Dayle and the Doctor sat on the floor in her tiny dining room, eating Chinese food, paper cartons spread out between them.
"I still don't understand why you don't have a kitchen table." He leaned against one wall. "You enjoy picnics that much?"
Dayle dug around in a carton of beef vegetables with her chopsticks. "I don't eat here much. And it's just me." She shrugged. "I dunno. Feels too family-ish I guess. I think I'd feel like a fraud."
"Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten. You're a hopeless recluse with no possible chance of having a family. What's the point of even pretending, eh?" He set down his chopsticks and folded his hands in his lap. "Why don't you just get a couple cats, take up knitting. I'll bet the town library has a lovely little club you can join. Like, Spinsters United, local chapter..."
"Alright wise ass. I get it. Ha ha very funny." She took a drink from her beer and was silent for a moment. She stared at her beer, peeling at the label. "Maybe it's not too late. Maybe I am young and the best is yet to come. But maybe it's just easier, safer not to try. People can be awfully disappointing."
The Doctor watched her. His hearts went out to her. She was scared but she wasn't hopeless. "People can also surprise you. And you may even surprise yourself."
They didn't speak much as they cleared up the mess, put the leftovers in the fridge. It was late and she had to work early in the morning. He had a feeling that she understood that she likely wouldn't see him again. And she was also perceptive enough to know he was eager to get going and had only endured the humany ritual of dinner for her sake. He figured if things got bad for the other Dayle, he'd know it immediately.
They walked to the door that just earlier today, he had arrived at bleeding. The door she had slammed after pushing him out into the hall.
"Sooo... I guess you're off to save the world or whatever. Be careful, will you? And do me a solid, don't bring that shit over to my side of the street. I have enough troubles of my own." She grinned and tugged on his bow tie.
"Dayle it has been a pleasure. I can't thank you enough for taking me in. As hard as you work at disguising it, you are a truly compassionate woman." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
"Don't give up on your dream, eh?" He touched her face gently. "There are children all over the place that need a mum as caring as you are."
Her eyes welled up. She hugged him tightly, then gave him a playful shove. "Good bye. Mr. Lord of Fucking Time."
"Farewell, Sweary Nurse." He gave a little salute, then was on his way down the hall. She watched after him.
He boarded the TARDIS, closed the doors behind him and started the dematerialization sequence. A great wheezing, groaning sound filled the hallway as the blue box faded completely out of sight.
Dayle stood looking at the empty space where the TARDIS had stood, sad to see her new strange friend go. But so happy to have known him.
Somewhere in the Malum Star System, Alternate Universe
The Doctor had piloted the TARDIS within a prudent distance of the black hole. They spun safely there in space while he made his preparations. He was putting the finishing touches on the device he would use to form his end of the tow rope. A psionometric relay.
He screwed on the last mount and set the gleaming blue sapphire in its place. Tightened it down. It was a special crystal from the planet Metebelis III with many useful properties. It was a crucial element of his hastily thrown together relay due to the fact that it greatly enhanced psychic powers. In this case, it was intended to enhance not just his telepathic abilities, but also the symbiotic link between the Doctor and his TARDIS.
"Alright Sexy," he asked his ship "Are we ready to give it a go?" He carefully attached the device's inductor coil to the base of the directional unit. He then ran a wire to the Telepathic Induction Circuit. He got bit by a current of electricity and the lights in the control room flickered once but otherwise, it seemed that the circuit remained stable.
"Ok" he clapped his hands "This is going to be all about timing I'm afraid." The TARDIS'S engines stuttered nervously. "Right there with you Old Girl." He grimaced and wrung his hands together.
He entered coordinates into the spatial location input and the ship began to veer toward the black hole's gravitational field. He set the acceleration controls for Drift. He looked around the control room, ready for a fight.
This time, the cloister bell did not sound. In fact, the TARDIS did not resist one bit. He chose to take that as a good sign rather than a sign that she was simply resigned to their fate.
Just before the TARDIS hit the very edge of the event horizon, the Doctor sprang into action. He quickly flipped the switch on the psionometric relay device, pulled down the dematerialization lever, buckled himself in to the jump seat and murmured "Geronimo."
As the TARDIS became locked in the fearsome grip of the black hole and was pulled inward, she also began to dematerialize. He closed his eyes and tapped into his telepathic senses. He pictured a pretty blonde woman, with blue-gray eyes and a stunning, if sad smile. A girl who was very lost in her own life but had somehow become his only way home. And then he called her name.
****
Rest Well Motel, Kirkmore, OH
"Dayle!" The spectral voice of the Doctor cut through her sleeping mind. She tossed and turned over, mumbled in her sleep. The connection was made as he reached into her unconscious mind.
In her dream, she was once more on that nameless road in the fog. There were no street lights here now, just the moon hidden behind a thin veil of clouds. The Doctor stood far away in the fog, cloaked in shadow. Faceless.
"Doctor!" she called in response, moving toward the shadowy figure. His presence seemed to fade out for a moment then become substantial once more.
As she made her way to him, a storm blew in all at once, the fog dissipating and great drops of rain beginning to fall. The harder she fought to reach him, the more the wind seemed to resist. In her physical reality, she might have enjoyed the novelty of the sudden intense monsoon. In her mind, it was only a hindrance. She had never used her psychic voice, her psychic presence before she'd made contact with the Doctor. She might not be strong enough.
She could see the Doctor more clearly now as he was no longer concealed by the fog. He strained against the elements, seemingly unable to move. He reached his hand out to her through the downpour, his kind face dripped rain, his eyes looked hopeful.
"Dayle!" he called once more, his voice sounded even more distant than before. He appeared to flicker out, then return. She reached toward him.
Rain soaked her, obstructed her vision, chilled her to the bone. And somehow he was farther away than ever. The strain was beginning to give her a headache. Her feet were made of lead and she was losing her footing in what was now slippery mud. She was bent over against the cold rain.
Dayle wasn't going to be able to do this. It was stupid to think she could. He faded once more, appearing more as a phantom now than a person. She dropped her reaching arm to her side.
She wanted to just sit down and cover her head. She wanted to pretend none of this had ever happened. That she'd never seen the explosion in a dream. That she'd never laid eyes on a woman called River. She closed her eyes. She couldn't watch as the man she was meant to help faded out completely. She couldn't watch as he slipped away forever. All because she had failed, yet again.
He is counting on me goddammit. I am his only hope. I am his way home. I am his bridge. The thought was her own, but that didn't make it any less effective. It was like a slap in the face. I am his bridge.
Her eyes flew open. "Doctor!" She commanded, her voice strong and clear in her mind, "I am here. Come toward me. Come toward me now." She held out both her hands and took another step forward. The moon was entirely obstructed by the clouds now. The wind whipped around her, the rain completely blinding her.
When it became clear to her she could walk no further, she ordered "Doctor! I've come as far as I can. You need to meet me halfway." She stood strongly on both feet, dug her heels in. She stood tall though the rain tried to make her shrink and the wind tried to sway her.
And then she felt a hand grasp for hers and she captured it tightly between both of her own. I am his bridge.
She sat straight up in bed just as a strange wheezing, groaning sound begin to fill the motel room. She had fallen asleep with the light on and to her amazement, a large shape began to materialize in the corner opposite the bed. It was a tall blue box, roughly the shape of a telephone booth. She blinked. "Now just what the hell is this?"