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A/N: Short oneshot for a 100 prompts challenge. Minor spoilers for "A Good Man Goes to War" through "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe." POV: 11th Doctor. Prompt: Silence
Silence will fall.
He spent so long trying to understand those words and yet somehow he never quite grasped their meaning. The reality that the Silence were aliens meant to help kill him was practically unfathomable. But as he reflected on Madame Kavorkian's words that day at Demon's Run he realized that somewhere along the way he had become a warrior. How else could he have raised an army in so little time?
Through the years, he lost the peaceful Doctor who always gave second chances. Instead he now looks in the mirror and sees simply a madman with a box; a man who damns the consequences of his actions and thereby has become a danger to those who love him.
Rose Tyler. Martha Jones. Donna Noble. Amelia Pond. River Song. And many more…
So he decided to travel alone, leaving the Ponds and everyone else behind, trying to rediscover what he had lost. And in this solitude he found that the pain of being alone was no easier to bear with the knowledge that he was keeping his friends safe.
Silence will fall.
Silence…not the alien species, but the deafening quiet that comes when one is very much alone in the universe. He now considers the statement to be the simple truth of his life. The last timelord, in his TARDIS, with no one to share his world. He accepted the necessity of his loneliness long ago, and yet in this moment he was questioning it.
"No one should be alone on Christmas."
Maybe, just maybe, today should be different. Maybe, for today, it would be alright for him to extricate himself from his self-imposed solitude and emerge from the silence. After all…it is Christmas.
And so, he found himself standing in the doorway of Amelia Pond's home later that evening listening to the sounds of joy at his return. He felt something on his face and reached up to wipe it away, surprised to find that he was crying. For a moment he almost left, thinking it might be easier to run back to the TARDIS than to stay just for the night. But as he looked out at the street, he thought of the family he had just helped and the widow's wish that he not be alone. And with that thought he smiled and closed the door, walking into the light.
Silence will fall.
But not today.