Open | Don't think I've ever felt so sad

[likesimpossible]

Sometimes people described silence as being so loud that it could be cut with a knife, and while sometimes the Doctor preferred silence, at this moment, he realized that this silence was deafening. A space that used to be filled with laughter and chatter from himself and his good friend Donna was now quiet, empty, and if he was being honest, a little sad.

He looked around the empty console room, pausing for a moment before he decided that nothing would be accomplished by leaving the TARDIS parked here outside his best friend's house. Pulling dials and flipping levers, he set the TARDIS into motion, and in just a short time, he eased the levers back into place and landed the ship. The destination wasn't so important now, not in comparison to getting away, to distracting himself, and to beginning the process of picking up the pieces.

But when he placed his hand on the TARDIS door's handle and opened said doors, the sight in front of him was not the one he envisioned. There was nothing familiar about it, and although he thought briefly about going back inside the TARDIS and taking off again, he couldn't ignore the pinpricks of curiosity that were already asserting themselves.

Those pinpricks normally were like resounding gongs drowning everything else out, but the Doctor was not in the mood to bound around excitedly as he explored a new place. His clothes were still soaked from the atmospheric disturbance that was coating Chiswick and other parts of the world, and he couldn't banish from his mind the image of Donna chattering away on her phone, completely oblivious of his presence and unconcerned by the fact that he was about to leave her behind forever.

Right now, he was a very sad, very bedraggled sort of explorer, but he still was an explorer nonetheless. Any distraction was welcome, and as he slowly began his exploration, he supposed that this fit that description. Of course, he wasn't all sadness and dark clouds; this place was interesting enough, after all, so if someone happened along at just the right moment, they might catch sight of the Doctor peering curiously at some local landmark or another, as if the mantle of sadness had temporarily lifted off his shoulders.

But it was never gone for long, and that look of regret and guilt was quick to slip back in.

[ ooc: Open post for Ten's intro! If your character catches him at just the right moment, he might even be in a halfway cheerful mood. Otherwise, he'll be in a bit of a funk for a little while. ]

Comments

[likesimpossible]

One thing was certain, and that is that the second the Doctor hears that familiar voice calling out to him, and more importantly, using that particular form of address, both his hearts seem to skip a beat. He looks up slowly, as if he doesn't want to see what can't possibly be real, but then his eyes widen and his jaw drops to hang open.

"Jenny?" It can't be her, of course, because he remembers seeing her get shot and die in his arms, but she's moving, she's running, and she's calling out to him. It doesn't seem possible, but unless this is a very elaborate trick, his daughter is alive, and that's more than he could have ever hoped for.

[bitunlikely]

Oh, it is him. Any (extremely minute) doubts that she might have had completely disappear when she hears her father say her name in return. It has to be him. Has to be. And that easily makes Jenny the happiest girl in all of Itinere. Or maybe even the universe.

"Dad," she shouts again, closing the distance between them and throwing her arms around his neck in an exuberant hug. "Oh, I knew I'd find you again! If I kept looking, I knew you had to be out there!"

[likesimpossible]

And when she throws her arms around his neck, that's about the part where things stop making sense. He's still overjoyed to see her, but there's a question he has to ask first. "You kept looking?" He asks even as he returns the hug.

"Jenny, I- What about General Cobb?" He doesn't want to ask her directly about how she could have survived her death, because that's too much like looking a gift horse in the mouth. "You couldn't have survived that." Alright, so maybe that's a little more blunt than he intended, and maybe he's going to completely make a mess of things, but he still needs to know.

[bitunlikely]

For a second, she rightly looks a little sheepish. It might not have been an exact statement. Of course Jenny looked for him on every planet she visited. But when she left Messaline, her mind had been on having adventures of her own. Running across the entire universe. Just like her father.

“Oh, he’s still there on Messaline,” she replies casually enough. “Awaiting trial I suppose. I didn’t quite stick around after I woke up. And why should I when there are so many new worlds to see?”