This story is under heavy editing/might be rewritten later. Updates will continue being very slow (hopefully not year-long again), I apologize for the long wait and will hopefully be able to update this at least every few months.
Morgan had made many bad decisions in her life. Always forgetting her coat, for one. Running after the doctor, another. Not immediately running whenever Courtney had an idea…
The list went on.
But even she had to say the decision she was about to make definitely took the cake.
Her and the Doctor had finally stopped getting at each other's throats. Finally after so long. And of course, Morgan, in all of her infinite wisdom, had chosen this moment to decide to tell him. This moment. Because of course she had.
Morgan wasn't exactly known for her adeptness at excellent decision-making or her timing. No matter how much she liked to believe she was excellent at both.
In Morgan's defence, there never really was a good time to say something important. Reason being, important things are important because they have consequences.
Consequences.
God, Morgan sure as hell hoped she wasn't making a mistake.
Morgan was most definitely making a mistake.
"I- god how do I even-"
"Well, asking me how to say it probably isn't-" Morgan silenced the Doctor with a tired glare.
She almost laughed at his remark. Almost. But instead her heart clenched and she had to avoid his eyes.
Morgan was about to ruin everything wasn't she?
The light was a soft orange, it was low and simmering and yet now suddenly it seemed harsh. It was as if her senses had suddenly heightened and she became aware of every breath of air she took, every strange noise.
And of the Doctor's piercing gaze, that grew ever more calculated by the second.
A bead of sweat rolled down her neck. It was thick and cold and wet. Morgan hated how she could feel every bead of sweat that rolled down her neck.
Even so, that still didn't solve the problem at hand.
There was only one way Morgan would be able to explain this. She needed to stop procrastinating.
"I- Doctor, you have a favourite show or movie right?" Morgan pressed, fidgeting nervously with her hands. She avoided his questioning gaze as she finished the question.
"Harry Potter. Although I don't get along well with the author- We had an-" he cut himself off before beginning his own ramble shooting Morgan yet another questioning look. This time, Morgan couldn't avoid it.
"Morgan, what is this about?" His eyebrows grew furrowed, his lips pursed in thought.
"Let's say, hypothetically," Morgan started, her woolen sweater started to rub uncomfortably against her neck "That you woke up one day-"
"Well, I'd hope I woke up, otherwise that would just be death," The Doctor emphasized the last word obnoxiously. "You know, Morgan, the rambling only works when I do it," he ended it with a grin, as if him irritating her to the point of frustration was some sort of inside joke. Sometimes, his obnoxiousness and arrogance astounded her.
Just ignore the fact that Morgan was often the same way.
Suddenly, Morgan remembered exactly why they argued so damn much.
"Doctor, I swear to god-"
"You know, I met god once, real tired chap, I offered to help a bit-" she clenched her fists tightly, nails beginning to dig into ehr skin painfully.
"Doctor!" Morgan yelled, her eyes narrowed. The Doctor's mouth was frozen open mid-sentence, but his eyes were on her, waiting. It took all of Morgan's depleted energy not to grit her teeth down to dust.
"Would you please, for the love of god," Morgan took a deep breath in, closing her eyes to regain her composure, "Just listen." a pause, "Just listen to me for one moment, without interrupting or pointing something pointless out, or rambling, or making some stupid snide remark…"
The Doctor didn't give any reply to that, electing to wisely remain silent. Maybe if Morgan had been paying closer attention, she would have understood why he did it. But at the time, Morgan was too frustrated to care.
"Thank you," she cleared her throat, "So, as I was saying, let's say, you woke up one day, and suddenly the Harry Potter books just ceased to exist," The Doctor remained silent, urging for her to continue. "And the movies didn't exist either and no matter how many times you searched online, nothing came up." Morgan took another steadying breath to ease her rapid heartbeat. She could do this. "Harry Potter just seems to have stopped existing, no books, no movies, nothing." Morgan took a pause, allowing the Doctor to properly digest this information. His eyebrows were knitted together furiously for a few moments before he spoke.
"Does that include JK Rowling's Twitter account?"
Morgan almost laughed at that.
Key-word there: almost.
"Doctor, please-"
"Ok, ok," he said resigned. He paused before speaking again to smooth out his black jacket, "I will," a sigh, "shut up." Morgan gave him a grateful nod at that and continued.
"Harry Potter has stopped existing, and yeah, you might be a little sad," the Doctor raised an eyebrow, "Ok, a lot sad, but in the end, you can continue living your life," the cold had begun to seep in more at this point, which prompted Morgan to clench the blankets tighter.
"Now, imagine you go to King's Cross station, you're minding your own business and then. Then you see someone run straight into a wall. A wall right between platforms nine and ten-" Morgan paused suddenly. There was drip somewhere, like water, dripping continuously, oh god that was annoying- where was that even coming from- She was getting distracted. She needed to focus.
"Sorry, got a bit distracted," Morgan bit her lip, "Anyways, so you're there and then they disappear through the wall. But then You see a kid, who looks exactly like Harry Potter, and a woman who looks exactly like Molly Weasley and they start speaking and everything is the same and-"
"Morgan," she gulped, quickly glancing over at the Doctor beside her.
That was a mistake.
His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was curled into a frown.
"I'm getting to the point, don't worry." Morgan tried to give the Doctor a reassuring smile but instead ended up with a grimace. "Now keep that whole scenario in your mind but imagine instead of Harry Potter, it's another show."
Morgan took a deep breath in.
"One about a Time Lord called the Doctor and a blue box, that takes place anywhere and everywhere in all of time and space-"
"How did you know that?" The Doctor's borderline angry tone interrupted Morgan's ramblings. In that moment, with the Doctor's piercing glare fixated on her, Morgan immediately regretted everything. Her stomach dropped and curled in on itself. An emptiness started to fill her, a void and- oh god what the hell had Morgan done.
"How did you know I was a Timelord how did you-" The Doctor paused, realization dawning all over his face. "Oh."
No one said anything else for a few moments.
The Doctor got up silently, and stood there, towering over her, mulling over his thoughts.
It was only a few minutes but it felt like years.
And that was a lot coming from Morgan, who had been stuck in one damp dreary cave for the past few months.
"So, what you're saying," a pause, "Is that I'm some sort of fictional character that you used to watch on the television?" the Doctor finished incredulously, barely concealed anger lingering underneath his tone.
"Sort of- it's still very different-"
"Different how." the Doctor's tone was now flat but final.
"I mean, you're much more annoying in person," Morgan joked, trying to lighten the suffocatingly tense atmosphere. The Doctor's reaction was delayed, and it was as if Morgan's breath was choking her in her throat. The Doctor only raised an eyebrow at first. His raised eyebrow quickly turned into a glare that lasted a second too long. He then gave Morgan half-hearted smile that quickly dropped into something Morgan couldn't quite decipher.
Then, instead of questioning her further, the Doctor left the room. He didn't say anything as he was leaving. He flicked off their makeshift light system, which consisted of many wires and strange lights.
The Doctor only spoke when he had entered the hallway, his jaw tense and his back turned towards Morgan.
"You should be getting to sleep,"
It was merely an afterthought.
Then, just like that, the Doctor was gone.
And Morgan was alone again.
Six months ago, there was a small blue box. Then the blue box had gone, dematerializing into nothing. Six months later, and there it was again. As if it had never left.
It was a morning like any other. Light flooded in, a slight musty odour hanging over everything.
Outside the cave, there was a steady drip. A bead of water, falling from the top of the cave's mouth and splattering against the rocks at the bottom.
When Morgan opened her eyes that morning, she didn't expect anything. Everything was in place from the night before, save for her sheets which were currently wrapped around her like a cocoon. All in all, somehow, the energy was still sapped from her completely. Getting up and out of bed felt like such a chore.
Finally, Morgan did get out of bed.
She made her way towards the main cave, the one connecting to the ocean.
The water had been getting lower and lower by the day.
Yet still, Morgan didn't have any hope the day when the water would be gone would ever come.
Morgan was often wrong about many things.
As Morgan approached the main cave, she found the walls stripped bare. And she could hear a sound.
A drip.
As Morgan fully entered the room, the drip grew louder.
And Morgan could see the sun outside. For the first time in six months, Morgan could see the sun outside. Not obscured by any water, or filtered. And she could feel it too. Warmth.
Morgan could feel the warmth from the sun on her skin.
She couldn't even contain the laughter that came bubbling out of her as she sprinted out of the cave. Wind blew her curls out of her face as she ran. She kept kicking up sand as she ran, but Morgan didn't care.
The sky was a pale purple, the water lapping at the beach. Crustaceans, shells and other alien creatures lay stranded in the sand, stranded frantically searching and burrowing towards the water that used to be there.
Morgan laughed again, twirling around in a circle grinning up at the sky.
The bout of adrenaline wore off, Morgan turned to head back slowly, revelling in each step that she could take on the beach. She drank everything in; the sky with the clouds, so full of colour and light; the warmth from the sunlight, seeping into her skin; Grass and dirt and sand, one smooth and soft, the other grainy and coarse and yet all still so real and tangible.
As she took everything in, Morgan turned back towards the cave. By the entrance there stood a figure she had failed to notice in her previous delight. The Doctor stood by the cave entrance, his arms crossed and his jacket smoothed down. Beside him sat all of their stuff, safely stored in a bigger-on-the-inside bag.
Morgan stopped abruptly a few metres away from the Doctor. She cleared her throat to get his attention.
"So… "Morgan started with uncertainty. She could barely remember the last time she had spoken to the doctor properly, besides passing remarks.
That was a lie.
That memory was ingrained into her mind for all of eternity.
"I'm going to call Clara," was the Doctor's only response. He never did meet her eyes. "Hopefully she won't mess up the circuit controls, it really isn't that difficult."
There was an awkward pause of silence where neither of them said anything. The Doctor had his back turned to Morgan again, standing rigidly, dialling the phone.
"I'll just stay here then," she offered, fumbling with her sweater's zipper.
"You do that,"
And just like that, the conversation was over, and the Doctor went back to dialling Clara. Just like that, and the whole six months would be over, with barely a word spoken on either one's part. When Morgan had first envisioned travelling with the Doctor, she had definitely not envisioned this.
A few minutes later, the sounds of the TARDIS materializing could be heard. A few minutes later and the Doctor was beginning to disappear into the TARDIS. Clara was there too, out of the TARDIS, her brown hair bouncing and shining in the sunlight. Morgan had forgotten that sunlight did that.
Suddenly, Clara was beside her, doting and scolding her, checking her hair, as if her hair could get injured. From Morgan's experience, hair was actually in fact dead, so it could not get injured. Clara's voice continued loudly.
Morgan heard none of it.
Morgan could barely remember the last time she'd spoken to Clara.
She didn't even know what to make of that.
Before she knew it she was back in the TARDIS again, bookshelves and dark walls surrounding her. The bright glow of the TARDIS illuminated their faces in golden light. The Doctor stood at the controls, scowling and commandeering the TARDIS. He flicked buttons and pulled levers, dropping all of the people off at their desired locations.
Clara was there too, near the controls. She smiled brightly, steering Morgan towards the Doctor as she continued grinning at them both.
"Well, that was an interesting adventure wasn't it!" she exclaimed, bouncing a bit on her heels. The sudden burst of energy startled her and Morgan shot a barely concealed glare at Clara, and the Doctor mirrored it. Tiredness had begun to seep into her bones.
She was not in the mood for this.
"Sorry didn't realize I was talking to Doctor McGrumpyface, and the average teenage high school student." Morgan raised an eyebrow at that comment. Really? She had half a heart to snap at Clara to shut up and defend her honour. Almost.
"Come on," Clara whined, "Can you two seriously not stand each other so much that a few hours together has you not speaking." There was a beat of silence.
Wait.
A few hours?
The Doctor was the one to break the silence, eyes still glued to the controls.
"It was not a few hours," he snapped. Clara rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Ok so how long was it then?" Clara snapped back, her patience obviously thinning. At this point, Morgan had migrated to one of the chairs behind them, mostly tuning out their conversation.
"One month," the Doctor whispered. Clara's eyes widened owlishly, and Morgan jolted up at the words.
One month?
What the hell was the Doctor-
Clara immediately turned to Morgan with a look of pity.
"I sincerely apologize for your-"
"Oh would you two just shut up!" the Doctor yelled, waving his arms angrily, immediately prompting Clara to snap her mouth closed. Morgan's gaze snapped to face the Doctor.
"I didn't even say anything," was all Morgan could muster. It was barely a whisper, but Clara heard it, shooting another look of pity to Morgan.
The Doctor stayed silent and promptly ignored her.
It was the loudest silence Morgan had ever heard.
Clara was the first to regain her bearings, beginning to drag Morgan down one of the TARDIS hallways.
"Well you must be tired, you should get some rest." Clara paused contemplating for a second before turning back to face Morgan.
"A month is a long time."
A month was a long time.
Six months was even longer.