Then Sleep the Season by Cherry Ice (G)

[netgirl-y2k.livejournal.com]

Fandom: DOCTOR WHO
Pairing: None
Author on LJ: cherryice
Author Website: Cherry Bombs
Why this must be read:

This rather marvellous AU fic features Romana as the last of the Time Lords, coping with being the last of her race and her part in the Time War while living in a TARDIS that was never really hers. Mickey makes a rather smashing appearance as her companion.

I'm not usually a great lover of AU fic but like all the best examples of the genre this keeps aspects of the source material, particularly of note are the canon references and the Time Lord/Companion relationship between Romana and Mickey, while creating a believable universe of its own.


This is not her home.

When Romana thinks 'home' she does not think of these walls, the thrum of these engines. Once she would have thought of Gallifrey, of the white, maze-like corridors of the Academy and the tapestries she hung in her rooms. Once, maybe, she would have thought of E-Space and the scent of the herbs the Tharil used in all their cooking.

Now when she thinks of Gallifrey, she thinks of the weight of a mantle upon her shoulders, of the crack of thunder and a young man staring blankly at the sky. She thinks of E-Space with fondness and a smidge of fancy.

The Doctor is everywhere in the TARDIS. She still finds post-it notes on the walls, random messages to himself scribbled in Gallifreyan and faded with time. There's a book lying face down in the library, half-read. It's some lurid Benarian romance, the only volume out of place, and she hasn't been able to bring herself to shelve it.

The TARDIS is not her home, and she is more a stranger here than she has ever been.


Then Sleep the Season