Ever since Tardis said that I was gone for days, I've been down below trying to see if there was anything wrong, but I found many things that were moved around. "Tardis, what were you doing down here?"
I was about to mess with the hoses, but Tardis yelled, "No! Don't touch it!' and ran down to me.
"But what did you do?" She looked down guiltily and messed with her jumper nervously.
"I wanted to keep it a surprise, but I guess I'll show you now..." She pulled my hand and I dropped all my tools to follow her upstairs. "Okay, ready?" I looked down and there was a button that I didn't recognize.
"How long has that button been there?"
"Ever since you got the TARDIS..." She answered.
"Are you sure it's always been there?"
"Yup." I waited for her to push it, and when she did, nothing happened.
"Tardis, what's supposed to happen?" She tapped my shoulder and pointed down to our feet. The ground was at least five feet away from our toes and I laughed. "Ha ha! Tardis, this is wonderful!" Soon enough I felt my head tap the ceiling, and I pushed off. "How did you do this?" She was too busy admiring her work to answer, but finally explained.
"I took the gravity system and tweaked it. If I turned it off, it'd just be what the gravity is outside. The modification makes it so the gravity's weaker in here." I marveled at the fact that we were floating as if we were in space.
"It's brilliant! You're clever, just like your dad!" I praised and she smiled. Her ginger hair floated upwards and she stared around with pride in her work.
"I would've done this years ago if I'd thought of it." I playfully pushed Tardis and she helplessly floated backwards towards the wall. She frowned and used her feet to push herself off the wall towards me.
"Two can play at that game!" She cried and tried to grab me. I looked up and saw a metal beam then pulled myself up before she could get to me.
"Ha! You'll have to do better than that! I'm the Doctor." Then I felt her grab my ankle. "How did-?"
"I'm quick." She interrupted and we laughed.
"We have to do this more often!" I exclaimed and pushed myself down to the console and set the gravity back to normal. I regretted the decision right as my feet touched the ground, because I could hear Tardis squealing as she fell to the ground. I quickly jumped to the spot she'd land and she landed in my arms with a little thump.
"That was an adventure." She sighed and I set her down to her feet.
"It was, wasn't it? Ready for another?" I ran off before she could answer and she followed me. "Where to, Tardis?" I leaned on the console, only to accidentally pull a lever on the console, and jolted back. Tardis fell onto the console, most likely pushing buttons of all sorts, and we started to travel through the Vortex. I had no idea what was going on, but I simply smiled to Tardis across the console and she smiled back behind a curtain of red hair.
"Geronimo!" She yelled and I was surprised that she said it before me.
"Geronimo!" I yelled after her and the TARDIS suddenly stopped, sending me flying backwards and Tardis fell right on her face. "That was a fairly quick trip. Wonder where we are? Not that it matters, surprises are the best." I fixed my bow tie and some of my hair and ran over to help Tardis up. "Come along, Pon-!" I stopped myself before I could finish. Pond wasn't here anymore, why was I calling her Pond? Well, she did have red hair and was very adventurous and...
"Dad?" Tardis broke my daze and I put on a smile to hide what I was thinking.
"Let's go! We have to do some discovering!" I pulled her up and she didn't take another step. "What' s wrong?"
"I've got a bad feeling about this." She muttered hesitantly and refused to move.
"It won't be bad, trust me." She reluctantly followed me out the door.
As soon as we were out, I could just tell it was going to be a nice time. There were hills all over the place, filled with flowers of every type and color. The sun was up and the blue sky had clouds floating by slowly. "What is this place, Dad?" Tardis spun around slowly, taking in the sweet clean air.
"I'm not entirely sure, I've never seen a place like this before..." I kneeled down and picked a flower. "Where would you like to start?"
Tardis woke out of her trance and pointed to the horizon. "That hill!" I followed where she was pointing and almost grumbled. It was the tallest hill out of all of them.
"Let's go, then!" I locked the TARDIS doors and we strolled to the hill.
It seemed like forever before we reached the crest of it, but when we were finally there it seemed like we could see the whole landscape. This hill seemed higher than I perceived... "Whoah! You can see everything from up here! Tardis scanned the land below us, marveling at the colors and pointed out a meadow below us. "I wanna go there next!" She grinned ecstatically. I looked down, and stood back quickly because I felt some wind coming. "Come on, Dad!" Tardis grasped my hand and pulled me behind her. Soon enough, we were at the bottom of the hill, much faster than on the way up.
"It's so beautiful!" Tardis crawled into the meadow of flowers and laid on her back to stare at the sky. I joined her and put my hands behind my head. "Why is the sky blue?" She broke the long silence.
I knew she knew the answer, but I replied, "Because whenever someone is feeling down, their thoughts, their emotions, fly to the sky. The clouds are their dreams, floating around, getting no attention unless they are big. The clouds weep for the sad ones, the discouraged, the lonely..." I paused for a moment and went on. "The clouds, you see, are trying to get attention, but can only do so by weeping because that's all the people feel." Tardis rested her head on my stomach and picked at some flowers and grass aimlessly.
"What's it like in the TARDIS when I'm asleep?"
"Quiet, lonely..." I admitted and Tardis plucked a flower out of the ground and stuffed it in my coat pocket.
"It's a poppy." She explained. We ended up talking about my days in the TARDIS. 900+ years is a lot to talk about, but she kept asking about all my companions. "What about Sarah Jane?"
"Oh, Sarah Jane Smith! We've been through thick and thin. She's brilliant!" I ranted about how amazing she was and about our many adventures.
Tardis interrupted my ranting with, "What about Rose?" I stopped immediately.
"Rose... She was something, I'll say that. No matter how many times we got separated, she always found a way back to me. I taught her many things about the universe, and Rose taught me a lot about me." I smiled up at the clouds. "I'm bored. Let's do something fun." I sat up and Tardis grumbled.
"The forest!" She suggested while pointing. I tilted my head, confused because I had not noticed it before.
"To the forest it is!" I nodded and she unexpectedly bolted away.
"Race ya!" She called while scrambling to her feet. I caught up with her quickly and passed her.
"You can eat my shadow, Tardis!"
"It's 'eat my dust,' Dad!" Tardis corrected and I was about to come back with something clever, but I was stopped abruptly and ended up on my back on the floor.
"That... hurt..." I sat up and rubbed my head.
"Why are you sitting on the-"
"Tardis, wait!" I jumped up and tackled her from the side.
"What was that for?"
I sighed, still winded from when I hit the invisible force. "I think it's a force field." I whipped out my trusty sonic screwdriver and soniced it. "Mhm, just as I thought." I hid my sonic screwdriver back in my coat and shot up to my feet. "Why is there a force field in the middle of nowhere? Someone's hiding something and we're going to figure out what." I poked at the invisible force and felt a tiny shock and noticed that the area in front of me wiggled like jam. "There's no way we're getting past this by standing around doing nothing. Come along." I walked off and Tardis tagged along. "If this is a force field, then there's gotta bean end to it somewhere." I explained as I kept reaching out to my right every once and awhile to check if it was still there.
We walked for what seemed like forever, and I finally gave up. "This is taking too long. Maybe it's not a force field, it could be something else..." I reached inside my coat pocket for my sonic screwdriver and scanned the wall in front of me. "It's not made out of your usual force field material, and it's practically impenetrable." I poked it with my finger once more and turned back towards Tardis. She was gone. "Tardis? " I ran beside the force field frantically. There was nowhere she could disappear to, it was open field behind us. "Tardis!" I ran my hands through my hair nervously and ran towards the TARDIS. When I ran to the top of a hill I could see the blue paint of my ship, and started to stumble down in haste. I managed to get back up and made it to the doors, unlocked them, and ran inside. "Tardis! Tardis, are you here?" My voice echoed throughout the empty room with no reply.
"It's a shame this happens every time."
I looked up and jumped over to the owner of the voice with livid eyes. "You! Where is she? I don't want to play games with you!" I tried to grab him by his jacket but he'd disappeared with shocking speed.
"Your 'daughter' is safe and sound, Doctor. Like you always promise them, but that's never the truth, is it?" The Dream Lord raised a brow with his arms crossed.
"How did you get back here? I cleaned out all the pollen long ago." I ignored his remark and clenched my fists so tight that my fingernails dug into my palms.
"Pollen travels, Doctor. You know this." The Dream Lord put his hands in his pockets and paced.
"Just wake me and Tardis up, or I'll-"
"What? You're in my world now." He snapped his fingers and a screen appeared in front of me. Tardis was sleeping soundly in her room with no other disturbances. "See, she's perfectly fine!" I sighed, but scowled at the Dream Lord once more, as it could be a trick.
"There's no point of you bothering me, so wake me up." I ordered impatiently and he just shook his head.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I can't do that, Doctor. We've got loads to talk about."
"You are in my brain, my subconscious, you know everything." The Dream Lord nodded.
"True, but you don't." I frowned in confusion, and started to pace also. "I have come to teach you a lesson about yourself. Make you realize something you've been running from for awhile now." The Dream Lord took humor in my confusion and grinned. "Good luck." He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS was gone with the blink of an eye.
When I was conscious of my surroundings, I realized I was outside the building I hadn't been to in years. "No..." I made my way to the doors and upstairs. As if by muscle memory, my legs took me to a door and I knocked reluctantly.
"I've got it, Mum!" The voice of a young woman was muffled by the door and when it opened, I was expecting her not to recognize me. When she saw me, she couldn't speak. Her mouth was open in awe at the sight of me and then her mum appeared.
"Rose, dear, who's at the-" The older woman stopped and covered her hands with her mouth.
"Hello! You probably don't recognize me, but I'm the-"
"Doctor!" Rose tackled me with a big hug and didn't let go.
"I can't believe you've got the nerve to show your face here! You left my daughter with hopes and dreams! And, worse of all, a broken heart!" Jackie yelled and smacked me once Rose let go.
"You never called or left any messages, I thought I'd never see you again!" Rose's voice changed from happy to angry within a second.
"I'm really sorry-"
"And then you left me in another dimension with a copy of you! You couldn't stay, you just had to leave!" I looked down with guilt.
"I didn't want to hurt either of us with the burden of me not aging while you did. I didn't want to watch you die." I tried hard to keep it together, but it was very difficult.
"I don't care if I die! I'd rather die with you than live without you!" She started to cry and ran off.
"Look at what you've done to my daughter. Are you happy?" Jackie slammed the door and the scene melted away slowly, restructuring to an unfamiliar house.
It was a perfect white house complete with the white picket fence; a garden with bushes framing the house and flowers along the pathway up to the front door; a tree with a tire swing and home-made tree house. Everything. I sauntered to the door and knocked. While waiting, I thought about the Dream Lord. He was messing with me, playing with my emotions. I wasn't going to let him win this time. I was going to be strong. I was going to be clever. I was going to win again. Thinking this, I stood with my head held up, and adjusted my bow tie with confidence. "Hello?" The woman's voice belonged to another friend of mine.
"Hello, Martha! Martha Jones!" I put my hands on the sides of her shoulders and she smiled widely.
"Doctor! It's Martha Smith-Jones now!" My eyes widened.
"You got married?" She nodded and then as if on cue, Mickey Smith came from behind her.
"Doctor? Is that you? " I nodded with a smile.
"How have you been?"
"Well, besides the fact that you never loved me back the way I loved you and was given the life outside the TARDIS, fine." I was not expecting such a blunt answer from her.
"Ever since Rose left me for a 900 year old alien and is now stuck in another dimension, I've been great." My hearts were just slowly being beat up by their answers. "Doctor, you ruined us, even though we made it out safely, we're still ruined." I took a step back and they were scowling at me.
"I didn't mean- But-" For once I was at a loss for words.
"Just leave, like you always do." Martha spat and I turned away to the empty street. I dragged my feet behind me down the street, not looking up to see where I was going. My head hit something abruptly and I glanced up to see what I hit. Yet again, another door to a house. This one I knew very well though.
"Hello?" The red-headed woman opened the door. "Hello, mister?" My head just refuse to look up at another angry and disappointed face. "Oi, mister! What are ya doin' here?" Donna finally rose her voice and I rose my head.
"Wrong house, sorry..." She closed the door and left me there to think. What have I done to all these people? My friends, my family...
"Who are you?" A little girl's voice rang in my ears and I forced my head up to gaze at her young face.
"The Doctor. I'm the Doctor." I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday... "Apples are rubbish!" I scrunched up my face at the cursed fruit. Finally we got my treat. "Fish fingers and custard." I snacked on it slowly and when I was finished, Amelia Pond stared at me curiously. Soon enough I was leaving the house, and when I turned to look back, Amelia Pond was waiting patiently on her packed suitcase with her red wellies and matching hat and mittens. With a sigh, I wandered off and took one last glance at Pond. She was grown up and sitting on a rock with Rory. This made me sprint back to her. "Pond!" I weakly called out and she turned to me. "If the angel touches me, it'll send me back to him, right?"
"Pond, just come back to the TARDIS, okay?" I cried in desperation.
"Goodbye raggedy man." The Angel had appeared behind her and she disappeared with a flash.
"NO!" I cried and fell to my knees and cried. All of my companions were gone, whether they died or lost their memory, they were gone. All because of me. With all the worlds and people I've saved, I couldn't save those close to me. The ones I loved were living unusual lives because of me, or were doing my job for me back on Earth.
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" The Dream Lord's voice came from nowhere and I shot up to my feet.
"Come out you coward!" I yelled to the empty space in front of me.
"Remember, Doctor, I'm your subconscious. If I'm the coward, that makes you one too."
"Shut up! Just wake me up! WAKE ME UP!" I yelled once more and the Dream Lord appeared in front of me.
"Stop running, Doctor. You get those you love hurt..." He touched my forehead with two fingers and I fell back in slow motion. The words "stop running" kept echoing in my head before I hit the ground and woke up.