The Doctor had told them he needed to run a few tests to make sure nothing went wrong when he opened the watch. Of course, he didn't say how long it would take, but Penny didn't expect it to take more than one day.

Penny was wrong.

Eight days after the Family of Blood, they were still parked in the vortex. Penny was shockingly okay with it, but Martha was getting bored.

"Study for your exams." Penny shrugged, turning the page of the seventh Harry Potter book as she lounged on her favorite chair in the library.

"I came along so I wouldn't have to do that." Martha groaned.

"Go explore the Tardis." She suggested, only half paying attention.

"Whenever I try, I just end up walking in circles."

Intrigued, Penny closed her book, noting she was on page 207. "Really?" She frowned. "Well, what rooms have you seen?"

"Just the ones the Doctor and you showed me." Martha sighed, looking up at the celling. He face changed from annoyed to sly. "Since we have nothing to do, why don't we have a chat?"

Penny's eyes widened as she opened the book and pretended to read. "Nah," Came her slightly panicked voice. "I've got a book to read." Martha snatched her book and put it aside, smirking at Penny, who sighed, defeated. "Fine. Let's go to my room."

"Why?" Martha asked slyly. "You don't want the Doctor to overhear?"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Because I know what your 'chat' is going to be about. And I also know that the Doctor is right outside those doors at the moment, trying to listen in."

There was a sound from outside the doors. Penny got up, placing her book softly on her chair and walked to opened them, showing that the Doctor had fallen over.

"How did you know I was there?" He asked, rubbing his head from where Penny bet he had hit it.

"I'm not stupid." She said simply, no bite to her words, patting his shoulder as she and Martha walked past him, heading to her room.

Martha was trying not to laugh, and she made it ten paces without doing so. But as she glanced at Penny's completely indifferent face, and then back at the Doctor, who was pouting, she burst out in laughter. "You are really something, Pen." She said in between her giggles.

Penny shrugged, smiling at her friend as she opened the door to her room. Martha went to sit at her desk, pulling her chair around so it faced the bed, where Penny would be sitting.

Penny put her radio on quietly, putting a random album on before sitting on her bed, looking at Martha expectantly. "Go on, then." Penny gestured for her to start.

"You like the Doctor." Penny stated.

"He is my bestfriend. I'd certainly hope so." She shrugged, pretending she didn't know what she meant.

"No, you like him."

Penny rolled her eyes, picking at her finger nails. "What gives you that impression?"

"Oh, I don't know how I can miss someone who isn't even gone." Martha said with a dreamy, love-struck, sigh, a poor imitation of Penny, at least in her opinion. In reality, she had sounded rather like that.

"I'm allowed to miss my friend. I would have missed you too." Penny shrugged again.

"You kissed him."

"He kissed me."

"You kissed him back."

"I didn't actually." Penny corrected, smirking at Martha's baffled face.

"Why won't you just admit that you like him?" Martha groaned with a playful smile on her face.

"Because I don't." She took a second to listen to the song playing. She had no idea what it was from, but it sounded... nice. "And even if I did, the Doctor and I aren't the same species. Plus, he has a longer life span. And, here's the big one, he doesn't like me like that either."

"Have you seen him?" Martha asked, face scrunched up. "He would have you with him at all times if he could. I was with him when you ran off in old New York. He kept looking over to see if you were alright."

"He was worried." Penny dismissed.

"Yeah. But it was a different kind of worried than I was, as your friend." Martha said, smirking.

"Martha, seriously, please drop it." Martha nodded, rolling her eyes fondly. "Lets just hang out in the pool or something. Have you been in the pool yet?" She asked, effectively changing the discussion.

"No, but it sounds fun." She agreed, "Let's do it."

Martha and Penny met at Penny's favorite of the three main pools in the Tardis. One was in the library, which Penny hated. She always felt like somehow the books would fall in and get ruined. The other two were in separate rooms made for pools.

"How much longer do you think it will take until he finishes those tests?" Martha asked, feet dipped in the pool as she sat on the edge.

Penny had dove right in, treading water in front of Martha. "I don't know." She shrugged as best as she could in the water. "I feel like he already did them though." She admitted.

"Then why wait for eight days?"

"He probably feels like we both need a break from adventures."

Martha's face scrunched up. "Why wouldn't he just say that?"

Penny shrugged again, reaching up to Martha and pulling her in. She didn't want to spend her time gossiping about the Doctor.

Nine days in and Penny realized the Doctor was avoiding her. Eleven days in and Penny decided to do something about it.

She had doesn't the first half of the day wandering around the library, looking for the Doctor to ask him when they would do something.

When she didn't find him, she went to the console room. Then the kitchen. Media room. Arcade. All six pools and his workshop. He wasn't anywhere.

Penny walked to the kitchen to make herself lunch, hoping she'd somehow find him there. She didn't. But she made herself a sandwich and walked back to her room, eating it on the way.

"Hey... Tardis." Penny started talking aloud in her room awkwardly. "I'm kinda sick of your pilot avoiding me. Can you help me find him?" She asked hesitantly, feeling somewhat odd asking a ship for help. She waited for about a minute, feeling stupider every moment that passed. She finally felt a cool blast of air and grinned, knowing that meant 'yes.' "Thanks, old girl, you're a real life saver." Her door opened and Penny walked out, grinning more when a string of lights turned on, leading her somewhere.

She was lead to the library. She frowned, she'd already checked the library, though she must've missed something. She continued to follow the lights.

They led her to a small room Penny hadn't noticed before, she walked in, the door closing automatically behind her. Her jaw dropped at the open celling that showed the stars. The room was filled with books, though as Penny picked one up from a small table, she guessed that they all were about astronomy. As lovely as the room was, Penny didn't see the Doctor.

She sighed and reached for the door nob, ready to give up for the time being. But things were never that easy for Penny. The Door was locked.

"Fuck." Penny groaned, trying the door again. "Alright, old girl, really?" Penny asked the walls. "If you didn't want to show me you could've just said so." She whined. A blast of warm air came from nowhere. Penny scoffed. "It's a bit late to say it, you know." She sighed. "At least tell me you locked me in a room with food."

A light lit up above a mini fridge and Penny grinned. At least she wouldn't starve to death in whatever amount of time the Tardis decided to lock her in for.

She collapsed on the long couch that took up one wall and picked up a book.

Penny spent three hours trying to read the book that was written in Old English. She understood the gist of it, but she'd be lying if she said she could read it properly.

Hour Four: She realized she hadn't eaten since lunch and ate a granola bar and a bag of crisps. She gave up on the book, putting it back on a random shelf.

Hour Five: Penny sat on the couch, glaring at the door. She had tried to open it every five minutes.

Hour Six: Penny spent way too long attempting to write a sonnet about the Tardis, but she didn't really know how they were written other than sometimes they rhymed and they had fourteen lines.

Hour Seven: Penny decided that at least at the hospital nurses had been around to talk to, and she'd rather be stuck there than in some tiny room where she had no human contact.

It had been eight hours since she was locked in. Eight very long hours. It had been seven minutes since she last tried the door, and five since she lasted cursed the Doctor for indirectly causing the whole situation.

She felt like she was in solitary confinement.

"Does Martha even know that I'm not in my room?" She asked the Tardis, who only answered half the time. She felt a cool breeze. 'Yes.' Penny nodded. "So, she's looking for me?" No answer. "Alright," She began, eyes closed as she lied on her back on the couch. "If she happens to be looking for me, do you think she'll find me?" The answer was an immediate 'no.' Penny groaned. "Oh, of course not! That would be far too easy, wouldn't it?" She said to the ship, no bite in her voice. Penny jumped, eyes shooting open as she heard a hum in her head that she knew was the Tardis. "Are you laughing at me?" She questioned incredulously. A cool blast of air. 'Yes.'

Penny was about to shoot a sarcastic remark when the door opened, revealing a concerned looking Time Lord on the other side.

She was torn between wanting to hit him and wanting to hug him. She did neither as he walked in, letting the door close behind him. "No!" Penny yelled, racing for the door as it closed. She was a second too late. She tried to open the door again, but it was still locked.

She slowly turned around, meeting the Doctor's gaze. "You've locked us in." She said with a calm she did not feel. She took a deep breath as he raised his eyebrows.

He tried the door, frowning when it didn't open. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his sonic, pointing it at the handle. It sparked, causing the Doctor to drop it and glare at the tool. "This isn't ideal." He muttered to himself, looking around the small room for the first time. "I didn't know this was here."

Penny scoffed, flopping back down on the couch in annoyance. Of course he didn't.

"Have you tried calling Martha?" The Doctor questioned.

"I've been in here for eight hours." She scoffed. "If I could open my phone, I would have."

"If you could?" The Doctor tilted his head in thought.

"I don't remember the password." She tapped the side of her head, still staring at the ceiling. "Amnesia."

"Oh. Right." There was a pause. "You've been in here all day?"

"I did say eight hours, didn't I?" Penny snapped.

Penny felt the guilt she had been beginning to be able to ignore make it's presence known again. She shut her eyes tight, trying to push the feeling away. She had bigger things to focus on.

"So." Penny tried to remember what she was planning on saying to him when she went looking for him earlier, but all she could think about were the bags under the Time Lord's eyes. "What's new with you?" Penny asked awkwardly.

The Doctor stared at her, meeting her gaze for a moment before both burst into laughter, breaking most of the tension.

"I'm better now I know you didn't go for a walk outside the Tardis." The Doctor chuckled, but Penny could tell his words held a bit of truth. "What's new with you?" He asked in a mocking tone, snickering when Penny stuck her tongue out at him.

"Not much. Went looking for something, asked the Tardis for help, got stuck here." She summarized, gesturing around the room.

"The Tardis led you here?"

Penny nodded, sitting up and looking around the small room once again. Her mind could've been playing tricks on her, but the room seemed to get smaller with another person in it with her. "I'm not sure why, before you ask."

The Doctor had indeed been about to ask her if she knew why the Tardis took her there instead of whatever she was looking for.

Penny sighed, looking at the Doctor worriedly. "Are you alright?" She asked hesitantly. Who knows how long they would be in there, she may as well check on him while he couldn't avoid her.

The Doctor might not have been able to avoid Penny, but he could sure as hell avoid answering any questions.

Penny internally groaned as she listened to him complain about a planet that had banned Time Lord's. She put up with it though, hoping that eventually he would run out of topics.

Penny snapped after two more hours of the Doctor skirting around the subject Penny had brought up.

"Jesus Christ, Doctor." She muttered, the Doctor able to hear her in the small room. "Please stop avoiding me. That's all I wanted to say." She glared at the walls, speaking to the ship. "I told you. I just wanted him to stop avoiding me." She squeezed her eyes shut, running her hands down her face in agitation.

"I wasn't avoiding you." The Doctor said, tugging at his ear and looking anywhere but Penny.

Penny sat with her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. "Please stop lying to me." Even to herself, Penny sounded tired. It took her a second to realize she was crying. She wiped the tears away quickly, feeling guilty, though she wasn't sure why.

The Doctor finally looked at her, taking in the fact that tears were now streaming down her face slowly, even as she tried to hide her face from view.

Penny felt the couch sink beside her and a hand took ahold of on of hers, pulling it away from her face and weaving their fingers together. "Sorry." The Doctor whispered. "You're right, I was avoiding you." He admitted as Penny leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Why?" Penny asked just as softly, feeling the guilt build up.

The Doctor took a deep breath, trying to find the right words. "I've got the same face." He finally said.

Penny's face scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean?"

There was another pause. "I've got the same face as John."

"Yeah." Penny said simply, not understanding why that would make him avoid her for eleven days. "Of course you do."

"I'm not John, though." He said softly.

Penny removed her head from his shoulder, looking him in the eyes, trying to convey how completely and utterly confused she was by his statement. "Yeah, I know that too." She looked at him, trying to find answers, but she only found more questions. "Are you alright?" She asked as her focus was once again drawn to the deep bags under her eyes.

"...No." The Doctor admitted.

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Just- please don't leave."

With every word he said, Penny seemed to be getting more confused. "I'm not leaving. Where the fuck did you get that idea?" She blinked, trying to recall a moment where she might've given him the wrong idea, but she found nothing.

The Doctor let out a sort of sad laugh and pulled Penny into his chest, hugging her tightly to him. "I'm sorry." He whispered, almost to quietly for Penny to hear.

"What for?" She asked calmly, rubbing his back.

"For not being him."

Penny frowned. "You're sorry for not being John?" She realized, hugging him tighter. "You don't need to apologize for that, Doc."

Both were unaware that the door was unlocked.

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A/N

How are you? Are you staying hydrated?

I hope you liked the chapter! It was a challenge, because I'm rarely emotional, I'm one of those people who bottle up their emotions, so it's hard for me to write emotions realistically, I hope I did decently. Tell me if there's stuff I need to improve on!

Y'all are great and I'm so excited, I came up with a new idea for a fic, but I refuse to write it until I nearly finish this one... and that won't be for a while lol

Have a wonderful day/morning/night and I'll see you next chapter!

-Jamie