DOCTOR WHO - THINGS SHE THOUGHT WHILE IN PRISON (G)

AUTHOR’S NOTES. This story title recall the short story written by Chris Chibnall (Things She Thought While Falling, a sequel of the episode Twice Upon a Time and a prequel for The Woman Who Fell to Earth) in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for the Doctor Who website (here the story) and then published as the second story in the charity anthology Adventures in Lockdown.

She was alone.

The Doctor was alone.

She has been as such for decades now. More than she really cared to remember or even count, if one needed to be honest with oneself.

She remembered when, many, many years back now, she was able to flee from Gallifrey thanks to the sacrifice of one, single, brave man. Who had done what she hadn’t been able to: activate the explosive attached to a miniaturized Ashad and destroy the Cyberiad.

For ages, she had felt like a coward. She still felt like one, since she had let another person take charge and die, because of her inability to act and commit an extreme act. But when Ko Sharmus had made his entrance in the Matrix chamber, she had felt a guilty pang of relief in having, once again, avoided to commit a mass genocide or suicide, in order to avert the Spy Master’s plan.

That was only one of her many regrets, if she wanted to be honest at least with herself. Another one was Yaz. Always Yaz. The years spent in prison had only aggravated the sentiment, forcing the Doctor to think about her every day and asking herself why she was doing so, why it was so important. The answer, as it came, came incredibly slow, but it finally dawned on her, just before the successful attempt, from Captain Harkness, in saving her from the imprisonment: She loved the younger woman. And the hurt look in her eyes, when the Doctor had shoved her just prior asking them, asking her to live great lives, before heading to her own death… was one she won’t ever forget.

When Captain Harkness had finally found her, she was so happy that she hadn’t thought of checking the temporal readings of her TARDIS, ending in Graham’s front room ten months after what she’d planned. Earning an enormous, and well deserved, shove from Yaz herself.

Finally, after solving the new Daleks’ crisis aroused in the last twelve months, and bid goodbyes to Graham, Ryan and Jack, the two of them were alone in the TARDIS console room. Finally, properly alone. And the years spent yearning to be free, yearning to be back with her fam and Yaz, finally took their price on the Doctor, who found herself fiercely hugging Yaz and never leaving her again. Finally opening up to her and making up for the lost time.

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

1. The main character depicted here is the Thirteenth Doctor, as played by British actress Jodie Whittaker between 2018 and 2022 for Doctor Who and BBC.

2. The main setting of this fanfiction is between The Timeless Children and Revolution of the Daleks, while the Thirteenth Doctor is held in prison.

3. The final events recounted during The Timeless Children’s ending are mentioned.

4. The Cyberiad, the shared consciousness of a faction of Cybermen also presented in the episode The Haunting of Villa Diodati, similar to a hive mind, is mentioned.

5. Ashad, the Lone Cyberman, is mentioned.

6. Ko Sharmus and the Spy Master are mentioned.