The Doctor stayed with Eden Advance a couple more days, helping them recover. Eventually, the Edenites got used to the odd police telephone box by the campfire, which had materialized in their midst without warning in the middle of the night, bringing Uly and the others back home.

Devon's knee and Julia's arm healed without mishap, although Julia would be sore for about a week. She quickly became the subject of teasing when she refused to stay in bed for a couple of days, although everyone else insisted on it. She finally did, realizing that if she couldn't take a little sensible medicine, she would lose all hope of anyone else following her recommendations. But she didn't like it.

Several people wanted to use the ZED's gear to confront Reilly, just to show him they had beaten him again. But most of the group – especially those involved in the battle – really had no desire to do this. They reasoned that taunting Reilly would lead to worse in the future, and they weren't interested in engaging in a petty display of one-upmanship. They just wanted to lose Reilly and move on.

Besides, they reasoned, the silence would be the best revenge of all.

In the end, they destroyed all the ZED's equipment. They buried her, holding a full funeral and marking the grave with a cross. Yale encouraged people to remember her, not as someone evil, but as a tool of those who were. On the cross, Uly insisted on naming her "Robbie," saying it could be a girl's name as well as a boy's. No one argued with him.

He was pretty shaken up by the way he'd confronted the ZED, and Devon had had to reassure him over and over that he hadn't killed her – that she had released the cyanide herself, and that, technically, Reilly and the Council were her murderers, not him. But she knew it would haunt him for a long time to come.

 

On the morning of the third day, the Doctor seemed distant. He often stopped and looked at the sky, or stared off at the horizon, and frequently failed to hear people when they spoke to him. Devon knew what was coming next, and she knew the chance to ask her question was now or never.

She walked with the Doctor up the stream a little ways, away from camp, asking questions about where he'd been, what he'd seen, and whom he'd met throughout history. Despite her professional and diplomatic skills, she was surprised at how easily the Doctor could deflect a question or shift the conversation, and she caught herself more than once talking on and on, even though she had been planning to ask, and then shut up and listen.

She got the feeling the Doctor knew what she wanted to ask, and wasn't going to let her get there.

She asked him again how his ship worked.

"Well, you dream a little dream, Devon," he said with a smile. "It grows from there."

"Are you always so vague?"

"Are you always so nosy?"

She looked him squarely in the eye. "Will you take us to New Pacifica? Please?"

He avoided her gaze, looking out at the land over her shoulder. "What did you mean when you told Ulysses he would one day understand about time travel?" he asked softly.

She hesitated, then found herself telling the Doctor about her experience with an adult Ulysses from the future, and how that gave her hope they would reach New Pacifica.

"But you won't take us there, will you?" she asked again.

"And deny you that journey? Would I really be doing you a favor?"

"Journeys are fine, but not journeys which are deadly."

"Any journey can be deadly."

She sighed. "We have already lost lives on this journey. We've lost some very fine people who didn't deserve to die, who never deserved to have any of this happen to them. What if by giving us a lift you saved more lives? What if you saved the life of my son?"

"What if I took you to New Pacifica and a tidal wave washed you all out to sea?"

"That's not an answer, and you know it."

"Devon, do I strike you as a malicious man, who would deny you aid?"

"No, which is why I can't understand why you're turning us down."

"I'm not turning you down, Devon. Believe me, I can't help you."

Devon's face cleared. "You know our future, don't you?"

The Doctor was silent for a moment. Then, "Yes. Yes, I do. After the Terrians reminded me when I'd been here before, I remembered more. And I can't tell you how I know, or how much, or how far in the future, or in what context I know. I just do. Some strands of the web of time have already crystallized along your path, Devon Adair, and if I tried to take you to New Pacifica now, I would not be able to. The TARDIS would end up on Mars, or 18th-century France, or Sirinus Minima, and you and the others would end up helping me fight Daleks and Cybermen and Terileptils trying to take over entire planets," – Devon let out a single laugh, despite herself – "and - and - and if you think you're lost and frustrated now, try spending three months with me! You'd be begging me to bring you right back here! We'd be able to go just about anywhere, any time...except New Pacifica, right now."

Devon smiled a wistful smile of acceptance, and nodded. She didn't pretend to understand all the Doctor was saying, but she knew she could trust him. If he couldn't get them to New Pacifica, no one could.

No one but themselves.

And she knew in that moment that the Doctor existed in a realm she could never understand. He was a wanderer in space and time, able to see the entire cosmos; he lived on a grand scale, overthrowing tyrants, saving planets, keeping invading armies at bay, and making sure little boys and girls all over the galaxy slept safe in their beds at night, because he was out there, doing his best to make sure the monsters couldn't reach them.

And maybe she was alive today because the Doctor had risked his life for the human race in some century long past. And even trapped and vulnerable on this new world, with strange aliens and penal colonists and ZEDs and Council agents, she felt better knowing he would be out there among the stars, fighting for her, maybe even dying for her.

Dying again and again.

"You won't forget us, will you?" she asked.

"Not for a thousand more years," he said with a smile, and she stepped forward and hugged him, hugged him close.

"And I envy you, Devon. This journey you're making, this family you found. In all my travels, I've witnessed it over and over again. But the biggest price I pay for my freedom is not having a family of my own."

"Well, you're always welcome here, and you know where to find us."

"Yes. Yes, I do."

She let him go, and squeezed his hand. He winked, just once and turned away. He walked to the TARDIS, his funny little police telephone box which was really a time machine. She followed him as everyone gathered around, shook hands, and said, "Thanks. Thanks for helping us out."

He said goodbye to Ulysses last of all. Strangely, he seemed more at peace with the Doctor's leaving than anyone, as if he knew it had to be. Devon wondered if her son now knew as much about time, through his Terrian link, as the Doctor did. She suspected it was so.

As the Doctor opened the TARDIS door, Uly asked, "Will we see you again?"

"Of course we'll see him again, Uly," Devon said, smiling down at her son. She looked up at the Doctor. "How else would he know what will happen to us if he hadn't met us before – in the future?"

The Doctor smiled at her in admiration. "We'll make a Time Lord out of you yet, Devon Adair."

Then, with a final wave from everyone, he shut the door. A second later, the light on top blinked and whirled, and a wheezing, groaning sound filled the air, rising and falling, growing fainter with each wave, and the TARDIS faded away, leaving a square patch of flattened earth.

And Eden Advance finally got down to the business of taking a day off.