A/N: No warnings. Thank you, folks, for reading and reviewing. It is much appreciated.

It took me a while to decide how something like this would play out with someone like the Doctor (which is why I write him, he is so 'out there'). Do let me know what you think.

Sarah stood half in the TARDIS and half out, her eyes clearly scanning the green house. "What are you looking for?" the Doctor asked, his hand on the controls.

"Fred and Ginger," she admitted.

"You know we can't take them with us. I'll get the other K-9 unit out of storage. Will that cheer you up?"

"It would feel disloyal. You haven't fixed mine yet." She sighed and gave up. Pulled herself through the door as if weary. Then watching him bent over the console, she found she could not help but smile. She adored him, she realized. Even at his most distracted.

She was hopeless, she decided.

///

He hovered over the controls for less than a minute. Gave them one last pat and then he backed away, watching those things he had set in motion.

"Where are we going?" she asked him.

"No where." He smiled to see she looked plainly confused. "Are we too old to go 'parking,'" he then asked. He marched over smartly, a smug smile twitching on his lips. Once he had latched onto her hand, he pulled her through the interior door.

"Okay, the TARDIS is going nowhere," she said, after patiently touring three corridors in silence. "Where are we going?"

"Clothing storage. I need a hat," he said, as if it should be obvious.

///

She walked the space, running her hands over the racks of odd clothing. Then she wandered over to examine the enormous wooden wardrobe that stood in the middle of the room.

He continued to test the hats he pulled from a trunk on the floor. Flipping them. Creasing the brims. Inspecting their bands. They all looked the same to her. How hard could this be, she wondered. Placing one on his head, he looked into the mirror. He saw Sarah in the glass then, watching him from inside the wardrobe.

"What are you doing in there?" he asked, as he walked over to her. She had earned that puzzled 'bird look' from him again and for some perverse reason that pleased her.

"Come on in," she said, mysteriously as she disappeared further in.

"It's not like the one in 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,' if that is what you are thinking."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure," he heard her say. A hand reached out to grab hold of his lapel and she then backed up, drawing him in.

He stepped over the edge and pushed the hanging clothing aside to find her.

"Sarah?" he asked, as he reached for her.

"It's all in here," she said, as she wrapped her arms around him. "All of you. It's like having all of you." She kissed him hard and then lingered against his mouth. She loved that she could sense him tremble, that both of them could get lost in the sensations from a simple kiss.

She nuzzled at his neck and then watched as his eyes fell closed and his face went soft and sweet. Impulsively, she reached over his shoulder and pulled a cloak with a velvet collar from the hanger. As she leaned in, she disguised her actions with small kisses. He opened his eyes in time to see her smile grow wider, just as she settled the cloak around his shoulders. She laughed as she saw its satin lining made it want to slide from him.

"The fellow who wore this..." she said, as she tied it in place.

"Yes," he said, with mock impatience. "Was a good deal taller and would not have put up with this tomfoolery, young lady."

"Did you know then? How ... fond I was of you?"

"Oh, my girl," he said, seeming to lose his place in time. And he smiled at her patiently and wrapped his arms about her tighter. "I knew you cared more than you should. Which is exactly how I felt. But you were so young. I told myself it was only a crush. That I was a father figure to you, as alone as you were in the world." He caressed her cheek. "Now," he said, clearing his throat. "Get this foppish thing off me."

She sighed as if disappointed and did as he asked. "What else is in here," she wondered, as she pushed further in.

"I will only tell you, the further in you go, the worse it gets. Really, I am warning you..."

"A clown suit?" came her muffled shriek.

"I did warn you," he huffed, pulling her back. He stepped out of the wardrobe and continued trying to extricate her. Finally successful, he saw what had delayed her. She had not come out empty handed.

"Could I hang on to this?" she asked, sheepishly as she petted the long knit scarf she now wore.

"The scarf?"

"Would that bother you? I mean. If it does. It's just I ..."

"No, that's fine. It's good to see it again. And to see it on you, Sarah." He smiled and adjusted the scarf for her before tweeking her nose. "I don't suppose," he said, drawing the words out, "that you still have those camouflage pants?" And he gave her a quick eyebrow wag.

...

He walked her to the arboretum and she found herself following along without an explanation as usual. He stopped at the edge of an empty pool built into the floor. Without a comment, he then lay on the ground and began to poke at some controls that were hidden just over the edge. She walked the granite lip in a circle, watching him, feeling strangely patient, feeling that understanding him was getting gradually easier. He wanted to get the pool going so that they could sit beside it, she knew. As the water rushed in from the side and began to rise, he dipped his hand in, "Perfect," he told her.

"For parking?" she asked, impishly.

"Sit. Put your feet in," he insisted.

"What are you going to do?"

"Get us something to eat. We can sit here. Sort of like a picnic."

"Now that's perfect."

///

Mostly, it was a meal taken in happy silence. He had taken off his coat, shoes and socks, and even cuffed his trousers to dangle his feet in the water. That said more, Sarah was sure, than any words she could try to drag from him.

They ate from the same plate. And made bids for the last strawberry. And once he had pushed the empty plate away, she mopped at his perfectly clean face just for the chance to do it.

And finally she lay down with her head in his lap and let her eyes drift closed.

"Tired?" he asked.

"If I say 'no' will I have to get up?"

He smiled a bit and shook his head, but from the glance she stole of him she could see he was still perplexed by all of this. By the subtle give and take. The responses she had to him. The desire she had for all these small touches.

"We should go back to the control room. If we are going to stay 'parked,' I'll just need to make sure everything is holding solid. But if you want to sleep in your own bed tonight, then we could go straight back. Or anywhere, as you said."

"We could talk it over while we check on things. Okay?" she asked as she got to her feet. She held out a hand then and helped him up.

///

She saw that serious side to him as he checked all of the TARDIS readings. There seemed a touch of paranoia there. More likely a well-born fear after years of things going awry. Of being caught off guard.

"How are you? Are things still bothering you?" she asked, as gently as she could. And when he slowly raised his head to meet her eyes, she did not give him a chance to answer. To lie. "You don't have to pretend you are fine and whole just because you are with me. Just because we are starting something. Because I remember what you said. You were that empty. You had been through that much."

"I let go of it." They were simple words said with an aching gravity. "Over the years. Many, many years, obviously, I have gotten good at that. Or ...better at least. I have had to let go of so much. Often I was only letting go of the things and people I had already lost. Now is different."

"Because you are trying to begin something? Add something to your life?"

"This is a beginning. A new stage for me. A well-earned retirement," he said smiling. "Something new without the regenerating."

"You needed someone to understand. To take you in," she said, remembering his earlier words. "You needed to love and be loved."

"Don't make this seem clinical, as if I was filling a prescription," he objected. "It wasn't just 'someone.' It was you I came to see."

"But it's because I am from your past... before things turned so dark?" she said, puzzling it out.

"I think so," he said, as he nodded. "You knew me when I had hope. When I was happy, when I was young and ridiculous. This Timelord that showed up in your garden 2 weeks ago needed love and kindness. But none of my incarnations has deserved it less. Or felt less deserving. But you could see me as a whole, because you loved those other parts of me. With us there is that current that runs from the past to now. A long standing attachment."

"All of it that you went through. So many endings. Yes? Loss? Destruction?"

"Sarah," he warned with a head shake.

"But this. Us. This has helped?"

"Helped? Sarah Jane? It's everything."

"It's not. I know it's not. Don't be so... impatient."

"Impatient for what?"

"You seem impatient to heal. It will happen, but I don't know that you can make it happen. And I'll stand by you, whether you tell me all of what happened to you or none of it. But you don't need to pretend everything is fine, if it isn't. I won't leave you."

"You wouldn't leave me, would you?" he said, squinting, as if with sudden realization.

"I couldn't. I love you. Not just because of the past. And not just because now is new and exciting. I will just always love you. All of you."

But there was something sad about the way she said that. As if she was accentuating the word "I." These things were true for her, she was saying. But her doubt of him was coming through. She still didn't believe he could love her like that. That he was capable of something long term. She didn't think he was reliable.

"This is something I want to make as permanent as possible..." he told her. But what did that mean coming from someone like him, he asked himself. Someone who could not stay still. Someone who had left and taken 15 years of her life to come back? He couldn't think how to make her understand this was different.

And then the words burst out of him, "We could get married."

"You do that?"

"Time Lords? Yes. Me?" He nodded sheepishly. "Though I have never gotten high marks. I've been asked to leave. I've been widowed and I've left a widow..."

"How is that last one possible?"

"Our marriages dissolve with regeneration. It only makes sense. Different places have all manner of rules. There is no shortage of options. Couples on Ferenzy, for instance. They have 6 month, one year and two year options. We really should get K-9 out. Not only would he know all the various possibilities, he is recognized as a legal marriage celebrant on three worlds."

"You are making a mockery of this."

"Am I?" he asked, honestly.

"Well, that was my first impression," she said, as she considered it. "But the longer it is just the two of us, the more I lose my bearings," she admitted. "Frankly, I don't know what I think. Could we back up?"

"Back up?" he asked.

"Did you ask me to marry you or is this just a rather painful, theoretical discussion we are having?"

She watched as the fastest brain she knew seemed to throw its transmission. He was searching. Lost as to how to move forward. The confusion was clear in the faraway look on his face.

She gasped with surprise when he suddenly fell to his knees. The move lacked for grace or explanation, and Sarah's bewilderment only increased when he knee-crawled the few steps to be closer to her.

"Will you marry me?" he asked in a determined voice.