Lost in Thought : Snippets of an Alternate POV

Goodbye Forever

He turned away to give her a moment of privacy, knowing she had to be feeling overwhelmed, and sent a wave of comfort to his ship through their bond, all too aware of how difficult this was for them both.

He was still mindlessly rambling - not even paying attention to what he was saying - when Rory jerked forward abruptly with a cry at the same time as the TARDIS sent him an overwhelming wave of alarm.

"Lyssa, no!" Rory shouted, darting forwards.

He spun around, only to find, to his horror, Lyssa sprinting towards the doors with the clear intent to fling herself out of them.

Rory was closer, but would never reach her in time.

He was on the other side of the console, but he was her only chance, so he threw himself forward, slowing down time around him and dropping his usual constraints as he crossed the console room in the blink of an eye as she yanked open the door and tried to jump out.

His hand snagged the back of her jacket just as her feet left the floor. He hauled her back into the safety of the TARDIS, hearts pounding in his chest as she stared in disbelief at the star system outside.

"What - what is that?" she stammered, voice high-pitched and tremulous.

He tugged her into his arms, unable to help himself at the all too fresh memory of her near death.

"You're in the TARDIS. 'Time And Relative Dimensions In Space'. What you just saw was space. We're floating in space right now," he told her, forcing himself to sound calm and gentle, not letting any of his fear or distress into his voice. She needed him to be strong right now.

"I'm not dreaming, am I?" she breathed, realization finally sinking in as she turned in his arms to face him, eyes searching his.

"No," he told her, sorrow filling him at her clear sense of loss and being lost. "You're not. I'm sorry."

Because as much as he wanted her by his side, as much as he knew she wanted to be by his side... he hated that she had to suffer for it first.

"Right," she said shakily, frightened eyes turning back to the still-open door as she began to tremble in his arms. "I don't - I think I need to take a break right now."

He bit back a startled cry as she went limp, starting to crumple to the floor before he swept her up into his arms. He scanned her quickly before relaxing ever so slightly when he found that it didn't seem to be because of any severe injury.

"Just shock," he sighed, closing his eyes and resting his forehead against hers. She didn't respond to the touch, quiet and still in a way he never wanted her to be.

"Is she all right?" Rory asked, and he lifted his head to find the man had shut the doors and moved close by with a concerned expression, though thankfully not trying to touch her - perhaps he knew how frayed he was feeling right now.

He shrugged unhappily, careful not to jostle her with the movement. "Physically? I believe she's find aside from her hand. But mentally?" He sighed. "Without giving away personal information, she wasn't in a good place before she came to this universe, and now she has to re-evaluate everything she once thought was impossible. She never believed me to be real, and now she's in my TARDIS."

"Is there anything we can do?" Rory offered, and he felt a surge of affection at the man's compassion, knowing that he had to be hurting as well - he and Lyssa were close friends, the man more Lyssa's companion than his at this point - and yet was still setting that aside to do what he could to help.

"Go find Amy, she's probably wondering where we both are at this point, and she needs to know," he suggested, giving the man something to do and himself a moment alone. "We'll be in the Infirmary."

Rory nodded, eyes far too knowing. "We'll meet you there."

The two men split ways as they left the console room, Rory heading right and he to the left. The TARDIS shifted rooms to bring the Infirmary closer and he murmured his thanks as he walked in, picking the private room for Lyssa to stay in. He reluctantly set her down on the bed, curls splaying out messily around her head as it lolled loosely on the pillow.

"Oh, Lyssa," he murmured, stroking one finger gently along her cheek, still streaked with tear tracks and pale from her fright. The freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks, normally so light, now stood out against her near-paper white skin, and he sighed, remembering happier moments when he'd made a show of finding them all and kissing every one of them just to make her shriek with laughter.

"It's going to be all right," he promised her in a low voice. "Maybe not right away, or all at once, but someday... someday things are going to be all right again, fairy-girl."

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A/N: And welcome to the first chapter of Lost in Thought, my companion series to Lost in Time! Each chapter will contain a re-write of a scene from Lost in Time in the Doctor's pov, aside from the odd occasion once or twice, in non-chronological order.

This will be written either by request or as inspiration strikes, so be prepared for it to bounce all over the place, although I'll try to add a recap of the original chapters in case anyone wants a refresher. :)

The next scene will likely be 12's pov during the 'Escape Room' arc as that was one of the requests.

Most chapters likely (hopefully) won't be this long lol, I'm aiming more for 500-1000 word drabbles, but knowing my wordy self, we'll have to see! I'm also going to apologize in advance for any awkwardness with the Doctor's pov, this is the first time I'm seriously stepping into his pov for more than a few brief dabbles.

I'm not going to set an update schedule for this yet until I get more for a feel of how it's going, but there are several scenes I am very excited to write, so hopefully it won't be too long of a wait. ;)

Also, spellcheck keeps trying to auto-correct me using the term 'hearts' to singular in reference to the Doctor and it's like, nope, I promise, that's right.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! And as always, feel free to drop a request of a scene you want to see! :)

Oddly specific disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, just Lyssa