Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, just my OC Time Lady, the Hatter.
…
The Ninth Doctor
The Doctor really didn't like hospitals, not human ones, anyway. He had a bad experience in one only a few centuries ago and wound up almost dying, his memory temporarily affected after an American surgeon had tried to save his life and very nearly destroyed the regeneration process. He couldn't exactly blame Grace for the mistake, of course, why would a human doctor think for a second that he might have two hearts? Still, ever since that experience he hadn't been overly fond of Earth hospitals, personally he felt that it was the smell. The stench of chemicals and disinfectant that hung heavily in the air burned his sensitive Gallifreyan nose and made him feel like he was going to sneeze, but he pushed on, trying hard to ignore the unpleasant sensation as he prowled the hospital hallways.
It hadn't been his intention to find himself in a hospital, in fact he had been planning a quick trip somewhere else, somewhere far away from the tiny blue and green planet that he always seemed to be saving these days, wanting to see a new horizon and breath different air, to try and distract himself from the memories that always seemed to flood his brain whenever he was on Earth, so he had been rather surprised and disappointed when he had thrown open the TARDIS doors to find himself standing in some sort of supply cupboard, one quick peek outside the cupboards doors enough to tell him that he had landed in an Earth hospital in the year 2008.
Annoyed, he had tried to leave, but his time machine had completely refused, making such a fuss that he had been forced to concede defeat and try and see just why his TARDIS had decided to take him to a place like this, hence why he found himself roaming around the corridors, scanning with his sonic screwdriver as he went, waiting to find any hint or clue of alien activity going on, but so far he hadn't found a thing. The place seemed ordinary, painfully, boringly so.
And then…he turned a corner and the sonic screwdriver's buzzing grew to a point that he was almost certain one of the nurses or doctors were going to come rushing out. He quickly flicked the device off and checked the reading, frowning slightly when they came back normal, completely normal.
"What's going on with you?" he muttered, lightly hitting the device against his hand, "Hey? What is it?" he tried scanning again, but the same thing happened, leaving him only more confused, "What are you trying to tell me?"
He narrowed his eyes and looked up, his eyes falling immediately on the hospital door ahead of him, the same removable nametag on the front of it reading 'Jane Doe'. It seemed like too much of a coincidence that his sonic screwdriver would have such a strange reaction…or none reaction to that one door when he had passed by several others. Still, the fact that the sonic screwdriver and his TARDIS were reacting so strangely did make him pause, eyeing the door carefully. None of it made any sense and when that happened, he made it his mission to make sense of things.
He winced slightly as that thought crossed his mind, it sounded….well, it sounded like something she might have said…in fact, she might have said those very words to him before and he was just repeating them now. But he couldn't think about her, not now, not ever, because she was gone and he still lived and he had made a promise to her, he would never break that promise to her, he couldn't. It was all that he had left of her, that and his love, but he had never been brave enough to tell her the truth and now, he never would.
"Get a grip on yourself," the Doctor growled beneath his breath, roughly pulling at his leather jacket, glaring at the door ahead of him. He was a Time Lord, the very last of his kind and he would not get swept up in all of those thoughts right now, he would leave that up to the humans. With his new resolve firmly in place, he marched forward and grabbed the doorhandle, carefully pushing the door open and peering into the room.
The room was filled with bright morning sunlight, the curtains having been left open on the opposite side of the room, while the hospital bed was against the left wall, facing the right wall across from it. A woman was lying in it, breathing tubes and wires sticking out of her, hooked into machinery that surrounded the bed, the noise of her heart beating sounded throughout the room in short intervals. The woman herself was young, her face pale and her eyes closed, while her long red hair had been pushed off her face and onto the white pillow beneath her head, dressed in a blue hospital gown.
He stepped further into the room, eyeing the young woman curiously, feeling a funny sense of familiarity towards her and yet…he didn't. It was so difficult to try and explain, it was like he should know her, but couldn't possibly all at the same time. He had never seen her before; he knew that for a fact, but still the nagging sensation continued in the back of his mind, vague and a little distorted, but still present.
"Who are you?" he said aloud, moving to stand at the end of the bed, staring at her face, "Why was I brought here? For you?" he frowned, shaking his head slowly, "What makes you so special?"
"Excuse me, sir?" the Doctor gave a small start and turned quickly towards the door, finding a young dark haired nurse standing in the doorway with a small frown on her face, "Who are you?" she questioned, her tone sharp and full of suspicion, "I'm sorry, but you can't be in here…"
The Doctor fixed a friendly smile onto his face and reached into his pocket, whipping out his psychic paper and flashing it at the woman, "I'm Detective Inspector John Smith," he said quickly, lowering the psychic paper as the woman's eyes widened, "I'm…here to conduct an investigation in regards to Miss Doe here".
"Oh, yes, of course," the woman nodded quickly, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks, "I'm so sorry, I hadn't realised any more police would be coming…"
"You were just doing your job," he cut across her, maintaining his friendly, professional persona as he turned his attention back onto the woman in the bed, "What can you tell me about Miss Doe's condition, Miss…?" he glanced back to her.
"Stone," she replied, "Elizabeth," the Doctor nodded to her, keeping his smile in place, though his cheeks were starting to protest from the effort, "Well, Miss Doe is in a coma, sir," she continued, looking sadly back across to the bed, "She was brought in about a month ago now, found by a woman walking her dog on the side of a road, unconscious. We've been caring for her ever since," she frowned slightly, looking back to him, "I'm sorry, but shouldn't you know all of this already?"
"Formalities," he shrugged, eyeing the mysterious woman, "She didn't have any identification? No purse? Personal effects?"
"The police took everything," she told him, giving him a strange look.
"And her condition hasn't improved since she was found?"
"No, not at all".
The Doctor nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on the woman before him. That nagging sensation was growing worse now, though he still couldn't understand why. He would have to find a way to get a look at those personal effects that the real police had taken with them; perhaps they would have something of use in them that he could use to work out why he felt like he should know this woman.
"I'm sorry, sir," Elizabeth began, looking at him curiously, "But has new evidence come to light, or something?" she looked at him hopefully, making him glance back to her, "It's just…she's been here for a month and no one has come forward to claim her. It's as if she just…dropped out of the sky," she smiled sadly.
Perhaps she had, but he was certainly going to find out for certain, "I'm not at liberty to say at this point," he said instead, giving her a polite smile and holding out his hand, "Thank you for your time, Elizabeth Stone, you have been very helpful".
She took his hand and gave it a quick shake, "If you need any more help with your investigation, we would be more than happy to help," she assured him, releasing his hand.
He gave her one last nod and smile, before casting the woman in the bed a quick look as he turned to leave the room. He would figure this out; he never could resist a mystery.
….
Getting into Scotland Yard's evidence room was easy for the Doctor, he just simply had to smile and flash people his psychic paper and he found that he could get himself into almost any building. He had found over the centuries that a smile and an air of confidence could work wonders, hardly anyone ever questioned you…well, usually, he had spent quite a bit of time in jail cells, so it wasn't completely foolproof. The desk sergeant, for one, had been quite suspicious of him at first when he had been showing him into the evidence room, but the Doctor had simply kept on smiling and told him that he was a recent transfer from Manchester, his Northern accent of this regeneration apparently helping to sell the lie, since the sergeant had stopped looking quite so suspicious after that.
The evidence room was rather small, filled with a number of very tall shelves that ran in rows to the very back of the room, while a large table had been positioned in one corner. The Doctor waited by the table, hands in his pockets and leaning back against the table while the sergeant had gone off to find the box belonging to the mysterious Jane Doe, before returning a short time later with a brown, cardboard box held in his hands with meaningless numbers written across the side of it.
"This is all we've got, sir," the sergeant told him, sitting the box down on the table as the Doctor straightened, fixing his attention onto the box.
"Thank you," he nodded absently to him, waiting for the man to turn and disappear back to the front desk before reaching to take the lid off the box, sitting it aside on the table and reaching into the box.
The first thing that he was pulled out was a pair of heavy, black leather combat style boots that had been placed into a clear plastic bag. He lifted the bag closer to his eyes, eyeing the boots critically, but the only thing that he came up with was that they were very clean and they didn't even have any scuff marks, and rather small for a tall woman like Jane Doe, only a UK size four. He moved the bag off to the side of the table, reaching into the box to pullout the next bag, which held what seemed to be a pair of brown, leather trousers. Now these looked a bit more worn, the knees specifically looked quite marked by white dust and scratched, as if someone had fallen or been kneeling on something sharp. The next bag contained a dark, blood red tunic style shirt with long sleeves that billowed out before becoming tight at the cuffs.
"What's that…?" the Doctor frowned curiously, and pulled the bag open to pull the fabric out of the bag. It was very soft, feeling almost like silk but it wasn't, it was a form of cotton, not an Earth cotton, however. He pushed the box out of the way to lay the shirt out on the table, his eyes resting on the fist sized perfect, blackened burnt circle that was on the back of the shirt, directly in the middle of it. It was so perfectly rounded that it couldn't have been anything but done on purpose. He gently ran his fingertips lightly over the burnt fabric, narrowing his eyes. That could have only have been made from an energy weapon, it was simply to perfect, and he knew exactly which one: a Dalek. But…that was impossible, all of the Daleks were gone, they burnt, he made sure of that and no one could have survived something like this, so how could Jane Doe be found wearing a shirt with a burn like that in it and still be alive, be it in a coma? "Who are you?" he muttered, shaking his head.
He reached into the box and pulled out the next plastic evidence bag, and quickly placed it amongst the rest of the bags with only a brief glance. Inside the bag was a corset, dark red, like the tunic with a golden zipper running directly up the front of it instead of complicated lasses or fastenings, and with the same dark burn mark in the back of it, indicating that the laser had gone straight through, though their hadn't been any question about that. There was another bag at the bottom, this time containing something that made the breath rush out of him and his knees suddenly weaken.
A pin, golden with ruby red inlay over the circular, abstract Prydonian symbol.
How many times had he worn that very same symbol in his youth? Every child who belonged to the Pyrdonian Chapter wore it from the moment that they were accepted into the Pyrdonian Academy, usually until they died, but this pin was not just a symbol of what chapter the Time Lord belonged to, no, it was far to elaborate for it to belong to just any old fellow Pyrdonian, this was the pin that only the most senor amongst the High Council had worn. By the end of the Time War, almost everyone had taken to wearing the Pyrdonian colours of orange and red, even those who belonged to the other Chapters had taken to it as a mark of respect for Rassilon after he had taken control of Gallifrey, but this pin…only a Prydonian in the very inner circle of the High Council could have worn this. That narrowed down the list greatly; after all, by the end of the Time War there was only three women who could have worn this pin and one of them…
He closed his eyes tightly, clutching the bag with the pin inside it so tightly that he could feel it pressing painfully into his skin, but he didn't care. His hearts were racing so much that it made him feel faint, memories of the last time he had seen her rushing through his mind.
"…if you stay here, you will die…"
"…perhaps that would be for the best, I am so very tired after this endlessly fighting and constant grief…I can't bare it any longer, my sweet, brave, Doctor. The Universe would be better off without me…"
"Not my Universe, not for a second!"
She had smiled at him then, so gently and sadly that it had broken his already shattering hearts as she reached up to cup his face with both of her hands, her skin warm and soothing against his cheeks, "You are so strong, you can do this, I believe in you…" she had told him, brown eyes staring into his, "But you must promise something…promise me that you won't be alone, that you'll find someone to help you when you escape this because you never have been very good at being alone and I fear that when this is over, you will be even worse…promise me, Doctor. Promise me!"
He had promised her, even though he had never wanted to promise anything less in his life because making that promise had meant that she wouldn't be there, beside him, like it had always been. Leaving her that night to start preparing his plan had felt like the hardest thing he had ever had to do, leaving her when he knew that he would be essentially murdering her had killed him, it had been agonising for him to do it, but he had promised and he didn't have a choice. The Time Lords had to be stopped, they couldn't be allowed to go through with their plan, and so he had been forced to make the hardest choice of his life: save the Universe but at the cost of his people and the woman he loved more than anything else. He went through with the plan, just as he knew that the Hatter would have wanted him to, but it still killed him to have to do it and after a hundred years, he didn't think he would ever recover from it, from her death.
"How is this even possible?" he breathed, looking over the evidence bags that littered the table top and the shirt, which he now remembered vividly as the one that she had worn so often during the Time War, "How could you have…survived?" he shook his head, still feeling quite weak after everything he had discovered, his whole Universe tipping upside down within a matter of seconds.
The Hatter had died, or at least she had been declared as being dead. Mere hours after he had left her room in her childhood home there was an attack very close to it. The floor that the Hatter's room had been on had been badly damaged and there had been evidence to suggest that she had been hit, but there hadn't been any sign of her regeneration signature and the rest of the house had been so badly damaged that it was impossible to completely determine what had happened, the High Council had declared her missing and dead, but by that point, the Time War had reached such a fever pitch that to try and investigate more carefully was impossible and he had been so busy trying to get his plan ready before anyone discovered it. He hadn't even had a chance to try and investigate himself.
And yet, here he was, almost a full one hundred years on and standing before a table full of evidence to suggest that she very well might have survived and escaped. He hadn't allowed himself to feel hopeful about anything in so long, but this…this he hoped with every single fibre of his being was true. There was just too much evidence to suggest anything else, no other Time Lady on the High Council would have worn trousers, nor that style of tunic and the boots, now that he looked at them more closely, did appear to come from Earth. It had to be her; there was no other explanation for it. The Hatter, his brilliant best friend had managed to escape, to live. He couldn't even bring himself to feel upset that she had escaped Gallifrey even after he had begged her to come with him. All that mattered was that she was alive.
There was still one more bag inside the bottom of the box and as the Doctor struggled to get a grip over himself, to try and stop himself from running for the TARDIS and heading to the hospital, he reached into the box and pulled out a small bag that held a silver fob watch inside it, the Gallifreyan writing engraved across the surface. It was a little scratched in places, but he could still make out the name sprawled across it: Dame Hatter of the House of Blyledge.
…
The Doctor returned to the hospital in a complete blur, later he would wonder how he even managed to fly the TARDIS without crashing it badly in the state he had been in, his mind fixed completely on the small fob watch that he clutched in his hand and everything that it meant. The Hatter was alive! He could have cried from pure joy at the discovery, he could have laughed and cheered at the top of his lungs for the whole Universe to hear and it still wouldn't be enough to express how elated he was. The one woman that he had loved for all his life, the one woman who knew him best and his most trusted friend and adviser, was alive. He didn't care that it ought to be impossible, it was the Hatter, he never should have doubted that she couldn't have come up with a way to survive. He didn't know what happened to change her mind and make her want to live, but none of that mattered right now because she was alive and he was never going to let anything happen to her again.
He parked the TARDIS in the corner of Jane Doe's room and threw the doors open, practically flying across to collapse onto his knees by the edge of the bed, his hearts hammering inside his chest as he slowly reached out to touch his finger against her warm cheek. It wasn't the Hatter, but it would be very soon, she just had to open the watch first, and he had a plan for that.
He worked quickly and carefully to begin disconnecting her from the machinery around her, not wishing any of the alarms to start going off. None of it was of vital importance to keeping her alive and the few that were, such as the feeding tube, he affectively removed with a bit of medical equipment from the TARDIS without causing her any internal or external harm, in fact it would be as if it had never been there at all. Once he had her fully disconnected, feeling quite smug with himself that he had managed to do it without setting off anything, he carefully lifted her limp body into his arms, trying hard to support her head on his shoulder with one arm under her knees and back. For such a tall, lanky woman, she proved to be quite light.
The Doctor carried her into the TARDIS, using his foot to close the door behind him as he moved up the ramp to the controls, pausing to gently place her into one of the jump seats, not liking the idea of having her lying on the ground, even if she wasn't exactly aware of what was going on. He smiled faintly as he gently tucked a strand of dark red, wavy hair behind her ear. Another ginger Hatter, she had already been a red head twice, one after the other, in fact. He had been so jealous, though secretly, he had quite liked it.
He quickly began to move around the controls, being far more careful to fly the time machine with more care then he ever usually would take, before bringing the TARDIS to a stop in the Time Vortex. He pulled the hand brake down and moved to lift Jane Doe back into his arms and headed off down the corridor, finding the infirmary on the very first door on the left.
"Thanks, old girl," he muttered absently, knowing that it had been the TARDIS that had moved it, but it wasn't surprising. The TARDIS always did have a certain fondness for Time Lady's, the Hatter always had been able to get away with more than him without the TARDIS getting huffy with her like it would with him.
The Doctor gently placed the woman in his arms down on the bed in the middle of the room, but there was still a small issue. She was still in a coma, one that he had already determined wasn't drug induced, so attempting to wake her with medication or even just waiting for the medication already in her system to wear off wasn't an option.
"Right, then," he said thoughtfully, already suspecting the cause behind the coma. If the Hatter had been injured during the attack to her childhood home and it had been bad enough to need her to regenerate, then by her using the Chameleon Circuit so soon after regenerating, just as her body and mind was getting to grips with the change, then it could have easily have lead to such a side effect as sending her into a coma. She must have truly have been desperate to risk something like that, she would have been well aware of the risks of coma or memory loss.
He reached out and touch his index and middle finger against her temples, letting his eyes slip shut as he concentrated, trying to reach into her mind to find her human consciousness trapped within limbo of her subconscious. He had to be very careful, if he made one wrong move then he could accidently cause her consciousness to be completely trapped within her mind forever, but he knew what he was doing and this was for the Hatter. He sensed it then, the tiny spark of her human self, and gently reached out with his own mind to draw it further out until…
Jane Doe's eyes flew open with a loud gasp and the Doctor jumped back, grimacing slightly as the connection between their minds snapped like an elastic band , reaching up to rub his forehead. He hadn't expected it to work so quickly, but then again, human minds were so very easy to manipulate.
"What…" the woman sat up quickly, looking around with wide, panicked eyes, "Where am I? I don't…" she broke off with a pained groan, grabbing at her head, "My head…it hurts…"
"It's okay," the Doctor tried to reassure her, reaching out to touch her arm, but she flinched back from the contact and her head snapped up, fixing bright green eyes on him.
"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice raising louder and growing more frantic with every second, "Where am I? Tell me, right now!"
He inwardly sighed in exasperation, wondering why it was that humans always seem to be trying to accuse him and blame him for things, though, he supposed that in this case she probably had good reason to be accusing him, "Just calm down," he told her warily, "You're safe, I swear. I'm the Doctor…"
"That's not a name," she cut across him at once, green eyes narrowed suspiciously, "And you expect me to just believe you?"
"Why wouldn't you?" he shot back.
She blinked, looking quite surprised with that response for a moment, "Because….because I don't even know you," she replied haughtily, trying hard to recover.
"I'm the Doctor and I'm trying to help you. There, you know me, now calm down and let me help".
"Help me?" she scoffed, shaking her head at him, "By kidnapping me?"
The Doctor sighed loudly, closing his eyes briefly in annoyance, just wishing he could shove the fob watch into her hand and make her open it, at least then he wouldn't have to try and explain himself, "I didn't kidnap you," he said, though he inwardly did have to admit that he kind of did just do that, "I told you, I'm trying to help you. You…were sick, I made you better".
She gave him a dark look, "I'm a doctor, don't speak to me like I'm an idiot…" she huffed, frowning briefly as she glanced down at herself, finally seeming to be taking in the fact that she was actually wearing a hospital gown. She lightly touched the fabric, looking slightly confused, "But…that's not…I don't understand," she looked back up to him, giving him an accusing look, "Why am I wearing this?"
"You had an accident…"
"No," she said firmly, starting to look a little worried now, "I was…I was…" she stopped suddenly, her eyes widening as she looked away from him, "I don't remember. Why don't I remember?"
He eyed her for a moment as she looked back to him, looking almost close to tears now, something that puzzled him. She went from being angry and suspicious of him, to suddenly confused and almost fearful. Her emotions were all over the place, but then again, humans were always so quick to jump to conclusions.
"That's not important…" he began, wanting to just move on quickly.
She gave him a startled look, "Not important?" she breathed, staring at him as if he had gone mad, "I can't remember how I ended up in this bloody hospital gown or that I apparently had an accident!" she paled suddenly, "Oh…please tell me I didn't sustain brain damage?" she asked shakily, looking quite fearful now, "If I hit my head, that would explain why I can't remember…but is there in permanent damage? Have you done a CT scan? What about consulted with a neurological specialist? If…"
"There's no damage," the Doctor interrupted loudly. She was a doctor, of course she was, why couldn't she have been a florist? Maybe she would be less likely to be throwing question after question at him if she had been a florist. He took a deep breath, reaching into his pocket to pull out the fob watch, "Do you recognise this?"
She gave him a funny look, still seeming to be quite mistrustful, "Is this a test?"
"Yes. Well, do you?"
"Yes, of course. It's mine…" she narrowed her eyes, "Is this some elaborate attempt to rob me or something? If so, go ahead. Take it. The thing doesn't even work".
"I'm not trying to rob you!" he exclaimed, his patents wearing thin right now, and if it wasn't for the fact that this woman would bring the Hatter back to him, he probably would be questioning if it was even worth doing all of this right now. But for the Hatter…he would do anything, including dealing with this rather annoying human who couldn't understand that he wasn't going to hurt her, "Look, just…" he forced himself to take another deep, calming breath, holding the watch out towards her, "Open it".
"And why would I do that…?"
"Because…it will change your life".
The woman eyed him for a moment before bursting out laughing, "Seriously?" she giggled, shaking her head at him, "Opening a broken old watch is going to change my life? What, am I going to find a winning lottery ticket folded up in there?"
"You want to make sense of how you ended up here? Open the watch, it will explain everything".
She continued giggling, though she rolled her eyes as she plucked the watch out of his open palm, "This is the strangest conversation I've ever had," she muttered, looking down at the watch, turning it over in her hand, "You want me to just open the watch? Nothing else?" she looked back up to him.
"Just open it," he nodded, feeling his hearts hammering.
"And if I do open it…you'll let me go?"
He closed his eyes briefly, reminding himself of who he was doing this for, "Yes!"
She broke into a small smile, looking almost smug, as if she had managed to somehow win and looked back to the watch, using her thumbnail to unlatch the watch. Instantly, a burst of bright yellow and gold energy burst out of the watch, making the Doctor stumble backwards from the bed with his hand shielding his eyes as the energy surrounded the woman…when the energy suddenly faded, leaving her gasping for breath.
"I am never doing that again," she said through gaps.
The Doctor lowered his arm, staring at her with wide eyes, instantly feeling that tiny spark of life return to the back of his mind after a century of silence. It was almost overwhelming to feel that sensation of having someone else there, but he relished in the sensation. He wasn't alone anymore, he had the Hatter back.
"Hatter?" he asked softly, taking a step back towards the bed.
Instantly, she looked towards him and broke into a wide smile, full of delight and joy, "Doctor!" she cried, practically leaping off the bed to throw her arms around him, hugging him so tightly that the air was knocked from his lungs, but he could care less as he grinned, his eyes prickling with unshed tears.
The Hatter was back and now, his Universe made a bit more sense again.
…
The Doctor looked up at the sound the Hatter cheerfully humming a song to herself, practically skipping into the console room with her absurdly long purple and black scarf partly dragging along the floor as she went. He was rather surprised to see her, not to mention without Rose in toe behind her.
"Good evening, Doctor," the Time Lady greeted him, skipping around the console to join him as he lent back against one of the console panels, fiddling with a small piece of machinery in his hands.
He eyed her with a soft expression, "You seem very happy," he remarked, raising his eyebrows, "Is that the song from the Lion King that you're humming?"
"Yep," she nodded, flashing him a broad smile that made his hearts instantly skip a beat, "Good song, good movie. You should watch it with me".
"I wouldn't want to intrude on 'girl's night'".
She rolled her eyes good naturally, "Oh, please," she scoffed lightly, "You know you're always welcome to join Rose and I, though, I suppose you would consider it to be to 'domestic,'" she gave him a teasing look and lightly nudged his arm.
He tried to give her a glare, but it failed miserably, "You know I hate musicals".
"You didn't always, Doctor".
"New body, new me".
"Ah, so very true," the Hatter sighed slightly, picking up a lock of her wavy, bright red hair and eyeing it for a moment, before she shrugged and flashed him another wide smile, "Oh, come on! Watch one with me".
"And what about Rose?"
"I sent her to bed, so it's just us," she informed him with another small shrug, "She was so tired after today's adventures in Victorian Cardiff, all her yawning was making me tired," she reached out and touched his arm, making him instantly still at the feeling of her warm hand, "Come on, Doctor, just one musical. After the day we had, almost dying and everything, surely we ought to do something light and fun to cheer ourselves up".
The Doctor looked back up to her face, her bright green eyes dancing as she gave him her little hopeful smile. He could feel his hearts pounding inside his chest, unable to drag his eyes off hers as she continued to look at him. The Hatter, his Hatter, it seemed like a lifetime ago to him now that he had thought that she was gone, but since she had returned to his life, everything seemed just a little bit easier. He still grieved for his people, still blamed himself and was riddled by the guilt of his actions, nothing, not even the Hatter being by his side, could change that, but she did help to soften it, just a little bit. He didn't have to constantly think about it when she was with him, the Hatter was always so bright and happy, something he suspected was likely just an act on her part to try and make him feel better, but it still helped, act or not. For a while, when he was with her, being teased and getting to see her smile and laugh after so long of not seeing it, he could allow himself to put aside all the horror and guilt that he felt ranging inside of him. For a while, with her, he felt like he used to before the Time War happened.
He didn't remember how it happened; he was just so caught up in all the emotions swirling inside him that he didn't even realise that he was leaning in towards her before his lips pressed against hers. She was stunned at first, seemingly frozen in place for half a second before she began kissing him back, her hand moving up to cup his face as he pulled her closer to him, his mind still struggling to comprehend that this was actually happening, he was kissing the Hatter and, better still, she was kissing him back with the same fever as him, when…the piece of machinery he had been working on slipped out of his hand as he moved to circle his arm around her waist, shattering the moment with a loud, metallic clang that echoed throughout the room and made them both jump apart, staring back at each other.
The Hatter's cheeks were bright red and seem to be growing darker the longer he stared at her, both breathing quite deeply, neither one making a single move towards one another. He watched, slightly dazed and a little light headed as she blinked slowly, her hand going up to lightly touch her slightly swollen lips.
"What…" she began, her voice sounding very high before she cleared her throat, struggling to regain her composer, "What was that?"
The Doctor shifted slightly, panic starting to slowly creep in now. What had he done? Sure, he and the Hatter had kissed in the past, she had been the first girl he had ever kissed back when they were still in school, and they did once share a small little peek beneath a piece of mistletoe, back in the days of UNIT, but nothing quite like the kiss they had just shared, nothing quite so…passionate.
"We…kissed…" he said slowly, hesitating.
She gave him a small, slightly bemused smile, "Yeah, I kind of got that part," she said quietly, eyeing him, "But why?" she shook her head, frowning slightly, "We're best friends…we don't just go about, snogging one another…not like that, anyway…" she trailed off, her cheeks darkening even more.
The Doctor gave her a long look, knowing that if there was ever a moment to tell her, it was right now, "Isn't it obvious?" he sighed, deciding that he couldn't go on like this anymore, keeping his feelings for her hidden and bottled up, and if it meant that he lost her…well, he would have to find a way to fix it.
The Hatter gave a small laugh, shaking her head, "No, no it isn't," she told him, looking a little frustrated as she took her hat off, running her hands roughly through her hair, "Nothing about this is obvious, Doctor! You just randomly kissed me and then expect me to know why you did that?"
He couldn't help staring at her in disbelief, this was the smartest woman he had ever known, a woman who could easily outmatch him even on his good day, the brightest girl of their entire year and someone who he had always thought had a natural understanding about other people's hearts, and yet she genuinely didn't understand why he would have kissed her.
"Hatter, I…" he swallowed hard, forcing himself to meet her eyes, "I love you".
She barely reacted, just simply looked at him before she suddenly burst out laughing, making him blink, "Oh, Doctor," she giggled, patting his arm, "You really had me going for a second there. Well done, few people have ever actually managed to almost trick me like that. Very clever".
"I'm not tricking you!" he exclaimed, unable to believe that he actually had to explain himself, "Hatter, I love you!" he grabbed her shoulders, making her look back up to him, still with a small, amused smile on her face. He sighed heavily, closing his eyes as he leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers, "I've always loved you".
The Hatter stiffened in his hold and he slowly pulled back, looking into her face as she stared back at him, her eyes wide with a mixture of doubt and fear, "You're…you're actually being serious right now," she breathed after a moment, seeming quite stunned.
"I wouldn't say it unless I meant it, with all my hearts".
"I believe you," she nodded slowly, not looking away from him, "You've never been the type of person to say something that important without completely meaning it".
"Hatter," he let go of her shoulders and forced himself to take a step back from her, not wishing to make her feel like he was crowding her when she already seemed to be quite overwhelmed, "I don't want to presser you, I'll understand if…"
"Did you know that I used to have a crush on you?"
He closed his mouth quickly, surprised, "You did?" he asked slowly, feeling his hearts start to lighten.
The Time Lady nodded slowly, "It was a silly, school girl crush and I eventually thought I had gotten over it," she explained, "You went on and married, so did I. We both had separate families and then you left Gallifrey. I forgot about it, put it aside as just feelings of a teenage girl, but…if I was honest with myself, the feelings never really went away…" the Doctor inhaled sharply, "While I grew older, so did the feelings, though I refused to ever allow myself to admit them…even to myself, until now…"
The Doctor felt like he could barely breath, looking back at him with centuries of hope and longing, "Hatter, are you saying…"
She smiled at him then and took a step forwards him, reaching up to cup his face with both of her hands, "Doctor…." she whispered, "I love you, too".
He couldn't help laughing, the urge was simply too much as he threw his arms around her as she laughed, lifting her up off the floor in his excitement and delight. Centuries he had dreamed of this moment and not one of those dreams had come close to being like this, but he would take this moment over any of those imagined ones. The Hatter loved him and he loved her, and he was never going to let anyone ever forget that. Not for one single second.
So this story was requested by a Guest review and is about a little glimpse into what might have happened had another version of the Doctor found the Hatter. The next chapter will be set during the Eleventh Doctor's time and then, the final chapter will be with Twelve. I have started working on the next chapter, but I've also been doing some writing for my Sherlock story, so I'm not completely sure when I'll have the next chapter for this story ready.
I really wanted to try and find a way to explain why during the 50th special all of the Time Lords seem to be wearing red and gold, so I came up with the whole thing of it being a sign of respect to Rassilon. It's always annoyed me that all of the Time Lords seemed to be wearing the same colours when we know that the colours were symbolic of their own Chapter, so I just had to find a way to explain it. I hope you liked it, tell me what you thought. Please review :)