"Last" drabble challenge entry
These moments right here - the ones that sneak up and catch him by surprise - are the reason why he hates time travel.
(If he’s completely honest with himself those moments are also the reason why at times he loves time travel.)
He hadn’t wanted to come but Gwen had been so sure that they would find it here, so of he went.
There are times he wonders what is wrong with people, because really what is the point of collecting every single alien artifact in the world, only to bury it deep underground where nobody could see it.
Maybe that was, in the end, the whole point; that nobody else could ever get to it.
He’s grateful when upon finally making it to the basement undetected, that what he needs is the first thing he sees.
Now all he needs is to find a way to get it out the cage without setting of an alarm.
(Because all he needs now - on top of everything else - is to be captured by a maniac, who’s bound to find out what he is - immortal and timeless - and would experiment on him. And though it wouldn’t do much damage it would slow him down and he just doesn’t have the time.)
Ten seconds later and it doesn’t matter because suddenly the alarm sounds anyway.
Then he hears the one thing he never thought he’d hear again and despite the lack of time he runs towards the sound.
And there they are, young and beautiful and alive.
(It’s his first doctor - northern accent, leather jacket and big ears - and it’s her - so beautiful and innocent.)
He should leave - all the lessons at the time agency run through his head - but he just can’t.
(She never sees him that he is sure of, whether the doctor sees him is up for debate.)
He watches them - mostly her - but he does nothing to help or approach them.
(It would do little to change the events to come anyway.)
He hides in the shadows and waits for them to leave him again.
(The doctor is the first to vanish.)
mso-ansi-language:EN-US">It’s the first time - chronologically at least - he sees them.
(Rose disappears next and he turns before the door closes.)
He hears her laugh, a sound he knows will haunt his dreams.
(He hears the familiar sound of the Tardis fading away.)
It’s also the last.