A/N: Yet, another chapter brought to you by yours truly. Hehe. I liked doing this chapter. I found it enjoyable talking about the various memories the Doctor has. Read it for yourself though. R/R

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Chapter Nine: Memories

Tash's eyes went wide at the massive volume of photo albums that the Doctor had stored on the TARDIS, "Blimey…I didn't know you had this many albums."

The Doctor looked a bit sheepish, "I do… I have been meaning to organize them, just really haven't had time to organize them. Plus this isn't counting the portraits I have had done with friends, before cameras were invented."

Tash turned a few pages of an album and came across a young blond headed woman who wore a brown hat, a brown trench coat, and a scarf, she was grinning vivaciously at someone who wasn't in the picture, Tash guessed that it might have been the Doctor.

"Who's that?" Tash asked curiously. The woman seemed pretty. It wasn't Rose though.

The Doctor glanced at it briefly and looked a bit sad, "That's Romana."

Tash looked up and saw tears in his eyes, "What happened?"

"She was killed in the Time War along with all the other Time Lords."

Tash nodded and turned through the album finding various assorted pictures of Romana along with a guy in a scarf, dressed in similar fashion with her. "Maybe this wasn't such a great idea," The Doctor muttered lightly to himself.

Tash closed the album and picked up another. This one featured a young boy with brown hair. He wore a yellowish top with a blue star. He too was smiling. "Who's that?"

The Doctor sighed again, going through all these photo albums was giving him heartache, but it really was his own fault, he hadn't organized any of them at all. So as Tash dug through them he was forced to look at the faces of some of his companions he had traveled with. "That's Adric. Brilliant. Positively brilliant young man."

Tash glanced up at the Doctor, noticing more tears were burning in his eyes, "What happened to him?"

"He died, Tash. He was trying to solve a mathematical equation. He never finished it; it was one of those life and death types of equations. But it's just as well. If he had, it would have changed history."

Tash looked at a few more pictures of Adric and then closed the album and reached for another. She sighed, "Doctor, do all these albums have people you have lost in them? I don't want to cause you anymore pain."

The Doctor smiled softly and then shook his head, "Not all of them, but when you're a Time Lord, Tash, you eventually lose everyone you care for. But being from a long lived species yourself, I am sure you're aware of age differences."

Tash nodded briefly and pulled out another photo album and took a look at woman with brown hair, she smiled lightly. Some of the pictures of her had defiant looks in them and Tash cocked her head lightly, "This woman seems familiar to me."

The Doctor bent down to look at the photos, "That's Sarah Jane Smith."

Tash grinned, "I have met her."

The Doctor blinked, "You have?"

"Oh yea, she was the only human, I felt that I could trust. She found me once, in the forest. She managed to draw me out. She kept trying to get me to stop hiding so much, but I didn't listen to her, I was too afraid. She even offered to help me."

The Doctor grinned, "That's Sarah Jane for you. Good ole Sarah Jane. Maybe we should pop by and see her sometime."

Tash shrugged and then closing that album, she picked up another. She opened it up only to found a young teenage girl with bobbed hair, a radio was held to her ear. The Doctor smiled lightly as he looked at the photo, "That's Susan, my granddaughter."

Tash looked at the Doctor, her eyes amazed, "You have a granddaughter?"

The Doctor smirked, "Yep. We use to have some truly amazing adventures along with her teachers. Although, I was a bit of a stick in the mud back then."

Tash giggled lightly, "You, a stick in the mud, never!"

The Doctor laughed, "Oh yea, and I was as crotchety as hell."

Tash shook her head, "I wouldn't have believed it."

"Believe it, Tash. When you get to be my age, I am subject to all sorts of mood swings and changes."

Tash chuckled, "Whatever you say, Doctor."

She brought out another album this one was covered in pasted Roses; the Doctor smiled and said excitedly, "This is it. This should be the album. Unless I am getting completely senile in my old age."

Tash giggled and the Doctor opened the album, "Yep. Here's Rose and here's me."

Tash bent down and looked at the photo, she saw a photo of a man with a receding hairline and enormous ears standing with Rose, "Uhh Doctor, I can tell you, that is not you."

"What?"

He looked down, "Oh….that's me in my ninth incarnation."

Tash wrinkled up her face, "Huh?"

The Doctor chuckled, "Oi, I haven't told you. I regenerate. If I get hurt and I am dying, my body rejuvenates itself. All my cells change and I become someone else. I still have all the same memories and all but physically and personality wise I change."

Tash blinked, "So all those photos with all those strange guys next to all these people, that's you."

The Doctor laughed, "Of course, you didn't think I'd let them stand there and get their photo next to some strange bloke, would I?"

Tash giggled, "Unless I count you as a strange bloke."

"Hey…. It's not as strange as what you do missy. You get younger. And it's not like your people go talking about it either. How exactly does that happen?"

Tash blushed lightly, "I suppose I should tell you. Sometime in my life, I'll change as well. Not quite like you, my ears don't change or hair or even my personality. Just suddenly, I just change. It's hard to explain. That's basically why none of us, really talk about it. I suppose the only way to explain it is to wait for it to happen."

The Doctor sighed, "Fair enough. That's probably why I don't talk about regenerating to any of my companions either. Kind of hard to explain something until it happens. I think I understand what you're saying. Any energy transfer in this change of yours? When you were sick, your skin sort of glowed slightly."

Tash sighed her head bent down lightly, "That would be part of it. When it happens, our skin sort of luminesces, it's just a biological process that my people have, nothing more."

The Doctor nodded storing that information in his brain, "I see, good to know. Another thing, one of your daughters, Kara mentioned that you go wandering off when you're about to die, what's that all about?"

Tash looked a bit uncomfortable, "You going to badge me about my physiology all day long, Doctor? I thought we came here to look at pictures of Rose, not talk about our people's biological processes."

The Doctor sighed, Tash was right, although something was bothering her. He had never known her to be this secretive before. Maybe his inclination about ritual suicide was right. He decided to test his theory out, "It's no shame, if that's what your people do, go off and kill themselves, that's not a great secret. There are lots of species that do it. It's usually frowned at though, so if that's the great secret of the Mala'shraian race, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Tash frowned at the Doctor and then laughed, "Commit suicide, don't be absurd, Doctor."

The Doctor frowned at Tash's laughter. Tash kept laughing for the longest; finally she spoke, "Silly Time Lord, my people don't commit suicide if that's what you're thinking. Ritual death, yes. But suicide, no. It's very ceremonial and religious, Doctor. We don't talk about it. Who knows, maybe one day, I'll let you witness it." She looked thoughtful, "Yes, I'd think, I'd like you to witness my…" She smiled, "I can't think of anyone I'd liked to be there to witness my death, than you, Doctor."

"I am kind of glad, that your people don't. I can't abide suicide. Although now you have got me curious, death rituals?" He looked at Tash with pleading eyes, "Can't you tell me something?"

Tash gave the Doctor a mischievous looking glance, "Oh no, you're not going to badger me over that, are you?"

"Nope…not at all." Although inwardly the Doctor vowed he'd find out.

Tash sighed and rolled her eyes, she doubted the Doctor would let up. She turned back to the pictures. "Doctor, who's this guy?"

The Doctor ginned, "That's Rick…no, I mean Mickey. He was all right, kind of thick at times. But not too bad for a stupid thickheaded ape."

Tash turned a page to find a woman glaring angrily, she had a banana cream pie in her face, and she asked, "Who's that? And why does she have cream in her face?"

The Doctor laughed, "That's Jackie, Rose's mum. It was Mother's day. Rose and I got her a banana cream pie, I tripped over my own feet and well the rest is as humans say history."

Tash giggled, "Are you really that clumsy, Doctor?"

"What are you questioning, whether or not it was an accident? I tell you it was an accident."

The Doctor's eyes had a bit of that charismatic glint about them, between mischievous and misbehaving.

Tash shook her head, "Some how, I don't think it was too much of an accident."

The Doctor chuckled, "Well I have to admit it did make a really good picture."

Tash turned the pages and the Doctor went along explaining the various photos in detail. She smiled, and squeezed the Doctor's hand lightly, he seemed so happy to talk over the various photos of Rose and her family.