After their meal, Hermione insisted on clearing the mess. "Please let me handle this, TARDIS," she said. Then, with a wink at the Doctor, she pulled her wand out of her sleeve, muttered a few words while moving her wand in a counterclockwise motion. In the blink of an eye, the table was clear and the dishes were cleaned and stored back in their cupboard.

"Fantastic!" The Doctor expressed his approval of her actions with another of his manic grins. "I never had much patience for domestics, myself." Then he turned his attention to the witch. "Are you ready for the infirmary now? I would like to run another complete scan to make sure everything is back on track before running the Dermal Regenerator over your arm. I can also run the muscle stimulator as well. That and a hot bath will help to work out the soreness that you are experiencing."

"That sounds fine," she answered, her voice a bit weary as she was again forcefully reminded of her injuries...and their cause. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and will away the encroaching memories. After a moment, she felt collected enough to reopen them and turned her attention back to the Doctor. "Should the bath come first or after?" she asked, plucking at her jumper and wrinkling her nose a bit. "I've slept twice in these clothes now and I feel a bit…icky."

"It will probably be better to wait until afterwards," the Doctor answered. You will have to...disrobe…for the scans, anyway." He did not quite understand why the thought of seeing her in her underwear again unbalanced him a bit. After all, he had been mostly okay with the situation yesterday. However, they had been strangers, then. Now, they were…friends. He pushed these thoughts out of his head, though, and offered his hand to her. He smiled as she took it. "Let's see if she has moved the infirmary. Do you remember where it was last time?"

Hermione's morose mood lightened at the question. "Is this a test, Professor?" she asked cheekily and grinned almost despite herself. "Of course, I remember! It was the first room on the right side of the left hand corridor off of the console room." This was directed at him. However, then she also said in a louder voice, "TARDIS, dear, you really don't have to move rooms around for me, unless there is an emergency. I really don't mind the walk, plus this old man here could probably use the exercise, too!" Then she winked at the Doctor to show that she was just joking. The ship seemed to approve, as well, because he could feel her amusement practically oozing through the walls.

"My girls," he muttered, shaking his head with his own amusement, as Hermione led the way – still holding his hand. Neither one of them thought twice about the fact that he had used the world "my" to describe her. It had just felt natural.

…

Once they got to the infirmary, Hermione automatically stripped down while the Doctor set the scan. He then turned around to suggest that very action and his mouth went dry when he saw that she had anticipated his request and was already standing there in a lovely matching bra and knickers set. He noticed that she still looked very thin, but her color was better and she certainly was not lacking in confidence as she gazed at him questioningly. "Do I need to remove these, as well?" she asked. "Will they interfere with the instruments?"

"What? No!" exclaimed the Doctor, a bit thrown off by her self-assurance in this situation.

Hermione caught on to his unease and smiled. "It's okay, Doctor," she said reassuringly. "I spent the last year on the run, living in a tent with two men, my two best friends since our first year in school together." Here her breath hitched and her eyes and voice filled with sadness again. After a moment of silence to collect herself, she continued with what she had been saying. "Luxuries like privacy just didn't exist for us then. Therefore, I have learned to…adapt…to conditions. I am not embarrassed or afraid to be in my undies in front of someone I trust." Then she smiled at him gently as she went to lie down on the small bed.

With her expression of trust, he could not help but to feel pleased. However, after a moment, his repressed guilt came crushing back down on him. He had managed to keep it at bay since Hermione had arrived, but now he could not stop thinking of how unworthy he was of her trust. She did not know what he had done. She did realize that he was probably just as bad as her worst enemies, even though he did it because he had to – not because he wanted to! With those sobering thoughts in mind, he set the full body scan and let it run over her while he went to the cabinet to prepare another vitamin hypospray. Therefore, he did not notice that she also watched him with concern. She wondered what he could possibly be thinking about that had turned his expression so sad that quickly.

Meanwhile, the first scan had finished, and the Doctor was glad to see that all of her numbers were looking better than they had the day before. However, he was concerned to see that two discolored areas were showing up on her dermal scan. One was the half healed carving on her arm and the other was located on her abdomen. He glanced over at that area, but he could see nothing unusual. Then he remembered how she had hidden her arm the first time. "Hermione, please take the spell off," he asked as calmly as he could when he realized that she was hiding another injury. "If I can't see it, I can't heal it," he said gently, but firmly, as he gestured towards her abdomen area.

She sighed heavily because she had hoped that he would not notice it. "It's an old one, just a scar now," she said apologetically, "but you won't like it at all." She called for her wand, from where it lay upon her pile of neatly folded clothes, and it zoomed into her hand. Then she made a circular motion with it over her abdomen and whispered a spell. That action effectively removed the glamour that hid the scar that Dolohov had put there during the battle at the Ministry during her fifth year. Then she waited for his reaction. However, she was not prepared for just how upset that he would get!

"Bloody hell, Hermione!" the Doctor exclaimed and clenched his fists as the old wound flickered and then came into view. It was a huge angry purple scar that slashed diagonally across her abdomen starting under her right breast and ending up on her left hip. It looked like someone had tried to disembowel her! He struggled to contain his anger again and his utter horror when he thought of somebody doing something that terrible to such a lovely young woman.

Hermione was concerned when she saw how distressed he had become at the sight of her scar. "It's okay, Doctor, really!" she exclaimed and she grabbed his hands in hers and rubbed her thumbs against his fists gently until he relaxed enough to unclench them. "It was a long time ago and I'm okay now. It happened back when I was sixteen – during my first real battle. It was just a handful of us kids against the Death Eaters that day." She eyes clouded at the memory of losing Sirius to the veil right after she received her injury. She then shook her head, though, as if she could clear away the painful thoughts that way. She could not afford to slip into her bad memories. She then thought about his earlier words to her in the library, looked up at him, and gave into a rare moment of self-consciousness. "I thought that you said that you wouldn't mind looking at me – in spite of my scars."

"Hermione," he said firmly with his lips pressed in a tight line because he was still trying to suppress his anger. "I hope that you know that it is not you with whom I have a problem. However, I would love to get my hands on the sick bastard who did this to you!"

"Oh, Doctor," she said gently, surprised at the depth of his emotion. She then released one of his hands to reach up to stroke his cheek, instead. "Thank you so much for caring!" She then shocked him by leaning forward to kiss the opposite cheek from the one that she was touching. She had already started to care for her new friend quite a lot - and it warmed her heart to know that he felt the same.

Both of his hearts seem to stutter at her simple kiss. He slowly let go of his anger as he realized that he would like nothing more than to take her in his arms and claim her mouth as his own. Then he wanted to move on to the rest of her body! He only allowed himself to indulge in that fantasy for just a brief moment, before he shook his head and frantically looked around for a distraction, hoping against hope that she had not noticed his reaction. "The Dermal Regenerator," he all but shouted in his relief at finding an appropriate diversion. "We will use it on this big one first." He gently pushed her back onto the bed and tried to distract his mind from the obvious thoughts that the action conjured. He may be an ancient alien, but a pretty girl on a bed, especially this pretty girl, could still get his imagination up and running. He gently ran his fingertips over the scar, and listened in amazement when her breath hitched.

Could I be having an effect on her, as well? he thought incredulously. He tried in vain to clear these musings out of his mind and got back to the business at hand. He explained to her that she would feel a slight tickle, much like what he had just done to her with his fingertips, while the DR was working. He then sat down on the bed next to her in order to set the DR. He also programmed it to change its shape to a flat flexible rectangle which he draped over the entire scar area before he turned it on. The quiet hum and Hermione's little giggle at the sensation told him that it was working. He then pulled a blanket up over her scantily clad form so that she would not be cold or uncomfortable during the treatment. He worked in silence as he tried to get his emotions under control, as well. His sadness and guilt warred with his attraction to Hermione, and he was determined to hide it all from her!

She has enough to worry about without adding my emotional instability to the mix! he thought ruefully.