Her kiss was like magic. All of the Doctor's anger melted away at the feel of her lips on his own. Once he recovered from the oh-so-pleasant surprise, he found that he was helpless to do anything but return the gesture. He kissed her gently at first, but as he felt her body respond to him, he just could not help himself and the intensity between them increased until he had backed her up against a nearby tree.

It was at that moment that the dam broke, and all of the want and need that he had felt for her since they had met erupted out of him. He pressed his full length firmly against hers and then snogged her with a wild passion that she returned just as enthusiastically. Then, when she let a little moan, his lower regions responded, and his jeans immediately became uncomfortably tight at the sound of her enjoyment. It was not until he heard himself echo the sentiment, however, with a low groaning sound of his own, that he suddenly came back to his senses - and reality crashed back down around him. He pulled away from her quickly, then, his breath heavy and rapid - despite his respiratory bypass. It was only then that he noticed just how close he had come to completely losing control and realized that he probably would have already taken her passionately - right against that tree - if they both had not been fully clothed!

"I'm…sorry, Hermione," he mumbled when she looked at him with surprise and confusion at his sudden withdrawal. When he saw her reach out for him in concern, he panicked and said the first thing that came to his mind. "Adrenaline, you know…after a fight, the sudden rush of hormones…sometimes causes people to…" He then winced as he realized how pathetic of an excuse that seemed…but it was too late.

"Oh…adrenaline...I see," Hermione replied quietly as she realized what he was really saying – that he did not really want her – that he had obviously just gotten caught up in the moment. Her hand, the one that had been stretched towards him, suddenly fell uselessly back to her side. She felt the tears well up behind her eyelids and had to busy herself by straightening her clothing while trying to blink the moisture away before he noticed.

"Well…I guess…that we need to get back to the TARDIS then. She…will probably be worried about us now," she continued, while she did her best to keep the tremor out of her voice and to avoid meeting the Doctor's eyes. She did not want to see the pity that she felt sure was present there – especially since she had completely mistaken his intentions after she had literally thrown herself at him. Consequently, she kept her eyes on her wand as she pulled it out. She paused only to look sadly at the crack again before she muttered the Point Me spell that would help lead them back to their friend and mode of transport.

Hermione quickly headed off in the direction that the wand indicated - without pausing to reach for his hand to hold on the way back to the ship the way that she had always done before. That was when he suddenly realized just how much he probably had hurt her with his suggestion that his actions had been caused by battle-fueled hormones rather than the affection and passion for her that he had struggled to contain ever since she had appeared in his ship. However, he quickly realized that the damage had already been done. She refused to meet his eyes and he could not think of any words to say that would remedy the situation instead of making it worse. Consequently, they both walked in silence…and with heavy hearts…all the way back to the TARDIS.

As soon as they entered the ship, he headed straight for the console and set the controls to take them into the Vortex. "Dinner?" he then asked gently, his eyes still looking down towards the buttons and levers – without actually seeing them. He had a feeling that he already knew what her answer would be before she even opened her mouth.

He was right. "I'm not really hungry," she replied quietly. "I think that I will get cleaned up and then go on to bed. Good night, Doctor." Then, without a backwards glance, so he would not see the tears shining in her eyes, she walked out of the console room. As he watched her go, the Doctor silently cursed his own stupidity, and his helplessness to fix the situation that had been his own doing.

…

Hermione barely made it to her room before the tears came. She simply tossed off her clothes without notice or care where they landed, as she stumbled into the bathroom. The TARDIS sent her comforting thoughts and feelings of affection as she adjusted the water temperature to one slightly hotter than usual in order to help her human friend relax. Then the ship also provided fresh towels and cozy PJs for Hermione, as well. The young woman did not notice the little kindnesses, however. Instead, she just sobbed in the shower while the water flowed unheeded around her. Consequently, the ship decided to go and give her other inhabitant a piece of her mechanically sentient mind – especially since she had unashamedly pulled the reason for Hermione's unhappiness straight from the witch's memory.

…

The TARDIS instantly located the Doctor as he tinkered under the console. It was his go-to place and activity when he needed to think – and he definitely needed to think at the moment! Therefore, he did not expect the electrical shock that the TARDIS sent his way – seemingly out of the blue. He cursed and shot up, banging his head on the bottom of the console in the process. As he emerged from underneath her control panels, shaking the one hand that still tingled and rubbing the sore spot on his head with the other, she sent him the image of Hermione crying in the shower.

"Oh," he said with sudden understanding as he half-sat, half-collapsed down on the jumpseat. The sight of that dear girl's misery, something that he had caused, wrenched something deep inside of him. She thought that he had rejected her. That beautiful, desirable, kind, gentle, loving woman thought that he did not want her – when nothing could have been further from the truth.

However, he tried to see it from her point of view as he thought back to the events that had happened out there in the jungle. He realized that she had seen his pain over what he had done and was simply trying to reassure him with a kiss. The kiss quickly spiraled out of control, but she had enjoyed it. She had welcomed his passion and met it with her own. She had wanted him, too! Oh, how just the thought of that threatened to overwhelm him - even now! Being on the receiving end of Hermione Granger's passion had been a spectacular experience - only for him to basically throw it back in her face and blame what they had both felt on nothing more than common hormones.

She had lost everything, but had come to trust him and care about him – perhaps as even more than a friend - and he had hurt her with what must have seemed like a harsh rejection the very first time since her loss that she had put herself forward and offered all that she had. He had not meant it like that at all, but he was sure that was how she had taken it - and now the damage had been done. He could have handled the situation so much better. However, now he was afraid that he had completely ruined any chance of even friendship with that amazing woman – when all he had wanted to do was maintain a little physical and emotional distance.

Well, that shouldn't be a problem now, he thought glumly.

He asked the TARDIS what Hermione was doing right at that minute and she showed him a flash of the witch as she laid in bed and hugged her pillow as if it were her only friend. She probably thought that it truly was – because who knew what she thought about him now...and she had lost everyone else except for the TARDIS. He then distinctly remembered that she had once told him the TARDIS was not able to give very good hugs and, therefore, she had offered him one of her own. His guilt increased even more at that point when he remembered how she had seen his own personal pain so early on and had set out to soothe it. How could he soothe hers, though, when he was the one who had caused it?

"Damn!" he said aloud and rubbed his face in consternation. "How am I going to fix this without making it seem as if I am just patronizing or pitying her?" he asked aloud.

However, there was nobody to answer him except the TARDIS and she was no longer in the mood to acknowledge him. He soon realized, however, that he had plenty of time to think about the situation as he sat on the jumpseat - all night, in fact! The Old Girl had made her displeasure and disappointment with him clear by hiding the entire bedroom corridor…and even the library and its sofa…from him.

…

The next morning Hermione woke and immediately thought of the wretched events of the previous evening. She flushed with embarrassment when she thought of her own behavior towards the Doctor and suddenly realized that, no matter how much it had hurt her, she could not hold anything that had happened against him. After all, she had replayed the scene in her mind a hundred times before she fell into a fitful sleep and finally thought she understood what had happened. A kiss between two lonely people had just gotten a bit out of control and when he realized it, he had tried to step back graciously. It had not worked out quite that way, and his choice of words had been poorly thought out, but she honestly did not think that he had meant to hurt her.

She had just taken it a bit too personally – probably due to her recent tragedy and overwhelming need for some personal contact again – not to mention the attraction that she felt for him anyway. However, she had already acknowledged that he had been trying to keep things light between them so that it would not be so hard for them when they inevitably had to part. Therefore, she could not really blame him for not wanting to…well…let things go any further than they had. Seeing him have regrets…afterwards…would certainly have been much worse than this bit of self-pity and embarrassment, she rationalized.

Even though it hurt to think about them, too, Hermione also realized that, in order to keep their friendship, she had forgiven both Harry and Ron many times in the past when they had hurt her feelings, too. That was true even when they (especially Ron) had done it on purpose. Therefore, this was not worth losing the Doctor's friendship over, either – especially since she was now quite sure that he really had not meant it the way that it had felt at the time. Hermione could not believe that the Doctor would ever purposely hurt her like that.

She soon realized that she felt better for having made a decision. However, she also knew that her next meeting with the Doctor was probably going to be an awkward one. Even so, she may currently be a time and space traveler, but she was still a Gryffindor at heart. Gryffindors stood up for what they believed in…and she still believed in the Doctor.