Chapter 10

It was Strax who brought the visitor through to the parlour to meet Madame Vastra.

"He says he is the Doctor's son," Strax announced, and then Madame Vastra looked with interest at the stranger and dismissed the Sontaran butler.

The visitor looked at her with swirl of emotion in his eyes.

"Auntie Vastra!" he exclaimed, "I haven't seen you since I was a boy!"

She stared at him. The resemblance to the Doctor – and also to Clara – was astonishing...

"I am a time traveller," he added, "Well, to be specific, I work for earth defense in the year 2060 – a recent improved version of a time manipulation device enabled me to travel far back to this time, so that I can be here for my father."

Madame Vastra was still staring at him as she rose from her seat and stepped closer to him.

"Raymond, I do not have a reason to doubt your story – and looking at you, I see the resemblance to both of your parents. But this is very dangerous! In this time you are not yet born, Clara is pregnant and your father's health is not good! You should leave now, before you risk altering the course of your own future!"

"I can't."

He reached into his pocket and drew out a small, flat device and placed it in the palm of his hand.

"See this? It's a pulse device designed to heal living tissue. I think if my father used this on a regular basis, it could save him a lot of suffering as he recovers. I remember when I was a young boy, he used to get seizures and headaches and his moods were terrible sometimes. It was lot of worry for my mother, too. But if I give him this device, it will not exactly speed up the healing process, more like it will make the process easier on him. His symptoms will be less severe. He will have an easier time of it as he recovers."

Madame Vastra nodded.

"Very well, you may give it to him - as you have come so far."

And then he smiled.

"Thank you Vastra," he said warmly, "I was always meant to do this."

And as she regarded him thoughtfully, she saw much of the Doctor reflected in his eyes – much of his timeless awareness of the universe, although she doubted if Raymond fully comprehended it, as much as he understood the nature of time travel...

He was not as smart as the Doctor, it was plain to see – but how could he be, when he was so very much younger than his wise Timelord father?

"Wait here," Madame Vastra said, "I will fetch him for you."

And Raymond waited in the parlour as she left the room, and as he thought of his father, he knew that keeping secret all he knew about the future would prove to be easier said than done when the Doctor walked through the door and he looked into his eyes for the first time after so many long years...

Madame Vastra felt sure it had to be one of those fateful moments that were set in time, something meant to be – when she entered the Doctor's room he got up quietly and carefully, because Clara was sleeping...

"Come," she whispered, and she beckoned to him.

The Doctor smoothed out the creases from his suit, slipped on his shoes and then he left the room, closing the door carefully behind him.

He knew at once from the look in her eyes that she had some secretive information.

"What's this about?"

"Your son is downstairs," she said in a hushed voice.

He stared at her.

"No my son -" he paused, pointing a finger towards the closed door where behind it his pregnant lover lay sleeping.

"Your son, using an early time manipulation device, has travelled here from the distant future. He has a gift for you."

The Doctor's eyes widened in surprise, and then he turned away from Madame Vastra and hurried down the staircase, his twin hearts pounding as he wondered why his son, many years from now, would need to travel here, back to a time before his own birth...

The Doctor walked into the parlour and stopped abruptly on coming face to face with the tall man who shared his build and eye colour, who also had Clara's brown hair. He looked to be around fifty – he was in good shape for his age, and he was relaxed enough - apart from the expected emotion he saw in his eyes – to clearly indicate he was completely comfortable with travelling through time...

"Is it true?" he asked in a hushed voice, "Are you -"

"Yes, I'm your son," he replied, "My name is Raymond. I can't stop long, I can't say much -"

"Understandable – unless there's anything urgent I need to know?"

And as Raymond looked into his father's eyes, he felt caught by his alien stare, he was looking at him as if he could see through his soul.

"I can't tell you anything, he told him, "Please, leave it at that – but I do have something for you."

And he drew the device from his pocket and handed it to him.

"It's a tissue healing aid – if you wear this over the wound the scar tissue will heal much easier internally, and you will suffer less."

"Less than I'm supposed to?" the Doctor wondered.

And memories flashed through Raymond's mind, recollections of his early years and the suffering his father had gone through, and as he replied the pain that reflected in his eyes surprised the Doctor:

"No one should have to suffer like you did!" he said, and then he drew in a sharp breath as he fought to hold back on weeping, "Please, just use it. I want to spare you pain and spare mum a lot of fear and worry."

The Doctor slipped the device in his pocket.

"As you've put it that way, I'd better not refuse."

"It's just my way of looking after you," Raymond replied, "I felt so helpless when was a kid, watching you suffer -"

"Suffer what?"

The Doctor's questions were difficult to ignore, he was good at picking out threads and giving them a tug to see what information he could extract...

"The moods, the seizures, it got much worse before it got better. At least you won't suffer the worst of it if you use this device."

The Doctor looked into his son's eyes.

"Thank you," he said thoughtfully.

"Now I should leave -"

"No."

The Doctor's gaze had darkened.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what you're hiding," he said to him, "I know there's something. Explain yourself..."

A short while later, the Doctor walked with his son to the door and as he opened it, he looked to him with eyes shaded with troubled thoughts:

He regretted it now, asking why.

Raymond had told him everything – and now he knew his time with his child would be short, and there would be nothing he could do to prevent the child being snatched away by dark forces – something he could not allow Clara to know about, because she was pregnant, because she had already been through too much – and also because he was afraid if she learned the truth, she would demand that he took her home, and then he would still be separated from his son - and he could not allow that to happen, because too much was at stake...

"Thank you for telling me the truth," he said.

Tears filled Raymond's eyes as he looked at his father.

"I've missed you so much, Dad!" he said, and he threw his arms around him and hugged him, and for once, the Doctor did not freeze, because hugging his own flesh and blood felt so right that he did not want to let go.

But he did let go, and Raymond stepped back.

"I love her," he said, "I love my wife. Nina is everything to me. I wish my life had turned out differently, that I'd got to grow up with you and mum – but if I had, I never would have met her. So regretting makes little sense, but I do, in my own way."

The Doctor thought of the child growing in Clara's womb and as he realised much of his plans for the future had just been dashed away, he nodded, as his eyes clouded with sorrow.

"I can understand that," he told him, "You can't trade the whole of your childhood with us for the loss of your wife. It wouldn't be fair."

Tears shone in Raymond's eyes as he placed his hand on the dial of his time manipulator.

"See you around," he said, and there was was flash of light, and Raymond was gone.

The Doctor stood alone in the open doorway for a moment, looking thoughtfully at the spot where his son had stood as he thought on all the terrible things he had told him about a future that would see him snatched away at the age of six.

"Sorry," he said darkly, "But I lied, Raymond – I don't understand. I need to see my son grow up – and you can always find yourself another wife. I will be doing all I can to change this outcome!"

And then he slammed the door, and the sound reverberated throughout the house.

Time passed.

The Doctor rested, and with the use of the tissue repair device, found his moods began to even out as his headaches faded away.

He had good and bad days - on a good day, he would playfully pull Clara back into bed and ask her to give him some more therapy - that had come about as a way for Clara to keep him in bed resting - and had quickly become their code word for something else, as Clara laid him down on the bed and traced a path of kisses down his body, until those kisses turned intimate and he was grabbing at the pillow as her mouth took him all the way to ecstasy...

But on a bad day when his bad moods darkened, the slightest upset would send him into a rage – even imagined causes prompted it – there were times when he had yelled abuse at Strax for no reason other than he had passed him in the hallway, and Clara was sure she would never, ever forget the day the Doctor had burst into the parlour while she was taking tea with Madame Vastra and Jenny, and he had accused her of being part of a three way lesbian affair.

But his angry and paranoid outbursts were becoming less frequent, and as the months passed by, thanks to the tissue repair device, he seemed to improve vastly - so much that by the time winter came around and Victorian London was covered with snow and Clara went into labour, the man who held her hand as their son came into the world was very much the Doctor, the man she had known and loved before the head injury had happened...

As Clara held her newborn son in her arms she looked to the Doctor, who was sitting at her bedside, and as she saw joy shining in his eyes her own gaze shone with happiness.

"I keep thinking about Nina's husband – that device he gave you, its working so well -" she paused, wondering if it was her hormones making her tearful or just the fact that she was thankful the man she loved was making a recovery, "It's working so well I feel as if its thanks to him I got the real you back," she said softly, "And I'd like to name our son after him because as far as I'm concerned, he saved you. Because of Raymond, everything is okay."

The Doctor smiled and then as he leaned over Clara he paused to kiss her, and then she handed him their son, and then as she rested and drifted off to sleep he carried the child over to the window, where he cradled his son in his arms as he looked out at a snow covered Victorian London and thought of the man his child would one day become – in another time and place, that man was already out there, far off in the future...

He looked down at his baby son and spoke softly to him:

"I know too much," he said, "And the man you became in the future would not understand my reasons – but you're my son, and I fully intend to do all I can to make sure we are not separated – I am going to change your future, I'll make sure of it..."

Then he looked up, and out of the window, and his blue eyes reflected the leaden grey of the snow-filled skies:

"Clara is wrong," he whispered, "Everything is not okay, but I'm going to change that, Raymond – I will make sure everything turns out okay in the end, no matter what it takes to do it – nothing will separate us, I promise you that, no matter the cost, I will protect you from harm... "

End.

Author Note:

And that is the end of Book 1!

Hope it was enjoyed by all.

The story will be concluded in the sequel, The Doctor's Son Book 2 : Child of Time.