Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
- Kahlil Gibran

"Screwdriver." The Doctor thrust his hand out from under the TARDIS console. "No, regular screwdriver, not sonic."

Jack sighed and stood up from his position on the floor by the Doctor's feet. "Do we even have a regular screwdriver?"

"Red box, second drawer." The Doctor rubbed his face. "No... yellow box, third drawer, actually. I moved it last regeneration. New body, new organizational system." Jack pressed the phillips-head into the Doctor's outstretched hand. "Thanks."

"So what's wrong with it anyway?" Jack sat down again.

"Well." The Doctor slid out from under the console and looked up at him. "I'm not quite sure. Seems to be just the normal wear-and-tear, though." He smirked. "Maybe the highland air didn't agree with her," he said, affecting his Scottish accent. Jack laughed, remembering the incident a few days before. Rose stuck her head through the doorway.

"What are you two up to?" she asked, surveying the tool-strewn room.

"Nothing interesting," the Doctor assured her. "Just making repairs." He swung himself back under the console again. "Magnifying glass." Jack handed it to him.

"Well, I'm going to take a shower," said Rose, "so don't go shutting off the water or anything like that."

"You sure you don't need any help?" Jack called after her.

Rose laughed, ignoring him, as she left.

"Focus, Jack," said the Doctor, snapping his fingers. "Scissors." Jack handed him the scissors and peered under the console. "What are you doing now?"

The Doctor scooted over so Jack could join him. "This wiring's gone loose," he said, pointing with the scissors. "I'm trying to reroute it so that we can actually land somewhere."

"Are we stuck until you fix it?"

"Yeah." The Doctor handed Jack the screwdriver. "Here, make yourself useful. I disconnected the main driver, or else it might throw us to the end of the universe if you put your elbow there." He reached out and gently pulled Jack's arm down to his side and patted it. "Don't put your elbow there."

Suddenly, a light above their heads began to flash. "What's that?" asked Jack, looking frantically at the Doctor.

The Doctor looked up. "Oh!" He grinned. "That's the everything's-okay light. It flashes if everything's okay." He plucked the screwdriver from Jack's fingers and replaced it with a ball of twine. "As a matter of fact, it's hardly ever on."

"What's that?" asked Jack, pointing to a panel above their heads.

"That," said the Doctor, borrowing Jack's finger to tie the twine into a bow around a strut, "is part of the navigational transmitter."

"And that?"

"That's my hand, Jack." He wiggled his fingers. "Can you get me some pliers?"

Jack slid out from under the console, pretending to pout. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you didn't want me around." He grabbed the pliers and passed them to the Doctor.

"Oh, I always want you around, Jack."

"It must be because I'm so irresistible," said Jack, sitting on the grating again. He leaned back against the base of the console and crossed his arms, his leg resting comfortably against the Doctor's. "How long do you think these repairs are going to take?"

"Oh, it depends." The Doctor tugged on a plug with the pliers and it dropped into his hand. A rain of nuts, washers and screws followed, hitting him on the chest. "For example, now, I think it's going to take quite a bit longer." He coughed. "Spanner."

"Open-ended or ring?"

"Ring, please. Thanks." He banged on a panel with the head of the spanner. "You're learning!" he added conversationally. "Be good and maybe next Christmas, you'll get your very own big boy socket set."

Suddenly, the presence of Jack's leg against his was gone.

"Jack?" Silence. "Oh, come on, I didn't mean it like that!" The Doctor sighed and slid out from under the console. Jack was gone. "Jack!" he called, standing and heading out of the console room. "I'm sorry. Kiss and make up?"

**

Jack handed the Doctor the spanner and leaned back, closing his eyes.

"You're learning!" said the Doctor from under the console. "Be good and maybe next Christmas, you'll get your very own big boy socket set."

Jack laughed. "Sounds like somebody doesn't like sharing his toys!" He reached out with his leg to hook it over the Doctor's.

His foot crashed down to the grate, unsupported. He opened his eyes. The Doctor's legs were gone.

"Doctor?" He leaned under the console and looked from side to side. The rest of him was gone, too. "Doctor?" he called into the open panel. Nothing. Jack realized with a creeping feeling that the everything's-okay light had gone out.

**

Rose relaxed in the warm spray of the shower. One of her favorite parts of traveling in the TARDIS was the bathing facilities. She could take all the time she wanted with no worry of using up the hot water. Plus, her singing was fantastic with these acoustics.

She had just rinsed and was about to repeat when the water shut off. "Boys," she muttered and stepped out of the shower. "Honestly."

She dried off and dressed slowly, half-hoping to get an apology and also not wanting to give Jack and the Doctor the satisfaction of seeing her in nothing but a towel when they should be turning her water back on. When it seemed no apology was coming, she headed out to investigate.

"Oi!" she called, as she approached the console room. "I thought you said you wouldn't shut the water off!"

There was no reply. "Doctor!" she called. "Jack!"

She poked her head into the room. No feet sticking out from under the console. "This isn't funny!" she called. "Come on out!" She peered under the console. She didn't know whether it was possible for them to wedge themselves up in there, but really, anything was possible with the TARDIS.

Did they go outside? she wondered, reaching tentatively for the door.

**

Jack sighed. The Doctor didn't seem to be anywhere in the TARDIS, but that just wasn't possible. He paused outside the bathroom door. At least Rose was done with her shower. She could help him look.

"Rose!" he called, knocking on the door. "I can't find the Doctor. Can you come out and help me look?"

No answer.

"Don't tell me," he muttered under his breath. He yanked the door open. The shower was empty, but the shower curtain was drawn and Rose's shampoo still uncapped. The outfit she'd planned to change into was still sitting, neatly folded, on top of the toilet tank.

"Well," he said, shrugging, "if she hasn't disappeared, at least she's naked."

**

The Doctor scanned the shower carefully with the sonic screwdriver. He frowned. It seemed totally normal.

"This seems–" he said over his shoulder. "Ooh, right. You're not there." He sighed. "Well. If you were there, I'd be saying, 'Jack, did you happen to feel any turbulence before you disappeared?' And you'd say… well, I don't know what you'd say because you're not there."

Suddenly, he slapped his forehead. "Oh, of course!" He turned and bolted for the console room.

**

"Right," said Rose. She shivered at the way her voice echoed in the empty room. "On the count of three, I'll open the door," she added a bit more quietly. "One, two, three."

Rose pulled the door open.

The TARDIS had landed on some sort of beach. It was chilly–probably winter, and the sky was gray. The only sounds she heard were the crash of the waves breaking against the rocky shoreline a few yards away. She stepped out of the TARDIS and turned, looking in either direction.

"Doctor!" she cried. "Jack! Are you out here?"

She didn't see them. They couldn't have gone far–the coast was very flat, she'd still be able to see them if they had gone for a walk. Plus, there were no footprints in the sand around the TARDIS but her own, but she had to admit she hadn't really noticed where she was stepping–she might have covered them. But they'd never leave me, she thought. Rose hugged herself against the cold.

"This isn't funny!" she called again. It was beginning to dawn on her that perhaps the Doctor and Jack hadn't left of their own volition.

**

Jack paced the console room, desperately wishing the Doctor had taught him more about the TARDIS. He'd been picking up some but the Doctor seemed somewhat reticent about the details of his extraordinary ship.

"Come on," said Jack to the TARDIS, in what he hoped was an encouraging tone. He placed a hand on the console. "What's going on?"

The TARDIS simply hummed back.

"What am I supposed to do?" He sighed. "This is a new low. Talking to a machine." He stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and leaned against the console. Suddenly, the monitor began beeping. Jack jumped. He hadn't expected that to happen. He'd thought the Doctor had shut the monitor off. He reached for it and turned it so it was facing him.

It was set to external readout mode, showing what was outside the TARDIS.

It was a cornfield.

Jack clanged across the grating and threw the door open. Definitely a cornfield. He contemplated the scarecrow, head cocked. This was really getting weird.

**

The Doctor tore into the console room and yanked the door open. The TARDIS was parked in… someone's very posh sitting room.

"What?" said the Doctor. He moved the sonic screwdriver in a slow arc in front of him, scanning the room. "What?"

Tentatively, he placed the toe of his right trainer out onto the thick Persian carpet. Again, it seemed perfectly normal, except it wasn't supposed to be there. The TARDIS should have still been in the Vortex. He ducked back into the TARDIS and threw himself under the console.

"The driver's still disconnected," he muttered. "How can it have landed?"

He slid back out from under the console and ran out of the TARDIS again.

The room was tastefully decorated in blues and hardwoods, which complemented the TARDIS rather nicely, and there was something about the furniture that struck the Doctor as early twentieth-century.

There was a newspaper lying on the coffee table. The Doctor picked it up. 5 January, 1930. There was no way an interior designer in 1930 could have furnished a room with a time-travelling police box in mind, was there?

He dropped the newspaper and slowly turned in a full circle. The room looked quite comfortable. There was a fireplace, a piano, even paintings on the walls. Lovely paintings, though a bit incongruous together. One was a fox-hunting scene, another was Van Gogh's Starry Night and the third was a much more abstract piece by an artist he couldn't identify. It was just a bunch of squares.

He shrugged. "That's modern art for you."

The Doctor moved slowly to the doorway of the room and poked his head out. The hallway was just as nice as the room, with polished hardwood, plush red carpeting and a wide staircase leading to the two upper floors. He pulled the sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and headed for the front door.

It opened easily, revealing a rolling lawn and circular driveway. It was chilly, which made sense, given the date on the newspaper. An era-appropriate saloon car sat vacant at the head of the drive. Had it been abandoned? He turned, moving slowly back along the corridor toward the kitchen.

The kitchen was in the same state as the other rooms. It was bright and warm in the midwinter sun, but deserted. A wooden bowl sat on the counter, full of some sort of herb. He sniffed it. "Monkshood," he murmured. "That's… well, that's a bit dangerous, that is." He set the bowl down and pushed it away.

Suddenly, he heard a beeping sound. He whirled and bolted for the TARDIS. It was just as he'd left it–no sign of Jack or Rose–but the monitor was lit up. It was flashing a set of coordinates. The Doctor frowned as he peered at them.

00-00-00-00.

"But… That means we're still in the Vortex," the Doctor murmured.

**

Rose leaned back in the jump seat. She had no idea where the Doctor and Jack could be, and she had no way of getting to them. Even her mobile got no signal, which hadn't happened since the Doctor had upgraded it. On top of all that, the TARDIS was starting to beep. First, it had shown a picture of the beach, and now it was showing numbers.

00-00-00-00.

What did that even mean? Were they out of fuel or something? Maybe they had to go back to Cardiff again. She sighed. Well, there was no use moping. If the Doctor and Jack weren't in the TARDIS, that meant they were outside, on that beach. They were probably waiting for her, or trying to find her and she had to go to them.

She grabbed her coat. She'd need it–it was chilly out there… wherever "out there" was.

The beach was the same as she'd left it: gray sky, gray ocean. She was struck by the silence of it–there weren't even any gulls. The only sounds were the waves crashing to shore and her own footfalls on the sand.

She walked away from the ocean, hoping that this would lead to civilization. The beach ended on a slight slope. There was a sign! She could see where she was. Rose began to run, scrambling up the hill and lunged around the sign.

Dårlig Ulv Stranden.

"But what's that mean?" she whispered, gripping the sign and leaning against it. "Where am I?"