Chapter 16: "Once Upon a Time"

"Once upon a time, there was a poor, coward peasant named Kathlynian who lived on a planet called Galifrey." She began. "She was only nine hundred years old, and on her second regeneration when a war broke out. Kathlynian, being the coward she was, almost immediately stole a TARDIS and fled, rather than face the consequences of a war torn planet. She crash landed on Earth, and was hurt in the accident. She fled her spaceship, and regenerated into a small child." Poppy chuckled remembering the odd regeneration. "A few humans found her, and sent her to an orphanage, where she was adopted by a nice lady who lived on a farm, who had no clue that her eight year old daughter was truly 1350 years older than her."

The Doctor laughed. "So that explains why your mum looked absolutely nothing like you."

"She asked her what her name was. "Kathlynian." She said, but her mum thought she said Katherine, and called her that ever sense. As soon as she was old enough for her mum to let her wander the town alone (almost ten earth years later) she ran to find her TARDIS. Unfortunately for Kathlynian, she couldn't remember what it looked like, and lost it to this day."

"How old are you now, Kathlynian?" He asked, using her real name, even though it went against every fiber of his being.

"1,417." She smiled.

"Still little girl." He teased.

She laughed. "I'll always be little girl."

"You're my little girl." He said.

"I know." She said, leaning her head on his shoulder.

"So all your questions about Galifrey, and aliens, and 'oh my god we're in space' was fake?" He asked.

"Yeah..." She sighed. "It was funny to see you try and dumb it down, even though I already knew the complicated version."

"Why did you hide it from me so long?" He asked.

"I didn't want to tell you unless I absolutely had to, I.E., mid-regeneration. I just felt like that if you thought I was human, maybe I'd mean more to you or something" she sighed.

"Why would that make any difference?" He said taking her hand.

"I dunno. Maybe if you thought I was more fragile or something you would try to protect me, and it would make you feel good." She answered.

"Oh, Kathlynian." He chuckled. "You went through all of this so I could feel like I was protecting you?"

"Yeah..." She laughed quietly.

He kissed her softly, cradling the side of her face with the hand that wasn't holding hers. "Thank you." He whispered. "I needed that."

"And I needed you." She whispered back. "To make me feel purposeful again."

"Wait." He stopped. "You told the cyberman you only had one heart."

"I do." She answered.

"But... How?" He asked.

"Birth defect I guess. It's stuck with me through every regeneration so far. Kinda lucky I guess. It would've been interesting during my last regeneration when my mum took me to check ups." She laughed.

"You're something special, Kathlynian." He said, stroking her face with the back of his hand.

She blushed. "It's so odd to hear someone call me that. I never thought I'd hear it again."

"I'm still bewildered that I'm not the last." He chuckled.

"Me too... When you told me you were a Time Lord, I couldn't believe it. I figured they all died out in the war, then you told me you were the last, I don't know, I just couldn't believe that we were the only survivors."

Kathlynian collapsed backwards onto her bed and closed her eyes. "What a day." She said.

The Doctor smiled. "You've got to be incredibly tired. Regeneration does that to you. Get some rest." He let go of her hand, and walked to the door.

"Wait." She said, sitting upright.

The Doctor turned to look over his shoulder. "Yes?" He asked.

"Come here, I need something." She said

"And what's that?" He asked, walking back and sitting back on her bed beside her.

"You." She whispered kissing him like she never kissed Jack- with love.

A/N: Dawww. And so the fluff starts xD

Don't forget to review :3

-KLR