Title: Everything Rose Wanted to Know About Time Lords, and Apparently Wasn't Afraid to Ask

Author: Gail R. Delaney

Series: The Unseen and In Between

Genre: Romance/Angst/Hurt/Comfort – a lot of things going on

Setting: Throughout Series Two beginning after Age of Steel, with references back to other stories in the series, ie: Two Steps Forward, One Back and Driving Lessons.

Summary: She knew he wouldn't answer a barrage of questions, so she slides them in whenever she can. And when she puts all the pieces together, she is blown away by the BIG answers he never actually said.

These are the questions... the 'real' answers will come in a follow-up fic titled Fathers and Sons which will be posted in a day or two.

Lesson One

"Why do you have sex with me?"

The Doctor looked up from tying his trainers, and stilled with the laces in his hands. The question itself was unusual, to say the least, but more the fact that Rose asked it standing in the bathroom doorway dressed in nothing but knickers and a camisole-thing.

"I should think that's quite obvious."

Deep lines creased her forehead beneath the damp tendrils of her hair, and she crossed her arms over her body, effectively shoving her breasts upward. She obviously had spent the last several minutes contemplating this question in the shower.

"Time Lords don't have sex. You said so."

"Well? I said that there was no purpose for it. We don't use sex for procreation, and most Time Lords think it to be primitive."

"Oh, so cuz I'm an ape it's okay."

The Doctor scowled. Half an hour ago, they had been lying in bed barely able to move from the intensity of their union, and now he was somehow the object of her anger. "No. I am pretty sure I never even implied that."

"So, why do you have sex with me?"

The Doctor finished tying his shoe and stood, but kept his distance. He contemplated his words very carefully , hoping to tame whatever dragon she had by the tail. "We're lovers because I want to be with you. And I'm pretty sure you want to be with me, too."

"Nine hundred years and you never wanted sex, and I come along and you do."

"Well, am also pretty sure I never said I hadn't had sex in nine hundred years. I just said I hadn't had sex with any of my companions. I'm also not saying I had a lot of sex, and I feel I should make that clarification early on so as to not cause a problem later. I'm just saying that it was rather infrequent, and not all that satisfying, honestly. Probably why it didn't happen very often." He took a tentative step toward her. "And, Rose, you and I share something that is so far beyond sex there is actually no word for it. Literally, there is no word in any language."

She didn't say anything, but a small tremor moved through her, just visible because he watched her so intently. Her lips pressed together and her hands were clenched, she looked ready to pop.

"Rose, perhaps if you tell me what you've been thinking about I can better answer your question."

"You told me we didn't break any rules."

"We didn't."

"You told me Time Lords don't have sex."

"It's not a rule, Rose. It just… is." He took another step. "Well, okay. There are rules, or were, but that is more about inter-species relations…" He immediately cursed his propensity to ramble, because if she was paying attention at all — and he was quite sure she was — she caught it.

"Humans?"

"Any... species... actually."

She made a frustrated sound and pressed her hand to her forehead, turning partially away.

"Rose, honestly, if you look on Xenophobia in the Encyclopedia Galactica, there will be a huge picture of the entire Time Lord Council, every cardinal in full robes and headdresses. They practically put the people of Krickett to shame." She pulled a 'what?' face and he waved it off. "Nevermind. The point is, they wanted Time Lords to be so separate from everyone else, they even frowned on intimate relations between Time Lords and Gallifrey citizens."

She glared at him... actually glared at him, and for all the lives of him, he couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong.

"What happened if you did?"

The Doctor sighed and pushed his hands into his pockets. "Why does this matter?"

"Because it does."

He tipped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Aaaah, because it's not law, there's no formal punishment . It's not like you were tossed in prison for shagging someone. But, there were usually sanctions, lectures, limitations, depending on the extent of the external fraternization."

Rose arched her eyebrows.

He sighed heavily. "And once... just once... a Time Lord was effectively stripped of his..." He tipped his chin and puffed his cheeks. "Time Lordiness. His TARDIS was decommissioned, his remaining ability to regenerate suppressed, and he was forced to remain on Gallifrey to face --" He winced this time, because what he had to say, he'd heard so many times. "-- the product of his indiscretion."

She eyed him, and he waited... wondering what tangent this sudden conversation would take next. "I'm worth the risk?"

"There's really no r—" He fumbled and stopped, thinking about her question more before he barreled into an answer. The Doctor reached out and laid his hands on her shoulders. "Yes, Rose. You're worth the risk. You're the only one worth it." She smiled, just a little. "Now, are you going to tell me what brought this on?"

Color rose in her cheeks and she pulled her lower lip through her teeth. "When I was in the shower... I was thinking about the first time we did the mind joining when we made love."

He rounded his lips. "Ooooh. Thinking about it."

She nodded. "Yeah. Thinkin' about you." She ran her hands over his stomach, unbuttoning his suit jacket to slip her hands inside. "I was thinking about what you said, and I just... remembered. I guess I was too distracted at the time to ask."

"Distracted is good." With almost beautifully choreographed steps, they walked to the bed still facing each other and he turned her when they reached the edge, catching her lips in a kiss as his hands slid over her bottom before reaching for the mattress to ease them down. 'Distracted is very good."