Originally written in 2016.

He'd been feeling somewhat "off" for a few days before it actually began to have a noticeable effect on him; dark shadows appeared beneath his already tired-looking hazel eyes and an irritating cough that became increasingly harder to conceal as the days wore on. But, being who he was, the Doctor decided to simply ignore his problem until it went away.

Of course, Amy had picked up on the fact that something wasn't right by that point.

The final straw for the fire-haired Scott was when he sneezed so hard that he smacked his head into the TARDIS console and almost landed them in the centre of a supernova.

"When are you finally going to admit that you're not feeling well?" she finally spoke up as soon as they were out of the pathway of the expanding star.

"Never, because I'm perfectly alright; I'm the King of Okay!" He exclaimed, shooting a goofy grin in her direction, causing her to smile and laugh back at him.

"Now," He began as he circled wildly around the console, flipping switches and pressing an array of buttons until the TARDIS jerked to life and began to carry them towards their next adventure. "Who's ready to go explore the ruins of Kaldooran? Wonderful people the Kaldoori, all two heads and scales and gills. But, 2831, their sun expands, dries up most of the water on the planet, rendering it uninhabitable to the Kaldoori. Terrible tragedy, however they leave behind beautiful crystal pyramids and temples and buildings, all scattered about what used to be the seafloor, and did you know that…" The Doctor rambled on, seemingly back to his old self again and Amy resolved to forget about recent events and go exploring with him.

"Sure is hot..." Amy commented as she stepped out into the blinding sunlight, lifting a hand to shield her eyes.

"Well of course it's hot; the sun here is so close that it dried up most of the water on the planet!" He shouted gleefully as he twirled around and launched into his usual encyclopedia-esque explanation of everything.

They explored the shining crystalline ruins for approximately an hour before the Doctor began feeling unwell again; the hot, stuffy air did nothing to help his cough and the heat was making him almost unbearably dizzy.

"Doctor, are you alright?" Amy asked, noticing that the normally off-the-walls Time Lord was falling behind.

"I'm fine." He lied unconvincingly as he leaned against a crumbling pillar for support. Amy, of course, could see right through him.

"Well, it's getting late; don't you think we should be getting back to the TARDIS?" She asked as casually as she could, motioning to the slowly setting red sun.

"Already? But there's still so much more to do out here!" He lied again, badly masking his tired happiness at the idea of returning to his blue box. "Well… I suppose I we have to…" He groaned, turning on his heel in the direction of his beloved TARDIS.

"So, where to next? The Lost Moon of Poosh? The markets of Akhaten?" The Doctor asked as the sounds of the TARDIS dematerializing filled the room.

"Oh, I dunno, I'm a bit tired Doctor, maybe we could just drift in the vortex or whatever for a little while?" Amy suggested as she leaned nonchalantly against the TARDIS console.

"Oh, alright then, bloody humans, always needing sleep and-" the Doctor broke off mid sentence to stifle a yawn. "Well, maybe we're all a bit tired, eh?" he concluded with a dorky smile. Amy couldn't stop herself from cracking a smile in return.

"Good night Doctor." She murmured before disappearing into the halls of the TARDIS to see where her bedroom had been moved to this time. The Doctor waited a little while to make sure his companion was asleep before dragging himself to his own rarely used bedroom.

Amy was jolted awake by a loud, echoing rumble from the TARDIS. After recovering from the initial shock, she rolled over to look at her alarm clock. The glowing red numbers flashed: 2:17 A.M.

2:17 A.M.?!

She must have fallen asleep! She had only meant to put on her pajamas and wait until the Doctor went to sleep so she could get to the bottom of things. All factors combined, the only logical reason for her being awake was that the Doctor needed her, and the TARDIS thought so too. Amy groaned and forced herself to leave the warm comforts of her bed, dragging the duvet with her as protection against the chill of the early morning air.

She wandered out into the corridor, looking in both directions and began searching for the Time Lord's bedroom. After meandering the hallways for a few minutes, Amy stumbled upon an ancient looking oak door with strange circular symbols engraved on it. She paused to admire the carving for a few minutes before turning the knob and entering the room. The door had been impressive, but the interior of the room was incredible. Swirling galaxies covered the 9 foot ceiling and the room was decorated with heavy oak cabinets and side-tables. The walls were dark blue, almost black, and covered in golden circular symbols that matched the ones on the door. In the far left corner of the room sat a large four-poster bed; tossing and turning on top of it was the Doctor.

Amy padded silently across the plush white carpeting of the room to where the limp form of the Doctor was lying. She sat down gently on the edge of his bed, laying a hand across his forehead only to have her suspicions confirmed, he was definitely running a temperature. The Doctor reacted to her touch; his eyes fluttered open and wandered around the room for a few seconds before focusing on his companion sitting right in front of him.

"A-Amy?" He breathed, voice sounding ragged and somewhat nasally.

"Shh, shh I'm here, I'm right here Doctor…" She whispered gently, helping him to sit up and lean against the headboard. "I'm here," She repeated, "Oh, what 'ave you done to yourself?" Without warning, the Doctor doubled up in pain, wrapping his arms around his midsection and groaning.

"Amy, my stomach's gone all funny, have I been poisoned?" He asked, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

"No, of course you 'aven't been poisoned, silly, you're just sick." Amy smiled despite her worry, running a hand through The Doctor's sweat-dampened hair and feeling the heat radiating from his usually cool skin.

"No, no that's impossible…" He sniffled, groaning again and curling into an even tighter ball, "Time Lords don't get sick."

"Well, you obviously are." Amy pointed out unhelpfully as she inched closer to the alien and put a comforting arm around his shoulder. "Now then, you can't deny it any longer, so are you going to tell me what's wrong?" She showed no signs of relenting in her quest for answers.

The Doctor directed a pitiful glance in her direction before taking a shaky breath and beginning to list his symptoms: "I'm cold, I'm tired, my throat hurts and my head's all stuffy." He admitted, punctuating his statement with a rather pitiful fit of coughing. The list was both anti-climatic and reassuring, Amy had been convinced that his symptoms would foreshadow some deadly alien virus, but this sounded a lot like the flu.

"So, is that some kind of fatal alien virus or the flu?" Amy wanted to be sure she wasn't getting in way over her head taking care of her sick Time Lord. The Doctor shrugged whilst shaking his head.

"It's not like any alien virus I've ever heard of, but I don't even know if I can get the flu. I haven't gotten sick in ages…" He trailed off.

"Really?" Amy asked, snaking her arm around his shoulder and pulling him close. The Doctor shook his head.

"Last time was a few regenerations ago…" He paused and gave a short, humorless laugh, "I was all on my own; I thought I was dying." He admitted sheepishly, keeping his eyes downcast.

"Well don't worry, I'm here." Amy soothed, planting a quick kiss on her friend's cheek. "I'll take care of you!"