Chapter1

The Doctor woke and sat up with a start. He looked around him wildly, the setting looked foreign but strangely familiar. He was in someone's backyard, it was night-time. There was a woman sitting next to him. She turned to look at him, and laughed. "Hello, Grandfather!"

The Doctor gasped, recognizing her, but not believing his own eyes. "You can't be Susan! Susan died on Gallifrey!"

"Yes, I did," she acknowledged, "but physical death is not final. You should have suspected that by now." Her tone was almost reproachful.

The Doctor shook his head. "This is a dream, it can't be real."

"Oh, can't it?" She leaned forward and planted a tender kiss upon his cheek. She moved closer and took his hands in her cool ones. "Does this feel like a dream, Grandfather?"

"No," he acknowledged, "it feels very real. But it can't be, you're dead."

She closed her eyes and shimmered briefly, then stated, "Within the Time Vortex, anything is possible. Please believe that I am real, and that I have been sent to help you."

"Help me what?" the Time Lord asked distrustfully.

"Help you appreciate your life, your losses, and the future that they all enable. For you, and for the whole of Creation."

"First tell me who you are, really. Then maybe we'll talk." he retorted.

"I am the essence of Susan, and of everyone else you have ever known, or will ever know. I am part of the Time Vortex. I am here to help you."

"Sure you are," he agreed, "and I am a Dalek. Nice to meet you!"

The laugh that emanated from her was merry and genuine. "You haven't changed a bit, Grandfather!" She stood up and held out her hand. "Walk with me."

He stood up and looked down his nose at her. "And where are we going?"

"Just up to the house to peek in the windows."

"That's so rude!"

"Like you've never done it before!" she retorted. "Just humor me."

"What if we're seen?"

"We won't be," she promised, "we are just slightly out-of-sync with their reality."

"Like a perception filter?" he asked.

"Precisely!" she agreed.

He followed her up to the house, and it came to him where they were, the Tyler mansion in the alternate Universe. "What are we doing here?" he asked.

"You'll see," she promised.

He followed her up an arbor to a second-story landing and they peered into the window. Inside the room he saw himself, or more properly, his clone, sitting on the bed. Rose entered the room and sat upon the bed with him. They talked, and he saw his clone touch her face, clearly initiating a mind-link.

"What's he doing?" he asked in horror, it was a rhetorical question, but he couldn't help himself, he shuddered to think that his clone was doing what he thought he was doing...

"He's doing something you should have done long ago," Susan replied, "he's sharing his life with her."

"You mean my life!" The Time Lord exploded, "And he has no bloody right to! If I wanted her to know those things I'd have shared them with her myself!"

"Watch and learn." Susan advised. After a time, the clone and Rose separated, both with tears streaming down their faces, she running out of the room.

"See! What did I tell you? She hates me!"

"Really? Are you sure?" Susan asked. She lifted her wrist, which had a watch on it. "Check it out, Grandfather," she advised, then turned the watch hands forward. Time rushed forward, and they watched Rose return, place something in the nightstand, cast off her dressing gown, and crawl into bed with his clone. "Is that the act of someone who hates you, Grandfather?" Susan asked.

"She may not hate him, he's just my clone. He didn't do it. I did. How can she not hate me? I hate me!"

He jumped off the landing and fled into the night.