The Best He Could
"You know something Doctor…" Kate Lethbridge Stewart smiled over at the Time Lord from her position sitting opposite. She had apparently dropped the Lethbridge from her name after joining UNIT – not wanting any favours granted because of her father's own position in the military organisation – but the Doctor could tell that she was the Brigadier's daughter through and through. "He told me all about you you know." She sighed, taking another sip of tea and savouring the hot sweet liquid as it warmed her tongue and coated her lips in syrupy sugar. "He talked often of the Yeti, of Cybermen, the Silurians and the Darleks, amongst others." She explained. There were tears in her eyes as she spoke, and a lump in her throat which made her voice break, but the Doctor didn't pick her up on this, not because he found her outward display of emotion awkward or embarrassing, but because on this one occasion there were tears in the Doctor's own eyes and a lump in his throat too.
"I think the nurses at the nursing home used to think that he's mind had gone when they heard him talking about Autons, and Sontarans, and a strange man he called the Master." She explained. "They took pity on him, my father, Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart." She scoffed. "But my father's mind was perfect, his mental capacities remained intact to the end… it was the one thing the cancer couldn't take away from him. It took his body, it took his independence, but it could never take away his memories…" She sniffed, and brushed away a tear as she glanced over at the framed picture of her father which sat upon the mantelpiece in her living room.
"Your father was knighted?" The Doctor asked, sounding surprised.
Kate nodded proudly. "For a lifelong of service to his country." She explained. "You know he didn't really want to accept it at first, but I managed to convince him in the end."
The Doctor smiled. "If ever there was a man who deserved such and honour Kate," He sighed, "It was your father."
"I know." She nodded. "That's why I tried so hard to convince him to accept it. You know his favourite story that he used to tell me about your time together was of the Yeti in the London Underground." She explained. "He cherished that memory, of the day you first came into his life Doctor. He never stopped talking about how you changed his life, how knowing you made him a better man."
"Your father didn't need any help from me in that respect Kate." The Doctor shook his head, as he cast his mind back to the time he'd spent working with the young man, promoted to a rank far beyond his own years, and of all the adventures they'd shared together. It had of course been years since he'd last seen the Brigadier, but for the Doctor it could have just as easily been yesterday, and now sitting here in his lifelong friend's daughter's living room his one lingering regret was that it was now too late. "He would have still been the brave, kind, fearless, and caring man you knew even if he'd never met me." He explained.
"I know." She smiled. "But he wouldn't have had quite so many stories to tell."
The Doctor laughed. "Perhaps not." He conceded. "But he would have always been a good man."
Kate sniffed, and this time she was forced to wipe her damp cheeks with a tissue as more tears splashed her pale skin, as they cascaded from her bloodshot eyes, and she blew her pink nose quietly. The Doctor leaned over and squeezed her hand comfortingly.
"You know I hated leaving him in that nursing home." She sighed, displaying an inner strength mirroring her father's own as she spoke. "The nurses were all kind enough, but none of them knew what he'd been through for his country. He was just another sick old man to them. But I knew he couldn't cope at home alone anymore, Doris died a few years ago, and I was busy with work. I just wanted to see him looked after in the way he deserved. I wanted to keep him with me for as long as possible."
"I'm sure he'd have understood Kate." The Doctor reassured her.
"You know, he used to sing me this song," She smiled, "When I was a little girl. He used to hate to see me upset, and so whenever he would see me cry he used to sing 'You can turn and walk away, You can leave your dreams standing, You look sad, and tired and lonely, Down and beat, feeling freezing, And all that sorrow, Never freezes me, Come on talk to me, come on talk to me, Easy now, easy now, easy… Take me, Take my hand and don't let go, Never let it go, never let it go, Believe in me, believe in me not crying.' He had a beautiful voice." She recalled.
"So do you." The Doctor smiled, as he sat and listened to Kate as she sang the rest of the song in a glorious soprano tone.
"I'll say once more I am a man, And I just do the best I can, And I believe the sorrows dying, Then we can be alive again, And I can be there to the end, And I can be your guide tomorrow, and tomorrow, And I can be your guiding light, And when you walk the floor at night, I can help you find the answers, And I can be your lifelong friend, And I can be there to the end, And I will never go, no I will never go again…" Suddenly her voice broke, and she stopped singing, no longer able to withhold the upheavls of her chest. "But he has gone hasn't he?" She sobbed. "My dad's gone, and I'm never going to see him again…"
"Come on Kate." The Doctor soothed her, as he scooped her up into his own arms and held the young woman close to him. He realised that his embrace was no substitute for her father's loving arms, but he, just like the Brigadier, hated to see the young woman cry and he felt he owed it to his old friend now to comfort his daughter at a time when he no longer could. "Don't despair." He implored her. "Your father wouldn't want you to be sad, and you know the one thing I've learnt over the years is that time isn't linear. Yes your father may now be gone in this timeline, but somewhere out there he lives on, and I can tell you right now that he's having a blast."
Kate laughed. "You know, we were singing that song the night he died." She explained. "He didn't have much strength left by the end, but I lay next to him on the bed, and he had enough breath left to finish the song. 'And still you say goodbye to me, and I must go my love, Crying all the way to dying, all the way to dying, And I would never leave you no, I would never hurt you so, I would never take you from my mind, From my mind, from my mind, No… And when one day we look back in time, we'll see the hill we had to climb, And when one day we look back in time, we'll see the hill we climbed.'"
"Do you have any brandy?" The Doctor asked once the young woman had finished with her song.
"Well yes." Kate looked at him surprised. "It was dad's, but he never got around to opening it. Why?"
"How about a toast?" The Time Lord suggested, and as she pulled away from his embrace, having dried her eyes for the final time and now once again completely composed herself, Kate smiled.
"Why not?" She nodded. She got to her feet and made her way over to the drinks cabinet.
The unopened bottle cracked as she broke the seal and unscrewed the cap, dividing the dark brown liqueur between two crystal glasses and handing one to the Doctor, who accepted the drink gratefully.
Turning to the picture of a much younger Brigadier upon the mantelpiece, dressed in military uniform and sporting the characteristic moustache the Doctor remembered him for, he then raised his glass to a man he was proud to have called a lifelong, and the dearest of all his friends.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart," he proposed.
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart," Kate chorused. She took a small sip of her drink, before placing her glass down upon the coffee table, and taking the picture carefully within both of her hands she kissed the image of her father delicately.
"I miss you everyday dad." She sighed sadly.
In memory of Nicholas Courtney. RIP good sir!