Winnie decided to spend the night looking over her copies of Mrs. Temple-Noble's medical files, but her plans detoured when she heard a quick knock at the door just after midnight. She looked away from the files and went to the door. No one was there, but her pocketwatch laid on the ground with a sticky note on it. In messy but legible handwriting, three sentences were written.
Her name is Romana.
She's a friend of mine.
A very good woman.
A phone number was written below that. It looked like it was from a mobile. Winnie scoffed at Smith (if that was even his real name, she realized), but picked up her pocketwatch nonetheless. She crumbled the sticky note and stuck it in the back pocket of her jeans.
Winnie gathered up Mrs. Temple-Noble's files from the kitchen table and moved into the living room, laying the files out across the coffee table. She set her pocketwatch at the center of the table, then pulled the note from Smith and threw it beside her pocketwatch. Winnie leaned back into the couch, cradling her sixth (or maybe seventh?) cup of tea for the night, and sighed deeply. Many ifs ran through her head.
If she had asked to be taken off the case when it first came, as she had just finished a rather stressful one; if she hadn't gone peeking into Smith; if she had refused Smith's help altogether; if she had taken the time off that she had been offered just before Mrs. Temple-Noble's case arrived. She and Hannah could be in a cottage by the sea, away from everything that bothered Winnie.
Winnie put her cup of tea down, took off her glasses, and picked up the pocketwatch. The clasp was no longer broken; Winnie could just peek inside…
A brilliant, gold light flew out, like the one which had escaped Mrs. Temple-Noble's mouth when she convulsed. Voices, so many voices, but two overall. So familiar, yet so distant.
Winnie cried out and snapped the pocketwatch shut again. She hurled it across the room; it hit the wall, just beside the telly, with a bang and bounced to the floor, hitting the wood with a clunk. Smith, the Doctor, he told the truth, everything he said was true.
Winnie pressed her hands over her mouth, attempting to muffle her sobs.
"Mum?" Hannah's footsteps grew closer, until they stopped; Winnie felt a weight to the left and knew that her daughter had sat down beside her. "Mum? Mummy, you're scaring me. Mummy?" Hannah's arms wrapped around Winnie's waist. Hannah leaned against her mother and hugged her tightly. Winnie removed her hands from her mouth and clung to her daughter, sobbing quietly but violently.
Hannah continued to ask what was wrong, but Winnie simply shook her head. After five minutes, Hannah wiggled out of Winnie's arms, pushed her mother into a horizontal position on the couch, and laid a blanket over her. Her cries continued for about a minute more; then she fell asleep.
Hannah turned and immediately saw the crumbled note. She unwrapped it, read it, found the landline phone, and dialed the number.
"Hello?" a man's voice answered.
"Are you the man who was here earlier?" Hannah asked. "Are you the Doctor?"
"Hannah? Yes, I'm the Doctor. Is your mum there?"
"Mum's really upset. I'm scared. She screamed and cried and now she's asleep."
"Hannah, I'm on my way."
Hannah heard some scuffling as the phone was handed to someone else, and the Doctor told that someone else to keep Hannah talking.
"Hello?" a higher voice said. Sounded like a lady.
"Hi."
"I'm Clara. Your name's Hannah?"
"Yeah. Are you a friend of the Doctor?"
"I am. Hannah, hold on, we're almost there. Don't hang up."
Hannah heard a loud, whooshing sound. A large, blue box phased in and out in the kitchen, before becoming solid. The Doctor and a woman, Hannah assumed that she was Clara, stepped out. Hannah hung up the phone and put it down. The Doctor rushed over to Winnie, while Clara got down to Hannah's height in front of her.
"Are you alright, dear?" asked Clara. The Doctor was checking over Winnie, like Hannah had seen doctors do in television shows.
"She's still human, she's just asleep," the Doctor said to Clara.
"Mum's not human, is she?" Hannah asked.
"Of course, she's –" Clara began, but the Doctor interrupted her. "No, she's not." Clara stood, elbowed the Doctor, and glared at him.
"Is my mummy gonna die?" Hannah directed this question specifically at the Doctor. The Doctor got onto his knees in front of Hannah and took her hands.
"No, of course not. Your mum's going to be just fine." The Doctor tapped Hannah's nose; she smiled.
The Doctor stood and turned to Clara. "There's some ice cream in the TARDIS's kitchen, and I think Hannah could do with a great deal of ice cream."
Clara held out her hand, which Hannah took, and led Hannah into the blue box, the TARDIS.
After the door was shut and the Doctor was sure that Hannah and the Clara were deep into the TARDIS, he turned back to Winnie. He pulled a chair from the kitchen table and placed it by the coffee table, so he could watch over Winnie. The Doctor picked the pocketwatch off the floor and sat down.
Winnie woke up just before two in the morning.
"Hnah," she mumbled. The Doctor knelt on the floor so that he could be in her line of sight when she opened her eyes.
"Hannah's fine," said the Doctor. "Clara's watching over her."
Winnie sat up. After she rubbed her eyes red, she put her head into her hands. "God, my head."
"You opened it partially, didn't you?"
Winnie nodded.
"You've got a portion of Romana in your head," the Doctor informed her, "but you're still human. Romana and Winnie are fighting a war in your mind."
Winnie nodded her acknowledgment.
"You need to open the pocketwatch completely and let Romana out."
"Where's Hannah?" Winnie looked up. She continued without waiting for a reply. "Get Hannah."
The Doctor walked out of Winnie's line of sight. With the vicious headache pounding her skull, she didn't want to move her head or focus on anything. A few minutes later, Hannah appeared in front of Winnie. Hannah wrapped her cold hands around Winnie's wrists.
"Mummy?"
"Darling, my darling." Winnie picked Hannah up and put the girl onto her lap. Hannah wrapped her arms around Winnie's neck and rested her head on Winnie's shoulder.
"Everything's going to change, isn't it?" Hannah asked quietly.
Winnie pressed a kiss into Hannah's curls. "Yes. Everything is changing."
"If you need my permission," Hannah said the word slowly, making sure to pronounce it correctly, "you have it."
Winnie stared at her daughter, wondering how she had raised the girl to understand oh so much.
"To be the lady in the pocketwatch," Hannah continued. "You can be her. The Doctor and Clara explained everything. They gave me ice cream and biscuits as well, so they're okay."
Winnie nodded.
"Darling," she whispered against her daughter's ear, "adopting you was the best thing I ever did. You are the pride and joy of my life, and you are so wonderful, and I love you so so much."
Hannah kissed Winnie's cheek and jumped off of her lap. Winnie's headache was increasing.
"Darling, get the Doctor for me," Winnie pleaded. Hannah nodded. Winnie knew she ran off because of her quick footsteps. The Doctor knelt in front of Winnie and took her hands in his.
"I've stepped out of the frame," Winnie stated, "and there's no going back." The Doctor didn't reply.
"I'm ready," Winnie stood with the Doctor's help. He placed the pocketwatch into her hands and stepped back.
"So I just …" Winnie tossed the pocketwatch into the air and caught it, then sighed. "Right. I guess this is goodbye, Dr. Smith."
"Or hello," the Doctor replied.
They smiled at each other.
Winnie took a deep breath and opened the pocketwatch.
Hannah's adorable, isn't she? I love Hannah. Hannah is the main reason that I love this chapter so much.
We've finally got to the chapter that named the story, and I'm very glad. If I'm correct, we're over halfway done. Obviously. Since, ya know, Winnie's gonna Romana-ize herself and blah blah. Spoilers.
Please review, as I'd love to know what you think.