'The last human.' Seriously? Who did she think she was fooling? He could see all of time and space, and it would be quite some centuries past one Lady Cassandra O'Brien before humanity breathed its last. And that was a concept she'd forgotten, in her bizarre quest for immortality - that there was far more to being human than a planet of origin, or a particular pattern of DNA.

Being human was finding the love of your life on a street corner at two AM…or in the basement of a London shop. Except…he wasn't human…although, he was inclined to give himself a few more points than Cassandra.

Being human was slapping a daft old alien for absconding with your only child…then taking that same alien into your home and caring for him. Being human meant helping your child find her way to the stars, even if you were left behind.

Being human meant following a young girl into a dingy old junkyard, just to see that she was safe, and never backing down, no matter where in time and space that decision led. And that was him again, being human in a not-so-nice way - jealous old git, so afraid of anything that might come between him and Susan - as if she'd let it. Of course, Susan hadn't been human, either, but she'd been so fascinated by them; their music, and history, and funny, illogical cultures. He supposed he must have caught that fascination from her.

Of all things, that damn Dalek in the bunker in Utah had a pretty good grasp of what it meant to be human. 'What use are emotions, if you will not save the woman you love?' What use indeed, when he couldn't even bring himself to tell her. The feelings were there, no doubt whatsoever about that, and he tried so hard to demonstrate them, but the words…those three very little, gigantically human words…they just stuck in his throat.

He glanced down a the girl sleeping beside him with open affection, and resettled himself against the headboard. He couldn't bear to let her out of his sight, not after coming so very close to losing her today. She was always so very, very human…even the entirety of the time vortex running through her mind couldn't change that…enhance it, perhaps, but never diminish it. Her humanity was the flame that warmed his tired old soul.