Disclaimer: (le sigh) I'm over it.

A Fate Unwritten

The general over-imagined view of a 'High Council Courtroom' usually leads one to envision a massive, high ceiling, round room with an uncountable number of benches circling around one half of it for the many judges to sit on while they looked down upon their poor victim of the day. And generally, these are, quite simply a mistake. Of course, when you say 'Time Lord High Council Courtroom'… well then you're pretty dead-on accurate. Only instead of all the judges and council members attending trial on the day our story takes place, only five were filing the seats, but managing to look just as frightening and condescending if it had been the entire council.

The High Judge took his predictable seat in between them and cleared his throat noisily, a declaration that the trial could begin. The woman sitting to his left folded her hands together and spoke to the defendant in a strangely rumbling voice,

"Ulysseswariseincoburn, you may rise."

The man sitting in the middle of the room gave an audible sigh and stood before them.

"You will state your name, rank and your recent mission, please." It sounded more like an order than a request, which it was.

"Ulysseswariseincoburn. High Security Guard Ulysses. I was sent on a mission to Earth, to protect Professor Chronotis while he did his research on Earth's development during the twentieth century."

Ulysses watched as one of them took notes, smirking. He couldn't help but grin a little himself, seeing as the man was a friend of his and thought that the entire thing was just as unnecessary as he believed it to be.

"And do you know why you are here, Ulysses?"

Ulysses took a deep breath, "Apparently, I have been called to court under accusations that are beyond pathetic and are not worthy of holding a trial for."

The woman gasped and his friend snorted and tried to hide his face behind his hand. The High Judge merely cocked an eyebrow and pursed his lips before speaking.

"I would not speak as such while in a courtroom, Ulysses."

Ulysses looked to the ground and had the grace to look a little ashamed at his outburst.

"I will repeat the question, do you know why you are here?" the Time Lady said stiffly.

A moment passed before Ulysses answered. "Because while I was on Earth, I met a human. A female human. And we… well, I'm sure our feelings mean nothing to you so I'll just state the 'important facts'. We married, under Earth law after six months, Earth months. And when I had to return to Gallifrey to give Professor Chrontis' updated report, your goons scanned my brain and found out about my life on Earth and I was imprisoned and told that I was to be put on trial in three days time… wonderful welcome home gift, if I do say so myself."

The council ignored his last remark and muttered amongst themselves before turning back to him. The High Judge spoke slowly but with strength in his voice that forced Ulysses to slack his shoulders slightly, feeling very small in his presence.

"Ulysses, you are aware that you were married under Earth law, not Gallifreian law?"

"Yes, Sir,"

"And you are at knowledge that it is not in our history to form relationships with other species, especially Humans, am I correct?"

"Yes, Sir," Ulysses bit the inside of his cheek, they were going to bleed him dry before this was over.

"Do you know why it is unadvisable?"

A twitch started pull in his neck. "Because we're a race that is afraid of change or anything even remotely different from ourselves!"

Three of them glared at him, even his friend had his jaw hanging in shock at his response. The High Judge was the only one who was unfazed. "There, Ulysses, is where you are quite mistaken. Am I right to believe that you failed your intergalactic cultures course during your time at the Academy?"

Ulysses glared, "Yes,"

"In fact, you failed eighty per cent of your subjects, yes?"

"Correct,"

"Therefore, you are not a Time Lord, true?"

"Yes," he replied bitterly, hating it whenever he was reminded that he was only Gallifreian, and hadn't ever made it to Time Lord status.

"Well if you had my boy, you may have remembered how limited a human life can be, tell us how young is your wife, by human years?"

"Twenty-three,"

"And you were sent there with a fake Earth identification that said that you were twenty-seven. Do you know how long a human lifespan is, Ulysses? Do you know how many years your wife has left?"

He didn't reply, he was starting to get nervous, he hadn't thought of it…

"No answer? Well I'll tell you, sixty-seven. Sixty-seven fleeting, barley worth noticing years,"

Ulysses gasped. While the jury continued.

"You are young, Ulysses, only just reached your two hundred and fourteenth birthday and now you've thrown yourself into the path of love. Which would usually be a problem, only you've decided to do so with a human girl, who will age and die, while you remain young for at least another hundred years! How are to explain that to your wife?"

Ulysses sat down, his knees unable to carry him any longer. What had he done?

"And you did not even tell her where you came from."

He sat up a little straighter at this, "I told her that I was alien!" he said defensively.

The Judge gave him a bored, unconvinced face. "Yes, we are aware that you led her to believe that you were from Wales."

Ulysses squirmed guiltily in his chair.

"And now your wife is pregnant, how will she understand that her pregnancy will have to last up to thirteen months? What will she say when the child remains a newborn for seven months and doesn't grow teeth until it reaches the age of three!"

Beads of sweat were forming on Ulysses' brow; he wiped them away with a shaking hand. Taking a few shaky breaths, he looked up, beseechingly at them. "What do I do? I know you have something planned?"

The Jury looked at each other and nodded. "We ask that once the child is born and stable, he be brought back to Gallifrey."

"He?!" Ulysses looked up, excited all of a sudden. "You've looked ahead and seen that I've had a boy!" his grin dropped just as quickly as it had come. "Why do you want me to bring him back here? I was under the impression that my new family was not welcome here."

"Think what you want, Ulysses, but the child remains part Time Lord. And though you may think that we shun other species, you could not be more mistaken. If you send the child back to Gallifrey, he will be looked after and will even be admitted into the Academy once he has reached the right age, although what kind of results we are to expect of him are unknown, seeing as he will be part human."

"And my wife and I? What are we to do?" Ulysses spat, he didn't like how this was going, not at all.

"You will return to your wife and continue to live with her. You will tell her that her milk is contaminated and that it would harm the child, so you must tell her that he is being sent to your family to be looked after…"

"But I have no family, except my cousin and his evil little—"

"It is what you will tell her. So that if anything ill were to happen, she would not be able to find him."

"But what does that—" Ulysses asked, confused. Just then, a light switched on in his mind. "What do you mean ill? Why would she be looking for him without asking me to see him? What are you going to do?!" He stood up quickly, shaking with anger. "If you lay a hand on my wife! I'll—"

The High Judge penetrated his mind, telling him to be silent. The council took his brief moment of pained silence to exchange another glance at each other as though their plans had gone wrong in some way. "We are not going to do anything other than help educate your child and attempt to bring him up so that he is not left alone in the human world without anyone to care for him."

"We'll care for him! My wife and I!"

"No you will not. You are not to tell your wife about Gallifrey, you are not to tell your wife about the Time Lords. The child will be left without a soul if you do not allow us to take him."

"Why?!" Ulysses asked, desperately. "Why can't I be his father and care for him? When have a lost that right?"

Then in struck him, they were helping him. He could read faces clearly for the first time in ages, they were solemn. A small, quite laugh of irony escaped his lips.

"I'm going to die soon, aren't I?" he whispered.

There was a silence that followed, the kind that would make anyone, at any age want to run and hide. It was the silence of mourning and it was unbearable to Ulysses, knowing that they were mourning his death before it had even happened. It all fit cleanly into place, damn Time Lords, he thought, they always knew how to sort things out… which was probably why he'd never passed a single exam. He would die, and his beautiful wife would be left with an unearthly child, that would not age normally. And once she was dead, the child would still be young and unable to understand why he was as youthful as he was twenty years prior, and truly, truly alone. And the Time Lords were trying to help him, for once.

They would take the child and train him, give him the life someone from Gallifrey should have, the chance to become a Timelord and be given as many regenerations as the council saw fit… Ulysses shook his head; it was wonderful and horrible all at once. But he knew what the right choice was.

"How long can we keep him?" he asked, not looking at them. There was a shuffling noise followed by another throat being cleared.

"For a year," came the answer.

Ulysses nodded. "And my wife will she…?"

"No, she will not have contact with him. But if you wish, he will know about her. Simple things, such as name possibly an image of her face, but not much."

"Yes, I want him to know…and who will care for him?"

"Well, he will be given up in the care of the Academy, but chancellor Berousa has agreed to mentor him, as has your cousin."

Ulysses nodded again, feeling numb as he did so. "May I…?" he gestured towards the door behind him. The jury nodded at each other, "Yes, you may leave. But be on your guard, Ulysseswariseincoburn, we are about to announce that Humans are not allowed to be brought to Gallifrey, we will cover up the reason, under your current circumstances but be sure not to attempt to bring her to Gallifrey. In fact, your next time may be your last time, Ulysses. Good Luck."

Ulysses bowed and turned to leave.

---------

"So what do you think if it's a boy?" Ulysses stroked his wife's hair as she rested her head on his chest.

"How about William? Or Patrick, I've always loved the name Patrick." She said, running her fingers softly along the top of his free hand. He mumbled, "Sounds a bit old to me to be honest."

"Paul?"

"Wouldn't work with our last name, but not bad. What do you think of Sylvester?"

She snorted, "And you thought Patrick sounded old?"

"Good point."

"Colin?"

"That's your brother's name and he's an idiot…not to mention the fact that you got all the beauty in the family."

"Hey!" she smacked his hand playfully but kissed his chin, the complement not lost on her. "So we want something young?" she asked.

"Just something that doesn't sound really old, like John."

"But I like the name John!"

"It's really common, love. Right up there with names like Tom or Christopher!"

"Fine, fine, I get your point; please don't tell me you hate the name Peter, or David at that. Because I'll be forced to stop speaking to you if you do." She finished dramatically.

He laughed happily into her hair, breathing in its scent like it was all that was left. "If you like them that much, then I love 'em. David actually sounds quite catchy..."

"Really? You like it? We can name him that? If it is a him?" she asked happily.

"We'll talk it over…there's still so much time left!" he laughed again, this time taking her wrist and kissing it softly. She looked up at him, a tender smile in place. "Is something wrong, love?"

He smiled back at her and shook his head, " No, and it never will be. Cause I've got you."

She rolled her eyes, but her grin spread. "I love you." He pulled her closer to him and held her chin in his fingers before kissing her.

"Not a tenth of how much I love you, Verity."

A/N: could you guess who Ulysses was? Couldjua? Couldja?! D I'm very happy with how this turned out. My respects to Verity Lambert who died last year, the great woman who brought us Doctor Who in the very beginning. Ulysses was rumoured to be the name of the Doctor's father and his whole extended name 'Ulysseswariseincoburn' if cut up is, 'Ulysses' 'Waris' 'ein' 'coburn'. Waris Hussain was the writer if the first DW episode ever (doctor who was written by an arab, lol, cool) and Antony Coburn was the first director. Just a little trivia for ya there! Let me know if you liked it! Please, not many people reviewed my last fic (emo writer face, hehe). Just wanna hear your thoughts! Bye! And thanks!