Chapter 1
He made his way back to the Tardis, the Ood singing to him as he staggered across the courtyard, the same courtyard he’d walked across numerous times when entering and leaving Rose’s flat, the same courtyard in his last regeneration, they’d been in the spotlight and ‘escorted’ to Downing Street and the same courtyard they had watched the fallout from the Sycorax ship and he’d held her hand and she’d asked if he still wanted her to travel with him.
He’d just seen her, with these eyes for the last time, minutes ago and she’d laughed and said “See ya!” after he’d asked the year and told her it was gonna be great. It had been, 2005 had been the best year he’d spend on earth, he’d been lucky she’d wanted to stay with him when the year turned and became 2006, then he had lost her. He was alone, he’d got his reward, seeing the love of his lives for the last time and he would never see her again because he had broken the rules and gone back in her personal time line but he didn’t care.
She couldn’t know who he was and hopefully, she’d never remember him calling out from the shadows and once he changed, he’d have to move forward and forget just like he always did but not the last time, because she had been with him when he changed but she was gone anyway, there was no more need to go back. He reached the Tardis door, fumbling for the key, he had to get inside though he supposed he could just regenerate in the snow but he’d no idea what was going to happen.
The radiation was taking it’s toll, he’d no idea in actual time how long it had been, going to visit all the people who had mattered to him in this regeneration. He threw his coat over one of the struts, it had driven Rose crazy when he did it and he stepped up to the time rotor and put the Tardis into flight, just above the earth. Looking down at his hands, the regeneration energy was beginning to show, something he’d managed to hold back but no more.
A million thoughts were going through his mind. What happened to all his past regenerations? Had they somehow lived on? He had to believe it was possible and not like he’d told Wilf, that some new man goes sauntering away and he’d be dead, what was the point in that? Just living a few years in a body and not even getting to live as long as a human without hiding away and keeping out of trouble?
This was it, he could feel it as he stood in front of the console, his arms outstretched, the process was beginning, a new man would emerge when it was all over, it was legend that a Timelord could choose their appearance but his time was running out. He could hear whispering, the Tardis was communicating with him.
“What do you want Doctor?” the ship asked him.
He could feel the last of his old self draining away, the longer he resisted, the worse it would be and he’d already held it back longer than he should have done.
“Take me to Rose, please, I don’t care how, just take me to Rose.”
The ship knew how much he’d loved his little companion, she had done him a lot of good and he’d never given up on seeing her again right up until the end so if anyone deserved to live on, he did. She was quite pleased with herself, some of the past Doctors had conveyed to her as they regenerated what they wished they could have done and she’d had it in her power to grant it. In his fourth regeneration, he’d expressed the wish to be an art curator and in his fifth, a famous cricketer back in the 1920′s.
So this one wanted to be with Rose Tyler, then so be it but she never made it easy for them and this time, he wanted to go to the alternate universe, she had no idea what Rose would be doing with her life after so long but that was his wish. As the ship exploded around him, he felt the very last ebbs fade away. There was no way now he was going to survive this, he’d no idea how his fellow Timelords had controlled their regenerations and the ship was not going to oblige him, he’d left it too late.
“I don’t want to go unless it’s to Rose.”
~~~~{ silversurfer60 }~~~~
Alec Hardy woke up in an unfamiliar bed. He looked around him, he was in a hotel room, that was for certain. He sat up, he was wearing boxers and a grey t-shirt and as he ran his hands over his face, a beard, a scruffy two day’s old beard by the feel of it though he didn’t know how he’d got one. He’d been carrying a body out of the river and he was drowning. There was a knock on the door. He located his trousers on the back of the chair, light grey ones he noted and thinking they should have been brown ones with a blue stripe but as he called out “I’m coming, quit knocking” it came out with a Scottish accent as something completely different.
A tall woman was standing there with a bale of towels.
“Hi, sorry, did I wake you? You missed breakfast, you must have been tired after your journey yesterday?”
How was he supposed to know? He couldn’t even recall how he’d got there.
“Yes, thanks, ’erm?”
“Blimey, did you empty the mini bar last night detective inspector?”
“What? Oh, probably. What time is it?” he asked, it not registering what she had just called him.
“Half nine and you said you had an appointment with your new chief super this morning at ten, you told me when you arrived not to let you sleep in and your phone’s off the hook.”
She nodded in the direction of the nightstand, the phone receiver dangling over the edge. She moved past him, picked it up and put it back where it belonged and proceeded to the bathroom. Maybe he really had been drunk last night, he’d no memory of checking in, asking not to be left to sleep in or the name of the irritating tall blonde woman coming out of his bathroom.
She smiled at him, he scowled.
“I’m Becca Fisher and your mini bar is not empty, what happened to you?”
“If you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment in thirty minutes, so you have just reminded me,” he quipped, still in the broad Scottish accent that sounded familiar to him but he wasn’t sure it was actually his. “Where was I going?”
Becca laughed. “To the police station I believe?”
“So, where is it?”
“Seriously? Turn right out of the front door, down the path at the side of the hotel to the Esplanade, turn left and walk until you see a new round building then up the steps, you can’t miss it, there’s a big blue sign that says Broadchurch Police.”
“Broadchurch? I’m in Broadchurch? Where the hell is Broadchurch?”
“I think you need a doctor, you must have bumped your head,” Becca offered, putting the towels on the chair and holding her arms out towards his head.
He grabbed her arms. “Get off me, I never bumped my head but I’ve just got a headache, let me get dressed or I’ll be late.”
“Suit yourself but if you ask me again to spend some time and relax with you, I won’t be so polite next time.”
“I did what?” he asked, about to go into the bathroom and hoping who he’d now identified as Australian had gone by the time he came out.
“Last night after you checked in, you asked how I spent my hours relaxing and if I wanted to relax with you.”
“So what did you tell me?” He saw the look on her face.
“That you’re new in town and I’d let you off this once, don’t do it again.”
“Right, I won’t then. I really have to get ready now. I told you I was a detective inspector?” he added as he turned back again after another failed attempt to get into the bathroom, his hands on the door frame.
“Not exactly, the police pre-booked your room for the next three weeks, then I suppose you’re meant to find a place of your own. You came in late yesterday afternoon, said you were Alec Hardy and your stay had been arranged. Then after dinner, you chatted me up then went off in a huff to your room.”
“Oh,” was all he could manage.
Becca left, shaking her head and wondered if it was just his way, maybe he’d been missing his girlfriend already, or his wife, just because he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring, neither had her ex.
Alec stood in front of the mirror thinking he looked dreadful, with bloodshot eyes, a fringe than needed cutting and the beard, what the hell was he doing with a beard? Well he didn’t have the time to trim it or shave it off, it would have to stay for now but looking again, he rather liked it and if he didn’t let it get too out of hand? He went back into the bedroom and found four white shirts hanging in the wardrobe along with a darker grey suit and a dark grey overcoat. He took the coat, noticing a clothes hamper in the bottom of the wardrobe with a room number on it, 203.
Well that helped, he supposed, just as long as he took notice of the name of the hotel and where it was located on his way out. There was a mobile phone on the nightstand, a wallet, which he opened to see a photo driving licence, in the photo he was minus the beard, the name Alec J Hardy. Also in his wallet was a photo of a young girl, around eleven or twelve years old he guessed though he had no idea who she was and what he was doing with it in his wallet. There was also a police warrant card with ‘South Mercia Police’ and his name.
There was about fifty pounds in cash in the wallet, a bank card with his name on it and when he’d put his trouser on, there had been some coins jangling about. He looked at the time, he had ten minutes to get to his appointment. How come the hotel owner knew he had one and he didn’t? Maybe whoever had booked his room and told her? He stuffed his wallet and his ID in his right-hand inside jacket pocket, put the mobile in his outer one and picked up the overcoat, not knowing what the weather was like outside. Then he found a strip of pills with some unpronounceable name in his other jacket pocket.
He took the stairs, went past whom he now knew was Becca, who was pretending to look elsewhere as he handed his key in and he walked out into the street. There was damp in the air, he’d no idea what he expected it to be. He followed Becca’s directions, finding the path that took him a few minutes to walk down and saw the building ahead of him and as he walked through the door, the wall clock behind the desk was just on ten – his new lucky number.
~~~~{ silversurfer60 }~~~~
Rose Tyler had just stepped into her office at Torchwood, Mickey was waiting for her, a grin on his face.
“What’s so amusing Mickey?” she asked, pouring herself a coffee.
“It worked Rose, it actually worked.”
“Oh, that; good. So are you leaving me as well then?”
“Come on Rose, I thought you’d be all excited?”
“About the stars going out then suddenly re-appearing? Not exactly exciting stuff was it?”
“You only say that because that gap didn’t lead to our old universe, I know how disappointed you were but we were close, I know we were, maybe it was an alternate reality? You just got there too late, that’s all.”
“Yeah, too late to stop him getting killed with no chance of regeneration, how do we know it wasn’t our world Mickey?”
“Don’t blame yourself for that Rose, you were the one that didn’t want to go back again.”
“What was the point? By the time the scientists knew what was happening, the stars were reappearing and now you’re telling me you got one of the devices working again? Well I’m not trying it this time Mickey. I lost Ryan, remember?”
“Yeah, sorry. How were we to know?”
“Yeah, well he’s lost, just like the Doctor was and that’s it, I’m through with men. We were getting really close.”
“I know, I also know it took you a long time to learn to trust him but maybe we’ve found the right universe or reality this time?”
“Yeah and what if it malfunctions again? I don’t know why Pete’s letting anyone near it.”
“It’s what we do Rose, what Torchwood does, explore the unexplained. It’s that or do that other thing he wanted you to do and you know how quickly you’ll get bored with that,” he grinned.
“Shut up Mickey, at least I’d come back home again.”
“Come off it Rose, since when did you take the safe option?”
“Since I lost Ryan. Forget it Mickey, I’d rather act as consultant to the police than risk everything. If Pete sends someone then fine, if they come back and tell me they found the Doctor or Ryan and the way is still open then fine, I’ll go but not until then, why did he have to be the one to volunteer?”
“Seriously? Because he loved you more than you loved him and he wanted to prove it to you by finding the man you left behind, hoping if he did, you’d still choose to stay with him, that’s why Rose. There’s no point in arguing with you when you’re like this.”
“Like what?”
“You know like what. Fine, tell Pete you’ll take the consultancy assignment then.”
“Right, I will and if you go, don’t expect me to wait for you coming back.”
“What happened to you Rose?”
“I lost two men that I loved and I never told them until it was too late and I’m never doing it again, not ever.”
