Book Five: One More Goodbye

"He will knock four times."

The Doctor couldn't get those words out of his head, no matter how many times he threw himself into time and space and asked the TARDIS for something fun to do. He wasn't usually superstitious, but this … this felt different. This was too close to what he'd always known about the Master, about their relationship. About the way it was always destined to fall apart.

It wasn't like the two of them hadn't had fatal encounters before. The Master had tried to steal his regenerations before, had tried to kill him more times than he could count—and the Doctor had seen his old friend die more than he had ever hoped to do.

He will knock four time—now wasn't that familiar?

The Doctor shook his head, putting on a smile that he didn't mean as he walked a circle around the interior of the TARDIS. "Where she would go next, old girl?" he asked, affectionately petting a spot on the console without even thinking about it. "Somewhere fun; what do you think? Or maybe a daring adventure. Dealer's choice."

The TARDIS dinged at him, and he grinned back, whirling around the console room, pressing buttons and pulling levers and never once stopping. If he stopped, he would think about the prophecy. And he wasn't ready to do that, yet, so move he must.

He grabbed on tight as the TARDIS shook and laughed as it landed, genuinely delighted despite the fear in the back of his mind. No matter where he ended up next, it was going to be fun. It was always fun. He would make it fun.

And maybe, while he was at it, he would pick up a new traveling companion. He could keep going and going forever before he saw the Master again, and human lifespans were short enough—and human beings were fickle enough—that he could probably pick up someone new and go traveling for ages before he got around to really stopping, right?

Right?

The Doctor looked around the empty TARDIS room and shook his head, reaching out to the console again. "Just you and me and the universe," he said, and though he'd meant it affectionately, even he could hear the loneliness ringing in every word.

They landed, and the Doctor held onto the console as the room lurched. He could have sworn that, as the TARDIS dinged, she was sharing how pleased with herself she was with her choice of landing place.

And that was usually a good sign.

He straightened up and pulled on his shirt, nodding toward the console. "Let's go have an adventure, shall we?" he asked, pulling on his coat on his way out the door, losing himself to the excitement of a new place and time despite his earlier melancholy.

He stepped out of the TARDIS directly into a spiderweb and batted it away, making a face and pushing away what was left of the hanging silk. He could see several other webs hanging from wooden beams; it looked like wherever he had landed had been either long abandoned or quickly overtaken.

Considering the warning hanging over his head, he hoped desperately for the former option. The last time he'd seen his own death coming and had faced arachnid creatures…

He pressed his mouth into a line and kept going. There wasn't much light, but some broken floorboards and a cellar window gave him just enough to find a staircase and move forward from there, toward the sound of muffled voices over his head.

And then, the voices stopped.

The Doctor stopped his ascent as well, listening to footsteps that would have been much quieter if the floorboards above his head hadn't been partially missing. Still, whoever he had found was good at hiding their movements. His best move would be to announce himself.

"Hello?" he called out. "Anyone home?"

Silence. And then, another quiet series of movements until the door to the cellar swung open. The Doctor raised a hand to block out the sudden flood of light and saw, for the moment, only the silhouette of someone holding a gun.

"What are you doing here?" asked a voice so familiar that the Doctor had to smile despite himself.

"The usual," he said, though he noted with a frown that Sam hadn't lowered his gun. He raised both hands as his eyes adjusted to the light. "Something I should know about?"

Sam narrowed his eyes at him. "Just trying to decide if I should trust you," he said.

The Doctor grimaced, knowing there was probably good reason for that. He'd seen so much of what the Winchesters had to deal with, though he couldn't say what fight they were in now. Sam looked as old as the Doctor had ever seen him; it was entirely possible he didn't have any insight into their later misadventures.

"Where's the TARDIS?" Sam asked after a moment, obviously deciding that would be the best identification.

The Doctor kept one hand raised while the other thumbed over his shoulder. "Parked," he said. "She seemed to think we could find an adventure here." He tipped his head, studying Sam and the dark circles under his eyes and the stress lines over his forehead. "What happened?"

"Long story," Sam said, finally lowering the gun enough for the Doctor to lower his hands, though Sam didn't put it away, either. He nodded past the Doctor toward the dark of the cellar. "Dean?" he said.

Immediately, Dean came out from around the corner, his gun still raised. "Could have landed a few minutes ago before we got here," he said. He looked over the Doctor. "Do you think they can even copy a Time Lord?"

The Doctor reached into the deep pockets of his coat, feeling around until he felt his fingers close around what he needed. He let out a whistle to get the boys' attention and flashed the sonic screwdriver at both of them, then waved with the tips of his fingers.

"Know anyone else with one of those and a TARDIS?"

Sam and Dean shared a look that was an entire conversation before Sam nodded, and Dean brushed past the Doctor into the basement, holding a flashlight high until the beam fell across the TARDIS.

The Doctor was close enough to Dean that he could see Dean's shoulders slump in relief—but he didn't say anything, because Sam had raised his gun again while Dean was that close.

"Hey, don't sneak up on people like that," Dean called out to the TARDIS, and it dinged, obviously further confirming the Doctor's identity, because Sam lowered his gun as well.

The Doctor let out the breath he had been holding the whole time as he lowered his hands. And then, with both eyebrows raised, he said, "I think you boys will need to catch me up."