Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 106 -Human Nature, Part 2

They stood there in silence for a moment, him smiling down at her and her trying desperately not to melt into a puddle on the ground, hopelessly trapped by his gaze. A light breeze swept by, swirling her skirts about her ankles and making her shiver lightly as goosebumps rose beneath the heavy fabrics.

John's face darkened in concern. "Are you all right, Lyssa? I apologize; we're standing out here in the open, with no protection from the weather. I should have thought this through," he fretted. "Would you like my coat?" he offered, already starting to shrug the fabric from his arms.

"Do- John, I'm fine," Lyssa hastened to say with a gentle smile, resting a hand on his arm to keep him from going any further. "I'm perfectly warm with the coat I have, the breeze just momentarily chilled me. I certainly don't need two. Why don't we keep going?" She tilted her head at the dirt road. "The exercise will warm us both, and it will make Martha happy."

"Are you sure?" he frowned, reluctantly tugging his coat back into place.

"That it will make Martha happy?" she deliberately misunderstood him. "I am as certain as can be," she teased. He cast her a milder version of the look the Doctor usually gave her in such circumstances and she softened, even as her heart gave a pang. "John, really. I'll be fine, I promise," she tried again.

"Very well," he reluctantly acquiesced. "If you're certain."

She nodded, suppressing a sigh and longing for the day when the Doctor would be back and could just scan her with the sonic, declare her to be fine, and move on.

Of course, one of the key parts of having a backstory was not contradicting it at every turn, which meant that she had to play along, no matter how disgruntled it made her.

Finally appearing to believe her, John tucked her arm securely in his and they set off once more down the road at a light pace. Unfortunately, no longer distracted by his worry for her, his mind quickly returned to the previous topic of conversation.

"Really, now that I think about it, most of my happy memories revolve around you," he mused.

She was about to brush him off like she would have on a normal day, then paused, reluctantly realizing that she should probably play her part. "I... I feel much the same," she admitted shyly, looking away. "I was... content before, but I feel that I only truly began living after I met you." She trod carefully, still not entirely sure how much of her past he remembered, and therefore how much of it had changed.

His free hand came up to rest on hers, still tucked into his arm, squeezing it comfortingly. "I know things weren't always the best between your mother and you," he said gently. "I wish things had ended better."

She glanced away, the mention of her mother still a sore spot even after several years. "Yeah. Me too." The phrase was probably a bit too modern, but whatever. "But you helped me," she hurried to move on, sending him a weak but genuine smile. "And I shall forever be grateful for that."

He shook his head. "As glad as I am to have aided you, the debt I owe you is all the greater, and can never be repaid." His gaze, fixed somewhere in the distance, darkened. "After what happened to my home... I was lost. I tried so hard to escape it, to forget what lay behind me. I felt like I was stumbling blindly through the dark." He turned to her then, expression softening to something so warm and affectionate it made her heart skip a beat.

"And then I met you. Stepping through that archway in that beautiful gown." One hand came up to stroke her cheek, touch infinitely tender despite the rough wool of the glove. "Fireflies lighting up around you and giving you the glow of some ethereal being, like a fairy-tale maiden of old." His eyes met hers, warm brown gaze trapping her and keeping her from looking away. "And I felt like I could see again. Like I could do more than just survive, I could live."