Lost In Time: A Doctor Who Fanfiction

Chapter 85 - Time's a Changin

The Doctor stared at the place where the screen had just disappeared a moment longer before turning to Lyssa and hesitantly asking, "And just... what does this look like, exactly?"

She opened her mouth to offer some excuse then faltered, nothing believable coming to mind. "Uh... Actually I don't know. What does it look like to you?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Like you're hiding something from me, and it has something to do with the bracelet on your wrist that you're also trying to hide from me."

Her shoulders sagged and she looked away guiltily, letting her hand fall away from her wrist. "Yeah, okay, it's exactly what it looks like."

He chuckled, stepping further into the room. "I'm assumin' it's a spoiler?"

She nodded sheepishly. "Yeah... Sorry. Future stuff. Very far future, actually." She finally looked over at him, her eyes falling to his hand where he was holding her phone. "Did you find anything?" she asked, nodding to the device.

"What?" He looked down at his hand. "Oh. Yeah, that was what I came in here for, actually." He flipped it open, holding it out to her. "I ran a few searches like you asked."

"And?" she asked, switching her gaze between him and the phone as she took it. "What did it say? Am I chatting with an axe murderer?"

He hesitated. "Well..."

"Oh no." She put her head in her hands with a groan. "I'm talking with Jack the Ripper, aren't I?"

"Well, ignorin' the fact that not only was he long dead by 1941 but he also had no access to technology..." the Doctor drawled. "The answer is still no." He chuckled when Lyssa rolled her eyes. "Interestingly enough, the TARDIS actually hid the results from me."

"Wait. For real?" she stared at the phone, furrowing her brow. "I didn't know she could do that on her own - or, well, would, for that matter."

He shrugged. "She doesn't do it often, but sometimes if I'm gettin' too close to somethin' I shouldn't she'll try and steer me away. In this case, she hid all results of who he was. "

He began to pace the room, folding his hands behind his back. "Which is interestin', because she's the one who gave you the mobile, which means that this James, whoever he is, is someone that she wanted you to meet. And it looks like she redirected his calls to you to ensure that you would meet." He paused thoughtfully. "Which means that she's directly interferin', which means that whoever he is, the two of you getting to know the other is important in the future - whether yours or his in particular or the future in general, who knows. Probably both, considerin' she linked the two of you."

"So... I was supposed to meet him?" Lyssa asked, trying to figure it all out. "Like, did she just step in to make sure that time happened the way it was supposed to, or did it not happen originally, and she's twisting the timelines to make sure we meet for some unknown reason?"

The Doctor turned to look at her, a grim look on his face. "I don't know. But somethin's interferin' with the timelines, and it's not just her."

She sucked in a breath. "What do you mean?" she asked, feeling her heart drop into her stomach.

He narrowed his eyes at the wall as he spoke, obviously unhappy. "Somethin' about the timelines seemed off to me, so I took a closer look. At the point in time where you first talked to James, there's evidence of time bein' altered - several times. It looks like someone tried to change time so that you didn't meet, and then the TARDIS went in and manipulated things so that you did meet."

"But... why would someone try to make it so that we didn't meet?" she frowned, puzzled. "I mean, all we've ever done is talked for a bit on the phone. We've never talked about anything identifying or anything important like that. We don't even know each other's real names. Why would someone try to change that?"