"Don't they get a choice?" he asked, voicing the question many had asked him over the last few months. "If not everyone thinks it's worth it, if they're too afraid...do I put them in danger, too?"

He wasn't sure why he was asking her this. Maybe he needed confirmation that what he was doing was right. Maybe he needed her to tell him to stop.

He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. It was an intimate gesture, something he hadn't done in long time, not since he had a long scarf and a big smile and they traveled together in the TARDIS.