"Tell me about them," she requested as they walked. "About Jamie and Victoria. In my dreams they're very dear to me."

"They were," he agreed, "very dear to me. Victoria was a beautiful girl - kind, compassionate. She with us purely by chance; her father had been murdered by Daleks, her home destroyed, and she had no living relatives. She came with us because she really had nowhere else to go. You'll never meet a lovelier girl than Victoria... But she was rather a reluctant companion. She was actually quite resourceful for a girl of her era, but her sensibilities were a little bit too prim and proper for our adventurer's lifestyle. Eventually she found a family to settle down with, and she was grateful to take her leave of the TARDIS.

"Jamie, though," the Doctor's voice grew wistful. "Jamie was different, fierce... almost feral. He was from long ago as well, but he loved it all: the traveling, the adventure, even the danger. Kindred spirits, we were. And Jamie stayed with me until the end. You know... He might have been the first human that I ever truly loved."

"A man?" Charley asked, surprised.

"Yes he was a man. Don't be so judgmental. Not all of us are from stuffy, repressed 20th Century Earth, you know. Jamie was as loyal as you are and, hard though it may be to believe, he was even more feisty. It seems I might have a type..." He winked at her, and she swatted his arm.

"Anyway," he went on, "I could have done far worse than love Jamie. But in the end, things didn't manifest between us in quite the way you're imagining. He loved me too, I'm certain. But he was from a far more socially conservative time than you are. If he was aware of his feelings for me, he probably never would have told me so. Still, who knows? Perhaps something might have happened between us one day if..."

"If?"

A dark cloud passed over his eyes.

"If I hadn't still been so young and naive. If he hadn't been taken from me. If they hadn't wiped his memories. If a lot of things had been different."

"Oh my God. How? Who took him from you? Who wiped his memories?" Charley was appalled.

The Doctor looked out into the distance, shaking his head sadly. "You're all so fragile," was all he said.

They walked for a short while in silence, the Doctor lost in memories. Before too long, though, they found themselves in an area with slightly more vegetation and a large creek with cool, clear water.

"It's only about three feet deep now, but from the look of things, this used to be a quite a river," the Doctor mused. "I wonder what happened here to put everything out of..."

"Oh look, Doctor," Charley grabbed his arm to get his attention, "do you see there, in the trees? That looks like fruit."

"Does it? Perfect!" the Doctor exclaimed, all traces of his brooding mood suddenly vanished. His eyes sparkled. "Yes, I see. The purple bits. Terrific! And these plants," he gestured to some squat, yellow stalks with leaves like fans growing close to her feet, "are certainly edible."

He examined one closely, tasted a bit of one.

"Eat the roots, not the leaves. The leaves won't agree with you. You collect some of these, and I'll climb and get a fruit or two. Maybe I'll see if I can catch us a fish... But first, oh, how wonderful, we can finally wash ourselves and our clothes."

"Bathe here? Out in the open?" Charley felt a tad scandalized at the suggestion.

"Yes, of course! Unless you've seen a convenient bathhouse nearby."

"But... Naked?"

The Doctor gave her a look that bordered on exasperated. "Yes, naked. This is no place for your Edwardian sensibilities, Charley. We have no idea when we'll find our next fresh water. And it's hot and arid here, so everything should dry quickly in the sun- no worries about mold. You should clean yourself and wash your clothes, to keep yourself healthy if nothing else."

Charley knew he was right. She couldn't remember her last proper bath, ad the thought of feeling clean did sound unbelievably appealing. But the idea of stripping down, outdoors, in front of him, made her feel girlishly nervous.

The Doctor indicated a branch off a nearby shrub with large, flat leaves. "The surface of these leaves is rough. You can use them to scrub your skin, if you like. Not quite as good as soap, but it should get the job done."

He was serious, she realized. Well then. Charley refused to act like a blushing maiden, despite her nerves. So she took the leaves from him, looked him in the eye, and smiled, trying to seem as casual as possible.

"Thank you, Doctor."

Then she turned her back and walked a few yards away to undress behind a bush. She decided that it didn't make her a blushing maiden to decline to undress completely in his sight line.

Once she was in the water, though, she forgot to feel modest. In fact, for a few moments she forgot about the Doctor entirely, along with anything else in the world other than the feel of clean water washing over her. The creek had been warmed by the two bright suns overhead and felt positively delicious.

She knelt until her whole body was submerged to the shoulders, then tipped her head back and rinsed out her hair, massaging at her scalp with her fingers. Nothing had ever felt so good. Once she had scrubbed every inch of herself with the rough leaves as the Doctor had shown her, she did the same with all of her clothes, washing them as well as she could, then laying them out to dry on the rocky shore.

And then, for a few moments, she allowed herself to simply relax.

She was floating and enjoying the flavor of one of the strange purple fruits which she had plucked from a low branch when she caught sight of the Doctor in the corner of her eye. She hadn't intended to stare at him, but once she had seen him she couldn't make herself look away.

His clothing was laid out to dry on a large, flat rock, and he was standing naked in the water with his back to her, running his fingers through his wet hair. The water came up to the edge of his hip bones, and the current lapped gently at the swell of his buttocks.

The sight of him actually made her mouth water, and she felt herself becoming aroused once again. She stayed there, mesmerized, in water up to her shoulders, until he turned his head towards her and gave her a smug smile.

"Like what you see?" he teased.

Charley didn't reply. She knew that he knew she did. She sank even lower in the water to hide her blush.

What she really wanted was for him to come closer, but if he realized that he wasn't letting on. He merely smiled, winked at her, and resumed cleaning his body.

"You look like a human man..." She said after a few moments, her uncertainty making it sound like a question.

"Have you ever seen a naked man?" He asked softly, his hands slowing in their scrubbing.

"Just statues," she confessed. "Paintings. Mother didn't necessarily approve, but she wanted us to experience art and culture, so there were naturally exceptions."

"You're welcome to come explore, if you like," he encouraged, straightening his shoulders as he stood to his full height, keeping his back to her. "And you don't have to feel shy," he added. "I promise I won't peek."

Charley's heart fluttered as she waded forward towards him. She came to stand just behind him and reverently laid her hands on his shoulders, relishing the feeling of his cooler than human skin and the hard muscles beneath.

"Mmmm," he sighed appreciatively as she squeezed his biceps and ran her fingers down his back. The sound went straight from her ears to her belly. The aching empty feeling deep within her that she had felt earlier that morning came back so quickly it almost took her breath away. Her whole body was tingling.

The Doctor stood perfectly still as she walked around to face him, his face completely serene, except for brows that were knit together over his closed eyes.

She ran her fingers along his face, and her heart leaped at his contented smile.

Her fingers met fresh scar tissue as they explored his chest, and she was horrified to realize that it must have been from the dagger she had plunged so desperately into his chest during the Zagreus debacle. She could also see, if she looked, the ragged line where her brooch had torn his throat as they sought to appease that horrid music creature. She crushed that memory, not wanting to spoil this moment with horror.

These were far from his only scars, though they were the ones she noticed the most. His body was a map of the dangers he'd lived through and the pain he'd experienced.

And these are just on this body, she thought grimly. This man has been through so much.

Putting the dark thoughts out of her mind she ran her hands over his pale chest, raking her nails over his nipples and causing him to gasp.

Interesting... She wouldn't have expected a man to be sensitive there. She wondered where else she could touch him to make him gasp like that. Her curiosity made her braver.

Her mouth actually watered as she allowed her hands to wander even lower, gliding over the muscles of his abdomen, tracing the faint line of dark hair that ran down the center of his belly to disappear into the water.

He drew in an expectant breath, but didn't move a muscle.

But she wanted him to move! He was too still, too quiet. She felt like she was on fire, and this one-sided exploration simply wasn't enough to slake it.

"Please," she asked in a hoarse voice. "Please open your eyes."

He smiled at her and her heart leaped again. "Are you sure?" He murmured.

"Please," she repeated, placing her hands over each of his hearts.

And so he did, looking down into her warm, open face. He reached his hands up and wrapped his fingers around hers, clasped hard against his chest.

He started to speak, stopped, swallowed hard, then began again.

"Charley..."

"Touch me, Doctor. Please."

"Charley," he said in a husky voice. "Are you sure about this?"

"As sure as I've been about anything Doctor. Unless you... Unless you've decided that you don't want to. You mentioned that Time Lords don't."

"Oh I do want to, Charley," he reassured her. "And you know as well as I do that I'm a rubbish Time Lord."

To accentuate his point he took her hand down and grazed it lightly over the evidence of his arousal, just below the surface of the water.

A white hot spark in her belly ignited. The ache between her legs intensified.

"For me?" She whispered. The thought was driving her mad.

"Of course for you," he told her in that rough, low voice, with a flash in his eyes that made her shiver. "So forget the Time Lords. Where are they to see us and disapprove, anyway? A whole universe away."

It was true. Anyone who could ever object to their behavior was forever beyond their reach.

"The Time Lords are about as far away as my mother, I'd wager," Charley replied, punctuating her statement by reaching down and lightly squeezing his shaft, eliciting a ragged breath from deep in the back of his throat.

"Maybe farther."

Far from rules, cut off from the expectations of others... The thought was almost as intoxicating as the sight and feel of the man in front of her.

Here, she thought, we really are free. It's sort of wonderful, in its own way. Huh. She had never thought she would have anything nice to say about the Divergents' universe.

Slowly, holding his gaze, she smiled as she touched him, entranced by the feeling of the soft skin gliding over the hardness underneath. She squeezed a little more confidently and her reward was an urgent moan. She had never heard anything so sexy.

"Am I doing it right, Doctor?" She asked, licking her lips, never taking her eyes from his.

"Charley..." This time when he said her name it was a tortured groan. Charley took it as encouragement.

"Touch me, Doctor," she murmured.

He swallowed hard.

"You don't have any idea what you're doing to me Charley." He whispered. "You make me feel like a rutting animal."

"Touch me, Doctor," she whispered again, right in his ear. "Please,"

He complied at last, moaning as she worked his shaft with her untutored hand, turning his face to capture hers in a rough, almost violent kiss.

His fingers tangled in her hair as they wrestled each other for dominance over the kiss. She eventually yielded, and the hand that wasn't in her hair pulled her lower body close against his. She snaked her arms around his neck and pressed her aching, naked breasts against his chest.

"Touch me, Doctor," she begged again. "More. Please."

Slowly moving towards the land, they made their way out of the creek and he laid her down on his coat, kissing her deeply before pushing gently on her knees, silently asking her to spread them. She complied, feeling wanton and reckless, and he laid down between them, biting along her neckline and jaw before moving his attention to her breasts, whose nipples were almost painfully hard and tight from arousal. Charley reveled in the feel of his naked body pressed against hers. She'd never imagined how good the simple sensation of skin against skin could feel. Her attention was torn between that feeling and his mouth and hands wandering over her breasts, biting, nipping, and sucking until she was whimpering and quivering with desire.

It wasn't enough.

"More," she begged. "More."

He smiled wickedly at her pleas, sliding up her body again and catching her bottom lip between his teeth in a rough, demanding kiss.

His hand traced the curve of her body down to her hip, and Charley was suddenly aware of how wet she was, craving contact in her most intimate places.

"Yes," she whispered. "Oh yes, Doctor." Of their own volition her hips rolled towards his, desperate for his touch.

"Not that, Charley," the Doctor chastised. "Not yet. You've never done this before, and we are going to take our time."

She made a desperate noise, and he quieted her with a kiss.

"Shhh, darling girl. Don't worry. I promise I will take care of you."

The Doctor moved from between her legs to lie on his side next to her, tilting her chin up to face him, and he held her gaze as, at long last, he plunged two long, clever fingers inside of her dripping core.

She cried out with the intensity of the sensation.

"Oh, Charley," his murmured low, near her ear, "you don't know how beautiful you are. How good you smell... How amazing you taste."

Taste? She wondered.

Then, to her shock, he drew those two fingers into his mouth with a gesture that could only be considered filthy. The sight made her so aroused she could barely think. Every part of her, every cell in her body, wanted him with her, inside of her. Now.

"My Charley," he sighed, closing his eyes and sighing as if enjoying a particularly fine vintage of wine.

"More," she begged. "Doctor, please!"

"Greedy girl," he chastised her, almost growling the words into her ear, but he plunged his fingers inside her again, pressing the heel of his hand against the sensitive bud at the apex of her sex.

She gasped in pleasure and ground her hips up into his hand, raking her nails up his bare leg until she found his cock, achingly hard, with a bead of moisture welling from the tip, and began to stroke him again.

Charley felt the tension in her body building, building with every stroke of his fingers. She felt like she would break soon from the pressure, but at the same time she wanted more, more.

"Does that feel good, Charley?" the Doctor whispered, his lips brushing against hers as he spoke.

She tried to reply but her voice merely came out as a breathy keening sound. The pressure within her kept building.

"My beautiful Charley," he murmured, his voice catching as she tightened her grip on his cock. "The things I want to do to you, in my daydreams... You make me into a savage. A beast. I forget myself when I'm with you. Forget logic and sense. Right now, you're consuming me. The universe could burn, and I wouldn't give a damn as long as I have your hot, slick human body writhing under me, begging me for release."

"Doctor..." She whimpered, his words triggering something base and primal inside of her. She thought she would go mad.

"Is that what you want, Charley?" He growled. "Release?"

Charley didn't know. She moaned incoherently as the pressure within her threatened to make her crack.

Her trembling hand went slack on his cock, so he wrapped his free hand around it, keeping the motion steady, working her hand on him at the same pace as his two fingers inside of her.

"Come for me, Charley," he whispered desperately. "Let go, beautiful girl. Let it overwhelm you. I'm here. Come for me now, with my fingers buried inside you. I want to hear you. I want to see your face when you come for me."

The fingers around her hand gripped tighter, and she knew instinctively that whatever release he meant for her to have was not far away for him either.

The thought made her burn even hotter, and he drove his fingers deep inside of her again. She rocked her hips again into the heel of his hand.

"Come for me Charley," he gasped. "Now."

And she did.

The wave of sensation overwhelmed her in pulsing tremors, wracking her whole body as she cried out incoherently. She felt like her whole body was electrified, like her skin couldn't possibly contain her. Pulses of sensation radiated out from her core, washing over her all the way to the tips of her tingling fingers and toes. And then, like a wave cresting against the beach, the tension broke, ebbing gently and leaving her floating in a warm, blissful haze of contentment.

The Doctor's eyes were black with lust as he watched her come down from her peak, his lips slightly parted and his breath ragged. He still held her hand around his cock, swollen and harder than she would have thought possible, and he stroked it, using both of their hands, with slightly frantic motions.

"You are so beautiful," he whispered.

Charley rolled over onto her side to face him, relishing the blissful languor that washed over her.

"Doctor," she purred, leaning over to graze his ear with her teeth, "I think it's your turn."

She squeezed his cock in her hand, twisting her wrist lazily and murmuring low in his ear, "Let go, Doctor. Let go."

And suddenly his entire body went rigid and he took in a sharp, hissing breath. His head fell back, eyes closed tight. His hand on hers tightened painfully, and without another sound he came hard, shooting white ropes of semen over her belly and breasts as his taut body quivered.

Charley was transfixed. She watched him gasp several ragged breaths as he slowly regained awareness.

"Are you okay, Doctor?" She asked him.

"I..." He stammered, rolling onto his back to stare up at the sky, "Yes, I am, Charley. I'm- you are a very, very quick learner, Miss Pollard."

She smiled broadly and moved to lie with her head on his chest, listening to the rhythmic beat of his hearts. She knew she should wash away the evidence of his release, but moving seemed nearly impossible.

Besides, a filthy, naughty voice in her head confessed. You love being covered in it.

The voice was right.

"Thank you, Doctor," she murmured, enjoying the feeling of him against her body, tranquil in the aftermath of their exertions. "That was incredible."

"Yes, it was, wasn't it?" He said lightly, sounding rather pleased with himself.

"Oy! No need for an ego." She pinched him, and he swatted her hand.

"No ego? And here I thought it was the Doctor you were so fond of."

"Oh. Quite right. Carry on." She laughed.

He hugged her tight.

Charley gazed up at the sky, wishing that they could hop in the TARDIS and fly away. "So, Doctor," she asked him, refusing to go down that path of thought. Where to next?"

"Well at this precise moment I find myself rather disinclined to move. But when that becomes less problematic and we've eaten our fill, why don't we check out those domes, off that way in the distance? It's the only sign of civilization I can see, so we might as well introduce ourselves. Someone there might have seen the TARDIS."

"Sounds perfect," Charley agreed. "But for now, I'd like to spend just a few more minutes right here. Just like this."

And so they did.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I hope you've enjoyed yourselves... I know I enjoyed writing it. ;-)

Charley is a compelling character for me to write in a story of this nature, and also a challenging one. It's both fun and complicated to try and illustrate her strength and passion while also taking into account that her upbringing as a child in the 1920's in a wealthy family would have almost certainly left her conspicuously uneducated in matters of sexuality (certainly men's, but also probably her own). It's so different than writing about modern girls like Martha and Rose, or even older Classic Who ladies like Barbara Wright. It's so interesting to explore how different they all are...

If you have a moment to leave a comment or a review, as always, I'd love to hear from you. And thanks again for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

xoxo

- OA