XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxx

Chapter 22 - Drunken Confessions

The Doctor collapsed into the bed once he and Rose were in their room. He lay on his back and rubbed his hand in his hair.

"How are you doing?" Rose asked him as she sat on the side of the bed, facing him.

"Sweetheart, I'm fine! Really. I told you that it takes a lot to get a Time Lord drunk."

He did look fine.

"Okay, I'll be right back. Just stay there." she told him.

He lay there, rubbing his head.

A few moments later, Rose came back into the room. She had changed into her pajamas.

"Rose, can you turn off the ceiling fan?"

Rose looked up at the fan. "It's not on."

"It's not?"

"No. Are you sure you are okay?"

"But it's spinning."

"Maybe it's the room, Doctor."

He rubbed his head. "Maybe it is."

She handed him her phone, "Can you put that on the nightstand for me?"

"Sure." He took the phone and rolled too fast and fell into the floor with a loud thump.

"Oh my god!" Rose screamed. She rushed to the other side of the bed to find the Doctor laying on the floor, laughing hysterically.

"Are you hurt?" she laughed at him.

He could only shake his head no. He was laughing too hard to form words.

Rose rolled her eyes at him and started laughing. "Here, let me help you back up on the bed."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, no, no Rose. I need to lay here a minute."

She sat down next to him. He lay his head in her lap as he lay in the floor and continued to laugh.

He pulled himself together and tried to reassure her. "Rose, I'm fine. Really. It's just a smaller bed than I'm used to."

"Right." she mumbled as she laughed at him. "I think you are trashed, old man."

"I'm not!" he said laughing at her.

"Prove it." she demanded.

"How can I prove something like that? Just take my word for it!" he demanded.

He grabbed her hand and held it.

Rose wasn't buying it. "Okay, let me ask you something."

He laughed at her, "Sure, sweetheart. Ask me anything."

Rose thought. "What's in your box?"

He got serious. "Now, that. I've decided I'm going to tell you what that is." He said as he pointed up to her. "But, not tonight. You are going to figure out soon if I don't, and then you are going to be really mad."

"Mad enough to punch you?" she teased him.

"No." he said seriously. "Mad enough to leave me. And I can't let you."

He started to laugh at her again.

"You daft alien. You are so funny." she chuckled at him. Was he serious? What on earth could he be hiding.

Rose never thought she'd ever see her Doctor in such a state.

"That's the best question you have for me, Rose? Really? All of time and space? I've seen all of that. Twice in some causes. In one case, five of me saw it! And you are worried about a box?"

He stopped and ran his hand through his hair. "It was just five of me, wasn't it? I can't remember."

Rose thought for a moment. "You probably won't remember this in the morning."

"Nah, I'm sure I will. I'm very clever, remember?" he reassured her as he tapped the side of his head and winked at her. Rose could feel his emotions. She felt happiness, extreme absentmindedness, and love. She smiled at him as she realized he so secure with her. She felt that stronger than anything else coming from him.

"How many companions have you ever had?" Rose asked.

"A maths question. Hmmm... I'm usually good at maths." He scratched his chin. "I don't know, there's been a lot." he told her.

"Okay, who was your first ever companion?"

He rubbed her hand in his.

"The very first?" He pulled her hand up to kiss it. "I usually don't talk about her. It was a very, very long time ago."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She started feeling sadness from him. Heartache.

"No, it's alright." he told her as he rubbed her hands in his. "Her name was Susan. She was beautiful."

She could feel the love he was feeling as he spoke of her.

"Did you love her?" Rose asked him curiously.

"Of course I did! Still do!" he demanded as he looked her seriously in the face. "She was with me for a very, very, very long time."

"Did you have grand adventures?" Rose teased him.

"Oh, we did. First time out we managed to crash into some caverns in the moon. The idiots there tried to take apart my TARDIS and caused the stasis field to breach. It froze me, Susan and the idiots there until the TARDIS could recharge herself."

"How long did that take?" Rose asked.

"450 million years." the Doctor told her as he looked up at her face and laughed. "Can you believe that?"

Rose was sure he was kidding. She shook her head and chuckled. "What happened to her?"

"She left me and married David." he told her as he rolled his head in her lap a bit. He rubbed her hands in his.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Rose felt bad for him, she was feeling his sadness.

He looked up at her seriously. "No, it's okay. I told her to. She needed a normal life. I had already had my life. She didn't need to hang around with an old man like me forever."

Rose looked shocked at those words. "Gosh, sounds like me and you. Didn't you say the same about us years ago?"

"No, Rose." he told her seriously as he closed his eyes and shook his head in her lap. "We are different. You are human...well... Susan wasn't." Then as though he just realized it. "Although, David was human."

Rose could feel his heartache and sadness continue. "She thought she needed to stay and take care of me. I was very old. In fact, I regenerated from old age not long after she left. I told her that I didn't want her to be anxious, cry, or have any regrets. They needed one another. She didn't need me anymore."

"How could you know that?" Rose asked him. She could feel his sorrow, but also his determination.

"I just knew. I can't explain it." he told her as he closed his eyes. "She would have wasted her life away with me. She ended up adopting three children and then her and David had a son later. Alex. That's my middle name too!" He smiled like a loon.

"Boy, you are trashed." Rose laughed at him.

"Yeah, I think I might be." he said as he smiled really big.

"Susan wasn't human? What was she?"

"A Time Lady." he said as he brought Rose's hands up to kiss them. "She was almost done at the Academy when we left Gallifrey. I wanted her to be happy. There was nothing left for us there, so we left."

"Do you think she was happy?"

He looked up and her and smiled. "She told me it was the best time of her life."

Rose couldn't believe he was telling her this. He had told her a lot that he had ran away, but never knew he was with someone.

"Do you feel like trying to lay down in the bed, yet?" Rose asked him.

"We're not in the bed?" the Doctor asked her.

"No, sweetheart. We are in the floor."

"Oh. That explains why this mattress is so hard."

Rose laughed at him as she helped him up into the bed. She took off his shoes and got him settled.

"Yeah, this is much better. Thank you, Rose." she lay on his shoulder and kissed him as he held her in his arms.

His eyes were closed. "I love you more than I really should, Rose. Susan always tried to get me to see the best in humans, and I was always so scared of them. I wonder what she would say to see us together."

"Do you think she would be happy for you?" Rose asked him.

"Probably shocked as hell. But, yeah. She would have wanted me to be happy, too. I'm sure of it. She was a precious child." he said sleepily. He rubbed her back and arm. Then he stopped.

Rose lay there for a while. She was nearly sure that the Doctor had went to sleep.

She whispered, "I love you, Doctor."

He didn't open his eyes. He turned his face and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you, too Rose. Don't worry about what Jake said. We'll get it all sorted."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX