An Eternity Among The Stars

by seasidewriter1

Waking up in the Doctor Who world after a serious car crash, Selene finds herself being invited to travel with the Doctor and his companions. Together they all protect the earth from the dangers it faces as well as saving other worlds and time periods. But as time goes on, how strong will the relationship between the two become? Will they fall in love? starts with 10 *Doctor/OC*

22. The Family of Blood

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, any of the characters, places or alien species; those belong to their respective owners. I only own my OC Selene.

22. The Family of Blood

"Change back!"

"I–I literally do not know!"

Martha screamed as Jenny looped an arm around her neck and held her laser gun to her temple.

"Get off me!" she shouted.

"She's your friend, isn't she?" Jenny asked with a tilt of the head. "Doesn't this scare you enough to change back?"

"I don't know what you mean!" John cried again, becoming more desperate. A look crossed Jenny's face as her eyes slid towards Baines.

"The maid told me about Smith and his secretary. That woman there," she said nodding to Selene, whose eyes widened.

"Then let's have you!" Clark decided on, grasping her wrist and drawing her forward. Selene walked easily, not stumbling over her feet, not even when she was spun around and held to the man's chest. But she did flinch slightly when the gun was leveled at her head. Baines smirked again.

"Have you enjoyed it, Doctor, being human? Has it taught you wonderful things? Are you richer, better, wiser, hm? Then lets see you answer this––which one of them do you want us to kill?" he questioned. "Maid or secretary? Your friend or your lover?" Baines grinned evilly and arched one dark brow. "Your choice."

"Make your decision, Mr. Smith," Jenny demanded. The look on John's face was one of pure, unadulterated panic. He had to chose? If he truly had a choice, both would live, no one would die. There was no possible way he was going to decide who lived and who died; that was an ability he did not have in his power. An even more cruel glimmer arose in Baines' eyes.

"Perhaps if that human heart breaks the Time Lord will appear," he drawled as he tilted his head slightly. John was about to call out in protest, make a spur-of-the-moment decision, but something happened. In a sudden, synchronized movement, Clark, Jenny, Baines, and Lucy looked sharply to their left, inhaling deeply. They smelled something… they smelled something unique and utterly rare in scent. The tantalizing smell of a Time Lord.

Taking the distraction, Martha yanked herself from Jenny's grasp, snatched up her phaser gun and reversed their positions, aiming it towards the school boy.

"Right!" she called. "One more move and I shoot."

"Oh, the maid is full of fire!" Baines exclaimed.

"And you can shut up!" Raising the phaser, Martha fired at the ceiling.

"Careful, son of mine," said Clark, his grasp on Selene loosening slightly. "This is all for you so that you can live forever." Baines raised his own phaser gun, lips pulled up in a seemingly permanent smirk.

"Shoot you down…" he drawled sharply. Martha raised her eyebrows and nodded at him.

"Try it. We'll die together."

"Would you really pull the trigger? Looks too scared…" Seizing her moment, Selene rammed her elbow into Clark's stomach and yanked the phaser from his hand, marching a few steps forward till she was able to level its sights directly at Baine's temple. His head whipped around to stare at her, his dead looking eyes peering at her with interest.

"She may not be sure if she's willing to fire, but I am," Selene said in a trembling voice, using both hands to steady her aim. "Look into my eyes, Baines. Tell me if I'm lying." The school boy locked gazes with her and tilted his head in a movement so quick it could have almost been a tick of some sort. As he searched her eyes and took note of the determined pull of brows, he slowly began to lower his phaser. Selene swallowed thickly and hoped––hoped––that he couldn't see the the way her hands shooked or the fact that she honestly wasn't entirely convinced she could simply pull at the trigger her finger rested against. He might have been an alien… but before that, he had been Baines, a school boy whom she saw every day for the last few months. Could she really shoot him in order to kill what had possessed him? She had no firm idea if she could.

"Doctor, get everyone out," Martha said. "There's a door at the side. It's over there. Selene, go with him, he can't be left alone. Go on! Do it, Mr. Smith, I mean you!"

"Do what she said. Everybody out––now!" cried the Matron, who had been attending the dance with a rather nice man who worked in the local tailor shop. Selene seemed locked under Baines' strong, frightening gaze, so much so that John had to inch forward slowly and grasp her arm in order to drag her towards the door. He pulled her tightly into his side with a racing heart, arms winding around her protectively. He spotted Latimer standing by the window, watching as everyone poured out into the street screaming.

"Move yourself, boy! Back to the school, quickly!" he insisted, pushing his student towards the door.

"And you, shift," Martha said.

"What about you?"

"Mister Smith, I think you should escort Selene and the Matron to safety, don't you?" she asked pointedly, a composed look spread across her features. John, looking quite conflicted, glanced between Martha and the door. Then, keeping an arm around Selene's waist, he gestured for the Matron to follow them, escorting the two out of harm's direct path. Once outside, he pointed to one of the local village men.

"Mister Hicks, warn the village. Get everyone out." Spotting Latimer again, who hadn't run off yet, he reached out to him. "Latimer, get back to the school. Tell the headmaster."

"Don't touch me," the boy ordered, backing away from the man's touch. "You're as bad as them." Latimer spun on his heel and bolted off, disappearing into the chaos of the crowd and the darkness of the night. John shuffled a step forward as though he might follow, but thought better of it; young lads were hard to reason with, and the time for reasoning was overridden by heart-throbbing panic. He instead turned his attention to Selene, clasping her face between his hands, checking her over.

"Are you alright?" he asked urgently. Selene nodded, a soft smile appearing on her lips, clearly touched by his concerned.

"I'm fine, I promise. Shaken, admittedly, but fine," she responded. John nodded a few times before his brows pinched together and a confused frown pulled at the corners of his mouth.

"How did you learn to handle a gun in such a manner?"

"I… well…"

"Don't just stand there! Move!" Martha ordered as she appeared from the dance hall. She groaned in exasperation as she approached the two. She fixed Selene with a frustrated look as she pushed at John's shoulder. "God, you're rubbish as a human; come on!"

The three took off down the night darkened lane, the cool air biting at the backs of their throats. Loud bangs echoed through the air, projectiles from the Family's guns sparking off the gate and buildings behind them. No one spoke, but the fear was palpable. With their luck it was likely that they were being followed; while they couldn't hear anyone or anything behind them, there was a prickling feeling on the backs of their necks, hairs standing on end. John had his hand tightly clamped around Selene's determined to not let her slip away even for a moment. For if her fingers dropped away from his, he was sure she would disappear into the darkness and into the grasp of those… things that had attacked the dance hall. Funnily enough, it was for a similar reason Selene was holding onto his hand so tightly. He still only saw himself as John Smith the school teacher; that meant the dangers were heightened.

By the time the school came into view, a great shadow against a dark blue sky, their lungs ached and their feet hurt. Selene could feel a blister forming on the heel of her foot, and her toes were squished together due to the narrowness of her dancing shoes. John pushed the doors of the school open, bursting inside and grabbing a metal bell that was typically rung to signal the beginning and end of classes. He began to shake it furiously, the tangy sound echoing through the building.

"What are you doing?" Martha demanded.

"Maybe one man can't fight them, but this school teaches us to stand together," John said sternly, as the racket he made began to wake up students and teachers alike. "Take arms! Take arms!" Boys, still dressed in their daily uniforms began milling about, and teachers were rushing to figure out what exactly was going on. John made for the stairs, but Martha was quick to follow, anger pinching her features. He would be putting dozens of lives in danger.

"You can't do that!"

"You want me to fight, don't you? Take arms! Take arms!"

Hutchinson bounded down the steps and stopped at the foot, looking inquiringly at John.

"What's the matter, sir?" he asked.

"Enemy at the door, Hutchinson! Enemy at the door. Take arms!"

In a matter of moments, the entire building was alight with energy. Teachers were handing out guns to the students, who moved off to prepare them with nervous pinches between their brows. Selene tried to push her way towards John, but was constantly tugged back by the confused jumble of bodies. Ammunition was being prepared and rifles were being inspected for readiness.

"You can't do this, Doctor. Mr. Smith!" Martha tried calling out to him as he pushed into the storeroom, which was crowded with students who scrambled to be ready.

"Redfern, maintain your position in the stable yard. Faster now, that's it."

"They're just boys! You can't ask them to fight! They don't stand a chance!"

John whirled around and strode straight up to Martha, a stern look of reality settling across his features. Just what sort of school had she been working in for the past few months?
"They are cadets, Miss Jones, trained to defend the king and all his citizens and properties," he informed in a rehearsed voice. He spotted Selene over Martha's shoulder and he immediately stretched a hand out towards her. When she was close enough he took her by the shoulders and began to steer her back towards the hall. "Ah! Selene, I'd ask you to barricade yourself––and Miss Jones––in my office. Unless, of course, you have some knowledge of medicine and would be of more help to the Matron then––"

Selene wrenched her way from John's grasp and spun to face him. The look on her face was utterly unamused. Strands of hair fell around her face and pins were beginning to push out of their places; they never quite worked well with her hair and the running they'd done didn't help anything. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest was rising and falling heavily with deep-seated emotion. The secretary appeared rumpled and put-off. Not to mention, her shoes were gone, which was quite odd, John had to admit.

"I will not barricade myself in your office, John," she stated firmly. He blinked and then nodded, trying to take hold her her shoulders again.

"Then you'll go with the Matron––" Selene roughly pushed his hands away, much to his surprise.

"I will not go with Joan. I… what I will do is fight. If you're going to endanger not only your life, but the life of all of these boys, then I'm going out there with them," Selene said firmly. John's brows pinched together and, with a sigh, he gently shepherded her towards a quieter corner of the room. Both of his hands rose to softly cup her jaw, his thumbs sweeping along her cheeks.

"I can't have you doing that. You may know how to handle a gun… which still comes as a shock to me, I must admit, but I shall not have to endangering yourself," John informed in a firm, low voice. Tilting his head downwards, he pressed a kiss to her forehead and then tenderly brushed the unruly curls out of her face. "Hutchinson!" The young man stopped in the doorway he was about to pass through and turned towards his professor. In a moment of uncharacteristic respect, he nodded to his superior.

"Sir?"

"I'd like for you to see Miss Thomas to my office." Stepping away from Selene, he leaned towards Hutchinson's ear and passed him a key. "And see that it is locked once she is inside." Slowly, Hutchinson curled his fingers around the key and gave a solemn nod.

"Yes, sir." His hand stretched out and he took Selene by the elbow with a ginger, but firm grasp. "Come with me, Miss."

"What?" Selene asked. She looked to John with a pinch forming between her brows. "John…"

"Come along, Miss Thomas." Hutchinson tugging at her arm. When that failed to move her, Hutchinson nodded to another young fellow just outside the room. "Penner, give me a hand, would you?" John swallowed thickly and forced his face to be impassive as the second young man took hold of Selene's other elbow.

Together both young men managed to drag Selene––who gave as much of a struggle as she could with her tired body––to John's office. Penner pushed her inside gracelessly, wincing when she gave a squeak of surprise. Selene regained her footing and turned just in time to see the door get pulled shut. She ran towards it and began to tug at the handle, just as she heard the lock click.

"No, no, no…" she murmured frantically, beginning to slam her palm flat against the thick wooden door. "Hutchinson! Please!"

"Mr. Smith's order, Miss," replied the young man on the other side of the door.

"I can help you all if you just let me out! O-or slip me the key under the door!" Selene resorted to pleading, hoping that Hutchinson––who had been anything but kind to her––might seem reason. There was a pause on the other side of the door, and she wondered if he'd already walked off. "Hutchinson?"

"I… I'm sorry, Miss. But we can't have you getting hurt. Believe it or not, but many of the lads think you make the school a better place. Even if they don't show it," he told her in a terse, professional voice.

The floorboards creaked, signalling his retreat.

"Damn!" she hissed, slamming her fist against the door one last time. She rattled the door knob a few more times to vent some frustration; once that was done and over with, she began pacing, angrily yanking pins out of her hair. As it tumbled to her shoulders, she began threading her fingers through the tangling curls. The way Selene saw it, she had two options. One was to do as John said and stay barricaded in John's office till everything blew over. The other was to find some way out of the office. Option two appealed to her more.

Selene spun around and eyed the set of diamond paned windows that were set into the wall across the room. Without so much as a muttered apology, Selene maneuvered her way to the window and shifted the vase of flowers on the table. She flinched when said vase toppled over and shattered on the floor as she climbed up onto the small table. A lamp tipped over and Selene almost let out a shout of frustration. After a moment of calming breaths, Selene wiggled her way onto the windowsill and began to work on throwing the latch of the window; it was stiff from disuse, since the weather as of late rarely permitted them to open it. After a moment, there was a squeal and a click, and the latch moved. Pushing the windows outward, Selene swung her legs outside, the cool wind tickling at her legs.

From outside, the sounds of the school were muffled. Coming from the courtyard, however, Selene could hear a dull babble of voices. The tone of one said voice was vaguely familiar––Baines. She slouched down so she was directly below the window, a hand pressed over her mouth. Now that she was out… she had to figure out what she could do. If she went back into the school, John would surely have her locked back up; and so would begin an unending cycle. Had she literally just escaped to find out she should just climb back inside? Then, a thought came to her. The Family was looking for the Doctor, and, by extension… the TARDIS. Selene's head snapped upward. That was what she could do. Get to the TARDIS and figure out some way to protect it, keep it hidden away. Rising to her feet, which were still bare and protesting the frostiness of the ground, Selene hiked up her skirts and made a run for the forest path.

OOOO

"Miss Jones, you have to understand this is for your own good," John said as he wrestled Martha towards his study. Hutchinson had returned the key to him in good faith, saying that Selene had been secured inside. The only logical thing to do was now to put Martha in with her; that way he might be spared of her pestering… and he would know she would be safe as well. Martha was struggling in his grasp, hoping she might escape him. But as the door was unlocked and opened, John's grasp loosened significantly. "No…"

Peering into the room, Martha noticed that Selene wasn't where she thought she might be. She wasn't sitting on the sofa with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed her chest. Selene simply wasn't there. The windows across the room were open and she was gone. John began muttering a slew of 'no's under his breath, hands flying upwards the slip through his hair.

"Did you honestly think that she was going to stay put? Do as told? You know her, Mr. Smith," Martha bit out his name as though it were a swear, "did you expect her to do what she thought was rendering her useless?" John stared through the open windows, fear crawling up his throat with an unpleasant stinging feeling. Slowly, he shook his head.

"No… of course she… it's only fitting that…"

In his mind's eye, he saw flashes of Selene in situations he couldn't recall being witness to. He saw her slumped over in a bright white room with wind-swept hair and tears staining her cheeks. He saw her standing in his arms with a look of fearful determination, face turned towards the sky, eyes glittering with what could have been tears and what could have been pure, unadulterated emotion. That was an image that stuck in his head for the longest moment. While John didn't understand what was happening to them in that instance, he somehow felt she was putting him before herself, willing to go down with a fight. Of course… why would she take kindly to being rendered useless in an office when she so obviously strove to help?

"Mr. Smith! We must secure the building!" called out Headmaster Rocastle. John snapped out of his thoughts and spun to face his superior, suddenly looking wide-eyed and just a tad fearful.

"Y-yes, sir. Of course, sir."

He moved away, clearing his head with a slight shake, leaving Martha to slip into his office, unnoticed by the barrage of motion in the lobby. She had to find the watch. That was what the Family wanted; and if it was lost… who's to say they hadn't gotten their hands on it? Mister Phillips had just been vaporized before the eyes of the entire school… the Family was clearly willing to go to great lengths to get what they wanted.

As Martha began rifling through papers and looking under books, Joan came to stand in the doorway, watching on.

"Martha, what on earth are you doing?" she demanded, a tremor in her voice that betrayed just how nervous the turn of events were making her.

"Looking for the Doctor's watch… the fob watch he always had stored on the mantlepiece." Joan moved further into the room and spotted John's journal perched precariously on the edge of his desk. She picked it up and hugged it to her chest, the object giving her some semblance of comfort. "I know it sounds mad, but when the Doctor became human, he took the alien part of himself and he stored it inside the watch. I mean, it's not really a watch, it just looks like a watch."

"And 'alien' means 'not from abroad,' I take it," Joan said, forcing her voice to stay steady. She had overheard John talking about Martha's outburst to a fellow teacher at the dance earlier. Honestly, the woman had to be mad to believe such things about Mr. Smith. Straightening up, Martha offered a tired look.

"The man you call John Smith, he was born on another world," Martha emphasized softly. The Matron swallowed thickly.

"A different species?"

"Yeah."

"Then, tell me, in this fairy tale… who are you?" Joan inquired. The question cut into Martha like the barbs on a flower. It was a question that she had been asking of herself, one that she thought of every time the Doctor brought up Rose or each time just the mention of Selene made his eyes light up.

"Just a friend. I'm not––I mean, Selene, she's… she hasn't got a rival, as much as I might…" Martha trailed off, swallowing thickly. She looked up and forced a small smile. "Just his friend."

"And human, I take it? You and Miss Thomas?"

"Humans, yeah, don't worry. And more than that––I don't just follow him around, I'm training to be a doctor. Not an alien doctor, a proper doctor. A doctor of medicine," Martha told the Matron as she began sifting through a different pile of messy looking school papers. The nurse laughed softly and shook her head. What fantasy this was!
"Well, that certainly is nonsense. Women might train to be doctors, but hardly the skivvy, and hardly one of your color." Martha slowly turned on her heel and fixed Joan with a look, one that was decidedly bland.

"Oh, do you think?" she bit out flatly. Joan directed her eyes elsewhere. Martha inhaled deeply and held up her left hand. "Bones of the hand. Carpal bones, proximal row––scaphoid, lunate, triquetral, pisiform. Distal row––trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate. Then the metacarpal bones, extending in three distinct phalanges, proximal, middle, distal."

"You read that in a book," Joan reasoned. Martha scoffed.

"Yes! To pass my exams! Can't you see? This is true."

"I must go."

"If we find that watch, then we can stop them!"

Joan stopped in the doorway, journal still in hand. She gave Martha an emotion filled look.

"Those boys are going to fight. I might not be a doctor, but I'm still their nurse. They need me." With that, she swept from the room and left Martha standing alone in the overturned study. She rubbed her eyes and glanced about the room with a hammering heart. Where on earth did she start looking next?

OOOO

By the time Selene reached the dilapidated old barn where the TARDIS was being stored away, she was out of breath, her feet were numb, and she was fairly sure she'd avoided several dangerous encounters with the Family's army of scarecrows. Pushing into the barn, she vaguely felt the scratch of hay against the soles of her feet. She was solely focused on getting into the TARDIS. She shoved a hand down the front of her dress and withdrew the key and chain she'd sewn into the bodice before leaving for the dance. The necklace was always on her, every hour of the day; the fact that she didn't have pockets meant she had to get creative with ways to keep it on her person. The key was jammed into the lock with little ceremony, and Selene slipped inside, still breathing heavily. The lights that were glowing around her were the ones that only popped on for emergencies, and was all rather eerie. Everything was… silent. No whirring, no clicking, no chuggling. Just silence.

For a brief moment, Selene shut her eyes and grasped onto the ramp's railing, relishing the feeling of home that was suddenly wrapped around her. Once her eyes flicked open, she slipped the necklace around her neck and made for the console. Her fingers ran over the buttons and levers, which were all cold. Pressing a few of them, the image of the Doctor appeared on one of the screens, his eyes seemingly fixed on her.

"Is this thing working?" his image asked, tapping on the screen. Selene quickly pressed another button, fast forwarding through some of the message. She knew the first few instructions… but she was hoping that maybe just maybe somewhere in that list told her what to do if they needed to move the TARDIS. "Number five: pears. Don't let me eat pears. I hate pears. John Smith is a character I made up, but I won't know that. I'll think I am him, and he might do something stupid, like eat a pear. In three months, I don't want to wake up from being human and taste that." Selene groaned and fast forwarded some more, making a face as she heard the Doctor saying, "Bingle-bongle, dingle-dangle, yikkity-doo, yikkity-da, ping-pong, lippy-tappy-too-tah." She had no idea what he might have been saying in that moment, what possible instruction that could belong to, but she didn't have time to reminisce on whatever it could be.

For the next three minutes she fast forwarded, rewound, and paused, trying to find something to help her. When the message yielded nothing and ended with one of the Doctor's infernally adorable smile, Selene smacked the console with her palm.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she shouted openly. Standing back and placing her hands on her hips, she stared up into the TARDIS' ceiling. "Could you give me anything on this? Anything?" Silence. "Of course not, because you're not currently functional…" Suddenly, a well of emotions rose in Selene's chest as she stared down at the frozen image of the Doctor's face. "Oh, stop looking at me like that!" She slapped a button and the image disappeared, leaving the screen blank.

With both hands still firmly settled on her hips, Selene began to pace, feeling the unpleasant sting of tears begin to form in her eyes. The stress of the evening fall harshly atop her shoulders. At least a mile away, John, Martha, Joan, and all of the schoolboys would be fighting off an army of alien-controlled scarecrows. Scarecrows that didn't have hearts, that didn't bleed, and that certainly didn't die. If the evening were to end with the Family getting hold of John or getting hold of the watch… she would never see the Doctor again either way. But if they could get the watch, get John to remember… then everything could end well. With the watch missing, however, the likelihood of a good, happy ending was slim and getting thinner with each passing moment.

From the corner of her eye, Selene saw green light illuminate the windows on the TARDIS door. Her brows pinched together and, ever so slowly, she inched towards the doors.

"Son of Mine… Wife of Mine…" she heard a male voice on the other side of the door say rapturously. She recognized the voice––it was Farmer Clark's voice. The man who'd held her hostage earlier in the night. Finally at the door, she pressed her ear against it and listened. "His TARDIS. I've found it. He can't escape!"

"Oh, come on…" Selene murmured, letting her head fall against the TARDIS' door. Of course the universe decided to throw this curveball at her. Again, she found herself faced with a few options, all of which weren't pleasant. Such as bursting through the door and immediately getting shot down. Also, getting out the door and accidentally letting Clark get inside. But desperate times called for desperate measures, did it not?

Reaching upwards, she place her palm flat against her chest. Her pulse was thrumming, her heart beating harder than it had in weeks. The chain the TARDIS key dangled from had been warmed by her skin, and was pressing into the flesh of her palm, where it would surely leave tiny, striated marks. Grasping both sides of the chain, Selene gave a mighty tug, breaking the clasp that held it around her neck. She held it in her closed fist, which she held to her lips, almost in a silent prayer. Then, she flung the key and chain back towards the console, where it skittered across the floor with a tiny ping. Her fingers stretched towards the door handle. Then, after sucking in a deep breath, she pulled the door open and stepped outside.

The door clicked shut behind her quietly, but the sound was loud enough to alert Clark, who had been standing in the barn's doorway with his back to the time machine. He spun around to find that secretary woman from the dance hall standing just in front of the blue box, brandishing a pitchfork that had strands of straw speared on its ends. Her face was composed in a fierce expression, lips set in a firm line, eyes trained on him alertly.

"You… I know you," Clark muttered in a near growl.

"Yeah, 'you' used to sell me milk on Sunday mornings in market," Selene replied flatly. Clark smirked.

"He's gone."

"I picked up on that."

"You were in the TARDIS…" he hummed as they began to circle each other, like something out of an old Spaghetti Western film. His head tilted to the side as he inhaled deeply. "You have a touch of the Void about you. You're with the Time Lord."

"Took you that long to figure it out?" she asked, adjusting her grip on the pitchfork. He lunged a step forward and she tripped a step back. Their movements froze.

"You can get me inside."

"I don't have the key. Not anymore."

Clark's eyes narrowed dangerously and his hand twitched towards his belt. His wrist brushed the opening of his coat to the side, revealing the lazer gun that the Family had been brandishing earlier. Selene licked her dry lips and shifted a step towards the door, her barefeet scraping against the straw on the barn floor.

"Why don't you tell me where the watch is, like a good girl, hm? Spare your life. Spare the life of your friends, of all those in the village. Where's the watch?" Clark demanded. Selene said nothing, deciding that silence was the best answer. "Where is it!"

"Like I'd tell you!" Selene laughed. Her face sobered up then, a scowl pulling at her lips. "Or, perhaps, you like sniffing after it all evening like a dog. Is that what you are? A dog? Well, I have a game we can play if you are…" Selene hefted the pitchfork over her shoulder and hauled it backwards. "Fetch!" The pitchfork sailed towards Clark, who let out a shout of surprise and dove to the side to avoid it.

Selene was out the door and into the forest in the turn of the moment. She didn't bother hiking up her skirts, letting the fabric snag and tear on passing branches as her feet began to numb against the cold ground again. If Clark was roaring behind her angrily, she didn't hear. She could feel the ground tremble as the Father of the Family shot the soil at her heels, the lazer beams nipping at her skin. But she didn't care. All she could think to do was run. Run until her feet were bloody, till her lips were chapped, and her lungs ached. Run till she was somewhere that held the semblance of a safe haven, because her decision to venture into the woods to find the TARDIS had been stupid. It had been so terribly stupid, and now she might pay for it with her life.

The countryside passed Selene by in a blur. The map of the small country village was flickering around in her mind, telling her what fields to pass through, which way was shorter, and which would ultimately lead her to the back of the Farringham School. Coming to Maggor's field, Selene pushed herself over the wooden fence, letting her dress skirts bunch up around her legs in a very unlady-like fashion. She paused for a moment then, bent at the waist as she attempted to catch her breath. Her stomach ached and her lungs hurt, but she was fairly sure that Clark wasn't following her any longer. The woman straightened up again and tilted her head back with her eyes squeezed shut. If she made it out of this alive, she was going to take a nice, long bath with some very soothing lavender-scented soap.

Selene began to walk forward slowly, allowing herself a moment of rest. Her feet hurt something awful, and she was sure she'd cut the sole of her left one on a stone; though, they were so numb she couldn't actually tell. That was another stupid decision she'd made that evening. Leaving her shoes behind. With a hand placed over her stomach, where a particularly painful cramp had arisen, she began to speed the pace of her walking. After another moment of quick strides, however, something knocked into her back and dragged her to the ground. She screamed as she felt straws prickle at her forearms and heard the shifting of burlap. A lone scarecrow had snuck up behind her and taken her down; it was shockingly heavy for something only made of hay and cloth.

Her fingers dug into the soil in front of her, giving her enough purchase to pull herself forward and then roll over. She kicked and scratched at the dead-eyed abomination, her heart hammering against her ribcage. The thing's bulbous hands swung and grasped at her arms, meaning to either hold her down or pull her up; its intentions were not clear. Finally managing to get her arms free from its oddly powerful grasp, Selene grabbed hold of its burlap head and gave an all-mighty tug. With the sound of ripping seams and a rustle of straw, Selene liberated the scarecrow's head from its body. It jolted a few more times before slumping lifelessly to the side. Tossing the head along side the rest of its corpse, Selene scrambled to her feet, stumbling over her own legs as she sloppily pushed herself into a run.

OOOO

"Your with Armitage and Thwaites, they know the drill," John instructed a young man, gesturing to his comrades. He turned his head to find Joan back in her uniform, fussing over some supplies at a table in the hall. She was getting ready for the fight, it would seem. In a few small steps, he stood beside her. "Joan, it's not safe." She turned to him with a calm, sober look on her face.

"I'm doing my duty. Just as much as you." Joan shuffled around some supplies before she paused, pursing her lips for a moment. Everything Martha had said to her earlier that evening flooded back into her head. Turning to John, she said, "Tell me about Nottingham."

"Sorry?" he asked, looking caught off-guard.

"That's where you were brought up. You told me once before. Tell me about it." John looked around, seeming unsure of what to do. He should be aiding those who were barricading the doors and windows… but… talking of home often did the thing to calm one down.

"Well… it lies on the River Leen, with its Southern boundary following the course of the River Trent, which flows from Stoke to the Humber," John described measuredly, sounding as though he'd said it dozens of times before. Joan exhaled shortly and a nearly nervous looking smile tugged at her lips.

"That sounds like an encyclopedia. Where did you live?"

"Broadmarsh Street, adjacent to Hawley Terrace, in the district of Radford Parade." He spoke of his supposed home from the view of an outsider, like a cartographer. As though he'd only ever seen it in map form, from far, far above. It wasn't the view of a man who had grown up in a town and had fond memories behind each little corner. And that concerned Joan. She looked up at him with a pleading look shining in her eyes.

"But more than facts. When you were a child, where did you play? All those secret little places, the dens and hideaways that only a child knows. Tell me, John. Please tell me." The drift of the conversation became perfectly clear to John in that moment.

"How can you think I'm not real?" he demanded with teary eyes and a shaky voice. Joan looked down at her feet and gave no reply. John straightened up and cleared his throat of the thickness he felt gathering there. "I've got to go."

"But Martha was right about one thing, though," the Matron told him. "Those boys, they're children. John Smith wouldn't want them to fight, never mind the Doctor. The John Smith I knew of, he knows it's wrong, doesn't he?"

"What choice do I have?"

Emerging from the back hall at that moment was Selene. John gaped when he saw the state she was in, his jaw dropping open nearly as far as it could go. Her beautiful red dress was splotched in dirt and torn at the hems, her barefeet with covered in thick layers of road dust, and her hair was a wind-blown mess. Her chin was quivering and her eyes were glassy.

"Good god…" John murmured, staggering a step forward. As he began to approach her, he held out his arms to comfort her. "What on earth ha––" Selene met his chest with a solid impact that cut off his words. Her arms were thrown around his neck, her face buried in his shoulder, and she shook in the embrace he was quick to return. When John realized she was crying, he began smoothing out her hair, hushing her gently as she clung to him.

"I was stupid… god I was stupid…" she muttered into his neck, voice broken. "I–I tried to find a way to help and it all went wrong…"

"No, no it was wrong of me to deny you the right to help…" he replied, rubbing a soothing circle in the center of her back. John felt her shift, and, when they both drew back, Selene looked at him seriously and placed both of her hands on either of his cheeks.

"That doesn't matter anymore. I know you're going to hate me for saying this… but I have to. We need to find the watch, John." Of all people he would have expected to believe Martha's tall tales… she was the last one he thought would fall for it. His face scrunched up in the most heart-breaking expression of betrayal and pain.

"You believe this… this tale of folly that I'm not real? That everything about me is an utter lie? What about when I kissed you? Was that a lie?" John begged to know, grasping onto her wrists. A tear escaped one of his eyes and her thumb wicked it away. Selene shook her head emphatically, cheeks still glistening with tears of her own.

"No, no, of course not."

"But this Doctor sounds like some… some… romantic lost prince. Would you rather that?" One of his hands reached out and brushed hair away from her face a sad smile quirked his lips. "Am I not enough?"

Selene's lips pulled into a frown and she shook her head, beginning to fuss over his rumbled hair and crooked tie, the way a wife would fuss over a husband. She continued to shake her head as she raised her eyes to meet his again. No. It was never that. He and the Doctor were the same man. But that was something he couldn't grasp at, couldn't wrap his mind around.

"That's not true…" Selene said in a hushed voice. John's eyes fell shut as she caressed his cheek. "Don't you dare ever think that's true, John."

"Mr. Smith, if you please!" called Rocastle from the courtyard. John's eyes flicked open and he turned to look over his shoulder. Turning back to Selene, he let his eyes wander her face for a moment before wordlessly ducking his head to kiss her. It was brief but reaffirming every feeling he felt for her in that quick moment. Then he turned on his heel and strode towards the doors, leaving Selene standing with Joan in the hall.

"Are you quite alright?" Joan asked Selene, noticing the way she favored her weight to her right foot. Selene blinked and tore her eyes from the door John had disappeared through.

"Um… I… I don't know…" Leaning against the bannister, Selene raised her left foot and found that she'd been right about a rock cutting into her foot. "It's just a scratch."

"Sit down, I'll take care of it."

Selene sat herself down on a bench that was pressed flush against the wall, propping her ankle up on her right knee. As the Matron attended to her injury, cleaning and bandaging it, shouting could be heard from the courtyard.

"What is it, what's going on?" Martha asked, pushing her way out of John's study. Her eyes landed on the very rumpled looking Selene, who looked about ready to slump into exhaustion. "Selene!"

"Right, hi, sorry about leaving so fast. As for the noise… I believe the battle is beginning," Selene said tiredly, swiping a hand over her face. "Could be wrong though."

The courtyard was barricaded with sandbags and overturned carts. John held a rifle in his hands, face stern as he kept at the ready. The boys looked frightened, wiping at eyes and sniffing heavily. They had been trained for such a day… but they never thought it would be upon them so soon, in a place they found so safe. Their gazes were aimed down the barrels of their guns, which were trained at the school gates, which were being beaten down by the scarecrows. When they cracked open, Rocastle shouted,

"Fire!"

The gunfire began, stuttering out in volleys as the boys aimed and fired. John's finger fell onto his gun's trigger… but he didn't squeeze it. He didn't shoot. Something in him begged him not to, prevented him from moving his finger the slightest quarter of an inch that would allow him to shoot. Bullets cut into the scarecrows, sending out sprays of cloth and straw fiber everywhere. No blood. No bone. Just cloth and straw. John looked to the boys on his right and left. They were so young… so, very young, and there they crouched with machine guns and rifles, firing on enemies, their aims intent to kill. He began to slowly lower his own weapon. And he'd taught them that. He had taught those fresh-faced, innocent boys how to kill.

"Cease fire!" Rocastle exclaimed firmly as the last scarecrow fell. Dust and smoke filled the courtyard, which was now ridden with bullet scuffs and holes where their projectiles had made impact. It was suddenly eerily silent. Rocastle stepped out into what had, moments before, been the field of battle. He stared down at the corpse of a scarecrow. He chuckled. "Just straw. Like he said. Straw!" Hutchinson looked towards John with hope gleaming in his eyes.

"Then no one's dead, sir? We've killed no one," Hutchinson said, sounding relieved about the fact.

Footsteps on gravel.

"Stand to!" Rocastle ordered as he retreated behind the lines. The boys, still shaky in the arms, looked down their sights again. But, appearing through the smokey fog, was little Lucy in her pink coat and red balloon. "You, child, come out of the way. Come into the school! We don't know who's out there. It's the Cartwright girl, isn't it? Come here, come to me." He stepped forward and extended a hand. The doors to the school were flung open.

"Mister Rocastle! Please, don't go near her!" Joan and Selene, now done were their spurt of medical care, rushed after Martha. Selene grabbed the shoes she'd discarded by the door earlier, wincing as they pinched her toes again.

"You were told to be quiet," spat Rocastle. Martha, looking exasperated and desperate, gestured to Selene and Joan.

"Just listen to me; she's part of it! Matron, tell him!"

"I think that––I don't know––I think that you should stay back," Joan said honestly, watching the young, innocent looking girl warily. Selene nodded and rubbed at her arms in the chill of the evening air.

"She was there, sir, at the dance hall. She was with those who control the… things you just fought," Selene confirmed. She looked to John, who still wearily held his gun, which was aimed at the ground. "John?"

"She was––she was… with… with Baines in the village." Rocastle fixated a glare on the school teacher.

"Mr. Smith, I have seen many strange sights this night, but there is no cause on god's earth that would allow me to see this child in the field of battle, sir," Rocastle said sternly. He turned back to Lucy. "Come with me."

"You're funny," Lucy said simply.

"That's right. Now, take my hand."

"So funny." Lucy produced one of the Family's lazer guns and vaporized Rocastle on the spot. Everyone gaped at her as Rocastle's final cry echoed in the air. "Now who's going to shoot me? Any of you? Really?" John held out and hand and gestured downwards slowly.

"Put down your guns," he gently commanded.

"But, sir, the headmaster––" began Hutchinson.

"I'll not see this happen. Not anymore," John responded firmly. He set his gun on the cold cobblestone in front of his feet. "We will retreat in an orderly fashion back through the school. Hutchinson, lead the way."

"But, sir."

"I said lead the way."

"Well, go on then. Run!" Baines called out as appeared through the gates, shooting his own gun into the sky. "Soldiers! Reanimate!"

"C'mon!" Martha prompted. She, Selene, Joan, and John dashed into the school, leading the boys through the building. They went through the back hall, where Selene had come in through ten minutes before hand.

"Let's go, quick as you can!" John ushered.

"Don't go to the village, it's not safe," Martha added. Selene, who stood by the door, touched each boy on the shoulder on their way out.

"Head for the woods, if you can, find cover," Selene instructed.

"And you, ladies!" prompted John, who was swinging the heavy green door shut.

"Not till all the boys are out," Joan responded adamantly. John rushed out and saw that the remaining boys from the passage were running towards the forest. He dashed back inside saying,

"Now, I insist that you three go. If there are any more boys inside, I'll find them!" He swung the door to the school open and was met with the faces of four or so scarecrows. The door was slammed shut and locked again. "I think––retreat!"

The four made a break to the forest, headed by Selene who had done said run earlier in the evening. By the time they looped around to the front of the school, Clark's boisterous voice could be heard singing a single name, one that caught their attention quick enough to stop them from fleeing.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Clark sang. John spotted the farmer stood just outside the school's entrance, right in front of a big blue box. He stared at the thing absolutely transfixed, sinking to his knees behind some bushes. He felt Selene slip her hand into his as they all stared at the TARDIS glowing in the distance. "Come back, Doctor! Come home! Come and claim your prize!"

"Out you come, Doctor! There's a good boy," Baines said, voice piercing the air. "Come to the Family!"

"Time to end it now!" Jenny called.

"You recognize it, don't you?" Martha asked, nodding to the blue box in the distance. John stared at it wide eyed before shaking his head.

"I've never seen it in my life," he responded.

"Do you remember its name?" Selene prompted gently, intertwining her fingers with his. He looked down at her with a pinch between his brows and a frown pulling at his lips.

"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it," Joan interjected. "The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box.

"I'm not…" John's head twitched back to look forward, staring fuzzily into the distance. His voice broke as he said, "I'm John Smith! That's all I want to be––John Smith!" His eyes flooded with tears and his voice was strained in a way that audibly told them all he was suppressing sobs. "With his life… and his job…" He looked down at Selene and clasped her hand against his heart. "And his love. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?" John rocked forward on his knees before he sank backwards, looking panicked, confused, and utterly heartbroken. Selene nodded and gently splayed her fingers over his heart.

"Yes. Yes, he is," she whispered. She lifted her other hand and placed it on his cheek as he finally let out a heart-wrenching sob.

"Why can't I stay?" he demanded to know, looking her dead in the eye. Selene's eyes began to sting with her own tears and she bit her lip, knowing whatever answer she'd give would hurt him. John looked back towards the TARDIS and swept a hand over his face, looking dumbfounded and ready to collapse.

"But we need the Doctor," Martha interrupted. John's head swiveled to the right to stare at her, stare at the sad, longing look on her face. That was it then? He was unable to decide his own fate simply because one person wanted to change him? He had no say in anything?
"So what am I, then, nothing?" he asked, brow-eyes glassy and wide. "I'm just a story!" He tore his hands from Selene's and stumbled off into the forest, with the three women stumbling after him.

The walk was silent. No one spoke and John looked decidedly put-out. Angry, even. They found a road and walked along it, till Joan gestured to a side path they could take. They went to a small cottage that Joan said she believed to be empty, completely abandoned. When they stepped inside, everything was neatly dusted, as though it had been inhabited right up to the moment they'd stepped into its cool darkness.

"No one's home. We should be safe here," Joan said. Martha looked around, feeling a shiver run down her spine at how empty the home felt. It was quaint and small, but homey none the less. With a fire going and with good company, it could be the best place on earth. But now it was drenched in darkness and utterly lifeless.

"Whose house is it, though?" she asked.

"Erm… the Cartwrights. That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright. Or… she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon, and if her parents tried to stop their little girl, then… they were vanished," Joan reasoned uneasily. She reached out and touched a red and white teapot that sat on the table they all stood around. "Stone cold. How easily I accept these ideas."

John staggered over to a bench on the other side of the table and sat himself down on it, looking distraught as he turned to the others in the room.

"I must go to them, before anyone else dies," he told them. Selene shoved her fingers into her hair and began pacing, feeling stress work its way through her veins.

"You can't. Martha, Selene, there must be something we can do," Joan implored firmly.

"Not without the watch…" Martha sighed.

"You're this Doctor's companion, can't you help?!" John demanded sharply. "What exactly do you do for him!? Why does he need you?!"

"John––" Selene began to reprimand softly, but Martha placed a hand on her arm to stop her.

"Because he's lonely."

"And that's what you want me to become?"

Knock-knock.

They all turned to look at the door, a thrill of fear running through their bodies.

"What if it's them?" Joan asked.

"I… don't think that scarecrows or murderous aliens would have the courtesy to knock," Selene said, making her way to the door. She reached for the door knob and, with slight hesitation, she pulled it open. Latimer stood outside, holding a shining silver fob watch in his hand.

"I brought you this," Latimer told her. There was a faint smile on his face, and a look as though he knew her better than the last time they'd spoken; and he did. The watch whispered to him, told him of adventures and places and people he didn't know. Of the Doctor and his companions. Selene stared at him for a moment before a smile of relief appeared on her face. Flinging the door open the rest of the way, Selene pulled the boy into a hug.

"Thank you…" she whispered.

"Of course, Selene." She ushered him inside and shut the door, taking the fob watch from the young man. John stood and stared at what the woman he adored now had sitting in her hand. His heart beat faster and his blood pounded in his ears.

"John… please, just hold it," Selene implored gently.

"I won't."

"Just hold it, please," Martha said.

"It told me to find you. It wants to be held," Latimer added in.

"You've had this watch all this time?" Joan asked. "Why didn't you return it?" Latimer looked to the watch for a moment before his eyes flicked up to the man who had been teaching him the past three months.

"Because it was waiting. Then because I was so scared… Of the Doctor."

"Why?"

"Because… I've seen him. He's… like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun." The young man began walking towards John, eyes intent.

"Stop it…" John muttered.

"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe."

"Stop it! I said… stop it."

"And…" Latimer briefly glanced at Selene before his gaze landed back on a very frightened looking John. "He's wonderful."

"I've still got this––the journal," Joan said as the conversation fell into a lull. She tugged it out of her coat pocket and set the leather bound journal onto the table corner. John shook his head once, face composed in a look of stern fear.

"Those are just stories."

"We know that isn't true," Selene said, clasping the watch to her stomach. "I can… I can find something, show you something in there––"

The house suddenly shook and the windows became alight with a blinding white flash. They gathered around the window to see streaks of fire cut through the night sky, falling to earth where they exploded with mighty, ground shaking bangs.

"They're destroying the village," the Matron whispered in horror.

"The watch," John nearly hissed in urgency, pulling it from Selene's grasp. He paced across the room with it cradled in his hands, his eyes fixated on the strange carvings engraved on the front.

Closer… closer… it whispered.

"Can you hear it?" asked Latimer, sounding wiser beyond his years.

"Like… he's asleep," John said, "waiting to awaken."

Waken me, little man.

"Why did he speak to me?" Latimer inquired curiously. John's face suddenly scrunched up in a look that had never occupied his face. The tone of his voice shifted as he spoke in a way that was entirely not his.

"Ah, you know, low-level telepathic field, you were born with it, just an extra synaptic engram causing––" John inhaled sharply and his face cleared, staring down at the watch in something nearing horror. His brows pinched together worriedly. "Is that how he talks?"

"That's him!" Martha whispered with her hands clasped to her heart, a smile on her face. John's mouth moved a moment with no words to say exiting them. "All you have to do is open it and he's back." Another explosion rattled the house. John looked to Martha, appearing utterly betrayed again.

"You knew this all along, and yet you watched on as Selene and I––" Selene opened her mouth and took a step forward, but Martha breezed past her saying,

"I didn't know how to stop you. he gave me a list of things to watch out for, but that wasn't even included."

"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?" John asked, sounding disgusted.

"Well… no…"

"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?" he demanded, eyes tearing up.

"It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said," Martha continued as Selene began to slowly step closer. John's teary brown eyes fixed a glare on the maid he'd trusted for so long, and felt like he'd known for so, so much longer.

"So your job was to execute me." A statement. No, an accusation. The statement of a man betrayed by one whom he thought he could trust; a turncoat.

"People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago, but… he is everything. He's just everything to me and he doesn't even look at me 'cause he's in love with someone else. But I don't care… because I love him to bits," Martha ranted on, suddenly aware of what she'd just admitted out loud. She licked her lips and stared directly at John, hyper aware of Selene, who stood just behind her. "And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this."

Yet another explosion rattled the house, shook the windows, and made the timbers over their heads creak. Latimer, who peered out the window to check where the strike had been, turned back to give them a report.

"Its getting closer."

"Oh! I should have thought of it before! I can give them this! Just the watch! Then they can leave earth and I stay as I am!"

"John, please listen to me, you can't do that," Selene implored, stepping towards him.

"If they want the Doctor, they can have him! You and I, we can be happy together, Selene! You don't… you don't need a man who talks as medically, as coldly as he does! If they get what they want, then… then…"

"Then it all ends in destruction," Joan said softly from the window, where she'd been flipping through the journal. "I never read to the end. Those creatures would live forever, to breed and conquer. War across the stars, for every child." John's shoulders began to shake and tears finally began their escape routes down his cheeks. A choked sob escaped his lips and he began to reach out for Selene, who stood to be the only comfort in the room for him. "Martha, Timothy… I think it's best if we wait outside a moment."

The three filed out of the cottage, leaving Selene and John alone in the cool darkness. Selene, chin beginning to tremble, crossed the few paces between herself and John, winding her arms around his neck. His arms, which shook something awful, tightened around her waist; he clung to her as though she were his only reality, as though the room, the world, the air he breathed didn't exist. It was only Selene. The floral smell of her hair, the softness of her body, the warmth of her embrace, the kindness in her words… that was all he wished to know. Selene slipped her fingers into his hair, hushing him soothingly as he sobbed into her shoulder. There were no words of comfort she could give; because Martha may have delivered the sentence… but Selene had to be the executioner.

"You called Martha your executioner…" Selene murmured softly as his sobs lessened. Turning her head, she kissed his temple with her eyes clamped shut to keep her own tears at bay. She cared for John as much as she cared for the Doctor, now. They were one in the same. Two sides of the same coin. "Yet here I am… the Hamlet to your Polonius." John's body jerked slightly, an irregular movement that must have been half a sob, half a laugh. He always did find it endearing when she quoted or referenced Shakespeare. Drawing back half a step, Selene reached up with a frown on her lips, wiping tears off his cheeks with the tenderest of touches. "You should sit; you're quaking like a leaf."

They both sat side-by-side on a wobbly little bench that was placed in front of the fireplace, which was blackened with soot from the morning's fire. John stared desolately down at the watch that sat heavily in his hand, turning the silver timepiece around over and over again. Selene sat tucked into his side, their legs touching, her shoulder against his. It was quiet for a moment, the bombardment of the village taking a pause as well, almost as though fate were letting them have one, tender, beautiful moment amidst the hellish chaos around them. John finally stopped playing with the fob watch and stared at its lid. There was resolve in the movement. A saddened, heavy resolve that John had settled on. That one way or another… he couldn't win.

"If there were… any way possible to let you… continue on while the Doctor comes back… I would find it, I'd tell it to you, but… there's no possible way… Hell, even if I could do it for you, I would," Selene told him, resting her head on his shoulder. John looked down at her and shifted away so she had to raise her head again. There was pain in his eyes.

"Will he love you as I did? A-as I hold this watch I can feel what he did, what he does… and his affection for you, it's… will he love you as I do?" John implored, voice rough from his tears. Selene slipped her hand into the one that didn't hold the watch, clasping their fingers together. She stared at their clasped hands for a moment and then nodded firmly, raising her head to meet his gaze. A soft, gentle, impossibly sweet smile rose to her face.

"You two… you're the same person; as much as you wouldn't like to believe it, it's true. And if you love me wholeheartedly, unadulterated, utterly, and completely––"

"I do."

"... then shouldn't he as well?" Selene questioned. She sniffed and rubbed at her nose, which was both cold and runny from the tears stinging in her eyes. "If he cares for me that way at all." She trailed off and felt John's fingers tighten between her own, sensing her own pain on the subject. A single tear streaked down the side of her face and she laughed, for god knows what reason. Tilting her head back, Selene smiled up at the ceiling and shook her head. "But these last three months… I wouldn't replace them for the world, John. I promise… I wouldn't. Not for anything."

"And it was real," John said firmly, reassuring himself of his own statement. "I wasn't… I really thought…" A few more tears burned a path down his cheek, which Selene reached up to wipe away, thumb swiping along his cheekbone. Then she withdrew her hand from his, cleared her throat, and straightened out his bowtie. Taking her time, she fixed his jacket and brushed off his shoulders. As her hands fell to rest on his leg, she smiled at him.

"There we are. We can't have the… absolute best teacher in all of Herefordshire look so rumpled, now, can we?" Selene teased in a hushed voice, afraid that she might cry if she spoke any louder. John laughed, much to her delight, a laugh that broke into a small cry as the hand that held the watch came down to clasp her own.

Both were blinded by a white light, then, and they saw a vision of a time not yet come. John was dressed in a dapper black suit, beaming as bright as the sun with Selene on his arm dressed in a gorgeous white lace gown. A veil topped her head and a bouquet of white lilies cascaded over her hand. A wedding day. Their wedding day. They kissed under a trellis arch as friends threw rice and delicate flower petals over their head, church bells ringing out in the sky. The image switched then, taking them to a small, well-lit bedroom, in the middle of which was a wrought iron bed. John, void of his jacket, sat beside a tired looking Selene who was dressed in a nightgown and robe, gingerly passing him a crying newborn baby. He smiled down at their beautiful baby girl as he bounced her gently in his arms. Selene rested her head on his shoulder, kissing his shoulder lovingly.

The sound of laughter took them to a misty day years down the road, where they walked with their three children––two girls and a boy––down a country lane. They smiled and laughed as they swung their youngest daughter between them, exclaiming something about going back home for a good cup of tea and a story. How happy they were, spinning and chasing their children, tripping over mud-spattered shoes and leaping over fallen logs. Selene, not minding her made a misstep and dragged John down to the moist ground beneath them. She grinned up at him before drawing him in for a kiss, winding an arm about his neck as, somewhere a little bit ahead, the kids groaned.

Then the vision swept them to someplace more somber, a bedroom with John––now an old man––rest, holding the hand of his silver-haired, still beautiful wife.

"They're all safe, aren't they… the children… the grandchildren?" John asked, voice tired and labored. His hair had receded and greyed, but his face, though wrinkled, was every bit as handsome to Selene as it had ever been. "Everyone's safe?"

"Everyone's safe. And they all send their love, John," Selene replied, her voice aged, but no less charming. She squeezed his hand and raised to her lips, pressing a kiss to his knuckles.

"Well, then… it's done." John smiled across the bed at Selene, his trembling hand grasping onto hers more tightly with the remaining strength he had. "Thank you." His eyes slowly fell shut and a peaceful look smoothed out each feature of his face, exhaling his last breath into the blanket of warmth and love around him.

Then, with the same burst of white light that the visions began with, it all ended. They were back in the Cartwright house in the cold darkness.

"Did you see?" John asked desperately, hoping beyond everything that she had. Selene, who looked awestruck, slowly nodded. Swallowing thickly, she cast her eyes elsewhere, not even realizing that she was crying. The Doctor… he'd given John a chance to see the life he could have. The life he would have to give up; and, by extension, by showing him said life… the Doctor allowed John to live it.

"I can't make you do one thing or another, John," Selene whispered. "I…" She swallowed thickly and looked up at him. "I won't make you."

"The Doctor… he has… such adventures. Yet he could never give you a life like that. Never…" John told her, inhaling deeply. "Yet I could."

There was an ear-splitting whistle and a rib-rattling crash, one of the Family's explosives hitting too close to the house. Selene grabbed onto John's jacket, hiding her face in his shoulder for a brief moment. When she looked back up, looking fearful as the smell of burning scrub-brush permeated the walls from somewhere not too far away. John saw that fearful look and knew… knew he couldn't do anything to save her, stop her fear. But… but the Doctor could. Breathing raggedly, he raised the watch and stared at it. His finger itched towards the little button on the top. Yet, by allowing the Doctor to return… he would be doing something. He, John Smith, school teacher at Farringham's School for Boys, the man who loved Selene Thomas with all his heart… he could do something.

John reached out and placed a hand on her cheek, swallowing thickly. Selene saw the choice in his eyes. Her eyebrows pulled together and she tried to smile, a smile that quickly turned to a sob. John hushed her a few times, bringing their foreheads to rest together. She grasped his wrist as he spoke to her softly.

"He will love you. I can feel it. But if he dares do you any wrong, I'll know. We are… we… we are the same man, are we not? He will love you, Selene. Because I do. Because… he does," John murmured. With that said, John tilted his head forward, bringing their lips together in a kiss. Selene's hand slipped under the one that held the watch, her finger meeting his on the button. Together, they pushed the button down, and in a shower of golden light, John Smith was no more.

A beat after the golden light disappeared, he inhaled deeply, suddenly, but he didn't move. Selene hesitatingly drew away, staring at the man who was seated beside her. His eyes were still closed, his lips were still parted. Withdrawing the hand that had been cupping his, Selene swallowed and cautiously asked,

"Doctor…?"

The Doctor's eyes flicked open, a familiar glimmer in his brown eyes that she hadn't seen for three months. He stared at her a moment, gaze slipping from her eyes, to her lips, to her eyes again, as though considering something. The silence drew out and then, suddenly, he smiled.

"Hello again," he said in a hushed voice. With a bright grin, Selene flung her arms around his neck, drawing him in for a tight, long-awaited hug. He chuckled and hugged her back, hands wandering up along her spine. Then, as she embraced him, the realization of John's departure hit her. Her smile fell and her head dropped to the Doctor's shoulder; he turned his head and kissed her temple, sensing the shift of the mood. "He's alright. I promise." She smiled again, hugging him just a bit tighter.

"I know." When she drew back, still smiling, she brushed hair out of his forehead and then, out of habit from the last few days, she clasped his cheek with her hand. "It's good to have you back, Doctor." He smiled back at her, a gentle smile that only the Time Lord could give.

"Glad to be back. Now…" He stood up and tossed the watch into the air, giving it a little spin. When it landed back in his palm he held it up with a cheeky little smirk. "Whaddya say we go put the grand finale into gear?"

OOOO

On the Family's space ship, Baines grinned manically over the control panel, planning what he would do to everyone within the vicinity of their ship.

"We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the dust into glass, then shatter them all over again!" he proclaimed in a booming voice, which echoed around the interior of the ship, which was drenched in green light. There was a zingging sound that alerted them all to the approach of a new visitor.

"John, please, you don't know what you're doing!" exclaimed a voice. The Family's heads simultaneously flicked around and their gazes fell on none other… than John Smith and Selene Thomas.

"Just…" John began to say, but the ship boomed and rocked, sending him flying into the wall. He hit a good few buttons that all lit up green and made a whooshing sound. He held out his hands as though he might catch something that was falling before turning back to the Family. Selene was clinging to the back of his jacket, keeping a cautious eye on the aliens before them. By the sound of her first exclamation, she was there to stop them. But oh… how sweet. The dear little human was frightened. "Just… stop all the bombardment. That's all I'm asking. I-I'll do anything you want, just stop!"

"Say 'please'..." drawled Baines. Breathing hard, John looked between them all.

"Don't…" Selene muttered under her breath. Baines' head flicked around so he could fix his cold glare on her.

"Shut. Up. Stop. Talking," he hissed before turning his gaze back to John. "Say it…"

"Please," John pleaded. Jenny and Baines reached out and switched off the controls that was controlling the explosions.

"Wait a minute…" Jenny eyed the man in the suit critically. She sniffed heavily before smiling. "Still human."

"Now, I can't––I can't pretend to understand, not for a second… n-not even Selene can make me see the reasoning behind this! But I want you to know… I'm innocent in all this! He made me John Smith! It's not like… like I had any control over it." He flung his arms out and hit a few more buttons on a column, and his made a sound of apology and touched the buttons gingerly.

"He didn't just make himself human… he made himself an idiot," Jenny said in a disgusted manner.

"Same thing, isn't it?" Baines smirked. Selene's eyebrows shot upwards and she scoffed.

"I take offence to that; besides, aren't you all inhabiting human bodies right now? Wouldn't that make you an idiot?" she bit out, crossing her arms. She listed to far to the left and fell into another column of buttons, swearing under her breath as they all activated. Baines smirked over at her, his disconcertingly cold gaze trained on her.

"Mm… my point is proven." John stuttered out some syllables and walked over to Selene to help right herself, arms wrapped around her with the utmost care.

"Look, I don't care about this Doctor and your Family. I care about keeping the people of this town… keeping Selene safe! I just want you to go! So, I've made my choice." He reached into his pocket and extracted the watch, holding it out in his hand. "You can have him."

"John!" Selene, exclaimed, grabbing for the watch. He pulled it out of her reach and looked at Baines pleadingly. "You can't just… give him away! Without him there's no you! And vice-versa! For god's sake… don't do this."

"Just take it, please, take him away!" Baines, wide eyed and smirking, reached out and snatched it from his palm.

"At last…" Baines turned away, but his hand shot out and grabbed John by the front of his shirt, drawing him forward forcefully. "Don't think that saved your life… either of your lives…" He pushed John away, who fell and activated yet another set of buttons. Selene knelt beside him, the two of them cowering together as they watched the Family of Blood. "Family of Mine… Now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord." The former schoolboy clicked the top of the watch and the lid flicked open. Each member of the Family inhaled… but nothing came of it. "It's empty!"

"W-where's he gone?" John asked, looking frightened. He looked at Selene for assistance. "I don't know where he's… do you…?"

"You tell me!" Baines growled, hurling the watch towards Selene. The Doctor's arm shot out and he caught it just in time, his façade slipping off in the tick of a second.

"Oh, I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection," the Doctor said as he and Selene stood. "A little bit like ventriloquism of the nose. It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. 'Sides, I've got the lovely Selene with me, and she's completely human. So that helped some! But it has got to be said…" The Doctor slipped on his glasses, which Selene hadn't known she'd missed so much. He leaned towards something embedded in the wall. "I don't like the look of that hydrokinometer. Do you, Selene?"

"I wouldn't know how to read it, but it certainly doesn't look good," Selene agreed, looking at the rising gauges.

"It seems to be indicating you've got energy feetback all the way through the retro-stabilizers. Feeding back into the primary heat converters." He bounded over to said object and knocked on it with his knuckles. He pulled a shocked face. "Oh! 'Cause if there's one thing you shouldn't have done––you shouldn't have let us press all those buttons. But! In fairness, I will give you one word of advice…" The Doctor took hold of Selene's hand and winked down at her as he grinned. "Run."

Giggling didn't seem appropriate for the danger of the moment, but Selene did it anyway. The Doctor dragged her out of the ship, which began blinking the bright red of alarm lights, and they began to bound across Cooper's Field. The alarms were blaring and increasing in pitch as they all ran, and when the alarm made a last, pleading wail, the Doctor tugged Selene into his chest as the ship exploded. The pressure wave knocked everyone down, the Time Lord using his body to shield his companion from any falling debris.

Selene groaned and laid there for a minute, feeling the Doctor shift above her. She opened her eyes to see him hovering over her, their noses just barely brushing. They stared at each other for a long moment, almost to see if the other would do or say something first. Then the Doctor asked,

"You alright?" Selene nodded her answer but stayed quiet. A smile rose to her lips and she nodded again.

"Yeah. I think I am."

By the time the Family of Blood recovered from the shock of the blast, they all looked up to see the tall figure that stood silhouetted by the flames of their ship. There stood the Doctor. The Time Lord who had defeated them all.

OOOO

He never raised his voice… that was the worst thing––the fury of the Time Lord. And then we discovered why. Why this Doctor who had fought with gods and demons, why he'd run away from us and hidden. He was being kind. He wrapped my father in unbreakable chains, forged in the heart of dwarf star. He tricked my mother into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy to be imprisoned there forever. He still visits my little sister once a year every year. I wonder if one day he might forgive her, but there she is. Can you see? He trapped her inside a mirror, every mirror. If ever you look at your reflection and see something move behind you, just for a second, that's her. That's always her. As for me, I was suspended in time. And the Doctor put me to work standing over the fields of England, as their protector. We wanted to live forever, so the Doctor made sure that we did.

OOOO

The Doctor took care of the Family of Blood on his own, leaving Martha and Selene to help explain all that had happened to Latimer and Joan. The TARDIS had been moved to the middle of a grassy field when the Doctor returned to put Baines to work as a scarecrow. Selene and Martha had ducked inside, changing their clothes back to the style they were so used to wearing. Selene was snuggled up in a warm jumper, a rain coat, a pair of jeans, and a set of sturdy boots, which she wished she'd taken with her on their three month stay in nineteen-thirteen. Would have certainly saved her the cut on her foot. It was raining, as it was like to in that time of year, and Selene and Martha waited outside for the Doctor's return. He went to go speak with the Matron… something about letting her keep that old journal of his.

"So, um… what you said… back in the cottage," Selene said awkwardly, rubbing at the back of her neck. Martha rocked forward on her toes, staring at the mud beneath her shoes. She had a feeling that this was going to pop up sometime soon.

"Yeah… that…" There was a span of quiet between them. "Do you… do you think he'll remember?" Martha asked worriedly. Selene again scratched at the back of her neck, and she shook her head, face in a look of disregard. Then, with a pause, she winced and nodded.

"Yeah… I think he might."

"Brilliant… Look… I hope that what I said… that it doesn't make it… awkward… between us," Martha said, leaning up against the TARDIS doors. Selene nodded and mirrored her movement, the two of them looking like guardians of the blue box. The American smiled and nodded her head.

"So do I… I mean… we should be fine, right?" Selene asked, tucking some damp hair behind her ear. Martha nodded emphatically, both of them trying to stay nonchalant.

"Right. But, um… you two… if you… after what happened with you and John… if you and the Doctor start to… well. I guess… that'd be… okay." Selene nodded and bit at her thumb nail, realizing how supremely awkward that moment was.

"Right. Yeah. Thanks."

Just then, as though he were saving them both from the horrible awkwardness of the ensuing silence, the Doctor climbed the slope TARDIS stood on.

"Right then," he called out. "Molto bene."

"How was she?" Martha asked.

"Time we moved on."

"I mean, I could––"

"Time we moved on," the Doctor reiterated. Joan had been a mess. John Smith and Selene and even Martha had been part of her life for three long months; and now, they were just disappearing into the sky.

"Um… meant to say, back there, last night, I… I would have said anything to get you to change!" Martha said, putting on a bright smile and a laugh. The Doctor nodded emphatically.

"Oh, yeah, of course you would. Yeah," he agreed quickly.

"I mean I wasn't really––"

"No, no, no!"

"Good."

"Fine.

"There we are, then, yes."

"Oh, my god, this is literally the most awkward morning I've had in… forever," Selene said with a laugh, popping her collar up around her jaw. The Doctor smirked.

"Oh, and I never said… thanks. To both of you. For looking after me," he said wholeheartedly, drawing them both into a tight hug.

"Doctor! Selene! Martha!" called out Latimer as he finished climbing the wet, grassy slope.

"Tim Timothy Tim!" the Doctor sang with a bright smile. They all turned to the familiar boy, who smiled at the greatfully.

"I just wanted to say goodbye. And thank you, because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done," Latimer told them in a very precise way. They all gave him a curious look. "It's coming isn't it? The biggest war ever."

"You don't have to fight," Martha reminded him softly.

"I think we do."

"You could get hurt," Selene pointed out. Latimer gave the woman he'd known as his teacher's assistant a pointed look and a tiny smirk.

"So could you, traveling 'round with him, but it's not going to stop you. Or Martha," he said. Selene and Martha both smiled at the comment; and the truth of the statement was completely and utterly correct.

"Tim… I'd be honored if you'd take this," the Doctor said, extracting the watch from his pocket. Latimer smiled and took it from the Doctor's palm, staring down at the Circular Gallifreyan on its lid.

"I can't hear anything," he observed as he turned it over in his hand.

"No, it's just a watch now," the Doctor said in confirmation. "But keep it with you for good luck."

"Look after yourself," Martha said, giving Latimer a hug. She kissed his cheek before joining the Doctor at the TARDIS doors as he unlocked them. Selene held out her arms and gave Latimer a hug, smiling into his hair. When she drew back, she kissed his cheek and winked at him.

"Thanks for saving me from Baines and Hutchinson and their disrespect of books; I don't know what I would've done without you," she said with a laugh. Latimer beamed at Selene and chuckled. He couldn't count the number of times Selene had done something to protect him from Baines or Hutchinson… or any of the other lads who were prone to tease him. Yet there she was, thanking him for the singular time that he'd plucked up the courage to help her pick up her books.

Martha and Selene slipped into the TARDIS, the Doctor pausing in the doorway so he could grin at Latimer.

"You'll like this bit," the Time Lord told him.

Latimer grinned as he watched the light atop the TARDIS begin to flash and heard the engines begin to whir. The image of the blue box began to fade in and out of visibility, flickering in and out of reality with fading noise. Till, in the blink of an eye, his saviours were gone.

OOOO

In June nineteen-fourteen, an Archduke of Austria was shot by a Serbian, and this then led through nations having treaties with nations, like a line of dominoes falling, to some boys from England walking together in France on a terrible day…

Latimer, years after watching the TARDIS disappear, pulled a wounded Hutchinson along through the muddy trenches of france. Bombs whistled overhead, the mortars exploding once they hit the ground, sending up sprays of mud and dirt and, on occasion, blood. Gunfire exploded around them as frequent as the bird song that used to fill those countrysides. Men screamed in agony. Bodies lied in ditches. Once Latimer was able to get himself and Baines to a relatively safe resting spot, he pulled out that silver watch that had been hidden deep in his pocket for this very day. He clicked the top button with muddy fingers and listened to the ticking of the hands, keeping an eye on the time. In a sense of serious deja-vu, he turned to Hutchinson to speak.

"One minute past the hour. It's now. Hutchinson, this is the time. It's now!" Latimer looked above him to see, and hear, a bomb whistling straight towards them. "To the right! To the right!" He grabbed a very confused Hutchinson under the arms and dragged him to the right, diving just out of the way as the bomb his where they had previously been huddled. Latimer grinned as they sat up in the muddy pit they landed in, avoiding bumping into some barbed wire. "We made it. Thank you, Doctor." He rose to his feet and walked towards Hutchinson, who was lying prone in the mud. "C'mon, old chap."

"Leave me. I'm not going to make it," Hutchinson moaned.

"Oh, yes, you are! Didn't I promise you, all those years ago? Now, come on, and that's an order!"

OOOO

"Martha, would you mind if I had a word with Selene for a moment?" the Doctor asked as Martha pinned a red poppy to her jacket. Martha blinked up at him and swallowed thickly. The Doctor blinked and arched an eyebrow when she didn't reply. She blinked rapidly for a moment before forcing a smile onto her face.

"Um, yeah. Yeah! Of course, just… give me a shout when you're ready to go," Martha said, heading for the ladder that lead up to the other TARDIS corridors. Selene was fussing with her own poppy pin, lips pursed as she wondered if it was sitting straight.

"Hey, Doctor, is this pin on… right…" her voice trailed off as she watched Martha disappear into the corridors. The Doctor peered at her pin with a small smile.

"It looks lovely," he told her. "I thought that we should… talk about… what's happened."

"You mean the um… the… kisses."

"Right, the kisses."

Silence ensued where both of them avoided eye-contact. Selene's cheeks were a vibrant, bright pink, and the Doctor was rubbing at the back of his neck and staring down at his shoes. If there was something he realized once he was back in his own body, it was just how much Selene meant to him. John Smith was a version of himself; there was nothing stopping him from falling in love with, say, Joan. Or the lovely lady at the general store. But, from the beginning, he'd been drawn to Selene with a strong, undeniable pull that John never quite understood. He had picked up on the Doctor's own feelings about Selene and let his own grow from that. Somewhere in the back of his head he could just barely feel John stirring, yelling at him to do something. The degree of the feelings the Doctor felt to Selene were still… fuzzy to him. But he knew were strong. Knew they were there; and it was his goal to figure it all out quite soon. She made him happy. Endlessly happy in a way that only a single other person had made him feel before.

Selene looked up at him and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She wanted to say exactly what he meant to her, how fearful she had been she'd never see him again. How everytime he smiled or got excited, a thrill rushed down her spine and made her endlessly happy. How the kisses she'd shared with John, she wished she could have shared with him; but something inside her head stopped her, poked at her insecurities and told her that perhaps John had been wrong when he said the Doctor felt the same way about her as she did him. Then there was Rose. He would always love her. No matter what. But there was a single flame of hope burning in her chest that maybe… just maybe somewhere inside the Doctor he did feel the same way.

"So…" she murmured, leaning back against the console.

"So…" he repeated, shoving his hands into his trouser pockets. Their eyes met and silence ensued again. Selene swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. Neither of them knew quite what to say, but the silence seemed to speak for them. The Doctor reached out and took a step forward, taking the poppy she'd secured to her jacket between his fingers; he twisted it slightly, continuing to move forward till there was little space between them. "It's… it's actually a bit… crooked."

Selene looked up to thank him, but found that the angle at which she'd raised her head left their lips inches apart. Their gazes were trained on the lips of the other; the Doctor's hand rested on her shoulder heavily, slipping towards her neck as time began to seem inconsequential. Then, as their lips nearly met, the TARDIS made a grinding sound as it landed. The noise jolted them out of the moment and caused them both to blush. The Doctor moved towards the ladder, muttering something about grabbing his coat and Selene gestured to her pin, saying that she was going to fix it. Then, both turned their backs on the other, wondering just what might have happened if the TARDIS hadn't landed. The Doctor offered the time machine a slight glare; if only they hadn't landed… And as they met each other's gazes of their shoulders, their belief of what might have happened was the same.

They would have kissed.

OOOO

"They have no lot in our labour of the day time. They sleep beyond England's foam. They went with songs to the battle," a vicar was reading from 'For the Fallen.' By the war memorial sat an old man in a wheelchair with a red blanket draped over his legs. A red poppy was pinned to his coat collar and his medals were pinned over his heart. In his gloved hand, Latimer held the watch that had saved him all those years ago. "They were young, straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted."

Latimer turned his head to see Selene and Martha helping the Doctor pin a poppy to his own lapel. They looked the exactly the same. Same faces… same age… and as they turned to look at him, the same smiles. Their smiles faded into looks of solemnity as he smiled back at them. He nodded their way, forever grateful that they'd come for Farringham in Herefordshire those three months years and years ago. They had saved his life; and he was forever thankful. He turned back to the memorial, and with memories of the friends he had lost, he began to cry, remembering that he was one of the lucky.

"They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them."

Afterword: So sorry it took forever to get this up! I feel horrible for making you wait so long… and because I don't want to make you wait any longer, I'm going to put off replyin to all of your lovely amazing reviews and just thank you all by username so this doesn't get put off any longer! Just know I greatly appreciate all of your reviews and they all make me smile!
SO, big thanks to…

grapejuice101, ShadowTeir, NicoleR85, MaximumNerd46, TheDysfunctional, Momochan77, GoldKeeper2567, Lucky D, masterdude94, 5095110, acrossdimensions, The Yoshinator, Squidtastik, Name to long, ash, Serendipity989, helios101, love love love, azaadin, guest, moralesgrace12345, 10th Squad 3rd Seat, JediGemini, and heroherondaletotheresuce.

And thank you to those who added this story to their favorites/follows; it means a lot to me!

I also want to take a moment to thank you all for reading this far. I never thought so many people would find this story enjoyable, and with all your support you keep me going. I don't plan on abandoning this story anytime soon for so many reasons (this is nearly 450 pages long!) I actually hope to get what I've written so far bound in an actual book format just so I can have it around… that would be exciting! :D

I hope you all keep on reading! Thanks again and I'm so sorry that I didn't get this up earlier; but life does what it will.

Till next time…

Don't blink ;)

~Mary