Up. Down. Grind. Wheeze.
The time-rotor continued its up and down motion, no longer holding its magic for Jamie like it used to. Watching it sullenly, standing hunched over the control panel, Jamie sighs deeply. The Doctor continues working away at the console opposite him, every now and then glancing over at his companion, raising an eyebrow and lifting the edge of his lip into a half-formed false smile. He was definitely feeling Victoria's absence just as much as Jamie, but joining him in his misery would help neither of them now.
It never seemed to get easier, no matter how often his companions left him.
He had lost contact with more friends than most people even met in a lifetime.
Up. Down. Grind. Wheeze.
"So... Jamie...", the Doctor murmurs quietly, not wanting to shock Jamie from his reverie too violently. Jamie lifts his eyes and looks across to the Doctor.
"You know, Victoria wouldn't want you to get all upset like this. Perhaps, one day we will go back and visit her.", the Doctor suggests, knowing deep down that most likely this would never happen. Locking onto an individuals time trace is hard enough in a modern TARDIS. The chances of doing it successfully in an old Mark 40 was next to zero.
"I know that.", Jamie exclaims., "It's just that I have never met anyone like her before. Back home on the highlands you just don't meet women like that."
Up. Down. Grind. Wheeze.
The Doctor nodded, understanding all too well. Victoria was quite special to him too, in much the same way.
He himself had never met a woman with quite the same dignity, yet so much enthusiasm for life either. Fellow female Timelords always seemed to be emotionally distant, tied down with rules and custom. In fact, it was due to this that he decided to take Susan with him when he left Gallifrey in the first place.
She had too much life in her as a girl to let go to waste in formal training and bureaucracy.
Up. Down. Grind. Wheeze.
The Doctor walks around the console to Jamie, wiping his hands on a chequered handkerchief he pulled from his jacket pocket. Approaching Jamie, he puts puts his hands reassuringly upon Jamie's shoulders. "You see Jamie, what you need to understand that she chose to leave us. She made this choice, and all we can do is hope she is much happier where she is."
"Yes I see that Doctor, but what if she changes her mind? What if she wants to come back?"
The Doctor turned his own face aside, staring off into the distance.
"That's the question Jamie. What if? What if...?"
The Doctors voice trailed off. He was lost in the memories of the countless times he has asked himself these questions.
Up. Down. Grind.
...silence...
Noticing the change in the rhythm of the TARDIS, Jamie glances over to the motionless time-rotor.
Surely they can't have landed already. They'd only just left! With a look of confusion on his face, Jamie looks back from the rotor to the Doctor, only to see the Doctor transfixed, staring back at him with a look of absolute terror on his face.
The Doctors hands drop away and he starts stepping backwards. "No! No.. no... no no no no no" the Doctor repeats, backing away and bringing his hands back up to his own face in complete anguish. The realization slowly dawned on Jamie that the Doctor wasn't staring at him, the Doctor was looking past him, towards something behind him.
Steeling himself for whatever he might see, Jamie slowly turns, not wanting, but needing to see the horror that must be behind him. Instead of some form of ghastly terror within the TARDIS, all he can see is the TARDIS view screen, displaying the face of a friendly looking elderly gentleman with a small oriental black hat and coat.
A genuine smile breaks out on the gentleman's face, as he laughs, claps his hands together and exclaims "Welcome back Doctor, my old friend! Welcome back!"
Jamie turns back in confusion, to see the Doctor clutching at his chest, looking back and forth from the screen to Jamie, arms reaching out in helpless appeal. "No... no... Jamie... no!"