the Doctor x reader blog

He held you. Everything that was were the two of you. You could breathe, you could find your feet again. You knew where you stood, and you didn't stand alone.

He held you. You saw him, you'd let him come closer than you had ever allowed anyone to be. The trust you had in him was bigger than you, and you were safe.

The awe of this place never left you. You felt the Doctor like cool raindrops on your skin, the mountain wind in your lungs. Something wild, rebellious, rushing, velvet to the touch. You were allowed to hold him.

You could have sung from the joy of looking at this person who meant the world to you.

He was different. Ten was a colossal storm, a swirling galaxy, so vast compared to you. Three was a giant too, but smaller. You could just see the beginnings, which branches of his personality would grow and what he would grow into. His underlying edge would sharpen, temper shorten, ego grow; kindness would spread out into a world of its own, permeating his every part...

You wanted to know him now. You needed to know him now. God, you could just glimpse where his thoughts wove themselves in the distance, where his memories compiled, where his dreams hid far, far away...

But you couldn't look that deeply. You didn't have his permission and there wasn't time for that. You had too much to do, too much to find out, too much you didn't know about the place you'd found yourself in.

A breath. Gentle and careful, you started to pull back, untangling your thoughts from his.

He loosened his hold on you in turn.

You had dropped your shields when you'd clung to him in your panic. Now was the time to put them back up, so you brought the firm layers forward one by one, shutting the Doctor out with a stab of regret.

You hoped you would come back to this place. You hoped you would be allowed to hold him like this again.

When you opened your eyes, you had a moment to appreciate just how beautiful this version of him was, in private and up close. (He wasn't Ten and you'd deal with that train of thought later. But.)

Another wave of awe crashed over you. He was the Doctor, new, teasing, breathtaking and you wanted to look forever. Inside and out. Trace the lines on his face, cup his cheeks, how did his lips feel? Was his white hair as soft as it looked? Just how deep was that blue in his eyes?

There was so much to discover it made you greedy. Your hands itched to reach out, hold, explore. You thought about the rest of his body for two seconds max and there was that familiar heat already. Just looking at him made your nerves spark.

It's you, it's you, it's you... How could you resist this?

Then his eyes opened too and he smiled softly.

It snapped you back into your body. Reminded you that you were exhausted like a wrung out cloth, dirty along with greasy hair, aching all over besides your throbbing temple, and a stranger to him.

Alive, you were alive.

You couldn't help but smile back.

When he pulled away, the Doctor let go of your cheek and your hand, leaving the cold behind. You felt a pang in your chest at the loss.

Still, what he'd given you was enough to go on.

"Thank you," you murmured from your beating human heart.

He shook his head with gentle eyes. "There's nothing to thank me for." His eyebrows pinched together just a little, but you didn't notice it when you looked down at your lap.

His new face was distracting and you had to get a hold of yourself if you wanted to carry a coherent conversation.

"I think there is," you quietly countered.

For a moment, you saw your stinging wrists wrapped in gauze. Tired, aching hands. Blood and dirt under your broken nails. They reminded you of what you were capable of, and your sore shoulders relaxed.

You raised your eyes again and began with a tentative smile, shrugging. "Where do we start?" Your hands leaned on the edge of the bed so your scabs smarted, but you were glad and brave and open.

You saw stubble, a glint in his eyes and his lapel had a muted red edge. You'd missed looking at him. There was so much you wanted.

The Doctor loved the sound of we when it meant the two of you. Cocking his head, he gave you a warm smile. "Well, perhaps you could tell me your name?"

Oh, that hurt.

But it was kind of ironic too.

When you told him, he repeated it to taste it in his mouth. There were so many questions left there. When did we meet? Where? How much sugar do you take in your tea? Do you even like tea?  Where did you grow up? What date is your birthday? Who the hell caused those bruises? May l hold you?

You let the way he said your name reverberate through your bones. You loved how it sounded in his voice.

Wait, does he know...? It wasn't like your marriage bond was a blinking ad sign, you had to be completely sure. "You-- You do know who l am to you, right?"

The Doctor grinned so wide it reached his dazzling eyes, and nodded. "I do."

That made you smile truly, you let out a relieved breath with a soft, "Okay."

Your curiousity woke. "How did you find out?"

"Ah..." His forefinger came to rub his jaw when he pressed his lips together, sheepish. "I accidentally brushed your hand when l came to see you. With that activation energy, our marriage bond was strong enough to circumvent all the temporal interference that stood in the way, and l knew," he shrugged.

Marriage bond. Our marriage bond. His awestruck joy lit him up like a sun. He wanted to cup your cheek again, but only his eyes stayed on you.

"Good," you nodded, certain. "I don't know what l would've done if l'd woken up in this..." Remembering you were in a room, you looked around despite your pulsing temple.

Curtain dividers on both your sides, around the edge you could just see neat beds parallel to yours, a writing desk with a chair by the wall... Was this a hospital?

"Where even are we?" You looked up at the Doctor again, eyebrows raised. "When are we?"

Your choice of words made him shake his head with a quirk of a smile. "These are UNIT headquarters, 1982, and--"

"UNIT." You grinned, incredulous. "I landed at UNIT of all places in the universe. Seriously, UNIT?!"

The room you saw was much more interesting now. You'd gone from a level 8 industrial planet to the 80's take on UNIT.

With all that looking around, you didn't notice the Doctor hadn't glanced away from you from the moment he'd pulled back. He knew this very much counted as staring and he didn't want to be found out.

It was just...

There was an expanse in your eyes, a vastness deeper than any sea and freer than any sky he'd ever seen. He didn't want to stop looking. He considered how to tell you, he thought of what he would give only to have the freedom to look at you. Just look at you for however long he wished.

Cocking his head, he managed a kind, "I'm as surprised as you are, my dear."

Your heart skipped a beat at the pet name. You knew this regeneration of him had spent most of his time in the 70's and 80's, mostly involuntarily, and you could see how their way of speaking had rubbed off on him. Proper British accent and everything. You couldn't wait to hear more.

"I mean..." You tried to focus back on the topic and amended with a slight smile, "It's as good a place as any, l'm just..."

A sigh escaped you as the situation fully sank in.

UNIT.

1982.

Paradox.

"I don't know how l got here." Eyes closed, you rubbed your face with your palm while careful of your scabs. "Didn't mean to," you mumbled and dragged your hand down your face, drained.

The Doctor frowned as he cocked his head, imploring you to go on.

Your hands swung out in an 'l don't know' gesture. "l was locked on the TARDIS, the future one, but l was so tired."

Looking down at your lap, you remembered the stitches on your smarting temple and laughed. "And bleeding. And, like, the command centre was on fire, so," you shrugged, shoulders protesting, "I probably didn't check the landing fix again, l just jumped."

The refinery switch boards had flamed so hot you'd feared your face would be burned.

"But after that..." Your brows furrowed when you tried to look at the hazy past.

A cracked helmet. Monstrous fire. Noise.

That's it.

"l don't even remember leaving, or materializing..."

"No?" The Doctor looked you over, inquisitive.

Your gaze was back on him when you shook your head. "No."

A corner of his mouth pulled up as he tucked his hand in his pocket. "That's odd, since you landed in my laboratory, recognized me, and only then passed out."

A smile overtook your face at that, wide and warm as your cheeks heated up. Well, of course l did.

"Makes sense to me," you shrugged. "l'd know you anywhere."

You didn't need a bond to recognize him. You'd spent weeks, months, years drawing closer to him and bringing him close to you. Years in which the two of you had made a home in each other, secret by secret, shame by shame. Your bond was just its door.

And that was the crux of it. He was your Doctor, but younger than you'd ever seen him, new and tantalizing, there for you to come to know him all over again. You wanted to look at him forever, to ask him a million questions, laugh with him, run with him, fight him, hold him, you wanted time.

You wanted to kiss every wrinkle on his face.

The Doctor felt how your look reached for him, open, content and impossibly soft. It made him falter because everything he was turned forward to run to you.

There was something he'd been starving for. It made him feel the air around him, inside him, it enveloped him like the walls of a home and he was understood.

More. Only more of this. Please. He'd just discovered that he could breathe.

Oh god, you were staring--You're a stranger, a familiar stranger, even if he knows about your bond!

You snapped out of the reverie, grasping for straws, "And-- And, my manipulator was broken too! So..."

You went on with an awkward smile, "It's not all my fault..."

The Doctor blinked a bit dazedly, nodding with a frown, "Right," but you realized that your salvation wasn't on your wrist.

"Wait... Um, where is it?" You looked yourself over, then focused on him, "Do you know...?"

You had subconsciously reached for your neck.

Empty neck.

"Key-- !" Your ears rang. Horror rose like bile in your throat.

"Doctor, they TOOK MY KEY!" Your eyes stung with tears, you'd lost it, you'd lost it no matter how hard you'd tried to hold onto it, your thread leading home was gone because you'd been careless--

"No, no-no-no, l have it!"

He hurriedly pulled your glinting key from his pocket to show it in his palm. "I have it, look!"

You snatched it from his hand, lightning-fast, and gripped it as tightly as you could because you needed the pain from the cut in your palm to believe it was really there.

Your eyes shut against the swell of tears. You clutched your necklace like a lifeline in a seastorm, taking measured breaths.

It had been a mess of an uprising, and you'd kept your key hidden. From that market place to the stale shafts, the cells, the bright and sterile meeting room and the command centre of hell, you had guarded it. Never spoken of it, but had checked again and again if it was still there, as if it would have vanished like a wonderful dream. Your key was home and promise and love and the mere thought of losing it made you sick.

He'd kept it safe.

Your stinging eyes opened. "Thank you." Your murmur was more fervent than you'd meant it to be. You were so thankful it almost hurt.

The Doctor shook his head with a crease in his brow, lost. His answer was a soft murmur, "Again, there's nothing to thank me for."

He couldn't understand why you'd be grateful for so little. Worry was born like a cobweb in the corner of his mind at your repeated thanks for his care.

You pressed your lips together, attention still on your clasped hands. "I'd beg to differ." A quiet opposition.

Your eyes were watery but you raised them to his. Strained, fierce, your voice betrayed your pain, "If they'd taken it, or if l'd left it there, l'd never forgi-- !"

"Where is 'there'?" the Doctor demanded as he stepped towards you. The sight of tears in your eyes had snapped something in him. "Where did you run from?"

He wanted to hold you in his arms, make sure that you were with him, safe and whole.

Your mouth opened, but you faltered.

Your blurry gaze dropped down to your aching hands again and you rubbed your eyes. "No. No, it's not important," you shook your head with vigor, "I'm not--"

You wouldn't drag that burning wreck into this blue day. Not now. Not yet.

It wasn't that you were sorry for it. It had hurt, sure. Volonel IV had pounded you with its fists and its loneliness. But when you turned your feelings over like cards on the table and looked at them before you, you just couldn't find regret there.

You knew you would've done it again. Differently, perhaps, but...

Those people had needed help, and anything was worth the way Sava's mechanical pupils had widened when she'd realized that there was hope.

You just knew him. The Doctor always took responsibility for what he did and often also for things that weren't his fault. He put his needs aside to help others and he always thought he should have done better. You didn't want to explain what had gone wrong, the complexity of it all, if he'd just blame himself on principle.

And his resentment of his other regenerations would come up one way or another. He'd met himself, just once since you'd started travelling with him, and it had taken the two of them exactly three minutes and a half to start verbally tearing each other to bits. You'd managed to stop them; but now your body weighed you down, your head throbbed and you thought you'd just cry if you had to counter him.

You would have to remember everything for that.

You couldn't do it now, not when the two of you were still at the start (and why did he leave me, why the hell did he have to wander off and leave me-- running, can't breathe, cold, the cuffs slice your wrists, they are BEATING you, please, l can't, please NO, stop, STOP, STOP--  rushing, smoke sears your throat, your eyes burn, get out, run NOW, you're going to die-- )

"Please," the Doctor pulled you out of it. Of course he did.

How rare it was for him to say that word.

When you looked up at his face again, his wrinkled frown and his sky-blue eyes made your chest tight. You'd managed to stop your tears from falling but your nose was full now.

It was all you could do to look back. Not budging, but not unmoved either.

He tapped his thigh with his knuckles. Something rolled in his face, stepped back but magnified.

He spoke in a murmur. "I-- l won't insist that you tell me," he nodded, "but l'd very much like to know who did this to you."

Who did this to you. You heard a familiar anger in his words, like magma under thin ground that was writhing for the surface to crack.

It was so much like him, it soothed you. You were tied to this place with that mooring line.

Looking down at the key in your hand, you turned it in your grip as you swallowed. "I got out of there, there's no point getting into it now." Ask me again later, and you'll have it. Soon.

His shoulders gave in. He sighed, then nodded. "Alright."

You didn't know how to read him yet, you tried to look for signs that he'd heard what you'd implied. You opened your mouth--

A throat clearing behind you, "l hate to interrupt--"

Your whole body flinched and your head whipped around to stare at the stranger. In the same half-second, the Doctor turned so he was in front of you, partially hiding you behind him.

Neither of you noticed.

~

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Warm.

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Soft.

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.

Good.

.

Don't want to leave.

.

Still tired. Falling.

.

A shift, dull pain at once. A sharp inhale, pleasant air. Inhaling again and soft sheets under your cheek.

Fingers, twitching, throbbing. Soft sheets. There weren't soft sheets there.

There. Dark-cold-pain-DANGER!

A gasp, aching all over but bolting upright and eyes flying open, searing white light, bracing for hurt.

"It's alright," a soft, calm voice assured you and something good came with it. "You're safe."

You were blinking with a hand rubbing your eyes, everything was blurry. Oh, your temple was throbbing in time with your heartbeat and you could feel every inch of your body ache as burning and tugging and dull pain mixed together in a pallete of oh shit that hurts but pleasant air! You were breathing very pleasant air with a hint of disinfectant, and then grey hair and crow's feet and a glossy black jacket gradually sharpened out before you.

You blinked again in disbelief, frowning a little, and were surprised to feel something like a smile tug at your lips. "You."

Your voice had barely been a whisper but the Doctor, the third Doctor was smiling so wide it reached his eyes. Crystal blue eyes like the sky. Very, very nice eyes.

"Yes, well..." he cocked his head with a careful smile as he rubbed his bottom lip. His rich, deep voice soothed something in you. "I imagine it must be quite a surprise.

"Doctor," his name tore out of you like a weight falling off your shoulders because The Doctor, here! but your voice sounded like gravel. Harsh, rough, achy gravel. Apparently your mouth was as dry as the sun, sticky and unpleasant, but the Doctor was now standing by the nightstand next to your bed, you were sitting on a bed! With white-clean-soft-perfect sheets under you, good!

Then he was by your side again, with a glass of water in his hand. "Here," he gave you a kind smile and you recognized curiosity in his eyes, but the tall glass full of water claimed your full attention.

There was blood and dirt still under your fingernails and the cold from the glass shocked the scratch on your palm but you managed to rasp, "Thank you,"  before tipping it back. That water tasted like liquid heaven, liquid heaven l tell you and the smooth feeling of it in your mouth, cooling your throat, washed everything away. All was quiet when you drank, all of creation was simply the polished glass in your hand and gorgeus water filling your mind.

And then there was no more water. Hm.

"Thank you," your voice was much better when you passed the thing back to the Doctor and he hummed as he set it back on the nightstand.

His eyes were warm when he turned to you, "You've already thanked me," and you blinked.

"Oh. Right." With a shadow of an embarassed smile, you looked behind him, looked around the room for the first time and- Foreign, foreign, fear rushing in like a tidal wave, swallowing you whole-

I don't know where l am, l don't know what year this is, everything hurts, there was so much blood, l escaped, l'm OUT, THE DOCTOR, here, paradox, what do l do, is he alright, where is he, l'm LOST l'm TIRED it HURTS WHAT IF THEY COME AFTER M-

Hush now, the soft whisper of the Doctor's soothing voice caressed your mind and you stilled, eyes falling shut. There was a cool, gentle hand cupping your cheek and you leaned into it with a sigh while your trembling palm came to press it firmer to you. Another hand carefully took hold of yours on the bed.

You are safe, he promised and you almost sobbed from the relief it brought, then his mind enveloped yours. I'm here. You aren't alone.

Doctor, you whimpered as breath left you along with tension, with fear, and you let him in without a second thought, holding onto him for dear life.

He was just about to finish aligning the fibre links when Dr. Richards walked in and abruptly pulled him from his thoughts, so his own, "Good morning," was a little dazed.

The man walking closer to your bed looked the Doctor over with inquisitive eyes like he didn't really know what to make of the Time Lord. He stopped at the foot of your bed and began quietly, "You know, when nurse Carter told me you snuck in to see our patient yesterday, l have to admit l was rather surprised."

The Doctor settled for an, "Oh?"

"Yes," the man raised his eyebrows, "And imagine my amazement when l learned that you also managed to calm her after a particularly nasty nightmare, then spent the night at her side."

The Doctor smiled innocently, "And why would that be amazing?"

Dr. Richards levelled him a look. "Don't play games with me, man. Yesterday you didn't even know if she is human, and now you're acting like you're her family?"

I am her family, a part of the Doctor snarled. But he had no right to say that, not yet. Not until you agreed with it.

Instead, he gathered his patience. "I know it's difficult to believe, but l assure you she knows me very well and we'll explain everything when she wakes up."

The man frowned in disbelief as he shifted his weight from leg to leg. "How? What exactly is your relationship with the patient?"

The Doctor sighed and tapped the manipulator with his thumb. "You wouldn't believe me if l told you," he answered matter-of-factly. "As you and nurse Carter well know I don't exist in your Central Records and neither does she, so l can't prove anything, but you can't disprove it either. All l ask is to be allowed to stay beside her."

Dr. Richards pressed his lips together as he measured the Doctor with his eyes. "You seem to forget this is an infimary. There are rules and I have a duty to enforce them."

Then he looked over your sleeping form and took a deep breath. "But luckily for you, the night nurse can confirm at least the basic trust the girl has in you. And seeing her injuries and the state she was in when she woke up, she needs all the friends she can get." His sharp gaze focused back on the Doctor, "Because of that and that alone l'll allow you to stay in her room."

"Thank you." The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief. A smile tugged at his lips, it was good to know he wouldn't have to cause a skirmish by refusing to leave you.

Then he remembered something. "When we last spoke, you mentioned her blood test results would come back..."

"Oh yes, yes, they have," Dr. Richards nodded. "She has an iron deficiency, but that was to be expected with her malnourishment." Then his gaze shifted to you as he frowned, "The strange thing is, they found her trombocites are nothing like any human trombocites they've ever seen, and they couldn't determine if she is Rh positive or negative."

He turned back to the Doctor, eyebrows raised, "Do you have any idea why?"

"No. No, not really," the Doctor smiled, then murmured, "Interesting," to himself as he fiddled with the manipulator's straps.

Dr. Richards' eyes followed his hands. "Somehow l don't think she'd appreciate you tampering with that," he nodded at the device.

A defiant smile appeared on the Doctor's lips. "Well, l thought l better fix it, seeing as l'm the only person on this little planet of yours who can." And Dr. Richards had better not ask about your key. If the man wanted it back, he could fight the Doctor for it.

"Right." Doctor Richards looked between the pair of you, beginning the slow process of leaving. He had apparently reached his limit for nonsense for that day. "Well, either nurse Carter or l will be over to check on her bandages every five hours or so. Can't be too careful."

Then his eyes stopped on the Doctor's jacket and he cocked his head. "In the meantime, l suggest you do something about that stain on your shoulder."

The Doctor's head whipped around to look at the dried patch of your blood. Oh. How could he have forgotten?!

"Ah, and a friendly warning," Dr. Richards remembered just as he started to walk away. "I heard the Brigadier's becoming rather impatient about the lack of information he's receaved from you. If you want to avoid another lecture, l suggest you have a word with him about all this."

"Thank you."

Dr. Richards nodded and headed for the door.

The Doctor sighed. It seemed he would have to leave your side again, at least for a little while.

Standing up, he slowly gathered the vortex manipulator, its parts and his tools in his pockets. He'd make his report to the Brigadier as informative and brief as he could. Luckily, no one would be able to come hound him afterwards, it wasn't like they could come in and have a spat with him over your hospital bed.

The Doctor awoke with a muted cry, gasping for breath, and heard something metal fall to the floor. He desparately looked around, wide-eyed and disoriented, as he clung to his seat with trembling hands but when he caught a sight of you, everything stopped.

It hadn't been his nightmare.

You were trashing in the bed, head turning left and right while you clutched the tangled sheets in your grip. "No-" you muttered under your breath, "st'p-" Your sleeping face contorted in pain and your hair was everywhere, "st'p-"

The Doctor was on his feet in a flash and his hand took hold of yours. "It's alright-" he began softly but felt your dread reach his mind like an awesome wave crashing onto the shore.

A whimper escaped you and you cried, "No!" in full voice. You were writhing, lost in whatever hell you had gone through.

The Doctor recovered and reached for you, telling you, "Wake up, sweet girl," but you just sobbed, "Please-" as your voice broke and gasped for breath. A tear slid across your temple as your head turned and he took hold of your shoulder, shaking you, "Wake up, wake-"

"No," you whimpered again before your body spasmed and a scream tore out of you, "no, STOP!"  You surged up from the bed in mindless terror, but the Doctor was right there. His palm was cupping your cheek and you stopped just enough for him to murmur, "You're safe,"  as he held your sleep-clouded eyes with his. "lt's me, it's the Doctor."

Your shoulders sagged and you leaned into his touch as tension leeked out of you at once. You had recognized him, despite the half-conscious chaos of your mind and he silently thanked the stars.

While his other hand came up to rub your arm, he felt a slight, clumsy brush through your bond. "Doct'r?" your lips moved in barely a whisper, you were still afraid as you peered at him with half-lidded eyes.

He smiled and reached out in a gentle reply while his thumb caressed your cheek. "Yes," he murmured to you close, "It's me. I have you."

That was all it took. Your eyes fell shut again with a sigh and you pressed yourself to his chest while your exhausted mind slipped back into sleep. The Doctor held you against him for a moment, eyes closed, then gradually eased you back down onto the bed and pulled the covers over you. When he brushed the strands of your hair from your sleeping face, he let the tender touch of his fingers linger.

After caressing your mind for the last time, he pulled away and noticed the metal parts he'd let fall to the floor when he awoke. Bending down, he started gathering them on your locker but heard someone clear their throat behind him.

He whipped around as he stood up and recognized nurse Carter standing by the curtain.

Oh. Heat rose in his cheeks.

Somehow she didn't look scandalised, her eyes were kinder than they'd been before and she peered at him with catious curiosity. "She does know you," was all she murmured.

He nodded for lack of a better thing to do. "I'm glad we've established that now."

Pressing her lips together, she offered him a conceding nod, "I'll see you in the morning then." As she turned around to leave, he could swear she almost smiled.

Considering the length of his lifespan, there was very little chance you were just a few odd years from his future. He didn't know what you thought of his other selves, if you'd ever even met any, and he didn't know how you would react to meeting this version of him. His companions certainly needed adjustment periods and with the horror you had gone through... Who knew?

In the end, his thoughts didn't really matter. Whatever happened, you would have anything you wanted from him.

Anything.

A shadow of disbelief still clung to him, because How is this possible? In all of space and time, who am l to be so lucky?

The Doctor wasn't a fool, he was very much aware how irritable, rude and self-centered he could be, never mind his stubborness and penchant for trouble. He knew he had people who loved him, but never like that. He was a teacher and a friend, but no one ever chose to stay, to really stay, to share their life with him. He hoped he would have as much time as possible with every companion, but they always seemed to return to a life that didn't really include him, they always found someone else. And that was fine, he didn't expect them to revolve their lives around him or to give up a part of themselves for him, it was just... ln seven hundred and fifty-four years, he'd come to terms with the fact that everyone always left.

And then you had come like a bolt from the blue. He knew he would have to forget you when you returned to future him or there would be a paradox, but he immediately bat the thought away like a bothersome fly. Now, for now, for the glorious present, he got to have you.

He couldn't wait to hear your voice. He couldn't wait to know you. He couldn't wait to find out what it was like to live by your side.

Nurse Ada Carter, if he remembered correctly from the few times a mission had landed anyone on the Brigadier's personal team in the sick bay, was a sturdy woman in her fifties with a pointy nose, round jaw and many averted deaths under her belt.

"You know very well that the infirmary is out of bounds outside of visiting hours," she sternly reminded him, "unless you are a family member and have a permission from the Brigadier. Would you mind explaining what you were doing in there?" She cocked her head with her lips pressed into a thin line, making the wrinkles around her mouth stand out.

"Er, well," the Doctor offered a tight-lipped smile as he rubbed his neck, "earlier today my friend Miss Smith told Doctor Richards that we don't know anything about your patient, but that isn't true. l'm her primary contact and l can assure you she'll confirm it when she wakes up. I intend to stay with her until she does, l'm just fetching her things." There, he'd managed to squeeze your incredible relationship into three sentences without mentioning he didn't even know your name.

He didn't know your name. The thought pierced him like a dagger and his breath hitched as he braced the ache.

"Well, that is hard to believe," the Doctor forced his mind to focus on the nurse's smooth voice again, "but if you are her family, there are quite a few things to go over first; her name, birth date and home address for a sta-"

"Look, madam," the Doctor really didn't have the patience for this, "neither of us exists in your Central Intelligence Records, so you couldn't check what l'd tell you even if you wanted to, and l can't prove it either. I can't explain how or why right now, but l care about her a great deal and I don't want her to be alone. She's been through a lot and l'd like to stay with her until she wakes up, will you please let me?"

He needed to see Sarah and get back to you as soon as possible. He'd just found you, he'd just found you and every second he had to be away from you stretched into prickling infinity.

Nurse Carter gave him another one of her piercing stares that pinned him to the spot. After a moment or two of examining him, she finally sighed, "Alright. You can stay with her tonight, and tommorow you can sort this out with Doctor Richards."

A relieved breath left the Doctor as he smiled gratefully. "Thank you." They couldn't stop him from staying even if they tried, but he would prefer to not cause a ruckus before you even woke up.

"I just need to speak with my friend," he gestured toward the door, "l've left her waiting for far too long."

Nurse Carter nodded, not exactly thrilled with him, and the Doctor happily slipped away.

~

"There you are." Sarah-Jane was just about to go looking for that tall idiot of a Time Lord when he finally stepped through the damn door. But at the dreamy look on the Doctor's face, her frustration turned into curiousity.

There was an absentminded smile on his lips and his shoulders were slack like the weight he'd been bracing against had been lifted. His quiet joy radiated from him in an overwhelming wave, it lit up the drab hallway and made her want to smile too like it was a holiday. His delight was impossible to escape and there was a kind of wonder too, as if he couldn't quite believe it himself. His spirit was soaring somewhere high and free.

Sarah remembered the way you had smiled at the Doctor before you collapsed, with bliss so similar it made her think. She knew you couldn't have woken up that quickly, so how could he have...

"What happened?" she murmured, feeling softer in the face of the Doctor's relief, and he blinked.

"Sorry?"

"You look..." She cocked her head and simply peered at him for a moment, then settled on, "different." She couldn't explain it, really, couldn't name that power that set his face alight, he was just... He looked more content than she'd ever seen him, settled, like he'd stopped holding his breath.

"Do l?" he murmured as a smirk curved his lips. He looked quite pleased with himself when he nodded, "Yes, I suppose l do."

Sarah's eyes narrowed as she stepped towards him. "What happened? What did you find out?"

The Doctor inhaled, "Well, now l know for certain that l do know our mystery guest and that she's from my future, but I think it'd be better to wait with the rest of it."

She opened her mouth to object but he quickly went on, "l'm not sure of quite a few details myself, my dear, and l'm afraid l'd only confuse you if l tried to explain everything now. We'll both have to wait until she wakes up."

She examined him carefully and tried to put the puzzle together despite the missing pieces. "She's important," she murmured, more to herself than anyone else.

The Doctor nodded anyway. "She is."

After a few moments, Sarah decided pushing him wasn't worth it. There was no reason to think he wasn't telling the truth and he would have to explain eventually. "Alright," she nodded. "Will you be staying then?"

"Er, yes, but could l ask a favour of you?"

She cocked her head and he went on, "Could you tell the Brigadier about her injuries? I know you were probably about to head home, but if you could stop by..."

Sarah took a deep breath and shrugged, "I suppose."

"Good. Thank you, my dear," the Doctor smiled brightly and she nodded in turn.

Then a small laugh escaped her, "Well, this day certainly did not go as l expected," and she shook her head, "There's never a dull moment with you."

"True," he admitted as he rubbed his neck, "but this time l'm positively sure l had nothing to do with it." Then his eyes turned distant and dim and he looked away. "Not yet, at least."

Sarah chuckled, not even trying to understand. "Good night then, Doctor, and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night," he nodded with a half-smile and Sarah headed down the hall.