"The Class of 2012"
51. Turned Upside Down
The Phisto Hub
The Doctor had left the hub in a state of quietness, of rotation in the marketplace. He returned to it, with Gemma behind him, to find they might well have been on the brink of chaos. There were no clients in sight, the Doctor suspected any of those still on the hub had either been covertly invited to depart, or shielded from any knowledge on other events. That the TARDIS had been able to materialize on the premises was the only way they could have gotten in. They had to find the others; they should all be back in the Phisto Hub now.
X
Artie and Jenny had transported themselves back when they'd been told to, and as spooked out as they'd been by the dark edge of the hub, the scene they'd returned to made them miss the dark. The masters were attempting to regain control of their contracts, which should have been easy, but things had changed. The slaves had made a turn, and they weren't as compliant as they had once been.
"Hold on," Jenny told Artie, grabbing on to his chair and pushing him so they might get out of sight. At every turn it became clear maybe there was no good place to hide.
"Arthur Abrams!" a voice shouted, and Artie waved for Jenny to stop. He knew that voice, but it couldn't be her, could it?
"Look, the TARDIS," Jenny turned his chair and hurried them toward it, barely blinking at the fact that, standing at its open doors was the Doctor, his Doctor, the one who'd once pretended to be his mother. She looked just as happy to see him, though she reserved this joy for until after they were safely behind the ship's doors. Even there, they had plenty more to focus on.
They were all there, the rest of the Glee Club, and everyone else the Doctor here had brought over to help them. They hadn't all seen each other in the same room for only hours but it felt like weeks.
"What's going on?" Artie asked. "Where's Walter, and Gemma, and the Doc… I mean…"
"Walter stayed back to wait, and the other two, I believe, shouldn't be far away at this time," she knowingly promised. "What's going on now is I need to return everyone I 'borrowed' back to their own times." Artie looked to Jenny.
"But you saw it out there, it can't be over," Jenny insisted. It had been a recurring comment every time the Doctor had picked any one of them up.
"No, it isn't over, I agree. But it is for you. There is no need to keep you there any longer, and I'm not going to. The rest of you are my predecessor's responsibility, but this lot…"
So the drop offs had begun, ushering in many goodbyes. Gillian said goodbye to Mike and Tina, Rada did with Sam, and Brin with Blaine, all of them wishing they could say the things that were truly on their minds, but knowing they couldn't.
The cats had said their farewells to Brittany and Santana, promising to give their best to their brothers and sisters along with their parents. Then Corius and Della had gone, following Kurt's lead in giving off the impression of detachment they had to uphold. Savelyn left Mercedes with one great hug, promising to tell her parents all about what they'd done together that day.
Dew gladly returned to his new Earth life, once he said his goodbyes to Quinn, while Jaime insisted on introducing Puck to the woman of his life when they dropped him off.
Artie was allowed to take a moment and see Vastra and Strax when they'd returned Jenny. They were exactly as he remembered them, and now for having seen his Doctor again on top of it all, it did finally feel like their great big adventure was coming to an end.
When it had come to returning Sophie and Julian, as much as they'd kept quiet since leaving the Phisto Hub, it changed now. They didn't want to just go, not when they hadn't seen Gemma, not when they didn't know that she was okay. The Doctor promised them that, even as they spoke, his past self and Gemma had made it back to the Phisto Hub, and as soon as everything was over, they would come back to see them, at home. There was nothing more to say, but thankfully they had stopped fighting the decision.
The TARDIS landed, and then as they were moving to the door… "Wait!" Rachel had hurried up to them, and after a beat, she'd hugged Sophie. It had taken the woman's breath away, but then she closed her arms around her, too, and she held her near, knowing she'd never get another chance, whether Rachel understood this or not. "Thank you," Rachel had said, when she'd moved this hug to Julian next. "Thanks, for what you did for me back there."
"Don't mention it," Julian told her, sensing his wife's speechlessness.
After they'd gone, there was only one more stop for them to make before rounding back and leaving the Glee Club – and Constance, who'd come along – back at the hub, to find Eleven.
At the Mercer Colony, Nira begged for Sugar to come and see, to walk the ground of her home world, if only one last time. They had all followed, and Sugar had proudly pointed out her old home when she saw it. She hadn't forgotten it or its location, and that had meant more to her than anyone could realize.
She had said goodbye to Nira and, maybe, she had said goodbye to Padra, to the life she'd lost. Now she had to put her aside and try to find Padra in the person she had become. The Earth girl, from Lima, Ohio. She'd returned to Mercer, and she was glad, but now what she wanted most of all was her home, her family…
The TARDIS landed, and the Glee Club and Constance stepped off one by one. The last to go was Artie, and now the Doctor had taken the time to hug him.
"So, where do you fit in with all this? You had to come from after it was all over, right? You know if we'll do okay, if we'll get to go home, all of us."
"What I do or do not know is of no matter to you, Arthur," she assured him with a tip of the head. "Now you need to go and find out for yourself." He had watched her return to her ship, and she had disappeared once more from his life, he felt, for good.
TO BE CONTINUED (TODAY)
