Rose

The doctor had been rude, not out-rightly rude, he hadn't said anything particularly insulting. It was that phrase alone, "Jus saying" like I was some idiot or something. I get that he was protective of the girl which was his right, I'll give him that but it wasn't just that. He'd been condescending and I rather didn't like it. Then he sent the girl over to hug me like that would make everything all better and it did surprisingly. The girl was shorter than me and petite. Small, her hair was curly and shoulder length and she hugged me with all her strength. Where as a few minutes ago she was hugging the doctor, and no, I was not jealous (I'm not some perve to be jealous of a little girl, who was in effect what she was, oh god I sound like the doctor now).

He had looked over his shoulder at me with his face full of quiet, awed joy like a little earth boy on Christmas morning. This new regeneration was boyish and extremely high on life. His last body had been the least bit cynical when I first met him. Anyhow if I had nearly died then some how lived again, I would be high off life. Wait does taking the heart of the TARDIS in your head count as nearly dying? Then again his regeneration was in part my fault. So we both nearly died, no wait, he died and I … oh bugger it! I had made a funny remark, about him having an admirer and he smirked just a little bit. Male machismo, what can you do?

Even nine hundred and something year old time lords have it.

The Doctor

Rose had gotten a little sulky, I don't know what I said to have caused it but it was very, very short lived. It disappeared as the girl hugged her. Did I mention I like hugs, I'm not very domestic but I love hugs. I guess I picked it up from humans or may be it was the …never mind. I'm all for rambling, it's like emotional ventriloquism - it throws people off. After the girl came back to me, it was clear she had imprinted on me, I can do that to people, I'm just that brilliant and charismatic and ... that's not necessary –sorry. The way she trusted me and that naive, innocent air around her reminded me of mine own, my daughter when she was little. When she was thriving, when … before …. I try not to dwell on those memories there's no how that you do what I did and not live with the guilt and pain. No one could but the memories of her were good and honest. There's nothing more good and honest than a child and this girl's face wiped the sudden intrusion of those painful memories.

She had probably sensed the shift in my mood because those grey, green eyes regarded me deeply, a frown forming on her perfect face.

"Sad?"

"Maybe – but you just made it better!" I pulled an ornate stone from behind her ear and dropped it in her palm. She looked at me then felt behind her ear. She giggled and grinned then stared at it. It was a turquoise colour and shaped like an ellipse with gold veins across it surface. It was a trinket really, and I had a couple in my pockets. I had bought it off a stall along the mall; the worker had snickered when I picked out a half dozen, "For your girl friend mate?"

Rose had been wandering around the displays so I decided I would take a liberty. I just felt the urge to be smart.

"No, for my TARDIS, my T-A-R-D-I-S, and no that's not another woman, though she acts like one, it'll work out just fine in my transo-accelaratrex to replace the last elliptical shaped thingamajig that's just about worn out, and the rest are for my fruity fetish of…"

Rose had come to my side in time to catch that and nudged me in the ribs to cut me off," You're being rude again."

I had given a contrite "Sorry."

Right, straying again, back to our new, new friend; she laughed, "I have one like this already." She was rubbing it against her cheek. "But this one's nicer." Her eyes sparkled, "My other one's all orange and red, my nice lady bought it for me."

The shade under the big oak was cool and comfortable. These were trees from the original earth, sol 3, Rose's earth, well technically, they're from original earth stock, cultivated, preserved then transplanted in the state shopping complex. When I had pointed this out to Rose, she was ecstatic and ran to touch the nearest one, then the one after that and the one after that until she noticed our little friend following us curiously behind. The shade was brilliant and you couldn't waste brilliant shade, consider people in the desert, they hardly have any natural shade but they cope and pretty well to. So we ended up sitting in the grass like kids with Rose sitting on a bit of thick exposed root, moving hair that the slight wind blew in her face.

As she looked at the pendant, she started chattering and I could barely keep up! She had been silent, the times before or uttered one word phrases before so I thought that maybe she didn't have a good grasp on speech as yet but she had surprised me. Granted she chattered like a five year old in a teen's body but that isn't the strangest thing to be seen in the universe.

"You can speak!" I exclaimed,

She nodded, amused by my surprise, "I'm not stupid.'

"No... no you aren't, what's my name ?" I asked.

"You're the Doctor,"

I felt so proud for some reason, "Yes, I am, what about you – we can't keep calling you sweetheart, what's your name?"

She kept her head down when I asked that, eyes on the pendant. She refused to answer with her stony silence.

"Oh, you don't have a name yet," I realized belatedly," but you've a foster mother, she can name you, and all that rubbish with the state using numbers is over."

The girl still played with the pendant, "She call's me things like love and dearie." Her voice sounded lost.

"I don't have a name," Tears threatened to fall, she looked heart broken.

"Ever one else has a name. Why don't I have a name?"

Rose

"Well, that's not good, we can't have that!" He exclaimed and dug out his brainy specs from his pockets, you know the one's he doesn't really need but wears because he thinks he looks more of a genius with them on. He then pulled out a baby name book if you believe it, after piling the ground next to him with a pair of binoculars, a set of cutlery, a bottle of Tabasco sauce (got that from Mexico in 1978 he had remarked because I gave him a funny look or I think I did), a tangle of wires, a paper weight, several more things I had never seen before and several more that looked cobbled together by the doctor himself.

"Why's there a baby name book in your pockets… no wait, where did all that…" I did not know what word to use, junk or 'things that might come in handy and save us all', so I stuck to being inarticulate, "… that fit in your pocket?" Of course it was a dumb question because his TARDIS was bigger on the inside, why not his pockets too?

He echoed the sentiment briefly with a smirk that spelled e-g-o or maybe just 'I'm-a- time-lord-ness'. I think it was the latter.

"And the baby book of names, well you never know when you're going to need one, like now for instance," he wagged the book in my face, with a goofy almost imbecilic expression, "Okay, baby names, silly, wonderful names and one'll be yours!" He directed at the girl.

We spent half an hour reading names in turn out loud while she cooed over them.

"Iris, Ilyis , Jenny, Jem, janet, Jaylly …

"- I like Jaylly but ummm …no"

"…Tina ….Trish... Trisha …"

" nah uh"

Then after a while, the wheels in her head turned and she came to a decision, "Beginning, go back."

She stopped the doctor's hand from flipping, it was the C- B section of names.

The doctor called out names, "Cellia, Cristiana, Crystal…"

"No the Bees," She shouted agitated

"…Becky…Beth… Basil… Briana –"

"That one "she stabbed a long finger at the page, "Brianna," she said out loud.

"Breee …..annnnnn..naaaaaah,"she pronounced, "Brea for short." The intelligence shone in her eyes.

"That's my name!" she said triumphantly and on her knees, the intensity of the name search replaced by glee.

"Brea, it is then!" The doctor exclaimed, "Brianna, I like it – suits you! I knew a Brianna once, knew a Brea too, fantastic people, like you, "The doctor winked both at me and the girl, Brea. I smiled, she looked so happy, like another block had been added to the pile of blocks that was and would be her life. Wait why does that sound familiar, oh that's why. The strangeness of time travel was rubbing of me, that and a certain some one.

"Hello Brianna!" The doctor stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet you! "He said, half drawled in that delicious tone of voice, "Very, very nice."

She turned shy and shook his hand, she looked up and I swear she looked more grown up, eye lashes and everything, "Hello Doctor! "The doctor blushed – a little – I swear.

"Awwwwww." Both of them turned to look at me then nearly trampled me over in an over zealous effort to hug me. We ended up tumbled in the grass and somehow he was under us.

"Ow!" He had another silly expression on his face, a lopsided curve of the mouth and I poked him. Brea followed and poked him too and we all burst into raucous laughter.

Brea

My name is Brea – Brianna. It might seem silly to someone who isn't like me but you have to understand. I never had a name, not even a number before we were cured and freed. Then I heard the string of letters and numbers that was on my temporary paper work, a thing I couldn't even pronounce. I felt lost and demeaned. Real people had names, things had numbers. I wasn't just a thing anymore, I was a person.

With all the wonder and newness, I had still feared some strange thing, uncertainty. I think the uncertainty was if I existed or not. Would I blend into nothingness, pushed into the rest? And the Doctor understood that, despite the good natured humor and laughs, he possessed that ability to look through you. He recognized I didn't feel whole, saw the pain I felt.

And he gave me a name. No, he didn't exactly but he helped me choose one. I'll tell my nice lady that I want Brianna to be my name. I like it, I like it very much. And Brea rhymes with free.

My name is Brea and there's nothing in the world as nice as me!

I ran onto the bright green, open lawn and spun around and it was silly Rose joined me. Rose grabbed my hands and spun with me and the doctor retired to a bench to watch us bemusedly.

Transo-accelaratrex haha, that sounds so made up - oh wait it is (attack of the randomly made up TARDIS part).

You must admit that the doctor's rambling is positively sexy so I put in an explanation for that ;) Reviews, like all good things in life, are free and will be greatly appreciated.