Chapter 10
After the Tardis had left - for a while - life had gone on as usual for the Tenth Doctor and Adelaide.
And that time was passing by and running out too quickly.
Now and then, he would look back and recall that look he had seen in the eyes of his future self, as if that man had seen something that he could not share, something that perhaps had been terrible – yet he didn't understand why he had refused to share it with his former self, because surely, this life he lived now was his past, and what harm would there be in telling his past about a future he wouldn't live to see?
And what he had said about the four of them – that had played on his mind too, he had spent many nights when he ought to be sleeping to try and take as much care as he could of his fragile health, staying awake instead, long into the early hours of the morning, trying to work out what had been meant by the other Doctor saying the four of us.
What had that meant?
He could only assume he had meant that one day, his older self and Clara, and Adelaide and Steffi would be reunited, they would meet up some how.
Timey-wimey stuff.
Stuff that wouldn't concern him, because he knew he wouldn't last much longer. Maybe he would live to see Steffi grow up – but eventually, he knew he would have to regenerate... But he kept thinking about it, because there had been a look in the other Doctor's eyes that he had tried and failed to hide – there was much more to that remark about the four of us...
But no matter how often he thought on it, he always got the feeling that one day it would make sense – but not here, not now in this time line, yet one day, it would make sense to him – as he was now, and he didn't see how that could be, because in this life, his time was running out...
Several years after his Twelfth self had left with Clara in the Tardis and the remark about the four of us still nagged at the back of his tired mind, the Doctor was in bed resting, feeling partly relieved that the machine salvaged from the alien ship no longer worked to counteract the radiation, because it was painful to go through and at least he didn't have to do that any more. The downside to that meant he was too weak to have any more treatments, but so far the medication he was replicating thanks to the Tardis meant he lived his life more or less free of pain, even though he was growing weaker and he knew that soon, he would have to give in to the inevitable and allow the fires of regeneration to take over...
It had been early one morning on a spring day when the sun was warm and the open window let in a breeze that carried with it the scent of the garden, when the Doctor woke up beside Adelaide and just knew his time was over.
He didn't feel as if he was about to take his last breath, he even felt like a small reserve of energy he hadn't realised he still had left had just filled him up and made him feel like he could for a short time, and enjoy life once more.
But that was just his body getting ready to be consumed by the fires of regeneration. He wasn't going to hope for more, because he knew there was no chance of this situation changing now...
He turned over in bed and took Adelaide in his arms and as she opened her eyes he smiled as he looked down at her.
"It's all been so good, you and me...and I've got this strange feeling that it's not going to be over even when it is. I'm not even sure what I mean by that."
She opened her mouth to speak but he covered it with a kiss, and then pulled away from that kiss to allow her to breathe as she gave a gasp and he moved against her firmly, never taking his gaze from hers as he made love to her with the kind of energy he had missed for many years.
The orgasm, when it hit, didn't even wipe him out like it usually did in his exhausted state, instead he closed his eyes and made the moment last as long as it could, just to keep their bodies as one as he held her and felt her tremble in his arms.
Then he rolled on to his back and lay beside her and breathed heavily, turned his head and looked at her and smiled.
"One day," he vowed, "I don't know when or how, but I'll thank you for this."
Adelaide had found staying strong difficult lately, especially after being told he was now too weak to continue with the treatment to slow the radiation damage, but today he seemed so different, so much more like the man she had met on Mars, before the radiation...
She smiled and her eyes sparkled as she considered what he had just said.
"You want to thank me for good sex?"
He laughed.
"No!" then his amusement faded, but the love that shone in his eyes remained, "I want to thank you for everything. For us, for Steffi, for all the years we've spent together being a family, and for this, for looking after me now we know I'm only going to get worse."
Adelaide had never stopped keeping up her firm resolution to stay positive for his sake.
"And today you look better than you have for a long while," she told him, "Now stop talking like this is the end! You're a Time Lord, you could prove everyone wrong and live for many years to come. Now I'm getting up, I need to get dressed, Steffi's back in an hour."
He thought about Steffi, who was now a teenager and had spent the night at a friends house having a sleep over. He guessed he would have to get this over and done with before she got back. He didn't want her to see him regenerate, she worried about him and he knew today was the day he would leave, and it didn't seem right to say goodbye to her because...
He would see her again.
They would meet again one day.
He couldn't explain why he felt so sure of that, because regeneration would mean setting himself on to the path he was meant to take to ensure the timeline remained unchanged for his next life...
But they would, one day.
Him and Steffi would meet again and he would be seeing Adelaide again, too...
As Adelaide left the bedroom, the Doctor sat up in bed and closed his eyes, understanding that time was being kind, because he was dying and this time he wasn't fighting it, and he was being allowed to see something that his Twelfth self would have called a grey area, except that for a moment, that haze had lifted, and he saw a glimpse of a future life – a far future life, long after his Twelfth life was over...this was perhaps his thirteenth, or fourteenth life :
Adelaide was standing at a bar in a very fancy restaurant and going by the look of the bar staff with their part insect features, this was not earth and she was in some far off time and place – how had she got there? The back of the bar was mirrored and he saw her reflection as she stood there in an elegant silken gown, and she looked as good as she did the day they had first met on Mars...
How come she had not aged?
He walked over to the bar, turned his head and briefly caught sight of his own reflection - and as he saw through his future eyes, the Doctor smiled...
Good choice.
Clever choice.
Of course she would know it was him, that was why he had chosen this appearance when he had regenerated...
He was almost as he had looked in his Tenth life, but with a difference...
He joined her at the bar.
"Adelaide," he said, and she turned her head and looked at him.
"I said I'd thank you one day," he told her, and then the scene faded from his mind, because it was yet to be, and there would be many years before they had that meeting...
Right now, he was still in his Tenth life, and he knew that life was ready to come to an end. The flickers of aches he felt through his bones as he got out of bed and reached for his clothing only served to remind him that time was short now.
By the time he had got dressed, straightened his tie and put on his coat, as he looked into the mirror it surprised him to see all trace of the pain he had been through was gone now – the shadows under his eyes had vanished, the lines etched deeper around his eyes had faded away – it was regeneration, the process was already starting.
He had to get back to the Tardis...
As the Doctor reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Adelaide had gone to the front door, and he heard her welcome home their daughter, who was back early. He hurried through to the kitchen, opened the back door and went outside, pausing for a moment to lean against the brick work of the house as the sight of the Tardis beneath the shade of the tree briefly blurred and doubled. He drew in a sharp breath and walked towards it, knowing he had to be inside when the process began.
Unlocking the Tardis door was difficult because his vision blurred again, but he gave the key a shove and it went into the lock and he turned it, pushed the door open and went inside.
He took off his coat and tossed it aside, his body felt as if firelight had started to flicker up from deep in his bones, his Time Lord body having had enough of dealing with the radiation that had constantly attacked it over the past few years – this was it, he was regenerating, and he had no choice in the matter...
"I don't want to go," he whispered as he thought of his wife and child.
"Doctor?"
He looked around to see Adelaide had dashed through the open doorway and into the Tardis. Just as his strength left him and he grabbed at the side of the console and then slid to his knees, she was there on the floor beside him, and she was holding him in her arms.
"You have to fight this!" she said to him as tears filled her eyes.
He looked up at her.
"You should go...just go...this is dangerous..."
"I'm not leaving you," she vowed.
"Just go," he said again as he breathed in and swore he felt the fires rising up within him, "And be happy, I want you to do that – one day, I'll see you again...just live your life and be happy, Adelaide..."
He wanted to tell her to let go of him, because he could feel the heat rising in his body, but it was too late. As he slumped in her arms and his eyes closed, she held him tightly, weeping for his loss.
And the fire burst out without warning, setting him in a blaze of light that threw her back, as she hit the floor of the console room she saw fire above and around her, the Tardis was ablaze, and so was she...she brushed at the flame on the back of her hand, but it kept on burning and she felt like her lungs were on fire.
"MUM!"
She heard her daughter's terrified shout, and then Steffi had grabbed her and dragged her and she had managed to get to her feet as all around, burning debris fell from the Tardis ceiling...
Steffi dragged her outside, and Adelaide dropped to her knees and rolled on the lawn as she tried to put out the fire that had caught her hand and her clothing.
The Tardis engines fired up, and the blue box faded in and out of sight and vanished.
Now the garden was silent.
Steffi stood there watching in horror as her mother lay on the ground, her face and hands reddened by flame and her clothing blackened by soot.
"Mum?" she said again, and Adelaide sat up, and on feeling an odd crackling sensation beneath her skin, put her hands to her face and wiped away the soot from the fire – and with it, she also wiped away the burns, and now her daughter was staring at her, because not only had the burns vanished, but her mother looked twenty years younger, too...
Adelaide got up and turned to look at the place where the Tardis had once stood, and seeing that empty space made her want to weep – but she was very aware that something was swirling inside her, and she she closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and slowly breathed out a final trace of the regenerative flame.
Then she looked down at her hand, brushed it with her palm, and what had been a weeping, blistering burn healed instantly, leaving a scar. She felt sure if she did that again, the scar would also be gone – but she wanted to keep it to remember the day the man she loved had handed her his gift...
"Mum? Are you okay?"
She looked to Steffi, and instead of weeping for the loss of her husband, love and strength remained inside her.
"I'm fine," she promised her, "He left me his gift, don't you see? You're part time lord, and now, so am I..."
And then as Steffi looked to the place where the Tardis had stood and started to cry, Adelaide embraced her daughter, and they stood there together, mourning the loss of Doctor as Adelaide recalled his parting words, that they would meet again some day...
"Think, Clara!"
As the Twelfth Doctor paced the floor of the console room, she stared at him.
"I don't know what you're supposed to do! You should know, you're the Doctor!"
He stopped pacing and joined her by the controls, looking at her impatiently.
"The four of us...me, you, Adelaide...and him, my Tenth self...but we've just left him with his family, and he's going die and regenerate...that's how it goes. That's the last days of his life. It's already happened, it's in the past for me...So why do I see him on board Adelaide's ship? How can he be there if he's already dead?"
He was looking at her like she had all the answers, and she didn't.
"I don't know. And do you remember your Tenth self made me promise not to take risks? Because I'm trying to keep that promise and stay out of this!"
His blue eyes widened as the recollection fell into place.
"Yes, I do recall he asked you to promise to keep out of trouble! But you won't be at risk and neither will I – we're on the other side of the ship when the Flood attacks. But Steffi is trapped in there with them. And somehow, my Tenth self is on board, in D Section when it happens."
Clara thought about it.
"But he wouldn't have been there if he was dying from the radiation. After that happened he went home to Adelaide and Steffi and raised his family on Earth..."
She stopped and started to smile as she met his gaze, and his eyes lit up as he got it, too.
"I spent a century running from my fate!" he exclaimed, "I remember..."
He dashed over to the other side of the console and began to hit switches, and then as he looked to Clara, she saw the thrill of adventure light up in his eyes.
"I remember where I went, after I felt Adelaide on Earth, after I saved her from Mars...the Tardis was trying to pull me to the Ood planet, that was where it began, the start of the end...the encounter with the Master – but I had other plans. I ran..."
The look in her eyes matched his because the Doctor's enthusiasm was contagious.
"So all we have to do is go back through time and catch up with him, and tell him where he needs to be?"
The Doctor was smiling as he gave his reply.
"Yes, we just have to catch up with him!" he exclaimed, as he threw a lever and the ship changed course, "Let the chase begin!"