-1Authors Note: Oh, ok. So I lied about my other story. Just a little. Not every week… (Speaking about Can You Hear Them Doctor, of course.) I've got terms papers and band stuff and college applications to worry about. So yea. That'll be updated when I get around to it. (I've written like… 4 different versions of chapter 6 already…)

But now about this one. I doubt anyone would have heard of the song 'Song of Lir'. It's a concert band piece, and me being a band student and all, I found its back story sort of enchanting. It's the standard legend stuff… queen dies, king remarries, the children didn't like the new queen and she curses them. But I still liked it. I mean, she turned the four children into SWANS. Pretty things swans… a bit evil (and oh god, I just realized how I can pump out a good Doctor rant without even trying) but nice birds none the less. They couldn't die, but they could age. The king mourned the loss of his children and they swam on the surface of the lake for many years until the broken bell at the monastery down the river from them tolled four times. Like I said, standard, but poetically beautiful. And if you ever want to hear the song, it's nice. I don't know anywhere you can find it (I have it on CD, but I got it from a college I applied to) so good luck. It's gorgeous.

This story really doesn't have any strings attached to Can You Hear Them Doctor, but I suppose it can if you want it to. If you put it before CYHTD. For obvious reasons and sadness and stuff. Aww…

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. I don't write for the show. I don't do anything, except write these loony ideas onto the interwebs and babble on like the Doctor sometimes and get these insane ideas like the Master. That's beside the point. I DON'T OWN!!!

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Song of Lir

He grew old so many times. So old. He could feel it in his bones. The worlds, the universe, and stars and galaxies… they all grew so old. He watched, danced among them in childlike wonder and glee with friends, family, and companions, and he felt so sad. Time passed him by and he gazed upon those he loved in horror known only to himself. The trick was to lose them before their end was visible on their bodies. Species were exterminated, more grew, and some didn't exist at the level they were supposed to at all due to tampering.

It sucked.

His people had died. They were all gone and he lived. How was that fair? It wasn't. He was forced to grow old on his own. Even the Master who had outlived so many, and lived through things he had thought killed the evil mastermind had finally gone. Time took him in the form of a bullet. Martha left, but only for a while. Gone to be back with her family. Ahh, yes. Time had reversed, but just the once. It had felt so good to see things be undone. If only he got a redo for everything. But the whole universe wasn't a paradox, so that just wouldn't work. Martha had left… and Rose had been taken.

And with a cringe, he shied away from that topic. But there was always Jack. The Face of Boe he had said he was called. The funny circles time made sometimes were amusing. No. Not circles. Spirals. Time spirals in the fashion of a circle, but is not ment to meet at the starting point. That's how the nasties come to try to fix things. Jack who shouldn't be alive. That fixed point in time with a name so fondly spoken by most and feared by those who knew the Cardiff branch of Torchwood. He was wrong. It made his skin crawl in a peculiar way. Not Jack, he could never hate Jack, or blame him for any matter. It wasn't his fault he wasn't right. If anyone was to blame, it was TARDIS. The old girl had gotten a little too excited at her chance to save her Doctor and all he loved. How could he blame her for that?

Laying back on the grassy knoll watching the sun rise for another day on planet earth, he could feel time whizzing past his whole being. How many of his old friends were still around being dragged down by the passing years? What he'd give to not be alone. The universe seemed to be on a set course with him though. He was ment to survive. He was ment to survive everyone and everything he met, change when he was supposed to die, and cry as all creation crumbled around him. Who out of his old companions would recognize him even if he went back for them? Sarah Jane. No one else unless she had gone around and told everyone who'd listen.

He looked at the lake and saw a small gathering of swans down on the cold water. Beautiful animals, fiercely protective of their family and what they saw as important. Maybe he was time's swan, he couldn't help but muse. To protect and serve what she couldn't save from herself.

And maybe that was just enough reason to plod along the slow path a while longer. Life with no known meaning was a normal life. Life with purpose is driven. So life with both would be an interesting ride.

So the Doctor rose, stretched, at gazed down at the snowy white birds one last time and smiled. No use moping about when you already know the answers to your questions and know the way of the universe was already set. Nothing to do but go about and do his job: Find where needed help, fix it, and move on in total conviction that it would be a nice stop for vacation. Strange though. Swans usually try to stay in families, but that one's all alone. Maybe someone tried to keep it as a pet once and it never fit in?

He stalked back into the TARDIS, set the coordinates, and left. He never noticed the burning brown eyes watching him from down by the lake. The Master smiled grimly to himself. 'Just a little longer,' he thought, 'Lucy just HAD to drop the stupid ring into the lake where a swan could eat it. Just a little longer and the bells will toll.'

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Yes, yes. Weird ending I know. Please review all the same. Your point of view is greatly appreciated.