The Time Child: Wiped Out Chapter 9, a doctor who fanfic

Danni's head was starting to spin. She reappeared in the TARDIS and looked around, hoping that she'd been brought to life at the end of this horrific ordeal. She hadn't, though, as she appeared to be on her own. There was no way the Doctor would have left her to come back to life on her own if he could help it. She looked at the monitor again and saw nothing but the street outside. River had gone, the Doctor had been captured but at least she knew Jack was alive. At the moment.

She rubbed her temples, wincing at the headache that was starting to pound in her skull. She really hoped that she wasn't going to suffer any permanent damage from being erased so many times. She felt a chill run through her at the thought. What would happen if it started to affect everyone's memories even when she was back in existence? What if it affected hers?

She grabbed the monitor, pulling it around to create a video like she knew River had done. She couldn't just let herself disappear without leaving something behind. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife, believe it or not. I'm making this in case we can't save all the moments in time. When I first met you, I was twenty-two years old. I'm now nearer seven hundred, and we've led a fantastic life together. I'll tell you it from your perspective. I first jumped into your life when you were in Cardiff with Rose…"

~0~0~0~

The Doctor really didn't like leaving Jack behind, but he was so on edge that it was near the bottom of his list of worries. Each time Jack was killed he felt Danielle being ripped from the time line and it didn't get better each time it happened. It made every single thing a little bit more frustrating, and he didn't have a lot of patience to begin with. Hiding in shadows was wasting valuable time. He just needed a distraction so that he could get Jack out in one piece and back on his intended time line. He never thought he'd be trying to get the rather amorous Captain a chance to bed yet another person. How times had changed.

For a rather simple building it had a rather complicated layout. Or, rather, it had such a simple and uniform layout that the Doctor couldn't tell which way he was going at all. He couldn't tell if he was running in circles or actually making some headway, which just infuriated him longer. Didn't anyone understand that his wife was in danger? Would a map really be asking too much?

The sound of heals clicking on the stone floor had him darting into a doorway, pulling the door close slightly but just enough for him to look out. He could definitely take down a couple of the guards that were roaming, making sure that Jack was safe and continuously dead, but he knew it was just pull more attention and more mobster thugs to kill Jack. He was trying to keep the man alive for as long as possible, after all.

The source of the heels ran past in a blur of curly hair. He frowned and chucked the door open. "River?"

The woman skidded to a stop, turning around to see a furious Time Lord. The look in his eyes and the way his eyebrows pointed down would have scared off most people. River Song was not most people. She smirked slightly as she walked back towards him. "Oh, Doctor, what a surprise," she drawled. "Needing me to save you yet again? How do you get along without me?"

The Doctor tipped back as she tried to kiss him before taking a step back to get out of her way. "You were supposed to stay on the TARDIS," he snarled at her.

"Yes, I remember," she retorted. "And yet you're the one who had to get themselves in danger. Don't worry, sweetie. The missus is here to save you."

The Doctor pointed at her a couple of times, before realising that she would have stepped out of the TARDIS for a reason. And, admittedly, River was the woman of grand, over the top actions. She would be useful.

"Alright," he declared. "Under two conditions. One; we are not married. Don't act like we are, it's incredibly off-putting." He paused for a moment to see if she would protest. "Two; what the hell are you wearing that eyepatch for?"

"Apparently, I decided to leave myself a little message," River explained, not at all fazed by his demands. She knew her Doctor very well and this barely scratched the surface of his stranger behaviour. She pulled it off and handed it to him. "I don't seem to be making much sense, though."

As he placed it on, he activated the video recording. At least not every trace of his wife was being erased from the universe. It meant that he still had a chance of saving her. It was when all of the little references to her life were gone that he had to be worried. And he definitely hadn't forgotten her, which was good. If he forgot her…

Then he'd have to be married to River. And he'd like it.

He ripped off the eyepatch and handed it to her. "I'm going to guess that was Danielle's doing," he commented, not waiting for her answer. "What do you remember about her?"

"Not a lot," River admitted. "I remember you turning up with a woman called Danni, checking to see if I knew her. A few times, actually."

"We were looking for the version of you that remembered," he explained before looking up and down the hallway. "Alright, short version. You have a daughter you don't remember. Jack is the father, also you don't remember that. Don't question it, just go with it. Jack is being killed to keep her erased from time, but every time he resurrects she comes back into existence. She reappears, he's killed, you get the idea."

"And we have to break him out without him dying so this Danielle can stay in existence?" River theorised. He nodded.

"Any ideas?" he shot back. "Any at all?"

"Plenty," River retorted. "However, surely the easiest is to get the TARDIS and fly it down to wherever Harkness is being kept?"

The Doctor blinked, surprised and a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought of that sooner. His thoughts had been so disjointed at the constant feel of his wife not quite being there that he'd not even thought about the TARDIS.

"Ah."

"'Ah' indeed," River drawled. "Like I said; what would you do without me? This way, my Love."

She led him back the way she came having been able to work the layout out pretty quickly. The Doctor followed. "You remember her coming to see you, though?" he asked.

"You visited a few times. Usually after a younger you had just left," River explained. "She seemed a little emotional, but I figured that was just because she was with you. Not everyone can handle your massive ego, after all."

"I do not have a massive ego," the Doctor grumbled. "And even if I did I feel it's wholly deserved at this point. Do you remember what she looks like?"

"Blonde and short," River replied. "Didn't seem too out of the ordinary. Maybe we should discuss the idea of you marrying me and my daughter."

"I told you to not act like we're married," he countered. "I'll leave you behind."

"No you won't," River replied smugly. "You like me too much for that."

The Doctor paused. That was something that Danielle would have said. In fact, he was sure she had said the exact same thing on more than one occasion. Perhaps it did make sense that he'd marry River in an alternate timeline. Even when she didn't exist he was always looking for her.

"I'm too sentimental," he muttered to himself before raising his voice slightly. "Let's just get out of here. She's been gone for days, that's not new," the Doctor retorted. "We have to get Harkness out. Danielle will reappear and we can get him to your graduation on time."

"My graduation?" River repeated with a wrinkle of her nose. "You didn't even come to my graduation."

"Not yours, no."

~0~0~0~

"Are you sure this is the right way?" the Doctor asked. River nodded yet again.

"Yes, I'm sure," she told him. "Like I was sure before, and I'll be sure in a few minutes when you answer again. God, I thought you got better the older you got."

"I am better," he grumbled. "And I'm not your husband. Stop saying stuff like that."

"I'll stop saying it when you stop acting like my husband," she told him bluntly. She wasn't convinced about everything that he was saying was true, but the rest of his behaviour rang true with the Doctor that she had always known. Contrary, oblivious and running around without a plan. The body changed but the man didn't.

"See?" she pointed out. "Right there. Where I parked her, because I always park her correctly."

Getting out of the building had been actually pretty easy. River had been able to find her way out without getting lost, which the Doctor had to begrudgingly be thankful for. She had taken them in the completely wrong direction, though, whilst insisting that she was going the right way. He'd had half a mind to just ditch her and go to the TARDIS himself but he knew that he was going to need her help.

It didn't help that the TARDIS came into view where she said the blue box had been parked. He wasn't happy, but it was also, again, near the bottom of the list of things that he was angry about.

The Doctor pushed the door of the TARDIS. It didn't open. With a frown he tried again, giving it a jiggle. "Oh come on, not now," he groaned. "Danielle's in trouble. You've always liked her better. Open the door."

"Trouble getting her started?" River asked. "Not a problem you have often, is it sweetie?"

The Doctor barely shot her a look. "Now is not the time to flirt, River," he scolded. "I don't have time for you to think you and I have any sort of relationship." He backed up slightly to try and work out how to tackle the door as River rolled her eyes.

"Someone is Mr Grumpy today," she muttered. "No matter, I'll fix that." She lifted her hand up, clicking her fingers together to open the door. The smug look fell off her face as the lock didn't click open and the Doctor felt a small amount of satisfaction at it.

"She always opens for me," River commented, surprised.

"No, she doesn't," the Doctor retorted. "She opens for me and Danni. You're not my wife, River, you're going to just have to deal with it because I don't have time to argue about it anymore." He raised his hand, clicking his fingers together like River did. He hadn't done that since he had regenerated, but hearing that welcomed click of the doors unlocking had him wondering if he should bring it back again. It was rather cool, after all.

Apart from dim light coming from the time rotor, the room was bathed in darkness and seemed entirely too quiet for his liking. He didn't dwell on it for very long, though. "Danni!" he called as he opened the door. "Danni, are you in here?!"

~0~0~0~

The Doctor stared as Danni shimmered out of existence, hearts breaking and voice catching in his throat. He felt the rip of her from time. She hadn't looked right. She'd been almost see-through. She was fading. River stopped next to him with a soft look of realisation on her face.

"Is that her?" she asked him. "My daughter?"

"That's her," the Doctor confirmed. "My Danielle."

Danni shimmered into existence again. She looked around, again. She ran past him and River to the console and grabbed to monitor. "Theta," she started. "My name's Danielle Fielding. I'm your wife…"

"Theta?" River repeated before looking up at the Doctor. "Is that you?"

He nodded. "Don't ever call me that," he commanded lowly. "The TARDIS has put her in a time loop."

"Why, though?" River asked. "You said that I was protected from her disappearing because I was in the TARDIS. Surely it works the same for her as well?"

"The damage must be becoming more permanent. The TARDIS is trying to save her by looping her back over that point in time."

"… I'll tell it from your perspective. I first jumped…" The Doctor walked over, standing by her side as she spoke into the camera with no idea that he was even there.

"The TARDIS did always like her," he continued. "That's why it's so dark in here. She's rerouting all of her power to keep Danni as preserved as she can."

"She doesn't look like me," River commented.

"Before she regenerated she looked like Amelia," the Doctor replied. His fingers danced across the console, checking the TARDIS's vitals. "We can't use the TARDIS because she doesn't have enough power to take us to Harkness and keep Danielle preserved."

"Well if we save Harkness, she'll be brought back anyway," River reasoned. "We should just fly down and get him."

"No!" the Doctor replied firmly. "The TARDIS stays. What other ideas do you have?"

River sighed as the girl shimmered and continued to explain her and the Doctor's first meeting. She had to admit that she wasn't exactly happy trying to save of the Doctor's other love interests. She wasn't stupid enough to think that she was all there was, but it felt rather counterproductive to encourage that behaviour. Then again, how many husbands had she had over her time? And yet there had only ever been one that counted.

"Well, there are a lot of men around with a lot of fire power. What do we know?"

"We know that the guy in change wants to stop Danielle interfering with a war. And that he was married to Harkness."

"They'll be watching Harkness like a hawk. We have to give them something to look at instead."

The Doctor looked at her with one eyebrow cocked. "You have an idea?" he asked. She nodded.

"Just the one. We need to draw them out, and we need to get Jack out, correct?" she asked as she dipped down to open the console top. The Doctor really didn't like that. She shouldn't have known how to do that.

"Why are you just repeating what I said?" he asked shortly in reply.

"And Jack can't die forever, right?" she asked, ignoring his tone. She was used to it. His tact had never been great.

"I'm not sure how this is relevant," the Doctor snapped. He couldn't think straight. All he could pay attention to was Danni talking next to them. When she had taken the 'exit strategy' in the Bank of Karabraxos he had been so focused on finding the Architect and make them pay for taking her away from him, this time he felt much more lost. His thoughts shot off in a million different directions.

"Because…" She pulled out a canister, placing it onto the console dramatically. "How do you feel about making a bit of a mess?"

The Doctor blinked, them berated himself silently for not thinking about it first. "Harkness is stuck in there," he pointed out. "If we do this he is going to suffer."

"Will he mind?" she asked. He turned and looked at Danni, who was smiling as she retold the story of the him meeting her in Cardiff. She wouldn't be happy if she found out that Jack had burned to save her, even if he came back out of the other end. Perhaps he could get Jack out before anything terrible happened to him.

Jack wouldn't mind, though. He'd understand the moment he realised what was going on. "Let's go," the Doctor declared.

"Always so impatient," River retorted. "We'll soon fix that."

She sauntered out in front of him, happy for the adventure. The Doctor paused and looked back at Danni, who hung her head for a moment then looked back up at the monitor.

"I hope this lasts," she told her recording. "I've no idea if it will outlive me. But I love you so much, Theta. Remember that you were always loved." She shook her head. "After Dickens ran we were stuck in the basement with the Gelth…"

She shimmered out of existence and he steeled himself before he followed River out. He refused to lose her. He refused to let her be erased.