Hi everyone! Welcome to In Between the Shadows!
For those who are new, I would probably recommend reading Deafening Silence first, though if you want to just skip to this one, that's cool too. To understand the canon-divergence/AUness of this series' universe, though, I would say that you might want to at least read the epilogue of DS, which explains it all quite well.
And to those who have been waiting for this sequel, here it is! Hope you all liked the prologue, and hopefully the rest of it doesn't disappoint.
This chapter mostly sets the scene for the rest of the story as to where the characters are at, and also answers several questions from the previous story. But after that, we're into our first original adventure arc of the story!
Also, from here on out I am only going to have ANs at the end of chapters for the sake of neatness. Enjoy the first proper chapter of IBTS! You'll get a few questions answered right off the bat, which will be nice for some.
It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"
Five days since you laughed at me saying
"Get that together come back and see me"
Three days since the living room
I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you
Yesterday you'd forgiven me
but it'll still be two days till I say I'm sorry
How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad
Tryin' hard not to smile though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of losing my shirt
One Week – Bare Naked Ladies
The café was more crowded this time. As they sat down at the same table, the Doctor and his companion shared grins. The latter picked up the menu and put it down ten seconds later with a satisfactory nod to herself.
"Pancakes still on the menu?" He asked, amused.
Aliya nodded, looking almost embarrassed. "That obvious?"
"Yes. When it comes to pancakes, you're quite transparent," the Doctor told her. There was a brief pause where he just regarded her, and she frowned and tilted her head to the side slightly.
"What?"
He shrugged, smiling. "Three years. Since we last sat here."
She laughed. "Lord, it has been, hasn't it? We were so jumpy then, worried about saying the wrong thing."
"Well, I didn't want you to change your mind and decide to go back to Torchwood," he admitted.
Aliya fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers. "And I kept thinking that maybe it was all just a cruel joke and you were going to buy me pancakes and then send me back."
"And no second thoughts?" The Doctor grinned at her cheekily, and she chuckled and shook her head.
"No. You?" He also shook his head, and she nodded. "Good, because by this point I think if you tried to kick me out again I'd just refuse to leave."
"Well, that's not going to happen."
"We do still fight."
"Yes, but only about stupid things. They never last long. Did you really expect them to stop?"
Under his sceptical gaze, she had to laugh with him and shrug. "Good point. Peaceful coexistence is probably never going to be something we achieve."
"It's peaceful enough. Too much peace is boring anyway."
"It just occurred to me that it's been three years, and Jenny still doesn't know about this, that I'm travelling with you again. She still thinks we're mad at each other to the point of hatred. I know that we're going to go back for five minutes after we left, but I feel like it's a matter of principle that we should probably tell her soon," Aliya said, her brow furrowing into a frown.
"Good point," the Doctor agreed. "Also, didn't you say that she was living with you?"
She nodded. "We had a two bedroom apartment. It's still got all my stuff. We could get it at the same time. I just hope that she doesn't mind me leaving."
"I'm sure she'll understand."
"I wonder if we can tell her without running into Matheson or Narke," the blonde woman muttered under her breath.
"Who are they?"
"Rex Matheson and Marion Narke. They're in the Torchwood team and are both rather unpleasant to be around."
"I thought that Hart fellow was the unpleasant one."
Aliya shook her head. "Hart's alright really, for a perverted ex-Time Agent without Jack's morals. He's just a bit trigger happy and has an annoying tendency to come up with stupid nicknames for everyone. He calls Jenny 'Little Princess', Gwen 'Freckles', Esther 'Blondie', Marion 'Bitch on legs', and Rex 'America'."
The Doctor looked vaguely amused. "What about you?"
She sighed and shrugged. "He calls me Eyecandy because that's what he used to call Ianto, and when I first met him, he thought I was shagging Jack, and therefore Ianto's replacement. Even when he found out that wasn't the case, the name stuck. You can imagine how pleased I was about that." She made a face.
He frowned and regarded her suspiciously. "Why did he think you were….with Jack?"
"It's Jack," she said simply, and he accepted that as an answer and just nodded. "And as much as I enjoyed Jack's company, it's still not quite the same as yours."
"Because I tend to not grope you?" The Doctor said mildly. She snorted ungraciously and nodded, deciding it was best not to mention that there were times where she hadn't minded Jack's groping so much. There were some things best unsaid.
"Oddly enough there are other points in your favour. One being that you aren't a fixed point in space and time that makes me want to empty my stomach no matter how charming you are on the outside," Aliya said wryly, "Also, the psychic presence of another Time Lord can't really be replicated. Jenny is too young."
"You don't have to tell me about psychic presence. I went years after the Time War with my head empty before you turned up. And more years after our...you know."
"True. Oh, another point in your favour - Jack doesn't play chess." She thought of their numerous games on the TARDIS and smiled. "And you don't make fun of my obsession with pancakes…or Sherlock Holmes. Jenny would tease me about it."
"But Sherlock Holmes is fantastic! Why would she tease you about it?"
"Because I had the entire book collection by my bed and because my human alias at Torchwood was Alison Holmes."
He grinned childishly. "Not Watson?"
"No."
"It's not bad, as aliases go."
"It's better than John Smith!"
"Oi!"
Luckily, that was when their pancakes arrived.
"Are you sure?"
Aliya's voice was barely audible, but the Doctor heard it and looked over at where she was sitting on the jump seat. Her hands were knotted in her lap the way they always were when she was nervous or unsure.
"Of course I am," he said, walking over to her, "I've done it alone enough times. Besides, you miss her too."
Her lips curved upwards half an inch. "Yes, I do." She got up and they walked with linked arms to the doors of the TARDIS before stepping outside. The street was mostly bare and the Doctor was quick to duck into a shop and grab some flowers before they continued on their way.
The cemetery was empty, and the two Time Lords walked through the rows of gravestones until they got to the memorial slab under the tree that read River Song – Confusing wife and loyal friend. Aliya began to laugh at the inscription, having briefly forgotten what it said. The Doctor smiled tightly and placed the flowers in front of the piece of stone. The picture frame containing a picture of the three of them in Vienna was still there, along with the pencil sketch of River that the Doctor had done himself, catching her perfect likeness.
"Do you want a minute alone?" She asked her friend, and he nodded as his eyes conveyed his gratitude. She stepped out and went for a small walk past the other gravestones. She saw Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's grave, even though she knew that he wasn't actually dead on the Doctor's personal timeline yet. The other names were all just names but were still sad to look at in her opinion. While waiting an appropriate amount of time, she leaned on a grave that looked several centuries old, some Clara Oswin Oswald. Oswin sounded like an odd name for someone from that time period, but then, what did she know of humans anyway?
After a few minutes, she headed back towards River's memorial. There was no body, obviously, just something that had seemed like the right thing to do after the woman's death.
The Doctor was waiting.
"Can I…?" Aliya indicated towards the memorial, and he smiled.
"Of course," he said, and nodded before giving her the same privacy she had given him. She knelt in front of the stone.
"I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this," she admitted, "It's not as if you can hear me. You're in the data core of a library planet thirty centuries in the future. But…I miss you. I miss you so much, River. And so does he. I can still see it in his eyes, sometimes he just stares and I can tell that he's thinking about you. I wish I could have taken your place. Not that you would have let me, and not that I would have. I love you, but not enough to rewrite time. It's your own fault, you had to go and make yourself too damn important to save." She sniffed and blinked away tears that had gathered in her eyes. "But I'm looking after him, I promise, just like you told me to. We may have gotten into a giant fight and yelled at each other until he kicked me out of the TARDIS and we were so angry that we hated each other…but luckily we somehow managed to get past that, after a long while."
She ran a hand through her hair.
"But yes. I miss you. Far too much. But wishing you were here does nothing, so I should probably stop. Emphasis on the probably, because that's obviously never going to actually happen." A tear ran down her cheek and she brushed it away. "We'll be back, I promise." Her eyes flicked to the photograph, where they were all grinning and laughing, River's eyes sparkling with her usual mischievous merriment. "Don't get into too much trouble while we're gone." She chuckled morosely at her own bad joke and got to her feet.
The Doctor was waiting for her several metres away, and they wordlessly hugged each other tightly for several moments before exiting the cemetery with their arms interlocked again.
For the first couple of years of travelling together again, they'd been careful around each other, careful of conflict given how they had only just resolved a fairly major one and their tendency to escalate quickly from petty arguments.
Three years in, their delicacy was over. Chinese checkers flew across the room and struck the Doctor right between the eyes.
"You're insufferable!"
"And you're a bad loser!"
"You cheated!"
"I did not, you just can't admit that you're rubbish at Chinese Checkers!"
She threw the board at him. He ducked and it went over his head and landed on the floor with a crash. "I hate you," she said, and left the room. He followed her, yelling after her indignantly.
"No you don't, you idiot!"
She snorted though didn't turn around or slow down. "That's rich, coming from the man who has the mental age of a five year old and leaves his brakes on just because he likes the noise!"
"It's a great noise!" He protested. "You like the noise too, do you even hear how stupid you're being?"
"Your face is stupid!" She barked. He halted and went quiet, making her also stop in her tracks. She spun around and saw him trying to hold in quiet laughter.
"I'd forgotten how bad your comebacks are," he chuckled, and her – admittedly rather irrational - anger dissipated instantly and she began to chuckle with him.
"So had I," She said weakly, and they just smiled at each other until she frowned. "But you don't actually think I like that noise, do you?"
He mirrored her frown. "Of course you like the noise."
"No, I don't, it's stupid and bad for the ship," She told him, and he gasped, his face showing how offended he was.
"Take that back!"
She crossed her arms and lifted an eyebrow at him. "No."
"Last warning."
"You don't scare me, Oncoming Storm, not when I can remember you wearing decorative vegetables and cat pins."
"Alright, that is it, I am sick of you constantly disregarding my authority-"
"Your authority?!"
And just like that, they were off again, arguing simply for the sake of it and because neither had the humility to admit they were wrong.
They were in the middle of her third swimming lesson – continuing from the two he had given her back before the fight – when a thought occurred to her.
"So, my TARDIS is still out there, right? You touched it, it dematerialised to reveal where I was trapped, and it now could be anywhere in time and space?"
He straightened up in the water of the TARDIS swimming pool to eye her with a curious frown. "At least six years since I found you, and that only just occurred to you?"
That made her pause and push her short hair back from her face, slicking it back. "It occurred to you and you didn't bring it up?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Well, yeah," he said warily. "Didn't think it was important."
"You didn't think my TARDIS was important?" She repeated incredulously. "For time's sake, I might not have the bond with it that you have with yours – no Time Lord ever has or will – but that's still my TARDIS."
"Sorry."
"So, can we look for it after this, then?"
He was quiet for a moment. "Why?"
"…because I want to find it. That's the general point of searching for something, isn't it?"
"But why do you want to find it?"
She blinked at him and then snorted at how big of an idiot he was. "Not so that I can leave, if that's what you're worried about."
He shook his head, but the look in his eyes suggested that she was right. "No, you just want to find the machine that would enable you to travel the universe, without me."
Aliya stared at him with disbelief. "You realise that 75% of the appeal of travelling the universe is travelling with my best friend? I don't want to go anywhere in it, I just want to find it and be sure that it's okay." He relaxed slightly, apparently believing her. She huffed and rolled her eyes. "I was going to offer it to Jenny. She likes working at Torchwood now but in a century's time, she might feel differently, especially with your genes."
The Doctor's mouth opened and shut several times in surprise. "Oh. That's…very nice of you."
"Well, I don't need it, do I?"
Her words seemed to please him. "No, I suppose not."
She beamed and headed to the edge of the pool and climbed out. "Good. So we'll head to Karn tomorrow and try and get some readings from where it last stood that might give us an idea of where it went?"
"Okay, no, that's not happening," the Doctor's voice said abruptly.
"What?" She turned around to look back at him. "Why not?"
"I'm not taking you back to that mountain where you were trapped, Aliya, it could still be dangerous!"
"We don't need to go inside!"
"We're not going, and that's the end of it."
"I don't need you to come, I'm perfectly able to get there on my own," she retorted.
"You will do no such thing." He began to get out of the pool himself. "My TARDIS, my rules."
"My TARDIS, my rules!" Dripping on the floor and still in her black one piece, she stalked out of the room to go and get dressed, but he followed her.
"I'm not letting you do this."
"What happened to 'very nice of you'?" She said sarcastically.
"I realised that finding it would be dangerous. Besides, Jenny doesn't need a TARDIS, because she'll be travelling with us," he said offhandedly.
That statement explained a lot and she let out a sigh of frustration as she turned to face him. "You could have just said that it's about Jenny! Look, I get it, you want her here, and that's fine, she's your daughter, and my friend, and it'll be great. But she's an adult, at least in terms of independence. If she eventually wants to travel on her own, or with a companion of her own, she should be able to, and I want to give her that opportunity."
He glared. "You know, I think sometimes you need reminding that you might have been a mentor of sorts to her but you are not her mother."
"I am perfectly aware of that, but I consider her to be a very close friend and I know that she can look after herself, and that at some point she will want to have a life away from her father." Upon seeing the Doctor's sullen look, she was quick to add, "Though hopefully not for a long while yet. But she is an independent adult and you need to remember that. Remember that I've actually spent more time with her than you have." He didn't look impressed. Quite the opposite.
"You go too far, Aliyanadevoralundar," he said in a low tone, "She's my daughter."
"Then act like a father," she snapped, and turned away before he could say another word. When she got back to her bedroom, she slammed the door shut and let out an annoyed yell as she pealed her swimsuit off and replaced it with clothes. All the while, she was muttering to herself. "Arrogant…stubborn…arse…mine…might as well be…looked after her more than him…"
She would find her TARDIS, with or without his help.
The argument about the TARDIS lingered between them, and for two days they had very little contact despite being in the same ship. It wasn't until the Doctor came into the console room and found her at the console that they even spoke.
"What are you doing?"
"Scanning," Aliya replied stiffly. "Nothing's come up, though."
"Then maybe you just weren't meant to find it."
She rolled her eyes. "Shut up."
Before he could answer, the ship jolted into flight of its own accord and the two occupants yelled as they were thrown around the console room. When the ship came to a halt, the Doctor was righting himself and fixing his bowtie while Aliya had fallen ungracefully to the floor and was climbing to her feet and brushing imaginary dust off of her jeans.
"What the hell just happened?" She asked. The Doctor frowned thoughtfully.
"She's done this before, a few times…last time being the time she found you – well, your TARDIS."
She brightened. "So she might have found it?"
He didn't reply for several second, and eventually sighed in defeat. "I suppose."
They left the TARDIS without another word and stepped out into a forest, with thin trees and grass of a faded green colour. They began to walk to the light that suggested the forest's edge.
"This place seems familiar," Aliya said quietly, "I feel like I should remember."
The Doctor was meanwhile glancing around him and muttering to himself, "Can't be…"
When they reached the edge of the trees, they saw a village nearby and headed for it. A house on the edge had a small wooden shed against the outside wall closest to the tree line. On a hunch, Aliya walked up to it and pressed her hand on the wooden panels. The hum under her palm told her all she needed to know.
"This is it, it's here," she whispered, and took a moment to send an excited grin back at him before she yanked the door open and darted inside. The large console room was just as she had left it, centuries before.
The console itself was situated on a higher platform, with ramps coming off it in three different directions, one ramp leading down to the door, another off to the corridors and other rooms, and another down to the space below the console in case of maintenance issues. The room was a bright white – much like the Doctor's console room had once been – but the console and time rotor themselves were silver with black and gold controls.
She heard the Doctor come in behind her. "I'd forgotten what it looked like," he said, and she turned around to see him taking the sight in with interest.
"I didn't."
"I only came in here once or twice."
"Good point." She ran up the ramp and put her hands on the console. "Hello girl. It's been a while." She thought she heard the ship hum, but a life-sized hologram appeared next to her that immediately took all of her attention.
"If you're hearing this, then it means that you're alive and you've found the ship."
Romanadvoratrelundar, the last Lady President of Gallifrey and ex-companion of the Doctor, was in surprisingly plain clothes considering she should have been wearing Presidential robes. She spoke in her usual measured and calm voice. Her dark eyes were focused straight ahead and were less guarded than the Doctor or Aliya could never them being in her third body.
"What?" Aliya whispered, eyeing the hologram of her cousin with wide eyes.
"This hologram will only play when the ship registers your bio-signature. I'm not sure how long it has taken you to find the ship, and no doubt you're wondering how it is that you came to survive the Time War. That is, how you came to be inside a void inside a mountain on Karn. The answer is reasonably simple. I put you there."
Aliya gasped and her hand flew to her mouth at the same time that the Doctor came to join her at the platform, eyes as wide as hers.
"You would never have survived the war and yet you felt the obligation to fight. But I could never justify saving one person, not when the children were fighting too. So it had to be a secret, for only the two of us to know, not even the Doctor could be told."
That was when Romana shifted her weight before looking up again.
"Doctor." Evidently she knew that the two of them were not likely to be apart. "I'm going back to Gallifrey to tell you that she died trying to attack the Daleks prematurely. I'm not sure that you'll buy it, as it obviously makes little sense, but unfortunately I have to hope that you take my word for it and your grief will cloud your logic. I'm sorry. I hope enough has passed that you will be able to forgive me for lying about something so important."
Aliya turned to look at the Doctor with watery eyes and a confused expression. "She told you that I died trying to attack the Daleks?"
"Yes, I was leaving, she told me that you were dead," he said, frowning deeply, still shocked and unable to tear his eyes from the recording, "But it makes sense. She was the only one who seemed to know what had happened. No one else was able to call her out on the lie because no one else knew."
"Of course, it wasn't entirely my idea. As I was still considering whether it would work, someone else came to me and oddly enough suggested the same thing. You can imagine my surprise, but I was glad to have the help." Aliya and the Doctor exchanged a confused look at the same time that Romana closed her eyes. Her chin remained high. "Assuming that I'm not the one who freed you and led you here, I suppose I'm dead. I have a theory, you see. This war is going to consume everyone and everything. But you, Doctor, you always find a way. Other than the Master, you have the most uncanny nack for survival that I've ever seen. So I hope that I'm right. If this message is playing then it means I am, and that you've found her. I'm glad that neither of you are alone." The President of Gallifrey opened her eyes and smiled slightly, more genuine than either of them had seen her in that regeneration. "Know that the both of you have my love. And Doctor…" Her eyes shone. "Thank you."
The Doctor wiped a tear from his eyes as the hologram faded. "You're very welcome," he whispered to thin air.
"It was her," Aliya said, eyebrows knitted together as she spoke with utter amazement, "All this time, it was her." A tear ran down her cheek but she ignored it. "But what did she mean by help?"
That was when another hologram appeared, with an equally familiar face that made them both freeze completely.
The Doctor's mother was staring back at them. Her body then was young, with angular features and light chestnut hair, but eyes still bright as ever, this time a pale green. He knew that she would regenerate several times during the war and end up aged and at Rassilon's side, in protest, by the last day.
"Hello, Theta," She said with a small smile, "And to you too, Aliya."
"Mother," He said quietly, looking at her with awe and melancholy.
"Mariakanelyari," Aliya murmured, transfixed, "I should have known you would be in on this."
"If you're watching this, then the two of you are alive, for which I am very glad. You see, Theta, I never doubted for you a second. Like the President, I know that your knack for survival will most likely see through this war, even if perhaps no one else does. But I can't stand the idea of you being alone. And since Romanadvoratrelundar would never leave her people, she isn't an option. But she had already considered finding a way to save Aliya even before I brought it up."
She smiled at them.
"All those centuries ago, I was unable to help you in the way that I wanted too. You two lost each other and grew apart. This is my chance to set things right. Regardless of the rest of it…you're his best friend, Aliya, and I hope that you make sure that he is not alone. I know he has all those human friends, but they are fleeting. At the very least, I want you two to have the chance of being together. I feel I owe it to you, and that you owe it to yourselves."
The Doctor's hand found Aliya's and gave it a tight squeeze.
"And I also thought that this would be a good time, as I likely will be dead by the time you see this, to mention that I am so very proud of you, Theta," Mariaka smiled a smile that was clearly reserved for him and no one else. It was the unmistakable smile of a mother looking at her child. "So proud of who you became, the man you are. You stand up for what is right and save innocent lives, and see the worth in the entire universe and everyone in it. The Time Lords see you as inferior, but it is the opposite. You are so much more. So much more than just another Time Lord. Which is why I think you will be the one to live, if anyone does. I love you, my son. I hope that you are happy."
The hologram faded and the Doctor took half a step forward, his hand reaching out as if trying to keep it there. There was a long silence as they both stood still and absorbed what had just occurred. His head dipped and she could see his eyes glistening with tears, so she gripped his hand even tighter, which made him look at her and smile weakly.
"They went out of their way to make sure that I wouldn't be alone," he whispered, "They saved you…for me."
"I suppose this means that I need to thank you for being alive," She joked, and he smiled. Then he silently pulled her close to him and held her tight, his head coming to rest on her shoulder while hers leant against his chest.
"Please don't leave," he breathed. "Not now, not tomorrow, not two decades from now."
"Never," she promised, finding it odd that he needed the reassurance, "I never would, you're my best friend and I'm not going anywhere."
His fingers slid between hers where their hands were still locked together. "Good," he said, "And I'm sorry for…before. About this."
"Nothing to forgive."
"Vora?"
The new voice made them let go of each other and stare at the person standing in the doorway.
Aliya took a step away from the Doctor as she stared unblinkingly at the woman with turquoise hair and white skin, and most of all the dark eyes that were so familiar, despite her being significantly older than the last time they had seen each other.
"Anna?" She said in a very small voice. "Is that you?" The age didn't matter, she still resembled the teenager that Aliya had raised her to be from a small child, in her most unfriendly incarnation who had spent her life away from Gallifrey – from anyone. Anna, short for Trianna, had been the only person to touch her hearts. That little Trandonian child. The closest thing she had ever had to a daughter.
"Yes. The TARDIS has been here for six months now."
"Of course," Aliya began to smile as realisation hit her, "It went to the only other living inhabitant it could remember."
"And you're here with him," Anna's low voice said, sounding a little surprised, "He came here, you know, nearly a year ago. To tell me that you were alive."
That was new information. The blonde turned to look at her friend, who straightened his bowtie and looked defensive.
"She deserved to know," He said.
"But that had to have been when you were still mad at me."
"She still deserved to know."
"Thank you," she said sincerely. He just grinned.
"You're very welcome." His arms spread out. "Go on then, family reunion, hugging and crying and all that!"
They didn't need telling twice. The two females ran at each other and met in the middle of the ramp. Anna – who due to Aliya's regeneration was now the taller of the two – wrapped her arms around her adoptive mother and hugged her very tightly, lifting her slightly off the ground.
"You look older than me now," Aliya said, laughing, "Though not by much."
"Your hair is gold, like your cousin's was. It's strange," Anna replied.
"Any of our hair colours are strange to you, you lot only have one." They released each other and just grinned, the Time Lady almost laughing due to being so elated.
"It's been nearly thirty years since I've seen you," Anna said, looking at her with childish excitement in her eyes. Trandonians aged physically and mentally at half the rate of humans, and so it explained why she looked nearly thirty, having been a teenager when Aliya had dropped her on her home planet to start her own life.
But it made Aliya laugh. "It's been hundreds of years since I've seen you…" Her eyes softened and her hand went to touch a stray strand of turquoise hair. "Look at you…all grown up. You know that I didn't want to leave you, don't you?"
"I know that you regenerated and you were different," Anna said, not sounding entirely happy about it, "Softer, and more sentimental. Like you are now."
"The version of me you knew was the different one."
"I know. But that was the version that raised me. She was my mother."
"When I…went back to being more like myself, I realised that I had to go back to Gallifrey. You understood that, didn't you? You were old enough to be living your own life."
Anna just smiled. "I know, Vora. And my life is good. I am not angry in any way. You raised me, and now you are here and alive. What more could I want?" Aliya just smiled, glad to know that there weren't any grudges being held. "Oh, there is someone that I want you to meet. Two someones, actually."
"Okay, let's go."
The two of them left the TARDIS with the Doctor following close behind. Playing in the grass outside were a man and a child, both laughing and playing.
"Vora, this is my husband and my son."
The man straightened up and approached them, smiling easily at the two people who were strangers to him. "This is her?" He asked his wife, who nodded. He turned to Aliya and placed his left hand on his right shoulder and bowed slightly, as was Trandonian custom. "It is very good to meet you, Vora."
"Actually, her name is…Aliya," Anna said with a wry smile. It occurred to Aliya that the names were quite difficult because her third incarnation had gone by Luna in defiance of everything she had been on Gallifrey. Only Anna had ever called her Vora. For Anna to even recall what her usual name was…was actually rather impressive. The Time Lady inwardly cursed that she had a name long enough to warrant so many different nicknames over the years. It was getting ridiculous. "Only I get to call her Vora."
"Mama, who are these people?" The child asked, coming to tug Anna's leggings. He looked about seven in human years, meaning he was probably fourteen.
"Lin, you know how I told you about my mother? The one who flew me around through space with her?" Anna asked, and the boy nodded. "Well, this is her. This is your grandmamma."
Lin's eyes widened slightly and he took a few steps towards Aliya, who got onto her knees so that she was at his level. "Why do you look so funny?" He asked with a tiny frown on his pale face that melted her hearts in half a second. He was eyeing her blonde hair and tanned skin.
She laughed. "Because I'm from another world. So is my friend. He's called the Doctor." The Doctor waved enthusiastically and beamed at the child, who grinned back.
"Oh," he said, "That's okay." With that, he gave her a hug, which made her stiffen in surprise before she quickly began to hug him back.
When he finally let go, Aliya looked over her shoulder at the Doctor. "I'm a grandmother," she said, giggling at the words she had never been able to say before.
"Yes, I suppose you are," he said, smiling at her, "It's about time, I got there about a thousand years ago."
She made a childish face at him until his words caught her and she grinned mischievously. "You were a grandmother a thousand years ago?"
His face fell. "No! Not a grandmother, a grandparent, you knew I meant that!" He dropped his arms to his sides after he realised that they were flapping indignantly.
"Yes, but I wanted to see you squirm for a few seconds," she admitted, "Though technically if Jenny had children, you would be a grandmother because you are her mother and father."
That put a very deep frown on the Doctor's face as she realised he had a point. Somehow, she thought that the possibility of being a grandmother had probably never occurred to him.
"Will you stay for dinner?" Anna asked eagerly. "Rian here," She nodded towards her husband, "Makes excellent food."
Aliya glanced at the Doctor questioningly for a moment. "Doctor?" She knew she didn't have to say any more than that.
"Of course we'll stay," he said cheerfully, and Anna nodded, looking very pleased.
"Also," Aliya began, "Is it alright if the TARDIS stays here? Because you see, I'm travelling with the Doctor, so I don't actually need it. I couldn't think of a better place for it to stay in the meantime."
"Of course," her daughter said, and then looked between them curiously, "Though you are going to have to explain why you travelling with the man who once irritated you more than anyone in the universe."
"He's my best friend," Aliya laughed, "But that version of me was impossible to please."
"Oh, I remember very well," Anna replied wryly. She and her family went inside the house, leaving the two Time Lords alone outside.
"We don't have to stay, you know," Aliya said slowly, "You don't know her, really, and we've been here long enough, I know what you're like with domestic visits."
He shook his head and smiled. "You've been getting to know my daughter…about time I got to know yours." She couldn't help it – she beamed at him.
"You do know that you're my favourite person in the whole universe, right?"
That made him grin and his eyes sparkle with his usual ego. "Now that you mention it, yeah."
"And, on the topic of your daughter, I think we should go and tell her about this travelling thing soon," Aliya mentioned as they began to head inside, "Also, I want my Sherlock Holmes books."
"Haven't you read them all? What's the fun in a crime book if you already know the ending?"
"Homoerotic subtext, what else?" She said, smirking, and he looked at her with disbelief before rolling his eyes.
"I should have known."
"What?"
"You're a Johnlock shipper."
"I don't even know what that means!"
"You didn't happen to discover the internet while on Earth, did you?"
"I know what the internet is, but I only really used it for work. Why?"
"Absolutely no reason."
"That doesn't sound mildly suspicious at all…"
"Anyway, we've not going back there until we've had at least one more trip, I need some adventure before I make another domestic call."
"Okay, one more trip."
And there we are, the beginning of In Between the Shadows! I really hope you all liked it, but good or bad or mixed, letting me know in a review would be awesome.
And the Doctor and Aliya are back in full swing! I have to say it is a joy and a relief to be writing them together again because that separation in DS was exhausting. But of course, they will never be quite able to coexist without bickering. :P
It was also really good fun to write Anna and Aliya meeting again after all this time, and technically for the first time as well, as the prequel has not reached that point yet, haha. And ROMANA AND THE DOCTOR'S MOTHER! I wonder how many of you suspected? If you want more of my interpretion of the Doctor's mother/Mariakanelyari, check out chapter 9 of the prequel, previously called Past of the Angel but now called Before It Turned To Dust.
I did have to slip in a bit of Doctor/Romana because, well, that along with Eleven/River is my OTP for the Doctor so how was I supposed to resist?
Next chapter will see the beginning of a three chapter original adventure arc! And after that, we will see Jenny/Torchwood and her reaction to the resolution of their issues. Should be interesting... :)
Love you all dearly,
MayFairy :)