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summerstardust · 4 years

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It Will Be Okay

Dhawan!Doctor x Reader

Summary: After you receive heartbreaking news, The Doctor tries to cheer you up. Unsuccessfully at first.

Warnings: breakup, depression, and mentions of suicide/self harm --- please don’t read this if those subjects are triggering

Word Count: 3462

A/N: I selfishly wrote this for myself. I just need this because of some personal things going on in my life at the moment. But, I hope that you all enjoy it!

You hadn’t known The Doctor for that long. Mid-March was when you met. You were strolling around an art museum that you hadn’t been to yet. You were on break for spring term and wanted to relax and get out of the house, taking a break from studying and catching up on university courses. Of course, work still needed to be done, so your trip to the museum, although relaxing, also involved finding an example of Greek myth depicted within a piece of artwork or an artifact. Though interesting in topic, you would much rather want to be around the museum with carefree joy instead of obtaining the information for that particular assignment.

You decided to go through the museum chronologically. You did not care about the order of history when going to museums in previous journeys, you always went to your favourite era first, and also last if there was enough time available in the day, before retreating to the little shop by the entrance for a souvenir. However, you allowed the mandatory information taking for you course to reorganize your preferred schedule, completing your schoolwork as soon as possible and rushing off to the abstract artists of Europe section of the museum.

You stopped abruptly, with an audible gasp, in the middle of your tour when you ventured upon a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. You were unaware of this museum holding one in their collection. You sat down on a bench in front of the painting and just stared at it for a long time, occasionally taking some pictures to blend in with all of the other millennials and zoomers on their phone, but promptly returned to gawking at the unique brush strokes and style of your favourite painter.

“He’s really quite amazing, isn’t he?” The sudden voice behind you made you jump out of your state of calm. The man behind you quickly apologized for his intrusion and for scaring you, he explained, “I only wanted to talk to you. You are the only person here actually appreciating the art.” You questioned if he worked here, but he promptly, and quite wittedly, retorted, “If I worked here, I don’t think I would care much for art. Too monotonous and everyday, boring ol’ rat race, the art would soon embody, not the life and soul it actually captures.”

To say he was strange was an understatement. He wore a long purple coat that matched his visible socks, knitted tie and even the argiles on his sweater vest. His smile was sweet, but cocky, like he knew that you were intrigued, but his eyes shone bright with warmth and curiosity, pupils, ever so slightly, dilated. Proving that he, too, was probably more intrigued than he should be by the mannerisms of a stranger.

One of the hands that was clasped behind his back moved swiftly out before you in a gesture of introduction. Accompanied with this subtle, yet dramatic, movement was the strange man in purple saying, “Hello! I’m The Doctor!” You tentatively accepted his hand, joking about how he does actually work here at the museum. He denied your statement, but smiled, eyeing you with big hopeful eyes. You didn’t understand why he was eyeing you until he glanced down at your still interlocked hands, then you remembered how you hadn’t introduced yourself yet.

“Y/N,” you practically shouted, growing annoyed with yourself, and continuing softer, “My name is Y/N Y/S.”

“Y/N Y/S, what a lovely name! Absolutely marvelous!” You questioned if it was, you never thought your name to be that spectacular.

“Of course your name is marvelous! You are the one possessing that name, and you are marvelous, therefore, your name is also marvelous!” You smiled, but shook your head before looking away from him.

“I’m afraid that you must be mistaking me for someone else, I’m just a normal, everyday, boring human. Nothing marvelous about me.” You spoke with a happy-go-lucky tone, but your words were laced with sadness and self depreciation.

“I think everything about you is marvelous.” His eyes weren't lying and his smile was reassuring, but you could not understand his confidence.

“You’ve only just met me a few minutes ago, how could you possibly know anything about me? And how could anything you have found out about me result in you calling me marvelous, it just doesn’t add up, stranger.”

“Doctor. I’m The Doctor, not The Stranger, they're a completely different Timelord. And, I’ve discovered the most important thing about you.”

“Which is?” You tried to follow his ramble, but were unsuccessful.

“You study and empathize with the smallest things, understanding that they all pile up and congoine into one even bigger thing.”

“How do you figure that?” you continued to question, slightly scared that this stranger could understand your personality so well in such little time.

“Because, you have been staring at this one painting for almost half an hour, and the more you look at it, the more you are brought to tears by the depth of emotion conveyed in the work. You have been doing this, while every other person has been hastily moving from one painting to another, snapping pictures and moving on, like checking items off of a grocery list.” He looked around the room of meandering humans, wringing his hands, disgusted by their lack of want for discovery, but excited by the palpable tension of excitement he could feel within you. He could feel it, you were like him, a person wanting to run away and discover something new. “You, you are observant! I bet! I bet that if something were to change about this scenario in front of you, you would notice, where the other people here wouldn’t even bat an eye.”

“And if I do notice that change? What happens then?”

“I’ll give you the opportunity to get away from all of this monotony. Human life is boring, not you.” You stared at him for a while, sceptical, but intrigued. You eventually said that you’ll bite and play his game. He immediately moved to cover your eyes with one hand, and gave an exhilarated “You ready?” You nodded and heard the man’s fingers snap before he removed the hand covering your eyes. You looked at him as if he was insane, but he nodded his head in the direction of the rest of the room, encouraging you to continue the game

You promised to partake in. You rolled your eyes as you scanned the room, expecting no changes, but your face fell into disbelief when you saw a large blue police box sitting near one of the abstract sculptures in the center of the room. With your mouth agape, you watched as bystanders took in the new centerpiece, blissfully unaware of its magical appearance. You eventually moved forward to it, after the man nudged your shoulder, indicating that it was okay and this was not a hoax. You moved around it, circling it, every once in a while seeing the stranger's whimsical and curious eyes gadgeing your reaction.you were too afraid to touch it, scared that this was a new art piece and you would be sent to jail or would have to pay a fine for damaging the artwork.

“Of she’s definitely a work of art, but she’s not a part of the museum. It's perfectly fine if you touch her.” For a moment, you wondered if he could read your mind, but you decided that that was impossible. To prove that he wasn’t lying, he leant up against the blue box, no one around reacting. You slowly brought your hand up to where it was level with the sign on the door that said “Pull to Open.” When you eventually touched the sign, the box let out a light hum, like the one a person would make if they had just eaten something delicious. You jumped back, and looked to the stranger to see if he heard the noise, but he only looked amused, with a sweet toothy grin reaching his eyes and a low chuckle falling from his lips.

“Push it open.” He stated, regaining his composure over the situation.

“But the sign says pull.” Another hum, more aggravated this time, emerged from the box. The man seemed to glare at the box, whispering “not now” in a tone he thought you couldn’t hear. When he noticed you staring, he readjusted his sweater vest and couched in awkwardness, but assured you that it was alright and that you should open the door. You did as he said, the box humming welcomingly again when you touched the door handle and pushed the door forward, despite the writing on the sign. The room was dark, pitch black as you stood in the doorway. The man behind you pushed you forward, gracefully and gently, but it still caught you off guard. You let out a string of yells and curses as the man closed the door behind the pair of you, seemingly locking you in.

“What do you think you are doing?! You can’t just lock me in here.” Your yelling was unanswered and eventually silenced by the light flicking on, showing a room much larger than the small box could have contained. What seemed to be a control panel took up the center of the room, large, glowing, purple, crystalline structures branching off of it and illuminating the room. There were a couple of cushioned chairs and sofas strewn about the upper deck around the console, and metal stairs lead up to a circular veranda level, completely covered in bookshelves and ladders to reach the tallest of shelves.

The stranger was smirking down at you, now stood by the console, leaning on it with his hip, his arms crossed in front of him.“This is the TARDIS.” he spoke, interrupting your curious looks around the place.”It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. And I want you to travel with me. I told you I’d offer you a getaway.” His smirk grew with the last sentence, showing how proud he was of himself, and rightfully so, his prize for winning his little game was very impressive.

You had been traveling with The Doctor ever since, you couldn’t say no to his offer of traveling the universe, but roughly five months was not enough time to know an alien who lost track of how old they were. Something happened around late June, but you never told The Doctor. He found you crying in the TARDIS kitchen alone early one morning, phone still clasped in your hand. He wondered if you had been talking to someone and that’s why you were crying. If that was what was happening, he hated whoever they were for doing this to you. When you saw him standing in the doorway, you squeaked in fear, but jumped up and ran to him, hugging him very tightly. The two of you had only ever shared brief victory hugs before, nothing like this. But just as The Doctor started to enjoy the breathtakingly tight hug you were giving him, you ran off to your room, slamming and locking the door behind you.

The Doctor had tried and failed to talk to you for a month. You would emerge from your room to eat, rarely, and to make cups of tea, almost always in the morning when you used to be asleep. But you never talked, waved, or even smiled at The Doctor anymore.

Eventually, he had convinced you to go on an adventure with him, thanks to the TARDIS helping him and preventing you from returning to your room on an excursion to the kitchen. The Doctor knew, though, that you were not enjoying anything you were seeing, the curiosity and wonder had drained from your eyes.

He took you to a beach where the waves would sound like a different song to whoever hears them, but you didn’t even change into a swimsuit. He took you to a mountainous relaxation resort where the staff would ski down the ranges singing show tunes and performing acrobatic routines, you didn’t even crack a smile. He even took you to a planet where it was only ever night time, he pointed out the stars and planets to you and told you stories of his past, but you would only hum noncommitedly. He thought that his openness would draw something, in turn, out of you.

The last stop was the largest multidimensional museum in existence, he thought, surly, this would work. Reminding you of the day you met him had to bring you back to your old self. So, The Doctor, ignoring your protests, dragged you through the museum, running past history, until you stopped in front of a Vincent Van Gogh painting, the same one you were looking at the museum when The Doctor first saw you. He was hopeful that this would brighten your mood, that he would look over and see you smiling and curious, but he saw no such thing. The Doctor saw the bland, emotionless face you were trying to wear confidently, as you had at every other venue, but he also saw the tears pooling in your eyes and the slight quiver of your lips. That was new. What hurt the most was how he saw how desperately you wanted to keep your facade in place, how desperately you didn’t want him to see how hurt you were. He wondered if he had done something wrong, something to cause this disconnect?

The Doctor took you back to the TARDIS when you asked to leave the museum, his head hanging low between his shoulders. He did not wish to do it, but because you did not seem to be enjoying yourself, The Doctor was prepared to let you go. He opened the door for you and followed you into the TARDIS, trodding up to the console. He was about to offer to take you home, but you were already gone. The Doctor sighed, about to set the quardianted anyway, until the TARDIS beeped frantically, informing him to go to your room immediately.

The door to your room was slightly ajar, probably because of the TARDIS, just enough for The Doctor to see into your bedroom. You were pacing, holding a kitchen knife in one hand and beating your head repeatedly. Then you started screaming, “It was a simple adventure, Y/N, but you messed it up. You are always messing things up. The Doctor just wanted to cheer you up, and you couldn’t even fake it for a day! Maybe this is why no one loves you, Y/N. You can’t just let things go and celebrate what is actually before you! You saw The Doctor’s face, and you broke his hearts! Why can’t you just be happy, Y’N?! Why do you have to ruin everything that crosses your path! Everything would be easier and everyone would be happier if you didn’t exist!” You swung both of your fists down in rage, cutting the air.

Behind you, The Doctor burst into your room, screaming a loud ‘no!’ You were too shocked to actually process anything, he clearly heard every word you said, and saw the knife in your hands. There was no going back from this. For all you knew, he was going to kick you out because of how you were behaving. He asked for the knife, calmly but sternly, his brown eyes growing dark in concern. You did as he said and moved to your bed, curling into a ball under your covers, trying to ignore The Doctor’s powerful eyes. He followed you , however, hugging you from behind, placing soft kisses on the side of your face and neck as you began to cry. The Doctor hushed your tears and dried your eyes as best he could from his position. Eventually you stopped crying, curling into him further as The Doctor rested his head in the crook of your neck. After calming your breath, you spoke up, breaking the silence.

“My boyfriend broke up with me. That’s who I was on the phone with that night when you saw me crying.” The Doctor moved his head slightly to look at you, he didn’t know that you had a boyfriend. But this revelation colored that situation differently for him. His suspicions were correct, but he did not wish them to be. He hated how someone so close to you would hurt you like this.

“He broke up with you over the phone?” His tone was dangerous, you were almost afraid to answer, worried for how he would react.

“Yes,” you spoke tentatively. The Doctor’s arms tightened around you protectively, so you tried to explain the situation. “He said that he didn’t want to, and that he wished he could have done it in person but he was too busy.” This didn’t raise his opinion of your ex.

“Is there any way that the two of you could work it out?” He hoped that there wasn’t, from the very little he heard of this person, and seeing how you reacted to the breakup, The Doctor thought that you would be safer away from him.

“No, he said that his decision was final.” There was a long pause before The Doctor spoke again, trying to suppress his excitement over the fact that this negative person would be out of your life.

“What were you going to do with the knife?” He almost forgot about the knife.

“I don’t know, I would’ve probably hurt myself. I don’t even remember grabbing the thing. I think that I was just overwhelmed with emotions and I didn’t feel like I had any more options.”

“Have you hurt yourself before?” HIs tone was softer, hoping that you would feel more open in discussing a topic this sensitive.

“Not in over a year. I’ve had bouts like this every so often, but this one felt worse. I guess I just wanted to remove the hurt he caused by making myself feel something new. I know you were trying to do that before with all of the adventures, but I couldn’t focus on any of the good things. I could only think of how lonely he made me and how much I was disappointing you. I just feel so worthless!” You tried to bang your head against your hand again, but The Doctor stopped you, holding your fists tightly in his.

“You could never disappoint me. And you, most certainly, aren’t worthless, Y/N. Do you want to know why?” You played his game and asked why, how tightly he was holding you contrasting severely with the softness of his tone. It was strangely comforting and one of the most intimate moments you’ve ever experienced.

“Because I chose you. Because you were the only one observant and empathetic enough to see and appreciate the simpler things. There are very few people like you. In fact, there is no one like you. You are completely unique within the cosmos, to do away with the magic you hold in your heart and soul, it would be a waste. A complete and utter tragedy to the whole of existence. And I know that I am not the person you probably want in this bed, but I will be here whenever you need. We can go on adventure, we can revisit those places from before so you don't feel as if you missed out on anything, and we can just sit and talk or hold each other. You’re not alone in this, Y/N. You have me, and it will take time, but everything will, one day, be okay.”

“Thank you, Doctor, I really don’t know where I would be without you. You’ve cared for me more than anyone.” You paused and pulled his arms tighter around your body before looking up at his face, “And don’t be so hard on yourself, Doctor. You are an ageless alien showing me the universe. No offence, but what does the emotionless ex boyfriend of mine have that you don't possess tenfold?” He blushed down at you, avoiding eye contact for a moment, then looking back. He turned you around in his arms so you were facing him and leant his forehead against yours. You talked for a few moments like this, eventually growing tired. The Doctor said that you should sleep and you wrapped your arms around him so he couldn’t leave. He chuckled and hugged you back, moving the blankets that had fallen down a bit tighter around your bodies. After you fell asleep, The Doctor kissed your forehead and rubbed your back, whispering promises to protect you and help you out of this dark period.

#dhawan!doctor #dhawan!doctor x reader #doctor who x reader #personal post #doctor who imagine #sacha dhawan #fanfiction

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bluezey · 4 years

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Inside Onward - Bold Fail

Second chapter of the Onward/Inside Out mashup. It’s a little longer, but that’s because I wanted to end it on a cliffhanger rather than a bummer. Speaking of bummers, I’m really starting to feel bad for Ian’s Fear right about now.

The morning just got started and the shelves of short term memory were filling up with colorful glowing orbs, each playing a short vision of the memory Ian experienced. Yellow, blue, red, green and purple. Arguably, a little more purple than the other colors. Fear was finishing jotting down some notes in his notebook before he looked up, checking on the other emotions.

Joy was nearby the console, sitting on the couch with his arms and legs stretched out, watching the screen as Ian was in line at Burger Shire. Sadness, Disgust and Anger were by the console discussing what Ian should order for breakfast. Anger wore his red flannel shirt unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Disgust was the only emotion that tucked in his flannel shirt, and he had a comb and compact mirror in the chest pocket of his shirt. Sadness’s clothes had creases and wrinkles from the many times he lie around moping, and one extra button undone at the top of his flannel shirt.

“We can’t order a HuzzahMlet,” Disgust argued to Anger. “It’s too messy, and Ian would have to eat it with a knife and fork. He needs something quick to eat, like one of those breakfast sandwiches.”

Anger mumbled, “Fine. But whatever we get better have dragon bacon on it.”

Joy jumped up from his seat with glee as he added, “Ooh, get hash bites! Those are so good. And coffee!”

“Not too hot, though,” Fear warned as he approached the console, feeling needed. “We don’t want Ian to burn his lips. And he likes it-“

“Black with three or four packets of sugar,” the other emotions echoed Fear, knowing Ian just as much as he does.

Fear squeezed in at the center of the group, looking up at the screen as Ian took his receipt from the coworker behind the register. Fear took the controls, Ian turned and sat down on a bench across from the counter. Smartphone Island lit up as Ian began to reach into his pocket for his smart phone, when Ian’s ear caught someone speaking to him from the next seat over, causing the island to go quiet.

“Hey. Go griffins.”

Ian looked up. “What?”

“You go to Willowdale College?” the friendly stranger asked, motioning to Ian’s sweatshirt.

Ian looked down and gave a slight laugh. “Oh, no. This was my dad’s.”

Fear blinked, he didn’t touch the console. He took a double take when he caught Joy at the controls. “Joy! We can’t talk to strangers!”

“Fear, Ian’s sixteen, not six,” she commented, believing Fear’s over protectiveness was genuinely a joke. The other emotions didn’t think so, with Anger quietly shaking his head and Disgust rubbing his temples.

The friendly stranger noticed the name stitched onto Ian’s sweatshirt. “Lightfoot? Wilden Lightfoot?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ian replied.

The friendly stranger’s face lit up. “I went to college with him.”

“No way.” Ian smiled. The emotions caught sight of Dad Island whirring to life.

Joy looked at Fear with an encouraging smile. “See? It all worked out.”

“Yeah.” The college friend’s face turned to sorrow. “Boy, I was so sorry to hear that he passed away.”

Ian’s face fell into a grief filled frown as well. “Yeah… thanks,” he said softly.

Fear looked to Sadness, then back at Joy. “Nice going,” he couldn’t help but comment.

“Yeah, your dad,” the college friend continued, “he was a great guy, so confident. When he entered a room, everyone noticed.” He chuckled before adding, “You know, he wore the ugliest pair of purple socks every single day.”

Ian laughed to himself from learning such a thing. “What? Why?”

“We asked him the same thing,” the college friend explained. “But your dad, he was just bold. I wish I had that kind of confidence in me.”

“Yeah.” Ian grew a little excited from learning something new about his dad. “Wow, I’ve never heard anything about this before. Do you know any-?”

The college friend interrupted. “Oh, looks like it’s time to take this kid to school.”

Ian turned, catching sight of a young boy holding up a carry out bag. The emotions excitement instantly fell, realizing their conversation about Ian’s dad was over. Fear looked over his shoulder as Dad Island dimmed and grew silent again.

“It was nice meeting you,” the college friend said, holding out his hand.

Ian took it and gave it a gentle, friendly handshake. “Yeah, you too.” As the college friend left with his son, Ian looked down at the Lightfoot name on his sweatshirt. “Bold,” he thought under his breath, feeling inspired.

Fear turned back, nodding to himself in agreement. “Bold…”

----

Disgust pointed to a green bench in front of the school. “That one. Check it before he sits down, I don’t want Ian sitting in unicorn poop again.”

“That only happened twice,” Joy tried to wave off.

“Guys,” Fear announced as he took out his notepad and pen, “I got a great idea to change Ian’s sixteenth birthday around. Let’s make a list of things we can do to make Ian the new Ian.”

“You got that idea from mom,” Anger argued.

“Doesn’t matter,” Fear commented. “School starts in ten minutes, so let’s get thinking.”

Ian took a sip of his coffee before pulling out a small notebook from his back pocket. He flipped it open to an empty page and wrote down in black ink ‘The New Me’

“How about we have Ian speak up more,” Sadness softly suggested.

“Excellent idea, Sadness,” Fear commented, writing the note down under his own list titled ‘The New Iandore.’

Joy pressed a button, Ian wrote down on his list ‘Speak up more.’

“Ian can’t be sixteen and not have his driving permit,” Anger said bluntly. “That’s not fair.”

“Learn to drive,” Fear said, writing it down, his hand shaking a bit. Ian wrote down ‘Learn to drive’ on his list as well.

“He needs friends,” Disgust pointed out. “We need people for his party.”

Ian wrote down ‘Invite people to party,’ and so did Fear.

“Oh! Oh! I got one!” Joy jumped up and down, bursting with excitement over a brilliant idea. Instead of explaining it, Joy flicked a few switches and levers on the console. Fear watched the screen cautiously, wondering what Joy just did.

Ian added to the list in bold words ‘Be like dad.’

The other emotions gently praised Joy for the idea. A small smile gradually spread on Fear’s face before he added it onto his list as well.

The school bell rang through the air outside. Ian put his notebook away, placed his backpack over his shoulders and tossed his breakfast trash and leftovers into the garbage by the bench.

“Okay gang, that’s first bell,” Fear told the other emotions as he took the lead. “Let’s get in there before the tardy bell rings and show the world the new Iandore Lightfoot!”

Ian looked up at the two story school building, the concrete structure looking dominating and intimidating as it casted it’s darkened shadow over the teenage elf standing at the foot of the stairs leading inside.

Fear tried desperately to swallow that ball of anxieties tensing up in his throat.

----

Ian made his way down the hall to the doorway of his classroom, but stopped as he looked inside. There was the usual sight of the teacher prepping her notes and kids doing random things at their desks besides school work. At the front was Ian’s empty seat, and behind him was that usual troll, resting his thick sweaty feet on the back of his chair.

“Him again?” Disgust gagged. “Ugh, I’m gonna be sick.”

“This is good,” Joy said, trying to spin things into a positive. “We can use this experience to have Ian speak up for himself.”

“I got this,” Anger declared, cracking his knuckles.

“No no no no!” Fear immediately placed a hand between Anger and the console. Anger glared up at Fear.

“Fear’s right, we don’t need to be mean. Let’s try just asking him.” Joy pressed a button on the console.

Ian approached his desk and cleared his throat quietly. “Hey, do you mind not putting your feet up on my chair today?”

“Sorry dude, the troll replied, lazily keeping his attention on his smart phone. “Got to keep my feet elevated. Helps get blood flow to the brain.”

Joy shrugged and pressed two more buttons. Fear looked back up at the screen, anxiety beginning to creep up his spine and tightly curl his purple nerve into his blue hair.

“Yeah, but it’s hard for me to get into my seat with your feet up like that,” Ian tried again.

“Well, if I can’t think, I’m gonna do poor in school,” the troll replied, more argumentative. He glanced up from his phone and eyed Ian. “You don’t want me to do bad at school, do you?”

That shift in tone and stare was enough for Fear to step in. “It’s not working. It’s not working!” He pushed Joy aside as he slammed his hand down on the console.

“Uh, well… okay,” Ian mumbled off as he tried to squeeze in, giving a defeated sigh.

Disgust covered his mouth as he ran off to throw up. Anger and Sadness eyed Fear, while Joy looked at him shocked and confused. All Fear could do is stand there, tucking his hands under his arms.

----

It was afternoon, and Ian was in the back of a small group of students at a driving school near the high school.

“Okay, let’s not screw this up guys,” Disgust told the other emotions.

“Ian’s logged in plenty of hours with mom and her car,” Joy said optimistically, “he’s got this.” Joy glanced over at Fear, his arms beginning to tremble as he stared blankly up at the screen. “Right, Fear?”

“Huh?” Fear snapped out of it and fumbled with his sweatshirt. “Oh, right, right.”

“Driving test,” the driving instructor announced in her gravely gremlin tone. “Any volunteers?”

Anger slammed his fist down on a button. Ian’s hand shot up defiantly.

Before long, Ian was behind the wheel of one of the vehicles on loan from the driving school. He took a deep breath, trying to keep his composure, and it was working so far. Until he looked up at the highway before turning onto the onramp.

Sadness glanced over as he saw Fear walking up next to Anger. While Anger was at the controls, helping Ian stay focused, Fear kept his eyes on the screen, placing one hand on the edge of the console.

At the top of the onramp, Ian glanced over his shoulder. The cars sped by at a speed much too fast for Fear to comprehend, causing him to shiver.

“Just merge into traffic,” the driving teacher instructed.

“Yeah, in a minute,” Ian nearly sputtered, trying to focus on the road.

Anger growled, trying to find a gap in the traffic for Ian to merge into. He was defiant to get this done, but was struggling as Ian seemed to veer out faster than Anger could let him veer in. “What’s wrong with this kid?” Anger spat, not knowing Fear now has both hands on the console, gripping the edge tightly.

“Just merge into traffic!” the instructor now shouted.

Fear’s instincts kicked in. “ABORT!!” he ordered as he grabbed the controls, causing Anger to back away.

“I’m not ready!” Ian shouted.

“Pull over,” the instructor told Ian.

“Oh come on!” Anger snapped, storming off.

“Fear, what was that?” Disgust snapped at him.

Joy stepped between them. “That- that- that- that, was, uhmm… yeah, we’ll try again next time,” he said, running out of excuses.

Fear couldn’t hear them as he saw the driving instructor write something down on her notepad. Seeing the failure get written down in Ian’s files just made Fear hang his head.

----

The final bell rang, the students filtered out to the front of the school. While many began to leave either by ride, by bus, or by walking, some stayed behind. A few students were some members of the science club, chatting away at the entrance of the school. Ian just tried to casually stand on the sidewalk nearby, alone.

“Okay gang, third time’s the charm,” Joy cheered, trying to boost everyone’s downbeat spirits. “We can still turn this day around if we get some guests for Ian’s party. Disgust?”

“I got this. Follow my lead.” Disgust took the lead at the controls, with Joy assisting. Outside, Ian was thinking out loud what to say, jotting down key words for his prepared invitation on his hand. Figuring out what Disgust was planning, Fear stood up from his seat on the couch, took out his notebook and made some notes of his own.

“No Joy, no one says dudes anymore,” Disgust corrected. “Try gang.”

“Got it.” Joy flipped a switch or two on the console, a yellow memory orb rolled out into short term memory with a vision of the notes on Ian’s hand. “Okay, let’s do this!”

“And you,” Disgust snapped her attention to Fear, “stay back.”

“Disgust!” Joy exclaimed in shock.

“Whatever.” Disgust took over at the console.

Ian walked up to the students, trying to remain calm and friendly. “Hey, what’s up gang?” he greeted them, getting their attention.

“Oh, uh, Ian, right?” one asked.

Ian was a little surprised by that. “Oh, I didn’t know you knew my… anyway…” Ian looked down at his hand. He froze when he realized it was glossy from sweating nervously, causing the notes on his hand to smear into an incoherent mess of ink.

“Wait, what happened?” Joy asked aloud.

Disgust glared at Fear, he stepped back. “I-it wasn’t me!” Fear replied, scared of the outcome without himself at the controls.

“It’s that stupid social anxiety thing again!” Disgust snapped, racing to the short term memory shelves.

“I thought the mind workers fixed that glitch!” Anger shouted in frustration.

“You can’t fix anxiety,” Sadness commented as Disgust loaded the yellow memory orb into the recall playback. The memory of Ian’s notes on his hands appeared onscreen, but the image was blurred to the point that it was illegible.

“Ugh, focus, Ian, focus,” Disgust thought aloud as she tried adjusting the memory orb.

“Anger, don’t smack it!” Joy shouted as she and Sadness ran over to help Disgust.

The console was unmanned, or unemotioned. This was Fear’s chance! He took out his notepad as he took his spot at the controls.

Ian immediately wrapped his sweaty hands to his side, not only to hide them, but to remain calm. It wasn’t working, however, as words seemed to fail him at the moment. “Uh, if you like parties… I was going to do a party- I mean, if you’re not doing anything tonight, and it’s okay if you are, and if you like cake, like I like cake, I have a cake… over, at my house?”

“Are you inviting us to a party?” the classmate asked.

“That’s the one,” Ian replied.

“Fear, get away from that console!!” Disgust shouted. Fear shrieked as he pulled his arms away and wrapped them around his sides. The emotions raced up to the console, Disgust watching in horror, then rage, when a few purple memories rolled into short term. “Ugh, Fear, you ruined everything!”

“Sure, we don’t have any plans,” the classmate told Ian with a polite smile.

The emotions watched as the other classmates nodded and agreed to the awkward invitation. Fear gave a sigh of relief, his hands falling to his sides. Joy couldn’t help but give a told you so smirk to Disgust. “See, Fear’s got this. And he got people to Ian’s party. What could happen?”

The oncoming sound of loud rock music and roaring engine coming in fast was enough to make Joy freeze up. Realizing that familiar sound, Fear went back into panic mode. “No no no no no no no…”

“No no no no no,” Ian whispered, watching Barley’s van careen across the road.

“Ha ha! Is that the birthday boy I see?” The van came to a screeching halt by the sidewalk, right by Ian and the classmates. Barley leaped out of the driver’s side, clad in that usual ridiculous Viking cosplay outfit he’s known to wear on some of his role playing game nights. “Behold, your chariot awaits!” he bellowed.

“Just ignore him,” Disgust told the other emotions. “Maybe he’ll go away.”

“That doesn’t work,” Sadness said.

“It better work this time,” Disgust snapped back.

“Sir Iandore of Lightfoot,” Barley called out, followed by blaring the van’s horn.

Anger roared furiously. “Ugh! Just take the hint!” Disgust snarled.

“It’s okay! I can handle this!” Joy took control.

“Barley, hey,” Ian finally replied. “We were just about to take the bus.”

“The bus? Nae!” Barley triumphantly continued. “I will give you and your companions transport upon Guinevere.”

“Uh, who’s Guinevere?” a student asked.

“My mighty steed.” Barley proudly placed his hand on his van. The small vibration was enough for the front bumper to fall right off. “Oh, that’s embarrassing,” he laughed off.

“No kidding,” Disgust replied sourly.

Joy glanced over at Fear, who was now squeezing his sides so tight he was creating creases in his sweatshirt. He whimpered softly, worry causing him to begin buckling under the pressure. “Now now, Joy tried to smooth things over. “It’s just Barley. We can handle this.”

“You got something on your face,” a classmate pointed out, with a smile that was trying to hold back a chuckle or two.

Ian placed a hand on his face, trying to wipe off what it could be. He pulled it back, only to realize it was the ink from his hand, and now it’s smeared all over his face.

Fear couldn’t take it anymore! He pushed Joy out and he stepped in.

“You know, I just remembered, my birthday is, uh, cancelled,” Ian said quickly. “Complete misunderstanding. Gotta go. Bye.” Ian quickened his pace towards the van, trying to get out of there as soon as possible.

Fear’s quickened breaths finally slowed. He gradually looked to his left then his right, catching the gaze and glares of the other emotions. He swallowed harshly before stepping back from the console.

“That’s it!” Anger began to march right up to Fear.

“No no no no no no!” Joy grabbed Anger and Disgust by their arms and ran off shouting out. “Let’s have a meeting! Emergency meeting! Right now! Sadness, Fear, watch Ian please!” The three disappeared from sight as they ran into a short hallway into the break room.

Fear couldn’t help it as he ran that direction, slowing his steps until he stopped by the entrance to the hallway. The break room had no door, so the three emotions were keeping their voices to a dull whisper. But soon Fear could make out an angry and a disgusted voice commenting things like “he’s falling apart… he can’t take it anymore, I can’t take it anymore… he’s worthless… Ian’s better off without him…” Sighing in defeat, Fear placed his back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position on the floor.

After Ian was seated in the van, Sadness looked over at Fear. With Ian fine for a while, Sadness approached the purple emotion sprawled out on the floor. “Hey… are you okay?”

“Yes… no…” Fear closed his eyes and rubbed them with his hands. “I don’t know…”

“It’s okay to be sad,” Sadness told him.

“For you it is,” Fear almost snapped back, before recoiling back into a worried depression. “Sorry, it’s just… a very bad day…”

Sadness nodded, he sat down next to Fear. A moment or two of silence passed, Sadness sitting with his hands held at his sides, and Fear looking away from Sadness, keeping to his own pity. Eventually, Sadness lowered his hands, placing one on Fear’s hand. A soft sniffle caused Fear’s slender nose to scrunch up a tad, before a tear dropped from his eye.

“I’m not doing a good job lately,” Fear finally admitted to Sadness. “Or… maybe I am… maybe I’m doing too good a job… I mean… I-I’m trying to do my part too, I’m trying to help Ian…” Sadness nodded. “I don’t know what’s gotten over me… things have gotten way too stressful for Ian, and now Joy told me you guys were talking about me behind my back…”

“Joy told you?” Sadness asked.

Fear immediately looked over at Sadness with shocked eyes. “What did you say?”

Sadness confirmed, “You said Joy told you?”

“I said that?” Fear took a double take as he heard the other emotions approaching. He shifted so he was kneeling in front of Sadness. “Don’t tell the others about this.”

“I-“

“Please please please.” Fear placed his hands together, begging.

Sadness nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you.” Fear stood up, giving Sadness a hand up as well. “Let’s get back to the console before they see us.”

“See us doing what?”

“Shh!”

----

Ian dragged his feet across his bedroom floor, dropping his dad’s sweatshirt onto a hope chest next to his desk. He flopped himself down at his desk, he took the small notebook out of his pocket. One by one, Ian crossed out the things on his list. Speak up more. Crossed out. Learn to drive. Crossed out. Invite people to party. Crossed out. Be like dad…

Ian hesitated, but admitted defeat. Crossed out.

Fear crossed out ‘be like dad’ on his list as well before sadly putting his notebook away.

The air in Headquarters was thick with silence and tension. Joy, Sadness and Disgust watched the screen, while Fear hung his head, and Anger eyed Fear with a scowl.

“That’s it,” Anger finally spoke up.

“Anger,” Joy told him, “you promised we wouldn’t talk about this.”

“Well I am talking about it!” Anger spat. He forcefully pointed a finger at Fear’s direction. “This guy is nothing but trouble!”

“Finally,” Disgust rolled his eyes.

“He’s not trouble,” Joy said, trying to crack a joke. “He’s a Fear.”

“He’s a menace!” Anger barked. “We’re trying to do our jobs, and he keeps taking over!”

“Exactly!” Disgust snapped. “Ian can’t be Ian when he’s scared all the time!”

Fear backed away as they emotions stepped forward. They were all in their argument, but appeared to be gaining up on him. Anger and Disgust kept yelling, Joy kept trying to diffuse the fighting, Sadness could only get one word in once in a while before getting cut off. It was building and building, piling on Fear, becoming too much. He placed his hands under his arms and squeezed tightly, his nerve curled up until it was hidden in his blue hair. He closed his eyes shut, trying not to listen, trying not to be there. But it just kept growing.

“STOOOOOOOP!!”

Fear finally opened his eyes to see the emotions staring at him in shock. Did he… was he the one who said that?

A ping sounded. Fear turned to see Dad Island lit up and active. The emotions turned to the screen. They watched as Ian pulled a small audio cassette out of his desk drawer labeled “Dad”

“Ian’s doing the thing again,” Sadness said. The emotions approached the console, stood and watched. They knew this ritual all too well.

Ian placed the cassette in the tape player and pressed play. He rested his head onto his arms folded on his desk. He listened. Two voices on the tape. One was muffled, but the familiar voice of his mom. The other was clear as day, a voice that became familiar with each replay:

“… I think I got it… Hello? Hello?... Is that right?... Well, I’m trying to… ha ha ha, I know… Well, let’s find out… Okay, bye…”

The tape stopped. After a brief melancholy pause, Ian pressed rewind.

Joy smiled, looking like he was going to burst. “I love this part. This is my favorite part.” The other emotions gave a little chuckle as they continued to watch.

Ian pressed play. He lifted his head, looking up at the cork board on the wall in front of him, tacked on were a couple of old, random pictures of his dad that he found in storage around the house over the years. He looked at one with soft eyes, and a softer smile. “Hi, dad.”

The tape replied. “Hello? Hello?”

“It’s me, Ian.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, right. Did you have a good day?”

“Well, I’m trying to.”

“Yeah, me too. Though I could clearly use some help. Sure do wish I could spend a day with you sometime. There’s so much we could do. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

“Well, let’s find out.”

“Yeah, I’d love to. We could-“

“Okay, bye.” Click.

Ian’s face fell. “Yeah… bye.”

The emotions smiled their usual melancholy smiles, with Sadness wiping away his usual tears. They watched as Ian sat alone in his room, feeling alone. But the emotions were reminded from Ian’s ritual their purpose. Ian is never alone. He has them, they are Ian. Ian may not have a dad, and the emotions wished as hard as he did that he did. But the emotions will always be there to make Ian’s life as complete as possible.

Except, Fear was feeling something a little different today. He glanced back at Dad Island, at the small display of pictures, replicas of the same pictures Ian had tacked to his cork board. Dad was confident, dad was bold. And Fear… he’s a Fear. Fear gave an exhale as he shrugged his shoulders, feeling as lonely as Ian was in that very bedroom.

----

An hour passed. Ian was in the living room, sewing up the popped seam on dad’s old sweatshirt. Disgust was at the controls, Joy on one side of the console, Fear on the other, with Anger and Sadness sitting nearby on a couch. Disgust was doing just fine, and Fear knew that. But with each stitch, and that sewing needle, it looked so sharp, and Ian could prick his finger at any moment.

“I think-“ Fear began, but stopped when Disgust glared at him. Fear hugged himself for a minute, before stepping forward towards the console. “But what if-“ Disgust held his hand out to stop him, and Anger growled. Fear went back to placing his hands under his arms.

As Family Island lit up, Joy once again tried to cut the tension with a nice distraction. “Oh look, it’s mom.”

Laurel sat down on the couch next to Ian. “You must have learned from a sewing master,” she joked.

“Yeah, a very humble sewing master,” Ian replied, finishing the last stitch on the seam. He put the needle and thread away. Ian brushed a finger across the name Lightfoot, the emotions saw Dad Island light up. “What was dad like, when he was my age?” Ian asked Laurel. “Was he always super confident?”

“Oh, no,” Laurel replied. “It took him a while to figure out who he was.”

Ian looked down at nothing in particular. “I wish I met him.”

“Me too. But you know what?” Laurel placed a comforting hand on Ian’s shoulder to get him to look back up. “When your dad got sick, he fought as hard as he could to see you more than anything.”

Ian just looked away, no response. The emotions watched as his island of personality went dormant. They looked at each other, just as speechless as Ian was, not knowing what to say, what to do. Even Fear was at a loss.

“You know,” Laurel finally replied. “I have something for you. I was going to wait until after your cake, but I think you’ve waited long enough.”

Ian looked up curiously. “What is it?”

Laurel smiled, revealing her excitement after all these years. “It’s a gift… from your dad.”

The emotions were in as big of a daze of wonder as Ian was. Even Fear couldn’t believe his ears. The purple emotion finally pushed that one word question out of his quivering lips. “… dad?”

#pixar inside out #pixar onward #sir iandore of lightfoot #ian lightfoot #barley lightfoot #joy #sadness #anger #disgust #fear #inside onward

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saiilorstars · 4 years

Text

Falling in Temptation

Previous chapters || Sequel to Stars Dance

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: 11th Doctor/ Female OC

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Ch. 4: A Wife, a Baby and a Secret

Chapter summary: The Doctor finally gets to meet his TARDIS in person...at the same time his biggest secret comes to light in front of Avalon. And why does the TARDIS keep calling them her 'thief and baby'?

Fairy Tale Memoirs (Companion story)

Rory was listening to the Doctor tell some type of weird tale while they waited for Avalon and Amy to come into the room for the newest of their trips. Rory tried keeping up with the Doctor but the man was all over the place with this story. It had to be fake.

"...then we discovered it wasn't the robot king after all, it was the real one. Fortunately, I was able to re-attach the head."

Rory rolled his eyes and thankfully saw Amy coming by from the stairs. "Do you believe any of this stuff?"

"I was there," Amy muttered as she walked by, "And you can only imagine how terrified Lena was and how awed Avalon was."

"Oh, it's the warning lights," the Doctor turned to the controls and slapped it, forgetting about his tale, "I'm getting rid of those, they never stop!"

"Maybe instead of getting rid of them you should try seeing what they're alerting you of," Avalon strolled into the room from the downstairs hallway. "Might be important, just a note."

"Woah, what are you all dressed for?" Amy took notice of Avalon's clothing, "Seem preppier than usual," she smirked.

"Shut up," Avalon tugged on her pink skirt. She was dressed in a white, long-sleeved, horizontally striped blouse, tucked under a pink skirt and accompanied it with knee-length brown boots. Her hair had a thin headband with a thin ribbon bow on its side keeping her ginger locks out of her face.

"Ava, any specific reason for your clothing of today?" the Doctor asked with a genuine curiosity, blinking rapidly with a slight tint of pink on his cheeks. He shook his head fast and looked at the console, pushing away all those nonsense thoughts away.

"Hold on, hold on," Rory stood up from his chair and moved to Avalon, giving her a sharp look. It seemed like he was beginning to remember something. "Lena?"

"Yes," Avalon nodded.

"Yearly visit from the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Doctor Ian?"

"Aha."

"And let me guess, promised some type of visit to...?" Avalon fiddled with her fingers as she deferred the answer, making Rory frown, "Ava," he rose his voice.

"He said he was gonna show me the city!" Avalon exclaimed, though since her eyes kept darting to the side it told Rory there was more to it than she was giving.

"AVA--"

"It's a party!" Avalon exploded from all the questions and looks being thrown at her. She never liked how much power Rory had over her when it came to telling the truth. "And I'm not gonna miss it for the end of the world!" Avalon hurried over to the Doctor, "So I'm gonna need you to do all that coordinates and stuff, please."

"I am not taking you to a party," the Doctor flatly said. He knew exactly what that led to, thanks to Amy and Rory. "I've heard of your track record for parties, and I don't think so!" he tapped her nose, later wondering if he should have really done that.

"Rory exaggerated," Avalon shot her best friend a glare.

Rory crossed his arms and looked at the Doctor, seeming very much certain of what he had said. "Take it from the person who's bailed her out every time she was thrown in jail and picked her up after she was too drunk...I have not exaggerated."

Avalon groaned, "Just take me home for the day! Ian promised and I intend to make sure it's followed through!"

"What is so important about this?" the Doctor had to question.

"I think you missed the whole party thing," Amy shook her head, "Woman loves a good party."

"I like to have fun, sue me," Avalon huffed.

"What, and I haven't provided enough fun for you?" the Doctor found himself asking, or rather demanding to know, and believed that to be a tad unnecessary. But still…he was fun, right? She always had fun when they were together…right?

Avalon took it as amusement and laughed, "Of course you have, but this is different. Look, Ian comes around once a year to check if everything is alright with Lena. The last time I saw him, I still wasn't 21 so I couldn't go anywhere. And then I came here with you so I've missed the opportunity. But I just called and Ian still offered to take me as he promised. It's important!"

At that moment, the group heard a knock on the TARDIS door, making everything go quiet while the Doctor whirled around for the doors.

"Hold on," Avalon shook her head, "Was that a knock?"

"I believe so..." the Doctor slowly walked for the doors.

"Right, but we are in deep space," Rory pointed out.

"Very, very deep," the Doctor nodded, hearing the second round of knocks.

"And you sure you want to open it when we're in deep space?" Avalon called, "Perhaps you should check the monitor to see what's waiting outside?"

"I thought you were all about the fun, Ava," he stopped at the doors and looked back at her with a smirk, "Why are you trying to ruin it?'

"Well because she's not stupid," Amy answered.

"Thank you," Avalon nodded, "Now get back here and check the-"

The Doctor opened the doors and ended that conversation. Waiting outside was a small box floating and glowing white, "Oh, come here. Come here, you scrumptious little beauty!" he reached for the box only for it to go whiz inside the TARDIS. It went around the room and made a turn back to him, hitting him in the chest and landing right into his hands.

"A box?!" Rory cried, getting over the small heart attack from the surprise box flying about.

"Doctor, what is it?" Amy wanted a closer look at the box but was still frightened it might try something again.

"I've got mail!" the Doctor exclaimed and walked back to the console.

"And you're excited because...?" Avalon wondered. If it was just random mail - junk mail - what was so cool about it?

"Time Lord emergency messaging system," the Doctor corrected her thoughts, "In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a Time Lord out there, and it's one of the good ones!"

"But you said there were no other Time Lords left," Avalon reminded cautiously, really hoping he hadn't forgotten that important detail.

"There are no Time Lords left in the universe, but the universe isn't where we're going!" he chucked the box over to Amy for them to see. Amy still stared at the box with some degree of horror as if it would come back to life. "See that snake on it? The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration," the Doctor started going around the console to start the box up, "Didn't feel like himself without the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooh, she was a bad girl!" the TARDIS shook suddenly and nearly knocked them all to the floor.

"What's happening?!" Avalon cried as she held onto the console.

"You don't mind if I attend to this first instead of your little party trip, do you?"

"I guess not!"

"Good, because we're already leaving the universe!"

"How can you leave the universe?" Rory incredulously stared at the Doctor while also holding on.

"With enormous difficulty! Right now I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly," the Doctor flipped a couple switches, "Goodbye, swimming pool, goodbye scullery, sayonara, squash court seven!"

After several more jolts, the TARDIS finally stopped and allowed the group to gather their bearings.

"OK. OK," Rory looked at Amy and Avalon to make sure they were fine, "Where are we?"

"Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been," the Doctor smirked with pride...until the entire power wound down to a brim dim light.

"I don't suppose that's meant to happen...?" Avalon stared at the rotor that was nearly dark now.

"The power. It's draining," the Doctor breathed, stunned as he tried some of the controls, "Everything's draining! But it can't. That's... That's impossible."

"What is that?" Amy asked.

"It's as if the matrix, the soul of the TARDIS, has just vanished. Where would it go?"

"Well why don't we go and find out," Avalon rushed for the doors with the intention of opening them to see what laid on the other side.

"No, Ava! Don't!" Rory called after her, the ginger thankfully stopping as she reached for the doors.

"Really, Rory? The Doctor's just brought us to a place that's outside the universe, did you really expect me not to go run and find out what's out there?"

"I just don't want to get a call from outside the universe saying my best friend's been jailed," Rory sharply looked at her.

"Is it bad if I can see that already?" Amy barely managed to contain a laugh.

"Shut up," Avalon pointed at her, frowning, "Doctor?"

"Yeah, alright, c'mon," the Doctor hurried over, ignoring the calls of Rory who continued to be worried for his best friend.

Together, Avalon and the Doctor stepped out into a massively cluttered environment. It looked more like a dump than anything else. There were parts of all sizes from spaceships around as well as every day objects.

"So what kind of trouble's your friend in?" Avalon questioned distractedly as she moved around to the different piles of messes.

"He was in a bind, a bit of a pickle, sort of distressed," the Doctor tried to answer.

"Aw, you can't just say you don't know," Amy mocked a pout on her face as she and Rory stepped out.

"But what is this?" Rory made a face at the sight, not very impressed. "The scrap yard at the end of the universe?"

"Not end of, outside of," the Doctor reminded.

"How we can we be outside the universe? The universe is everything."

The Doctor put an arm around Rory's shoulders whole he explained, "Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside."

"OK."

Avalon rolled her eyes and turned around, hands on her hips, "And let me guess, it's nothing like that, is it?"

The Doctor pointed at her with a nod, "Exactly," he turned to the TARDIS and pit a hand on it, frowning at the sight, "Completely drained, look at her."

"I thought you said the TARDIS can refuel on rift energy," Avalon looked around, "And hello, energy right here," she gestured.

"Yeah, she'll probably refuel just by being here," the Doctor agreed and moved away from the TARDIS, "Now this place, what do we think, eh?" he picked up dirt and chucked it into the air, "Gravity's almost earth-normal, air's breathable, but it smells like..."

"Armpits," Amy finished with a sour face.

"That's the word I've been looking for!" Avalon laughed, Amy doing the same seconds later.

"Where did this stuff come from?" Rory wondered, seeing there were all kinds of clutter with no apparent pattern.

"There's a rift," the Doctor reminded, "Now and then, stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've fallen down it."

"Thief! Thief! You're my thief!" A young woman, Idris, dressed in a tattered Victorian dress, ran straight for the Doctor.

"She's dangerous!" called another voice, that of an other woman, Auntie, "Guard yourselves!"

Rory quickly grabbed Amy and Avalon and pulled them behind as Idris reached the Doctor, "Look at you!" she gaped at his face, "Goodbye! No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" she grabbed the sides of his face and kissed him.

"Watch out! Careful, keep back from her!" another man, Uncle, helped Auntie get Idris away from the Doctor, "Welcome, strangers, lovely. Sorry about the mad person."

"Why am I a thief?" the Doctor frowned at the accusation, "What have I stolen?"

"Me. You're going to steal me," she got to thinking then shook her head, "No, you have stolen me. You are stealing me. Tenses are difficult, aren't they?"

"Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head," Auntie shook the Doctor's hand, "They call me Auntie."

"I'm Uncle," the other man gave a small wave, "I'm everybody's uncle. Just keep back from this one, she bites!"

"Do I? Excellent," Idris cheered then promptly bit into the Doctor's neck.

"Ow! No, ow, ow!" the Doctor cried as they pulled off Idris.

"Oh, biting's excellent!" Idris clapped excitedly, "It's like kissing, only there's a winner!"

"Sorry. She's doolally," Uncle apologetically smiled.

"I think it's bit worse than that," Avalon mumbled but was heard by Idris.

"Oh! My baby!" Idris clapped and ran off to Avalon, encasing her in a big hug.

"Someone get the crazy woman off me!" Avalon waved her hands to the others, her eyes wide with alarm at the thought of the woman trying to bite her next.

"Idris, no, no," Auntie removed Idris off Avalon.

"And what was that about a baby?" Avalon raised an eyebrow at Idris.

"Oh, you know? The little small creature you have to, you know...?" Idris mimicked rocking a baby in her arms but all anyone did was stare at her.

"Right..." For safety reasons, Avalon decided to take several steps away from her. "Is that TARDIS field up already?" And she flinched when Idris let out a loud laughter, as if teasing her, "Did I say something funny?"

And just like that, Idris stopped laughing and turned to the Doctor, "Now you're angry...or, no you're not," she got to thinking again, "You will be angry," she pointed with a proud smile at her clarification, "The little boxes will make you angry."

"Sorry?" the Doctor stepped closer to her, alarmed at the coincidental use of 'boxes', "The little what? Boxes?"

"Your chin is hilarious!" She chuckled as she pinched his chin, once again stopping all of a sudden as she looked to Rory, "It means the smell of dust after rain."

"What does?" He raised an eyebrow, misunderstanding.

"Petrichor."

"But I didn't ask..."

"Not yet. But you will."

"No, Idris, I think you should have a rest," Auntie tried to reach for the woman again but Idris stepped off and looked around.

"Yes, yes, good idea!" Idris nodded, " I'll just see if there's an off switch," she dropped down to where Rory caught her, unconscious.

"Is that it?" Uncle questioned as Rory checked for vitals, "She dead now, so sad."

"Yeah, you really look like it," Amy noticed with distaste.

"She's still breathing," Rory concluded after a moment.

"Nephew, take Idris somewhere she can not bite people," Uncle ordered a near-coming Ood.

The Doctor turned to see the Ood coming around and smiled, "Oh, hello!"

Amy jumped at the sight and backed away, "Doctor, what is that?"

"It's all right. It's an Ood!" the Doctor walked over to the other alien, "Oods are good, love an Ood. Hello, Ood. Can't you talk?" he noticed the dim translator sphere, "Oh, I see, it's damaged. May I?" he opened the top half and started rewiring, "It might be on the wrong frequency."

"Nephew was broken when he came here. Why, he was half dead," Auntie shrugged, "House repaired him. House repaired all of us."

"I'm not sure that's the right word," Avalon mumbled and received an elbow on part of Rory who set down Idris, "Ow," she looked down at the scolding look he gave her, "Sorry," she mumbled with a frown.

As soon as the Doctor had finished with the translator sphere, a series of garbled messages were overheard by the group, "If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Help! I'm still alive! I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet," the Ood switched off the translator and left an air of awkwardness and tension around.

"What was that? Was that him?" Amy wondered as the Doctor turned to face them, rather confused himself.

"No, no, it's picking up something else. But that's... That's not possible," he mumbled to himself then looked at Auntie and Uncle, "That's... Who else is here? Tell me. Show me! Show me!"

"Just what you see. It's just the four of us, and the House," Auntie nodded, "Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?" the Ood did as told and took Idris away from them.

"The House?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "What's the House?"

"House is all around you, my sweets. You are standing on him," Auntie to the ground while Uncle jumped up and down for visuals, "This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"Meet him!?" Rory quickly shook his head at the idea.

"I'd love to," the Doctor nodded at the two inhabitants.

"This way. Come, please. Come," Uncle led them away but the group remained back for a couple of moments.

"Something's wrong," Avalon crossed her arms, "He's making that face again," she said as the Doctor turned to them.

"What face?" he frowned.

"That one," she pointed.

"What were those voices?" Amy agreed with Avalon and asked the question they all had.

"Time Lords. It's not just the Corsair," he started backing away into the direction Auntie and Uncle had gone off to, "Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of... Time Lords!"

~ 0 ~

The group entered a cavern where the Doctor immediately ran to a grate and looked down into it. Meanwhile, Auntie and Uncle moved towards the grate, "Come. Come, come," Uncle motioned to the humans, "You can see the House and he can look at you and he..."

"I see," the Doctor still observed the grate, "This asteroid is sentient."

"We walk on his back, breathe his air," Auntie said, "Eat his food..."

"Smell its armpits," Amy mumbled, Avalon snickering quietly as they walked around.

"And do my will," the two stopped at the different voice that now overtook Auntie and Uncle, "You are most welcome, travelers."

"Let me guess," Avalon put her hands on her hips, "That would be 'House' we're now talking to? It's a bit creepy, you know, taking over a body...bodies."

"Yes," the Doctor looked up at the controlled pair, "So you're like a... sea urchin. Hard outer surface. That's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside. That's you."

"That is correct, Time Lord," House answered.

"Ah! So you've met Time Lords before?"

"Many travelers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break."

"Someone should get him the definition of 'repair'," Avalon whispered to Amy and Rory, Rory giving a scolding look at her while Amy snickered quietly.

"So there are Time Lords here then?" the Doctor looked around the place in suspicion.

"Not any more," House replied, "But there have been many Tardises on my back in days gone by."

"Well, there won't be any more after us," the Doctor hopped off the grate, "Last Time Lord. Last TARDIS."

"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will," with that, House released the control over Auntie and Uncle.

"We're not actually going to stay here, are we?" Avalon asked him, already making faces, "No offence but this planet is a bit creepy..."

"It seems like a friendly planet," the Doctor tried to excuse his intentions and looked back Auntie and Uncle, "Literally. Mind if we poke around a bit?"

"You can look all you want. Go, look. House loves you," Auntie had cupped Amy's face with her hands, the Doctor noticing that one of the hands weren't exactly matching.

"Come on then, gang. We're just going to, erm... see the sights," the Doctor moved around the group and headed for the exit.

The others quickly followed into the tunnels where they could almost hear Idris shouting once again. The Doctor stopped in the middle of the tunnel and nearly made the others bump into him, "Sh, shh," he raised a finger as he listened.

"So what now, then?" Avalon moved around as she explored the tunnel, "I don't suppose we were actually going to 'see the sights'."

"You would suppose right," the Doctor nodded and began walking again.

"But as soon as the TARDIS is refueled, we go, yeah?" Rory tried to get them back on track, wanting to avoid trouble (if that was even possible).

"No. There are Time Lords here," the Doctor turned to them, "I heard them and they need me."

"You told me about your people," Amy reminded, never noticing him stiffen and tense, "And you told me what you did."

"What did he do?" came Avalon's innocent question of the hour. She then noticed the odd looks she was getting from Amy and Rory, and especially the guilty expression on the Doctor's face, "Hello, question asked and answer needed," she frowned at all the silence.

"Ava, I need a favor," the Doctor pointed at her, doing his best not to seem so...well, guilty.

"Like what?" she frowned again at the blatant ignorance she was getting for her question.

"I, um, need my screwdriver. I left it in the TARDIS, can you get it for me?"

"Are you gonna answer my question, then?"

"After you bring the screwdriver..."

"I'm holding you to that," Avalon warned and headed off.

"Are you kidding me?" was the first thing Amy had to say as soon as Avalon was out of hearing-distance, "You never told her what you did?" she raised an eyebrow at the Doctor who'd gone silent again.

"I did tell her..." he said meekly, shifting under the irritated glare of the ginger, "...just, not all."

Rory was as stunned as Amy. "I don't get it, you told Lena. How did you get around that with Ava? Why would you go around that?"

"I have my reasons, alright," the Doctor turned away from them, "Please don't tell her anything, that's all I ask."

"I'm sorry, have you met Avalon Reynolds? She's not gonna let it go," Amy shook her head, "What exactly did you tell her, just curious to know."

The Doctor sighed, "Same thing, same story, there was a war, it all ended..."

"How did it end?"

"...casualties, utter casualties from the war."

"Wait, so she thinks you just happened to survive? That's not like Ava, she's smarter than that. And you are kinder than that," Rory's voice of disapproval was affected the Doctor more than what he would've liked. It just added onto his guilt.

"Why would you do that?" Amy repeated the dire question, her anger fading once she saw the quiet, guilty behavior the Doctor wore, "You told all of us but not her?"

"She's different, leave it at that!"

Amy glanced at Rory with a knowing look, assuming there was a 'special' interest in their ginger friend the Doctor wasn't willing to yet admit. "Alright, just...tell us what to do because she's really not gonna stop asking," Amy sighed.

The Doctor looked back at them, genuine plead in his eyes, "Please just tell her something else, please."

"We will, but...sooner or later, you're going to have to tell her what really happened," Rory sadly said to the man.

"I pick later," the Doctor mumbled.

"Well in the meantime you think about how you're going to word your answer, and the proper one," Amy clarified, "I'll buy you time by keeping her in the TARDIS. I assume the screwdriver was a ploy?"

"You would assume very right."

Amy rolled her eyes, "She's so gonna kill you later," she chucked her phone at him, "Stay out of trouble, Rory look after him," and she went off for the TARDIS.

"You should probably go because then Ava will try to kill her for attempting to distract her. Give me a call when you get there," the Doctor warned Rory who quickly nodded in agreement and hurried off. After being left alone, the Doctor took a breath and continued on his way, hoping to every deity he knew he could somehow defer the truth from Avalon. He just wasn't ready for her to know what he did and...

He shook his head, not even wanting to think about it.

~ 0 ~

As Avalon reached the TARDIS she realized she could be missing the truth being said back with her friends and so when she heard the calls of Amy and Rory nearing, she dashed to hide behind the TARDIS. She knew those two like the back of her hands, it would only be a matter of seconds until they started talking. She moved to the side and then carefully back to the doors and pressed an ear to listen in. But the sound of a lock went through her ear instead.

"Amy...Rory?" she called to them.

"Ava!?" Rory shouted, "What are you doing out there?"

"Being sneaky, what else?"

"Why'd you lock the door?" Amy added, sounding irritated.

"I didn't..." Avalon blinked with an idea, "...I did," she changed her declaration, "And I won't unlock it until one of you tells me what the Doctor did."

She heard Any scoff, and loudly, "He has the screwdriver, stupid! You didn't lock it."

"I'm gonna kill him," Avalon muttered, "Just tell me what he did!" she shouted to the others.

"It was...nothing," Rory came up with.

It was Avalon's turn to scoff, "Rory Williams the day you can lie will be the day of the apocalypse. Tell me what he did!"

"That's it, I'm calling the Doctor again," she heard Amy tell Rory.

Avalon growled with exasperation, a deep scowl forming on her face, "Ah, forget you two!" she turned and ran back the way she'd come from, determinant to know the oh-so-big-secret that fairy-tale man was hiding from her. Everyone else knew, why didn't she?

~ 0 ~

The Doctor had come across a small alcove in which he sensed there were more Time Lords, apparently, "Well, they can't all be in here," he frowned as he continued to hear more murmurs of voices from a cabinet. That certainly couldn't be right. He opened the cabinet and found it was full of more message boxes from which the voices were coming from. From behind, Auntie and Uncle slowly came in, "Just admiring your Time Lord distress signal collection," the Doctor bitterly remarked, "Nice job. Brilliant job. Really thought I had some friends here... but this is what the Ood translator picked up. Cries for help from the long dead," he tuned around, "How many Time Lords have you lured here, the way you lured me? And what happened to them all?"

"House, House is kind and he is wise," Auntie stuttered to say.

"House repairs you when you break. Yes, I know!" the Doctor snapped loudly, making the two flinch, "But how does he mend you?" he took out the sonic and used it on Uncle, "You have the eyes of a 20 year old."

"Thank you," Uncle smiled.

"I mean it literally. Your eyes are 30 years younger than you are," the Doctor pointed, going into a fit of angry rambles, "Your ears don't match, your right arm is two inches longer than your left, and how's your dancing, 'cause you've got two left feet. Patchwork people. You've been repaired and patched up so often, I doubt there's anything left of what used to be you," he put the sonic away and slapped Auntie's hand, "I had an umbrella like you once."

"Oh, now, it's been a great arm for me, this," Auntie held up her arm with a smile.

The Doctor stumbled back at the sight of the snake tattoo on her arm, "Corsair."

"He was a strapping big bloke, wasn't he, Uncle? Big fella," Auntie recalled with a chuckle, "I got the arm and then Uncle got the spine and the kidneys."

"Kidneys," the Doctor shook his head, "You gave me hope, and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it will do to me! Basically... run!"

"Poor old Time Lord. Too late. House is too clever," Uncle mumbled and ran off after Auntie.

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair in frustration and anger and turned to leave when he saw Avalon standing at the threshold. Oh, he knew what kind of additional trouble there'd be now. "Ava..." he took a cautious step towards her. Avalon ignored it and came straight up to him and hugged him, "Oh-okay..." confused, he hugged back.

"I'm so sorry for their cruel trick," she whispered sincerely. The Doctor fell into the hug and stayed silent for the moment, "I still want to know what you really did, apparently," she felt him stiffen and sighed as she looked up at him, "What's going on, Fairy Tale Man?"

The Doctor looked at her and tried to will himself to tell her but simply couldn't.

Seeing she'd get nothing right now, Avalon stepped back with a frown, "By the way, Amy and Rory are pretty crossed for locking them in," she crossed her arms.

"I got their call," the Doctor nodded, speaking quietly.

"You were planning to lock me up with them too," she huffed, "To avoid my questions, right?" She rolled her eyes at his silence and turned for the doorway, "Sometimes you frustrate me so much!" She threw her hands in the air.

"A-Ava!" the Doctor rushed after her.

Avalon ignored his calls and strode down the tunnels, knowing exactly where they needed to go. The distressed Time Lord continued to call for her, making Avalon feel rather special for a moment. Served him right.

~ 0 ~

"Alright you visionary, how'd you know about the boxes?" Avalon demanded from Idris as she and the Doctor came up to the cell Idris was in.

"Ah, it's my thief," Idris stood from her seat inside her cell and walked up to the door, "And my baby!"

Avalon raised an eyebrow at the woman's choice of words, "Okay, I can understand why you call him a 'thief' but-"

However, the Doctor scoffed loudly and intervened, "This coming from the woman who holds one of the biggest criminal records."

And then Avalon made a 'no talking' gesture with her hand, pressing her four index fingers over her thumb, "Sh! Avalon's talking," she flashed him a fake smile, "And Avalon is going to keep saying whatever she wants until her Fairy Tale Man decides to tell her the truth," she spat the last word with such attitude that even Idris winced for the Doctor.

"You know I bet the reason you don't know his big ole secret is because maybe you're special to him," Idris shrugged casually, smirking at the reactions of the Doctor.

"Yeah, or..." Avalon walked away from the Doctor with her hands on her hips, "...and I'm pretty sure this is the winning theory," she turned to face the man, now standing across him in the room, "The truth is he just doesn't trust me like he trusts everyone else."

"That is not true," the Doctor began to argue back, offended she'd think that despite all their time traveling together.

"Then prove it!" Avalon snapped, storming right up to him, "What did you do?" she demanded when they were face to face, nearly nose to nose in reality.

Idris sadly watched as the Doctor once again had that internal struggle to speak the words he had used with the others. Avalon just had no idea of the reason why she precisely was being kept away from the truth. It was actually rather sweet, (if you knew the reason, though). Idris could understand where Avalon was coming from based on her point of view.

"That's what I thought," Avalon sighed and stepped back from the Doctor.

"Ava, it's complicated," he began, but she shook her head and turned to face Idris.

"I tell you everything and this is what I get from you. I'm honestly disappointed, fairy-tale man," she moved up to the cell door of Idris's, unable to see the hurt etched onto the Doctor's face.

"What are you doing?" Idris questioned as Avalon took out a pin from her hair and stuck it into the lock.

"Avalon, we should wait..." the Doctor tried to stop her.

"No, you know she's the only one who can give you some answers. Therefore, we have to get her out."

"But we don't even know who she is!"

"Oi, how do you not know me?" Idris frowned, "Just because they put me in here?"

"They said you were dangerous," the Doctor soared her a glance as he tried backing Avalon away from the door.

"Not the cage, stupid. In here," Idris put her hands on her face, "They put me in here. I'm the..." she paused, "Oh, what do you call me? We travel. I go..."

At the sounds of the TARDIS wheezing, both Avalon and the Doctor froze and looked up at the woman inside the cell.

"The TARDIS?" the Doctor tilted his head.

Idris nodded joyfully, "Time and relative dimension in space. Yes, that's it. Names are funny. It's me! I'm the TARDIS."

"No way..." Avalon breathed and immediately looked up at the Doctor, "What are you going to do now?"

"No!" he exclaimed at her, still unable to believe such a thing. He stared at Idris and shook his head, "You're not! You're a bitey, mad lady. The TARDIS is up and downy stuff in a big blue box."

"What the hell does 'up and downy stuff' even mean?" Avalon made a face.

"Shut up!" she received his hand over her mouth, "You're not..." he looked at Idris up and down repeatedly, "...big, blue box?"

"Yes, that's me," Idris assured in amusement as she stared at the pair, "A type 40 TARDIS. I was already a museum piece, when you were young, and the first time you touched my console you said..."

"I said you were the most beautiful thing I had ever known," the Doctor remembered with a small smile, of course that all ended when Avalon bit into his palm with all her might, "OW!"

"When will you learn that, that will never end well for you?" she crossed her arms arms and frowned, "I've bitten the policemen arresting me, you are far easier."

"You are-"

"-you better watch those words Fairy Tale Man," Avalon warned as she stepped closer to him, her eyes narrowing, "Because the territory you step on with me is very thin as it is," at that, the Doctor shut his mouth and turned away, missing the wide smirk on Avalon's face. With triumph, she turned to Idris and continued to work on the lock, "So, you're the TARDIS?" Idris nodded, "As in the box that idiot over there decided to steal?"

"I borrowed her!" the Doctor argued with a violent finger pointed at Avalon.

"Borrowing implies the eventual intention to return the thing that was taken," Idris cut in before Avalon opened her mouth, "What makes you think I would ever give you back?"

"Why would you want him, though?" Avalon pointed at the Doctor, ignoring the loud huff the man gave at that. Oh yeah, she would be taking jabs. "I mean, there had to be have been smarter Time Lords..."

"Oi!" the Doctor cried.

"Much more fun Time Lords too..." Avalon continued, her smirk widening.

"Oi!"

"And you know, one that didn't dress like an idiot," Avalon added, making Idris laugh.

Hey!" the Doctor frowned, nearly stomping his foot.

Avalon finally got the door opened and stepped away to let Idris out. She turned to the man, "Well, you've got no argument right now, I mean look at you?" she gestured to his current choice of attire.

"There is nothing wrong with my clothes," the Doctor declared.

"Ha! Newsflash, no one wears bow-ties anymore," Avalon then ruffled his hair, "And where do I even start with this hair?"

"Are you really going to start with hair?" the Doctor had had enough and was going to give a comeback of the century, "Because I've got some comments for you!" he grabbed a piece of her hair between his fingers, a bit surprised at how soft it felt. For a moment, he let her strand of hair curl around his finger, making him lose his train of thought, "…and…and…"

Avalon watched him with small confusion, though a part of her face felt warm, "…and?" she cleared her throat and got his attention back.

"…and…your clothing!" he quickly racked his mind for an excuse. He let her hair drop from his finger and stepped back, suddenly aware he'd crossed several boundaries.

Avalon instantly tugged on her skirt, even glancing at her current outfit to remember what she wore, "What about my clothes?"

Idris watched in pure amusement as the two battled it out, if it could even be called a battle. Once the Doctor came around Avalon's face and saw she was genuinely worried he would say her clothes were no good, he stopped in front of her with a soft smile, "They look beautiful on you," he remarked.

Avalon blinked in surprise, "Oh...really?"

"Of course," the Doctor nodded, happy to see her looking better in less than a second, "You'll look amazing for your party."

Avalon knew she was blushing and thanked it was pretty dark around to hide it, "I get to go, then?"

"Yeah," he smiled.

"Uh, no," Idris raised a finger and moved over to them, almost more like stalked towards them. "She does not get to go."

"Oh c'mon," Avalon threw her hands in the air, groaning in frustration. "Not you too! Now I have to deal with a talking TARDIS matrix!" she crossed her arms and mockingly glared at Idris, "Why are you here again? No offence but..."

"House eats TARDISes," Idris shrugged, "And you're still not going," she added, making Avalon frown and huff.

"House what? What do you mean?" the Doctor was stuck on those important words.

"I don't know. It's something I heard you say," Idris pointed at him.

"When?"

"In the future," Idris moved towards Avalon, wagging a finger at her, "And no means no."

"House eats Tardises?" the Doctor repeated, confused, and confirmed Idris's prediction.

"Why can't I go?" Avalon frowned.

"There you go," Idris gestured to both of them, "What are fish fingers?"

"When do I say that?" the Doctor wondered, knowing or course it would be him to say that.

"Any second," Idris warned.

"Why does everyone tell me 'no'?" Avalon demanded.

"Of course! House feeds on rift energy and TARDISes are bursting with it. And not raw. All lovely and cooked, processed food… Mmm, fish fingers."

"Oh c'mon, you can't possibly be thinking of food right now when some asteroid thing is going to eat your TARDIS!"

"But you can't eat a TARDIS, it would destroy you," the Doctor countered but froze when he realized, "Unless, unless..."

"Unless you deleted the TARDIS matrix first," Idris pointed at herself.

"Hence why you're in there," Avalon pointed at her, receiving a nod of confirmation.

"But House just can't delete a TARDIS' consciousness, that would blow a hole in the universe," Idris said before the Doctor could even open his mouth, "He pulls out the matrix, sticks it in a living receptacle and feeds off the remaining Artron energy," she then glanced back at the Doctor with a smirk, "You were about to say all that. I don't suppose you have to now."

"Wait..." Avalon hurried for the exit, "...Amy and Rory are still in there..."

The Doctor realized as well and hurried with her, "They'll be eaten," he took out Amy's phone and ran with Avalon towards the TARDIS, "Amy! Amy! Rory, get the hell out of there!"

"Doctor, something's wrong," Amy was sounded concerned.

"It's House. He's after the TARDIS. Just get out, both of you!"

"We can't. You locked the door, remember?"

"But I've unlocked it," the Doctor checked his screwdriver in case.

"You stupid well haven't! Doctor, I don't like this!"

"That makes two of us," Avalon muttered as they finally reached the TARDIS, "Why'd you lock it in the first place!?" she smacked the Doctor's arm, ignoring the yelp he gave immediately for it, "Oh, that's right, to keep me away from you so I wouldn't force you to tell me your secret!" and then she smacked him again, "How'd that plan turn out, genius?" before she was able to smack him again, he hurried up to the TARDIS and used the sonic on the doors, "Yes, because the sonic worked the first time around-"

"SHUT UP!" the Doctor surprised her with the shouted order, "Just shut up and stay quiet for a minute!"

Avalon blinked, "You don't-"

"-no, be quiet!" the Doctor wouldn't let her finish, "For once, don't shout, don't move, just stay still and silent! Have you got that?" Almost meekly, Avalon looked down. The Doctor didn't take notice as he'd turned for the TARDIS again, "Open!" he snapped his fingers in hopes of getting the doors open. Of course, that also failed, "Amy! Rory!" he went back to pounding on the doors, only to hear the sounds of the de-materializing starting up and so had to step back as the box disappeared right before his eyes. He picked up the cellphone again and put it on his ear, "Amy? Amy, can you hear me?" but he received no answer. He put the phone away and sighed, "OK. Right. I don't... I really don't know what to do," then he had to smile a little because of its rarity, "That's a new feeling," he turned to Avalon.

The face she had was one of pure death. She'd gotten over her initial reaction and now was furious. Without a word, she slapped him across the face and growled in fury as she stalked off back to the tunnels, quickly or else she'd end up slapping him over and over and over.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor followed after Avalon in silence, irritated himself with her. They'd went back for Idris but didn't find her at her cell anymore and so went on a search, finally finding the woman/TARDIS back in the cavern room with Auntie and Uncle.

"The box is gone," Avalon declared as soon as they found her.

"Eaten?" Idris glanced at her, eyeing the very clear distance put between her and the Doctor.

"No, it left. Not eaten, hi-jacked," the Doctor sighed, "But why?"

"It's time for us both to go, and keep together," Auntie stood up from her spot and started to walk off.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Avalon went after her, "You can't just leave!"

"Well, we're dying, my love. It's time for Auntie and Uncle to pop off."

"I'm against it," Uncle input with a resigned tone.

"It's your fault, isn't it sweets?" Auntie looked past Avalon to the Doctor.

Avalon scoffed, "Who could've guessed that one?" she crossed her arms and turned to the man.

"First of all, be quiet," the Doctor pointed at her, "You're angry and your temper is rising-"

"Good, you'll finally see what happens when it reaches all the way up here," Avalon raised her hand as high as possible, "Can't wait to find out myself. But you know what I'd really like right now? To know exactly how you messed this one up," she glanced back at Auntie with a sweet smile, "How exactly did he do that?"

"He told House it was the last TARDIS. House can't feed on them if there's none more coming, can he?"

"Hear that..." Avalon glared at the Doctor, "Now because of you, my best friend and his wife are stuck in a box controlled by 'House' while we're stuck on some stupid planet outside the universe!"

The sound of Auntie falling to the ground ended the argument. The Doctor hurried to the woman while Uncle stood up, "Actually, I feel fine," though he did not and fell beside Auntie.

"Not dead. You can't just die!" the Doctor shouted in frustration at the pair, both they were long dead now.

Idris ignored the panic and stood up, "We need to go to where I landed, Doctor. Quickly."

"Why?" Avalon asked, curiously.

"Because we are there in three minutes. We need to go now!" Idris started to run but felt a jab on her stomach and yelped in pain, "Ow! Roughly, how long do these bodies last?"

The Doctor tool the sonic out and scanned her while Avalon helped sustain her, "You're dying," he realized.

"Yes, of course I'm dying," Idris didn't seem too surprised as she snatched the sonic from him, handing it over to Avalon who in awe immediately took it, "I don't belong in a flesh body. I could blow the casing in no time.'

Avalon took a step back, "That would've been good information earlier," she wearily stared at the woman/box, "But, uh, anyways, what are we going to do?" she looked led at Idris and the Doctor with an expectant expression.

"Oh I thought you were mad at me," the Doctor smirked.

"I am, but I'm no idiot," she wiped the smirk off his face, "You and her are the only ones with the knowledge to get me back to my world. So get to focusing and get me out of here!"

"On what? How? I'm a madman with a box, without a box!" he tried to snatch the screwdriver from her, "I'm stuck down the plughole at the end of the universe on a stupid old junkyard! Oh."

Avalon knew that look he had on his face, it meant there was a plan brewing, "What is it?" she put her hands behind her back along with his sonic.

"No, I'm not," he mumbled to him in thought.

"Not what?" even Idris was curious to know what he was thinking of.

"Cos it's not a junkyard. Don't you see? It's not a junkyard!"

"And he lost his eyesight too, what a shame," Avalon mocked-sighed as she moved around.

"You, calm down," Idris pointed at her and glanced at the Doctor, "What is it, then?"

"It's a TARDIS junkyard!" the Doctor exclaimed, still trying to get his sonic from the ginger to no avail, "Come on! Ooh, sorry," he stopped his attempts and looked at Idris, "Do you have a name?"

"700 years, finally he asks," Idris shook her head, Avalon smiling at the sarcasm the woman displayed.

"But what do I call you?"

"I think you call me... Sexy," Idris put her hands on her hips.

The Doctor's eyes widened, startled she'd just released private information, "Only when we're alone!"

"You can have this back," Avalon chucked him his sonic, the man scrambling to catch it, "Because that is gold compared to a stupid sonic screwdriver," she laughed as she headed for the exit.

"Look what you did," the Doctor muttered at Idris who was smirking, "She won't be letting that go, ever!"

"Well at least she won't be angry with you anymore," Idris pointed out as she crossed her arms, "Because we both know how her temper is," she laughed suddenly, "Even as a newborn she was quite the arguer!"

Knowing Avalon was gone, the turned to Idris completely serious, "You knew her as a baby?"

"Of course!" Idris waved him off and moved for the exit, "You brought her in when she was just a little baby," she mimicked the rocking of a baby.

"I brought her in..." the Doctor repeated in confusion. There were so many things that didn't make sense about Avalon and now he had this piece of information? He frowned. "Who sent her that letter?" he asked quietly. "You're the TARDIS therefore you must know who gave Avalon the letter that warns her she's in danger? Who sent it?"

Idris' face softened, giving the impression that she did know something. "What the letter says is true. She's in danger but you can keep her safe. It's what you've been doing right?"

"You're not answering the question!"

"And you know I can't. It's all fixed points."

"Suddenly I think she should be mad with me," the Doctor muttered and went after Avalon. Each time he tried to get some answers, all he got instead were reminders that he would play a part in whatever was coming for her.

Idris watched after him with a grim face, neither knew what was to come, nor what had already come. What's worse what she had to keep quiet or it could bring, terrible, terrible, consequences.

~ 0 ~

The Doctor had an impossible idea to recreate a console with the different remnants of TARDISES around. And even though Avalon was still crossed with him, she handed back the screwdriver for him to use on their work ahead. She was smart, she knew, but she was no where near competent enough to build another TARDIS console from scratch. So, while he and Idris worked on that console, she stood to the side with her arms crossed as she stood staring at the two. And because she was still crossed with the Doctor, she was quite enjoying herself as she watched him struggle to pull a piece of wall with a rope.

"Bond the tube directly into the Tachyon Diverter," Idris called, eyeing Avalon with an amused smile, knowing the ginger was far more amused with the Doctor's struggle than she ought to be.

"Yes, yes, I have actually rebuilt a TARDIS before, you know. I know what I'm doing," the Doctor rolled his eyes.

"You're like a nine-year-old trying to rebuild a motorbike in his bedroom. And you never read the instructions."

"I always read the instructions!"

"Ha!" Avalon scoffed loudly, taking a seat on a pile of scraps and crossing her arms, "That's as true as saying I'm a perfect little angel."

"You're not," Idris pointed at her, "And wipe that smirk off your face, Doctor," she glanced at the alien in time to see him surprised she'd caught him without looking, "You know, there's a sign on my front door. You have been walking past it for 700 years. What does it say?"

"Oh, this ought to be good," Avalon smirked.

"Shut up!" the Doctor exclaimed at her then looked at Idris with a frown, "That's not instructions!"

"There's an instruction at the bottom. What does it say?" Idris asked, expecting some type of defer from the answer.

"Oh, I know!" Avalon raised her hand, knowing it would stick it to the Doctor right in the ego, "Pull to open!" she clapped her hands and smirked at the Doctor, "And I know exactly what he does."

"Be quiet," he snapped, although the ginger didn't seem to mind she was only infuriating him more.

"You push the doors open," she continued with an even wider smirk.

"Every single time. 700 years," Idris had to join in, although she didn't do it to irritate the Doctor more, "Police Box doors open out the way."

The Doctor threw down the rope in anger and stalked towards the two, "I think I've earned the right to open my front doors any way I want!"

"Wow, that was a great comeback," Avalon patted his arm and moved around him, "Told you, Idris, you should've gotten a better Time Lord pilot."

"That is it!" the Doctor whirled around and went after her, "I am sick of your sarcastic little snaps just because I don't want to tell you something! Frankly, GET OVER IT!"

Deep anger set across Avalon's face as she turned to face him. "Yeah, get over the fact that the one person I look up to doesn't trust me like I trust him." And somehow, that anger faltered the more she thought about it. "Sure," she turned away from him.

The Doctor realized that was not the way he wanted to talk to her but after so much time taking her insults and remarks...he exploded. He never wanted to do that, ever, but everyone had their breaking point. He reached to touch her arm and turn her to him but he couldn't find the courage to do so. He took his trembling hand away and turned from her, avoiding the stare of Idris as well. Without knowing, Avalon had walked several steps away from him and Idris as her tears grew harder to keep inside.

~ 0 ~

With the makeshift console having three walls set up and its console nearly finished, Idris took chance to try and get Avalon to rejoin her and the Doctor. The ginger had stayed away for quite some minutes since her last 'conversation' with the Doctor. Idris was trying to remain impartial to both sides, seeing faults in both of them as well as some good points for each, but really disliked it when Avalon was upset. That was why she always made sure she led Avalon straight to the Doctor when she was in need of help. Who else than him, right?

"Hey..." Idris felt nervous to initiate conversations, probably due to the fact she never had a conversation with anyone with actual words coming from her mouth. She didn't even have a mouth! She knelt down beside Avalon, the ginger with her arms crossed and gaze on the floor, her eyes visibly red from the quiet tears that had been flowing down her face.

"I don't need a pity talk," Avalon spoke quietly, not even looking at Idris, "Leave me alone."

Idris stared at the woman for a couple minutes before speaking up again. "A little fairy comes at night, her eyes are blue, her hair is brown..." As Idris started reciting the poem, Avalon's eyes flickered to the woman in shock. "...with silver spots upon her wings, and from the moon she flutters down..."

"I've heard that before..." Avalon said quietly and quickly tried remembering where on Earth she'd heard those lines. "That's a poem. I know it's a poem but I just..."

"The Dream Fairy," Idris gave her the name of the poem. "I thought you'd remember some of it."

"But where did I hear that from?" Avalon remained puzzled even after ransacking her mind for the stupid poem.

"It'll come to you later," Idris dismissed it and moved onto the more pressing matter. "You and the Doctor...this argument cannot continue."

Avalon rolled her eyes. "Of course you'd take his side. You don't trust me either."

"No, no, it's not that, and stop saying that!" Idris scolded.

"I don't get it," Avalon continued sadly, "He's told Amy, Rory, he's even told Lena! Heck, I bet even River Song knows about this than me. Everyone knows but me, why?" she looked at Idris, "Everyone says it's not because he doesn't trust me...what's the reason then?"

It broke Idris's heart to see Avalon like that. Idris knew the Doctor meant well, she understood his reasons, but it was beginning to cause a wedge in his relation with her. That was something Idris would never permit, not as long as she was around. She looked over to the Doctor, knowing very well he'd been eavesdropping as usual, and gave him a stern look. Upon realizing what she was going to do he dropped what he was doing and violently shook his head and hands, eyes wide as could be.

"Do you know why he's afraid to tell you?" she began questioning Avalon.

"Afraid?" Avalon repeated in confusion.

"Mhm," Idris nodded her head, discreetly glancing at the Doctor to see him still shaking his head at her, "You have such a wonderful image of him, adorable one too," she winked and Avalon blushed.

"Privacy means nothing to you people," Avalon mumbled, eyeing Idris, "Or boxes."

Idris chuckled, "Honey, I'm a box, I see everything whether I want to or not," she shrugged, "And that includes writing," she tapped Avalon's nose, "Sorry about that. But because I see everything, I know how you look at him and how much he wants to keep it like that," Avalon raised her eyebrows in confusion. Idris glanced at the Doctor one more time to let him know she was going through with it, much to his horror, "The reason he won't tell you that big secret is because he doesn't want to lose the image you have of him."

"But...but I don't...I don't understand," Avalon shook her head and looked back to the Doctor but saw him already coming towards them, as well as throwing a glare at Idris for some reason.

"What do you call him?" Idris urgently asked her, seeing their time was about to end.

"What?" Avalon was too distracted to focus on the question.

"The Doctor, what do you call him all the time? C'mon Ava," Idris tugged on the gingers sleeve.

"Leave it alone," the Doctor snapped at her as he neared them.

"No, I will not," Idris snapped right back, "I love both of you and I will not dismiss this opportunity where I can actually talk to help both of you. Avalon," she looked at the ginger again, "Please, what do you call him, eh? That name you gave him when you were just seven years old."

"Fairy-tale man," Avalon answered slowly, still in confusion.

"And that is exactly what he doesn't want to lose," Idris smiled sadly, "That image you have of him since you were seven."

Avalon stood up and faced the Doctor, slightly less confused, "Is that true?"

"Well..." the Doctor shifted on his feet, unable to look her in the eyes.

Avalon didn't need him to actually say the answer, she could see it clearly from his nervousness and stance, "What can be that bad that you would think that?" but she received no answer from him nor Idris, "Is it...is it really that bad?" she asked in a whisper.

"Honestly, Ava, yes," the Doctor reached for her hands and tugged her closer, "It's awful, the worst thing you will hear about me, and I'm...I'm scared of what you'll think of me afterwards."

"But you told everyone else," Avalon quietly reminded, "You weren't afraid with them?"

"Of course I was..."

"Then?"

"I don't know, Ava, I just...I want you to keep seeing me as that fairy-tale man you always call me. The one that always comes and rescues people in need, one that you're not afraid of..."

"I could never be afraid of you, silly," Avalon smiled, touched he had that much care for some nickname she appropriated on him as a child.

"You might be after you know."

"Was Lena afraid of you after you told her?"

"Well, no..."

"Then?"

"Really, Ava, I don't know why it's so hard with you..." the Doctor sighed, missing the sharp look Idris threw at him.

He really is an idiot, she thought. Even Avalon was being slow on it! Oh, as soon as she was back where she belonged she would take it upon herself to push them together. It had been amusing at first to watch them but it'd grown a bit agitating once the blushing and cute little comments got old...like right now.

"Well I don't know if this'll make a difference or not but it really hurts me to know that everyone else knows your secret except for me," Avalon took her hands back with a sigh, "Makes me feel like an outcast."

"No, Avalon, that's not..." the Doctor tried to mend the issue but Avalon forced a small smile as she moved away from him, "...it's not like that," he sighed and gave up.

"Well good going, genius," Idris set her hands on her hips as she moved up to him.

"Why would you tell her that!?" he demanded from her with irritation, "That was something she didn't need to know!".

"Better question would be why haven't you told her that?" she countered then laughed, "You mean well, but you have to understand that you're hurting her and that's the last thing you want, right?"

"Of course, it's just hard, no one gets it..." the Doctor huffed and looked away.

"Not even you," Idris rolled her eyes at his obliviousness, "Idiot," she muttered.

After a couple more minutes, the makeshift console had finally been completed. The trio stood a couple feet away from it while they studied it.

"So...that is supposed to get us back to the TARDIS?" Avalon asked after a good moment of silence.

"It's perfect!" the Doctor exclaimed, "What could possibly go wrong?"

Avalon watched as one small piece fell off the console. "That," she pointed at it.

"That's fine, that always happens," the Doctor waved it off, looking away with a face, "No! Hang on! Wait!" he ran off with the women watching after him. He returned holding a bright, red rope with him.

"Why?" Idris sighed in resignation, never used to the deranged ideas her thief always had.

"You know...for princesses...and stuff," he eyed Avalon with a smile, hoping she'd be less angry now since she was accepting to be this close to him and Idris.

"VIP," Avalon gave a light chuckle, making him beam.

Idris discreetly smirked as she moved up to the console, leaving them to follow. The Doctor led Avalon up to the console and secured the ropes around and latched them to the console.

"Right. OK, let's go," the Doctor made sure they were all set to go, "Follow that TARDIS!" he flicked a couple switches to the console but unfortunately they weren't going anywhere.

"What's happened?" Avalon frowned, seeing the complete fail of the console.

"It can't hold the charge. I can't even start it," the Doctor tried a couple more switches to no avail, "There's no power! I've got nothing!"

"Oh, my beautiful idiot," Idris rolled her eyes, "You have what you've always had - you've got me," she kissed her finger and made it glow with energy as she placed it on the central column. Avalon watched in pure awe as the energy circled them with a field and set them to dematerialize.

First thing they did when they were off was to send a message to Amy and Rory, thankfully Idris was able to do so with the TARDIS telepathy circuits. They were left directions to head back to the old control room where they would lower the shields of the box. They could guess that the humans were in a bit of a pickle with House controlling the TARDIS and so hoped they would get there soon.

Amy and Rory had to do a guessing trick to avoid being hit by the nearing makeshift console. Thankfully, the trio appeared on the other side of the console room, on the floor.

"Doctor!" Amy sighed of relief as the man stood up.

"Rory!" Avalon jumped to her feet and rushed to hug him, really glad to see him again. She felt Idris stand slowly with a hand on her hip, "Not good. Not good at all," she took a breath and thanked the Doctor who returned to help her, "How do you walk around in these things?"

"With our legs," Avalon pointed to her feet, earning a mock-glare from Idris, "Just saying," she raised her hands in defeat.

"What's going on?" Rory eyed Idris with reluctance, not too keen to have his best friend near a crazy woman.

"Rory, Amy, this is..." the Doctor couldn't even find the right introduction, "Well, she's my TARDIS. Except she's a woman. She's a woman, and she's my TARDIS."

Amy's jaw fell open, "She's the TARDIS?!"

"And she's a woman. She's a woman and she's the TARDIS."

"He wished that hard," Avalon smirked, making Amy laugh.

"Shut up!" the Doctor frowned and quickly looked at Amy for clarification, "Not like that."

"Wait for it, it gets better," Avalon bit her lip as she turned to Idris, "What's your name?"

"Sexy," Idris smirked.

"Oh," Rory looked between the two laughing gingers.

"I hate you!" the Doctor declared for Avalon, though part of him was slightly glad she was making her usual mock-insulting comments because it meant that she wasn't that angry with him anymore.

"The environment has been breached. Nephew, kill them all," House's voice rang through the room, reminding everyone there was still a bad guy to defeat.

"Where's Nephew?" Rory looked around for the missing Ood.

"He was standing right where you materialized," Amy pointed at the Doctor and Idris.

"Ah, well," the Doctor made a face, "He must have been redistributed."

Avalon caught his little face and sighed, "...and that means...?"

"You're breathing him."

All three companions covered their noses like a pack of dominoes, making the Doctor smile in amusement.

"Doctor, I did not expect you," House said.

"Well, that's me all over, isn't it?" he looked around, "Lovely old unexpected me."

"The big question is, now you're here, how to dispose of you? I could play with gravity..." House made the entire group fall down with the gravity and after a moment released them, though Idris couldn't stand up anymore and collapsed a second time. Avalon and Rory went to help her while House continued playing his tricks, "Or I could evacuate the air from this room and watch you choke," he then took out the air from the room, making everyone choke for air.

"You really don't want to do that!" the Doctor shouted.

House returned the air, "Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"Because then I won't be able to help you! Listen to your engines. Just listen to them. You don't have the thrust and you know it. I'm your only hope for getting out of your little bubble, through the rift, and into my universe. And mine's the one with the food in! You just have to promise not to kill us. That's all, just promise."

Idris took Avalon's arm and used it to tug her down where she whispered something to the ginger. For a moment, Avalon seemed confused at the words she was hearing, but after a moment it seemed to dawn on her...

"You can't be serious," Amy was scolding the Doctor for his lack of intelligence at the moment. House would kill them the moment they were back in the universe.

"I'm very serious. I'm sure it's an entity of its word," the Doctor calmly said and looked back at Idris, walking back to her as he saw her health quickly deteriorating, "Hey. Hang in there, old girl. Not long now. It'll be over soon."

Idris smiled, "I always liked it when you call me... old girl."

"You want me to give my word? Easy. I promise," House assured, though everyone knew that was a vile lie.

"Fine. OK. I trust you," the Doctor stood up, "Just delete, ooh, 30% of the TARDIS rooms, you'll free up thrust enough to make it through. Activate sub-routine Sigma-9."

"Why would you tell me this?"

"Because we want to get back to our universe as badly as you do. And I'm nice."

"And I really hope an idiot with a plan," Avalon mumbled to Rory who quickly agreed.

"Ye-e-s. I can delete rooms, and I can also rid myself of vermin if I delete this room first. Thank you, Doctor, very helpful. Goodbye, Time Lord. Goodbye, little humans. Goodbye, Idris."

A flash of light engulfed the room and left the group back in the current console room. The Doctor strode around the place with a small smirk, "Yes. I mean you could do that, but it just won't work. Hardwired fail-safe. Living things from rooms that are deleted are automatically deposited in the main control room. But thanks for the lift!" he looked back at the others, seeing Avalon and Rory standing but remaining by Idris's side while Amy stood up not too far away from them.

"We are in your Universe now, Doctor. Why should it matter to me in which room you die?" House seemed less than concerned, "I can kill you just as easily here as anywhere. Fear me. I've killed hundreds of Time Lords."

The Doctor had a good comeback that would silence that stupid entity right at the moment...there was just one thing getting in the way, one person. But that didn't matter anymore, Idris was right...in a long run his good intentions were hurting her. "Fear me," he swallowed hard, "I've killed all of them," he slowly glanced over his shoulder to Avalon.

Her eyes were wide after hearing those powerful words, almost matching her horror. She looked over to Amy for confirmation, the other ginger nodded her head silently.

"I don't understand, there isn't a forest in here," Rory's voice broke through the silence in the room.

"Yeah, you're right. You've completely won," the Doctor recomposed himself for House, "Oh, you can kill us in oodles of really inventive ways, but before you do kill us allow me and friends, Avalon, Amy and Rory to congratulate you on being an absolutely worthy opponent," he clapped his hands and grabbed Amy by the arm, forcing her to clap along with him.

"Congratulations!" Amy said awkwardly, still clapping even though knowing no reason why she was clapping in the first place.

"Yep, you've defeated us, me and my lovely friends here at last but definitely not least the TARDIS Matrix herself, a living consciousness you ripped out of this very control room and locked up into a human body and look at her!"

"Doctor, she's stopped breathing," Rory looked up from Idris.

"Enough!" ordered House, "That is enough."

"No. It's never enough. You forced the TARDIS into a body so she'd burn out safely a very long way away from this control room. A flesh body can't hold the TARDIS Matrix and live. Look at her body, House," the Doctor turned to look at Idris.

"And you think I should mourn her?"

"No. I think you should be very, very careful about what you let back into this control room," the Doctor watched the energy flow from Idris' mouth, "You took her from her home. But now she's back in the box again and she's free!" the energy streamed throughout the room, altering the green light of House back to the common gold.

"No! Doctor, stop this!" House was crying out in pain, "OW! Stop this now!"

"Oh, look at my girl, look at her go!" the Doctor cheered, "Bigger on the inside! You see, House?"

"Make it stop!"

"That's your problem. Size of a planet, but inside you're just so small!"

"Make it stop!"

"Finish him off, girl," the Doctor ordered, rather darkly.

For a couple more seconds the group continued to hear the cries of House. The room slowly turned back to its usual golden color, leaving them an eerie silence. The Doctor turned for Avalon, the ginger immediately taking a step back, too jumbled up to be able to have a decent conversation.

"Doctor? Are you there?" his attempt to get to the ginger was cut off by the Idris's call. He turned to see a glowing projection of her in front of the console, "It's so very dark in here."

"I'm here..." he softly said.

"I've been looking for a word. A big, complicated word, but so sad. I've found it now."

"What word?"

"Alive," Idris smiled, "I'm alive!"

"Alive isn't sad," the Doctor said in confusion.

"It's sad when it's over. I'll always be here. But this is when we talked and now even that has come to an end. There's something I didn't get to say to you."

"Goodbye?"

"No, I just wanted to say... hello," Idris smiled sadly, even through her projection one could see her eyes were teary, "Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you."

"Please!" the Doctor's eyes also teared up, "I don't want you to. Please!" but he had to step back as the projection dissipated, a bright light emerging soon afterwards along with the sounds of the TARDIS.

"I love you," they were able to hear Idris's last words.

"...where...?" confused, the Doctor faced the console, also in an attempt to hide his own face.

The companions looked at each other with uncertainty of what to do next. However, Avalon was quietly mumbling words under her breath, the same ones Idris had repeated to her earlier, growing distant with the seconds.

~ 0 ~

Later on, Amy and Rory came down underneath the console where the Doctor sat on the swing fixing up the mess of wires House had left behind.

"How's it going?" Rory asked.

"Just putting a firewall around the Matrix. Almost done."

"Are you going to make her talk again?" Amy wondered as she took a seat on one of the stairs.

"Can't," the Doctor shook his head.

"Why not?" Rory curiously asked.

"Spacey-wacey, isn't it?" Amy chuckled.

"Well actually," the Doctor stopped with the wires to explain, "It's because the Time Lords discovered that if you take an eleventh-dimensional matrix and fold it into a mechanical then..." and Rory then touched two wires together, making them spark, "Yes, it's spacey-wacey!" the Doctor shooed the human off.

"Sorry. At the end, she was talking. She kept repeating something," Rory recalled the odd words of Idris, "I don't know what it meant."

The Doctor stood up, "What did she say?"

"The only water in the forest is the river. And that harmony is part of a melody. She said we'd need to know that someday. It doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Not yet."

"But she told Avalon something too," Rory remembered, "And it was different."

"Speaking of, where is she?" the Doctor looked behind the two companions in hopes of catching a glimpse of the other ginger who'd been away for some time now. Though he could imagine why she'd made no appearance...

"She's in her room," Amy shrugged, eyeing the concern of the Doctor, "Just give her some time, she'll come out when she's ready."

"Yeah, everything's going to be fine," Rory assured, "I know Ava like the back of my hand. She's just got some thinking to do, that's all. And you know what happens when she thinks..."

"She writes," both Rory and the Doctor said together.

"Which means it'll be hours before she'll come out," Amy stood up with a tired sigh, "So it's time for bed."

"The House deleted all the bedrooms. I should make you two a new bedroom," the Doctor recalled, "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Rory whispered several words to Amy, "OK. Doctor, this time, could we lose the bunk beds?" she asked the Doctor, "You didn't give Avalon nor Lena one."

"First of all, when the TARDIS made Avalon a room I sort of made sure it would be a room that she loved due to the fact our beginning wasn't in good terms," the Doctor pointed at them, making both humans recall the very tensed relation he and Avalon shared during the early days, "And second of all, Lena needed a proper room for her health. I wouldn't dare mess with that."

"So you gave us the crappy rooms," Amy huffed playfully.

"No, I gave you the coolest, fun rooms! bunk beds are cool. A bed with a ladder! You can't beat that," the Doctor insisted. He received the sharp looks from them and sighed, "It's your room. Up those stairs, keep walking till you find it. Off you pop!"

"Doctor, do you have a room?" Rory inquired as Amy grabbed him and pulled him up the stairs.

The Doctor wiped off a few more spots in the wires, ignoring the question. His mind was a bit too focused on Avalon and how she was reacting to his actions. He was truly terrified of what could happen once she came out of that room. In fact, he was a bit curious to go and knock and just get her words straight in the face.

What was taking her so long!?

~ 0 ~

Avalon finished writing the last words in her journal, looking at the lines she'd written. She sat on her bed with her back to the headboard, had been for some time now. She read the words she wrote over and over, her brain too jumbled to understand them.

A little fairy comes at night,

Her eyes are blue, her hair is brown'

with silver spots upon her wings,

And from the moon she flutters down.

She has a little silver wand,

And when a good child goes to bed

She waves her wand from left to right

And makes a circle round her head

And then it dreams of pleasant things,

Of fountains filled with fairy fish,

And trees that bear dilicious fruit,

And bow their branches at a wish;

Of arbours filled with dainty scents

From lovely flowers that never fade,

Bright flies that glitter in the sun,

And glow-worms shining in the shade;

And talking birds with gifted tongues

For singing songs and telling tales,

And pretty dwarfs to show the way

Through fairy hills and fairy dales.

Avalon sighed as she once again had nothing from this poem that Idris said to her. "Where did this come from?" she looked up at the ceiling, "Why did you tell me this poem?" there was a light hum she received back, "I don't get it, I don't..." she snapped shut her journal and placed it beside her, rubbing her temples afterwards,

Avalon let everything go and stood up, taking a deep breath as she stared at the door. Suddenly, her phone went off and startled her. She went to her desk where her phone laid and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Avalon, where are you!?" Lena's voice was loud enough for Avalon to flinch again, "Ian's here and he says if you want to go to that party it's still up for grabs."

"Party, right," Avalon whispered, barely remembering she had even gotten dressed for the big ole party.

"Avalon, what's going on? You coming or not?" Lena asked, already suspecting something was wrong with her sister.

"Um, yeah, yeah," Avalon nodded slowly as she realized that perhaps a party was just what she needed. She smiled brightly as she got more into the idea, "Yeah! I'll be there in five!" she hung up and dashed out the door with the phone in hand.

She was running with a genuine smile as she thought of all the fun she was about to have, especially after the events that took place earlier in the day, "Doctor" she called and came to a skidded halt in the console room as she saw he was silently going around the console, also probably thinking of the earlier events, "Um..."

"You're out," the Doctor gasped lightly, his face lighting up at the sight of her, "You came out..." he moved to meet her but remembered she knew his secret and became nervous of what she could do.

"Yeah..." Avalon nodded slowly, "...em, I got, um..." she waved her cell phone, making the Doctor assume the worst.

"You can't go home!" he shook his head fast, "Please! I know what I did was awful and you can't see that fairy-tale man you always saw me as-"

"I'm not going home, Doctor," Avalon shook her head, scoffing at the idea.

"You're...you're not?"

"No," she crossed her arms, sadly watching him, "I'll admit it's no easy thing to assimilate...and after today..." she trailed off as he turned to the console, looking even more mortified. She felt uncomfortable and awkward seeing as how she acted all day to him over the secret. She sighed and reached for his arm with her free hand, "Can I say...I'm sorry for my behavior today?"

"You're apologizing," the Doctor blinked, really not that one. She'd done nothing wrong unlike him!

"I was out of line and I'm sorry, and since this probably won't be the last time this happens I'll apologize in advance."

He had to smile at that, "At least your sense of humor is coming back, let's me know you're not that upset."

"I'm sorry for what happened with, um..." she looked at the console with a sad smile, "...she was so eccentric and yet so...warm and kind. You did good in taking her."

"You think so?"

"Brought you to us, didn't it?" she smiled brightly, "Turned our sleepover upside down! And...I think she took a good Time Lord too," she added.

"Really?" the Doctor started to smirk seeing she was taking back all her insults.

"Yes, but-" she raised a finger, "-all my previous statements about your clothing and hair still stand," and she wiped that smirk off his face.

"Oh c'mon!"

Avalon laughed at him, "C'mon you," she gestured, "It's the 21st century! In fact I was born in the 51st century and people still didn't wear...that," she dragged a finger up and down in the air at him.

"Well...at least your laughing again," the Doctor sighed, resigned to hear any other complain she had about his clothes.

Avalon looked at him for that, always intrigued why he let her remarks slide when no one else did. It just showed how much better of a person he was than her, "And listen...about the secret, and stuff, um..." but the way the Doctor instantly fell grim and glum made her not want to continue.

It was clear it was a private matter that still troubled him and she had no right to question about it nor dig into it. She got what she wanted in the end, to know what he had done. Suddenly, winning was no fun this time round. Today he'd lost so much and she hadn't helped one bit, the least she could do now was act like a true friend, because that's all he'd been doing to her ever since they met.

She ended up hugging him, much to his surprise. She could never come up with the right words for what he had to have gone through in hat war, so a hug would have to suffice. The Doctor of course wasn't expecting it, but he wasn't going to reject it either. He knew it was her way of saying things were okay, how could he not hug back?

The sound of her phone vibrating startled Avalon into pulling away. She looked at the lock screen and read the message, from Lena, telling her to hurry up or Ian would drop the party offer.

"Is that for your party?" the Doctor pointed, remembering such plan, unable to help the disappointed tinge in his tone. He didn't like the idea of her going off with some guy to a party where anything could happen, because bad things could happen, and he didn't want Avalon to be hurt. That was it.

"Um...yeah," Avalon looked up at him, registering his expression, "My party got cancelled," she spoke slowly and bit her lip, "Ian realized I was too much of a troublemaker and didn't want to take a risk on me. Oh well," she glanced down at her phone for a moment as she replayed what she'd just said.

Why had she just said that!? She'd been looking forward to this party for years! It was all she could talk about with Ian every time they saw each other. As soon as she turned twenty one she'd hit those clubs! Why had she just done that?

"Really?" the Doctor immediately asked, a small smile escaping through his lips, "Canceled..."

Avalon saw his brighten up face and nodded, throwing away all those thoughts she had in her mind. It was definitely worth it, "Mhm, oh well. Um, maybe you want to do something?" she asked, eyeing the console, "Maybe get your mind off this day?"

"Y-yeah, that sounds...that sounds really great, actually," the Doctor nodded, his smile widening.

"In fact, I already got an idea!"

"What is it?"

"How do you feel about a fencing match?" Avalon raised an eyebrow a tint of a smirk already playing on her lips, "And we can make it interesting, of course."

"Fencing?" the Doctor said with reluctance.

"I'm sure the TARDIS wouldn't mind creating a fencing room for us, wouldn't you dear?" she called to the box and received several hums back, making her laugh, "I think it's done! So how bout it, then, hm?" she stepped closer to him, "I challenge you."

"I don't know, Ava..."

"C'mon, are you afraid I'll beat you?"

"I've had my shares of fencing practices," the Doctor informed her, "It'd be cheating if I accepted."

"Sort of what happened with my playing cards," she raised her arm where his old watch was still strapped to her wrist, "And that's how you lost this," she tapped the glass of his watch.

"You cheated!"

Avalon laughed again, "Then here's your opportunity to win it back. Wanna hear my wager?" the Doctor sighed but nodded for her to go on, "Okay, if I win, I get to keep your watch and..." her eyes drifted to the console, the Doctor following her gaze with dread, "You have to teach me how to drive this box."

"Oh, Ava..."

Avalon clapped her hands together, already so excited for the match, "What's yours?"

The Doctor hace her a sharp look, not too keen on letting her have that wager...until something else hit him, something he'd always been curious to know about, "If I win..." he began and smiled as Avalon beamed that he'd accepted, "...I get that back, first of all," he pointed at his watch, "And..." and he started smirking, "...you have to tell me about those stories you wrote about me I always hear about."

Avalon's eyes widened, making his smirk widened, "But then you'd know..." she whispered, going pale just at the thought.

"Know what?"

"You can't-" she began to protest but received a hand to stop her.

"Those are the wages, deal?"

She made a face at him but ended up shaking his hand, the only good thing being that he was looking more happy, "Deal," she said to him.

"Excellent!"

"Let me just make a call first..." Avalon waved her phone and backed away. She loved the look of excitement on his face and so hurried to the corridors to make that call and get back to him. She quickly dialed Lena back and awaited for the line to be picked up, "Lena!"

"Avalon, where are you? Ian's getting impatient!" Lena exclaimed.

"Lena, listen," Avalon calmed her sister down and spoke in a hushed tone in case the Doctor was eavesdropping again, "Tell Ian thank you but I'm gonna pass on the party."

"What!? But that's like your number one thing on that bucket list you made!" Lena gasped, "What happened?"

"Something important came up," Avalon honestly said, smiling at what awaited for her back in the console room, "Tell Ian I said thanks but no thanks. Bye!" she hung up and tossed her phone back, knowing the I would eventually get it back to her bedroom. She hurried back to the console with a bright smile on her face, "All done," she informed with a light shrug, "You ready, then?" she then noticed the odd look on his face and became worried he'd thought about Idris again, "Doctor?" she cautiously walked up to him.

"I was thinking...maybe we could go somewhere first," he said quietly and turned to her, "I want to talk about that, um, 'secret' with you."

Avalon raised her eyebrows, unsure how to go about that delicate topic, "You don't have to...I mean, I got what I wanted. I know the secret. You don't have to explain yourself to me."

"I need to," the Doctor nodded, taking a deep breath as he reached for her hand, "You have, or had, this fake image of me and I want you to know who you travel with."

"I know who I travel with," Avalon gave a small smile, "My fairy-tale man."

"Last time I checked, fairy tales didn't include the slaughter of an entire planet," the Doctor muttered.

Avalon could see this was important to him, just as much as it had been for her when she demanded to know what the secret was, "Okay, let's talk, then," she gestured to the stairs where they could sit together and have that conversation. "But I have to warn you that it's not going to change how I see you."

"Not here," the Doctor shook his head, "I was thinking we could go out somewhere. Um, have some dinner maybe?"

Avalon blinked with surprise...and with a small blush on her face. If she didn't know any better, that sounded like a...date. And if it was, why was she blushing? It didn't mean it was going to be some romantic ole date, it could very well (and probably) be a friend date, seeing as they would be conversing over something serious.

"Avalon?" the Doctor nervously called her name, wondering if he'd finally scared her off. He needed to sit down and talk to her, tell her exactly what happened and how he came to make that awful decision. And besides, she looked so lovely and pretty the way she was dressed that he couldn't fathom the idea of not taking her out.

Had he just thought that!?

Startled, the Doctor turned to the console and made sure to not look at her, he was sure his face was red as a tomato.

"Dinner, then," Avalon was coming around the idea, "Yeah, alright. I could do dinner," she nodded.

"Yes?" suddenly the Doctor forgot about his blush as he turned for Avalon in excitement.

"Yeah," she nodded again.

"Well then," the Doctor took her hand and led her around the console as he set the controls for their new destination, "Off we go, right?"

She gripped his hand and smiled, "Yes, my Fairy Tale Man."

The Doctor felt his hearts swell at the name she still used so kindly and softly on him. He hoped it would remain like this once he told her everything of his past. This was his Ava, after all.

Author's Note:

Getting to some good parts here! And yes, I know Avalon was a little over-the-top here but put yourself in her shoes: she's the only one who didn't know this big secret! I'd be pissed too! xD

#ocappreciation #doctor who fics #11th doctor fics #doctor who #11th doctor #11th doctor imagines #dw imagine #oc: Avalon Reynolds #oc: Lena Reynolds #fic: falling in temptation

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thelittlesttimelord · 4 years

Text

The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 11

TITLE: The Littlest Timelord: The Death of the Doctor Chapter 11 PAIRING: No Pairing RATING: T CHAPTER: 11/? SUMMARY: The Doctor’s death is looming on the horizon and Elise is growing every day. What the Doctor doesn’t know is that he has 200 years to teach Elise all he knows. Amy, Rory, and River let Elise in on their secret, because River knows she will keep it. What will Elise do when he’s gone?

[A/N - I’ve enjoyed writing this episode so much! I hope you like it too!]

“And then we discovered it wasn't the Robot King after all, it was the real one. Fortunately, I was able to re-attach the head,” the Doctor told Rory, who was sitting in the pilot seat.

Amy came down the stairs.

“Do you believe any of this stuff?” he asked her.

“I was there.”

Elise smiled from her spot on the stars where she was sketching the TARDIS rotor.

“Oh, it's the warning lights. I'm getting rid of those! They never stop!” the Doctor yelled, kicking the console. At one point in time, Elise would have yelled at him for it. But she ignored him.

There was suddenly a knock on the TARDIS door.

“What was that?” Amy asked.

“The door. It knocked,” the Doctor said.

“Right. We are in deep space,” Rory reminded him.

“Very, very deep”.

The knocking came again.

“And somebody's knocking.”

Elise briefly wondered if it was River coming for a visit.

The Doctor opened the doors.

There was a small glowing box floating outside.

“Oh, come here. Come here, you scrumptious little beauty.” The Doctor reached out for it, but before he could touch it it flew inside and darted around the console. It slammed into the Doctor’s chest.

“A box?” Rory asked.

“Doctor, what is it?” Amy asked.

The Doctor picked up the box. “I've got mail!” He ran up to the console. “Timelord emergency messaging system. In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Timelord still out there, and it's one of the good ones.”

“You said there weren't any other Timelords left. Besides you and Elise,” Rory said.

“There are no Timelords left anywhere in the universe. But the universe isn't where we're going. See that snake? The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooo, she was a bad girl.”

The console sparked and popped.

“Oh, what is happening?” Rory asked.

“We're leaving the universe!” the Doctor yelled.

“How can you leave the universe?” Amy asked.

“With enormous difficulty! Right now I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye, swimming pool. Goodbye, scullery. Sayonara, squash court seven.”

The console continued to spark as Amy screamed.

The TARDIS landed and everything went quiet.

“Okay, okay. Where are we?” Amy asked.

“Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been,” the Doctor told them.

The lights in the TARDIS started to go out.

“Is that meant to be happening?” Rory asked.

“The power, it's draining. Everything's draining. But it can't. That's, that's impossible,” the Doctor said.

“What is that?”

“It's as if the Matrix, the soul of the TARDIS, has just vanished. Where would it go?”

They stepped out into a junkyard.

“So what kind of trouble's your friend in?” Amy asked.

“He was in a bind. A bit of a pickle. Sort of distressed,” the Doctor told her.

“Ah, you can't just say you don't know.”

“But what is this place? The scrap yard at the end of the universe?” Rory asked.

“Not end of, outside of,” the Doctor said. He threw his arm around Rory’s shoulder as Amy rifled through some junk.

“How we can we be outside the universe? The universe is everything.”

“Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside.”

“Okay.”

“Well, it's nothing like that.”

The Doctor tapped the doors of the TARDIS. “Completely drained. Look at her.”

“Wait. So we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?” Amy asked.

“Yeah. No. But if it helps, yes. This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now, this place. What do we think, eh?” the Doctor picked up a rock and threw it.

“Gravity's almost Earth normal, air's breathable, but it smells like…”

“Armpits,” Amy supplied.

The Doctor jumped inside a bathtub. Was he incapable of standing still for one second? “Armpits.”

“What about all this stuff? Where did this come from?” Rory asked. He twirled a light fixture.

“Well, there's a rift. Now and then stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it.”

“Thief! Thief! You're my thief!” A woman ran towards the Doctor. She was wearing a ratty blue dress.

A man and an older woman followed.

“She's dangerous. Guard yourselves,” the older woman said.

The younger woman ran up to the Doctor, frantically touching his arms and chest. “Look at you. Goodbye. No, not goodbye, what's the other one?” She launched herself on the Doctor, kissing him.

The man pulled her off the Doctor, who was wiping his lips and running a hand through his hair in shock. “Watch out. Careful. Keep back from her. Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person,” the man told them.

“Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?” the Doctor asked.

“Me. You're going to steal me. No, you have stolen me. You are stealing me. Oh tenses are difficult, aren't they?”

The woman walked over to Amy and played with the ends of her hair. Something about her felt familiar to Elise. Like she knew her from somewhere. “Oh! Look at you!” the woman said, kneeling in front of Elise.

“Oh. Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head. They call me Auntie,” the older woman, Auntie told them. She stepped forward and shook the Doctor’s hand.

The man did the same. “And I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's Uncle. Just keep back from this one. She bites!”

“Do I? Excellent,” the woman said. She grabbed the Doctor and bit him on the ear.

“Ow! Ow!”

“Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, only there's a winner.”

“So sorry. She's doolally,” Uncle said.

“No, I'm not doolally. I'm…I'm…It's on the tip of my tongue. I've just had a new idea about kissing. Come here, you.” She reached for the Doctor, who ran and hide behind Amy and Rory.

“No, Idris, no,” Auntie said, grabbing her.

“Oh, but now you're angry. No, you're not. You will be angry. The little boxes will make you angry.” The woman, Idris, looked at Elise. “And you. You’re going to learn something that is going to make you sad. Sad and angry.”

“Sorry? The little what? Boxes?” the Doctor asked.

Idris started laughing. “Your chin is hilarious!” She turned to look at Rory. “It means the smell of dust after rain.”

“What does?”

“Petrichor.”

“But I didn't ask.”

“Not yet. But you will.”

“No, no, Idris. I think you should have a rest,” Auntie told her.

“Rest. Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch.” Idris collapsed.

The Doctor and Rory caught her, setting her down on a chair nearby.

“Is that it? Is she dead now?” Uncle asked, “So sad.”

“No, she's still breathing,” Rory told him.

“Nephew, take Idris somewhere she cannot bite people.”

The Doctor turned around. “Oh, hello!”

Amy, Rory, and Elise turned around as well. Amy jumped back and hid Elise behind her.

The alien was wearing a jumpsuit. It was bald and had tentacles where its mouth should be.

“Doctor, what is that?” Amy asked.

“Oh, no, it's all right. It's an Ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Hello, Ood.” The Doctor approached the Ood. “Can't you talk? Oh, I see. It's damaged. May I?” He picked up the white ball attached to the jumpsuit and disassembled it. “It might just be on the wrong frequency.”

“Nephew was broken when he came here. Why, he was half dead. House repaired him. House repaired all of us,” Auntie explained.

The Doctor got the ball working again and a voice came out of it.

“If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet.”

Several other voices were trying to come through as well.

“What was that? Was that him?” Rory asked.

“No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's…that's not possible. That's…that's… Who else is here? Tell me. Show me. Show me!” the Doctor demanded.

“Just what you see. Just the four of us, and the House,” Auntie told him, “Nephew, will you take Idris somewhere safe where she can't hurt nobody?”

“The House? What's the House?”

“House is all around you, my sweets.”

Uncle jumped up and down where he stood.

“You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?”

“Meet him?” Rory asked.

The Doctor hushed him. “I'd love to.”

“This way. Come, please. Come.”

Auntie and Uncle walked off.

“What's wrong? What were those voices?” Amy asked the Doctor.

“Timelords. It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of Timelords.” He took Elise’s hand and they hurried after Auntie and Uncle.

They led them into a spaceship.

“Come. Come, come,” Uncle told them, “You can see the House and he can look at you, and he...”

The Doctor walked over towards them and looked into metal grating on the floor. “I see. This asteroid is sentient.”

“We walk on his back, breathe his air, eat his food,” Auntie said.

“Smell its armpits,” Amy commented.

A deep, sophisticated voice came out of Auntie and Uncle. “And do my will. You are most welcome, travelers.”

“Doctor, that voice. That's the asteroid talking?” Amy asked.

“Yes. So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside, that's you.”

“That is correct, Timelord,” House said.

“Ah. So you've met Timelords before?”

“Many travelers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break.”

“So there are Timelords here, then?”

“Not anymore, but there have been many TARDIS’s on my back in days gone by.”

“Well, there won't be any more after us. Last Timelords. Last TARDIS.”

“A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will.”

Auntie and Uncle relaxed, now back to normal.

“We're not actually going to stay here, are we?” Rory asked.

“Well, it seems like a friendly planet. Literally. Mind if we poke around a bit?” the Doctor asked Auntie, Uncle, and Nephew.

“You can look all you want. Go. Look,” Auntie said. She walked up to Amy and touched her face and hair. “House loves you.”

“Come on then, gang. We're just going to, er, see the sights.”

They quickly left the spaceship.

#eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagines #eleventh doctor fanfiction #doctor who #Doctor Who fanfiction #doctor who imagine #amy pond #amy pond imagine #Rory Williams #rory williams imagine #the littlest timelord #the littlest timelord: the death of the doctor

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sharp-cheekbones-locked · 4 years

Text

Christmas Dinner (Pt. 5)

Summary: The Doctor and Stella have to pretend a loving couple at the Christmas dinner table. It does not go like planned.

Time Vortex, Somewhere in Nowhere, 73628° 09′ N , 3947° 74′ W unknown space, December 5th 2019; 6.17pm Earth time

"Doctor! We're gonna be late. Hurry up" I shouted from the console and nervously adjusted my dress while taking a look at my watch. "Jesus Christ, Stella. I am Time Lord and owner of a time machine! There is no such thing as too late with me" he called back and finally came into the control room. "Well finally" I sighed. He grabbed my hand and threw me a cheering smile. My gaze glided over him, then I stopped. "Doctor! You can't show up in the same things again. You can't go there in Chucks! Not again! Please put on your suit,' I asked him and tried not to be quite so pleading. "But good things never happen when I wear this suit" he grumbled. "Please Doctor." "Just because it's a Christmas party doesn't mean I have to dress up!" "It's a Christmas party, of course you have to dress up! Do it for me. Besides, you look really good in it," I tried to move him to the black piece of cloth with a new tactic. "Hey, you think I look good?" he repeated my words with a cheeky grin. I rolled my eyes. "Go now," I said emphatically. "You called me handsome" he replied and went to change. "And I'm about to regret it," I mumbled to myself.

Only a few minutes later he stood in front of me, dressed up again. He looked very chic and the suit fitted him like a glove. I couldn't help but admire him for a moment. "You look stunning," he told me and smiled at me. "You don't look bad either" I answered with a grin. "Well Miss Walker, we have a Christmas dinner to attend, would you like to be my escort for tonight?" he asked and offered me his arm. "Nothing better than that, Mr. Smith." My hand found the rough fabric of his jacket and I fixed his bow tie.

*oOo*

Bloomsbury Square, Bloomsbury 51° 31' 4.79" N 0° 07' 13.20" O London, evening of December 5th; 6.29pm

It was a well-kept house with white facade in a row of other well-kept houses with white facades. The front garden was tidy and the snow on the sidewalk and in the driveway was properly cleared. In the window a colorful chain of lights sparkled and in front of the front door stood a small decorated tree with a decorative sleigh pulled by reindeer. A typical boring house of a typical boring family in a typical boring street in a typical boring area. Beside me also the Doctor looked around disapprovingly.

"Stella! John! There you are. We thought something had come between you" we were greeted by Annie who pressed a big smack on each of us cheek. Luckily, the Doctor's disgusted face didn't see until the heel of my shoe bored its way into his foot. "Pull yourself together." I whispered to him. Annie pulled us into the house where Chris and some of her friends were waiting for us. Chris greeted the Doctor with a friendly handshake that almost knocked him out.

After a while of exchanging trivia, we all sat down at the richly laid table. I landed between the Doctor and Tiffany, a friend of Annie. But unfortunately fate did not mean it well with us, because we sat directly opposite Annie and Chris. Nervously I crumpled my red, artfully folded napkin together. However, the fingers of the Doctors lay down suddenly softly over my hands and he looked at me cheering up. He pressed my hand and let his linger on my until the food came.

Annie brought a large silver plate into the dining room, on which Beef Wellington was sliced into fine clean slices. "Mm, that smells delicious, Annie. My mouth is watering," Tiffany said. "That's right, you've outdone yourself again." Now the Doctor also brought himself in and winked at me. I knew he worshipped Beef Wellington and Annie's roast potatos, and I also suspected that this was always his reason for finally accompanying me every year. We started to eat and I had to agree with the Doctor, who was already on his second piece. It tasted wonderful. For a while there was nothing to hear but the metallic rattling of dishes on porcelain plates. Finally Chris cleared his throat and leaned forward a bit. "Well, John, you haven't even invited us into your house yet, we're sooo curious what it looks like there. I had to suppress an eye roll, but before I could answer, the Doctor jumped in. "Oh, Chris," he began and smiled warmly at his counterpart. "You won't be as soon as I can, either!" I swallowed my bite and coughed terribly before grabbing my glass of water and kicking the Doctor under the table. "Ouch. I just mean that we travel a lot with my job and don't have a fixed home, because that would only get in our way, wouldn't it, darling?" he asked and I swallowed the nickname again before I ran red. He just put one arm around my chair back and went on. "What are you working again?" Chris asked and took a sip from his sherry. Annie disappeared into the kitchen to get seconds of potatoes. "Oh, I'm the Doctor," he replied. "You mean you're a doctor?" "Oh, oh yes, that's exactly what I meant." The Doctor cleared his throat in embarrassment and loosened the collar around his fly, which suddenly seemed terribly tight to him. "I help in developing countries. There are human lives to save every day. The work is hard, although it always gives me a great feeling when I see that people may have survived thanks to my help." He looked modestly to the ground and I pressed his hand. Damn it! He was good!

"Aww." it sounded from the other side of the room, where Annie stood leaning against the door frame with baking gloves and potatoes, listening to the Doctor's story with glowing eyes. "There had to be more people like you, John," Tiffany sighed. "And Stella? What are you doing?" Chris now turned to me. Again the Doctor came before me. "Oh, Stell is with me on the way and always accompanies me on my travels. While I then help the people, she diligently writes her books. I always tell her that she should publish them, but she always says that she is not finished yet. She writes really well and I'm really proud of her." My heart swelled in my chest. He played damn well. I decided to put another one on top. "Darling, sometimes I really don't know what I've earned you with," I said shyly. Then I nestelte around at the reindeer tablecloth and tried casually to get out a small splash of wine. "You are all I need. That's the greatest gift." My teeth hurt from all the sweet lies, but when I looked him in the eye, I thought for a short moment I saw nothing but reflect sincerity in his gaze. Quickly I turned my eyes away again to the artistic fir arrangement on the table. "What are you writing about, Stell?" asked Marc, Jessie's friend. "Oh, that's different. But right now I'm writing a sci-fi story about a man, the Doctor, who travels through space and time in a time traveling police box with his companion. Of course, I always incorporate experiences and influences from our adventures on our own journeys." The Doctor stroked my hand.

When the Minced Pies were brought, the Doctor leaned forward and pressed a kiss on my cheek. The rest of the evening was quiet and Tiffany was asked about her new boyfriend, which eventually became a full evening topic.

The dinner went by and outside it had been dark for hours when we finally left. "Oh, wait a minute." Annie shouted and we stopped in the hallway. She pressed past us and hung something small green over the door. I remained in my movement. A mistletoe! Damn! "Come on. Kiss yourselves! Don't be shy," she said and laughed. "Well, uh... that wouldn't be so good because, uh - I have a terrible scratching in my throat and don't want to infect the doc- uh John." I stuttered and faked a cough. Annie and Chris looked at me confused and the Doctor also looked unpleasantly touched. "Come on, it's not that bad," he suddenly switched on. He pulled me to himself and I made a surprised sound when he pressed a short kiss on the corner of my mouth. Annie looked enraptured, but I was in total chaos. I stood there as if frozen and drove over the corner of my mouth, where the Doctor's lips had just lingered gently. "Well, we really have to go now. Annie, Chris, thank you for the invitation. It was really very nice, see you soon" I said hastily.

I turned around, went out the front door to bring as much distance as possible between the Doctor and me. I walked up to the TARDIS, not waiting for the Doctor at all. "Hey Stell! Stella! Little star! Now wait a minute." I heard his hasty steps creaking in the snow behind me. He grabbed me gently by the wrist and turned me around to himself. Then his eyes looked for mine and he lifted my chin. "Hey, little star! Look at me! You know that didn't mean anything, right? You don't have to worry," he said. Snowflakes got caught in his brown hair and it looked as if he had been sprinkled with icing sugar. I just nodded silently as I decided to pretend that nothing had ever happened. The cold bit my cheeks and eyes as he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

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strangewhitegirl321 · 5 years

Text

Electricity (10th)

{Not my gif}

Words: 3341

Originally posted to my Wattpad account.

"Put on a fancy dress, Donna!" The Doctor screamed as she disappeared down the hall. Hearing her call of acknowledgement, he nodded in satisfaction before skipping over to his reflection. Quickly fixing himself up, he smiled at himself before wheeling on his heel.

Hastily, he set the coordinates of the TARDIS, humming as he skipped and hopped along to drive her. She shook and wavered, shuttering before landing with a small crash to the ground. Just on time, Donna stumbled out into the console room.

"You idiot!" She immediately shrieked, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I was just slipping on my dress, when I fall head first into a bloody rack of clothes and take a couple buttons to the nose!" Immediately, he put his hands up in surrender.

"Oops?" He muttered sheepishly. Then, as she began to march over to him he began to try and save his hide by appealing to her interests.

"Wait, wait!" The man cried. "We're somewhere expensive! Mini quiche, escargot! And fancy wines! Think of the chocolate wines! Yum!"

Donna continued to march towards him, not stopping as she backed him up into his own ship's console. However, her gaze had softened from anger to curiosity faster than he had ever imagined.

With a stomp of her foot, she demanded, "Well, tell me where we are, then!"

Letting a relieved sigh pass his lips, he ran a hand through his hair. Slightly rolling his eyes, he turned on his heel and began to march towards the door. For a moment, he stopped to look over his trench coat. However, instead he checked he had his sonic screwdriver with him and left the coat as he opened the door for Donna with a dramatic bow.

"My lady," He teased, causing her grumble angrily.

"Well, at least you have manners," She mumbled, stepping out the door. Looking around, she noticed they were on a familiar street of London. However, it was night and the street was almost empty save the people crowding into a large building about a block away. Glancing at the street, she noticed how clean they were, and how old the concrete appeared.

The Doctor closed the door behind him, stepping out beside Donna and taking a deep breath in through his nose, "Year two thousand fifty two, January third. London, England. The day a new power source was born."

Glancing at him, she nodded slowly, "A new power source? Or, a perfected one?"

"A new one! Isn't that exciting?" The Doctor exclaimed, reaching out to loop his arm around Donna's. "Allons-y!"

Quickly, he tugged her along as she suddenly complained, "Man, and I thought my dress was fancy." The Doctor turned to catch what she was looking at, and grimaced at a woman wearing a full ballgown seeming to be completely made out of different types of feathers.

"Oh, I think I like your dress better," He admitted, continuing to pull her along. Easily using his psychic paper as an invitation, he got the two of them inside without any problems.

Suddenly, just as he was about to lead her to a couple of seats, Donna jumped excitedly, "Oh look! Fancy punch!" Confused, the Doctor's head swivelled as he turned to glance at a giant fountain filled with a bright red liquid. He watched as people dunked their cups under, before turning around to chug it.

"Fancy indeed!" With a grin he agreed, going off course. Grabbing a cup for both Donna and himself, he dunked it under the falling liquid. Immediately, he handed the second cup to Donna, and together they tilted it back and took a nice gulp.

A satisfied moan left Donna's lips as she cried, "By God this stuff is good!" People turned to glance in her direction, and she shied away from their glances. Just as her eyes turned to meet the Doctor's gaze, she caught him once again dunking his cup under the fountain.

"Did you already drink all of that?!" She hissed, slapping his shoulder as he chugged it. With a yelp, he nearly sent the drink flying all over himself.

"Oi! What was that for?!" The poor man asked, rubbing the shoulder Donna had just smacked.

"For being an alien-pig!" Shamelessly she scolded him. "I swear, I can't take you anywhere."

"You? Take me anywhere?" The Doctor repeated slowly, mouth slowly starting to gape open before he began his attempt to argue. "You know, that's kind of funny because last I checked-"

But before a real argument could ensue, a sudden wail of a microphone caused everyone in the room to jump in sync through their surprise.

"Welcome, everyone!" An old, withered voice echoed through the room. "I am Brendon Kiger, one of the founder's of Solid Gold Energy! And also, one of the few scientists who created the Auric Energy Source."

The Doctor set his cup lazily on the table beside the fountain, forcing Donna to put hers down as well before dragging her over to the group of people beginning to take their seats. Leading her to the first row, he chose the last two seats filled by a couple of young men before flashing them his psychic paper.

"Sorry, but I believe these are our prepaid seats," He claimed nonchalantly. With a bit of hesitance, the boys glanced at each other before getting up and attempting to find a couple other good seats.

Frowning, Donna watched them go before turning to the Doctor, "I don't know about you, but I feel kind of bad for that." Shrugging, he sat down and glued his attention to the stage.

"And, I am Herod Prince. The latest member to join the wonderful crew of Solid Gold Energy working on the Auric Energy Source," A man about Donna's age introduced himself. "Today, we are here to give a small presentation on our new, amazing product."

The older man stepped forward, and began talking as his hands waved in the air, "Our new product is not only efficient, but gorgeous. Instead of the boring wires, or even your wireless devices, you can show off the gorgeous gold hue that bolts through the clear wires specifically meant to display the beautiful colour."

"In just a moment, we will show you a large example of just how alluring the energy itself it," The young man once again took over speaking. "However, we figured that we should mention just how much the amount of energy you are about to see is capable of.

"Within this pipe-" He pointed to a long, clear cylinder about as wide as a human head that grew from the floor to the ceiling behind him on stage. "-there will soon be enough energy to power the whole of England. Every single home, every single facility, car, plane, and boat."

The audience seemed to gasp, and with a wide smirk the young man continued, "Now, finally we will show you the amazing product we have been able to produce."

Stepping aside, the whole crowd seemed to lean in to witness the raw, visible energy that would be passing through the clear tube. The Doctor himself tilted forward in his seat, confused beyond all means as he tried to imagine how the science behind it could work, even trying to remember if he had ever seen such a thing- suddenly, his brain seemed to malfunction.

A familiar, golden energy suddenly blasted through the tube and up into the ceiling. Everyone, including Donna, gasped in amazement as the light glimmered and danced. The Doctor's mouth fell open, and his brows rose.

"No," The Doctor began to panic. Already recognising the golden glow of the regeneration energy, he almost bolted from his seat and onto the stage before Donna grabbed his arm.

"Oh my god, it's gorgeous!" She gasped, not noticing the look on the Doctor's face.

He frowned, foot beginning to tap anxiously as his eyes stared down Donna, " I know." His eyes turned back to the raw energy he knew so well just as it disappeared. His whole face seemed to sink, and every breath he took appeared to be stunted. It was dawning on him that there was a slim possibility of another Time Lord. Fear, excitement, and dread coursed through his veins, and he shook the whole line of seats through his anxious hopping in his chair.

"Just the reaction we were hoping for!" Mr. Kiger exclaimed with a victorious laugh. "This is the absolute best energy source we have. Currently, our source is classified. However, the source has more hope of spurring on humanity's technological growth than any of the other ideas.

"From harnessing the sun's solar energy; harvesting lightning; using the Earth in geothermal energy; and even at one point using humankind itself to produce energy-" The man paused, a large grin that made the Doctor sick to the stomach stuck on his face. "None of it compares to what we can give to our planet!"

Finally, the Doctor grabbed Donna's hand and hauled her out of her chair. With a confused grumbling, she unhappily trotted behind him as she tried to keep up with him. Keeping her head down in an attempt to avoid peoples' stares, she stepped on his heel to catch his attention.

"Why are we leaving?" She asked, sulking as she glanced back at the stage.

Gritting his teeth, he stopped just beside a little red box, "That wasn't regular energy." He began, causing Donna's eyes to narrow.

"Then what was it?" She asked, watching as he whipped out his sonic screwdriver. For a moment, he paused to glance at her.

"It had to come from a living being," He tried to explain it vaguely, but knew he couldn't pass off being so upset without giving up the full reason. "More specifically- a living Time Lord."

Immediately, Donna gasped, "Oh my god." At her shock, the Doctor pressed a button on his screwdriver and set off the fire alarm. Grabbing Donna's hand, he turned around and bolted into the crowd of confused people who rushed out of the building quickly.

Squeezing by angry, confused people and keeping a tight grip on Donna, he reached the stage. The men talking earlier had disappeared, probably fled the building.

"To the back!" The Doctor hollered over the loud screech of the alarm. He and Donna broke into a run, bursting through the curtains and dodging workers as they leapt onto the stage.

Suddenly, the Doctor caught sight of an elevator opening up backstage. Out wheeled a large clear capsule. Inside, there was a young (h/c) woman who kicked around weakly as she was completely strapped inside. The metal that wrapped around her head, arms, legs, hips, and chest were tightly squeezing her. Wide, humiliated (e/c) eyes darted around wildly as she fought the cage she was trapped in.

Suddenly, her eyes connected with the Doctor's. Both of them seemed to freeze for just a moment, and she desperately tried to keep her eyes on him as the men pushing her pod forward ripped him from her view.

"Stop!" The Doctor rushed forward, grabbing one of the men's arms. "Stop right there!"

Donna immediately shoved herself right in the path of the pod, and put her hands on the glass, "Sweetheart, can you hear me? Are you alright?"

"Who the hell are you?!" One of the men asked, shoving the Doctor off of him. When the Doctor nearly fell, he stood up and immediately rushed back to grab onto the man again. Immediately, the man brought out pepper spray. The Doctor quickly took a step back, ready to roar.

Taking a deep breath, the Doctor gave him a glare, "I'm the man who's shutting all of this down."

A laugh echoed behind him, and a hand suddenly clasped his shoulder, "It's alright. She's not human, only looks like it." Herod tried to reassure. Immediately, the Doctor whipped around and aggressively threw his hand away from him.

"Exactly!" The Doctor growled. "She is a being from another world. One of the last of her species!"

With a roll of his eyes, Mr. Kiger stepped forward, "We treat her as if she were porcelain. There will be no harm to come to her-" The Doctor couldn't help it, for so long he had been against violence- yet in that moment he delivered a strong right hook that caused his hand to ache. Donna gasped and hollered something unintelligible at his action, she never expected to see that in her life. The struck man wailed as he crumpled to the ground, and an employee rushed forward to replace one of the guards holding the Time Lady's cell. The guard grabbed hold of the Doctor, muttering threats if he tried to get loose.

"Do you even know her name?" The Doctor asked, venom dripping from his words. With barely any effort he shrugged out of the guard's grip, who followed him warily as he walked around the glass so he could face the young woman. The girl's eyes seemed to light up upon seeing him, and his mouth dropped open for just a second. Taking his screwdriver, he scanned the glass. Glancing at it, he put an arm out to Donna and took a step back.

"Close your eyes," He warned to the girl. With no hesitance, she complied. Once her eyes were closed, he pressed a button and the glass shattered and crashed to the ground.

Once he could reach her, he turned to Donna, "Scold them or something." He gestured to the men who were either too shocked to step in, or were helping the bleeding man on the floor.

Then, he turned back around to the girl. Connecting eyes, he was glad to see just how relieved she appeared. With gentle hands, he reached forward and cupped her face. The guard behind him tried to reach out and seize him once again, but Donna quickly put a stop to it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," She warned, stealing his pepper spray right from his own hand in a wave of bravery.

Both the Doctor and the girl closed their eyes, and immediately he began to search through her memories. A mutual understanding seemed to pass between the two: One at a time. So, she kept from his mind for the time being.

Quickly, the Doctor searched through her memories. He saw how they stole her energy, and grimaced at the screams he could hear echo from her memory. Then even further, he found how they had captured her.

She had just arrived on Earth in a different face, horribly wounded. Dragging herself over to a alley way as she whimpered, he watched as she regenerated. The blast of energy had drawn in locals who came running to get a peak, and the Doctor recognised the face of Brendon Kiger among those who appeared to gawk at the girl who just changed faces.

When she had collapsed to the ground, new (h/c) hair thrown across the pavement, Kiger raced forward and grabbed onto her. He fought with other people for the right to take her, and quickly hauled her into a car and drove off with her.

As he went further back into the girl's memories, he discovered she had only appeared on Earth after barely escaping the Time War. It hadn't been long for her since she had lost her planet- and as he quickly discovered she was so, so young to him. Only two hundred and thirty three years old. He couldn't imagine how it must have felt to be so young and loose all you have, just to be captured and turned into an experiment.

Suddenly, he could feel the girl spurring him on. She wanted him to keep going, and began to take control of showing him her memories. Soon he saw her place in the Time War: She was a hero. The girl before him had rescued thousands of Gallifreyan children. Even through all the strife, she continued to head back into the fire just to save another crying child and take them someplace safe. Before she was sent to Earth, she had jumped in front of two older boys to ensure their safety as they were about to be struck.

In payment, the boys and other children had taken her life into their own hands, and against her will sent her to Earth. Her kindness was repaid in full- but he could feel just how devastated she was to not have been able to protect them in the end. The Doctor could feel how it tore her apart as if it were her own fault.

Then, finally, she showed him her name: (Y/n). Nothing grand, simply a human name she had chosen.

Slowly, he retracted his hands. His eyes stared into her solemn, lost irises.

"It wasn't your fault," He told her quietly. Then, he used his sonic to release her. Slowly, (Y/n) stumbled out on shaky limbs, grabbing onto the Doctor. Quickly, he responded and steadied her. The guard also rushed forward to help stabilise her- and together they lowered her to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" Herod suddenly yelled, angrily shaking a fist as he helped Kiger to his feet. "Somebody stop him!"

However, a woman who had previously been helping his partner shook her head in disappointment, "This is just barbaric!"

In a moment, it seemed her words took full effect on anyone who had stopped to gawk at the almost fairy tale situation. One man even approached Herod with white knuckles and stuck a finger to his chest, scolding him with harsh words.

The Doctor watched it all go down, before he felt a soft hand pull at the collar of his jacket. Glancing back at (Y/n), he reached down to cup her head as it practically lolled around on her neck. He figured she had been in there so long, even the muscles in her neck had begun to deteriorate.

Her wide, (e/c) eyes stared up at him. Slowly measuring him, studying everything about him. Then, with hesitant fingers she began to reach up to touch his face. Even with his encouraging nod, she still froze a mere inch from his skin. So, he reached up and held her hand against his cheek.

Then he showed her his past. When he first started the telepathy link he worried how she would react. But he had quickly discovered she was different from all the other Time Lords. Even largely different from himself. The way she acted in general, and all her regenerations were almost strikingly human in his eyes.

Slowly, she softly picked through his mind. While her eyes were closed, he took the time to observe her face. When she stumbled upon something that interested her, her lips would pucker as she seemed to think about it. Connecting all the lines of who he was, she opened her eyes.

However the Doctor kept her hand firmly on his face. (Y/n) stared up at him, brows furrowed. She wasn't judging him for what he did- rather, she seemed curious and understanding. Finally, she let a relieved sigh pass through her lips and she curled herself against his chest and shut her eyes.

Even through Herod and Kiger's anguished screams and all the people who tried to get in his way, he shoved his way outside. He waited for Donna to catch up, who glanced up at the Doctor after observing the girl in his arms.

Giving him a knowing look, she laughed as he rolled his eyes. Then, her entire face softened.

"So," Donna began softly. "Are you going to tell me who she is?"

Gradually, a smile grew on the Doctor's face. Watching the grin that slowly overtook his face, she couldn't help a smile of her own to see him so happy.

"Special," He answered at first. "Strong, even. A hero."

"Well, you sure got lucky then," Donna commented, causing him to laugh. Then, she opened the TARDIS door for the Doctor, and he carefully carried the girl inside her new home.

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c1araoswa1d · 5 years

Text

Flashes of Life

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13181369/1/Flashes-of-Life

There she lay, a speck of nothing in his hands, barely occupying the space between them...

There she lay, a speck of nothing in his hands, barely occupying the space between them. Body still as she took breath after breath through half-opened lips, pale without the sun’s first kiss upon them. Swallowing roughly, the Doctor exhaled and watched the few strands of her chestnut hair she had waver slightly in that breath just before her nose wrinkled in dissatisfaction and she whimpered. It was a noise barely audible even in the chasm of silence around him, and it broke both of his hearts with the thought he’d disturbed her.

“What will you call her, Clara?”

Charlotte smiled at a month, earlier than most, gummy grin swung underneath excited eyes – wide and dark by her mother’s making. Swaddled after a nappy change and a belly full of milk, she raised her delicate chin twice as he stood over her, watching her struggle happily, waiting for him to pluck her up into his arms to nestle against his chest. A tale he would tell her, pacing the living room, and she would coo quietly at him to voice her adoration of his words, his presence, his love.

In a few short weeks she’d wrapped her fragile little fingers around his hearts and she’d taught him that home was a place he belonged. He looked to Clara, asleep on the couch, and he smiled, joking with the girl and waiting for her to scold him. A tease in her mind’s voice, he longed for the day he would hear it aloud. Those words that would spill from her, the thoughts and ideas. The hope. He pecked his lips to her forehead, felt it wrinkle against them, and he sighed as she whispered sleepily at him.

“She’s mummy and she’s mine, like you are.”

Face dropping into the blanket, she grumpily cried and then picked her head up again, slowly making her way towards him on unsteady knees. Crawling, Charlotte argued, was tedious. Six months, the Doctor thought. He counted her days in his mind and each tick of time cut at him painfully. Too human to regenerate, too human to live out a life in space, Clara had asserted, too human he reminded himself as she cried. He hesitated and Clara scooped her daughter up, cradling and comforting as a mother should.

He watched them often, no different than he’d watched so much else in the universe. A sun – hair flowing over her shoulders; face glowing radiantly in health and motherhood; body curved just right by the process of it all – spinning gracefully with her solar system held safely in her arms. The Doctor never tired of seeing them together, the mirrored souls and silhouettes, admiring one another as tears were dried, as lullabies were sung. They looked to him in unison, melting away doubts with their loving stares.

“Doctor, come, join us in a dance.”

Terrible two’s weren’t so terrible, he thought as he watched her blow bubbles and then run off to chase them, little dress fluttering as she went. There were moments, he was sure, when he was off on some distant planet. He would get a pang in his chest sometimes, an echo of her anger, then her sadness, before the serenity returned. The Doctor had forgotten those days, of holding a child in his hearts, and there were days the strength of it pulled him across the universe to join in on some glorious event, or help with a moment of discipline.

Clara lay beside him, napping away as her daughter giggled and frolicked. Their picnic would soon come to an end and he’d be knelt on the tile by a tub. Charlotte splashed wickedly and she enjoyed topping his nose with the froth she churned, ducking her head shyly before flashing a decisively playful grin. Her mother, he often thought as he watched her, she was entirely her mother in miniature. Not, he knew, that he would have it any other way.

And before he knew it he’d be tucking her away in bed. Watching her eyes flutter with the beginnings of some dream as her rosy cheeks shifted with unspoken words, showing off the dimples she loved to poke to elicit his laughter. Clara edged underneath his arm as he stood in the doorway and she sighed, thinking the same as him as they watched the little girl lying there, gripping tight to her stuffed bear. He says aloud what they both know and afterwards he spends a few hours with her, asleep in his arms, knowing how the words affect her. Knowing what they mean to her more than him.

“I never think time moves too quickly, and then it does.”

Charlotte calls out to him and he coughs a laugh when her weight crashes into his legs as he pushes through the door. Her colors are too bright and it takes him a moment to discern her from her costume – an assortment of items from her closet – as she bursts into a song of chatter detailing her days without him. There’s schoolwork and friendships and mud puddles and a spanking for backtalk at mum. Typical five year old days, he understood, nodding and listening and catching quick glances at Clara as she smiled, grading papers and sipping tea.

They hid inside of her fortress – a lavender colored tent with unicorns and hearts and rainbows – and buried themselves underneath a hoard of every pillow in their home, protecting themselves from the monsters that lurk in the night sky. And then she asked about the stars. How many there are and how many hold life and how far they are and how far it all goes and how long ago it started and how long it will last. She has a sparkle in her eyes and an airy quality to her voice – that little whisper of wonder that circles each question as it tumbles out before she went silent to wait for his answer, then interrupted with a quietly breathed request.

“Daddy, I want to go to the stars with you.”

Her hands were quicker than his, fingers tapping, palm toggling, thumbs wrestling with knobs that needed oiling and she laughed when the rotor lit up a new color. Every. Single. Time. Clara stood beside her, giving her direction and shared knowing glances with him over the key and boards before them. Their little girl was always meant for this. Charlotte was born to travel the universe and she danced around the console, shouting out to them as she went. More questions and suggestions and contemplations – too many for them to keep up with as she darted about gleefully.

She was seven, hitting a growth spurt, and loved everything in the stars and in the ocean. Charlotte once said they weren’t quite that different. All of this space and not all of it travelled; so many things to explore and discover. Watching her catalogue things in a little notebook pleased him greatly and he reveled in the warmth of her hand within his as they discussed a planet or a people or the color of a sunset. The Doctor smiled gleefully when she brought him an old book, given to her by her mother, and declared she wanted one hundred and two places.

She was adventurous and brave and kind. She was thin and bright and ran. Oh, the Doctor laughed sometimes, oh did she run. Chasing the butterflies that chirped like birds and going over vines and in through tunnels and caves and across fields and beaches and barren desserts. Charlotte ran with them and she never turned back and the Doctor enjoyed those moments, after the Tardis doors had closed on them again, while she sat in a chair around the console, barely looking up at him and Clara as they piloted comfortably across from each other, taking ragged breaths as she scribbled.

“Mum, that was wicked what you did there, and dad, oh dad! DAD!”

Ten candles had been set out on a table, ready to be pushed into a cake that stood lopsided in the fridge. They were the sort that didn’t extinguish when they went out and the Doctor thought them funny when he bought them at a market on present day Earth. A wrapped box sat in her room, just at the foot of her bed, inside a dozen notebooks and a pack of fancy pens. It was quiet, just like the day she’d been brought home, and the Doctor sat holding the urn, a speck of nothing that had been everything.

Her name had been engraved and what was left would be scattered to the stars and he damned her for being too human, too quick, too brave. Clara sniffled lightly in the master bedroom and the Doctor settled the urn down to look about the room. The star spattered bed sheets and the chart of the ocean life on the wall. The books on planets and the stuffed beluga and the worn book that sat open atop her desk, a new destination written hastily on a taped in sheet.

Eyes closing, he inhaled the scent of dirt from her boots, of flowers from their pressed books, of must from the novels collected on shelves. There was the ticking of a clock picked up at a charity shop, and the light rattle of the tissue paper she’d affixed to a fan, the deafening silence. And then her laugh, shocking the warmth from his body as he looked to see her perched at the edge of the bed, years older than she should have been, holding tightly to her own ashes and shaking her head at him. Speaking to him without words...

Sitting up in bed, he gasped for air. There were droplets of sweat clinging to his forehead and his clothes hugged too tight against the dampness of his skin. He pulled himself up to sit and jammed his palms into his eyes, pushing them until they sparkled in that darkness and he felt Clara’s body shift at his side. He listened to the fabric rustle and he knew she’d sat up, could see the black of his eyesight gain a shade of red as she clicked on a lamp.

“Doctor?” She questioned, her voice blanketed in sleep.

“I had the nightmare again,” he allowed.

“Charlotte?”

“She was mine, Clara. Ours. So perfectly ours,” he whispered through a constricted throat. “And I sleep and she’s there. She’s there Clara, so vibrant and brilliant, growing up right before my eyes again in fast-forward, too fast, Clara. And then I wake...” his hands opened and closed, crushing into balls in front of him.

She leaned into him, finishing softly, “And she’s not here.”

“It’s only a dream, you don’t have to tell me,” he argued, looking down at her tired face as she sighed.

“You keep calling her a nightmare,” she responded evenly.

He nodded, looking away. “Her urn is always there, her name etched in like the most horrible promise, just before her tenth birthday. To give us something so pure and perfect and then steal her from us just as she’s beginning, it’s cruel, Clara. It’s the worst nightmare the universe could offer.”

Clara yawned and then reached for his hand, pulling it into hers to kiss before dropping it to settle atop her stomach, the baby girl inside instantly shifting towards it, to tell him, “She’s there. Right there, Doctor. Just as she’s been for seven and a half months.”

“What if it isn’t a nightmare, Clara?” He hissed, hating himself for questioning it.

Offering a smile, she told him plainly, “I can’t live my life waiting for the end at every turn, Doctor – if I did that, I’d have never met you – and I won’t have her doing that either. She’s going to live a wonderful life and if it’s ten years, then it’s going to be the best ten years.”

“You aren’t fearful that perhaps...” he began.

Her hand came up to tap at his lips and she giggled softly, “No.”

“Why not?”

Clara shifted back down into bed and she smiled up at him. Her eyes drifted over his face, imagining, he knew, what the little girl she was so close to holding would look like and how she would take after him. The Doctor spread his palm over the thumps just beneath the pattern on her nightie, looking from his wife’s content expression to the flesh he slowly revealed, watching for that movement that soothed him after his nightmares. And he understood. Every nightmare he had, he saw little bits of a potential life and every nightmare he had ended in it’s premature end, but every nightmare held the same message from a girl reaching out to shake her father from a bad dream.

“Daddy, don’t worry, I’m gonna be fine.”

#doctor who #whouffaldi #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #twelve x clara #whouffle #whouffaldi fic

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lirlovesfic · 6 years

Text

The Choice

A Doctor Who fanfic

Summary: After GitF, the TARDIS brings the Doctor, Rose, and Mickey back to the estate to solve a problem involving the TARDIS herself. But when they see a familiar face, the face of someone who should not exist, they realize the problem is deeper than they thought and could endanger the Doctor’s very existence. Primary characters: Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Jackie Tyler. Genres: Romance, mystery, adventure, drama, character study, HN AU, fobbed!Nine, sick TARDIS. Pairings: Nine/Rose, Ten/Rose Rating: Adult

Warning: none for this chaper

a/n: I am currently working on editing this chapter-by-chapter, with the hopes of completing a chapter a day until I catch up with myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m doing it to try to get back into the swing of writing and to build some momentum in order to finish this. Also, there have been some tiny things nagging at me for a while (grammar, punctuation, etc.) so I’ll be correcting as many of them as I can find as I go. The story will not change. In fact, most of the changes are going to be so minor that I doubt anyone (besides myself) will notice. But to keep myself on target, I’ll be posting it all here as I go, with links to the other websites it’s on. I hope you enjoy it.

Catch up: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

This chapter: on AO3, on TSP, on ffnet

Chapter Twenty-One—the Titanic dock, Southampton, 10 April, 1912

Mickey cut through the crowd and entered the large White Star terminal building. The lobby was only slightly less crowded than the dock. People, mostly from first class, wandered about or stood in groups chatting with others also waiting to board. Off to one side of the room was a large doorway labeled "First Class Lounge" while on the far side of the room was some sort of reception desk, behind which stood a number of men in the uniforms of the White Star Line. Like everywhere else, there was a long queue in front of it.

He shook his head. "I don't have time for this." He crossed the lobby to the desk, bypassing the queue, and spoke to the nearest staff member who had just finished helping an elderly couple. "Hey, did you see a tall man with really short hair walk through here? He's wearing a black suit and was with a couple with two kids."

The man shot Mickey a look. "Are you kidding? Do you know how many people I've seen today?" He turned away from him to face the queue. "Next."

With a huff of frustration, Mickey turned back to the crowded room. "Where the hell is he?" he muttered. "He just came in here. Where did he go?" He scanned the room, finally spotting him leading the Richardson family through a narrow door opposite the lounge. "Ha! Got him!"

He rushed across the lobby, but once outside the door he stopped and stared at it.

"Now what?" he said aloud. He felt a bit like a kitten who had been chasing a mouse but didn't quite know what to do with it when he caught it.

The door was slightly ajar, and the voice of Edwin Robertson filtered through the crack. "What's all this about then?"

Mickey carefully pushed on the door to widen the crack a tiny bit, allowing him to hear the conversation more clearly, and then leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. To all appearances he was just waiting to board the ship like everyone else in the room.

"Mr and Mrs Robertson," the Doctor began, "My name is John Smith, and for the last ten years I have served as the solicitor to Mrs Robertson's distant uncle, Gerald Pollard."

"I don't remember having—" Rachel Robertson began.

The Doctor continued as if she hadn't spoken, effectively cutting her off. "I regret to inform you that Mr Pollard recently passed."

"You came all this way, pulled us out of the queue to tell us her uncle died, an uncle she's never even heard of?" Edwin demanded incredulously.

"If you would allow me to continue," the Doctor said haughtily. Mickey snorted. It was the same tone of voice that Doctor had used to call him "Mickey the Idiot", but this time he wasn't on the receiving end of it. "Mr Pollard had a large estate east of Manchester that Mrs Robertson visited several times as a young child. He had fond memories of her and chose to remember her in his will."

Mickey heard Mrs Robertson gasp dramatically. He snickered. "This is better than an episode of EastEnders," he said under his breath.

"When you say he remembered her in his will," Edwin said, "how… well… did he remember her?"

"It's just a small sum," the Doctor answered. "£5,000."

There was dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop in the room, Mickey thought. Even he knew that was an enormous amount of money to someone in the early twentieth century. Hell, on the Estate it wasn't anything to sneeze at in 2007.

After a moment he heard some papers rustling, and the Doctor explained that there were some papers to sign and that the funds would then be at their disposal. He named a prominent bank in London.

"You will, however, have to appear in person as soon as possible to complete the paperwork at the bank itself in order to withdraw the funds. It would, of course, prevent you from sailing today..."

As the Doctor continued to give them instructions—the Robertsons were silent, probably due to shock—Mickey glanced at his watch. Twenty minutes had already passed. Nothing unusual had happened, unless you counted the fact that the Doctor was masquerading as a solicitor and basically handing out money, something he had never ever expected the Doctor to do.

And then he suddenly realized what his Doctor had been doing on the dock. When he'd been talking to that couple, he must have been buying their tickets off them. His mouth twisted into a grin. Usually the Doctor went for flash, saving history, saving planets… Saving that family was the most compassionate, most domestic thing he'd ever seen the alien do. And he began to see what Rose saw in him.

The conversation in the room began to die off, and he heard the sounds of chairs moving, as if they were getting ready to leave. If he didn't leave immediately he risked being seen.

"That's my cue," Mickey said under his breath. He headed out of the building and made his way back to the TARDIS.

~oOo~

The Doctor let himself into his former self's TARDIS. To his relief, the TARDIS hadn't shocked him, and the key had turned easily in the lock.

He pushed open the door and made his way inside, noting the minute differences between this console room and his own. If he hadn't known it was his previous self's TARDIS already, merely entering the cavernous space would have told him immediately it wasn't his. Some of the controls on the console were different, and others were in different places. There were fewer post-it notes. The jump seat was in a slightly, almost imperceptibly different spot—shifted approximately a centimeter and a half to the left—and one of the rips on the seat was smaller. Even the ambient light was at a different wavelength, although no one but a Time Lord would notice.

Even more telling, the coat thrown over the branching coral strut wasn't his long brown coat but the heavy leather jacket he used to wear in his last body.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver. As the tip lit up and it softly whirred, he slowly circled the room, scanning everything—console, walls, floors, even the jump seat—for evidence of damage of any kind at all. He frowned as he looked at the results. There wasn't any sign of damage per se, but the readings weren't clear either. It was almost like there was an echo of damage rather than damage itself.

Weird.

He scratched the back of his neck thoughtfully as he crossed to the console monitor. The CCTV record was clear but unhelpful. At this point in the TARDIS's linear time, if there was such a thing, he had left the Powell Estate and had made two stops before this one: to Dallas in 1963, and to the planet Anaranjado in the Redalian sector. Nothing had happened in Dallas, not to cause these problems at any rate. He was certain of it. It was possible that something had happened on Anaranjado, he thought, but extremely unlikely. It was a peaceful, agricultural planet and one of his favorite spots for replenishing foodstuffs. If something had happened there, however, there should be a record of it in the temporal neural net.

A trigger of the CCTV of the exterior of the TARDIS while on Anaranjado told him nothing. The ship had landed in the center of an orchard, and the Doctor watched his younger self leave the TARDIS. After fast-forwarding a bit, he saw him return carrying a large sack. Switching to an interior view showed him leaving the console room and entering the galley where he unloaded bananas, oranges, apples, and assorted tea bags from the sack and stowed them away.

Definitely a dead end.

It appeared that whatever had happened hadn't happened yet.

But then again there had been that weird echo he had picked up with his sonic.

The Doctor scanned the TARDIS again, this time with the TARDIS's own self-diagnostic programs. A series of interlocking geometric shapes rotated on the monitor and a speaker built into one of the control panels let out a quiet ping ping ping as the TARDIS searched for any problems. Three minutes in—two minutes and forty-seven seconds before the scan should have been finished—the pinging stopped. The screen froze.

The Doctor frowned.

"Well, that shouldn't happen," he said. Pulling out his glasses and peering into the screen, he rapidly flipped a switch next to the monitor. The display began to rotate again. But it was a millisecond off compared to relative time.

Searching for the source of the glitch, he climbed under the console and opened a panel on the underside of the control panel. A variety of interconnected glowing pear-shaped and spherical items—memory pods and ganglionic circuits—fell out of the gaping hole and almost hit him in the face. They hung from the open panel by tubes pulsing in the same blue-green as the Time Rotor. He scanned everything with his screwdriver: pods, temporal circuits, even the main memory core. There was a tiny blip in the temporal relay, one the TARDIS herself didn't acknowledge even existed. And it didn't appear to have a cause.

Troubled, he climbed back out from his spot under the console. He was running out of time. If he stayed any longer, he risked running into himself, and even if he stayed longer there was no guarantee that he'd find anything new. He downloaded everything he'd discovered into his screwdriver for further analysis in his own TARDIS. He just hoped his own ship was up to it.

Later, back at his own TARDIS the Doctor found Mickey sitting on the ground, arms crossed and with his back leaning against the door. The younger man scowled at him.

"How long have you been waiting for me?" the Doctor asked.

"An hour," Mickey said crossly as he stood up. "I've been sittin' here an hour. After you told me to meet you in a half an hour. That was an hour and a half ago!" He shook his head. "For a Time Lord you sure have a lousy sense of time."

The Doctor ignored the comment and unlocked the door.

Inside, the hum of the TARDIS's engines was quieter than normal, the glowing roundels dimmer, particularly compared to the TARDIS he had just left. After first tossing his overcoat on one of the struts—the same place his earlier self's leather jacket had been in the other TARDIS—he crossed to the console and plugged his sonic screwdriver into a small hole that appeared on one of the panels. He put on his glasses and stared into the monitor.

Mickey joined him at the console. "So, did you figure out what's goin' on?"

Shushing him, the Doctor waved him off. As he studied the display in front of him, he ran his hands through his hair, causing it to stand straight up, and let out a frustrated groan. He backed up and sank down on the jump seat.

"What is it?" Mickey asked in a low voice.

"I think the TARDIS has been poisoned," the Doctor told him quietly.

"What!" Mickey looked around himself, as if he was expecting something to attack them. "Should we even be in here?"

"You aren't in any danger," the Doctor said. "Me on the other hand…" He sighed. "It's a poison that only affects Time sensitive creatures, like the TARDIS. And Time Lords." He rested his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands.

"So…" Mickey said tentatively. "What do we do now? How do we fix it? Is there some sort of an antidote?"

"I don't know. Depends on what caused it, what the source was, and when it happened." He sat up. After pulling off his glasses and sticking them in his pocket, he rubbed his left eye, a move that expanded into massaging his forehead. "His TARDIS has a temporal glitch. But at the same time it doesn't. It's echoing back from the future. His future, not ours," he clarified. At the blank expression on Mickey's face, the Doctor continued. "Something happened, I don't know what, but whatever it was is creating ripples backwards and forwards in time."

"Like a pebble in a pond," Mickey said.

"Exactly. At some point in his future and my past he and the TARDIS were poisoned, probably accidentally. I'm guessing it happened so gradually that he didn't realize it was happening at all. But eventually the TARDIS became so ill that she needed to shut down in order to slow the damage."

"So why'd she turn you human?"

"Humans aren't Time sensitive. By turning him human, she saved his life. Then she tried to contact us, call us back to the Powell Estate to help: to fix her and to cure him." He jumped up and began to pace back and forth in front of the console. "But somehow, probably because she was sick, the message arrived late. Too late. By the time it arrived, the damage had managed to spread to our TARDIS."

"Can't we just go and warn, you know, the other you?"

"Not without creating a nasty paradox. And even if we could, what do we say? That something's going to happen sometime that will poison both you and the TARDIS, but we don't know what it is or when it happens and you won't know either until it's too late?" He stopped in his tracks. "The Time Lords would have been able to fix this, heal the TARDIS, heal me, prevent a paradox, just like that." He snapped his fingers. "Piece of cake, home in time for tea. But the Time Lords are gone."

"Hold on," Mickey said. "If this, whatever it is, is going forwards and backwards in Time, isn't that going to start affecting the other one of you who's here?"

The Doctor shook his head. "No. The TARDIS won't let it. She won't allow herself to be at the center of a paradox. She'd rather die first, and if I can't somehow figure out how to fix this, that's exactly what's going to happen."

He stepped in front of the controls and began flipping switches. "It's time to get you home." He spun a dial on the other side of the console and then raised a large lever. A loud groan filled the room, but the Time Rotor didn't move. "Come on, come on, come on," he said under his breath. He pushed the lever back down. His fingers flew across a colorful key pad, then he spun the dial and raised the lever again.

The groan was louder this time. The room shook.

The Doctor slammed his hand down on the console and then repeated his movements. Switches. Key pad. Dial. Lever.

The shaking grew stronger.

Switches. Key pad. Dial. Lever.

As the groaning continued, the Doctor moved faster and faster.

Switches. Key pad. Dial. Lever.

After one last jolt, the shaking stopped. The lights dimmed, and an unnatural quiet fell over the room. Even the ever-present hum of the engines was gone.

Motionless, the Doctor stared at the console.

After several long moments, Mickey broke the silence. "We're stuck here, yeah?"

The Doctor didn't answer immediately. He wanted to yell, to kick something, to punch someone. He wanted to rage against the universe.

But he couldn't. Someone was depending on him.

He turned to face Mickey. "No," he said, his voice filled with determination and resolve. He tugged down on his jacket, straightening it. "No. I won't let you get stuck here. There are two other me's out there. One of them might be able to take you home."

"I thought you didn't want them to see me."

"Can't be helped now. I don't want to trap you here if there's another option." He turned away and began to fiddle with the controls. "Maybe if I contact my Eighth self…" he said thoughtfully. "No, that wouldn't work. He ends up on the Titanic…"

"Eighth?" Mickey asked. His eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline. "Blimey, how many of you have there been?"

The Doctor ignored the question as he continued his own train of thought. "But if I told him Charley's family gets saved by his future self, he and Charley wouldn't get on the Titanic at all. It would cause a minor ripple in time, but it wouldn't cause a paradox." He nodded slowly. "He could take you home and then force himself to forget you. And me. That version of me had memory problems anyway. He won't think twice about not remembering an hour or two."

"Which one is the Eighth?" Mickey asked.

The Doctor turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "The one you described as 'a refugee from a Jane Austin novel'."

"Still think it fits," Mickey answered. "So if he's the Eighth, which one are you?"

"Does it really matter?" the Doctor asked in disbelief.

"Probably not, but I still want to know."

The Doctor let out a huff of exasperation. "Oh, all right. I'm the Tenth Doctor. Satisfied? Now be quiet and let me think for a minute."

"Tenth?" Mickey asked. "Wow. Does Rose know?"

"Get some perspective here, Mickey!" the Doctor said sharply. "The TARDIS is dying, you are currently stuck in 1912, and I'm trying to figure out a way to get you home without causing a massive paradox. Now just shut up for a minute!"

"All right," Mickey answered. "Right after you answer one more thing. If the TARDIS isn't working and you're sending me home, what're you gonna do?"

"I'm going to stay here and see if I can figure out a way of healing the TARDIS."

"I thought you couldn't do that without knowing what caused the poisoning."

"I'm very clever," the Doctor responded. "Given enough time, I should be able to figure out something."

"If that's true, then why are you sendin' me home?" Mickey asked pointedly.

"Because it would be easier on you," the Doctor snapped. "Having one of me take you home would be easier on you than having you here when…"

"When what?" Mickey snapped back.

"When I disappear!" he exploded. He stalked to the other side of the console and laid his hands on it. He closed his eyes. Despite her weakened state, he felt the warmth of her presence in his hands and in his mind. He let it wash over him, helping him calm himself.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and looked up at the younger man. "You were right before. Before we came here, you were right about what would happen. If I can't solve this, if I can't figure out a way of getting rid of the Time toxins in the TARDIS, Rose will never be able to get to the watch and the human me will stay human, will never change back. And if he never changes back…"

"You won't regenerate into… you," Mickey finished.

"Yeah," the Doctor said quietly. "This timeline will cease to exist. And if that happens, it will be easier on you mentally to be on the Estate."

"Easier than what? Being trapped in 1912?"

"That's one possibility, but the far more likely possibility is that none of this will have ever happened and you'll just wake up on the Estate one morning with two sets of memories for the last two years. Due to the ricochet nature of Time, it will be easier on you to cope both mentally and physically with it if you're already there."

Mickey was silent for a moment, taking it in. "What about Rose?" he said. "Will she have two sets of memories?"

"Yes," the Doctor answered. "Jackie too. Since the three of you know me, this me, you three are at ground zero in all this. You'll remember, but no one else will."

"But what about…" He took a deep breath before continuing. "What about all the things you've done... like protectin' us from aliens and things? Like when the Sycorax came, or the bat things with Sarah Jane? You know, all the 'it is defended' stuff?"

"You humans are brilliant. You would have managed to save yourselves. Mind you, it might have taken a little longer, but you would have done it eventually." The Doctor's mouth twisted into a grin. "Besides, I'll still be there. Even as a human, I'd still be a genius. After all," he said with a wink. "It wouldn't be the first time an auto mechanic helped save the world."

A small smile crossed Mickey's face and then quickly faded. He shook his head. "No. It's not fair. Rose was right. You saved the planet so many times… There must be something else we could do."

"There isn't. Whatever poisoned the TARDIS isn't here, and with the TARDIS unable to take off, we can't search anywhere else. Unless…" The Doctor's voice trailed off.

"Unless what?"

"It most likely wouldn't work…" he muttered.

"What wouldn't work?" Mickey asked.

"I could link my TARDIS to his and allow his to tow mine to wherever he goes. Then I could search for sources of the Time toxin everywhere he goes in the universe. It would have to be done very, very carefully of course so he doesn't notice," he said thoughtfully. "And of course there's always the possibility that the stress of being pulled into the Time Vortex instead of entering it under her own power could rip my TARDIS apart, ripping me apart at the same time." He grimaced. "Not a pleasant way to go. On the other hand, it could work… And considering the alternative is ceasing to exist due to being part of an aborted timeline, it's definitely worth a shot." He nodded decisively. "But first we need to get my previous self to take you home. Don't want you to be ripped apart in the Time Vortex."

"Yeah," Mickey said quietly. "Don't want that."

The Doctor popped his sonic screwdriver out of the hole in the console and stuck it in his pocket before grabbing his coat and heading for the door. He turned back when he realized Mickey wasn't following him. "Let's go. We need to catch my other self before he leaves. You don't want to miss your ride."

Mickey nodded and took a step towards the door before stopping again. "If I go with you instead of with him, what happens to me if it doesn't work?"

"You would be painfully ripped apart along with me."

"And then?"

"And then you would probably wake up in your own bed on the Powell Estate with memories of an excruciating death, a death that would haunt your dreams for the rest of your life, but I can't guarantee it. That's the best-case scenario. The Time Vortex is a tricky thing. Not even the Time Lords understood it completely. You could just die outright, without coming back. It's even possible that you dying in the Time Vortex could totally wipe you from existence, prevent you from ever being born in the first place." He jerked his head towards the door. "So let's go. I need to send you off before I start connecting the two TARDISes, so there's no time to waste."

"No," Mickey said slowly. "I can't believe I'm sayin' this, but I'm stayin' with you. Rose asked me to watch out for you, and that's what I'm gonna do." The Doctor started to protest, but Mickey interrupted him. "You're gonna need my help. Don't bother tryin' to deny it. Rose'd never forgive me if I coulda helped you but didn't. And frankly… I'd never forgive myself either. So I don't care what you say. I'm stayin'."

#the choice #ficandchips #ninth doctor #tenth doctor #mickey smith #revised chapter

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