Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who.

A/N: Welcome, one and all, to the first chapter of the fourth story in the 'TARDIS Blue Hearts' series, 'A Second Chance'. Please read and review, and feel free to follow or favourite too! (LOL, rhymes XD).

Hope's plan to make humans able to regenerate was inspired by the stories of one of my favourite authors on , Reality Check; specifically "The Great Alicorn Hunt". Also, the idea of Hope having another, secret name was inspired by LizzeXX; credit where credit is due, ;).

Oh, and this scene contains a bit of graphic injury description, just to warn you all in advance.

Now, without further ado…

A Second Chance

Chapter I

Three days, of pure luxury. That was what Anthony and Hope had been enjoying ever since they had landed at the exclusive villa reserved by Hope's parents as a wedding present; the villa that was surrounded by palm trees and abundant exotic foliage, set at the back of a private cove with headlands that curled like graceful arms around the sea. They didn't just have a pool, they had an entire beach.

Even the most unromantic person in the world would be enamoured with the villa. Aside from gadgetry like adjustable lighting and air-conditioning, it had an electric fireplace with holographic fire, besides which stood a soft couch that was just made for snuggling. It even had a furry blanket! Then there was the cinema room stocked with romantic films, and the Jacuzzi tucked away down in the basement with candles and a wine cooler. Anthony was enraptured, enchanted, entranced…his wife, not so much.

Oh, she loved the villa, and the beach. It was just that her new, to call it what it was, obsession had apparently taken over her mind once more, despite Anthony's constant reminders that she wasn't on a time limit, she had the rest of her life to reshape all humanity and spread hope throughout the universe. Hope simply wouldn't listen; or rather she would, only to return to planning and theorising whenever she thought Anthony wasn't around.

She appeared to have forgotten they were Connected now. With little else to do when Hope was not around, Anthony took to practicing his telepathy. It only took him three days to figure out how to peek into Hope's mind; often she'd be so engrossed in her project she'd forget to raise her shields. After she realised he was there, she'd either push him out or send certain…mental images that would make him blush and stutter for hours. Actually she'd only done that once and he'd never peeked into her mind without permission since.

When Anthony awakened on the morning of their fourth day, he found that Hope was not besides him in bed, but sitting at the small desk in the corner. With a sigh, he got to his feet and pulled on his dressing gown. "Hey" he said quietly, coming up behind her. The only sound for a few moments was the scratching of Hope's pen; then she let it fall onto the paper. "Hi" she replied, voice hoarse from disuse.

As she sipped at a cup of tea, before pulling a face when she realised it had gone cold, Anthony rubbed her sore shoulders. "Hope, please come back to bed. Rest for a while" he implored her. "I'm not tired, Ant. You know I don't need as much sleep as humans. Besides, I've got things to do" she protested. Anthony cupped her face and turned it to look up at him.

"Love, you're on your honeymoon" he reminded her, "the only thing you need to do is relax and enjoy yourself; it's a holiday". Hope didn't reply, merely sat there gazing at her notes scribbled in Gallifreyan. Anthony got to his feet and moved away, only to be pulled back by Hope. She got to her feet and faced him with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry. I know I'm obsessing over this, but…it's like I can't help it. I keep thinking how there are so many people, children, dying all the time…and I hate it".

"I hate it as well, and it's so...awesome that you want to try and stop it, but I just don't think you can. And even if you could, you're not God. You are utterly brilliant, but even you can't stop death" Anthony told Hope as he hugged her. "I'm not trying to…at least not completely. I just want to…to give people a second chance…but I promise, I won't think about it anymore for the rest of our honeymoon".

Her husband smiled and gave her a kiss. "Great – hey, we've not climbed up those steps that lead to the top of the headland. Why don't we go and see what's up there?" he suggested, and Hope nodded in agreement. They got dressed, ate a quick breakfast of cereal and orange juice, and ran hand in hand to the roughly cut stone steps that led up and out of the cove. Then they began to climb.

Hope counted the steps on the way up, out loud. "…98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, and…105!" she announced as she jumped onto the uppermost step. The brisk wind whipped their clothes and hair about as they stood on the headland, admiring the view of the azure ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see. Anthony pointed down to a smaller, seemingly uninhabited island. "We could row over there in the boat that's in the cove, and explore it" he suggested. Hope beamed at him.

"Yes, let's! I can't believe I didn't want to come out here and enjoy all this – what was I thinking?" she laughed. "Of others, like you always do. But for the next two hundred and sixty four hours, the only people we need think of each other. And I am going to make you enjoy yourself whether you want to or not!" Anthony teased her, grabbing her and spinning her around. Hope squealed and giggled happily; they wandered hand in hand along the cliff side, finding a path that led away from a cove and towards a town of some sort that they could see in the distance.

They spent the majority of the walk in companionable silence, but as they neared the town Hope asked, "Hey Ant, how did you know how many hours were in eleven days? You're not good at maths – err, no offence" she added sheepishly. Anthony shrugged and replied, "I don't know, really. It just popped into my head, like I'd worked it out without realising".

Hope smiled. "Perhaps your Time Sense is developing" she suggested. "Or it was just a really lucky guess – besides, I thought having Time Sense meant seeing a load of weird invisible lines everywhere" answered Anthony, and Hope gave him an offended frown before she realised he was just teasing her. They were close to the outskirts of the town now; a stray nose less dog barked loudly at them from a grassy verge.

"If the dogs here have no noses, how do they smell?" asked Anthony.

"Awful"

"So hilarious…seriously, though?"

"It's simple Anthony – they don't. Barcelonan dogs have no sense of smell; they rely on sight and hearing, why do you think their eyes and ears are so big?" Hope pointed out. Now that he thought about it, the dogs did all seem to have unusually big pointed ears and large ears; like a cross between a dog and a lemur. Heh, lemur dogs; they were quite adorable, really.

The town was called Aivah, a modern, touristy sort of town. They strolled hand in hand through the hot dusty streets, flanked on either side by flaky plastered, yellow painted terraced houses. Motorbikes roared through the wide streets, belching smoke that the wind stirred up and swept away. The whole place had a gritty feeling, an air of neglect and desperation. I think I prefer the cove Anthony informed Hope, not wanting to speak aloud in case any locals heard him and felt offended.

Hope tugged him over to an ice cream vendor selling his wares on the pavement. Native Barcelonans had very tanned skin, and often bushy beards; the ice-cream man was no exception. "Fresh, tasty ice-cream here! Buy your ice cream here!" he bellowed out to passers-by. "I'll have chocolate with pistachio nuts, please. Ant, what would you like?" she asked her husband, who gave the menu on the side of the man's cart a look over and answered "Um, strawberry ripple, thank you".

The vendor placed a hearty scoop of chocolate into a crunchy cone, rolled it in pistachio nuts, and handed it to Hope; then he handed Anthony his ice cream, and said "That'll be forty pecas, thanks". Hope handed her ice-cream to Anthony to hold whilst she paid the man. "Thanks for the ice-creams" she added as she handed the money over. "You're welcome; you two on holiday?" he asked, dark eyes twinkling in the light. "Honeymoon, actually" Hope replied with a smile.

They bid the man goodbye and walked off, eating their frozen treats. "This is delicious" Anthony commented, and Hope explained "Barcelonan ice-cream is some of the best in the universe. They have a secret recipe; my dad tried to find it out once, we all ended up in jail for breaking into one of the factories. Not real jail, just ice-cream factory jail" she amended.

"What happened?"

"Oh, nothing really; the factory owner came to press charges, but I was only a child at the time, so he let us go. The workers who had put us in there got in trouble for arresting an innocent little girl" Hope laughed. Anthony chuckled, picturing Hope's child self pouting up at an angry factory owner. "Well, this place still doesn't seem like a holiday destination number one, but being here with you and this ice cream more than makes up for it" he told her, putting his arm around her shoulders.

Hope leaned into his embrace with a smile. She was about to agree with Anthony, when they heard a scream and screech of brakes erupt from the next street over. They ran for the sound, coming to a crowd of people and shouldering their way through. "Excuse me…sorry…sorry!" When they managed to get to the front of the crowd, just barely managing not to smear ice-cream over everyone they passed, they found a horrible scene.

A young boy had been hit by an out-of-control motorbike, and his mother was screaming for someone to help him; but everyone hung back, reluctant to get involved. Hope rolled her eyes in disgust at this apathy and shoved her ice cream into Anthony's free hand. Call an ambulance, and the police she told him. Then Hope walked over to the child's distraught mother and flashed her psychic paper. Seeing that Hope was a paramedic (or so she believed), the woman begged her to save her son.

"I'm off duty right now, but I'll see what I can do. I need you to step aside, please" Hope instructed. Tearfully, the woman moved away from her son's body. Hope scanned him with her sonic screwdriver, but the results were disheartening; the boy was dead. She did her best to keep looking professional and stop tears coming to her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry" she told his mother, "but…I'm afraid there's nothing I can do".

The poor woman let out a wail of despair, and fell to her knees besides her son. "Who was driving the motorbike?" asked Hope, standing up and addressing the crowd. "Some foreigner, he looked drunk" somebody answered, "he got off the bike and ran for it". Hope glared at the speaker. "And you didn't think to stop him? If he's drunk he can't have got very far, go after him!" she ordered.

"No need; we've got him" said another voice, as a woman in police uniform pushed her way towards Hope, followed by Anthony. "Your husband here found me arresting a drunkard and told us a boy had been hit by a motorbike" the policewoman informed Hope, who distractedly showed her the psychic paper. "He's dead" she said mournfully, fighting to keep her breakfast down as she added "His ribs were…were broken and pierced his heart".

There was a muffled sob from behind her. The policewoman and a real paramedic came over to confirm what Hope had said and comfort the child's mother. "We can take it from here, Mrs Williams" the policewoman told Hope. Anthony came up beside her and reached out to tug her away. Wait, I need to… she stepped up to the woman who had lost her son. "I never asked your name" she said quietly.

"I'm Grace Frayne, my son is – was called, Louis" she replied with a sob. "I really am so sorry, Mrs Frayne. I wish I could have saved Louis…but I promise you, his death won't be in vain" she finished, too quietly for anyone but Grace to hear her. Grace gave her a confused look as Anthony came and gently guided Hope away from them all. "I gave our ice-creams to some twins I passed, I hope you don't mind" he explained.

Hope nodded listlessly. She didn't utter a sound until they were well beyond the town boundaries, before breaking down in tears. "That…that poor boy…Anthony, this is exactly the sort of senseless death I want to stop. I know I said I'd relax for the rest of our honeymoon…" she began, only for Anthony to place a finger to her lips. "I understand, more now than I did before. I still don't think it's a good idea to play God…but I want to help you with your plan. I can finally understand why you want this so badly".

Hope gave him a teary eyed smile. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, but it must have been something huge".

"You didn't need to do anything. Come on, let's go home". They turned and continued walking down the dirt path towards the villa.