Was a Dame even 'fore it was a title...

- It's almost funny the way one moment he's there... seated in a chair smug smile on his face talking about whatever it is he was talking about and then the next gone. It's not even that she figured he'd just leave them, but he did seem to be a bit of flash and smile, and even now she knows watching the Doctor standing on crates trying to vibrate concrete with a frequency that she doesn't need 'scans for alien technology' to be impressed. Her hands skim against the bars of the wheels to the chair she's in, turning them slightly, just to rock herself forward and then backward. Watching him... try to avoid talking about Jack. If she didn't know better she'd almost think he was jealous. Her own smile a bit coy trying to allude to something with him that maybe he'd never even considered, but still trails at the edge of her thoughts from time to time, "The world doesn't end if the Doctor dances."

- The odds are stacked in an insane way against them and she's still trying to make sure she can help. Jack is off taking down as many Daleks as he can, the crackle of static comes before the cries of him taking out a few more before relaying to Lynda (with a Y) that he's holding them back as best he can. The Doctor is trying to figure things out faster, faster than his normal extremely fast methods and she knows it doesn't feel fast enough. When he tells her to get into the TARDIS she does, because she trusts him. She wants to help, wants to make sure that this is just another adventure for them... but when the doors close... and the message plays and she's fighting with every emotion she has in her, "I won't let you."

- The sound of chain link going from slack to taut puts a heavy metal clink of sound into her ears. She wants it to be more solid, something she can feel. Something she can trust in... something as strong and as sure as his hand each time it takes hers into it. All she has to do is tell the TARDIS to take her back. That she belongs with him. Months of travel, the TARDIS should know... it should feel that she belongs just as much as he does. The chain is pulling so hard against her that she knows this has to work, that the lurch of the truck should be enough to let her in... to open her up... and when it finally gives. When the chain goes slack and the doors fly shut...

- It's as bright as the burning of the Earth and even though she wants to look away. She wants to shield her eyes from the brilliant light, but she can't even turn her gaze. It's pulled her in and it feels safe. The breath she takes in is sudden and the light floods into her through her mouth, her nose and into the very heart of her. The connection is there. Strong as the chain that pulled her chasis open exposing her heart. Steady as the hand of the Doctor that has guided them both. They are one, and she knows... she knows just what that means.

- "I bring life."

- Waking up from the haze she's wondered just how they managed to pull it all off again. It's not every day that these things happen... not to her at least. Something is wrong though and it starts to furrow her brow watching him. Whatever is happening all she knows is that it can't be fair. That you can't save an entire world, travel back to one person just to watch them fade... it can't happen like that. Still he's talking about leaving and seeing her again, and all she can think to say is the words she can't figure out into anything she wants to say. All she can do is try to fight it once more, "Don't say that!"

- She watches cowering from an edge of the walls of the TARDIS. Trying not to seem afraid of what's going on. To trust him, because she ... because she trusts him. But then he's not him anymore, and the voice and the look don't match the man she'd been traveling with all that time. It's not what she wanted... not what she needed... "Can you change back?"

- It's wrong. Everything is wrong. Trying to hide from the Christmas tree, trying to make her mum safe and Mickey is trying to help too, but it's not supposed to be like this. He's supposed to be there for her. He's not supposed to leave her behind to fight this fight alone. She wants to be angry at him. To ball her hands into fists and punch him because she's so angry at him for saying he'd be there and then leaving. But she bottles it up along with the hurt and the loneliness and pulls in a breath saying the truest words she can think of, "Help me, Doctor!"

- It's not the same as it was. It's new. New adventures. New man. New times to go toward, and maybe it's not such a bad thing. He still remembers her... still knows who she is and how to make her smile. He's there... somewhere in there and maybe she can be okay with this 'new new self' of his. That it's brand new to him with those eyes that still sparkle when he smiles, that still shine when he knows he's about to solve it all with a swooping in gesture. It's still him... "So, where we gonna go first?"

- He's taken her so many places, and it'll take her so much longer for her to even be able to tell him how she feels for him... but there isn't that time left. All she has is now. Now and right here when he's not even there with her. She watched him fade into a new man and never got the chance to tell him... and she doesn't want the chance to fade again on her. He's not even there... not really, and even though she's struggling to memorize him just as he stands before her. To let that image of him be pressed into her memory just like fallen leaves are pressed into a book. As her tears fill her eyes she's watching that image of him blur a bit and she can't help it because she can't not say the words, "I love you."