So here's me not realizing that I could just check the date of my last update on the story to see how long it's been since I posted something. I'm brilliant. Get me the hell out of here.
ANYWAY. Here's this. Honestly can't remember whether or not I had a beta on this unfortunately. :/ But still! I thank all of my friends who helped me on this and am still screaming profusely about writing Sci-fi fics that deal mostly with math and physics when I'm studying plants. Netflix also didn't renew the license for Doctor Who which was essentially the only reason why I joined so now I can't watch ANY season of Doctor Who and I'm never home/able to use a TV when it's on so I'm just...I don't know. If anyone could recommend a good source to reference the 10th Doctor's personality for my writing would you please do be a solid and PM me about it? Would really help because I can't find anything reliable/I can confirm or deny that it would sound like something he'd do. This is what I get for getting overly excited about them showing Classic Who episodes on TV and thinking that Netflix would always have the New Who episodes, fire, you fool. Gah!
Side note, the date that they do back to is December 29th I believe. Also, hella disclaimer on Doctor Who
When the Tardis touched down back in Pillar, a few things ran through the Doctor's mind. First, that had probably been his smoothest landing yet. Second, he felt as if he deserved a compliment or two for landing in such hostile territory and yes, Pillar was certainly hostile. His last experience still left a bad taste in his mouth but he'd have to put up with it, hopefully for no more than an hour at most. The lieutenant certainly did ask some of the hardest favors of him… "Cal," he yelled down the corridor leading to her room, "Just landed. C'mon, what're you doing in there? Catch a cold from sleeping out in the snow?"
"Just a moment Doctor," Caligo sighed. The snow globe had been safely packed away inside a spare box she had found lying around and the Tardis, she assumed, had been kind enough to supply her with wrapping materials suited for the season. Red paper and a gold ribbon bow with a little Christmas tree shaped tag attached to it. It was perhaps the first time she'd ever wrapped a present, but practice storing her equipment made perfect it seemed. As Caligo exited her room, it seemed the Doctor couldn't resist taking a peek inside and she didn't pass up the opportunity to close the door on his face. "Are we at Patricia's shop?"
The Doctor pretended to look more insulted than he actually was. "You don't trust me?"
"Just a question Doctor." But that was definitely one she knew she couldn't avoid answering forever. It could, however, wait until today was over. Christmas day; or at least as close as it would get. Caligo looked down at the package in her hands one last time before heading out into the chilly winter morning with the Doctor. Patricia's shop was closed and none of the lights in the second floor were on, something Caligo thought was strange considering it was well within store hours and, as far as she knew, the woman never took a day off. A frown settled on her features and her mind carefully went through all of the possible explanations for such behaviors.
"Probably at home," the Doctor offered.
"The second floor of the building is her living quarters Doctor. I know because she had asked Wilhelm and I once or twice to help her fix an issue she had with the lighting and her stove." She could just as easily break into the store, but that was illegal. Still, Caligo tried her luck and much to her alarm, the shop door swung open with no resistance at all. It had been left unlocked and something jolted through her body at the realization. Caligo shoved the package into the Doctor's hands and was about to go running in when they heard a voice from the walkway.
"She's in the hospital, Mrs. Nelson," a young lady, perhaps in her mid-twenties, told them. She was bundled up in a thick brown winter coat, hands stuffed into her pockets and wearing snow boots and jeans. Her wool cap was pulled low over her amber colored hair and she eyed the pair with a little more curiosity than caution. "I see you come around sometimes. Used to be a bloke with you. Different one I mean."
Caligo's posture remained rigid as she turned to face the woman. How long had she known Patricia? How had she known she was in the hospital? "What happened to her."
The woman looked slightly taken aback by Caligo's attitude but when she noticed the silver rank gleaming against her jacket sleeve it was as if she understood. Her eyes swam with pity as she looked at them. "Heart attack I reckon. My dad went in to bring her groceries and found her on the floor behind the counter. Was a few days ago and she hasn't been back since."
The Doctor glanced back at Caligo just in time to see something flicker across her stone cold façade before it was gone again. Humans were always so surprised by their own fragile nature, especially when they aged. "Don't suppose we could visit her," he asked the woman.
"Maybe. You, at least. Don't know about her." The woman gestured with her chin toward Caligo. She looked at them thoughtfully for a minute before fixing her gaze on the lieutenant again. "Always thought she was a bit funny, being friendly with Draugs and all," she said. But then she smiled, just a little as if she were afraid of who might be watching, and told them, "Tell her the Masons said Merry Christmas." With that, she went on her way.
The Doctor watched her a moment longer before turning back to his companion. "Nice to know not everyone here is so unfriendly. Must be a neighbor girl." If he didn't know any better, he might've said Caligo looked uncertain and perhaps a bit worried, still staring at the spot where the woman had been standing. He tried, honestly did, to figure what she was thinking at that moment without actually taking a peek but he couldn't. At least, he didn't have a definite answer as to what it was that was bothering her. "Well come on," he said, nudging her arm, "ought to visit her on Christmas, don't you think? What we came out here for after all."
"You're right," she murmured, "The hospital is this way."
Caligo had agreed to leave her tool belt and jacket with security, leaving her insignia to be worn on her left shoulder like a blaring warning to anyone who caught sight of it. The Doctor, for the most part, had been spared this unnecessary precaution thanks to his psychic paper and some heavy smooth talking of the officers on duty. He'd managed to save the present from being inspected to pieces thankfully and that was more than Caligo could have asked for. She thought they'd been quite lucky, despite how the Doctor fussed about all this unnecessary worry about what they thought she might do in a hospital, just to have been let in but the important part was that they were here and thankfully, so was Patricia.
She looked so unusually feeble, laying there in bed with a tube feeding oxygen in through her nose and all sorts of monitors displaying her vitals. It was even more obvious when she greeted them from her half sitting position in bed, her voice cracking and hardly better than a strained whisper. Neither the Doctor nor Caligo needed to speak to the treating physician to know that she probably didn't have much time left for her.
"Good ta see ya sweet pea," Patricia croaked with an almost toothless smile.
"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner," Caligo murmured, coming to stand at her bedside. She grasped the elderly woman's hand gently when she reached for her, making her bony fingers look so fragile. Caligo had foregone her usual leather gloves, knowing that physical contact was more meaningful when it didn't seem like you were trying to protect yourself from someone else.
"Aye," the old woman hissed, "Your hands feel like ice!" Patricia shot the Doctor a dirty look and managed to raise her voice a tad higher, grating as it sounded. "You not taking care of her stick man?!"
The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, a little offended by the accusation but the look Caligo gave him bite his tongue. "Got caught up in the snow earlier. Talking to a neighbor girl. Mason family. You know them?"
Patricia's harsh gaze softened like a grandmother's and she gave a low, wheeze like chuckle. "Musta been 'Melia… Her daddy called the ambulance for me. Nice man, good girl," she mused softly. She turned to Caligo again and caught sight of the present she held against her hip this time. "What's all that now? You brought me something sweet pea?"
Remembering what they had initially came for, Caligo placed the present on the bed and slid it close enough for the old woman to reach. "Merry Christmas Patricia. It's from the Doctor and I." She helped her unwrap the gift and, with the utmost care, held the snow globe up for her to see properly. "I thought you might like this."
"The Eiffel Tower in Paris," the old woman crooned softly, fingers running slowly along the globe's surface as she admired the snow covered miniature inside. "Only ever read about it in books but I heard it's a lovely city. Well, used to be anyway… Thank you sweet pea. Awful thoughtful for you kids to be thinking of an old thing like me." Patricia smiled and pat Caligo's hand a little, squeezing it in her weak grasp. She let the globe rest in her lap and flicked her hand out toward the Doctor, still standing in the doorway. "Come and sit down stick man. Make me nervous, just standing there like that. What's all this with getting me a gift? You're with my Cal. I'm not gonna like you any more than I did first time we met."
God knows what she meant by that but still, the Doctor found a spare chair to sit in whilst Caligo sat beside her on the bed. "Cal's idea, really," he explained, gesturing to the snow globe, "All I did was find the shop."
"And what shop, if not mine, did you two find this in?" The old woman pretended to sound and look annoyed but the amused glimmer in her eyes gave her away.
The Doctor grinned and leaned in a little closer as if he had a secret to share. Although, if he were being honest, he might've been a tad uneasy about mentioning the Tardis so casually in this city. If anyone got their hands on the old girl, well, he didn't really want to know what they'd want to do with a time machine. "A little shop in Paris," he told her with a hint of glee. "I know all kinds of little shops. Really like them – Ow!"
"Don't you go making nonsense up like that," Patricia scolded almost viciously and swatted at his arm again. "Probably not even the tower's still standing in Paris these days, much less some toy shop. I'm old, not daft!"
"He's not lying Patricia," Caligo added softly, rubbing the back of the old woman's hand gingerly. "It's a long sort of story. I doubt you'd believe me any more than if I said the Doctor is an alien."
Patricia hummed softly and wagged a bony finger at Caligo. "You just go on and try, you kids," she challenged.
So, with the Doctor's editing here and there, Caligo quietly regaled the tale of their trip to 20th century Paris in a time traveling spaceship called the Tardis and how she'd seen her first movie, a children's movie and how it made her cry. How they were abducted by aliens hiding beneath the waves of the Bermuda Triangle, shaking hands with Amelia Earhart and camping on a planet where the stars had torn it asunder and the waters flowed freely through the air like it belonged there. Patricia felt the telltale thump of two hearts beating in the Time Lord's chest and the thud of her own as she waited for Caligo to explain exactly how she'd convinced a gun toting sport hunter to let her go after lying to his face like he was a complete idiot.
Patricia loved the stories, both the Doctor and Caligo could tell, even if she perhaps didn't believe them for a second. He could see it in her eyes. The innocent wonder that was so fantastically human and it made her look young again. Caligo held the old woman's hand gently in her own as she started to tell her own stories. Stories he'd never heard from her before. Stories of when it was Caligo and Wilhelm, not Caligo and the Doctor. Stories, the Time Lord was certain, weren't as carefree and innocent as they sounded but they weren't entirely lies. Eventually, so many stories had put the old woman to sleep and they gladly let her rest. She needed it after all.
It was a terrible thing to feel just from the brush of a finger. Patricia's pulse was growing weaker and weaker by the minute. It was like watching as the woman's life force slowly left her body and she was none the wiser as she slept. The Doctor stood to stretch and took a look at her chart while he was up and about. "Cellular degeneration. That doesn't happen because of a heart attack," he murmured, returning the chart to its slot. He wanted to say that whoever wrote this was just so thick that they'd written the wrong thing but seeing Patricia so weak like this made him wonder.
"They're not wrong," Caligo answered softly.
"What makes you think that?"
The lieutenant, with her free hand, carefully detached what looked to be a black stud earring from her left ear and placed it on the bed. The black disk displayed a large holographic screen containing Patricia's vitals from the last hour or so down to a cellular level that told no lie. The diagnosis had been correct, although it seemed they didn't have a treatment for it. But what was there to do about it? She was already an old woman by human standards.
The Doctor looked over the data, wondering now more than ever as to why there wasn't some sort of specialist or something trying to help the old woman. An equally important and much easier question was how Caligo obtained this data. "How're you doing it," he asked, almost certain that whatever she was using to monitor Patricia's health was still scanning her. At first he suspected her frighteningly brilliant mechanical arm, but then he remembered how Patricia had complained about how cold her hands were and Caligo had refrained from touching her with her prosthetic hand. The Doctor caught the motion of her hand training gently through her wild bangs and Durellis' admonishment of Caligo's prosthetic parts flashed through his mind like electricity through a circuit that had just been completed. A finger caught the tail ends of her out of control locks, revealing the subtle but undeniable presence of a silver line running from the corner of Caligo's right eye to her temple and branching off slightly toward her ear.
"I can't find a cause for cellular degeneration but," she paused, as if unsure of how to tell him, "she doesn't have long." Caligo ignored the fact that she had just blatantly ignored his question. It wasn't important. What was, right now, was that perhaps one of the only humans she'd ever know in her life to show genuine kindness and a lack of fear of her was dying, and very soon. This woman, to her, was admirable and wonderful even. She deserved so much more and so much better than for her life to end in someplace as pitiful as this dull hospital room. There was a twinge of guilt for simply sitting there when she could possibly, maybe do something about it. "I know I've asked quite a lot of you in the short time we've known each other, but I was hoping for one last thing, Doctor," Caligo murmured softly.
The Doctor felt his entire being still for just a moment and he hoped – as awful as it was and as much of a bastard it made him – that the next words out of his companion's mouth wouldn't be her asking for the impossible. Although it wasn't really actually a hundred percent impossible and he knew there were ways around the mess that came with interfering with the laws of time because he was brilliant but he didn't want to tell her that he honestly didn't think Patricia would survive the time it took to find her a proper cure for human cellular degeneration. It usually wasn't an issue at all with normal human beings. But he couldn't tell her that and at the same time he couldn't not tell her that because he was a damn coward trying to be a good man. All he could do was hope. Hope that she wouldn't ask him to do something that probably wouldn't help at all, pray that she wouldn't plead for him to find some sort of cure, only to arrive just a little too late and let her down. "What is it," he replied, equally soft and barely managing to maintain the façade of ignorance to the probable nature of her request.
"If it's at all possible," she started, gently laying the old woman's hand back down on the bed and turning to look up at him properly. "Would you take us somewhere? There's something I want to show her before…" Caligo glanced back briefly at Patricia. She looked so fragile that moving her might do little more than make her uncomfortable if they were lucky. She'd never thought of her much further than the shop lady and certainly never so much as an old woman. Not until today at least. "Before she leaves." Caligo moved the snow globe to a small bedside table that was just within the patient's reach from the bed if they were able to roll over at least, holding it thoughtfully for a moment. "The future. When we first met you were surprised to find that this was Earth's future, correct? I've come to the conclusion that you know of a different future for Earth and the human race. A better one. A kinder one than this." She didn't wait for him to answer before making her mind up about the destination. "I want her to remember this world as more than what it is."
The Doctor was grinning at her, not full force but it was still a pleasant expression and he could tell she was extremely confused by it but that was okay. "I'll go get the Tardis," he said, already moving for the door, half running by the time he was out of the room, "You two wait right there, yeah?"
Caligo watched him sprint out the door without a care of what the nurses or security guards had to say of it. For a very long moment she had been worried that he would deny her this, though she wasn't quite sure why. The topic of death was never a pleasant one, but it was the reality of life and something she'd accepted as a fact long ago. She had expected him to not be one for such morbid occasions and she would have, for the most part, been fine with handling the death of someone so close to her as Patricia on her own; Yuki had been the first, Wilhelm was definitely the worst and Patricia wouldn't be the last. Caligo wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he'd ran from it and he was definitely running away from the hospital at this very moment, but as long as he came back that was all that mattered for now.
Caligo was already on her feet again when she heard the familiar groan of the Tardis as it slowly materialized in the room. She shut the door the very second she caught wind of the sound and was back at Patricia's bedside before the old woman woke with a slight start.
The old woman was terribly cranky when woken from a sound sleep apparently, fixing both Caligo and the Doctor with a mean looking stare. "What's all this noise on about? You two keep it down to a low rumble, else I'd have ya kicked out," she grumbled tiredly.
"Patricia, since you're such a wonderful lady and friend to the lieutenant here," the Doctor declared with just a touch of sarcasm in his voice, "we thought we'd take you on one last trip."
"If you feel up to it," Caligo added in shortly after. She didn't want to rush but Patricia certainly didn't have a lot of time to waste and neither did they if the knocking at the door was any indication.
Patricia mumbled something under her breath before hastily untangling herself from her oxygen tube and jabbing a finger at a long robe draped over Caligo's chair. "Get my coat for me sweet pea. Like hell I'm spending my last breath in this musty dumpster." Using the Doctor for a little, albeit grudging, support, the old woman slipped on her hospital slippers and shuffled into the Tardis willingly enough. "Running about the place will make me sick huh," she cackled as Caligo shut the Tardis doors behind them, "Sure showed them! Huh!" But then she finally stopped her gloating long enough to take a good look at the inside of the phone box she'd just walked into and suddenly really needed a seat. "M' stars," she whispered softly in awe. "Sweet pea, what do you make of a thing like this," she asked, hanging on to Caligo's arm as the lieutenant guided her over to the jump seat.
"The Tardis is an alien spaceship Patricia," she said, smiling a little at the old woman, "It's an amazing one too. That's what I make of it." Caligo carefully placed the snow globe in her lap and glanced up as the ship hummed at the complement.
"Tardis," the old woman almost hollered. "Tardis? What sorta name is that? Did you call it that sweet pea? Or stick man there? Hah! Call the old girl something nicer than that why don't ya?" Patricia turned and patted the nearest part of the ship fondly, her laugh coming out more and more hoarse by the minute. She gestured with her slightly crooked nose to the Doctor. "You're driving?"
His pride was taking a bit of a beating with all the strange accusations the old woman was making but the Doctor figured he could let it go just on this occasion. "Yes ma'am~ Over nine hundred years' worth of experience with the most complex time machine in the history of the universe! Please remain seated for the duration of transit, nearest exit is to the right here and the lieutenant here will be on call for all your in-flight needs." The Doctor couldn't help the cheeky grin that spread across his lips and winked at Caligo over by the stairs before setting course for their destination.
Patricia rolled her eyes at him for Caligo and wagged a finger, despite the Time Lord not paying the least bit attention. "Don't go wasting my time with all that mechanical mumbo jumbo sass. I don't have an awful lot of it left. Sweet pea, do me a favor and go give 'im a good swat for me."
Caligo smiled just the slightest bit at her as Patricia grumbled on quietly and joined the Doctor at the consul.
His frantic footsteps came to a stop next to her, hitting one final switch before the Tardis lurched into action and looked up. "Feeling anything," he asked quietly, too quiet for Patricia to hear and fixed her with a gaze that was somehow both teasing and genuinely worried for her. The loss of loved ones always hit humans hard, the Doctor knew, and it hit home for probably even the most battle hardened of their race. Right now, what worried him most was not only the emotional, but the physical pain that might be brought on by that awful inhibitor. He remembered the way she'd clawed at the table in the diner after the Kiss concert. Caligo kept her eyes down on the consul, her deep obsidian gaze hidden from his own.
"Enough," was all she said in response. In truth, Caligo felt her body alternating between numbness and a dull pain in the base of her skull as if there were a wound there she'd left unattended for an obscene amount of time. It came and went so frequently that now it was easy for her to somewhat ignore. She knew that once Patricia passed, so would this pain but that didn't make her any keener on the idea. Caligo lightly slapped the Doctor's shoulder with her right hand, hearing Patricia chuckle in the background and looked up to him. "London would be nice if you'd please, Doctor."
"London," the old woman scoffed, "What's so great about London? We live in London. Rather, what's left of it anyway." Patricia made no attempt to hide her discontent toward the city and held her eyes fast to Caligo. "I thought you said we were going on a trip sweet pea?"
The Doctor chided her and strolled around to the jump seat once the Tardis had come to a full stop. "That's something about humans I can't really seem to get around sometimes. You love the places and you hate them but it's not the places that are great really. It's more about the time and there was never a truer saying than timing is everything." He nudged Caligo toward Patricia to help her up and grabbed a couple of thick blankets along the way, ignoring that grandma glare the old woman seemed hell bent on setting him alight with. "London wasn't fantastic when the Earth was forming and all that. Bunch of molten rock, that's what it was and I'm not too keen on what it looks like now," he half grumbled as he opened the door for them. Outside those doors was London, one that was certainly more familiar to him than the one they'd just left and he'd certainly have to come back sometime for a proper visit. The Tardis was perched atop the roof of the many long since reconstructed buildings and had a fantastic view of the city and Big Ben if he did say so himself. "Welcome to the 51st century Patricia~"
"It's the future," Caligo said, carefully guiding her toward but not too close to the ledge of the building so she could better see what must've felt like a brand new world to Patricia, "Maybe not our future but Amelia's future, and the future of everyone else back in Pillar. And it's so much better. People are so much better." Her hands never let up their steadying grip on feeble shoulders as Patricia gasped in shock of a vehicle flying past the building and they stopped just at the ledge itself.
Carefully, knowing the lieutenant wouldn't dream of letting her fall, Patricia sat down on the ledge and stared out at the sun setting over the city. It was like fire, she thought, and it set the sky ablaze and made the buildings look as if they were made of bronze and gold. There was something new and old at the same time, right in front of her. Something she would never live to see without the Doctor, but made her glad all the same. "Bittersweet," she sighed softly as she took in the sight. Beside her, Caligo carefully draped a blanket over her shoulders before taking a seat. The younger woman's arm came to rest firmly around her shoulders and Patricia squeezed her hand, the only thing keeping her secure. "Thank you sweet pea," she crooned. Her voice broke slightly when the tears came and she just couldn't help herself. "And thank you, Doctor. For this an' looking after my little Cal…"
The Doctor shrugged a little and draped another blanket over Caligo's shoulders before sitting on the other side of Patricia. "Seems to me she can take care of herself just fine."
"But that doesn't mean she ought to always have to," the old woman barked back, smacking his arm.
"Absolutely right!" He carefully scooted closer and reached around to bring his hand to her other shoulder. "Think she needs a friend more than a babysitter though," he said and smiled at her. Patricia blinked, surprised, then confused and finally, she smiled back. Not sad or pitying or fake. She just smiled and it was soft and warm like the best kinds of smiles humans could give when they were happy.
"Smart man," Patricia murmured and turned her attention back to the city in front of them slowly being enveloped in darkness. "Nighttime was always m' favorite time," she said, starting to point out stars and constellations she thought she recognized still even under a foreign, future sky. "The dark," Patricia sighed, "'s vast and all-encompassing but filled – no, made of mystery and wonder. You'd never see the light without the dark. Never see the stars… Met m' first boyfriend back just after the last invasion ended. Just a girl, sweet pea. Even younger than you were when we first met. Oh, I musta been fifteen at the time an' stayed out a little too long past curfew. Had a row with my mum, not sure if you've had one of those yourselves but she was an awful nasty piece of work when she'd come up from a long day at the pumps. Took off from the house I did, and hid out in the fields just outside of the city. You know, before they put those big ugly walls up and all."
She talked about the fields of tall green grass that felt almost like pillows if you piled them up and a large, lone redwood growing in the middle of the field like it knew it didn't belong there but never gave a damn. That old woman was a young girl again as she recalled meeting the lonely foundry boy sneaking off from work because the other men teased and bullied him for his stutter and the constellations in the sky above them that night. She talked about her first kiss, her first wedding and her first day as a widower some twenty years ago. She talked until she grew weary and leaned solely against Caligo for support and when her words began to come out as slow, raspy fragments of sentences, she and the Doctor began to talk. Not just simple rambling or the heart stopping tales of adventures of times long past and yet to be. It was a conversation, calm and quiet and maybe with a few laughs here and there that went on through the night until all, even them sitting on the rooftop, fell silent.
It had surely been hours before that when Patricia had finally stopped breathing but remained coddled tenderly against the lieutenant's chest. The Doctor had known it too, perhaps had noticed it first but hell if that stopped them. They couldn't run from it forever though, and soon Caligo couldn't deny even to herself that the body in her arms was now as cold as ice.
She didn't have to ask him this time because it seemed that they'd been on the same train of thought for most of the day now. The Doctor didn't think she'd be able to get the words out either, honestly. He took them back to Pillar, to the endless fields of pillow grass and the giant redwood tree that stood there like some ancient guardian of this innocent wilderness to bury the woman there. Still standing defiant in the face of time was the carving of their initials into the bark of the redwood just at the base, Patricia Whitfield and Ethan Nelson.
Just below their names, Caligo knelt down to carve the date of birth, death and 'Together in heaven once more' into the bark with her fingers. The bark, fickle thing, bit back into her skin but it felt like nothing to her. Nothing felt like anything in this moment and it was so unnatural in her mind yet she simply couldn't bring herself to care. The Doctor tried to be supportive but it couldn't do either of them any good now. Caligo wasn't sure what she had expected to feel when the time finally came but she hadn't, for some reason, quite thought that she wouldn't feel anything at all. "I have to go back," she finally said after a time, simply standing there and staring at the freshly turned earth.
"To the hospital?"
"Yes. Someone needs to tell them. The Masons deserve to know as well." She sorely hoped that the Doctor didn't realize the underlying implications of this as well. It was true, Caligo did intend to go back to the hospital to put the staff's minds at ease and to explain to the last of her close friends what had happened to Patricia, but it certainly didn't look good. A Draugr and a man no one has ever seen in the city before disappears with an elderly woman on the verge of death only to return without her. She hoped that he didn't realize that, as she turned to walk back toward the city, she was essentially returning to a death sentence and at the same time she knew that the Doctor wasn't stupid. He would know. He probably already did, most likely even before the thought of the possibility had crossed her mind but he wouldn't be able to stop her from doing what she'd already set her mind to. Even if this is how I die, let it be with some purpose. Even if I die I want this to be a good death. Something that was worth dying for. Something to tell me that I did the right thing. "Please let me take a few days to sort things out here Doctor."
The Doctor knew already that she knew she wasn't fooling anyone but she was trying to anyway. He wouldn't – couldn't – give her the time because no one else would. Sometimes he wondered what it was that made humans think they could pull one over on him so easily but he could figure that one out later.
'I hope you're taking good care of my sweet pea, Doctor.'
He was going to do exactly that if that was the last thing he managed but he'd have to act now, and he had to be as quick as he was clever. "I'm coming back for you," he told her as if it were an undeniable, unchangeable law of reality itself. The Doctor didn't waste a second before running back to the Tardis to set the coordinates.