This first came to me while watching an interview with Amanda Tapping. Then I saw a manip on tumblr, and I knew it had to be written.
Enjoy.
The Twelfth Doctor
Helen Magnus sat in her office, deep in thought. She was not, however, working.
"Helen?" Nikola's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Helen, are you alright?"
Helen shook herself out of thought and turned to him, a strange look on her face.
"Yes," she said vaguely. "Yes, I'm fine. Did you need something?"
"Your werewolf kicked me out of the lab," he said, sitting down across from her. "Said I 'was causing disturbances'. Thought I'd see what you were up to. "
"And have me order him to let you back into the lab?"
"Something like that. What is that in your hand?" he questioned.
Helen looked down at the watch. She'd almost forgotten it was there. She felt entranced by it the moment her eyes met with it once more. She shook herself away. "Henry found it down in the catacombs," she said. "Thought it might have belonged to my father."
"Did it?"
Helen shook her head. "I don't think so. I think it belonged to me."
"Let me see," Nikola requested. Helen passed it to him. "The designs are very intricate. I've never seen anything like it. It doesn't open though. Bit useless for a watch, if it doesn't open."
"I hadn't even tried it," Helen admitted as she took the watch back. "Something about it is so…"
"What?"
"I don't know. Have you ever had the feeling that you're forgetting something really important, but you can't remember what?"
"I have impeccable memory," Nikola replied.
"Yes, well, not all of us have. I just wish I could remember." She pushed the little button on the side and the fob watch popped open.
"Hey, it does… open," Nikola finished slowly. His mouth, and Helen's, fell open as a colorful cloud of almost sentient gas drifted out of the watch. "What is that?" he asked.
"I don't-" Helen started, shaking her head. The gas moved toward her and entered her nose and mouth.
"Helen!" Nikola exclaimed as the gas took her over. She fell to the ground, unconscious. He rushed to her side and checked her vitals. Her pulse was strong, though a bit on the fast side, and she appeared to be breathing okay. "Helen," he said, shaking her lightly.
Her eyes flew open.
"Are you okay?"
She practically jumped to her feet. "Yes, I'm fine. Wonderful, in fact."
Nikola gave her a strange look as she walked to a nearby mirror. Something about the way she spoke was different, as was the way she moved. And she smelled different. Not considerably wrong, just slightly off. She looked in the mirror and made a few strange faces, before turning back to Nikola, wearing a wide grin.
"Alright, time to take you to the infirmary," Nikola said, taking her arm and pulling her from the room.
"I'm fine, Nikola, I promise you."
"You're acting strangely, and you were just attacked by some kind of gas cloud."
"Yes, but I know what it was."
"Oh, and what was it?"
"Time Lord," she said gleefully.
Nikola raised an eyebrow at her. "Time Lord?"
"Remember I said I felt like the watch belonged to me, but I couldn't remember? Well, now I understand why. Because I wasn't supposed to remember. Until I opened it, I couldn't' remember. Inside that fob watch was me, the real me."
"Definitely going to the infirmary," Nikola said.
Helen sighed, but followed along. It would be easier, when he saw for himself. "Alright, fine. But after, I have something wonderful to show you."
"What?"
"Now, Nikola, if I told you that, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?"
Forty-five minutes later, Helen was lying in a hospital bed, typing away at her tablet, while Nikola awaited the test results from her scan.
"Helen," he said, walking back to her, staring at a tablet of his own. "Care to tell me when you grew a second heart?"
"Forty-seven and a half minutes ago," she replied, not looking up from her work.
"And, could you explain why?"
"I told you. Time Lord."
"Helen, what does that mean, Time Lord?"
"Me," she said. "I am a Time Lord. The last Time Lord."
"You know what I think? I think you've been possessed by something, and I should have you locked up."
"Perhaps you're right. But you're just too damned curious, aren't you?" She hit a few last keys on the tablet, then hopped out of the bed and dragged him out of the room, leaving both tablets behind.
"Where are we going?" he asked.
"Catacombs," she replied.
"Good, that'll give us some time for you to tell me what the hell is going on."
"I told you, I'm a Time Lord."
Nikola knew that he should stop this right now. Something had possessed her, was in control of her body. He should stop this-
"I'm not possessed," she said, breaking him from thought. "In 1872, I landed just outside London. I hid my TARDIS-"
"Tardis?"
"Time And Relative Dimension In Space," she said. "My spaceship. I hid her somewhere and made sure she would be safe while I was away. I had to make sure no one would find her, but also that she could follow me if I ever left. I knew I would be gone a long time."
"You're talking nonsense again."
"No I'm not, you're brain is just too small to understand. I locked my consciousness, everything that made me who I was, into the fob watch. When I opened it, I was released."
"Okay, let's assume, for a moment, that you're telling the truth, and you've not been possessed by some crazy entity. Why did you imprison yourself in this watch for over a hundred years."
Helen stopped walking, and thought about the question for a moment. "Because I was dying. Not literally, that would have been an easy solution. But figuratively. I had lost so much and I didn't know what to do anymore. So I became someone new. I became Helen Magnus. Through her, I lived past my sorrows. I grew into someone knew. Someone who would remember the past, but not be tormented by it."
Nikola nodded. "Yep, you're insane."
"Come on, I can show you," she said, pulling him into the catacombs after her. She stopped at a large object that was hidden under a thick white sheet. She grabbed the sheet and pulled. Under it was a blue box with the words "Police Call Box" written across the top. Helen hugged the box and brushed away some of the dust.
"I haven't seen one of these in years," Nikola commented somewhat nostalgically. "What's it doing down here?"
"It's not a real Police Box," she said. "It's my TARDIS."
"I thought you said the TARDIS was a space ship."
"It is. And a time machine. And a police box."
"The more you say, the less sense you make."
"Oh, come see," she said excitedly, tugging on his arm. She pushed open the door to the TARDIS and pulled him inside.
"Ooh, you and me, inside a little wooden box- oh my." He stepped out, then back in. "It's bigger on the inside." Helen grinned at his words.
"Close the door," she said, walking toward the console at the center of the room.
The lights flickered, then a hologram of Helen appeared. She was still blonde and wearing Victoria attire.
Nikola smiled. "I always liked you in those dresses."
"You wouldn't like them so much if you'd had to wear them."
The hologram Helen began to speak. "This message was made for The Doctor, Helen Magnus, and any companion she have may taken over the years."
"The Doctor?" Nikola questioned.
"Shh."
"I am The Doctor," the hologram said. "I am the last of the Time Lords. I am the twelfth incarnation of this form, and I fear I may be the last. I have lived for many hundreds of years. So many, I have lost count. I have lived many lifetimes, seen many wonders, met many people. I have loved many of them. And lost all of them." There were tears in her eyes, and tears in the eyes of the real Helen as well. "The horrors I have seen these past several years… I often wonder how I made it through. I truly do not know if I can continue.
"So I've made a decision. I'm going to erase who I am and become someone new. I will become Helen Magnus, daughter of Gregory and Patricia Magnus. They are lovely people, always wanted a daughter, but were never able. So I've changed their memories. I've written Helen Magnus into their lives. And when my mission is completely, I will have written Helen Magnus over my own life.
"I do this in the hope that one day she will live her life in a way that will help me to get past the pain I have suffered. If I should wake up in the future, it is my hope that I will be a new woman, someone who can be strong again. If I should never wake, then I will fade into history and die, as I should have done many years ago.
"I have made this video in the event that Helen Magnus should find her way back here not knowing the truth. Helen, if you are watching this, the decision is yours. Open the fob watch, and become me once more, or continue to live your life as you see fit. Life as the Doctor is not all pain, as the beginning of this message would indicate. I have had many wonderful adventures, and together, we could have many more."
The hologram flickered away.
"Do you understand now?" the real Helen asked, turning to Nikola.
"Not entirely."
Helen sighed. "I'm called the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord, the last of the people of a planet called Gallifray. I travel through time and space and go on wild adventures."
"And this is your space ship?"
She nodded. "I'll prove it to you." She began to tinker with the dials on the console. The TARDIS began to make strange noises and Nikola felt a strange sensation, then was knocked off his feet. Helen only barely managed to keep herself upright by holding onto a piece of the console.
Then the noises stopped.
"What was that?" Nikola asked, rising to his feet as Helen disappeared down a hallway he hadn't even noticed. Just how big was this place? A moment later, she reappeared carrying two heavy coats. She tossed one to him, and put the other on herself.
"Trust me, you're gonna want that. Come see," Helen grinned, running toward the doors. Nikola followed. "Wait," she said, turning around and blacking the door. "Ground rules: don't draw any attention to yourself. Anywhere else, and I wouldn't care so much, but, as it is, I'm breaking about a dozen rules of time travel. And for god's sake, don't talk to anyone."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Helen grinned again and pulled open the door. Outside was not the interior of the catacombs, as it had been only moments before, but a park, covered in snow.
"Are we… at Oxford?" he asked. Helen nodded.
"Yep. Oxford, 1872."
Nikola looked at her with a slight smile. "The year we met." She nodded again. She held her hand out to him and they walked, arm in arm, through the snow.
"You said not to draw attention, but doesn't our attire draw attention? We aren't exactly dressed for the era."
"Low level perception filter," she said. "Thank the TARDIS. It would take a lot of focus for a simple human to notice."
"Simple human?" Nikola asked, a slightly amused expression on his face. "That sounds like something I would say."
"Don't get me wrong," Helen said. "Humans are one of my favorite species, if not, my favorite. But I think we are uniquely qualified to say how simple minded they can be, at times."
"Given that we were both once human, yes, I suppose we are uniquely qualified."
"Ah, and look at that. There are our little human selves." She pointed across the way. For a moment, the pair watched as the past version of themselves conversed.
"This is the day we met," Nikola said, turning to her.
Helen smiled and nodded. "Yes. Only a few days after I took the Time Lord out of me. You were among the first people she met as a human."
"This is the day I started to fall in love with you. Her."
Helen's face fell serious. "I am still Helen. There's just as much of Helen as there is the Doctor. Perhaps more, right now."
"If you say so."
The pair of them watched for a few moments more, then carried on walking.
"I know I don't show it often. Hardly ever." She stopped.
"What?"
"All those years ago, when we first met. I didn't realize it at the time, I didn't realize it until we faked your death and I didn't see you for 60 years. But I think I started to fall in love with you today, too. By the time I realized, it was too late. You were gone. And then you were an evil psychopathic lunatic hellbent on world domination."
"I think I've moved past that," Nikola said, taking her hand in his.
"In the TARDIS, I can show you more than you ever dreamed possible," Helen said. "Global rule will pale in comparison."
"What about the Sanctuary? You can't leave those children alone too long, they'll blow themselves up."
"I left a message for Will. Told him we'd be back in a few days. He and Henry are more than capable of taking over for a awhile."
"And what shall we do for those few days?"
"You, me, and a time machine? We could adventure for a century and still be back in time for breakfast."
Nikola grinned and they walked back to the TARDIS.
"Did you mean what you said?" he asked after a bit. "That you loved me."
"I wouldn't lie about that, Nikola," she said, opening the TARDIS door.
Helen immediately started playing with the buttons on the console once more. Then, suddenly, she stopped and looked around with a strange expression. "Something is missing." The console beeped. She ran to the other side and pulled out a small red and gold tool. She grinned, pushed a button that caused it to glow red for a moment, then pocketed the device.
"You have to explain to me what all of this does," Nikola said, inspecting the console in awe.
"In time," she said. "For now, there are adventures to be had. Next stop: everywhere!"
I am not entirely pleased with the characterization of Nikola in this, but I really can't find a way to make it work, so I'll just have to live with it.
I may write more about their adventures in the TARDIS, but maybe not.