Adventures in Time and Space (TARDIS Family Adventures: Part 2)

9: Ripped Apart

*I mentioned we were moving forward in time to this story. In this chapter we find out how long it's been since our Time Lord Family had their marriage ceremonies.*

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The Doctor gasped in pain as he dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap with his head in his hands. "She's gone, she's gone, she's gone," he repeated to himself through gritted teeth. Jacob and Donna knelt down, each on one side of him, and held him as they wept with him. His mind felt as if a part of it had been ripped away as his bond with Scarlett was suddenly gone.

As Donna watched him clutch his head she could only imagine what he was feeling. She had her own bond with Jacob, but even she knew there was something particularly strong about the bond that the Doctor and Scarlett had, them both being so strong in their telepathic abilities had made their link even more powerful than her own with her Time Lord husband. She whispered, "But—does this mean? Is she?"

The Doctor didn't reply. His whole body shuddered in pain and misery. The last time he had felt pain this deep was at the loss of his people.

"Not necessarily," Jacob replied quietly. "If—If the section of the ship she was on survived the fall through the vortex, there's no telling where in time and space she landed. It could be that she's so far away physically and in time that it's too far for their bond to withstand." They sat quietly for a few moments, holding their grieving brother and best friend. "C'mon, we've got to get him to the TARDIS. He's in shock and the only thing to help him is the Old Girl. Doctor, we're going to help you up and we'll take as much of your weight as we can, but I need you to not resist. Just help as much as you can. We're going to get you back to the TARDIS and you can rest."

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*Somewhere else in time and space-a long way away and a long time in the future*

Scarlett was curled up in a ball on the floor of the ship. The pain in her head was quite literally almost unbearable. She felt herself fading in and out of consciousness. One minute the dead ship was spinning out of control through the vortex, then a huge jerk as it fell out of the vortex and that was when she collapsed under the pain of the quick and unexpected severance of her bond with the Doctor. She could tell she was slipping into shock as her body quaked, her hearts pounded, and sweat and tears both fell down her face and drenched her clothing. She squeezed her eyes shut, curled herself further into the fetal position, and began trying to control her breathing. She used every ounce of training she had ever had in meditation to focus on her breathing and ignore the rumbling of the ship around her as it hurtled through who knows what space in who knows what time.

She and her Time Lord family had discussed the fact that something like this could happen. Being separated by such great distance in time or space could be problematic, potentially even fatal. But there were no tests to determine how far in time or space one could be before negative impacts could occur, such as total bond separation. And no amount of theoretical discussion or preparation could prepare one for the mental pain she was now experiencing. And that amount of mental pain had its own physical ramifications, such as loss of consciousness, shock, severe headache, nausea, and vertigo.

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As Donna and Jacob dragged the Doctor towards the TARDIS in the corridor they had hidden her in, they were thankful for their perception filters that allowed them to hide in plain sight from the chaos of the crew running around them. By the time they made it to the ship, the Doctor was unconscious, and they were carrying him. As soon as they entered they could tell the ship was just as unhappy as the rest of them. Jacob took over and picked the Doctor up fully and carried him to the med bay, laying him gently onto one of the beds. As soon as he stepped back the screen above the head of his bed lit up with scan results that showed what would have appeared to be brain damage to a non-Time Lord, and in a manner of speaking, that was exactly what it was.

"What can we do?" Donna croaked out as she collapsed into a chair next to her best friend.

"Nothing. We need to let him rest. His connection with the Old Girl will help him heal a bit. For now, let's take a moment," Jacob said as he pulled up a chair next to his wife and put his hand on top of hers that had rested on top of the Doctor's.

Together, they wept. They wept for their friend who was somewhere out there in the universe alone, hoping she was alive. They wept for the Doctor. Jacob's brother. Donna's best friend. He lay before them a broken man, having lost the woman who had been his bond mate now for over ten years.

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Suddenly, an arm extended from the curled-up body that lay on the floor of the dead ship section. It grasped at the floor and pulled the rest of the body up out of the fetal position and onto hands and knees. Scarlett's face turned up to the ceiling as she took another deep breath. "I have to live," she stated simply, to no one, as no one was there to hear her. It was the only thing she knew for sure. She had to live.

A quick look around and she found a computer screen on the wall and crawled towards it. She was thankful the detached ship section still maintained artificial gravity, but had to stay low to the ground until necessary as the ship wasn't providing a very balanced surface as it hurtled through space, jolting around at unexpected times. Once she made it to the floor below the screen, she finally pulled herself up and looked at the readouts. She tapped at several screen icons, trying to make sense of the alien language on the screen. "Grrr!" she growled. "The TARDIS translation circuits don't reach this far either. Oh--" she stopped. It didn't take any knowledge of the alien language to understand the graphic that appeared on the screen. A very clear representation of the ship section was approaching a big round object: a planet. "Well, this is going to get interesting."

At that moment, the ship started shaking and jolting around even more as it began to enter the planet's atmosphere. There was nowhere to grab hold of, nowhere to strap in, nowhere to hide or protect herself. So once again, Scarlett got onto the floor and curled up into a ball, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths as she waited for the inevitable collision. "I have to live."

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Donna awoke with a start as the Doctor jolted up in to a sitting position on the medical bed. "I have to live!" he exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Damn right you do, Spaceman!" Donna replied as she quickly stood and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. "My God, you scared me."

"Where are we?" the Doctor asked, not quite acknowledging Donna's concern.

"On the TARDIS," Donna answered in concern. The Doctor turned and raised his eyebrow at her. "Oh—in the vortex. Jacob got us off the ship and into the vortex ourselves after downloading all the data he could from the ship databanks. He's in the control room analyzing the data to see if he can pinpoint at exactly what moment the tail section left the vortex and perhaps determine where she ended up." Donna felt the Doctor visibly tense at the word 'she.'

The Doctor pulled out of her arms and shifted off the bed into a standing position. He was obviously still shaky and fighting to maintain balance.

"Shouldn't you be resting? You've had a shock, Doctor," Donna called after him as he started to walk towards the exit of the medbay.

"Nope." It was all he said for a few moments but as he approached the door he continued, "I should—I should help Jacob."

"We'll find her, won't we Doctor?" Donna called out again before he made it out the door that had slid open for him.

He stopped and turned back and she almost gasped at the look in his eyes. It was a terrifying mix of total desperation and determination. She would almost describe it as the look of...a madman. "If it takes a million years. If it's the last thing I do. I will find my wife." Without another word he turned and walked out, leaving Donna staring after him.

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