This chapter is dedicated to all my faithful readers. I will be forever grateful for your support and encouragement.
The Doctor flinched ever so slightly before immediately forcing himself to relax again. "Talk? About what?" he asked casually. "I'm quite good at talking, I'll have you know. I once saved an entire planet just by my ability to talk for a solid thirty-six hours straight. Bored the invading race to tears. Would you believe that? A warrior species, just breaking down and crying because they were so bored."
But Lyssa had seen the flinch, and bit her lip. Her original plan had involved somehow getting the Doctor to talk about his feelings, and then, just to even out the impossible things done that day, get the Daleks to declare peace with the universe and retire to knit cardigans. But now, as she looked closer at the Doctor, seeing the tension that kept his shoulders rigid and the lines pain and worry had etched on his face, she mentally revised her plan.
She didn't think she'd be able to get him to talk just by asking him, and it might even make things worse because he'd feel pressured to speak around her, thus unable to even relax. But if she went first, maybe he'd feel more willing to speak? She knew she'd have to talk about what had been bothering her anyway, might as well get it out of the way.
Of course, that meant she'd have to be honest about what she'd been feeling...
The things she did for the Doctor. Never let it be said she didn't do anything for this man.
A hand waved in front of her face, and she blinked back into focus to see the Doctor studying her with narrowed eyes. "Lyssa? Are you all right? You just kind of zoned out there."
She shook her head, shoving away all the other distracting thoughts. "Yeah, sorry. Got lost in thought. What were you saying?"
He raised an eyebrow skeptically, but didn't call her on it, instead repeating his question. "What did you want to talk about?"
She took a deep breath to fortify herself, butterflies springing to life in her stomach. Licking her lips nervously, she began hesitantly, "As you know, the last few days have been... well, a bit crazy. For all of us, obviously, but I think especially for the two of us."
He snorted. "What gave it away?"
She smiled wryly, hoping to keep her nervousness out of her face. "Anyways, I was just thinking..." She took another deep breath, trying to bolster her courage.
Worry filled the Doctor's eyes, and he sat up straighter, looking at her intently. "Lyssa, is everything all right?"
"Well, that's what I was hoping to talk about," she muttered, crossing her arms over her stomach in discomfort and staring at the water flowing in the riverbed. "I don't know entirely what you went through before I jumped here, but... I know that I'm not in a good place mentally right now, and I was hoping that I could talk it through with you."
The Doctor reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it comfortingly when she looked up at him. He spoke in a low but earnest voice, the words all the more powerful for their undeniable honesty. "I know that you haven't been there yet, but I promised a long time ago to be there for you when you needed me. I kept that promise then, and I'll keep it again now. Whatever you need me for, I'll be there for you."
Lyssa blinked back unexpected tears, unable to stop a small smile breaking through. "Thank you," she whispered sincerely, squeezing his hand in return. "And I hope you know that I'll do the same for you. I promise. If you need me, I'll be there for you."
The Doctor smiled sadly. "Oh, my fairy-girl. I know. Trust me, I know. You've been there for me in my darkest days."
"And you've been there for mine," Lyssa reminded him, thinking of days filled with blood covered hands and nightmares, and all the while he tirelessly stood by her side.
He shrugged in self-deprecation. "I could do no less, after all you've done for me." He changed the subject before she could refute his point. "But I think we were talking about something else?" he redirected her gently.
Lyssa grimaced, knowing it needed to be done, but more than happy to put it off just a little bit longer. "It's stupid," she muttered, directing her gaze back to the water.
"Then you've come to the right place," the Doctor jogged her elbow gently. "I'm an expert at that."
She snorted, her smile fading as quickly as it had come. "That's part of the reason why I'm talking to you," she said. "Not because you're stupid, obviously, but because I need someone to talk it through with." She grimaced at the thought, but forced herself through it, reminding herself that it was for the greater good.
"And because talking through your problems and traumas can help you get through them," she admitted reluctantly. "And it's not going to do me any good to just bury my issues; they'd just return at a later date and probably screw me over at the worst possible time."
"Well, I have absolutely no experience with that," the Doctor quipped before becoming serious once more. "But... you're not wrong."
Lyssa sighed, wrinkling her nose. "I was afraid you were going to say that."
He nudged her gently. "You know you don't have to say anything now, right?" he reminded her quietly. "You just narrowly escaped dying twice in as many days. You can take some time to relax and process before confronting traumatic events again."
She shook her head firmly. The idea was tempting, but... "If I don't do it now, I'll never do it," she said gloomily. "I'll put it off, or I'll jump to an earlier you who won't fully understand what we saw, and I'll excuse addressing it until it becomes an even bigger problem. As it is, I've probably left it far too long."
The Doctor glanced at her, frowning in confusion. "We only just got back," he pointed out.
"From this adventure, yes," Lyssa confirmed. "But... not from the other ones. It's been slowly building for a while, and I don't think I fully realized it until we got to the hotel and it was shoved in my face."
"Do you mean what you saw in your room?" the Doctor tried to clarify.
She nodded, then thought it over. "Well, sort of. I suppose I should start at the beginning. Well, I mean," she paused, trying to come up with a place to start. "I'm not even sure where the beginning is."
"Take your time," the Doctor encouraged her gently. "I can wait as long as you need."
She smiled at him gratefully, still trying to sort through her thoughts and finally settling on a spot. "Thanks. I guess it all kind of started two jumps ago. I was with Nine and Rose, when we took Adam to see Satellite 5."
The Doctor crinkled his nose in distaste at the name. "Adam. Blimey. I'd forgotten about him," he muttered.
She nodded in agreement with the sentiment. "So, after we dropped him off, he... sort of blamed me for what happened, because I knew what was going to happen. And while he is the one to blame for what he did to himself, I... still feel guilty because I knew what was going to happen to Suki, and I didn't stop it - and then Rose got hurt, and that's on me as well, because I knew she was gonna get shocked and I didn't do anything to stop that either!"
She held up a hand when the Doctor opened his mouth to speak. "I know what you're going to say, but could I finish first? I kind of have to say it now while I still have the courage." He nodded, and she continued, taking a deep breath.
"I know that you started to address it while I was there, but several of my memories had to be hidden on my next jump, and those got buried along with them. You brought back my memories at the end, but most of what you said is still buried. Sorry," she added sheepishly.
"Anyways, I do remember you telling me that part of the reason why I got all woozy towards the end was because Suki's death was a fixed point in time, and my connection to the Time Vortex meant that I felt the feedback from her still being alive first. And then I jumped to your future, and..."
She shook her head. "That was an adventure all on its own. I can't tell you too much 'cause of spoilers, but let's just say that there was a creature that could melt your mind once it latched onto you, and..."
"It latched onto you?" the Doctor finished grimly when she didn't.
She nodded, remembering with a grimace how it had felt to have the Teller rooting through her memories and attacking her. "I think you saved me by putting me to sleep and putting up a mental wall or something to block my mental signature. It's obviously a little fuzzy."
She sighed. "Anyway, moving on. People died, I was there for a little bit longer, and then jumped to that stupid hotel. I still can't believe I woke up to a giant chicken," she muttered in disgust. "Who's scared of giant chickens?"
The Doctor smirked, but didn't say anything, letting her concentrate.
"Right. You know most of what happened there," she waved a hand in the air. "Found a room filled with a freakin' giant spider and freaked out, met Rita and the others." She paused, chewing on her lip. This was where she started to really get honest.
"Found my room," she admitted at last.
The Doctor squeezed her hand gently in encouragement.
She swallowed hard. "I know the room was supposed to show us what we feared most. And it did, I think. But... it also made me more afraid."
"Afraid of what?" the Doctor asked gently.
She bit her lip, not wanting to admit it. But... the whole point of this was so that they would talk to each other, and they couldn't exactly get anywhere if she refused to tell the truth. "Of - of everything, I guess," she admitted miserably. "What I saw, what it means, what you would think of me if I told you."
"Why would I think less of you for being afraid?" the Doctor asked, furrowing his brow in confusion. "Everyone is afraid of something, even if they're not willing to admit it. I'm scared of things. I had a room there, too."
"It's not so much what I'm afraid of, as it is what it meant," Lyssa admitted. "I told you that I was scared of the future, of who I'd become. Of losing who I am."
The Doctor nodded somberly.
Lyssa squeezed his hand, trying to draw strength from his steady grip, and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping an arm around them. "In my room, there was a woman who looked like me, only a little bit older. She had my eyes, and mostly gold hair, like you told me could happen as my body adapts to the Time Vortex."
Her eyes glazed over as she remembered the way the woman had laughed, mocking the Doctor's pain. "But she was cold. Cold and hard. She laughed at the pain of others, and tried to cause more. She hurt you, and delighted in it. You tried to talk her out of it, and I... she... refused, telling you that I was gone, and that it was all your fault that she was there in my place."
She swallowed hard, blinking back tears. "She tried to kill people."
The Doctor's face filled with sympathy, but Lyssa forced herself to carry on, not looking him in the eyes for fear of what she might see.
"And we got past that, sort of. I know that our personal futures aren't set in stone. That I can change my future. But I could still become her," Lyssa forced the words out, everything in her rebelling against them. "I'm changing physically, how long before I change mentally as well?"
She took a deep breath. "But then we landed on the planet, and everything went sideways. And that's not your fault," she added strongly. "But then you got turned into a kid, and Ten showed up, and fake you and Amy, and then you told me that someone was lying, and then you passed out and wouldn't wake up, and then I had to figure out who we could trust, if I could trust anyone, and then Maken came running after us, and then we got captured, and..."
She paused, abruptly realizing she'd been telling him stuff he already knew - and had experienced himself. "Sorry. Anyways, you and Ten were tied up, and I had to try and stop Maesita because otherwise she was going to hurt you both, and then I was facing off against her, and I just - I couldn't!" she blurted out.
"She was going to hurt you, and I had the chance to stop her - she gave me the chance to stop her, and I didn't take it! Instead I basically gave up and left the three of us in her hands, and the only reason we're all still alive is because Rory came along and managed to figure out that she was the fake!"
She stared into the distance with her hands clenched as she forced back the tears that threatened to fall. "I was so afraid of becoming her, but here I am, and I couldn't even try to stop someone who was going to hurt you. What kind of person am I, that I couldn't even try to stop her?"
She sniffed, wiping at a stray tear that trickled down her cheek as she finally admitted the truth. "I couldn't save you, and I'm sorry." A sob slipped out despite her best efforts, and she could no longer hold back the tears as she broke down. "You're my best friend, and I let you down, and I'm so, so sorry," she cried, burying her face in her hands.
An arm slipped around her shoulders, tugging her into a warm embrace. "Oh, Lyssa. Is this what you've been holding onto all this time? Is this what you've been so afraid of?"
She buried her face in the Doctor's chest and nodded, feeling her tears wet his shirt. "I just - there's so many bad things that happened that I could have prevented, and I didn't, and then I saw my room, and..." She trailed off, unable to continue any further as another sob ripped out of her.
"Well, I still maintain that you did me no wrong, but... if that's what you truly believe, then know this, Lyssa Devons: I forgive you. Always and forever," he told her quietly.
She didn't know how much she'd needed to hear the words until he said them and they broke down the last of her walls, wiping away her guilt and fears with her tears. She leaned into him for support once more, and just like always, he gladly gave it.
The Doctor rubbed her back soothingly with one hand, tracing the other one gently through her hair and just letting her cry. When she had finally cried herself out, he helped her sit up straight and tucked her hair behind her ears.
"Do you feel better now?" he asked sympathetically, wiping away the tear tracks under her eyes with his thumbs.
She nodded with her eyes low, cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment.
"Hey, now, none of that," he reprimanded her gently. "We all need a good cry now and then, and it's better to have a shoulder to cry on than alone. It's healthy to cry - it relieves stress and can calm you down."
"Doesn't mean it's any less embarrassing," she muttered, swiping at her runny nose with her sleeve.
"Well, if it helps, I'm not judging you for it," he told her, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket and handing it to her. "I've cried in front of you far too many times for that." He hesitated. "And I don't know if this will help or not, but... you've cried in front of me before, and I've never thought the less of you for it. If anything, we've always grown closer after, because it shows that we're able to trust each other with our joys and our sorrows."
"How poetic," Lyssa murmured, taking the handkerchief gratefully and wiping her face clean.
He just shrugged. "I suppose. But it really does mean a lot when you can go to someone with your worries, and receive support and understanding in return."
She bit her lip, ducking her head away from his. "Yeah... It... did mean a lot that you didn't judge me for crying. Thank you for that."
He placed his hand atop hers. "Of course."
She swallowed hard, forcing herself to lift her head and look him in the eye, allowing him to see how serious she was. "And you know that I won't ever judge you for being hurt or upset either, right?" she asked him. "I won't ever laugh at you for needing someone to talk to, or even to just vent at, if you need to let some steam off."
He smiled softly, patting her hand. "I know, fairy-girl. Trust me, I know."
"I mean it," she insisted; suddenly feeling this urgent need for him to believe how much she meant it. "You've always been there for me when I need you, let me be there for you when you need someone."
He seemed struck by something in her words and stared intently into her eyes as if to determine the truth in them. She met his gaze evenly, willing him to see the honesty in them.
He shook his head suddenly, laughing softly with no real humor. "All this time you were afraid of changing and losing yourself, and yet I was the one who refused to see the truth."
"Doctor?" Lyssa asked slowly, growing concerned.
He chuckled again, the sound almost coming out as a sob. He gripped her shoulders gently, ducking his head to look her in the eye. "I knew what you didn't, and yet I still couldn't see it.
"Lyssa. My fairy-girl." He breathed her name as if it were the most precious thing in the world. "You will never lose yourself. I've known you for hundreds of years, and in all that time, you have never changed in any way that matters. You have never once lost your way, even in your darkest times."
Lyssa blinked at him, taken aback by the utter sincerity in his words. "But Maesita -"
"Was not yet a distinct threat," the Doctor finished firmly for her. "You refused to hit her because you didn't want to seriously hurt or kill someone who was apparently defenseless and not presenting a threat at the moment. Just because someone promises harm doesn't mean they'll be able to follow through, especially if they haven't proven their abilities yet, like Maesita. When Rory knocked her out, she'd already proven that she was willing to hurt people, because she hurt you. She hadn't done that yet when you faced her."
"But I still should have tried harder," she stammered weakly.
"And you did," he reminded her. "When you started to recover, you grabbed your pipe and tried again. Rory just got to her before you did. And that's the important thing here," he emphasized. "When things went wrong, you didn't give up. You tried again. And that's something that you never lose."
He shook his head, trying to gather his thoughts. "You change over the course of time, yes. We all do. That's the point of growing up - to mature, to try and be better than we are. But there are some things that never change - some things that you never lose. You never give up, and you never lose your heart." He paused, his eyes fixed on hers for some reason.
"And that's what I love most about you."
Wait.
WAIT.
"What?" she squeaked, shock making her voice go up an octave.
The Doctor's mouth crooked up gently into a small, genuine smile. "Your heart is what I love most about you," he told her again.
"Yeah, no, I got that," she said faintly. "Go back to the part where you said you love me. Did - did you mean that?"
His smile relaxed into a more somber look, his tone quiet, but sincere. "I think there's been enough deception for one day, fairy-girl." Keeping his eyes on hers, he dug one hand into his pocket and pulled it out again, something cupped carefully in his hand. When he opened it, her necklace lay curled in his palm.
She gasped. "My necklace!"
He smiled wryly. "You about gave me a heart attack when I saw this sitting on the floor by Rory's unconscious body. The Minotaur had been leaving one personal item each time he'd taken someone. I thought he'd taken you."
She grinned sheepishly, remembering the look of relief on his face when he'd seen her. "Sorry."
He shook his head, laughing. His eyes fell on the necklace again, and his laughter faded. "You know," he said quietly, fingers curling around the jewelry as if to protect it. "When I saw this on the floor, I thought my worst fears had been realized. And then I opened my door and found my room. And I realized that it was so much worse."
His eyes fixed on a point far in the distance, glazed over as the memory resurfaced. "I fear what I've always feared. Losing you to he- to something horrible... and what your loss will drive me to do. And I saw that loss realized, and knew what I'd do. What I had done."
Lyssa squeezed his hand comfortingly, and his eyes snapped back to hers. He returned the gesture as a small smile came to his face. "And then you did what you've always done, and came along out of nowhere and snapped me out of it. You saved me, if even from myself."
He withdrew his hand then, and lifted up the necklace with both hands in a silent question. When she nodded, blushing, he waited for her to pull her hair out of the way before placing the jewelry around her neck and securing it in place.
Lyssa felt some hitherto unknown weight fall off her shoulders as her charm fell in its usual place just below her collarbone. She reached up one hand to grab it, rubbing her fingers lightly over the cool metal. She smiled in gratitude, but the Doctor continued speaking before she could.
"You're my best friend, and, occasionally, my bringer of common sense. I've loved you for five hundred years, and I'll love you for a thousand more," he promised solemnly, sealing his words with a kiss on her forehead.
Lyssa's eyes began to burn bright with tears for the umpteenth time that day, and she scrambled for something appropriate to say, her cheeks burning with what felt like the heat of a thousand suns.
The Doctor smiled gently, and, perhaps out of mercy, kept talking. "You don't have to say it back," he said softly. "I just thought you needed to hear it after today."
She closed her eyes to keep back the tears that threatened to fall yet again, unwilling to admit just how much his words had affected her. She couldn't remember the last time someone had said they loved her and meant it - certainly her mother had never said it.
She didn't want to be like her, never able to admit that she cared for others. She knew she loved the Doctor - she even had the horrifically awkward memory of realization to prove it.
And yet, something held her back from saying the words back to him.
Still, she had to say something, and so, blushing horribly, she curled her fingers around his and met his gaze. "I did. Thank you," she said softly. "And I hope you know that... that you've been my best friend for almost as long as I've known you. And that I'll be there for you whenever you need me."
He smiled, seemingly unhurt by her inability to say it back. He started to speak, and then paused before seeming to come to a decision. "I know. And... I hope you won't think too poorly of me if I... take you up on that promise."
She shook her head immediately. "Of course not! If you don't judge me for ugly crying in front of you, how could I possibly judge you for doing the same?"
He shrugged. "You say that now... you haven't seen me ugly cry yet."
She shrugged back at him. "Can't be worse than me."
He raised his eyebrows with a smirk, but his expression quickly fell. Sighing, he shifted his position so that his arms rested across his legs as he stared at the distant mountains. Letting his eyes glaze over, he tried to speak several times, each time shaking his head and closing his mouth, swallowing hard. Lyssa remained silent, letting him work through what he wanted to say.
Finally, he spoke, voice distant and eyes determinedly not looking at her. "It was bad enough that I had to face him, the man I swore never to become again. But to see your loss shoved in my face all over again..." His hands clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles turned white. "And this all after I already feared you to be dead." His voice shook, growing more emotional as he worked to keep his face calm. "I've faced your loss far too many times already." His voice broke. "Wasn't once enough?"
Her heart ached for him as he struggled to keep from breaking down. Shifting until there was no space between them, she wrapped her arm around his shoulders in an attempt at support.
"I'm here," she promised him in a whisper, her own voice close to breaking.
He stiffened, eyes filling with tears as rapidly as he blinked them away. He swallowed hard, his hands spasming. He took several shaky breaths, trying to speak but failing each time. Finally he gave up, shaking his head and burying his face in his hands, his shoulders starting to shake.
"Oh, Doctor," Lyssa whispered, her heart breaking for him. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to comfort him. He turned in her arms, burying his face in her shoulder and wrapping his own arms around her. Her shirt quickly grew wet with his tears, but all she could focus on was trying to soothe his pain. She traced one hand over his back and kept the other cupped at his neck, much the same way as he had when she'd had her own breakdown.
Her legs quickly grew numb with the awkward positioning, but she refused to let go or even move until he was ready. His hold on her was desperate, bordering on too tight, but she just kept her own arms secure, trying to be strong for him the way he always was for her.
At last he seemed to calm, his breathing slowing and becoming more steady, and his arms slowly relaxing in their hold, slipping down until he drew a deep breath and sat back up. His eyes were red-rimmed and heavy, and tear tracks stained his face, but there was a peace in his eyes that she hadn't seen there earlier.
She smiled softly at him, reaching one hand up to brush his floppy hair out of his eyes. He caught her hand gently in his own before she could reach it, keeping his eyes fixed on hers as he kissed the back of it.
"Thank you," he said sincerely.
She tried to force down her raging blush, probably unsuccessfully. "Of course. I promised I would be there for you, didn't I?" she reminded him, trying to act nonchalant.
He saw right through her. "Doesn't mean that it means any less when you're there for me," he pointed out. "A lot of people promise things they don't always follow through on. I've been guilty of that myself. I've always kept my promises to you, and you've always kept your promises to me, to the best of our abilities, but the fact of the matter is, keeping your promises seems to have gone out of fashion."
She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Well then, I guess it's a good thing we both suck at fashion, huh?"
He glanced down at her with playfully narrowed eyes. "Bow ties are cool," he insisted stubbornly.
"Oh, absolutely," she agreed, peering up at him with wide, innocent eyes.
He raised an eyebrow skeptically, waiting for the punchline.
Well, she couldn't just leave him hanging now, could she?
"They're just not fashionable," she finished with a snicker, jerking away from him with a shriek when he gasped in outrage and poked a finger into her side.
"Excuse you, I look fabulous!" he insisted over her shrieks of laughter, following her when she tried to roll away and continuing to tickle her, his own laughter disrupting what he was trying to say.
She finally rolled to a stop near the edge of the water, red-faced and breathless from laughter. He leaned over her, green eyes bright with merriment.
"Well, you certainly look like something," she gasped, drawing deep breaths as she tried to regain some modicum of self-control. "I don't know if fabulous is the word I would use, but if it makes you feel better..."
He got a dangerous look in his eyes, and she suddenly paused, disconcerted. "Doctor? What are you planning? Doctor?" Her words grew increasingly shrill when he abruptly placed his hands at her side and gently pushed her.
Towards the water barely two feet away.
"No, no, no, Doctor, don't!" she shrieked just before she ended up in the water with a splash. She resurfaced immediately with a gasp, only to be met with the sight of the Eleventh Doctor nearly doubled over with laughter.
She splashed water at him, swiping her now-soaked bangs out of her eyes with a huff. "I hate you," she grumbled, making her way out of the waist-deep water towards the bank.
"No, you don't," he grinned easily, eyes bright.
She narrowed her eyes at him before coming to a decision. She splashed him one last time - which he dodged easily - before climbing back out onto dry land. She wouldn't let him escape that easily, however, and glomped him with a hug before he had the chance to escape, quickly soaking him.
He didn't even try to dodge it this time, returning the hug with a sort of desperate strength that belied his easy laughter.
Which she could understand. Underneath all their laughter and smiles and tears and forgiveness was a deep-seated fear of loss that the past few days had only exacerbated. It would take more than a few tears and heartfelt talks to make it better. But that was okay.
They had each other.
And with that in mind, she stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek before she could lose her nerve. When he looked at her in surprise, she blushed but met his gaze earnestly.
"I think you need to hear it today, too," she told him. "So I'm telling you now: I love you, you daft old man, even if you do make questionable fashion choices."
And really, that was all that needed to be said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: *Slinks sheepishly back into room*
Hey, guys. I know I said I had planned on coming back in May, but that obviously didn't pan out so well. D: I'm really sorry that it took so long, and that I was unable to post a warning about it either. I had several things come up that I had NOT expected, and long story short, I have only just now been able to finish this chapter and get it up.
I'm also gonna be honest with you and say that I had a family emergency come up early on that came out of nowhere and felt like a baseball bat to the gut. It quite honestly wasn't until just recently that I felt like I was ready to try and get back to writing again.
So with that being said, I do hope to get back to regularly writing now. For at least the time being, I'm planning on trying to post every other weekend as I try to get back to a normal schedule.
Also, I want to take the time to thank each and every one of my readers who kept reading and reviewing and voting, even when I hadn't been able to update for several months. Your encouraging comments and support really inspired me to come back to writing, and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to do so. And, as of this posting, this story has over 53,000 views and over 2,500 votes, which is AMAZING, and I'm so grateful to all of you! Thank you so much, it really does mean a lot to me!
And special thanks to Wattpad user AllOfTimeNSpace for her continuous support, understanding, and willingness to be my sounding board for ideas (good and otherwise). She has a really neat story called The Creator that you should check out, we'll be doing a crossover in the near future! You won't need to read it to understand what's going on, but if you're looking for a new read, I recommend that one!
And now onto the ACTUAL story notes... do y'all remember me promising you guys a love confession like, six months ago? Yeah, it's finally here! (Probably not quite the love confession you were looking for, but... no one specified what kind of love confession it would be...) ;D
This storyline should (finally) be wrapped up next chapter-ish, including some long-awaited answers and actual plot progression (I know, shocker, right?)
Thank you all SO much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! :)
General disclaimer: If I was the BBC, I'd probably be a lot more punctual about releasing new chapters... D: