Doctor Who_ Nightshade - Mark Gatiss [19]
absently rummaging through the pockets of his duffel coat.
Ace suddenly felt like a priest at confession.
‘What I’m trying to find out is... well... whether you’re
‘Go on,’ she said quietly. The Doctor bowed his head and happy. Whether you don’t think it’s time to put down a few gazed at his mug of tea. In the garish artificial light he roots.’
seemed much older, the lines on his wise face like the Ace was shocked. The Doctor was full of surprises. She carving on some ancient crusader’s tomb effigy.
had a vague impression, too, that he was really thinking
‘It’s just that... I’ve been thinking lately... and if I’ve been aloud, trying to vocalise a debate obviously raging inside difficult, then I’m truly sorry. Thinking... whether I’ve really his own head.
done any good. All these years... all these years of roaming
‘What are you on about, Doctor?’ She drank another gulp about. Righting wrongs. Interfering...’
of tea. The burnt skin on the roof of her mouth was Ace felt an upsurge of tenderness inside her. ‘But how can beginning to throb.
you say that, Doctor? You know you’ve done good. The 54
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DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
DOCTOR WHO: NIGHTSHADE
whole world... Well, everyone is in your debt a hundred up and give them a quick turn around the Universe but they times over. You know that.’
all go in the end. And I’m left... ultimately alone.’
‘But have I the right to take it upon myself? To act as self-Ace found herself blinking back tears. He’s just like the appointed judge and jury?’ The Doctor looked Ace in the rest of us, she thought.
eye.
‘Let me get this straight, Doctor. Are you talking about
‘You know you’ve done good,’ she said, feeling that her retiring?’
attempt at reassurance was hopelessly inadequate.
The Doctor smiled. ‘I suppose I am, yes. Settling down
‘Have I, Ace? Have I?’
somewhere. For a few centuries at least. Somewhere away Ace looked away. Mrs Crithin was attempting to change from death and disaster. Far from the madding crowd.’
the station on her tranny.
‘But where?’
The Doctor rested his cheek on one hand and his deeply Privately, Ace thought the Doctor was incapable of living lined face rucked up against his fingers like ripples in sand.
a quiet life, like that old woman in the Agatha Christie
‘I’m so tired,’ he said with a heavy sigh. His eyes flicked books. Wherever she goes, people get bumped off.
up at Ace. ‘I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About the past.
‘Perhaps it’s time I went home. To Gallifrey.’
About my past, I mean.’
Ace was amazed. ‘But you’re always telling me what a Ace suddenly remembered the incident with the grey dull hole it is. All those geriatrics swarming around doing tunic in the tertiary console room. The Doctor nodded as if nothing all day. Isn’t that why you left in the first place?’
he’d read her thoughts.
‘One of the reasons.’
‘Yes. The uniform. It was Susan’s.’
‘So what’s changed?’ said Ace.
Ace’s ears pricked up. ‘Girlfriend?’
‘I have. I mean... all these years of poking my nose into The Doctor laughed almost scornfully. ‘She was my first other people’s business. Perhaps I should try and sort things travelling companion. We were... we are from the same out back there. It’s corrupt and it’s a bureaucratic nightmare planet. I enrolled her in that school when I came to Earth but its heart is in the right place. I think it’s time I stopped with the Hand of Omega. We saw so much in our time shirking my responsibilities.’
together. But she left me. As they all do. As you will... And For once in her life, Ace could think of absolutely nothing do you know, Ace, I don’t think a day passes when I don’t to say.
think of her.’
The café door burst open and a tall Asian man with
‘What are you trying to say, Doctor?’
shoulder-length black hair strode inside. Ace was struck by He shrugged. ‘I miss her, I suppose. I miss... my family. In the appealing openness of his finely sculpted face but whatever sense of the word. There’ve been so many over the thought it a shame he masked his features with such an ugly years. Ian and Barbara.