Sometimes we need to be empowered, given a boost of energy like fuel to a car or electricity from a socket, through the plug and up into a bedside lamp in an alternating current. It could also be to a telly, a mobile phone or a microwave - microwaves were genius inventions, a great and magical combination of chemistry, biology and physics; the Trisomy of Natural Sciences. Although to call them Natural Sciences was more an Earth thing - other planets would name them fundamental sciences, or maybe have more blurred lines - Biophysics or Biochemistry.
The Doctor wasn't entirely sure who she expected to empower - wasn't sure what had brought her to the University. She'd seen both the town of Oxford Prior to its University and long after. In a couple of hundred Millenia from now stunned people of Mars would discover the human race - homo sapiens - in fact, originated on this dead planet.
Humans were fascinating that way, each version surprised to find others had come first. She still wasn't convinced that a number of other species didn't give the young humans a gentle nudge in the right direction. That was something she had tried not to do, the people of Gallifrey knew better. That didn't mean a little, tiny nudge wasn't needed now and again. So long as the human race thought they had invented it who cared that a Granny Smith apple may have been lightly loosened from its branch just enough to fall and knock an idea into the brain of Isaac Newton?
It was also a bit different nowadays, these people were hearing their noisy neighbours up above and giving a good hard thud with the broom handle. The people down here were starting to hear the buzz of other Galaxies - and the rush hour honking horns from the rest of the Universe. The fourth wall had been knocked down completely.
Right now she was on a mystery tour, where she closed her eyes and gave some buttons a prod, some levers a flick and the dials a good twirl in order to go somewhere at random. At first, she was disappointed to end up in England, and in the 21st Century no less - bit boring.
When she stepped out those wooden doors the sun was shinning down despite a flurry of wind through the trees. That automatically made it a special day, any good day in early autumn was a special day - generally, the locals would agree.
It was only while strolling around, hands in her coat pockets, watching the odd seagull have an argument with a crisp bag hanging out the top of a bin. Oh, she wanted crisps and was trying to remember whether yoghurt flavours were popular yet when she saw something that instantly drew her into the past.
A yellow Volkswagon Beetle. The car was parked under the trees with the windshield shaded from the very gentle sun. She had a Beetle once, she had a few actually - or had she borrowed those - she wasn't entirely sure which were hers. That wasn't why she recognised it though, there was a funny feeling of warmth in her body, a familiarity of some kind. It wasn't a new car - the registration plate gave it away; JTB 329K. The car was from 1971 - a very old car for a University student, the owner must have been in their late fifties or older, unless it was a classic car collected by an enthusiast. The rust under the wheel arches and around the bumper made that unlikely.
Think, brain, think.
She was startled by the boy walking towards the car - she hadn't noticed him until he was near the driver's door. He held a key ring in his hand, fiddled through a couple of house keys, a tadpole-shaped glow in the dark attachment and a number of small fob-sized loyalty cards. He thumbed them again, looked up into the air as though he was thinking it might appear and then growled in the back of his throat. The boy had floppy dark hair, trained to point towards his right eyebrow. He had strange eyes, they looked deep but they also didn't look quite right, as though they were somehow in the wrong body. His eyes were young and enthusiastic, they reminded her of the eyes she had sometimes, the look on some of her faces when she had seen something new, something amazing.
The boy carried a bag over his shoulder, it was laden with big textbooks, thicker than Bibles and the strap looked as though it was silently groaning under the weight of all these books.
The boy looked around, searching the ground around the car incase the key was down there. He ducked to look under the car and she used that opportunity. It couldn't do any harm, she could make his day a little better. She snatched the sonic from her pocket, pressing a button or two and hearing the car splutter into life, coughing like the smokers so common when it was made.
The boy was fast, almost too fast, he stood staring at her for a moment and she stared back, maybe this wasn't a human after all - it wasn't unheard of, could have been part of their placement for Earth Studies from the University of Kap'lapur.
"Doctor?"
Her stomach sunk low in her body, her hearts increasing a little. It took a moment, only a moment, before it all made sense. Her heart rates increased again but this time through familiarity.
"Luke? Luke Smith."
The boy's shocked look morphed momentarily into a smile before changing once more into a look of confusion.
"It, it is you, you can do that?"
The Doctor looked down at herself, wondering what it was that she could do that the young genius could have seen. She patted her pockets, then her hair, thinking. The boy prompted her, she knew there was a reason he was one of her favourite humans - in the top one hundred at least.
"You can change gender?"
"Oh!" a light switched on in her head, finger jumping into the air with realisation. "Eurica!, yes, of course, not seen you in this one - you missed the last one, he was Scottish, a bit of a grump, but I'm me now."
Luke nodded, once more his face began to move, like a pile of bread dough, and this time he really was smiling, a proper smile with teeth. He glanced at the car, the engine humming happily now after it's assisted start. There was a bunch of flowers on top of a tartan rug on the back seat, a plastic carrier bag sat next to it filled with a number of bits and bobs. He hesitated, breathing out in a long stream of carbon dioxide.
"Doctor, can I talk to you about something, I think you might be the best person to help with this."
They sat in the TARDIS now, both holding a mug of tea in their hands. The Doctor sat with her legs crossed, pretending to read the Periodic table put together in another Universe entirely. She knew it off by hearts, but the boy needed time to tell her whatever he wanted to say, he was stalling, waiting for the moment. She was about to say something about the chemical elements on the mug, or ask what he knew about String theory when Luke spoke, staring at the floor.
"I'm going on a date, tonight,"
There was a pause, the Doctor wasn't exactly sure why he was telling her this, or what he expected her to say.
"I'm Gay. Mum doesn't know, I don't know how to do all of this."
A tear began to drip from Luke's cheek. The Doctor smiled, this was easy. She had thought it would be harder, at least - as far as she knew - he wasn't entering into an inter-species relationship.
"That's all?"
Luke glanced at her, his eyebrows meeting in the middle of his head. She knew that look - a lot of people gave it to her when they thought she was slightly insane. Technically her level of sanity was very much dependent on who was testing her and what their criteria were.
"Luke." She moved, crouching up onto one knee to look closer into the boy's face.
"Your Mum, who sneaked into a secure science facility pretending to be her aunt, who's travelled through time and space, who has fought things with bad intentions on her own doorstep? Your Mum who took in a boy who was both a teenager in body and a toddler between the ears? You really think she's going to care who you love?"
Luke shrugged softly, a little smile teasing on the corner of his mouth.
The Doctor stood, looking around herself, her coat flying as she searched for inspiration. Only to tut when once more she remembered why she was having this conversation.
"Look at me, I've been a man all my life. I've been a man for over a thousand years, and now - bam! I'm a woman. I have a different body, a different appearance and I really hate these legs - they are so small!"
She paused, letting the young man take all of this in,
"Luke, your species have this strange idea that love fits into boxes, do you know why science can't prove different sexual identities? It's because there is no science that can explain it. Love is deeper than science, deep like time and space. We don't know why, we don't know how, but these things exist because the Universe is brilliant. The Timelords don't have gender the way you do, they don't have sexualities that way either - because we change, we could be a boy once, or a girl once. We change skin colour, height, eye colour. We change so much and you-."
She paused, crouching back at his level. She cupped his face in her hands, feeling her coat tails finally slowing to a stop around her body. There were still tears in his eyes, but she felt they were more from the releasing of tight emotions than the fear he had held only moments before.
"Luke Smith, you were made to be what? " She gave him a moment to answer, but when nothing came she prompted.
"You were made by the Bane to be the perfect human being. The perfect human being, with the combined DNA of 98% of the British population. Don't you think how you feel, how you love, is a big part of that? You are perfect."
She moved to sit back beside the boy, picking up her mug once more.
"So, I'm not - so I'm told - the best at helping with wardrobe, but we can start with his name, who is this boy?"
Luke instantly smiled, she could see he was trying not to but his eyes gave him away.
"Sanjay, Sanjay Khatri." Luke watched for the Doctor's reaction, his face fell as did hers. A grimace taking.
"What, is he going to be a murderer or something?" Luke suddenly looked horrified once again. The Doctor shook her head, swallowing before smiling once more.
"Nah, he's fine. Tea's gone cold."