p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"One night, as lay in his bed drifting in and out of sleep, Clara Oswald came to him. He had often dreamed of her and was half expecting to wake up as he had so many times before, but as the apparition stayed resolutely put he slowly realised that she really em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"was/em there this time. He looked up from his pillow and found her smiling down at him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal""Hello old man."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He frowned, 50 years was nothing; there was still so much for her to experience. "No no no," he objected, "you shouldn't be here you should be out there living your life."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Gently she shook her head still smiling, "I emhave/em lived my life, many more years than I was technically allowed thanks to you, and I have seen some truly amazing things but all good things must come to an end. There is nothing I would rather do at this moment than help you here and now and then accept my own fate. Who knows, maybe we will meet again./p
p class="MsoNormal"She reached out her hands and he allowed her to pull him from his bed./p
p class="MsoNormal""Come with me, we're having a picnic."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Who's we?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"She laughed as she led him from the room, "You'll see."/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"Meanwhile a couple of guards on the night shift were absently watching the security cameras, their feet up on the desk taking it in turns to have a sneaky snooze, after all nothing happened on the night shift, they were only there just in case. Suddenly a figure in a nightshirt seemingly sleepwalking down a corridor caught their eye on one of the monitors./p
p class="MsoNormal""Uh oh, the Doctor's sundowning again," one said to the other with a cheeky grin./p
p class="MsoNormal"His colleague cuffed him over the back of the head with a scowl, "Show some respect Hadrel, that's a former President you're talking about emand/em one that's twice the Time Lord you could ever hope to be."/p
p class="MsoNormal"He held up his hands placatingly, "Hey, hey, take it easy Marin, it was just a joke."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Unbeknownst to the guards there was a click as someone or something locked the door from the outside./p
p class="MsoNormal"Marin was manipulating the cameras trying to track the Doctor's progress through the Capitol, but he found all he could get was static. He got up from his chair, "I'm just going to go and make sure he's alright," he said walking to the door. It didn't open. He tried the handle, still nothing, he tried moving it manually but it wouldn't budge. He banged on the door, "Hey! Is there anyone out there!? We're locked in!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""Try your communicator!" suggested Hadrel frantically trying his own. But there was no response./p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"Down in the corridors the Doctor stumbled after Clara trusting that she knew where they were going as she led them out into the night air along by the gurgling river until they came to a big tree in full bloom under which was spread a blanket and hamper. He stopped for breath feeling rather light headed and Clara helped him to lie down on the blanket./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"Clara produced a bottle of Champagne from the hamper, popped the cork and handed him a full glass./p
p class="MsoNormal""Are we celebrating something?" he asked./p
p class="MsoNormal"She smiled again and ran her fingers through his hair. "You. We're celebrating you."/p
p class="MsoNormal""I've got something for Ashildr," he remembered suddenly, "It's in my coat pocket."/p
p class="MsoNormal""We know, and she's grateful to you. She's just a bit busy right now."/p
p class="MsoNormal"For a while they talked about what adventures they'd got up to since they'd last seen each other as she refilled his glass and fed him bits of cheese and pineapple and cocktail sausages on sticks but soon he grew impatient./p
p class="MsoNormal""You said there'd be others, where are the others?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Clara cradled his head in her lap and gently shushed him, stroking his hair away from his forehead./p
p class="MsoNormal""Hush, just wait… just wait."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Gradually they came into his field of vision and knelt by his side. First his mother and father, wife and children, then Susan, Ian and Barbara, Vicki, Steven, Katarina, Sara, Dodo, Polly and Ben, then Jamie, Victoria and Zoë./p
p class="MsoNormal"After them came the Brigadier, Benton and Yates, Liz, Jo, Sarah Jane with her companions; Luke, Maria, Rani, Clyde, Harry, Leela, Romana with K9 trundling along behind, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan followed by Turlough./p
p class="MsoNormal"Then Peri, Erimem, Mel, Evelyn, Ace and Hex, Bernice, Roz and Chris, Grace, Lucie, Charley, C'rizz, Molly./p
p class="MsoNormal"And still they came; Rose, Mickey, Jack, Martha and Donna, Wilf, Jenny, Astrid, Amy and Rory, River Song, Bill, and with each wave there were still other figures who blurred into the background until he was lying in the midst of a great crowd of his friends and family./p
p class="MsoNormal"He felt pure love radiating from them as he was rocked gently in Clara's arms and when he looked up he was gratified to see that this time there were stars. And not just any stars, but familiar stars he had known when he was a boy. He traced their constellations one last time as he slipped peacefully off to sleep./p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" /p
p class="MsoNormal"span lang="EN-GB"Meanwhile in the guard tower the guards were feeling despondent. All their efforts to get out or alert anyone else to the situation had come to nothing and they were sure that some catastrophe had befallen the outside world and they were stuck where they were. So they were startled the following morning when the next shift came to relieve them as normal./span/p
p class="MsoNormal""What on Gallifrey's going on?!" exclaimed Marin, "We've been locked in all night with only static on the monitors, no-one answered our distress calls, what's the disaster?!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"The new guards looked quizzically at each other, they hadn't noticed any emergency, everything in the Capitol was calm and peaceful. The door hadn't even been locked./p
p class="MsoNormal"They moved to the monitors and cycled through the cameras, they were all working perfectly./p
p class="MsoNormal""What are you talking about? Everything's fine."/p
p class="MsoNormal""He's not making it up," cut in Hadrel, "We've both been calling for help for hours."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Ah well, there's nothing to worry about now, you go and get some rest and we'll look into it just in case; it was probably just a prank by some naughty student."/p
p class="MsoNormal""Well I don't find it very funny," grumbled Marin before remembering the reason he was going to leave in the first place. "The President!"/p
p class="MsoNormal"He swiftly scanned the screens for any sign of him. Nothing. He must be outside the Citadel. He ran from the room closely followed by Hadrel. The relief crew looked bemusedly at one another and shrugged, settling down to their jobs./p