oooOooo

"I wish to travel with you, to see other worlds. But you see me as a child, and I am forced to show you that I am not." With those words, she'd stood up, releasing him from the stranglehold she had on his scarf, taking her knee out of the small of his back. She'd been hiding behind the door, waiting for him to come fully into the room, lured on by the sight of her "accidentally" dropped pouch of Janus thorns. When he'd reached for it, she'd jumped him. From behind. Rather unsporting, but considering the difference in size between them, he could hardly fault her tactics.

He slowly rolled over, eyebrows reaching for the brim of his hat as he realized she had divested herself of more than just her pouch of thorns. She was, in fact, completely naked. He remained prone out of something very much like shock as she knelt by his side, reaching carefully for his hat and placing it gently on the floor next to his left elbow. "I am not a child," she repeated. "Can you see that?"

He'd nodded, any and all words he might have spoken lying tangled behind the sudden dryness of his throat. She leaned forward, her hair brushing his cheeks. "I wish to stay with you, Doctor," she'd murmured, pressing her hands against his shoulders, gently levering him back to the wardrobe floor. It was strewn with clothes, offering an eccentric sort of mattress, and he allowed himself to be pushed. When she leaned closer, her breasts brushing against his chest, nipples hardening at the contact, he groaned. Suddenly there were too many layers of clothes between them. His hands rose of their own volition, fumbling with the buttons, Leela eagerly helping him with the unfamiliar fastenings and fabrics, adding them to the other discarded pieces lying in heaps all about them.

The kiss came not long after he'd removed himself of his jacket, waistcoat and shirt, while Leela impatiently tugged his scarf from around his neck, giggling at its length. He'd caught her arms, their eyes had met, and she'd moved forward at the same time he did. Their lips met with a violence that caught him off guard, startled him even as it aroused his most primitive instincts...not to mention certain body parts.

After a moment he pulled back, gasping for breath. He tasted the iron tang of blood on his lip, and dabbed automatically at it with his tongue. Leela was breathing just as hard, her skin flushed as she pushed her dark hair away from her face. She reached for him again, pulling him closer, and he let himself be pulled, as eager to continue the experience as she was...

oooOooo

No matter how much he teased Ace, no matter how much she'd initially teased him, details like that were best kept to himself. And therein lay his dilemma; the way their relationship had started was pretty well how it had continued. Right up to the end, when she'd started pulling away, abruptly making herself unavailable for long stretches of time. Even before they landed on Gallifrey and found it at war, and a sympathetic Chancellory Guard on hand...

"Leela was determined to prove to me she was an adult, and I was quite willing to let her," he finally said, gazing intently into his cup. Ace sipped her own tea, waiting as patiently as he'd ever seen her wait for anything. "We shared our first kiss and, er, other things, almost immediately after she thrust herself into the TARDIS." He winced; poor choice of words that, but at least there was a grin tugging at the corners of Ace's lips, so he'd managed not to stray too far into "otter" territory. "Of course I allowed her to stay, but I never could seem to stop trying to civilize her. I think that might have been what drove her to stay on Gallifrey. With Andred," he admitted quietly. He'd long given up trying to figure out why he was sharing all this with Ace. Perhaps it was as simple as needing to tell someone, to share his feelings for the remarkable women who'd come in and out of his life. "I could never seem to stop myself lecturing her, criticizing her for being exactly who she was."

"You couldn't help wanting to change her, is that it? Even though the bits you were trying to change were the bits you liked best," Ace said, and once again the Doctor found himself marveling at her ability to get right to the heart of the matter. Even when the matter was his own heart.

"Exactly. Andred, apparently, didn't try to do that, although he'd hardly have had time, what with dodging Sontarans and trying to stave off a full invasion of Gallifrey." A certain critical tone had entered the Doctor's voice, and he deliberately forced it down. "In any case, she decided it was time to leave, and she did so with the exact same single-minded determination with which she entered my life. I had nothing to say about it either way," the Doctor concluded. He took a sip of his tea, grimacing as he realized he'd let it go cold. "Of all the romantic entanglements I allowed myself, the one I shared with Leela was both the most simplistic and at the same time to most complex. I already told you I felt she was the most innocent of all my companions, but don't misunderstand; she was no child, no innocent when it came to sexual knowledge."

"I'm still a virgin," Ace suddenly blurted out.

The Doctor stared at her, distracted and unsettled by that unexpected revelation. Unexpected to Ace as well, he thought, judging by the sudden rush of blood to her face. "Well." He stopped, completely at a loss for words.

"There's been a few chaps, you know, back home and even while I've been traveling with you," Ace rushed on, in spite of the redness of her features, the nervous movements of her hands. "But it never seemed right. And I guess I wanted to wait for the right one." She stopped, as abruptly as she'd started, still staring at him, all defiance gone, looking as young as she actually was for once in her life.

"Ace, that's very commendable of you," the Doctor said slowly. Feeling his way. "But I'm not sure why you felt the need to tell me this. It's not necessary, I don't expect tit for tat when it comes to personal confessions."

"My mum, she had boyfriends when I was younger. Lots of them, after my dad left." Ace spoke as if she hadn't heard his words, and her eyes were focused on the middle distance. Much, the Doctor suspected, as his own had been during a great deal of the stories he'd shared with her. "Most of them ignored me, but some liked to hit things when they were drunk. Mum, mostly, but sometimes me." Her voice was very soft. The Doctor sat quite still, sensing that any movement from him might bring this particular moment to an end. "Mum put up with it, except when they tried to...touch me." A light shudder rippled her frame, but her voice remained steady. "Then she'd pitch them out, no second chances. It was the only real watching over me she did," she added, a note of bitterness creeping into her voice. "Rest of the time she had no idea where I was or what I was doing. But at night, when her fellows came round, she finally paid attention, made sure they kept their filthy hands to themselves. And I told myself I'd never be like that. So I haven't." She fell abruptly silent.

"I'm very sorry to hear that, Ace." The Doctor spoke softly, soothingly, but not pityingly. She'd never accept even the hint of that in his or anyone else's voice. "But at least your mother did have some sense of protectiveness toward you."

Ace shrugged, not bothering to feign indifference. The Doctor had laid it all out for her, the least she could do was return the courtesy. "I never could tell if it was that she was trying to keep me safe, or that she just didn't want them to pay attention to anyone else but her."

"When offered alternate versions of reality, I generally prefer to accept the kinder of the options," the Doctor replied gently. "Except with Peri, of course," he felt constrained to add. "Except when the Master is the one offering the happy ending."

"Course, you'd have to be a nutter to listen to him," Ace agreed, some of her somberness lifting. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "So, Professor, is Leela really it? The last one you'll tell me about?" She'd said all she wanted to about her own situation, and the Doctor realized that by telling her not only about his relationships but also about the painful bits, he'd enabled her to share her own less-than-happy memories with him. He felt honored.

"She's the last one there is to tell anything about," the Doctor corrected her as he stood up, pushing his chair back and stretching slightly. He picked up his tea cup, turning to dump it in the sink. "I've already told you that, Ace."

"What about Susan's grandmother, then?" The Doctor went very still; it was the one story he'd hoped she'd forget about. "She really was your granddaughter, right?"

"Yes, she really is my granddaughter, and her mother was my daughter, and that is all I have to say on that particular subject, young lady." He turned, finally, to look at her. Sternly. "Leela was the last, and I ask that you accept that and let it be."

Ace studied him, then gave a tiny nod. A reluctant nod. A nod, the Doctor realized with a sudden flash of foreboding, that only conceded defeat for the moment. "Right, boundaries. Got it." Ace drained her cup, then tossed it to the Doctor, who caught it automatically and placed it in the sink next to his. Then Ace stood up, walked over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for sharing. I mean it. And when you're ready to share the rest, I'm ready to listen."

The Doctor stared after her as she exited the kitchen. "Oh, my," was all he could find to say. Ace being patient about this meant only one thing: she was more determined than ever to have her way. And God help him, he wasn't sure who would win this particular round.

The End