Notes: Carwyn looks like Logan Lerman (except much younger since he's a baby currently).

Interlude: A Sorrowful Awakening

October, 2012

Utah, USA, Earth

The TARDIS materialized with the typical wheezing in a small, secluded corner, just down the street from Siani's home in Salt Lake City, Utah.

"We've landed." The Doctor said to Siani. He barely finished his statement when the blind woman shot to her feet. Immediately, she swayed where she stood, still disoriented and woozy from what she had been through in 200 000. The Doctor and Rose shot forward, both catching Siani by the arms before she could hit the floor. "Easy, you need to take it easy for a few days." The Doctor chided gently. He turned to Rose. "Listen, in the kitchen, there's a first aid kit. Bring it."

"Why do we need a first aid kit?" Siani asked weakly.

"I'm gonna bandage your ankle to make it look like you had sprained it." The Doctor replied. "You had said while we were in flight that you weren't sure you wanted to tell your sister about the travelling, so we need a reason why I'm carrying you."

Rose nodded in understanding and ran out of the console room. Siani sighed and just leaned against the Doctor, letting him put his arm around her supportively. "How long has it been since Meghan called us?" Siani asked.

"About an hour." The Doctor replied. "I landed us down the street from your house."

Siani nodded as Rose ran back into the console room. "Got it!" The blonde Londoner said, skidding to a stop in front of the jump seat.

The Doctor took it from her and knelt in front of Siani, taking her left high heeled foot and putting it on his knee. With one hand on the hem of her sari, he looked up at her. "May I?" He asked respectfully.

Siani nodded silently in response. The Doctor lifted the sari a few inches and carefully slid the back strap of her sandal off before removing it completely. Rooting through the first aid kit, he pulled out a roll of elastic bandage and, keeping up a stream of chatter explaining what he was doing, proceeded to wrap Siani's ankle tenderly, as though she really did have a physical injury.

Rose, meanwhile, called Meghan back and spoke with her to find out where Rhiannon was, whether she was at the hospital or at home. She told Meghan that they were near and wanted to know where they should go (not a complete lie since they were parked down the street). Rose also informed the other woman of Siani's 'injury' and the Doctor's 'diagnosis' which was to stay off the leg for a few days and to rest. Rose also added that the rest period was more of a precaution than anything else. They quickly wrapped up the call before Rose cut the line and pocketed the mobile.

"Rhia's been brought home." The blonde Londoner said softly. "Meghan said she's opted for 'in-home' palliative care."

"From the beginning, she had said she wanted to be at home when she died, not in a hospital or a hospice surrounded by machines and the sterile, clinical scents." Siani said, nodding. "It had been granted because the coordinating hospice is only a few blocks away and we have a Registered Nurse living with us who was qualified to care for Rhia." She accepted the Doctor's hand and pulled herself onto her feet, trying to find her balance with the wrapping around one ankle and her heeled shoe on the other foot.

"Ready to go?" The Doctor asked, packing up the first aid kit while keeping an eye on the blind Welshwoman.

Siani bit her lip, torn between wanting to run away so she wouldn't face what she knew was her sister's last moments and wanting to be there for the woman who had always been there for her. "Yes." She said finally, letting out a heavy sigh.

The Doctor nodded. "Okay." He said. "Let's go." He went to Siani and swept her into his arms, earning a surprised shriek from the woman. The Doctor smiled, his plan of distracting Siani working, at least, for the moment.

Rose laughed lightly in the background, grabbing Siani's cane and handing it to the blind woman before the three of them left the magnificent blue box and into the midday sun. The Doctor and Rose looked around the completely ordinary street, filled with mismatched yet rather elegant looking houses, neatly manicured lawns, flowerbeds and trees and the occasional driveway with a car still parked. For the most part, the street was devoid of life, most of the residence at work or at school seeing as it was the middle of the week. Siani told them her house number and the Doctor headed towards it, noting that it was the only one that had cars filling the driveway and the road in front of it.

"There are so many cars." Rose commented. "Does that mean…?" She trailed off uncertainly.

"Not necessarily." Siani said optimistically though the Doctor quickened his pace. "They're all neighbours and acquaintances, seeing as most of my family's dead except for Rhia and Carwyn." She shrugged. "Most of them are only here so they can say that they were 'there for me'." Siani said, heavily implying the air quotes on the last few words. "Fair warning, both of you may be asked a lot of questions about how we met and what we had been doing the past two days."

"Let me guess, it'll be the 'concerned', elderly women doing most of the asking?" Rose asked, only partly rhetorically as she rolled her hazel-coloured eyes.

"Yep." Siani chirped, nodding. "They've always had their opinions on me, be it my blindness, my adopting Carwyn, the way I work too much and a bunch of other things."

"We just ignore them and stick to our story – the three of us met when Rose and I stopped at the museum during a road trip and when we learned of it being shut down and the owner's disappearance, we offered Siani a lift." The Doctor said softly as they approached the house. "It's best if we avoided talking too much about it, keeping it as vague as possible. Deal?"

"Deal." Siani said.

"Deal." Rose said, nodding.

Rose and the Doctor stopped in front of the house and looked up at it. It was a modest, Victorian style 2-storey home with a stone pathway leading from the street up to the front steps and a disconnected stone path going from the steps to the driveway; the driveway actually led to the backyard where there was a 2-door garage, separated from the main house. The front lawn wasn't of grass, but of wood chips with a medium-sized, neatly maintained shrubbery near the road*.

"Come on." Siani urged upon realizing that they hadn't moved.

The Doctor nodded and resumed walking, heading up the front path with Rose beside them. Reaching the front door, Siani opened it, allowing them entry into her home.

Siani sat in Rhia's room, the sun beginning its descent over the horizon outside her window. It had been several hours since she had returned home with the Doctor and Rose earlier that day and the Welshwoman was now dressed in a black sari with a short-sleeved black blouse*. Rhia passed away barely an hour after Siani entered the house, using her last moments to tell the younger woman something very important; it was the reason the blind girl was now sitting in her sister's empty room, playing with her locket watch that she had never really noticed until that day.

"Open the locket, when you are home. It will give you the answers you do not know you seek. And remember, chwaer bach, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when, you are loved."

The funeral had been a relatively quick affair as had the wake, passing smoothly without any trouble and it being a weekday thankfully prompting the guests to not overstay their welcome. Everyone gave their condolences and offered words of comfort and their support, promising to stop by regularly to check on her and Carwyn. Siani graciously accepted the offers but revealed that she was going to be leaving the United States once her affairs were in order, saying that she no longer had a reason to stay seeing as she no longer worked at van Statten's museum. The news was met with surprise but also resigned acceptance as Siani had been clear from the very beginning that she had only moved to the US for her job and for the opportunities it offered Rhia.

As Siani had predicted, the Doctor and Rose had been subject to a number of questions on who they were and how they knew the Welshwoman. The Doctor revealed his name to be 'John Smith' and that he was a medical doctor from the UK while Rose was his friend's daughter whom he was travelling with. It wasn't a complete lie as the Doctor had become friends of sorts with Pete Tyler during the fiasco in 1987; the Time Lord had found himself respecting the human man over the course of the time they were stuck in the church, the feeling growing after seeing Pete give his life to save the world despite knowing that it would mean he would never see his daughter grow up to be the woman he met.

Siani sighed, the weight of the locket in her hands bringing her back to the present. She could hear the Doctor and Rose working together downstairs to clean up now that the guests had all left. Meghan was also gone, having left shortly after Rhia died in order to complete the paperwork that would allow Siani to make the necessary funeral arrangements as well as her contract being ended with the older woman's death. She had returned for the funeral and the wake, genuinely wanting to be there for the bereaved young woman, but had left a short while after the last of the guests had gone.

Siani ran her hands over it, feeling the swirling pattern on the back and finding the concealed dial on the side. She pressed the dial curiously and the locket opened, releasing an endless stream of gold energy that poured into her.

The Doctor multi-tasked between rocking a wide awake Carwyn, whom he was holding in the crook of his elbow, swaddled in his blanket with a small cap on his head, and wiping the surfaces of the kitchen with his other hand. The 3-month old infant had very fair skin, dark brown-black hair and when he had opened his eyes after his nap, they were revealed to be a bright, aqua blue colour. The Time Lord kept up a stream of chatter with the baby, telling an incredulous Rose that he spoke Baby and could very well understand what was being said to him. While Rose believed him, she continued to shoot him incredulous looks as she washed the last of the many dishes that had been used over the course of the afternoon – she and the Doctor had taken turns on who did each batch because there were so many.

Suddenly, the Doctor broke off his conversation with the baby in mid-sentence with a startled gasp. He shot his head upwards, his eyes widening in shock as he stared at the ceiling.

"Doctor?" Rose called worriedly.

"That's impossible." The Doctor breathed, unaware of the dishcloth dropping from his slackened fingers or Rose calling out to him. Carwyn whimpered at the change in the emotions that surrounded him, and the Doctor immediately reacted, turning back to the baby and rocking him soothingly. "It's okay, Carwyn. Nothing's wrong." He said reassuringly. "I was just shocked, that's all." The Doctor glanced back up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to Rose, the blonde girl looking at him worriedly. "It's okay. I'm okay." He reassured her, putting a bright grin on his face.

Rose looked at him disbelievingly, but let it drop. The Doctor gently put Carwyn in his soft grey and white cradle swing, buckling the straps and switched it on, allowing gentle music to fill the air.

"Theta." A voice he had long missed and never imagined he would hear again echoed in his mind.

The Doctor spun around, his eyes wide in shock and disbelief as he faced the speaker. He could feel the gentle hum at the back of his mind, a feeling he had missed since that terrible day he had done the unthinkable to end an unending war.

There, standing in front of him was Siani, except not at the same time. She looked the same, with her long golden hair free from its pins and cascading down her back, her snow white skin flawless and fair face free of any makeup and adornments aside from powder, a line of kohl along her waterline and the black bindi between her eyebrows. However, there was also a deep sorrow in her unseeing eyes, a sorrow that wasn't just from losing Rhia. It was sorrow mixed with pain and anguish, a blend of emotion that mirrored the Doctor's own, one borne of having lost their people, their home and their planet.

No longer was she Siani Gwawr Jones. In the Welshwoman's place stood The Belle of Gallifrey, known as The Converging Wave and The Herald of Dreams.

She walked up to the Doctor, absently noticing Rose watching with a confused frown. Belle stopped in front of the Doctor, barely a foot of space between them.

'Whack!'

The Doctor's face whipped to the side from the force of the slap, Belle's expression filled with unriddled fury as she glared at him unseeingly. Rose's jaw dropped in shock at the blind woman's uncharacteristic action, stunned into complete silence.

"You know what that was for." Belle hissed furiously, glaring up at the Time Lord.

"I still pressed the button." He said softly, his voice filled with regret, guilt and self-loathing.

"Doctor, I was the one that made it." She reminded him. "You know what they had been planning, you know what the consequence would have been if you hadn't done what you did."

The Doctor smiled weakly. "Thank the Goddess that you're alive." He breathed, pulling her into a tight hug that she returned with equal vigour. For several seconds, they remained in their tight embrace, oblivious to anything but each other and just revelling in the other's presence, both physical and mental. Finally, he pulled back, looking completely confused. "But hang on, how are you here?" He asked with a frown.

"Tad sent me through the Untempered Schism right after Arcadia fell." Belle replied softly.

"And the Chameleon Arc?" The Doctor asked curiously. "How did you survive if you had been human?"

"It was on a time-delay." Belle replied. "He pushed me through, and it activated once I had landed. Unfortunately, Tad didn't have the chance to program it with a backstory, so I ended up as an amnesiac."

The Doctor nodded in understanding. "Which one is this?" He asked, almost nervous to know that answer.

"9th, same as you." Belle replied. "It happened earlier that day."

"What's going on?" Rose asked, drawing their attention and looking between them in complete confusion.

"Rose, I know this is more than a bit confusing, but my name is Belle." Belle introduced herself. "I'm from the same planet as the Doctor. During the War, my father sent me to Earth in an effort to protect me, turning me human for my own safety."

Rose nodded slowly, remembering the bits and pieces the Doctor had told her about the Time War. "But are you okay?" She asked in concern. "From what the Editor had done in 200 000?"

"I'm absolutely fine." Belle replied honestly. "The process of reawakening healed the residual effects I had been feeling."

Rose looked at Belle with a narrow-eyed gaze, trying to see if the other woman was lying about her condition. But there was nothing that the blonde Londoner could find that indicated deceit – there was no sign of the minute tremors that had riddled the older woman's body, no sign of the fine sheen of sweat on her face, no sign of the tiredness and weakness in her features. Belle looked healthier than ever. "Okay." Rose said finally, nodding in acceptance. "I guess this is 'Welcome Back', then." She added with a light laugh.

"Yes, it is." Belle replied, she and the Doctor also laughing. Carwyn cooed happily, blowing raspberries into the air. "Yes, baban. Mammy's here." She said, moving towards the cradle swing and lifted her infant son up, settling him in the crook of her arms.

"I take it you speak Baby as well?" Rose asked, partly disbelieving and partly incredulous.

"Yes, I do." Belle replied with a grin, turning to the direction of the younger blonde's voice. "However, this little one also communicates Telepathically."

Rose's eyes widened in surprise, her jaw dropping. "He does what?" She asked numbly.

The Doctor chuckled. "Carwyn isn't human." He explained; he had realized it the moment he saw the baby and recognized him for who he really was. "He's an Enirian. I thought they had died out in the early days of the War, but it would seem Carwyn had slipped through the Rift and landed here on Earth."

"Wow." Rose breathed in a mix of amazement and sadness. "I know you mentioned how devastating the War had been, it's also kind of implied, but I never imagined that it could be so bad that a baby is all that remains of an entire Race of people." She said softly, gently taking Carwyn's hand with her index finger. The infant curled his tiny digits around Rose's larger one, holding with a deceptively strong grip. "He's so strong." She breathed with wonder.

"Thank you." A lilting voice echoed in Rose's mind.

Rose's eyes widened and she looked at Carwyn in shock. "He just-. But that-" She stammered, looking between the baby and the Doctor and Belle. "He just spoke to me! In my mind!" Rose exclaimed.

"Is it okay?" The Doctor asked worriedly, remembering the blonde's reaction to the TARDIS' translation matrix.

"Yeah, it's fine." Rose replied hurriedly, guessing where the Doctor's thoughts had gone. "It was just a bit of a shock, is all."

"Okay." The Doctor said, nodding. He turned to Belle. "Will you come with us?" He asked. "Both you and Carwyn?"

"Yes." Belle replied without hesitation. "The two of us and Beauty are all there is of our world. And I'm not going anywhere without my son."

"I'm sorry, 'Beauty'?" Rose repeated in confusion.

"It's what the TARDIS is called." Belle replied. "Her name."

"Rather, the name Belle had given her." The Doctor added, grinning at Belle.

"She's never argued against it." Belle quipped in a very self-satisfied tone.

The Doctor rolled his eyes and decided not to argue. "Anything you want to take with you?" He asked, changing the subject. "We can pack everything up while you set your affairs in order and put the house on the market."

"Sounds good." Belle replied, carefully putting a dozing Carwyn back into his cradle swing. "We need to take Carwyn's things - his clothes, the baby equipment and all the diapers we have in the house. There are a few things of my own that I want to take, as memoirs. But other than that, I can't think of anything else." She said. "Doctor, you can bring Beauty inside, park her in the hallway so we're not carrying everything to the end of the road. Rose, can you help him take the baby equipment into the TARDIS? I'll pack our belongings in the meantime." Belle said, easily and swiftly taking charge of what needed to be done.

"Sure." Rose said, nodding.

"I'll be right back." The Doctor said as his own agreeing response before he turned and headed out of the kitchen and then the house completely.

Rose and Belle worked in unison to finish cleaning the kitchen and by the time they were done, 15 minutes later, they could hear the whooshing sound of the TARDIS materializing in the hallway. As soon as it fully rematerialized and the Doctor stepped out, he and Rose proceeded to carry out the task Belle had asked of them. Belle meanwhile went back upstairs and worked on sorting through her belongings as well as Carwyn's and Rhia's, making piles of what she wanted to take and what was good to be given away to the local Thrift Shop.

The three of them worked for the next several hours, taking breaks to eat whenever Carwyn woke up for his feeding. The infant would feed, play for a little while before falling back to sleep, still too young to stay awake for very long and the more he slept, the better it was for him (and for the adults as it allowed them to get more work done).

Finally, by the time they were done, and Belle had taken the last of the items she wanted to keep into the TARDIS and had finished the seemingly endless amount of paperwork she needed to take care of, the dawn sun was rising over the horizon and filtering in through the windows. All three of them yawned tiredly as they entered the TARDIS, each of them wanting nothing more than to sleep for a couple of hours, even the Time Lord and Time Lady who didn't need nearly as much sleep as humans or babies did.

The Doctor went up to the console and began working the controls while Belle and Rose tiredly slumped onto the jump seat. Carwyn was in his cradle swing, attached to the ceiling and the floor of the console room as opposed to being left as a portable device. The Doctor flipped the lever and sent them hurtling into the Vortex, unable to help the grin that crossed his face despite his tiredness as he looked at Belle.

The Belle and the Doctor of Gallifrey, were in the TARDIS once again. The Converging Wave and the Oncoming Storm were travelling through Time and Space as they once had so long ago together, together with her son and his Companion.

Links (on Pinterest; Siani's home is on Zillow):

* Siani's home - homedetails/1029-E-1st-Ave-Salt-Lake-City-UT-84103/12721475_zpid/

* Siani's saree (black) - .ca/pin/346073552587507673/

*Carwyn's cradle swing (soft grey and white) - .ca/pin/474566879487272893/