A/N: I don't own Doctor Who - and I nicked the title from a line in Robin Hood...

Say the words then, handsome.

Igiorni had been awful. Awful and sickening. The sort of planet that caused despair to well up in Ella without her being able to combat it.

Though, perhaps that wasn't fair. The planet itself was beautiful, completely covered in rainforest dotted by clearings where communities had settled. At first, Ella had merely worried that sometime in it's future this planet was sure to have a big global warming problem, but soon the human colony occupied all her thoughts.

It had been the sort of situation that made her feel disgusted with her entire race. The year was 5452 and a group of humans were using this planet as a settlement, one of the many dotted amongst the stars. Unfortunately there were natives to this planet. The Igiornians were a passive race, one that communicated telepathically. Because of this the humans who arrived there took them for an inferior species and proceeded to take control. The state that they soon found themselves in was incomprehensible to the Ingiornians and they suffered without seeing a way out of it.

When the Doctor arrived however, all of that changed. He immediately took the humans to task but was met by violent opposition, was arrested again actually with Ella along with him. But, unlike everyone else on that planet, the Doctor could hear what the Ingiornians were saying and Ella realised that it was agony for him, not that he said.

Eventually, the side of righteousness was victorious, led by the Doctor, but the path had been bloody and filled with needless death and destruction. As soon as equality was restored the traveling pair hastened to leave, leave the stench of human failings. Since launching them from the planet with more force than perhaps was necessary, the Doctor had been leaning against the railings that circled the console, disillusionment clear in his face. He'd always declared humans were brilliant, but this ugly side to their race reared it's head time and time again.

Ella looked up from where she'd been sitting on the chair, staring at the floor, and saw his expression. He looked so folorn, it hardly seemed to matter that they'd left the planet in a much better state than in which they'd found it, it was that it had happened in the first place. Ella liked to think that most humans were basically good people - this latest adventure had shaken that theory. It appeared they had no respect for others that inhabited the universe.

She couldn't have the Doctor giving up hope though. No, humans needed him, she needed him, and if he gave up on them things would get a lot worse. He looked up soon after and saw her gaze still intent on his face.

"What?" even that one word cost an effort.

"I've got an idea." He barely quirked an eyebrow to invite her to share it. "Can you take us to Montmartre in Paris. Probably quite near my time would be good."

"Now?" If she hadn't realised already that would have told her that this time was different to others, usually he was more than happy to move on to the next adventure, replace the emotions he was currently feeling with some new ones.

"Yeah," she confirmed, this was the sort of situation when action was going to be more beneficial than allowing him time. "I've got something to show you."

"Ok," he agreed, intrigued despite himself. He moved forwards slowly, as if his limbs were weighing him down more than they should, and began to work the controls. Before she knew it she was flung to one side as they landed.

Together they walked down the ramp to the doors. He let her out first, holding back so she could duck under his arm.

"Montmartre, Paris." He declared before looking down on her. "Where do you want to go?"

"Hang on a sec, I have to get my bearings." Ella was turning slowly on the spot, taking in land marks and street names. "Right, that's Sacre Coeur so we need to go - that way."

She set off towards a street angling off to the left and he followed, quickly catching her up so he could take her hand. It was one of those moments when he needed that contact more than anything.

They trailed through the streets, the Doctor happy to be in Paris again, he hadn't visited in so long, too long, Ella concentrating on finding their destination.

"Oh, here we go," she finally announced. "This is the Square des Abbesses and this - " she turned him round so he was facing a wall, tiled in blue with white writing scrawled across it. " - is Le mur de je t'aime - the love wall."

His breath caught in his throat as he realised what they were looking at. On this wall were the words "I love you" written in three hundred and eleven different languages.

Ella regarded the wall with a small smile, it had always resonated with her for some reason. She still held a very vivid memory of it from the first time she visited Paris. They stood in silence for a few minutes before she took a breath and began to talk, quietly explaining the wall's history, reversing their roles and taking the pressure from him for these brief moments.

"It was put up in the earl 90s, it was this bloke Frederic Bacon's idea - around the world in eighty I love yous. He had over a thousand people write the words, all living here in Paris and chose three hundred and eleven to write up here. Look - " She pulled him a little closer to the wall so they could make out individual declarations. She raised her free hand to point certain ones out. "Ich liebe dich. Te quiero. Yr wyf yr dy garu. Ti amo. Amari. And this is French braille, and this is American sign language. And look, most important - Je t'aime."

He studied the words for a moment and then looked from the words to her, intrigued that she'd declared the french one as more important than the english. He would have asked, planned to actually, but she was still studying the wall with a light in her eyes that spoke of the meaning these words held for her, how they made her feel. He had been impressed by how much she knew, and her accent in the different languages, but what he - loved was that she had seen he was flailing against the continued pressure, the unrelenting nature of his life and this was the idea that had come to her, how she had decided to help him.

And it had worked he realised, turning back to look at the wall again. A race that could decide that to create something like this and display it for all the world to see was really a very good idea couldn't be half bad, on the whole. They definitely had to be worth fighting for.

The pair of them stood in that small garden, feet crunching on the finely graveled ground and bird song echoing from the trees, for a long time. Mostly in silence, but she told him how she had read Jane Eyre sitting on that bench there. When they finally decided to move they strolled the streets a little longer, feeling the world around them and beginning the regain the feeling of it being worth it.

It was not until some time later that the Doctor realised that those three words, only sometimes it was more and sometimes less, maybe even one, those three words that he could never bring himself to say, that meant so much particularly in the human culture. The three words 'I love you' had passed between him and his companion many, many times that afternoon in Paris. And he didn't regret it, not once.

A/N: I thought that was a nice idea. It's a real thing - I've seen it! If you happen to go to Paris and have the chance go and find this wall, there is really something about it that is fascinating. I would have liked to be able to put in more of the translations but had a bit of trouble with some of the script...

Please review to let me know what you think xxxxx