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]

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."