A/N: Written for who_contest's Prompt: Companions. NOT my Usual Dark and Overly Thinky! (GASP!) Eleventy generally does that to me - and though this was 'thought' in his Voice, it would do for any Doctor methinks. Very little of The Angst but instead a little touch ofbittersweetness added in for flavor. Written in one go (sorry!) so do forgive any roughness to the piece. For all its faults, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer(s): I do not own the scrumptious Doctor or his lovely companions. That honor goes to the BBC and (for now) the fantastic S. Moffat. The only thing that belongs to me is this fiction - and I am making no profit. Only playing about!
The Companions.
The most important part of the journey ( if you asked the Doctor himself).
They led him to the furthest reaches, showed him the highest peaks, the lowest valleys - and the all the wondrous depths and lengths of the heart. The journey of discovery, of adventure always (always) came down to them and they were never far from his thoughts.
He held each of them dear and close, their memories always a fresh, bright burst of warmth within his soul. He missed them when they were gone - and yet always (secretly) looked forward to a new Companion a new ways of being.
A new way to see and feel and thrill and sorrow.
But there were those moments when he stopped to think about Those That Never Were.
The ones he just missed. The ones who drifted into the corner of your eye, but when you blinked they weren't there.
The ones he left behind without ever really knowing them at all.
Sometimes they became the most important.
They dreamed their Dreams.
They Saved their stars.
And he watched them from above and wondered if one day -
If one day...he would be one of Them.
(One of Him already was.)
He had been once (long, long ago).
He had been one of the ones left behind, dreaming his Dreams under an orange sky surrounded by the comforting constriction of his People.
Then he became a Companion to a beautiful creature locked in a Magic Box. And together, they found more beautiful creatures to share their joys, sorrows, love and pain.
Just as together they would find many more (so many) and maybe, maybe they could make things safer for Those That Never Were as they looked to the stars and dreamed.
So he watched for them… that flicker at the corner of his eye.
The girl tucking her hair behind her ear in a small café, smiling a sad smile as she contemplated her tea-cup.
The man who sat in the park and read a tattered notebook, eyes far away as he sat within his reality.
The ones who saw him (and his blue box of the bluest blue) without ever seeing them.
They were the Possibilities.
The Never Weres.
And even as he mourned those missed opportunities, those missed friendships, loves, laughter – he kept Them close to his hearts as well. Nestled against those shining souls that ran and fought and stayed with him, tucked safely in the confines of his ever-expanding memory.
Because they were just as important weren't they?
In the end, they were all Companions, interlinked in a vast Universe that spun ever on.
How indeed, could one ever be lonely?