oooOooo

"Why do I get the feeling you keep stopping just when things are about to get more interesting?" Ace grumped, jumping to her feet and leaning against the TARDIS console.

"Because I am," the Doctor replied, climbing rather more slowly to his own feet, grimacing slightly as he stretched his back. "There's only so far I'm willing to go in my role as educator, young lady, I thought I'd already made that perfectly clear."

"You invited her to your room for tea and conversation, then leave my imagination to fill in the blanks," Ace continued to complain, but the mischievous glint had returned to her eye. "I've got a great imagination, Professor. You might be better off telling me exactly what happened so I don't make up things that would horrify you."

"Not a chance," the Doctor snapped, but there was a matching sparkle in his own eye. He was enjoying baiting her as much as she was him, Ace realized with a start. When had this turned into a game between them?

"All right, then," she said, playing along. "So how did it end? Why did she really leave? And none of that rubbish about no more fun that Turlough put in his journal," she added. "I want the real scoop."

"You read Turlough's journal?" the Doctor asked, diverted by this further evidence of Ace's excessive nosiness. "That's going a bit far, young lady."

"It was appended to Mel's files," Ace replied virtuously. Of course, she'd appended it herself after stumbling across the file by accident, but she wasn't about to tell the Doctor that. There hadn't been anything really juicy, just a lot of whining and this bit about how Tegan had run off after the Daleks had been stopped. Ace had never met Turlough, but she could understand Tegan's apparently frequent urges to slap him; his superior tone came through loud and clear when he wrote she "couldn't take it any more because she was too weak." Ace didn't buy that assessment for a minute.

The Doctor reluctantly let it go, although he still eyed her suspiciously. "Tegan left because I was becoming someone she didn't recognize, without even bothering to regenerate," he answered after a moment spent searching for the right words. "Someone she was afraid to share her life with afterwards. She'd told me when it was time to leave the TARDIS she'd go on her own terms, and I took her at her word."

"Did you ever bother going back to make sure she really meant it?"

"Oh, she meant it all right," the Doctor replied grimly. "The worst part was, I couldn't argue with her; I barely recognized myself at that point. Nyssa was gone, she still had absolutely no use for Turlough, so there was nothing tying her to the TARDIS except me, and her own passion for adventure. I managed to dim that passion as well as the one we had for each other, so she left. End of story." The sparkle was gone from his eyes, and he turned away.

Ace knew that was all he was going to say on the subject. As she had during his recitation of his relationship with Sarah Jane Smith, she felt a nagging guilt, but knew it wouldn't stop her from asking about other past loves. It was the endings that did it, she decided. Endings were always sad, even happy ever after, if only because the story was finished. And the Doctor never seemed to have a happy ever after.

No, she wouldn't let that stop her. She couldn't wait to hear about Romana; after all, she'd gotten more detail on Tegan than she had on Sarah Jane, which could only mean the Doctor really did want to confide in her.

As Ace strolled out of the TARDIS Console Room, the Doctor could have sworn she was whistling "Someday My Prince Will Come." He shuddered. That could not bode well for him.

Author's Note: The first story in this series was originally intended as a stand alone, and in fact I wrote it about 10 years ago, when the 7th Doctor was quite a bit fresher in my mind. If there are differences in my writing style, that would be the reason: the passage of time. Please tell me what you think, if this series is worth continuing or if you feel it might be too repetitious after a while.