Title: The Last Stop
Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, David Tennant or the storyline... yet.
Rating: T - Debatably
Please spare a moment to review as this is my first Doctor Who one-shot
It had been so many years since you had last seen him. The wanderer, the lonely God. A stranger, standing alone, silhouetted against the glaring sunset of another glorious day, his coattails undulating gently in a nonexistent breeze. So long ago.
From the moment you had met him, the moment he saved your life, you had realised he was unlike anyone you had ever met. From the moment he left, your heart became broken and you had dreamed of little else but his return.
Perhaps, as a human, you were unworthy of his affection, but when you looked into his eyes, a flicker of emotion had darted across their depths before sinking once more into the dark, fathomless pools of sorrow. He had taken your hand in his, and just for one moment, you had become one. Then, he simply turned away without a backwards glance, your hand falling from his until it laid limply at your side, the door of the blue box slamming firmly shut behind him.
That accursed blue box which had stolen him away. Even now you could remember shouting his name, sprinting in his footsteps and reaching for the fading image of the box. Your hands passed through the apparition, leaving nothing in your outstretched fingers but the dirt and dust of your home planet. He had gone.
During the long months after your encounter with the Time Lord, his broken features remained clear in your mind as the frosted dew that laced your window with an intricate web of crystal strands, one morning after another. You could recall his face; so youthful and carefree, worn by the travesties of time and the cruel tricks of Fate. His dark, shimmering eyes, tainted by the blood he had spilt; the terrible truths of the ancient universe he guarded with his life.
You had seen through his pretence. You had realised, that although to others he seemed free as a spring swallow with wings fresh from winter's bindings, he was a prisoner of his own laws, chained within the guilt of his own existence; the sole survivor of a lost race. Entombed within his own sorrow, he remained the true champion of the universe, defending the planets from danger and despair without a thought for himself. A hero and a martyr.
Sighing, you turned away from the window, allowing your hand to briefly brush its mirrored surface, beneath your fingers moist, frosty breath reached up to cling to your arm, sinking invisible, icy fangs into your flesh. Swiftly drawing your arm back against your chest, you sent one last glance out of the clouded window before sweeping from the room, suppressing a shiver not from the cold, but the sensation of unseen eyes resting upon your back.
Within moments, you emerged outside into the cool silence of the bitter morning air. Clouds were strewn like discarded fluff throughout the skies, surrounded by a sea of sapphire blue. Your breath misted before you, swirling like smoke and spiralling up to join the clouds in their dance beneath the heavens.
Shivering again, you rubbed chilled hands over your exposed arms, brushing away the needle-sharp claws of the cold. Slowly, you lowered your eyes from the brilliant, glacial sky and instead glared at the dirty ground that glittered like diamonds. It seemed almost unfair that you could not appreciate its beauty as you once did. Never since you saw that one, beautiful fragment of the worlds outside your own had you been able to admire anything else.
A sudden, eerie screeching, scraping sound pierced the air hauntingly, somehow out of place in the early morning peace. A lump rose to your throat, and your heartbeat pumped faster as the echo rebounded off the side of your house again and again before fading once more into the chilling silence.
Keeping your gaze fixed determinedly at your feet, you hardly dared to turn around, even as your heart pounded like some winged creature, fighting desperately to escape your chest, and an impossible breeze reached out to ruffle your hair, fanning it around your face.
You knew it couldn't really be him. It was just another dream, a wish that he would return, yet the biting cold slowly coiling itself around your warm body, and that unmistakeable sound reverberating through the air were unmistakably real.
Wishing with all your heart that it were so, you shut your eyes against the morning sun as it caressed your face with soft rays of yellow light, bathing your features in a golden glow. Perhaps if you didn't open your eyes, your dream would never end, perhaps if –
Your thoughts were brought to an abrupt halt by a comforting blanket of weight landing heavily on your shoulders, warming your icy skin and shielding you from the morning's cold grasp. A scent, so familiar, yet so strange enveloped your senses. You released a breath you didn't even realise you were holding, losing it forever as a wisp of steam swirling to greet the cool air.
Finally, unable to resist any longer, you opened your eyes and spun around, gripping the warm material around your shoulders so tightly your knuckles turned white. Your heart skipped a beat, and a smile lifted the corners of your lips when you recognised the man before you.
He stood exactly as you remembered, although this time his long brown coat lay over your shoulders instead of clinging to his slender frame. Slowly, you allowed your disbelieving gaze to trail upwards, your chest tightening sharply upon meeting his eyes.
The sparkling chocolate brown had all but faded, instead replaced by a dull, calm acceptance. The previous glee which had pervaded his features had disappeared and was simply a shadow at the deep lines of his face.
Concerned, you moved forward, wanting to console him, but stopping when the look upon his face turned yet graver, his head shaking gently in a silent plea. Pulling the slipping coat closer around your shoulders, you tentatively moved one hand to slip inside his, squeezing it softly before glancing once more at the pained Time Lord.
For a few long moments, you assessed him. He looked like someone who had no hope, yet for some reason was strangely satisfied. Unable to understand the reason for his behaviour, you drew away slightly, maintaining your grip on his hand.
"Doctor. Why did you come?" You asked quietly, attempting in vain to keep the sharp edge from entering your voice. Deep inside, you hadn't forgiven him for abandoning you, but now as he stood before you so pitifully, you could not deny the sympathetic ache within your heart.
The Time Lord gazed out onto the horizon, so far away he seemed as though his mind were in a different universe. "I came to say goodbye." He replied finally, his eyes sparkling with what you were almost sure, were tears.
Slightly frightened, you gently pulled the Time Lord around to face you, fear sending daggers of panic into your heart as you noticed the resignation upon his face; the surrender of a man to accept his terrible fate. Shaking your head, you reached up impulsively to cup his cheek, turning his face until his eyes looked directly into yours.
It was as if all the sorrows of the universe were held within those two orbs as you gazed steadily into one another's eyes. Your breath caught slightly, even as you attempted to hold it steady it continued to tremble like a leaf in a sudden breeze.
"But… where are you going?" You managed to ask finally, your eyes running once again over his handsome features, subconsciously admiring the way the gold morning sun cast long, elegant shadows across his face.
The distant, faraway look in his eyes faded slightly and softened to a disturbing ghost of a smile. "I'm going away."
Claws of ice sunk into your heart as you realised what this meant. Your hand shook in his and you gazed up, hoping with all your heart it couldn't be true. Surely he couldn't be… dying?
"No… no, you can't Doctor." You had waited so long for him. It didn't seem possible. It didn't seem fair. "Please, don't do this…" You began; unable to continue when your trembling voice broke, threatening to become a sob. You cared about him more than you realised, certainly more than he had ever realised, and now he had finally arrived, it was too late. "Please…"
The Doctor reached down, drawing your hand up into both of his. He gazed into your eyes, silently begging you to forgive him. "I'm so, so, sorry." He told you with a voice that had also begun to shake with irrepressible emotion.
He had only left to protect you in the first place, and then he had left you like this. It was wrong, and so unfair, and more importantly, it was entirely his fault.
Instinctively, the Time Lord pulled you close, shudders raking your cold body. You felt him swallow hard as you leaned against him, holding back the tears pricked furiously at his eyes. You knew that your grief and pain were nothing in comparison to his, and that both his hearts were breaking with the inevitability of what was to come.
You buried your head in the pinstriped material, wrapping your arms around his thin form as if the force of your grip alone was enough to stop Death. Warmth surrounded you in the form of the nine hundred and six year old Time Lord when he pulled you tightly against his chest, hands gently stroking your hair.
Several long minutes passed, feeling more like hours or days as you listened to the fading double beats of drums within his chest. Eventually, you pulled away, only to find the Doctor with his face concealed with a hand, hiding the one tear that had escaped his eyes like a stray star falling from the night skies.
Gently, you lifted your hand and entwined your fingers with his in a gesture of affection. Meeting one another's eyes, a silent message passed briefly between you. Then, barely aware of anything but the desperate sadness within his eyes and the burning sympathy within your chest, you slowly wound your spare arm around his neck, drawing yourself up on tiptoes to lay a lingering kiss upon his forehead.
The Time Lord's eyes widened momentarily, a flicker of his old self returning in a cheeky grin that momentarily alighted upon his lips. Before you had chance to think, much less react, you found a pair of soft, needing lips upon yours, and the arms around your waist drew you yet closer to the Doctor's warm body.
Impulsively, you lifted your hand to twine your fingers into the Time Lord's soft brown hair, relishing the silky feel of it slipping between your fingers. You smiled slightly as the Doctor uttered a small noise of content, before breaking away for air. You glanced at one another, panting for a moment, then joined lips once more in a fiery kiss.
For him, this was more than lust, or passion. It was the realisation that he would never again have the chance to love anyone as this person, this Doctor. It was his last opportunity to tell someone how he felt, before he lost this identity forever. But even now, those three words could not be said – could never be said. Not by him.
Indeed it was his fate to defend the universe, occasionally form an attachment before they were cruelly snatched away from him, creating the person he was now. The curse of a Time Lord.
A single tear escaped his eye, even as he maintained the kiss, relishing the sweet feel of your lips upon his, wishing with all both his hearts that he had done this sooner, instead of acting the oblivious fool he always was.
Lifting his hand to your cheek, he gently cupped it, pulled away, gazing with deep compassion into your eyes before laying one last kiss upon your lips then drawing away.
You froze, still recovering from the shock of feeling the Doctor's lips upon yours. It was only when you heard, for the second time in your life, the sound of the TARDIS's doors creaky shut, that you awoke from your reverie. Heart pounding, you ran to the blue box, knowing already what was to come, but even so, you desperately threw yourself against the door. But already the screeching and scraping had begun. The box was beginning to fade in and out of existence, the light on the top shining like a beacon on a lighthouse. You shouted in vain for the Doctor, pounding on the hard wood, then on the air where it had once been until there was nothing left but the ground on which it had stood.
You choked back a sob, your knees collapsing beneath you until you were simply a figure sprawled upon the earth, your head held between your hands. Your heart broken as the jagged glass fallen from your shattered window.
You didn't look again at the spot from where the TARDIS had disappeared. You knew there was no point. He was gone, and he wasn't coming back.
Eventually, you drew yourself up, limp like a rag doll, slowly trudging back to your house, oblivious to the morning's beauty. You pushed open the front door, then slumped inside, coming to rest upon your bed. Only then did you realise you still had the Doctor's worn, battle-scarred brown coat clasped tightly between your fingers. The only remnant of him you had.
Carefully, you pulled it from your shoulders where he had lain it over an hour before, and placed it gently upon your bed, taking a moment to lift the soft fabric to your face and breathe deep the scent of the universe. You frowned slightly upon feeling something in the coat crumple beneath your fingers. Curious, you released the coat and patted the fabric, quickly finding the small slit in the dark brown lining.
A small surge of hope ran through you, suppressed by the Doctor's sudden departure, as you cautiously slipped a hand, then your arm, inside the pocket. After a few moments, you removed your limb, a small slip of creased paper twined around your fingers.
Partly excited, and partly cautious, you carefully smoothed out the paper with trembling hands, diverting your eyes to avoid looking at it, until it was lain creaseless and flat on the bed before you.
You paused for a moment to remember what the Doctor had said to you when you had first met, then dared to glance once more at the piece of paper, face saddening slightly. Unbidden, your eyes scanned the thin scrap, upon which was written elegant script.
A small smile alighted on your face as you tenderly held the note to your chest. That Doctor! He had always been a hopeless romantic.
'You are brilliant, always remember that. Allons-y! ~ Love, the Doctor'
Sorry, the ending really isn't very good, but I really do hate writing endings. Anyway, just randomly had an idea which turned into a one-shot.
The real Doctor Who story should come up sooner or later, but I'm still getting the first chapter together.
Please tell me what you think. There's barely any speech, I know, and I sort of rushed the end so... yeah :S
I'll try and get on with the story anyway, hopefully I'll be able to keep on top of my work.
~ FreeXFallXPhoenix