Fill for the Thirteen Fanzine prompt #2: Old Friends. It's a rather late but I have been on a rather tiring holiday for a week (to Yorkshire, home to the Doctor herself and my ancestors) and finished my Hurt/Comfort Exchange fill.
"It's been far too long since I cleaned these proto-thermic regulators. Sorry, Old Girl, I've not been the best pilot to you recently."
The Tardis groaned and shot out a jet of hot air into the Doctor's face as she lay amongst the cables and pipes under the console, ruffling her hair.
"I know, but I'm doing it now. And I've fixed the broken temporal logic processor I bought on Saturn VII so I'll replace that once I've finished here." The Doctor swiped errant strands of hair out of her face with the back of one grimy hand. "It's amazing what you can get done when you get into the groove. We haven't had a rest stop this long for ages." The Tardis sparked at her.
"Yes, I know it's my fault. Wait, no, it was you that sent us towards that planet last week when I was aiming for that beach resort! I was planning to clean these out whilst the fam were out having fun! We never did get there in the end." A beep. "I think I'll take them there after I've picked them up. They deserve to have a nice break after our last adventure."
It had not gone well and the three humans had taken the deaths hard. They had asked to spend a few days at home to process things and the Doctor had let them, wishing to spend some time alone with her bestest and oldest friend to work through her own self blame at the losses. A little Tardis maintenance was just the thing to get her mind off it.
Her tongue stilled as she continued cleaning, humming a half remembered tune from her childhood. The tune brought back memories that hadn't been thought of in decades; playing amongst the straw in that old barn, running through crimson grass with her boyhood friend by her side.
"Who would have thought," she mulled to herself and the Tardis, "way back in my first body, that I would end up here? We've seen so much of the universe, more than I could even dreamed of when I was at the Academy. What would have happened if I had never stolen you? Or you stole me?" That brought back memories of another time, in her eleventh body with bowties and floppy hair and the married pair of humans that had travelled with him.
No, don't think about them, that hurts too much. Remember the lady with the torn dress, the wild hair and the gleam of the universe in her eyes.
"I wish we could talk to each other like we could when you got transferred into a human body. We had such a short time together like that. Instead you've got to listen to me nattering inanely about things. I know you do talk back in different ways, but it's just not the same."
A mournful moan and warm gust of air across her face, almost a caress.
"You've always been there for me. We've each changed over time but still we're together." The now shiny tubes were reconnected and the Doctor shifted to reach the birds nest of wires by her elbow. "Who knows how long we still have left together." She ran her fingers through the wires, carefully untangling them. "You're my oldest friend, Sexy. I don't know what I'd ever do without you."