CHAPTER 2
"Face it," said Andred. "She's gone and never coming back."
"Don't say that," retorted Leela heatedly. "You don't know that."
"For all we know," he continued. "Susan could be dead already. She-"
He was cut off by the sound of gunshots. Daleks were yelling "Exterminate!" on the other side of the door. Blasts rang through the air, until suddenly there was silence.
The door opened and in ran a man in WWII attire and another in a dark sweater and pants, both carrying Sonic Blasters. They were followed by a dark-skinned woman with her hair done in a loose bun, a middle-aged woman with chestnut hair, and a young blonde. They fell to the side as a tall, thin man in a trench coat ran in with Susan clutching his hand. "Hello," he announced. "I'm the Doctor. Consider yourselves saved!"
***
The freed Time Lords were all led into the TARDIS. "Thete, old fellow!" said Drax, slapping the Doctor on the back. "Boy, am I glad to see you."
"Hello, Drax," said the Doctor with a roll of the eyes.
"Thete?" asked Sara Jane.
"Theta Sigma," explained the Doctor. "An old nickname of mine back in the Academy." Sara Jane giggled. "What?" he asked.
"Nothing... Thete."
Romana and Leela pushed their way through the crowd surrounding the Doctor. "Hello, Savage," smiled the Doctor.
"That's no fair," said Leela. "You've regenerated. I can't call you 'The Evil One' anymore." The Doctor grabbed his former companion and hugged her. She hadn't changed; a bit older to be sure, but still that fierceness that no one was ever able to subdue retained in her eyes, no matter their color.
"Hello, Doctor," said Romana. The Doctor looked at her earnestly. She was slender and had long dark hair. She had high cheek bones and round hazel eyes. Dressed in a long white robe, she was simply beautiful. At first, he was awestruck, but then his demeanor quickly changed, remembering their last encounter. "Lady President," he said coolly.
"Doctor..." she said sadly. "I'm sorry. You know I had a decision to make. I couldn't forget my title; I had a duty. Please, can't you forgive me?"
The Doctor saw the intent in her eyes and instantly forgave her. "I understand."
"So you'll call me Romana again?"
"Romana? If you'd like, I could call you Fred!" All at once, their pent up love for each other burst forth; they fell into each other's arms, laughing hard. "So..." said the Doctor. "Do you still want to marry me?"
"That depends," said Romana as she gazed at the Doctor, who still had her wrapped in his arms. "You've regenerated. What's this one like?"
"Well," said the Doctor. "A bit rude, very manic."
"Kind of like when I first met you, then. But minus the scarf."
"Yeah... well," said the Doctor with a smirk, "Sometimes it does get a bit chilly.
"And I see you've regenerated as well," he remarked. "Who's this one?"
"I'll have you know this body is completely original," protested Romana. "Besides, I remembered how upset you were that time. Although, do recall Princess Strella- that was in my original body. And what about you? It's a big universe. How do you know there isn't someone who looks exactly like you somewhere out there?"
"Right," the Doctor responded, the last remark having reminded him of his other self living in Pete's World; boy, did he have some explaining to do. "It's just that as one who knows what it's like to have his body copied by someone else, I just don't really approve of it."
"Who stole your features? And when?" asked Romana.
"Well, Meglos for one."
"Oh, yes."
"And Omega."
"Omega?!" exclaimed Romana in disbelief. "How-"
"Dad!" Jenny suddenly interrupted. "There are Daleks approaching on the scanners. We need to get out of here fast."
The Doctor jumped into action. "Right! Hold on everyone!" In an instant, the TARDIS console was at work, and they were traveling through the Time Stream.
"Did she just call you 'Dad'?" asked Romana.
"Um... yeah."
"Care to explain?" she asked.
"No," he replied. "Not really. It's a long story. You'd be bored."
Romana frowned, "Doctor..."
Jenny interjected. "He was held at gun point by some people on the planet Messaline. They stuck his hand in a progenation machine and I stepped out. Hi, I'm Jenny, from the phrase 'generated anomaly.'"
Romana smiled. "I'm Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar. Actually, the Doctor was the first one to call me Romana; he said that my name was too long and that if ever I was in danger and he needed to call out to me, by the time he finished saying my name, I could be dead... And then he proceeded to get himself caught in a net."
Jenny chuckled. The Doctor frowned. "Oh, so I'm not allowed to make mistakes?"
"Of course you are," said Romana. "Your record speaks for itself."
"Perhaps I should have just left you in E-Space," the Doctor mused. "Or with Count Grendel on Tara. You'd have been alright; that silly outfit you had on would've scared him off eventually."
"Doctor," Romana challenged. "You will never amount to anything in the galaxy while you retain your propensity for vulgar facetiousness."
"Now where have I heard that before?" the Doctor pondered. Suddenly remembering, his eyes widened and he said quite angrily, "You've been reading my personal files again, haven't you?"
"I was bored," said Romana. "And what secrets do you intend on keeping from your bride-to-be?"
"I do have a right to some privacy, you know?" the Doctor sighed, giving up the fight.
"Of course you do," said Romana, patting him lightly on the shoulder. "Now, why don't you introduce me to the rest of your friends?" suggested Romana, turning towards the Doctor's companions.
"These are Captain Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith, Dr. Martha Jones, and Sara Jane Smith."
"You're Sara Jane?" asked Romana.
"You know about me?" she asked.
"A little. How did you like K9? I was there when the Doctor decided to give him to you."
"You were?" asked Sara Jane.
"Yes. Well, the Doctor was once telling me about all his former companions. And so I asked what happened to all of them. He said that they each left when they found a place they'd rather be. Most of them, anyway. He mentioned how you had to leave because he had been summoned back to Gallifrey and couldn't take you. I noticed how recalling that upset him, so I suggested that he do something to make it up to you. So he decided that he wanted to build you a K9 to have as a companion to thank you for being his companion." Sara Jane and the Doctor met each other's gaze and smiled at each other. She had never really considered before that their separation might have affected him as much as it had affected her, but now she finally understood.
***
"Grandfather," Susan suddenly called. "Where are we going?"
"Um," said the Doctor. "Not sure yet. Well, I'm going to need to bring the others back to Earth. While we're in the area, I could drop you off, too?"
"I was thinking," said Susan. "That it might be better if I went with the Time Lords to help out." She paused. "David's been gone for a long time now."
The Doctor nodded his approval. "Right. So that just leaves the question of what to do with them. 'Cause they're not staying here."
"All we need is a place to work so that we can rebuild Gallifrey," said Romana.
"How are you going to do that?" asked Martha.
"With this," answered Romana. She pulled out a necklace hidden under her robe with what looked like a computer chip. "A piece of the Matrix Computer. The only other thing we need is time, and we've got plenty of that."
"You might also want some other things," said the Doctor. He bent down and pulled up a part of the floor. He pulled a box out of the compartment and handed it to Romana.
She opened it and named each object as she took them out. "The Sash of Rassilon. The Rod of Rassilon. The Coronet of Rassilon. The Toaster of Rassilon... Just kidding. Oh, what's this?" She pulled out a piece of paper buried at the bottom. On it was drawn the image of a woman with a clock face; there was a crack drawn through it. "You kept it?"
"Yeah, well..." stammered the Doctor, blushing. Romana met his gaze with a knowing smile.
