Fixed in Time (Doctor Who Fanfiction)

Old Friend New Face

Before that year ended I applied for university again, this time to strive towards a doctorate. It was hard work, much harder than getting my Chemistry degree, because the study was intense and the training was more hands-on. But I was okay with that, seeing as a doctor has people's lives in their hands, and if doing that job allowed me to help people then I would go through any training to achieve that.

You see, on Gallifrey sickness was a rare thing, and, on the off chance that a time lord did contract a disease despite their strong immune system, they could be cured almost instantly. Gallifreyan technology and science had advanced so much that it was that good. This actually really angered me, not that the people of Gallifrey were well, but that - due to their non-interference policy - the time lords never in any way lifted a finger to help the sick and dying of other planets with lesser medicines and technology. It was just wrong, and it was one of the many things I had hated about living on Gallifrey; not being able to help those in need. So here, on Earth, I would take any opportunity I had to help.

I don't really know why I felt so strongly about these things, but I suppose I got it from my mother. She had joined the Celestial Intervention Agency, the only institution on Gallifrey that actively provided service to the world outside of the High Council of time lord's interest. They dealt in time disturbances, looked after the many planetary zones and stepped in when needed. My mum had become a part of that because of the way they helped others, and I thought the world of her for that. I suppose, in that respect, I was a lot like her. I didn't know what my dad was like though, but what did know was that my mother would never fall in love with a stuck-up, lazy, heartless jerky kind of guy; no, the man she would choose would have to be kind and brave, one of the best of the humans. Sadly, mum had never talked about my father much, probably because she didn't want to upset either of us with stories of a man who wasn't in our lives any more. I wished I'd known him, but unfortunately that was impossible...

Anyway, so as well as studying at medical college, I continued to work at the laboratory, looking into all sorts of things. In 1967 I'd put aside my work for the filtration system I'd devised, as the creation of a microbe which locked onto pathogens in the water was too complex an idea at the time. Instead I worked on a work-wide project with the team of scientists who occupied the same lab; a sterilization system that utilized electromagnetic radiation to purify water and other kinds of chemicals. We completed the entire project, which was, mind you, very complicated, by the end of that year and I managed to modify the system specifically for use in hospitals, because I'd recently been doing work experience for my medical degree and knew the conditions of such places would need a certain kind of sterilization that worked with their busy and disease-ridden environment. All the research and development that went into the whole thing was incredibly intricate and stressful, especially coupled with study at the medical college, but I soldiered on, determined not to give up. In the little spare time I had I continued to do volunteer work in the charity shops, which in hindsight was stupid but it helped me to focus. Because of all this I barely slept, and relied on coffee each morning just to stay on my feet.

One day, I was very lucky as I had no classes that day and I was finished at work by midday. I headed home for a few hours relaxing and grabbed lunch on the way. Soon I was walking down Totters Lane, past I. M. Foreman's junkyard, and up my front lawn.

Yawning, I opened the door and stepped in, depositing my bag and my keys on the side table I had placed there for exactly that purpose. Then I turned around to the shock discovery of three people I had never seen before sitting on my couch. Two of the people were fairly young, a boy and a girl both with floppy brown hair and fresh faces. The girl was petite, with an inquisitive, intelligent look to her, and the boy seemed good-natured with a sheepish smile as he glanced up at me. The other intruder was a seemingly middle-aged man with straight brown hair and a sunken face, who nonetheless had a twinkle in his eyes, which revealed much about how ancient he really was and his keen mind. Naturally, of course, that man was the Doctor.