He stared at Bill for a long minute, thinking how to explain: how of all the people, human and nonhuman in all the worlds and all the times who'd set foot in this big (but bigger on the inside, yes) box of his, who'd been there when he needed someone and sometimes when he hadn't wanted them, who'd made the lonely life of a travelling however-many (who even knew any more?) years old Time Lord bearable, whose names and faces he sometimes mixed up but never forgot... this one was special, was going to be special, if in several of his past lives which were also yet to be.
And how just seeing, waving at, getting a small, stiff, and even at this age so very very British smile from little toddler Alistair Gordon was also so very, very, timelessly special.
Dr Who, Twelve
"Who was that, Doctor?"
He stared at Bill for a long minute, thinking how to explain: how of all the people, human and nonhuman in all the worlds and all the times who'd set foot in this big (but bigger on the inside, yes) box of his, who'd been there when he needed someone and sometimes when he hadn't wanted them, who'd made the lonely life of a travelling however-many (who even knew any more?) years old Time Lord bearable, whose names and faces he sometimes mixed up but never forgot... this one was special, was going to be special, if in several of his past lives which were also yet to be.
And how just seeing, waving at, getting a small, stiff, and even at this age so very very British smile from little toddler Alistair Gordon was also so very, very, timelessly special.