#and the doctor at the end throwing her memories deep into the tardis and going

[claratwelve]

yeah no okay i just finished s13 and i loved it, that was some good cinema

#i can't remember the last time i binged a whole season in one day but i just did that #yeah actually i do remember lol it was in 2014 and the show i was binging was doctor who #does all of the flux arc make sense? #absolutely not but nothing has ever made 100% sense on doctor who #and i love the potential this whole thing has #because if i'm being real i think the whole gallifrey is back and then destroyed again arc was getting a bit tiring #last season i still said idk what i think of the whole timeless child thing #but like i think it would be fun to make the next big thing the doctor finding out where they're really from #and i wouldnt mind if at the end of it whichever showrunner is writing it decides it was all a bluff and the doctor really is from gallifre #im easily satisfied like that #just give me something new #and the doctor at the end throwing her memories deep into the tardis and going #'put this where i can never find it... unless i really ask for it' #ooooooooooooooh #oh more afterthoughts just came to me #the whole self hatred and grieving the time war thing has also been going on since the 90s so #i'm glad we got a new Big Thing to focus on #anywayyyy man idk i just really liked it i have so much more to say but there are too many thoughts in my head #i can't sort them rn #maybe later

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Picking Up the Pieces 2/3

1 | 2 [here] | 3

AU: A Patient, and Time (Donna AU)

~~~

Despite her determination to watch over Donna, Zepheera found it rather disquieting once she was alone. The silence was deafening, only barely broken by the human’s soft, sleepy breathing.

The sound brought back many memories in Zepheera. She and Donna had shared a room for a long time, before the borrower had recovered enough to find her own space in the TARDIS. She and Donna would talk for hours about anything on their minds, until one of them dropped off to sleep and the other followed. Given Zepheera's initial sleep issues, that first person asleep was most often Donna, so the sounds of her sleep were terribly familiar.

She was always full of life, from the moment Zepheera met her. It frightened the borrower at the start, but now its absence left her feeling so empty inside.

Before she could think better of it, Zepheera's feet were on the move. She marched right up to the edge of the nightstand and took the short leap to land on the purple pillowcase. She held her breath for a moment, on the lookout for any signs of movement in Donna.

Not a twitch.

This was an objectively bad move from a borrower’s standpoint. No cover, unsteady ground, and proximity to a human that could wake up at any moment. Zepheera didn't care.

Keeping her eye out for signs of movement, she carefully circled around the top of the pillow towards the opposite side, inching closer to Donna's face once it was in view. The weight of her head caused a slope, so Zepheera had to slow down to keep her balance as she approached Donna’s forehead.

She reached out a hand to touch her, but hesitated before making contact. 

When the Doctor had taken Donna's memories, Zepheera had no clue what was going on. All the confusion and pain hit so strongly in that moment that she had a hard time remembering the few moments after Donna had passed out into the Doctor’s arms. Her raw throat told her plenty about all the screaming she'd apparently done, but the one sensation that she did recall was heat.

Donna’s forehead ended up leaning against the shoulder Zepheera had occupied at the time. Desperate to be close to her friend in a moment of visceral impulse, Zepheera's hands were pressed to it the moment it was in reach. Humans ran rather warm compared to borrowers; she'd grown used to their body heat, but that… That wasn't a normal temperature by any means. Zepheera just didn't care at the time because the despair in her heart overruled the fire under her hands.

With that memory returning, alongside the knowledge that this was likely the last contact Zepheera would ever make with her best friend, she took a deep breath and gently pressed her hand to the skin.

It was still warm, but nowhere near the fever Zepheera felt before. She let out a slow, shuddering breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding. She could be upset about it all she liked, but it became clear right then that the Doctor was right. That what he did was making her better.

That didn't make losing Donna hurt any less.

Zepheera lifted her other hand to join the first, using them to balance herself so she could lean in and place her much smaller forehead on Donna's. Her eyes squeezed shut in a failed attempt to will away her tears, and she shared a breath with her sleeping friend.

“Bye, Donna…”

She stayed there for an all-too-brief moment. Just after she'd brought herself to pull away, she felt the flesh beneath her fingers twitch. The eyebrows to her left were shifting, and the chest beyond heaved with a deeper breath than before.

Donna was waking up, and Zepheera needed to be scarce when she did!

Throwing caution to the wind, hoping the human was too out of it to truly notice, she pushed off of Donna's forehead with both hands and used that momentum to scramble back along the pillow. Donna’s brow furrowed, and a hand loomed overhead to absently rub her forehead as she gave a yawn. By then, Zepheera had slid over the side of the pillow and landed silently on the mattress, tucking herself out of sight behind it.

“Blimey…” she heard Donna mumble. Small movements that Zepheera couldn't see translated into tremors through the mattress under her feet. “What time is…?”

Zepheera dropped from a crouch to her hands and knees as the mattress heaved under her thanks to Donna sitting up properly to have a look around and down at herself. From her hiding spot, Zepheera could see Donna fish through her pockets to find her mobile, its screen glowing softly in the distance.

“Thirty-two??” Donna exclaimed, properly awake and full of all that energy once again. With a final lurch under Zepheera, she hopped out of bed and marched out of the room, eyes glued to her phone.

With the room completely still and truly silent, Zepheera had nothing left to distract her from the overwhelming dread that told her it was over.

Donna was gone, forever.

#angst #doctor who g/t #doctor who gt #doctor who crossover #the borrowers #the borrowers crossover #sfw gt #sfw g/t #borrower OC #Zepheera #A Patient and Time #APAT: a BTaS AU #giant #tiny #giant tiny

[happymeishappylife]

Companion Recap: Jamie McCrimmon

The Doctor’s longest running companion so far in the series. Jamie travels with the Doctor through almost three full seasons and stays by his side with enthusiasm, friendship, and quite a bit of teasing. What is so lovely about this friendship is that it is just that (though because of some of the ways Frazer and Patrick play their parts, it’s easier to read more into it), but also that their friendship is deep and means a lot to both. Which is why it is so cruel at the end.

James Robert McCrimmon is a highlander piper from the 17th century and when the Doctor picks him up, he doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. To be fair he doesn’t always understand what’s going on, but soon he learns that the Doctor’s TARDIS just goes wherever it wants and usually that means a little bit of danger, a little bit of fighting, but ultimately that the Doctor is out to save people. And because the Doctor seems reckless, this means he needs protection. And who better to protect him then the man who is always willing to throw down or take charge even if it might be what gets them into trouble. It’s beautiful.

Also, because Jamie gets taken mostly to the future he picks up a lot and also learns to roll with the strange and unexpected very well. Sure sometimes metal ‘beasties’ or scientific theories go over his head, but fighting Cybermen or Daleks is all the same. Though Jamie does get injured a lot because of his head first actions, he still never abandons the Doctor and soon learns that while his friend is great, he can be a little manipulative, but I think this makes Jamie trust him more ultimately because he knows the Doctor cares for him too.

In fact, the Doctor really does raise Jamie up from when he found him as a mere piper. Jamie is a hero, a constant friend, and support to others, and someone who can always be trusted. I can understand why Jamie doesn’t want to leave the Doctor and even when the one time he does, its because he learns of the Doctor’s manipulation to also save his life. So when he begs the Doctor to run away from the Time Lords and to never forget him, you can tell how much the Doctor really means to him which is why its truly cruel to erase all of Jamie’s memories when they return him to the 17th century.

Jamie also grew differently with all the other companions he travels with. With Ben and Polly, he was another friend and could relate to them even though they came from hundreds of years in his future. But with Victoria, she was a princess and someone he fell hard and fast for. Sure sometimes he was a little sexist and vulgar with her, but ultimately he loved her and wanted to protect her at all costs. With Zoe, he initially is annoyed with her, but I think that’s because she could easily talk and bond with the Doctor which made him jealous. But ultimately Zoe was someone else he could rely on in really hairy situations and the two had a mutual respect for each other. Plus seeing these different faces of him (the Mind Robber pun, not intended) we see what a full-fledged character he was.

I’m glad Jamie is one of the most beloved companions and not just because he is there the longest. Frazer really brought a character to life that we could enjoy and bond with for a whole multitude of reasons and its great that he too is still part of the fandom all these years later.

#prep for the 60th #companion recap #jamie mccrimmon #frazer hines

[time-qxeen]

@secondofeternity

TONIGHT IS A LONELY NIGHT.   Because they have those, now. They have lonely nights, they have angry nights, and they have heavy nights. There are other nights too, but those aren’t even spoken of.

Tonight is a lonely night, though, and they’ve had quite a few of those recently. Nardole knows them well, knows their volatile nature, knows to be careful. Company is needed, but too much pushing will let the knife inch further into the wound. It’s deep enough already.

The Doctor is sitting on the floor. They’re leaning against the TARDIS doors, the back of their head resting against the blue box, silver curls cushioning their skull. Nardole is sitting in the Doctor’s chair. He’s allowed to sit there on lonely nights, only because the Doctor doesn’t want to sit there and look at the pictures on their desk. They might throw them, or put them face-down, or worse still, they might just stare at them.

They could take off, right now, go and find a brand new friend, and whisk them away to see the universe. It would be easy. They’ve done it before, in old bodies, old memories. It’s not a difficult thing to do. But they would be filling a void in their hearts with someone who would, inevitably, deserve their own space. It’s not fair to fill gaps left by others with new people. They’ve learned that lesson. Besides, if they make a new friend, they’ll only be opening their hearts up to loss once more.

NO.   Lonely nights aren’t about trying to fill the void. On nights like these, all they can do is acknowledge. Most of the time, they avoid. Try to forget, or ignore, or distract. Lonely nights are what happens when they can’t quite manage that any longer, when they’re just too tired and they’ve run out of distractions. So Nardole is sitting, waiting for them to do or say something, and finally, they do.

“I don’t know where she is,” they say.

“Who?” Nardole asks, because they’ve lost so many people, and tonight’s lonely episode could’ve been triggered by overwhelming thoughts of any of them.

“Missy. The Master. I don’t even know which they are right now. They could’ve changed faces four times since I last saw them, for all I know.” It’s been a long time. Depending on how they look at it, hundreds, thousands, or billions of years. They choose not to look at it at all. No point thinking about time.

“What’s wrong with that? Not knowing where they are?”

“If I don’t know where they are,” the Doctor says slowly, curling their fingers tightly into the fabric of their hoodie. “It’s like I’ve lost them as well. They’re not human, so they don’t-- I won’t lose them like--” they break off and sigh, pushing their head back against the TARDIS doors. They don’t need to say it. “But when I don’t know where they are, I don’t know that they’re not gone. It’s-- a whole universe of space between us. Their presence, when they’re near, it’s... like it used to be. Even if they’re trying to kill me, it feels-- different. Their mind,” they say, gesturing vaguely at their own head, then trail off.

Nardole is silent for a moment. He clearly doesn’t approve, but that’s alright. He doesn’t need to. “The telepathy thing.”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you do that with someone else? With me?”

“No. I can... sort of do it at you, but... not like with them.”

“And you miss that.”

“Yes,” they say again. “More than anything.”

It feels like home, they don’t say. They won’t say. But they think it, desperately. It aches in their chest, the kind of ache that doesn’t feel like it’ll ever go away. It feels like home. They feel like home.

Missy wasn’t usually the sort of person to feel bad for doing things that people might consider rude. But, if she was, she might’ve felt bad for pausing outside his window - for silently listening along to his conversation. ( Besides, she thought to herself, he’s talking about me behind my back, so who’s really being the rude one? ) 

Not that she was really offended by it - he wasn’t saying anything bad, and she’d always imagined that she must be all the Doctor can talk about when she’s not there. It’s a personal fantasy of hers, and she’s ever so slightly pleased to get a little proof that her fantasy might be based in truth. 

As soon as he’s finished talking, she wants to see him. He says that he misses the telepathic bond, and she isn’t sure if he means with her, or with any one of their kind. Whichever it’s supposed to mean, she decides to assume it’s about her. ( And perhaps that’s a reflection of her own feelings - that as much as she, too, misses the closeness of a telepathic connection - of feeling someone’s presence in a way the rest of the universe doesn’t understand - she misses him more. She misses feeling him. ) But as much as she wants to talk, and wants a moment to see him, she waits a moment, then walks away. After all, there was no point going in while someone else was there - she’d only end up threatening them, and that would ruin the moment.

A few hours later, when she’s sure the Doctor’s alone, Missy returns. When she enters the room, she does so quietly, without any of the loud dramatics that she was usually so fond of. He had been upset, she could tell, and her dramatic little scenes were reserved for when she wanted to play. But she’d wait for him to cheer up first, today. Maybe she’d sprinkle in a little drama later.

Closing the door quietly behind her, Missy steps into the room. “I thought he’d never leave.” She says half-jokingly, because she isn’t entirely sure how to start a conversation. She wants to ask if he’s okay, but... well, she’d never been very good at segueing into that sort of thing.

She properly looks around the room, then; takes it all in until she spots him on the floor, and she sighs. Silently, she walks over, then moves to sit with him; her back pressed against the other side of the TARDIS, so she’s sitting at a right angle to him. “Look; I’m creasing my skirt, sitting like this. Hope you feel special.”

#rp: queen of evil #v; queen of evil ( missy ) #twelve ( secondofeternity ) || missy

[sonickedtrowel]

#32 sounds like fun!

things you said I wouldn’t understand

Happy ever after doesn't mean forever.  It just means time.  A little time.  But that's not the sort of thing you could ever understand, is it?

Perhaps not, the Doctor reflected, his knee bouncing impatiently beneath the table as they finally approached the end of their last course.  (The food was delicious, probably.  He hadn’t really noticed; too busy gripping River’s hand, in case she got any more daft ideas in between starters and dessert, and trying not to stare too much.)  

Could he ever accept that a little time with her would be enough?  Of course not.  His entire being revolted against the idea with a ferocity that left him shaken.  No amount of years or centuries, no number of lives with her could ever be enough.  But they wanted the same thing, in the end: every last precious second they could get.  That, he would gladly give her.

Things always fell so effortlessly into place with River.  It had been wonderful enough just basking in her presence, but the instant she recognised him, they were together again.  She slipped back into that intimacy without a hint of hesitation, and it felt as comfortable and as thrilling as it always had.  Of course the Doctor had known she didn’t care which face he had on, but it was another thing to experience how joyfully she welcomed a new one.  With decades of night ahead of them, he felt the sun was truly shining on this old face for the first time.

“Staring again,” River observed, startling him out of his reverie.  She was covering a smile by dabbing her napkin at the corner of her mouth, but it did nothing to hide the light in her eyes.

“Ah,” the Doctor said, not bothering to feign embarrassment.  “Sorry.”

“Is that a particular quirk of this face?”

“Not generally, no.”

“Missed me, then?”

“You could say that,” he said, his voice wavering.

She turned toward him, laying her other hand over his.  “How long?”

A thousand years.  Five billion.  Forever.  So long that his memories of her had begun to seem like an impossibly beautiful dream; too good to have been real, to have ever graced his undeserving life.

“Too long,” the Doctor answered.  He wondered how she could look at him like that, with all the love and concern and understanding born of centuries of companionship, when just hours ago she’d been declaring he’d never loved her.  River squeezed his hand between hers.

“Well,” she announced after a moment, “this was wonderful, but I couldn’t eat another bite.  Shall we go, darling?” 

He could only manage a grateful nod in reply.

With one long last look at the towers, they turned and made their way back to the TARDIS.  River, evidently not in quite as much of a hurry as he was, stopped to speak to all the staff they passed on the way, lavishing praise on the meal and thanking them for the special attention they’d been given (as the original benefactors of the establishment, of course— not that he’d mentioned that bit to her yet.  He’d get to it eventually.)  

She was lovely when she was being kind and gracious, just as she was lovely when she was brandishing a gun at someone, but either way, the Doctor didn’t have the patience for dealing with other people tonight.  He wanted her attention all to himself.  They were owed a little selfishness, he thought, after all this time.  When he placed his hand at her lower back, she took mercy on him again and said her goodbyes to the hostess, letting him steer her into the TARDIS.  

The door creaked shut behind them at last, and a tense quiet descended over the room.  This was usually the part where they stumbled up to the console between laughter and kisses, argued amiably over the controls as they took off into the vortex or some unoccupied corner of deep space, and he made a show of pretending to complain about her half undressing him before they even made it to the bedroom.

River looked at him, and with his palm resting on her back, he could feel the stiff hesitance in her posture.  She was waiting, probably for a sign that he wanted that: to go on as if not a day had passed since they’d last been together.  And, god, he’d never wanted anything more in his lives.  But there was no pretending he hadn’t heard all the things she’d said today, not now.  He was done with taking the easy way out, and it was up to him to put her doubts to rest.  But where to even begin?

“So,” she said, flashing him an uncertain, tremulous smile.  Always the brave one.  “What do you want to…” she trailed off, her shining eyes searching his.  Her lips were slightly parted in silent question, and as his gaze settled there, the Doctor decided all at once to throw out the order of priorities.  Anyway, he was good at multitasking.

River made a strangled sound in her throat as his lips met hers, surprise trailing into an urgent whimper.  They stumbled into the railing, and he pressed up against her, leaving no space between them for her to fill in with doubts of whether he wanted this.  She grasped blindly for him, one hand gripping his jacket and the other winding into his hair.  They fit together just as perfectly as he’d remembered, but no memory could compare to this.  His tongue traced along her upper lip, and she tipped her head back, sighing with pleasure.

The Doctor worried for a moment that his knees would give out at the overwhelming feel of her, solid and warm and so alive, breathing sharply under his shaking hands.  His mind clouded with the bright aroma of her perfume, the soft heat of her skin, the lingering trace of champagne sparkling on her tongue.  He’d nearly forgotten what it was to love her and to have her.  Centuries of grief and longing met with sudden, miraculous relief, and the shocking reality of it was almost more than his nerves could take.  

He was shivering, but couldn’t bring himself to care if she noticed.  That was really beginning to bother him, though, the more he turned it over in his mind— the noticing.  Today’s events notwithstanding, River was far too clever not to have noticed a very long time ago that he was madly in love with her.  He hadn’t exactly made a secret of it over the centuries.  How, after so much time together, had he managed to fuck up this badly?

“Tell me, wife,” he mumbled in between graceless, needy kisses.  “Where did I go wrong?”  His hands fell to her waist, tracing up over her sides, the beading on her dress rasping under his fingertips.

“You didn’t, sweetie,” she breathed.

The Doctor huffed in disbelief.  “You thought I didn’t love you.”  He tried not to wince at the words.  No matter how painful it was for him, it was worse for her.  “You… think I don’t love you.”

“Oh, anyone can fool a lie detector,” she scoffed.  “Don’t you think I accounted for that possibility before planning his murder right under his nose?”

“River, come on.  Don’t do that.  When you said it, you meant it.  You meant it enough.”

“It, it’s not that—” she stammered, but he pressed on, forcing out the most difficult question before he lost the nerve.

“Did you always?  Did you really always believe that, our whole life together?”

“Oh, darling, no,” she said, stroking his face.  “Of course not.”  

“Because— I’m not trying to make excuses, I know I can be rubbish— but I thought I’d been sort of extremely clear on that point?  I’m, I’m sure there were a lot of honeymoons, and, uh, some poetry…”

River breathed out a soft laugh, her hand still resting against his cheek, and he leaned into her palm.  She had no reason to be looking at him with such affection when he’d clearly been completely inadequate as a husband to her.

“It was just… after Manhattan,” she said, and glanced down, avoiding his eyes.  “You were gone, and…  after a while, I thought I’d rather pretend it had never been real, than admit I’d lost everything.  I knew better.  I did,” she insisted, when he frowned at her.  “But it was… easier.  To run off and get into trouble you wouldn’t approve of, and tell myself you didn’t care anyway.”

The Doctor let out a heavy breath, resting his forehead against hers.  “You never lost me, River.  You never could.  You were always younger, after that.  I should have come back for you, looked for you where you are now.  But I thought if I did, I wouldn’t be able to hold this off any longer.”  He swallowed tightly, choking back tears.  “I’m sorry.  I… I did ask you to stay.”

“I know.”

“I meant it.  I’ve always wanted that.”

“Me too,” she whispered.

“Give me another chance?”

“Always.  If that’s still what you want.”

“Wha— of course it is,” the Doctor sputtered, incredulous.  “You’re my wife.”

“You do have others.”  She made a good show of teasing him, but he knew better now.

“River,” he sighed, “those were weddings, not marriages.  Any idiot can stumble into a wedding, but there’s only so many times you can keep coming back and still call it an accident.  I think we were well past that number by our wedding night, dear.  —Which,” he added as she laughed, smiling up at him through tears, “is also a thing none of the other ones had.  I married you on purpose, and I’m going to stay right here with you on purpose, because I love you, and being with you is— it’s all I want.  Is that okay?”

He was alarmed for a moment when River choked out a sob, but she was still smiling as she nodded, her tear-streaked cheeks shining.  Then she took his face firmly in both hands and kissed him with such frantic passion that his head spun.  Or, maybe not just his head.  Before he’d quite figured out what was happening, she’d flipped them about so he was pinned against the railing instead.

“Oh,” the Doctor croaked.  The sudden jolt of heat tingling through his body as he reflexively gripped her hips was another thing he’d nearly completely forgotten.  It would seem he still enjoyed nothing more than River casually demonstrating she could kill him with her little finger, but had decided to do very nice things to him instead.  It was just so her.  His wife, the obstinate assassin.  Not even a lifetime of brainwashing could compel her to do anything she didn’t want to do.  Lucky bastard that he was, she’d decided she wanted to love him.

“Know what I said about how everything isn’t sexy?” he muttered.  She pulled back just enough to raise an eyebrow at him.  “I’m prepared to make an exception.”

River laughed, pleased and warm.  “Aren’t you always?”

“Only for you, dear.”

“Mmm, good answer.”

“Bedroom?” he suggested.

“Thought you’d never ask,” she sighed.  “But… we should probably park her somewhere other than the restaurant lobby first.”

“Oh, right.  Good idea.”

They stumbled to the console between laughter and kisses, and bickered cheerfully over the map of their new home planet on the scanner, before deciding that moving her just outside the restaurant was good enough for now.  There’d be plenty of time to settle in wherever they chose later.

“You know,” River said as they turned down the corridor to the bedroom, “since you mentioned it.  You did write me the most lovely poetry.  I keep them all in my diary.  Have you written anything lately?”

“Er, written yes; poetry no.”

“Oh?”

“Electric guitar, mostly.”

“Really!” she exclaimed, delighted.  “Now that is definitely sexy.”

“Yeah?” the Doctor asked, a grin spreading over his face.

“Very.  What inspired you to take it up?”

“Ah, well, I don’t know,” he said, slipping his arm around her waist.  “Guess I’m always thinking of a song.”

#dr fic #dw fic #river x doctor #twelve x river #the doctor x river song #i hate tagging things #Believe it or not I am still working through these asks!! #lmao I'm sorry I'm so slow anon #I hope you see this #and that it doesn't suck #I haven't written Darilliium 12 in a while #and I'm not sure if he really came back to me entirely #but this was still fun to do #Anonymous

[liron-ao3]

Brilliant

A Doctor Who–Destiel–Malec Oneshot

"This is brilliant!" the Doctor exclaims. She pushes some buttons on the console of the TARDIS. "Brilliant!"

"How is this 'brilliant'?" Alec asks. "We're trapped in a TV show."

"No, we are trapped in a TV series, Shadowhunter," Yaz hisses.

Castiel huffs in frustration. "It's probably just one of Gabriel's stupid jokes."

"Gabriel?" the Doctor asks. "Oh, the Archangel. Amy loved him, but not as much as she loved you, Cass."

"Where do you know his name from?" Dean demands to know.

The Doctor rolls her eyes. "I watched the show, Dean. Crappy ending, sorry."

"You... what!?" Dean asks.

"Nevermind. That's more brain-wracking than the usual time travel paradoxes. But I'm thrilled to meet you all. Umm—what are you doing, Magnus?" She raises an eyebrow at the warlock who lets his magic run over the console.

"This is worse than the technology in the Institute," he mutters.

Alec pulls him away cautiously. "Maybe you shouldn't mess with it then, love?" he suggests, smiling strained, holding tight on his husband's hand.

"Aww, you're the reboot version. I was so happy when Netflix saw sense. And your boys are the cutest," the Doctor chirps.

"Boys?" Magnus asks.

"Doctor, they might be from episode one of season four. Look at their clothes," Yaz whispers, but it's loud enough for Dean to hear it.

"There are only three seasons of Shadowhunters," he states. "It ends when they marry and Clary loses her memories, but gets them back in the last few seconds. It wasn't the best ending, but at least the gays were happy." Dean's grin reaches from ear to ear before it falters at Castiel's stern look.

"Dean, did you watch 3b without me?"

Dean shrugs. "If you wouldn't always run out on me or die then we coulda watched it. It was on my playlist for aeons. And I needed something to distract me from… You know." He waves his hand up and down the angel.

"Jesus! That's like that time when Sam and I were in this weird Hollywood dimension, with that Russian guy that looked like Cass!"

"Wait!" Magnus says. "I watched Doctor Who for six decades and Supernatural for fifteen years—I agree, Doctor, the 'finale' was crap. But if you all know us from a show called Shadowhunters, then we must be in some kind of dimension that morphs everything into a TV series that everyone else has watched."

The Doctor claps her hands together. "The French mistake—one of my favourites!"

"No, Russian." Dean shakes his head and rolls his eyes. He always loved the Doctor and was excited for a woman to take over the role, but he thinks he might have been able to live without her enthusiasm about their little get together. They have a world to save, after all.

"Chuck has a strange sense of humour, but that doesn't sound like one of his interventions," Alec states. "Why would he put us all in the TARDIS?"

"What do we all have in common?" Dean asks.

"We're kinda humans," Alec says.

"Time Lady."

"Angel."

"Warlock. And you're not fully human either, Alexander."

The shadowhunter chews his lips.

"But you three have some kind of mojo," Dean supplies.

The Doctor furrows her brow. "You're right. Cass has grace, Magnus magic, and timelord technology is so highly evolved, it could be seen as magical. If there is a—" she trails off and points her sonic screwdriver first at the warlock then at the angel. Then she listens to her ship. "You're right," she says and putters about the console.

"Care to fill us in?" Alec asks.

The Doctor pushes a button and a high-pitched sound makes them all cover their ears. "Gotcha!"

"What?" Castiel asks.

"I know what we have in common. We all have a fam. You've got the SPN family, and you," she turns to Alec and Magnus, "your fans call themselves shadowfam. And I?" She smiles brightly. "I have Yaz, Graham, and Ryan."

"You agreed on team TARDIS, Doctor," Magnus reminds her.

"Still, feels like fam to me." She shrugs. "So…" She quirks her lips in thought. "Some blood magic, maybe?"

"But family doesn't end in blood," Dean argues.

"Right, Bobby taught you that. Wish the showrunners remembered that in season 15," Alec murmurs. Dean gives him a strange side look.

"Is something wrong, Dean?"

"Nah, Cass," he says and pulls his gaze from the intertwined hands of the Lightwood-Banes. "So, maybe some rune thingy?"

Alec pulls a face. "Could turn Yaz and you into forsakens. Maybe even the Doctor. Better not."

"Can't you just put the coordinates in and throw us out in the bunker. Or in front of it? No idea if the warding would keep the TARDIS out or not." Dean frowns.

"Wouldn't work," Magnus says. "If this dimension, or whatever it is, thinks that we are all fictional, then the coordinates can't bring us into our worlds. We might end up in your dimension. I like our vampires better."

"Awesome!" Dean groans.

Magnus curls his fingers around his chin in deep thought. "I could summon a dimension demon, but they usually demand things one would rather die than do."

"Like what?" Castiel asks.

"The last time I had to pay one, he wanted me to drink seelie wine."

"Doesn't sound too bad," Dean says.

"You've never had seelie wine. That stuff is worse than the touch of a Djinn." Dean whistles in acknowledgement.

"Could still be worth it. I mean we need to get back to our friends, and yours are surely waiting, too," Yaz supplies.

"The TARDIS is stuck in this dimension, Doc?" Alec asks.

"Yes. Positive."

"Then we should begin," Magnus says, conjuring chalks. "We all will be home soon."

***

They stand in a circle around the pentagram drawn on the floor of the TARDIS.

"We must initiate a bond. Once this bond is sealed,..." Magnus starts.

"...it cannot be broken until the demon retreats," Castiel ends his sentence and smiles softly at Alec, who blushes fiercely.

"Well, this time, I won't be the one who'll break it in a gay panic," he huffs. Yaz snickers.

Dean furrows his brow, ignoring Castiel eyeing him. He recites the summoning spell together with Magnus and the Doctor. Green flames rise in their midst. They aren't hot, but their sight hurts the eyes. A deep growl speaks to them, and Castiel turns pale.

"I haven't heard this demonic dialect in a while," he calls over the noises. "Did he say what I think he said?"

Magnus worries his lip between his teeth. "I think he did."

"I can't."

"What, Cass. What does he ask for? Give it to him. It can't be that bad," Dean shouts.

"It isn't. At least not for me." Castiel looks at the Doctor. "Any Supernatural sequels you've seen by any chance?"

"No, sorry. I got stuck at the Destiel YouTube vids. Didn't get around to checking future releases. But you two always reminded me of Rose and me, you know?" She looks sad at the memory of her lost love.

"No. A human doppelgänger won't do," Castiel says firmly. He says something in the demon's tongue and gets a rumble in reply.

Magnus nods at him. "My magic can hold the circle. But hurry."

The others stare at them. "Why doesn't the TARDIS translate his words?" Yaz asks.

"This demon is too old," the Doctor says. "Even older than evil itself. No one speaks this language anymore but angels and demon-blooded ones, as it seems."

"Lucky me, huh?" Castiel presses out. He lets go of Magnus' hand and turns to Dean. The warlock holds the gap with his magic. "I know how you see yourself, Dean…"

"We don't have time for the whole death speech. Fast forward," Magnus hisses, clearly struggling to hold the bond.

Castiel frowns at him but nods. He turns his face back to Dean. "I'm sorry. I know you never wanted that to happen. It's simply what the demon demands. It doesn't have to mean anything, okay?"

"What are you talking about, man?"

Castiel smiles at him. "I love you." And then he leans in and kisses him. It's chaste but after a moment of shock, Dean returns the kiss, and his hand cards through Castiel's hair. Thunder booms around them and dense fog separates the different duos. The demon disappears with a screeching noise and when the fog thins out, the places where the two couples were standing are empty.

"It worked!" the Doctor rejoices. Yaz grins at her. "Let's get to the boys."

"No, Mulder, this isn't a UFO. It's surely just a high-quality film set," a redhead in pantsuit and coat says as she strolls into the room.

"Scully!" the Doctor cheers. "Brilliant!"

#fandom fusion #doctor who #shadowhunters #supernatural #destiel #malec #deancas #metafiction #crack taken seriously

[riversofmars]

Can I ask you for a prompt about Thirteen stalking River at a dozen points throughout River's timeline (and all out of order)?? xx Thank you.

Hello! This is a brilliant prompt that I’ve actually been saving for the right moment :D I wanted to do it as a slightly bigger project and here we are. So this is going to be the first chapter of 12, one for each encounter (no way was I gonna do this in a one-shot lol), they’ll probably vary in length. I’m also planning on using some of the other prompts I’ve got sitting here for the encounters cause some are just perfect for it. All one big story though, chronological from the Doctor’s point of view, all over the place for River. :D

Starting off a bit serious but will turn lighter as we go along. Something (relatively) light and entertaining before I throw myself into something more serious again. Hope you’ll enjoy this!

Rating: G

Word Count: 2600

Read below or on AO3

Big, Vast, Complicated and Ridiculous

Chapter 1: The Library

The TARDIS materialised in the complete silence that engulfed the Library. Only the light atop the TARDIS reflected on the marble floor, the whole planet was shrouded in living, breathing darkness. There were a great many terrifying things in the universe, the Vashta Nerada certainly ranked right up there, but very few things actually scared the Doctor anymore. When she opened the TARDIS door, the golden light shining from behind her pushed the shadows back.

“I’m the Doctor, remember me?“ She spoke into the silence as she stepped out of her TARDIS and the shadows retreated from where she set her foot. “I’m not here to disturb you, I just want to see my wife.“ She said but didn’t get a response. She hadn’t expected one, there was no body for the shadows to inhabit and talk to her. “I just destroyed an army of Daleks… don’t mess with me right now, keep out of my hair and I will keep out of yours.“ Her voice was low and threatening. She hardly recognised herself anymore. It was one of the many reasons she was here. Nineteen years she had spent locked away with plenty of time to think. Being rescued and seeing off a Dalek invasion hadn’t done much to alleviate her gloom. If anything, it had pushed her further in a direction she wasn’t sure she wanted to be going in.

“Where are we going to go?“ Yaz had asked after Ryan and Graham had left the TARDIS.

“I…“ the Doctor hadn’t been sure what to say, heading off on another random adventure just didn’t feel right. Not when she had so many questions that needed answering, so many things she needed to figure out about herself. “I need to find out who I am, Yaz…“ She had said at last, squaring her jaw. She couldn’t just keep going, carrying all these questions with her. She felt so far removed from herself, how could she be carrying on in the name of the Doctor, when she didn’t even know who that person was anymore?

“Then we will do that.“ Yaz had said encouragingly. “Where do you want to start?“

The Doctor had thought about the answer to that question a lot in the nineteen years she’d been locked up. She’d taken a deep breath, gathering herself.

“There is someone I need to go and see, someone that knows me better than anyone else in the universe.“ She’d answered.

“Right, great, who is it? Where are we going?“ Yaz had asked, full of enthusiasm that had just been too much for the Doctor at the time.

“Yaz, this is something I need to do by myself…“ She’d said after brief consideration and Yaz’s face had fallen. “I promise I won’t keep you waiting long, I will pick you up again soon, but this bit… it’s personal.“ The Doctor had looked away, busying herself by setting coordinates and not face Yaz’s disappointment.

“Oh… but you said…“ Yaz hadn’t given up easily and it had taken a lot out of the Doctor to muster the needed enthusiasm.

“I’ll be back by the time you’ve packed a bag.“ The Doctor had smiled and meant it. She was glad at least one of her friends still wanted to travel with her but the place she needed to go, that was something she had to do by herself.

“I will be back here in an hour and if you’re not, Doctor, so help me, I…“ Yaz had tried her best to understand, she’d known her friend was struggling and if that was something she had to do by herself, she would have to give her that time.

“One hour it is.“ The Doctor had put on an optimistic smile. “I got my phone back as well, you can reach me any time, don’t worry.“

Yaz had given in to her persuasive and optimistic promise. Any trace of that enthusiasm the Doctor had mustered for her companion had drained away now. She didn’t need to pretend here, amongst the shadows. She had every right to be bitter, every right to be angry and sad and grieving. The shadows had been there and seen it all and they understood. Her threatening tone certainly had the desired effect as the shadows retreated and created a walk way to the nearest computer screen. The Doctor made her way over to the terminal and accessed it right away, before she could let her anxieties overwhelm her.

“CAL?“ She spoke as the computer engaged and powered up. “CAL? I need to talk to River.“

“Way ahead of you, Sweetie.“ River’s face appeared on the screen, giving her a warm smile that made the Doctor’s chest tighten immediately. She’d known seeing her like this would be hard, but to see that love and warmth in her eyes was more painful than anger at her long absence could have been.

“River, I… I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner…“ The Doctor grabbed on to the terminal, trying to get as close as she could although she knew, of course, that it made no difference. River wasn’t physically there. She was just a voice, a consciousness, inside a computer. That knowledge made it hard for the Doctor to breath.

“I’m sure you have been very busy, saving the universe and all that.“ River chuckled lightheartedly and the Doctor couldn’t be sure if she actually meant it or if she was being sarcastic. She wasn’t good at reading people’s expressions at the best of times and she certainly didn’t feel her best right about now. “What brings you here now?“ River asked, tilting her head and the Doctor’s hearts sank. She knew her too well to assume she’d come without an anterior motive.

“I, uh… I’m feeling really lost right now and I thought… I just needed to see you again… I think I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be the Doctor…“ The Doctor confessed, unable to keep up the pretence any longer. They were alone, just her and River, the woman who had seen the best and the worst of her, knew everything about her, every face, everything she’d done… and still loved her regardless.

“Ah this again.“ River gave her a kind smile. “You have an identity crisis and you come to your old wife for a pep talk?“ She chuckled.

“River, you don’t understand, the timelords, they kept so much from me, I don’t even know my own life. I’m not even one of them. Turns out I’m just a foundling with these abilities that they then took for themselves. And I don’t even remember any of it, they took the memories…“ The Doctor started rambling. She didn’t know what to say or how to explain, it was just so much. River remained silent, just listening, allowing her to carry on: “I’m just so angry, I’ve done some really bad things and I can feel myself slipping into all that anger and…“ The Doctor closed her eyes, trying to block out the memory of Gallifrey burning, of the Master laughing, of her destroying a TARDIS to wipe out the Daleks…

“The anger of a good man is not a problem.“ River smiled, echoing a voice from their joint past and the Doctor actually laughed.

“You know I’m not a good man, River.“ She shook her head bitterly.

“That’s where you’re wrong, my Love. You’re the best man I’ve ever known. Or woman, come to think of it.“ River chuckled.

“I’m being serious, River.“ The Doctor shook her head. Why wasn’t she taking her seriously?

“So am I.“ River replied more firmly and the Doctor looked up at her. “You might feel yourself slipping and you might end up doing bad things, terrible things even but never without reason. Sometimes there isn’t a right choice so you have to make a hard one and you do. It’s what you have to do. And it’s not always easy but you always find your way back to yourself.“

“Last time this happened, you were there, to pull me back from the brink. At Demon’s Run. You said I make them so afraid… and I could see that. And I do again, now. This is not what Doctor is supposed to mean.“ The Doctor lowered her eyes again, ashamed for her actions. She remembered Demon’s Run well. Her hubris had been her downfall then. She could feel herself slipping back into that dark mindset, the anger she’d felt towards Madame Kovarian, the fear for Amy…

“Oh darling, you might have a temporary and possibly well founded identity crisis but you’re still the Doctor, my Doctor.“ River smiled kindly as it was the best she could do and the Doctor wished nothing more than to be able to touch her. Fall into her arms and have her tell her everything would be alright again. That she would work it out like she always did. That she was still proud of her, still believed in her, still loved her.

“You know I want nothing more than to be that person. For you, if nothing else. But how do I do it?“ She retorted, almost desperately.

“I’m sorry, my Love, I can’t tell you that, those experiences have to be lived, not told. I think you’d been sitting still for too long, you’ve forgotten what the thrill of adventure feels like, the joy of helping and saving someone. What it means to be the good guy and stand up for what’s right… To actually have fun again.“ River’s smile was full of compassion.

“Is that your advice? Just go back out there and find adventure and live?“ The Doctor laughed in a bitter sort of way and shook her head in disbelief.

“Something like that. Answers to the big questions have a habit of finding you along the way… I’m afraid you have quite a way to go yet before then but you want to be your best self when you do, don’t you?“ River shrugged.

“That’s not… how am I to do that if I don’t know how to carry on?“ The Doctor snapped, frustrated. Did River not understand what she was saying? How could she just suggest she carry on and find herself along the way. She had tried on Earth, fighting off the Daleks, and she had not acted like the Doctor at all. If she put herself in the midst of another adventure, what was to stop her from making the wrong choices? How was she to act like the Doctor if she couldn’t think like them anymore?

“What did you expect to find here? I’m just a face in a computer.“ River retorted pulling the Doctor out of her frenzied thoughts.

“River you…“ The Doctor felt guilty immediately, she had been so wrapped up in herself. River was so much more than that to her, even now.

“No, Doctor, you can’t come here and expect me to help fix you, you’ll have to do that yourself and you’re only going to do that by carrying on.“ River said sternly.

“To do that, I need you, I need your help.“ The Doctor confessed why she had really come. “When I’m with you, it’s like… I know who I’m meant to be. You make me a better person.“ She couldn’t help but think back to the time right after Darillium. How she had kept her diary close, River’s words guiding her through some of the hardest decisions of her life. She pushed her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out River’s diary. “I need… I need more.“ She looked at the well worn blue cover and then to River. She could see the flash of deep emotion in her eyes that she tried to hide with a dazzling smile as usual.

“Then you have come to the wrong version of me, haven’t you.“ River chuckled, the sadness gone from her eyes. “I’m stuck in a computer, Doctor, but there are plenty younger versions of me running around out there.“

“But, the diary…“ The Doctor had read it cover to cover many times. Even all the encounters River had had with her past selves before she’d even known who she was. It was all there. She had lived and read it all already.

“Oh Doctor, my dear Doctor, I was never going to put it all in there, was I.“ River smirked and the Doctor looked up dumbfounded as the penny dropped.

“You recognised me!“ She exclaimed. “You knew it was me straight away!“

“Of course I did, Sweetie. That particularly pretty face of yours has been all over my timeline.“ River grinned.

“It has?“ The Doctor’s head was spinning as her world turned upside down. Was this River’s way of telling her that this was not the end of their story?

“Well, it’s one of those timey wimey things, isn’t it. You come here distraught and talk to me, I tell you to see my younger selves, you tell my younger self not to put it in the diary, so you don’t know about those adventures and come here distraught to talk to me…“ River smirked drawing a circle in the air as the Doctor buried her face in her hands and groaned, annoyed at how she hadn’t seen this coming, it was just them all over. Her and River, time and space… Rule 1: The Doctor and River lie. She looked at River’s smiling face and felt much lighter than she had in a long time. Perhaps she could do this after all. Perhaps if she had those encounters to look forward to, she could keep going. River laughed: “See Sweetie, it’s never over for us, is it. All that time and space, we’re still running together, somewhere out there, and we will never stop. Maybe just delay for a time.“

“Maybe I’ll even get you out of here one day.“ The Doctor said the words before she could think better of it. Maybe she could, one day, make up for the one thing she regretted more than anything else.

“Maybe you will.“ River chuckled airily. “Until then, have fun with my younger self. Those were some good times.“ She gave her a wink.

“I will come back.“ The Doctor promised with renewed determination.

“Until then, my love.“ River blew her a kiss and before the Doctor could muster the strength for more meaningful goodbyes, the screen went black. The Doctor shook her head to herself, she was sure River had done it on purpose to make sure she would actually come back.

It was a strange mix of feelings as she returned to the TARDIS, she still felt the anger bubbling inside her, the nagging questions… but there was hope now, too, something to look forward to. The TARDIS hummed and wheezed as the Doctor closed the door behind herself, back in the comforting light and safety.

“Yes, she’s fine…“ The Doctor answered the TARDIS’s question as she stepped up to the console. “At least I think so… I didn’t exactly ask but she looked fine… I mean, she’s an image on a computer screen so of course she looks fine, she’ll always look like she did when she was uploaded I guess… But she didn’t say anything about not being fine… She did say we would see her again though.“ The Doctor found herself grinning now. “Let’s pick up Yaz and then, who knows… maybe we will run into her, wouldn’t that be something.“ She pushed the lever down and the TARDIS jumped into the time vortex. Th journey took no time at all and they landed only moments later. The Doctor skipped over to the door, already picking out suitable travel destinations in her head for their next adventure, and ready to welcome Yaz back.

“Okay… this is not Sheffield!“ The Doctor’s face fell as she opened the TARDIS door. Slowly, she stepped outside into blinding sunshine. “Yaz is going to kill me if I’m late.“ She scolded the TARDIS. “Why are you doing this?“  

#doctor who #river song #thirteenth doctor #Thirteen #river x thirteen #space wives #thirteen/river #fanfiction #prompt #mild angst #general #TARDIS #The Library #femslash #Big Vast complicated and ridiculos #Jodie whittaker #Alex Kingston

[fabulouspotatosister]

please dial again later

summary: you call the doctor. the doctor gets your call a little too late.

word count: ill add this later 1,483

a/n: not a request fill, just a little idea i had that i needed to get down. school is coming up very very very very soon, and i'm a lil stressed out so i haven't really been writing, but hopefully i'll get those requests done soon! this fic is kinda dedicated to @bushlandwriting, whose tags on their reblogs have really been getting me through the back-to-school rush. thanks so much lovely!

(also i almost titled this "you used to call me on my cellphone", so enjoy)

gif credit: @minimoefoe

--

Ring, ring!

The gentle chimes of a phone ringing filled the interior of the TARDIS console room, the soft sound bouncing off the hexagonal walls. The Doctor looked up from her work - well, it wasn’t really important work, she was just tinkering, but if it kept her mind busy then it was work - and caught Yaz’s eye from across the room. She was staring at her phone, confusion written over her face, and the Doctor caught her question before she could even open her mouth.

“Wondering why you’re getting a call in the Time Vortex?” the Doctor asked, pulling her goggles off her face. 

“How’d you…” Yaz trailed off. Her bewildered expression morphed into an amused smile. “Nevermind.”

The Doctor bounded over to Yaz’s side and leaned over her shoulder to look at the phone’s screen. Unknown number, it read, the slide to accept button flashing slowly. Yaz eyed her phone apprehensively. “Should I accept it?” 

“Why not? No harm in trying,” the Doctor replied. “Well, there might be. But we’re in the Time Vortex. Should be fine.”

Yaz swiped the button. Glancing at the Doctor, she lifted the phone to her ear and spoke. “Hello?”

The Doctor watched Yaz’s eyebrows pinch in confusion, watched her mouth hanging open as the person on the other end spoke. Then, silently, she lowered the phone and held it towards the Doctor. 

“They’re asking for you,” Yaz said.

“What?” The Doctor took the phone from Yaz’s hand and looked at the screen. It still read unknown number, but now the chances of it being someone unknown where much slimmer. The Doctor didn’t know why that scared her so much. “Are you sure they called for me and not another Doctor?”

“There aren’t more of you,” Yaz said. “Are there?”

Loads, the Doctor wanted to say. “In a way,” she said instead. “This call might not even be for me.”

“No harm in trying,” Yaz echoed. A quiet voice crackled from the phone’s speaker, and the Doctor gulped. 

“Right,” she muttered. She turned around, slowly lifting the phone to her ear, and took a deep breath. “Hello? The Doctor speaking.”

“...hello?”

The Doctor froze.

To Yaz, she looked perfectly calm. Standing still with her feet planted to the floor. But to the Doctor, calm had an entirely different definition: calm meant that her racing mind had just stuttered to a stop and calm meant she didn’t know what to do next. 

It was you on the other end of the line.

You spoke again, soft and croaky. “I’m sorry, who is this? Have I got the wrong number? Uh, I’ll just hang up -”

The Doctor could practically feel you - hearing your voice is enough to make her imagine you by her side, just like you were so long ago. Your smile, your laugh, bright against anything the universe threw at you. 

She wanted to scream. She wanted to shout, cry, throw Yaz’s phone against the wall, curse the TARDIS for the call. 

She did none of those things. Deep breath, Doctor. “Wait,” she said, her voice strained. “It’s me, I’m the Doctor.”

You coughed. It sounded strange through the phone. She remembered this, the memory coming to the front of her brain clearly - one day, when she was a bowtie-wearing young man, she’d dropped you off at your home and you’d gotten sick. She remembered coming to your house and seeing you days later, miserable and wrapped up in blankets. She remembered you complaining that she hadn’t picked up your calls. She remembered tucking you into bed and waiting until you’d fallen asleep to climb into bed and lie next to you.

“No,” you chuckled. “No, you’re not the Doctor. He’s a guy.”

“I’ve had an upgrade,” the Doctor said. You laughed softly, your breaths puffing against the receiver. You were probably still lying in your bed, waiting. “Hello, sweetheart.”

“Oh.” You were silent for a moment. The Doctor heard the faint rustling of sheets as you shifted. “Well, hello there, future Doctor.”

The Doctor could feel a wave of emotion washing over her, and she closed her eyes. If Yaz looked hard enough, she would have seen the Doctor’s hands shaking ever so slightly. Regret washed over her first, so heavy she could have drowned in it. 

“Are you still there?”

“Always,” the Doctor whispered.

“Okay, good,” you said, then hummed. “Is this a spoiler? Everything River’s told me so far is telling me that this is a spoiler. But I think it’s a good spoiler.”

“Why?”

“You sound really cute,” you murmured, your voice heavy with sleep. “I really like your accent. Are you from the North now?”

“Suppose I am,” she replied. “You like it?”

You yawned, and the Doctor couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Are you what I have to look forward to?”

You would never even get to see her twelfth face. “Yes,” the Doctor said, her throat closing up. “I think you should get really excited.”

“Hang on, super important question,” you said suddenly. The sheets rustled again, like you had sat up quickly. “Are you finally ginger?”

The Doctor smiled again, though her hearts were twisting in her chest. This was a taste of what it would have been like if you had survived, if she hadn’t failed to protect you, and she wanted it. “No. But I am blonde.”

You sighed dramatically and fell back against your bed with a thump. “You know what they say about blondes, they have more fun. Speaking of fun, am I having fun? With you?”

The Doctor opened her eyes and turned around, glancing at Yaz. Yaz startled - there were tears running down her face, stray strands of blonde hair plastered to her skin. You’d struck the Doctor, deep in her hearts. It hurt, and all the Doctor could think was “why?” Why this? Why you? Why now, when you weren’t by her side anymore? What was this if not torture for her aching hearts?

“Spoilers,” the Doctor croaked. 

You laughed. You laughed, and the Doctor nearly broke. The wounds of your departure weren’t fresh, but the sound of your laugh was enough to draw blood once again. She didn’t want to admit that she missed you, because it meant that you were truly gone.

But it was the truth. “I miss you.”

“Miss you too,” you sang. Your voice stuttered, words overlapping over one another - the call was breaking up - but she tried to hold on to the cheeriness in your voice. “Oh - someone’s at the door -”

“That’ll be me,” the Doctor said.  And if it was her last chance to say it - “Goodbye.”

“No, not goodbye,” you said, and the Doctor imagined you smiling so brightly at her, “see you soon.”

The TARDIS broke the connection.

“Yeah,” the Doctor whispered. “See you soon.”

--

The doorbell rang again. Still giddy, you threw your phone onto your bed and stumbled down the stairs, your blanket wrapped tight around your body. What a call! You’d have to make sure it wasn’t a strange fever dream later.

You opened the door and grinned at your visitor - the Doctor, your floppy-haired bowtie-wearing Doctor stood in your doorway, a bright smile on his face. His smile dropped a little when he saw you, and he leaned forward to look at your face. “Are you alright?”

You probably looked like a mess. You hadn’t combed your hair since you laboriously climbed out of the shower, your face was flushed with a fever, and you were like a burrito inside your thick blanket, trying to keep away the chill. The answer, of course, was no, but you had more pressing questions.

“You weren’t answering my calls,” you said, pouting, and the Doctor paled. “Someone else picked up.”

“Who?” the Doctor asked, wide-eyed. “The TARDIS must have rerouted the call, did you get Sandshoes? Please don’t tell me you got Sandshoes -”

You laughed, cutting him off. “No, I didn’t get Sandshoes. Or Technicolor Dream Coat. I got a girl.”

The Doctor’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “I’m going to be a girl?”

“She’s blonde,” you said cheerily. The Doctor frowned, stepping inside and shutting the door carefully behind him.

“Blonde isn’t ginger,” the Doctor grumbled. A second later, his face broke into a big smile. “That’s brilliant, though. I’ve always wanted to be blonde! That was second to ginger.”

“She had a cute accent,” you continued. “I think you’re going to be really pretty.”

“Yeah?” The Doctor grinned. “I’m already pretty. Or so I’ve been told.”

“Quit fishing for compliments, pretty boy,” you chimed, sidling up to him and resting your head against his shoulder. The Doctor wrapped a careful arm around you, and you settled into his warm touch. “I’ve really missed you.”

(And hundreds of years away, the Doctor lived in the memory of you cradled in her arms, enjoying the time you still had together.)

#jess writes #doctor who #doctor who x reader #thirteenth doctor x reader #doctor who fanfiction #thirteenth doctor fanfiction #eleventh doctor fanfiction #<- but like. near the end.

[edelwoodsouls]

i still pick up at the sound of your call [fic]

"Is that a dalek on tv?" [or: Martha has some choice questions for the Doctor regarding the new Prime Minister's addess]

Inspired by this post

Word Count: 1,799 | Also on Ao3

"Oi, what the fuck is going on?"

The Doctor blinks. Pulls the phone away from her ear, to check the number again, check she isn't hallucinating. She'd hardly believed it when she saw it, hasn't seen those numbers strung together in years, though they're still burned into her mind.

Another life, another time.

Another friend burned to ashes.

She hesitates, for just a moment. Takes a deep breath. "Hey, Martha," she cringes instantly at the hollow lightness of her tone, only drawing attention to the lifetimes between their last words. "What's up?"

A heavy pause on the other end. The Doctor tries to imagine her old companion, for just a moment. She'd promised herself she would check up on her friends from time to time, make sure they were okay, if she could help them from the shadows in any way - but that promise has fallen between the cracks, lost along the way with everything she ever thought was true.

The last time she saw Martha, she saved her life. Moments before her own - his own, back then - had slipped between her fingers.

She'd looked happy. The Doctor could never have predicted Martha and Mickey of all people, but she was glad for them. She had ruined their lives in so many ways by crashing through them, by falling in love with Rose - this was the least they deserved.

So she imagines Martha like that. Curled up on the sofa, cornrowed hair and sparkling eyes. Legs tangled up with Mickey as they watch tv in the burnt orange glow of a dying London afternoon.

Oh, fuck. The tv.

"Uh, hi," Martha answers finally, wrong-footed and uncertain. "I wanted to speak to the Doctor, could you put him on, please? Sorry, I- uh, I'm Martha. Jones. I used to travel with him. I'm guessing you're the new companion? What happened to Donna?"

An unexpected lump rises in the Doctor's throat. Thousands of years - thousands - have passed since she last bothered to check in on Martha Jones. How many companions have been and gone in that time? How many have crumbled to ash beneath her fingers?

She swallows it down, files it under Compartmentalise, and Never Think of Again.

Sunshine. Enthusiasm. Energy. The tenets she's founded herself on this go around. She plasters a bright smile on her face, as if contorting her muscles will trick her tone into believing she means it.

"Just me, I'm afraid," she grins, skipping around the TARDIS to fiddle with the controls to keep her hands busy. "Had a bit of a change of face since you last saw me."

Furious whispers on the other side of the phone, far enough away from the receiver that even she can't hear them. She imagines Martha and Mickey, confusion and surprise warring with each other.

This reveal never gets old.

"Sooo, how've you been? How's Mickey? It's been, what, nearly ten years since you last saw me?"

"Uh, yeah," Martha returns to the phone, hesitant. She's never had to deal with regeneration, really. "I didn't know you could- I mean, when you said you change, I didn't realise that-"

"I can be anything I like! It's great, innit? I could have two heads or green skin if I felt like it. First time I've been a woman, though. Well, first time I remember, I guess. Still haven't been ginger, though. Maybe one day."

"Different face, same amount of energy," Martha laughs, and the sound lifts a weight from the Doctor's chest she didn't even know was there. "Mickey says hi."

"Yeah- hi!" A more distant voice echoes through the phone, startled at being addressed.

"Hi! It's great to hear from you!" She twirls the phone cord around a finger. If there's one thing she always regrets in her lives, it's the way her previous selves treated their companions. Each one with a different idea of relationships, of how things should be done.

This version of her thinks Mickey would be a great companion, if not for her Rose-tinted blinders.

"So, to what do I owe this call? Hope you kids have been keeping out of trouble, though somehow, I doubt it."

"Right!" Martha yelps. The whole regeneration thing definitely threw her for a loop. "Yeah, Doctor, what the fuck is going on? Is that a dalek we just saw on tv?"

"Ah, yeah... it is, yeah."

"And?"

"And I'm sorting it out?" The Doctor glances over her shoulder, towards the corridor the fam disappeared down a few minutes ago to get ready. They'll be back any second.

It's not that the Doctor doesn't want the fam to know about her old companions. They've met Jack, know she hasn't been on her own all this time, but- still.

Her companions don't have the best survival rate. It's selfish, probably, to keep having them, and yet she somehow never goes without them for long.

(She's lonely, she knows it. She's not a good person on her own. She clings to these fragments of knowledge and calls it reason.)

"But why is there a dalek on tv, Doctor? New security drones, that's what they're saying. Do they not remember the whole Earth-moving, twenty-seven planets, dalek invasion thing?"

"Or the Battle of Canary Wharf?" Mickey adds, words heavy with an underlying anger. Rose was lost to save the world from daleks, after all.

The least she deserves is to have her sacrifice remembered.

"I'm not sure, to be honest," the Doctor admits, flinging herself onto one of the crystalline seats near the console. "It's incredibly weird, actually. As far as I can tell, the entire human race has forgotten that aliens exist at all. No stolen Earth, no Titanic flying over London or Racnoss star at Christmas. No Battle of Canary Wharf."

"That's- I mean, how does that even happen?"

"I have no idea. Something to do with collective consciousness, I'd guess. Some manipulation from another race wanting to remove Earth's knowledge and wariness of aliens. The Arkangel network is still flying strong in your orbit, after all. It wouldn't be so hard to harness the technology. Maybe even your own governments, or some rogue branch of Torchwood. I never did find Torchwood 2 or 4."

"Then how the hell do we still remember?"

"Probably my fault. You're still keyed into the TARDIS's neural network, so she's protecting you from the effects. Sorry about that."

"No, it's- it's good," Martha splutters. "Are you going to try and fix it?"

"Maybe," the Doctor leans back in her chair, pulling the phone cord as far as it will go. "Once all of this is over, I might look into it. Just to check if it's malevolent or not. It's not a bad thing, necessarily. To forget. Some of things they must have seen..."

She shakes her head to clear it. Can't let herself stop and think for too long, or she might never escape the whirlpool's tide.

"Anyway," Martha says - she always was good at noticing her spirals, circumventing them. "How's Donna?"

Nevermind. She speaks the words lightly, but in a tone that says she noticed the Doctor's avoidance earlier and is bracing for bad news.

"She's great!" the Doctor manages a smile, glad to have something, anything to latch onto that isn't her own thoughts. "Happily married, actually. Won the lottery a few years ago, doing very well for herself."

"That's- that's really good to hear."

"She doesn't remember me." She lets the words fall, as much as she wishes she could hold them close and buried and gone. But Donna needs to be kept safe, and Martha reaching out to her would be- not good. "She doesn't remember anything that happened. I- I had to wipe her memory, after the daleks. It was killing her."

The silence stretches longer this time, and for a moment the Doctor is sure she's broken everything.

"Well, I'm glad she's happy," Martha says eventually. "There are worse fates, right?"

So many of your companions have had worse fates, she doesn't say, but the Doctor reads between the lines anyway.

"Yeah," she breathes.

"And how are you doing, Doctor? You're not alone, are you?"

"No! I'm great, actually. Got my fam. Yaz is really cool, you'd love her. Ryan and Graham are great. Jack's back in town right now, helped me out of prison-"

"Helped you out of where?"

"-and we're just sorting out this whole dalek thing! Should be all over pretty soon. Just, stay where you are."

"You know we can't do that, Doctor." If anything, Martha sounds amused. Determined. Ready to pick up her sword once again, defend the Earth from whatever might be coming.

In this second, everything is right with the world, and she misses Martha Jones in a way that hurts both her hearts at once.

"Well, stay safe at least. I'll call you back when this is done, to let you know."

"Thank you, Doctor. Maybe we could, I don't know- grab a drink, or something. Catch up."

"I'd like that," she replies, and they both know she has very little intent on following through.

Yaz appears at the end of the corridor, eyes bright, smile warm. She's chattering to someone, probably Ryan, completely oblivious, no weight on her shoulders.

The Doctor wishes she could keep Yaz like that, happy, delighted, laughing. Wishes that smile was just for her.

But she might have ruined it forever.

She's learnt to trust the TARDIS over the years, learnt that the TARDIS arrives when she thinks the Doctor should be rather than where the Doctor wants to be. She wants to trust that this, too, was for a good reason. The TARDIS has never led her wrong, in the end.

She has to believe.

"Well, I'll let you crazy kids go be heroes. Beat up some daleks for me, will you?"

"Of course, Doctor," Martha says. The Doctor imagines her smiling, linking fingers with Mickey. "Stay safe out there."

"Always," the Doctor grins. As Yaz and Ryan approach, she jumps up, throws the phone back on its hook and grabs hold of the TARDIS's controls.

"Who was that?" Yaz asks, wary, unsure of how to act around her. They need to sit down and talk, hash out the last ten months - and nineteen years - but now isn't the time.

Unfortunately, the time rarely seems to appear.

"Just an old friend checking in," the Doctor shrugs, avoiding her new companions' eyes. "There's daleks on the tv, haven't you heard? Let's fix that."

She throws the TARDIS into flight with a delighted whoop - after all these years, the thrill of flight never quite fades.

She's lost companions before, but as Martha’s call has reminded her, not all of them have met bad ends.

She refuses to let the fam down on that one, too.

#doctor who #dw spoilers #revolution of the daleks #martha jones #thirteenth doctor #mickey smith #yasmin khan #thasmin #fanfiction #own work #morgan writes

[worldserasingandcreatinginmymind]

Home | Final Chapter

Pairing: 13!Doctor x Daughter!Reader 

Summary: The final chapter!

Word Count: 3247

Warning: this is a whole lot of angst and drama because its the end with just a hint of extra cheesy fluff 

A/N: so this is basically the plot of The Timeless Child minus the whole Cyberman stuff that happened before they were on Gallifrey... hopefully it will make sense when you read it! As always spelling and grammar is not my strongest skill so please be kind :)

Part Three | Masterlist

- - - - -

“So those things, the Cybermasters, they can’t die?” Ryan is trying to get his head around regeneration as the four of you hide out in an empty room and you try to explain what’s happened.

“Technically yes, they can die. But they come back to life almost immediately. The Master made them from the bodies of dead Time Lords, so they can regenerate like The Doctor and I can”

“This is mad!” Graham says, shaking his head in disbelief.

“And now the Master’s got The Doctor trapped?” Yaz asks and you nod “so how do we save her?” 

“I don't know” you answer honestly “she’s normally the one who knows what to do in these situations, she comes up the plans, she saves us”

“And you're her brilliant daughter. If anyone can come up with a Doctor saving plan it’s you” Graham says, squeezing your hand. 

You give him a small unsure smile and think for a moment. 

“Okay” you take a deep breath “we need to get into that room. The Master has the Doctor trapped in some sort of paralysing cage thing, if we can somehow get the control from him and free her then she’ll know what to do next. But how do we get into a room full of Cyber…” you trail off as an idea comes to you “The Cybermasters! We have to dress up as Cybermasters!”

“How?” Ryan asks

“We need to go back to the upgrading room” 

“But there’s loads of Cybermasters around there” Yaz says

“Then we use the guns if we have to. Once they die we have about 30 seconds before they come back. We grab as much armour as we can and we disguise ourselves, but we have to be quick. 30 seconds, that’s all we’ve got”

“Okay” Yaz says, nodding as she psyches herself up.

“Lets do it” Ryan agrees 

You're about to leave the room and start your journey back to the upgrade room when suddenly you can hear the Doctor in your head.

“Y/N?” 

“What- how are you…?”

The fam stop and look at you confused as you're talking to yourself.

“Telepathic link, Time Lord Trick. Please tell me you're back at the TARDIS?” She says, she sounds more panicked than you’ve ever heard her sound.

“No, I’m hiding. I’m with Graham, Ryan and Yaz”

“What?! I told them to stay- you all need to get out of here now! The Master knows you escaped, he’s looking for you. Get back to the TARDIS, she’ll take you somewhere safe”

“NO! I’m not leaving you- Listen we’ve got a plan, we’re going to help you”

“Absolutely not! You're not doing that”

“I’m not asking for your permission. I’m not a child!” You snap.

“But you are MY child! I lost you once already Y/N, I can’t do it again” her voice cracks as she speaks and you feel your heart sink. She really does care about you, even if she is too awkward to admit it. You take slow, silent breaths as you consider what to do next. 

“Y/N?” She questions.

“I’ll see you soon” you say before pushing her out of your mind, closing the link. You look up at the fam who are staring at you. “Telepathic link. The Master’s looking for me”

“What do we do?” Yaz asks you.

“We carry on with the plan. He’s left The Doctor alone, if we’re quick we can get to her before he does”

— — — — 

After successfully getting your hands on some Cyber-suit armour and disguising yourselves you begin leading the fam back to where The Doctor is. You turn a corner and your heart almost stops when you see The Master walking towards you. You do your best to stay calm as you continue to march down the corridor, hoping that he’ll ignore you. Which he does until you get close.

“You lot!” He shouts, his voice think with anger “go and watch The Doctor. Don't let her out of your sight and if you see the girl, kill her! I’m bored of this.”

With that he storms off, presumably still looking for you. You take a moment to gather yourself before returning to marching. 

“You alright?” Yaz whispers and you hum in response.

Finally you reach the entrance to the room where this mess all began. You warily push the door open expecting to see the room full of Cybermasters, but instead the room was empty. Apart from one lifeless body laying on the floor. 

“No…” you whisper to yourself as you race down the stairs as fast as you can in the restrictive metal body, removing your helmet and throwing it to the side “Doctor?!” 

You fall on your knees at her side and turn her face, pushing hair away from her eyes. The fam stand behind you, removing their helmets as they watch through worried eyes. “Please, please wake up! Please… I can’t lose you… Mum…”

When she doesn’t respond you lean forward and hug her, resting your head on her chest. A quiet sob escapes Yaz’s lips and Ryan puts his arm around her. Graham kneels down beside you, gently placing a hand on your back.

The four of you remain silent for a moment until you hear:

“My fam” the Doctor’s quiet voice makes you sit up and gasp with relief “my Y/N… what are you wearing? Oh” you help her sit up and she looks around the room still slightly dazed “all those memories…the matrix… the memories blew the matrix! Oh she’s clever. I’m clever!” A massive grin appears on her face and she looks at you “We’re all clever. All of us. However many that is”

“What are you talking about? What matrix?” You ask, a confused smile appearing on her lips as you look at her 

“You called me mum” she ignores your questions 

“Did I? Sorry-”

“No, I liked it” she smiles at you for a moment before standing up and helping you get up “right then, off we go! No, theres something I’m missing.” She thinks “The Master is creating a new race of Cybermen using Time Lord bodies”

“We know, we saw them” Yaz says

“We shot some of them but they just came back” Ryan adds and The Doctor gives him a look. 

“An endlessly regenerating army. I have to stop him. Fast. You shouldn’t be here. No humans on Gallifrey”

“This is Gallifrey? Your home Gallifrey?” Graham sounds shocked

“I need to get you off this planet” The Doctor starts running up the stairs and you all follow. She runs down the corridor and uses her sonic to open up a door “Everyone, through here!”

You all rush inside and find yourselves in a room that feels familiar. 

“It’s a TARDIS!” Ryan says, as the Doctor presses buttons on the central control. “It is a TARDIS right?” 

“Looks like it” Graham agrees 

“This can take us all home!” Yaz says happily. 

“Not all” you say, watching The Doctor somehow knowing exactly what she’s planning. The fam look at you confused but you continue to look at her and she stares back. “You're staying aren’t you”

“I have to. What he’s created is the most dangerous threat this universe has ever seen. Immortal Cybermen. I can’t let a single one leave this planet, or its game over for everyone.”

“Then let us help you” Yaz pleads

“No. I started this, I have to end it. Alone. The TARDIS will take you back to the 21st century”

“You’re not serious!” Graham exclaims 

“Deadly”

“What about you? How will you get back?” Ryan asks

“In my TARDIS” she says, but you don't believe her.

“Why are you lying to us?” You say and she looks at you “You don't think you're going to get out of this alive thats why you're sending us away!” 

“Doctor?” Yaz presses. The Doctor continues looking at you before letting out a sigh. 

“There’s a weapon here on Gallifrey that when activated will wipe out all life forms on the planet” 

“You sure you want to do that?” Ryan asks

“I’m sure I don't want to do that, but there’s no alternative.”

“But you’ll die too”

“That’s the way it has to be. And I would do that in a heartbeat for this universe. For you…” she looks individually at each of the humans stood in front of her before her eyes finally land on you “…my fam”

She turns and walks towards the door, but Yaz runs after her.

“We’re not letting you go! You're not doing this!” She cries as she grabs her arm but the Doctor shakes her off.

“Get off me Yaz!” She pauses and takes a breath, tears in her eyes “please… live great lives”

She turns again and goes to leave but stops just before the door. 

“Y/N” she says without turning around and you go to stand beside her “it’s up to you now. Look after them” 

You nod and look down as the tears in your eyes threaten to fall. 

“This isn’t fair, I’ve only just found you” your voice comes out as a whisper. 

“I know. I’m sorry” she pulls you into a hug and whispers in your ear “I’m so proud of who you’ve become”

She lets you go and walks away. The room is silent as you watch her leave, the door closing behind her. 

You all stand completely still for a moment until the silence is broken by the sound of the TARDIS engines beginning to fire up. In that moment you make a split second decision and before you realise what you're doing you race out through the door.

“Y/N!” Graham yells. 

You turn back to look at the fam. 

“I’m sorry” you say before slamming the door and holding it shut until it, and the sound of the fam on the other side, fades away. 

You lean your head against the wall where the door once was and stay there for a few moments as the reality of what you’ve just done sinks in. The Doctor is going to be so mad at you. 

“You really shouldn’t have done that” 

You spin around to see The Master glaring at you. 

“I am going to enjoy killing you” 

— — — — 

The Master drags you outside to where his fleet of Cybermasters are stood waiting next to a huge ship. You try and shake yourself free from his arms but his grip tightens.

“Oh no, I am not letting you go this time” he growls before pulling out a device from his pocket and holding it up to his lips. He presses a button and as he speaks you hear his voice echo through the whole planet. 

“Doooooctooooooorrrrr…” he sings “oh Doctorrrrrr. Come out come out wherever you are. I have something that belongs to you. Or should I say someone” 

He holds the device to your mouth “Don't be shy, say hello to dear old mummy”

“Don't listen to him, stay where you are!” You shout through the mic and he pulls it away from you, letting out a frustrated huff.

“Oh she is like you isn’t she Doctor, annoyingly heroic.” He laughs “well if you want to see your little offspring again, I suggest you get here soon. I’m getting rather fed up of her”

He turns off the device and puts it back in his pocket.

“Why do you doing this? What happened to you to make you so full of hate?”

“I found out the truth. About who she is and subsequently who I am and I cannot BEAR it!” The eye contact he’s holding with you is almost unbearable, you can see the rage, hate and also hurt in him. You're relieved when he finally looks away and gestures to the Cybermasters around you. “They lied about all of it. All our lives, they pretended we were special, but we’re not. We’re just, experiments created by them from her! But oh how the tables have turned. Now they are MY experiments, created by ME! And together, we’re going to take over the universe”

“Not if I stop you” The Doctor says as she appears from inside the spaceship and walks down the ramp towards you. She looks at you and you can tell she’s angry that you are here instead of on the TARDIS. You give her your best ‘im sorry’ face.

“What makes you think you can stop me Doctor? You are nothing compared to me and my army!”

“Maybe not. Unless I had a weapon. A weapon I hoped I’d never have to use. A weapon that can wipe out all life on this planet. A weapon I just installed in your ship”

“If you detonate it you will die too. You and her” he shakes you and you wince slightly at the roughness.

“That’s why I am giving you one last chance. One final opportunity to do the right thing. Stop all of this now and deactivate your soldiers” she pleads with him and for a moment you think he’s actually considering it. But then he laughs and gets out a gun, holding it to your head.

“You don’t get to give me the ultimatum here Doctor. I am the one with the power, not you! I am the one who’s giving you a choice. Give me the detonator control, and I will let her live. Disobey me and I’ll shoot her now. And this is no ordinary gun. This gun makes death as slow and excruciatingly painful as possible. I made it myself, another one of my fun inventions.”

The Doctor looks at you and for the first time you can see real fear in her eyes. You shake your head slightly, trying to signal to her not to take the deal, but The Master grabs your face harshly, his fingers digging into your cheeks. 

“She’s scared Doctor, I can feel her shaking and hear her little hearts beating so fast. Do you really want to watch her die? Give me the control”

“Don’t-” you start to say but he squeezes your face even harder, making you hiss in pain. Tears fill your eyes. 

The Doctor takes the control out and holds it in view. She takes slow, careful steps towards you both until she’s close enough. 

“Put the gun away first” she says and he just laughs “put it away or I’ll activate the weapon now” 

“Don't you trust me Doctor?” 

“Not really no” she replies bluntly

“Fine” he huffs and slowly puts the gun away

“Let her go”

“I’m not stupid Doctor but I am getting bored of this. Give me the control before I kill both of you”

She holds the control out and slowly pushes it closer to him until his hand is on it. Then suddenly she grabs you and pulls you from his grasp as the device in his hand starts bleeping. He looks at it then up at her in disbelief. 

“You…” he says as he realises that she just set off the detonator. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the gun once again at the same time as The Doctor reaches into hers and pulls out a small bronze key. It glows and you hear the sound of the TARDIS. Then in a blur of action the Master points his gun at the Doctor and fires but you jump in front of the her, pushing her out the way. She grabs you as she falls, pulling you down with her. You see the green ray from the gun heading towards you and squeeze your eyes shut as you brace yourself for the impact-

-but it never comes. 

You open your eyes again to find you and the Doctor are lying in a heap on the floor inside the TARDIS. She sits up so your head is resting on her legs, and you look up at her confused. 

“When will you learn to not jump in front of me when someone fires a gun?” She says before smiling at you “are you okay?” 

You sit up and check yourself before nodding at her, still in shock that you're not currently dead.

“Good, because you are in so much trouble!” She stands up and goes to the control panel “Why- WHY can you not just do what I say?! I told you to let me handle that alone. Not to follow me. Not to get yourself caught.” She rants at you and you carefully stand up, hugging your arms across yourself “You could have died Y/N! For real this time! Do you understand how close you came to not being here anymore-”

Suddenly all the emotions hit you at once and you break down. Tears flood your face as you bring your hand up to your mouth to try stop the sobs that are escaping. Your whole body is shaking with post shock adrenaline and The Doctor immediately stops messing with buttons on the control and hugs you tightly into her chest. She doesn’t say anything, she just lets you get it all out. 

After a few minutes you finally calm down enough to talk. 

“I’m so sorry” you say quietly “I just couldn’t bear the thought of you facing him and all those Cybermasters alone. I had to do something… but all I did was make things worse. I let you down”

The Doctor sighs and pulls away to look at you.

“You didn’t make things worse Y/N. Just, slightly more complicated” she lets out a small laugh as she wipes leftover tears off your cheek “and you didn’t let me down either. What you did was incredibly stupid, but also brave. I meant what I said back on the other TARDIS, I am so proud of you.”

“Don’t make me cry again” you laugh as you turn your attention to the monitor and the view of Gallifrey “I still don't understand what happened… one minute The Master was shooting at us, the next we were here”

“I used the key to summon the TARDIS and it materialised around us just in time.” The Doctor explains

“So that was your plan all along? Why didn’t you just tell us?”

“Because I wasn’t 100% sure it would work. It takes a lot of power to summon the TARDIS like that, I can’t do it very often. Plus she’s not always reliable” 

The TARDIS makes a strange groaning noise and you let out a small laugh. You swear it responds to her. 

“But what about the Master?” You ask

“The weapon detonated so every living thing on Gallifrey is dead. I’ve done a scan of the planet, no life signs.” She looks at the screen, a brief wave of sadness washes over her. 

“I’m sorry…” you say, placing your hand on hers.

“They were already dead” she says as she turns to look at you before taking a deep breath and smiling “Right! Time to pick up the fam”

“Where did the other TARDIS take them?” You ask and she looks at you blankly.

“I don't actually know…”

“You don't know where they are!” You burst out laughing, shaking your head.

“They’re somewhere in the 21st century! We’ll find them…”

She takes your hand and places it on the lever.

“…together” 

You both pull down and the TARDIS engines fire up once again, taking you on another adventure. 

The Doctor and her daughter.

#doctor who #doctor who fic #doctor who imagine #13th Doctor #13th doctor x reader #13!doctor x reader #Thirteenth Doctor #thirteenth doctor x reader #thirteen x reader #the doctor x reader #the doctors daughter #the master #master x reader #Dhawan!master x reader #graham obrien x reader #graham obrien #yaz khan #ryan sinclair #the timeless children

[flyinginthetardis]

Mismatched Time

a/n: yay!! after an eternity i have finally finished writing something :)) its my first time writing for twelve so i do hope that its okay. (a long time ago) i was inspired by the song “Sideways” from Citizen Cope and well i came up with this thing. Originally i had decided to make it really angsty but i apparently i went in a different direction and made it more fluffy-ish. i hope that you like it! 

Pairing: twelfth doctor x reader (i would say its more platonic but you can think otherwise if you want to)

Warnings: maybe some swear words

summary: you go to earth to make amends with your parents and ask the doctor to come with you. He says he'll be there in 10 minutes but it turns out to be 10 years until you meet each other again.

“Ah. Home sweet home. I can't wait for dinner." You say as you put on your jacket and straighten any wrinkles from your clothes.

"Fancy dinner date huh?" 

"What? Oh, no." You say incredulously while snickering. 

"What's got you all dressed up like that then? Why are you wearing all these fancy clothes and weird stuff? I've never seen you dress fancy in your life. At one point I simply assumed it was impossible for you."

Your mouth opens in shock and closes once you can't think of anything to say. A frown crosses your face as you pace around the TARDIS console anxiously. "That's not true! I've dressed fancy many times. At like events and stuff." 

"Oh really? Name one other time that you've dressed fancy. Come on. Prove me wrong." 

You stutter and stumble after words trying to get the question to register in your brain and find any example. Anything at all. 

"Uh...well..well-wh-what about that time we had to go to that fancy auction party event thing. I was wearing a dress and you were wearing a suit."

"Ha! That doesn't count! It was just a holographic image projected from a device on your t-shirt. I had one too but because I'm a Time Lord, I saw through the projections and saw you simply wearing a t-shirt and jeans." 

"Ugh. Fine. I am wearing this 'fancy' outfit because I want to look good for my parents, who I am having dinner with tonight and have not seen them in a couple of years. When I came with you, we didn't exactly leave on the best terms and haven't really spoken since." 

"Oh. Well, um, do you want me to come with you? Or..?"

Looking down at your feet, you let out a sigh while placing your head in your hands. 

"Yeah it would be nice if you could come." 

"Alright." The Doctor gave you a soft, reassuring smile as he moved around the TARDIS, pushing buttons and pulling levers on the console before arriving right outside your parents house. 

"We're here."

"Guessed that much." Before either of you could say another word you run over to the Doctor and engulf him in a big hug. Burying your head in his shoulder for comfort and reassurance, you relax a little as he awkwardly tries to hug you back.

"I know you don't really like hugs but I really need this right now." Your voice is muffled against his clothing as you close your eyes, let out a large breath and remove yourself from him. 

"Yeah, I know."

You smile at him as you pick up your purse from somewhere under the console sofa and walk over to the door, opening it halfway but not yet stepping out. 

"So are you coming?" you ask playfully as your usual demeanor comes back. 

"Yes, yes, but go without me, I'll come in ten minutes." 

"Okay then, I'll see you soon." You shout from outside the TARDIS as you walk towards the spunky, modern house and close the blue doors behind you.  

You stare at the oak coloured door in front of you, thousands of thoughts running through your mind. Deep, cold breaths left your lips as you dragged your fist towards the door; but before you managed to knock the door flies open. Warm air tickles your skin as you stare at your parents standing in front of you.

"Y/N!" 

"Hi."

"Come in, come in. Dinner is almost ready." Your dad says warmly as he ushers you in and closes the door behind you. 

As you take a seat at the table across your father, your mother emerges with a glorious array of food. You squirm in your seat as an awkward silence prevails. 

"So, Y/N, where is that friend of yours that you said would come?" Your mother asks inquisitively with her cold eyes flashing and her question laced with poison as if she enjoyed seeing you intimidated. 

"Oh, yeah, he uh, he said he would come in ten minutes."

"Oh, okay. I guess we should wait for him then." 

Silence. You wait for ten minutes. Then twenty. Then thirty. 

An hour passes.

Where is he?

"Well, I guess we should start because it seems like he stood you up." Your mother says sighing as her tone tells you that she is just utterly disappointed and a wave of criticism is about to come and crash onto you.

That asshat. Where the hell are you! You thought, clearly irritated. It wasn't as if he hasn't done this before and if it had been any other day, you honestly wouldn't mind as much, but this was an important day for you. He knew that. Didn't he?

You sigh and give in. "Yeah, maybe."

Your father passes you some chicken, potatoes and peas before adding some to his own plate. "Thank you." 

"Not a problem sweetheart."

You cringe slightly at the old nickname as you pour some gravy over your food before going silent.

"Should we eat?" Your mother asks, finally sitting down with a plate of her own food.

"Sure." You and your father say in unison, grinning slightly at each other. The three of you dig in and as you eat you get lost in your thoughts and wonder about what happened to the Doctor.

***

You sighed as you watched the raindrops race down your window as you huddled up in blankets and drank hot chocolate to warm yourself up. It had been ten years since you last saw the Doctor. Ten years.

Not minutes. Not hours. Not even months!

Years. Years. 

He left you for ten years. You despised him for it. And yet you still missed him. You tried to find him but it was just impossible. You sigh and take a sip of hot chocolate. You smile as the marshmallows melt in your mouth. 

You pick up an old notebook beside and give it a sideways glance. It contained everything about the Doctor. It was your way of finding him, basically. But it had led to a dead end and so you gave up. Flipping through the old book you reminisce lightly about how hopeful you were those first few years. Snorting at the memory and throwing the book aside, you watch the raindrops patter against the window silently.

Going back to normal life had been hard. Harder than you expected. 

Suddenly, you started. That noise. 

Could it be?

You run and grab your keys from the glass bowl on the kitchen counter, hurriedly put on your shoes and run like hell down the stairs, not at all waiting for the elevator. 

You stand outside and gasp. The TARDIS. You walk over to it carefully and slowly as if it was a frightened animal even though it was nothing of the sort. Your fingers graze the blue police box and you smile. You barely feel the drops of water on your skin as you examine the TARDIS incredulously. 

"Hello, Sexy." You whisper to the TARDIS as you lean your head against the blue box. "I've missed you."

Suddenly the door opens and you step back. 

"Doctor?"

"Oh hey Y/N! Is the dinner ready?"

"Dinner? What dinner?"

"The dinner with your parents of course."

You scoff at him and take another step back. "Oh that dinner? Oh I'm sorry to tell you but that dinner was TEN YEARS AGO!"

The Doctor blinks and his face gets serious. "What? No, it can't be."

"Check your calendar." You say voice dripping with malice and sarcasm.

The Doctor goes back into the TARDIS and you hear him mutter something angrily. He steps out of the TARDIS again and faces you.

"I am so sorry Y/N."

You scowl at him for a brief moment before giving him a huge hug. 

"Don't you dare do something like that again or I will punch you so hard that I'll make you regenerate." You say into his shoulder before you calm down and slowly relax into his arms. You bury your head in his shoulder and the both of you just stay in that position for a while. Finally you release him from your hug and give him a smile. "I missed you so much." 

The Doctor smiles and you take his hand, dragging the both of you out of the rain. 

"Let's go to my apartment, it's much more cozy than standing dripping wet in the rain." 

The two of you walk up the apartment building stairs and stop at a door with the number 321 on it. Your apartment. Walking in, you throw your keys back into the glass bowl on the kitchen counter and sigh happily before collapsing comfortably on the couch. "Come here." You say while patting the seat next to you. The Doctor slides onto the cushy seat next to rather awkwardly but you don't mind. 

You lean your head on his shoulder and he slowly wraps an arm around your waist as you turn the TV on. "So what horrendous movie are we watching today?" He asks while looking at you pointedly. 

"Hamilton."

"Hm."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Nothing." He replies with a similar tone to yours and you eye him cautiously before letting out a small 'hmph' of annoyance. You narrow your eyes ever so slightly but make no response as you get ready to press play. However, before you can do so, he breaks the silence.

"What is that?"

"What?"

"That." He points at your head leaning on his shoulder and he has the hint of a frown on his face.

You groan and roll your eyes.

"Give me a break," you sigh and look up at him, not moving from his shoulder, "I mean you did leave me for like, oh yeah, ten years."

He sighs and stiffens at your response. "Fine." He mutters out sounding sheepish. 

You let out another exasperated sigh and begin to move away, putting space between the both of you. But before you're able to get too far, he grabs your hand and shoulder pulling you back to him. 

"Stay." He says as he kisses the top of your head gently, and props his head on top of yours, making you lean into him. You smile, and press play on the remote, finally being able to relax completely after such a long time. Content, you sigh softly and stare at the TV screen. All is well and everything is as it should be. For now, anyways.

a/n: hey so i didnt realize i posted this accidently lol but i was missing a whole lot of editing and was missing a chunk of writing at the end so sorry about that. i was wondering what had happened to my draft but now i know haha.

#twelfth doctor x reader #twelfth doctor #12 x reader #12th doctor #twelfth doctor reader inserts #reader inserts #twelfth doctor fanfiction #twelfth doctor angst #angst #doctor who angst #fluff #the doctor #doctor x reader #doctor who reader insert #doctor who fanfiction #doctor who x reader #nu!who #x reader

[summerstardust]

Apology Desserts

Dhawan!Doctor x Reader

Summary:  The Doctor allows you to play your game, all the while planning an intricate and elaborate plan to win your heart. Third part to Baking Hijinks and Scheming Timers.

Warnings: slightly suggestive

Word Count: 2015

You were great at hiding from The Doctor, especially with the TARDIS’s help. But, of course, you didn’t really need the TARDIS’s help to hide. The Doctor had taught you well to hide from danger and monsters and rouge aliens, he should have suspected that you would have used your new found skill on him one day. If you weren't so mad at him, The Doctor would have tried to persuade you into playing a game of sexy hide ‘n’ seek, that is, if he could ever gain the courage to ask you out on a date. Or given the current circumstances, if he could find you within his labyrinthian ship.

The Doctor knew that this was a game and you were winning. The Doctor also knew that he had to do something big to end this stalemate and to gain your favor. He sat in his study, having just torn down his planning board dedicated to finding The Master. He made a copy of one of his favorite pictures of the two of you, and nailed it to the center of the cleared board. 

The photo was taken by an alien couple that thought the two of you were a cute couple, even though you both vehemently denied being together. Despite that, when the picture was being taken, you held onto The Doctor tightly, leaning against him with your whole body. Your arm was wrapped around his shoulders, while his arm was around your waist. Your smile was infectious, he couldn’t stop looking at it, so excited and happy to be on that planet with him, exploring. And you could see in the picture clearly The Doctor looking longingly at your face, his eyes shone brightly with affection toward you. He mentally kicked himself for acting like a shy love sick puppy, incapable of saying his feelings, but always following you around, instead of acting on his feelings, but he was determined to fix that now. He got some strings and connected the dots between things you loved and things you and The Doctor shared together. He knew what he had to do.

The Doctor went out on a little shopping adventure, coming back with items sold in bulk, hauling them toward his study. The Doctor told the TARDIS to keep you away from his private kitchen, if you were to venture out. He did not think that you would break, but he wanted his surprise to not be spoiled in any way. True to her word, the TARDIS kept you away from The Doctor as he laid out his plan.

You were beginning to grow bored with your plan. You really cared for The Doctor, more than you had ever cared for anyone. Before the first moment when the two of you almost kissed, you had always suppressed your feelings for him. You sat in your room, staring at a picture of you and The Doctor on a tourist planet. The alien couple that came up to the pair of you assumed that you were a couple, but both you and The Doctor denied it. It killed you to hear him say that, but then you could clearly see in the picture how The Doctor looked at you adoringly, only adding to your confusion on whether or not The Doctor liked you. You wished that this stalemate would make The Doctor do something, but nothing had happened yet. 

You recently asked the TARDIS to let you and The Doctor cross paths, but you could feel the TARDIS prohibiting and rearranging some of your adventures through her walls. You assumed that this was The Doctor not wanting to interact with you. Every moment since that fateful day was riddled with anxiety for you. The Doctor was shy about his past, but you were able to wrangle out some of his stories. The weight of the other companions and loved ones of The Doctor plagued your mind. You would wake up early in the morning and cringe at the memory of the two of you almost kissing. Voices in your head screamed that the The Doctor was uncomfortable by your actions, that you crossed the line and he only ever saw you as a friend, and now because of what you did, he would want you to leave his home. You knew that he was too kind and adorably awkward to ever ask you to leave, so you thought that it would be kinder to him to do it yourself.

You decided to go to the main kitchen, after multiple attempts to open your door which was somehow locked, in a hope to meet The Doctor and to make some hot chocolate and maybe make some cupcakes. You thought that this would prevent you from making a horrible mistake. However, your venture was halted when you saw that a chocolate cupcake was placed outside your door, neatly settled inside a purple cupcake wrapper. You knelt down to pick up the dessert, inspecting it for any peculiarities. It appeared to be a normal Earth cupcake, until you inspected the bottom of the wrapper. Lifting the cupcake above your head, you saw The Doctor’s handwriting spelling out the words ‘look to your left.’ When you did so, you saw an orderly row of cupcakes aligned along the center of the hallway and curving around the corner, falling in line like tin soldiers.

You went back to your room to collect a couple of plates to hold the cupcakes. You reached down and picked up each cupcake one by one. Like the first cupcake, each new baked good in the line had The Doctor’s handwriting on the bottom of the wrapper.

‘Please’

‘continue’

‘to’

‘follow’

‘the’

‘trail’

‘of’

‘cupcakes’

‘until’

‘you’

‘reach’

‘my’

‘private’

‘kitchen.’

There was a break in the row of cupcakes, but you could see it continuing down the hallway. In the middle of the break, there were a couple of large baking trays with Hersey’s chocolate Kisses spelling out the words, ‘I know that you are incredibly considerate, but you don’t have to collect all of the cupcakes. There are too many for you to carry.’ You felt conflicted leaving the treats, but your arms and the plates you were holding were already covered in cupcakes.

Once you reached The Doctor’s study, the door was wide open, the row of cupcakes continuing straight through the study and into the kitchen. You crept in there slowly, unaware of what you were about to encounter. You rounded the corner, stopping briefly to look at and reminisce over where the two of you almost kissed, before seeing a smorgasbord or baking confections and a tower of cooking timers. The Doctor was standing bashfully amongst the food and objects, he kept looking for happiness in your eyes. You were more in wonder because of everything before you, but you smiled brightly when you finally met his gaze. 

“I bought you a replacement timer,” The Doctor turned around and picked up a timer before handing it to you, your hands brushing against his as he placed the item in your hands, “like the one your aunt bought you. I’m sorry for throwing your property into a supernova. I had no right to do so. Even if it did upset me greatly.” You smiled at his gift, but also at his ramblings.

“About that, do you want to explain all of this?” You smirked cheekily, placing the timer down on a surprisingly free space on the table You stepped closer to The Doctor, who followed your movements and stepped even closer. You really wanted to know why The Doctor threw all of those timers away, why he was doing this now, and what he felt about that fateful day in this kitchen.

“I think you know, Y/N. You are the smartest person I know.” He tilted his head and smiled to hide his fear. I knew that he loved you, but he wondered if you felt the same way.

“I want to hear you say it, Doctor.” His face fell a bit at the confrontation, but you stepped even closer, clasping his hands in your and giving him a reassuring squeeze. He looked down and smiled at your intertwined hands giving him the confidence to speak his mind.

“I love you, Y/N and I just want to be with you.” He bumped his nose against yours before looking deep into your eyes to try and read your face, his eyes were large and pleading for you to take the news well. But you ripped your hands from his and hugged him tighter than you had ever before. One of your hands went up and ran through his styled hair and the other gripped the soft, yet slightly scratchy, material of The Doctor’s sweater vest. The Doctor’s head instinctively fell to your shoulder.

“Oh Doctor! I wish you had told me sooner! Think of what we could have been doing if we actually had the guts to tell each other how we actually felt!”

“How do you feel, Y/N?” He sounded so fearful, and you could feel him shaking in your arms.

“I love you, Doctor,” you whispered into his ear to make it more personal, “I have loved you since I met you. And I want nothing more than to be with you” The Doctor finally hugged you back, tighter than you were hugging him, and he excitedly picked you up and spun around with you in his arms. He quickly placed you back down on the ground and cupped your face with both of his hands and stared deeply into your eyes, his warm orbs glowing with love. He saw you returning his feelings, a couple of happy tears escaping both of your eyes. The Doctor wiped your tears away and lent forward to press a passionate kiss to your lips. The two of you moved seamlessly, clinging to each other. He tried to pull away, but you quickly placed a hand on the back of his neck in order to deepen the kiss. The two of you stayed like this for a while before you both had to separate to catch your breath. The two of you giggled and blushed when you caught each other’s gaze. You moved to hug him again, comfort washing over the both of you. You kissed up his neck to his check until you reached The Doctor’s lips, causing the two of you to enter into another round of kissing until you broke apart again to breath.

“Do you want to go somewhere more comfortable?” You eventually said, brushing a lingering tear from The Doctor’s face.

“Oh! I would love to!”The Doctor giggly started talking with his hands. “There’s a planet I recently discovered that is completely made of trampolines! How exciting! And what a comfortable ground to walk on.” He was so happy to finally have you back in his life. Sure you were never gone, but the isolation drove The Doctor insane, especially when he loved you so deeply and just wanted to share his life and love for adventure with you. He missed having you near him.

“Umm … Doctor, that’s not what I meant. Although that does sound fun, but maybe later.” You tried to decline his offer politely, but you really were interested in adventuring with him, especially now with your budding relationship.

“Oh, what did you me- OH! Oh! Well, yes, I completely agree with your statement. We should definitely move to somewhere more comfortable.” The Doctor quickly grabbed your hands and pulled you out of the kitchen, but not before you could grab a tray of brownies. He continued to pull you through the TARDIS until you reached his room, the two of you giggled as you both excitedly committed to making up for all of the lost time spent hiding feelings for the other. There would be not more hiding, no more secretive looks or almost moments. There would be only exciting adventures, intimate moments shared and a lot of baking.

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

[voidgremlin]

The promise (Chapter 2)

At some point, after many adventures, a prison break and many near deaths scenario. The Doctor though of stopping, for one moment, to rest. Maybe gather herself, maybe seek calm from everything.

@isuthetimelady

The room was quiet for a few hours, in low dim light of the library. They were no page being turned, no shuffling of the clothes, no movement, no voice. Just the hum of the TARDIS that carried the doctor through dreams with a lullaby.

The Doctor was dreaming of the winds in her ears, the quietness and the cliff ahead. She could see the purple sky extending ahead shining a billions stars, a billions place to be. But none of it were home. The light from where she came from was too far away to be even seen, if it is still exist somewhere in the world. The light from where she was raised was dimmed, no viable structure was living on its soil. Not that she wanted to go back to it, but this planet held her house at some point, her home, her family. Would she really hate this place that tore so many things she held dear apart ? Won’t it be a disgrace to the work she and the people she loved put to make it happen ? Even for a few seconds of happiness ? She should love this place, she should protect it. But there’s no one left to protect from. There’s no one love anymore, there’s no one to share memory, joy and laughter with … Not anymore.

It is gone and she looks at the stars with nostalgy.  How can someone with so many lives can make something new with someone new or even… Someone old ? How could she ? She listened to the hum hoping for someone to give her an answer but the hum make itself louder, pressing, howling, she looked around in horror looking for who was screaming, she ran toward the sound, reaching the edge of the cliff. Before weirdly she remembered that she was dreaming. None of it was real and she suddenly woke up.

She shot her head straight gasping silently for air, feeling the pressure on her shoulder quickly relieved itself. The Master got up quickly, fighting to get his hand free, she let him go and he started pacing in the room with labored breathing. She blinked slowly gathering thoughts, being awake was one thing, knowing what to do was another. She was still on unknown territory with a well-known enemy. The well-known part was the only reassuring part of the whole situation. Founders help her… Hold on was she a founder now ? She frown but shot a glance to the Master who at some point sat his body in a corner of the room next to a shelf. Holding his head in his hands, taking deep breathes through the nose. She wants to ask, why was he still shaking ? Why did he woke up again in a sharp inhale when obviously he needed more rest. Why is he panicking and the whole room seemed to swell. Furthering the distance between them. It won’t be long before the Master would be standing meters away instead of the closeness they shared few seconds ago.

He looks up to her, realizing she is still present in the space. In between two breaths it looked like he tried to pronounce a few words, explanation, but only she heard a sob in his throat. Heartbreaking really. He looked away, standing up with a sort of recklessness to it, as if he was throwing his body up, hoping it would still stand. He didn’t cared today, he didn’t cared of much things. He didn’t even cared of the hate and distraught he felt toward her, allowing her inside. He didn’t cared of his inadequacy in the grand schemes of things. Today he didn’t wanted to think about it. To care about it. Because caring would mean thinking about consequences, thinking about the crushing universe with no solace. To think that no matter how much illusion he would deal himself with there is still a truth that he knows and that no one, not even himself would let it go.

He left in throwing himself bodily against the door. Walking down the corridor and the Doctor waited a few seconds, biting her cheeks wondering if she should gather herself and just leave him to be. Alone, in this infinite castle. Never ending and intricate. Leaving to her own TARDIS, where she could put the whole pondering for later, maybe she will find a place in the universe that doesn’t require any responsibility from her, any fighting. But of course, she only stand up to follow him. She is still sleepy and watching only his back stumbling to the kitchen that hidden itself behind a weirdly terrifying stone statue, that looked way too much of a weeping angel. Upon closer inspection she felt the warm below the stone, it was alive and humming. She noted this observation to the slightly worrying list of things that is happening to her and that she needed to do something about it at some point. But not now, now the Master was angrily drinking water, if anyone was able to angrily drink it would be him. He hold himself to counter next to him, a dark glance to her.

“The fuck are you doing here ?”

She is taken aback, she didn’t expected so much aggressivity after the hours spent together in quiet and peace. Guess he just held bad ? Not being apathic as she was drowned in all her sorrow. He was none of those things, feeling way too much and he only honed back those things for her sake. As much as he loved confrontation, he let her have a few hours of quiet. She should be a little thankful.

If she ever gave a shit about his peculiar predicament.

She stayed silent, dragging a chair to sit on it, playing with the mug on the coffee table. She didn’t had any answer for that question, after all she is still considering leaving. But the steady hum of the TARDIS made her consider another option. To listen ? Maybe.

He looks at her like she betrayed the sanctimony of the space, his breathing is even now, the panic from earlier faded somewhat. He look away toward the fridge defeated by the lack of answer.

“Want something to eat ?” He asks his voice hoarse.

She say no with her head, still staring at him. She shouldn’t it will make him angry, but she cared very little about his anger, she cared about his sanity more.

“What !?” he snapped “What are you looking at ?” The rest was indeed nonexistent, dark bags under his eyes were darker than when she saw him earlier. He couldn’t look still, his hands were moving and not stopping. The Doctor motioned to the chair before her. He threw himself into it, upset and crossing his arms. Taunting her to talk first.

She bids her time helped by the humming which filled the silence. She decided to be little shit to break the nervous energy that filled the room.

“What the fuck are you doing here ? You look like a mess !” She said with a smirk.

He look aback, arching an eyebrow. “I do not look like a mess ! I look awesome thank you very much !”

“Oh really have you seen yourself ? What did you do the last time I saw you ?”

He looked like he was about to retort to the first part but only put a hand in his hard, to fix it. As if it would help at this point she thought. He laid back looking to the ceiling.

“I ran away, got caught on a nasty planet, had to buy my way out with the cyberium and some of my memories. Fought to get the memories back. Succeeded. Now I’m trying to get some rest.”

“Sounds like you had a busy day.”

“Busy month.”

“Oh.” She frowned, she did lived much more things than him but a month ? At first she wasn’t sure what made her stop about it, after all he was able to survive stranded more than one time for far longer than the Doctor could. She guessed it was the memory part that disturbed her. Fighting to get memory back… She doesn’t know if she would have ?

Maybe ? Is the repeated abuse of having her memory ripped away that made her gave up the mere idea of the memories being hers, that she shouldn’t fight for them because it is a defeat waiting to happen ? Who knows.

Terrible thoughts for later, filed under: the irreparable damage of the past.

“Looks like you are not succeeding on the rest part ?” She instead argued.

He still stubbornly looked to the ceiling. “No. But I will. It just takes time.”

“That’s why you chose the outback ?”

“No one was bothering me there, which makes me ask the question.” He leans toward her, elbows on the coffee table. “What the fuck are you doing here ?”

She stayed silent, she didn’t wanted to talk about the foolish hope that brought her here. So hung up on the past and her disillusion. She tapped the table four times.

“TARDIS brought me there ?”

“Was it a question ?” He asks with a smile.

“Nooooo” She dragged the sounds. It was obvious she was lying and he knew. But it was fun. It was for laughs. It really didn’t mattered why she was here according to his smile, what was important was she was here.

“Good because your shoulder is a really good pillow, I will recommend it on Yelp.” He says pulling out a phone from his pants, searching the apps.

“On what ? Wh-What’s Yelp ?” She asks reaching to snatch his phone away, he didn’t even bothered to looking up to her and just pushed his chair out of the way.

“Damn Doctor, I do hate the fact I know more about 21st century earth than you.” He sighs typing down furiously. The Doctor stand up quickly grabbing the phone from his hands despite his weak shout of protest.

“Let me read that. ‘The doctor’ shoulder despite being bony and most of the time uncovered, is still a good place to rest when you have exhausted all possibilities. 6/10 would recommend but only if you have no other solutions.’” She pauses before turning her head to him. “Only 6 ?! How DARE !”

“I have to take into account the reality that I really am tired and that if I could I would have slept on a rock. I find myself very kind with this notation. They should call me the mercyter, merster ? Merciful Master ?” He started to sounds confused to his own sentence.

“Or they should call you your Yelp handle, O. Lee Karl… I’m not sure I get the joke ?”

“Of course you don’t.” He says standing up as well taking the phone away from her hands gently. “But I will be honest I was very proud at the time of the joke but I am not sure I get it either.”

She hummed in response. Standing next to him, shoulder to shoulder.

“Your brains are definitely fried.”

He leans a little on her. “Yes they are. Can’t help getting nightmares since I got my full mind back.”

She listens but she isn’t sure, she isn’t sure if she would have took those memories back. So she asks

“Was it worth it ? Getting back your memories ?”

“Uh… Well I wouldn’t be me if I don’t have them. So yes, as terrible and awful me is. It is worth having my memories.”

“Aren’t they painful ?” She asks stubbornly watching the wall ahead.

“Yes.”

“What do you mean then ? Was it really worth it ?”

“It is still mine. I am owed.” He sighs, head looking down. “If anything else is not. I still I got that.” He chuckles, an empty one, before whispering “I got this one, it’s mine.”

The Doctor waited before putting a hand on his shoulder. “Yes it’s yours.”

They stayed here a little while, leaning on each other. She didn’t understood most of his feeling on the matter, it was like looking in the mirror and not quite understanding the figure it reflected.

The Master would say it was his, The Doctor would answer it never was hers.

The Master would burn all the bridges, The Doctor would try to mend them with time.

They would never be in sync, never agreeing to anything because ultimately and weirdly despite all the shared history, they had a wildly different past.

Endless roaming for one, Broken promises for the other.

It made her laugh which made the Master look at her with worry. They were determined by their past way before they could make their own decisions. Before they could be themselves they were already condemned to this unstable life and endless heartbreak.

“I think I need to sleep Doctor. So…” He slowly let himself lie down on the kitchen floor. “I got to try again.” He smiles looking at her from below, finding it fitting from their newfound status. She sees that in his eyes and is having none of it. She drop down on her knees next to his head, her hands on her laps, looking at him with, she find out later, a hint of tenderness.

“Want me to guard your sleep ?”

His eyes squint, “I doubt you want to guard me, it is a pain in the ass, so I heard.”

“From me. Yet here I am proposing.”

He keeps squinting wondering if it was a joke.

“So you chill with me guarding you or not ?” The Doctor asks.

He grunts. “Yeah. Do your magic.”

She took his head, putting it on her now crossed legs. Fingers resting on his temple. Channeling a link. His face relaxed.

Contact.

Contact.

#dw #doctor who #dw fanfic #spydoc #my stuff

[lilsum4]

Close Encounters of the Invisible Kind - Chapter 9

You did it, you won. You made me sit down and write and update. Every time I thought “no one cares anymore,” one of your comments would come in and remind me that this story exists. Your kudos, comments, well-wishes and dogged perseverance won. So here is an update, 4 years later.

Special thanks to @davidtennantstrainers​, who always chimed in with a “still waiting! you okay?” when I least expected one.

Read on AO3 if you prefer.

Close Encounters of the Invisible Kind - Chapter 9

She had forgotten that gravity's a right bitch.

Donna stumbles, quite literally, out of the TARDIS doors with as much grace as a newborn fawn. Or as though she's single-handedly imbibed a pub's stock of lager. Nerys' center of gravity feels horribly off and inhabiting these foreign limbs takes practice.

To add insult to injury, Nerys is also wearing truly uncomfortable wedding shoes, and she can already feel a pinch in her toes developing.

Once out the doors she uses the TARDIS to re-balance and keep from falling flat on her face. With hands upon warm wood, she realizes that, for the first time ever, she has an opportunity to examine the TARDIS from the outside. She's never had a chance before. So now she runs her fingertips over the aged, blue paint -- tottering around it in a full circle, in awe at the machine. "Look at you!" she breathes, inspecting the details, from the message on the door to the actual working telephone. "You're amazing!"

Donna throws her arms wide against the police box in a hug, squeezing tight, relishing the rough texture of it under her hands, real skin pressing against solidness. It's perfect. "Thank you," she whispers now, her own little secret message, "For taking me in. Giving me a home. I won't get to hug you for real again -- so thank you."

The TARDIS feels somehow content under her touch, so Donna thinks the TARDIS appreciates it.

She finally pulls back and turns, finding the Doctor standing a few feet away, watching her with a warm, secret gaze.

"What!" she demands in her brassiest tone. Well, Nerys' brassiest tone.

"Nothing," he grins. He extends a hand to her. "Come on. Aren't we supposed to be getting your friend to her wedding?"

She reaches forward and takes his hand and that feels perfect, too.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Several things happen rapid-fire after that:

She screams at the Doctor for not thinking about bringing money with him. She's the ghost along for the ride; it really should be up to the living to think about details like that, and it's not like he's green at this whole "unforeseen adventure" shtick. He says, one too many times, "Don't get too comfortable in that body," like she can forget, christ on a cracker, that this is temporary! And so then she accidentally-on-purpose leaves him behind when he's not paying attention, because he's being a git about this whole unintended possession thing and by god, she's allowed a bit of fun, ain't she - just for the little time before Nerys gets her skinny body back?

In the taxi, Donna bounces delightedly on the seat, actually enjoying London traffic for once. She doesn't get to enjoy if for long, as the driver turns out to be a Santa robot, and then Donna puts Nerys' body in mortal danger by diving out of a moving car, into the Doctor's waiting arms.

It's an awkward leap that's more flailing limbs, a hope, and a prayer, than anything else. She doesn't think the Doctor quite understands how utterly foreign this body feels -- how any body would feel after all this time -- and it's really a miracle that she doesn't land with a splat on the busy motorway.

When she does, against all odds, land with the Doctor's surprisingly solid body beneath hers, it takes her a moment to stop relishing the sensation of someone pressed against her. It's been soooo long.

But she does, in fact, remember that this is not her body. So in that moment when the Doctor and her are face to face and shocked into stillness, it strikes her that it's not Donna he's looking at, watching out for, holding hands with. It's Nerys.

She commands trembling limbs to lever herself to sit, in a pool of white skirts, on the floor. Excitement and adrenaline subside so that all that's left is an unwelcome pang in her chest. A deep, watery breath doesn't help the bite of realization that, as wrapped in giddy excitement as she is to take part in an adventure, none of this is truly happening to Donna. None of this is about her. It never is.

The Doctor has scrambled off to right the bucking TARDIS, consumed in flipping levers and pulling switches and dealing with a growing plume of smoke.

Donna watches him for a moment, then tells herself she really should get up. She's wrinkling Nerys' dress. The dress that should have been Donna's.

The sentence slips from her mouth without actual thought: "I looked better in it, you know."

"Hm?" the Doctor queries, distracted, more concerned with landing them safely.

"The dress. I looked better in it."

The Doctor finally looks up to find Donna slowly standing, smoothing down layers of tulle, looking down at her friend's form.

The Doctor recalls Donna only as an amorphous grey mass with terrifying pits for eyes, but looking at her in that borrowed body now, with a cocked hip, radiating attitude, he can imagine she must have been a force to be reckoned with. And for a moment that niggle of memory hits him again -- of gold-nebulae eyes, staring into his, and hair red as the fields of Gallifrey. He shakes it off, as he always does, as a fancy of regeneration sickness.

The TARDIS pauses its bucking as he finishes banging a button into submission, but flies smoothly enough - despite the growing smoke - for him to step away from the console and towards her. "You keep saying it's your dress. I don't recall you mentioning you were engaged?"

Donna keeps her gaze lowered, one hand going to a tiny rip in the beading along the side.

"No, I wasn't. It was just, you know, hopeful thinking. Picking out your future dress so your mates don't end up filching your style. One of those silly things. But I really did love this dress, ever since we saw it once when we were window shopping. And then she goes and takes it!"

The Doctor is grinning, but as the seconds beat by and she continues to look down, he begins to suspect that her sassy pose and ire are all an act.

"Donna?" he asks carefully.

"I tried it on at the shop and everything. Even Nerys agreed it looked good, and getting a compliment out of her was a fucking miracle."

He reaches out a tentative hand and places it on her shoulder.

She looks up finally, trying to smile through a trembling chin, her eyes suspiciously wet. "I ripped it. She's gonna be so angry."

"You saved her life. She'll get over it."

For a moment he thinks she'll say more, thinks that gravity will win the battle with the tears he sees in dishwater blue eyes. But instead Donna squares her friend's shoulders and lifts her chin, all traces of vulnerability wiped from Nerys' face as if they'd never been there. "Damn straight! Now, where did you land us?" she sails out the door, leaving the Doctor looking after her.

He has to wonder now how many times he's missed that vulnerability, invisible to everyone, any nuance lost under the loud voice and funny quips that only he gets to hear but never see.

The light is bright, the wind whipping Nery's careful blonde chignon out of shape, as the Doctor follows Donna out onto the rooftop.

Donna sighs. "Forget the dress; I've gone and messed up her wedding."

"No you haven't. It's not your fault she got pulled into the TARDIS. Obviously, something's after Nerys."

"But who would want to be after Nerys?" asks Donna. "It must be some sort of mix up."

She shivers as she sits on the roof's edge, and he finds a long-dormant impulse kicking in. He takes of his jacket and drapes it over her shoulders.

Donna smirks -- the Doctor has to wonder what that smirk would look like on her real face -- and gives him a little eye-roll. "Of course this sad excuse for a jacket fits Nerys. You both are skinny as rats."

"Oi, I'm trying to be a gentleman here. Doesn't happen often, you know!"

She bumps his shoulder playfully. "Right, right." She burrows deeper into his jacket, and he watches her fingers play over the pinstriped material as if memorizing the texture. He sees it again, that flash of sorrow quickly buried. He has the strangest impulse to wrap an arm around her, to somehow comfort her into getting that well-hidden dejection cleansed from her gaze.

"Don't really even know what we were trying to accomplish, really. I mean, so if we'd gotten her back to the wedding, then what? I'd still be stuck in her," she muses, looking off at the cityscape.

"Maybe she'd force you out, not wanting to miss her own wedding. Moot point, now. We have to figure out why she's being hunted, and fix it."

"Poor Nerys. Chased around on her wedding day," Donna sighs and shivers again.

The Doctor shifts at her side, the urge to hug her almost overwhelming now, but he resists and instead digs in his trouser pockets until his fingers touch metal. He pulls out a ring, and offers it to Donna, palm up.

She gapes at his hand for a second, before carefully asking, "What's that for?" There's a catch in her voice.

"Biodamper. It will hide Nerys' biological signature from the robots. Should buy us some time." He offers it again but her hands stay resolutely on her lap, until he takes one in his own and slides the ring on her finger. Her hands are trembling. From the cold, perhaps?

"With this ring, I thee biodamp," he teases.

Her fingers curl in his. This time Donna can't hide her feelings fast enough, and Nerys’ face shifts into an expression of sadness and longing.

"For better or for worse," whispers Donna.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Donna knows Nerys better than anyone, and has been hearing of her fairytale wedding plans since they were 15 and sneaking out of school. She gets it in one when she guesses where the reception would have been held.

"You had the reception without Ner- uh - me?!" Donna asks, appalled, upon entering the ballroom.

"Why not? You decided to pull that prank, so why waste all this?" begins Beatrice, attired in an appallingly ugly orange bridesmaid dress. Donna never much had liked Beatrice.

"Wasn't anyone worried?" Donna exclaims. "What kind of friends are you?!"

Lance -- LANCE! -- comes up to her. "Now, sweetheart. Don't fret so. We all knew you'd turn up. No case of cold feet would keep you away for long, right?"

"Lance?" she wonders, befuddled. Why was he even here?

He hugs her (and oh man, he was fit!), and a niggling suspicion has her pulling back just far enough to peruse his well-fitted tux and the expensive flower at his lapel. Donna stumbles back. Nerys...that absolute man-stealing cow!

It unfolds then, between friends and bridesmaids trying to placate her with glasses of wine, how she shouldn't be too angry. How lucky she is that Lance took her prank in a stride. How of course they were soulmates; it was fate that they'd meet at her friend's funeral who'd--

Wait, hold up! Donna reaches out and snatches the cocktail the Doctor had been nursing right out of his hand, to down in one gulp. Donna's funeral. They'd met at her own damn funeral! Now she really is fuming, and doesn't feel one whit guilty when the music strikes back up and Lance drags her onto the dance floor.

She's tearing up the dance floor, because...well, because she can. This, all of this, should have bloody well been Donna's, and so if anyone has the right to be dancing with Lance right now, it's her!

The Doctor hangs back, indulgent, letting her have her moment of fun. She winks at him over Lance's shoulder and the Doctor raises a new, fruity drink to her in reply. A conga line forms and she snags him into joining as they pass by, and then they're making a joyous circle around the room and she spins to laugh at some wry comment the Doctor makes about how conga lines are so much more fun when done on a planet with zero gravity, and it's all so wonderful that she forgets, for a little while, that this isn't hers and it isn't her future they're celebrating and then...

Then, she spies the quiet couple seated at a table on the fringes, and reality rears its head once more. Her feet cement themselves to the floor so that the Doctor crashes into her before pulling her out of the way as the conga line reforms without them.

"What is it?" the Doctor asks, scanning for danger as the blood has drained from her wine-flushed face.

"My parents," whispers Donna. Sylvia and Geoff, looking a little older, a little more tired. The smiles they aim in her direction, however, are as familiar as always.

It takes her several uncertain steps to make it to them, and the well wishes and hugs she receives pass in a blur. A quick impression of warm hands and Sylvia's favorite perfume, Geoff's hearty laugh. Donna has no memory, later, of what she said or how she forced Nerys' lips into a smile. Of how she was able to nod when Donna's own name was brought up and how much they wished she could be there to celebrate with her dear friend.

The Doctor is waiting, hands ready to grip her cold fingers, when she staggers back to him and begs, "Please, get me out of here." And right on time, the baubles on the decorative Christmas tree begins to explode.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Donna can confirm that after being kidnapped from your wedding, finding out your rubbish friends held the reception without you, and then finding out you’re being poisoned, a great distraction from your troubles is to barrel down maintenance tunnels in a Segway. It is so ridiculous that the laughter bubbles up without warning, until she and the Doctor are hooting and giggling and altogether having a swell time. Unfortunately, Lance is an utter killjoy.

Well of course he is, the two-timing arse - turns out he was cheating on Nerys with a spider.

"Is it always like this when you go adventuring," whispers Donna, much later, back on the TARDIS and watching the world being born. "The bits of chaos and the danger and the wonder?"

"Yep. 'S great, isn't it?" grins the Doctor, before noting that a wayward tear is further smudging Nerys' makeup

"I'm sorry about your friend's fiancee," offers the Doctor.

"Hmm," nods Donna. . She presses a cold hand to her chest. "She's so shocked inside. Oh, poor Nerys. What an absolute wanker Lance is. But this," she takes a deep breath now, staring at the kaleidoscope of colors outside the door as dust coalesces into her planet, "this puts it all in perspective, doesn't it. I hope it helps her."

It doesn't, not really. Or at least not right this moment, as she continues to sense Nerys aching in betrayal. But maybe one day in the future, Nerys will think back to this vista no other human has seen before, and heal.

The moment of calm is shattered as they’re pulled back to earth, and Donna heartily wishes her friend hadn’t chosen these horrible shoes for the wedding as she finds herself sprinting to keep up with the Doctor once more.

"So these Huon particles," Donna wheezes once the Doctor brings them to a stop at a maintenance door. "I still don't understand. What are they for?"

"They're an ancient form of energy, energy that's necessary for the Racnoss to rise. They need a living host to catalyze, and Nerys is it."

"You think maybe that's what's making me stick to her? Cuz it feels like how the TARDIS can keep me anchored" she ponders, watching him take out a stethoscope. She's pretty sure he's just fucking around at this point, he's such a drama queen.

He pauses suddenly, eyes going wide before whirling at her. Excited, happy hands gesticulate wildly. "Yes! Oh, yes! I'd forgotten entirely that you're stuck. Aren't you clever! The Huon particles, they're so old that the only other surviving particles power the heart of the TARDIS. They're like the little plus sides to your minus--"

"Oi, watch it."

"--an ancient magnet, keeping you in place!"

"Well gold star for me! Does that mean when you get them out of her I can finally leave?"

"Yep," enthuses the Doctor, back to inspecting the door he's so hell-bent on opening. "We'll sort that out back in the TARDIS, and then 'poof!', you're back to your role as resident ghost and Nerys is back to her boring life, probably knee-deep in wedding bills. Really, the wedding industry is a scam, I don't understand why--"

It occurs to him that he can't hear Donna’s labored breathing hovering over his shoulder any longer. He whirls back around and, of course, she's gone.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I fucking hate you. To think, it could have been me!" spits Donna, now suspended in a web beside Wanker!Lance.

He sneers, and Donna wonders that she ever found him attractive.

The Racnoss Queen forces the Huon particles out of the both of them, and Donna's ire for her friend is derailed as she begins to feel the tendrils holding her in place begin to dissipate. Goddammit, why did she have to be right this time! If she's forced out here, she's going to be lost!

She digs in tight, trying to keep within this borrowed body. The Huon particles want to take her with them, but she's not going to go without a fight! She calls out furiously to Nerys within her mind. "Help me stay!"

Nerys continues to cower in a tiny corner of her mind, nursing hurt and horror and disbelief. Donna is grasping tight with a strength she didn't know she had, seeking out the cells within Nerys' body that contain the tiniest footprints of Huon energy still, ingrained after 6 months of being dosed. But she's not going to be able to hold on for long by herself. "For god's sake, Nerys, be useful for once! What, you want this cheating bastard and his spider mistress to win?! You end up as spider food and Beatrice gets first dibs at any eligible bachelors at your funeral this time around?”

That does it. She feels Nerys psyche uncurl, ponder, and finally lash out a mental hand, clawing back at Donna, gripping at her with Nerys' signature bitchy stubbornness. A final, mighty heave from Nerys has Donna settling back into Nerys' body with a palpable jerk. "You better fucking get me out of here alive, Donna!" she hears Nerys say to her. "It's your fault I even met him!"

And isn't that classic Nerys.

The Doctor, thankfully, arrives right on time. He doesn’t catch her, the dunce, but at least Nerys is not spider food, so that’s a win. She’s sure she’ll remember Lance’s fall for a long time, though. Is even more sure she’ll remember the Racnoss Queen’s frenzied sobbing and screams of “My babies” for much longer.

Which leaves Donna now standing in ankle deep water, staring at a stranger.

The Doctor, a silent and grim executioner, is perhaps the scariest thing she's seen today, or ever.

The water is rising rapidly, the screams of dying Racnoss long faded. "Doctor, you can stop now!"

He looks down at her with burning eyes, this stranger wearing the Doctor's face, and it's almost scary how well she can read him right now. How unfair it is that the Racnoss survived and his people didn't. How horrible it is to be the last. How easy it would be to just watch the water rise. The relief it would be to let go and finally, finally rest.

"What's death like, Donna?" he whispers to her and she hears it just fine, even over the rushing water.

She gulps, terrified. But she forces her borrowed voice to be strong. "Boring. Endless. Pointless. Is that what you want? Because it's not what Nerys wants." It's not what I want for you.

He closes his eyes, finally, and when he reopens them it's the Spaceman she's used to looking back at her. "Let's get her out of here, then."

-----------------------------------------------

The Doctor has made it snow for her.

"It's time, Donna," he says to her quietly.

"I know," she sighs. She shuffles her feet a little, enjoying the solidity of dirt underfoot. Even the ache in her arches and pinching in her toes is welcome. She rubs her hands over cold arms. Skin and bone and a voice and will and action. She's about to let go of all of it.

"You need somebody, you know," she says abruptly, using hands that aren't hers to reach for the Doctor's grasp. "Out here with you, a companion. You should find someone else, someone new. Like I told you before."

"I don't need anyone," he denies gruffly, though he grips her fingers tight.

"Yes you do. You need someone to share in the adventures and because... sometimes you need someone to stop you," she replies, kindly. Somebody to live for. And it can't be me.

He blinks rapidly at her. Wayward tears or snow in his eyes? She can't tell because she is blinking just as hard.

“Not Nerys, though!"

He chokes out a laugh, scrubbing one hand over his face. “No, not Nerys. Not now that you’re finally going to be free of her.”

She grins, trying to be strong, and nervously smooths her hands over her ruined dress. "Okay, well, here goes nothing. You know she's going to freak the holy hell out as soon as I leave her, right?" she begins. She wants to ask for a hug again, because she needs it, but she feels stupid asking.

Though she does quickly remember something else. "Wait! Oh here, save this for me." She slides the biodamper off Nerys’ finger.

The Doctor takes it from her with a confused look. "It's useless now, you know. No harm in it for her."

"But it's mine," she confesses in a rush. "Not Nerys'. You gave it to me and it's ...it's the closest I ever..." her throat clogs up, "closest I got to getting a ring from someone. Even when I was alive I..."

The Doctor's sympathetic eyes do her in, utterly, and she finds herself suddenly shouting, "Why did I have to die!"

To her horror, she feels tears sliding down Nerys’ pale cheeks. Her bottom lip is trembling, her chest aching, breaths staggering. She’d forgotten how much it physically hurt being so sad.

Then she is being enfolded in the Doctor's arms, his hug wonderfully tight as he shushes her and rocks her. And she didn't even have to ask.

She reaches around him, fists clutching his coat. She'd forgotten, too, how it felt to be comforted.

She is the one who finally pulls back, because it's too tempting to cling to him longer. She looks away and scrubs her eyes. The Doctor continues to gaze at her with soft understanding, slipping the ring into a pocket before reaching for her hands once more. "Donna..." he begins.

But she is embarrassed enough already, crying and snotty, and Nerys is not a pretty crier. She abruptly uses the Doctor's grip on her to pull herself out of this borrowed body. This time, Nerys is more than happy to let her go, and it's almost like a cork popping out of a champagne. The force of it throws Nerys back and Donna is left a ghost once more, with a firm grip on the Doctor to keep her tethered.

Nerys catches her footing, stares, smacks the Doctor hard across the face, and turns tail to run away, screaming, "HELP! Martians are real!"

"What the hell was that for!" exclaims the Doctor. He shakes his head at the retreating form of the woman, and heads back through the TARDIS doors. He ensures that Donna's hand is firm in his before closing the door, because she remains silent. Nerys is still screaming and scrambling towards her front door when the TARDIS disappears.

It's only after the TARDIS is in the vortex that he realizes he can feel Donna's hand in his as if she were solid.

#lilac summers fanfic #doctor/donna #Doctor Who fanfiction #close encounters of the invisible kind

[saiilorstars]

The Beginning of Everything

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: Female OC x 10th Doctor

(OC Face claim: Marjorie de Sousa)

// Story Masterlist //

~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~ 0 ~

Ch. 12:  Ours

Chapter Summary: A daughter is born in the middle of war, bringing back painful memories of the past. In the end, tears will be shed.

The TARDIS shook all its inhabitants like rag dolls as it made its journey to an unknown place. No matter what the Doctor - nor Renata for that matter - attempted to do, the console would not react. They were not in control. Martha and Donna screeched and yelled as sparks almost got them. Nothing would stop!

"Doctor!" Renata cried after the man fell backwards, next to the bubbly glass jar of his like hand.

"I'm okay!" he glanced at the jar and remarked, " I don't know where we're going but my old hand's very excited about it!"

Renata groaned and with one hand clinging to the console, she reached for the Doctor. "No joking! No jokes while we're heading to God knows where!"

"Wait a second -" Donna found time to be horrified, "-you're telling me that hand is actually yours!?"

The Doctor could tell she wasn't interested in the back story - which he thought was a pretty cool story - and so he just confirmed it with a nod. However, the same didn't apply to Martha who easily blurted out the explanation.

"It got cut off. He grew a new one!"

If the TARDIS hadn't already been shaking, threatening to throw her overboard, Donna would've fallen back out of shock. "You are completely... impossible!"

The Doctor took some mild interest on the statement. "Not impossible, just... a bit unlikely!"

The TARDIS released one more dangerous explosion that threw Donna and Martha to the side, then another lurch which sent both Renata and the Doctor back, before finally stopping. In the dead of silence only their hurtful groans could be heard.

"Ow, ow, ow ow…" the Doctor was the first to hiss out loud. He had to pull Renata's finger, whose nail had somewhat buried into his hand, off his skin. "OW Ow," he said through gritted teeth.

Renata gasped with alarm. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" her nail dropped blood onto the back of her other hand. "Are you okay!?"

The Doctor chuckled at her concern. The pain had passed. "Yes. Now shall we go outside and see what's out there?"

"I should just skip the part where I asked 'hey, shouldn't we check the monitor first'?"

"Yes, you should."

Renata shook her head.

The group exited the TARDIS to find a desolate place that seemed to be an underground tunnel. There was junk everywhere with scattered old equipment.

"Why would the TARDIS bring us here?" the Doctor asked while he gazed around.

"Oh, I love this bit," Martha crossed her arms after feeling a bit chilly.

"Thought you wanted to go home," Donna nudged her a bit, earning a smile from Martha.

"I know, but all the same…"

"Please don't…do that…" Renata crinkled her nose when the Doctor licked his hands for whatever search tactic he was doing. She shook her head and decided to look around herself. She came across a battered machine and saw that its controls were still blinking, meaning the machine still worked...and if it still worked, then people were most likely…

"Don't move!" they heard a male voice order. The man arrived with several soldiers, all primed with weapons. "Stay where you are! Drop your weapons!" the same man, Cline, motioned everyone to put their hands up.

"We're not armed!" the Doctor raised his hands. "Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe!"

"Now wait a minute," Renata pointed a thumb to the machine behind her, "Something you did brought us to this place!"

"Look at their hands," a solder beside Cline was in awe, apparently, by the hands of the groups. "They're all clean."

"Well of course they're clean - we wash our hands!" Renata frowned but ultimately regarded their untidiness as part of an ongoing fight - war, by the looks of it.

"Process the naggy one first," Cline pointed his gun at Renata.

The blonde glared daggers his way. "I am not naggy!"

"Well…" she then heard the Doctor go from his spot.

"Doctor! You are - let go of me right this instant!" Renata shouted at the two soldiers who swiftly turned her for the strange machine.

"Now wait," the Doctor now got serious and went after them, or at least tried to before he was barred by the other soldiers. "We're harmless! We came here by accident!"

"What are they going to do to her!?" Martha tried getting around but the soldiers were keeping them at bay.

"You know I bet this war has really turned your minds around!" Renata scowled at the men who paid no attention to her. One of them forced her hand into a slot beside the machine. "How dare you - OW!" the machine whirred around with new, stronger lights. "This actually hurts! What are you doing to me!?"

"This is really unnecessary-" the Doctor, very worriedly, watched Renata continue shouting the soldiers' heads off for whatever it was the machine was doing to her.

"What do you need my tissue sample for!? You didn't even ask permission!" the blonde pulled on her hand in vain. The machine was not letting her go until it was finished. She sighed in relief when the slot finally let go of her hand a few seconds later. Her eyes widened at the big, ugly graze on her hand. It had an ugly 'x' mark on it.

"Move out of the way!" the Doctor had enough and pushed the soldiers away from him. "Renata?" he ran up to Renata and carefully took her hand for examination.

"That thing is still going…" Donna came to a stop behind them with Martha, her eyes glued to the whirring machine.

"I dread to think…" Renata gulped and decided not to finish her thought.

The machine finally stopped and spewed out smoke for a second. Through the smoke they could only see combat boots stepping out. When the smoke cleared, they found a petite brunette woman with frosty blue eyes staring back at them with a rather curious face.

Cline came towards them but only called upon the woman. "Arm yourself!" he gave the woman a gun and the group was stunned to see her handling it like a pro.

"But where did she come from?" Martha kept blinking to see if the woman would remain there.

"I...from Renata…" the Doctor breathed. He felt Renata tug her hand back from his and looked at her to find her already staring back at him.

"From us," she could barely form the two-worded sentence. She turned her hand over and pointed at the graze. "Your stupid blood dried on the back of my hand…"

Yes, yes he did remember. And it explained why his face went completely red.

The brunette woman smiled at them and even tilted her head. "Hi Mum! Hi Dad!"

"Oh my God, no…" Renata turned away and really tried to process this before anything else happened.

"No, backup, how?" Donna needed to know how it was possible. There was a fully formed being that was apparently her friends' daughter!?

"She's exactly what you heard," but even as the Doctor confirmed it sounded like he was still trying to accept it too.

The brunette woman, on the other hand, was focused on the weapon in her arms. She maneuvered it like she'd truly been born ready for war. She hopped off the machine and walked past them still wearing that cheery smile on her face despite everyone staring at her.

"You primed to take orders, ready to fight?" Cline asked her as soon as she met up with them.

"Instant mental download of all strategic and military protocols, sir," she answered just like any soldier would have. "Generation 5000 soldier primed and in peak physical health. Oh, I'm ready."

Renata's mouth dropped open. She pointed a finger at the woman - who saw nothing - and started for the woman. "Oh no-" the Doctor knew where she was going and yanked her right back. "Look at what they did!" she gestured at the brunette.

"Can you explain how they did it in the first place?" Martha cleared her throat.

"Progenation," the Doctor answered. "Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement, and grow. Very quickly, apparently."

"But you just said she's your daughter too…?" Donna slowly reminded and kept glancing at the woman.

"That's because his stupid DNA got in there!" Renata exclaimed and crossed her arms. Of course she would have had the Doctor's dried blood on her hand, because why not!?

"It's not like I planned it…" the Doctor mumbled.

"Neither of us did! They stole my choice to ever have kids again!" Renata blurted with an almost red face of frustration.

It was then that the Doctor realized what was truly bothering her. After her first miscarriage, there was probably no plans on attempting for a second child. Now, whether she liked it or not, she had one.

"They didn't even ask, or explained, they just stole my choice…" Renata was glaring daggers at the men. "And then if it wasn't enough they just...took her...like an object in their war."

Martha and Donna shared a look between them, feeling sorrow for their friend. Donna didn't quite understand but it didn't matter. Renata was right. They had forced a daughter out of her.

The Doctor stared at Renata who kept her attention on the moving brunette woman ahead. All the anger had washed away from Renata's face to be replaced by deep heartbreak. He didn't like it one bit. Without thinking, he walked up to her and hugged her from behind. She gasped lightly, startled of course by the action, and yet...it wasn't new to her.

Zuriah was mad. Oh, she was mad. "I just don't understand what the problem is." She faced her desk, hiding her reddened eyes full of frustrated tears from the Doctor. "We already banished Gallifreyans and basically left them to their luck. I just want to help them, give them opportunities people are too selfish to. Why do I even bother with any of this?" she carelessly pushed away a stack of papers on the desk. "I'm not allowed to make a difference."

The Doctor heard enough. He'd seen how much work and effort she put into this charity. He couldn't let her throw it all away because other people were too blind to see the good in it. "Zuriah, you could find another way-"

"What's the point?" she repeated with even more force behind it. "Soon, I'll graduate and the chances of my family allowing me to continue this is slim."

"Well, there is your betrothed," the Doctor reminded, although with less enthusiasm. He'd never met the man but by what Zuriah told him, the man sounded relatively nice.

"Doesn't matter, I need investors! People who care but there's just no people!" she exclaimed and let her shoulders slump.

The Doctor marched up to her and hugged her from behind. She was startled by him but relaxed a short second later. There was a warmth he gave her that...she really couldn't find anywhere else, not even in her betrothed. She leaned back on him and relaxed in his arms.

"It'll take some time, but we'll find you people who care," the Doctor promised her.

"You're going to help me?" she asked, her surprise offending him.

"No, I'll just let you wallow in your sorrows," he rolled his eyes. "You know I'll help you in anything you need."

Zuriah stared at him for a long minute, but the Doctor was glad to see her smiling a bit. "You know," she began, "I'm never going to say this again, but... I'm a little happy you got into trouble with the law. Otherwise, I would've never met you."

The confession left the Doctor rather stunned, but it didn't appear like she would be taking it back.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor's apology brought Renata to the present. She relished in the familiar warmth that, despite the many body counts he'd gone through, remained the same as when they were young.

"Something's coming!" the new brunette warning put all of them into defensive stances.

"It's the Hath!" Cline shouted beside her. The Hath were indeed coming towards them but we're soon met with fires from the human.

"Get down!"

"We have to blow the tunnel! Get the detonator!" Cline ordered one of his men.

"Detonating!?" Renata repeated with widened eyes. "No! We can't-" but she stopped the moment she saw Martha being pulled away by some of the Hath. "MARTHA!" she screamed and made to run towards them.

The Doctor yanked her back when he saw his 'daughter' coming into contact with the detonator. Without a second thought, she activated it. Everyone was forced to run for cover and in time because the tunnel exploded only a mere five seconds later. Rocks struck down like a shower, leaving one side completely inaccessible, the side with Martha now in it.

"You've sealed off the tunnel!" the Doctor raged against the brunette once they were back in their feet. "Why did you do that?!"

She seemed as if she believed he was a oblivious. He was missing the point here. "They were trying to kill us!"

"But they've got our friend!"

"Collateral damage," she shrugged it off like nothing. Renata gaped from behind, a slow outrage soon filling her face. "At least you've still got them," she nodded to Renata and Donna, "He lost both his men, I'd say you came out ahead."

Renata stormed up to them and pulled the Doctor back to have her go. "Martha Jones is not collateral damage! No one should ever be collateral damage!" her voice rose to an incredible volume that silenced the brunette and everyone around them. "And if I ever hear you say something as insensitive as that then believe me you will get to know who your creator is."

The brunette was left blinking in her spot, mouth slightly ajar from the shock of being...lectured? Was that a lecture? Because it felt scarier than it probably ought to be. Donna could confirm that since her mother lectured her every day.

"We're gonna find her," the Doctor resolved but barely turned when he found himself being threatened with a gun

Cline wasn't letting them go for any reason now. "Absolutely not. You three have no guns, no marks, no fight in you… I'm taking you to General Cobb. Now, move."

The Doctor wasn't going to have one more shootout on his account. He turned in the opposite direction and started walking, making Renata and Donna ultimately do the same.

"You realize we're heading to their headquarters, right?" Renata's whisper wasn't exactly a whisper for the others. She didn't realize that.

"Yes, I'm aware," the Doctor assured her he wasn't that clueless.

Donna noticed that neither were making an effort to even look at the brunette girl who was their supposed daughter. She understood it was weird - way weird - but they had to break the ice at some point, right? Maybe she could help with that. She cleared her throat and moved slightly more to be beside the brunette. "I'm Donna, what's your name?"

The brunette made a face and shrugged her shoulders. "Don't know, it's not been assigned."

"Well, if you don't know that, what do you know?"

"How to fight."

Donna waited for her to list more things but the brunette seemed to have finished. "Um...nothing else?"

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder to see the brunette girl really that lost. "The machine must embed military history and tactics but no name. She's a generated anomaly."

"Generated anomaly?" Renata repeated bitterly then mumbled under her breath. "Because that's what I pictured when I had my baby."

"Jenny-rated…" Donna began to play with the name until she got an idea. "Well what about that? Jenny!"

"Jenny," the brunette smiled. "Yeah, I like that, Jenny."

Donna threw a smirk at the other two aliens. "What do you think, Mummy? Daddy?"

Renata seemed like a ticking time bomb the way her face scrunched and her finger pointing at Donna. "Don't!"

Donna blinked at the blonde. "Mum…?"

Renata groaned and took a quicker pace, ignoring Cline's call to slow down. The Doctor then threw a glance at Donna. "Don't suppose you could tone that down?"

"What? You two are the parents-"

"They stole a tissue sample at gunpoint and processed it, it's not what I call natural parentage-"

"-Rubbish! My friend Nerys fathered twins with a turkey baster, don't bother her!"

"You can't extrapolate a relationship from a biological accident," the Doctor snapped. And in Renata's and his case, it was even more so true. They both lost children at some point in their lives and that was a pain nothing would ever take away.

"Er, Child Support Agency can…" Donna figured she should stop talking but her mouth kept going.

"Look, just cos I share certain physiological traits with simian primates doesn't make me a monkey's uncle, does it?"

"I'm not a monkey!" Jenny cut in when it finally got offensive. "Or a child."

She was cut short when they finally returned to the human encampment in an underground tunnel. Renata smelled the distinct air of war. She scowled at war supplies piling up on every table in her vicinity.

"Where are we?" she asked Cline once they were together again. "What planet is this?"

"Messaline. Well, what's left of it," he gave a sigh before meeting with an older soldier to the side.

'...663 – 75 deceased. Generation 6671 – Extinct. Generation 6672 – 46 deceased. Generation 6680 – 14 deceased. Generation …'

"But, this is a theatre!" Donna said after seeing the stage up ahead. "It's like a town, or a city, underground. But why?"

"Because in a war, anything will do," Renata scowled and looked at the Doctor. "We have to get Martha and get out of here."

Cline returned with the older soldier who the group assumed was General Cobb. Like Cline, he scrutinized the group for their cleanliness.

"Found in the Western tunnels, I'm told, with no marks. There was an outbreak of pacifism in the Eastern Zone, three generations back, before we lost contact, is that where you came from?" the man asked after a minute of silence.

"Eastern Zone, that's us, yeah," the Doctor jumped at the chance of an easy background story. "Yeah. I'm The Doctor, this is Renata and Donna."

"And I'm Jenny," the younger girl introduced herself.

Cobb shot her a sharp look. 'Don't think you can infect us with your peacemaking. We're committed to the fight, to the very end."

"Well, that's all right, we can't stay anyway. We've gotta go and find our friend," the Doctor noticed the stare on Jenny and wondered if she would be outcast as well due to her origins.

"That's not possible, all movement is regulated. We're at war," Cobb said automatically, but it wasn't much for Renata.

"You said it, you're at war, not us," she scowled. "You've got no right to keep us here when all we wanna do is go home."

"You're on our territory, Lady, therefore you fall under our jurisdiction," Cobb argued back, further irritating her.

The Doctor set a hand on Renata's arm to keep her from snapping back. "So this war...against the Hath...who exactly are they again?"

Cobb seemed hesitant to speak, but Renata's last comment got him good. "If you're going to make us fight then we need to know who the enemy is." The smugness she carried no one could take away.

When Cobb finally began explaining, he sharply looked at Renata. "Back at the dawn of this planet, these ancient halls were carved from the earth. Our ancestors dreamt of a new beginning, a colony where human and Hath could work and live together."

"So what exactly happened?" gestured the Doctor to the ruddy room.

"The dream died. Broken, along with Hath promises. They wanted it all for themselves. But those early pioneers, they fought back. They used the machines to produce soldiers instead of colonists, and began this battle for survival."

"There's nothing but earth outside, why's that?" Donna could see even the windows in the tunnel were smeared with dirt. No sun illuminated it. "Why build everything underground?"

"The surface is too dangerous."

"Couldn't have been like that all the time if they built the windows in the first place," the ginger nodded them to one closest. "And what does this mean?" she pointed to a number stamped on the wall just above a threshold.

"The rites and symbols of our ancestors. The meanings... lost in time," Cobb's answer was too casual for Renata to believe he was actually sorry about it. She assumed all his mind could think about was the bloody war.

"Exactly how long has this war been going on?" She dreaded to know the answer but it would also clarify how desperate they would be if she knew at what point in their war they were in.

"Longer than anyone can remember. Countless generations marked only by the dead."

"That's a good system," Renata sarcastically clapped her hands together.

"What, fighting all this time?" Donna was stunned by the answer, unable to believe how simply he'd said it too.

"Because we must," Jenny said proudly, missing her parents' faces. "Every child of the machine is born with this knowledge. It's our inheritance, it's all we know. How to fight. And how to die."

"Can we just find Martha and get the hell out of here?" Renata whispered to the Doctor. She couldn't fathom the idea of staying much longer in the place.

"Mhm. General Cobb, can we take a look at one of your maps?" the Time Lord got started on that, and since the General was under the impression they would finally join the fight he led them to a table chuckfull of maps they could use. The Doctor took a glance at all of them before deciding on the one bigger. "Does this show the entire city, including the Hath zones?"

"Yes. Why?" Cobb replied, wondering if he was going to come up with strategies.

"Well it'll help us find Martha."

Cline shook his head. "We've more important things to do. The Progenation Machines are powered down for the night shift, but soon as they're active, we could breed a whole platoon from you two."

Donna and Renata had a hoot with that. Both women garnered similar offended, furious expressions.

"I'm not having sons and daughters by some great big flippin' machine!" Donna had her first go. She cast a look at Jenny and somewhat simmered. "Sorry, no offence but you're not... well I mean you're not real."

Jenny of course took that with offence. "You're no better than them! I have a body, I have a mind, I have independent thought, how am I not real? What makes you better than me?"

"Oh no, we're not saying we're better than you," Renata set out to clarify the issue there. "We're saying we have a wider perspective about life than you. The fact we don't think about war might be a good starter."

Jenny grew just as angry as her mother. "If you think-"

"At ease, soldier," Cobb cut in. "They're the ones who need to think more like you. You're the type of soldier that we need more like you if ever we're to find the Source."

The Doctor looked up from the map with newfound curiosity. "Ooh, the Source, what's that then, what's a Source? I like a Source, what is it?"

"The Breath of Life."

"And that would be...?"

"In the beginning the great one breathed life into the universe. And then she looked at what she'd done, and she sighed."

"She? I like that," Jenny said with a smile.

"It's a creation myth," Renata rolled her eyes but Cobb snapped that it wasn't.

"It's not myth. It's real," he glared at her, not that she cared very much. "That sigh. From the beginning of time it was caught and kept as the Source. It was lost when the war started. But it's here, somewhere. Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of the planet."

By this point, the Doctor had lost interest and gone back to the map. He yelped with delight after finding something useful in it. "Ah! I thought so! There's a suppressed layer of information in this map, if I can just…" he whipped out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the map. The map blinked to life and provided a hologram with more to the map with tunnels. "A whole complex of tunnels, hidden from sight."

Renata cleared her throat and moved over beside the Doctor, tapping his arm to get his attention. "And you really think showing that to some war-powered crazies was the best plan?" she nodded him to Cobb who was staring at the hologram with hungry eyes. "You couldn't have waited until we were on our own?"

The Doctor sheepishly smiled at her. "That...would have definitely been easier. Did I mention you look absolutely lovely today?" Renata honestly didn't know whether to laugh at his attempt of getting out of trouble with her or if to blush.

Cobb did not wait for them to finish their moment. He'd see what was presumed to be the lost temple and that they were closer to it than the Hath. That got him moving his soldiers for the battle.

"Um, call me old-fashioned, but if you really wanted peace couldn't you just stop fighting?" the Doctor stopped Cobb from leaving to follow up with some soldiers.

"Only when we have the Source. It'll give us the power to erase every stinking Hath from the face of this planet!"

"Hang on, hang on, a second ago it was peace in our time, now you're talking about genocide!?"

"For us, that means the same thing."

Renata pushed her way through, ignoring if she was butting into the conversation or not. "Then do yourself a favor and get a new dictionary because it's not happening again!"

"Again?" Cobb repeated with reasonable confusion.

The Doctor was silent for a minute as he wondered whether or not Renata would throw his biggest action in his face. Despite their tetchy relationship, she hadn't once done that but who knew what today could be. Each day was different.

Renata straightened herself up and acted nothing but mature and noble. "There will be no genocide. Not here. Not anywhere else. Have you got that?" and then, without thinking, her hand reached for the Doctor's.

The Time Lord actually jumped in his spot at the contact. His widened eyes immediately looked to Renata but she was staring straight ahead at Cobb. He felt a strange warmth from her hand, and yet it felt rather familiar.

But of course, their choices landed them in prison.

~ 0 ~

From within their holding cell, Donna noticed more of the numbers carved onto the wall. "More numbers," she hummed in curiosity. "They've gotta mean something, right?" she glanced back at the two silent Time Lords.

Renata was sitting on the lone bench with both her arms and legs crossed. She had a particular expression of grimness Donna had never seen before.

The Doctor was just irritated they were being forced to waste time when a war was about to break out. "Makes as much sense as the breath of life story," he muttered.

Jenny did a double-take at those words. "You mean that's not true?"

"It's a myth, isn't it?" Donna turned around, now curious of the matter herself.

"Yes, but there could still be something real in that temple, something that's become a myth. A piece of technology, a weapon."

"And we've just given some war-hungry soldiers the map on a silver platter," Renata spoke for the first time since they'd been placed in the cell. She wasn't angry with the Doctor, at least not anymore, but she was still upset over the situation. Martha was on the other side with the enemies, and it was obvious the humans weren't going to hold back because of it.

"We need to get out of here, fine Martha, and stop Cobb from slaughtering the Hath," the Doctor noticed Jenny's long stare. "What, what are you, what are you…what are you staring at?"

Jenny's lips twitched, a ghost of a smile spreading across her face. "You keep insisting you're not a soldier. But look at you! Drawing up strategies like a proper general."

The Doctor took offence to that. "No no, I'm trying to stop the fighting."

"Isn't every soldier?"

"Well. I suppose. But that's… that's… technically... I haven't got time for this!" the Doctor waved the woman off and turned to Donna. "Donna, give me your phone! Time for an upgrade!"

"And now you've got a weapon!" Jenny almost laughed at the irony when she saw the Doctor's sonic.

"It's not a weapon!"

"But you're using it to fight back! I'm gonna learn so much from you, you are such a soldier!"

"Enough," Renata's quiet - but sharp - tone silenced Jenny in one second flat. "I don't ever want to hear you compare him to these deranged humans. You got that?"

Jenny quickly nodded, her eyes still wide from her initial startle.

The Doctor took refuge in Donna's phone because he certainly didn't want to get anywhere between that. Thankfully, Martha answered the phone. She was well and alive...with the Hath that were also preparing for war. Apparently, they also acquired the map the Doctor accidentally pulled up.

"We need to get out of here," the Doctor handed Donna her phone back. They could all hear the humans chanting for their upcoming war.

"And they're cheering about it," Renata said disgustedly. She pushed herself up from the bench and walked up to the cell bars. "They'll just kill each other."

"We have to get past that guard, right?" Jenny came up beside her, eyeing the distant guard from their cell. "I can deal with him."

"You?" Renata side-glanced her with a "never in your life" kind of expression. "You're not going anywhere."

"What?" frowned the young woman.

"You are not my daughter," Renata said the words so easily even the Doctor was stunned for a second. This was nothing like the Renata he met in 1913 who cared and loved for her human children. But then again, this wasn't the same situation.

"Renata, how can you say that?" Donna was the one to speak up. She kept glancing at the Doctor, waiting for him to say something but it appeared he was siding with Renata as well. "She's your daughter," the ginger told Renata then pointed at her and the Doctor. "She's your daughter!"

Renata shook her head, her face hardening while she crossed her arms again. "She is not my daughter! I didn't choose to become a mother here! She came out of a machine that I was forced into!"

"She's a soldier," the Doctor added on, though less strained than Renata. "She came out of that machine with nothing but a soldier's personality. She is one."

Donna felt for the young woman who was being rejected by both her parents. She never thought she could see such coldness from the two aliens! She suddenly extended her hand at the Doctor, motioning him to give her something. "Give me that stethoscope!"

The Doctor handed it over without question. He'd no idea what she was planning on doing with it. Strangle them till they accepted Jenny was his and Renata's daughter?

"What are you doing?" Jenny made a face when Donna moved up to her with the stethoscope around her ears.

"Just hold still," Donna listened to the woman's heartbeat for a second, smiled, then turned to the two Time Lords. "Which one of you is going first?"

Renata's face was cold as ice. She looked away, crossing her arms even tighter if it was possible.

"C'mon," Donna moved the Doctor in her place. "Listen then tell me where she belongs."

The Doctor practically rolled his eyes in front of them as he took the stethoscope and had a listen for himself. He was stunned to hear Jenny had two heartbeats...just like any Time Lady would. "Two hearts…"

"Exactly," Donna gave a strong elbow on Renata's side. "Would you like a listen?"

"No," the blonde answered instantaneously.

Donna inwardly groaned. Renata was too stubborn, and that was saying something considering all the people Donna knew!

"What's that mean?" Jenny was frowning since no one was clarifying for her.

"It means you're a Time Lady," Donna said, quite proud of herself at the moment.

"Is that…" Jenny's eyes flickered from the Doctor to Renata and vice versa, "...is that what you two are? Or...from?"

"Biologically, that's what you are," Renata muttered. "But you're an echo at most. You don't know what it means. It's a sum of knowledge. A code. A shared history. A shared suffering. And you don't…" she stopped herself when she felt tears pooling in her eyes. Her shaky breath was a signal of her memories resurfacing. The Doctor placed a hand on her arm, comforting her with a knowing look.

"Then take me there," Jenny said, implying this was all a challenge she was up for.

The Doctor shook his head at her. "It's gone." Jenny's smile faltered at the news. "It's gone forever."

"What happened?"

"There was a war."

"Like this one?"

Renata's sharp, sarcastic laugh made the three wince. "Never. It was far bigger than...this."

"And you fought? And killed?"

"Yes," the two Time Lords answered simultaneously, sharing the same grimness.

"We killed, we cheated, lied...everything," Renata's words carried a different weight that both the Doctor and Donna noticed.

"Then how are we any different from each other?" Jenny challenged them with that. Donna smirked behind the Doctor and Renata. Whether they wanted to admit it or not, Jenny had both of them in her...down to the very tone of the question.

Renata was the first to snap out of the shock Jenny caused. She preferred to think about the current problem at hand than the daughter she was forced to have (with the Doctor). The guard soon became an easy problem to handle, with Jenny's willing participation. He never stood a chance against Jenny's light-hearted flirting.

"Fool, in war there's never a chance for love," Renata said on their way out of the cell.

The second guard was also taken care of by Jenny...with a good clock in the face. Despite the disapproval, they took the map the guard was carrying with him and started down a corridor.

"It's another one of those numbers," Donna pointed to another carving of numbers while the Doctor tried opening a closed door with the sonic. "They're everywhere."

"It's warland, Donna," Renata gave a brief, uninterested glance at the numbers. "It's probably got meaning for those who originally built the tunnels."

It didn't matter for Donna. She guessed they had a meaning that could be useful for them later on. "You got a pen? Bit of paper? Cos, d'you see, the numbers are counting down." The Doctor gave her what she needed despite agreeing with Renata. "This one ends in 1-4, the prison cell said 1-6."

"Always thinking, the three of you. Who are you people?" Jenny smiled at the three of them, unable to answer her question on her own.

"I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said distractedly. The control of the panel was taking longer than he was expecting.

"The Doctor?" Jenny'd waited for him to elaborate but she figured he was purposely being silent again. "That's it?"

"That's all he ever says," Donna gave a shrug beside her. "That's all both of them say, actually."

Renata rolled her eyes at the look Donna gave her. "Excuse me for wanting a bit of privacy. And there's not much we can say about our names."

"So then are you both anomalies too?" Jenny tilted her head as her eyes flickered from the Doctor to Renata.

"No," went the two collectively.

Donna, however, scoffed. "Oh, come off it! You're the most anomalous people I've ever met!"

The Doctor chose to focus on the controls than the ridiculous conversation.

Jenny, though, seemed to be full of questions. "And Time Lords, what are they for exactly?"

Renata shot the young woman a hard look. "For?" she repeated, already sounding upset. "They're not...we're not 'for' anything. We are people, dammit."

"So then what do you do?"

"We travel," the Doctor answered but wasn't really in-tune with the conversation. "Through time and space."

"They save planets, rescue civilizations, defeat terrible creatures. And run a lot," Donna decided to chime in with her own answer. "Seriously, there's an outrageous amount of running involved."

"I haven't done any of that stuff," Renata crossed her arms, but the Doctor had a comment to say about that.

"She just recently started." The blonde Time Lady huffed and shot the Doctor a glare. The Doctor, in turn, just shrugged his shoulders. "What? You did."

A short minute later, they had the door open for them. They crossed through just as Cobb's voice echoed from the distance. They were being followed and very closely too. Even though they had a full plan on just running, they were stopped by several, several, red beams crossing from one and to the other of a tunnel.

"That's not mood lighting, is it?" Donna frowned at the new obstacle because this was one she didn't think she'd be able to get through.

The Doctor decided to test how deadly the beams were by chucking in his clockwork mouse into the tunnel. The beams burst it into pieces before it could even touch ground.

"Doctor..." Renata wearily gazed at the beams. She could hear the men behind them getting far too close for her liking.

"I'm on it!" the Doctor exclaimed and did, to his credit, get to work on the controls of the tunnel. Donna, in the meantime, spotted another plaque of numbers up on the wall.

"There's more of these. Always eight numbers, counting down, the closer we get..."

"The General is coming!" Jenny's eyebrows knitted together as she assessed the incoming danger. Figuring she had to go and terminate it, she made a run back in the direction they'd come in...only to have Renata yank her right back. "What?" frowned Jenny.

"Where do you think you're going?" demanded Renata.

"I can hold them up," Jenny pointed behind them, thinking they'd be able to hear how close they were to being caught.

"And have more dead people on us? I don't think so," Renata pushed Jenny so that she stood right in front of the trio, no chance of escaping.

Jenny huffed like a child would. She turned to face the three with another frown. "But it's them or us!"

"It doesn't mean you have to kill them!" the Doctor threw that idea out there in case Jenny hadn't caught up with it.

Jenny threw both her parents crazed looks. "I'm trying to save your lives!"

The Doctor stopped working altogether - something Renata wasn't quite fond of - and turned Jenny so that she was only facing him. "Listen to me, the killing, after a while it infects you. And once it does you're never rid of it."

From the side Renata watched silently, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"We don't have a choice," Jenny reiterated to the Doctor, then looked at Renata and Donna to make sure they heard her.

"We always have a choice," the Doctor tried to say but Jenny shook her head.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly before running towards Cobb's group.

The Doctor was, admittedly, shaken by the fact his words hadn't gotten through to Jenny.

"See what I mean?" Renata bitterly folded her arms and kept a gaze straight ahead, even when she could see Donna (from the corner of her eye) giving her a somewhat sympathetic stare. "She's nothing but a soldier."

"She's trying to help," Donna tried being reasonable but Renata shook her head.

The Doctor worked fervently to take down the beams. He heard shooting from behind but he knew if he looked back and caught sight of Jenny, his work on the beams would be lost.

"Cease fire!" they heard Cobb say, and luckily it was right around the time the Doctor brought the beams down.

"That's it!" cheered Donna.

"Jenny!" the Doctor shouted behind. "Let's go!" He waited for Jenny but the woman showed no sign of coming back, or fighting. Frantically, he made the quick decision to get a head start and pulled Renata and Donna down the tunnel.

Jenny, fortunately, came running back to the tunnel a minute later but with her came the rest of the soldiers.

"Oh crap," Renata blurted, and received looks for her uncharacteristic use of language. She just didn't like the way Jenny looked bombarded by the incoming soldiers. "Cross through already!" she still shouted.

Jenny was taking aim on Cobb as if she were going to shoot him but instead fired at a pipeline above. Steam spewed from the pipeline, clouding the area. As she made to move down the tunnel, the beams sprouted again.

"No, no, no, no! The circuit's looped back!" the Doctor exclaimed in panic.

"Zap it back again!" Donna told the Doctor.

"The controls are back there!"

For the first time, Jenny looked properly scared. "They're coming!"

As much as Renata didn't want to admit, she was getting a bit frantic watching Jenny helplessly look around. "Okay, well, we gotta do something!?"

The Doctor agreed but he didn't have the controls anymore. "Wait! J-Just...! There isn't...! Jenny, I can't!"

Jenny huffed a breath after concluding she wouldn't be able to work the controls herself. "It's alright, I'll manage on my own." She sprinted in place for a few seconds before backing away. "Mother, Father, watch and learn!" She took off in a speedy run and did a series of somersaults to get through the beams. She landed on the other side with the trio in a graceful landing.

"No way! But that was impossible!" Donna laughed.

"Not impossible. Just a bit unlikely!" the Doctor looked beyond proud of Jenny and even surprised her with a hug. "You were brilliant!"

Jenny seemed to like his praise, even more his hug. "I didn't kill him." She pulled away with a big grin on her face. "General Cobb, I could have kill him, but I didn't. You were right. I had a choice." She then looked to Renata, still with the same grin on her face. "I did good, right?"

Renata knew she couldn't flatout say 'no' because, well...Jenny had impressed her. "Yeah...you did." The small smile on Renata's face was enough for Jenny to hug her as well. It was fairly amusing (more for Donna than anyone else) to see the petite Jenny hug her tall mother.

~ 0 ~

Even though they were still getting away from Cobb and his soldiers, the group now had the option to walk since the beams would keep the soldiers away for a while. Jenny had positioned herself in-between Renata and the Doctor while they walked down the hallway.

"So, you travel together, but you're not... 'together'?" she asked, her head tilting from Renata to the Doctor.

The Doctor nearly choked on his saliva for the first second. "No!" he blurted.

Renata, on the other hand, stayed quiet but her mind loved reminding her that they almost were a couple long ago. "We just travel," she said in a whisper.

Now Donna, being an outsider for this moment, took note of each reaction from the Time Lords. Once again, something didn't hit well with Renata.

Jenny, for her part, didn't seem to take more interest on the subject. There was something more pressing she wanted to talk about. "What about the travelling? What is that like?"

"Ah, never a dull moment," the Doctor got back to his normal self with that question. A smile came to his face the more he talked about travelling. "It can be terrifying, brilliant and funny - sometimes all at the same time."

Renata smiled to herself because these were the same things she would hear from him when they were younger.

"Oh, I'd love to see new worlds," Jenny said in the same breathless manner the Doctor would use when he was in awe.

"You will," Donna cut in then looked at the Doctor and Renata, "Won't she?"

There was a moment in which they looked at each other, one more unsure than the other but they silently agreed leaving Jenny here was not an option. She'd be left with murderous soldiers who would no doubt turn her into one of them. Neither could bear that.

"I suppose so," Renata ended up staying, and it was enough to make Jenny go wide-eyed.

"You mean...you mean, you'll take me with you!?"

"We can't leave you here, can we?" the Doctor smiled at the petite blonde.

Jenny threw her arms around him and Renata, startling them and bringing them much closer than they were used to. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you! Come on! Let's get a move on!" She pulled away and started the lead in a sprint.

"Careful, there might be traps!" the Doctor's warning flew right over Jenny's head.

"She's definitely your daughter with those listening skills," Renata found herself remarking with a low sigh.

"What!?" the Doctor, offended, turned on her with a frown on his face.

Donna laughed and brought both of their heads to her. "You're definitely getting the part of the parents now." Her comment seemed to pull the two back to reality, back to their own realities which were not so gleeful.

"I don't mean to be a parent," Renata said in a low tone. "I don't think the Doctor means to be one either."

"Why would you say that?" Donna frowned for a moment.

"We've been parents before," Renata said but then thought about her own motherhood and felt the Stu tears at the corner of her eyes. "Well, least you got to meet yours," she said to the Doctor. "Mine didn't make it to the world."

The Doctor silently nodded. He knew, of course, because she'd already told him but he didn't want her to go back to that dark place. Donna, on the other hand, looked mortified that she'd brought Renata to that place.

"Ren, I'm so sorry," the ginger apologized but of course Renata wouldn't blame her. "I didn't know…"

"We know," the Doctor nodded. "But I think Renata and I can agree that...with Jenny around we see everyone we lost. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it. To face that everyday…"

"It won't stay like that. She'll help you," Donna tried to be reassuring for them. "Hell, we both will."

Jenny came running back at the same time the firing started again. "They've blasted through the beams, time to run again. Love the running! Yeah?"

"He does," Renata jerked a thumb at the Doctor. "I like being normal and walk."

"Love the running," the Doctor had to agree and took off with Jenny first.

Renata shook her head at them, clearly disapproving. Donna wouldn't say it out loud but she thought Renata was acting like the mother again.

~0~

After more running indeed, the group of travelers finally made it into the godly spoken temple, which turned out not to be so much of a temple.

"This is a fusion-drive transport. It's a spaceship!" the Doctor was bewildered to find such a thing underground.

"What, the original one?" Donna blinked. "The one the first colonists arrived in?"

"Well, it could be, but the power cells would have run down after all that time," the Doctor said.

"But this looks like it's in great condition," Renata grazed her fingers along the wall.

"It's actually still powered-up and functioning," the Doctor realized with wide-eyes.

Renata stopped to give him a certain look. "That can't be right. Compared to the conditions of the rest of the place…"

But there was a banging on the door, followed by physical cutting of it.

"It's the Hath!" Jenny exclaimed. "That door's not gonna last much longer. And if General Cobb gets through down there, war's gonna break out."

But the Doctor was deep into the ship's screen. "Oh, but look, look, look, look, look! Ship's log! First wave of Human/Hath co-colonisation of planet Messaline."

"So it is the original ship?" Jenny stopped her panicking for a moment. "So what happened?"

"Phase one. Construction. They used robot drones to build the city."

"But, does it mention the war?" Donna asked.

"Final entry... "Mission commander dead. Still no agreement on who should assume leadership. Hath and humans have divided into factions."

"Well, guess we know how this all got started," Renata came to stand beside the Doctor. "The crew divided into two factions and turned on each other. Start using the progenation machines and suddenly you've got two armies fighting a never-ending war!"

Jenny flinched after another banging on the door. "Two armies who are now both outside."

Donna had become interested in what the screen showed next. "Look at that. It's like the numbers in the tunnels."

"Hm, maybe they are important after all," the Doctor remarked.

"I spent six months working as a temp in Hounslow Library, and I mastered the Dewey Decimal System in two days flat. I'm good with numbers! It's staring us in the face!"

"What is?" both Renata and Jenny asked together.

"It's the date! Assuming the first two numbers are some big old space date, then you've got year, month, day. It's the other way round, like it is in America!"

"Ohhh! It's the New Byzantine Calendar!" the Doctor realized.

"The codes are completion dates for each section. They finish it, they stamp the date on! So the numbers aren't counting down, they're going out, from here, day by day, as the city got built."

"Wow, good work Donna," Renata had to hand it to the ginger because she was sure neither she nor the Doctor would have solved that.

"Yeah! But you're, you're still not getting it. The first number I saw back there, was 6012-07-17. Well, look at the date today!"

"07-24," the Doctor read. "Seven days."

"What d'you mean, seven days?" Jenny asked.

"It means it's been seven days since war broke out," Renata explained.

"But they said years!"

"No. They said generations," Donna reminded them. "And if they're all like you, and they're products of those machines…"

"They could have 20 generations in a day!" The Doctor ran a hand through his hair the more he thought about it. "Each generation gets killed in the war, passes on the legend! Ohhh! Donna, you're a genius!"

"But all the buildings, the encampments, they're in ruins," Jenny still had some doubts about the story.

"They're empty," Renata pointed out. "They just need to be populated."

"Oh, they've mythologized their entire history!" the Doctor let his hands drop to his sides. "The Source must be part of that too. Come on!"

Now really curious to see what the Source was, they practically bolted from the place. In their run, they crashed into Martha. Renata was overly happy to see the woman alive and well. She didn't even care that Martha's dirt had gotten on her.

"Thank goodness you're alright!"

Martha laughed. "Of course!"

"We gotta go! We haven't got much time," the Doctor ushered the women forwards after hearing Cobb too close.

"We don't even know what we're looking for!" Donna reminded.

Martha wouldn't walk for a few seconds as she sniffed something in the air. "Is it me, or can you smell flowers?"

Renata smelled the same thing and she nodded. "Hm, you're right."

The group walked through the hallway until they came into a greenhouse, or at least that's what it looked like based on all the plants and glass walls.

"Oh, yes! Yes! Isn't this brilliant?" the Doctor was in awe as he crossed through the exotic plants. He came to the middle of the road where a pedestal stood, holding a glass sphere with a shining ball of gas inside.

"Don't tell me this is the Source," Renata circled the pedestal. "This is what everyone's fighting for."

"It's beautiful," Jenny gawked at it.

"What is it?" asked Martha.

"Terraforming! It's a third generation terraforming device," the Doctor answered.

"So why are we suddenly in Kew Gardens?" Donna would've touched one of the plans but she saw its leaves moving on it own. Definitely not risking getting bitten by some alien plant.

"Because that's what it does. All this, only bigger," the Doctor flapped his arms in the air. "Much bigger! It's in a transit state. Producing all this must help keep it stable before they finally…"

The Hath and the humans broke through and appeared on either side of the travelers. As soon as they saw the other faction, they each took aim.

"You better hold your fire!" Renata warned.

"What is this? Some kind of trap?" Cobb threw her a look she returned with a glare.

"Your salvation, actually. Feel free to listen if you want to live."

The Doctor agreed with her but not in the way she spoke. It definitely made the humans more anxious to prove they were right. "You said you wanted this war over."

"I want this war won," Cobb corrected.

"You can't win. No one can. You don't even know why you're here. Your whole history, it's just Chinese whispers," the Doctor mimicked whispers to his ears. "Getting more distorted the more it's passed on. This-" he pointed at the sphere, "-is the Source. This is what you're fighting over. A device to rejuvenate a planet's ecosystem. It's nothing mystical. It's from a laboratory, not some creator. It's a bubble of gases. A cocktail of stuff for accelerated evolution. Methane, hydrogen, ammonia, amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids. It's used to make barren planets habitable."

"Meaning you need to stop killing each other," Renata cut in. "I mean, there's no point when this is your reality. There should be no fighting when you can all live in peace and harmony. You have the means to do so, that's a lot more than many other civilizations have. I say living above these horrible, dark tunnels where there's sun and warmth has to be better, right?" the silence between the factions didn't sit well with her. Instead, it just made her angry none of them could see the best option for them. "You know what? I'm calling the shots this time. In my war, I didn't get to pick what I had to do. So I'm going to make sure this one ends the way mine should have ended." She practically snatched the Source off its pedestal and threw it to the ground. "IT'S OVER!" She didn't realize what she did until she saw the sphere actually shatter and release the gases into the air. Her chest heaved up and down while it settled in her mind how frantic she was. She didn't mean to do that.

But the gases she freed started shining gold and green as a spread around them in the air. It was actually beautiful and once Renata saw it, she began to calm down. This is how her war should have ended. Because if it had ended like that, she would have still been with her family. Maybe, she would have still had her baby.

Lost in her mind, Renata missed the fact that her awed expression was being replicated on Jenny's. But, the Doctor didn't miss it. He saw it clear as day and felt his hearts warm up.

"What's happening?" Jenny asked the Doctor.

"The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process," he said. "And a new world will be born."

Jenny laughed. "My mother helped do that."

Renata heard it and looked over her shoulder. She sensed the pride Jenny had, and the fact it was meant for her made Renata feel...good. It wasn't the same type of 'good' that she would get elsewhere. This one was different and she didn't know if it was because it came from Jenny...a part of herself. Renata wondered if that's the feeling a mother would feel when their child was proud of them. Her hands ghosted over her stomach for a minute. Maybe her baby would've had a moment like that too.

Jenny was enchanted with the sight. And what was even better was that her mother's words had actually helped make the two factions see the light. All guns were down and a new friendship was forming. But then Jenny saw Cobb taking aim again, on Renata, and knew what he was going to do. "No!" her scream echoed as she ran towards her mother. When Cobb fired, she took the bullet instead.

Renata didn't even realize it because when she heard the bullet and turned around, Jenny was already in front of her. The soldiers took Cobb down and put their weapons out of their reach.

"No, wait! Wait!" Renata struggled to hold onto Jenny's body. The Doctor rushed to help her and between the two settled Jenny in Renata's arms.

Martha hurried to check Jenny's pulse and the bullet in her chest. At first glance she could tell this wasn't going to end well.

"Is she gonna be alright?" Donna didn't even want to ask but she had to. Things couldn't end like this.

"Jenny, you gotta be strong now, okay?" Renata scrunched her face several times to avoid the tears pooling in her eyes. "You need to hold on. Please, I…" the words were failing her. She looked at the Doctor for some help, but she wasn't stupid. She knew there wasn't much they could do.

The Doctor knew that too. They needed to wait and see if regeneration would kick in. He scooted closer to Renata so that he could better talk with Jenny. "Jenny, we've got things to do, you and us. We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose."

Jenny gave a brief nod. "That sounds good."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I wasn't good to you," Renata sniffed. "I have a daughter...and I didn't know what to do. Truth is you would be amazing. The best." She looked up at the Doctor with a small smile. "You'd have the best of your father."

The Doctor shared her smile. "And the best of her mother."

Renata felt the flutter of her hearts but all she could focus on was her daughter in her arms. "You would be amazing, Jenny. So you can't leave. You got that?"

Jenny seemed like she wanted to smile back but instead her eyes closed and the faint movement of her body faded.

"No, n-n-n-no!" Renata exclaimed. "Jenny!"

"Regeneration," the Doctor said as a reminder, but he was frantically clinging to hope as much as she was.

"There's no sign, Doctor," Martha gently said. "There is no regeneration. She's like you two, but... maybe not enough."

"But she…" Renata shuddered and held Jenny close to her. "Not again."

The Doctor watched her slowly crumble as Jenny's death really hit her. The despair was raw and, yet, familiar. They both were no strangers to this, but the Doctor felt like he needed to end Renata's pain. He had the means, after all.

He pressed a kiss to the top of Jenny's head, and surprisingly Renata's. The Time Lady was too deep in her anguish to process that. He stood up and walked directly towards Cobb, picking up a gun on the way. To say Martha and Donna were shocked to see him pressing said gun to Cobb's forehead was an understatement. But this was no ordinary death.

It was a daughter's death. That was a whole other type of pain neither women wanted to feel.

"I never would. Have you got that?" the Doctor's words were laced with darkness, but he did pull the gun from Cobb's head. "I never would!" He left the gun to another soldier then turned to face both factions. "When you start this new world. This world of Human and Hath... remember that! Make the foundation of this society. A man who never would!"

~0~

It was no surprise Renata locked herself in her bedroom, without so much of a goodbye for Martha who was leaving the TARDIS again. Even the Doctor was out of himself as he set the TARDIS down for Martha to leave.

"Jenny was the reason for the TARDIS bringing us here," he said quietly. "It just got here too soon, which then created Jenny in the first place. Paradox. An endless paradox."

"I'm sorry," Martha said, but all he did was nod. It was all she was going to get.

"I'll walk you out," Donna said just so Martha wouldn't leave without any sort of goodbye.

"You take care of them, please," Martha told Donna once they were outside on the street. "I know they seem dysfunctional, but... they're good together."

Donna knew that Martha knew a lot more about Renata and the Doctor as a whole, but of course Martha would never tell a stranger. "I can try but...I think it'll take a while for Renata to get over this one. Even the Doctor might take a while."

Martha nodded and stopped walking. She looked back at the TARDIS and sighed. "Be patient with them, please, especially with Renata. I know Renata can seem closed off, rude...but there's more to her than meets the eye. Took me a whole year to be actual friends with her, but I think you can do that in less time."

"Why?" Donna made an actual face that had Martha laugh for a moment.

"Because you're...you, Donna. Maybe you can do what I couldn't get Renata to do."

"Well, what does that mean?"

Martha smiled and put a hand on Donna's arm. "You'll figure it out. Good luck."

Donna didn't know what to say when Martha left. She turned back for the TARDIS, but as she headed for the blue box she felt things wouldn't be normal for a long time.

#10th doctor #doctor who #ocappreciation #ocapp #tenth doctor #dw imagines #10th doctor imagines #doctor who imagines #doctor who fanfics #10th doctor fanfics #martha jones #donna noble #oc: Renata Cartwright #fic: the beginning of everything #noblecrescentedit

[imforeman]

Spyfall Part 2

I reeaalllyyy liked spyfall part 1, I was super excited for this episode. i thought whittaker was the best shes ever bn in the role last ep and was excited abt sacha dawain. i tried REALLY hard to like this ep- but...

I audibly told Chris chibnall to fuck off multiple times.

Just tripe. I tried so hard to like it I did.

Like- the plotting was a mess. Not much happened throughout the whole thing? Then it resolved rlly quickly w/o explaining anything. Like they overexplained little things then at the end they didn’t explain any of the important stuff. Like what was anyone’s motive??? They had no plan. I was none the wiser at the end of Ep 2 than I was at the end of Ep 1. Also why was Barton... like that??? Like... Idk idk idk

Ehm... Chris chibnall hearing ppl say that the companions didn’t ask the doctor enough questions last series, then being like yeh they did but it just happened off screen, then having Grahame tell us how many times he’s asked her abt her past like 3 times at least in the first story. Then she just told them anyway? Where’s the mystery? The intrigue? Milk it. That just felt suuuuper clumsy and overly apologetic for the lack of tardis team friction last series. And I hope that’s not the end of it. There. She told them. Now they can go back to how they were. Talking of backtracking- going from a totally new series with no returning enemies to a second series where it’s all gallifrey and the doc’s childhood and the master..? Like. Strike a balance maybe?

Stop talking to me abt gallifrey. Why is it destroyed again. This has been done before. What’s the point. I don’t care. I don’t want to see omega. Or rassilon. Or the other. Not any of them. I’m just concerned abt going too deep into gallifrey lore. Leave that to the fans. It’s for headcannons. I swear they’re gonna make timelords humans from the future or smthn I’ll FLIP!

Like it also stole sm stuff. The master stabilising an alien race to exist in present day earth? The master sending the TARDIS team on the run? Bn done. It was incredible. You can’t hold a candle to it. Stop tryna rip off better writers. Felt he just tried to recreate the Simm Tennant dynamic then throw in some classic Who references and ignore Gomez’ existence. Just do smthn a bit new plz. Just- the master’s whole plot and characterisation was nothing interesting or that we hadn’t seen before...

Side note- The master is strong enough to bring down gallifrey?????? IM CACKLING AS IFFFFFFFFF. Like even if he could which he COULDNT he’s always hated them. The founding fathers being jerks is news to no one. 

Still don’t understand why Ada and the spy were relevant to the story? I’m not saying they shouldn’t have bn there but they didn’t do much other than tag along and the doctor erased their memories anyway??? i think there was some brief relevance given to ava but it was a stretch. smthn to do with the enemy’s plan, which was... err...

Sooooo convoluted and disjointed, and so much backtracking. 

Also not about the Doctor using the Nazi’s hatred of POC to her own gain in escaping the master. Problematic.

Main positive- the doctor says “you know where” and they meet on the Eiffel Tower. It’s extra af and I love it. Also CONTACT.

#doctor who #negatvity #critisism #spyfall #spyfall part 2 #dr who #chibnall #whittaker