"Major you can't be serious!" Justine cried as soon as Major Campbell had explained his plan to lure and ambush the Silurians in one of the lower tunnels. I was against this plan for two reasons; the first because I wasn't a fan of violence and the second because I was the bait and judging by the Doctor's expression he agreed very strongly with Justine and I.
"It's a good move," Paul said slowly, and Justine whirled to face him.
"No, it is not! You really want more people to die!" Justine hissed and Paul flinched and very pointedly did not look where Marishka was lying.
"You are not in charge Miss Jaeb," Major Campbell barked, and Justine flushed angrily but fell silent. I had a cheeky comment on the tip of my tongue about Major Campbell going mad with power but decided that prodding him probably wouldn't help the Doctor's stress levels.
"Major if you will not listen to reason then listen to tactics. You are outnumbered and probably outgunned. Diplomacy is your only option," the Doctor said in that frustrated way he got when people asked for his advice and then completely ignored him. Major Campbell flashed him a harsh grin.
"We merely need to maintain our position. I managed to radio UNIT before the generators were turned off to request assistance. They'll be here in less than an hour." The Doctor growled at his words and raked his hands through his hair and grumbled a few words under his breath harshly. The only word I caught of his tirade was a very disgruntled 'Humans' which I thought was fair.
"If you refuse to assist then I will be forced to continue to use Emma in the plan to ensure that you don't attempt to sabotage us," Major Campbell added. The Doctor's expression darkened dangerously at that and I bit down on my lip as I looked between him and the gun.
"And if I refuse because you are now threatening Emma?" He asked in a way that made me nervous. I hadn't heard him talk like that since the Master and I definitely did not want to go back to that. Major Campbell seemed surprised by the Doctor's question as if he hadn't considered that the Doctor wouldn't meekly go along with his demand.
"I'm sure you can figure it out Doctor." Major Campbell flicked the safety off the trigger, and I sighed deeply while I rolled my eyes.
"That will convince him for sure," I said sarcastically, and the Doctor shot me a look like he was trying to say that I wasn't helping. I shrugged back at him because I had held it in as best I could.
"Fine Major Campbell, we'll do it your way," the Doctor said with an aggravated hand wave. The Major nodded stiffly in a self-satisfied way and motioned for all of us to go out in the hallway. He put me in the front of the group and ignored the Doctor's look when he informed everyone that they were to stay at least three paces away from me. Justine flashed him another glare and stood beside me and loudly counted three steps away from me before we started moving.
"Very subtle. I approve," I said and smiled at her widely. She shot me a satisfied look and walked next to me with her flashlight leading the way. I hummed a song idly under my breath so that I could bother Major Campbell and keep the fear away. It was really dark in the hallways and usually I'd hold the Doctor's hand and make him talk, but that clearly wasn't an option right now. I was so caught up in my song that I almost missed seeing something move in the dark just beyond the reach of Justine's flashlight. I paused and held my hand out to stop Justine.
"What is it?" The Doctor asked and I shook my head slowly.
"I thought I saw something move in the hallway," I said. The Major grumbled behind me.
"I do not appreciate your attempt to stall for time," he said, and I pivoted slightly to throw him a glare over my shoulder. I turned back and saw movement again, much faster this time and the shape slammed into Justine before I could point it out. She screamed and dropped the flashlight, which disturbed the light enough that I couldn't see what was happening until the flashlight rolled to a stop on Justine laying on the ground. My breath caught in my throat while the world shrank and compressed tightly as I realized that her neck was twisted unnaturally, and her eyes had gone vacant and unseeing.
"Make her stop this instant." I heard the Major's words distantly through the fog of my panic. I hadn't managed to tear my eyes away from Justine, so I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about. The Doctor appeared in front of me and cupped my cheek in his hand which made me flinch away from him in shock.
"Emma, I need you to breathe," he said in a way that was firm and gentle all at the same time as he smoothed his thumb over my cheek. I stared at him for a moment and sucked in the best breath I could manage, and he smiled at me. "Good. I'm going to help."
It was only about a half second later when I could feel him in my head, calming me down from the inside out. I blinked at him for a few moments as the tears welled up now that I wasn't panicking.
'I'm sorry Emma, I'm so sorry but if you cry Major Campbell will not react well' The Doctor said and gave my cheek another gentle stroke as my tears dried up in a way that didn't feel quite natural. I grabbed his hand when he stepped away and wrapped my fingers in his tightly.
"Step away Doctor," Major Campbell ordered and my hold on the Doctor's hand turned into a death grip.
"You'll have to shoot me to get me to move Major," the Doctor said firmly without looking away from my face and I gave him a shaky smile.
"Lead the way then Doctor." The Doctor squatted down next to Justine without dropping my hand and closed her eyes gently before gingerly picking up the flashlight and standing again. I started counting how many steps I was taking under my breath as we walked so that I could focus my brain on a continuous monotonous task and keep my breathing steady.
"You really owe me New York and Paris now," I whispered under my breath and the Doctor chuckled just loud enough for me to hear and squeezed my hand tightly
"I'll get you there or die trying," he said, and I shot him an exasperated look.
"Why are you putting that karma out into the universe?" I asked and he chuckled again.
"It made you smile," he said, and I rolled my eyes at him slightly, but flashed him a brief smile. He paused and held up a hand. "Someone's here."
The lights flared on suddenly and I slammed my eyes shut against the sudden bright light and when I blinked them open again, I realized that we were facing six Homo Reptilia who were all armed to the teeth and I also realized that both armed parties had their weapons pointed at each other when the Doctor dropped my hand to put a hand in front of me protectively.
"This looks intense," I said.
"State your intentions," Major Campbell ordered, and the Silurian leader growled something back. I skimmed my gaze over them carefully before I spotted Vax just off the middle. I knew it was him because of the way he was looking at Cecelia, though he was being very subtle about it. I jerked back into awareness at the sound of several safeties being released off of triggers and realized that this was turning into an all-out standoff.
I ducked around the Doctor's arm and moved before I thought about it until I was between the Silurians and the Major and Paul with my hands flung out.
"Stop it!" I ordered and ignored the Doctor's worried noises as everyone stopped shouting. I pointedly looked between the two parties.
"Now I can't speak for the Homo Reptilia but Major we have moved past this absolute refusal to share our planet and if you used your brain you would know that!" I snapped and turned my gaze towards the other party. "And is this how you want to take the Earth back?! With genocide?!"
Vax stepped forward bravely and stood next to me and faced his compatriots.
"She is right. This is not the way. We are better than that" Vax said. There were a few tense seconds of silence before the Major's laugh cut through the air.
"You believe that these creatures have a sense of morality?" He asked and I sneered at him before I could think better of it.
"I think humanity might have a sense of morality yes," I said, and I heard the Doctor groan like he was realizing how much he had rubbed off on me and he was suddenly understanding how companions felt all the time.
There were a few heavy tense seconds of silence before it was shattered by the sound of someone firing. I ducked instinctively even though I couldn't tell who had fired first, though now both sides were embroiled in a ferocious shoot out and I was standing in the middle of it. I stumbled to the side as a bullet whizzed past my ear and I clapped my hand over my ear and blinked to try and catch my balance before I fell over.
"Emma!" The Doctor cried as he somehow caught me and shoved me as hard as he could to the side, putting himself between me and the small war that was happening behind us. We hit a wall and he shoved me into a crouch. When everything went quiet, we both poked our heads up. Bodies of both species were sprawled across the floor except for Vax and Cecelia who were in a similar position of the Doctor and me. I took several disjointed breaths as I skimmed my gaze over the room.
"Easy Emma. We're okay," the Doctor said just before the Major lurched up from the floor with one hand clamped over the wound in his stomach and the other with a gun pointed directly at Cecelia.
"Traitor!" He cried and Vax shouted for Cecelia and the Doctor pressed my face into his chest so that I couldn't see what was happening as the Major fired. Despite the Doctor's attempts, I could still hear the bone chilling way that Cecelia screamed, and I pushed on his shoulders to try and get him to let me go once I heard two thuds.
"Oh my God," I said as soon as I freed myself from the Doctor's grasp. Cecelia was cradling Vax's head in her lap, keening in agony with blood spattered all over her face. I might not have seen what happened, but I was smart enough to be able to put the pieces together.
"The UNIT reinforcements will arrive in twenty minutes." I looked up at the Doctor and realized that he had his eyes pressed together like he was seeing something he didn't want to. "They cover up the skirmish and when the rest of the crew get back it will be like it never happened. Vulcan Ten will be shut down within the month."
"Fixed," I breathed because I could tell from the look on his face that we had turned this into a fixed point in history. The Doctor nodded even though I wasn't sure I had phrased it as a question. I shakily stood up and tried to not look around too much though I couldn't manage to keep my eyes off Cecelia for very long.
"Cecelia are you hurt?" I asked. Her head ducked down towards Vax's and I swallowed against the lump in my throat. "Cecelia?"
"Go away," Cecelia said, and I walked towards her to try and offer her some kind of comfort. She jerked away from me and I flinched. "Just go."
"Cecelia," the Doctor said, and she cut him off.
"Unless you are about to offer to save him there is not a single thing that you have to say to me," she said venomously. I chomped down so hard on my lower lip to hold in my tears that I tasted blood. The Doctor reached out and grabbed my hand and started to drag me back towards the TARDIS though he wasn't fast enough to prevent me from hearing Cecelia's next words.
"I hate you." The Doctor practically threw me in the TARDIS and started the take off sequence before I could blink. I dropped into a crouch and pressed my hands over my ears like that would block out the lingering ringing. I sucked in several distant cut off breaths before I realized that I was definitely having a panic attack as the Doctor dropped in front of me. It wasn't really much of a surprise considering the number of panic attacks I'd pushed aside today.
"Emma breathe," he ordered gently as he pulled my hands away from my ears.
"They all died. They all died," I said between desperate breaths. The Doctor grasped my hands in one of his and moved the other to rub my back gently.
"It wasn't your fault. It was an unsolved mystery before we got here remember?" Somehow that made me feel better even though I knew that it shouldn't have. He made a few more soothing noises as I tried to get my breathing under control.
"There has to be a way," I started slowly as we both stood up from the floor before the Doctor cut me off.
"No Emma. There isn't. There is no way." His tone made it clear that he didn't want to argue about it and truth be told I didn't want to either. The only thing was that the Doctor was assuming that I wanted to find a way to go back and save him. I didn't, I mean I did, but I knew that there was no way we could without destroying the timeline. So now I was just focused on the idea of making it better for Cecelia. I felt like we owed her that much after we had accidentally made this event a fixed point.
The Doctor wandered off down the hallway after we were floating in the vortex and neither of us had said anything for a while. I stared at the console for several minutes before I sighed as I took a step towards the console.
"Could you lock him in a room somewhere?" I asked, and a door appeared where the open hallway usually was that lead away from the console room. "That works too. Thanks."
I started by carefully copying all of their messages to each other to a private server that Cecelia would find six months after we left before doing a quick google search and started the take off sequence.
"Emma?" The Doctor called a few seconds later and knocked on the door. He sounded a little concerned, though I couldn't quite tell if he was concerned for me or for the timeline, but I decided to ignore him and ask for forgiveness later as I landed and headed for the door.
"Keep him contained for a little bit longer if you can," I told the TARDIS as I stepped out. I ducked into Cecelia's room in the nursing home and knocked at the foot of the bed. She blinked awake and smiled at me.
"Emma," she said, and I smiled as I sat down next to her. "It's lovely to see you again."
"It's lovely to see you again as well. I'm sorry it's been so long, but I didn't think that the way we left was very fair. And I supposed that the drama of a death bed reconciliation was too much to pass up," I said, and Cecelia laughed.
"There have been a lot of reporters skulking around recently. Though I think they're hoping for a death bed confession." She winked at me and I laughed.
"Why did you never say anything?" I asked.
"It hurt too much to make the words. His people believed in soul mates did you know?" I shook my head and she continued. "I truly believe in my heart that we were soul mates and the loss of him was indescribable."
"I'm sorry we couldn't save him," I said, even though Cecelia knew how hard I had tried to.
"Thank you for the messages. I don't know how you did it but thank you." I nodded immediately as I swiped away a few tears quickly.
"I was trying to make it better."
"You did," she assured me, and we fell silent for a few moments. "I should apologize to you. The words I said to you the last time that we spoke wasn't fair on my part."
"Thank you." I grinned at her. "What a death bed reconciliation hey?"
"We are certainly checking off all the clichés," she said with a laugh and a glimmer in her eyes. Suddenly the humorous expression dropped off her face.
"Do we ever get along?" She asked, and I reached out to grab her hand. I was pretty sure that I wasn't supposed to tell her, but I'd managed to time my landing perfectly, so I knew for a fact that she wasn't long for this world. And I was already going to have to beg for forgiveness from the Doctor later anyway, so I didn't see the harm.
"Yes. It takes a few other bad incidents, but yes. Eventually everyone figures it out and they all live peacefully with each other." Cecelia pressed her free hand to her mouth and a single tear rolled down her cheek.
"Is intermarriage-?" She asked and seemed so overcome that she couldn't finish her question.
"Legal, practiced. I wish you could have seen it," I said. She looked down forlornly at her hand that had the wedding mark and I suddenly realized that she couldn't see it anymore. It had probably disappeared when Vax died. My heart lurched in sympathy for her and I swallowed against the tears that were welling up again.
"Oh, so do I. But it wouldn't have meant anything without him there as well."
"I admire how much you love him. It's the kind of love that people write epic poems about, that people weep over centuries later. I hope I find something like that some day," I said, and Cecelia pressed my hand between hers.
"You will." She looked over my shoulder at the TARDIS. "Do me a favour and go explore something wonderful."
"Will do," I said and gave her a salute as I stood up. I hoped that our little talk had given her as much peace as it had given me. I opened the door and blinked in surprise at the Doctor strapped to the floor by pieces of metal.
"Doctor," I said in greeting as I stepped over him towards the console. He sent me a slight glare.
"How is it that the TARDIS likes you better than me?" He grumbled. I took off and pivoted to face him and leaned against the console.
"I mean all I told her was to keep you contained for as long as she could. I didn't necessarily say that she needed to strap you to the floor."
"What did you do?" He narrowed his eyes at me.
"I had a talk with Cecelia."
"Emma," the Doctor said warningly.
"It was the last day of her life. I don't think giving her a bit of comfort is going to cause any problems," I said.
"What did you tell her?" He asked sharply.
"Where's the trust?" I asked rhetorically with a slightly irritated hand wave. "I arranged for her to get all the messages that they ever wrote each other about six months after we left. And then I told her that eventually the humans and Silurians figure it out and live peacefully. That they can marry each other."
"Oh," the Doctor said sheepishly, and I nodded.
"Did you know that the wedding mark disappears when the other person dies?" I asked softly, and he shook his head as best he could as his eyes softened.
"No. I thought she would have it for the rest of her life," he said, and I shook my head sadly.
"You can let him go whenever you feel like it," I said to the TARDIS after a few seconds of silence and knocked on the rotor gently with my knuckle. She hummed like she was considering it very carefully and the Doctor groaned.
"Can I get up if I apologize for not trusting Emma?" He paused as if waiting for an answer before sighing in defeat and looking up at me. I quirked an eyebrow up at him.
"It's not that I didn't trust you. It's that I knew how much you were hurting because of what happened and I was worried that if you went to try and fix it you wouldn't be able to and it would make you feel worse. I am very sorry that you felt like you couldn't be straight forward with me about this."
"Please let him up," I said to the TARDIS and she complied. He bounced up immediately and came to rest in front of me and folded my hands between his.
"You can't protect me from hurting," I said, and the Doctor scoffed.
"Why not? You do it all the time with me."
"That's different," I said because it was. The Doctor's pain was a different kind of beast that I did my best to tame because that's what friends do.
"Do you not realize that I hate it when you're hurting because it hurts me too?" He asked. I smiled and leaned my head against his shoulder.
"Okay yeah that's fair. I just, I feel like the companion is supposed to be the one who's put together," I said, and the Doctor laughed slightly and slung an arm around my shoulders.
"Emma for the first time in a very long time you have granted me the wonderful ability to return the favour." I looked up at him quizzically. "You've put pieces of me back together and I've done the same with you."
"I didn't realize it meant that much to you," I said. The Doctor tipped his head so that it rested on mine.
"I didn't either really."