"Your friend is waiting for you."
The Doctor felt an unsettled lump in her throat when Erik's not-wife said those words. Before them was a curtain, blowing in the breeze, too white. Glowing, like a dream.
She stepped forward with Graham, her stomach churning. This place… it was wrong. No doubt about it- she had been certain of that bit of information the minute she had stuck her head in the portal. But now, with the shadowy figure standing behind the sheen of hanging laundry, she felt an overwhelming sense of dread.
The wind (it felt too artificial) helped her push aside the curtains, and her hearts dropped "into her stomach.
A slender frame. Short hair, a set of pale, pixie-like features. And the Doctor felt old scars long sealed be gashed open again.
"Hello, Grandmother," Susan Foreman (or was it Campbell?) said softly, her lips curving into that beautiful smile the Doctor remembered from so long ago. "I've missed you so much."
"Susan," the Doctor muttered, her mouth agape.
"You finally came back," she added, an ounce of mirth hiding in her eyes.
(she looks so real)
"Why are you in Norway, Susan?" she asked her granddaughter, refusing to meet the girl's eyes (just as sparkling as she remembered). "I left you in London. With David, in the 22nd century. As a matter of fact, where is David?"
"I'm so glad you've returned, Grandmother," Susan beamed. The Doctor did not fail to notice the avoidance of her questions. "Look, I know you said that I should get on with my own life, but I want to be with you."
"I bet you do." The Doctor's voice wobbled slightly (not real, not real) as she examined her granddaughter (no, not her granddaughter). The detail was superb. Exactly as she remembered- or thought she remembered. (had it really been so long since they had parted?)
"Listen, I want you to stay with me, Grandmother," Susan pleaded, and her voice chimed in the Doctor's head like a Gallifreyan lullaby. "It's nice here, in Norway. We can be together again."
"You're not Susan," the Doctor said, her hearts breaking as she denied the girl (she was so similar, she could stay here forever). "I'm sorry."
Her eyes flickered over to where Graham was talking to another one of these- these apparitions. His was in the form of Grace.
How fitting. The Doctor turned away her not-granddaughter.
"Wait- Grandmother, don't leave me!"
She froze. Her hearts broke in a million more pieces.
"You said you'd come back. It took you so long, and I waited for so many years, but you're here! Don't leave me, Grandmother, don't leave me!"
"I'm sorry." The Doctor stepped away, her boots crunching in the frigid grass. "Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear."