008 | walter reed |

[thatoldthatkind]

[ The Doctor is at the console of the TARDIS this evening, flicking lightly at one of the switches on it. His cowboy hat is firmly on his head and his eyes are on the blinking lights. He eyes the phone on the console before looking back at the lights. He always knows where to go, what to do. What left he can see in the universe before the ... well, end.

Maybe it's time he stopped running. But, he doesn't want to stop. There's so many people he has to meet and to help still. Maybe the universe would be better without the Doctor. River said that the whole of everything would turn against him if he kept carrying on like he does. Maybe it is time for him to stop.

He reaches up and tilts his cowboy hat down, unaware of his company. Maybe the dreamer is new to his dreams, or a frequent visitor. Either way? The Doctor has lost a bit of jump to his step. ]

Comments

[waterfell]

Did you make up for it? [The question is neutral.]

[thatoldthatkind]

I'd like to think so.

[waterfell]

Then, what did you do? [Pretty words aren't enough.]

[thatoldthatkind]

Ah, now that's between me and her.

[waterfell]

Isn't that another way to say 'nothing'?

[thatoldthatkind]

No. It's saying that it's not something I'd share with someone that isn't my TARDIS. Who is a something.

[waterfell]

As you wish, then! Let's see what the TARDIS has provided this room.

[The books are, of course, to her tastes, relevant to her current research along with a (somewhat embarrassing) few novels, already discreetly hidden behind other books. But Ami knows they're there, somehow.]

[thatoldthatkind]

[ He stays in the doorway, arms folded with a small grin on his face. The kind a parent has when watching their kid run around their new room. ]

[waterfell]

[Perhaps the most surprising part of the room is the simplest: There are framed photographs of Ami with various people she knows in her waking life - but more she knows from her dreams. Pictures with friends, someone else might call it. Ami herself would probably make an excuse or pass it off as something else.]

Every detail is just so, isn't it?

I wonder, then, what your room is like.

[thatoldthatkind]

That's something that stays off limits. Besides, it's not like I even have a room! I rarely sleep. Which is why we don't see each other too often.

[waterfell]

'Rarely' still means there's somewhere you should do it, right? I want to see it.

[thatoldthatkind]

You're not seeing and yes, sometimes. Otherwise we'd never meet.

[waterfell]

Would that disappoint you? [It's flippant as always, but she may be listening for the answer.]

[thatoldthatkind]

A bit. Yes. [ He starts toying with a book. ]

[waterfell]

You should be glad instead. With me gone entirely, your princess would be safer. [She means Usagi, of course, who she rarely refers to by name anymore.]

[thatoldthatkind]

And you would be less safer.

[waterfell]

Yes. [She agrees easily; to her, it's always been one or the other, whether in battle or simply in the hearts of those who meet them. Cloud is slowly showing her otherwise, but for now, she is still clinging and grasing.]

If I did die, Doctor, do you wonder what my next time would be like?