Doctor Who_ Rip Tide - Louise Cooper [63]
She barged through the gate, ran up to the front door and hammered on it. At the first impact of her fist the door swung open, revealing the unlit hall.
'Doctor?' Nina called. 'Doctor!'
No answer. She stepped inside. All three doors from the hall were closed. Subconsciously knowing the truth, but unwilling to accept it, Nina opened first the kitchen door, then the one to the tiny dining room. Both rooms were empty but for their bland, neutral furnishings. With a sick sensation in the pit of her stomach, she opened the third door, which led to the sitting room.
The TARDIS was gone. Dismay hit her like an avalanche, and Nina made a small, involuntary mewing sound as tears started to her eyes. Then she pulled herself together, telling her mind to be logical. Of course the Doctor hadn't waited – Ruth was desperately ill, and his first priority was to get her home to her own world, where her own people could take care of her. They were probably there now. But she had nursed her secret hope that maybe, just the once, he might have taken her with him. Just the once. Just so she could know what it was like.
She wiped her eyes, and a ghost of a laugh came out. Idiot. Stupid, over-romantic idiot. The Doctor would be back. As soon as he had seen Ruth safely home, he would return, just for a while, just to tie up all the ends and say goodbye.
Wouldn't he?
She turned to go, and saw something lying on a small table at one side of the room. Pieces of paper, weighed down with a pebble that had a picture of a fishing boat painted on it. They sold those pebbles at the local craft shop ... Wanting yet not wanting to know, she crossed the room, and had to make herself look.
The top sheet of paper was a note, addressed to the owner of the cottage. In an elegant hand, which had used a fountain pen, it thanked her courteously for a thoroughly enjoyable stay, and apologised for the abrupt departure, due to 'a sudden family crisis.' The signature was an illegible scrawl that could have been any name. And the pieces of paper beneath the letter comprised a bundle of ten-pound notes.
Nina stood by the table for nearly a minute while the tears streamed unchecked down her face. The sense of loss was almost too much to bear, and the realisation that the Doctor would not be back, that he had gone for good and did not care enough about her even to have waved or smiled a farewell hurt her as much as any physical pain. Her tears dripped on the note, smudging the writing, and she was still crying when through her misery she heard a sound from the hall.
She whirled, irrationally hoping to the see the Doctor standing behind her, and instead came face to face with Steve.
'I thought you might be here.' His voice sounded flat, like someone in the aftermath of shock.
'I came to ...' But she couldn't really explain to him why she had come.
'They've gone, haven't they?' he asked.
'Yeah.' The answer was clipped. She swallowed. 'Did Paul –'
Steve shook his head, negating the question. 'I'll tell you about it later. Nina ... is Ruth going to be all right?'
'I think so. He said she would be, if he could just get her home.'
'Right.' Steve came into the room, looked restlessly around, and seemed to be trying to steel himself to say something more. At last, he managed it.
'What you told me ... last night, after I found you on the cliffs with him, when I was taking you home ... It's true, isn't it? Ruth's an – an –' But he couldn't bring himself to say the word alien aloud.
Nina nodded. 'Yes. It's true.' And a