The harsh Austrailian sunlight bleached the world around him, but the Doctor did not bother to squint as he climbed the steps to the small suburban house. Roses of almost every imaginable shade bloomed around the home, and he smiled faintly as he realised that even here thoughts of her were with him though she slumbered on in the TARDIS.
He paused on the threshhold of her door, poised to knock. The Doctor recalled the circumstances that had led to her departure and slowly dropped his hand. Suppressing a woeful sigh, the Time Lord left without knocking on Tegan Jovanka's door.
"Doctor?" Peri's voice was tinged with fear and a hint of panic as she searched for her travelling companion. One minute, his multi-coloured coat had been just before her. The next, she was alone in the labyrinth. What if he never found her again? What if she was going to be stuck here forever? What if she was going to die here?
"Doctor!" She was starting to panic. Of course, it didn't help that the Doctor's ball of string had run out long ago. The chalk was a great idea, but he only had a stub that broke every time he tried to mark the walls. She had no way of finding him. Peri began to lengthen her stride, glancing from side to side as she passed openings. One would think that bright yellow would be impossible to hide among stark grey, but somehow the Doctor managed it. Her panic started to turn to anger. She was going to murder him for leaving her, even if he might regenerate. Maybe next time he wouldn't try to kill her, or leave her alone in a laby...She screamed as a hand landed on her shoulder.
"Peri!" a strange voice hissed, "It's me. Quiet!"
She turned to find herself facing a dark haired man wearing a leather jacket. Whoever 'me' was, she certainly didn't know him. Though, she cast an appreciative eye over him, she wouldn't mind getting to know him. "Um, who are you?" Sometimes she rather hated how her voice tended to crack when she was angry or scared.
"The Doctor. Hello!" He grinned at her, grinned at her, and acted like she was expected to automatically accept him.
She felt the pit of her stomach drop to the floor at the introduction. He didn't. He couldn't. When had he gotten a better fashion sense? "Oh no. Not again."
"Not...oh, no Peri. I'm not the seventh me. I'm a later - and better looking - version; the other me is still running around in this labyrinth looking for you. So we don't have much time."
Peri shook her head. "I don't understand, Doctor. Why are you here?"
"Just to ask you a question." His expression reminded her of a guilty child caught with his hand in the sweets jar.
"Oh-kay," she drew out the word, looking at him expectantly.
"What's love?"
Both of her eyebrows shot upwards at the words. "What's love?" she repeated, fighting the temptation to start laughing. Only the Doctor, any version of him, would scare the daylights out of her just to ask a question like that. Peri shook her head. "Love is...well...it just is. I don't know what it's like, really. One of my friends said that it's like being in a patch of sunlight on a cloudy day. The sunlight follows you around, where ever you go. Even if it's cloudy, or raining, or snowing. I love you," Backtrack, girl! Backtrack! "Er, well, I love you as a friend. The Doctor that I know, but not to say that I don't or wouldn't care about you. But that's not romantic love."
The Time Lord's brow furrowed as he considered what she said. He could not deny that it was an apt analogy, especially when he considered how he felt now. Though she was safely in the TARDIS, he missed her but knowing that she was there filled him with warmth. All of the companions he had talked to had essentially repeated what he had already known. Leela's words came back to him as he looked at Peri. "How do you know you're in love?"
"You just...do," she shrugged helplessly. "I really can't answer that."
He sighed. "Alright. Thank you, Peri." The Doctor turned and made as if he were about to walk away, but Peri's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"Doctor, just tell her. Okay? She'd want to know."
"Tell her what?" He looked at her like a deer caught in headlights.
"You already know. But, before you get out of here...mind showing me the way out?" Peri asked hopefully.
"Take the next turn, follow it for about twenty metres and you'll run into me."
"How do you know?" she asked suspiciously.
"I remember." With a faint smile and a tap on his temple, the leather clad Doctor turned and walked in the opposite direction.
The American watched him leave. At least she could say that he got a better fashion sense the older he got. Her Doctor must be a fluke. Keeping that thought in mind, Peri headed down the corridor.