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I keep forgetting how often teasing you comes back to haunt me,' the Doctor said. He swung his legs off the bed and stood up. 'What time is it?'

Leela shrugged. 'It is daylight.'

Already?' The Doctor flung open the curtains, and autumn sunshine flooded into the bedsitting room. 'And it's a beautiful day,' he said, suddenly feeling refreshed and unexpectedly cheerful. 'I expect you'd like some breakfast wouldn't you?'

They had stayed with her all night. It had taken the three of them to uncurl her and carry her to the bed, but when they tried to turn out the light and leave her there she had become hysterical. Joan was terrified to be alone and even more terrified to fall asleep though she did drift off eventually.

None of them was particularly impressed with the way she was behaving, but Josh had been the least sympathetic. 'What is this crap?' he had demanded softly. 'Anything to do with hysterical self-indulgence at all?' He had shaken his head and snorted derisively. 'Nightmare on Elm Street revisited.'

Because he was so scathing about her, Meg and Tommy had felt obliged to defend Joan and an argument had been carried on in raised whispers.

'She's a psychic,' Meg had said, glaring at him. "They're not called sensitives for nothing.'

'Yes they are.' Josh was rubbing his hand compulsively backwards and forwards over the stubble of his scalp. 'It's blithering bollocks. The whole psychic thing is a con from beginning to end and you know it.'

'No I don't.'

'And Joan certainly doesn't,' Tommy murmured. 'She thinks she's a psychic, which is pretty much the same thing as being one wouldn't you say?'

'I'd say it was pretty much the same thing as being barking,' Josh grunted.

'Are you sure she's not on something?'

'If you don't believe in any of this stuff,' Meg said, 'what are you doing here?'

'Curiosity,' Josh said flatly.

'And is that why you're on Hitchins' test programme?'

Pretty much.'

'You don't have to be modest with us,' Tommy mocked. 'We know you have the spooky powers.'

'No I haven't.'

'I saw the initial ratings,' Tommy persisted. 'When Ghostbuster surveyed everybody on campus?'

'Everybody who thought they might be gifted that is,' Meg put in. 'So how come you volunteered?'

'Same reason you did probably'

'I was drunk at the time. I thought it might be amusing.'

Josh shrugged. 'There you go. I was wasted and having a laugh.'

'You're way gifted,' Tommy said.

'No I'm not.'

'Your PQ was off the scale.'

'I'm bloody not gifted!' Unusually, Josh sounded irritated. Whatever the hell that means.'

'Josh Randall, a name to conjure with.' Tommy could never resist an easy joke even when it was obvious he had touched a raw nerve. 'You could be the next Aleister Crowley or Mystic Meg.'

Josh bunched a fist. For a moment it looked as though he was going to take a swing at Tommy.

'Now, now children,' Meg chided. Play nicely'

Josh backed down from the overreaction and the three of them whispered and bickered on through the night.

As it turned out Joan was the only one to get any sleep. They woke her once the sun was up and they knew the campus cafeteria would be open for business. Oddly, considering the experiences of the previous night, they all felt better, and optimistic in a vague unfocused sort of way. Joan was subdued but calmer. She claimed to remember nothing of what had happened.

Chapter Five

Leela was ravenously hungry. She sat at the cafeteria table and ate quickly and without concern for appearances, washing the food down with occasional swallows of water from the bottle she had been given. She ignored the implements - what the Doctor referred to as 'cutlery' -and used her fingers like any warrior in the field would do. Around her at other tables people who were eating with cutlery glanced at her and then glanced away again quickly. The bolder among them stared more openly and seemed amused. Most of the eaters were as young as she was herself.

The Doctor said they were students, here to acquire knowledge and wisdom. Leela