Author's Notes: For Kerry! Without her constant poking, I would have never come this far. Big love to you, my friend! And thanks for all the reviews, from everyone! It really keeps me writing!

Warnings: Some fluff. Suggestive themes.

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'Chapter Fourteen'

For three weeks, we simply drifted in space.

There was no rush, no sense of urgency or terror or something to chase us and keep us perpetually on our toes; only the quiet whir of the engines and the occasional outburst from Jack when he felt things were too quiet. It was relaxing, and gentle and rather peaceful. I hadn't experienced a peace like this in a very long time, and I was thankful to feel it with the Doctor, and the young Kaji.

My fellow Timelord was as he usually was; full of quick wit and drawling remarks and a smile plastered across his face. It was only when no one was looking did he frown and I would watch sorrow spill into his eyes like ink tainting pure water. We had had time alone in the last few weeks, enough that I felt more comfortable around my oldest friend, though usually I would have to cut things short. I felt a fire burning in the pit of my stomach for this man and I hadn't any idea what to do with it. It left us both confused.

Kaji was a joy, to put it very simply. Her humor was closer to my own, blacker and darker than the lightheartedness of the good Doctor. He scoffed at our remarks sometimes, rolling his eyes and finding another place in the TARDIS to sit, far away from us. She proved to have a strong mind, and I was ashamed to say that she beat me in chess more often than not. I blamed her Sight, and she blamed my lack of brain cells, which was closer to the truth than I liked.

I even learned to get along with Jack, and he learned to appreciate my scathing remarks and my ability to make the Doctor blush. The human was smart and handsome for an inferior being and I found myself growing rather fond of his dimpled chin and wide smiles. He reminded me of the Doctor, in a way; stubborn and moody at times. He also possessed a vortex manipulator, which I thought would come in handy someday.

In our time drifting, I never heard a whispered voice or saw a bloody image of the Doctor. I barely heard the drums thrumming away in my head, though there were times when I was alone, and the silence was thick that the sounds would begin to intensify. As I lay in my room, the sounds began to bounce from the inside of my skull, ricocheting off the walls of bone and it made me bolt upright, holding my breath.

I wasn't sure of the time, though that didn't really matter aboard the TARDIS. I knew it was the sleep cycle, a time when even the ship slowed down and got some rest as we spiraled through a multicolored galaxy.

Panic ate at the air in my lungs, and I found myself tossing back thicker blankets as sweat beaded across my bare chest. I found myself on my feet and scrambling for something to cover myself with as the drums beat hard enough to make my teeth ache. Distantly, I heard a voice; that eerie, unsettling and menacing voice and I felt my hearts stop. I knew it was tricks being played, I knew it was my mind acting on it's own but still it terrified me.

This had happened once, or twice before and like the last two times, I found myself panting as I stood in front of the Doctor's doors, and not remembering how I got there. I pressed my hands against the wood, and laid my cheek against the rough grain as I thumped the door. My eyes shut tight as I thought how stupid and pathetic I felt, running to the man who I had sworn as my enemy so long ago.

I waited for what seemed like an eternity, and my patience was rewarded as the doors opened enough for me to slip through the crack, and stumble right into the Doctor's arms.

"Well, hello there." He drawled as he helped me right myself, though his hands remained on my shoulder and waist, respectively. It was then that I noticed I had only grabbed for a robe, leaving my upper body bare down the middle.

My near nakedness was forgotten as I stared into his face from so close. I felt the drums receding, and I felt a calmness and peace fall over me that I had grown attached to in my time on the TARDIS.

With a contented sigh, I felt myself straighten and my eyes slipped closed for a moment to savor the feeling, "Hello, yourself." I nearly purred as I took a small step back to fold my robe over my chest, and forced the Doctor to break contact.

The Doctor stared at me for a moment before he crossed his arms over his chest. His glasses were perched on his nose, and the rumpled state of his suit told me that he had probably fallen asleep while he was reading.

"Another attack?"

He didn't need to be told. I saw his eyes flick over my form and I watched the answer come the moment I saw him through the crack in the door. I didn't let the utter relief show on my face, though I knew the Doctor could see that the tension had lessened the moment we touched.

"Something like that." I slipped around him, and the door clicked shut behind us without the aide of the Doctor's hands. I made myself at home in his chambers, like some sort of invasive species. I noticed that the sheets were pulled to on his bed, though they looked rumpled, as if he had only sat on it, maybe napped, but he never really slept.

"Do you ever sleep?" I mused aloud as I ran my hands along the smooth, dark wood of the four poster, not bothering to look over my shoulder at the sullen look the Doctor no doubt had on his face.

"I was napping, actually, when you came knocking."

I snorted at this as I leapt gracelessly onto his bed, making it a point to muss his sheets and rumple his bedclothes as I sprawled out on my back diagonally. "That's not really sleeping. Sleeping usually requires the proper attire." I turned my eyes to his disheveled suit, "I can't imagine a suit would be comfortable to sleep in."

The Doctor groused under his breath as he pulled his glasses from his face and placed them in a convenient spot for later. I watched in amazement as he slid his blazer off, and slender fingers began plucking the buttons of his shirt, and his eyes remained locked with mine. When the first hint of bare flesh was exposed, I felt my face go hot and I turned to grab for a pillow to hide the flush that washed across my cheeks.

After a moment, I heard a rustling of cloth and a tug at the sheets that were trapped beneath me. When I pulled my face from the pillow, my hearts nearly seized as the Doctor stood beside his bed in nothing but long pajama bottoms.

"Budge over."

I swallowed past my tongue as I shifted my position so that I only took up one side of the rather large bed. As f it was the most normal thing in the world, the Doctor pulled his sheets back and slipped underneath. It was strange to watch him cuddle under his blankets while he faced me. I could do nothing but stare as he bunched up his pillow under his cheek and stared at me from a few feet away.

I had no words, though I managed a squeak that might be called a phrase, though I had no idea what words I was trying to say. He lay on his side, looking glorious in cerulean colored sheets and all I could do was splutter like some school girl. I hated that he had this effect on me.

The Doctor, however, thought this to be rather funny. I saw the twinkle in his eye as he fought not to laugh, though that didn't stop the comments.

"You look a little red there, Master. Are you feeling alright?" His hand uncoiled from the pillow to reach out and touch my face. His fingers trailed gently over the skin of my cheek, and I held my breath as the calloused pads brushed the corner of my mouth.

"You might be fevering." With each touch against my skin, the blush grew hotter, and hotter until it felt as if my head would explode. My breath was caught in my throat, and I coughed to clear it as I tugged my face just out of reach.

"I'm not fevering, you buffon." I curled up on my side to look at him, and I noticed his eyes traveling down the center of my chest. I tried to ignore the joy that spread through me as he took notice of my body.

Why did I care? There were a thousand different answers to that question, though I ignored most of them as I fought to maintain some sort of grace, even as he snickered at me.

"I think someone needs a doctor."

"Oh, ha ha." I rolled my eyes. "You think you're so clever…"

"I've been told I'm rather clever, actually, by many people. Humans, mostly, since other species seem to have far more pride."

"And you're one to talk about pride!"

"Pot and the kettle, Master. Should we talk about your pride?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but snapped it shut after a moment. "No. Let's move on to lighter things." I reached for a pillow to stuff under my head, mimicking the Doctor's pose, "You're bed is rather comfortable."

"Thank you. It came with the TARDIS. … Don't ask how, or why. It just did."

"That takes the fun out of talking, then, doesn't it?"

I watched a smile curl across the Doctor's lips, "There are plenty of other things we can do besides talk."

My fellow Timelord was maybe the thickest creature I had ever known. Normal social behavior seemed to pass him right by, and he never seemed to notice how enamoring he was. In the past, and from a distance, of course, I had watched him turn down a great number of beauties, though not because he really wanted to. He was simply being himself; thick, and slow, and uncaring of anything but fleeting friendships. Love was not a card the Doctor played very often.

I didn't know what to say, so I stared at him and knew that he saw the gears turning in my head. There were a great many things I could do. I could get up and leave, and spend the rest of my time on the TARDIS hiding in corridors that the Doctor's didn't tread through, or I could grab the Dalek by the eyestalk and possibly ruin everything I was trying to accomplish.

Since I wasn't one to flee, I decided on the latter. I shifted myself, and without words I came to be flush against the front of the Doctor's body, with his sheets and my robe separating the touch of our flesh. My hands were shaking as I set out to grip the edges of his face in my palms and simply stare for what seemed like an eternity.

The Doctor didn't move away under my touch, but he didn't come any closer either. I saw a polite blankness upon his face; a mask to give away nothing of what was underneath, though there was a flicker of fire in his eyes. At no signs of blatant rejection, I took the plunge and pressed my lips against his.

Time stood still. His lips were dry and he didn't flinch away from me as my hands moved to settle more firmly against his cheeks. My hearts were fluttering against my ribcage, and I felt as though I might explode from the tension building up along my spine. The Doctor seemed to sense this, and I felt his lips twitch against mine, a curving that might be a smile and all at once, he was kissing me back.

His arms became unfurled, and he curled one long limb around my shoulders while a long-fingered hand coiled over the bone in my hip. His fingers tightened to just this side of bruising, and it drew a noise was my lungs, which was quickly devoured as the Doctor began to grow more feverous, and needy.

I was surprised when I was rolled onto my back, with blankets and clothe all tangled around our legs it seemed like there was no going back, now. No escape from the molten mouth that broke from my lips to trail across my neck and breath into my ear.

"Funny how things work out, isn't it?"

"Shut up, and kiss me."

He didn't need to be told twice. His mouth crashed into mine with the force of worlds colliding and I was a stray bit of cosmic dust bathing in the afterglow of something magnificent. I was trapped beneath his body, and I couldn't bring myself to care. The drums pounded away in my head, though it was a distant echo. The only noise I could focus on was the ragged breath and the thundering of our combined hearts.

The fire spread to my hands, and they began to move on their own accord as they tickled and drifted over broad shoulders and down a sinewy spine. His skin was hot under my touch, and he groaned into my mouth, even as his teeth tugged at my lower lip. The edge of pain made me jerk, and gasp. Skillful hands threaded through my hair and over my neck only to trail lower, grazing across my chest and the hardened nubs that careful fingers found.

It was as if my skin had been washed away, and I was left to be one giant exposed nerve. Every touch, and every breath sent sparks down my spine, and my only response was to shiver and groan and breathe out a name that tasted like rain on my lips.

"Doctor." The words were more breathy noise that anything tangible, but the sound made him pause at the base of my neck. A wicked mouth did something at the juncture of my neck and shoulder that made me give a little shout, and I noticed the blood was being redirected to delicate places.

"Can I help you?" He asked cheekily, and I could only roll my eyes as his face was pulled back enough to stare down into my eyes. Such warm eyes he had; so full of life and acceptance and maybe the gentle spiral of affection and love.

I found myself smiling, in spite of myself. "I can think of a thousand ways you could help me."

My new found lover gave a chuckle that made my spine bow, and his words were like silk in my ears, "Let's start with something fun." His hips twitched against mine, and I almost choked on my own breath.

The thought occurred to me that I hadn't done anything like this in a long time. There was Lucy, of course, but not very often. Our love was one that was needed for me to be Harold Saxon. That time in my life seemed so distant to now. Distant and unimportant, though that thought sparked another, and then another and the dominos of my brain were sent tumbling in a neat line, leading back to the memory of this beautiful man laying dead in my arms.

"Master?" His voice was thick with need, though there was concern behind that.

It took effort, and energy and sheer force of will to cast those images to the back of my mind. I didn't want to sully something lovely with something so dark, and tainted. My smile was a fragile one as I curled my arms around his neck and pulled our chests flush together, and I hugged him for all I was worth.

"We have eternity to have fun. This is nice… For now."

He had the nerve to laugh at me, "You're a girl sometimes."

"Oh, shut up! I am perfectly masculine!"

This made him laugh harder, bowing his head so that mutant pompadour tickled against my nose. "I'm not trying to be amusing, Doctor. I'm trying to be… affectionate."

"And it's wonderful." He grinned brightly.

It made me smile, and he bent his neck to kiss me before he rolled to the side with one arm still curled around my waist. Our shoulder's touched, and I found myself wriggling closer to him, my skin almost aching for the touch of his flesh. After more laughter and adjustments, we were perfectly intertwined with my head upon his shoulder and our legs knotted together. His fingers found mine to lace through, and he held my hand across his stomach while his other arm looped around my shoulders to hold me close and his fingers played across my knuckles.

It was bliss, or very nearly so. There was still a niggling sensation in the back of my head that something terrible would happen to ruin this, but I chased it away with the sensation of a warm and very alive Doctor beneath my cheek.

"I'm glad you fell out of the sky."

The Doctor broke the silence with quiet words, almost as if he were afraid to say them; afraid to let on that at least one of his hearts were still warm and inviting and capable or a great deal of things. The Doctor did love, and he loved hard, though I knew his hearts had been broken so many times that he sometimes didn't want to try anymore. I wasn't saying that he loved me; of far from it, but he was pleased. I could deal with pleased.

"Oh, yes. It's a very popular courting method. Crash to Earth and lie to the man you fancy; it works every time."

He laughed, the force of his making his chest rumble under my cheek and the bed to shake. "So you fancied me then, did you?" A smirk found its way to his lips and I knew without looking that it was a cocky quirk of lips.

I was not afraid of broken hearts. "Of course I did, and I have for… Longer than I'd like to admit. And you can deal with that how you like… I'm going to sleep."

I sniffed as I adjusted myself beneath his arm, letting my eyes slip closed before he had time to respond with a chuckle, though he didn't speak for a long time. The rhythmic sound of his hearts washed away all of my worry and I knew I was more exhausted than I had thought, because sleep washed over me in a fuzzy black.

I was sure I only dreamed the words, 'I love you.'

-TBC-

A/N: This chapter was sweet, though I feel like I might have rushed the coupling. Feed back is appreciated!