Why


She was gone. Amber was gone. But that was okay. She was back to her own planet, and I was back to Earth. I may never see her again, but that’s okay. At least I knew she was safe.

Or so I thought.

Then she came. She climbed out of a yellow car and ran up to me and hugged me close. I had no idea who she was, but I hugged her back. I could feel her strange love towards me. It was weird, but I liked weird. She whispered, “I found you,” while she was hugging me.

This little girl had copper hair, fair skin, a petite figure, and dazzling blue eyes. Familiar eyes.

An old lady, with limp, grey hair reaching her hips. She struggled to lift herself up, and the little girl rushed over to help her. She grabbed her cane out of the back seat and escorted herself down the plaza stairs. She waddled over to me and grabbed my face, and began to cry. Her blue eyes were dull, yet held tearful memories. I knew those eyes.

“Jo,” I whispered. She hugged me tenderly, and I cried as well. She was one of my favorites, out of all of my companions. She was a daughter to me, and here she was more aged than myself. The little girl hugged us both. She tugged on my shirt collar and said, “My name’s Bessie.”

I began to tear up even more. Her granddaughter was named after our old car. I couldn’t believe the effect I had on people. I began to hug her tighter. The little girl continued. “Mommy’s just came back because she was in the shelf, and she got out and wanted to show you, but, boy, she looks old now!”

“What’s the shelf?” I asked Jo. She forced a smile, removed her glasses, and threw down the cane. She dragged me into an office building, attempting to walk okay, and the daughter followed. Jo shoved us into a lift and flashed an ID into a slot that made us travel down several stories below the ground. When the door opened, I saw a white room in which there were cubicles with words in them on the ground. The daughter frowned.

“This is it.”

I stared at the oversized cubicles, which could hold a person, and then finally realized that they DID. I walked up to the farthest left. “Ben Jackson.” Ben? Ben Jackson? I still remember him. I remember all of them. I knew all of the names. Barbara and Ian, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, Bridagier Lethbridge-Stewart, Liz Shaw, an empty one with the leters J and Gra showing, Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Tegan Jovanka, Peri Brown, Ace, Grace Holloway… Rose and Ten. Bad Wolf and my clone. In two separate cubicles, separated, just as Barbara and Ian. Martha Jones, Donna Noble, Amy and Rory Pond, also separated, River, my ex-wife, Clara, it was so heartbreaking. They were all in cubicles. Maybe dead. I even saw Katarina, Astrid, and several companions that had passed away before my very eyes. How could this have happened? Why?

Then I saw the first one.

Susan.

My granddaughter.

In a cage.

Was she still alive?

Did she die in the Time War?

No.

She was still alive. I could feel her heart beating. And she was afraid. Why did I ever leave her?

I will save her.

I will save them all.