"So what about Tegan, then?"
"What? Who?" The Doctor was crouched underneath the TARDIS console, tinkering, and Ace's voice was an unexpected--and, due to the nature of her question, unwelcome--interruption. He craned his neck to glare at her, at the smug grin on her face and the combative stance of her body. "Is it really necessary for you to ambush me?" The best defense was a good offense, so the saying went. Maybe it would work.
Maybe not. "I didn't much like the way she left," was all the elaboration Ace was willing to offer.
"I didn't much like the way she left, either," the Doctor muttered as he resignedly pulled himself to his feet, leaving the tools scattered beneath the console, wires dangling, panels open. But he knew Ace in this mood; she would be implacable, relentless, dogging him endlessly until he answered her question, vague though it was.
Vague in wording, but specific in nature; he knew exactly what she was asking, and worse, she knew that he knew. After all, it had only been a few weeks since she'd asked him basically the same question about Sarah Jane Smith.
He'd brought this all on himself, of course, by doing the worst possible thing he could have done: he'd answered her question truthfully and in detail (but not certain details, of course; he considered himself a gentleman).
Of course, there'd been no reason not to tell the truth, no reason except this one, that Ace wasn't one to let things lie. Obviously she'd concluded that if there was something to tell about one past companion, there must be something to tell about the others…at least, certain others. Personal information, and he'd practically invited her to invade his privacy by telling her what she wanted to know the first time.
"Dog with a bone," he muttered under his breath, but Ace, sharp-eared brat that she was, heard him and grinned.
"That's me," she agreed cheerfully. "So why don't you just skip the protests and feel free to unburden yourself." She seemed inordinately proud of having properly used that phrase.
"My relationship with Tegan was rather complicated, young lady," the Doctor said reluctantly. "Can't we just leave it at that?"
Ace stared at him. "Course not, 'specially after you put it that way. Spill!"
"Tegan left because things had become a bit much for her to bear," the Doctor protested, but weakly. He considered doing a bunko into the TARDIS interior for a few weeks, but knew Ace would track him down eventually. Besides, the console was half taken apart; he couldn't leave it in that state long enough for Ace to give up her quest for details of his personal life. "Look, Ace, I don't want you to get the impression that I was sleeping with all of my former companions..."
Ace's horrified expression stopped him there. "Ew, professor, I don't half expect that! Never took you for one who fancied boys! Don't worry, I don't have questions about Jamie or Adric or Turlough." A wicked glint shone in her eyes. "Unless I'm wrong?"
"No, you are not wrong!" The Doctor exclaimed indignantly. He tugged at his sweater in what might be taken for a nervous motion. "I do not 'fancy' boys, certainly not in the way you're implying. But you're showing a knack for picking out the companions I did sleep with!"
Ace's delighted laugh stopped him short, and he stared at her in chagrin. "So that's your strategy, is it?" he asked sourly. "Get my dander up so I forget to censor my tongue?" He wagged an admonitory finger at her. "That tactic won't work again, I can assure you of that!"
"That's OK, I think I've figured most of them out," was the cheeky response. "Romana's a definite, and Leela seems a likely candidate. Peri for sure," she added. "But I'm not a hundred percent certain about Mel. Nor Jo; she seems a bit youngish for the you you were then. And he definitely seemed a bit too much of a gentleman to allow such goings on."
"Really, Ace, this is too much!" the Doctor blustered, but she could see he was rattled by her analysis of his past relationships. A shot in the dark, most of them, but she was pleased by his reaction; some of them must be hits.
"Then we'll just take them one at a time," she said. "Don't worry, Professor, I'm not looking to add myself to the list; I don't think we're each other's types. You're more a black sheep uncle than would-be boyfriend, at least that's how I feel."
The Doctor sank weekly to his haunches, back supported by the TARDIS console as he stared up at her. "Really, young lady, sometimes I question your upbringing!"
"Which you are getting to be at least half-responsible for," she pointed out blithely. "Me mum gave up on it as a bad job years ago, and I'm still a teenager. So, spill! You and Tegan were lovers, and things went sour, just like with Sarah Jane."
"Not quite the same," the Doctor corrected her absently. His eyes had gotten that abstracted look she recognized from when he was focusing on his own past, and she sat cross-legged next to him on the Console Room floor. Waiting. The protests were over with, he was ready to talk, and she was more than ready to listen.
"It was after the Mara, when it took her over the first time and tried to use her to bring itself into existence," he began, his voice softening at the memory. "It shook her dreadfully; even Nyssa couldn't comfort her, help her get past it and get back to being her old self, and Adric didn't even seem to understand why it bothered her at all."
"But you noticed, right?" Ace asked, as eager as a child hearing a brand new bedtime story.
The Doctor nodded. "Oh yes, I noticed," he said sadly. "But she wasn't exactly asking me for help. It took Nyssa to do that. She asked me to do something, anything to get Tegan back to normal. That's when it all started..."