Writer's Note: I got this idea when we first met River with Ten. The idea of River's timeline not matching the Doctor's but crossing his sometimes set my imagination off, and even though I'm disappointed by the direction her character was taken in (especially because she's so sassy and cool), I wrote my own version of it. I've never seen the classic Doctor Who so you won't see much of those early Doctors, but we'll be seeing Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve a lot.

With a Hop and a Skip (1st jump, 1st – 11th)

She was wearing a shimmery red dress and white gloves pulled neatly up to the elbows, hair coiffed and styled to match Garbalian fashion in the year 4735—remarkably similar to the American 1920s except for the codfish—and low heels. This was the kind of outfit that shouldn't be mussed up, but unfortunately it was covered in pink, brown, and white dust, and the hair had was starting to droop and fizz. In all it was a very strange outfit to wear whilst laying on the floor.

It took a few blinks to realize she was indeed on the floor when she saw the concentric circle of lights on the ceiling. Turning her head she saw the ground was translucent and blue, but the room itself was bathed in orange light with steps leading down to a pitted wall with a spherical pattern that was only slightly familiar.

It was the Tardis. But different.

"Where am I?" Ivy breathed, standing up slowly. The console looked sharper and busier, covered in strange knobs and switches both familiar and not, and there was a tall rotor similar to the one she remembered. The rest of the room was very different though. There were steps up and down, it was colorful with more odds and ends, and there were a lot more protruding things.

"—and that, Ponds, is why you never forage in the woodlands of Rasleton. Now if you want those brambles out of your hair—and other places—then you'll need an ointment I've got in the—oh! Is that you Ivy?"

Ivy turned around to face a floppy-haired, bowtie wearing man whose delighted expression quickly turned somber at the sight of her.

"I haven't seen that red dress in a very long time," he murmured to himself.

The redhead behind him stepped closer to the other man in the untucked button-up and whispered loudly, "How come he doesn't seem surprised some random person is in the Tardis?"

"A moment, Ponds. Ivy, are you quite alright?" the man in suspenders and tweed jacket asked, bounding up the stairs to stand in front of her. "I imagine you're very confused now."

"Where is the Doctor?" Ivy asked, looking around uncertainly at the three people. She didn't recognize them or this Tardis at all. A different Time Lord and Tardis then?

"I am the Doctor," the tweed-wearing man said very seriously. "You know me with a different face."

"How? The Doctor is… grandfatherly, with white hair, a coat, and silly plaid pants," she said hesitantly, looking him over. The face and mannerisms were very different, even if this other Time Lord also had an off-kilter sense of fashion.

"Oh well," he adjusted his bowtie. "You haven't seen the celery yet."

"I don't understand. How are you— You can't be him."

"I've regenerated a few times since you traveled with me. Ten times, to be exact."

"Regenerated?"

"Death cheating trick, changes everything physical and a little mental, but it's not important. Do you know what happened to you?"

"I was falling," she said slowly, remembering the feeling of utter terror when she didn't hit the floor but continued to fall. "I was in the Tardis with the Doctor and then…" she paused, straining to remember. The doors of the Tardis had been opened, the Doctor had been yelling for her, there'd been all those other angry Time Lords, and then… swirling eddies of light; her head splitting open and crushing inward all at once; sound visibly leaving her mouth, the smell of light all around her, walking on time…

"Stop, stop, STOP!" the Doctor yelled, shaking Ivy hard. "You mustn't think about it. Forget it ever happened. The vortex is too much for your mind and you must not remember it. Can you do that for me?"

She sat down on the jumpseat shakily and nodded her head. This Doctor started to pace, waving his hands around spasmodically. Something about the hurried movements and the tone of voice reminded her very much of her Doctor, even if she still didn't believe this young, restless guy was the same man. He wasn't nearly so grouchy.

"What happened is, well, you fell into the time vortex. The hows and whys I'm not sure, and I'm not sure why that is, in fact, but you did." He stopped pacing long enough to grasp her hands and look at her with a mournful expression that seemed strange on such a youthful face. "I'm so very sorry Ivy. I never thought I'd have to explain this but, well, I suppose that's rather silly of me," he finished to himself. "Obviously this moment would happen. Just never supposed it'd be so… well so far."

"What?" she said at the same time as the two other people in the Tardis.

"What's going on?" the man said first. "How did she get here? And she knew you when you were old? What's this about cheating death?"

"Well this is a day for firsts," the Doctor said, tugging on his suspenders nervously.

"Rory, I'll explain regeneration, but I don't get the rest of it either," the girl said, her Scottish accent getting stronger, and she put one hand on her hip while looking at the Doctor expectantly.

He twisted in place for introductions, waving his hands quickly between them. "Ivy, this is Amy and Rory. Amy and Rory, this is Ivy, who is, well, a companion of mine, but from a long time ago and from the future."

"What?" they both said.

"Falling into the time vortex should have you killed you," the Doctor explained sadly, turning back to Ivy and ignoring Amy and Rory for the moment. "I don't understand how it didn't. But you've always been there, popping up from time to time in the Tardis. Ever since you fell."

"Popping up?" she asked, eyes going wide. "What do you mean popping up?"

The Doctor rocked back on his heels awkwardly. "Well, from what I do understand, you locked on to the Tardis somehow. And the Tardis exists everywhen and everywhere at once because timey-wimey stuff. I'm not sure how the connection works exactly, but because the Tardis is everywhere and when at once, you can appear any time and place inside it. No rhyme or rhythm to it, as the humans say."

"So I… popped here? From the old Tardis?"

"Yes," he said gravely. "And from the other me. You appeared here as the first 'jump' if you'd like, from when you fell." He hesitated, and his fingers curled away from her almost like he could stop the impact of his words. "You've been jumping ever since."

"Then what about my home? My brother?"

"We tried once to go, back with my third regeneration, but it didn't work so well. I wouldn't call you a paradox, but more of an… anomaly." He visibly winced at the word.

"I-I don't—"

"We still travel!" he added before any waterworks or panicking could happen. Ivy was looking very overwhelmed. "Just all out of order for me. So sometimes you've already met my new face and the new face hasn't met you, and sometimes you don't know what I've done the last hundred years and sometimes you do." He tried not to make it sound so bad, but Ivy's chin was wobbling dangerously.

"But that sounds awful!" she burst out, voice going very high on the last word. "Time's not the same for me anymore! You're saying I can't stay anywhere, just popping forever until I die! What happens if the Tardis is gone one day? Isn't there something you can do?! I just—I want…" and he was quite sure the words she said into her hands were my Doctor.

He carefully pulled her into his arms, awkwardly pressing her face to his thin chest. He wasn't the Doctor she remembered and yet he was the same man. He couldn't pretend he even remembered how his first body had acted anymore, but he was her closest friend—had to be, since he was, or rather would be, the only person she would consistently see. He squeezed her a bit tighter.

"I am the Doctor, Ivy—your Doctor. I know it's hard to believe. And time is linear for you, just a different linear from everyone else, just like me. I've known you for eleven different faces, and there's always a time with the Tardis. Everything exists at some point in time. Even if it's destroyed in the future it's there in the past. Usually." He smiled, but when he pulled back he saw that her eyes were red and swollen. "Come on now, I'll always be here in some way, maybe with a long scarf or really curly hair. Maybe I'll even be ginger or a girl and you'll know that when I'm complaining about being brunette again." That got a small hiccupping laugh out of her.

He smiled indulgently. "You always seemed to know me whenever I met you, and maybe that's because I tell you everything now or maybe that's because you just know me that well. You'd have to, if you'd seen me in as many ridiculous situations and clothes as you have."

"I haven't done any of that yet though," she said softly. "And I don't want to keep meeting new Doctors that I'll never get to know. I… I will see him again, with the topcoat and that tea cozy hat?"

He shook his head, feeling horrible guilt that he tried to push down. Ivy would become the most accepting person of every new face he had, but she had to start somewhere too.

"No, I'm afraid, you won't meet that me again." He paused for a moment before abruptly jumping up with an idea. "But the Tardis does like to keep a few pictures, and surely I've got one of me in that hat." He banged around on the console a bit before the screen above it stopped flashing Gallifreyan letters and switched to a black and white picture. "Ah yes, hat and scarf and that white hair. I do like scarves. Bowties are cool though," he mused before looking at Ivy expectantly.

She sounded a bit choked up as she laughed, touching the screen the Doctor had pulled down for her with his original face on it, the one marked by age and arrogance, clever-looking even as he scowled. She looked up at the unlined face next to her and couldn't see much of that old Doctor in him except in the eyes. They were wiser and older than her own Doctor's, but still touched by that manic desire to explore that he'd always had, even when he'd tried to hide it.

"Where did we first go?" she asked, just to be sure. It was hard to reconcile the face with the Doctor she'd met, but the way he talked and waved his hands around was almost familiar.

"Napaloo 3," he said promptly. "And you immediately got thrown in jail for wearing the symbol of the old royalty."

"It was a peace sign," Ivy said, waiting for the same comment he always made after she said that.

"Well the flower-covered design did confuse them."

She smiled at the old black and white picture of the Doctor, and then looked up at the new face. "I guess you could be him," she admitted, biting her lip.

"I know it's hard to imagine, especially since I look a tad younger than I did then—" Amy snorted "—but you'll understand. I'll show you all the faces you can expect to see and tell you a few of the big stories, that way you'll always look like you know more about me than I do, even when you're still catching up." He was trying to be upbeat for her, but the shock was starting to settle in. He was the Doctor, but he also wasn't. What had been minutes for her had been hundreds of years or more for him. She would never have a normal life again. She needed to sit down and process this.

"I need to go to my room. I need- I want to rest and, and think. Is it even still here?"

The rotor went up and down once. "Well of course it's still here, she says. The Tardis, that is. I might change the desktop and add in bunk beds every now and then, but she doesn't forget anything, not especially when you pop up all the time. First door on your second left past the kitchen and the clock room."

"Just like before," she said, looking out into the corridor. The Doctor smiled at her, but it wilted with worry as she left.

Amy and Rory came up the steps then, and Amy stepped up to the monitor to look at the picture more closely. "So, that's the first you? And she's one of your old companions? Who just pops up from time to time?"

"Literally," Rory added.

"Yes, yes, I'm surprised you haven't met her yet. Though I suppose while you're off gallivanting somewhere you've missed her. Met her once with this face. Countless times before." The Doctor was looking distractedly at the picture of his first self, zooming out so the whole body was visible. Those pants had been a horrible fashion choice, he decided, even if they'd been popular on Gallifrey at the time.

What was really catching his eye was the coat pocket with the gleam of gold peeking out. It was a fobwatch—and the original one, not the one he carried now and his previous regenerations sometimes wore. That original fobwatch had been the one to fall into the time vortex with Ivy. He'd entrusted it to her because he'd put some important, key memories inside it. Things that now the Doctor believed helped explain what had happened to Ivy. He'd kept an eye out for it ever since she'd fallen, but it was like searching for a needle in a universe made of haystacks.

"Well? You're gonna help her, right?" Amy said, cocking one hip out.

The Doctor whirled around. "Help her? I've tried for as long as I've known her, but never did figure anything about it out. Can't remember how she fell, the vortex analysis tools on Gallifrey were no help at all, the Tardis can't seem to pinpoint the connection, can't predict if her jumps will be forward or backward so real-time testing is impossible…" He leaned both hands on the console with his head down in an uncharacteristic position of surrender.

"So I take her on adventures just like I promised her. And actually," he said, lifting his head up again, "I should take her somewhere in that dress since she never did get to see Macbeth done by Hanarians. They look a bit like jellyfish but about seven feet tall. Ponds, why don't you, I don't know, go kiss or something." Invigorated by the plan, he jumped up the stairs two at a time and disappeared further into the Tardis.

Amy and Rory just looked at each other.

"We'll meet her later then," Amy said with finality. "For now we better take advantage of an empty Tardis."