A/N: Here! Prompt 28: Children. Wrote some nice Doctor Who angst for you~

Gallifrey Stands

2.47 billion. That number could mean anything. It could mean the amount of salt grains in a pile of salt or the fish in the Pacific Ocean. But to him it meant something much, much worse. He never spoke of it, after it happened. Only once. And if you could not see the pain on his face, then you were as blind as a burrowing mole. 2.47 billion. That's a pretty big number to quantify. There are over 7 billion humans on planet Earth, across all the continents and the seas. That's a pretty big number too. But 2.47 billion is a terrible number, a number that had been counted out. One night when spirits were very low, rock-bottom to be honest, he sat there and he counted. One, two, three, four… until he had checked them all off and he was left with that huge, crushing number. 2.47 billion. Nobody can get over that number, not in however many years they live. He knew that he never could forgive himself for the terrible things he had done. The man who regrets became the man who forgets because he simply could not deal. Could not deal with the all-consuming guilt. So he put it behind him and carried on walking. He carried on travelling but he never looked back. Ever. Until that day, when he was asked, did you ever count? And then he thought… yes, I did. But then I forgot. And it hurt to think that he had forgotten such a thing. It was his burden to bear and he slipped it away. So he remembered and he carried it with him

2.47 billion. The number of children on Gallifrey when the Doctor burned it out of the sky.