Chapter 13

This is the day I die thought The Doctor as he stood in the doorway of the TARDIS which he had parked just outside of a dying galaxy. He thought it fitting. It had been hours since Lily had had the vision in which she predicted that he would finally lose his life and he had done nothing but think about it ever since she had retired to her room. For him the concept of death seemed strange and alien, even though he had been surrounded by it his entire life. After nine regenerations he had come to see his own death as just a new start with a new face; nothing to be truly frightened of, but this time was different. Lily hadn't mentioned a regeneration. When she had tried to see his future all she saw was darkness, no new start at all. But he still held out hope.

He was finally roused from his thoughts as Lily appeared behind him. She seemed awkward and tense and it wasn't hard to imagine why, having basically told The Doctor that today would be his last day.

"Morning." she said.

"Well technically it's the afternoon to be precise," he replied, turning to face her with his usual smile. "In fact to be even more precise it's the year five thousand three hundred and seventy seven and it's Tuesday afternoon."

That made her smile. "Okay fine, good afternoon."

"So where to now?" he asked.

"I-I'm not sure. I mean…"

"Come on; don't tell me you're worried about the whole death thing are you? You could be wrong you know."

Once again she smiled. "Okay. Where do you suggest?"

The Doctor said nothing. Instead he simply messed around with a few controls and waited as the TARDIS made its familiar sound.

Stepping out of the TARDIS, The Doctor and Lily were greeted with a sight they weren't expecting: modern day London. The Time Lord was stony faced.

"This isn't a coincidence," he said, looking around at the high rise buildings they had landed between. "The TARDIS has brought me here because this is where I need to be."

Lily looked worried. She was scared for The Doctor, her Doctor. She stayed silent as he closed the doors to the TARDIS and began to walk out of the alleyway and onto the streets of London. She followed close behind and wondered if she should say something.

It seemed that the TARDIS had landed in the centre of London. There were a lot of people about walking back and forth, getting on with their daily lives. As the two time-travellers walked around the centre of the capital The Doctor began to get more and more agitated as he looked at the people that passed them.

"Something's wrong." he finally said.

"What? Everything looks fine to me." replied Lily.

"No, there's something wrong, something off about all of this. I just can't seem to put my finger on it."

"Well it looks like a typical day in London to me. A lot of depressed and overworked people walking around looking miserable."

"Well aren't you a barrel of laughs?" he asked, turning to her with half a grin.

"If you think I'm wrong then you've obviously never spent that much time here." She laughed back.

"Actually…" he began.

"What?"

"What did you say before?"

"When?"

"About the people. You said they all looked depressed."

"Yeah I did."

"That's what's wrong. Look at all these people," he said as if he had just had an epiphany. "They're all miserable! Not a smile to be seen for miles."

"I still don't see anything out of the ordinary." Lily remarked.

"Humans. You're so depressing sometimes. Not enough bananas, that's what that is. Bananas are good. In fact…"

Suddenly The Doctor lurched forward as if shot from behind and then fell to his knees. He placed his hands on the ground and breathed heavily as Lily rushed to his side.

"Doctor! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just a little…tired I guess." he replied as he got back to his feet with Lily's help.

"Didn't look like tiredness to me."

"I'm fine," he replied, getting to his feet. "Anyway, let's go and see…"

"Doctor…" began Lily. "Who's Rose?"

The Doctor froze as those words hit his ears. "Where did you hear that from?" he asked.

"I saw it. Just then when you fell. It was like that name leapt from within you. For just a split second I was in your mind again and that was the only word in your head."