Chapter Two:
Nara:
I snuck into Dal's office at night. He never locks away his case files. It took me more time than I'd like to find the Doctor's case. Opening it, I took pictures of the documents, so I could read them later.
Returning to bed, I laid by Dal's side. This had been the moment I was dreading for nearly a decade. Despite Dal's work troubles, we lived a happy life. We had two beautiful children. Life was good, and this case threatened to destroy everything.
…
"You didn't sleep well," Dal said as I prepared the kid's lunches.
"Just general anxiety," I said.
"If there's anything I can do, let me know," he said as he sipped his coffee.
"You have enough on your plate without worrying about me," I said.
"I'll always make space for you," he said and lightly kissed me on the cheek.
I loved him as the Doctor, and as Dal. We were a match made in the stars. I lived in terror of losing him.
The kids emerged and I poured cereal.
"I have a spelling test today," Ese said proudly. "I'm going to ace it."
"You're a good speller like your mother," Dal said.
"I have a math test today," Sem said. "I'm good at math like you, daddy."
He laughed.
The conversation continued and I just had to smile. This was my family. Spelling and math tests were just part of the norm, something I'd hate to see vanish.
…
When everyone left, I went to my "crafting" shed. Dal insisted I stay home instead of working, even as things were tight. I pulled out my camera and loaded the information from Dal's files into my computer. What I found left me gasping for air.
I pulled out my long-range communicator. After sending the coded message, I removed the shelving on the back wall. There was a tiny compartment in the bottom right corner that concealed a fingerprint scanner that would only work for me.
The wall broke in two and revealed the TARDIS. Hiding a police box in a crafting shed probably wasn't the best idea, but we had to make due. I didn't dare go in, I just needed assurance that it was still there. Then I proceeded to put everything back in place.
My long-range communicator beeped. She was in the area and had selected a place to meet. We couldn't afford two vehicles anymore, so I quickly grabbed my purse and computer and walked to the nearest shuttle stop.
…
I had to change shuttles twice and walk for ten minutes to get to the Tenebris pub. The place was more of a shack than an actual pub and it smelled horrible. I received my wine in a dusty glass from a burly two-head Borgonian. My contact was waiting in the darkest corner booth.
With jet-black hair cut in a bob, Anna Lee Fulton was dressed in a black leather coat and jeans. There was an edge to her that wasn't there twelve years ago.
"I had to spend a pretty penny on a transwarp to get here," she said. "This better be important."
"Meer Telon," I said.
"What about him?"' she asked icily.
"The Judoon arrested a person for his murder who goes by the name Doctor. And guess how I know all this?"
Anna Lee let out a string of profanity so long, I would have had Dal sleeping on the couch for months, if he said it in front of the kids.
She finally sighed.
"Telon had killed Dillon, before the Doctor shot him. He was going to kill us, if the Doctor didn't take action."
"You and I both know that," I said. "How do we explain that to the brutes without revealing Dal's identity?"
"I don't know," she said. "Do you have the file?"
I passed her my computer.
"She's a blonde," she said. "That's new."
"I'm losing count," I said. "How many Doctors are running around the universe?"
"Now including her, eighteen," she said. "Not counting the 'War Doctor.'"
"Oh, this is mad," I said. "How many Masters?"
"Rumor has it there are nine," she said. "I've only encountered two personally and lived to tell the tale."
Anna Lee was a British Astronaut from the nineteen eighties who lost contact with her ship during a spacewalk. The Doctor picked up on her distress signal and she chose to travel with Dillon, a reformed Calpackian space pirate, the Doctor, and I.
She fell in love with Dillon as I fell in love with the Doctor. After the Telon's murder the Doctor chose to go into hiding as I was pregnant with Sem at the time. Anna Lee chose pursue a career as intergalactic private detective. We kept in touch clandestinely.
I sighed.
"What are we going to do?" I said. "I've built a good life here with the Doctor and the kids."
"Someone knows more than us," Anna Lee said. "It's not a coincidence that the Doctor was assigned the Doctor to defend. I doubt it's the Judoon."
"A Master?" I said.
"I wouldn't rule it out," she said.
"Do you have the resources to look into this?" I asked.
"I'll have to make them," she said. "I may not have kids, but I have a lot to lose also if the Judoon find out I witnessed this."
"When do you want to meet again?" I asked.
The door to the pub burst open. A man with spiky dark hair, in a long coat with a blue shirt, swaggered in.
"I'm looking for information on the Doctor."