DOCTOR WHO:

SPIRIT ANIMAL

WRITTEN BY ZARIUS

(Spoilers for "It Takes You Away")


"Say it" The Doctor instructed as Graham stood at the side of the TARDIS console.

"Say what?" asked Graham.

"Say what you see" she continued.

"What exactly is supposed to be in front of me Doc?" Graham asked.

"What you feel, what you consider as raw and as real as what you put yourself through on the other side of the mirror" The Doctor continued, clutching his hands with both cheeks.

Graham finally caved and gave in to the requests, The Doctor's voice gentle and commanding, he felt compelled to open his eyes and his ears to the calm anxieties that had been building up from within him since the group had left the cabin.

"I see Grace, oh Doc she's so warm, so welcoming, I know the one back there couldn't hold a candle to her, but if nothing else she lit the path Doc, and she burns so bright"

The Doctor pressed her hands gently across both sides of his face, and stood up, she closed her own eyes.

"What are you doing Doc?" Graham asked.

"Just concentrate" she said.

"She's tangible, I can touch her in my mind Doc, and the memory of her touches me, right where my heart beats, where it always beat long after death" Graham continued, small tears running down his cheek.

He wondered if there was something in the TARDIS that was helping stir his anxieties into emotional ecstasy.

Whatever it was, it was working.

He felt a surge as The Doctor meditated, her hands still clasped across both of his cheeks, she pressed her head forward, gracing the temple of her cranium with his own, and their noses quite close to touching one another like star-crossed Eskimos.

"What's your game here Doc? What are you doing to my head?" Graham asked.

"I'm giving your cowboys a new wagon to ward off the Indians" she said.

Graham blinked a couple of times, his face contorted into an expression of surprise.

The Doctor reeled back, taking out a tissue and wiping the sweat off her brow.

"There, now tell me what you see" she said.

"I see a frog, a frog that speaks in Grace's voice"

"That's my last memory of her, how I feel the consciousness universe would like to be remembered as it tried to please you. Now it can do so, I've taken that memory and planted it in your head, to carry with you all your days. She and that necklace you carry are one and the same; it's your spirit animal. Keep it close, do what I do with my family, let it sleep in your mind and extract it whenever you feel empty"

"I don't know what to say Doc" Graham said, placing his right hand on her shoulder.

"When thinking of those you've lost, never say anything, just feel it. Everything they've ever said will make up for your own lack of words" she said.

"Your family must have a lot to say to you" Graham replied.

"Well, to be fair, mine are not quite a good example, they often quarrelled about a bunch of things. Zygons, ratings, the academy, cousins and looms, it's for the best I always pick at least one to remember per millennia" The Doctor admitted.

"Hey, my Grace and I had a lot of stand up rows over salt, sugar, and medications, and it's a lot of those arguments that give me my fondest memories of her, as every cross word over my health meant I cared enough to fight for my life. Grace was a fighter to the last, and she wanted me to take a stand with her"

"Just like you always take a stand at my side, in the fight for life, she raised a worthy challenger" The Doctor assured him.

"And you're forever fighting in our corner Doc, for Grace's sake, and my own, never stop"

"Like I said to you back at the witch hunts, you're the boss" she said.