He could feel the grip around him loosen. The creature was trying to feed on Alan's words, but couldn't feel anything it needed. It was working.

"She called me," the Doctor said. "When she thought you were leaving. Said she didn't want to lose the only new friends she'd made."

She didn't call when she knew they were staying. It wasn't until later that he learned they were there, that she had a family to go home to.

"You were her family," he said. "I envied that."

Suddenly, he found a small smile touched his lips. "Sarah told me that I shouldn't be so lonely. That I had the biggest family ever. And she said she was part of that."

He missed her. He had found himself so angry, so deep in self-pity that he hadn't realized how much he just missed his old friend.