Another apology... Izzi xx
The Doctor:
Sarah... She was drawing the future, how was she doing that? Seraphina, Jenny and Melody all had that ability through Time Lord genetics, the girls through their mother, but Sarah? How was she doing it?
And she was smart, so, so smart, far too smart for someone from the Victorian era, yet she wasn't Phi regenerated. She couldn't be, only one heart, and no Sarani in her human blood. Lady Sarah Lake and Priestess Seraphina Pond, were different people.
But I needed Sarah to pretend, just this once.
I found her in the Library, doodling away on a new sketch pad, the intricate Architectural Reconfiguration System that I hadn't shown her yet, though I don't think that even she understood what she was drawing, just absently moving the pencil on the page. Then she looked up and saw me. "Hey, Love, you OK?"
There was nothing right about what I had to do next. "D, do you remember, when I said I had daughters with Seraphina?" She nodded. "Melody and Jenny. Jenny is happily living with her boyfriend Luke on earth, but Melody. Well, she has something she needs to do. And we need to give her a good night before hand."
"Does she know that her mums..." She trailed off, and I knew what she was going to say. Dead.
"No, not to my knowledge. But I don't want her to know. Her mum was the only thing that kept her going for so many years. This is her, this is her last night of freedom, Sarah. And... I want you to pretend to be her mum, just regenerated." I'd already explained regeneration to her, so I was hoping that it would be fine. And River knew that last time her mother regenerated she lost her memory for a while and that this time they just weren't coming back. "Just for one night."
Sarah was staring at me, her white eyes full of shock and confusion at the prospect of pretending to be the woman she had taken the place of in my hearts. "Doctor... I can't. She deserves to know, if she's... If she's going to die, then she deserves to know that she'll be meeting her mother on the Other Side, instead of being alone."
"There is no Other Side, only darkness, my Lady." i smiled sadly, tucking a strand of her long blue hair behind her ear as I remembered what River, my Melly, told us just before she was downloaded.
"Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you both knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. Alice, you had just regenerated and had blue hair! You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you both cried. Oh, how you cried..."
When Phi was still Alice, and we were at the Library with Donna, brilliant Donna. A simpler time when Alice was human, and still my little firey princess. When we didn't know that River was our Melody, and that we were going to lose her. Or that I would lose Seraphina for good this time, meaning that I was alone for a while. So I fell for another human, though this time... I really loved her.
But Sarah. She had the blue hair River was talking about, and I knew that Sarah would cry no matter what, because this was someone's last night, and she hated death, and violence. Sarah would pretend to be Seraphina, for my Song.
"Sarah, you know I wouldn't ask if it didn't mean something. Melody is my daughter, and I already know she thinks you to be her mother in... in her final moments. Please, please do this for me..." I whispered, taking her hands and kissing them lightly, seeing her white eyes already full of tears at the fact mine were too. "Just one night, and then she is gone, she is buried with my daughter."
She leaned forward and kissed me lightly, her lips like honey on mine as tears fell for the both of us. "I will. I'll be her for just one night, but then you promise me that Phina is gone."
"I promise."
Melody:
"Yes, yes, I'm coming!" I shouted, answering the door to my flat, having been kept up all night. The baby was teething. Then I opened the door to see my dad and a perfect stranger there on my doorstep, dad in a new suit with a slightly different hair cut. It was scruffier, but shorter. "Dad, hi. I thought you were with Vastra and Jenny for a while, searching for mum?"
Then I looked at the woman, more like a girl, next to him, smaller and paler than mum, but at the same time, why would dad have come here with anyone else? She had been sent back in time, was it possible that she lived to the point of regeneration? "Melody, I know that you've been busy while I was searching," Yeah, I had a kid, "And that this is short notice, with your trip tomorrow, but this is your mum. She's... She's lost her memory, and is a lot different, but its her. I found her."
"Mum?" I asked her, and she nodded a little, though she still seemed unsure. If she lost her memory, then everything that she went through, all that heart break and loss, from Gallifrey, her family, my brother, dad, then Aunt Amy and Uncle Rory. She could be a new person. "Mum.." I hugged her tight, so glad to have her back. "Why are you here? I would have thought you'd have gone to see Jenny first, considering she's the one who didn't even know you were missing, thank you very much."
Dad grimaced a little. "It's complicated, my Song. Go get dressed in something nice, we're taking you out for the night." I shook my head a little. "Melody?"
"I can't. I've um. I've got a surprise for you." I moved back into the flat, letting them both follow me as I walked into the nursery, picking up my little girl and facing them. "This, this is your granddaughter, Suzie. Suzie Alannah Harkness."
Their faces were a picture of shock before dad motioned to take her from my arms, and I let him, smiling as she grabbed his bow tie, tugging at it. "Hello, little Suzie. Is she named after Susan? Artikyor?"
"My cousin, yes." There was so much family that I would never get to meet, but at least Suzie would have a decent amount of family around her. "I can't leave her, Jack's not getting home until morning to look after her while I'm on this expedition. So, if you want to take me, I'm afraid you're going to have to take her as well. She's teething, so that's a problem."
Dad laughed a little, as she gurgled, patting his face, still holding the tie as mum was hesitantly stood at the back. "Little Suzie Song. Do your little toothy pegs hurt? Do they? Well, I think I have something for that, I have, what do I have..." He fished in his pocket and took out a packet of jelly babies, of course, and broke it in half for her, and she grinned. "Never underestimate the power of a jelly baby, Melody, they are very powerful sweeties." Oh, I was the Queen of Sweeties dad.
He stayed in there with my daughter and I pulled mum into the bedroom with me as I pulled out a dress to wear for the night. "Where did he find you then? Where did the Angel send you back to?"
"Oh, um, Victorian London. He found me in the middle of a fire. It took a while for us to work it out, but he worked out that it was me, little Dove." Oh, wow... No more my Lovely then. The third face I'd see my mother wear. To be fair, I'd seen what, the 8th, 10th and 11th of my fathers, and I know that he's had quite a few, I had drawings and photo's of them all. The 6th though... "Suzie is beautiful, I'm so proud of you."
That made me smile and hug her again, my mum. After all the heartbreak she'd been through, maybe now her and dad could finally try to properly settle down, give Jenny and I some more brothers and sisters. Which would be strange for my poor Suzie. Aunties and Uncles younger than her. "Thank you, that means so much. Now, what shall I wear, where are we going?"
"Singing towers of Derillium." Dad answered, standing in the door with Suzie, who was happily clapping, wanting me to take her. So I did, and smiled, kissing my tiny daughters fluffy ginger head. "I know, you've been looking forward to us taking you there. But it's time, Melly, we're so, so proud of you. We'll watch her, and you get ready. Wear something spectacular, that you feel beautiful in. Though you're beautiful in everything."
Oh, my daddy could be a charmer. But I was always a mummy's girl, Jenny was the one who preferred him. But no matter what, I loved both my parents. And I'd protect them until the end of my life.
Sarah:
Oh God... I'd cried towards the end of the night. Melody was so beautiful, and brilliant, and I just wanted to find some way of saving her. But at the end of the night, she still had to go home, where her husband was waiting to take the baby as she packed for her final expedition.
And then we had to leave, hugging her tight and going back into the TARDIS.
"How..." I breathed, leaning hard on the rail and sobbing the moment the door was closed behind us. "How could you just let her go, your daughter? You know what is going to happen to her and you're letting her go!"
The Doctor turned to look at me, his face contorting himself and he came and hugged me tight, hiding his face in my long blue hair as he tried hard not to cry. "I don't want to, my Lady. I, I really don't... God... She's my little girl, and I know how she dies. I've known how she would die long before she was even born."
"Then why are you letting her go?" I asked him, trying my hardest to comfort him, but I was crying too, even though she wasn't my daughter. "Doctor, she has a daughter, a husband, and you know that they're going to lose her..."
"Oh, oh, my Lady Sarah, you have so much to learn... Rule 4, once time is known, it can't be changed. I know that she dies then, and I, I can't stop it or I lose Seraphina early and Melody is never even born... I have to lose her, and I, I wish there was something that I could do but there isn't." He pulled back a little and kissed my forehead, burying his nose in my scalp. "So I just have to let time take it's course."
Sighing, I took his face in my hands, wiping his cheeks free of the few tears that had trickled down his chiselled features, kissing him gently. "I'm sorry. You didn't need me shouting at you, I knew that you were hurting." I kissed him again slightly. "I love you, and I wish that I could take her place."
"I don't. I don't want to lose either of you, but the universe has chosen to taken nearly everyone away from me. My first family, my people, Seraphina, the Ponds, and now Melody, my Melody Donna Pond. I just wish that I could save everyone. But then I wouldn't have you." He muttered, picking me up and walking with me through the corridors, just holding me close. "I love you, Lady Sarah Elizabeth Lake. And please, please, don't leave me."
The Doctor pushed the door open to his room, a small, plain room with a double bed and 2 photo's. One of a blonde girl with a firey red streak through her hair, mismatched eyes and a big grin, and the other of Melody, being held by her mother. Something told me this wasn't always his room, that before it had been a lot bigger, in the hope to have more children.
He lay me down on the bed, and lay next to me, both still dressed, but we were still close, the closest we'd ever been to each other as we cuddled together. I could tell that he needed someone to just be here, to remind him that he wasn't alone. "I love you, Doctor. Really, I will never leave you. I promise."
"Thank you. Thank you so much, Sarah. For making me love again." He kissed me softly and then cuddled down into the bed, falling asleep. But I stayed awake, just for a little while, thinking about how much he had lost. We both had, except he knew what he was missing. And that made it so much worse.
I just hoped that I had the ability to make it better for him, the way he had for me.