The Second Time Around

Maeve Sterling still hears the echo of her own voice begging him to stay. She had trusted him with her life, running across burning skies and alien worlds, only for the pinstriped madman to drop her back on Earth and vanish when she least expected it. He left her stranded in the gray monotony of London, locked out of the cosmos. The sudden, brutal abandonment plunged Maeve into a suffocating depression fueled by a toxic, years-long resentment. To her, the Doctor isn't a hero anymore-he is the monster who stole her future and left her to rot.

But the Doctor has been carrying the weight of her tears for lifetimes.

Deep into his twelfth incarnation, a cynical Scotsman with heavy brows, he had crossed paths with Maeve in a quiet London diner. She hadn't recognized his aged face or his voice, but he had recognized her. Hidden behind a stranger's eyes, the Doctor had been forced to listen to Maeve pour out the venom, grief, and trauma he had inflicted on her-completely forbidden by the laws of time from confessing who he was or fixing the damage.

Now, the universe has taken an impossible U-turn. The Doctor has regenerated back into the exact face, the exact pinstripes, and the exact eyes that broke her heart. Driven by centuries of buried guilt and the sudden, terrifying realization of why this face has returned, the Doctor tracks Maeve down, desperate to mend the fracture.

Two opposing worlds collide when the TARDIS doors open. For the Doctor, it's a chance to finally answer the pleas she made all those years ago. For Maeve, it's a living nightmare standing on her doorstep, looking entirely unchanged. He is ready to beg for her forgiveness, but Maeve isn't sure she can ever trust the man who looked her in the eyes and walked away.