| Date: 12 December 2007
Characters: Susan Foreman, The Doctor Location: hotel hallway Link to IJ: thread #4020 |
 Susan had experienced a lot in her short life, but the sudden dark and silence that had washed over her was something entirely new and disturbing. She had meant to step back inside her house, but instead she had ended up somewhere... Somewhere... Oh, Rassilon only knows. Wherever it was, she felt as though space was closing in on her in the vast expanse of darkness.
Or rather, the short expanse of darkness, Susan corrected herself as she raised an arm into it and ended up smacking her hand against a wall. No wonder she was feeling so encased. She was in some kind of cabinet or closet. How she had ended up there, she couldn't say. But at least it was something that was vaguely familiar. Groping in the dark, Susan eventually found the handle to the door, pushing it open slowly and peeked out. "Hello?" |
 "Susan?" The Doctor peered through the gap of the door, "Is that you?" |
| "Yes?" Susan replied, tilting her head curiously at the appearance of the unfamiliar face. "Or at least, in so much that my name is Susan so that is who I am. Who are you?" |
| "Your grandfather," he said, frowning and studying her, "You don't look any older." |
| "And you don't look as old as you should be," Susan said, pushing the door the rest of the way open and setting out of the...closet? She was in a closet? All right. That was just weird. |
| He held his arm out for her, "Regenerated. A lot, actually. You haven't." |
| "I'm only eighteen," Susan said, taking a tentative step forward as she continued to study him, the skepticism engraved in her features. "We're not supposed to even attempt it until two hundred." |
| "So I just left you," he said after a moment, "What, a year ago? Less?" |
| "A little over a year," Susan said, the confusion starting to clear. "How long has it been for you?" |
| "Coming up on 800 years," he admitted. |
| Oh. Oh, dear. This was not good, not good at all. "What happened?" Susan asked as she glanced around their surroundings. "We shouldn't be crossing timelines like this. It's dangerous." |
| "I don't think it doesn't matters anymore," he said examining her. |
| "Where are we?" Susan asked, tension mounting in her voice as she took another step toward her grandfather (she figured there was no point in doubting his claim) for comfort. "When are we?" |
| He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, protective, "I have no bloody idea. TARDIS doesn't know either." |
| Leaning instinctively into the embrace, Susan tried not to let those words trouble her as much as they did, "It's so quiet," She said after a brief silence. "Wherever we are, whenever we are, we're cut off from home." |
| "Home's gone, Susan," he said gently. |
| "Gone? What do you mean 'gone'?" Susan asked, the eyes of a child turning their questioning gaze up at him. "Gone how? Where?" |
| He couldn't tell her, not Susan. Anyone else, he could tell. But not Susan. He'd taken her away from Gallifrey once. Taking Gallifrey away from her was infinitely worse. He stroked her hair paternally, "Nevermind, all right? Tell me what happened to you this year." |
| "Rebuilding, mostly," Susan said with a soft smile as she peered up at him. It might not have been the Grandfather she knew, but there was something in his eyes that was familiar. That undying curiosity that had gotten him, them, into so much trouble in the past. |
| "And your ...David? It was David?" |
| "It was David," Susan said, grinning up at her Grandfather. "We moved to the country after most of the rebuilding was done. We were planning on getting married as soon as I reached a respectable age to do so. I'm not about to be a teenage bride." |
| "So you were living in sin instead?" he half-teased. |
| "It was the 22nd century, Grandfather. At worst, we were living contrary to dominant trends. Nothing sinful about it." |
| "It's a figure of speech!" |
| "Still," Susan said, unable to suppress the smile on her face as she wrapped her arms around her Grandfather and hugged him tightly. "I thought I'd never see you again." |
| He hugged her tightly, "I tried to go back for you but."
But he was crappy at piloting. "When I got close as I could get you were gone so I couldn't go back." |
| "You never were very good at getting the TARDIS to go somewhere more than once," Susan said, resting her head gently against his chest as she tightened her grasp on him. After a long moment, Susan turned her attention back up to her Grandfather, "Did you ever get Mister Chesterton and Miss Wright back to their own time?" |
| "They. Got back to their own time," he admitted. |
| And while the way he phrased that begged questions, Susan just let it lay. They had gotten home. The means didn't really matter. "Good," Susan said, grinning as she reached up and poked her Grandfather's new nose. "I like the new look." |
| "I've been through eight since you've seen," he admitted, "Ears could be smaller, I think, don't you?" |
| "They add character," Susan said as she studied his features. "You could probably even be considered handsome...in the right lighting." |
| "Dim lighting, Susan?" he struggled to hold back a grin, "I heard dim lighting." |
| "I was actually thinking soft, but dim would work, too," Susan said with a gentle smile as she took a step back, reaching up to adjust the collar on her grandfather's leather jacket. Her grandfather in a leather jacket. "This is going to take some getting used to." |
| "Which part?" |
| "Well, I was referring to the new look which actually makes you look like the renegade that you are," Susan said, chuckling softly. "But I suppose all of it is going to take some time. Especially since we don't have any idea where we are. Do you think it's really all right that we're here, Grandfather? We're not even supposed to be talking to each other considering the inconsistency in our timelines. That's one of the rules." |
| "I don't think it matters," he admitted, "If a paradox was going to form it would already have. This place isn't exactly in the main time stream I don't think.' |
| "I would think that would be a good assumption to make," Susan said as she cast her gaze around slowly before turning her attention back to her Grandfather and offering him an affectionate smile. "Besides, if being together is breaking a rule, I think it's probably a rule that needed to be broken, anyway." |
| "Rules of Time aren't mean-" he started, then smiled, wide and manic, "You're probably right!" |
| Susan smiled as well, the pride that she felt at being told she was right showing clearly on her face before she launched forward and wrapped her arms around her Grandfather once again, "Oh, Grandfather, I missed you." |
| He held her head gently against his chest, wrapping his other arm around her body, "I missed you too, grandchild."
The word felt odd in this mouth. It was still true though. |
| "However long this lasts," Susan said, smiling up at her Grandfather, "it won't be long enough," She said with a soft sigh. |
| "Let's find you tea," he said because he didn't have an answer for that that didn't hurt. |
| "Oh, that sounds brilliant. I haven't had a decent cup in months. It's all over processed dreg in the 22nd century," Susan said, grinning as she linked her arm with her Grandfather's. |
| "Dreg's the technical term, is it?" he teased her, leading her towards the kitchens. |
| "The technical term is artificially preserved. But I say dreg," Susan said as she followed along next to him. If she had to fall out of all known time and space, she couldn't have thought of a better place to end up. |