Now! Love, Ace! He noted she'd added the date and time (about an hour from now, he realised) at the bottom. The front bore the address of a post office box in London. He noted she'd added the date and time (about an hour from now, he realised) at the bottom. The front bore the address of a post office box in London.

'And promise me,' she said, 'that whatever happens, you'll make sure this card goes. Even if the Doctor turns up before you get chance to post it, you have to post it you have to post it.'

The intensity in those last few words surprised Alexander, but he nodded. He put his hand on her arm as she tucked the pen back into her rucksack. 'What was it, then? That thing last night?' He'd told Ace about the creature that had come aboard the boat; about how he and John had dived overboard; and about how, when they'd heard the thing splosh back into the water they'd clambered aboard, two miserable, drowned rats, to find that the cabin had been torn apart and the object that John had brought up gone.

'I've got a horrible feeling that we know it better as Scottie Dog,' she said. 'It sounds like the thing that killed Megan.' She patted her pockets, checking that she had everything. 'Right,' she said. 'I'll come and see you off.'

'See me off?'

Ace nodded. 'Trust me. You go back to the boat and I'll wait for the Doctor.'

'But it could be days or weeks before he '

'I said trust me. OK?'

'You really are a nutter, aren't you?'

'Probably. Now come on.'

He shrugged, shaking his head.

Ace checked her watch and glanced out at the boat, bobbing away gently in a sea that somehow seemed brighter and gentler than it had when she'd arrived. The sky was clouding over again and she still felt terribly tired. Her knee whinged silently at her.

'One thing,' Alexander said, stepping into the dinghy. 'You never did tell me your name.Your real name.'

She paused. 'Dorothy and you tell anyone and you're dead.' She grimaced at him. He was sinning.

'Dorothy? Dorothy as in The Wizard of The Wizard of ' '

'Yes, thank you for reminding me. You can probably guess what my middle name is too, can't you? Now go on, get lost!'

Ace sat on the beach, feeling the pebbles digging into her backside. From out of the air, struggling to be heard over the wind, came a familiar noise. She turned to see the rea.s.suring shape of the TARDIS as it faded into solidity on a rocky promontory that jutted out into the sea. The air around her thickened with static, as if the TARDIS was drawing the mysterious energies from the ocean floor towards itself. Eye-aching white ropes of lightning danced around its roof for a moment before flickering out.

Ace checked her watch, picked up her rucksack, and headed for home. She paused on the threshold of the TARDIS and looked back at the boat. Was she imagining it, or did it look like there were other figures on the deck? She squinted, shading her eyes against the morning sun. What if the tweedies had accomplices? Could someone else have come through the transmat, other liftmen sent by Sooal? She couldn't go now; she couldn't leave John and Alexander to face them alone.

From inside the TARDIS, she heard the Doctor's impatient, oddly petulant voice, calling her.

'I can't go yet,' she called back.

'Ace! Come inside. Now.'

She felt herself bristling at his tone and stepped in, trying to keep her weight off her throbbing knee. 'I can't go yet,' she said again.

'Yes you can,' he replied sharply.

'But John and Alexander '

'There's no time,' the Doctor said sharply, his hands poised on the TARDIS' controls. His face was concerned, preoccupied.

He glanced over at the doors to the TARDIS' interior, and she saw that he'd wedged the chair against them, his brown jacket hanging over the back. What was he It was as if someone had slapped her face. She felt the whole world the interior of the TARDIS, the island on which it stood -rushing away from her, like that trick they do in films with a zoom lens. She looked back at the Doctor as the doors dosed behind her. Before she could tell him to open them again, the TARDIS dematerialised.

'Quickly, Ace,' he said. 'I need to know exactly when it was that we first arrived in Muirbridge.'

'Why?' She was still trying to fit together the pieces of everything that was happening around her. She was seeing herself from half a dozen different angles, and couldn't cobble them together to work out the whole picture. 'We've already been there you know when we arrived.'

' You've You've already been there,' he said, not meeting her eyes as he fiddled and faddled with the console. 'Joyce didn't write the date on her card to me, and the postmark was smudged. I picked up already been there,' he said, not meeting her eyes as he fiddled and faddled with the console. 'Joyce didn't write the date on her card to me, and the postmark was smudged. I picked up your your card from Countess Gallowgla.s.s at the same time I collected hers. That's what I couldn't show you in London. It was too big a coincidence that you'd sent one to me from the Orkneys whilst Joyce's came from Dumfries.' He glared at her, and Ace knew what his expression was and where she'd seen it before. It was anger and outrage, sheer outrage that someone else should be manipulating card from Countess Gallowgla.s.s at the same time I collected hers. That's what I couldn't show you in London. It was too big a coincidence that you'd sent one to me from the Orkneys whilst Joyce's came from Dumfries.' He glared at her, and Ace knew what his expression was and where she'd seen it before. It was anger and outrage, sheer outrage that someone else should be manipulating him him. The countless times when he' he' d been the one to know what was happening, the one with the privileged viewpoint of knowing what was going to come next and being able to lord it over his companions because of it, the simple fact that d been the one to know what was happening, the one with the privileged viewpoint of knowing what was going to come next and being able to lord it over his companions because of it, the simple fact that someone else someone else knew more than he did was doing his head in. If she hadn't caught the darkness in his eyes and the clenched set of his jaw, she would have laughed. knew more than he did was doing his head in. If she hadn't caught the darkness in his eyes and the clenched set of his jaw, she would have laughed.

And the last time she'd seen that look had been... after he'd barricaded her out of the console room, sent her on that stupid errand to fetch that stupid book from the TARDIS library.

When he'd finally let her in, he'd worn that exact same look.

Again, Ace glanced at the door, at the chair so expertly wedged under the handles.

Someone hammered on the door.

'It's me,' she whispered, turning to the Doctor. 'That's me me out there, isn't it?' out there, isn't it?'

Chapter Twenty-Two.

The Doctor ignored her. 'Ace, I need to know. When did we originally arrive in Muirbridge?'

Her head felt thick with nonsense, with the sheer irrationality of it all: here she was, in the TARDIS's console room; and there there she was, banging on the door, trying to get in. And she'd thought some alien had hijacked the TARDIS, persuaded the Doctor to do something so secret and so important that he couldn't tell her about it. And all along it was her. Did her own voice really sound so whiny, so petulant? She caught his glare. 'Er, two days ago. she was, banging on the door, trying to get in. And she'd thought some alien had hijacked the TARDIS, persuaded the Doctor to do something so secret and so important that he couldn't tell her about it. And all along it was her. Did her own voice really sound so whiny, so petulant? She caught his glare. 'Er, two days ago.

Sat.u.r.day, I think. About 8am.'

He didn't look up, he didn't thank her. He set about typing the coordinates in. Then she remembered John and Alexander and the intruders on their boat. 'But I have to go back to John and '

He cut her off with a sharp wave. 'I can't know Ace. I can't know anything that's happened to you. Remember: none of it has happened to me yet.' He finally looked at her, his eyes full of... something she couldn't describe, some emotion that maybe she could never understand. Perhaps something that came with being a Time Lord, a deep sadness, wired into his very being.

Maybe she was just getting the tiniest taste of what it was like to be him him.

The hammering on the door increased, and she could hear herself shouting.

'I need to know where to drop you off first, Ace.'

'Muirbridge, I guess. I mean, I got to the Orkneys through '

'I said no, Ace! Don't tell me.' He looked back at the console. 'Muirbridge it is.'

With a subdued, almost vengeful stab at the controls, he finished programming their destination. She heard the change in the pitch of the TARDIS's sound. The Doctor crossed to the internal doors, and began reasoning with the other Ace the one now wondering what kind of danger the Doctor had got himself into. The Doctor.. the other other Doctor. She'd almost forgotten. Doctor. She'd almost forgotten.

Megan had said that he was dying, wired up to the computer aboard the ship. That had been yesterday. By now he could be dead. She looked at him again as he tried to placate the other Ace (she couldn't think of her as being her her). The Doctor could be dead and yet here and now at the same time. But this here-and-now Doctor was before before the Doctor that might now be dead. the Doctor that might now be dead.

b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. In twenty years time, she thought, I'll be in therapy because of all this.

If the Doctor dropped her back in Muirbridge now the real now, the now where she'd left John and Alexander then it would all be over. The Doctor would be dead. The fact that he was here and now didn't prove anything: this Doctor was from the past. The one back in Muirbridge could already be dead. She couldn't let that happen.

As if she were on autopilot she crossed to the controls behind the Doctor's back and saw the display that told her the TARDIS was travelling in s.p.a.ce, but not in time. With a few quick, inexpert strokes, she'd done what she knew was wrong; and at the same time what she knew she couldn't not not do. do.

By the time the Doctor turned round, she was back in place, trying desperately to work out how far back in time her b.u.t.ton-pressing would send her: it was either 20 hours or two days she hadn't had time to check, properly. The thought occurred to her that she could equally well be sending herself back two years or 200. The sound of the TARDIS's materialisation filled the air.

'I'll see you in a few minutes,' he said, glancing towards the barricaded door.

Ace could tell he was making an effort at levity, as if he'd realised that his discomfort at the situation wasn't her fault and was trying to make up for his snippiness.

Sorry, she thought ruefully, would have been a lot easier. But considering what she'd just done, she had no right to whinge.

With a thump, the TARDIS materialised and the Doctor opened the door for her.

'Ace,' he said gently as she made to leave. 'Being a Time Lord isn't all jam and scones.'

She grinned awkwardly and stepped out feeling even more guilty than she'd been when she'd reprogrammed the TARDIS.

The heather was soft beneath her feet, the air fresh and cool even if her knee did feel like it had been hammered with a steak tenderiser.

She stared down at Muirbridgc and didn't look back as the TARDIS and the Doctor and Ace vanished. Deja vu? Been there, Deja vu? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt done that, got the T-shirt. Now, if she'd worked it out right, she'd better get her head down quickly. There'd be another TARDIS along in a minute.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor crossed to the interior doors and dislodged the chair. Ace stormed in.

'So?'

'Ace, please, there really isn't time for this.'

'You've got time to land the TARDIS, let some stranger in, have a secret little heart-to-heart and then drop him off somewhere, and you haven't got time to tell me what's going on?' 'It's not that I don't want to tell you. I can't can't.' His face looked genuinely pained, but Ace was too angry to take any notice of his distress.

'Are you being threatened? Is that it?' She looked around the room, as if expecting to find someone crouched behind the control console, pointing a gun at him. But there was no one there. She looked at him carefully, wondering whether he'd been possessed by some alien force, or replaced with a bodys.n.a.t.c.her-type replica. But he was the same little man that she'd just returned from the future with.

Like a waiter trying to find the right way to take the order from an arguing couple, Michael hovered around the periphery of Ace and the Doctor's sullen silence. He looked tired and drained, she just looked well p.i.s.sed-off. He caught her eye and she sighed heavily and folded her arms. In the background, Connie and Jessie were fussing around the Doctor, the events of the last half hour apparently forgotten by them as they offered to make him yet another cup of tea. Connie's sudden sharpness was unnerving and she was taking charge of Jessie with, Michael suspected, more than an element of overcompensation.

'I'm not going to say it,' Michael ventured, turning to Ace.

She glowered at him. 'Well don't, then.'

He patted his pockets and found a crumpled pack of f.a.gs with one bent, torn, sorry specimen inside. He ripped off the filter, stuck the cigarette in his mouth and lit it as Ace flicked a contemptuous glance back at the Doctor. 'Were you being straight yesterday when you told me you'd come back in time a couple of days?'

Ace rubbed her eyes tiredly. 'The Doctor's not the only one who can go mucking about with time, you know. While I've been rescuing the Doctor, getting shot at by the Tulks, getting locked up and rescued, I've also been up in the Orkneys, running from a psychopathic care a.s.sistant, duplicate tweedies and another of those.' She gestured at the pan on the floor under which the Landine seemed to have gone to sleep now that its masters were gone.

'I'm supposed to be following this, aren't I?' Michael said.

'Nah, it's time travel. If you try to follow it all, you end up as loopy as him.' She cast her eyes in the Doctor's direction.

'And does he know about this?'

Ace nodded, and for the first time Michael saw a softening of her expression and, maybe, just a trace of guilt.

'He rescued me from the Orkneys oh, round about now, I expect, and brought me back here. Only I fiddled with the TARDIS settings when he wasn't looking to give myself some more time to help him and got him to drop me off just before we first arrived here, two days ago. Since then, I've been trying to avoid b.u.mping into myself.'

'You said you thought you had a stalker? That was you?'

'Freaky, eh? I nearly ended up running into myself until the Doctor had a little word with me the other night. He gave me a telling off and told me to keep myself out of sight until the original "me" had gone to the Orkneys. Of course, then I had to sit down and work out all the things that had happened to me while I was here the first time that might be down to me this me, that is. Making a bacon b.u.t.ty, whacking Megan with a pan when she nearly caught me in the cellar, a spot of breaking and entering and the stalking, of course. It's weird how you imagine that you look and sound completely different to how you actually do.'

'What would have happened if you'd done something different?'

Ace shook her head, and stared at the pan on the floor.

'Maybe that's the whole point,' she said with a resigned smile.

'Maybe we can't do anything different maybe we all think we've got free will, that we can change this and change that. And then, when it comes down to it, we just do what has to be done to make it come out all right.'

Michael smiled gently. We just do what has to be done. We just do what has to be done. Too right we do. Too right we do.

It was like some kind of bizarre family reunion: Michael and herself along with Alexander and John. All of them on the boat.

The two boys had nearly thrown themselves over the side when the TARDIS had materialised in the galley a precision bit of piloting that Ace felt owed more to the TARDIS than to the Doctor's driving skills. Alexander's face had been a picture as she'd squeezed herself out; John had looked as though he was going to hit her. And the appearance of the Doctor and Michael out of the relatively tiny confines of a police box had set Alexander swearing like she'd never heard him swear before.

Only Joyce's decision to stay with her mum spoiled the full hand.

Michael had tried to persuade her to come along with them to see everything wrapped up, but despite the obvious temptation, she knew where her priorities lay.

So here they were, edgy and awkward on deck, trying to avoid the handrail and each other.

'So you two still sulking?' asked Michael, sidling up to Ace.

She glanced along the boat at the diminutive form of the man in the deckchair, his feet up on the handrail like nothing had happened, hat perched c.o.c.kily on the back of his head.

'Just a small matter of a broken promise or two,' Ace muttered.

'His or yours?'

Ace wasn't sure she could answer. He'd promised to stop using people, pushing them about like p.a.w.ns on a chessboard; and then he'd gone and deliberately deliberately deliberately tricked Connie and Jessie into coming downstairs and play-acting for him. tricked Connie and Jessie into coming downstairs and play-acting for him. Two Two old ladies, for G.o.d's sake. old ladies, for G.o.d's sake. Yeah, sure, she'd been a bit sneaky, altering the TARDIS' controls to take her back in time. But it wasn't the same: she hadn't put two old women in danger, just so that some grand, secret plan could smoothly swing into operation. Yeah, sure, she'd been a bit sneaky, altering the TARDIS' controls to take her back in time. But it wasn't the same: she hadn't put two old women in danger, just so that some grand, secret plan could smoothly swing into operation.