Disclaimer: How many ways can I say "I don't own Doctor Who" today?
A/n: Beta'd by the wonderful After Each Dawn. Thanks!
000
This is dangerous. She shouldn't be doing this, she knows that as surely as she knows that if she doesn't at least one of them will not survive this, and she has a sneaking suspicion of who. After all, he only lost his memory; she lost her will to live.
So she follows her. It was easier after she found her the first time. She had meant to go where her Doctor asked, this time anyway. But then she had sensed the familiar twisting, gathering temporal energy and headed straight for it.
Even after so long, the remnants of what they once held together remain.
If only she had taken those final few steps in through the doors. She doesn't know if the girl will ever know how close she had been, to safety, to love, to her past. He can help her, she knows he can, and if he remembers because she's there, then it won't be nearly so bad. She knows her Doctor; if he has someone to take care of then he will hold it together until they get better, and once she's better she'll convince him that it wasn't his fault and everything will be fine.
That's one of the possible futures, anyway, and if she has anything to say about it then that's the one that will become reality.
Now that she's found her once, finding her again is almost child's play. The Fact has taken her under his wing, and finding him is like finding a crow in a school of Martian fish. He doesn't belong, not at all, and she still hasn't decided whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. He is still the man he was when he traveled with the other two, but now he's stuck, living and almost unchanging, and that's just wrong in so many senses.
At the moment, though, she doesn't mind so much because his Factual existence will keep the girl alive until she can find her and bring her back to where she belongs. And she will, as soon as she can do it safely without breaking his hearts.
Of course she hasn't been too careful recently. Either he or his companion keep catching sight of her, even if it is just a glimpse, and they're starting to think that the woman in the mask is following them. If only they knew that they were the ones following her! He's starting to get suspicious, too, that she might have something to do with everything she's been keeping from him, and that's no good at all.
His theories on who she might be, however, are highly entertaining and entirely wrong. The companion's are closer to the truth, but still far enough away to be safe. Honestly, a jilted lover from his future here to manipulate him into falling in love with her? Humans.
Still, she'll have to be more careful about letting him see her. If he figures it out before she can get the girl back…no. It won't come to that.
The girl will return, he will heal her, everything will be as it should be and she will be able to focus on what she's supposed to be doing instead of sneaking behind his back manipulating his time line. Not that she doesn't do that occasionally anyway, but rarely has there ever been so much on the line.
A/n: I imagine that the TARDIS is kind of mischievous. I mean, traveling through time and space is great, but she probably gets bored or something and starts to mess with the Doctor, just kind of taking him off to the middle of nowhere and watching him flounder around trying to figure out what happened and making that adorable "What?" face (I know I would. I love Ten's "What?" face).