timelord1

For the Who_contest Drabble Challenge #5: Music.

Adagio
The Doctor waits while companions sleep, as great swaths of time are wasted in their recharging cycle. He passes the time in a fugue of busy work, tinkering at long-lingering projects in the dim TARDIS. Sometimes he pauses to listen, hoping. He would never tell them how much he misses them when they’re asleep. Sometimes he moves the TARDIS to a new time and place, and waiting for them becomes a child’s waiting on Christmas morning at the top of the stairs.
He is all giddy anticipation until a sleep-fuzzy voice calls, “Doctor? You awake?”
Music to his ears.

Vivace
Oh, the running! Is there a better thing in all the universe? A sweaty hand clamped in his, three hearts racing as feet pound, legs pump, air rushes in and the glory of escape propels them onward. Duck, jump, turn; all movements of a panicked ballet that gives the Doctor such a rush it almost feels obscene. He knows he shouldn’t smile, but of all the movements of his life, this is his favorite. He runs for his life and for theirs, he runs from the ashes of Gallifrey and he runs from the loneliness with every frantic step.

Prestissimo
For the companions it is the adventure of a lifetime. For the Doctor, sometimes it feels as though his friends, his family, come and go in the time it takes him to blink. As they come into his life, each like beautiful dancers taking only one trip across the stage, he yearns for them to linger well beyond their curtain call. He watches, helpless, as the universe gathers the worst of itself to tear his beloveds away from him all too quickly. And always, at the final rallentando of their time together, the Doctor stands alone, bereft once again.