PARTY AT GROUND ZERO
a 7th Doctor & Ace fanfiction by Lori Summers
***********
"I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down, down, down and the flames went higher
And it burns, burns, burns...
The ring of fire, the ring of fire."
-Johnny Cash
PART THREE: Pretty Fly for a White Guy
"Sit still, yer makin' me twitchy."
"The number of variables in this situation is rising by the minute, and that's enough to make even me twitchy."
"It's okay, you can admit it."
"Admit what?"
"You're worried about your wife...God knows I'd be, with that freckled maniac huntin' her like she's on flippin' safari."
"Thank you for those words of comfort, Ben," the Doctor said drily. "Of course I am concerned for Ace's safety but at the moment I cannot help her."
"Somethin' tells me she can take care of herself."
"That's one way to put it."
"Shut up!" Ewens suddenly barked, appearing in front of them like the Ghost of Fascists Yet to Come. Both men jumped, wincing inwardly at how easily he'd snuck up on them, engrossed as they'd been in their conversation. They did not, however, have much time to think on it, cuz no sooner had Ewens spoken than the door banged open and Roget came in, pushing Ace before her. Ben felt the Doctor tense up beside him, though the little man gave no outward sign. Ace was roughed up and handcuffed (with her hands in front of her, showed how little Roget knew for all her chest-pounding), but looked okay. Ewens stared at this little melodrama being played out, his face going purple like someone plugged him into a volcano.
"Found her with the warhead," Roget spat, shoving Ace forward. "She took out Coleman and Frankel."
Ewens looked Ace up and down. Ben thought he could almost see the man's eyeballs vibrating. "McShane," he hissed. "You'll pay for going against us. I *knew* I shouldn't have trusted you." Ace said nothing. He looked over at Roget. "The warhead?"
"It's fine. I got to her before she could disarm it." Ben's heart sank. So much for Plan B. Roget was eyeing Ace like she wished she could get in a few more good licks. "What should we do with her?"
Ewens thought for a moment as Ace stared him down. "Kill her."
The Doctor rose, just as calm as you please. Everyone stared at him, their faces blank with disbelief that this moron had the gumption to open his yap again. "If you're gong to kill her, then may I have the honors, Marshal?" he asked in a low, ruthless voice. Ben stared up at him, having to dig his nails in to keep from blurting out something that would be counterproductive...or better yet, jumping up and decking someone.
"You again!" Ewens barked. "Do you have a death wish or something? Who the hell are you to keep interfering!"
"I'm the Doctor."
***********
It took Ben a few seconds to process the reaction to this statement. At first it just refused to go through his gray matter at all, getting stuck somewhere behind his eyes. What he expected was some more growling, maybe a good old-fashioned round of strut-the-macho and the whole thing would end up with the Doc and Ace lying on the floor with bullet holes in their foreheads. What actually happened was that upon hearing the word "Doctor," Ewens' self-righteously pissed-off expression vanished, and before you could say "pucker up" he'd started forward with a big shiteating grin on his face.
"Doctor! Why didn't you..." He hesitated, stopping a few yards away with his hand half-extended. "You gave me a codeword in your last communication, a means for me to know you if we should meet."
The Doctor nodded, smiling. "Indeed I did. The word you're looking for, Marshal, is 'rutabaga.'"
Ewens' grin reappeared like a rabbit out of a magician's hat and he darted to the Doctor's side, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "Doctor, we're honored. If you'd only told me you would be here tonight, I'd have taken steps to insure your safety."
Ben's head was spinning. He scarcely heard when Fieldstone demanded, "You wanna let us in on what's going on here?"
Ewens motioned the Doctor forward. "Everyone, this is the Doctor...the man who provided us with the security codes to the ordinance center, among other things." That did the trick. The granite-jawed commandoes became beaming glad-handers jockeying for position to meet the Doctor. Ben watched them carefully. Seemed the Doc was some sort of patron for them but they'd never met him. Just for a second, he wondered if the two time-travelers were actually part of this little invasion...then he met Ace's eyes. No one was paying attention to her for the moment, and when she caught him looking at her she dropped him a quick wink.
Ben had to look away to hide the grin that spread across his face. This was part of some backup plan, had to be...but why would the Doctor have helped Ewens and his band of merry pranksters steal that warhead in the first place? He only hoped he'd have the chance to ask him.
Social hour was over now that the Doctor had met the whole gang. "As I was saying, Marshal," the Doctor went on, "if you intend to dispose of this young turncoat I'd appreciate the chance to perform the deed myself. I've had so little hands-on involvement in this important venture that it would be quite a thrill." Ben marveled at his diplomatic skills. Somehow in that short statement he'd managed to flatter Ewens, stroke his inflated ego and downplay his own importance to ingratiate himself to those who clearly thought of him as a private deity...and all in that smooth and steely tone of voice that made him sound like the kind of guy who liked to burn ants with a magnifying glass just to watch 'em squirm. And the commandoes were eatin' it up and askin' for more.
"Doctor, we're most indebted to you. If it'll make you happy, then by all means." Ewens grabbed Ace by the arm and the whole lot of 'em started out to the lot behind the motel that had been the site of Ben's earlier revelations. Fieldstone stayed behind but didn't pay much mind when Ben scuttled across the floor so he could peer out the window. The other hostages were muttering restlessly...this sort of summary execution didn't inspire confidence.
"Shh!" Ben hissed at them, trying to convey to them that everything would be all right even if'n he couldn't say exactly how. He watched as Ewens marched Ace out to the middle of the tarmac and handed a gun to the Doctor, who stood with the other commandoes about twenty yards away. Loretta joined him at the window, both of them kneeling there so they could look out over the sill.
"She was trying to help us," Loretta said, her voice choked. "She was trying to...oh Jesus Ben they're gonna shoot her..." Ben put an arm around her trembling shoulders. "She was just trying to help us..."
"At your leisure, Doctor," Ewens was saying. The Doctor looked at the weapon for a moment, then raised it...but before he could pull the trigger Ace made a break for the dark desert beyond the lights of the lot, her boots slapping against the asphalt. Ewens just laughed, and as she reached the shadows near the shack where the TARDIS stood in secret, the Doctor took aim and fired. Ben gasped as a gout of blood went up from Ace's chest and she went down in a tangle of arms and legs. It had to be a trick, it just had to...but it still had the impact of the real thing. Loretta made a strangled sound low in her throat and buried her face in Ben's chest. He held onto her tightly, equally glad for the support even though he knew it wasn't real. The Doctor, completely expressionless, handed the gun back to Ewens and wiped his hand with his kerchief. Roget started towards the body but Ewens stopped her. "Let her rot," he said. "We have work to do."
They were on their way back to the motel when the Doctor stopped, head cocked towards the sky, listening.
"What is it?" Ewens asked, his dander up, scanning the sky.
"We've got company," the Doctor said quietly.
***********
Twenty minutes later Ben and the other hostages were huddled in a tight group at the center of the motel lobby, the harsh glare of spotlights and searchlights stabbing in through the slatted windows. He was holding Loretta's hand, her fingers digging into his flesh...he'd later find a nice set of bruises there from her fingers. The motel was completely surrounded with police cars and the sound of helicopters was constant. The motel team had been reduced to just Ewens and Roget, the rest had been dispatched to guard the trailers...each of them taking a hostage with them for insurance. In a particular show of brass cojones, Ewens himself had the little boy in a loose half-nelson, and he'd made it clear that should anyone try anything queer, he'd shoot him.
The Doctor was allowed to walk about freely and do as he wished. At times he would stand around in the lobby and confer with Ewens, other times he'd wander out to the diner or to the truck...but they'd have the warhead guarded better by now, no way he'd be able to take it out himself. Ewens seemed to trust him like a confessor, which Ben found hard to believe 'cept for the fact that he'd witnessed firsthand the Doctor's uncanny ability to make just about anyone believe anythin' he said.
"Marshal Ewens," a phantom voice, tinny through a megaphone, called for about the twentieth time. "We are prepared to discuss terms for release of the hostages."
Ewens had his own megaphone, which Ben found weirdly funny. "I will negotiate with no one except a representative of the United States State Department...and if such a person does not arrive within the hour, you'll have a lot more to worry about than just the lives of these hostages."
"You won't set off that bomb, Ewens. You'll destroy your own people!" Megaphone Man said.
"I will do it for the good of all those who struggle for freedom! They will be able to ignore our message no longer!" Ewens called back. Ben rolled his eyes. This guy was on a high-blown, full-tilt-boogie Boston Tea Party trip for sure. Any minute he'd be waving a staff and shouting "Let my people go!" Ben wondered what Ewens would do if he knew that bomb's real power. Surely even he'd balk at wiping out the entire western half of the country...then again, mayhap not.
The way it seemed to Ben, the Doctor was just bidin' his time till Ace could make a move. She was alive, she had to be. He'd seen the blood, but heck...fakin' bloody deaths was as old as the moving picture. He sure as hell didn't know how she was supposed to get in here and take Ewens out before she got stopped and shot, for real this time.
Something had to happen, and pretty damned soon.
***********
Ben checked his watch. It was only 10:15. Was this the longest night of his life? Had to be.
Ewens was getting jumpy, even though there was still forty minutes to go before his stated deadline. I guess that's the downside of bein' a militant jingoist...short attention span. The Doctor was pacing, looking for all the world as impatient and motivated as Ewens himself. Every so often he'd walk by the hostages and glare at 'em.
The turning point Ben had been waiting for happened on one of these trips to eyeball the cowering masses. Ben had made a point of not meeting the Doctor's eyes, afraid he'd give something away, and had moved away from Loretta in case the Doctor needed him to move quickly. He didn't look up as the Doctor sauntered by, but as his shadow passed over him there was suddenly a note in his palm. Ben quickly covered it without missing a beat until the Doctor had strolled back around to stand near Ewens, then he casually wrapped his arms around his knees and laid his head on them like he was tired. He unfolded the note under his legs and peered at it in the dimness. "Men's loo, stall near the door" was all it said. Ben quietly wadded it into a tiny ball and coughed, slipping the note into his mouth and swallowing it. Probably not quite necessary, but some little part 'o him was starting to kinda like the cloak-and-dagger stuff.
He waited about ten minutes, gradually vampin' up his level of visible discomfort till it seemed okay. He stood up, and before he could even open his mouth both Ewens and Roget had their guns trained on him. "Uh...I just gotta use the head," he said, holding up his hands. "Unless y'all just want me to, you know, let loose right here on the floor."
Ewens and Roget exchanged a glance, then he motioned for her to take him. Roget stepped forward and grabbed his arm, lookin' just a mite put out to be stuck with this petty little chore. Ben didn't make any trouble on the way, and wasn't hardly surprised when Roget insisted on comin' into the bathroom with him. He had a bad moment when he thought she'd check the stall before he went in...he was pretty sure the Doc'd left something there for him. She didn't, though, and he went in and shut the door.
At first glance there wasn't nothin', but it only took him a second of feelin around under the commode before he found it. Little flat piece of plastic like a heavy charge card, and a note. He slipped the card into his pocket and opened the note: "Small explosive charge. Press the recessed button, twenty seconds, five meter blast radius. We need a distraction." Ben flushed the note, adrenaline shootin' through his pipes. He washed his hands and walked calmly out, Roget doggin' his every step. He walked casually, wonderin where in hell he could plant this doohickey...the diner seemed the best place. It was deserted and stood a good chance of stayin' that way for the next twenty seconds. He carefully drew the device out of his pocket as he and Roget neared the end of the hall that emptied into the diner, which they'd have to pass through to get to the motel.
Ben saw his chance in the form of a small pool of what looked like soda or coffee that someone had spilled during the Great Hostage Relocation. With only a small course correction he was able to plant his foot right in the middle of it and end up flat on his face, with what he thought was a pretty realistic pratfall. As he hit the ground he pressed the button and flicked the device around the corner of the bar.
Roget hauled him to his feet with some kinda under-the-breath curse and Ben let her, trying not to look like he was in a hurry as they got back into the motel. The Doc gave him a bit of a glance and he tried to tell him without talkin that he'd started the bomb but hell, he'd find out soon enough. He started to move back to his place with the other hostages.
When the bomb went off you'd'a sworn that it had been up each one of those commandos' asses for their reactions. Ben found himself experiencing yet another reality of something that he'd only previously read about in books. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, allowing him to see with excruciating detail everything that happened.
The blast was so loud it left you deaf for a time, and blew out the door leading to the diner. Ben sensed rather than heard the glass front of the diner shattering, and the hostages scattered. One of the State Troopers, in a moment of heroism, darted forward and grabbed the little boy while Ewens was distracted. Half the hostages took their chance and ran out the back door towards the waiting police cars. Ewens and Roget both pivoted towards the blast, raising their guns outta sheer reflex. Ben saw a streak of gray...something...bust through a window, glass flyin everywhere. It solidified into Ace, standing behind Ewens with a gun to his head. Her other hand flashed up and knocked his automatic to the ground.
Roget turned back in time to see this happen. "Don't bloody move!" Ace shouted. Her chest and back were covered in blood but she appeared none the worse for bein shot in the heart. "I'll shoot this bugger, don't you think I won't!"
Ewens, his face screwed up like he'd just bit into a lemon, was having none of it. "Shoot her!" he yelled. Roget made to do just that and Ben didn't doubt her conviction, so he lunged at her. His body weight knocked her to the side and he managed to grab the gun as they fell to the ground. He was marginally aware of shouting from outside and more gunfire. The diner was ablaze but he could see the shadowy forms of a few stray commandoes makin' their way through.
"Ben, get them out of here!" the Doctor yelled to him, jerkin his head at the remaining hostages. Ben ran to the door and held it open, raising the gun apprehensively...no commandoes out here, just Nevada's Finest.
"Go!" he shouted, motioning wildly with his free hand. The hostages didn't need no more encouragement. They rose en masse and ran out, nearly trampling Ben in the process...except one.
"Ben, come with us!" Loretta cried, tugging at his arm.
"No, I can't! I gotta stay and help the Doc!" he answered.
"You'll just get yourself killed, you idiot!" she screamed at him, tears running down her cheeks.
"Well...if'n I do, then save my spot at the bar," he said. He leaned forward and kissed her once, on the lips, just as he'd done a thousand times in his dreams. He pulled back and gave her a mighty shove. With one agonized glance backwards at him, she stumbled away to join the rest of the hostages. Once they were all out the police started to move in. "No!" Ben shouted. "Just hang back!" If those bozoes stormed in here with five or six commandoes...including that flinty-eyed Fieldstone...still on the loose, the three of them were likely to end up in body bags. "We still got hostages in here!" he fibbed, then darted back inside.
"OK, Ewens," Ace said into his ear, her breath rasping in and out. "We'll just take a stroll out to the trailer and disarm that bomb."
"Oh, screw the bomb!" Ben exclaimed. "Let's just get these lunatics arrested, the bomb won't go off if they're all in jail!"
"We can't be sure of that," the Doctor said. "It could be on a timer for all we know! We have to disarm it ourselves...no one else within three thousand miles knows how to do it properly, they're likely to set the cursed thing off."
Ace had started to maneuver Ewens towards the other door when Fieldstone and three others rushed in, coughing from the smoke that was starting to fill the room. "Freeze!" Ace yelled. "Drop your weapons!"
"Just shoot this bitch," Ewens said through clenched teeth. Ben stepped up and pointed his gun at Ewens too.
"You'll never get us both before one of us shoots the Golem here," he said. "Better do as she says."
Fieldstone, walnut-sized jaw muscles clenching and unclenching, finally nodded to the others and they laid their guns down on the floor. The Doctor picked them up and tossed them into the trash can, dusting his hands off and making a little tsk-ing noise under his breath. "Well, let's see to that bomb, shall we?" he said, like he was suggesting a nice outing for tea. "Ben, could you see to these gentlemen?"
"Fieldstone's gotta come with," Ace said. "I couldn't disarm the bloody thing before Roget got me cuz I need the crukking missile keys to open the trigger housing."
"Well, just get the keys from him!" Ben cried, exasperated.
"Nah, they're DNA coded to their fingers. Anyone else tries to use 'em they don't work."
"Mr. Fieldstone, attend us please if you would," the Doctor said. "As for the rest of you...I do believe your ride is waiting." He nodded to Ben, who shoved the three disarmed commandoes out the back door towards the bevy of police, where they were descended upon immediately. The captain rushed up to Ben.
"What's going on in there? Are there any more hostages?"
"Just us, Cap...and we've got a little matter of a nuclear bomb to take care of. Mind the store, we'll be back in a tic." He touched the brim of an invisible hat and disappeared back into the motel.
***********
They had to go out through the kitchen, seein as the diner was an inferno by now. The hulking semi stood like something out a second-class vision of Hell, all black and ominous under the orange parkin lot lights with smoke from the diner fire swirling around its tires. Ace dragged Ewens, keeping the gun against his temple, and Ben looked after Fieldstone. The Doctor walked on behind, a look of vague discomfort on his face. It hadn't been hard for Ben to pick up on the Time Lord's dislike of all things violent and extreme...but that didn't mean he was above usin' em, or takin advantage of his wife's talent for same.
Ben kept his eyes peeled for any stray commandoes but didn't see none. Likely the police had em all in custody but you could never be too careful. They stepped out into the glare of more spotlights and went across the parkin lot and into the truck. To Ben's relief, the police didn't seem tempted to try anything...probably still worried about hostages, even though anyone with eyes could see that neither himself nor the Doctor were being forcibly held, and the other three still looked like members of the Liberatory Front. He supposed that just the mention of the words "nuclear bomb" made em skittish. It sure as hell made *him* skittish.
The inside of the trailer looked like something outta the Andromeda Strain. All shiny and metal and smooth and littered with all ranges of technology, from high-tech weaponry to pretty low-tech radio setups. They pushed through the shot-out door into the missile chamber...pretty tight fit for the five of them plus the damn warhead. Ace let Ben guard the two commandoes while she reopened the trigger housing compartment. "There now," she said. "Time to do your dance, gents." Ewens and Fieldstone just stood there like statues. "Oi, jarheads! The keys, let's have it!"
"We won't help you undermine our cause," Ewens intoned. The Doctor stepped forward, exasperated.
"Your cause? Can you hear yourselves? How is having this blasted bomb going to help your cause? Do you know the kind of catastrophes this bomb would cause if it were to go off? This is no ordinary weapon, gentlemen. This is a very advanced device, a prototype. Didn't know that, did you? Let me enlighten your worldview." He stepped closer. "Picture the western half of this continent uninhabitable for the next 15,000 years. Picture the entire American Southwest rendered a burning graveyard of ashes and death. Picture a mushroom cloud rising eight miles high into the atmosphere and the fallout spreading all the way from Hawaii to New York. Picture cancer rates for the Western hemisphere tripling and the average lifespan dropping by fifteen years. Picture the mutations, the birth defects, the horrible suffering. 25 million dead within a year because you resorted to violence to satisfy your petty demands." His voice had been steadily dropping during this entire speech. Ewens and Fieldstone appeared mesmerized in spite of themselves. "Is that justice? Is that what you want your cause to stand for? You say you desire freedom and equal rights, yet you're willing to risk devastation on a global scale. You say you want nothing more than to be treated like everyone else. You've already shown how little regard you have for human life, I've no illusions of any nobility lurking in those hearts beneath your flak jackets, but show some regard at least for your planet and your species. Is this how you envisioned your great quest ending?"
Ewens stood there for a long moment, his throat working. "I..." He took a deep breath. "I set it to go off in about six tomorrow morning."
The Doctor and Ace exchanged a glance. "Ah yes. We thought it had to have been something like that."
Fieldstone gaped at him. "You what?"
"I just wanted to make the point absolutely clear!" Ewens cried. "We would have been long gone before then!"
"You said it was just for impact! We never agreed to set it off!" Ewens said nothing, his mouth opening and closing like a widemouth bass. Fieldstone, pale as a ghost except for two bright spots of feverish color high on his cheekbones, yanked his key from around his neck. "Here's my key, I'll help you disarm it." He stared at Ewens. "Come on, let's shut this thing down!"
Ewens, incredibly, was starting to take on that look of a little kid surrounded by playground bullies. Self-righteous and whiny. "But we'll go to jail...our cause..."
Fieldstone grabbed him. "We're going to jail anyway, you moron! Our cause wasn't to wipe out life as we know it! Now get out that damn key and let's castrate this warhead!"
Ewens nodded, all the bravado gone from his face, and withdrew his key. Ace guided their hands to the slots and they turned them at the same time when she told 'em to. The trigger assembly popped open and Ace thrust a hand inside, her eyes unfocused as she felt around. Finally she grinned and pulled out a big hunk of wiring. "There. This bugger's not blowing up anytime soon."
The Doctor grinned. "Well done, my dear. And you too, Ben. Didn't I tell you he was an interesting new acquaintance?" he said to Ace. She grinned back and kissed his cheek.
"Seems you were right. Let's get these two outside."
***********
The five of them emerged from the trailer and back into the blinding limelight looking rumpled and dirty but alive. Fire trucks were arriving to put out the blaze, and Ben could see the police loading commandoes into their paddy wagon. Ewens stopped for a moment, his face the picture of dejection.
"I trusted you," he said, glaring at the Doctor.
He shrugged. "You trusted me because I wanted you to."
"You've been playing me from the very start, haven't you?"
The Doctor smiled enigmatically. "Depends where you start from, I suppose." Two officers came up and took Ewens away. Ben tossed his gun to the ground, grateful to be rid of the damned thing.
"You do this a lot?" he asked, scrubbing one hand across his face.
"Oh, now and again."
"Sounds like fun."
"It can be."
They both watched as Ewens was led away. Fieldstone was being loaded into a car, and Ace had shown the police some kind of identification that musta convinced 'em that she was on the level, and the Doctor too. Then he saw it...a brief flash of movement. Much later, he would realize that what he'd seen was Ewens reaching into the holster of one of the officers who held him...an officer who would later catch holy hell for not keepin his weapon strapped in. Ewens whipped the gun up and around to point it at the Doctor, yelling something incoherent about causes and traitors and maybe even the devil himself. Ace saw it and ran at Ewens, yelling, but she was a good fifty paces away. The Doctor didn't see it...at least, not until it was too late for him to do anything about it.
Ben didn't think, he just reacted, and he'd spend the rest of his life wondering why. He lunged forward, and when the bullet Ewens fired from the policeman's gun drew near to the Doctor, it found 180 pounds of hurtled trucker between it and its intended target. The bullet struck him in the chest and knocked him flat. The sensation was like having a bowling ball dropped on his chest...oddly enough he felt no pain, just a spreading warmth and then the ground hitting him and the strength oozing out of his body along with the blood he was sure must be gushing out in torrents. He could hear shouting voices, and he saw the Doctor's shocked face hovering over him, then everything went black.
***********
He struggled upwards through the soggy molasses of unconsciousness, fully expecting to be in either heaven or hell. First thing he saw was Ace's face. Good God, is she dead too? How the hell did that happen?
"Doctor!" she called. "He's awake!"
"Am I dead?" he croaked.
Ace laughed. Ben realized that she was all cleaned up...and he wasn't in no hospital. Or if he was, it was a mighty weird one, with fourposter beds and heavy drapes and rooms bigger than that entire motel where it seemed like he must have spent his entire adult life. "No, silly, you're fine. You're in the TARDIS."
"The...the time machine?"
"S'right. We fixed you up. Nasty shot you took back there at the diner." She laid a hand on his chest. "Ewens was going to shoot the Doctor," she said quietly. "You jumped in front of him and took the bullet. You saved his life...or at least a regeneration. Thanks." She bent and kissed his leathery cheek.
"My pleasure, ma'am," he managed. The Doctor came bustling in.
"Well, Ben! Feeling better?"
Ben sat up cautiously, and was amazed to find that he felt fine. He was dressed in comfy flannel pajamas. He opened the top to find his chest unmarked. "How long have I been here?"
"Oh, just a few days. We have some specialized medicines lying around here that have amazing healing properties. You're right as rain now."
"But how...how did you..."
"Your contemporary medical science wouldn't have a very good shot at saving you," Ace said. "You took it right in the heart. Even odds at best. We knew we could save you if we got you to the TARDIS, so before anyone else could do it we just...grabbed you and ran. Crude, but effective."
"I'd guess that wasn't the exit you were planning," Ben said.
"Well, not exactly...but it'll do. The bomb was disarmed. The UNIT boys can take it from there."
Ben had found his clothes, neatly washed and folded, on a chair. He shrugged into his shirt. "Just one thing, Doc."
"Surely."
"Why did you give Ewens the security codes? If you hadn't, they might've never gotten that bomb at all."
The Doctor looked a tad embarrassed. "An excellent question. Just an example of what happens when Plan A fails."
"See, they were supposed to get caught stealing the warhead," Ace said. "We gave 'em the codes and the idea was they'd get there to find a bunch of UNIT troops waiting for 'em."
"But they rescheduled their raid at the last moment and got away scot-free, with the warhead. So we moved onto Plan B."
"Having Ace infiltrate the group."
"Actually, that was Plan D. Plan B had to be aborted due to weather conditions, and Plan C didn't pan out."
"And she was supposed to disarm the warhead before it got to the motel."
"Correct. As you know, that didn't work either. On to Plan E, which was to reveal myself, gain their trust and fake Ace's death, as you saw, so she could sneak back in and take control."
"I guess you used some 'o that movie-blood stuff."
"Oh, I never leave home without a few squibs. You'd be amazed at all their uses," Ace said.
Ben shook his head, amazed. "I bet you had Plans F, G and H all lined up, too."
The Doctor shrugged. "Saving the world is like the Boy Scouts, Ben. Always be prepared."
The three sat there in a companionable silence for a few moments. "So," Ben finally said. "Where are we?"
"Just in the Vortex," the Doctor said. "Hovering, you might say. We can have you home in a jiffy."
Ben nodded. "Too bad. I could get used to this hero stuff. I gotta admit, it was sort of fun."
Ace and the Doctor exchanged another of their patented glances, and she shrugged. The Doctor contemplated Ben thoughtfully, rubbing a hand on his chin. "Hmm. What do you say, Ace? Think we're ready for our first companion?"
Ben looked from one to the other, puzzled. "Well, he sure knows how to handle himself," Ace said.
"And he's an impressive intellect."
"He's not afraid of guns."
"He's quick in a tight spot."
"What's going on?" Ben demanded. The Doctor grinned.
"Fancy a trip 'round the galaxy, Ben?"
***********
...three months later...
Loretta put the coffee on for the morning's breakfast rush and paused a minute to admire the sunrise through the brand-new plate glass windows. Sometimes she even thought the fire had been a good thing...the remodeling sure had been a big improvement. She glanced over at the second stool from the right, just as she did every morning, wondering if today would be the day that he walked back in and sat himself down, ready to tell her all about where the hell he'd been since that awful night.
She looked away but something caught her eye, something that interrupted the smooth reflection of the sun on the shiny Formica countertop. She walked to the end of the bar. There, at Ben's place, was an envelope. "Loretta," it said.
With trembling fingers, she opened it. "Dear Loretta," it said:
"I hope you get this letter okay. Thought I should explain a bit where I've gotten off to...trouble is I can't really explain. I'm doing some traveling, and having some adventures. Someday I'll come back and I'll tell you all about tit. Maybe then we can get down to that unfinished business you always kept talking about...or maybe you'd fancy a few adventures of your own. Until then you take care of yourself, and save my spot at the bar for me."
Loretta clutched the note to her chest, turned her face out towards the rising sun, and laughed till she was fit to split.
