-REMEMBER ME-

CHAPTER THREE

Show Me The Stars

It's years and years before you return to Gallifrey. Called back. You must pay for your crimes. You have become a renegade, and the Time Lords disapprove.

You've regenerated.

You're no longer the bright young boy from my childhood. You're no longer the handsome man from the academy with the great hair. You're no longer the old man who ran away.

You're short, with a bowl cut hair. Your clothes are all at least one size too big, and you're goofy looking. It seems familiar, your attire. The way you rub your hands together when you're thinking. You're adorable, and you remind me of someone. Someone I can't quite remember. It's probably just you. Because you're you. Your shoes are scuffed and you wear plaid trousers and a bow-tie.

I quite like the bow tie. It suits you. It's very cool. It's cool before it was cool.

We meet again, but we never speak. Your eyes meet mine across the room, and you look at me as though you might, might just remember me. You look intrigued. Confused. There's a spark in your eyes as you look at me, and I love that look. You stand up, as if to come talk to me, but they call you back into your trial, and we never speak.

We never will, because they force you to regenerate, and they banish you to Earth. Your companions forget you, and it's incredibly unfair. You're the talk of Gallifrey once again, though you'll never know it.

I move on with my life. I learn how to pilot the TARDIS, I go back to the Academy. I want to travel the stars. I don't need you to take me. I'll do it myself.

And the day I first step into a TARDIS of my own, I smile, and I cry. Because she's such a beautiful ship. She pales in comparison to your beloved ship, but she's mine. All mine. And she actually likes me.

Huh. Don't know why yours wouldn't. But whatever.

She'll show me the stars, my beautiful ship.

I go off to see the stars, and I take a companion of my own.

Her name was Nina, and I had picked her up on Earth. That was the first place I went to see, you know. Maybe it was because you were there, though I never saw you. Maybe it was because that was the place I most wanted to see out of all the universe.

Nina was great. She was amazed at everything I showed her. I took her to all sorts of places, and we saw the stars together.

I fancied her.

She was just so brilliant. She reminded me of you, a little bit. She had this manic energy. Starlight in her soul. She never would have seen the stars if it weren't for me. She was my hand to hold.

She might have fancied me, too. But I'll never know.

I lost her.

It was a harsh lesson, a cruel one. The first lesson of the danger of travelling the stars. The curse of the Time Lords.

I wish someone had warned me. I should have seen it coming. I wish I could have saved her.

It wasn't fair. It was completely and utterly pointless. A death that held no honor. Just pointless.

That's the curse of the Time Lords.

I travelled alone for a while after that.

Until it all just got incredibly unbearable, being alone. That's when I started to just pick them up out of nowhere.

There was this alien I picked up. He was weird-looking. And purple. But he was nice. There was nothing permanent about it. We both knew he was going to leave, and that was fine. That was just what I needed, after Nina.

After him I travelled with a couple of kids, just for a short bit. Orphans, the both of them. I took them to Hedgewick's World of Wonders, when it was in its heyday. They loved it there, and I felt as though I'd been there before, even though I knew I hadn't. I didn't understand.

You would have known why. You always know.

They were adopted. By a lovely family in the 46th century. They took them in and I stayed for a little while, taking care of them. Being their governess. Making sure they were settled.

And then I took off again. I had a string of companions. A couple of aliens, a married couple from New Earth. And humans. I picked up humans from all over the place. Humans were the best ones to travel with.

There's this legend, I'm not sure you've heard it. You probably have. You'd actually probably know more about it than me. But the legend is that humans and Earth were created by the Time Lords, to become companions to us. It's ridiculous, I know. Because if it were true, why would they make humans have such short lives?

There was a boy. I travelled with him. I hadn't fallen in love, not since Nina. That was the trick, I realized. Don't fall in love. Don't ever fall in love.

But this boy. This boy. He promised me forever. He wanted to stay with me, forever. He protected me. He was sweet. He was nice. He was good-looking.

His name was Rory.

Run you clever boy, and remember me.

A/N: No, not our Rory Pond...er...Williams. Sorry.

Bit of explanation, just in case. The inspiration for Nina and Rory came from 'Asylum of the Daleks' when Oswin says "The first boy I ever fancied was called Rory. Actually, she was called Nina. I was going through a phase." So I took that to mean a literal interpretation that the first person she fancied was Nina, but then she later the first boy she fancied was Rory. And, btw, lol...Nina was mentioned by Angie. Sooo...I assumed that Nina and Rory carried over into some of Clara's incarnations.

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