[The Ten Spot] Family

011. TEN facts about your family

1. My parents died when I was five in a car accident. Most of the memories I have of them are from the stories my aunt told me while growing up.

2. Aunt Lavinia has always been a wonderful guardian, especially as her career as a virologist would take us to various cities during my youth. I tried impersonating her once, back when I first met the Doctor, and that didn’t go as well as I hoped. How was I supposed to know people there would have actually read her work? Doctor, I’m talking about you.

3. What I learned from growing up with an aunt as a guardian instead of parents is that family is what you make it. I’ve never been one to believe in conventional families. Family is what you make it, be it blood relatives or friends. And I absolutely adore the small family I’ve found with the Doctor and with Harry and the rest of my friends at UNIT.

4. I’ve been absolutely horrible about keeping up with my aunt since travelling with the Doctor. I send her letters here and there when on Earth, but aside from that, our regular correspondence has since vanished. I do hope she’ll forgive me for that one day.

5. My father was a businessman. I don’t know how much this is a memory or how much this is something Aunt Lavinia once told me, but every time he had to travel to another town, he’d bring me back a small gift. I believe my favourite was a small beanbag owl.

6. Nigel Smith and Alice Trent Smith are buried in a small graveyard behind a small church right outside of Liverpool. I used to make my aunt take me on trips there often when we travelled, even though it was often rather out of the way.

7. I have no siblings. When I was younger, I often wish I did, especially to have someone to play field hockey with. I grew out of that stage quickly enough, since I had a tendency to consider children my age dull. But I still couldn’t help but long for a brother or a sister when I saw siblings in the neighbourhood play together.

8. My grandparents never played much of a role in my life. By the time I moved in with Aunt Lavinia, only my mother’s mother remained alive. I was never very close with her.

9. Despite everything I said in item three about family being what you make it, this topic has always been a sore subject for me. I suppose it’s due to some of the teasing I used to receive in primary school. And all of the punishments I got after giving Teddy Miles a black eye for doing so.

10. My family hasn’t been normal. Growing up, it consisted of an aunt who wouldn’t always be around to take care of me. Now, it consists of friends instead of lovers or children. But I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. I’m rather fond of it just as it is.

[Our Magic Place] Muse Prompt #20

Pick one of the following items, and write a fic about it...

Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue

It wasn’t much to look at, but still Sarah Jane kept it on the top of her night table, letting it stand out among books and clocks and clutter like the prized possession it was. It was old and broken – it hadn’t worked in years – and becoming slightly rusted. It wasn’t anything one would imagine deserved such a prestigious position in someone’s bedroom. In fact, perhaps the only thing that stood out less was the photograph behind it; blue tinted due to abysmal processing and dog eared thanks to years of being carried around in books and bags.

She had borrowed it off the Doctor years and years ago, when he hadn’t been looking and she had needed it to attempt and repair the desk in her room. She had seen a couple of sonic screwdrivers lying around the TARDIS and had figured that one missing wouldn’t matter all that much. And despite initial confusion on the Doctor’s part (and a sheepish admittance on hers), it really had not mattered much. And she had gotten to keep it in the end.

-- “You mean to tell me that all this time you’ve been walking around with a sonic screwdriver as well?”

“Oh, it wasn’t as if I meant to! I just borrowed it one day and forgot. Besides, it came in handy today, didn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes it did, Sarah. You clever girl! The Hilns would never have thought to check a twentieth century human—

“Doctor!”

“I quite mean it as a compliment. Perhaps you should keep it, then. The sonic screwdriver you borrowed may come in handy again one day.”

“I certainly think it will.”--

Sometimes Sarah wished that it would still come in handy. Perhaps she had wished for it to magically repair itself most of all the day K-9 broke down for good, leaving her unable to repair him and best friendless for the second time in her life. But whatever powered the sonic screwdriver had long since died, leaving it an empty shell full of old memories. It no longer possessed the same power it once held, but the one it contained now was perhaps (when not lamenting the loss of K-9) even better.

One look at the screwdriver, placed so carefully next the picture of smiling faces wrapped in a scarf, and she remembered.

She remembered first meeting him. She remembered the first time she saw the device in action. Her first trip in the TARDIS, her first trip to another time, her first trip to another world. She remembered times with UNIT and times without. She remembered Harry and she remembered the Brigadier and she remembered all those other faces that had entered her life because of him.

And, of course, whenever she looked at the device, she remembered the Doctor. He was her best friend. You can’t ever forget your best friend. But more than that, he was the man she gave her heart to. No one else would ever compare. That was the real reason why the tarnished and broken screwdriver would always remain where it was.

[Our Magic Place] Mun Prompt #21

Make your muse dance. Can they dance? What do they look like when they do? What kind of music would they most likely dance to? Who would they dance with?

Given the proper location, music, and partner, Sarah Jane would enjoy dancing. She wouldn’t be the most graceful or the most talented dancer on the floor – far from it, in fact – but she would be the one with the greatest amount of laughter in her features. Sarah would be the girl who would not care about following the proper rules of dancing: she would consistently step on the toes of her partner (half by accident, half on purpose), she would keep her eyes on her feet a lot, she would let hands wander, and more than anything, she would probably try to seize the lead away from her partner. Dancing for Sarah wouldn’t be about looking good in front of people, it would be about having fun and taking pleasure in her partner’s company.

With that in mind, the sort of music would really matter much to her. With Sarah Jane being a girl from the seventies, she probably grew up dancing to the pop of the sixties and whatever else was popular in her times. But as long as it’s a melody with some promise of fun, she probably wouldn’t complain. And if it is a familiar tune, well all the better then, right?

However, if this dance became highly formal or put Sarah in the spotlight, I think all of the above would not apply. Then, in this scenario, she would try to remain as serious and to the rules as possible. Given that, dancing in these conditions would not be Sarah’s first choice.

As for who she would dance with, that list would probably include just about anyone who asked. But (not that she would ever admit it), if she could pick anyone to dance with, it would be the Doctor.