earlgreytea68 | How Fortuna Saved the Universe (19/24)

Title - How Fortuna Saved the Universe (19/24)
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - Nine, Ten, Eleven, the Master, Rose, Amy, OCs
Spoilers - Through "A Christmas Carol," just to be safe.
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids, they're all mine.)
Summary - Fortuna gets her story. And it's pretty timey-wimey.
Author's Notes - Huge thanks to Kristin, chicklet73 , and lorelaisquared , who all talked through plot points and gave early drafts once-overs. And, last but not least, everlasting thanks to chicklet73 for beta-ing, with flair.

It's my birthday! Which means an early post for all of you because I'm going out tonight and not sure when I'll be home. I hope you enjoy!

The icon was created by swankkat , commissioned by jlrpuck   for my birthday.

Prologue - Ch. 1 - Ch. 2 - Ch. 3 - Ch. 4 - Ch. 5 - Ch. 6 - Ch. 7 - Ch. 8 - Ch. 9 - Ch. 10 - Ch. 11 - Ch. 12 - Ch. 13 - Ch. 14 - Ch. 15 - Ch. 16 - Ch. 17

Chapter Eighteen

The TARDIS’s kitchen had magically expanded to give them all enough room to sit around the table and have tea. It wasn’t every day that one had tea with two different versions of oneself. The Doctor thought that he was glad for that.

“Why isn’t this causing a paradox, all of this?” Rose asked, finally, breaking the silence. She was sitting next to him, holding his hand under the table, and he thought that he really had to ask her what had been happening in her alternate timeline that had her so spooked, because, as affectionate as Rose always was, and as constantly as they held hands, they seldom hands held while sitting like this.

“Because it’s all fake,” Brem told her. “None of it is real.”

“What do you mean, it’s fake?” She looked around at the other Doctors. “You’re fake?”

“He thinks so,” grumbled the leather-jacketed Doctor.

“It’s true,” Brem insisted. “As soon as we get to the right timeline, all the fictional ones will vanish. That’s why we’re not causing paradoxes. We can’t, right now, because nothing we’re doing is really real.”

“This makes my head hurt,” Rose said.

“Don’t think about it too much,” Amy suggested. “It’s what I do.”

“How did you fly the TARDIS?” Brem asked, curiously.

“I don’t know,” Rose admitted. “I’m not sure that I did.”

“Bad Wolf,” the Doctor and his bow-tied self said at the same time.

The leather-jacketed Doctor looked at them in surprise.

“You’re connected to her,” the Doctor explained. “And you’ve had years to grow even more deeply connected to her. The TARDIS recognized it, recognized herself inside of you. And recognized the old wish.”

“My heart’s desire,” Rose realized. “She brought me to you.”

“Exactly.” The Doctor sipped his tea.

“Where’s everyone else, Doctor? Athena and Fortuna? My mum?”

“Fortuna’s on the real timeline,” the Doctor replied. “We’re waiting for Athena to get here. Or, I suppose, we could go out looking for her. We haven’t really discussed that part. But then, once we’re all together, we’ll figure out how to break into the real timeline and fix this mess. As for your mum, she’s on an alternate timeline and fine. She’ll come back when we put this all right.”

“What’s causing this mess in the first place?”

“The Master, of course. I think.”

“But they’re okay in your head? Athena and Fortuna?” persisted Rose.

The Doctor looked at her for a second. “I can’t feel them,” he said, gently.

“What?” she asked, in alarm.

“The chrono-trap has our telepathic fields confused. The TARDISes aren’t working correctly, we aren’t working correctly. Brem and I are okay, because we’re on the same timeline now, but we’re blocked from everyone else.”

Rose was staring at him. “So you can’t feel anyone.”

“Except for Brem.”

“Doctor, I think this is a problem,” she said.

“It isn’t a problem, not really. We’ll—”

“When they were babies, when I was pregnant with them, they were so tuned into you, it was exhausting. All you had to do was be in a mood and the baby would feel like it was clawing to get out, don’t you remember?”

“Of course I remember.”

“Theenie’s baby has been growing inside of her, surrounded by all of you, and now you’re all gone. I thought I was going to lose my babies just because you were in a bad mood, imagine what she must be feeling now that the baby thinks everyone is gone.”

There was a moment of silence all around the table. The Doctor looked a trifle shell-shocked at what Rose had just said. A cold little ball of dread settled in his stomach. “You’re right,” he realized, in a whisper. “You’re absolutely right.” How had he missed that? For so long? He stood up. “Come on.”

“What?” the bow-tied Doctor demanded. “Where?”

“Brem, show me how you got your TARDIS to break through to me,” the Doctor requested, and then turned back to his bow-tied self. “We have to go save our grandson now. Allons-y.”

***

He couldn’t put the baby down. The TARDIS had provided him with an incubator – as a peace offering, he thought – but, whenever he put the baby down in it, his hearts started a steady decline, as if he’d lost all will to keep them going. Matt thought it was possible that his son, at the tender age of one full hour, was depressed.

He held him, because at least the baby seemed to find that comforting, snuggled against him, but he did not doze, as a normal baby would. He stayed wide awake, his eyes fitful and concerned, as if he knew very well that things were wrong around him and his father couldn’t fix them.

Matt was at a loss as to what to do for Athena. The baby seemed better when Athena was near, and so Matt stayed near her, hoping that maybe the baby’s presence was helping Athena, too. But, truthfully, he had no idea what to do at this point.

And then a TARDIS started vworp-ing.

Matt stared in amazement, because a TARDIS was materializing right there in his nursery, and Matt had never been so happy to see anything in his life. TARDISes were coming. Everything was going to be fixed.

The TARDIS was blue, as it blinked into being. Even better.

“Oh, thank God,” breathed Matt, and struggled to his feet, cradling the baby. “Your grandfather’s here. He’s going to know exactly what to do.”

The baby giggled.

Matt looked down, startled. But there was his infant son, squirming now with what was evident delight.

“You know he’s here,” Matt realized. “You can feel him.”

The door was flung open, and his father-in-law swept through, his coat billowing out. He looked at Matt and lifted his eyebrows. “You have a baby,” he pointed out.

“I had to,” Matt defended himself. “I couldn’t—”

“I know,” the Doctor cut him off, and crossed the room to him. “Can I see him?”

“Yeah.” Matt handed him over carefully.

The Doctor looked down at him for a moment, frowning. “Hello, little boy,” he murmured. “How’s your head?” The baby gurgled at him, and the Doctor looked up at Matt, a grin lighting up his face. “Look at him!” he exclaimed. “You’ve done a beautiful job!”

Matt barely heard the compliment. He was busy staring at all the people he didn’t know who were now crowded into his child’s nursery. “Is it a convention?” Matt asked.

The Doctor laughed uproariously.

Matt stared at him, thinking maybe he needed to ask for the baby back.

“It is a convention,” the Doctor managed, finally. “Every single Time Lord in the universe that I can muster. More than ever before in his life. Just to make your little one feel safe.” He addressed the baby. “That’s just how special you are, little boy. You get three of me at the occasion of your birth.”

Matt looked dazedly at Brem. “Do I even want to know what that means?”

“No. How come he doesn’t have any hair?”

“What?”

“The baby. Doesn’t have any hair.”

Matt looked back at the baby. “It will grow,” he said, indignantly.

Brem was staring at the baby in amazement. “I have never seen a Time Lord baby with so little hair.”

His mother swatted his shoulder. “Stop it. It happens. You’re just like your father.”

Brem sputtered. Accusing him of being like his father was always guaranteed to shut him up.

“Matt, he’s beautiful.” Rose hugged him. “Absolutely gorgeous.”

He supposed that Rose intended this to be a simple hug, but he was so relieved to not be alone anymore, to have help, that he practically clung to her. “I don’t know what to do for Athena,” he admitted. “I didn’t know what to do at all. I thought the baby was dying, he was frantic—”

“You did fine,” Rose told him. She returned the hug tightly, and that’s what he loved about his mother-in-law, the way she knew when you needed a hug like this. “You did better than fine. Everything’s perfect.”

Matt nodded against her and pulled himself together and straightened. “I’ve been feeding him iced tea, I thought it might help.”

“The baby thought he’d lost everyone in the world who he’d started to love,” the Doctor explained. “He was terrified. Understandably.”

“I was terrified,” Brem noted, reaching out and offering his little finger to the baby experimentally. “I can only imagine what he was.” The baby closed his tiny hand around his uncle’s finger. “Brilliant,” Brem exclaimed, with a grin.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” Matt confessed.

“We all blinked out in his head. Our timelines are an absolute mess. We have to go get them sorted, but we thought we’d make a quick trip first for this little one. Here, hold your nephew.”

“Oh, I really don’t know how to hold a baby,” Brem said, even as his father thrust him into his hands.

The Doctor stared at him. “Bremsstrahlung. You don’t mean to tell me there’s something you don’t know!”

Brem scowled.

Matt was distracted from the sight of Brem out of his element by the man with the bow-tie examining Athena’s vitals.

“Can you step away from her, please?” requested Matt, trying to sound polite, even as he tried to clear a space for his wife.

“You did a good job,” the bow-tied man told him. “That baby would have killed her with the panic he was in.”

“Thanks,” said Matt, uncertainly, and looked at his father-in-law. “Athena is going to kill you for having so many people in her delivery room.”

“Who’s going to tell Athena?” the Doctor asked, pointedly, looking at him over the top of the specs he’d donned. “Now, move away, let me examine her.”

“She’s going to kill me,” mumbled Matt, but he was too exhausted to argue anymore and, anyway, he needed advice. “I can’t get her to come out of it.”

“She’s shut into a healing cycle,” the Doctor informed him. “She needs time. And tea.” He straightened away from her, passing an affectionate hand over the dark curls half-tumbled over her forehead. “That’s all.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You’ve got a beautiful son, Theenie. Hurry up, he wants to meet you.” The Doctor turned away from her, to the rest of his entourage.

“Is this the iced tea you were feeding the baby?” the bow-tied man was asking, having tested a drop from the nearby bottle. “It’s absolutely dreadful, ugh.” He made a dramatic face and wiped at his tongue.

“He’s picky about food,” said the redhead who was next to him.

Matt looked at his father-in-law. “No. Seriously. Who are these people?”

“We’ve got to go,” the Doctor said, by way of reply.

“But what about the baby? And Athena?” Matt asked, anxiously.

“They’ll be fine.” The Doctor looked over at where Brem and Rose were both leaned over the baby, tickling him. He was giggling in response. “Everyone’s here. He’s safe, and he’s sound, and he knows it.” The Doctor turned his gaze back to Matt. “And we’ll never, ever let him forget it. Ever again. I’m sorry, Matt.”

Matt blinked in surprise. “For what?”

“I’m sorry you were alone. I’m sorry he was alone, in his head. And I’m glad he had you. You saved him, and you saved my daughter.” He smiled suddenly. “Athena made the right choice, with you.”

It wasn’t that Matt ever thought that his father-in-law didn’t approve of him, because he knew he was fond of him, but it still caught him by surprise, this proclamation. “Thanks,” he managed.

“Matt,” Brem called to him, from the other side of the room. “Your baby is fantastic.”

Matt turned in his direction. Rose was holding the baby now, cuddling him to her. “I’m glad you think so. Even without hair?”

“You’re right, he’ll grow into that,” Brem decided.

“Brem,” the Doctor announced, “you can pilot Athena’s TARDIS. You know where to meet us.”

“I’ll stay here with Theenie and the baby,” Rose said. “Unless you’d rather I go with you?”

The Doctor shook his head. “Stay here. She’ll be happy to have you near once she wakes up.”

Rose looked to Matt. “If it’s okay with you?”

“More than okay. I’ll be very happy to have people around.”

“Come on, everyone else,” said the Doctor, marching onto his TARDIS. “Time to go.”

Matt watched all the strange people tramp obediently onto his father-in-law’s TARDIS. Then he looked to Rose and Brem. “What is going on?”

“It’s complicated and a bit of a mess,” Brem told him. “But we’re fixing it now. And, luckily, you were clever enough to keep Theenie or the baby from being a casualty.”

“But what is the mess?” Matt demanded.

“Come with me,” Brem said, turning on his heel and walking out of the infirmary.

Matt looked at Rose.

“I’ll watch both of them,” she promised him, settling into a rocking chair with the baby, who looked quite content.

“Thanks,” said Matt, and followed Brem, who he found in his kitchen, rummaging about in his liquor cabinet.

“What is this?” he asked, holding out a bottle at random.

“Scotch,” answered Matt.

“Is it good?”

Matt watched Brem pull a wineglass down. “You can’t drink,” he reminded him, as Brem filled the wineglass with Scotch. “You’re allergic to alcohol.”

“It isn’t for me.” He handed it to Matt.

Matt lifted his eyebrows at his wineglass of Scotch. “This isn’t how you drink Scotch. Like, at all.”

“I don’t care. Drink some of it.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to collapse to pieces.”

Matt realized abruptly that Brem was absolutely right. He was standing so tensely he thought he might shatter. Even his hand around the stem of the wineglass was gripping so tightly that his knuckles were white.

“Now,” Brem continued. “It’s fine. Everything is fine. The baby is fine, and Athena is fine, and you’re fine, and the universe is fine. Or going to be. We’re going to fix it. But that isn’t what’s important. Your universe is fine, you pulled them through it, you were brilliant, and I’m sorry you were alone, but you’re not anymore. Do you hear me, Matt? Take a sip of your Scotch and take a deep breath and understand what I’m saying to you: We’re here now. You don’t need to protect him on your own. We’re all here now, and we’re going to help.”

Matt looked at Brem. There were a million things he thought he should be saying but his mind was blank.

“Seriously,” Brem said. “Drink this.” He nudged the wineglass in Matt’s hand.

“If I drink this much Scotch,” Matt replied, because it was the only thing he could think of, “I really will collapse.”

“I’m sorry,” Brem answered.

Matt blinked. “I’m not following this conversation.”

“I’m sorry I doubted you. I’m going to try to be a better best friend in the future.”

“Well,” Matt managed. “Good. I always approve of that.”

“I’m going to go fly your TARDIS for you now.”

“Fly it where?” Matt asked, still feeling dazed by everything.

“It doesn’t matter. Drink some Scotch, and then go see your son.”

Brem swept out of the kitchen, his velvet greatcoat fluttering in his wake. Matt looked down at his wineglass of Scotch. And then he laughed until he cried.

***

Versailles on the monitor was nothing more than an empty room.

“Are you sure you’ve got it right?” demanded the leather-jacketed Doctor.

The Doctor did not take his eyes off the monitor. “I’ve got it right.”

“Were you a bad driver even back then?” Amy asked her Doctor with interest.

“Oi,” his bow-tied self protested. “I’ve gotten much better.”

“There’s a scary thought,” muttered Amy.

The Doctor looked over at her, where she was standing next to Rory. He only took his eyes off the monitor for a split second, but it was long enough for the Master to finally appear, and to give the leather-jacketed Doctor the privilege of announcing that he’d arrived.

“There he is,” he said. “At least, it’s probably him.”

“It’s him,” the Doctor said simultaneously with his bow-tied self.

The Master was waving at the TARDIS, performing a little dance of gleeful joy. The Doctor had the sound muted, but he didn’t need to have sound to know how much gloating the Master was doing.

“Brem’s going to be late,” the Doctor said, suddenly. “I did that deliberately. Brem’s stubborn, and he’s charming, and he loves to save the day, and I want him kept out of danger, and this is the only way to do it, to trick him in small places like this. I tell you all this because, no matter what he says, there is never going to be a plan in which Brem is placed in danger. Do you hear me?” He looked at his other selves. “Neither one of you are to ever agree to such a plan.”

“So,” drawled his leather-jacketed self, “if you could save the universe but lose Brem…?”

“Funny,” remarked the Doctor. “You’re going to reach much the same conclusion with Rose not long from now.” He headed toward the door, talking as he went. “I made Brem save his universe when he was four years old. I’ll never willingly put him in a position like that ever again.” He glanced over his shoulder, hand on the TARDIS door. “I’ll talk to the Master alone. And I’ll be right back.”

He pulled the door opened, stepped out, and closed it quickly. He didn’t want to give anyone time to disagree with his plan. Not that he thought they might, but, well, he was responsible for this mess with the Master, and for the fact that the rest of them had all been dragged into it. He would fix it.

“Ah, Doctor,” the Master exclaimed, happily, upon seeing him. “Long time, no see!”

The Doctor glared at him. He was too furious to respond.

“Come now!” the Master continued, into his silence. “Is that any way to greet a long-lost friend?”

The Doctor continued to glare. He had counted to ten silently in his head. He was working on twenty.

“Oh.” The Master began to pout. “Are you really going to be that way? It was one teeny-tiny chrono-trap. And I didn’t even set it off. If you’re going to be angry with someone, why can’t you be angry with your daughter, who—”

“Because you manipulated her,” snapped the Doctor, finally. “With your smoke and your mirrors. When she’s done absolutely nothing to you, and when I specifically told you, when I saved you on Gallifrey, that you needed to stay away from my children.”

“Oh, stop being such a…ninny. I barely did anything at all to her. Isn’t she off all happy as we speak, with her idiotic Time Agency lover? Or, wait.” The Master frowned. “Is that a faux pas, to talk to a father about his daughter’s lovers? You really have gone and made our interactions so complicated.”

“A child was born today,” the Doctor said, icily. “He was born alone, and afraid, thinking that no one in the world loved him. When I vowed I would never let that happen ever again.”

The Master yawned.

“Why don’t you just kill me?” the Doctor demanded. “I don’t understand you, I really don’t. Why all this ridiculous elaboration? Get out a gun, and kill me. And then kill the next me, and the next. Do it now, and be done with it.”

“Why don’t you just kill me?” the Master countered, calmly.

They stared across at each other, and the question danced around the Doctor’s mind. He thought of Fortuna, and he thought of Athena, and he thought of Brem, and he thought of their children, and the children to come after that generation, and the one after that. And was there always to be the Master, there, in the background, threatening everything? Why didn’t he just kill him?

The Doctor closed his eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted. “I don’t want to kill you. I don’t understand why I have to. The universe is so vast. Why did we ever have to cross paths, ever again?”

“Because I don’t have a TARDIS, Doctor,” the Master retorted. “How was I supposed to get anywhere?”

The Doctor opened his eyes, hearing something in the Master’s tone. “Is that what this is about?”

“There’s a chrono-trap in effect right now. It’s sucking up time as we speak. You’ve broken through it, but you know how chrono-traps work. If I keep feeding it power, how long until the timelines can’t stand it anymore, until the knots get pulled so tight they snap? How long do you think, Doctor?” he asked, silkily. “How long do you think you’ve already spent, you and your family, figuring things out? Your sense of time is skewed, you have no idea.” The Master sucked in a breath and shuddered with what seemed to the Doctor was pleasure. “Isn’t that just terrifying?” he said, as if he were asking if the cheesecake being served for dessert was delicious.

“Where is it?” the Doctor bit out.

The Master smiled at him. “Not here. And I know you’re wondering: How did the Master get a chrono-trap into a time period where he’s not? I have this marvelous accomplice, you see. His name is Valentin. Have you figured that out yet? That piece of the puzzle? Who Valentin is? Ah, I can see by your eyes that you have. You’re not as good at hiding things as you once were, you know. You’ve gotten soft.”

“Where is Valentin keeping the chrono-trap?” the Doctor asked, calmly.

“Somewhere safe. Until I tell him to shut it off.”

“Then tell him to shut it off.”

“Ah, you see, that’s the catch. I will definitely tell him to shut it off. As soon as you give me a TARDIS.”

“A TARDIS?”

“Yes.”

“Where am I getting you a TARDIS?”

“You’ve got four of them, you greedy thug!” exclaimed the Master.

“They’re all being used! And, anyway, you’re mad if you think I want you floating through time and space wreaking havoc. It was a mistake to ever take you out of Gallifrey. Stay here, out of the way.” He paused. “In Versailles.”

The Master chuckled. “What, like I can’t wreak any havoc in Versailles? I could flirt with Madame de Pompadour...Oh, wait, you seem to have that covered.”

“Turn off the chrono-trap,” snapped the Doctor.

The Master held out his hand. “Key,” he requested, simply.

“You really think Valentin will let the chrono-trap spin out? Kill all of us, and himself? Decimate time that way? Why would he do that?”

“Talk to Sylvain. Ask him why wouldn’t he. Now. I’m going to go steal your girlfriend. Come and find me when you’re ready to give me my TARDIS, ta.”

The Doctor watched him stroll out of the room at Versailles. He stood there for a second, breathing hard and trying to think his way out of this mess.

Athena’s TARDIS vworp-ed into existence next to him, and he heard Brem step out of it.

“You’re early,” he said to Brem, without looking at him.

“Like I didn’t know you’d lie to me about what time we should meet. Apparently, I’m not early enough. What happened? Did you talk to him?”

“We need to find Fortuna,” said the Doctor.

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