All I can say is: you're f**king welcome. :)

Thanks to Akayuki Novak, Thoschei and Osdrums are life, the-thirteeth-doctors, Winchester Nimrod, Millennium Ring, Mabudachi-trio, Shadowbat12, FandomsUponFandomsUnleashed, RenkinMaiTai, Tmnt 2012 rocks, Saki-chan16, and Grac3 for reviewing last time, and to anyone else who read. "Blink" coming soon. Ta.


Sam found John hiding in a small cabin in the woods. "Doctor?" said Sam tenderly.

John was sitting on a hassock, hugging himself against the cool November night, shuddering in the dark. "Please leave me alone, Tyler," the skinny man whispered hoarsely.

Sam sat beside him on the edge of the hassock. "Now why would I do that?" he whispered.

John looked at him, fear and hopelessness reflecting in his big brown eyes. "Maybe I should just go to them. Turn myself in-before anyone else gets hurt."

"Doctor, you do that, and they've won," Sam stressed.

"Then what can we do?" John asked. "You're his...friend. Can't you help?"

Sam shook his head. "I'm just one man. I'm not important."

"You are to him."

Sam smiled sadly. "Maybe...but I am so small, so insignificant...compared to him. He's nearly a thousand years old. There've been so many before that have traveled with him, and there'll be many more after I'm gone. It's lonely for him, I imagine-watching the universe turn to dust. No wonder he never stops running."

"Sam," whimpered John quietly. "I don't want to be lonely. I just want to...be. I want...to live in a nice little house, and grow vegetables in the garden, and paint pictures, and take long walks on Sundays...and I want you." He looked down, blushing.

Sam sighed and gently kissed his temple. "John, believe me, if I could live a conventional life with you...it would be the happy ending I never expected. But that's our lives. It's a fantasy, John. You and I...can never be normal."

"Why?" said John, looking up to stare at him dryly. "Because I'm an alien, or because we're both blokes?

Sam smiled wryly back. "Yes."

John gave a hiccupy laugh, in spite of himself. He leaned forward and kissed Sam softly. Sam reciprocated the kiss, cupping the other man's bony cheek with the palm of his hand, drinking in his warm, soft lips.

But their kiss was interrupted by a slight shuddering of the whole cabin. "What's that?" said John.

Another shudder, and a orange flash of light coming from the window. Sam and John arose from the hassock and peered out.

In the distance, brilliant orange fireballs was arcing across the sky, coming to crash down on the tiny town on the horizon. "They're bombing the village," gasped John.

"Martha, Joan, the children," said Sam in horror. He frantically reached into his pocket and pulled out the watch. "Here," he said, holding it out to the other man. "Take it."

John backed away. "No. No, I-I can't."

"Doctor, you're our only hope. It's you they want."

"Stop calling me Doctor!" exclaimed John in anguish. "I-I could never be him. I'm human, and there is nothing special about me!"

Something about those specific words registered with Sam subconsciously, and the drumbeat in the back of his mind grew just a tad bit louder for a moment. "Doc-John. Please. Just..." Sam took John's hand and laid it on top of the watch in his. "Just listen to it."

Closer...closer, little man, the watch beckoned. "It's like he's...sleeping," struggled John, his eyes closed intently, focusing on it.

"You can hear the Doctor?" said Sam.

"Yes. He's...waiting," said John, opening his eyes. "Waiting to awaken." Waken me, little man.

"Then do it," said Sam, his voice breaking with hope. "All you have to do is open the watch, and he's back."

John's eyes darted around, desperately. "What if...what if I just gave them this?" said John, holding out the watch. "They would have what they want. They could leave."

Sam shook his head. "It doesn't work like that." He reached inside his waistcoat and pulled out John Smith's Journal Of Impossible Things. "If those creatures got ahold of the Time Lord within, they would live forever. They would breed and conquer. They would bring destruction over the entire cosmos. It's all right here-in your handwriting."

John began to cry. "You knew all along. Why did you never say anything?"

"What could I have said?" Sam choked, and he realized he was crying too. "Don't you realize how hard this is for me? I finally, finally, have a version of you that can love me back, can grow old with me and be with me. But it's not right for me to keep you. The universe needs the Doctor...we don't have any other choice."

Crying harder, John pressed forward and kissed Sam desperately, his lips salty and full of need. Sam kissed him back just as hard, releasing his inner frustration, his rage, his sorrow. Oh, it wasn't fair. Sam just wanted to keep this Doctor forever, so that they could be the same, so they could belong to each other for as long as they both lived.

Suddenly, the men gasped simultaneously as images flowed from the watch to their minds' eyes. Sam and John were standing in a church, just having gotten done getting married, and sharing their first kiss as man and husband. Then they were both watching over their small firstborn daughter, holding her, raising her together. The two men and their children walked into town, going to market. Then, an elderly John, lying on his death bed, was holding the hand of his devoted partner. "The children send their love. And the grandchildren," said Sam.

"And they're safe?" John asked.

"Yes. All of them."

"Then it is done." John's voice was soft, so weak, so tired. "You have been the best of my life, Sam Tyler. My love. Thank you."

The elderly Sam leaned over and kissed his wrinkled brow. "I love you, John Smith. It has been wonderful. Thank you."

John smiled sleepily at his beloved husband and slowly shut his eyes.

John's eyes flew open. "Did you see?" he whispered sharply.

Sam nodded tearfully. "Yes," he spoke softly. "But it's all made up. It's not real."

Tears afresh sprang to the human's eyes as he squeezed them shut. "I love you," he wept.

"And I love you too," said Sam, pressing his forehead to the other man's, stroking his hair. "And it would've been wonderful. I'm so sorry."

They stood together for a few more minutes, crying and holding each other, as the fireballs continued to fly outside. Then, John opened his eyes, a hardness set to them. He took the watch from Sam's hand. "Well then," he whispered, staring at it. "Tis time to do it."


The Time Lord returned. And he punished those who had hunted him, had killed, had terrorized, had ruined the happiness of his human self and so many others. He didn't kill them, no. He did something worse. He gave them exactly what they had wanted: to live forever. Only to exist in the worst way possible.

And he never even raised his voice.


Sam pulled on his hoodie over his regular, 21st century clothes and stared at himself in the mirror. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a little flash of movement. Sam shuddered and hurriedly turned away from his reflection.

Sam headed down the corridor and into the console room. Martha was already aboard and sleeping in her room, exhausted from the long night of caring for the schoolboys. All that was missing was their extraterrestrial pilot, who was just entering the TARDIS now. He had changed out of his Edwardian camouflage, and was wearing his normal brown pinstriped suit and long brown coat again. His shoulders, Converse, and spiky hair was slightly damp from the rain that fell outside.

"Hey," said Sam tentatively as the Time Lord firmly closed the door of the TARDIS behind himself.

The Doctor turned and looked at him, and Sam recognized the oldness that reappeared behind those brown cow eyes once more. "Hey," said the Doctor quietly.

"So...tie up the loose ends and all that?" asked Sam, coming down the stairs and standing at the bottom as the Doctor solemnly flicked switches and pulled levers on the console, sending them into the Vortex.

"Yeah." The Doctor's voice was hollow-sounding, but then sort of solidified. "Time we moved on."

"I agree," said Sam. "Well...good to have you back, Doctor." He awkwardly nodded and turned to go back up the stairs.

"Sam." The Doctor's voice stopped Sam dead in his tracks. "I think you should know...I remember being John Smith."

"Oh?" said Sam nonchalantly, pivoting around on one heel. His heart was suddenly beating hard in his chest.

"Yes," said the Doctor. "I remember all of it."

"All of it, huh," gulped Sam. They stared at each other for a good long while.

Then the Doctor smiled.

In three long strides, he was across the console room and tipping Sam's face up to kiss him. Sam inhaled with surprise and kissed the Time Lord back. The Doctor chuckled warmly into the kiss, winding his stringy arms around the shorter man's torso, pulling him close. Their three hearts beat against each other in perfect synchronicity.

Sam's cheeks were burning with delighted embarrassment. "I hate you. Idiot," he murmured against the Time Lord's lips.

"Doesn't feel that way to me," the Doctor smirked. Sam blushed even more, and kissed the Time Lord harder to shut him up.