Chapter 10

Realization

The Tardis was slower than the show made it seem. Traveling through the time vortex was time-consuming, well as far as Sarah was concerned. She was starting to find it hard to make time go faster by reading books or swimming. She was sad that John had seemingly disappeared into the Tardis. The taller woman's room was empty, yet the Doctor assured her that she was in the Tardis.

Sarah couldn't help but find some humor in how confident he was that she was on the ship. She had caught him in deep thought as he moved around the main console, pushing buttons to keep busy or even as he read his books. He was used to the time it took for the Tardis to travel -well sometimes the ship could go through time faster than others she supposed it was a bit like a car in that regard- and knew how to keep himself busy. Now it seemed like her new friend was able to do the same.

She was reading a book written by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, and was slowly nodding off. It took her fighting off sleep for an hour before she finally yawned and decided to take a nap. She placed the book next to her on the sofa she had been sitting on and closed her eyes. She found it rather comfortable in the room to fall asleep as she did.

The Doctor was having a bit of a harder time as he moved around the console. His mind was racing with questions for the resident Witch. He pushed a button and knew that he didn't have anything else to do with the flight and landing for a while. He moved away from the console and walked through the bowels of the Tardis. He came across John's door and knocked on it. A low hoot was the reply and the door slowly swung open.

"Hello there," He greeted the owl, "Is John in here somewhere?"

It looked at him and he felt as though he was being judged. He had never been judged by an owl before, it was a new experience. It took off from its perch and landed above a medium-sized briefcase that looked as though it had seen better days. The owl motioned at it with its head and he moved towards it and opened the lid. He heard Vivaldi's Winter and investigated the case itself. There was a room inside of it.

He lowered himself into the case, as strange as he thought it was, and his foot hit a ladder. He moved down the ladder and once his feet hit a hardwood floor he looked around. It was like he had entered the Tardis for the first time. It was the main room that led to multiple hallways. Above each hallway entrance was a small plaque that told what was down each one. He listened for the music and went into the hallway where it was playing the loudest. He came across a door that was made from iron poles and glass. He could see in and saw John moving things on a shelf.

He quietly opened the door and heard her humming along with the music as she moved glass vials around. Her short hair was pulled back from her face as she worked. He noticed that she was wearing gloves of a strange fabric that looked like the skin of an Alligator but shimmered in the light. He moved further into the room, his shoes barely making any sound against the stone floor, and stopped at a counter and leaned against it.

She didn't even seem to notice he had entered the room. He wondered if she was that relaxed around him that he could just enter a room that she was in and she wouldn't care. She continued to move the vials around, and he saw that some of them were labeled. He didn't know when she would get any use from a hair growing potion, but at least she had it handy for when it was needed.

He made a slight face at that thought and went back to watching her. He could see the muscles in her back move due to the shirt she was wearing. He knew that he had never seen her wear a tank top before now. His eyes zeroed in on the scars that littered her shoulder and he had an answer as to why.

They stood out against her pale skin, something most of her scars didn't do and were angry, red, jagged scars. They looked like they had been rather deep when she first got the wounds. He tilted his head and frowned. It almost looked like she had gotten attacked by an angry dog and it had tried to rip her arm from her body. He reached out and gently touched her shoulder. She jumped in surprise and hit her head on the shelf. A single vial was knocked over and poured on her head. He quickly picked it up and watched as her hair began to grow longer.

"What is it and everyone hating my hair short?" She asked in slight disbelief as she hurried to an industrial sink and began to rinse her hair of the potion before it made her hair grow too long, "Does it really look that bad?"

"I don't have any knowledge of your hair being long so I wouldn't know," He answered.

She finished cleaning her hair and she grabbed a towel to dry it off. She sent him a look at that, and he knew that he had an answer to that. Yes, her hair looked far better longer. It wasn't as messy, and it helped to emphasize her high cheekbones. It clicked for him at that moment.

"Judging by your face it looks better longer," She muttered in slight annoyance as she tugged on a strand of newly long hair, "Now, what did you need, Doctor?"

"You've been missing for a few days and Sarah was beginning to worry," He replied.

"Ah, I didn't mean to do that to her," She gave a slight wince, "I suppose that your mind's been circulating a bunch of questions as well."

She knew him a bit too well for as short of a while that she's known him. He gave a slight nod at that and she gained an amused smile. She walked towards the door and motioned for him to follow. He did so and walked behind her as she headed back to the main room and went down another hallway. She stopped at a door that was identical to the one that led into the dungeon-esque room. It led to an ornate office that had pictures of nature hanging on the walls between large bookshelves.

"Welcome to my office," She informed him with a small grin, "Make yourself at home."

"Did you make all of this?" He asked as he sat down in a plush red armchair.

"Yeah, I had a Saturday off," She answered as she sat behind the desk and activated a rune on it that caused a chessboard to appear on it.

"It must not have taken you long," He stated as he looked at the pieces in front of him and went to make a move, only for the piece to swat at his hand.

"All day in fact," She grinned, "Good thing I didn't have any homework due the next day."

"What did your course work entail?" He asked as he studied the piece.

"Charms, Potions, Arithmancy, Astronomy, Divination, Transfiguration, Care of Magical creatures, Runes, and Defense against the Dark Arts," She answered, "Its Wizards Chess just tell them where to go."

"Pawn to A4," He stated, and the pawn walked to its new spot, "Was your favorite Runes?"

"Not really," She truthfully answered, "It was Charms, the teacher was one of my favorites, my family just deals in runes, we're rune masters so I had to learn the trade. Pawn to C5."

"How do you make other's feel your emotions?" That was what he was most curious about, "Pawn to B3."

"Pawn to H4," She muttered to her piece as she simply placed a hand on the top of his and pushed some of her emotions onto him, "It's a mind spell, I may not have learned the mind arts, but I did learn this one just to make things easier."

"Pawn to A5." He stated as he focused on the feeling of amusement, she was projecting onto him.

He'd rather feel these emotions, but he wanted to know what he needed to look out for. He gave her a look and he felt her unease about sharing such emotions. It was as if she didn't want him to experience what war felt like. It was sweet, but he needed to know what she had done to Kellman. She gave a soft sigh and released those emotions.

He stopped breathing for a few seconds and he knew that if he had been standing, he would be on the ground. The guilt, oh god, the guilt was overwhelming him. The pain was sharp, and his left shoulder was starting to burn as if he had been cut into multiple times. He wasn't prepared for the grief. It was fresh and lingering, something that would stay on the edge of her thoughts. She broke contact and he immediately stood up from the armchair. She wasn't looking at him but instead was staring at the chessboard in front of her.

He moved towards her and brought her into an awkward hug. She tensed up for a moment before he felt something gripping the back of his coat. He didn't even have to look at her to know that she had buried her face into his shoulder. She was crying, he knew that much from the shaking on her shoulders, and he knew that he was complete rubbish at comforting a crying woman. He wondered how she had perfected the art of silent crying, or why she felt the need to. Her grip on his coat tightened and he was brought out of such thoughts.

"I hope you never have to experience war, Doctor," She mumbled into his shoulder, "It's horrible."

He didn't have a response to that. How could he? She was telling him that she never wanted him to go through war. If that was how she felt, then he didn't fancy going through one. He tightened his hold on her and she slowly relaxed as all her grief was finally faced by her. She stopped moving and he looked down towards her, she had fallen asleep on him. Her cheeks were pink and had obvious tear tracks.

He sighed and placed an arm under her thighs. There was a sofa in the office and he'd rather be sitting than standing if she was going to sleep on him. He picked her up and was pleasantly surprised at how little she weighed. Now that he thought about it, it was a bit worrying. He hadn't seen her eat anything since she started traveling with him.

He placed her on the sofa and went to move away but her grip on his person didn't relax and he found himself sitting with her on his lap. She moved closer and put her ear against his chest. Her hair covered most of her face, but he could see the dark circles under her eyes. She had most likely skipped sleeping for several days, her mind too loud for her compared to how it had been. A human turned into something new, something that shared two hearts like a Time Lord, but not at the same time.

It fascinated him; it really did. It made him wonder what could affect her and what couldn't. He brought a hand up and gently ran a thumb against the scars on her shoulder and knew that bodily harm could affect her. The scars on her legs were faint, but the way they looked compared to the others told him that they were recent, maybe a few weeks to a month old if anything. She shifted against him and he felt her right arm wrap around him, and her left hand came up to rest on his chest.

He was finding himself in a predicament with the witch, who was only a few heads shorter than himself, she had to be six feet if he was going by the Imperial system that the North Americans used -he had to exclude Canada and Mexico from that grouping- and lighter than he had expected. He made a face at the fact that he cared about her wellbeing. She seemed like she'd be more responsible than this and would eat and sleep when she needed to. He put an arm around her without thinking about it and she mumbled something that he didn't quite catch.

"It's leviosa you Doughnut," She muttered.

He would like some context for that one. He looked down at the woman in his arms before tilting his head back until it bumped into the back of the sofa. He stared up at the ceiling and watched as light danced around it from a small prism that hung from the ceiling. It made such fun patterns, such as a flying broom and small balls that seemed to have a life of their own.

He thought back to his home back on his planet. It had been empty and lacking anything that could be seen as a decorative. His Granddaughter, Susan, was a much better decorator than he would ever be. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, it was times like this that he got a bit nostalgic. He would think back to his family and wondered where he had gone wrong with his actual children but had done so much right with Susan. He figured it was because he and the woman he had been married to, an arranged marriage that wasn't really filled with the love that he saw some human marriages filled with, had decided to use the loom. The curse on his people to not have children hadn't really stuck at that point and Susan was one of the last time lords to be born and not created by the loom.

Perhaps that is where he had gone wrong. A loveless marriage and the use of the loom. It sounded like the right cause. He let out a short puff of air at that thought and wondered if he could ever have the chance to do right by a child he created. Humans seemed to think he was rather wonderful, he too thought that as well sometimes, and would look to him for help when they needed it. They were like children sometimes, not understanding how physics worked or how species could survive on a planet that they deemed unhabitable. With those thoughts, he felt as though he could do better if he was given another chance to form a family.

"I can almost hear the gears turning in your head with how hard you think," A groggy voice stated, and he looked down at the witch in his arms.

She was giving him an amused look that barely offset the tired expression that seemed to be fixated on her face. He gave a smile at that and she turned her attention elsewhere. It was when he began to tug on her hair that she looked back at him. She raised a brow at him, and he motioned to where she was still gripping him.

"Ah, sorry," She apologized as she released him, "Sherlock has told me that I have a bad habit of grabbing onto people when I sleep."

"What does your cousin do?" He questioned.

"Well, he's a consulting detective in my world, and in this one, he's a politician," She replied, "He refused the Holmes ring and was removed from the inheritance of the home in this one, I had to sort through so many Daily Prophets to find that out."

"He's magical?" He asked her.

"In this world yes, in the other he was what the community refers to as a Squib, someone born to magical parents with no magic," She answered.

He found that interesting, that made him begin to wonder if people who came from mundane families that had magic were descended from Squibs. It was something that John had brought to the ministry and they had tested it. It had proven to be a true theory and quite a few older families had been brought back due to living descendants that came from the mundane side of the world. It had been an interesting time if she was telling the truth.

"Can aliens have magic?" He asked.

"I don't know," She shrugged, "Would you like to try?"

She grabbed her wand from the front pocket of her shorts and held it out to him. He accepted it and felt a bit silly holding onto a piece of wood. She was looking at him and seemed to be fighting her amusement. She would feel horrible if she laughed at him.

"Give it a wave, if you have magic it'll react just not in the way that you'd want it to," She informed him.

He did so, feeling a bit silly, and nothing happened. She seemed a bit crestfallen at that and he handed the wand over. It let out a small silver animal that ran around the room before disappearing. It had been a small dragon.

"I'm sorry," She stated as she got up and stretched slightly, "I was hoping that you did have magic, it would explain how you could still see me when under an illusion, no one is supposed to."

It began to click even further for him at those words. He stared at her as she frowned in thought as she moved towards one of the bookshelves. He couldn't say anything and wanted her to figure it out for herself. She was a smart woman; she could figure it out. He watched as slow realization began to show on her face. Her cheeks than began to turn a light pink and he saw the rest of her body following suit.

"Ah," She quietly muttered, "That's how."

"Your little experiment vaulted you through a hole in two universes to bring you here," He informed her, "I've known only a bit longer than you have."

She seemed nervous about that and he could almost feel it. He got up from the sofa and walked over to her. He stopped in front of her and looked her in the eyes. She seemed unsure of how to react to the information she had just gotten.

John knew that her little childhood crush on the Doctor couldn't have come back full swing like that. It had to be something else that was happening and now she knew what it was. Relationship: Unknown her arse. That little document just didn't want her to know anything she wasn't ready for. A magical bond was something she had expected between the two of them since her magic brought her to the Tardis and him, but a soul bond? That was something that should've been on the parchment at Gringotts. Then again, she was a different species and from another universe altogether, no wonder it didn't know what to put.

"Johana," The Doctor used her full name and she gave him her attention, "May I?"

"Yes," She said in a soft voice.

He grinned at her and bent down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips.

Perhaps it might be the words of a woman who had never been kissed before, or someone who never really felt any romantic feelings towards someone until she met him, but it was extremely pleasant. It wasn't the fireworks that novels loved to gush about, but it was something that warmed her on the inside. It brought a smile to her face after they broke apart. She felt complete, not that she didn't feel incomplete in the first place but that was the feeling she had, and couldn't stop grinning at the Doctor.

"I see I've rendered you speechless," He stated in good humor.

She simply hid her face in his shoulder once again and he couldn't help but laugh at it this time as he placed a hand on the back of her head. It was such a change from how they had been earlier, it was quite refreshing. He knew that she was going to have trouble trying to place what they were now. She knew what they were, she just wasn't sure how to label it. Marriage is how his people would label, and that's how some of the older families in the magical community would label it as well.

"Can we do that again?" She asked in a tiny voice.

He grinned and noticed she was peeking up at him through her hair. He nodded and she smiled at him as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he wrapped his arms around her waist. It could be said that he found a new way to spend his time. It was fantastic in his opinion.

Sarah woke up from her nap three hours later and headed out to the main console room. John and the Doctor were in there and firing off questions to one another as they did different things. John seemed to be reading a manual of sorts and the Doctor was pressing buttons at the console. If she didn't know any better something had seriously shifted between the two. They seemed more at ease with one another than they did anyone else.

She didn't know that they had spent those three hours snogging. She would probably never know that's what they did. She just knew that something had happened, and it was something good. She'd rather the Doctor not make the resident witch upset. She had seen was John was able to do to doors, she'd like to see everyone in one piece.

She looked at her watch and frowned, just how long did it take for them to travel through time and space. The Doctor seemed to understand what she was doing and moved across the console to pull a lever. It seemed like the Tardis picked up speed after he pulled it. She had to wonder if he liked meandering at a slow pace. Which was odd for a man who lived life at ninety miles per hour compared to everyone else.