Okay, so this is based off the Time Child series by Danni Fielding. If you haven't read that, then you probably won't understand this, but feel free to read this if you want. You only really have to read the first chapter of the Time Child to know what's going on, but it would probably help to have read at least the first two Time Child stories. Go check them out. Danni Fielding is awesome.
Anyway, I wrote this at 5am (holy cow, I'm gonna be knackered tomorrow) and I haven't edited this so I apologise. The idea struck me when I was trying and failing to go to sleep to please be kind!
It starts off halfway through the first chapter, by the way (if you haven't read it, then it'll be confusing).
Anyway, enjoy!
"Bring back some lemonade with you, I can't find any anywhere." The blonde woman in her pyjamas yelled back to her friend, her head stuck in the small pantry attached to her kitchen. She grinned as the red headed woman in the lounge room responded.
"Will do." Claire heard some giggles before a loud grunt and groan startled her, and before she made it back to the living room, a flash of light reached her.
"Danni?" Claire's messy head of hair peered into the lounge, and she frowned, not seeing her best friend anywhere. The short woman stepped in, spotting the abandoned box on the floor with the manual beside it. "Danni, where are you?" She called out, and no response came.
Claire frowned, unable to stop her heart from beating so quickly, and she stepped towards the box and manual, picking it up as she called out again, "Danni, come on out now."
Had she heard the front door open and shut?
Claire's heart was beating, hard, and she rushed to the front door, her mind racing, wondering if Danni had run out, wondering what might have made her do so and where she had gone. She yanked it open, and glanced up and down the street-
And still no sign of the red headed woman she called her best friend.
She shut the door, and turned, only to yell in shock and terror as she saw the wrinkled face of something she had only ever seen on television.
"Oh my god." She whispered, her mouth open in shock. The empty eyes stared into hers, and she reached back for the door, turning to open it, saying as she did so, "Danielle Fielding, this had better be-" she stopped.
Why had she been so afraid again?
She had better call the police soon if Danni didn't turn up. What if someone had kidnapped Danni?
What if someone was there to kidnap her too?
Claire turned back around, wondering why her heart was racing in fear when she saw her empty corridor, and she walked towards where she had left her mobile phone in the kitchen.
"Claire Watson, a pleasure to meet you." A whispery voice said behind her, and Claire turned.
"Who the bloody hell, oh my god, the silent." She gasped as she remembered seeing the silent before, in her hallway. "But, What, how, I don't understand! You don't exist. You're just on the telly!" She exclaimed, one hand to her chest and the other pointing at the Silent stood in front of her. How had she forgotten seeing it? She hadn't forgotten about them on the telly, why had she forgotten them here?
"Claire Watson, friend of the Time Child." It said.
"What do you mean?" Claire asked, her voice quiet and shaking. She had never had as much courage as Danni had. Danni wouldn't have been cowering away from it, no matter what. Danni would have told it to bugger off and bother someone else. Danni wouldn't have been terrified by the too-realistic costume and makeup design.
"You will never see Danielle Fielding again." It said, and it took a step towards her.
Claire felt wetness on her cheeks, and she numbly realised that she was crying. "What do you mean? How do you exist? Oh, Danni where are you?" She cried, and the Silent tilted its head at her.
"We exist in every universe. Your memory is just too weak to remember us." It told her, and Claire froze.
"But I remember you on Doctor Who!" She exclaimed.
"That is because they are Silents from another universe. You will remember Silents from other universes. You will not remember Silents from your own universe." It told her. Claire's hands were shaking, and she kept backing up, trying to think clearly, because this couldn't be any ordinary prank, because Danni wouldn't do something like this - and how had she completely forgotten seeing it in the hallway? And where had Danni gone?
"What have you done with Danni?" Claire demanded, and the Silent crept closer.
"Danni is the Time Child. She will do as she must for the Silence. Silence will fall." It tilted its head back the other way, it's eyes simply boring into Claire, seemingly trying to pin her in place and stop her retreating movement.
"Where did she go?"
"She is with the Doctor. She will travel with the Doctor. And she will help kill the Doctor."
"You-you mean...you mean she's in the telly now?" Claire stuttered, and the Silent didn't respond.
"Claire Watson, you will forget Danielle Fielding. You will forget you ever knew the Time Child. You will only remember that she existed on a TV show called Doctor Who. She never existed in this universe. You never met Danielle Fielding." The Silent said, and Claire started mumbling.
"No, no, no don't make me forget her. Please please, no not Danni. Not Danni. Please." She started sobbing loudly, the sound torn from her throat at the thought of her best friend being ripped away from her, and the thought of never remembering her existence. What if Danni came back and she had no one here? What if Danni came back and Claire didn't remember her? What if Danni came back and no one remembered her?
"You will not remember Danielle Fielding as she existed in this universe."
Claire put her head in her hands, stupidly forgetting that losing sight of the Silent meant forgetting its existence, and she put her hands to her cheeks only to realise her hands were shaking and her cheeks were covered in tear tracks. Hastily, confusedly, she wiped them away, and tried desperately to remember what she had been doing to make her cry so hard.
Claire Watson walked into the living room and picked up the empty toy vortex manipulator box, wondering why she felt like bursting into tears when she say it, and she stared at it long and hard as she tried to remember why she had it, before she threw it away. She put it off as some prank thrown by her neighbours and went to the kitchen to call her boyfriend, asking him to come over so they could watch TV.
Later that day, after Claire had fixed the blonde mop on top of her head and changed into something more appropriate - after staring for a good ten minutes at the silver necklace she couldn't remember receiving or putting on -, she opened the front door to Jake, her long-term boyfriend. They grinned at each other and hugged tightly and made out a bit on the porch, and Claire got an odd sense of deja vu, although she couldn't imagine why. She hadn't even opened the door all day, why on Earth was she feeling so upset?
After exchanging gifts, Claire having gotten Jake a sonic screwdriver and Jake having gotten her a silver bracelet to match her necklace - although neither of them recalled whether he had gotten her the necklace -, the couple settled onto the sofa to watch old Christmas reruns of their favourite TV shows; Doctor Who, and the Time Child.
As Claire's favourite episode of the Time Child came to an end - it was in the middle of the second season, when Danni had just left the Valiant and appeared with the Eleventh Doctor, who ignored her until the end of the episode, when she yelled at him, and the episode ended with her saying, 'tell me what to do' -, Jake turned to Claire, and he raised a gentle hand to her cheek. She turned to him in confusion, and his thumb gently caressed her cheek. When he pulled his hand away, she realised that his thumb was wet from tears. Shocked, she raised her hands to her cheeks.
"I-I don't know what's wrong with me today. I keep crying over nothing." She admitted, grabbing a tissue, and Jake just reassured her.
"It's okay, it's something everyone does. I must admit, though, something doesn't feel right. There's something almost..." Jake paused, but Claire knew what to say.
"There's something missing." She whispered, and they stared at each other, neither realising at the red headed woman on screen seemingly turned to the camera and shed a tear from her lost friends and family.
Neither Jake nor Claire would remember Danielle Fielding. Nor would Danni's university when they came back from Christmas break. In fact, the Silence were so thorough that they even erased data banks of all signs of Danielle Fielding. None of Danni's classmates would ever notice she was gone, and she hadn't been quiet in class. Her friends would never realise that they had lost someone.
And Mr. And Mrs. Fielding would always wonder why, from that day forwards, they felt a unbearable sadness weigh them down, as though they had lost someone incredibly close to them, even though, to their knowledge, they had never had a child and both their parents had died years ago.
Not a soul in that universe would recall who they were missing, but more than a few would miss the Child of Time, the wife of the Doctor, the Truest of His Companions, Danielle Fielding.
