A/N: Because I think some explanations were in order
Donna had decided to take Drax on a tour of the Tardis, mostly since between her and Meat, they had worked out it was Meat who was more likely to get the story from the Doctor concerning Romana. Of course, due to having part of the Doctor's brain process thanks to the meta-crisis, she had also gained some of his memory. So, though she wouldn't tell Meat this, she did have a fair idea who Romana was, and what she meant to him. It was just best Meat discover it for herself. Donna did wonder, momentarily, if Rose had ever been aware of Romana.
She doubted it.
xXx
"So," Meat began, walking around the console to stand beside the Doctor, who was focusing intently on the screen. "Who is she?" The Doctor appeared not to hear her, setting the console let the Tardis float around in the vortex for a while,
"Hmm, sorry, what?" he asked, looking up at Meat and blinking slightly. Meat fought back the urge to sigh, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply before opening them again.
"Romana," she said, making sure every syllable of the name was clearly spoke. "Who is she to you?" she asked, looking at him with a curious glint in her eye. The Doctor frowned, looking down at the console as it would provide the answer for him, fingers running over a small hole that Meat had never really noticed before. To be fair, admittedly she didn't really understand the console, so didn't pay much attention to it on that basis. She was amazed at Donna actually being able to fly the Tardis - Meat knew that she wouldn't know where to start with it.
"I travelled with her," the Doctor replied eventually. "Oh, such a long time ago," he added, turning round, crossing his arms and leaning back against the console. "I was younger then, in my 700's," he told Meat with a grin.
"Wow, you must be middle-aged by now," she replied dryly. "Get on the story Crazy Hands," she said, pushing him affectionately.
"She's one of my kind, a Time Lady, a brilliant one," he said, without a moment's thought on it. "She'd just graduated when we first met, a young slip of a thing, not even 130," Meat's eye's widened slightly, but she didn't comment. "She had been ordered to work with me, trying to reassemble the pieces of the Key to Time," he explained.
"… Why does that sound like something out of some cheesy sci-fi show?" she asked, frowning. The Doctor shrugged. "So, hang on, let me see if I'm getting this right," she paused, thinking over what he had just said, "she was a student when she met you?"
"Graduated with a triple first from the Academy," he replied. "She always did like rubbing that in my way, well her first incarnation did," he paused, a fond smile growing on his face. "Oh she was something then, all rules and order and doing it by the book, a classical ice queen beauty."
"So, obviously you corrupted her," Meat grinned widely. The Doctor threw her a scandalised look, before his own wide grin returned to him.
"Not corrupted, more, showed her a new way to do things?" he suggested. Meat laughed. "We managed to do it though, got all the pieces, did what we had to, she just chose not to return to Gallifrey after that," he told Meat, who nodded to show she was listening. "Not long later she chose to regenerate, a lot of students do really, they see it as a sign of maturity."
"Did you?" Meat asked, curious again. The Doctor shook his head, grinning slightly. "Why do you find that funny?" Meat found herself asking, noting dimly that there was probably some joke here that she wasn't quite aware of. The Doctor gave a soft laugh.
"Let's just say I'm not your typical Time Lord," he told her. "But yeah, her second regeneration was, well, she was freer," he said after a moment. "She was," he paused, trying to settle on the right word for it, "oh, she was wonderful, you know," he said, looking out at the Tardis at something which he could see, but that Meat couldn't. An old memory most likely. "We entered E-Space, the negative universe of this one if you like," he explained quickly. "Complete accident but it was an adventure." He didn't sound as happy now.
"That's when she left you, wasn't it?" Meat guessed. The Doctor nodded.
"It was sort of like a divorce," he explained. "She got the pet dog, and I got the bratty step kid," he said, before frowning. "Oh I don't mean that, Adric wasn't that bad I suppose," he muttered to himself. Meat laughed softly, before looking up at him. He still looked confused.
"You loved her," she stated. The Doctor didn't look up at her.
"I really was oblivious back then," he told her, "I didn't work out that I was probably in love with her until I was safely back in N-Space, that's the regular universe," he explained, heading off the question he knew would be coming. Meat nodded. "The next time I saw her, it was when the order was given out to go to war." He turned back to the console, working with the controls. There was a long pause.
"Right," Meat breathed out, realising she wasn't going to get much more from him. "Now she's … well now you know she's alive," she started, "are you going to tell her? That you're probably in love with her, I mean."
The Doctor didn't answer.
