Chapter Text
"Run!"
It was the first thing she heard from him.
Back then, she had no idea how dramatically he will change her life. For the better and the worse.
She was standing in the console room. Watching him. He was doing something, but not doing anything at the same time. He was looking at the levers and switches in front of him and toggling some of them. Some that didn't need to be toggled. He was thinking, or trying to prevent thinking too much.
There was an uneasy atmosphere in the TARDIS. The unspoken words hanging in the air.
She didn't want to feel the way she did. She hated it. He wasn't the best with emotions but he was observant and brilliant.
It got too obvious in the last days.
Her glances.
Her voice softening when she spoke to him.
The way she reacted when he got hurt, like she was the one who was wounded.
And the way she asked him if he was alright after that.
Oh, how she hated her heart for changing the way she felt. She just wanted to see aliens, stars and nebulae, alien architecture and culture. But her focus shifted from curiosity about the universe to feelings towards him.
She was looking at the patterns of the floor in front of her. Thinking how it got this bad.
First it was just the way he behaved. It was entertaining and his demeanor was like he did not care what people thought of him.
Weeks later, when she was noticing more than ordinary things was when it changed.
It started subtle. She noticed that he was a man. Not just an interesting person, but an interesting man.
Then she noticed that she looked at him, at his face and his movements more attentive than before.
The way he moved his hands in expressive ways.
She was even hooked when he did not move but just simply talked about something with his expressive face.
His face.
She felt how she suddenly blushed a little. The heat rising.
She shifted a little on the stairs in the control room, now facing the walls.
He should not see that blush.
That was also something she noticed. She liked looking at his face.
She realised it one day while he was explaining how the star of a near star system will turn into a pulsar at the end of its life. He described what he saw, how he saw it in the future. Although she was interested in what he said, she noticed that she was paying more attention to him than his words.
How his face changed with every further description of the star's lifespan. He obviously loved explaining it.
But also how his hands, his slim fingers moved in the air, like he was painting illustrations with them.
Her face changed from a reasoning to a worrying expression. She glanced briefly at him.
He was still looking at the switches in front of him with a stern expression while doing nothing of importance.
How she loved staring at him while he was explaining, or talking or doing anything at all. This was not normal. Not normal behaviour from a normal person watching another interesting person.
It was a revealing behaviour of a captivated person watching another interesting person.
Not just an interesting, but a beautiful person.
She sighed quietly.
In retrospect, it was obvious that she fell for him, hard and deep.
She thought of the day she saw him the first time.
The adrenaline when she ran from these weird aliens in the office building she worked in.
The way he made sure that the people, including her, were safe.
How he commanded the people in the building and how nobody of the employees questioned him, although nobody knew him. His confidence, his attitude were enough. Like he faced such a weird situation a million times before.
Like he faced aliens a million times before.
She liked science fiction. And him doing all that was unbelievable. Casually saving dozens of people from a goddamn alien invasion.
Of course, she was hooked.
She stared at the wall of the TARDIS.
Why did he even take her with him?
She thought of the day she met him again.
She noticed that something was up before the chaos erupted. A few days earlier. There were small things that made her wonder. For example, how it didn't make any sense why so many fat people behaved strangely all at the same time.
It was very odd but she didn't think of it much. She just briefly thought about it. Maybe it was an anoying curse they were forced to go, to lose weight or they all got a letter from a health organisation or something. She forgot about it after a few minutes.
But then after more and more people disappeared it made her worry.
Many of the fat people conspicuously changed their behaviour, their priorities, ordered rather strange things that had to be implemented immediately, all at the same time as people were disappearing. Back then she realised that something was going on.
One morning, as she walked outside near the building in her break.
There he was.
The Doctor.
She saw how he did something with a glowing stick.
He was so concentrated while using that glowing stick.
She frowned but she was intrigued.
He looked too serious with that glowing stick, too focused.
She watched him in her break.
How he moved the stick on the ground, then upwards into the air. Facing the street, then the building.
How he looked at the stick.
It was probably an useful device that just glows and not just a light, she thought back then.
Or he was just batshit crazy. Or both. She grinned.
But his movements, his face were too focussed for just being a patient of a mental asylum.
He was odd, and interesting.
He didn't notice her. Too busy using his sonic screwdriver to measure anomalies.
But then later when she was safe, after he saved the day like he always did and after she was running to safety, she saw him again leaving the building.
She immediately turned and walked towards him.
She ran out the entrance door after him.
Her first sentence was "Thanks for saving me."
His response was a serious and not very inviting "That's what I do."
But she couldn't hold back her thoughts. She felt excitement and wonder.
Aliens! In her workplace! She had a simple desk job like thousands of others had. Dull. But this experience...
It was science fiction in real life!
She couldn't hold back her questions and asked away.
"Those were aliens, weren't they?"
"I noticed that some people behaved strangely. I am glad that I wasn't going insane and that I didn't imagine it."
"What is that strange glowing device you have? It seemed to be a very useful tool."
"You look human but you behave even stranger than that. You are an alien as well, aren't you?"
She remembers his raised eyebrow and his look at her after that. That surprised him.
She thought of the last days while walking beside him as he hastly walked down the pavement, away from the building.
How he casually saved all these people like it was nothing. He really faced things like that before. He was strange, and unbelievably fascinating.
She didn't want to let the moment pass, didn't want to let him go.
It was so exciting. She walked beside him on the pavement, asking him more, about these aliens, about previous ones.
He got annoyed, obviously.
She couldn't rememeber exactly what he said. Something like "going back into her boring human life".
She chuckled quietly. Poor Doctor. Getting bombarded with questions. But maybe that's why he asked her, much later, when he wasn't annoyed anymore. Her observations, her curiosity. It got stuck in his head.
He looked different, longer hair, different clothes, when he invited her. There were only days in between, but he gave the impression that it had been at least weeks, or even months.
She sighed again.
How she wanted to be like that again. Not even knowing that he had a time machine.
But most of all, she wanted to ignore that he was a man.
He was a goddamn alien, after all.
She turned a little and looked at him again.
His face.
Looking at a lever in front of him.
Still beautiful.
Shit...