No one talks about the Gallifreyan Fight Club
Keludar produced a second toog stick from up his sleeve. The Doctor pulled the first one from Tegan's limp grasp.
"I don't believe you're doing this," Tegan said, speaking to both of them. She had a lot more to say, too, but Leela pulled her back.
"Take hold of yourself," Leela whispered. "Keludar has the right to seek justice from his chief."
The Doctor and Keludar were stripping off their robes. It served as an equalizer, for the plain trousers and shirts that they were left in were identical save for color. In grey, Keludar looked like the down on his luck younger brother of the Doctor in immaculate white.
"He doesn't have the right to trick me into helping him," Tegan said angrily.
Keludar called out, "That I could do so supports my thesis. The Doctor has placed his whim above law, and you have suffered for it."
Tegan drew breath to give him a piece of her mind, red hot from the furnace.
"Tegan, shut up," Doctor said. His brusque voice matched his stern face.
"Tegan, speak! Do you let him command you?" Keludar parried.
Tegan, her lips trembling with the press of words on her tongue, looked at the Doctor, and kept silent. Leela stirred, responding to something happening behind them. The cold presence of Commandant Maxil appeared to Tegan's left. A pair of guards followed him.
"Arrest him," he said, nodding to Keludar.
The guards moved forward.
"No," the Doctor said. His voice held all the authority of the Lord President, and more than that, he was the Doctor, who had faced more danger than ever had any of his security guards. They froze in their tracks.
Maxil stood so close to her that his white cloak occasionally brushed Tegan's arm. He at least was not cowed. "Your Excellency, this ancient custom cannot prevail over the safety of the President."
"Keludar, are you planning to kill me?"
"Excellence, that would be against the laws of Gallifrey. If willingness to break the law is considered, it is I who more needs to fear for his life. My only life, at that."
"You see? I am in no danger, Commandant. You need not fear for my life," the Doctor said, calmly running his hands over the toog stick to test its condition.
"It's fortunate we have a witness of such well known probity. He can enforce the terms of the challenge. Commandant, on my victory, you should see that this alien is returned to her world."
Maxil glanced down at Tegan. "That can be arranged with dispatch," he noted, and took her by the arm. Tegan longed to try and shake him off, but Leela was with her, tensed to act. Anything she did would commit them both. She gave Maxil her most poisonous glare, to which he was sadly immune.
"I've no doubt the Commandant will follow the correct protocol." The Doctor sounded like he was barely in control of himself. Fury whetted his voice. "Reinsertion at point of departure, complete with a mind wipe of anomalous memories to eliminate possible contamination to the time line. All done in the best interest of the primitive in question, of course."
Tegan swayed in place. That was almost a death sentence. To lose all her adventures would kill the Tegan she'd become. They would take her mind apart and rebuild it as they chose from the rubble. Leela put an arm around her shoulders. "Do not fear. The Doctor will not lose." Her voice was soft, but Tegan heard her easily as the crowd had gone deathly still. Glancing around, she saw many faces shocked blank; few could meet her eyes.
"I'm glad the law considers her best interest significant. Isn't that what the laws are for, to protect the weak from the predation of the strong?" Keludar raised his toog stick to a ready position. A murmur swept through the watchers.
Tegan stared at Keludar in horror. She started to speak again, and Leela poked her sharply before she could get a word out.
"Clear the space for them," Maxil commanded. People drew back leaving the Doctor and Keludar in an empty circle. A guard picked up their discarded robes. "Are those the full terms?"
"You are the challenger, Keludar. I did not seek this fight. What if you lose?" The Doctor loosened his shoulders, and assumed his own ready stance.
"I shall live with the consequences of my actions, come what may," Keludar said lightly. Where the Doctor was grim, he was smiling. "The worst burden will be a reputation for radical melodrama. Everyone will expect me to entertain them. I shall envy Tegan after a while. She won't remember a thing."
The Doctor took one swift step forward, then contained himself. Keludar's smile broadened. He'd never reminded Tegan more strongly of the Master.
"Let the challenge commence," Maxil's voice stilled the crowd. The opponents moved together with a chock of wood on wood. Gallifrey should have evolved beyond the code duello. They were fighting for the integrity of her mind with a couple of sticks, and she was given no option but to stand and watch.
Tegan had seen the Shobogans working out. The toog stick was not an impressive sight. Its small size and blunt ends emphasized that the real weapon was the mind of the wielder. Leela's confidence in the Doctor was justified. He'd taken part in more conflicts than anyone on this planet. Keludar had never left the Citadel in his life. The Doctor had outwitted entities of incredible power and intellect. Keludar exercised his wits on the senior class of the Academy, the faculty, and Tegan.
On the other hand, the Doctor was furious, and Keludar seemed determined to keep goading him. The Doctor scored a solid blow on Keludar's shoulder. He counter-attacked with words. "What are you fighting for, anyway? I know you haven't kissed her." They closed with each other. Keludar said something inaudible to Tegan that made the Doctor flinch. Keludar jabbed in hard with the straight end of the toog, and the Doctor grunted in pain.
Tegan could not imagine what she would be without the memory of her adventures, but she knew all about public humiliation. She could not reconcile the Keludar who had shown real contrition with the one who mocked the most intimate feelings of the three of them. Leela's steady presence at her side was all that allowed her to watch this without screaming.
Thankfully, most of their conversations stayed inaudible. Toog stick fighting was a close-up style. The Doctor sounded more like he was growling. Keludar bound up the Doctor's toog, and finessed the block into a shot to the Doctor's jaw. A trace of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth. He twisted and landed his elbow in a blow that sent Keludar staggering back, scrabbling to keep hold of his toog.
Undaunted, Keludar inquired, "Seriously, you've traveled with her for years and you don't even know what she looks like freshly kissed?" The entire crowd could hear him. Everyone on Gallifrey must have heard him, including Rassilon. Forced amnesia lost some of its horror for Tegan.
The Doctor glanced at her briefly before advancing on Keludar. "It seems consistent with the laws you claim to be defending to deal fairly with my companions and respect their pride and independence. Unlike you, I don't deal in seduction."
They met again. The Doctor neatly snagged Keludar's toog, sent it flying, then swung the hook end around and knocked him off his feet. A moment later, Keludar was flat on his back. The Doctor moved a step away. "Confine him," he said curtly.
He came over and handed Maxil the toog stick. They shared an icy glance, then the Doctor physically removed Maxil's hand from Tegan's arm and substituted his own. He marched Tegan off. She barely had a chance to murmur, "Thanks," to Leela. Maxil ordered two guards to escort them back to the Presidential apartments. Their presence effectively locked Tegan's tongue, and the Doctor didn't say a word.
- o - O - o -
The Doctor opened the door to his apartment, handed Tegan through the door. He told the guard, "No visitors, and no messages." The door closed, and they were alone together.
"I'm sorry I've made a botch of things as usual. I should have handled Keludar better. Maybe I should have slept with him and he'd have gone off with his curiosity satisfied." Tegan couldn't look at the Doctor.
"There are those whose curiosity is impossible to satiate."
There was humor in his voice. Startled, she met his eyes. "I thought you were angry."
"I'm not angry at you. I would never have let them take your memories. You know that, don't you, Tegan? No matter what."
"Lady Flavia said that I should stay out of politics as much as possible. I've made things harder for you, haven't I?"
"I wanted my friends with me, Tegan, because I would have missed you and Turlough. I value my friends because they are my friends. There need be no other reason."
"I thought Keludar was my friend. Maybe I fooled myself. How could it come to that on a world like this? Fighting with sticks over a woman?" She shook her head, feeling hysteria bubble up. The reaction was setting in.
The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders. "I could have just told the guards to throw him in a cell, but Tegan, once he raised the issue, I had to be careful how I handled it. Toog stick fighting is a form of debate. If I ended the fight with a dictatorial fiat, then that would be taken as the way I am ready to solve other conflicts." He squeezed her shoulders. "It was more difficult to refuse because Keludar tricked you into offering me the toog stick. That signified that you held him as your champion."
"There's still blood on your face. Are you bleeding anywhere else? Shouldn't you see a physician?" Tegan pulled back from his hands and started tugging his shirt up.
"I cut the inside of my cheek on my teeth, that's all. There's already one Presidential Doctor… ow! Tegan!"
"Stop fussing and take your shirt off." Tegan didn't wait for him to do it; she unfastened the shirt at his shoulder and started helping him get it off, while he made various pain noises. His torso showed the red blotches of new bruising. "Do you think you have any cracked or broken ribs?"
The Doctor took a deep breath, a slow rise and fall of his chest. "Cracked, perhaps, but definitely not broken. Tegan, you care about Keludar, don't you? You… like him."
"Not at the moment, no!" Tegan planned to blame her blush on anger at Keludar, if the question arose.
"Tegan, you know what I mean." The Doctor rubbed the dried blood from the corner of his mouth, looking weary. "He wasn't trying to get you sent home. He knew he'd lose the fight. Keludar accomplished his aim right from the start when he forced the issue into the open."
"What issue? That talking monkeys shouldn't be allowed on Gallifrey?" Tegan paced agitatedly. "I thought he and I understood each other. I feel so… alien. No wonder you and I argue so much."
"I thought we'd been getting on rather well lately. I meant what I said about the value of your friendship, Tegan. I've lived away from Gallifrey longer than I've lived on Gallifrey. You and Turlough remind me of the life I'd rather be having, and you make this life better as well. The law about not bringing aliens to Gallifrey has nothing to do with passport regulations, but with the Laws of Time that forbid us from interfering in the affairs of other worlds. Laws, which you know full well I've circumvented many times in the past, because I believe that our people are too rigid in their thinking."
"You sound just like Professor Omicron."
"You haven't been kissing him, have you?"
"Doctor! I'd slap you if someone hadn't beaten me to it. I am not … promiscuous!" Tegan put her hands on her hips and glared at the Doctor.
He put a hand up in appeasement. "I know it well. I'm sorry, my humor was poorly timed."
"All right, then. So, Keludar made a public challenge to highlight the way Gallifreyans tend to see less advanced races as being semi-housebroken pets? Why make it to you? You're not like that… oh."
"Which he made sure I demonstrated publicly." The Doctor smiled ruefully.
Tegan's heart eased. "So he does like me, even if he has a weird way of showing it, because he's an alien."
"Yes, we have a lot in common," the Doctor said exasperatedly. He captured her hand to draw her attention. "Tegan, unless you've some objection, I should quite like to kiss you. Now."
He gently tugged her one step closer, and took one step to meet her so that they nearly touched. She was facing his bruised chest, and noticed that he was breathing faster, whereas she felt quite breathless. The Doctor's fingers cupped her chin and lifted her face. His eyes searched hers as he bent his neck. They closed by increments. He did not ask permission, but led her as in their dancing, timing his advance to her response.
At the last gap, their noses brushing, Tegan gently skimmed her fingertips along his bruised jaw and into the fine, blond hair around his ear. Their eyes held. She tilted her head a crucial fraction of an angle and let their lips touch like bumping clouds, air soft and full of electricity. Lips clung, pressed closer in tentative exploration. When the kiss broke, she found him looking down into her face. He smiled; she smiled. No words were needed. The kiss resumed and became more fervent.
His hands moved, gently urging her into closer contact. She rested her hands on his shoulders. His bare skin warmed under her fingertips even as her breath warmed his mouth. He made no sound, but she felt him wince, though the pressure of his hands holding her close did not yield. She broke the kiss.
"We should do something about those bruises, Doctor." She touched his side, as softly as she could, but he winced again.
"I am," he mumbled, leaving a line of kisses across her cheek as she turned her head. He kissed the pulse point below the corner of her jaw and she caught her breath. "I hardly notice them at all right now." He nuzzled her neck.
The ends of his hair tickled her nose. She said quietly, as his ear was conveniently close, "It's distracting if you wince in pain when I'm kissing you."
His sigh raised shivers from her skin. He raised his head enough to let him rest his forehead on hers. "I don't know how long I've wanted to kiss you, but I'd rather not stop."
"What? How can you not know? Is this some emotional detachment issue?" Tegan was tempted not to ask questions, to let it happen, to be kissed, to be taken to his bed. The stubborn, self-protective part of her kept flinging up barriers. He knew her well, and he was not an ignorant, inexperienced boy like Keludar. He could sweep her away if she let him, away from herself.
"Yes. You know by now that Gallifreyans, even Time Lords, are not immune to desire. I always thought you were attractive, and I never thought to do anything about it. I wanted you to trust me and be my friend, not be seduced into sharing my life. I had to keep my head clear. Time travel does not mix well with passion. There are hard choices to be made."
"So what changed?"
"Living here again makes me realize how much I've changed. I don't wish to be ruled by my emotions, but it's not such a bad thing to be guided by them."
Tegan watched the Doctor's mouth as he spoke. She'd never before allowed herself to study the shape of his lips, to think about their silken articulation. Now she was in his arms, his bare skin was under her hands, and the taste of his mouth was in hers. Like a silent cry of longing, she lifted herself to kiss him.
There was nothing ethereal about the kiss now. A man was kissing a woman. When tongues tangle and speech is lost, that one party was a vagabond scientist turned planetary ruler and the other a dogged feminist on a perpetual adventure holiday no longer mattered. The alien gulf was bridged by slick, mobile flesh and the exchange of chemical signatures. Carnal knowledge does not belong solely to genital organs.
The sharp intake of his breath did not spring from desire. Tegan instantly turned her face away. "I can't do this while you're in pain." She glanced down at where her hand held his hip. "I bet there are other injuries you haven't showed me."
The caught-schoolboy expression on the Doctor's face was charmingly ridiculous for a Time Lord of his years. "Er, nothing serious."
"These hygiene chambers do first aid, right? Go clean up, get your injuries properly examined."
He sighed and let go of her. "I suppose you're right. And what will you do?"
"I'll check my messages. I bet Turlough is worried."
The Doctor nodded absently. He cupped her face with one hand and ran his thumb softly under her lower lip.
"He was right," the Doctor said, and leaned in to kiss her with such heat and hunger that any other need was wiped from her thoughts. She didn't remember her question until their bodies touched again.
"Who was right? No, it's not important," Tegan said, breaking away from his embrace. "Look after yourself." She headed to the front of his apartment, then decided she'd be better off going to her apartment through the garden and reversed course. The Doctor hadn't yet moved. He was watching her, a knowledge that inspired an extra sway in her hips. When she passed him, he followed her.
The Doctor veered away towards the hygiene chamber, but when she got to the next door, he said from behind her, "Keludar." When Tegan looked back, he'd gone into the chamber and closed the door behind him.
"Gallifreyans," Tegan grumbled, and went on to her own apartment.
tbc