Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 116 - A Regular Fairy Tale

"Well, then." He raised his eyebrows and waggled them invitingly. "I daresay we've just found out what we need to do next. It's a matter of the highest importance. Shall we?" He jerked his head at the tree line.

"But..." she hesitated, though she followed willingly when he set off, tightening her grip on his hand so it didn't slip free. It wasn't that she minded not dealing with things, but her already flimsy courage would only last so long - and she had no idea if she'd actually be able to bring it up at all.

He shot her a comforting smile. "We can walk and talk at the same time," he reminded her as they approached the river, the quiet splashes of the water as it rippled around protruding stones providing a subtle background noise. "And I'm fairly certain you have questions."

"Actually... I do, yeah," she realized in surprise, even as her heart warmed a little more at his kindness at her unease. "We talked about it a little bit earlier, but didn't get the chance to finish it. The damaged fixed point I felt earlier, it went away while Lucy was talking." She glanced up at him curiously. "What was that? I didn't think there were any fixed points there."

"Welllll, technically there weren't," he drawled.

Lyssa furrowed her brow. "But, then why did I feel anything?"

The Doctor shrugged. "My best guess would be that it's not directly them, but rather something from them. Or perhaps someone," he shrugged again. He looked down, expression growing somber. "It was likely related in some way to one of the people who was killed. Them dying strained the fixed point. But because Time tries to repair itself, it worked around it. Whatever Lucy decided, Time is using that as a replacement. It's switched its flow from the other person to her." He glanced down at her. "I could always look further into it, if you want?" he offered.

"Actually..." Lyssa contemplated, "I think I know who - or what - it was." The only major differences from the original events that she could remember were that Jack had taken the place of Mr. Clarke, leaving him alive - which meant it couldn't be him if it were related to someone's death - and Matron Redfern dying in the place of Jenny.

"Matron Redfern died," she said slowly as they reached the riverbank and turned to follow it downstream towards what looked like a bridge further down. "She didn't originally. She survived, and eventually remarried. One of her descendants - a great-granddaughter, maybe? - wrote a book about what happened here. Because she died, that won't happen now."

"But Lucy mentioned she might tell stories about us one day," the Doctor realized, eyes lighting up with excitement. "And that's when Time began to heal." He beamed down at her. "Have I ever mentioned how brilliant you are?"

She scoffed, though she couldn't hide a pleased smile at his obvious pride in her. "It was more from what I knew than from any clever deductions."

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm a Time Lord. We're specially trained to recognize brilliance, and everything's pointing to you being properly brilliant."

"Right." She gave him a disbelieving smile, but switched her attention to their surroundings as they approached the small cobblestone bridge that raised into a soft arch over the water below. "Oh, that's pretty!" she exclaimed as they turned onto it. "I've never seen this before!" She ran one hand lightly over the ivy that twined around the railings, periodically interspersed with globes that glowed with a soft golden light that lit up the path.

"It does look rather nice," the Doctor admitted, stepping up beside her, his arm brushing against hers and sending a trail of sparks up her skin at the contact. "I have to say, it's probably for the best that we didn't go with my idea for a bridge." He scrunched up his nose at her curious look. "I wanted a swinging rope bridge, but both you and the TARDIS vetoed that," he complained. "Apparently the chances of me injuring myself and/or getting stuck were considered so high as to be virtually guaranteed."