Disclaimers: I do not own the character known as The Doctor and his Tardis. Nor do I own the song "A Thousand Years" with the small book excerpt coming from the story "A Wrinkle in Time."
Heart beats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall
But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow
One step closer
When the Doctor first looked upon her, he thought he had finally grown mad. She was dead, had been dead for a good three hundred years now. And yet there she was, at the café with a few other girls laughing and conversing.
"Faith." The name came from his lips before he even realized it. She didn't hear him. Too far away, too soft.
His feet carried him across the street, his mind not really registering the fact that he was in the middle of the street with traffic coming at him. All he could do was stare in wonder.
"Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me!" The Faith look alike responded with a bubbly laugh; it was warm, light and high. A smile pricked his lips as he gazed at her features, features he hadn't seen in what had felt like a thousand years.
"No, I'm not!" A brown haired girl responded with her own laugh. "He actually did!"
"Oh now that's just sad." Another girl responded, somehow she didn't look very sadden at all, her smile was much too bright for that.
"So what did you say?" Faith took a hold of her curly, long ginger hair, pulling it up into a ponytail and out of her face. A long ribbon used to be in that hair.
"Here I brought you something." The Doctor passed a small parcel to his traveling companion as they ate some baked goods by the loch. "I saw it when we were walking through the village and thought that you might like it."
Faith, a woman of now the age of 22, took the small parcel and laid it on her hand; a bright smile coming over her features. "You didn't need to get me anything, you know. These past few years with you have been more then enough for me."
He shrugged. "What am I not allowed to treat you every now and then?"
"No- Yes!- I mean," Faith gave a large sigh, a blush lighting her cheeks. "All right. You win Doctor." With that she sat the parcel on her lap and untied the twine holding it together. It was a long, sheer green, silk ribbon. Her own large, piercing emeralds grew large as she took it in her fingers. "Oh now this is much too sweet Doctor."
"It's nothing."
"It must have cost you so much!"
"You keep forgetting that the Tardis gives me the amount of money I want. Money is not an issue." Somehow the Doctor had a feeling that his companion was not listening to him. It was one of those few times that he didn't mind it as well.
Faith looked up at him, her emerald eyes wide with happy tears brewing on its surface. "Why?"
"Here, I'll help you put it on." The Doctor got up from his spot on the bench and faced her back taking the ribbon from her hands he gently put it into her hair, tying it back. "There. Now your hair won't be falling into your face all the time."
She looked at him with then with happiness and affection brewing in her eyes. The Doctor couldn't help but wrap his arms around her and hold her tight to him.
He got it for her because he could.
He was only a little bit away from the group when he muttered her name again. She responded, turning around and causing perplexed looks to enter her friends' faces as she noticed him.
She was quiet, as if waiting to see if he was talking to her or not. "Is your name Faith?" She shook her head, lips pressed together in a grim line. Her piercing emerald eyes were warm with confusion and distrust.
"Close." She responded, voice soft. "My birth name is Francesca. I recently just got it changed to Faith."
He was about to ask if she recognized him, but his brain was starting to catch up to his mouth, he's regenerated a hundred times since then, there was no way she was going to remember him, especially since the real one, his Faith, had been dead for many years now.
"I'm called the Doctor." No recognition. No flash of light in her beautiful green eyes. They were cold and confused.
"I'm sorry but I don't recognize you or the title. Maybe if you can give me your name doctor. You are Doctor…?" She moved her hand in continuing gesture, wanting him to fill in the missing piece.
A time and space traveling alien who was your husband for many years, he wanted to say but bite his tongue. She would think he was crazy, and maybe he was for believing she might have been reincarnated.
"I must be mistaken. I apologize. Excuse me!" He turned, striding off into the crowd, his eyes were stinging and he wanted to go back home.
"Do you miss your brethren?" Faith asked as they waited for the Tardis to refuel.
"The other Time Lords?" She nodded her head. The Doctor looked down at his controls for the Tardis as he muttered softly. "All the time."
"Do you ever think about going back? Revisiting? Or trying to save them?" She was young still, even if she was becoming quite the old maid back in her original time right now. She was still young to the world of traveling and time.
"No. I can't. It would disturb the timeline too much."
"Like we're not doing that all ready?" The Doctor ignored the question. After a few moments of silence Faith spoke up again as she fixed her skirts. "Well if anything, I'm glad you survived."
"Why?" His eyes finally looked up, meeting hers.
"Because I was able to meet you."
"Stupid, stupid, Doctor! What were you going to say her? Come join me again and go on adventures together? Yeah, right!" This generation was raised fearing strangers. It wasn't like back in her own time. Besides, this time it seemed she had friends and probably a family as well. She wasn't the lost young woman with no family, no means and no way to truly provide for herself.
This was different time, a different Faith.
The Doctor closed his eyes, falling on to his bed. These sheets used to smell like her. Opening his eyes, his gaze fell upon a well-worn book on the side table next to him slightly hidden under an old, long green ribbon. That book had been her favorite.
"The Darkness seemed to seethe and writhe. Was this meant to comfort them?" Faith read out loud from the book as the Doctor rested his head against her one lone heart. Whenever she read she always over exaggerate her words, whether she meant to or not, and the Doctor didn't mind it too much. He just liked listening to her voice.
"Suddenly there was a great burst of light through the Darkness. The light spread out and where it touched the Darkness the Darkness disappeared."
"You certainly love that story don't you?" Faith smiled, placing a bookmark to mark the page before setting it aside. It was getting rather late afterall.
"Well what's not to love? And besides I think it relates pretty well to our own life in terms of jumping around and seeing new things."
That was Faith. She truly was like her name, always having faith that things were going to turn out all right even if the ending looked bleak, even if there were times when he doubted. She never did. She was an angel.
Moving up a bit he planted a firm kiss to her soft lips, her hands coming up and getting tangled in his hair. Wrinkles were starting to grow around her eyes and mouth, but she still had ways to go. She was still beautiful to him.
The Doctor suddenly turned away from the book, and getting up he left the Tardis again. It was too haunted. Haunted by too many good, happy memories of her in his life. It was one among many reasons why the Doctor tried to keep out domestication with his later companions.
He didn't want to live through that hurt of losing her, of losing someone else, again.
Faith was curled up in their bed, coughing, and wheezing. She was growing old. Her hair was starting to go white, and wrinkles were occurring all over her body. She was starting to tire more easily, and the thrill of a life full of adventure was starting to take its toll on her body.
But the painful thing was that there was nothing that the Doctor could do, other then hold her. There was no cure for this disease. No treatment other then death.
So he held her, held her tight as they reminiscent together. Her eyesight was going and so the Doctor had taken up reading to her instead of the other way around.
Then the inevitable happened.
She had died. And the Doctor broke.
He didn't know where he was going. The only thing he knew was that his feet were carrying him somewhere, but where he had no clue. He had no real destination in mind, just the scenes and memories of Faith, his wife.
His wife of sixty years; a blink of an eye for him even though it was a lifetime for her. And it felt like a whole different life from the one he lead now.
His life now was constantly changing, companions coming and going, a life where nothing stayed the same for more then a couple of years or so. She had been a constant in his life, that and the loneliness of being a Time Lord, the only one in existence now. Had been the only true constants in his life.
Breathing was becoming difficult and so he took a long pause, letting the cool, crisp air, enter his lungs and steady his breath. But his eyes still itched.
He truly did live in a sick and cruel world that took away someone's life, a constant source of happiness and joy for another, and only then to bring it back years later with the person no longer remembering or feeling anything from their original time together. Did human life really mean that little?
Tears were starting to fall and before he could stop himself from moving, from crashing into someone. He did so.
"Oh, I am so sorry!" The Doctor quickly apologized as he tried to wipe his eyes so he could see whom he knocked over and help up. "I didn't mean too, I swear!"
"It's fine. It's fine!" That voice. The tears dried quickly and the Doctor was able to open his eyes, spotting Faith on the ground. "But some help up will be nice though."
"Of course!" He grabbed her hand, it was soft and warm. The hand looking small and almost delicate in his own. Together, they got her up and Faith brushed herself off. "Sorry about that."
"Oh it's no big deal. No harm done." It was then she stopped and really looked at him. "Wait a minute, you were that stranger at the café who knew my name."
"Uh… Yes." The Doctor admitted and tried to rub the last of his tears away. The scene was embarrassing enough as is without her realizing he had been crying.
"You never did answer my question, how did you know it?"
His throat became rough and hard. How to explain? Or should he just lie? "It… It was the name of a fancy I used to have when I was younger. She looked a lot like you."
Her head tilted to the side a bit, thinking, wondering. "But you're no older then me. Are you?"
"Just a wee bit." A laugh, a twinkle. The Doctor felt a strange, long-missed twist in the pit of his stomach as he recognized the sound and look that came from Faith.
"Well I'm sorry I'm not her. I bet she was good girl though."
"The best." He couldn't look away. All he could do was watch her, watch as her face got red and her eyes shifted a bit, embarrassed.
"But I will admit." Faith started, her voice soft and almost lost among the ambient noises of the street. "There is something familiar about you. I just can't say what it is."
His own eyes softened. She did remember! It still was her! "Maybe I can buy you some tea? There's a really cute shop down the block a bit."
She was quiet and for a moment the Doctor worried she was going to say no. He didn't want to lose her again, not after all those years of having her missing.
She looked up, a warm smile on her face as she shrugged and nodded her head. "Works for me."
The Doctor couldn't help but feel his whole face light up like it used too when she was around. Before he even thought about it, he stuck out his arm. "Then come along, my Lady."
Faith laughed, shaking her head, but took his arm and the two continued walking down the street, heading towards the tea shop.
The Doctor never expected his life to change with a meeting of a pickpocket.
She had been well skilled in slipping in next to him and roaming a hand through his pockets, if it wasn't for the fact that nothing was on him, other than his Sonic Screwdriver, then he might not have actually felt her.
He had grabbed her wrists, pulling her away from him. "And what do you think you're doing?"
Piercing emerald eyes met his beneath unruly ginger hair. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Trying to locate money on me?"
"Yes. That tends to happen when a person is hungry and wants food. They'll either steal the food or the money to go buy it."
The Doctor's eyes had softened. "You're family can't feed you?"
"I have no family." The light in her eyes dimmed a bit. "All of my friends are in the same predicament as me." Yet, she met his eyes and the Doctor noted how her eyes seemed even more determined then before. "But I'll get out of this situation someday. Not now. But someday, I will leave this city. I will leave this country and see the world for my own eyes."
He loosened his grip and offered, meeting her eyes squarely. "Would you like to have lunch with me? I'll pay."
She said yes. And by the end of lunch, he had made a new friend.
Time stands still
Beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything take away
What's standing in front of me
Every breath
Every hour has come to this
One step closer
I have died everyday waiting for you
Darling don't be afraid I have loved you
For a thousand years
I'll love you for a thousand more
"A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri
A/N: Inspiration for this story comes from, I have no idea. It just kind of popped up in my head and wouldn't leave my head. Probably came from the same place my other to reincarnation stories came from, Second Chances, a Klaine fanfiction and "Time and Time Again."
I have just started watching Doctor Who so I know very little about him and what I did know I tried to kind of hint at or place in here. Such as the reason for his distaste in domestication and why he himself wants ginger hair (it's my headcanon that he wanted that color because he loved Faith's red hair so much).
So let me know what you guys all think of this! It's the first one for this fandom I have ever done and I've only watched up to the second season first half so be nice please. :)
Please Review!