[Doctor Who] some days, nobody dies at all (Doctor/original character)

[storypaint]

Title: some days, nobody dies at all
Fandom: Doctor Who
Length: 216 words
Prompt: reverse remix 2013 for betony: a remix of marginalia.
Pairing: Doctor/female original character
Other: n/a

Excerpt: He has shared a meal or a near-death experience with someone without offering them a key. He has even taken them on one trip, two, without the TARDIS giving them a bedroom.

"I never know why," the Doctor says; "I only know who."

It is glib and overly simplifying, and only a half-truth. This is true: He has traveled a day, a week, with a stranger, and never shown them the TARDIS. He has shared a meal or a near-death experience with someone without offering them a key. He has even taken them on one trip, two, without the TARDIS giving them a bedroom.

And this is not: he always knows why. They remind him of someone. The older he gets the worse it is; there are many ghosts in the TARDIS, many doors he passes without ever looking in. They do not blur together - oh no, he is a Time Lord, and he remembers everything. Or he doesn't remember what he doesn't remember. A bit of both. And a lot of choosing not to remember.

She always liked his smile, so he keeps it, all through his regenerations -- sometimes it's a little broader, sometimes a little crooked, but he likes to think she'd recognize it just the same.

He gives some of himself to each of his companions, since he couldn't give all of himself to her, and he sails on into the dark: never alone.

The memories are always with him.