The time lady

In the depths of the time vortex a blue box emblazoned with police floated. Its two occupants were searching through some of the disused rooms. There were boxes everywhere and a thick layer of dust coating everything. One of the searchers a blonde girl stood up and sneezed from all the dust in the air. Her companion a tall man with short-cropped brown hair started laughing but stopped abruptly when she shot him a nasty look. He got up and left the room muttering about his office that he hadn't used in a few centuries. Glad to be rid of the doctor rose opened a box and found a smaller ornate wooden box in it. She picked it up wondering if there would be another box in this one like those Russian dolls that had more dolls in them. She opened it to find a stack of letters and documents. There was a jumble of passports and I.D's all with different peoples faces on them but the same name Doctor John Smith. She was confused why the doctor had all these different peoples documents when he had his physic paper. As she leafed through the contents of the box she found a letter that had the doctors name written of the front in fancy writing. She put the box down and studied the letter. There was nothing else on the envelope just his name. From the looks of it, she guessed it had been in that small box for a long time. There was something distinctly feminine about that writing and she asked herself the question did the doctor ever have a girlfriend? She debated opening the envelope until the doctor re-entered the room. "Found it," he said brandishing a small black disk that did god knows what. After he had stowed the focus of their search He looked at what she held in her hand and it took a second to register that his name was on the envelope. "What's that? " he asked more harshly than he intended. Rose shrugged "I found it in that box" she said indicating the small forgotten box the letter had been in.

The doctor gently pulled the letter out of rose's hand. "Go away" he said gruffly. "NOW" he almost shouted when she tried to protest, and she scuttled away to another part of the TARDIS. The doctor sat on a box and stared at the letter he had never seen it before but the handwriting was achingly familiar. He opened it. He slipped out the sheet of paper and read the letter written in the same handwriting as on the envelope.

Dear doctor

I know we parted badly and I know that you are now a criminal but I had to contact you. Things have changed considerably since we parted, for the better.I have a daughter. Her name is Cassandra. I know what you are thinking, and I haven't moved on not yet. I want to hear from you please I will even admit I am desperate. Cassandra is your daughter. And I want her to grow up with her father present not running from his own people.Please for your daughters sake and mine come back home. The high council will forgive you if you stop running. I'm not trying to lure you into a trap just so the council can throw you in a cell. I am sorry for what happened between us and what I accused you of, I know now that you would never look at another woman.

I love you so much, so much it hurts. But only you can put me out of my misery.

Enclosed is a picture of our daughter I hope it will persuade you to come back to us.

Love Rosa

The doctor sat on the dusty box in the small dusty room for what felt like hours. But it couldn't have been more than 20 minutes before he dropped the envelope on the floor and something fell out. The doctor numbly picked it up; it was the photo Rosa's letter had described. It was a small colour image of a thin woman with dark curly hair and brilliantly blue eyes. She was beautiful but something had taken its toll on her. She had dark shadows under her eyes, and even though she was smiling it didn't reach her eyes, they held a vacant loneliness the doctor had never seen in them before. In her arms had a baby with blue eyes like her mother and soft blonde hair like he used to have before his first regeneration. And then it hit him, that was his daughter but there was no way to ever see her or hold her because she had most likely died when the rest of the time lords had. And so would Rosa he realised, the woman who had been his one and only love before he left Galifrey (indeed ever) . Would they have married if he had stayed there?

He hard someone at the door and looked around to see rose standing there uncertainly. She looked curiously at the photo of the woman with the baby. Why would the doctor have a photo of a woman with a baby? She thought to herself. Sensing her curiosity the doctor spoke but he wasn't strong and commanding like usual he sounded weak and sad, she had only heard that voice when he spoke of his own people. " that's Rosa" he said quietly and pointed to the dark haired woman. " Rosa?" she asked "but… is that why you wanted me to go with you cause I remind you of your ex?" she demanded "coincidence" mumbled the doctor.

"go into the control room it's time we went somewhere interesting" Rose stalked out trying to be mad at the doctor. But it was hard in that small dusty room she had seen a side of the doctor she had never met before. She didn't care now if he had chosen her because she reminded him of someone he had nonetheless offered her a one in a million opportunity to see things no human had seen before , and she was grateful for that.

The doctor was thinking. He remembered when he had met rose in London while he had been trying to defeat the autons yet again. He had met her by chance when he blew up the building she worked in. but he became interested in her only when he learnt her name Rose. She looked nothing like Rosa and she never would but she was a dull and subtle reminder of the woman he had loved and would always possibly love. A painful reminder that he had loved and ruined it. He finally stood and headed for the control room. Rose was standing by the console looking as though she was debating with herself. "where do you want to go" he asked her hoping he sounded cheerful. Her debate with herself ended when she asked him "is that baby in the picture yours?" he nodded and added

"I must be a terrible father I never knew she existed" rose was going to add something like "you can see her now" when she realised his daughter was a time-lord and thus dead like the rest of them. "Why didn't you know about her?, that letter was really old"

"I never knew I had that letter it must have been mixed up with some other ones" and that said he turned to the controls. "you know Alpha Centauri's nice this time of year"

and that said he fiddled with the instruments until there was a whooshing sound and the TRADIS disappeared from the time vortex.


EPILOGUE

Centuries earlier on Galifrey

A young woman with dark curly hair and brilliant blue eyes was sitting at a desk finishing a letter to her lover. She finished it as a baby's screams filled the room. She leant over and picked up a baby with fine blonde hair and her own blue eyes. Rosa murmured to her daughter until she fell asleep again. She sealed the letter in an envelope and wrote "Doctor" on the front. This done she place her letter on a small pad and pressed a button, the letter disappeared and reappeared on a similar pad in the TARDIS in amongst other letters demanding that if the doctor returned to Galifrey immediately he would be cleared of all charges. But the doctor had no use for these letters having received many similar stowed them in a wooden box and hid that box in a small room he used for storage. He dismantled his transmat port soon after to stop the Time-Lords from sending him "junk" mail. And by the time the doctor learnt of his daughter, her mother had long given up on her father returning to them and they had both been killed along with Galifrey. Or so he thought.