Chapter 37 - Epilogue

August 2015

Beth hadn't heard from her father since her mother's funeral so she was genuinely surprised to find a letter in her mail box that contained nothing but a plane ticket and the message to meet him in the small diner in Parsons, Texas. North America hadn't really been on her schedule but she was curious to see what her father was up to so she packed a few clothes and got on a plane.

When Beth arrived at the small diner her father was already waiting for her, dressed in his favourite coat and those ridiculous plaid trousers. Wordlessly she slipped into the seat next to him and ordered a coffee. A few minutes passed before he finally spoke.

"This is where I met your mother," he said, "Right here, in this diner."

"I know the story, Dad," Beth replied with a sad smile, "Why did you invite me here?"

"Your birthday is next month. You're turning 55 and you're still not tired of travelling."

Beth chuckled. "I'll never get tired of travelling and if this is going to turn into a speech about settling down and-"

"No," he interrupted her, "It's nothing like that. I don't know if you remember but I promised you a trip, didn't I? I promised to take you anywhere."

"You never did."

"Well, I will now. If you still want to travel with me."

"I'd love to," Beth replied sincerely, "But I have a deadline for an article about Rio de Janeiro and this was really not on my schedule."

He turned around and smiled at her. "What if time played no role? What if you could be back yesterday?"

Her father's comment made Beth laugh. "If that were possible, absolutely. Where would you want to go?"

"I told you. Anywhere," he replied, "Anywhere in time and space."

The way he said it almost had Beth believe him.

"Let's go for a walk," he suggested.

They both left the diner and Beth followed her father to the edge of town and beyond. She had no idea where he was headed and to her it seemed as if he just blinding walked across the wasteland.

"Haven't you ever wondered why you're 54 and still look like you're in your late twenties?" he asked after a while.

Beth shrugged. "I guess I inherited your genes."

Her father gave her that look, that look he'd given her countless times that said 'You don't really believe that, do you?'

"My passport says I was born in 1905. That would make me 110 years old. Do you think I'm 110 years old?"

Beth didn't reply. She had never actively thought about it, it was more as if by instinct she had always known her parents were different from each other and while her mother had grown old and died her father hadn't change at all.

"I'm not human, Beth," he said after a while and somehow it didn't seem at all ridiculous, "And neither are you. Well, not entirely."

"What are you then?" she found herself asking.

Her father took a deep breath. "My name isn't John Smith, that's just what I call myself whenever I pretend to be human. I'm called the Doctor and I am a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Time Lords age, Beth, but they do it slowly. And when it's time for us to die we regenerate and wake up with a new face. You only have one heart but I'm pretty sure that after your first regeneration you'll have two as well."

Beth stopped dead in her tracks.

"So, you're telling me that you're an alien? And you're telling me now?"

Her father stopped as well and turned around to face her. He held his coat open.

"Feel it. Two hearts. All those years I thought your mother might notice but she never did. Or maybe she did and she didn't want to believe it. I'll never know."

Beth frowned at him but reluctantly she raised her hand to his chest. She felt his heart beat on the left side. But also on the right. And nothing about it really surprised her.

"You're my daughter, Beth. That's why you can't sit still, that's why you travel around the world and it still seems too small. You've got the stars in your blood. And you don't age like normal people do. When it's time for you to die you will regenerate. I am over 2000 years old and there is no reason why you shouldn't live to the same age. And I think a part of you has always known it," he explained slowly.

Her father turned around and resumed his walk, deeper into the wasteland and Beth followed him on his heels.

"If you're a 2000 year old, alien being," she began, "Why did you stay on Earth? Why did you marry my mother?"

He sighed and shortly after gave a sad, almost devastated laugh. "I had a friend once. Clara Oswald she was called. She saved my life countless times by jumping into my time stream and splitting herself into so many echoes, all of them like her, all of them with only one goal in life: to save me. When she died there was nothing I could do to save her and I couldn't forget so I used this device to turn myself into a human, to forget because I couldn't bear the grief. I had picked this place at random and I walked into this town and I met your mother. She was one of those echoes and I fell in love with her. My human self fell in love. It was bound to happen because she was born to save me and a part of my subconscious remembered her. We were entwined from the beginning. I turned back into a Time Lord after my heart attack and I remembered everything. And I was so glad to have your mother. And you."

"Wait," Beth said, "If my mother was just a copy of this woman, does that mean she wasn't real?"

"Oh no," he laughed, "She was real. And she was different. And amazing. And I loved her with all my hearts."

Finally her father stopped and outstretched his hand. Oddly it seemed to find resistance in the air and he tapped the emptiness a couple of times before a blue police box appeared out of nowhere. Beth instinctively jumped back.

"Don't worry," he told her with a smile, "It's the TARDIS. My space time machine."

"It appeared out of nowhere!" she argued.

Her father chuckled. "Wait until you see what's inside."

"What is inside?"

He didn't reply, instead he flicked his fingers and the door sprang open. Carefully Beth peeked inside. It was gigantic. And beautiful. One after another the lights switched on and slowly illuminated the interior.

"It looks amazing," she whispered in awe.

"And?"

"And what?" Beth asked.

"Well," her father looked a bit lost, nodding his head towards the inside, "Any comments on the size?"

"Not really. I'm assuming there's more than just this room, right?"

"Yes, but," he looked utterly disappointed now, "It's bigger on the inside."

"I figured it was supposed to be," she said with a shrug.

Her father shook his head and stepped into the time machine and Beth thought she heard him mutter 'That's why I travel with humans. They're easier to impress' under his breath before she followed him inside.

"Why did you never tell Mum?" she asked suddenly, "Why did you never invite her to travel with you?"

Her father looked at her through sad eyes. "Your Mum wasn't like that. She was born into her time. She didn't even like travelling. Planes and ships made her sick. This," he looked around, "This wasn't for her."

"True," Beth confirmed, "But you could have told her the truth about yourself."

Slowly he shook his head. "Clara wanted a normal life. She wanted a husband and a family and I gave her that. I made her happy. Had I taken her into my world I was afraid she would end up like all the other echoes. I was afraid she would end up dying to save me. Just once I wanted it to be the other way around and I succeeded. Your mother was the one echo I saved."

Beth nodded reluctantly, knowing that her father was right. Her mother wouldn't have liked any of this and in the end she had died happy. Her father had done everything to make sure she never wanted for anything.

"So," her father said, rousing her from her thoughts, "All of time and all of space. What would you like to see?"

Beth grinned at him. "Everything."

"Everything sounds good," he replied and pulled down a lever, making the engines of the machine come to life. Beth held on tight to the console unit as the TARDIS was taking her on her first real adventure.

The End

Note:

Thank you all so, so, SO much for your continuous support! I'm so glad you all loved this story and I genuinely hope you will be happy with the ending. Thank you all for reading it and for your generous number of comments and reviews! Every single one of them made me happy.

As you know, I started writing this after Face The Raven and I decided that for this story, the real Clara died when she faced the raven. I also know that probably the Doctor didn't start working for UNIT until the 70s. I did some research but couldn't find out the exact year he met the Brigadier and so I decided to stretch the canon a little and make it the 60s for the sake of this story. As for Kate's age I decided to go with the actress' date of birth (who was born in 1965) so I could put little Kate into my story as well. I also used the theory that said ordinary Gallifreyans only have one heart and Time Lords receive their second heart with their first regeneration.

Also, I already started working on my new fanfic, which is called "The Art Of Loving". It's another AU (this time a real one and not sci-fi in disguise) and the first chapter will be posted simultaneously with this epilogue.