Disclaimer: For a short period, I owned Doctor Who. Then I woke up.
The Doctor drops to his knees, running a hand over the imprint left in the sand by the Tardis. "No," he whispers, "No." Trying to stop his thoughts dead with a simple negative, wanting to hide behind a wall of disbelief. But his brain has already analysed and delivered the possible scenarios.
1) Romana has somehow activated Emergency Program One and will land in the Powell Estate in the 21st century. She will probably try to hide in the Tardis. Otherwise, she will probably be taken into care as an abandonee. They will probably discover she's not human and…do something awful. That is if UNIT or Torchwood don't hunt her down. And we're stuck here for the rest of our lives, which won't be long as there is no food or water.
2) Due to an accident, the Tardis has simply slipped into the Vortex. It will either land somewhere, where she can hopefully survive, or keep travelling through the Vortex until it runs out of energy and falls into the Void. And we're stuck here for the rest of our lives, which won't be long as there is no food or water.
Hope for Romana- slim. Hope for us- unless a ship lands soon, non-existent. Hope of our reunion- minimal, depending on Emergency Program One, our survival and speedy arrival. And a small part of his brain recognises the bitter irony. The Last Time Lord- with his family scattered all over Time.
There are footsteps, running, behind him. Jack. Must have heard the Tardis and thought they'd abandoned him again. Jackie stops him. They don't approach him; they stand behind him silently, respectfully. And he wants to scream at them. You're the only family I've got left and you don't want to come near me! But he doesn't because he knows it isn't like that. But he's lonely anyway. Until Jackie gives a stifled gasp and jumps in the air.
"Doctor. Doctor!"
He turns around. "Yes, Jackie?" When did his voice begin to sound like that? A cynical, tired old man.
"I think, I think…" She stands on tiptoes and cranes her neck. "It is! Doctor, it's the Tardis! Just round the corner!"
They rush round the corner. Jack stops dead.
"Hang on…if this is the Tardis, what disappeared?"
The Doctor lays a hand against the blue wood. "It seems real enough."
"Could it just have jumped a few metres?" Jackie suggests.
"No, we'd have heard it."
"Then what…" Jackie trails off as the Doctor freezes.
"Me." The whisper is so quiet they have to strain to hear him.
"What do…"
"Think about it! We arrive, park here and go off this way." He flings an arm out. "Then the other arrives, parks over there, and goes off that way." He waves in the opposite direction. "Then Romana comes back and runs into a Tardis…" He breaks off.
"Jack, you've seen paradoxes, right?"
"Saw the same girl meet."
"What happened?" Jackie's curious.
"Explosion. Wiped them both from history."
"It's sort of the same thing. Jackie, if someone came up to you, just after you met Pete Tyler, and told you that you would marry him and have a daughter called Rose, do you think that would affect your relationship with him?"
She stares at him bemusedly. "Um…maybe?"
Jack's impatient. "What are you talking about?"
"Romana is inside the Tardis…"
"So what's the problem?"
The Doctor ignores the interruption. He has to make them understand how serious this is. He continues, speaking slowly and clearly.
"Romana is inside the Tardis with my ninth self and Rose."
Jack and Jackie stare at him. Jackie breaks the silence.
"Why you and Rose?"
"Firstly, because most Time Lords stayed firmly on Gallifrey. I was a renegade, wandering about the universe. Secondly, I doubt any other chameleon circuits stuck the Tardis in the shape of a 1960's police box. The Time Lords never did understand my preference for Earth. So it has to be me." He can see about a thousand questions approaching and holds up his hand to forestall them. It would have to be another time; he needs them to understand the situation.
"The Tardis changes. White plastic, dark wood. The point is that it's only looked like it does now for my ninth and tenth. And Romana would notice if she went running into a Tardis that looked so different. And I have only visited Woman Wept twice in that time. Now and once with Rose."
After a lengthy pause, "So Romana is wandering round the Tardis and if she is discovered by you or Rose, there will be disaster."
"Yes."
xxx
Romana is lost. Completely, totally, utterly lost. She came in, headed for her bedroom and it wasn't there. And the Tardis wouldn't listen to her. So she decided to look for it. That must have been about half an hour ago. Now she's wandering past rooms she's never seen before. She hopes she can find a kitchen soon, otherwise she might starve to death before the Tardis gets tired of this. She kicks at a wall, hops down another corridor and finds a door she recognises. A door with a flower stuck on it. A Rose. She could spend some time going through those interesting boxes. She pushes at the door and stares. This is not the same room. Gone is the dust, the boxes piled on and around the bed. This room is lived in. It looks quite a bit like hers: alien oddments, photo frames. She crosses the room to look at one. The ninth Doctor, Rose, Jack and Mickey grin out of the frame. Nearly ten years on, it's a bit surreal. All that has happened since… She's not sure what part of her mind said that.
She's jerked from her musings by the floor under her feet shifting. The Tardis is in flight. And footsteps are approaching. She scrambles under the bed. She's not sure why, she's got a perfect right to be here.
She has to smother a gasp as someone walks in. This is not our Tardis. Talk about stating the obvious. Why can't she have nice, quiet thoughts that don't consider themselves a separate entity? It's clear something's gone wrong. She peeks out as Rose peers into the mirror. This is not even Rose her mother. This is a younger Rose, clad in denim, applying mascara to her already spiky eyelashes.
"Rose!" She's heard that voice before, just once. When she fiddled with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and activated something the hologram called Emergency Program One. It led to an unplanned visit to Jackie. The only time she hadn't been pleased to see her gran, because then she had had them both shouting at her for being "ridiculously stupid" for touching it. Did she have "no idea of how dangerous it was"? Apparently, she was "incredibly lucky" that it hadn't "blown her head off"! She'd give anything to be there again.
"Rose, it's your turn to cook." A pair of black clad legs appear in her narrow field of vision.
"I did it yesterday!"
"Yes, and it was very nice. That's why it's your turn tonight."
"Do I have a choice?"
"Yes."
"Hmm?"
"Cook or starve."
There is an mock outraged sound, followed by the sound of somebody beating their hands against leather.
"Do I take it that's a starve, then?"
Rose leaves the room huffily. The Doctor follows. And Romana is left alone.
xxx
"Well, you don't remember meeting Romana, do you?"
"No. And that makes it worse. If this was supposed to happen, I would remember it."
The Doctor droops over his mug of tea.
"Or it might mean that she manages to evade you and Rose." Jackie offers hopefully.
"The thing you're missing, Doctor, is that we have an advantage. We know what's supposed to happen next. Where did you go after Woman Wept?"
"After Woman Wept, we went…we went…" He stared in the rapidly cooling tea like a crystal ball. Be careful what you wish for. He shot upright. "We went to 1987." Jack and Jackie stared at him, comprehension dawning slowly on Jackie's face.
xxx
"Reapers, paradoxes, the lot! Enough to put centuries on a man. It was bad enough the first time. This time, you've got someone alive when he shouldn't be, two Roses, and a girl who isn't going to be born for another 27 years who might meet her young grandparents, one who shouldn't be alive and her mother, who's younger than her, and her parents, who aren't her parents yet, who shouldn't be there!"
"I don't remember anything."
"Of course you don't, Jackie! That's because last time the wound was healed." The Doctor leans against the console for support. "Paradoxes make my head hurt."
"Add in another Jackie, another Doctor and another Tardis…phew." Jack whistles.
"Not to mention you, Jack. We're supposed to meet you in 1941 soon after."
"Can't we just, sort of, go there, wait for them to arrive then go and get Romana out of their Tardis?"
"That would require precision timing, and besides…oh God."
"What could make this even worse than it already is?"
"The Tardis is thrown out of the time wound. If Romana's in there, I don't know what would happen. Yet, outside the Tardis, there's a paradox around every corner."
A/N: If you have reviewed, thank you. Thank you so much. If not, then I really would appreciate it. Hint hint