"What happened to my wife? Where is she, what is going on?" Foreman cried out. In his hands was a box of pastry, presumably containing the creme brulee he had been sent out to get.

"What happened to Brook?" he asked again. "I don't see her anywhere...wait."

The Doctor and Clara spun around to see Foreman standing there, staring right over at them. He set the box down on a table and then walked over to the two standing around the new Brook. He was expecting to see his wife lying unconscious on the ground.

Of course, she was indeed lying on the ground unconscious. But she didn't look like herself at all, which was what ended up throwing him off.

The Doctor very nearly put a hand to his forehead in exasperation. He had completely forgotten about Foreman in all of the rush - Brook's brand new husband! He could just imagine all of the explanations he had to give out, and to someone who was one of the most important people in her life.

Foreman looked down at the newly regenerated Brook with her dark hair streaming out across the floor.

"That's not my wife," Foreman said, standing there numbly. "Where is my wife, and who is this woman who's here instead? What the Hell happened while I was gone? I wasn't gone for that long, was I?"

"I'm sorry, Foreman," the Doctor said. He started moving over towards Foreman, but he stepped away.

"Sorry about what?" Foreman replied, swallowing as he stared over towards the Doctor and Clara.

"Where is my wife? Where is my Brook?"

"That is your Brook," Clara said, pressing her eyelids together. "I'm sorry."

Foreman took a step closer to the unconscious Brook. She could have very well been anyone to him. Nevertheless, he was too smart to fall for that. All the puzzle pieces began to fall into place. He was a Time Lord, after all. After staring at her for several silent minutes, he moved his hand to fit on top of hers.

"She regenerated, didn't she?" Foreman asked, his voice hushed. "That's who this woman on the floor is. That's her...my Brook." His voice cracked at his spoke, causing him to immediately snap up and step away from her. Being so close to her wasn't helping his emotions at all.

The Doctor just nodded as he glanced over. Foreman circled around her, then crouched down to her level so that he could be close to her again. The thought of this dark haired petite woman being Brook was just beginning to come together in his mind. What he truly needed at the moment was to just be alone with her.

Of course, this was very difficult to do with Clara and the Doctor hovering over his shoulder constantly. But Foreman was going to attempt to make the best of this situation. He racked his mind for anything that might be able to help.

First things first - he had to be able to accept this new woman as his same Brook. Without her voice or her actions, let alone her words, it was quite a struggle for him to see this fully. If her eyes had been open, he could have seen the spark that he had fallen for years ago. All he had in front of him was this unconscious woman and the word of two people he considered trustworthy that she was Brook Foreman.

He ran his fingers through her hair gently, forcing his breathing to stay stable. Foreman was somewhat tempted to whisper into her ear, as if he were going to ask her about what had occurred. But it was obvious that he would recieve no response, so instead he buried another hand into her dark locks.

Foreman continued to stare down at her, letting the idea sink into his mind. He was a Time Lord, he had experienced others going through regenerations before. After all, he had even regenerated one himself.

But this was under such different circumstances...he didn't know how to take it on the inside. Absorbing it was such a hard concept for him at the moment. This woman was Brook, she had to be Brook, she was the same Brook he had always known.

Finally, Foreman hit the point he had been aiming for. He succeeded in convincing himself to see her as Brook. Although it was still going to take quite a lot of getting used to, his mind broke through and he could accept the reality of the situation.

Foreman removed his hands from her hair and raised himself back on his feet. After backing a few steps away, he decided to speak to the Doctor and Clara once again. His eyes fixed on Brook's motionless body sprawled out on the floor, he said, "Doctor, is she okay?"

The Doctor took a moment to think through this. Although he opened his mouth to speak almost immediately, he had a slight hesitation before he said, "Oh, she'll be fine. But she probably won't be able to get up for at least three days. More likely a week."

"A week," Foreman repeated, his voice almost emotionless.

"Yes, a week."

"Well, it looks like our honeymoon is going to have to wait, then," Foreman said, trying to place a smile onto his lips. It was meant to be lighthearted statement but the man was obviously rather torn up about the whole ordeal. He looked down at Brook in disdain, wishing that he had a way to wake her once again. For the moment, he felt completely powerless.

"She just looks so different," Foreman began as he stepped over towards his wife once again. "I've seen regenerations before but it never mattered to me all that much. Not until now. Just look at her. She seems so frail that she might just snap in half like a twig if you move her."

"Well, she did just regenerate." The Doctor glanced over towards Clara after saying this, both of them sharing a knowing look. The man in front of them had missed so much of the true story.

"Twice," Clara added in.

"Twice?" Foreman repeated, biting his lip slightly. "Is that really what happened? No wonder she passed out. But still...the Brook I knew was always strong no matter what she was doing."

"From what we've seen, I'm sure that's true," Clara replied, nodding her head comfortingly. "She is a very strong girl."

"She is," Foreman said absentmindedly. As Clara had been speaking, his mind drifted away to other subjects that he felt were important. "Speaking of what she was doing...what happened to her? Why did she regenerate?"

The Doctor hesitated, not sure how he could explain all that had happened. This had been a dilemna in his mind from the very beginning of Foreman's appearence - how could he give a good retelling of the past events without hurting the man even further?

Luckily, Clara was willing to take the initiative and explain. She took a deep stabilising breath and began her explanation of the events that Foreman had missed in his mission to get crème brûlée for Brook. It was a long story, but Clara had decided to take the next step and continue moving forwards.

"Brook sort of snapped after you left," she said. "She threatened the Doctr and I to try and get information, but then she ended up shooting herself. Brook wanted to know if she was enough like a Time Lord to regenerate."

Clara hoped she was saying the right things, her fingers crossed behind ber back. Being that Foreman was quiet and listening intently, she continued.

"Something...happened after she regenerated...I don't really understand it, but it was like she was halfway regenerating. She can explain it to you whenever she wakes up. It was very bad for her, so I stopped that. Then she regenerated properly into the Brook you see in front of you."

Foreman didn't respond at first, just nodding as he stared at Brook. Things were starting to come together in his head. As much as it hurt for him, this did sound like something that she would do.

"A whole week, you think?" he finally said.

"Yes," the Doctor confirmed. "If she wakes up much earlier it could be dangerous. Keep her resting even if she does wake up, you don't want her to hurt herself."

"No, I don't," Foreman murmured. He then proceeded to pick Brook up very carefully, almost as if she was a newborn baby. Every move was careful and gentle, calculated in order to prevent her from being harmed in any way.

Foreman had meant what he had said when he spoke of how fragile she looked in her new form. Perhaps it was just that she was unconscious and incapable of holding herself at all, but Foreman didn't care for the reason. He just wanted to have his wife Brook safe and sound, and he intended to go through with this no matter what.

"All I can say is this is not how I imagined I'd be carrying her after we were married."

With Brook draped in Foreman's arms, it did look awfully similar to how grooms would carry around their new bride. The main difference was the bride was completely unconscious and wearing normal clothing.

Foreman, on the other hand, still kept on everything from the wedding all the way up to the bowtie. It was an odd scene at a glance, and knowing the story behind it made it more sad than anything else.

"Foreman," the Doctor said, stepping forwards to speak to his daughter's husband. "I want to apologize for what happened. It's kind of my fault. Well, it's complicated." He was beginning to babble, but Foreman cut him off before he could go much further.

"But isn't everything about Brook just that, complicated? I should know, I've lived with her for several years now."

Foreman shifted his weight, adjusting Brook so that he could hold her more securely. All the while he ran his eyes over Brook's facial features over and over again. It seemed like he was trying to get used to her new face quickly by just staring at it as much as he possibly could.

But the Doctor knew that as soon as she woke up there might be other changes that would affect Foreman even more. She was still Brook Song on the inside, but who knows what might have changed in her personality?

All of these worries were getting the Doctor down, so he decided to just push them aside. "I hope you and Brook are very happy together," he finally said.

"We will be," Foreman responded, nodding as he shifted her around in his arms again. "As soon as she wakes up, that is."

There was a still moment in the room, with no one quite sure what to say. Perhaps there was not enough left to be said about the current situation at hand. Enough tears had been shed for a good amount of time, many things had been resolved between them all.

Foreman decided that it would be best to say his farewells to the time travelers, His arms were getting a bit tired from holding Brook, after all, but he felt obligated to be polite towards the Doctor and Clara before catering to his own needs.

"Clara, Doctor. Thank you," he thanked, the corners of his lips turning uo vaguely. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that, and I wish I had been here to help. I'm going to go put Brook somewherewhere she can be more comfortable now. Thank you, again." He nodded to them and then proceeded to walk away slowly, her weight causing his steps to be heavier.

Clara blinked a few times as she processed the matter, and then promptly yelled out, "Goodbye!" After a moment where she watched Foreman carry Brook away, she turned around to the Doctor and said, "We are leaving now, right?"

Adrenaline still coursed through the Doctor from the previous situations, causing his to bounce around slightly as he nodded in response. Even though he had gotten everything pretty much sorted out in his head, it didn't change the fact that what had just happened had been so dramatic for everyone.

"Let's go," he said, rubbing his hands together. The trip back to the TARDIS and the first few moments inside were spent in almost total silence.

Then Clara piped up, her voice like a bird's chirp in the early morning. "Doctor, couldn't you go in a different point in Brook's life and fix this? You know, prevent this sort of thing from happening."

"That's not how it works, Clara," the Doctor sighed. He hadn't been anticipating this, but now that he was being questioned on it he had to give his honest answers. "You heard what she said. The TARDIS always brings me to her when she needs me."

"But think of all the pain you could have her avoid," she urged. Clara just didn't really understand what about the situation made this so potentially dangerous. "Doctor, why are you acting like this? It's your daughter we're talking about here!"

"She's a time traveler. This is probably fixed, a fixed point in time just like she said," the Doctor explained. "We can't mess around with her past and try to change her. It could seriously mess something up."

Clara nodded a few times, giving the Doctor a cue to continue speaking.

"Besides, this Brook would no longer exist, if you know what I mean. Even if she wouldn't have to suffer, she would be a different person. Having a different past would have shaped her into a completely different person. I'm not sure you want that."

"I never really thought about it like that..." Clara said, the cogs in her head turning. It was such an odd thought to her: a person she knew would no longer truly exist because of changing their past. All sorts of things in Brook's life could have been completely different had the Doctor gone back and interfered.

Clara was troubled by these sorts of thoughts, with all of their ethics and unanswerable questions. Would it be better to prevent all the terrible things from happening to Brook, or to let her go on as she was? That was certainly something she would never had had to think about before she had met the Doctor. Yet she wasn't so sure that it was necessarily a bad thing.

The Doctor began to pilot the TARDIS before Clara mentioned anything else that could get him off track.

"Now!" he said. "Off to Artang. For real this time, I promise. Well, I can't promise one hundred percent or anything like that, but we're going to make it there eventually. I can promise you that."

Now that they were in the TARDIS alone, there was something Clara had been wanting to ask. She allowed several moments and bit of thinking to make a period of time from her last topic to this new one. Then she decided she might as well go for it.

"Doctor, when you leaned over and whispered into Brook's ear, what did you tell her?" Clara had a feeling that the Doctor wouldn't tell her a thing but there was no harm in trying to pry some information out of him. She never knew just what she could get.

This caught the Doctor's attention, snapping him out of his usual preoccupation of flying the TARDIS. He opened his mouth to say something, hesitated for a second and then smiled. He deliberated for a moment, and then replied.

"Plankton."

"Plankton?"

Clara thought she must have heard his words incorrectly or something like that. But, of course, she had no clue what he really would have been saying.

"Yes, plankton," the Doctor confirmed.

"But what has that got to do with anythi-" Clara was cut off by the Doctor's response.

"It's a long story. A long story that I might just get around to telling you one day, but, then again, maybe not."

"Hm." Clara shook her head after a brief thought. "No, I want a guarantee. I want a guarantee that I either will hear this entire story or will not hear it. At all."

The Doctor allowed himself to ponder over this before responding. He wasn't sure just how this could end up harming time streams or how twisted things could get.

"One day. One day, I promise, I will tell you. But it might be a while."

Clara just shook her head, sending her ponytail flying back and forht. Sometimes the Doctor could just be impossible to figure out. Then again, that was one of the most entertaining things about him.

"But...plankton!" She took an exaggerated sigh. "That could not have been what you told her!"

"No, Clara. I told her plankton, I swear upon it. And now, I am telling you plankton." He pointed at her and she felt her lips subconsciously curl into a smile.

"This is never really going to make sense. I can tell."

"You'd be surprised."

"Well, being that you're an alien that flies around in a magic police box, I might just have to take your word for it."

"You will." Clara nodded, and began to turn away. But then she turned back around - she was not done with the topic just yet.

"But seriously, plankton?"

"Clara, I thought we just had this discussion." He was trying to be somewhat serious, but he couldn't help but have a smile stretch across his face.

She just smiled and continued. "We are going to see Brook again, yeah?"

"As long as she as she wasn't completely lying to us, yes. I don't believe she was lying to us, anyways. But for now, we're heading off to Artang."

"And when we see Brook, will she be younger or older or...?"

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "We'll just have to wait and see."

"Well. I thought since we were time travelers we could avoid that. Waiting."

"Sometimes there are things you just can't avoid," said the Doctor. Even though he was talking to Clara, the thought of Brook resonated within his mind. He knew that she couldn't avoid her future. There was nothing he could do but for wait for her to let it happen.

One day, he would have to say goodbye to his daughter. But for now he had the rest of her life to see, a girl to raise and teach. He would have plenty of opportunities to see his Brook, even if they were numbered.

"Oh, plankton," he murmured. "Tiny little plankton."

A/N And I finished...more on that on the upcoming author's note.