Molly waited in the woods overnight, as she'd planned, staying awake the whole time, too uncomfortable and alert to sleep properly. There was no sign of the Family the entire night, so by morning she felt relaxed enough to head towards the station and the town beyond. It seemed to be mostly farmland, which was a relief.
With the little money she had one her, she seeked out one of the farmers and asked to rent of his horses, with the promise of returning it later. He seemed baffled at the request. She explained that she was a war nurse who'd been separated from the rest of her group, and she needed transport to the battlefield. He still seemed skeptical, probably because she was a woman, but in the end he agreed. They haggled over price for a bit, and she ended up giving him all the money she had left. Let him have it, then. It wasn't like she was going to need it after the battle was over.
The horse was a stocky working horse, a huge black gelding named Joey, huger than anything she'd ridden before. She'd ridden for a few years in her childhood before deciding figure skating was more important to her, and she'd ridden a few times in her travels with the Doctor. However, she hadn't ridden properly in a long time, and the horse was intimidating in its size, so she stuck at a walk and a trot for a while before becoming comfortable enough to push the horse faster.
It took a few days to reach Richmond, and by the time she got there, there was only a day left before the battle. She rode the horse right into the Union camp, flashing the psychic paper when needed, inquiring after John. After a few false turns, she was finally pointed in the right direction.
Molly rode straight for where was indicated. "John! John Smith!" she called out desperately. She had only one day left to stop John, and she needed to find him before it was too late.
A familiar voice sounded ahead of her. "Molly?!" One of the soldiers turned around, causing her to draw in a sharp breath as she recognized her "brother" staring at her in shock.
A relieved laugh escaped her. "John!" She jumped quickly down from the horse – a quiet-tempered animal that stayed exactly where Molly had left it – and ran right into John's arms, letting herself be hugged tightly by the friend she'd nearly lost. Her job wasn't over yet, but all she could feel was an overwhelming relief. She had found him, and she hadn't failed him yet. Everything was going to be okay.
After a few moments, John pulled back sharply. His brow furrowed as he demanded, "Wait, hang on, how are you here?" The joy to see her was fading, slowly being replaced by anger and worry.
Molly straightened. "I signed on as a nurse," she lied. "Listen, John, I've got to talk to you."
The Time Lord turned human shook his head incredulously, growing angry. "I can't believe it. You followed me all the way out here to stop me from fighting. Molly, I knew you were stubborn, but this is insane. You shouldn't be here!"
"Neither should you!" Molly snapped. She couldn't afford to be gentle now, she had to stop him, whatever it took. "John, you have to listen to me. Your dreams, those dreams you told me about, they're real, they're all real!"
He was distracted from his anger long enough to look completely baffled. "What?"
She turned to her satchel, still on her shoulder, and pulled out his notebook of dreams."Your dreams, John. The ones where you're the Doctor. They're not dreams, they're memories, memories of your real life. You are the Doctor."
John shook his head quickly. "That's not possible," he said sharply. "I'm not a kid, Molly. Stop making up these wild stories. It's not going to keep me from fighting. Now you need to go home where you belong, before something happens to you." He turned and started to storm off.
Molly hurried to keep pace with him. "The blue box. Remember, John, the blue box in your dreams? I asked you if it had a name and you couldn't remember. It does have a name. The TARDIS." The man halted, stiffening at the word. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it? You've heard it before, you've just forgotten. Remember the TARDIS, John. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Your oldest friend."
He shook his head stubbornly. "Impossible."
"Then what about her?" She pulled his dream journal out of her satchel and flipped quickly through until she reached the page with Rose's face, then held it up for John to see. He froze, deep sadness flashing in his eyes for a moment. "Do you remember her, John? Her name is Rose Tyler. You met her in the basement of a clothing store. You blew up her job and offered to show her the stars, then you traveled with her for two years before you lost her forever. I know you can remember her. And the Time War, remember the Time War. You told me about it. When the Time Lords and the Daleks fought, and in the end you were the only survivor. You've fought wars before, John, and you already know what good comes of them. You have to remember!"
John reached with trembling hands for the notebook, horrified gaze fixed on Rose's face. "Impossible," he repeated softly, but he seemed far less convinced now.
Molly put a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look into her eyes. "It's not impossible, John. You are the Doctor. It's who you always were. You changed into a human to be safe, you gave yourself fake memories and let yourself believe you were totally human. We were hiding, and you told me to look after you. But it's time to change back. You can be the Doctor again, John."
"Then my life…you're saying my life is a lie?" he breathed. "Our life?"
Molly felt a pang of guilt. He looked so scared, almost trembling as he looked at the notebook. "Only some of it," she assured him. "We really are friends, Doctor. I'm your companion, I have been for months, and you're the best friend I've ever had. You have no idea the amazing, fantastic things you've done. You've saved whole planets, universes even. You're like the wise old wizard in fairy tales. And you can be that again, John." She deposited the journal back in the satchel and pulled out the watch. It felt even warmer in her hands now, as though it sensed its true owner was near. "All you have to do is open this watch."
John's gaze zeroed in on the watch, something ancient flickering in his eyes as he looked at it. He reached slowly for the fob watch, fingers closing briefly around it, before he jerked back violently, dropping the watch as though it had burned him. Anger and hurt flashed in his eyes. "That's enough nonsense, Molly! I don't have time for stories like that. I have a war to fight, and you need to get home. I don't want to see you here again, little sister." With that, he turned and stormed off, looking eerily like a soldier in the blue Union uniform.
Molly tried to follow, but this time John was too quick, and some of the other nurses finally caught up to her and starting questioning her about why she wasn't working. She allowed herself to be herded back to the nurses' tent for the time being, but she knew she still had to do something about John.
SCENEBREAK
She worked the rest of the day with the other nurses, using her medical knowledge to help the wounded and her knack for spotting death to separate out the deceased. Late that night, she ventured out to try to speak to John again, but as she started to sneak past one of the tents, she saw something that made her freeze in horror.
Two familiar forms were sitting around with the other soldiers. The older one's face was partially obscured, but she had a perfect view of Son of Mine in a Union uniform, wide-eyed gaze flitting around the tent.
The pathologist jerked back away from the tent, out of the view of those inside. She forced herself to hold her breath, hoping beyond hope that the smell of horse and the blood of the soldiers she'd helped heal would cover her scent.
So the Family had followed her here – or at least, Son of Mine and Father of Mine had. She hadn't seen anyone inside small enough to be Daughter of Mine, so maybe the youngest Family member was hiding out elsewhere until they found the Doctor. How had they caught up so quickly? And how was she going to protect the Doctor from them if she opened the watch now?
Molly scurried quickly back to the nurses' tent, mind racing as she went over her options. She couldn't open the watch now, not with the Family so close. She'd somehow have to convince John, and John alone, not to fight. There could be no involvement from the Doctor, it was too dangerous. They'd just have to wait out the few days left in the Family's lifespan, then the Doctor could return. Meantime, it was all up to John.
SCENEBREAK
She slept fitfully that night, plagued by dreams of the Doctor and his life, even parts of it she'd never lived herself. She didn't know whether they were real or not, but she knew that if she didn't do something now, that man would be lost forever.
The sound of gunfire brought her out of her thoughts. Gunshots echoed loudly in the distance. She felt a cold shiver of dread. The battle's begun.
Molly scrambled out of the tent, hurrying towards the nurses' tent. Nurses weren't allowed on the battlefield, at least not during the battle, so she'd have to improvise. "Again with the clichés," she muttered she rifled through the storage room in the back, where they kept the uniforms of dead or wounded soldiers. She tried not to think about that too hard as she swapped her nurse outfit for a slightly loose-fitting Union uniform. Ultimately she decided against grabbing a rifle, not having any intention of killing, but the sword might come in handy, so she strapped it to her belt.
The gunfire only got louder as she headed into the battle. Men fought all around her, firing from afar with their rifles or stabbing wildly with swords. Cries of pain and the stench of death hung in the air, along with a heavy cloud of gunpowder. She remembered from her readings that most soldiers in the Civil War received no training before being shoved into their first battle. She thought grimly that she could believe it as she watched a particularly terrified group of soldiers clumsily attacking men in Confederate gray. The flying bullets and stench of death had her heart racing, but she forced herself to keep going, shouting her "brother's" name into the battle.
She had been carrying the fob watch in her hand the whole time, the chain wrapped firmly around her arm so she couldn't drop it. Suddenly, it began to grow warmer in her hand, becoming almost scorching hot. Molly knew without being told that it meant John was nearby. She looked around wildly for a while before finally spotting a familiar, tall form outlined against the sky. Relief washed over her when she realized he looked fine, only to be replaced by horror as she noticed he had his rifle raised, pointed at a Confederate soldier.
"No! John!" Molly hurtled towards the man, dodging fighting soldiers, desperate to reach John before it was too late. The Doctor's instructions rang in her ears as she ran. Don't let me hurt anyone. We can't have that, but you know what humans are like. She wouldn't let him kill. Not if she could still stop him.
He still had his rifle raised when she reached him, but she lunged toward it, forcing the muzzle to point into the dirt. A gunshot cracked in the air, and she could feel the shudder of it run through the rifle. She froze, stunned at how close she'd come to getting shot. The Confederate soldier, unbelievably young now that she was close enough to tell, stared at her in shock.
John looked down at her in shock and horror. "Molly?" The pathologist could feel him trembling from her grip on the rifle. His horrified gaze flicked to the Confederate soldier, uncertainty and anger flashing in his dark eyes.
Molly turned to the soldier. "Get out of here," she ordered sharply. When he just stared at her dumbly, she repeated more loudly, "Now!" That startled him into action. He scrambled to his feet and skittered off, glancing back in total confusion at the enemy soldier with the woman's voice who'd saved him.
John yanked his rifle out of her grasp. "You let him go!" he growled, though he seemed just as stunned at what happened as the soldier he'd nearly killed.
She had no time to play nice now. He had to face the facts. Molly grabbed him by the collar, ignoring his protests, and forced him to look at the retreating soldier. "That was a kid, John. A kid. He couldn't have been older than seventeen. And you nearly killed him."
The man looked shaken, gaze flitting wildly from the gun to the solider, then back to Molly. "He's an enemy soldier. He was attacking my country. I was just defending my beliefs," he defended himself dully. The horror seemed to be truly setting in now; his hands shook wildly as he seemed to realize how truly close to murder he'd come. "Isn't that the right of every man?"
Molly shook her head sadly. "War never solves anything, John," she told him gently. "It just kills. You taught me that, as the Doctor. "People who fight wars are just too scared to find another option. It's the easier option, the instinctual one, but it's not right, and it's not just. There's always another way, and if there isn't, that doesn't make it grand or a privilege, just a tragedy. It's up to people like us to find that other way."
"Us," he repeated softly. "You mean you and the Doctor." There was a certain bitterness in his tone, and fear. She wondered how much he believed her now, and how she was ever going to convince him to change back if he was so terrified of becoming the Doctor.
"You are the Doctor, John," she told him gently. "You're the same man, just with different memories."
John didn't respond to that. Instead, he stared at her, trembling all over. Her mind flashed briefly back to that horrible day when he'd been possessed by the sun. That was the only other time that she'd seen the Time Lord so vulnerable, so terrified. She pulled him into a tight hug, trying to steady the trembling, sobbing man, remembering when he'd done the same for her after the pool. "It's alright, John," she said soothingly.
"It's over."
SCENEBREAK
They were able to sneak back to the camp after the battle without any injury or suspicion from the other soldiers. The last thing Molly needed was for her to have saved him only for him to get shot for deserting. The battle was over in a few days, with the retreating Confederate soldiers setting fire to most of the city, leaving the Union without much to salvage from their victory. But it was still a victory. The last great battle of the Civil War had been won, with the Confederate capitol finally captured. The war was, for all intents and purposes, over. General Lee would surrender in a few days' time, and the Confederacy would be rejoined with the rest of the states. The United States of America would be whole again.
The last day of the battle, Molly was helping bury some of the dead when she found two familiar faces on the pile. Son of Mine and Father of Mine both died with the wide-eyed expressions twisted into looks of shock and terror. She wasn't sure what to feel when she saw them. Relief, of course, and a slight twinge of guilt, but mostly she felt a deep tiredness. War destroyed so much. These two aliens, these great threats, had been mowed down without a second thought. Their enemies, gone, just like that.
There was still no sign of Daughter of Mine; Molly guessed that when Son of Mine and Father of Mine hadn't returned, she'd taken off. There was no way for a child to sneak onto the battlefield, and it had been Son of Mine who seemed to be the planner among them. She only had days left, anyway. Molly wasn't too worried about her.
It was John she was worried about. After the battle, he'd avoided her completely, instead helping out with burying bodies or putting out fires in the city. She knew they'd have to talk about the watch eventually, but for now, she let him keep his silence. He'd gone through enough because of the war. She wasn't going to force him to essentially erase himself – or at least that's how he'd see it – until he was ready.
She didn't know what she would do if he refused to ever open it.
Again with the apology. I feel like my end for the Family is kind of lackluster, but that was also kind of the point. The destruction of war and all that. And they never said that they weren't as vulnerable as the human bodies they wore. They seemed pretty worried about their ship exploding in the actual episode, and this time they didn't have their little straw buddies to help them like in the episode, 'cause they hadn't found the Doctor yet and hadn't thought to summon them.
I've got one more chapter of this, then on to an interlude and another episode. I'll talk about that more after the next chapter. ;) Just expect more non-canon-ness ahead.