April 16th, 2003
Mark stood at the lychgate, the Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory beside him, unnoticed by the mourners at the graveside. The grave had been dug on the edge of the graveyard, in the shade of an old, gnarled yew tree. The pallbearers lowered the coffin into the ground and the vicar spoke the prayer of committal, his solemn, lilting voice carrying through the warm spring air amidst the rustle of leaves and the birdsong.
It was the same vicar who'd conducted the wedding service two and a half years earlier. He was addressing the same people as at the wedding; many of the male mourners were even wearing the same suits. There was Gareth, Mr. Pollard and Mr. Boyce, and Rajeev, Lucy, and Emma. And there were Rebecca's parents, Olivia and Rodney, both looking so tired, so stunned and lost. And there was his mother, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief.
And there was his younger self. Standing at his mother's side, staring into the grave, tears streaming down his cheeks. Mark could remember standing there as though it was yesterday. He could still feel the grief, like a huge weight pressing down on his chest. But as he remembered it, the day of the funeral had been a cold, grim, overcast day. He hadn't remembered it taking place on a sunny day under a clear blue sky.
The service ended, and Mark turned to the Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory, who had stood beside him throughout. Their eyes glistened with tears. It must be strange for them, Mark thought. As far as the Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory were concerned, they had only met a few days ago. It must be strange and heartbreaking to travel in time as they do. But maybe not as strange and heartbreaking as it had been for him.
"Enough," Mark said. "Enough. Can I go back now?"
"Not just yet," Alex told him.
The Doctor placed a protective arm around her shoulders. The way he looked at Alex reminded Mark of the way he used to look at Rebecca. "There's one more thing you have to see."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
May 8th, 1993
The guitar riff of 'Two Princes' by the Spin Doctors echoed out of the open doors of the Dunmore hall of residence and into the cool spring evening. Students stretched out on the freshly cut grass with folders of notes and paperback books. Everyone looked so young, so carefree.
Beaming at everyone he passed as though they were old friends, the Doctor led Mark, Alex, Rory, and Amy into the student hall. For Mark, it was an unnerving experience. He'd spent his first year at university living in this building. It was both strange and familiar, as he saw so many details he'd long since forgotten. The posters on the noticeboard gave details of NUS demonstrations, of upcoming gigs, and of the opening hours of the computer center.
A hall party was in progress. From one end of the corridor, the glam jangle of the new Suede album could be heard. They squeezed past the students lining the hall and entered the communal kitchen. There, the Doctor and Alex indicated for Mark to look across the room.
To see Rebecca, leaning against the far wall, paper cup in hand, a sardonic smile on her lips. Her long hair had been dyed black and she wore an American college sweatshirt.
"Speak to her," the Doctor said, adjusting his bowtie with a cheerful waggle.
"Are you sure? Won't I be changing history?"
"As long as you don't tell her any future presidents of the United States, you'll be fine," Alex assured him. She pushed him forwards. "Now shoo. Speak to her."
Mark took a deep breath and walked towards her, feeling as self-conscious as he had when he was a 19-year-old student. Even though he was now 46 years old.
"Hi," he said to Rebecca. "Do you mind if I have a quick word?"
"No, no, not at all." She sized him up and frowned. "Mature student, right?"
"Yeah. Something like that."
"Interesting," Rebecca smiled. "So what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
Mark told her everything. He was careful to leave out the dates, names, and time-travel, but he told her all about the beautiful girl he'd met and fallen in love with twenty-seven years earlier, who, after several false starts and wrong turnings, he'd made his wife. He told her how happy they'd been together. And he told her how his wife had been killed in a traffic accident, and how, ever since, a single hour hadn't passed without him thinking about her.
Rebecca listened with intense concentration. "She sounds great, this – what was her name?"
"Um, Rebecca, actually."
"Spooky, that's my name." Rebecca grimaced at the contents of her cup. "Though no one calls me that and lives. So how long has it been since she died, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Seventeen years."
"Seventeen years?" Rebecca repeated in astonishment. "Whoa. Long time."
"Not that long."
Rebecca paused to consider her next words carefully. "Tell me to shut up if I'm speaking out of turn, but, well, everything you've said so far has been about you, about how you feel. Haven't you ever stopped to consider what Rebecca would want in all this?"
"What Rebecca would want?"
"Would she want you to be miserable for the rest of your life? Would she want you to spend all your time on your own, wishing for what might have been? No."
"No?"
"No. She'd want you to be happy. She'd want you to find somebody else, somebody else who makes you happy. That's what I'd want, if I was her."
"I'm not sure I can."
"You don't know until you've tried. That's an order." Rebecca smiled at him irreverently, her eyes twinkling as she looked up at him and stroked him gently on the cheek. "Do that for me."
Mark stared at her for a second, struck dumb. His cheek tingled. Then he turned back towards the door, where the Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory were waiting. "Thanks," he said. "I will."
"Glad I could be of service."
Mark returned to the Doctor and his friends, who looked at him questioningly. Had he got the answer he wanted? Mark nodded.
"You'll always have the time you had with Rebecca," Alex told him. She looked up at the Doctor and Mark could tell she was also talking to him when she said, "No one can take that away from you."
"I know," Mark said. "I know that now."
The Doctor smiled down at Alex and ran a hand through her long brown-blonde hair. "Then I think it's time to say goodbye."
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Bex watched the man leave the kitchen. He seemed like such a lovely guy, so sweet and so sad. It had been strange, speaking to him; it was like they'd known each-other for years. She hoped he'd follow her advice and find someone.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a cry of indignation from the hallway. A young man she'd never seen before stumbled into the kitchen, his neck and t-shirt soaked with red wine. He looked so ridiculous, Bex couldn't help but laugh. "Would you believe it?" he muttered in response to her amusement. "Some stupid bloke in a tweed jacket just banged into me, making me spill red wine all over myself."
"Yeah," Bex said sympathetically. "I can see that."
"My best shirt, this is, you know. Ruined."
"No, you should be able to get it out if you pour hot water through it straight away." Bex indicated the kitchen sink with her cup. "But you have to do it straight away."
The young man sighed and pulled his t-shirt over his head, giving Bex the chance to admire his bare chest. For a skinny little thing, he was surprisingly well-defined.
He put his t-shirt in the sink and ran it under the hot tap. While he tried in vain to remove the wine, Bex studied him. He had short brown hair, gelled into a parting, and wore John Lennon-style glasses. He was quite cute. And there was something strangely familiar about him.
"Hey, have I just met your dad?" Bex asked.
"What?"
"I was just speaking to a bloke who looks just like you, but older."
"Really?" the young man said in surprise. "You'll have to point him out to me." He inspected his t-shirt. "Well, I think I've got most of it out. Thanks." He turned towards her. "I'm Mark, by the way. Mark Whitaker."
"Bex Coles."
"Cool name." Mark looked at her, as though he was about to speak, but no words came. Bex tried not to laugh out loud at his awkwardness. "Um, yeah, er, I don't suppose you fancy, you know, going out some time?"
"What sort of thing did you have in mind?"
"Well, there's this band on at the Whip-Round next week who I've heard great things about. Apparently, they're going to be bigger than Suede or Blur."
"Really? What are they called?"
"Echobelly."
"I shall have to make a note of that, then," Bex remarked. "So you don't have a girlfriend then?"
Mark paused before answering. "No. You?"
"No, and I don't have a boyfriend either."
"So? Do you fancy going to this thing with me?"
"Yeah, why not?"
Bex heard someone coming in and turned to see her boyfriend Dennis McCormack standing in the doorway, dressed, as usual, in a ridiculously formal jacket that showed off just how overweight he was. "Hi, babes. Surprise, yeah?" He glanced at Mark standing at the sink with his shirt off. This puzzled Dennis. "Why haven't you got a shirt on?"
"Red wine," Mark explained.
"Ah, right," Dennis nodded, returning his attention to Bex. "Anyway, turns out the debating society dinner was dead, so I thought, Dennis doesn't do to keep the lady waiting." With that, he kissed her on the lips and attacked her mouth like it was a lick-before-sealing envelope.
When Dennis finally allowed her to come up for air, Bex noticed that they'd been joined by a girl with an unwieldy chest and a severely cut bob of auburn hair. "Hey, Mark," the girl said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Who are you talking to?"
"Um. This is Bex," Mark introduced. "And—"
"McCormack, Dennis," Dennis supplied, grabbing Mark's hand and pumping it vigorously.
"Aren't you going to introduce me, Mark?" the girl prompted.
"Oh. Yes. This is Sophie, my, um, girlfriend."
"Nice to meet you," Bex said.
"Why haven't you got your shirt on?" Sophie asked Mark.
"Red wine," Dennis explained.
"Well, we can't have you standing around half-naked, can we?" Sophie laughed, taking Mark by the hand. "Come on, I'll find you another shirt." She led him out of the kitchen. Bex watched them go, thinking what a pity it was that Mark had a girlfriend and she had a boyfriend. If they'd both been single, this could have been the beginning of something.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
Mark's cheek was still tingling when he stepped back inside the TARDIS. The Doctor danced around the console, flicking switches and, after a few moments, the central column began to rise and fall.
The tingling sensation spread from Mark's cheek across his face and down his neck. It prickled like pins and needles. "Doctor. . ." he called.
The Doctor glanced towards him and recoiled in shock. "Oh my," he breathed, staring at Mark as though there was something wrong with his face.
"What is it?" Mark demanded, touching his cheek. His skin felt odd. Softer, smoother. He turned to Alex, Amy, and Rory, who were all gawking at him in amazement. "What's happening?"
"Amy, Alex, one of you!" the Doctor cried. "Mirror!"
Amy fished a small hand mirror from her coat and handed it to Mark. He lifted it to study his reflection. The face that stared back wasn't that of a man in his late forties. It was the face of a much younger man, a man growing younger all the time. As he watched, the lines around his eyes faded away, his hair grew thicker, and all the gray hairs turned brown.
The tingling continued down his arms to the ends of his fingers. Mark watched as the wrinkles on his hands smoothed away. The sensation spread down to his toes, then faded.
"When Rebecca touched your face, she shorted out the time differential," the Doctor matter-of-factly explained. "She's given you the past nine years of your life back."
"You're the same age now as you were when we first met you," Alex breathed in astonishment. "It'll be like you never spent those years in the past."
"But I can still remember them," Mark told her.
"Oh, they still happened all right," the Doctor grinned. "It's just that you're not a day older, that's all."
Mark returned the mirror to Amy, barely able to believe the truth. He was young again. Well, 37 years old. And all it had taken was one touch from Rebecca's hand.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
October 14th, 2011
It was a cold, drizzly evening, just like the evening when he'd first met the Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory. The streets were dotted with puddles and thunder rumbled in the distance. They'd materialized a few minutes' walk from his flat, and just as they were turning into the street, the Doctor ordered them to stay back and keep out of sight. Peering out from behind a recycling bin, Mark soon discovered the reason why.
On the pavement stood a blue police box, and standing at the entrance of the block of flats he could see another Doctor, Alex, Amy, and Rory. The other Alex was wearing the clubbing clothes she'd been in when he'd first met her. He watched as they hurried into the TARDIS. Seconds later, it faded from view with a groaning, wrenching noise.
"Okay, they're gone," the Doctor announced, straightening up and wringing his hands. He turned around and bent down to help pull Alex up from where she'd been kneeling beside him. The group walked the remaining few meters to the path leading up to the entrance. Then the Doctor halted, nearly causing Alex to slam into his back. "Well, this is where we came in, more or less. One week after you were touched by the Weeping Angel."
"One week?" Mark patted his pockets. "Oh. Hang on a minute. . ."
Rory smiled and passed him his house keys. "Been looking after them for you. Say hi to Mrs. Levenson from me, I've been, um, flat-sitting for the last week."
"Right."
"Oh, and you're out of milk. And tea. And bread. And toilet paper."
"Thanks," Mark said, turning to Amy. "Thanks for everything."
"It was a pleasure," Amy said with an affectionate smirk.
"Yeah, certainly made our date-night interesting," Alex laughed, linking arms with the Doctor.
"I swear, I'll make it up to you," the Doctor promised. "A proper one, no danger."
"Yeah," Amy snorted.
"Like that's gonna happen," Rory scoffed in agreement.
Pointedly ignoring them, the Doctor turned to Mark. "Goodbye. And good luck in the, ah, future. Where, fortunately, the rules of time mean that you can do whatever you want." He beamed, patted Mark on the shoulder, and turned to go. Rory shook Mark's hand, Amy kissed him on the cheek, and Alex gave him a wink and a smile over her shoulder, her honey-colored eyes turning a calming, soothing, reassuring light green. Then the four of them walked away, back down the street to the TARDIS.
Mark walked up the stairs to the entrance. He paused before slipping the key into the lock, just as he had done before a week ago, nine years ago.
He was back in 2011, but now things would be different. He still owned Harold Jones's property, stocks, and shares. He was still a multi-millionaire. He didn't have to go back to work at Pollard, Boyce & Whitaker, not if he didn't want to. He could do anything he wanted.
The first thing he would do, he decided, would be to go and see Lucy and Emma. He hadn't seen them for years, but he knew they wouldn't mind if he turned up out of the blue and spent an evening talking to them about Rebecca. Not because he wanted to talk about her death or how much he missed her, but because he wanted to remember her and celebrate her life with friends, because the memory of her no longer made him feel sad.
He'd take her advice, Mark decided, and find somebody. But where to look? He didn't have the faintest idea. But it would be fun finding out.
Mark unlocked the door and entered the block of flats, ready to begin the rest of his life.
~The Pros and Cons of Silence~
A/N: As of 2/8/22, this chapter has been extensively edited. The Dalex date scene can now be found in the next chapter, titled 'Date Night Take Two'.
Notes on reviews. . .
bored411 - I hope you enjoyed the Dalex fluff! It was so much fun to write. :) We'll be getting into Alex's pains a bit more really soon, I promise. I definitely can't wait to reveal what that's all about. }:}
NicoleR85 - Thank you! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
ShadowTeir - Hope you enjoyed the marathon reading! I loved writing the 'making out aggressively against the wall'. It's a little bit of a cliche, but it's such a FUN one! I agree, Rebecca was a bit of a bitch with the one-off thing. I mean, you definitely shouldn't cheat on your fiancé (even though he did turn out to be an ass) but she still could have handled it a little better, I think. The secretary thing is in the book, yes. Haha, glad you enjoy the comedy! I try to add a lot of it in my writing, especially in times of really dark situations because I hate writing super depressing or scary things. Them helping out with the wedding is also in the book, which you should definitely read! It will be a bit weird without Alex, I admit. Whenever I read Doctor Who books, I can't help picturing my OCs there and it's a little jarring to get back into the book and realize they don't exist there. :( I hope this chapter made up for all the sadness in the last one! Hope you enjoyed! :)
TheWomanWhoLied - Lol, I love that part too. :)
TheBlueRiver - Here's more story for you! :) Oooh, that's an interesting theory. Not saying if you're right though. We'll have to wait and see. :}
V - I'm so glad you like the story! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
Just-An-Aesthetic-Brain - Thank you! I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying the story! Oh, I can't wait to get to that part in 'The Wedding of River Song'. Alex, it's safe to say, will not be a happy camper if the Doctor marries River. :} Hope you enjoyed the chapter! :)
Guest - Haha, I kinda figured not, but it was in the book, so . . . I guess we can blame the original author for that. :)
Thank you to everyone who reviewed (and stuck around after another wait. Thank God I've graduated!) and followed/favorited this story. Please review and see you (hopefully) tomorrow! :)