This chapter is a bit shorter than usual, but I was keen to publish it and it seemed like a good place to end. We get the start of a short new arc which will be very Daliya heavy, which is always good.

Thanks to all who have reviewed so far! Enjoy the chapter!

"Aliya, just hang on a minute!"

Ignoring his warning, Aliya flew out of the TARDIS doors and into dim afternoon light. The countryside around her shone with the colours reflecting through the leaves of the trees that were just starting to change. She grinned with pure, unadulterated contentment and shut her eyes to bask in the tiny remnants of warmth around her, her arms outstretched.

Briefly, she wished she weren't wearing shoes so that she could have dug her feet into the dirt, but that would be taking things a little far, perhaps.

"You know-"

His sentence dried up when the Time Lady, still all but laughing for no reason, spun around. Her friend was leaning against the TARDIS and watching her with a soft and peculiar expression on his face.

"What?"

The Doctor looked like he was going to blush for a moment, but just scratched his face and shrugged, making Aliya think her imagination must be in overdrive. "I - uh - nothing. You just-" He held out a pale piece of basic cloth in his hand. "You need to wear this over your hair."

"Why?"

"Or else they'll think you're some sort of...er…" He floundered slightly under her sceptical look. "Lady of the night."

Aliya blinked, and said flatly, "I have literally no idea what that means."

The man in tweed looked ready to die of embarrassment, his hands starting to flail as he said, "Someone who exchanges certain...intimate services...for money."

Her eyes widened. "Oh." She immediately snatched the headwear from his hand. "Help me put it on. I won't be having any of that." The Doctor ended up being the one doing all the work as Aliya knew nothing about primitive clothing let alone things to be worn on her head. His hands were deft and graceful and his fingers tickled the edges of her ears and the nape of her neck, making her squirm and giggle.

"Hold still," he told her exasperatedly.

"Not bloody likely," she snorted as he finished the job and had her looking like a respectable country woman.

"You'll have to watch your language around people here, you know. The Scottish might love swearing, but women are still meant to be proper."

"Just take me to the castle already."

The pair set off down the rough road. Aliya played with her floaty brown skirts and kicked her boots on the firmly packed terrain beneath their feet. The Doctor was going on about how much she was going to love Edinburgh Castle and how they could sneak in as servants and see all the little spots in it that made it fantastic. It wasn't exactly that she wasn't listening, it's just that it was quite pleasant to just let the melodious tones of his voice wash over her, more like ambient music to go with their gorgeous nature background than as words with actual combined meaning.

He could have told her that he'd shagged Rex Matheson and there was a only a half chance she would have noticed.

Then, as the sky was starting to darken and streak with orange, he just stopped. Stopped and sniffed. After several good long whiffs, he frowned, his large forehead wrinkling in a way that never failed to amuse Aliya.

"I may have gotten this a tad wrong. I don't think we're in Scotland."

"Seriously?"

"More like middleish England, actually."

"Ooh, England, it's not like we're never been there before," Aliya said sarcastically, "Don't want to miss out on that. We've been walking for over an hour, now what do we do?"

"Well, I can see some smoke in the distance, so I think there must be a village or town not too far off. Do you want to-"

That was when the heavens parted above them and rain quite unlike what Aliya had ever experienced pelted them relentlessly.

"Village!" They both shouted through the thunderous downpour. The two Gallifreyans locked hands and ran at full pelt. Eventually they did come into a moderately sized village. Due to the weather, not a soul was in sight.

"Inn," the Doctor stammered through the cold. He led them to the building in question and rammed on the door, bringing Aliya under the nook of his arm to try and shelter her from the weather. A woman in her thirties with dark eyes and round features opened the door to stare at them with great surprise. "Yes, hello. Could my...wife...and I trouble you for a room?"

"Of course, you poor things, come in at once," the woman said, rushing them in and shutting the door swiftly behind them. "If you'll follow me." They led them through to a dining area which had a few people at the far end. "You know, you'll want to be careful, there's been some dangerous animals in these parts recently…"

"Wife?!" Aliya muttered to the Doctor as they walked.

"Unmarried women didn't just walk around in these times, Aliya," he replied, "Especially not alone with a man. They might've not let us in if they didn't think we were respectable."

"I still don't like it."

"Food's included in the fee for the bed," the innkeeper's wife said brightly, "Do sit down and I'll fetch you both something. I am Cecily and am here if you need anything."

"I'm John Middleton, and this is Aliya," the Doctor said. Aliya just nodded and returned the smile she received from Cecily. The moment they were left with enough privacy to speak between them, Aliya started complaining about the marriage pretense. She was quickly shushed.

"It's not optional, and too late anyway," the Doctor told her. He spoke in low tones so that the two men at the edge of the room couldn't hear. "Now, how are you, anyway? Cold?"

Aliya shivered. "Obviously," she snapped. Despite that, he removed his tweed jacket and put it around her shoulders without saying a word. Instantly she felt ridiculous and petty. "Oh, sorry, Doctor, that was-" She had turned to him with slumped and apologetic shoulders, but found that his finger was blocking any more words from escaping her mouth.

"It's fine," he whispered. "That better?"

"Yes," she replied, smiling sheepishly at him. "Thank you."

"Can't have my wife freezing right next to me, can I?" He grinned at her, but her newly found cheer evaporated at hearing the word 'wife' again. Luckily, this time his smile slipped too. "No. No, that's just a bit wrong, isn't it? When it's just us, best not."

"Please and thank you," Aliya said with a sigh of relief.

A girl of about fifteen approached them with a tray of food in her hands. With bright eyes and her sandy hair in twin braids, she bore a slight resemblance to their hostess.

"I'm Laura," she said, smiling as she set the tray down. "Mother and I thought we might join you, if you wish for the company."

"Course we do, lovely people like you," the Doctor replied, giving her a warm smile. Laura returned it, confidence visibly rising while anxiety faded. The girl sat down across from them.

"So...do you two have children?" She asked brightly. Immediately, Aliya started choking on her morsel of bread. Laura looked alarmed but a rather flustered Doctor assured the local that his companion was fine.

"And no, Laura, we don't," he added.

Laura was sympathetic. "Sorry. But it's never too late. Far from it."

"For what?" Cecily had appeared with food for her daughter and herself.

"Children."

Cecily's eyebrows rose. "But - I could have...hm. Interesting." She sat down by her daughter, but kept her eyes on her customers. "You know, I am fairly adept at reading into the dynamic of a couple. Would you like me to try, just for a bit of light entertainment? You're allowed to say no."

Aliya was unsure, but the Doctor just put another bit of meat into his mouth and said, "Go for it, could be interesting, but we're not that easy to read." As Aliya did, it was clear he didn't believe some primitive human could be even mildly clued in on their situation.

Cecily propped her chin up on her hand and regarded them with perceptive green eyes. "You're newlyweds, despite your age. But you have known each other since childhood. Both married before, I imagine widowed in both cases. Both of you have had children, but you lost yours, my dear, though some time ago." She looked at Aliya, whose eyes were wide with surprise. The blonde just slowly nodded. "You're used to being together but not in this way, you're still adjusting." Cecily then grinned. "How did I do?"

Both of them gaped at her until the Doctor finally managed to say, "How did you do that? It's remarkable."

"Oh, I'm just good at reading people. You're obviously comfortable with each other, but you're awkward as well. You both have the look of parents, but hers is absent. I've seen it before, in the eyes of unlucky mothers."

Aliya frowned and dropped her eyes to the plate of food.

Cecily just smiled at them sympathetically. "As Laura here said, it's not too late, you're both still young enough. And it's not as if the process of trying is a hardship." Her eyes twinkled but everyone else at the table went bright red.

"Mother," Laura muttered, embarrassed and flustered.

"You're married in a week, Laura, best to stop blushing if you can," her mother said offhandedly.

"A week?!" Aliya squeaked, horrified until the Doctor shot her a warning look. "How lovely," she said quickly, smiling at Laura. The girl just nodded minutely and forced a smile back.

"It's just daunting, I suppose," she said. An abrupt rush of empathy hit Aliya as she realised this girl was going through the same doubts about her almost definitely arranged marriage as she had once had.

"Have you met him?"

"No, but Mother has, and she tells me that he is kind spirited and rather handsome. He's five years older."

"That's not so bad," Aliya said, smiling, "Mine was older by a good deal more than that. He looked good for it, though."

"What was he like?"

"Solemn, but good deep down. And we had a son together, that's something that brings people together in a way that can't be described."

Cecily noticed the Doctor looking sullen. "Oh, you'll get your turn, John, no need to look so sour."

The Doctor snapped back to attention. "No, no, that's not what I-"

"If it's bothering you that much, I can show you to your room and you can get to putting a child in her, if it will wipe that look of your face," Cecily's voice was stern, but she soon laughed at their startled reactions.

"Mother," Laura whispered, covering her eyes with utter mortification.

The Doctor stood up, laughing nervously. "Yeah, right, we'll get onto that. Aliya, how does a nice sleep sound?" Aliya, who could feel her face getting very hot for what seemed like the umpteenth time since they arrived, followed his lead.

"Sleep sounds good."

"Have fun," Laura said as they began to follow Cecily out into the hallway, "I mean, not fun but a good...rest..."

That was when the front door of the inn slammed open. Cecily, Aliya and the Doctor rushed back into the dining room just in time to see two men carrying in a third, who was groggy and had a large patch of blood staining his shirt and several slashes of what looked to be claw marks all over his arms.

"What happened?" Cecily and the Doctor asked at the same time as they rushed to the injured man's side.

"We were attacked," said one of the other men. "It was hard to tell what did it, but-"

"Bear," gasped the injured man as he was placed on one of the dining tables.

"There aren't bears in these parts, not in the whole country," the Doctor immediately said, frowning. He looked up at the others. "Get me cloth to use for bandages, and alcohol for his wounds." When the humans just blinked at him, Aliya grabbed Laura by the elbow.

"Where's the alcohol?" She asked the girl urgently, who shakily began to led her out of the room. "You lot, listen to everything he says, he's a physician, he knows what he's talking about!" Laura brought them to a cellar, and shoved an open bottle of wine into Aliya's hands.

"That's my father, in there," Laura said, eyes shining with near tears, "Does your husband know how to help him?"

Aliya grabbed the girl's hand and gave it a tight squeeze. "Just you watch him," she said with complete faith. They dashed back into the main room, where Cecily had disappeared (hopefully to fetch cloth for bandages) and Aliya passed the alcohol to the Doctor as quickly as she could, kissing his cheek while she was leaning in. "Here. Good luck. Is there anything else I can do?" She asked, and he shook his head.

"Keep Laura distracted," he murmured as he poured the alcohol onto the large chest wound, "She seems to be very anxious and could use someone to calm her down."

"Okay."

Aliya put her arm around Laura's shoulders and guided her to some chairs that were far enough that they wouldn't be in the way but weren't out of the action.

"He's in good hands," the Time Lady assured the human. "I promise." Laura nodded, so Aliya pulled her in for a light sideways hug. "Did you know one time, I nearly drowned, and the Doc - John pressed on my chest and literally blew the breath and life back into me."

Laura's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Really. Now, why don't I tell you a story to keep your mind from worrying while he does his work?"

"Alright, what kind of story?"

"There was a man, a traveller, and he lived forever," Aliya began, and from the first line she had her young companion's attention. "He didn't just travel across physical distance, he travelled through time."

"How?" Laura asked eagerly.

"He had a magical box that could take him anywhere and when he wanted. He went back and met Cleopatra and forward to meet Queen Elizabeth the Second."

"Not her king?"

"No, she rules in her own right."

Laura's eyes sparkled at the sheer impossibility of the thought. "What else did he do?"

"Well, there were other people who could time travel too. And one day, he met a woman. This woman greeted him like a lover and claimed to know him. When she realised that he didn't know her, she was incredibly sad, but had known the day would come. Because she travelled in time as well, and all her life they had met in the wrong order."

"Oh," Laura gasped, "That's the most spectacular thing I've ever heard. Were they in love?"

"Very," Aliya said, smiling softly, "He didn't trust her when they first met, but then she spoke a secret in his ear that he knew she could only know if he truly loved her more than anyone else. So he met her again and again, and it only took a few meetings for him to become besotted. She had the curliest and wildest hair he had ever seen, and was so beautiful that he was the envy of all men who saw them together. They got married, and had more love between them than most people can even imagine."

The girl listening let herself smile at that, eyes alight with passion for the story. "And did they live out their days happily?"

It would have been so easy to lie, to just let the story end there. But it seemed wrong to change a single detail of the Doctor and River's tragically perfect love story. Aliya shook her head.

"There was something he could never tell her. The first time he had met her, she had died. Every time he had met her after that, it had been a younger her, a her who hadn't get gone to the time and place she would die," she whispered, and Laura's hand flew to cover her mouth in shock.

"That's tragic. So she died?"

"He had to say goodbye to her, knowing that the next time she met him he wouldn't know who she was and that she would die in front of him. But he would never regret loving her and would never love anyone else that much ever again."

Aliya felt tears pricking at her ears and quickly wiped them away.

"That's a fantastic story," Laura said with admiration, "Even if it is sad. Why do you tell it if it makes you so sad? You're crying over something thing as unbelievable as a tragic love story where the lovers can travel through time itself."

"It's the only good story I know," Aliya said, shrugging, "And I think that if it's sad enough to make me cry then it's a story worth telling."

"Thank you for telling it. I don't think I'll hear a story of its like ever again."

"No, probably not. You're welcome."

They sat in not entirely awkward silence for a minute or two before the Doctor made an exclamation of triumph and backed away from his patient.

"There, he should be alright, he just needs to take it easy. If you brilliant fellows could get Robert to his bed very gently, that would be great," he told the other men, who immediately got onto it. The man in the bowtie turned to the woman of the house. "If you can change his bandages every day or two, that should help, but he'll be fine."

"Thank you, John," Cecily said gratefully, "You can have your room for half the price, if you wish."

Laura and Aliya got up to approach them, both more relaxed now that they knew the former's father was going to be alright.

"That would be lovely, thank you," the Doctor said, smiling at Cecily. He dug in his pockets and found a tiny ruby which he placed in her hand. "Is that enough? I think it should be, it looks valuable." He peered at it only to shrug. "I can never tell. If you could show us to our room?"

Cecily, however, had frozen staring at the precious gem now in her hand. Laura took the initiative.

"I can do that," the girl said, leading them up the stairs to a room on the second floor and opening the door for them. "I can get the fire going before I leave you alone, if you wish." She quickly knelt by the hearth and got to work while the Doctor and Aliya came inside and had a look around the room.

It was small, but not incredibly so, and the bed looked like it would fit two people, so nothing to complain about.

"Cosy," the Doctor said, rubbing his hands together, "Couldn't be better." Aliya just nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed. Within a minute, Laura had the fire going.

"Goodnight," she said to them, smiling widely.

"Goodnight," they chorused in unison as she left them alone. Aliya knelt by the fire and warmed her hands while the Doctor kept looking between her and the bed.

"So, er...one bed...you alright with sharing?" He asked.

Aliya hadn't actually thought about it, but nodded despite the topsy turvy things the thought did to her insides. "I am your personal teddy bear, and we share couches all the time. This will actually be roomier than that." All the same, there were implications of sharing a bed that quietly made it far less simple than her words made it out to be. Not that she was going to admit that.

"Good point." He began kicking off his shoes, and shed his jacket and bowtie. "Do you need help with the thing in your hair?"

"Yes, please," she said without moving from her place in front of the fire. The Doctor came to sit behind her and deftly unwound the piece of cloth from around the top of her head. When her hair fell free of it, he ran a hand through it just to make it sit right. Her eyes flickered shut from the pleasant feeling of his touch, but only for a moment.

"There," he said quietly, and when she turned to thank him, he smiled at her and whatever planned words she had prepared disappeared from her mind. Luckily, he offered her a hand up so she was able to just take that and not speak at all. He moved to recline on the bed with his hands behind his head, and she began to take off the outer layer of her dress. Her petticoat underneath would prove to be adequate sleepwear even if it was much lighter than her usual cotton pyjamas and jumpers. "You know, Robert, the injured fellow, he's certain it was a giant bear that got him."

"But you said there aren't bears in these parts."

"No, there aren't, haven't been for about a century, and certainly not giant ones. So that could be worth looking into in the morning."

"Sounds good to me."

Her fingers worked at the tight knots of the corset until finally they began to come undone and she could undo the lacings. She was almost done when she realised the Doctor was watching her, his green eyes following the movement of her hands with a weight she could almost physically feel.

"What?" She asked, wondering if she had done something stupid like unlaced it wrong. Was that even possible? If it was, she was undoubtedly the one who would manage it.

His eyes snapped up to her face and he was quick to shake his head and direct his gaze to the ceiling.

Finally, the outer dress fell to the floor and she was able to climb into the other side of the bed. She shared a smile with him and her eyes locked onto his right cheek, where she suddenly recalled kissing him lightly not too long before. What on earth possessed me to do that? She wondered, having to fight the urge to blush at the thought. He hadn't brought it up, so hopefully it hadn't bothered him, though it was likely that he had forgotten it as quickly as she had with all that had been going on.

He got under the covers of his side and was quick to wrap his arms around her just like he had done in the TARDIS so many times. His arm fit snugly across the curve of her waist while his other rested under her head. She let out a tiny contented sigh and shut her eyes.

It likely wouldn't have taken long for her to fall asleep if the Doctor had been able to do so, but he kept fidgeting.

"Can you cut it out?" She hissed.

"The blanket's all scratchy. Your petticoat's nice though, maybe if I could cover my legs with it then I'll be alright." He wriggled until he had slid his legs much closer to hers and let the flowy skirt of the petticoat cover them. "Yes, that's better." He rested his head against her back while his fingers absently traced across her covered arm. Little did he know that his light touch practically burned her skin through thin fabric.

Aliya shut her eyes, giving in to the coveted feeling for a few weak moments before gathering up the strength to snap, "Please stop that, I'm trying to sleep." His hand moved back to looping over her waist. After a moment of wondering if she had sounded harsh, she brought her hand down to clasp his softly, and the tiny squeeze she got for her trouble had her smiling into her pillow.

Sure, being with him like this was torture in its own way, but it was the most exquisite kind of torture. Besides, she was desperate enough to take what she could get, no matter how inconsequential or painful.

Unrequited love was fun like that.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully the amount of Daliya was satisfactory. This chapter is not massively plot heavy, I will admit, but that will kick off next chapter. Expect even MORE Daliya next chapter too.

Feedback is always appreciated! Love you guys!

-MayFairy :)

p.s. remember to search the 'hootd series' tag on 8tracks to find some neat playlists for this series!