A/N: *sobs uncontrollably* I've been thinking about Adric a lot more since I fractured my hand. I'M OVERLOADED WITH FEELS!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
A flash of yellow is the first thing that he sees, before it morphs into a familiar outfit reminiscent of human pyjamas. Then there's a face full of youth, intelligence and a touch of arrogance.
"Adric."
The word slips out of his mouth as he realises who he is seeing and he can't stop himself from reaching for the Alzarian. The Alzarian that he knows isn't really there and never will be.
As suddenly as the boy had come, he was gone and replaced with the TARDIS console room. It wasn't the usual coral though, it was pure white and surrounded with ghosts of the past. He can hear Tegan shakily say his name as Nyssa buries her face into the girl's shoulder.
But she isn't talking to him. No. She's talking to the younger one, garbed in cricket gear.
He can't help but stare, knowing that this is the moment that his fifth life went to hell. This is the moment when the dysfunctional family that he had made shattered like glass.
The Doctor knows that the younger, more innocent version of himself is going to be eying more than a few aspirin pills in the coming months and this fact makes him look away in guilt at the amount of times that he had almost left Nyssa and Tegan drifting alone in space in a rackety old TARDIS with a dead Timelord.
The problem is that he looks directly at the TARDIS view screen, knowing that moments before a freighter had crashed into Earth in front of the TARDIS.
With Adric on board.
There's a voice shouting Adric's name, begging his memory to go to sleep and he realises that that voice is his.
He can't help it, not even after so many hundreds of years that he's lost count. Adric was a little smartass that more often than not got himself in trouble and soon after his venture into the TARDIS had earned himself the spot of annoying little brother.
His shouting's getting louder and louder and he knows that his companions are probably awake and rushing towards the console room to see why he's so loud, but he just can't find it in himself to care.
The tragic memory of the boy that should be in E-space right now is worth more than keeping his companions calm.
So the Doctor keeps on screaming, for the boy that he failed.