Departing the Library 1
The Library was alive once again, for at least a little while. The 24 hour timeframe the Doctor had negotiated with the Vashta Nerada had nearly elapsed, and 4022 people were a lot to evacuate.
The planetary Transmats only had a limited range. Back when The Library was fully active, there were regular transports moving through the system, but that was a long time ago.
The restored Librarians and the survivors of the Lux expedition to the Library were working together to catalogue the restored survivors and Transmat them to passing ships who were responding to the new distress call.
The Doctor, a tall skinny man wearing a brown suit, stood by as an outsider. He watched the evacuation proceedings next to his female companion, a woman named Donna Nobel, who watched the departing survivors with a hopeful longing.
As a Time Lord, the Doctor was aware of things the normal human was not. He was able to look at a person or thing and immediately know elements of its past, and its possible futures. He could tell when those futures were fixed or when they were in flux.
Even now, the Doctor studied Donna he could see an important crossroads. She could find the man she met and married in the dreamlike existence of the Library Computer. If Donna found him, the Doctor knew that Donna would leave him and live a happy life; it would be a good ending, but the thought of loosing her was so sad, the Doctor could barely stand the thought of it. Donna's other possibilities were limitless, including one that was looming ever larger in the future that he could not see. The curiosity at this unknown fate was one of the reasons he traveled with her. Sometimes he was filled with dread that the future he could not see would be tied with an unbearable sadness, but his childlike curiosity served to override such fears.
Ultimately, he would abide by his people's first principle. The choice of which future to choose would be hers and hers alone.
"Any luck?" the Doctor asked Donna as she returned to him.
As much as he thought about Donna, his mind was also drawn to the mysteries of the woman River Song. But her future was over now, although he supposed he would be able to look forward to seeing her past in his own future. Maybe. Time was always in flux.
"Lets be honest, it wasn't real was it?"
"Maybe not."
"I made up the perfect man, what does that say about me?"
"Everything… sorry, I meant to say nothing."
The time of decision was nearly upon them. Then she would have to choose. A happy future or the continued adventures of traveling with him, which would she choose?
"What about you, are you alright?"
"Im always alright."
"Is alright special Time Lord code for really not alright at all?"
"Why?"
"Because I'm alright too."
The moment was nearly here… just another second.
"Come on," the Doctor said, taking Donna's hand, and guiding her out of the room, just a moment before Donna would have seen the man she had been searching for. The choice wasn't hers after all.