A down-looking young man, around twenty-two, stares down at the crag leading into the waterway below his feet as he stood on the railings of a bridge during the quiet early mornings before traffic picked up.
The waves clashed against the sharp rocks as he contemplates the events that lead him to decide such dreadful thoughts.
The mistakes that hound him day and night, the constant regrets, the inability to forgive himself, and the failures he should've foresaw, bubbled within him as he looked down at the crag.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I should've listened!"
Thinking back on his mistakes, he wished he'd listened to his former friend.
However, his foolishness pushed her away and now he's alone, with no one around him to help.
His father's dead.
His mum passed away when he was born.
No other family that he's able to turn to and no friends left, ones that he trusted.
His back against the wall, the young man thought this the only way out of his man-made hell.
His legs wobbled as he tried to gain enough courage to do it and he sees the waves clashing against the sharp rocks.
If he dropped just right, his head should crack like an egg, be dead before he even blinks. Drop on the pointy end, do the same thing, just be a minute later before he dies.
"I'm so sorry, Lena," he whimpered.
Oh, Lena, the only friend he ever had in that village, the one who tried to set him straight multiple times. The only friend who listened to him. How awful he treated her for her troubles.
All because, she wanted him to do better and not chase skirts, drugs, drink, whatever else he gotten up to during his younger years.
Lena only meant well.
She lost her uncle to drugs so sudden while living with him in the village and had nowhere else to go, she tried to rectify those mistakes in hopes of preventing it from happening again.
It's this reason she didn't want the young man to follow that path, but he wouldn't listen.
No money, no prospect, no nothing, that's all that he obtained since that day she broke down in tears and told him that she's moving away from the village some years ago.
To live with relatives who reached out to her in Glasgow, to expunge her memories of the village and him, and that she bitterly wept as she told him that she only wanted to help, but foolishly didn't see past her nose.
He didn't want her help.
He didn't even want her friendship.
If she was a smidge attractive to him, he'd try to get in her skirt, too.
He just wanted to party and jump between girls.
If she wasn't so thick at the time, she would've known that and kept away from him, but she wasn't.
"Five years!" Lena wept as she pointed at him. "I wasted five years of my life trying to make sure you live through them!"
She put so much of her life on the back burner just to make sure he didn't lose his misbegotten life.
Because of his near OD that one night, she couldn't send in an art piece she was working on to a college in time, and because of it, she couldn't get in.
Eventually, Lena gave up on her art because she lost faith in it and instead took up something else to replace it.
Business.
The young man searched her out in hopes to apologize for his misdeeds, but found she's a changed woman, and now a cut-throat businesswoman who's not the formerly nice girl that he once knew. She's gone completely cold and bitter, hardly recognized him the moment he reintroduced himself.
No matter how much he tried, she gave him a cold response, and sent him away.
Hard to believe it's the same woman, but it was, and she's forever changed because of those misdeeds he committed.
Looking down at the crag once more, the young man felt his heartbeat rattling in his rib cage. He told himself it'll be over in an instant, that he'll be dead within seconds of smashing his head into the rocks. The waves will take care of the rest and he'll rid himself of the pain he caused himself.
"One... two..." he softly counted down as he's about to do it.
He stuck his foot as he's ready to jump and felt a sudden jolt as there's a force pulling him backwards.
It happened in a flash and the moment his mind caught up to him, the young man sees he's on the bridge proper, and looked around quizzically.
"What in god's name were you doing up there?" he heard a man with a heavy Nottinghamshire accent with a twinge Glaswegian.
Struggling to get up, the young man sees a tall slender man with broad shoulders and a navy-blue furred hoodie looking at him with anger and worry in his icy blue eyes.
"Leave me, alone!" The young man bitterly told him. "I don't want your help!"
He just wants to end it all, let the pain stop already, and be done with it. If there's a hell, he'll gladly jump in the pool of magma if it means the pain finally stops.
The tall man crossed his arms as he pointedly, "You don't have to kill yourself!"
The young man retorted, "What does it matter what I do or don't, leave me alone!"
Lowering his long tree-trunk arms, the tall man said, "Either we talk this out peacefully or you can talk it out at a facility. Those are your only options. I'm not leaving you here until we sort this matter out. Now, come along, before someone sees this and cause more problems, understand me?"
His voice filled with authority as he demanded the young man come with him and discuss these sensitive matters or else talk to them with a specialist in the mental facility.
Seeing his ice blue eyes peering into his very soul, caused the young man to begrudgingly agree to talk to the tall man, just in hopes of getting him off his back, and letting him go.
Keeping his eyes sharply on him, the tall man led the young man to a picnic area where there's a woman sitting at one of the tables with a container of food in front of her.
"Lee, we have a problem," the tall man calls to her.
She looks up at him and sees the young man near him and asks what's wrong.
"That's what we're going to find out, aren't we, Mr. Jenkins?" The tall man crossed his arms as he looked at the young man.
Amazed, the young man sputtered, "H-how'd you know that?!"
The tall man, calling himself as the Doctor, said that he just knows these things, and now, he wanted answers to his questions.
"I don't have to talk to you, you know," the young man crossed his arms as he pointed out that the Doctor doesn't have any authority over him.
The Doctor replied dryly, "Then I'll make you."
The two stood off against each other until the woman got up and went over to them with a look on her face.
"Oh boy, one of these things, okay, look, we don't want any trouble, we just don't want you to do something stupid. Whatever reason you may have is your own, but if you don't talk to him, we have to report this. You almost attempted suicide, kid, you can't expect us to brush this under the rug just because you didn't," he heard her American accent as she explained to him in as soft a tone she's able that he doesn't have any options.
Begrudgingly, he sat at the table with the Doctor and the woman looking over him as he explained his situation.
"I came from a small village. You probably can't even find the damn thing on a map. It's that small. Drug problems and whatever else, you know the usual. A cesspool. I was a real wanker and did a lot of things I shouldn't. Worse, I was an arse to the only person who cared about me in that entire village. Now, because of me, she's become corporate and not the same girl I used to know. Because of me, she gave up everything and because of me, she lost it all!" Mike bitterly wept as Lila handed him tissues to blow his nose while he told his pitiful story about how because of him, he lost his friend, and how he lost everything else because of his behavior.
Listening to his story, Theodore sighed as he held his hands together, trying to come up a way to help the young man as he's unable to cope with the mistake he made in life.
He suggested that the young man search out Lena yet again and try to have an open discussion with her over drinks, rectify the mistakes then, but the young man disagreed. She won't even see him from outside the window of the office she works in. He's tried multiple times and they've all failed, she genuinely doesn't want to have anything to do with him anymore, and that's that.
Theodore did everything he could think of to help the young man have a chance to fix his mistakes and live a newfound life, but it seems there's problems with that.
"Mr. Jenkins, I understand the frustration you're having. I sympathize with you, but throwing away your life for this, I can't excuse," he began as he studied the young man as he blew his nose with a fresh tissue. "You can't give up because of it and I won't let you give up; you still have time."
Theodore made it clear he won't let Mike throw away his life because of his past mistakes and Lila called his attention to privately speak with him.
"So, how're we supposed to help him?" Lila asks him out of earshot.
Theodore replied, "I'm thinking we earn his trust then bring him to somewhere he can be helped."
Frowning, Lila pointed out, "And then what, he'll just try again."
Grimly, Lila told Theodore that if Mike still felt strongly then, he'll attempt it again, and this time, he'll succeed.
"You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, are you?" Theodore eyed Lila as he caught that look in her hazel eyes.
Lila responded, "We have to do something. He can't be left on his own. If we turn him in for the attempt, what good would that do, putting on a Band-Aid?"
She appealed to Theodore that they needed to help him rectify his mistakes, so that he doesn't attempt suicide once again.
"I can't change events just because they went in a way that he doesn't like, Lee," Theodore pointed out that he couldn't change events in Mike's life so he wouldn't lose his friendship with Lena and have his life ruined by drugs and alcohol.
His father taught him that there's events that happen and they happen for a reason, he can't just change events because he doesn't like the outcome, because if he does, he'll risk causing unintended consequences.
Lila pointed at Theodore and reminded him, "You're supposed to help people. Fine, we can't change everything that happens to people to suit their needs, but surely there's an exception for Mike, right?"
Pleading with him, Lila reminded Theodore that as the Doctor, it's his duty to help anyone who needs it, any means necessary. Maybe he's not able to fix every mistake in someone's life, but he should be able to help fix mistakes in times of crises.
"I don't know. My father was always serious about it," Theodore frowned as he weighed their options.
Lila inquired, "And how often did he follow his own rules?"
She got him there.
Sighing, Theodore conceded as he agreed to help Mike fix the mistakes in his life and patch up his broken friendship with Lena with the caveat that if the TARDIS says something's a no-go, then he cannot change the events in that scenario.
Even though he wanted to help Mike, he can't risk breaking reality as they know it, and that part stands, even as his father broke rules to suit his needs.
However, he can try at the very least and hopefully, work out a way that it'll satiate Mike and keep the universe happy. As with the universe, Theodore would like to continue living in the one he was born in, thanks.
"I always knew you'd come through," Lila patted him on the shoulder as they walked back to Mike as he's looking at them quizzically.
Theodore tells him, "I do believe we might have a situation to your problem, Mr. Jenkins."
Mike replied, "What's that?"
Smiling, Theodore tells him to get up and follow him and Lila, they're going for a walk.