Part two

Eight of them, eight of me! "Eight…" The words spoken in Triss' voice kept haunting him.

"James?"

Helen's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "What?" Sitting on her bed, he stared at the now empty plate. She'd finished her lunch. "Oh I'm sorry, darling." He took the tray from her lap. "There's more if you want to?"

She smiled. "No thank you. With all this lying around I'm growing enough as it is. The lunch was lovely, though. Thank you." She moved in an obvious attempt to relieve her back pains. "Eight of what, James?"

He looked up, guilt lingering in the air from the moment he'd opened the watch.

"You were mumbling to yourself."

"Right," he nodded to convince himself. "Just going over some of the medicines we need."

Her face darkened and she sighed. "I feel so useless, lying here."

"Don't be." He kissed her. "Thanks to you I can spent the entire afternoon with my wife, while Tristan takes my calls, one among them being Mister Biggins."

"Oh, you're evil. Poor Triss."

"Poor Triss, my foot. He's probably at the Drovers right now, convincing himself and Callum that he needs the drink in order to pluck up the courage to face Biggins." He fell quiet, trying to reconcile the Tristan he knew with the one he'd seen when he'd opened the watch. "How long have you known him?"

"Tristan?"

"Yes.

"Siegfried's been my family's vet ever since he took over Skeldale. I remember him dragging his younger brother along one summer to our farm. Tristan had just moved in with him and looked sort of dishevelled, but I thought he was sweet." She smiled. "Even then Siegfried called him lazy. I thought he just looked tired."

"Tired? Hah!" He smiled. "From having just discovering the Drovers inn the night before, I suppose."

"James! "Helen playfully hit him in the shoulder. "I don't think so. Siegfried might have been hard on Triss in front of my father, but I caught him shooting worried glances at his brother on more than one occasion." She shook her head. "Tristan adjusted well enough to life in the Dales though."

"Aye." James couldn't help but say. "The Dales, not to mention The Drovers have never been the same since."

"Come now, James," she said smiling, "Be nice."

"It's true!" James laughed.

Helen's eyes sparkled with amusement. "Yes, he does have a way of livening up a place."

James took a deep breath letting the warmth of their good natured laughter fill his heart. Whatever it was he'd seen and heard, it must have been a parlour trick, so he decided to forget about the watch for now. He let Helen get some sleep and left the room.

"I married your brother because I love him!"

"You married him to keep an eye on me!"

Caroline laughed. "Don't flatter yourself, Tristan. I need a lot more sophistication from a man than someone your age can provide. Better be careful. If Siegfried hears you're courting me-

"Courting you?" He crossed his arms. He'd caught Caroline on her way out and now blocked the doorway to his brother's home. He treasured the days they'd all lived together at skelldale house. But that was before Siegfried moved out. Before Caroline. He's always been a bit suspicious of her, but could never put his finger on as to why. Now he knew. As soon as James had opened the watch his true self, the doctor, had come rushing back, and with that the memory of everyone he used to know. Including his brother's wife. "You can drop the act, Caroline. I know who I am and why I'm here."

"Oh so now you're saying it's your duty as a younger brother to annoy me? I know Siegfried cares about you but I doubt he'll tolerate you stirring up his relationships. I love him, Tristan. Nothing you can do about that."

"Yes." He studied her and saw nothing but the truth in her eyes. He leaned in. "Time Lord's don't fall in love, Lady Caroline. Especially not when you're supposed to watch over one who has been forced to go undercover in order to heal. You broke the rules."

Her eyes widened.

"And now you're as much an outcast to our people as I am."

It took a while before she spoke. "So, you remember?"

"Came to me in the Drovers."

"But how?" She faltered. "Someone opened the watch."

"James, I guess." He shook his head. "I left the fob watch in my other pants. He's got laundry duty." The watch had contained all that he was as the Doctor. The Tardis had stored his persona away so he could go safely undercover as Tristan. With no memory of who he was, his enemy's would not be able to locate him.

"He found it? But that means-"

"I know. He opened it and got the full cinematic view." His voice grew slightly high pitched. "It's James, Caroline. Down to earth, reliable, studious, caring James." Moreover, James was his friend. A solid point linking him to this land, to the Dales, to the here and now.

"I know who he is." Caroline snapped. "That is why I don't understand how he could have opened the watch in the first place. Did you not endow it with a perception filter? To prevent this kind of thing from happening?"

"It might have worn off." A perception filter was suppose to keep people from noticing the watch. It also made sure he kept the thing close without ever opening it even though he did not know what it was. Because once opened his persona would come flooding back into him. Which was what happened while he was at the Drovers.

"Warn off? A filter like that can last for decades!"

"We were in bad shape Caroline. Both me and my TARDIS. She might have slipped. Besides, not everyone is susceptible to being essentially hypnotized into not seeing what is right in front of them. Those with training, those with strong minds or mental capacities certainly are not."

She laughed. "James doesn't fill any of those boxes and you know it."

Be that as it may, someone had opened the watch, most likely James. How and why wasn't as important as the damage control he needed to do, if it wasn't already too late. He shook his head. "With any luck James will blame the images on his worries for Helen or writes them off as a symptom from being overworked." He hesitated. "If not-"

"Why should you doubt he'll do anything other than that? From what I've seen, he's the typical country vet. Down to earth, like you said, does not live in the future, nor the past. He likes classical music, not the modern genre, reads old fashioned books, not science fiction. What makes you think he's even capable of thinking outside the box?"

His peoples' short-sightedness never ceased to amazed him. "Because, he's human!" He took a step into her personal space. "I have you know that James invented new treatments so 'outside your precious box' for this day and age that he made a name for himself in the veterinary world." He paced away, then turned. "If he did open that watch, not only did he get the images, he got my thoughts, my feelings. There were eight of them, Caroline. The last of an already dead race, pining away on that spaceship, wanting nothing more than to strip me of everything that made me a Time Lord."

She lowered her head. "Your regenerations."

He nodded. "I had eight of them left. Eight lives. They wanted them all."

"Yes, I was told you were near death. But from what I understand you had to give yourself up willingly. Why would you ever do that?"

"Suffice it to say, they used a very strong method of persuasion." He didn't want to elaborate, so changed the subject. "James cares, Caroline. For Helen, for the Dales, for Siegfried… and for me. It's not just his world's view that will be shaken to the core, although that will be bad enough. If he got even a fraction of how I felt when the Mawdren stripped me of my lives, he will want to know the truth."

She stared at him. "You seem to know him well." She took a deep breath. "Enough to do what's right?"

He kept quiet.

"Are you ready to leave them?"

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions." He shook his head. "I need you to find out what it is James knows, before I can make my decision."

She gave a sweet smile. "You want me to find out what happened on his end of the things?"

He glared at her. "Just be discreet."

I'll do what's necessary."

Worried, he watched her go. He didn't trust her. Her love for Siegfried might have caught her by surprise, might even have taught her a lesson or two, but if there was one thing Lady Caroline had always excelled at, it was her selfishness.

Still, he didn't have a choice.

He couldn't let things fall apart now by rushing himself into a conversation with James. His friend might already suspect something. Stubborn as a mule, James would not relent until he found out the truth, which would be disastrous for the both of them. His friend wouldn't suspect Caroline though as being anything other than worried for his and Helen's well being. No, he had to trust that Caroline's life in the Dales had changed her as much as it had him. Still, he didn't like to put his destiny into her hands. Didn't like it at all.

Caroline headed for her car. This was her chance. The doctor was right. She had been thrown out of the order of Time Lords. All because of her love for Siegfried.

She missed being challenged intellectually. She missed the excitement of time travel, the squabble among the council, her home planet Gallifrey and its red sunrise. She missed the universe. But if she could convince James of the truth, then perhaps the Doctor was forced to leave prematurely. Before he was fully recovered. The council of time lords could then do with him as they saw fit, unlike now. Their laws prevented interfering as long as the Doctor had insinuated himself in these people's lives as Tristan. They might even give her back her title, her place on the council.

She hesitated in her steps.

What about Siegfried?

As much as she loathed to admit, she understood the connection the Doctor felt for these people of earth. But with the Doctor gone and her place on the council restored, there was no reason to leave Siegfried. She would have room to travel and be back without him ever knowing. But the Doctor would know. Even as Tristan, he would know something was wrong. So she had to make sure he would leave. She had to make sure he could never come back to the Dales again.

TBC