A/N: A conversation that was long overdue.

Chapter Fourteen: Talking

"You're exhausted, you need to eat, you're dehydrated; you're nerve endings have been over stimulated and the burn on your stomach has blistered." The Doctor reported, after doing the medical scan.

"I guested as much," I told him, smiling weakly. "I'll get some sleep now. Mum's making Christmas dinner, could you wake me up when it's finished?" I questioned. It was about ten o'clock in the morning which meant they had about six hours before mum would have finished cooking.

"I'll wake you up in time for dinner. But I want you to sleep here so I can keep an eye on you." The Doctor said, helping me up off the examining table and over to the cot that was in the corner of the room.

"Fine. But I want you to go and find something more fitting than pyjamas." I told him once I was on the bed.

"I will." The Doctor agreed. "Will you need help getting to sleep?"

"No." I answered smiling gratefully at the offer.

"Alright then. I'll see you soon." He promised.

I smiled slightly at him before closing my eyes, and falling into a meditative state. Once I was relaxed, my own exhaustion pulled me into a deep sleep.

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I woke up to the Doctor's warm hand gentle shaking my shoulder and his calm voice. It took a few minutes to get rid of the confusion from being pulled from such a deep sleep, and focus on the Doctor. He had done as I had suggested and gotten himself new cloths. He had gone with a brown suit, long tie and a brown trench coat.

"You're looking very handsome." I complimented him, sitting up.

"Thank you. I wanted something completely different." The Doctor responded with a smile.

"I need to get changed as well." I told him with a sigh. Mum wouldn't be impressed if I turned up in the baggy t-shirt and jeans I had put on after my shower the night before. "When's Jackie expecting us?"

"Forty minutes." The Doctor answered, offering his hand to help me stand.

"There's a shower through there and the TARDIS has picked out some cloths for you." The Doctor informed me.

"Thanks." I smiled at him, carefully making my way through the medical wing to the bathroom.

The shower was quick and brief since I knew I needed to go and eat something. Once I was clean, I looked at the cloths that the TARDIS had placed in the cupboard for me (which I wasn't sure how she had manged). She had picked out a pair of comfortable black trousers (similar to yoga trousers in their design, but they wouldn't trail along the floor if I walked without shoes), heeled boots, a tight long-sleeved shirt (since I never wore anything that revealed my arms) and a brown waist coat to bring some colour to the wardrobe. It was something the TARDIS had been trying to encourage since I didn't normally wear anything other than black, dark blues and greens and deep purples. Not wanting to play about, I brushed out my hair and plaited it to keep it out of the way.

"Feeling better?" the Doctor questioned as I left the bathroom.

"Much." I returned, offering a smile. "Would you care to join me for dinner, Doctor?" I asked. In his previous body the Doctor wouldn't have agreed to join me for dinner, but he hadn't shown any signs that he wasn't going to turn me down to a family dinner.

"Most joyfully," the Doctor responded, offering his arm once more.

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The joyful dinner that night was interrupted by what appeared to be to be snow but the Doctor informed everyone was actually ash from the exploded spaceship re-entering the atmosphere. Rose decided she wanted to continue travelling with them despite the fact that the Doctor had changed, while I had already made it clear that I would be travelling with the Doctor and his change didn't affect my opinion of him.

She was sleeping one more night in her bed, while I was staying in the TARDIS due to the damage done to my own bedroom. However, the food and sleep had done me the world of good and I was no longer tired. Instead, I was awake enough to join the Doctor in the library for their normal conversation time.

"That was a very dangerous thing you did, back at the station." The Doctor said in a tone that came across as slightly scolding.

"I didn't have a choice." I answered, looking down at my lap. "What happened at the Game Station was a fixed point. Either I or Rose had to go back, and the TARDIS wanted me to take in the vortex. She tried to give it to me when Margret the Slitheen was reverted back to an egg but I refused to accept it." I explained.

"You denied the vortex?" the Doctor asked shocked.

"Yes, it's why I was so affected that day. And I tried to give it back, I really did when you asked me too. I just… it wouldn't let me go." I told him honestly.

"I noticed. When I pulled it from you, it fought back." The Doctor agreed, nodding his head and relaxing slightly when he realised that Annamae hadn't endangered herself just to save him – she had done it because she had no choice. Although he imagined that saving him and the human race, as well as protecting Rose, probably played quite a large role in her ability to withstand the damage of the vortex for as long as she did.

"You kissed me." I remembered. At the end it had become rather hazy, hard to focus on what was happening around me, but I remember him kissing me. It was what gave me the confidence to kiss him before he regenerated.

"Yes." The Doctor responded calmly. "And you kissed me."

"I had wanted to kiss you for a while, but I wasn't sure how you would respond." I told him with a shy smile.

"To be honest, I've wanted to kiss you for a while as well." the Doctor agreed, smiling at me sheepishly. "But my previous body, the war had only just ended when I regenerated, I wasn't prepared to make connections again. And then I met you, and you made me so much better. You are so full of life, and you just shine. And I realised, I realised that I started to care for you in a way I hadn't with any of my previous companions. You were brilliant, curious, caring and so much more than any other human I had ever met before."

"I've never had a partner before." I admitted honestly. "I've never trusted anyone enough to let them in. In my previous life, I was fighting a war when I was eleven, and then when the war ended, I was looking after my godson, fighting the government through politics, and then I was fighting a war again. I never had the chance to find someone I could trust enough to let them into my heart. In this life, I just found it so hard to connect with people. Everyone, they just seem like children to me, it wasn't till I met you when I realised how very few people I was friends with. You've taught me what it means to live without fighting, and you showed me the joy and wonders of life. And at the same time, you made your way into my heart."

"I had a wife once, children and grandchildren. But I lost them. I'm scared that if we get any closer, I might lose you too." The Doctor admitted sadly.

Reaching across the small gap separating them on the sofa, I grasped the Doctor's hand in my own. "When I had the Vortex in my head, I was able to see a brief moment of myself in the future. Doctor, the longer I spend around the TARDIS, the stronger my healing factor becomes and the more in tuned to time I become. I'm going to live a very long time Doctor." I told him softly.

"Do you mean…?" the Doctor trailed of questioning.

"I'm not going to leave you." I promised him.

That was all the Doctor needed to hear to close the gap between the two of us and kiss me. This time, the both of us were in complete control of our bodies, minds and actions which we hadn't been the last two times we had kissed.

"So then Doctor, you were teaching me about the Denoth?" I questioned when we broke apart.

"Ah, yes, so I was." Doctor agreed, leaning back on the sofa, grateful that this new development in their relationship wasn't going to affect the way they acted around each other.