As always I am deeply indebted to Tantopat who was so incredibly kind as to BetaRead this for me and hammer out all the nastiness of bad grammer and wierd lost sentances...And no offence Tant but I can never get over you getting to go to the Doctor Who Exhibition...AND get close to David Tennant's costume! Why must I live so far away from everything? Why, WHY!?
As for any questions about where this is going, this is a companion piece to the story that I'm working on at the moment. Though it should be noted that it could take a long, long time to finish it. I always feel that I can't get it right, took me three weeks to tweek this until I got it to where I liked it.
Another Lifetime
When the Tardis disappears, leaving her behind, he takes her hand. She knows the feel of his palm against hers well despite their long absence apart, the comforting feel of his fingers winding around and between hers as he tries to comfort her. She sees the young face, feels his hand, but for an instant as she looks at him he's older, taller, with a larger nose and even more prominent ears.
She has to fix him - this new Doctor of hers - he gave her that task, but for a moment she stumbles. Tears blind her and the pain in her heart grows tenfold and the next thing she knows is that she's on the cold, wet ground, sobbing into his shirt as he holds her. Rocking her gently and whispering calming words that are so completely the Doctor as her mother looks on uncertainly from a distance.
The sun sets, her father has come and she knows that her family will wait for her before they leave, giving her the time she needs to grieve. They've been there for her before.
He doesn't leave her, doesn't awkwardly try to cheer her, or even try and tell her that the two of them, they are the same. He just sits there, her in his lap, gently running his fingers through her hair and holding her close. It's all she needs. Him, that's all she ever needs.
She doesn't remember falling asleep, but when she wakes it's dark and it takes her a moment to realize she's in an unfamiliar bed. She closes her eyes tightly, trying to force back the pain in her chest, alone, always alone without him there.
There's a dip in the bed by her side suddenly and her eyes fly open to see what has intruded upon her.
It's him, staring down at her with painfully familiar eyes. She knows they're brown, dark as any night sky and that they always burn like the sun, but as the light flits in through the hotel room window and casts shadows on his face she swears they're a steely and storm-ridden blue. She smiles, despite herself, despite her pain. She smiles up at him, tears in her eyes, and he gently brushes them away.
She knows then.
She knows that her time for grieving is over, that she doesn't need a reason to grieve anymore. It's time she moves on, looks at what is important. Healing him, saving him from his own mind, his own self loathing, that's what she needs. For him, for herself.
He spends the night with her; despite his comforting her, she knows what he needs. She finds it almost haunting how familiar it is for her to hold him as he cries in her arms. She remembers the long nights on a ship with never ending halls spent in the same way.
When the morning comes they both have run out of tears, at least for the moment, and are ready to go with the rest of the Tyler family back to London. Little Toni has instantly charmed him and she finds that the entire trip is spent with him as they play with her darling baby brother. She sees him smile then as the three of them play games, a real smile that warms her pained heart and reminds her that despite all things, it really is him behind the heartbreak and the pain and the guilt that shrouds him.
They need to make him an identity. There's no Doctor in that world, she jokes with him that the position is open for business. He grins back and tells her that being the Doctor is always better with two. She kisses him for it; not a desperate thing like on the beach, but a soft peck on the cheek that makes her lips burn and tingle and make his cheeks darken in what she almost dares to call a blush.
It doesn't take long to make a past for 'Dr. Jon Smith'. It takes even less time, and effort, for Torchwood to hire him. He becomes co-leader of her team; their little contingency welcomes him with open arms and warm smiles. He smiles back, but she sees the shadows behind the action and takes his hand in hers. He looks up at her and the smile falls. The warmth in his eyes as she smiles at him, however, remains.
Months pass. He isn't fitting into this new world well; pains from what he had done fill his head. She watches him as he sits in the large family room staring out at the night sky blankly, and she knows that this place has become too mundane for him. Too routine.
She knows he's surprised when he finds her packing their things into bags, and just smiles at him in response before handing him the approval for vacation time for the both of them. As Pete Tyler's daughter, she's allowed as much vacation time as she would like. As a close and personal friend of the Tyler family - and more importantly her- his conditions are the same.
He asks her as they stuff their things into the car how long she wants to take off for. She raises a brow at him and asks him when he wanted their adventure would be over. He grins and then asks if he can drive.
Jackie finds them wrestling for the keys on the front lawn an hour later.
The night to come finds them in a small seaside bed and breakfast; he had found a small crawlspace that led to the roof. She follows him blindly up, not caring about the spiders and their webs or whatever else might be found in the small tunnel, and tells him as he's pulling sticky dust covered strands of almost silk out of her hair that it was all worth it.
He pulls her into his side and lays back on the roof, and smiles down at her gently as she points out the constellations of their new world. The wind is cold and harsh as it beats against her but they don't care and are awoken rather rudely in the morning by the owner's shrieks from the garden below when she sees them on her roof. She mutters obscenities towards the woman under her breath and buries herself deeper into his side to try and avoid the waking world. He laughs at her and manages to convince her back down to their room.
They explore the area, braving the freezing waters along the beach enough to run through without shoes but not much else. She attempts to make a castle in the sand, only for the pitiful looking thing to fall away when the tide comes in, soaking her to the bone. Pouting when he laughed outright at her, a real true laugh, she grabs a fistful of sand and flings it at him. It doesn't take long for her to pull him into the water with her. They spend the day on the beach and only leave when he finds that she's shivering from the wet and the cold and declares that warm showers and hot chocolate are in order. With chattering teeth she agrees.
The shower and hot chocolate do the trick and the two of them fall into a comfortable sleep. It doesn't last.
It's just past midnight when she hears it. She knows on instinct that it's him. He's having a nightmare. Sitting up in bed carefully she pulls him over to her; he's not asleep like she thought he was.
His head is empty, more so than it was when it was only him in the universe. At least then he had the Tardis. Now there is nothing, just his own thoughts, she knew before he told her that it was driving him mad. She doesn't hesitate in offering him her mind.
He does hesitate. Unsure about answering.
She wins with a reassuring smile and gently pulls his hands up to rest on the sides of her face. He tells her that if there is anything she doesn't want him to see, she should imagine a closed door. He doesn't hide his surprise when he finds only open doors waiting for him. He warns her that the connection can't be reversed; once it's done it's done. She smiles at him and nudges his mind with hers, welcoming him.
The feeling is odd. Another person in her head. She isn't sure what to make of it at first; when he lets his hands drop and she feels him still there, she smiles and decides she likes the closeness. The next day they're on the road again, minds linked and one less shadow on his face. She lets him drive - just the one time.
It was his idea to go to Tibet. She gave no protest, and instead grins at him and asks what he thinks they'll find there.
His eyes seem a little warmer and his smile a little less sad when he says that there's only one way to find out.
He outright laughs at her surprised face when they find out the Himalayas aren't there. Teasing her that after so long she should have at least a basic knowledge of the world in which they were trapped. She shakes her head, frowns at the absence of mountain, and explains that the mountains had been there the months prior. He pauses, glances to where the mountain range should have been and reaches his hand out for her to take. She stares at it for a moment, before the faintest sound of his voice in her head gives her an inkling of his thoughts. Her hand slips seamlessly within his and her grin matching his in brightness stretches from ear to ear on her face.
The Ood are nasty little egotistical bastards compared to what she has known of them in the other world.
He laughs out loud at her thoughts, the sound echoes slightly as it bounces around the metal cage he was in and over to her own holding pen. She frowns, crosses her arms over her chest - all the while mourning the destruction of her beloved blue leather jacket - and tells him that it was his fault to begin with. He just smiles at her and she knows that if it wasn't his idea it would have just been hers.
He doesn't have a screwdriver, so she has to pick the locks and get them out. He isn't happy at his lack of heroism, she placates him with the promise that when they get everything straightened out he can make himself one and be the one to break them out the next time. It's enough to get his mind running - and ultimately hers as well - and figure out how to get the mountains back and send the rather rude aliens packing.
After the mountains - and the many beings that lived on them - were returned, Tibet was proven to be one of his better ideas. He stuck his tongue out at her for the many past flops in his planning that ran through her head. She just shook her head and allowed for the warmth of his presence in her mind to brush away the slight unease that she felt in the back of her mind.
It was another three months of aimless wandering and the usual amount of trouble making and finding before they got the call.
She sobs uncontrollably at what her almost-father tells her. When the call ends and the phone slips from her grasp he hugs her. Tears of his own fall as the information bombards him through their link.
Jackie Tyler is dying, cancer, six months at best. They are on the next zeppelin back to London. Pete greets them with little Toni in his arms; her baby brother looks far older than his two years suddenly and she feels the tears burn again. He slips his hand within hers and she takes strength from the growing intensity of their linked minds.
Her mother doesn't look so bad. Tired, pale, but nothing worse than a rather nasty bug would have been her first guess. But the pale hospital gown, and the soft powder blue walls, and the bright lights, and the many machines all let her know that it isn't just a bug. That tea and sleep won't make her mother feel better like it had when she was ten and her mother had the flu.
Over the days she rarely leaves her mother's side, neither does he. Despite their history, he cares for her mother like a member of a family he feels he has no right to and is pained just as much as she is at Jackie's quick downward plunge due to the disease. Pete buries himself in his work, often locking out the rest of the world and only showing the faintest signs of life when near his wife. Toni is under their care; the absence of his mother's presence and the feelings of depression around him turns the normally bubbly child withdrawn and quiet. He tells her that even at her brother's young age it's clear that he has fairly powerful telepathic abilities- by human standards, of course.
She thinks the sun and the bright cheeriness of the day is disgusting as her mother's heartbeat slowly tapers off. The birds chirp and children joyfully play as she sobs in the arms of her lover. Pete cradles the lifeless Tyler Matriarch in his arms, tears that he has fought for so long falling in great rivets as her mother's doctor stands in the doorway uncertainly.
The tears are less at the funeral, the faintest touches of acceptance wrapping around them as they lower the box into the ground. Pete has pulled in on himself, the pain of losing his wife not once but twice more than he can bear. The lack of time from his father's almost constant working leaves Toni in his sister and her beau's care. The young boy's need for them has rooted them firmly to the lush Tyler Estate. The stationary, day in - day out life falls short of their hopes and it doesn't take much for the cold absence of Jackie to make them want to leave.
They take her brother with them, deciding that they need to take care of him and that maybe leaving behind the cold Tyler place and the much darker London behind will be good for him.
His solemn, rather disturbing absence of joy seems remedied for a while as they travel about the planet.
Years pass quickly, much faster than he even realizes they are able to, and soon her toddler brother is turning ten. He smiles some when she thinks that she can keep the thoughts of marriage to her own secret desires. He's a little pained when she whispers to herself that he 'doesn't do domestic', words he spoke what seems like a lifetime ago.
She cries when he asks her, not just a few tears but outright cries as she flings her arms around him and gives him her answer. The warmth of her buzzing mind soothes away any fears he has. Toni with his not quite yet controlled abilities asks without spoken words if he can be the best man.
The ceremony is small, the remaining Tylers and the very few friends they have picked up over the years as witnesses to the union.
It doesn't change much - anything - but the happiness she feels and the emotions that swirl on between them makes him feel weak-kneed and slightly drunk as she appears at the end of the aisle. The two little words that seal their fate never seemed to mean so much as when they were spoken, and the many kisses from years previous seem to almost pale in comparison to the small one at the end of the ceremony.
They settle back in London after the wedding. A decent house (and mortgage, she always adds laughingly) that isn't so far away from the main Torchwood headquarters, and Toni seems content with the place. He wants children, a wish she shares but fears all the same. He always is able to soothe her worries about motherhood with their experience with raising Toni.
Things come up - alien invasions, rift activity, non-alien business that is perhaps even more disturbing. More years pass by in what seems to him a blink of an eye and a century.
They never stop traveling, always running this way and that, but things are a bit different. Toni is in Cambridge, nineteen and adept at his abilities - if not a little careless at times. They spend more time in London than anywhere else. Trying to stay close to the Rift in Canary Warf and the inevitable trouble emanating from it that would need fixing.
Her breath is stuck in her throat as she stares down at the small plus sign. The past so many years the fear has been there, in the back of her mind. Timelord - no matter how many hearts he had - and human…is it even possible for them to have a child?
A smile turns her lips upwards and she feels him stand in the doorway of the bathroom behind her. In the mirror she can see the gleam of unbelieving excitement in his eyes, the not-quite-believing yet hope there. She turns, test still in trembling hand, and with what little control over her body she has gives him a small nod.
The test clatters to the floor as he lifts her up and spins her round. His laugh is loud and happy and for perhaps the first time in more years than she can believe there isn't a trace of blue in his eyes or shadows on his face. Just him, laughing and hugging and loving with everything that he has.
Pete manages to untangle himself from his work to join his family and friends in a big meal. No one but the two of them know the reason for the celebration, and they are quick to tell anyone who asks that they will have to wait to find out.
Later that night she laughs at the turn-out of the big announcement, not quite as grand as they had pictured when the idea for the party had come to them.
Toni had been offering her some wine, noticing as well as other guests that she was the only one without a beverage. She gently pushes the hand her brother holds the glass in and the connection is instant. His blue eyes widen, his brows are lost in a mesh of strawberry blond, and the glass comes crashing to the floor.
He shares a look with her and then they both grin at their guests as her father shares a look with his son. She suddenly understands, as a majority of the guests reach for her flat stomach, the reason pregnant women so often threaten death to those who touch them.
He laughs and slings an arm around her, ushering her away from the reaching hands. She smiles at him and he feels the gratitude that she sends to him. Their bond seems so much stronger now, with there being three of them bonded together psychically.
Traveling is cut short; or at least in the international sense. He wants her to take it easy, as does everyone else. She understands his reasoning but nevertheless resents being treated like a fragile doll.
She's concerned when she doesn't start showing at four months, or even six months, and he reassures her that it's normal for his kind to have longer gestational periods than humans. She starts to miss her flat stomach at eight months when she suddenly grows much larger in a very short time. At nine months she is large, and walking is a strain but according to him she has another three - or even five - months left.
Their travels have stopped altogether and she has been restrained to a desk. She hates it, and the fact that people - family, friends, mostly total strangers – have been in the habit of touching her large load as if her personal space has been temporarily vetoed and her stomach is now public property. The pregnancy is hard on her though, the mixture of alien and human genes and hormones causing more than the norm in unpleasantness for her. He feels what she does, their bond growing each day with the child she carries, and she often finds herself giving him a soft slap on the arm for his guilt at what it was doing to her. She was strong, she always told him; as long as he was there she would be able to get through anything. He smiled and gently linked his fingers within hers.
There has been a number of disappearances, more than normal. A team is sent out to investigate. Jake volunteers to lead as a favor to her. She can't go out in the field, and she doesn't want him far in case something happens that she doesn't understand. On the third week out, Jake calls in. They have found what was causing the disappearances.
Cybermen.
She's terrified when she hears the word. The instincts to protect her child and the memories of the years before they were reunited fill her head - and his - and she finds for a moment that she
can't breathe. He leads her to a chair, calling Pete and Toni and making arrangements for them to stay at the Tyler Estate with her father and brother. She doesn't want to leave their home for any reason, but her father's large house is safer, and she feels the need to be locked behind the high gates and the state-of-the-art security system.
Torchwood tries its best, tries and snuffs out the small nest hidden away in the sewers. But there's more than they thought, the cyborg numbers grow with each agent they assimilate. Then it happens. The inevitable drive of the Cybermen programming.
Invasion.
He was fighting, fighting for her, for their child, as she was locked away in the cement castle of hers. When they start swarming the streets he makes his way back; she never has cried so much as when she sees him at the door with a gun in hand. Toni and Pete have weapons too; they even gave her a large gun just in case. They all know what's about to happen.
The tall gates are demolished and the security system disabled as they march towards the mansion. They've hidden a number of people behind the thick walls, stuffing the large house to the brim with those in need of help. It's just the four of them, fighting against so many, and she knows that in her condition it's more like three.
He kisses her as the strong wooden doors are broken down, it's like the one they shared on the beach. She feels the fear in him, feels the fear she has and tears fall. They hear the creatures that once were human shouting, commanding surrender. There's anger suddenly, from her, from him, from them both, she doesn't know. But it's there and it's strong and the next thing she knows the metal men are falling with each pull of a trigger.
She heard the call for decimation, the one word order that sealed the fate of so many, and there was pain from somewhere and then there was darkness.
She wakes up in a hospital. Bright lights above her, and the dull noise of machines and she thinks for a moment it's a dream, and that she's come to visit her mother and has simply fallen asleep. But then her mind comes alive and she realizes that there's something wrong.
Her stomach hurts, and her head feels…empty. She groans, attempting to sit up without jostling her large stomach and she realizes with a clear cold horror that there is no reason to. Her hand, shaking with fear, comes to rest on her nearly flat stomach. She breaths, heavy and sudden and panicked as she begins to hyperventilate. Nurses are rushing in, the screech of the heart monitor alerting her to her terror. They push her down, gently trying to calm her. But her head feels wrong; she looks around wildly for him but there's nothing. He isn't there, he isn't holding her hand or hugging her or even gently gliding around her head to reassure her.
He isn't there.
There's a pain in her arm, distant in her panic, and suddenly the world seems fuzzy and dim. She falls into unconsciousness again.
When she wakes again Pete is there, Toni beside him as they softly talk between themselves and watch her. There's something wrong with their solemn, hesitant looks as she asks them what happened. Where was her child, her husband?
Pete is the one to finally answer her. Coming and gently wrapping his arms around her like he had Jackie's body so long ago. Toni comes around the other side of the bed, bandaged some and a little bruised. The words that they speak seem surreal, faraway as if strangers were saying absent news to another stranger.
He was dead. They both…he and their child were dead.
She doesn't realize she is sobbing until the wet fabric of Pete's shirt is pressed against her cheek. The only thing she can manage between her sobs is to ask them why she had to live. Why couldn't she have died with them?
They don't have an answer.
The Cybermen were defeated, not long after the attack on the Tyler Estate. She was released from the hospital, just in time to plan the funerals. Toni offers to do it for her, she doesn't want it though. She was the only one who knew enough about him to give him the funeral he wanted, that his people would have given him. That his people would have given their child.
She decides that Bad Wolf Bay will be the place for the pyres. She wears dark blue; he told her once that was the color of mourning for his people. She remembers almost bitterly his solemn comment that before The War - that's what they called it the very rare times it was mentioned - he wanted almost nothing to do with his people and their customs.
It wasn't like it had been when her mother died. This day was dark, gunmetal grey clouds over head. It made her cry all the harder when she discovers that the storm has already hit, the Oncoming Storm is dissipating.
Their friends stay for several hours, slowly fade off in a sad march with soft goodbyes as they head back to wherever they are staying. There will be a wake in the morning, at sunrise. Something loud and cheerful despite the despondent occasion. He would have wanted a party; full of celebration, full of good memories and banana daiquiris.
Toni is the last to leave, giving her a soft squeeze to the shoulder as he goes, following his father. They had raised him, practically were his parents for most of his life. He feels the blow of his almost-father's loss nearly as heavily as she does.
She isn't going leave, not until the last embers has gone cold. She'll stand there, the world going dark around her, watching as the flames flicker and the sickly-sweet smell of burning flesh and incense waft up in billows of smoke from the two burning piles. It felt wrong, not honoring the child they almost had, even if the small thing had not properly been brought into the world. The sight of the much smaller pile burning made a fresh round of tears fall and her heart constrict painfully.
There's someone behind her, she thinks at first with a distant mind that someone has come to say goodbye for the night. But then the person takes a step closer and there's something, a buzzing at
the back of her mind that seems so familiar that it brings fresh tears to her eyes. A nervous, uncertain shuffle of feet and then the person speaks with a sad soft voice.
"I…" Tearful she turns, facing the strange young woman. "I'm so sorry…but I…" The girl is pretty, small and thin and with prominent features. Her long hair is loose and the blonde strands are caught in the wind. She is wearing black - no, no dark blue - and looks sad and unsure. She thinks that the younger woman looks familiar, as if she had seen her long ago. It unsettles her some.
After a moment of watching the pyre behind her, the woman returns her gaze and takes in a slow breath. "You're Rose Tyler…" She nods, uncertain but too tired and too alone to care about what might happen to her. "You…you traveled with him? The Doctor." It caught her, a kind of shove to the chest, 'The Doctor'. Everyone outside the family called him Jon, because for all they knew that was his name.
"Who…" Her brow furrows, she looks at the girl more carefully. Her face is familiar, but her hair…it seemed wrong loose like it was. She tries to imagine the strands pulled away from her remorseful face, allowing for her brilliant blue eyes to be seen. An image in blacks and grays on white drawing paper sparks to life from her faraway memories. "Jenny."
The word came out without consent. He told her before, of the daughter that he had gained and lost in a single night. Of how for a brief few hours she was his world, his hope at not being alone and how a bullet and a man obsessed with the fight had changed it all.
The woman nods. Shifting from foot to foot, she tries to find her voice. "You, when I first came to be…he thought of you. Of how I looked like you." The uncertain stance, the firelight on her soft features; his drawings had never quite captured how beautiful a girl she was.
For a moment, she wonders if she has gone insane. If after so much, the longing for another has finally driven her over the edge. She blankly stares at the woman, tilting her head to the side as she stares into her eyes. "How can you be here? Are you…are you real?" The tears have made her voice thick, somewhat choked from it being so many days since she has spoken actual words.
The other woman nods, reaching her hand out and gently touching her arm. "Yes, I…there was a crack. A tiny, little crack. We just made it through."
"You're dead." She doesn't think about what those words could mean, or how they have might hurt the girl. She doesn't care anymore, about anything. Slowly the younger woman retracts her hand.
The Timelady flinches a little, shifting again on her feet. "I regenerated, in a way." She nods, waiting for her to continue. "Are you really Bad Wolf?" Ice slides through her veins at the name, throbbing pain filling her head. It always was that way when her other persona was named. "I need you." She shakes her head, turning to face the pyres again.
"I don't care, I don't…I can't do it anymore. I can't go pushing on and leaving people behind. I don't, I need to say goodbye; for once I need to give him a proper goodbye." There's anger there, through the grief and the pain; there is anger at the intrusion. They had a life, there were going to have a child. They lived and they laughed and they loved. He is - was - is her husband. She has the right to say goodbye.
A hand is softly set on her shoulder, gently his daughter comes to stand beside her. "I'm sorry." The words are meant; with every fiber of her being this tiny little barely-a-woman means those two little words. "I…I know that, that he loves you. Not just…not just this him…" She doesn't see the nod the other woman gives to the larger burning pyre but she knows that the girl has done so. "He still loves you in the other universe, I feel it. But…"
She turns, just barely, to see the woman bite her lip. She knows there's something, the girl is afraid for him. "What happened? Why…why didn't he come here himself?" She feels a pit in her stomach, fear clutching at her heart.
"He…can't, there…" Looking away from her, the other sighs, trying to find the words to explain. "There's reasons, things he can't know about yet. Things that have to be fixed first." There's a sense of foreboding in the words, and a chill works its way down her spine as memories of gold come to mind. The last time she tried to fix something, he died. She still feels the pain of the loss, it doesn't matter that she hasn't really lost him.
"Why me? Why do you need me?" There's a pause, a tense moment passes between them as she waits for an answer. The more the seconds pass the more she knows that some questions won't be answered - not immediately.
"You're…like me." She glances over again, not sure about the hesitant answer.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She isn't dodging the unspoken question, her words are innocent and truthful.
"How old are you? You've been here for nineteen years. Longer even. Twenty-Two years." She knows where the other woman is going with her words, and wonders about the childish impulse she has to cover her ears and block her out. "You're forty-one years old Rose Tyler, forty-one and you don't look a day over nineteen."
"I've always looked good for my age." Now she's avoiding the implications, she doesn't like where this is headed. She doesn't want to admit to the thoughts she has feared over the years.
"You left a message for him after Donna was pulled out of the created dimension." She goes silent, unable to fend off the facts that everyone has overlooked. She pulls her dark blue shawl tighter around herself. "You're not as human as you make yourself believe." She closes her eyes, memories of the past and the truth she obstinately refuses to admit to overwhelming her.
"Humans decay, they wither and they die. But then there's those like us, isn't there? Timelords and Timeladies, and one Big Bad Wolf like me." Her shoulders shake, her breath comes in short gasps as sobs force hot tears through her tightly shut lids and down her cheeks. The facts and the grief are mixing inside of her, making the pain of losing him seem so physical. "I never thought…I never thought I would be the one to live…" Jenny hugs her, tears gently falling down her cheeks as well.
"He loves you." She's said it before, this daughter of his, she says it again as if the three words will heal her. "He loves you, he always has loved you, he always will. Even if this him is…is gone…he loves you. And…" The younger blonde licks her lips for a moment. Her sobs are catching in her throat but the sound of the other woman's voice is calming and she finds herself hugging her in return. "…And he needs you, right now, in that other world he's in trouble and he needs you."
The fire is dimmer now, the smoke drifting down the beach away from them as a burst of cold wind picks up. She understands that Jenny is giving her the choice; stay and mourn him, or leave and save him. Have the strength to do what she had failed at during the battle.
A final tear slips down her cheek, falling with a kind of finality. She nods, taking a half-step back as she continues to hug the girl. "I can't lose anyone else. I- I won't." It's the Timelady's turn to nod, her sparkling blue eyes turning skyward to the unfamiliar stars above. She follows the other woman's gaze.
"Neither will he."