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The story was that Luna was 'Jane Smith''s distant cousin, visiting over the Christmas break.
The truth was very different. Luna had arrived with a fobwatch in her pocket, and a disappointed expression. It was UNIT - a different UNIT to the one she remembered, one that had managed to truck through the alien invasions minus the Third Doctor's help - who'd asked her to do this. But now… Now, she was standing outside Jane Smith's London flat, decorated with Christmas decorations.
She gingerly rung the doorbell. When it opened, the older woman beamed, and scooped her into a massive hug.
"Luna!" She squealed, "it's been so long, come on in, you're gonna catch your death out there,"
Luna gave her a weak smile, and Jane let her in. The apartment was surprisingly well decorated for someone on a Sainsbury's salary, with a rather well decorated Christmas tree in the corner and a red decorated table.
Luna grabbed onto the fobwatch, looking around the apartment for any signs that this stranger was the Doctor, but there were none. Instead, there were photos. Photos of Jane, going out with her workmates, a big smile on her face. She saw a university diploma - Jane was still smart, and could have continued her education, but 'an incident' that she didn't remember forced her to cut back.
"I've got the turkey on," Jane continued, as Luna continued to look around the life of the person that she was going to ask to erase her existence for the sake of the world, "uh, I wasn't sure if you had any allergies or anything, so it's just a normal British Christmas! …Uh… Think of it like Thanksgiving! J-Just without the constant arguing,"
Luna winced, clicking the back of her teeth.
"Thanks," She said, putting on a fake smile, looking over the table, "uh… that's a lot of champagne."
Jane frowned, "I know I said I was going cold turkey… But, that's for New Years, I guess!"
Most people drink to forget. Luna deduced that Jane drunk to remember. The gap in her memory between her childhood and adult years - she attributed it to a head injury she got when she was young.
Jane poured Luna a glass of champagne, and the conversation began - just simple stuff about how Luna's life was going, how her family was going, if she'd found work yet… Luna had managed to pull a bunch of answers out of her ass. It was 2000 after all, so Luna just had to pretend she was a normal 20-something from the 2000s.
Jane went off to get the turkey out, and placed it in the centre of the table. However, she noticed the fobwatch placed next to the plate.
"Oh… What's that?" Jane smiled, "early Christmas present for little ol' me?"
"Jane, there's something I wanted to tell you," Luna swallowed, "uh… I think you're gonna need another glass. It's going to be a long story,"
And so, the truth came out. Dripping off her lips as she stared at the turkey like she was talking to it and not Jane. Jane Smith, daughter of Verity and Sydney Smith, Sainsbury employee, was not real. She was the Doctor - she'd ran away from her exile after she saw Jamie and Zoe getting their memories wiped - and Jane recognised the name 'Jamie' as belonging to an ex-boyfriend of hers that she couldn't remember breaking up with.
The Doctor had ordered Luna back to America, fobwatch in hand, only to return when it was absolutely necessary. And it turned out that it was - UNIT had discovered the Master had arrived to Earth, and Luna had given her phone number to Lethbridge-Stewart to call in case of an emergency. They weren't prepared to deal with a Time Lord.
In fact, Luna was fairly sure she heard soldiers being made victims of the Tissue Compression Eliminator.
So, the reason Luna turned up on Jane's doorstep was not for Christmas cheer, but for a somewhat depressing reason. Congratulations, Jane, you're gonna have to kill yourself for the sake of the universe.
Jane laughed.
"Ha! You're jokin' right? Right? I… I can't be… Who ever that is! I work at a shop, I get drunk on the weekends, I'm normal!"
"That was the whole plan," Luna said, "you-"
She stopped, pausing, "The Doctor said to me that she wanted to just be normal. The Time Lords couldn't find her if she used the Chameleon Arch. I wasn't supposed to get involved, but—"
"But what? Was that why you came back here?" Jane interrupted, clearly angry, "I… I have a life here! Yeah, it's not an interesting life - I'm not goin' around gallivanting and saving the universe - but it's mine! Y-You just want me to give this up? For what?"
For the world, Luna wanted to answer. For the universe. For the Doctor, who you mightn't remember being but would be very cross that you were such a coward… But what she said was something that shocked Jane.
"I love you," she frowned, "I'm sorry,"
And she opened the fobwatch right in Jane's face.