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‘Alf, where are you?’ Nick called out to her in a strong voice. ‘Over here,’ she replied quickly. ‘I’m just starting.’ Nick walked up a little further and spotted Alf just ahead; she was carefully making a pile of her various weapons. She studied it a moment in satisfaction saying; ‘There, that’s all of it now.’ She glanced over at Nick, and he smiled back at her in quiet reassurance. Then, without hesitation, she began pitching them into a large rubbish bin one after another. When she was finished she grabbed a bag beside her and dumped out the contents: her combat clothes, including her boots and fatigues, anything that reminded her of violence or killing. ‘I can’t stand what I’ve become, maybe by destroying all of this stuff I can finally change myself into someone I can be proud of,’ she said in a whisper. Nick barely heard her. Alf took something out of her pocket and crouched down and ignited the clothes with a match. Deliberately she stepped back, watching in fascination as the flames consumed her possessions, and all she felt inside was relief. It was like a gigantic weight had finally lifted from her shoulders. Nick gazed at her intently, his eyes gleaming with love and admiration. Alf had changed, she even looked different somehow, and it wasn’t that she now wore comfortable jeans and a tailored white shirt instead of that combat outfit she used to wear. There was a brand new expression in her eyes that said she had finally faced her demons and came out on top. As her clothes burned to a cinder, Alf turned away and met Nick’s eyes. ‘I want to promise you something, Nick,’ she began slowly. ‘Alf, you don’t have to promise me anything.’ ‘Yeah, I do, and I have to promise myself this too.’ She placed her hands around his, and held them tight. ‘I swear I will never kill anyone ever again.’ For a moment or two they just looked at each other in silence, and then Alf reached out and tenderly brushed back a strand of hair from Nick’s eyes. ‘Let’s sit down for a minute.’ They moved over a ways and sat down, still holding hands. She took a deep breath and briefly glanced back at the fire that was now smouldering. ‘After what happened on Peladon, I began to hate myself, I didn’t want to even look at myself in the mirror.’ Nick asked quietly; ‘You never really told me everything that happened, just that...’ ‘When I saw that Martian attack the Doctor, I had to do something. I had to stop him, but then afterward all I could see was the blood on my hands.’ She stopped and closed her eyes for a moment. ‘I don’t want to feel like that again, Nick. I can’t.’ ‘I know you won’t,’ Nick began, and then he added a little hesitantly; ‘Do you think that man you saw really was the Doctor?’ ‘Who else could it be? I saw his TARDIS. Something in here,’ she pointed at her heart, ‘says it was.’ She met his eyes, knowing full well what he was really saying. ‘You’re not thinking of the man I saw on Peladon are you?’ He looked back at her a little sheepishly. She can see right through me now. ‘You’re right I’m not, I’m thinking about our... well, our Doctor, for want of a better word.’ Nick let out a sigh. ‘The big clone.’ ‘Look Nick, I don’t know what happened between you and the Doctor, but from the little you have said, even he didn’t know he was a clone until after we crashed on Voga.’ ‘That’s what the TARDIS told me, yeah, and I don’t know what to think anymore.’ Nick was silent for a moment, then looked directly at Alf. ‘I thought he was the Doctor all this time... and yet he wasn’t. All the time the Doctor was...’ He couldn’t bring himself to say the word. ‘Dead? Is he really, Nick? Even if he is, surely the Doctor lives on in the clone,’ she replied quietly. ‘I was the one who had my doubts about him before, and you never did till now.’ He was silent for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what it was he felt now. ‘Alf, are you telling me I should sort this out with him?’ She grinned at Nick and nodded. ‘I guess I am, yeah. Too right.’ Then she turned serious again, squeezing his hand. ‘Think about it, Nick, for both of your sakes.’ Still talking, Nick opened the door to the curio shop and paused, letting Alf enter before him. Their conversation ended abruptly when they both saw the TARDIS standing in the corner, exactly where it should be. ‘It’s back again!’ Alf exclaimed, turning to Nick. ‘How long do you reckon it's been here?’ ‘Don’t know,’ Nick answered, his eyes riveted on the TARDIS. ‘I wonder…’ He glanced around the shop. Right then, the door to the TARDIS opened wide and a larger than life figured stepped out. ‘You wonder what, Nick?’ the Doctor-clone asked, looking directly at him. Feeling a combination of anger, pain and even relief at seeing the clone again, Nick simply stood there gaping without saying anything, but Alf said in surprise; ‘It’s you!’ The Doctor-clone turned to her and smiled. ‘Yes, it is me. Hello, Alf.’ 'No, I mean it's you you! You changed.’ The Doctor-clone lifted a quizzical eyebrow. Alf shook her head. ‘I saw the TARDIS on Peladon, and the Doctor I saw there wasn’t you.’ 'Well maybe I have changed, but I haven't yet.' The Doctor-clone contemplated that for a minute and speculated; ‘Hmm, that might have been a future incarnation of myself, perhaps.’ Nick finally found his voice and blurted out a little harshly; ‘But where have you been all this time? The TARDIS had gone.’ ‘Gone? Not really, Nick. The TARDIS was here; it was just removed from this time for a bit. It was always a few seconds ahead of you, which is why it could not been seen,’ he explained quietly, glancing from Nick to Alf and then back to Nick. ‘After what occurred on Voga, the TARDIS and I both needed time to recover, to heal.’ ‘And are you healed?’ Nick persisted sceptically. The Doctor-clone sighed. ‘In time I will be.’ He hesitated, wondering exactly how to word what he was about to say. ‘Nick, there is something very important, somewhere I must go now, and I’d like you to accompany me.’ He waited for Nick’s response. Nick looked back at the Doctor-clone, at the intensity in the eyes peering back at him. Arse, how can you even have that same expression in your eyes as the Doctor? ‘No, I don’t think…’ Nick started to say, when Alf quickly grabbed him by the arm and pulled him aside. She glanced at the Doctor-clone. 'Excuse us a minute,' she said, then turned back to Nick. ‘Nick. Remember what we were talking about a little while ago? This is your chance now, to make your peace with him.’ ‘Alf, I can’t yet, it’s too soon,’ he protested, even though inside a part of him knew it was time to settle things between him and the clone. Alf gazed back at him with love and understanding. ‘If you don’t go with him now, you’ll end up regretting it.’ Nick knew she was right, it was time he stopped acting like a bloody coward. He gulped, and nodded at her. ‘Okay, Alf.’ Nick turned back to the Doctor-clone. ‘All right, I’ll go.’ ‘Very good.’ The Doctor-clone nodded with satisfaction, moving to the TARDIS door. ‘Shall we go?’ Nick glanced back at Alf and gave her a smile. ‘See ya later.’ Nick followed the Doctor-clone into the TARDIS, and a moment later, groaning and wheezing, it dematerialised. Alf smiled to herself. ‘I think things will be all right now,’ she murmured aloud. She turned back to the shop wondering if EnalcKarnip was around anywhere, when her eyes rested on the coffee maker on the counter. A little curious, and seeing that there was some left, Alf poured herself a cup and took a sip. Then she made a face, and put the cup back down immediately. Ugh, how can he drink this awful stuff?
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