Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. All rights to BBC.

'Doctor! Where are we going?' Joy had returned to the console room, her blonde locks jumping around her face as she ran back in.

'You choose.'

'But…' Joy's large brown eyes hovered over the Doctor's hands, patiently playing the machine. 'You said something about the next solar system! That's what you said, you said you'd take me to the solar system where the first humans would make a settlement! You said, Doctor!'

While she spoke, Joy paced the console, waving her arms about like Donna would do when she got excited about a new adventure. She might have said something else, or nothing at all. He kept his eyes, like his hands, pressed down on those old buttons.

A hand was on his shoulder. He looked up. Joy was twenty two, possibly the same age as Rose, he didn't think to ask Rose how old she was now, with the complexities of a Parallel Universe running ahead and all. So, Joy was twenty two and training to be a school teacher. Something like Primary school. They met in Trafalgar half a day ago, just passing each other, each with their own destination, their own purpose to fulfil.

'Doctor, is that where we're going?' Joy expressed a question yet in her voice there was hesitancy. Could she know what was wrong with him? Did she realise the hurt in him? The Doctor would, of course, give her an answer. She deserved that much.

'I'm setting co-ordinates for the Galleria solar complex, yes…' The Doctor said, forcing a smile.

Five seconds passed, perhaps, and then Joy left him to move to the other side of the console. 'Great!' She looked at the Time console with admiration, as it rose and fell. He hunched his shoulders and cleared his throat. The machine's noise dipped in volume and the TARDIS gave a little shake.

'Just outside,' The Doctor indicated by pointing his finger to the door, which he used next to scratch his nose. Like he was taking all the time in the world. She looked in that direction but didn't move to go out.

'What's it like?'

'Like? Like any other solar system in the Milky Way galaxy…'

'Doctor,' for the first time, Joy looked frustrated by his frosty charm. 'Explain it to me like I've never gone through space and time, please.'

'I hate making out like I know everything!' The Doctor folded his arms and sat on his seat. 'It's a burden being a Time Lord, you know? It's the price I pay for saving a developing planet – babysitting another of its ordinarys!' He regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth. He screwed up his eyes and placed his hands through his hair and clutched at the roots tightly.

'I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!' He was looking at the floor.

Joy wasn't ready for being insulted. Still, she was only into her first hour as a Time Traveller and still reeling from culture shock. She sat next to him.

'It's alright.' She gazed at the hunched figure beside her in the long brown coat. 'We can go somewhere else if this place bores you…'

'It's not that…'

Joy nodded. 'Yeah, alright. Take you're time. You're a Time Lord after all, must have plenty of it!'

'I'm sorry, I have to…I have to…' The Doctor sat up, went pale and started roaming the console room like a man lost in the shadows of his darkest thoughts. 'It's hard to explain, I've recently lost all of my friends,' he said it with such ordinary perception that Joy was more shocked about this then when she first set eyes on his Sonic Screwdriver. 'They're all safe, not dead, just back where they should be, but Donna, it's not easy to, I need bananas-!'

He stopped ranting and dug deep in his pockets. Joy was watching, blinking. He was struggling to find any yellow fruit in his overcoat and stomped his foot. 'Who ate my banana?!'

Joy stood up and felt frightened. 'You were fine today, Doctor!'

The Doctor ruffled his hair, muttering under his breath. 'Did I take my coat off at any point when Jack was around?!'

'Doctor!'

'Hang on? What's this? Oh…it's a carrot. Blast.'

'DOCTOR!'

He turned round, facing Joy's furious but desperate expression.

'Listen,' she breathed deeply, 'you promised me that we could go and see this solar system. I was under the impression you were letting me come with you. Now it seems I'm not the only one in a long while. If you think I'm here to replace anyone, then, I'll go.' She relaxed her shoulders, with her eyes.

He was speechless, realising, what a fool he'd been, how self centered. She went to stand by the remaining of her bags at the console. 'You could always, you know, tell me about other friends of yours, if it makes you feel better! I'd be interested to know!'

'I'm not looking for replacements,' he said quietly. 'I've had the most fantastic, fantastic people you could ever hope to meet on board this TARDIS. You have to know that when they left…they each took a piece of me. In another universe, dead or happily unaware that they never met me…they're still part of my life. And always present in this TARDIS. And in me.' He stopped and surveyed her, tears filling his eyes as he remembered the last few glorious years of his life side by side with those extraordinary people. 'And each time I met them, I never imagined they could live up to the last,' he smiled and shook his head, not really looking at anything. Joy stared into his eyes, knowing that he was gazing into the past.

In half an hours time, Joy was pacing the empty room in the deep realms of the TARDIS. A room which she decided would be her domain. She prayed and prayed it wasn't the room of a former companion. She chewed her nails; a bad habit she should have quit ages ago. After that moving speech, the Doctor stayed silent. Then he swept out of the room. Joy followed suit but didn't pursue him. He was a strange man. But now at least she could understand what had plagued the moments in the short time she had with him, those silent little moments when he became cold and sullen.

Shortly, she was in the console room again to see if the Doctor had returned. He had. And he looked worse for wear, face sticky with recent tears, hair a mess and yet he looked more cheerful.

When she approached, he put hands in pockets and grinned. 'Want to see Galleria then, or what?' Big Grin.

Her smile widened. 'I'd love to see it!'

Would you? Please review and tell me what you think! I was going to make the Doctor get rid of her, but we'll see. I'll give her a chance. :)