A/N: Here's the next episode from DW! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter! That one was quite difficult seeing as I'm never sure how the Doctor would react to a conversation just like this. This episode also will be several chapters long since I don't know how much time I'll have available over the weekend.

I'll keep reminding you until then, but on Monday, I'll be having school start again, so my production timing of my chapters will go down. Maybe once every two weeks or once a week, in the first part of the term. Closer to finals, though, I might have to wait a while before trying to write again.

Hope you guys understand! Thanks!

The Long Game

Part One

We never talked about Statten's museum after that. Not in front of Rose and certainly not in front of Adam. We didn't even mention the hints that the Doctor had dropped about his past. In the heat of the moment, anyone could have blurted out private details like that. It didn't mean that they would be ready to talk about it.

In a gesture that surprised me, the Doctor had me fetching things from a bag he kept on the floor while he stuck his head into the depths of the console. Of course, that meant I had to keep asking him to describe half the things he needed besides the screwdriver. I thought it meant it turned out to be another thing I sucked at, but besides from his usual snarkiness, the Doctor didn't complain about all of the questions.

He didn't laugh, though perhaps that would've been too much to hope for.

Somehow the Doctor go the TARDIS working again … and he'd finished the coffee.

Note to self: always bring the Doctor a coffee in the morning. He seemed to down it like a man starved.

"Well that didn't take long at all," Rose almost laughed as she skipped into the room. "I knew with you nagging him it would only take a few minutes."

"Wait, what?" I yelped, nearly banging my head on the bottom of the console for the umpteenth time. "It's been half a day at least! Or hanging around this idiot has made me start losing my sense of time already."

"Oi! You're on a time machine, think about it; the TARDIS probably wanted to spare you and your new boyfriend hours of waiting time so she isolated the room so I'd have more time to work." All the while he blurted that out, the Doctor sealed up the bottom of the console and hopped to his feet.

Then his hand stretched downwards. To me. As if nothing had happened.

Feeling a blush rush up my cheeks again, I took it and let him haul me to my feet. "So me handing you things didn't count as help?" Very quickly I took my hand back, but hopefully not in a way that he would take it wrong.

The snort he gave sounded more like normal. "Nope. You're just another pair of hands."

"Oi, you two! Knock it off or you're both getting a smack from me." Rose giggled, looking far from serious. "Point is, the TARDIS is fixed now, isn't it? Adam's been begging to go somewhere."

"Already? "

I shook my head, retreating to one of the chairs. "Time machine, Doctor. Of course he wants to go somewhere." I probably wouldn't get a say for a long time. Time to start getting the Doctor to start liking me again.

Rose and the Doctor started going at it in a friendly way. Bickering like two old friends who knew just how to push each other's buttons in the right order. Their friendship washed over me. Mostly as a warm blanket, but it carried something that didn't make me quite comfortable.

Most people would call it jealousy, but that would be ridiculous.

"Right. This should be safe enough." The Doctor fairly sprung away from the console. "Nothing even remotely interesting at the moment."

I couldn't help but smile at the newfound enthusiasm in the Doctor's steps. He had so much baggage beneath that I-don't-care attitude, but at least he still took the time to enjoy things. Hopefully I could help him get rid of some of that before that Manipulator yanked me away again.

"Oi, American." Fingers snapped in my face, jolting me back to reality. "You coming or what?"

I gaped at him. "Seriously? You don't mind me tagging along? What if I screw everything up again?"

The Doctor grunted in annoyance. "Do you plan on screwing everything up?"

"No."

"Then shut up and come on already. Rose wants to show off for her new boyfriend." Though he wore his normal cocky expression, the look in his eyes softened for a bit.

I knew without a doubt that he was giving me another chance. Another "first adventure" to make up for the last one. I'd be an idiot to refuse. Bumping shoulders with him, I started for the doors. "And you're letting her? I'd say you're going soft, Time Lord."

The Doctor snorted, though it sounded very like a snigger to me. He didn't even react to the casual contact. "In your dreams. Come on."

We burst outside the doors and into a … sealed off room. Great going, Doctor. He did say non-dangerous, though.

"So! It's two-hundred thousand, and … it's a spaceship. Wait, no …." The Doctor paused, scowling to himself. "Make that a space station and, ah, go check out that gate right there. Off you go." A self-satisfied grin plastered itself all over his face as he leaned against the TARDIS completing the picture with crossed arms.

Scooting out of the doorway, I kind of lurked on the other side of the phone box, stuffing my hands in my pockets. Without my bag and coat, I felt kind of helpless, but no way was I about to go back in and potentially miss something. I only had my Manipulator and my cell-phone, but with that grin and the Doctor's willingness to give me another shot, I could take on a whole army of Daleks with just those things and been perfectly calm about it.

Rose looked and felt close to panic. "Two-hundred thousand?" She repeated, as if she couldn't remember anything in her state of nerves.

The Doctor just smirked and nodded, eyebrows rising with what I could've sworn was mischief. "Two-hundred thousand."

"Right." Rose marched back into the TARDIS. "Adam? Out you come."

I winced, dreading the bad reaction I just knew was coming. Although Adam had come with us and didn't seem like that bad of a guy, I still couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling I had whenever I had to deal with him.

"Well you don't seem very impressed," the Doctor huffed while Rose tried to haul Adam out.

"What do you mean?"

"This is your first time off of planet Earth. I thought you'd be more excited."

And again, that blush made itself known. "I kinda forgot?" Lame, but I actually had forgotten that I hadn't been anywhere but Earth until just then. The museum didn't count. Future didn't mean alien planet or space station. "I said hanging around you was a bad idea."

"Nine-hundred years and I can remember things you don't even know exist. I think I deserve to forget a few things now and then." There, that little crack that had opened for me not that long ago reappeared. Just a fraction, but enough to ease the slight tension in his shoulders. Make the lines on his face disappear somewhat.

"No. You remember the most useless information ever," I countered, trying to raise my eye brow like I'd seen him do … and failing. "It's the little things, Doctor. The little things matter more than the big impressive things sometimes."

"But they're not as much fun."

I snorted and shook my head. "You're hopeless." There was no use in lecturing him on his selective memory when he could be right. Plus, he could argue me to death anyway. Or just run and avoid the discussion completely. "I'll try and have fun, I promise, but until I see anything that looks more alien than the TARDIS, I'm not calling this place an alien space station or whatnot."

Rose and Adam burst out before we could say anything else. "Oh my God."

And I could just count down the minutes until it all proved too much for him.

Rose laughed. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

"Where are we?"

"Good question." Rose mimed looking around. Not convincing at all, but the shell-shocked Adam probably wouldn't notice a thing. "So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we were in the year two-hundred thousand."

Architecture? When their backs were turned, I banged my head against the TARDIS as quietly as I could. The urge just overcame me.

"If you listen …."

"Yeah?"

"Engines. We're on some sort of space station." Rose nodded as if reassuring herself. "Yeah, definitely a space station."

In the brief moment of silence, I felt something trickle down my neck. I swiped at it. Sweat. As if intensified by the sudden realization, I could feel the heat decending on me like something thick and humid. "Whoever's in charge can turn the air conditioning on, though."

"Yeah, tell me about it." Rose adjusted her shirt with a swipe of her hair. "Tell you what … let's try this gate. Come on."

Trailing behind them all, I followed the three towards a blocked off doorway. It took a bit to clamber over the mess, but the view on the other side made up for it. Planet Earth laid out in all of its blue and green glory. I hovered at the back with a smile making its way onto my face. I actually stood on a space station.

The Doctor glance my way. Something must have shown on my face because the smile on his own made me soar even higher than the station.

"… I'll let the Doctor describe it." Rose's voice drew us both back to the situation she had herself in.

"Ah. The Fourth great and bountiful Human Empire," came the Doctor's ready supply of information. "Planet Earth at its height. Covered in mega-cities, five moons, population ninety-six billion."

The numb shock radiating from Adam had me counting the seconds until total collapse.

Clueless, the Doctor just rambled on. "The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species, with mankind right in the middle."

Adam fainted.

"That lasted two minutes, Doctor," I sighed. "I knew he couldn't handle it."

The Doctor still faced the window, but I could've sworn I heard some amusement hiding beneath the annoyance. "He's your boyfriend, Rose."

Rose all but shuddered. "Not anymore."