preserved_ginger

Title: Not Time’s Fool
Rating: PG
Character(s): The Doctor, Rose, The Wolf
Pairing: Doctor/Rose
Beta:

glory_jean
Spoilers: Mild ones for Journey’s End
Notes: Deals with the central idea of

jesidres’ fic One Last Time, so potentially spoilery if you have not read that fic. The title is from Sonnet 116, by William Shakespeare, and all italicised dialogue is from the Season One episode The Parting of the Ways.
Summary: How, and when, and why.

“I can see everything.”

That is why, of course, the tears are falling down her face, unchecked. She’ll never tell him - she’s always been one to take the opportunity to protect him, given the chance, and this is no exception - but she can see their future laid out in front of her.

There they are, on a wild windswept Norwegian beach. He looks nothing like the Doctor she knows, but he’s still exactly the same man. She can hear a conversation where the subtext is more important than what’s said (nothing new there), watches a holographic projection peter out at precisely the wrong moment.

“I want you safe.”

She then sees herself with him again, later, on that cold Norwegian beach, and she sees how he has to leave her a second time. She sees how it’s breaking him.

“My Doctor.”

She knows it has to happen, to avoid greater tragedy further on (she is not oblivious, either, to how this new Doctor is even less keen on good-byes), but she is Time itself and can change things on a whim.

A thought is all it takes her, and there he is – another Doctor. And not just any Doctor, but a throwback to the appearance and mannerisms of the one who has to leave her, to make the parting as painless as possible.

Even she, powerful as she is, cannot resurrect Gallifrey or remake the Matrix without creating something far worse and, without them, this is the kindest thing she can do for the Doctor. Give him a chance to undo at least one of his mistakes.

And still the tears fall.

“All that is ... all that was ... all that ever could be.”