Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, or the MOA. Or Aeropostale, for that matter.

"Mom, I-"

"No, Catherine, I wanna meet this boy!"

"But he's not-"

"End of discussion, you're bringing him. Now I've got to go, lots of cleaning to do. Love you, sweetheart!" She hung up and a long, annoying tone echoed in my ear.

With a sigh, I pressed the 'end call' button and set the phone back down on its hook. I ran my hand over my face and slumped out of my kitchen, throwing myself onto the couch beside the Doctor. The TV was on the Discovery channel, but he wasn't watching. He was staring at me with a curious look on his speckled face.

"How do you feel about lakes?" I asked, staring at the screen.

"Lakes?"

"Yeah, lakes," I turned to him. "Y'know, bodies of water bigger than a pond and smaller than an ocean."

He shot me a look. "I know what a lake is, Catherine."

"Then how do you feel about them?"

He looked around like he was about to tell me a secret no one else could hear, and then shrugged. "I don't know, they're… nice… I guess…"

I nodded. "In that case, we're going shopping today."

"Oh, in that case, I hate them."

"Listen, we're going either way," I mumbled, pulling my legs up to sit Indian-style. "I love my mom, but it's not smart to disobey her. Plus, who knows, it could be fun."

"Oh, no, the lake sounds great," He grinned. "Meet the rest of the family, act like a normal bloke, great! It's the shopping I'm not looking forward to."

I smiled amusedly. "Normal 'blokes' don't wear suits when they're at the lake." I reached out and tugged at his lapel. "Have you ever tried wearing a tee-shirt?"

"Oi!" He straightened his tie. "Don't knock the suit."

I rolled my eyes. "I like the suit, really, it's just not normal for a guy to wear one all the time," I told him. "Especially with trainers." I grabbed the back if his knee and lifted his leg, gesturing to his shoe.

"I like my trainers!" He whined.

I smiled. "Me too, but it's still not normal."

He groaned. "How many days are you going to separate me from my suits?"

"Only a few," I mumbled, patting his arm. "Just a couple, and to make up for it, I'll even buy you a new suit."

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye, folding his arms across his chest. "Including new trainers?"

I chuckled and got to my feet, grabbing his arm to pull him with me. "Sure, but we've gotta leave now because it's an hour drive to the mall."

"Mall? I like malls. Not as much as I like shops, though. Especially little ones. I love a little shop! Can't stand actual shopping, though."

I rolled my eyes as he started rambling and pulled him towards the door, grabbing my wallet, keys and phone from the small table next to it. I tugged him onto the driveway and over to my car, leaving him at the passenger side. I then walked around to the driver's side and hopped in.

"And they didn't have a little shop and I told them a little shop does some people a world of good, but they said hospitals were a place of healing. And they were cats! Never found the joy in cats again…"

I smiled as I drowned out his rambling with the hum of the engine and started to back down the driveway.

"The Mall of America?" The Doctor squinted at the large sign hanging over some equally large glass doors.

"You've been here before, right?" I asked, locking my car before pacing over to stand next to him.

He shook his head. "I prefer Britain."

"Well, that explains the accent."

He smiled and tucked his hands in his pockets. "I've heard about it a couple of times, never actually been though." He turned to me. "Is it really as big as they say it is?"

I nodded. "It's huge. Used to be one of my favorite places as a kid." I grinned. "My dad brought me here once when I was two. We left mom and Ian at home and spent the entire day just running around."

"Well then," The Doctor reached out and grabbed my hand, threading his fingers through mine. "Let's go do the same, shall we?" He grinned and pulled me towards the doors.

I smiled as we walked through the parking lot and doors. He stopped as we found ourselves in one of many crowded hallways. People passed us, all of their voices mingling and creating noise. None of them even noticed the odd way he was looking around, like a kid in a candy shop.

"Oh, look at all the little shops…" He sighed, grinning down at me.

I chuckled and started pulling him towards Aeropostale. Sure, Aeropostale was quite a bit of a leap from his suits and trainers, but it was all I could think of. Plus, if he was going to ditch the suits for a few days, he might as well stay in style.

As we found the shop and stepped inside, I immediately started searching for something lake-appropriate. Tee-shirts, shorts, sandals, things like that. As I sorted through racks of men's clothing, I tried to picture the Doctor dressed like a normal guy. I say tried because I actually couldn't. My imagination was pretty large, but the Doctor in a tee-shirt didn't seem right.

I pulled a sea-foam-green shirt off the rack and held it out in front of his torso. "What do you think?" I asked, smirking up at his extremely unhappy face. "Too small?"

He snatched it from my hands. "Where's the dressing room?"

I grinned cheekily and pointed to my right, towards two doors. With one final glare, he turned and strode towards them, almost literally having to duck through the one with the word 'men' painted on it. While he changed, I turned back to the rack, picking out a few more tees and a few long sleeved shirts. Then, I went to wait beside the doors.

After a few moments, he came out of the dressing room in his jacket and tie, and not the tee-shirt I'd been waiting for.

"Was it too small?" I asked, a hint of disappointment in my voice.

"No."

"Oh, then was it too big?"

"No."

"Then why aren't you wearing it?"

He shrugged. "Didn't think I had to."

I glared. "Well, you thought wrong," I turned him around and pushed him through the door. "Go put it on again, and don't come back with that jacket on."

I heard him mumble something British and rude, and couldn't help but to grin. Upsetting him was fun.

As I waited for him to come out again, I roamed the section of the wall that held women's jeans. I didn't normally buy jeans from here, but it couldn't hurt to look. Plus, he was taking a while in there.

"So clingy…" I turned from the jeans to see the Doctor standing there in the sea-foam shirt, tugging at the collar. "And cold."

I must say, seeing him without his jacket and tie was a bit odd, but it wasn't a bad thing. In fact, he looked pretty good. His regular attire suited him better, but the tee-shirt did give him a certain sort of… appeal.

"Well, you do wear layers all the time," I pointed out. "You must've gotten used to the heat."

He sneered. "Do I really have to wear this?"

I nodded with yet another cheeky grin. "And these." I shoved the other shirts I'd found into his chest. "Just go make sure they fit." I turned him once again and pushed him through the door. "And hurry up!" As I turned to face the rest of the store, I found that a woman looking through a rack of clearance hoodies was staring at me, as if I were insane. I just grinned and went back to ignoring my surroundings.

Soon enough, the Doctor came back out with all of the shirts on his arm. "They all fit…" He grumbled, straightening his tie with a frown on his speckled face.

"Great, then we'll take them." I grabbed his arm and weaved through all of the racks and tables, eventually finding ourselves at the counter in the center of the store. There was a young woman there, talking on a cell phone as she played with her straightened blond hair. She completely ignored me, but when she saw the Doctor she immediately mumbled something into the phone and hung up.

"Afternoon…" She smiled, showing off a row of gleaming white teeth. Of course, the Doctor barely acknowledged her, still a bit grumpy from having to try on things that weren't suits.

I felt bad for her. If he hadn't been in such a bad mood, she might've had a chance. She sure was pretty enough. So, out of pity, I offered her a smile. "Sorry, he's in a bit of a bad mood,"

She seemed surprised that I was there, but smiled anyways. "How can I help?"

I set the clothes on the counter, and she started to ring them up. As I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, I glanced at the Doctor. His hands were hidden in his pockets, and he looked like he was about ready to bite something. Then, I turned back to the young woman and set my credit card on the counter. She shoved everything into a plastic bag, swiped my card, and printed out my receipt, jotting something down on it before throwing it in the bag and holding it out to me.

"Have a nice day." She glanced at the Doctor, biting her lip in a very flirtatious way.

I nodded and grabbed the bag, pulling the Doctor away from the counter. We weaved through the racks and tables again, and then stepped back into the crowded halls of the MOA.

"What d'you say? Lunch?" I asked, smiling up at him.

He sighed. "Might as well."

"Are you gonna be grumpy all day?" I asked, jabbing my elbow into his ribs. "'Cause if you are, we can just go home."

He looked down at me, sighed again, and then smiled. "Nah," He reached out and took the bag from me. "Let's go find that food court."

"So, just gonna warn you, my mom's convinced you're my boyfriend." I mumbled, raising my cup to my lips and sucking a giant gulp of Dr. Pepper through my straw.

The Doctor froze and blinked. "Boyfriend?"

I nodded. "Yup."

"Where'd she get that idea?"

"Ian."

His brow jumped. "Where'd he get that idea?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, probably the fact that you're practically living with me." I used my chopsticks to pick up a piece of sesame chicken from my plastic tray.

"I'm not living with you." He objected, dipping a french-fry in barbeque sauce. "I'm a guest who's staying in your back yard."

I snorted, chicken almost coming out of my nose. "Let's just say you're a guest."

He grinned and tossed the fry into his mouth. "Want a chip?" He held a fry out to me.

My brow furrowed. "Chip? That's a french-fry."

"No," He whined, looking at the fry in his hand. "It's a chip. Look." He pushed it closer to my face. "See, chip."

I started to correct him, and then realized the confusion. "Oh, wait, I'm American. We call them fries over here."

He blinked. "But it's a chip!"

I rolled my eyes and took the 'chip' from him, tossing it in my mouth. I grinned and leaned back in my chair, looking around the food court. If I were here with Riley, we'd be scoping for cute guys, but with the Doctor is was more of a casual look around. However, a couple of girls caught my eye. They kept glancing our way, and giggled every now and then.

Suddenly, I remembered that the cashier at Aeropostale had been smitten with the man before me, and had written something on the receipt. I leaned forward and reached into the bag, pulling the thin piece of paper out of the bag and scanning the surface.

"Y'know, I think that girl at Aeropostale had a thing for you." I smirked, looking up from the receipt.

His brow furrowed. "What d'you mean?" He asked, throwing another fry into his mouth.

A devious look came to my face, and I pushed my glasses further up on my nose. "'For the cute guy in the suit,'" I read. "'Here's my number, call me and maybe I can get you a discount.' Then she lists her number with a little wink-y face."

He blinked. "Why would she give me her phone number?"

Now it was my turn to blink. Was he really that clueless? "'Cause she likes you…?" I mumbled slowly.

"Why would she like me?"

My brow jumped. He was kidding, right? I mean, he couldn't be that innocent. No one, especially not a man his age, was that innocent. It just wasn't possible. And he was so… cocky, always going on about how brilliant he was. Did he really not believe he was attractive?

I shook my head. "Well, you're not a bad looking guy." I mumbled, stabbing another piece of chicken and popping it in my mouth.

He smirked. "Oh, so you like what you see?"

I almost choked on my chicken. "What?"

The smirk on his face grew and he grabbed my soda, taking a sip. "Just kidding."

I nodded and looked away, the odd feeling that had jumped in my stomach fading a bit. Despite his beliefs, I actually did like what I saw. I found him very attractive, but that's all it was. He was just a really hot friend of mine. A really, really hot friend.

"Catherine, are you alright?"

I blinked and nodded. "Um, yeah, fine," I mumbled, admiring the way his hair was falling in front of his eyes. "I'm done, are you?" He nodded. "Alright, um, let's go. You still need some shorts and a pair of sandals."

He shot me a concerned look, but nodded anyways and helped me clear the table. Once we'd thrown everything into the trash bin, we set off again.

A/N: So, this is, like, what? Three days early? Yeah, well, I got excited and just had to post something. Everything's going smoothly on my end. I've just finished Stuck completely, epilogue and all, and started working on the sequel. Oh, I can't wait for you to read it! I've got some really great things planned. With the help of Spirit-of-the-Rain, of course.

Speaking of, a thanks to Spirit-of-the-Rain for editing and criticizing! Oh, and for all of the wonderful ideas, as well. I couldn't do it without you!

So, she's physically attracted to him now. I know, you're all going 'HOW COULD SHE NOT HAVE NOTICED HIS SEXINESS BEFORE?' and I completely agree with you. Let's just say Cat's a bit... sexually unaware. I believe that's the correct term. What did you all think about grumpy Doctor? I must say, I think he's adorable. Like a little, really skinny teddy bear that needs some love.

Now, I have a question for all of you. Just out of pure curiosity. And here it is:

If you could go anywhere and anytime with our dear Doctor, where and when would you go?

Thanks for reading!

Allons-y!

Jazmine