Chapter 1: The doctors pov
Chapter Text
The doctor was worried when she'd accidentally brought her nice new human friends to the void of space but relatively relived when they got picked up by passing ships. That worry had escalated to concern when she had realized what kind of planet they were on and gone steadily up with every deadly threat they'd faced. And now that worry had evolved into a horribly potent mix of guilt, shame and grief.
"I've failed you"
Nice shiny new humans, brilliant humans, and they were going to die here, because of her.
"I promised you and I let you down"
The humans tried to say something comforting but she wasn't really listening, she had far more important things to do like panic and dole out self reciminations. And to be honest her ears were ringing a bit. Possibly an effect of the poison atmosphere, how long did they have left to live, days?? Hours??? The ringing got stronger. Ghost monument was right, if the tardis did show up all that would be left would be ghosts, and possibly her, but who knew who'd she be by then. Left with nothing to do but wait, again, with the ghosts of her friends, again. All dead and all her fault, again, just like before, like... The ringing in her ears grew in pitch until she was fully distracted from that train of thought by the echoing wheezing groaning sound she knew so well. Knew better than the sound of her own voice to be honest. She could tell the old girl was struggling by the stutters and painfully drawn out nature of the sound. But she was here! She was coming! She was having a bit of trouble but that was nothing the doctor couldn't help out withsome stabilizing and a homing beacon from her sonic screwdriver should do the trick, and a little sweet talk probably wouldn't hurt either.
"Come to daddy, I mean mummy,, I mean,, I reeealy near you right now.. please"
And then there she was, sturdy and blue and there. Wonderfully, beautifully there. They would not die here, not today.
She'd say seeing that old box again had filled up something inside of her she handy even known was missing but she'd be lying. She'd felt her absence every day, hour, and second. Felt herself fraying at the edges of that missing peice. But now she was here, and the doctor was whole
"My beautiful ghost monument"
She ran up to the boxes doors, feeling the background psychic hum of the tardises presence intensify the closer she got until she was standing at the door, mind ringing like a wine glass someone had pinged. She was grinning like a giddy idiot. To be fair she was a giddy idiot. She took a second to admire the tardis and noticed some changes. Somehow the old girl had found the time to give herself a new look while being stuck in landing mode. It was a good look too, changed the color scheme of the signs and chosen a different shade of blue, and was that a new lantern on top?
"I see you've done yourself up, very nice"
She couldn't wait to see inside. and hopefully she wouldn't have to if the tardis waslineient about the whole missing key situation, and not still mad about her exploding in the console room, again. She leaned her forehead against the warm and lightly buzzing wood of the doors.
"I'm sorry, I lost my key"
The door popped open. The cool breeze that flowed through and felt like a welcome and the hum inside her head when she grabbed the handles of the door felt like approval, like love.
Chapter 2: The Tardis' perspective
Summary:
At the end of the day the tardis is a sappy MOTHERFUCKER as well, I love her
Chapter Text
The Tardis was worried when the thief had regenerated inside her console room again, they had a habit of very nasty regenerations and this one was no different. That worry had escalated to anger, after all if the thief didn't want to get thrown out of her console room they shouldnt explode it quite so often,
The anger then battled with increasing concern as the tardis ripped, tore, and fell her way through the vortex to a completely new section of spacetime. Her thief was very, very far away and she was stuck.
She was/will be/has been/is rematerializing and she has/is/will be for ages relative to her, and an unspeakably long time relative to the planet she was/is/has-been/will be materializing on. In all honestly it was getting on her nerves and she didn't even have those. She'd done all the re modeling and repairs she could do on her own but was unable to land, the part of her that managed the final, vital bit of calibration for the rematerialization process had, fallen out when she'd shaken her thief out. It was quite embarrassing.
She was just about done remodeling one of her fifth interior arboretum to have a more northern deciduous biome from the third moon of ixia theme when she felt herself attempting to land again, only this time there was something to latch onto. A lifeline of sonic signal and symbiotic resonance, her thief waving her down. She might have let them wait a while longer if she hadn't been so sick of being unable to land and if the thief hadn't left such a desperate taste in the back of the tardises telepathic networks. As it was she landed with all the gusto a blue box can muster, a lot is she could say so herself, and began scanning the surroundings.
A poisonous atmosphere, a dead planet, malevolent telepathic creatures she could feel the malice of from half a planet away, not very pleasant. More important though was her thief running full pelt on newly shortened legs towards her. She stopped just short of the tardises doors and gently places a hand on the wooden panelling. The tardis raised the temperature of her surfaces to match her theifs, slightly higher than normal but nothing to cause alarm, the same with the rest of her systems from a quick scan. Her body was new and as fit as ever. And, if you asked the tardis, very fetching.
She felt that sentiment echoed back at her by the theif as she took in the tweaks the tardis had made to her police box exterior. This face certainly knew how to make an old tardis feel appreciated.
Her theif gently leant her head against her outer doors, a spot of warmth and presence reassuring in its familiarity. The tardis reached out and touched her mind to her thief's, feeling all the rough edges and unpolished facets of her new mind, ones the tardis could help sooth, along side the rough edges that she wouldn't be herself without. she felt love, guilt, hope, grief, and relife. Most of the guilt was aimed at the three humans the tardis could detect nearby, unwillingly far from home and presumably wanting to get back.
Well the tardis could fix that, she appreciated having her thief to herself but knew how much they liked the company of humans, and these three were practically giftwrapped. All they needed was some persuading. Some of the rest of the guilt was leveled at her, the tardis was glad to notice, she'd blown up in her! Again! A little chagrin was due. And what was that?
....
Oh she lost her key, well... She was being awfully nice, complimenting the changes she'd made and being so happy to see her. And despite it all the tardis was just as sentimental as the doctor in the end. She may not have a voice to admire the thief's new form or arms to reach out to her with but she did have doors she could open. And she always, always had a place for her on the other side.