Hadleman shook her by the hand. ‘Am I going to understand any of this?’ he asked.

‘Quite possibly.’

Merryweather approached Bernice cautiously. ‘Will we meet again?’ he asked hopefully.

Bernice framed an uneasy smile. ‘Time will tell.’

The Doctor was shaking Tim’s hand earnestly. ‘Thank you for keeping things safe for me.’

‘Thank you for being brave. I’ve decided that I’m going to be brave too.’

‘So what are you going to be when you grow up?’

Tim glanced down at Hutchinson’s body. ‘Not a soldier.’

They finished their goodbyes, and Benny handed the Doctor the TARDIS key. She wasn’t sure just what his intentions were, but, when he began twirling it around his finger and whistling as they walked away, she thought she had a pretty good idea.

When they’d walked far enough from the clearing not to be heard, she disengaged herself from the Doctor’s arm. ‘Right,’ she said.

‘What?’ The Doctor stopped. ‘Is there one thing you don’t understand?’

‘I’ll say. You said that you “sent Mrs Redfern home”. Are you leaving it at that?’

The Doctor frowned. ‘I thought we’d slip away. It’s usually best.’

‘Usually, but not when you’ve promised to go and see somebody and explain everything to her.’

The Doctor stared at her. ‘How did you know that?’

‘Because if you hadn’t, she wouldn’t have let you out of her sight.’

He glared down at the ground, his hands describing awkward little circles. ‘She doesn’t know… She thinks I’m… It’d be difficult.’

‘Not half as much for you as for her. Doctor, you owe her an explanation. Your experiment in being human has hurt⁠ —’

‘Hurt? I’m a Time Lord. Smith was a human.’ He gazed at Bernice vacantly. ‘I can’t love her. I don’t feel that way about her.’

‘So she’s lost the man she loved.’

‘Then how can I help her?’

Bernice looked at him sadly. Distantly, she thought that she might have felt angry, but he looked so lost. ‘What, you didn’t find that out? What was this all for, then, this holiday in the human condition?’

‘I thought it would be peaceful.’

‘I’m not talking about the aliens. You’re not responsible for them. I’m talking about the heart that you would have broken, battle or no battle. Doctor, please, go and talk to her.’

He looked at her for a moment. Then he nodded. ‘Yes.’

Joan was tidying her house as the sun rose over the battered town. The military had arrived in force in the market square and fire brigades from the whole county had been going from house to house, helping to repair the damage. All that had happened to her own place, thankfully, was that a few pictures needed straightening and a bit of that silver dust that was everywhere needed brushing out of the carpet.