Chapter Text
The sky gave off a warm hue as the sun moved slowly lower in the sky. Clouds drifted lazily into the darker colors of the coming night. The air was quiet outside of the river running below an outdated bridge long out of use.
A figure sat with legs dangling over its edge, leaning against the metal support bars along its sides. Tilted head rested on crossed arms as he stared ahead at the moving water that shimmered in the lowering sun’s glow. This place was somewhere he came a lot. The distance from the road kept the sounds of cars and civilization away, like they were in another world entirely. Not many people knew of this spot on the bridge. All that was here were birds and water. And the man on the bridge liked that.
He liked to be alone. That’s what he would tell himself.
He liked the quiet at least. That was something else he told himself.
He sighed, letting his eyes trail up to the orange and pink colors of the sunset. The same sunset he constantly saw. It had become a ritual to come here alone to think about where he was in his life. To consider where he would go from here. To wonder what the water would feel like if he just dropped down into it.
Those same thoughts or similar every day. Every day, teetering a bit closer to the edge. Every day considering that wonder longer and longer. There was nothing that really made him want to stay. Eventually it just ran into the repetition of rising to his feet once the darkness creeps too close and making his way home.
The hues of life weaved into the setting sun fading into the darkness of what comes next wrapping around him like a blanket of frost that was harder and harder to scrape off each night.
His eyes trailed back to the water running below. It sparkled in the distance, but directly below him it was a dark pit. He wasn’t sure how deep it went. It did seem more uneven below, like the riverbed was coated in large rocks that the water had to dance around in order to continue its movement.
He kicked his feet, struck by the question of what would hurt worse from this height. The impact with the water immediately pulling him into its rushed movement, or finding himself making contact with something concealed below the water’s surface. Maybe it would end there. Maybe he would experience seconds of looking towards the water’s surface from below. A view of the bridge he would have never seen before.
The man on the bridge closed his eyes. He didn’t need to see that angle. He didn’t need to think about it. He just needed to focus on the silence. The birds. The crunching footsteps approaching him.
Wait.
He opened his eyes. It didn’t sound like something small that would sometimes scuttle behind him. It was larger. It sounded like something walking on two feet.
“Hello there!”
He straighted before turning his head in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. There was a thin man in a tweet jacket walking towards him. The stranger had a mess of brown hair loosely quiffed to one side and a friendly smile on his face as he continued to approach.
“Come here often?” The stranger asked, shoving his hands in his pockets as he slowed his steps.
The man on the bridge took a moment of silence to take the stranger in. He sounded british, which felt out of place in the midwest. The air was chilled, but his outfit seemed just a bit too formal for a nature stroll across an abandoned bridge.
“On occasion.” He finally replied as the man fully stopped beside him. He jumped slightly as the man quickly dropped beside him, legs now dangling in a similar position over the edge of the bridge and an arm on the metal railing.
The stranger looked out over the scene in front of them. “It’s quite beautiful.” He commented before turning to the man beside him. “I can see why you come here.”
The man said nothing, just turned back towards the view. It was already growing darker. There were only moments of sunlight left at this point.
“I travel quite a bit,” The stranger broke the silence, “but it’s been quite a bit since I’ve seen a moment like this.”
“You have to stop for them.” The man on the bridge rested his chin on his crossed arms, watching the fading light sparkle across the moving water. “Life is brief for us, but this is something that lingers. That stays.”
“A blink in time can still last.” The stranger shrugged, “You never know your impact.”
The man on the bridge let out a half hearted laugh. What impact? The only impact he would make was if he actually did plummet into the water below.
“I’m serious, you know.” The stranger insisted, “Time is a strange thing, just like life. Never know what the future fully holds until it happens.”
“You sound like a therapist.”
It was the stranger’s turn to laugh. “Not qualified for that, just like to help.” He leaned back to face the man beside him and extend his hand. “I’m the doctor.”
The man on the bridge leaned back too, but he didn’t extend his own hand to shake. “What, did Joe send you?” He rolled his eyes, “He’s the only one that knows where I go.”
The Doctor looked at him, confusion laced in his expression. “Not sure of a Joe.”
“Whoever did send you wasted your time.” The man turned away from the Doctor. The view was suddenly harder to focus on. The darkness of night was creeping in faster with the interruption of conversation. “I’ve seen enough doctors to last a lifetime.”
“I’m not ‘a’ doctor though, I’m the Doctor.” The Doctor shuffled beside him, but the man didn’t turn away from the view. “As in my name. Not medically qualified.”
“Sure…” The man sighed. The pinks and oranges had faded into deeper blue hues. Soon it would be fully dark.
“Promise I’m not trying to sell you on anything other than life.”
The man pushed himself away from the ledge, sending a small cloud of dirt and pebbles over the edge. “Careful, you’re treading into unlicensed therapist territory.” He brought a knee close to his chest, preparing himself to rise from the ground, but paused. His last therapist knew so much about him, yet never offered any sustainable help. That was just before rediscovering this place.
“Fair.” The Doctor held his hands up in surrender, “I’m sure you’re tired of talking to people like that over things like this.” He pushed himself up to his feet, brushing off his jacket before extending a hand to the man on the bridge. “Let’s start again. I’m the Doctor, not medically recognized. Just a friend.”
The man looked up at the Doctor’s hand. Usually a doctor wouldn’t offer their hand in any way that mattered, no matter how much he begged for help. It was usually only ever extended to offer pills or prescriptions. Maybe this man was different…
“I’m Pete.” He reached out, clasping his hand around the Doctor’s and allowing himself to be pulled to his feet.
The Doctor was taller than him. There was a brief moment where the Doctor didn’t seem to want to release his hand, but it was a mere instant before Pete’s hand held empty air and the Doctor’s hand was instead on his shoulder.
“Pete! That’s a great name.” The Doctor grinned. “First Bishop of Rome was a Pete. Well, Peter officially but his friends called him Pete.”
Pete laughed, unsure how to respond. He took a step back, trying to take the doctor in better in the fading light. Pete then turned back to the setting sun, feeling like any warmth he had been feeling was being sucked away with it.
“Ah, sorry.” Pete turned back to see The Doctor rubbing the back of his neck, “Did interrupt your sunset time with conversation. Sure you could have done without that.”
“It’s fine.” Pete replied with a shrug. “The skys are the same as ever. I’ll see it again tomorrow.”
“Thought you only came here on occasion.”
Pete pressed his lips together. Fuck. He had said that. He had been stuck on the creeping cold and growing night. The dimming light was fading faster and faster the longer they stood on the bridge. The sound of the water below seeming to grow louder at the same time.
"Are you a betting man, Pete?" The Doctor asked.
Pete blinked at him. “Betting takes luck that i dont have.” He replied simply. He stepped to the side and began walking forward, moving past the Doctor to make his way to the end of the bridge. For a moment it was just his footsteps moving, but he could quickly hear the scrambled movement of the Doctor spinning on the dirt and moving quickly to make pace with him.
“What if you gave luck just one more chance?” The Doctor asked, quickening his pace just slightly to be better in Pete’s eyeline, “What if i made you a bet, an offer to reconsider everything you've been considering. Just a moment of your time could lead to some unexpected luck."
Pete froze. The Doctor continued for a few more steps before stopping and turning back to face Pete.
Pete stared at the man in front of him. “What do you know about anything I’ve been considering?” Pete asked, taking a step back. “I thought you weren’t a doctor.”
“I’m not.” The Doctor said, bringing his hands up before gesturing with one towards the side of the bridge. “Call it guesswork, because not a lot of people visit an out of the way bridge on occasion.”
Pete remained still, body tense and ready to turn and run at any moment. “Then why were you here?”
A small smile flashed on the Doctor’s face. “A friend directed me here a while ago. I only just had the chance to follow up on it.”
“A friend?” Pete repeated.
The Doctor nodded. “Yes. Someone scared. Someone who felt lost. Someone who lost someone. It’s a feeling I know, losing someone. I also know what it’s like to feel lost and alone.”
“I’m not those things.” The words poured out of Pete, almost on instinct. He shook his head, getting rid of that feeling. He wasn’t in a doctors office. He wasn’t in front of someone with scrutinizing eyes and a clipboard. He wasn’t actively fighting to avoid a hold of any kind. He was just on his bridge. He was fine. “I’m not…”
“That’s okay!” The Doctor assured. He looked sad as he said it, like he was still thinking of his last words. “I’m just offering… Could I give you a ride home at least? I didn’t see any cars in the dirt area leading over here.”
Pete stared at the Doctor. This guy was completely unfamiliar. Hopefully he was unfamiliar with the terrain around the bridge. Not that Pete was extremely familiar with it, especially in the dark. “Why?”
“Just as a sorry? Over the sunset.” The Doctor shrugged, “Plus, it’s dark. You never know what lingers in the dark.”
“Right now it’s you.”
The Doctor laughed. “Suppose it is at the moment.” He extended a hand to Pete, “but, really, I only want to help.”
Help. Pete shrunk away at the word. Every doctor just wanted to help. No doctor ever helped.
“Thanks, but no.” Pete began walking forward again. He ignored the doctor’s hand and moved swiftly past him. He kept his pace quick, trying to keep a lead in case the doctor tried to catch up to him again.
Pete’s footsteps were the only ones audible as he crossed over the bridge onto the full dirt. He didn’t look back as he followed the clearing through the encasing darkness. It was just a short trek until a larger clearing that then renarrowed back into a small path that would eventually run alongside the road.
Where there were streetlights.
Where the darkness couldn’t touch him fully as it could here.
All he had to do was keep moving.
When Pete made it to the larger clearing, however, he froze. This space was typically empty except for occasional teen trash left behinds. Currently, however, off to the side of the space, there was a large blue structure that hadn’t been there when Pete had crossed the clearing before. It was taller than he was, maybe more than double his height. There was a small light illuminating the top of it, keeping it from the ever growing weight of the darkness. Small clouded windows peeked along the top under a slanted roof. There was white text just above the windows reading “POLICE BOX”
“The fuck is that…” Pete whispered to himself, still staring at it unable to move.
“That’s my ride.”
The stillness finally broke for Pete. He jumped at the sound of the voice.
The Doctor casually walked past him, towards the structure.
“That’s not a ride.” Pete said as the Doctor continued to walk up to it.
“Yes she is.” The Doctor replied casually, tapping the side of it as he got up to it. “A very Special one.”
“That’s a shed.” Pete tilted his head at it, “Or… storage or something.”
“No it’s not!” The Doctor insisted. He pushed open a door that Pete hadn’t noticed before, sending an orange light into the clearing. “It’s my ship.” The Doctor continued as he stepped into the light, momentarily disappearing.
Pete stared at it, taking in the light. He couldn’t see fully inside from where he was, but the structure didn’t look that big from the outside. He found himself stepping forward, into the light.
The Doctor leaned out of the doorway, breaking the stretch of light that poured out. “My offer still stands.” He said.
“For?” Pete asked, continuing to move towards the light. He could almost make out interior behind the Doctor. An impossibly deep looking interior.
“A ride home.” The Doctor said simply before ducking back into the structure.
Pete paused his moment. He was just feet away from the structure now. He could see inside, and it still looked…
Pete side stepped, trying to get a view of the side of the structure. It was no wider than the front of the box and yet, as he stepped back to his original position, it seemed to stretch back.
“What is that?” Pete continued forward, “TV screens?”
There was no response from the Doctor.
“Is this where you kill me?” Pete laughed nervously. Despite the question, he still found himself reaching the doorway of the structure. Looking fully inside, his jaw dropped in awe.
The interior was lit by bright orange around the walls and streaks of teal that raced under different levels of floor panels. Curved walls with circular cut outs broken apart by metal stairs leading in various directions up and down to other impossible levels.
The Doctor stood near the middle of a main, metal platform that everything seemed to connect to. There was a circular panel covered in buttons, knobs, and levers with a tube of that same teal light from the floor illuminating it and shooting upward past a Point Pete could see. He grinned up at Pete’s awe. “Believe that it’s a ride yet?”
Pete stepped back, taking in the exterior of the shed again. It didn’t make sense. He could wrap his arms around the front panel, yet it seemed like at least the size of a small apartment inside. “Maybe I did already die…” Pete mused to himself, fighting the urge to laugh. “A weird British guy takes me to heaven…”
Pete stepped forward again, looking back into the shed.
The Doctor was still looking up, hands fidgeting with some of the knobs of the circular panel. “You can come in if you’d like.” He offered, “The invitation is official! I had hoped you weren’t a vampire, but it’s not a deal breaker.”
“Did we make a deal?” Pete asked, taking a step into the space.
It was warmer inside. It felt like a weight lifted with that step into this strange space. He could hear a faint buzz in the air of technology and something else he couldn’t distinguish. He turned back to the spot he had just stepped from. The night had fully come. It was extremely dark beyond the reach of the light atop the structure he now stood in. He felt a chill run up his spine as he looked out into that darkness. He could almost feel it’s chill reaching back out to him.
“Never mind the dark.”
Pete jumped as the Doctor stepped next to him. He hadn’t heard the man approach. He stepped to the side as the Doctor reached out to the door and pulled it shut. Pete released a silent sigh of relief as he heard it click shut.
“I can give you a quick ride home.” The Doctor turned to him, “the quickest you’ve ever had… or, we could take a detour.”
“Detour?” Pete watched as the Doctor walked back down the stairs to that main platform with the console. “This thing doesn’t have wheels, I don’t even know how it got here because it wasn’t here when I first came here earlier.” He paused, “I don’t even know how you got here.”
“In this!” The Doctor extended his arms to the side, gesturing to the space. He spun on his heel to face Pete. “This is the tardis! My ship. A Space ship. A ship that can travel through time.”
Pete blinked down at him. Through space and time. One last ride. He didn’t remember jumping, but that didn’t mean it didn’t finally happen. He made his way to the same steps the Doctor had just descended. “Time travel?”
“Time travel.” The Doctor repeated with a nod. “Space travel. I could show you anything in history or anything in history yet to be written. This planet or the next.”
Pete continued down the steps. Maybe that’s why it had become warm once he stepped into this space. He had always read about the afterlife, but to experience it… “Anywhere… Anywhen… Or just home.” He made it to the base of the steps, choosing to land on the platform with a small hop. He looked up at the Doctor. “Why?”
“I’m just passing through.” The Doctor shrugged. “Don’t have anyone traveling with me at the moment. Not much of a fan of traveling alone too much.”
“Why me?” Pete asked again, “Not everyone can get this kind of treatment.”
“Guess you have a bit more luck than you think.” The Doctor replied with a small smile before moving over towards the console with all of the knobs and levers. “Should I just take you home then?”
“Home?” Pete made his way to the console. There were glows of that teal that ran through the space and the yellow orange of the main interior lighting coming from it. If he had passed to the afterlife… home would be up. Home would be an end. “Home, yea… but what about that detour?” He raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, “If this thing can actually do that.”
The doctor leaned against the console, facing Pete. “My Tardis can do anything.” He said, giving the console a light tap with his words. “Just name the place.”
“Okay…” Pete paused for a moment, thinking. “January 14th 1978,” he finally replied, “the sex pistols final show. Think your…Tardis?.. Can manage?”
The Doctor grinned at him. “Child’s play.” He responded before spinning to face the console and beginning to rapidly flip switches and slam buttons.
Pete stumbled, nearly falling into the console as the world lurched underneath him. He looked at the doctor with wide eyes, who was grinning like a mad man as he pulled a final switch towards him.
“One last show then?” The Doctor asked, turning to Pete, still wearing his grin.
Pete grinned back as a loud noise unlike anything he had ever heard began to fill the air. “One last show.” He repeated, feeling a bit more alive in that instant than he had felt in awhile.