"Coward. Every time." -9th Doctor, "The Parting of the Ways" (Season 1 finale)
"I'm a coward," you hear him whisper late one night, on your way to get a glass of water from the kitchen.
"What?" you mumble.
Suddenly he pokes his head out of a doorway. "What're you doing up?" he demands.
"I was going to get a glass of water. What'd'ya mean, 'you're a coward'?" you huff.
"The brave die; and the cowards survive," he says by way of explanation.
You roll your eyes. "You really don't see yourself clearly," you tell him.
He looks at you, confused.
You shake your head and sigh. "Look, after the Time War-" you ignore the stiffening of his body, he needs to hear this- "you had two options. One option was to kill yourself and end the Time Lords for good. In other words, commit suicide. The other option was to continue doing what you do-meaning saving the universe. Right?"
He nods slightly, seemingly unsure of where you're going with this.
You shift your weight onto your left leg and continue. "The first option-suicide-was the easy way out. Because as far as I know there's nothing after death. The other option, to go on, was a lot harder, correct?"
"Yeah," he breathes, looking down.
"Hey, look at me. Doctor-look at me." He won't, and you grab his face with your hands, lifting his head up to look you in the eyes. "You chose the harder path. That makes you one of the bravest beings I know, all right? You're not a coward, you're a survivor, and there's a difference between the two. You hear me? You aren't a coward. You did what you had to, and you can't keep beating yourself up over that. Okay?" You finish and drop your hands, slightly nervous about his reaction.
He doesn't say anything for several minutes. "...Thank you," he says quietly.
"Don't mention it," you say, slightly awkwardly. "Well. As lovely as making you feel better has been, it's not really something I enjoy doing. So, I'm going to go get a glass of water and go to bed, and I shall see you in the morning. 'Night, Doctor."
"Goodnight," you hear as you walk down the hallway.
Me: This is just a random companion-could be Rose, could be Jack, maybe an OC, or maybe it's Nine's subconsciousness. Hopefully I wrote Nine well.
Spock: This fic was inspired by roxiejh's "Welcome to Your Life", and we... borrowed the line "The brave die; and the cowards survive" from them. We hope that they will not be too...
Me: Irritated at us taking it. We informed them of borrowing the line, and we've given them credit.