Character Study - End of Time

Doctor/Master (friendship only)

***

For a moment it was as though we had never become enemies.

For just a moment, a heartbeat, we forgot.

For a moment as long as the heartbeat of a Time Lord.

One, two, three, four.

The drumbeat.

One, two, three, four.

Four beats and the spaces between.

Five words.

"Get out of the way."

Instinct took over, instinct of years of friendship; of knowing we could never kill each other.

Instinct telling me what was about to happen.

So without question I jumped aside.

I lay there as my friend stood up against Rassilon himself.

My friend. My other half. The other side of my coin.

Heads and tails.

I knew then I couldn't let him die. I had to do this alone, to take down the drumbeat. To save him one more time.

One, two, three, four.

It was all the motivation I needed. He stood there, staring defiantly at the man that had taken everything from him, from us. The man that had brought the drumbeat between us.

"Get out of the way."

It was not a command or a request. It was instinct, the instinct to survive, to fight.

And for the first time it wasn't about the drums. It was about him.

And he knew.

He had listened.

Just like old times.

And I watched as he embraced that fact and jumped out of the way.

"You did this to me!"

To us, you destroyed us.

One, two, three, four.

I didn't look back to see his face, the horror, the fear, the pride.

I'd done it.

But I couldn't bear to look back at the man that had saved me. It had taken me so long to understand that he respected me and always had. No matter what I had done he had been ready to forgive me, just like that.

I'd be honoured.

And he'd meant every word.

I wanted it. I wanted to turn and go back to him, to beg for forgiveness, to become the man I had once been. To save him from what I knew was coming. The link wasn't the prophecy, I wasn't the man.

Because when it came down to it, there was always someone that mattered more than me.

So I didn't stop.

One, two, three, four.

Until the drums stopped.

I saw the Time War. I saw the horror that he had endured. I wasn't afraid when they dragged me away from Rassilon, I wasn't afraid when I saw Gallifrey burning. I was sorry.

So many things changed in that moment.

I knew why he had destroyed our home. I would have done the same thing in his shoes.

I was sorry for what I'd done in the year that never was.

I was sorry for what I'd done to him.

Above me I saw a flash of blue, a box flying into space.

I could think only one thing as I came face to face with death.

Four words.

I'm sorry, good luck.

And the four I never had time for.

Thank you my Theta.