Realization hit them and Matron said in horror, "They're destroying the village."
Martha sucked in a sharp breath as she watched the destruction outside while Terry just watched the fireballs raining down from the sky in silence. John, however, suddenly turned around and he glanced at the fob watch sitting on the window's edge.
"The watch." He murmured distractedly.
"John, don't." Matron whispered pleadingly, reaching out a hand toward the taller man.
But John had already taken the fob watch into his hands and he stared down at it as though mesmerized. Terry closed her eyes as she heard the same thing John was hearing.
"Closer." The Doctor's voice whispered.
"Can you hear it?" Tim questioned as he stepped closer as well, listening to the voice he'd grown familiar with over the last couple of days.
"Closer." The voice whispered again.
"I think he's asleep. Waiting to awaken." John murmured and Terry heard the Doctor's voice whisper more strongly.
"Waken me, little man."
It took everything in her for Terry not to reach over and force John to open the fob watch. To release the Doctor and bring him back. Every inch of her being ached for her husband, every cell making up her heart wanted him back instead of this stranger who wore the Doctor's face. But she restrained herself. It had to be his choice.
"Why did he speak to me?" Tim wondered, asking the question that had been on his mind ever since he'd first heard the voice coming from the watch.
"Oh, low level telepathic field." The Doctor answered automatically. Martha smiled at the familiar arrogant attitude as the Doctor continued absently, "You were born with it. Just an extra synaptic engram causing-"
John gasped as his consciousness caught up with his mouth. He inhaled sharply while Matron's face changed as she stared at the man she'd thought she'd known while he looked around wildly.
"Is that how he talks?" John asked in a shaky voice.
Terry nodded while Martha murmured encouragingly, "That's him. All you have to do is open it and he's back."
Another bomb-like fireball hit the village behind them, lighting up the cottage. John glanced at the ashen-faced Matron before he turned back to Martha, and he started in an angry tone, "You knew this all along and yet you watched while Nurse Redfern and I-"
"I didn't know how to stop you!" Martha protested. "He gave me a list of things to watch out for, but that wasn't included."
John stared at Martha incredulously.
"Falling in love? That didn't even occur to him?" He demanded in disbelief. Martha shook her head.
"No."
John reared back at Martha's admission. "Then what sort of man is that? And now you expect me to die?"
Another flame hit the village, lighting up John's anguished face. Desperate, Martha glanced at Terry for help as she cried back.
"It didn't occur to him because he loves Terry! Why do you think you kept dreaming of her? The Doctor loves her more than anyone, so of course it wasn't going to occur to him that he might fall for someone else while his memories were gone. But this was always how it was going to end!"
Terry glanced to the side as she heard the rustle of paper turning. She watched Matron flip through John's journal with a twisted, pained expression, while Martha continued to explain urgently to John.
"The Doctor said the Family's got a limited lifespan, and that's why they need to consume a Time Lord. Otherwise, three months and they die. Like mayflies, he said."
"So your job was to execute me." John snapped.
"People are dying out there." Martha shot back. "They need him and I need him. Maybe even more than Terry in some ways. Because you've got no idea of what he's like. I've only just met him and Terry to be honest."
Martha began to sound a little hysterical as John stared at her with the Doctor's face but with no comprehension at all in his expression.
"It wasn't even that long ago. But he is everything. He's everything to Terry and everything to me; he's so much more than just a man, he's kind and brave and he saves people. Terry's selfless and infinitely patient and so brave as well, but with him… I don't let anyone be called a doctor, knowing myself how difficult it is to earn that title, but he is the Doctor, no question!"
Martha paused to take a deep breath as she ran out of air. John gaped at her while Terry smiled slightly at her friend's defense of the Doctor. Her smile only widened despite her own pain as Martha added in a mutter, "And I hope to God he won't remember me saying this."
Another explosion went off, louder than before, reminding them of the impending doom.
"It's getting closer." Tim murmured anxiously.
"Why can't you go?" John demanded, looking at Terry. "Why must it be me?"
"It doesn't have to be." Terry answered before Martha could stop her.
"So I don't have to die? I can stay as I am?" John asked excitedly.
"If that's what you want." Terry replied and Martha gaped at her.
"Angel!"
"But you heard Martha," Terry continued as though she hadn't heard Martha's protest. "There's only so much I can do, and I'm not the Doctor. Maybe not tonight but sometime soon we'll need the Doctor. The universe will need him. If you can live with the weight of those consequences, that's your choice."
John's face twisted. "But if I just stay-"
"Then it all ends in destruction."
They all turned as Matron spoke at last. She had closed the journal and she gestured at it as she directed her words to Jon.
"I never read to the end, but if he doesn't come back, it will be some other monster who will come, who will conquer and breed, for war across the stars for every child."
An uncomfortable silence fell as John stared at Matron as though she had betrayed him with her words. But as another fireball exploded in the distance, Terry moved.
"Martha, Timothy?" Terry called softly. "Come with me."
"What-?" Martha started in protest but Terry just gave her a firm look that spoke of no arguments. Martha and Tim slowly joined Terry as she started for the front doors when John's voice stopped her.
"Where are you going?"
"Giving you two some privacy." Terry answered shortly.
It took everything in her but she turned to look back at John over her shoulder and she said quietly, "It's your life. Make the choice that you know you can live with."
With that, Terry walked out of the cottage. Martha and Tim followed, but the darker-haired companion only waited until the door was shut before she pounced.
"Why didn't you tell the Doctor to open the watch? You already know what he'll choose." Martha demanded.
Terry sighed.
"Just because I can see his future doesn't mean it's set in stone. And I shouldn't take away the choice from him. He is and always will be free to continue to make his own choices."
Then, in a softer voice, she added, "Just as I am free to make my own."
"What if he chooses her?" Timothy asked. Terry's gaze became infinitely sadder.
"Then that is still his choice." She replied.
Terry could tell Martha thought this was extremely risky of her but the Time Lady knew her time was up. She'd already sat in the shadows for too long.
"Now, I have to go." Terry stood up. "I must deal with the Family before they can harm anyone else. I should have gone earlier but I… I wanted him to be afraid. So he'd be forced to choose."
She glanced back at Martha with a small, wry smile that didn't reach her sorrowful blue eyes.
"I'm not selfless at all, Martha, I'm incredibly selfish. For all my talk, I didn't want to risk losing him if I removed the danger. I want him to choose to come back, no matter what - even if some people have to get hurt for me to get that."
Inside the Family's spaceship, the son possessing Baines's body smiled triumphantly as he stared out at the burning village below.
"We'll blast them into dust, then fuse the dust into glass, then shatter them all over again." He declared, already excited just at the thought.
"Will you, now?"
The Family spun around and their eyes widened and then narrowed when they saw the dark-haired woman standing in the doorway to their spaceship.
"Time Lord!" They hissed, their noses instantly sniffing out the truth.
Terry glanced around the ship and she scoffed.
"Well, this has certainly seen better days." She kicked one side of the weathered ship disgustedly. "Mold growing here, that part of the console looks like it went out decades ago and oh, look at that, you only have enough fuel for one more journey. Typical. Nothing that makes a ship useful has been maintained but your weapons system remains top-notch. Conclusion?"
Terry suddenly reached over and pulled the wires on the console, shutting off the weapons and halting the attack on the village.
"You're just bullies picking on the weak. Naw, actually, you're bullies who don't realize when they've met their match."
She crossed her arms across her chest while Baines sneered.
"You certainly think very highly of yourself." Jenny scoffed as she leant forward, her eyes predatory as she watched Terry. "Did your Doctor not tell you about how he fled from us like a little girl?"
"Oh, if only you knew." Terry chuckled, making the Family frown. "You would have run to the ends of the Universe. But no, you didn't. You had to be stupid and greedy. And for that, you'll understand why the Doctor is called the Oncoming Storm."
"Oh, I don't think we will." Baines smirked as he took a step toward Terry. "I think instead you, Time Lord, will learn a lesson in why you should fear the Family. Pity that you won't be able to live long enough to get any use out of it though."
The Family cackled while Terry narrowed her eyes, but they were interrupted by a plaintive cry from the doorway.
"Wait!"
The Family and Terry all turned to look as 'John Smith' stood with his hands held up to the sky in the universal sign for surrender. And in his open palm was the fob watch.
"I-I'm here to surrender." 'John' pleaded, his eyes darting frantically between the Family and Terry as though he were trying to understand what was going on. "You told me to come, so I'm here. Now, now, just, just stop."
Jenny took a sniff and she purred, "Still human."
Baines beamed. "Well, well! Look at this. Two Time Lords for the price of one!"
Lucy giggled while Terry pursed her lips and feigned worry as she watched 'John' step gingerly further into the console room. He waved the fob watch somewhat carelessly as he walked and he continued to speak in an anxious tone.
"Now I can't, I can't pretend to understand, not for a second, but I want you to know I'm innocent in all this. He made me John Smith. It's not like I had any control over it."
He stumbled over his own feet, and his hands pressed some random switches as he tried to regain his balance. Jenny eyed him incredulously.
"He didn't just make himself human. He made himself an idiot." Jenny said scathingly.
"Same thing, isn't it?" Baines returned.
'John' either didn't hear them or didn't care to answer as he instead pleaded, "I don't care about this Doctor and your family. I just want you to go. So I've made my choice."
He held out the watch in his hand.
"You can have him. Just take it, please! Take him away. " He begged the Family.
Baines's eyes grew wide and he stepped forward without hesitation.
"At last."
"No!" Terry cried, stepping forward but the father pointed a laser gun at her and she was forced to stop in her tracks.
Baines meanwhile took the fob watch almost reverently into his hands while the rest of his Family watched in anticipation. As soon as the watch was in his possession, Baines whirled around to sneer at the man who had handed him his greatest desire.
"Don't think that saved your life." Baines hissed as he grabbed the other man by the lapels before he shoved him away. The man fell into the wall, hitting more buttons as he tumbled down where he lay groaning in pain.
Baines ignored the moaning male completely as he declared excitedly, "Family of Mine, now we shall have the lives of a Time Lord."
He opened the watch and the whole Family sniffed deeply, waiting to inhale the essence of a Time Lord… except, nothing happened. At first, they were confused. Then, anger settled in.
"It's empty!" Baines snarled, snapping the watch shut furiously as he and the Family all whirled around to glare at the male whimpering against the wall.
"W-Where's he gone?" The man stuttered, his voice breaking, and Baines snarled.
"You tell me." He snapped, throwing the watch at the other male.
The Doctor caught it easily without even looking.
"Oh," the Doctor answered in a voice that was no longer stuttering or stumbling. "I think the explanation might be you've been fooled by a simple olfactory misdirection. Little bit like ventriloquism of the nose."
The Family stood stiff, still not understanding.
"It's an elementary trick in certain parts of the galaxy. But it has got to be said," he suddenly whipped out his glasses and perched them on his nose as he leant against one side of the spaceship and examined the blinking controls.
"I don't like the looks of that hydroconometer. It seems to be indicating you've got energy feedback all the way through the retrostabilisers feeding back into the primary heat converters."
He tapped the machine in question before he turned to look back at the Family.
"Oh. Because if there's one thing you shouldn't have done, you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons."
The impatient Family just frowned in confusion while the Doctor's voice darkened.
"And the other thing you shouldn't have done was threaten my angel. Because if there's one thing I can't forgive, it's any harm befalling her." The Doctor reached for Terry, who didn't hesitate in joining his side.
The Family glared at the Time Lords and Baines took a menacing step forward. The Doctor tutted.
"Still haven't learnt, hm? But, out of the goodness of my heart since you didn't actually harm my angel, I will give you one word of advice."
He took Terry's hand.
"Run."
With that, the Doctor and Terry raced out the ship just as alarms started to blare. Red lights flashed in time with the alarms and the Family finally realized what was going on.
"Get out!" Baines roared. "Get out!"
The Family barely made it out after the two Time Lords, racing out into Cooper's field seconds before the ship exploded.
The Doctor dealt with the Family's punishment alone.
Terry let him, knowing he needed to do it himself. He had tried to be kind to the Family once. That was why he had run from them and hidden away as a human. He had given them a chance to escape. But they had ignored that. And the Doctor didn't give second chances.
He might still have been a little bit merciful to them. Maybe if they hadn't destroyed a village in their hunt. If they hadn't hurt innocents. If they hadn't threatened his angel. And if they hadn't, no matter how unintentional it had been, caused a woman's heart to be broken as a result of the subterfuge he had been forced to take.
But instead, the Doctor left the Family in their various, painful and eternal prisons. They had wanted to live forever - he made sure they did.
And now, with the Family taken care of, the Doctor had only one more stop to make before he could return to her; to his angel.
In many ways, this stop was going to be the most difficult and challenging of all. But it was one he knew he had to do. The Doctor took many deep breaths before he was able to open the door to the cottage he had vacated one day prior.
Matron Joan Redfern sat by the window of the dining room, staring out into the fields and not looking at him even though she clearly heard him enter. She already knew, had known before 'John Smith' had made his choice, that the Doctor wouldn't love her. He couldn't. Not when his hearts already belonged to another.
"Is it done?" Joan spoke first, breaking the silence at last.
"It's done." The Doctor confirmed. She nodded.
"The police and the army are at the school." She spoke quickly, like she was trying to fill the silence. "The parents have come to take the boys home. I should go. They'll have so many questions. I'm not sure what to say."
Finally, she turned to look at him. Only to gasp and look away very quickly.
"Oh, you look the same." She murmured before she shook herself. "Goodness, you must forgive my rudeness. I find it difficult to look at you. Doctor, I must call you Doctor."
Taking a deep breath, she paused before she asked quietly, "Where is he? John Smith?"
"He's in here somewhere." The Doctor replied quietly.
"Like a story." Joan laughed without humour.
She glanced at him again and, in a moment of weakness, she blurted out, "Could you change back?
There was a pregnant pause before the Doctor finally answered. "Yes."
"But you won't." Joan guessed, looking at the Doctor in the eye at last even as her brows knitted with pain. "Will you?"
"No." The Doctor admitted heavily.
There was a part of him that was apologetic, even disappointed, to say the words he knew he had to say. But for the most part, the Doctor had no regrets. Because if he had to choose again, he knew what he would choose. One hundred million times over. It would always only be her.
"I'm sorry, I truly am, for hurting you. But I have someone I will not leave behind - someone I can't leave behind."
She nodded slowly, looking away from him again.
"You never forgot her." Joan murmured, staring out at the destruction outside to avoid looking at him again.
"You drew pictures of her - of Miss Storm. Your journal was littered with images of her, I just didn't realize it was always the same woman. Neither did John at the time, I suppose."
She let out a shuddering breath.
"And I see now that even John wasn't looking at me, not really. He saw a part of her in me, in my admiration for you."
The Doctor paused at those words, but Joan was already moving on as she asked in a voice that only shook slightly, "Why did you come to speak with me?"
"I thought you deserved at least an apology." The Doctor answered honestly before he hesitated.
"And, you deserved the truth. He did truly love you. Just know that."
She inhaled sharply. And in a voice that told him she was seconds away from dissolving into tears, Joan whispered brokenly, "You can go."
He did so without once looking back. His part in her life was over and the Doctor had no desire to stay. Not when his hearts pulled him in a different direction. But it still hurt more than he had expected it to when he heard the woman John Smith had loved start to sob just before the door closed behind him.
Terry said her farewell to Tim before getting into the Tardis long before the Doctor returned. She held the boy with certain affection but Terry was all too aware that in his eyes, she was little more than a stranger. So before she could blubber like an idiot, she extricated herself from the situation.
Terry didn't have to wait long, to her admitted surprise, before the Tardis door opened and Martha entered. Behind her, Terry could just see the Doctor as he handed Timothy Latimer the empty fob watch for luck. He was going to need it with the upcoming world wars that were just on the horizon for him. But he was strong; he would make it out all right.
Terry smiled softly to herself as she heard the Doctor say to Tim, "You'll like this bit." before he finally entered the Tardis as well.
Terry shifted the gears on the console and, with her usual wheezing, the Tardis dematerialized while Tim watched outside. Martha wandered off toward the kitchen, needing a warm hot chocolate after this latest adventure and needing an excuse to leave the two Time Lords alone in the console room. They didn't call her back either as the Doctor instead moved to join Terry at the console while she pulled gears and pressed buttons as she set them adrift in space.
"Are you okay?" The Doctor asked in a low voice, placing a hand over hers and stilling her movements.
Terry nodded, then shook her head.
"No." She admitted honestly, looking up at last to meet the Doctor's eyes. "But I will be."
The Doctor nodded while Terry searched his eyes for a moment.
"He did love her… didn't he?"
The Doctor stilled at her question and Terry admitted, "I could tell. He was so torn when I appeared, because you were trying to wake up. But I could see when he looked at her that he really did love her."
"I don't love her." It was all he could give her. And it was enough. Terry smiled, a hint of sorrow still there at the corners of her lips but it was a smile nonetheless.
"You don't have to tell me that. I know, Theta. I know."
She patted his cheek, and he held her hand there. For a long moment they stared at each other without a word. Then, as though they were linked by one mind, they started to reach for each other.
But seconds before their lips could meet, the all-too familiar light engulfed her. The Doctor sighed while Terry moved her lips instead to bid him an equally disappointed farewell. And then she was gone, leaving the Doctor once again alone.