An Inconvenient Truth

Geez, his head hurt.

No, that wasn't right. It was more than that. His head was imploding, fireworks going off behind his eyes, base drums thumping throughout his cranium.

Something was brushing his face lightly, his bangs rushing up above his forehead every few seconds as an acrid smell washed over him.

Opening his eyes slowly, he stared deep into the huge black orbs of something that in his current, semi-conscious state seemed a little alien, extraterrestrial, out of this world.

"MOOOO!!!"

Scooting back on his elbows away from the cow now attempting to lick his face, he heard a cackle of laughter and a voice calling his name.

"Doctor! What are you doing?" a young, pretty blond called from across the field. Her laughs began to get louder and higher pitched as she walked forward and saw him lying in the snow, covered in grass and mud, and looking very confused.

"You're smirking!" he said loudly, disbelief evident in his voice. "You had something to do with this, didn't you Rose?"

She just laughed even harder.

"No. For once this is your own fault."

Rose began to try and lift him, but he resisted and became a dead weight in her arms. She held him on his feet as he whimpered and pressed his hands tenderly to his aching skull.

"What do you remember?" she asked as they attempted to move out of the field, back to the main road.

"Not a lot." It hurt his head just to think. "We were… having Christmas dinner at your place, roast chicken, and then your mum kept trying to top up my glass -"

"- and she succeeded, too."

"And then, I can't remember too much."

They were almost back at the Tardis now, and there was a pause as both concentrated on getting up the steep hill.

"Hang on; was it something to do with hippos? And a dog, there was a dog in there somewhere, wasn't there? That stray, the one that slobbers over everything."

There was a rapidly failing attempt from Rose to stop herself giggling. Then a fleeting memory revealed itself to him and everything came flooding back, bit by painfully agonising bit.

"Oh God, I kissed the dog didn't I?"

The Doctor flew behind the nearby bushes, leaned over and was violently sick at the thought of throttling a stray dog and sticking his tongue down its slobbering neck.

Straightening up, he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and threw at look of disgust in Rose's direction.

"Now do you know why I hate Christmas?"

xxxxxx

A/N: Thanks for reading – please review. Merry Christmas.