The campus was crowded with students, laughing and talking, enjoying the weather and each other's company. She walked down the path, tucking a long strand of long blonde hair behind her ear. She was alone; being a first year student she hadn't made any friends yet at the university. She tried not to let it bother her, but the feeling like she didn't belong was hard to ignore.
Sleep. Sleep was the safest place for him...for her. The few hours between the dusk and the dawn had become her favorite time. It was quiet and she could finally sit and think and watch him. The dim lights in the bedroom made him seem younger. In this light, she could almost believe that there was a time when he loved her. That there was a time when she loved him.
A group of rowdy older boys rushed by her, bumping into her and causing her to drop the large stack of books she had just picked up from the bookstore. She sighed and knelt down to pick them up. She reached for the last book but another pair of hands picked it up for her. He smiled and handed the book to her as they stood up. Lucy thought that she had never seen such a nice smile.
He was asleep but she was not, she was sitting up in bed, watching him. His face was placid, completely relaxed with sleep. He looked like the man she had met so many years ago…but maybe it wasn't so many years ago. He didn't look like the man that now haunted her nightmares and the halls of her home. The man who slept so calmly beside her was a man she loved and despised. A man that she was awed by and scared of. A man…who wasn't even a man.
"Thank you." She said, adding the book to her large stack. It almost seemed a miracle that her thin arms could hold them all.
"Care for some help with that?" he asked, taking off several of the larger books.
"Thanks…again." She smiled and he laughed.
He had been frustrated lately, very frustrated. His plans hadn't been progressing as quickly as he had hoped. Certainly there were many targets on which he could take out his frustrations; she was not his favorite target. But when the Doctor, Jack, and the Jones family were unsatisfyingly weak, he turned on her. She had attempted to hide, but that only made him angrier. She gingerly touched her right eye, flinching at the pain. It was a sick game they played; pretend to be happy for the world below them, but behind closed doors, the truth escaped. Her mind played an even sicker game, making excuses for his actions, attempting somehow to still love him. She may have been only human, but she knew that how he treated her was wrong. There was a time when she would have done anything for him…but that time was gone.
"I'm Harry. Harry Saxon."
"Lucy." She shyly introduced herself as he took the rest of her books.
"It's nice to meet you, Lucy."
The memory-was it really a memory? Did it ever actually happen?-evaporated as he opened his eyes. Lucy quickly looked away, but he had already seen her watching him. He smiled slyly as he sat up, the lights in the room around them brightening.
"Good morning, Lucy-love. Today's finally the big day. The beginning of the new Gallifrey." He said, too cheerily, leaning over and kissing her cheek. "Hmm…you should have a doctor look at that eye." He got out of bed and left the room, chuckling to himself. Lucy watched him go. She knew, despite all the Doctor's warnings against it, that she hated the Master.
