Emo Naom: That's always bugged me too. There's no way they can stay with him forever, and Bridget is smart enough to realize that. Someone's got brains in their head in regards to that at any rate.

A/N: For lovely stuff for you to enjoy, (warning for a little bit of suggestive dialogue and teasing) and please feel free to leave a review, the door is always open.

ooOoo

She's going out to forget they were together, all that time he was taking her for granted. She wants to see if there's more, than he gave she's looking for. He calls her up, he's tripping on the phone now, he doesn't want her out there and alone now. He knows she's moving it, knows she's using it, now he's losing it, she don't care.

I Don't Wanna Be in Love- Good Charlotte

ooOoo

Jamie groaned as he peeled himself from the wall, a hand on his shoulder. "Och, what the hell was that?"

Bridget peeled herself up off the floor and rubbed her nose. "I've really got to stop having arguments with the floor. Somehow it always wins…"

The Doctor popped his head in the open door. "Sorry everyone. The TARDIS had a bit of a hiccup. Are you alright?"

"Hiccups?" Bridget had to bite back a snort. "I'd hate to see how she acts around her time of the month."

"Oh she's horrid right around then."

"Yeah well, tell her she can join the club…" she rubbed under her nose and saw blood on her fingers. "Oh great…" she titled her head back. "Could one of you find me a tissue?"

Jamie produced a surprisingly clean handkerchief out of his sleeve. Bridget accepted it and pressed it to her nose. Reaching over the handkerchief, she felt the bridge of her nose. "Not b'oken," she answered Jamie's silent question.

"Now let me see," the Doctor came in and waited until she moved the handkerchief away. "Keep your head back, Bridget…" he delicately worked his way over the bridge of her nose with his fingertips and around her eye socket. "Well my dear, it seems your nose is not broken after all."

"It isn't?" she felt like she had to sneeze.

"No it's not," the Doctor answered. "You've just taken a nasty knock though. The swelling has already started."

"Oh gweat," she muttered again, replacing the cloth. "I'm gonna go ice now," she brought her head back straight and headed toward the kitchen. Though from the angle Jamie was looking at her she looked rather wobbly, like she'd been hit between the eyes and was struggling to keep her balance.

"What happened, Jamie?"

"The TARDIS shook and I ended up hitting th' wall," he explained.

"No, I mean before that," the Doctor clarified.

"What d'ye mean?"

"Jamie, I may be close to 500 years old but I'm not deaf, you know," he smiled at him. "I heard you two shouting at each other."

'I'll not say anything, Doctor."

"Now, Jamie," the Doctor shook his head. "All I want to make sure of is that I'm not going to be wiping someone's blood off the floor or hauling away their bodies at the end of it all."

"If ye mean mine, Doctor, then no. And certainly not Bridget's."

"Fine, that's all I needed to know," the Doctor turned and went toward the kitchen himself.

Jamie let out a sigh of relief. He and Bridget would work through this in their own time, and, though the Doctor had had a family of his own back wherever he came from (he once found the Doctor looking at an old picture of Susan, who he said was his granddaughter, and a right pretty sprite she was too), it wasn't his business to get involved in their affairs. So long as no blood was spilled, they would be fine.

Once they'd gotten themselves cleaned up (Jamie hadn't dislocated his shoulder, though if he'd rotated his arm when he hit the wall he most certainly would have), Jamie and Bridget sat on the floor outside her bedroom staring at each other from across the hall.

"So…" Jamie looked down toward his shoes, studied the laces. "Ye never did answer my question."

"What question?" she rested her wrist on her knee.

"Are ye going to stay? With me and the Doctor?"

"I've got nowhere else to go," she admitted. "I really do love traveling with you, but sometimes I just can't handle being around the two of you all the time. Too much testosterone."

He looked at her sideways.

"At some point I'd like to talk to another girl, you know? When I lived in Ottawa, my other housemates were guys. When my mother died it was only me and my dad. And we both know that wasn't exactly the most stimulating environment…"

"There's not much we can do about that, lassie."

"Hmm? About what?"

"Finding you someone to talk to," he clarified. "It's no' like the Doctor just randomly picks people o' the street an' says 'hey, come travel with me'."

"Well he picked you…"

"To save me life," he concluded. "If I'd stayed in Scotland I'd have been shot dead in a matter o' days, never mind weeks or months."

"But how do you know that?"

"I donnae for sure, but I've got a funny feeling that would've happened."

"Right," she ran her fingers down the side of her nose, winced as she did so. "Okay, my ass is getting cold. Time to get up," she pushed herself up and wiggled her hips to encourage blood flow to the area.

Jamie's leg kicked out as he bit his tongue. Damn his sense of propriety but he couldn't stop himself from staring.

"See something you like?" she threw a 'come get me' glance over her shoulder.

Jamie grit his teeth and closed his eyes.

"Come on Scotchman, you think I don't know you're looking?"

She could swear she heard him growl in the back of his throat.

"Too bad for you," she had one hand on the doorknob and looked back. "I'm going to talk to the Doctor, and you're not invited."

"Now who says?" Jamie jumped to his feet, realized his leg was cramping.

She just grinned and shut the door on him, locking him out of the console room.

He banged his fist on the door and rested his forehead against his closed hand. If Bridget Grey weren't the death of him he'd eat his shirt.

ooOoo

The Doctor looked up from fiddling with the TARDIS and grinned at Bridget. "Must you be so cruel?"

"That's not cruel, Doctor. Cruel would be if I agreed then built him up and left him with nothing but a naughty magazine while I came out here and talked to you."

"That's just inhumane."

"Oh come on now Doctor, it won't hurt him to go a few days without sex, and if he's desperate there is absolutely nothing wrong with his right hand."

"Now now, there's no need to be so crude," the Doctor answered.

"I'm not being crude, Doctor," she told him. "Don't tell me you've never had that problem. All those nights alone in the TARDIS, millions of light years away from home, when you didn't have companions with you. You were married, weren't you Doctor?"

"At one point, yes I was," he answered.

"Why did your wife not come with you then?"

He swallowed the lump in his throat.

"She didn't want to," was his answer. It wasn't necessarily true, but all in all it would satisfy most peoples' curiosity. That is, if anyone actually enquired after the subject at any rate.

"But… you took… your granddaughter..."

"Susan," the Doctor filled in the name. "Yes, Susan came with me."

"Then why did she go off with you but your wife didn't?" she asked. "Was it one of those Granddad/ Daughter days that just never stopped?"

The Doctor pressed his lips together. There were some things about him that humans were better off not knowing, and that… well that was one of those things.

"Discretion is the better part of valour in this case, as they say," he muttered.

"Fine, you don't have to tell me," she agreed. "I just… wondered."

"Wonder all you want, it doesn't mean you'll hear everything."

"I never said I would," she muttered. "No need to be a snark, Doctor."

"This has nothing to do with being a snark. Now if you could please go away and do something with Jamie for a while, there's a good girl. I'm trying to work."

Bridget held up her hands in defeat. "Fine, whatever. Have fun trying to work."

"Cheeky…" he muttered under his breath.

"Say that again, Doctor? I don't think the people on the other side of the universe heard you."

The Doctor grit his teeth. "Bridget, I'm going to count to five…"

"Four, three, two, one," she challenged, taking a pen out of her pocket and flinging it at him as she walked away.

He didn't even need to look up, catching the object while still studying the console.

ooOoo

She ran into Jamie who was just coming out of the bathroom as she made her way back to her room. Muttering curses and obscenities, she saw him stifle a laugh as she went by.

"Shut up…" she scolded.

"I told ye no to mess with him," he tried but was failing to keep himself from laughing. "Ye only end up losing."

"You said nothing of the sort, and I lost nothing," she spat. "Mind you, I don't have a pen anymore cause I threw it at him but that's beside the point."

"Threw it at him?"

"He caught it without even looking up," she waved away Jamie's concern. "Now stop laughing! It's not the first time he's yelled at either you or me."

"He yelled at you?" Jamie crossed his arms over his chest and leaned forward. "Oh ho, now here's where I get t' say it's better you than me!"

"Oh really?" she stopped and turned to face him. "Does he not irritate you?"

"Nae, not the Doctor. You, on the other hand…"

"Don't finish that sentence if you want to live," her voice went low as she pushed him back against the wall. "Now, James Robert McCrimmon," she rolled the 'R's, giving it a bit of a Scottish lithe. "I've got you pinned to the wall, and since you've not moved to stop me I'm going to assume you have no problem with that. Any last words?"

Jamie grinned and kissed her.

"Now let's get one thing straight, Scotsman," she put a hand to his chest once she pulled away. "We are not going to end up kissing every time you can't think of something intelligent to say."

"No? Then what are we going to do? Cause, ye know, I'm just a dumb highlander. I donnae know nothing."

"Really?" she leaned in close to his ear. "Then I can teach you a few things," she reached down between them, pulled on his belt. She blew hotly across his earlobe and slowly worked her way down his front. Getting to her knees, she lifted his kilt and set to work.

"Mary, Michael and Bride!" Jamie groaned as her hands worked harder and faster. "Bridget…" he let out a low growl as she released him and reached for him again a few seconds later.

"Told you you'd like it, Highlander…" continued her work, wasn't deterred at all.

And when she stopped Jamie could barely breathe. The walls were smooth, he noted. And as such there was nothing for him to grab onto to steady himself. He knew she could be cruel, but not that cruel.

Bloody Sassenach had left him on the brink.

She got up, leaned close and nipped his lip. "I win," she whispered, cocked her eyebrows once. She turned and went down the hallway, wiggling her hips and wringing her hands. Working out the cramp, he assumed.

"Yer gonna kill me, woman," he gasped as he slid down the wall on to the floor and watched her walk away.

ooOoo

She was a bloody tease, and she knew it. Most men thought it was just fine. They liked a bit of intrigue and excitement sometimes, but in her experience most of the time they just wanted a shag and be done with it, and for the last 3 years she'd thought nothing of it. Into the broom closet, slip the condom on. Hard, quick and fast. Lather, rinse, and repeat. Meet new guy, repeat same cycle.

But things were different now. Jamie and the Doctor treated her with respect, something she'd never known outside of her friends at school. But even then she'd just wanted companionship, and they (Alex and Steph), had taken the chance and befriended her. They didn't offer her pity, and she didn't want pity. She never had wanted pity. She'd deal with her home situation on her own, and if that meant moving out on her own and putting herself through school, then so be it.

And it had worked, for about a year. Then things had just gotten monotonous. The same thing every day, every week. Professors who could turn eight slides into two hours by saying the same thing over and over again. And another who'd stare at you if you got up in the middle of the lecture to go to the bathroom. Indeed, there'd be times where she honestly wanted to turn around and shout "I am going to the bathroom! There, now you can go back to teaching knowing that I shall return, you heinous bitch!" And she had done it once, then promptly dropped the class. Then she'd later heard that particular professor had been fired. Good riddance to bad rubbish, she concluded.

But that night, when the Doctor and Jamie had found her by the side of the road and had asked her to travel with them, she hadn't hesitated. It would give her a chance to travel, to see and experience things she'd never done before, and most importantly, they offered her friendship and protection.

Now she understood, however, that she'd never be able to look at Jamie the same way again. It'd been a bad idea to even consider sleeping with him, and an even worse one to go through with it. Sure he'd been gentle and the most compassionate man she'd ever slept with, but her mother had been right all those years ago. Sex between friends was a very dangerous thing. What would they do if she happened to get pregnant? Or worse. It could put a strain on even the strongest of friendships. What had she been thinking?

Oh well, can't change history. She shrugged as she made her way to the kitchen and went looking for bread. If both the Doctor and Jamie went indisposed, she might as well do something productive. She hadn't eaten for a while, and her stomach was protesting.

How she'd managed to keep so calm while Jamie had nearly exploded in her hand was a mystery even to her. She pushed the toast down with more force than was necessary, but really what could she do? This couldn't go on. If she was actually serious, and he'd been absolutely sincere in offering to show her what a proper relationship was, then she'd have to take the chance or leave.

The toast popped, taking her mind off of Jamie McCrimmon.

If only for a few minutes.