Authors Note: This story takes place the morning after Kate and Jenny met.
The Sun Rising
Kate woke feeling happier than she had in a long time. She and the strange blonde Time Lord were tangled messily in the sheets of her bed. She wasn't quite sure when they had made it from the floor to the bed, but it was definitely an improvement.
As she watched the sleeping young woman, she couldn't decide whether to be more surprised that the she had just had sex with a complete stranger, or that she was also fairly certain she was madly in love with her. God, she was beautiful, angelic face, long dark lashes, smooth golden hair framing her head like a halo.
Their minds were still touching, although the link was not as strong now. Kate could sense the blonde's deepened sleep breathing, the peaceful vortex of her dreams, the warmth of the blankets against bare skin, the steady beating of her two hearts so like Kate's own.
The link had overwhelmed them both the night before, a sudden merging of thoughts in the midst of intimacy. No wonder Time Lords had been so awkward about sex, since it meant seeing into a partner's thoughts and memories. It could never be the casual things for that ancient race that it often was for humans. They had both been so startled by the link it had sent them scrambling apart at the sudden shock of it, and then curling back together in acknowledgement of the new intimacy they had discovered.
Kate had seen everything of the girl's life. Jenny--her name was Jenny. As if from nowhere the two syllables drifted to the front of Kate's mind. She had seen back over the brief two years of her existence. How she had sprung into the world fully formed, made from her father's genetic code. A warrior child, like the goddess Athena.
She saw Jenny's first death in her father's arms, her rebirth alone after her body had been laid out for burial, her sorrow at discovering her father had left her, her departure from the planet where she was born, her wanderings, all the running she had done. Jenny was full of light and hope and laughter. Everything was new and wonderful to her. When she found beautiful things she rejoiced, when she found broken things she fixed them, and when she found things beyond her power to fix she ran.
Kate knew that Jenny must have seen all of her life as well, and yet that hadn't frightened the blonde. Hard to believe that Jenny had not been shocked or frightened by all the things Kate had experienced since she left earth. She had felt all of Kate's fear and pain, and yet still slept beside her contentedly. From the link, Kate could tell that to Jenny she was neither a thing to be fixed or fled from, but rejoiced in. To Jenny she was beautiful, just as Jenny was beautiful to her.
If she were the romantic sort, she would have waxed on about soul mates or some such nonsense. But the necessity of survival had long since made her a more practical person. No, this was biology plain and simple, biology superseding their emotions and logical minds.
Because of her Time Lord heritage, Kate had gone into heat like she did every year, except this time Jenny had picked up on the signal and found her, traveled halfway across the galaxy to come knock on the door of her TARDIS. They had been irresistible to each other when they met not because of fate, but because of hormones. Jenny felt absolutely perfect and right to her because she was the first member of her father's species she had met in her adult life, and she felt right to Jenny because she was the only non-related Time Lord she had ever met. How long had they both been seeking a double heartbeat without realizing it?
None of which changed the fact she wanted to curl up with the woman beside her and promise to never leave her until the end of time. Which seemed an awful lot like love.
"Will you stop over-analyzing things? You're making my head hurt." Jenny blinked at her sleepily as she yawned and stretched.
Kate had not realized her thoughts had gotten loud enough to spill over into Jenny's mind, stirring her from her slumber. "Sorry."
Jenny rolled over and nuzzled her neck reassuringly. "Don't try to come up with a definition for us. Labels, words, titles, it's all overrated. I feel good to you, you feel good to me, and we feel good together. Let's just live and enjoy."
Kate reached out to tangle her hands in the silky golden hair. "For someone who's never been to earth, or read Horace, you understand "Carpe Diem" very well."
"Does that have something to do with carp?"
"No love, it means seize the day," and they did.
Authors Note: "The Sun Rising" is the title of a poem by John Donne