Chapter Sixteen

The Doctor got up unsteadily from the floor and leaped to hold Jack up, but the Time Agent collapsed over top of him, pulling him down in a sweaty heap of naked, bloody time traveler.

"Is he all right?" Yahs asked softly, indicating the two men with a clicking claw.

"I should think not. Those types never are, but it's all right. Concentrate on your own nest; it's what got you in this mess in the first place… not doing that, I mean."

Yahs turned to see Yahlas, and instead, there was a beautiful female adult Xja with short white tufts of hair on her tall head, and a tight, long thorax… long, elegant sharp legs, and perfectly feathered feelers. Her slightly damp body bounced with health as she moved- she was a goddess.

"Yahlas!" he clicked hoarsely, and sank low, wiggling briefly as he gave his mating keen.

But he dropped out of phase and slipped through the floor, falling to the egg chamber catwalk far below with a clang.

"Well, that was anticlimactic… better go and fix it. You two going to be okay?" Yahlas clicked, cocking her head at her fellow Time Lord, who was busy with Jack's head in his lap, running fingers through his hair.

"Erm, have you got enough boost to reach Stellaxa 27, Yahlas?" the Doctor murmured, barely looking up, "you should be able to repair the ship with parts from there."

Yahlas clicked her mouth open in a wide Xja smile.

"Yes; mating with Yahs down below should refill the egg chamber, and give us enough power to remake the ship. Plus, I've got regenerative energy to spare; that should help with difficult to find materials till we reach Stellaxa. Go take your pet to the TARDIS and get some sleep. But come visit us, or I'll tell your wife. All right, sir?"

The Doctor gulped, his hand momentarily stilling in its address of Jack's strangely soft brown hair. "How the hell do 'you' know about 'that'? Ah, it doesn't matter. Yeah, I will, I will. Go on, you! Just don't torture the poor man."

As Yahlas wandered off to find a lift down to the egg chamber, she called back, "That goes for you too, sir."

Her mantid eyes, large and lavender, glinted at him. Then she was gone.

The Doctor just sighed, and kept petting Jack's hair, feeling the man's body warming finally despite the mercury-induced cool of the Xja ship's air return.

"You know, Jack, if you help me get you to the TARDIS, I'll dip myself in chocolate, and we can make babies… do you wanna?"

Then the Time Lord, chin on chest, peered over the spot where Jack's head lay nestled against his naked lower ribcage and upper belly, and, upon seeing his friend's subconscious approval rising between loose legs, he allowed a secret smile to plaster itself over his lips, and continued petting.

"Well this scrawny heap of Time Agent isn't going to move itself, you great lump! Kick it into high gear or I'll have to take drastic measures!" he groaned into Jack's ears before looking down again, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Are you serious?" Jack murmured, half-asleep as the Doctor got out from under him and stood up, pretending to be exasperated.

"Am I… oh for Rassilon's sake! Get up and kiss me! I'm thinking twins, maybe triplets… quads? Do you think my hips are too narrow? Maybe I should regenerate into a girl… or an octopus! Always love an octopus, me, although there was this one time when I got knocked up at Cthulhu's after-party…" the Doctor teased, swinging his pelvis this way and that, gesticulating pointedly with his hands as he made a great show of dancing away from Jack's grasp, edging ever so slightly toward a left-hand corridor.

Jack jumped to his feet, stretched arms, rolled shoulders. Then he took the Doctor's hands and pulled him close in a kiss, saying, "Darling, shut up and love the bomb."

The Time Agent's fingers pointed down another corridor, where he'd found the TARDIS, laughing as he took the Time Lord by the hips and propelled him in that direction.

End