A/N: Many thanks to my girlfriend for letting me scream ideas at her and for giving me ideas as well.

I was alone by the lake when it happened. There was no warning, no thought in my mind that it would happen then and there. I hadn't said goodbye to my friends or even explained to anyone that something like this could happen.

I'd had trouble sleeping that night, so I told Madelie that I was going to stay by the lake until sunrise before leaving the camp. I watched the sunrise and held my phone in my hands, wishing that I could share the beautiful moment with Jack or even Missy. It wasn't long after the sun began to peak over the horizon that I heard a voice.

"Diana?"

The voice whispering my name was distant and muffled, like the person speaking was far away. I quickly stood up and held my knife in front of my torso for protection as I whirled around in confusion. Suddenly and without any warning whatsoever, my surroundings began to fade and change. It had been so long since I had last time jumped that I almost didn't realize what was happening at first.

"Diana, is that you?"

As I turned around to face the source of the voice, the landscape of Gallifrey melted away and turned into the inside of a Earth house. The house was unfamiliar to me, but the person who had been calling my name was not. I stared at the Doctor's startled and worried face and recoiled almost immediately from his presence when it triggered memories of Theta's murderous rage.

"Diana, what's wrong?"

The Doctor, wearing his brown pinstripe suit and converse, took a step towards me with concern shining in his eyes. I inhaled sharply and jumped back a few steps with my knife held in front of me. The image of Theta murdering the young boy in the river was still flashing across my vision and it was impossible to look at him.

"Don't," I breathed.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Don't," I repeated firmly. "Just stay away from me."

"What? Why?" the Doctor asked, his voice laced with confusion.

I closed my eyes and turned my back on the Time Lord, trying to shut out the images that once plagued my nightmares. All I could see was the way Theta charged towards the boy, a rock clutched in his small hand, the rage burning in his eyes. He was so young and already his hands were coated in blood. the knife in my hand slipped through my fingers and clattered on the wooden floor by my feet. I grimaced and shook my head firmly as I tried to push the memories away.

"I can't," I whispered.

"Can't, what?"

Very slowly, I opened my eyes and looked back at the Doctor. His eyes were wide and worried as they gazed at me. I started to turn towards him again but when he stretched out his arm to me, I flinched and recoiled with a stifled gasp. The Doctor's eyes immediately welled with tears and he very slowly pulled his arm back.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I-I didn't mean to scare you."

Before I could even think of a response, a door just behind the Doctor swung open and Martha stepped inside the house. "I'm home!" she announced as she focused on shutting and locking the door. "Work was hell, but I got my paycheck so-." Martha stopped short when she turned and spotted me across the hall. "Diana. You're here."

Martha looked between the Doctor and I for a few moments before she spoke again. "Alright, what happened?" she asked.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

"Did he do something?"

"What? No!" the Doctor insisted.

Martha looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. "Did he?" she asked again.

I shook my head. "No. No, it's me."

Sighing heavily and shaking her head, Martha marched across the hall. She grabbed my hand and began to pull me towards the front door. "We're going out, you and me," she said.

The Doctor didn't say anything, but I could feel his eyes on me as Martha practically dragged me out of the house. The moment the door shut behind me Martha turned to face me. Her eyes were wide and serious as she looked up at me, her hands resting firmly on her hips.

"What happened? And don't tell me 'nothing', because I'm not stupid and I know he did something."

"It wasn't his fault," I whispered as tears began to well in my eyes. I swallowed and glanced away for a moment as the memory replayed itself in my mind. "He was just scared a-and angry and his friend was in trouble-."

I stopped myself before I revealed too much, but the tears had already started to snake down my cheeks. Martha immediately reached for me and pulled me into a hug. I buried my head in her shoulder as her arms wrapped around my waist.

"Hey, it's okay," she whispered. "It's okay."

"I-I can't even look at him," I sobbed. "I just see what he did and I can't make it go away."

Martha pulled back, her arms moving to lightly grasp my biceps. "What can I do? How can I help?"

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. "I-I don't know," I admitted. "I mean, I don't blame him for what happened. He didn't have a choice. But that doesn't stop me from thinking about it and being… almost scared of him."

"Then maybe you should talk to him about it."

I immediately shook my head in protest. "No. He doesn't know that I know. I don't know what it would do to him if he found out that I knew."

"But Diana, you can't just keep this bottled up. He deserves to know. Whatever you saw, whatever he did, he should know. Lying about it is only going to make it worse."

"I know that. I do, I just…" I sighed through my tears and closed my eyes for a moment in an attempt to calm myself. "So much has happened and it's been so long since I've seen him. I hate that this is my reaction when I see him for the first time in months-"

"Hang on, months?" Martha repeated incredulously. "How long has it been since you've seen him?"

"Um… six months, maybe? I'm not really sure. Everything kind of blurred together after the first month, to be honest."

Martha's jaw dropped open. "Where were you?" she asked.

"Gallifrey."

"But I thought Gallifrey was gone."

"It is. It's supposed to be. But somehow I got past the time locks and I got stuck there. I couldn't leave until the vortex decided to take me. I called the Doctor and asked him for help, but he couldn't come get me either. I had to wait."

Martha suddenly grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me towards the house. "That's it," she muttered as she pushed me forward.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I stumbled forward. "Martha, stop! I can't!"

Martha kept a tight on hold on my shoulder as she opened the door and shoved me inside. "You two, talk, now," she ordered before shutting the door behind me.

I whirled around and grabbed the door handle, but a hand suddenly stretched out and locked around mine. I jumped in surprise and yanked my hand away almost immediately, trying not to think about the way young Theta Sigma's hand clutched at the rock, the splatter of blood across his knuckles as he bashed that boy's head in. A sob worked its way out of my mouth as I clutched my hand against my chest.

"I'm sorry. Diana, please, I'm sorry."

Shaking my head in silence, I turned my back on the Doctor with my hand still cradled against my chest. I couldn't look him in the eyes, I couldn't let him touch me. It would only make me relive that terrible moment a hundred more times.

"Tell me what I did. Please, just tell me," the Doctor begged. "I don't care about timelines or what I do or don't already know. Just tell me. Tell me what I did to… to make you so scared of me. Tell me how to fix it."

When I didn't speak, the Doctor let out a heavy sigh. "Can you at least tell me where you were? Anything, Diana, please. Anything that can help me understand why-"

"Gallifrey," I whispered.

"What?"

I wiped away my tears with the back of my hand. "I was on Gallifrey."

"Did something happen to you? Were you hurt? Did someone hurt you?" the Doctor demanded, his voice tight and laced with worry.

"No. Nobody hurt me. I just… I saw something."

"What did you see?" he asked slowly.

The tears had returned and were already threatening to spill down my cheeks. How could I tell him that I watched him murder a child? That I was hiding in the trees when he bashed the boy's head in for the sake of his friend, for the Master? That memory was something he most likely would have hidden away and tried to forget about. I didn't want to hurt him by telling him what I'd witnessed.

"Diana, please, just talk to me. Help me understand."

"I can't," I whispered with another shake of my head. "I don't want to hurt you. And I don't want to remember."

The Doctor's hand rested lightly on my shoulder and I flinched in surprise. Very slowly and very gently, he turned me around to face him again.

"What did I do?"

My vision grew cloudy as tears pooled in my eyes. "I saw you," I said softly, my eyes locked on his. A sob burst past my lips as I tried to explain. "By the river. K'anpo told me that you couldn't see me, that I couldn't disrupt your timeline. So I hid in the trees when I heard you and Koschei coming. And then that boy came and he pushed Koschei into the river. And you were so scared and Koschei was drowning and I just ran."

The Doctor's hand dropped from my shoulder as his eyes stared, empty and horrified, at me. "You saw," he breathed.

"I didn't mean to. I was just trying to leave the mountain, I didn't mean to see anything."

"Oh Rassilon," he exhaled.

"Please, I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell you."

The Doctor stumbled back a few paces in a daze. He nervously ran a hand through his wild mess of hair as he processed what I had just told him. I instantly regretted saying anything because I knew he was remembering every detail about that event, and hating himself even more for what he'd done.

"I know you didn't mean to," I blurted. "What you did, it's okay. You were scared and your friend was drowning and you were just trying to save him."

Breathing heavily, the Doctor's gaze finally met mine and he stared at me like a deer caught in the headlights. "You're defending me." It was half a question and half a statement, spoken incredulously and dubiously.

"Yes."

"Why? I-I-I killed someone-"

"You were a child," I interjected.

"But you- I mean, you're scared of me. You can't even look me in the eye properly."

"Because if I do, then I remember. I don't want to remember. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to- to hate you."

"Doesn't it? You saw me kill someone. I murdered a child, Diana! And yet you're just standing there and saying that it's okay!"

"Because I love you!" I shouted. "And yes I'm scared of you because when you reach out to me, all I see is your hand bringing a rock down on that boy's head! But at the same time, I know why you did it and I know that it wasn't your fault! Sometimes we're thrown into terrible circumstances and we have to make a terrible choice. You did what you had to do and that's okay. I'm not going to stop loving you just because you made a mistake.

"I had six months to think about what happened. I had six months to come to terms with what you did. And of course murdering a child is scary and terrifying, but I loved you before I saw it happen and I love you now. I just need some more time now that I can actually see you and be with you again."

The Doctor exhaled heavily and lowered his head so his chin pressed against his chest. "So do I," he said. He avoided my gaze altogether as he stepped past me and grabbed his coat off the rack behind me. "I'm sorry."

He pulled his coat on and then opened the door with a grunt. I watched him in confusion as he walked through the doorway without a single glance back at me.

"Wait! Where are you going?" I called after him.

"I need to be alone," he said simply.

"When are you coming back?"

He stopped mid stride a few yards past the door, his hands already shoved into his coat pockets. "I don't know."

I stayed frozen in the open doorway long after the Doctor had left. I had been waiting anxiously for the day I would get to see my boyfriend again and the day had finally come, only for him to leave me. I knew that telling him what I saw would upset him, but I hadn't thought that he would just leave me all alone in a strange house without any notice of when he would return. I didn't even know where Martha had gone so that left me feeling friendless and alone.

At some point, I trudged into what I assumed was the living room and sat down on the sofa. It had been six months since I had sat on something other than a pile of ragged fur blankets or dirt, so the sofa felt like a cloud handcrafted by a god. I lay down on my back with my head propped up by a pillow and stared at the ceiling in silence.

I shouldn't have told him. I shouldn't have said anything. If I had just kept my mouth shut then he wouldn't have left. I sniffled and tried to hold back the tears welling in my eyes. But I couldn't have just ignored it either. He killed someone. Yes he was a child and it was a spur of the moment decision that ended badly and he did it to save his best friend's life, but it was still murder.

A thought occurred to me then, however, that I had somehow never considered before. But I've always known he was a killer. Even when he was traveling in the TARDIS, no matter how hard he tried, someone always died and sometimes it was because of him. That never really bothered me. I mean, sometimes it did, but I always thought of it as something that was supposed to happen, that had to happen. The only thing that makes this different is the fact that I always thought of little Theta Sigma as an innocent little boy with dreams of seeing the stars, not the hardened Time Lord he would grow up to become. So what kind of person does that make me?

Apparently I fell asleep at some point after I lay down on the sofa because I was woke up a few hours later by Martha. Sometime while I was asleep, I had grabbed my pillow from beneath my head and wrapped my arms around it so I was hugging it. Martha sat down on the very edge of the sofa and rested a hand on my forearm.

"Hey," she said softly. "You okay?"

I moaned and let out a long yawn. "I guess."

"I just got back. I thought I'd go out and get some more food since we've got another person living here now." Martha flashed me a smile and stood up so that I would be able to it up comfortably. "By the way, do you know where the Doctor is? I was gonna ask him about something, but I can't find him."

I ran a hand through my hair and shook my head, still clutching the pillow in one arm as I leaned against the back of the sofa. "He left. I told him everything and the he just left. He said he needed some time alone."

"You mean he just left you here? All by yourself?" When I nodded, Martha's eyes widened and I could see a little bit of anger burning there as well. "Alright, that's enough. He's getting a good talking to when he comes back. But until then, you and me are going to have a girl's night. Forget about the Doctor and just have some fun instead. Six month on Gallifrey doing God know what, you deserve some ice cream and comfort food."

Despite the terrible mood I was in, I couldn't help but smile at Martha's insistence that we have a girl's night. "Ice cream does sound amazing," I admitted. "I've been eating yaddlefish and tafelshrews and trunpikes the last six months. Some normal human food would be nice."

A/N: Please please please leave a review!