CHAPTER 13

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this story.

Thank you for all of your reviews, favorites, follows, and story alerts.

Author's Note: The story now takes place after Children of the Night. The events in this story take place in the future of that one.

Lily's TARDIS landed outside Somerville College in Oxford University, England in the year 1890. It was a women's college established in 1879 as a part of Oxford University. Lily had gotten a job teaching history and literature there months ago and went back from time to time to actually carry out her duties.

As a Time Lady, she didn't have to work a regular work schedule. She could just travel through time back to the very next day after she was last there and return like nothing had happened in between. That way she could go for weeks or even months doing whatever she wanted to in between work days.

This time, however, there was a problem. She had completely changed her appearance just yesterday, and she wasn't sure how she was going to explain that to the people at Oxford. She decided to start with her young assistant that maintained her living quarters and office there.

Lily emerged from the TARDIS in a form-fitting Victorian version of a woman's suit that was all in bright royal purple. She also wore a purple hat with artificial lilies on it on her head to match. She allowed her now long blonde hair to flow freely under the hat instead of having it bound up underneath as was the fashion at the time. She had to be a little bit of a rebel even at a school after all. On her hands, she wore a pair of purple silk gloves. In her hand, she carried a purple woman's umbrella. To finish her look, she wore a pair of thin brainy specs that she thought made her look clever. This was to be her new look even outside of her job she had decided. She hoped that Rose didn't make fun of her too much when she saw it.

She used her key to get into her quarters and saw her assistant, Holly Samuels, go white with fear at the appearance of an unknown woman in their personal living quarters.

"Hello, Holly. I'm sorry to give you such a fright. It's me, Lily!" Lily said to her in her new softer voice that now had a Scottish accent to it.

She thought that she sounded a little like Amy Pond now. She was sure that the Doctor was going to make fun of her for that the next time that he saw her. She might get points with Amy for it though.

Holly looked at Lily like she was totally crazy and just stared at her without speaking.

"I told you about who and what I really am, Holly. You knew that it was always possible that I may change my appearance one day. Well, here I am. The new and improved me," Lily told her with a wide smile.

"Lily?" Holly asked her hesitantly.

She moved slowly toward her and got a good long look at her.

"You're totally different. Nothing's the same. There's no way that you can pose as Diana Ceres now. The others here will never accept you as such," Holly told her.

Diana Ceres was the fake identity that she had created for herself in order to take a job at Oxford. She had created an impressive fake background for herself where she had had teaching assignments all over Europe and in the United States. She even made up a story where she had taught a member of the royal family in Russia. She actually had a real credential from Professor Abraham Van Helsing as well, a good friend of hers.

She liked the Victorian era greatly, and she had wanted to establish a permanent presence here. She liked the idea of having friends and a life in this time and living out the life of a proper Victorian lady. Besides that, she had always wanted to be a teacher. She thought that this would be a good place to live out that fantasy in a girls' school in the late 1800s.

"I thought of that actually. I cooked up this handy little gadget called a Perception Filter that alters my appearance and voice back to my last form. I'm afraid I've had to use it around my friend, Allison. She hasn't taken well to the new me," Lily admitted.

Holly looked at her with a sad expression and nodded. She could well imagine that Miss Allison, who she had met before, might be very upset by this new development. She noticed that the girl was very close to Lily and absolutely adored her. Her new self must be like a punch in the gut to her.

Lily turned on the Perception Filter, and she noticed Holly visibly relax around her now. She hated this little quirk of the humans with their hang-ups over personal appearance. Time Lords didn't place so much importance on such things.

"Does how I look really matter so much to you, Holly? I'm still Lily," She asked her assistant.

"I'm sorry, Lily! I know that it shouldn't matter, but it does bother me some. When I get used to the new you though, it won't. You'll just have to give me some time. The same applies to your friends too. You'll just have to give them some time to get used to it. They'll come around though. I know that's what you're really worried about, isn't it?" Holly said.

"Thank you, Holly! I may not have known you that long by the way that you measure time, but you're already a true friend to me as far as I'm concerned," Lily said warmly.

"Thank you, Lily! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't even be alive much less have a position here at Oxford of all places. I'm the one that needs to thank you," Holly said to her with gratitude.

Lily had saved Holly from being killed during a Rutan invasion a few months ago, and Holly soon returned the favor by saving Lily from being captured by the same Rutans a few hours later. She wanted to repay Holly by letting her travel with her, but Holly didn't want that. She decided that she would rather have a regular life instead. Lily still felt like she owed her something so she got her a job as her assistant here at Oxford. The two of them got along very well, and she now maintained her affairs as Diana Ceres here in 1890.

Lily taught at the university for the day and then bid Holly good bye. She went back to the TARDIS and faced up to her friends once again. She had been happy for the opportunity to get away from the tension surrounding her new self for a while.

Ron and Cleo were used to her changes in appearance so it didn't bother them. Isabella was more interested in Ron so she had no worries there either. She got along well with the three of them.

In fact, Isabella seemed to like her new quiet, reserved and almost shy personality better than her original one. She spoke much less now and observed her surroundings more. It seemed that Isabella was able to relate to her much more easily now. Her old larger than life persona could be a little off-putting to some she mused.

Another thing that she noticed about her new self besides her new introversion was that while she may be shy and reserved among strangers she wasn't shy at all among people that she already knew. She was much more loving and open with her feelings around her friends and family now than she had even been as her previous self, which was saying something! At least she was when they were in private. In public, she was still closed off and distant. She didn't know if she liked this new part of herself or not. She was tempted to voluntarily regenerate in order to get rid of it. She had to really fight herself in order to overcome this newfound shyness. It didn't suit her at all.

As Lily got more introverted, Cleo was coming out of her shell more. She had been frightened by what had happened to Lily and decided that she needed to spend every moment with her wisely in case such a thing might be more permanent next time.

"Hello, Lily! How are you today?" Cleo greeted her as she opened her TARDIS door.

"Just fine, Cleo. I'm wonderful!" Lily said as she switched off her Perception Filter.

She grabbed her friend and gave her a warm hug. She must have squeezed her a little too hard though because Cleo said, "I can't breathe, Lil!"

"Sorry! It's the new me. I'm much more friendly and loving with people I'm close to now. In contrast to being colder to everyone else," Lily said with chagrin.

"I've noticed," Cleo said.

Cleo realized that it might fall to her and Allison to be the mouth of the group now. That was going to be strange.

"Are Ally and Robin feeling any better toward me now?" Lily asked her hesitantly.

"They'll be fine. Don't worry so much about them," Cleo told her.

"I can't help it. It's the new me. I'm much more attached to them now, and their rejection hurts so much more! I know that they don't mean to, but they are really hurting me!" Lily admitted in tears to her friend.

As Cleo moved to put her arms around her in comfort, Ron looked at his mother in sadness. He wanted to say something to her, but he didn't know what to say. He couldn't make the others suddenly warm up to her. He just stood there feeling useless.

Isabella cupped his chin in her hand and moved his face to look at her. She just gave him a look that said to him that she cared about him and supported him. That made all the difference to him and made him feel just a little bit better about an otherwise terrible situation. He hated seeing his mother cry!

Lily decided that she had had enough of this. She decided to take matters into her own hands.

She went and found Allison first. Allison was alone in the TARDIS kitchen with her head lowered and almost touching the table. She looked like she was about as depressed as Lily was. Any anger she had had toward her faded as she saw that the tension over her regeneration was hurting her as well.

"Ally?" Lily said to her.

Allison raised her head, and she smiled at Lily's new clothes. At least something she had done had made her smile lately Lily thought.

"There's a smile at last! I thought that I would never see one from you again!" Lily said with a smile of her own.

Allison looked at her with guilt in her eyes as she saw her face. She rubbed a tear off of Lily's face and said, "You've been crying because of me! I'm so sorry! I never meant to upset you. I don't want you to cry over me. This is just me being stupid. It's not your fault. I'm so sorry, Lily!"

"I need you to talk to me again. It hurts me that you've shut me out. It hurts!" Lily admitted.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Your sudden change just really freaked me out. You should have told me about it before it happened," Allison said.

"Yes, I should have. Not that it matters apparently. I told Robin all about it, and he still isn't talking to me either," Lily said with a depressed look on her face.

Allison looked at Lily for a minute as she considered what to say. She was afraid that this new version of her might not feel the same way about her. She had been worried that she might even feel totally different about her and want her to leave.

Finally, she said, "I feel like I lost my mum. I just had gotten one at last, and then I lost her! Do you still feel the same way about me? Has that changed as well?"

Lily just looked at her with a big smile on her face as she said, "I'm still here, sweetheart. I'm different but I'm also still the same on the inside where it counts. I still feel exactly the same way about you as I did before. I thought of you as family before you even told me how you felt about me. I love you like you're my own child, Ally!"

This admission from her made all of Allison's defenses go down, and her worries about being accepted by this new Lily disappeared.

"Is it okay if I call you mum then?" She said with a trace of nervousness in her voice.

"Of course, dear!" Lily said to her with a wide grin.

The two of them hugged tightly as Allison said, "I love you, mum!"

"I love you too, Ally!" Lily said as she hugged her just a little too tightly.

She heard Allison groan in pain, but the girl said nothing to her. She was too happy to care about a little pain after all!

About thirty minutes later once she was sure that her relationship with Allison had been fixed again, she went to find Robin.

She found him crying in his room. He never cried so she knew that he was really upset about things.

"Robin, we have to talk. I'm sorry that I changed, but there's nothing that I can do about that. Either you love me no matter what I look like or not. I need to know. How do you feel about me?" Lily said with a trace of anger in her voice.

Robin looked at her confused for a minute, and then he understood that she had entirely misread him.

"Oh, no! No! You misunderstood. It's not that I don't love you anymore because you changed. I would love you if you suddenly turned green and sprouted an extra head! It's not that at all," Robin said.

Lily let out a sigh of relief and then she asked, "What is it then?"

"I couldn't save you! I tried so hard. I shot every arrow I had into that madman, and he still kept going. He killed you, and I was helpless to stop it! I couldn't save you!" Robin said as he burst into tears again.

Lily pulled his face up to hers and gave him a long kiss. It wasn't the passionate kind that her previous self used to give him. This was a much more mature and longer lasting kiss. It spoke of a deep, long lasting love that didn't need to show off to prove itself. This was the kiss not of a lover but of a wife to her husband. That's what she felt like now. His wife. She wasn't married to him yet, but she was going to work on doing something about that.

When she pulled away from the kiss, he had a look of pure bliss on his face and all of his troubles were gone for the moment.

"I'm okay! I came back. I'm just fine now. Stop worrying about me!" Lily said to him in a deep Scottish lilt. She noticed that her accent got stronger when she was more passionate about something.

"You don't understand! I couldn't protect the woman that I loved! You're the woman that I want to make my wife someday. What good am I if I can't protect you, Lily? I'm not a real man at all anymore!" Robin said as he kept crying.

"Yes, you are! You're a wonderful man. A good man. No one could have stopped him with just arrows, Robin. He's a Time Lord. Time Lords are tough! We never say die. I think that the Daleks could tell you all about that. You failed once. Just once! The rest of the time you do an excellent job of protecting me and the others. You always make me feel safer when you're around. Now what's this about you making me your wife?" Lily said with a hint of her old self coming back at the end.

Now that he knew that Lily didn't think badly of him for what had happened, he felt better about it. He was still determined to protect her better in the future though. He would not let anyone ever take her from him again!

"I want to marry you someday, Lily. Once everything settles down and things go back to what passes for normal in our lives. I will propose to you then," Robin said with an evil grin.

Lily was so filled with emotion that she wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him so tightly that Robin thought that she had cracked some of his ribs! She then started kissing him and wouldn't stop. He had never seen her so filled with love before in her other persona. He thought that he might just get to like this new version of his Lily! If his ribs could hold out long enough that was!

Next: Lily's first adventure in her new persona as she has to save her assistant, Holly, from a deadly threat.