DW fic: In Their Eyes 1/1
SUMMARY: The Doctor thoroughly enjoys the expression in his companions' eyes when they realise they are no longer on Earth. Written for a prompt, "rapture".
IN THEIR EYES
It had been centuries since he'd stolen the TARDIS and left Gallifrey (or she had stolen him, that would forever be up for debate) and in all that time, it had just been him and his Susan.
And then, these two humans had burst into his TARDIS and his life and things had never been the same. After those two, he had grown rather fond of his human co-travelers, and he grew to be amused at the expression they would always seem to get whenever they realised they were suddenly not on their world.
It was wonder. It was rapture. It was naked awe.
It never failed to make him feel delight.
Regeneration followed regeneration, and the co-travelers became first associates, and then companions. In the case of a Scottish lad with more courage than sense, the Doctor found his first true friend. The pain when Jamie was forcibly ripped from him, his memories wiped and the Doctor forbidden from ever knowing what happened to him - that was enough to send the Doctor retreating into a shell of cold superiority and cocky intelligence. He would be safe there, while he sweated out the exile the Time Lords forced on him.
But he hadn't counted on a bubbly force of nature named Jo, who cracked that shell by sheer force of personality. When he could, he took her offworld and delighted to see the familiar rapture in her eyes.
What Jo cracked, a second force of nature named Sarah Jane blew wide open. She embraced him and asked nothing but knowledge in return.
Until the end of her life, through seven of his own, he would forever introduce her as "my best friend." That honour would only be given to one other, six lives later - and that brilliant ginger was as much a force of nature as his beloved brunette.
On and on, every human save one would have that same spark, that same wonder, that same rapture in their eyes. One accidental companion, an Australian air hostess named Tegan, had nothing but abject terror in her eyes when she realised she was not on Earth. He tried - oh, he tried - but nothing but going home would ever make that one happy.
To this day, he wonders if she misses him at all. He misses her, despite it all.
He misses all of them. All those he has ever allowed into his TARDIS, into his lives, into his hearts. He misses all of them.
He remembers all of them. Companions, strangers, one wife and her parents, one who was terrified of him, two best friends who will never remember him and one best friend who became a human Time Lord and mother to extraordinary children. He remembers all of them fondly.
And when he smiles for no reason? He is remembering the delight he feels when he sees the world - whatever world it may be - through the wonder and rapture in their eyes.
END