Author's note: Okay, so it's a really long one this time; nearly five thousand words. I can hear all of your voices in my head saying things along the lines of "Good, that's the least we deserve after making us wait so long." Quite right, too.

Because I haven't been on here in so long, I'm not sure if I have responded to all of your reviews. If I didn't respond to yours, please let me know and I will go back and reply it for you. Time seemed to have escaped me the last few weeks. Well, months really. I am obsessive over all things except time management it would seem. You can also blame Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Oh Benedict Cumberbatch! Swoon!

*Clears throat*

Sorry, I am trying to resist writing Sherlock fanfiction with every fibre of my body, and I can assure you that it is very hard to stay focused on Doctor Who. How amazing would it be if there was a Doctor Who/Sherlock crossover on tv? Oh my God, I would be an absolute mess -

*Clears throat again*

Sorry, I digress. I will stop acting as though I am blogging, and let you get on with reading...

Enjoy!

Oh, and I am assuming that there will be much Dylan-hate after this. Just saying.

The pain in Bella's head from the rush of all her memories flooding back to her slowly faded in time to hear the Doctor choke out "I'm so sorry, Bella." Her eyes flew open and she saw him walking away from her and she tried to reach out and move forward to grab him, to tell him that everything was okay again, that she was okay again, but she couldn't move.

"Doctor…" she managed to whisper, silent tears streaming down her face, but he didn't hear her as he became further and further away. Once he had gone out under the gateway and disappeared behind the tall hedge, she collapsed to her knees feeling overwhelmed by almost everything.

Bella remembered being stuck in the strange violet snow and the Trickster touching her forehead. She remembered the look on the Doctor's face and the fear in his voice. She shuddered at the thought. How could she have possibly forgotten that day, she thought to herself, but she supposed all her memories had been wiped when the Trickster had touched her.

Now that Bella could remember everything, her mind worked at tremendous speeds to try and piece everything together. She knew now that the TARDIS had been in her head, fighting so very hard to keep hold of her memories to make sure that she never really forgot the Doctor, but it had been so much more than that; what the TARDIS had been doing was helping her to see all the clues, all the information that the Trickster would have hoped that no one would see. Bella didn't know why the TARDIS had done so much, but she was extremely thankful, and she wasn't sure how she could ever make it up to the TARDIS.

Moving quickly towards her tall horse, Bella picked up the reins before quickly running towards the house, her horse trotting after her. She knew that the Doctor and her friends were now in terrible danger and she had to do all that she could to keep them safe… she just hoped that there was still a jar of pickled eggs in her cupboard still.

- o -

The Doctor slowly got out of Sally's car, his expression that of devastation. He had once again lost a companion and now he himself felt very lost. The Trickster had beaten him; the Trickster had won. He gave a heavy sigh and leant on the car. He could feel Jack's eyes on him, but he didn't care; if he was honest with himself, he didn't care for much now. He didn't care for the beautiful patterns in the spider's webs that were covered in snow, or the way that the birds were chirping happily in the trees surrounding them; none of it mattered to him anymore and it felt as though time itself was meaningless to him.

Of course, he had felt like this many times before, he was just getting worse at hiding it in his old age, and some of the times had been much worse than others. He remembered leaving Sarah Jane behind when he had been summoned back to Gallifrey, and when Donna hadn't even noticed when he'd said goodbye to her, and then when he had left Rose Tyler – someone who he still cared about very much – behind on a parallel universe with the human version of himself. But this was different; he hadn't made the same mistakes with Bella as he had done with everyone else; he had sat her down and told her why he was alone, why people left him whether they chose to or not. He had told her that travelling with him was dangerous – that being with him was dangerous – that he was dangerous and warned her that she could get hurt. He had promised her that he would always tell her the truth – or what he could actually bring himself to tell her, at least – he said that he would never lie to her, that he wouldn't lead her on or ever give her the wrong idea. Basically, he had treated Bella with the respect that all his former companions deserved, yet sometimes didn't receive.

But none of that mattered now, he thought painfully to himself. Bella was gone, and him staying there was putting her in grave danger, yet he knew in his hearts that he couldn't just leave her; he'd promised her he's never do that again. He would just have to stay there, watching her from the where the TARDIS stood for all eternity. It would be a lonely existence, but perhaps it was one that he deserved. Certainly, it was the only one he could trust himself with.

So many lives ruined.

From the driver's side of the car, Sally watched the Doctor worriedly, seeing his devastated expression. Something had happened after he had gone off on his own, she could tell. He had refused to tell them what he had done when he had returned to them, but his face had said it all, specifically his eyes; Sally had never in all her life seen such emotion in anything before.

Sally glanced back to the house, where she found Dylan striding angrily towards them.

"Dylan, what's wrong?" Sally asked alarmed.

"He's what's wrong!" Dylan said angrily as he continued his furious approach, glancing at the Doctor who didn't flinch or look up. "He took her away and changed everything that was right the way that it was! She is the only person I can be myself around and she left me for him!"

"Dylan, how is this going to help the situation?" Sally asked feeling very strained. She just wanted her best friend back to the way she used to be, she didn't want all the fights that seemed to go along with getting her back.

"I think it will help it along nicely," Dylan continued, his voice filled with jealous anger as he watched the Doctor, willing him to bite back and fight. "Everything was fine till he showed up on her doorstep a year ago all good-looks and charm, to take her away –"

"He saved her life, actually." Jack said hotly in the defence of the Doctor, who said nothing in retaliation.

"Were you there too then?" Dylan asked, rounding on Jack. "No, so how do you know that he hadn't been stalking her or something? It's not like she's the first one to go with him, she couldn't be, so where are all the other women who've gone with him? What happened to them?"

Sally noticed the Doctor tense slightly, his head jerking around to glare furiously at her brother.

"See, what I reckon is they all travel with you until they see how dangerous it is, how dangerous you are." Dylan continued cruelly. "That's it isn't it, I'm right? How many others have lost their memories? How many lives have you destroyed? How many have died to protect you? Will you let her do that too; die bravely and all, because she's the kind of girl who would."

The two of them glared at each other furiously.

"You know what I think?" Dylan asked the Doctor quietly, and the Doctor raised an eyebrow in response. "I think you deserve it, Bella not remembering who you are, because I know how you feel about her, I'm not stupid –"

"Could have fooled me," Jack muttered darkly.

"- it just means that you'll spend the rest of your life know that she can no longer love you back." Dylan said spitefully, ignoring Jack's interruption.

"Dylan!" gasped Sally, not able to believe what had just come out of her brother's mouth.

"Don't listen to him Doctor; he's just a jealous boy who could never get what he wanted." Jack said sounding suddenly as furious as Dylan, but the Doctor hardly noticed; Dylan's words hit him like a wave of icy water, leaving him frozen in place.

Dylan made a move to lunge himself at Jack, who stood leering at him as if daring him to take a swing at him, but Sally quickly grabbed him.

"Don't be stupid!" Sally said angrily. "You need to pull your head in Dylan. Bella has never shown the remotest amount of interest in you – ever! She is happy with him, happier than she's ever really been here with us."

"How can you say that?" Dylan asked outraged as he rounded on his sister now.

"Because I care about her," Sally said, beginning to sound upset. "I just want her to be happy and if you really felt about her the way you say you do, then you would want her to be happy too."

Dylan opened and closed his mouth a few times, obviously thinking very hard about what Sally had said.

"He's the only one who can help her, Dylan." Sally whispered.

Dylan remained silent for a few moments before finally looking up to the Doctor.

"Milton is here, do any of you want to tell me why?" Dylan said.

"Here?" the Doctor repeated hurriedly, moving towards him. "When did he get here?"

"I am assuming that it's bad then?" Dylan asked dully.

"Answer the question!" the Doctor snapped.

"He said that he heard that Bella was sick, that she wasn't well." Dylan explained, guessing that Milton had something do to with Bella's memory. "He asked where she was, but I didn't tell him, I knew something was off."

"Good," the Doctor said, sounding both relieved and thankful. "You might have just saved Bella's life."

Dylan nodded. "I thought as much."

"How did he react when you told him that she wasn't here?" the Doctor enquired.

"Surprised mostly," Dylan shrugged indifferently.

"But where is Bella?" Sally asked worriedly.

"At her house," answered the Doctor and Dylan at the same time, both of them gazing suspiciously at one another as Jack and Sally looked at them surprised.

"And you didn't think that we should stop there on our way home?" Sally asked hotly, her hands on her hips.

"I think the Doctor did stop there on the way home." Jack said, observing the Doctor's somewhat guilty expression.

"Why couldn't we have gone too?" she ordered angrily. "You aren't the only one here who cares about her, you know!"

"The TARDIS told me to go there alone." The Doctor said quickly. "She was on the verge of remembering, I could see it in her eyes. The TARDIS had been helping her to keep hold of her memories – keeping them locked into her subconsciousness. Because of what happened last night, Bella must have been drawn to her own home where the things that she's been dreaming about were slowly being proven real."

"Why did the TARDIS want you there?" Jack asked slowly.

"She thought I could help Bella remember fully." The Doctor answered quietly.

"And did you?" Dylan asked, with a mix of dread and hope in his voice.

"No,"

A few tense and upset moments followed before a new voice spoke, sounding genuinely relieved.

"Well, that's a relief then," said Edwin Milton as he stepped out the front door, all of them turning to face him. "I guess I won't have to kill you now."

The Doctor pulled Sally behind him as he moved to stand side-by-side with Jack and Dylan, glaring furiously at Milton.

"Although," Milton added in an afterthought. "The Trickster doesn't like you overly much."

"What is your overall plan for Bella?" the Doctor ordered dangerously. "Why can she still not remember?"

Milton hesitated, obviously unsure of what to say.

"Tell me!" the Doctor yelled.

"It's the Trickster Doctor," Milton said very quietly. "He doesn't tell anyone his full plan, not even those he is using to craft the progression of time, he only tells us what he wants us to hear. From what I can put together though, is that he appeared at some weak point in time space and stole Bella's memories, then somehow brought her back here."

"And you had no idea, of course?" the Doctor scoffed. "You thought him saving you was just a nice gesture?"

Milton looked down guiltily. "I regret my decision to help him, Doctor, for I took life for granted. I suppose it is true that you only appreciate life when you lay dying on a muddy battlefield, surrounded by your friends and enemies alike."

"A muddy battlefield?" repeated Sally sounding confused.

The Doctor frowned. "You aren't the real Edwin Milton, are you?"

Milton shook his head. "As I lay dying he came to me, offering me a new peaceful life four years in the past."

"What did he tell you?" the Doctor asked, getting the feeling that Milton – or whoever he really was – was trying to help them.

"Of the situation concerning yourself and Bella, nothing." said Milton quietly. "He had only said that if I lived and took the place of the human Edwin Milton and kept a watchful eye over a girl, a girl who remained nameless until the deal was done, I would escape death and save the universe. Had he of told me who it was that I would be keeping an eye on at the time I would not have accepted the deal."

"Why not?" asked Jack suspiciously.

"Well, Bella Lumic is known throughout the entire universe, Captain Harkness, for her constant struggle to save this planet and her loyalty towards others."

"It would seem that species has a somewhat broader range than I was expecting, but go on," the Doctor said, receiving shocked looks from Sally and Dylan.

Milton gave a slight nod before continuing. "If I had of known that Bella was involved, I would have rather died, for I know that she can be equally as terrifying as you Doctor, when her friends or her planet is in danger. I must admit that I am rather frightened of her. Besides, her place is at your side, Doctor, nowhere else."

"You're frightened of Bella?" Dylan said doubtfully.

"When she is really angry, frightened, upset or she knows that someone she cares about is in danger, she is truly a force to be reckoned with." Milton told him seriously.

"I highly doubt that," Dylan scoffed, making Milton frown.

"I've seen her destroy an entire alien race, plus their re-creator in order to save this planet and the entire universe." The Doctor said quietly to Dylan as Sally leant in closer to listen unbelievingly. "I have seen her aim a gun at a ghost-like being in order to protect the people and the things that she cares very much about and I have seen grown men cower before her in fear because of what she has done in the past. Don't doubt her."

"She could never do those things!" Dylan gaped, horrified by the Doctor's words. "What have you done to her? You have changed her so much!"

"It wasn't the Doctor's fault," Milton said. "Everybody makes their own choices in life."

"You're defending what she has done?" Jack asked sceptically, raising his eyebrows.

"Don't you?" Milton asked surprised. "What she has done in the past is nothing to what she will do to save her beloved Time Lord's life."

"How could you possibly know that?" Dylan asked as the Doctor's stomach churned uncomfortably with fear.

"I am from four years in the future, remember?"

"And we don't want to know any more about that." the Doctor said quickly, still quite afraid of the meaning behind his words. "Spoilers, as a friend of mine would say. Well, at least I think she's a friend, I'm not entirely sure yet…"

"Wait a minute," Sally said suddenly. "If you know about Bella's future, wouldn't that mean that Bella gets her memory back and continues travelling with the Doctor?"

The Doctor smiled slightly, thinking that Sally had somehow gotten her head around the time factor rather quickly for a human.

"Apparently time can be re-written," Milton said sadly.

"No," the Doctor said sternly. "Not with Bella, I need her!"

"I know you do, Doctor, which is why I am sorry." Milton said and the Doctor actually believed him. "You don't yet realise how much she means to you, how much your life depends on her. Had I have known that it was you two involved, I would have never agreed; the universe needs you both too much.

"Then help us!" the Doctor pleaded, hoping against all odds that he would agree.

"I can't. You can't just go back on your word with the Trickster, I have no choice!"

"You always have a choice, Milton, even you said that!" The Doctor said. "Just decide that you no longer want to help the Trickster and everything will go back to the way it was."

Milton seemed to consider this and they all held their breaths.

"But then I'll die."

"You're from the future, Milton, and you obviously know things that Bella goes onto do," the Doctor said, still pleading and trying to keep calm. "Do it for her, I know that you don't hate her, maybe you've even grown to care about her – Rassilon knows that stranger things have happened – but please help her!"

Milton slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry Doctor, but I can't… I don't want to die."

"Well, you're going to die either way, so choose which death you would prefer." Jack said suddenly and the Doctor looked back to him to discover him hold out his gun.

"Jack!" the Doctor said through gritted teeth as Sally and Dylan moved back wearily. "Put that away!"

"Doctor, we can't risk something like this," Jack said. "Bella needs you as much as you need her."

"I know, but this is not the way to go about it, though!" the Doctor yelled furiously.

"It's the way of UNIT," Milton said, watching Jack carefully with wide eyes.

"I'm Torchwood." said Jack angrily.

"Ah, I should have guessed," Milton nodded. "You lot blew up that Sycorax ship that was leaving. Brave."

"Wrong Torchwood." said Jack, his voice shaking slightly.

"Shut up a minute, will you?" Sally suddenly said from behind the Doctor and everyone looked to her frowning, confused by her sudden rudeness. "Can you hear that?"

The Doctor strained his ears to hear the sound of hoof beats getting closer and closer before seconds later Bella, who sat atop her massive horse, seemingly appeared out of nowhere through the trees and skidded to a stop between the Doctor, who had pulled both Dylan and Jack backwards out of the way, and Milton, who recoiled a few steps.

"Bella," the Doctor whispered as her horse reared powerfully, Bella facing away from him.

"Don't even think about coming any closer!" Bella said furiously as her horse pawed the ground nervously, flicking up snow and rocks from the ground as he did so.

"Bella," Milton began, his voice shaking slightly. "Bella, this man is not who you might think, he's a villain – the bad guy – he's wanted all over England!"

"Liar," Bella said darkly and Sally couldn't believe the tone of her voice; it was so different to what she was used to.

"What has come over you Bella?" Milton asked, obviously quite alarmed now. "We're good friends!"

"No, I used to be friends with the real Edwin Milton, not you!" Bella said heatedly. "You know, that man that you killed on the Trickster's orders?"

Milton stared open-mouthed at Bella, as did everyone else, especially the Doctor.

"That's impossible," Milton gasped.

"Not impossible, just highly improbable," Bella said coldly. "But I didn't do it on my own; I had help from the TARDIS, all I needed was a little extra push, thank you Doctor!"

"Can that even work?" Milton said, glancing around Bella's horse to the Doctor, who had a bit more colour in his cheeks than both Bella and Jack were used to seeing.

"What did you do?" Jack asked the Doctor curiously.

"It worked?" the Doctor managed to ask after a long period of opening and closing his mouth.

Bella looked around, giving him a flash of her brilliant, yet somewhat bashful, smile. "As if I couldn't remember something as intimate as a kiss like that one, Doctor, considering it's a rare occurrence for us!"

"She's back!" Jack laughed happily, as the Doctor grinned sheepishly, Sally stifled her laughed and even Dylan gave a small, relieved sigh.

"But fat lot of good you were," she said, "you gave up on me!"

The Doctor's grin slid from his face, but once Bella saw this she gave him a wink.

"Nah, you didn't give up on me, you just jumped to the wrong conclusion again." She continued softly and the Doctor knew at once that she didn't blame him for any of it. "But, if you had of waited a few seconds more – which, by the way, give me some credit, I did just have the TARDIS in my head for a solid week struggling to keep hold of everything. It was quite exhausting to have all my memories rush back at once, you know!"

"And what would have happened if lover-boy here had of waited?" Jack asked still looking very amused as he chuckled.

"Well, I could have warned you, couldn't I?" Bella said, her light tones beginning to have darker ones underlying them.

"Warned us about what?" the Doctor asked sharply.

"Warned you about the monster standing before us" Bella said coldly, looking back to Milton, who recoiled even more.

"I – I don't know what you mean, Bella?" Milton stammered a frightened look on his face now.

"No?" asked Bella. "You know, it was rather foolish of the Trickster to get someone like you to keep an ever-watchful eye on me, considering all my experience with your lot. It was very lucky that you didn't bring my memory back on your own with all the little things, the signs which pointed to who – to what you really are. I mean, come on, all the time we spent together?"

The Doctor watched Milton suspiciously, his mind working at a hundred miles an hour, trying to catch up to his companion who obviously had seven days' worth of information tucked away in her mind more than him. He had gathered for a long while now that this man was not the real Edwin Milton, and he had only discovered a mere ten minutes ago that he was from the future and probably not human, yet Bella seemed to have already worked it all out.

"How -?" gasped Milton staring at her in a state of horror.

"Well, a very good friend once told me that I had a pretty good mind," Bella said shrugging as if that point wasn't overly important. "I guess good observational skills are a part of that too. But you know what else I have noticed?"

Milton shook his head.

"That you've got a rubbish sense of smell when you're in your human form." Bella said indifferently as she pulled a medium sized jar from her big pockets.

"What's that?" Milton asked fearfully, jumping backwards as Sally and Dylan sniggered, not quite understanding why a grown man would fear a glass jar.

"Pickled eggs?" the Doctor said quietly, his face crumpled in confusion before letting an "ah," noise escape softly from his mouth.

"Pickled eggs," Bella confirmed, raising the jar ever-so-slightly, making it look as though she could throw it at any time. "More specifically, a jar of pickled eggs that is out of date by –"she glanced quickly at the label on the jar. "- over a year now, so I'd assume they'd be saturated in acetic acid by now. I have also got some watermelon." She added, dropping the reins onto her horse neck and pulled out another container with a blue lid that contained a lot of murky brown liquid. "Only, it doesn't look much like watermelon anymore, but that's what happens when you don't go home regularly to clean out your fridge." She added in an afterthought.

"Bella," the Doctor said warningly, moving a few steps forward.

She slowly put the liquidised watermelon back in her pocket. "It's okay, Doctor, I'm not going to use it unless he gives me no other choice. I won't even use it for revenge – even though I think I am entitled to it, considering… no, he just needs to run along and tell the Trickster that I would like a quick word."

"You – you want to talk to him?" Milton asked incredulously.

"Yes I do." said Bella bluntly. "I don't appreciate my life being changed and altered, nor do I approve of someone stealing my memories."

"But he can't appear here –"

"I would rather appreciate if you would stop lying to me," Bella said curtly, clearly not amused in the slightest now, and Sally had to admit that she could have sort of understand why Milton was slowly taking small steps backwards now. "I saw you talking to the mirror in your kitchen."

Milton slowly nodded. "I will try… I am sure he knows about all this anyway."

"Go," Bella said with a great deal of authority in her voice that none of them was really expecting.

Milton nodded, giving Bella the slightest of bows before running awkwardly down the driveway before diverting suddenly into the bushes with a loud crashing.

Sally looked up to Bella, who still sat up on her horse watching Milton disappear fully from view, her expression unreadable.

"You can't just let him go!" Dylan protested suddenly, moving forward. "He helped steal your memories, didn't he? Aren't you going to hand him over to someone or something?"

"He has no choice but to find the Trickster, he has failed in his little protection mission. "Bella said slowly. "Besides, it isn't me that he has to worry about now."

Sally looked up at her best friend's face as a dark shadow briefly passed across it. It made Bella seem so much older than she actually was and Sally wondered what she had been through over the last year, she wondered what adventures she had written in that journal of hers. She watched as Bella swung down off her horse and looked to the Doctor, her dark expression vanishing as she grinned at him.

Both the Doctor and Bella moved towards each other quickly, the Doctor wrapping his arms around her tightly and picked her up off the ground.

"Ooh, I missed you!" He said happily as Bella grinned even more.

"I missed you too Doctor," she said quietly before the Doctor put her back down, beaming at her and as she took off her black riding helmet Sally collided with her.

"We have been so worried about you!" Sally said, hugging Bella. "I mean, you turn up here, all Luna Lovegood-like, with no idea what was going on half the time and I didn't know what to do!"

Jack smiled and patted Bella on the back once she had managed to free herself Sally's tight hold.

"It wasn't quite the same without you," he said fondly and Bella smiled and gave his hand a quick, tight squeeze before her eyes turned across to Dylan, who seemed to be keeping his distance.

"And you," she said sounding angry as she moved towards him.

"Yes?" he asked innocently before she slapped him across his cheek. "Ouch!" he gasped as he stumbled backwards slightly.

"Just remember that if you ever do what you did to me earlier today again, you will come out of it a lot worse than this!" she said furiously before she hugged him tightly.

Dylan felt – and looked – shocked for a few moments before he hugged Bella back, burying his face in her shoulder, feeling increasingly guilty about what he had said to her.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

"I know," Bella whispered softly back so the others couldn't hear her; this just needed to be heard by Dylan. "And so am I."

He pulled away from and looked at her with another confused frown and Bella opened her mouth to explain but a loud smashing noise sounded somewhere within earshot.

"That sounded like glass," Jack said quickly.

"There's a mirror in the stables," Bella gasped, looking quickly back to the Doctor.

Nobody moved for a few moments, not until Bella shoved her riding helmet into Dylan's hands and began sprinting down towards the stables.

"But pickled eggs?" the Doctor yelled after her and they all heard her laugh loudly in answer. The Doctor gave a "Ha!" in response before sprinting after her, leaving Sally and Dylan looking expectantly to Jack.

"Everything is back to normal now." Jack said seriously.

"How do you know?" Sally asked.

"Because we've started running again!" grinned Jack as he too ran after them. "Come on!" he yelled back to them and they both exchanged a glance before following too.