To Be Loved

Chapter 28 - The End Of Time

The End Of Time, part 2 -

Christmas Day. They woke up and the lights, the men in uniform and the Master were gone. They groaned with a headache when they got up.

"Argh, are you alright?", she asked, squinting her eyes and pushing herself up.

"Yeah", he got his bearings together, "Yeah, you?"

"Yeah", she groaned again when she noticed the drumming was still present, now further to the front of her head, "Wow, a hundred years ago I was used to this, now it's back and hurts like hell again, feels like my eyeballs will pop out."

"But what is it?"

"I don't know, I had it before I absorbed the time vortex, honestly, I always thought everyone heard it and that's why no one talked about it. But we've got more pressing matters at hand than a headache, don't you think?"

"Not if your headache is connected to the pressing matters", he helped her up from where she was still kneeling in the dirt, "He's still on Earth, I suppose that's something."

"Let's get back to the Tardis then, maybe she's got something."

She held on to his hand more tightly than usually as they walked back to the Tardis with hurried steps. They didn't talk on the way, mostly because they were caught up in their own thoughts about the happenings around themselves, none of which worth sharing quite yet.

When they were about to enter Wilf came out of his home across the street. They turned around and the Doctor let go of her hand to approach him.

"We lost him. We were unconscious. He's still on Earth, I can smell him, but he's too far away."

"Listen, you can't park there. What if Donna sees it?", Wilf worried.

"You're the only one, Wilf. The only connection I can think of. You're involved, if I could work out how. Tell me, have you seen anything? I don't know. Anything strange, anything odd?"

"Well, there was a-", he hesitated.

"What? What is it? Tell me", the Doctor pressed.

"Now, darling, let's be calm. I don't think we want to scare Wilf. Please?", the Oracle put a hand on the Doctor's back to calm him a bit.

"Well, it was", he looked between the two, fear written into his features, "No, it's nothing."

"Think, think, think", the Doctor took a step back to muse, "Maybe it's something out of the blue. Something connected to your life. Something."

"Anything out of the ordinary?", the Oracle added with a calmer tone, a hand on Wilf's shoulder.

"Well, Donna was a bit strange. She had a funny little moment, this morning, all because of that book."

"What book?"

Wilf returned inside without another word and the Time Lords waited by the door for less than a minute until Wilf returned a hardcover-copy of Fighting The Future in hand. He gave it to the Doctor and the Oracle looked at it as well.

"His name's Joshua Naismith", Wilf said.

"What's so special about him?", the Oracle asked.

"That's the man", the Doctor said.

"What man?", the Oracle continued.

"I was shown him by the Ood."

"By the what?", Wilf asked.

"By the Ood", the Doctor repeated.

"What's the Ood?"

"Telepathic alien-species in the forty second century", the Oracle told him then turned back to the Doctor, "As in 'the King in his Counting House'? Who is he?"