We can rebuild, right? [Open to all interested parties]

[morphitudinous]

Several significant data reports were still trickling in, and already Billy's overworked mind knew one thing: this workload was going to be one of his least favorites. Overwhelming, exhausting, sometimes confusing, and with the pressure of time attached as well. Stacy could simply not be relied upon to give the crew a break, and thus they needed to be prepared for a battle like that again. As soon as possible. But how soon was that? Today's meeting's purpose was to make it as soon as possible.

On the board against one wall of the lab, he threw up a starting list of repairs that needed to be made. All the significant weapons and armor that had been turned in, important communications equipment, crew items requiring immediate attention for that person's full functionality, the most often used generic vehicles, and the specialty/personally owned vehicles. That group would be the easiest to select, he hoped.

How easy or difficult this would be would not be fully known until he saw a spread of who was assisting, and how many. Could they complete everything fast enough for the crew's satisfaction? That would be the main worry from here on out.

Billy was almost relieved when they started trickling in. As he waved, not quite as energetically as usual, they might notice one or two signs of the battle. His movements didn't look quite as easy as before, some trace of pain still behind them, and a long bandage now tied around his forehead. Some would look better, some would look worse. He sincerely wished to see more of the former than the latter.

They needed all the healthy help they could get.

Comments

[morphitudinous]

Billy winces in sympathy. That doesn't sound pleasant at all, definitely not. How's he going to recover his strength that way?

"It doesn't seem like it." He thought on his feet, trying to think of a solution here. "We could get something for you to lean against to take some of the weight off in the meantime."

[bonnypiperlad]

He'll do it the same way everyone else is. By going through things one day at a time. He shakes his head at the suggestion, however. "I'd not want to put ye to any bother. I've done my fair share of standing around. I can cope until some of these bruises heal."

Pressing his lips together briefly, he adds, "I've got a feeling that we'll not be thinking about such things much for quite some time, anyway. We'll all be too busy."

[morphitudinous]

"Right," Billy groaned. All that bending and kneeling and standing was going to be a massive pain. "Maybe we'll work so hard that the new pain replaces the old. Wouldn't that be convenient?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"Oh, aye," he comments, mouth ever so slightly pulling off to one side. "Convenient." He can't say as he's looking forward to the work, but it's something that needs to be done, and he's more or less resigned himself to that fact. "At least we know we'll be able to get everything done, though. Eventually."

He sighs, and looks over at his friend. "I'm sorry I'd not had a chance to track ye down earlier. How are ye holding up?"

[morphitudinous]

"I won't rest---entirely---until it is," Billy says, quickly walking back his tone. He really doesn't need to be told off for not resting yet another time. He will! Sometimes. A little.

Time to assess his health. He pushes the bandage on his head up slightly, shaking his head. "Don't worry, I probably should have done it too. We were both preoccupied. Anyway---I've been cleared to remove my bandages tonight. I have full range of movement, and the pain's manageable. I'll survive, and hopefully thrive later. You're the same, right?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Looking at his friend, he doesn't seem to be too badly hurt, which is a small relief. They'd likely both be worse off if it weren't for the morphers, though, and privately he's glad they have them. "Aye. The Doctor and Victoria are both all right, at least. I'll manage until I get there, too."

He shifts position slightly, trying to find the most comfortable leaning spot he can against the wall. It's not as bad as it was in Medbay, but there's still that faint ache underneath everything that he will be glad for when it finally does go away.

"Did Ronnae find ye, at least? She seemed very unhappy when they were making her lie down in Medbay."

[morphitudinous]

"They'll make sure you do," Billy grinned. If they were any bit as attentive as his other friends, he was sure of it. The TARDIS had to be an interesting place these days.

"She did," he confirmed, his face turning just slightly pink at the memory. "She stole a doctor's coat and snuck into my curtain before she was released. I've never been happier to be alive than I was then---just knowing that we'd made it, that I'd see all of you."

[bonnypiperlad]

Billy is more right than he knows about the TARDIS - than even Jamie knows, when it comes down to it. Especially since he's not currently spending quite as much time there as he used to thanks to the conversation he had with the Doctor in Medbay. But his friends are still plenty attentive even without that.

"Aye, knowing we made it through was a good thing. I'd say seeing certain people after helped even more there, though." There's a small, fond smile that appears as he recalls Victoria sitting down next to him. Knowing she was all right had certainly made things better, even though he had been hurting from the battle. There's a lot about her that makes things better, truthfully.

"Although," he adds, rather dryly, "I'll not say I'm too surprised she decided to sneak out and find ye, especially after I'd been hauled off to have one of those x-rays taken. Remind me to apologize to her for not being able to find ye like I said I was going to."

[morphitudinous]

"Someone's improved your mood," Billy observes, a knowing smile finding its way to his face. He's seen that look too many times, even started to recognize the pull of the muscles in himself.

Honestly, he's happy about that. Jamie could use a wonderful lass in his life.

"I'm sure she's already forgiven you," Billy waves off the concern. "More than forgiven you, actually. If I know how she sometimes thinks, I believe she wanted to find me herself all along. We're both just glad that you're healing."

[bonnypiperlad]

"The Doctor and Victoria stopped by," he admits. Something in his tone softens just a little as he says her name, but it vanishes quite quickly afterward, replaced by that sort of fond exasperation he gets when he's talking about the Time Lord. "I think the Doctor brought all the books in the TARDIS down to the Medbay with him. I don't know what he expected me to do with all that lot. Make a fort out of them, maybe."

Heaven knows he'd not be able to read all of them even if he was laid up in bed for a few weeks. But the Doctor meant well, and Jamie knows it. Even if he did bring up that small issue with the TARDIS after. "Although I suppose he could have just been getting them out of the way while he does repairs," he adds.

As for Ronnae, well, he can completely see her wanting to do that. People can say someone's all right, but there's something about finding someone and knowing that they're safe for yourself that makes a world of difference when it comes down to it. Jamie nods. "And I'm glad the both of ye are as well. At least she had something decent to sneak out in. You'd be surprised at some of the things ye have to wear sometimes to do that sort of thing."

[morphitudinous]

"I don't think even I'd be able to read that many books in a day," Billy laughed along, "but if I'd been nearby I could have helped you start."

He's not surprised to hear that the TARDIS needs repairs---secretly, he's just relieved that he's not the one having to do them. There are more than enough ships that need his hands on them this week.

What Jamie says next startles him, though. There's a story lurking there, he can sense it. "...what less than decent disguises have you found, Jamie?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Right after he opens his mouth, Jamie realizes that maybe he shouldn't have mentioned anything about the disguises, and he grimaces faintly.

Normally he'd try and change the subject, but he trusts Billy. His friend isn't the type to go about telling other people about things like this, so he decides to go ahead with things.

"Aye, well, there was the time the Doctor has us dress as washerwomen, for a start."

[morphitudinous]

That information is new and unexpected. Billy's eyebrow quirks before he can stop it, imagining the situation. But yes, he'll keep such an embarrassing thing quiet.

"Is there a reason it specifically needed to be a washerwoman?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Just wait, Billy. It gets better. "Well, it was the best way to get into the King's chambers so we could smuggle him out in the laundry. Zoe was put out she wasn't picked to go, but the King was heavy enough that the guards wound up helping to lift the basket anyway," he replies, remembering their reaction and the one actually questioning if the King was in there. Luckily, they had believed the Doctor when he said that it was just the King's dirty linens.

"That was a wee bit closer than I would have liked, but it all worked out in the end."

[morphitudinous]

Billy was impressed by their dedication. That was really something. "May I ask why you were smuggling a king in a laundry basket?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"Er...well, there was a small problem where I had convinced the King to stay and fight, ye see." Jamie scratched at the back of his head, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"He wasn't supposed to, and it, ah...changed some things."

[morphitudinous]

"What was he fighting, and what happened to him originally?" Billy was getting the impression that this was going to be a very good story. He could hardly wait.

[bonnypiperlad]

"To keep his kingdom. Have ye heard of the Glorious Revolution?"

Jamie's not sure exactly how things are taught in school in Billy's day, but the events leading up to the overthrow of King James II of England (or James VII of Scotland in Jamie's mind) strike him as ones that might still be considered important. Then again, Billy is American, so they might not. He looks at his friend curiously, waiting to see if he recognizes the term before going on.

[morphitudinous]

"I have, but history wasn't my main subject of interest in school. Oh, King James---that must've been interesting, making history." And it really, really is. Billy's envious.

"How many things changed on Earth because of the Doctor? Maybe he was there all along and we didn't know it," he wonders. "There had to be more strange things about my Earth than just the Power Rangers."

But that's past now. For the moment, he's just happily imagining them in washerwomens' uniforms. "He doesn't still do things like that, does he?"

[bonnypiperlad]

"More like fixing it," Jamie admits, a rueful expression on his face. He had managed to change things rather more drastically than he really cared to admit to most people. Billy, however, would be one of them. "I very nearly made it so that I'd not met the Doctor at all."

He hadn't really thought of the possibility that the Doctor could have been around and changed things in Billy's world - mostly because he was assuming they were two separate places. But stranger things have been known to happen. And he's about to say as much when Billy goes back to the mention of the dresses, which Jamie really had been hoping he had managed to distract his friend from thinking about.

"Er, not since we've woken up here. I'd not put it past him to try given the right circumstances, though."

[morphitudinous]

"But you still know him," Billy reassures quietly. He knows how that is. Nearly ending a friendship, making a critical mistake, or worse---killing someone, he thinks with a guilty look at Jamie's shoulder---is an unsettling memory that never fully fades But they're safe now, right? "You're all right."

At least, until...

"Then we'd better not give him the chance, right? I'll keep an eye out," he winks.

[bonnypiperlad]

The reassurance helps, and he nods. "Aye. I am." The timeline was fixed, and he stopped fading away. Everything was normal...until the Ohm came.

But they'll fix that too, at some point. In the meantime, while Billy's offer to keep an eye out is appreciated, Jamie feels it's only fair to warn him about the consequences of that, and he looks at his friend with a remarkably straight face.

"I appreciate that, Billy, but ye do realize ye might wind up in one yourself if you're not careful when ye do that?"

[morphitudinous]

Billy folded his arms and scoffed. Nah, couldn't be. He wouldn't be caught dead on one of those adventures. Him, in a dress? "I've been told that I'd make a pretty girl, but I'm not eager to test that hypothesis. Surely he has enough actual women around him to handle the work now?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Yes, Jamie's said that too, but he's still found himself in dresses on multiple occasions. Although he's not about to say anything about that time he wound up in much tighter uniform the women guards at the OSCE wore, it's still in the back of his mind - as well as the fact that if the Doctor for someone decided there needed to be disguises, the inevitable fact was that people were going to wind up in them. Whether they wanted to or not.

"Oh, aye, so it seems. But all that needs to happen is for us to be on one mission without any of the lasses around and you'll see what happens. Mark my words."