"It wasn't his fault!" Marc screamed back, the fear breaking out suddenly in a rush. She stood in a corner of the room, tense, trying to hold herself in, make herself less obvious. "He tried to save them, he did! The Rani-"

"He tried did he." The man's bitter tones spilled over and stopped Marc. "He used them, left them there to trap that bitch, and then he let them die. He didn't give a damn. Why should he? They weren't his parents, his siblings. He didn't give a damn!" He sneered at her in contempt. "Now it's your turn to be used-you're the trap. The Doctor will pay."

Marc wanted to sob, to cry out, to beat him up, but she couldn't do anything. "Why?" she asked under her breath, so softly she didn't think he'd hear.

"Why you? Because you're travelling with that man. I knew that law officer was following me after the Doctor interrupted our gunfight; it was easy to lose him and then start following him, right back to his agency. I saw you come out with the other officer and knew you had to be a companion of the Doctor's. He can't resist trying to find me and save you. He always has to be the hero." Erick's voice was losing control. "But he let my family die anyway. He let them die…" his tone was tragic, not incensed anymore.

There was a crash from outside the room, and instantly Erick was alert, angry again. "If that's him, come here to save you," Erick said to Marc, "he won't get the chance."

He left the room, locking the door behind him.

Marc slid to the floor, too numb to feel anything.

* * *

Darien saw the Doctor wandering around the warehouse nonchalantly, tripped over a crack in the pavement floor he hadn't noticed, fell into some empty metal barrels that crashed against each other, and cursed out loud. The Doctor glanced over in his direction and walked toward the fallen barrels.

"I thought you'd need my help," the Doctor said quietly. "You can make objects other than yourself invisible, can't you?"

"Yes," Darien hissed, looking around frantically, knowing Erick would come investigating any moment-if the Doctor's information was correct and the guy was here of course. "Why?"

"Quick. Make me invisible."

Darien paused, then said, "I ask again. Why?"

"So I can help you."

"How?"

The Doctor sighed in exasperation. "I'll distract him. You get Marc out. Do it. Now."

Darien looked around again. "Crap." He stepped up to the Doctor, touched his velvet sleeve. "The effect won't last long after I let you go," Darien warned, watching the Doctor stare at his sleeve where Darien held it, the indentation from the invisible hand. "A few minutes, max."

"That'll be enough. Quickly!"

Darien felt the quicksilver flow through his fingertips, saw the Doctor's eyes widen in childlike surprise.

A second later Erick appeared.

* * *

"Doctor!" Erick called, looking around the huge, empty main room of the warehouse. His ship was in a smaller back room, hopefully unfound by the Time Lord. Erick saw the barrels on the floor, no longer stacked, and smiled slightly in anticipation. "Where are you Doctor? I know you're here!" His voice softened, became grim. "We can end this now."

"Are you sure?" the Doctor's voice called back seemingly from nowhere and everywhere. Erick frowned, peering into all the dark corners, the shadows and nooks where the Doctor could hide, but couldn't find the man. "Are you sure you want this to end? What will happen when I die, Erick? What will you have left?"

"The knowledge that finally my family's killer will be dead."

"You know I'm not your family's killer," the Doctor's voice caressed the still air surrounding Erick, full of compassion and pity. "Killing me won't bring them back, Erick. You were such a good student, a wonderful young man when I met you. You don't have to blame me for your family's death. Or do you blame me? Do you really blame yourself? Is that it? Do you feel you should have done more, saved them? Is that it, Erick? Is it? You can't face your own guilt?"

"Shut up!" Erick yelled, frustrated. He still couldn't see the Doctor.

"It's true, isn't it?" The Doctor's voice was soft, angry and compassionate, and he sounded as if he were standing right next to Erick. Erick shivered in the sudden cold and pulled out his gun.

"No, Doctor," Erick seethed. "I know whose fault it is. You killed my family! You!" He began firing wildly, a small part of him hoping to hit the Doctor with a stray bullet and find him out that way, another part of him, too small to be obeyed, horrified at how he was acting.

Something cold seemed to touch him for a moment and then was gone. "Damn you Doctor!" Erick shouted. "Come out!" He ran back to the office to find the girl and drag her out, use her as bait for the Doctor-just as he had used Erick's family as bait.

She had disappeared.

* * *

Marc could hear something scraping at the door. The lock clicked. She stood up slowly, staying in her corner, and stared so hard at the slowly-opening door her vision blurred. She could hear distant voices, in another part of the warehouse, but she ignored them.

There was no one behind the door. "Hey," said a soft male voice. "It's me. You okay?"

"Darien?" Marc was surprised to hear her voice quiver. She thought that only happened in books. "Is that you? Darien, where are you?"

"Right here, Marc." She felt something cold and almost skinlike on her hand. She grabbed his invisible hand and squeezed it, really wishing for a hug.

He gave her one. She held onto him tightly, not giving a damn she couldn't see him, not giving a damn she'd only met him a few hours before. She just closed her eyes and hung onto someone familiar and comforting. And then she felt something slide over her skin, something cold and wet and silver, and she gasped aloud.

"It's okay," he whispered in her ear, still holding her tightly. "I'm making you invisible. The Doctor's outside, distracting Erick. Hobbes is with the van. Can you move?"

"Get out of here you mean?" Marc whispered back shakily. "Definitely." She opened her eyes cautiously and was weirded out by having black-and-white vision. She heard gunshots and shivered.

"Wicked," she whispered as she looked around, for a moment simply caught up in this new sensation and situation. Darien held her hand and led her out of the office, locking and closing the door quietly behind them.

Just in time. Erick came running toward them. Darien placed a hand over Marc's mouth before she could gasp out loud and drew her silently out of the way. When Erick opened the door and didn't see her, he let out a bellow of rage, slammed it shut, and yelled to the warehouse at large, "I will kill you Doctor!" He ran further into the warehouse.

"Stay here," Darien told Marc and ran after Erick.

A back door slammed shut; Darien ran over to it and opened it again, sunlight spilling into the building. Darien looked all around outside but couldn't see the criminal anywhere. He cursed and said into his mic, "Hobbes, he got away, but we found Marc. Do you see him?"

"No," said Hobbes. "Do you know which way he went?"

"It's all right," said the Doctor's voice from behind Darien. Darien turned around and found Marc clinging fiercely to the Doctor, tears streaming down her face. The Doctor had an arm around her shoulders, supporting her, his voice shaky but firm. "We'll find him."

"How?" Hobbes muttered.

"I put a tracking device on him," the Doctor explained loudly, so Hobbes could hear him. "And I've just disabled his ship. I think we should leave this place."

"Yeah," Dairen said, looking at Marc. He appeared suddenly before the other two, quicksilver flakes falling off him in a shower. "I think we should too."

* * *

Hobbes drove them back to the agency in silence. Marc and the Doctor sat in the back, tears still tracking down her face as reaction and shock set in. She'd never been in such a position before. She remembered the time she'd wrecked her car her junior year of high school. She'd been remarkably uninjured but had spent the whole day breaking into tears, shaky and numb and scared and shell-shocked. That was how she felt now, only ten times worse.

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor very quietly.

She looked up at him, sniffling, trying to control her tears. His face was crumpled into the saddest, guiltiest, most compassionate look she'd ever seen on a face. She didn't feel up to smiling yet but she nodded at him and took his hand for a quick squeeze.

The van stopped. Hobbes opened the back doors, and the two partners faced the two companions seriously. "Now what?" Hobbes said.

"We finish this," the Doctor said, letting go of Marc's hand. "Now. No more. Mr Hobbes, will you accompany me?"

"Uh, just where will I be?" Darien asked, raising a hand.

"Yeah, and me?" Marc said, staring at the Doctor, face dirty from tears.

"You'll be watching over Marc," the Doctor told the agent. "Please."

Darien looked over at the college student. "Sure."

Marc looked angry. "I don't need looking after," she snapped at the Time Lord. "Thanks for not asking me to go with you, but if you're gonna do your usual thing and get your ass kicked, then you should at least take as many people with you as you can who can help you!"

The Doctor smiled at her reassuringly. "Think of him as a bodyguard. Erick might try to get to you again, and if we don't find him first, I don't want him finding you instead. Okay?"

"Doctor-" Her unusually blue eyes burned in her pale face.

The Doctor stared her down. "No one else gets hurt." They stared at each other for a long, long moment. Darien and Hobbes shifted uncomfortably, not knowing where to look.

Marc relented unwillingly, breaking her gaze away and telling him gruffly, "Okay. But be careful."

"Do you still have that spare TARDIS key I gave you?" he asked her and she nodded. "All right, Mr Hobbes, shall we be on our way?"

The Doctor moved to the front seat of the van, sitting next to Hobbes. Marc closed the door behind the Time Lord and stared at him, her exotic blue eyes fiery with an emotion the Doctor couldn't make out. "I'm sorry," she said.

He looked at her angrily. "Don't be," he said. "You have no right to be. Erick should be sorry; I should be, for getting you into that mess. Not you."

"We should go," Hobbes said.

"Hey," Darien said, leaning into the van on Hobbes's side. "Be careful."

Hobbes snorted. "Always my friend." Darien and Marc each stepped away from the van on their opposite sides, and the vehicle pulled away. Marc stood still, watching the van until it turned out of sight. She kept facing the same way. Darien joined her.

"They'll be okay," he said.

"Oh I know they will," Marc said without looking at him. "Doc's good about things like that."

"So's Hobbes."

"No, I just feel like an ass," Marc continued and headed abruptly into the agency building.

"Don't," Darien told her firmly. "It's okay. You're okay. Don't forget that." He laughed slightly, but it was a humorless laugh. "Sorry for the keychain crap, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice. You had no control over the situation; that man could have done anything. You must have been terrified."

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," Marc said distantly, staring at the glass door in front of her.

Darien held the door open for her. "And fear makes companions of us all," he answered before ushering her in.

* * *

"Left," the Doctor said, staring at the small black plastic box in his hand. Hobbes turned left at the next intersection without comment.

"What're you gonna do when we catch up with this guy?" Hobbes asked. He knew what he personally would do.

"Talk to him," said the Doctor.

"Talk to him?" Hobbes repeated in disbelief.

"And then we'll see."

"Oh." Hobbes didn't know how to answer that.

"Left again."

They continued driving in silence.

* * *

Marc had let Darien into the TARDIS and left him hanging around the console room while she washed her face and changed. He studied the bookcases and picked out an old leather-bound book to flip thorough.

Marc found him still standing by the bookcases, thoroughly absorbed. "Whatcha reading?" she asked, flopping into an easy chair and closing her eyes in exhaustion.

Darien turned and glanced over at her. She wore a long dark skirt with a baggy sweater. "A book of Carl Sandburg's poetry," he said. "You okay?"

She heaved a deep sigh. "I will be."

"Yeah."

Marc opened her eyes, stared off into the distance. She shook her head slowly. "Stupid," she commented.

"What?"

"Stupid," she repeated. "He didn't do anything. He yelled at me, that was all. Why was I so scared?"

"Hey, the guy's a madman." Darien put his book down and crossed the room to sit down next to her. "He had a gun, he could have done anything."

A smile flickered on Marc's pale, tense face. "That is very reassuring, Darien."

"Okay, so it came out the wrong way, smartypants," Darien smiled back. He quickly sobered. "You said it yourself. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. You have to control that fear-you'll know that next time, if there is a next time."

Marc nodded and changed the subject. "You think they're okay?"

"Who, Hobbes and the Doc?" Darien shrugged casually, hiding his own worries. "Yeah, of course they are."

Marc brooded. "I wonder if they've found him yet."

* * *

Hobbes stopped the van. "He likes alleys," he commented.

"Yes, he does appear to," the Doctor agreed from the passenger seat. "Come on." He hopped out of the vehicle and headed into the alley. Hobbes quickly checked his gun and ran after the other man.

"You could at least wait for me," Hobbes hissed. The Doctor didn't answer, just stared down at his tracker unblinkingly. He almost ran into the brick wall at the end of the alley.

"Uh…"

"Looking for me?" Erick asked, stepping out of the doorway directly behind the other two men. "What's he doing here?" He pointed to Hobbes with his gun.

"He came to help me," the Doctor said. "Erick, don't do this anymore. Please. I'm sorry your family died-"

"Sorry isn't enough," Erick said simply. He kept his gun trained on the Time Lord but watched Hobbes like a hawk. Hobbes hovered tensely, waiting, his gaze shifting back and forth between the Doctor and Erick. "You should have saved them."

"I couldn't Erick, it was too late even before I arrived there. I had to stop the Rani, she was-"

"Had to stop her at any cost, Doctor?" The rage built in Erick's voice.

"No," the Doctor answered softly. "The cost is always too high. But it must be done."

Erick aimed the gun at the Doctor's forehead. He clicked off the safety. The Doctor straightened, his attention focusing on Erick's eyes, ignoring the gun. "You don't want to do this, Erick," he said in a soft, urgent voice. "Killing me will only add to your guilt, not lessen it."

"I'm not the one who's guilty!"

"No you're not, but you feel you are." The Doctor's voice was so compassionate it was almost painful to listen to. "You don't have to, Erick. There was nothing anyone could have done. It was finished before either of us could save it."

"Not true," Erick said, shaking his head fiercely. "You bastard, you let them die!" He began to pull the trigger, but Hobbes whipped out his own gun and shot him.

The Doctor gave Hobbes a black scowl before dropping to the ground next to Erick. Erick's hand fell limply, dropping his gun. "My family…" Erick whispered. His eyes closed and he sighed, the last breath escaping his body.

The Doctor looked up at Hobbes, pale eyes burning. "He shouldn't have died," was all he said.

* * *

"He was gonna shoot you," Hobbes said in the van on the way back to the agency. "What did you want me to do?"

"I was talking him out of it!"

"No," answered Hobbes, "you weren't."

"If you had given me a chance-"

"The safety was off. The trigger was cocked. This man has killed dozens in the US already. You were two feet away from him. He was not gonna let you live."

The Doctor remained silent.

"I saved your butt. The least you can do is thank me."

The Doctor shook his head, golden-brown curls flying into his face. "There should have been another way," he said softly.

"There wasn't," Hobbes told him. "And you can't change the past my friend."

The Doctor went rigid, then forced himself to relax. "No," he said, staring out the windshield at nothing. "I don't suppose I can."

* * *

Marc and Darien listened to Hobbes's report. They sat in the Official's office, Eberts as always at the Fatman's side. Hobbes stood in front of the desk, while the Doctor and Darien sat behind him. Marc stood to the side, near the window, arms folded across her chest and watching the Doctor's controlled facial expressions.

"Good work," the Official said.

Hobbes smiled slightly. "You see Fawkes? You are not the only one who can save the day." Darien rolled his eyes.

"All right, get out of here," said the Official. "And Doctor…please don't come back to San Diego."

"Oh don't worry," said the Doctor, speaking for the first time since coming back to the agency. "If I do, you won't hear about it." With that, he left the room, quickly followed by Marc. Darien and Hobbes went after the other two, exchanging glances.

"Time to go Marc," the Doctor said without looking at any of the humans. He unlocked the TARDIS doors. "We're finished here."

Marc opened her mouth to speak but then closed it, instead nodding acceptance. The Doctor turned to the partners and said, "Good-bye, Mr Hobbes, Mr Fawkes." He shook their hands and walked into the TARDIS.

Marc watched him go, then also turned to the two men. "I'm sorry," she said, a little helplessly. "He hates death. And losing."

"We all do," Darien answered.

"He just can't admit the guy was gonna kill him," Hobbes said. He held out his hand. "It was very nice meeting you, Marc."

Marc smiled. "You too, Bobby." He grinned at her, elbowed Fawkes in the stomach, and walked away down the corridor.

Darien leant against the wall, hands in his jacket pockets. He looked down at Marc and smiled. "There's an old Chinese curse," he told her. "'May you live in interesting times.'"

Marc grinned. "Well, we most certainly do, don't we?" She sobered. "Thanks, Darien. For coming in and getting me."

Darien shrugged. "No problem. All in the job description."

Marc's mouth quirked up again in a smile. "Job description? Ha, I think the Doc and I need one of those." She impulsively gave him a quick hug. "You're a cool guy, Darien Fawkes. You keep saving people, okay?"

Darien laughed. "Yeah, you too, Marc." She grinned, walked into the TARDIS, paused in the doorway, turned, and gave him a little wave before fully going in and closing the doors behind her.

Darien watched and listened as the large blue police box disappeared, his eyes widening a bit. He reached out a hand where the box had stood and waved it around hesitantly, but there was nothing there.

With a little smile, he turned and walked away.

* * *

Marc hovered by the console, watching the Doctor plot co-ordinates. He was intent on his work, deliberately ignoring his friend.

"You okay?" she asked.

"What's your definition of okay?" The Doctor didn't look up.

"I'm sorry he died." She said it bluntly, angry at him for bottling things up when he never let her do that.

The Doctor finally met her gaze, his hands no longer flying over the controls. "So am I," he said after a long pause. "I really thought I could reason with him. But I think…I think your Mr Hobbes was right. He wasn't going to listen to me."

Marc nodded. "He's not my Mr Hobbes," she said after a while with a tiny grin.

The Doctor gave her a tiny grin in return. "No, but I don't think he would have minded."

"Doc!" She put her hands on her hips in mock-outrage.

The Doctor's grin merely widened, and he looked back down at the console again, returning to his task. But he seemed in a more cheerful mood. Marc headed for the interior doors, planning to go to her room and catch some sleep while she could.

"Marc?" the Doctor's accents stopped her.

She turned around, eyebrows raised enquiringly. "Yeah?"

"Are you okay?"

She paused, weighing her answer, looking inside herself. She remembered her conversation with Darien in the console room and glanced over at the bookcase. His book was where he'd left it, carelessly dropped on a shelf. She refocused on the Doctor and smiled at him.

"I will be. Next time."

The Doctor half-frowned, half-smiled. She laughed at him and left the room.

* * *

A few days later, Darien loped down the hallway toward the Official's office, hands stuck in his back jeans pockets and mind elsewhere.

"Hey, Fawkes," Hobbes called as he rounded the corner and saw his partner.

Darien turned around and kept walking. "Yeah, Hobbes?"

"You know what this is about?"

"I don't know Hobbes. Maybe the Fatman's decided to give us a vacation."

"Ya think so?" Hobbes's face lit up for an instant, then went back to his more habitual frowning expression. "Nah. Even if we do deserve one, putting our asses on the line every day…"

Darien opened the office door and gestured Hobbes in. "No, you first," said Hobbes.

"I insist," Darien answered.

"No, really."

"Please, go ahead, Hobbes."

"No, that's okay, you-"

"Hobbes! Fawkes! Get in here. Now."

Fawkes and Hobbes both tried to go in at the same time, got stuck, then stepped back out of the doorway together. They paused for a long moment, eyeing each other, then finally Hobbes walked in first.

Darien sprawled into one of the chairs and beamed up at the Official and Eberts. Hobbes sat down in the other chair and waited.

"We have a new case for you boys," the Fatman said with a special kind of gleam in his eye that Darien liked not at all. Eberts handed each of the agents a manila folder, and the Official began talking about what the partners would do next.

Darien half-paid attention, his mind still focusing on Marc and the Doctor. He had told Marc saving her had been part of the job description-true enough, he supposed, but he wondered when he'd started actually going by that. When he actually started thinking of this as his job. He remembered Marc's tear-stained face in the van and the Doctor's quiet strength the whole time Darien had known him, and he realized that those two must go through similar things everyday. Similar to what he went through everyday.

Huh. Takes one to know one?

"Right boss," Hobbes said easily as he stood up, folder in hand. Darien refocused on the conversation and also stood up, hoping he hadn't missed much. "We'll get right on it."

"Yeah," Darien nodded, trying to look like he knew what he was talking about. They turned and left the office together.

"Where were you in there?" Hobbes said when the door closed behind them.

"What do you mean?"

"You were not paying attention, and don't say you were, 'cause I know you weren't. That is not a good idea, Fawkes. That can be very dangerous. Go read your file."

"Yeah."

Hobbes shook his head and started walking away.

"Hey, Hobbes," Darien called after his partner.

Hobbes turned around. "Yeah Fawkes?"

"We do good work, don't we?"

Hobbes stared at the younger man, blinking, floored by the highly unexpected question. What the hell was he thinking about? "Of course we do," he answered aloud.

Darien nodded, still with that deep, unfathomable frown on his face, hands plunged into his pockets. He smiled slightly and said, "Yeah. Thanks Hobbes," and turned around abruptly, strolling down the hall in the opposite direction of Hobbes.

Hobbes stood there for a moment before following Fawkes, about to ask him what the hell he meant by that.

and onto other adventures...