Three

Touch Screen

I stab my fork into my chicken, silently grinning as the juicy taste erupts in my tastebuds. The dinner I made tonight actually turned out really nice.

I'm still waiting to see if the Doctor likes it, though. Still think he's lying when he said he's never tried chicken before.

"You're, what, nine hundred years old?" I had asked. "How can you have not tried Earth chicken before?"

He'd shrugged. "Never took the time to."

"Rubbish!"

That conversation took up most of dinner, though now we were just eating in silence. The Tardis groaned and wheezed every now and then, but after a week being onboard I'm kinda used to it now.

"So," I say casually. "What do you think of twenty-first century Earth?"

I expect to have to wait for him to finish his mouthful, but I guess they don't have that rule where he's from, because he just started talking anyway.

"Not bad. You humans have come a long way by this point," He replies. "Took you long enough to invent decent technology, though."

I pretend to be offended, taking my phone out of my pocket. "So basically you're calling this amazing piece of technology rubbish."

"What? No!" He replies. "I just-"

"Have you ever even used an iPhone before?" I ask.

He takes another bite, still looking confused. "What's that?"

"Nine hundred years old and yet the last Time Lord in existence hasn't heard of a freaking iPhone?"

"Yeah?"

"Probably the best piece of machinery humans have made so far."

"Always found them..confusing," the Doctor admits. "Don't remember if Rose had one or not, but I still don't understand how they work or anything."

"Do you want to learn how?"

The Doctor nods. "Guess so."

"Right then!" I say, pressing the home button. I smile as my lock screen wallpaper flashes up; the Doctor isn't as amused.

"Why do you have a photo of a raccoon?" He asks.

"Because it's cute."

"Hmm. Alright, what now?"

"Well, if you're smart - such as myself - you put a password on it to stop snoopers from getting in,"

I slide my finger to the right and present the Doctor with a keypad of numbers. Tapping on the numbers I need, the keypad disappears and my home screen replaces it, the picture behind it confusing the Doctor even further, but I choose to ignore it.

"So now you've got all these little squares on the screen. These are called apps," I explain, "and each one has a different purpose. Like that one with the yellow notepad paper is different to the ones with the yellow bird."

The Doctor puts down his fork and slides the screen across to the second page. "What are all these ones?"

I look over. "They're games."

"Including the folder that says 'keep the hell out'?"

"Yeah. Totally."

"Okay. How do I make a phone call?"

"You press the little green box with the phone symbol."

He taps on it and it takes him to my recent calls list. "Why is it empty?"

"Because I've got no one worth calling," I tell him honestly. "Have you at least heard of email?"

"Yes; I haven't been living under a total rock, you know."

"Good. I'd be really sad if you didn't. Text messages?"

"Yes."

"The App Store?"

"Yes."

"Flappy Bird?"

"What?"

I laugh. "Never mind."

The Doctor slowly nods and pulls the phone towards him. "Okay. Well, thank you for that. You don't mind if..?"

"You look at it? Nah, not at all," I reply, taking another bite. "Go ahead, sunshine."

Forgetting all about his chicken, the Doctor leaps up with my phone and sprints out of the dining room, leaving me to finish eating on my own. I sit there, waiting patiently for him to come back, but he doesn't.

I wash up my plate and reheat his meal, but he hasn't come back.

I eat a bowl of ice cream and wash that up as well, but he still hasn't showed up.

Groaning, I reheat his meal one more time and leave the room, heading to have a long, warm shower in my bathroom. The tiled floor is smooth beneath my feet, but thankfully isn't cold. Gotta find out how this Tardis can put heaters in the floor.

Turning the hot water knob, I tilt my head back and take in the steamy air, the water cascading through my hair and down my back. It would've been perfect if the Doctor hadn't taken my phone. I was looking forward to having a Fall Out Boy concert tonight.

"No matter," I mutter, rinsing the shampoo out. "I'll live with this instead."

I take a deep breath and begin to belt out lyrics, all while dancing and washing my hair at the same time.

The door of the bathroom opens and I scream out of fright, accidentally letting the conditioner run down my face and into my eyes. Through the steamy glass of the shower door I can make out the Doctor's features, clearly unnerved by the fact that he's just invaded my privacy.

I swear at him and stick my head out of the door. "Oi, mate! Get out!"

He's holding my phone and is still unaffected by anything about the current situation. Pressing something on the screen, he doesn't look up as he says, "So this thing's told me that you're good at English, you hate avocados - and who the hell is this boy 'Isaac'?"

I reach out to grab my towel and wrap it around myself. "Get off my damn phone."

The Doctor moves back through the door, but not before asking, "Sorry, is this a girl thing? I don't remem-"

I cut him off by sprinting towards him, prompting him to run out of the room and back to my room. Forget about being decent and polite; I end up hollering and swearing at this man while chasing him down the Tardis hallways.

"I leave you with my phone for, what, two hours and THAT'S what you decide to look at? Dude, that's personal stuff you're lookin' at! That'd be like me deciding to go and research all about aliens discover what your weaknesses are!"

He skids to a halt and glares at me, folding his arms. "What'd you call me?"

"Alien," I spit, tightening the towel. "It's a human wor-"

"I am perfectly aware of where the word came from and I don't appreciate being called that," The Doctor snaps angrily.

"Well what else do you want me to call yous?" I retort. "There isn't any other word besides 'alien'!"

"Look, why are even talking about this?" He asks, annoyed.

"We wouldn't be if you hadn't decided to snoop through my phone!"

"But you said I could look-"

"I didn't mean that you could go through my private life and read about all of the horrible things I've done!"

"Listen to me," the Doctor says, but I cut him off again.

"Give me a reason why I should! You have no right to-"

"You entrusted me with your phone and therefore gave me full access to everything that's on i-"

"Shut it!"

"Fine! I wanted to get to know more about you!" The Doctor shouts, startling me. I walk closer to him and go for my phone, but he puts it away. "You've been so damn quiet since I met you and I just wanted to have one companion who I knew what could break them so that I could try to make sure that it didn't happ-"

My eyes water slightly as I interrupt. "Well you didn't have to go to all that trouble to find out. You could've just asked and I would've told ya."

I grab my phone out from his pocket and walk back to the shower, turning up the volume and pressing shuffle, the first song ending up being 'Chasing Cars'. The hauntingly depressing beats echo in my ears as I rinse what was left of my conditioner away, the lyrics breaking my heart as I sing.

I hear a knocking on the door. Ignoring it I let the playlist roll over to the next song, 'Welcome to My Life.'

The Doctor continues. "Dakota, listen-"

That's it. I bang against the glass of the shower and almost scream out the chorus.

After my meltdown, I turn off the shower, hurriedly dry myself off and throw on my clothes, opening the door a few minutes later to find the Doctor sitting on the edge of my bed, his eyes slightly red.

"Look, Dakota, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it. It was such an invasion of privacy and well; I've hardly known you for more than a few days."

He takes a breath and rubs his eyes again. "I guess I've missed having someone around. Someone who I could get to know from the very beginning. Loved Rose to pieces, but I already knew almost everything about her. And I miss her so much, Dakota, I miss-"

I walk over and wrap my arms around him as he finally lets go, watching him sob uncontrollably. It feels weird watching a grown man cry, but at least that shows he's got some humanity in him.

We sit for a while as I wait for him to calm down, but it doesn't look as though he can repress it long enough to get any words out. The more he cries, the broken I can tell he is. How much he's suffered. How lonely he is.

Finally, his breathing steadies and he looks up.

"It's been so long since I could m-muck around and enjoy having someone w-with me," he whispers. "All I wanted to learn from that phone was what you enjoyed doing. C-Could've surprised you on your birthday or something. But it doesn't matter anymore. You'll already know what's coming before it happens."

I sit next to him, my arm still wrapped around his shoulders. "..you know, I had a feeling when we met that you were burdened with something. The constant smiling, the willingness to talk to a total stranger; I know all the signs, Doctor. Just admit it; you're broken."

He remains in silence, tears leaking from his eyes.