Reunion.
The Doctor was the one that broke off the hug, trying to ignore the pained moan from Romana as he did. He held her at arms length, getting a good look at the Time lady that'd captured his hearts and soul.
Romana's third incarnation had been tall, with close cropped black hair, severe facial expressions that seemed to be born to the body rather than the personality. This Romana reminded him vividly of her second life, she was a young woman in what resembled her early 30s. Her hair was long, with soft dark blonde hair. Her eyes were a dazzling green.
That's when he took in her clothes. The previous Romana had been tall, whilst the new one was tall she was much shorter, so the robes hung off her.
The robes…
The Doctor knew that Romana had been deposed, which was tragic since the Time lords under her leadership had managed to hold back the Dalek advance. Then Rassilon had been resurrected and the war grew worse. Whilst the clothes were still fine and regal, they weren't in the same league as the ones she'd worn as the president of the Time lords.
Romana broke through his thoughts, " Doctor, how did you survive the Time war ? How long has it been ?"
There was a desperate edge to her voice and the Doctor picked up on it at once, " How long have you been here ?"
Romana was impatient, " only 6 months." she held out her wrist and Martha and Jack saw a bracelet on her wrist, once it had been a burnished gold, now it was dull and looked like it was crumbling.
" My time ring, I couldn't get to a TARDIS when you stole the Moment. This ring was set to a random destination in the future. Then, I arrived. My body was saturated with the energy of our world, then I regenerated into this form. I've been recovering and trying to build a space time machine at the same time."
Martha gasped. She'd examined the clues and now she knew, " You're a Time lord ?"
" Time lady, in my case. And you are ? No, don't tell me, Earth clothes, 21st century, Human, right ? Another companion." Romana turned to Jack, where she grimaced.
" An immortal, how in Omega's name did that happen ? Please, don't come near me, just tell me who you are ?"
Jack smiled roguishly, hoping it would smooth Romana. It didn't, just as the Doctor had known it wouldn't.
" Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you ?"
" Romana." It was stated in a way that told even a deaf man Romana just wasn't interested.
The Doctor smiled.
" So, you stopped Rassilon from going through with the ultimate sanction ?" Romana asked quietly.
The Doctor winced. Memories of the atrocity Rassilon, one of the first Time lords was enough to make him sad, sad for his people and what they'd become. It wasn't a lovely thought, knowing his race had lost that last spark of decency in a desire for survival. The Doctor understood survival, seen it many times and it perverted the values of many races.
The Cybermen had taken their organic parts apart and put in place machine parts and removed their feelings, not because it was logical, but because they couldn't stand what they'd done to themselves.
The Daleks, less said the better, but more or less the same as the Cybermen, excluding the fact that they'd removed all their emotions and their consciences for the sake of racial cleansing.
The most tragic, in the Doctor's views, were the previous owners of Earth. The Silurians and the Sea Devils had forgotten the millennia's long gaps that represented humanity's evolution, preferring to see a still primitive savage race and determined to wipe our humanity, not realising that they were making one mistake after another.
The quartet were in the wrecked spaceship Romana had made into a temporary home. It wasn't much, it had been the quarters of one of the crew. Now it was divided into sections. One section was where Romana was able to store food and water, one was where the Time lady slept and bathed. The rest was a workshop, laboratory and computer room all at once.
The space was dominated by a circular ring made from all sorts of junk, it was connected to the Zison reactors which were still powering the ship.
The Doctor had said to his companions, who were presently exploring, it was a time portal.
" I wired the Moment into the Eye of Harmony and opened it the whole way. Gallifrey blew up, taking with it the whole of the Dalek race, more or less, in a huge wave of antimatter and artron energy. It also destroyed the Time lords, except me."
He looked down at his hands, still seeing the blood of millions, " I don't know how I survived, but I know one thing. It wasn't by choice."
Romana surprised him by coming round the table and wrapping him in a hug.
Meanwhile, Jack and Martha were busy exploring.
Jack noticed the girl's melancholy mood. He didn't know Martha and that was the problem. For all of Jack's weak points, he was a very sensitive man and knew when someone was uneasy.
" What's up ?"
Martha snapped out of her thoughts, " I dunno, I was thinking of Romana. The way the Doctor looked at her…" she trailed off, not wanting to reveal her thoughts to a stranger, no matter how gorgeous he was.
Jack noticed the uneasiness, " Look, I can see you have feelings for the Doctor, just like I do."
" I just wish he'd notice me, sometimes I get the feeling he's looking through me."
Jack cursed, Rose must've had a profound effect on the Time lord for this to happen. But from what he'd seen, this Doctor didn't seem to care she was gone. That made him angry.
" Maybe, just maybe, he doesn't want his hearts broken again."
Martha looked thoughtful at that.
The Doctor and Romana were still hugging and had been for 5 minutes before the Time lady, the responsible one of the pair, let go.
" So, tell me, how long has it been for you ?"
The Doctor knew what she was talking about, " 54 years."
Romana closed her eyes and let loose a few well chosen High Gallifreyan curses that made even the Doctor quirk his eyebrows.
When she stopped she explained, " This damn planet, time is warped, shattered and heaven alone knows what else. I've been here for months, alone. It feels like only yesterday since the final battle."
The Doctor nodded, " Yeah, I know. I get that. Sometimes, I dream, dream about the old days when it was me, and you, travelling through the stars, running through Paris, across landscapes. Then - I wake up, realising that it was a dream and the reality's more a nightmare than I thought."
Romana closed her eyes, feeling the other Time lord's pain. The Doctor had never wanted the war to occur, never wanted Rassilon brought back, never wanted to make that choice. But making choices was what defined the older Time lord.
She looked at him, " When are we leaving ?"
The Doctor had been hoping for that question, " When d'you wanna go ?"
" Now."
An hour later, the Doctor, Martha, Jack and Romana were now inside the TARDIS, the old time machine had been warm to Romana, even the console had lit up more than usual, but with Jack…
Jack had been afraid that the ship would vaporise him, but she'd let him inside when she'd gotten used to him. It only took 10 minutes for him and the ship to get used to one another again.
Romana was looking around the console room with an odd expression, it was like worry laced with joy, joy laced with something close to disgust.
" You've redecorated."
It wasn't a question, but the Doctor took it like one, " Not quite, after the war the TARDIS was almost ripped apart by the shockwave, both in space and in the vortex. Add in the fact that with our people gone the vortex is now a more hazardous place to travel through. It took me 2 years to refit the TARDIS, I had to use a sprapyard for that. It was more of splicing bits and pieces together, really. Then I travelled to the 55th century, where they had those prototype vortex capsules and I borrowed one and cannibalised it, taking the dimensional controls and the navigational computers."
He gestured about the room, " I made do with what I had, the desktop theme did the rest."
Martha looked at him, " Desktop theme ?"
" Welll, closest in your vocabulary that the real term means. But, yeah, basically it's like this really complicated…shape changing thing with the TARDIS. I can customise the interior anyway I like."
Romana rolled her eyes, it was such a basic explanation but it was better than hers because of the simplicity.
A/N Please review.
