"Of all the ungrateful, wretched people!" the Doctor shouted. "You will stay here and like it." He pointed at the Eiffel Tower. "We will have a fun time, okay?"

"Gee no need to shout," Peri complained. "All I said was it looked bigger on TV."

"It's not there to live up to your misguided expectations. It's a monument to human achievement. Romana liked it, Tegan liked, even Turlough liked it but no, it's not good enough for you."

"Will you stop shouting?" Peri snapped back. "People are looking."

"They're probably wondering who the loud mouth is who doesn't like their national treasure." The Doctor pointed at his young American companion.

"Or they're laughing at the idiot in the stupid outfit," Peri pointed out.

"That so called top and those shoes? I'm surprised some of my fashion sense hasn't rubbed of on you by now."

"If I dressed like you people might think we're together."

"My dear Peri, we are together."

"Yeah, but they don't realise that with me dressed in sensible clothes."

The Doctor set off towards the Louvre. "Will you hurry up? The tour starts in ten minutes."

Peri muttered at the Doctor's back before trudging along behind him. "The last Doctor wasn't like this at all. Why can't I have him back?" Seeing a nearby fast food restaurant she took the opportunity to slip away and get some real, proper food.

Peri ordered her meal and sat down at the plastic table on a plastic chair to eat it. "It's like being back in the States," she said to herself. She had a sip of coke and it almost brought a tear to her eye.

"Nobody move!"

Peri looked up to see a masked man holding a gun at one of the spotty youths behind the counter. Leaving her meal she got up and walked over to him. "Leave him alone," she snapped. "He's just a kid."

"Be quiet," the robber shouted, raising his arm to strike the diminutive girl.

Peri grasped the man's arm and performed a technically perfect judo throw on him before changing her grip and changing the hold into an arm lock. The robber dropped his gun in shock and another of the staff grabbed it quickly. Peri maintained her grip until two cops arrived and handcuffed the man.

"You have done a great public service mademoiselle," one of the cops thanked Peri.

Peri was applauded as she sat back down to her simple meal. The boy who had the gun pointed at him gave Peri a chocolate do-nut and thanked her in person for saving his life. "I just did what anyone else would do," Peri laughed. "There should be a law against that sort of thing."

"There is," the youth started to say before realising it was a witty joke. "Oh I see, yes. My name is Claude."

"I'm Peri," Peri introduced herself.

The spotty youth returned to his work, as there was a long line of customers. Peri finished her meal and left, intending to catch up with the Doctor at the Louvre.

Peri was lost, somehow she found herself outside Notre Dame cathedral. She heard the sound of swords in the distance and went closer to investigate. She found two people having a sword fight near an old looking barge. She couldn't make out who they were so she crept closer and closer. Suddenly one of the men, she could see they were male now, struck the other one in the stomach and he fell to the floor. The other man raised his sword. He was going to cut the other guy's head off! Feeling buoyed by her recent tousle with the robber she ran over as fast as she could and shouted at the man to stop. She cannoned into the surprised man and sent him sprawling into the river. Peri screamed; this was the last thing she wanted.

Duncan McLeod got to his feet. "You saved my life. I'm very grateful."

"Why were you two fighting and why was he trying to kill you?" Peri demanded.

"It's rather complicated to explain." Duncan stroked his chin.

Peri looked down at the sword wound. "That looks very nasty. You should go to a hospital."

"It's not that bad," Duncan said. "Its missed most of my vital organs."

"Come on, let me treat your wounds at least. Is this your boat?" Peri asked.

"Yeah, I've had it a couple of years now." Duncan followed the small American girl inside his house. "There really isn't much need you know. I heal fast."

Peri poured iodine onto the cut. "You're worse than the Doctor, although these days he makes a fuss over the slightest paper cut and ignores broken limbs. I swear the day I figure out guys is the day after I die."

"The Doctor?" Duncan's attention was snapped back in time a hundred and fifty years.

"Yeah. You know him?"

"Tall bloke, peculiar outfit. He had curly white hair and the strangest clothes that side of the seventies. He had two people with him, a girl called Josephine Grant and a nice guy called Michael Yates."

"The Doctor told me about some of his old friends. He's not the same guy you met then though, I can guarantee that," Peri chuckled.

"What do you mean?" Duncan enquired.

"Not long after I started travelling with him we were poisoned. The Doctor found a cure but there was only enough for one of us. He cured me and he died. Only he didn't die, he came back to life."

Duncan gasped.

"Somehow his whole appearance had changed, and his attitude. He went for being a nice guy to an awkward argumentative over the top egotist who somehow still managed to be nice despite being horrid to me."

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief. The Doctor wasn't an immortal but something stranger still.

"He decided to drag me along to see this Louvre place. I wanted to go somewhere nice involving a beach. Anyway I went off to this restaurant before ending up here, totally lost."

"I know where the Louvre is," Duncan said. "It's not far from here."

"Where have you been?" the Doctor demanded. "The tour ended an hour ago."

"Come on Doctor, let's go back to the TARDIS. Let’s go somewhere and fight evil."

The Doctor looked at his young friend for a few seconds. "There is a world I've been meaning to look in on for a while now. It could be dangerous but I'm sure we can handle whatever gets in our way."

Peri smiled to herself and winked at Duncan who was standing nearby. Maybe some of his advice would help her understand the Doctor.