By the way, the last chapter, I had no idea what the Ritz looked like so I made it up hope you're all enjoying the story

The taxi back to Matt's apartment was uneventful as far as could be told, and yet the atmosphere was almost electric whenever they caught each other's eye. But her head was spinning sickly with the sudden dawning of what she had just done sinking into her conscience. Sure, Jack had hurt her beyond imagination tonight and as far as she was concerned, their marriage was over due to that and every other issue they had had over the past few months, but she shouldn't have kissed him back the first time, and she shouldn't have…jumped on him and kissed him back.

And she shouldn't have bloody enjoyed it as much as she had. And she shouldn't be bloody wanting to do it again. Oh for goodness sake, she was almost twenty years older than him, she was old enough to be his bloody mother, and yet she knew he was attracted to her, and she wanted to kick herself for feeling the same way about him. She tried to put it on the two glasses of wine she had consumed that evening, but she had very high alcohol tolerance and she would never do anything like this just on two glasses. Oh bloody hell.

He smiled nervously at her, showing that he was thinking the exact same thoughts, but she couldn't bring herself to return it. She was too overwrought to even try and work any of the muscles in her face or in the rest of her body. Time felt like it was incinerating as every second passed, each minute lasting the length of an eternity, and before they reached Matt's place, Alex began to have very serious doubts about what she was doing. He was her co-worker; if anything…happened then she couldn't even picture how awkward the rest of her life on Doctor Who would be.

But when he flashed her that grin as he pulled open the door of the conspicuously yellow taxi, she forgot everything she had been previously worrying about and just felt her heart swell. Oh God, she was turning into a cheesy moron.

'Come on Miss Kingston,' he called as she fell behind him as they clambered up the twelve flights of stairs to his gorgeous apartment. She rolled her eyes and he ignored this, and they both just smiled. Upon reaching his front door, Alex leant against the wooden frame and looked up at him ever so slightly, biting her lip. 'You know,' he began, not looking at her but down at his keys, trying to pick the right one, 'you look a bit too attractive for me to concentrate.' He looked up at her and smiled sweetly, 'Would you please stop being so pretty?'

She giggled and blushed slightly, not near tipsy from the wine, but a little more relaxed than usual. He pushed the door open a little bit forcefully and held it open with his hand for her to walk through. Again, the general snazziness of the apartment hit her quite forcefully and she dumped her heels by the door and hung her coat up inside the cupboard once again.

He followed closely behind, enjoying his view when she leant down to place her shoes to the floor, and smirked and continued into the kitchen, joining her by the counter. Once there, swiftly took her by the waist and almost carried her over to the little island where he pinned her against the counter and looked down at her, the lack of her heels making an obvious difference in their height. Matt bent his neck down a few inches and gently whispered into her ear, making her stop squirming and laughing immediately, and causing her to tense and goose bumps to run up her arms.

'So Alex, ice cream and The Wedding of River Song?' How he managed to make that question sound seductive and alluring, but it still set her heart pounding through her chest at what felt like a million miles an hour. She nodded vigorously, and to her intent disappointment, he removed his hands and made his way to the fridge, dismissing her to the sofa. She began to pound one of the pillows into shape in order to get more comfortable, when she realized it would be very difficult for her to sprawl out across the sofa in her dress.

'Matt, do you think it would be okay if I borrowed some slacks or something?' she piped up, feeling a little uncomfortable at the question of which she was asking. She swore she heard him snort loudly with laughter before she glared and narrowed her eyebrows over the sofa, and he returned an answer to her question, 'Yeah sure, I'll get you some tracksuit bottoms or something. You do the ice cream.' He motioned for her to come and scoop the rest of the dessert, and Matt disappeared into the master bedroom and came out a few minutes later with a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms and a vest top.

'Here you go Alex, not the most flattering thing in the world, but I'm sure you'll look lovely,' he called and she took the pile of clothes and thanked him and took due course to go into the spare room and change. She certainly felt a lot more comfortable (although the vest top being white and her underwear being black wasn't the most hidden thing in the world) and with confidence in her step, she plonked herself down on the sofa next to him and curled up beside him.

Halfway through the episode, Matt checked his watch and was astounded to see the time to be almost one o'clock in the morning. Thank God they didn't have work tomorrow, he thought with relief filling him. During the episode though, Alex had twisted herself slightly, readjusted her position on the couch so that she was sat right up close to him, with one hand on his chest, and sleep was beginning to make her drowsy and she slumped next to him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, kissing her on the temple, just for the sake of it really.

'And wife, I have request; this world is dying and it's my fault and I can't bear it another day. Please help me.'

'Then you may kiss the bride.'

'I'll make it a good one.'

'You better.'

'That was a good kiss,' Alex piped up absentmindedly, a yawn seeping through her tone when she spoke, and he played fondly with the tips of her hair. He grinned down at her and she removed her head from his chest and looked up at him, smiling genteelly. 'As good as the two earlier?' he asked playfully, and she beamed, 'Oh, you don't get much better than a snog outside the Ritz, do you?'

The rest of the episodes, eight minutes or so, passed in quiet, and when it was over, Alex exclaimed her joy at how fantastic she had found the episode. She requested to know what the time was, and when he told her it was now almost half one in the morning, she looked simply too tired to be shocked. They snuggled, almost, on the sofa for however long it may have been before Alex plucked up the immeasurable courage she had called up on rather a lot this evening and asked, 'Matt, would it be okay if I stayed tonight?'

He looked down on her, not knowing what expression he was currently portraying but guessing it must've been sarcastic questioning seeing as her next piece of speech was accompanied by a few miniature tears which slowly poured from underneath her eyelids, 'I just can't be alone tonight. And I know you've got a spare room, and I just can't go home,' she whispered fretfully, her voice cracking miserably.

'Of course you can stay Alex, you didn't even need to ask,' he reassured her, and he would bet on his life that she looked like she was about to cry from happiness. Instead, she just looked up at him, gave a small watery grin and murmured, 'Thank you so much Matt. Just thank you.' There was tension enough that it could ripped open with a paper shredder, and their eyes caught each other's gaze again that it was very reminiscent of earlier that evening. But instead of going forwards for the obvious kiss on the lips, he just brushed a finger against her cheek, and then against the bruise on her eye that had been slightly neglected for the last hour, and then he placed his index finger on one of the forward-most of her curls and wrapped it around his finger.

'You're so beautiful, you know Alex,' he whispered dreamily, and she tried to nod her head but found herself unable to move. It was like he had cast a spell on her, and whenever he even looked in her direction she turned to wobbly jelly and couldn't bear to slip from his grip. They had had obvious chemistry for the past two years together, but as much as she had wanted for it to become like this, she was still in shock that it had been tonight for it to happen. But she recognized that neither of them had a clue what they were doing. How long would they be able to keep up this charade? How long would it be before people found out about her unfaithfulness? However, none of these questions were for tonight, well, today rather, everything could wait until later on.

'Do you want to watch a film or something?' he asked clearly, breaking the moment ever so slightly, and she nodded half-heartedly, beginning to succumb to tide of utter peacefulness, serenity and tiredness that was crushing her. When she woke up the next morning, Alex couldn't quite remember what film he had put on, but she knew it was something like the Lion King.

But as the songs played, and his grip on her slacked slightly, and he pressed occasional kisses to the top of her head, Alex drifted off into an unsteady, but deep sleep in Matt's arms, finally in a place where she could be safe, if only from her dreams as well.

When Matt noticed this, he, as so not to wake her, quietly switched off the television that was already on quite low sound anyway (he was slightly peeved about this – his favourite song was coming up, but, never mind), and stood up. He looked down at her for a few seconds, enthralled by her captivating beauty, and he had never once been so happy in his twenty nine years. He had never encountered someone so professional and yet cheeky, someone so flirtatious yet so loyal, someone who wouldn't stand for all the shit in the world and who wouldn't take a hit and let it happen again. Someone who needed her friends, and someone whose friends needed her.

He needed her. He needed her more than oxygen. He needed her more than he needed a house, a job, and money. He needed her more than food and water, more than anybody else.

Carefully, he raised her body into his arms with a surprising amount of grace and carried her to his bedroom, where he lay her down in the middle of his rather comfortable double bed and then drew the quilt almost up to her chin. He brushed that one stray curl out of her eyes and placed a tender kiss on her forehead, and whispered, 'Night Alex, sleep tight, stay beautiful,' before leaving his room and taking up residence for the night in the spare room on the single mattress, unable to think of anyone or anything else apart from the stunning woman in the room next door.