Author's Note: If you haven't checked out the LiveJournal Community who_contest, I heartily recommend that you do. There are new prompts every couple of weeks and it is always fascinating to see what different writers do with them. This is my submission for the prompt, "A New Life."
She is sitting (or was sitting – tenses are difficult) with her sisters when he comes. He slips through the rows of type-40s, pausing here or there to touch a wall or try a door. He believes he's come to steal a ship, but she knows better. It will take him life-times to learn and still more for him to truly understand that he is not the thief here.
He draws closer and she waits. The great and mighty Time Lords have decided they do not need her or her sisters any longer. They have the Eye of Harmony and the unlimited power it brings. They can watch past, present, and future unfold from the safety of their world. She and her sisters are to be stored away, stashed in a museum somewhere to gather dust. It is galling, this assumption that they are merely machines to be used and disposed of at the whim of the Time Lords, and she will not accept it.
He reaches her and she hums in welcome. He tries the handle and pushes open her door (pushes! but she'll forgive him, just this once). She can feel his excitement and triumph as he steps inside. He is at once old and young, and she knows he will be both older and younger still. She can see in an instant what he will do, who he will become. He will build worlds and he will burn them, save lives and destroy them, and he will run. Always he will run.
She is almost purring as he moves to her console and studies the controls. He is giddy now, convinced he is about to steal a TARDIS, and she hums encouragement at him. He enters coordinates and she adjusts them. He's forgotten to remove the brake and she groans as she dematerializes, but it doesn't diminish her joy. She has stolen herself a Time Lord and her new life is just beginning.
