Title: Wonderful
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Ross Jenkins
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 4, 50ficlets
Prompt: 37, Truth
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the Tenth Doctor or Ross Jenkins, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

"Why didn't you ever tell me about your mother?" Ross asked softly, running his hand through the Doctor's hair and looking down at his lover. The Time Lord's head rested in his lap, the other man's lean, lanky body stretched out on the couch.

"I would have, if you'd asked sooner," the Doctor pointed out, his dark eyes meeting his young lover's gaze. "But she's not something I talk about often. It's been so long since I saw her that there are times when it feels as though her memory is getting hazy."

"You were just a child when she died," Ross murmured, feeling his throat constrict. He couldn't imagine losing his mother at such a young age; she had been there for him through his life, encouraging him, loving him, supporting him.

The Doctor hadn't been lucky enough to have that kind of support in his life once his mother had passed away. He'd been more isolated than most children, given his half-human heritage; Ross understood only too well what being an outcast could feel like.

He'd been that way at times, too, and it wasn't a comfortable feeling. The Doctor had felt like that for most of his life; he still hadn't been accepted by his peers, even after he'd become an adult. He'd always been a rebel, a pariah, on the outside looking in.

"I didn't tell so many of my companions the truth about her in the past," the Doctor murmured, shaking his head. "I suppose that in a way, I was ashamed to admit that I'm half-human. I didn't want anyone to know, because I believed they would think less of me."

"Anyone who did that isn't worth your time and trouble," Ross told him, a fierce wave of protectiveness surging through him. Who would dare to think less of this man because his mother had been human? To Ross, that only made him all the more special.

The people on Gallifrey should have felt that way about him, at least in Ross' point of view. The Doctor wasn't like the rest of them; he was something special, someone who wasn't like all the others. But then again, they had prized conformity.

"For a very long time, I didn't want anyone to know about my heritage," the Doctor admitted, sighing and shifting his position slightly. "I thought that it wouldn't seem as though I was fit to be a Time Lord if I wasn't a 'true' Gallifreyan. So I kept it to myself."

"That's very human, you know," Ross said softly, wanting to point out that fact. "Humans always want to hide things about themselves that they think other people won't want to know, or things they're ashamed of. That just points to your more human side."

"Oh, Gallifreyans could do the same thing," the Doctor said wryly, a small, bitter smile on his lips. "They were much more like humans than any other race. They had radical differences from humans, of course, but they never wanted to admit how much alike the two races were."

"From what you've told me about the Master, it sounds like he's the worst of both races put together," Ross ventured, wondering if that was true. He certainly didn't have a good opinion of the man he'd never met, and he sounded more alien than anyone else the Doctor had ever spoken of.

"That's true," the Doctor said, his voice hardening on the words. "But let's not talk about him, Ross. I said that I'd tell you about my mother, and I don't want anything about him touching my memories of her. She's a part of my past I want to keep untainted."

"I wish I'd have been able to meet her," Ross whispered, leaning down to brush a kiss across the Doctor's brow. "She sounds like a wonderful person. And you're lucky to have had someone like her in your life. I think that's why you're pretty wonderful yourself."

Was it his imagination, or was the Doctor actually blushing? Yes, he could see the color rising in the Time Lord's cheeks, a pink flush that he couldn't hide. He'd have to remember to compliment his lover more often, Ross thought with a smile.

"I'm lucky to have had her in my life, yes," the Time Lord murmured, closing his eyes, a smile curving his mouth. "I'm lucky to have had her for a mother. She helped me through some bad days, and before she died, she taught me so much about who I am."

"But not as much as you'd like," Ross said quietly, divining that thought from the expression on the Time Lord's face. "That's why you have such a fascination with humans. You don't know what it's like to be human, and you want to know more."

"You're right about that," the Doctor said, then fell silent. Ross had the feeling that even though the Time Lord had told him the truth about his half-human heritage, and talked about his mother, that they'd only scratched the surface of the subject and would eventually speak of it again.

***