Doctor Who: Series A [COMPLETE]

Episode Eleven: Lockdown

Three Hours Before Lockdown

For yet another night, Callum couldn't sleep. Every time he tried, the Doctor's words were emerge from the shadows, rattling their way around his mind until it drove him mad and he had to get up again.

"When we met you, the Skorvax were hiding there because of you."

"Me? Why me?"

"You're something of a paradox, Callum. You don't make sense. You're destined to die in the past - and as far as I can tell, it's a fixed point. The Skorvax had already seen it. The Able told me about it at the museum..."

"Wait, so you've known this whole time? Does Jade know?"

"No. And I couldn't say anything - to either of you. Not until I'd exhausted all of my research."

"Exhausted..? So there's...there's no hope then?"

Callum rolled over, the Doctor's pitying expression more vivid every time he remembered the conversation. He didn't want the Time Lord's pity, though: he wanted a solution. To know that your death awaits you is a burden that Callum never asked for, and it was knowledge he'd never wanted to possess. After all, knowing that your death was coming sooner than expected, and that it couldn't be changed...it could drive a man mad.

But even as he worried for himself, imagining how it would happen and ways he could avoid he, his thoughts kept returning to Elliott. He considered asking the Doctor to take him back home, to run from his fate for as long as possible, hiding with Elliott so that he could see his son grow up, his life unfold before him.

Sarah would think him mad. She'd never let him see his son again, and then it could be too late. He chewed over the Doctor's words again as he stared at the TARDIS' ceiling through the dark. You're destined to die in the past, he'd said, which surely meant he was safe back in his own time, and that he could go home.

However, as he excitedly followed this passage of thought through to its conclusion, he had to relent: the Doctor would've already thought of that. So what was he to do? Enjoy his time with Jade? Stay on the TARDIS and never set foot outside of it again? Or willingly stride towards his destiny?

Whatever he was going to do, he had already decided that it didn't involve telling Jade. She would never forgive the Doctor, he realised, and although the Time Lord had not explicitly asked for the truth to be omitted when the time came, Callum accepted it as the least he could do for his extraterrestrial friend. 

Unable to entertain these thoughts anymore, Callum crawled out of bed and headed for the console room, where the Doctor was already waiting.

"I know what you're going to ask."

"Is that some sort of Time Lord superpower?"

"No. I'd be a much better friend if it was," the Doctor smiled weakly.

"So out there...?"

"Is the future. He's fifteen. Try not to complicate things, though. This is risky."

It was Callum's turn to smile, this time in mourning for what the days he'd never have with his son. He clapped the Doctor on the arm and stepped out into the warm sunshine of a July day, to see Elliott all grown up.

Two Hours Before Lockdown

"Doctor, where's Callum?"

"Morning Jade!" the Doctor exclaimed as his companion walked into the TARDIS' dining room.

It was designed to look like the cosy setting for a high society luncheon, walls lined with bookcases and paintings, and a solid dark wood table running down the length of the room. Gold inscriptions weaved their way around the edges, written in High Gallifreyan for added flare, and each of the chairs bore a similar marking.