"The Lady Serenadellatrovella"
This runs amok with the second Doctor and Serenadellatrovella from the book WORLD GAME by Terrance Dicks. Why? Because I wanted to get the Second Doctor alone with a companion. For those not in the know (which would include me up until recently) this book takes place right after the Second Doctor has been convicted of interfering in other worlds' affairs. He is sentenced to death... until the Time Lords realize they need him for something.
This story starts at a later point, however.
Romana sat with her back to a huge oak. She was getting bored with staring at the Doctor who was slumped opposite her. He was hiding under his hat, pretending to sleep, no doubt. With a little smile, she leaned forward and began to tug on the scarf that was wound around his neck.
"Romana," he grumbled. "Behave. Let me nap." And with a deft snap of his wrist, he managed to retrieve the scarf without looking up. With awkward movements, he stood then. He seemed unsteady as he walked away from her.
"You weren't trying to sleep," she said, looking at his ashen face and the way he pinched at his eyes. "You were..."
"It's nothing, Romana. Being here... just doesn't appeal to me, I suppose. Rome was fine. But Belgium? Coming out to the countryside..."
"It was your idea to come here."
"I forgot," he seethed. "That was very, very wrong of me. To forget so well. If I don't remember..."
So much is still scrambled with this regeneration's memories," he thought. Or was it that I had worked that hard to forget.
The trial. The aftermath. How long ago was that? Three hundred years? Four hundred? It doesn't matter how long, he told himself. It shouldn't matter how long.
He stood there as if stunned while she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her head to his chest. She had learned the value of such physicality from him. It was restorative. It was hope. It was what you had when even hope was lost. And it was what he needed now, she guessed.
In those days right after my trial, I was not, perhaps, in the best frame of mind. Certainly, I was not on my best behavior.
That young Time Lady assigned to me had actually been just a bit older than me. But no wiser. I always used to tease her about that. Older, certainly, no wiser.
"Oh, Serena," Romana thought she heard him say. "I'm sorry."
She tightened her grip on him and echoed his thoughts. "I'm sorry," Romana said. "I'm so sorry." She had no idea what was the matter. Just that something most assuredly was.
...&&&...
author's note: Yes, yes. Very short. I know. More to come!