December 5:th - If Things Went Another Way

The TARDIS drifted. It got boring, being a magical, mystical, marvelous artifact sometimes. Doctor Who was busy on his own, and so the time had come to play a little. Just to spice things up a bit.

With a destination now set, the TARDIS drifted into an Alternate Reality, to just have a peek into the life of a friend, should things have gone decidedly differently, making sure they'd never met.

Doctor Strange's life seemed perfect. Was perfect, to the most part. He was a famous surgeon, the best in his field, and life kept just throwing things at him. Things like renown, money and gratitude frequently came his way. He liked that, but he liked his job even better. He really did. Being in the OR, saving lives, was the best thing there was.

What was not common knowledge, was why Doctor Strange had become a doctor, and later on a surgeon, in the first place. When he was still a teen, his much younger sister had gotten desperately ill. He remembered med-school like a race against time to save her life.

He, brilliant and endlessly motivated as he had been, had won the race. By a mile. He had already been of considerable skill and with a few discoveries in his belt when his own sister lay at his operating table. He had actually succeeded with the impossible, rooting out her illness like the guardian angel he'd always be for her. Turns out, he had won the battle - but lost the war.

He had saved her, but the disease had still taken its price. Now, eighteen years later, she was still in a coma, having never woken up from surgery. It had kept him searching for new ways to heal the brain for years, but he was not delusional. She wasn't waking up.

His work had kept him grounded, saved him from going insane, and he loved it all the more for it. He did not forget his sister, though, and he had made sure she'd lie in the long time ward of his own hospital, so that he could see her. He did, too, and often.

As he was scrubbing off from yet another successful surgery, he pondered his calendar. He had it all memorised, of course, and did not need a book or electronic device to do so. He had a talk coming up, in only two weeks time. To get there, he would have to drive through some truly delightful mountain roads, and he was looking forward to it. Christine had told him many times to drive more carefully, but he had never listened.

As he made his way out into the hall, his pager beeped. A look showed that it was Liz, wanting him to get in contact. He liked Liz. She was a motherly, wise nurse about ten years older than he was, and she never fussed. She was in charge of the long time care unit for head injuries, and not only did she occasionally have some very interesting cases for him to look at, but she always took great care of his sister for him, keeping an extra eye on her. He was grateful for her care.

Changing his direction, he made his ways into an elevator and rode the several floors up to come have a look at whatever had made her contact him.

"Hi, Liz" he greeted, seeing her stand at the nurses station at the floor. "What do you have for me today?" To his surprise, she seemed a little bit hesitant. That was unprecidented. Someone else might have asked what was the matter, but he was not anyone else. He waited.

"It is your sister, Doctor" she said after a short moment, pausing briefly again, making his intestines go into all sorts of knots, before she said "she's moving her fingers". Now Doctor Strange was all sorts of things, even proud, but he had his priorities. Hearing that, he ran.

Liz came and joined him after a minute, at a more sedate pace, watching the man everyone else thought of as cold and judgemental, while she frequently glimpsed an entirely different side to the masterful surgeon, as he kept a watchful eye on his sister for all these years.

Without having to be asked, she produced the new scans which had just been made.. She would have called him first, but even if the girl waked up, it would take a while yet, and the doctor had been in surgery.

Her throat felt dry, and her eyes didn't want to be opened. Those were the first things Alicia Strange became aware of. Then there were voices and someone helping her sit up. She felt very weak.

As soon as she could see clearly, she recognised the type of room she was in. Hospital room. Not one she recognised, but then they were all so bland. Then, and she startled at that, she noticed the braid falling down over the blanket which covered her breasts. Wait, breasts? She had never developed curves. Not yet, anyway, and she didn't think she would live long enough.

She could, vaguely, connect the dots in her mind. Or not. With a choked voice, she demanded, feeling tears coming up and choking her "How long?!"

Her body certainly looked all different, that was for sure. Her hair, always kept short because of her illness, was the waistlong mass she had always dreamt of. "Eighteen years, dear" the nurse which had come in after the first one, saying her name was Liz, explained kindly. Eighteen, that meant she was... she mind rebelled at the thought of her being over thirty - of having been asleep for eighteen years - she wasn't even eighteen years old!

She had been fourteen, when... Stephen had... oh, Stephen. Had he forgotten about her? Was he married, far away somewhere? Were their parents dead? Where were all of her friends now? There was movement at the door, but she didn't heed it in her panic, then there was a hand on hers, and a familiar voice said "Alci. Look at me. Alci, focus on me". Turning her head abruptly, she saw Stephen. He was older and looked very important, but it was definitely her brother.

"That's it" he sat down on the side of her bed, the nurses moving to give him room. He had always had a lot of... power, to him, but they moved with respect. He had become important, while she slept. She always known he would be.

He was wearing scrubs, but unlike anyone else in the room, he had a facemask still with him, though he wasn't wearing it. She remembered doctors wore those in the OR. Had Stephen just come out of surgery? Of course he had. She felt a momentary surge of pride, before struggling to lift her other hand to grip Stephen's hand with both of hers, suddenly feeling panic closing in again. It was difficult to move, but he immediately reached out to help.

"Easy" it was that soft, kind voice he only ever used with her. "Relax. You're going to need some physical therapy before that is easy again". It was so like him, focusing on the medical side, that she let out a laughter which transformed to a sob. "Eighteen years?" "Eighteen years" he confirmed. "Don't worry. You're safe".

She felt safe, now that he was there.

The next several weeks were a flurry of physical therapy and catching up to medical and world changes through the last eighteen years. More than once Stephen was called from her side by his pager for emergency surgery, and at one particular occasion, to perform a surgery on something she recalled from peeking into his medical books as a child was inoperable. When she said as much to his brother, he just kissed her on her head and whispered "I found a way". She was very proud of him.

Stepen did cut back rather dramatically on his working hours to be with his sister, but he didn't regret it. She kept to that she wanted to go to college, her goal from so long ago, and he knew that he'd be able to go back to the OR full time when she did. For now, he was content to take the surgeries no one else could perform, and to spend the rest of his time as a big brother. He ended up missing the talk he had been looking forward to, but his sister wouldn't have let him drive there in an exciting fashion anyway.

Reckless, she called his driving style one afternoon after speaking to Christine, and she refused to hear of him continuing in the same fashion. Different from any critique from Christine, this time he listened. Not until after trying to argue the point, but he did listen. "I have managed this far" had been his last attempt, but she had merely glared. "You don't know" she had insisted "you might be running out of time. One more time and it might be the time you get yourself killed or crippled!"

He thought such considerations frivolous and silly, of course, there was no such thing as being due for an accident and statistics and probabilities did not work that way, but he did drive more sensible in the future, a point which was merely driven home when his little sister was finally allowed home, and was frequently in the car.

It became a common sight after she got better and he got back to work, to find "miss Strange" in the hospital, sitting often outside the OR, waiting for her brother, and to see him at his frequent talks, one arm around her protectively while he mingled, quickly became the new norm. It was soon a standing joke at the hospital, that if you wanted to catch Strange after surgery, wait for him with his sister, as that'd be the first place he went after scrubbing off afterwards. She mellowed him out, made him see more sense and tore down some of his walls, like no one else could.

Stephen was happier than he had been before in his life, his sister living in his spare room and studying to get the final grades she needed for college. As he helped her come to terms with her life again, he finally got some perspective on his own. Maybe in a way, he started to have one again, besides only being a doctor. As a surgeon, scientist, neurospecialist, doctor and brother, he was more complete than as merely a neurosurgeon, and even he and Christine started to mend.

When Alicia Strange finally moved away to study, two years after having awokened from her coma, she did so just in time for preparations as she gave her bedroom up to a little girl her brother loved just as much as he did her; her first niece. They were both the bridesmaids as he married Doctor Palmer, when she finally accepted him, that is.

Very pleased with what it saw, the TARDIS sent itself back home.

This might not be entirely canon use of a TARDIS, but come on, this is a story which features a friendship between a cloak and a carpet. Cut me some slack. Besides, big brother Stephen is adorable.

I do not own anything you recognise - I don't even know where some of it is from!

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