chapter three
Three voices echoed in the dark.
One, a young woman, sounded rushed, almost frightened. This one was small and polite.
The second was older, harsher, though accented like the younger with the flourishes of Northern Japanese, but no less concerned.
Had they come from the same area? He wondered at it, then nodded softly, a motion he regretted when he opened his eyes to the light.
"Ah, too bright! Gonna need a bin!" he managed, and promptly the horrible whiteness dimmed enough to let him breathe without fear of losing any cookies.
"Thank you, whoever you are. Is Jack here?"
"Always," came the Captain's soft reply. He'd been worried, not to mention sex at the first sight of the Doctor's rousing.
Time for oh, dear what could the matter be, already, eh?
"These two are Miss Mayu and Miss Miyu. They've been taking care of this place for a while. They even brought breakfast for us, but by then you were out cold. As for me, well… call it a hunch, but I think they've taken a shine to us."
The Doctor huffed, then opened one eye, carefully, as all three stomachs were still threatening to rebel against the light.
"I owe you two thanks then, I s'pose?" he murmured, and the two women instantly bowed and took up one of his arms.
"Not at all, Kusabi-dono," said Miyu, the younger woman, "… we are honored to have you back with us."
"Yes," added the older woman, Mayu, as she patted his hand. "Dead walk hereabout, and so we do not get many visitors anymore. You and your companion welcome to stay until you well again. We return your money. Only reason people stop here is for statue of Yohma, anyway."
Miyu bent over him then and touched his cheek, wearing a warm smile across pale, thin lips. She seemed a child's doll, with a face of fine porcelain. A tad too perfect…
Time Lord or no, even he could get ill sometimes. Of course, this was not one of those times. He knew exactly why he'd collapsed, and it had nothing to do with fatigue.
Well, maybe a bit. Just a bit.
He touched his lower belly and plastered a bored grin on his face that Jack would definitely appreciate.
"I'm pregnant. But you two smelled my baby, didn't you? Naughty Trinomians, trying to pull one over on a Time Lord. Come on then!" he said, sitting up gingerly and looking down his nose at them like a tutting grandfather. "Show us your true natures and maybe I won't call the Shadow Proclamation down on your little erm, side business."
He turned to the Time Agent, who was covering a grin behind one hand and trying not to laugh.
" Now then, girls! Where were we? Oh yes. The statue you've got stashed in that garden you've been tending in the courtyard back there. How did you two get hold of it? I want a look. Come on, shift!"
Jack started as the Doctor spoke telepathically as he dressed, the flow of speech stopping only so the deliciously youthful-looking Time Lord could pull his good Oxford shirt back over his head.
"Hello there, Jack! These fine young ladies are quite the upstanding citizens, eh? First they rope us in with the promise of relaxation, then they lure us back to the statue in the hopes of gleaning a bit of our life esssence to sell at bazaar. Brilliant, really. Damn sirens of rest, are what they are. Find out where they're hiding their technology. I'll deal with the statue, namely because I think you're the one they'll soon realize they want more, font of everlast that you are."
"You got it, Doc. But, are you really… is it…"
"Yours and mine, Jack. And if they hurt her, they'll be sorry. Now get a move on."
Then the Trinomians pouted in unison like Siamese twins, their Asian features shimmering until they were elongated versions of themselves, limbs expanding and lengthening. They looked like bleached-white frog geisha… identical, and irreparably alien to Earth…
----
Suddenly the room began to shift, and blackness turned, polishing the Doctor's mind like a tumbled piece of jet... lightweight, dark. Fathomless.
He opened his eyes and saw Jack standing over him, one hand plastered across his forehead, the other checking a pulse at his neck.
"Agh. I had the oddest dream. How long have I been out?"
Abruptly, an alien face appeared, white, with a red dot on each of two double-lidded eyes. These were followed by a long, gnarled, distinctly inhuman finger, which proceeded to shove itself into the space between his eyes as though it owned him.
"Stupid Time Lord! Stay up all night watch too much Japanese horror! Sleep in, skip breakfast, not good for you!"
Ignoring the Trinomian manager's nattering, the Doctor sighed, blinked and rubbed his stomach, then sat up languidly, running Barcelonan eyes over Jack's naked upper half. "What's for lunch then? I'm famished."
Jack smirked, then winced as the alien woman thwacked him on the head.
"And you! You –more- stupid! You no pack tea and chocolate biscuit! Everybody who know anything know pregnant Time Lord crave chocolate! Baaaah!"
"… you brought me here to torture me, didn't you?" the Time Agent said, ducking another blow from the manager's three-fingered fist as she left for the kitchen to make tea, "Why didn't you tell me you knew about this place? If you were anyone else, I'd say you were hiding it from… wait."
Jack shook his head, trying to clear it, though he knew the action was reflexive and futile.
"And if I was?" answered the Time Lord merrily, idly scratching slim, tight pectorals while he gazed at the two Trinomians, wondering how long it had been since he'd visited their part of space, a little binary star system called Tri'in Alpha-IV.
"Waiiiiit! You said something earlier, something about a statue," he added, deliberately catching the glinting eye of Mayu, the older Trinomian, "… I heard you two last night."
The twin aliens stared at one another again in that strange little dance of gazes, and then resumed speech.
"You still sick, I think," said Mayu, her froggish face swelling and shrinking in time with each word, "… take lover and go back to bed! We take care of inconvenience. You sleep! Go! Go!"
There was nothing to do but retreat to their room. Jack wouldn't let him out of his sight, and neither would the two Trinomians, whom he trusted as far as he could throw the TARDIS. What was troubling, however, was that Jack had never once mentioned the baby. In fact, Jack seemed… affected. He must have eaten or drunk something they'd given him. Best to play along until the dust was thrown, for the sake of the baby.
So the Doctor let Jack ease him against the pillows, feeling a bit bruised and pampered as he tried to enjoy the man's brainless, disturbed fussing.
What had they done to the Time Agent while he'd been asleep?
And, next in a long line of possible horror scenarios, what might they have done to his child?