Another slightly odd fic...but I'm not gonna say anymore; it'd give it all away. Although I will say that the speaker could be any number of people; some are just more likely than others. I shall also remind you that I don't own the characters or show, the BBC does (and if anyone starts singing that Mike Meyers song, I will...get very annoyed), and I make no profit off this story. Oh yes, the song I quote at the beginning (and the title of the song escapes me entirely, unfortunately...I could blame it on my sister, for not writing the titles down...yeah, that sounds good; it's her fault)--as I was saying, most of the song doesn't really fit, but the lines I actually cite really do fit. IMHO anyway. After all, it's the first line that gave me the inspiration for the story...

For someone who wasn't gonna say much in introduction, I sure did babble on quite a while...

Speaking Out

"I have been replaced in your life / why am I surprised?/..../ I have been replaced in your life / a blow to my pride. / It's been just a couple months / since we were side by side..." ~Christine Lavin, from the Compass album

It's so bloody easy for you, isn't it?

You're used to it. You're used to us leaving. You go through companions like us insignificant little mortals go through shirts. One's easily exchanged for another, when the first one gets worn out or dirty or destroyed.

Do you even remember me?

Do you remember our times travelling together? That time on that one planet, or that incident in that one time period? When you had to rescue me from the baddies, when I helped you stop the alien invasion?

Yeah, I know. Which time? There's been too bloody many with you.

Would it even have mattered if I didn't go with you? If I didn't get caught up in your surreal world? There would have been someone else. Somewhere along the way, sometime down the line, probably sooner rather than later, you would have found someone else to whisk off in your big blue box of temperamental wonders.

After all, you've already found my replacement's replacement, haven't you?

Still, I suppose you deserve my sympathy. We're in the same boat, really, aren't we. You're somebody else's replacement, right? And so's he. How far do you go back, anyway?

Look, I know you need your companions. You need someone to get captured so you can fight back and save them. You need that little human or whatever representative of the rest of the Universe so you can remember what you're fighting for. And I know you can't give up your crazy-as-hell life--we need you to save us. We'd trip over tying our own shoelaces without you.

And you can't go through that kind of life alone. Not even you are strong enough for that. I know, I've seen you broken down--not often, but I have. You're sometimes just as vulnerable as the rest of us. And don't you try to deny it, either. I sometimes used to think that was partly why you kept us hanging around with you--so you'd have someone else to be strong for. So you wouldn't have to think too much about your own pain, 'cos you're too busy dealing with ours.

Sneaky little devil.

So I know you need us, just as much as we need you. After all, we need our heroes to look up to. We all need magic once in a while. We all need to be little kids sometimes, especially when we're the adults.

It's another one of your "symbiotic" relationships, isn't it?

And that's fine. That's good, in fact, works out great for everyone.

Just don't forget me, yeah? Don't forget who any of us were. We're not all that replaceable. And you know none of us are gonna forget you--who could? So make sure to keep that mutual, too. Remember each of us. Our names, who we were. Remember I came from this time period and planet, while someone else came from that time period and planet.

And that goes for whoever you've got with you right now, you know. Someday he, she, or it--them?--are gonna be gone too, and you'll have to replace them as well.

Give us some due. It ain't easy being your companion.