It wasn't fair of him at all, sending her mind spinning like this. No, no, there was so much they needed to sort through, and her Doctor wasn't meant to know he could sidetrack her like this.

The words, not spoken aloud but spoken all the same, caused her to pull back, and plant her hands on his chest--twin heartbeats she only truly appreciated once they were gone--to keep him from any ideas of pulling her back down. That was not the way to keep her from tears, Doctor.

"Doctor..." Her words caught in her throat. Of course she'd known he had. There was remarkable clarity in looking over such things with six years on her own with nothing left but to think on them. But...Doctors didn't say that. Not generally. They just didn't. "I...but you can't..."

What twisted world was it when she had more trouble saying it--accepting it--than he?