Doctor Who - Imaginary Friends

Imaginary Friends

The Doctor didn't take the time to see what I did to them. The children that he met in his travels. Just once, or twice. Often just for a few minutes, nothing more. But enough. More than enough to change them forever more. He spoke of demons, of creatures from other worlds, of cowboys and danger and the light in his eyes made them believe that just by being the one that he's trying to help, that they were the most important people in all the world. Slipping into their rooms at night, or appearing in their back gardens, through a fireplace or in a great big blue box.

Fireplace Man.

Raggedy Doctor.

Just two of the names he gained himself, from the many, many children's lives he changed forever, just by meeting them. Who those girls might have grown up to be without the influence of their meeting with that man from another world. Their imaginary friend that was just too fantastic, too alive when everyone else in their worlds were so... dull.

*x*x*

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson knew only the bustle of life spent in house full of servants. Dull, quiet people. Distant parents. Her life one of curtseying to gentlemen and ladies in fine clothes, all of them saying how pretty she was, as if she were a pet. And as a child, she was expected to act as such. She was to be quiet, and proper. Her life was set out by her governesses and her parents' social calendar, lessons in music, acting and art just as important as those of etiquette and dancing. Her life was dull, if fitted in finery. Her life was not her own.

Then she heard talking from behind her fireplace. At first she thought it was nothing but a dream; a man crouching in the back of her fire, where she knew there was a wall when last time she looked. Asking where she was, and the year. So full of life; friendly, if a little eccentric from what little she gauged from that first meeting. But then, there he was again, rescuing her from the monster hiding under her bed. Her guardian angel, from that moment on, always coming to her aid. No man could compare. She married for the benefits it brought for both her own family and that of the man she married. She even won favour with His Majesty, the King of France. She was forever popular with the Gentlemen, but none of them knew what it was that so attracted them to her. Where that flame in her, the quick wit and the slight hints of defiance and independence came from. It had been lit in her by one man's visitations. That feeling that she meant something. That just the fact that it had been her room

*x*x

Her garden that he had landed/crashed his Big Blue Box in. Little Amelia Pond. The Scottish girl in the English town, never fitting in, always getting into fights. Even her own Aunt barely wanted to spend time with her, always leaving her to her own devices. Everyone was so bland here. They were happy living their days in routines. They never looked at the stars as

*x*x*

Reinette did

*x*x*


Lorna Bucket did. The Mighty Warrior helped everyone that day, but it was only her hand that he caught. That smile he gave her, a manic grin as he said that one word. "Run". When he let go of her hand, when he left the Gamma Forests, once the danger had been dealt with, she felt the loss more than any of the rest of her people. She knew she did. Yes, he had saved them all, but they hadn't felt the sheer energy that he had. They hadn't touched that hand, that amazing being that came to save them all from danger, but also to save her from the life they all lived. They didn't see what there was for them out there. But Lorna always had. She had always seen the possibilities that were waiting so close at hand. When the Church came to her planet recruiting soldiers, she was the only one to join. She was the only one that had felt what it was like to be close to the Doctor. She wanted to feel that again, or else she feared she would never feel as alive as she had in those brief seconds that her hand had been in his. She spent whole days, running through the silver-barked trees, memories and her own imagination merging until she didn't know which was which any more. She always dreamed of meeting her Mighty Warrior

*x*x*

Fireplace Man

*x*x*

Raggedy Doctor once more, but the taunting got to her. As a child she had just fought back, but as the awkward shroud of adolescence settled on her, and the desire to "fit in" became overwhelming, she pretended to have gotten over her "childish games" and her "imaginary friend". She started seeing Rory as something more than just the boy who played along with her games. She saw how he was so different and so similar to the man she had, at the age of seven, given her young, inexperienced heart to. He was always there, always waiting for her when she went gallivanting off to other cities in fits of teenage rebellion. He was always cheering her up when she was down, gently teasing her, or just there when she needed someone. He was never there, He had left her alone, even though He promised. She never lost faith though. No matter what, she knew He would

*x*x*

Come back for her. He always did. Even as her strength was leaving her, and the coughing fits lasted longer, and she could barely lift her quill from the paper to write to him. Just a precaution. She knew he would come for her. He always did. Still her travelling bag lay packed in the corner of her room nearest the fireplace. She had moved things in and out of it on occasions, swapping dresses as they became out of fashion. But it had always been there, ready for when that magical man came turning around the fireplace, ready for when he took her hand in his, helped her rise from her bed and took her to see the stars as he had promised oh so long ago now, but still so clear.

These days, her memories grew ever more faded. One painted face became the same as all the others, be them flesh or porcelain. People came and left her room from time to time. She often imagined her mother's form tending to her fevered brow, or standing at the window. How she wished her mother had lived to see the woman she had become. She often wondered what she would make of her. AS distant as she had been during her childhood, she had always cared for Reinette, ensuring that she had the very best education, hiring actors and singers to teach her. They had grown close in Reinette's adolescence and early adulthood, before her health decreased. But she would see her again.

She laid the pen down, looking close at the words she had written. One never wants to listen to reason. But weakness, and tiredness were almost overwhelming her now. As she slid the elegant parchment into the envelope, writing his name on the cover, she felt her head lulling. She lay back into the pillows, her breathing seeming less laboured than it had of late, gentle and quiet. She just felt so very tired. Maybe if she just lay back for a while. She was so very tired.

She noticed her mother was sitting in the chair beside her bed, smiling gently at her.

Mother, why do you look so sad? I just feel a little tired... that's all... just a little

*x*x*

Tired. Lorna felt so tired. Her body felt so heavy, pain weighing down her chest as she laid her head against the rails. She had tried to help the Doctor's friends, tried to warn them. But she was too late. It was all too late. The child... the child had been lost. But... surely it counted, that she had tried. That she had tried to make a difference. Surely... surely it counted...

She felt it. That energy she had always wanted to feel again, even before she heard him near her. She had thought she felt it before he had revealed himself in the hall, but thought she must have been imagining it. But now it was unmistakable. She opened her eyes, and there he was, crouched in front of her. Consciousness was escaping her, and she knew she didn't have long. But here he was. That man she had idolised for so many years; her whole life. She had never tried to love anyone else. They all just paled in comparison to that wonderful, mad warrior. He was thanking her... oh how it felt for that magical, amazing man to thank her. To be told that he did remember her, even after all these years. She barely felt the tear that fell from her eye as her eyes closed on that moment. It was too much. The Doctor had come back to her. He remembered her.

In that last second, before she died, Lorna Bucket felt more alive than she had since she was a child. He had actually

*x*x*

Come back for her. He came back for her, and showed her the stars, and she always knew he would. It wasn't safe, and sometimes... sometimes it was just plain terrifying. She had lost Rory so many times, she wondered if it would ever stop hurting for each time she did. She had her child taken away from her twice, and found out that child's future. She had been kidnapped more times than she cared to count. But she knew he would always come for her, and would always do her best. She trusted him with the lives of her family. This life was dangerous, but she knew, just knew that this was the life she wanted to live. The Doctor had come back for her. She loved him, though not in the same way she had once thought she did. He wasn't her imaginary friend anymore. She had grown up since he came back and took her away. He was no less the magical man she had always imagined him to be. He had lost none of his wonder or awe, but she now knew that she couldn't spend all her life ignoring all others for him. He was an unachievable goal.

She wasn't going to die feeling that she had never been loved, just because she didn't have him. She had Rory. She had Melody. She would die to save them, just as she would the Doctor.

She might die because he came back, but it was better than the alternative.

*x*x*

The Doctor didn't take the time to see what he did to them. Just by skipping into and out of their lives, he changed so many lives. For better or for worse, they were always altered from what they might have been. They gave up their lives for him, again and again, be it in death or just in devotion. But he didn't stop to see it. He just carried on his eternal waltz through the stars, forever with his TARDIS. And the TARDIS thought, as she often did, what she would have been if he hadn't tried her door, all those centuries ago...

He didn't see how he changed them.