Red ⋆ Doctor Who

Chapter Seventy-six

Egypt, 1334 B.C.

Admittedly, meeting Queen Nefertiti was probably not the best idea the Doctor has ever come up with... although he has saved the ancient Egyptians from an alien plague of locusts that threatened to wipe out the entire human race, so maybe it was a good thing. He just didn't realise she'd be so enthralled by him. He can't blame her, really. He is a catch, but he has already been caught and is very much spoken for.

Cherry, who is much better after her bout of illness, doesn't seem too pleased watching the Egyptian Queen flirt with her husband. He squirms under the monarch's seductive gaze, and Cherry slips her hand into his, turning his attention off of the Egyptian ruler and onto her. He seems less uncomfortable now, clutching onto his wife and meeting her eye.

"We should go," Cherry suggests quietly, eyes flickering over to Nefertiti. Cherry actually quite likes Nefertiti. She thinks she's one hell of a ruler, and, other than shamelessly flirting with Cherry's husband in front of her, she's been quite pleasant to spend time with. Even if that time was spent fighting horrifying, alien grasshoppers. She's a step up from the hunter they met on their trip to the African Plains in 1902, who insisted they join him and two dancers in his tent. That was an offer the Doctor swiftly declined and after that cut their tour of Africa short, retreating to the Tardis and promising Cherry Egypt would be much more fun. It was, for the most part.

Cherry isn't even jealous of Nefertiti. She has full confidence that the Doctor only has eyes for her, and no Egyptian Queen will change that anytime soon, no matter how brilliant she is. But, it is a little grating. She just finds it rude how often people try their luck with him, ignoring the wedding band on his finger or the way he uncomfortably tries to stop them, and sometimes even ignoring her presence entirely. She gets it though... if she met the Doctor while he was married she isn't sure what she would have done. She couldn't not flirt with him. It comes naturally to her. She often thinks the Doctor was made for her, and she knows it's not true, but he just compliments her personality so well. They fit together like puzzle pieces or a pair of cherries, and even though she lived without him for twenty-two years, Cherry doesn't think she could ever cope if she lost him now.

Her good friend Vincent had been right. He is definitely her soulmate. She sometimes wonders if the Doctor's soul is bound to hers in the same way. It must be difficult for a Time Lord to think about soulmates. They live for such a long time, moving on from one body to the next for centuries, potentially thousands or billions of years. She knows that his feelings towards her would not change if he regenerated, of course, but he will surely outlive her, even with her prolonged lifespan. She can die, and he will just change. If he truly thought she was his soulmate, losing her would be utterly soul crushing for him. The loss of his life.

That thought has been plaguing Cherry's mind for quite a long time now. Ever since the Tardis revealed, her death is a fixed point in time. She feels guilty. Guilty that she will be leaving him. Guilty that he is going to suffer in her absence. Guilty that she pushed for a relationship when he was so adamant it would end badly. There was a moment where both of them thought the end of the relationship would be his death, not hers, as they originally both assumed it would be. That he would die on Lake Silencio and Cherry would never see him again. Those were some of the worst days of Cherry's life, and there's a long list of those to choose from. And now the Doctor will surely face the same days when she inevitably loses her life, and if she hadn't pursued him so much, he wouldn't have to face such a devastating loss.