"What's going on? Doctor?" Rose shouted waking up noticing the droids around her as well as being chained down.

"Rose?" Mickey looked over at the blonde. "They're going to chop us up, just like the crew. They're going to chop us up and stick us all over their stupid spaceship." His voice became harsher "And where's the Doctor? Where's the precious Doctor now? He's been gone for flipping hours, that's where he is!" Mickey shouted. "Rita would see this coming and yet she's not here either!"

"You are compatible." The droid interrupted Mickey's rant.

Rose widened her eyes at the droid. "Well, you might want to think about that. You really, really, might, because me and Mickey, we didn't come here alone. Oh no. And trust me, you wouldn't want to mess with our designated driver." She was panicking now and frantically looking between the droid and Mickey. The droid then extended its blade from its hand. Rose began to talk trying to stall the droid until Rita and the Doctor appeared.

"Ever heard of the Daleks?" She asked. "Remember them? They had a name for our friend. They had myths about him and a name. They called him the-" there was a loud crash before Rose could finish. She and Mickey both frowned then widened their eyes to hear the voice of what sounded like the Doctor singing drunkenly.

"I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night!" he loudly sang.

"If you could stand on your own then yes you could of" Rita groaned.

"They called him the... They called him the... the" she stuttered. The Doctor then stumbled in dragging Rita with him. He had his arm around her using her weight to stay upright. His tie around his head and a goblet in the hand not around the brunette.

"And still have begged for more. I could've spread my wings and done a thou." Rita giggled at the Doctors acting of drunk singing. He tapped her nose. The brunette automatically stopped giggling her eyes wide and her cheeks flushing with colour not that the Doctor noticed.

"Have you met the French?" He asked Rose and Mickey. "My god, they know how to party."

"Oh, look at what the cat dragged in." Rose groaned. "The Oncoming Storm and his precious Stone"

"Precious?" Rita scoffed. "And his?" She scoffed again shaking her head. "I want to know who is spreading that name of me around, first Reinette and now you."

"Oh, you sound just like your mother." The Doctor pointed at Rose almost falling over Rita who lucky grabbed him before he fell. His arm wrapping itself around her waist, her cheeks filled with colour again but didn't want to say anything to make it awkward knowing that he was actually not drunk at all.

"What've you been doing?" Rose asked definitely sounding like her mother. "Where've you been?"

"Well, among other things, I think just invented the banana daiquiri a few centuries early." He laughed. "Do you know, they've never even seen a banana before. Always take a banana to a party, Rose. Bananas are good."

"I hate bananas" Rita scrunched up her nose in disgust. "Pears are worse, though."

"Not wrong there" the Doctor whispered to her dropping the drunk act before giving his attention to the droid bringing the act back. "Oh ho, ho, ho, ho, brilliant. It's you." He pointed to the droid its blade still hovering over Rose's neck. "You're my favourite, you are. You are the best! Do you know why? Because you're so thick. You're Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania." He started to walk away pulling Rita along with him. He then turned back around and said to the droid right up in its face: "And so's your dad."

The Doctor looked over at Rose. "Do you know what they were scanning Reinette's brain for?" He asked, getting no answers.

"Her milometer" Rita answered for the blonde.

The Doctor nodded at the brunette still acting slightly drunk. "They want to know how old she is. Know why? Because this ship is thirty-seven years old, and they think that when Reinette is thirty-seven when she's complete, then her brain will be compatible." He chuckled. "So, that's what you're missing, isn't it, hmm? Command circuit. Your computer. Your ship needs a brain. And for some reason, God knows what, only the brain of Madame de Pompadour will do."

The Droid spoke up after the Doctor finished his speech. "The brain is compatible."

"Compatible?" He scoffed a little. "If you believe that, you probably believe this is a glass of wine." He removed his arm from Rita the girl shivered a little at the sudden movement. He then removed the droids mask and poured the contents of the goblet into the head of the droid.

"Multigrain anti-oil." Rita told them both before the Doctor could he rolled his eyes at her.

"If it moves, it doesn't." He added. "Rita mind pulling that switch?" He asked her pointing to a switch beside her. The brunette nodded pulling the switch, the other droids in the room hunched over, turning off.

"You two, that's enough lying about. Time we got the rest of the ship turned off." He went to free them both using the sonic screwdriver. Before he could free them the locks opened.

The Doctor looked over at Rita and frowned. "How did you?"

"It's simple" she rolled her eyes. "One of these switches were bound to free them."

"Oh, you are brilliant" he grinned.

"I don't know" Rita shrugged.

"Enough of how brilliant she apparently is" Mickey huffed. "Are those things safe?"

"Yeah." The Doctor nodded still smiling at the brunette. "Safe. Safe and thick, way I like them. Okay. All the time windows are controlled from here. I need to close them all down. Zeus plugs. He started to pat himself down. "Where are my Zeus plugs?"

"Knew I forgot something" she groaned.

"You were too busy laughing at him acting drunk weren't you?" Rose raised a brow at the brunette who looked away not denying or protesting about the blonde's comment.

"I had them a minute ago. I was using them as castanets." the Doctor ignored them both thinking aloud and patting himself down..

"Why didn't they just open a time window to when she was thirty-seven?" Rose asked.

"With the amount of damage to these circuits, they did well to hit the right century. Trial and error after that. The windows aren't closing. Why won't they close?"

They heard a ding of a bell. "What's that?" Rose asked.

"I don't know. Incoming message?" The Doctor guessed looking at Rita for confirmation.

"Someone wants to speak to the droids that are here." Rita told them.

"Who does?" Mickey asked.

"Report from the field. One of them must still be out there with Reinette. That's why I can't close the windows. There's an override."

"Hmm" Rita sighed. "I hate overrides so much they sound fun but honestly they're not"

"What are you on about?" Mickey asked the brunette.

The Doctor looked down and saw that the contents of what he poured into the droid were now spilling out of the droid's hand onto his shoe.

"Well, that was a bit clever."

"They were my favourites as well" Rita groaned. The Doctor raised a brow at her in question. "What" she shrugged. "Just because I like vans doesn't mean I can't like converse as well. Even if they look like sandshoes"  The switch Rita pulled earlier then moved back and the droids sprang back up.

"Right. Many things about this are not good." He raised his hands. "Message from one of your little friends?" He started to ramble. "Anything interesting?"

"She is complete. It begins" the droid then teleported away.

"What's happening?" Rose asked.

"One of them must have found the right time window. Now it's time to send in the troops. And this time they're bringing back her head." He rushed off and Rita followed on his heels.

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"You found it, then?" Rose asked Rita and the Doctor.

"They knew I was coming. They blocked it off." He groaned running to an area where the Doctor and Rita could clearly see the ballroom that looked similar to the one she had been in before..

"I don't get it," Rose admitted. "How come they got in there?" She asked.

"They teleported. You saw them. As long as the ship and the ballroom are linked, their short range teleports will do the trick."

"Well, we'll go in the Tardis!" Rose shouted.

"We can't use the Tardis. We're part of events now." He soniced a screen

"Well, can't we just smash through?" Mickey suggested.

"Hyperplex this side, plate glass the other. We need a truck."

"We don't have a truck." Mickey pointed out the obvious.

"I know we don't have a truck!" Rita took the opportunity of the Doctor not paying attention to jump on the back of Arthur.

"No, no, no, no" he turned to her. "You're not coming"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes" she looked at him copying the tone in his voice. "I am coming"

"No Rita"

"Doctor I'm not going to sit here and let you do this."

"Do what?" Rose asked "What are we doing"

"Doctor, foreknowledge, I know what happens I can help!" Rita told him. 'Why am I arguing about this with him? I know he comes back' She thought.

"Well we've got to do something" Rose shouted to both of them stopping the argument.

"No. Smash the glass, smash the time window. There'd be no way back." Rose's eyes widened.

"Rose" Rita turned to the girl her face as serious as it had ever been. "Five and a half hours remember it.

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There was a loud crash and people screamed in horror crouching towards the ground "Madame de Pompadour. You look younger every day." The Doctor said casually after Arthur landed on the ballroom floor as if jumping through a mirror was something that happened to him ever day. Rita clung onto him her head on his shoulder and her eyes tight shut.

"What the hell is going on?" The king asked as the Doctor jumped down off of Arthur then helped Rita.

"Oh." Reinette looked at the Doctor and Rita then over to the king. "This is my lover, the King of France." She nodded over to the King.

"Yeah? Well, I'm the Lord of Time" he walked over towards Reinette knelt down with three droids pointing its blades at her. "and here to fix the clock. Rita" he gestured to the brunette. She pulled the mask of the droid which slowly turned its head towards her then pointed its blade towards her.

"Forget it. It's over. For you and for us." He looked over at Rita sadly. They both then looked over at where the 'magic door' to the spaceship once stood. "Talk about seven years bad luck. Try three thousand."

The Doctor then started to explain. "The link with the ship is broken. No way back. You don't have the parts. How many ticks left in that clockwork heart, huh? A day? An hour? It's over. Accept that. I'm not winding you up." He said ironically. The droid dropped its head and the other droids jolted forward as well. One broke on the floor right next to Rita.

"You all right?" He asked Reinette helping her up.

She didn't answer his question instead asked her own. "What's happened to them?"

"They've stopped. They have no purpose now." He simply told her then walked over to Rita and shook his head a little.

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"You know you didn't have to come here" the Doctor said looking up at the sky not taking his gaze away from it, staring up at the stars.

"And leave you here all alone? What kind of a friend do you think I am?" Rita asked him slightly scoffing.

"A bloody great one" he chuckled. "But you knew this was going to happen?" He asked her. "Why did you come? I know it's not so I'm alone, I have known you for quite a while now, I know you better than to take your word for saying that I would be lonely" he looked down at her meeting her gaze up at him.

"It smelt" she lied luckily enough to get him to believe her. "The ship smelt and I wasn't going to stay on it any longer." 

"You could have stayed in the TARDIS she would have taken you home"

"What home" Rita shrugged not looking at all fazed by his mentioning of 'home' "My home if it even was a home is in a parallel world that is unreachable. I know you can't travel through parallel worlds Doctor, I'm not stupid."

"Well, I do know that" he nodded turning to the stars out the window again.

"Plus it isn't like I could get in the TARDIS" Rita chuckled.

"You have a key?" He looked at her frowning.

"No, I don't. You never gave me one"

"Well,  Rita Stone" he reached into his pocket with the hand not holding what looked like a goblet. "We may never see the TARDIS ever again but here have a TARDIS key." He grinned at her placing the key into her hand.

"Thank you" Rita smiled looking up at the stars with the Doctor.

"You know all their names, don't you?" Reinette walked up behind them. "I saw that in your mind. The name of every star." She looked at the Doctor.

"What's in a name?" He asked then answered his own question. "Names are just titles. Titles don't tell you anything."

"Like the Doctor and the Stone"

"Like Madame de Pompadour." The Doctor grinned.

"'the Stone'?" Rita leant on her tip toes and whispered in the Doctors ear.

"Nothing I know of" he whispered back lying.

"I have often wished to see those stars a little closer." Reinette thought aloud. "Just as you have, I think."

"From time to time."

"Oh, I always do" Rita smiled at the woman.

"In saving me, you both trapped yourself. Did you know that would happen?" She asked them.

"Mmm. Pretty much."

"Knowing things before they happen is practially my life now"

"Yet, still you both came," Reinette spoke as if the Doctor would never have done this.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I? Catch me doing that again." Rita rolled her eyes at his comment.

"There were many doors between my world and yours. Can you not use one of the others?" She asked.

"When the mirror broke, the shock would have severed all the links with the ship. There'll be a few more broken mirrors and torn tapestries around here, I'm afraid, wherever there was a time window. I'll, I'll pay for any damage."

"As if you have money. Didn't even pay for the chips on Rose and your first date." Rita laughed.

"Wouldn't really call it at date" he quietly muttered. "Er, that's a thought, though, I'm going to need money. I was always a bit vague about money. Where do you get money?"

"From a job silly, some of us can't go sonicing it out of cash machines" the Doctor frowned confused, Rita shook her head while muttering 'secrets'

"So, here you are, my lonely angel and his stone, stuck on the slow path with me."

"Yep, the slow path." He looked at Rita who nodded to him. "Here's to the slow path." He toasted his drink with Reinettes, Rita not feeling like having a drink just shook her head.

"It's a pity." Reinette sighed. "I think I would've enjoyed the slow path."

"Well, we're not going anywhere."

"Oh, aren't you?" She asked raising a brow. Rita smirked at the girl "Take my hand." She gestured to both the Doctor and Rita who obeyed.

"I never got to speak to you very much Rita, apart from the ball, you seem to know the Doctor so much yet he knows you very little" Reinette looked between the Doctor and Rita trying to understand their friendship.

"I come from a world like this, parallel" Rita explained as they walked. "Exactly like this with a Reinette and France and the lot except the Doctor is a story" she looked at him sadly, however, he did not look fazed at all by her saying that he was 'not real' in 'her world' "A story told by something like a play" Rita tried to explain for her to possibly understand. "And in this world, it is all real. I know his past and future what will happen and now I get to do the best thing of all"

"Which is?" The Doctor asked.

"Well I get to live it" he smiled warmly at her.

They walk into a room which holds the exact same fireplace that was in Reinettes room as a child. "It's not a copy, it's the original," she told them. "I had it moved here and was exact in every detail."

"The fireplace." He walked over to it. "The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?" He turned to her.

"Many years ago, in the hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's, Doctor and his stone. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?" She asked him.

"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it, which means it was offline when the mirror broke. That's what saved it."

"But..." Rita dragged the word out grinning..

"But the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here. Which might just mean, if we're lucky. If we're very, very, very, very, very, very lucky." He walked up to the fireplace and started to tap it his ear next to the fireplace. "Ah ha!" He laughed.

"What?"

"Loose connection." He took out his sonic screwdriver and used to on the fireplace

"Madame de pompadour" Rita looked at the woman then hugged her.

"Rita Stone" she hugged the brunette back.

Rita then walked over to the Doctor and stood beside him. "Need to get a man in." He hit the fireplace a little and Rita jumped on his back just like she had the first time they saw Reinette.

"Wish us luck!"

"No!" Reinette looked at them in horror, her face falling as did the Doctor's when he saw hers just before they disappeared.

"Madame de Pompadour!" The Doctor crouched down looking through the fireplace, Reinette looking down to see him and Rita. "Still want to see those stars?" He asked her.

"More than anything." She told him smiling.

"Give us two minutes. Pack a bag."

"Am I going somewhere?" She asked.

"Go to the window. Pick a star, any star." He smiled taking Rita's hand standing up then running towards where they had left Rose and Mickey.

"Rita! Doctor!" Rose jumped up running to them both. She pulled them both in for a hug with a wide grin on her face.

"How long did you wait?" He asked.

"Five and a half hours." she thought for a moment. Her eyes grew wide in realisation. "Just like Rita said" she looked at the brunette who winked at her.

"You remembered"

"Great. Always wait five and a half hours."

The Doctor stepped over to Mickey and shook his hand. "Where've you been?" Rose asked them both.

"Explain later. Into the Tardis." he pointed over to it. "Be with you in a sec. Come on Rita!" He shouted running over to the fireplace. Rita stood there for a moment her face falling.

"Rita?" He looked back at her she abruptly shook her head and ran over jumping on his back yet again.

"Making a habit of this" she giggled a little.

"Not going to become a habit, I didn't lie when I said you're heavy" She hit him on the head as he made the fireplace switch round again.

"Reinette?" The Doctor spoke out in the dark room Rita jumping off his back again. "You there, Reinette?" Rita followed him out of her room and into an area where the King stood by a window. "Reinette? Oh, hello." The King turned around.

"You just missed her. She'll be in Paris by six."

"Ah." The Doctor said in realisation, Rita looked down sadly and placed her hand in his he looked down at her and gave a sad smile.

"Good Lord." He looked at them both. "She was right. She said you two never looked a day older. So many years since I saw you both last, but not a day of it on your faces." The Doctor and Rita both pursed their lips raising their eyebrows at the King who slowly walked over to a drawer and took out two sealed letters. Rita rose a brow. "She spoke of the two of you many times. Often wished you'd visit again. You know how women are." He looked at Rita who scrunched up her nose, not in agreement. The King handed a letter to the Doctor and Rita then looked out the window.

"There she goes." It was raining outside as a hearse carrying Madame de Pompadour away to her final resting place.

"Leaving Versailles for the last time. Only forty-three when she died. Too young. Too young." a single tear rolled down Rita's face, she quickly wiped it away not wanting to look like she was making a scene. "Illness took her in the end. She always did work too hard. What does she say?" He looked at them both. The Doctor placed his letting inside his jacket, Rita just placing her hands behind her back with the letter. 

"Of course." He nodded feeling a little rude. "Quite right."

There was a long peaceful silence. Rita thought about the woman thinking about how happy and amazed she would have been seeing all new and different planets, it just wasn't meant to be, though, Rita hoped that Reinette died peacefully due to the King saying her cause of death was due to illness. She broke the silence feeling that she and the Doctor could both think in the TARDIS, Rita could sit on the jump seat once more and think about the most successful woman. "We should go" was all she said looking up at the Doctor sadly, who nodded down at her in agreement taking her hand and then nodding over to the King, the three did not say a thing, words couldn't fit how Rita or the Doctor felt at this time and the King knew this too. They slowly approached the fireplace for the last time Rita sighing taking one last look at the woman she had grown to become friends with in such short time. The Doctor heard her quiet sigh and gently rubbed her shoulder in comfort he then pressed the switch and the pair watched the room of Madame de pompadour disappear for the last time being replaced by the ship which made the woman's path cross with Rita and the Doctors. The Doctor and Rita made their way back to the TARDIS the Doctor standing by the door Rita held up her hand and placed the key in smirking in the process, however wishing that Reinette could be there with them to witness this. The woman no doubt would not understand how much this moment meant to the brunette. The Doctor shook his head a small smile growing on his face watching the girl open the doors to the TARDIS with what was now her key for the first time.

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"Why her?" Rose asked Rita and the Doctor looked at the blonde showing that they were listening. "Why did they think they could repair the ship with the head of Madame de Pompadour?"

"We'll probably never know." The Doctor told her truthfully. "There was massive damage in the computer memory banks. It probably got confused. The Tardis can close down the time windows now the droids are gone. Should stop it causing any more trouble."

"Are you all right?" Rose asked him.

"I'm always all right." he answered messing with the console not looking at the blonde.

"Rita?" She looked at the brunette sitting cross-legged in the jump seat like she always did her head looking down at her hands where the still sealed letter gently rested.

"Hmm?" Her head shot up a forced smile on her face. "Oh I'm fine" She smiled again forcefully at the blonde.

"Come on, Rose." Mickey could see the hurt on the brunettes face and the way the Doctor wasn't looking at the blonde distracting himself with the console. "It's time you showed me around the rest of this place." Mickey pulled Rose away from the console room. Rita looked down at the envelope sealed shut and then opened it as silently as possible knowing that the Doctor was no doubt opening his by now.

The Doctor, however, was not reading his letter. He was watching her, his eyes fixated on her, the way she looked down at the letter, the way her brown hair rested by her shoulder and the way she held the letter as if it was a delicate feather. His eyes flickered away after he realised what he was doing remembering that he also had a letter to read he reached into his jacket pocket and removed it from exactly where he had placed it, carefully opening the letter he began to read. The words seemed to last for minutes and he felt like he was reading an entire book. Her words continued to play over and over in his mind. You think you are alone but the day you risked your life for mine I could see that you are not. He sighed heavily thinking about what Reinette could possibly have meant. He was trying to think of every possible thing he could think of as to why she said that. All of his people had died and he was alone, so why did she say he was not? The Doctor thought of every logical explanation, he read the letter over multiple times then a simple line hidden inside of the final short paragraph stood out. She needs you as much as you need her, don't let her take the lonely path alone my Doctor.

'Her?  He thought deeply sighing. 'She couldn't mean?' He thought to himself looking over at the brunette still staring down at the paper resting in her hand. No that was impossible the Doctor promised himself that mistake would not happen again she had no one and he was the last person she needed to loose, he also lost the one he thought he had, his best friend years ago. But the way he looked at her, even after telling himself over and over that he wasn't he knew deep down that he was and he didn't like it, but he also loved it.