weak kneed. "How long has it been?"

"How long has what been?" Hank asked. 

"How long have I been trapped on this side of the wall?" Rose asked, getting suddenly wobbly. She attempted to sit 
down. "I can't ...remember that." she said, looking up in distress. 

Chet thought she was light headed and sat down with her, holding her shoulders. "Easy, there. I got you. Just get
your breath back a little. You're safe now."

"Okay.." she sobbed, trying not to panic. "Am I? Am I really?"

"You're not trapped, Rose." Roy tried to explain to her as he rushed through examining Rory and Amy. "The way out is
right over there. We just came through it. Don't you remember?" He turned to Gage. "We might need to start
an I.V. on her, too."

"I'll get one ready." Gage nodded.

Tyler's eyes cleared a little from their glazed look. "No, you don't understand. I'm from another place. Another time. 
Another Earth."

"Oh. We sort of know about that." Kelly nodded, not smiling, but fearful. "The Doctor explained part of it to us before we
came out here to find Amy and Rory."

At the sound of their names, Rose closed her eyes and smiled. "Ah, still from good ol' England and Wales you
choose." she sighed, about the Doctor's source place for his companionship choices.

"What?" Chet asked, only half hearing her.

"Nothing. Where is he, Mr. Kelly?" she asked, reading Chet's name tag. "Sorry. I'm feeling better now. Just a little hungry.
There's been no more food left for the longest time."

Roy frowned at that. He hadn't seen anything edible outside since he arrived. His attention was diverted when Amy Pond 
reacted faintly to the pressure he put on her scalp wound to control some bleeding. "Amy? It's Roy. Lie still. You've got a 
cut on your forehead and a possible concussion."

"R--?" she moaned, unable to open her eyes.

"He's fine." Gage said loud enough for her to hear him as he firmly splinted Williams fractured lower arm. "Nothing
major that a little intravenous fluid won't fix. You worry about yourself now. Do you know where we are and what 
happened?"

Pond finally growled. "Nowhere good because Jack happened! " She batted feebly at his hands, but the effort soon wore
her out. "So cold.." she shivered.

"We can fix that." DeSoto promised. "Here's some oxygen. Breathe normally."  Then Roy nodded at Stoker to put 
on the non-rebreather mask.  "Cap, we'll be ready for two stokes in a couple of minutes. We're not finding any
spinal problems on these two."

"Mike, Marco. Get them set. And keep an eye out for our mysterious friend, too."

"Yes, do that." said Roy. "I don't think we want him in here." he said, pointing to two puncture wounds that
looked for all the world like needle marks in the inside bend of the elbow on their patients' arms. "Looks like he 
either drew samples or injected something into Amy and Rory's circulatory systems before we got here."

Tyler spoke up, still shivering heavily inside the shelter of Chet's fire jacket. "They're all right that way. They're taps 
for blood. Jack knew I'd be scanning for fresh signs of living human beings with my watch----"  she broke off at a noise. 

A slow, deep sonorous bell-like chime began to echo in the distance. "Oh, no.."  Rose shot to her feet, driven by a 
familiar fear.  And a little rage. The sounds got louder.  

"That's the cloister bell again?" Cap wondered. "What now?"

"It can only mean one thing. More trouble!" Tyler frowned. "Everybody stay here!" she shouted.

"Wait!" Chet yelled after her.

"Let her go, Chet. The worst first." Cap hissed, waving a glove towards the still forms of Amy and Rory. 
"Rose won't go far. There's nowhere else to go."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rose Tyler heard him before she saw him.  

"Rose Tyler." Jack's voice came softly, and with genuine relief and affection.

Tyler whirled in place on the shattered street to face him. He stood about twenty feet away and the bloody i.v. bags
he had drained were still in one hand.  Jack Harkness's long gray, wool, flight captain's trench coat was too clean for
the pulverized, dessicated surroundings that seemed somehow to be a vile testament to how this world had died.

"Why?!" she demanded of the immortal man. "Amy and Rory have never harmed you."

"A litte blood donation's nothing." Jack shrugged. "I needed a calling card so we could meet up."

"They were hurt and needed every drop of their blood to cope with their injuries, Jack." Tyler spat.

"So glad you remember my name. It's been five centuries after all. I'm surprised you've been able to hold it all
together for this long." Harkness quipped mildly, grinning with a show of wide white teeth and dimples. "A mere blink.
Believe me. I know how fast...or how slow.. time flies." he groaned with the memory of hundreds of very personal 
physical deaths that he had lived through.

"Just a sec.." Rose murmured, cocking her head in incomprehension, holding up a finger. "Five hundred years?  
How come I'm not like one of--" she gestured vaguely at the pile of skeletons serving as this world's forever eternal 
lawn ornaments. "How come I'm still young.. and not starving?!" she demanded of him. "There's been nothing to eat!"

The overly handsome, sandy haired Jack Harkness grinned and spread out his hands wide and indicated the landscape.
"None of this effected you, Rose, because these are consequences of a paradox and you are the paradox. Didn't the 
Doctor warn you of that kind of thing before you decided to let go of that gateway handle?"

"I didn't decide to maroon myself!" Rose roared at him, her eyes watering in sadness and pain. "My fingers....slipped."

"And off you went my poor, dear, suffering, Rose Tyler." Jack soothed, turning his arms into a welcoming embrace to
hold her. "Please don't be mad. The Doctor couldn't rescue you from your fate. But I can. Because of my knack.
I can go anywhere in time, if I'm borrowing a Tardis, and not destroy where I've been for exactly one day."

Rose broke down and hugged him, crying out blindly, and in whole body shuddering gasps of relief. 
"Oh, Jack. Am I truly still alive? Why do I feel s-so dead inside."

"I wish I knew." Harkness whispered, wondering what that kind of death felt like.

Tyler flinched when the distant cloister bell seemed to ring loudly inside of her skull as the Tardis re-established
telepathic contact with her through Jack's watch.  "The cloister bell! Something's terribly wrong, Jack. We have to get
back to the Tardis." she sniffled, distraught. "Right now!  She wouldn't be reaching out if everything was fine."

"Shhh. It's all going to be okay. I've only just found out that the Doctor walked away into the next phase of
his life and and didn't tell anyone about what happened to you. Can you ever forgive me that I took so long to
get you?" Jack whispered into her dusty hair.

She was more than soul deep tired. So Rose Tyler just sighed wetly and closed infinitely heavy eyelids as she 
rested her chin on top of Jack's strong shoulder, finally resting.  Her weight in his arms seemed lighter than 
a feather. "I want to be back so badly, Jack." she whimpered, giving up the fight.

"I know. You will be. Very soon. That's it. Sleep." Harkness said, sweeping her off of her scarred, bare feet 
and into his arms. "I'll carry you home..."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
The gang reversed the engine and the squad's courses back up along their own tire tracks once Amy and 
Rory's stokes were placed on top of the squad's roof racks and the Ward's hose bed. Stoker was not surprised
when the Tardis doors automatically opened up and enveloped them both at the same time to admit them 
back into her interior spaces.  There was a loud pair of thuds as the empty Tardis corridor and the jettison room 
were antigravity tractor retrieved from the landscape and re-absorbed back into the Tardis infrastructure. 

Cap jumped down from the engine cab, still scratching his head over why the cloister alarm of the ship was
still sounding. There was no sign of fire. Amy Pond, in her half conscious state, seem to grow more and more 
agitated while being exposed to it. Roy had his hands full keep her strapped down in the stretcher basket 
once she was off loaded.

The paramedics continued their medical work while the others gathered around Hank. 

"That's odd." said Cap. "The Doctor's friends are safely back. So where's our host? He was worried worse 
than sick about them before we left."

"Why is the power off in here?" Mike Stoker wondered. "It's so dark."  

"Doesn't seem to be effecting the cloister bell." Chet shared. "It's still at a steady clang."

Puzzled, the gang pulled out their flashlights and started looking around.

"Doctor?!" Cap called out into the dimness. Then he spotted a pair of large shoed feet and a single limp, pale 
hand curled palm up on the floor next to the Tardis console. "Oh, sh*t. Marco, Chet, Stoker, get over
here. Man down." he said quietly, hurrying forward. "Roy! Johnny! The Doctor's over here. He's unconscious!"

Hank slipped in a puddle of water that seemed to have come from a curious stone vial that lay broken open
nearby on the floor grilling, but Cap paid it no mind as he regained his balance enough to crouch down 
by the Doctor's slack head. 

They rolled him over onto his back. Cap opened an airway and listened for any sign of breathing. There
was none. "I was afraid of that."  He quickly filled the Doctor's lungs with a couple of breaths of his own
while Mike Stoker felt around Hank's face and hands to check for a pulse. "I can't find it." the engineer said
after a few long seconds.

"Try again. We don't want to hurt him." Hank spoke softly, trying not to alarm Amy Pond who was very 
groggy and almost awake and certainly well within ear shot.

Stoker dug nimble fingers again into a neck groove. "There's nothing here, Cap." he reaffirmed. 

"Okay. Marco. Start in. Brisk and even. Not too deep." Stanley ordered.  "He's not a big man."

Lopez scrambled over on his hands and knees, with a pair of clothing shears in this teeth. Stoker snatched 
them out of his mouth and cut away the Doctor's bow tie and shirt to bare his chest area around the C.P.R. 
Lopez started delivering. Cloth parted beneath Marco's laced fingers, revealing cool, clammy skin to the
touch.

"Cap?!" Johnny called out in the pitch black.

"We need absolutely everything, Johnny. Now." Hank answered evenly, bending down to reposition the 
Doctor's head farther back to get in even more air. It seemed to take everything he had in his lungs to 
get even the tiniest amount of chest rise under his monitoring hand. "Either I'm getting distension into 
his stomach or he's got a lung capacity the size of King Kong in there." he complained. "Even with a good 
seal."

"I'll get suction ready." Gage promised, working fast to prep cardiac stimulants and a bolus of bicarb.

Stanley heard the sound of two stokes being dragged closer to where he and the others were working on
the Doctor's resuscitation. Then a green light chased away the shadows as Roy DeSoto flipped open the
lid of the Tetronix datascope. The gang could finally see what they were doing. "I'll grab a paddle read."
Roy told the others. "Keep going. Don't stop. Cap, can you switch to an ambu yet?" he asked Stanley who 
was still giving breaths, mouth to mouth, to the Timelord. "Might solve the volume issue."

"Yeah." Cap said, grabbing the squeeze bag and mask out of the trauma kit Chet Kelly just flipped open.
"Kelly, hook up the O2, would you, pal?"

"On it." the curly haired fireman replied, complying.

Roy gelled up the plates on the defibrillator paddles and placed them in framing position. All eyes lifted
to the monitor screen.  DeSoto was in analyze mode, his concentration absolute. "There."

"It's a V-fib.. I think." Johnny said, tapping the trace in light they were seeing. "But it's fuzzy, like it
was doubled up or something. Hang on, might be a calibration problem." he told them. He fiddled 
quickly with the yellow glowing cardiac sync button.  "Okay, try now." he said to DeSoto, who contacted 
skin again around Marco's pumping arms. Johnny blew out a frustrated sigh. "Still duplicating. What the
hell?!"

"But it is V-fib, Johnny. If you read just one of those traces, that's what it says."

"Yeah." Gage agreed, flicking air out of an epinephrine syringe to make it ready for use. "It does."

"I'm shocking based on that alone." Roy decided.

"We've got nothing to lose." Hank said. "He's already dead."

Beside them, Amy Pond reacted vocally, still half conscious. She moaned in fright, without words.
Her eyes fluttered as if she were fighting to wake up.

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5....." Marco counted out.  Cap hissed in a breath of pure oxygen on the bag. "This
is working better, Roy."

"Glad to hear it. Wish this was... Charging... 100,...200,...300,.....400 watt seconds.." DeSoto said.

"Clear!" Johnny warned.

Everybody lifted hands off of the Doctor. Roy delivered their first countershock firmly. He immediately
reapplied the paddles to get another reading. "...You're kidding.  Nothing again but that wavering
malfunction trace artifact."

"I see it." Johnny affirmed. "Weird.. Want another charge?"

Right then, Amy Pond sucked in a breath between her teeth and snapped partially awake. "Two..he's
got two.. Work for two.." she mumbled weakily..

"What?" Chet asked her, leaning close to her mouth. 

She cried out desperately, but just gurgled, before blacking out again.

"Amy...Amy!" Chet shouted at her, shaking her arm. "Can you hear me? Say it again for us. Amy?"

But she had fallen unconscious once again.

"Damn.. I'll just bet whatever she was trying to say was important.." Kelly grunted.

Johnny's eyebrows shot up. "Wait a minute! I finally remembered! Not human! He did say that, Roy! 
What impression did you get just now from Amy? Anything? Use your connection!"

Roy paused in his aid, focusing inwardly. Finally he spoke. "...two hearts?" he guessed. 

"Where?" Johnny said, looking down in discovery at the Doctor's chest.

DeSoto jabbed a finger with surety. "There and there. Parallel to each other."

Cap shouted. "Modify the C.P.R., Kelly you take the right side, Lopez, slide over to the left."

"Going opposite or at the same time?"  Chet wondered, moving quickly to take his shoulders over
his hands position.

"I don't know. Just start in! I guess it wouldn't matter, they're two separate blood pumping muscles." 
Gage complained in high nervous energy. "It would make sense if they could work independently."

Roy began to smile about a minute into their change of tactics. "The traces are getting more coarse.
Variable V-fib now. Not so flat."

"That's good." Cap said. "His chemistry in there's starting to work again. Are you going to use any 
meds?" 

Both Roy and Johnny glared at him. "Are you crazy?! He's an alien!" Gage sputtered. 

"We don't want to poison him on top of everything else going wrong." Roy agreed.

"Sorry." Hank backtracked, pushing in another breath with the bag around Marco and Chet's double time
compressions. "Just do something! Don't just sit there!" Cap shot back.

"Alternate!" DeSoto ordered Kelly and Lopez. "Left, right, left, right, this time. I'll shock through his chest
from the sides through his ribcage walls underneath his arms. Get ready to pull away!" he warned.

Kelly and Marco found their tempo, bobbing up and down in opposition to each other's compressions
over each heart location above the Doctor's nipples.  "Come on, Doctor. We figured your weirdness out.
Come on! Fight for it!!" Gage urged their dying patient, close to his ear.

The firefighters didn't even look up as the Tardis doors opened to admit Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler.
The doors were still set on friend recognition mode. She was still cuddled, exhausted, in the cradle of
his arms.

The immortal man woke Tyler up with a soft tap to her cheek and let her regain her feet to take in
the situation with him.  "He's ...actually dead?!" Jack asked the room at large in full horror at
the reversal of what had often been true during Harkness and the Doctor's adventures together.

"Is he.. my Doctor?  He looks so.... terribly young.." Rose whispered, in shock, moving 
to kneel beside him. She sat close by to where they were working, without touching him. "Jack, please
tell me that he didn't die before I got back. I really, really need to hear something good." she sobbed
in a little girl's voice through the grime on her face.  "Jack?" 

Harkness's eyes were being blinded by tears. "I didn't know.. I didn't want this.." he pleaded, watching
the Doctor's death scene unfold.

Roy DeSoto called the shot. "This is as coarse as we're going to get with it. Johnny, go!"

Again Gage counted out the increasing power as the Datascope paddles recharged to top energy level.
"100, 200, 300,....4!"

"Clear!" DeSoto yelled. He shifted the paddles to the armpits so their plates were lined up
horizontally, facing each other in line with the Doctor's two hearts. "Shocking!"

Jolt!   A bright blue spark erupted from the Doctor's mouth, followed by a thin, glowing yellow trail
of energy fire. Then it slowly pulled back inside of his lips as if it didn't want to leave.

At the same second, the Tardis cloister bell ceased in mid-gong into silence.

Following the defib's electrical delivery, the Tardis internal lights popped back on all at once and 
surged into blinding brightness, just as the Timelord opened his eyes and sucked in a monstrous, 
tortured breath of his own. 

"He's alive!" Rose Tyler celebrated, tears streaming down her face. She reached over, clutching
one of his hands into a tight grip on her dusty lap.

Stoker dug the fingers of two hands to the Doctor's neck on both sides. "Pulses on both." he
announced. 

Quickly over getting startled by the Doctor's sudden return to consciousness, Cap placed the mask 
of the ambu bag back over his nose and mouth to keep up a flow of oxygen. "Easy, Doctor. Do 
that again."

"...wh*ttt?..." the young old alien said in a half gurgled wheeze, his face still purplish blue.

"Breathe!" Hank roared at him.

The Doctor grunted, turning colors, his eyes started unfocusing.

"Not good enough." Roy told him, reaching over with a hand to help Cap push in a deep bagful of
oxygen into the Doctor's lungs. Three hands worth finally did the trick and the Doctor at last got
enough ventilation to work with. His breathing reflex kicked into normal and active.

Gasping, he jerked upright to a sitting position, coughing and grabbing his chest in a scramble
of terror. "Dead!  I was dead..  I was..."

"Not anymore." Harkness said with glee.

"You never were to me." Tyler smiled.

The paramedics and Station 51's firefighters celebrated his return to life with a few fist pumps
in the air, before they circled tightly around him to be sure that he stayed that way.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a few minutes later.  At his insistence, the firefighters were sent away to a different
room to afford the Doctor a little privacy with his old companions. Amy and Rory were safely
sleeping in the Tardis Zero Room, being watched by her carefully. They had already been healed.

The Doctor had been seated upright in a chair to rest while he recovered. The Timelord was fairly
chatty. "She turned back on because she could sense telepathically that I hadn't left her." he grinned
as he shared his story with the firefighters. But then his gaze fell on Rose Tyler. The irony of his
previous words weren't lost on him. "Rose Tyler... Is that really you?" he whispered, a tear glistening
from the corner of his eye. 

Rose smiled, eyes watering. "In the flesh. I'm still full of that stuff. It was sorely lacking in the other
place." She drew up his hand to her cheek. 

"...oh, wow..." he murmured, overwhelmed.

"I'm really here, Doctor." she whispered, eyes full.

"By my side.." he said weakily, smiling. "Oh, Rose.. I am so very sorry I never tried to come get you." 
he beamed, his hearts aching with remorse.

"Don't be. I was not harmed. Well, not physically anyway, according to Jack. All's well that ends well. 
That world's back. I saw it on the Tardis monitor. And no one has died just because I visited there." she 
said proudly.  "The only two hurt are Amy and R--" she broke off, realizing what it was that she had
said. 

The Doctor's memory of their hijacking suddenly returned full force. Tyler caught wind of his anger first
and just barely managed to keep the Doctor in his chair when he verbally confronted Harkness.

"Why did you do it, Jack? Why?!  You could have killed them in the process! You could have come to me
first, to explain your plan about rescuing Rose. I'm sure the Williamses would have agreed to be blood 
letted freely. But you crossed the line of no return when you set off that bomb in my Tardis. You hurt my
companions, your own friends, purposely!" he gasped.  He didn't fight the nasal cannula he still wore under 
his nostrils. In fact, the panting Timelord used its pure oxygen source to steady himself mentally. "What
have you got to say for yourself?!"

"Doctor I.. I lost everyone at Torchwood. They...all died and it was entirely my fault.." his voice broke, his
lower lip quivering. "I was so sick, I was still reeling from the hundreds of times the pirates, whose ship 
you abandoned me on, killed me out of experimental curiosity. My brain didn't get all back into one piece,
until I had Rose Tyler safe and in my arms. Can't you see what happened to me?"

The Doctor was cold, in voice and in body. "No. I don't think I ever will, Jack."

"This is all your fault, Doctor. You abandoned Rose. You abandoned me. Why did you leave me behind?"

"Because I was afraid of you, Jack. A man who can't die isn't natural. In most cultures a being like you is
considered pure evil. I am from one of those."

"You made yourself my judge?! What gave you the right?!" Harkness shouted angrily.

"It was my duty to act to, at least, protect myself and my companions from you.  Because I knew your 
sense of humanity and morality would grow thinner and weaker as time went on." the Doctor said quietly, 
his tired eyes burning with intensity. "Just look at what happened today. What I feared back then has 
happened."

"I could have killed you, Doctor. But I didn't. That bomb could have, just as easily, been placed in the Eye 
Of Harmony, in the Tardis's power source. All I needed was a Tardis' shell to reach Rose. I didn't need 
you."

"But you needed those firefighters and someone to fly them there, and my companions' blood as bait.
I think we're done here, Harkness. Ever grateful you restored Rose to me. We have a lot to talk about in
future, she and I. But you're leaving, one way or another." the Doctor promised, lowering his head in a 
dangerous stare.

"You can't threaten me." Jack scoffed. "I can't be killed off."

"Oh, know well that I can end you, Jack. I finally figured out how."

"With what?" Harkness laughed.

The Doctor suddenly lifted two trembling fingers to his lips and blew out a sharp whistle, like calling 
a dog. 

Jack Harkness let loose a cry of pain when something powerful, stony and hideous leaped into life
from the face of his transmat watch and landed on the deck next to him. A full sized, menacing, snarling 
angel sculpture was suddenly looming over Jack. Harkness froze in place instinctively and quickly, he
decided not to blink. His eyes were now locked with its. "Why are you doing this to me, Doctor?"

"You've overstayed your welcome. I'm showing you the door." The Timelord continued his world weary 
speech, a lesson that he was very sad to give. "You see, a weeping angel feeds on the energy of life by 
sending its victims back into time to relive the rest of their displaced lifetimes in the past, until they die. 
Then it moves on. But you, it can send back the length of your life so far, to exactly when you were born, 
if it's hungry enough." the Timelord said.

"But my life is infinitely long, Doctor."

"Exactly. Then you better not let it touch you.  Your immortality will end if you're sent back in time 
eons before your actual, physical birth.  I'm pretty sure your knack will abandon you if you travel to 
any time before your own existence."

"How did you figure that one out?" said Jack, feeling a drip of sweat tracing down his forehead, 
threatening to cause an eye blink with its stinging salt.

"Because you've never done it. And what's more tempting than anything than to have a chance to tamper 
with history itself with a personality like yours?" the Doctor got up and moved, with the help of Rose, over to
the main Tardis door controls. He activated the switch which opened them. "Just go. Before I change my mind.
I never want to see you again, Jack Harkness."

The immortal man of time wearing a flight captain's wool trench coat finally backed away, feeling the steps
with the backs of his boots as he retreated. When he was half way there, the Timelord spoke again. "Ah, ah ah!
The watch. If you want a rat's chance in H*ll of escaping this charming, starving baby angel, drop it now. It
can use anything like a working TV like a game of hopscotch, didn't you know?"

The heavy black faced transmat device in the thick leather wrist band thunked with a hollow thud onto
the metal grilling of the floor. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to magnetically grapple hook it into
his hand.  He waved bye bye fingers. Once.

The Tardis doors closed when he had gone and the second they did, the angel broke free of the prey 
lock on it and plunged through a last remaining dimensional crack remaining unsealed between 
them, and after Jack.

Rose jumped for the dematerialization toggle and activated it.

Outside, on Earth-trans, Jack Harkness leaped foward around the weeping angel pursuing him, and
got a grip onto the Tardis before it disappeared. The life predator reached out with frightening speed
and almost touched him, when the time machine shifted into the travelling vortex.

Laughing, Jack Harkness let go of his final deliverance ride with the Doctor, and fell away into the 
maelstrom of time, heading for the future.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was quiet in the Tardis two days later.

Rose Tyler leaned into the Doctor's arm and smiled. "What do you mean they couldn't remember?"

"Those firemen, Amy, Rory..." the Doctor elaborated. "Their memories of our little adventure are
all gone. How are yours, by the way?" he asked, poking her on the nose with an affectionate finger.

Rose screwed up her face. "Still there, a bit. But fading. So what happens now? Didn't we trick fate
or something equally nasty, and have to pay the price?"

"No, because we're not in an alternate universe and we're no longer breaking the First Law. He's quite
forgiving, you know. I was counting on that in a big way." the young Timelord murmured seriously as
he flipped switches and buttons until the Tardis was in hover mode above Carson California, 1976, on
Earth-meso.

"Hmm? That's America."

"Right first guess." the Doctor beamed.

"Why are we here?" Tyler wondered, studying the view on the Tardis monitor that the Doctor had 
called up. It was showing a squat brick building with black rafters and a white front garage door.
Dimly, through the smog smeared windows, she could see two somethings shaded red and silver
through the glass.

"I want to see if they're safely back to their own lives and adventures." he replied.

"See who safely back?" Rose asked, genuinely puzzled.

"The Station 51 gang. The firemen paramedics who saved my life, and Amy's and Rory's?" he dangled.

Rose just shook her head which the Doctor mirrored in a like frowning gesture. "Oh, never mind.
No longer important. Different strokes for different folks. Fancy a swim?" he invited.

"Oh, in the pool?" chortled Rose. 

"Yes, Quite. With Amy and Rory. They're cooking up something called a BBQ afterwards. Are you coming?"

"In a hearts' beat." Tyler grinned happily.


FIN


 
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