crossoverfic | Just One Day: Exceptions (Reply)

Title: Just One Day: Exceptions
Author: Fiducia

Fandoms: Doctor Who and The Sandman

Beta: Lostwolfchats

Rating: PG

Warnings: None

Pairings: None

Disclaimer: Doctor Who is owned by the BBC, Death and other Sandman characters are owned by DC Comics and Neil Gaiman. This was written purely for entertainment purposes and no profit is being garnered from the use of these characters.

Summary: The Doctor thinks he knows an exception to an eternal rule. Is he right?

The Doctor reclined in the jump seat as the TARDIS flew through the void. His long arms stretched across the back of the seat and his feet propped on rounded edge of the central console; his long legs bent at the knee.

Dee walked around the console, inspecting the various dials, buttons, leavers, cranks and pulleys with keen interest. She switched direction when she reached the Doctor’s bent legs, since they blocked her progress, but twice now she’d spied a button or a shiny something on the opposite side of the flesh and bone obstruction which piqued her interest to the point where walking around the console was too much trouble, so ducking under his legs was the only way to go.

“You sure I shouldn’t just move?” the Doctor said again, tilting his head to watch her crawl along the grating and pop to her feet again, angling for the dial she swore wasn’t there a moment ago.

Dee shot him a grin before moving onto the next shiny thing that caught her eye, “Nah! I’m okay.”

“Cuz it’s really no trouble,” he pointed out, eyes following her progress.

“I know,” Dee replied, “but I’m having fun!”

The Doctor nodded slowly, “And that’s what matters, isn’t it...”

Dee nodded, “That’s part of it,” she agreed, brightly.

“What’s the other part?” The Doctor asked, brows furrowing, tone holding a forced airy quality.

Dee shrugged, catching his eye briefly before turning her attention back to the console. “I don’t know, whatever else comes up,” she smiled. “These days are never boring, that’s for sure.”

The Doctor sank into thought, staring off into space, expression dour, his head tilted back to contemplate the arched ceiling.

Noticing his slow sink into melancholy, Dee was quick to round the rest of the console and poke him sharply in the ribs.

“OW!” The Doctor jumped; face twisting into an outraged pout.

“Don’t think about it,” Dee instructed simply, her face serious.

“Think about what, my ribs?” he countered, hand rubbing the sore place.

“No, you big baby, the end of the day,” Dee reasoned, pulling away slightly.

“Oh,” he said suddenly contrite, “Can’t help that much…sorry.”

“Look, it’s going to happen. Everyone dies,” Dee said, “It’s inevitable.”

“Oooo, good word, that,” the Doctor hummed. “Inevitable. Inevitable. It kind of trips off the tongue. Inevitable.”

Dee giggled and returned to the console, “Yup…it does.”

“You’re wrong, though;” The Doctor said suddenly, “Not everyone dies.”

“’Scuse me?” Dee asked playfully looking at him again over her shoulder.

“I know someone who...well I guess he did die,” the Doctor said, “But then, as Monty Python so aptly put it, ‘He got better.’”

Dee’s face scrunched up into an animated expression of disbelief. She turned to lean against the console by the Doctor’s propped feet. “How do you mean, ‘got better?’ That’s not possible.”

“Are you sure...,” The Doctor leaned forward, teasing.

Dee rolled her eyes. “Alright, alright. There are exceptions,” she admitted. “But not many,” she was quick to add.

“Then I know one!” The Doctor crowed, “I know an exception!”

“Oh really?” Dee challenged. “Who?”

“His name,” The Doctor announced, “is Jack.”

“Jack….Jack….hmmmm,” Dee wandered away from the console and behind the jump seat, appearing around the other side, feigning deep though as she considered the name. “Wow…I know A LOT of Jack’s,” she declared playfully. “Can you be a bit more specific?”

“Well,” the Doctor began tilting his head to catch Dee’s eye, “Honestly I’m not even sure that’s his real name now that I think on it.”

“That does complicate things,” she shot back, “I only know true names, not assumed ones or nick-names or anything like that.”

“We have a problem, then,” the Doctor declared, sadly, “I can’t properly call him an exception if I can’t give you a name and you can’t declare him NOT an exception if you don’t get a name so…wait that didn’t make any…I’ve GOT IT!”

The Doctor leapt from the jump seat in one great energetic motion and started to flip switches, wind cranks and pull levers seemingly at random.

Dee did her best to keep out of his way, “You got what?”

“The solution!” the Doctor laughed, “I’ll SHOW you!”

The TARDIS lurched to the side as the Doctor abruptly changed their direction and Dee clung to the console with all she had. “An event in your past? Isn’t that a bad idea?”

“Nah!” said the Doctor, hurrying to push a button and stretching his leg out to flip a lever at the same time. “I can cross my own timeline all I want with no problem. Perk of being a Time Lord,” he bragged.

“Show off,” Dee teased.

“Hold on!” The Doctor called to her just before the TARDIS slammed into a landing, throwing them to the floor.

All was quiet for a split second before the Doctor bounded to his feet, “Here we are! You alright?” The Doctor helped Dee up; suddenly sorry he hadn’t checked to see if her failing body could handle that much abuse before rocketing them into the future and his past.

Dee clung to the Doctor’s arms as he lifted her to her feet, “Yeah…yeah I’ll be okay. Just give more warning next time, okay?” She gave him a shaky smile.

“Okay,” The Doctor confirmed with his most charming grin.

Dee’s smile became more sure, “So? Where are we? When are we? What’s going on?”

“The former Satellite 5!” The Doctor said with a flourish, releasing her arms, “Now known as The Game Station. It’s the year 200,100, give or take a month or so and the Daleks have just boarded in an effort to overthrow the Earth.”

Dee’s eyes went wide, “And you’re down there in the thick of all that?”

“Yes!” The Doctor said, “Well, sort of. It’s me but not this me…my previous me.”

Dee nodded, quickly, “I get it.”

“And yes it’s the same Daleks I supposedly killed when….you know,” The Doctor continued, haltingly.

“I figured,” Dee replied.

“So, that’s it for background and if my calculations are correct we should have landed just prior to the event I brought you here to see,” The Doctor recovered, clapping his hands together.

“You had time to calculate during all that jumping around?” Dee asked, teasingly.

“Oh hush and come on,” The Doctor scolded as he grabbed Dee’s hand and ushered her out the front doors of the TARDIS.

The satellite was dark and eerily quiet. The Doctor led Dee down one long corridor after another, searching for something.

“What’s to stop the Daleks from finding us, again?” Dee whispered, uncertain.

“Sssssshhhhh…” The Doctor replied softly.

“But what if they find us?” Dee whispered again, “What’ll we do?”

The Doctor turned to glare at her. “We’ll run, but right now we rely on stealth so keep quiet.”

“Oh. Sorry!” Dee replied softly.

She followed along for a good while longer before The Doctor stopped them up short and pressed back against the wall, arm out to ensure Dee wasn’t seen either.

They were in the shadows of a “T” section of corridor. Dee saw a man, handsome and young, backing away from three advancing Daleks, shooting them with a semi-automatic rifle. The clip ran out suddenly and the man threw the gun aside, reaching for his side arm and firing at the advancing aliens until that too was out of bullets.

The man, this had to be Jack, had his back to the wall not twenty feet from where Dee and the Doctor were concealed. He opened his arms to the Dalek and challenged them just before the laser blast hit him, illuminating his body from the inside, and he slumped to the ground dead.

Dee’s face was calm as she watched the scene unfold before her, this but one example of what she in essence was. The Doctor’s face was a tight, grim mask of grief and guilt. Neither of them moved until the three Dalek hovered away and silence once again reigned.

“That’s Jack,” the Doctor said tightly.

“I figured,” Dee responded, echoing her previous reply.

“Wait for it,” the Doctor replied to the question he knew was coming.

Dee waited.

She felt it when the change came; when Bad Wolf became present, when an aspect of her family, diluted amongst her siblings and even she entered their knowing.

The Doctor felt it too, closed his eyes against the memories that feeling stirred.

Suddenly Jack sat up, his lung grating for air, his arm flailing for purchase. He was alive.

The hidden pair watched as Jack crawled to his feet and jogged away, hands catching on the walls every few steps as he fought off vertigo. The hiss of the lift doors punctuated his departure and confirmed that they were once again alone.

Dee was silent, waiting for the Doctor to speak. The Doctor stared after Jack for a long time before clearing his throat.

“I wasn’t there. I didn’t know how he died,” he explained, roughly, “I just knew he did.”

“Not a bad death, all things considered,” Dee pointed out, trying to find the positive, “Lynda had it much worse.”

The Doctor winced at that memory before pushing it aside. “We should go,” he said quickly, “We risk altering events the longer we’re here.”

Dee nodded and allowed herself to be led back to the waiting TARDIS; they didn’t bother as much with stealth on this trip.

Once the doors were safely closed behind them the Doctor bounded around the console working on sending them into the void once more.

“That was my exception,” the Doctor declared, though he struggled to regain his prior light mood, “What do you think?”

Dee cleared her throat, “Well…I don’t know how to tell you think but he’s really not an exception, at least in the strictest sense of the word.”

The Doctor stopped his frantic switch flipping to look at her, “Oh come on! How do you mean?”

Dee hopped up into the jump seat and got comfortable, “Well there’s a difference in his situation. It’s small but distinct.”

The Doctor turned his attention fully to Dee, crossing his arms across his chest, expression expectant.

Dee continued, “Jack did die. I was there. I took his hand. What happened afterwards, though… well…that was…different. That was time asserting itself, not life and death.”

The Doctor glanced away from Dee as he processed what she said, slowly he nodded, lips pursed into a line. “It was Rose,” he explained, “Long story but she held the Time Vortex in her body and…,” he sighed. “…like I said, long story.”

“I’m sure,” Dee agreed but quickly continued on. “So she was Time at that point. Essentially she…rewound Jack to the moment before the Daleks killed him and then…stuck him there. Yes, she gave him life again but in a round about way.”

“That would explain why he can’t die again now,” The Doctor mused.

“Because his body is stuck in that one moment in time so it always reverts back to that moment, no matter what,” Dee explained. “Does he age at all?”

The Doctor shook his head, “No and last I checked he’s been like this for 150 years.”

“There you go,” Dee said, “An exception but not an exception.”

“So where is Jack, then?” The Doctor asked. At Dee’s confused expression he clarified, “The ‘real’ Jack, the ‘essence’ of Jack. Where is it?”

“Hard to say,” Dee said after considering for a time, “Technically he’s both alive and dead. Wow, that’s very quantum. Schrödinger would be proud.”

“Is there anyway to reunite the two…halves? ...parts? ...of him?” The Doctor asked, “Make him whole again?”

Dee considered this a moment, “Not without intervention and possibly him fully dying. I could give him the option. There’s at least one person I do that for, but it’s more as a favor to my brother.”

The Doctor sprung into action, making for his levers and buttons, “We’ll go see him! Talk to him now. He’ll just love you!”

Dee watched him for a moment before walking over and quietly placing a hand on his arm, stilling his frantic movements with a gentle touch.

“Not a good idea right now,” Dee said quietly.

“What?” he asked, “Why?”

Dee glanced at her watch before looking up at him, “Twelve hours to go.”

The Doctor’s face fell, “Oh. I see.” He slid his hands away from the TARDIS controls.

“Do you trust me?” Dee asked.

“Do I have a choice?” The Doctor tried to tease.

Dee tsked and slapped at his arm playfully, “You know the answer to that.”

“Yes I do,” he agreed.

Dee took a breath, “Trust me to go to Jack myself, after today, to tell him his…options. I will do this for you. Think of it…as fare for the tour you’ve taken me on.” She smiled at that but it was bittersweet.

The Doctor did not return her smile but nodded his agreement and moved to the monitor, looking at the readouts it showed.

“Do you know where I think we should go next?” The Doctor asked, face bright again with the promise of space travel.

“Where?” Dee asked; her smile more genuine now they had moved on to happier topics.

The Doctor looked up from the monitor to meet her gaze.

“Barcelona.”