Rating: K+ (for dark themes)

Summary: Set during The Runaway Bride. As the water rains down around the Doctor, he cries.

Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.

Author's Note: When I watched The Runaway Bride the other day (which, I find, gets better every time), I got inspired from a song I heard at my street's annual Christmas party.

Crying in the Rain

All around the Doctor the water rained down, hard and cold. Donna looked up at him, the fear in her eyes clear. Meanwhile, the Empress of the Racnoss cried out for her drowning children. But the Doctor just stood there in the rain. And though it went unnoticed by the others, he started to cry. His tears mixed in with the rain, making it impossible to see. He cried for Donna, and that she had to be mixed up in all this. He cried for Lance, and for what his desperation to see the stars had turned him into. He cried for Gallifrey as he spoke its name, and all the people dead because of him. He cried for Rose, and for words left unspoken. He even cried for the Empress, who may have surrendered if she knew who she was facing. But most of all, he cried for himself. He took all the hurt, all the pain, all the heartbreak that had built up inside him over the past 900 years, and let it out. The tears burnt against his cheeks as he thought of everything he'd seen and done. The decisions he's made. The people he'd killed. The hearts he'd broken. And as Donna begged him to stop, he cried for what he'd become.

But no one would ever know how deep his hurt went, because he wouldn't let them. Even Reinette had only scratched the surface of his long life. He'd make sure that all the darkness he had faced would remain a secret. And when he had to let it out, he'd do his crying in the rain.

I'll never let you see
The way this broken heart is hurting me
I've got my pride
And I know how to hide
All the sorrow and pain
I'll do my crying in the rain

-- Crying in the Rain (Everly Brothers)

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