Title: The One Who Promised Forever (and meant it)
Summary: She promised him forever and if that means she has to spend an eternity waiting for him on this Godforsaken rock, then so be it. 1st in the Women Who Wait series.
Timeline: Set during The Satan Pit
Word Count: 658
A/N: If this seems familiar it's because I posted this before in an incomplete one shot series. I'm reposting it and making each chapter its own story. Will be a four parter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who some lucky sods at the BBC do. Nor do I own the Adele song I borrowed lyrics from.

THE ONE WHO PROMISED FOREVER

(AND MEANT IT)

I won't go

I can't do it on my own

If this ain't love then what is

I'm willing to take the risk

He Won't Go

Adele

Maybe it's divine retribution. Maybe it's cruel irony. Or maybe she's just really paranoid. But she can't help but think back to when the Doctor was all leather and ears and a surly attitude and it occurs to her that since his regeneration their roles have been reversed.

He said your name

He used to be the one who was kept waiting. He waited for her to change her mind and say yes. He waited for her to get tired of all her pretty boys. He waited for her to say enough, that she didn't want to run for her life anymore. It was there in his eyes every time they made it back to the safety of the TARDIS after another leisurely trip gone wrong.

Then he came for her, in the middle of a dalek fleet with no plan, no weapons and no hope. He saved her and she made a promise to herself that she would never keep him waiting again.

I'm not going

But then he regenerated into a man who was all pinstripes and brainy specs and really great hair. He became energetic and open and rude but not in a malicious sense. He licks everything and she would wonder why he never gets sick except she has heard about his superior Time Lord physiology enough times not to bother asking.

That Christmas was the first time of many he would keep her waiting. She waited for him to wake up and save the world, save her and prove he was still her Doctor. To be fair she kept him hanging on in return, waiting for her to accept this new new him.

It isn't like she's keeping score or anything.

But apparently the universe is because ever since the Sarah Jane reunion he seems insistent on putting this emotional distance between them despite assuring her she wouldn't suffer the same fate as his former companion.

No I'm gonna wait for the Doctor. Just like he waited for me.

So now she is the one who waits. She waits for five and a half hours on a 51st century spaceship, pretending she isn't heartbroken. She waits for him to show her exactly how she is different from Sarah Jane and the others who came before her. She waits for him to make the next move because how much more obvious can she be than by offering to share a damn mortgage?

She isn't the type of girl who waits for a bloke to make a move. When she sees something is likes, she goes in for the kill.

But this isn't any bloke. This is the Doctor, the man she loves. The kind of love that her mum claims she and her dad shared. The kind of love she used to scoff at because it seemed so impossible to actually love someone like they do in the movies. The kind of love she used to secretly wish for.

You don't know him. 'Cos he's not...I'm telling you, he's-he's not... and even if he was, how could I leave him? All on his own, all the way down there? No. I'm gonna stay.

Five and a half hours. He told her; always wait five and a half hours. How long has she been waiting for? How long has she been chased by the Ood through the service tunnels? How long has the Doctor been down in the centre of the planet they've found themselves on? Has it been five and a half hours yet? Doesn't matter, hours, days, weeks, months or years, she'll wait for him just like he waited for her. She promised him forever and if that means she has to spend an eternity waiting for him on this Godforsaken rock, then so be it.