Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 121 - Day of the Doctor, Round 1: Part 2

Lyssa faltered, glancing at Eleven. His jaw was clenched tight, eyes filled with distant - but still remembered - pain.

"Uh... right," she turned back to the War Doctor uncertainly. Normally she'd crack a joke, except... she'd been getting hints for a while that she'd died - or at least that the Doctor believed she'd died - in the Time War. Whether or not she actually had, he was clearly hurting. She couldn't make light of that.

She couldn't give him false hope, either, she realized, heart sinking in her chest. No telling him everything would be all right, that she was clearly fine. Not when to him, she wasn't.

"I guess that answers the question of if you know me or not," she said, forcing a smile as Eleven stood tensely beside her. "I'm afraid I'm a bit early, though, Doctor. Sorry." She gave him a smaller, more genuine smile, lifting her necklace to display the two charms on it. "I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to get more than this."

"What - is that Circular Gallifreyan? Where did you get that necklace?" Ten sputtered, eyes fixed on her necklace before darting up to study her face intently. "I don't - you're human! How do you -"

The War Doctor, whose face had fallen with her explanation, turned to him in a mix of disgust and horror. "Is that what I become? Someone who forgets? How could you forget her?" He took a protective step towards Lyssa in an ironic reversal of Ten doing the same moments earlier.

"Ah, right, there's something you should know before you go giving him a well-deserved telling off," Eleven broke in, ignoring Ten's indignant glare. "He's not actually us. He's us from a different universe, one where he never met Lyssa. And he's in between me and you, actually. Trust me." He glanced at Lyssa with a soft smile, taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. "Could never forget her."

"Well, that's better, I suppose," the War Doctor huffed, relaxing... but still looking less than pleased with Ten.

Ten threw his hands up in the air. "What is it, 'Pick On Me' day? What's so off about me?"

"Nothing, you just have really bad self-esteem issues," Lyssa informed him easily. "You should really stop picking on yourself."

He stared at her. "It's not like I can control-" he realized what he was about to say and muttered the rest with a sigh as Lyssa bit back a snicker, "myself."

"It's been so long, I don't..." the War Doctor trailed off, watching her with pain in his eyes. "Where have you been? I suppose... I am too early to know most of your adventures."

She gave him a small smile. "Ironically enough, I just met your seventh and eighth selves. Very briefly, I must say, I spent most of my time there curled up in a hospital chair - which is murder on the back, by the way," she grimaced, rubbing at a particularly persistent ache in her lower back. "The day you regenerated, though I missed that bit."

Ten stared at her, confusion warring with suspicion in his eyes. "What? How did you -"

"I remember that," the War Doctor cut him off, eyes lighting up, just a little. "The first time I could truly remember you. Left me very intrigued." His lips turned up slightly at the corners. "I tried to follow you, but when I reached the trees, you were gone - vanished without a trace," he admitted. "And the TARDIS was no help at all."

Lyssa laughed. "I'm not surprised. She probably counted that as a spoiler."

"I don't - is this a River Song situation?" Ten asked, looking between the two of them with complete confusion.

"Pretty much, yeah," Lyssa agreed at the same time Eleven shook his head.

"Not in the slightest. Completely different"