"The Mistaken M. Jones"
32. Choices
Earth, in the year 4534
She'd been standing among the evacuating diggers, and as she was wearing the protective suit, she couldn't see the time running out on her, which was worrisome on its own. It still didn't compare with the feeling of the jump coming on her with no warning. By the time she landed, she had no power to steady herself and she fell forward, breathing deep. Her instinct was still to get away, but she couldn't have walked, much less run. She was hyper aware of the bulky suit she was wearing, which would look so strange to anyone who saw her, like some kind of invading alien.
It should be better now. We saved those people. That was what she tried to tell herself, like it would reboot her energy and she could stand again, but she still struggled.
A pair of feet came into view, and it took her a moment to confirm she wasn't in fact hallucinating and the feet were really as small as she saw them.
"I found her!" a child's voice called out.
"Savi, get back here," a woman spoke then, and the feet went away.
Someone took her by the arm and carefully turned her on to her back. The sun glared into her eyes, but then a trio of faces swam overhead. One of them was a man with deep violet hair with a pair of thin canary yellow lines running through. Opposite him was a woman, her hair a pale blue save a deeper blue streak near her ear, holding a small girl with cherry red pig tails. She recognized the woman first.
"Annabel?" she blinked as the man crouched to help pull the helmet off her head. When she looked at him again, she realized she did know him, too. "Gravis?"
"Welcome back," he smiled. He looked a lot more like the young man she'd met several jumps ago, no longer the skittish man from the crawl space. She was freed of the gloves, and as they came off, she felt something click. When she looked at her arm, the cuff was gone; it had released and remained in the glove. She picked it out, looked at it. It was at once like getting a shard pulled from her finger, sudden relief… and at the same time it was like losing an old friend.
Gravis helped her to her feet, and she wasn't thinking so much about where she was anymore, she took off the rest of the suit, back in Merit's sister's old clothes. She took a breath, and finally she could look around and take in the city around her.
It was like all the color had been returned, all the life. It looked even livelier than it had done on the very first day she had landed here, with men, women, children, all moving about their day. This was no longer departure day, no one was expected at any ship. Better yet, no one went about looking as though they needed to be afraid.
"Mercedes!" the little girl exclaimed, still trying to get her attention. She couldn't have been more than four years old, maybe not even that. It was the first time she could remember wondering what was the situation with all these hair colors. Clearly they were not born with them, but for a child as young as this one to have received a color, it couldn't have been all that harmful. Maybe it was some kind of futuristic dye…
"You know my name," Mercedes smiled at the girl, and she nodded vigorously.
"We told her all about you, promised she'd get to meet you today," Annabel explained, beaming brightly. Finally Mercedes put the pieces together.
"This is your daughter?" she looked from Annabel to Gravis, and they smiled.
"Her name is Savelyn," Annabel said this with pride and memory twining in her voice.
They'd walked her back to their house, which was Merit's old house. It seemed that, after Annabel had disappeared ten years ago, a young woman in uncharacteristically dark brown hair had come about and put a claim to the house, keeping it vacant for all of five years, after which the returned Annabel and Gravis were able to reclaim it. Within a year they would be married and expecting the child that was to be named in honor of Annabel's fallen sister. They were four of them living in that house, the fourth being Merit Reeslin, who had his room and lived among them, young Savi calling him her uncle. The three adults conveniently forgot to mention how they were somehow five years younger than they were meant to be.
He was there when the others brought Mercedes along, though his hair was no longer faded, and it had not been returned to its three shades of violet. It was a uniform forest green.
Mercedes also knew there would be two more waiting for her in that house. The blue police box had been parked just outside, like one very tall lawn ornament. There were the Doctor and Clara, still in her canary bun. She was the first to come forward, and she hugged Mercedes.
"So it's done?" Mercedes asked them all.
"Yes," the Doctor confirmed. "The asteroid was destroyed, the people recovered, all but those who were too far gone I'm afraid," he spared a quick look to Annabel, still with her daughter perched in her arms. "Those were kept peaceful until the illness ran its course."
"And Lenton, he got away?" she asked, showing the Doctor the cuff which had come off her arm. He took it, pocketed it.
"It would appear he did. So now, as for you, Miss Jones, it would appear it's now to take you home."
"Right," Mercedes breathed. She wouldn't be sorry to go back home, but at the same time… All she'd done was run, for a few very tiring days. And just when she wanted to stop and look around…
"Doctor?" Merit stepped up. "If you don't mind, before you go on your way, there's one more thing I need your help with."
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)