A/N: The Eighth Doctor and Charlotte Pollard are my Doctor Who OTP, hands down, and I couldn't pass up this opportunity to write them a bit of fluff. Their story begins in "Storm Warning." If that's not your kind of thing, normal service resumes next week.

Also, Kudos to "TARDISBlueBox" for finding the hidden pattern. (It's a phrase repeated in every story, for anyone who wants to keep looking for themselves.)

[In the life of the Doctor there are good days, and there are bad days. Sometimes, when he's feeling down, the TARDIS (who has a very long memory), takes over the viewscreen and reminds him of the good days.]

It took the eye a moment to adjust to the dim blue lighting that filled the vast new console room, which resembled a gentleman's private library more than the austere control centre of previous designs. And certainly, the man humming to himself as he moved around the wood and brass controls in the centre of the room looked the part of such an English gentleman.

Suddenly, the man pulled off his green overcoat and flung it down in frustration. "Ugh! Stupid!"

The attractive young woman across the room turned away from the bookshelves to regard him.

"You aren't usually so easily angered," she noted. "What's up, Doctor?"

"Oh, it's the TARDIS, Charley," the Doctor explained. "Every Time Lord is bonded to his ship through the Rassilon Imprimatur." He pressed a few buttons, to no apparent effect. "That means I should be able to understand to some degree the situation when something goes wrong. I shouldn't be getting a series of indecipherable error messages!" He tried some more buttons and received a decidedly negative sounding tone in response. The Doctor turned away from the console and flung himself into an armchair, sulking.

Charley Pollard came to sit opposite him, closing her book and setting it in her lap. "This couldn't have anything to do with me, could it?" she asked worriedly.

"Charley, we've been through this," the Doctor said, head back, staring at the ceiling.

"And you're sweet to keep on reassuring me," Charley replied, "but all these coincidences one after another…Ramsay, Edward Grove, Sebastian Grayle, and now this…That's a lot of coincidence. And I am supposed to be dead."

"Oh, Charley," the Doctor chuckled, "My life is a never-ending string of these sorts of things." He smiled at her. "It has been since long before I saved you. The TARDIS is pretty old now. She's probably just having a glitch in the communication lines. Aha!" he suddenly jumped to his feet.

"What is it?" Charley asked, confused.

"Oh, How could I have forgotten?" the Doctor laughed. "If the psychic communication is glitching, then… activate voice control!" Instantly, a small emitter on one side of the controls activated, projecting a life-sized hologram of the Doctor into the space beside him. "Voice control activated," it said, in an accurate, though slightly unemotional, replica of the Doctor's voice.

The Doctor looked at himself for a moment. "Why, hello there, me. A perfect holographic replication of this ship's captain. Boring!" He rushed suddenly to the other side of the controls to check the small monitor hanging from the top of the long Time Column in the middle of the controls. "Why don't you give me someone more interesting?" he said.

The hologram of the Doctor melted and reformed into a small but extremely shapely girl with short brown hair, wearing a form-fitting silver catsuit. "Error 307.6 Alpha 2," it said, the voice now feminine and intelligent-sounding.

Charley jumped up in surprise, her book falling out of her lap to the floor with a thump. "Who is that, Doctor?" she demanded.

"Hm?" The Doctor glanced up cursorily from the controls, his hands still blurring across the keyboard. "Oh, that's Zoe. Explain the meaning of error 307.6 Alpha 2," he shot at the hologram.

"Proximity to time corridor has activated emergency temporal orbit holding pattern," the hologram responded. "Precise co-ordinate instructions required to continue."

"I see," Charley said angrily. "And how long have you known her?"

"Oh, quite a while now, but-" too late, the Doctor registered Charley's tone and accusing stare. "No, Charley, it isn't like that."

"Oh, yeah, right," Charley spat. "You've just been traveling with another girl without mentioning it or me seeing her in passing. Sure, Doctor."

"No, Charley-Charley! Charley, I can explain!"

"Oh, no need to explain," the girl responded, eyeing the other girl's tight-fitting outfit. "Everything is quite clear, thank you. It would seem I'm not good enough for you. Well, that's fine! I'll just-"

She was cut off suddenly as the Doctor, having apparently worked his way around the control to stand next to her, enveloped her in a tight hug. "Hey! Let go of me!" She struggled, but the Doctor was larger than her and had her arms pinned to her sides.

"Charley, Zoe Heriot travelled with me some five hundred years ago," the Doctor said quietly. "She now has no memory of me or of our time together." Charley heard the sadness in his voice and stopped struggling. "She was a kind girl, intelligent, good with computers, though she had a knack for getting herself into trouble and needing to be rescued. I promise you, I do not favor her over you."

"And you haven't travelled with anyone else for the past five hundred years?" Charley asked suspiciously.

"Charley, your last boyfriend turned out to be a temporal construct used by his immortal grandfather to try and kill me," he chided her. "Yes, I've travelled with other people in the past. That doesn't matter, they're…gone." His voice cracked. "They left me, or were lost, or…What matters is that I'm travelling with you now, and I don't favor *anyone* over my best friend Charley."

Gently, Charley pulled her arms out from the Doctor's pin and embraced him in return. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I must look so childish. And I've brought up all those sad memories."

"It happens," he shrugs. "Sooner or later, they all found out about the others. Some take it okay. One girl attacked me over it." He tried to keep the sadness out of his voice, but Charley could feel it in him as she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"I should deal with the TARDIS," the Doctor said after a moment.

"It can wait a bit longer," Charley said, not releasing him.

"I suppose it can," he replied, meeting her gaze and smiling.