(no subject)

Immediately following this.

The back door to the Milliways Bar slams open, and Ace stumbles through the door, completely missing one of the steps and very nearly doing a face plant in the nearest snowdrift. She keeps her balance somehow and makes her unsteady way out to the lake before collapsing underneath the tree she's visited so often. The shaky time-traveler curls up against the rough bark, and now she begins to cry in earnest, giving in to the terror that had just been kept at bay before.
She hates this place.
She knew she had been so incredably, mind-blowingly stupid. She didn't know why she had done it, other than it was something she would have done when travelling with the Doctor. But the whole time she had been caught, blind, and scared, she realized there was absolutely no one she knew well enough to trust not to hurt her when the chips were down. There had been her gang in Perivale, the crazy band of street kids who looked after each other in a way, and then the Doctor, whom she never really understood but trusted with everything she was. But here...
Old doubts she thought were long laid to rest buzz through her mind now. 'The Doctor never wanted you.' they hiss. 'Left you the first chance he got, didn't he? No one will believe it when you tell them. They don't even think he's realized you're gone.'

"He doesn't. Faith says time freezes. He couldn't know." she cries, softly.
'But He would. A Time-Lord would, wouldn't he? And he's never coming. You're bloody worthless, Dorothy.'

Ace doesn't notice the cold. Or the fact that she's getting soaked. Or the universe exploding overhead.
She's alone now. All alone.