Out of Time

Chapter Twenty Three

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

 

 

 It was the early hours of the morning in Victoria Square Birmingham; Tabby cat was stalking a mouse on the fountain wall. The prowling monsters that flew in the sky seemingly forgotten by the little feline but as the blue box suddenly materialised from out of nowhere Tabby went to run away again until a familiar face opened the creaking door. The cat nervously wandered over to the Doctor who upon seeing Tabby placed his hand on his hips and shook his head disapprovingly but then the Doctor was only teasing as he crouched down and stroked the cat and smiled, to show there were no hard feelings.

 “It’s okay my friend…They were very scary monsters but they’ve all gone now.” Tabby cat mumbled a meow of understanding and then trotted off into the dawn as the Doctor waved goodbye.

 Anna held Adam’s hand tightly as she led him outside, where his new life was waiting for him.  Anna wasn’t exactly surprised to discover that it wasn’t the same time she left but she had to ask. The Doctor and his TARDIS had been known to get the timing a little wrong in the past or was it the future…

 “What time is it…What day…No what year Doctor?”

 “Oh come on Bailey….” Anna raised an eyebrow and folded her arms. “Err hang on a sec.” The Doctor dashed backinside the TARDIS and then emerged looking frightfully pleased with himself. “You’ve only been gone a day…15th July, St Swithin’s day to be precise. Though I’ll always remember it as the day Anna Bailey and Adam Tallis, ancestor and descendant separated by three thousand years began their new life together and thus carried on the family line…This is where it begins. Everything starts here today. Ancestor and descendant…” The Doctor’s wide brow creased, a flicker of concern crept into his eyes. “Actually you might want to leave that part out when you tell people how you met.”

 “Really do you think Doctor…” Adam rolled his eyes and shook his head; though despite himself he was smiling. “And what about the rest of our story?!”

 “You have a point, online dating agency it is then.” The Doctor added decisively, stepping in between the young couple and then offering up a pearl of his infinite wisdom. “We are all linked across time…Though some of us…”

 “More inexplicably than others.” Anna interrupted, knowing what her friend was going to say but she simply tapped the side of her nose with a never you mind look when the Doctor glanced with mild surprise and then turning to Adam. “And I don’t want to waste another minute of our precious time together. Those three years had to be lived…” Anna smiled, aware of the irony that that they had a time machine and even though it would be a complicated thing to do, time could be rewritten but if the Doctor asked her, (though she was pretty certain he wouldn’t!) she knew she would say no. For Anna accepted those difficult years where she had unknowingly waited for Adam Tallis. It was meant to be. “It’s fine; those years are part of my life, the good and the bad experiences are what make us who we are. It only makes me appreciate what I have now…Look at the sacrifices Adam has had to make, leaving his family behind, his old life…” Anna held Adam’s hands and gazed sympathetically into his eyes, realising what he was giving up and how much he loved her. Though for the first time the future was clear and nothing was standing in their way.

 “And I’m going to make up every single day of those three years to you…We’re each other’s family now.” Adam Tallis wrapped his arms around Anna Bailey and kissed her with all his heart. Time was suspended and the world melted away. When Anna came to, she smiled at the embarrassment written on the nine hundred and something year old Time Lord’s face.