Rose was quiet for several days after they returned. Lee was difficult to convince when Donna began telling him about the things she had seen and done while knowing the Doctor and Rose. Learning that Jenny was only a few months old and the product of a progenation machine was bad enough, and he'd met enough other worlders to accept that the Doctor just might be a 900 year old Time Lord from Gallifrey. But the idea that the woman he had believed to be a mere human with memory problems was basically a being of Time itself was a bit challenging to process. The Doctor had been patient in explaining it several times, but he would have liked to ask Rose about it personally. It just didn't seem the blonde woman was interested in conversation.

He and Donna were exiting the kitchen one morning, nearly ploughed over by the Doctor sprinting down the hall, followed by Jenny. Not to be left behind, the couple quickly followed them to the console room. They were awed by the sight of Rose next to the time rotor, bathed in tendrils of golden light, but the strangled tone in which the Doctor cried his wife's name told them he was horrified by the vision.

"Mum is going to be in trouble…" Jenny informed the two humans. "Daddy said this is bad."

The woman at the console felt irritation at being caught, but it was as though her emotions were temporarily disconnected. During her time within CAL she had been shown her own genetic makeup as it was currently, and she had seen the bits that were still in flux and causing her trouble. She knew the Doctor would never allow her to take a chance with again exposing her unfinished genetics to the vortex, so she had waited until he had been absorbed in a bit of research. Neither she nor the ship had considered that the youngest member of their odd family would run to inform her father.

It probably shouldn't have surprised any of them that while she was allowing them to see the console room, the TARDIS had blocked them from entering.

"Stop this!" the Doctor cried angrily, punching a wall. "Let Rose go!"

There was no reaction from either party, just the steady swirling of golden time dancing around the formerly human woman. Several minutes stretched out around the observers, each one etching painfully into their minds, before the strands were pulled back into the access patch under the time rotor and Rose calmly placed the cover back in its place. She turned to face them, tipping her head as the four of them tumbled breathlessly into the room. Before anyone else would even get to their feet, the Doctor was holding his wife's hands and peering into her eyes.

"Are you okay? What were you doing?! We have to get you straight to the med bay so I can check you over," he babbled.

Rose raised a brow. "Or we could try maybe trusting that I ain't stupid enough to go killing myself in the middle of my home in front of my family?"

Even though the Doctor felt the sting of hurt she clearly projected in her tone, he continued. "I'm not saying you would do it on purpose, my Rose. I just would feel better if we finally did those tests we keep discussing so that we know what is going on in your cells now that you've been exposed again."

"Isn't Mum kind of always exposed?" Jenny asked, curiously. "Bad Wolf is who she is, and that kinda is time inside her. So wouldn't it kinda make her more her?"

The Doctor shook his head, looking down at the girl. "That's not exactly how it works…"

"No, that's sounding pretty right to me," Rose said testily. "Jenny, you have nothing to worry about. The TARDIS would never purposely hurt any of us. Donna, don't you and Lee worry. I know what I'm doing. You just enjoy having each other and not worryin' whether somethin's gonna take that away." She pulled her hands away from her husband and started walking toward the hall. "Come on, Doctor. There's not gonna be any peace in your mind until you get this done."

Despite his desire to apologize and fix things between them, the Doctor knew his wife was right. He wouldn't be able to rest his hearts or mind until he knew for certain that his beloved pink and yellow girl was well and truly safe. Several hours and dozens of tests later, the Time Lord sat heavily on a stool, gobsmacked by the results he clearly saw on the screen.

"Now that you can see it yourself, Theta," his wife said blandly, for once the nickname sounding like a reprimand rather than an endearment, "I'm not going to die."

"I didn't really think you were," he tried to soothe her.

Rose snorted. "Yeah, you did. You saw her and me working through some things, and you jumped to the conclusion that I was gonna get myself hurt."

He sighed, head drooping a bit. "I did. I'm not proud of my reaction, given that it was you and the TARDIS involved, and I know the two of you would never hurt each other."

She slid off the exam table with a sigh, moving to him and kissing him on the forehead. His arms slid around her waist as he pressed his face into her stomach. She stroked his hair comfortingly, as she had Jenny's after the few nightmares she had experienced after having been shot.

"I could see while in Cal," she explained. "Who I was, what had happened, what was still happening. To help her, I had to know myself thoroughly. And I saw that I wasn't complete. When it first touched my cells, it kinda warped 'em. Remember?"

Pulling her into his lap so as to hold her closer, the Doctor nodded. "I still have the readouts of those first tests and those weird fluctuations somewhere."

"Since you took most of it back before it could kill me, it kinda paused the changes she was trying to make. There wasn't enough of her essence left to finish what she had intended, even with that brief touch back with the reaper egg, but there was enough to build up my cells to finish the job. We just finished Bad Wolf, my Doctor. I'm not going to die… or change again… or disappear, even in the event of future exposures. I just finished what was started all those years ago with that lorry. I told you and I mean it just as much now as I did then. I'm never leaving you. You have my forever, and I have yours. And you have just as much at stake as I do."

He grinned at her, feeling as though the air was much easier to breathe than it had been only moments before. "I should say I have. Who would make certain I don't make a fool of myself if not you?"

Rose laughed and pressed her forehead to his. "I'm sure Donna would give you a right good smack if I missed my cue."

The couple laughed, both promising to work harder to be completely open with each other.

A day or two after the Time Lord and his timeless wife had once again made peace, Donna and Lee were sitting in one of the lounges in a huge resort on a planet named Midnight, talking softly and laughing. To the redheaded woman, it was nothing short of a miracle that the man of her dreams had actually turned out to be a real person, with no reason not to come traveling with her and her near-family, and who was equally as smitten by her. To the man who hadn't even had friends or family to wonder over his disappearance in the library for over 100 years, learning that the woman he'd come to cherish since meeting her so recently and her friend that had been like a sister to him, actually wanted him to come with them - well, it was a gift he didn't believe he deserved. He and the Doctor had had several fascinating conversations about different technologies from various points in time and planets of origin, and Jenny had eased the ache of knowing that his children with Donna had been nothing but a dream in a virtual world. The five of them had been having some good times together, and it had been Rose who suggested that maybe a resort planet and some time alone together would benefit both couples. Jenny had been given the choice of whether she would stay with one couple or the other or spend time in the children's area, and naturally had chosen to stay with her parents.

Rose looked from the girl's excited face to her husband arguing over the phone with Donna. "Sapphire waterfall - it's a waterfall made of sapphires! This enormous jewel, size of a glacier, reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion, and then shatters into sapphires at the edge - they fall 100,000 feet into a crystal ravine."

The Tyler women looked at each other and burst into giggles as they plainly heard Donna telling him no.

"Doctor, they're boarding now. You can tell her all about it when we come back, yeah?" Rose laughed, tugging on her husband's sleeve. "Jenny wants to get good seats."

"Aunt Donna can come next time, Daddy!" their daughter insisted, tugging at the hem of his jacket.

He grinned at his girls and gave in. "All right. But you be careful with the sunbathing. That's Xtonic sunlight."

"Oh, we're safe," Donna chided in return. "It says in the brochure this glass is fifteen feet thick."

"All right, we'll be back for dinner, and try that anti-gravity restaurant. With bibs."

He hung up, laughing as Rose and Jenny pulled him to the shuttlebus. They settled quickly, their daughter pulling them toward the front row of seats. Jenny sat next to the protective window, eager to see everything she could, while the Doctor and Rose sat next to each other and clasped hands.

"We don't get to do this with her enough," the Doctor said, watching Jenny inspect the seats. "Sometimes I forget she's seen so little of the universe."

"She's certainly ours," Rose grinned. "Extremely adaptable and curious."

He grinned and looked around the shuttle. A variety of people were settling around them, a woman traveling alone in the front seat, an older scholarly type and a woman who had to be his assistant, a middle aged couple and an older teen boy who looked embarrassed to even be around the rest of them. Rose nudged him as the hostess walked by.

The hostess stopped in front of the woman traveling alone. "Complimentary juice pack and complimentary…"

"Just the headphones, please.," the woman interrupted quietly, though not impolitely.

The hostess nodded and handed the headphones over. "There you go."

She moved over to the Doctor's little family and began handing them things. The Doctor and Rose simply smiled and accepted them, but Jenny looked over each one curiously as the hostess explained. "That's the headphones for Channels 1 to 36; modem link for 3D vidgames; complimentary earplugs; complimentary slippers; complimentary juice pack; and complimentary peanuts. I must warn you some products may contain nuts."

"That'll be the peanuts," the Doctor told Rose cheekily.

She gave him that tongue touched grin he loved so well. "Not the slippers, then?"

The woman standing over them shook her head but gave a bit of a real smile. "Enjoy your trip."

"Oh, we can't wait!" the Doctor assured her. "Allons-y!"

"I'm sorry?" she replied, blinking a few times in confusion.

"It's French, for let's go!" Jenny laughed. "Daddy says it all the time."

"Fascinating," the Hostess laughed a bit before moving on.

Jenny immediately began taking the headphones apart and Rose turned to look at her.

"What are you doing to those?" she chided her daughter. "Just like your dad, you are. A lot like mine, too, come to think of it."

"You keep saying that I've got destruction in my blood!" the little girl giggled. "I'm gonna make 'em work better, Mum. Then I can hear that man that keeps looking for us."

Her parents exchanged a look. Over the last week, Jenny had been insisting there was a man looking for them. While she didn't seem to think this was a bad thing, she was very young still and didn't have the experience her parents had, despite her programmed training as a soldier. The Doctor and Rose both could think of people and organizations that would not hesitate to kill them if they had the chance. Still, there was no evidence anyone was getting close to catching them, and so they continued on as though the story was just a figment of a child's imagination. Rose remembered thinking she'd heard Mickey calling to her when they'd met up with Donna again, but there had been no sign he'd really been there nor had there been a hint of him since.

"Not for us!" the three heard the scholar behind them say.

His assistant spoke up softly, "Earplugs, please."

The hostess handed the plugs over with a polite, "There you go."

Immediately the man began speaking again, seeming to completely miss the interaction between the two women. "They call it a sapphire waterfall, but it's no such thing, sapphire's an aluminium oxide, but the glacier is just a compound silica with iron pigmentation!"

The hostess moved on to the middle aged couple, handing them their free things and the Doctor turned to talk to the people behind them as Rose leaned closer and had Jenny explain how she was fixing the headphones. The Doctor had told her that many of the traditional ways of teaching a Gallifreyan child involved self-guided experimentation, but that being expected to explain her processes would help her pay attention to why certain actions lead to certain results.

The professor caught the movement of the man in front of him turning and immediately held out a hand, which the Doctor took enthusiastically.

"Hobbes!" the man exclaimed proudly. "Professor Winfold Hobbes!"

"I'm the Doctor, hello!" the Time Lord replied with a wide smile. "This is my wife and daughter."

"It's my 14th time!" Professor Hobbes announced, terribly obvious about his disinterest in the females accompanying the Doctor.

The Doctor frowned a bit, but still nodded. "Oh! Our first, good trip for Jenny, we thought."

"And I'm Dee Dee, Dee Dee Blasco," his assistant introduced herself, also shaking the Doctor's hand with a smile.

Professor Hobbes waved, "Now don't bother the man! Where's my water bottle?"

Rose exchanged a look with her husband as the small, disjointed family near the back began arguing over the rows of seats. They hadn't a chance to speak, as the hostess for the voyage chose that moment to move to the front of the cabin and being addressing them.

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, welcome on board the Crusader 50, if you would fasten your seatbelts, we'll be leaving any moment. Doors!" At her clipped word, the doors to the shuttle sealed automatically. "Shields down!" she ordered next,signaling shields to cover the windows on both sides. "I'm afraid the view is shielded until we reach the Waterfall Palace. Also, a reminder, Midnight has no air, so please don't touch the exterior door seals. Fire exit at the rear, and should we need to use it... you first."

There was a titter of laughter at the absurd idea of stepping out of the protected vessel into the planet's deadly atmosphere, but neither the Doctor nor Rose joined it. In their experience, once you laughed at some idea of danger, you were pretty well bound to find it.

"Now I will hand you over to Driver Joe," the hostess concluded before gesturing to a speaker on the wall.

A friendly, and well rehearsed voice over the intercom greeted the passengers. "Driver Joe at the wheel! There's been a diamondfall at the Winter Witch Canyon, so we'll be taking a slight detour, as you'll see on the map. The journey covers 500 kliks to the Multifaceted Coast, duration is estimated at four hours. Thank you for travelling with us, and as they used to say in the olden days, wagons roll!"

The map that had appeared on the screen in front of them to illustrate the detour disappeared as the engines accelerated and the shuttle began to move.

The hostess moved again to the front of the car and began her practiced routine. "For your entertainment, we have the Music Channel playing retrovids of Earth Classics."

Screens appeared in front of every seat, playing some video. Jenny looked around with a frown at how close they were to each passenger, "Mum…"

"Also, the latest artistic installation from Ludovico Klein."

A hologram show began at the front of the car, just in front of the young woman. The sound overlapped the screens, making Rose wince, "Doctor?"

The hostess didn't seem affected as she continued speaking.

"Plus, for the youngsters," she smiled at Jenny directly then, "a rare treat - the Animation Archives."

On the screen that had shown the map, a cartoon started playing as well, over the other two noises. Jenny pressed her hands over her ears and looked up at Rose pleadingly.

"Four hours of funtime! Enjoy!" The woman didn't particularly sound as though she really cared whether anyone enjoyed the entertainment or not, and given the level of unintelligible noise now filling the car, and knowing she likely made the trip twice a day when working, it wasn't much of a wonder why she would sound so rehearsed and unfeeling.

"Doctor, if this goes on much longer, I'm going to transport myself and Jenny back to the TARDIS," Rose warned, the flash of gold in her eyes warning the Doctor as to how serious she was.

He took a moment to reflect on just how connected to the TARDIS his wife was before he nodded and pulled his sonic out of his pocket, quickly adjusting the setting and hitting the button on the side. The device whirred and there was a pop which caused silence to descend over the car.

There were identical relieved sighs from Rose and their daughter, overlapped by a rather loud exclamation from Professor Hobbes.

"Well, that's a mercy!"

The hostess hurried to the front and began pushing buttons on the entertainment console, looking frantic that nothing was working. "I do apologise, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon. We seem to have had a failure of the Entertainment System…"

Rose stretched up and kissed the Doctor's cheek, causing him to grin broadly.

"But what do we do?!" the middle aged woman exclaimed, close to panic.

Her husband was equally upset. "We've got four hours of this! Four hours of just... sitting here?"

"Tell you what! We'll have to talk to each other instead!" the Time Lord exclaimed while grinning at the other passengers, unfazed by the looks directed back that clearly spoke to the level of insanity of which they felt the suited man was in possession.

A couple of hours later, they no longer felt it was a strange idea, as they were laughing and talking amongst themselves. The woman traveling alone still sat a bit apart, listening to the others but trying to appear uninterested, as did the teen. Although, the little family had their own ideas on entertainment. The Doctor sat with the larger group of people, laughing with the couple, whom he'd learned were named Biff and Val, about a pool that never existed. Rose approached the woman in the front and sat next to her, offering an engaging smile and a bit of a candy that she had learned was rarely turned down.

"Loves to talk, that one," she shared, tipping her head in the Doctor's direction. "Even when he oughtn't. I'm Rose."

"Sky," the woman returned softly, holding a hand out in greeting. "You seem happy enough with him."

Rose nodded, popping a candy in her mouth as Sky did the same.

"I am," she agreed easily. "You, seem a bit down, yeah? Still recent?"

Sky looked startled, then sighed and leaned her head back. "I'm still getting used to it. I've... found myself single rather recently, not by choice."

Rose nodded, her face sympathetic. "I've been there a time or two."

"Yeah, it was the usual," the other woman said, trying not to sound angry. "She needed her own space, as they say. A different galaxy, in fact. I reckon that's enough space, don't you?"

Rose made a face. "Yeah, I reckon. Super of her, really. I had an ex once who hopped universes after he realized I wasn't gonna change my mind."

Sky gave her a small smirk. "So much for remaining friends."

"Right? I dunno, I just hope he's happy there."

The recently single woman, patted Rose's hand, and the pair sat in companionable silence until Jenny bounced up.

"Mum, Miss Hostess gave me an extra juice." The young girl held up her recently acquired prize.

Rose smiled at her daughter. "I'm sure she's got a name, Jenny. Would you like to meet Miss Sky?"

Jenny held her hand out, "Nice to meet you, Miss Sky. I'm Jenny Tyler and I'm going to learn everything about everywhere, like my parents."

Sky gave the girl's hand a firm shake as she smiled warmly. "I hope that you do."

"Daddy and Miss Dee Dee are discussing the lost moon of Poosh. I want a lost moon."

Rose laughed. "You have enough things back on the TARDIS, you don't need a moon as well."

About another half an hour had passed when the professor was prevailed upon to share his knowledge of the planet they were traveling. He and Dee Dee (mostly Dee Dee), set up a slide show.

"So, this is Midnight, d'you see? Bombarded by the sun! Xtonic rays, raw galvanic radiation. Dee Dee, next slide! It's my pet project. Actually, I'm the first person to research this. Because you see... the history is fascinating, because there is no history. There's no life in this entire system, there couldn't be. Before the Leisure Palace Company moved in, no-one had come here in all eternity. No living thing."

"But how d'you know? I mean, if no-one can go outside…" Jethro, the previously silent teen, asked curiously.

His mother rolled her eyes. "Oh, his imagination! Here we go!"

The Doctor shrugged, lifting Jenny into his lap. "He's got a point, though."

"Yeah!" Jenny agreed. "Maybe something's alive and we just don't have any information on it!"

The professor beamed with excitement, "Exactly! We look upon this world through glass. Safe inside our metal box. Even the Leisure Palace was lowered down from orbit. And here we are now, crossing Midnight, but never touching it."

Rose shivered, feeling unexplainably cold, "Doctor…"

Suddenly there was a rattling from the shuttle and the engines fell silent.

Val looked around in surprise. "We've stopped. Have we stopped?"

"Are we there?" her husband asked with a frown.

Dee Dee half stood. "We can't be, it's too soon."

Professor Hobbes shook his head with the certainty of a man who had been on far more trips across this planet than anyone would imagine. "They don't stop, Crusader vehicles never stop."

"Not ever?" Jenny asked with wide eyes. "What if the driver needs to use the loo?"

The professor looked at the little girl in confusion, almost as though he hadn't seen her before this moment. After a brief pause, he shook his head and looked up expectantly.

The hostess gave a tiny nervous laugh. "If you could just... return to your seats, it's... just a small delay."

Rose looked around at everyone as the young woman moved to the intercom for a hushed conversation with the crew. She could already feel the buzz of nerves beginning among the passengers. She wished there were a few other races on the shuttle, as she knew all too well humanity's tendency to panic.

"Maybe just a pit stop," Biff shrugged, looking down at his wife.

The professor shook his head. "There's no pit to stop in, I've been on this expedition 14 times, they never stop."

Sky glared at the man and snapped, "Well evidently, we have stopped, so there's no point in denying it."

"We've broken down!" Jethro laughed gleefully while his mother glared at him. "In the middle of nowhere!"

"Mum, are we gonna have to stay here?" Jenny asked, her eyes wide.

"That's enough, now stop it!" Jethro's father snapped. "You make that little girl cry and I'm going to make you cry, mister."

The teen did look as though he felt a bit guilty at perhaps scaring Jenny. Before he could say anything nearing an apology, the hostess again began speaking to them all.

"Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we're just experiencing a short... delay, the driver needs to stabilise the engine feeds. It's perfectly routine, so if you could just stay in your seats…"

Of course, the Doctor immediately headed for the cabin.

"No, I'm sorry sir, I... could you please…" she tried to dissuade him.

He merely flashed his bright grin and flashed his psychic paper at her. "There you go, engine expert! Two ticks!"

"Mum, you hear that? Daddy is an engine expert today!" Jenny repeated to her mother cheerfully.

The Doctor slipped confidently into the cockpit while Rose sat silently in the nearest seat, her face taut as she felt Bad Wolf pressing her from within. She couldn't imagine what seemed so fiercely dangerous to her, but her heart raced and her mind spun. Her senses, so recently brought to as near the TARDIS as they can. Rose shivered even as she burned, and knew she ought to get her family as far away as possible. Jenny moved onto her lap.

"Mum, do you feel that badness, too?" the child whispered, leaning heavily against her mother.

The blonde woman looked at her daughter in surprise. She knew that part of her DNA had gone into creating Jenny, but she wasn't sure if that meant that Bad Wolf also existed within the little girl. That was something entirely new for her to consider and she made a mental note to discuss it with the Doctor as soon as they were back in their sentient home. For the moment, she had to deal with their present dilemma.

"You keep a watch on the badness," she instructed Jenny softly. "If it tries to hurt you - you shut it out like we practiced and get as far away as you can, safely. Remember, we agreed that Daddy and I fight the monsters until you're older."

Jenny nodded solemnly as Rose hugged her close. The Doctor chose that moment to step out of the cockpit.

Sky looked to him. "What did they say? Did they tell you? What is it, what's wrong?"

The Doctor shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Oh, just stabilising, happens all the time."

Rose and Jenny looked at each other, eyebrows high in mutual acknowledgement of this well known tell of their Time Lord. Those hands in his pockets meant he was lying to protect the passengers.

The woman huffed and crossed her arms impatiently. "I don't need this. I'm on a schedule. This is completely unnecessary!"

The hostess shook her head, gesturing to the passengers. "Back to your seats, thank you."

As she moved toward the cockpit herself, the Doctor sat beside his wife, giving her a questioning glance. Rose shot him a worried look, but knew she couldn't tell him what she had felt at the moment. There was no need to create a panic. At least… not yet.

"Excuse me, Doctor," Dee Dee said quietly, leaning up toward their seats, "but they're micropetrol engines, aren't they?"

"Now, don't bother the man." The professor shook his head, once again waving at his assistant to be quiet.

The young woman shook her head, pushing her glasses up onto her nose a bit as she leaned closer to speak quietly to the Doctor. "My father was a mechanic. Micropetrol doesn't stabilise, so what does 'stabilise' mean?"

"Yes, Doctor, what do you mean by stabilise?" his wife asked, reminding him of her mother just a bit with the hint of steel that clearly said she would not be lied to, despite whatever he intended to say to the others onboard.

"Well. Bit of flim-flam. Don't worry, they're sorting it out." Although his words were directed at the pair behind him, his eyes begged his wife to trust him.

It was obvious that the professor still held little interest in what any of the women on board said or thought, and asked the Doctor a bit louder than was strictly necessary, "So it's not the engines?"

"It's just a little pause, that's all," the Doctor assured him.

"How much air have we got?" Hobbes queried next, making no effort to be subtle.

Dee Dee looked rather embarrassed as she replied, "Professor, it's fine."

"What did he say?" Val asked, a note of panic creeping into her voice.

"Nothing!" the Time Lord replied a bit too quickly.

Rose nearly groaned, knowing that his hasty answer would just make the woman worry more.

As if reading her thoughts, Val's voice became even more on edge. "Are we running out of air?"

"I was just speculating…" the careless professor sniffed.

Rose turned and opened her mouth to tell Professor Hobbes exactly what he could do with his speculation, when the hostess unknowingly rescued him by a timely return.

"Is that right, miss? Are we running out of air?" Biff asked, standing with a protective hand on his wife's shoulder.

Val looked between her husband and the hostess. "Is that what the Captain said?"

The hostess, for her part, masked her confusion and annoyance as she tried to soothe her passengers. "If you could all just remain calm…"

The middle aged woman continued on as though the hostess hadn't even spoken. "How much air have we got?"

"Mum, just stop it," Jethro groaned, covering his eyes in mortification.

"I assure you, everything is under control," the hostess said, growing just a bit louder.

The beefy middle aged man stood angrily, shouting, "Well, doesn't look like it to me!"

"Well, he said it," Val urged him, pointing at the professor.

Dee Dee tried to get everyone's attention in her quiet way. "... it's fine, the air is on a circular filter…"

The Doctor raised a hand, "Everyone…"

No one could hear him due to the panicked shouting that quickly crescendoed toward deafening levels.

Rose shook her head in frustration. She never liked when people panicked, it always seemed to bring out the very worst in people of all species. Finally, when her daughter pressed fearfully into her leg due to the volume, she brought a couple of fingers to her lips and let fly a piercing whistle that had served her well in the Estate and everywhere else she'd been in space and time.

"Just shut it, and let someone give an answer!" she snapped.

Val sniffed and turned up her nose at being chided by Rose, but she fell silent along with the other passengers.

The Doctor grinned at her, adoration in his eyes, before gesturing to the professor's assistant. "Thank you. Now, if you'd care to listen to my good friend Dee Dee…"

Dee Dee flushed a bit as she stammered through her sentence. "Oh! Um... it's just that... well, the air's on a circular filter so... we could stay breathing for ten years."

The Doctor nodded. "There you go! And I've spoken to the Captain, I can guarantee you, everything's fine."

Before anyone else could say a word there were two loud knocks originating outside the shuttle. Everyone who had reluctantly stopped speaking fell deathly quiet as they looked around in surprise and confusion.

"What was that?" Val nearly whispered.

The professor shook his head, still refusing to believe anything he hadn't thought of himself. "It must be the metal. We're cooling down, it's just settling…"

Dee Dee shrugged, trying to look as unaffected as the professor seemed to be. "Rocks. Could be rocks falling."

Rose nodded at her encouragingly. "Always some explanation, isn't there?"

Biff shot a glare at the woman. "What I want to know is, how long do we have to sit here."

Before anyone else could speak, the double knocking sounded on a different area of the shuttle, causing the passengers to involuntarily cringe away.

"What is that?" Sky snapped, fear making her voice sharper than she intended.

Val grabbed her husband's arm. "Is someone out there?"

The professor blew out an angry sigh of frustration. "Now, don't be ridiculous!"

"Like I said, it could be rocks," Dee Dee repeated, although her voice sounded much less confident now.

The Hostess answered unthinkingly. "We're out in the open. Nothing could fall against the sides."

There came another two knocks on the wall.

The Doctor looked around at the walls, his insatiable curiosity peaked. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?" Jethro answered, echoing the ages old joke with a mildly uneasy tone.

"Is there something out there?" Sky demanded, her fear beginning to swell. "Well? Anyone?"

Her only answer was two more knocks, which didn't settle her fears in any way.

"What the hell is making that noise?"

"We don't know yet, Sky," Rose answered, rubbing Jenny's back reassuringly. "We all just have to stay calm until we have more information. Since no one's been out there, it's hard to tell right now."

Professor Hobbes looked at Rose as though she'd grown a second head right there before him, and immediately corrected her in his lecturing tone. "I'm sorry, but the light out there is Xtonic, that means it would destroy any living thing, in a split-second. It is impossible for someone to be outside."

Another double knock punctuated his statement, causing Sky, on the edge of panic, to rise from her seat a bit as she spat at him, "Well, what the hell is that, then?!"

The Doctor was instantly up and at the wall, a stethoscope appearing from his pocket so that he could listen to the sounds outside the walls more closely.

"Sir!" the hostess exclaimed.

Jenny followed her father to the wall, the keen focus in her eyes and tense sharpness of her movements reminding Rose that her beautiful little girl had first been a soldier.

"Hello?" she asked, pressing her ear to the wall next to her father. "Who's out there?"

The banging sounded once again, at the rear fire exit.

"I think it wants in, Dad," Jenny noted seriously. "Should I open the door?"

"It's moving…" Jethro murmured, eyes wide with terror.

The professor opened his mouth to argue, but a suddenly rattling from the fire exit stunned them all. Jenny ran back to the door, but didn't touch it. Rose stood, exchanging a concerned look with the Doctor. The exit door rattled, as though something were trying to open it. Jenny stepped toward the door, hand raised.

"It's trying the door!" Val shouted, cringing away from the little girl.

"Doctor, stop her!" Rose gasped out, a sudden alarm in the back of her mind.

The abject terror in his wife's voice prompted him to move unnaturally fast, even though he wasn't sure whether whatever was going on was a danger or not. He grabbed up his daughter and moved back to where Rose stood. The blonde woman leaned down a bit to meet Jenny's eyes, searching for something that the Doctor accepted (with difficulty) that he must not ask about.

"There is no 'it', there's nothing out there. Can't be," came the Professor's scoffing voice, even as the rattling at the door came again, preceding double knocks traveling from the exit to the roof, and over to the side door where they had entered the shuttle only 4 hours previously.

"That's the entrance. Can it get in?" Val asked, on the verge of hysteria.

Dee Dee tried to calm her down, her tone soothing, "No, that door's on two hundred weight of hydraulics."

The Professor scowled at his assistant, "Stop it. Don't encourage them."

Rose snapped up her head to glare at the man, her eyes flashing gold from her worry over Jenny. "If you don't stop bein' such a horse's arse to every woman on this bus, I'm gonna make you eat your damned PhD. Got it?"

Professor Hobbes blinked at the woman in genuine shock, opening his mouth to respond but unable to as Rose spoke again.

"I mean it. I'm not in the mood for some trumped up sexist pillock to shove his so-called expert knowledge at everyone while refusin' to accept what is literally happenin' all around us. If you aren't gonna be helpful then at least be silent!"

The professor huffed and crossed his arms, not unlike Jenny when told she wasn't allowed to venture into certain parts of the TARDIS without one of her parents. Dee Dee looked at Rose with a half hidden smile.

"What do you think it is?" the younger woman asked.

"Somethin' we haven't met before," the blonde replied, locking eyes with her husband.

"When dealing with a possible enemy that isn't readily visible, the first steps are shoring defences while gathering intelligence before formulating a plan of attack," Jenny recited, making most of the adults uncomfortable with the militaristic tone to her young voice. "But this might also be a friend, or someone who needs help. So I guess we should also make a plan to help?"

The Doctor grinned at his daughter. "Well done for remembering it isn't necessarily an enemy. If we attack without reason, we are no better than criminals."

Biff went to the door, listening intently. His wife moaned nervously as he neared.

"Biff, don't…"

The Doctor held out a hand. "Mr. Cane, better not…"

"Nah, it's cast iron, that door…" The man waved off the warnings, focused on the source of the noise outside. He knocked on the door three times - and three knocks echoed back to them.

"Three times! Did you hear that, it did it three times?!" Val shrieked, immediately panicking.

Her son, on the other hand, was excited about the possibility of a new and undiscovered lifeform. "It answered!"

Val, her panic growing, announced to them all, "It did it three times!"

"All right, all right, all right, everyone, calm down," the Doctor said, stepping to the center of the shuttle.

Sky began breathing heavily. "No, but it answered, it... answered, don't tell me that thing's not alive, it answered him!"

Rose moved to her side. "I know it's scary. But trust me, we've faced worse and done fine."

The older woman took the hand that Rose offered and nodded, calming marginally. Three knocks disrupted the brief quiet, however, and threw Val into hysterics again.

"It's going to kill us!"

The hostess shook herself, remembering that she was responsible for all those aboard. "I really must insist, you get back to your seats!"

"What good will our seats do?! They'll find us dead on the floor or dead in our seats! Does the location make any difference?!" Val trembled in fear, squeezing herself into the corner of the seating area.

The Doctor had moved to stand next to Biff, who was ignoring his wife for the moment, at the door. His face was a mask as his mind whirred through possibilities regarding the entity responsible for the sounds outside. He knocked four times on the door, and no one was surprised when the knocks echoed back to them.

Val wailed. "Stop it! You're going to get us all killed! I don't want to know what it is! I don't want it here! Make it go away! It's going to get me!"

Jethro began to look alarmed as his mother spiraled out of control in her terror. "Mum, breathe, we're all still okay…"

"... and you just keep making it worse!"

"Mummy, should we do something for her?" Jenny asked, staring with childish wonder as she witnessed the breakdown.

Rose pulled her daughter back, frowning. "Not you, love. Small as you are, she might accidentally hurt you. She's too scared to listen at the mo'."

"...why couldn't you leave it alone? Stop staring at me! Just tell me what the hell it is!" Val demanded of the other passengers.

"Calm down!" Dee Dee tried to say, though it fell on deaf ears.

Jethro looked to his father. "Dad, do something!"

Biff blinked, looking at his wife in confusion. "Now, hon, come on…"

He started to reach for her but the knocks came again, now continuous on the outside of the shuttle. Val screamed and climbed the seats, scrambling away from the back. As she reached the front, she shoved Rose, Sky, and Jenny out of her way, pushing the three of them to the floor.

"It's gonna get me! It's gonna get me! Oh gods, it's gonna get me!"

The Doctor sprinted to his wife and child, kneeling next to them in concern as he called out to the terrified woman, "Get out of there!"

The whole shuttle suddenly rocked violently, the lights shutting off as sparks shot over them. Jenny screamed, barely audible over the shouts of the other passengers. The Doctor gathered his family in his arms as the movements stopped and people began groaning from their falls. Everything was silent and dark, except one vid screen, which was still playing music videos from the beginning of the trip. Rose buried her face in his chest for a moment, breathing in his scent to calm herself before she began checking them all.

"Jenny? You're okay, yeah? Doctor?"

"I'm okay, Mum."

The Doctor kissed her quickly. "All in one piece. You hurt?"

She gave him a tongue touched grin. "I've had worse. Sky, you all right?"

"A bit pained, but still intact," came the quiet response.

"V-val?" they heard Biff ask hesitantly.

Focusing on whether or not anyone was injured, no one but Jenny noticed the screen switch to show a young dark skinned man, soundlessly calling for the Doctor and Rose before the music video returned. The little girl blinked in surprise but knew this was not the time to tell her parents about seeing the man who'd been looking for them.

"How are we?" the Doctor asked. "Everyone all right?"

Picking himself off the floor, Professor Hobbes spoke first. "Earthquake, must be…"

Empowered by Rose's earlier tirade, Dee Dee argued. "You know that's impossible, the ground is fixed, it's solid."

"No tectonic plates," Jenny said, recalling what had been said. "No plates, no movement; no movement, no earthquakes."

"We've got torches," the hostess announced. "Everyone, take a torch, they're in the back of the seats."

As everyone began retrieving the torches, Jenny managed to get out of her parents grasp and walked back toward the hostess.

"Are you okay, Miss Hostess? No one checked you yet."

The woman was taken aback, as people usually ignored her or took their frustrations out on her. She simply wasn't used to any of the passengers being concerned about her.

"I'm fine, sweetheart. Thank you."

Jenny smiled at her and took the woman's hand. "I'm Jenny, by the way. What's your name?"

She squeezed the child's hand gently. "My name is Suha."

"You hurt, son?" Biff asked, seeing his son's face in the light of a torch.

Jethro was staring ahead, his own torch illuminating his mother, crouched in the front of the cabin. "Never mind me, what about Mum?"

Val was curled into a ball, perched on the balls of her feet near the front wall of the shuttle. Her back was turned to face the others as she sat motionless. Around her, the seats were shredded and ripped from where they'd been bolted to the floor, including those that Rose, Jenny and Sky had been standing next to just before the woman had shoved past them in her flight from her fear.

Jethro looked to his father. "What happened to the seats?"

"Hon? You okay?" Biff asked, worried about his wife, and himself. "Who did that?"

"They've been destroyed," Sky murmured in aww. "We were so close, yet I felt nothing. What could manage such a feat?"

The Doctor had released Rose and Jenny and was now moving to Val. He spoke in a soft, soothing tone. "It's all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's over. We're still alive... Look, the wall's still intact. D'you see?"

Jenny pointed her torch at the wall as she moved back to her mother's side. "Wow, that's a big dent. Mum, look."

Suha, the hostess, moved forward to the intercom. "Joe, Claude?"

"We're safe, Mrs. Cane," the Doctor reassured the woman again, hesitating to touch her.

"Driver Joe, can you hear me? I'm not getting any response, the intercom must be down," Suha said, worry colouring her tone. She opened the cockpit door and bright light poured forth, blinding the passengers.

Everyone screamed and shielded their faces until the door slid shut again.

Sky was the first to speak. "What's happened to the pilot? What was that light?"

"Have we lost the driver?" Biff asked, moving toward his wife.

The hostess pressed her hand to her chest, staring in shock at the door. "The cabin's gone."

Professor Hobbes, forgetting his earlier scolding, scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. It can't be gone, how can it be gone?"

"But you saw it!" Dee Dee snapped at him, buoyed by her earlier empowerment.

"There was nothing there, like it was ripped away," the hostess murmured, somewhere between shock and confusion.

Having leapt up when the door was opened, the Doctor was scanning the comms panel with the sonic screwdriver.

Biff pointed his torch at the Time Lord. "What are you doing?"

"That's better, bit of light, thank you. Molto bene!" the Doctor chirped, focused on the silent woman, not answering her husband's question.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Jethro asked nervously. He may not want to show it, but she was his mother and to see her like that was a bit nerve wracking.

The hostess frowned. "Sir, as the cabin has been removed, perhaps it's for the best that we just not tamper with that wall in any way."

"The cabin can't be gone!" Professor Hobbes scoffed.

Rose scowled at the man and started to step toward him but her husband pulled her back to his side by a belt loop on her jeans, humming a reprimand at her without even turning from the panel.

"No, it's safe, any rupture would automatically seal itself... But something sliced it off. You're right. The cabin's gone," He used the sonic to scan the mechanical readings.

The hostess pressed a hand to her chest, trying to calm herself. "But if it gets separated…"

He nodded with a grim expression, locking eyes with Rose, his guilt shining in his eyes. "It loses integrity. I'm sorry, they've been reduced to dust. The driver and the mechanic. But they sent a distress signal. Help is on its way. They saved our lives! We're gonna get out of here, I promise. We're still alive, and they're gonna find us." He reached down to get Jenny to look at him, giving her a reassuring smile as well.

"Doctor," Jethro said softly. "What's wrong with my mum?"

Val still sat at the front of the cabin, hunched over, curled in on herself and hugging her knees to her chest.

"Right, yes, sorry... Have we got a medical kit?" He moved away from his family to look the woman over.

"Why ain't she turned around yet?" Biff questioned, looking at the others in the shuttle.

"She's so quiet," Sky murmured, her tone worried.

"Val? Can you hear me? Are you all right? Can you move, Val? Just look at me."

Jethro glanced at the outer walls of the shuttle. "That noise, from the outside…"

"What of it?" his dad asked a bit more harshly than he intended.

"It's stopped."

An uneasy silence fell over the passengers as people shifted and connected the dots for themselves. Jenny, young in many ways, tipped her head and asked a question no one really wanted to be asked.

"Is it not outside anymore? Did it get Ms. Val and that's why she's all scared now?"

"Ms. Val is going to be just fine, Jenny," the Doctor assured her. He faced the unresponsive woman again. "Val...it's all right, Val. I just want you to turn around, face me."

Slowly, the woman turned, facing the Time Lord with her eyes wide, a wild look in them that reminded Rose of an animal caught in a spotlight. She pulled Jenny against her side as a strange buzzing caught her attention from within her mind. She exchanged a worried glance with the Doctor.

"Val?" the Doctor asked, trying not to shiver as the woman made no indication she'd even heard him.

"Val?" The woman echoed blankly.

"Is she all right?" Jenny asked.

The wild eyes snapped to the little girl's face as she immediately echoed, "Is she all right?"

The Doctor hissed violently as he reared back, while Rose wrapped her arms around Jenny from behind. Both parents were worried, though they certainly didn't want to alarm anyone.

"Jenny, don't talk to Ms. Val right now," the Time Lord said in his falsely cheerful voice.

"Jenny, don't talk to Ms. Val right now."

"Why not, Daddy?"

Val cocked her head. "Why not, Daddy?"

"I'm trying to help," the man said in a low, warming tone.

"I'm trying to help."

"Doctor, I don't like this," Rose frowned.

"Doctor, I don't like this."

The Doctor nodded, his expression grim. "Val, can you stop?"

"Val, can you stop?"

Biff came to stand next to the Doctor. "What's going on with her?"

His wife cocked her head at him and echoed, "What's going on with her?"

"Mum, you're starting to scare me," Jethro said, his eyes and tone betraying his terror.

His mother's response was chillingly empty. "Mum, you're starting to scare me."

"Has fear driven her mad?" Sky asked quietly.

"Has fear driven her mad?"

"Make her stop," Jethro begged.

"Make her stop."

Dee Dee studied the woman with the air of a researcher discovering something new. "I don't think she can."

Val focused on her. "I don't think she can."

Professor Hobbes scowled at the woman, drawing himself up to appear more authoritative. "All right, now stop it, this isn't funny."

"All right, now stop it, this isn't funny," came the immediate echo.

"Sh, sh, sh, all of you," the Doctor tried to quiet the group.

"Sh, sh, sh, all of you."

Biff puffed up, immediately lashing out in his fear and confusion. "Oy, that's my wife! Don't hush me!"

"Oy, that's my wife! Don't hush me!"

Rose heard that the woman was beginning to imitate the inflections as well as the words. "Doctor, listen."

"Doctor, listen."

He heard it as well, exchanging a worried glance with his wife. Turning back to Val, he asked, "Why are you repeating?"

"Why are you repeating?"

"What is that, learning?"

"What is that, learning?"

"Copying?"

"Copying?"

"Absorbing?"

"Absorbing?"

The others watched the pair in horrified silence as the Doctor pressed further.

"The square root of pi is 1.77245385090551602729816748…"

"The square root of pi is 1.77245385090551602729816748…"

"...3341. Wow!"

"...3341. Wow!"

"But that's impossible," the professor scoffed.

"But that's impossible."

Dee Dee blinked slowly. "She couldn't repeat all that.""

But Val seemed determined to prove her wrong. "She couldn't repeat all that."

"Daddy, if she is absorbing, aren't you giving her a whole lot more than you ought to?" Jenny asked, surprising her parents. "What if whatever is in Ms. Val wants to get in you?"

The Doctor met his wife's eyes, mirroring the alarm she showed even as the woman in question spoke the child's words again.

"Let's not give it any ideas then, yeah?" Rose said carefully, her words parroted by Val.

"Tell her to stop!" Biff cried, horrified.

"Tell her to stop!" his wife cried also.

The people in the shuttle began speaking all at once, offering ideas, arguments, anything that made them feel better somehow; all the while, whoever was loudest was being repeated by Val complete with tone and rhythm.

"...some kind of trick…" murmured the hostess.

"...some kind of trick…"

Dee Dee was frowning thoughtfully. "...it's just not possible…"

"...it's just not possible…"

"...I'm warning you, whatever your name is…" Biff growled at the Doctor, nearly worked into a panic for his wife.

"...I'm warning you, whatever your name is…"

The Doctor was trying in vain to hush them. "Now, just stop it, all of…"

"Now, just stop it all of…"

The professor was staring at the poor woman in horror. "...her eyes, what's wrong with her eyes?"

"...her eyes, what's wrong with her eyes?"

"...Mum'll copy anything…" Jethro breathed in terrified fascination.

"...Mum'll copy anything…"

Rose hugged Jenny to her tightly, her mouth pressed closed and her eyes beginning to glow. The Doctor saw and glanced around, worried the other passengers would see.

Sky shook herself, trying to settle her nerves. "...most upsetting…"

"...most upsetting…"

"Daddy, she's gonna change…" Jenny spoke up.

"Daddy, she's gonna change…"

Their words were cut off as a high pitched sound whirred through the shuttle as the lights flickered back to life. The brief silence that followed was soon broken by the occupants, although there was a difference to their echo… she was now speaking in tandem with the others.

"Well then, that's the back-up system," the Hostess sighed in measurable relief.

"Well! That's a bit better," the Professor blustered, trying to regain his composure.

Rose's eyebrows shot toward her hairline, though she kept herself silent. She waited for her husband to notice that Val was speaking alongside everyone.

"There is a rescue coming for us? How long until they arrive?" Sky questioned the hostess, her voice a bit wobbly.

"About 60 minutes, that's all."

Trying to reassert himself, Professor Hobbes gestured around to all of them, "Then I suggest we all calm down. This panic isn't helping. That poor woman is evidently in a state of self-induced hysteria, we should leave her alone."

Jethro was the first to notice the change in his mother. "Umm… Doctor?"

The Doctor nodded, watching her with a serious expression. "I know."

The professor assumed an air of importance as he approached the Time Lord. "Doctor, now step back, I think you should leave her... alone…" He finally heard how Val was speaking simultaneously with him. "What's she doing?"

Biff took a step toward his wife. "How can she do that? She's talking with you... and with me! Oh, my God!"

Jethro was frozen in place, not moving closer or farther from his parents. "She's repeating... At exactly the same time."

Val was still wild eyed, not moving, except to dart her impossibly wide eyes from one person to another as she spoke with them.

"That's impossible," Dee Dee said, her terror of the situation evident in her tone.

"There's not even a delay," the professor marvelled, as though it were merely a performer's trick.

"Daddy, this is a not good thing, right? One of those I'm not supposed to try to do alone yet?" Jenny asked.

Her father looked back at her and held up a hand. "I think we should all be very, very quiet."

"How's she doing it?" Biff asked, still staring at his wife.

"Mr. Cane, please, be quiet," the Doctor pleaded.

"But how can she do that? She's got my voice, she's got my words!" he railed, a touch of hysteria colouring his tone.

Sky snorted, "Don't keep on, you idiot!"

The Doctor shook his head. "Just stop it, all of you. Stop it. Please."

Jenny had somehow slipped past all of them and was suddenly staring Val in the face, mere inches from her. "Is Ms. Val still in there? Did you get rid of her like the driver and the other man? You're not very nice, and my mum and dad won't let you hurt people if that's what you plan."

Rose moved to pull Jenny back from the woman. "Jenny…"

Val's echo was more pronounced when she spoke along with Rose, as she couldn't quite mimic the slight ethereal quality that was beginning to hum through the blonde. Thinking it best for all of the people in the shuttle, the Doctor began to usher people toward the back of the compartment.

"I think... the more we talk, the more she learns. Now, I'm all for education, but in this case... maybe not. Let's just... move back. Come on. Come with me. Everyone, get back, all of you, as far as you can."

The other passengers allowed themselves to be herded into the small galley, unease tingling through each of them. A few uneasy looks were shot toward Rose, as her golden eyes gave her just enough of a difference to note that she was not quite the average human being she had seemed.

The Doctor frowned thoughtfully at Val, placing a hand on Biff's arm as he gently pulled him along. "Come on, come to the back, stop looking at her, come on, Jethro, you too. Everyone, come on... 50 minutes. That's all we need. 50 minutes till the rescue arrives. And she's not exactly strong, look at her, all she's got is our voices."

Biff shook his head. "I can't stand it, that's my wife, and I'm letting this happen to her."

"We must not look at goblin men," Dee Dee murmured suddenly, the eerie echo making her offhanded quote seem all the more disturbing.

The other passengers seemed to jump and stared at her with mixed horror.

"I know that poem," Jenny said. "It's by Christina Rossetti. 'We must not look at goblin men, We must not buy their fruits, Who knows upon what soil they fed, Their hungry, thirsty roots?'"

The Doctor placed a hand on top of her blonde hair, frowning at his daughter. "Actually, I don't think that's helping."

"She's not a goblin," Professor Hobbes said sternly, "or a monster, she's just a very sick woman."

"She wasn't before we started on this bloody trip!" Biff snapped, whirling around and shoving a finger in his face, as though the professor were to blame for his wife's current predicament. "You bloody well telling everyone that there's nothing here, nothing on the planet! Then what's happened to my wife, eh? What's got her?"

Rose suppressed a shudder as Val threw the angry words alongside her husband, though without the desperate expression she seemed almost like a marionette for some unseen monster.

"It maybe chose Ms. Val because she was so scared of it," Jenny suggested, trying to be helpful even with her mother's fingers squeezing a warning for her to be quiet into her shoulders.

The professor exploded angrily at all of them. "There is no 'it'!"

Jethro nodded at Jenny, completely ignoring the red faced professor. "Think about it though. That knocking, it went all the way round the bus until it found her. And she was the most scared, out of all of us. Maybe that's what it needed. That's how it got in."

The professor whirled on Jethro. "For the last time! Nothing can live on the surface of Midnight!"

Biff pushed his way between his son and the angry scholar, almost daring him to start a fight. The Doctor immediately leapt into actions, not wanting a physical fight to breakout while emotions were running so high. The last thing they needed was injuries on top of what they were already dealing with.

"Professor, I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own, mmm?" he said, eyebrows almost to his hairline. "And Biff, you'll have to forgive him for being just as unnerved as the rest of us. Now trust me, I've got previous! I think there might well be some... consciousness inside Mrs Cane, but maybe she's still in there. And it's our job to help her."

"Oh, you've got previous," Sky snorted. "You can help her then, I'm staying here in the back where she can't get me next."

The Doctor shook his head, darting a look at his wife and child. "No, I've got to stay back. If she's copying us, maybe the final stage is becoming us. I don't want her becoming me, or things could get a lot worse."

"Oh, like you're so special," Biff sneered, still staring at his wife.

"As it happens, yes I am, one of a kind, like my wife. Our daughter is even more special, so that's decided," he pointed around the passengers. "We stay back, and we wait. When the rescue ship comes, we can get her to hospital."

"Doctor, really?" Rose growled, hugging Jenny. "That gob of yours…"

"We should throw her out," the hostess said, her eyes wide with fear.

The professor blinked, too shocked to even remember the hostess was there. "I beg your pardon?"

"What did you say?" Sky asked the hostess.

The hostess pointed at Val and spoke in a trembling voice. "That thing, whatever it is, killed the driver, and the mechanic, and I don't think she's finished yet."

"Oh, Miss Suha…" Jenny said, her voice sad and her echo in Val seeming almost eager.

"She can't even move!" the Doctor exclaimed.

The hostess shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, not liking what she felt had to be said. "Look at her, look at her eyes! She killed Joe, and she killed Claude, and we're next."

Biff approached his wife, "She's still doing it. Just stop it! Stop talking! Stop it!"

"Dad!" Jethro cried, reaching toward his parents.

"We can't throw her out though, we can't even open the doors," Sky noted, gesturing to the heavy door in the back of the tram.

The Doctor began shaking his head furiously. "No one is getting thrown out!"

Dee Dee looked to Sky. "Yes, we can," she corrected the woman. "Cos there's an air pressure seal. Like when she opened the cabin door, she wasn't pulled out, we had a couple of seconds, cos it takes the pressure-wall about six seconds to collapse. Well, six seconds exactly. That's enough time to throw someone out."

"Miss Dee Dee!" Jenny exclaimed. "We can't throw somebody out! that wouldn't be kind at all!"

"But would that be enough to kill her, outside?" Sky asked, obviously considering it seriously.

"I don't know, but she's got a body now, it would certainly kill the physical form," Dee Dee replied with a negligent shrug.

"No one is killing anyone!" the Doctor half shouted, his eyes a bit wild.

"I wouldn't risk the cabin door twice, but we've got that one," the hostess said, [pointing to the fire exit behind them. "All we need to do is grab hold of her and throw her out."

"That's my wife!" Biff cried out.

The Doctor tried desperately to reason with them, to talk them out of the madness they were proposing. "Now, listen, all of you. For all we know that's a brand new life form over there. And if it's come inside to discover us, than what's it found? This little bunch of humans, what d'you amount to? A murder? Cos this is where you decide. You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her? Any of you? Really? Or are you better than that?"

Rose felt her heart swell, and released Jenny so as to move to stand with her Time Lord in solidarity. Around the cabin, the other passengers let his words wash over him for several quiet moments before any of them spoke.

"I'd do it."

The couple looked to the hostess in surprise as the words fell from her.

"So would I, if it's too late to save Val," Biff spoke up. "If she's gone, this thing is not gonna get to keep her body."

"I would be willing," Sky murmured, not meeting the eyes of anyone.

Dee Dee nodded, a fierce look on her face. "I think we should."

"What?!" the Doctor exploded.

The assistant shrugged, not feeling any remorse. "I want her out."

"Could you really do that, though?" Rose asked, feeling sick at how readily they all would commit murder.

Dee Dee nodded and indicated the Doctor as she spoke, "I'm sorry, but you said it yourself, Doctor, she is growing in strength."

"That's not what I said!"

"I want to go home. I'm sorry. I want to be safe," the young woman continued.

"You'll be safe, any minute now, the rescue truck is on its way," the Doctor pointed out.

The hostess frowned. "But what happens then, Doctor? If it takes that thing back to the Leisure Palace, if that thing reaches civilisation, what if it spreads?"

"That won't happen! Daddy won't let it!" Jenny exclaimed.

"He didn't keep it away from my mum, now did he?" Jethro snapped. "I'm having a hard time believing he's gonna keep it from anyone else."

"She could be dangerous," the hostess said seriously. "It's my job to see this vessel is safe, and we should get rid of her."

The professor seemed to be a bit shaken by how coldly the people around him were discussing eliminating a fellow passenger. "Now hang on, I think, perhaps we're all going a little bit too far."

"At last! Thank you."

The hostess interrupted the Doctor with a snarl, "Two people are dead!"

"So don't make it three!" Jenny shouted, stamping her little foot. "You're all just as bad as General Cobb! There's about sixty-eleven better ways to deal with people who are different that don't include killing them! My mum and dad have been just about everywhere, and they can do anything. If they say it's going to be okay, then it's going to be okay! If you try to throw her out that door, you'll have to get past me first."

For a moment, there was silence in the car, as the other passengers stared at the little girl. She was standing slightly closer to Vall than the rest of them were, and she certainly seemed to be standing guard over the woman who still spoke along with the others without a thought of her own.

Finally, the hostess said softly, "OK."

"Touch my daughter and I'll break your hands," Rose snarled warningly at them.

"Ohh, now you're being stupid. Just think about it! Could you actually take hold of someone and throw them out of that door?" the Doctor tried to diffuse the tension, and missed the glint in his wife's eyes.

"Who put you in charge, anyway?" Sky asked a bit angrily.

The professor drew himself up importantly. "I'm sorry, but... you're a Doctor of what, exactly?"

The hostess shook her head, thinking of a detail she hadn't thought much of at the time. " They weren't even booked in. Rest of you, tickets in advance. The three of them just turned up out of the blue."

"Where from?" Biff asked, suspicion now colouring his tone.

The Doctor took a step back from the other passengers, closer to his family.

"We're just... travelling, I'm a traveller, that's all. Our family is from all over the stars in a way."

"Like an immigrant?" Biff pressed.

"Who were you talking to? Before you got on board, you were talking to someone, who was that?" the hostess demanded.

"Just Donna, just our friend," Rose answered, holding a hand out as though to protect Jenny.

"Thing is, Doctor, you've been loving this," Jethro noted suddenly. "Your whole family has."

The Doctor's face fell in disappointment. "Oh, Jethro, not you."

"Well, this is my mum!" the young man shouted. "And ever since all the trouble started, you've been loving it."

"It has to be said, you do seem to have a certain... glee," Professor Hobbes noted.

"All right, I'm interested, yes, I can't help it, cos whatever's inside her, it's brand new, and that's fascinating!" the Doctor cried, wanting them all to understand.

"Leave Daddy alone!" Jenny shouted, and there seemed to be a small wave in the air pressure that pushed back at them all. The Doctor and Rose looked at their child in surprise, before meeting each other's eyes.

Jethro pointed at them accusingly, "You called us humans like you're not one of us!"

"You're right, son. He did call us human, but he didn't say that about the three of them," Biff agreed with his son.

"I see," said the professor with a sniff. "Well. That makes things clear."

The Doctor shook his head, "Look, just... Right, sorry, yes, hold on, just... I know, you're scared, and so am I, look at me, I am. But we have all got to calm down and cool off and think."

The professor continued to take point against the Doctor. "Perhaps you could tell us your name."

"What does it matter?" Rose challenged him.

"Rose, my hearts, I don't think that's going to help."

Biff got up into the Doctor's face. "Why won't you tell us, then?!"

"Stop being so mean!" Jenny shouted at the passengers. You need my dad, all of you, if you're gonna get out of this, then you need him and mum, so you better shut it and listen!"

Rose gasped, hearing something that the rest had missed. Val wasn't repeating everyone anymore… she was only echoing Jenny.

"So you lot keep saying! You've been repeating yourselves more than her," the professor sneered.

"If anyone's in charge, it should be the Professor, he's the expert!" Biff announced.

"Dad, stop, just look…" Jethro said, pointing at the form of his mother.

His father waved him off. "You keep out of this, Jethro."

"Look at mum!"

And they did, all of them. Val was starting to make slight movements, as Jenny knelt, frowning in front of her.

"She's stopped…" Dee Dee murmured in wonder.

"Mummy, I think she's doing something again," Jenny said, Val speaking along with her while maintaining eye contact with the child.

"She's still… oh no… no, no, no…" the Doctor said, his tone becoming a bit frenzied as he realized what was happening.

The other passengers began to talk amongst themselves as they realized that whatever had been making Val speak with them, it had moved on from the majority. However, Rose and the Doctor were not pleased by this new step.

"Ms. Sky? What are you doing?" Jenny asked with the woman parroting along. "Are you trying to talk?"

"Leave my daughter alone," Rose growled, only to be ignored as Val continued to stare into Jenny's golden eyes, so like her mother's.

"She's only copying the girl," the professor noted. "Does that make the rest of us safe?"

"Why did you pick me?" Jenny asked, cocking her head to the side with curiosity.

"Don't do this," the Doctor practically begged the still woman.

"She's just focused on them now!" Dee Dee exclaimed, her relief plain.

"They were together, this whole time. I bet they did that to my Val!" Biff told the others, the accusation coming out hoarsely.

The professor didn't feel the need to let the little family deal with the situation. "How d'you explain it, Doctor? If you're so clever. Why would this phenomenon be focused on your child?"

The Doctor shot a glare at the man. "I don't know, and I don't like it.. Sky, stop it. I said stop it. Just stop it!"

"Doctor, what do we do?" Rose asked him, her fear making her voice shake.

The Doctor tried to pull Val's attention from his daughter. "Mrs Cane. I'm trying to understand. You're capturing my daughter's speech, what for? What d'you need? You think you need her voice in particular. The most unique voice in the room. Why? Cos she's the only one who makes you feel safe? Ohh, I'd love that to be true. But your eyes. They're saying something else. Listen to me. Whatever you want, if it's life, or form, or consciousness, or voice, you don't have to steal it. You can find it without hurting anyone. And we'll help you. That's a promise. So. What d'you think?"

"We can make a deal," Val said, a millisecond before Jenny spoke the same words.

There was a palpable silence as what happened registered with all those in the tram.

"Hold on, did she...?" Dee Dee gasped.

"Mum spoke first," Jethro breathed.

"Oh, look at that, I'm ahead of you," Val said in a soft tone, with a small smile, as she stared at the little girl who echoed her now.

"What are you doing?" Rose demanded, trying to pull Jenny away. It seemed as though she was riveted to the floor.

"Leave Jenny alone, Mrs. Cane," the Doctor said with a warning in his tone.

The professor spoke as though in a lecture hall. "Did you see? She spoke before the girl did! Definitely!"

Jethro grabbed his dad's arm, "She's copying mum!"

"What's happening?" the hostess asked, not quite as eager to get rid of whatever it might be if it was attaching to the little girl who had been kind enough to ask her name as few on this tour ever had.

"I think it's moved," Val smirked, starting to move her limbs."

"I think it's moved," Jenny echoed blandly as her parents focused on her and not the woman for the moment.

"I think it's letting me go," she spoke, pushing herself into a new position.

Jenny was now staring at Val's knees. "I think it's letting me go."

"She's repeating now, she's the one doing it! It's her!" Biff said in excitement.

Jethro was also excited. "They're separating."

"Mrs. Cane? Is that you?" the professor asked, reaching a hand out toward the woman.

Rose and the Doctor patted Jenny's cheeks, pushed her hair out of her eyes, even attempted to shake her a bit to gain her attention, but the little girl simply stared straight ahead.

"Yes, yes, it's me," Val assured the other passengers, turning and raising a hand to them.

"Yes, yes, it's me," echoed Jenny.

"I'm coming back, listen," the woman assured them.

Jenny's voice became monotone. "I'm coming back…"

"It's me!"

"...listen. It's me!"

"Like it's passed into the girl. It's transferred. Whatever it is, it's gone inside her."

Dee Dee shook her head, staring at the family on the floor. "No, that's not what happened…"

"But look at her!" Biff insisted.

Val stepped toward her husband, her hand still out to him. "Yes, look at me, I can move…"

The girl on the floor echoed, "Look at me…"

"I can feel again…" Val smiled with another step.

"I can move... I can feel again…"

"I'm coming back to life…" She murmured.

"I'm coming back to life…"

Val was just out of reach still as she gestured back at Jenny, "And look at her, the little one can't move now."

"And look at her, the little one can't move now."

Val turned to her husband and son, her hands both reaching out now. "Help me."

"Help me."

Biff and Jethro each took a hand and pulled Val to them, hugging her.

"Keep me away from them," Val said, a smirk on her face for those who would look close enough.

"Keep me away from them."

"We've got you, love," Biff insisted.

"Ohh thank you," the woman purred.

"Ohh thank you."

"Mum," Jethro noted, "You've completely separated."

"It's in them, d'you see? I said it was them all the time."

"She's free! She's been saved!" Sky praised, her shoulders drooping in relief.

"Oh, it was so cold," Val told them.

"Oh, it was so cold," Jenny repeated, her parents completely focused on what was happening to her and ignoring the others.

"I couldn't breathe," the woman continued as they all consciously ignored the echo.

"I couldn't breathe."

"I'm sorry. I must've scared you so much."

"I'm sorry. I must've scared you so much."

They gathered around the woman in the back of the shuttle.

Biff shook his head. "No, no, it's all right, I've got you, ohh, there you are my love, it's gone, everything's all right now."

"Maybe you shouldn't touch her," Dee Dee said, biting her lip.

"But it's gone, she's clean, it passed into him," Jethro insisted.

Dee Dee shook her head. "That's not what happened."

The professor looked down his nose at his assistant. "Thank you for your opinion, Dee, but clearly, Mrs Cane has been released."

"No…"

Biff practically growled at the young woman, an arm around his wife. "Just leave her alone! She's safe, isn't she? Jethro? It's let her go, hasn't it?"

The young man looked at his mother for a long moment and then to the professor. "Think so, yeah. Looks like it. Professor?"

The scholar nodded. "I'd say, from observation... the child can't move, and when she was possessed, she couldn't move, so…"

"Well, there we are then! Now the only problem we've got is this possessed child."

"It's inside her head," Val nodded.

"It's inside her head."

"It killed the driver," the woman continued, her eyes becoming intense as she looked back at the family where the Doctor and Rose now raised their eyes to her.

"It killed the driver."

"And the mechanic."

"And the mechanic."

"And now it wants us."

"And now it wants us."

The Doctor stood, blocking his daughter with his body, his face taking on a dark look.

"He's waited so long," Val intoned, her expression almost gleeful.

"He's waited so long."

"In the dark. And the cold."

"In the dark. And the cold."

"And the diamonds."

"And the diamonds."

"Until you came."

"Until you came."

The tone from Val was so chilling that Dee Dee and the hostess exchanged looks.

"Bodies so hot."

"Bodies so hot."

"Stop, oh, my God, make her stop, someone make that girl stop!" Sky cried out in horror.

"But she's saying it!" Dee Dee exclaimed, pointing at Val.

"And you can shut up!" Biff snapped at her.

The young woman tried to make someone understand. "But it's not Jenny, it's her, she's just repeating!"

Jethro shook his head. "But that's what the thing does, it repeats! We got my mum away from it!"

"Just let her talk!" the hostess tried to help Dee Dee, but the passengers didn't want to hear it.

"What do you know?" Biff shouted at the woman. "Fat lot of good you've been!"

"Just let her explain."

Dee Dee rubbed her head, trying to think of how to make everyone understand what she was seeing. "I think... I mean, from what I've seen... it repeats, then it synchronises, then it goes on to the next stage and that's exactly what the Doctor said would happen!"

"What, and you're on their side?" Biff asked, wanting to protect his wife.

"The voice is the thing!" Jethro insisted, not letting her answer.

Dee Dee shook her head. "And she's the voice! She stole it! Look at her! It's not possessing the girl, it's draining her!"

The hostess gasped. "She's got her voice…"

Sky shook her head. "But that's not true, because it can't be; because I saw it pass between them, I saw it with my own eyes!"

"So did I!" Biff insisted.

"You didn't!" Dee Dee tried to show them.

"It went from my Val, to the kid. You saw it, didn't you?" Biff asked his son, obvious in the answer he wanted.

Jethro hesitated, looking at Jenny.

"Be honest Jethro," begged the Doctor.

"I… I don't know," the boy nearly moaned.

His father sneered at him. "Oh, don't be stupid, Jethro, of course you did! She was right next to her. Everyone saw it, everyone!"

"You didn't, you're just making it up!" Dee Dee continued to insist. "I know what I saw, and I saw her stealing that child's voice."

"She's as bad as they are, someone shut her up!" Biff dismissed the woman.

Professor Hobbes gave his assistant a stern look. "I think you should be quiet, Dee. And that's an order! You're making a fool of yourself! Pretending you're an expert in mechanics and hydraulics, when I can tell you, you are nothing more than average, at best! Now shut up!"

"It's making us all crazy," Val said, a satisfied smirk on her face. "The only way to be safe is to throw the child out before it moves to another person."

As Jenny echoed her words, Biff and the professor moved as though they would do just that, only to be stopped by the Doctor in the aisle.

"You'll not lay a hand on my daughter, gentlemen," he informed them in a low voice that sent shivers down their spines.

"We don't want to have to throw you out with her, sir," the professor said in a somewhat fearful tone. "Don't let your emotions get the better of you."

"As you've done?" the Time Lord challenged the two humans. "You'll have to go through me first, and stronger than you have tried and failed at that."

"Throw him out!" Val crowed, echoed by the girl on the floor.

The two human men grabbed the doctor and began to wrestle him toward the back. Val cheered, her eyes glittering with a malicious madness that made Jethro back away in horror. The hostess and Dee Dee shouted out against their actions, trying to stop the two men, but all was chaos for several minutes before a shockwave knocked them all to the floor of the transit vehicle. As one, each face turned to see Rose hovering in a non-existent wind, radiating a golden warmth as she spoke in a voice that barely reached the ears of each person, yet radiated through them.

"Stop! This ends now, and no life will be forfeit to abate the rage of that which has no claim to these forms."

The avatar of time moved to loom over Val Cane's form, who stared up at her in horror. "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" she hissed, attempting to scramble away. She shoved several people aside in her flight, knocking the hostess into a shelf full of water glasses and pitchers as she tried to get away.

The Bad Wolf caught her easily and narrowed her golden eyes as she leaned down, grabbing the woman's face in her hands. "You have done enough damage. You will exit this form, and this vehicle. You will not leave this prison while I exist to prevent it."

That which was within Val screamed once, then again as the golden light pouring from Rose Tyler encompassed both women in a blinding aura before retreating back into the younger woman and causing both to fall back. Val crumpled, unconscious in the floor and Rose hit her knees as the Doctor scrambled toward her. Jenny lay unconscious where she had knelt only moments before.

"Rose? Rose, look at me…" the Doctor pled, tilting his pink and yellow girl's face toward his own.

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. "It's gone, Doctor. Back out into the emptiness of this world. I had to change it so that it can never try to take another body like it tried to take Mrs Cane. It just wanted to make others suffer, there was no kindness within it."

He peppered kisses across her cheeks and nodded. "I know you did what you had to, my precious girl. You had no choice."

"Jenny!" she cried, using what remained of her energy to leap to her daughter and gather the child in her arms. They were both held by the Doctor, just a heartbeat later.

"Mummy? Daddy?" the girl whimpered, burrowing into their arms.

The other passengers slowly came out of the stupor that had been brought on by the sight of what many planets knew as the time goddess, and stared at the little family, realizing the horrific act they had nearly been party to. Biff and Jethro looked after an unconscious Val, grateful she'd been spared from destruction alongside whatever had been inside her. The professor was silent, unable to comprehend what he'd witnessed as he had never believed in any being of power beyond that of mortal beings. It was Dee Dee who discovered that not all survived the brush with the unknown.

"The hostess… it seems she was fatally injured when she fell into the glassware," the young assistant said softly.

No one spoke a reply, and the cabin fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Mummy…" Jenny spoke, her voice soft and weak and instantly driving a spike of guilt into the other passengers at what they had been willing to do. "Ms. Suha wanted to help me."

Rose looked at her daughter. "Was that her name?"

Jenny nodded. "It's not fair she ought to die."

The Doctor tensed. "Jenny, your mother…"

"Can do this one thing," Rose insisted. "She did try to protect our daughter."

"Rose," the Doctor pled. "It's going to push you too far…"

She shook her head. "I know how far I've pushed, and I can at least bring her back. She'll still need medical care, but Jenny has a point - it's not right."

"I don't like it," he sighed, but released his hold on her, knowing he couldn't keep her from being who she was even when it worried him. He and Jenny followed behind Rose to the fallen hostess.

Rose placed her hands on the hostess' bloodied side and drew in a deep breath even as the remaining systems began to alert the passengers that their rescue had arrived. The witnesses to what happened told many others over the years that they saw a golden goddess save two women from certain death that day. Although the rescue workers only saw two men carrying their unconscious wives from a broken vessel, and a hostess who received emergency medical treatment. They knew that had they not arrived when they did, Suha would not have survived this ill fated trip.

It was several hours after they returned when Donna finally felt brave enough to ask about their encounter.

"What d'you think it was?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No idea."

Leaning against Lee's strong shoulder, she exchanged a worried look with the man she loved before pressing further. "D'you think it's still out there?"

The Doctor didn't answer, staring down at his hands. Rose touched his arm and met his almost mournful gaze with an equally somber look. She was still quite weak, but she was awake now.

"It's still out there," she answered both the asked and unasked questions.

"Well, you'd better tell 'em. This lot," Donna said, matter of factly.

Lee nodded, and spoke, "N-not… not really s-safe to keep letting people c-come here."

The Doctor nodded, "Yeah. They can build a Leisure Palace somewhere else. Let this planet keep on turning, round an Xtonic star. In silence. Best not to be around, even if it can't affect them any longer."

"Let's get out of here, yeah?" Rose suggested weakly. "S'not much fun around here anymore."

"Can we go somewhere without humans next, Daddy?" Jenny asked with a tired sigh.

"We can go anywhere you like," the Time Lord assured his daughter as the five of them made their way toward the TARDIS.

A/N: I apologise for the wait in this chapter. I have had many, many personal hardships that I have pressed through and though they aren't a good reason to leave my readers without an update to this story, they have certainly taken a lot out of me. At any rate, I am back into the world and trying to bring this story back with me. Even though there are only a few more chapters planned for this story, there is already plans in motion for a sequel. New regeneration, new title in the works. Don't worry, I've no intention of skipping over the movies made between one face and the next, but for now, I must focus on what happens next in Turn Left.