It's Not the End, It's Just What Comes Next
There had been fire and pain and light and noise but all those things were gone now. It was just silence in a dark gray world, fog wrapping around his legs. He looked down at himself, his trainers, his dark brown suit. He breathed heavily but realized that he didn't have to do that anymore.
There were footsteps behind him, sounding out in the silence. Bouncing in whatever walls this place had.
"Well, then if it isn't the silly boy," a voice said behind him.
"I know that voice," the boy said turning around. "I once used that voice."
The wizened old man stood before him. Holding a cane in his hands.
"Saw that you died for some useless, unimportant, wonderful old human."
"Yes, I did."
"I would expect nothing less from myself."
The Tenth Doctor smiled brightly at his First Incarnation.
"Come along, I'm sure the others will want to meet you," the First Doctor said.
They stepped forward and they were suddenly in the TARDIS. It's various lights and switches buzzing as they always had. There were eight other men standing around the console.
"Fantastic!" one in a leather jacket called out.
"Good show," one in a long scarf said.
"Oh, the Time War, what a disaster," a frouthy looking one said.
"I couldn't have done that better if it was me," one in an aggressively ugly suit said.
"Oh come off it, the boy was amazing or is he the old man? I mean... oh who can keep track of it?" one in a long fur coat said.
"Good to see you again," one in a cricket uniform said.
"What is this? Is this the end of all things?" the Tenth Doctor asked.
"Of course not," the Third Doctor said. "This is just what comes next."
"We thought that you might want to meet with us first before you met anyone else," a simple looking man with an umbrella said.
"Met anyone else, what are you talking about?" the Tenth Doctor asked.
"Why, my boy, take a walk out of those TARDIS doors and you'll see that you've been well rewarded for everything you've done, all those mad adventures," the First Doctor said.
"You mean?" the Tenth Doctor said.
He ran through the doors into bright sunlight. A large field full of green grass and sweet smelling flowers opened up before him. It was then that he saw people coming towards him. Two small children came running up to him.
"Great grandpa!" they called out.
"Great grandpa..." the Tenth Doctor said leaning down to hug them. "Then that must mean..."
A young woman and man came walking over the fields, holding hands.
"Hello, grandfather," the woman said.
"Susan..." he said momentarily letting go of his great grandchildren. "I thought... I'd..."
He ran forward into her waiting arms.
"I knew you'd come back to me, one day," she said.
"I'm sorry it took so long," he replied.
And there were more, so many more. He had had to see so many good people die but all of a sudden, here they were all around him again. He asked when they planned to leave and that got a laugh from the other Doctors. They had never really gone. They were always with him, causing so much pain and joy at the same time. Held in those hearts. Because there was room enough for them. There was room enough for the whole universe and that was the Doctor's gift.
But every gift giver deserves something back. So, it was then that shadows appeared on the hillside. He stopped and stared upward. A face... a face that he thought that he had lost forever.
Tears started in his eyes and he made no effort to clamp them off. Instead, he did what he always did.
He started running.
But not away from something that would hurt but instead towards something...
Something brilliant.