I Was the Resurrection
A short story by Chris Pollard

Part of the Fifth Doctor Fiction collection

A young fair-haired man leans in front of the viewer. He smiles weakly. "It's been a while..."

He taps the glass exterior of the viewer, peers at it closely. "Seems to be in order." He clears his throat, "I am the Doctor, as you know, and it's been some time since I made a video or anything like this so apologies in advance." The Doctor shifts nervously till he looks a bit more comfortable, if still uneasy. "Before you left there was something you said to me. It was something like 'you travel the world, have fantastic adventures and then slowly forget them' anyway you said I should write them down - or record them. Maybe I will, but first I wanted to talk, say goodbye while I've got the camera out." The Doctor's picked up a cup of tea from off screen and took a sip.

"Where to start...The End, the end of Davros! He's blown up now, all gone. Leaving behind his legacy; a few billion Daleks and a few trillion deaths. What is the use of persecuting one man if his greatest achievements have already outgrown him? Anyway a few more hundred people died on the station as he went, a fitting encore, if a little on the small side."

The Doctor shook his head, drank some more tea and continued. "The Master's dead too. Except I feel a nagging suspicion that he'll have some escape ready. I'm sure he'll just pop up and it's "Tada - see if you can't stop me.... Umm also, The Mara! I checked with some sources back home - president's pleasure, and it looks like you are clear. I don't think it would have let you leave the TARDIS otherwise."

"I'm afraid you are a little ahead of yourself back on Earth. Since you've left we've had a bin-man's strike, an alarming rise in mullets and microwaves plus of course video players. You should get a job offer from Virgin Airways soon; it was the least I could do to pull my favour with Rick for you."

"Turlough seems okay. Although still not giving me the full story on his past, he hasn't tried to kill me recently either. Kamelion took your form for a spell after you left, but he's gone into a funny turn recently, not quite himself."

The Doctor straightened up in his chair and frowned at the camera. "Basically we are all doing fine Tegan, but there's something I want to say, clear up. There was a story on Earth I saw once. A woman travels through time killing murderers before they do the deed, she kills something like 30 and as a result 80 people live. Of course the good cop stops her but realises that she must in turn take her place to kill the evils. The woman couldn't put up with living the sleepless nights, knowing the things she was letting go by. Now what I am trying to say is you stopped. I don't imagine after what I put you through that it's easy to live a normal life, but for trying you are brave beyond myself."

The Doctor brushed back his hair. "Apart from to be careful crossing streets, especially when you're in France, there's not a lot more I can say. This is it Tegan. Brave-heart and all that.

"Bye..."

The Doctor removed the video from the player.

***

The Bus deposited Tegan in the centre of town. She made her way through the rain until she found the house she was headed for. She knocked twice then stepped backwards, back into the rain.

A man of about middle age answered the door. "Christ Tegan!" His voice had been Australian once but now it carried more than a little cockney influence. "It's been nearly twenty years! We thought you were..." Tegan stepped forward and hugged the man. "I've missed you Mark."

"You'd better come in Sis," Mark looked her up and down. "I'd swear you hadn't aged a day since I last saw you." Mark led Tegan inside the house then stopped dead noticing a brown envelope on the ground in front of him. He carefully picked it up, then white faced handed it to his sister. "To you! I could have sworn..."

Tegan took the chunky parcel and stared at the inscription, 'To my friend Tegan'.

