by Cour M.
“But it can’t be,” the redhead said, “this is blue. The light of the sonic is blue.”
“Yes, it is blue, now give it back.”
“But it’s supposed to be green, isn’t it?” Rory inquired.
“Precisely,” the redhead said. “It’s green.”
“No, I’ve always had it as blue,” The Doctor remarked.
“Please stop arguing with us,” she demanded, “you’re getting in the way of me figuring something out.”
“You’re figuring something out? Well, excuse me, but I’m usually the one who figures something out.”
“Oh, good god, perhaps he is the Doctor,” Rory determined from the previous statement uttered.
“Yes, he is,” the redhead deduced, inspecting the sonic screwdriver with her eyes as she drew a conclusion. “And the sonic screwdriver does have a green light.”
“It really has a blue one, what?” The Doctor smirked, “missing something, are we? Take a good look at it. Really, I’ll hold my breath for it. Just to let you know, I’m very good at holding my breath for a while, so take all the time you need to notice what tint that is. I’ll give you help, the options are periwinkle, cerulean, and sky blue. Go on.”
“No,” the woman said and then she switched off the screwdriver, making the Doctor amazed at her ability to work it so easily. “Same setup, but different design, yes, it is. And it’s smaller than the one the Doctor had. Or should I say, our Doctor.”
“Your Doctor?”
The redhead tossed the screwdriver back to him, the Doctor caught it with ease and placed it back in his pocket.
“There, you see how I caught that?” The Doctor smirked, “I’ve got good reflexes. Impressed yet?”
“Trying to impress my wife when he’s right in front of me,” Rory noted, nodding, “yup, this is definitely the Doctor.”
“Yes, he is,” The redhead said with calm confidence, staring at the Doctor without fear. Her gaze was so determined, so strong that even the Doctor flinched.
“Does she stare at everyone like this?” The Doctor asked Rory, “as if she will shoot lasers of intimidation out of her eyes.”
“Yes, she has been known to do that.”
The redhead turned to him and gave him a look, and Rory faltered.
“What?” He covered up really quickly, “It makes you only more beautiful.”
“Good save,” She smiled, raising her hand, and she and Rory high-fived each other. Yet in a second’s time, she turned back to the Doctor.
“How old are you?” She asked.
“Unbelievable!” The Doctor exclaimed, “you violate my personal space, search my pockets, and then you ask such an impertinent question.”
“Tell me your age and then I’ll call you Doctor. Fair deal, right?”
The Doctor smiled.
“Good enough for me. I’m around 903 years old.”
Rory and the redhead turned to each other.
“He was over 1000 years old when we last saw him,” Rory explained.
“What?” The Doctor blurted out.
“Yes, you were,” the redhead confirmed, “you were. So tell us this; what number are you?”
The Doctor bit his lip, understanding the question.
“I’m Ten,” he replied simply.
“Ten?”
“Yes, I’m Ten.”
Rory smacked his head with his hand and turned around.
“Unbelievable,” he sighed, “all that work and we still missed the mark.”
“But there’s still hope, spoil sport,” The redhead said, “And you don’t know us at all, therefore, do you?”
“It would help if you told me your name,” Ten said.
“I’m Amelia Williams, but you call me Amy Pond.”
“Why would I call you that?”
“Because you just like to. And it’s what you called me when I was a little girl. And this is my husband, Rory Williams.”
“Nice to meet you,” Rory said.
“Yeah, likewise,” was all that the Doctor could think to reply with, because now he began to understand. “So, you’re from my future, then?”
“Yes.”
“Blimey, I hate when that happens.”
“You’re telling us,” Amy said, “man, we truly did miss the mark here. But I now remember seeing a glimpse of you once when the Atraxi were attacking Earth.”
“You graffitied the Statue of Liberty to get my attention,” The Doctor noted, “My god, you really must’ve had something important to tell me. And by me, I really mean my future self.”
“Yes, we did,” Amy smiled, “we just wished to tell you that we had escaped the time cage.”
“The time cage?”
“Yes, and here’s the thing, you have a tendency to not answer your phone.”
“Truly, all of our money practically,” Rory grunted, “it took years of us working, saving up, just to hire construction workers to paint your name on that.”
“Which reminds me,” Amy said, “a little help with getting rid of the evidence would be nice.”
“And now you want me to fix your vandalism,” Ten walked up to Amy and looked down at her, to which she replied with a smirk. Despite it all, Ten could not help but smirk back and be highly amused by her. “Well, Amy Pond?”
“Yes?”
“You are so lucky that I have always wished to do this. Allonsy!”
“Did you just say allonsy?” Rory inquired.
“Yes, it means—”
“It’s French for let’s go,” Rory answered.
Ten blinked.
“No way!”
“So, it’s nice to know that you always have a catchphrase no matter what number you are. But just to tell you, Geronimo might be up for consideration later.”
“Geronimo,” Ten thought about it and felt how the word sat in his mouth, “No, I do not think that I would ever think of that word to use.”
“You will now,” Rory said under his breath as they all ran around the consul unit. As the Doctor began to press some buttons, he saw Amy looking around the room with surprise mingled with glee. He could not help but look at her and wonder about her as he performed the next task. She took Rory’s hand and they twirled around.
“We are back in the TARDIS!” She cried, “we really are back home.”
“Yes, we are!” Rory laughed and they kissed. Tearing his eyes away, the Doctor pressed some more buttons and pulled some levers. “So, Doctor, what are you going to do about the letters?”
“If you have travelled with me, then you know perfectly well that the TARDIS can rearrange her walls very easily,” he raced around the unit, imputing the right equation, “and right now, she needs to open up every door to the pool—and then transform it into a high power hose. Now, Amy and Rory, I think it’s time that you moved to the left and got behind me.”
“You’re the boss.”
“I like how quickly you both admit that,” Ten laughed, “that bodes well for our future.”
“Oi, he said it, not me,” Amy declared, making Ten’s smile falter as they felt the power in the TARDIS shift as the pool was transported into a high pressure hose and then out of the doors, the water burst forth and sprayed at the Statue of Liberty, wiping the letters of the Doctor clear away.
“Well, that is the end of that,” The Doctor sighed, watching his name disappear.
“You sound sad,” Amy observed.
“Well… I’ll get over it.”
“No, you won’t,” she smiled.
“No, I perhaps won’t.”
The ‘D’ was the last letter to go and then it did in full.
Once it was clean in full, the Doctor readjusted the rooms and then stared out of it, at the Statue once more, then lowered his gaze down to the base of it.
Yes, he had two strangers who claimed to be his future companions behind him, wondering at him, but he figured that they could wait. For a moment, he was stricken with
memories once more and they would not let him go. He stared down at the feet of the statue.
“Martha and I once looked up at it all,” he whispered.
“Did you say something?” Amy asked him, and this pulled him out of his introspection just enough for him to be aware of them. Suddenly, Amy and Rory stood behind him, and they all looked out at New York across the water.
“So,” Ten said, “You once traveled with me.”
“Yes,” Rory confirmed.
“A future version of me.”
“Does that make you sad?” Amy asked, sitting down beside him and dangling her legs over the edge, “Your future.”
“We all have to regenerate sometime.”
Amy looked at him calmly.
“But does it frighten you?”
Ten pinched the inside of his lip with his teeth.
“Oh please,” he put on a brave face, “nothing frightens me.”
“Yes, it does. We have seen things frighten you before.”
Ten looked at Amy and Rory, unnerved and at a loss of what to do.
“Well, I’m fine now.”
“No, you’re not. I know those sad eyes, and you are very much not.”
“Why did you graffiti a statue to get my attention?” Ten asked.
“Why did you collide into the statue?” Rory asked.
“I asked the first question.”
“Yes, you did, but we’ve never seen you do that.”
“It’s simple really. I was flying with the defenses lowered.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I was distracted.”
“Why were you distracted?”
“Why were you trying to get my attention?”
“Because we were in a trap, and we got out of it.”
“What sort of trap?”
Amy looked at Rory and they nodded.
“Doctor, we need you to take us both home. Back into the future. And we need to get a message to the Doctor—to our Doctor.”
Chapter 4
The Fourth Odd Couple
London, England
Earth, 2005
Standing in the door of the TARDIS, the Doctor turned to see Rose’s back as she was heading back into the apartment building that she lived in. After such a time, he understood that the best thing for her to do was to let her spend time with her mother, Jackie… but in truth, it was all a lie he simply told to smooth matters over.
Seeing Rose’s departing form disappear into the establishment, the Doctor closed the door and wondered if he was correct to not give her a proper farewell. Then again, he wasn’t even certain if he would leave her behind fully yet.
Thus he was torn.
Should he return for her in a few hours?
Or should he leave her there completely and never see her again?
These were the choices that he faced as he pulled the lever and flew away, into the future.
He had concealed his inner conflict well, indeed he did. For when they had come back to the present, Rose had not suspected anything on his part—no disquiet, no bitter feelings, or resentment. And yet, there had been all along.
Figuring a quick trip into the slight future would help him stabilize his judgment, he could not help but reflect on the past occurrences.
Rose had begged him to take her back into the past and see her father, and at first he was hesitant, and he was proven right to have been so. Of course Rose could not stand by and watch her father die, and such actions of empathy blinded him at present, but over time, he had some moments to reflect.
He was a fool to have taken her back in time to the precise moment when her father died. Indeed, that was stupid! He should have found a previous time to have taken her to, despite any of her arguments, where she could have met him, but nothing else, more or less. Yet with her going to the exact moment where he died, naturally Rose could not have done anything less than save her father.
But now it came time to analyze everything else. Now it came time to see her for the other side of herself that he did not notice before—or that he had chosen not to see.
She had hurt him… ever so terribly. She had hurt everyone, and caused much despair.
He was drawn to her, of course he was, from the loneliness he felt from losing Gallifrey, and from the gratitude that he felt when she had saved his life. Yet now, it had been quite reversed, for she had been the means through which he had just died. She was excellent. And she was also flawed.
And she had not even been the one who saved him.
He blinked.
He flinched.
And his knees began to crumble under the revelation. When she had changed the future by saving her father, he had accused Rose of being flimsy in her intention—of not joining him as his companion because of himself or because of the desire to see space, but because she could go back in time. And she had not denied it! She had travelled with him, just for the sake of going back in time for her father, regardless of the consequences. She had not fully ever cared much for him, the Doctor, at all, he now began to wonder.
And then what happened? In saving her father, she had undone a point in time, hurting so many people in the process, others had gotten killed—and she had gotten him stranded. Time began to break, to fall apart all around them, and still she felt no remorse for any of it. Yet the worse thing of all, he finally realized. When the creature who had entered because of the crack Rose created had gotten in, and he, the Doctor, sacrificed himself for the sake of everyone there, Rose did nothing.
She stood by and watched him as he got eaten by the creature.
He now had remembered every moment with vivid detail.
All of the people in the church were scattered about.
Jackie Tyler had just finished being cruel to her husband… again.
Mickey Smith was there as a child, and the Doctor could not bear to look at him. For in his face, he saw the man who he and Rose hurt with their selfishness.
In his heart, he asked a question that he would never utter aloud to anyone… did Rose and him make each other better, or did they both make each other worse?
The monster bore down on them all, and the Doctor offered himself to the creature, in hopes of appeasing it. It ate him, but with one last look, he gazed at Rose.
And she did nothing. She stood there, apart from him and he could only guess that she was frozen inside, not knowing what to do, out of devotion to her father.
And then he came back to life—but it was through no sacrifice of Rose Tyler. It had been because of the sacrifice of her father. And if Rose had continued to be able to follow through with her intent, he, the Doctor, would have stayed dead.
Over time, when looking at her in the TARDIS afterwards, where she had temporarily broken the world, he began to see this.
And it began to hurt.
Who was the woman who was traveling in his ship with him? She could be terribly selfish in one minute, and then wonderfully selfless in the next.
But still, it hurt. And for a moment, his vanity was affected. Rose had not tried to save him, and had no intention of doing so in that instance. Between the selfish, and the selfless, both sides were real within her, and he didn’t know, in that moment, which was the stronger one.
She was a hero, yes.
And yet, she could also be an antihero, from another viewpoint. When they had first met, when the mannequins were taking over London, she had saved him, yes—after two times of him saving her first—but then she had abandoned her boyfriend, Mickey, in the process… and he had encouraged this. She was a hero to him, but she was a bit of a villain to Mickey in that moment, and now it was becoming clear to him.
Therefore, when he dropped her off at her home again, he was very happy in flying away, because he needed time to determine if he was right to bring her along… was she a good choice as a companion, or was she a bad one?
Yet one thing was certain… she had a hold on his soul. He felt such affection for
her, as he did with many of his companions before her. They had a bond—a great one. Therefore, was this last adventure a mistake that a good woman made, or the actions of a woman who had much error in her that he failed to see because he had been… lonely.
He needed time. For time healed things, and made things often clearer.
Time was a chief comrade—as it had always been.
Feeling the TARDIS land, he looked at the command unit and realized that he had landed in London in 2013. Eight years away from the time that he had just come from.
It was close enough to Rose for him to still feel connected to her, but far enough away to give him some room to consider matters.
As he did so, he wondered what street would be best to walk down, for now that he thought about it, he realized that he might wish to go elsewhere, for he had seen almost all of London at that point, and then he heard a loud sound.
“What the devil?” He cried, as he turned around, the TARDIS’s doors burst open and a young woman rushed in. She had medium length brown hair, was very short, a beautiful face and figure—almost too beautiful in fact, and the Doctor gasped as she turned to him.
“What?” He gasped, “How did you get in here?!”
“I opened the door,” the woman said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Yes, I can see that!” The Doctor rushed past her and inspected his doors, whispering to the TARDIS all the while. “Dear, how did she do that to you?”
The young woman looked at him with raised eyebrows, but then continued on.
“It was unlocked.”
“And it shouldn’t be,” The Doctor continued, rubbing the doors of the TARDIS, talking to it all the while, “What is wrong with you today? Is something broken on you?”
“Are you talking to your machine?” The woman asked.
“It’s more than a machine, thank you very much,” The Doctor scoffed.
“Well, aren’t you a sassy one?”
The Doctor stood up straight as he looked down at this woman, this tiny woman who he towered over, and she did not look afraid, nor perturbed. She was not even impressed that the TARDIS was bigger on the inside. He loved it when people said that it was bigger on the inside!