On the Beach
A woman was standing on a deserted beach, holding a hand of a young boy, maybe four years old. She pushed her blonde hair out of her face then crouched down to the brown haired child's level. The wind was blowing, just like the first time she set a foot there.
"We were all standing here five years ago. You were still in Mommy's belly then. Pete was driving all night; he was going so fast that we were stopped six times. But he just paid the fines and drove on. He didn't want to waste time...We arrived around noon. The Sun was high on the sky, and the wind was blowing..."
"And then He appeared," continued the boy. He's obviously heard the story many times. He got a smile in return.
"Yes, he did. Said he burnt up a star just to say goodbye." The woman sighed. "It was over in three minutes. I never saw him looking so sad, so heartbroken. He was always full of life; but in that three minutes he looked old. You could see all the centuries in his eyes."
"A century is a hundred years. I'm four and a half," he stated with a proud grin , and when got a nod in reply, he said with awe, "Wow. That's really old."
"It is. But he was a Time Lord. He could travel in time ans space, but he couldn't cross the void. It was truly impossible for him," she whispered.
"But he could do the impossible. You told me that. Why didn't he come?"
"You know why, Sweetheart."
"It would've destroyed both universes." The little boy nodded in understanding. He was always smarter than the others in his age. She wasn't suprised though, she knew who his father was.
"But he did one impossible thing in those minutes. He ran out of time, leaving a broken heart beind," she continued with a bitter laugh.
"That's why Mommy is in Heaven?" the boy asked. "Because her heart broke? Uncle Jake told me that the heart keeps the people alive."
"No, it wasn't a reason. Your Mommy's heart broke, but she loved you so very much, that the love repaired it," answered Jackie, trying to fight the tears.
"Then why is Mommy gone? Is it really my fault?" he asked in a little voice, and Jackie's head shot up.
"Of course it's not your fault. Who told you that? Your mother died because she was very ill." It was almost true, Jackie remembered. Rose had a rare blood condition, nobody's ever heard of it in the whole world. In this world, she thought. Back at home Rose could've given birth to her son without bleeding to death.
"It was mr. Smith" muttered her grandson.
He never called the man Mickey, but until this minute Jackie didn't know why. Now she did, and Mickey Smith was going to get the biggest slap of the world.
"He said that if it wasn't for me, Mommy wouldn't have died, and it was a mistake that she had me."
Jackie was seething. No, Mickey Smith wasn't going to get the biggest slap of the world. He was going to get the biggest slap of all universes, accompanied by a swift kick in the groin.
"Don't listen to him Sweetheart. He doesn't know what he is talking about," she soothed her grandson. When she heard the sound of a horn, she scooped him up and took a few steps in the direction of the sound. "Grandpa is back with the car." When they turned they saw Pete walking towards them.
"Are we going home already?" he asked, not sounding very eager.
"Yes, we are. Grandpa has to go to work tomorrow."
"Can we come back next year too?" he asked.
Jackie nodded and set him down. "Please Caelum, go to Grandpa and tell him that I'll be there in a minute."
Caelum nodded and ran off, Jackie followed him with her eyes. When he was in Pete's arms, she turned away and went to perform her yearly ritual.
In every year, on this day the little family packed up and travelled to the norwegian beach. In every year Jackie wrote a letter to the Doctor and put it into a little cave next to a bush. She knew it was foolish, but she believed that the Doctor'll find a way back. She left the letters to him, she wanted him to know about everything. That Rose wanted their son's name to be a constellation's, that he didn't have a first word, he had a first sentence, that his favourite food was toast with marmalade.
It was her fifth letter.
As she was walking back to the car, she couldn't help but hope to hear the unmistakeable sound of the time machine.
But she the only thing she could hear was the sounds of the wind and water.
--
Twenty years later
Jackie was watching the bay from a cliff near the road. It didn't change during the years. It never did. She was older, the little boy was now a young man, and Pete was gone. Everything changed, but not the beach. Even the weather was the same as it was at the first time. It was a good sign. She liked to think that it was somehow frozen in time -to let them remember-, and alive. When she was grieving her husband and daughter, the wind quieted down; when her grandson was ill, there was a storm going on.
Her gaze moved from the water to the beach, and she smiled. If she was listening hard enough, she could hear his voice. She didn't want to eavesdrop, but didn't even need to. She knew what was said.
A story was being told. The story of a young shop girl and a time travelling alien.
It was the first time that it wasn't her talking, but she didn't mind it anymore. She knew this moment was going to arrive. She let him take over the writing of the letters a long time ago; but at first she was reluctant to let him be the storyteller. She felt it was too soon, she wanted him to remain her little boy a little longer.
But as she watched them together, she knew it was the right thing to do. When she looked at their clasped hands, all of her doubts were out of the window. When Caelum turned and smiled at her, she returned the gesture and started to walk towards the couple.
When she reached them and took his grandson's offered hand, she knew everything was going to be alright. He may have grown up and was ready to start a faily on his own, but he was always going to be her little boy. And this place was always going to be their family's beach. The family that now included the shy brunette on his other side.
Before they left, another letter was placed in the little cave. The twenty-fifth.
Altough she still didn't hear the sound of the Tardis, Jackie knew everything was fine.
The wind was blowing.
--
Seven years later
An elderly woman with white hair was standing on a beach, holding a hand of a little girl, maybe four years old. She ran her fingers through her hair as she crouched down to the brown haired girls level and picked her up.
The bay was looking like it always did. The clouds on the sky made the sea look like it was grey. Only one thing wasn't the same.
The wind wasn't blowing. Everything was completely still. The beach was still grieving with them.
For the second time, it was just the two of them on the beach. Two years earlier, instead of her, it was another woman holding the girl, and a man was was telling the tale. But they were gone now. Because of a stupid accident.
"We were all standing here, thirty-two years ago. Your Daddy wasn't even born then. Your great-grandfather was driving all night to get here, the police stopped us six times. When we finally arrived, it was noon. The Sun was high on the sky, and the wind was blowing..."
"And that was when Grandpa appeared," she continued, she knew the story just like her father did in her age. The thought brought tears in Jackie's eyes. She wasn't ready to remember him without crying, not yet. She knew it took time. The first time she was able to tell Caelum about his mother without breaking down was on his third birthday.
But she didn't have time, and it made the things much more worse. Cancer didn't wait for your little girl to grow up before it took you away. She was never so desperate to hear the whirring sound.
Over the years the tale was extended. It was no longer about the girl and the alien; it included their son, his wife and their little girl too. It took longer to finish it, but she didn't mind. Jackie cherished every moment with little Susan.
When she finished talking, she asked her to wait at the rocks. Suzie did as she was told, and sat down to build a sand-castle.
Jackie walked up to the little cave, just as she did many years ago, to place another letter in it. She wrote the first fifteen, then Caelum also placed fifteen there. The last one, and the one she was holding in her hands was hers again.
This was to be the thirty-second.
But it wasn't. All the letters were gone, replaced by a simple rose. All the hope she lost in the past years were back. She hurried back to the beach where she left Suzie. The little girl was still building her castle.
Jackie sat down next to her, just watched her and waited. Five and a half hours and two castles later there was still nothing.
But then the wind slowly picked up, almost drowning the noise her daughter always said was the sound of the Universe.
Jackie smiled.