I Remember || Tenth Doctor ||
A/n: The urge to write for him is very real
The first time you met him, you spilled coffee on his shoes.
It happened at a little café tucked between a bookstore and a flower shop in London. You were on vacation from the States, trying to make the most of your last day in the city before flying home.
You came out of the café carrying two drinks and immediately collided with a man in a brown pinstripe suit.
Coffee splashed everywhere.
“Oh my God!” you gasped. “I’m so sorry!”
The man looked down at his ruined Converse.Then he looked at you.Then, to your complete confusion, he smiled.
“Oh!” he said again, brighter this time. “Right! You’re here.”
You blinked. “I… yes? I’ve been here all week.”
He stared at you like you’d just solved a puzzle, then he grinned. “Brilliant.”
“You don’t seem upset about the coffee.”
You eyed him carefully. “You might be the weirdest British person I’ve met.”
He looked delighted by that. “Thank you!”
Before you could ask his name, Big Ben chimed in the distance.
The man suddenly froze.His expression changed completely. “What time is it?”
You glanced at your watch. “Ten-thirteen.”
Without another word, he turned and sprinted down the street.
You stared after him. “Okay then.”
The next morning, you woke up.You checked your phone.
You could have sworn yesterday had been July 18th too.
You shrugged it off, lack of sleep, different time zone...Probably.
You got dressed, left your hotel, and walked to the same little café.
And then, you spilled coffee on the same man’s shoes.
He looked down, then to you then he let out a soft sigh. “Oh, not again.”
“You spilled coffee on me yesterday too.”
You slowly lowered your cup. “Yesterday?”
He blinked then his eyes widened. “Oh.”
He grabbed your shoulders. “You remember yesterday.”
He looked genuinely stunned. “Oh, that’s impossible.”
He was grinning now. “Oh, this is brilliant.”
“No, it isn’t! How do you know me?!”
“You’re acting like we’ve met before!”
You looked at your phone.
Slowly, you looked back up at him.
“…Why is it July 18th again?”
The Doctor’s smile vanished. “Right.”
Three loops later, you were sitting on a bench in Hyde Park trying not to have a nervous breakdown.
“So let me get this straight,” you said. “Time is broken.”
“The day keeps repeating.”
You stared at him as he offered you a packet of crisps.
You took them. “How are you this calm?”
He thought about it. “Practice.”
“I’ve had a lot of weird days.”
“You say that like this isn’t horrifying.”
“It is a bit horrifying.”
The Doctor looked sheepish. “Fairly horrifying.”
You groaned and buried your face in your hands.
A few moments later, he gently nudged your shoulder.
You sighed then looked at him. “Why am I remembering the loops?”
And despite yourself, you laughed.
Loop seven found the two of you eating fish and chips by the Thames.
Loop eleven involved accidentally stealing a police horse.
Loop sixteen ended with both of you hiding under a museum exhibit because the Doctor had somehow offended a time-sensitive alien.
At some point, you stopped panicking.
At some point, spending every repeated day with a strange British alien became… fun.
You learned he hated pears.
You learned he talked with his hands.
You learned he got this distant look in his eyes sometimes, as though he carried the weight of entire galaxies.
You also learned he was incredibly lonely.
By loop twenty-two, the two of you were sitting on the grass in a park watching the sunset.
“You know,” you said softly, “this is technically the weirdest date I’ve ever been on.”
The Doctor nearly choked. “This is a date?”
You smiled. “I mean… we’re spending every day together.”
He looked suddenly flustered. “Oh.”
“And we held hands while running from that weird tentacle thing.”
“You think this is a date?”
You looked at him. “Don’t you?”
To your surprise, he didn’t answer immediately.Instead, he looked out at the sunset.
A small smile tugged at his lips.
“I think…” he said quietly, “I wouldn’t mind if it was.”
Neither of you looked at each other after that.
Loop thirty-one was when everything went wrong.
The sky cracked. Golden light spread across the clouds.
The Doctor’s face went white. “Oh.”
You immediately sat up. “What?”
“No.” He looked at you and for the first time since you’d met him, he looked afraid. “When this resets… you’ll forget.”
“You shouldn’t remember any of this.”
The Doctor looked devastated. “You’ll wake up tomorrow and it’ll really be July nineteenth.”
“No!” You stood. “There has to be a way!”
"You don’t know that!" You protested.
“You can’t know everything!”
He looked at you sadly. “No. But I know this.”
Silence settled between you.
You swallowed hard. “So… this is it?”
He didn’t answer but that was answer enough.
You laughed shakily. “Wow. Worst date ever.”
He smiled sadly. “Bit rubbish, yeah.”
Tears stung your eyes, and then, very quietly, you asked. “Will I ever see you again?”
The Doctor looked at you for a long moment.Then he stepped forward and gently took your hand.
The sky shattered completely.
For some reason, you felt strangely sad.Like you’d lost something important.
You checked out of your hotel and headed toward the airport.
As you passed a little café, someone crashed into you.
Coffee splashed onto a pair of Converse.
A man in a pinstripe suit stared at you.
And an expression of complete astonishment.
You blinked. “…Do I know you?”
For a moment, he looked heartbroken then he smiled. A soft, hopeful smile.“No,” he said gently. “But I was hoping we could change that.”
The question came on a rainy afternoon, years later from what you'd end up looking fondly on.
The TARDIS was parked somewhere along the coast of Wales, the doors wide open to let in the smell of salt and rain. The console room was warm and golden, humming softly as though it, too, enjoyed lazy family days.
Your youngest daughter sat cross-legged on the grating floor, crayons scattered around her. Your son was hanging upside down from one of the railings because apparently inheriting a Time Lord’s curiosity also meant inheriting a complete disregard for gravity.
You were curled on the sofa that had somehow appeared in the TARDIS years ago, a blanket over your legs and a book in your hands.
The Doctor was tinkering underneath the console.
There was a loud clang, followed by a loud. “Ow.”
“You’ve been saying ‘ow’ for twenty years,” you called.
“And every time I’m surprised by it!”
“You hit your head on the same panel yesterday.”
“It’s a very aggressive panel.”
Your daughter looked up from her drawing, eyes wide. "Mummy?"
“How did you and Daddy meet?”
The Doctor’s head immediately popped out from beneath the console. “Oh! I know this one.”
You smiled. “I’m fairly certain I was there too.”
He ignored you entirely and climbed to his feet, straightening his tie with all the seriousness of a man about to recount a legendary tale.
He sat down beside the children. “I took your mother on thirty-one fantastic dates.”
You nearly choked on your tea.
Across from you, your son gasped.
“Thirty-one,” the Doctor confirmed proudly.
You lowered your book. “I wouldn’t really call those dates.”
The Doctor looked offended. “They absolutely were.”
“We were trapped in a time loop.”
“One of them involved running from an alien squid.”
“A very romantic alien squid.”
The Doctor pointed triumphantly. “See? She gets it.”
You laughed and set your book aside. “Your father and I met in London.”
“After she spilled coffee on my shoes.”
“Best accident of my life.”
You smiled despite yourself.
Your son frowned thoughtfully. “What’s a time loop?”
The Doctor lit up. He adored explaining things.
“Oh! Right! Imagine it’s your birthday.”
“And then tomorrow you wake up and it’s your birthday again.”
The little boy’s eyes widened. “Two birthdays?”
“And then the next day it’s your birthday again.”
The child looked completely awestruck. “That’s amazing.”
You snorted. “No, sweetheart. By day fifteen, we were both losing our minds.”
“We stole a police horse.”
“We accidentally stole a police horse.”
Your daughter tilted her head. “So you went on thirty-one dates because time broke?”
“Essentially, yes,” you said.
She considered this. “Then when did you fall in love?”
The children looked between the two of you expectantly.
Your husband recovered first. “Oh.”
A smile slowly spread across your face. “I don’t actually know.”
The Doctor smiled softly. “I think I do.”
He leaned back against the sofa. “It was loop twenty-two.”
You laughed. “You remember the number?”
“What happened on loop twenty-two?” your son asked.
The Doctor’s expression became almost dreamy as his hand reached out to grab yours. “We watched a sunset.”
“That’s it?” your daughter asked.
The children looked deeply unimpressed.
“No explosions?” your son asked.
The children exchanged confused looks. “That sounds boring.”
The Doctor looked scandalized. “It was not boring! It was lovely.”
“What happened?” your daughter pressed.
He looked at you. “You called it a date.”
You felt your cheeks warm even after all these years. “Oh.”
“I’d never thought of it that way.”
“You looked completely horrified.”
“You nearly choked on your chips.”
The children burst into laughter.
The Doctor huffed then his expression softened looking at you. “And then she smiled at me and I thought… if I could have one more day, and another after that, and another after that… I wouldn’t mind.”
The room grew quiet again.
Your daughter sighed dramatically. “That’s cute.”
Your son made a face. “Ew.”
The Doctor looked personally offended. “It is not ‘ew.’ It’s romantic.”
“It’s not even kissing stuff!”
“It feels like kissing stuff.”
You laughed so hard you nearly spilled your tea.
The Doctor looked at you helplessly. “You see what I deal with?”
Your daughter climbed onto the sofa and curled against your side. “So if you got thirty-one dates…” she said thoughtfully, “does that mean Daddy loved you thirty-one times?”
The Doctor went very still.
You looked down at her then back towards your husband.
He looked suspiciously emotional, finally he smiled down at her. “No, sweetheart.”
He squeezed your hand gently. “I loved your mummy the same way every single day.”
You felt your heart melt. “And after the time loop ended?”
His eyes found yours.The same warm, wonderful eyes you’d fallen in love with all those years ago.“Then I got very lucky,” he said softly, “because she decided to fall in love with me all over again.”
There was a long, happy silence.
Then your son wrinkled his nose. “Okay, but did you kiss in the time loop?”
The Doctor nearly choked.
And your daughter, entirely unhelpful, leaned forward eagerly.
