If Only

by AllyHWarner

After the events of the Big Finish audio Masquerade, the Doctor reflects on the lives this current incarnation has cost...and wonders if one could perhaps be saved.

Notes: Contains major spoilers for the audio Masquerade and references to companion death. Enjoy!

Hannah Bartholomew was gone. Her tenure travelling in time and space with the Doctor and Nyssa had been all too short. She had made her choice in Shadow Space; and while she had indeed saved the lives of millions of people, it had cost Hannah her entire personality and emotions. The very thought of it was enough to make the Doctor feel a little sick, it was a fate worse than death.

As he almost-mindlessly pressed buttons on the TARDIS' console, the Doctor's mind began to wander. First it had been Adric, now it was Hannah. How many more failures were going to occur in this incarnation alone? He began to input a series of co-ordinates into the TARDIS. There had to be something he and Nyssa could do, some way to bring Hannah back.