A/N: This story begins at the end of episode 7x5, Angels Take Manhattan. I will use some direct quotes from the show, so as a reminder, I don't own anything.

Chapter 1

Sexy recognized the look on her Doctor's face as soon as he stepped back inside. She knew it was coming; she'd known for awhile. No human lasted long traveling with her Doctor, and Amy and Rory had lasted longer than most.

This would be an especially bad loss. This regeneration of her Doctor was more sensitive than the last few. Oh, he was more whimsical, put on a happier face, and probably showed more gentleness and kindness, especially to children. But it was all because he was fragile, coping with the dark and traumatic secrets in his past. Sexy was the only one who saw who he was when that mask came off. River might have known his true name, but only Sexy knew his true face.

And as always, Sexy would be the one to pick up the pieces. What he always forgot after losing a human was that he still always, always still needed a human, no matter how much it would hurt to say good bye.

The recovery would be especially difficult on her this time. She was still exhausted and hurting from all of the paradoxes she'd encountered recently (if "recently" was the right term—always hard to tell when it came to time travel). Usually, her doctor took extra good care of her when she was damaged, but she was sure he wouldn't think to do so this time.

In any case, she was sure that with or without his intervention, her damages would have repaired themselves long before his healing was finished. It was her turn to be the strong one for him.

River took over Sexy's controls for a little while while the Doctor sat motionless in a corner, clearly verging tears. Sexy knew that face. It would be awhile before she would see his brilliant, glowing smile again.

"Okay," River said. "This book I've got to write. Melody Malone. I presume I send it to Amy to get it published?"

"Yes . . . yes." The Doctor rubbed at his eyebrows, wincing.

"I'll tell her to write an afterword. For you. Maybe you'll listen to her."

There was a long pause, then The Doctor said, "The last page." He shot up and ran away from Sexy, leaving River behind with her.

Sexy was used to this—to only catching snapshots of his adventures and filling in the missing pieces herself. And even if she didn't understand exactly what had happened, she knew River had found something the Doctor desperately needed and given it to him. River was the first companion the Doctor had had in awhile to stick with him over a long enough range of time to learn exactly what to do with him during these times.

River was also the first human companion who knew how to take care of Sexy better than the Doctor himself. "Let's have a look at you, shall we?" River stepped down into the mess of circuitry beneath the glass floors of the control room.

The Doctor had spent years learning the ins and outs of TARDIS matrices and electronics. River had learned it all in a day. Sexy had taught her, and today she was more glad than ever that she had. It took River only minutes to identify the worst of the damage and replace the broken components. Immediately, Sexy could feel cool relief spreading all throughout her dimensions.

"There you go," River said. "How is that?"

Sexy hummed contentedly, and River made her way back up to the control panel.

"You'll look after him, won't you, old girl?" She patted her hand over the side of the center console. "He's down a bit of regeneration energy, you know."

That made Sexy's circuits lurch a bit. Regeneration energy was limited, and he was on his last body. He usually only used his regeneration energy if he was injured pretty badly.

"Don't worry, he wasn't hurt. I was. Broken wrist. I would have been fine, but he had to go in and heal me anyway. He may have lost ten years of his life with that trick." She stepped back and crossed her arms, shaking her head. "But that's the Doctor, isn't it?"

Sexy wished she could smile.

~doctorwho~doctorwho~doctorwho~

The Doctor returned to his corner after dropping off River. He set the controls on auto, so that Sexy could take the wheel. And she did.

She'd overheard him telling Amy that he could never take the TARDIS back to New York 1938, so she didn't try to go there. Instead, she tried for New York 1939. A year would have passed for Amy, but that wasn't a problem for the Doctor. A single year of aging was usually unnoticeable in human adults.

She couldn't materialize.

She tried New Jersey 1938. Then New Jersey 1939. No luck. She tried every combination she could think of, but only resulted in rattling the control room for long enough that her Doctor looked up from his sulking and gave the center console a quizzical expression, as well as re-damaging all of the same components that River had just repaired.

So that confirmed what Sexy should have known to begin with. It wasn't New York 1938 that her Doctor couldn't visit. It was Amy herself. Her timeline was too scrambled with his.

Of course, Sexy knew there was more to it than that, anyway. She'd watched the Ponds grow more and more conflicted as years passed, the impossibility of living both a normal human life and TARDIS life, the ache of trying to choose. And at last, Amy had chosen. Sexy shouldn't take that away from her, but looking at her Doctor's sullen expression, she knew she would do anything she could to bring his smile back. Anything.

This, though, this was something she couldn't give him.

So she took him to see the universe. She began with safe places, nearby places where he'd been and resolved challenges. The moon landing—that was always one of his favorites. Ancient Rome, years and years before Mount Vesuvius would erupt. Venice, before the vampires. Museums where he'd left his mark, happy memories.

Most of his favorites were on Earth—and she always landed on Saturdays—but she stopped by other planets, too. Places where he could see galaxies in all their glory, even places he'd never been. Plant and animal life he'd never seen. Views of stars he'd only glimpsed, at angles he'd never admired. She took him to planets with beautiful natural weathering and structures, but no intelligent life, so there could be no conflict.

Every time, she showed the surroundings to him on the screen. And every time, he glanced up, gave her a half smile, and looked back at his shoes.

Maybe he didn't need a break. Maybe what he needed was motivation.

She took him to war-torn planets and countries. Showed him crying children in dystopian societies. She stayed away from fixed points, instead choosing moments where his brilliance could make a difference, like she usually did. He always had a harder time without a companion, but anything was better than nothing.

He stopped looking up at the screen after the first stop, and instead buried his hair in his hands.

She tried one more tactic—she stopped by Sarah Jane Smith's house. But her timing was a little off—another family exited of the house just as the TARDIS materialized. Evidently, Sarah Jane was long dead.

Her Doctor could sense that they'd stopped, and looked up at the screen. She tried to turn it off and leave this place, but it was too late. He'd seen it. He let out a cry of distress, stood from his corner, and turned off the screen. Then he slammed his hand down on the console.

She hated it when he hit her. It didn't damage her physically, but it still hurt.

Finally, Sexy didn't know what else to do, so she parked them on top of a cloud over Victorian England. She was pretty sure Vastra, Jenny, and Strax lived there. Maybe they'd call him.

In the meantime, she'd have to do the best she could to take care of him while he stayed inside.

A/N: I'd love to hear your thoughts!