A/N: Hello! Welcome. This is Part two of the Starlight series. So if you've shown up without reading Starlight (which is part one) you might be incredibly confused. Either way, happy to have you. If you feel like winging it, I've included a vague summary of the first story below. Also welcome to all my lovely returning readers! You're fantastic! Thank you for reading, and reviews are always coveted and swooned over!

Previously on: Fitzgerald Grant had a rather unpleasant incident a few months ago. She got kidnapped, by aliens. Well, by several different sets of aliens. Some were good, some weren't that great. She was kicked, prodded, choked, and hypnotized all to ill effect. In the midst of this, she sort of developed a bit of a crush on a huge jerk. Who was also an alien. Just when things couldn't have gotten any more problematic, a time lord took over her head and tried to kill all her friends and destroy the universe. It was bad. They survived, but her jerk part-time boyfriend forgot who she was, oh, and also he's got a new face. But that's in the past now. She's choosing, in a potentially regrettable decision, to continue to travel with the Doctor. Let's see how that goes.

Summary: Fitzgerald Grant is insane. She thought traveling the universe would be fun, and then she actually did it. It wasn't fun. So why is she doing it again? Because she's an idiot. But she's an idiot with a sense of adventure, and that's the impulse she's following. Of course she couldn't have known how awkward things were going to be with her ex-boyfriend who's forgotten who she is. Or that they were going to run into some blasts from the past to keep things interesting. Or potentially die. A lot of times. Yippee-Ki-Yay folks.

"Try going to your left!" The Doctor shouted from across the room. He of course, was quite comfortable, and might I add, very well protected behind a thick concrete wall. Him and his ridiculous bow tie and suspenders. And his stupid floppy hair. I was stuck behind a rather cheaply made looking table, something that made Ikea look classy. And I was slightly bitter about it, if you couldn't already tell. It was not at all reassuring. Neither was the prickly looking green guy I was hunched down next to. The Doctor had mentioned the species, at some point before we were fleeing for our lives. I just couldn't be bothered to remember what it was. You know what was easy to remember? Cactus. Mainly because that's exactly what he looked like. That's what was sticking in my head just then.

I also wasn't overly upset about forgetting his species since it was his damn fault we were being shot at in the first place. Well, his and the Doctor's. This cactus fellow had pissed off the local authorities, something about bathing in a forbidden pool, or sacrificing virgins. Hell if I knew. He was just like us though, a visitor, a tourist. So whatever Big Brother laws that had been laid down, he had been unaware of. That was all good and well, except for the fact that the 'local authorities' were actually automated. They were drones. Oddly enough, they didn't really care about any of the excuses we had tried to make on the cactus gentleman's behalf.

So now we were running.

What really surprised me was the fact that I was still surprised by this fact. After a month and a half of 'traveling' with the Doctor, a majority of it had been spent fleeing from imminent doom. The good news was that I'd probably never need to go to the gym again. The bad news is that I was constantly fleeing from imminent doom.

I had made some choices in my life that I was starting to regret.

"I already went left!" I shouted back. To our left was a pile of rubble. Well, it had been a wall at some point. A rather flimsy one. The sentries had proved that pretty quickly. The only thing we had going for us was the fact that they were crap shots. We were just playing a very intense version of flashlight tag. Except, errant laser beams were the flashlights. And instead of freezing until someone came to tag you back, well, you died. Not to worry though, I'd make a terrible corpse. But then again, I was really awful at tag.

In my defense, so was the Doctor. Somehow, despite that, he had some freakishly huge rabbits foot, or equally unlikely lucky charm that was helping his cause. So despite his wild arm flailing and generally useless dodging skills, he had so far survived. And he was loads closer to making it back to the TARDIS than I was, seeing how he was next to the only exit, where me and my cactus friend were on the completely opposite side of the room. The sentries blew a few holes in the wall behind us, just to remind me of how capable they were of dealing swift death. You know, in case I had forgotten. They were very thoughtful that way.

I shielded my head as dust and small pebbles rained down from above, the cactus screamed next to me. It was probably time for me to get a clover, a horseshoe, or maybe even a penny. I was ready to proclaim whatever I was currently wearing as my 'lucky' underwear if it would just get me out of this hell hole while my heart was still beating.

"Well, your other left then!"

"I don't have another left!" I made sure to confirm that I hadn't accidentally confused to two directions before retorting. Because, at this point, the odds of my mixing up my right and left hands were unbelievably likely. After my trusty 'left hand makes the L shape' test, I knew it was the Doctor being the idiot. On top of that, I couldn't go back right, because we had just come from that direction, it was a long hallway that led us further and further away from the TARDIS, back to that stupid forbidden pool. Not a path I was planning on taking.

"If I could just get this bloody sonic to work…" I could hear the Doctor muttering in the silence that followed the last barrage of shots. He slammed it against the ground a few times, causing it to emit a few feeble whirs before going quiet again. This would be why it wasn't entirely the cactus' fault we were being shot at. In an effort to save the man, the Doctor had come forward, arguing with the machines. And dropped his screwdriver into the forbidden pond. Then when he ducked down to retrieve it, he had knocked the cactus into the water. Apparently they took 'second offenses' very seriously here. This is why you shouldn't interfere in the affairs of others. It's not that I wish we had abandoned the cactus to his fate (I totally wished that) but the whole rescue thing would have been made substantially more pleasant if we weren't all getting shot at.

"It's okay," the cactus spoke in a warbling voice as the pile of rubble exploded next to us. Apparently the sentries wanted to be extra thorough in killing that particular stack of rocks. Gold star for them. "Maybe if I just surrender?" I sighed, that was my second issue with getting involved with the cactus. Aside from the fact that he was getting us shot at, which, was a fairly big first issue. He was also something of a wet noodle. I mean, I was freaking out. I was the wet noodle of the group, the panic patsy. If I was able to see how pathetic this guy was, well, that didn't bode well for him at all. "They have to accept surrender, right? Part of the programming. Has to be. They can't just kill people." He nodded to himself as I turned to glare at him, wanting him to know just how idiotic I thought his idea was. "That's the sensible thing to do."

"No, not really." I looked over my shoulder to where the Doctor was still hunched over, maybe if he would just do some of his classy flailing and create a distraction for us, we could at least make it to the next feeble table. It wasn't much to go on, but it was something. And I had the feeling if we didn't move soon, the cactus here was going to act on those crazy-

"I give up!" He shouted and I spun around. The idiot had stood up, hands up in the air rigidly. Looking, hilariously, more like a saguaro.

I would have appreciated it a bit more if I wasn't busy swearing at him.

"Get back down here dumb ass!" Diving for his leg I tried to drop him to the floor, but he had already stepped out from behind the sanctuary of our table. The sentries waited a full second before opening fire. The wall behind him exploded in a mess of plaster and dust, miraculously leaving him unharmed. Which was unfortunate, because if he'd gotten shot, then I wouldn't have to try and drag him back here.

"No! No!" He shouted, his mouth hanging open as he still tried to stand straight, made more difficult by the fact that he was hunched over, his hands shrunk over his head. "I give up! Surrender!"

To my surprise, the shooting actually stopped.

"Searching…searching." One of the drones hummed in it's mechanical tone. "Command not accepted. Resume firing."

Well, it was a nice reprieve while it lasted.

"What? You can't!" He screamed, instead of using those precious seconds to get back behind cover. I wondered vaguely if cactus people also came with cactus brains. As in, none at all. I can't lie to you, well, I can. But I won't in this instance. I hesitated to help him out. Still hoping that maybe he would get shot in the leg or something, anything that might drop him out of the line of fire. Because not only was I not particularly happy with this idiot, I was also completely terrified of getting shot. And then, subsequently, dying. Both of those things were on my 'do not want' list. So when it came to risking my life for total strangers who were even more useless and trouble prone than myself, well. I gave it a good five seconds before I reacted.

"Fitz!"

Yeah, yeah. Alright Doctor do good.

In the cactus' defense, the whole 'forbidden pool' thing was total nonsense. There weren't even signs. Everyone knew you had to have warning signs before you shot people. It was a rule. Somewhere. And it was just as likely that I would have made the mistake of dipping my foot into that stupid pool, so I couldn't just leave him out there. Instead, I closed my eyes and launched myself at him, hoping those spikes weren't as sharp as they looked.

Spoiler, they were. And I smacked my head against his sharp little elbow too. Cactus needed to eat. But we both did drop to the ground, mission accomplished. Though, we didn't drop behind anything that could have, you know, protected us. Instead of behind six feet of target, we were closer to six inches. That was something. It was just hard to appreciate as the lasers continued to destroy everything above our heads. I rolled off the cactus to stop from getting poked, and to get even lower, when part of the ceiling above us erupted. Some of these sentries really had terrible aim. Not that I was complaining, but someone seriously overpaid.

I tried shoving the cactus back toward the table, but he just screamed as a piece of drywall fell onto his head. He was in full on 'panic and do absolutely nothing that might save his life' mode. Just what I needed.

"Most. Useless. Cactus. Ever!" I whacked him with a spare piece of plaster, just so he would know how incredibly annoyed at him I was.

"That's racist!" He shouted just as the floor next to his hand erupted. Ah, so they had figured out we were on the floor now. That was…unfortunate.

"Cactus!" I shouted, even as I tried to army crawl backwards. "Cactus! Cactus!" I was still shouting when I was forced to duck my head, the shots flying way too close above for comfort. Someone grabbed my ankle and yanked hard, sliding me across the slick floor and back behind another table. Right, getting out of the line of fire. Probably what I should have been concerned with instead of hurling possibly racists comments at the idiot who had gotten us into this mess. I could do that later. You know, if I lived.

"Having fun?" I rolled onto my back to see the Professor looking down at me rather scornfully with those piercing blue eyes of his.

"Loads," I coughed to clear the dust from my lungs. "Where the hell have you been?" Safety in numbers, that should have been our advantage. But Donna had stayed in the spa, something I should have gone along with. The Professor had become rather fascinated with the largely automated planet, and had wandered off to investigate the engineering or something. The Doctor had mentioned a champagne waterfall. That sounded loads more interesting than looking at robots. Besides, I wasn't totally uncomfortable around the Professor, but nor was I interested in spending an afternoon robot browsing with him alone.

"Now, is that any way to speak to the man with the functioning screwdriver?" He held it up in his hand with his eyebrow raised as he waited for a break in the firing before he yanked the cactus man back in the same way he had dragged me.

"I almost got shot." I scowled, I was pretty sure one of my eyebrows was missing. Singed off. That was going to look weird. It was also making me less grateful to see the Professor than I probably should have been. "Ten bucks says I could take out the man with the functioning screwdriver and just use it myself." The cactus blubbered and shook nearby, but neither of us paid him any attention.

"Oh," he said, a smile pulling at his normally serious face. "I'd like to see you try." It was similar to the way he used to smile when he was feeling particularly dangerous. Okay then, so threatening time lords was probably on my 'to-don't' list from now on. No matter how many eyebrows I had lost. Noted.

"Am I dead? Did they kill us?" Cactus was making coherent sounds that I recognized as speech and I used that as an excuse to avoid having to keep staring down the Professor. The idiot was still clenched up in a ball, his eyes scrunched shut, oblivious to the fact that he had been pulled to safety. Well, temporary safety anyway.

"Yes, you're dead. Can I have your wallet?" I asked, irritably slapping at his leg. I thought the Professor's sinister smirk turned to something closer to amusement, but I couldn't be sure because he turned toward the sentries, popping his head above the table and firing his screwdriver three times.

Then everything, save for the whimpering of the cactus, went silent.

"What happen- Oh." The Doctor said in the muted calm, peeking out from behind his wall to see the Professor standing up. "Nice of you to join us."

"Yes. I thought so." The Professor said blandly as he strode across the room. I was satisfied with just sitting there for a bit and enjoying the feeling of not being shot at. Simple girl with simple tastes. Well, relatively.

"Of course, you didn't need to destroy them." The Doctor sounded a bit petulant as he joined the Professor. I wasn't going to complain about the sentries being scrap metal. In fact, I kind of preferred it that way.

"Do you really think I would spend all day studying them just to blow them up because you two couldn't bother to follow some simple rules?" The Professor scoffed.

Fine then, we weren't exploding the homicidal robots. Fine. Whatever, maybe later we could make friendship bracelets and sing songs together.

"The technical details that went into these things is quite impressive. They're all actually connected to a main hub, which communicates with the ship in orbit. I mean, it's all easily replicated if you even have half a brain," so I guess that would disqualify me. "But still, quite elegantly done. Especially when you consider the species." It was funny how he sounded condescending even when he was trying to say something nice. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

"Yes," the Doctor didn't seem bothered, in fact, he seemed excited. "And did you see this? These fusion cells are actually self-replicating," I started to tune them out as they both started poking around the machines that were now harmless. The Professor occasionally grunted an agreement, but they were both lost in their robot porn. Great, I guess I should have packed a picnic.

"You're all barking mad!" The cactus was suddenly up and shouting, apparently angry about how cavalierly they were handling our would be assassins. "I'm getting out of here!" He shouted again, turning on his heel and running back the way we had arrived.

"No. Please. Come back." I watched him disappear. "You're welcome. Twit."

"Now, Fitz, you're never going to make any friends if you're not a bit more…polite." The Doctor chided over his shoulder.

"He was an idiot. New rule. No more saving idiots!" I decreed. Knowing my opinion would amount to almost nothing.

"I saved you," My eyebrows, or possibly, eyebrow, shot up. That had been the Professor. What was more surprising was the smirk on his face. He had been joking. That was strange all on its own. At least I had realized he was trying to be funny before I had stuffed my fist through his teeth.

"Yeah, but you owe me one. Actually, you owe me two." I replied smartly. His face shifted, concern followed by confusion. Oops, forgot that maybe he wouldn't really remember. Probably not so funny to tease him about that whole 'missing incredibly large parts of my memory' bit.

"Yes, I suppose I-"

"Oh, look at this!" The Doctor seemed even more excited, he was, of course, oblivious to our conversation. "It's a button, what do you suppose it does- Oh," A loud wailing started to shriek from the machine. I clapped my hands over my ears, wondering if it would really be too much to ask if just one of these little adventures might not end with me having to take like seven aspirin when I got back to the TARDIS.

"What the hell is that?" I glared in the Doctor's direction.

"That would be the tampering alarm." The Professor said, that condescending scowl back on his face.

"Oh, is that bad?" The Doctor asked, tucking the screwdriver back into his pocket with a frown.

"Well, only if you consider more sentries bad." The Professor muttered as he disabled the alarm.

"Not at all," the Doctor said with his bright smile. One that I sort of wanted to stomp out with my boot. "Perhaps, though. Just in case it's not exactly a happy reunion, maybe you could fix my sonic…"

"It doesn't need fixing Doctor, it needs airing out. Find a blow dryer."

"Maybe we should just leave. You know, before more show up? I feel like they're not going to be super excited to see us, and all their…comatose friends." As far as suggestions went, I thought it was a pretty good one.

"Yes," the Professor said absently while still fiddling with the controls. "However, it will be even better to clear their memory banks. That way we can make a less hasty exit. If you can stay out of the bloody pool." He shot the Doctor a look.

Maybe that was a good idea. I guess his afternoon spend studying robots hadn't been totally wasted. He finished whatever voodoo magic he was working on, and finally, satisfied with his work, tucked his screwdriver back into his long wool jacket. He started back in my direction, but the Doctor was still inexplicably fascinated.

"Professor, did you see this? How the surface matter-"

"Rematerializes upon impact," the Professor said with an impatient sigh. "Yes, Doctor. I did just explain to you that I've spent the day studying them."

"Yes, alright. No need to be a spoilsport." The Doctor humphed, casting him a look before returning to poking around the machine. Apparently not in any hurry to leave.

"You boys and your machines." I rolled my eyes as the Professor approached, the corner of his lips pulled up slightly. It was reassuring to see he had some sense of humor, I was still feeling that part out.

"We're hardly boys." He said mildly.

"Sure, but the Doctor always gets all pouty when I call him an old man."

"I can hear you." The Doctor said irritably, but it earned another smirk from the Professor. He offered me a hand up and I accepted it without much hesitation. Things were getting less awkward, that was nice. It was hard to focus too much on how freaked out I was supposed to be about the Professor not really being the Professor. Bullets, pissed off aliens, laser beams, and general end of the world scenarios tended to put things in perspective. Or, at least, they blurred it enough that I didn't mind.

"Down!" The Doctor's voice rang out as he shoved the Professor forward. I was tumbling backward as I watched a red laser slice through the air, snipping off one of his dark curly locks with precision. My back hit the ground hard and knocked the wind out of me. The Professor followed up with shoving his elbow deep into my gut so I couldn't even attempt at breathing again. My vision started to spin as I gasped like a fish. I was vaguely aware of the world exploding somewhere to my left. I hoped that meant the Doctor was taking care of business, hopefully this time with more destroying. Those robots had it coming, man. Everything went quiet again and I could see the Professor's face looming over my own, asking me if I was Madeleine Albright.

That was a stupid question, of course I wasn't-

Oh, alright. He was asking if I was alright. That made more sense. Good, because I looked nothing like that lady, and frankly, was a little insulted that he had even considered- Nope. See, I'm losing focus again. He hadn't made that connection at all. Remember? That was in my head. Boy, I get real crazy when I can't breathe. Was that why the corners of my vision were starting to go dark?

"Air." I finally muttered, which was, thankfully, enough, because he shifted his weight and suddenly my lungs could fill again. Ah, blessedly wonderful air. My favorite. Well, my favorite right after 'not dying'.

"Have you got it?" The Professor's attention was on the Doctor. At least, I hoped he was talking to the Doctor, because I had no idea what he meant.

"Yes. I got it." The Doctor sounded sheepish and I turned to see what he was so sorry about. Ah, one of the sentries. Or at least, what was left of one. It wasn't exactly…recognizable any more. The Professor had just shut them down, the Doctor had…well, he had obliterated it. I guess I couldn't really complain, since that had been my vote originally. "I guess it sorted out the sonic as well." He shrugged as he held the steaming screwdriver away from his body.

"So you're okay?" It took me another moment to realize the Professor was speaking to me again. I turned my attention back toward him and realized, a little nervously, how close he was. That, and the fact that he was still, definitely, laying on me, was very distracting. And, well. Awkward. And familiar. Wow. Let's not think about that, shall we? What had I been saying about things being less weird between us? That's what I get for trying to be optimistic.

The good news, was that I was pretty certain my near suffocation explained my bright red face. That, and the Professor seemed genuinely oblivious to how inappropriate it was for him to still be on top of me. Probably because he couldn't remember why it should have been so inappropriate. No, calm down. It wasn't. Well, okay, it was. But not in the way you were thinking, pervert. Shut up. This was no big deal. Just an unfortunate landing. That he hadn't managed to get up from. Dear Penthouse- Stop thinking and answer god dammit!

"Just got the wind knocked out of me." I nodded as well as I could from the floor.

"Yes, well, I suppose you can thank the Doctor for that." He shot a look over his shoulder. When he turned back, he met my eyes, and finally realized the same thing that was running through my head. Welcome on board the awkward train, Professor. We're glad to have you. Then he was standing up fluidly, and pulling me along with him like a rag doll. I did my best not to act totally weird when my momentum sort of hurled me into his chest. And when I say 'did my best' I nearly leapt back from him. But I casually stared at the floor, like a boss.

"Time to go?" The Doctor asked, oblivious as ever. What was I talking about? Oblivious to what? My own imagined mortification? There was nothing actually going on. I was just having a bit of an overreaction was all. As I took my casual, and not at all paranoid looking step back, I realized he still had my hand gripped in his own. Don't look at him, don't look at him, don't- Shit. Though he seemed just as surprised as I was, his eyes flickering to our hands, and then back to me before releasing it with a confused frown.

"Yeah, I'm not really in the mood to run into any more of those things. Fascinating as they were." I rolled my eyes, stepping away from the Professor by a good hand span. It was eerie sometimes how casual I could act. But, it wasn't really acting, was it? We were just friends, traveling buddies. It wasn't like I was trying to make him my boyfriend again. Not that he had ever been my boyfriend.

Augh.

Shut. And up. Two words I really needed to learn how to utilize.

"Yes, I agree. I imagine the sentries feel similarly." The Professor said smoothly. He wasn't even bothered. Of course he wasn't, ice rain through those veins of his. Ice and some kind of mind control device that made me act as weird as possible whenever he was around.

"It's not my fault!" The Doctor protested as we picked our way through the wreckage and back to the TARDIS. "My sonic was wet. It was malfunctioning. I was only trying to disable it."

"I would say you did that rather successfully." The Professor added with a smirk and I snorted, but for the Doctor's sake, tried to cover it with a cough.

"Oh, shut up." The Doctor muttered miserably.