The human language

Disclaimer: I don't own Dr Who or its characters or themes. I don't intend to profit from this in any way. The characters are used purely for entertainment purposes.

Warnings: Implied abuse (not graphic)

Amy was relaxing with the Doctor outside her and her husbands house. The Doctor was looking at the stars with a smile. He was listening to his friend of course as she chatted away about her human day at work. He found that truly fascinating...even if it was mundane compared to his usual days by human standards.

Amy sighed loudly and the Doctor knew he could not ignore that. "What did want Pond?" he asked with a grin.

"I was asking about what I should do with that control freak Susan. Were you even listening?" she asked clearly annoyed.

He stared at her clueless. She had talked about a Susan but the words had sounded harsh and barbaric. Not the usual kind flowing words that he heard. "I take it you don't like her? Why else would you sound so...rough?" he settled on rough as the word.

Amy stared at him like he had grown an extra head...or a tentacle.

"Rory, get your butt out here!" she yelled.

The Doctor just looked clueless. What was Amy going on about?

Rory raced out like the world was ending...so maybe the world had a few times but Rory was overreacting as badly as Amy.

The nurse paused looking around for danger and then at his wife "oh Amy your alive..good" he said relieved. 'Too many near life scares for that one' thought the Doctor.

Amy smiled at him and pointed to the Doctor "Somethings wrong with him. He said I sounded 'rough' not like normal apparently" she announced.

The Doctor looked at Amy like she had gone mad. "Miss Pond, I assure you I can hear just fine. You humans usually sound that way. Not River though. Or Miss Noble. Or even Rose. She didn't either."

Amy just glared back "See! His sick or something!" she called to her husband.

The Doctor glared back annoyed "Me sick? Time lords don't get sick. You on the other hand might have an earth cold."

Rory realised what might be happening. "Amy was talking about her friend right? Or some work person."

The Doctor nodded.

Rory smiled at his wife "his an alien...just because he likes humans, doesn't mean he speaks our language."

Amy was looked annoyed now "But he speaks english all the time! What else would he speak?" she argued back.

The Doctor looked offended. "Amy Pond, I speak gallifreyan! Plus a few hundred others as extra classes but human? The timelords would sooner burn alive than speak your barbaric tongue!" he announced.

Amy looked unsure "But I hear english?"

The Doctor looked annoyed again "Yes human, you hear your human language. I hear my language. The Tardis kinda universally translates most spoken languages. I won't let her translate written unless I ask her too."

Amy paused to think "So when she can't translate, you just hear english as it is?"

The Doctor nodded happily.

Rory sat with them. "So Doctor, what about english?"

The Doctor looked confused "What about it?"

"You love Earth and humans...so why not learn english...sorry human" Rory asked.

The Doctor suddenly looked sad. "When I was a kid, I wanted to. I even found an old human magazine but when the others found out..." he looked ashamed at his thoughts "the other kids laughed and called me many nasty names and the parents thought I'd infect the kids or something."

Rory found himself wanting to comfort the timelord.

The Doctor found his voice again "My father was embarassed, he was on the council. He had to convince them I was joking...just a bad joke from the idiot kid. Promised them I would be straightened out. " he trailed off ominously.

Rory felt a realization at what the Doctor meant.

"Mother wouldn't look at me for days. She was angry at me but also something else. I heard her crying one night. She asked my father what went wrong. Whether it was poor breeding or poor parenting." he sounded sad this time.

Rory put a comforting arm around his shoulders.

The Doctor smiled back and continued "I almost got expelled from the academy but I was allowed to stay on probation. Of course it was lonely and I was constantly watched. I never mentioned it again and soon the adults pretended to forget about it. A timelord never forgets though."

Amy smiled and hugged him "well your here now. Does it really matter what they think?"

The Doctor laughed "I guess not" he lied easily. Amy had grown up without a mother or father...she could not understand the impact a parent has on a child. Nor the impact his community had on him.

Only Rory caught the lie and the flash of sadness and guilt that quickly left the bright eyes of the timelord.

AN: As usual read and review