A breath escapes her, awe and quiet delight intermingling into one as she steps further into the incredible, sun-stroked warmth of a rolling-green landscape.
Butterflies flutter and dance all around—orange, red, blue and purple gleaming in the light's rays. She stands at the bottom of a hill, the paned-glass door closing behind her, noiseless. But she pays it no mind, drinking in the beauty that should be impossible within a vehicle made of metal and whatever else. A gentle breeze brushes through her hair, the sensation real as anything.
How can something like this exist? How can the TARDIS make it exist?
She reaches a hand out, and marvels as gentle pressure alights on her index finger. A butterfly with tendrils trailing from its delicate wings flutters once before settling. They're a shining fiery orange, scattered with pale dots—it's unlike any kind of butterfly she's ever seen.
Shards of flaming earth dance off into the depths of space. A planet, Earth, fractured into pieces. Billions of years of history, gone.
And she stands there beside the Doctor, watching as those pieces of her world twirl away into the dark through the observation window.
On a shuddered inhale, she closes her eyes, focusing on the solid soil beneath her shoes, the warmth of a sun that shouldn't exist but does, in this room. Of the butterfly's small feet as it re-positions itself.
Then lets it go on an exhale.
Silly really, how a part of her wonders… Maybe this is the TARDIS' way of showing her it's not all bad. Like the crowds, all that life bustling around her, back in her time, her London.
Getting to laugh around a bag of chips with the Doctor.
Beauty in a different form, she supposes, being surrounded by butterflies from who knows how many worlds or times. Just like that instant of joy so shortly after brutal loss.
She still has her Earth.
Still has this.
Smoothing her jacket of its creases, she lets the butterfly go with a light flick of her hand, watches it flit away to return to its dance with the others, then turns and heads out, closing the door behind her.