belle, doctor who

thirty-five

Belle sighed in relief when she saw that he was his normal self. Belle looks over at Ave who gives a half-smile.

"There now," says the Doctor. He blows on the jar he had touched while regenerating.

"Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as I was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to. Why would I? Look at me. So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand. Remember? Christmas Day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight? That's my hand. What do you think?"

Belle hesitates, but she's still happy he's still his normal self.

"You're still you?" Rose asks. The Doctor nods.

"I'm still me," he says, and the two hug. Belle watches the Doctor look at her, but then she looks away. Jack, Ave, and Donna hug. Rose pulls away from the Doctor and he goes over to Belle and puts his hands on her cheeks. He smiles.

"Hi," he says.

"Hi," she says, a single tear going down her cheek. He brushes the tear off and he goes to kiss her. She kisses back, feeling butterflies in her stomach. She blushes because everyone's watching them. They pull away and she has her forehead on his. She closes her eyes as they hug, trying to ignore the intense staring from Ross Tyler.

"Who's she?" Rose says as Belle opens her eyes.

"Isabelle Dunne," Belle reaches a hand out for Rose to shake. Rose doesn't shake it.

"This is Belle — Isabelle Dunne, my partner or-or- girlfriend. Belle, this is Rose Tyler. My friend who was supposed to be in another universe," the Doctor finally introduces her. Belle's hearts warm at the sound of her being called his 'girlfriend.' Who would've thought?

"I'm Ave by the way. Spelled "A-V-E"," Ave says, but doesn't reach her hand out to shake hers because of the interaction between her and her mother.

"How are you a time lady, exactly?" Rose says, jealousy showing as the Doctor grabs Belle's waist to bring her in closer.

"It's complicated," Belle says. "I kind of... don't want to talk about it."

"Well I'm happy for ya Doc," Jack slaps the Doctor's shoulder twice. "Finally got yourself a nice woman."

The Doctor gives a small smile. He then faces Belle. "I don't want you to be here," he tells her. "It's too dangerous. That's why I didn't collect you. Why I never reached out to you while you waited for me to come."

"But that's not... I didn't know what was going to happen now, did I?"

"That's not the point," the Doctor says. "I don't want you and our daughter in danger."

The three who are watching them interact have their eyes widen. Ave cringes.

"Dad, now you've ruined it," she says, revealing that he was calling her their daughter.

"You believe she's our daughter then?" Belle asks. The Doctor doesn't shake his head or nod.

"If she is our daughter," he says, "then I want to keep her safe."

"Daughter, eh? When did this happen?" Jack says. The Doctor glares at him.

"Stop it," he says.

"This— this is your daughter? That's not possible. She's —"

"I definitely believe that," Donna says, giving Ave another hug. "Though I can't believe it at the same time! I knew something was up with the Doctor when the two of you left. He wouldn't talk about anythin', Belle."

"Is that so?" She looks at him, ruffling his hair. He rolls his eyes playfully and gets out his sonic. He grabs Ave's hand and gets the vortex manipulator. The sonic whirs and Jack's eyebrows raise.

"A vortex manipulator. So that's how she's your daughter," Jack states. Belle nods.

"Time travel. I see you have one too," Belle points out. Jack nods.

"The Doctor has disabled it quite a few times," says Jack, rolling his eyes.

"Ave, you know what to do," the Doctor says. He pushes Ave's arm away from Belle's before he goes to kiss her again. She kisses him back, but once she pulls away she only has a second to look him in the eyes before being teleported to the future.

•••

Belle is inside the TARDIS again, but this time it's different. It isn't the same TARDIS she recognized from just coming. She looks up to see Amelia Pond staring daggers at her, tapping her foot as Ave goes to find the Doctor.

"Allie, is it?" Belle asked, trying to remember the girl's name. "Ah! It's Amelia. Amy, you go by, right? Sorry. I haven't seen you in a long time..."

"Who are you?" Amy asks her, crossing her arms. She hears footsteps running in from the TARDIS's hallway. Belle gets up as she sees the Doctor in his eleventh form. This Doctor had some explaining to do.

Belle could tell that his hearts sank seeing the sight of Belle in her second regeneration. He runs up to her and gives her a giant hug. "Oh Belle. My Belle..."

"Doctor, what's going on? Why are you saying this woman's Belle — Izzy?"

"Because she is," the Doctor faces Belle around.

"She's American though," Amelia says. "And the Izzy I know isn't a brunette. Izzy's blonde."

"She regenerated. She's a time lady," the Doctor explains to Amy. "She may not be the Belle you knew, but she's still the Belle at heart. Just like she came from another regeneration of mine. Right, honey?"

Belle crosses her arms. "I'm not happy about that," her voice cracks. "Will I ever see your other regeneration again?"

He doesn't answer. He kicks the floor with his foot before heading over to the console.

"Doctor?" Belle asks again. Amy watches them.

He looks away sadly. "No."

Belle tears up. "No. Don't say that. No — and you sent Ave away. Our — you know," she says as she sees Amy look away. "When will we see her again?"

"I don't know," he says. That's all Belle needed to hear before she started crying some more. Amy goes up to her even though she didn't really believe this was Belle. All Belle felt was Amy's hug when she covered her eyes as she cried and cried. She wanted to go home now, but she only just got the Doctor back. Maybe one more adventure would take her mind off of this.

Sooner or later she will realize that Donna wasn't there with them. Again.

━━━━━━━━━━

So. That happened...

GOODBYE TEN 😭 WE WILL MISS YOU!!! 😭

I apologize once more for the pain I put you through.

This next episode contains Vincent and the Doctor! I am not doing Hungry Earth/Cold Blood. I didn't like that two parter, but I am excited to write the rest of season 5!

BRB tho— crying that I finally finished tens era. Eleven will be fun to write but it isn't the same😭

Any thoughts or comments on tens era?

Thanks for reading!

<3 Liv