Summary: The Doctor travels alone. He's lost far too many human-companions to get himself to take another one with him. So what if all of a sudden a Time Lady appeared – suffering from amnesia? And the Doctor keeps her- without knowing that her true self once had been the most ill-spirited Time Lord of all time?
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who – I own most of the daft humour in this though ;)
Characters: 10 missing Donna, 10/fem!Master, Jack/everyone ;D
Spoiler: For everyone who hasn't completed S4, yet
Warning: Is it still MxM when one of them has become a woman? :) I don't think so, but just if you dislike the thought, better turn away. Non-native author
Set: in an AU in which the Master didn't die after 'Last of the Time Lords'. Takes place right after JE
Rating: PG-13 (more? Very likely)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Psychological
A/N: Sorry for the long inactiveness with FFs, writer's block & stuff kept nagging me, wish me luck that I'm over it ;)
Chapter 1: Old friends…?
It was this odd silence the Doctor would never get used to. The short time without any sound between the TARDIS materializing and him scooting out of the door into his next adventure. He'd never seen how important someone's voice was that asked "sooo, where've you brought me to, this time?"
Wavering the Doctor drummed his palms onto the control panel in front of him. How long since he travelled alone now? A week, more, less? He had no clue, but he didn't see how he should deal with this over years… for the rest of his life.
No! This was the wrong time to get melancholic; he'd made his decision and it was for the best. Better he had to deal with this silence than the pain of losing someone else… right?
He knew that if he wouldn't go out now then he'd never and just end up vrowping through the vortex again – in silence… so he pushed himself away from the control panel and out of the door. Next adventure, here he came.
Instantly the Doctor had to shield his eyes from the sunlight; somehow he'd expected the weather to attach to his current mood but what he saw was Cardiff on a perfect midsummer eve. The Time Lord sighed, everywhere happy people walking and chatting and laughing got him annoyed, more than it should have.
All grumpy he wandered through the city. He shouldn't have come here, he had no reason anyway. He should be somewhere outta space, a planet about to collapse, a nation on the edge of destruction, somewhere he was needed, at least to distract his mind.
He was just about to turn back to the TARDIS as he heard it, paralyzed.
"Impossible" he mumbled and slowly turned towards the direction the noise had come from. What he'd believed to hear was the sound of a TARDIS… a similar type to his just a lot more silent "not with the breaks on" he thought, so it likely wasn't just him accidentally crossing his own timeline.
He started running, sure that this was just his mind playing tricks on him. He was lonely and slowly this affected his sanity – or what was left of it anyway. Panting the Doctor came to stop at an abandoned crossroad; far and wide nothing but skyscrapers.
A loud shot cut through the silence and made both of his hearts skip a beat. Alarmed he scanned his surroundings. A street at the frontier of Cardiff, not too clean and deserted so where did this shot came from?
"Hello?!" he called out of mere panic, an appearing TARDIS and a shot, this couldn't mean any good.
The next thing he heard twisted his stomach, it was a most unpleasant splashing sound, the kind of splashing sound a living creature made while hitting the ground hard.
"No!" the Doctor turned around to a couple of smaller houses in slow motion. He moved toward the buildings with their 5-6 floors like through a nightmare. He'd wake up, of that he was sure. Any minute the TARDIS would make an odd sound and he'd yank out of this.
Just like life wanted to prove him right a sudden yellow light appeared from between two of the houses; that was a typical Time Lordy-yellow, this couldn't be anything but a dream – for sure. The Doctor quickened his pace until he was running, this yellow light looked so familiar, he'd seen it 9 times now; always when he'd died and woke up as someone else again.
As soon as the Doctor had reached the alleyway he realized, he was awake.
He was looking at a brightly glowing body which doubtlessly was a Time Lord and he was just regenerating. Gaping the Doctor stood there until the glowing faded away and revealed her.
She looked about his age, impossibly much older, and wore a blue boiler suit. Dark, straight but fringy hair hung in her face and on the asphalt of the street. The Doctor gulped and looked up at the houses bordering the alley they were in. This sound of a shot… if she'd fallen down from one of these after someone shot her it was no wonder that she had regenerated.
"Doctor?" The Doctor spun around.
"Jack?!" he wondered as he saw the man standing in front of him; his weapon ready to shoot.
"Thanks god, you're ok! I-I heard this sound of something like a TARDIS and then I saw the regeneration glow and… glad you're ok."
The Doctor just nodded, what was happening here?
"How long has it been to you? Saying good bye to Donna, I mean..." Jack asked to dissolve the silence.
"Some… months" he lied and Jack nodded shortly.
"Same with me. 4 months I think… But hey! Why are we standing here, chatting while there's a Time Lord lying there!?"
He was right! The Doctor turned back and both men rushed up to the young woman who still lay unconscious on the street.
"Do you know her?" Jack questioned the Doctor.
"No, at least I'm not sure…" he replied, crouched down beneath the woman. "She just regenerated and it seemed it was a big one… if I knew her former self I don't recognize her right now."
"A big one?" Jack wondered and the Doctor nodded moony, busy with searching through his coat for the screwdriver.
"A huge change I mean. Serious, or let's say 'damaging' injuries require bigger regenerations. They alter appearance, psyche and other characteristic a lot; sometimes enough so even Time Lords don't recognize each other again."
Jack went on; talking about it being a shame the Doctor forgot such a "cute little Time Lord".
"Time Lady", he corrected while he was scanning the woman head to toe "a female Time Lord's mostly called 'Time Lady'… That's bad."
"Huh?" Jack seemed to have recognized the worry in the Doctor's tone and kneeled down to the hurt Time Lady too.
"Barely any vital signs… if she had been shot first and fell down afterwards, it's possible she got seriously hurt during her regeneration."
"She could die?!" Jack asked shocked. In answer, the Doctor instantly he lifted the woman's limb body up. She was cold; far too cold for a freshly-regenerated Time Lord, she still should be cooking.
"I will take her to the TARDIS" the Doctor explained, turning to go.
"I'll come along", Jack decided.
"No, go to the roof of these buildings" the Doctor replied.
"But…!"
"Both of us heard a TARDIS materialize, maybe it's still up there. I need to take care of her, just catch up with me when you've found what's up there."
With these words both men separated.
Jack arrived on the rooftop of the second building. The first one had been empty. No TARDIS, no other living creature, nothing that showed what had just happened, so either on this one or nowhere. It didn't take Jack more than some seconds to be sure: no TARDIS in sight.
It also didn't take a genius to see that no person was there either, nor was there some kind of weapon or any allusion to what had just happened. Just a second rooftop; some gravel, some garbage, no hint anywhere close.
Disappointed Jack crossed his arms in front of his chest. This wouldn't please the Doctor at all. He'd really hoped he could go back with good news for the lonely alien – no matter he didn't admit it, it was more than obvious how hard the past happenings had hit him. Months since it happened to him? He looked like it had been hours and he seemed to be alone; this wasn't much like him at all and certainly not good for him anyway.
Knowing he couldn't find anything that simply wasn't there, Jack left. He walked down the street and searched for the familiar blue box, oblivious to the beautiful sight the burning red sun offered while setting behind him.
"Doctor?" he called into the enormous ship as soon as he'd found it.
"Where are you?" He didn't receive an answer, but the soft humming of the TARDIS itself leaded him down some corridors right to the medical bay. Jack heard frantic footsteps from inside and gadgets being found, used and thrown aside.
"How is she?" Jack asked, closing the door to the bay behind him.
"Not too well" the Doctor replied quickly but with true sorrow in his eyes.
"What've you found?"
"I tell you later, ok? Just get this done", Jack offered but the Doctor, who just shook some kind of thin metal pipe, answered: "no, tell me now. I'm working better when I've many tasks at once." A deep green glow from within the pipe seemed to satisfy the Doctor. Jack knew he was right, so he shortly told him what he'd found: nothing.
"Are you sure?" the Doctor mumbled, hovering the glowing pipe over the woman's chest.
"Yeah… Sorry", Jack said, but got no answer. The Doctor just straightened up, giving the woman on the bed a grievous look.
"She's dead" he breathed out.
"No…" Jack exclaimed. This couldn't happen; not now! Not while the Doctor needed someone like another Time Lord or Lady that much.
"No pulse, no reaction to any tests… dead." The Doctor sat back on a chair, looking like any power had left him.
"No!" Jack said, louder this time."Don't give up just now! Keep trying, give her some alien drug, poke her with your sonic-something! Do anything!"
"She's dead!" the Doctor bit back but Jack wouldn't give up on this. It wasn't only that this woman was far too young to die, the Doctor was also far too himself to do nothing about it.
"People can be brought back!" Jack received just a tired look from the Doctor and it scared him to see he'd given up; not only on the woman on the bed but also on himself.
"Fine, sit there and be useless!" the captain spat out and walked over to the Time Lady.
"So Miss, you will now be rescued properly." He threw a glare over at the Doctor and then began to pump his hands on the woman's chest like he'd learned. Then he breathed in and tried to give her lungs some oxygen. Then back to the pumping.
"Two hearts" the Doctor reminded him lowly and Jack instantly started pumping the other side too. The anger about the Doctor playing the useless one and the fear how much he'd changed encouraged him further. Later on Jack knew it had been silly, but somehow he'd known that if he would just be able to safe this other Time Lord, then this would somehow safe the Doctor.
He breathed in and brought his lips to the woman's mouth. He breathed out, hoping some of his life, of this immortality, would reach her. Finally he straightened up again, looking down on the motionless Time Lady and an equally motionless Time Lord who looked at him with this see, I told you-look.
Jack was just about to rant at the Doctor just for being so damn despaired when a low coughing drew both men's attention away from each other.
The woman sat up, slowly, looking like she'd issues with keeping balance. Jack made a quick step over to her in case she'd fall, but before he'd reached her, she lazily turned around to the Doctor who still sat in his chair, gaping.
"Have we got any eggs left? Cause I'd die for some pancakes right now" the woman mumbled and before any of them could make head or tail of it, she sank back onto the bed, but this time she kept breathing while she slept.
"So?!" Jack asked impatiently. Since some minutes (which felt like hours to him) he kept pacing the med-bay and threw short glances either at his feet or the Doctor.
"She's alive" the Time Lord finally commented and pulled some gadget out of his ears that looked a lot like a stethoscope to Jack, despite the fact that it had two head chest pieces.
"Respiration is normal and so is her pulse. Her body temperature has risen to 40 by now, but that's more than normal considering she's freshly regenerated."
"She'll survive?" Jack wanted to make absolutely sure, but already a wide smile had crawled up onto his face.
"…Yeah", the Doctor assured and Jack made a rejoicing sound followed by a giddy clap of his hands.
"Great, that's brilliant! Doctor why do you keep looking like someone's eaten the last banana then?" Jack was right, the Doctor looked just like he simply couldn't believe it – not in the good way though, more like it was quite simply not true. He gave Jack a clouded shrug and when he looked up into his eyes he seemed to lack any kind of emotion.
"No, I'm fine. Good job, you've certainly saved her. We-ll, let's give her some time to recover in here." Then the Doctor simply walked past Jack and left the med-bay behind.
"Where're you going?" the captain called after him, but the Doctor was quickly walking away.
"Hey!" Jack reluctantly left the woman back, but she was safe in here and according to the Doctor they could do nothing else but wait – this gave Jack some time to look after his problem-Time Lord.
He found him in the kitchen, obviously trying to cook some tea.
"Ok, what's wrong with you?" Jack did his best to sound calm while he was leaning with his shoulder in the kitchen-door. A look told him that both of them well knew he'd chosen this position to make another escape as hard as possible for the Doctor.
"Nothing's wrong. I'm alright; always am."
"Yeah, I know this kind of 'alright' you are. It's that kind where you do something really stupid…"
"I'm not doing anything stupid", the Doctor said calmly and poured steaming water into two cups.
"Yes, you do. Last time you nearly drowned yourself together with a giant spider – yeah, Donna told me!" Jack replied when the Doctor looked up at his words like he'd reminded him of something most unpleasant; just mentioning Donna's name caused this reaction.
"She wouldn't want you to give up", Jack tried with a gentle voice, but the Doctor seemed to have enough of this. He made some fast steps over to the door and tried to get out, growing angrier and angrier since Jack blocked this way.
"I tell you what she wouldn't have wanted" the Doctor ranted "that I leave her back after erasing her memory."
He locked eyes with Jack who slowly got the feeling all this was waiting inside of the Doctor to sputter out ever since.
"I'm sick of it, Jack. Don't worry I won't go and get myself killed, but don't expect me to carol because of a small triumph like that" and while he squeezed his way past Jack the captain hear him mumble "better off alone…"
"You just found another Time Lord… not such a small triumph if you ask me", Jack remarked and slowly turned around. Just when the Doctor opened his mouth for an answer an excited buzzing appeared around them – it sounded like the TARDIS had some big news for them.
"What…?" Jack started but interrupted himself when he saw the look on the Doctor's face; now he couldn't pretend he didn't care about the Time Lady on board.
"Looks like she's woken up."
"Already?!" Jack wondered out loud and scooted after the Doctor who'd started running over to the med-bay.
"Yeah, she's had some healing sleep, useful thing this is", the Doctor called over his shoulder and even smiled shortly.
The two of them stopped in front of the door to the medical-bay.
"So, ready to meet her?" Jack asked cheeky and eyed the Doctor who suddenly appeared to be nervous.
"Yes sure, uhm, why not?"
"No, it just has been some time since you met a Time Lady, hasn't it?"
"Not this long… ok, yes. But it's nothing that'd need practice." The Doctor seemed sure about this, but he still didn't make any attempts to enter the med-bay.
"Ok, well then, after you, please." Jack pointed at the white door. Slightly hesitant the Doctor placed his hand on the handle.
He stopped and looked strictly at Jack "I didn't change my opinion. I'll make sure she's ok and then it's good-bye to her."
"If you say so", Jack smiled – somehow he couldn't get rid of the faith the Doctor would change his mind. He wasn't a man to abandon someone who was lonely; especially when she was as lonely as he was.
Carefully the Time Lord pushed the door open and Jack entered the room after him.