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and I'm not even from...' He was looking at her as if that second head had grown back. 'Look, all I'm saying is that, if you happened to go to the police

'cause you're worried about your mum, that's a better motive than me going and dropping everyone in it when the Doctor -'

Fitz shook his head and gave her a filthy look. 'You little hypocrite!'

'I am not!' protested Sam. I'll come with you. I just thought it would be easier for you to -'

'Look, I can't go, all right?'

'Why not?'

'You tell me why you can't go!'

Sam groaned. 'All right, all right, terrific. OK, fine. I'll tell you why / can't, and you tell me why you can't, all right?'

Fitz looked shifty. 'All right.'

'And what we say is God's honest truth, yeah? So we have to believe each other no matter how weird it is.'

Fitz looked at her strangely. 'Go on, then.'

Sam blushed. 'After you.'

'OK, OK...' Fitz cleared his throat. 'I can't go to the police because they're after me. I'm wanted by the law 'cause I did a runner when they came round this morning. Happy now?'

Sam burst in: 'I can't go to the police because the Doctor would never forgive me and because I don't belong in this time. I'm from the 1990s and they'd think I was mad. There's no record of me here 'cause I was born in 1980, see, and me and the Doctor travel through time and space together...'

Her voice trailed off, and she and Fitz just looked at each other.

'Right,' they both said in unison.

There was a very long pause.

4.6

'Will it stop me hurting?' asked Taylor, his face pale, eyes dull.

'It'll make you feel calmer, Peter,' said Roley. 'Much calmer

''I'll come, then.' With that, the big man shut his bedroom door in Roley's face.

Shaking his head, Roley walked along the corridor towards Russell's room.

He'd tell the lad first, then on to the others. He was just turning the corner when Russell walked out straight in front of him.

Roley jumped. 'You startled me, Russell.'

The boy looked pale, like Taylor, almost feverish. 'Can I come to your relaxation workshop?' he asked.

'Of course, Russell, I was just coming to invite you -' Roley broke off. 'How did you know I was...?'

'Lucy and Captain Watson told me,' Russell said, as though it were obvious. "They're down in the drawing room waiting for you.'

***

Maria lay face down on her bed, crying her eyes out. In all the time she'd known Charles he'd never raised his voice to her. God knew there were times she'd wanted him to be stronger, to take control more instead of letting her organise things for him, but for him to side with that fool Doctor over her...

Well, fine. He'd soon see he was helpless without her. Practicalities and Charles Roley didn't mix. What was he going to do with that corpse down the way, for instance? It'd fall to her to do something about it in the end, she knew it.

She stopped her train of thought, realising she was more traumatised by Charles's momentary anger than she was at the violent death of a man in her supposed care.

As she laughed, she cried some more.

***

Fitz lay on the grass and wondered just what the hell was actually happening to him. This girl just had to be a loony. Had to be.

Why couldn't he convince himself of that?

Fitz turned to Sam with just the faintest trace of a smile on his lips, then he clicked his fingers. 'I know,' he said. 'We could tell the coppers over the phone.' He peered into the distance. 'That's a police box over there, isn't it?

What's that doing in Roley's grounds?'

'Oh, we, er, can't use that one.'

Fitz put his hands in his pockets. 'I suppose that's what you travel through time and space in.'

'Give the man a cigar.'

'Make it something more herbal and I think I'd take all this better.' Fitz sighed. 'Come on, then. There's a call box outside the nurseries. As long as Miss Simms doesn't catch me bunking off, we'll be laughing.'

***

The Doctor carefully placed the leech into a Petri dish daubed with Roley's blood. Then he began recalibrating