Author's Note: The Minerva in this one-shot is in her second incarnation (long, ginger hair and brown eyes) with the 11th Doctor. This possible takes place sometime after the Day of the Doctor for Minerva/11's timeline. Elias is still a baby in this one!

For the second OC (surprise), this takes place years after she met the 11th Doctor.

He'd done it again. Minerva wasn't sure how but he'd done it again. The Doctor had gotten them lost in another parallel world again. One moment they were simply going to pick up Clara for another weekly adventure and the next thing they knew the TARDIS was warning of their new environment and crash landing. Thankfully, the box had landed upright and with repairable glitchings.

"It's not my fault," the Doctor huffed as he went around the console, whacking it here and there as if that would fix the problem. Minerva laughed from the console chair. Even little Elias, who was sitting on her lap, giggled. "Oh, you think it's funny?" the Doctor mock-glared at them. "I'm that funny, then?"

"When you're about to explode...yeah, you are," Minerva smirked. "Now why not instead of huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf, you check where we are? And, in the process, how we got here."

"I have a theory of the 'how'," the Doctor admitted. He went over to the monitor and began typing on the keyboard.

"Well, let us hear it," Minerva toggled with Elias' teddy bear.

"Gallifrey is around...and so are the Time Lords. It technically means the rift between parallel universes is once again..."

"We can travel through them now," Minerva blinked when she realized what he was trying to say. "Oh, that is good! We could go to one parallel universe and then hop on over to the next!"

"Theoretically," the Doctor gave a small shrug. He was awaiting for the monitor to finally give him the results on their whereabouts.

"I want to know where we are now," Minerva got up from the chair and shifted Elias to her side. "Martian, where are we!?"

The Doctor playfully rolled his eyes at her excitement. His jokefulness, however, faded when the monitor finally broad-casted their whereabouts. In big, red letters the town 'Leadworth' was blinking in and out of appearance. His mouth went dry and his eyes wide, both with guilt and alarm. They were...were they...?

Minerva stepped up beside him and saw what he was staring at. "Oh..." she said slowly. "What are the odds?"

"One in a billion," the Doctor quietly replied with. "But when has that ever stopped us, hm?"

Minerva rubbed his arm and, seeing his father upset, Elias tried leaning over to the Doctor to try and comfort him as well. "You don't have to go out there, you know."

"It's the year 2008. What are the chances that this Pond here is out travelling with us?"

"Very slim," Minerva lightly smiled. "Do Time Lords exist in every universe?"

"Who knows," the Doctor shrugged. "I-I should fix the console. She's got some work before we can leave..." the Doctor stepped back. He hated how weak he was at the moment but the chances of seeing Amelia Pond or Rory Williams was simply too much to bear. Even if he saw them again he would have to leave them again...and he wasn't sure he could do that a second time.

"It's okay," Minerva reached for him to give him a short kiss. "Elias and I will go and see what we find. Is that alright?"

"Of course," the Doctor tickled Elias' stomach. "You take care of Mummy, okay?"

"Okay!" the boy happily agreed.

"No boys allowed, alright?"

Elias giggled. "Me?"

"Yes, only you," the Doctor pretended to be stern.

Minerva rolled her eyes at the two. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Give me your psychic paper," she held her hand out. "If I want to buy something it's best if they think I'm with the Queen or something - if there is a Queen anyways."

The Doctor reached for his psychic paper inside his jacket and handed it over. "Be careful."

"Of course. Don't break our TARDIS more than it is," Minerva retorted with and started for the doors.

~ 0 ~

Minerva found that this version of Leadworth was exactly like the Leadworth she'd once known. There were the same small shops, the same houses, the same park...

"Same duck pond," Minerva stopped for a second by the duck pond their Amy had once brought them to.

"Ducks?" Elias' sad voice rang next to her.

Because, just as the Leadworth in their world, this duck pond was empty of any ducks.

"Maybe they went on vacation, El," Minerva soothed his concern and opted to leave the pond fast. She spotted a cafe shop just across the street and decided a little snack wouldn't hurt either of them.

'Can I get a snack too, Mommy?' Elias asked telepathically.

Minerva lightly snorted as she went up to the counter. "You're a bit young for coffee, Elias. You can get some nice warm milk, though."

The baby protested about it but, when faced with no milk he soon agreed warm milk was just fine. Minerva was then allowed to order calmly. She was glad there was a range of coffee and not just tea. She still hated tea.

After ordering - and not paying a coin because she was the Queen's best friend - Minerva sought for an empty booth. Since there were none, she settled for an empty circular table by the glass wall. As soon as she sat down, Elias began to look around for anything he could entertain himself with. His Mommy had forgotten his teddy bear back at the TARDIS. Minerva offered him her necklace that the Doctor had gifted her centuries ago...but that only entertained Elias for about five minutes.

'Mommy! Mommy! Look!' Elias began rather excitedly in Minerva's head, though on the outside he was also squealing and loudly. 'That girl has hair like me! It's orange!'

And in his excitement, he threw Minerva's necklace to the next table where said ginger-haired girl sat. The necklace landed right over the ginger girl's notebook, forcing her stop mid-sentence.

"Elias!" Minerva scolded and quickly got up to retrieve her necklace and apologize for her son's action.

The baby simply laughed.

"I am so sorry for that!" Minerva stopped beside the ginger's table. "He...uh, he likes to throw things a lot."

"Yeah!" Elias said with much pride.

The ginger, which turned out to be a young woman with clear, blue eyes smiled softly at the infant. "It's alright," she picked up the necklace and was about to hand it over when she spotted the Gallifreyan symbols on the pendant. Her eyes widened.

Minerva noticed the action and wondered what was going on. "Is...is something wrong?"

"Uh, no..." the ginger came out of her moment and quickly gave Minerva her necklace. "Um..." she tapped her pen against her cheek, her eyes still on Minerva's necklace. "Can I ask where you bought that necklace from?"

"Oh, uh, my...my husband bought it for me. Well, he made it, actually," Minerva wondered what this ginger woman was doing. For a second it looked like the woman actually recognized the Gallifreyan language.

"Wow," the woman blinked, truly surprised. "Where'd he get the ideas to draw those lines from?"

"Internet," Minerva said instantly. "You know you can find everything on the internet." Then she panicked for a moment thinking that maybe on this world there wasn't internet.

The ginger smiled again, indicating that the internet was a good excuse. "Yeah. I saw them too. I've never actually seen them on jewelry, though. Your husband's got good crafting skills, then."

"Yeah he does," Minerva wondered just how true that was. Elias started huffing when he realized he was too far from the table to reach for the girl's pretty notebook. "Elias, please!" Minerva struggled to keep the baby in place.

"Elias is his name? That's a biblical name," the woman noted, stopping Minerva for a second. "I like learning about names," she added when she figured Minerva must have been questioning her remark. "Actually, I just like stories behind things in general. My name, for example, is derived from a famous legend."

"Yeah? What is it?" Minerva curiously asked.

"Avalon," the woman smiled proudly. "It's from the Arthurian legend. It's supposed to be the island where King Arthur rested at."

"Yeah, I know the story," Minerva noted that the whole ordeal about King Arthur also existed in this world. "I'm Minerva, by the way," she figured she should introduce herself since Avalon had already done hers.

"Like the Goddess of Wisdom," Avalon quickly said. "Pretty cool."

"Cool!" Elias agreed and clapped his hands. His eyes once again rested on Avalon's journal and the urge to grab it came back. "Read! Read!" he started leaning down to it.

Minerva groaned and was about to scold him again when her name was called at the counter. Her order was ready. Avalon glanced back and saw there were two cups waiting.

"You can leave Elias here if you'd like," she offered.

"Uh..." Minerva wasn't sure about leaving her son with a stranger but then she realized that even if Avalon tried pulling something she could just ice the ginger and leave.

It wasn't her world anyways.

Elias was very content when his mother handed him to Avalon. He reached almost instantly for one of Avalon's ginger locks, giggling when a strand wrapped around his small hand.

"Elias!" Minerva exclaimed.

Avalon laughed. "It's alright, don't worry."

Minerva still apologized for it and quickly went to go grab her order. Elias entertained himself with Avalon's hair (which he noted again it was just like his) and soon saw that he was now able to reach Avalon's journal.

"Book!" he cheered and patted a hand over the pages.

"Yeah, can you read?" Avalon asked him playfully. She pulled the journal closer to them and chuckled again when Elias babbled like he was reading. "Oh, that's some good reading. Want to hear the story?"

"Yes!"

"Alright, I'll give you the summary," Avalon patted his ginger hair. "See, there's this superhero-like man. He's very kind, but he's also very old, though I hear he doesn't really look like it most of the time. He always saves peoples no matter what. We don't really know his name, we just call him the Doctor."

Now, even though Elias was a baby, he knew there was something here.

"Daddy?" he blinked and looked up at Avalon, though the woman didn't understand what that had to do with her story.

"Your father?" she repeated just when Minerva returned.

"Okay, there we go," Minerva set the cups on the table and gave a sheepish smile at Avalon. "I don't suppose we could sit here...?"

Avalon chuckled. "Go right ahead. Gives me the opportunity to ask what an American is doing so far away from home. And especially why she chose such a boring, nosy town like this one."

Minerva took Elias back into her arms and sat down across the small table. "Nosy?" she caught onto the last part.

Avalon cleared her throat and gave the room one bitter look. "This town is completely nosy and gossipy. Believe me, as the center of most of their stories-" she made a gesture to herself, "-I can guarantee you this town is not one for vacation."

"Oh...is it really?" Minerva didn't remember Amy ever mentioning something like this about the town to them during her travels.

"Believe me," Avalon muttered with very noticeable bitterness.

Minerva felt a sympathy for the woman since she too had once been the center of all talks amongst her human family.

'Mommy, she knows about Daddy,' Elias startled her. She looked down at her baby and saw him pointing languidly to Avalon's journal. 'She knows about Daddy saving people! Look at her book!'

Minerva didn't know what to think, and she didn't have much time before Avalon noticed Elias pointing at her journal. Avalon chuckled and tapped Elias' finger. "Liked my story, then?" she met eyes with a troubled Minerva and elaborated. "I'm into fairytales and I may have told him about my favorite superhero."

"Really?" Minerva cleared her throat and reached for her coffee, innocently asking, "What...what is it about?"

Avalon seemed to blush as her eyes quickly flickered to her journal then back to Minerva. "It's, um...well, you probably heard about it somewhere, um...it's about this man who saves people. He goes by the Doctor."

'See!' Elias practically shouted in Minerva's head, making the woman flinch. 'She knows Daddy!'

"Wh-what does this man look like?" Minerva tried not looking as conflicted as she really was. Could it be this world also had another Doctor just like her own? Would that mean that she existed too? Or...or was this really a whole different world?

"Well, that's the thing," Avalon leaned over the table and whispered, "He changes his face all the time. There's records of him with spiky hair and suits, and then another where he wears a leather jacket. But..." she paused and shook her head, "I'm sorry. I'm probably sounding like a big idiot to you right now. It's just I've annoyed my family and friends about this for so long that it's nice meeting someone who doesn't yet hate me."

Minerva blinked. "I don't hate you. Why would anyone hate you?"

Avalon snorted. "Lady, believe me, if you knew me, you would not want me around your kid."

"You seem kind, and you seem very into this story," Minerva discreetly tried getting back to the topic of her husband. "You just seem like a girl who likes stories."

"I am," Avalon shrugged and passed the pages of her journal which were revealed to be heavily written on. "My life's not the best but the Doctor keeps me going. He's my only constant."

Minerva tried to read the expression on the woman's face and was hating herself for failing. "Have you met him?"

Avalon looked around, biting her lip for a second. "Once. When I was seven. He, uh, he crashed into my friend's backyard when we were having a sleepover. I think he had just changed his face..." her eyes drifted to the side and Minerva was sure she was remembering the night, "...I didn't get it at first, cos I was only seven, but now that I've done my research, I'm almost positive he had only just changed faces. He had this sort of...golden energy around him. He was weird," she smiled to herself. "But just like I imagined him, although a bit ruder."

'Mommy, that's Daddy,' Elias said without a hint of doubt.

Minerva was sure it was too. So, there definitely was a Doctor here, and there definitely was a...

"My friend Amy, though, she's just like me. She believes in him too," Avalon closed her journal with a dreamy sigh. "Cos the Doctor said that he would be back in five minutes, and though he's very late...I know he's coming back for us."

"Oh my God..." Minerva whispered and quickly shook her head. The curiosity in her got the best of her, and so she had to ask just one thing. "Was this man alone when he found you and your friend? That night, I meant, when he, uh...crashed."

"My sister was there too," Avalon added but ultimately nodded her head. "Yeah, he was alone."

'Mommy, where are you, then?' Elias pouted.

"Aw, what's wrong, Elias?" Avalon noticed his pout and reached for the baby's hand.

"Look at that, Avalon's got herself a new friend," a high-pitched woman's voice froze Avalon for a second. The ginger rolled her eyes as a blonde woman stopped by the table. "Figures it's a baby, though, since no one else in this town would ever be friends with a thief."

"A thief?" Minerva repeated and quickly looked at Avalon.

Avalon sighed and raised her head at the blonde. "What can I do for you, Julie? Note my empty gesture."

Julie smirked. "I'm just stopping by for my usual coffee. Nice to see you've finally got at least one friend here since you're always alone in this place."

"Excuse you, but you don't have to be rude," Minerva scolded the woman.

"Oh, so she's American? A tourist? That explains everything," Julie laughed and placed a hand on her hip. "No wonder she's talking to you, Avalon. She doesn't know any better."

"You-" Minerva was about to go off on the woman but Avalon cut in with even stronger way.

She has splashed Julie with Elias' warm milk. Julie gasped and stepped back, horrified at her drenched appearance.

"What the hell!?" she cried out, making every customer and employee in the place look over. "You'll pay for this, Avalon Reynolds!"

Avalon got up from her table and grabbed her journal, dropping her pen into her bag. "Yeah, I know, I always do," she snapped at Julie.

"Miss Reynolds," an older man, the manager of the place, came towards them. "You'll have to-"

Avalon stopped him with a hand. "Yeah, I know," she once again said, making Minerva assume this was all a routine for her. "I have to leave the place. Don't worry, Mr. Henderson, I'll just add this to another place I can't go to."

"Why don't you just do us the favor of moving already?" Julie was using napkins to dry herself off.

"I'm waiting for my ride," Avalon spat and hurried towards the door.

Elias made a noise at Julie as he attempted to tell her off in his own way. He quite liked Avalon...and so did his mother.

"You should be ashamed," Minerva pushed past Julie and ignored the blonde's cries behind. She went to catch up with Avalon who was making a hasty way down the street. "Avalon? Hey!"

"You shouldn't follow me," Avalon said with a strained voice. Minerva thought the emotions would get to the woman soon enough. "I'm bad news around this town."

"I really think you're not," Minerva stopped the ginger with a hand on the arm.

"I am," Avalon almost promised her. Her blue eyes were twinkling with tears but she would not let them free. "The thing about being a thief? That's true," she said right to Minerva's face. "I steal all the time and I end up in jail all the time. But you should know that usually what I steal isn't for me. My sister needs medication and there sometimes just isn't mo-"

"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself to me," Minerva cut her off. "I'm no one to judge."

"You'd be the first," Avalon looked to the side.

"Is it like this all the time for you?" Minerva asked with sad realization. "Everyone just treats you like this all the time?"

"Not everyone," Avalon gave a light shrug. She clutched her journal to her chest and faced Minerva. "I have my sister, Amy, Rory and Mels. They're the only people I care about anyways."

Minerva smiled. If Amy and Rory were anything like the couple she knew, then she was sure Avalon was in great hands. Mels...was another story, but overall harmless. "I'm sure they're wonderful people."

"They are," Avalon confirmed. "And when the Doctor comes back, I hope to God he lives up to his word and takes us away."

There was a sort of glee in Minerva when she realized something. "I think he will," she promised. "You are...exactly what he needs."

Avalon didn't understand the meaning of Minerva's words, but she ultimately smiled.

~ 0 ~

When Minerva and Elias finally returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor was more than sure that they were capable of leaving. Elias was excitedly babbling about their day when he spotted Roger on the console chair and forgot all about the adventure.

"How we doing?" Minerva looked at the console. "Are we ready to go?"

"I think so," the Doctor shrugged. "So, what did you find out there?"

"Well, for starters, no Amy nor Rory...oh and no ducks in the duck pond," Minerva leaned against the console with Elias still in her arms. "But we did find someone important..."

"Oh?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

A big smile spread across Minerva's lips. "Your future wife."

The Doctor nearly fell over at that, causing Minerva to laugh. "What!? What do you mean!? What I do this time!?" he was sure he hadn't said anything stupid today.

"Calm down, I meant the Doctor of this world," Minerva patted his arm. "Cos oh yeah he exists. In fact, he's even stupid like you in that he crashed into this world's Amelia Pond's backyard when she was seven."

"I did!?"

"Yes, he did. And he met three little girls that night and left quite an impression on one. I'm sure you'd like her."

"W-well, n-not me!" the Doctor sputtered. "I-I would never!"

"Doctor, it's fine," Minerva said with all honesty. "I don't exist in this world. I know cos I looked it up online. There's no 'Minerva Souza' on this world. This girl, though, Avalon - pretty name isn't it? - she's completely wonderful. She's made some poor life choices here and there but she's definitely someone you'd fall in love with."

"Minerva..." the Doctor wasn't comfortable with the conversation, but it was just funny for Minerva.

'She writes stories about you, Daddy!' Elias exclaimed.

"Oh yes! It's so cute," Minerva laughed. "She knows a lot about you. I'm sure when this world's Doctor comes back to Leadworth he'll take that girl to the stars."

"Yeah, yeah, all this Doctor-" the Doctor pointed at himself, "-wants to do is take his wife and son back to their world. Can I do that?"

"Of course," Minerva brought him down for a small kiss. "Because there is no way in hell that I'm giving up my Doctor."

Author's Note:

Soo...I got inspired when I started editing for my other Doctor Who story with Avalon Reynolds. How was it? ;)

P.s if you're interested in reading about Avalon's own story, look for Stars Dance on my profile! It starts with season 5!