Yeah I know, it's been a few days. Sorry. School eats my life. Anywho, here's another one shot. I have another one I thought of today while watching Human Nature. I'll start it tonight and have it up in a few days. Enjoy!

Title: Of What they Did for Him

Summary: There are no end to the words that can describe each of them. But to describe what they did for him? That's an entirely different answer.

If someone asked the Doctor to describe his companion in one word, by the time he got to the end of this list the person asking the question would have died of old age. He had a list to the end of time and back of every trait, good and bad, that his companions held.

In the beginning, most of them were just friends. Sometimes the High Council would assign someone to work with him. These friends and companions were all wonderful to be around, but few of them had a drastic impact on his life. They were just, sort of, there.

Then the Time War happened, and they were all gone.

In the aftermath of the Time War, the Doctor really had no interest in traveling with anyone. He was alone and he would have liked to keep it that way. Of course, then he met Rose Tyler and that all changed. There were very few people he would admit this to, but she saved his life. Normally, the Doctor does the saving, but this time, she saved him. She saved him from himself. She promised him forever. At the end of each day, they were still together. The Doctor had started to believe that this time; someone would actually stay with him. He believed too soon.

With Rose gone, the Doctor took one huge step backwards. He retreated back into himself, back to where he had been before he knew Rose. But, for some strange reason, he offered to take Martha Jones on a single trip. Martha, clever Martha, who took in time travel almost as quickly as Rose had. Almost. She was no Rose, but being around Martha made the Doctor a little bit better once again. She had been there for him when he needed someone. Sometimes she was there a little bit too much, but the Doctor still appreciated her sticking with him. But of course, she too, left in the end. It was her choice. It wasn't the first time that someone decided to give up a life on the TARDIS so the Doctor just let her go.

It hurt him to see Martha go. It really did. Shortly after though, he got to see Donna again. In all of the Doctor's travels he had never met a woman that was quite like Donna Noble. She was stubborn, even more than Rose was. She was headstrong. She was independent. Donna was so many things. But the one thing that she was most of all, one thing that summed Donna up perfectly, was honest. Donna was never afraid to tell the Doctor exactly what was on her mind. She wouldn't hold back from telling him he was wrong. In reality, it was something that he needed. The Doctor needed someone to pull him back sometimes, and Donna did it quite well.

Each of his companions since his regeneration have been different in their own way. Rose, the shop girl that mended his broken heart. Martha, the medical student who got him through his grief. Donna, the woman who was what the Doctor needed most, a friend. Each of them were so different, so unique that it was almost impossible to come up with one word to describe them all.

Of all the things his companions were, they had one tiny connection. In a way, it was different for each of them, but it was still there. His companions, his friends, they pushed him.

They did more than that. They challenged him.

Not in an average way of course—because someone would have to be a fool to challenge the Doctor in a direct way. It was much better than that.

They challenged him to keep going every single day. After the Time War, Rose challenged him to unlock his hearts. When she was taken from him, Martha challenged him to keep going. Donna was the one who challenged him to come back when he got too far.

If it wasn't for them, the Doctor would have given up a long time ago—withered from the grief that still sometimes clung to him. Like a second skin. It was his friends that challenged him to keep the grief away.

So, if the Doctor was faced with the impossible question to describe his companions in a single word, he couldn't come up with an answer. But if he was asked what they did for him, he could give an answer in a heartbeat.

"They're my companions. They're my trainers. They're my doctors."