Chapter 1 :Goodbye old friend
A tear rolled down the Doctors cheek, leaving a warm wet trail in its wake, as he studied the joint grave that stood before him. He absentmindedly let his fingers trail through the engravings of the names that were carved upon the stonework.
In loving memory of
Rory Arthur Williams
And his loving Wife
Amelia Williams
He let his hand drop limply back across his lap as he sat cross legged to the side of his best friend's final resting place, his sniffed loudly before raising his fist to wipe his eyes.
''Argh…see Pond; look what you've made me do now. If only you could see your raggedy man now. Pathetic aren't I…'' The Doctor closed his eyes as he imagined her beside him now, telling him off as she always had done before whenever he annoyed her. He imagined her laughing at one of his jokes, or at Rory's clumsiness, or taking charge whenever she felt she needed too. That had been the way since they had become childhood friends, and now 6 months ago everything had changed for the worse.
The Doctor felt his heart grow heavy in his chest, as he closed his weary eyes; the quietness of the graveyard helped him think, as he listened to the light buzz of insects flying past as the wind rustling the leaves that lay around him. He thought back to that day, the day his world fell apart and his heart broke for the first time, but not for the last. Quickly he shook his head, he knew he had spent too long dwelling on what happened, rather than living in the land of the living, but he couldn't help it, when his best friends had died, a great part of him had died with them.
He had spent too long hidden away in his flat and in the weeks that followed he had rarely gone out safe for the fact of going to the funeral, but apart from that, 6 months ago he hadn't been able to face the rest of the world. 6 months ago he had made the decision to turn his back on the rest of the world and hide away in his flat. 5 months ago he was falling apart, his boss had been kind for the first two weeks when he didn't turn up for work, but had decided to let him go in the end. He couldn't stop crying , and wanted to ring up the only people who could make everything ok, before he remembered that Amelia and Rory wouldn't be answering ever again. 4 months ago, his marriage to...her… had suffered also and she had simply disappeared in the night, and he resorted to listening to their mobile phones voicemails to hear their voices again. 3 months ago, he was basically living on tinned food or nothing at all as he couldn't face living without his friends anymore, and realised his health was suffering massively, having lost weight and his skin looked thin and grey, he realised he needed help to move on.
2 months ago, he had found a councillor who had made him see the point in living again, it had taken a lot of courage for him to decide he wanted someone else to help him, but he was getting back on track.
1 month ago, he had started smiling and laughing again, his health returning to normal, and that old sparkle returning to his eyes as he finally answered the phone calls from his other friends, and met up with them once again. He'd even started visiting the Williams grave every day to pay his respect, as he begun to live in the real world again, back down from that lonely imaginary cloud he had retired upon. His mind felt clearer and his heart slightly happier if still slightly empty, but eventually time would help him heal.
He opened his eyes sighing, of course life would never be the same without them, but he couldn't give up now, what would Amelia have said. "Don't you dare wimp out on me now Raggedy Man, don't you dare" The Doctor's lips curled into a smile as he patted the top of the grave.
"I hear you Amy, I hear you old friend, and I promise not to do anything like that again, I've even got myself a new job too, much better then that call centre job anyway. I'll have to remind myself not to listen to Craig's advice again, there's only so much that can go wrong" He chuckled lightly before lowering his gaze as he looked at the tidy arrangement of flowers that proudly paid respect at the base of their grave. Oh Brian. The Doctor sighed lightly as he thought about how much Rory's father must be hurting too, a flash of guilt raided through the Doctor's mind as he realised that he hadn't actually spoken to him since the funeral. Well now he would change that, he knew Brian would be hurting just as much as he was, but least they would have each other to keep the memory of his friends alive.
And that was the most important thing that they would need to do.
He stood up slowly from the wet grass, "Goodbye old friend, I'll see you tomorrow Ponds, and bore you with how everything goes" he whispered as he touched his first two fingers to the gravestone, as he walked away without giving the grave a backward glance, like he always did. He knew if he stopped to look at it, it would hurt even more so to leave, and he knew he couldn't do that. Not today, not if he wanted to live his life like Amy would have wanted, plus he knew deep down they were watching out for him and that gave him comfort.
Plus maybe now, he would manage to read that letter they had left him two days before the...accident… he needed to know what could possibly have been said in one last letter.