Doctor Who - 03 - The August Sky

.14. Timelines

Jack was silent for a while.

"You're supposed to express your horror now," the Doctor murmured.

"I've been expecting something like along those lines." Jack glared at him. "And I have expressed my horror already. You still have nice panda eyes to prove it. Now, I want to know the details."

"You'll never know the details." The Doctor shook his head. "You wouldn't be able to grasp them all."

"Thank you for pointing out my lesser mental capacity. Again. Just tell me, how did you change timelines?"

"I went to the past and I've changed something. Something very small. A minute manipulation, but one of powerful consequences," said the Doctor, his voice flat and even. "By changing the past I've changed the present. And the future. The thing I've changed forced me to go and change it."

Jack shrugged irritably. "Will you tell me what it was?"

"I'd rather not."

"Doctor..."

"There was no other way," the Doctor whispered. He rubbed his chin, and looked down, as if ashamed. "Well, there was, but obviously, I didn't take it. Anyway, it had already happened. It was already in motion. All the alternations, cracks, rifts, the sheer fact that Donna remembered... Don't you see? I went and I've changed the past already. It was a circle in need of closure. If I didn't, she'd never remembered, and I'd probably die, killed by Adam Mitchell. Or not. I don't know. I have no way of knowing for sure."

"So you've changed your own timeline." Jack furrowed his brow. "But that's impossible."

"Oh, I don't think that anything is impossible." The Doctor shrugged. "I don't believe in impossible. Very dangerous, fine. But undoable?"

Jack hesitated. "I've told you about Light. He... It predicted some catastrophic events, and then we had an earthquake, and a meteor shower, and a blackout. It was a close call, really. I'm not even gonna ask... You have one Harriet Jones to answer to, anyway. But... is it over now? Are we safe? Or is the world going to end?"

"Eventually." The Doctor looked at him, slightly surprised. "Why?"

"Oh, stop it! Stop fooling around! Is the world going to... I don't know... collapse... or implode... or fall to pieces, because of what you did?"

"No, I don't think so... Weeell, it might. I dunno."

"Doctor!"

The Doctor sighed. "Jack, time is quite flexible, so is the world. You can alter it and twist it, you can stab at it, but most wounds tend to heal. On other occasions the minutest events disrupt the continuity so completely, the whole universe ceases to exist. One life where there should be death... I know what I'm talking about, believe me. But... usually it heals. Just scabs over and heals. Otherwise no time travels would be possible, and you should know that, being a Time Agent and all."

"Yeah, an ex Time Agent, and I almost destroyed the world once, thank you kindly." Jack grimaced.

"With all the interventions, meddling, time scoops, chaotic jumps, cheating and wild stabs at improvements my own people had been doing over centuries of so-called no-interfering, the universe should go to hell ages ago." The Doctor waved impatiently. "Time is flexible and time heals its wounds."

"But it is Donna we're talking about," Jack whispered.

"It's Donna," the Doctor repeated. "Exactly. 'cause, you see, there was always something drawing us together, some forces at work, I couldn't understand. All the coincidences, our meeting, our second meeting, alternate worlds wrapped around her; it didn't stop. It's not over. I think those forces are still pulling at us. I don't know where they want us to go, but, frankly, I don't care that much."