Arcadia's Love (Book TWO)

Reflection

The Doctor:

My phone was constantly ringing, well, Sera's phone, and I was trying to ignore it but I couldn't any longer. "Rory, you are really not helping! She doesn't want to talk to anyone right now!"

"And the tone of your voice tells me that it includes you, which means you haven't found her yet." He sighed, and from the whispered hush of his voice told me he was keeping it down for Amy's sake. If she knew that he was talking to me, she would want to talk to Sera. And no one had done that in nearly 3 weeks. "Doctor, just say yes or no as to whether you have found her or not."

"No." I said eventually. "No, I haven't found her yet, Rory. There are too many places she could be and she knows this place better than anyone."

"Find the toy room."

That was a bit unexpected. "What do you mean, find the toy room?"

"Just, trust me. Find the toy room, the one with the photo of you and your old family and you'll know where to go from there." What did Rory know that I didn't? "I'm not asking for much when you find her, just a text to let me know that she's safe, OK?"

I couldn't promise anything there, but sure. "Thank you for the tip, Rory. Enjoy your life." Then I hung up, leaning heavily against the console, staring at the scanner. No life signs anywhere other than in here. But then again, I thought I'd deleted that room, so if Sera was hiding somewhere in there, then maybe she'd found a way to stop even the TARDIS finding her.

Wandering that way, I found the door it was, plain white with pink and blue flowers over it and then sighed, pushing the door open. I wasn't looking forward to the ghosts in here, but I knew that Sera would be a ghost to me if I just left her in here.

"Sera? Seraphina, dear are you in here?" I asked softly, walking inside, the lights flickering on around me. "Please, 3 weeks. I've been looking for you for 3 weeks, Sera, and I haven't slept at all."

There was no reply, but Rory said it would make sense when I got in here, so I kept looking, hoping to whatever higher power was out there that she was safe and alright. "Sera? Please, love, please...."

I sat down on the floor, looking at all the toys scattered around me, thinking of when my children would play with them. I missed that, having children running around the TARDIS, getting sticky fingers everywhere, drawing on the walls, just being a general nuisance. But I also knew that Sera would never even risk going through that again, not after Melody. I couldn't blame her, that had destroyed me as well.

Laying back, I focused on the back wall, losing myself in a day dream for a while, just thinking about how different this could all be if we had gotten to raise our Melody, if she had never been taken by Kovarian.

And then I saw what Rory meant.

There was a door on the back wall, so, so small that only Sera would comfortably be able to fit through it, possibly Amy. Crawling on my hands and knees, I made for it, my hearts thudding so hard in my chest at the idea that my wife could be in there, afraid and alone of what she could do if she was near people.

I didn't care if she hurt me, she'd done it before and never on purpose, so I would do what I always did and just hold her, waiting until she ran out of steam. Keeping quiet as I opened the door, I moved through, finding a small tunnel leading up into a room. It was a big squeeze, but eventually I made it through, still silent as I looked around the dull padded room, with claw marks and slashes through the material, as well as blood streaks, the most vibrant thing in the entire room.

And there she was.

She was huddled facing away from me, but the steady rise and fall of her chest told me that she was still alive, even after 3 weeks of no food or water. Well, she could have this entire room set up as life support. "Leave."