Everyone knows that everyone dies.
Everyone knows that everyone dies. And nobody knows it like the Doctor. He lives his life not knowing, never looking back. He can't look back. He has to keep going, running forwards forever.
But once in every hundreds of years when there's nothing left to distract him, he stops and allows himself to remember.
The funeral started at noon but the man came later, just in time to morn in the lingering light. When he arrived there was already someone there. A woman. She had aged but her eyes were always one step ahead of her body. She didn't recognise the man. But he knew her.
The woman gazed silently down at the fresh grave, her hands clasped in prayer around a bunch of spring flowers. The man knelt down beside her, placing a bouquet of unearthly blue sparklingly flowers on the grass. "You knew her?" The woman asked in masked surprise.
"Yes" The man entwined the stems of the grass around his fingertips "She was a great friend. I haven't seen her in years… almost thirty now…"
"Thirty…" The woman breathed quietly. The man looked less them thirty himself.
"How was she?" He asked "was she happy…In the end?
The woman nodded her eyes smiling "She had the most amazing life. She married in the end, she had a daughter Jenny, or so I've heard."
"Or so you've heard? You didn't know her well then?"
"Oh no" The woman shook her head with a laugh "I knew her too well, better than she knew herself. I just couldn't see her, it was very complicated, everything always was in those days…" The woman trailed off before realising the man wanted more "I only knew her about her death through the local paper. It's such a shame, the good are always forgotten." The woman told him wistfully
"I won't forget her."
"Neither will I." Abruptly the woman gripped the man's hand "It was lovely to meet you. You remind me of an old friend, he was a doctor you know, just like me" the lady began murmuring "I haven't seen him in years… I hope he's happy… It was lovely to meet you" she told him again "Really lovely…" The women straightened herself up, brushing the soil from her skirt and heading towards the gate.
The man watched as she left, her hand clutched around a walking short to straighten her, but she was still strong, Martha Jones was still a fighter. It would be the last time he'd see her. That was the day the Doctor looked back.
I hope you liked that, not sure whether to do a series or leave it as a one-shot. It was Donna Noble's grave he visited in case you were wondering.