Title: Never Go Alone
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Eleven & Amy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 339
Summary: Vague spoilers for 'The Beast Below.' The Doctor reflects while looking forward.
After all the excitement, the Doctor finds himself alone on deck, gazing out of the window almost absently. Not for much longer, because he hears footsteps growing closer, and he's still a little cross when Amy joins him. Clever girl, he thinks briefly, a bit reckless, but still clever, and he almost forgets his anger when she starts to speak to him. He tries to chasten her once more, but finds the words turned upon him, so he grows silent. Old and alone, he hears her say again, and it's true, isn't it? So very old and so very lonely. Can he really be summed up so simply and by such a young girl? That old pang is back, he notes with a barely-concealed frown, the one that's been with him for ages, maybe longer still. He almost wants to run from it, from the memories and himself. Wasn't there someone who said once that he's always been running? He reaches fot the memory, but it slips through his fingers like so much sand. Like so much dust from a world that burnt an age ago.
But then he turns to look at her and sees something in her eyes, a glimmer of understanding. Somehow, he can feel that these aren't just trite words, that she understands the implications, and just accepts him as he is. No judgment for ill, and perhaps not for greatness either. Just a madman with a box who hates to see children cry. He smiles at her then, first a slow pull at the corners of his mouth, then beaming. He pulls her into an embrace that she readily accepts, her arms tight around him, friendly and reassuring. He smiles into the fabric of her dressing gown. The pain isn't gone, not by half, but perhaps it's a bit less. She's going to be brilliant, the Doctor thinks to himself as they embrace with the light of a myriad of stars streaming through the window. And maybe he'll be just a bit of alright.