The last two months had been hard for William and Caroline, but they had tried to put on a brave face and they had kept telling themselves that Arthur would have wanted them to carry on, get married and to make the most of their lives. No - to make it the most wonderful life they could possibly have.
William had handled things exceptionally well. In fact it was Caroline that always seemed to be on the verge of breaking into tears at the slightest thing. William, however, would just help to pick her up and they’d carry on.
It must have been the way in these times. William showed utter devotion to Caroline, but with other matters he was completely reserved and held back his emotions.
April was coming to an end and the spring had arrived. The night’s where getting lighter and the wedding getting closer.
William and Caroline would spend most of their day at the orphanage and then return to the Fieldgate house in the early evening to spend time with Agatha. Although she kept quiet, they both realised that she really didn’t want to be on her own.
One evening, just as it was starting to get dark, William and Caroline were sat on the porch at the back of the house. Caroline watched as the wind blew gently through the tops of the trees.
“Could I ask you a question?” asked William, sipping his tea.
“Of course,” said Caroline, watching a bird circle in the sky.
“If your friends came back now, what would you do?”
Caroline hadn’t thought about this for a long time. Half a year ago she would have hopped straight back into the TARDIS, but now…Now this was her life.
“I’d stay here. With you.” She turned and smiled at him. “Never doubt that, Will. Never.”
William smiled. “You don’t miss your life in the future?”
“I miss material things. I miss my iPod. I miss Neighbours and I miss going to the Barge for a pint. But, like I said, they’re all material things. I don’t need them. All I need is you,” she nodded towards the garden, “and this.”
William smiled and took her hand. “Your iPod died?”
“Enough left for one more song,” said Caroline.
“Play one to me,” said William.
“I’m not sure-”
“Please.”
Caroline smiled and ran into the house. Two minutes later she was back with her iPod and some battery-powered speakers. She set it all up and pressed play.
A gentle, piano-led song came on.
“This is…interesting…nice,” said William, listening to the sound coming from the device.
“It’s the song I wanted at my wedding,” said Caroline. “One of my favourite songs.”
Caroline stood up and reached out her hand.
William stood up. “I’m not a very good dancer.”
“Neither am I,” she smiled, “but this is the last time I’ll ever hear this song. I want to dance to it with you.”
He took Caroline in his arms and they began to dance slowly around the garden to the song.
"Slow down, we've got time left to be lazy. All the kids have bloomed from babies into flowers in our eyes. We've got fifty good years left to spend out in the garden I don't care to beg your pardon, we should live until we die.
We were barely eighteen when we crossed collective hearts. It was cold, but it got warm when you barely crossed my eye. And then you turned, put out your hand, and you asked me to dance I knew nothing of romance, but it was love at second sight.
I swear when I grow up I won't just buy you a rose. I will buy the flower shop, and you will never be lonely. For even if the sun stops waking up over the fields I will not leave, I will not leave 'til it's on time. So just take my hand, you know that I will never leave your side.
It was the winter of '86, all the fields had frozen over so we moved to Arizona to save our only son.
And now he's turned into a man, though he thinks just like his mother. He believes we're all just lovers, he sees hope in everyone
And even though she moved away, we always get calls from our daughter. She has eyes just like her father's, they are blue when skies are gray. And just like him she never stops, never takes the day for granted. Works for everything that's handed to her, never once complained
And you think that I nearly lost you when the doctors tried to take you away. But like the night you took my hand beside the fire thirty years ago 'til this day. You swore you'd be here 'til we decide that it's our time, but it's not time, you never quit in all your life. So just take my hand and know that I will never leave your side. You're the love of my life, you know that I will never leave your side
You come home from work, and you kiss me on the eye, you curse the dogs, you say that I should never feed them what is ours and so we move out to the garden, look at everything we've grown and the kids are coming home so I'll set the table; you can make the fire."
That night Caroline was asleep in her bed when she heard a noise from outside. It sounded like electricity. It sounded alien to this time.
She got up and put her slippers on. Looking out of the window she could see a slight, blue glow coming from the trees at the back of the garden. She pulled on her big coat and went onto the landing, creeping past the other bedrooms and then downstairs.
She went out into the garden and the flash came again. It was like lightning. Flickering and flashing and illuminating the darkness around it.
For a second she thought she saw a figure in the flash…but as soon as it appeared it was gone.
She jumped when she turned back to the house and saw William standing there.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked, concern in his voice.
“I thought I saw something out here. Someone.”
William looked into the darkness. “I can’t see anything.”
“It was like lightning,” said Caroline, still trying to peer and see if she could spot anything.
And that’s when she felt it. A tingling in her hands. It ran all the way from within her chest, through her arms and into the tips of her fingers.
“What’s wrong?” asked William.
Caroline looked confused as she held her arms out at the side. “I’m not sure. I…I don’t know.”
Her hands looked like they were glowing. They had become translucent. And then two bolts of lightning flashed from both of her hands, setting a nearby rose bush on fire.
“Oh, my days!” yelled William as he fanned the flames out on the bush. “What on Earth was that?”
The tingling had stopped. “I…I don’t know. I feel fine again. I feel normal again.”
“Come on,” said William, gentling guiding Caroline towards the house, “let’s get you inside, eh?”
But as they walked away, Caroline looked back at the now-smouldering bush she had set on fire.
“We’re lucky you weren’t inside when that happened. It could have burnt the entire house down.”
Caroline gulped.
“Are you okay?” asked William as they stepped inside the back door.
“I had forgotten. I had forgotten how dangerous I was.”
“The special powers you told me about,” said William, looking grim.
“How can I stay here? How can I stay in 1902 when I’m capable of something like that?”
William took her hands and brought his face to her level. “Nothing is going to happen. I promise you.”
“How can you be so sure?” said Caroline, feeling her entire world begin to collapse in on itself.
“Because you are going to be my wife. I shall help you through this.” He kissed her on her lips and she relaxed. “You won’t hurt anyone. You won’t.”
April, 1988
The Doctor had managed to repair the majority of his equipment, but he hadn’t seen Danny in almost a month. He had built two devices. One which he hoped to use to transmit a holographic image of himself back to 1902 and try and contact Caroline, and the other which would hopefully act like a temporal fishing rod and hook onto the TARDIS, bringing it down to 1988 - if it was still there.
He had located where Caroline and William had been living in the past and made his way, with his equipment, over to the old house on Bargate. It was now an old people’s home - Fieldgate Care Home - and the staff seemed a little suspicious at first, but they soon came around after the Doctor produced a packet of chocolate digestives. They allowed him entrance to the home, providing it was outside and not where he would disturb the residents. He had told them he was using a device to record the amount of birdsong in the area - not the finest excuse he had ever come up with, but it was the first thing that popped into his head!
While outside, setting up his equipment, he heard a voice. It was Lisa.
She came strolling out of the big house, her arms folded across her chest.
“Hello Lisa,” said the Doctor, quietly, as he unfolded a tripod-like apparatus.
“Harry told me where you’d gone.” She looked at the strange rig he was setting up. “I thought Danny had smashed all this up.”
“He set me back a little,” said the Doctor, “but not enough to stop me.”
“Listen,” said Lisa, getting closer to the Doctor, “I know you and Danny have had your differences, but…is there no other way around this?”
The Doctor looked at her sadly. She looked like she’d been crying. “Lisa, I wouldn’t have wished this on my worst enemy. To be erased from time…it’s…worse than death.”
“Thanks,” said Lisa, “you’re not making this any easier, you know.”
The Doctor thought for a moment. “There may be something I can do.”
Lisa looked hopeful.
“I may be able to take you with us. In the TARDIS, I mean. It may be able to shield you from the changes in time, but I can’t guarantee it.”
“Why didn’t you suggest this before?”
“Because I’m not keen on the idea of carrying a time anomaly around in my time machine, that’s why. It‘d be like holding a piece of wood next to a roaring fire and hoping it didn’t catch alight.”
Lisa looked concerned. “What could happen?”
“Any number of things. The TARDIS could stop you from being erased and you’d be perfectly fine. An anomaly, but perfectly fine. Or you could be trapped in the TARDIS, never being able to leave. Or you could destroy my TARDIS, depending on how powerful the changes to the timeline would be.”
Lisa sighed. “And there’s no way to predict which one it would be?”
“No way at all.”
“But all of this will be gone?” she said, holding her hands out and indicating their surroundings.
“It’d still be here, albeit in a slightly altered universe.”
“A universe where my entire family were never born?”
The Doctor nodded grimly.
“Can we save them?”
The Doctor shook his head. “That would be like taking several pieces of wood and throwing them into a roaring fire, expecting them to not catch alight.”
Lisa sighed. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t sentence my entire family to death.”
The machine started to beep as the Doctor slotted the last component into place. “Stay there a moment.” He flicked a switch and a beam of light appeared from the device. The Doctor stepped into the beam of light and it expanded to cover the full length of his body.
“What is that?”
“A holo-transmitter. I’m hoping to get a message back to Caroline. I can’t be as accurate as I would have liked, however, but I’m just hoping that she’s there when I transmit this. Ideally I would have liked to have been inside the building, but I’m afraid there are no birds in there.”
Lisa looked confused, but shook the questions away.
“Now,” said the Doctor, “let’s see what happens.” The machine sparked and fizzed and the light flickered.
“Is it bust?” asked Lisa.
“I don’t know,” said the Doctor, leaning forward and checking the device. “It’s certainly transmitting something.” And then the machine exploded in a very pathetic bang.
“Oh, no!” groaned the Doctor. “All that time wasted on trying to make one of those.”
“Sorry, Doctor,” said Lisa.
The Doctor sighed. “I supposed we’ll just have to proceed with the fishing rod and get the TARDIS back.”
They packed up their equipment and made their way through the care home and back out onto the busy, Bargate road. Lisa helped the Doctor with some of the broken equipment as they walked past the tall trees and the old houses.
“Fancy a pint in the Sheaf?” asked Lisa.
The Doctor smiled. “Not really a fan of alcohol. I like to keep my wits about me. Keep aware of my surroundings.”
Lisa nodded. “Thank you, Doctor.”
“What for?”
“For at least trying to help me. For giving me an option.”
The Doctor smiled. “It’s a risk. A big risk, but Danny is clearly not going to ever let me finish trying to save Caroline.”
“Is there no other way, though?”
“No. I wish their was, but we need to put everything right. And I’m just sorry that it’s your family that are going to get caught in the crossfire if we do this.”
The two of them were distracted when they heard a yell from up ahead. There was Danny marching towards the two of them, his face red.
“Hey, Dan,” said Lisa.
“What the hell’s going on? What are you doing to her?” he asked the Doctor.
“Nothing,” said the Doctor innocently.
“Calm down, Danny,” said Lisa. “The Doctor’s got a plan which may help me. If I decide to go through with it, that is.”
“Really?” said Danny.
“Really,” said the Doctor. “It’s a long shot, but it may just work.”
“If he takes me in his time machine. Hopefully it’ll stop me being erased.”
Danny looked at the Doctor, and then at Lisa and then his face broke into a wide smile. There were tears in his eyes. He closed in and hugged the Doctor as tightly as he could.
“Thank you, Doctor,” he sobbed. “Thank you so much.”
“Okay, okay, break it up,” laughed Lisa. “How about me?”
Danny turned and hugged Lisa as tight as he could.
“And I haven’t decided to go through with it yet.”
“It’s not guaranteed to work,” said the Doctor, smiling at the couple, “but if you decide on it then I’ll give it a go. I can see how much she means to you.”
The three of them continued their walk back towards town. Lisa remembered that she had to get some milk.
“I’m just gonna pop to Lifestyle,” she said, heading across the street to the corner shop.
“Okay, see you back at the White Hart,” called Danny back to her. “Then we can discuss how coming with us will make sense.”
She laughed and continued to walk across the road, lost in her thoughts. A few seconds later she stopped herself in the middle of the road and turned to look at Danny and the Doctor walking away.
“Hey,” she called back.
The two men turned to look.
“I love you, Danny.”
“Love you too,” smiled Danny.
And then there came a screech of tyres, a bang and Lisa went flying backwards up in the air and over the roof of the car that had hit her. She landed with a thump behind the car.
“No!” yelled Danny, as he and the Doctor ran back.
They crouched down over Lisa who was lying prone on the floor, a trickle of blood coming from her mouth.
“Lisa! Lisa!” cried Danny.
But Lisa didn’t respond. Lisa didn’t move at all. Lisa was dead.
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