Sorry this chapter is so late; life just got in the way. Thanks for the reviews and support! Any questions, comments, or constructive criticism, please review or PM me

Quick A/N: To my dear guest reviewer: So I should probably be upset at that quite a bit rude review that you left and though you probably aren't even reading this, you are right. I am not the best out there and I really could use a creative writing class to better my writing. But there is an unspoken rule on Fanfiction that if you don't like, don't read.

The Girl in the Fireplace

Willow grit her teeth together and let out a growl as she grabbed the railing to keep from falling over as the Tardis materialized. The past few days, after deciding that she and the Doctor should take a break, had been rather difficult for the both of them and she was struggling with containing her feelings for him, to not run into his arms at every opportunity.

She saw the Doctor's hand itch to reach for hers as he passed by her to throw the Tardis doors wide open and she winced, catching the pain etched on his face as he retracted his hand back to his side, knowing that she was the one that had put it there.

Rose took Willow's arm as she moved past her red-haired cousin, knowing that she was hurting, but also that Willow needed to figure out what she wanted. Plus, it didn't help things that they had slept together (Rose and Willow told each other everything; there were hardly any secrets between them).

"Amazing," Willow breathed out suddenly and unintentionally, looking around in the room of a very futuristic spaceship. She flushed when the Doctor turned to beam at her shock and awe and gave him a shaky smile in return.

"It's a spaceship! Brilliant, I got a spaceship on my first go!" Mickey said excitedly, bouncing on his toes like a little kid at Christmas.

"So did Rose and I," Willow said off-handedly. "Though, technically speaking, it was a space station."

"Looks kind of abandoned...Anyone on board?" Rose asked in surprise, looking around to see…well…no one.

"Nah, nothing here," the Doctor said. "Well…nothing dangerous. Well…not that dangerous." He paused for a moment. "You know what, I'll just have a quick scan...in case there's anything dangerous." The Doctor went over to a control panel in the center of the room, and started pressing buttons.

"So, what's the date?" Rose asked. "How far we gone?"

"About three hundred years into your future, give or take," the Doctor said.

"I thought you were s'pose to know everything," Willow said in a teasing voice before biting her lip. The Doctor gave her a weak smile before pulling a switch, turning the lights on and opening the roof, giving them a spectacular view of the of the stars outside.

"Not everything," the Doctor said, smiling at her, though Willow saw it as more of a grimace. "So, fifty-first century. Diagmar Cluster, you're a long way from home, Mickey! Two and a half galaxies!"

Mickey was standing by a porthole, gazing at the sight in awe while Rose walked over and placed her hands on his shoulders, smiling, knowing just how astonishing that first trip was. Willow was trying not to be a Debbie Downer, letting Mickey and Rose enjoy the trip without them having to worry about her, but she was starting to feel suffocated, like she couldn't breathe. It seemed like it was too much, too soon and that maybe she should have taken that break on Earth like she had planned to in the first place, get some space from the object of her misery that was in the same room as her.

"Dear me, had some cowboys in here!" the Doctor said, breaking Willow out of her thoughts and her mini panic attack. "Got a ton of repair work going on."

Normally, Willow would have been peering over the Doctor's shoulder, trying to understand what it was he was doing, which was going through the control panel, throwing things over his shoulder, but she kept back, leaning against the Tardis, chewing on her lower lip, feeling a slight headache coming on.

"Now that's odd, look at that," the Doctor said, surprised and curious. "All the warp engines are going...full capacity! There's enough power running through this ship to punch a hole in the universe...and we're not moving. So where's all that power going?"

"Where'd all the crew go?" Rose asked, looking around as the Doctor leaned forward to mess with some knobs and buttons on the control panel.

"Good question, no life readings on board," the Doctor said, frowning.

"It's like they just disappeared," Willow said, moving to peer down a hallway that broke off the room they were in. Suddenly, a warm, delicious smell entered her nose and she inhaled deeply, wondering what it was; it smelled like brisket, or something.

"Well, we're in deep space; they didn't just nip out for a quick fag," Rose joked.

"Nope, checked all the smoking pods," the Doctor said, thinking she was serious, and Willow rolled her eyes at his cluelessness, something she adored about him. She inhaled deeply again, wishing she had a good home cooked meal and wishing that Jackie actually knew how to cook.

"Can you smell that?" the Doctor asked, smelling.

"Yeah, someone's cooking," Rose said, her mouth starting to water at the smell.

"Sunday roast, definitely!" Mickey said, getting excited at the prospect of finding food on board. The Doctor fiddled with the controls, pressing another button to open a door behind the four of them.

"It's beautiful," Willow said after walking through the door, looking around the new room. It was styled after what she thought was the 18th century, including a beautiful fireplace that she was going to have the Tardis replicate in her room as soon as they got back to the blue box.

"Well, there's something you don't see in your average spaceship," the Doctor said. "Eighteenth century! French! Nice mantle. Not a hologram," he said after using his sonic screwdriver on the fireplace and Willow felt a flash of pride at actually getting the century right.

Willow over to the fireplace, seemingly transfixed by it. "It's very pretty," she breathed, running a hand over the mantle, excited to have a fireplace in her room now.

"Not even a reproduction, this actually is an eighteenth century French fireplace. Double-sided, there's another room through there," the Doctor told her, his eyes softly watching her, enchanted by her wide, doe-like eyes, taking everything in.

"There can't be," Rose said, looking though a porthole on the same wall as the fireplace and saw space. "That's the outer hull of the ship, look."

The Doctor suddenly crouched down, pulling Willow with him, forgetting for a moment that they weren't together, looking through the fire into the other room. A little girl with long, blonde hair was looking back at them, catching Willow by surprise for a moment, thrown by all the wonders that she still saw traveling with the Doctor.

"Hello!" the Doctor said.

"Hi, Sweetheart," Willow said, smiling at the beautiful girl of about twelve, memories flashing through her head of when she had been that age.

"Hello..." the young girl said back, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked her.

"Reinette," the girl answered, still looking astonished that this man and pretty lady were in her fireplace.

"Reinette, that's a lovely name. Can you tell me where you are at the moment, Reinette?" the Doctor asked encouragingly.

"In my bedroom," Reinette said with suspicion.

"And where's your bedroom? Where do you live, Reinette?" the Doctor asked.

"Paris, of course!" Reinette said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Paris, right!" the Doctor said.

"Duh, Doctor! She has a French accent," Willow said, tapping his head playfully before removing her hand as if it was on fire, a bolt of pain shooting through her chest.

"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, what are you doing in my fireplace?" Reinette asked the two strange people.

"Oh, it's just a routine...fire check. Can you tell me what year it is?" the Doctor asked.

"'Cos we really don't know," Willow added kindly, smiling at the girl so she wouldn't think they were some sort of crazy people.

"Of course I can! Seventeen hundred and twenty seven," Reinette said smartly.

"Right, lovely! One of my favourites...August is rubbish though. Stay indoors. Okay, that's all for now. Thanks for your help. Hope you enjoy the rest of the fire. Night, night!" the Doctor said.

"Good night, Reinette," Willow said, smiling at the girl.

"Goodnight Monsieur, Mademoiselle," Reinette said with a soft smile, standing up as the fireplace darkened. The Doctor stood up, and then helped Willow to her feet, his hands itching her keep her small, soft hands in his own, but dropped them.

"Well, that was interesting," Willow said, slightly stunned, but smiling.

"You said this was the fifty-first century," Mickey pointed out, looking between the spaceship and the room beyond the fireplace, wondering how the hell it was possible.

"I also said this ship was generating enough power to punch a hole in the universe. I think we just found the hole. Must be a spatio-temoral hyperlink," the Doctor said and Willow snorted to herself at his obviously made-up word, shaking her head at his antics that would never change.

"What's that?" Mickey asked, raising his eyebrows in confusion.

"A special word for him," Willow said, smiling to her friend.

"No idea," the Doctor answered Mickey, smiling at Willow before moving his gaze to the floor, his hearts hurting. "Just made it up. Didn't wanna say 'magic door'."

"And on the other side of the," Rose said, before shifting her voice deeper, "'magic door' is France 1727?"

The Doctor nodded and looked back at the fireplace, Willow seeing the curious look in his eyes. He took off his coat off and tossed it, accidentally hitting Willow in the face with it.

"Oh, thanks," Willow said sarcastically, before tossing it to the side with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest uncomfortably.

"Well, she was speaking French. Right period French, too," the Doctor said, trying not to notice Willow standing to the side, chewing on her lip.

"She was speaking English, I heard her!" Mickey exclaimed, his face still full of confusion.

Rose draped her arms around Mickey's neck, causing Willow to smile gently, despite the PDA causing her heart her hurt. The Doctor took Willow's hand and pulled her back over to the fireplace, purely for explorative purposes, but he knew he was lying to himself.

"That's the Tardis—translates for ya," Rose explained to Mickey, as Willow let out a tiny squeak at being dragged by the Doctor so suddenly, trying to ignore the tingles that spread up her arms, breaking her out in goosebumps.

"Even French?" Mickey asked, excited.

"Yep," Rose said with a proud grin, giving her boyfriend an excited grin, glad he was there with her.

Willow leaned up against the fireplace uncomfortably, meant to be looking closely at it, while she discreetly watched the Doctor, who was knelt to the side, examining said fireplace. The wall that the fireplace was on suddenly started to rotate, taking the Doctor and Willow to the other side, the latter letting out a surprised yelp.

"Gotcha!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly, grinning manically.

"Doctor! Willow!" Rose called out, darting into action, concerned for her cousin and friend, who disappeared from sight. The fireplace finally finished turning, putting the Doctor and Willow in a dark bedroom, which Willow recognized as the little girl, Reinette's, bedroom, who was asleep on her bed.

"Wow," Willow breathed, moving to the window to see a magnificent view of Paris outside, and sighed happily. "I've always wanted to go to Paris."

She felt, rather than saw, the Doctor come up and stand behind her and shivered at his presence before he turned around and suddenly said, "It's okay! Don't scream! It's us, it the fireplace man and lady. Look."

The Doctor took Willow's hand gently (Ah! She wished she had a jacket because of the goosebumps that spread!) and lit a candle by Reinette's bed with his sonic screwdriver to send a warm light throughout the room, but the poor girl still looked scared out of her mind.

"It's okay, Sweetheart," Willow said in a soothing tone, sitting on the bed by Reinette, taking the young girl's hand gently in hers. "Don't you remember us?"

"We were talking, just a moment ago," the Doctor said. "We were in your fireplace."

"Monsieur, Mademoiselle, that was weeks ago. That was months!" Reinette said, her eyes wide.

"Really? Oh," the Doctor said, surprised, walking back over to the fireplace, knocking on the stone, his ear pressed to it, listening.

"He's a bit odd, isn't he?" Willow asked the young girl, who still looked frightened, trying to ease her nerves. "But don't worry; he's a good guy, I promise."

"Must be a loose connection. Need to get a man in," the Doctor said with a frown.

"Who are you both? And what are you doing here?" Reinette asked, a curious gleam in her eyes that Willow knew was in her eyes all the time.

"I don't know, Honey," Willow said with a smile. "One moment we were one place, and the fireplace spun around and took us somewhere else, kinda like in a spy novel."

Reinette looked even more confused, secretly wondering what a 'spy novel' was, as the Doctor remained silent staring at the clock on the mantle with his mouth open slightly.

"Okay, that's scary..." the Doctor said and Willow was immediately on alert, knowing that tone of voice. Trouble was about to show its ugly face and her primary concern was going to be looking after Reinette, making sure she was safe.

"You're scared of a broken clock?" Reinette asked skeptically.

"Just a bit scared, yeah. Just a little tiny bit. 'Cause you see, if this clock's broken, and it's the only clock in the room...then what's that?" the Doctor said, turning to look at Reinette and Willow, trying to keep calm, but Willow could see the terror in his eyes.

"Oh, shit," Willow hissed to herself as she listened carefully, hearing a faint ticking sound. It started to get louder and Willow looked around in a bit of a panic, but couldn't find the source. Reinette was shaking in fear beside her, so Willow hugged the little girl to her chest, determined to keep her close by.

"'Cause you see that's not a clock. You can tell by the resonance. Too big. Six feet, I'd say. Size of a man," the Doctor went on.

"What is it?" Reinette asked fearfully.

The Doctor checked behind the curtains in the room, but found nothing and started speaking more quickly, almost going into a rant, "Now, let's think. If you were a thing that ticks and you were hiding in someone's bedroom, first thing you do: break the clock. No one notices the sound of one clock ticking, but two? You might start to wonder if you're really alone," he said, Willow giving him a glare, as he was scaring Reinette even further.

The Doctor then moved to the bed, crouching down, pulling out his sonic screwdriver, and found the source of the ticking. "Both of you stay on the bed. Right in the middle. Don't put your hands or feet over the edge," the Doctor instructed, a serious look in his eyes.

"It'll be okay, Honey," Willow reassured the young, scared girl, placing a hand on her head. "Doctor!" she cried suddenly in concern, as the Doctor was thrown backwards, after peering under the bed. Something appeared out of the corner of Willow's eye and she tried to shield Reinette from its gaze. It was a tall...robot-thing, dressed in French period clothing, along with a creepy-looking mask and long, curly-haired wig. Willow looked at the Doctor with wide eyes, and then looked down at Reinette.

"Reinette...don't look round," the Doctor whispered to the young girl in Willow's arms. "You stay exactly where you are."

The Doctor slowly stood up, looking at the figure that stood stiffly beside the bed. He then glanced between Reinette and the figure then back and forth again, his eyes wide as he realized something. "Hold still, let me look..." the Doctor told Reinette, gently taking Reinette's head out of Willow's grasp and looked into her eyes with an extremely disturbed expression on his face. "You've been scanning her brain!" the Doctor said, shocked. He looked into Reinette's eyes again, before saying, "What, you've crossed two galaxies and thousands of years just to scan a child's brain? What could there be in a little girl's mind worth blowing a hole in the universe?"

"I don't understand...it wants me?" Reinette asked, pulled out of my grip slightly to look at the figure. "You want me?"

The figure's head twitched to the side, and spoke in a mechanical voice, "Not yet. You are incomplete."

"'Incomplete'? What's that mean, 'incomplete'?" the Doctor asked.

The droid didn't answer, but it still stared at Reinette, who was still sitting in Willow's arms, which Willow found very creepy. "Don't look at it, Honey," she whispered to the girl, trying to save her from any future nightmares.

The Doctor, irritated, stood up and pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the droid, saying, "You can answer her, you can answer me. What do you mean, 'incomplete'?" The droid didn't answer again, but instead, circled the bed, facing the Doctor.

"Theta!" Willow called out in warning, standing up, her concern for the Doctor outweighing the fact that she had just addressed the Doctor by his name, which she had studiously avoided doing since they had separated. The droid extended a blade that shot out of its arm and Willow hissed in a breath, keeping Reinette behind her.

"Monsieur, be careful!" Reinette said, peeking over Willow's shoulder.

"Just a nightmare, Reinette, don't worry about it. Everyone has nightmares," the Doctor said with a manic grin.

The Doctor had a plan in mind, but he couldn't leave without Willow, though he knew that Willow would never leave Reinette in danger. He took his ex-lover's hand, pulling her backwards suddenly as the droid (he was sure it was some sort of robot; its moves were too jerky to be an actual person or alien) took a swipe at him, slashing its blade through the air, missing the couple by inches. Willow let out a hiss of pain as her back suddenly collided with the fireplace, trapped with the Doctor against it as the droid jerkily made its way towards them.

"Even monsters from under the bed have nightmares, don't you, monster?" the Doctor taunted with a smug look. The droid slashed at them again, but the Doctor was prepared. He pushed Willow to the left side of the mantle, he, himself, jumping to the right, narrowly missing the blade, which imbedded itself in the stone of the mantle, trapping the droid.

"What do monsters have nightmares about?" Reinette asked curiously. The Doctor made sure that Willow was on the rotating platform before he took the opportunity to turn the fireplace again as the droid struggled to free it blade, jerking its arm back.

"Me, ha!" the Doctor exclaimed in glee as Willow grabbed hold of the mantle, protesting leaving Reinette by herself and in danger.

"Doctor! Willow!" Rose cried out in relief, rushing forward a bit as the fireplace spun around to the spaceship side again.

"But we can't just leave Reinette by herself!" Willow growled out, but the Doctor ignored her as he ran off to grab a large object from the wall, which he used on the droid that had suddenly freed itself, instantly freezing the thing in ice.

"Excellent, ice gun!" Mickey exclaimed appreciatively.

The Doctor tossed the 'gun' to Rose, and then said with a grin, "Fire extinguisher."

"Where did that thing come from?" Rose asked, looking with wide eyes at the droid. Willow backed away from the droid, scared that it would jump to life again (having seen way too many horror movies that ended badly when the main character thought the monster was dead and had been standing too closely to it), before bending slightly to peer into the fireplace, worried about Reinette, only to see darkness on the other side.

"Here," the Doctor said, indicating to the spaceship around them.

"And there," Willow said shakily, pointing to the room beyond the fireplace.

"So why is it dressed like that?" Mickey asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Field trip to France, some kind of basic camouflage protocol—nice needlework! Shame about the face," the Doctor said, before he walked over to the droid and pulled the mask and wig off of it. Willow hissed a breath full of air through her teeth, backing even further away with wide eyes. Inside a clear head shape, Willow saw what looked like a very large clock, with gears moving and ticking; Willow thought it looked like a clear clock-egg thing.

"Oh, you are beautiful!" the Doctor exclaimed excitedly and Willow couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his schoolboy giddiness, despite her fear. Mickey and Rose edged closer to the droid for a better look, but Willow steered clear of it, knowing how dangerous it was if it got loose again. The Doctor put on his glasses (yeah, the ones that made Willow swoon, which she tried to fight) to examine the droid more closely.

"No really, you are, you're gorgeous! Look at that! Space age clockwork, I love it! I've got chills! Listen, seriously, I mean this from the heart—and by the way, count those—it would be a crime, it would be an act of vandalism to disassemble you," the Doctor said.

"Since when does that bother you?" Willow asked the Doctor, half sarcastic and half serious.

The Doctor grinned at her then said, "You know me so well, Love. That won't stop me." Both his and Willow's smiles disappeared, as what the Doctor said set in, freezing Willow in place and Rose gave her cousin a concerned look. The droid creaked to life, scaring the shit out of Willow, then teleported away. Willow looked around the room, afraid that the droid would magically appear behind her as the Doctor put his sonic screwdriver away and walked back over to the fireplace, getting ready to go back to the other side.

"Wait for me, Doctor," Willow said after realizing what he was about to do; she was determined to go back through and check on Reinette, to make sure the little girl was alright.

"Stay here this time, Willow. That was a short range teleport, can't have got far. Could still be on board-" the Doctor said, shaking his head at Willow and she narrowed her eyes at him, taking a step forward.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"Don't go looking for it!" the Doctor said, pointing his finger at Willow, Rose, and Mickey, a serious look in his eyes and she felt a childish urge to disobey his orders.

"Where're you going?" Rose demanded.

"Back in a sec," the Doctor said, activating the fireplace.

"You'd better protect her, you ass!" Willow called, as the fireplace turned back to Reinette's side, the Doctor disappearing from view. "Nice to see you guys again," Willow said wearily to Rose and Mickey, as Rose looked down at the fire extinguisher she was still holding.

"You too," Mickey said with a smile, and then looked at Rose, knowing the look in her eyes. "He said not to look for it..."

"Yeah, he did," Rose agreed.

"But when do we listen to the Doctor?" Willow asked with a growl, catching on to what her cousin was planning. She saw another extinguisher on the wall and pulled it down. "Besides, we're just going to explore the ship."

Mickey smiled before grabbing yet another one off the wall and said, "I like your way of thinking."

"Now you're both getting it!" Rose said, laughing as the three of them took off out of the room in a jog. They went down corridor after corridor, keeping an eye for the droid, but saw nothing.

"I'll bet it's in the eighteenth century," Willow said finally, after they had walked in silence, shifting the extinguisher, which was getting slightly heavy. She then laughed as Mickey looked down yet another corridor, doing an Indiana Jones-style roll to the other side to show off. He kept on rolling around like a dork until he caught sight of a surveillance camera, watching him.

"What is it?" Willow asked, wondering why he had suddenly stopped.

"Are you looking at me?" Mickey asked the camera.

"It can't hear you, Mickey," Willow scoffed, before thinking. "Unless there's someone on the other side to watch the security cameras, like that droid, for instance!"

Mickey suddenly jumped backwards, squeaking in alarm and Willow aimed her fire extinguisher, thinking he was in trouble. "Look at this," Mickey said, instead and Willow huffed at the false alarm. Willow lowered her sort-of weapon and leaned in with Rose for a closer look, freaked out by what she saw.

"That's disgusting," Willow breathed out as she looked at the very real eyeball looking back at them, roaming over their faces.

"There's an eye in there. That's a real eye," Mickey said in horror.

"Yeah, we can see it," Willow said. "See? Get it?" She snorted at her own pun, which was her coping mechanism to this freak show, before frowning as the eye retreated back into the wall.

"That's horrible, Willie," Rose said with a shaky smile, trying to ease her cousin's nerves.

"What can I say, Rosie? I think I've spent too much time with the bonehead we travel with," Willow said faintly, before listening carefully to a strange sound. "Does anyone else hear that?"

What sounded like a faint heartbeat came faintly from a nearby wall and Rose bent down to a small circular cover in the bulkhead and tried to pull the cover away. It scalded her hand and she yanked her hand back, hissing in pain.

"Let me try," Willow said, gently pulling her cousin back, who was cradling her hand to her chest. Willow pulled the sleeve of her purple blazer down over her hand and tried to pull the cover back; it opened to reveal a human heart with wires and pipes attaching it to the ship.

"What is that?" Mickey wondered. "What's that in the middle there? It's like it's wired in."

"It's weird," Willow said, peering closely at it with squinted eyes, trying to figure out just what it was.

"That's a heart, Mickey...that's a human heart," Rose said with disgust.

"What the hell have we stepped into?" Willow wondered with horror in her voice. This place was like a damned fun house in a carnival, which actually terrified her. Shaking her head, trying to rid the picture from her mind, Willow started off down the corridor again, with Mickey and Rose behind her, feeling sick to her stomach.

"This is creepy," Willow said, a chill running down her spine, as the cameras were watching them. "So fucking creepy."

"Maybe it wasn't a real heart," Mickey said, trying to ease the two females.

"Course it was a real heart," Rose said with a scoff.

"Looked real to me," Willow said faintly. "Unfortunately."

"Is this like normal for you two? Is this an average day?" Mickey asked, looking around.

"Life with the Doctor, Mickey—no more average days," Rose said as they stopped outside a window that had a room from the 18th century on the other side of it.

"It's France again," Mickey said in total disbelief, his mouth gaping open. "We can see France."

"I think we're looking through a mirror," Rose said, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Like a two-way mirror coppers use," Willow said as a door on the other side of the room (18th century room) opened and a man that Willow recognized to be the King entered, followed by two servants.

"Blimey, look at this guy. Who does he think he is?" Mickey asked with a snort, looking at the pompous man.

"King of France," Willow answered at the same time the Doctor did (he had appeared behind them) and flushed when he sent her that grin that made her knees weak.

"Doctor," Willow greeted him with a nod, trying to appear as if his presence hadn't bothered her at all.

"Oh, here's trouble. What you been up to?" Rose asked him with a teasing tone.

"Oh, this and that," the Doctor said, moving to put an arm around Willow's waist before his hand dropped back down by his side. "Became the imaginary friend of a future French aristocrat...picked a fight with a clockwork man...Reinette asked about you, Willow."

A horse whinnied around the corner before Willow could answer and what she saw totally stupefied her, even more so than the magical fireplace had.

"What the f-?" Willow started to ask, but the Doctor threw a hand over her mouth, a look of warning in his eyes that just screamed, 'Language!'.

"Oh, and I met a horse," the Doctor said, retracting his hand with a look of disgust when Willow bit/licked it.

"Ooh, it's so beautiful!" Willow gasped, moving forward to pet the pure white horse; she'd always been fond of animals, but lived in London, so never had the opportunity to see any.

"What's a horse doing on a spaceship?" Mickey asked, bewildered, staring with his mouth gaped open at the horse.

"Mickey, what's pre-Revolutionary France doing on a spaceship? Get a little perspective," the Doctor scolded.

"Be nice, Doctor," Willow chided, without much thought, stroking the horse's nose. The Doctor rolled his eyes at her fondly and turned to look through the window.

"See these? They're all over the place. On every deck. Gateways to history. But not just any old history...Hers," the Doctor said, nodding to Reinette, who had entered the room.

"Is that Reinette?" Willow asked in awe, still expecting a little girl.

"Yup," the Doctor said with a nod. "Time window...deliberately arranged along the life of one particular woman. A spaceship from the fifty-first century stalking a woman from the eighteenth. Why?"

"Who is she?" Rose asked, eyeing the beautiful woman in the room.

"Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, known to her friends as Reinette. One of the most accomplished women who ever lived," the Doctor said, sending a scowl at Willow when he heard her utter a, "Holy shit," under her breath.

"So has she got plans of being the Queen, then?" Rose asked, raising an eyebrow, not quite understanding how 18th century French royalty worked.

"No, he's already got a Queen. She's got plans of being his mistress," the Doctor said.

"Oh, I get it. Camilla," Rose said and Willow snorted, shaking her head at the thought of being married and having someone on the side; only the French…

"I think this is the night they met," the Doctor said, as the King left the room, leaving Reinette by herself. "The night of the Yew Tree ball. In no time at flat, she'll get herself established as his official mistress, with her own rooms at the palace...even her own title—Madame de Pompadour."

Reinette was now standing in front of the mirror, right in front of them, examining herself in the mirror, unaware that there was anyone behind it.

"Wow, she sure grew up," Willow said softly, remembering the little girl she had protected from the evil droid only hours earlier. The woman in front of her was beautiful; the kind of beautiful that made every woman hate their own body just by being in the same room and she self-consciously patted at her massively curly hair, trying to nervously flatten it.

"Queen must have loved her..." Rose said sarcastically, noticing Willow eyeing Reinette and trying to fix her hair and chuckled, patting Willow's shoulder, startling her cousin out of her funk she was in.

"Oh, she did," the Doctor said, either not noticing Rose's sarcasm, or ignoring it. "They get on very well."

"The King's wife and the King's girlfriend?" Mickey asked incredulously.

"France," the Doctor answered. "It's a different planet."

Willow's eyes widened at the sudden ticking sound coming from behind the glass, and squinted, looking at the clock on the mantle, noticing that it was broken.

"Doctor, the clock," she breathed out.

Willow sprang into action first, swinging the mirror around to enter, a part of her still seeing Reinette as a little girl that needed protecting; the Doctor was close behind her, taking the extinguisher from Mickey.

"Hello, Reinette. Hasn't time flown?" the Doctor asked, with a large grin and Willow couldn't help but feel burning jealousy in her gut; despite taking a break from the Doctor, she still loved him.

"Fireplace man!" Reinette exclaimed in surprise at seeing the Doctor appear out of seemingly nowhere.

"Hi, Honey. How're you?" Willow asked kindly, aiming her fire extinguisher at the robot.

"Mademoiselle, I remember you!" Reinette gasped out, not seeing the beautiful red-haired woman since she was a child.

"My name's Willow. Willow Tyler," she said with a smile, as she sprayed at the droid with her extinguisher, the Doctor followed suit, until the droid wasn't moving. Finished with the extinguisher, he tossed it back to Mickey before starting to examine the robot.

"Doctor," Willow warned as she stepped back as the droid started to move again, cracked and broken ice falling to the floor and shattering.

"What's it doing?" Mickey asked, stepping backwards and aiming his fire extinguisher at the slowly moving robot.

"Switching back on," the Doctor said, cautiously watching the droid. "Melting the ice."

"And then what?" Mickey asked, as if fearing the answer that he already knew.

"Then it kills everyone in the room," the Doctor answered simply, confirming Mickey's fear. The droid's arm suddenly shot out towards the Doctor's throat, trying everything it could with frozen joints, to kill the Time Lord, but the Doctor jumped back towards Reinette, avoiding the death hand.

"Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" the Doctor asked with a chuckle before addressing the droid. "Who are you? Identify yourself." The droid cocked its head, but just like the last time Willow saw the Doctor try and give it an order, it didn't answer. "Order it to answer me," the Doctor told Reinette without taking his eyes off the droid.

"Why should it listen to me?" Reinette asked, bewildered.

"I don't know," the Doctor said, following a hunch. "It did when you were a child. Let's see if you've still got it."

"Answer his question. Answer any and all questions put to you," Reinette demanded of the droid, her eyes narrowed.

The droid lowered its arm and said, "I am repair droid seven."

"So what happened to the ship, then?" the Doctor asked it. "There was a lot of damage."

"Ion storm, eighty two percent systems failure," the droid said.

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?" the Doctor asked.

"We did not have the parts," the droid said.

Mickey laughed and asked, "Always comes down to that, doesn't it? The parts?"

"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" the Doctor asked, furrowing his eyebrows, trying to understand.

"We did not have the parts," the droid simply repeated again.

"There should have been over fifty people on your ship. Where did they go?" the Doctor asked, starting to lose patience that the robot wasn't answering his questions, and it bothered him when he didn't know something.

"We did not have the parts," the droid was beginning to sound like a broken record player to Willow, who rubbed her temples, her headache that had been forming was steadily getting worse.

"Fifty people don't just disappear! Where-? Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew," the Doctor realized.

"The crew?" Mickey asked.

"It was real," Willow breathed out in horror, her stomach lurching and feeling like she was going to be sick.

"We found a camera with an eye in it...and there was a heart...wired in to machinery," Rose explained to the Doctor, also sounding nauseous.

"It was just what it was programmed to. Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it could find. No one told it the crew wasn't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelled of?" the Doctor asked.

"Someone cooking..." Rose said quietly and Willow gagged, feeling very sick to her stomach. She dropped her fire extinguisher, leaning a hand against the wall, trying to breathe deeply, fighting the urge to vomit on the carpet in 18th century France.

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque," the Doctor said and Willow gagged again, her gag reflex weak as she felt bile climbing up her throat and spat it out in a potted plant, hoping nobody found it. "But what are you doing here? You've opened up time windows, that takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"One more part is required," the droid said, jerking its head towards Reinette and Willow straightened, looking at Reinette, feeling a mixture of pity and concern for the woman; after all, she had known her since she was a little girl.

"Then why haven't you taken it?" the Doctor asked.

"She is incomplete," the droid said.

"What...so, that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, checking to see if she's 'done yet'?" the Doctor asked, anger flooding into his tone.

"Why her?" Rose asked suddenly and Willow furrowed her eyebrows, now wondering the same thing. Why Reinette? Out of all the crew that had been on board, out of all the people throughout all of time and space, why this one specific woman?

"You've got all of history to choose from, why specifically her?" Rose asked, following up on Willow's train of thought.

"Not to mention all of the crew," Willow said, wrinkling her nose up in disgust. "Why didn't any of their…urm…brains work?"

"We are the same," the droid said.

"We are not the same, we are in no sense the same!" Reinette stated, raising her voice in irritation.

"We are the same," the droid only repeated.

"Get out of here! Get out of her this instance!" Reinette insisted angrily, thrusting a finger in no particular direction to get the robot to leave.

"Reinette, no," the Doctor tried to stop her, but it was too late; the droid used the teleport and was gone, probably somewhere on the ship.

"It's back on the ship. Rose, take Mickey, Willow, and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does," the Doctor said ordered.

"Arthur?" Rose and Willow both asked, Willow asking a little harshly at suddenly being banished from his side, though she really couldn't complain, since she was the one that insisted they take a break. Fuck, it was such hard work to sort out her shit storm feelings and figure out what it was she really wanted and if he was worth getting hurt over.

"Good name for a horse," the Doctor simply said with a shrug.

"No, you're not keeping the horse," Rose said, exasperated.

"I like Arthur," Willow defended the horse, knowing there was probably a garden somewhere in the Tardis he could live out his life in peace and comfort.

"I let you keep Mickey! Now, go, go, go!" the Doctor said, trying to compromise with Rose, though he was only teasing.

"I hope to see you again, Reinette," Willow said with a small smile, before turning to guide Arthur back onto the spaceship after Rose and Mickey, trying not to spare the Doctor a glance.

"So, that Doctor, eh?" Mickey said suggestively.

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked, confused.

"Well! Madame de Pompadour. Sarah Jane Smith. Cleopatra. Willow," Mickey said, elbowing his friend, apparently not know about her break with the Doctor.

"I'd rather not comment," Willow said stiffly while petting/leading Arthur.

"Cleopatra—he mentioned her once," Rose said, looking back at Willow, who looked highly uncomfortable with the direction their conversation had taken.

"Yeah, but he called her 'Cleo'," Mickey said.

"Can we please not talk about this?" Willow begged, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. Those tears disappeared instantly, though, when the droid suddenly teleported right behind Mickey.

"Mickey!" Rose shrieked in concern for her boyfriend as two more robots showed up in the hallway with them.

Willow went to aim her extinguisher at one of the droids, but realized that she had left it in the 18th century when she had moved to throw up. Before she could think of a move to make, something stuck into her neck, knocking her out and sending her to the floor.

Willow groaned as she woke up, her head pounding and her mouth dry like fucking cotton and her stomach swirling. Cracking her eyes open and wincing at the harsh light in the room, she noticed that Rose and Mickey were still out and that there were droids all around, one of which was by her side, staring down at her, sending chills up her spine, and not in the good way. She tried to move her limbs, but they were chained and manacled onto a metal table, causing them to bite into her wrists and ankles when she tried to move. Beside her, Rose started to groan as she slowly woke up.

"Oi! Rose! Wake up," Willow hissed at her cousin, getting highly nervous at the droids looking at her, as they had yet to look away since she woke up.

"What's going on?" Rose moaned out. "Doctor?"

"Not here," Willow said. "Probably still with Reinette," she said a little bitterly, angry at the man that had claimed to love her fully and then spent as much time as he could with another woman as soon as they were on a break.

"Rose? Willow?" Mickey asked shakily from Willow's other side and she moved her head to see he was finally awake. "They're gonna chop us up. Just like the crew—they're gonna chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship. And where's the Doctor? Where's the precious Doctor now? He's been gone for flipping hours, that's where he is!"

"Where'd Arthur go?" Willow asked suddenly, looking around for the horse that she was worried about, trying to move her mind to something other than the Doctor with another woman.

"You are compatible," the droid said to Rose.

"Oh, no you don't!" Willow growled, struggling against her restraints, feeling a warm liquid drip down her fingers and harsh pain biting into her wrists.

"Well...you...you might wanna think about that. You really, really might because...me and Mickey and Willow...we didn't come here alone, oh no! And trust me—you wouldn't wanna mess with our designated driver," Rose hissed out, trying to buy time.

"Rosie!" Willow cried out, trying her best to sit up but was restrained by a droid, who put one of its arm knives against her throat and she let out a cry of pain as it nicked just below her ear.

"Ever heard of the Daleks?" Rose asked. "Remember them? They had a name for our friend. They had myths about him, and a name. They called him the..."

Willow heard a loud bang in the distance, followed by a male voice singing and she felt a rage like she'd never felt before pooling in her stomach and she jerked her head to the side to see where the fucker was coming from, causing the knife to slice another inch, guaranteeing some stitches.

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night..." the Doctor was singing drunkenly.

"Of course it's My Fair Lady," Willow hissed out to herself, feeling a bit like the Hulk, ready to smash someone's head in as he sang the song from her favorite Audrey Hepburn movie.

"They called him the—they called him the—the-" Rose tried again, but broke off as the Doctor staggered into the room, twirling around and dancing with an invisible person, wearing a pair of sunglasses on his face and his tie around his head.

"And still have begged for mooore...I could've spread my wings and done a thou—have you met the French?" the Doctor slurred out rather loudly, causing Willow's head to pound as she threw the coldest death glare she could muster in his direction.

"My...god, they know how to party," the Doctor exclaimed, looking utterly ridiculous.

"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in. The Oncoming Storm," Rose sneered, also glaring.

"Oh, you sound just like your mother," the Doctor scoffed.

"Watch it, jackass," Willow hissed out, looking murderous and the Doctor's eyes widened slightly behind his sunglasses, but he hid it, trying to stay in character.

"What've you been doing? Where've you been?" Rose said crossly.

"Well...among other things, I think I just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early," the Doctor said.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Willow barked out before taking a deep breath, leaning back down to cause the knife to slide in the opposite direction on her neck, causing her to wince at the pain before rearranging her face to mask the pain as the Doctor leaned over her.

"Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before!" the Doctor asked her, winking over the top of his sunglasses at her, though he was actually taking stock off all the injuries she had, feeling his own fury rising in him. Willow only hissed at him and refused to make eye contact with him. "Always take a banana to a party, Love. Bananas are good," the Doctor said, turning around and then seemed to spot the droids, though it was all a part of his act. "Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It's you! You're my favourite, you are, you are the best! Do you know why? 'Cause you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania. And so's your dad."

"Oh, my god," Willow fumed, wishing he would just get on with it and get them the fuck out of there and away from the psychotic death droids that were trying to steal their kidneys, or whatever it was that they needed.

"Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for? Her milometer. They wanna know how old she is. Know why? 'Cause this ship is thirty-seven years old. And they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven, when she's 'complete,' then her brain will be compatible. So, that's what you're missing, isn't it?" he said, staring intently at one of the droids. "Hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason—God knows what—only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."

"The brain is compatible," the droid said.

"Compatible?" the Doctor asked, approaching a droid. "If you believe that, you probably believe this is as glass of wine." He took off the droid's mask and poured the 'wine' into the clockwork inside the head of the droid. He replaced the mask, patting the droid on the head as if it were a good little dog. The droid shut down, the gears stopping altogether, just like it did when they used the extinguishers. Willow heaved a sigh of relief, letting her muscles relax, but that only seemed to make the pain in her wrists and ankles worse and she let out a small groan.

"Multigrain anti-oil. If it moves, it doesn't," the Doctor said, suddenly sober. A droid in the corner by Willow started to move forward, causing her to jump and the pain to worsen, but the Doctor pulled a lever to deactivate it and Willow cursed under her breath.

"Right, you three, that's enough lying about..." the Doctor said, trying to lighten the tension as he released Mickey, Rose, and Willow with his sonic screwdriver and Willow immediately jumped up and ran to him, socking him in the face as hard as she could, shrieking and clutching her hand to her chest as the Doctor reeled backwards, groaning, holding his already swollen jaw. He knew it wouldn't be swollen for long, due to his Time Lord regenerative cells, but he knew he deserved it; arriving late and letting her get injured like she had been.

"Ouch! Sonovabitch, that hurts!" Willow hissed out, cradling her hand to try and relieve some of the pain.

"Here, let me see," the Doctor said gently, while Rose and Mickey went out into the hallway to give them some privacy (more like Rose dragged Mickey from the room, despite his protests, to explain the situation to him) and took her hand gently, examining it. "Nothing seems to be broken, but it looks like a bad sprain. I have something in the Tardis for that when we get back but for now, I have this."

He dug around in his bigger-on-the-inside suit pocket until he found what he was looking for and pulled out a wrist brace, slipping it onto her wrist, fastening it for her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, trying to let her know that it wasn't just for being late that he was sorry for, but everything.

"I still need some more time," Willow admitted, biting her lower lip (the Doctor restrained a groan the sight). "But thank you," she said, lifting up her wrist. "We should go."

"Time we got the rest of the ship turned off," the Doctor said, as the pair rejoined Mickey and Rose in the hallway.

"Are those things safe?" Mickey asked, looking at the droids and trying to avoid looking at the Doctor and Willow, now that he knew about their relationship problems.

The Doctor pulled his tie off his head and pushed the sunglasses up onto his head, handing his tie to Willow for safe-keeping, knowing it would probably just get lost in his Time Lord pockets. "Yep. Safe. Safe and thick. Way I like them. Okay, all the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down," he said. "Zeus plugs. Where are my Zeus plugs? I had them a minute ago, I was using them as castanets."

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Rose asked.

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they'll be lucky to hit the right century. Trial and error after that," the Doctor said, trying to operate the computer. "The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

"What's that?" Rose asked, as a pinging sound was heard and Willow let out a groan in her throat, wishing her headache, as well as the throbbing all over her body, would disappear; the sound was killing her head.

"I don't know...incoming message?" the Doctor said, over the pinging, sending Willow a concerned look, which she just ignored.

"Well, I wish it would stop," Willow hissed, wishing her hand wasn't in a brace so she could cover her ears to ward off the sound.

"From who?" Mickey asked, putting an arm around his friend to provide any comfort he could, ignoring the glare the Doctor sent him.

"Report from the field...one of them must still be out there with Reinette! That's why I can't close the windows, there's an override!" the Doctor exclaimed, his eyes wide. Willow let out a pained gasp as she jumped backwards, accidentally landing into the Doctor's chest, as one of the droids sprang back to life.

"Shit!" she cried as the droid spat out the 'wine' onto the Doctor's shoes, narrowly missing her own shoes.

"Well, that was a bit clever," the Doctor said, giving Willow the whole 'language' look, which she looked away from.

"And a big gross," Willow hissed, seeing a spot on the end of her knee-high boot, rubbing in on the back of her calf to get rid of it. "It was like it threw up." She looked up just in time to jump again (the Doctor put a hand on her waist to steady her as she almost fell to the floor, sending heat to her stomach and a shudder up her spine, which she was sure he felt) as the remaining robots around the room sprang back to life and filled the small space with ticking noises that nearly drove Willow crazy.

"Right...many things about this are not good," the Doctor said slowly, releasing Willow's waist to figure out what to do.

"Ya think?" Willow snarled sarcastically.

"Sorry, Love, but I can do without that," the Doctor barked back and Willow flushed with anger before sighing, knowing she had deserved that. "Message from one of your little friends? Anything interesting?" the Doctor asked the droids, as there was another pinging sound.

"She is complete. It begins," the droid said, and the robots all disappeared from the room. Willow sighed with short-lived relief, glad they were out of immediate danger.

"What's happening?" Rose asked, bewildered, looking around.

"One of them must've found the right time window, and now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head," the Doctor said.

"We've got to stop them," Willow said fiercely, once again reminded of the little girl she had shielded from the robots. "C'mon!" She grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled him along the corridor until he came up with a plan. The Doctor then decided that Rose and Willow would go warn Reinette (who was thirty-two in the time window he sent them through) while he and Mickey would find the right time window to save her older self.

Willow entered through the time window, Rose right behind her, to find Reinette in the room by herself. "Hello, Reinette," Willow said quietly, as not to startle her, but the French woman gasped and jumped anyway. "It's okay, it's just us," Willow said, holding up her hands to ease her.

"Willow Tyler!" Reinette gasped, looking between the red head and her blonde cousin with wide eyes.

"Please don't scream or anything, we haven't got a lot of time," Rose said, thinking that she was still scared.

Reinette moved forward and embraced her childhood imaginary friend that turned out to be a real person and Willow smiled gently and said, "It's good to see you again, Reinette, though I think you go by another name now?" Reinette just nodded and pulled Willow over to the dainty sofa to sit, wondering what they were doing there.

"We've come to warn you that they'll be here in five years," Rose said, getting straight to the point after joining the two women on the sofa.

"Five years?" Reinette asked, furrowing her eyebrows at how they knew this.

"Some time after your thirty-seventh birthday. We um...we can't give you an exact date," Rose explained. "It's a bit random. But they're coming. It's gonna happen. In a way, for us, it's already happening. The Doctor does this better."

"Then be exact, and I will be attentive," Reinette said.

"There isn't time," Rose said, after glancing at Willow, unsure of how to continue.

"There are five years," Reinette said.

"Reinette, you have five years, but we only have a few minutes," Willow said, trying to break it to her gently.

"Then also be concise, please," Reinette said, getting frustrated.

Willow let Rose try and explain it to the poor woman, who probably had no idea what they were even talking about, sure that Rose could probably explain it better than she could.

"Erm...there's say, um...a—a...a vessel. A ship. A sort of sky ship. And it's full of...well, you. Different bits of your life in different rooms, all jumbled up. We told you it was complicated, sorry," Rose said.

"There is a vessel in your world...where the days of my life are pressed together like the chapters of a book so that he may step from one to the other without increase of age...while I, weary traveler...must always take the slower path?" Reinette said, summing it up.

"Yeah, pretty much," Willow said with a nod. "That pretty much sums it up."

"He was right about you..." Rose said, staring at the woman in amazement.

"So, in five years these creatures will return. What can be done?" Reinette asked.

"We're still working on that," Willow said, setting her hand on top of Reinette's comfortingly while Rose added, "the Doctor says to keep them talking. They're kind of programmed to respond to you now. You won't be able to stop them, but you might be able to delay them a bit."

"Until?" Reinette asked, waiting for the rest of the plan.

"Until the Doctor can get there," Rose said.

"He's coming, then?" Reinette asked, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"Always," Willow said, her heart sinking as she also saw love in the French woman's eyes.

"He promises," Rose said with a nod.

"But he cannot...make his promises in person?" Reinette asked, raising an eyebrow and looking a bit dejected.

"He'll be there when you need him. That's the way it's gotta be," Rose said.

"Plus, he's working on a plan to save you right now," Willow added, trying to fight off the tears, not meeting Reinette's gaze.

"It's the way it's always been. The monsters and the Doctor. It seems you cannot have one without the other," Reinette said, that same doe-eyed hopeful look in her eyes that all of the Doctor's companions got, or at least Willow had.

"Tell me about it," Rose said, laughing slightly, though Willow shifted uncomfortably in her seat, biting her lip.

"The thing is...you weren't supposed to have either," Rose said, sobering up, discreetly taking Willow's hand to comfort her. "Those creatures are messing with history. None of this was ever supposed to happen to you."

"Suppose to happen?" Reinette said angrily to Rose. "What does that mean? It happened, child. And I would not have it any other way. One may tolerate a world of demons for the sake of an angel."

"Rose? Willow?" Mickey then called out, appearing from behind the tapestry.

"I know what you mean," Willow muttered out before she even realized she had said anything.

"And what is that, child?" Reinette asked her.

"About tolerating a world of demons for an angel. The Doctor saved me. Not in the same way as you, but from my boring life back home. I have no other family but Rose and her mum, Jackie. The Doctor saved me from that. I had no prospects or even a real job," Willow said, giving a small, humorless laugh.

"You love him, don't you? The Doctor?" Reinette asked.

"With all my heart," Willow answered truthfully. "But…it's not always that simple."

"He loves you, too. He's told me. Even stopped me from trying to kiss him," Reinette said with a laugh, though Willow looked shocked as she chewed on her lip. She turned her attention to what Mickey was saying to Rose, who had gone over to the time window without Willow even realizing she had even left the sofa.

"The time window when she's thirty-seven. We found it. Right under our noses," Mickey said and Reinette stood up from the sofa the glanced at the time window behind Mickey, quickly walking towards it before Willow could stop her.

"Reinette, no!" Willow gasped, leaping up to try and stop the woman, knowing that Madame De Pompadour's time line didn't include her wondering on a spaceship.

"No, you can't go in there, the Doctor will go mad-" Rose said, but it was too late; Reinette had already entered the spaceship with wide eyes.

"So, this is his world," Reinette said, looking around in bewilderment as Willow walked up behind the woman, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. Willow froze, though, when they heard panicked screaming in the distance.

"What was that?" Reinette asked.

"The time window, the Doctor fixed an audio link," Mickey explained to Rose and Willow, knowing Reinette wouldn't really understand what he was saying and Willow shuddered at the sound of people possibly dying and there wasn't anything that she could do to help them.

"Those screams...is that my future?" Reinette asked, as if afraid to hear the answer.

"Yeah...I'm sorry," Rose said, hanging her head sadly.

"Don't worry, the Doctor will fix it all," Willow said, trying to reassure the woman with a quick hug.

"Then I must take the slower path," Reinette said, her eyes swimming in tears as she pulled back from Willow, her body jolting and then freezing at the sound of her own voice coming from the down the hallway.

"Are you there? Can you hear me? I need you now, you promised. The clock on the mantel is broken. It is time," older Reinette shouted, trying to get the Doctor's attention.

"That's my voice," the Reinette with them said, sounding disturbed.

"Rose, Willow, come on—we've gotta go. There's—there's a problem," Mickey said urgently to the girls, ready to lead them back to where the Doctor was.

"Give us a moment," Rose said to her boyfriend and Mickey rushed off, leaving Rose and Willow with Reinette. Willow put a gentle arm around the distraught woman, like she had when she was a child, hoping she could do something to make her feel slightly better.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked Reinette.

"No. I'm very afraid. But you two and I know, don't we Rose? Willow? The Doctor is worth the monsters," Reinette said, tears shining in her eyes.

"He is," Willow agreed, as Rose nodded. Willow released Reinette as the French woman turned and walked back into her correct time window rather dejectedly.

"Doctor! Doctor!" the future Reinette called as Willow made sure the time window was shut behind Reinette before hurrying off with Rose to find the Doctor and Mickey busy rushing about, trying to figure out how to get through the time window.

"You found it, then?" Rose asked, slightly out of breath from running through the halls.

"They knew I was coming. They blocked it off," the Doctor growled.

"You can fix it, yeah?" Willow asked, peering through the mirror of the time window to see the droids surrounding a large crowd of panicked people.

"Dunno," the Doctor said in an irritated voice, continuing to work without looking up. "I'm working on it."

"I don't get it," Rose said, looking into the ballroom the time window showed them. "How come they got in there?"

"They teleported—you saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short-range teleports will do the trick," the Doctor said.

"Well, we'll go in the Tardis!" Rose said, trying to come up with a useful idea.

"We can't use the Tardis, we're part of events now," the Doctor said, shooting down her idea, causing Rose to frown.

"Well, can't we just smash through it?" Mickey asked, looking through the glass.

"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck," the Doctor said, running a hand through his hair, frustrated.

"We don't have a truck," Mickey pointed out the obvious.

"I know we don't have a truck!" the Doctor shouted, and Willow took a step back from him, startled and wide-eyed.

"Well, we've gotta try something!" Rose snapped back, angry that the Doctor was taking his frustration out on them, and more specifically, Mickey.

"No, smash the glass, smash the time window, they'd be no way back," the Doctor said.

"Can everyone just calm down? Please," Reinette from the time window said.

"Doctor, there must be something you can do," Willow said, gently touching his arm, her eyes watching Reinette through the time window.

"There is, but that means staying there. Forever," the Doctor told her, taking her hands in his, trying to make her understand.

"Fuck," Willow hissed silently to herself, the Doctor not even bothering to correct her language, knowing that it was a difficult decision for her, watching her as her hands gripped her hair tightly and tears started to fall down her cheeks. "I don't want you to leave," she finally whispered to him. "But I don't want Reinette to die, either. Let me go. I can do it."

The Doctor looked at Willow with love in his eyes, taking her breath away as he gently took her face in his hands and kissed her. As soon as it started, it was over and the Doctor was rushing off in the opposite direction of the time window. Willow was frozen in place, her body tingling from the kiss, only pulled out of her musing as the Doctor came rushing past on Arthur, the horse. He jumped Arthur through the time window and into the life of Madame de Pompadour; the time window was completely gone and shattered on the floor of the spaceship.

"What happened?" Mickey asked with wide eyes as a startling sound left Willow's mouth. "Where did the time window go? How's he gonna get back?"

"He's not, Mickey, okay?" Willow growled out, finally snapping as tears ran down her cheeks; Rose was just standing, stunned, looking at the time window. Mickey looked taken aback by Willow's anger, but didn't say anything to the upset girl to make it worse. Willow wrapped her arms around herself, and sat, rocking back and forth, trying to get rid of the ache in her chest, where her heart was breaking, feeling like shit for having held the Doctor at arm's length for the past few weeks.

Mickey continued to try and brainstorm a plan of what to do. "We can't fly the Tardis without him. How's he gonna get back?" Mickey repeated, looking at Willow for an answer she didn't have. Willow sat there, in total shock, all emotions just falling away and her brain raced. The Doctor knew that there was no way to get back, as well as she; why couldn't Mickey figure it out and just leave her alone?

"Just shut up, Mickey!" she screamed out, finally sick of his rambling. Her tears dried on her cheeks and she felt like she was going to throw up. Finally taking her advice, Mickey fell silent, making himself comfortable, to wait, not wanting to believe that the Doctor wasn't coming back. Willow wanted nothing more than to crawl into some deep, dark hole somewhere in the Tardis and never come out, but she couldn't bring herself to move.

What seemed like minutes to Willow, but was actually nearly six hours later, the Doctor suddenly rushed into the room, breathing hard, before grabbing and hugging Rose, whom had been nearest to the door.

"How long did you wait?" the Doctor asked them all, his eyes lit up at being back with his friends again.

"Five and a half hours!" Rose said, happy, tears of joy in her eyes.

"Right, always wait five and a half hours," the Doctor said, going over to Mickey and acted like he was gonna hug him, then seemed to change his mind and shook his hand instead.

The Doctor finally turned to Willow, seeing her over in the corner, not registering anything that was happening around her, still rocking back and forth.

"Willow?" the Doctor said gently, taking her hands (being careful with her injured one) and brought them to his lips, trying to get her attention.

"Doctor!" she asked, her voice slightly hoarse from the screaming and crying she had done and her eyes focused slowly on his face, as if she didn't believe he was really there. Her eyes started to widen, taking in his features before she leapt to her feet. The Doctor, expecting a hug, held his arms out to her, but instead, she attacked his chest, pounding on his with her fists, screaming out profanities due to her anger and the pain that shattered up her arm from her wrist that was probably broken by now.

The Doctor just hugged her tight, lifting her feet off the floor, holding her tightly to his chest so she couldn't hurt herself any further.

"Put me down, you baboon!" she cried out, once again crying. After holding her for a moment longer, the Doctor took her hand, despite her protests ("Don't touch me, you bastard!") and pulled her over to the fireplace that was dead.

"Where've you been?" Rose asked him.

"Explain later. Into the Tardis, be with you in a sec," the Doctor said, crouching down, pulling Willow with him as she hissed at him; the only reason she hadn't punched him in the face again was that she was still concerned about Reinette.

"Reinette?" the Doctor called out and Willow turned her attention to the fireplace. "You there, Reinette?"

Pulling Willow up with him, he revolved the both of them back in time, resolved to not let Willow out of his sight for the foreseeable future.

"Reinette?" Willow called every once in a while, wandering through corridors, keeping her distance from the Doctor and her arms crossed over her chest. The pair finally came upon King Louis, who was standing in front of a window, watching something outside of it with a sad look on his face.

"Oh, hello," the Doctor said pleasantly.

"Your Majesty," Willow said, curtseying with a slight stumble as the Doctor gave her an odd look and she just sent him a glare. "Where's Reinette?" she asked, turning her attention back to the King.

"You just missed her. She'll be in Paris by six," King Louis said.

"Ah," the Doctor said, not understanding. The King looked at the Doctor and Willow, before walking towards him.

"Good Lord...she was right. She said you both never looked a day older," King Louis said, making Willow uncomfortable with how close he was examining them. The Doctor just raised his eyebrows at the King, not making a sound. "So many years since I saw you last, yet not a day of it on your face."

He walked over to a drawer and pulled out two letters, continuing, "She spoke of you both many times." Willow's eyes widened and she put her hands over her mouth at the King's use of past tenses and understood that Reinette was dead. "Often wished you'd visit again. You know how women are."

He glanced at Willow as he said this with a sad smile on his face as he held out one letter to the Doctor and the other to Willow, who removed her hands from her mouth and took it. She looked at the envelope, surprising herself when a tear splashed down, smudging the writing slightly, wishing she had known the amazing woman better.

"There she goes," the King said, going back to the window. "Leaving Versailles for the last time. Only forty-three when she died."

Willow fisted the letter in her hand, crinkling the paper, taking in a deep, shaky breath as she joined the King at the window, watching the hearse being pulled away by horses. She let out a small hiccup, biting her lip to try to get her tears to stop, but it just wasn't possible.

"Too young...too young. Illness took her in the end. She always did work too hard," the King said. "What does she say?"

The Doctor didn't answer; he tucked the letter in his jacket pocket, returning his gaze out the window.

"Of course. Quite right," the King said as Willow's stare stayed transfixed on the hearse until it disappeared from view. She gasped as she felt the Doctor take her hand, his warm fingers twinning with her own, pulling her down the hallway back to the fireplace. She let out a shuttering breath as the Doctor pulled her into the Tardis, shutting the door behind them.

"Why her?" Rose asked, standing by the console with Mickey. "Why did they think they could fix the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour?"

"We'll probably never know," the Doctor said. "There was massive damage in the computer memory base. Probably got confused. The Tardis can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble."

Silently, Willow slipped out of the console room and glided through the hallways of the Tardis to stop in front of her own bedroom door. She took a deep breath, knowing that when she got inside, she would have to open the letter and read Reinette's last words to her. Opening her door, she saw that the Tardis had already read her mind and added the fireplace to her bedroom and she broke down in sobs, smoothing the letter in her hands, careful of her brace.

My dearest Willow,

What a strange name you have, but no less beautiful, as you are. My time is soon over, as you are aware by now. As my final moments are coming to a close, I remember the moment I first saw you, my beautiful angel, when you protected me as a child. I still don't fully believe, nor understand, what had happened, and I don't think it is likely I ever will. I know now that there is no chance of you, or the Doctor, returning for me before I pass on.

I ask only one favor of you, dearest Willow: watch over the Doctor. I know that he loves you with all his heart and that you love him as well. He will need you, more than ever, now that I am gone. Whatever it is that ails you, my beautiful angel, I know that it shall repair itself in time and that you and your Doctor shall be very happy together.

I thank you, dearest Willow, for being a part of my life, however small, and for saving my life, though it is almost gone now.

Yours now and forever,

Reinette.

Folding up her letter carefully and sliding it into a small, secret drawer in her dresser, Willow let her tears take over, falling onto her bed, sobbing for her loss.