The Time Travelers Wife

Quiet Time

Anne-Marie all but flung herself out of the boat. "Now Anne-Marie!" the Doctor shouted as he tried to regain his balance in the rocking row boat. She didn't listen and pushed her way through the crowd. "Anne-Marie!" the Doctor called again. "Whoa, whoa!" he shouted as he tumbled out of the boat and into the water. Some people passing by rushed to the dock with the small little boat. the Doctor didn't surface right away. He head popped up and he grabbed the edge of the dock and pulled himself up. Grunting he flopped down. "That's harder than it looks." he spoke to no one in particular. He jumped back up and pushed his wet hair out of his face. "Little girl, yay high." he said putting his hand face down to right around his waist area to show how tall she was. They all pointed behind him. "Ah yes." he said tossing the oar behind him and flinging himself into the crowd. "Anne-Marie! now is not the time to have a fuss." he called out as he neared the Tardis.

"I am not having a fuss!" she shouted back. He popped his head around the corner down the alley where he had parked the Tardis. Wellll.. Where she had parked the Tardis, or the Tardis had parked itself. "Just take me home." Anne -Marie said slowly.

"You know it wasn't my fault.." the Doctor started but she cut him off.

"Take me home!" she yelled. The Doctor let out a sigh. Hands on his hips he looked down at her. She was staring at the ground. She looked like she was about to cry. Crying was something the Doctor didn't do very often and he never knew how to respond. Especially when girls started crying. It always seemed to him that if a girl was crying somehow it was always your fault. He ran a hand through his hair again and rocked back and forth on his heels.

"All right." he said quietly. "Let's go." Anne-Marie sniffled as she followed him back into the Tardis. She sat on the floor. Her arms wrapped around her. The Doctor started to press buttons and turn knobs. He looked down at her. he sighed again. It looked like she was about to burst into tears. With a woosh the Tardis was off. Spinning and tumbling through time. It landed with a thunk back on Anne-Marie's front yard. "Home sweet.." the Doctor started but Anne-Marie got up and ran out of the Tardis the door banging shut behind her. "Home." he finished. He didn't follow. He banged his hand against the control panel it whirred in an angry response. "I'm sorry." he said lowly. Whether he was talking to the Tardis, himself, or Anne-Marie it wasn't known. He leaned up against the control panel and looked around at the Tardis.

"What am i even doing?" he asked the empty room. "I should leave." he said. "I should really.. Go." he stopped. The Doctor was quiet. "Well alrighty then!" he sang happily spinning around and pressing some buttons. "Away we go." he said to the Tardis.

Inside Anne-Marie was crying softly. She was curled in a ball in the corner of the sofa where her parents would find her later. They would ask questions but she wouldn't answer them. It was all her fault. She couldn't make the doctor stay to save them. She couldn't save them. They died and it was her fault.

Suddenly she heard a whir and a wish. The same sound she had heard right before the Tardis had landed in her front yard. She jumped off the couch and ran towards the door. She threw open the screen door which banged against the wall. The Tardis was in the lawn but slowly disappearing. "You can't just run away like you always do Doctor!" she shouted at it. "You can't just run!" she shouted. Whether he heard or not she didn't know. The wind blew her hair back. Sniffling she wiped away some stray tears. Staring intently at the Tardis she watched it disappear. Long after it was gone she still stood there. Imagining, hopping praying that it would come back. Re-appear, but it didn't.

Slowly Anne-Marie made her way back inside the house. She closed the door and heard it click. Then she walked back too the couch sat down and brought her knees to her chest. Then she cried. Not only for the people who had died but because the Doctor was gone. She didn't know if she would see him again. Unknown to her but she would spend a whole lifetime and more with her. If she had known this maybe she wouldn't have cried so much.