"Yeah, in the abandoned auto shop - what's going on?"

"Listen to me."  She puts a hand on his shoulder.  "If I'm not back in five minutes, or if the man who was chasing you starts coming toward this car, or you see a statue of an angel, just drive away from here.  Lose anyone who's chasing you and park it by the hotel on Rouge Street and Park Avenue if you can.  Then just run.  You don't have to be a part of this."

"I - "

" - I need to know, what that box is.  It's - in my head, or something."

The stranger glances behind her, out the driver's side window, down the narrow road she parked beside.

"It's something that belongs to a friend of mine.  It was stolen from him.  I'm here to get it back."

"Is it - "

Might as well go all in, at this point, he thinks.

" - like a person?"

"You already are a part of this, aren't you."

He - smiles a bit, because that sounds like a yes, sort of.

"I think I might be."

"All right - new plan, wait at the hotel for me instead if you have to run away.  I'll get back there and explain everything as soon as I can."

He is so fucking scared -

 - and the box was scared too, if the box is really a person and he's not going crazy then it was terrified, blankets man was coming at it with a power drill -

 - his fists clench in his lap, all of a sudden he hates the man in the mask or the angel or whatever the hell it is -

 - and he doesn't like hating but sometimes it's easier than being afraid -

"No, I'm coming."

He can feel his lip quivering, his throat feels like there's something stuck in it, but he's not gonna let himself run away again.

"It's not safe, and I can't protect you."

"Then don't," he says, a little louder than he means to.

He can't meet her eyes.

"It's scared, right?  The box."

"I think, if you feel like you felt fear from the TARDIS, you were feeling something real.  I don't completely understand it.  I think... it's something that prefers to usually be more like an object than like a person, but it is like a person in some ways.  And it can feel things."

"I ran away and left it.  I wanna try to help it."

Besides, the worst that can happen is he dies, right?  He shouldn't be afraid of that any more.

She fishes something from her purse: a small, silvery key.  Hands it to him.

"This is a key to the TARDIS.  I'm going to distract the man with the drill; you try to get the TARDIS open.  There's someone inside who can help us fight an Angel, a robot dog called K9."

( - okay, sure.)  He takes the key.  "Got it."

She draws something else from her purse, that looks like a tube of lipstick.  "Ladies first, I think.  Stay behind me and wait until I have his attention."

He nods, and follows her out of the car.

They stick close to the left-hand wall of the alley.  It's wider than the one they first came down, the one around the corner; wide enough for a car.  But not as wide as a real street.  Narrow enough to be a bit gloomy even in the daylight.

The stranger glances back and says, "I don't see any sign of him.  He might be in the shop trying to get into the TARDIS."

He keeps the key clenched in one fist.  The teeth dig into his palm a bit, and it feels warm with sweat.  He's shaking, a little.

At the door to the shop, the stranger stops and turns toward him.  "Can you get to the garages through this door?"

"One of them, at least, the one the box is in."

"All right.  It looks like the door to the nearest garage is ajar.  I'm going to go in through here - " she nods to the front door, that leads to the reception area " - and try to draw him out of the garage if he's in there.  Once he's occupied, you go in through the garage door - " nod " - and open the TARDIS."