Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or bowling.

I sighed as I tossed the last of my bags into the back seat of my car, a small frown tugging gently at the corners of my mouth. If I could've, I would have made the Doctor agree to stay for a few more days, but I had to get home to help Riley with her last-minute wedding plans. I didn't like it, but Riley was worth a bit of suffering.

"Ready to go?"

I turned at the Doctor's voice, and nodded quickly.

"Are you sure?" He seemed concerned.

"Yeah, Riley needs me back at home."

His brow furrowed, and he leaned on my car. "What for?"

"She's getting married, and I'm the Maid of Honor." I smiled at the thought of Riley getting married once more, but then sneered at the fact that I was being forced to wear heels while Riley and Dave were wearing trainers. "She needs me there to help with… stuff… I guess…"

He shot me an amused look, and I rolled my eyes before slapping his shoulder and walking to my family to say my goodbyes. As I tightly hugged my mother, he followed and shook Adam's hand, quickly moving to Ian. I hugged each one of them, and then stepped back to the Doctor's side.

"Tell Riley we said hi," My mother grinned chirpily.

"Oh, and that we're looking forward to seeing her." Ian added, slipping his arm around Morgan's slim waist.

My brow furrowed. "When are you seeing her?"

"She invited all of us to the wedding." Morgan smiled. "I was shocked, too. She's an excellent friend, thinking to include your family."

My eyes flew wide. "I see. Well, see you Saturday then." And with that, I grabbed the Doctor's hand and pulled him over to my car, practically throwing him at the door. I hopped in, panic stricken on my face.

"Are you alright?" The Doctor asked as he watched me fumble with my keys, eventually reaching over to guide me.

I shook my head. "You really didn't notice?"

"Notice what?"

I groaned. "The problem!"

"Ooh, I like problems!" He yelped with a grin.

"You would." I sneered. "Listen, Riley and Dave know you as the Doctor, and my family knows you as John. How well do you think that'll go over?"

"Oh…" His brows stitched, but he didn't look very concerned about it. "I see… Well, there's two ways we could approach this. Either we tell your family who I really am, or we tell Riley and Dave."

"And have you sent the loony bin? Ha, no thanks."

He folded his arms and leaned back in his seat defiantly. "Well, what's your plan then?"

"I'll come up with some sort of clever lie," I mumbled as I started to back out of the little clearing in the vast wooded area the cabin sat in the middle of. "I'm good at that."

He nodded. "I know," He mumbled, his tone serious. "I've read your book, remember?"

I smiled and nodded. Then, we fell into silence. He was content to stare out the window at the passing scenery, while I focused on the road. Every now and then, my mind would wander, and I'd try to figure out how we were going to dig ourselves out of this hole.

"Bowling!" The Doctor exclaimed as he spun through the glass door that led to the front desk of the bowling alley fifteen minutes away from my house. "I love bowling! Big shiny balls knocking down pins and making a lot of noise. It's brilliant!" He grinned down at me. "Play me a game?"

I smiled and shook my head. "We're not here to bowl today."

"But…" He looked around, suddenly appearing disappointed. "But it's a bowling alley."

"I know."

He seemed confused. "What else do you do at a bowling alley other than bowl?"

I smiled. "Riley's set it up so the wedding reception's gonna be held here," I explained, tucking my hands into my pockets as I made my way to the desk. "I offered to split the expenses with her."

"That's one hell of a wedding gift."

I smiled innocently. "Well, I kind of… owed her, a bit."

"Oh, ho, ho, what'd you do?" He grinned and reached up to stretch my cheek.

I shrugged. "I might've insulted her mom…" I mumbled, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. "And stormed out when she was trying to pick out her gown."

He smirked and shot me a look.

"I would've helped her anyways!"

"Sure you would've," He grinned and set his hand on my back, guiding me towards the front desk as if to end the discussion. Honestly, I was glad he did. If he hadn't, I would've eventually started kicking him in frustration.

The middle-aged woman behind the counter smiled as we approached. "Two?" She asked.

I smiled and shook my head. "No, actually we're here to talk to the manager about the wedding booked here for Saturday night."

The smile stretched to a grin, showing off her slightly crooked teeth and wrinkling her skin. "Oh, congratulations!"

I blinked. "Sorry?"

"Odd that you're not wearing rings. My husband wouldn't let me get the mail without mine on before we actually got married."

I suddenly understood. "Oh, um, no, not us," I mumbled, my face flushing as I gestured between the Doctor and I. "A friend of mine, I'm just here to pay the bill."

With a hint of shock hiding in her features, she nodded. "My apologies," She jerked her head towards the door behind the counter. "Just go through there and take a left, all the way to the end of the hall."

"Thanks."

I headed behind the counter, tugging the Doctor behind me. I pushed the door open and pulled him in behind me, taking an immediate left just as the woman had said. I stopped pulling him, and he began walking beside me, his left hand tucked in his pocket and his right hand loosely holding mine.

Ignoring the butterflies in my stomach, we proceeded to knock on the frosted-glass door at the end of the hallway. While I only knocked twice, the Doctor had to add a bit of flare and knock out a pattern. I did nothing but roll my eyes at the gesture, and bit my lip when he grinned at me. I hated him for making me feel so uncomfortable.

Finally, the door opened and a portly man with a balding head appeared.

"Catherine Black?"

I nodded. "Riley must've called ahead?"

He nodded in reply, and opened the door further to allow the Doctor and me in. I stepped inside with a smile directed at the man, but he ignored me and waddled to sit behind the desk. I glanced awkwardly at the Doctor, who just shrugged and gestured for me to do my thing.

I turned to the man, and opened my mouth to speak. However, he beat me to it.

"So, how do you want to do this?"

"Um, I was thinking I was just going to write a check and pay it off now."

He looked up from the papers he was staring down at with an eyebrow raised. "All of it?"

"Something wrong with that?"

"No, no, not at all, it's just," He stared at me questioningly. "Won't that put you in debt? It is a rather large bill."

I smiled kindly and shook my head. "Trust me, I'm perfectly secure financially. Who do I make the check out to?"

Half an hour later, everything was set. I'd paid Mr. Walker (the alley manager) in full and the Doctor and I were busy figuring out the right shoe size for him. I know I'd said that we weren't there to bowl, but he'd kept glancing at the alleys with a longing look on his adorable face, and I couldn't resist him when he played the puppy-dog-card.

Eventually, after several pairs, he found shoes that worked for his extremely long and skinny feet. I knew my size from the many times I'd been here during high school (my feet hadn't grown since then), so I was good. We moved from shoes to balls. I went with the medium size eight, the second smallest ball. The Doctor decided to go with the large size eleven. Finally, we found our lane and I started to set up the funky little computer thing.

"Bumpers?" The Doctor laughed as I pushed the button that made the bumpers come up during my turn.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I like to have insurance."

I quickly finished setting up, and the Doctor started his turn. For an alien that traveled the universe saving people, he was a decently good bowler. He hit nine of the pins on the first go, and got the last one on his second throw. I didn't do quite so well. I got five pins down, and then three more. Not bad, but I knew he'd tease me because he did better and he had the disadvantage.

"So, I've been thinking," He mumbled, glancing at me as he stepped up to take his second turn. "Why don't we just say Doctor is my nickname?"

"Who has 'the Doctor' as a nickname?" I scoffed.

"Well," He paused to throw the ball, striking all of the pins down. Then, he turned to me with a cocky smile. "Brilliant, clever, athletic people."

I rolled my eyes and stood to take my own turn. "We'd need a good back-story to convince everyone."

He grinned. "We could say I'm a pompous American that's too fond of his title." He dropped his accent completely.

My eyes widened, but I didn't show any other sign of surprise and focused on settling the rest of my face in anger. In response, he smiled and waited patiently for me to fail at knocking down pins. After knocking down three pins, I turned to wait for my ball to come back and address our situation.

"Not American, that would just insult everyone Riley and Dave invited," I tucked my hands into my pockets. "The fond-of-your-title thing, that's good though. We could say your friends at college started calling you that because…" I trailed off as I thought of a reason.

He beamed. "I was overly enthusiastic!"

I nodded with a chuckle. "Shouldn't be too hard for you to manage." I turned, grabbed my ball, and tossed it without much care. He noticed this motion.

"Are you even trying?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd suck at it either way." I shrugged, and caught the 'you-kicked-my-puppy' look on his face. "What?"

"Well, you can't just not try!" He whined.

I smirked. "Sure I can. I just did, didn't I?"

He shot me a disapproving look, but said nothing more on the subject and moved to take his turn. Another strike, and it was my turn once more. I moved to pick up my ball, but the Doctor stood in the way.

"Are you going to try?" He asked as he dipped his chin, staring at me through his eyelashes.

"Sure, whatever." I mumbled, grabbing his arm and pushing him out of the way.

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." I rolled my eyes, grabbed my ball, and lazily tossed it into the alley. "Whoops, guess I'm gonna die now." I quipped as my ball returned.

He glared as I turned to grab my ball from the rack. After pulling it into my tiny pale hands, the Doctor stepped up and reached around me, situating my fingers in the holes.

"What are you doing?" I asked, turning to look at him with my heart fluttering gently in my chest as his hands positioned my arms.

"Well, I obviously can't trust you to try on your own, so I'm gonna help you." He grinned, and used his feet to tap my own. "Right foot over a bit." I sighed and moved my feet accordingly. "Alright, now bend your elbow like this." He held my right arm out and bent my elbow at a ninety-degree angle. "And now extend and release."

I sighed as he released me and hopped onto his chair like a three year old that had been promised candy. I shot him a glance, and then did as he said. Extend and release. It was good advice, seeing as the ball sped down the alley and knocked down all but one pin.

"You're kidding, right?" I mumbled to myself as I stared at the fallen pins.

"I agree, you were robbed." He stressed the 'D' as he stepped to my side, his hands tucked away in his pockets.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks." I reached over and pushed him lightly.

"You're welcome!" He grinned and reached over to snatch my ball from the rack. He held it out to me, and I couldn't help but smile as I gently took it from him.

A/N: Jeez, I'm becoming a FLUFF MANIAC! Oh, Lord, save me now, for I have sinned...

Anyways, I know this is a few days early. When I have particularly rough days I like to brighten it up with another chapter. This happens to have been one of those rough days. I'm feeling a bit better now, but I still wanted to post this.

So, that's really all I have to say. I have some things to get done, so I've really got to go. Hope you enjoyed it!

Allons-y!

Jazmine