ooooOoooo
"Well? Did you? Kiss her?" Ace was practically bouncing in her seat, her half-eaten sandwich clutched, forgotten, in one hand.
To her disappointment, the Doctor shook his head. "No. Impulsive and slightly scatter-brained though I may have been in that particular incarnation, I still knew how to read a situation. Romana wasn't ready for that kind of a kiss. Not then, not so soon after admitting that she'd basically thrown away a perfectly good incarnation out of an overblown sense of guilt."
"But she was right," Ace pointed out around a mouthful of her rediscovered sandwich. "You did make the choice to allow Princess Astra to die or become a key or whatever."
"Yes, well, forgive me if I found that preferable to plunging the entire universe into chaos," the Doctor snapped.
"If you had the chance to do it over again, would you?"
"Yes." There wasn't a hint of doubt in the Doctor's voice or expression.
"Would she? Would Romana?"
This time the Doctor hesitated, but only for a moment. "Yes, I believe she would. She's even less fond of chaos than I am."
Ace shrugged. "Then the choice was the right one, Professor. So was not kissing Romana that time. So when did you?" Her eyes sparkled as she asked the question that mattered the most to her at this moment. Ethics and philosophy were all well and good, but nothing beat a good snog.
The faraway look returned to the Doctor's eyes, his Scottish burr becoming more pronounced as he lowered his coffee cup to the table. "Paris."
"City of romance, right? Or was that lights?" Ace pondering was a sight that tickled the Doctor's sense of whimsy, but fortunately he managed to stifle the chuckle before it emerged.
"Both, actually. We'd just taken care of the Jagaroth and left that detective fellow, what was his name? Dugan? Wiggins? No, Duggan, that was it. Left him at the top of the Eiffel Tower, headed for the TARDIS."
"And then what?"
"We stopped for dinner."