The Girl in the Box (Doctor Who)

The End of the Gemstone

"And now it's time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven's hour is over now, the clock is striking twelves," Clara read my husband the poem in his Christmas cracker, resting her head on his arthritic knee.

"I don't get it," he told her, his goofy grin finding its way back onto his wrinkled lips.

"Gemstone, here's yours. 'The brightest stone that once shone so bright, will soon lose her weaning light. While she seems to hold her fight, it's one that she will lose tonight.' A bit drab, isn't it?" Clara frowned at the peculiar poem, but I knew just what it meant.

That's why I had divulged into my adventures with the Doctor, especially the earlier ones that I still held dear to me. I knew I was going to die that night, with my regenerations used up and my frail body withering.

This regeneration's silky brunette hair had faded into an unkempt grey colour. The bright, apple-green eyes I used to adore had turned dull with time and wiser with age. My porcelain skin had gained too many wrinkles to count in the last few hundred years. The strong bones that once held me up had become too frail to walk on, forcing me to be bedridden the last year. My sharp mind had gotten dull with the extensive time spent on Trenzalore, not having nearly as many adventures to keep the knowledge inside of it from fading.

As I laid in my bed, I reminisced more of the past with the Doctor. I remembered the adventures with Martha after we invited her to be a part of the TARDIS crew. I remembered finding another Time Lord called the Master, who turned out to be an antagonist. I remembered the Doctor being turned so many years older and kept in a cage. I remembered being forced to pretend I loved the Master more, just so he would keep us all alive. I remembered exchanging love letters with the Doctor every night, giving each other hope. I remembered Martha leaving to be with her family. I remembered Donna Noble joining us, and becoming our best friend. I remembered the Daleks taking the Earth out of orbit and hiding it. I remembered Rose Tyler coming back, giving the Doctor emotions he had long since stashed away. I remembered his clone and the Doctor Donna saving the day. I remembered the Doctor choosing me over Rose, and leaving his human clone in her dimension for her. I remembered losing our best friend, Donna's memory wiped to save her. I remembered comforting the Doctor every night when he mourned the loss of his best friend. I remembered us traveling alone and finding the Master again. I remembered jumping from a spaceship and having to regenerate into my current self. I remembered the Doctor next to his breaking point, and how he never reached it. I remembered Wilfred Mott knocking four times. I remembered the Doctor regenerating into his eleventh incarnation. I remembered young Amelia Pond, the girl who waited. I remembered popping out of a cake with the Doctor at Rory Williams' stag party. I remembered the crack in the wall that followed us wherever we went. I remembered the Big Bang 2. I remembered being pregnant with the Doctor and I's daughter. I remembered being replaced with a doppelganger and held captive. I remembered having my daughter alone and naming her Melody Pond, giving her the last name of her godparents. I remembered the Doctor doing everything to find us, things he wasn't proud of. I remembered my daughter being taken from me, and the endless pain that went with it. I remembered finding out she was River Song, and crying every night knowing her death. I remembered being invited to the Doctor's death. I remembered the end of time. I remembered marrying the Doctor, and finding out he was alive. I remembered losing the Ponds, along with our sanity. I remembered living on a cloud to avoid reality with the Doctor. I remembered an impossible girl called Clara Oswald, and how she saved us from our depression. I remembered crying at the Doctor's grave in Trenzalore, with his hand in mine. I remembered meeting the Doctor that left me on Earth in the first place, and slapping him rather hard. I remembered seeing the Doctor's previous regeneration, the one with the brilliant hair and tight suits. I remembered saving Gallifrey, and hoping to see it once again. I remembered finding Trenzalore, and living in Christmas with the Doctor for hundreds of years.

Then, I watched the Doctor's old face and remembered the new one. The face that I had grown to love so much. The face that was silly but wise all at once. I remembered my Doctor, the Doctor that I loved to the edge of all universes and back.

I watched the old face look back at me and smile, a smile that warmed my heart so very much. Then I watched it curve down, fear striking its features and causing them to change. I watched the Doctor stumble to my bedside, tears visable in his eyes. I watched him start to sob much like I had at his grave, which also had mine beneath it.

I knew that my time was coming, that I would rest forever soon. I just didn't want the Doctor to join me.

I took my feeble hand and grabbed his, making him look into my eyes through the tears.

"I love you, dear, and there's nothing that could ever stop me from doing so. I want to thank you for every adventure, for every laugh, for every second you spent with me," I told him first, before I spoke to the crack in the wall in front of my bed. "Listen to me, you lot, listen. Help him. Help him change the future, do it. Do something," I commanded it. "You've been asking a question, and it's time someone told you you've been getting it wrong. His name -- his name is the Doctor. It's the name he needs, everything you need to know about him. And if you love him, and you should, help him," I pleaded. And with my dying breath, I asked once again. "Help him."

The End