第 33 页

'Oh but Liz, you must,' said the Doctor. 'Think about what you could learn. Think about the thrill of discovering a whole new science. Earth Reptile science. A marvellous opportunity. Oh, Liz, we could do so much for them.'

'We?'

The Doctor coughed. 'Well, obviously, it would be your project.'

She laughed. 'Yes, of course it would be. For a couple of days.' She sighed suddenly. 'I'll have to think about it.'

Before the Doctor could reply, the doors opened and the Brigadier walked in, followed by Yates, his arm also in a sling.

'This lab looks more like a field hospital every day,' the Doctor said. 'What do you want, Brigadier. We are busy in here.'

'Yes, hot cocoa all around, is it? Well, just time to pass on some reports.' He cleared his throat. 'Firstly, as you know, we've made official contact with this Baal character and his associates. Diplomatic overtures are being made and I gather Miss Shaw has been asked to be involved.'

Liz nodded. 'I think we need to discuss that later, Brigadier.'

'Fair enough. Sir John Sudbury has been up to that Vault place. It seems that we hardly saw any of it when we were up there. Whatever was there, if anything, has gone. However, your cryogenic bit has certainly been gutted. We lost track of those semi-Auton types, and Sir John recognized his secretarial aide from your description, Doctor, but has not had sight nor sound of him since.'

Liz snorted. 'Oh great, so the bad guys won.'

'Not exactly, my dear,' said the Doctor. 'They lost, but they do live to fight another day. As, it would seem, does Auggi.' He tapped the photos. 'I've been looking for her here, but unless she's in little pieces -'

'Look who's being gory now,' murmured Benton.

'If I may continue, sergeant. She's either in pieces or escaped. I know which I'd put my money on.'

The Brigadier sighed. 'Well, one bit of good news. C19 has taken over direct running of the Glasshouse now, and will appoint an Executive Director very soon. Handpicked by Sir John, so there shouldn't be any more funny business from there at least. Going to a new, secret location, too.'

The Doctor nodded. 'Well, we can all rest easy in our beds then. I mean, Sir John presumably hand-picked his secretarial aide, who ended up being half cybernetic, creating hybrid Autons and goodness only knows what else from our previous battle spoils.'

'Yes. Well.' The Brigadier looked at Mike Yates. 'Oh, yes, and say hello to my new Number Two, Captain Mike Yates.'

'So, Sir John coughed up the cash then.' Benton smiled, shaking Mike's left hand vigorously. 'Good on you, sir. Captain!'

Mike Yates grinned, especially when Liz kissed him. 'Congratulations, Mike.'

'Absolutely, Mike. I'm delighted.' The Doctor also shook his hand. 'Now, if you're all going to have a party, do it elsewhere. Miss Shaw and I have a lot of work to do.' The Brigadier ushered Yates and Benton out.

'Oh, Alistair,' the Doctor said quietly.

'Doctor?'

'I am truly sorry about Fiona and Kate. I hope you find some amicable way to get on with your respective lives without too much pain.'

The Brigadier stared at the Doctor, trying not to let any emotion show. 'Well, one of those things, Doctor. Thank you anyway, I appreciate it.' He left.

The Doctor stopped shuffling the photographs and stared into space. 'Poor Alistair.'

Liz kissed him on the cheek. 'Sometimes, Doctor, you can be a good person.'

---

Regent's Park was serene, surprisingly empty of people considering the heat wave, and those that were around tended to be sunbathing rather than noisily playing football or rounders on the great expanses of greenery.

The Doctor and Liz Shaw had walked for quite some while now, discussing the weather, the pros and cons of the zoo and whether the Park itself ought to fall under the auspices of the rapacious Westminster Council or the more liberal Camden.

The drive there in Bessie had been something of a nerve-wracking experience for Liz; she couldn't bear the traffic in London at the best of times, and it was far worse sitting next to the Doctor as he jumped red lights, cut other drivers up and generally behaved in a way that Sir Robert Marks would have had kittens about. They had narrowly missed scattering a group of tourists gathered around Nelson's Column and had honked loudly at a couple of young men in sheepskin jackets and Lautrec-style fedoras, one of whom Liz was positive was David Hockney. The Doctor had yelled something about how one day Trafalgar Square would be largely pedestrianized and therefore he was making the most of it, but Liz was not too sure how serious he was. Every so often, he would reveal a bit of foreknowledge, then wrap it in a swaddling of exaggerations until you could not trust anything he had said.

They had sped up St Martin's Lane, across St Giles Circus and cut into Tottenham Court Road. Liz had pointed out that this was hardly the most direct route to the park, but the Doctor replied that he enjoyed having company in Bessie and was making the most of it. Liz found herself incapable of ruining his pleasure. And yet there had been something in the way he had said that... a sadness? A resignation?

Could he have guessed? No. No, he was not that sensitive to other people's feelings, surely? And yet it might explain his eagerness to take her to London in the first place. Why he let her choose the Park and arrange the picnic.

And why he had even contributed a rather glorious bottle of Bulls Blood from something called the TARDIS vineyard. Another exaggeration, of course.

Or was it? Having finished the picnic, they had set off on a walking tour of Regent's Park, avoiding the Zoo, not just because of Liz's disapproval of it, but because it reminded the Doctor too much of what he had just witnessed in Northumberland.

Conversation inevitably turned to their lives, their pasts and, hopefully, futures. As they talked, Liz began to see a warmth, a compassion emerge from the Doctor's usual veneer of sarcasm and cynicism. She suddenly realized how little she knew him.

For the last eight months, ever since that bizarre visit to the Cottage Hospital in Essex where the Brigadier had seen an unfamiliar face on someone who recognized him immediately, Liz had got to know the Doctor as a colleague, trusted and respected, but that was all. She could not have put her hand on her heart and said she actually liked the man. Time Lord. Whatever. They just happened to work in the same room in the same building. But now, as they wandered through London's most regal park, and he pointed at flowers, trees, shrubs and woodland animals, noting each one's name and history with a frightening encyclopaedic knowledge and enthusiasm, Liz realized she felt a real regret.

'I wish we had been friends. Real friends. The sort of people who, oh I don't now, had dinner. Played Scrabble. Went to the pictures.' Liz had stopped, thinking the Doctor would think her foolish.

'Had been?' he had said after a few seconds. 'I take it that I've guessed correctly. You're going?'

Until then, Liz had not honestly been sure. Her logical side said she had to get away from UNIT before it stifled her, both mentally and in terms of motivation for her work. Yet, as he said those few words, Liz was overcome with a feeling of nostalgia. Of wanting to see those other worlds, other places he spoke of so often. She wanted to shake hands with an Alpha Centaurian table-tennis player. To play hide and seek with a Refusian, or say hello to a Delphon with her eyebrows (and she had even caught herself practising in the mirror one morning).

'Yes,' she heard herself say. Then, more strongly, 'Yes, I am.' Why did she want to cry suddenly? Why was she upset? He infuriated her, made her own hard-fought and hard-earned knowledge seem so inadequate. There were times she wanted to shove his teeth down his throat, wrap a Bunsen burner lead round his neck or just take Mike Yates's service revolver and put a bullet through his alien temple. But as she looked into his blue eyes, with their unique mixture of childish enthusiasm and centuries-old wisdom, she knew her own eyes were welling up. 'I'm really sorry, Doctor, but I have to...'

'Why?'

'Because... because. Just because.' She was aware her voice was rising. 'Because of you. Of me. Of the Brigadier. Of everything. A teenaged male has just died at the hands of the people who have been paying my salary for nearly a year.'

'Oh. Is that all?'

Liz froze. That was it. That was the excuse. He had lit the fuse, touched the red button, blown out the... well, whatever, he'd gone too far. Liz did not keep down either the volume or the bitterness.

'All? Is that all? You heartless bastard, Doctor. He was a kid. Just a kid and that... that creep at C19 was responsible for his death. And all you can say is "is that all?"'

She was sobbing now, her yells emerging as a hoarse whisper rather than the outraged screeches she heard in her head.

'At last. At last, I'm seeing the real Elizabeth Shaw. It's taken until now, but she's there.'

Liz slowed her breathing, holding back her tears. 'What, what do you mean?'

The Doctor took her shoulders, ignoring her attempts to shake him off. Eventually she gave in.

And he smiled. The most radiant - no, beautiful -smile she had ever seen him wear. 'You, Liz. Not the detached scientist. Not the calm, collected and efficient UNIT Doctor Shaw. You referred to Marc as a "teenaged male". You talked in professional terms. Upset you may have been, but you were still holding back. Then you finally called him a kid. You even swore. I've not heard that before.' He sank down to the grass, gently pulling her with him, and she sat, cross-legged, opposite him. He began plucking odd blades of grass, as if embarrassed.

And if he wasn't, she certainly was.

'I realized not that long ago that I didn't know very much about you, Liz. As you say, it's been all work and no play. That's my fault. And if you're going back to Cambridge, then the opportunities to mend that breach are going to be few and far between. But for what it is worth, I value you. Your judgements, your ideas and your ethics. You've been my calm in a storm. My white when I've been black. I don't think either of us realized how much I've relied on you over the last eight months. Eight months, two weeks and four days to be exact.' He held out his hand. In it was a necklace made of grass, intricately interwoven. Sturdy but fragile-looking. 'What will you do?'

Liz swallowed as she gently took the proffered necklace. 'I'm going to spend some time with Jeff Johnson. He's got a place in Cambridge, somewhere to stop over until I find my own place. I've been asked to return to my old college, to restart some of the projects I abandoned when the Brigadier hijacked me.' She shrugged. 'I'm going to apply for a grant to research genetic disorders. I have agreed to help Baal and Sula find a way to cure their condition and extend their life-spans. And even if I can't help them directly, we know there are more Shelters out there. More Silurians, Earth Reptiles, whatever, who need help adjusting to our climate. Our pollution. Our diseases. And I feel that what we learnt from Marc Marshall, from what happened to him, could be invaluable in helping our own children with polio, cancer, leprosy, whatever.' She looked the Doctor straight in the eye, and his smile broadened. 'I suppose what I'm saying is that I'm going home. To do something. To achieve what I can't achieve as your assistant. You don't need me to pass you test tubes, and tell you how brilliant you are.' She smiled back. 'We both know that already.'

He nodded. 'Do you want a lift back to your flat?'

Liz looked around her. People were still sunbathing. A few were walking. A couple of children ran by and one careered into her, fell on its face and began to cry. She stood up, picked the little girl up and smiled as she passed her back to her distraught mother.

'Heaven help us, maybe I'll get married and have children.' She looked down at the Doctor, who had remained seated, but he didn't catch her eye. He was watching a caterpillar crawl over the back of his hand,' twisting his wrist slowly so it always had more ground to cover. 'No, thanks, Doctor. I'll take the Tube.'

'Goodbye, Liz,' he said, still not looking at her.

She was going to cry again. Real tears now, not rage, frustration or anger. Not tears of bitterness. Something far better. Far more important. 'Goodbye, Doctor. Will... will I see you tomorrow if I come by to get my things?'

The Doctor was still staring at his caterpillar. 'No,' he said quietly. 'I'll explain to the Brigadier later today.'

'I'm off to help sort out the Cheviots with our newly promoted Captain Yates.'

Liz pulled her handbag tightly over her shoulder and shrugged. 'Well, then I... well...'

'Goodbye, Liz.' The Doctor finally looked up. 'We will meet again, I promise you.'

'We'll catch that film, eh?' she said brightly. The Doctor returned to the caterpillar. 'Who knows?'

With a last look at the top of his head, Liz straightened up and walked away, towards Regent's Park underground station.

The sun was shining brighter than she could ever remember as she approached the road. She allowed herself one final look back, one final image to be placed in her gallery of memories.

The Doctor, lying outstretched, his hand moving as he continued to play with his caterpillar.

'God bless you, Doctor. I'm really going to miss you.'

And she crossed the road, determinedly walking towards her future.

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