A/N: Hiya! So, this story is Marriage Counseling, and it is the first story in my fifth OC series for Doctor Who (1. The Academic Series (the Professor), 2. The Lunar Cycle (Evy Daniels), 3. The Heart of Time Saga (the Angel), and 4. The Time Lady Memoirs (Mac) if you're interested ;)) and will involve a new OC/Time Lady. I decided to call this series 'The Gallifreyan Sacraments' due to the OC being the Doctor's wife from Gallifrey and marriage is a sacrament ;) This story will largely follow the events the OC and the Doctor are aware of, though it may include some scenes where they are discussed elsewhere.

This will essentially be a revision of Series 7 of Doctor Who to incorporate an OC. However, this story will start at Doomsday (Series 2) and also include The Wedding of River Song (Series 6) before really picking up with Asylum of the Daleks ;) This story will be updated every day and each episode will be 2 chapters except for this first one. The specials, however, will only be 1 chapter as will a few of the mini-sodes/prequels that will be 1 chapter each as well :) This will be a Doctor/OC story, though this story will mostly feature rebuilding an already established but strained relationship, hence the title Marriage Counseling ;) So this story will be about 30 chapters long.

I can't give a physical description of the OC just yet, she changes quite a bit at first, but we'll get one for certain tomorrow...which also means that the cover for this story will not be up until tomorrow as well :) I'll also post a tumblr photo of all her incarnations up to the one we'll see in this main story tomorrow as well :)

~8~ is a scene break.
"italics" is Gallifreyan
'italics' is mental communication between Time Lords

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who...or we would have more information on the Doctor's actual wife :)

Enjoy!

~8~

Hello Wife

This couldn't be happening.

This just…it couldn't be happening.

That was all the Doctor could think. How could it all go so wrong so fast? He had tried, desperately to keep everything under control, but it had all fallen apart. Yvonne had been taken as a Cyberman, the Daleks had escaped a prisonship, and the entire world was being overrun by all of them. He'd tried to stop it, to prevent it, had nearly succeeded…but he'd failed.

He'd failed and now Rose was paying the price for it.

"Just hold on!" the Doctor shouted as he struggled to reach out to Rose, who was literally dangling from the levers of the Ghost Room of Torchwood Tower, trying to keep her grip as the Void sucked her towards it, "HOLD ON!"

She had been safe, moments ago. They had opened the Void via the levers the scientists were using, had sucked the Daleks and Cybermen into it, the two species covered in 'Void stuff' as he'd called it, making them the targets. He and Rose had been covered in it as well, but they had the magnaclamps, clamps stuck to the wall that they just had to hold onto, just hold on a little longer. But the lever on Rose's side had begun to spark, had started to lift up once more and Rose had to push it down once more. She'd tried to reach it, to grab it and put it down while still holding onto the clamp, but she couldn't. She'd fallen into her lever and pushed it down, sucking the last of the Daleks and Cybers into the Void…

But the force was too much, was sucking her in with too much power, and Rose's grip on the lever couldn't hold. The Doctor's eyes widened in terror as Rose Tyler, his companion, began to fly towards the Void…

Suddenly there was a bright flash of light from just behind the lever…and Captain Jack Harkness appeared, grabbing onto it with one hand and reaching out to snag Rose's wrist in the other, just in time to keep her from being pulled into the Void, holding on just long enough for the Void to seal itself, the energy of Torchwood depleting and closing down the portal itself.

The Doctor sagged down against the wall on his side as the Void finally closed, the suctioning dying away, to stare at the man in shock as the captain hugged a sobbing Rose to him, the woman having come far, FAR too close to being lost in what had been defined as a Hell-dimension only a short while ago. He opened his mouth to ask Jack what was going on, how he was there, WHY he was there…but could only close his mouth again, no sound coming out.

Jack stepped back a moment later, seeming to remember something and quickly gave Rose the onceover before straightening and tapping an earpiece that was resting in his ear, unnoticed by the Doctor till he turned to face him and winked, "Mission accomplished!" he cheered to whoever was listening, "I did it! Heading back now."

"What…" the Doctor managed to breathe out, just blinking at the man, unable to move despite his relief at seeing Rose still with him and it had nothing to do with how uncomfortable he felt around Jack, who was now literally a walking, talking fixed point in time that made his insides churn in discomfort.

Jack just laughed, tapping the earpiece off, "I can't believe I did it!" he murmured more to himself than them, his eyes wide, his expression just utterly exuberant, as though he truly hadn't thought he'd be able to accomplish…whatever it was he'd been trying to do.

"What?"

"Ooh, she said this would happen," Jack laughed, the adrenaline still coursing through him from saving Rose, "Shoulda known not to doubt her."

"What?!" the Doctor repeated, before wincing and shaking his head, only to repeat, "I mean…what?!"

Jack threw his head back and laughed, tears of joy in his eyes, "Rose was going to be lost to the Void, Doctor," Jack explained, beaming, triumphant, "Or, to the parallel world on the other side. But that's not the point. She told me how to save her!" he gestured around as though it were the most important thing he could say, "Even fixed this," he held up his wrist to reveal his Vortex Manipulator, working and beeping.

The Doctor frowned, "Who?"

It shouldn't be possible, the only people able to fix a Vortex Manipulator couldn't be from this time or that planet…or at least not the planet at that time. Ooh he was dreading to think there might be another enemy now among them. Jack…well, being a conman, no matter what his last actions were, being a rogue Time Agent, it didn't do much to quell his fears of just how responsible this Manipulator Fixer was. For all he knew the person in question, some woman given how Jack kept shouting 'she' around, was as much trouble as Jack. And…if she knew something like this was going on, did she work for Torchwood? How had she known this was happening? Or that Rose would end up trapped somewhere? Were they a part of this?!

"Well come over here and you'll find out," Jack called, holding out his wrist. The Doctor pushed himself up, making his way over to Jack, helping Rose up as she had shakily fallen to her knees in the shock of surviving that, before he put his hand on the Manipulator with her. Jack grinned widely and slammed his hand down onto it…

~8~

Jack, the Doctor, and Rose appeared in the middle of a small base, 'Torchwood 3' written on the inside of the wall. There was a mass of equipment and weapons scattered around and a rather high-tech computer in the middle of the room. Despite all the equipment and weapons, however, there was only one other person in the room. A woman, sitting before the computer, with her back to them, typing quickly across the keyboard. Her hair was a dark brown and short, her back rigid, her shoulders squared. She was wearing a what appeared to be a pantsuit, from what Rose could see from behind, a black suit with white pinstripes that reminded her quite a bit of the Doctor's style but in black instead of brown. Rose glanced at the Doctor a moment and frowned at his expression.

The Doctor was standing there, his eyes wide as he stared at the woman with a look of shock to them. He felt his breath catch as his senses immediately picked up what sort of species of alien the woman was and not just that, WHO she was as well…but that was impossible.

She couldn't be there…not HER.

It was impossible!

The woman stopped typing for only a moment, her head turning slightly, as though she were about to look at them, as though she too could sense the Doctor as well, her shoulders tensing a moment, before her head faced forward once more and she resumed her typing.

The Doctor blinked rapidly, shaking his head before he opened his mouth to speak, but the woman held up a hand, not even looking back to know he was about to talk, one finger raised in a sigh to wait, "Just a moment Theta," she called in a language neither Jack nor Rose could understand though the tone of her voice was one of business, like a mother not about to be interrupted by her child, or an employee finishing something up before allowing themselves to be distracted.

And the Doctor's hearts stopped as HE recognized it.

It was her. It had to be. It could ONLY be her…but how?!

The woman continued to type a few more seconds, making them wait, before finishing with a satisfied breath, "The time-lock is…well, it has potential Jack," she nodded, speaking more to Jack than them, "With enough time I should be able to recreate it on the computers here. You understand," she rubbed her hands and cracked her fingers, "That it shall take time to make it compatible to human tech, yes?"

"Yeah," Jack nodded, moving away from the frozen Doctor and confused Rose to the woman's side, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder and squeezing it in thanks, not seeing Rose frown at how the Doctor's own hands had morphed into fists though his expression remained largely the same, "I got it. Earth tech, especially in this time zone, are…limited at best."

The woman nodded and took a breath, turning in the chair, Jack moving with her to face them, his hand sliding to the back of the chair as the woman looked at the Doctor, "Hello Doctor," she greeted.

But the Doctor was silent, unable to muster even a word as he just openly stared at her, his mouth hanging open. She was pale, but older, about the age he appeared to be. Her hair was as short as it appeared with her back turned. Her mouth was small, painted red with lipstick, held in a firm line, her nose small, her entire expression radiating neutrality. Her eyes were brown, a deep brown, but there was...there was a haunted quality to them, one he knew was reflected in his own. Everything they'd done, everything they'd seen, the War, what they lost...it would haunt anyone.

The woman let out a sigh and a roll of the eye, as though this were a common thing, "Still catching flies I see?"

THAT seemed to snap the Doctor out of it as his mouth instantly closed, though his eyes were still trained on her. He just…couldn't believe that she was really there, sitting there, right in front of him. And if Jack was to be believed, she had clued him in on saving Rose…Rose!

"Why did you do that Carah?" he asked her, serious, his words morphing into the language only those of Gallifrey would know, for this situation, now that his mind was processing it again, was far, FAR too serious for English. If she had done what he thought she had…

He couldn't even being to truly accept that she was there, the magnitude of what it meant, of who she was to him, to wonder how she was even there hadn't hit him yet. It couldn't hit him. Because if it did, he would run to her and pull her into his arms and never let him go and…and he wouldn't be focusing on the rather massive danger they were potentially all in now.

The woman merely blinked, "What, save your human?" she asked, speaking in English, sounding more amused than concerned.

He closed his eyes a moment, feeling a weight hit him in the chest at that. She was being far too carefree about this, not as concerned as she should be. The fact that she was speaking english was a testament to that. That wasn't her, that wasn't his Carah. She was…

"And who the hell are you?" Rose demanded, rather insulted by how the woman had just referred to her as though she were like…a pet or something! She looked at the Doctor, half in shock, just then, she could guess that he'd asked her what she'd done and…from how the woman replied, it almost sounded like he didn't want her to be saved.

"I'm the Judge, dear," the woman, the Judge, spoke with a small grin, before getting up and starting to walk around the computer, picking up some papers and notes.

The Doctor just shook his head, and THAT was why this was wrong, this was so wrong. His Carah, the Judge…it was a promise, their names, the ones they chose, it was a promise to themselves. His was to help, to always help, and take care of people, to save them and heal them. Hers was to uphold the laws, to make the just decisions, to ensure the rules were followed.

They had fought like cats and dogs the first few years they'd known each other because of that particular quirk of her personality. He broke the rules that she was meant to uphold.

And now…what she'd just done? If she really had done what he thought then this was bad. If SHE was breaking the rules…she'd always said that she would die before she broke any of the laws of Gallifrey. And that made his hearts clench so painfully that he had to place a hand to his chest, the full weight of it hitting him.

What Jack had said…she had known that Rose was going to be lost to either the Void or Pete's World. And if she knew that the way that Time Lords did, then she had willingly changed a series of events and, as much as he was loath to admit it, if the loss of Rose was meant to impact him, shape him in some way, then there was every possibility that it had been a fixed point she'd altered. As much as he didn't want to lose Rose…he understood the consequences of altering such a point.

And he knew what would have to be done to allow it to be altered in the first place.

His jaw tightened, "Was it a fixed point?" he looked at her.

She glanced up at him, her short hair hanging in front of her face a moment, too short to be held back, before she looked down again, gathering her notes. Not answering.

The Doctor strode forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her to face him, "Was it a fixed point!?" he shouted at her. He knew what the answer was, he could guess it in how she hadn't said anything, he knew he shouldn't be shouting at her…but he had to know, he needed to be certain of what she had done. HE couldn't see it, being a part of it…but if she saw what became of Rose after the Void, she would know.

She just blinked at him, looking at him for a long while, "Of course it was," she replied quietly, her voice a mere whisper.

The Doctor stumbled back, feeling as though the wind knocked from his stomach. He looked around the room, from Jack's grim face, clearly the man was aware of what the woman had been planning and agreed to it, to Rose, who was looking at him with wide eyes, not understanding just what that meant, for something to be a fixed point in time, ignorant of what would happen when it was changed.

He shook his head and looked back at her, standing before him with the smallest of smiles on her face, and that broke his hearts even more, it was resigned, "Why?" he gaped.

"You would be so sad and pained to lose her," she explained simply, offering a small shrug, "Do you truly think, after all this time, that's what I want?"

His hearts stopped at her words, that…even now…she didn't want him to feel pain like that. Even though he knew she had every right to resent him for what he'd done, for how difficult he'd made her life at first, for all the responsibility he left her with when he ran from Gallifrey. For the war and how he could have stopped it, for the end of Gallifrey (he really did have to ask how she was there), and for all the pains he'd caused her over her life. Yet there she was, telling him that despite that she didn't want this to be the last things she saw him feel, pain.

But it hurt more to realize…she didn't know. She genuinely didn't know just how much pain this would cause him. Because a fixed point had been changed, and there was only one way for it to be maintained without it causing the universe around it to shatter…and he knew, from the look in her eye, that she had taken that step. She had seen what would become of him after Rose was lost (he'd have to ask her how) and she was trying to stop it. But whatever pain she thought she'd seen him in after her loss…would be nothing compared to what was coming for him if he lost HER too.

"No…" he shook his head at her, knowing that his next words would likely hurt Rose, but she didn't understand, the human could barely begin to comprehend what was happening and going to happen and had already happened, "Please…tell me you didn't…"

She had only just started to reach up to touch his face, when she let out a shaking breath and stumbled back, collapsing to her knees and gripping her chest with one hand and she used the other to steady herself from the fall.

He was at her side in an instant, "You didn't," he shook his head, praying now, "Please, please tell me you didn't!"

But he knew, he knew even before she said anything, that she had. This was not the way a fixed point worked when it was altered. Reality should be falling apart…not her…unless…

"I anchored it to me," she wheezed, nodding.

His mouth dropped open at that, even though he knew that was likely what she'd done, the ONLY thing she could have done to explain all this, just hearing it said out loud was killing him. For a Time Lord to anchor a change to a fixed point to them…it meant that they took in all the shifts in time, they centralized it, they drew it to their being, like background radiation…the strain of which would kill them but allow the fixed point to continued as altered.

"Why would you do that?" he held her tightly as her strength gave out and she fell forward, his arms shifting her so she was on her back, cradled in his arms.

Why? Why do this? Why do it now? They were the last of their kind, why would she make him be alone once more?

"I didn't want you to lose someone you love," she reasoned, her voice weak.

"And how is you dying any better?!" he wanted to shake her, but he doubted it would do anything, he could already feel her shaking against him, her skin growing pale.

She just smiled at him sadly, "Because you don't love me."

His eyes widened as he stared at her, as though he were stunned she would make such a declaration, "Why…why would you EVER say that?"

"You never said it," she whispered, she swallowed hard, her voice cracking from strain and pain, "Not once," she looked up at him, "Not during the whole of our marriage."

Rose gasped, a hand flying up to cover her mouth at that revelation. This woman, clearly an alien, which she assumed was a Time Lord (or Lady, she supposed)…she'd thought the woman, the Judge, was merely a friend or relative of the Doctor's given their familiarity. But she was wrong. It was so much more than that.

The woman…was his wife!

She knew he was a father, he'd said so before, but…she honestly hadn't considered that he was married. The thought hadn't crossed her mind and, even if it had at some point, the fact remained that he told her he'd destroyed his planet, that they were all dead, that HE was the last person left. Even if he had been married, with the planet gone, she'd just thought that his wife was too…and she felt bile rise in her to think that she'd been trying to pursue the Doctor, thinking him a widow, when his wife was still very much alive and had been keeping tabs on him…had clearly known about HER and where she stuck out in his life.

The Doctor shook his head at the woman in his arms, thinking back to why she was saying that and cursed himself as he realized…she was right. He had, not once, not from the day they were married, actually told her that he loved her. And that killed him because…

He did love her, very much so.

They'd had an arranged marriage on Gallifrey. It was an awkward mess and, truly, HE wasn't even supposed to be the one that married her at first. Arranged marriages had faded out in their culture, but there were contracts from the old families, ones that dated back centuries and countless generations that, sometimes, found the circumstances listed in them come active. His family had been in a blood feud with another millennia ago, and her family had come to be their allies. The cost of the allegiance had been the agreement that their heirs would wed and unite the family lines. But it never worked out. Each generation was either too far spaced apart, one being newly born in one family while the other's last heir was 500 years old or more. Sometimes the heirs were the same gender and, even though Gallifrey, with how they could change gender, the circumstances stated a marriage between the female heir and male heir from the families. It hadn't been till his brother had been born, his elder brother, that the contract activated when her family had her within the age appropriate circumstances lined out in the contract.

The only issue…was that his brother had already fallen in love with another woman. It had been so long between the contract's creation and their generation that it had all but been forgotten till the High Council revealed that the Archivists had brought the contract to their attention. His brother had been so distraught, his love equally so as their future was torn away from them by that revelation. So he had offered himself instead. It was a technicality, but the contract didn't specify the first born heirs, just an heir of the family, which he was, born within the same generation as she was. And he had been.

He had stepped up, stepped into the role. He hadn't had anyone in particular that he saw as a future wife, nor had she any other suitors, so they were left to the contract, and they were wed.

And they had hated each other at first, truly disliked each other for the longest time after that. They bickered and fought and if the contract had left any sort of loophole for divorce they would have jumped on it instantly. But there wasn't, they had been stuck with each other. Eventually they'd actually reached the point of not even speaking to each other, enduring a marriage of silence instead of constant fighting. Fighting was tiring. They had NOTHING in common. He broke the rules, she enforced them. He wanted to explore, she felt stimulated enough on Gallifrey. He rambled on about anything and everything, she was very to the point and factual, saying what she had to say and being done with it.

But then…he'd gotten very ill. A nearby planet had a bout of a deadly plague and a cure had been developed on Gallifrey. He'd volunteered to bring the cure to the people of their neighboring planet and had gone there. The Time Lords should have been immune to it, but in the time it took them to develop the cure it had mutated slightly. It was still easily taken care of with the cure they'd made, but only to the natives. When the Time Lords who went contracted the disease it mutated against their Time Lord DNA, making it something they had no cure for at the time. It wasn't quite as deadly for them as it had been for the natives, but it was still rather dangerous, two of his crew had died from the disease when they'd returned to Gallifrey, luckily it being non-contagious by then, and…

She had been scared. He had seen it when she tended to him after he returned to their home, had seen it in her eyes and the shaking of her hands. She wasn't afraid she would contract it…she was genuinely afraid that he would die. She had stayed by his side the entire time, spent all of it nursing him back to health, for months! He'd heard her crying over him when she thought he was too out of it to realize, had heard her apologizing for their fights, even admitting she did care about him and didn't want to lose him. She had grown…comfortable around him, in a way she hadn't realized before, she had grown used to him being there. She had admitted that she didn't want to be alone.

It was then he'd started to respect her, to…care about her. It was when he had felt the first tendrils of something that could start to form as love her as well. After he'd gotten better he'd been more careful in how he treated her, showed her that respect, that thankfulness for her. She could have just let him lie in bed and suffer, let the disease consume him but she'd stayed with him. He'd started to make an effort to get to know her, to understand her, instead of resenting her like he had at first. She refused to leave Gallifrey and, in their culture, if a husband or wife wished to leave the other, even if it meant going somewhere on a trip or adventure, they needed their spouse's approval and blessing. She'd refused to let him just go gallivanting across the universe, refused to go with him. He'd thought it was her way of trapping him like she had been trapped in their contract. But it wasn't so.

He'd gotten to know her and the woman he'd seen…she was beautiful and passionate. Even how she stuck to the rules was endearing to him after a time. Their fighting and bickering turned to teasing, their hesitant touches in public became less forced and more willing. He'd gotten closer to her, had opened up to her, they talked instead of sat in silence, they began to share a bed instead of sleeping in separate rooms. They started to encourage each other. She became…his whole world and it was something they built together, a life they shared. And their children…their children were just a blessing.

In the end…he really did love her. And she had given him her blessing to go out and see the Universe eventually, she had trusted him to come back. And he'd failed her, especially in the war, he'd fled, he'd refused to fight till the very end of it. That had been the one thing that had killed him, during the war, to end it…and know she was on the planet. He'd gone to find her, he'd gone to rescue her, to get her off the planet with their children…but she was gone. The TARDIS couldn't track her down and she should have been able to…if she were still alive. He'd been left with the harsh and brutal reality that she had died, she had to have, there was no way that the TARDIS would fail to track her down unless she'd died. That had been the last lingering tie that kept him from time locking the planet away, his desire not to harm his own family. But when he'd been unable to find them, when the TARDIS had told him their life prints were gone…there was no family to save and nothing holding him back.

He still didn't know how she was there, but that could wait, right now he had to make sure she lived past this to tell him.

"I thought I proved it," he murmured to her, slipping back into Gallifreyan, needing her to know he meant it, reaching out to touch her cheek as he cradled her closer, rocking her slightly, not wanting this to be the last moment he had with her. He couldn't get her back only to lose her in the next instant, "I thought I proved it in the way I stayed," he admitted to her softly, stroking her hair as sweat began to break out on her brow, "In how I never strayed, in how I worshipped you…" he blushed a bit at that last admission, but he just needed her to focus, to focus on him, to keep conscious, "I DID love you Carah."

She smiled at him, tears in her eyes, "Then I'm glad I got to…hear it at…at least once b…before…" her eyes started to flutter closed, her words slurring.

The Doctor shook her fiercely, "Carah!" he shouted, trying to wake her, he couldn't lose her. Not again. His mind raced, trying to think up some way to help her. But the only way to do it was to set the events of the fixed point back on track and it was too late to send Rose to the parallel world and…he turned to Jack, "What did she tell you!?" he nearly screamed in English.

"What?" Jack frowned, shaking his head, not sure what he meant.

"About my future," he said quickly, gently placing the Judge on the ground and standing, spinning to Jack and grabbing him by the lapels.

"Doctor!" Rose gasped, startled at how he was acting.

But the Doctor ignored her, focusing on Jack, "She must've told you something! Something about what happened after I lost Rose."

Jack shook his head, "Um," he tried to think, "She…she said something about a supernova and a ginger in a wedding dress…"

The Doctor nodded at that, it was a long shot, but it might work.

"Rose, come on!" he shouted, leaping into action and grabbing Jack's Manipulator. He soniced it and slammed his hand down on it the moment Rose had joined them, the three of them teleporting out as the Judge's head lulled to the side.

~8~

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Judy," Jack's grinning face came into view as the Judge slowly woke.

She groaned and closed her eyes again, pressing her hand to her head, not sure if her headache was a result of Jack's incessant need to call her Judy after the famed judge he secretly loved to watch on the telly, or because she now knew that the Doctor had likely gone and done something stupid as she was now awake and not having passed on in her sleep.

She frowned as she looked at her hand, seeing wisps of orange regeneration energy drifting over it. She tried to sit up, realizing that the soreness she felt rushing through her was post-regenerative, whatever the Doctor had died hadn't managed to save her but merely trigger her regeneration.

"Ow," she moaned, rubbing her head only for Jack to kneel beside her and help her sit up on the small cot she'd been placed on, "What did he do?" she looked at Jack, a small frown on her face.

Jack absently reached out and handed her a small mirror to look at, knowing that she would likely want to know what she looked like now that she had regenerated. She was a little taller than she had been, a bit more slim and less…stiff, she'd always had an air of no-nonsense to her before and while she still seemed very focused, it was a little less so than before. Her hair was longer, falling in layers, a lighter brown than it had been. Her eyes a lighter color, more blue now, her face softer than before as well.

She sighed, spotting herself in the mirror and shook her head, looking at Jack, "Jack," she repeated.

"Sorry," he shook himself out of his thoughts. She had told him what regeneration was like, he hadn't been shocked to see the Doctor looking differently than before because of it, though the Doctor didn't exactly seem shocked that he was alive either, it was just…hearing about regeneration was one thing, seeing it was another, that blast of orange gold swirling energy shooting out of her just as the TARDIS set down again…that was something, the room had been a little on fire at the end of it and he'd rushed to grab the extinguishers as the Doctor picked her up and moved her, "The Doctor took me and Rose to the supernova you mentioned," he explained, "Met a woman called Donna Noble on her way to her wedding, encountered pilot fish robots dressed as Santa Clauses, oh, and the Empress of the Racnoss," she nodded as though that all made perfect sense, "Seems we set the timeline just enough back into place that it restores the events after Rose would have been lost."

She shook her head and looked up at where the Doctor was eyeing her intently from beside Rose, the two of them standing before the TARDIS just on the other side of the room, only feet away from her, "Only you could meet the empress of an extinct race," she remarked to the Doctor, standing up with Jack reaching out tentatively to help her if she stumbled, but she was fine.

"Why did you do that Judge?" he asked her, a deep frown on his face, "Why would you anchor the timeline to you?"

She raised an eyebrow at that, "Careful, you almost sound disappointed that it saved your human."

Jack felt himself smile, this her seemed a little more sarcastic and snarky than the last her had been.

"There are 7 billion humans on the planet," the Doctor countered, "There are only 2 of us. Why would you want to leave me alone?" his voice cracked and he didn't even notice Rose flinch at that, at the reminder of how 'common' she was, that she was rated as just another human instead of his first companion since the war.

The Judge gave him a look though, "You left me first."

"You gave me your blessing," he reminded her.

"And you broke your promise to come back and stay," she finished, "You said you would come home again, once you'd seen enough and now?" she shrugged, "There is no home to come back to."

The Doctor nodded solemnly at that, unable to counter that. He didn't have to ask her how she was even there anymore. Jack had told him while she'd slept off the first hour of the regeneration. She'd had a TARDIS, she'd stolen one just as he had, at the end of the war. She'd seen what he was planning to do and…he didn't know, perhaps she'd been coming to stop him but missed him and the planet was destroyed. He hadn't been able to find her because her TARDIS was in perfect working order, it had been a WAR TARDIS she'd stolen, highly shielded, invisible to other TARDISes. He probably would have found her had it not been for her attempt to follow him to Earth. The WAR TARDISes could only remain that shielded for an hour or two at most. He would have picked her up after that…but she'd been shot down by Torchwood, just as Yvonne had said, if it was alien they it was theirs and they'd blasted her out of the sky. She'd ended up regenerating in the fallout, as a result of the crash, and once she'd come around she'd managed to work her way into Yvonne's sect, managed to gain access to where the remains of her TARDIS were…and destroyed all of it to keep them from taking the parts of it for their creations.

They'd ruled her as hostile and called Jack in to handle her, to bring her to Torchwood 3 in Cardiff and hold her there. They'd wanted to focus on the Ghost Shift and would deal with her after. Jack had listened to her when she'd told him what the Ghost Shift really was and they'd been trying to contain it from there. When they'd failed, she'd told him about what was going to happen to Rose. In her quest to try and find him, she'd ended up in different times, in the future. She'd been there, off to the side, invisible when he'd set the TARDIS down after he and Donna Noble first landed back on Earth. She'd been there at a handful of other points in the future as well, his next two companions apparently, had seen the fallout of how he was without Rose and, when she'd tried to go back early enough to warn him without damaging the timelines…she'd been shot down when her invisibility failed. The WAR TARDISes were not a cylindrical craft that the normal TARDISes were like when uncloaked, but were rather like an actual war ship.

She'd been trying to stop the Ghosts, but had failed so she'd taken it upon herself to try and save Rose for him, and succeeded there. She had planned to succeed if it was the last thing she'd done, to give him one last comfort…and she'd done it.

"Come with me," he said suddenly, serious, looking at her intently.

Her lip quirked in the side in a small, resigned smirk, "No," she shook her head, shocking him. He opened his mouth to argue but she held up a hand, "It would get too complicated."

He snorted, "When have I ever not been complicated?"

"This is different Doctor," she remarked.

He frowned, "How so?"

The Judge merely glanced at Rose whose eyes widened in realization, "The king's wife…and the king's girlfriend…" she murmured, "And this isn't France."

"A clever human," the Judge mused, "Who knew they existed."

"Hey," Jack rolled his eyes, seemingly used to her lack of interest in humans, "I resent that statement."

"You would," she mocked.

The Doctor just swallowed hard, "You're…you're staying here then? With…with him?" his eyes flickered to Jack.

The Judge nodded solemnly, "You had a human around to heal you, Doctor," she reminded him, "I think it is my turn."

Jack stepped closer and put his arm around her shoulders, "I'll take care of her Doc, I swear."

The Doctor just looked at the Judge a long while, before nodding, unable to bring himself to say anything, not trusting himself not to open his mouth and beg her to come, even knowing it wasn't what she wanted. So he did the only thing he could, turn and enter the TARDIS and send the box away.

"Goodbye Theta," he heard behind him, and closed his eyes a moment, wondering if this...this pain was what she felt each time he left her, this pain that felt like she wanted to be away from him, like she didn't want him there, like they were back at the start of their marriage where they just wanted to be as far away from each other as possible. Was this how he had made her feel? He hoped not.

It was just as hard, he realized, as the first time…leaving his wife behind just for his adventures. But this time it wasn't for his enjoyment, but for her sake. She was right. He had had time to heal. She hadn't. She needed this…and he would give it to her.

They were Time Lords, she could have as much time as she needed.

He owed her that at the very least.

~8~

The Doctor rubbed his head as he stood on the great pyramid of Egypt.

It had been one hell of an adventure for him up to this point. He and Rose had gone off on their adventures, leaving…leaving the Judge behind with Jack in Torchwood as she insisted. But Rose became very…distant during that time, so he'd thought to bring another companion, a friend for her, one Martha Jones. But that got very complicated very quickly as Rose kept distancing herself from him and Martha kept trying to get closer to him and neither girl seemed to really get on with the other. Rose didn't like how Martha was close to him, Martha didn't like how Rose used to be close to him and it just got really…just a mess. Eventually Martha chose to leave and they'd encountered Donna Noble once more. She'd been fantastic, just what the doctor ordered…er…no pun intended. Rose started to come back a bit, acting more like her old carefree self eager for adventure but she still seemed to not want to get too close to him. Not that he wanted the sort of closeness that they'd had near the end of their time alone together, it was just…it was like she looked at him like he was just her taxi driver instead of, well, a friend, and that was what was hurting him.

And then Rose's mother had appeared during a Dalek invasion, had crossed the different worlds to get back to her daughter…and Rose had chosen to go back with the woman. She'd told him before he left her in Pete's World after they'd stopped the Daleks, she'd finally told him what had been bothering her so much. It was that she could see it in her mother just as she could in him, even with their spouse dead, they never really got over it. Even when he thought that his wife had died, there was still some part of him that loved her and couldn't let her go, it was evidenced enough by his reaction, his desperation to save her, his invitation for her to stay with them, how he acted towards her as well, like they were back to being the companion/pilot they had been when she first joined him. She had wanted more and hated herself for wanting it, so she pushed it away. She could never ever be with a married man and she didn't want to take the Judge's place in his hearts the same way she never wanted another man to take Pete's in her mum's. She'd stayed with him that long because she knew that the Judge wouldn't keep with him and she'd clearly thought that Donna would be there with him, like the friend he truly needed, a human with a Time Lord mind, the result of a rather bad metacrisis. But that had failed, he'd had to erase Donna's mind, leaving him all alone.

He'd gone off on his own, trying to reconnect with the Judge, wanting to be with her now that there were no companions to make her feel like she was losing him, hoping that the years with Torchwood would give her enough time to heal. But she was set in helping Torchwood and they had issues of their own to deal with, she refused to abandon them. So he'd pop in for holidays, come to Earth and check in on her. She was doing well and he hoped that would mean she'd be willing to travel with him again. But then the Master had appeared and he'd begged Jack to take her with him when he'd left Earth for a little while after an incident with some alien called the 456. He'd wanted her off world when the Master was lurking about, hadn't wanted him to find out that she was there. The Master knew of her in passing, they'd met briefly, he'd been his good friend at one point so it was only right that he meet his wife, but that was really all the contact they'd had. He didn't want the man to use her as leverage as he nearly had when he'd taken over as Saxon. The Judge had stayed with Torchwood when Jack came to join him for that trip, the Archangel Network blocking her from the Master as equally as he was blocked from them. She'd been subtly helping Martha find transport and ways out all around the world then. His eyes and ears on the ground, the extra boost that the psychic field needed to break him out of the Master's control over the planet.

He'd seen her in a bar with Jack, an alien bar, but she hadn't seen him. She'd regenerated again. It seemed like each time he saw her there was a different version of her. She must have regenerated at least three times since he'd left her with Jack. He should have been angry that she'd been harmed at some point so severely that she'd regenerated, but she seemed happier. He hadn't wanted to dampen her spirits, so he'd left Jack with a slip of paper for Alonzo, a young man he'd met on a replica of the Titanic and gone off on his own…

He'd regenerated then, became his current self, his 11th. And then came the Ponds 1 and 2 and the Pandorica and the Silence and their genetically manipulated daughter, River Song, which was why he was standing on the pyramid, on the fourth of April, at 5:02 pm, the same time and day as always since time had frozen all thanks to River and her attempts to save him from a fate not even she understood.

He sighed, his hand sliding down from his forehead to rub his eyes, "River, River, why do you had have to be this? Melody Pond..." he looked at Amy and Rory, Pond 1 and 2 as they stood to the side, "Your daughter. I hope you're both proud."

"I'm not sure I completely understand…" Rory admitted, frowning at Amy.

"We got married, and had a kid, that's her," Amy replied simply.

Rory, for what it was worth, blinked, "Ok."

The Doctor shook his head, closing his eyes a moment, he didn't want to do this, but he needed help, "You've left me no choice," the Doctor remarked. River stepped back, half expecting him to try and grab her again when he shifted and turned, but instead he held out a hand to Amy, "Amy I need the comm. in your sleeve," Amy's eyes widened, not having thought he'd noticed that. But she quickly pulled it out and tossed it over to him, watching him intently. He quickly scanned it with the sonic before looking at River, "I know what you want River, I know what you need to be able to let me go, to be able to help me make time resume. You need a connection to me, you need me to know how loved I am before I go. You need me to see the greatest expression of love that a woman can give a man…and that's just it. Because, to me, that is marriage, that is the truest and greatest symbol of love. And I can't do that. I can't give you that bond. I can't marry you. I literally cannot."

"Why not?" River asked, tears coming to her eyes, she hadn't thought of it like that but now that he mentioned it…yes, it did make sense. The greatest promise and example of love, the greatest pledge of it, the only way she'd know that he was aware of how much he was loved, would be if he married her right then and realized she loved him so much she would happily be his wife.

He just turned on the comm..

"And you were cross with me for tethering Rose's timeline to myself?" a woman's voice came through the link. It was an alto voice, sounding slightly amused, slightly reprimanding, and sounding entirely different than the last voice he'd heard of her in the bar, making the Doctor wince as he realized she'd regenerated yet again, "Naughty boy," the voice laughed.

The Doctor sighed, "I need you to teleport here with Jack's Manipulator."

"Can't," she sighed, sounding like she was shrugging, "Doesn't work if time isn't working."

He closed his eyes, nodding to himself at the logic, "Yes, well, if anyone can figure it out, it would be you. I like to think I, and Torchwood, taught you enough tricks over the years."

"That is true," the woman paused a moment as though considering the challenge, and the sound of a sonic began to whirr a second later, "Where are you?"

"Area 52 on top of the Great Pyramid."

The sonic stopped, "Tell me you're joking."

"Would that I were."

"I should expect this from you," the woman sighed, "Be there in a mo."

The comm. disconnected and the Doctor tossed it back to Amy who frowned, looking at the Doctor, seeing that even River appeared confused as to who that was, "Who was that?" she asked.

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer when there was a crackle of light behind him. He turned around, his mouth dropping open as he spotted her, a new her, most certainly a regenerated version. She was a brunette again, her hair a dark brown, wavy, falling just a little below her shoulders. Her face was round and pale, with cheekbones when she smiled or smirked (as she was doing now), her eyes dark. She was wearing a dark blue top with a black fitted leather jacket and black pants and boots. He could tell, just from the way she was dressed and how she was standing, more at ease, her hands in her back pockets, that she was nearing the place of healing. She reminded him of himself now, though without his wild tendencies for she was able to stand still and look at him where as he'd be fidgeting and flapping his hands about.

"Hello husband," was her greeting and even the sound of her voice was lighter, more…playful but not in a lighthearted way. It was more like…a reckless streak in her, if her leather jacket was anything to go by.

He sighed and looked at River, "That's why," he told her before turning back to the woman, "Hello wife," he glanced at the Ponds, "Ponds, meet the Judge, Judge…meet Ponds 1 and 2, Amy and Rory, their um…daughter River."

The Judge nodded at them before focusing on the Doctor, "Now, what seems to be the problem you've gotten yourself into this time?" she asked, moving to cross her arms, her eyebrow raised in near-amusement.

He took a breath, "Well, first, promise not to kill me."

She rolled her eyes at him, "If I didn't let you die of that wretched plague, I'd think you would be safe," she reminded him.

"Right, yes," he nodded, rubbing the back of his neck, not quite sure how to act around her still, this was…this was really the first time he was near her without Jack or one of Torchwood there with her, "Well, you see," he clapped his hands, "The Silence think I'm meant to die on a lakeside in Utah at this exact moment and that River here," he gestured at her, the woman staring wide eyed and slightly heartbroken at the Judge, "Is meant to be my executioner by dressing up in an astronaut suit and shooting me dead, but River refused to do it and fired at the ground and now a fixed point's been altered and I'm not quite keen to tie it to you or I and all of time is happening at once because River refuses to try and cancel out the reaction and let time resume its normal course."

The Judge blinked at him, and blinked again, "Have you any idea how ridiculous that sounds?" she had to ask.

"A very good one actually."

She shook her head, "So why don't you just grab her?" she gestured at River, "She's human, they're quite slow."

"Well, here's another thing…she's part Time Lord."

The Judge looked at River, considering her, before shaking her head, "I don't see it, sorry," she shrugged at River before focusing on the Doctor, "I also don't see why you called me here."

"River wanted to make a grand display of love so that I'd feel it and try to not off myself at the lake."

"Right," she nodded slowly, "Well then River should understand divorce doesn't exist on Gallifrey, so you can't marry her, which she would know if she were actually a Time Lord instead of a mutated human…"

"Oi!" Amy cried, outraged that the woman would call her daughter that.

But the Judge just kept on, "And, if she did know you more than as just the target for a murder, she would realize that you're always a step ahead of others and that not-dying is your main thing. So why doubt you now?"

He smiled at her, "Still have that unwavering faith in me?"

"Well you did survive a deadly plague," she shrugged, "Must have quite a stubborn streak in you. Who am I to deny that when I've seen it in action?"

"Usually the first in line," he laughed.

She smiled a little at that and glanced at River, "Are you going to get on with this or shall we force you?"

"You can't make me kill him," River shook her head, finally coming out of her shock.

The Judge just nodded a bit at that, before she pulled a gun from the back of her belt, "You don't have to be alive for this to work you know," and aimed it at River whose eyes widened.

"Hold on!" Amy tried to rush forward, but Rory held her back, "You're his WIFE!" she pointed at the Doctor, as though that were reason enough for her to not have a gun or use it.

"Yes, and I've also been working for Torchwood the last few years," she added, her eyes on River who seemed completely flabbergasted that she was drawing a gun on her, the Doctor just rubbing his bowed head at all this, "We have quite a lot of guns. I've gotten used to them. And, as the Doctor said, I am the Judge, it's my sacred duty to uphold the laws of Gallifrey and the rules of time, something my husband lacks the ability to do it appears. I will do whatever is necessary to see the timelines restored. Now, if you don't mind?" she nodded her head at the Doctor, gesturing River on with her gun.

The Doctor held out a hand to River for her to take. He knew that the Judge wouldn't really shoot River, not at all, no matter what incarnation she was, she wouldn't kill someone. But…this was very much like her, in a way. She was tasked, on Gallifrey, to uphold the laws and rules of time and right now River was breaking quite a lot of them. It was why he'd asked her there, he was sure she realized, because she would make it seem like SHE would do anything to set the rules in place again where as they knew he was more than willing to break them.

River swallowed hard, looking at the gun and over to the Judge's smiling face, utterly calm, and to the Doctor who gave her an encouraging nod. She eyed his hand a moment, thinking about what he'd said, what the Judge had said, that the Doctor was always ahead of his enemies, he always had a plan, he never tried for death but fought against it. For him to be there and be willing and trying to get her to reset time so that she would kill him…it HAD to mean that he had a plan now as well, that he wouldn't die or be injured if she did take his hand.

She had to trust him because the Judge was right…she didn't know him as anything more than her target, she could study him all she wanted, but she hadn't spent all that much time around him, she wouldn't know him and what he was truly capable of, how his mind worked.

She had to take this leap of faith.

So she reached out…and took his hand, the world around them turning white as time resumed and separated from the past, present and future, leaving her on the side of a lake, in an astronaut suit, firing at the Doctor's chest mid-regeneration, killing him.

~8~

The Doctor stopped short as he stepped out of the doorway to the Seventh Transept, where the Headless Monks kept the heads of their more wealthy patrons, where he was setting Dorium Maldovar's head back in its proper place. He could still hear echoes of the man's shouts following him, crying 'Doctor Who!?' behind him because that was it. That was the First Question, the one that must never be answered, the one that the Silence never wanted him to state, the one he'd been trying to discover for ages now.

But he didn't stop short because of that, because of the question, but because of the person standing before him, leaning casually against the corner of the TARDIS, her arms crossed, her legs crossed, smirking at him.

"Hello wife," he greeted.

"Hello husband," she nodded in return as he stepped closer to her, moving to lean on the door of the TARDIS, on his side, facing her, making her shift to her side as well to face him back. He opened his mouth to speak but she held up a hand, "I'm not here to stay," she told him, answering the question she knew he wanted to ask, she could practically hear it echoing in her mind from his, "I was just checking to make sure that your plan worked. What was it? Ganger? Hologram? Robot?"

"Robot," he nodded, "Near enough, Teselecta. Doctor was on the lakeside, Doctor died, never said which Doctor it had to be," he grinned, looking at her intently, "Thank you, for your help. I…I didn't know how to get her to cancel out the reaction. Me spouting on about the rules and consequences didn't seem to be working."

"Because you care for neither and they know it," she remarked, taking a deep breath, "That was why we fought so much in the beginning."

"And why we worked so well in the end," he reminded her, lifting his hand as though he wanted to tap her nose, she was a good head shorter than him this time, but he refrained, lowering it again. His small smile started to fall, "You…really won't stay?"

She shook her head, "Torchwood has suffered, Theta," she told him, "I just…I can't leave them now."

He nodded, "You never could abandon the people you care about," he swallowed, "Wish I were more like that."

"You were there when it counted," she reassured him, "And…I will be there when you need me as well."

"I need you now," he murmured, "I always needed you," he spoke softly, "The Ponds…they think I'm dead, it was the only way to keep them safe. The world has to think I'm dead and…" he let out a long breath, "Even if the Ponds didn't…I think they want to leave. I think they want their normal lives back and…Amy, Amelia, she was…well, when she was 7 and I, well I just regenerated and she...she was..."

"The first face you saw?" she guessed and he nodded, "It's always harder to leave them behind, like with Rose," he winced at the reminder but nodded again, "So you see why I can't just leave Jack either."

He nodded mutely at that, the two of them falling silent for a long while, half of him glad that she'd had someone there the times she'd died, but the other half hating that it had been Jack and not him, that Jack had gotten a chance to build a relationship, even if it was platonic friendship, with her instead of him rebuilding the shambles that was left of their marriage.

"I'll make you a deal," she began, pulling him out of his thoughts and making him look at her hopeful, "When you reveal yourself to the Ponds again, because let's face it, you're rubbish at keeping secrets," he opened his mouth and pointed at her like he was about to say something before nodding to himself and dropping his finger, "IF they do decide to stay on Earth, to…start their normal lives…then yes, I will travel with you again."

He looked at her with a soft smile, "You will?"

She nodded, "I will."

He reached out to touch her face but stopped himself, moving down to take her hand instead, "Thank you."

She smiled and squeezed his hand before stepping back, "See you then, Theta," she winked at him before slapping her wrist, still walking backwards and disappearing in a flash of light from Jack's Manipulator.

He felt his smile grow, "See you then, Carah," he nodded to himself before he full on beamed and turned to rush into the TARDIS, disappearing into the Vortex, hope in his hearts once more.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter :) I've been waiting to use 'the Judge' as a title since...wow, the Professor lol. I was actually debating calling Proffy 'the Judge' but the way I saw someone with that title being, they'd be very by the rules and lawful and neither Proffy (nor Evy, Angel, or even really Mac) fit that ideal...2 years later and I finally got to use it :) We'll be learning more about the Judge and her marriage/relationship with the Doctor as the series goes on as well as what sort of potential 'process' I have in mind to describe the two of them (like Linking/Bonding/Mating/Chosens-Contracted in my other stories). I hope I was able to make the 3 incarnations of the Judge that we see here different enough where you could tell it was a different personality coming through. I won't say a word but we'll have to wait and see tomorrow whether the Judge will regenerate again or if she'll still be on her current incarnation.

I can say that 1. We'll find out what number incarnation the Judge is on tomorrow (which will help us backtrack and see which incarnations appear here). 2. We'll find out how old the Judge is during 'A Town Called Mercy,' 3. Her theme song will be announced around the Snowmen chapter, just to give a sense of who she is. and 4. Even though the last incarnation of the Judge we see is willing to use a gun, doesn't mean all the others will be ;)

Just to help, since it was slightly all over the place, we saw 3 incarnations of the Judge, but missed 3 more while she was at Torchwood. There'll be more of an identification for the incarnations tomorrow ;) I'll also be posting a set of her incarnation pictures on my tumblr tomorrow as well to help picture them with actresses that are as close as I can see them in my head for the different Judges ;)

We will also get the cover tomorrow as well ;)