InsaneJournal

Who: The Tenth Doctor, open
When: Friday evening
Where: Central Park
What: Noticing his other self on the boards gave the Doctor a bit of a shock. Since his running away default, taking the TARDIS to another time and place, is currently not an option, he adapts by running away to Central Park. If anyone asks, he can always say he's just out for a walk.
Rating: Low at the moment
Status: open

There were things the Doctor could say to his other self, so many things that he couldn't find an end to them. There were questions he could ask, truths he could tell, arguments he could have, and every one of them would be a way of trying to escape the truth that the man Amy Pond knows is him, just older and with a new face and new quirks. It's a truth that's especially painful for the Doctor, and he's afraid of it. He's so very afraid because he knows he close he came to becoming that man, and he knows how wrong it is that he isn't that man yet.

So, the Doctor takes the course he so often chooses when faced with things he can't handle, and he runs away. Oh, not literally, not this time. In fact, he walks to Central Park, but at such a brisk pace and with such intense focus on his destination that he may as well be running. People on the sideway automatically step out of his way. There's something in the severe line of his mouth, in the darkness of his eyes, in the set of his shoulders that tells everyone in no uncertain terms to leave him alone.

By the time he reaches the trees and lawns of the park, he's burned off the worst of the restlessness. His expression loses some of its harshness, and his step slows to a more reasonable pace. He continues until he finds a nice, quiet spot near the edge of Turtle Pond, near the middle of the park and not far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. At this hour, the number of park goers is modest, allowing the Doctor to people watch without feeling crowded. He's being an idiot, again, or so he tells himself. He needs to come to grips with the fact that, one day, he's going to change, and the proof of that change is walking and talking and breathing in the same city and time as he is.