A/N: "Touch is the most fundamental sense. A baby experiences it, all over, before he is born and long before he learns to use sight, hearing, or taste, and no human ever ceases to need it." ~Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough for Love
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"What," said the Doctor. It wasn't really a question. "Say that again, River, you think we should what?"
River repeated herself, patiently, "I think we should invite Jack to bed."
"But..." the Doctor spluttered, and then paused. "Er... why?" River smiled at him and suddenly it seemed like a much better idea than it had two minutes ago. River was... not your typical human, and Jack certainly wasn't, not even for the fifty-first century. As for the Doctor himself, he wasn't even human, although the parts matched up nicely. The thought of Jack in bed with him and River was... intriguing. But he still wanted to know River's reasoning.
"I think he needs to be touched," River said simply. "It doesn't have to be sexual touching, but he needs contact, and I think sex is his favorite method of getting that. Stop that," she said with fond exasperation as he leered at her to show it was one of his favorites too, "You know what I mean."
"I... think I do," he said, slowly. "I've experienced sex with males before of course, even human males, but the three of us... it never occurred to me that you'd be interested. Jack would, of course, he doesn't even require bipedal locomotion is his bed partners, much less restriction of mere numbers..." He smiled at her, and looked around at the bare gray walls of her cell in Stormcage. "Er... not here, I trust?"
"My bed in Stormcage is a trifle small for just the two of us," she said, laughing at him, "much less adding in a third person the size of Captain Jack Harkness."
He gave her that sideways look from under his eyebrows - the hot-when-he's-clever look - and said in a low voice, "And how do you know Jack's size, hmm?" He ran his hands up her arms and into her hair, pulling her toward him and nuzzling at her lips. She smiled under his mouth.
"My love, I think the guards are on their way," she murmured against his lips, "perhaps a retreat into the TARDIS is in order?"
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"What," said Captain Jack Harkness. It wasn't really a question. "Say that again, Doctor, you think we should what?" Not that he wasn't interested, he was, he always had been, and both of them, oh yeah, but... what?
"It was River's idea, actually," said the Doctor, "but I'm certainly amenable to the concept." He didn't quite understand Jack's... well, it wasn't anything so active as resistance, more like intransigence, maybe, or perhaps simple incredulity. Yes, he nodded to himself, Jack simply could not believe they wanted to share this with him. "But yes, we'd like to take you to bed. I know you're interested, you're not shy about it - or about anything sexual, really - so what's the problem?"
Jack grinned. The Doctor was so damn earnest about it. Why had they not tapped River for this invitation? He was fairly certain she wouldn't be half as endearingly awkward about the topic of sex in general, but then neither of them really understood how long he'd wanted the Doctor, and they couldn't know how much of a turn-on he found this conversation. And he did. His grin faded. Oh god, he did, and the idea of them both at the same time... but he had to be certain they really wanted this, both of them, or it wouldn't be fair to them. He took a deep breath to calm himself and ran his hand up the Doctor's arm to the back of his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. The Doctor noted that it was rather wetter and longer than the kisses Jack usually bestowed upon him. "Are you absolutely sure about this," Jack asked, his eyes dark, "both of you?"
"Yes," breathed River's voice by his left ear, and he jumped, then turned to look at her.
"You're wearing heels," he accused her.
She arched an eyebrow. "I often do," she said, "I've been assured that they do good things for my legs. And my arse." Jack took a quick look. They did. "So?"
"So how did you sneak up on me like that?"
She shrugged and gave him a little smirk, "You were busy snogging my husband."
"Yeah," Jack said, more forcefully than he intended, "I was. And that's the problem, maybe." he said this under his breath, then went on, "River, we can't do this. I don't want to..." he trailed off, wondering how to explain that he didn't want to do anything she wasn't willing - even eager - to do. She looked at him for a long moment, and reached around him and snagged the Doctor's arm, dragging him around Jack so the three of them were facing each other at very close quarters. She kissed Jack softly on the lips, her own trembling just a little, and oh god she was sweet, Jack thought, but what if she couldn't handle... he held himself very still, stoically not returning the kiss.
She gave him another long look, gave her husband a little push toward him, then turned and walked out of the console room. Jack watched her go, confused but also admiring the view. Those heels certainly did do good things, but they didn't really need much help... the legs and the arse were just fine on their own. The Doctor made as if to go after her but Jack grabbed his elbow and he stopped. "I was afraid of that," he murmured quietly into the Doctor's ear, "She's not as ready as she says she is. I can't take advantage of her - or you - like that."
The Doctor gave him a look of utter disgust. "Jack, you're not usually stupid about things like this," he hissed, "but when you are, you're so... so... argh!" The last bit was a fairly inarticulate snarl as the Doctor wrenched his elbow free and rounded on his friend. "You've hurt her, you idiot, she doesn't offer just anybody her body, or show just anybody her vulnerable side, I can count the number of people who've seen her vulnerable on one hand, and two of them are her parents and one's a blue police box, but she showed it to you and you rejected her. I know you didn't mean it as rejection, but bloody hell, Jack, she doesn't!" His voice rose and he stalked forward as he berated Jack, backing the heavier man into the console railing.
"But-" Jack started.
"-Shut up, Jack! I'm not done shouting!" The Doctor interrupted. Jack subsided. He had thought that River... after all that tension with Gwen and Rhys, he had thought... oh to hell with it, he had been stupid, may as well let the Doctor shout until he was done, and then go find River and explain. So he stood there, only half-listening to the Doctor's ranting - after all, he agreed with some of it, but it was a misunderstanding, they'd work it out - but then he saw something on the console monitor that made tears well up in his eyes. He sighed and the Doctor paused for a moment, took a breath, and said more quietly. "Yes, well... you were stupid, but I suppose you can't help it, 51st century humans, all those pheromones... what?"
"Look, Doctor, can we save the lecture for another time, just take it as given that I'm stupid, and go apologize to her, try to explain..." he nodded at the monitor and the Doctor turned to look at it, stared for a moment, and took off running, Jack close behind him.
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River sighed in frustration and rubbed her foot where the new heels had left a blister. Men! she thought, all talk and no action. Jack Harkness was a flirt who made her look like an amateur by comparison, but actually offer and oh no... sorry, honey, you're cute and all, but Big Man on Campus can't really be bothered. As though she were some sort of groupie ready to pray at the altar of Jack Harkness. Please. She removed the other shoe and flopped gracelessly on her back on the bed, closing her eyes and breathing deeply in the hope that she could just calm down. She didn't really want to hurt Jack, let alone her husband, after all. Well, she did, but nothing permanent.
So when they burst into the room, the Doctor with Jack at his heels, they startled her and she was annoyed as well as frustrated. "What do you two want?" she barked at them both, sitting up abruptly, "Do you need to use the bed? I can always leave!"
They stopped dead in their tracks at her tone, and the Doctor started babbling as usual, "No, River, no, no no, Jack's just stupid, he thought, oh I don't know what he thought, he's stupid, and he hurt you and I-" he broke off as Jack covered his mouth his one hand.
"Shut up, Doctor, it's my turn." He turned to River. "I apologize. He's right, I was stupid. I know you were brought up in the 20th and 21st centuries and in my experience human women of that time are not... as open-minded as they think they are when it comes to sex," Now it was his turn to babble, which was unlike him, River thought, but she guessed he really did feel badly. "After the thing with Gwen and Rhys, and you trembled when you kissed me and I thought it meant you were afraid, I..."
"Shut up, Jack," River said, smiling at him. "Apology accepted." She patted the bed on both sides of her invitingly. "Come sit down, gentlemen, and let's work this out." Her smile turned slightly wicked as they sat on either side of her. "You," she said to Jack, "assumed that because of the century I grew up in I don't know my own mind. I've news for you; I spent my adolescence in that then, but that me - Mels - was a bad girl. And I spent my young adulthood in the 51st century at Luna University. I know what I'm doing." She kissed him, and this time he responded with enthusiasm until she broke away, breathless and laughing. "That's more like it. And you," she said, turning to her husband, "You underestimated me - again - you assumed that I'm fragile and you need to save me from the heartlessness of Big Mean Jack. You're wrong, but I love you for it." She kissed him, and then continued, "And at last we come to me. I assumed that Jack's reluctance to hurt me was personal rejection. Oh, and I'm wearing far too many clothes. Would someone like to help me with that?" And she laughed as she lay back on the bed again, arms over her head.
The men looked at each other for a moment. "Age before beauty," Jack said gallantly, and River grinned at him.
"My love," she said to the Doctor, "I do believe he's teasing us... he knows he's both the oldest and the prettiest thing in this bed."
"Age is not only measured in years," the Doctor said seriously, "and while he may be pretty," he leered at Jack, who winked at him, "He's not nearly as beautiful as you, my wife."
"Oh, shut up, Sweetie," River said as she grabbed him by the lapels of his tweed coat and pulled him down to her, kissing him hard on the lips. After his first muffled exclamation he relaxed into the kiss, hands skimming up her sides, thumbs brushing her nipples through the singlet she wore. She arched into the touch, and felt another pair of hands, warmer and larger than the Doctor's, slipping her shorts and knickers down her legs. She shivered as a pair of full lips blew cool air on the sole of her foot, soothing the blister there, and then worked their way slowly around to her instep. She sighed into the Doctor's mouth and slid the jacket off his shoulders as Jack's lips moved to her other foot. Her fingers wandered back to the Doctor's bow tie and slipped the knot loose, then she wrenched her mouth from his and used her teeth to pull the tie off, sending it slithering to the floor. He gasped as her teeth grazed his neck and Jack looked up from where he was tormenting the backs of River's knees.
"Want some help with that?" he asked softly, and at her eager nod, slid with agonizing deliberation up her body, just barely brushing across the sensitive skin between her thighs, dipping his tongue into her navel, pushing her singlet up and nibbling on the tip of one breast. Her hands dropped nervelessly from the Doctor's shirt buttons and he whimpered in protest. Jack undid the Doctor's buttons, and took River's hand to guide it back to the Doctor's chest, where she could feel his hearts beating madly. The Doctor moaned when her fingertips flicked over his nipple and Jack ground out, "My god, do you two even know how hot you are together?"
"Actually," the Doctor gasped, "we both run cooler than the average hu-"
"Shut up, Sweetie," whispered River, and she opened her eyes long enough to flash that sultry, sexy smile at Jack, and her other hand crept around his neck, drawing him in for a kiss.
It was Jack's turn to moan as River and the Doctor turned their attention to him. He wondered how he could ever have mistaken River for a typical twenty-first century woman, because she was so not. She kissed and sucked and licked at his lips and tongue as her husband began to work on Jack's buttons, letting loose a string of what could only be frustrated Gallifreyan curses when one of them got stuck. Jack cursed too, in Welsh, and just ripped the shirt off, scattering buttons everywhere. "Patience, gentlemen," River murmured, releasing Jack's mouth from her own, "We've got all the time in the universe." She nibbled along his jaw to his ear and bit it gently, as her hands slid down first his body and then her husband's, freeing them from their trousers.
"Be right back," Jack murmured, standing and stripping the loosened trousers down his legs, then reaching over and doing the same for the Doctor. "I'm assuming we're all safe," he muttered, climbing back onto the bed.
"Oh yes," replied the Doctor earnestly, "I scanned you when you came aboard and of course River and I are fine, and since I'm Time Lord and you're human and she's both, there's no possibility of preg... what?"
River and Jack looked at each other and replied in unison. "Shut up!" and when his expression grew very faintly hurt, River continued more softly, "Lie back, Sweetie, and let us take care of you for awhile." She kissed him, gently shoving him so he ended up on his back across the bed, his lanky legs hanging off the edge at the knees. She nuzzled at one ear while Jack took the other, and slowly dragged her lips and tongue and teeth to the Doctor's mouth, nipping at his lips, and then nibbled her way down his throat to one nipple. Jack mirrored her actions but as she moved back up to the Doctor's lips, Jack moved down. He nibbled and sucked and linked and kissed his way down the Doctor's lean body, and the Doctor whimpered into River's mouth as Jack took him between his lips and sucked hard.
And then Jack did... something... with his tongue and the Doctor groaned, "Fuck, Jack," and River moaned into her husband's mouth at the words and Jack froze and then let go. The Doctor never cursed like that, at least not in any language the TARDIS would translate, and oh god, thought Jack, did I hurt him? The Doctor was writhing under him, and his hips were jerking uncontrollably, and although everyone Jack had ever tried that trick on had enjoyed it, the reactions had never been that... violent. River and her husband were still kissing, almost desperately, and if it had hurt, they weren't fazed by it. But Jack had to know.
"Please tell me I didn't hurt you," he said, his voice catching, which wasn't like him at all, and he tried again. "Doctor, did I hurt you?" His voice was still unsure. River pulled her swollen lips away from her husband's mouth, and nudged him. He looked at Jack, who tried one more time... he had to know. "Did I hurt you?" The Doctor propped himself up on his elbows, panting.
"Jack..." he began, and Jack was sure he'd screwed up completely, "Jack... shut up and do that again. Please..."
"Better yet," purred River, "show me how." She crawled down her husband's body, intending to pick up this intriguing technique, but she didn't get that far, because both men pounced. The Doctor grabbed her ankles and flipped her over onto her back, eliciting a little shriek, and Jack started to assault her oversensitive skin with his lips. The shriek settled into a long, low moan as they loved her, hands and mouths stroking and caressing everywhere... and finally she came apart under their touch, crying out and shuddering until she was spent.
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When River came back to herself, she was lying flat on her back on the bed, completely nude, with her husband and their lover on either side of her. They were on their sides, facing each other over the top of her head, kissing one another, and she took each of them in one of her hands and started to stroke them gently. "Hello, Sweetie," she murmured to the Doctor, kissing him as the men broke apart, and, "Hello, Jack." she whispered, kissing him too. She turned back to her husband. "I think it's Jack's turn now, my love." She smiled at him as her hands stilled on their bodies, and they shared a long look. The Doctor nodded and helped her roll over Jack, putting the other man between them. Jack grabbed at her but she evaded him. "No, Jack, now it's time for us to take care of you," she said seriously. "You spend a lot of time taking care of others, and now it's your turn. No touching us until we say so. Agreed?" He nodded, breathlessly, never taking his blue eyes off her green, and she kissed him, careful not to touch any part of him but his lips.
"Shall we restrain you from touching us?" the Doctor breathed.
River's warm breath caressed his other ear as she kissed it.
"We've got handcuffs... and bow ties. Bow ties are cool."
""We're going to touch you all over," promised River.
Jack shuddered. This was so amazingly erotic and so far they'd only used their voices, no touching, very little kissing, and he was so turned on he could barely stand it. "I... think I can manage." His voice was hoarse with need and he clutched at the bedsheets in a huge effort not to touch.
"It's not the sex, Jack, is it?"
"It's the touching, and the being touched, by people you can trust, people who care."
The Doctor nodded, his hair brushing Jack's face. "Physical contact."
"Like this," River murmured, and touched him.
It was a light touch, feather light, and just barely brushing across Jack's abdomen, and yet he writhed at the sensation. "Please..." His hands were still clenched tight in the bedsheets and River's curls brushed his wrist and then his chest as she shifted to plant light little kisses along the line she'd just touched with her finger. He couldn't help himself, and he lifted a hand, burying it in River's hair. She calmly sat up, disentangling his fingers from her curls, and moving them firmly back to the surface of the bed.
"Well?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him, "That didn't last very long, did it? Do you want the restraints now?" He nodded. "Handcuffs?"
"-or bow ties," interrupted the Doctor.
"Um," said Jack, a little surprised at their forthrightness in spite of their actions over the past few hours, "both?" The Doctor smiled at him and leaned across him to kiss River, brushing his chest across Jack's and causing Jack to gasp. River broke the kiss and patted Jack's chest, then rummaged in a drawer next to the bed.
"Handcuffs," she said, holding them up as her husband leaned over the other side of the bed where his bow tie had fallen. She fastened one bracelet over Jack's wrist and looked carefully into his face. "You sure about this?" He smiled at her and nodded, heart pounding, and she fastened the other bracelet onto the headboard. The Doctor found the length of silk bow tie and dragged it lightly from Jack's navel up to his other wrist, eliciting a moan from the other man. River kissed Jack firmly, sucking lightly on his lips, and he moaned again. "Now?" she murmured into his mouth, and he nodded. And then it was Jack's turn to be loved, and it was all hands and lips and bodies and little moans and erotic whispers, and at the end he cried out both their names on a grateful sob.
The Doctor untied the bow tie and hunted for his screwdriver to sonic the handcuffs open, and Jack caught River's hand and tugged her up to his face. "Thank you," he murmured into her ear. "I've wanted... this... for centuries, River, and your... generous spirit made it possible. Thank you." He was surprised to see tears in her eyes even as she smiled at him and he quietly asked, "OK?" She nodded, and kissed him. It was a sweet kiss, caring as well as sexy, and her wild curls were tickling his face and his throat and he felt himself stirring again as the Doctor released the handcuffs and popped his head in under River's hair.
"Oooh," he said, and he's back in manic-Doctor mode, Jack noted with amusement, "Do I get some of this? Who's on first? This one?" He kissed River, and she moaned, the sweet mood broken but the sexy still there full force. "Or this?" and the kiss he laid on Jack was pure sex, no romance whatsoever and oh god it was hot. Jack followed his lips and sat up.
River recovered herself and smacked at her husband's arse playfully. "Shut up," she laughed, "because now it's your turn."
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"Brilliant! My turn, that's brilliant," said the Doctor gleefully, "would you like me to lie down here, or shall I... what?" Jack and River were both looking at him with identical expressions. I know that expression, thought the Doctor, that's the exasperated-affection one. I wonder why... oh! "Right then," he said cheerfully, and shoved them both over on the bed, landing on top of them in a tangle of gangly limbs and unruly hair. And then they flipped him over on his back and River was straddling him and taking him in, and Jack's hands and lips were everywhere at once and he wondered fleetingly whether Jack had a personal temporal re-locator, and then his brain said shut up and he gave into the sensations of them loving him.
Eventually the three of them lay quietly caressing one another on the bed, limbs entwined, sated and fulfilled. The stroking of skin was calm now, intimate and friendly rather than sexy, a mixture of hushed exploration and contented affection, and Jack felt tears prickle his eyes. What he had told River had been absolutely true; he'd wanted this for centuries on his personal timeline, wished and hoped for it, but never actually expected it, and the acceptance and affection and their knowledge of what he really needed... he felt overwhelmed. And yet happy and strong and able to go on, even without Ianto or Alonso... just knowing he had... this.
"I have to go home, you know," Jack said later as they sat in the kitchen on the TARDIS. "They need me." His tone was a little sad, River thought, but his eyes were happier now. He'd even - she shuddered a bit - tried the fish fingers and custard and pronounced them acceptable, which made the Doctor beam at him with affection. The Doctor rose to his feet and kissed Jack firmly on the lips.
"They do," he said. "But you're welcome back... if you think you can handle us."
Jack scoffed, "You mean if you can handle me."
River gave them both a brilliant smile. "I think we've all proved what we can handle, so gentlemen?" She paused and they looked at her inquiringly. "Just shut up."