Changed my mind, skipping to the Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. Tiny sad bit from 10 at the beginning and then all in Sera's POV. Thanks to @asr11415 for my cover photo! Check out her awesome story No Way Out, about the Doctor's wife Cita who escaped the TIme War, and is now back to travel with him, but is she ready to fall back in love with him just yet? Thanks for reading people's Izzi Petrova out! :p xx
The Doctor:
I wandered around the TARDIS for a while once I visited Victorian London, thinking about Seraphina and our Rory. I found myself in the Nursery we created for him, the one that we had adjoining to our room. Initially we had painted it Sky blue, but then we changed our minds a week before she lost him and painted it TARDIS blue with the Kasterborous constellation on the ceiling, showing him the home he would never know.
My cot was in the corner, my first stars above it and my name is swirling scripture along the left hand side, Arianna's on the right. Cot's were considered family heirlooms so our parents decided to use the same one. It could use a paint job, but Sera thought it made it more special the way it was.
Next I found myself in the Medical Room. I had forgotten that at the point she was, a miscarriage wouldn't be the baby being destroyed by her body, it would be her having a still born. The TARDIS had done us a favour, cremating the small form for us, but the sight of the small blue TARDIS ash pot still made my hearts ache for my lost little boy.
It was worse than when I lost Daniel, Hannah and Lillian, they I lost once they had a chance to live, to do something with their lives. Rory Koschei Pond had never even had a chance to take his first breath. I wished that I could have done something, anything to be able to save him, but what was done was done and there was no way of undoing the loss of our baby boy.
"Why does the universe hate me, old girl? I've saved it's arse so many times and it repays me by taking away my planet, my family and then just when I think I'm about to be reconciled, it takes away my new family."
The TARDIS hummed in reply, telling me that I needed to go see some old friend, Sarah Jane, Martha, anyone. I thought about it and thought visiting Sarah would be a good idea. She had helped me so many times, plus I would get to meet her son Luke again.
I got back to the Console room and set co-ordinates for 13 Bannerman Road, Ealing but I bounced straight off of it. "What?!" I cried, trying to re-materialise, but had trouble again getting through. "Now, why are we doing that?" I asked an invisible companion. I needed to find someone and soon, talking to myself was not a good sign.
I scanned for a reason that I couldn't land and frowned when it said that there was a temperal schism. "But that means... The Trickster! Now, why is he trying to stop me from landing?" I tried to land elsewhere in the UK, managing only to land before the incident with the Daleks, or well after 2009, the time I wanted to land in.
I looked at Sarah Janes Facebook, by hacking into Amy Ponds account, and saw that her timeline had been covered in people saying congratulations about her getting engaged. Why would the Trickster want to stop me going to her wedding? Now, this was going to be interesting.
Seraphina:
I dug through my bag for my phone once I heard a very special ring tone. It was Over the Rainbow, assigned to my best friend, Sarah Jane, or Janie as I playfully called her. After the past 10 months, I was glad to hear from someone from my life in the TARDIS
"Hey, Janie!"
"Phina? Wow, I really wasn't expecting to reach you, even with Mr Smith boosting my signal. Where are you?"
"London, my bookshop, where I have been since the Crucible." I sighed, thinking back to what happened and then shutting it out of my mind again. I hadn't thought of it, and I wasn't going to if I valued my life.
Janie sucked in a sharp breath. "He left you? Just after you had a miscarriage?"
"Yup. I fell asleep on the TARDIS, woke up in my bed in Leadworth. Anyway, that isn't why you called me, what's going on?"
She giggled, something she did when she was really excited. "I'm getting married."
"NO! Oh my Goddess, Janie! Who's the lucky fella?"
"Peter Dalton, and you're the maid of honour. I'm dress shopping as we speak, how far away from Bridal Boutique?"
"5 minutes! When's the wedding?!"
"Next week. Before you say anything, yes it's a bit soon, but at my age, why wait?"
I laughed at that, remembering that she was in her late 50's now, not the young 21 year old I met her as. "Sweetie, I'm 243, and I'm not married yet!"
"That's because the Doctor is an idiot. Especially for dumping you here so soon after loosing the baby. I'm picking you up, get Marcus to cover for you."
I sighed and looked around my empty shop. People had stopped coming in after the Daleks, too scared really to leave their houses, so I could probably just close early and not lose any profits. "Give me 5 minutes to brush my hair and I'll be outside. Is Rani and Luke with you?"
"Rani is, but Luke isn't allowed to see the dress until the day. See you in 5, Phi." I smiled again at the nickname, and hung up. I quickly pulled a brush through my now shorter red hair, sighing as it went staticky and then just curly again. I locked the door to the shop behind me and then waited for Sarah Jane to turn up, which she did perfectly on time.
She ran excited up to me and gave me a massive hug, one that I really needed. "I'm so happy to see you, Phina. I'm glad that you're my maid of honour."
"Glad to be of service, Janie. You must be Rani, I'm Seraphina, though most people call me Sera, or Janie here calls me Phi." I smiled, hugging the small girl who was looking at me in awe. "I guess you know roughly who I am?"
"Sarah Jane never shuts up about you and the Doctor. Though I'm guessing he's not it either of your good books?"
"No, he's not! I'll explain it to you when you're a bit older, Rani, but what he did is unforgivable. Come on, we need to get to that wedding fair!"
1 Week Later:
I stayed with Janie the night before the wedding, top and tailing it in her double bed the way we used to on our girly nights in the TARDIS when we locked the Doctor out. We spent ages that morning messing around with make up and experimenting with different hair styles that would suit me. Id been dreading this as having frizzy red hair could be a curse as much as a blessing.
Eventually we'd decided I would have it the same way as Sarah Jane, in a loose messy bun with a few loose strands down around my face. We'd fallen asleep in fits of giggles, and I had nearly forgotten my stupid ex-boyfriend until just as I was drifting off to sleep I heard the familiar sound of our wonderful TARDIS wheezing and groaning into existence. But when I woke up, he still wasn't here.
We got ready in our dresses and did our hair and make up perfectly as we'd practiced, then slipped into the Rols Royce on time to make it to the Stately Home at 11am. Luke was waiting for us, helping first Rani, then me out of the car. Then it was his mums turn. One thing I had learned about Luke Smith in the week I had gotten to know him, was that he idolised his mum, as he should.
"You look amazing. All 3 of you. I thought you might have wanted the Doctor to give you away, or at least Seraphina."
"Nah, I'm content being her maid of honour, even if she has stuck me in pink. And who needs the Doctor when she has her amazing son to give her away?" I grinned, putting my arm around the boy whom I'd grown fond of.
"I need somebody reliable, and I'm so very, very glad it's you. Besides, where would I send the invite? Metebelis Three?"
I snorted. "If he could even get there. Took him 4 years of trapping us both on Earth and when he finally managed it he died of radiation poisoning. Clyde, did you really have to wear the trainers? Janie, how come he doesn't have to wear proper shoes?"
"Because he isn't maid of honour. And they're kitten heels, it's not exactly like I got you to wear stilettos, Phina." We were called in before I could complain further about my incredibly girly dress, we were called in and started to walk down the aisle, first Rani, then me and then Sarah Jane, accompanied by her son.
We reached the end, and I sat next to Luke and Rani at the front of the small group of our friends. I recognised a couple of people, but they didn't realise it was me. Luckily, if they all realised I was technically an alien, I don't think Janie would get the wedding she deserved.
I looked over at Clyde who was leaning under a table. "K9, scan."
"All normal, Master Clyde."
"You idiot, you brought the dog!" I scolded in his head, causing him to look over at me alarmed. "Yeah, I can do that. Leave him alone and pay attention."
"Good afternoon, everyone, I'm the Superintendent Registrar. We are here today to witness the marriage of Sarah Jane Smith and Peter Anthony Dalton. In each other's company they have found happiness, fulfillment and love, and they wish to affirm their relationship with this marriage. Now, I have to ask this question. If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be joined together, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."
I groaned as she was practically drowned out by the TARDIS' engines, and then the doors bust open to allow my ex-boyfriend to run in. "Stop this wedding, now!" The Doctor cried, looking no different to the day he left me, afraid, hurt and lonely in Leadworth.
Janie gaped at him "What?"
"Get out of here you bastard!" I shouted at him, but at the same time I fell to the floor in agony as a vision hit me really hard, as though it had been trying to surface itself all week. "What?" I breathed.
"I said stop this wedding." He repeated, his gaze shifting from Peter and Janie to me and then back again. Then a strong wind started blowing through the room and I stared at a spot where a figure in white was starting to appear.
"Stop!" I cried, trying to fight towards her and Peter. "Get away from him!"
"No, Peter, no!" She cried, trying to pull him away from the Trickster.
"Don't be afraid, Sarah Jane. It's the Angel."
"Angel my arse!" I shouted, just getting close enough to brush Janie's gloved arm and then I was thrown backwards by the Trickster, causing me to bang my head, and then everything was white.
DW
"Phina? Phi wake up!" Rani was shaking me awake.
I groaned, "Aw, my head. Please tell me I'm in hospital and I completely imagined the Doctor appearing?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence there, Alice."
"Bastard." I snarled, on my feet in no time. I went over to him and slapped him right across the face.
"Ow! What was that for?"
"10 months! You left me here for 10 months! Do you know how it felt? To have gone through loosing my baby, saving the Universes, and then have you just leave me on Earth as though I wasn't good enough for you anymore? This is all on you!" I pulled off my pink silk gloves to reveal something that not even Janie had seen. The thick ribboned scars I'd dealt myself from just wanting to hurt in some other way.
He stepped away from me, all the colour in his face draining. "I didn't realise I'd left you this long... I had no idea, Alice, I'm so sorry."
"Yeah? Well sorry isn't good enough. Where are we?"
"There's been a dimensional shift. Time's moved on but us, and this entire building, we've been left behind." He explained, in terms only I could understand.
Rani looked out of the window. "There's nothing out there."
"I said all along, I knew there was something wrong about all of this. And what exactly is going on?" Clyde asked.
"I'll explain later." That wasn't good enough as all three teenagers suddenly started asking questions, all at once, barely pausing for breath. I sighed and dug in the Docs pocket for the football rattle he for some reason kept in there.
"Shush. Here's the answer to all your questions. Yes, that was the Trickster. Yes, we're trapped. Yes, we're the only ones who can get us out of the trap. Yes, I'm going to bring Sarah Jane, and your mum and dad, and all the others back safe, but I can't do any of it without you."
"You, you need us?"
I nodded, feeling powerful as I got their awe and respect. "Just like Janie needs you."
"My mum and dad, where are they?" Rani asked, sounding worried still.
"Just go along with them Rani, I watch these two save the world."
The Doctor finally unfroze himself from staring at me. "You helped us save the world, Lukey boy. Right. Come on, we can use the TARDIS. I assume everybody knows what the TARDIS is, unless you've really not been paying attention. And, allons-y!"
I walked after them into the hall, already knowing that the TARDIS wouldn't be there. I could see them talking in a huddled group when the first nose bleed hit. "Shit." And it was then followed by one of the strongest visions I'd had since the War. "Ah! No, no, no..." I started scratching at my arms, writing things that I could see, but could get out.
"Sera? Seraphina, snap out of it!" The Doctor was by my side in an instant and forced a small black biro into my hand. My hand untensed slightly and I felt the pen scrawling onto my red and raw skin while my eyes were still seeing something yet to happen.
"Whoa, her eyes..." Rani murmured.
"Leave it" The Doc snapped at her. And then I could see him right in front of me, too close for comfort. I didn't trust him being that close to me, I still loved him, but didn't want to forgive him just yet.
"It made no sense what I saw. It's all nothing." I said, looking at the Gallifreyan scripture on my arm. I was half lying, half telling the truth.
"As long as you're sure. Here." He passed me a tissue for my nose and then started addressing us. "Okay, got no TARDIS. It can't materialise here until time moves forward."
"What, so we're trapped here, wherever this is?" That was Rani.
" No. Because what have I got? I've got K9."
"Affirmative Master, Mistress Seraphina."
"And I've got you three. And any friend of Sarah Jane Smith is a friend of mine. And my lovely girlfriend."
"Ex-girlfriend" I growled, pulling my sonic out of my hair. He looked at me strangely. "What?"
"I thought it was on Gallifrey?"
"I made a new one. Came in handy when I was working with Torchwood. Something else you missed, an alien threat that tried to take 10% of the children on the planet. Including Amy, Rory and Mels. Ianto died!"
"I'm sorry. I had no idea."
"You always say sorry, but do you ever actually mean it? Anyway, we also have two sonics."
Clyde interrupted, looking at me more weirdly than ever. "But where is this? What's happened to the rest of the world?"
"Our present location nowhere, no when." K9 informed him.
Luke frowned. "No when?"
"Look at the clocks. It's why my vision made no sense, I can see moving time, but there is no time here. Just a point of a second."
"But again, where is Sarah Jane?"
"Right here."
Rani started pacing. "So we've been kept behind in this second."
"Affirmative Mistress Rani."
"But the rest of the world, Mum and Dad and everyone else, they've moved on from here, forwards in time. Why has the Trickster trapped us here?"
"Come on Rani, you know that." I said, scanning the area for any sign of my best friend, the same as the Doctor.
"We're Sarah Jane's friends, all of us. Her best friends, especially you, Phi."
"Phi? I thought only Sarah was allowed to call you that?"
"Rani is too. Sera to everyone else, except you who can call me Writer. Hostages, he's using us as hostages. That's real bad news for me because the longer I stay here, the worse my non-visions are going to get. I need real time to live, my whole being depends on it."
"We've met the Trickster before, but we've never found out who he is." Clyde said, hoping for an explanation.
"The Trickster is a creature from beyond the universe. Forever trying to break in to our reality, manifest himself. He's one of the Pantheon of Discord."
Clyde chuckled to himself. "That's a good name for a band"
"Yeah, not bad actaully. He's an eternal exile, who exists to wreak havoc. But we can fight him, the five of us. And we can win." The Doc smiled, looking up for a moment. Then both of our screwdrivers went into overdrive.
"Oh! Ha, that's it. A time trace. Just a hint of Janie. Ooo, she's close." I grinned, following it around.
Rani leant against the counter as we followed the blips, but then shivered. " What was that? Felt like someone just walked over my grave"
I whirled around to her, ignoring the hot flow of blood coming from my nose and grinned, but then I doubled over, heaving. Luke went to my side, holding me up, but the whir of non-visions I saw nearly knocked me out.
"Oh, oh, oh, she's here. She's here! Sarah! Luke, get Sera onto a chair or something"
"On it." He said, supporting me.
"Sarah Jane. She doesn't like being called Sarah" Rani added as we past. I wiped around my mouth and saw that there was blood.
"Doctor, hurry up. I'm not sure how much longer I'll last."
"I'm doing it. You hold on there, my Sera. K9?"
"Scanning Master."
"Doctor, Seraphina! Phi, Doctor!"
"Mum. That was her!" Luke cried, leaping up from my side at the sound of his mums voice.
I shouted over from my chair arrest "K9 isolate the Time Trace!"
"Affirmative, Mistress Phina."
"Even the dog?" He questioned.
"Janie set it up, shut up and get on with it! K9?"
"Temporal Schism split in two, Mistress Phina."
"Yes, of course. We're trapped here in 3:23:23. and Sarah Jane's trapped too, just in another second." The Doc sighed, standing up and running his hands through his already gravity defying hair. I had to look away then, I loved watching him do that and watching him do it would cause me to forgive him before I was ready.
Clyde rolled his eyes. " Hold on. You said you'd explain later. Well, it's later. Please explain."
"The Trickster doesn't want us helping Sarah, so he's separated us, trapped us in two different seconds, knowing that because of Seraphina's sensitivity to time, Sarah would have to do as he said fairly quickly to save her."
Then Janie's voice could be heard from upstairs. "Seraphina!"
"Looks like I'm her favourite. She's upstairs!" I forced myself up after her. "Come on. Luke, K9, watch for the TARDIS, you see it coming back, shout the place down."
"Orders accepted, Mistress Phina."
"You three, with me. Come on, spit spot."
I was angrily stood in the wedding chamber by the time they caught up with me, wiping the blood that was now falling from my eyes. "How did we end up back in here? Phi, you should stay sat down."
"It's a spatial loop mixed up with a temporal loop." Clyde said, spot on actually.
"And how did you work that one out? It's right, by the way." I smiled, more collapsing onto the nearest chair.
"Well, we've been doing this for a while now. I have taken notes"
"Come on, come on, come on, Sarah. Let me find you." The Doc muttered, still running around. It was quite exhausting to watch actually, I felt my eyes starting to drift closed as I did. "Oi, you keep your eyes open, my little Dragon."
"Why? I've got 5 minutes max anyways. She's here, you can narrow the link ratio."
"Doctor, Writer."
"You look better in black, or is it just so blurred it looks black, I can't tell."
"At last. Doctor, Writer. I could feel this moment reverberating back through the ages. The meeting of the Pantheon of Discord and the last of the Time Lords." The Trickster grinned.
"We''ve known the legends of the Pantheon since we were little. I've fought your shadows and your changelings. I never thought we'd actually meet." The Doctor said, helping me to my feet and walking us both over there.
"That Time Beetle was particularly nasty. Nearly destroyed me to kill it, it did kill my baby."
"And I know the legends of the Doctor and the Writer. The man of ice and the woman of fire, who walked among gods, who once held the Key to Time in their hands. Now they are surrounded by children. Not that one has much longer."
"And who's fault is that? They're our friends. And that reminds me, aren't you a bit lonely for a Pantheon?"
"I embody multitudes. And who are you, the woman who has lost everybody, to talk to me of loneliness, when the Gate is waiting for you?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, slipping my heels off of my feet.
"Sarah Jane Smith is my prize. Even you, her best friend for over 40 years, didn't realise how wonderful she is."
"What do you want with her?" The Doctor snarled, not noticing that I was holding my heels ready to throw them at the Trickster.
"What I always want from any of those I visit. Her agreement. Goodbye, Doctor, good luck in death, Writer." I managed to throw my shoe just before he vanished again but it still ended up empaled in the wall instead.
"Well, at least they're good for something." I muttered, wiping at my nose again.
The Doc wasn't listening though. "Her agreement. The power of words. She says I do, and. Yes, that's it!"
Clyde was confused. "That's what?"
Then it hit me. "She promises to love and honour her husband, the wedding ring goes on and then she's agreed to it. She's totally under the Trickster's power. Marital bliss, but she forgets all about this. She starts living a new life."
"Forgetting her old life protecting the Earth!" Rani cried, connecting the dots herself.
Clyde finally got it. "And the planets wide open so Aliens could just barge in"
"Without Sarah, without you lot saving the world from your attic in Ealing, there'll be chaos and destruction. Meat and drink to the Trickster. Hey, hey you need to stay awake, Sera. Sera and Sarah, I need to have friends with varying names."
"Shut up. But as if she'll say yes."
"But she will, because we're here and she knows that you're slowly dying."
"TARDIS, she's coming." I muttered, just a second before the engines could be heard again, spluttering and wheezing into existence.
"TARDIS! Beautiful. Yes! It's homing in on me. Emergency program, protecting the pilot and co-pilot. Of course. Partial materialisation." He started towards her, supporting me at the same time. Luke and K9 started towards us then as he unlocked the door. "Look, that's pure artron energy. TARDIS power. Equal and opposite to the Trickster's power. That's how we can fight him"
He pulled me in with him, leaving me leaning against the rail as he tried to pull the others in with him. Being in the TARDIS straight away started making me feel better as there was real time in here, but the feeling of suffocation I had out there still lingered in my lungs.
The Doctor had managed to grab Clydes hand but even so, the Time Winds surrounding the TARDIS caused him to let go just as we started to dematerialise again. "I never thought I'd be in here again. At least not with you looking like that."
"I'm sorry, Alice. I really am, I just didn't know how to cope with both you the way you were and saving Donna. I thought I was doing what was best by taking you home. It was supposed to be a month, max."
"Maybe if you actually passed the test before stealing Sexy, then you would have managed it. Find Janie, quickly." I smiled slightly. not fully forgiving him, but letting him know that there was a chance at redemption.
The second we'd found her, I was at the door, calling out to her. "Janie!"
"Phi!"
The Doctor joined me in the doorway. "Got to be quick. The TARDIS can't stabilise. Clyde's keeping the Trickster busy for the moment. Oh, those three are just brilliant"
"Phi, what can I do? If I say no, we're trapped here forever. If I say yes, I condemn the world to the Trickster. Either way I lose. There's no way out."
I sighed and stepped out of the doors to her, feeling my throat contract again. "It all rests with you, my Janie. Your greatest challenge. The hardest thing you'll ever face in your life."
"What is it? Tell me what I've got to do."
"You've fought him before, you know how the Trickster operates." The Doctor interjected.
"You know how he can be defeated. I wasn't having non-visions, I was seeing all three ways this could pan out at once. The Time of Nothing, the Time of Fear and the Time of Loneliness."
"Oh, no. No."
I turned to Peter, a man who I'd thought was perfect for my Janie the moment I met him. And I was right, old fashioned Soul Mates fated to never be. "I know you're a good man, Peter. I'm so sorry."
And then Clyde appeared screaming, the Trickster in hand, also screaming. "Clyde!"
"I can't hold it, Sera, come on!"
"No, Sarah Jane needs me!" He nodded and backed up again, the TARDIS stuttering away again.
"Doctor! Clyde, no. Peter, I do love you, but Seraphina's right. There is another way out"
"Don't listen to her!" The Trickster gasped. I grinned and threw my other shoe at him, hitting him square in the chest.
"That's for Donna, and my son."
"Your accident. He can only talk to people who are about to die. He comes to them in that final moment. He gives them back their life."
"What do you mean?"
"Clyde and Rani said your house was empty. Why did you never let me see your house? You died in that accident, Peter. But he needed you, so he kept you half alive. And if we got married the bargain would be complete. He would bring you back to life."
"Your love brought me back to life. How can that be wrong, to save a life?" He asked, staring at my Janie so devotedly that I knew it was going to destroy her to do this. I put my arms around her and held her close as blood ran from my eyes again.
"Look at this, this is what he'll do to millions of people unless, unless you break your deal with him" I bent down and cradled Clydes head in my lap, stroking his face.
"But I'll lose you. I'll die. I don't want you to be alone."
"She won't be. I won't leave her, Peter."
"I love you but I can't love you. You said you'd do anything to save me. If you love me, you know what you have to do"
"No" The Trickster cried, my kitten heel still sticking out of his chest.
"You got one thing exactly right. Sarah Jane and I, we were made for each other. we're the perfect match. And I know what she would do."
"I chose you because you didn't have the strength!"
"That's where you're wrong. Because our Janie, she gives people strength!" I laughed, feeling time moving already.
"Phina's right. She gave me the strength. And I withdraw my agreement"
"No!" He cried, disappearing as the ring hit him.
Peter turned back to us, then tilted his head to look at the ceiling. "So, here I go. I wish I'd always known you"
"I love you, Peter."
"And I love you, Sarah Jane Dalton." And then he was gone. Janie collapsed next to me and I held her close as she cried. Then the others ran in and we all huddled together as time started fully again.
DW
"If any person can show just cause or impediment why they may not be joined together let them speak now or forever hold their peace." I looked around, now next to Janie instead of sat down where I had been.
She was silently sobbing, uncontrollably as the Doctor had explained to me my first night in the TARDIS. I took her hand and squeezed it.
I could hear everyone muttering behind us at Peters sudden disappearance, as well as the fact my face and dress were bloodstained, so I held Janie close and turned us around. "I'm sorry everyone, but the wedding is cancelled." And then I walked her down the aisle and drove her home. Well, I called a taxi.
I had picked up a few bottles of wine on the way, so when the teenagers got back, we both had a large glass in hand and Mr Smith was softly playing music for us. I'd changed out of the dress and was now sat in my Snoopy onesie again, in a vain attempt to cheer Sarah Jane up, I'd barely gotten a smile at the little tail.
"Mum, are you all right?" Luke asked.
"I'm going to be fine, I've got you, haven't I?" She smiled, hugging the boy. It made me ache for my son, my little Rory.
"I can't believe the Doctor ran off like that" He sighed, hitting the ball on the nose. I'd been wondering where he's gotten to.
"Sudden disappearing acts. That's him all over, trust the girl with experience." But I was proven wrong by Mr Smith and K9 as the TARDIS started materialising in the attic. "How the hell has he gotten her to fit?"
"What do you take me for, Seraphina? Just thought I'd go the quick way. Ooo, I like it in here."
"Can we have a look?" Rani asked excitedly.
"What, in the TARDIS? My TARDIS!"
"Who's TARDIS? You stole her!"
"-Course you can, yeah." He smiled, holding the door open for them. While they all ummed and awed over the inside, I hesitated in the doorway. I so wanted to come back, to travel as we did before, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to forgive him yet.
Everyone eventually left, even Sarah Jane after a bit of a tearful farewell, leaving just us. "Come back with me, please."
I was silent for a moment, then shook my head. "I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
"Both. I can't because Janie needs me. I won't because I haven't forgiven you yet. 10 months, Legacy, 10 months of thinking that because I couldn't give you a baby you didn't want me. I ended up in hospital 4 times, Martha forced me into counselling."
"I'm sorry, Seraphina, I am so, so sorry. I always mean it, every time I say it, please never think otherwise. I'll check up on you, I won't leave you alone, I promise."
"I know. Goodbye, Doctor."
"Goodbye, Writer." And then I stepped out of the TARDIS again, and watched him leave me once again.