"...Yeah, shouldn't the Angel be on the lookout for that, actually?  If it's sending people back in time to get rid of them.  - It came at me with a power drill, actually, did I not say?  I guess it wanted to send me back and let me bleed out."

"Well, that's cleverer than what it did to me."

"  - and it is clever, it has to be clever, because we know it can think of wrapping itself in blankets to stop people seeing its skin - and if it was attacking with a drill it can use tools... what about Sarah Jane, did she get hurt?"

" - shit, I don't know - no, I think I remember hearing her shut off the drill with her buzzy lipstick thing.  And I don't think the Angel had the drill when it came at me the second time, after it got rid of her."

"It still could've hurt her, though, before it sent her back - don't know why it wouldn't have done me, unless it thought it could send me back farther until it tried - but either way it knows now that it can't send people back far enough to get rid of them properly, so it's trying to injure them before it sends them back, so they die in the past."

"...and if we run with the assumption that it thought it could send me back a few hundred years, but only found out after it did that it could only send people back a year or less - first thing it does is canvas the area, see if anyone it sends back in the future hangs around to cause trouble for it later - and if it doesn't find anyone, it gets to decide what that means, and it decides to try to make the reason that happened that anyone else gets killed first."

"Hold on I'm barely following you - you're saying that first it sees you, it tries to send you back far enough that even if you wanted to wait out the displacement you couldn't, but it finds out it can only send you back a year.  And it thinks, well, anyone else I send back could easily wait out the year, I better check around on the assumption that you or one of my other victims is waiting around to try to... get back at me, or stop me from doing it again.  Or maybe they don't understand time travel and think they can stop me from doing it in the first place.  Or whatever.  One way or another someone I send back, in the future, could run into me now in my present before I send them back.  So it tries to do some detective work at that time, after it sends you back, to see if anyone it will send back in its future is hiding around there somewhere.  And either it doesn't find anyone, in which case - now it's free to decide why it doesn't find anyone?"

"It has evidence from its future suggesting that it doesn't send anyone back in the future that successfully hides out nearby until it could find their hiding place.  It can see that and think, one reason I wouldn't find anyone I sent back in time is because no one I sent back survived that long, because I killed them.  And it can decide, based on that, to lethally injure anyone who comes after it before it sends them back."

"Right.  Or it can search around and find someone in which case it probably kills them.  And even if it finds one person it can still have that idea about other people - so either it didn't see Sarah Jane waiting out the three months in the past and so it injured her before it sent her back, or else it did find her and they fought again.  In her future and its past."

"And it already beat her once," he says darkly.  "So if Sarah Jane meets the angel a second time in the past, it probably injures or kills her and sends her farther back, and if we avert that by rescuing her after the first time it sends her back, then it doesn't see her again and tries to kill her the first time they fight.  So either way we can't stop the Angel from doing something to hurt her."

"But if she decided to wait out the year somewhere else, when the angel couldn't find her - no, then it doesn't find her in the past and decides to try to kill her in the future again, right?"

"Right.  - Good point, in fact."

"Which if I'm keeping up correctly I think means that I have to figure out how to fly the TARDIS back to wherever Sarah Jane is.  Uh, whenever she is, I guess?"

He waves aside the correction.  "Don't overthink it, I know what you meant."  He sighs.  "If neither of us can get to the TARDIS... but I wouldn't want to bank on being able to teach you or walk you through it without being there in person."

"...Sarah Jane said the TARDIS was - like a person.  Was she right?"

"...she has some person-like qualities.  The TARDIS does, I mean."

"I think.  I've been... talking to her.  We sort of - I sort of - connected with her, or something, when I first found her in the alleyway.  And... she might've gotten my attention when I first came into the abandoned auto shop.  And I apologized to her for running away and I think she accepted my apology, and I asked to use her DVD player - because she'd told me not to touch any of the controls - and I think she said yes."

...He smiles a little.  "Oh, I think she likes you, Bryce Lynwood."

He smiles back, a little.

"But - " as he turns serious again.  "Would that help with flying her?"

He scratches his stubble contemplatively.  "It's better than not, but it won't get you all the way there.  ...Her navigation doesn't work very well, and some of that's her navigation actually not working very well and some of it is her having her own opinions and nudging us where we need to go, sometimes.  She can't properly fly herself but she might be able to help.  It's hard, though, for TARDISes to think or act like that.  I think that's why they have pilots."

"I could... try to help her through it.  Not that I know how to fly her either, but - be there for her.  She's easy to talk to.  Easier than people, I mean."

He grins a little again, at that.

"And you've got K9, he couldn't press any buttons but I think he knows what they all do.  And moving straight back through time staying in the same place relative to the Earth isn't the hardest trip in the world even with bad navigation."

"I - could try it, but - I'm imagining trying to fly a space shuttle with one guy on the phone and one guy who can't press any of the buttons, telling me what to do.  And like, that seems self-evidently stupid.  I'd die instantly."