Chapter 10

Endings

—

"Tomorrow, you are leaving the Tardis." the Doctor says, pointing at me. "We're going to Mars. Some time when there's nothing happening. No sentient life. Just throw on a basic space suit and bounce around for a bit on the Red Planet." He says.

"Great." I say with no sincerity before heading to my room to take a nap.

It's supposed to be a little trip to get me over my fear of leaving the Tardis or something. Don't know why that even matters. Why can't I just stay here? But he won't listen. And ever since he said we'll be going tomorrow, my thumb has been super itchy. Well, my whole hand and forearm really, but the thumb is the worst.

I just want to stay in my room.

There's a knock at my door. Guess it's dinner time. I haven't been very hungry lately, so the Doctor's been trying to stuff me with food to keep my weight up.

"Dinner time! We popped over to Italy for some lasagna. Mwah." he says, throwing out a chef's kiss. "Best there is. Let's go!" he says, grabbing my hand and dragging me off.

When we get to the kitchen I can hear Rose and Mickey laughing about something. They stop when I walk in though. Awkward. The Doctor fills the silence with some chatter about the restaurant he got the lasagna from as he fills a plate for me.

I'm busy ignoring everybody and picking at the roasted veggies on the side when the Doctor grabs my arm.

"What happened?" he asks, pulling my sleeve up and putting on his stupid "reading glasses" that he doesn't need.

"It's nothing." I say, trying to pull my arm back.

"That's not nothing." he says as he points to the raw spot on my thumb. He's looking at me like he expects an answer, but I shrug.

The Doctor pulls out his sonic and does something that makes it not hurt anymore then says, "Try to eat some more. Then we can go patch this up."

Great.

After a while he sighs and stands up. Guess he's given up on me eating any more. Having him staring at me with his concerned, confused, frowny face wasn't helping.

Once we get to the med bay, he has me sit on the bed and grabs my arm again.

"What happened?" He asks again, running the dermal regenerator over my hand and arm.

"It's just itchy."

"There can't be any bugs that could bite you in the Tardis, and you're not allergic to anything…"

"It's just itchy okay." I say before pulling my shirt back down over my hand.

"Mmmm." Is all the response I get. He rummages around in a cabinet and pulls out some kind of drink?

"Drink this."

"Not thirsty."

"You're not eating enough. This has all the nutrients you need and it's chocolate!"

"Don't want it."

He sighs. He's always sighing at me these days. "Drink it, or I'll hook you up to an IV."

My stomach twists at the thought of eating more, but I grab the drink and chug it. "There. Happy?"

"Brilliant! Now, the itching isn't from bites or allergies. No skin diseases…" he says then steps back as I hurl the contents of the drink and what I had managed to eat for supper all over the floor. Wonderful.

I lay back on the bed and curl into a ball. This is my life.

The Doctor pulls a stool up next to me and rests a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I… Can I give you an IV? It will help you feel better." he asks.

Whatever. I hold out my arm. "Better for how long?" I say. I know I'm not getting better. I can feel it. Everyday I feel weaker.

He opens his mouth to respond but I interrupt, "It's getting worse. I'm not actually going to get better, am I?"

The Doctor leans back and takes a deep breath.

"Please don't lie to me." I say.

"No. You're not."

"How long?"

"I don't know. Weeks. Months, maybe."

"And what's going to happen? How…"

"You'll get physically weaker and your mind will basically tear itself apart, burn up. You're trying to assimilate too much information from your physical sense, your time sense and your physic abilities. You can't handle the load and I can't shut it off. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

—

"I don't want to go." I tell the Doctor.

He hands me a space suit. "Can't have you moping around in the Tardis all the time. You're going to love it!" he says, rocking from heel to toe.

"Come on Ash, get a move on." Rose says. Her and Mickey are already suited up and eager to go explore.

"Alright. Alright. Just give me a second."

—

Okay. Bouncing around on Mars is pretty cool and it's beautiful. Desolate, but beautiful.

The Doctor is busy watching Rose and Mickey trying to see who can jump the highest, and I really want to actually touch the soil. Being in a space suit makes me feel too cut off. There is enough air pressure here for me to safely take off a glove, so I sneak a quick look over at the Doctor. He's still watching Rose so I take off a glove and reach down to grab some real martian soil.

I can't breathe. I'm drowning. The water is alive and attacking. Panic. Something is wrong. So wrong. Can't breathe. Trying to take off my helmet but I can't. The Doctor is stopping me.

I try to run. He's wrong. Scary. Something is tearing, broken. It makes me nauseous. It's all wrong, so very wrong…

—

What? I'm being held down. I'm back in the Tardis, on the floor in the console room. I try to wiggle free but I'm being held.

"Shhhh… Ash. You're okay. You're safe. Just relax."

It's the Doctor. I have to get away!

"RELAX. You're safe. I promise."

"No. No no no no…" I say, but the fight has left me. "What…"

"I think you had a vision." the Doctor tells me. "Let's get you out of this suit and into bed. We can talk about it later."

He helps me out of the suit, then carries me to my room. My brain feels fuzzy, like I can't tell what's real. What is real? The Doctor was… he…

—

Mmmm, warm. Wait, what? Oh, right. I'm in my bed in the Tardis. And the Doctor is sitting next to my bed staring at me.

"Great! You're awake. How do you feel?" He asks.

"Ummm, confused. Something happened. I… we were on Mars, then…"

"Yep. Lots of bouncing around, then you got tired and I helped you to bed."

"No, there was something…"

"Nah, just a bad dream." He says. But I think he's lying. I swear I remember something, something bad.

—

"So Rose and Mickey wanted to pop home for a bit. We could go out and get some chips if you'd like." the Doctor says as I enter the console room.

I shake my head.

"Well then, I'm going to pop out for some biscuits. We've somehow run out. You sure you don't want to come?"

"Go. I'd rather stay here." I say. He leaves.

I just can't get over the feeling that I'm missing something. Something happened on Mars. Why can't I remember?

"Can you help me?" I ask the Tardis. Worth a shot. I get the feeling that maybe she can, so I sit on the captain's chair and try to relax. Don't think about anything, just relax.

There is something hiding. The Tardis sort of leads me to a wall and I somehow push through it and holy shit! What? I can't breathe again. Living water on Mars and the Doctor did something terrible. Will do something terrible. I was drowning, I think. Is that why? Or…

But how… I feel nauseous again, like things are shifting that shouldn't.

Something bad is going to happen. The Doctor turns into something terrible, something way worse than scary Doctor and it might be my fault. I have to get out of here, just pack a bag and go before he gets back.

—

Clothes, cash, food and on my way back to Cardiff.

—

I'm laying on a bench at Mermaid Quay soaking up some sun. Full circle. At least now I have enough cash to get a motel room. Paid the guy for a whole month up front, not sure I'll live that long though. I sigh. I really should be heading back to the motel. I'm exhausted from the train ride over here, always looking over my shoulder and hoping the Doctor hasn't found me. He probably isn't even looking though, glad to be rid of me.

I'm walking back to the motel, and I swear someone is following me. If I didn't know better I'd say it was Jack. But Jack can't be here, can he? I try to break contact and circle around to get a better view, but I've lost him. Great. Now I've got to take the long way back to try to keep anyone from being able to follow me.

—

Finally back, and I'm pretty sure I haven't led anyone here. Something feels a little off though… nah, it must be my imagination. I'm just too tired. I open the door and walk in, not even bothering to turn on the lights. I just want to lay down and sleep.

I sit on the bed and kick off my shoes, but before I can lay down, the light on the desk turns on, nearly giving me a heart attack.

"Elizabeth Ashton Davies." the Doctor slowly says, enunciating carefully. I can't read his expression. He stands up, walks over to me and rather roughly pulls me to my feet before wrapping me in a too tight hug.

"Never! Never do that again. You have no idea what could have happened to you. I might not have found you before… No, no, it doesn't matter. The Tardis found you." He pauses to take a breath, then holds me at arms length and just stares at me clenching his jaw.

"What were you thinking running off like that?" He yells in an oddly high pitched voice. "You have to stay in the Tardis or with me. Do you have any idea how quickly you could… you could…" he swallows and briefly closes his eyes, "...die out here without the Tardis or I being able to intervene?" He pauses and pulls me back into a hug. "Why Ash? I don't understand? Did something happen? Why would you leave?" He finishes, leaning over to rest his forehead on mine.

I can't help but remember the vision I had, the feeling it must be my fault and that he'd be better off without me. I can tell he's not trying to get inside my mind, but I must have been projecting because he pulls back sharply.

"What? That's… what? How did you…? I didn't know."

"Why did you block my memory of the vision!?" I demand.

"I didn't know what it was you saw. I wouldn't… I couldn't… Ash I…" He says, before beginning to pace around the room running his hands through his hair. I watch, unsure what to think, until he finally stops pacing and walks up to me. "Let's get back to the Tardis."

—

There's a quiet knock at my door.

"Ash?" Rose calls out, slowly opening my door. That's weird. She never comes to see me. We have an unspoken agreement to avoid each other.

"Ash? We need you." she continues, poking her head in my room.

I get up from my bed and turn the lights on. She's been crying. "What's… what's happened?" I ask, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"The Doctor, he's gone. He jumped through a time window and it disappeared and he's gone."

—

"So you're telling me we're on a ship with magic doors to various times in Madame de Pompadour's life. Stuff happened involving clockwork droids. The droids shut down the system once they found what they were looking for and the Doctor broke through the last door to save Madame de Pompadour, leaving himself stranded?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Rose answers.

"He up and left us! He jumped right through the window that was there on a horse and then it just disappeared. He said there'd be no way back if he broke through, and now he's gone." Mickey says walking over to stand by Rose.

"Well, the Tardis will automatically take us back to the Powell Estates long before we need to worry about supplies or anything. And the Doctor will be able to find us there, but he'll have to live through a couple hundred years, unless he can find another version of himself and catch a lift. But if he had been able to do that he'd already be here, so he's probably not coming back here." I try to explain to Rose and Mickey.

"He's over nine hundred years old, a couple of centuries will be nothing, right?" Rose asks.

"You know how much trouble he can get into. Who knows how many times he'll have regenerated by the time he catches up with us. I need to figure something out that's better than just waiting. Show me where all the magic doors were."

Rose and Mickey take me on a tour of the ship, but the only area that seems important is the fireplace where they first met Rainette.

"This is it." I say, though I don't know what to do.

—

Back in the console room, I'm trying to explain to the Tardis what's going on but she seems content to just wait for the Doctor to catch back up.

"At least one of you needs to stay outside the Tardis so she doesn't decide to take us back to Earth." I shout to Rose and Mickey as they walk through the door. Mickey immediately steps back, but Rose looks confused. "She won't leave any of us behind and I need to be here to have any chance of getting him back." I explain before going back to trying to get the Tardis to give me some idea of how I might be able to get the magic doors back open.

All I'm getting from her is that I'm not a Tardis. No kidding.

I leave the Tardis, and run into Mickey. "Anything?" he asks. "Nothing." I replay throwing some random bit of junk against the wall. "I'm not a Tardis."

"But you are, a little bit anyway, right? That's what Rose said. That you have some Tardis in your DNA or something." Mickey says. Could I do something directly? Could I?

I leave Mickey behind and start walking to the room with the fireplace. The Doctor says I'm burning myself up. That all that information, physical, psychic and time based is burning me up. But could I use it? Even if just for a second, could I tap into it and do something?

Do what though?

I need to reopen the door. Reconnect the pieces. Fold here and there together. Can I just will it? Just follow the traces of the old connection and force it back together?

I sit down next to the fireplace and start taking deep breaths, consciously relaxing every part of me. I can do this. I just need to figure out how.

I can feel something attached? to the fireplace, but it's fading. I grab on but… How can this hurt so much?

"Hey, hey, Ash, are you okay? Talk to me. Ash!" Rose is shaking my shoulder. "You don't look so good. Let's get you back to the Tardis yeah? You've been at this for an hour. You can try again later." There's no way it's been an hour. An hour?

"Can't. I might be able to fix it, maybe…"

I reach out to physically make contact with the fireplace and follow the echo of the old connection. Now what?

Right. Imagine them together. Will it into happening. Recreate the link. Oh my God it hurts! It's like trying to hold onto two live wires. Two live wires that want nothing to do with each other. They're fighting me. Struggling to stay apart.

Have to touch them together. The Doctor, me, Versaille and this ship. But I'm burning up, disintegrating… NO! Pull them together. Just one touch. Connect! Connect… conn…

— * —

"It's not a copy, it's the original. I had it moved here and was exact in every detail." Reinette said to the Doctor as she led him to the fireplace in her bedroom.

"The fireplace. The fireplace from your bedroom. When did you do this?" he asked.

"Many years ago, in the hope that a door once opened, may someday open again. One never quite knows when one needs one's Doctor. It appears undamaged. Do you think it will still work?"

"You broke the bond with the ship when you moved it, which means it was offline when the mirror broke. That's what saved it. But the link is basically physical, and it's still physically here." the Doctor explained while tapping on the mantle.

He pulled out his sonic and tried searching for any remnants of the link, but there was nothing left.

"It's no use. Guess I'll be taking the slow path with you." He tells Reinette as he turned around and leaned back against the mantle. "What!" he shouted as he felt the mantle shift.

—

Rose and Mickey were staring at the slumped figure of Ashton when the Doctor stumbled through the fireplace. He could hear the Tardis' cloister bells ringing and was reeling from whatever it was that had just happened.

"Rose, Mickey! What's going on?"

Before either could answer, the Doctor tilted his head and saw Ashton slumped against the fireplace bricks.

"Ash!" He called out, crouching next to her and scanning her with his sonic. "No, no no no no no no. Ash, no." Her shirt and pants were stained with blood and sweat and she was too pale.

"Ash, Ash, talk to me Ash." the Doctor was pleading as he picked her up and ran to the Tardis. He was frantically searching for a spark of life within her mind. A flicker of something he didn't recognize flew by and he knew it was somehow connected to the Tardis part of her physiology. Otherwise her mind was blank. Burned out.

He stumbled as he carried her into the Tardis. He laid her gently on the floor and used his telepathic connection to the Tardis to try to come up with something, anything to save her.

"What's happening?" Rose asked as she ran into the Tardis with Mickey. "Doctor…" Rose's voice faded as she took in the sight of the Doctor lying on the floor holding a limp Ashton in his arms.

"She's gone." he says, his voice flat.

Rose and Mickey stepped back. They felt his grief and decided to leave him alone. But just before leaving the console room, Rose turned back. One of Ash's arms was laying on the floor, and her hand was faintly glowing with regeneration energy.

"Doctor, she's glowing, like you did before. Can she regenerate?" Rose shouted.

"What!" The Doctor said as he opened his eyes and took his first deep breath since hearing the cloister bells. "What! Oh you're brilliant! Brilliant you are! Look at you. Doing the impossible. Regenerating!" he said. He looked over at Rose and Mickey with a huge grin, "Better stand back."

"What about you Doctor?" Rose asked.

"Phshhh a little regeneration energy won't…" The Doctor tried to explain, but Ashton's regeneration was quick and violent, sending him flying across the console room.

—

A little girl sat up, holding her head. "Doctor?"

—

Continued in Somebody Else's Problem 2: The Unknown

Authors Note:

Sorry this took so long. Life happened. Should be able to spend more time on this now :D

time-twilight and emrynsigma: Thanks for the reviews! Ash will definitely be very involved with Rise of the Cybermen, and Age of Steel. I hadn't really planned to have her participate less when I started, it just sort of happened that way.

We haven't seen a lot of the Doctor and Rose's relationship because so far everything has been from Ash's point of view, and she's not exactly an objective observer.

Sumwidge and Alex0127: thank you so much for the reviews. Hope you liked this one too!