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It's rare for Doctor Robotnik to leave the comfort of his Lab, let alone be for a retirement barbecue party for a G.U.N. Commander he won't even bother to remember his name.
he really didn't want to have any part of it, just wanted to remain in his lab to finish a project he had been working on, but of course, his ever so small minded superiors insisted on his presence there, telling him there might be important contacts he could use for funding his projects, but he knew Walters also wanted him there for what he called "image fixing" or whatever, not wanting to bother himself much with arguing he agreed to go to such party accompanied by his agent, Agent Stone.
The two arrived to the party relatively late after everyone to make an entrance the Doctor had always loved, making all eyes in the now-retired commander's backyard turn around to look at them.
Stone's eyes were assisting everyone, studying every detail, from people's reaction to seeing the crazy scientist who threats to blow them up and himself in almost every meeting being invited, to how the decorations were well thought out put around the backyard trees, with balloons hanging close by, and the "happy retirement" banner hanging high visible for everyone's view, beautiful lights lighting up the place nicely.
The smell of grilled steak filled the place, music kept low just in the background, the Doctor had already started a conversation with some investors about his next up project idea, Stone was just ever so near standing behind him to the side, admiring the way the genius was going on about his brilliant ideas.
When the two men waved Robotnik goodbye, he had affored them a smile, Stone knew it was only a tactic nothing more, because once these men left them standing alone, the Doctor's face immediate dropped as he rolled his eyes in annoyance facing his agent.
"I need a drink!", he grunted already looking tired, "I bet they didn't even understand half of what I said", he continued ranting to Stone who had a smile on his face, unlike the one the Doctor put up for these rich asses, this one was genuine.
"I'll get you that drink right away, Doctor", Stone clasped his hands together, his eyes drifted behind his Doctor, clearing his throat alerting Robotnik of the approaching men behind him.
Robotnik looked over his shoulder to see Commander Walters coming closer to him with two other men, he grumbled, mumbling some curses in a language Stone didn't get, "make it strong", he leaned forward whispering to his Agent.
Stone felt his face heating up to how close the Doctor got to his face, Stone noded to him in understanding, both of them turning around at the same time heading to do their objective, "Gentlemen! To what do I owe the pleasure", Stone heard Robotnik greet the men as his voice started to fade away while he was heading towards the open bar.
The party was...nice, Stone took a look around him, the yellow and orange strings of light lighting up the place with the sun being gone now, the cold breez of the night was chill but not cold enough for a jacket of any sort, there wasn't many guests which was a nice bonus since he and the Doctor hated overly crowded places, it seemed as everyone was enjoying their evening.
Stone knocked on the wood counter of the bar to get the attention of the bartender, "two drinks, your strongest and somthing not as strong", he made his order.
"You got it boss!", the young bartender not looking any older than twenty respoded, walking away to make the drinks.
Stone turned around to see how's the Doctor doing, and there he was, talking with Walters and two other men he didn't know.
Robotnik seemed to be really working on the "image fixing" part, Stone has never seen him chuckling at anyone's talk, not even his, but he wasn't jealous, of course not, because it was fake, even the smile he was putting up, it was all definitely just an act, however, seeing him this way made Stone's chest warm.
"You're drinks are ready sir!", the young man snapped Stone out of his thoughts placing the two glasses of drink down for him, both drink in the same old fashioned glass the only difference are the colors of them.
"Uh the red one is the strong one", he said to Stone pointing at the red drink, clearly feeling proud of it.
Stone reached inside of the pocket in the inside of his suit jacket, pulling out a hundred dollar bill, "here you go", he offered the bartender.
"This is an open bar, sir, the drinks are free", the boy politely stated clasping both hands behind his back.
"I'm aware kid, it's for you", Stone insisted.
"Oh thanks sir" the lad took the bill from Stone, bowing ever slightly for him from behind the counter, while Stone grabbed the drinks.
He was about to start walking back to Robotnik when a loud hiss came from the side, followed with some cursing, all heads were turned to the pitmaster shaking his hand still cursing.
He had accidentally burned his hand on the grill, the burn seems to be serious enough to let an awful smell of burned human skin be in the air for a good minute.
A cold towel was handed over to the man by someone else, walking with him away from the accident to the inside of the house; Everyone went back to what they were doing once the situation was taken care of, but not Stone.
The agent had completely frozen in his place, the scent of buring human skin stood out among all the other smells, hitting him hard like a brick.
Everything felt hot all of a sudden, the once coldness of the night had been replaced to what felt like an afternoon of a day in the middle of August, Stone felt his heartbeat racing, he was feeling pain in chest, something was squeezing on his lungs.
He took a really deep breath, or at least tries to take one, Get it together Stone, He thought to himself trying to calm his thoughts, closing his eyes shut continuing inhaling and exhaling slowly.
Just when his heart had started to calm down, someone had pumped into him to his shoulder.
Stone snapped his eyes open to find himself hanging from shackles on his hands, his feet weren't touching the ground, he took a quick look around, the light had gone dim, he could barely see anything other than the pool of blood directly in fron of him, and the God awful smell that has been attacking his senses is even more profound now.
"You're alright sir?"
Somehow the question had brought him back to the party, his heart racing even faster, he was sure it would be ripped out of his chest any second now, the hand that made contact with his shoulder made him flinch away from it.
It was the same man that served him his drinks, speaking of drinks, Stone looked down to see the shattered glasses on the ground, the red drink making a small puddle underneath him, he must have dropped them at some point, only he couldn't quite know when or how.
"Yeah I'm...im fine", he said in between pants, looking like he just ran a marathon from the way he was breathing and sweating, "sorry about the mess"
"It's okay, sir, I'll make you another drinks", the bartender responded with a smile, making his way back behind the bar.
Stone didn't stay for his drinks this time, he just walked away from the scene.
The once comforting-warm orange lights, have became blinding, radiating heat, that was the only explanation to why he was sweating despite the cold night breez, he just needed to get out of here, the urge to get away from everyone was so strong, and he only hoped the Doctor won't notice his disappearing.
The strong wind came out of nowhere like a surprise, it was strong enough to move the decorative balloons, moving them towards the close tree they were hanging by, the branches of the tree didn't welcome them kindly but instead made one of them pop.
Unfortunately for Stone he was walking close by the tree when the balloon had blown up.
He spun his head so fast to the sound he could have broken his neck, but instead of seeing the strings of lights, and the stupid retirement banner and the faces of the party guests, he was back in that damn basement.
No party, no guests, and certainly no Doctor.
Stone's eyes shot wide open, No no no no no.
It was all made up, he can't believe it was all not real, Stone's consciousness had made it all up, as a way to escape the torture, escape the screams of his comrades, how desperate he was to pretend he was somewhere else, somewhere safer and warmer with the Doctor by his side.
Stone knew this mission was a bad idea, so did the Doctor, but no, the higher ups knew better than to send eight of their men to a death trap, that's exactly what it was, a death trap, and here he is hallucinating an outcome that will never happen, a future past gone, memories never made, no one is coming to save them, he will be the last one to be killed, and he will die all alone.
To know it all started with some vigilantes making threats towards G.U.N., and for all Robotnik cared they were just bluffing and won't do shit, all words no action, it's attention all they need, and once they started blackmailing some of the commanders with informations no one should know of, they certainly got the level of attention they need.
The superiors asked for Robotnik to track their signal down and see where is their location of operation, the fact a toddler would've been able to locate it was only the first of many signs to this being a trap, but again, the higher ups knew better.
So send your best eight agents to the abandoned warehouse to get the job done, they said, what could go wrong? They said.
Everything.
BANG
Another shot from one of the attackers rifle was fired, dropping yet another body next to the already unmoving body of one of the other agents whome been shot earlier.
Stone's heart is beating faster than he remembered, It felt so real, his mind is still not fully in the situation in hand, he kept thinking of retirement party rather than focusing on a way to get out of here, but there was no getting out, he already realized that.
When Stone regained consciousness after being knocked out, he was hanging from shackles, his wrists were screaming at him from pure pressure of holding up all of his weight, and his head was killing him.
He lefted up his head to see in front of him were the other seven agents, tied up unconscious sitting on the ground in a row, they didn't seem in any worse nor better condition then him.
He didn't know where they were, or if they are still in the same building, but he needed to figure it out fast, he was in some kind of basement, judging by the lack of windows and any natural light that wasn't coming from the singular light bolt in the middle between him and the line of men.
He had passed out due to a hit on the head, that explains the headache he was feeling, he's definitely been out for a while, giving the attackers a chance to tie up the agents and bring them down here, enough time to have him shackled and lefted up to hang like a punching bag, speaking of that.
Him being the only one out of them treated differently can't be a good sign.
Just like he predicted, the trap was sit up all just to get his attention, the opposing team had wanted intels from him about Robotnik's work, his current projects, blue prints of upcoming ones, the coding of the badniks, a way to hack into them, they needed it all.
Of course the best person to get this out of would be Robotnik himself, but he was too hard to get, to valuable for G.U.N. to risk, so they went for the second best thing they can put their hand on, his very own personal agent.
They have known the Doctor's agent would know just about everything he was working on, and with that in mind, they've really turned him into a punching bag, they have definitely broken more ribs than he had broken before in his life, he felt one of the broken ribs putting pressure to his lungs, that made them stop trying to punch the informations out of him, they wanted him alive after all.
They dug into both of his shoulders a burning red metal spear, so close to his face there was no escaping the smell of burning fabric and skin, as it lingered there the whole time.
But even after all that, Stone stayed quiet, he couldn't see the faces of those assholes with them being masked, but he saw the exact moment they have decided to switch their tactics.
They've waken up the other agents with buckets of water, each one of them was gagged to stay silent, all of them looked at Stone's hanging body in front of them, any normal man would've been dead due to his injuries, and for a second they thought he was if it weren't for Stone's very weak, "morning fellas", it didn't even sound like him, but it was a relief nonetheless.
One of the masked men removed the gag in the mouth of one of the agents, the first in the line up to Stone's left, they turned their head towards him, the Agent staid quiet, even when a rifle was pointing at the back of his head.
The masked leader came in front of him crouching down to his level, he took a look over his shoulder to Stone, to make sure he was watching, before looking back to the agent and finally breaking the silence, "I want you all to beg!", he said demanding to the tied up agents.
"We're not begging you for shit!", the agent roared back, looking him dead in the eyes showing no fear.
"Silly you, you won't be begging me", the leader got up walking towards Stone, "you will be begging him", pointing a small knife to Stone.
Everyone seemed to be confused, the agents shared looks between one another, they didn't have a second of process before the man spoke again, "show them what happens when he doesn't speak"
BANG
The agent's body fell to the ground with a bullet being shot to the back of his head, his blood started making its way to the other agents whome started screaming under their bandana gags.
The second agent in line had his gag removed, "you will die for that!", he threatened the man.
"Not what I want to hear", the leader rolled his visible eyes waving his hand to the gun man, and BANG, the second agent dropped dead next to the first one.
The gun man moved and removed the gag of the third one, as soon as the agent's mouth was free, he started begging, "Please! Please I have a daughter on the way, I'm begging", he cried out loud.
The leader sighed, "I told you I'm not the one you should be begging", he stated crossing his arms.
The agent froze for a second remembering what he had said, turning his attention to Stone, "Aban!"
Stone lefted his head from the string of blood that had streamed down below him.
"Aban, please! You know Alex is pregnant, Please man, just give them what they want and we all could go home", the agent begged with tears streaming down his eyes, the other agents has started to nod in agreement, some of them with their own tears in their eyes.
But Stone only dropped his head back to the ground not saying a thing.
The sound of a rifle being reloaded got the Agent screaming Stone's name for a good second before the familiar sound of bullet being fired echoed in the closed space, another body dropped.
The fourth agent went through the same begging as the one before him, telling Stone of their shared bromance during military time and G.U.N. training, making it very personal to Stone than himself, but not even that made him talk, and the agent was shot dead.
Stone knew all of these men, they were his comrades during his military days, he was young when he joined, so him being picked on for being fresh meat was inevitable, but this squad right here in front of him, despite being older than him, they took him as one of their own protecting him till he had served his days.
Even after the military, the same men had approached him with this G.U.N. program they have joined, so he followed their steps and joined as well, if it weren't for them, he wouldn't have met the Doctor, he owned so much to these men, and here he is, letting them beg for him to save their lives, but his loyalty to the Docotor has been able to overshadow the one he had for the squad.
One by one they have all dropped dead, but even with their still bodies on the ground, the sound of their screams and begging still echoed in the dark cold basement, an entire pool of blood had formed underneath his feet, being filled up from seven separate strings of blood coming from in front of him.
It was just a matter of few seconds before he would be shot dead too.
He lefted his head up for what felt for the last time, couldn't bare to look at the ground no more, the leader stood in front of him, he couldn't make out any features of the man, he was just a dark silhouette, all of the other masked men were that, his mind had started to shut down, blocking out everything, but something felt wrong.
Stone remembered their should be a smirk on the leader's face since he removed his mask, seeing no point to keep his identity hidden to a dead man, but he couldn't see it, his mind is all fuzzy now, why does he remember this going differently.
"Stone!"
He heard his name being called for what must be the hundredth time, but it was odd, it wasn't coming from any of the masked men, or the dead agents, it was different, not full of fear and urgency but...worry, it was gentle and soft spoken from a voice he could recognize but not quite sure who it belonged to.
"Stone!"
His name was called again in the same demeanor, it was coming from all around him, as if the place itself was talking to him, he found himself yearning for that voice, being pulled towards it, so he closed his eyes, he closed them so hard he felt the place around him shift.
"Aban!"
Hearing the voice call him by his first name took the familiarity it had away, but this time, he was sure it was coming from in front him.
Stone opened his eyes to find himself back in the retirement party, the same orange and yellow strings of light are back hanging on top of his head, the stupid "happy retirement" banner being violently assaulted by the strong wind but hanging in there.
He looked around him to see the guests had formed a circle around him, standing far away from him with terror in their eyes, the few agents that were there had their guns drawn but not aiming at him.
He felt movement beneath him, somehow he didn't notice he was on the ground with the poor young bartender bent down underneath him, his knees keeping his wrists in place from moving, his heels digging into the side of his body, fully not giving the youngster a chance of moving, he had blood streaming down his nose, Stone noticed the bloody knuckles that clutched tightly into the collar of the lad, the poor thing had tears pouring down the side of his face.
As if that wasn't enough, Stone had also his gun drawn out and pressed to his temple with his right hand, he was shaking crazy, fear in his eyes, Stone knew if he looked down he would sure be seeing a stain of piss of how terrified the guy looked.
"Stone!"
A lot was confusing at the moment, but hearing that voice once again wasn't, Stone looked in front of him to the source of the calling, his eyes widened significantly to the view before him.
It was the Doctor, he was bent down a little, getting closer to Stone very slowly, "at ease agent", Robotnik spoke to Stone once their eyes locked in together, Stone's body lost a little bit of the tension it had, he had never heard the Doctor speak this softly, well, not to him at least, only to his machines, the Doctor had his hand stretched out in front of him now, his approaches were studdy and slow.
He stopped at a certain distant, his open gloved hand was just within an arm reached from the agent, "give me the gun, Stone", his voice was demanding but not losing the gentleness it had.
Stone's body moved on it's own, his mind wasn't the one calling the shots here, he just moved his gun away from the bartender's head to handing it over to the Doctor, the only person who ever mattered, it was just the two of them in that moment, his hand just spun the gun to hand from the grip to the Doctor.
Robotnik took the gun from Stone's hand, once the gun was securely pulled away from Stone, the other agents standing by had starting moving into the circle, closing in, their sudden movement made Stone tighten his gripp on the man under him, his knees digging deeper into him getting a yelp out of him.
"No no no hold on", Robotnik stopped them in their tracks, both open hands out to them to keep them away.
"Stone!"
Stone took his focus away from the agents and back to the Doctor, and once again it felt as if the whole world around him shifted to just be the two of them alone together.
"Let the bartender go, Stone"
Just like how his body moved on it's own when the man in front of him gave him an order, Stone lefted himself from on top of the body like the Doctor asked him, giving the man the chance to slip away from the agent's side, the bartender got up from the ground and ran away from Stone disappearing amongst crowd.
Stone was left on his knees on the grass, mind racing on what was happening when he felt a hand pressing on his biceps pulling upwards.
Stone got up on his feet but he still felt weak, like he would full if the tight gripp on his arm left him, but it didn't leave him, he looked to his side to see the Doctor keeping a tight hold of him, his legs started moving along with the Doctor's, the man waved everyone his hand to leave the situation to him, to let them know he had all under control, and Stone was truly under the control of Robotnik somehow.
The two of them made it to the front of the house, away from the crowd in the backyard, the place was lit up by the street lights and small lights of the front house, lighting them both in cold colors.
Robotnik practically threw Stone away from him, the Agent went whopping in front of him catching himself from falling face first into the concrete of the drive through, he studded himself on his feet, he didn't dare to turn around and face the Doctor, but instead just gazed at the floor.
The Dcotor had made his way around Stone, grabbing the shorter man by his shoulders shaking him out of his mind, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!", Robotnik's metallic gloves dug into Stone's shoulders.
Robotnik had only let go of Stone when he made eye contact with him and saw the doll brown eyes sparkling, being filled with tears, the rage immediately faded away from the Doctor's face, and was replaced by concern, but Stone couldn't bare to look at him of how ashamed he was, so he lowered his had back.
"I'm sorry Doctor", Stone's voice cracked on the last word, looking at the floor, tears had dropped down leaving tiny circles on the concrete, "I don't know what came over me", he continued sniffing away any upcoming tears, "if you want to-", Stone took in a shaky breath lefting his head up to look at the Doctor, "if you want to fire me I totally get it", Stone was about to bring his sleeve up to his face to whipe away the tears, only for Robotnik to stop him.
Robotnik felt something in his chest only one person has ever made him feel that way, and gosh how much he hated when he made him feel this way, he could feel his chest tightening, feeling every breath he took, having his heart beating in his ears, but the worst of all... it hurt, and he hated being hurt, especially by another human being.
"Enough of that agent", Robotnik yanked Stone's arm away from his face, he reached into the pocket inside of his black coat and pulled out a napkin handing it over to Stone, "no need to get your clothes dirty".
Stone looked at the older man in shock, but he took the napkin nonetheless to dry up the tears, trying his best to gather himself, the cold breeze didn't help him the slightest, it only made him shiver the more.
The Doctor let out a sigh, tapping his foot impatiently, "How many agents have I had before you Stone?", he asked.
Stone looked at him processing the question, there was no trick to it or any other meaning, so, "twenty-two, Doctor", he answered trying not to let his voice go weak again.
"Twenty-two", Robotnik repeated under his breath, "which makes you number twenty-three", he continued louder, nudging Stone lightly on his shoulder a contrast to the rough hold he had prior.
Stone didn't exactly know the path this conversation was taking, but he knew it could be the last he would ever have with the magnificent man before him.
"And how many of them have lasted more than a week?", Robotnik cupped Stone's face with one his gloved hand, a gesture new to both of them, it took Stone by complete surprise, the Dcotor who hated being touched is now willingly holding his face gently, he couldn't help it but melt into the touch, resting his head over the warm hand of his Doctor.
"Not a single one, Doctor", Stone respoded closing his eyes letting the moment sink in with him for as long as he can.
He heard Robotnik getting closer, to the point he could feel the man's hot breath against his face, Stone opened his eyes to see the scenery around him didn't change, this was real, he was here in the moment, just the two of them alone.
"And you?", Robotnik broke the temporary silence between them, "how long have you been working for me?"
Stone stared into the Doctor's face, he had rarely have seen it this relaxed, this sentimental, "four years, Sir", Stone wanted to go on, and 6 months, 13 days and 19 hours, but maybe he shouldn't show how much he was desperate, he didn't know why he was answering these questions, he was sure the Doctor already knew the answers to them.
"Do you really think I would fire you?"
Stone didn't answer this question, mostly because he didn't know the answer to it, he just shrugged his shoulders.
Robotnik rolled his eyes, "after everything we've been through together", he started pulling his hand from underneath Stone's cheek stepping away from him slightly, he flicked his finger on his Agent's forehead, something the Doctor has been doing whenever he acted stupid.
"I won't fire you, imbecile", Robotnik placed his hands on his hips, "you've proven yourself being...useful".
This might be the closest to a real complement Stone has ever got from the Doctor, it wasn't followed by any insult to twist its meaning, Robotnik really meant that, even after what he did tonight.
"But Doctor I-, I thought-", Stone tried to protest but he was immediately cut off by Robotnik.
"Ah ah ah", he wagged a finger in front of Stone's face keeping his other hand on his hip, "I dont pay you to think, that is not your job, but mine", he flicked his finger on Stone's forehead again.
Robotnik clasped his hands behind his back, walking around the younger man, circling him like a shark, studying his prey, humming in approval to something.
"However-", he stopped back where he had started, standing in front of Stone, leaning forward to him, the so called personal space was a foreign concept for him when it came to his Agent, "I am curious to know what had went wrong in your programming?".
Stone stared back into the ground ashamed of what had happened, even though he himself didn't exactly know what happened, and how he got himself in that position.
"I- I was back there", he said, feeling his vision going blurry again.
"Back where?", Robotnik placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, bringing Stone to have the courage to face the man.
"The mission", Stone knew he didn't have to say much more for the Doctor to know what mission out of the many he went to he was talking about, it was his most recent one after all, that being said, it was almost half a year ago, and they haven't given him a new one yet, he had his theories to why, and almost all of them involved the Doctor some way or another.
"Hm", the older man seemed to understand what he was talking about, "Stone y-"
"I keep hearing their screams", Stone interrupted the Doctor for the first time ever since he had started working with him, Robotnik was completely taken back by that, he should be angry at Stone, make him lick his boots clean, he would've done that if this happened on any other time, but not this time.
"Stone!"
"They are haunting me", Stone was fully hyperventilating at this point, "I see them in my dreams, in my awaking hours, I feel them judging me, I don't know what is real and what is not, what happened today wasn't the first time, it happened before, only i was alone back then, and what if it happened again, what if I kill someone the next time, what if I hurt YOU!", Stone pointed his trembling finger to the Doctor before retrieving it to go through his hair with his hand, pulling at it just a little.
"I don't think I would ever be able to live with myself if I ever hurt you, I would rather die before I do that, I should die, I should have died in that stupid basement with them like I was supposed to-"
"Stone!"
"I wish you didn't send the badniks to rescue me, to save a mere shell of the man I was, i was meant to die that day-"
"Aban! Listen to me-"
"I'm a liability to you, I'm not useful like you said, not like this, not broken like this-", Stone's venting stopped when tight arms wrapped around him.
Stone gasped at the sudden arms wrapping around him tightly, they weren't any arms, it wasn't any random person hugging him, it was Ivo Robotnik, a man who despises any type of sentiment act, that man was hugging him now, pressing him closer to his chest, a hand resting nicely to the back of his head, while the other rubbing circles on his back.
"You're not broken", Robotnik whispered softly into his ear.
Stone felt his whole body give out, he buries his face into Robotnik's chest, letting some of the final tears he had been keeping storm out, he wrapped his own arms around the other.
They both stood there in each other's embrace in the drive through of an ex G.U.N. commander both of them couldn't care less about, the warmth of their bodies shared between them keeping them warm, is what they cared about now.
Stone was tired, ever since that day, he had been keeping so much in his chest, it was all getting too heavy to carry alone, by each second he went by breathing while the other seven men whome he blamed himself for their death weren't...the weight only got heavier.
Some of that weight had surly disappeared when he opened up to Robotnik, but he still felt a good chunk of it remaining inside of him.
When he had recovered from his injuries he jumped back into work immediately, fearing the Dcotor might lose interest in him, find a replacement if he wasn't back in his feet as fast as possible, he skipped the recommended psychological therapy by the doctors, he told them he was fine, that he was immune to the so called trauma or survivor guilt, but he knew he was lying.
"I'll get you all the help you need to get through this", Robotnik spoke, holding Stone tenderly, "because whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me", he continued.
That Sparked a chuckle out of Stone who had maybe started falling asleep in between Robotnik's arms, "I like being stuck with you", he said fighting a yawn this time instead of tears.
It was Robotnik's turn to chuckle this time, "you might be the very first person to ever say that to me"
Stone had a wide smile on his face, "my honor, Doctor".
They stayed like that for few more minutes, holding each other tightly, but it had to come to an end at some point, Robotnik was the first to pull away breaking the hug between them, but the shared feeling of care between them never ended, Stone looked at Robotnik with tired eyes, the lines of tears on his cheeks already fading away.
"Let's get you home", Robotnik muttered to the sleepy agent, brushing away the fallen strands of hair from his face.
Stone looked at him with his doe brown eyes, the Doctor looked tired himself too, he started internally thanking himself for having a king sized bed, maybe once they arrive to his house he will ask the Doctor to stay the night, and maybe, just maybe, he will agree to stay.