A/N:
Alright, so fic writing is new to me, and I also haven't written anything in maybe 7 years, so this is sort of an experiment on many levels.
Heads up: This is Glee in the Doctor Who 'verse, and therefore extremely AU. I'm trying not to require prior knowledge of the series, but it'll probably take some work for me to get to that point, sorry.
I own nothing (which is truer than I'd like it to be). Please enjoy.
She couldn't just do nothing.
It would drive her mad.
Sitting on the couch in the living room of her parent's house, the one she grew up in, on the street she'd made friends on, in the town she'd gone to school in.
Her past.
Her present.
She didn't think she could stand it if this was her future, too.
Pale fingers raked through long blonde hair as she let out an aggravated sigh. She had to do something. The Doctor had locked her into his blue box and shoved her into the time stream with nothing but a pre-recorded hologram of his absurdly wide-mouthed face telling her to be safe and live well. Her hands still ached from the fruitless beating she'd given the door in an effort to get back to him. Brittany had been sent home like a child while he tried to save the universe again. Frowning around the nail she was biting, she knew she had to do something. Anything. She had to get back. She had to help him. And the Captain. Captain Puck was still there, too. She remembered him running off to wrangle the rest of the space station's human passengers into fighting the invading Dalek force in the hopes he could buy the Doctor time to cobble together the delta wave thing that would hopefully eliminate the threat.
Brittany stood suddenly, her frustration flaring. She had to help them. She and the Doctor had been traveling together for months, and even with his shameless innuendos Captain Puck had become a friend during the hand full of times their paths had crossed. They were important to her, and now the blonde might never see them again.
"Sweetheart, it was never going to work. The Doctor knew that," Evelyn Pierce said from her perch on the edge of the coffee table in front of her daughter. She'd sat there in an attempt to both comfort her daughter about a man the woman had never quite managed to trust, and convince her this was for the best. She reached out to grasp her daughter's hand, "He just wanted you to be safe. This is what he wanted."
Young eyes, hollowed in grief and worry, narrowed at her. Brittany's mouth twitched as she jerked her hand away from her mother, "No. He'd have wanted me to help. He'd have wanted me to do anything I could."
"You have to move on–"
Brittany cut her off with a harsh snap, "Dad wouldn't give up."
Her mother flinched. Her light brown gaze flicking away, then back, "Well, he's not here, is he? And even if he was he'd say the same."
"No, he wouldn't. I met him. He'd tell me to try anything. If I could save the Doctor, dad would tell me to try anything."
The older woman paused, head tilting in confusion, "…. You couldn't have met him. He died when you were a hardly a month old."
Brittany gave her a wry smile that didn't meet her still pained eyes, "Time travel, mom. I told you. I met him."
"Don't say things like that–"
"The Doctor took me back in time and I met Dad."
Her mother shook her head silently, fighting the knot in her throat that warned of a sob.
"You remember when dad died?" Brittany asked, her voice cracking on the last word. It was hard to talk while memories of a broken man she'd only just met assaulted her mind, but this was important, "Outside that little church? There was someone with him in the street. A girl… A blonde girl, you remember? She held his hand."
The elder Pierce was frozen, staring at her, shock etched in her features. Brittany's face twisted. She needed her mom to understand, "You SAW her. From a distance, mom! You saw her!"
Tears dripped unnoticed from stormy blue eyes, fists clenched at her sides. "Think about it, mom, that was me! You saw me–"
"Stop it–"
"That's how good the Doctor is! You saw–"
"Just stop it!"
Silence rang in their ears. Evelyn twisted away from her child, hiding the tormented grimace on her face, and ran out of the room. A door slammed a moment later, but Brittany hardly heard it over the sobs wracking her body as she hugged her arms to herself, trying to hold her worn emotions from ripping her apart. The man she never knew flashing through her head, mixed with the ones she did that were now fighting for humanity on a space station separated from her by centuries and miles.
She…
She had to do something.
One final choking sob, and she forced the rest away. She had to focus. There had to be a way to help her Doctor– the Doctor. She supposed he was no more hers than anyone else's. The thought made something in her chest tighten, but she shook it off. She had a phone call to make.
Rory Flanagan was an Irish transfer student she'd met walking from her bathroom to her room down the hall while wearing nothing but a towel during her junior year of high school. Apparently her mother had been telling her for months about the boy moving in, but Brittany rarely paid attention to anyone other than the prophet that was Ke$ha during that phase of her life, so turning a corner and slamming full force into a round faced boy in all green spouting gibberish from a nervous grin had been a surprise. The beet red blush that dominated his features in her presence for months after that had seriously clashed with every piece of clothing he owned (all being leprechaun green).
Now, 4 years and a green card debacle later, they were good friends. She had never really gotten the hang of his accent, but a cheery smile still forced him into a blush that seemed to distract him enough to not notice when she stopped bothering to listen.
"Maybe she's right," came Brittany's drained voice, from where she stood next to him as they leaned miserably against his beat up old Taurus on the street outside her house, "Maybe I should give up. Move on."
He frowned, thinking, "Nah way, yeh can' be givin' up now."
She glanced at him, his shaggy mop of brown hair shifting in the breeze, and fought a smile. His eyes darted to her face, then back to front as he continued, "We jus' need summin' strong ta pull tha' hatch open."
"The heart of the TARDIS…" the girl murmurs, under her breath, "It should be able to take me back…"
Rory nodded, "Summin' big, like–"
A roar of an engine interrupted their thoughts, and both heads snapped around towards the source. Turning the corner was a huge tow truck, it's yellow paint scratched and faded with age, but motor shouting its power. The truck slowed as it neared them, wobbling dangerously close to a couple of cars parked on the street. They heard it shift into Park, and the driver's door swung open with the creak of metal hinges in need of some oil. A familiar face popped around the edge of the door as Brittany's mother jumped down to the asphalt, yelling to them, "Right, so you've only got this til 6, so let's get moving."
"Mom, wha–"
"Rodrigo owed me a favor, don't ask, but you were right about your dad, Sweetheart," Evelyn stood on front of her daughter, tilting her head to meet her eyes past the couple inches of height difference, and smiled wistfully, "He was all for mad ideas." She swallowed hard, "This is exactly what he would have, so get on with it before I change my mind."
A relieved grin parted Brittany's lips, and with a quick hug for her mom, the group split up. The blonde darting towards the TARDIS, still sitting in the empty lot by her house where it had landed, and Rory joining her mother in the cab of the yellow beast of a truck to follow his friend.
She hugged her mother, savoring the moment that might end up being her last time to feel these arms surround her.
The tow truck revved as Rory smashed his foot against the gas pedal, the squeal of tires and the scent of burning rubber permeating the air. The truck's chain was hooked to the panel inside the blue police box, straining to peel the metal away from the heart of the vessel. Two Pierces shouted encouragement over the scream the struggling truck.
Faster.
Harder.
Keep pulling.
This had to work. Had to.
With a violent, metallic screech the panel tore open, chain releasing, and truck jolting forward through an unfortunate wooden fence before the Irish boy managed to stop it. He twisted quickly to look behind him, and Brittany's mother did the same, peering towards the open doors of the blue police box. Brittany herself crouched down to the opening, bathed in a vibrant, thrumming light. The Time Vortex.
The light was amazing. Everything was amazing, and she was seeing exactly just how amazing everything was as the swirl of blinding light crept out of the TARDIS' heart and into her eyes. Into her mind.
Her mother caught a glimpse of light shining through her hair as the golden locks were tossed around her shoulders by an unearthly wind before the doors swung shut with a wooden clack, and the telltale groan of the box started up, warning light spinning on its little roof. Evelyn and Rory stared helplessly at it. There was nothing more they could do to help her further, or bring her back.
Seeing him like this was unlike anything she had ever experienced. Brittany could see everything of his past and future. Everything he was. Everything everyone had been. The Doctor looked up at her with a stunned expression from where he had fallen at her unexpected entrance. The TARDIS had listened to her wish to take them to him, and had appeared to find the broad shouldered, masculine blond man tensing against the expected assault from the aliens surrounding him. The blue doors shot open, spilling the light from the heart of the TARDIS into the air, and over the Time Lord who stumbled to the floor in surprise, twisting to see behind him. The Daleks, in their ridiculous metal armor (or was it an alien version of those scooters old people use to get around on Earth? Brittany had always wondered, but either way they looked like plunger-eyed Cyclops made of upside down trash cans with whisks, and she thought them a little silly for archenemies of a Time Lord), hesitated at the interruption. Turning towards her silhouette in the doorway. No one moved for a second, and then the Doctor spoke up from his stunned position on the metal decking.
"Wha–… What have you done?!" He cried at her, trying not to wince against the light flooding from inside the open doors she'd just appeared through, and the sight of her eyes laced with a matching glow. Part of her noticed there were tears on her face that she couldn't place, and it was hard to look at him now, with all of this universe running through her head. There was just so much.
"I looked at the TARDIS," she replied quietly, voice wavering with an echo not wholly her own, "and the TARDIS looked back into me."
"You looked into the Time Vortex?" The Doctor's blue eyes were wild and scared. His wide mouth trembling with the revelation, "No one is meant to see that…!" His eyes were scared for her.
A harshly monotone, digital voice cut in, "THIS IS THE ABOMINATION."
Another, "EXTERMINATE."
A Dalek laser shot towards her, only to be stopped by her bare palm. She looked to the creature it came from, narrowing her gaze dangerously. The Daleks seemed as shocked as the Doctor. His tousled blond hair jumped as he spun to stare at the ineffectual gun, then back to Brittany.
"Brittany!" The Doctor pleaded to her, sweat dripping from his temples as he strained to be heard, "You've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now."
Her glowing eyes shifted from the dismantled sign to his imploring face, the rest of her remaining as still as marble but for the wisps of long hair still curling around her cheeks in an unseen wind.
"You've got the entire Vortex running through your head," the distressed man warned, desperation leaking into his speech, "You're going to burn!"
"I want you safe!" she snapped, her whole body focusing on him. The echo was suddenly gone from her voice, "My Doctor. I must protect you as you have protected me."
"YOU CANNOT HURT ME," grated the master Dalek from the screen where the thing was being transmitted from its ship. Its bulbous, cloudy eye closed into a sort of glare, and it wiggled a useless tentacle at her. She was sure this was another piece of a monologue it had recited to the Doctor before she'd arrived, "I AM A GOD."
"You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space, every atom of your existence," the girl brimming with universe turned her head back to the screen. Her voice resonated that unearthly tone again. Brittany raised her hand to the crowd of Daleks standing before the screen showing their master, "and I don't like them."
Glowing eyes and a light filled palm flashed. Metal forms disintegrated to dust, caught in her wind, and vanished.
"Everything dies," she murmured, watching glittering particles fade. Her breathing was shaky. Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. Her head–
"I WILL NOT DIE."
"The Time War ends," Brittany replied through lips she couldn't stop from trembling.
"I CAN NOT DIE. I CAN NOT–"
The room fell silent as the master Dalek's ship joined the rest in oblivion. A slim figure, arms out stretched, stood alone before a man on his knees. Only the hum of the ship around them left, and piles of wires making up the abandoned Delta Wave remained around them. The girl couldn't move. The weight of the time Vortex felt like it was grinding her very being.
"Brittany," he tried, "Brittany, you've done it. You've saved us, now stop."
She didn't move. Tears trickled down her cheeks again.
"Just let go."
"…How can I let go of this?" she asked. Her lip quivered. "I can heal everyone. No one ever has to die."
Reaching out with her mind and the power coursing through her veins, mind, and soul, she found the mohawked captain they had traveled here with lying in a pool of his own blood. He had fallen after a valiant last stand against the aliens she herself had just vanquished. She felt him gasp, heaving upright, and clutching at his chest where he remembered bullet holes being last time he'd checked. Or been alive.
"But this is wrong, Brittany!" The Doctor's voice brought her back again, "You can't control life and death!"
"But I can."
He stared once more, horror pushing out concern on his face.
"The sun, and moon. Day and night. Life and death. I can control it all," she paused, voice wavering, "but why do they hurt?"
"The power is going to kill you. Please–"
"I can see everything. All that is, and was, and ever could be…."
He stood, finally, searching her face. Looking for something in her eyes, "That's what I see. All the time. Doesn't it drive you insane?"
She looked up at him with a grimace of a smile, "My head. I think I'm dying."
He smiled warmly at her, opening his arms, "Come here. I think you need a doctor."
She stepped into his embrace, sinking into the familiar comfort of his warmth. Sobs choked her as she leaned in. Her skull was on fire. No, even that sounded better than what was happening inside her right now. The Doctor held her close to his worn leather jacket for a moment, then pulled her back. She looked up, blue eyes, meeting blue eyes, and he smiled again before leaning to gently kiss her. She smiled into it, moving her lips against his. She couldn't deny she might have imagined this on occasion, though not quite not like this. The girl could feel herself being ripped apart from the Vortex in her head, but the kiss was still nice.
He pulled back. She blinked at his grinning face. She could see a trail of light flowing from her eyes into his. Then nothing.
Something cold was pressing into her back when she woke up. Something metal, and humming a pulse into her bones. Brittany cracked an eyelid open to find the familiar ceiling of the TARDIS control room. To the right pumped that tube thing that somehow powered the ship, snugly wrapped in panels of the usual haphazard mix of levers, pulleys, springs, and buttons. It felt like home.
"Welcome back," spoke an almost oddly calm Doctor from where he was manning some controls nearby (they looked like a fondue fork jammed in a toaster that was being used as a switch, and two split wires he was tapping together to some rhythm from his head).
"What happened?" she asked, wincing and holding her head while she sat up off the cold metal flooring.
"You don't remember?"
"Mm. Something about plungers and yellow?" she blinked, frowning, "I was at home. No, I was in the TARDIS. There was a light... I can't remember…"
A shaggy head hummed distractedly in understanding, but he was looking at his hand. The tube continued working steadily between them. The head turned back towards her, and he dropped the wires, stepping away from the panel he was at. The Time Lord watched her with an unreadable expression for a long moment before speaking again.
"Brittany Pierce," he smiled wistfully at her, "I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona?" He grinned his wide, toothy grin, "Not the city, though. I mean the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place."
Brittany smiled nervously. He was sounding kind of crazy. Not the good crazy, either. Not the crazy she'd gotten used to, but the dark crazy. She didn't like the shadowy regret in his eyes.
"They've got dog with no noses," he laughed.
"… Why can't we go?"
"Maybe you will. Maybe I will. Maybe we'll go together," his smile was something acidic, eating away at her nerves, "But not like this."
She frowned, concerned, "Is your head okay?"
"My head might never be okay again. Or heads. I might have two! One never knows!" His broad shoulders slumped, the strength they usually gave off sliding away with the curve of his spine, "It's a bit hard to predict, this process." The Doctor deepened his voice, slowing his speech to vaguely resemble Tom Hank's from the movie she'd convinced him to watch last week, "Life's like a box 'a chocolates. Ya never know whatchur gonna get."
She started to smile again, but was cut off by a flash of light and a moan of pain from her friend. He doubled over, clutching his side, but waved her off, with a "Stay back!"
A second or two of quiet allowed him to catch his breath through the grimace twisting his features. "I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one is really meant to do that," he groaned, looking up at her from his braced stance against the TARDIS' dashboard, "Every cell in my body is dying. I'm… Time Lords– me– have this little trick. Sort of a way to cheat death." He tried to send her a reassuring smile through the pain, but failed, "but it means I'm going to change, and… And I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. With this face." He shook his head, "
"Before I go, Brittany, I just want to tell you that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what?" he asked, grinning one last Cheshire cat grin at her, "So was I."
With that, the Doctor exploded.
A bright, sparkling orange light spewed from his limbs as his arms shot wide. It was like his body was straining as spread eagle as it could get, muscles stretching painfully, pulled away from his body with the force of whatever was happening to him. The sleeves of his old jacked rained sparks from the cuffs where his hands should be, but she couldn't see them anymore. She couldn't see any of him through the blaze bursting from his coat's collar and arms. The Doctor's torso shuddered, and she could see the shadows of something in the sparks shifting, then the light dimmed.
Brittany blinked.
This was a magic trick. It had to be. Part of her mind chastised her for the thought. Months of accompanying the Time Lord had taught her better than that. He didn't do magic.
But if this wasn't an illusion, then why was there a small, tan girl looking at her with a bewildered expression from where the Doctor had stood a moment ago, swamped by the huge leather jacket wrapped around her narrow shoulders?
She looked about the same age as Brittany herself, with wide chocolate eyes, and a delicate face framed by gently curling black hair. One of her hands was wrapped around the belt of the Doctor's pants, holding them in place as best she could with a waistband much too large for her tiny frame.
The dark girl frowned to herself, mouth twisting in distaste. "New teeth. That's always weird," she muttered. Her free hand slid over her jaw, feeling her face. "Hmm. All there. Got a mouth. Nose. Ears, okay." She reached up, eyebrows furrowing at the feel of her long hair, "That's… Kind of a lot of hair. I hope I'm not over compensating for something…" She looked down at her chest, eyebrows shooting up in at what she saw there. "I'm… I'm a girl?" she squeaked. Brittany almost laughed, but the other girl continued her exploration, the hand falling from her face to cup one of her breasts through the baggy t-shirt that was hanging off of her under the jacket, "I've never been a girl before."
Her head snapped towards Brittany, who jumped back a step in surprise. Swallowing her gasp, the blonde stood stock-still. Her shocked gaze locked on that of the new figure watching her from next to the TARDIS' controls. The… Doctor…? Dropped her hand quickly at the sight of the blonde, a blush flashing across tan cheeks.
"Oh, uh. Right. Hi. Yes, " the girl fumbled, embarrassed. Her eyes darting around the interior of the TARDIS, "Um… Where were we…" She paused, thinking, then her naturally pouty lips suddenly curled into a faint smirk, and her coffee eyes met Brittany's. "Ah, right. Barcelona."