Never Alone

Author note:

This fic came about because I was watching The Eleventh Hour - and I came up with a plot with a few shades of that, but where the Twelfth Doctor meets a potential companion and promises to be right back - but accidentally returns many years later for her – and in the time that has passed, Missy has planted something nasty and is waiting for it to grow so she can use it to destroy Earth. So some of this was inspired by Eleventh Hour, because I kind of like the idea of the Doctor meeting someone, promising to return and accidentally leaving it late! Also shades of Desperately Seeking Susan with the polaroid camera selfie moment!

This fic has a sequel, called Payback.

Summary:

After crash landing his Tardis back in 1989, the Doctor wanders into a lonely country house where the only occupant is nineteen year old Tina White, house sitting the currently empty home of a local villain, who is away on 'business'. Tina is recovering from a party the night before, and at first thinks the Doctor is a friend of the home owner – but then he collapses after grabbing hold of her and demanding she look at him – warning her that 'It's not in your eyes yet, but it soon will be.'

Tina takes care of the Doctor, who begins to recover by morning, and then explains to her that he is from another planet. At first she doubts him, but when he warns her that a woman called Missy is not to be trusted, and predicts that Tina will one day own this house because she is tied to it in ways she can't imagine, she begins to wonder why he sounds so very convincing. And while this is happening, she is fighting the urge to make a move on this older man she has been attracted to from the moment they first met...

Despite still being in pain from the crash landing, the Doctor insists he must leave, saying a few days in the Tardis is all he needs to set himself right. Tina begs him to take her with him - and the Doctor tells her that he will return for her tomorrow night. After the Tardis vanishes, Tina returns to the house – to find Missy waiting for her.

Missy persuades her that the Doctor is a dangerous man, who she assures her never keeps his promises. Then she hands her a strange crystal and tells her as long as she guards it for her, she will guarantee her safety, and will return for the crystal one day 'knowing where to find her'. Unsure who to trust, Tina waits. And waits, and waits and waits. The Doctor had left with every intention of returning as promised, but in his weakened state had turned a dial a little too far, taking his course back to Tina the long way around...

When he returns, twenty seven years have passed, and as predicted, Tina is now the wealthy owner of the lonely country house – with a look in her eyes he had expected to see, brought about by a terrible night after he had left, when Tina had shot dead the local villain who had tried to force himself on her – and then run away with a suitcase containing diamonds worth a fortune... But Tina had been forced to return to the house, buying the place and living there for close on thirty years, feeling sure the place was calling to her – or that the ghost of the man she killed is haunting her...

Can the Doctor persuade her to see the truth, that the presence she has felt all these years is actually alien, or will this be a battle that he will lose as Tina has to choose who to trust – the Doctor, or Missy?

Rated M

Warnings: Some description of violence, and some scenes of adult themes/discussions and scenes of a sexual nature, with lots of Twelve hotness.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my deep passion for this fandom!

Introduction:

July 1989, sometime after midnight:

"It starts with me, and a dark night on a lonely road and I'm running in white stilettos carrying a suitcase full of diamonds. And while I'm running I'm trying to breathe. And I'm thinking about that man and his blue box, and even now, even though I know he's let me down, I'm wondering if he's ever coming back. I think I'll always be watching the stars..."

Those words ran through her head as she ran down the empty road, running from the house and the man she had just killed. It was going through her mind again, how the charming and handsome man who everyone called a gangster had turned on her when she had walked in on him and his suitcase. She had seen the diamonds. He had grabbed her. As soon as he pinned her to the bed she knew what was going to happen, and she knew she wasn't getting out of there alive. And so she had reached for his gun. The boom played over in her mind, along with the splatter of blood that seemed to turn the world down to crimson.

Then came the thought:

The Doctor had known this was coming.

He had said, that look wasn't yet in her eyes.

She was sure it was there now...

And he was gone.

She crossed a bridge, got to the other side and sat down on the grass with the case beside her, getting her breath back as the full moon shone fat and silver in a velvet sky. Up in that velvet, stars shimmered and she thought of him again.

"Please come back, Doctor..." Tina said as she looked skyward and desperation burned in her eyes, "Don't leave me in this mess!"

And those stars continued to glitter as the white light of the moon shone down, as if to remind her of its timelessness, and of the man who was a lord of time, who travelled the stars - and who seemed to have no intention of ever coming back...

Chapter 1

July 1989, two days before she ran:

There was a storm that morning.

Tina woke up to it and she turned off the radio as the top forty blared out the latest chart hits - and the sounds that had been rocking the walls of the country house the night before suddenly seemed too loud.

She rolled over in a bed that was wide and empty as she wished the day would come when she wouldn't sleep alone – the silk sheets were creased and she could smell sweat and alcohol – her own stink after a night of partying.

She gave a sigh and got out of bed, noticed the time on the bedside clock read just gone eleven am, and as the rain started to fall and the skies darkened as a rumble of thunder sounded, she headed for the bathroom, missing the streak of lightning that crossed the sky, and the sight of a blue box hitting the ground and an unearthly glow coming from within, reflected from the windows as it sat there in the woodland just beyond the house...

The storm was still raging by the time Tina had left the shower. By now, she sat at the dresser with her head down as she gave her hair a blast from the dryer and worked handfuls of hair mousse through it to give herself big big hair. Then she turned the dryer off, left it on the table and looked into the mirror, liking the way her scrunched hair fell in tendrils of honey-gold and reached her shoulders. She grabbed her make up bag, put on eyeliner and mascara and lipstick and left the rest, feeling too tired to bother with the full works. Then she glanced at the message scrawled on the mirror, a left over from the night before and written in the hand of her closest friend:
'Tina, great house great party, see ya soon!'

She reached for a tissue from a box on the dresser, spat on it and then wiped the message off.

"Thanks a lot April,"she murmured as she cleaned away the evidence, "I was hired to house sit not take the place apart!"

She took a second tissue, cleaned away the last pink smudge and this time didn't need to use spit, then she put the tissues in the bin, her make up back in her over night bag and reached into it and took out a change of clothing:

Zebra print leggings, a wide black plastic belt and a red lycra top. She dressed quickly, and as another flash lit the sky she looked to the window where she could see nothing but a blur of the outside world – the glass was running with rain.

Another rumble of thunder sounded overhead and then there was a crack of thunder as she put on her big, black plastic hoop earrings, and then she put on black shoes with low heels because after the party last night she really didn't want to risk walking in her ankle boots, because those heels were high and her head wasn't quite clear enough yet to trust her balance in heels.

And as the thunder sounded again, a second crash sounded – and this one travelled down the hallway and up the stairs and made her catch her breath as again, there was a thump on the front door...

Her heart was racing as her blue eyes widened and she turned her head towards the open door and looked to the upper hall and the stairway that led down, for a moment all she could smell was the mousse in her hair and turning her head that fast made the room slip sideways, and she cursed herself for the martini she had sunk the night before as she wondered what to do.

There was another thump on the front door.

And Mason Franklin, the man who had hired her to house sit, was said to be a local villain. A gangster. In with some shady people, who she didn't want to know about. He had told her no one would come to the house, because he wasn't expecting anyone – but if someone did show up, she was not to answer the door...

"Oh shit," she whispered under her breath, and she went back to the window and inched aside the lace curtain.

Looking down, she saw a blurry, watery world where the figure of a man moved away from the house and looked up. He was staggering, swaying, as if injured or in pain.

"Okay, so maybe you're not a threat," she muttered, guessing maybe someone had been in a car accident out on the road beyond the house, in this weather, it was a definite possibility... She opened up the window and looked down, seeing the man clearly as he stood in the pouring rain:

He was tall and thin and wearing a black suit. His jacket was open and the wind whipped it back showing a flash of crimson lining as he ran his fingers through wet, greying hair and looked up at her.

"My name is the Doctor," he called up, "I need help!"

She noticed one hand had moved inside his jacket and was now pressed against his side, his hand pressing firmly against his ribs.

"Please?" he called up, and then pain registered in his blue eyes, "Just let me in, I really do need help."

It wasn't the first time she had found an older man attractive, but the thought had crossed her mind as soon as she laid eyes on him. Then she guessed as she put him around fifty he was possibly a friend of Mr Franklin – although she saw no gun beneath his open jacket, and she had expected to see one after the stories she had heard...

"I'm not sure if I should," she called down to him.

The Doctor looked up at her, pressing again on his side to ease the pain.

"I'm the Doctor, I'm not dangerous, I crashed my Tardis and I'm injured. It's raining and I'm cold and I need shelter!"

"Do you know Mr Franklin?" she called back.

He stared at her for a moment, and then he shook his head.

"No, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm out here in the rain with broken ribs!"

"Who broke them?"

Impatience flashed in his eyes.

"The Tardis console when I crashed and got slammed against it! Why? What difference does it make? If I was out there on the road, thrown out of a car wreck, bleeding to death, would you still be asking me all these questions as my life ebbed away?"

There was another rumble of thunder as more rain poured down.

"Point taken - I'll let you in!" she called back, and then she closed the window.

Down in the driveway, the Doctor pressed his hand harder against the dull ache that was spreading through the left side of his rib cage, and hurried for the shelter of the covered porch. As he got there, he leant against the wall, catching his breath as pain began to radiate outwards from the injury.

"Humans," he said as he sucked in a breath and kept his hand against the wound, "You don't know how lucky you are – six slow, gradual weeks to heal a broken bone. I get six weeks of pain in six days before I heal!"

The door opened.

He looked at her, and she stared at him.

"Tardis?" she asked him, "What sort of a car is that?"

He looked down at her. She was shorter than him, her face was pretty and flushed with youth and her figure was as flawless as her features. By the look of her clothing he guessed he was in around the mid to late nineteen eighties.

"It's not a car," he said, adding, "Do you own this house yet?"

Her eyes widened.

"I could never afford a place like this!"

"Maybe not yet..." he looked past her, to the warm, dry hallway with its green carpet and pastel flower wallpaper.

"Let me in, I need to get out of the rain."

"Sorry."

She stepped aside and the Doctor walked in, as she closed the front door he took off his crimson lined jacket and hung it on a coat hook by the door, where droplets of water ran off the fabric and hit the carpet.

Now the rain sounded distant as it showered down outside, and the warmth and solidity of the old house felt like a cocoon as the two of them stood there, human and Time Lord, looking at each other.

"Are you okay?" she asked, and looked a little unsure of what to do next.

"Of course I'm not okay!" he caught his breath, having snapped at her with those words as he clutched at his aching ribs, and she flinched at the sharpness of his tone. He was breaking out in a sweat and feeling light headed as he spoke again.

"Sorry...I heal faster than you humans but the pain, although brief, is nothing less than excruciating. I need you to take me to bed."

Her mascara coated eye widened. She was sure he had just said humans as if he wasn't one – but he had also mentioned going to bed with her, and that was the remark that stuck with her far more than the part about not being human.

"You want me to...what?" she asked.

"Take me upstairs... I need to lie down... I'm not sure I can make the climb up that staircase by myself."

"Okay," was all she said, and she put her arm around him and he gave a gasp, said something about not being a hugger and that was uncomfortable on so many levels, and then she helped him make his slow and painful way up to the top of the staircase.

Tina led him through to the bedroom where she had slept the night before. She was pretty sure some of the other rooms would be messed up thanks to the party and she would have to make the beds, change sheets with stains and throw away used condom wrappers as well as cleaning up spilled drinks and possibly puke... this was the last time, the very last she house sat and called her friends over...

But at least this room was reasonably clean and tidy, not that the state of the room bothered the Doctor, who unbuttoned his white shirt and stripped it off and then sat down heavily on the bed. He pressed his hand to his rib cage again, and as he took it away, Tina's view of his lean but toned body was sideways as she leant over to pick up his shirt from where it had fallen, and then as she draped it over a nearby chair, her gaze was still on him:

She didn't know this man, but the sight of him stripped to the waist made her ache in places she didn't want to think about as she noticed the soft hair that covered his chest, and the way removing his damp shirt had exposed his flesh to the air and made his nipples harden. Suddenly it was hard to look him in the eye as her face flushed - and she looked away to the rain washed window, then back at the Doctor and met his gaze.

"That looks bad," she said, glancing at the deep bruising to his side before looking sharply back to meet his gaze once more as she tried not to think about inhaling the scent of his skin while one of those hard nipples felt warm in her mouth as she sucked and then bit gently...

No...

She didn't want to think about those things, because there was a look in his eyes that said he would want more than foreplay - and she was still a virgin – at least, in the hymen not yet broken sense. She knew all there was to know about how to make a man come – and she had not been short of willing partners, either. But she had not yet gone all the way with anyone, and she was sure that was why the way she felt about this man almost scared her...

"I'll be fine," he said, but his face had paled as he perspired heavily.

"I can probably find painkillers in the bathroom -"

"I said I'll be fine," he replied, and drew in another sharp breath as he pressed his hand against the injury, and then his eyes widened as he tried to handle the bolt of pain that shot through his body, and failed badly as he gave a gasp and then struggled to focus as the pain started to take over.

She stepped closer, and he heard her say something about Was everything okay...

What a dumb question.

He was about to pass out...

"No, I'm not okay, Tina!" he said, and she gasped as he grabbed her arm as he pulled her closer and struggled to fight against the darkness that was enclosing him, "And I know... You never told me your name... But I already know it...I know everything about you...look in my eyes..."

She met his gaze with a wide eyed, alarmed look as she wondered how he had known her name, and on meeting his steel gaze she felt as if something ancient and strange had pierced her soul.

"It's not there yet,"he said breathlessly, "It's not in your eyes yet...but it will be..."

Then he let go of her, breathed out and slumped back against the pillow.

She stood there for a moment, watching his chest rise and fall as he remained motionless, then she carefully lifted him, raising his legs on to the bed and covering him with a blanket.

Tina stood there watching over the wounded man as the rain continued to fall and the storm clouds lightened, she watched him until the rain became a light pattering that danced against the window and continued to dance even as a hint of sunlight broke through cloud, and all the while she looked down at the man who called himself the Doctor asking her self one question:

If he really was a total stranger, how the hell did he know her name?