SHE STANDS, still as a statue, at the edge of bed that she sleeps in, but isn’t hers – Susan will not lay claim to this BARN. She wants to run. And yet, the Time Lady wanted to stay : frozen, complete, without any more damage to her hearts. Susan can hear the footprints outside, such foreign a sound now, that it echos like a GUN SHOT. After hearing all the stories, they might as well be. The man that comes across on the wind does bring devastation in his wake ( or so they tell her ) ... if nothing changed now, then she wouldn’t have to speak ever again. Not an explanation, not a row, not a pleading argument that is SURE to come. Perhaps then she would not feel so used by her people. She’s only there because HE is. She’s only there because they were scared of him.
The CLICK-CLACK of a latch – and still she does not turn. EYES land on straw covered floors, the movement is the only indication that she has heard the man behind her, because of course it is him, despite what FACE he has now. both, so familiar to one another, will face the faces of STRANGERS. ( slowly, slowly ... steadily walking. has he seen her yet ? no, perhaps not ... perhaps not till he’s right up that ladder. ) and Susan feels her hearts beating loud in her chest, and she swallows. All time seems to freeze, so she can take this one, last moment - with the sun streaming through the barn doors, and all of GALLIFREY is at peace.
She is so happy to SEE him – but why does the sweet have to come hand in hand with such sorrow ? She licks her lips, not quite having the nerve to look back; to see him again – her Grandfather. – but as the wood creaks and a light breeze flurries the gossamer strands near her temples, fly about her ears, restless from their previous pinned position. TIME TO BITE THE BULLET.
❝ I knew you’d come back here. No one else did, not even remotely because of the past. Because of the deeds you nearly did. But I said no. Lucky I got it right, because it still means I know SOMETHING about you. So why is it, that everything I’ve been told, sounds nothing like the man I used to know ? ❞