Title: Sometimes you need… (Part 2 of 4)
Author: azmatazz/entercreativename
Characters/Pairings: Rose/Ten, original characters
Rating: PG
Word Count: 7,500
Beta: belsum
Warnings: Character Death (but in a very good way)
Disclaimer: Rose, the Doctor, and the TARDIS all belong to the BBC, Russell T. Davies, and everyone else in the production team.
Summary: The Doctor finds his way back to Bad Wolf Bay where he meets Thomas, a young boy charged to his care.

Tommy waited and waited, and the morning dew turned to the afternoon sun, which turned to the lightest pinks and purples of dusk. But, there was still no sign of the man or his blue box. Tommy jumped down off the rock and kicked it, angry that all those adults in his Gramum's room lied to him. Especially, his Grampa. Tommy had sung all the songs while waiting, sung to the point where his voice had gone hoarse and his throat dry with tears and silent rage. And now, he was angry and cold and tired and hungry and he just wanted to hug his Gramum one more time. Just once.

But the adults in the house up on the hill wouldn't let him. The adults didn't think he understood words like "never," and "can't," and "death" and "disease." He might not know those words, but when his own Gramum wouldn't wake up, he knew something bad had happened. And when his dad cried, he knew it was worse. His dad who barely had grown old. So little Tommy stood by the rock and he kicked and he screamed and he yelled, because really, all he wanted was his Gramum there to tell him it was okay. He didn't want to be out in the cold waiting for this postman to come and pick up the letter.

Stupid letter.

Tommy stared at it in his hands and within seconds he found himself ripping it in half as he began to understand what "never" and "can't" meant; they were the same as "no." No, he could not sing to her. No, he could not be with her in her room. No, this paper would never be important anymore, not if she could never sing to him again. Now he could never learn new things from her. Gramum said that when she was better (she always was better, why did she become sick now? Why was she asleep?), she would take him to the town for ice cream and teach him about peaches and strawberries. He'd like those she said. But, now that she'd never wake up, how could she do that? You can't take someone to town if you can't wake up. His Gramum would never again teach him new things, nor sing to him.

Never. Can't. No.

He looked back down at the paper in his hand and started to tear it a second time when a blue box began to appear just down the beach. It was loud and scary and he ran behind the rock to hide from the noise and the wind and the light that it made. He remembered his Gramum trying to teach him a word, now what was it again? It was important; important like "blue" but even more. Tommy sat and thought for all his might. He tried and tried and tried. That word was something like P-O-L-I-C-E; he remembered because of the rhyme "Poor Old Lester, Ice Cream Eater. Buy our Xpensive…" He looked up from behind the rock and saw those six (or was it seven? He was still bad at counting, his Gramum was supposed to help him with it. Other maths things came easy, but not counting yet) letters on the top of the box, and a thin man in a brown striped suit with fuzzy hair just like Tommy's stepped out of it.

"Here we go," the man from the blue box said as he ducked his head out, but something was wrong and he stopped. He was smiling at first, but now he looked sad as he said, "No, it can't be…" He took another few steps and stopped, staring at Tommy who was just peering out from behind the rock. Tommy jumped back and hid when the man looked at him. "Hello?" the man said as he crouched in front of Tommy, curious and young.

"It's okay, I'm the Doctor, and who are you?" the man asked as Tommy swallowed hard.

"I'm Tommy Turner, I'm five, and I live here," Tommy said as he swallowed back all his fear. He was still somewhat scared from the noise of the blue box and the sudden appearance of this postman.

The Doctor peeked behind the rock as if looking for something. "Well, what an odd house. It looks like a rock. I do hope it's bigger on the inside!" the Doctor grinned as Tommy laughed.

"It's not my house, my house is up there," he pointed up towards the top of the hill. But he frowned as he stepped forward as he realized that he stepped on the very important paper he was supposed to give the man from the blue box that his Grampa told him about. "Uh-oh," he whimpered as he realized that the Doctor was that man.

The Doctor looked down at the torn papers under Tommy's feet. "It's okay Tommy, I can fix anything!" he said as he took out what looked like a silver pen with a blue end. The Doctor pressed a button and the pen lit up and made a sound and within seconds the letter was whole again.

"Doctor, are you the man from the blue box?" Tommy asked as the Doctor put the pen back in his pocket.

"I guess you could call me that."

"I'm supposed to give you that letter, the one in your hands." Tommy pointed to the letter the Doctor was now holding. The Doctor looked down at it and frowned. "My Grampa said it was important," he said, unsure of what he had to do next.

The Doctor opened the envelope and looked over the paper within. Tommy didn't know what was written on there, but the Doctor looked sadder and sadder as each second ticked by. Soon, the Doctor put his hands by his side and the letter fluttered to the sand by his feet. He looked up at the house and sighed, as if he had just been hurt. Tommy wanted to help, but didn't know how; he wanted to hug this postman man, but he was too afraid. Then he had an idea. Tommy said, "Sir, my Grampa said I'm supposed to sing for you. He says no one really knows the song but my Gramum," even though Grampa never told him to sing for him. Of course, Grampa never told Tommy not to sing for the postman man from the blue box either.

The Doctor walked over to the rock and sat next to Tommy, giving his full attention to the boy. "Okay, go ahead," he said as he looked down at Tommy.

Tommy cleared his throat. "It's just that, no one really knows the songs except Gramum and me, and my mum and my dad think it's silly. But she can't help me sing them now, she's asleep."

The Doctor smiled, "It's okay Tommy my boy, try it anyway. You never know what you can do unless you try, and besides, I'm always up for a good song," he said as Tommy licked his lips, blinking the fear down his throat, and began to sing.

And did Tommy ever sing. He sang one song, and the Doctor smiled a big proud smile. He sang another and another, pushing through the wind and the sea air that stung at his throat. And with each song the Doctor seemed happier and happier, even though Tommy didn't know why.

"…Gallifrey of Kasterborous, of Citadel and Schism.
Shining World of Seven Systems,
the memories that we sing.
Of Time and Space and worlds between,
of mountains twin above,
The lights of far and in our hearts…"

But then, Tommy got to the next part of the song and just as he made it past the hardest part, disaster struck. He forgot the words. Tommy tried and tried, and he didn't know if it was the cold or the fact that he missed his Gramum, but he found himself crying.

"I'm sorry," Tommy said as he tried to hide his shame for not remembering those most important words for the most important tasks.

The Doctor smiled and said, "Tommy," and the boy looked up at him. And all of a sudden, the Doctor began to sing the song just the way Tommy's Gramum had taught him. All the right words, and all the weird places and things, like Skaro and Gallifrey. And Daleks and Time Lords. And the Untempered Schism and the Vortex. And Lady Time herself. The Doctor knew all the songs. Tommy ran up to the Doctor and put his arms around him; he had never met someone who could sing those songs the way his Gramum could. The Doctor hugged him back.

"Where did you learn those songs?" Tommy asked.

"On Gallifrey."

"But those were Gramum's songs."

"Who do you think taught them to her?" the Doctor smiled. Tommy smiled back.

"What's in the paper?" Tommy asked.

"A letter," the Doctor said, not hiding anything from Tommy.

"From who?"

"Your Gramum, my Rose." He said as he smiled back at Tommy, sadness took over his face. Tommy knew it was important. "Tommy, I need your help."

The little boy, now growing up, nodded in response. Whatever the Doctor asked him to do was just as important as anything he did for his Gramum. Because Tommy knew that this man knew his Gramum a very long time ago.

"I need you to take me to your Gramum," the Doctor said as he stood up from the rock, picking up the letter in the process. Tommy took the Doctor's hand and led him up the hill to the home and into the room where all the adults were. His mum and dad looked at the Doctor as if he were an intruder in the home, someone bad about to do something even worse. But his Grampa looked at the Doctor and broke into a small smile. The Doctor looked back at Tommy's Grampa and smiled the same smile and nodded back as he led Tommy to stand with Grampa for the moment. Grampa held Tommy close to him.

The Doctor sat on the bed next to Tommy's Gramum and held her head in his hands, the way she did when he was in the hospital, and the Doctor took Gramum's hand and held it in his and stroked it. He kissed Tommy's Gramum on the forehead and began to sing the song that Tommy sang for him. And the Doctor kept singing, stroking his Gramum's cheek. The Doctor stopped for a moment and motioned for Tommy to come over, so he did, and the Doctor helped Tommy onto the bed between him and Tommy's Gramum. Tommy saw his mum look at them with fear and his father stared with a stern look at the Doctor; this must be the man his Gramum kept telling them stories about from her youth.

But nothing bad happened. The Doctor asked Tommy to help him sing a song. So they sang the song together, his mum and dad and Grampa and uncle and aunt all crying. But Tommy still didn't know why they were crying. He knew his Gramum would never wake up, but he also knew that he was able to sing to her, and she'd like that. So Tommy didn't cry and neither did the Doctor because they were singing to his Gramum. For a moment the Doctor stopped singing, but kept rocking Tommy in his arms. When he joined back in to sing, he was singing in words that Tommy had never heard before. Tommy stopped singing.

"What is it Tommy?" the Doctor asked.

"Those words? Where are they from?"

The Doctor smiled. "Gallifrey."

"Is that where Gramum is going?"

The Doctor choked back a tear and hugged Tommy closer to him. "You can say that," he said as he stood up and helped Tommy down off the bed. The Doctor knelt down in front of him placing his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Tommy," he said, "I have something very important for you to do for me."

"Okay," Tommy said.

"I need you to wait here and sing to your Gramum for a few minutes. It's really important, because I know she'd want to hear you sing to her right now. Can you do that for me?"

"Okay," Tommy said again. The Doctor led everyone out of the room and Tommy was left alone to sing to his Gramum. He knew that she would not wake, but it was okay, because he could sing to her now, just as she would want.

What seemed like ages had passed as Tommy sang many, many songs, when the door opened and he heard the Doctor say, "It's all here in the letter, she would have wanted it this way," to his parents as Grampa and his dad and uncle followed the Doctor into the room.

"Tommy, I need your help with something," he said as the other men wrapped Gramum in a blanket. Tommy didn't seem to know why they would do that, but the Doctor seemed to know what was happening. "I need you to lead us down to my blue box," he said and handed a torch to Tommy. It was late and the sun had long since set; they needed the light to see down to the beach. The Doctor and the other men picked up Gramum and carried her down behind him to the blue box. When they got there, Tommy realized that his mum and aunt had followed them down with a small suitcase: Tommy's suitcase.

"Mum, are we going on a trip?" he asked.

Tommy's mum gave him the suitcase, "Tommy, we decided that you should go with the Doctor and your Gramum for little while; just a short trip. She wanted it that way, she wanted you to meet him, travel with him a bit. And you'll be back tomorrow." The other people had left the beach and it was now just Tommy, the Doctor, and Tommy's mum who was now pulling his coat tight around him and smoothing down that one stray hair. Tommy's Gramum lay asleep, wrapped in a blanket by the blue box.

"Okay," Tommy said as the Doctor carried Gramum into the blue box, the letter dropping to the ground from the Doctor's hand but no one had noticed, not even Tommy.

Tommy thought he heard his mum say something to him behind tears but he wasn't sure. He was so excited to go on a trip, especially with the Doctor and his Gramum, even though she would never wake up. He was okay with it now though as he and the Doctor were able to sing for her. But there was one thing left that made Tommy wonder, "Are we going to Gallifrey?"

"Better," the Doctor said. "We're going to take Gramum to see the stars. One last time." Tommy had heard his Gramum tell him about all the adventures she had in the stars, back in the old days before she came here to Bad Wolf Bay.

"Okay," Tommy said as he took the Doctor's hands and walked onto the blue box with him. They watched Tommy's mum from the monitor as they disappeared from the beach and into the stars. On the sand near her feet lay the yellowed letter, forgotten in the events of the night.

To be continued…