An hour or so later the Doctor felt Tegan stir, heard her whimper in her sleep. Nightmare, probably. She shivered and cried out. He pressed a gentle kiss to her cheek, nestled her closer to him. "Shh," he soothed. "You're safe now."

Even in sleep his voice seemed to soothe her. She quieted and relaxed in his arms as though she had heard him talking, could feel the strength of his embrace. Only when he was certain that she was all right did he sigh and close his eyes.

He was aware that he was being rather affectionate with her. But he was also aware that it wasn't bothering him the way he once would have thought it might. She was very fragile right now. She needed his emotion, his support. And more than that, he wanted to give it to her. The disaster of their escape attempt filled his mind, a poison eating away at his thoughts and feelings with no antidote in sight. Logically he knew Tegan was right: it was foolish to heap the coals of blame upon his head. But he could still hear a voice, a nagging mocking voice telling him: if you'd not been so arrogant, she wouldn't have been hurt.

"Shut up," he whispered desperately.

You'll not silence me that easily. Look at her, how pitiful, how wracked with pain. And still she stands by you, still she holds you blameless. What a lucky fool you are.

"I said shut up!" he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut tight and burying his face into his pillow.

The voice subsided, but he could feel the fading laughter like fingernails on a blackboard. Tegan turned over, squinting at him with half open eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked sleepily.

"Nothing," he assured her quickly, perhaps too quickly.

"Who were you talking to?"

He sighed. "Myself."

"Well kindly tell yourself to pipe down, would you?"

He laughed. "I'm sorry." He gently turned her onto her other side, facing away from him, and spooned his body against hers. "Is your pain still gone?"

"Mmm-hmm. Thanks to you," she murmured. Some vague fuzzed part of her brain was trying to sort out this sudden showing of tenderness, but it was too much effort and she decided just to accept that he was trying to give her a human sense of comfort. She gave herself back over to sleep without hesitation, knowing that he would be beside her when she woke.

A few hours later, when she awoke again, this time in pain, he was there, taking the pain away, fingers stroking her face as before. "What're you doing, exactly, when you do that?" she asked.

"Touching the pain receptors, temporarily shutting them down with my mind," he replied. "Not too difficult, just takes a little time."

"How come I've never seen you to that for yourself?"

"Because it doesn't work on my physiology."

"Bad luck, that," she told him.

He nodded. "When I'm injured, I go into a healing trance. I don't feel the pain then: I don't feel anything then, actually, as I'm unconscious."

She laughed. "You're funny even when you're not trying to be."

"Yes, my sense of humor is a saving grace, I've been told," he answered with a smile. She cuddled close to him, enjoying having him hold her, supremely happy to be rid of the pain that had wracked her body so ruthlessly earlier. "Thank you, Doctor," she whispered.

He shook his head. "No need to thank me when it was my fault you were in pain," he said bitterly.

She groaned in exasperation. "Doc, we're not going through all that again, are we? I told you I don't blame you and I meant it."

"And I told you I DO blame me," he snapped back.

"Don't argue with me, I'm the injured one here, remember?" she said firmly. "Not your fault. We both chose to try and escape, didn't we? Yes. So that's that." As if to emphasize her words she wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed in a brief but fierce hug.

He sighed as she released him and turned over, pulling him with her so that his back was to her, sliding an arm around his chest. "Now to go sleep, you fool Time Lord," she ordered with a grin.

"Yes, Madam Tegan," he replied, a hint of affectionate sarcasm evident in his tone.

"Good. About time you listened to me."

"Like you listen to me?"

"If you'd listened to me on Driog Nine, we'd have avoided a lot of unpleasant mess!"

"And as I recall..."

On and on they went, but it was a very different sort of sparring than their usual battles. It was teasing and warm, mingled with laughter and smiles. After a time it made them both feel relaxed and sleepy, and they drifted off into slumber, bodies still close.

"Doctor?"

Now it was his turn to be pulled from his musings. "Yes, Tegan, that feels fantastic."

She rolled her eyes. "Right, you didn't hear a word I said."

"I most certainly did!"

"Then what did I say?"

"Um, which part?"

"Any part."

He sighed. "Ok, you got me. I was thinking."

"About what?"

Silence. Then, in a quiet reflective voice: "the night we tried to escape."

She groaned.

"No, not like that," he said hastily. "I was thinking about how our... interaction with other has changed in the past month. For the better, I mean," he added.

"Yeah, I suppose being locked up together will do that to people," she answered, her expression thoughtful. "Because you can't run."

He raised his eyebrows.

"In normal life, when you don't want to face things, it's easy," she explained. "You can get up and walk out of the room, leave the mess and deal with it later or sweep it under the rug. Or in your case, you can land the TARDIS and get us into some new adventure. But here, like this, there's nowhere to go but head on to deal with whatever the problem is. We don't have distractions, don't have another recourse. It's just you and me and whatever bull we've got to seize by the horns."

He nodded, a smile brightening his boyish features. "Very perceptive, Tegan."

"I have my moments," she said airily.

"You do indeed," he said solemnly. "You do indeed."