Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“This smells incredible,” Mum says, taking a sniff of the spice. “What is it again?”

“It’s diovin.” Yaz checks to make sure her stitches are all in order. She’s making a pale pink turtleneck sweater with flowers across the middle, a little more ambitious than normal but it won’t go to waste. She makes knitwear for everybody she cares about, but the Doctor’s the only one who insists on taking the lumpy and misshapen stuff, the stuff that normally Yaz would get rid of and resolve to make a better version next time. She’ll wear something with a hole, or a flubbed stitch, or is a little lopsided. She wears all the rejects. “Sort of sweet and savory at the same time.”

“Smells like it’ll go great in the nihari.” Mum adds a little, stirring and giving it a taste. “Mm. Lovely.”

Yaz drops by Mum and Dad’s every few weeks for a three or four day visit. Some of it lately has been trying to help Sonya find a flat, but a lot of it is just hanging out, and at the end of the few days she returns to the TARDIS, giving the Doctor a kiss as she excitedly tells her about the latest civilization she’d saved. It’s a good life.

“Yazzie, can you go round the shops and pick me up some chocolate?” Sonya asks.

“You’ve got legs.”

“I’ve got my period.”

Fair enough. Yaz stands. “I’ll be back!”

“Bye, love.”

“Good chocolate!”

“Oh, you’ll get what you get!”

Yaz doesn’t really miss driving. She likes a good walk. She’d have to, she supposes, traveling with the Doctor, or running about with Jack. Jack had cheerfully kissed the top of her head the last time she saw him, telling her he was going on a little visit with Gwen. She’s happy for him. Every time they see each other after he visits with the Cooper-Williams household, he’s glowing about how brilliant Anwen is, and how kind, and how clever, and how he’s the best uncle ever , spoiling her rotten. He deserves that, she thinks. Maybe they all do, a little bit of grace afforded to each and every one of them.

Yaz turns a corner and stops dead, blinking.

She looks a little different, a little round thing of some kind on the door, but it is undeniably the TARDIS. It’s hard for it to be anything else, really. Yaz checks her phone. No notifications. Maybe she hasn’t gotten round to texting her yet.

Yaz opens the door. "Have you decided to redecorate without telling me or has she?" she calls, turning to close the door behind her. "Only-" She stops in the doorway.

This, she realizes abruptly, is not her TARDIS.

The interior is a dead giveaway, for one thing (she doesn't really care for it), but the other is the man who turns when she enters, blinking. He's got floppy hair and a bowtie, his eyebrows raised and she is abruptly very sure that she should not be here.

"Sorry," she blurts out. "Wrong phone box."

Yaz turns on her heel and bolts for the door, ignoring the "hang on-" from behind her. She powerwalks away from the TARDIS, trying to be as inconspicuous but fast as possible. 

"Hang on!" The voice calls again, definitely outside this time. "Hang on, hang on-"

"Sorry to have bothered you!" She shouts back, not turning around. "Very busy!"

"Hey-" She's spun around by a hand on her shoulder and they both freeze.

He's very strange to look at. Not physically speaking- he's attractive enough. But the slight crease between his eyebrows belong to her Doctor, the same keen stare. It's like someone's taken the mannerisms and superimposed them on him.

The Doctor reaches out and lightly pokes her. When Yaz doesn't react, he squints.

"What," she says, finding her words. "What was that meant to accomplish?"

"Not sure. I had the thought and ran with it." He reaches into his tweed jacket and pulls out an extremely strange looking device that she can only assume is a sonic screwdriver. He scans it and then checks the readings. "Hm."

The Doctor pokes her again and this time she slaps his hand away. "Oi, cut that out."

"What's your name?"

"None of your business."

"How come?"

"Because you're a strange man asking me for personal information!"

"I," he says, slowly, scanning her face with his eyes. "Am not a strange man. Not to you." He holds up the sonic screwdriver. "TARDIS specific artron energy."

Damn. There's no way around that one.

"You're always strange," she says, a little resignedly. "And you may as well not go round pretending you're not because they're gonna take one look at the tweed and bowtie and know you're a liar."

He readjusts the bowtie. "Bowties are cool."

"You look like Benjamin Button aging backwards from a retiring history professor."

"Very specific. I like specificity, except when explaining things very large and very cosmic. Then you've got to, you know, handwave it. With a little razzle dazzle-"

Yaz holds up a hand. "I don't know what the rules are for this, I don't know how to proceed, and I think I should go."

"Rules? Rules are boring."

"Except for the ones that prevent paradoxes!"

"What's paradoxical about this? Just a couple of mates, having a chat."

"What's the point of having a chat when I can't tell you anything?" The Doctor leans in and squints some more. He takes a very small sniff. "Oi, don't sniff me-"

"2022," he says thoughtfully. "Yeah?"

Yaz narrows her eyes.

"The fact that you can do that," she says. "Is something we're gonna have words about me not knowing earlier."

"The thing is, there are no rules, really. I mean, I've met myself before, companions from my future have met me in the past. Things work out."

Yaz narrows her eyes further, thinking it over.

"Can you promise me," she says finally. "That me talking to you is in no way stepping on a butterfly?"

"Just avoid all the major plot points and you'll be fine."

Her face works.

"I'm Yaz," she relents.

The Doctor gives her a big, gappy grin. "Yaz! Hello, Yaz. Love that name, very cool."

Her lips twitch. "Thanks."

"I could do with a coffee. Wanna come with?"

"The very last thing you should be having is something excessively caffeinated."

"How do you know? Maybe this version of me is very cool, very calm. Maybe they call me Mr. Mellow."

"There's no way any version of you is called Mr. Mellow."

The Doctor pulls a face. "Are you always this rude?"

"You like a companion who can take you down a peg."

"...true enough. Come on! Coffee!'

"Listen," Yaz says softly into her phone as the Doctor stands in line. He'd insisted he could perfectly predict what she wanted so he was going in alone. She'd thought about leaving him, but figured he'd be far too tenacious to ditch. "I know you're probably up to your eyeballs in Zygons or something, but we have a bit of a situation. I've run into... you, and he insists there's no paradoxical implications at play here but I'd appreciate a little advice. And if you remember all this," she adds after a moment. "And never told me, I am going to kick your arse from here back to Gallifrey. Call me back when you get a chance. Love you. Bye."

She hangs up the phone as the Doctor approaches with two large to-go cups. They sit at the little outdoor table in front of the cafe, the Doctor pushing one of the cups her way. Yaz takes a sip. Hot chocolate. With maybe a hint of pepper.

"Everybody likes hot chocolate," she says.

"Yes, exactly. Everybody likes hot chocolate, nobody says no thank you, no hot chocolate for me today, so it is exactly what you wanted." Yaz makes a fair enough face. "Who were you calling?"

"You."

"Did I have anything interesting to say?"

"Voicemail." She stirs her hot chocolate with the little stirrer thing. “Who’re you traveling with?”

“Girl named Clara, very nice, well, maybe not nice, actually, bit mean to me, sometimes, but, you know, nice in the abstract sense. She’s teaching right now, so it’s just me.” The Doctor leans in. “Yaz, is your last name Khan?”

Yaz narrows her eyes. “Why?”

He rummages in his coat until he finds the psychic paper and pulls it out. Yaz peers at it.

Find Yasmin Khan. Sheffield, UK is scrawled across it in messy handwriting.

“Came in on my paper this morning,” he says. “Thought I’d have a poke around.”

Yaz chews on her lip. “Huh.”

“So.” The Doctor puts the psychic paper back in his coat. “Begs the question: who sent that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why would they send that?”

“I don’t know.”

“How-“

“You should just assume,” Yaz cuts in. “That I don’t know the answer to any of those questions.”

“Do you still travel with me?”

“I do.”

“Why aren’t you with me now?”

“I’m visiting my family for a few days.”

“Where am I?”

“Dunno. Getting into trouble, I suppose.”

“Yes, probably a safe bet.”

Yaz hesitates, then sighs.

“I can take you to a couple blokes who might be able to help,” she says. “No promises. But they keep an eye on the area, they might have caught anything strange that’s spiked.”

The Doctor brightens. “Love to meet a couple of blokes! Come on.” He downs the rest of his coffee. “Let’s roll, as the youth say. Do the youth still say that? Or maybe have they started saying it yet? Why’re you looking at me funny?”

Yaz smiles slightly.

“You remind me of my Doctor,” she says. “It’s a bit weird, is all.”

“Bit weird, that would’ve been my senior superlative graduating on Gallifrey, if we had superlatives, or seniors. Come along, Khan!”

“Coordinates!” The Doctor says cheerfully. “I’ll need coordinates, and a little bit of faith, you know, traveling by TARDIS is-“

“An art, not a science,” Yaz says at the same time he does as she approaches the console. “You’ve put everything in weird places.”

“Eh?”

Yaz finds the little screen and starts typing Graham and Ryan’s house into the computer. “They should be home, the team they normally work with is in Surrey this week and they’ve decided to spend the next few days quietly, so-“ she realizes the Doctor is watching her intently. “What?”

“You’re putting the coordinates in.”

“Yeah, you don’t know them, so-“

“You know how.” The Doctor approaches her, eyes sharp. “Have I taught you how to fly the TARDIS?”

“Oh. Er. Yeah.”

“Message falls out of the sky, telling me to find a woman I’ll know someday who recognizes me, not just the TARDIS but recognizes me, in this form, even though I’m clearly not the one she knows, and she knows how to fly the TARDIS.” The Doctor brings his face close to hers. “Who are you?”

Yaz swallows.

“Sorry,” she says. “Major plot points.” She steps back. “You should probably fly this, I don’t know where anything is.”

The Doctor eyes her for another moment before he starts dashing around the console, mood changing like the flip of a coin. “Right, onto these blokes! What’re they like? Good blokes, mad blokes?”

“Both.”

“Outstanding. I love a good mad bloke. Two good mad blokes, that’s almost too much to even ask for.” The TARDIS stops grinding. “Lead the way!”

They walk out up to Graham and Ryan’s door. Yaz knocks, fidgeting a little.

“I should have called,“ she mutters.

“Calling people before you pop over,” the Doctor declares. “Is a ridiculous custom.”

“Yes, but this is a situation, there’s a-“

Graham opens the door and beams at her. “Oh, hello, Yaz! You should’ve phoned, Ryan’s run down to the shops-“ he looks over her shoulder and freezes.

“Yaz’s friend! ” The Doctor shouts, throwing his arms up. “Hello!”

Graham looks back to Yaz, who shrugs helplessly.

“Sorry I didn’t call,” she says.

“No, s’alright, I understand.” He gestures. “Come in, the both of you. Ryan’ll be home soon.”

“Thanks, Graham.” 

They follow him into the house. Graham turns as the Doctor shuts the door behind them. “Hello, Doc, good to see you. I’m Graham.”

“Graham! Hello, Graham. Do I travel with you?”

“Not so often these days, but we go on little trips every now and again. Ryan joined us, he’s my grandson? He went down to get us some ginger beer. I can make us some tea.”

“You’re very fond of Graham’s tea,” Yaz tells the Doctor.

“Am I? Well, I should get on that, then. Get on it before I get on it. Become a Graham’s tea hipster. Did I say that correctly?”

“I think so,” Graham says.

“Sure,” Yaz answers distantly, checking her phone. No new notifications.

Graham turns to Yaz. “Yaz, where is she?”

“She?” The Doctor leans in. “She who?”

Graham and Yaz look at each other.

“Doc, why don’t you have a seat? Yaz, come and give me a hand in the kitchen.”

“Right. On it.”

Yaz follows Graham into the kitchen and he starts fiddling with the kettle. “Right, she’s not with you, then?”

“No, I’m about two days into a three day visit with my folks.”

“Have you tried getting ahold of her?”

“Left her a message, but she hasn’t answered anything. I was going to send her a text to let her know we were here.”

“Is she me?”

Yaz and Graham jump to see the Doctor, lurking in the doorway.

“In fairness,” he says. “You should have known telling me to wait in another room was never going to work.”

“Not necessarily true,” Graham points out. “You might have hung round in my living room and broke something.”

“Hm. Yes, well, I might have done that, fair enough. So a woman, eh? Never been a woman before. Can’t imagine it’s that much different, honestly. Am I shorter? I may have to get my trousers taken in.”

Yaz points at him. “You said if we avoided major plot points we’d be fine. Gender is a major plot point.”

“Eh, not really. Gender is incidental, y’know? I’m always me. Still as much of a hep cat as I ever was.”

Graham smiles. “Oh, hep cat, that’s fun.”

“I’m home,” Ryan calls. “The TARDIS is down the street, is she-“

“Ryan!” The Doctor calls cheerily. “Hello! We were just having a discussion about gender.”

Ryan stares, then sighs softly. “Yeah? That’s nice. Are we having a situation, then?”

“A bit, yeah,” Graham confirms.

“And she’s nowhere to be found?”

Yaz nods. “So far.”

“Okay.” He puts the little case of ginger beer down on an end table. “Well. Let’s crack in, then.”

Chapter Text

“Find Yasmin Khan,” Graham mumbles, staring at the psychic paper.

“Makes sense, at least,” Ryan says as he and Yaz look over his shoulder.

“Why?” The Doctor asks from where he’s sitting in Graham’s favorite armchair with Graham’s favorite mug (Graham had felt a bit weird about giving him their Doctor’s favorite mug).

They ignore him.

“Has anything weird cropped up the past few days?” Yaz asks. “Anything either of you have seen that could explain it?”

They both shake their heads.

“Oh,” Ryan says suddenly, pointing at Graham. “The new scanner!”

“What new scanner?” The Doctor asks as Graham snaps his fingers and points at Ryan.

“It’s something Martha and Mickey and I have been workshopping-“

“Martha and Mickey?” The Doctor jolts to his feet, putting the mug on Graham’s end table. “You know Martha and Mickey?”

“Er-“ Ryan freezes, glancing at Yaz and Graham.

“He knows I can fly the TARDIS and Graham let slip about the gender,” Yaz says. “Everybody gets one.”

Ryan relaxes. “Cheers.”

“How,” the Doctor demands. “Do you know Martha and Mickey?”

“We can’t tell you,” Yaz says at the same time Graham says “we’ve unionized”.

“What?”

“The scanner,” Ryan cuts in. “Is a location-specific hypersensitive temporal and astronomical scanner. It monitors the entirety of Sheffield for either space or time disruptions. I’ve just finished the final touches on it. It’s supposed to monitor for background activity, but it might be able to pick up on the psychic paper and connect to any recent blips.”

The Doctor perks up. “I’d like to see that.” He squints at the three of them. “Have you unionized?”

“Not yet,” Graham says. “But watch yourself. Day’s coming.”

“I’ll show you the scanner.” Ryan lightly nudges him with his shoulder. “Unless you don’t like seeing handbuilt tech that could explode in this go round.”

“Well, if I don’t like seeing handbuilt tech that could explode in any go round, then I’m not really me, am I?”

“Graham, Yaz? You coming?”

“Scanner room’s a bit cramped.”

“Yeah, Graham and I’ll stay down here.”

“Suit yourselves.” The two of them jog up the stairs. Graham and Yaz watch them go.

“I have no idea,” Graham says promptly. “What the fuck it is that we’re meant to be doing in this situation.”

Yaz throws up her hands. “Me, neither. He said avoid major plot points, but-“

“But he’s the Doctor, so he’s going to try and ferret ‘em all out anyway.”

“Exactly.” Yaz sighs. “I’ve got to text my folks and let them know I might be a while, can I sit on your back porch?”

“Yeah, course. He doesn’t, er-“ Graham gestures vaguely between Yaz and upstairs in the vague direction of the Doctor. “Know about any of that, does he?”

“Pretty sure he doesn’t, would prefer it to stay that way.”

“Right.”

Me

might be a while. something’s come up

Mum

Everything all right?

Me

yeah, everything’s fine.

Dad

are you sure?

Nightmare Child

is this some doctor bullshit that’s come up?

Mum

Sonya, don’t swear in the groupchat.

But is it?

Me

yeah. sorry

Dad

Have fun. Bring her round for dinner once you’re done.

Nightmare Child

don’t forget my chocolate!!!!!!

“Texting me?”

Yaz looks up to see the Doctor looking down at her. She doesn’t get up. “Texting my family. These are supposed to be my days with them. Just wanted to let them know I was alright.”

“Do they like me?”

“My mum and dad do. You’re growing on my sister.”

The Doctor’s face twitches. “Hm.” He abruptly drops next to Yaz, settling down by her side. “How did we meet?”

She sighs. “Why would you even tell me to avoid the big stuff if you were gonna ask after the big stuff?”

“Well, there’s the sensible approach and there’s the practical approach.”

“I’d think the practical approach would be the one that would avoid paradoxes.”

“You would, wouldn’t you?”

In spite of herself, Yaz grins and looks to the side. “Good to know you’re incapable of not being difficult whatever form you’re in.”

“Oh, sure. Absolute guarantee, that.” She can hear the grin in his voice. “Anyone’ll tell you. How many of me would you recognize, by the way?”

“I dunno. Quite a few.”

“Why?”

Yaz looks at him. He’s watching her with an unusually quiet curiosity and she wrestles with how much she can actually tell him.

“We got separated,” she says. “We weren’t sure if you were alive or not. I saw a photo of you that could only be from the future so Graham, Ryan and I tracked you down.”

“Through all time and space, you tracked me down?”

“Graham and Ryan and me. And I had to… streamline it down a little bit.”

“You just… saw a picture and hunted me down?”

“Yeah. More or less.”

The Doctor smiles a little. “D’you know, I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone who could do that before.”

“You just haven’t met anyone who could do that yet.”

His smile grows. “I suppose so.” He tilts his head a little. “And you’re the one who organized it?”

“Yeah, I suppose. Nothing could’ve happened without Ryan or Graham.” The Doctor’s looking at her a little funny. “What?”

“Just thinking that if the psychic paper was going to send me to find anybody, across all time and space, you would be a good person to send me to.”

She smiles. “Thanks. I still don’t know what for, though.”

“No, me neither. But we’ll find out, eh?” He claps his hands together. “Come on, let’s go see if they’ve figured anything out.”

Chapter Text

“It’s definitely pinging off something in the area,” Ryan says, leaning against the wall, arms folded. “I’m trying to track down what it’s pinging off of as well as where it came from, but whatever it’s pinging off of is definitely in the area.”

“Outstanding! Love a good ping. You can save the world on a good ping, Ryan- what’s your last name?”

“Sinclair.”

“Ryan Sinclair, and make sure not to forget it.”

There’s a knock on the door that Yaz goes to answer as Ryan says “I’m not going to forget my own name, mate” and the Doctor goes “you could, you never know”. She opens the door.

The Doctor in the brown pinstripes and trench coat gives her an absolutely winning smile.

“Hello!” He says cheerily, flashing the psychic paper at her. “John Smith, health and human services, we’ve had calls in the area that there’s been some issues with mold, d’you mind if I come in and have a poke around?”

Yaz stares at him, trying to figure out the way to navigate this situation, before she just gives up. Silently and resignedly, she stands to the side.

“Thanks! Won’t be a moment. Have you noticed anything strange-“

The new Doctor stops dead in the entrance to the living room, squinting at the sonic screwdriver in the other Doctor’s hand. The other Doctor looks startled for a second before he starts glowering.

“Oh, dear,” Graham murmurs.

“Didn’t realize the circus was in town,” the new Doctor says, tone a little clipped.

“Course you didn’t. Why would you? You were too busy swanning about saying allons-y because you thought it made you charming.”

Yaz holds out her hand. “Give it here.”

The new Doctor looks at her, blinking. “What?”

“The psychic paper. Let me see it.”

Warily, the new Doctor hands it over and she opens it. She flips it so the others can see. “Coordinates. Ours, I think.”

“That might have been me.” Ryan takes the psychic paper and scrutinizes it. “The frequencies… bounced off each other or something.” He looks up at the other Doctor. “Could that happen?”

“Possibly. Stranger things have happened.” The Doctor reaches to take it, lifting his sonic screwdriver, but the new Doctor snatches it out of Yaz’s hand before he can grab it.

“Scan your own paper, stay away from mine.”

“How many more of you are going to show up?” Graham asks. “Only there’s only so much space in the house and I should probably put another kettle on.”

“Which of you came first?” Yaz asks. “It’s-“ she gestures from the new Doctor to the other. “Him into him, yeah?”

Both Doctors squint at her.

“How’d you know that?” The other Doctor asks.

“I know things.” Yaz folds her arms. “Graham asked a good question. D’you think there’s going to be more of you coming?”

“Difficult to say,” the other Doctor says. “Probably a way we can-“

Ryan neatly swipes the psychic paper from both of them and heads upstairs towards the computers. Both Doctors blink.

“Hang on-“ they both say at the same time.

“Aw, don’t worry,” Graham says brightly. “He’ll bring ‘em back. Doc, er-“ he shakes his head. “Both Docs, sit down. He’ll be back soon. I’ve got biscuits. Yaz-“ he glances at her. “Best to try herself again, eh?”

“Yup.” Yaz pulls her phone out and fires off a quick text. Now there’s two of you. Pick up your phone.

“You’re Yasmin Khan, then?” The new Doctor asks.

“I am. That’s Graham. That was Ryan.”

“Why’d the psychic paper send-“

“She doesn’t know,” the other Doctor cuts in. “I already asked, so don’t bother treading old ground.”

“Oh, well done, you, got allll the hard questions out of the way.”

“Blimey,” Graham mutters. “They’re gonna be like this the whole time, aren’t they?”

“Mm.” Yaz texts the Doctor there’s two of you now and you’re both EXTREMELY ANNOYING. pick up your phone.

“Hang on, did you say her?” The new Doctor asks. “Are we a woman now?”

“Obviously,” the old Doctor says. “Keep up.”

Yaz looks up. “Oi, can you two keep a civil tongue in your heads until we figure out what the hell is going on?”

They glower at her.

“They know Martha and Mickey and won’t tell me why,” the old Doctor tells the new one abruptly.

Yaz throws her arms up and mutters “unbelievable” at the same time the new Doctor goes “what?”

“Okay,” the new Doctor says, holding up a hand. “Listen, I like… timey wimey bullshit as much as the next fellow, but I am going to need some information about what exactly is going on here.”

Graham and Yaz look at each other.

“Well, I’m Graham,” he says. “That’s Yaz. Upstairs is Ryan. We used to travel with you on a regular basis. Yaz still does, but Ryan and I are, well, not retired , I guess, cause we’re very much covering the situation on Earth, but we don’t run around full time with you anymore. Oh-“ He turns to Yaz. “What about Jack, love?”

“You know Jack?” The new Doctor says.

“Yeah, he kissed me cause he thought I was you.”

“That tracks,” the old Doctor says at the same time the new Doctor pulls a makes sense sort of face.

Yaz steps into the kitchen, hitting Jack’s number as Graham says “dead nice, though, in his way, very frisky but very pleasant about it”. She holds it up to her ear and listens to it ring.

There’s a clattering and what sounds like a car chase and gunfire. “Hello?”

Yaz blinks. “Gwen, hi. Why’ve you got Jack’s phone?”

“He’s dead.”

“Any idea when he’ll be back?”

“He’s bones in the trailer, so unclear.” There’s more gunfire. “Listen, Yaz, is this really serious?”

“Not to the degree that it sounds like your thing is serious. Good luck. Tell Jack I love him.”

“Will do. Bye, Yaz.”

Gwen hangs up and Yaz pockets her phone. She looks up as the new Doctor enters the kitchen.

“Sorry,” he says. “Where’s the mug cabinet?”

Yaz gestures at the fetching white cabinet Graham had picked up at a yard sale in 2074. “That one.”

“Ta.” He opens it up. “Oh, look at this! This one’s got a little alien on it, that’s fun.”

“That’s one of the Doctor’s-“ she shakes her head. “Er. My Doctor’s favorites. Ryan got it for her and she loves it.”

“Hm.” He pours himself a mug of tea and takes a sip. “Wow. That’s bloody brilliant.”

“Graham makes the best cuppa this side of the galaxy.”

“So. Yasmin Khan.” The new Doctor takes another sip. “How long’ve you been traveling with me, Yasmin Khan?”

“About four years. But I’ve known you five.”

“Why’d you not travel with me one year?”

“We lost track of each other.”

“D’you work?”

“Part time at a museum.”

“D’you like it?”

“I do. I like traveling with you more, though.”

He squints at her.

“Yaz, are you River Song?” He asks abruptly.

Yaz laughs. “No.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Hm.” The new Doctor jerks his head towards the doorway. “He says your family likes us.”

“They do.”

“Why?”

“You make me happy. It’s good enough for them.” Yaz folds her arms and leans against the kitchen counter. “You’re worth caring about, you know.”

The Doctor’s face twitches. “Hm.” He sniffs. “So, five years.”

“Five years.” She grins. “You figure out why the psychic paper sent you to me yet?“

“Well, you know. Everything’s a process. You really have no idea? I mean, why wouldn’t it send us to Graham? Or Ryan?”

“I travel with the Doctor more often than they do.”

“They have the tech.”

She grins wider. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Why’re you smiling?”

“Well, it’s a little strange, seeing, you know. Both of you. But it’s kinda funny, too, seeing all the things that line up.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You’re all about as subtle as hammers.” He pulls a fair enough face. “I like it, though. I like seeing all your facets.”

“Bit weird, considering I don’t know you at all, really. I mean, what’s your favorite sweet?”

“Peanut M&Ms.”

“What’s the first thing you said when you saw the TARDIS?”

“Bloody hell.” Yaz strains to remember. ”I think… the first thing I said was wow. And when Graham asked how it worked and you said dimensional engineering, I said you can’t engineer dimensions, and you said that maybe I can’t.” She laughs. “And then when you taught me to fly her-“

“I taught you to fly her? Not copiloting or just a quick jaunt?”

“Yeah. I can fly her on my own.”

The Doctor squints at her. “Huh.”

“You wanted me to know in case of an emergency.”

“Probably wise. You good at flying her?”

“I’m okay.”

The Doctor’s lips tilt slightly. “I bet you’re brilliant.”

Yaz laughs. “You don’t know me.”

“Maybe not yet. But I think you must be pretty incredible, if I was willing to show you how to fly the TARDIS. And you seem… competent. Very competent.”

“Thanks.”

“Guys!” Ryan calls, coming back down the stairs. Yaz and the Doctor head back to Graham’s living room as Graham and the other Doctor get to their feet from their armchairs.

“Alright, Doctor-“ Ryan stops. “We gotta figure something out or this is gonna be dead confusing.”

“Pinstripes and Bow Tie,” Graham answers immediately.

“Well-“

“Hang on-“

“Perfect,” Yaz says.

“Works for me.” Ryan holds out a psychic paper to each Doctor. “So Pinstripes’ psychic paper coordinates were my fault, the scanner sort of bounced off one onto the other, but the signal for the initial message came from somewhere else. I couldn’t track it down, though. It came from very far away and the signal was sort of faint.”

“That’s great, Ryan,” Bow Tie says with a warm smile. “Cheers.”

“Now what?” Graham asks. “Only-“ He blinks, staring at Yaz as she feels something tingle in her knees. “Yaz?”

Yaz looks down to see her legs fading away. She jumps, holding up her hands to see they’re fading, too.

“Doctor?” She says, a little panicked and voice echoing. Bow Tie scans her with his screwdriver while Pinstripes grabs her shoulders.

“What is it?” Ryan asks.

“Long range teleport,” Bow Tie says distantly. “Yaz? It’s going to be alright.”

“We’ll come for you,” Pinstripes tells her urgently. “Okay? Don’t panic. We’re-“

Her surroundings begin to fade away, too. “Doctor-“

Chapter Text

Yaz blinks, looking around.

She’s in the bowels of a spaceship, she can tell that much. It’s dimly lit in a specific way that spaceships tend to be. She pulls the mini flashlight off her keys and looks around.

It’s… dingy, is the first thing she thinks. In disrepair. Not that well taken care of, either.

“Hello?” She asks softly. “Anyone here?”

“Yaz?” 

Yaz spins around to see Bow Tie, who raises a hand to block the flashlight. “Oh, sorry!” She points the flashlight at the floor and to her surprise Bow Tie hugs her. “Oh, hey. You alright?”

“We were worried about you.” Bow Tie releases her. “You’re alright? Everything’s where it should be?”

“As far as I can tell, yeah. What about the others?”

“They were on their way out.”

“It doesn’t seem to be a particularly high quality ship.” Yaz looks around with the flashlight again. “Or if it was, it isn’t anymore. Their teleport must be on the fritz.”

“You’re very observant.”

“Thanks.”

Bow Tie leans in. “I was thinking,”  he whispers conspiratorially. “About having a little wander. What d’you think?”

She smiles. “I think I could be persuaded to have a little wander.”

“Let’s have a wander, then.”

Their footsteps echo through the halls of the ship, which do not get any less dilapidated the further into them they get.

“I don’t think they have a fleet,” Bow Tie says, standing on his tiptoes to look out the high windows. “Looks like they just have little ships attached, probably serving as escape vehicles.” Yaz stands on her tiptoes and huffs in frustration when she’s too short. “D’you want a boost?”

Oh, yeah. She’s never had a Doctor where that would be of much use before. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

The Doctor hefts her onto his back and Yaz peers out the windows. She blinks, startled.

“They’re Bouncers,” she says.

“What?”

“The little ships. They’re Bouncers.”

“What’s a Bouncer?”

“They’re small crafts, they pack quite a wallop in the engines because they’re designed to fly long distances from planet to planet.” Yaz squints at the Bouncers, vaguely blobby in appearance with fins on the back ends. “They look better than the rest of the ship. They’re probably well maintained. Jack taught me how to fly one.”

“You and Jack spend a lot of time together, then?”

“Probably the only person I spend more time with is you.”

“Are you… er… going steady?”

Yaz snorts. “Absolutely not. But, y’know, we go round and save people on little trips. Fuck shit up and look good doing it, as Jack likes to say. Learning to fly the Bouncers was definitely helpful, but I liked you teaching me how to fly the TARDIS better.”

“Where was the first place you flew to without me helping?”

She stills. “Uh.”

“What?”

“Well. It was Gallifrey, actually.”

“I took you to Gallifrey?”

“Yeah. You did.”

“Prove it.”

“What?”

“Prove it.”

Yaz sighs. “You took me to the Daredevil Brook, in the Eternal Mountains. We tipped our toes in the silver water and looked at the Ever stones at the bottom.”

The Doctor’s quiet.

“Yaz, can I trust you?” He finally says.

Yaz blinks, looking down at him. “What?”

“I mean, you feel trustworthy. And I’ve got pretty good radar. But you know so much. Did I really tell you all this, show you all this? Because I can’t imagine it. I can’t imagine taking anybody to Gallifrey.”

“You do.”

“Tell me something that would prove to me I really did all this. Told you everything. Tell me something you couldn’t, I don’t know, pry out of me with torture.”

Yaz hesitates, then looks around the halls, making sure they’re alone.

She whispers those musical syllables, the ones she can never quite get right. They always feel like they come off the tongue clumsy, like they’re discordant where when the Doctor says them they’re a melody. They practice together sometimes, when it’s just the two of them, Yaz trying to make the sounds just right.

The Doctor stands there, frozen, as his name hangs in the air between them.

“Does that prove it?” She asks after a moment.

“Yeah,” the Doctor croaks.

“Doctor?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you. Can you put me down?”

“Oh. Yeah.”

The Doctor gently sets her on her feet. He looks keenly in her eyes.

“Who are you to me?” He whispers.

Yaz opens her mouth, entirely unsure of what she’s going to say.

Footsteps thud through the halls and they freeze for a second before scuttling into a side hall, flattening themselves against the wall. They peer around the corner to see Pinstripes, Graham, and Ryan being pushed along by aliens with slender thrumming electrical batons. They’re humanoid but they’re on the border of not being opaque, willowy and graceful. One of them pushes Pinstripes a little harder, who scowls and goes “hey, hands off”.

“We’ll tail ‘em,” Bow Tie whispers. “Figure out where they’re going, get a bead on ‘em-“

Yaz glances to the right. “Doctor-“

“Hopefully they’re taking them to their leader-“

“Doctor-“

“Bit of an old cliche, but I do love it when they take you straight to their leader, saves loads of time-“

“Doctor.”

“What?” He looks over to see what Yaz is seeing, one of those humanoids with the batons pointing it threateningly at them.

“Agh,” he says faintly. “Bollocks.”

Chapter Text

“Oh, well done,” Pinstripes says scathingly to Bow Tie as they’re pushed into a big hall with a giant window behind it, only slightly better kept than the rest of the ship, a throne at the front of it. “Great job, getting yourself captured when you could’ve figured something out to save us-“

“Piss off,” Bow Tie snaps.

Pinstripes leans forwards a little. “Yaz? You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good. Graham, Ryan?”

“We’re good.”

“Glad to see you’re alright, love.”

“Are you done,” the man on the throne, dressed in a fine purple suit, demands. “Catching up?”

“I dunno,” Graham says. “I could stand to catch up a while longer.”

“Me, too,” Bow Tie agrees. “Graham, how was the walk here?”

“Alright! Bit dodgy looking, isn’t it?”

“Yes, that’s what we thought, too-“

“Enough!” The man snaps, the guards taking a few threatening steps closer. Graham and Bow Tie stop talking, Pinstripes making a “do go on” gesture.

“It has come to my attention,” the man begins. “That-“

“Sorry,” Pinstripes cuts in. “Sorry, not to, you know, be a bother, but what’s your name? Only I like to know the name of whoever’s pointing something sharp at me.”

“Or electrocutey,” Ryan adds.

“Absolutely, thank you, Ryan, or electrocutey.”

“I am Maxin,” he says, a little impatiently. “Of House Diar.”

“So, Maxin of House Diar, why’s your ship so dingy?”

“Only,” Yaz pipes up. “We couldn’t help but notice, you’re the only ship out here, so you don’t have a fleet.”

“We don’t need a fleet.”

“Have you got a great big bomb?” Ryan asks.

“No-“

“What about a big laser?”

“We-“

“Or an attachment like a crossbow that shoots bolts down on planets or some kind of chemical thing?”

“I don’t-“

“Sounds like you need a fleet, mate.”

“Will you be quiet?” Maxin roars. Ryan falls silent, looking extremely unimpressed. “It has come to my attention that you have been contacted by a mutual acquaintance. The Traveler.”

Yaz looks at Graham and Ryan to see similarly blank expressions on their faces, then at either Doctor. Nothing.

“Sorry,” Pinstripes says. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“I know a Trawler,” Bow Tie adds. “Combs the ocean floor of a water world for Banarel pearls. Are you perhaps thinking of him?”

“Don’t play dumb with me.” Maxin gets off his throne and strides towards them. “You received a transmission from her on your psychic paper. A distress signal. You must be made to understand that you cannot assist her. She seeks to go against God’s will.”

Oh, boy. That’s never good. They all glance at each other, the sentiment mirrored on all their faces.

“Okay,” Yaz says. “Make us understand.”

“I come from a planet in a distant galaxy from yours, Anarellia. We were created by the God who lives in the clouds. It was written that one day, God would destroy Anarellia, and it would be the will of creation.”

“So something’s coming to destroy Anarellia,” Bow Tie says slowly. “And you think that everybody’s supposed to die.”

“The sun is going to expand, and it will engulf Anarellia and all who inhabit her. As is God’s will.”

“If God’s will is slaughter,” Pinstripes snarls. “Then that God is worth nothing, not even the paper His word is printed on.”

Maxin sneers. “Spoken like someone the Traveler would reach out to.”

“So the Traveler showed up,” Graham says. “And convinced everybody that they could escape.”

“She was a usurper. Sent by God’s enemies. She helped modify a ship to function as an ark, stowing away all their precious examples of culture, food and supplies to survive at another world.”

“So then why are you here?” Yaz asks. “Why aren’t you with them, trying to stop them?”

“Because he did.” There’s a storm in Pinstripes’ eyes. “He sabotaged the ark. And he ran.”

“The Traveler will have stayed behind in an attempt to save everybody. It’s her nature.”

“And you didn’t.” Bow Tie takes a couple steps. “Even though you claim your god has mandated that all your people must burn, you ran.”

“I knew the Traveler would try and send a distress signal. Someone had to be there to intercept the person who received it.”

“So says a coward,” Bow Tie says, fury dripping off every syllable as he stalks up towards Maxin. “So says a man willing to kill for his conviction but unwilling to die for it.”

Yaz eyes the situation. Four guards, plus Maxin, who doesn’t give her the impression that he’s much of a fighter. She slides her gaze to Graham and Ryan, who give her the slightest of nods as the Doctors spit invective at Maxin. 

Yaz rolls her eyes back in her head and hits the ground, making sure to bow over a little.

“Yaz?” Pinstripes and Bow Tie sound panicked.

“This is the Yasmin Khan the Traveler said to find? A woman who can’t even stand under her own power?”

“Get away from her!” Pinstripes shouts as Maxin nudges her with his foot.

“Pathetic.”

Yaz yanks the collapsible electric baton out of her boot and kneecaps Maxin with it. He goes down with a yell and she springs to her feet to see Graham and Ryan rush two of the guards and grab their electrospears, sticking each of them and watching them drop. Yaz spins as the other two rush forwards, taking one out at the knees and bashing the other on the head.

“Yaz, plan?” Graham shouts as both Doctors gape at them.

“Follow me!”

Yaz barrels down the corridor, everybody running after her. She’s pretty sure she knows how to get to these. She got a pretty good view out the window.

“Where are we going?” Pinstripes shouts.

“One of the Bouncers,” Yaz yells back, skidding around a corner. “I can fly us out of here and then we can regroup, make a plan!”

“You’re good at flying them?”

“Does it matter right now?”

“…fair enough!”

They get to the docking station and race into a Bouncer. Bouncers are small craft but nimble, which is going to work in their favor. She begins disembarking procedures.

“Look out the window,” Yaz shouts. “Do they have guns mounted on the ship?”

Graham checks. “Yup.”

“Shit. Okay.” Yaz pulls out of the dock and pushes it up to phase 2 for speed. “Hang on, everyone.”

They zoom away from the ship, everyone grabbing at railings.

“Shields?” Bow Tie asks.

“Designed for asteroids, not lasers, it’s a different kind of shielding, but it’s cranked all the way up.” The ship rocks with an impact. Yaz checks the shields. 50%. Shit.

“Can it go faster?” Pinstripes asks.

“Yes, but this one’s pretty old, you run the risk of the machine peeling apart if we go too fast. I’ve just got to outfly them.” The ship rocks again and she checks the shields again. 20%. Shit.

“Go for a Tyrin maneuver-“ Bow Tie starts.

“No, not a Tyrin maneuver, are you trying to get us killed? Obviously she’s got to go with the Sartsin plan-“

“Sartsin?” The ship rocks again and Yaz checks the shielding. Down to zero. Fuck. “Sure, why not rig up a Wright Brothers plane too, while we’re at it-“

“Oh, you-“

“WILL YOU TWO SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Yaz bellows. “SO I CAN CONCENTRATE?”

“Right, yes-“

“Sorry, shutting up-“

Yaz’s phone rings and she takes a hand off the controls to answer it, slapping the speaker button.

“Where the hell are you?” The Doctor shouts.

“Don’t shout at me!” She yells back. “You’re the one who dragged me into this!”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m flying a Bouncer and we’re being shot at-“ Yaz narrowly dodges a shot. “Shit, Doctor, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this thing going, it’s me, the two of you, Graham, and Ryan and I would really appreciate you figuring something out!”

“Hang on, I’m tracking your phone signal, I’m going to try and appear around you so group everybody in one spot-“

She glances over her shoulder. “You lot got that?” Everyone shuffles into a group.

“Yaz,” Graham says, taking half a step forwards. “Yaz, you’ve got to join us.”

“I stop flying this, we all die.”

“Yaz,” the Doctor cuts in. “I’m almost there, just hang on, I’m-“ The ship rocks and Yaz curses. “What?”

She pulls up the readings flashing in front of her. One engine down. She’s on borrowed time. “Just hurry.”

The familiar whir of the gears start. Yaz doesn’t look behind her, trying to keep them in the air until the TARDIS is fully there.

“Yaz-“ Bow Tie says.

“I’m gonna join you! Just gimme a-“ there’s another boom as they take out the second engine. She looks at the readings again. “Fuck. Okay. Well. Fingers crossed.” She gets out of the pilot’s seat and turns around to see the TARDIS in front of her. She rushes to it-

The ship rocks and the front of it crumples away. Yaz just barely manages to grab the outer frame of the TARDIS before space starts desperately trying to suck her out away from it.

The doors fly open. “Yaz!” Ryan shouts as they rush up.

“Get us out of here!” She yells.

“Yaz, we’ve got to-“

Her fingernails slip on the wood slightly. “Go! We’re all dead if you don’t!”

Pinstripes is suddenly in front, Bow Tie’s arms wrapped around his middle. Ryan and Graham quickly get the idea, forming a chain behind him.

“Yaz,“ Pinstripes calls, holding his arms out. “Yaz, come on!”

Her fingernails scrape a little more. “I can’t make it!”

“Yes you can, you can because you’re brilliant, you’re brilliant and I know you can do this.” Yaz grits her teeth, the vacuum dragging along her legs. “Yaz.” His voice is suddenly deadly calm. “I’m going to pull you in. You just have to trust me.”

Yaz wets her lips.

At the end of the day, there‘s nobody she trusts more than the Doctor, whatever form they’re in.

Yaz lets go with her left hand and grabs at his arm. He grapples with it, securing a grip around her upper arm. She takes a breath and reaches out with the other. The vortex yanks sharply at her, and Pinstripes’ feet skid a little.

“I’ve got her!” Pinstripes yells. “Pull!”

Everyone surges back and Yaz hurtles back into the TARDIS, hitting the ground hard as everyone falls backwards, the doors slamming shut.

“She’s in!” Graham shouts. “Doc, get us the fuck out of here!”

Yaz breathes heavy as she’s turned over. Both Bow Tie and Pinstripes are staring down at her, clearly panicked.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” Bow Tie asks, holding up three fingers.

“What’s your middle name?” Pinstripes adds.

“Three,” Yaz croaks. “And you don’t know my middle name yet. Help me up.”

The two of them help her to her feet and she wheezes, leaning her hands on her knees a little bit.

“Are you okay?” Pinstripes asks, resting a hand on her back and bending over a little to see her face. “Listen-“

“I’m good,” she rasps, straightening. “Where’s-“

She’s moving around the console, a mad blur. She stops dead and turns to them, eyes wild. Yaz surges forwards and the Doctor, her Doctor, runs forwards a couple steps and catches her, almost clinging to her for how tight she’s holding on.

“I’m sorry,“ she says, breathless and a little panicked. “I’m so sorry, my phone was damaged and-“

“S’okay. S’okay. I’m okay.”

The Doctor pulls back so she can kiss Yaz fiercely and Yaz throws all her worries about paradoxes and spoilers and the way to go about the situation out the window so she can grip her coat and kiss her back, an all consuming relief settling in her stomach.

She pulls away so she can move Yaz’s hair out of her face. “You’re alright? You’re sure? You promise?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I promise.”

The Doctor rests their foreheads together, their hands linked. “Okay.”

“Okay,” Yaz murmurs in return.

The Doctor lifts her forehead and turns to the others. Pinstripes and Bow Tie are fully gaping. She ignores them, holding out her arms. Graham and Ryan simultaneously give her a hug.

“Hey, Doc,” Graham says, comfortingly patting her on the back. “Sorry for swearing at you.”

“S’alright,” she mumbles. “Glad you’re okay.”

They pull away from each other and the Doctor turns to Pinstripes and Bow Tie. They all stare at each other.

“Well,” Bow Tie finally says. “Plot twist.”

“Yeah.” Pinstripes is rubbing his face with a hand. “Yeah, did not… did not see that coming.”

“Why’s it so dark?” Bow Tie asks, looking around.

The Doctor scowls. “I like it dark.”

“It’s not particularly friendly.”

“Oi, this console room just saved your ungrateful-“

“Is there any version of yourself,” Ryan cuts in. “Where you get along with each other?”

“No,” the three of them chorus.

“Doctor.” Yaz takes the necessary few steps and they all stare at her, Pinstripes and Bow Tie with unabashed curiosity. “Did you get a message on your psychic paper?”

“No.” The Doctor pulls it out of her pocket and hands it over to Yaz. “Nothing.”

Yaz opens it. Blank.

“So it got the two of you but not her?” Graham peers over Yaz’s shoulder. “Bit weird.”

“Not necessarily,” Yaz says distantly. “Maybe whoever sent it knew the two of them would lead to her.” She looks up at the cluster of Doctors. “Can you three pull some-“ she waves the psychic paper. “Some sciencey handwavy bullshit to triangulate where the signal came from with the papers through the TARDIS?”

The three of them look at each other.

“Sure,” Bow Tie finally says. “And by sure I mean definitely. Or probably.”

“Probably closer to possibly,” Pinstripes agrees. He turns to the Doctor, a little sardonic. “Unless you’d like to grace us with the benefit of your advanced wisdom and experience?” 

The Doctor’s face does something complicated where her eyes roll back in her head at the same time her lip curls up.

“If you kill one of ‘em,” Ryan says. “That’s game over for you, too.”

“Maybe,” she answers obstinately. “Won’t know until we try.”

Yaz, Graham, and Ryan all look at each other, then neatly step forwards. Ryan takes the paper from Bow Tie’s coat, Graham from Pinstripes’, and Yaz from the Doctor’s.

“Oi,” they all say at once.

“We’re gonna go try and figure this out,” Graham says. “When you’re done puffing around like peacocks, give us a hand, eh?”

“This seems pretty unfair,” Bow Tie mutters. “Considering I didn’t even say anything.”

“You were thinking about it,” the Doctor mutters back.

“Oh, going to arrest me from thought crimes, now, are you? Learned nothing from that little spin we had with George Orwell, have we?”

“I’m throwing all three of these in a supernova right now if at least one of you doesn’t come up here and work on this,” Yaz says flatly.

The Doctor gives the two of them a look, then joins the three of them at the console. “So explain to me the situation.”

Chapter Text

The three Doctors are clustered around the console, muttering and occasionally sniping at each other. Yaz, Graham, and Ryan are sitting down, watching them.

“Probably something there to be said about how she doesn’t like herselves,” Graham finally says. “Deeper meaning and all that.”

“Yeah,” Ryan agrees. “I think there’s something there.”

“Yeah,” Yaz says distantly. “Probably.” She raises her voice a little. “Alright, you lot, spill.”

The three of them turn to face her, a pair of spectacles on the noses of both Pinstripes and Bow Tie.

“What?” Pinstripes asks.

“You only get that quiet when you’ve run up against a brick wall. So what’s going on?”

The three of them glance at each other.

“We don’t have the kind of power the tracker needs,” Bow Tie says.

“We can reroute the power from a few choice locations,” Pinstripes adds. “But it might overblow the circuits in here, which could lead to mild… exploding.”

“So why can’t you go and get your TARDISes?” Graham asks. “Hook ‘em all up together?”

“Having three TARDISes that are all the same TARDIS hooked up could cause a significant paradox,” the Doctor answers. “And also, potentially, even more exploding.”

“What about,” Ryan says slowly. “Two different TARDISes?”

Yaz and Graham look over their shoulders at Ryan, then at each other, realizing, before they turn back to the Doctor, whose face is scrunched up in thought.

“It could cause timeline related problems,” she says. “I mean, we’re already pushing it, you three getting involved.”

“For one thing,” Graham says. “ You involved us in this.”

“Well, okay, yes, fair point, but-“

“Do you remember this?” Yaz interrupts. “Any of it?”

The Doctor’s face works. “No.”

“So then it doesn’t matter, does it?” Ryan asks.

“Sorry,” Pinstripes says. “Just checking, but where do you have a second TARDIS?”

The Doctor ignores him. “You’re all making that face at me.”

“We don’t have a face,” Graham says.

“Ohhhhhh yes you do. You look at me with your jaws all set and that resolute gleam in your eyes.”

“It’s cause we’re right,” Yaz says. “And I think you know it.”

Her face screws up even further.

“Alright!” She says finally, throwing up her hands. “Fine!” She turns to the console and starts working. “But I want to be on the record as thinking this is a bad idea.”

“What idea?” Bow Tie sounds a little cross. “Where are we going?”

“To a second TARDIS.” The Doctor’s pulling levers. “Coral grown.”

“What’re you keeping a second TARDIS for?” Pinstripes asks.

“It’s not mine.” The TARDIS rumbles to a stop. “We’re here.”

Yaz has always thought of it as a sensible house, despite the fact she could certainly afford more. A few bedrooms, a backyard. They pile onto the front steps, the Doctor directly in front, Pinstripes and Bow Tie at her shoulders, and the three of them behind them. The Doctor loudly, insistently, and repeatedly raps at the door.

“Keep your fucking shirt on!” Donna opens the door and rears back at the sight of them. Pinstripes and Bow Tie freeze. Everyone else waits.

“Fucking hell,” she finally says. “What kind of trouble did you get in?”

“Are you insane?” Pinstripes bursts out, grabbing the Doctor’s shoulder and spinning her around.

“Oi, hands off-“

“Her mind will burn.” His face is contorted in fury, voice rising. “Her mind will burn and she will die. And you came here for this?”

“Doctor-“ Donna says.

“If you’d just listen to me for five minutes-“ the Doctor snaps.

“You’re going to get her killed! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Not to agree with any of us on anything,” Bow Tie cuts in, face quiet in a scary sort of way. “But what the hell are you thinking? What-“

“Doctor-“

“Both of you, quit talking over me, that is so rude-“

“OI!” Donna shouts, at the top of her lungs. “DUMBO!”

The Doctors quit squabbling and look at her.

“Has it occurred to either of you two chucklefucks,” she demands, gesticulating. “That maybe if my brain was going to burn out, I might be distressed in some way, as opposed to pissed off, which I am rapidly approaching?”

The two of them gape at each other while the Doctor glowers at them.

“Hi, Donna,” Yaz says as Ryan and Graham say “hey, Donna” and “alright, Donna?”

“Hi, you lot. What exactly is going on here?” The three Doctors all start speaking at once. Donna holds up a hand. “Not you. Yaz?”

“We need your TARDIS,” she says. “We’re trying to track a signal. Ryan thought you’d be able to help.”

“Right. You-“ she points at the Doctor. “Pilot yours into the backyard and we’ll get started.”

“How-“ Pinstripes takes a few steps forwards. “How-“ he moves to hug Donna. Donna slaps him and he staggers back. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? I told you not to go rooting around in my head, you moron.”

“Hang on,” the Doctor says, holding up a hand. “Hang on, hang on, I thought we worked all that out! Didn’t we work all that out?”

“I worked it out with you, I didn’t work it out with him.”

“We’re the same person,” Bow Tie points out.

Donna points at him. “You’re next, you useless twink.”

“I’m gonna-“ the Doctor jerks her thumb back towards the TARDIS, taking a few steps back. “Go that way.”

“Wise.” Donna turns to Ryan. “Alright, Ryan. Show me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m gonna go with her,” Yaz says.

“Sounds like a plan.” Donna gestures towards the house. “Come on, everybody, in you get.”

Yaz and the Doctor head back towards the TARDIS.

“Blimey,” the Doctor says quietly, linking her pinky up with Yaz’s. “Glad I’m not me right now.”

“Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t be you right now for all the money in the world.”

“I might start disappearing like in Back to the Future if she kills one of us.”

“Or both.”

The Doctor opens up the door. “True, she could do it very quickly.”

Yaz follows her in. “If anybody could pull it off, it’s-“

As the door closes, the Doctor lightly tugs her forwards, pressing her forehead against Yaz’s, closing her eyes. Yaz leaves their pinkies intertwined on one hand but rests the other on her neck.

“Hey,” she says softly. “Hey. Are you alright? Is everything okay?”

“You’re sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, of-“

“You’re sure?”

“I mean. I’ll probably have nightmares about it sometimes. That one was a little close. But, you know. I’m rolling with it.”

“Too close,” the Doctor mutters. “It was too close.”

“I’m okay. I promise.” She runs her thumb against her neck. “What about you? You said your phone was damaged.”

“Ah, was on the run from a rogue Silurian totalitarian sect. You know how it is.”

“You’re alright?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” She scrunches up her nose. “Think my other selves are making eyes at you.”

“Could be.”

“I don’t like it.”

Yaz laughs. “It’s you.”

“Still, though.”

“Maybe I’m a little flattered that every version of you makes eyes at me.”

“Always. Every day and every permutation.” She opens her eyes. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What d’you think? About me? The other mes, I mean.”

Yaz tilts her head slightly, the Doctor angling her head in response, never once taking her eyes off Yaz.

“I love you no matter what form you’re in,” she settles on. “But you’re always going to be my favorite.”

The Doctor smiles and wraps a hand around the back of Yaz’s neck so she can kiss her forehead. “Come on. Best to get a shift on before Donna gives us all sorts of hell.”

“Sounds good.”

The Doctor dashes up to the console. “I was thinking we could take a trip, after all this blows over.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. There’s a world out there where the whole planet is little shops and little cafes. Bookstores, record stores, craft stores, just little places to lose yourself in. They’ve a few hotels there, and little verandas. A proper holiday.”

“Yeah.” Yaz starts working at the console with her. “That sounds nice.”

“Maybe I’ll even wear a sun hat. I think I’d look good with a sun hat, what d’you think?”

“It’d have to be extra floppy.”

“Oh, of course! Gotta be floppy or really, it’s not even a sun hat.”

They land the TARDIS and step outside to see Ryan and Graham sitting in Donna’s lawn chairs, idly chatting.

“Why aren’t you in with them?” Yaz asks.

“Weird vibes, mate,” Ryan answers.

“Yeah, we thought it might be best to give them a little space.”

The Doctor strides up to the innocuous looking garden shed and raps on it.

“Donna!” She calls. “Have you killed me? Only I’d rather not be dead.”

“Nobody’s dead! Yet. ”

The Doctor jerks her head towards the shed doors. “Come on, then.”

Donna’s TARDIS is a work in progress. It’s still growing, what looks like bare beams against walls and a console still being shaped. It looks better than it did the last time they were here a couple months ago, and as far as Yaz’s concerned, it’s coming along nicely. Donna and the two Doctors look up as they enter, Donna’s arms folded.

“Did you know,” Donna says without preamble. “That you are very annoying when you get yourself in a group?”

“Oi,” Pinstripes and Bow Tie say at the same time, clearly a little both annoyed and wounded.

“Yeah, Yaz texted me. Which, by the way-“ she turns to Yaz. “I can’t possibly be that annoying.”

“You three can’t go a full minute without sniping at each other,” Graham points out. “You’ve got to think you’re at least a little bit annoying.”

“Well, they are-“ all three say, pointing at each other, and then an indignant “oi!”

“Individually, you’re sort of irritating,” Donna says. “But you start adding more of you to the mix, and it’s like you’re in a competition to see who can make me shoot myself the fastest.” She turns to the Doctor. “Why didn’t you park the TARDIS in here? Wouldn’t that have been the smart thing to do?”

There’s a pregnant silence.

“Might’ve been,” the Doctor says eventually.

“Obviously would’ve been,” Bow Tie mutters.

“Neither of you-“ Donna points between them. “Would have thought of it either, so don’t start with me.”

“I’m gonna nip out and-“

“Probably for the best.”

The Doctor slips out and Donna turns to Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. “And how’ve you been?”

“Pretty good,” Ryan says. “Mickey and I’ve been bicycling.”

“Martha and I thought we’d find out if the Loch Ness Monster is an alien. For funsies, y’know?” Graham turns to Pinstripes and Bow Tie. “Any of you know anything about that?”

“You know-“ Bow Tie turns to Pinstripes. “You know, I don’t think we’ve ever gone in quest of Nessie.”

“Mm, not yet, at least.”

“Ah, brilliant! Fresh ground, then.”

“And Yaz? You’ve been good?”

“Yeah, I’ve been pretty good. Bit of a day, you know how it is.”

“For sure.”

“Oh,” Ryan says quickly. “Just remembered, I texted Martha and Mickey about that bloke who kidnapped us, let them know they might want to deal with it, I dunno how long we’d be.”

“Ah, smart.”

“And they’re happy?” Pinstripes asks abruptly. They all turn to look at him except for Bow Tie, who watches keenly for the answer. “The two of them? They’re… they’re alright?”

Donna’s face softens a little.

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “Yeah, they’re more than alright. They’re both content and comfortable.”

Pinstripes looks away as Bow Tie’s face twitches.

“What about you?” Bow Tie asks, looking at Donna.

“What about me?”

“Are you good?”

Donna smiles, what seems like almost in spite of herself.

“Yeah,” she says quietly. “I’m real good, Doctor. I’m real good.”

The two of them give her tremulous smiles.

“I’m glad,” Pinstripes says thickly. “I’m… I’m really glad.”

The gears of the TARDIS whir and they all turn to see the box appear. The Doctor steps out.

“Sorry!” She cries. “Sorry it took me a minute, turns out a TARDIS is really reticent to land inside another TARDIS.”

“Will she have enough power to help, if she’s still growing?” Yaz asks.

Donna turns an affronted glower on her. “Course she can. Don’t insult my girl.”

“Ryan, help me get things set up in here?” The Doctor asks, jerking her thumb behind her.

“Yeah, course.”

“Graham, Boyzone reject-“

“Oi-“

Donna ignores Bow Tie. “Help me out at the console here, get things set up on my end.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You need anything from me?”

“From what I’ve heard, Yaz, you were almost sucked into the vacuum of space today, so I’d like you to have a sit and rest while we work.”

“But-“

Donna narrows her eyes at her. “Yaz, do I look like a woman who can be turned around on this?”

“…no.”

“Alright, then. Sit.”

They start bustling and Yaz sits against one of the walls, watching them. After a moment, Pinstripes sits next to her.

“She didn’t give me a job,” he says.

“Maybe she’s got all the hands she needs.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to be anywhere near me. I’m the one, you know. I’m the one who did it to her.”

“I know.”

“It’s fine, though.” He gives a little sniff. “She’s happy. That’s more than enough.”

“Yeah. It is, in general.” Yaz looks at him. “But it’s not enough to make you feel better.” Pinstripes looks down at her. His face works before he shakes his head slightly. “What?”

“I never pictured, well. Not again. Not after Rose.”

“Oh.”

“But I look at you and it’s like… it’s like you… know what I’m thinking. I never thought anyone would know what I was thinking again, but I think you do.”

“It took me a long time. But I like to think I got there.” Yaz stretches her arms a little bit. “Why? Do you disapprove of me?”

“Does it matter?”

“No. She loves me now. That’s what matters. I’m just curious.”

Pinstripes just looks at her for a moment before he breaks into a grin.

“Yasmin Khan,” he says. “It would be my honor to be loved by you.”

Yaz grins back. “Cheers.”

“Oi, Skinny!” Yaz and Pinstripes look up to Donna gesturing at the doors of the TARDIS. “We’re ready. Bring the psychic paper over here.”

Pinstripes helps Yaz to her feet and they walk inside the TARDIS. Donna, Bow Tie, and the Doctor are clustered around the screen, Ryan and Graham attaching some wires to the console. Pinstripes hands the psychic paper to Donna, who drops it on a little tray next to Bow Tie’s. The tray starts glowing faintly and numbers start running along the screen.

“This’ll tell us how to get to Anarellia?” Yaz asks.

“It should.” The Doctor’s arms are folded as they stare at the screen. “Not sure what we’re gonna do if it doesn’t, to be honest.”

Donna shrugs. “Could go back to that guy who kidnapped you and rough him up a little ‘til he tells you.”

“More your style than mine,” Bow Tie says.

“How should I know? Maybe you’ve started beating people with phonebooks since I saw you last.”

“Where can you even get a phone book these days?” Ryan asks. “Can’t remember the last time I saw a phone book.”

“I’ve got a phonebook,” Graham points out.

“Yeah, but you got it years ago, I bet loads of those numbers don’t even exist anymore.”

“Bloody hell.” Donna sighs. “We’re getting old, Graham.”

“Why’d you want to beat someone with a phonebook, anyway?” Pinstripes asks.

“They don’t leave bruises.”

Pinstripes’ brow furrows. “Right, not sure I want to know how you know that. ”

Donna grins. “Make sure to mind your cheek, or you’ll find out firsthand.”

Pinstripes looks a little surprised, then breaks into a grin so wide it looks like it could crack his face in two. “Oh, I’m sure there’s much handier things to hit me with.”

The screen dings and they all look to see a string of coordinates.

“That’s where the signal came from,” Donna says, tapping on it lightly. “Mind you, I don’t know if that’s the planet or a ship or what, but that’s the area.”

“Okay. Then that’s where we’ll go.” The Doctor looks at Donna. “Wanna come with? Could be fun.”

“Well, from what I’ve heard, there’s some bloke who might be a little ticked off at you lot and I think it’s best that I stay here just in case Martha and Mickey decide they need a hand.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. Come on.” She gestures. “Let’s get all these wires cleared out.”

They put everything back where it was and when they’re done, Donna lightly punches the Doctor on the arm. “Good luck.”

“Cheers. I’ll tell you how it went.”

“You’d better.”

Bow Tie walks up to her, hesitates, then puts both hands on her shoulders. Donna raises her eyebrows. He lightly knocks their foreheads together, then steps back and situates himself next to Pinstripes.

“The hell was that?” Pinstripes mutters.

“I don’t know,” he mutters back. “Shut up.”

“Come here.”

Pinstripes blinks as Donna gestures at him. “What?”

“Come here , moron.”

Pinstripes takes a few tentative steps forwards until he’s standing in front of Donna. He looks down at her, then wets his lips.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers. “Donna, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. I know you are, you git.” She pulls him into a hug and he all but crumbles over her, holding her tightly. “I know you are.”

After a moment, Donna pulls back. Pinstripes straightens, eyes wet.

“You are the biggest pain in the arse I ever met,” Donna tells him. “But I do love you, you prawn.” She looks at Bow Tie. “The same goes for you, even with… whatever the hell that was.” He smiles fondly as she looks to the Doctor. “You know.”

“I do.”

Donna steps back. “Right. Yaz, Graham, Ryan, good to see you.” She’s answered with a chorus of “bye, Donna!”s. “Best to be getting on with it. There’s people who need you.”

Donna gives them a final wave and heads out the door. The three of them stand there staring at the door before they turn to the console.

“Right,” the Doctor says. “Onwards and upwards then, eh?”

Chapter Text

“Bloody hell,” the Doctor mutters as Pinstripes clicks his tongue and Bow Tie huffs.

“What?” Graham asks as they watch the Doctors scurry around the console.

“The magnetic waves are all off because of the expansion of the sun,” Bow Tie says absently, pulling a lever. “They’re buffeting the TARDIS.”

“No wonder the signal barely came through.” Pinstripes shakes his head. “Going to make it a lot harder to get people out.”

“Ah, we’ll figure something out.” The Doctor taps something. “We always do.” The ship shudders. “Alright, we’re here.”

They get off the TARDIS to see they’re standing in a large metal tunnel, with several others branching off from it.

“Spaceship?” Yaz asks.

“Spaceship,” all three Doctors confirm.

“Alright, so-“ the Doctor says as Bow Tie says “right, okay” and Pinstripes goes “right-“ before they all stop dead and squint at each other.

“Who told you either of you could make a plan?” Bow Tie demands.

“Well, hang on, who told you?” Pinstripes snaps.

“You’re both-“ the Doctor starts.

“Yaz,” Graham cuts in. “What do we do?”

“We’ve got to find the Traveler,” she answers immediately. “So the three of us, we’ll split up and go looking. These three, they’ll find their way down to the engines and see if they can fix them.”

“Oi, who put you in charge?” Pinstripes turns on Yaz. “I mean, what, do you just boss us around?”

“Hey, don’t talk to her like that!” The Doctor scowls at him. “It’s a sound plan-“

“I think we should listen to Yaz,” Bow Tie says, surprising everybody.

“How’re you siding with her over me?” Pinstripes yelps. “She’s a rung or two along from you, we’re practically brothers!”

“Oh, piss off-“ The Doctor growls.

“Yaz knows our name,” Bow Tie interrupts, with the deadly calm of a man dropping a bomb. “So I trust her to know what we should be doing.”

Pinstripes gapes between Bow Tie, the Doctor, and Yaz as Yaz contemplates throttling Bow Tie, and maybe also Pinstripes. “What?”

“That’s none of your fucking business,” the Doctor snaps.

“You know our name?” 

“Aw, that’s nice,” Graham says.

“Yeah,” Ryan adds. “Real chuffed for you.”

“Are you sure you’re not River Song?”

“No!” Yaz shouts, restraint cracking. “I am not River Song! All three of you, get your shit together! People are going to die! Everybody, go do what I told you to, now!”

Graham and Ryan immediately take off. Bow Tie grabs Pinstripes’ elbow and drags him away.

“Sorry,” the Doctor whispers. “Love you.”

“Love you, too,” Yaz relents. “Now go.”

The Doctor peels off and Yaz starts jogging through the tunnels. Once you get out of the main thicket they’re in, the tunnels are all glass and steel, worn and battered and scratched. Outside of the glass she can see the sun, a sickening reddish orange. It won’t be long until it goes, she thinks. She doesn’t know how much time they have but it’s not much.

People are rushing around her, the same pale as Maxin was. Yaz tries to grab a couple people, but they wave her off and she supposes she can’t blame them, considering they could be about to die. The Traveler probably won’t look like the Anarellians, anyway, if she just showed up here.

Yaz turns a corner and skids right into somebody. They both hit the ground with twin oofs. Yaz blinks, looking at the woman across from her.

She looks like she’s a little younger than Yaz, blond hair shoulder length and a little wavy, one side shaved. She’s wearing a deep burgundy three piece suit with sensible boots, a golden dangling earring with a rhinestone hummingbird hanging on the side of her head that’s shaved. She scrambles to her feet almost immediately. “I’m so sorry, I wasn’t looking-“

“S’alright.” Yaz lets the woman help her to her feet. “Me, neither.”

“Everything’s just so busy-“ she holds out a hand. “I’m Jenny.”

“Hi, Jenny. I’m Yaz.”

“Hi, Yaz! D’you have a second? I need someone to help me with something and everybody’s got a job-“

“Er-“ Yaz hesitates and then decides. “Yeah, okay.”

“Terrific. So-“

A woman grabs Jenny’s arm. “Traveler-“

“Hello, Ijelking! You’re on Arc Number Four.”

“Thank you.” The woman scurries off and Yaz looks at Jenny, blinking.

“You’re the Traveler?”

“Jenny’s fine. Traveler’s sort of a… work name. Come on.”

Yaz hesitates. “My mates really need to have a word-“

“They’ll have to wait, this is very important.”

She hovers, then sighs. “Okay. Lead the way.”

The transmitter and the computer setup Yaz is looking at is very, very jerry rigged. Jenny’s kneeling in front of it, working with some wires. “Can you hold these, please?”

“Yeah, sure. What is this?”

“It’s an interdimensional temporal transmitter. I can’t do this on my own, so I’m trying to tap somebody in. But it’s pretty… rickety. Can you hand me the wires back?”

Yaz does. “I’ll say.”

“Oi, you try cobbling together a transmitter that functions across space with scraps, see how you do.” She holds out her sonic device, a slender object that looks vaguely fountain pen shaped. “Can you hold this?”

Yaz takes it. “We did, sort of.”

“Really?” Jenny looks at her. “Can you look at this with me, then? Tell me what I might be doing wrong?”

“My friends did more with the actual blueprints than I did, but sure, I can see if there’s anything I’d do different.” Yaz squints at the computer readings. “Looks like you might do better if you reroute the power from that terminal into this one.”

“On it.” Jenny starts tapping along on the keyboard. “How’d you get here, anyway? You’re definitely human or something like it.”

“Long story. My mates and I are looking for you, by the way, but this seems important.”

“It is.” Jenny doesn’t look up from the keyboard. “The man I’m calling for, he’ll be able to help. Been a while since he’s seen me, he might not recognize me, I’ve changed faces since then, but I’m sure he’ll be able to help.”

Yaz blinks. “Hang on, you’ve what? You’ve changed faces?”

“Yeah, it’s something I do when I die, apparently. Didn’t the first time, but the second time I lit on fire and everything.” Yaz stares at her as she works, remembering one night when she and the Doctor lay in bed and the Doctor told her everything about her children, all of them, pointing their names out on the ceiling, including a girl who was a clone, who had died a very long time ago, who’d barely had a name before she was shot. Jenny realizes she’s staring and looks up. “It’s really not that weird, sort of tingly and burny, but-“

“Jenny,” Yaz says slowly. “Is your parent the Doctor?”

“What?” Jenny straightens abruptly. “You know the Doctor? Is he here?”

“Yaz!” Yaz looks up to see the Doctor skid into the room with Graham and Ryan. “There you are, listen, we’ve inspected the inner workings of the ship, and-“ She looks at the computer rig Jenny’s got set up. “Is that an interdimensional spatial temporal transmitter?” She looks at Jenny. “Are you the Traveler?”

“Jenny’s fine,” she says brightly. “Traveler’s sort of a work name.”

“What’re you trying to transmit?” The Doctor stands over the computer.

“Distress signal. The man I’m trying to reach can get us out of here, I think. Do you know the Doctor? He’s who I’m trying to get in touch with.”

The Doctor straightens from the computer abruptly. “You’re what?”

Yaz opens her mouth to say something but Pinstripes and Bow Tie rush in. Jenny freezes at the sight of Pinstripes, who doesn’t notice.

“Listen,” Bow Tie says. “I’ve done some evaluating, and I think there’s a very good chance that if we try and get the engines going on this thing, it might do some mild exploding.”

“How mild?” Ryan asks while the Doctor stares at Jenny, who stares at Pinstripes.

“Unmild enough that it could potentially be a problem,” Pinstripes tells them. “A, well, mass extinction event kind of problem.”

“Dad?” Jenny blurts out. Everyone turns to Jenny, startled, except the Doctor, whose eyes are already wide.

“What?” Pinstripes and Bow Tie ask at the same time.

“Listen, I’m sorry, I think you’ve got the wrong bloke-“ Pinstripes starts.

“Donna said,” Jenny tells him, voice shaking a little. “It could be terrifying, and brilliant, and funny, sometimes all at once. That she’d seen amazing things, whole new worlds. And she said there was-“

“An absolutely outrageous amount of running,” the Doctor finishes softly. Jenny looks at her, blinking.

“Yeah,” she says. “Yeah, that’s what she…” Her eyes widen. “Oh. Oh. Are you-“ she looks around at them. “How many of you are you?” All three Doctors silently raise their hands. “Oh. I didn’t even get the transmitter working yet.”

“It’s a temporal transmitter,” Yaz says quietly. “You haven’t gotten the transmitter working yet, but you’re going to. It sends a message to the two blokes’ psychic paper which leads them to me which leads us to her.”

“Oh. I.” Jenny shuffles. “Don’t know what to say, really. I didn’t have a plan for what I’d say when I saw you.”

“You take after your old man,” Graham tells her. “Or, er-“

“No.” The Doctor takes a step towards Jenny at the same time the other two do. “No, I’ll accept old man.”

“Oh, good. All works out.”

The three Doctors and Jenny surge forward, colliding in an awkward but sincere hug. The three Doctors hold Jenny close as she buries her face in Pinstripes’ chest.

“Let’s see what we can do here,” Ryan says, gesturing at the rig.

“Okay.”

“Sounds good.”

Ryan peers at it. “It’s not bad, honestly. Just needs a few tweaks. Gramps, did I give you my toolkit?”

“Oh, yeah, here.” Graham pulls a slender wallet out of his pocket and hands it over. “Here you are, son.”

Ryan opens it and it promptly folds out into a larger tool kit.

“Oh, nice trick,” Yaz says, peering over his shoulder.

“Thanks. Gift from Mickey.” Ryan gently lays it out on the floor. “Okay, Graham, you take this. Yaz, you’re on Doctor duty.”

“Got it.”

“Oi.” The Doctor pokes a slightly teary head out of what appears to be a slightly teary huddle. “What’s Doctor duty?”

“Doctor duty’s when one of us distracts you when the other two know what they’re doing and we think you’re gonna get in the way.”

“Oi,” every Doctor says, pulling back to glower.

“You have a term for it?” Bow Tie asks.

“Yeah, well.” Graham hands a tool over to Ryan. “We need to do it often enough. Usually Yaz’s job. Which she’s failing at, at the moment.”

“Oi, you’re the ones who keep engaging her in conversation.”

“Why’s it usually Yaz’s job?”

“Cause you’re easily distracted by Yaz,” Ryan says around the tool in his mouth.

Every Doctor pulls a fair enough face as Jenny gestures between Yaz and the Doctors. “Is this- what is this?”

Yaz and the Doctor stare at each other and sees the identical oh god how do we define ourselves to a daughter panic on her face.

“Uh-“

“Well-“

“They smooch sometimes,” Graham says.

“Oh, right. Welcome to the family, Yaz.”

“That’s, okay-“

“Graham, there’s a bit more to it than that-“

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna hear about it.”

Yaz claps a hand over her eyes out of need for something to do.

“Graham, that’s not what I-“ the Doctor hisses squeakily.

“Right,” Ryan says decisively. Yaz moves her hand to see him stand. “I’m all done and we can stop having this conversation now.”

“Thank Christ,” Yaz mumbles as Jenny approaches the terminal, pulling out a pair of deep red cat eye glasses and sliding them on. Bow Tie and Pinstripes both pull out a pair of glasses and the Doctor turns to Yaz, clearly disgruntled.

“Should I get glasses?”

“You don’t need them.”

“Yes, but that’s not the point.”

“It’s only the power for two messages,” Jenny says. “How many of you got the note?”

“Hello,” Pinstripes says with a cheery little wave.

“Right here,” Bow Tie adds.

“Okay. What did it say?”

“Find Yasmin Khan,” Bow Tie starts.

“Sheffield, UK,” Pinstripes completes.

Jenny types into the terminal. “Okay.” She turns to them. “Okay. That’s done.”

“What’s the situation?” The Doctor asks.

“That sun-“ Jenny points through the windshield of the Bouncer. “Is going to expand in-“ she checks her watch. “Seventeen minutes.”

“There’s a planet down there,” Bow Tie says, also pointing. “Why isn’t that an option? Is it going to be eaten by the sun?”

“No, it’s just out of range for it to be a problem. That’s Crysur,” Jenny tells him. “We’d be fine, but it’s too hot for the Anarellians. They can’t survive there.”

“We went down and saw the state of the Ark’s engines,” Pinstripes says. “It’s... not… great down there.”

“So you can’t get the Ark going again?”

“No. Probably not. Where were you taking it?”

“There’s a planet further out in the galaxy, Diliter. There’s records that show hundreds of years ago Diliter explorers came to visit, offered sanctuary should the Anarellians need it. They think it’s their best shot.”

“And why can’t we just pack everybody in the TARDIS and call it a day?” The Doctor asks.

“I don’t know what that is,” Jenny says. “But I don’t think there’s enough time to load everybody into a ship as well as the cultural artifacts and the supplies.”

“Mm. Yeah. Doors are quite small, too.” The Doctor puts her hands on her hips. “So we have about fifteen minutes to get everybody and everything away from the Sun.”

“Yes.”

“They can just hop in the little ships, can’t they?” Graham asks. “Leave the stuff behind?”

“They won’t do it. They say they’d rather die with their history than leave it behind.”

Ryan turns to the Doctor. “Can the TARDIS power the Ark?”

“It’s not just the power,” the Doctor says, shaking her head. “He’s messed with the steering and I don’t think we can meld the steering with mine in time.”

There’s a thought percolating in Yaz’s head. She takes a few steps forwards, looking at the controls of the Bouncer, straining.

Then she hits on it.

“How many Bouncers does the Ark have?” She asks, turning to the others, who all look at her.

“Twelve,” Jenny says.

Yaz starts gesturing out the window. “Bouncers have chain motion installed. It’s why they’re so fast, the higher the speed on one the more power you can chain back to the Bouncers behind it. If we get the Bouncers all lined up, Ark in the middle, the tunnel would be sufficient to take the Ark, too. If a Bouncer goes around the Sun a few times at an extremely high velocity, it could be enough power to get the Bouncers and the Ark to Diliter. Fish on a line, you snap it at the right- I don’t know anything about fishing, this is stupid, but we can save everyone.” She turns to see everybody staring at her, the Doctor front and center. “Well? Will it work?”

Pinstripes and Bow Tie look at each other, opening their mouths.

“Do you want to get married?” The Doctor blurts out.

Yaz freezes. Everybody in the room who isn’t her or the Doctor says “what”. The Doctor looks a little startled that the words came out of her mouth.

“What?” Yaz manages.

“Well, I just, you know, I meant, I said it, and, you know, I must’ve meant it.”

Yaz narrows her eyes. “What d’you mean, you must’ve meant it? Did you mean it or didn’t you?”

“Well.” She wets her lips. “Well. I just meant. You know, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t know, you’re the one who said it.”

“Isn’t there more important-“ Graham starts.

“No,” Pinstripes and Bow Tie say.

“Doctor,” Yaz says, very clearly. “Did you mean it or didn’t you?”

The Doctor twitches, looking very much like an animal crossing the road.

A clang rings suddenly from deep in the ship.

“Whoops!” The Doctor jerks her thumb over her shoulder. “I’d best go check that out, you understand-“

“Doctor, don’t you dare-“

“Gotta go! Hold down the fort!” The Doctor bolts in the opposite direction, leaving Yaz gaping.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” Yaz shouts, bowing over a little from the force of it. She straightens to see everybody, but especially Pinstripes and Bow Tie, watching her trepidatiously. “You two!” She points at them, making them jump. “I can’t look at you or I’m gonna go fucking mental and kill you. Go work on coordinating getting all the ships lined up. Jenny, was that an important clang or just the ship settling?” 

“Ship settling.”

Yaz takes a heavy breath through her nose. “Then tell her that, too, once you find her. Go! ” The two of them turn to make a hasty exit. “Maybe get some therapy if we survive this!” She bellows after them.

“Do you want me to-“ Jenny starts, gesturing after them.

“No. No, you’re not your parent. You’re fine.” Yaz closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Let’s-“

“We can reroute the power from this terminal to span this Bouncer,” Ryan says.

“They have autopilot functions, right?” Graham asks.

“Yeah, they do.”

“Good. Jenny, figure you can get the power from this terminal going?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“You and Yaz do that, then, we’ll go get the word out there.”

“Right.”

“Er.” Graham claps her on the shoulder. “Sorry, love.”

“Yeah, sorry, Yaz.”

“It’s fine.” She gives them a tired smile. “Thanks, though.”

“Meet back at the TARDIS?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“What is a TARDIS?” Jenny asks as Ryan and Graham run the other way.

“It’s a spaceship. You’ll love it.” Yaz sighs. “Come on. Let’s get to work.”

Chapter Text

“Do you not want to be married to Mum?”

Yaz blinks, looking up from the computer terminal screen. Jenny is buried deep in its guts, arranging wires. “What?”

“I mean, is that it?”

“No, it’s-“ Yaz sighs, frustrated. “Do we have to talk about this now?”

“I mean, what else are we supposed to talk about?” Jenny’s busy rewiring. “Do you have any better ideas?”

“Anything but this.”

“Well, tough. Because we could die today and I’d like to know. Is she- is she not the sort of person you’d think worth marrying, or-“

“I.” She huffs. “It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Your parent gets these notions in her head, these, these flights of fancy.”

“And you think you’re one of them?”

“No, I actually feel pretty good about that. But she’s not… the marrying sort. I mean, over a thousand years and she’s been married twice.” Yaz taps on the keyboard a little aggressively. “Sometimes she just says things that come into her head, she wouldn’t commit on whether or not she meant it, and she scarpered the second she had an excuse.”

“So you don’t want to marry her?”

“I didn’t say that.” Yaz pulls up the roughly cobbled together schematics. “But I’m not getting all excited when she won’t even confirm it was real.”

“But you still love her, right?”

“She’s gonna have to do something a lot stupider than that to make me stop loving her.” Yaz gives Jenny a tired smile. “She’s really happy to see you, you know. Well, all of them, I suppose.”

There’s a glimmer of vulnerability behind Jenny’s glasses. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. She doesn’t like to talk about the things that really hurt, so she rarely talks about losing you. But she did sometimes. And I know she missed you.” Yaz straightens. “Okay, everything’s set here. You good?”

“Yeah, I’m good. I’ll program the autopilot and we can get moving.”

Yaz texts Graham and Ryan in their groupchat. on our way. make sure everybody’s back at the TARDIS

Got it, Graham answers and then, a few seconds later, she seems distressed. I think the other two gave her a talking to.

Jenny curses loudly, making Yaz look up from the phone and the uncomfortable rush of emotions that follow the text.

“The autopilot’s busted.” Jenny looks frantic, scanning the computers. “I don’t know how to fix it, this machine’s built so much different than any ship I’ve seen before-“

Yaz makes a lightning decision, figuring Jenny doesn’t know her well enough to figure out what she’s up to. Who knows? Maybe it’ll even be true.

“I know a failsafe,” she says. Jenny looks up at her. “It’s gonna take me a couple minutes, but I can get her going. Get back to the TARDIS, I’ll be right after you.”

“But-“

“I’ll be right after you. Go on. Little blue box, run back to where you found me and you’ll get there.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.“

Jenny turns and runs. Yaz waits until she can’t see her in the halls anymore to seal the ship behind her, leaning on the pilot’s seat. She pulls up the diagrams on the dash. The route’s still programmed into the ship. It’s just got to be done manually.

There’s no time.

Yaz gets into the seat, tapping a few things on the screen and powering up. She disengages from the main ship and starts the course, advancing the speed into phase 2.

The communication device starts beeping. Yaz shifts the speed into phase 3 and taps it. “Yeah?”

“Yaz,” the Doctor crackles through the ship. “What’re you doing?”

“The autopilot wasn’t working, we didn’t have time to screw around, and we couldn’t go get one of you, fix it, and get back in time.” Yaz advances the speed to phase 5. Nothing wrong with skipping a phase, in a pinch. “I was low on options.”

“Yaz, you don’t have to do this, we can figure it out-“

“That sun’s about to blow.” The ship shakes a little. “We don’t have time. The ship’s got the course. I’ve just got to run it. Are you off the ship?”

“Yeah. We’re coming to get you.”

“Remember when we tried to land the TARDIS on the high speed interstellar rail from Ivinere? This thing is going too fast and even if it wasn’t the magnetic waves would cause problems. You won’t be able to land.” Yaz feels oddly calm. The emotion’s been taken out of it. She’s always been at her best, she thinks, when she has a job to do.

“Yeah? Watch me.”

“I’m going to try and crash land once I’ve run the maneuver.” Phase 6 now. She’s getting closer to the sun. “Try and find me planetside.”

“Yaz-“

“Doctor.” Yaz checks the timer. Three minutes, more or less. “If this is how I go, it’s how I want to go. It’s alright.”

“It’s not.”

“Make sure you’re out of reach of the sun.” Yaz sets the trajectory in motion.

“Yaz.” The Doctor’s voice cracks.

Yaz swallows. “S’alright. Really. Can everybody hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“I love all of you. I’m gonna try and make it. It’s gonna be okay.” She half grins. “It’s not even the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. Have a little faith.” 

“I meant it.”

Yaz blinks but doesn’t look away from the craft’s controls. “What?”

“I meant it. When I asked you. Of course I meant it. I, um. I have a ring, actually, and everything. But it’s one thing to plan it and it’s another to say it, and I was working on a plan, and then I said it and I didn’t-“ The Doctor clicks her tongue a little. “I meant it. Course I meant it.”

She swallows. “And you’re telling me now?”

“I didn’t want you to think you weren’t loved.”

Yaz laughs weakly. “I didn’t think you didn’t love me, you git, I just didn’t know if you wanted to marry me.”

“Well. I do. So? How about it?”

Yaz pulls the extra thrust on the controls as she hurtles towards the sun. “Course I want to marry you.”

“Glad I’m doing it when I’m a woman.” The Doctor’s voice is a little thick. “I’d love to do the mehndi.”

“Yeah.” She sets the window tint to darker as the brightness increases. “You’ll look good in red.”

“Yaz.” Her voice is more staticky. “Yaz, you’re breaking up.”

“I know.” Yaz takes a deep breath. “I love you.”

“I-“ the transmission cuts out and Yaz grits her teeth, trying not to cry.

“Okay,” she whispers. “Okay, come on. Come on, you can do this-“

Yaz takes one slingshot around the sun. Then another. The ship creaks ominously around her.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Fish on a line, she thinks. Fish on the line, picking the right moment to-

Yaz abruptly halts the thrust pattern. The ship goes spinning out but she catches a glimpse of the ships, shooting off into streaks in the sky. She laughs weakly. She did it. Whatever else happens, she did it.

The ship’s hurtling towards Crysur. Yaz straps herself into the seat, gritting her teeth as the ship shakes. There’s no way it’s going to survive coming into the atmosphere. She’s going to have to time it right. She wets her lips.

“I love you,” she says quietly, knowing the Doctor can’t hear her. Just to say it. “I love you. I’m glad we’re getting married.”

The ship starts breaking up as they hit the atmosphere. Yaz keeps her thumb on the eject button as pieces of the ship starts coming apart. She’s got to cut it as close as she can. If she ejects too far up in the air, it’ll kill her.

“Just a little more,” she whispers. “Just a little more, come on.”

There’s a crack in the glass. Then another. Then another. Yaz stares it down, waiting to see who blinks first. The cracks spread across the windshield and she tightens her fist around the ejection mechanism.

The glass quivers. Yaz slams her thumb down on the button and is yanked from the craft-

Chapter Text

Yaz stirs, groaning a little.

Everything hurts. She’s covered in sand. She fumbles with the straps around her and manages to wrest herself free off the chute and the seat. She stands and wheezes. She rubs at her face. Blood. Something must have grazed her face. She looks down at her clothes. Torn up. Makes sense. Her phone’s destroyed. She’ll need to get her backup in the TARDIS. She blinks, squinting in the sunlight. There’s a debris trail behind her. Maybe some of the communication apparatus survived.

She feels a quiver of holy shit you cut it so close you almost died and stamps on it. She’ll fall apart with the Doctor later. She has shit to do.

Yaz takes a deep breath and starts walking.

The sun is high and hot and Yaz absolutely understands how the Anarellians couldn’t live here. She trudges along, exhausted. Her feet hurt. She aches. She’s parched. She hates this. If the ship didn’t kill her, the sun and the desert will.

After what she thinks is close to an hour, she sees two smudges in the distance. They appear to be moving. She blinks, shielding her eyes with a hand. Are they mirages? She’s not sure.

“He-“ Yaz tries. She can’t. Her throat’s too dry. She swallows. “He-“ Nothing. She weakly waves an arm. The two smudges pause, then start moving very quickly. Not sure what else to do, she slogs towards them. The smudges become clearer the closer she gets and she squints until she realizes who it is, breaking into a grin with dry cracked lips.

Pinstripes and Jenny collide into her and the force they were running with almost knocks her down until their arms secure her, keeping her upright as she’s pulled into a three person hug. Yaz’s face is squashed against Pinstripes’ chest and she just holds onto them, trying to steady her breathing.

“Easy,” Pinstripes whispers. Yaz realizes she’s crying, rather loudly. Huh. She falls apart with any Doctor. He rests his chin on top of her head. “Easy, easy. We’ve got you. We’ve got you.”

“Are you hurt?” Jenny asks, pulling back a little. “Are you okay?”

Yaz opens her mouth to answer before she hacks a cough.

“Here.” Pinstripes pulls a water bottle out of his coat. Yaz snatches it and downs the whole thing.

“Everything hurts,” Yaz rasps. “And I’m itchy from sand.”

“But otherwise you’re okay?” Jenny looks her over. “Nothing’s broken? You’ve got-“ she gently rests a hand near where she’s bleeding.

“S’alright. Head wounds bleed. Chair took most of the impact, I think.” She blinks, looking up at Pinstripes. “Where is everybody? Are they okay?”

“Yeah, we’re all out looking for you, oh, Jenny-“

“Right.” Jenny pulls a flare gun and fires it in the air.

“What’s that for?”

“Magnetic fields are wreaking havoc on any of our communication devices. Flare gun means we’ve found you and we have to regroup at the TARDIS.”

Yaz blinks at the two of them owlishly.

“And did you have a plan in place,” she says slowly. “For how to signify whether or not I was alive?”

Pinstripes opens his mouth. Closes it. Looks at Jenny, who looks just as nonplussed as him. “Well-“

Yaz sighs. “Okay. Let’s get walking.”

Pinstripes ends up wrapping his arm around Yaz’s waist to support her better. Yaz leans against him. They’re willing to go as slowly as she needs to, which she’s grateful for.

“Is she okay?” Yaz asks quietly.

“She’s a mess,” Jenny says.

“Yeah. Checks out.” She looks at Pinstripes. “Aren’t you hot in the coat?”

“Well, you know, it’s not so much hot as, well, blistering.”

“Why didn’t you leave it in the TARDIS?”

“Well. Was moving rather quickly.” The Doctor sniffs. “Might’ve been worried about you.”

“…yeah?”

“Yeah. You know, just a little bit.”

“Do you want a piggyback ride?” Jenny asks.

Yaz blinks, both her and Pinstripes looking at her. “What?”

“Well, my feet are better than yours. Dad’s in his coat, so he’s bound to be sweaty. But your everything hurts and I don’t mind. I mean, you’re gonna be family.”

She smiles faintly. “S’pose I am.”

“So. Lemme give you a piggyback ride.”

Yaz considers. “Okay.” She lets Jenny hoist her up on her back. “You’re sure it’s alright?”

“Yeah, of course.” Jenny hefts her a little. “Do you know any fun drinking songs?”

“A few dirty ones.”

“I don’t want to hear you singing any dirty songs,” Pinstripes says, gesturing at Jenny.

“So,” Yaz says. “The one that goes your balls -“

“Stop that, right now. Jenny, drop her.”

“Sorry, Dad.” Jenny keeps trucking along. “I’m possessed by the spirit of youthful rebellion.”

When they get closer to the TARDIS, Yaz asks Jenny to set her down and they walk towards it together. Two figures are milling around the front and they rush forwards. Yaz takes her next few steps as fast as she can as Graham and Ryan catch her in a hug.

“Bloody hell,” Graham whispers. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“Sorry,” Yaz mumbles.

“Are you okay?”

“Tired. And gritty.”

“Come on. Let’s get you inside.”

Graham and Ryan help her through the doors. “Doc!” Graham calls. “Doc, we’ve got her.”

The Doctor rushes around the console and catches her at the same time she pitches forwards. The two of them go to the ground, Yaz wrapped around her and the Doctor gathering her into her arms as much as possible.

“Easy,” the Doctor says softly. “Hey. Hey, Yaz. I’ve got you. I’ve got you and I am never letting you go ever again.”

“Course not,” Yaz mumbles. “Can’t get rid of the old ball and chain.”

The Doctor laughs, sounding a little disbelieving. “Yeah, well. Can’t get home to the missus if you’ve got no missus to come home to.”

Yaz pulls back, smiling wanly at the Doctor. “I’m not having dinner on the table for you.”

“No, me neither.”

“Suppose we’ll starve.”

The Doctor leans their foreheads together. “We’ll have no choice.” 

“Everybody got out?”

“Everybody got out. You did it.”

“Good. That’s good.”

Bow Tie bends over.

“Not to disrupt the moment,” he says. “But I’d like a hug.”

The Doctor helps Yaz to her feet and she hugs Bow Tie. “Hi.”

“Hello. Very relieved that you didn’t die.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Yaz pulls back. “I need. A bath, I think. I think we should fly back to let Donna know we’re alright and I should take a bath.”

“Seems reasonable.”

Yaz has her eyes closed, head tilted against the back of the tile. She’d taken a brief shower, just to blast some of the sand off, and then got into a bath with a lavender bath bomb in it.

“You should stop doing that,” she says without opening her eyes.

“I’m not doing anything,” the Doctor answers from where she’s sitting at the end of the tub, leaning against it, knees drawn up to her chest. She’d taken off her coat, last time Yaz’s eyes were open, resting her arms on top of her knees.

“You’re stewing. Cut it out. Disrupting the vibes.” The Doctor doesn’t come back with a cheeky comment, so Yaz opens her eyes to see she’s watching her with a troubled expression. “Hey. I’m alright.”

“Did you do that incredibly stupid thing because you were upset about what I said?”

“No. I did that incredibly stupid thing because I was low on options.” The Doctor’s face is still shadowy. “Really. I was frustrated with you but that didn’t make an impact.” Her face works. “Really-“

“Is this what it feels like?” She interrupts. “When I do something like that? Is this what it feels like?”

That draws Yaz up short. “Oh. Um. Yeah. Yeah, I think it is.”

The Doctor purses her lips. “Don’t really care for it.”

“Yeah. I’m… sorry. That I made you feel it.”

“Yeah. Well. I’m sorry, too.”

Yaz holds out a hand. “Help me up?”

The Doctor gets her to her feet gently, and Yaz pulls on a soft oversized purple towel, wrapping it securely around herself. She heads into their bedroom and the Doctor sits on their bed, watching her browse the closet. In the end, she goes for a loose white button up with black pants. She runs a hand through her hair.

“Come here,” the Doctor says, and Yaz obeys, moving to sit next to her. “No, sit with your back to me.”

“Why?”

The Doctor pulls a little bundle out from the nightstand. “Always with the questions, Ms. Khan.”

Yaz rolls her eyes but sits as she says. The Doctor starts fiddling with her hair. “Since when can you do anything with hair?”

“I contain multitudes,” she says, what sounds like around bobby pins.

“Just be careful not to stab me.”

“No promises.”

They sit in peaceful silence for a while, Yaz idly kicking her legs.

“Best not to take too long,” she says eventually. “Or else they’ll think we’re knocking boots.”

“Oh, hell. I’m too tired. Rain check, yeah?”

“Yeah, me too. My folks want me to bring you round to dinner, after we’re all set.”

“Oh, that sounds nice. Dinner at Yaz’s. I could make that work.” Yaz feels something gently inserted into her hair. “Alright, I’m done.”

“Can I go and have a look?”

“Course.”

Yaz gets to her feet and peers in the mirror. A delicate series of braids run along the sides and the top of her head, culminating in a very lovely, flower like bun. At the top of the bun is a gold comb, diamonds and emeralds arranged delicately. “Oh, wow. Doctor, this is incredible. You’ve been holding out on me on the hair skills.”

“It’s the only one I know how to do.”

She gently brushes the comb with her fingers. “Where did this come from?”

“Gallifrey.”

Yaz blinks, turning around. The Doctor is watching her with something brimming in her eyes, the sort of thing Yaz can sometimes struggle to pin down except to know that it can be classified as big. “What?”

“On Gallifrey, when you got engaged, you would do your partner’s hair up in braids and, if you were the one who’d proposed, put a specific type of comb in them. Betrothal braids, betrothal comb. Gotta be one of the last in existence. I’ve been looking for ages.”

Yaz swallows, fingers still resting against the comb. “Oh.”

The Doctor smiles slightly. “You look good.”

“You don’t have any braids.”

“Hair’s too short. Didn’t bother growing it out, you don’t know how to do any of the braids. It’s fine. I’m just happy that you’ve-“

“Oh, piss off.”

The Doctor draws up, looking affronted. “Hang on-“

“Just, sit there-“ Yaz rummages around in her nightstand drawer until she comes out with a small baggie of bobby pins. “Sit there and we’ll see what I can do.”

“Yaz, you don’t have to-“

“Stop that, or I’ll shove a sock in your mouth.” Yaz tugs a bobby pin out, muttering under her breath. “Woman introduces a bridal tradition as part of her long dead culture and says oh no it’s fine I don’t have to partake my hair’s too short anyway this is a totally reasonable thing to say to my wife-“ the Doctor looks down. “Cut that out, I need your head steady, I’m alright but I’m not Sonya.”

“Sorry,” the Doctor whispers.

They work in silence and it takes Yaz a lot less time to say “alright, hair’s done, but hang on, hang on -” she scrambles over to her jewelry box, rifling until she finds a delicate golden chain headpiece with little pearls. “Here we are. This one’s my favorite.” She carefully drapes it over the Doctor’s head. “Okay. You can look.”

The Doctor gets up and looks in the mirror at the loose and messy braided bun Yaz has made. She stares at herself.

“I know I don’t know what to do,” Yaz says. “But I don’t want you to just take yourself out of it completely like that. And I know it’s not just like it could be, but I wanted you to still feel like you were part of it. Because you are. It’s going to be a part of you all your life, and it must mean something to you, because you shared it with me. So here’s… the best I could do.”

“It’s perfect,” the Doctor chokes. “Yaz, it’s-“ she turns and kisses Yaz hard. Yaz wraps an arm around her as they bow in an arc slightly from the force of it. “Yaz, it’s perfect.”

“I’m glad.” The Doctor takes her face in her hands and just watches her for a second. “Are you good?”

“Sit on the corner of the bed.”

She’s got that slightly nervous but determined face on, so Yaz sits. She starts pacing around the bedroom. Yaz just waits.

The Doctor wheels on her. “Okay.”

“…okay?”

The Doctor goes to one knee. Yaz’s heart leaps to her throat. She pulls a face and shifts to two knees. “There we are. Much better. Um-“ she rifles around in her pocket and pulls out a ring box. She takes a deep breath and opens it.

The ring band is a gentle shade of rose gold, with a little cluster of diamonds delicately wrapping around the stone in the center, an oval shaped black one that looks like a brilliantly starry sky.

“It’s a Calassus stone,” the Doctor tells her, voice shaking slightly. “Calassus was what made our big ships, our warships, run, so during the Time War we mined it near to extinction. But on Gallifrey they said… on Gallifrey they said that when the Mothers made the Universe, they made Calassus first. And, y’know, creation myths, they’re as much fluff as they are substance but I suppose a part of me wanted… for you to have a bit of the first piece of the universe. So I searched the mines for a long time. Years, almost any time I left you to go be with your parents or Jack or whoever, I searched. And I finally found one, and I brought it to a jeweler on Tericin because they’re the best jewelers in this galaxy and I just… that’s what I wanted. I wanted you to have a piece of the beginning of time. And I, um. You know me, I’m much better at giving a speech if a planet’s exploding than I am for… feelings and such, but I want you… in my life. I want you in my life for all of it. And I won’t run. Even if it means I have to watch you die, even if it means I stand at your grave, I won’t run. Because I’d rather be at your side for as long as we get then never be at your side at all. I want to go where you go. I want to be with you for all of it. And if you’ll have me, I would like… for you to have this.”

Yaz swallows and grins with wet eyes. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, yes, yeah.”

The Doctor grins so wide it splits her face. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Can I put this on-“

Yaz laughs. “Yes!”

The Doctor gets to one knee and pulls a face. “Oh, give us a hand, it’s been a long day.”

“Long day for you? I’m the one who got sucked out of a disintegrating ship today, you know, twice.” Yaz still helps her to her feet and the Doctor gently slides the ring on.

“Do you like it?” The Doctor asks, a little nervously.

“I love it,” Yaz says, grinning wide. “It’s perfect.”

“Okay,” she answers breathlessly.

“Okay.” Yaz’s grin widens. “Did you kidnap one of my rings that you knew fit to take it to a jeweler so it would fit perfectly?”

“Shut up,” the Doctor says, and kisses her.

Chapter Text

Yaz and the Doctor sidle into Donna’s living room, where everyone is sitting comfortably with beers and chatting. Graham looks up at their entrance and smiles.

“Cor, but don’t you two look lovely.”

“You look great, Yaz,” Ryan adds. “You too, Doc.”

“Cheers, guys.” The Doctor perks up. “Ohhhhh, Donna, is that that beer from Terisin 3 we got that one time?”

“You bet.”

“And you’ve been holding out on me?”

“Oh, you’re fucking impossible when it comes to beer, you’re so bloody picky-“

“You know I like that one-“

“Oh, come off it, you know as well as I do that your tastes change with regeneration-“

The other two Doctors are staring at her, Yaz realizes. She looks at them to see them gazing at the braids and comb in her hair. She smiles and goes to sit in between them as the Doctor follows Donna back to her kitchen, bickering about alcohol.

“Hi,” she says.

“Hi,” Pinstripes says thickly as Bow Tie gives her a weak wave.

“How’s it going?”

“Good. Yeah. It’s good.”

“I never thought I’d see…” Pinstripes half raises a hand to his hair. “I just…”

“We approve, is what he means to say,” Bow Tie cuts in. “Very much. She’s, y’know, bit of a git. But we approve of you. To the max, as it were.”

Pinstripes pulls a face. “She’s the last person who’s ever going to wear betrothal braids and a betrothal comb, that we put there, and your response is to say to the max? ”

“Oi, you-“

Yaz reaches out and takes each of their hands. They fall silent. “Thank you. It means a lot.”

“Hang on-“ Pinstripes peers at her hand. “Hang on, where did she find a Callassus stone?”

“You’ve got a what? ” Bow Tie leans over to take a look. “Where the hell did you find a-“

“Can I see?” Jenny asks. Yaz gets up and sits next to her and she peers at it. “It’s very pretty. I like it.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m telling you, I’m going to give this to you, and you’re going to spit it on the fucking carpet, and I’m gonna have to kill you for leaving a stain.”

“I’m not a bleeding animal, Donna, I’m not gonna spit on your carpet.” The Doctor sits next to Yaz with a bottle of beer. “Here, try it.”

Yaz takes a sip. “Oh. Sort of smoky?”

“It’s fantastic, is what it-“ the Doctor takes a swig and pauses, screwing up her face.

“You spit,” Donna says, very clearly. “And I am kicking you out of my fucking house.”

Reluctantly, the Doctor swallows. Pinstripes gestures and she hands the bottle over.

“I’ve called Martha, Jenny,” Donna says. “She’ll be here tomorrow morning. You can kip with us tonight, we’ve a guest room.”

“Oh. Thank you. Been a while since I slept on a bed and not a cot.”

“A while?”

“…ever.”

At the look on Donna’s face, all three Doctors point at her and say “this is not my fault.”

“I know,” she snaps. She turns back to Jenny. “Do you have any clothes outside the ones you’re wearing?”

“No.”

“Do you have any other shoes?”

“No.”

“Do you have a toothbrush?”

“I had one on the Ark but it was a pretty shit toothbrush.”

Donna clicks her tongue. “Right. When this lot leaves, we’re going out and getting you some pajamas, and then tomorrow when Martha comes we’ll go shopping for basic people necessities.”

“Do you have to?” Jenny looks between the three Doctors. “Leave, I mean.”

The three Doctors give each other an almost forlorn look.

“Time doesn’t like it when more than one of us is in the same place at the same time,” Bow Tie tells her. “It’ll only play nice for so long. The two of us are gonna have to go away. Sooner rather than later.”

“Will you remember any of this?”

Pinstripes shakes his head. “Time’ll spring back to place. We’ll forget all about it once we’re far enough away from each other.”

Jenny looks down. “Okay.”

“But she’ll remember you,” Bow Tie says, looking at the Doctor. “She’ll remember all of this. And she’ll take care of you. Because if any of our positions were switched, we’d do the same.”

She smiles. “Yeah?”

“Course.” The Doctor’s face is fierce. “There’s no version of us that wouldn’t take care of you. Not one.”

“Okay.” Her smile grows. “Thanks.”

“Sorry to be this person,” Donna says. “But you’ve got to be going. You’re cutting it pretty close.”

“Yeah. I know.” The Doctor stands up and holds her arms out. “Alright. Hugs!”

Donna gives her a hug, then Graham and Ryan. She hugs Yaz the tightest. “Congratulations, Yaz. You’re a braver woman than I.”

“But not better?” She asks, pulling back with a grin.

“God, no. You’re a special kind of insane to be shacking up with that one.”

“Oi,” all three Doctors say.

“Oh, I’m kidding.” She leans into Yaz and stage whispers. “I’m not kidding. You’re a proper loony.”

Yaz laughs. “Thanks, Donna.”

Donna turns to Bow Tie. “Are you gonna let me hug you or are you gonna be all fucking weird about it again?”

“Quite frankly, I don’t think you’d know what to do with me if I wasn’t weird about anything.”

“Maybe anything but certainly not   everything.”

Bow Tie wraps her in his arms.

“It was good to see you,” he says quietly.

“Yeah. You, too.” Donna pulls away. “Lose the bow tie. It makes you look like a twelve year old carnival barker.”

“Bow ties are-“

“If I have to hear you say that one more time, I am shoving my foot so far up your arse.” Donna walks up to face Pinstripes, who looks down at her awkwardly and nervously.

“Hi,” he says softly.

“You’ve got a god complex that collided with a savior complex and became inextricably linked,” she tells him bluntly. “And you’re kind of a prick about it.”

Pinstripes winces. “Right.”

“But you and me, we’re good. And I know that you’re not going to remember this, but I would like you to try and hold onto in the back of your mind somewhere the knowledge that you’re forgiven. You shouldn’t have done it. But you’re forgiven.”

Pinstripes’ face shakes and he nods. The two of them embrace, Pinstripes resting his chin on the top of her head, eyes closed.

“Alright, you git,” Donna says, eyes looking a little damp as she steps back. “Gits, plural. Not the four of you,” she adds to Yaz, Graham, Jenny, and Ryan. “You’re lovely. But the lovely ones and the gits, get out of my house. Jenny, I’m assuming you’ll come back when you’ve seen them off.”

“Will you teach me how to fly her?” Jenny asks as the three Doctors work around the console.

“Course.” The Doctor pulls a lever. “Whenever you like.”

“Is it hard?”

“It helps if she helps you,” Yaz says, leaning against a pillar. “I’m sure she will.”

“You mean Mum?“

“No, the TARDIS. She’s a living thing.”

“Hang on, hang on, hang on,” Bow Tie says, both him and Pinstripes staring.

“The TARDIS showed you how to fly her?” Pinstripes demands.

“The Doctor mostly showed me how to fly her. But the TARDIS helped.”

The Doctor looks almost a little smug at the TARDIS favoring Yaz. She rolls her eyes and slaps the button that needed to be hit, none of them having paid any attention to what needed to be done next. “We’re here.”

Bow Tie sticks his head out the door. “So we are!”

They all step outside to see Bow Tie’s TARDIS, neatly parked outside Graham and Ryan’s house.

“Right.” Graham gives Yaz a hug. “Yaz, congrats, you, too, Doc. Jenny, nice to meet you.”

Ryan gives Yaz a hug. “Congrats, Yaz.”

“Thanks, guys.”

“Docs, always good to see you.”

“Been an honor,” Pinstripes says.

“Very nice to meet you,” Bow Tie adds. “Looking forwards to seeing you again.”

“Cheers,” Ryan says.

Bow Tie turns to Jenny and holds her tightly, kissing the side of her head. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispers. Jenny nods, seemingly unable to speak, and he releases her before he looks at Yaz. His smile softens.

“I can’t wait to meet you,” he tells her quietly, almost in awe.

Yaz smiles. “I think you’ll like me.”

“I think I will, too.” Bow Tie gently takes her face in his hands and kisses her forehead. “I’ll see you round, Yaz.”

“Bye, Doctor.”

Bow Tie turns to the Doctor. “Don’t fuck that up.”

The Doctor scowls. “Oi.”

He gives an imperious nod to Pinstripes. “Wanker.”

“Prick,” he answers regally.

Bow Tie straightens his bow tie and serenely walks off towards his TARDIS.

“Don’t do that thing where you watch me go dramatically!” He shouts. “That’s more Mr. Sandshoes’ territory!”

Pinstripes scoffs, looking at the Doctor. “He thinks he’s so cool.”

“I’ve seen half melted ice lollies cooler than him,” she agrees.

“That’s you, isn’t it?” Jenny asks.

“Technically,” Pinstripes says at the same time the Doctor answers “ostensibly”.

“What, so you don’t like each other?”

“Hard not to dislike somebody who spent so much time gelling his hair up in the mornings,” the Doctor snips.

“Oi, you-“

Yaz rolls her eyes, turning away from the argument to see Bow Tie standing at the doors to his TARDIS, watching quietly. She smiles and gives him a little wave. He smiles and waves back before he sidles into the TARDIS.

“Okay,” Yaz says, cutting through Pinstripes saying “just because you’ve never heard of the concept of wearing trousers that fit you-“. “Aren’t we supposed to get everybody bundled off so the universe doesn’t implode or something?”

Yaz busies herself around the TARDIS console. Pinstripes and Jenny went off to have a private chat, so she’s flying the TARDIS. The Doctor, supposedly, is helping, but really she’s just standing there watching Yaz.

“Is this the sort of thing straight blokes talk about when they see their girlfriend washing their car?” Yaz asks, landing her.

“Shut up.” The Doctor slings her arms around Yaz’s neck. “You look so pretty.”

Yaz grins. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” The Doctor leans their foreheads together. “Do you think your sister’ll be upset?”

“I think she can suck a fat one if she is.”

She laughs softly. “Don’t say that about your sister.”

“No one’s talking me out of this, alright? Not anyone. Not even you. I know what I signed up for, and I signed up for it enthusiastically. We’re in it together, yeah?”

She smiles. “Yeah.”

“Good.”

There’s a tentative knock on one of the columns. The Doctor lets go of Yaz and they turn to see Jenny and Pinstripes hovering awkwardly.

“We’re here?” Jenny asks.

“Yeah.” The Doctor sticks her hands in her pockets. “We’re here.”

They step outside to see Pinstripes’ TARDIS. They stand silently in the doorway for a second before Pinstripes wraps an arm around Jenny’s shoulders and pulls her in to press a kiss to the top of her head.

“Keep your nose clean,” he tells her. “Do parents say that to their kids still at this point in time?”

“Between the four of us time is extremely fucked,” Yaz answers. “So I don’t think it matters.”

“Fair enough.”

“Bye, Dad,” Jenny says quietly.

“Bye, Jenny.” Pinstripes releases her and looks at the Doctor, nodding at Yaz. “Don’t fuck that up.”

The Doctor throws her hands up. “Why do you keep saying that?”

“Because we know you.” Pinstripes looks hesitantly at Yaz. “Walk me to my TARDIS?”

“Sure.”

The two of them walk towards his TARDIS, Pinstripes staring at the ground. Yaz waits.

“I’ve not been well,” he tells her abruptly.

“I know.”

“Everything’s been a bit, you know, much as of late.”

“I know, Doctor.”

“And the impression I’ve gotten is that it’s going to keep being very much for a while.”

“I can’t speak to that.”

“You could.”

“I won’t.”

They stop in front of the TARDIS.

“You give me hope,” Pinstripes tells her. “I didn’t think I had any anymore. Didn’t think I knew how. But I look at you, and I see… a future worth having. And I know when I walk through those doors and I take off in that TARDIS, it won’t be long til I don’t have any again.”

Yaz fidgets, thinking.

“We’re not gonna last forever, you know,” she tells him. His eyes snap to her face, looking distressed. “Me and her. We know that. And we know that one way or the other, it’s probably gonna end for me first. And it… hurts. But we’ve decided, both of us, that having this in the moment, it doesn’t mean it didn’t have an impact. Having this in the moment, it still matters, even if we’re going to lose it. So just… have it in the moment. Just stand here and know there’s hope, because just the fact that you won’t remember it doesn’t mean it won’t mean anything.”

Pinstripes’ face works before he smiles.

“I really like you, Yasmin Khan,” he says.

“I’m pretty partial to you myself.” Yaz looks back at the Doctor and Jenny. Jenny’s watching sort of wistfully. The Doctor is decidedly squinting. “She thinks you’re gonna yank me into this box and steal me away, you know.”

“Oh, course she is. I would be, too. Walking away from you and Jenny, that’s the hardest thing I’m ever gonna do.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Yeah? How come?”

Yaz looks back at him. “Cause you’ll come back to us, eventually.”

Pinstripes’ face shakes a little before he gives her a shaky smile and pulls her into his arms. She hugs him.

“It’s going to be alright, you know,” she says quietly. “Really.”

Pinstripes pulls back.

“You wear that comb well,” he tells her.

She smiles. “Thanks.”

Pinstripes looks at Jenny and the Doctor and gives them a wave. He then gives Yaz one long last look before he slips into the TARDIS. Yaz walks back to Jenny and the Doctor, hearing the noises start up behind her.

“Right,” the Doctor says, sticking her hands in her pockets. “We’d best be off, time’s running on.”

“I can take an-“ Jenny furrows her brow. “Do they have rideshare here?”

“Don’t be silly.” Yaz folds her arms. “You’re coming with us.”

“You’re.” Jenny looks nonplussed. “You’re going for family dinner.”

“Yeah, which includes you.”

Jenny looks at the Doctor uncertainly, who beams. “You’ll absolutely love it. Yaz’s folks are very nice.”

“I don’t.” She shifts. “I don’t know how I’m meant to… fit in. With the two of you yet.”

“Me, neither,” Yaz agrees. “Wanna come figure it out?”

Jenny’s face trembles. She looks down, swallows, and looks up.

“Yeah,” she says hoarsely. “Yeah, that sounds really nice.”

Yaz tries to pretend she’s not nervous in the elevator up. It’s going to be a hell of a double whammy, the Doctor has a daughter and by the way the two of us are getting married. She firmly stands behind all of it, of course, but it’s still something to dither over.

Yaz opens the door to the flat. “We’re home!”

“About time, we were wondering if you were ever going to show up.” Dad looks up from where he’s setting the table. “Oh, don’t you two look lovely? Done yourselves up, have you?”

“Er, yeah. So-“

“Oh, who’s this?” Mum asks, pulling bowls out of the cabinet as Jenny hesitantly peers into the kitchen.

“Um-“ Yaz starts.

“Well-“ the Doctor adds.

“I’m Jenny,” she answers, fidgeting a little. “Hi. Um. Mum and Yaz said it was okay that I came, I hope that’s alright.”

The three other Khans stare at the three of them. Yaz tries not to feel antsy.

“You’ve a daughter?” Mum finally asks.

“Have you been paying child support?” Sonya adds.

“She didn’t know she was alive til today,” Yaz hisses.

Sonya doesn’t look impressed. “Mmhm.”

Mum and Dad stare at each other, then at Jenny, who is fidgeting even more intensely.

Mum pulls herself up to her full height.

“Sonya,” she says briskly. “Go and fetch an extra chair.”

“Why’ve I got to do it?”

“Because you’re lazing about the couch doing nothing. Go on, get.” Sonya groans but gets up. Mum turns to Jenny. “You know, I’ve always wanted grandchildren-“

“Mum,” Yaz hisses as the Doctor makes a choking noise. Mum ignores them.

“But Yaz is always so busy and Sonya’s, well, Sonya-“

“What the fuck? ” Sonya shouts as she drags a chair over.

Mum ignores her, too. “And you are quite welcome to fill the position. Please, sit. I hope you like nihari.”

“I’ve never had it,” Jenny answers, brightening. “But I’d love to try it.”

“You know, I can see a family resemblance,” Dad says, shaking Jenny’s hand as Sonya sits. “Is that how it works with your people, Doctor?”

“To be honest,” the Doctor answers. “I don’t even know anymo-“

“WAIT,” Sonya shrieks, making everybody jump. She grabs Yaz’s hand and yanks her towards her.

“Ow, what the fuck, Sonnie-“

“Shut up!” Sonya drags her hand closer to her face, the hand, Yaz suddenly realizes, that has the engagement ring on it. She swallows, looking at Sonya anxiously. “Is this what I think it is?”

“How am I supposed to know what you think it is-“

“Oh, piss off, Yazzie-“

“Don’t tell your sister to piss off,” Dad says.

“And what are you talking about, Sonnie?” Mum adds.

Sonya drags Yaz’s hand a little further, ignoring her “ow!” so she can show Mum and Dad the ring on her finger. Mum and Dad stare at it, then at Yaz as she finally manages to wrest her hand from Sonya’s grip, and then at the Doctor.

Mum bustles forwards and Yaz readies herself but Mum pushes past Yaz to wrap the Doctor in a hug.

“Wow,” Yaz says.

“Oh, I’m so excited you’re officially joining the family!” Mum borderline squeals.

Dad comes around to clap a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. “Good to have you, Doc.”

“Unbelievable,” Yaz mutters, sitting next to Sonya.

“It’s pretty,” Sonya tells her, gesturing at the ring.

“Thank you.”

“How much is it worth?”

“It’s literally priceless, actually.”

“Ooh, la-ti-da.” Sonya sniffs. “Happy for you, you know.”

Yaz blinks. “Really?”

“Well.” Sonya sniffs again. “She’s alright, I suppose.”

Yaz’s grin feels so big it could crack her face. “Thanks, Sonnie.”

“Whatever. Make sure this isn’t some elaborate plan to stick you with the kid.”

“I will.”

“Bet you didn’t even remember my chocolate.” Yaz silently hands a bar over from her bag. “Hm. Thank you.”

“Najia,” Dad says. “I’m pretty sure her species still needs to breathe.”

“We do,” the Doctor wheezes.

Mum releases her and turns to Yaz. “Oh, Yaz.”

“Oh, remembered I exist, have you?”

Mum bends over and wraps her arms around her tightly. “Yaz, I’m so happy for you, oh, this is wonderful- “

Dad kisses the top of her head. “Well done, love.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Oh, we’re going to have to start planning, tomorrow we’ve got to start trying to find imams, that’s priority number one-“

“Mum,” Sonya cuts in. “Let them breathe.”

The Doctor sits next to Yaz and Jenny sits next to her. “Means a lot that you’re so enthusiastic.”

“Oh, eat, eat, the food might go cold.” Mum beams. “Jenny, here, let me fix you a plate. I love your choice in clothing.”

“Thank you! They’re the only clothes I own.”

Mum looks horrified. “The only- well, we’re going to have to get you some new clothes.”

“Donna and Martha are going to get me some.”

“I’ll go with you. We’re going to have to find you a whole wardrobe, the more hands on deck, the better.”

“I’ll come, too,” Sonya adds. “It’s going to be my job.”

Jenny leans over, interested. “Your job is to pick out clothes for people? That’s incredible. How does it work? Is color theory involved?”

Sonya brightens, and as she and Jenny start talking, the Doctor’s hand intertwines with Yaz’s. Yaz grins down at her plate, squeezing hers in return as Jenny says “so how does jewelry fit into it? It’s got to be a whole thing coordinating everything, right?”

Chapter Text

Yaz hadn’t been sure how the Doctor would take to wedding planning.

Partially because the Doctor’s patience can be dependent on the day, and mostly because the Doctor doesn’t really do plans that aren’t invented with five minutes to go. But to her surprise, the Doctor has taken to it swimmingly, attentive to everything Mum tells her, coming up with solutions, only fifty to twenty five percent of which have to be shot down as unfeasible.

Finding an imam takes a while, but eventually they find one in Scotland who’s willing to make the drive. Once that’s out of the way, they start hammering out a plan. The maklava takes some figuring, on account of no grooms, but there’s a bunch of distant relatives coming up, so they figure the Doctor will fulfill the role of the bride in that one.

“We’ll need to figure out what to do about the dholki,” Mum muses. “We don’t have a lot of space in the apartment, it’s going to be cramped.”

“Why don’t we do it in the TARDIS?” The Doctor asks. The two of them stare at her. “What?”

“You want to have the whole female side of my extended family have a ceremony in your spaceship,” Yaz says flatly.

“Well, why not?”

“Doctor,” Mum says carefully. “If you’re trying to keep the… alien thing… under wraps, this is probably not the way to do it.”

“Oh, I wasn’t planning on hiding it.” She squints at them. “Your stares have gotten even starier.”

Yaz feels like she’s having an aneurysm. “You want to tell my whole extended family that you’re an alien?”

“Well, you all took it very well. I’m not going to go out of my way to tell them, but if they ask-“

“They will,” Yaz and Mum say at the same time.

“Then I’ll tell ‘em the truth.”

“Well,” Mum says slowly. “What could go wrong, I suppose.”

“Lots of things,” Yaz answers. “Lots of things could go wrong.”

“I’ll make sure all the doors that need to be locked are locked, and I’ll set the console so nobody can touch anything on it and make anything explode.”

Yaz thinks it over, then sighs. “My aunts are going to want to get into everything. Just so you know.”

“That’s great! I love an aunt. I’m great with aunts.” The Doctor leans back on her chair. “I’ll back down if you want me to. It’s your TARDIS, too.”

Your TARDIS, too. She’s never really thought of it as her TARDIS before. But the Doctor does. Maybe even the TARDIS does, too.

Yaz swallows, then grins. “Did you say that because you thought you’d have a better shot at this happening?”

“No. Maybe a little. But only a little little.”

She huffs a laugh. “Yeah, alright. Dholki in the TARDIS.”

It’s work that’s mostly brisk. Getting the wedding hall set up, getting everything situated for the mehndi, finding the lehengas, coordinating flight reservations. Jack and Sonya immediately call dibs on helping her find her wedding lehenga. Jack gets choked up a couple times. Martha, Donna, and Jenny go with the Doctor, and when Yaz asks how it went, the Doctor answers “found something great! But Martha and Donna were very mean to me, they thought it would be a bad idea to have a live bird on my shoulder for the ceremony”. 

Yaz makes sure she and the Doctor have time to get things for the other ceremony, too, the one that comes after everything on Yaz’s end. It’s tiring, but she sees the Doctor studying designs for the mehndi carefully, or inspecting dupattas, or having intense discussions about pros and cons of caterers with Dad, and it just sort of… reminds her that it’s worth it. Planning a wedding is stressful, and exhausting. But Yaz knows that at the end of the day, it’s going to be worth it.

“It’s going to be fine.”

The Doctor pauses fiddling with the cup of tea she’s been methodically stirring for the past two minutes. They’re settled in bed, Yaz browsing Instagram. “What?”

“You’re having a quiet freak out.” One of these days she’s gonna persuade Instagram to stop showing her Five Minute Crafts videos if it kills her. “It’s going to be fine.”

“I don’t do anything quiet.”

“Oh, yes, you do. When you’re very, very, very nervous, you’re quiet as a graveyard.” Yaz puts her phone on the nightstand and looks at the Doctor, who’s now fidgeting with the spoon. “It’s not too late to call it off, you know.”

The Doctor gives her an eyebrow. “People are going to start showing up tomorrow.”

“There is no point where it’s too late to call it off. We could be putting pen to paper during the nikkah and you could tell me you didn’t want to do this, and I would say okay.”

“I want to be married to you.”

“I know. I just don’t know that you’re a… wedding person.”

The Doctor sniffs. “Could be.”

“Are you?”

“I love a party.”

“I know. But a party’s not a wedding.”

The Doctor’s quiet, then puts the tea on her nightstand.

“I’ve had two weddings,” she tells Yaz. “Well, other than the thing with Queen Elizabeth, but that was a whole other thing. The wedding to River was… done very hastily and under a lot of pressure, but the first one I did right. Every little bit of it. Because I think… I think that’s what I want to do. If I’m going to commit, I’m going to commit. This is… stressful. But for me, this is doing it right. And I’m going to do it right. And I like it,” she adds thoughtfully. “I like learning new things. You know, I never got to do girl stuff before. But picking out lehengas, the mehndi, that’s girl stuff! I like doing new things.”

Yaz smiles.

“They’re going to love you,” she tells her. “Most of them, anyway, and the rest of them are gonna be civil if Mum, Dad, Sonya and I have to beat it into them.”

The Doctor snorts. “Little hostile for a wedding.”

Yaz laughs. “How many weddings have you been to?”

“A few.”

“Clearly not enough.”

“You can back out of my stuff, too, you know. If you want. I wouldn’t care.”

It’s Yaz’s turn to snort. “You wouldn’t object, that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t care. ”

“Well-“

“I want to. I want to do this, with you and for you.”

The Doctor takes her hand, face soft. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Yaz squeezes it. “I’m gonna do it right.”

The Doctor lifts her hand to her lips and kisses it. “Okay.” She rests her chin on Yaz’s hand. “Extremely fucked up we’re having this conversation this late in the game, by the way.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

“Your mum would kill me.”

Yaz grins. “My mum would be delighted that you come back when you get killed, cause it means she could keep venting her anger on you. She can only kill me once.”

The Doctor laughs. “She’ll burn the building down with how often I have to regenerate.”

“Okay. Come here.” Yaz turns the light on her nightstand off and wraps her arms around the Doctor, who curls up into her like an octopus. “Big day tomorrow.”

“You’re so warm,” the Doctor mumbles into somewhere in the vicinity of Yaz’s shoulder. “Humans are so warm.”

Yaz grins. “I better be the only human you’re cuddling up to, madam.”

“Don’t worry.” The Doctor sounds peaceful. “Only you.”

There’s lots of trips to and from the airport. Yaz gets stuck driving Auntie Parveen and Auntie Ifah and they scream at each other the entire trip back, in rush hour traffic.

“I love the Doctor and want her to be my wife, I love the Doctor and want her to be my wife, this is all worthwhile because I love the Doctor and I want her to be my wife,” she mumbles, squinting through the rain out the windshield.

“What are you saying, Yasmin?” Auntie Parveen shouts.

“Nothing!” Yaz shouts back. “Everything’s fine! Auntie Ifah, why don’t you tell us about your trip to Holland?”

“Ohhhh, Mrs. Big Shot, can afford trips to Holland-“

Yaz tries not to slam her head into the steering wheel.

When she drops Auntie Parveen and Auntie Ifah at the hotel, she staggers into the flat.

“Please tell me that was it,” she says. “Please tell me that was everybody.”

“The Doctor’s gone to get Nani and then that’s it.”

Yaz blinks. “…really?”

“Yeah, they’ll be back some time soon, I think.”

Yaz quietly pulls her phone out and rapid fire texts please tell me you and my grandmother are not fighting dinosaurs on future Mars.

There’s a troubling amount of ellipses before she gets a not yet! in response. Yaz presses her phone to her forehead for a second, closing her eyes.

“Is it too late to ditch all you people and get hitched in Vegas?” she asks.

“I will still love you.”

“But?”

“But yes, it’s too late and I will never forgive you.”

“Okay.” Yaz opens her eyes. “Tell me what to do now.”

They get everybody home, and they get them into hotels. They hold a get together that night and The Doctor is chipper and friendly while Yaz is doing a good job at pretending she doesn’t want to kill herself. Jack is, predictably, a big hit. Jenny wins favor by running around trying to help everybody. Martha and Mickey and Donna are just as enthusiastically friendly. Graham gets lost in a discussion about Pakistani chai with two of her uncles, and Ryan and a cousin swap notes on growing plants. It goes pretty easy, which doesn’t mean Yaz isn’t anxious.

“So?” The Doctor asks when they have a moment to breathe. “What’s the verdict on me?”

“Mostly good. A little muttering. A great uncle started berating his daughter that I’d gotten a doctor before she did and I don’t think she appreciated it.” Yaz folds her arms. “Is this what it was like? Back home?”

“Kinda, yeah, actually. Less fistfights breaking out.”

“Give it time.”

“Yaz!” Dad calls. “Come introduce the Doctor to cousin Kabir!”

“Do we like cousin Kabir?” The Doctor asks.

“He stole twenty pounds from me when we were sixteen and never gave it back.”

“Right, polite passive aggression with cousin Kabir.”

The dholki had been one of Yaz’s biggest sources of stress, but it goes surprisingly smoothly. The TARDIS makes sure nobody can get in where they shouldn’t, and they hold the ceremony in the console room. They’d decided to have both brides’ sides at one dholki instead of separate ones, and it’s much more relaxing than she anticipated.

“You keep acting like you’re going to meet the hangman,” the Doctor observes late at night once everyone’s gone home.

“No, I’m not-“ she sighs. “Weddings are big, stressful things. I’m not good with… people, or social interaction. It’s a little overwhelming.”

The Doctor wraps her arms around her shoulders.

“All you have to do is say when and I’ll kidnap you and we’ll get married in an isolation box on Ebos Seven where it’s done by computer over a loudspeaker and it’s just the two of us,” she says. “I’ll take the hit from your mum.”

Yaz smiles, reaching up to hold onto the Doctor’s arms.

“I’m no good at any of it, really,” she tells her. “Funerals, birthday parties. There’s a reason I don’t go to pride parades. But I… want to do this. It’s not that I feel like I have to do it this way or anything. This is how my mum did it. This is how my Nani did it. And this is how I want to do it. This is what I want. It’s just… also going to be a lot.”

The Doctor gently kisses the side of her head. “I want what you want.”

“I know.”

“And I don’t think I ever met sensible, reasonable people who were getting hitched who didn’t want the wedding to be over as soon as possible.”

“Rules us right out, then.”

“True.” Yaz feels the Doctor grin against the side of her face. “Think we might have to keep an eye on Jack around your cousins.”

Yaz snorts. “Jack’s wedding present to me was not hooking up with any of my relatives.”

“At the wedding or forever?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Yaz squeezes her arms. “Okay. Onwards and upwards.”

The mayun goes smoothly, too. The smell of the spices and the oil is comforting and Yaz feels simultaneously very calm and a little antsy.

“It’s going too well,” Yaz says to Sonya during the mehndi as henna is applied to her hands. “I think it’s going to go horribly wrong.”

“That’s cause you’re a fucking moron,” Sonya answers. “I’m gonna get you a drink and a straw.”

Yaz keeps fiddling with her dupatta.

She’d chosen the one that had made Sonya teary . Jack had been weepy most of the way through, but Sonya had smiled and quietly said “that’s it, Yazzie”, and that’s the one she’d picked. Her midriff in the choli is slightly bared with long sleeves and a high collar, flowers and diamonds embroidered in gold and sequins along the scarlet lehenga. Everyone else had cleared out under Sonya’s instruction to give Yaz a moment to breathe.

“Stop that. You’re going to fray it.”

Yaz turns to see Nani, hands folded in front of her. She smiles tremulously. “Hi, Nani.”

“Careful. You’ll smudge your mascara.” Nani pulls a handkerchief from her clutch and lightly dabs under Yaz’s eyes. “There. Better.”

“Thanks.”

Nani straightens her jadau mathapatti so it’s straight. “Breathe, Yasmin.”

“I’m breathing.”

“You’re not.” Nani lowers her hands from Yaz’s face. “You know, I think it’s very funny that you thought yes, doesn’t she look familiar? I think she looks like someone from Hollyoaks, oh no, she doesn’t like her first name so she only really goes by Doctor, you understand was going to work.” Yaz flushes and she opens her mouth. “No, don’t do that. Weddings are held together by prayer and spit. You had a lot to focus on and you took a chance.”

She looks down. “Sorry, Nani.”

“It’s alright. The thing you will learn when you get to have my level of experience in the world is that kids are dumb, and they think they can get away with dumb things.”

Yaz’s lips twitch. “I’m not a kid anymore, Nani.”

“To me, you will always be a child. And yet you are not.” Nani takes her hands. “Yasmin, why are you crying?”

Her face shakes. “What if I can’t crack it?” she whispers. “What if I’m not cut out for it? What if I’m a bad wife?”

Nani squeezes her hands. “Look at me.” Yaz lifts her head. Nani’s face is gentle. “I can’t tell you that you’re ready for marriage. That’s a question only you can answer. But I can tell you that the Doctor is a good woman. I knew it then and I know it now. And looking back to that time during the Partition, I can see you were in awe of her even then. I know she loves you. And you may be a bad wife sometimes. Marriage is hard, and nobody is perfect. But even if a bad wife is something you may be, it is not something that you are. So I want you to close your eyes and think about it, really think about it. Are you ready? Is marrying the Doctor something you want to do?”

Yaz closes her eyes.

She thinks about a woman, a little manic, leaning in to her and saying I’m calling you Yaz, cause we’re friends now. She thinks about a woman who never stops running. She thinks of whole star systems, safe because of her. But most importantly, she thinks of how a woman looks in the morning, face scronched in her hatred of early, and how she looks sitting in the doorway of the TARDIS, watching the stars go by. She thinks of a woman who never makes Yaz’s hot chocolate right but tries so hard every time, who looks at Yaz like she hung galaxies, whose hand fits so perfectly in hers.

Yaz opens her eyes and smiles.

“Yeah,” she answers. “I’m ready.”

Nani smiles back. “I know.” She leans in. “Now, I have to go and reassure your bride that you’re okay, because apparently she saw you looked increasingly panicky in glimpses she caught of you and she is very worried about you.”

She grins a little. “Yeah?”

“My understanding is Captain Harkness has her physically hoisted over his shoulder to keep her from tracking you down and is threatening to spin until she pukes, and it was such a nice lehenga.”

Yaz laughs softly. “Okay. Thanks, Nani.”

“Any time, Yasmin.”

Nani slips out and Yaz quietly shifts her dupatta one last time.

They can’t get the doors open.

If Yaz had not just attained her peaceful acceptance and resolution about the Doctor, she would be laughing borderline hysterically from how ridiculous it was. They’ve made it all this way and the great lovely doors to the mosque won’t happen.

“They’re working on it,” Sonya whispers as Yaz looks resigned at the door. “It’s something about the locks. If you have to, you can set me on them.”

“I’m not setting you on anybody.”

Yaz hears footsteps stop next to her.

“What’s going on?” The Doctor asks.

“Something about the locks. Can’t get the doors open.” Yaz looks at her.

The diamond mathapatti rests gently on the Doctor’s softly wavy hair under the dupatta, earrings and choker neatly arranged. Her long sleeved scarlet kameez is embroidered with glittering golden flowers, showing off her collarbones nicely, the lehenga flaring out around her. Their eyes meet and both of them jump, looking straight ahead at the doors, Yaz flushing a little. They’re quiet for a moment.

“You look really pretty,” the Doctor whispers.

“Thanks,” Yaz whispers. “You, too.”

“And, um. I’m not gonna run from you. Never again. I’m gonna be here for all of it. For everything.”

Yaz looks at her out of the corner of her eye to see the Doctor’s doing the same. She smiles slightly.

“You don’t have to reassure me,” she says. “I trust you.”

“Do you?”

“No, I’m marrying you because I think you’re very disreputable.”

The Doctor stifles a snort. “I am, a little bit.”

“Just enough to be interesting.”

She stifles another snort. “Stop that.”

“For the rest of my life I wanna go where you go. And I know that you want the same. You don’t have to keep promising me. I believe you.”

The Doctor looks to the side before she quietly reaches out and links their pinkies together. “Me, too.”

“I know.”

“They’re taking a really long time on the doors.”

“They are.”

“Oh-“ the Doctor lets go of Yaz to pat down her kameez. She pulls out her sonic screwdriver and rushes up to the doors. “Here-“ she gives them a buzz and the doors swing open. She turns to face them, throwing her hands up triumphantly. “We’re in!”

Laughing, Yaz takes the necessary few steps to join her.

The only time the Doctor and Yaz let go of each other’s pinkies is to sign the contract. Mum and Dad and Nani get teary. Jenny pats Jack on the shoulder as he tries to contain his tears. Yaz knows she’ll only remember this in the periphery, because after she signs her name and looks up at the Doctor, all she can see is the grin on the Doctor’s face.

They had decided to combine the Valima and the Barat. They’d decided the Doctor didn’t have enough people on her end to pull the Valima off, so they decided one big party would be good.

Yaz has never seen the Doctor smile this much in her life. She grins at everybody. She grins at the food, she grins at the flowers, and she especially grins at Yaz, grins at her like she was born to do it. Yaz can feel herself grinning just the same, her hand having never felt more secure than when it’s in hers.

Eventually, they make their way around the room, thanking various guests. Yaz takes a peek into the hall just outside the reception area as the Doctor charms Uncle Basim to see Jenny, leaning against the wall in her dark purple kameez and lehenga . Jenny jumps on seeing her. “Sorry, I can come back in-“

“No, no, it’s okay.” Yaz closes the door and leans against the wall next to Jenny. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit… overwhelming.”

“Would you like me to leave?”

“Only if you want to.”

“Then I’ll stay.”

They’re quiet.

“Your family’s so welcoming,” Jenny says.

“Yeah, they’ve really taken a shine to you.”

“I never knew so many people could welcome somebody else in that much.”

Yaz looks up at Jenny’s quiet face.

“They’re your family, too,” she tells her. “If you want them.”

Jenny’s lips twitch. She looks at Yaz. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to call you.”

“You can call me whatever you want.” Yaz tilts her head back against the wall. “Jenny, I know this is all… very weird. I know it’s a lot to be thrown into, and I think you’ve handled it really well. But you’re not obligated to be okay. I’m good to give you space and I’m good to be here for you. Whatever you need.”

Jenny smiles slowly.

“I think I’d like to part of your family,” she says. “And I’m really glad you married my mum.”

Yaz smiles. “Thanks, Jenny. Me, too.” She holds out her arms and Jenny gives her a big hug, lifting her off her feet a little. “Nani and Mum are going to be thrilled, you know. They want to spoil you.”

“That sounds like fun. I’ve never been spoiled before.”

“You’re gonna love it.”

Jenny pulls back. “I’m gonna go back in there. You coming?”

“Think I might just stay out here for a moment. Take a breather.”

“Okay. I’ll see you inside.”

“I’ll see you.”

Jenny slips back into the reception. Yaz leans against the wall, closing her eyes.

There’s soft footsteps. Yaz straightens a little and looks to see a slight older woman with short gray hair shot with black. She’s wearing an understated blue and silver lehenga and holding a small black clutch purse .

“I’m sorry to have disturbed you,” she says softly.

“That’s alright. I’m sorry, I’m afraid I… don’t recognize you. Are you a friend of Mum’s?”

“You look lovely. Did you enjoy the ceremony?”

“I did, actually. I’m not great with… events, but um. It felt like it was just me and her.”

The woman smiles. “As it should be.”

“Did you want to come inside?”

“No, I… I can’t stay.” She looks wistful as she looks at the reception doors and Yaz realizes.

“You’re not from my side,” she says.

“No.” She looks back at Yaz. “Yaz, I lead a… complicated life. I’m never in the same place at once, because I go where I think I’m needed, and someone… always needs me. Someone needs me now. But I couldn’t.” She looks down at the clutch. “I couldn’t let the day go… unmarked.”

“Just come inside for a minute,” Yaz implores. “Just to say hello. Whoever she is, I’m sure she’d love to-“

“If I go in, I don’t think I’ll come out again. And my life is… parallel to hers now. I have places I need to be. But I wanted…” she holds the clutch out to Yaz. “For her. As a wedding present.”

Yaz takes it. “You’re sure you won’t come in?”

“No. But… do you think you could… point her out to me? Just from here?”

Yaz pushes the door open and looks around until she sees her. “There,” she tells the woman, pointing. The Doctor is laughing, talking with Emma and Donna, the light glinting off her dupatta slightly. Yaz smiles quietly at the sight and looks at the woman, who’s watching with tears pricking her eyes.

“She looks happy,” she says quietly.

“Yeah,” Yaz agrees. “She does.”

“I’m glad you make her so happy.” The woman straightens and smiles at Yaz. “Congratulations on your joyful day.”

“Thanks. Um. Good luck, wherever you’re going.”

“Thank you. Be well, Yaz.”

The woman turns and walks away. Yaz looks at the velvet clutch.

“Yaz?” She looks up as Jack sticks his head out of the door. “You okay, kiddo? You’ve been out here a while.”

“Um. Yeah.” Yaz holds the clutch out to him. “Can you put this in the TARDIS for me?”

“What’s in it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who gave it to you?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

Jack gives her an eyebrow. “You sure that’s a good idea?”

“Sure enough.”

He shrugs. “Okay.” He takes the clutch and kisses her forehead. “You look beautiful, kid.”

“Thanks, Jack. I’m gonna go back in there.”

Yaz slips back inside. The Doctor looks up at the sound of the door and beams. Yaz beams back, every step somehow feeling so much lighter than it did before.

“Dad, it’s okay,” Yaz says, laughing softly as she wraps her arms around him. “It’s fine.”

“I know,” he says wetly. “I love you, Yazzie.”

“I love you, too.”

Yaz hugs all the family members, kisses Mum and Nani on the cheek, laughs quietly when Sonya mumbles “shut up, I don’t even like you” as Yaz wipes the tears out from under her eyes. The Doctor smiles as she joins her at the TARDIS, throwing rice behind her as she goes. The two of them pause at the door, just to look at everybody watching them, and then step inside.

The Doctor immediately lies down on the TARDIS floor. Yaz instantly joins her.

“I know there’s supposed to be shenanigans on a wedding night,” the Doctor says, eyes closed. “But-“

“Shenanigans tomorrow.” Yaz stretches. “Too tired tonight.”

“Maybe we should just fall asleep here.”

“Too uncomfortable.”

“Can’t believe I’m already getting bossed around by the missus.”

Yaz laughs. “Wow, can’t believe you’re already nagging me.”

The Doctor giggles and lightly slaps at her leg. “Guess what? Guess what?”

“What?”

“We’re married.”

Yaz laughs. “No. Really?”

“No, really! I was there!”

“Are you sure? I didn’t see you.”

“Really? You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“You know, I met Ingrid Bergman, and I don’t think she would approve of you gaslighting your wife on the first day.”

Yaz laughs even harder. “Wow.”

“I’m just saying.”

“Alright, wiseass, come on. Let’s find somewhere to post up so people don’t come knocking on our door.” Yaz pushes herself to her feet, then helps the Doctor to hers. “Where are we going?”

The Doctor sets the coordinates. “Okay. We’re good to go.”

The two of them work in comfortable silence until the TARDIS stops groaning.

“Where are we?”

The Doctor yawns. “Space.”

“Come on. Let’s get to-“

“No!” The Doctor holds up her hands and waves them, rushing forwards as Yaz moves to go deeper into the TARDIS. “No, no, no, don’t!”

“Why?”

“No, come here-“ Yaz approaches her, baffled. The Doctor holds out her arms. “Come on.”

“Come on, what?”

“Threshold!”

Yaz stares, then half laughs. “You try and bridal carry me through the TARDIS at least once a month and it never goes well. You can only do a fireman’s carry.”

“It’s the same thing!”

“It is not the same thing.”

“Well, what do you propose we do?”

Yaz gestures. “You come here.”

“Aw, I wanted to do it!”

“This way it’ll still be done. Come on.” 

Yaz easily hefts the Doctor into her arms and she makes a startled noise. “Oh. Wow. That was… much smoother than I anticipated.”

“Thank you.”

The Doctor’s quiet as Yaz carries her out of the console room and down the hall.

“So,” she says eventually. “I am… into this.”

Yaz grins. “Are you, now?”

“Mm. Can’t believe it never occurred to us to explore this before.” The Doctor yawns again. “Can’t believe we’re too tired to explore it tonight.”

“Well, we’ve got a whole honeymoon to figure it out.”

“We’ll be adventurers. Pirates? Are we pirates?”

Yaz nudges their door open with her foot. “I think there needs to be water involved for us to be pirates.”

“Hm. Well, we’ll experiment.”

Yaz gently sets the Doctor on her feet. “Naturally.”

The Doctor stretches. “Oh, can you help me get my kit off?”

Yaz grins. “Thought you were too tired for that.”

The Doctor makes a ha ha ha face. “You gonna give us a hand or not?”

Yaz gently starts removing her jewelry, setting it on a table. She folds the dupatta and helps her out of her kameez and her lehenga. The Doctor turns to face her with a smile. “Thanks. Come here, I’ll get you out of yours.”

The Doctor gets her out of her clothes, brushing stray hairs out of Yaz’s face. “There you are.”

“Thanks.”

“I love you.”

Yaz smiles. “I love you, too.”

“Good. Means you can’t get mad about this.”

“Can’t get-“ the Doctor promptly lifts her in a fireman’s carry. “Oh, you son of a-“

“Nope! Can’t hear you over the sound of how much you love me.”

“I’m going to beat the-“

“Wow, I love you, too, so much, thank you for saying it-“ She dumps Yaz on the bed.

Yaz grins sleepily. “You’re the worst.”

“Mmm.” The Doctor crawls into bed, wrapping herself around Yaz. “That’s me. Galaxy’s most wanted.”

“Mm, probably.”

“Yeah. But I bet you’re not far behind.”

“Aw.” Yaz yawns. “Very sweet of you.”

“Mm.” The Doctor readjusts her grip on Yaz. “G’night, Yaz.”

Yaz presses a kiss to the top of her head and just rests there for a moment, breathing in the smell of her.

“Good night, Doctor,” she says softly.

Chapter Text

“Ow,” Yaz mumbles, something jolting her into consciousness.

“Mm?”

“Think you just elbowed me in the tit.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“S’alright.”

The Doctor shifts and Yaz drowsily opens her eyes, yawning. She turns over. The Doctor’s shifted onto her side. Yaz quietly counts the strands of flyaway blond hair, and then the freckles along her shoulders. She turns back over with a whump. Her hair flops over her face. She scronches her nose up. She tries and fails to blow the hair out. Yaz gently moves them out of her face.

“Thanks,” she mumbles.

“Mm-hm.” Yaz counts the freckles on her nose, watches the way her eyelashes cast a slight shadow on her cheeks.

“Are you staring at me?” The Doctor rasps.

“Mm-hm.”

“Why?”

“I like looking at your face.”

“S’nice.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Why d’you like looking at my face so much?”

“I dunno. I must like looking at it at least a little if I married you.”

The Doctor smiles. “You did do that, didn’t you?”

“I did.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Absolutely.”

She giggles. “Mean.”

“Maybe a little. But I think you must like it at least a little bit.”

“I must, if I married you.”

Yaz wriggles closer and gently kisses the Doctor. The Doctor wraps an arm around her neck before she slides it around her waist. Yaz shifts so she’s on top of her, the Doctor’s other hand sliding to her hair, the one on her waist moving to drift up and down her back.

“You,” the Doctor murmurs when Yaz pulls back. “Made me a promise last night.”

Yaz grins. “Did I?”

“Mmhm.” Her eyes open, lips tilting wickedly. “You promised me shenanigans.”

“Hmm, shenanigans, shenanigans.” Yaz drums her fingers against the Doctor’s waist. “You know, it rings a bell.”

“Clearly?”

Yaz slides her hand down to curl under the Doctor’s thigh, pulling her closer. The Doctor’s breath hitches. “Clearer and clearer.”

She grins up at her. “Prove it.”

Yaz grins back, a little wolfish. “Well.” She presses her a little further into the bed, watching her cheeks turn pink. “If you insist.”

“There’s nothing in there,” Yaz says, wrapped in their comforter as she follows the Doctor down the hall.

“Bet there is,” the Doctor answers obstinately, the sheet draped around her dragging slightly on the floor.

“I know there isn’t.”

They walk into the kitchen. There’s a little notecard on the counter that says open me! Yaz and the Doctor look at each other, then at the notecard. Yaz picks it up, the Doctor peering over her shoulder.

I could say a lot of mushy stuff about how happy I am for you, and how much I love the both of you, and how I wish you happy lives. But instead I’m gonna tell you there’s orange juice in the fridge, and a box of almond croissants in the cupboard.

Jack.

“We really should have let him fuck one of your cousins,” the Doctor says.

Yaz puts the notecard back on the counter. “The next time you say that to me it’ll be an instant divorce.”

“Duly noted. Come on, let’s eat.”

“We have to ask Jack where he got these,” the Doctor says as they eat in the console room, sitting on the floor.

“He might have made them.”

“He might have made them?”

Yaz takes a sip of her orange juice. “He’d probably show us how to make them, if we asked nicely.”

“I don’t ask Jack for things nicely.”

Yaz rolls her eyes. “I could ask him nicely.”

The Doctor looks around the console room. “Oh, what’s that?”

Yaz peers at what she’s pointing at. “Oh, right, sorry, I forgot.” She grabs the velvet clutch off the console. “It was a wedding gift for you?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Yaz hands it over. “Someone from your side of the family.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know. She was a bit mysterious about it. Said you two were on parallel paths now. But she seemed really happy that you were happy.”

The Doctor turns it over in her hands. “Hm.”

“Who was it?”

“Was her hair curly?”

“No. Gray and straight.”

“Not River, then.”

Yaz laughs. “You think River would’ve shown up to your wedding?”

“Not sure. She was an unpredictable woman.” The Doctor squints at Yaz. “You think opening this’ll kill us?”

She shrugs. “Won’t know until you try.”

The Doctor grins. “That’s why I married you,” she says. She opens it up and pulls out a thick sheaf of papers folded up and tightly secured with a rubber band. “Ooh. Intriguing.”

Yaz scoots next to her, peering over her shoulder as the Doctor pulls off the rubber band and unfolds the paper. To Yaz’s surprise, the paper is written in tight Gallifreyan circles in dark blue link. It’s on stationary from The Coal Hill School. She looks at the Doctor’s face to see tears have sprung to her eyes as she white knuckles the paper.

“Hey.” Yaz gently pulls the papers from her grip and puts them on the TARDIS floor. “Hey, careful. You don’t want to smudge or rip it.” She wraps her arms around her. “What is it? Is everything okay?”

“She didn’t want to stay?” The Doctor whispers.

“She said she’s never in the same place at once, because she goes wherever she’s needed, and there’s always somebody who needs her. But she didn’t want to just let the day pass. She wanted you to have that.”

The Doctor sniffs. “Yeah,” she says softly. “Yeah. That’s my girl.”

“Who was she?”

The Doctor picks the papers up and gently traces the first symbol with her finger.

“Grandmother,” she reads.

Yaz blinks, confused, until she sits up straighter in realization. “Oh.” The Doctor’s still staring at it. “You don’t have to read it now. You can just-“

“No. No, I’d like. Can I read it now?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“Can you…” the Doctor’s voice gets small. “Can you hold me?”

“Yeah.” Yaz pulls her in. “Of course.”

They lie on the floor together, wrapped in their sheet and comforter. Yaz rests her face in the crook of the Doctor’s neck, feeling her chest rise and fall unsteadily as she works her way through the papers. On the last page, she laughs wetly before gently resting the papers on the floor.

“Was it a good wedding present?” Yaz asks.

“Yeah,” the Doctor whispers hoarsely. “It was.” She sniffs. “She grew up.”

“She was very polite.”

“She’s a good kid. A good woman.” She takes a long, shaky breath. “I’m glad you got to meet her.”

Yaz holds her a little closer. “Will going to get another croissant make you feel better?”

“…yeah.” The Doctor turns around and brushes their noses together. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Yaz grins. “Will it make you feel even better if I race you?” The Doctor looks contemplative for a moment, then grins and bolts to her feet. “No, no-“ Yaz scrambles up. “No fair, I didn’t say ready set go!”

Green had been the only thing the Doctor had said to her for the outfit. Green was the color of weddings on Gallifrey, and green was what she wanted. Yaz had decided to splurge a little and had a suit tailored for her , emerald green with a black tie and a white shirt. She’d managed to find a green tulle veil dotted with butterflies , and she carefully positions it with the betrothal comb. She smooths the pants down a little.

“Yaz?” The Doctor sounds tentative. “You ready?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.”

The Doctor steps into their room holding a small bowl with a paintbrush in it and stops just to look at her. She’s wearing a long sleeved low cut emerald green jumpsuit with a sash round her waist.

“Wow,” she whispers.

Yaz grins slightly, looking down. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She tilts her head. “Come on.”

They sit down on the floor of the console room, the Doctor setting the bowl with the green mud in between them.

“Hands,” the Doctor says softly. Yaz holds them out and, carefully, the Doctor paints her name on the top of one hand and Yaz’s in the other, both in Gallifreyan. She leans in and gently draws a line from in between her eyebrows down to the tip of her nose. “Okay. Your turn.”

Yaz takes a deep breath and takes the brush. She’s practiced for a year and when she writes the same symbols on her hands, it doesn’t look too bad. She paints the line on the Doctor’s nose. She puts the bowl and brush to the side and she and the Doctor lay their hands palm to palm in between them.

“In every change, in every sky shot with violet, I will be there,” the Doctor says quietly.

“In every change, in every sky shot with violet, I will be there,” Yaz repeats in a murmur.

“From now til the Mothers unmake the world, I will be there.”

“From now til the Mothers unmake the world, I will be there.”

“I will see your face in wood, in stone, in sun, in sky.”

“I will see your face in wood, in stone, in sun, in sky.”

“I will see your face in the dawn of the morning, and I will see your face at the end of the world.”

“I will see your face in the dawn of the morning, and I will see your face at the end of the world.”

“I see-“ the Doctor’s voice comes close to cracking and Yaz’s hands twitch with the urge to hold hers. “I see you as you are, throughout every face there is, and I do not find you wanting.”

“I see you as you are, throughout every face there is-“ their eyes meet. “And I do not find you wanting.”

The Doctor wets her lips and swallows.

“Yasmin Khan,” she whispers, and Yaz whispers the Doctor’s name in return.

The Doctor pulls a teardrop emerald pendant on a gold chain out of her pocket and gently places it around Yaz’s neck, clasping it. Yaz pulls an identical one from hers and lowers the Doctor’s hood to drape it over her neck, gently pulling her hair free from the chain. They link their fingers and the Doctor kisses her, gentle and sweet. She pulls away and she and Yaz just rest there for a moment, foreheads pressed together.

“Lanterns?” Yaz asks quietly.

The Doctor nods. “Lanterns.”

The Doctor had crafted the lanterns herself. Yaz had watched her toss reject after reject, throwing every one that didn’t meet her standards in the garbage until she came up with six she liked. The structure is rectangular , flowers carved into the shimmering bronze like metal at the top. Out of the four glass panels on the side, the Doctor’s name is constructed stained glass style in varying shades of green in Gallifreyan is on two on each lantern, with Yaz’s name in Gallifreyan on the other two. They kneel in front of the doorway to the TARDIS, orbiting quietly around a greenish blue nebula, the Doctor picking up the ones with Yaz’s name and Yaz picking up the ones with the Doctor’s.

“Right here,” the Doctor says, gently tapping the side of the lantern in her hands. The lantern softly lights a gentle green light. Yaz taps hers. Gently, they lightly push them out out of the TARDIS. The hover mechanism activates on the bottoms, and they quietly whir out into the nebula.

“They’re programmed to find the most stable part of the nebula and stay there,” the Doctor tells her. “They’ll shift with it, but they’ll always be part of this system forever. They’ll never fall apart or dim. Just… forever in concert with the universe.”

Yaz smiles. “I like that.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

Yaz looks at the Doctor to see she’s watching her fondly. Yaz reaches out and takes her hand. The Doctor lifts it so she can gently kiss her palm before scooting over and leaning against Yaz. She wraps both arms around her, pulling her in as the Doctor settles, her head resting against Yaz’s neck.

“I love you, Mrs. Khan,” she says quietly.

Yaz kisses the top of her head. “I love you, Doctor Khan.”

Yaz leans her head against the Doctor’s, the two of them watching the lanterns float out across the nebula until, eventually, they still, glinting, glimmering, and glowing, until they are indistinguishable from the stars.