Disclaimer: I don't own "Doctor Who" or "Twilight", and the essential details of the original concept of this fic came from a video posted on YouTube by heroesdwtw- which has unfortunately now been taken off YouTube- and is used with their permission

Feedback: Much appreciated

New Dawn

The following morning, as I stood in the meadow that I had long used for my old meetings with Edward, I once again found myself wondering about the plans I'd set in motion for my future.

Even if I'd started making some tentative plans for this next stage of my life as soon as we left the Volturi, I was actually amazed at how easily things had fallen into place. I'd had to ask Alice for help finding the phone number I was looking for, but even with my new partial immunity to her gift, it had been simple enough to make contact with the now-retired Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and explain the situation to him. The Doctor's old friend hadn't been completely comfortable with the notion that vampires were real, but once I'd explained to him that the Doctor had every faith that these vampires could be reasoned with if given the opportunity, he had agreed to the Time Lord's proposal to make arrangements to develop a blood substitute to treat their hunger. He admitted that he was going to take some time to set the stage for this particular plan before anyone introduced it to UNIT's superiors, but he had enough contacts in the main organisation to know who he could talk to in order to make the initial steps go smoothly.

The Cullens were naturally unnerved at the prospect of their entire society being upended to the degree that this plan involved, but at the same time none of them had explicitly rejected anything I'd come up with when making the initial plans. Carlisle had even volunteered his services in working on the blood substitute once the appropriate scientists had been brought into the secret; haematology had never been one of the branches of science the Cullens had thought about taking themselves due to the risk of losing control in class, but the relevant members of the family were all confident that they could grasp what was needed in a controlled environment with 'teachers' who knew who and what they were. As an initial gesture of good faith, some of the Doctor's UNIT contacts had also arranged the necessary paperwork for Esme to officially 'adopt' Steven (I would have preferred to get Sarah Jane Smith's help for that one, but had soon reminded myself that she wouldn't have even met me yet by this point in her life), and they had also agreed to help Carlisle find a suitable surrogate for Rosalie and Emmett's unborn child.

I couldn't tell Charlie what I had planned for my future, of course, but the Brigadier had assured me that they would work on an appropriate cover story to justify my future job before my graduation. Provisionally, they were working on giving me an appropriate-sounding internship once I graduated that would lead me to a public posting in the U.N. that would serve as my cover when I was working with the vampires, but for the moment, since they were still just sorting out the alternative food source, the Brigadier had assured me that they would keep everything as discreet as possible until I was ready to take my new position.

All in all, I was getting off to a good start in my new role before I was even officially hired for the job, which meant that the only person left for me to tell about my imminent future was my former best friend. Edward wasn't entirely comfortable about this part of my plan, but he had accepted that I was responsible for my own actions even if he still didn't seem like he was completely resigned to the fact that we were going to stay separate.

Just as I was starting to wonder when Jacob was going to arrive, there was a brief flurry of movement off to the side of the meadow, and then Jacob walked in, dressed in his usual post-transformation clothing of cut-off shorts.

"Hey," he smiled at me. "You're here? Alone?"

"That's… what I wanted to talk to you about," I said, giving Jacob an awkward smile, guessing what he was thinking and wanting to cut it short before it went any further. "I thought you should know… Edward and I aren't together."

"Really?" Jacob looked at me with a broadening grin. "That's-"

"But," I held up a hand, cutting him off as I looked at my friend with a more solemn expression, "I'm just telling you so you know where things stand; it doesn't mean that we're… getting together."

"What?" Jacob said, his mood shifting as I cut off his train of thought. "But I-"

"I broke up with Edward for reasons that have nothing to do with him being a vampire and everything to do with our relationship not being healthy," I explained, keeping my gaze firm as I explained my position to my friend; what I was about to tell Jacob would be hard for him to hear, but it was best to get the matter over with now. "To be frank, both of you have control issues based on your own preconceptions about how vampires should be, and the end result is that you just dragged me into your own warped issues that don't have any real weight behind them but the fact that you're speciest."

"Speciest?"

"As I said before, you're not racist because you and Edward technically are different species, but you're making snap judgements based on the fact that you believe every member of Edward's species is the same; that's prejudice however you look at it."

"They are dangerous, Bella-!"

"And so are you!" I countered; even if Edward and Jacob had issues to overcome, they were still good people who just needed to acknowledge their problems. "I learned many things in my time with the Doctor, Jacob, and one of the most important things I learned is that you can't just people because of what they might do or we should just kill everyone-"

"Oh, now you're taking advice from some… some…" Jacob began, only for his expression to falter as he realised both what he was saying and how I was looking at him.

"You see?" I said, calming myself down even as I reminded myself to take no satisfaction from the knowledge that Jacob had understood the point I was trying to make. "You're even judging the Doctor because he isn't human; how is that fair? He hasn't even done anything to you!"

"…Fine," Jacob sighed, looking at me in grim resignation. "So… what are you doing with yourself?"

"I've actually got a few plans," I smiled. "The Doctor works with a special branch of the U.N. who deal with alien incursions-"

"Hold on; the U.N. work with an alien to fight aliens?"

"My point exactly; it's not always black and white between humans and non-humans, Jacob," I told him firmly. "The point is that the Doctor and I worked with them while I was travelling with him, and they're going to help me and the Cullens work out a blood substitute to give some vampires a chance to do something other than kill for food-"

"Excuse me?" Jacob cut me off incredulously. "You're going to help vampires?"

"Like I said, they're not automatically bad people just because they've got an unfortunate appetite, Jacob; I am going to help these people!"

"They're not people-!"

"I've met monsters, Jacob; the Cullens are anything but monsters, and how many other vampires are out there hunting humans just because they can't stand the taste of the only other viable alternative?"

"You can't do this-!"

For a moment, as Jacob began to transform with a snarl on his face, I anxiously wondered what I could do now that I'd unintentionally pushed him this far, but then the part-man-part-wolf fell to the ground, roaring in pain as he clutched at his ears while reverting to human form, until his head jerked back and he collapsed to the ground.

I was briefly confused at what had just happened, but then I looked up and smiled as I saw the Doctor standing further off in the forest, his right hand under his coat in a manner that made it clear he was just putting the sonic screwdriver away.

I was about to move towards him to thank him for stopping Jacob- hopefully my friend would stay out of it long enough for me to get back to civilisation where he'd be more inclined to make an effort to stay in control of himself- but then I paused as I registered his manner, the Time Lord looking at me with a solemn stare that put me in mind of the Monk as he took me, Steven and the Doctor's first incarnation away in his TARDIS.

No… I thought to myself, as the Doctor gave me a final nod and turned around to head back into the woods, clearly heading for wherever he'd left the TARDIS.

Unless I'd completely misread the situation, the Doctor was preparing to die.

And based on everything the Eleventh Doctor had told me during that mess with the Zygons, that meant he was about to regenerate into his last incarnation…

I thought about running after the Doctor, but told myself not to bother; if the Doctor wasn't close enough to talk to me now, even if he was here to help, that was clearly his choice.

"Goodbye, Doctor," I said at last, nodding solemnly in the direction that my friend had walked off in.

He'd done so much for the world, he'd just saved me one last time, and now I was never going to see him again (even if he'd see me again from his perspective).

All I could do now was dedicate myself to the goal he'd given me and hope that I could live up to his expectations.


AN: Well, that's the end of Bella's regular travels with the Doctor, but as decided by my received reviews, I will be doing a short storyline involving Bella's role in 'Death of the Doctor', with a couple of tweaks; hope you enjoy that final story in this series