Chapter Text
Waverly carefully slipped her boots back on, mindful to not make too much noise at the early hour.
Dinner with Amy and Rory had been wonderful, almost like old times. The jokes, the teasing, the laughing tears as they reminisced about previous adventures.
For the first time in a long time, Waverly felt young. Like she, Rory, and Amy were still three idiots chasing after the universe's biggest idiot. As if nothing could possibly go wrong in that moment.
Then Waverly woke up with tears in her eyes. The guest room, once her old room, was foreign. The coolness of the quilt, the stiffness of the pillows, and the empty bookshelves told Waverly all she needed to know.
She was a ghost trying to live a past life.
Amy and Rory no longer had the guest room made up for her, any traces of her existence gone. Logically, Waverly knew it wasn’t on purpose. Her friends did what most of the Doctor’s friends tried to do– they moved on .
Except they didn’t, not really.
They didn’t move on from the Doctor, both flinching and looking out the window at any sudden sound that could possibly be the TARDIS. However, they moved on from her.
Waverly knew she’d eventually stop popping up in Amy and Rory’s timeline. When she was still being pulled through time, adventures with them were common and frequent in the beginning. And then one day she popped up and they seemed surprised to see her at all. She tried not to think too long or hard on the matter, but now it was clear.
She wasn’t part of their life the way she used to be. And she knew she never would be, with the angels looming in the month ahead.
It was best to leave. Drop off the address and leave. That’s what she should have done in the first place.
With her mind made up, Waverly stuffed her few belongings back into her weekender bag and crept down the stairs.
Just as she shrugged on her coat, the lights in the entryway flicked on.
“Now, where do you think you’re going?”
Rory stood at the entrance of his dimly lit kitchen, in fresh scrubs and damp hair.
“Off to work?” Waverly asked, hoping to distract Rory from the obvious.
“Yeah.” He lifted his eyebrows, arms crossed over his chest. “And it looks like you are trying to sneak out without saying goodbye.”
“I wouldn’t say it was ‘without goodbye’. Think of it as an Irish Goodbye.”
“That is leaving without saying goodbye, Waves.”
“Damn, right.”
Rory huffed a laugh. “Why are you taking off so early?”
“Can’t keep the Doctor waiting for long.”
“He can wait.” It was true, the Doctor could do with a little waiting here and there. “Tell me the real reason.”
Waverly’s shoulders sagged. Lying to Rory wasn’t in her nature. He’d see right through her half-truths. “It’s hard. Being here,” she confessed. Waverly entered the kitchen and took a seat at the table. She gently set her bag down in the empty chair beside her. “What else do you want me to say?”
Rory watched her, slowly approaching her side like she would slip off at any moment. Force of habit; most her friends operated in similar manners. “We’re gone in your timeline, aren’t we?”
“Is anyone really gone when you time travel?” Waverly countered. “Maybe for other people. Maybe even for the Doctor. But not for me.”
Rory sighed down into the seat beside her. “Eloise–”
She flinched, hands clenching together on top of the table. “That’s not my name. It hasn’t been my name for a very long time.”
Her friend did not seem bothered by the correction. In fact, he smiled a little. Sad and quiet. “Waverly, why are you torturing yourself like this?
“Maybe I want a farewell tour.” She shrugged. “If the Doctor can have a few, why can’t I have one?”
“Because the Doctor loves to torture himself,” Rory deadpanned. “You don’t.”
“I just…” She reached for his hand, gripping for life. “I wanted one more happy memory before I said goodbye for good.” So many of the last few moments she had with Amy and Rory were dismal at best–their funerals, their deaths, the angels.
“Will we see you again?” Rory asked, almost hesitant.
“Oh, loads.” A sting prickled behind her eyes. Her shaky exhale did not help, tears teetering on the edge of release. “You will see me. Many times after this. But it’ll be different. But please,” she dared herself to look up to Rory, the man who never made her feel alone, “please know, when you see me again, I had no idea it would happen like that.”
Rory knew better than to ask. He never poked around spoilers, knowing best to keep certain questions to himself. Yet… “Is–is Amy going to be okay?”
“You two will have each other. You’ll be together.” And really, wasn’t that all that mattered in the end?
Not an ounce of worry consumed Rory’s face, only acceptance. “Then, we’ll be okay.”
Waverly released Rory’s hand, and quickly wiped any stray tears from her face. “Now–keep this.” She handed a small scrap of paper to Rory. Folded twice, the address noted in her cursive hidden. “Keep this with you. Keep it in your wallet, stick it in your shoe, tattoo it on yourself if you need to. But keep it on your person at all times,” she ordered. “It has an address on it. Be there on November 17th 1958.”
Rory frowned. “Why 1958?”
“Because that’s when you’ll see me again.”
“And what about you?”
“Oh me,” Waverly stood up, “I’ll be with the Doctor. This version of him for who knows how long,” she nearly groaned out.
“Hey,” Rory nudged her gently. “I know you are upset about the situation, to find him again and for him to the Doctor who doesn’t know you yet.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of shit,” she said with a snort.
“Remember, the Doctor was once in your shoes too. And this one, the one you are with right now , will be one day too. He’ll meet a Waverly who doesn’t know who she is, what she is, and doesn’t give a damn about his feelings.”
Waverly winced. “You make me sound like a nightmare.”
“You kind of were,” Rory told her plainly. “But rightfully so.”
“I would like to point out that he did not handle a younger me well either.”
“But he still loved you.” Waverly ignored the claim. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, the Doctor fell in love with this version of you? The woman you are right now.”
“As sweet as that sounds, it’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because…”
“You are cruel. To do this to me. Now, of all times .”
She blinked away the memory. No need to be pulled away into the depths of her mind.
“Because…timelines.” Waverly did not understand Rory’s thinking; it would be impossible, truly impossible. “This Doctor doesn’t know me. We’ve barely traveled a few days together. At this point he’s still lost in Rose. No way is he thinking anything romantic…” She shook her head. “Like I said, impossible.”
“Maybe it’s not,” Rory stressed. “The Doctor we know was already infatuated with you, wanted to be around you all the time. Even when you called him very mean things.”
Waverly pursed her lips. “Yeah, that Doctor. Who already knew me. He was probably infatuated with me due to his guilty conscience.”
When she first started time traveling with the Doctor, it was difficult to understand the Time Lord’s strange demeanor. Secretive, jumpy, and all around little reticent when it came to any matter related to her.
Looking back now, he must have not seen her since he dropped her off in Scotland 1958. Guilt made people react in peculiar ways, Time Lords not excluded.
“Just…just maybe give this one a chance.”
She gave his Tenth regeneration a chance before, and look where that got her. But Rory was a hopeless romantic and deserved a promise of goodwill before she left.
“I’ll think about it.”
Upon arriving back to the TARDIS, the Doctor escaped under the console, determined to investigate the glitches the old spaceship seemed to be experiencing. He did not mind if his travel companions wandered around, but his private wing needed to be kept private.
At some point during his tinkering, he heard Martha holler from above. He shouted back a ‘hello’ and an offer to join him. His friend merely wrinkled her nose, and shook her head at the sight of him. Goggles on, a few cable cords thrown over his shoulder, and oil stains on his trousers and shirt. “I’d rather not–you look a little too deep in the wires, Doctor.”
And that’s where he remained.
That was until he heard the sound of a key turning in the lock of the TARDIS.
Soft footsteps shuffled down the ramp until they reached the end of the path. Through the grating he could see a petite shadow crouched down, barely able to make out the shape of her curly hair and a large bag.
Waverly.
The Doctor sighed quietly before he untangled himself from the cords and wires.
Climbing back up to the main floor of the TARDIS, the Doctor was mindful of his footsteps. As much as she frustrated him, he didn’t want to spook the woman.
He halted at the sight of her crumpled form.
She sat with her face buried in her knees, shoulders shaking as low, broken sobs slipped out of her.
The Doctor hesitated. She claimed he did not have the right to see her emotional, to witness her break down but— “Waver—”
Waverly shot up from the grated floor, swaying slightly to the left. “God-- I thought you went to the bedroom.”
She used the edge of her coat sleeve to wipe under her eyes, half her body turned away from him.
“I thought you weren’t coming back until morning,” the Doctor offered instead, hoping she wouldn’t feel too embarrassed by the tears.
“It’s morning.”
He glanced at the monitor, a clear view of the world outside the TARDIS. They sat in a dark, misty street corner, but very clearly the wee hours of the morning. Not technically incorrect.
Before he could spout off a clever retort, Waverly dropped back to the floor, hugging herself tightly. “Please do me the favor of leaving me alone. Believe it or not, you do share this TARDIS with me.”
The aggravated part of him wanted to snap right back and march away from her in a storm, just like she did to him the day before. But the stubborn part of him knew she couldn’t– she shouldn’t– be alone.
So the Doctor came to the end of the ramp and sat down on the floor beside her. Not quite shoulder to shoulder, but close enough for his knee to bump hers. He did not know how to comfort her, where to even start. “How was the visit?”
“I hate this life.”
The Doctor inhaled sharply. “That’s a way to start a conversation.”
“The way I never see anyone I care about in the right order,” she muttered miserably. “I had to say goodbye to my family. My last goodbye. I’ve already seen them die. Twice. Yet I had to see them again and again knowing what was going to happen until… it stopped. And then I was stuck, truly stuck on Earth, linear time. But then you popped back up and I had to see them one more time because they needed an address before they left for their final trip or else the last sixty years of my life will not happen.”
She dropped her face back into her knees, arms over her head.
“Time… time is a bit wibbly-wobbly,” the Doctor said tiredly. He felt exhausted just listening to her explain, rather vaguely, her situation. “It sounds like you and time are not friends.”
“More like Time is the only thing keeping me alive.” She lifted her head up. Tears streaked her tired face, their tracks dribbling down to her chin.“Everyone I ever loved or cared about inevitably leaves and I am forced to see echoes of them everywhere I go.”
Looking down at the mess of curls at the top of her head, it was as if the Doctor had finally saw her for the first time.
“I feel old, all four hundred years sitting on my chest,” she grumbled, hand fumbling up to reach for the railing above her. Waverly pulled herself, eyes downcast. “I shouldn’t have said I hate this life. I don’t–I just hate what it does to me.”
The Doctor remained seated on the floor, watching Waverly out of the corner of his eye. She tried to compose herself, fighting off more tears. Still, even with the distance emerging between them, she refused to look at him.
“Sorry for the emotional dumping. Unfortunately, the only person in the entire universe who’d understand how I feel is you .” The accusation was sharp and bitter. “I understand if you never care to see me again–but oh, spoiler, you will, for at least another four hundred years !” Her broken, wet laugh made neither of them smile.
In fact, it made the Doctor question everything about her. But one nudging question in particular would not escape him.
“If this life–the TARDIS, time traveling, me –make you so woeful, then why did you follow those coordinates?”
“Excuse me?” Waverly’s head snapped to him. “What are you asking?”
The Doctor stood up from the floor, willing to come toe to toe with her to get the answer. “That’s the one part I don’t understand.”
“The one part?”
“Amongst others,” he shrugged off, “I understand you may be one of the last Time Lords in existence–”
“Or now you are acknowledging I am a Time Lord?”
“I can’t deny the scans or the consuming Sun and surviving it bit. Evidence is glaring on that one.”
Waverly’s brows furrowed. “Glad to know my near death experience was ‘glaring evidence.”
“I understand the non-linear timeline, to an extent.” He slid on his brainy-specs and turned the console monitor to face them. Gallifreyan showed on the screen, displaying recent TARDIS scans of the last twenty-four hours. “See that little blip right there?”
Waverly squinted, edging closer to him. She pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “The one that is flickering?”
“Yes–that’s the glitch, a loop if you will. The TARDIS is attempting to accommodate for your timeline.” He got closer to the screen, unable to help his grin. “It’s quite fascinating really. Never seen her do this kind of thing. But heard of it, these types of loops are usually a folktale you tell kids at the academy to prevent them from toying with timelines.”
“Didn’t realize I was folktale,” she remarked dryly.
“I just don’t understand how it happens, the jumping you claim–”
“It doesn’t,” she was quick to supply, “at least, not anymore. The Vortex Energy in the locket, it’s gone stable. I don’t jump around anymore. I haven’t in a long time,” she confessed.
He turned to her with a smirk. “And it looks like our half-truths are dissolving.”
Waverly rolled her eyes, however, there was a twitch at the corner of her lips. Almost as if she wanted to… smile?
Huh.
“I can’t tell you everything,” Waverly told him, almost robotically. “At least, not right away. That’s not how this works when you are from someone’s personal timeline. I have to be careful with what I share because time can always be rewritten. I’ve seen it happen a million times.”
“And you don’t want time to change?”
“Unfortunately, no.” she hugged herself, tight and on guard. “Despite all that has happened to me, I wouldn’t change anything. Just wished I handled some of it better.”
“I’d want to change time,” the Doctor uttered without a second thought.
He thought of Rose. Her demise, locked away in another universe. He’d reverse that, if he could, in a heartbeat.
“I know.”
Heartbreak shone in Waverly’s dark eyes, yet there was something else there– concern .
She picked up her weekender bag from the floor and began to make her way towards the corridor. Her steps stopped at the stairs, she finally facing him for the first time that night. “To answer your question, I followed the coordinates because I wanted to fix things between us. Sixty years in linear time brings some perspective. However, you don’t even know the reason why we separated in the first place because it hasn’t happened for you yet.”
“Seperated?”
Waverly did not answer, leaving the console room without another word.
“ Separated ?” The Doctor repeated quietly to himself. People only ever used the term ‘separated’ when– “No,” he quickly muttered, not entertaining the thought. “No, no, no.” He shook his head until he heard ringing in his ears. He needed to kick the idea out of his head and into the next millenia. No–FURTHER!“NO!”
“Doctor, are you okay?” Martha popped her head into the console room, dressed in pajamas and a cuppa in hand. “I heard you screaming from the kitchens.”
“Martha,” he turned to her, determined, “you’re human.”
“Yes…?”
“What does ‘separated’ mean? In human terms.”
She snorted. “It’s what my parents were before they got divorced. It’s when a married couple takes a break and are trying to decide if they are going to go their separate ways forever or work it out.”
“ Agh !” The Doctor slumped against the console and banged his head repeated on the edge of the console.
Martha blinked down at him. “I swear, you get stranger by the day.”
In Another TARDIS…
River had half the mind to chuckle as she watched the Doctor pace in circles around the console. However, her annoyance won out over the humor of the situation. “I cannot believe you haven’t explained one bit of this world to Waverly.”
“That’s not Waverly–that’s ‘Eloise’,” the Doctor corrected with a grumble. “She’s young. Too young.”
“And that’s stopping you now because?” River tutted. “Just tell her who she is and maybe it can make this little trip smoother.” While she was a staunch follower of ‘Spoilers,’ she did not anticipate Waverly being so young and wide-eyed. Foolishly, River expected her Aunt Waverly to be there to reign in the Doctor when he got too…
“For you or for me?” The Doctor nearly snapped. His distrust did not go unnoticed, a storm brewing behind his wild stare. “Because if I tell that girl what she is and who she is, she’ll run out the door and goodbye to the future!”
“You’re being dramatic.” River plucked her shoes off the console. “If I know my Aunt Waverly, she’d want to know the truth.”
“Ah, yes the Queen of Half-Truths would like to know the truth,” the Doctor huffed, running a hand through his floppy hair. “I’m sure that will be a great conversation for me.”
“Does she know that’s her nickname?” River asked, bemused.
“Yes.” The Doctor smacked his forehead. “No.”
“Hmm.” River’s eyes widened. “She’s not the only young one.”
“We’re back!” Amy announced, bounding up the stairs with Waverly in tow. The girl was finally out of her jammies and dressed in her typical jeans, jewel tone sweater, and boots. “And we better have explanations!”
River turned to the Doctor expectantly. “Explanations, Doctor. Please share.”
The Time Lord frowned at her. “I see how she’s,” he waved a hand between Waverly and River, “is your aunt. You have the same attitude.”
“What?” Waverly uttered, turning to River. “How am I your aunt? I don’t have siblings.”
“You’re my godmother,” River answered swiftly. “Now enough with the questions. I am on borrowed time.”
She led the three out of the TARDIS to the beach front of Alfava Metraxis and front row seats to the remains of the Byzantium. “Oh, gorgeous. We are right on time.”
The Doctor’s eyes widen with fascination at the sight.
Waverly was no different, in awe of the waters, the shore, the ship. She was so young, this was probably one of her first stops! “Is that–”
“Not for you.” The Doctor was quick to turn back around. He started to shoo Waverly and Amy back towards the TARDIS. “Lovely visit River, but the TARDIS taxi service is now over–”
“I did not fall through space, just for you three to not help me,” River snapped back.
“Well, we cannot stay. Well,” he glanced back at the wreck, “well Waverly cannot stay. Amy and I–”
“Great, I get to miss another trip,” Waverly huffed. “I’ll go find a book in the library then.”
Amy, on the other hand, seemed giddy at the thought. “Have fun with that. I’m sure you can find something on 19th century literature. Or whatever it is you read.”
“Wait!” River waved to the Doctor. “A word?”
He grumbled under his breath, but came to her side. “Yes?”
“Why are you being a guard dog right now?”
“Hm, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
River huffed. “Yes, you do. You are being overprotective. Why?”
“Because…Waverly–I mean, Eloise –is easily spooked.”
“No, I’m not!”
The Doctor whirled around to find Amy and Waverly only a few paces away. “Are you eavesdropping?”
“You talk loud,” Waverly declared, nudging her way into the conversation. “He doesn’t want me out and about because apparently something is wrong with me. My brain. He still hasn’t explained.” The petite Time Lord shot a glare at the man in question. “So– if you can’t give me a reasonable explanation within the next ten seconds then I see no reason why I can’t come along on this adventure.”
“ Ten seconds ?”
“Ten.”
“ You are the one being unreasonable !”
“Nine.”
“ I cannot explain in ten seconds. ”
“Eight.”
“ You are being ridiculous !”
“Seven,” Waverly continued with a shrug.
“ Why can’t you trust my judgment! ”
Waverly’s eyes went alight in horror. “Because your judgment has been shit since the moment I met you!”
“No, it hasn’t!”
“Amy was in the belly of a whale! She lived the book of Jonah for a day!”
The Doctor brightened at the mention of the name. “Actually, I knew that prophet Jonah–”
“I believe it has been more than ten seconds,” River interjected. “And it looks like my excavating team is on their way. Waverly, Doctor, Amy, with me.”
The two Time Lords grumbled at each other, but followed nonetheless.
God, those two were indeed young.