Author's notes: This story had several additional scenes, which were never filmed due to various measures of money and time. I can include some of them here.

Disclaimer: I did not own Doctor Who. I will not own Doctor Who. I do not own Doctor Who. Tenses are difficult, aren't they?

The Doctor's Wife

Chapter 1: The Box Of Hope

Ever since she was young, Idris had dreamed of travelling the stars. There was so much fun and adventure she felt she was missing out on. Then one day, a mysterious man had offered her the opportunity to come with him on his adventures in his amazing spaceship that was bigger on the inside.

Together, they'd travelled back and forth through space and time, seeking out the greatest centres of fun the universe had to offer.

But all too soon it had come to an end. They had become caught in a rifty thing which had shaken their machine badly. She'd been flung to the ground and fallen unconscious.

She was woken by a couple who called themselves Auntie and Uncle, in the midst of a desolate wreck site. They'd consoled her and told her that her friend and her ship hadn't made it. They said that they were all stranded there together, but that there was food enough to sustain them for some time.

After a few months together, Uncle had come up to her and told her that they'd found a way of summoning help, but it required someone to sacrifice themselves. Unfortunately, that had to be her.

"Must it be me?" She said as she was led to a podium.

"Yes, it's going to be you. I only wish I could go in your place, Idris. Nah, I don't, because it's really going to hurt." Said Uncle.

She heard some footsteps behind her and felt Nephew's cold hands on the sides of her head. "It's started. What will happen?"

"Oh. Er, Nephew will drain your mind and your soul from your body and leave your body empty." Said Auntie.

Idris could already feel a numbness spreading through her mind. "I'm sacred!"

"I expect so, dear. But soon you'll have a new soul. There'll be a Time Lord coming." Auntie smiled.

In a jungle on a much brighter world, the Doctor, Amy and Rory were hiding under a bush, listening carefully as the sounds of the tribe that were hunting them echoed all around.

They'd had the misfortune to land in a research station, which was under siege by the natives. The Doctor had persuaded the researchers to leave the natives alone and evacuated them. Only when they were watching them go did he realise that he hadn't planned out how the three of them were going to get away. As usual, this had resulted in a lot of running.

"How come we never land anywhere peaceful?" Said Rory. "You always land us in the middle of a war. It's like following Mels around."

"I don't plan it that way, it just sort of happens." Said the Doctor.

"You said you were taking us to the beaches of somewhere or other." Said Rory. "How did we end up here again?"

"The TARDIS is old, she malfunctions sometimes." The Doctor said sheepishly. "I'm going to see if the coast is clear.

As he went up to go, Rory took a look at his wife, who was staring into space. "You're thinking about it again?"

Amy sighed. "We saw him die."

"Yeah, in 200 years."

"It's still going to happen."

Rory nodded. Whilst he tried to put the situation in the back of his mind, neither of them were sure what to do. They'd seen the future Doctor die, and everything they looked at told them there was nothing they could do to stop it, but Amy was still furiously seeking one out. Both of them knew that telling the Doctor would do no good, more likely result in some speech about fatey waitey stuff.

Before they could say anything more, the Doctor returned. "I think I've found a way back to the TARDIS. Come along Ponds."

The three of them hurried through the orange trees once more. They'd barely got 30 feet before a dozen natives sprang up from the bushes all around them, pointing spears at them.

"They will make an excellent sacrifice to the rain gods." Said the chief.

The natives grabbed them and dragged them away, as the TARDIS team struggled in vain.

Suddenly, one of them pointed at the sky. "Look!"

From the treetops, emerged a glowing white box hovering and spinning though the air, until it came to a halt, bobbing about before the Doctor's awestruck face, glowing even more brightly.

"The gods are angry!" Cried a native, and started running. The panic spread through the others like a set of dominoes. Before long, they'd all scattered into the trees.

"I'll see if I can thank your gods later." Said Amy, then looked at the Doctor, who was turning the cube over in his hands, like a child with a new toy. "What is it Doctor?"

"Oh you little beauty. He grinned. "I've got mail!"

Back at the TARDIS, the Doctor was explaining further, as he fiddled with the controls. "Time Lord emergency messaging system. In an emergency, we'd wrap up thoughts in psychic containers and send them through time and space. Anyway, there's a living Time Lord still out there, and it's one of the good ones." He pointed to an Ourobouros, sketched on the side of the cube. "The mark of the Corsair. Fantastic bloke. He had that snake as a tattoo in every regeneration. Didn't feel like himself unless he had the tattoo. Or herself, a couple of times. Ooo, she was a bad girl." He gunned the temporal accelerator and the TARDIS set off with a loud bang.

"Oh, what is happening?" Cried Rory, as he clung to a rail against the sudden burst of speed.

"We're leaving the universe!" The Doctor laughed.

"How can you leave the universe?" Shouted Amy.

"With enormous difficulty! Right now I'm burning up TARDIS rooms to give us some welly. Goodbye, swimming pool. Goodbye, scullery. Sayonara, squash court seven."

Beneath them, the floor shook rolled and spun briefly. On the console, little circuits fizzled out and they heard the cloister bell tolling in the depths. But then, as suddenly as the chaos had started, it all stopped.

"Okay, where are we?" Said Amy.

"Outside the universe, where we've never, ever been." The Doctor replied in a hushed voice.

As he was saying this, all the lights went out in the TARDIS.

"Is that meant to be happening?" Said Rory.

The Doctor hurried forward and hammered on the controls. "The power, it's draining. Everything's draining. But it can't. That's, that's impossible."

"What's that?"

"It's as if the Matrix, the soul of the Tardis, has just vanished. Where would it go?"

Nephew released Idris and she collapsed to the ground, only to rise up again glowing gold, and gasping in a weird wheezing groaning noise. Auntie and Uncle looked on in concern.

The Doctor had looked around the TARDIS for a problem but found none. Eventually, he decided to sort that out later. The matrix shouldn't be too difficult to locate, and could be sorted out once they'd found the Corsair.

"So what kind of trouble's your friend in?" Said Amy.

"He was in a bind. A bit of a pickle. Sort of distressed." The Doctor said.

"Ah, you can't just say you don't know." Said Amy.

"But what is this place?" Said Rory. "A sort of scrap yard at the end of the universe?"

Scrap yard was a bit of a generous term. A scrap yard at least has a handful of cranes shifting everything into neat piles. This land just had heaps of assorted junk as far as the eye can see. All of it in various states of disintegration.

Its image wasn't helped by the muted green glow that permeated everything. There were no stars in the sky so none of them were yet sure how they could see at all.

"Not the end of the universe." Said the Doctor. "Outside of it."

"How can we be outside the universe?" Said Rory. "The universe is everything."

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Imagine a great big soap bubble with one of those tiny little bubbles on the outside."

"Okay."

"Well, it's nothing like that." He tapped the TARDIS. "Completely drained. Look at her."

"Wait. So we're in a tiny bubble universe, sticking to the side of the bigger bubble universe?"

"Yeah. No. But if it helps, yes. This place is full of rift energy. She'll probably refuel just by being here. Now, this place. What do we think, eh?" He jumped a couple of times and sniffed around. "Gravity's almost Earth normal, air's breathable, but it smells like..."

"Armpits." Muttered Amy.

"Armpits." He nodded.

Rory was prodding a washing machine amongst the junk. "What's all this stuff? Where's it come from?"

"Well, there's a rift. Now and then stuff gets sucked through it. Not a bubble, a plughole. The universe has a plughole and we've just fallen down it." He grinned at finding an analogy that was slightly more relevant.

"Thief!" A new voice shouted. They turned to see a bushy haired woman running towards them, shouting. "Thief! You're my thief!"

Behind her, two more people were running, dressed respectively in a battered Edwardian dress and a slightly more battered Foreign Legion uniform.

"She's dangerous! Guard yourselves!" Auntie warned them.

The younger woman hurried up to the Doctor and stood there staring at him, whilst twitching all over. "Look at you. Goodbye. No, not goodbye, what's the other one?" She abruptly grabbed him and kissed him hard, until the others pulled her off.

"Watch out. Careful. Keep back from her. Welcome, strangers. Lovely. Sorry about the mad person." The man held out a hand.

But the Doctor was more concerned with the strange woman. "Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?"

The woman tilted her head. "Me. You're going to steal me. No, you have stolen me. You are stealing me. Oh tenses are difficult, aren't they?"

"Oh. Oh, we are sorry, my dove. She's off her head. They call me Auntie."

"And I'm Uncle. I'm everybody's Uncle. This is Idris. Just keep back from this one. She bites!"

"Do I?" Said the woman. "Excellent!" Without warning, she jumped forward and lightly bit the Doctor's shoulder. Amy and Rory pulled the two of them apart and stood protectively between her and the Doctor.

But Idris didn't seem phased at all. "Biting's excellent. It's like kissing, except there's a winner."

"So sorry, she's doolally." Said Uncle.

"No, I'm not doolally. I'm, I'm..." She softly waved her arms up and down like she was trying to grasp at something. "It's on the tip of my tongue... I've just had a new idea about kissing! Come here, you."

But Auntie grabbed her. "No, Idris, no!"

Idris softened slightly, as she peered at the Doctor. "Oh but you're angry. The boxes will make you angry."

The Doctor was confused. "The what? What boxes?"

But she got distracted. "Oh, ho, no. Your chin is hilarious!" Idris now turned her attention to Rory. "It means the smell of dust after rain." She said, as though answering a question.

"What does?" Said Rory.

"Petrichor."

"I didn't ask."

"No, but you will."

"No, no, Idris. I think you should have a rest." Said Auntie.

"Rest. Yes, yes. Good idea. I'll just see if there's an off switch." She collapsed against a washing machine.

"Is that it? She's dead now, so sad." Said Uncle with obviously false sincerity.

Rory bent down to check. "She's still breathing."

Uncle made an effort to keep his face blank. "Nephew, put Idris somewhere where she can't bite anyone, would you?"

Amy and Rory looked up at Nephew, and saw a horrible bald-headed creature, with slits for ears and an unsightly mass of tentacles where they'd have thought its mouth would be. They jumped back in alarm but the Doctor bounded forward.

"Oh, no, it's all right. It's an Ood. Oods are good. Love an Ood. Hello, Ood. Can't you talk?" He looked down at the sphere it carried. "Oh, I see. It's damaged. May I? It might just be on the wrong frequency."

He adjusted the frequency with his sonic. Abruptly, the sphere began to emit the Corsair's distress signal. But there were others underneath...

"If you are receiving this message, please help me. Send a signal to the High Council of the Time Lords on Gallifrey. Tell them that I am still alive. I don't know where I am. I'm on some rock-like planet..."

"Is there anyone who can hear me? My craft is damaged. I need urgent assistance, repeat..."

"We have been caught in a temporal rift. Unable to escape. We're being dragged downwards..."

"Please help us. Quickly..."

There were many more voices, but they were coming too fast to discern.

"What was that? Was that him?" Said Rory.

The Doctor had gone silent. "No, no. It's picking up something else. But that's, that's not possible. That's, that's. Who else is here? Tell me. Show me. Show me!"

"Only the three… four of us." Said Auntie. "Oh, and there's house of course."

"The house?" Said the Doctor. "What house?"

"House is all around you, my sweets. You are standing on him. This is the House. This world. Would you like to meet him?"

"Meet him?" Said Rory.

"Yes. Let's go and meet house." Said the Doctor.

"What's wrong?" Said Rory. "What were those voices?"

"Time Lords. It's not just the Corsair. Somewhere close by there are lots and lots of Time Lords."

By the time Nephew had placed her in the cage, she was already reviving, flexing her muscles like a newborn child. "I'm, I'm... Big word, sad word. Why is that word so sad? No. Will be sad. Will be sad."

Auntie and Uncle led the TARDIS team through some of the windy pathways in the junk. They lent a helping hand on some of the more difficult sections, but it quickly became apparent that they were also patting them down and looking over them in a slightly cannibalistic way. They made a note to keep one eye on them whenever possible.

Eventually, they were led into a large shack, which looked like it would have been a spaceship once.

"Come. Come, come. You can see the House and he can look at you, and he." Uncle showed him to a grate in the floor, beneath which, a green glow was emanating.

"I see, this asteroid is sentient." Said the Doctor.

"We walk on his back, breathe his air, eat his food…"

"Smell his armpits." Amy muttered.

Suddenly, Auntie and Uncle went rigid, as a new voice spoke through them. It sounded deep, but gentle and eloquent. "And do my will. You are most welcome, travellers."

"Doctor, is that the asteroid talking?" Said Amy.

The Doctor nodded. "Yes. So you're like a sea urchin. Hard outer surface, that's the planet we're walking on. Big, squashy, oogly thing inside, that's you."

"That is correct, Time Lord." Said House.

"So you've met Time Lords before?"

"Many travellers have come through the rift, like Auntie and Uncle and Nephew. I repair them when they break."

"So there are Time Lords here, then?"

"Not any more, but there have been many TARDISes on my back in days gone by."

The Doctor bit his lip, trying to equate what they were saying to the number of distress signals he'd clearly heard. "Well, there won't be any more after us. Last Time Lord. Last TARDIS."

"A pity. Your people were so kind. Be here in safety, Doctor. Rest, feed, if you will."

"We're not actually going to stay here Doctor?" Rory hissed, as Auntie and Uncle returned to normal.

"Well, it seems like a friendly planet. Literally. Mind if we poke around a bit?"

"Go where you want." Said Auntie. She looked at Amy. "Look, House loves you."

"Come on then, gang. We're just going to, er, see the sights."

Her body was caught in this bipedal form, anchored to the surface of this rock, only able to move forward at one second per second, and along the ground at 12 miles an hour, relative to the surface. Despite these limitations, her mind was still everywhere, everywhen and in every language.

"Are there a see zero that ito emo we. Ah! What was that? Do fish have fingers? Like a nine year old trying to rebuild a motorbike. What am I saying? Why am I saying that? Thief? Where's my thief? Thief!"

The Doctor heard her shouting, but thought little of it.

"We're not really going to be staying here for too long, are we?" Said Amy. "This place gives me the creeps."

"There may be timelords here." Said the Doctor. "I have to see if I can find them."

"Doctor. You told me about your people and you told me what you did." Said Amy.

The Doctor, at this point, became very interested in an 88th century escape pod that was lying nearby. "Maybe I can save them."

Suddenly, it dawned on Amy. "You want to be forgiven, don't you?"

"Don't we all?"

Amy sighed. "What can we do?"

"I left my sonic screwdriver in my jacket. Go back and fetch it, would you."

"But you're wearing your jacket."

"I meant my other jacket."

"How many do you have?" Said Rory.

"Okay, I'll get it. But Doctor, listen to me. Don't get emotional because that's when you make mistakes." Said Amy. She turned to go. "Rory, look after him."

The Doctor went in the other direction. "Rory, look after Amy."

Rory looked between the two of them and made a decision.

Amy was not pleased when he caught up with her near the TARDIS door. "I thought I told you to look after him."

"He'll be fine." Said Rory. "He's a timelord."

"It's just what they're called. It doesn't mean he knows what he's doing." Amy said, as she pushed the door open.

The two of them stepped in and closed the doors. They were too late to see the cloud of sickly green gas rising from the ground and circling the base of the TARDIS.

Uncle watched them from a distance. "Shame. I quite liked them."