Any sufficiently advanced technology is compatible with magic.

‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned in these last three years,’ Sam murmured, ‘it’s that you can’t just keep running away.’

She reached out and took his hand.

Neither one of them moved for a long moment. For her it was like touching a naked power line – her heart was vibrating more than beating.

She held on, feeling each finger interlaced with his, memorising by touch each hint of the pattern of bones in the back of his hand. A red admiral flitted from her wrist, tentatively, to his.

‘Here. Look.’ She thrust the needle safely through her sleeve, reached out and touched him under the chin, raising his face, bringing his eyes to the butterflies.‘You’re still here. I’m still here.’

The Doctor stared milkily at the insects, whirling like a cloud of memories, just out of reach.

Then, without warning, he crumpled into a hug.

She felt her whole body tighten up, in a fight‐or‐fly spasm. But she held on to him nonetheless, arms sliding across his back, mouth murmuring things that weren’t quite words.

More of the butterflies were marching off her shoulders and arms and on to him. She could feel the feather touches in her own hair, the current they carried as they flitted back and forth between the two of them.

She could almost see the marble of his skin softening to flesh tones as she watched, as if he was drawing their colour straight into himself. His arms were tightening around her, as though acknowledging she was there, real and solid.

The butterflies were a whirlwind, scattered pieces of rainbow spiralling round them everywhere they looked.

‘What’s this?’ asked Paul. His fingers caught her TARDIS key and lifted it away from her skin. He held it up to the moonlight, letting it spin on its chain, catching and scattering the silver.

‘It’s a long story,’ she said, looking away. She hadn’t really felt the key there for months – it had become as familiar and unnoticed as a wedding ring.

They were sitting pressed together near the river bank. It was just chilly enough for them to notice. They were just warm enough together not to mind.

‘It’s beautiful,’ he said.

She sniggered. ‘Come on, it’s a door key.’

‘To a magic door?’ She saw that raised eyebrow again, and she wasn’t sure if he was leading up to something rude or he really meant the question.

‘To the place with the butterflies,’ she said.

Orin: He acts all human. But scrape the human bits away and you're left with just another alien.

Sam: Well, yeah. Course, you could scrape the alien bits away instead just as easily.