Her Second Chance (a Doctor Who fanfiction)

Chapter 10

After flipping through other photos, I see Cassathia’s past incarnations, never failing to surprise me. She was always beautiful. She was even ginger in one of the incarnations, which suited her. Why can’t I be ginger?

I close the albums, placing them all back in order and lifting the box back onto a shelf. I feel the TARDIS begin to move, less violently than mine, but shaky all the same. I jog back into the console room, where I see Cassathia fiddling half heartedly with the buttons on the console. Her eyes flicker to my grinning face, face turning into a mask of utter shock. Her flight forgotten, she slowly makes her way across the floor, bare feet padding against the glass floor. Her hand reaches for my face, touching my cheek. Pulling her hand away, she does the one thing I least expected.

She slaps me.

*****

The sound ricochets around the room, my hand leaving a mark on his right cheek. He turns to face me, his face covered in surprise.

“What was that for?” he asks, his voice high pitched, his eyes wide. I glare at him, tears coming to my eyes.

“Three week!” I shout, my face flushed. “Three weeks you left me, without saying a word. A word! Not even a note, or a sign. I’ve been here for three weeks! Three weeks,” my voice cracks on the last word, tears rolling down my face. I blink quickly, wiping my cheeks to rid the tears. The Doctor’s face turns into one of pain, an apologetic gleam in his eyes.

“I’m so… sorry,” he whispers, his voice shaking. “The TARDIS, I tried landing in yours but she landed in the wrong time. I swear, it had only been five minutes from when I left here to when I landed in here,” he says quietly. “Well, actually it’s been about 3 hours,” he says under his breath. My eyes dart up to his face, my face surely showing how puzzled I am at the moment.

“What have you been doing for 3 hours,” I whisper when I see the surprise written on his face, getting a feeling it wasn’t good.

“I went exploring,” he said, keeping it simple. I, however, wasn’t fulfilled with his vague answer.

“Exploring how? What did you find?” I ask, scared as to what he may have found in the vast world of my TARDIS.

“Photo albums,” he replies, his voice gaining a little confidence. I, however, lose my voice completely. The only photos I have are the ones of my life before the Time War, before my current regeneration. The photos of my and my friends and family, and my brother. “How can I not have met you before?” he asks me. “He was my best friend.”

“My brother had many secrets,” I tell him. “He never liked me. In fact, he despised me, always keeping me hidden. No one knew I was his sister,” I say, spitting the last word. The Doctor looks like he wants to say something, but I keep going before he can say anything. “It was awful. I knew who it was, my soulmate, and I couldn’t do anything about it because it was one of his best friends. He made me promise to never speak to any of his friends when he was there, and never, ever, to tell them anything about it,” I finish, sighing.

“Do you know who your soulmate is or what his name was?” he asks after a few minutes, hope shining in his eyes. I shake my head.

“I never heard any of their names or anything like that. The last time I saw him, he was talking to my brother about something, I couldn’t hear them,” I tell him, recalling the dream I had during the first few days of travelling in the Doctor’s TARDIS.

“What did he look like?” he edged on. Frowning, I put together a mental image of the guy.

“He had… a brown suit, sometimes a blue one, and converse. Converse and a trench coat, and great hair,” I say, picturing his hair. “Some really, really great hair,” I giggle slightly. Did I just giggle?

*****

I listened to her description of her mate, my heart thumping. How had I not noticed her? True, the Master had never said anything about a sibling, nor had I ever met his parents, but I should have noticed my soulmate was living in the same house as my best friend! Cassathia noticed me staring and frowns, creases appearing between her eyes and on her forehead.

“What? Is there something on my face?” she asks, turning to the console to find some sort of reflective surface. I laugh.

“No, no, your face is fine, it’s just that the bloke you were describing, it’s-” I am unable to finish my sentence as a loud, ear piercing siren echos around the console room. Cassathia’s eyes widen, quickly turning to the scanner.

“Teleport detected,” she says, eyeing the screen. I run around her console to see what part of the TARDIS had been breached.

“No, no, no, no, no!” I say, sprinting out of the room, determined to get to the chameleon ark.

“Doctor!” I hear Cassathia from behind me, panting while trying to keep up. I reach the pine door, pushing it open to reveal and empty room.

My TARDIS is gone.