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"In the time that followed, the Papal Mainframe strove to maintain the peace between the Doctor and his enemies."
Near the town line of Christmas, two Sontarans approached in a small invisible vehicle. They were also hidden. They were trying to break through and find the source of the message themselves.
"We remain undetectable to the Papal Mainframe," one said, but they remained oblivious that their vehicle – a small tank – was leaving tire tracks in the snow behind them, which had alerted the Doctor. One quick whir of the sonic screwdriver made the upper half of the tank visible, which exposed the two Sontarans. An alarm was heard.
"Commander Skarr!" the other Sontaran said. "That's the detection warning. Our invisibility cloak is compromised."
"What's wrong with it?" asked Commander Skarr.
"I don't know. I can't see it."
"Well, it looked invisible to me," Commander Skar said before they were both blasted by an energy beam fired from overhead.
"The Church of the Papal Mainframe apologises for your death," came an ethereal voice from above. "The relevant afterlives have been notified."
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"As the days passed and the years, the Doctor stayed true to his word. On the fields of Trenzalore, he stood as protector, both of his people and his new home. But, over time, the Doctor's enemies would find new, stranger ways to enter the town called Christmas."
In the town square, a group of children played blind man's bluff. A young boy, Barnable, was blindfolded, and he walked through the court, trying to find his friends. "Are you there?" he asked. "Hello? Am I getting warm?" Finally, he approached a dark corner surrounded by Christmas trees.
A light glowed from the dark corner, and there was a slight whirring noise. Barnable took off his blindfold and stared up at a Cyberman. A wooden Cyberman.
Barnable stared up in shock before turning around and running back in the other direction. "There's
another one!" he shouted.
The Cyberman slowly followed, creaking as it walked. Finally, it incinerated a Christmas tree. Barnable ran up a small flight of stairs and rang a bell. "There's another one!" he repeated and ran back down again. "There's another one!" He ran towards the church and stood outside the doors. "Doctor! Doctor! There's another one!"
The townspeople began to stream out onto the streets and gathered in the town square, outside the church.
"Incinerate," the wooden Cyberman declared as he burnt more objects.
The Doctor hobbled out the doors of the church. He was older now. Older than the last time he had seen his family. That was a few hundred years ago for him.
"The Doctor is required," the Cyberman said.
The Doctor had been repairing children's toys. He threw his walking stick to a youngster and tested a popgun. "There you go, Barnable," he said, handing over the toy.
Barnable looked at it. "Thanks."
"Working fine, nice action. Don't leave it out in the rain again." The youngster who had the walking stick handed it back to the Doctor as the Time Lord took a toy train from inside his coat pocket. "Fixed the wheels and the anti-gravs." He threw it to a young girl, who caught it.
"The anti-whats?" she asked.
"Yeah, might have gone a bit far." His gaze caught on the wooden Cyberman. "Now, then, what do we have today? Don't you move one step further. Wooden Cyberman. Excellent, like it." He descended the steps of the church and approached it. "Low-tech doesn't set off the alarms upstairs." The Doctor and the Cyberman began to face off. They stared directly at each other as if in a Western gunfight. Both drew their weapons. The Doctor aimed his screwdriver and gave it a whir—the same time as the Cyberman drew its guns. "Only bit of tech allowed in got in before the truce. Now, I just instructed your firearm to reverse the polarity and fire out the back end. As we're standing in a truth field, you'll understand I cannot be lying. If you like, you can scan my screwdriver, verify that's the signal I sent." He stood closer to the Cyberman now.
"Signal verified," the Cyberman said, as the weapon on its arm spun around and faced the Cyberman before it incinerated a hole through its chest. The Cyberman then fell back to the ground.
The Doctor chuckled. "Yes. I probably should have mentioned that this doesn't work on wood! So you send your friends up there a message from the Doctor. You tell them the Doctor stays." The Doctor blew on the end of the screwdriver as if it was a gun.
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"With every victory, the town celebrated. The Doctorseemed to forget he'd lived any other life in time. And the people of the town came to love the man who stayed for Christmas."
The Doctor was at one of those parties now. He was teaching the children of Christmas one of his signature dance moves. The drunk giraffe. "If you want to be the drunk giraffe, you've got to commit!" he instructed. "Don't be cool, guys. Cool is not cool."
"Cool is not cool!" the children repeated around him. "And what's the dance we're doing?" he asked them. "The drunk giraffe."
"The drunk giraffe, yes! Merry Christmas! Give me a hug. Bring it in." The Doctor extended his arms as he hugged a group of children. He had become fond of them now. He moved over to a buffet table.
"How's your father's barn?" he asked a young boy.
"You've fixed the leak all right, but he says it's bigger on the inside now."
The Doctor leaned over and placed his finger over his lips. "Shhh! They'll all want one," he told the young boy when he looked down the street in alarm as the TARDIS began to materialise. But it seemed … wrong. The engines were straining, and it took time to appear.
"What is it?" Barnable asked. "What's that noise?"
The Doctor ignored him. "Well, where have you been for 300 years?" he asked his TARDIS, shaking his cane at the figure of the blue box.
"What's that?" Barnable asked, looking at the blue box now in front of them. The rest of the townspeople looked at it too.
"It's my ship," the Doctor answered, making his way to the TARDIS. To where it was materialising.
"Your what?"
"It's my TARDIS. That's how I got here in the first place." "Does this mean you're leaving?" Barnable asked.
The Doctor frowned uncertainly before heading toward the TARDIS, followed by the worried townsfolk. Old and wrinkled, he peered at the old blue police telephone box – with Clara and the Professor standing in front of it. Her key was still in the door, and the Professor's hand over hers.
"I think she's stopped," the Professor said, getting off the TARDIS with Clara. Both didn't know what they'd find. They turned around to find the older Doctor.
The Doctor stared back at them. "What are you doing here?" he asked them.
"I don't know," the Professor began, catching his breath. "The TARDIS took off …."
"We were in space," Clara interrupted.
"The time vortex," the Professor corrected.
"She must have extended the force field," the Doctor mused. "No wonder! No wonder she's late,
dragging you around."
"You tricked us," Clara said.
"I did what needed to be done," the Doctor said. "I saved you!" "You didn't say goodbye!" the Professor yelled.
"I am furious with you!" the Doctor yelled back.
"Well, we are not even talking to you!" Clara yelled before they all looked at each other and began laughing. They then threw their arms around each other and hugged.
The Doctor took them to the church and gave them both a blanket. As she was wrapped in one of the blankets, Clara looked at the pictures that the children of Christmas had drawn for the Doctor over the years. The Professor joined her as they looked at one picture, titled 'I Love you'.
"Ah, Doctor, fixing toys and fighting monsters," Clara mused as she looked at a workbench.
"The turkey isn't done yet," the Doctor told them as he walked down the stairs.
"Is it still asking that question?" the Professor asked, glancing at the crack in the wall.
"Oh, it never stops," the Doctor answered. "Come upstairs. It's almost time." The Doctor grabbed Handles and led the way to the staircase again.
"What for?" Clara asked.
"Dawn. The light here lasts only a few minutes. You don't want to miss it." The Doctor led the way to the church bell tower. The three sat down, and the Doctor made a fire, to which they were roasting marshmallows. "It's a standoff," he explained to them. "They can't attack in case I unleash the Time Lords, and I can't run away because they'll burn this planet to stop the Time Lords. But, after all these years, I've finally found somewhere that needs me to stick around."
"What about Storybrooke?" the Professor asked.
"They have you and Clara," the Doctor told him. "And Rumple. You don't need me."
The Professor slightly laughed. "That reminds me, I still have his dagger," he said, taking it out of his coat pocket.
The Doctor laughed, too, before looking down at Handles as he polished the Cyberhead. "Right, there you go, buddy. Comfy?"
Handles beeped. "Comfort is irrelevant."
The Doctor shifted the head slightly. "How's that, is that better?" "Affirmative." Handles voice was starting to glitch.
"You just take it easy, buddy." He patted the metal head affectionately. "He's getting old. I do my best for him, but I just can't get the parts. Hey. Know the feeling." He used his walking stick to help him get up.
"Where'd you get these?" Clara asked as she ate one of the marshmallows she was roasting.
"I have a supplier. The pink ones are the best," the Doctor said, eating one.
"I have developed a fault," Handles said.
"Hey, don't you worry, Handles," the Doctor told him. "You're just dreaming. The sun's coming up very soon. You just hang on in there."
"I have developed a fault. I have developed a fault."
The Doctor picked up the Cyberhead. "Hey, Handles. Come on. Come on. One more dawn, you can do it. You've got it in you. Come on, hang on in there."
"Attention! Emergency! Attention!" "Handles? What is it? What's wrong?"
"Urgent action required! You must patch the telephone device back through the console unit," Handles said before the lights went out in his head for the last time.
The Doctor glances at Clara and the Professor with a frown. He shook the old head. "Come back. Handles?" he whispered. He shook the head again. "Handles?" The Doctor closed his eyes unhappily and rested his forehead warily against the metal one. The Professor and Clara rested their foreheads together and bowed their heads in sympathy. "Thank you, Handles," the Doctor said. "And well done. Well done, mate." He put the head down as a pale golden sun rose above distant mountains and bathed the town in a frosty light. They all stood and went over to the balcony, looking over the town. "What do you think of my new place? Come up here once a day for a few minutes to remind me of what it is I'm protecting."
"It's beautiful," Clara replied. "Why did you send us away?"
"He was protecting us," the Professor said. "Like when you sent me to Rumple all those years ago. You didn't want to see us hurt. Or dead."
"I wouldn't have let you get stuck here," Clara pointed out.
"Ha! Everyone gets stuck somewhere; eventually, Clara," the Doctor said. "Everything ends."
"Not Time Lords. Not even the Dark One."
"Have you been paying attention? I'm an old man now."
"But you don't die. You change. You pop right back up with a new face."
"No, not forever. I can change 12 times, 13 versions of me, 13 silly Doctors." "Okay, so you're number 11, so?"
"He's the 11th Doctor. The 11th to call himself Doctor," the Professor said.
"Yes. There was Captain Grumpy," the Doctor continued. "I didn't call myself the Doctor during the Time War, but it was still a regeneration."
"Okay, so you're number 12," Clara stated.
"Number 10 one regenerated and kept the same face."
The Professor remembered. "That's right. Shot by a Dalek, if I remember."
"I had vanity issues at the time," the Doctor added. "Twelve regenerations, Clara. I can't ever do it again. So this is where I end up. This face ... this version of me. We saw this planet in the future, remember? All those graves, one of them mine."
Clara looked out over the town with a thoughtful frown. "Change the future." "Changing established events is strictly forbidden," the Professor told her.
"But, the TARDIS is back."
"Ha! You think I'm just going to fly away, abandon everyone?" the Doctor asked.
"Of course not," Clara exclaimed. "But you've been protecting this town for over 300 years. Do you not think it's anybody else's go yet?"
"There is no one else to protect it."
Clara sighed. "There's not going to be you forever. It's going to end the same way whatever you do."
"Every life I save is a victory. Every single one."
"What about your life? Just for once, after all this time, have you not earned the right to think about that?"
Pain showed through the Doctor's smile.
Clara sighed. "Sorry. Wrong thing to say. We shouldn't be arguing."
"We just want Ellie to have a grandfather, too," the Professor said.
"I've had that argument for the last 300 years, all by myself."
"But you didn't have your TARDIS," Clara pointed out.
"Ah, yes, well, that made it easier to stay. True."
The short day drew to a close as the sun sank beneath the mountain. Thunder rumbled ahead before a familiar voice bellowed through the sky. "Doctor!" It was Tasha Lem.
"Ah, look who's woken up!" the Doctor said, turning around and seeing her face in the sky.
"The Church of the Silence requests parlay," Tasha said. "Your rights and safety are sanctified."
"I'll be right up."
"I'm sending a transporter."
"Nah, don't bother. I've got me motor back," the Doctor said, and Tasha's face in the sky vanished.
The Professor looked around. "It's gone dark."
"The sun's gone down," the Doctor affirmed.
"Already?" Clara asked.
"Everything ends, Clara. And sooner than you think."
They climbed down from the church bell tower and walked through the streets amongst the inhabitants of Christmas carrying lanterns. The Doctor walked stiffly with his stick before noticing a young lad sitting on the step of his TARDIS. Barnable. "Are you guarding my TARDIS, Barnable?"
"Are you coming back?" the young boy asked. "Ah, come on. You know me."
"I'll wait."
The Doctor smiled sadly at Barnable and nodded.