Saving Ace

Author Note

Consider this story to be AU, because I am writing this featuring the 12th Doctor when we don't know much about him yet, so I am using my imagination with the character. Also I am taking the story from the point of view that Ace left with the Seventh Doctor in the Tardis at the end of Survival, meaning that she went on to remain as his companion for a while longer. I'm guessing around three more years, at least for the benefit of this fic. So my plot for Ace begins at the end of the final TV episode where she leaves in the Tardis with the Seventh Doctor.

I just wanted to point that out, and to say, I hope this fic is enjoyed by all who read it ~ Aline Riva

Summary

When the Twelfth Doctor hears an old friend call his name, her voice echoes through space and time. But she didn't call him Doctor - she called him Professor. And the Doctor recalls a set of events that caused his Seventh incarnation to part company with a young woman named Ace, never to see her again. And he knows in a single beat of his twin hearts that his name had been called seconds before her death.

Deciding to go back and try to make amends for mistakes made in another life is a difficult choice, but as memories flood his mind and hearts, he makes the decision to travel back to Perivale, 1993, where he recalls his Seventh incarnation had left Ace for a brief time to visit her home town inbetween travels – and decides to set about persuading Ace that it would be in her best future interest to make certain changes, in the hope that an altered course may change a chain of events that will lead to her death ten years later.

But the task is not as easy as he first assumes, because as he gets to know her, old memories remind him that his Seventh incarnation was very guarded, especially when it came to affairs of the heart, and had always struggled to hide the depth of his feelings from Ace. Matters are further complicated when Ace begins to feel a strong attraction to the older, charismatic man who the Doctor has become in his new regeneration. Suddenly attractions are impossible to fight and the Twelfth Doctor wonders if he has made matters worse by visiting Ace. When he returns to the Tardis, he knows for sure he has meddled in a subject that he really ought to have left alone, because it seems the same out come still happens - the only difference being Ace and the Seventh Doctor part company much sooner than planned, and not on good terms…

Unwilling to give up, the Twelfth Doctor waits for the Seventh to return to Perivale – and on meeting him, tells him the truth about the future and the untimely death of Ace. His revelations shock his former self, but also fill him with a new resolve to find the strength to be honest about his feelings.

The Twelfth Doctor leaves knowing a ripple has now passed through time and changed much – but as that ripple settles, he discovers meddling with time will have inevitable consequences, as it seems nothing can ever be perfect and endings are not always happy - and there is always a price to be paid eventually, and saving Ace may well be impossible, for now it is not only Ace whose life is in grave danger in a future that still has a tragic outcome that now seems fixed in time…

Rated T

Warnings: This story features adult discussions and situations, adult language and a graphic character death.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is a work of fan fiction.

Chapter 1

The year 2000, mid January in the rain:

She wanted to get back home to Perivale. The traffic was clogging up the motorway and as windscreen wipers moved back and forth it barely served a purpose other than to swipe away teeming rain that was instantly replaced by more. Mist was rising and visibility was poor. It was three in the afternoon and the sky was grey and the world was drenched as the rain continued to fall without slowing.

Dorothy was thirty years old and had just returned from a pointless meeting with a prospective business partner. Now her plans were on hold after finding out the potential partner knew nothing about running a cafe, and also had a long string of debts. She had worked hard to save up to get her own premises that she planned to call The Ace Cafe. It had been many years since anyone had called her Ace, but she planned to carry the name on into her business venture - if she could ever get it off the ground…

The rain was still falling and the traffic was slowing to a crawl up ahead. She gave a sigh and turned off the main road, drove down a side road and found here there were fewer cars and hoped the journey would be quicker now, but it was still the long way round even if it meant she could keep moving. She glanced in the mirror to see headlights gaining on her and swore under her breath; it seemed other drivers had the same idea and now she was heading towards a junction and the lights had just turned red…

She slowed the car to a halt and waited, glancing in the mirror again to see now there was a small tailback right behind her. Looking ahead between swipes of windscreen wipers that moved almost hypnotically she watched as traffic shot left and right, both lanes were busy and when the lights changed she knew she would not be the only car heading for the road straight across the lights. It was going to be a long journey home, and she was pissed off about the failed meeting and she just wanted to get home, turn on the heating and be warm and out of the miserable weather…

And the red light flickered off.

Dorothy frowned as she looked through the swipe of wipers as rain continued to fall – had the traffic lights failed?

Then the light flickered back on and switched to amber.

The junction had ground to a halt.

She was watching for the green light.

It flashed on, glowing brightly in the rain.

She drove across the first lane, began to cross the second and then slammed on her brakes as tyres squealed on tarmac and she gripped the wheel in fright to see several cars had run into each other on the other side of the road, they were bumper to bumper and already more than one irate driver had got out to exchange some angry words.

It was the lights. Something wrong with the electrics, and no one was hurt…

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. This was not an encounter with the Daleks or an army of Cybermen. That had been way back in the past, and she did not need a can of nitro nine to get her out of this mess – she just needed a bit of patience to wait for the road to clear so she could turn around. She wouldn't be getting home any time soon, but she had seen a service station a few miles back and a hot coffee seemed like her best bet in a warm dry place while she waited for the road to clear, remembering at least her car didn't have a smashed headlight or a dented bumper, so it could have been much worse…

She pulled over to the side of the road and parked there with hazard lights on as the rain continued to fall and the fog thickened and visibility grew worse. She watched as the lights flickered back to life and traffic sped up and down, left and right while the road across the other side remained blocked.

She wondered how long it would be before she could pull out of this space and move on. She reached for the radio to switch it on, and then heard the rush of water beneath wheels as something fast and heavy shot along wet tarmac.

She looked up to see a shadow looming out of the fog, then as visibility broke gleaming chrome rushed at her, along with large wheels and a thundering engine as the lorry swerved and sounded its horn, and then it slipped across the road, coming straight at her.

She took in a breath as everything flashed in front of her eyes; the lorry was skidding on the wet surface and heading straight for her. Every moment she had ever stored away in her mind popped out of the places where they had been filed away, like a whirlwind in a library, whipping up the pages of her life as if it was a book and scattering them about in front of her eyes - and then she saw him.

She saw the man with the question mark jumper.

"Professor..." she whispered, wishing the man with the flying blue box would appear and save her.

And the lorry slammed into the car as glass shattered and steel buckled and the crushed vehicle was dragged along the road leaving wreckage in its wake, before the lorry skidded again, broke free from the car and hit an oncoming petrol tanker. The explosion echoed along the busy road as cars slammed on their brakes and ran into other vehicles. As flames shot up charring the lorry and the tanker, a plume of black smoke rose up skywards, mixing in with the fog and darkening the world as if nightfall had arrived early.

And at the side of the road, Dorothy's battered car was gleaming as the fire up ahead reflected off the twisted metal. And Dorothy's body lay across the bonnet of the car, her head turned towards the flames, firelight still reflecting in her eyes as she lay where the impact of the crash had thrown her, instantly breaking her neck.

Ace was dead.

The Future

The Tardis had been orbiting just above the earth.

Clara had stood by the console and smiled as she watched the Doctor run a hand over a shining metal panel and then pause to consider their destination.

"You're taking your time, Doctor."

"I know," he replied, "Next question?"

And Clara frowned. Since his regeneration, she had warmed rather quickly to the handsome older man with the bedroom eyes and the Scottish accent who had replaced the man she had come to know as The Doctor. And while he could certainly have some deep and serious moods when turning his mind to heavy subject matter, he was also warm and charming and rarely so distant when nothing seemed out of place in the universe…

"Doctor?"

He recognised her curious tone and looked up from the console.

"You know something, you don't quite know what it is but you do know something is up."

And he looked into her eyes and she saw centuries of wisdom reflecting back at her.

"But I don't know what it is," Clara replied, "That's why I asked you -"

"Ace."

She fell silent for a moment, recalling a conversation about people he had known over the centuries... The name rung a bell somewhere, and then she remembered.

"A companion, a friend of yours – from years back?"

He nodded.

"She was killed in a car accident. She said my name before she died. It just echoed through time and reached back to me."

Clara stepped closer and looked at him with deepest sorrow in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Doctor."

He put his hands in the pockets of his blue suit and turned away from her, looking out at the view of the earth below.

"I knew it was her right away. I felt her fear, I heard her last breath and she said Professor. She always called me that. And I was too cautious to ever tell her how much she meant to me. She was little more than a girl when we first met, but she was a young woman when I left her in Perivale. That was back in1993. I meant to go back for her but then I got caught up in some trouble in another galaxy and it suddenly made sense to leave her on earth. It was like there was nothing more that could have been said. I'd wanted to say plenty, but not in that incarnation. I just couldn't do it, I thought it would wreck our friendship."

"And what about now?"

He briefly smiled. Clara always asked the right questions, but sometimes he wished she wouldn't be so direct.

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," he replied, "And totally useless."

Clara was standing beside him now, but his gaze was still fixed on the earth.

"You're planning something," she said quietly, "I know I'm right."

And he turned his head and glanced at her.

"I heard her say my name. His name, my seventh life's name. It was the last word she said before a lorry slammed into her car. He was her last thought. Of all the people she's known, all those who have passed through her life since her Professor, he was the one she thought of at the end. And I felt her pain."

Clara wanted to hold him and weep for the anguish she saw in his eyes. But for now they were not close enough to embrace so tightly. He was very different to his eleventh self, who she had quickly grown fond of and close to, this one was older, this one had eyes that could hold her in a glance and keep her there as long as he wished and he knew it too. She had thought up a name for him and he didn't know it yet. She thought of him as Bedroom Eyes. But now was not the time to think about such matters – perhaps one day he would find out just how much she appreciated his new regeneration, perhaps not – now was not a time for anything but sombre conversation. She had never seen him with a look of such sadness before.

"What are you going to do?"

It was all she could say – knowing him as she did, asking him if he was going to do something about it would have been pointless – she could tell by the look in his eyes that his mind was already made up.

"I'm not going to interfere too much," he said, and had this been about anything other than the death of Ace, Clara would have laughed.

"You always intend to be careful," she replied, "And you always go much further because you care."

He looked into her eyes and she saw a flicker of surprise.

"Remind me to kiss you one day," he said, "Because I appreciate that remark and you just touched my heart."

And then the warmth was gone and the moment was gone as he turned his attention back to the matter of Ace.

"I'm going to take the Tardis back to '93… I remember I left – I mean, he left her, my seventh incarnation left her, in Perivale for a few days…perhaps I can talk to her…I have to do something. She was thirty years old and she should still be alive, perhaps it was me, leaving her when I did…I mean him, when he left her. He loved her. He really loved her and he never told her."

And Clara nodded slowly.

"You need to do this alone, you've already decided that."

The look in his eyes softened as he looked at Clara and considered how her insightful nature was often a blessing.

"Yes I do," he replied, "And you have students to teach back on earth, don't let me keep you from them at least for the next few days, Miss Oswald."

She smiled.

"Take me to work, Doctor."

"Thanks for understanding," he replied, and she wanted to tell him she always did understand, but her voice was drowned out by the wheeze and whoosh of the Tardis as it passed through time and space and landed silently beneath the shade of a tree across the road from Coal Hill Elementary School.

The Doctor walked Clara to the Tardis door and she paused to smile up at him.

"Good luck," she said, and wanted to hug him, but instead he opened the door for her.

"Thanks, I may need it," he replied, and he smiled back at her and then she turned and walked away, and he closed the door of the Tardis once more.

Then his smile vanished as sorrow clouded his eyes and he thought about the young woman called Ace who his seventh incarnation had left behind. Living several lifetimes was not easy because all memories carried on, it was a lot of baggage over the centuries and his time with Ace was no exception. Worst of all, with every regeneration, personality changes made it possible to look back at old choices - especially when it came to relationships - and sometimes bitterly regret outcomes that he had once been at peace with.

He went back over to the console and turned dials and activated switches. He did it slowly, all the while remembering a girl called Ace who another version of him had once loved at a distance. He could still feel that ache in both his hearts and he wasn't sure why; perhaps it was the way her voice had suddenly reached across space and time, may be that was the reason his emotions felt so raw.

Or maybe it was the thought that Ace had died in the year 2000, yet that past echo had carried through into the future, reaching him now, in his twelfth incarnation – there had to be a reason, either that, or it was just that time was a funny old thing…

No. There had to be a reason, there always was…time always had some sort of a plan and it was fascinating him to realise that he was still in the dark as to the reason why.

He had to go back, because he needed answers…

The Tardis made its familiar wheeze and seconds later landed in Perivale, summer of '93.

Ace was unaware that a Tardis had landed in the park just beyond the pathway that led to a pond, where the trees were dark and boughs hung low and close together. It was not the Tardis belonging to the Professor, and she would have been curious about that fact, but as she was in the garden in the sunshine in a bikini soaking up the rays and not expecting her Doctor to return for a couple of days, she was happy to sit there as her skin slowly turned golden brown.

Her eyes where closed and her hair fanned out on the lawn as she smiled, feeling the sun making spirals of heat through her skin. She was twenty-three years old and life was good. It had been a long while since she had needed to fight any monsters, lately her travels with the Professor had been calm and uneventful, and that was all she needed to think about as she smiled with her eyes closed on the lawn as the sun shone down in the small garden of her rented ground floor flat.

She didn't want to think about the future or the past or anything, really – but she did let her thoughts wander to a certain man who owned a police box and she smiled again as she thought of him and his dark eyes and the way they sparkled when he smiled. They could also grow very dark, too – that was something she didn't want to think about. And she and him had sometimes clashed, mainly because he liked to manipulate situations. Being a Timelord and knowing so much was an advantage she did not share and his use of that knowledge, often without sharing his thoughts in advance, did make her feel shut out.

But only sometimes.

She rolled over on her front and cool grass against hot skin felt soothing. Those rays were spiralling over her back and shoulders now. Some people said it was better to use sun cream, or even sun block because the sun could be bad for the skin. Ace didn't pay much attention to that, because she was young and words like consequences were stored away for the unthinkable, distant days when she got older.

Her thoughts turned back to the Professor and she wondered if he thought of her while they were apart. Then she wondered what it would be like to sit beside him and slide her hand up his question mark jumper and between the buttons of his shirt, just to feel the quickening beat of his twin hearts.

Then she cancelled that thought – he would probably push her away and give her a stern lecture about crossing boundaries of friendship. He seemed to emphasise a lot on that, especially these days and she wasn't quite sure why. Her days of being a sweet innocent girl had been gone long ago and she was a young woman now, in her twenties and ready to get out there and grab life by the throat. Or the balls, or however she chose to grab it. She was unafraid to take chances.

And yet it was different when it came to the Professor.

She was scared, she didn't like to admit it but she was scared of making a first move. Friendship as deep as theirs was to be cherished and it worried her to think a look or a touch or even a kiss, could crack the foundation of that bond.

Then Ace wondered, was their friendship not so strong if it could be broken by something so potentially wonderful?

What would that really say about her bond with him if all it took was a single rejected advance for him to walk away from her?

The sun was starting to burn her back.

She wondered if maybe she should have put on some sun cream, and then she got up, brushed grass from her legs and went back inside to shower and get changed, because she had definitely had enough sun for the day, and doing nothing but lying in the sun was making the questions in her head burn brightly, bright enough to make her lose sleep that night if she didn't take care and block out those thoughts. She hated having questions revolving around in her mind, especially when she could find no answers to silence them…

The shower stung her shoulders and she turned the water down to cool.

Then she got out and cautiously dried her skin and wondered if perhaps there was something in the theory about sunburn being dangerous – her shoulders were sore. She changed into a white lycra top and a pair of denim shorts and then sat down on the sofa in the front room and relished the sound of ice cubes touching as they slid together in lemonade as she tipped the glass and drank from it.

A cool breeze was coming in through the open windows and although it was only three in the afternoon, she was glad to be out of the sun. She relaxed on the sofa and glanced down at her tanned skin and decided it had been worth it, because a tan looked great on her in the summer, and summer didn't last forever…

Nothing lasted forever.

All life ended eventually, it could be snuffed out in the blink of an eye…

Ace caught her breath and sat up, catching her breath as she set down the glass and felt a chill pass through her that was too deep to blame on the ice in her drink.

She looked around the room, still shivering as she wondered where that thought had come from – it was as if another person had been sitting in the room and voiced the words aloud, yet the net curtains blew ghostly in the summer breeze and the silence confirmed she was quite alone.

Ace took in a deep breath and shook her head.

"Stop it!" she said aloud, but that chill was still present. It reminded her of a phrase, what was it…

Then she found it:

Someone just walked over my grave.

She drew in a slow breath, wondering why she had just pictured a gravestone bearing her name, in the future and not as far off as she wanted it to be. She wondered why she was wondering if she would die young. It was a crazy thought that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

And then she heard a sound and got up. She listened, and then she heard it again, and then she hesitated, still feeling spooked by the thoughts that had come out of nowhere and affected her so deeply.

And then she heard that sound again, and it echoed through the flat.

Ace left the room, making her way down the hallway. She wasn't in the mood for visitors, but someone was at the door, and by the way they kept knocking, it sounded as if they had no intention of going away until she answered…