FIC: Doctor Who - Time Knot (1/1)

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: Time Knot
Author: fajrdrako
Characters: Nine/Ten
Challenge: Written in answer to a 'first kiss' challenge from order_of_chaos, who asked that I write a Nine/Ten kiss.
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: No spoilers. Cross-posted to dwfiction.


Time Knot

The walls of the TARDIS shifted with the force of the gale. The Doctor cursed and braced his foot against the valve of the hypothermiun drive, one hand on the stabilizer lever. It had no effect.

"How can I help?" shouted Martha, but she was blinking in and out of existence. No help there.

"It's under control!" he shouted back, but she was gone, and the walls of the TARDIS seemed to throb and whimper. "Easy, old girl," he murmured, his palm flat on a panel. "We'll get through this."

He thought he saw a glimpse of Jack Harkness and Rose. Then Peri. Then someone he didn't recognize, probably from his future, if he had any future. Then they were all gone, and he was face to face with himself in his ninth body, all ears and nose and cockiness, with the U-boat Captain look.

"Not again," he murmurred.

"Good shoes," his other self said. "I'll remember those."

"Don't come too close!"

"I'm not daft. But if we don't do something, we'll lose the timestream." He looked around. "The walls are imploding. Soon we'll be bigger on the outside than the inside. Don't let it happen!"

"Suggestions?"

"Emergency rudder?" They staggered and regained balance.

"Lost that eons ago, remember?"

"Redirect vortex energy, then."

"How?"

"A kiss would do it."

"Fast work! We only just met."

"Liar. You've always known me."

"It's dangerous!"

"It's kinky."

He grinned at himself, both ways. "Right, then. Buy me a drink, first."

"I'm easy, but not cheap."

Something blipped and both selves disappeared and returned. The TARDIS yelped psychically.

"We're running out of -"

"Kiss me, Hardy!"

Leather jacket approached pinstripe suit. "Getting any practice these days?"

"Kiss me, you fool."

Breath mingled with breath. "Live a good life for me."

"I'm doing it." Another flash of humour. "Just for you. Wouldn't do it for just anyone."

"Obliged." Their mouths were almost touching. A jolt, and they slipped sideways, almost colliding, drawing back from each other in a flash of mutual panic. Time steadied. Lips approached lips again, and golden energy glowed between their mouths as the heady flow of temporal flux rushed through their bodies, mingling.

"Just pretend I'm Jack," he quipped.

"Should smack you for that."

"Like you said: kinky."

Lips touched. The universe moved - actually just the TARDIS, lurching under the shock. It was like floating. It was like death. It was like losing one's place in time.

"Nice meeting you," one of them said, and disappeared.

The Doctor gasped. The TARDIS sighed. The universe snapped back together again.

"What the bloody hell was that?" asked Martha, hanging on to the back of a chair with both hands.

"Nothing much," said the Doctor cheerfully. "Whatever it was, it's over now. Allons-y!"