Lesson Four

(Takes Place after Driving Lessons – Posted Separately)

The Doctor stood on the narrow edge of the console that wrapped around the piston chamber, balancing precariously as he reached over his head to snag one of the long bits of tubing hanging down from the ceiling. He managed to wrap his fingers around the tubing he needed, and gave it a solid tug, uncoiling several lengths of it from a bundle near the ceiling.

Bits of dust rained down on Rose, and she batted them away.

"You need to get a cleaning lady in," she mumbled.

"Not exactly the easiest place to hoover, you know."

Rose slouched down in the jumpseat, watching the Doctor's slow and balance-defying traverse of the piston chamber as he tried to reach the tubing he wanted. She was bored, pure and simple. He said these repairs needed to be completed before they landed anywhere, and he'd said that two days before. The last place they'd been was Shireen's wedding, and while it had been fun, it lacked the usual edge of adventure.

Rose bit at her thumbnail cuticles, glancing up at him again. He was on the other side of the chamber, his trainers on each side of the pistons, reaching high over his head.

"Do Time Lords get married?"

"What?" he sputtered, high pitched, then his foot slipped and he flailed to get his arms around the piston chamber. "Oh, bollocks."

Rose lunged off the jump seat. "Careful!" Panic popped his eyes open and his foot slipped again. In a flash of brown pinstripe, he fell backward and disappeared behind the console with a loud clatter, a strange beeping hiss from the control panel, and a loud grunt from the floor. "Doctor!"

He was sprawled out on the floor, arms and legs spread eagle, with the coiled tubing covering his face and chest. Rose pushed the tubing aside and leaned over him, her heart pounding. "Doctor?" She touched his cheek, but his eyes were closed. "Doctor!"

With a sharp intake of air, he jerked awake, immediately wincing and putting his hand behind his head. "Ow, that's going to leave a mark."

"Are you all right?"

He scowled at her and slowly sat up, hissing. "I'm fine." Rose tried to help him stand but he moved clear of her hands, grabbing the edge of the console to pull himself to his feet. The controls still beeped, and he threw several switches to make the sound stop. The TARDIS lurched slightly, then settled into hovering once again.

The Doctor kicked the tubing aside to pick up the sonic screwdriver that he'd dropped when he fell, then bundled the tubing up, moving past her to sit on the jumpseat.

"You sore at me?"

"No," he answered sharply, fishing his specs from his pocket before going to work on a tubing coupler.

"I just asked a question."

He dropped his hands into his lap, loops of the tubing scraping on the grated floor. "I'm trying to fix the mercury steam filter, Rose. If this gets clogged… BOOM! Not good. You don't want a TARDIS with a bad case of vapors."

"I was just making conversation. I was bored."

"You don't just..." He stuttered around his words, a sure sign that he was either exceptionally angry or exceptionally excited. " blurt something like that out, Rose. Not when I'm--" He motioned toward the piston chamber, leaving his explanation at that.

"You told me I could ask questions."

"You can ... just..."

He didn't finish the stipulations and went back to his repairs. Rose crossed to the jump seat and sat beside him, watching but saying nothing. She wanted to apologize for making him fall, but she was too annoyed at his reaction.

After a few minutes, he huffed and lowered the tubing again. "Fine. If you're going to be that way..."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it?" He looked at her over the top of his specs. "Did your mother teach you that? Sit there and stare until the victim of your glare crumbles and confesses?"

"I was just making conversation!" Rose declared again, and slouched deeper into the jump seat. "Sorry I brought it up at all."

"Well, you have now. Can't just leave it, can I?"

"Fine by me."

He snorted. Rose huffed, and chewed on her thumb cuticles. The only sound in the control room was the underlying hum of the engines and the occasional whistle of the sonic screwdriver. They needed to go somewhere and do something, or she might go bonkers. It was hard to believe that once upon a time, she'd go two weeks doing nothing but work-eat-sleep-work-eat-sleep... now, she couldn't go more than a couple days without an adventure.

"No," he said, breaking the silence. "Time Lords don't marry."

He didn't turn from his repairs, his attention intent on the clog in the tubing. Rose shifted, sitting up straighter as she folded her legs under her. She waited a few moments, not wanting to seem like she was pushing.

"Why not?"

"It served no purpose. Time Lords don't procreate. They don't require the companionship of a single individual, in theory." The last bit he more mumbled than spoke. "And they learned early on that regeneration could be a problem."

"Why's that?"

"Change. You marry one person, then you've got someone else."

"You changed." He finally looked up from the tubing, meeting her eyes over the rims of his specs. "It didn't matter."

The Doctor watched her for several moments, and she smiled. A small smile touched his lips and she scooted just a little closer, wanted to feel nearer to him. "Maybe not once," he added. "But, imagine marrying someone and having them change. You can accept that, but then you change. And then they change again. Back and forth thirteen times in the matter of a thousand or so years. By the end, you barely resemble who you started out as."

"Sounds sad. Did they used to marry?"

"In the beginning, yeah. They were just like everyone else on Gallifrey at first, just considered the advanced and somewhat elite. But, that was thousand and thousand and thousands of years ago. Generations ago."

His voice had become monotone, as if he were rattling off bits of his history lesson. If it were that long ago, she figured it probably was. Like her rattling off information on Queen Victoria, 'cept of course that she'd met Queen Victoria. She grinned a little at the memory.

"What about marrying someone that wasn't a Time Lord? Just a normal person? Just... some ordinary Gallifrey girl or boy?"

He tipped his chin, studying the tubing over the top of his specs, and she wondered just how much good they really did him. His expression was flat, almost blank, his voice even flatter. "What, and have a normal every day domestic life? Home for dinner every night, bedtime stories and bath time, tuck the kids into bed, go off to work at the Citadel every morning?"

"Yeah."

He swallowed and flipped on the sonic screwdriver. "Time Lords don't do domestic."

With a gurgle and a pop, the tubing cleared and the Doctor hurtled to his feet, climbing back onto the console. Before hefting himself up again, he looked back at her expectantly. Rose lifted her hand to her lips and turned an invisible key, then grinned. He smiled and climbed, but as she watched him, the weight in the air was nearly smothering.