Rumours

Am in a huge Ian/Barbara mood at the moment, because they are both wonderful.

I don't own Doctor Who, if I did, you'd know

Susan watched Barbara slide nervously out of the console room after Ian. She couldn't blame her. The air in the room could have been cut with a knife. An argument between Ian and the Doctor about their latest adventure had very quickly gotten out of hand.

Susan surreptitiously exited the room as well, leaving her grandfather to harrumph over something and grasp his lapels, and moved through the corridors to her own room. As she turned onto the corridor where Ian's room was, she could hear snatches over conversation and simply couldn't resist stopping to listen.

"I've told you Ian, you can't blame yourself! If you hadn't done it, none of us would have gotten out alive! The Doctor, Susan and me, we all owe you our lives!" Barbara's voice was rising steadily. Susan knew the tone; it was one that provoked no argument so she was not surprised when Ian argued back.

"But having to hurt someone so badly! Barbara, you don't know what it feels like to have to do that!"
There were two loud thuds. It sounded as though Barbara had kicked her shoes off in frustration, and a loud squeak sounded as though she was now sitting on the bed.

"I know it's hard," her voice was saying, "but....." Susan couldn't quite make out the next bit.

"I'm just lucky I've got you to keep me from going off the deep end," she heard Ian telling her.

Trying to keep a huge smile from spreading across her face, Susan ran the last few corridors, not stopping until the door of her own spectacularly messy room had slammed shut behind her.

Their time in the TARDIS confirmed what everyone suspected at Coal Hill School, including herself. The girls in her class had told her ever since she arrived in September about the very deep relationship between Miss Wright and Mr Chesterton. The pair of them appeared to be very good friends, and had been since the day that they both arrived nearly three years before Susan had. And it wasn't just the students who suspected it. Many of the teachers did as well. Susan often amused herself thinking about what they would think, particularly her fat, gossipy English teacher, when both Ian and Barbara didn't turn up for work the next day, especially when many of them already knew he was giving her a lift home that night when their adventure began.

Once the two teachers had become a part of the Ship's crew, if anything their relationship had deepened. Even the little touches, like hand in hand for moral support, meant something. Even Susan could see that.

She only hoped that when they left the TARDIS (and she didn't want to think about that) they left together. Now, after so much time together, she just couldn't see them apart.