Chapter Text
It had been three weeks since Tara’s headaches started. She didn’t tell the Doctor about them, thinking he might act a little overly dramatic about it. Then again, he was her dad and he would do everything he could to make them stop. But Tara chose not to tell him, she thought it would disappear on its own. As each day passed they became more intense, and she could feel it with each heart beat. Having two hearts made it worse and more painful. After having enough of it, she decided to try and figure out what was causing the headaches. There was only one place Tara could check, and it was her memory system.
Tara had made a building to keep her memories, it eventually grew in size and turned into a museum. It had an old Victorian front door with a rounded handle. The floor was made of white marble, the walls were also made of marble. The light fixtures were like the ones you would see in a hotel, attached to the wall with some kind of covering, and spaced ten feet apart. The main floor held the memories that meant the most to Tara. Near the middle of the building was a staircase that went upstairs to more horrifying memories that she couldn’t stand to witness again. To the left of the staircase, the hall got darker until you couldn’t see past the first six feet. To the right, the hall was like the main floor, brightly lit. Both halls split into more halls and many rooms. A white pillar was positioned on each side of the staircase at the bottom. Behind the staircase was a fifty foot door that read keep out in black paint. Behind those doors was her library of thoughts. Farther down the library was the restricted area.
Tara wandered around the main floor of the museum, making sure everything was in order. She checked the first room near the entrance of the museum. She opened the door, and watched the memory of her meeting the Doctor for the first time. She smiled to herself, remembering every detail of that day. She closed the door behind her and wandered off to another room. The room she was about to check was labeled, First Time Travel. She grabbed the handle and was just about to open the door, when she heard a loud crack. The wall five feet away from the door had somehow split from the ceiling to the floor. Tara walked over to it and placed her hand on it. The crack soon disappeared, Tara nodded in satisfaction. Another crack and a thud boomed through the museum, Tara turned and saw that one of the pillars had lost a small chunk. She ran over to it and replaced the missing piece. She looked up to make sure another piece wouldn’t break off and hit her. Once she was sure the fallen piece was properly in place, she went off to check the rest of the museum. As she looked around she thought to herself.
Please, don’t be falling apart.
She was suddenly pulled out from her museum as a shake, and someone saying her name over and over broke her focus.
“Tara? Tara, are you alright?”
Tara blinked her eyes and looked around her, she was standing in the middle of the control room of the Tardis. Clara was standing in front of her with a concerned look. Tara shook her head a little and replied. “Yeah I’m fine, just spaced off a bit.” She gave Clara a reassuring smile, then walked off to her room. In the middle of the corridor, a sudden pain stopped Tara in her tracks. She winced and continued walking to her room. Once she reached it, she sat in the middle of her bed and focused again on the museum.
In the museum, she found herself in the East Wing again. She also found part of the ceiling on the floor. She looked up to see where in the ceiling it had come from, but didn’t find it.
“No, please don’t fall.” She said to herself. “Please, don’t fall.”
She spent another two hours looking around and didn’t find anything wrong with the museum. When she reached the Entrance Hall, part of it fell. Tara dived out of the falling pieces’ path, and watched her museum slowly crumble. When the dust cleared, part of the roof was gone letting in the sunlight. Tara had an upset expression, and mumbled to herself.
“All that hard work, for nothing.” She stood up and walked out of the museum. The only way to fix everything was to rebuild it from the ground up, that would take weeks and Tara would need to be in a dream like state. She opened her eyes and heard a knock on her door.
“Come in.” She called as she quickly stood up.
Catherine walked in, closing the door behind her. “Hey.” She said.
“Hi.” Tara replied through grit teeth, trying to hold back pain.
There goes another piece. Tara thought to herself. A sudden burst of pain claimed itself over Tara causing her to moan in pain and collapsing to her knees.
Catherine rushed over to her sister to keep her from completely keeling over. “Are you okay?”
Tara looked up at her and bluntly replied. “No, my museum is collapsing and I need to fix it. But the only way to do that is to be in a dream state. And it’ll take several weeks to try and fix. I have a reset in here, but I need time to find it. You can’t tell dad Catherine, he’ll only try to intervene and get caught in the reset process. I don’t want that to happen, so you mustn’t tell.”
“I won’t tell him Tara.”
“Swear to me you won’t.” Tara had a pained, and pleading look.
“I swear I won’t tell.”
Tara gave a weak smile. “Thanks. I need to get started so if you would kindly leave that would be awesome.”
Catherine nodded and left. Once she was gone, Tara got up and locked her door, then moved back to sit in the middle of her bed.
*****
Tara was back in the Entrance Hall and saw the pile of rubble that sat in the middle. It had grown a little in size, Tara sighed in disappointment and went back to the East Wing to see what the damage there was like.
Time passed by, and Tara found an unmarked door. Curious, she opened the door and saw a large, black animal inside. It turned and saw her, its eyes were a mixture of yellow and green. After it turned to look at her, it started to move, eventually running to the door.
“Oh shit!” Tara shouted before slamming the door shut and running down the East Wing.
She threw a look over her shoulder and saw that it was still behind her. She whimpered in fear a bit and tried to run faster. It eventually caught up with her, and jumped on her. Using all of it’s force, the animal slammed her against the marble floor and had her pinned for a few moments.
Thinking the worst, Tara shut her eyes and waited for it to attack her. When it didn’t, she opened her eyes and looked behind her. It sat on the floor to her right and panted like a dog would. She slowly turned over and said.
“Not going to kill me. That’s fine.” She swallowed hard and propped herself up. Her hearts were racing and she breathed hard. The large animal got up and moved towards her. Tara’s breath hitched a little, then she started to move back until she hit a wall.
“Stop.” She commanded. The animal stopped just two feet away from her. “Sit?” The animal did what she said again. Tara looked at it half amazed, and half horrified. “Hi.” She said to it.
“Hello mistress.” It replied.
“Oh my god you can talk. What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to protect the museum and you.”
“Okay. Who put you here?”
“My creator.”
“And who’s your creator?”
“I don’t know.”
Tara swallowed against a lump and thought for a second before asking. “Okay, do you have a name?”
“No. I waited for you to find me, and possibly give me a name.”
Tara gave a half nod, and thought through possibilities. “How about Beschützer?”
“I love it!” Beschützer stood up and spun in a little circle. Tara just watched as it acted like a puppy, but there was something strange about Beschützer. He didn’t just look like a dog, but he also looked like he could be part bear too. Tara decided that he was a beardog, named Beschützer.
After taking that in, Tara stood up and left the East Wing with Beschützer on her right. As they walked, Tara looked down at him and wondered how he got into her museum. She didn’t remember putting him in that unmarked room. She didn’t mind him being there though, if he was there to protect her and her museum, then he was going to stay here and do just that.
The two of them reached the Entrance Hall, and a loud crack split the air. A part of the ceiling was falling, and was about to hit them. Too shocked and slightly horrified to move, Tara just stood there and watched it come down. Beschützer picked up on Tara’s body language and pulled her out of the way just in time. He yanked her over by the bottom of her shirt, and she landed on the floor butt first.
Tara watched the huge chunk of the ceiling fall, followed by the staircase and pillars. Tears filled her eyes, she turned her head to look at Beschützer when he asked.
“Are you okay mistress? I didn’t hurt you did I?”
Tears fell as she answered. “No Beschützer, you did good. Thank you.”
“Are you sad mistress?”
“Yes Beschützer, very sad.”
Beschützer rubbed his head on her left cheek, Tara wrapped her arms around him and sobbed slightly.
“Oh Beschützer, that took forever to build when I was younger. How am I going to get up there now?”
Beschützer was quiet, unsure of how to comfort his mistress. Tara didn’t want an answer though. The two of them just sat there in the crumbling Entrance Hall, and listened to the loud cracks and thuds as the day slipped into darkness.