Where Waves crash and Journeys end (Doctor Who/Broadchurch)

11

Alec spun round, slowly backing away from the box. Something had caught his eye...or someone. He stood on the nearest clifftop, watching him from the distance. The bright afternoon sun cast its bright light on him, made him look like a ghost. 

Sourrounding him. 

Waiting. 

Watching. 

Alec couldn't tell where he had seen this man before, but still - there was something familiar about him. Something he couldn't explain, something mysterious. Something ancient. 

Something out of this world. 

Odd. Peculiar. Strange. Whatever you would call it. 

And yet - Alec felt the sudden urge to walk up to him. It was like he was pulling him, speaking to him in his mind. That their lifes were connected somehow in a way he couldn't understand. 

But what else did he really know about this man? 

Maybe...just maybe he was the killer of Danny. Just a child. An innocent child, murdered. Murdered for - for what exactly?  

Anyway, maybe this man had regretted it. Now, he had come back here to feel himself overwhelmed with pain and guilt, finally confessing what he had done. 

He could be charged any moment...

Alec shook his head, knowing that this couldn't be real. It was just a man, maybe a tourist enjoying the sundown. Enjoying a life on his own. Enjoying a normal day. 

Clearing his head from the rattling thoughts, the DI just wanted to walk away. As he passed the stranger, his staring gaze went following him over the green hills back to town. 

"You can't just sit there and do nothing!", the blonde girl mutters, pacing back and forth. It has been very quiet without her longtime friend, going outside for nearly eight hours. In these eight hours, she had just waited for him to return, reading a book or just staring out of the little windows. Now, he finally has, leaning against the console. He says nothing. He tells her nothing. He just stands there, since almost 30 minutes, staring dreamily in the distance. 

And when he told, he lied. He always lied. But not to her. 

She often dreamed about the past days, their bright adventures together. They were long gone. Their first meeting was long gone. 

Everything was gone. But not her. 

Whatever would be, she would stay with him. He had promised. Even then, when her single human heart was about to give up. And she had been ready. Ready for another round. 

For another adventure. Far away from her past life. Far away from everything she had known. 

She could deal with this. Always had. 

He finally pulls the lever, sending the TARDIS back to the vortex. She hums happily, her lights flashing in excitement. Then, her friend turns around. 

Seeing him like this makes her going pale. 

There are tears in his swollen red eyes. Tears he hadn't cried since 6000 years. Tears he had  tried to hold back for over so many years, for centuries. Tears he now has witnessed to fall after all this time.

Those endless days of Pain.

Of Fear.

Of Denial.

Of Sorrow. 

Even the TARDIS wanted to comfort him. She was old, the oldest being in the whole of creation. She had been his very first ally, long after the Time War. She had seen so many wonderful, but yet cruel things. She had been destroyed. Raped. Ripped into pieces even if she seemed unbreakable. And still...she had survived. 

Altough, she was just a machine, the TARDIS had witnessed every single incarnation of her owner. Her thief. 

Every single incarnation filled with more emotions they had ever admitted to have. 

From all his lifes, his former selfs, his tenth version was her favourite. He had never been cruel to her. He was loving. Laughing, crying. 

He lived. 

And shouldn't this be more important than anything else?

"I can't."

His words are drenched with sadness, the unspoken truth spinning in his head. Sighing, he ruffles his hair. His lips are shaking, his hands trembling. 

How long, Doctor? How long are you going to hide it? How long are you going to witness everything, observing from the shadows? The Bad Wolf knows, Doctor. She knows everything. Everything you try to hide. Be careful, little Timelord...be careful...

That's when his tears fall again.