I have to apologize again for taking so long to update my story. We have been in the midst of moving so needless to say things have been a bit hectic. Hopefully once were settled I'll be able to update more regularly. Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed, and commented, it means a lot to me!
The Doctor was not amused. He finally had set his heart on a destination and now he found himself right back where he started. Stepping outside the TARDIS he sternly scolded the blue box under his breath and lightly kicked one of the corners. As if in reply the unassuming police box let out a quiet woosh, a nonverbal way of saying "Trust me. Have I let you down thus far?"
To him, the day seemed overcast and ordinary, mundane, and probably a Sunday. Nevertheless, contrary to the negative, grumpy feelings he was experiencing he locked up the TARDIS and began to wander.
The street he was on was sparsely populated and mostly residential. As he reached the end of the line of homes and turned the corner a playground came into view. A few children played on the sets, jetting back and forth between the monkey bars and the swings. The Doctor paused momentarily, leaning up against the chain-link fence. The squeals and laughter that emanated from the scene that lay before his eyes made him both joyous and utterly devastated. As with every moment, of every second of his life, he faced a choice. As he observed young life blossoming and free from worry, he analyzed them with a furrowed brow and made his choice. The Doctor smiled, a beaming grin from ear to ear; how happy they were, these small, pint sized humans, and how marvelous, even in childhood, the human race was. Though, he mused further, children on nearly any planet were the same, so carefree and oblivious to the dangers of the world around them. What he wouldn't give to be a child again, before looking into the untempered schism, before he had taken upon himself the weight of the universe.
As he hoisted himself out of the caverns of his own mind the Doctor raised his eyes to the horizon and his gaze fell upon a familiar figure. The breeze blew Captain Jack's long coat out behind him as he trudged across the park that lead up to the playground. The absolute nature of his presence was like fingernails on a chalkboard for the Doctor. It made his teeth hurt, and the ridiculous, triumphant smile that the Captain wore didn't help matters. The Doctor stood himself upright and cleared his throat as Jack approached. "I should have known it was you." He said, his voice sounding unfriendly as he felt.
"Aw come on Doc I thought we moved past this."
"I suppose we did somewhat, but that doesn't justify you somehow luring me back here to Cardiff."
"I don't know what you're talking about" Jack teased.
"Right."
In truth the Doctor wasn't really as irritated at seeing Jack as he was letting on. Jack had redeemed himself somewhat during their last several encounters. But, in reality it was since he discovered that Jack would likely one day become the Face of Boe, that the Doctor was ever so slightly endeared to him. He didn't understand how the man he saw before him would morph into such a force of wisdom, a virtual staple of the universe. But alas, there wasn't much use in trying to make sense of time, the Doctor had learned that long ago.
"Well, all that aside," the Doctor continued, "Please say you have something interesting going on to distract me with. I'm dying of boredom and I haven't even been here ten minutes."
"Oh boy, do I!" Jack replied, "I have two somethings interesting. Do you remember Skoren?"
"Ah geeze, I could have gone at least two more regenerations without seeing him again."
"Tell me about it!" Jack agreed.
"Well what's he want now. And why on earth is he…well…on earth? Isn't earth a bit out of his way?"
"Well, it is, he doesn't want to be here, but he's stuck."
The Doctor mused on this for a split second before he realized what this meant, "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no…that is NOT happening. Not in a million, million years is that happening."
"That's what I told him, but for some reason he doesn't trust me to get him out of here any other way."
"Well…" the Doctor smirked.
"Hey!" Jack retorted good naturedly.
The background noise of the children playing was the only sound that briefly filled the air as the doctor mulled over the situation. Jack interjected before the Doctor could speak.
"I tried to talk to him, and it didn't go so well. Since then we can't find him anywhere. He's gone into hiding until a more convenient time I suppose."
"Right, well we'll have to find him first, Skoren doesn't like coming out during the day so we'll have to wait 'til nightfall. Now, I thought you said you had two interesting things."
"I do." Jack smiled knowing that what he was about to reveal was bigger, better, and way more exciting than the reptilian problem he had just detailed.
"Well, out with it then." The Doctor told him impatiently.
"Now, now hold your horses."
The Doctor grew increasingly more irritated as Jack was, in fact, enjoying the suspense a little too much.
"So this is great, it really is. This morning when I was getting ready to meet Skoren…" Jack continued, recounting the events of the day thus far. However, the Doctor stopped paying attention to him about a third of the way through. Instead, his eyes were firmly fixed towards in the direction Captain Jack had come from. Moving steadily towards them was Abigail, though The Doctor didn't know her by that name. She had grown weary of waiting down the hill by the tree where Jack had inexplicably left her. Then there were the whispers, the subtle, quiet whispers that called to her and reeled her in like a fish hanging on a lure.
The Doctor took several steps forward, brushing past Jack in the process and stopping him midsentence. "Seriously?" Jack complained, knowing his big reveal was ruined.
Abigail continued to move forward as the same wind that had blown Jack's coat backward like a superhero's cape tousled her hair back and forth across her face. She saw the tall man standing with Captain Jack, and couldn't help but fixate on his face. There was something about him that made her feel like looking at his face was like reading a sentence she couldn't quite comprehend. Even though she understood the words themselves, no matter how many times she read them together she couldn't understand what it all meant.
Internally, The Doctor felt in an uproar. Every cell of his body and both of his hearts never wanted to run to something, or rather, someone so much. He knew logically he could not, she wouldn't understand just yet, but a war waged inside of him as he watched what he had ached for materialize before his eyes. Though his mind told him not to surrender himself once more to hope, the tangible nature of the figure that stood before him was all he needed; it was the first few drops of water that quenched his insatiable loneliness. As Abigail drew closer, The Doctor took a few more steps to close the gap.
The way in which the man looked at Abigail left her more confused than anything else. When he looked at her it was like lightening ran through her body and up her spine but it didn't make much sense. She had never before met this man in her life, but when their eyes met it was as if he gazed upon her with knowledge of her inner person that even she didn't know; it seemed he was anticipating her thoughts and the beat of her own heart.
Since both parties were dumbfounded for one reason or another they stood facing each other for quite a long time in silence. Their eyes fixated one to the other and standing quite closer than new acquaintances usually do. Jack stood a few paces back, not quite sure what to make of the situation. Finally Abigail spoke uncomfortably, "I'm Abigail, I suppose Jack has told you about me already?"
The manner and words that Abigail spoke brought a wave of sorrow over the Doctor that snapped him out of the dream he imagined he was living. "Of course, he was just getting me up to date on his morning; he hadn't quite mentioned you yet."
The Doctor shot a sideways, despondent look towards Jack. He didn't know what emotion to feel first, elation, distress, relief, anger, gratitude, love. Instead, he seemed to feel them all at once. However, somewhere in the tumultuous storm that was his mind, The Doctor had a moment of clarity. This was no place, no time, for him to reveal to this woman who, or what, she was. For the time being, it was better for her to live as she was, human, and oblivious.