The Empty Child

Oh my stars.

Must this ALWAYS happen? We are supposed to be heading to a nice little planet, ooh I had it all planned out. It's this lovely place called Women Wept, oh Sister will just love it. It made her cry…no…will make her cry? Makes her cry? No it was the other one, it WILL make her cry. Because it's lovely and Sister will really appreciate it, the beauty of it, and she'll cry…and then my Thief will comfort her and hug her and hold her hand and I can see it. Ooh I'm so excited for it!

And so, because I am excited, my Thief just has to go and get himself into another round of trouble like he always seems to do without realizing. And, of course, it can't be any sort of regular old trouble, no it has to go and be…

"Mauve!" Thief shouts.

Oh he's running around my console now, like…chicken with its head cut off…is that the right expression? Oh, now I know how my Sister feels. She can't quite seem to get them right either, well that's just as well, I like having that in common with her, makes me feel like she's my true sister. Though she does call Flower her sister too. I suppose that makes Flower my sister as well. Oh that's lovely, I like big families, I like sisters especially. I'm so glad Sister managed to find another one, I know she misses her old sister as much as I do mine, Flower will be good for her, as good as she will be for Thief as well.

Thief seems a bit frustrated with me, I keep jolting and shaking them about a bit. But I don't want to go!

Oh…I let out a sad hum at that, those words…those terrible words. My poor Thief…oh my poor Sister. I wish Thief would never say those horrid, horrid words, they'll break Sister's hearts one day. But…I don't think I can stop it. And that breaks my hearts…heart? Hold on…do I even have a heart? Well, there's the Vortex, Thief like to call it the heart of the TARDIS, and there's my engine room which is probably like a heart as well…but I don't have a real heart, an actual heart.

That's so weird, isn't it? To be alive yet have no heart? I know my sisters and I were grown in the farms on Gallifrey, Sister took care of all of us, her mother, her father, her family, generation after generation…so I'm like a plant then but just…FAR more clever. Yes, I like that. I like being alive and being able to see, ooh…I can't wait for the day when I get to tell Thief and Sister that, that I'm happy being with them, that I really AM alive, and so I can greet them properly.

How does one greet another? Thief's way of greeting will change so much. Right now he just grins foolishly, but his next self will just introduce himself as the Doctor, but I don't quite think he'll believe me if I say I'm the TARDIS. And then his next self, oh…he does enjoy air kissing people, but those are strangers, not me. I'M the TARDIS I've been there for all his travels. Surely that's more familiar than a stranger, yes…I'll give Thief a kiss, and Sister too!

No…wait, no, sorry, I'll probably have to smack Thief at one point…repeatedly. But that's alright, at that point I'm sure he'll deserve it. I can see that Sister's going to be so hurt by then, so alone, she'll need me more than ever. Well, she always needed me doesn't she? Just like now, she needs me to help her and Thief be together. Oh they'll be so happy I can't wait for them to realize that they're meant for each other.

Which is why I'm so cross that Thief seems so insistent to follow that piece of space jump. Just because it's Mauve! Honestly, THAT is most certainly NOT a color that should or needs to be followed.

"Mauve?" the Flower asks, she seems as irritated as me.

"That's the universal color for danger, isn't it?" Sister answers.

I scoff at that, the universally recognized color for danger indeed. THAT should be blue, ME blue, and they should call it…Doctor Blue.

Sister's looking up at me, confused now, probably because I'm laughing. That's adorable, Doctor Blue? Sounds very much like Doctor Who? People DO seem to love calling my Thief that. I don't understand why, he's just…the Doctor (though I like calling him Thief).

"What happened to red?" Flower's frowning now.

Red, blah! I still prefer blue. Yes, they should change it to blue, that would be perfect! And it IS very fitting, Thief travels in me, I'M blue, and whenever he shows up there's always something dangerous. Yes…I wonder who I need to speak to to get that changed…I wonder HOW I'd be able to speak to them about it. Hmm…

Oh, I'm pouting now, Sister's set me to follow that thingy now. Which is sad, I really wanted us to go to Women Wept! I came so close too, when Thief was merely piloting me, I could have gotten us there instead, but Sister certainly knows how to operate me, and now I'm set to go after it. Oh this is boring! It's just a Chula ambulance. Though, I suppose given what's inside it, it WOULD be best for Thief to examine it.

"That's just humans," Thief's waving Flower off now, moving to help Sister fly me, "By everyone else's standards, red's camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing."

I can barely hold in my laughter at that, dancing, if only Thief knew what a prize his first dance with Sister will win him…oh I can't wait to see that little treasure walking around.

"It's got a very basic flight computer, I've hacked in and Angel slaved the TARDIS. Where it goes, we go."

"And how safe is it?" Flower frowns, honestly, as though I'd take them anywhere THAT dangerous, anywhere I didn't know they'd be ok in later.

It's not like we're going to Trenzalore.

"Totally," Thief grins, moving to hit a button…which exploded.

Wrong button! I try to shout at him, but it mostly comes out as an angry hum, sending Sister rushing over to help him sort it out. I truly don't understand why Thief doesn't just let Sister pilot me. SHE read the manual! SHE (well her family) wrote it!

"Ok, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there."

"That's the wrong button!" Sister tells him, exactly as I was thinking, I really do love how she knows that, she's so good to me, always trying to take care of me and make sure I'm in proper working order.

And I can see it, even now, Thief watching her get things working right, setting the proper controls. I think half the time he does that on purpose, so that he can see her working and watch her being her brilliant old self. I would too if I were him. Yes, that has to be the reason. NO ONE could be quite as bad a pilot as Thief is…can they?

Well…this IS Thief I'm thinking of.

The man currently staring at Sister and NOT at the monitor that is showing their device escaping. It's not like I'm truly trying to keep after it. I really wanted to go to Women Wept! I'm sulking, I know, I don't like being interrupted or distracted, unlike Thief, but he seems to get distracted by Sister an awful lot and that's fine with me. So really…he SHOULD be paying attention now.

I add a bit of a blinking light to the warning on my monitor and Thief finally notices, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

"What exactly is this thing?" Flower asks.

"No idea," Sister answers as she makes her way to them.

"And why are we chasing it?"

"It's mauve and dangerous," Thief tells her, which didn't really explain much at all, "And about 30 seconds from the center of London."

I roll my eyes…or I would if I really had them (where ARE my eyes exactly? I can see but I don't know where my eyes are…is that odd?). Sister pulls a lever that lets me land, and I sulk, I'm going to be stuck there a very long time (really only a few hours, but that's not the point!) waiting for them to fix everything.

I really don't want them to go, that little boy is out there, that little…empty boy. But I know neither Sister nor Thief will be able to refuse doing SOMETHING. They both hate it when children cry, when they're upset and alone. And that little boy…he's both.

I watch them sadly as they head for the doors, calling out to them to please, be careful…I hope they will be.

~8~

Stop ringing! Ooh I am furious! How dare that…that little boy play a trick on me! HOW is he playing a trick on me. My phones are ringing, well, really just the one on the door but it's not ME making them ring and it's not ME letting a call through, it's that little boy! Thief and Sister haven't met him yet, but they will, soon. Flower already has…and she's just…drifted away on the breeze…well, on a rather large balloon really, but that's besides the point. The point is…is…

My phone is ringing!

And if there's one thing Thief can't resist more than a locked door it's a ringing phone, he just wants to answer and see who it is on the other end, he's FAR too curious for his own good. I can tell Sister's alarmed, she knows as well as I do for something to be able to make MY phones ring that there's something VERY wrong. She's searching for Rose, peeking in and I try to warn her away from the phones, not to answer it, to listen to that Nancy girl-who-isn't-a-GIRL but Sister is far too worried about Flower and where she is.

…perhaps it would be best not to tell her that flower is dangling from a barrage balloon in the middle of a German Air Raid…

~8~

Big Face! Big Face is here! He's finally here! OH! Yes! Fantastic! Moto Bene! Sister will be SO pleased that Big Face is finally there…she hasn't ever had a brother before…she'll…she'll need him. And he'll be good for her. Is good for her? Was good for her? Will sounds better. I can't wait for Big Face to get in here so I can say hello!

Oh…but it shall take a while, won't it. Oh Thief, he's in another predicament. And poor Sister and Flower are stuck in the middle of it too. I do hope that he has enough sense to get them out of that rubbish hospital before those funny people wake up. Their long faces and big black eyes are rather odd and more than a bit creepy. I'm almost glad that I'm not with them…I'd have nightmares for ages being surrounded by them.

But Thief seems relatively calm, even though I know he's worried for Sister, oh that's so sweet! How worried his is…not how he's just standing there facing those funny people as they gather near him. He really should do something about it. Oh, I bet he has some rather clever escape planned, some daring plan, some cunning trick, some…

I blink (or at least I think I blink) and sigh.

Truly?

He's going to say THAT?

Those are TERRIBLE last words!

A/N: SO sorry this is late :( I promised to have it up over the weekend and then earlier today, events happened, finals and snow and work :( I was trying to get it edited while I was at work but only finished my Thor story before my boss arrived, then he let us leave early and I just got home and went right to finishing this. I apologize for the delay. I hope you like the chapter :)