It was a harmless enough spell… expelliarmus. All it did was disarm someone of their weapon, or in overpowered cases, it knocked a person backward. Except, expelliarmus in another reality would have turned the dark lord into dust. Except- Holly really hadn't been prepared to be disarmed by Rabastan Lestrange when the man was a death eater and supposedly one of the more violent ones. The man should have used any number of dark jinxes and not expelliarmus! Honestly, he was a death eater; why was he even throwing around non-lethal spells!
Holly didn't know why Rabastan chose that spell, and so she wasn't expecting it as a shower of red crashed into her stomach. She wasn't expecting it as her ribs caved in, and she was sent flying backward into a nearby shelf.
She most definitely felt the ancient and reinforced wood crack into her spine and give way. Though it was a distant thing to hear clinking glass as the ancient items on the shelf itself rattled, swayed, and shook. As someone, Holly had entirely forgotten who, yelled a warning and something shattered on the ground to her direct right.
Holly had enough wherewithal to glance to the side, dazed she blinked at the shattered glass, and a twinkle of golden sands spread out along the Department of Mysteries floor. Then- another crash- another- one landed shattering against her head and cut deep into her skin and Holly looked up in time to see an entire shelf full of time-turners collapsing toward her.
The glass of the time-turners, the spelled metal of their cases split open Holly's skin for the ancient devices were far more delicate than anyone could imagine. The sands of time housed within them split forth and coated Holly's skin, it entered her bloodstream and- that was it. With every pump of her heart Holly's fate, future, and DNA were rewritten.
For those witnessing the event, it was between one second and the next and Holly Potter vanished with an agonizing scream. For Holly it lasted an eternity, every nerve ending she possessed was on fire, it was the cruciatus curse but a million times worse. It was agonizing and never-ending, as her body was overloaded by time, as Holly was dragged through the history of the earth helpless and uncontrolled.
She witnessed it all- the creation of the world- the end of civilization, the rise of the ministry, the decimation of her people, aliens- and a curious voice- Holly careened through it all, witnessed every agonizing second- she was eternal- immortal- she was time.
"The crowning mystery of our department and the reason we built it here: Her."
Holly's mind shut down within seconds-hours-day-years-decades- her magic surged up coating her body as it had when she was just a child. When everything had become too much and her magic had painstakingly forced her body to heal, to keep moving, to survive with no food or water for weeks at a time.
-she should have died-
-she should would have died the moment her magically finally exhausted itself-
-she had been a ticking clock, a body running on magic alone and would have dropped dead on it's own accord-
-how perfectly according to plan-
Holly's magic, used to running her body, coated her mind and smothered it. It pulled her deep within herself to try and stop it from completely shattering. While outside her mind, eternity existed.
"Found you, fantastic!"
"She was just there! I saw her-"
"We call her 'the golden lady,' through all of history and time she has appeared on this exact spot."
"Stop jumping around- blast- alright I can intercept her if I just-"
"She looks to be in pain when she's spotted, now if only we could make contact."
Holly witnessed it all in a flash; she was trapped, bouncing about, and nothing would ever describe the pain-
Then a hand snatched hold of her own. It was warm and firm, so large compared to her own seeker fingers, it was callused and secure. It- he was the first contact Holly had felt in millenia and her entire being took notice as that hand wrenched on her arm and pulled her from where she was trapped. It grabbed hold of her and she was SCREAMING and- struggling as time clung to her furiously- she was moving- stepping forward and crossing a threshold and- everything went still.
Magic swirled within her stilling and wary. It reached, sought out and looked through her eyes. It focused on the man, glowing ethereal in Holly's eyes. It nudged at him, witnessed time flowing through him the same as Holly and… copied. It tracked the differences between Holly and him, and rearranged the DNA within her to suit.
It wasn't an exact match, to be exact meant to sacrifice the magic within her. But it was close enough to give Holly some measure of control and the agony of time abruptly, suddenly, ceased.
Holly found herself suddenly hand in hand with a man, a stranger. Nearby was a quiet wheeze of a machine, and a glitter of time that was far more relaxed and controlled then what had taken over her. There were rusted circles and a console in a circular room, while in the center of the console, a machine dipped and rose like it was breathing. And- a man- with short military-styled hair, large ears, and a jumper wrapped around his body and he… smiled.
"There you are! Feel better?"
Holly flinched at the sound, jerked violently in the man's grip and nearly pulled away. Only for her magic to violently reject the movement and forced her still. It was painfully jarring to Holly who was distressingly at the edge of… everything.
Tears filled her eyes near-instantly and a whimper, inhumanly desperate, escaped her throat, and the man made a wounded sound in return.
"Oh precious, it's alright, it's alright." He slid forward and cupped the back of her head. He dragged her toward him, embracing her and swallowing her form with his tall one.
"Wha-" Holly choked on the question, felt it bulge in her throat and her whole body. The word she started with became stuck in her throat and all that came forth was a scream. Thankfully for her sanity, it wasn't pain, not anymore, but something else. Something emotional and desperate.
"Oh, Holly," his hands rubbed along her arms even as he placed his chin on the top of her head. "It's too much, everything sitting in there."
He shifted, and Holly instantly whimpered in loss as he moved his arms and reached up, "you have time itself racing through you, it's etched into you and has been for all time. I can tell that special energy within you is trying to fix it, but looks like it may need a bit of help. It looks like… you need a Doctor and thankfully, I am uniquely suited to help in that regard."
His hands, callused and secure, slipped over her eyes and his finger pressed into her temples and-
Everything.
Finally.
Stopped.
The Doctor stared at Holly as she slept in the infirmary, as he did he dropped his head back onto his chair and swore allowing Gallifreyan to slip from his lips for the first time since- no- nope not thinking about that.
"This is what Holly meant," he said instead, distracting himself out loud, "that she was tied to my timeline, it's because of her choice…" He leaned forward and stapled his fingers together. "This is… it's eternity trapped in a single spot, feeling the agony of time itself wash upon her like waves… or, it's me."
He knew that she'd chosen him, she'd made that clear as she had opened a circular paradox with her existence. While he was, in turn, choosing her as he closed that very same circular paradox. He could take comfort in it, that she had somewhere along her timeline purposely chosen him and a future and life with him. But… right now he was finding it difficult to find comfort in that as he realized what they'd both done.
He could still picture her, it had only happened - to him - a day, at most, before. She had waltzed into his life, grabbed his hands with eerie familiarity and together then had run. She'd explained in halting words with a journal in hand, she'd explained with a heart-breaking expression before she had known him so well and he hadn't a clue who he was dealing with.
"I've been dancing along your timeline for longer than you can even imagine right now."
"You told me once that you needed me, Doctor, and I so desperately need you."
She'd bid him to save her, told him not how but where and when she would be and the Doctor had never been good at resisting a mystery, or someone genuinely asking for help. That and Holly had given him no reason to mistrust her, especially considering the knowledge she'd had about him. So he had gone after her, the Doctor chased her throughout history, sending the Tardis spiralling through time on that one spot to snatch her free of her own personal hell.
For Holly had become trapped, with artron energy in her veins and when she called magic trying to protect and save her. Her magic and the artron energy had created a… prison of sorts. Holly Potter had been forced into a single spot, forced to relive all of earth's history over and over until time ceased to exist.
To save her, the Doctor had snatched hold of her arm and had wrenched her out of the spot where she was trapped. He'd dragged her into the Tardis screaming, but not kicking, and the Tardis had been able to calm the artron energy enough to allow the 'magic' within Holly to change how it acted.
Now the Doctor was witnessing what happened because of that and an open paradox was closed and opened all at once.
The natural energy within Holly had elected to see him and the artron energy within him as a basis for how artron energy was supposed to act. But that energy could not change Holly into a time-lord and now it was forced to compensate. What happened, in the end, was that instead of Holly helplessly bouncing about earth's time in one spot, she was now locked to his timeline and the timeline of the Tardis.
Her 'magic' had rewritten her body and the artron energy had helped, coupled with the Tardis acting out in recognition of something that had happened, hadn't happened, was happening, and had always happened.
Tenses, honestly.
So, now a paradox had been created. Because he'd saved Holly, Holly would eventually reach the point the Doctor had lived. She'd ask him to save her, he'd do so, and they'd start all over again in a circular paradox.
Holly would do exactly what she'd told him.
"I've been dancing along your timeline for longer than you can even imagine."
The Doctor understood what she'd meant now, throughout the rest of his existence… and perhaps even earlier than this, Holly would exist for him. She would show up as she had with the Autons, she would flounce along… bright and bubbling, sarcastic and wicked. Holly would be there, appearing out of thin air and vanishing just the same. To another moment, another adventure in his life… endlessly connected.
The Doctor supposed there were worse people to get attached to.
"You're going to be trouble," the Doctor told Holly's unconscious form... but he couldn't wait. Of course, just as he thought it the Doctor watched as Holly's form glowed bright gold and grimaced. Just as it had the time before, Holly had told him he could stall her leaving with physical touch but… that might put her body under stress so… he let it happen. Allowed time and Holly's personal energy to drag her to another time and another time, hopefully one who understood her and what was happening better than he did at the current moment.
The Doctor exhaled watching her form fade and dissipate, when she was gone he closed his eyes and leaned back. He reflected on the differences in the woman he'd only just met. From the woman who knew him intimately, closely, enough so that she'd instantly seen the sheer… exhaustion and agony, hidden behind his mask at a glimpse. To the screaming, terrified, broken child that was a fifteen-year-old girl. Fifteen going on a millennia, trapped in a single moment and yet living every moment.
If he hadn't seen her healthy, wickedly intelligent, and brightly smiling the day before… then the Doctor would not believe she was capable of healing. He'd seen too much to believe that she could, and yet the proof had been before his eyes.
Holly Potter would heal, somehow with his help, as impossible as it was.
"But she was just here- that was fast-"
"This is a younger Holly, a much younger Holly. For now Martha, go and get some rest, I need to get her to the infirmary."
Holly drifted. She felt a hand card through her curls, one that was long but no less callused. She tried to open her eyes and saw brown hair and brown eyes that were so very familiar and-
She drifted, gold lighting up her system as a figure regretfully pulled his hand away from hers- thin fingers caught her but she was dead weight and she and the figure hit the ground together.
"Oh! Doctor help!" a woman this time- brown hair and a concerned face, "Doctor!"
"What- oh! Holly!"
She was lifted- she was healing- her magic leaned… it observed, it tasted the energy of the man who's timeline Holly was following. This time- this older Doctor allowed Holly's magic to wrap around him and learn.
"There you go," the Doctor praised, "learning all the time, keep going… you'll figure it out."
And time pulled her onward, onto a scottish accent and gray hair. To a firm expression that softened for a brief moment as she appeared beside him right after she'd just vanished. Just like the versions before, he allowed her magic to test, touch, and experiment.
"Always searching," he commented, "allow me to give you a hand." artron energy left his hands and Holly's magic soaked it up like a sponge, it tasted the change and difference between her and him and the Doctor nodded.
"Now, bring her back to the beginning," it might be a bit traumatic for her to experience regeneration like this. No, it was far better for nine to be the one who explained and thankfully that was exactly what happened.
As for the third time in a very short time, Holly dropped into the ninth Doctor's presence, he startled as it happened. He hadn't seen her, but the Tardis had given him quite the shock when Holly dropped into the infirmary unconscious, especially since she'd been actively with him a few moments ago and had only just left with Rose.
Probably for the best they didn't come into contact.
The Doctor rushed into the infirmary and cast his jacket to the side as he quickly set up the equipment to scan Holly's form. He was immediately concerned as she hadn't appeared in his infirmary before but… "Ah." he realized.
This was Holly shortly after he'd rescued her… which was relieving, he'd been worried she'd been injured in his future but this required no immediate intervention. Holly was already recovering on her own.
The Doctor relaxed back and settled in to wait for Holly to wake or be pulled away again. He was confident the other Holly and Rose wouldn't be back for awhile, and there was nothing else pressing that he had to handle, so he had the luxury of being able to watch and wait and… if he held her hand while she slept, well no one needed to know.
It was, to the Doctor, somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes as the energy within Holly finally settled on something that would allow her to gain consciousness. Then, Holly came back into awareness with a gasp and the Doctor knew instantly that it was too much for her.
Holly could see all of time, the creation of the Earth, its last day in fire and blood, the rise and fall of magical kind, Voldemort- Grindelwald- countless unnamed dark lords- aliens- explosions- a blue box- and the turn of the earth under her feet.
Hands slipped into her hair, fingers pressed into her temples and her sense of time dulled along with the memories. Holly instantly reached up grabbing for the hands, and clung to the fingers like a child. Her eyes clamped closed did not block out the world, but those hands were, that presence like all the stars in the sky did. He- it wasn't the sun, he wasn't the blinding focus in her world, he wasn't time enveloping all else. He was the stars, the darkness hiding it all away and the glittering lights soothing her.
"Take a few breaths… it will get easier."
Holly forced herself to inhale, to follow the sound of his own breathing. She did so clutching at his fingers in her hair, forcing him to press further into the skin of her skull. Forcing him to continue holding on and then she spoke the first real words she had since that last spell before Rabastan- "I don't want it," Holly whispered desperate and frantic, "take it away- it's too much-"
The Doctor hesitated a moment, just a second then grimaced. "I'm so sorry… but I can't take time away from you now. It's written into your existence… but the memories… I can help with that." It was overwhelming to her now, memories of all time and it was smothering who she was. This, unfortunately, was what happened when humans had artron energy in their bodies.
A pure human couldn't handle it. But Holly… he'd seen her handle it with ease, so her inability now meant she likely just needed to be reintroduced to those memories at a slowed pace. She'd just need, ironically, time.
So the Doctor built up a block in her head, one that did not require or use her magic in order to maintain it. Instead, it would be something that would slowly break down on it's own, it would slowly reintroduce memories, like allowing the eyes to adjust to the dark after just turning on the lights.
As the block formed Holly's body relaxed and the Doctor caught her surface thoughts and the desire building.
A simple thing to give the Doctor knew: "Everyone needs a hug now and then," he soothed as the wall settled into place and he pulled his hands from her temple. Holly's body sagged into his own, he continued to speak as she went eerily blank. Though it showed she wasn't entirely human when she did not fall unconscious from his actions. "Adults, children, kings and conquerors. It's a basic need, skinship, skin on skin contact, even for aliens."
She listened, feeling blank, to the man's words. Allowed him to hold her and comfort her. Something important- no it didn't matter, not right now. She was fine.
"Now, Holly… focus on what your body needs.
What… her body needed?
"A hug was a good start… how about food maybe - not pears - a shower? a name."
She- she'd forgotten it- it… was- a crack in the wall, naturally occurring: "Holly... "she was Holly.
"Fantastic."
Holly opened her eyes staring into a pair of big blue eyes and a wide smile. The man, the stranger, held her close and kept her tucked against his form with enourmous case. Holly was, as a result, pressed into his relatively skinny chest. Merlin he was skinny-
Merlin? Who was that?
"Hello." Holly greeted feeling distant, this person… she knew he was safe, but oh she was so very confused. She knew him, and yet didn't?
"Tenses will give you some trouble for a bit," he told her as she finally released his hand, though she didn't pull away, not yet. "You had all of time running through a very human body, and human bodies are not meant for that."
"I... "she rubbed her eyes, "I can't… put it together-" She felt like she knew what he was talking about, and yet didn't.
"That's completely normal," he pulled back slightly so they could look each other in the face, but he did keep a hand on her own. Holly, at the time, thought nothing of the skin on skin contact. "From what I've pieced together, you had artron energy shoved into your blood-stream through open wounds; that coupled with your own personal energy caused your soul and body to skip through time."
He was still when he talked, focused and frowny. He was incredibly straight-forward and didn't skimp on his explanation, which meant she was really confused.
"Skip?"
Holly's magic, tested the wall in her mind and Holly herself felt her mind dance about- she for a moment remembered… a sharp pain in her chest and back, and she… she remembered something crashing beside her and then- time.
"You lived every moment of the Earth's timeline uncontrolled, you witnessed it all but the human mind and body cannot handle something like that. That came across as pain and I had to temporarily build a block in your mind to protect it."
Her magic pulled away from the wall and left it be. Holly scarcely noticed it happening, the dangerous way she'd instinctively tested that wall, and how tense the Doctor had gone when she blanked out entirely. Thankfully though, she jumped right back into conversation and the moment passed.
"Then what happened?"
"I- you- tenses," he rolled his eyes skyward, "I found you, at your request. I'm a time-traveller, through time and space and I am uniquely qualified to both catch you as you bounced along time, and set you on the path to… being fixed mostly."
Holly remained silent this time as he continued to explain: "Artron energy is… the energy that makes up time and it's not something I can technically fix. I could absorb it, but with the amount within you… that had built for millennia in a constant feedback loop." he pressed his leg to Holly's and linked his fingers together. The Doctor used his arms to keep somewhat of a block between the world and him, yet kept his leg on hers, his body language was endlessly confused. "It is also an energy found within me and within my Tardis- my spaceship."
"O...kay?" her head tilted.
"So... when I made contact with your form, that energy building for millennia stopped and latched onto the energy within me. It connected us… permanently."
Her head tilted more: "What does that mean?"
"It means that instead of bouncing along uncontrollably through Earth's time, you will instead bounce along with some control along with mine."
Holly's mouth snapped shut, only for a moment to think about that. It was enough for the Doctor's hair-trigger massive self-esteem issues to build. But not long enough for them to take hold, as Holly without a single memory gave the Doctor a lopsided grin and said, quite sincerely: "Thank you."
"Err… -what?" The Doctor deadpanned.
"Thank you, this is… better." She nodded to herself and to him, "I can remember it… like an echo, everything inside me is rebelling against it. But this, I can think now and… you said it would get better and… it doesn't hurt anymore." Anything was better than what had been before, anything. "Thank you… uh… your name?"
"The Doctor."
Her face… scrunched, "Doctor… who?"
"Just the Doctor," and that face split into a brilliant, fantastic, smile. "That's me, my name. Just the Doctor."
She blinked, then got over it. Holly was sure she'd heard- would hear- had heard of weirder names. "Now what?"
"Now I will explain a few crucial details about my life before I let go of your leg."
"...what?" Holly glanced down at the appendage, still in the Doctor's contact and he explained. He explained that physical contact was currently keeping her in that moment, but the second he let go, Holly would likely be dragged into his future. And- to ensure he was covering all his bases, he explained that in that future, he might not necessarily have the same face.
"You can change your face?" Holly gaped, how would she know it was him then? "are you a metamormagus?" Now where had that word come from and why did it taste like bubblegum?
"I am… not sure what that is, but no, I'm a Time-lord"
Holly blinked again and slowly started to realize that the shocking reveals were only just beginning.
Time pulled against Holly and it felt like she'd been submerged in sparkles. It was too bright, and it itched, but it was also warm. The energy within Holly, the magic she didn't yet remember existed, greatly disliked the sensation and rebelled against it. All in all it made Holly feel incredibly sick.
She staggered, tripped over her own two feet and a brand new set of hands caught her before she fell flat on her face. "Holly! I missed you!"
Holly looked up and found herself staring into familiar blue eyes set in a brand new face. Everything but the eyes were different, but Holly knew the Doctor instantly, she was connected to him by magic and time, she knew him. Still, Holly cataloged the differences; instead of military hair it was floppy and brown, instead of big ears, it was a big chin. But- the eyes, the Doctor still had those same sad blue eyes.
"Doctor." Holly didn't need to guess, he'd told her he changed her face and he'd known her name. This was him and- "umf-"
Holly managed to release a single shocked sound as the Doctor, the new one, embraced her without any warning. He squeezed her for all that she was worth, then picked her up and spun her around.
"Doctor!" gasped a woman's voice, "give Holly a bit of warning before you do that!"
-and the Doctor jerked back and away from her, which was a shame… Holly wouldn't have minded if he'd kept a hold of her… she'd liked it, being held like that.
"What?!" squeaked the Doctor, "Never!" he turned toward her, fully looked into her face and then slowly… started to pale. "Oh no! No no no no! You're you- you're a baby- oh no!"
"Uhm… hi?" Holly offered, glancing at the redhead nearby, "nice to… meet you?"
"Oh dammit," The woman said in a light Scottish accent, "you warned me that the next time I'd see you that you'd be young, but I didn't think that the Doctor would move so quickly! I'm sorry Holly,"
"It's... okay, I didn't mind." Holly murmured hesitantly wondering if she'd have to remember to ask the woman later to do that, even if she'd fail or if it would happen naturally. "Err.. is he okay?" Holly gestured to the Doctor who seemed to have entirely shut down.
"He's fine," the woman said, swatting the Doctor on the back of the head, "he's rebooting."
Holly nodded distantly as she glanced around at the new Tardis. The other Doctor had explained what the Tardis was and he'd told her it may look different when she met him next, he had certainly been right. The other one was rust and brown, but this one was silver and chrome. Though Holly liked both versions they both seemed to match the Doctor as he had been and currently was.
Eventually, Holly looked away from the shutdown Doctor and the woman and tilted her head: "Are you okay? You look sad." Holly couldn't explain why, she just got this vibe that something was wrong.
"Huh? No, I'm fine-"
"Amy's fine!" the Doctor blurted suddenly coming online and interrupting Holly from asking anything further, "and you are young- h-have you met me yet? Me- this me? Me eleven?"
"How eloquent," the woman, Amy apparently, said with a roll of her eyes.
"No," Holly answered, "I was with you when you had…" she gestured to her ears and wiggled her fingers and he nodded quickly while losing several more shades in his face and growing paler still.
"Nine then, my ninth self," The Doctor rubbed his chin, "I'll need to get you a journal and cover all the bases then."
"Wait… how young are you?" Amy asked with surprise.
"She's a baby." "No idea."
Holly admitted at the same time the Doctor spoke, then puffed up affronted as something inside her took offence, "I'm not a baby!"
"To me you are," he consoled, "I'm over nine hundred years old and this is your very first trip with me."
"Her first?!" Amy squeaked and the Doctor nodded as he approached Holly. "No way!"
The Doctor nodded firmly cheering on the spot: "That's exciting, I've always wanted to see what you'd look like on your first ever trip in the Tardis."
The Doctor clapped his hands together, then offered one of them to Holly absently, as if he didn't realize he was doing it, as if it were a habit. Holly didn't immediately take it, not until she watched his face fall in realization, as he turned with upset in his eyes. Holly rushed to fill his fingers with her own to stave off the expression and it immediately soothed the tension in the Doctor's expression and Holly momentarily felt quickly proud of herself even though she wasn't sure who she was yet.
There was an echo just out of reach as the Doctor pulled levers and twisted dials. She had a flash of bushy brown hair, a cruel laugh, the feeling of loss and… the Tardis made a wheezing sound and that felt far more familiar and secure so Holly focused on it instead.
"There!" The Doctor proclaimed as banished his free hand toward the doors, "Paris! Two-thousand and ten, the Musee-d'orsay, want to see?"
Amy nodded eager to explore, while Holly felt far more unsure. The Doctor from before had explained that he traveled through time and space on adventure, but Holly hadn't been able to see it before she'd been pulled to this Doctor. So yes, Holly was a bit unsure.
"Come along Pond, Potter, let's see what the world has to offer!" he stepped forward and tossed open the doors allowing Holly to see outside the Tardis. There… stood the world, the rush of daily lives, rushing cars, phones, people and- Holly stepped forward as the Doctor's fingers slipped from her finger. She stepped onto the sidewalk of two-thousand and ten Paris and she breathed.
Still inside the Tardis the Doctor smiled fondly as Holly's tense expression turned to wonder and- then Amy was grabbing the back of his collar forcing him to stay put. She had, as he'd expected, something to say.
"Doctor!" Amy hissed, "doesn't this mean Holly doesn't have her-" Amy made a wiggling motion with her hands implying magic.
"Not yet," he brushed down his bowtie watching Holly carefully as she turned on the spot trying to see everything at once, "she doesn't know who she is yet either, there is a block on her memory-" he didn't mention that he'd placed it, "-it takes her time to regain those. Her mind went through something impossibly traumatic and it's a younger version of me who helps her make the connections. Now though, now her soul is in pieces." the Doctor watched Holly squeal with such joy despite the state of her soul and mind, "don't mention it, Amy, it could cause adverse effects. Holly needs to regain her memory naturally or she will shatter and I don't… I don't know if I could fix it."
"I understand," Amy told him, "so I'm not mentioning your relationship either then?" she ticked a finger, "or the magic, or the others, or any of her tricks… or the journal or-"
"None of it!" he cautioned strongly and Amy shrugged.
"I can keep a secret, for her safety… I'll keep her secret. It's just hard to believe, she's so… blank." Amy shook her head, "anyway, I had another question… why are you being so nice to me?"
The Doctor forced one more smile, nodding and not addressing either of Amy's comments. He brushed off her with a soft: "I'm always nice," and refused to address that entirely.
Thankfully though, for him, Amy had nothing else to say and rushed after Holly into the world. The Doctor followed a touch sedated as he watched the two women link arms and head off toward the museum he'd brought them too and… and the Doctor took a second before he followed.
A second to close his eyes and breathe. To feel for a second the torment of this. To take Amy on a trip after Rory and her own memories were wiped. To see Holly, his Holly, so young and broken. To see the pair together clueless and mourning deep within their souls without a single memory of their losses, a pair who a single trip previously had been laughing, joking, and running into adventure with him and Rory keeping watch.
He wished… and how he hated it, but the Doctor wished it had been an older Holly who had arrived for this trip. A Holly who knew what came next and what had come before, one who could soothe his worries and elaborate on her cryptic words from before.
And then the Doctor shoved it away, smiled, and raced to catch up. His Holly, this version needed him much more than he needed her right now and he would ensure she was safe and healing. He would protect her.
Holly's free hand didn't remain free for long, the very moment the Doctor caught up he took it from her side and affixed their palms together. He and Amy didn't seem to think anything of it either, so Holly didn't comment. But she had the distinct feeling that it was abnormal to her… she didn't think- couldn't remember anyone holding her hand… ever. But then, she couldn't remember anything else either.
Still, Holly didn't dislike it. The Doctor's palm was warm to the touch, but not sweaty, and it was secure… safe.
"Look here! I was there when this one was painted!" The Doctor bounced forward carting Holly along and Amy followed with a laugh as she snatched up a nearby brochure to compare the Doctor's words to the historians.
Holly listened as the Doctor spoke, he told her and Amy all about the painting and the man who had painted it. It caused Amy to stare in delighted awe but Holly- her focus slid from the painting to the man who was talking about it.
The Doctor was new to her. Nine had been suppressed stillness and… sorrow, he'd used complicated words until forcefully slowing down for her. This one though, he vibrated, he talked and bounced, and his free hand swung around while the other remained fully attached to Holly… as if… as if he was afraid to let her go.
Then- between one moment and the next Holly felt time press against her head and all thoughts fled her mind. She paused on the spot, seemingly staring at a painting while Amy rushed toward the Van Gogh section. Holly was stuck- time- time- all of it was so heavy and the earth was turning under her borrowed shoes- and-
The Doctor squeezed her hand firmly. The other reached up and pressed a hand to her temple and time quieted.
Holly had been strangling his fingers with her grip causing the Doctor to notice her distress. Her sense of time was still so delicate, but this was familiar and the Doctor knew how to solve it. So he didn't pull away and free his poor hand, instead he reached up and suppressed her time sense in order for her body and magic to recalibrate. All the while the Doctor soothed with a word: "It's fine, it will pass," he said the very same thing he had in his other bodies. "breath, acknowledge what it's telling you… and let it go."
"What is it telling me?" Holly asked, forcing her eyes away from the painting and toward the Doctor as he tugged her slightly. The Doctor pulled her into his chest shielding her from the world before someone started asking too many questions about Holly's glowing eyes.
"When time on Earth, as you know it becomes threatened, then time is in flux, you can sense it happening and instinctively you want to fix it… did I not tell you?" Holly shook her head and he made a face, "should have. Hmm. Anyway, this means there's something to fix nearby, shall we go find it?"
Holly… she felt that intense feeling of time slip away from her so she allowed herself to nod. She wasn't sure what they were going to fix, but she was content enough to follow the Doctor as they went to catch up to Amy for the time being.
After all, where else was she supposed to go?
"Something is very not good with that painting." The Doctor proclaimed smashing buttons and pulling levers. Holly watched him run around the Tardis curiously. She had certainly noticed the face hidden in Van Gogh's painting, though Holly hadn't known it wasn't supposed to be there, not until the Doctor and Amy pointed it out.
There had been a demonic looking face in one of Van Gogh's paintings and the Doctor and Amy had to look into it. Holly felt like she was just along for the ride. Apparently this meant they were headed to the year and date that Vincent Van Gogh had actually painted the church and the face hidden inside it.
They arrived in a flash and followed the Doctor and Amy out into eighteen ninety and wasn't that just a trip. Time was all kinds of wonky already and now it was even worse as Holly stepped out of one year and into another with a pull of a lever. She moved from the roads of Paris, to the cobblestones of the past.
Holly couldn't quite resist the urge to touch the stones to reassure herself that yes, this was real. She pressed fingers into it and allowed herself to smile at how different the air was. Oh… there was an associated stink, but it was body odor instead of toxic fumes of the future.
"Come along Holly, we have a painter to find!" The Doctor snatched hold of her hand again and then, they were running, along the road, along the past. Holly's head turned on a swivel as they did, looking this way and that and trying to see everything all at once.
So different. It was all so different and reminded her of- colours, parting stones, the feeling of home and-
"Now here's the plan! We find Van Gogh, have him lead us to the church with the face!"
-it was gone.
"Easy," Amy skipped along with them, "and how do we do that?"
"Probably will have to find a cafe with orangey light."
Amy leaned toward Holly and winked, pulling out the brochure from the museum, one which had a photograph of a painting Van Gogh had done and all the others known about. One of which included a cafe with an orangey light, the very same the Doctor was referring to.
Amy continued to hold the brochure up as they wandered the city, because even through time-travel, the exact cafe was not so easily and conveniently found. Therefore Holly got to see plenty of the town as they wandered back and forth and everywhere in between, until Amy finally spotted the building most resembling the painting.
The Doctor didn't waste a moment, he darted forward and immediately hopped into conversation with a waitress, who did, in fact, know who they were talking about and apparently Vincent Van Gogh was a mad, a drunk, and he never paid his bills.
"Hmm," the Doctor hummed as he ushered Holly toward a nearby chair and plopped them both down at a table. This was near perfectly timed as an orange haired man made his appearance before them all, as if the words spoken had summoned him into existence.
Holly quickly compared the oranged haired man with the painting they'd seen in the museum and… the resemblance was uncanny. Though he wasn't what Amy seemed to be expecting personality wise, especially as he tried to sell one of those endlessly famous paintings for a drink and was denied, causing some manner of argument between Van Gogh and the Doctor, who offered to buy said painting to pay for the drink in question.
Amy solved the whole situation by buying a bottle to share, but Holly... didn't quite keep her mouth shut after it was solved.
"Can I buy the painting anyway?" She asked, because the Doctor had been quite sincere in wanting it and even without memories Holly understood that.
Vincent Van Gogh made a face at Holly, who only then realized she didn't have money. Still, Holly hadn't seen that particular painting in the museum, so… it should be okay? She shot a look at the Doctor who was staring at her with such fondness that Holly almost flinched back from him. The look was alien- no one ever- no one had-
"As Holly said, she wants it… so, can we buy it?" The Doctor agreed and offered some odd looking coins to Van Gogh who shrugged.
"They're not worth that much, but if that's what she wants." and he took a couple of the handful of coins, before handing over the small painting to Holly who happily and gently took it between her fingers. She ignored Amy muttering in jealousy as she set it carefully down prepared to put it up… oh…
She had no where to put it- no home- no dorm- no- Durs- her mind came against a wall as it brutally block the thought from continuing. As a figure of a long-necked woman was wrenched away from Holly and the Doctor wrenched her back to reality again with a quick squeeze of the fingers.
Holly snapped back to attention in time to catch the positively stimulating conversation between Vincent Van Gogh and Amy.
"Your hair is orange."
"Yes. So yours."
"My mum had orange hair." Holly blurted suddenly to the pair. She had no idea where the thought came from but… she knew it was true. She could see the woman- a picture of her - in her mind's eyes. Green eyes, freckles, a smile as she danced with a man with messed hair and glasses like Holly's own and Holly knew the woman was 'mom.'
"Lily Potter," the Doctor said, keeping a careful eye on her and how that sudden knowledge affected her, "a fantastic woman."
Holly made a face and felt her reaction almost distantly: "you've met her?" her emotions- distantly she was upset, offended, jealous. But why?
"You will too," the Doctor soothed, "you'll meet her Holly, it's already happened to me and it will happen to you."
"oh… okay." She smiled, feeling blank again, blank and missing the expressions of the Doctor as he shot a look at Amy and Vincent demanded with his eyes alone that they not ask or bring it up.
They didn't.
But Holly was left feeling like she was missing something crucial and she couldn't help but reach up and brush her fingers absently through the fringe of her bangs and felt the raised scar tissue of a lightning shaped mark.
Yet, any further thought on the moment was interrupted as a scream pitched through the air nearby.
"That is not good news,"The Doctor shot up from his seat, "Come on Holly, Amy, Vincent!"
Holly grabbed her painting and, with an afterthought, the wine bottle and tucked both under her arm before running after the Doctor, Amy, and Vincent already a bit ahead of her.
It was only moments before they found the source. The scream had been rather close, and the three of them had moved first so they'd also gotten to the scene first. Holly was last of the group to arrive. There, on the stones of the road, was a body stabbed straight through the middle. A woman, the screamer, had found the body and was knelt horrified and teary eyed beside it.
Someone was dead.
"She's been ripped to shreds!" the woman who found the body screamed. The Doctor dropped beside her hands fluttering, he was a Doctor… and he tried to help. He tried… but even as the Doctor looked around searching for a source, even as he asked the locator of the body what happened, Holly realized they - specifically Vincent - was not welcomed to ask questions.
The girl's mother arrived a moment later, she shoved bodily passed Holly and threw Holly into Vincent's side. Vincent quickly caught her, which unfortunately brought himself right into the woman's vision and that vision turned red.
The first rock, thrown by a terrified mother struck the Doctor in the temple. For the briefest moment, while Holly observed him, he looked angry, but then it was gone and he placed himself between the furiously growing mob and the rest of them.
This allowed Vincent to grab her hand and Amy's, and then they were full speed running away and… a shimmering film of light formed between them and the crowd, once which only the Doctor noticed due to his position and his habit of checking behind them to ensure no more rocks hit his group.
He glanced at Holly in quite awe, aware that even now, without memory or awareness, she was protecting them the best way she could.
Eventually they slowed and the Doctor checked on his group, Amy and Holly were unharmed… sparing that mob quite a big of grief because the Doctor did not abide his people getting hurt. While Vincent: "Are you alright?" the Doctor asked.
"I'm fine, it's nothing I'm not used to." Vincent waved it off as he accepted his painting and the wine bottle from Holly, he shot her a surprised look that'd she managed to grab it all before both events. "Keep it, you paid for it." he told her regardless, causing her to beam and Vincent to look away.
"Has anything like this murder happened here before?" the Doctor asked casting a look behind them.
Vincent thought back, then nodded: "Only a week ago. It's a terrible time."
"As I thought, as I thought. Come on, we'd better get you home." he took Holly's hand while Amy shrugged a bit helplessly at Vincent's look.
"And where are you staying tonight?" he couldn't resist asking.
"Oh, you're very kind." the Doctor clapped a hand on his shoulder and walked off escorting Holly down the alley. Holly laughed as Vincent sputtered as the Doctor invited the three of them into his home, and yet the man didn't argue. Clearly he wasn't as upset as he appeared.
Not long after Vincent escorted them into his home, Amy was instantly delighted as they entered. Van Gogh's home was covered in paintings, historical items sitting side by side, some wet and brand new. The Doctor wasn't too far behind her, he was all but bouncing in excitement at what they were seeing, and he turned to share it with Holly. He knew she'd love this, he just knew she'd…
The Doctor froze on the spot as Holly stood in the middle of the room blank and uncertain. His teeth clenched together, grinding down. He'd forgotten, stupid stupid Doctor, this Holly… sometimes she acted so much like her older self that he'd forgotten she wasn't that person yet.
Holly had only just been pulled from the time-stream, her memories and soul were fragmented and healing. This was not yet his sarcastic, brilliant, wickedly amusing Holly. This was her before she'd gotten to know him and could read him at a glimpse or a thought shared between them. This was Holly before she even remembered that she was a witch, or recalled with any consistency her history.
The Doctor returned to her side temporarily ignoring the way Vincent was staring at Holly with concern. He stepped between them aware that over the short time they'd known Vincent that this had happened twice already. Vincent was an observant man… he'd noticed and he watched as the Doctor reached up and sank a hand into Holly's curls placing a finger at her temple before sliding away to give them some semblance of privacy.
The Doctor though, he focused quietly and smothered the artron energy running rampant within Holly. It was… a lot, two trips in such a short time might have been a mistake especially when Holly used wish magic subconsciously. The Doctor hesitated a moment, then settled, he pulled at the artron energy and took it into himself. He knew at one point Holly would be able to expel this energy on her own, and that at one point she'd not even need to expend the energy… but right now she was so young and so very overwhelmed by everything.
Holly reached up placing her hand on top of his and he smiled as she came back to herself. She glanced around distantly as if she'd forgotten where she was and why she was here. The Doctor watched that come back too and forced himself not to react.
This was temporary, it was temporary.
"Holly!" Amy skipped into the room, "let's look outside! Vincent said there were more paintings there."
"Oh. Sure." Holly smiled and allowed herself to be led outside by Amy and the Doctor could only watch her go.
He turned slowly, already planning to ask Vincent about the church and the monster within it and jerked when he found the man staring at him from the door-way.
Vincent was perceptive, eerily so as he said: "Amy sings a song of sadness, heartbroken and destroyed. But Holly… she screams on the inside…" He eyed the Doctor as he winced.
"They've both been through something, it's complicated. Anyway, I need to ask you… feel the need to paint any churches?"
Holly crouched in the grass as the other woman moved all around the backyard of Vincent Van Gogh's home. Amy couldn't get enough of the paintings, but Holly didn't have a connection to them or to this moment.
She was… blank. All she was, was a splattering of memories and Holly was unsure if she even wanted to have them back. The memories she did have were few in number and spilling forth without her control, they just appeared at random… which matched what the Doctor had told her would happen.
"Potter! You have put no effort into-... -occlumency is a-"
Holly shook herself, there was a downside to that. She truly had no control over what escaped and what didn't. Heaving a sigh Holly turned her head physically, enough that she briefly caught sight of a flash from the corner of her eye… and Holly turned scanning quickly like the seeker she was.
She was like a dog spotting a squirrel, distracted so very easily. Holly scanned forgetting entirely why she'd been crouched sadly in the grass and- oh! There it was! The creature was big, monochrome, with sharp angles and teeth, four paws, a horn and… it bumped against a wall and knocked down one of the paintings near Amy and then Amy was screaming in shock and distress as the creature ripped straight through one of the paintings.
Holly jerked in surprise at the sound and the creature shrieked and kicked. It reared back frantically trying to get away from Amy and just generally away. While Amy crawled over the ground backward, "Holly lookout!"
Holly did the exact opposite of that, she darted forward as the creature freaked. "Hey! Hey, easy! We don't want to hurt you!" Holly tried to soothe.
It stilled, it slowed marginally as Holly continued speaking soothingly. She was focused on it, talking as softly as possible, and was so focused that she didn't notice the Doctor and Vincent come flying from the house at full speed called by Amy's distressed yell. Holly also missed Amy reporting that she hadn't seen a thing, despite Holly clearly speaking to something.
Vincent, seeing the beast so very close to Holly, yelped and that was it. The creature roared and both Vincent and the Doctor rushed forward to defend her. But the Doctor… with a stick in hand attacked thin air while Vincent starred the creature down and brandished a pitchfork in it's direction.
If it had just been Vincent randomly brandishing a pitchfork in thin air the Doctor and Amy may have thought the man was having a fit. They might have thought him crazy, but the Doctor had seen Holly react first and he knew that Holly had magic in her veins and was predisposed to see things with a sense that the Doctor and Amy didn't have. So he, automatically in this case, followed her lead. Especially when she tried to stop them.
"Wait, don't!" she yelled at the two and the Doctor reacted changing his 'attack' to a 'defend' in a second. He trusted her, being without memories didn't matter. Holly said wait… so the Doctor dropped his stick, spun around and slammed a hand over Vincent's mouth, to stop his attacks.
But it was too late- the beast screeched and fled destroying several fences in its haste. Holly deflated sadly as she watched it run off, while Vincent wrenched the Doctor's hand from his mouth and reported: "It's gone, we've chased it off."
"and what is it?" Amy asked, "I couldn't see it at all."
Holly and Vincent both turned to look in surprise at that comment, they'd seen the creature clear as day, but it wasn't just Amy. The Doctor was nodding in agreement: "it was invisible to us… Holly, Vincent… what did it look like?"
"I'll show you!" Vincent turned on a heel and rushed for the house.
A moment later the Doctor gasped as Vincent destroyed one of his paintings to create a painted version of the creature. Holly thought it was a rather good impression even though the Doctor looked incredibly confused by it.
"The colours are right too," she pointed out, "it's black and white, with a bit of gray… but that's what it looks like."
The Doctor forced a smile before loosely "Ok. Ok." he grabbed the sketch, "right. Amy, Holly, make Mr Van Gogh comfortable. Don't let any invisible monsters in through the front door."
Amy stared at the Doctor as he went for the door and tried to stop him: "But it could be outside, waiting!"
"Don't worry, I'll risk it. What's the worst that can happen?" he cast a look at Holly at that comment but she was silent as Amy spoke.
"You could get torn into pieces by a monster you can't see."
"Oh, right, yes. That. Don't worry. I'll be back before you can say, 'Where's he got to now?'" With that he left the house leaving Amy, Vincent, and Holly standing together and waiting.
Standing there though, waiting… Holly felt off over it. She felt wrong.
When had she ever sat still and waited before?
"She stayed… Holly never stays."
"She's not herself… keep that in mind Amy, Holly is most definitely not herself."
The next morning Vincent and Holly found themselves sitting together eating a breakfast which the Doctor had made. While eating Vincent set aside his cutlery and pointed out what he couldn't let go.
"You look as though you feel what I do," at her questioning look he explained, "on a frequent basis, you look as though the world could be ending and the agony of surviving is too much… then, a moment later you look as though you were happy and feeling the joy at your fingertips, only for it to come crashing down once more with no feeling in your body… as if the cold has stolen away all feeling in your body."
Holly tightened her grip on her cup and felt her emotions rise and fall with the sands of time ticking away in her chest. Holly could feel it, Vincent's, Amy's, the Doctor's time falling away. Holly exhaled: "I feel like if I let myself… think, then I'll drown, so I can't stop for a moment… and… I think that… when everything finally snaps together in my head, then I'll realize this pain in my heart has a source and it'll be… so much worse then not knowing."
Vincent closed his eyes nodding in understanding and sympathy: "But you, Holly, have an advantage over the rest of us poor fools. You have a Doctor." he picked up his nearby cup, "you'll be alright… I am sure of it."
That was probably true. Though Holly had only just met the Doctor, he was clearly very familiar with her and had stuck around. So… perhaps Vincent was right, and maybe she'd get through it all in the end.
"Alright!" the Doctor dropped into a seat beside Holly as if summoned by their conversation, "our creature is called the Krafayis. They travel in space, they travel as a pack. Scavenging across the universe. Sometimes one of them gets left behind and because they are a brutal race, the others never come back. So, dotted all around the universe are individual, utterly merciless, utterly abandoned Krafayis. And what they do is... Well, kill, until they're killed. Which they usually aren't. Because other creatures can't see them."
The Doctor shot a look at Holly and Vincent, "but you two can, and that is our advantage. So, we find the church, we find the Krafayis, and then I do a thing and we get it back to its pack and then Amy, Holly, and I go on our merry way and we no longer darker Vincent's doorstep and- oh"
Vincent's cup shattered and the peaceful atmosphere of the morning was broken as Vincent fled the room. The Doctor was a step behind, apologetic at his misstep while Holly leaned deeper into her chair and closed her eyes.
Then again, she thought, maybe Vincent was wrong.
Vincent escorted Amy along the road with the Doctor and Holly behind them. Vincent had recovered surprisingly quickly and had grabbed his painting supplies. Now they were, as a group, heading to the church.
Vincent and Amy ahead shared in a whispered conversation.
The Doctor was sombre beside Holly able to hear what they discussed but refraining from commenting instead he turned to Holly, "everyone knows he's a delicate man. Just months from now he'll...he'll take his own life."
"Can we stop that?" Holly asked curiously, but the Doctor was already shaking his head.
"No… that would create a paradox for if we fixed it, we wouldn't know that it needed to be fixed and then we wouldn't do it and… it would create a break in time." the Doctor squeezed Holly's arm.
"But… he still came with us."
"And yet he still came with us," the Doctor agreed, "even aware you can see the krafayis, he came."
Holly glanced ahead of them and bit her lip, "Suppose… he doesn't want to be alone." and then she realized what the Doctor already had. Vincent… he'd gotten attached to them, he was better because he had people but when they left… then he'd lose his people.
"Oh no-"
The Doctor pulled her closer as they walked and gently said: "Don't tell Amy… she… it won't occur to her." It wouldn't occur to Amy that they had given Vincent hope, and when they left… they'd steal it all away. They'd show him a better world and… then he'd lose it.
Thankfully Holly didn't need to comment any further as they came upon a funeral procession for the very woman who had died a day before. There was no need for words in that case and Holly remained so as they finally came upon the church and Vincent got to work setting out his paints.
"Okay, but Vincent, make sure you'll tell me if you see any monsters." the Doctor proclaimed, staring at the church as if it was going to bite them.
"I will."
Amy meanwhile seemed rather content to watch Vincent Van Gogh paint, Holly settled nearby in the grass herself fine with a quiet moment or two. It allowed her a moment to think… or should have but the Doctor clearly did not handle 'quiet moments' well at all. Instead, he talked near non-stop, bounced about, and chattered on.
It got to the point that Vincent and Amy both shot her a look, both of them screaming with their eyes for Holly to distract the man. It caused Holly to smile slightly and called out while patting the ground beside her: "Doctor, can you tell me a story?"
"Huh, oh, a story? Of course!" the Doctor turned quickly, away from the other two and plopped to the ground beside Holly, "well there was this one time where-" he started a tale about the titanic in his ninth body, wove it for her with a bright smile.
As he talked Holly caught sight of Amy giving her a thumbs up and then turned toward Vincent and said: "there's the Holly I know and love!"
Eventually, when the Doctor finished one story Holly promoted him to tell her another, and another, and another. Until the sun started to set, until the painting was almost finished and- "There it is, by the window!"
The Doctor and Holly spun around looking for the window in question, but while the Doctor couldn't see it… Holly certainly could.
"Alright, we're going in." the Doctor proclaimed automatically including Holly in his comment.
"I'm coming too-"
"No!" the Doctor rounded on Vincent, "you are Vincent Van Gogh, you are not coming!"
"But you're not armed."
"I'll be fine, I've got Holly! She can see it just as well, we have this handled. Now, you two, one rule, do not follow me under any circumstance." the Doctor pointed right in their faces, then spun, took Holly's hand and together they headed for the church.
The Doctor opened the door to the church and Holly poked a head in quickly scanning. Generally, the two didn't actually have a plan, but Holly was relatively sure she never had a plan, so she wasn't bothered.
"Nothing," she reported.
"Alright, let's go." The Doctor and Holly entered the church side-by-side and adrenaline built in Holly's body. They crept forward together with the Doctor, he kept his attention on Holly while she scanned.
The silence though, it was eerie and Holly needed to fill it: "Why didn't you ask me to stay out with Vincent and Amy?"
The Doctor winked her way, "and lose out on those eyes of yours? Never."
"My… eyes?" Holly touched the glasses perched on her face in confusion.
"You don't remember, but you used to play a sport that required you to locate a very small object in a very large area at extremely high speeds." he smiled kindly and Holly could also feel a wooden open between her fingers and the wind in her hair, "if anyone has a chance to spot the krafayis before it attacks, it's you."
"Oh…" Holly fell silent again as they came up to the window and she frowned, "it moved."
"Damn," the Doctor put his back to Holly's, "do you see it in here?"
She scanned quickly and then- "behind you!" Holly yelped in time for the beast to swing it's large tail right at them both. Holly grabbed for the Doctor's coat and wrenched him back as a long tail swung past narrowingly missing the Doctor. Then he grabbed her back and dragged her further back.
"It's left- left left left!" Holly pointed as the Doctor dragged them both right around a pillar and they ran face-first into Amy and Vincent.
"What are you-" The Doctor started
"Later!" Vincent and Holly yelled grabbing the closest person and darting in opposite directions. As it was though, Holly ended up with Amy and Vincent with the Doctor. So as the Doctor dragged Vincent into a nearby confessional to hide, Holly bolted for the nearest door with Amy a step behind.
It was, probably, the landing footfalls, but the beast elected to follow Holly and Amy. "gogogogogo!" Holly yelped pulling Amy around a corner and Amy pressed them against a wall as the beast crashed through the door and tossed its head randomly.
"Where is it-" Holly slammed a hand over Amy's mouth and frowned. The krafayis… it was stomping around the room, shaking its head, and crashing into things and- it looked right toward her and Amy and yet it hadn't… attacked.
"Oh! Oh!" Holly gasped then clamped a hand over her mouth and quickly pressed her mouth to Amy's ear, "it's blind," she rushed to say, "stay quiet, it can't find us if we're quiet!"
Amy nodded quickly then her eyes widened: "the Doctor and Vincent don't know!"
And if they made any sound… it would go right for them. Holly glanced around quickly then nodded, "Okay, go tell them quick. I'll distract it."
"How?"
"By being loud." Holly dropped to a knee and grabbed a nearby rock fallen from the beast's trampling across the room. "On the count of three."
Amy nodded sharply and they mentally counted.
One.
Two.
Three- Holly hurled the rock opposite the door, it cracked against the wall and the formerly calm beast roared and charged for the wall. Amy instantly dove for the door and fled the room to grab the Doctor and Vincent while Holly grabbed a second rock and led the krafayis on a wild goose chase.
She just needed to waste a few minutes- a few- just a- Holly felt her foot connect with something and she yelped. Her body pitched forward and she landed on her hands cutting them. She landed with an 'oof' and-
The krafayis roared.
"Holly!" Amy and the Doctor both yelled as they entered the room, as they witnessed wooden pew's being thrown in a furious rush as the krafayis charged toward her and- then Vincent was standing between them with a chair in the way.
"Stay back!" he yelled, "stay away!" he thrust the chair forward attempting to slow the beast and Holly watched as one of the chair legs pierced right through the krafayis' body. It screeched, a dying sound that echoed painfully in Holly and Vincent's head and then it collapsed.
"What… happened?" Amy asked at the abrupt silence.
"I… I didn't mean to- I was just trying to slow it down, to turn it away."
"It's dying," Holly explained as the Doctor helped her stand.
"It's trying to say something, it's- I'm having trouble making it out, but I think he's saying, "I'm afraid. I'm afraid." the Doctor reached out and brushed a hand along the invisible body. He whispered soothing words as the krafayis took it's last and final breath.
After their last night with Vincent, as they laid under the starry sky mourning the frightened krafayis. After Vincent showed them how he saw the world in colour Amy had convinced the Doctor to at the very least show Vincent what would become of his paintings and his name.
They brought him to museum itself and showed Vincent how very much his life and work would touch others.
But in the end… nothing changed.
Vincent still killed himself the very year they met him, there were no new paintings in the museum and in fact, there was one less as it sat in the Tardis in a room designated for Holly. So it was with a heavy heart that Amy and Holly sat inside the Tardis both unwilling to go on another trip so soon.
"Shopping! We need to go shopping and cheer you both up!" Amy and Holly both glanced half-heartened at the Doctor. Neither woman felt that they could cheer up after the knowledge that Vincent was dead, that it hadn't mattered at all. But the Doctor refused to take no for an answer, he forcefully got them both up and brought the Tardis down on an extremely large shopping planet. He dragged them from the Tardis, wandered with Holly on one arm and Amy on the other.
Amy cheered faster, used to this and adaptable in a way that Holly wasn't yet and she wandered around the little shop the Doctor had brought them too. Holly, after a moment allowed herself to do the same.
"Ah ha!" The Doctor plucked something from the shelf nearby triumphantly. Like a kid with a candy bar he rushed to the shop keeper and placed his prize gently on the table. Holly distantly kept an awareness of where he was there while turning the small familiar looking fan back and forth in her palms. It was a familiar thing, not the fan itself but the feathers used. They called to her oddly and Holly couldn't say why.
"Holly! Here! A gift!" she put the fan down and gave her attention to the Doctor who presented her with a bag held up between his hands.
The gift- a random present- it echoed in her chest even as she reached forward and accepted it from his hands. Holly knew she'd not gotten many gifts and any she did receive she uncommon and usually only for holidays. Yet this was… was spur of the moment, it was random, and special. So under his watchful eyes she accepted it, opened it and discovered a swirling design glittering in gold accents, with a bright achingly familiar red as the focus.
"What's it for?" Holly asked turning the empty journal in her hands. Journals- no diaries had bad connotations in her head and it lingered with a memory of a dark look and a silky voice.
"We meet out of order," The Doctor explained as they left the store having noted Holly's odd fixation with the feathered fan and hoped it would make a good gift. "In this journal you can and have written what you've lived, and then you compare it with what I… and River have lived." The added the last as an after-thought aware that she and River hadn't and likely wouldn't meet for quite some time.
"River?"
"You'll meet her later," he mused, "sometime in my future, because according to my memories you'd already met her when I first met her."
"... Tenses are hard?" she summarized causing him to grin and nod. "so ill write… how we met and about Vincent?"
"and then the next time you see this me, you can check and see if I have met Vincent. If I haven't, then you'll have to avoid telling me anything about this trip… to protect time you see," He shivered, "trust me my Holly, you do not want to give me a spoiler, it's fun for no one involved."
Holly nodded along figuring she could also write what she remembered from before. She was still piecing that part together.
"Thank you!" Holly then said with a beaming smile… but it didn't linger. Not as Holly's fingers clutching the diary started to glow. Amy, noticing made a disappointed sound, while the Doctor looked somewhat… gutted. "Does this mean I'm going somewhere new?" she asked peering at the glow as she turned her hand around.
The Doctor forced a smile, "indeed you are… I will see you soon."
"See you soon." Holly agreed and- vanished.
The Doctor clenched his hands behind his back, he'd had to resist the urge to grab her and keep her with him… he always had to. But he knew he'd have to let Holly go, so she could travel to a younger Doctor or older Doctor and continue the process of healing. So she could save lives and regain her magic, so she could grow in body, soul, and mind and…
"Oh, I remember this!"
A delighted voice spoke from behind him and the Doctor spun quick and so very relieved. It couldn't be, it never happened that fast but- it was true. The Doctor turned to see Holly behind him, his Holly, the one who was a grown up, the one who was older then she looked, the one who smiled fondly at him and could read him at a glimpse. The one who- was wearing-
"Doctor." Holly breathed sadly reading his face and emotions from a glimpse, then her mind spoke to his hiding their conversation from a nearby Amy, "I'm sorry, I know it was a tough time for me… but I didn't know how much you were struggling." Holly stepped forward and cupped the back of his head.
"It's fine," He soothed allowing her to press his head to the nape of her neck, "you were still there."
"Physically, not emotionally… not when you needed me to be there."
Holly knew he needed a moment, the same sort that he'd just given her younger self and Amy. Because neither woman at the time had realized he had been just as affected by the krafayis and Vincent's death, if not more so because he'd been dealing with a young Holly's first trip and Amy who was without Rory. True, both of those issues would eventually find solutions, but that didn't stop the Doctor from feeling it all.
The Doctor reached up taking hold of the fabric of her back, "Tardis?" he asked aloud.
"Tardis," Holly agreed.