11.

I lay on my bed wide awake, Topher had an arm draped lazily over me and I was not happy about it. There was tidying to be done. My lab was a state and I was stuck uncomfortably under Topher's arm. My mind drifted to last night and kissing The Doctor. I figured one way of making Topher move would be to tell him about what had happened, but I figured it would probably be best to keep it a secret. I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Deciding enough was enough, I gently moved his arm, got out of bed and put my nightshirt back on. I headed downstairs to the lab to start tidying up the fluids that were slowly seeping under my workbench.

The cleaning took ages, and lost me almost a days work. I was just finishing up when Topher sauntered into the lab wearing nothing but a towel.

"Nice timing." I commented.

"I was just coming down to help," He said, taking me in his arms and placing a tender kiss on my lips. "Besides, you've got some work done. You've altered the compound model." He indicated the structure in the corner, the one that the Doctor had apologised for wrecking yesterday.

I turned and stared. It was different, why had I not noticed this before? He'd left a few pieces on the shelf next to it, but looking at the structure it was difficult to figure out where they had been placed prior to being broken. I walked closer towards the model, not paying attention to anything else in my laboratory. Topher walked up behind me and slipped his hands up under my shirt, placing his hands on my hips. He kissed my neck. It was nice, but distracting.

"Hang on," I said, turning on the spot so quickly that I threw him off balance. "Have we tried this before?"

"In the lab? I thought you'd just cleaned?" He joked, fingers tracing over the sensitive areas on my stomach. I batted his arms away.

"Topher, seriously, look at it."

He studied the compound for a moment before turning to me and smiling. "You know, I don't think we have."

The next few months were spent almost constantly in my lab. I worked almost through the night, stopping only to refuel on take out and small periods of sleep.

I think The Doctor intended to leave those pieces out because he realised how it would work. I made a mental note to thank him later.

We were managing to bind small pieces of the metallic ore compound, which we had nicknamed "DoC1" (ironically Topher's name, but I liked how it was a small nod to The Doctor), to samples of human tissue. It was amazing; it fused to the tissue so quickly that it was difficult to see with the human eye. There were a few teething issues though; I lay in bed one night with Topher discussing when we thought living being trials would be appropriate.

"I have to go on another government excursion soon." He'd said. "I don't think we'd manage to get animal testing approved before I go."

"When are you leaving?" I asked, genuinely sorry to hear this.

"Tomorrow." He looked really sad. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier Bella, I've only known for a couple of hours and I was scared I'd disappoint you."

I moved closer to him, wrapping my leg over his. "It's okay, it can wait until you get back. Besides, it'll be nice for me to have a break."

He slid away from me and got out of bed. He stepped over to his jacket that was hung on the bedroom door.

"I didn't really want to do it like this." He said nervously. I sat up, suddenly wide awake, struck with silence. He slid back onto the bed, handing me a small box. I stared at it in my hands, wide eyed. "But I have prepared a speech. Bella Louise Carter. You are everything I want. Everything I need. I love you to our moons and back. Would you do me the amazing honour of marrying me?"

I felt sick.