"Oh Wow," I breathed as I wandered up next to Doctor Brown and realized that he had found the party that I'd heard earlier. Something about historical balls always took my breath away, even though the Doctor and I had terrible luck at parties.

"Terribly sorry to just wander off, but the music was so entrancing," Doctor Brown said as he leaned over the balcony slightly and I smiled.

"Hey, no need to apologize to me I wander off all the time and I've traveled in time before," I said.

"It didn't seem real until this moment," he murmured under his breath.

"I understand that. The traveling didn't seem real for me either until I actually consciously stepped foot in the past." He gave me a curious look. "Versailles for me. I'd been somewhere else before but that was really the moment."

"Have you been travelling with the Doctor for long?"

"A while now." And then before I knew what I was really doing I had hooked my hand around his elbow and was leading him down to the side of the dance floor while telling him stories of travelling.

"What a marvelous life," he said softly as he soaked up the whirling dancers and I smiled.

"It's pretty great," I said.

"You must love the Doctor very much," he said, and I blinked at him in shock because I hadn't been expecting him to say that.

"I do."

"My wife died of consumption. And I couldn't save her," he said. I rested my hand on his shoulder in comfort. That explained his own illness, tending his wife had probably gotten him sick.

"It wasn't your fault. I'm sure she wouldn't blame you so you shouldn't blame yourself," I said before I spotted one of the clockwork creatures out of the corner of my eye. "Oh, stay here I'll be right back."

I weaved through the crowd until I was behind the thing and pressed the EMP where it's spine would have been and pressed down on the button. I got a vicious sense of déjà vu as it jerked in place before coming to a stand still. I made a mental note to give the Doctor another apology about the taser thing when I saw him again as I pivoted and moved back towards Doctor Brown. I didn't make it very far before I spotted another clockwork creature and changed direction to head it off as I reached for my phone.

"Have you found Doctor Brown?" The Doctor asked as soon as he picked up.

"I found Doctor Brown and two clockwork creatures," I said before I frowned as I spotted another one immediately after I had deactivated the second one. "Actually, make that three."

"Where are you?"

"Slightly larger ballroom than the one we arrived in. Doctor Brown found the party, I found Doctor Brown, then I saw a few of our clockwork friends and I realized that Anne of Austria is probably in this room even though I haven't seen her," I said and shocked the third creature. A chill shot straight down my spine, my head whirled, and I broke out in a cold sweat as soon as it slumped over. "And I just got horrifically lightheaded all of a sudden."

"Get back to the other room. Right now," the Doctor ordered, and I knew without having to see him that his jaw was clenched in worry.

"Going," I said as I spun immediately back towards Doctor Brown, which was a bit of a mistake as some vertigo rose up. "Do you want me to stay on the phone?"

My question was moot as my phone took that moment to decide that the battery could sustain no more life.

"Shit," I said lightly under my breath. "Hey Doctor Brown, we need to go."

"Are you certain?" He asked and I nodded sympathetically.

"I'm afraid so," I said and mentally crossed my fingers that I remembered the way back because the map was sitting uselessly on my dead phone. He stayed quiet for the walk back and I breathed a small sigh of relief when I saw the original ballroom appear down a hallway.

We were nearly there when the fourth clockwork creature stepped out from somewhere, it was moving awkwardly, sluggishly, but it still had a whirring blade extended towards me.

"Emma Wait!" But the Doctor's words came too late as I had already shoved my hand up and jammed down on the EMP button. As the creature lurched there was an odd sort of ringing noise and then a pop followed by what sounded like glass shattering. I wobbled on my feet as the world blurred slightly and the Doctor was there in an instant to keep me upright.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked as I reached up to touch my ears, though I didn't know why.

"I don't -I don't know," the Doctor said as he hauled us into the ballroom and whipped out his sonic after he had made sure that I was steady on my feet.

"Doctor what is it?" I asked. "And don't tell me you don't know because you told me not to EMP it which means you have to have a bit of an idea."

"They were using their own power to keep the portal open. The reason why you got lightheaded was because a bunch of the time fractures snapped shut all at once when you deactivated them," he said, and I nodded slowly.

"Okay but what does that mean for right now?" I asked.

"It means that there isn't enough power," he said tightly.

"To go back?" Doctor Brown asked. The Doctor stayed silent and instead bounded out towards the last clockwork creature, yanking bits and bobs off it and talking a mile a minute, which really told me everything I needed to know.

There was enough power for a trip back, but not for all three of us, not unless something miraculous happened from the bits and bobs that were exploding in his hand.

I knew exactly three things in that moment; that the Doctor would try to convince Doctor Brown and I to go through first so that he could stay without me fighting him on it, that staying for one hundred years all by himself would probably kill him, and that my only advantage was that the Doctor didn't know that I had pieced all of this together

I watched the Doctor fist his hands in his hair in frustration and continue blabbering about possibilities that I knew wouldn't come to fruition. I took a deep breath and moved over to him and rested my hand on his arm.

"Hey easy take a breath," I said as I gently steered him into a better position. He looked down at me and gestured around in a way I didn't quite follow. I swallowed carefully before I dragged him down for a kiss. He kissed me back like he always did before he jerked away with a confused look on his face.

"What was that for?"

"I love you." Something in my tone must have clued him in to my plan because I saw a horrified realization dawning in his eyes just as I shoved him as hard as I could, and he stumbled backward and fell right through the painting we had come through. As soon as he was gone, I tore the bracelet off my wrist, dropped it on the floor and crushed it beneath my foot. It was that moment that the pain of what I'd done hit me and I clapped my hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't start sobbing too loudly.

"No! Emma! No don't do this! Please! Please Emma don't do this don't make me leave you behind! Emma!" The Doctor's voice warbled oddly through the weakened passage, but it was still clear enough that I could hear the anguish. I crumbled to my knees as Doctor Brown sputtered behind me.

"What did you just do?"

"I gave him up," I said between my tears.

"What do you mean?"

"There wasn't enough power for all of us to go back and the TARDIS won't be able to come within a hundred years of here without shattering the time stream. He would have stayed because that's who he is, but that long all in one place would have killed him. I can wait for him, I've done it before." I smiled sadly before I continued softly. "He might hate me by then, for breaking his heart."

I pressed my hands flat to the floor and told myself that I had thirty seconds to get up, because if I didn't move the Doctor would just sit and watch me cry and since this was my fault anyway that wouldn't be fair. If I could get up and walk away I knew that the Doctor could make it back to the TARDIS.

"I don't believe the Doctor is capable of hate, especially towards you." Doctor Brown said gently as he knelt next to me. I closed my eyes as I smiled at the thought of the Doctor violently agreeing behind the painting and pushed myself to my knees. "And sometimes doctors are capable of self sacrifice."

My eyes shot open as Doctor Brown wrapped his now beeping bracelet around my wrist. I jerked my head up to look at him just as I phased out of the palace and back onto the ship. I whipped around to look through the portal and saw him smiling towards us.

"I haven't got a hundred years in me. Truth be told I haven't got two. Why would I let you waste what you have when I can give everything I've got? So, go Emma Bradley, go and love the Doctor until the end of the universe." The painting portal sealed up with a grand sense of finality just as Doctor Brown finished speaking. I turned slowly back towards the Doctor. I had the barest hint of thought that I should apologize before the Doctor was slamming into me, arms around me, lips over mine in a bruising kiss that he only pulled away from when I was beginning to feel lightheaded. He only moved far enough to rest his forehead on mine and as he did so, I realized that we had somehow ended up with my back to the floor.

"Don't ever do that again. Do you hear me Emma Bradley? Don't you ever dare." His tears dripped onto my face which made my heart lurch. I didn't think I'd ever seen him cry this hard.

"You would have done the same," I said comfortingly as I reached up to smooth his tears away. "I could tell you were going to because you couldn't look at me."

"I was trying to think of how to ask you to stay." He bit out as he shuddered against me and pulled me tightly against him. I squeaked out something that was supposed to be a 'what' but he kept going. "You love the TARDIS, you love the travelling. I was trying to think how to ask you to give that up, to take the slow path with me."

"I-"

"God Emma did you think I would prefer knowing that you waited for one hundred years by yourself when I could have spent them with you?"

"Can we sit up please?" I asked gently because this whole conversation would be a lot easier that way. He reluctantly loosened his hold on me just enough so that we could both sit up. I gave him a gentle smile as I ran my fingers through his fringe before I shifted my hands to thumb his tears away. "You never would have asked me to stay."

"Emma-" I placed my finger over his lips.

"Sorry Doctor but I know you too well. You would never have asked me to stay because both of us staying would have stranded Doctor Brown and I know that you couldn't have asked that of him." He glanced where the portal had been regretfully. I could already tell that he was bothered by the fact that we had had to leave him there. I tapped his cheek pointedly. "The expression on your face proves it."

"Emma," he started, and I shook my head.

"Just let me finish. One hundred years on the slow path, even with me would have bored you to tears." He pulled a face and I laughed as I leaned in to kiss his cheek. "But to be clear, if Doctor Brown wasn't there and it wasn't one hundred, I would have stayed if you asked."

The Doctor ducked his head down and kissed me again. There was still a hint of leftover desperation to this kiss, but mostly it was just relief and understanding.

"I love you Doctor," I said as he rested his forehead on mine and smiled without opening his eyes, like he was trying to make this moment last.

"I love you Emma." He gave me another quick kiss before he opened his eyes to peer at me seriously. "Don't ever give me up ever again."

"Okay Doctor I won't. I promise." I crossed my heart and he laughed with an eyeroll.

"Why do I get the feeling that that promise is a contextual one?"

"Because it is." He laughed again with a head shake before he reeled me in for a few dozen kisses.