Trapped on the Slow Path
Never had the TARDIS been so silent before. It felt wrong but both occupants knew why. Mickey was on the phone to Jackie, telling her to come to the ship because Rose needed her.
Rose was sitting next to the silent, unmoving body of the ships pilot.
"Why doesn't he regenerate?" she asks aloud. Mickey doesn't answer but only because he knew the truth would hurt her too much.
He knew the man didn't want to face a world without Rose again.
The funeral was a quiet and small one. Not really fitting as he had saved everyone so many times. But Rose has insisted that this would have been what he wanted. So they arranged it to be small and quiet.
In the end Rose burned his body; she didn't want any government authorities getting their hands on him. Everyone there agreed to it.
By the time she died everyone thought that she had forgotten how to smile.
-0-0-
The ship was almost silent. They began to walk through the corridors towards the only source of noise. They thought they had come too late. That the rescue team had failed again. But there must still be one poor soul left alive.
Yet when the found him they wished they had never come. He was an empty shell, too thin and too pale. He shook slightly with silent sobs as tears slid down his face, untracked. He didn't respond to them at all, just stared at the same spot, at the painting of Madame de Pompadour, the person the ship had been named after.
In the end they gave up. He wasn't going anywhere and they doubted that medical treatment would do him any good. They had no idea what was running through his mind, just three words over and over again.
She left me.
They didn't know that he was looking at the place where his ship had once been. Neither did they know just how many dozens of centuries he had lived through, keeping himself out of danger just for her, the girl who had gone without him.
They had no idea what he had been through in that time. But they could tell simply from the scars covering what had once been a young and fit body that he had been fighting for a lost cause. So they left him there and told their base that they had found no one.
Does she have no idea how long I've waited for her?
He wonders quietly as he feels his life-force draining away. He never had felt as strong as he had so many years ago; he felt the pull of the vortex every minute and it was draining him to stay away from it. But he couldn't go anyway, she had left him here, so alone for so long and he could do nothing but accept it.
He couldn't remember the last time he had slept, or eaten when it came to it. He could only think of her. Over the decades her image in his mind had become blurry and he felt so angry that he couldn't recall her face or her smile. Oh how he needs that smile.
I thought she loved me.
It was a confession as well as a doubt. He loved her too, more than anything else. The only thing that had kept him going was the thought of seeing her again. But she had deserted him and he was old now. Over five thousand years, he couldn't be bothered to count any more. Where had the time gone? He didn't know, ironic for a Time Lord.
Will she ever know how much I've suffered?
Probably not, considering that his beloved ship was gone. He had noticed that he wasn't healing anymore. He had heard of such things happening before, back of Gallifrey, they were caused by extensive grief of depression.
It was unheard of to have both at the same time. Well, he always was one for breaking the rules, or bending them. Yet it had always managed to get him in trouble, but no one else.
What's the point in going on?
Maybe she'll come back. He had forgotten how to smile but he reckon if were ever the smile again he would if she came back for him. But she'd probably gone and forgotten him by now, found a boyfriend, got married, had kids. The memories of him had probably faded by now.
What shall I do now?
He asks himself questions to keep the darkness at bay. But he knows he can no longer hold it out. For years he has forced his eyes to stay open because he doesn't want to accept it, he can't. The worst thing is that he knows it's coming for him and there's nothing he can do to stop it.
So he accepts it. His eyes close, his broken hearts refuse to beat and his shattered soul flies away.
-0-0-
Two light-years away a member of the rescue team shamefully admits her sighting of the man in the pin-striped suit and blue screwdriver to a dark skinned boy and a blond girl with a blue box. She has tears in her eyes as she vanishes back inside the box and doesn't care how bemused the rescue team member is as it vanishes into thin air.
It reappears in front of the painting of Madame de Pompadour, glowing and bold. The girl steps out and immediately bursts into tears. The man doesn't notice as his eyes slip closed. She kneels down beside him and cries over his limp body, talking to him even though he can't hear her, begging for forgiveness when there's no one to forgive her. She tells him that she loves him and always has loved him.
All just seconds too late.
Through her tears she manages to smile too. Only a little smile but a smile nonetheless, she carefully pushes a stray lock of hair off his forehead and tries to convince herself that he's only asleep, even though she knows he gone.
Her look of despair thickens as she sees the scars the cover his body. After a few minutes she forces herself to lift him into the ship. She carries his form to his bedroom and lays him on the bed. He's only sleeping she thinks and how did he become so thin and light? She stares at his face, trying to memorize every contour and colour. They both watch him as he leaves their world.
Yet somehow the man in the pin-striped suit smiles before he slips beyond their reach.
They never understand why.
Fin.