Jenny and the Wishing Stone
It was snowing, snowing endlessly, making it harder for her to trudge on. Jenny had heard about this world at a galactic pub. The patron had spoken about the place in horror, but it sounded like a dream come true to Jenny.
All she had to do was find the white stone and make a wish. A single wish, no matter how impossible, and that wish would come true.
Roland had sensed there was something off about the place. "If there's a white stone there that can grant any wish, who knows how dangerous that place could be." He had refused to go with her, hoping it would deter her, but instead he watched in shock as she flew her space shuttle into the vortex without him.
Now she was in a cave looking for the legendary stone. To her surprise, the stone was very easy to locate. It sparkled like a diamond in sunlight, attracting her attention immediately.
As she approached it a feeling like trickling water ran down her spine. Something was off, but she chose to ignore it. Roland, her most trusted friend, had been wrong about dangerous monsters and obstacles guarding the stone, so it was just as likely that her instincts could be off.
"How does this work?" she wondered. "Do I touch it, pick it up or just say my wish aloud?"
Footsteps echoed through the cave behind her and she spun around to see the source. "I might be able to help you, there," the man said. "Your last guess was the closest. You have to demand your wish in a way that is not a question. You have to be certain that you want it. But do be careful what you wish for. The stone has a way of turning people's own words against them."
The man was very ordinary looking. He was a dark-skinned humanoid with a plain white robe. His appearance implied that he was a human colonist, but that felt as wrong as the white stone did.
"Alright then," Jenny said, after careful consideration. "I want to be reunited with my father."
The white stone began to shine, emitting its own light, rather than reflecting that around it. Jenny's hearts pounded quicker and she shielded her eyes, until the light began to fade.
"Your wish will be granted shortly," the man said.
One hour later, Jenny was standing just inside the mouth of the cave, wondering if she should go into the open or if her father would appear inside. Perhaps she was supposed to get in the shuttle and he'd be at the first place she went? She put up the hood of her evergreen coat and was about to venture out, when someone spoke behind her.
"I say, Doctor. This isn't England at all."
"No, Chesterman, it isn't. The ship seems to have malfunctioned," an older voice said.
"Er, it's Chesterton."
Jenny looked slowly behind her and saw four people standing further down the tunnel. A tall man with brown hair stood next to an older man with white hair and a cane- they were the two that spoke- and two women, one with brown hair and a younger one with short black hair- stood beside them. The older man appeared to be the Doctor, but he certainly wasn't the Doctor that Jenny was progenated from.
The old man grumbled and said, "Perhaps we should go back inside. This place seems to be no more than a frozen wasteland."
"Oh, but grandfather!" the black-haired woman said, "We're in a cave. Don't you think we could have a look around?"
"Hmm?" the Doctor asked, "Oh, not this time, Susan. This place gives me a strange feeling. Something is terribly wrong here and I feel that we should not be part of it." With that, he turned around and led the way to a strange blue box. The four people stepped inside and the box disappeared.
Astounded, Jenny ran forward and attempted to touch the place where the box had been. Even though she was confused that the box had vanished, it thrilled her and she couldn't help but smile.
"Ah, a person!" another voice said further down the tunnel. This one was deeper and seemed to belong to a slightly younger man.
The figure stepped from the shadows, followed by a woman. The man had a rather large head full of curly brown hair and wore an unusually long scarf. The woman had slightly darker brown hair that was straight and went just down to her shoulders.
"Hello there," she said with one hand held out in greeting. Jenny was unfamiliar with handshakes and so did nothing in response. Upon realizing that Jenny was confused, the woman said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. My name's Sarah Jane Smith and this is-"
"-the Doctor. Yes, we were just passing through," the man interrupted. "Who might you be?"
His wide grin and unwavering stare unnerved Jenny, but she managed to reply. "You can't be the Doctor. I just saw a man who was a Doctor leave this place, and the other Doctor, the real Doctor, looks nothing like you!"
"Oh dear," the man held a fist up to his face and bit down on the tip of his thumb. "Sarah, I believe there's a possibility I've crossed my own timeline. We should probably leave before things get worse."
He looked at Sarah, still biting his thumb, who looked back with a disappointed half-smile. "Oh, alright," she consented. "It is a bit cold here, anyway."
The sense of trickling water increased in Jenny's spine as the man walked away, and she felt as if she had missed an opportunity, although she didn't know why.
Now, to her right, she heard two voices. Two loud voices were arguing with each other down another branch of the tunnel and Jenny decided to follow the sound. "So help me," she thought. "If one of them is a doctor, it better be the right one."
"You shouldn't be here!" one of the voices wailed.
"I shouldn't? Clearly you come after me. You should've known I'd be here."
"I should, indeed. That's how I know you never were, and that's why I said you shouldn't be here!"
Jenny identified the two voices as older men. One with dark hair and a very lined face, and another with an equally lined face and fluffy white hair. This man's clothes were just as frilly as his hair, Jenny observed, while the other had straight hair and wore large checked trousers.
"I must say I'm glad it's you and not the rainbow one," the dark haired one said.
"The what?"
"Oh, you don't remember? That certainly proves something."
Jenny stepped forward to interrupt. "Excuse me!" she said, holding a hand up to attract their attention. "I'm not sure what's going on here, but a man called the Doctor should be arriving any time now, and I wondered if either of you have seen him?"
The two men looked at each other curiously, and then back at Jenny. "Do you know what this man looks like?" the white haired one asked.
"Of course I do!" Jenny replied. "He's my father."
The men's eyes widened in alarm and they ran in opposite directions away from Jenny. Each to a blue box, she noticed. They halted just as they reached the doors and ran back, passing each other without a word. Evidently they had run to the wrong box. How they could tell, Jenny didn't know; and she didn't have time to ask before both boxes disappeared.
Jenny sat down on a rock beside her and sighed, resting her chin on her right fist. This certainly wasn't her day for wish fulfillment.
"Good evening," the voice was definitely male, but it was softer and quieter than the others. Jenny was too tired, emotionally and physically, to look up and see who it belonged to. She heard the sound of cloth touching stone, and realized the person had sat down next to her.
"Is something troubling you?" The voice repeated. "I'm called the Doctor, by the way."
Jenny looked up sadly, this time not bothering to remark about his name. She knew it wasn't her father, but she didn't want to scare this one away as well.
He looked nice. Less peculiar than the others. Rather than checked trousers or frilly shirts, he had a simple panama hat in his hands and wore a beige coat and white sneakers. His hair was straight and blonde, and much better kept than the previous Doctors.
"You're… familiar," she said. When she saw the celery pinned to his lapel she knew why. "My friend met you. He told me about an adventure he had with you… and a woman named Nyssa."
"Nyssa!" the man repeated with a smile. "Yes, she used to travel with me but she stopped to stay on a medical ship called Terminus. What was your friend's name?"
"Roland." Jenny looked back down at her lap when she spoke his name. She remembered his expression as she has flown off, and realizes how callus she had been towards him. Was it really worth it when her wish wasn't even working?
"Ah, of course," the Doctor said. "You're his time-traveling friend. He mentioned you, too. Are you having trouble with your machine, then? I could offer you a ride back home…"
"No thanks," Jenny whispered. "I actually came here because there's a stone here that's supposed to grant wishes. I wished, but… it doesn't seem to have worked."
The Doctor's brow furrowed and he folded the panama hat in his hands. "What did you wish for?"
"To meet my father again," Jenny said. "It's funny… he even goes by the same alias as you."
The blonde Doctor jumped up, as if a flame had been lit beneath him. "Uh.. sorry, must dash," he apologized. "I'll explain later, should we meet again. Goodbye!" The last Jenny saw of him was the tail of his coat as he ran into the dark.
"Ugh! Why do they always run away from me when I say that?" she growled.
Movement caught Jenny's eye. A flash of color had appeared momentarily to her left, and as before she decided to pursue it. This time she swore she wouldn't say anything about the Doctor unless, for some reason, she had to.
The source of the color, to her surprise, was a coat worn by a curly-headed blonde man. It consisted of multiple bright colors not made for any discerning eye, and was paired with equally appalling accessories. The only relief Jenny had from the disorienting sight was the well-dressed brunette walking alongside him.
"Come on then, Peri. There's something going on here and I intend to find out what!" the man said.
"Doctor, it's just an ice cave. What could possibly be going on?" the woman protested.
"I'm not sure. All I know is that I keep coming here for some reason and I can never remember exactly what happened while I was here."
Jenny watched from the shadows, hesitant to step forward. "Another Doctor," she complained. "That wishing stone must not know one from another. I just want to see my dad already!"
No sooner had she said it than a streak of brown ran past the rainbow man. The streak stopped, allowing Jenny to make out its features, and Jenny saw that it was indeed her father, with a brown pinstripe suit and cream sneakers. Her father took one look at the rainbow clothed man and kept on running. "No time to reflect on poor life choices," he said.
"Wait!" Jenny ran forward, but it was already too late. Both the curly haired man and her father had gone, leaving her alone again in the tunnel.
A few minutes later another man walked past in a question mark sweater, but Jenny ignored him. He didn't seem to see her, as her black coat blended in with the gloomy surroundings. A while later another man approached, and another, from the opposite direction. The first man had wavy brown hair down to his shoulders and wore a green coat over Edwardian clothes, while the second had cropped hair and a leather jacket. Jenny admired this man's style, but she kept to the shadows, not wanting to be seen yet. Whatever was going on, she seemed to only make matters worse.
"You!" the one in the leather jacket said. He pointed, and started to smile, but it was a sad smile. "I remember being you."
The one with the green coat took a step back, but the leather one stopped him. "I know you know who I am," he continued. "I just want to say, I enjoyed being you before everything went wrong. Enjoy your life while it's good, you hear? You'll need to."
The one in the green coat looked frightened now, and backed away. As Jenny looked on a few theories about what was happening formulated, and her instincts told her the truth. When the man in the leather jacket started to walk away, Jenny followed and called out to him.
"Doctor!" she said. He turned around immediately and appeared surprised to see her.
"Hullo," he said. "I don't think we've met yet."
Jenny giggled. "Your memory really is messed up. I heard the rainbow one admit as much. They're all you, aren't they?"
"All? You mean I've been here before?"
Jenny nodded. "I've counted ten so far. Each one doesn't remember what happened the last time they were here, and they run away when they see or hear about their other selves. You're the first that hasn't."
The man grunted, bemused by what Jenny had to say. "I've seen too many worse things to be scared of anomalies like this. It's a cheap trick, really. D'you know what's causing it?"
"I do, actually," she replied. "You're the Doctor, and I wished to find you. You see, there's a stone here that grants wishes. I just didn't know there were… so many of you. Now you're all coming at once, it seems."
"You wished to find me?" The Doctor seemed genuinely confused that anyone would wish to be near him. A moment later he uncrossed his arms and looked her confidently in the eyes. "Why?"
"Promise not to run away?"
The Doctor grunted again, though this time it sounded more like a scoff. "If I do, it won't be because of anything you say. I don't run when I'm scared."
"Alright, then. I wished to be reunited with you because… you're my father." The Doctor's eyes widened. "Or rather a different version of you is."
The Doctor looked shocked briefly and then frowned. His frown was similar to that of a teenage boy whose brand new car keys had just been confiscated by his parents- a frown Jenny had used many times when Roland refused to leave his bed to go adventuring with her. "'Knew I shouldn't've promised. I'm not ready for this sort of conversation," he said. "I've dealt enough with the after effects of my other selves' choices."
Jenny was about to protest, but the leather-clad Doctor walked away, and she was too heavy hearted to know what to say. When she did pull her thoughts together, she whispered, "That's the Doctor I first met."
She turned and headed for the opening of the cave, her head hung low and her confidence drained. Her father wasn't capable of being a real father. His early selves were too timid and childlike to accept the responsibility of handling her, and his recent selves were too world-weary to want to deal with her.
"Jenny?" the was soft and quiet, like the celery Doctor but much, much sadder. Jenny stopped walking, but didn't want to waste the effort of looking. She'd taken too many chances that day.
"Jenny…" the voice repeated and a hand touched her shoulder. She realized the person was in front of her and closed her eyes to keep from looking up. Before Jenny could pull herself back together, she had collapsed into the man's arms, crying.
She didn't know what this man looked like, but he knew she was Jenny and she knew he was the Doctor, and that was good enough for then.
Jenny's cheek rested on the man's shoulder as he hugged her, and she felt tweed. He was wearing a tweed jacket. Jenny's curiosity aroused and she couldn't help but look up. What she saw, was not at all what she had expected. The man in front of her was old, much older than all of the other Doctors, but at first glance he was the youngest of them all.
"Strange," Jenny thought. "He's so opposite of me."
Her thoughts were interrupted when this young-old Doctor spoke again. "You've just seen my other self, haven't you? The one with the leather jacket."
Jenny gaped. He remembered! "H-how…?"
The Doctor's eyes glistened with moisture. "Quite possibly the cruelest things I've ever said in my life were when I was in pain, and the most pain I've ever been in was with that regeneration. The only person besides you here is me, so it had to be me that upset you. I'm sorry, Jenny, that you had to meet me like that. You deserve better."
Jenny laughed through her tears, a laugh of relief and hesitant joy.
"Despite what you might think, that version of me had a lot in common with you," he continued. "Had he been aware of that he would've accepted you in two hearts' beats. I could, I suppose, make it up to you…"
Jenny's eyes widened hopefully as she waited for the words of her dreams to come out. He was about to say them when a hand clamped down on his shoulder, prompting him to stop and look at the newcomer.
In the darkness all Jenny could see was a hand and a sleeve that was either black or dark blue. The hand pulled the tweed Doctor back a few inches and whispered. "Not yet."
The tweed Doctor nodded sadly and smiled at Jenny. He held her hand in both of his and squeezed it slightly, bending slightly to look directly in her eyes. "You're amazing, Jenny," he said. "I don't know how I ever convinced myself otherwise." With that he stepped back into the darkness and the new man emerged.
He was older looking, with short grayed hair and fierce wizened eyes, and when he looked at Jenny she had the immediate sensation that he was a force to reckon with… and have adventures with.
"What do you say, Jenny?" he said with a Scottish-sounding accent and a smirk. "Let's get to the bottom of this wishing stone puzzle! Events like this are impossible in this universe."
"Impossible?" Jenny smiled. "No, just a bit unlikely."