Tegan watched in horror as a bullet zoomed from the rogue policeman's gun and tore into the flesh of an innocent man who's only crime was being a potential witness to her murder. She was horrified how quickly things had spun out of control. “No!”
This scene had continued to twist her gut until by the time the Doctor had done all he could to stop the Daleks from invading Earth; she had come to the decision that enough was enough. She, of course, knew she couldn't walk away. She had to run as fast as she could before he could convince her to stay which looking back on it moments later wouldn't have taken much.
It had been horrible pulling away from him. Even now the look on his face as they parted ways was enough to nearly destroyed her resolve to run away. But run she did and despite her love for the Time Lord and his way of life she had to get away. Get away while these kinds of scenarios became the new 'normal' for her. That was her reasoning for leaving. She turned the argument over and over in her mind, obviously, trying to convince herself that she had done the right thing.
She found herself walking towards the scene where she had witnessed the man's murder in lieu of hers. Maybe he wasn't dead. Maybe, just maybe, the bullet had missed it's mark and he had fallen over more in shock than a deadly impact. Her pace quickened to a run, until she was there looking for the enigmatic victim. At first she thought the Thames had pulled his body into its depths. However, she soon discovered that the man was sitting up against one of the wooden pylons rather than laying prone on the rocky levy like she had saw him fall.
Her mind raced with a solution to the plight. The Doctor could help him. Not much time had passed since she left him standing in the warehouse. Only a few moments. Tegan then for the third time that day broke out in a full on run trying to make it back before her Time Lord friend left. He would save the stranger.
Her feet ached from the brisk run in her 'impractical' shoes. Her lungs were burning by the time she reached the warehouse, and made her way back in. Then she heard it. The sound of TARDIS disappearing into the time vortex. She had only heard it from the outside twice before, and she felt as she had those times Abandoned. Hope was disappearing with the Doctor. There was no use denying it. He was gone. And she was here, crying her way through another goodbye. Telling him to be brave, though she knew it was ridiculous to do so because he was a million miles away.
Then her thoughts shifted to the poor man on the levy. She had to save him. If some good came of today; it would be the fact she would save that stranger. Someone had to live today. Her soul depended on it.
Another full out run and she was clamoring down to the levy where the man was still seated against the wooden column. He was still. As if–no...he couldn't have died while waiting for her as she chased after the Doctor. She squatted next to the man. She noted the rise and fall of his chest. He was alive! She squashed her excitement when she noted that he was still injured. Blood had leaked between his fingers from his injury on his shoulder.
“Hello?” she said, shaking him a bit.
“Did I do it?” he asked in reply ,revealing that he was Scottish.
Tegan inched closer and then after asking a passerbyer on the pier above them to fetch an ambulance. “Did you do what?” she asked in return.
He turned his face towards her. He was certainly older than she. His piercing blue eyes were overshadowed by his gray menacing eyebrows. “Did I save you?” he asked in return. He smiled, the many wrinkles on his face creased. “I see that I did. That's good to know that something good came out of this day.”
Either the man was delirious or--. She turned her attention to his wound. Not that she worried that he was going to bleed to death. But she turned her attention to the color of his blood. It was red but with tinged with a bit of orange. She had seen that kind of blood before. Many times before. It was all because she had bandaged many cuts and scrapes of her Time Lord friend. At first she was so in shock of her discovery, that she had no idea what to say. A second chance, she instinctively thought. It would be wonderful.
Tegan returned his smile. “Yes, Doc, you did.”