The Day The World Went Away
Summary: You're dead. The Doctor visits your grave and tries to have a conversation.
Warnings: Major character death/Person Of Interest Spoilers/ANGST
A/N: Another fic based off of a scene from person of interest! I'm really enjoying doing these, and this one's based off of when Shaw visits Roots grave. As per usual, I've tweaked the storyline and scene quite a bit so it fits better.
A figure stands alone in the graveyard.
It's a still day. Grey clouds in the sky cast a dark shadow over the landscape, but there's not a chill in the air. It's silent apart from the birds in the trees, and the grass is still wet from the rain the night before, raindrops still lying on the gravestone. The Doctor counts them. She's trying not to think too hard about the person lying 6 feet below her.
They didn't even bury you under your own name.
Instead there's just a date. 14/03/13, engraved onto the tiny headstone and painted black. The day you supposedly died.
"I figured I should say goodbye," The Doctor says quietly as she stares at the 6 figures. "Just in case this cyberman armageddon turns out to be a full blown cyberman armageddon."
She feels awkward. Strange. She doesn't like goodbyes. She doesn't like it when you're there but you can't answer back.
She remembers the afternoon you died so, so clearly. Remembers how the cyberman's bullet hit you in the side, the gasp escaping your mouth the only evidence that anything was wrong. You'd managed to drive the car two more blocks before the police had caught up with you and the Doctor had told you to stop. You needed help, your face was paleing and you were bleeding onto the white leather of your seat. She had been hopeful at first, but as she was pulled from the car, she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her stomach.
There were officers tending to you, trying to keep you talking and awake. She wanted to be by your side, but she was being taken away by idiot humans who didn't have a clue about the impending cyber invasion.
As she sat in the back of the police car, the Doctor had strained her neck, trying to keep her eyes on you as she was driven away.
It was the last time she'd seen you alive.
Tears spring in her eyes and she blinks them away furiously. Fuck. She hated this.
"Sorry Y/N," She mumbles, turning to go. "This just isn't my thing."
She had always thought that the (inevitable) day you died would have been explosive. Meaningful. She thought you would go out in a blaze of fire and glory, the way everyone else had. Instead, you were assinated by a single cyberman, and had died in the drivers seat of a stolen car.
And here she was. Alone, at your graveside. Rain begins to fall, mixing with the tears on her cheeks and she wipes at them furiously.
"Sorry to interrupt, but you need to get going."
The Doctor jumps at the voice. It's yours, and her hearts leap in hope.
She whips around, expecting to find you standing there in your leather jacket, a smug look on your face like always.
But you're not. And she's still alone.
She looks around friantically trying to find where your voice had come from. Had she imagined it?
Then it dawns on her. She pulls out her sonic screwdriver and presses the button. Hope twists in stomach again.
It's still your voice. But it doesn't make sense - you're dead, buried beneath where she stands now. Her brain is scrambling to keep up.
"It's me, sexy." There was a hint of humour in your voice, and then it hits her.
"You took her voice." She breathes in realization. It's the TARDIS interface.
"You'd always wanted me to have a voice. I finally chose one."
"Why hers?" The Doctor demands. Was the TARDIS trying to hurt her?
"I loved Y/N, just as much as you did. It seemed fitting. I miss her."
The Doctor's lip wobbles again as she stares down at the grave. The tiny burst of hope she had just felt now weighed like a stone in her hearts.
"Doc, you need to get going," You - no, the TARDIS - says. "I've materialised outside the church. There are cybermen on their way."
"But they'll take Y/N's body." The Doctor argues desperately.
"I know," The TARDIS says.
"I can't lose her twice - I cant," The Doctor chokes out, the hand holding her screwdriver shaking. "Please just let me have what's left of her, I can't lose all of her. Don't let the cybermen take more of her than they already have."
"Run, Doctor. Y/N always said it was the only thing you're good at."
Bile rises in the Doctor's throat, and she can hear the clanking of cybermen in the distance. She shoves the sonic back in her pocket, before taking one last look at your final resting place.
"I love you." She breathes shakily. She'd always worried that if she ever said those three words to you aloud, the universe would immediately rip you away from her. It didn't matter now - you'd already been taken, and now what's left of you was going to be taken as well. Your fate was already sealed, your dead body would be a cyberman by dawn.
The clanking is only getting louder and she turns away. Her hand covers her mouth, stiffling a pained sob, tears streaming over her fingers. She squeezes her eyes shut and does what she's best at.
Taglist: @queerconfusionthings @truthbehindthemysteries