This is set right before the Doctor visits Craig. I had the idea for this after the Christmas special. This one has nothing to do with my other story, well I guess it could but you don't need to know my other one to read this.
-Last Thoughts-
The Doctor was walking around some street on some planet in some solar system. That was what it was to other people and things. To the Doctor it was a very important street on a very important planet in a very important solar system.
He was on Earth. In London. On...well he didn't know which street but details.
He had gotten bored, which he often did when no one was around to listen to him. So he decided to get out and go for a walk.
He was alone now. He had sent Amy and Rory away, given them a nice house and Rory a cool new car. He knew his end was coming. He knew his time was just about up. Last time he knew he was going to die he tried to run some more, tried to prolong it. But no, it hadn't helped. Then he was alone too. He was always alone. Except when he had those amazingly wonderful humans with him. He needed them more than he really wanted to admit. He loved those silly humans. He knew he would see Amy and Rory and even River soon enough. A past them, but still them. A long time ago when he met them in America and everyone had gotten TARDIS blue envelopes. He knew he would die there and his friends would have to watch. But he couldn't let anything get a hold of his body once he was gone. He still needed them even after death.
The Doctor was walking down a very busy and crowded street. He loved busy streets, so much life in them. Humans rushing about, not even paying a split seconds attention to the strange man in tweed and red bow tie. They could be so unobservant at times. But he loved them. Crazy little humans, blindly feeling their way around the universe.
He checked his watch, it was sometime in June in the year 2011. He didn't really need to check his watch to know that but he had started doing that so he just kept it up.
He never came to London much. He should really have done that more, he loved London. And anyway, any time past 2010 was perfectly safe. The only one he could possibly see was Wilfred and good old Wilfred wouldn't know him, not with his new face.
He sighed. He knew perfectly well why he still didn't even though it was safe. Because even though it was technically safe, it wasn't. London held too many memories, to many things he preferred not to think about.
But what did it matter now? If he was going to really die this time would it be so bad to see Wilfred? He could never see Donna though. The Doctor truly didn't think he could handle that. The most important woman in the universe, and she didn't even know it, not to mention she was another best friend. But he did finally good this time, he made sure Amy and Rory got a proper goodbye and were well off to have a wonderful life.
All his companions and he always ended up alone in the end. But he always knew that. It still never stopped him because they were the very best part of his life. They made him happy. And even though he would always be sad later that time of happiness was always so very necessary, because of the fact he would be sad later.
So he walked around London again. Because it did hold so many terrible memories, but it also held so very many wonderful ones. He once told Amy that life was piles of good and bad, and one didn't always overcome the other. Sometimes he still forgot that.
He passed a chip cart. A very familiar one at that. He smiled at the man and ordered some. He knew he overpaid the man by a lot but it didn't matter. He sat on a bench and ate those chips. He was glad to see that even with a new mouth he still liked them.
Chips. He really hadn't had them in a long time. He avoided things like that. Just as he avoided London. Now that he thought about it, there was really one reason he avoided them. One thing he really avoided thinking about.
Rose Tyler.
Rose Marion Tyler.
She was his one. The one humans always talk about. The one, one they write songs and plays and films about. Some humans called them soul mates.
Whatever it was called that was what Rose was. The one thing he truly loved, save the TARDIS, more than anything in any universe. She had been the one to heal him after the Time War. He had loved her ever since his ninth self had said that one little word, 'run', and she followed him.
He had given everything to try to make her happy. He knew she would be better off with someone who could grow old with her. Even though all he wanted was to keep her with him. His one real act of unselfishness. It killed had nearly killed him too. All those times he said she knew. All those times he had been so stupid and blind and so absorbed in his own self pity to see what was standing right in front of him.
Now he knew what he wished he had known back then. That life, for all it's worth, is made of the good and the bad. That if you can be happy, even if you know you will be sad later, be happy because you will be sad later.
If he had known then, his life would be so very different.
The Doctor was an old hypocrite. He knew that. But now he had managed to set things right for once. He had given everyone closure. Well not himself.
And oh! He had forgotten something. One last visit he needed to make.
The lovely Craig. He would visit Craig first. Then no more putting it off.
He set the chips on the bench. As he turned around he saw a woman with fiery red hair yelling at her cell phone.
"Yes granddad! I know. I know! I'll be home soon. Yeah, yes I have the blue paint, why you want your door blue I will never know." He beamed at the woman. "Hold on a mo. Yes can I help you?" she asked him.
"What? Oh me! No, no you just go on being fantastic. You live an amazing life Donna Noble. You just be amazing." he shook her hand, and hugged her. Then turned to disappear around a corner leaving a very confused Donna behind him.
He wiped away a tear and opened the doors to the TARDIS. "Well old girl, one last go. Then we say good bye. River will take care of you I imagine, oh you'll have your circuits full with that one." he smiled and stroked his TARDIS.
With a last mad dance around his console, he headed off to see Craig.
