Author's Note: Hello and welcome to the one-shot/AU companion story to Stars Dance & Falling in Temptation. This story will feature my OC Avalon Reynolds and the Doctor (from 9th-13th Doctor) along with other companions + OC Lena Reynolds. I'll leave notes at the top of each chapter mentioning if the chapter is canon to its mother story or if it's just a one-shot/AU.

As a reference, Avalon looks like the actress Rachelle Lefevre.

P.S. This particular chapter happens to be my first piece with 13 and an implied f/f relationship so…be kind!

There was too much to do and so little time! The Doctor raced around the console, her fingers dancing over the controls to punch in the right coordinates. The fam was waiting to get picked up from their brief interlude but of course the Doctor had gotten a bit distracted along the way. On the one hand, there was danger on a nearby galaxy that she just couldn't ignore. And then there was the fact that Avalon expected her to be back on Earth for Lena's birthday party.

"Oh wow..." the Doctor breathed when she remembered that she'd been tasked to bring Lena's present. "Oh no, no, no! Tell me I did not misplace it! Please tell me!" her hands curled into fists as she threw her head back, eyes shut. But soon her eyes opened up when a new thought had come across. "Or did she tell me that she would bring it! Gah! I can't remember!"

The TARDIS hummed but the Doctor still felt no better.

"I have got to stop taking calls in the middle of a worldwide saving!"

"Alright, alright, let's just take a risk and see if Avalon has a present. After all...how could she be mad I forgot the present if I was saving another planet!" the Doctor came to a stop to consider the answer and when it wasn't all that nice, she resolved for a different solution. "I do have a time traveling machine. I can just go back and get a present if I did forget it!" She landed the TARDIS at the cafe Avalon and Lena would be waiting for her. They would take Lena to wherever the party was going to be from there.

The Doctor came out of the TARDIS in a quick sprint towards the cafe. "Sorry I'm late!" she rushed into the building, waving a hand to catch Avalon's sight...but she found herself surrounded by odd stares from customers instead. The cafe seemed to be running like normal which, to be honest, kind of worried the Doctor off a bit. Even if the party wouldn't be at the cafe, Avalon would've made something for Lena there too. But there was nothing! People were buying things, taking their drinks at their tables, some of them were reading - hold on.

The Doctor rubbed her eyes so hard that after she lowered her hands, she saw stars for a few minutes. When her vision was back, though, she still saw the same person. It couldn't be.

But she's right there. The Doctor stared wide-eyed at the ginger woman sitting in the corner of the cafe, her hand fervently writing across her journal. Avalon Reynolds would always have her trusty journal nearby. If she wasn't writing in it, she had it in a bag around her. How...?

She was in the past. She had to be - the Doctor had accidentally arrived at the cafe in the past, the past where a younger version of Avalon was.

She's so young, the Doctor took in a breath. She took a step towards Avalon without realizing it. It had just been too long since she'd seen the mess of ginger hair. It brought a huge grin to the Doctor's face. All the adventures they had, had in the past...way in the past...it was all rushing back to the Doctor.

It widened her grin.

Avalon - this Avalon - was still living it. She was living their story. Ah, such a wonderful story. Even if there was some turmoil in the middle, the Doctor wouldn't give it up for anything. Avalon, her Avalon, wouldn't either.

I should really leave. I should turn back and go find my Avalon. She's probably getting mad if I'm not arriving at the right time! Go, just go! The Doctor took a step back, in that moment intending on making the full turn towards the entrance doors, but she bumped into another customer heading out and yelped when hot coffee landed on her shirt. "OW!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the customer, a petite brunette woman, exclaimed.

The commotion pulled several other customers' attention, including Avalon's. The ginger woman looked up from her journal to see the Doctor rapidly trying to pat dry her shirt from the freshly made coffee. The customer she bumped into was helplessly apologizing, offering to dry-clean the Doctor's shirt.

"No, it's fine! I'm fine! Happens to me all the time! I'm quite an idiot! I'm all over the place!" the Doctor waved the customer off and thanked a nearby man for the few napkins he handed her. "I do that all the time! Least that's what my Ava says!"

Avalon raised an eyebrow when she heard that last bit. She put her pen down and focused her entire attention on the blonde woman who kept rambling on like there was no tomorrow. Blimey she could talk. And she was fast too! There was no way in hell anybody, especially the frantic brunette, was understanding what the blonde was saying.

And then it hit Avalon.

"No fucking way," she whispered with wide, albeit fascinated, eyes. She rose from her chair and made her way towards the blonde woman.

"Really, I'm fine. I'd pay you for the coffee-" the Doctor smiled apologetically at the brunette woman, "-but I never carry money with me." The poor customer was so rattled that she took the Doctor's words as a sign for her go before things could get worse.

"Doctor?"

The Doctor froze in her spot. Maybe if she stayed completely still things might go her way. But she should've remembered who she was dealing with.

Avalon Reynolds didn't just let things happen if she didn't like them. She reached a hand for the Doctor's arm and once she touched the smooth fabric of the Doctor's gray coat, the Time Lady swallowed hard. Different Avalon, same touch.

Avalon slowly turned the Doctor around and when they were face to face, the Doctor didn't know what to expect. This Avalon was really young (not that she would ever call her Avalon old, ever) and she hadn't lived their story a lot. By the Doctor's calculations - which honestly wasn't that much - this Avalon could be somewhere between the time they met the underground Silurians all the way to just before the Silence. It was hard picking the right moment in her time line with so little information.

But she was still so beautiful. The Doctor couldn't help the blush that ran through her face.

Stop it! she berated herself. This isn't your Avalon, not yet! Don't freak her out, you idiot!

"Hello," the Doctor finally found her voice, still she did have to clear her throat in the end. "A-Avalon..."

Avalon's eyebrows raised upwards, her mouth opening slightly but nothing came out. She looked the Doctor over at least two times and the Doctor only lost count because she was trying to keep herself cool. She could be cool - she would ignore the fam's opinions though because she didn't need that negativity right now.

And then Avalon finally spoke but like the Doctor, her words failed a bit in the beginning. "Doctor? It's...it's really you?"

"Uuh...yeah..." the Doctor cleared her throat again. "I-I shouldn't be here. I really shouldn't be here. I-I got the time wrong."

"Ah, so it is you," Avalon took that and the fact that she had mentioned she never carried money as a true confirmation that she was indeed the Doctor. "I can't believe it!" Avalon laughed. "You changed! And you're a woman!"

"Is that...are you good?" the Doctor asked, rather nervously because in her time Avalon was much more used to the implications of being a Time Lord. Everything could literally changed. This Avalon was still getting to know her version of the Doctor. Things had yet to be said and thoroughly explained.

"I'm laughing aren't I?" Avalon brought her hand to her chest as she sobered. Her eyes looked the Doctor over and she did a slight tilt of her head that made the Doctor blush. In the future, when Avalon did that tilt, it meant she was basically checking her out.

This is not your Avalon! the Doctor hissed at herself. She had to stop thinking like that because she this wasn't a version of Avalon she could be like that, not yet.

"I like it," Avalon said then suddenly blinked when she caught herself, "I meant, you know...you're looking nice. Good. You kept the suspenders?"

The Doctor quickly checked herself to remember if she was wearing suspenders. She was. "Right!"

Avalon laughed at her goofy grin. Yup, that was still the same too. "Well, I like the red ones but the yellow look nice too. So then...this is you? Like...the next you?"

"Aaah," the Doctor put her hands inside her coat's pocket, "Not-not quite."

"Oh, you've died twice?" Avalon asked, her face softening. How could she let her Doctor die twice? What was she doing in those times?

"Do you want to sit down for a bit?" the Doctor asked her, presuming where Avalon's thoughts were going. She couldn't tell Avalon everything but she could tell bits to ease Avalon's concerns.

Avalon was initially confused since, according to time line rules and whatnot, she shouldn't be interacting with a future Doctor...unless she no longer traveled with the Doctor! "Oh my God, do we stop travelling!?" the question blurted from her mouth.

"Oh no, no! Don't worry about that," the Doctor exclaimed. "I was actually going to meet you here - well," she bobbed her head, "I was supposed to meet the future you in a future version of this shop. I got the dates wrong."

"So...we're still traveling together?"

And more, the Doctor smiled. "Yes," she said, having to bite her tongue to leave it at that. "But I can spare a few moments here with you - actually, I can always give you the time you need."

"O-okay," Avalon slowly turned away - and as soon as she did she allowed herself to smile with a blush - then slowly led the Doctor back to her table. She took her seat and watched the Doctor sit across her.

Actually, she studied the Doctor. She was Avalon's height now, which meant she had to have lost about four inches because the Doctor she knew was several inches taller than her. Her short blonde hair seemed straight but it also seemed a bit messy which made Avalon wonder where this Doctor had been to recently because it had to have been some adventure. Her eyes were still green but unlike her previous incarnation (or 2 incarnations ago, apparently) these eyes were a bit lighter on the shade and Avalon was sure she saw flecks of light brown around them. She still retained the same grin - Avalon wondered if this was just a feature every Doctor had? - and slim cheeks. Avalon thought her nose was a bit...button like? It was adorable.

"I do have to ask..." Avalon's way of beginning the conversation led the Doctor down another nervous road, "...do you always pick weird clothes? Is that like...a requirement for every incarnation?"

The Doctor laughed. It definitely broke the ice between them. "Funny, you're so funny."

"Of course I am, but I'm also very serious," Avalon gestured to the Doctor's current clothes. "I'm digging the colors but the suspenders are questionable and the boots..." she checked under the table to give the brown combat boots another chance, "Nope, I don't like them."

The Doctor's face scrunched - something else Avalon immediately deemed adorable - with offence. "Other you does!"

"Then I would wonder if I've been replaced by a clone or something. I'll let the rainbow shirt pass because I really like those trousers and the coat. I think I like your coat - can I steal it?"

"What? No," the Doctor tugged her coat closer to her as if Avalon would take it right there and then. "Why would you even ask that?"

"Because I'm trying this thing where I ask people if I can use something of theirs before I take it."

"You mean borrowing?"

"Is that what it's called?"

The Doctor struggled not to laugh again. She forgot how this younger version was. "Oh boy."

"So that's a no...?" Avalon still waited for the answer but instead of getting one, the Doctor tapped the open pages of her journal on the table.

"You looked so focused when I came in. Writing a good story?"

"Uuh...not really. I mean, I just write," Avalon shrugged. "But you tell me now where you're from. And you said this you-" she pointed at the Doctor's face, "-isn't the you that comes after my Doctor. It's two incarnations later. So there's one in between I'm missing?"

"Ah yeah, he's kind a of broody one too," the Doctor bobbed her head as she thought of her previous incarnation. "I'm a bit more blunt..."

"More?" Avalon genuinely gawked. "How can you be more!?" The Doctor was always getting them into trouble because of what he said to people. She wasn't the best around people but he - who had more than 900 years of social interactions - knew far less. And now she was learning that the next him was even more blunt?

"Just you wait," the Doctor smiled nostalgically. "The people you've yet to meet...the adventures...it's all waiting for you."

Avalon smiled warmly. "You still like to travel with me, then? Didn't drop me off for being too rude? Or messing with you?"

"Leave my Ava behind? Never," the Doctor said on instinct but she didn't regret it when she saw Avalon's blush. "I told you I meant to find other you here. You don't get rid of me that easily."

"Well, tell me something about the future," Avalon leaned forwards on the table, biting her lip excitedly. "Tell me what we're doing in the future!"

The Doctor would've answered her in that moment but she got a little distracted with the lip biting. She was over 2000 years old and this girl who wasn't even 25 years old had her completely enthralled.

"Doctor?" Avalon called.

The Doctor was following the way her lips were moving and when Avalon had to call her name a third time, she snapped out of it. "Sorry, what!?" Her face was pretty crimson right now.

"What were you thinking about?" Avalon asked since there was no hiding that type of blush.

"I-I don't...I have a...there's a l-lot going on in this head of mine!" the Doctor nervously tapped the side of her head. She was completely flustered and suddenly the only thing she wanted to do was go see her Ava right now! Right now.

"When isn't there?" laughed Avalon. "I wonder how many voices you got inside that head of yours. How old is this you right now?"

"Way old," the Doctor left it at that was and was super grateful that the conversation had moved along. "Now you tell me why you're here all by yourself? Did other me mess up or something? Are you mad at him?" she leaned forwards, leaving a bit of a gap between them since Avalon was still leaning herself. "Did he do something?"

Avalon took pleasure seeing her angered face. "No, not today anyways. I told him I wanted to come here for a moment to write. Plus, they make some really good croissants here. Bit of a French food lover. Or France lover. I just love it all."

"Yeah you do," the Doctor mumbled, once again growing a bit red in the face. She couldn't take this. She needed to go home quick. "Avalon, it was really nice seeing you...this version of you...but I should get going. I have other you waiting for me."

"Waiting, is that a still thing for me then?" Avalon once again bit her lower lip. "Am I still waiting for my fairy tale man - girl - to come get me?"

"Not...anymore," the Doctor answered in a rather shaky breath. She was staring at Avalon's lips despite her best efforts not to. "Sorry for those twelve years."

"Fourteen-"

"-right..."

"You still haven't told me what we're doing in the future," Avalon reminded, but she got an odd answer in return.

"Whatever you want..."

"What?"

"What!?" the Doctor shook her head really hard - she might have seen stars again afterwards - and then forced herself to look at Avalon's eyes. She could handle the eyes...hopefully. "Something we're doing in the future?" Avalon nodded her head. "Well, uh, we have this fam - friends! They're, um, they're really nice and...and you like them."

"So no more Amy and Rory?" Avalon was a bit disappointed to learn that neither of her friends was still travelling with the Doctor, but at the same time she could see that happening in the later future. Amy and Rory would eventually want to settle down at some point. "I guess they're living on Earth now."

The Doctor forced herself to nod. That was technically true, just not the way Avalon thought. This unintentionally indicated, though, that Avalon was somewhere after Amy and Rory got married and judging by Avalon's carefree demeanor it had to be before the Silence and Kovarian struck.

"What are their names?" Avalon continued to ask, her excitement practically radiating from her face. "This, uh, fam of yours."

"Ours," the Doctor corrected softly. "Ours."

Avalon nodded. "Okay."

"There's Yaz, you and her get along really nicely. She's a policewoman - well, she's working on it."

"Wait I'm friends with a cop!?" Avalon gaped. "In all my space travels that is the last thing I would've expected."

"Then there's Ryan and his granddad, Graham. You and Ryan are like siblings - Lena says now you have the 'brother' though the 'big brother' might be questionable. And Graham, well, you say he's like your grandfather too. A cool one too."

Avalon beamed. "That sounds so cool! I can't wait for that! Actually, I can't wait for all of it!"

"Don't wait, just live it," the Doctor advised, exhaling deeply as she studied Avalon's entire self. Things were still so new to her, she had no idea all the things she was going to live. It wouldn't all be nice and it wouldn't