Faces from the Past

When the Doctor opened the door of the TARDIS Jennifer was already standing outside grinning. He had landed the box in the turning space at the end of her street and she had come running out of the house and down the road at the familiar sound of the ship's engines. He stepped aside to let her through.

"No Gillian," he queried with a raised eyebrow, "I thought you two practically lived together." Jennifer shook her head.

"Actually she's in Plymouth seeing Kev."

"Who's Kev?"

"Her boyfriend."

"Oh yeh, he's in the navy right? I would of thought he was more likely to have a boyfriend than a girlfriend." Jennifer laughed.

"Jealous Doctor? And I wouldn't let Gill hear you say that, she can kill a man at twenty paces you know." He returned her laugh.

"I know," he said, "and I am not jealous, I'm just… concerned." This made both of them laugh again.

"Well, since it's just you and me I know exactly where to take you."

"I'm not sure I like the sound of that." She said, frowning. The Doctor gave her a manic grin.

"Hold on tight culture vulture!" He flipped the switches of the control panel expertly and pulled the big lever. Jennifer gripped the ship tightly with both hands as she felt it hurtle through space and time. They landed with a decided thunk.

"Where are we?" she asked, leaning over the panel to check the clock.

"Venice, eighteenth century about noon I'd say.

"Venice, oh my God I love Venice!"

"I thought you might." He flashed her another grin. "You better get changed then, you'll be arrested if you walk around dressed like that." And he shooed her off towards the wardrobe room.

Changing clothes took some time even after she found the machine which could lace everything, including corsets. When she was done she nodded at her reflection in the mirror before running back to the control room. The Doctor smile appreciatively at her, she was wearing a green gown with gold trim which set off her auburn hair in which there were green and gold ribbons.

"The perfect lady." He said.

"Aren't you getting changed?" she asked looking disappointedly at his brown suit and feeling that, nice as it was he could have made a bit of an effort.

"You'd be surprised how much I can get away with." He replied, offering her his arm in a most gentlemanly fashion.

Together they left the TARDIS and stepped out onto the streets of eighteenth century Venice. Jennifer had been to the city in the twenty first century but that was not quite the same. Here all the palazzos on the Grand Canal were still occupied by the great families of the time. There were tourists but they were mostly young Englishmen concluding their Grand Tour, there were no cameras and no flocks of Japanese tourists. On the other hand the warmth of the day made the smell rather worse than it had been when she was there, or as it had/was going to be. English was a complicated language when it came to past/future tenses.

All around them beautifully dressed men and women mixed between ragged peasants in the market across the Rialto. As he had predicted no one was giving the Doctor a second glance and they were heading across the great bridge when there was a shout from behind them and a young man dressed in red dashed passed throwing them out of the way. The Doctor took a firm grip on Jennifer's arm to keep her upright. The market-place took a breath and was about to get back to business when a trio of men rounded the corner, obviously in pursuit of the man in red but when they paused for breath the man in the lead pointed straight at the Doctor.

"There he is the villain. After him!" They began to charge across the market towards the Doctor and Jennifer. The two glanced at each other.

"Run!" muttered the Doctor and taking a firm grip on her hand he pulled her off down an alley in the same direction the young man had run. They heard the other three men puffing after them and changed direction. Jennifer was glad she had had the sense to keep her own shoes on beneath her gown, just in case. As they rounded another corner a voice called out to them.

"Oi dimwit, over 'ere!"

As they turned in the direction of the speaker they were both hauled over the edge of the canal they had been running alongside and landed in the prow of a covered gondola.

"Get under cover!" hissed their benefactor, a tall black man in blue and silver livery. They scrambled under the roof of the little punt and felt it move off in the water.

"I don't know," came the voice from outside, "you don't pay me nearly enough for all this you don't."

The Doctor and Jennifer looked at each other.

"Someone you know?" she asked. The Doctor shook his head.

"I've never met any of them before. It's clearly a case of mistaken identity."

"Hadn't you better tell that to the bloke who's steering." The Doctor grinned in reply.

"What? And miss this lovely peaceful boat ride. I don't think so." So they sat back and enjoyed the trip which was much too short for Jennifer's liking after all that running. Besides there wasn't a lot of room under the cover of the gondola and the Doctor had been sitting close to her with his arm around her waist which was rather comfortable and something she definitely didn't intend to tell Gillian about. But the boat came to a stop and the dark man poked his head under the cover.

"You comin' or what?" Then he seemed to see Jennifer for the first time. "Sorry about this miss but I think you should know that my master's a nob."

"Oi!" cried the Doctor seeing that he was being indicated here. "I am not a nob!"

"Yes you are, and what's more you're a stupid nob. Now come on I've got to get rid of this gondola before the owner notices it's missing."

The Doctor helped Jennifer out of the little boat and the strange man opened the door of the house in front of them.

"Where are we?" asked Jennifer. The Doctor looked around and then smiled in recognition.

"This is Catrigatti Street!"

"No," sneered the black man, "I've told you before, it's the back of Catrigatti Street, on the corner, five floors up." He shook his head and held the door open for them, frowning at the Doctor's suit as they entered. "I'll be back soon. I'm sure you can amuse yourselves 'till then." And with a farewell smirk he was gone.

The two looked at each other, thoroughly at a loss when a voice called out from the top of the stairs.

"Rocco, is that you? Where the bloody hell have you been, I could've been killed you know!" As he spoke the owner of the voice appeared on the stairs before them. And stopped. And stared. Jennifer and the Doctor stared back because the man on the stairs was the Doctor.

It was insane. Like looking at a reflection in a mirror Jennifer thought. There they were, two perfect copies of the same person, except that the more you looked the more you realised they were not the same, like identical twins. To start with there were the clothes, the Doctor was still wearing his usual brown suit and the man on the stairs was wearing britches, knee-high boots and a gaping red shirt with a black neck cloth making her realise he had been the young man who had pushed past them in the market. Then there were the eyes; the Doctor's were deep brown the young man's impossibly blue. The man on the stairs was younger too, not by much perhaps only two or three years and his hair was longer at the back and twisted into a little pony-tail while the Doctor's was longer on top. The Doctor was thinner too, there seemed to be more angles to his face than to the other man's. But despite all these differences it was still an amazing likeness.

"Well," said the Doctor eventually, "that's interesting. Who are you?"

"I was about to ask the same question," replied the young man, they had the same voice too Jennifer noticed, "and seein' as you're in my house I think I should get to ask first." And he was certainly as cheeky as the Doctor.

"Ah, yes, alright then. I'm… um the Doctor. Doctor Smith actually, yes from England and this is my… wife." Jennifer managed to control the blush she felt coming at that announcement.

"From England?" said the young man. "Your Italian is very good."

"Thanks," grinned the Doctor, "how's my accent?"

"Ludicrous. I'm Casanova by the way. Giacomo Casanova, at your service." He gave a sweeping bow.

"The Casanova!" exclaimed Jennifer without thinking.

"I suppose so." He replied giving her a smile so uncannily like the Doctor's she thought she might faint. But the Doctor seemed to have gotten an idea.

"Fantastic. In that case Mr Casanova, my lady wife and I were looking for a guide to your fair city. If you would be willing to oblige I'm sure we could make it worth your while."

"How much?" asked Casanova promptly. The Doctor thought for a minute.

"One hundred zucchini." He suggested.

"For a tour!" gawped the young man.

"Well you know us English, mad with our money ain't we." There were manic grins all around and then Casanova nodded.

"I'll get me coat." He murmured returning up the stairs.

"How?" asked Jennifer, as soon as he was gone, "How is that possible?" The Doctor frowned slightly.

"I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with there being only so many ways of putting a face together in the universe so sometimes a pattern gets repeated. Something like that anyway. Besides," and here she was treated to another manic grin, "Casanova, how much more cultural can you get."

Casanova returned and they left the house. Jennifer decided that she quite liked him. He was clever and funny in much the same ways the Doctor was only slightly more outrageous. As they walked through the streets he waved to and was waved at by various women and occasionally he would duck into an alleyway or crouch behind some market stall, most likely hiding from unforgiving husbands. He took them everywhere, all the most beautiful churches, pointed out the greatest palazzos and recounted the lives of those who lived within. He took them to St Mark's square where Jennifer was careful not to step between the columns at the entrance to the piazetta as all Venetians did for fear of bad luck as that was where public executions were held.

They had coffee in Floriens where the similarity between the Doctor and the notorious lover began to spark interest and they were soon at the centre of a circle of interested spectators. Between them they invented a tale of a long-lost half-brother and gave such a convincing performance that even Jennifer was inclined to believe it. As day began to draw into evening Casanova said,

"Look I know of a party that's happening tonight. I'm not invited but that doesn't matter. Do you want to come?"

The Doctor frowned, "Maybe we should be getting back." He said to Jennifer.

"Oh please, just one party. I've always wanted to go to a Venetian ball, pleeeease." The Doctor sighed.

"Oh alright."

"Can't refuse the little lady anything ay," chirruped Casanova, "I can't say I blame you." Jennifer blushed and even the Doctor went pink at the ears. Casanova laughed.

"To the ball then."

It was everything Jennifer had hoped for in a ball. Men and women dressed in their finest, wine, food and glorious music. She danced with Casanova, whom she had decided Gillian would adore even more than the Doctor by virtue of his blue eyes, and she danced with the Doctor who was a lot better than she thought he might have been. He was very good in fact and he kept grinning at her. When the dance ended he drew her aside, his arm still around her waist.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"The most ever." She replied. "Gill'll kill me when she finds out I had this much fun without her." The Doctor laughed. As he did so he turned around and his laughter died away as he looked at something across the room. Turning to see what was wrong Jennifer saw Casanova on the other side of the room talking to a young woman. She was dressed in red with ribbons in her dark hair and the pair of them were grinning beatifically at each other. But something about the scene had made the Doctor turn pale, his good humour gone.

"Who is she?" she asked quietly.

"Her name is Henriette," he replied, his voice quiet and full of something she didn't like, "she is his curse." He was silent for a moment before he spoke again. "It's time to go."

Taking her hand tightly he pulled her through the crush of people and out of the ball. As they walked the streets back in the direction they had left the TARDIS the Doctor marched along in silence. His mood scared Jennifer slightly and it took all her courage to finally ask him what was wrong.

"Nothing." He spat.

"There must be something. Why did you say Henriette was a curse?"

"Nothing, no reason." He was searching in his pocket for the TARDIS key and trying not to look at her.

"Doctor." There was a warning in her voice.

"It's nothing, he's in love with her that's all."

"Why is that a problem?"

"It isn't."

"Then why did you call her a curse?" They had reached the ship now and the Doctor had the door open and he still wasn't looking at her.

"It's complicated. She married another man. Casanova was exiled from Venice and he spent the rest of his life trying to get her back." She followed him into the control room.

"What's wrong with that?" The Doctor turned round suddenly, his face was fierce and she took a step backwards.

"Because he never got her back, alright? He died old and alone, someone's penniless librarian and he never found her again." He turned away again.

"Doctor …" she began softly but he cut her off, his voice little more than a whisper as he gazed at the blinking controls.

"She died and she left him alone. He spent all those years reaching out for her but she was always just too far away. And then she died. They all died. Everyone he ever knew, his friends, every woman he ever loved, every man woman and child he ever knew died and left him by himself and then he died too in some drafty little room in a cold ruin and nobody cared."

Jennifer could feel the tears start to brim in her eyes as he spoke, not just for the bright young man she had met today but for the man before her.

"Humans just die, they wither and they die and there's nothing anyone can do. There's nothing I can do. And there's no point reaching out to the stars and hoping that this time you'll catch what you're looking for because even if you do manage to catch it it burns out and withers in your hand and you're left with nothing again." He looked at her over his shoulder and she could see the tear tracks on his face as she could feel them on her own. "But I'm not going to let it happen anymore."

In a sudden blaze of action he began to flip the switches and pull the levers. Beneath her feet the TARDIS began to rumble ominously. She had to grab onto the metal girders of the ship to keep from falling over at the sudden motion.

"Doctor!" she shouted in desperation as he clung to the panel the green and gold lights flashing hideous patterns on his face, hollowing out his cheeks and deepening the shadows beneath his eyes.

"I'm not going to watch the people I love wither away anymore!" he shouted. "I always try to make them leave before it has to happen but it still causes too much damage. I can't keep reaching out anymore." As the TARDIS shuddered to a halt he wheeled around and took her by arm, heading for the door.

"I'm not going to watch any more. Not Rose, not you, not Gillian. Tell her I said goodbye. I won't be coming around anymore. I can't keep reaching." His voice had dropped to a whisper again and his grip was like steel but she broke free and stared him down.

"But you have to!" she shouted at him, the tears coursing down her face. Taking a breath she composed herself and wiped away the tears, shaking him off when he reached for her again. When she spoke again she tried to keep her voice even but she could not hide the tremble of emotion. "You have to keep reaching for the stars because every time you get a little closer and if you give up you lose your faith and realise that you're standing on air, and then you fall. Yes having something, someone is better than chasing your entire life but even that's preferable to having nothing and knowing it. Our entire lives we live in hope that we will touch the thing we reach for, some people do and some people don't but the people who stop trying…" she broke off and swallowed hard. He was looking at her, a strange lost look like a small child who's lost his only friend.

"The people who stop trying," she said again, "no one even cares what happens to them and that's how people go bad. I think you could go that way and I think if you did you would be the worst person that ever lived, down in the dark evil, angry and sad and spiteful and unloved but you could have gone that way so many times and you didn't. You've lived so long Doctor and you have so long yet to live, you can't let go now. I won't let you go now."

There was a long deep silence while he stared at her and then something broke. He took a breath and folded up at her feet the tears running freely down his cheeks and his shoulders shaking violently as the TARDIS echoed to his aching sobs. Jennifer knelt down by his side and pulled his head against her shoulder, stroking his hair until he fell silent and looked up at her. He saw a girl, not even twenty yet but with a nerve of steel and a heart stronger than any he could have imagined. He knew that both she and her friend were the same in that respect that was part of the reason they were so close. He'd seen it that first day on top of Arthur's Seat, he'd seen that they were different, strong, true and he'd seen that they would never let their friends fall and that, he knew was why he had come back for them so many times and would come back so many times more.

He was silent for a while longer before getting to his feet and pulling Jennifer up with him. He pushed some hair away from her face and smiled.

"Go and get changed," he said softly, "When does Gillian come home?"

"This Sunday."

"I'll be around next Wednesday I should think. Alloa Road, about oneish?"

"I think we're both free."

"Good. Go and get changed." But he hugged her tightly, convulsively, before she darted off, kissing the top of her head and watching down the passage long after she had disappeared from sight.

The next morning Jennifer's mother greeted her with a teasing smile.

"Someone you want to tell me about?" she asked indicating a large bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table. There were beautiful white calla lilies and deep red long-stemmed roses all tied up with an ivory ribbon. There was also a card. Jennifer opened it and smiled at the message. "Thank You."

She was definitely not telling Gillian about that.