I will be honest and say I don't know why I'm writing this, I got a moment of inspiration! I just wanted to write something with some angst, adventure and pain, a lot of pain both emotional and physical. Of course I have Amy and Rory, who else would set the Doctor straight? But there's someone in the shadows of his memories... someone who he thought was dead. :D Find out here! Yay! I hope you enjoy and please Revieww! xx

Chapter 1

The red grass stretched out for miles, housing nothing more but the state of pure perfection as Planets rang ringlets around their beautiful solar system, across the sky in dozens of exotic colours. They sat there together, staring out for hours upon hours... watching their great Planet, their city far in the distance; spires reaching out towards the protective glass bubble surrounding it. But never quite reaching it, always an inch between the highest spire... it was safe. But those two Gallifreyan Children never played it safe.

She turned to him, locks of brown curly hair spattering her pale face, the eyes of an innocent, and the smile of an angel. "It's your eighth birthday next week!" she grinned, speaking in their native tongue, the indistinguishable, world colliding ancient language that was Gallifreyan. Her small youthful arm spread out across his back in comfort.

The brunette boy and girl of seven years stared at each other; care free. "You know what that means right?"

He rolled his eyes, batting her arm away playfully; "the time vortex ceremony..."

"Some say it gobbles you up!"

He laughed, knocking against her shoulder in childish innocence.

Then his face fell.

"But what if it does?" he turned to her, locks of his fringe falling over his eyes as his smile faltered. No one ever told the children of Gallifrey what awaits them on that fateful day... all they knew were three simple things.

"One," the female grinned, lifting one of her small fingers in a counting process, "some are inspired."

He joined in, licking his upper lip to banish away the bout of laughs attacking his system; "some run away."

They both looked into each other's eyes. Hers of green, his of chocolate brown. They both put on the same facial expression, that same mocked horror they shared as they put their palms against each other's, seeking comfort like only best friends could. "And others go insane."

They both fell to the grass then, laughing as the children of Gallifrey did so frequently... because they weren't given the position of observing the Universe but to simply be a part of it.

She looked to him, stretching her hand out so he could take it, so they would be joined once more in their friendship-bound psychic connection that they frequently used when apart, grounded or under the laws of education. Their fingers twined around each other's as their minds melded together giving one another a shroud of warmth to curl up within. She smiled, using her free arm to extend towards the heavens... pointing towards the deep swirling space beyond their brilliant Planet. "When I'm older I want to go out there." She grinned, "I want to see the Universe!"

He smiled, pointing a finger out also, "I'd want to go..." he paused a moment, pointing directly at a magnificent violet Planet, perfectly spherical as it gave off a warm green glow. "There!" he decided.

"Why stop there? We could go anywhere we wanted!" she grinned, looking back to him. Her emerald eyes shimmered as she put her hand down against the moist red grass, her small fingers tucking into it and shovelling the dirt into her palms; "together, we could go anywhere we wanted!"

He smiled deviously, his eyes glinting with that flicker of danger she loved so much, "they might not approve."

"I don't care." She whispered the last word as if it were a heaven to even say it. Her eyes sparkled with thought, placing one of her fingers delicately to her lips, "we could steal a TARDIS... a brand new fully grown TARDIS from the fields and run away together!"

He laughed, pulling her in closer, so they could feel each other's thoughts swimming within their minds... feel that connection that only they could feel. "I'd like that," he agreed.

"You promise me you won't change when you do your ceremony right?" she whispered, barely audible but to him, he knew she really meant it. She didn't want to be abandoned. She didn't want him to go crazy and forget she ever existed. He looked into her eyes. "I promise you on the bond that we share that I will not change, not ever." He grinned, pulling her into a warm hug.

She smiled, poking him gently on the nose, "good," she replied smugly, rolling further into his arms with a muffled laugh; "'cause I don't know what I'd do without you... you're the one that makes me feel better."

He laughed, "Like your own personal Doctor."

She rolled her eyes, sighing as she looked up into the stars, "fine; you're my Doctor but in return I get to be your everything else."

The Doctor's eyes opened with a start, his hands instantly threading through his hair... as if just for a second he had to be sure where he was. The steady thrumming of the TARDIS put him on track, his mind racing as he sought out the memories that flooded through his mind.

"Why did you do that?" he scolded the TARDIS as he walked up the steps from under the console, but not with his usual childish glee. No, not after that.

He felt the TARDIS push on his mind, reminding him that he had been tired, reminding him that dreams are the natural outcome of sleep.

The Doctor shook his head, unconsciously straightening his bow tie; "not that kind of dream," he sighed, rubbing his jaw in frustration; "that... I've never even thought... it was just," he blinked, startling himself with the flood of emotions that overcame him. He'd never even thought about her. Not until then... why here, why now?

He leant against the console, turning his head warily making sure that the Ponds were still in bed and had for no reason woken up and made their way to the console.

Unlikely...

The Doctor shuddered to think what happened behind closed doors, but after the whole Melody/River fiasco he had stubbornly forbade them to keep that activity to a bare minimum and defiantly never on the TARDIS. The Doctor smiled, the thought of his friends calming him down from his painful memories.

"But I have to be sure," he muttered, running towards the monitor hanging from the console and drawing it out with one hand. He typed in a few brief words and letters. The monitor whirred angrily, not wanting to work and instead bringing up blurred static and incomprehensible noises.

"Come on!" the Doctor pleaded, hitting the side of the monitor. I have to be sure; I have to be absolutely, positively certain that what I saw wasn't...

The name; shrouded... only the Doctor could know that name... the name able to break apart solar systems, the powerful name of a true Gallifreyan. The picture... the same brunette child he'd loved in so many ways. Her picture just as his dream had left it... seven years old... brown hair flapping in the breeze of the Gallifreyan night, the deep red grass preserved in a seemingly grey stance from the lack of light from their suns and stars... but her eyes still glowed. With such vibrancy, such life.

But the word he was most interested in wasn't the information, but the one printed just beneath. The Information he didn't care about... except for that one word. A word he hated to read, a word that made his stomach twist with such fierce emotions. A word that he had to force himself to come to terms with every time he read it. He took one long sigh and then... took his gaze upon that word.

Deceased

Oh snap! xD YES I JUST said that! Hopefully more soon, I'm working on two things, but I just want to write this aswell... haha, I hope you enjoyed and please review, I want to know whether or not to carry this on... xXx