Amok Time Lord 2: The Hearts Grow Fonder

Amok Time Lord 2: The Hearts Grow Fonder


*****


Introduction


*****


This is the second story in my Amok Time Lord series.

The first one was a crossover with Star Trek and some furry elements, with the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness hooking up under very unusual circumstances... but this one has them back to their normal selves, back in their normal universe, dealing with the consequences of that one crazy day together.

The first story had a bittersweet ending, and I could have left it like that-- but damn it, I wanted them to be happy.

I don't know. My mind is somewhat torn, when it comes to the Doctor's future after the episode "The Waters of Mars." On the one hand, I like the eleventh Doctor-- I even like his story arc with River Song. But on the other hand, I wanted the tenth Doctor to stay, and I wanted him and Jack to be together. I wrote this fanfic in an attempt to reconcile that contradiction in my feelings.

I'm not the type who believes that everyone has just one soulmate and if you never find him you're screwed. I think each of us has many possible ways to be happy. I don't think the Doctor and Jack are together in every universe. But I bloody well prefer the ones where they are.

*****

Prologue

*****


The two old friends stared at each other in recognition, across the visitors' platform at the Starlight Volcano of Kallimaxia. The one with the red beard and wavy mass of red hair seemed frozen in mid-run, half-turned toward the other... as if he had someplace important to go, and was trying to decide between moving on and renewing old acquaintances.

At last he seemed to make up his mind, turning fully to look his old friend in the eyes. The eyes looked back, giant calm eyes in a giant face, through the fluid of the huge tank that stood on the platform.

"Is it really you?" said the red-headed one. "God, how many years has it been? Well, that's really an unanswerable question, isn't it, when I've been all over the history of the universe since then. How have you been?"

The huge peaceful face kept looking ahead. When it finally spoke through the tank's fluids, its voice seemed to reverberate throughout the quiet clearing, even and slow, and as calm as its eyes. "Doctor? Is that you?"

"Yes!" The redhead's grin looked insane-- somehow that was true in every incarnation of him. "Yes, it's me-- been through a lot of time travel and a few regenerations, since you last saw me. But--" he ran a hand through his red mane. "I'm finally ginger! Can't beat that, can you?"

The other's expression didn't change at all; the huge head just floated placidly up and down in the tank. The Doctor made a pouting face at it. "Oh, what's got into you? You weren't so totally lacking a sense of humor when you were young. That is-- if I'm actually right about who you were when you were young."

"It happens," the calm voice said, "when one has been alone for so very, very long."

The Doctor shrugged. "It helps to surround yourself with lots of companions."

The giant eyes turned down for a moment. "I never could," the wide lips answered. "I tried. But eventually I began to realize there was only one companion I wanted."

The Doctor lost speech for one long moment, staring at the tank and its gloomy inhabitant, his mouth hanging open.

"You mean--"

"Yes." The placid eyes looked deep into his.

"My god. That one night, all those thousands of years ago, and you still--" The Doctor rested his forehead on his hand. "God, that makes me feel terrible. Carrying a torch for me all these millennia, and I've moved on and broken your heart. But I'm sorry. That's how I am. It happens. I change into a new person, all of a sudden, and feelings disappear."

"I am sorry," the floating face replied. "I should not have said anything." The big eyes glazed over, as if the mind behind them was looking within itself. "You said feelings disappear. So there were-- feelings-- at one time?"

"I don't know if this is going to make you feel better, or terrible." The Doctor looked at the ground. "But yes. After that one time we had together... I did feel something."

He ran his hand through his hair again, a nervous fidget. "I never told you, because I knew I had to change soon. There wasn't enough time for us to-- to build the feelings into something strong enough to survive a regeneration. But at that time, the man I was at that moment-- would have chosen to stay with you, if he could have."

Their eyes met and held each other for another minute. "Hell, sometimes even now, I wish those feelings had stayed. We'd both be different people. Less lonely, both of us. Happier, probably."

"Yes." The peaceful and ancient voice almost disappeared into the sound of the wind. "But it is too late now for us. The past can be rewritten, but those who rewrite it can never rewrite themselves."

*****

The hours after they left the Enterprise had passed in a blur. Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor had found the rift between universes, gotten back through it and sealed it off, leaving M'Rai locked in his own world.

The Doctor dropped Jack off on twenty-first-century Earth, and Jack checked into a hotel and stayed up all night on the laptop he'd brought in his backpack, marathoning "Star Trek: The Original Series."

It was the most surreal thing ever, seeing these works of fiction after where he'd just been. He almost expected to see the TARDIS in a corner of the screen, as characters walked through the Enterprise's hallways. Watching this made his skin crawl, made him wonder about universes where his own life was just someone's fictional story.

When he and the Doctor had first met, the Doctor's companion Rose had kept confusing him by mentioning "Spock." It felt so strange, thinking back on a time when he hadn't even recognized that name. Since then, living in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries had made him somewhat familiar with the character-- but it hadn't prepared him for getting dumped into an alternate universe where fiction was reality; where Spock was a being that the Doctor could actually meet and mind-meld with.

Yesterday had been utterly insane. And amazing. And wonderful. And the Doctor wanted to forget it ever happened.

It was almost morning when Jack got through the episode "Amok Time." That was where he and the Doctor must have entered the universe, he thought-- Spock's dim red quarters, the madness of the Vulcan sex drive. Somewhere in the missing scenes, he and the Doctor had appeared, making their way into Spock's room. The Doctor had sensed Spock's distress and tried to make telepathic contact with his mind-- and ended up crazed with pon farr, thrusting manically against Jack in the TARDIS as it stood parked in a corridor of the Enterprise.

And the genetic virus that the mad Caitian scientist had injected Jack with-- it had spread through both their bodies, turning them for a few hours into wild felines in heat...

Jack's face flushed as he thought of it. The Doctor, going so mad with desire that the emotional overload was going to tear apart his mind and kill him unless they mated. The alienness of making love to a Time Lord, the four prehensile shafts that had wrapped around him and stroked him to the brink of orgasm in seconds-- and then the Doctor's cat-clawed hands on his face, joining with his mind, doubling and quadrupling the sensation as each could feel everything the other felt, an endless sexual feedback loop that exploded his mind in ecstasy.

And then the Doctor coming out of the madness, realizing what they had done... covering himself with the shreds of his clothes in embarrassment, and leaving.

He'd been civil enough to thank Jack for saving his life, but beyond that, no show of emotion. He'd left Jack broken up with his own feelings, vulnerable and wanting-- just as the memory now left him torn by a mix of arousal and sorrow, his hands wandering down to the hard swelling that wanted so much more than just his hands...

At that moment he felt the warning buzz in his mind, the alarm from the psychic paper he kept in his wallet.

Reluctantly his hand left the bulge in his groin, pulling the wallet from his pocket. Who the hell would be sending him a message on psychic paper, at this time of night? His heart jumped. Who else did he know who even had psychic paper? Could the Doctor be--

Jack focused his eyes on the small sheet. It wasn't just a written message. The images that had appeared were changing and moving, like a video feed. God, whoever was sending this had an insane amount of experience using this stuff...

It was a view of a clean white room that was also big and airy, like a cross between a hospital and a palace. Tall figures walked around, dressed in outfits that made them look like nurses or nuns. When Jack squinted at their faces, he was stunned to see that their features were cat-like, too: triangular noses, divided upper lips, and fur. He didn't think they looked quite as attractive as he and the Doctor had looked, back when...

Trying not to let his thoughts go there, he squinted at the image some more. In the center was what seemed to be a cylindrical fluid-filled tank, as tall as the cat-people walking around it, and as wide as it was tall.

Floating inside was a creature that seemed to consist of nothing but a giant humanoid head, wrinkled and brown as if it had grown on some centuries-old tree. There was a serenity and a sadness in the expression of its huge eyes and mouth, the look of someone who had seen too much of the universe.

Then the lips opened, and sound came from the psychic paper, a voice so calm and slow that it seemed to have the wisdom of millennia behind it. "Greetings, Captain Jack Harkness."

"Um, greetings to you too." Jack gave one of his charming smiles. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

The glazed-looking eyes stared at him, unchanging. "The Face of Boe."

Jack blinked. "Strange. That's a name some people have called me, too." He held the paper closer to his face. "So, who are you then? And what's this all about?"

"I am speaking to you from another time," the Face of Boe said, his huge mouth moving in the fluid-filled tank like the mouth of some ancient sea creature. "A time in your distant future. My life is coming to an end. It is said that, as my life is ending, I will reveal my great secret to one like myself, a wanderer without a home."

Jack stared, and said nothing.

"What nobody has ever known," the Face continued, "is that there are two such people. You, and the Doctor. And there are two great secrets, one for each." The voice was so slow, so peaceful, that it nearly hypnotized Jack. "The secret for you, Captain Jack Harkness-- is the true meaning of what has happened to you in the past day of your life."

"Yesterday? When we--" Jack's face flushed deeply. "How do you know about that?"

The Face of Boe left the question unanswered. "The Doctor left you, as if he felt nothing," he continued. "But he did feel something for you. He felt the beginnings of something that could have grown into love. He did not tell you, because... his own life, too, was coming to an end."

"He's going to die?" Jack's blood stabbed too fast through all his veins, hurting everywhere. "He's going to die, right now? My God, no--"

"He will die, but from the death, another man will be born."

"You-- you mean he's going to regenerate."

"And his regenerated self will be a great man. But what he felt for you will be lost, because it did not have enough time to strengthen before he had to be reborn." The huge face seemed lost in another place and time, far from either of their real locations. "That is what will happen... if you do not stop it."

"I know the Doctor," Jack said, staring at his lap in misery. "If he's not trying to stop himself from dying, he must be able to sense that it's impossible to stop it."

"He believes it is," the Face of Boe replied. "He believes his death and rebirth are a fixed point in time. But for once in his long life, he is wrong."

Jack leaned forward, eyes wide open all of a sudden. "You mean, he could save himself? You mean... wait, are you saying I could save him?"

"You could." The Face of Boe floated gently up and down, perhaps a nod. "For you, this is a moment when space and time are vulnerable. In the timeline of your life, this moment comes just after a time when the veil between universes was torn, and just before a time when someone will try to rip our universe apart. Between those points, the fabric of reality is delicate. You can turn it in another direction. You can create a new timeline, one where the Doctor lives, and loves you, for centuries upon centuries." The huge eyes stared steadily ahead. "You can save yourself from being alone, as I have been."

There was something in those words, a melancholy that seemed to mean more than what was on the surface.

"Are you... me?" Jack whispered. "Are you what I become, in the timeline where the Doctor never wants me?"

The Face of Boe just stared ahead. "I am no more you," he said, "than you are the embryo that grew in your mother's womb."

There was a very long silence, and finally the Face spoke again. "You still have a teleportation device."

"It doesn't work," Jack said numbly.

"I can tell you how to repair it," the Face of Boe said, "and how to reprogram it to do what you will need to do." The giant eyes kept staring into his, unblinking, eternally calm. "Now listen closely."


*****


Lucy Saxon knelt on the floor in the dim room. The woman who had introduced herself only as "your new governor" stood before her with an enigmatic smile.

"There are those of us who never lost faith," she was saying, taking sideways glances at the older woman standing beside her, "and in his wisdom Harold Saxon prepared for this moment. He knew that he might die, and he made us ready. Tonight, Mrs. Saxon, he returns."

The older woman held out a hand, and in it was the ring, its inlaid green shapes and carved circles mesmerizing Lucy's mind. Her eyes went wide, realizing what it was. She drew in a breath, about to cry out in protest.

And then a man was behind the two women-- a young-looking, dark-haired man who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, in some instant when Lucy's eyes had been blinking or turned away.

The two standing women didn't see him, but Lucy did, and recognition washed over her-- just before he pulled out a weapon, a gun of some alien kind. For a second, Lucy thought he was aiming it at her.

But he lowered it, pointed it in a slightly different direction, and pulled the trigger.

"No, he doesn't return," the man said, out loud-- the first audible sign of his presence, just as the weapon went off.

A bolt of light flashed from its muzzle to the ring held in the old woman's hand. The woman cried out, as the ring exploded against her fingers, its silver metal transforming into a shower of sparks that flew in every direction.

"What have you done?" the governor shrieked, whirling around to face him. Her hand went to her belt, seizing a weapon of her own, a small disc that she aimed at him, pressing a button to make a beam of destructive energy blast out from it.

Just as the blast hit the man's side, he clapped a hand against some switch on his arm, and with a small cry and a few wisps of smoke, he vanished.

The older woman was staring at her burnt hand. "Where is he?" she said, her voice breaking. "Did you kill him? Can you-- get it-- back..." She buried her face in her hands.

The governor shook her head, slowly, miserably. "I... I don't know. I may have killed him. But it's no use to try and track him down. You saw-- he destroyed the ring." She looked at the spot where the man had stood, fury and grief flashing back and forth in her expression. "It's... it's over. Everything is lost."


*****


Jack materialized with an ache in his side, a weapon burn that was already healing. The last few days had passed like time in a strange dream-- wearing his mind thin with electronic parts spread out around him on the floor, burning and callusing his fingers as the Face of Boe walked him through rewiring his transporter and his energy weapon.

Then, just as he'd thought he was going to lose his mind and smash all these infuriating gadgets into dust, the last wire had finally fitted into place, and the ancient face had stared at him through the tank fluid on the paper-screen, murmuring, "Now it is time."

Warping into Broadfell Prison had been the work of a moment and the touch of a button. Stopping the end of time had taken just the pull of a trigger, and a wound that would be gone any minute now.

It still seemed unreal, anticlimactic, like a nightmare that ended at the buzz of an alarm clock. His sense of reality still could barely grasp how much of history such a small act could change, when done at just the right time, guided by someone from the future who knew. Like stepping on a butterfly.

He looked down at the readout on his teleporter-- it showed what seemed like random numbers. The blast had damaged it somehow. How badly, he didn't know.

Had he ended up in the right place, nevertheless? He looked up, turned his head around. It sure looked like the TARDIS.

The Face of Boe had given him instructions on reprogramming the device-- first to take him to the correct time and place to stop the Master's resurrection, and then to lock on to the location of the TARDIS and materialize him inside it. It seemed to have done just that. He was just inside its door, taking in its whole interior with his eyes. There was no one visible.

Was the Doctor out? Or upstairs, in one of the second-level rooms? Jack climbed the steps, looking cautiously around.

It wasn't until he reached the top of the stairs that he began to hear sounds that suggested someone might be there. It was a muffled breathing, probably separated from him by a door... but it was recognizable, even though it was nothing but breaths.

It was the Doctor.

Jack stopped in front of a closed door. The sounds were coming from in there. He laid a hand on it, standing there quietly for a moment, listening. The breaths were too fast for someone who was asleep or resting.

And then a louder sound broke into them, a little moan or cry, that made Jack's skin tingle all over. He knew that sound all too well; he'd heard it yesterday a dozen times.

Slowly he pushed on the door, sliding it open.

It was a bedroom, a small and plain one, with a bed lined up against the wall on the opposite side from the door. The dark blue sheets were crumpled up along the bed's edge, one pillow on the floor nearby, another one half-shoved in between the bed and the wall.

On the bed was a figure that Jack recognized so well his throat clenched up. The Doctor was lying back on the rumpled bedding, alone, still dressed in his dark grey-blue suit. But the trousers were open in front, his thighs apart, his hands moving against himself as he panted and moaned.

The four prehensile shafts were fully aroused, wrapped tightly around two fingers of his left hand, while his right hand stroked them from the outside, in a practiced but frantic motion. Jack could see how swollen they were, dark pink and shining and wet with their natural lubricant, pulsing and tugging at the fingers.

God, he wanted them wrapped around him again. He was getting hard just looking at the Doctor, so out of control, his hair sticking up more wildly than usual, eyes shut and mouth open as he bucked into his own touch...

And then the Time Lord shifted his hands, started moving the fingers that were wrapped in the tendrils, stimulating them from inside as he sped up the other hand's stroking. "Aa-aa-ah! Ahh, oh, yes, Jack, yes..."

Jack bit his lower lip, feeling it swell with arousal, feeling his face heat and his heart quicken. He was hard enough to stretch the fabric of his pants now, his skin was burning with the need to--

That was it. Captain Jack Harkness couldn't control himself any longer.

"I'm right here," he said aloud, starting to walk closer to the bed.

The Doctor froze, hands and hips suddenly still, head whipping around to stare at him. "Jack! My god--"

The captain kept coming closer. "Wow, a few days of absence sure made your heart grow a lot fonder," he said. "Hearts, I mean." He was sitting down on the bed now, letting his weight move the Doctor's body without even touching him yet.

The Doctor was just staring at him, mouth hanging open, eyes wide enough to look insane. "A few days? Jack, it's been three fucking years!"

Jack lowered his eyes to the readout of the teleportation device on his arm, his chest jumping. Had the weapon blast-- holy hell, it could have made it malfunction, could have made it warp time when he only meant to warp space--

"The teleporter got damaged," he said, almost under his breath. "For me it's been a day."

"My God." The Doctor was sitting up, one hand still unable to let go of his pulsing sex, but the other grabbing the back of Jack's neck and pulling him in for a kiss. Their mouths moved against each other as if starved, the Doctor's breath hot and fast through Jack's lips.

"I thought you were dead," he gasped against Jack's mouth, in the instants when their lips managed to part. "My god, I searched for you, I thought you had--"

"Not dead," Jack reassured him, his hands gripping the Doctor's back and pulling their bodies together as hard as he could, as if to remind him how alive they both were. "Can't die. Ever." He pressed his face against the Doctor's neck; moved his mouth up until it touched the ear. "God, you're alive too-- three years, and you're still alive, and still the same-- that must mean it worked." His hands clutched at the Time Lord's lower back, unable to loosen the pressure that held them so close together, even as he felt the Doctor's hand and twisting tendrils push against his own too-swollen groin. "Aahh--"

"What worked? What did you do? How did you-- oh, never mind, I don't care, I just want you, right now." And the Doctor finally let go of his sex and devoted both hands to clutching Jack against him, hot alien lips devouring his neck and then his mouth-- turning their entangled bodies until Jack was on his back on the bed, and the Time Lord was on top of him, legs spread across his hips, the four prehensile members leaving trails of wetness across the front of his pants. "Fuck yes, I want--"

Jack let himself start moaning then, let himself submit to the insane pleasure of the Doctor pinning him down, moving against him, wanting him. His cock ached to be free, but he would take anything he could get; he was grateful even for the rough stimulation of the Doctor's groin shoving against him through his pants.

Then the Time Lord's motion stilled, the fast breaths and double heartbeat against Jack's body began to calm a little, as if the Doctor were managing to gain some control of himself. Jack made a sound of protest, afraid that the contact might actually stop.

But then there were kisses on his neck again, more controlled and more purposeful than before. The Doctor's hands were on his chest, making his nipples tighten, holding him down as the hot mouth had its way with him.

And then... oh god, the hands and mouth were moving further down...

Jack bit his lip and breathed in hard. The Doctor was kissing lower on his neck, then in between his neck and shoulder, then mouthing his collarbone through his shirt. The hands were sliding down his sides, then behind him, settling around the curves of his backside.

His hips rose up involuntarily. The Doctor's mouth was on his nipple through his shirt, and he tossed his head to the side and gasped. Before he could process the stimulation, the mouth was halfway down his chest, then on his stomach-- and then he felt hot breath between his thighs, against the painfully tight crotch of his pants.

Holy god, was he going to--? One of the Doctor's hands left his ass, moving around to the front. Jack felt fingers tugging at the fly of his pants, felt some of the pressure release, felt the hands grab the waist of his pants as his hips moved upwards again... and in one hard pull, the pants and underpants were halfway down his thighs. His groin was naked and exposed to the Doctor's face, unable to hide the painful hardness where his every motivation was centered right now...

He wanted to beg, but he could barely make a sound. The hot breath on him was driving him insane. He needed--

And then the Time Lord's mouth was against him, a breathy kiss on his shaft, and before he could moan he felt the moisture of a tongue as well, and his mind shorted out and couldn't think at all for a moment. He was a living storm of need and arousal, rocking his groin against the irresistible touch of that mouth, his lungs and heart going into overdrive every time the mouth opened wider against him, every time more of the tongue came in contact. When the Doctor's wonderfully mobile lips closed at last around the head of his cock, he clawed at the bedsheets and nearly came.

He closed his eyes and bit his lip again as the Doctor took him in more deeply, sucking hard and seeming to touch his tongue everywhere at once. For a few moments the Time Lord's mouth was so controlled and expert that there was no such thing as rational thought, only a chaos of wet heat and tingling caresses, a mouth and tongue that moved in ways beyond human possibility.

But then the movements got rougher, jerkier-- too much breath through the Doctor's mouth as he tried to suck, the teeth grazing Jack enough to be uncomfortable. He opened his eyes, and saw that the Doctor's eyes were clenched shut as if in pain, his lips too swollen as they wrapped around Jack, his lean body shifting against the mattress. One hand was still on Jack's ass, but the other had made its way down between the Doctor's own legs...

Jack rested his hands on the Time Lord's face, stroking him, pulling his mouth off the shaft. "My turn," the captain whispered as their eyes met.

His dark eyes burning, the Doctor let Jack turn him over and rest his shoulders against the pillows. Soon their positions were reversed, the Doctor on his back with his legs spread, Jack kneeling between them.

Jack could barely breathe as he looked down at the lust-crazed Time Lord, his clothes rumpled, his mouth open and panting, the prehensile shafts twisting and grasping from his open fly, desperate for touch.

Jack was on fire with the urge to throw himself on top of the Doctor, join minds with him again, plunge them both into a too-fast orgasm. But he held on, because the painful intensity of this arousal was pleasure at the same time, and on some level he wanted it to go on and on-- the throbbing pressure in his cock and balls, the insanity that threatened to take over his mind when he saw the Time Lord's flushed face and trembling body lying in front of him...

His pants were already halfway down. Turning around so his legs hung off the end of the bed, he started to take off his boots and socks, glancing back seductively every few seconds, trying to make a show of stripping himself even though he didn't have nearly enough control to manage it. By the time he got his pants off, his movements were nothing but frantic, and it was a miracle he managed to get his shirt off without ripping it.

The Doctor was breathing heavily and arching his back as Jack knelt down between his legs again, even before the captain's hands started to touch him, searching for the waist of his trousers, shaking with arousal almost too much to complete the act of undressing him.

Getting the Doctor's suit off was torture, a nightmare of buttons and fitted fabric made less navigable by trembling hands and bucking hips. God, why the hell would anyone stay dressed like this when he went into his room to masturbate? Jack felt hot all over when he realized that the Doctor must have been too desperate with arousal to bother taking off his clothes. Did he get like that every time he thought of Jack?

In any case, Jack could understand the feeling. As the two of them struggled together to pull arms out of sleeves, and trouser legs down past ankles, Jack started panting from the temptation to throw his naked body on top of the Doctor's partly clothed one, just give up and let the clothes get torn and stained like last time. But something deep inside him made him keep torturing himself, waiting until he could touch his lover skin-on-skin, because he needed to make this amazing experience last as many minutes and seconds as it possibly could...

When the last of their clothes were finally crumpled up and thrown on the floor, the two men met each other's eyes, breathing heavily, the captain still kneeling between the Doctor's thighs. God, he was sexy, Jack thought, letting the vision of the Time Lord's lean and trembling naked body inflame his own already painful arousal.

The Doctor looked up at him, eyes wide and dark with desire, mouth open and teeth bared.

"Now," Jack heard him say. "Please, now." His voice was fogged with lust, his eyes begging.

And Jack lowered himself until he was on his stomach between the Doctor's legs, breathing in the spicy scent of arousal that made him push his own groin against the bed as he bent forward and licked his lips.

The prehensile tendrils reached up toward him, flushed dark purple by now and shining with moisture. The clove-musk smell of them drove him insane. Hands on the outsides of the Time Lord's thighs, stroking as he moved, Jack leaned closer and kissed the side of one of the writhing members.

It twisted around like a creature with a mind of its own, pushing in past his lips and entwining around his tongue. The Time Lord threw his head back and breathed hard through clenched teeth, his hands tangling in Jack's hair. "Yes." His voice was thick with desire.

Jack moved his head up and down, sucking on the flesh in his mouth, opening to welcome another shaft as it slid in beside the first. God, it was like kissing someone with the most amazing tongue ever. His own cock began to leak pre against the sheets as his tongue played with his lover's twisting and fragrant arousal.

The other two tendrils were stroking the sides of his face, seeming to know there wasn't enough room for them to move freely if they tried to join the others in his mouth. They were moving faster and more urgently than the ones he was sucking, unsatisfied with the meager stimulation they were getting, and the Doctor was making noises that sounded as if he were in pain.

"Now," he moaned. Jack's breath caught. It was the same voice he'd heard on the Enterprise-- pleading for his touch, wanting him to the point of insanity. It drove Jack beyond all control, made him lift his head up and release the tendrils and look the Doctor in the eye.

"Yes," the captain breathed. "God yes." And then he was on top of his lover, pressing against him with every inch of his body, riding the arching of his back and the thrusting of his hips, opening his mouth against the alien lips as his hands clutched the Doctor's head, tangling in the messed-up hair. "Oh, fuck, YES!"

The Doctor's tendrils were around his shaft within instants, clinging to him as if he were a tree in a windstorm, stroking and squeezing and tugging, their wet heat making hot shivers shoot down his spine and the backs of his legs.

The only distraction that kept him from shooting his load right then and there was the touch of the Doctor's hands, gripping his backside so tightly he couldn't even buck his own hips-- clasping at the cheeks of his ass at an angle that pulled them slightly apart, a stimulation that made him suddenly and desperately aware that he wanted something more.

His face blushed hot enough to feel like a fever. God, he wanted the Doctor to fuck him, ride his ass and cum inside him-- he wasn't even sure how it would work with Time Lord anatomy, but he wanted it so much it made him ache all over. "I--" he gasped against the Doctor's face. "Oh, god, aaah-- I want you-- in-- can you--"

And then he couldn't make any sound but a moan that was almost a scream, because two of the tendrils had left his cock and slid down and back, hot and mobile against his buttocks, easing their way between.

They were even more slippery now, lubricating themselves as they probed at his ass. What was that moisture, anyway? Back on the Enterprise, the Doctor had said something about the tendrils wrapping around some egg sac inside the female, so that it could absorb the semen from them. Maybe they released most of their load through their skin before the moment of orgasm, while they stroked whatever they were wrapped around? Maybe he was being slicked up with a Time Lord's pre-cum... His train of thought crashed in a blast of pleasure, words and clear ideas impossible, as one of the Doctor's prehensile members pushed past the tight ring of muscle at his opening.

"Oh god oh god oh god." It was sliding inside so smoothly-- slick and hot and moving in every direction, touching everyplace at once, reaching in far enough to stroke his prostate-- holy fuck, the thing must be trying to wrap around it; the stimulation was incredible. And the Doctor was tossing his head from side to side and moaning as if he was in heat again, hands massaging and clenching around Jack's ass to hold him down tight against the Time Lord's pelvis.

"AAH! Oh, god, Jack, yes--" and the feeling of being squeezed inside the captain's anus most have tipped some balance of control, because now the Doctor was growling like a wild animal, moving his hands to grab Jack's upper arms so hard it almost hurt--

--And lurching up beneath him, rolling both their bodies over until the Doctor was on top, pressing Jack into the mattress, legs entangled-- one tendril still embedded inside him, one sliding up and down his crevice, the others redoubling their amorous assault on the shaft and head of his aching cock.

Jack thought it couldn't get any more intense. He was drunk on the weight of the Time Lord on top of him, the intoxicating clove-musk scent of alien arousal, the hands holding his body down, the erotic moans against his ear. He was insane from the arhythmic stroking and tightening of the tendrils on his cock, and on fire from the prehensile movement of the one that was inside him. But just when he thought that his capacity to feel pleasure had topped out, he began to feel the second tendril push against his anus.

The Doctor's lips were pulled back, his breath coming hard through clenched teeth, as he stared down at Jack's lust-contorted face. "Oh yes," he groaned, as he slid the second tendril up alongside the first, the hot and lubricated tip starting to press harder at the opening, just starting to push the sphincter open. "Ah-hh! Jack, is this what you want?"

"F-fuck yes!" Barely able to breathe, Jack pushed back as hard as he could, gasping as his motion sent shocks of stimulation through him from the prehensile contact against his cock and his prostate. He heard a deep groan as the Doctor gave him what he wanted, thrusting down against him and sliding the second shaft in beside the first one.

It opened him with its slick pressure, filled him with its heat-- the motion of both tendrils fucking him at once felt bigger than a cock, spreading him wider, touching more places at once. The Doctor growled and held him down harder, pinning him with his face as well as his hands, assaulting his mouth with a kiss so urgent and lustful that it took Jack's breath away.

And the Time Lord's hands left his shoulders to grip Jack's head, holding him in place as the hot mouth claimed his. Jack's hands mirrored the motion, clasping the Doctor's head against him, kissing back with his whole mouth and tongue.

Through the contact of hands on faces, their minds brushed against each other, echoes of sensations and emotions flashing back and forth between them. Jack moaned into the Doctor's mouth as he began to feel what the tendrils felt, and then broke the kiss to cry out in ecstasy, as the Doctor realized exactly where Jack needed to be touched.

Fueled by telepathy, the tendrils on his cock found the spots that craved contact the most-- the head just above the ridge, and the base where the shaft joined the balls-- and gave them what they needed, wrapping and stroking them fast and hard. Both the shafts inside his ass converged on his prostate, caressing it with all the energy of their frenzied motion, trying to grasp onto it through the slick wall of flesh.

"Ah! Ah! AAAH!! God yes, AH!" Jack came, thrashing and moaning beneath the Time Lord's frantic thrusts, hot waves of tingling sensation shooting through his cock and ass and balls like electric shocks, his back arching as if it had an alien life of its own, the waves of release seizing and jerking his body violently. His cock spilled between their bodies, shooting load after load, until he could feel his cum slicking the motion of their bellies and chests as they continued to move together.

The Doctor buried his face in Jack's neck as he followed him into orgasm, mouthing his neck and shoulder, his lips and then his teeth assaulting the sensitive skin as he lost control completely. "God, yes, fuck yes, ah, aaah, aaaAAAAAH!" All four prehensile members went wild with motion, getting hotter and wetter as they released the last of their pent-up cum, tightening and stroking harder against the spots that made Jack moan and drew his climax out longer and longer. The Doctor's hips shoved down against Jack, the sensation of a Time Lord's climax reverberating into Jack's mind and making him moan and thrust in sympathy, keeping Jack's own cock hard and tingling for a moment after his own orgasm faded.

For a moment there was nothing; the universe whited out.

*****


They came back to reality in each other's arms, sticky and tired, genitals entangled and legs wrapped around each other, the Doctor's weight pressing down on Jack more heavily than before. For several minutes there was no sound except slowing breathing, and the occasional moan.

"What did you do, all this time?" Jack said finally, softly, his hand reaching up and running through the Doctor's messed-up hair.

For a moment Jack was afraid that the Doctor would repeat the past, jump up and run away when he realized where he was and what he'd just done. But he just smiled, leaned down and kissed Jack softly on the neck before answering, in a voice that sounded completely like himself. "What, you mean starting right after I dropped you off on Earth?"

Jack smiled. "Sure, start there."

The Doctor sighed. "First I tried to forget. Traveled all over, for a few days. Did all sorts of crazy things to take my mind off you. But none of it was enough, and besides, Queen Elizabeth didn't appreciate me shouting out your name when--" He blushed and shook his head.

"Queen Elizabeth?" Jack laughed and wrinkled his forehead at the same time, letting hilarity and confusion mix. That was life with the Doctor-- confusing, insane, funny, amazing, and you didn't care if you ever figured it all out.

"I tried to forget," the Doctor repeated, his eyes downcast. "I tried with a lot of people, in a lot of different times and places." He rolled off Jack's body to lie beside him, still mostly entangled with him, letting their naked bodies face each other.

Jack stroked his arm and shoulder, giving his most charming smile to let him know it was all right. He couldn't deny a tiny bit of jealousy, thinking about the Doctor fucking other people, but possessiveness wasn't really in his nature. If the Doctor had needed it, or thought he did, Jack wouldn't fault him for it. "And were they all fine with the fact that you had tentacles?"

"Prehensile shafts," said the Time Lord, his blush spreading to his ears. "And no, most of them never knew about that. I was careful. I always used a perception filter."

Jack chuckled. "Safety first."

The Doctor gave a small tight smile. "But it couldn't ever hide the fact that-- that my mind was somewhere else."

Jack wrapped his arms around him, holding their chests together, for several seconds. There was a long moment of silence. Nothing needed to be expressed except the reassurance that they were both there, together.

"So," the Doctor said at last, as they pulled slightly apart, "I came back. The Ood told me what was going on, that someone was going to resurrect the Master. I rushed to try and stop it, but I could find no sign that anything was happening."

His hand slid up from Jack's waist where it had been resting, and stroked his chest. "It went on like that for days, me waiting, expecting the world to end any second. But-- nothing. I finally went back and asked the Ood, and they just said 'the sands of time have shifted' or something like that. And it went on for months, years, never finding out what had changed."

He looked so troubled, focusing on the memory, that Jack leaned over and kissed him. The Doctor's mouth moved against his, still hungry for the contact, their tongues touching and making love.

"I looked for you," the Doctor said in a low voice, after the kiss finally broke. "When it became clear that the future was different now, that I wasn't dying anytime soon-- the first thing I did was start looking for you. But you weren't anywhere. After two years or so, I-- I thought you were dead. I thought you'd somehow-- given your life in place of mine. That you'd broken your immortality, found a way to die, and somehow it had stopped what was about to happen."

Jack's hands wound around the Doctor's back, holding him as close as possible, reassuring him of his presence.

The Time Lord gripped Jack's head against his shoulder, burying his face in Jack's neck. "It was so hard," he murmured. "Living with that thought. Thinking you'd died without knowing. That you'd given your life up for someone you thought didn't even-- care about you. But I kept looking for you, because I had nothing else to do."

Jack kissed him between his shoulder and neck, letting his hands stroke up and down the Doctor's back. "So, it's true what they say about absence," he murmured.

The Doctor shivered at the touch of his mouth. Jack kept kissing, speaking softly in between kisses. "I always thought it was strange, how there are those two conflicting sayings. 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder,' but also 'Out of sight, out of mind.' I can see which one was true for you."

The Doctor pulled back, reluctantly-- not to get away from the kissing, but to hold Jack just far enough away to look at him. His eyes were more serious than ever, holding Jack's gaze like a magnet as he spoke. "I tend to prefer Roger de Bussy-Rabutin's version. 'Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great.'"

Jack's mouth curved up, the motion feeling warm. "Did you just say you love me?"

The Doctor's eyes lost contact with Jack's for a moment. A trace of his old embarrassment seemed to come back then, a small hint of the reaction he'd had when he'd come out of the pon farr to find Jack in his arms. Jack knew the Doctor found it hard to admit to love-- how could he find it easy, with all the lovers he'd outlived and mourned?

"Maybe." The Time Lord's mouth fidgeted, the lips opening and closing as if perhaps he wanted to say more. His eyes kept glancing up at Jack, then down again.

"You don't have to say it now," said Jack, pulling him closer, hands on the sides of his face. "It pretty much says itself."

The Doctor's hands wrapped around his wrists; the face turned, the soft and mobile mouth kissed the side of one hand.

Jack's cheeks flushed at the sensation. "The Face of Boe told me that this could last for centuries. What we have, I mean. That-- you might still care about me even if you have to regenerate someday."

The Doctor raised his head. "The Face of Boe? When'd you talk to him?"

"Long story. I'll tell you in a moment. But, was he right? Can you keep loving someone, after you grow a new body and mind?"

"Yes," the Doctor answered, going back to kissing Jack's hand in between words, kissing his fingers and knuckles and wrist. "If I have enough time with someone, before I regenerate-- enough time to form an emotional bond-- well, the stronger that bond is, the more of it carries over into the next regeneration. And I think it's-- gotten pretty damn strong already."

Jack leaned close and let his free hand stroke the Time Lord's chest. "I plan to keep you alive and by my side for a long, long time, before you have to change again."

The Doctor stopped kissing for a second, and pressed his cheek hard against Jack's hand. "Then-- then, yes-- what we have could end up lasting for centuries. Face of Boe knew what he was talking about." He seemed to be looking into the distance.

"The Face of Boe also said-- that he had two secrets, one for me and one for you." Jack tried to meet the Doctor's eyes. "Do you have any idea what the secret for you might be?"

"Yes." The Doctor nodded. "I've already been to the time when he tells me that. It was... 'you are not alone.'" For a second their eyes made full contact. "He was talking about the Master, but I'm beginning to think it had another meaning as well."

Then he smiled, a real smile, the old familiar grin that made him look happy and crazy at once. "Now tell me, where did you meet him, and what happened, and how'd you get here? I love long weird stories."

Jack got up, slowly, disentangling their bodies... and bent down to grab the gun from his belt in the pile of clothes on the floor. As he raised it, the Doctor grimaced and moved back.

"Don't worry," Jack said, "it's not really a gun." And he pointed it at the floor a few feet away.

A flash of light burst from it, leaving a smoking spot. Jack bent down and touched the spot, picking something up from it. The Doctor watched as he brought his hand up to chest height, cradling the object that had appeared.

"Let me see." The Time Lord leaned forward, eyebrows together and eyes shining, his curious look that Jack knew so well. He reached out a hand, and Jack pressed the object into it.

The Doctor turned it over in his hands-- a silver ring, inlaid with green, carved with circular symbols he recognized at once. Jack heard his breath catch in his throat.

"I wanted to kill him," Jack said, sitting down. "I probably should have killed him. But I didn't. I made a fake explosion and hid him in a dimensional pocket, to give to you."

The Time Lord bent his head down and kissed the ring. "Thank you," he said, choking through tears that couldn't quite get to his eyes. "Thank you, Jack. I'll-- I'll keep him safe."

"You won't do anything crazy, right?" Jack said, a hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "You're not going to try and bring him back yourself, are you? Because that would undo everything I just did for you."

The Doctor stared up at him, a bit of reproach in his eyes. "You know I would never do that, unless I was absolutely sure I could do it safely, without getting anyone hurt."

"Which you can't do. And I don't think you ever will be able to. You can't cure his insanity. He's beyond help."

"Probably right," the Doctor said. He held the ring for a few more moments, then slid it onto the ring finger of his left hand, and put his arms around Jack again. "Thanks," he said against the captain's neck. "Thanks. You're brilliant."

Jack didn't say anything, but when their lips met again, he let the Doctor feel him smiling.

*****

END

*****