"Show me the stars, Doctor," she tells him, an easy smile on her lips. He doesn't tell her, but she's already got them in her eyes.

"I'm not important," she whispers.

"Yes, you are. Of course you are." He's not lying. Everyone's important.

"I'm really not," she repeats. "But being here with you makes me feel like I am, even if just for a little while." She's smiling again, and his hearts ache.

He loves her. Not in a way someone expresses with words, but in a way that you feel and feel alone.

He loves her for all that she is, and all that she is not; for all she's done and all she's yet to do; for every single star in the sky and every single blade of grass on the earth; in all of time, outside of time, before, during, and after time.

"You're rather brilliant, you know," he says, out of the blue.

"Oh, yeah?" she asks, looking rather curious, now. "How?"

He smiles, sadly at first, then not so much. He looks her right in the eyes, and whispers three single words that are not at all what she expects but exactly what she needs to hear: "You are you."

One day, she tells him goodbye. They all do, eventually.

She does so with grace, as she does everything. Her time with him is over. She is moving on from him, and he tries to tell himself that that's okay.

But, to him, it's never really okay.

Everyone's important. So must be this man she's leaving him for.

Even as he hugs her goodbye, he can see her future pass before his eyes.

Love. Work. Marriage. Parenthood. Life. Death, too. All of it, still waiting for her beyond the TARDIS doors.

And so he says goodbye once again.

He finds another, he always does. Someone in trouble leaves a lasting impression and makes the mad decision to travel with him.

But he never forgets her. He never forgets any of them.

Not one face, not one moment.

Not one life forgotten, not really. They all live on in his hearts.

"Show me the stars," she says. They all say that, one time or another.

So he does, while he still can.

A/N: A study into the Doctor's relationships with his companions. This is not meant to be any companion in particular. Because I love them all, mostly. And I think he does, too. Every single one.

So this is for the companions. Past, present, and future. Good on you all.