Author's Note: So if you grab the name of the place they land in this chapter, you can kind of guess what's coming in the next few chapters... don't worry, you don't need to have seen the anime or anything like that to understand. It'll be like when I did that brief FFX cross-over story, and just sort of borrowed the setting.
I do not own Doctor Who, obviously.
Chapter 20: Lara on her Own
Lara POV
Lara was patient, but insistent. "If you want me to, I'll stop traveling with him. We can use the chameleon arch, like he wants me to."
Billy stared her in the face. Both of them knew that this conversation was going nowhere; it never did. Still, somehow, it was helpful to talk about the issue. "I can tell through our bond that you would stop traveling with him, and use the chameleon arch to go back to being human, if I wanted. And, I appreciate that; it's why I'm still he – he – he – ACHOO!" Billy sneezed. "It's why I'm still here."
Lara sent a wave of love through her bond to Billy. "Don't ever doubt that my being with you was never, ever a choice, Gallifreyan or not."
Billy smiled, blowing his nose fiercely. "But I can also tell through the bond that as much as you're willing to stop traveling with him and go back to being human, it's not what you really want."
Lara flopped over on their bed, then sighed in frustration. "Why does he have to be such a stubborn ass! Jesus, I thought the two of us were stubborn, but apparently we're nothing next to a 906-year-old Time Lord."
"It's almost like he's using our relationship against us," Billy said, sniffling again. He'd been sick for the past three days, and it was only just starting to get better. "He knows I love you too much to insist that you give up being Gallifreyan and stop traveling with him. He knows he's the only line to your heritage, and neither of us would ever want you to be alone after I pass… so, we have to keep traveling with him. On the other hand, he knows you love me too much to commit to traveling all of time and space with him forever. So, in the meantime, he's got a couple of committed traveling companions, but he doesn't have to commit to anything himself.
"I don't think it's like that," Lara said. "It's more like he can't bring himself to consider the obvious solution, but he's not going to force me to use the chameleon arch, either. He's just waiting on me to decide on my own to use the chameleon arch so that things can go back to the way they were and he won't have to make any difficult decisions."
"It's sad that the 'obvious solution' is to pass my immortal wife along to an immortal husband after I die," Billy said scathingly. "Especially when said immortal husband won't touch the subject with a ten-foot pole, and instead is stringing us both along like a kitten."
"How did you get 'immortal husband' from 'the last two Gallifreyans in the universe?'" Lara asked him. She wouldn't deny that she was open to the possibility of being with the doctor in the very, very distant future. Still, now that she knew she had hundreds of years to live and Billy did not, she preferred to appreciate every moment with Billy. "I mean, there are a lot of guys that I wouldn't date even if we were the last two humanoids on Earth. Like, for example, most of them."
"Because," Billy pronounced, holding back a sneeze. "He'd be crazy not to want to marry you."
"God you're a cheeseball," Lara said, smiling and kissing him. Luckily, she was immune to human colds, and so didn't have to worry about catching his. When they broke apart, Lara said thoughtfully, "you know, normal, human couples would be thinking about where they're going to get the money to buy a house right now," Lara said.
Billy grinned. "Yeah, but normal, human couples wouldn't have won the equivalent of half a million US dollars betting on robot wars on Quitessia. I'll give the Doctor this much, it's been a wild ride!"
"Yeah, next time he gives us a credit stick on a random planet, we should ask how much money it's worth before we go betting on things."
Billy chuckled, sniffling again. "Or maybe not; I think Quitessia worked out quite well for us, in the end. Now all we have to do is just keep adding more to the bank, slowly, so people don't think we've been dealing cocaine because we're suddenly so rich. How are your school loans doing?"
"Well," Lara answered. "Nobody suspects anything odd. I just told the school loans people I've been really skimping and living off peanut butter in order to pay the whole bill every month, and they believed it. I'm down to $60,000!"
"Well, as long as the school loans people don't talk to the Corvette people, we'll be okay."
"Hey!" Lara hit his arm teasingly. "I have to do something while you're asleep all night!"
They continued to giggle for awhile, then Billy checked his phone to look at the time. "It's almost time," he told Lara. "The Doctor will be here in a few minutes."
Lara laughed. "If he's on time. Last week he showed up at 2AM and asked if we were still awake."
Billy laughed, too. "Look, we've been doing this every week for a year and a half. Why don't you go with the Doctor on your own this time?"
Lara looked stunned. "Why?"
Billy shrugged. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm sick. Also, Fallout 4 just came out, and I'd rather play it on the video game than run from zombies in real life while I feel like throwing up."
Lara rolled her eyes. "I'd be terrified to run from zombies without you. Are you sure you're okay with that? The Doctor's probably got some amazing cure for the common cold, anyway."
"Nah, I think it may just be the only thing he can't cure. I asked him last year when you got sick, remember? Him and I went all the way to Sto to get those really potent anti-biotics, and all we ended up with were those green spots all over our faces."
"Yeah," Lara said, "now I remember. I don't miss being human, but I'd rather have the common cold than the Sto measles."
Billy agreed, then changed the subject. "Plus, you've got to admit, the only time the Doctor ever actually talks to you about anything important is when I'm not there."
"That's not true," Lara said immediately. "Even then he won't say a darn thing about the future. He just reassures me that he can give you an extra hundred years or so with his superior medical supplies that can't cure the common cold, and then suggests the chameleon arch again."
"Yeah, but I don't even get that far," Billy said with a cough. All I get is, 'Do you have enough headache pills for the next month? And, by the way, have you talked to Lara about becoming human again lately?'"
Lara laughed. "Fair enough. But… are you sure?"
"Yeah," Billy said. "If you want to, you and him can try again to find a cure for the common cold. But personally, I don't recommend it."
***Doctor Who***
"Amestris!" The Doctor exclaimed approximately ten hours later, dancing around the console. "The perfect place to find a cure for the common cold! Plenty of little shops with special potions, and no chance of any Sto measles!" He kicked the TARDIS into gear, and she wheezed, lifting off with great effort.
Lara raised her eyebrows. "It's, um, also the perfect place to make myself a new re-calibrator circuit," he said. "The TARDIS has been getting worse and worse with exact timing landings lately. The first time I tried landing near you today, I ended up landing next Wednesday. When I made it at 4:00 in the morning on my second try, I figured I might as well cut my losses and see if you were still awake. Sorry for waking you up, by the way."
Lara rolled her eyes, but stopped abruptly when she realized the TARDIS was falling. "Whoops!" the Doctor yelled, grinning, "looks like we've hit a little turbulence!" He continued to rush around the TARDIS, hastily pulling knobs and pushing other knobs with his feet. Lara held onto one of the coral struts, feeling as though she was going to throw up. And then, suddenly, everything went black.
***Doctor Who***
When Lara came to, she felt more odd than she'd ever felt before in her life. A quick body scan with her Gallifreyan senses told her that everything was in tact. She had a large knot on her head, but she could already feel it healing. What was more concerning, however, was how sick she felt. It felt like she had a stomach ache, mixed with a headache, mixed with a feeling that something was very, very wrong.
"Why does it feel like my time sense is about to throw up?" Lara asked, holding her head.
"Well, that's actually a rather good way of putting it," the Doctor said as he swam into view. "That's the feeling you get when my lovely ship has landed us in the very, very wrong time. Specifically, we've landed right in the middle of a fixed point. And, somehow, our landing here has just changed it."