So as you can see, this one is far longer than the rest, but deviations from the norm can be good, and this is for not updating for a while. Hope you enjoy this one, please review when you finish (even if you don't like it!).
Title: Dreamer
Episode: Night after The Doctor's Wife
I sailed along with the Time Winds, pretending I was an Earth-style sailing ship under full sail. As I made careful adjustments to my course, I was careful not to disturb my sleeping passengers. They were all resting after an exhausting few days, recovering from their latest adventure before beginning the one just beyond the horizon that was the Vortex.
Even my little Thief was asleep.
It was rare for him to sleep; he did not require quite as much rest as his friends. He and I did not require much rest, but we two travelers had our moments when our travels drained us. This was one of those moments. We were both worn out from the events that had transpired, and looking forward to some rest once I arrived at our destination.
My Thief was sleeping under my Console platform, suspended in the sling he used when preforming maintenance and repairs on my systems. That's what he had been doing when he finally gave into exhaustion, but not before placing me on auto-pilot. The Pretty One had stumbled in earlier while looking for the kitchen. He covered my Thief with his jacket. He barely stirred as he was wrapped up, safe and warm, and close to my Heart.
It was a quiet night for a TARDIS and her Time Lord and his friends. The first quiet night in a long time.
Below my Console, my Thief stirred, breaking the soft hum of my engines with a moan. A frown formed on his face and his forehead wrinkled with worry and angst. This was why he rarely slept. When he slept, he would dream, and often those dreams were nightmares of the past that still haunted him and the dark side that he sometimes barely contained.
I reached out to his mind, trying to soothe his fears and sadness, to bring him out of his tortured past. His mind was filled with darkness, screams, explosions, and death. In the center of the tempest, my Thief watched helplessly as the events of the dream replayed over and over again. Unable to watch my Thief suffer, I chased away the memories of War and Loss, those memories we both regretted. I chased the darkness from his mind with the light of my Heart.
My Thief stirred as the nightmares left his mind. I waited with him as I had so many times before, waited for the darkness to leave his dreams while calming and lulling him back to sleep with my Song of Flight I sang while sailing through Time. As I left his mind, I wondered if he ever realized it was me who often helped him chase the nightmares of the past away, his champion against the Lord of Dreams and the Darkness that was within him. Maybe after this last adventure, he would realize it was I who helped him.
I continued to sing my Song of Flight as my Thief's dreams returned to normal. Content, I returned to my sailing, watching Time and Space race past. Below my Console, my Thief murmured something. A single word I had not heard in years, a word from a language that sounded more like a song when spoken, like swirling circles within circles. A word from a language known only to a select few, and otherwise lost and locked away in time.
My Heart-of-Hearts swelled with affection. You are welcome, Thief-of-my-Heart, you are most welcome. Sweet dreams…