"So, when did it happen?" Jack asked as he sat with the Doctor.

They were staring out the sea, not on Earth but on a planet that no longer existed...one with a red sky and two suns.

The TARDIS Jack realised was full of surprises.

The TARDIS had landed about an hour ago and when the Doctor was not forthcoming he had used his key and entered.

The Doctor was not in the console room, nor the library or the kitchen.

"Where is he girl?" he asked the TARDIS, but she was silent.

He looked in the garden, the atrium, the wardrobe, even the swimming pool, but he was nowhere.

"C'mon girl, show me where he is."

The TARDIS burbled at him and a door opened to his left.

He stepped inside and found himself on a beach, looking out at a red sky and sea the colour of sapphire.

"Why have you brought me here, beautiful as it is?"

"It's how I remember it," a voice said from behind him.


"So, when did it happen, that moment?"

The Doctor looked out at the sea. "It was an act of desperation, right at the end, when the Citadel was burning and the Dalek Emperor was murdering the Council. I was separated from my platoon, right at this spot and I was watching the Citadel burn and the sea was boiling. The screams carried across the water."

The Doctor stopped and Jack put an arm.

"I was the only one left...the Master had ran and who could blame him."

The Doctor stopped talking and Jack held him as the tears flowed.

"What choice did I have? It was a pivotal moment...the Universe or Gallifrey."

"And you chose to save the Universe. It was the right decision."

"Was it Jack? Because in the end it didn't stop it, did it? They survived, they'll always survive."

Jack sighed and said. "We all have that pivotal moment and we all have to live with choice we make. But you and I Doctor, we have each other and when that moment comes again, I'll be right here and you won't have to make that decision alone."

The Doctor smiled then and they sat in companionable silence and watched the twin suns go down over a horizon that no longer existed.