What happened next Grace found herself forever after at a loss to adequately describe.
The best she could do was to offer a few inadequate phrases, such as:  'like feeling
colors', or 'a language I couldn't understand', or 'it was as if a mind 
touched my mind, and for a moment we were in the same place, do you understand?'
   Had tentacles of some sort been involved?  Perhaps, though she could never say 
for sure.  She'd certainly had better things to focus on at the time, such as how to 
survive an assault of far more information than the human body and mind had ever 
been designed to take.
   Of course, at the time, she didn't know that rationally.  Something utterly different 
than her reached out and touched her.  She just experienced, and somehow, 
miraculously, endured.
   In retrospect, she assumed that the Doctor must have had something to do with 
that.  After all, he wasn't human; he must have been the key, the element that had 
helped them survive.  His muttered comment afterwards of "If it weren't for you two..." 
while shaking his head, must have been a joke.  Of course.
   At any rate, the entity known as Shamileth swept majestically up and out of its dark 
prison and flooded the entire population of the Isconian village and the three visitors 
with its instinctive joy in the few seconds before it swept up through the roof of the 
cavern.


Grace gradually returned to herself and rationality, and wept.
   "Nooo!" she wailed, grief-stricken, feeling as though her heart would break.  
"I-I understood what it was saying, but now it's gone!"
   The Doctor turned quickly from where he'd just finished administering psychic 
first aid to Brian and quickly grabbed Grace's head, turning her face to stare into 
his eyes.  If he didn't act in time as he had with Brian, her mind might snap under 
the shock of the separation.
   "Grace!" he shouted desperately, shaking her.  "Look at me!"  She blinked, and 
her glazed eyes regained their awareness, locking onto his.
   "It's gone," she said, tears leaking slowly out of her eyes, her face a mask of 
misery.  Her mouth twisted.  "I lost it..."
   "Grace!  Listen to me," he said.  "It's not gone - it's in you."
   Her eyes shifted instinctively up towards the cavern roof high above through 
which the entity had departed.
   "No!" he said, drawing her attention back to him.  "It's still in you, all you 
experienced, all you felt.  You haven't lost it."  She stared at him, calmer now.  
"Grace," he said, soothingly, "you've experienced something incredible.  You 
can't remember it all at once, but it's in here."  He smiled and gently tapped her 
forehead.  "It will return to you from time to time, a feeling here, a sensation 
there.  You haven't lost it - it will come back to you as you need it."
   Grace smiled hesitantly at him then, and he slumped slightly in relief, hugging 
her to him.  Glancing over to see how Brian was faring, he saw him watching 
them, and pulled him in, too.
   They sat like that for quite some time, oblivious to the stirrings of the Isconians 
around them.


Amazingly, the village of Isconians seemed to have sustained no fatalities from 
their encounter with the 'divine'.  Glancing around, the Doctor saw Baranac getting 
to his feet.  The Isconian looked around tranquilly at the recovering villagers, then 
noticed the Doctor and his friends and approached.
   The Isconian stood, looking down at the trio where they sat.
   The Doctor peered up at Baranac.  "Congratulations.  It's not every day you get 
to meet your god.  Though it didn't stay for very long."
   Baranac smiled, then suddenly glanced knowingly up through the ceiling of the 
cavern.  "Shamileth returns."
   The Doctor looked quickly up in concern, his pulses quickening.  "Oh, dear," 
he muttered.  "I wonder if this Shamileth understands the concept of 'too much of 
a good thing'.  We're not really designed to deal with that large an amount of raw 
input..."
   Baranac's body abruptly jerked as his eyes fluttered closed.  When they re-opened, 
they were glowing.  Grace and Brian gaped at the sight.  The Doctor was somewhat 
less impressed.
   "Greetings, 'Time-Walker'," Baranac said serenely.
   "Hello, 'Shamileth'," the Doctor replied calmly.  "Or do you have another name 
you prefer?"
   Baranac paused before answering.  "Shamileth is adequate."
   And names had power.  No matter.
   The Doctor glanced around momentarily.  The Isconians had formed into small 
groups, and were sitting quietly, apparently meditating.
   Baranac stood, expectantly regarding the Doctor, who found himself searching 
his memory for the proper protocol to use when chatting with a newly-awakened 
Old One...
   Oh, well - he'd never much been one for protocol.
   "What are you going to do, now that you've awakened?" he inquired politely.
   "Go to Disneyland..." someone blurted out behind them.
   Both the Doctor and Grace turned involuntarily to stare.
   "I can't believe I just said that!" Brian exclaimed, wincing.  "It-it just came 
out!"  He glanced gingerly at Baranac where the possessed Isconian stood, his 
head tilted and a curious expression on his face.
   The being suddenly locked eyes with Brian, who stared back, his face gone 
 slack.  Baranac abruptly nodded.  "Ah.  Exploration.  Discovery. 
Joy.  Yes."  He paused momentarily, then took on an air of amusement..  
"Was...Ill.  Too much Joy."
   Brian slumped, released, and blinked, shaking his head.  "You-you saw 
my memories," he muttered, astonished.  "From that time my parents took me 
and my brothers to Disneyland.  It was as if it was happening all over again..."
   "You will go out into the universe, meet your brethryn?" the Doctor asked.
   "Already met some," Shamileth informed them, through Baranac.  "I will 
travel, explore.  But I like here."  Baranac glanced around.  "It is...home."  
The possessed Isconian cocked his head mischeviously at the Doctor.  "Farewell, 
Time-Walker.  Until next time."
   Baranac's body twitched as his eyes rolled up in his head. He then slumped, 
but regained his balance before he could fall.  His eyes had returned to normal.
   The Doctor let out a little sigh of relief.  "Well, that went rather well.  
Considering."
   "Considering what?"
   "Well, Grace, it was an 'Old One'.  They aren't the most predictable of 
beings, you know."
   "So I hear."
   The Doctor blinked, then looked over at Baranac.  "Well, it looks as though 
you have got yourselves a resident god, after all.  Good luck!"
   Baranac merely smiled back contentedly.  "Farewell."  He turned away to 
rejoin his people.


The three travelers emerged from the cave into the early pre-dawn chill.  In the 
east, the gray horizon was tinged with yellow.
   "Come on," the Doctor told his companions.  "The TARDIS is this way."  He 
led them unerringly over the wooded hillside to where his blue Time Ship stood 
covered with Isconian dew, unlocked the door, and led his friends inside.


"Doctor?" Grace asked quietly, as the Time Capsule made its noisy way through 
the Vortex back towards Earth.
   He looked up.  "Yes?"
   "Was it really the Master being thrown down into that pit that awoke 'Shamileth'?"
   "Well, he did say that he thought a Time Lord mind would shock it awake, so 
yes, that may be what happened.  Of course, I can't say for sure."
   "Does that mean he'd become a part of it, at the end?"
   The Doctor looked momentarily thoughtful, and a bit grave.  "I don't know.  
Perhaps..."  He looked at her curiously.  "Why do you ask?"
   She smiled slightly.  "Well, if that were the case...then I suppose you could say 
that he was the cause of something beautiful, there at the end.  Even if only by 
accident."
   She turned away.  He watched her go, then looked down sadly.


February 14, 2000.  7:12 A.M.  Lafeyette Park, San Francisco.


Doctor Grace Holloway and Brian Dempster stepped out of a pocket dimension 
and back into their own time and space to find themselves facing a beautiful clear 
late winter morning.
   Their alien friend joined them a moment later.  They had landed back in the park 
across from Grace's condo.
   "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Grace asked Brian lightly.  
"Goodness knows the Doctor owes both of us a quick trip to somewhere nice.  
It'll only be a short visit..."
   He looked back at her intently, as if searching for some deeper message behind 
the words.  A few moments later he smiled wanly.  "Thanks, but I've had enough 
traveling for a while."  He hesitated, then stepped forward and gave Grace a quick 
embrace.  "I'm glad I was able to see you again.  Even if the, ah, circumstances 
were really strange."
   She smiled.  "Yeah...me, too.  Thanks.  For everything."
   The Doctor, smiling warmly, stepped forward to clasp Brian's hand in a firm 
handshake.  "To say 'thank you' might be redundant, but...Thank you."
   Brian smiled and shrugged somewhat self-consciously.
   The Time Lord suddenly leaned conspiratively forward to mutter in Brian's ear.  
"I shouldn't worry too much," he whispered.  "The answer will be 'yes'."  He 
released Brian's hand and moved away.
   Brian blinked, unnerved, trying to make sense of what he'd just heard.  "What-?"  
He stopped, and shook his head several times.  "Never mind.  I'll just, ah...wait, 
and find out on my own."
   The Doctor beamed, and Grace shot him an odd look before she and the Time 
Lord stepped back within the blue box and the doors swung shut.  Fascinated, 
Brian stared as the shape shimmered away, to the accompaniment of the most 
God-awful grinding racket he'd ever heard.
   When the 'police box' was gone, he walked slowly forward, arms cautiously 
out-stretched, to where it had been standing.  Nothing.  It had truly vanished.
   Squaring his shoulders, he turned and started resolutely off across the 
lightly-frosted park grass.


Half-way across the park, Brian saw an early-morning jogger.  "Hey!" he shouted 
at him as he huffed by.  "What's the date today?"
   The fellow gave him an amused glance, as if assuming that Brian had obviously 
had much too much fun the night before, to be so discombobulated.  "February the 
fourteenth - Valentine's day.  You need to know the year, too?"
   "It's still Two-thousand, right?"
   "Yeah.  Right," the jogger replied with a smirk, as he ran off.
   Brian breathed a big sigh of relief and, grinning, stuck his hands in his jacket 
pockets to protect them from the chill morning air, before continued briskly on 
his way.
   A minute later, all of what the jogger had said registered fully.
   Several squirrels out uncovering the seed caches they'd hid during the fall looked 
up, startled, as the lone human passing by stopped momentarily and let out a bark 
of a laugh, before continuing on his way, shaking his head with rueful amusement.






The End.  Or should I say, the Beginning...?





I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested

I'd like to think that if I was I would pass...

          --The Mighty Mighty Bosstones--




FanFic ||