Chapter Seven: Life's Not Fair

"Tell me about her," the Doctor said. "How did you two meet?"

Wilf smiled sadly, recounting old memories. "I was takin' Sylvia out to see her nan. We got into an argument. Syl was sixteen then; her rebellious stage. (Come to think of it, she never really grew out of it.) I can' remember what the fight was about, but Sylvia yelled at me and then stormed off, into the road. It all happened so fast—one minute I was yelling at her to move, the next some stranger had grabbed her and pulled her to safety while a car whizzed past." Wilf smiled. "That was Vera."

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah. She saved Sylvia's life. Now you know where you get it from," Wilf said with a chuckle.

"So that's how you met."

"Yeah. I insisted on buying her a drink to say thank you … I dunno, something just clicked. We talked for so long, my mother had panicked and phoned the police to report me an' Sylvie missing." The Doctor chuckled. "Anyway, she asked to see me again, and the rest is history.

When we'd known each other a while, she confessed that she was new to London and that she'd run away from home." The Doctor's eyes widened and he sat up slightly. "You didn't know that? Some bloke had asked her to marry him and she didn't want to."

"Epsilon," the Doctor murmured, a long-forgotten memory returning to him—a casual reference by his mother to the time she'd spent away from Gallifrey. Your father proposed and I wasn't too keen to begin with, she'd said. I went travelling to get some space and think it over. She'd hesitated. Earth is a fascinating place. And the people are … She'd trailed off at that point, but the Doctor had wondered what the rest of the sentence was going to be, and why his mother's eyes had gone misty at that point.

"I asked her about her home and travelling and she was always very vague. I did … work it out, eventually. That she was from …" Wilf gestured upwards.

"Anyway, one day I asked her straight, and she answered honestly. She never told me any details—like, the name of her species, or what planet she'd come from … she said it was better if I didn't know those things."

"How long were you together?"

"A couple of years. I wanted to marry her, but she wouldn't—she said she wanted to, but she couldn't commit to spend the rest of her life with me. I did love her. Very much. And I believe she loved me too.

Then one day—I remember, she was crying, and she said she had to leave, but she couldn't tell me why. She just insisted it was for the best and … she promised I'd find out why some day, but that for now I couldn't know."

The Doctor nodded. He could fill in this part for himself. "Because of me. Had anyone found out I was half—half human …" That had been difficult to say. "We'd both have been executed."

Wilf stared at him in shock. "But that's—a bit extreme, isn't—"

"There's a list of species that Time Lords were forbidden from … having those sorts of relationships with. Humans were top of the list."

"Why?"

"Because the Council recognised that Time Lord abilities are powerful, and there were certain races that were deemed should never get hold of those abilities. A human-Time Lord combination was considered … dangerous." He paused. "After some of the things I've done, I can see their point."

"You're a good man," Wilf said. "I know you are."

The Doctor didn't reply. It touched him, the amount of faith Wilfred had in him, even now.

"Did you know? About me, I mean. You figured it out pretty quickly."

"Not at first," the Doctor replied. "I had a stepfather, who I believed was my father … right up until—until the end of the War." The Doctor paused to try and get his emotions back under control. "A childhood friend used to theorise I had human blood, but Mum always denied it. Till the day she died."

Until the day he'd killed her.

Silence fell between them, but it wasn't awkward. The Doctor felt drained, and allowed himself to shut down again and sleep, wanting to postpone the tide of whirling emotions for as long as possible.

Wilf watched the Doctor fall back into sleep, his mind whirling.

No, not the Doctor. His son.

It made sense, he supposed, that Vera—no, Pennine—hadn't told him. If she had, he'd have spent nearly four decades wondering about his child. Instead, she had kept it to herself, leaving him with only a cryptic promise.

We'll meet again. One last time. And he … you'll understand, why I have to go.

As for why she had left … she had obviously been willing to risk her own life to be with him, but not the Doctor's. Wilf understood that.

It wasn't fair that it had to be that way, though. He'd loved her so much. All the time she'd been with him, he'd never given up on the hope that she might change her mind and marry him. It had become almost a joke in the family; he asked her no less than once a week.

And the Doctor was her child. Their child. It blew his mind.

It wasn't fair that she'd had to leave because their relationship was forbidden. It wasn't fair that their son had had to grow up without he or Wilf knowing each other, for his own protection. It wasn't fair that the Doctor had ended up in this position of responsibility for the whole universe and couldn't even save his mother. It wasn't fair that Wilf had missed out on nine hundred and six years of his son's life. It just wasn't fair.

And it wasn't fair that Donna had been rewarded for saving the universe by having her memories wiped. It wasn't fair that the Doctor could never see her again. It wasn't fair that, when all this was over, Wilf knew he would have to say a permanent goodbye to his own son and watch him fly away forever, to protect his granddaughter.

Unless …

It was a fleeting thought, but one that wouldn't shake off. Need there be a goodbye?

Yes, Wilf said very firmly to himself. There has to be. He sighed. He would make the most of the time he had with the Doctor now.

His heart broke as the truths began to sink in. What the man before him had been through; the stuff Wilf knew about and the stuff he didn't. And the fact that he knew there couldn't be a happy ending. Not for this family.

TBC …