“Sir?” 

The Brigadier rocked back on his heels with his arms held stiffly behind his back. The Sergeant worried at speaking to him, but hurried ahead with his words anyway. “Sir, with all respect, are you sure that this girl should have access to the evidence…” 

Before he answered, the Brigadier glanced at Nyssa. The girl was bent over the information given from the Doctor’s old instrumentation. He understood very little of the things she muttered about, and trusted that she was quite knowledgeable about what she was doing. Nyssa tapped the pencil against her lips and then made a few other notes. 

“This girl knows exactly what she is doing, soldier,” the Brigadier replied and speared the young man with a stare. When the soldier retreated, he walked forward to lean on the desk. “Miss Nyssa?” 

“I’ve found evidence of gene splicing. Additionally, there has been very little generational drift.” 

“In plain English, if you don’t mind,” the Brigadier sighed, shaking his head. “What does this offer us by way of the investigation?” 

“The Doctor wanted to know exactly how and the where. We already know the why. In my estimation and from the lack of generational drift I would suppose that there has very few. And the where? ” Nyssa shrugged and looked down at her notes. “Somewhere nearby is all I can say…that’s about all I have, Brigadier. I don’t have specifications for the particulars of the Terran instrumentation…only the Doctor would…” 

“Yes, that doesn’t surprise me,” the Brigadier responded. “What the devil is keeping him?” 

** 

She sank down into a crouch and lowered her head into her hands. Her stomach wasn’t getting any better and the bereft feeling she had as his arm left her made her want to cry. “Thete?” 

He stalked off passed her to the edge of the trees and back, his hands in his pockets. Then he lifted his chin and turned to face the slight indention in the grass that was the only hallmark that showed that the TARDIS had been there at all. He closed his eyes and lowered his head. Outwardly and to first glance, it appeared that he was calm, simply missing something that had gone. But she could see the tight fists in his pockets, the crease at his brow, and the tightness in his shoulders; he was upset about what had happened. Upset to the point of anger. 

She wanted to help calm him, but a small part of her was just as scared, just as worried. And that part immediately spoke up, against her better logic. “Thete,” she demanded. “Where’s the TARDIS?” 

With a sigh, he turned to face her. “Gone, Tegan.” 

“Gone?” she rose to her feet and swung her hands out to the side. “Gone? How can the TARDIS just go somewhere? There’s nobody about these parts that can do those horrible maths of yours to make it go and they couldn’t get inside.” 

He frowned and pointed to the indentation. “If someone around here is playing Time Lord with genetics, Tegan, I can assure you that they can and most probably would be able to make the TARDIS go. Not to mention the recall circuit…” 

“But…” she began. “Hell’s teeth! How could it be gone? Of all the…” 

The Doctor frowned, and she saw him begin to move toward her, but didn’t understand the urgency in his motions, in the way that he quickened. And then she felt it: the slipping of her attention, the vertigo, the weakness… 

And then she slipped to the ground.  

** 

Nyssa bit on the end of the pencil and worried it between her teeth. She wasn’t quite sure about the genetic drift calculations she was making, but knew that the Doctor would be able to check her math. She might have been the resident recombinant gene expert, but he was undoubtedly the maths expert.  

“I wish I knew what was keeping them,” the girl whispered. The men listing at various places in the room, however, gave no forthcoming answers. With a sigh, she stood and stretched. There seemed to be no interest in her progress as she left the room in search of refreshment. It was a welcome change; the men of UNIT were a little too…militaristic for her taste. 

As she bent over the water fountain, she felt a hand on her shoulder. 

“Oh, Doctor…Tegan…so…” 

The fact that it wasn’t her friends was driven home by the hand that covered her mouth and the strong arm that pulled at her. 

An empty corridor presented no help for her and when she was pulled backwards into a room and the door slammed shut behind her, she knew that she was in danger. 

** 

She felt cool drips of water against her brow and the slow trek of it across her skin brought her around. “Cripes, it’s raining…” she sighed, her hand swatting the drops of rain in her face. 

“No, Tegan,” came the gentle response. She blinked her eyes and the world slowly solidified from blinding brightness into crystal summer day clarity. The Doctor was sitting near her, his back against a tree and his legs stretched out alongside her. With the sun behind him, his hair appeared a golden fiery halo and his eyes infinitely dark.  

“Then why am I…” she started and then she closed her eyes in exasperation. “The TARDIS is gone; I remember that. Hell’s teeth.” 

“And you fainted, in that order, brave heart,” he supplied, his tone neutral. She frowned and opened her eyes again to stare at him. He moved back against the tree, and leaned over to wring out the handkerchief. In that instant, she saw his face without the sun glare; it was paler than usual. Quickly she gathered that he was worried and scared, one or the other. 

Closing her eyes again, she groaned. One year ago, she would have never worried about the TARDIS given tenure on Earth with her friends safe. But now…now the TARDIS was her home. It embodied the memories of fun times with her friends; it was her home, ever much more so now than Brisbane. There was absolute acceptance there and although she hadn’t told him anything about her past, she was sure that he wouldn’t think less of her…and it was his home…his life…part of his culture and where she and Nyssa could live….and… 

“Thete? I don’t faint…must be the heat…where’s the TARDIS gone?” 

“I don’t know, Tegan.” 

“We have to find it!” she nearly shouted, coming up off the ground. “Rabbits…” 

“Gently,” he warned, reaching down to both support her and keep her from sitting up too quickly. “Easy, Tegan. Slowly.” 

To her chagrin, she felt tears biting at her eyelids. With a groan, she angrily swiped at them and growled under her breath: “Rabbits, I hate this! We’ve had similar things happen like this before…Hell’s teeth!” 

He shifted his legs and then the sun darkened a little as he moved in front of her. And then his arms drew her into an embrace. As she swallowed, suddenly surprised by the complete tenderness in his embrace, he mumbled a response. “Please, Tegan…logically speaking, there are only a few places and times it could go. It might have been moved physically as well. Logically it has be to somewhere and so long as it exists, we can find it. I promise.”  

“But how?” She nearly cringed at the shock of desperation in her voice.  

With a sigh, she felt him balance one hand against the middle of her back to keep her in his embrace and with the other hand, he dug through the pocket of his pants. Frowning and wiping her eyes, she leaned away from his chest to look at his hand as he pulled it from his pocket. “A homing device?” she asked, before he showed her what he held. 

“For Smith’s TARDIS,” he responded. Then with a grunt, he shook his head. His hand absently rubbed at her shoulder and back before he withdrew it. At her surprised look, he lifted an eyebrow and gave her a shy glance. “From your situation previously, I learned it was in my best interest to keep this on my physical person at all times.” 

His eyes returned to hers and she was shocked at the storm cloud-grey color that permeated them. “Are you feeling better, Tegan? If this is the situation, we should return to the Brigadier.” 

“The missing TARDIS is..” 

“Most definitely related to this regenerator problem,” he answered her unfinished question. He looped his arm tightly about her waist and rose, keeping her with him as he stood. “We should get you fluids and a place to regain your coloring.” Her face must have betrayed her feelings for he took her hand much like she had taken his on Gallifrey. Their fingers interlaced and she felt his cool palm press flat against hers. “Brave heart…” he nearly whispered, leaning close to her. 

She swallowed her emotional response and let it fester in her mind. Oh Thete, but what about you? You’re as scared as I am.  

** 

“Ah, there you are!” 

“Good to see you as well, Brigadier,” the Doctor muttered as he passed his friend at the door. With a sigh he hung his sweater over the back of a chair and nodded to the table. Nyssa’s notes were spread on the surface. “Nyssa has filled me in on the information. But we’ve had a development that I’m quite sure has something to do with your alien equipment.” 

The Brigadier leaned forward on the table and watched as the Doctor donned his glasses and perused Nyssa’s notes. “Development, Doctor? Your regeneration hasn’t clarified your ambiguous answers in the least.” 

The Doctor hummed and pulled a paper with a series of calculations towards him and frowned. “Generational drift…distance…” 

“Doctor?” 

“He’s thinking again,” a voice replied.  

The Brigadier was taken aback at the color of Tegan’s skin. The Australian, to the Brigadier’s eyes, looked decidedly ill. “Too right,” the girl responded. “You won’t get an answer out of him. And the development, Brigadier…is that the TARDIS has gone.” 

“Gone? Gone where?” 

“Haven’t a bloody clue,” Tegan growled.  

The Doctor shifted and pulled his glasses off to tap them against his teeth. He patted down his pockets searching for a pencil. When he found it, he sat back down in the chair with a flourish. 

“Doctor,” the Brigadier pressed again.  

Tegan shook her head. “Thete. What have you found?” 

“Hmm? Tegan, have you gotten fluids?” he asked, not looking up from his work. Suddenly, he glanced up and frowned. “Nyssa appears to have made a mistake with her averages. Not surprising, she doesn’t quite know the generational age of a mouse…” 

Tegan crossed her arms over chest and frowned. The heat was killing her stomach, she decided and the stuffy atmosphere of the UNIT mobile headquarters was making her head spin. Thete had been quiet as they neared the building; his hand had tightened on hers almost unbearably hard. And now, he seemed to be colder, more distant. 

“Doctor?” 

“Yes, well…” he replied, intercepting her gaze with his own. “It appears that Nyssa figured out the length of time that this experiementation process has been going on. I’m quite impressed. And from what she mentions as the probable instrumentation, I can only hazard an educated guess towards where it could be housed.” 

“Educated guess, indeed,” the Brigadier scoffed.  

Tegan allowed a small smile to her lips. “For us, that’s a sure fire answer. I wish I knew exactly what kind of education he’s had.” 

The Brigadier’s mustache twitched in humor. “Very well, Doctor…what’s your guess?” 

His shocked and slightly miffed _expression made Tegan stifle a full blown grin behind her hand. Humor made her feel better; ribbing Thete was always a fun pass-time. 

“Well,” the Doctor began and jumped out of the seat. His glasses found a home in his breast pocket. “Obviously somewhere private. Additionally, with the instrumentation she’s talked about…I would say the room would have dimensions equal to 12 by 15 at least. Small for a lab, but large for a room. It would have to be absolutely private though, for days on end.” 

The Brigadier leaned forward, balancing on his toes, and shoved his hands in his pockets. “And where would that be, Doctor?” 

“What about the TARDIS, Thete?” Tegan added. 

“A dormitory room,” the Doctor responded good-naturedly. Turning to Tegan, he brushed his hand down her shoulder. “That’s all connected, Tegan. I’m working on it.”  

The Brigadier turned to and snapped his fingers. A junior officer appeared quickly at his side. The Doctor left him to his work, but turned to spear the office with an accusing glance. “Where’s Nyssa?” 

**

Her arm ached as it was held tightly behind her back.  The arm around her neck was humanoid at least, but that did little to quell her fear.  She couldn’t breathe; her head spun and she wanted to throw her arm out for balance but kept her hand wrapped about the arm at her throat.

“Let go of me, please,” Nyssa pleaded.

Silence greeted her and she struggled to keep her feet under her body as they stumbled through another door. 

When that door, too, slammed behind them, she was suddenly released.

Gasping, she was flung toward wall.

“You’re not human.”

Nyssa grimaced and rubbed feeling back into her hand.  “That’s silly.  Of course, I’m human,” she replied.  The bright shooting lights in her sight died down and she could see her captor.  He was a humanoid man of moderate height.  The school uniform he wore was similar to the Brigadier’s except it for different color trousers.  The only thing that seemed unusual was the red hair.

The boy stepped forward into the light.  Nyssa cast a glance about the room…it was dusty and held scientific equipment. 

“I know you aren’t human,” he responded.  He pulled his sleeves agitatedly and moved closer to her.   “No human in this decade would know the things you do.  Nor would they be able to use the instrumentation that I saw you using.”

“Then by logical deduction: you aren’t human either,” Nyssa said, letting her arm fall to her side.  “You’re the one using the regenerator, aren’t you?”  She asked, stepping forward.

The boy straightened his back and stared back at her.  “You know about the equipment?  How it works?” 

“Of course.”

The boy’s eyes widened.  “It’s Gallifreyan…”

Nyssa shifted uncomfortably.  “I’m not from Gallifrey.”  She looked at her hand and then held it out.  It was something she knew the Doctor would do, and although she was scared it was best to present a friendly face.   “I’m Nyssa.  Daughter of Tremas…from Traken.”

After a moment the boy held out his hand.  The gesture was alien to the both of them.  “Turlough…”

“Where are you from, Turlough?” she asked, lowering her hand from his.   “My friend, he’s a Time Lord, we travel in a…”

“TARDIS?” Turlough spit out, his hand stuffing into his pockets.   “He has a TARDIS?  Here?  And I’ve been wasting my time with these foolish Terran genetics?”

“Why were you…”

“Well, it’s a regenerator, isn’t it?” he muttered defensively, shifting his feet.  “They don’t grow on trees everywhere, do they?  I knew Earth was a nexus, but wasn’t quite thrilled with the location and time, but…”

“You know…”

“My home is an A7 planet,” he threw out.  “Imagine my disgust at being put here on a C class planet.  Of course I know about Gallifreyan Time Technology.”

Nyssa frowned and shook her head.  “If you won’t let me go, the Doctor won’t help you.”

As she watched him lift an eyebrow, she was struck by the innate ability this boy had to fit in anywhere.  His hair style reminded her of the rest of the boys that she had seen at the school, but his pale gray/blue eyes were lit with an inner intelligence she hadn’t encountered since Traken.   And the coolness there…made her shiver….it reminded her of the nights caring for the Keeper under the moonlight and of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. 

“Oh, I’m quite sure I’ll be able to convince him to come along…” Turlough replied. 

Nyssa shivered.

**

“Where can she be?”  Tegan fretted.  The Doctor stood behind her, his hands on her hips.  She felt like it was more of a restraint than support. 

“Calm down, brave heart,” he replied.  “She couldn’t have gone far.”

“Quite,” the Brigadier agreed.

Neither response from the men calmed Tegan, though.  “Something’s happened, I know it.  She wouldn’t have wandered off, Thete.  Next thing you’ll say is that she stepped out for a cricket match…”

“No need for that…” he began, his hands tightening on her body.

“Yeah, first you lose the TARDIS and now we’ve lost Nyssa and you say to bloody well calm down?”

His voice was in her ear barely loud enough for her to hear; she felt the exasperation in his body stance of his body.  Tegan glanced up over her shoulder at his face and was met with earnest worry and gentle anger refracted out of his grey/blue eyes.  His hands pressed down on her hips and turned her slightly into his chest.  “Losing your head will get us nowhere, Tegan,” he responded, his voice strangely and wondrously devoid of anger.  

“Cripes…we’re standing around here and we’ve lost one of my best friends and our home has gone completely AWOL and you think that losing my head will make the situation worse?” she asked, leaning toward him to keep her voice low, but the meaning perfectly clear. 

She wondered if his hands were going to leave marks as they tightened even more.   “I need you to stay calm, Tegan.  I can’t take care of the problems if I’m worried about you.  Please…”

“Hell’s teeth…why would you…” she began and then stopped.  His eyes bore into hers and he nodded slowly.  “Oh my God…” she breathed, feeling her heart rate increase and her hands begin to shake.   “You…you really think I am…pregnant.”

The Doctor glanced over her head to the Brigadier.  Tegan could hear the man behind her shouting out orders and motivating the entire might under his control to find Nyssa.  As his gaze was drawn, his hands slid around her waist.   She felt a little quieted, a little reassured and let her muscles relax, let him take some of the weight.  The embrace lessened when a cleared throat was heard from behind her.

“Ah, Brigadier…”

Tegan turned slowly to see the old soldier staring at the two of them as though they were aliens.  Which, she admitted she felt like at times and had cause to think of the Doctor as more than others, but she couldn’t understand why one of the Doc’s oldest friends was now looking at him as a complete stranger. 

The soldier was tilting forward, his arms held tensely, tightly, behind his back.  The look on his face made Tegan’s ire rise.  It was accusing, searching and caused her to feel guilty.  “I have most of the men searching the building and surrounding grounds.”

“Thank you, Brigadier,” the Doctor responded. 

What was the man about, Tegan thought viciously.  He knows the Doctor; he’s a friend….how could he be…judgmental of them?  And that’s what it felt like, a complete judging of her, less so the Time Lord at her back.    Cripes, it’s like coming home late from a date and having her mother’s current boyfriend meet her at the door.    Those nights had never been good.   It had always led to screaming matches in the yard with the neighbors looking on in mortification.  She had felt horrible then; she felt horrible now.  And she was worried sick about Nyssa.

Tegan turned and walked away from the Doctor, her arms ferociously crossed over her chest.  She heard his hands slap at his sides as she left his touch.  “I should be out with them,” she said decisively.  With nary a glance at her lover, she began towards the door.  “I need to look for her.  I need to so something.  I can’t do nothing,” she nearly growled. 

“Tegan..”

“Miss Jovanka, it would be much easier for my men to search for Miss Nyssa without you underfoot.”

“Underfoot?!” Tegan shouted with a turn back towards the men.  “Underfoot?!  Hell’s teeth and spit, it’s my friend.  Underfoot, indeed.   I’m not in the military, Brigadier, nor do I ever intend to be.”

“Tegan…” the Doctor sighed and approached her.  She held up her hands in front of her to stop him from nearing her.   He stopped, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“And you,” she warned.  “We need to be out looking for the TARDIS; we need to be out looking for Nyssa…we need to find them both and yet you’re here…” She threw her hands wide with theatrical emphasis.  “You’re here like its afternoon tea.  Does nothing affect you?”

“That’s unfair, Tegan,” he commented, his voice nearly growling.  “I’m trying to think…”

“Think?!” Tegan yelled and neared him, her eyes narrowing.  “What…”

He held up his hand and pointed in her face.  She could see anger breaking through the careful mask he had kept in place like a harlequin face these last two days.  “Yes, Tegan…think.  If all these things are connected, by simply…thinking…using logical process, we ought to be able to find what we need in a short period.”  She crossed her arms over her chest as he continued.  “The TARDIS, Nyssa…whoever is playing God with the regenerator, it’s all connected…”

“Well, you think…I’m going to do something.”

She turned to make for the door, but felt a wave of weakness steal over her and her knees buckled.  The Doctor caught her almost fluidly before the failing overtook her.  “You’re going to stay right here, Tegan…”

“I’m not going to stay…” she barked.  The weakness made her head swim, but this time she was going to refuse to give in to it.   “I have to find Nyssa…something might have…”

“I know,” he stated, his voice hard and cold.  “I know that.  And you’re going to stay here, Tegan.  I’m not going to have you buckling out in the building somewhere or out on the grounds.  Your body has to get used to the child or your body might well reject it.  You will stay here, do you understand me?” He steadied her, led her to a chair and sat her down gently, but firmly.

He turned from her to return to the Brigadier, grabbing a paper and pen as he went, leaving her staring after him in shock.  Somehow her gaze moved to the Brigadier and saw him glancing back and forth between her and the Doctor.  His mustache twitched as his gaze locked with hers. 

With a sigh, she lowered her head to her hands and rubbed her temples.  

**

Nyssa tripped along behind Turlough.  The boy’s legs seemed to cover more distance than the Doctor’s.  The corridors of the building flew past them.  She could feel that he was formulating a story…the cunning of his mind nearly overwhelmed his feelings, but she could feel the inkling of fear that trickled at its border.   Her logic knew where that feeling would lead given his obvious intelligence.  But there was little that she could do; her hand was held tight in the boy’s grip.

“I’ll do the talking,” he barked. 

“The Doctor will see through any plans you have…he’ll…”

“Undoubtedly be a man of logic…when he hears what I have to tell him, he’ll help me to get off this rock.”

Turlough pulled her in front of him and straightened his tie, adjusting his appearance.  Then he marched ahead, his hand against Nyssa’s back.  “And if you don’t let me do the talking, Nyssa…I’m sure I can give you an empathic shock.  My people are quite adept at that, I assure you.”

The door to the main office was open and Nyssa could see Tegan miserably sitting at the table.  She felt a wave of panic she was sure ebbed from her friend and a wash of confusion from the Doctor.  It was like walking into an emotional storm, and she steeled her spine. 

Turlough stuck his head in the door, and brought her up alongside him.  “Hello there…I think this girl is lost…” he began.  

**  

The voice grated on her nerves, she decided before she turned to the door.   At the sight of Nyssa, she jumped up and steadied herself on the table before she launched forward.  “Nys!  Cripes, are you all right?  Where have you been?   Who’s this?”

The boy pulled on his school uniform and straightened his tie.  Tegan frowned at the movement; it was obvious that he was adjusting his appearance into a resemblance of something, but of what she had no idea.   There was something about him that smacked of sneakiness, and warning bells went off in her mind.  “Nys, are you all right?”

“Ah, Nyssa, there you are,” the Doctor said, his voice rumbling at Tegan’s shoulder.    He edged past Tegan to approach his errant companion.  She could practically feel the tension bleeding out of him as he brushed against her.   His hand cupped and rested on her elbow to keep her from running forward to her friend.  “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Doctor,” Nyssa responded and gave both of her friends a smile.  Tegan wasn’t fooled though.  She could feel danger thrumming in the air around them. 

“Who’s this?” Tegan asked again, as she eyed the boy again.  

“Nyssa’s knight in shining armor, apparently,” the Doctor responded.  His sweater’s weave tickled her arm as he reached out a hand.  “I’m the Doctor and this,” he pulled back his hand and held Tegan by the shoulders.  “This is Tegan.   I see you’ve met Nyssa.”

“Yes, I found her in the laboratory down on the second floor…” the boy began while his cool blue eyes assessed them.  “And she mentioned that she was lost.  I wasn’t quite expecting a military operation here…”

“Yes,” the Brigadier sounded as he approached the group.    He stopped within feet of them and stood at rigid military attention.  Tegan wondered if his back was going to snap from the pure severity of the stance.  “I believe Miss Jovanka here asked you a question, young man.   Now, if you’d be so good as to answer it?”

“Turlough…I’m a sixth form student here at Brendon.  And who are you, sir?  Obviously you aren’t the maths teacher I was introduced to,” Turlough replied; it was clear to Tegan that his tongue was firmly in cheek.

“Yes, well…” the Brigadier sighed as his mouth formed a thin line under his mustache.   “Turlough, you say?  You were sent to the Headmaster two days ago for crashing his car into the border wall?”

The boy lowered his head.   With a sigh, the Doctor ingratiated himself into the conversation, turning the attention away from the boy.  “Ah, well…Brigadier, you know what the young are.  Nevertheless, thank you, Turlough, for bringing my companion back safely.  Nyssa, what were you doing down in the laboratory?”

The small sideways glance that the girl gave Turlough was enough to raise the hair on the back of Tegan’s neck.   She eased forward to touch her friend’s arm.  Nyssa relaxed into her touch.  “I thought it was possible that the instrumentation might be in the basement of the building, Doctor.  I should have told someone I was going, I suppose.”

“Well, you’re back safe and sound, Nyssa, that’s all that matters.   Right, Tegan?” he asked, happily, stepping up to pat Nyssa on the shoulder. 

“Of course,” she agreed, but watching Nyssa made her feel as though something was going on under the current.  She was surprised the Doctor didn’t feel it. 

“Instrumentation?” Turlough asked, innocently.  “You mean a rather large piece of scientific equipment?  About the size of a small car with connections?”

The Doctor rocked back on his heels and stared at the boy.  “Actually, yes…that would be a perfect definition of what we’re looking for.  You’ve seen it about?”

“And where would this be?” the Brigadier asked.

Turlough turned and pointed down the hallway, leading the Brigadier away from the room as he talked.  “I found this strange piece of machinery in the athletic shed on top of Cramer Mountain by the cricket field.”

Tegan grabbed at the Doctor as he walked by her.  The voices were dying down in the hallway and Nyssa was aimlessly listing by the door.  “You can’t be serious,” she hissed.  “You trust him?”

“There’s nothing not to trust, Tegan,” he replied.  “Hmm?  Why?”  His eyes narrowed concerned.  “What are you feeling?”

“I don’t trust him.  I don’t know why, but I know we can’t trust him,” Tegan muttered and agitatedly rubbed her temples. 

She felt the Doctor’s fingers on her cheek and then the palm sliding down her neck to her shoulder.  “He’s all right, Tegan.  I wouldn’t let him close to you or to Nyssa if he was dangerous, you know that.”

“Do I?” she muttered.  “Do I really?  After all the times you’ve walked us out into…”

“Yes, yes…the hell at the end of the Universe, Tegan.  You’ve said that before.  Believe me; I won’t let him hurt you or Nyssa, all right?”

She blinked her eyes open to see his eyes so close to her own that the crystals of gold and white were clear in their blue.  They were alarmed; it was clear to see.  “Thete…”

“I’m not throwing out your intuition, Tegan; I’m simply saying that you might be overprotective in your own right.  Something to look into later,” he nodded.  She frowned as his hand wove about her waist and led her into the hall where they intercepted Nyssa.  Tegan found her sense of unease mirrored in her friend’s brown eyes.  It only served to make her feel more scared.  Something was dreadfully wrong.

**

“I just found it when I went looking for the wickets for tomorrow’s game.  When I saw it,” Turlough explained.  “When I saw it there, I immediately thought to find Dr. Hartmore and went to the science building.  That’s when I met Nyssa here,” he said, turning to point at the equipment shed on the top of the hill.  “It’s just there.”

The Doctor walked swiftly at the head of the group, covering as much ground as possible.  Turlough’s equally long legs had him keeping pace easily.  The Brigadier marched.  It was the only way Tegan could describe the method of his stride.  Nyssa and Tegan lagged behind; it was clear that Nyssa was tired and Tegan was weak.  

As they crested the top hill, the Doctor stopped with his hands shoved deep in his pockets.  When she passed him, he hummed and fell into step alongside her.  “Just a bit more, Tegan.  I have a feeling we’ll either have our regenerator, our TARDIS or both.”

“I just want to rest,” she complained. 

“Yes, well,” he rumbled, his arm ambled around her waist and his hand gently took hers.  “Just a bit more and you will, I promise.”

 She frowned as they approached the small shed.  Nyssa took up the Doctor’s place at her side as he slowly left her to enter the building with the Brigadier.  As Turlough passed them, his eyes met Nyssa’s.  His simple words of: “Remember what I told you,” sent shivers down Tegan’s spine. 

The small unsure nod and the avoidance of the girl’s eyes drove the point home and Tegan contemplated her friend. The sun was beginning to set and the air was cooling; they stood in the shade and waited for their friends to re-emerge. 

“Something’s wrong,” Tegan muttered under her breath.  “Something’s dreadfully wrong, I can feel it. Isn’t it, Nys?  You can feel it too, can’t you?  Please don’t tell me I’m mad…”

Nyssa’s hand tightened on her waist.  The glint in the girl’s eyes she was sure wasn’t from happiness.  The uneasiness in her stance, the slight trembling in her arm, the slight pained twist to her lips all translated into a shout of trouble.  “Nys?”

“There’s evil here,” Nyssa said quietly.  Tegan swore she heard fear in the girl’s voice.  “Pain.  Loss.”

“It’s that boy?  Turlough?” Tegan pressed as she turned to cast a wary eye at the shed. 

Nyssa’s head shake was firm.  “No.  No, not him.  But he has a very powerful mind.  His emotions are clouded; his logic isn’t.  Whoever he’s with, whatever he’s with…it bleeds evil like a sieve.  He’s threatened me, but I don’t think the original idea came from his own mind.”

“He’s threatened you?!”

“It’s all right, Tegan…”

“No, it’s not!  He threatened you?  Did you tell the Doctor?”

“Tegan…there’s nothing he can do to me that I can’t deal with or recover from.  It’s the power behind him that I worry about.”

“Wonderful,” Tegan returned.  “We should get in there…”

“No.  The Doctor needs you out here, Tegan.  He can’t think…the necessity for keeping you well and safe clouds his emotions and clear thinking.”

“Come off it, Nys.  I’ve been with him; we’ve been with him for over a year…it’s never clouded his mind before…”

“You’ve never been carrying his child before,” Nyssa tiredly responded.

“Not you too…”

“The Doctor is worried and there is a great deal of fear in his mind…”

“Rabbits…that’s not…”

“Not for him, for you, Tegan.  For what he believes or assumes you and he have created together,” Nyssa turned her eyes on her friend.  The staid crystal blue of their depths was calming. 

Tegan found she was speechless.  “So then…” she finally breathed.  “We just wait?”

**

The Doctor exited the building last.  Tegan saw some measure of relaxation in his features.  “Well?” she called.

“Definitely the regenerator,” he replied with a sigh.  Before she could ask more, he shook his head. 

“What are we going to do about it?” Nyssa asked, forcefully. 

“Is the TARDIS near by?” Tegan added.

“I don’t know and no, in that order,” he sighed.  Tegan could see that his hand was wrapped about the communications cube in his hand.  “But I think we’ll…” he opened his hand and it was empty.  “We’ll have a second opinion very, very soon.”

Tegan glanced beyond the Doctor to see the Brigadier and Turlough exit the building.  The boy’s eyes met and held hers and suddenly she felt like a cloud had passed in front of the sun.