Author's Note: New story. This was originally going to be a one-shot, but as I wrote it, I realized that it was getting far too long for just one chapter. Thus, I've decided to split it into two. I hope to have the other chapter up early next week. Timeline-wise, this takes place right after The Invasion.

I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who reads/follows/favorites/reviews this. It is always appreciated. :)

Chapter One

"Well Zoe, Jamie," the Doctor beamed as he started to cut a fruit tart into slices. "Are you happy with the spot I chose for our picnic?"

"It is beautiful," Zoe nodded, looking out at the field of grass and flowers in front of her. "Sometimes it's difficult to believe that such tranquil spots exist."

Jamie nodded in agreement. After dealing with the Cybermen yet again on Earth, the Doctor decided that he wanted a day of relaxation and suggested an afternoon picnic. The TARDIS materialized on a planet the Doctor recognized as Killinas and he immediately declared that he had found the perfect spot for their outing. The three of them worked together to make a picnic lunch from the TARDIS' food machines and walked out to discover an empty field on a hill overlooking a small metropolis.

They spread out a blanket onto the ground and settled down to enjoy their food. As they ate, they chatted about their recent adventures, devouring everything they had packed. Now they were getting ready to enjoy their dessert.

"What do you mean?" the Doctor asked, quizzical. He plopped pieces of tart onto Zoe's and Jamie's plates before serving himself a particularly large piece. "There are lots of places like this. Yes, a whole galaxy of planets where the scenery is lovely and the people are friendly and delightful."

"Aye, so why dinna we ever end up at any of those places?" Jamie asked between bites.

"The fact that we keep materializing onto hostile planets or among aggressive alien species does seem like a statistical anomaly," Zoe replied, nodding. "That is, if the Doctor's information is reliable."

"What do you mean 'if my information is reliable', Zoe?" the Doctor said with a deepening frown.

"Statistical…?" Jamie said, carefully sounding out each syllable.

"Statistical anomaly," Zoe repeated. "You could say that it's a mathematical concept for something that doesn't fit within an accepted system. For example, given how many destinations in time and space we could visit, it is very unlikely that we would keep landing in the middle of bad situations purely by accident."

"Oh aye that," Jamie said, sticking a thumb out toward the Doctor. "Well that's nae to hard to figure out. Nae when ye've seen him try to control the TARDIS as many times as I have."

"Jamie, sometimes I think you have no confidence in me at all," the Doctor sighed.

"Och I have plenty of that," Jamie replied. "I jes know that ye cannae steer any sort of vessel and there's no point in ye trying to say otherwise."

The Doctor frowned even more as he glowered a little at the piper. However, he remained silent, deciding to focus on finishing his portion of tart instead.

"Doctor, are we going to visit that town in the valley?" Zoe asked.

The Doctor shoved the last bite of tart into his mouth and brushed the crumbs off his lap. Then he craned his neck toward the buildings in the distance and squinted his eyes.

"Yes, I see no reason not to," he replied. "Killinas is a neutral planet, mainly used as a refueling and supply port for merchant class ships, so there should be numerous representatives from a variety of planets. An ideal place to do some exploring, I should think. I'm sure that there will be plenty to do, even in a modest place such as this."

Jamie peered at the town for a few seconds before rolling his eyes. A part of him was tempted to suggest that they stick with where they were and to leave as soon as the sun began to set. The words had even reached the tip of his tongue before he finally discarded the idea. One of the Doctor's defining traits was his curiosity. Thus, when Jamie saw the way the Doctor studied the city below and the way the little man's eyes twinkled, he knew that there was little chance of talking him out of an impromptu expedition.

'Mebbe we'll be lucky and they'll actually be friendly for a change,' he mused. Jamie glanced at the town again and shook his head.

'Aye, and mebbe I'll inherit a castle and become the chieftain of a giant, wealthy clan. That's jes as likely to happen.'

As soon as Zoe finished packing up the remains of their picnic, the Doctor grabbed the basket and nearly skipped back toward the TARDIS. Despite his not unfounded apprehension, Jamie continued to hold out some hope that things would go smoothly for once.

Three hours later, Jamie was running along the city streets, silently cursing himself for not voicing his objections to this excursion when he had the chance.

After they had returned the picnic basket to the TARDIS, Jamie, Zoe and the Doctor made the short trip to the town and met with the local Killinasians who lived there. As the Doctor had anticipated, the natives were friendly toward them as were many of the other aliens who were visiting the planet. At first it looked as if this would end up being a purely relaxing trip after all.

That is, until the crew from a newly arrived merchant ship showed up: a merchant ship that just happened to have a couple of Chameleons as members of the crew.

Jamie ground his jaw as he followed the Doctor and Zoe around another corner. At the time, most of the Chameleons had appeared to accept the ultimatum the Doctor had given them after their failed attempt at invading the Earth and stealing the identities of numerous people. The Doctor had even given them some ideas and methods for their scientists to pursue in order to help the Chameleons gain their own identities. Still, it had turned out to be a slow and painful process. Thus there were some who were bitter over the Doctor's interference against their original plan.

Unfortunately, the Chameleons from the merchant ship's crew were among those who held a grudge. They had recognized the Doctor and Jamie and had gone back to their ship to steal some weapons so they could carry out their revenge. After that, it didn't take long for the Chameleons to find them again and start firing, leading to a frenzied chase through the city streets.

"Come on! This way," the Doctor shouted over his shoulder.

Zoe and Jamie quickened their pace, trying desperately to keep up with the Doctor. As soon as the shooting started, Killinasian security guards ran after them to break up the disturbance, but the Chameleons managed to dodge them while stubbornly continuing in their pursuit.

Another pair of shots rang out and Zoe stumbled. Jamie grabbed her before she could fall and pulled her along. They had lost sight of the Chameleons, but he could sense that they were still on their trail.

"Doctor," he called out.

"Come on, Jamie," the Doctor said, waving him over. "Hurry!"

The Doctor waved his hands at a fence in front of him. Once Jamie and Zoe joined him, the young Scot looked over to see that the fence acted as a barrier to a steep drop to a grassy field below.

"There's a ladder," the Doctor said, pointing downward. "It probably leads to the network of tunnels under the city. The Killinasians build their power stations underground and there are relay stations that feed into them scattered about within the network. "

Jamie glanced down and saw a metal and wire ladder that swayed back and forth. The wires holding it together creaked as it moved and the rusted metal of the rungs made a sharp, crackling ping when they struck the wall.

"Ye mean, ye want us to go down that?" he said. "Ye cannae be serious."

"Of course I am," the Doctor said. "I've been to this planet before, and I can tell you that those relay stations are always manned with security guards."

"I see," Zoe said, her eyes lighting up. "So if we can get down there, we can take shelter at the nearest relay station until those other guards catch up to the Chameleons."

"Yes, exactly," the Doctor said. "Now come on, we haven't a moment to lose. You go first; Zoe and we'll follow you."

The Doctor carefully helped Zoe onto the ladder while Jamie continued to keep a lookout for the Chameleons. He could still hear the distant sounds of shouting and occasional gunfire. He had hoped that the security guards would catch up to their adversaries, sparing him the necessity of going through with the Doctor's plan. But it didn't take him long to realize that their pursuers were getting closer.

"Jamie, come on," the Doctor bellowed, breaking him out of his reverie. Jamie scrambled over to the edge of the fence. By this point, the Doctor and Zoe were close to the bottom of the ladder. The Scot looked behind him one last time before taking a deep breath, carefully climbing over the fence and reaching a foot down onto the first rung of the ladder.

His foot slipped upon making contact, but Jamie managed to steady himself. He gripped the wire frame with clammy hands. He took a moment to catch his breath before he moved his hands away from the wires and onto the rung in front of him so he could begin his descent.

"Hurry up, Jamie," Zoe yelled.

Jamie did not answer or even dare to look at her. He kept his eyes firmly locked onto the rungs, slowly and methodically making his way downward. Suddenly, a strong gust of air blew past, whipping the ladder about violently. Jamie stopped moving and closed his eyes as it smacked against stone wall. Most of the impact was absorbed by the wire frame, but the way his hands ached told Jamie that some of the skin on and around his knuckles had been peeled away by the rough surface. The ladder twisted about in the wind for another few seconds before finally hanging listlessly again.

"Jamie!" the Doctor shouted.

Jamie's eyes were still clamped shut, his breaths short but deep and his heart pounding harder and harder. His mind told him to move, but his body remained frozen. A memory had resurfaced, a memory that had stolen his ability to move away from him.

He and the Doctor were trying to rescue Zoe and their recent acquaintance Isobel from Tobias Vaughn's security forces and had ended up on the rooftop of a particularly tall building. A helicopter from UNIT had rolled out a rope ladder for them and it had been Jamie's job to climb down to help the girls out the window and up to safety. At one point, he had started to slip off, but had managed to hold on and to get Zoe and Isobel onto the roof quickly if not elegantly.

All of that had been bad enough to deal with, but then Vaughn's guards continued to shoot at them, making it necessary for all of them to climb up the ladder again, this time into the helicopter hovering above them. The Doctor, Isobel and Zoe had been able to make it to the helicopter before the shooting became too intense. However, just as Jamie was reaching for the ladder, a stray bullet nicked the hull. The pilot decided that they had run out of time and started to veer away as soon as Jamie had gotten onto the ladder.

Fortunately, the motion of the helicopter had not been too violent so Jamie was able to hold on and inch his way up toward the cockpit. His mind was empty of any other conscious thought. All he could perceive was the blood roaring in his ears and a painful constriction in his chest. Only the Doctor's voice imploring him to hold on was able to break through that blank space in his brain.

Eventually, the crew in the cockpit combined forces and pulled the ladder up toward them with the Doctor grabbing hold of Jamie's arms and pulling him in to safety. It wasn't until later, when Zoe related what had happened to one of the soldiers at UNIT headquarters that Jamie remembered any of this. Before that, the only thing he could vividly recall was what felt like a cold hand gripping his heart and how helpless he had felt while dangling in the air.

That same icy pressure and feeling of vulnerability had a hold of Jamie again. He knew that he had to climb down to the ground in order to escape the Chameleons, but his fear had paralyzed him.

"Jamie!" the Doctor called out to him. "Jamie, please you must hurry."

"Doctor, what's wrong?" Zoe asked. "Why isn't he moving?"

Suddenly, Jamie felt the ladder shift again. He finally opened his eyes and looked down to see the Doctor preparing to climb back onto the ladder. He swallowed hard.

"No Doctor!" Jamie yelled at him. "Keep back. I'm coming down."

Jamie took a shuddering breath and started to move down the ladder again. His hands trembled as he grasped the rungs, but he managed to keep a steady pace.

"There they are! Down there!"

Jamie looked back up to see the Chameleons standing above him, their guns raised. He tried to scramble the rest of the way down the ladder. However, the two of them immediately took aim and fired simultaneously. Seconds later, Jamie felt as if a white-hot spear had burned through his right shoulder. His eyes widened as he let out a short cry. His hands no longer seemed to work and they slid off the rungs as his body fell backward.

"Jamie!"

For a second, Jamie felt as if he was floating through the air. However, that was soon replaced by the sensation of air rushing past him as he fell. He felt like he would faint, but was suddenly jarred back into full consciousness when he made contact with the ground. His head seemed to bounce off the grassy field with his injured shoulder sending ripples of pain throughout his entire body upon impact.

Jamie's eyelids fluttered as his eyes rolled back. He thought he heard voices shouting all around him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. As his vision started to blur, he could see the Doctor's face hovering over him and could tell that his lips were moving. But it was as if the words were coming from somewhere far away. Then the Scot felt a cool hand touch the side of his face.

"Jamie," the Doctor said, his voice sounding like he was underwater. Jamie tried opening his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

'Doctor….'

Then there was nothing. The darkness had overtaken him.