The Doctor settled on the bed, the sheets coming up around him. He snaked his arm around Cass’ torso as she wrapped her arms around him, settling his head back against her shoulder. He sighed contently then, taking one of Cass’ hands and lacing her fingers with his own. He lifted the hand up and kissed it gently before then resting it back to where it had been. 

She smiled as he settled against her and she shifted so she could kiss his temple.This was how Cass wanted to fall asleep, with the Doctor and Atticus both in the bed with her. It was how the three of them used to be. Her eyes closed as he laced their fingers together before kissing the back of her hand. “Get some sleep.” She whispered to him.

The Doctor smiled as Cass said rest would do him good and then kissed her back, saying “Good, I think I’ll like being the little spoon” as she took his hand and then led him from the console room towards the bedroom. As soon as they got there and Cass pressed a finger to her lips, the Doctor immediately toed off his Chelsea boots and moved into the room, gently placing the boots and his discarded sweater on the armchair. The Doctor watched as Cass go onto bed and shifted so the bedsheet was spread out. At the same time, he lifted his T-shirt up and over his head, baring his torso to her for the first time. The Doctor tossed the garment aside and then quickly got out of his jeans, leaving him just in some grey boxers, before joining Cass in the bed. 

"Who doesn't?" Really she was sure that Atticus would enjoy it if she didn’t curl up against him in a way that gave him little to no chance of ever being in that position. Cass smiled as she watched him and let her eyes trail over the Doctor as he slowly stropped down. This was the first time she’d seem him undressed since the first day he showed up at their door after his regeneration, though she didn’t count changing him into sweats as seeing him without a shirt on. When he joined her in the bed she shifted back for a moment to give him room before moving closer and wrapping her arms around him.

The Doctor let out a content sigh as he savoured the kiss with Cass before they finally, if reluctantly, separated. Still, the Time Lord didn’t move as Cass cupped his jaw and smiled at him, smiling back at her in equal measure. “Maybe a rest would do me good,” he replied, pondering her suggestion. “I’ve got an odd desire to be the little spoon… is that what humans say? Little spoon, is that odd?” 

"It would. Rest does everyone good." Cass kissed him again before she stood. The sweater slipped a little as she made sure to wrap the sheet tighter around her so it wouldn’t fall as they walked back to the bedroom. “Oh You can be the little spoon.” The blonde assured him as she took his hand and pulled him along behind her. “It’s not odd at all, half the time I’m the little spoon and it’s only because I force myself into that position.” It didn’t take long to lead him into the room and she put her finger to her lips before letting his sweater fall to the ground. Cass let go of his hand and got onto the bed before she shifted so the sheet was spread out so that the Doctor could get in and covered the blanket that Atticus was still under. “Come here.”

The Doctor smiled when Cass caressed his jawline once more and said he shouldn’t stop kissing her. “Just what I was thinking,” the Doctor remarked, smiling this time as he leant back in again and pressed his lips against Cass’ for a second kiss. Just as he did so, the TARDIS made the familiar whirr that it was landing at the location that the Doctor had specified for it, though it didn’t break the Doctor from his kiss. 

She heard the TARDIS land but Cass wasn’t willing to pull away from the kiss just yet. It didn’t matter where they were it was still the middle of the night as far as sh was concerned so there was no rush. Slowly her hand moved from his jaw to fully cup his jaw as she slid to the edge of her seat. After a moment she pulled back and smiled at him. “We could lay down if you want. You haven’t slept yet and now that we’ve landed there’s nothing to worry about.”

The fact Cass would give him the chance, a chance that so few of his companions ever had before, warmed the Doctor’s heart. It began to race a little as she cupped his cheek with her hand and he smiled softly. He took her free hand and laced his fingers with hers before leaning in, his lips just ghosting hers for a second or so before he kissed her. The Doctor let it go on for a few seconds before gently slipping away, though remaining close to her. 

The moment their lips touched her stomach flipped. This was what she had been waiting for and it had gotten to the point that she didn't kiss Atticus in front of the Doctor in case he saw it as a dismissal of him. When he pulled back from the kiss she followed after him. “Don’t stop yet, I’ve waited so long or you to kiss me again.” Cass whispered o him as her fingers caressed his skin.

“I do remember loving you, if I didn’t I wouldn’t have come back to you when I first regenerated,” the Doctor replied. He stepped closer at these words and then said, when Cass spoke about his length of time away, “You’re right, it was longer than I wanted to admit. It was somewhere I very nearly lost my mind and in the end, after I’d been forced to regenerate, I seriously wondered if I made the right choice. I was so kind and understanding back then, now… now I’ve got a colder edge. It’s not towards you but it’s towards the world. I’m not as open hearted as I used to be, to others.” He let a second go by, taking her hand in his. “In truth, you’re what’s grounding me to hope.”

When he had stumbled out of the Tardis Cass hadn't expected him to look different but there was never a moment that his looks made her feel differently for him. But the distance he seemed to keep them at did sting and it caused her to lean more on Atticus. The two of them were mortal and would remain together after all of this happened. “You did make the right choice, you came to the two of us and we love you. I don’t care that you don’t act like you did before, yes it hurt to not have you not look at me the same but it just means I have to wait for you to warm to me again.” When he took her hand she moved her free hand up to cup his cheek. “I want to be that person for you.”

Cass’ admission was something he’d been expecting, though he hadn’t tried to push either of them into it since he’d returned to them in a new body. The Doctor turned to face Cass and approached her once more. “You’re worried that I don’t love you anymore?” he said, though more as a matter of fact. “That’s so far from the case, I do still love you both. It’s just that I feel you’re still getting used to me, that there’s an obvious barrier with me having changed from who I was before.” Unlike his predecessor, this incarnation had no qualms about bluntly getting to the heart of something. 

"I worry that you don't remember loving me and feel like you can't tell us." That wasn’t something that she wanted to admit but at the same time she knew that they needed to be honest with each other. The two of them needed to talk or things would continue to spiral. “There’s nothing to get used to. You’re my Doctor no matter what you look like. But I know that it has been a long time for you, longer then you want to admit.”

The Doctor pondered for a few seconds when Cass reminded him that he had gotten a tattoo with her. She was right, and he knew he’d made a slip up. “Of course, how could I forget,” he mused, a fond smile as he remembered. “When you get to my age… some things slip. It was in 1957, Arizona. A tattoo parlor, one of the stops on our honeymoon.” As he spoke, the Doctor input coordinates and then pulled the lever to put the TARDIS into action. “How do you think Atticus likes me now?”

Her finger ran over the ring tattooed on her skin. It did hurt knowing that things that were so important to her had started to fade for him. “I didn’t want to test losing my ring when we went places.” Cass pulled her gaze away form her hand and watched him start to input coordinates into the Tardis as she pulled his sweater tighter around her. “He loves you, you’re sill our husband.” She pointed out . Pausing she took a deep breath. “I think he worries that things are different for you... I worry that they are.”

As Cass closed her eyes, the Doctor kept his fingertips resting against her jawline and leaned in, kissing her sweetly on the cheek. He pulled away slightly but still remained barely an inch or two away from her. The Doctor examined her tattoo compared to his ring and then smiled. “I could always go and get tattooed now. I’ve not had a tattoo in such a long time,” he mused, laughing then as he moved to the TARDIS console. 

A slow breath left her when he kissed her cheek but there was still a small ache at the fact that he didn't actually kiss her. Part of her did want to question why he had stopped but she wasn’t willing to push. “You got a tattoo with me.” She reminded him. Though there were times that she realized there must have been years between when he left with one face and returned with another, Cass just didn’t want to know how long. When he moved back to the console she frowned before putting her smile back in place in case he did look back at her. “Atticus should take some time and not get a new one.”

“Very good to know, not that I doubted it in the first place,” replied the Doctor with a grin. He continued brushing his fingertips along Cass’ jaw before then chuckling at her request for him not to take her to places where she could flirt. “Might leave off the interesting places though, did you ever think about that?” he teased. At mention of her already being married, the Doctor fished his own wedding ring out of his pocket and held it up. “I like how it matches yours,” he mused, adding then “I should get my ring tattoo.”

"You shouldn’t doubt it. I’m very much in love with you two.” She leaned into his touch and let her eyes close for a brief moment Cassie really was so in love with him. “Find we can go to the interesting places, but just to be clear I don’t always try to flirt.” Opening her eyes she looked at the wedding ring that he held up in front of her. “It does.” Holding out her hand she looked at the tattoo compared to the design on his ring. “That’s up to you”

“I meant more just a general monster but it’s good to know Atticus or I don’t have a rival with tentacles,” he teased, grinning as he gently moved his fingertips over her cheek and down to her jawline. His grin only widened when Cass asked him if he was complaining. “Half complaint, half compliment,” the Doctor replied, laughing then. “I can always try out a sword in the near future.”

"You two don't have rivals at all." Cass tilted her chin up towards him as his fingers brushed against her jaw. “Well you shouldn’t complain it’s not my fault I get into trouble. Stop taking me to places where flirting means I want to marry someone.” She leaned closer to him and lowered her voice. “I’m already married.” It was the one tattoo she had on her body and it wrapped around her ring finger marking her union with the Doctor and Atticus. “Oh you really should.”

“Maybe not but knowing our luck I’ll end up dueling some kind of tentacle creature during our next adventure,” he replied, chuckling wryly at the end of that before smiling. “Misunderstandings? More like mischief,” the Doctor teased, a hand lifting up then and gently stroking his fingertips across Cass’ cheek before moving it back down to take her hand once more. “See me with a sword or me dueling?”

"Well I'm not going to be flirting with a tentacle creature so there's no reason for it to want to fight you." She offered before leaning into his touch as he stroked her cheek. God she loved him. Cass closed her eyes for a moment before looking up at him again. “Are you complaining about my mischief?” Her fingers laced through his as she leaned into him.”Both.”

“A long time ago, yes,” he replied, seeing no point in trying to sugarcoat how long it had been for him. He chuckled at her comment about causing a duel, smirking then. “You did indeed, I still haven’t properly reprimanded you for that,” he teased. “Although I would’ve dueled to defend your honor if I’d needed to, not sure how good I am with a sword though.”

"But now you're with us and I don’t see you having to duel over anything." Really she was trying to be better about her actions when they were in certain places. Cass laughed when he mentioned her being reprimanded. “It’s not my fault that being nice to people made them fight over me. Honestly half the trouble I get in is from misunderstandings.” Though she also had a slight problem with not flirting, hence her sleeping with Henry VIII and having a Lord ask the Doctor to marry her. “I might like seeing that.”

The Doctor looked briefly down as Cass rested her hand against the bare skin of his forearm before moving up to his bicep. He grinned at her comment about not taking him for a fighter. “Depends on the time, how I’m thinking then. It was in my tenth life, back when I used to wear suits and converses,” he mused, thinking back fondly to the memory. “I’ve yet to dual in this life, though I am still rather new to it I guess.”

"So that was a really long time for you." She did hate the thought of everything he must have gone through to get to his sixteenth incarnation. It would actually be entertaining to see him and Atticus fight together but she didn’t want either of them getting into trouble. “I haven’t dueled either, but I did cause that one.” The blonde grinned before she stood up.