Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 14 - The Healing Passage of Time

They stayed at the reception for another half hour, the Doctor taking Lyssa back out onto the dance floor for another dance, before they both looked at the newly married couple completely absorbed in each other and decided without speaking that it was time to step out for the night. Lyssa couldn't help but smile as she looked back and saw Rory pull Amy in for another kiss.

"They deserve each other," she whispered to the Doctor as they stepped outside into the cool night air, arm in arm.

He nodded, a soft smile appearing on his face. "More than you know."

Lyssa glanced up at the sky as they walked towards the TARDIS, enjoying the breeze on her face and watching the bright stars as they twinkled far above them. "Looks like all the stars have made it back," she commented with a smile.

The Doctor looked up and chuckled, pulling out his TARDIS key. "There might even be an extra star or two out there. Pond always was a dreamer."

Lyssa turned to him in confusion, then glanced back up at the night sky, as if she might recognize a star where there had been none before. "Wait. There's... more stars now? How is that possible?"

He stopped and looked down at her, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "She was able to bring both of us, her parents, and all the stars that ever were back into existence simply because she remembered us, and you question the appearance of a new star?"

She snorted. "Well, when you put it that way, I guess it's not that out there. But in my defense, none of this would have been possible less than two weeks ago. Let me complain about this one thing that still doesn't make sense," she jokingly protested.

"Does anything ever really make sense when he's around?" River spoke up just as the Doctor was about to put the key in the door. They both spun around to see the older woman step out of the shadows, looking as elegant as ever in a black dress, curls framing her face.

"River!" Lyssa cried happily, releasing the Doctor to grab the older woman in a hug. River laughed, returning the hug before returning her to the Doctor, who seemed to be quite happy to get her back, slinging his arm around her shoulders.

"To answer your previous question, how about you tell me?" Lyssa countered. "You both apparently know what's going on a lot better than I do right now, so...?" She eyed them both curiously, not expecting anything more than a teasing comment about spoilers in response.

Instead, River smirked, her eyes dancing. "I think lots of things start to make sense after a while... If you know what you're doing. The Doctor, unfortunately, rarely does. He claims it's on purpose to make things more fun, of course." 

"It's too boring otherwise," he confirmed with a disdainful sniff.

River just raised a skeptical eyebrow. "We don't doubt that it's fun, Doctor. Just that it's on purpose," she teased.

He scoffed. "Don't listen to her Lyssa, she's just jealous because she's bored." He paused, wrinkling his nose. "Though I suppose you wouldn't be River if you weren't prepared somehow, so..." He dug into his pocket and pulled out River's old, worn journal, holding it out to her. "The writing's all back, but I didn't peek," he promised.

She took it with a grateful smile, slipping it into her bag. "Thank you."

"Hold on," Lyssa objected, suddenly remembering something. "Wasn't that one of Rory and Amy's wedding presents? Did you nick that off the gift table? Also, how do you know that the writing's back, if you didn't peek?" She eyed him. "Doctor, have you been cheating?" she asked teasingly.

He looked offended. "I have not," he defended himself. "I don't like reading ahead, it gives away all the good bits," he wrinkled his nose. "I just flipped it open - from a distance!" he added, as if that was a proper defense, "To see if it was blank or not. I didn't think so, everything should have gone back to normal, but it was only proper to check. The pages were filled, so I took it - no need for humans to have access to those sorts of secrets ahead of time." He grimaced.