To Be a Time Lord

Chapter 26 - Closing Time

Closing Time -

Over the next few days, Amy realised more than ever how disconnected she and her daughter really were. Tabetha Pond wasn't just a child she lost and got back when she had already grown up. No, Tabetha Pond was actually an alien who didn't have any actual human needs whatsoever.

She was over a thousand years old and had memories far beyond her parents' wildest imaginations. A life lived that far outshone any of their expectations. Tabetha had had a whole life with the Doctor. A family with him that they knew they'd never meet because they were long gone.

And ever since she'd arrived in her room it's been showing. The realisation that that entire life only she and the Doctor shared was very much attached to the bow-tie-wearing dork came the night after she had explored the house with them. They'd taken their champagne glasses and drunk up in the garden before touring the house together.

Her room reminded her of the room she'd had as a child on Gallifrey, it was just suited to look human. The walls were a cream-colour, just like the bedsheets and the chair that stood by the desk. The hardwood floor and furniture were a polished mahogany and there were dark red details, like the black-out-curtains and the small fluffy rug next to the queen-sized bed that stood in a corner.

There weren't a lot of things in the room itself. She had unpacked her bag so the medium-size cupboard next to her bed was filled with clothes and the shelf by the desk was half full with her favourite books. The walls were cluttered with pictures of her loved ones and posters of places humans wouldn't believe to be real.

Amy and Rory hadn't seen their daughter since the night they arrived. They'd gone to bed that night, at the same time as the Oracle, but they didn't see her in the morning. As they both had to go out that day they just assumed she was sleeping in and left for the day. When they came back though, the Time Lord-human was still in her room.

She knew she'd never see the Doctor again. The next time he'd see her, she'd be a blonde woman with an Irish accent in the astronaut's suit that would kill him. The next time she'd see him, he might be much younger because she went against the rules and used her vortex manipulator to spy on an earlier version of him one last time, or he'd just be in a picture.

Either way, her Doctor, the Doctor from her time was dead at her hands and so was every topic in the universe she'd only been able to talk to him about. Memories of her past with him, of her dead children, of their home planet, and that wasn't even the worst part. No, the Oracle was very aware that the past was the past and she avoided talking about it altogether.

The worst part was that she didn't see a future without him. All her life the only certainty had been his hand in hers. The fact that, no matter how bad it was, he'd always be there to catch her, to be her constant. What was discovering beautiful new places without looking into his eyes, filled with childlike wonder and giving him the biggest grin? What was saving civilisations without his grand plan to do so?

When he found out she'd be the woman who kills him, he comforted her. She fell apart and his arms were there to catch her. Whose arms would do that now?

To Amy this situation was strange. Tabetha didn't leave her room at all. She didn't eat, she didn't drink, she didn't even use the bathroom. Taking all that into account, Amy was sure she didn't really sleep either. Of course, she wasn't human. She didn't need all that but she used to do it. Just because.

She used to sit with her in the Tardis kitchen and cook and eat with her. Around the same amount she did, too. She used to have a bottle of water in her inside pocket and she had seen her drink from it. Hell, she drank champagne with them the day they arrived.