A/N: This is my first attempt at Doctor Who fanfiction. It's set after 'Vampires in Venice' but before 'Amy's Choice'

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Doctor Who related.

It was night, subjectively speaking. Night, after an exceptionally long day, and Amy and Rory had disappeared off to bed practically as soon as they'd got back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor had considered getting some rest himself, but he wasn't quite in the mood, and instead he'd made a cup of tea, the proper way, with a kettle that whistled, but he'd noticed that the water had boiled point three of a degree faster than it should have, and that meant that the environmental controls needed recalibrated, and so he'd wandered back into the console room, set his cup of tea on the floor, and settled down for a happy night's tinkering.

It was a surprise when he heard the sound of footsteps above him ninety four minutes after his companions had gone to bed. He stuck his head out and looked up to see Rory scuffing his feet against the console.

"Hello!" he said with cheerful enquiry. "Wasn't expecting to see you up."

"Yeah. Well." Rory continued to shuffle his feet aimlessly. "Amy's still asleep. I couldn't...I mean, I thought I'd come and see what you were doing."

"Recalibrating the environmental controls," he explained, jumping to his feet and narrowly missing hitting his head. Rory barely reacted and that was interesting. He stooped and picked the mug up from the floor. "Would you like a cup of tea? It's cold. Well. Not quite as cold as it should be," he added, glaring at the mug.

"No. Thanks," Rory said with a shrug.

The Doctor eyed him curiously for a second before springing up to the console and hitting a couple of switches that were purely decorative except on Thursdays. "Tough day, today," he said casually. "With the Nazurians, I mean." They'd been on a Nazurian cruise ship, and there'd been a hijacking. Actual space pirates, and that had been exciting, and they'd won in the end, but in the middle it had been very bad indeed. "Lots of running, lots of shouting - "

" - she died in my arms, Doctor," Rory burst out agitatedly. "That woman today – Tchalla – I watched her die and I didn't do anything."

He sighed and focused on Rory absolutely. "There was nothing you could have done, Rory," he said gently. "It was Luxan venom. She was dying the moment she got hit. She never had a chance."

It was the truth, but it didn't seem to appease Rory in the slightest. Not that he was surprised by that. "I didn't do anything," he said again. "I'm a nurse, and I just watched her die and I didn't have the first clue what to do. I didn't even know where to find her pulse, if she even had one, or what it should be if I did find it. Three years of training and now I'm completely useless."

"Nazurians have completely different anatomy to humans," he pointed out. "Your training was all on Earth. On humans. Completely useless."

"Yeah," Rory said. "Got that, thanks."

"Not what I meant," he said with an apologetic grimace.

"It's all I ever wanted, you know," Rory went on, walking slowly round the console. "To help people. That was my dream as a kid. Grow up, help people, marry Amy..."

"Seems you're doing pretty well, all things considered," he offered gently.

"I admit, the travelling in space and time came as a bit of a shock," Rory said with a depreciating smile, walking past him and standing, his arms folded on the railing.

The Doctor joined him a moment later, leaning back and regarding him seriously. "Do you know how many different species there are in the universe, Rory?"

Rory shook his head.

The Doctor reached out and grasped his hand lightly for the briefest of moments. "Neither do I. Millions, though. Billions. Trillions upon billions upon millions. Countless people out there, all different, all unique. You could study medicine every second of every day for the rest of your life and you wouldn't even scratch the surface."

"I know," Rory said, sounding frustrated. "I can't save everyone. I understand that. But you're really going to tell me that I can't try. You?"

That was a good point. Hard to argue with that, really. "I suppose not," he said, smiling slightly, looking at Rory afresh. He tilted his head thoughtfully. "There's a library downstairs. If you want to do some studying. Books and holovids and simulations. Anatomy and basic first aid for a thousand billion life forms. Might still be a bit damp now I come to think of it. But you're welcome to try. Any species you like. Anything you want to learn. Take your pick." Any kind of learning was fine with him, and Rory's reasons...he had to admit to being impressed. Already he was considering what would be most useful for Rory to learn, what would be easiest, what books to recommend, what places they could visit.

"How about Time Lord?" Rory said quietly.

The Doctor blinked, and for a moment he was lost for words. "Time Lord?" he repeated with what he had to admit was a startling lack of his usual intelligence.

Rory shuffled uncomfortably but looked at him unflinchingly. "That attack today. It could have been you that was hit, instead of Tchalla, and I still wouldn't have known what to do. I mean, you look human, but you're not. If I'm going to travel with you, I should know what I should be doing if you get hurt, or sick."

He found himself smiling widely. "Oh, Rory. You humans. Nine hundred years travelling in time and space, and I can still be surprised." He clapped Rory on the shoulder. "Alright, then! Basic Time Lord first aid. To the infirmary."

Rory was listening to the Doctor's second heartbeat through a stethoscope when Amy found them, an hour or so later.

"What are you doing?" she yawned, apparently taking the sight of them together, the Doctor stripped to his waist and sitting on the infirmary bed in her stride. Rory wasn't sure if he should be worried about that or not.

"Playing doctors and nurses," the Doctor answered cheerfully, and Rory dropped the stethoscope.

"We are not doing that," he told Amy hastily, turning round to greet her. "I'm just studying him. But we're just about done for the moment."

"Oh," she said, linking arms with him and smiling at both of them. "Why don't we go and get some breakfast, then? Bacon and eggs, yeah? Sounds good to me."

"Right," the Doctor agreed enthusiastically, standing up and pulling his shirt back on. "Bacon and eggs. Bacon and eggs. Now, the very best place in the universe for bacon and eggs is Arcana 9. Well, Edgar's Cafe on Arcana 9, to be exact. They use eggs from Saurian chickens, can you imagine that? Half chicken, half dinosaur. Tiny brains. Fantastic eggs. Bacon and eggs from Edgar's Cafe."

"Or we could just go to the kitchen," Amy suggested, rolling her eyes at Rory who smiled back conspiratorially

"Or the kitchen," the Doctor agreed. "That's good too. I like the kitchen."

He walked out the door and Amy followed, her arm entwined with Rory's. "You alright?" she murmured softly.

He beamed back at her, looking happy and comfortable. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."

For the first time, he felt like they all fitted together.