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I
Graham O'Brien had a hunch. He paid attention to his hunches because normally they were right on the money. For instance, he’d had a hunch that Grace would agree to go for a coffee with him once his course of chemotherapy had finished and she had. Even better, she’d married him. He had hunches when it came to other things, too; like if West Ham were going to play well, or if one of his mates was bluffing at poker, but his romantic hunches were usually more reliable.
Which was why, on this particular afternoon, Graham paid attention to what his gut was telling him. On this particular afternoon he held four ice cream cones in his hands, precariously balanced, and scanned the lakeshore for familiar faces.
Ryan was standing by the water, attempting to skip stones. Behind him and off to one side were Yaz and the Doctor, sitting with their backs to Graham and talking quietly. They were sitting side by side, so close that there was no space between them. He took a few steps towards them, eager to dispense the rapidly melting treats, but stopped in his tracks when Yaz did something completely unexpected: she rested her head on the Doctor’s shoulder.
Graham ground to a halt, watching as the Doctor stiffened in surprise. She’d done the same to him when he’d wrapped an arm around her shoulder in Alabama. This time, however, she softened and Graham felt his mouth drop open as he watched her wrap an arm around Yaz’s back to steady them. That, he hadn’t quite expected.
The Doctor said something he couldn’t quite hear, but her head was turned towards Yaz and their faces were so close that their noses were almost touching. Their body language was very telling.
All of a sudden, Graham had a hunch that he was about to interrupt an intimate moment or at very least a special one and he turned, shingle cascading under his feet as he marched off to find Ryan. By now, there were trickles of ice cream around his wrists.
“There you are,” Ryan said as he heard him approach. “What took you so long?”
“I, er...well. I was wondering whether to interrupt the others but thought I’d leave them to it. They looked like they were in the middle of something.”
Ryan glanced over his shoulder and frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Graham risked a backwards glance; Yaz and the Doctor were still talking quietly but Yaz had moved her head from the Doctor’s shoulder and to all intents and purposes, they just looked like they were having a regular, albeit private, conversation.
“Never mind,” Graham shook his head. “Just a hunch.”
II
“Where’s Yaz?” the Doctor frowned. Ryan shrugged and Graham looked behind him. He’d been so certain the young woman was behind them but there was no sign of her. Instead, all he could see were several market traders and one very narrow, dark alleyway. Oh, dear.
“Did nobody notice she wasn’t there?”
“I only looked back a few minutes ago and she was right there behind me. She can’t be far,” he pointed out, but he knew he’d made a mistake when he saw the Doctor’s expression turn dark and she shook her head, clearly unimpressed.
“You don’t know this planet, Graham. It’s not the kind of place you want to be on your own. That’s why I told you to keep an eye on one another.”
Her tone wasn’t impolite but there was something there that Graham hadn’t quite heard before. When she brushed past him with a flurry of her coat tails, he realised she was panicking.
“What was that all about?” Ryan asked. “If it’s so dangerous, why did she bring us here?”
“Only place we can get this particular part, apparently.” Graham scratched his chin. “Think we should go after her?”
“Think she’ll have a go if we do that, too?”
“I don’t think she was having a go, son. Just worried, is all.”
They hesitated but thankfully, they didn’t have to waver for long. Within moments the Doctor had returned, Yaz in tow. Graham didn’t fail to notice that the Doctor let go of her hand seconds before they finally met up.
“Right, fam. Like I said before - don’t get separated, alright? Keep close together.”
This time, she was much less stressed and she shot Yaz a smile before she resumed leading the way through the busy market.
Ryan rolled his eyes and followed suit, and Graham insisted that he bring up the rear.
“You okay, Yaz?” he asked, curious as to what had happened.
“Oh, yeah. Someone was insistent that I buy something from them and before I knew it, I’d lost sight of you. But the Doctor found me before too long.”
“She was a bit worried,” Graham commented, noting Yaz’s embarrassed reaction.
“Yeah. Sorry about that.”
“No need to apologise. I should be saying sorry, really. It’s lucky she was paying attention ‘cos I hadn’t realised. Good thing she’s keeping an eye out, eh?”
To his bemusement, Yaz seemed flustered by the observation.
“She’d do that for all of us,” she eventually said.
“Without a doubt,” Graham nodded.
But he had a hunch that the Doctor would go above and beyond for Yasmin Khan without a second thought.
III
Graham’s hunch was proved correct mere weeks later.
The bomb had been smaller than he’d imagined, which made the damage it inflicted that much more difficult to comprehend. The noise and the smoke and the debris had been catastrophic but worse was Yaz’s reaction when she realised the Doctor had shielded her from it all.
Graham’s ears were still ringing and Ryan had his head between his knees but Yaz, still bleeding herself, was apparently oblivious to the damage and the danger still surrounding them; instead, she was trying to rouse the Doctor, who was bleeding far more than Graham would ever like to see. At first glance he thought she was dead.
They’d been rescued, thankfully, not long afterwards, and Ryan was sleeping off the ill-effects of being caught in a blast radius but Graham was too worried to sleep. It wasn’t just the Doctor he was worried about - she was alive, thankfully, and in some kind of coma to heal herself - but Yaz. Yaz, who was still covered in her blood and who had been physically unable to leave her side from the moment they were scooped up by the medics. They’d tried and failed more than a few times so Graham took it upon himself to have a go.
“Yaz?”
The young woman looked up as Graham entered the room, hands clasped around the Doctor’s. Her face was still smudged with soot and dirt and dried blood and Graham blanched when he saw just how distraught she was.
“She’ll be alright, you know. What did they say again? She just needs to sleep it off. And,” Graham looked at the Doctor, who was clearly out for the count, “you could do with some rest, too. It’s been hours, love. It might be quite a few more.”
Yaz shook her head.
“I’m not leaving her.”
“She won’t know, Yaz. You have to look after yourself, too.”
“I don’t want her waking up alone,” Yaz admitted, turning her gaze back to the Doctor’s sleeping face.
Graham pondered that for a moment. Yaz might well feel guilty, given the way the Doctor had shielded her from the blast, but this surely went above and beyond what guilt would require her to do. In that moment, Graham somehow knew he wouldn’t be able to convince her to change her mind.
Love was funny like that. Logic rarely played a part in it.
“Alright. Just let me know if you need anything.”
But Yaz didn’t seem to hear him; in fact, she seemed to forget he was there entirely because moments later she picked up the Doctor’s grazed and bloodied hand and kissed the back of it.
When he returned several hours later, Yaz was still there but she was talking to someone. Graham hovered outside the door, debating whether to go in.
“Don’t you do that again, you hear me? I’ll never forgive you.”
“I can’t make promises I won’t keep, Yaz.”
The Doctor’s voice surprised him. He hadn’t expected her to be awake so soon and she was clearly a little worse for wear, but she still sounded just like her usual self. Their hushed tones and urgent requests suggested that this was a moment it’d be foolish to interrupt.
Graham smiled to himself and retreated back the way he’d come. He had a feeling that both of them would be just fine.
IV
“You sure this is on right?” Ryan tried to stare down at his bow tie, apparently unconvinced that his YouTube tutorial had been correct. “Maybe I should have listened to the Doctor. She did hers dead fast but she was too quick for me.”
“You’re looking sharp, son,” Graham grinned, clapping Ryan on the back as they surveyed the dance floor. They’d been separated from the others by the lure of a blackjack table and had since found a vantage point overlooking the ball, from where they could watch the various couples gracing the dancefloor.
“Where is the Doctor, anyway? She’s a bit harder to find when she blends in.”
Contrary to Ryan, Graham had spotted her almost instantly; after all, she was probably the only woman in menswear. That, and her trousers still didn’t quite meet her boots, and the flash of her bare shins made her a bit easier to spot. But her outfit wasn’t what had caught Graham’s attention, instead it was who she was currently dancing with that had made him do a double take and then break out into a grin.
Yaz was having the time of her life, spinning around the room in the Doctor’s arms. They were a delight to watch, clearly comfortable in each other’s company. Frankly, Graham was surprised the Doctor was so smooth but it also looked like this was far from their first dance together. Ryan finally spotted them as the music slowed.
“There they are!” he pointed, frowning when he realised they were dancing together. “Hey, Yaz said she didn’t want to dance.”
Graham bit back a laugh.
“Looks like she changed her mind.”
But he had a sneaking suspicion that Yaz would always have been more than happy to dance if the right person had asked her. It just so happened that that person was the Doctor, not Ryan.
Graham watched as the dancers sidled up closer together; Yaz draped her arms around the Doctor’s neck and he had to look away. They might well have been dancing in public but he and Ryan were watching what was rapidly transpiring to be a private moment.
“Come on, I fancy my luck at roulette.”
Deep down, Graham suspected he wouldn’t be quite as lucky that evening as either of the women who were currently dancing the night away.
V
Graham wished he’d put money on his hunch when he walked into the TARDIS kitchen one random evening, a few days later. It had been a long day, full of new names and faces and places and although he’d made sure to eat enough, Graham realised he was more than a little peckish before bedtime. He was so distracted by the prospect of a late-night snack that he didn’t, at first, notice that the kitchen was not empty.
But just as he was about to set foot inside he stopped, thankfully saving himself - and the others - some embarrassment.
Yaz and the Doctor were kissing, apparently completely oblivious to their surroundings. And judging by the way they were so casually wrapped up in one another, this wasn’t a first kiss, either. Yaz’s hands were hidden beneath the Doctor’s coat while the Doctor’s were pressed against Yaz’s waist, keeping her close.
Graham backed away slowly. Only once he was safely back in the corridor did he break out into a delighted grin.
"I knew it," he murmured, his quest for a cheese and pickle sandwich readily abandoned for the time being.
He had a hunch they'd be there for a while.