Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 81st cycle. Now cycle 82!

"Ex Memoria"
Doctor Who/Glee crossover #10
Doctor Who: 11th Doctor, Amy/Rory
Glee: New Directions

1. A Letter in the Night

May 2012 - Lima, Ohio

A storm the week before had split the branch of the tree just outside Gemma's apartment window. Ever since then, it had been rapping at the pane whenever a good breeze caught on to it, which had been happening almost every night since then. It hadn't really bothered her or Walter, or kept them from sleeping. Mostly it had been an annoyance because they couldn't get anyone to take care of it.

But on this one night, the persistent tapping had finally succeeded in waking Gemma, which had managed to coincide with a delivery. Just as she'd looked over, she'd seen it, a disruption in the line of light under her door, coming from the hall. An envelope. There was only one person to come and leave her messages in this manner and at this hour.

Gemma hurried from her bed and dashed to the door, pulling it open and looking one way and the other down the hall. "Doct..." she half-called, but the hall was empty, silent. Disappointed, Gemma looked down, to the envelope left for her, and with nothing better to do, she picked it up, shut the door, and went back to the bed.

She could have left the thing there and waited until morning before opening it, but that had never been her way, so she tore the side and pulled out the pages inside. Even folded, she could see the print of the Doctor's fine handwriting.

"Gemma?" Walter mumbled at her side, and she looked back at him, pressing a hand to his chest.

"Go back to sleep," she insisted, but he just rubbed at his eyes, propped himself up on his elbows. He saw the envelope.

"What's that?"

"What do you think?" she tried to keep him from seeing too much. As much as he had been brought up to speed on a lot of what was happening, there was always the possibility that there would remain some things he was not meant to know about. He was never all that upset about that, and even now he didn't try too hard to read over her shoulder.

The Doctor had a way sometimes of being vague to the point of frustration, and then at other times she would be so direct that it felt like whiplash. This time, Gemma was glad for the near total darkness which, while barely allowing her to see the words on the page, kept Walter from seeing her face too well as she did read. If it hadn't been for that, he would have seen the expression of shock in her, the kind that sent one's head spinning.

"Gemma?" he spoke, and it startled her. "Hey..." he touched her arm. "What's wrong? What does it say?"

"Not... Nothing's wrong, I don't..."

"You're shaking," he pointed out. She hadn't noticed.

"Just a chill," she promised. "I thought I might have caught up with the Doctor, but she was already gone." This wasn't a lie, though it wasn't the truth either. All she needed was for it to be enough for him. "Go back to sleep, it's nothing, I swear," she reached for his hand and squeezed it, giving him a confident smile. Maybe it was just her luck that he had been exhausted when they'd turned in for the night, or he might have fought harder to stay awake and find out what was in that message.

Instead, he lay back down and went to sleep. She'd put the envelope aside and returned her head to the pillow, too, hoping it would help him to fall asleep faster, and she was almost sure it did. She could have felt bad for reaching for the envelope again and sneaking off to the bathroom as soon as she'd established that he was asleep again, but she was boiling up and she needed to splash water on her face before she got the chance to read that message all over again.

It didn't tell her specifically that she should burn the letter as soon as she was done with it, but it was almost implied. This was the kind of thing no one was supposed to know, and for a while she was left to wonder why the Doctor wouldn't simply try and tell her face to face, or send it into her thoughts, for all the effort that had taken. No one could know, not for a while, if ever at all. She wasn't even sure it would be prudent to tell Walter.

She hadn't known, and they could make her swear on her sister's head, or her parents' heads… She'd had no idea, and yet now that she did, she guessed it could have made sense. She had less trouble with that part. The part she did have trouble with was all that was implied because of it. In the long run, if no one knew about it but her, it wouldn't have to change anything for anyone. So why did she have to tell me? Why did she let me know now?

Was it that she knew how close they were getting to the end? Was the Doctor afraid she would back out for some reason? Did she need to give her a proper reason to keep going? She wasn't planning on backing down, not now, not when they'd all gotten so close, gone through so much… So why now? What if it messed too much with her head to know this? What if she made a mistake and ruined everything? Or it could have nothing to do with it. It could be about something else entirely. She had been needing some kind of answer about Walter… Was this it? Was this the Doctor's way of letting her what she should or shouldn't do? How was she ever going to be able to walk into that school with a straight face again? It had already been hard enough, but now…

"Gemma?" Walter's voice startled her from outside the door, and instinctively she ripped up letter and envelope both and dropped them in the toilet before flushing it down. Immediately she knew that was probably going to make for a mess of a clog, but there'd be no reading that message anymore.

"Yeah, I'm coming," she called through the door, sighing and looking at herself in the mirror, screwing her 'normal' face back on.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)