He was still in shock. They had somehow got away and had made it back to the school, He assembled the troops and then made his way to the servants quarters to make sure Kiam was all right. Leaving him there he headed back to the battle. But as they fired on the scarecrows a worse battle flashed in from of his eyes and he ordered the boys to retreat from the school. Martha has come running down, the stairs, Kiam in her arms and they ran from the building with Joan beside them. They hid in the bushes and watched Clarks standing out side the blue box from his Dreams.
"Doctor! Doctor! Come back, Doctor. Come home. Come and claim your prize." Clark called.
"Out you come, Doctor. There's a good boy. Come to the Family." Baines yelled.
"Time to end it now." Jenny pitched in.
"You recognise it, don't you?" Martha said.
"I've never seen it in my life." He tried to lie.
"Do you remember its name?" Martha asked.
"I'm sorry, John, but you wrote about it. The blue box. You dreamt of a blue box." Joan said.
"I'm not. I'm John Smith. That's all I want to be. John Smith, with his life, and his job, and his love and his child. Why can't I be John Smith? Isn't he a good man?"
"Yes. Yes, he is." Joan replied.
"Why can't I stay?"
"But we need the Doctor."
"What am I, then? Nothing. I'm just a story." Holding Kiam tightly to him, he turned and ran away.
"This way. I think I know somewhere we can hide." Joan said.
"We've got to keep going." He replied.
"Just listen to me for once, John. Now, follow me."
-Dw-
They came across a cottage and he heard Joan say.
Oh, here we are. It should be empty. Oh, it's a long time since I've run that far."
"But who lives here?" Martha asked.
"If I'm right, no one."
They head inside and find it dark.
"Hello? No one home. We should be safe here."
"Whose house is it, though?"
"Er, the Cartwrights. That little girl at the school, she's Lucy Cartwright, or she's taken Lucy Cartwright's form. If she came home this afternoon and if the parents tried to stop their little girl, then they were vanished." she walks over to a table and touches the teapot sitting on it. "Stone cold. How easily I accept these ideas."
"I must go to them, before anyone else dies."
"You can't. Martha, there must be something we can do."
"Not without the watch." Martha said sadly.
"You're this Doctor's companion. Can't you help? What exactly do you do for him? Why does he need you?"
"Because he's lonely."
"And that's what you want me to become."
They all turned at the sudden knock at the door.
"What if it's them?"
"I'm not an expert, but I don't think scarecrows knock." He watches Martha open the door. And come back into the room with Timothy.
"I brought you this." Timothy says holding out the watch.
"Hold it."
"I won't."
"Please, just hold it." Martha pleads.
"It told me to find you. It wants to be held."
"You've had this watch all this time? Why didn't you return it?" Joan scolded him.
"Because it was waiting. And because I was so scared of the Doctor."
"Why?"
"Because I've seen him. He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun." Timothy began.
"Stop it."
"He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe."
"Stop it! I said stop it."
"And he's wonderful." Timothy finally finished.
"I've still got this. The journal." Joan said pulling it out.
"Those are just stories." The Doctor replied passing the baby to Martha, and heading to Joan.
"Now we know that's not true. Perhaps there's something in here."
"What the hell?" Martha said. They look out the window to see fireballs falling to the the earth.
"They're destroying the village." Joan said sadly.
"The watch."
"John, don't."
Closer. he hears a voice say.
"Can you hear it?" Timothy asked him.
"I think he's asleep. Waiting to awaken." he replied.
Little man. The voice says.
"Why did he speak to me?"
"Oh, low level telepathic field. You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing. Is that how he talks?"
"That's him. All you have to do is open it and he's back."
"You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I"
"I didn't know how to stop you. He gave me a list of things to watch out, for but that wasn't included."
"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him? What about my son, is he just part of this story as well."
"No."
"Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?"
"It was always going to end, though! The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said."
"So your job was to execute me."
"People are dying out there. They need him and I need him. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him. It wasn't even that long ago. But he is everything. He's just everything to me and he doesn't even look at me, but I don't care, because I love him to bits. And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this."
"It's getting closer." Timothy piped up.
"I should have thought of it before. I can give them this. Just the watch. Then they can leave and I can stay as I am."
"You can't do that!"
"If they want the Doctor, they can have him."
"He'll never let you do it."
"If they get what they want, then, then" He stuttered.
"Then it all ends in destruction. I never read to the end, but those creatures would live forever to breed and conquer, for war across the stars for every child. Martha, Timothy, would you leave us alone, please?"
He watches as they leave, Martha still carrying Kiam in her arms. Than Joan scoops him into a hug as he cries.
"If I could do this instead of you, then I would. I'd hoped. But my hopes aren't important."
"He won't love you."
"If he's not you, then I don't want him to. I had one husband, and he died. I never thought, ever again. And then you were so"
"And it was real. I wasn't. I really thought."
"Let me see. Blasted thing. Blasted, blasted thing. Can't even hear it. It says nothing to me."
He places his hands over her's and the watch.
He seems himself as he kisses his bride as the bells ring. He holds their first-born child. They take two children for a walk in the woods. He lies on his death bed, an old man.
"They're all safe, aren't they? The children, the grandchildren. Everyone's safe?" he asks
"Everyone's safe, and they all send their love, John." she replies.
"Well, it's time. Thank you."
"Did you see?" He asks Joan.
"The Time Lord has such adventures, but he could never have a life like that."
"And yet I could."
"What are you going to do?"
Thinking about the child with Martha. He picks up the watch and opens it.
-DW-
"Is it done?" Joan asked.
"It's done." He replied. He was standing in her doorway watching her.
"The police and the army are at the school. The parents have come to take the boys home. I should go. They'll have so many questions. I'm not sure what to say. Oh, you look the same. Goodness, you must forgive my rudeness. I find it difficult to look at you. Doctor, I must call you Doctor. Where is he? John Smith?"
"He's in here somewhere."
"Like a story. Could you change back?"
"Yes." He replied honestly.
"Will you?"
"No."
"I see. Well, then. He was braver that you in the end, that ordinary man. You chose to change. He chose to die."
"Come with us."
"I'm sorry?"
"Travel with us." he said again.
"As what?"
"My companion."
"But that's not fair. What must I look like to you, Doctor? I must seem so very small."
"No. We could try to be friends. I'd like that. You and me."
"I can't."
"Please come with me."
"I can't." Joan replied.
"Why not?" The Doctor asked.
"John Smith is dead, and you look like him." Joan said.
"But he's here, inside, if you look in my eyes." He found himself pleading.
"Answer me this. Just one question, that's all. If the Doctor had never visited us, if he'd never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died? You can go."
He turns and leaves and heads to the Tardis.
-DW-
He sees Martha standing in the field next to the Tardis. She is holding up Kiam as he stomps his feet in a puddle Laughing. Kiam looks up to him and smiles. He scoops the toddler up to him and hugs him tightly.
"Right then. Molto bene." He said standing next to the Tardis with her.
Martha looked at him. "How was she?"
"Time we moved on." He said avoiding the question.
"If you want, I could go and"
"Time we moved on." He repeated.
"Er, I meant to say, back there, last night. I would have said anything to get you to change." She said.
"Oh yeah, of course you would. Yeah."
"I mean, I wasn't really" She tried to explain.
"Oh, no, no." He teased.
"So here we are then." Martha said
"There we are, yes. And I never said. Thanks for looking after me and Kiam." He gives her a one armed hug.
"Doctor. Martha." Timothy says.
"Tim Timothy Timber." The Doctor jokes.
"I just wanted to say goodbye. And thank you. Because I've seen the future and I now know what must be done. It's coming, isn't it? The biggest war ever."
"You don't have to fight." Martha says.
"I think we do." Timothy replied.
"But you could get hurt."
"Well, so could you, travelling around with him, but it's not going to stop you."
"Tim, I'd be honoured if you'd take this." He hands him the Fob watch.
"I can't hear anything."
"No, it's just a watch now. But keep it with you, for good luck."
"Look after yourself." Martha says giving Timothy a hug and kiss and then heads into the Tardis.
"You'll like this bit." The Doctor says. He goes into the Tardis and closes the doors. "Where too next," he asks Martha, sending the Tardis in to the vortex.