DOCTOR WHO:
ALL THAT IS YOURS
WRITTEN BY ZARIUS
Note: Ok, so initially this was written after I read a FALSE Spoiler about the novel 'Diamond Dogs' which revealed Sarah Jane Smith died in 2017. It's been debunked since then but I'd rather keep this story up. Enjoy.
-Zarius
The Doctor looked to his left, then to his right.
Eyes were everywhere.
Accusatory, penetrating, curious, innocent.
None of them ever looked cross.
He usually preferred it that way.
In this instance however, his guilt was persuading him to demand much more from the still photos of Susan Foreman and Professor River Song.
"I'm already in enough trouble with Nardole, he's the only one out of the three of you I can handle
Behind him came a faint wheeze and a groan emitting from the TARDIS
"Yes, I included you too, you're the one who kept us stuck in 1814 'till we set loose a hell of a prize catch for the above average fishermen
He allowed the eyes of his granddaughter and wife to pierce through his emotional barriers, it generated a quiet and quite appetising fury within.
He tightly clenched his right fist, hoping that the elevated levels of tension and anxiety would compel him to plant it hard on the desk and cut through the deathly quiet of the study.
He needed a healthy sort of hurt.
Unfortunately, he had to temper it as Nardole stepped in, who gave him a piping hot cup.
"Tea sir? "
The Doctor took the cup and sipped it lightly, he handed it back to Nardole.
"There's not enough coffee in it"
"I've ran out" Nardole revealed.
"Well get more" The Doctor insisted
"I'd have to nip over to the all night shops, the canteen is shut at this hour"
"And what's stopping you?" asked The Doctor.
"If I take one step out of your world, there's a good chance you'll step off this one. I won't let you. Remember your oath"
"I've got a lot to remember...Bill's evaluation of historical whitewashing gained an extra page or two after our last adventure. I'm still course correcting the grammar"
"Sir, this is getting old" Nardole said
"I'm as old as time itself, everything is young."
"You need to go to her...it's only right"
"And say what? Sorry I couldn't collect all the jigsaw pieces? The world doesn't need rearranging, it needs a plaster"
"You don't have to concentrate on all the world's pain, it's best for you and Bill if you could tend to your own"
"I'm not sharing this pain with her or you "
"Then share it with yourself...pop on over to the grove, where this is all started, where you said she was yours"
"You remember the toss we had?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes, but I thought that meant I'd leave you to otherworldly antics, not alone whenever you deemed fit" said Nardole.
"Care for a last chance saloon, or would you rather hold to that promise?" The Doctor said, producing a coin.
Nardole huffed and walked out just as Bill entered.
"I couldn't help but overhear something about pain and some tryhard attempt at the character motivations of someone in Star Trek V"
"Star What V?" The Doctor asked.
"Never mind...I wanted to show you something" Bill replied.
The Doctor raised an eyebrow, curious as to what she meant.
She led him outside and across the campus towards the main hall, she pointed him in the direction of a placard reading 'St Lukes', which contained an inscription.
'One day, I shall come back'
"I'd heard stories about the founder of this university when you enrolled me in...handsome bloke, some say he was the youngest apprentice to the education minister in this corner of the country...how he came to put this place together is like hearing about someone winning the lottery or something. All he was known to have said on record is after the death of his mother, things got easier for him due to time. Then one day after everything got settled here, he just vanished...left a note saying he'd see us 'presently'. Would you know anything about that?"
"Maybe in the future I would" said The Doctor.
"Where do you think we are then?" asked Bill.
"It's never when with you is it?" The Doctor replied.
"You said yourself dimensions are relative to life...life is places, life is people"
"I see life as a splinter, pain solved by a swift pull and then eased only by the passage of time"
"Where should we go next? Somewhere where happier days begin and end?"
The Doctor smiled, he found charm in Bill's lack of subtlety.
"Nardole told you a lot before he visited my office didn't he?"
"He reckoned you didn't want to share something, so I'm sharing you that story, it's something to think about...something to act on"
"Someone to meet"
"See, you're getting there...there's more to your world than just me and Uncle Fester"
"Perhaps Nardole was right...perhaps I should share something with you."
One assurance to Nardole of no off-world business later, the TARDIS materialized at a quiet and lush grove situated within a glistening park centre. The Doctor and Bill stepped out.
As soon as she did, Bill felt something, a tingling, vibration sensation all through her body.
"Have you noticed anything...peculiar about the fauna encircling the grove?"
"Yeah, there's this fragrance, every time I inhale it everything feels like it vibrates"
The Doctor produced his sonic and pointed it north. Bill was puzzled.
"Yes, yes this makes sense...consider the shape of this grove, it is an extension of what the 36' Flower of Life Gong, the sonic metaphor for the primordial sound that emits on a usually undetectable level, and normally it is...unless you're a time and space traveller. Our physical and mental states are in tune with the vibrations in flux, the temporal and biometrical signatures of everything bending as well as balancing"
"So you're telling me there's pockets of these places, where you can feel what the Earth's feeling?" Bill asked
"Welcome to the turn of the Earth, this is where anything you desire can begin, and where it can end"
Bill felt sad.
"This is where love ends for you doesn't it?"
"Maybe it's where it all begins again for me too...just as this is an extension of the gong, what you showed me, what must happen, a piece of the puzzle, life and love blend in and out, the plaster on the splinter is in need of rearranging"
"How will you know when to start sorting out the puzzle?"
"Oh I think we can afford the long way 'round Bill..come on, there's plenty to do, a lot actually, and time lasts longer than tea"
As they stepped into the TARDIS, The Doctor looked back on the grove, on a time where he was thanked for a series of special moments in time, and where he was encouraged to say goodbye to what was his.
He regretted not have that moment's eyes cross his own in the study.
He blew a kiss to the heavens and entered the TARDIS. Swiftly, it left the grove.
The place where all that is yours begins and ends.