She's Doctor Brilliant!

Ep. 1 Pt. 7: Mercy

"Whoa! Did you see that? Did either of you see that?" Ryan screamed.

"Yeah, I saw the Doctor leave us to die with a big fat two minutes to spare," Yaz said.

"It was a blue box, wasn't it?" said Graham. "I saw it was blue and it was like a... A phone box?"

Ryan shook his head in disbelief. "It was real." He laughed. "She actually had a spaceship!" He began to rock forwards and backwards with laughter.

"Ryan," Graham said in a mournful tone, possibly taking his laughter as a mad expression of accepting their demise, "If this is the only chance I ever get, there's something I have to ask of you."

Ryan wiped a tear on his shoulder and nodded.

"Ryan, I know what I did to let you down. And it's completely my fault. So you know what? Right now, I am going to admit it..."

"Graham –"

"No, please, let me finish.

"When I married your Nan and started living with you, I saw you were uncomfortable. And you had a right to be! I was hasty, and I was worried. I made a bad decision...

"I hired a psychiatrist and I told her to pretend she was my friend when she met you.

"It was wrong and deceitful. And it completely backfired because the other guests at the house party recognised her for who she was... And, well, you figured it out.

"I know you've never forgiven me for it. I-I know you were embarrassed and humiliated. I know you felt like I neither knew you nor trusted you. And the truth is, I just didn't understand. But I've grown. I learned from my mistake and I know that I should never have done it!"

He fumbled his thumbs in the metal binds, like cuffs, making him look like a prisoner confessing a crime. He met Ryan's eyes.

"I was stupid and I was desperate to help you in any way I could... But believe me, Ryan, I never did that, or anything, out of sympathy. I did it out of love and worry and all the things I mentioned before —"

"Stupidity?" Ryan reminded him.

Graham gave a weak smile.

"Yes. Stupidity. You've always been smarter than I was, Ryan. You always cope better than anyone in your place possibly could. And you deserve better than me, I admit it. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ryan, love. Could you ever forgive me?"

Graham's eyes were glistening, and for the first time, Ryan saw him as he was. Not the man who married his Nan and forced himself upon their house. Not a man of ego and pity and malice... He saw an old man, an old man with greying hair and wrinkles around his eyes, an old man quivering under the weight of his actions.

Ryan was speechless.

He looked towards the motionless figure of his Nan, still unconscious and breathing gently. What would she say? Right now, at this moment, what would she ask him to do?

But before he could make a decision there was a familiar groaning, wheezing noise and a sharp wind slapping the back of his neck. Ryan whipped his head around to spot the blue phone box coming into view again, and his heart soared.

It faded, then darkened in the dim carriage, and again, until it was definitely, solidly, sitting on the train floor, wedged between the aisles as it had been the last time it had appeared. There was an emanating silence.

It didn't wink away.

Instead, the door opened and the Doctor walked out. 

"DOCTOR!" Ryan leapt to his feet  before he realised — the coils were dead! "Whoa. What the hell are you up to?"