10 years of Diana Scott (now Di Summers)! I can't even believe it!

A special shoutout to Ezra, who's writing Tattoos of Time and is such a lovely guy to talk to. I really appreciate his comments over the years(!) and also love his story to pieces.

grapejuice101 has been around since the OG times, leaving me cheerful little reviews and kind messages. Every time I write for Di and the Doctor, I think of them and all the help they offered me with plot ideas, little checkups, and just generally positive vibes.

BloodLily16 - I haven't heard from them in ages, but I remember all their sweet and exciting reviews, and I think they even made art of Diana once? It was really wonderful and has sat in the back of my mind ever since.

SerahSanguine has also been around for ages! Left all sorts of wonderful comments, even on the new stuff like some of the others I've mentioned, and it's just such a delight to see them pop up in my notifications.

atrhoads05 andre-papushi have left comments on nearly every single chapter of this reboot? Guys, thank you, it really means so much and I appreciate it more than I can ever express.

Appella Twizziee have also left all kinds of excellents comments and helped to hype me up over the years.

All this goes to say, whoever you are, however long you've been with me and my stories, your feedback and presence has been felt and loved so very much. I couldn't possibly list every single person to ever leave a note, but I tried my best to remember the people that have been around for a while and interacted with me. This may just be a silly little story to all of you, but for me it's part of my dream to be an author and the Doctor specifically has been a comfort for me for years now. I'm just happy to be continuing the story. Thank you, always.

Word Count: 7,685

87 years. He'd waited for 87 years, wandered the island and the whole of southern India alone. For 87 years. That was an entire lifetime. At 25, I would have died before ever reuniting with him if I'd been in his shoes. Hell, I probably would have settled down with a local Sinhala or Tamil person and started a family, lived a full life, given up hope of ever finding the Doctor or the modern world again. It was strange to think that for him, 87 years was little more than the blink of an eye. He'd barely even aged apart from an extra crinkle beside his eyes. And then it clicked for me why he fought against falling in love across his regenerations - Rose, River, Clara, Yaz, like me they would all age while he would keep on living. How long did we have, then? How many decades before my time ran out and I faded before his eyes?

I suddenly felt pressed for time with this realization weighing on me. Assuming I'd make it to 90 (which I felt was stretching it), that gave us 65 years together. Plenty of time for me, but not nearly as much time as he'd had on his own. We still had to fall in love, get married, meet for the first time, and we only had 65 years to do it? Wasn't he riddled with anxiety about it? Didn't it plague him knowing he'd outlive me? Or had he already made his peace with it? I felt silly to suddenly be stressing over the details, but I couldn't help it either way. I'd never felt so short on time before I met him. Now I was suddenly worried I'd never have enough.

The Doctor had recommended that Donna and I get some sleep in the TARDIS, stay overnight and return in the morning to explore and make sure everyone remained at peace. I had a feeling he was just sticking around for my benefit since I had been the one who wanted to come here the most; he couldn't possibly want to stay for much longer after 87 years. But tired as I was, I couldn't find it in me to go to sleep just then. My mind was racing. The fact that the time blip had stolen him for 87 years terrified me. What if the blip took him again? What if it took Donna or I? What if, what if. What if I had failed earlier? You didn't. What if the Doctor had never come? He did. What if we ran out of time? You might.

Such a finite thing, time. Not for a Time Lord like him, of course, but for the average human, for me, time was always running out. It was the one thing I could never outrun myself, not even with a TARDIS or a vortex manipulator.

The riverbank was quiet and peaceful, the water rippling gently as it reflected the moon and stars. Even in my own time and universe, I'd never seen so many stars. Every pocket of the sky I looked to, there they were, twinkling and sparkling and forming strange shapes, cluttering up the entire expanse until the constellations I already knew seemed to be completely swallowed up. Beautiful. So, so beautiful. And now within my grasp, another sobering thought. I could reach out to a star, chose any from among the heavens, and ask the Doctor and he would probably take me there. God, it was strange. I wasn't sure I'd ever get used to it.

The sound of a TARDIS dematerializing is a distinctive one. Almost nothing can be mistaken for it, so it stood to reason that if I were in ancient Sri Lanka where there wasn't even a hint of modern technology like trucks or trains, I would be able to hear it. I never did. What I did hear was a set of voices working their way through the trees, distinctly English and a couple of them startlingly familiar. There was the one that sounded straight out of Liverpool, all gruff and irritable, and then there was hers. Lower in pitch with a beautifully rich timbre. I knew her voice well, I'd know it anywhere. Which meant that I was in serious, serious trouble.

I don't know that I've ever run so fast as I did then, leaping over shrubs and vines and tree roots, nearly taking myself out a couple of times, until I was stumbling into the village short on breath and panicked beyond logical thought. "Doctor!" I called before immediately slapping my hands over my mouth. What if they heard me? What if I led them straight to us?

But to my relief, the Doctor heard me before I had to call him again. He came out from one of the nearby hovels, freshly shaved and back in his regular clothes, although how he could stand the humidity in them after decades of airy veshtis I still didn't know. And he was smiling so brilliantly. God, I wished I was as ignorant as he was when it came to Division.

"There you are! I was-"

"We have to go, now."

He smile dropped into a deep frown. "What's wrong?"

I grabbed his wrist and started yanking him toward the TARDIS. "There's no time. We have to go! Where's Donna?"

"She's already inside. Di, what's going on? What happened?"

As if on cue, Gat and her Division crew burst through the foliage with their weapons drawn and their eyes ablaze. There, at the back of the group, was the Doctor. I caught a glimpse of the bright colors at her wrists and throat before turning and bolting with my Doctor's arm still caught in my death grip. I couldn't stop and marvel at her existence or her beauty, I couldn't waste a single second because Gat had almost caught me back at the Freedom Federation and if she did so again, there was no telling what might happen to me. I had to get inside the TARDIS, I had to get as far away from them as possible, and I couldn't let them find the Doctor yet. Not him, not so soon.

Exactly how we got inside, I wasn't entirely sure. The adrenaline had kicked me into autopilot and I only found myself properly coming to once the ship was in flight and I knew for certain that we were safe. I gazed up at the time rotor and the coral supports. God, I wanted to cry. How had they found us, how the hell did they know?

"Diana."

My stomach sank. He never calls me by my proper name, not in this body.

A hand settled on my elbow, not firm enough to hurt but not loose enough to allow me to pull away. I still tried to. I turned to yank myself out of his grip, but instead found myself being walked backward until I was pinned between him and the console, and it was nothing like I had expected or daydreamed. He wasn't gazing down at me with some cheeky, amorous expression like I suspected he had with that other me. That felt like eons ago. This time the Doctor looked at me and he looked terrified.

"What was that?"

I'd thought he would be angry with me. I'd thought he would yell at and berate me. Perhaps it was because that's the kind of person he could be, perhaps it was because every man in my life had done the same at one point or another. But he didn't. For all his courage and confidence and bravado, the man who looked down on me in that moment looked more frightened than I had ever seen.

"Why are they after you?"

Shit. "H-How did you know-?"

"I heard you." His hand drifted from my elbow to my wrist to copy the way I'd grabbed him earlier. "What's Division? Who's Gat? And why did you call that woman the Doctor?"

I couldn't think straight. I can't tell you, was my first thought. Then - The timestreams. What'll happen to the timestreams if he knows?

"I can help you. If you'll just tell me what's going on."

He was listening in on me again, and now that I was starting to de-escalate from my adrenaline high, I was angry. "Dammit, you know I can't tell you!" I snapped as my open palms smacked into his chest. "You're always telling people they can't know about their futures. You just scolded me earlier about spoiling Donna!"

"That's different, her life wasn't on the line. You seem t' be under the impression that yours is and I want t' know why!"

"Because they're tracking me! I think they're tracking me, okay? I don't know why. But they're dangerous. And if they catch me, I don't know what's going to happen to me."

Those big, brown eyes of his dropped a hair before squeezing shut. He stepped back, ran a hand through his abnormally limp hair, started pacing like he does when he's upset. Or scared. Or doesn't know something. "Then why am I working for them? Why am I helping t' track you down?"

"Because... you're... undercover." Yeah, that could work. That was believable enough, right?

"No." Oh. Apparently not. He was shaking his head and scowling. "No, because if that were true you wouldn't be so afraid."

Why was he so damn stubborn? Why did he have to fight me so hard on this instead of just trusting me? I was following his rules, after all, the rules he preached to the rest of the universe but half the time never even followed himself. Shouldn't he be proud of me for that instead of chastising me and making me feel like I was in the wrong?

I could feel it bubbling up in my chest, the bitterness and anxiety and outright anger that this man who was supposed to be my partner through life wasn't even listening! I knew if I opened my mouth, I'd say something I would regret, I'd lash out again.

I also knew, almost for certain now, that the encounter I had with Gat at the Freedom Federation wasn't just a fluke. If she could find me through a time blip and bring her whole squad with her, then Evelina was right and Division was waiting for me. Hell, maybe the whole thing about me being an intergalactic criminal was just a fabrication. Maybe they were trying to get to the Doctor through me. If I was taking River's role as his wife, then it wouldn't be much of a stretch if multiple institutions tried to take advantage of our connection. We were both emotional people; he'd go to the ends of the universe for the people he loved and I knew I had that same instinct, I'd simply never had to utilize it. What if me running away in the TARDIS was exactly what Gat wanted?

"Do you trust me, Doctor?"

The ship creaked and sighed. He had moved to the opposite end of the console, but now he was watching me, face drawn tight and his body rigid. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. Was it the woman he had married? Did he see a 26 year old child? Did he trust me yet, or was that trust only extended to his wife?

"I know I'm not the same person you know. I know there's a lot I don't understand about this universe. I know that I'm scared and I don't know how to fix this, but I also know that according to the rules you set for yourself and your companions, I can't tell you what's going on. So even though I'm not the brilliant Di Summers you married, I'm asking you to trust me now." I reached into my bag and pulled out my vortex manipulator, and I ignored the welling of tears in my eyes. "I can't risk them finding you." Or what you might do to them when you find out who they are.

"What are you doing?" He started around the console. "Di-"

He was trying to stop me, he had to be, I was sure of it. "Just trust me," I pleaded as I quickly strapped the VorMan on. "Please? I'm trying to keep us both safe."

Whether he trusted me on this or not, it didn't matter because it seemed that the TARDIS had other plans. She jolted hard off balance, throwing the both of us onto the console while alarms started going off, a dozen different pitches and rhythms. And the hand that I had left hovering over the telepathic circuit of my VorMan smacked hard into the panel just as a streak of blue-white electricity zapped the device. For a moment there was simply nothing, no TARDIS, no light, nothing but myself in an empty, soundless vacuum, and then there was everything. My feet hit solid ground, but the angle of descent was all wrong and I hadn't been expecting it, so I crumpled into a graceless tangle of limbs.

I could smell smoke. Then something earthy and ancient. Then I blinked away my confusion and pushed myself onto my hands and knees and took a look around.

Wherever I had ended up, it certainly wasn't Earth. Two suns peeked out from behind rust-tinted clouds, the air was thick and humid, but the ground itself was barren and dry in every direction. To one direction was a collection of boulders, some no bigger than a school desk while others looked to tower a good 20 feet above me, and to the other direction was nothing, just cracked soil and the remnants of a few little shrubs.

"Where the hell?"

The data on my vortex manipulator was supposed to be useful, it was supposed to be a place that I was meant to go to, but what could possibly be so important about this place? It didn't look like any planet the Doctor had ever explored on screen, nor did it have any distinguishing features that could help me identify it. It was a dirtball. Was I meant to be here, to stay here? If I waited long enough, surely Gat and her crew would catch up to me and that would be that. There wasn't much cover aside from the boulders, but that wouldn't stop someone like Gat. It wouldn't stop Division. But... I wouldn't put the Doctor in danger by staying here. I couldn't know for sure if they were after him as well, but it wasn't worth chancing.

Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was a terrible idea, maybe I wasn't thinking through anything clearly, but staying put for the time being, drawing them away from him and the TARDIS seemed like the best thing I could do. The only problem was what to do once they arrived - I had no weapons, no knowledge of intergalactic or Gallifreyan laws, what rights they were in violation of, I had no way to defend myself either physically or federally. That meant my only option was to keep running, but how long could I keep that up? How were they tracking me? How could I stop them? I didn't know where to begin searching for those kinds of answers, but I wondered if the right Doctor would be able to help. Or maybe not. How could I be sure?

I just don't know anymore. I don't know what the right path is.

Feeling, for all intents and purposes, stranded on this foreign planet, I settled my back against the nearest boulder and gazed up at the sky. I tried to pick shapes out of the clouds, create stories for the kinds of constellations I imagined were visible at night. I tried not to ponder what-ifs and could-bes, I tried very hard not to let panic settle in my bones and unease mix up the food in my belly, but I was scared. Not like I had been with Nagas and their war. No, this felt different. At least with the Nagas and Yakshas, I had a foundational knowledge of their beliefs, their lives, what was important to them and how I could relate to them. Division was vague and confusing by design. Division was a shadow operation on purpose. The show didn't give much insight into its motivations beyond power and controlling the Doctor, but there had to be more than that. Power for the sake of Gallifrey or power for the sake of power? Was Rassilon behind any of it? Was this an FBI/CIA situation where the President was in on the job sometimes? How could I outrun them when they were unquestionably more powerful and more knowledgeable than I was?

A vaguely animal shaped cloud began to drift by. I told myself not to cry. I did anyway.

I started at the wheezing of a materializing TARDIS. I hadn't meant to doze off, but it stood to reason that my body would be exhausted after Sri Lanka. Fat lot of good it did me, alone on an alien planet with way too many thoughts in my head to sort through. None of that mattered right then, though. What mattered was the echo of a Gallifreyan ship coming in for a landing. There were really only two options as to who was inside it and I had a terrible sinking feeling that it wasn't the Doctor I wanted it to be.

Still a little dazed from my impromptu nap, I found myself swaying on my feet as I recovered my bearings and attempted to formulate a plan. Hide and wait to be found, or run without a second look? What if it really was the Doctor? (Unlikely.) He'd understand if I ditched him. (Probably.) If it was Division and they'd found me again, then I needed to VorMan myself out of there the moment they revealed themselves, give myself as much of a head start as possible, even if it was only a few minutes. The walk back to their ship would be enough to delay them and that was enough for me.

Gathering my courage, I stole a quick look around the edge of the boulder, trying to find a flash of skin or Gallifreyan weaponry, clothing, anything distinctly Division, but there was only dirt and rocks. They had to be on their way, though. I was likely the only human on the planet, it wouldn't be that hard to find me if they had the right equipment.

Just take it easy, I told myself, hand poised over the vortex manipulator. Wait 'til you know they've seen you, then you can jump. Inconvenience the hell out of them. You'll be fine.

Probably.

The planet was quiet and still, no wind, no birds. Even the sun had started to set low on the horizon, further darkening the stretches of nothingness. My skin prickled with the distinct sensation of being followed, but whoever and wherever they were, I didn't know. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, hoping to calm myself before I got too jumpy and gave myself away.

In. And out... In. And out. You got this, Di, you-

"Are you what all the fuss is about?"

That voice, so strikingly familiar and once comforting, nearly scared me out of my skin and I tripped over my own feet simply hearing it. Flipping onto my rear, I followed it to its source several yards away, somewhere among the scattered boulders. A woman stood atop the smallest one dressed in dark navy trousers and a matching waistcoat and jacket over a brightly colored blouse. She wore combat boots and gold hoop earrings with a blaster on her hip, and the top of her head was crowned with a braid of her hair. And by the time I'd managed to wrap my head around her existence, another figure appeared next to her - tall, broad-shouldered, and covered in fur.

"Doctor?" I said, hardly daring to believe my own eyes.

Karvanista raised his blaster so it was aimed at me, but the Doctor only raised an eyebrow. She peered over her yellow-tinted glasses and pursed her lips. "And who are you?"

I glanced at the scope on Karvanista's weapon and swallowed nervously. "You don't know me?" I somehow managed to say.

"Should I?"

"You want me t' take care of her, boss?" Karvanista growled. "She looks easy."

"Down, boy." The corner of the Doctor's mouth quirked into a smile at her joke. She rested a hand on his blaster and pushed so it was pointed at the floor. Then she looked at me again and tilted her head to the side. "There's an inter-universal shadow organization huntin' you down, love. Care to explain why? Because as sweet and unthreatenin' as those doe eyes look, somethin' tells me there's more to you than that."

I felt as if all the air had been knocked out of me. Of all the incarnations I had expected to one day meet, I hadn't pictured this one. But she had made an incredible impression on me in my home universe and I remembered loving her from the moment she first appeared, desperate to drink in every piece of information about her because she fascinated me so much. But none of that mattered then because, she was still under the employ of the Division. Which meant that I was in deep shit. Just like Evelina had said.

Her blaster was quickly slung across her back and she started to make her way down the front of the boulder, finally jumping off about halfway down. Dust pillowed around her feet as she landed. I watched, both terror-stricken and awestruck, as she sauntered her way toward me. She offered me her hands once she was close enough, the dark purple paint on her nails catching the light as she did. "C'mon. Up you get."

I was immediately struck by the strength of her grip as I practically flew to my feet and immediately stumbled into her. A hand on my shoulder steadied me and I felt my face flush with heat. She was close in height to me, if not just slightly shorter, but her presence was as stern and commanding as any of the other Doctors even as they towered above me. Oh, and she was beautiful.

"What does Division want with you, hm? You don't exactly look like one of the largest threats to this universe's existence."

"I have no idea," I told her with a frantic shake of my head.

She thought for a moment, then squeezed one of my hands. I hadn't even realized that she was still holding onto me. Which probably meant that she'd just heard everything I'd thought over the last fifteen seconds, including when I thought she was beautiful. Oops.

"I believe you."

I snatched my hand out of hers and backed up a few steps. Have to be careful, I realized. One wrong move or word and I spoil her entire future. And if this incarnation exists before the very first one, the one who stole the TARDIS with Susan, then that could literally ruin everything. I searched the Doctor's curious ebony eyes and felt utterly lost. This must be the first time the Doctor ever meets me. And... she won't even remember it.

"But you know me, don't you? You recognized me."

"No, I didn't."

The Doctor fixed me with a look that made me want to melt into a puddle of goop. "Don't lie."

"I didn't- I'm sorry, I-..." My heart was about to beat out of my chest, I was so anxious and on edge. I had to look away from the questions in her eyes, written into every line on her face. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you why. And I really, really don't want to get taken to Division because I know I'll never come back out again, so please. Please believe me. I don't know what's going on."

The raggedness of Karvanista's breathing suddenly reached my ears. He was just a few steps away, his blaster still in hand but resting harmlessly over his torso. He eyed me warily and was clearly unimpressed with whatever he saw, which I tried not to be too offended by. I was just a normal woman who lived a normal life, or at least I used to be. I wasn't meant for inter-galactic war crimes and space-CIA missions.

"Wait for me back at the ship," the Doctor ordered. Karvanista barked in surprise, a rough sound in the back of his throat as his ears perked up. "Now. We can argue about it later."

"What about the others?" I asked. "Where are they?"

"Think I'm gonna tell you our battle plans, do ya?"

I frantically shook my head. "No! No, I just would like to know if I'm about to get jumped and thrown in prison, and you're just the bait."

She chuckled enough to make her shoulders shake, which I tried not to be offended about. "Trust me, love. I'm never bait. I'm the first line of defense." The sky had shifted somewhere between sunset and twilight when she guided me toward one of the smaller boulders and gestured for me to take a seat. I didn't want to, but with her staring down her nose at me I didn't feel I had much of a choice. "Must be a good one, your story, how you met me. If you're this nervous."

Where to start? I tilted my head back to ponder the dusty pink sky and almost-white clouds and felt my nose start to tingle. My eyes were starting to water and I hadn't even said a word yet. But the Doctor was waiting and my life was potentially on the line, so I knew I had to talk whether I wanted to or not.

"I'm from another universe." It hurt something deep inside of me to finally say it out loud after pushing the thoughts down day after day. "I was coming home from a historical interpretation event and then a storm hit. I don't know why it chose me. Maybe I was I just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but... It took me. I was in the time vortex and I heard voices and then I was in the middle of nowhere. By a farmhouse." I recalled the night in Mercy when the Doctor, my first Doctor, had told me that the farmhouse was mine and wasn't sure if I wanted to smile or sob. "My farmhouse."

"And you think that's why the Division wants you?"

I shrugged. "Maybe? I don't know. Maybe I'm an affront to their senses or some shit because I'm not from here."

The Doctor snorted and my head snapped around. "I doubt you'd be an affront to anyone's senses, love. No offense, but you're just not made of the stuff that threatens galaxies and topples civilizations." She smiled apologetically and gave me a little nod. "But that still doesn't explain how you know me."

Here comes the hard part. The Eleventh Doctor and my future self in the hologram had handled the situation brilliantly, all things considered, but they had been prepared for the cold hard truth with answers to impossible questions. I didn't have nearly as many answers and I was sorely unprepared.

"There's a story in my universe," I began. My fingers were starting to tremble. "Of a person who travels the stars and saves people. And he, sometimes she, is a hero. A madman with a box. And a screwdriver." I nervously sought out the Doctor's gaze, even as my tears started up again. Her face was impossible to read, but there was something in the way she furrowed her eyebrows, in the wrinkles in her forehead that told me she didn't think I was crazy. "I used to watch that story when I was growing up. And I kept watching it as I got older and that story got me through a lot. And then..."

The Doctor urged me to continue with a nod of her head.

"And then you showed up on the screen. And now you're here." My voice had gone gravelly and rough, so I cleared it and dried my cheeks on the back of my hand. "That's how I know you. And I know it sounds crazy and probably stupid, but I'm serious. I wouldn't lie to you."

"A story?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"Hm. And what's this impossible story called, then?"

I swallowed. "Doctor Who."

She clapped a hand on her thigh and burst into laughter, throwing her head back like I'd just told the funniest joke she'd ever heard. My stomach sank. I had really thought for a moment that she might believe me, I thought I'd seen a glimmer of hope in her eyes, but-.

"You've got to be joking. A story all 'bout me? That's rich!"

"I'm serious!"

Still chuckling to herself, the Doctor stood up. "I almost believed you. You really had me goin' for a second, y'know, with those big, sad eyes."

"I'm not lying." I jumped to my feet and fixed her with the angriest, most bitter look I could muster and she faltered when she turned to me, but not for longer than a heartbeat. "I lost my family, my friends, my whole life! And you're laughing?"

"Oh, c'mon, love," she tsked. "You really expected me to believe that? Hopping universes, I can believe, but some myth, a fable telling the story of my life? Nah. How d'you really know me?"

I surged forward into her personal space like a ship breaking through the crest of a wave and felt the air change around us. "That's how I know you. You're the Doctor. You come from Gallifrey, you have a TARDIS, and you travel the universe. I've seen it with my own eyes on a television screen! I've read so many stories about you, watched everything about you, I know exactly who you are and I'm not making it up! I mean, I'm creative, but I'm not that creative. There's no way I could ever dream up something as wonderful as you."

"Stop it. I'm not going to ask you again." Her eyes blazed furiously. "Tell me the truth."

"I. Am."

Her hand was on my throat faster than I could see and then I was stumbling backward until I was pressed against the boulder. I could feel every ridge and point jutting into my back and legs, and I could feel the Doctor's fingers tightening around me like a noose. She removed one hand to take off her glasses and leaned in close enough for her nose to brush mine.

"If you know about me, about Division, then maybe you are as dangerous as they say. Maybe I should turn you in and let them deal with you."

A vague picture of Tecteun in her ship between universes popped to the front of my mind. Is that where Division headquarters were located in the Fugitive Doctor's time? Or would they be on Gallifrey?

"Will they kill me?" I asked.

The Doctor shrugged. "Dunno. But it's not my problem, is it?"

I reached blindly for the hand at my throat, trying to slot my fingers over hers. "Please," I croaked, "don't. You can look inside my head, in my memories if you want. Prove that I'm not lying. Doctor." She started at the sound of her name on my tongue. "Doctor. Look. Just look. Whatever you want to see or know, take it, I don't care. Just please don't bring me to them." I curled my other hand around the lapel of her jacket. "Let me show you."

"You're not gonna trick me, love, I already have you figured out." She tucked her glasses into her breast pocket, then reached for her belt and unclipped a pair of handcuffs.

"Nonononono, wait. Wait! Stop!"

She released my neck and clapped one cuff around my wrist while I was still stunned, but I fought to keep my second hand free. I stretched back as far as I could, flailing and biting and kicking, trying to wriggle out of her grip, knock her over, but she was stronger than I was and it was only a matter of time before she overpowered me. I knew that as soon as she had me restrained, my fate would be sealed and I'd be turned over to the mercy of Division.

So I stretched out my hand and grabbed hold of the neatly pinned bun at the back of her head, twining my fingers through her braids and leveraging her head closer to mine. I pictured my memories of the show as snippets from a newsreel that highlighted the biggest moments of the show's history and projected them through my body with every ounce of strength I had. The Fugitive Doctor revealing herself to Thirteen, Nine and Rose watching the Earth burn, Bad Wolf, Clara Oswald splicing herself into the Doctor's timestream, River Song, the Master in all his incarnations always at the Doctor's throat, the Time War, Gallifrey, Rassilon, Eight and Charlotte Pollard fusing together after the events of Zagreus, Six and his beautifully terrible technicolor coat tearing the Valeyard to shreds, Four clutching to wires in his hands with the fate of the Daleks resting in his hands, One and Susan in the junkyard on Totter's Lane, the moment he first stole the TARDIS and ran away with an echo of Clara watching from the shadows, Ten and Donna and I in Pupil's Hat Stand as she described her following of mine and the Doctor's story. I gathered together every memory I had of sneaking my laptop into my room to watch the latest Doctor Who episode on a school night, of listening to the music when writing stories, of buying every book and DVD I could get my hands on, of the posters lining my high school era wall and threw them at her, frantic for her to understand.

It's real, it's real, it's real, it's real. I adopted the phrase as my new mantra, shouting it in the quiet recesses of my mind and hoping against hope that the Doctor would hear it.

Suddenly, the Doctor released me and stumbled back as the connection between us snapped. My legs wobbled and gave out, causing me to crash to the ground. I was still free with only one hand cuffed. The Doctor was clutching her head, wincing, and I probably could have outrun her while she was stunned, but I didn't want to leave her. If I ran from her then, I couldn't help wondering what might happen in her future, in our future and how it might change after what I'd just done.

"... Are you okay?"

She groaned, but otherwise remained silent.

I used the boulder to help me to my feet and stayed leaning against it. "Doctor?"

Her eyes suddenly flew open and locked onto me, fixing me in place with their fierceness. I almost thought I saw the vortex in them.

"Do you... have any idea how many laws you've broken just showin' me that?"

My entire body seemed to deflate. That was all she got out of it? Nothing else?

"No Time Lord can have that much insight into their own timestream, it goes against everythin' Gallifrey stands for."

"It's not like you're going to remember any of it!" I snapped carelessly. "I'm trying to show you I'm telling the truth, that you don't have to turn me in to the space police because I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Well you have now."

It was like talking to a brick wall. No, it's like talking to a six year old who refuses to follow the rules and only gives you sass, I decided. How the hell else am I supposed to explain it to her? How can I make her see?

Then, as if a literal light bulb had turned on inside my brain, I realized that there might be another way to save myself. I reached into my messenger bag, somehow still hanging around my torso, and began searching for the note that Eleven had left me.

"What are you doin'?"

Buried at the very bottom of my bag, crumpled and torn, was the first letter the Doctor had given me, the one with the scribbled out 'Doctor' signature that he had replaced with 'Theta'. I smoothed it out over my thigh and handed it to the Doctor with shaking hands.

"Here. You gave this to me the first time I met you, a future you. And look." I hastily unclipped my sonic necklace and let it fall into her open hand. "That's the necklace you gave me, the one in the letter. I know you, Doctor. Not super well, at least not in person, not yet, but I know what kind of person you are. And I know that you're better than the Division, better than whatever it is they make you do. I'm not lying. I know my story is literally the most unbelievable thing you've ever heard, but I've lost everything that ever mattered to me because something brought me here and now you're all I have left. So please. Please believe me."

And then, as if this encounter wasn't horrible enough, as if I wasn't fighting tooth and claw for some desperate scrap of hope after making one of the worst decisions I'd ever made, as if I wasn't kicking myself for not running sooner, came the sound of another TARDIS. This one was much closer than before and much louder. It appeared in the stretches of dirt not far from where the Doctor and I had situated ourselves, this time as a great boulder with a panel in the front that opened to reveal two Time Lords, the two I dreaded the most - Gat and Lee.

I was still half cuffed, the uncuffed half of the contraption hanging down my arm and clanking against my bangles. The Doctor was still holding my letter and necklace, but she'd quickly stuffed them into her coat pocket. Didn't like that. I really, really didn't like that, but I wasn't sure if it would matter in the next 10 minutes or not. Could I VorMan myself out of there fast enough? Was Gat a quick draw? Would the Doctor be able to stop me?

"There you are!" called Gat as she sauntered our way.

The Doctor was quick to grab my arm and tug me in front, and I let her. Like an idiot. Like I trusted her. Even though I knew I shouldn't. I just wasn't thinking clearly, I was too flustered, still groggy with leftover sleep and the paralyzing fear of realizing I'd made a series of bad choices that had led me to this moment.

"High command sent us when you and Kar didn't check in. But it looks like you've got it sorted, haven't you?"

Idiot, idiot, idiot! You've gotten yourself killed and for what? It was all over for me. Gat had a gut-wrenching look in her eye - cocky, smug, dangerous. She knew the game was up.

The Doctor suddenly twisted my second arm behind my back and turned our bodies so that our backs were to Gat and Lee. "I need you to hit me. Make it look convincin'," she whispered. "Then run for my ship. Tell Karvanista Code Mauve."

"Wait, what?"

"Now, Diana!" she hissed.

Her words circled inside my head over and over until they finally sunk in. She was helping me escape. I paused for a moment to get my bearings, contemplate if it would be easier to go over or in between the boulders, then felt the cuff on my wrist unlock.

I threw my elbow back into the Doctor's stomach and lurched forward as she released me. I turned, slapped her across the cheek, and watched her fall as if she'd been punched, then darted around the boulder as fast as I could. Gat started shouting and a blast of blue gunfire sparked against the rocks just behind me. The Doctor's instructions echoed in my mind, overlapping the sounds of Lee and Gat arguing with her in real time. I kept weaving my way through the boulders as I replayed Karvanista's exit. He'd gone in between the boulders like I was, but I wasn't sure where he went once he came out of them. How far away was the ship? Would I even be able to make it before my stamina ran out and the others caught up to me? My stomach dropped just thinking about Gat being the one to find me and bring me in.

But the boulders thinned out quickly, revealing a short stretch of gravelly dirt that ended at the edge of a small creek winding its way around the base of a small hill, the same one I had seen before. And on the other side of the creek was the TARDIS, tall and blue and the most beautiful, welcoming sight I had ever seen. Hardly a minute and a hop over the creek later, I was bursting through the TARDIS doors.

Karvanista was at the console, with his glowing battle axe propped against it when I came in. "You!" he barked. I had almost reached the console when he picked up his axe, aimed it at me, and shot a containment cage at me.

"Wait!" But the cage was already around me. And since I couldn't run anymore, I came to a screeching halt that was forceful enough to make the cage bounce and fall forward with me still inside. I crashed at Karvanista's feet, only narrowly avoiding smashing my face into the floor. "Code Mauve," I groaned. "Code Mauve!"

He huffed. "Well, why didn't ya just say so?" A couple of tapped buttons on his vambrace later and the containment cage disintegrated out from under me leaving me to fall the remaining few inches to the floor proper. "Kriffin' humans."

"Um, thank you."

Karvanista had meanwhile turned to the console and was fast at work. He didn't seem to be bothered one way or the other about my presence now that he knew I wasn't a threat. The scanner flashed a bit of Gallifreyan and he growled in response, but continued typing away.

"What's Code Mauve?"

"Quiet, human, I'm working."

Was this going to become a problem, too? Anti-human sentiments? Were we really so terrible in our future that we ended up with the worst reputation in the galaxy, the universe? Either way, I figured it was best not to ask, even though I was very curious and a little insulted. Best not to argue with a dog holding a battle axe.

Half a second later, an alarm started in unison with a flashing button on the far side of the console. "Dammit. Proximity warning. They'll be here any second."

"Who, Gat?"

If he was alarmed by the fact that I knew her name, he didn't think it important enough to question, although I could see the fleeting hesitation in his eyes. "Here," he said as he slapped something into my hand. "Take this and run, fast as ya can."

No need to ask what it was when it was clearly gun shaped, just modified to suit the futuristic setting. "I-I don't do guns-"

"You do now. If they shoot, ya shoot back. Now get out of here! I'll take care of the tracker."

My head was starting to spin. "What?"

"Now!"

It was all a blur as time seemed to transcend reality. The TARDIS doors went flying open as Gat, the Doctor, and Lee came bursting in. Karvanista shouted, but what it was I couldn't quite make out through the sudden noise in my head. Get out get out GET OUT! I saw blasters being drawn and that cold, hard determination in Gat's eyes, wrinkling in her brows. My hands went scrambling over my VorMan, blindly searching for the next button, any button. I didn't care where it took me, so long as it took me away from them. And in the moment before Gat's gun went off and my fingers hit the telepathic circuit, I caught the Doctor's eyes. Those wild, ancient eyes.

And then she was gone.

Fugitive Doctor, my eternally beloved! I can never quite explain it, I just know that she really encapsulates the Doctor for me and I'm unashamedly head over heels for her. (So is Di, but that happens later...)

The Once Upon Another Time 10th Anniversary special part II, coming up later today - Di ponders Evelina's prophecy as more and more of it comes true, and she meets a stranger in the wilderness, someone who breaks her heart. doo wee ooo~