Fixed in Time (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Time Lord Academy... but not for the half-human

Chapter 2

The week before their initiation was to happen, Koschei and the Doctor were very busy with preparations so I ended up spending more time on my own than I could ever remember. Remember I was only seven, my mother was busy with work, my grandparents nowhere to be seen, and my two best friends off preparing for the life I was to be deprived of. So I wandered around the red fields of my town, occasionally catching a glance of the Citadel, thinking of the time my friends must be having. I wondered briefly if I'd be allowed to go into the city to see them prior to the initiation ceremony, but sadly realised that that was not likely.

I ran my hands through my bright red hair as I sat thinking up high on a mountain, trying to stop it from being blown in my face by the wind. I was watching the distant spherical glass dome that was the Citadel, enclosing the capitol city of Gallifrey. It was possibly the most important place on the whole planet. Quite apart from being a vast city, it held the High Council buildings, where the Lord President, the High Councillors, and Chancellery guard resided. All the important decisions were made there. The Time Lord Academy was also situated in the Citadel, as well as the CIA headquarters (though it was widely unknown where it was). Basically it was an important place, and you had to be important to go there. That obviously ruled me out.

I sighed. The week before at school, a boy in my class (the same one from before, incidentally) had been teasing me about having to be a farmer when I was older. I'd burst into tears at the thought and couldn't be consoled for a long time. You see, my future terrified me. How was I supposed to ever fit in amongst my people, be accepted, if I was half human? And even worse, how was I supposed to ever prove myself worthy of being a time lord if I wasn't even allowed to enter the Citadel? They may seem like big questions for a seven year old to be asking herself, but the truth is on Gallifrey our people were more advanced, half human or not.

My point of focus soon drifted away from the Citadel as I remembered a recent discussion I'd had with my mum on one rare night that she was home.

"Mother?" I asked, staring up at her with wide eyes.

"Yes, Susan?" she replied distractedly as she served our dinner for the night.

"Mum, I was wondering if...." I began, pulling my portion towards me across the table. "Well, if there's any chance at all that I'll ever be able to regenerate."

I had been worrying about it for a while, and so had decided that my mum would be the best person to ask. I was determined to know if there was even the slightest possibility of regeneration for me.

My mother sighed. "Susan, you shouldn't be worrying about that at such a young age."

"So you mean I can't?" Tears started to form in my eyes.

"Honey, you only have one heart." My mum replied gently, patting me on the arm. "That means your body just can't do it. Your father was the same, you know."

"I know mum." I said in distress. "But how am I supposed to live, knowing that my life will be over so quick?"

"That's the thing though, Susan. It won't be." she assured me.

"What?"

"You see, within one life cycle, a time lord will age significantly slower than a human would. When the average human is nearing death, a time lord won't even be a third of the way through their life. So you still have hundreds of years to live yet."

"Oh." I was quiet for a moment before another thought occurred to me. "But I'm half human so doesn-"

"Yes, I know you're half human." Mum interrupted. "But your time lord gene is dominant, and, although you won't regenerate, you will still live as long as a time lord can in one life."

I was jerked out of the memory as I realised the sun was slowly arching its way down behind the opposite mountains, and that I should be heading home. On the way I thought about the relief that had entered my system once I knew that I wasn't to die at some meagre age like eighty, but had a few hundred or so years ahead of me. I wondered if this was a bad thing, since all it really meant was that I'd have longer to be a farmer, or a merchant, or a secretary, or some other pointless job that would bore me to death.

To be honest, on that day, as I trudged sullenly back to my empty house with the wind whipping at my hair and cheeks, I could not see any hope at all.

Two days after the initiation of my fellow Gallifreyans and best friends, the Doctor and Koschei, had taken place I was sitting in my living room trying to read a book on temporal engineering that I'd stolen from my grandmother's house. Upon the realisation that I couldn't understand anything in it at all, I threw the book angrily at the wall and sat grumpily with my arms crossed until I heard a soft knock on the front door.

I stomped towards the door, expecting it to be my angry grandmother, but, once I'd flung it open, instead found myself looking at the surprised faces of the Doctor and Koschei.

"Susan!" they both exclaimed in unison, throwing their arms wide in greeting.

I greeted them in return with a delighted squeal as I converged on the both of them with a furious hug.

"Oh yay!" I exclaimed, pulling back and looking between them. "I missed you two so much."

"And we missed you." They chorused again.

"Stop, that's freaky."

"Alright." They said together, both smirking. I glared at them until they looked away in mock shame.

"So how was it?" I asked, after dragging them inside my house and seating them on chairs in front of me. "What was the time vortex like?"

The Doctor thought for a moment before replying. "It was amazing.... and terrifying."

"He ran away." Koschei interjected with a sly grin.

"You what?" I questioned the Doctor, who suddenly looked sheepish.

"Well, it was a bit much, really." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Once I'd seen it, I... I freaked out and I had to get away from there. Anyway, at least I wasn't going on about drums for the next ten hours." The Doctor shot an annoyed glance at Koschei.

The two continued bickering as I looked on, thinking of how I never wanted this reunion to end. Once we got over the whole initiation discussion, we just talked for a bit until inevitably the boys told me that they had to go.

"It's okay, we'll see you again soon." The Doctor assured me. "But you know we have to start at the Academy."

"I know." I mumbled, looking away.

"We'll miss you heaps, Susan." Koschei told me.

"Same here." I said, and they both hugged me, all of us sad that our trio was going to have to split once more.

Then they left, leaving me feeling more alone than ever.