Loose Ends - Chapter 3

"That should do it," said Rory as he finished changing the bandages on one of the wounded. He got up and went over to Amy who was standing watch at the entrance. "I don't think he's gonna make it."

"I don't think most of them are," she said sadly as she looked around.

"So, this friend of the Doctor's; What do you think?"

"He seems like a nice enough bloke."

"Did they seem..." Rory wasn't quite sure how to put it.

"What?"

"A bit... intimate?"

"There does seem to be some history there. That doesn't bother you does it?"

"No, of course not, it's just... he's married to our daughter."

"I don't think he would leave River. I think he just has some things to work out with Jamie."

"Yeah, maybe. I never did give him the 'If you hurt her I'll kill you' speech," he said half-joking.

Amy laughed, then she saw the Doctor running up the path with Jamie, Henry, and two other men.

"Shut the doors! Shut the doors!" shouted the Doctor as he ran in. They all heaved the barn doors closed and lay the plank over them. The Doctor let out a great sigh of relief, leaning back against them. "That should hold them off a bit when they get here."

"Where are the rest of the men?" asked Rory.

The Doctor was somber for a moment and finally said, "Being stupidly brave. Did everyone make it here alright?"

"A couple ripped stitches in the rush," said Rory, "but I patched them up."

The Doctor patted Rory on the shoulder with a smile. "The consummate nurse. Good man."

"What's the plan when they get here?" asked Amy.

"Hadn't thought that far ahead," the Doctor replied.

"Should've known better than to ask." Amy was well aware he was mostly the think on your feet type.

"Alright," said the Doctor, making it up as he went along, "Rory, make sure the wounded are comfortable. Amy, grab a weapon and stand ready at the doors."

"I thought you didn't like weapons," she said slyly, knowing full well he never says anything when River brandishes a gun.

"Well, I didn't say use it," he said obviously, though he fully expected her to. She was her daughter's mother after all.

"Alright!" Amy turned to the unwounded women in the barn. "Everyone grab a rifle or a pistol."

"The women shouldn't be fighting," said one of the men that ran in with the Doctor and Jamie.

"Says you!" said Amy. She passed out guns to each of the women. "There's enough of us here to guard every patient."

She handed Rory a sword. "Why does everyone else get a gun and I get a melee weapon?"

"Because you know how to use a sword better than anyone else here, Rory the Roman. Besides, it turns me on."

"Well, then. Sword it is." He smiled.

"Jamie and I will stand lookout from the roof hatch in the hayloft," said the Doctor. Jamie grabbed a rifle. "Only warning shots if you can help it, Jamie."

"Ugh, you are so inconsistent," Amy groaned.

The Doctor couldn't argue with that, so he didn't. He just headed to the loft with Jamie.


From the lookout point the Doctor and Jamie could just barely see the skirmish on the edge of the village. The Doctor smiled. "Amazing that so few men could hold them off that long."

Jamie hummed in response.

"Is something wrong, Jamie?"

"How long has it been?" he asked.

"A very long time," said the Doctor sadly.

"Why didn't you come back for me?" he was holding back outrage. "The high council didn't kill you obviously, maybe they regenerated you… Did they imprison you? Is that why you didn't come for so long?"

"It was yesterday for you."

"Yeah, but not for you!" he wiped back a stray tear. "Even if they did imprison you you've obviously been out long enough to get new companions."

"Are you jealous of-"

"Of course not! It's the time, Doctor. They didn't even allow me to remember you, and it may have been yesterday for me, but it seems like it's been so long for you. So long and you never came back to right that wrong!"

The Doctor looked sadly at Jamie. It was the same he'd heard from Sarah-Jane, the same from Jo. The same as Rose had feared would happen to her. "When they sent you back," he started, "I knew they were sending you back to Culloden. To the battle. So few on your side survived that battle and even after they slaughtered you there, the English came back and picked off defenseless villages for no reason, just like what's happening right now. So, I was almost certain that the Time Lords were sending you back to your death. They left me stranded on Earth in the 1970s without a working TARDIS, so I couldn't go back to save you. When I got the TARDIS working again, I thought about it, but the chances were so slim that you were still alive. If you weren't and I came back to find you dead, I wouldn't have been able to take it. If you were, you wouldn't remember me and you move on to live a happy, safe life. It was better to leave well enough alone. I'd rather have you live on in my mind, young and so alive forever, than find your body bloody in a feild."

Jamie took a moment to take this in. "So," he said as he lined up his rifle over the lookout again. "What you're saying is, you're a coward." He wasn't looking at the Doctor, but he had a wry, teasing smile.

The Doctor chuckled, a little of his self-hatred rising to the surface. "Yup. Always have been."

After a moment Jamie added, still not looking at him, "I loved you, you know."

It hit the Doctor like a ten ton weight. He was too scared to say it to Rose. He hadn't said it to River yet, because every time he tried, he thought of the Library. He had to take this chance and he had to do it now. He'd been a coward and Jamie had called him on it. No more. "I loved you too," he choked out. "Still do."

That made Jamie look at him again. They held each other's gaze until they heard the sound of the Redcoats coming up the hill.

"We've got company," said the Doctor, a bit relieved for a change of subject. Okay, maybe still a bit of a coward.