Taking Time by Janne (Virgin Challenge)

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Rating: PG-13
Word count: ~8200
Summary: A visitor to Atlantis takes John out and shows him a good time.

I think this fits the challenge... Thanks to torakowalski who is exam-ridden but kindly found the time to beta this anyway.


Taking Time


“All right,” Elizabeth said, nodding around the conference table, “that seems to be everything,” and the usual post-mission okay-what-went-wrong-this-time briefing was over at last. John would really appreciate it if he could occasionally get to christen them a wow-everything-went-perfectly briefing, but he was getting resigned to the idea that it was never going to happen. At least this time no one had actually been injured and Elizabeth had postponed the briefing until this morning to give the team time to remove the glitter-glue and sequins the natives had insisted on showering them in, before attempting to feed them to some large carnivorous magpies.

Ronon and Teyla were moving towards the door and Rodney was packing up his laptop, still muttering about idiotic natives and how Zelenka hadn’t stopped laughing yet – John couldn’t really blame Zelenka for that, Ronon in pink sequins had been an interesting sight and it was only John’s sense of self-preservation that had kept him from hysterics himself once they had come safely back through the gate – when Ronon suddenly stiffened and looked around warily and a second later John became aware of an unusual noise. It got louder rapidly until they were all looking around for the source of the strange metallic-sounding groaning throb and the flashes of blue-white light that accompanied it.

“Rodney?” he asked, wondering if it was the city falling apart around them, but Rodney was already on the radio to Zelenka, asking what on Earth they had let Kavanagh do this time.

“What do you mean there’s nothing wrong?” Rodney yelled over the noise. “Can’t you hear that?”

“Colonel Sheppard,” Teyla interrupted and John saw she was looking wide-eyed past his shoulder towards the back of the room. He turned quickly, one hand dropping automatically to his gun and stood gaping in astonishment as the noise abruptly stopped.

“Never mind,” he was aware of Rodney saying in the background as Ronon came up to flank him, “it’s stopped now,” and then there was silence for a minute while they all stared. At the back of the room, where there had previously only been a wall and a dead ten thousand year old plant, there was now a large dark blue box with a light on the top. The side facing them was a door, John noticed in bemusement, with two windows above a printed notice that said “free for the use of the public”. Even more strangely, there was a border at the top that said “police public call box” in block capitals.

“What does that mean?” Ronon asked, training his gun on the closed door.

“I have no idea,” John said, still staring at the box.

“Rodney?” Elizabeth asked. “Any thoughts?”

“On what, magically appearing police boxes in Atlantis?” Rodney said, his voice rising incredulously. “Because we all know that’s my area of expertise, right after wormhole physics and Ancient technology.”

“You could just say no,” John said with a slight edge and then he jumped back and brought his gun up as half of the door swung inwards suddenly.

A moment later, a head poked round the edge of the door and looked around at them all. It was a human-looking head; young, male, clean-shaven and sharp-featured with floppy light brown hair and curious brown eyes.

“Hullo,” he said in a cheerful voice and stepped out of the box, ignoring the guns trained on him like they weren’t there. He was wearing a pin-striped brown suit with sneakers, and he had an English accent. Not what John would have expected to step out from a magically appearing box in Pegasus at all, though he should maybe just give up on having any expectations as far as this galaxy went. No weapons that John could see though, and with a suit cut that skinny they would be obvious, so he held off on calling for back-up just yet.

“Now, this looks a little familiar,” the man went on, almost to himself. “Oh, Atlantis,” he suddenly crowed, spinning around in an excited circle that made Ronon twitch. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

John exchanged a raised-eyebrows look with Rodney and Elizabeth, pleased to see that they were both looking as pole-axed as he felt by their visitor.

“Hi,” John said, making the man spin back in his direction with an inquiring look. “Who are you?”

“Me? I’m the Doctor,” came the reply, accompanied by a big smile. “Who are you?”

“Doctor who?” Elizabeth asked, moving towards them, but stopping a few feet away when Teyla moved to guard her.

“Oh, just the Doctor is fine,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels as he surveyed them all.

“Yes, very informative,” Rodney snorted from behind John. “But considering half the population of Atlantis can also lay claim to that title, some of us more than once incidentally, that isn’t particularly helpful.”

“Sorry,” the Doctor said with a shrug. “It’s just what I go by.”

“Okay, fine,” John said. “So, Doctor: where did you come from and why are you here?” It didn’t really matter what he called himself as far as John was concerned, he just wanted to know if they were about to be invaded by cheerful Englishmen in blue police cubicles.

“Oh, all over,” the Doctor said in a distracted tone and John sighed and tracked him as he wandered about the room a little more. “I have to say, the housekeeping has gone a bit downhill since I was last here,” the Doctor continued disapprovingly, touching the leaves of the dead plant in the corner. “You really should water these, you know.”

“Water them? They’ve been here ten thousand years, they’re dead,” Rodney cut in, exasperated.

“Huh. Has it really been that long?” the Doctor asked, scrunching his face up. “Oh well, doesn’t matter, these are axapollifarious fallonicius,” he said and looked at them expectantly.

“Yes?” Elizabeth said after a moment.

“Oh come on,” he said, gesturing at them like a teacher trying to get his class to give the right answer and they all stared at him blankly.

“Is he insane?” Ronon rumbled quietly in John’s ear after a moment and John shrugged helplessly. At least he wasn’t trying to kill them yet and a conversation about plants definitely counted as an improvement over a lot of their first contacts, even if he hadn’t answered any questions yet.

“They don’t die, they hibernate,” the Doctor said, giving Ronon an exasperated look, “and no, I am perfectly sound in mind.”

“Hibernate? For millennia?” Rodney said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous?” he said, sounding a little irritated. “Watch this,” and the Doctor grabbed the water jug off the table and threw it over the plant in a move so quick that even Ronon didn’t react fast enough to stop him. “Look,” he said as Ronon pinned him to the wall and John saw a tide of green shooting up the plant so quickly it made him blink and then the leaves unfurled and purple and white flowers spread open at the top.

“Wow,” John said, genuinely impressed.

“Good, isn’t it?” the Doctor said, grinning at him.

“What, so you teleported in here in your faded… box-thing,” Rodney said.

“TARDIS,” the Doctor interrupted with a raised finger as Ronon let him go in response to a nod from John. He hesitated a little and then holstered his gun as the Doctor straightened out his jacket. Reviving plants didn’t count as threatening behaviour in John’s book.

“… fine, tardis, whatever, to tell us how to take care of the local foliage?” Rodney finished.

“You said you’ve been here before, would you care to tell us when and why?” Elizabeth added.

The Doctor pursed his lips, leant back on the wall and gazed at the ceiling. “Ooh, about… eleven thousand years ago, give or take,” he said.

“You’re an Ancient, then?” Elizabeth asked, sounding excited now at the possibility and smiling at him in a friendly manner, obviously eager at the opportunity to find out more about the city. John was getting interested too; if this guy had been here when the city was fully occupied and functional, perhaps he could tell them more about the weapons systems and where the armoury was.

“Me?” the Doctor said, voice rising indignantly as he pushed off the wall. “One of that pretentious, humourless lot, always babbling on about ascending to a higher plane, like that was anything to look forward to. Oooh, lets all be big blobs of energy, what fun,” he said sarcastically and John smiled. “And what do they do all day with their disembodied bodies afterwards?” the Doctor asked, pacing and waving his hands like Rodney on a tear. “I’ll tell you, they just hang about watching all the people who still have embodied bodies. I mean, what’s the point?”

“I’ve always kind of wondered that myself,” John agreed.

“Good man,” the Doctor said, pointing at him approvingly. “Don’t do it. And do they do anything with all their accumulated millennia of knowledge to help the people they watch?” he went on. “No, they just float about smugly on their supposedly higher plane while whole planets get destroyed because they’re too far up on their moral high horse to intervene. Well, bollocks to them. Bloody useless wankers.”

John grinned as the Doctor finished his rant with a disgusted mutter. He was starting to like this guy.

“Oh,” Elizabeth said, and John grinned even more at the taken-aback look on her face.

“My people revere the Ancestors,” Teyla said disapprovingly, giving the Doctor a glare.

“Really?” he asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“Yes,” she said, even more firmly.

“My apologies, then,” the Doctor said smoothly. Teyla nodded in acceptance, apparently not catching the double meaning and John nearly choked as the Doctor winked at him when she wasn’t looking

“So you’re from Earth?” the Doctor asked. “I mean, obviously not these two,” he added with a nod to Teyla and Ronon, “but the rest of you don’t exactly fit as Pegasus natives.”

“Yes,” Elizabeth replied, after a quick surprised look to John. “My name is Dr Elizabeth Weir. I’m the leader of the expedition here in Atlantis. This is Colonel John Sheppard, head of the military, Dr Rodney McKay, head of the science teams, Teyla Emmagen of Athos and Ronon Dex of Sateda.”

“Pleasure to meet you all,” the Doctor said with a slow smile.

“Yes, wonderful, we’re all so polite today,” Rodney said impatiently. “Now who the hell are you, what are you doing here and how do you know about Earth anyway?”

“I told you, I’m the Doctor,” he replied. “I suppose you could call me a traveller, if you really need to give me a label. And I’ve been to most places, including Earth. Where did you think I got the suit, Betelgeuse? Their tailoring is nowhere near this good.”

“A traveller. So you just…go places? Why did you come here?” John asked.

“Hang on, is that tea?” the Doctor said, moving towards the side table. “Could I have a cup? I’m parched.”

“Ah, certainly,” Elizabeth said. The Doctor nodded in thanks, filled a mug up, sank down on the chair nearest the TARDIS-thingy and put his feet up on the table. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows slightly then sat down herself and the rest of them followed suit, John pulling his chair out and turning it to face the Doctor so he had room to move if he needed to. The energetic movements had distracted him from it before, but now the Doctor was sitting still, John could see hints of weariness underneath that made him wonder if maybe they should be offering him something stronger than tea.

“Ah, that’s better,” the Doctor said appreciatively after a sip. “To answer your question, Colonel, the last time I was here I just happened to be in the neighbourhood when I had a mishap with the TARDIS and stopped off to fix it. This time… well, that’s a little more complicated.”

“Complicated how?” John asked.

“This time, the TARDIS brought me here itself,” the Doctor replied.

“Wait, that box has artificial intelligence?” Rodney asked.

“Oi. There’s nothing artificial about the TARDIS,” the Doctor said, looking offended.

“Having a police notice on the side of a teleporting box isn’t artificial?” Rodney sniped back.

“It’s disguised as an authentic police call box from 1950s Britain,” the Doctor sniffed defensively, “And it’s not a teleporter, TARDIS stands for time and relative dimension in space.”

Oh, cool. “It travels through time and space?” John asked sitting up straight and the Doctor nodded at him with a mischievous little smile.

“There’ve been some changes recently, I need someone to help me settle things and the TARDIS brought me here which means one of you fits the bill,” the Doctor went on, looking around at them speculatively.

“That would be me then,” Rodney said, looking smug and nearly bouncing with glee at the thought of getting his hands on a time machine. “I’m the foremost expert on technology anywhere; all you need to do is tell me how it works and I’ll fix it for you.”

The Doctor tilted his head to one side and studied Rodney for a minute, eyes half closing, and then he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so,” he said slowly.

“What? I’m the best there is, you can’t seriously be intending to let any of the others have a go?” Rodney complained, but the Doctor wasn’t paying attention. He had slid his feet off the table and was tilting his head towards them all in turn, like he was listening for something.

“Oh good,” he said, looking at John with a pleased expression. “It’s you.”

John twitched a little in surprise as Rodney yelped “That’s not fair, he’s just a pilot,” and the Doctor slid up out of his chair and then down into John’s lap and before John could catch up he was being kissed, hands in his hair and soft mobile lips teasing his own.

“Oh yes, definitely you,” the Doctor murmured as he pulled back. John licked his lips and looked into warm brown eyes and then Ronon pulled the Doctor off him and pinned him to the wall again as John stood up.

“It’s okay Ronon, let him go,” John managed to say and then Rodney was off.

“I don’t believe this! For God’s sake, does everyone in the universe want into your pants? Is there a card in his stupid call box saying “For a good time, call 0800-sheppard”? I mean, I think your overwhelming Kirkness is getting a little out of hand when even people we’ve never even heard of know how easy you are!”

“Rodney!” Elizabeth cut him off with a snap, much to John’s relief.

“Actually, I’ve never heard of him,” the Doctor said mildly, leaning against the wall again and looking amused, “but it wouldn’t have taken the TARDIS bringing me here to know he’s special.”

“Oh please,” Rodney said. “I bet you say that to everyone you try and get your hands on and your pick-up lines could at least try and be original.”

“You don’t think “hi, my time-travelling phone box set us up” is an original pick-up?” John asked and turned back to the Doctor when Rodney just glared at him. “And I don’t know what it is you want from me, but I’m not gay.”

“And I’m not a man,” the Doctor said airily, “so that works out nicely all round. Besides, I don’t need you to have sex with me,” he went on and then paused and looked John up and down appreciatively enough to make John’s face heat, “Though I can’t say it wouldn’t be nice.”

“You’re… not a man,” Elizabeth said. “You’re not human?”

“Nope,” the Doctor said, grinning again as they all gaped at him. “I’m from a galaxy far, far away, and you needn’t bother asking me anymore than that because it is completely and utterly irrelevant,” he said, amusement switching to a stern look that made John re-evaluate his original assessment of him from “harmless” to “mostly harmless, probably”.

“And what exactly do you need from my head of military?” Elizabeth asked with her own stern look.

“Look, it’s very simple,” the Doctor said, moving forward again to rest one hand on the table with a tired sigh. “I was hurt very badly a little while ago and I need some low level physical contact with someone with the right electromagnetic and biophysical signature to complete my recovery. Colonel Sheppard was obviously the nearest person to match the criteria, which is how I ended up here, and I only kissed him because it was the fastest way to be sure.”

Well, that explained the flashes of tiredness that showed through his exuberance occasionally. “So was that it? Are you healed now?” John asked.

“Ah, not quite,” the Doctor said apologetically. “It will take a while longer, if you don’t mind?” he asked hesitantly and when he reached out John gave a little internal shrug and let the Doctor take hold of his hand and twine their fingers together.

“This is the most insane thing I’ve ever heard,” Rodney said, eyeing their hands balefully.

“Wouldn’t mind if I could get cured like that,” Ronon said as he sat back down, clearly deciding that they were safe again. “Better than Beckett’s needles,” he shrugged as Rodney glared at him.

“It is certainly a little unusual,” Teyla said, smiling at John.

“Yes, but if Colonel Sheppard has no objections, I don’t see that it will be a problem,” Elizabeth said, with a questioning look at John.

“No, I’m fine,” John said, trying to hide his slight embarrassment with a smile at the Doctor.

“Marvellous,” the Doctor beamed delightedly. “I’ll have him back before you even know he’s gone,” and before John could ask what that meant, there was a shimmer in the air around them and the room was gone.

“What the hell?” he said, twisting to try and get his gun, but the Doctor was holding that hand and pulling him towards a console and then a green light was shining up from the centre and the Doctor was turning towards him with a grin.

“Right,” he said, “Where would you like to go?”

“Go?” John said, pulling free and jerking his gun out. “I don’t want to go anywhere.” He spotted doors at the side of the large room and jogged over, but couldn’t get them to open.

“They lock when we’re moving,” the Doctor said, watching him curiously.

“Moving?” John said. “Where are we?”

“Inside the TARDIS of course,” the Doctor replied. John looked around, seeing golden coloured ceiling supports that curved up from the floor at regular intervals and looked vaguely coral-like, honeycomb shapes in the wall and a beige sofa in front of the round console at the top of the steps in the centre.

“It’s too big and it’s not square,” he said bringing the gun up to aim.

“It’s bigger on the inside,” the Doctor said, “and what are you pointing that thing at me for?”

“Because you just kidnapped me,” John snapped.

“I’m only borrowing you for a bit. You said it was fine,” the Doctor protested, looking a little hurt.

“I thought we were going to be staying on Atlantis,” John argued.

“Oh. Oh, I see,” the Doctor said, biting his lip and leaning back on the console. “Well, that’s a little embarrassing. Sorry, I just thought that since you were doing me such a favour I could at least make it fun for you.”

“Being abducted is your idea of fun?” John said in disbelief. “And how did you do that anyway?”

“Hmm? Oh, this,” the Doctor said, pulling a little device out of his pocket. “It really is a teleporter. Great fun at parties,” he said with a reminiscent smile. “And no, I don’t much enjoy being abducted. But seeing as you have a time-travelling spaceship currently at your disposal, I honestly thought that just staying on Atlantis would be a little boring.”

“Oh,” John said, dropping the gun down to point at the floor instead of at the Doctor.

“I really am sorry,” the Doctor said. “I’ll take you straight back if that’s what you want, but isn’t there anything you’ve always wanted to see? I can take you anywhere, any when.”

“I… the others will be worried,” John said, firmly slapping down temptation. God, Elizabeth, Teyla and Rodney would be frantic and Ronon was probably taking the conference room apart.

“Nah, they’ll be fine,” the Doctor said, perking up at John’s hesitation and waving a hand. “I’ll take you back to a minute after we left, they won’t even have had time to get upset. Scout’s honour,” he finished, giving the salute.

John wavered then made a decision. Rodney would call him an idiot, Teyla and Ronon would give him that “Earth people are crazy” look and maybe they would be right, but there was just something about this guy he couldn’t help but trust and it was too late to stop following his gut now. He put the gun away, watched the Doctor’s hopeful expression change to a happy little smile and smiled a little tentatively back.

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “I guess we could go do something fun,” and when the Doctor reached out a hand he went back across the room and up the steps to join him.

“Good,” said the Doctor, taking his hand again and bouncing a little on his toes excitedly. “Where first?” and John let himself consider all the possibilities and grinned.

*

“Unbelievable,” the Doctor muttered a couple of hours later, putting on rectangular glasses with dark frames as they sat down. “The whole of time and space to choose from, from the Big Bang to the Last Whimper, every planet and galaxy ever, and what do you choose? A football game. And it’s not even proper football.”

“You’re one to talk about unbelievable,” John said, “considering that you got us the best seats in the place by using psychic paper. And it’s not just a football game. This is the football game. November 23, 1984, Boston Eagles against Miami and Doug Flutie and Gerry Phelan are about to go down in history.” John was almost shaking with excitement as he said it because he’d seen the tape, over and over, whenever he needed to remember that Hail Marys could come through, but now he was there, he was actually there and it felt incredible.

“Hmm,” the Doctor said, sipping lemonade through a straw. “I’d still rather watch rugby,” but he smiled as he said it and shifted so that their arms brushed and John just smiled back, and then the players ran on and he clutched at the armrests and leaned forward, attention riveted on the game.

*

“That was amazing,” John said as they walked back to where the TARDIS was hidden afterwards, a grin that just would not quit plastered over his face.

“I suppose it wasn’t that bad,” the Doctor agreed, and John just laughed because the Doctor had been on his feet and yelling right beside John when Flutie made the pass.

“Thank you,” he said and squeezed the Doctor’s hand, not even finding it strange anymore to be holding hands with another man after sitting like that on the sofa in the TARDIS all the way here, feet up on the console and listening to the Doctor’s wild tales.

“You’re welcome,” the Doctor said, with a sweet smile back and then he swung their hands enthusiastically as he pulled John through the door of the TARDIS. “Where do you want to go next?”

“I don’t know,” John shrugged. “You choose this time.”

“All right,” the Doctor said slowly, stroking a thumb across John’s hand in an absentminded way. “Ah hah, just the thing,” and he set the TARDIS going again and turned to John with a gleeful smile. “You’re going to love this.”

*

“Oh my God,” John breathed later, looking at the machine in front of him. It was like one of the flying motorbikes from Return of the Jedi, but enclosed in a force field bubble so that the rider couldn’t get hurt if they crashed, and according to the guy with blue head-spines they were renting it from, could go at Mach 1.5 in a straight line and corner on a penschlak, which John guessed was like a dime.

“There are three hundred miles of canyons you can run through,” spiny-guy carried on with his instructions. “Maps are programmed into the navscreen on the front and the routes are marked learner to black run. Be back in three hours or lose your deposit.”

“Cheers, thank you,” the Doctor said then pulled on his reflective goggles. “Ready?” he asked John.

“Oh hell yeah,” John nodded fervently, pulling his goggles on so the glare of the desert sun cut out and swinging his leg over the seat.

“Maybe you should just ease into it, get used to things,” the Doctor said, hopping on behind him and sliding his arms about John’s waist.

“Uh huh. Sure,” John agreed amiably as he flipped on the force field and then floored it.

“Oh God” the Doctor moaned, squeezing tight and burying his head on John’s shoulder and John laughed and headed straight for the longest, straightest canyon. The fancy twisty stuff was for later, for now he just wanted speed.

*

Two hours and fifty-nine minutes later, John eased the hoverbike to a stop in front of the rental shop and tried to prise the Doctor’s arms from around his middle.

“No, no, no,” the Doctor said, muffled in John’s back.

“It’s okay, we’ve stopped,” John said, trying not to laugh.

“Promise?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Oh,” the Doctor said, letting go and then sliding off the bike to lie on the ground. “Hello ground. Sweet, lovely, not moving ground,” he said and patted it gently.

“Are you all right?” John asked, sitting down next to him and stroking his back soothingly.

“Fine,” the Doctor said, a little more highly-pitched than normal. “Fine! I’m just going to lie here for a bit and appreciate how much this ground doesn’t move.”

“Okay,” John said and lay down next to him, shoulders and arms pressed together, and grinned at the strange look they were getting from the rental guy. He felt a little guilty about scaring the Doctor like that, but he didn’t think the ride had been that bad; he’d only crashed head on into a cliff once after all and the force field had meant they only got a jolt like braking hard in a car.

“So,” the Doctor said after a bit in a more normal tone as he wriggled onto his side to face John, “football, things that go stupidly, insanely fast… what else does John Sheppard like, hmm?”

“Ferris wheels,” John said and grinned, remembering his first conversation with Teyla. He’d said the first things that came into his head, but they were all true and he hadn’t been on a Ferris wheel for years.

“Ooh now,” the Doctor said, propping his head on one hand and wrapping the other round John’s arm below his t-shirt sleeve. “That’s handy.”

“Why?” John asked turning his head to look at him.

“This place, Sallafria, is a planet dedicated to amusements,” the Doctor said with a smirk. “They have the best Ferris wheel in three galaxies, and in the other galaxies they haven’t been invented yet. Come on, back to the TARDIS,” he said jumping to his feet and pulling John up, “it’s on the other continent and you’ll need your jacket too.”
*

Best Ferris wheel in three galaxies, no kidding, John thought, staring at it in awe. The wheel had a half kilometre radius and instead of being raised up on a stand, the axle spanned a massive canyon so that half of the wheel vanished into the chasm. “Wow,” he said.

The Doctor just grinned and tugged him along to join the queue. It moved surprisingly fast but John was so busy staring up at the arch of the wheel above them that he wouldn’t have noticed if it had taken a week. The operators teleported them into a pod, “so that there isn’t as much waiting about,” the Doctor said and John looked about in surprise.

“It’s got open sides,” he said, strapping himself into one of the seats and looking out to see they were in a pod just above where the canyon began.

“They use a more permeable version of the force field from the hoverbikes,” the Doctor explained, taking the seat next to him. “There’s no way we could fall out but we’ll be able to feel the breeze as we move.”

“Cool,” John said and squeezed his hand in delight as they began to move downwards. It moved faster than John had expected, the walls of the canyon flowing smoothly past. They went by a huge waterfall as they began to curve back in and John gasped in surprise and then laughed as spray hit them gently.

There were trees on the sides as they got nearer the bottom and then John looked down. “Oh my God, it goes into the river,” he said, seeing the frame vanish into the fast-flowing water.

“Oh yes,” the Doctor said, “I’d forgotten about that. How long can you humans hold your breath again?”

“What?” John yelped, twisting to see that the pods came back out of the water much too far away and then they hit the surface and kept dropping.

“You jerk,” John said after a minute, watching silver fish glide about in the water around them. “You could have told me that the force field would go impermeable under water.”

The Doctor dragged himself up from where he’d been doubled over with laughter and wiped his eyes, still giggling. “But where would have been the fun in that?” he asked, giving John a wicked look. “You should have seen your face when we started going under,” he sputtered, dissolving again and it was so infectious John couldn’t help laughing as well, even while he was trying to smack him on the head to shut him up.

There were trees all up the sides of the canyon where they left the water, and it grew narrower so that they brushed through the branches and the sunlight was dappled and green. The Doctor pointed out colourful little monkeys and flowers as they kept rising and then John caught his breath and turned his face up as they burst into full sunlight again and soared right up into the blue sky.

He turned to grin at the Doctor when they reached the top and caught him watching John fondly. “Joyful is a good look on you,” he said and reached out and touched John’s cheek gently and John ducked his head, not knowing what to say. “Are you ready for round two?” the Doctor asked after a moment in a mischievous voice.

“What’s round two?”

“The same thing, only much, much faster,” the Doctor said and then they both whooped as they passed the original starting point and suddenly dropped, moving down so fast John felt weightless and like he’d left his stomach at ground level. They spun down and through the water and when they flew back up into the air above the canyon top John was laughing wildly because it was like flying, but not in a plane or chopper, just him feeling the wind whip past and the ground fall away below.

“That was amazing,” John said as they staggered away from the wheel and back to the TARDIS after the ride was over.

“Good, I’m glad you liked it,” the Doctor said, wrapping his arm around John’s shoulders. “Food now?”

“Yeah,” John agreed. “Somewhere peaceful?”

“I can do peaceful,” the Doctor smiled.

*

It had taken the Doctor a little while to decide where to go for a meal, but John was pretty damn happy with his choice. He’d been a little confused when he opened the TARDIS door into a cave, but then a little man with blue-green skin had appeared, bowed and led them up a twisty flight of stairs and they’d emerged onto a private marbled terrace at the summit of a mountain.

Little wispy clouds floated below, merging into a green canopy of trees and all that was visible in all directions were more mountains, some with dramatic cliffs and waterfalls, stretching off into the distance. The only noises were the rustles of leafy plants around the terrace and John breathed in sweet, clear air and relaxed into the quiet atmosphere, tension he hadn’t even been aware of easing on the exhale.

The little man gestured towards a low table beneath a maroon canopy, bowed again and vanished and John turned to look at the Doctor, his hand feeling strangely empty as he realised they’d separated to come up the narrow stairs.

The Doctor was gazing around the little space, face serious and still and his eyes looked tired; tired in a way that seemed about more than the physical healing he had needed.

“Hey,” John said, moving closer and linking their hands back together, “are you okay?”

“Yes,” the Doctor said in a subdued voice after a moment when he hadn’t seemed to hear John. He smoothed the little frown out into a slightly strained smile and shrugged. “I just… I haven’t been here for a very long time. Longer than I care to remember, really.”

“We could go somewhere else,” John offered.

“No,” the Doctor said with a quick headshake, “no, and miss this food?” and just like that the mischief was back as he bounced over to the table and pulled John down onto the cushions next to it. “Here try these,” he demanded, filling a plate up with little swirly crispy things and soft dumpling parcels and placing it in front of John with an expectant look. John hesitated a moment then decided to let it go and popped one of the swirls into his mouth.

“Ummm” he moaned in surprise, closing his eyes as he swallowed and he opened them again to find the Doctor watching him with a satisfied expression.

“Good?” he said with a knowing lift of his eyebrows.

“Amazing,” John said. “What is it?”

“Don’t ask,” the Doctor advised and John gave him a suspicious look then shrugged and kept eating. He didn’t care what it was, it was fantastic, spicy and sweet and savoury all at once and very moreish. The Doctor filled up his own plate and for a while afterwards they simply applied themselves to the serious business of eating.

By the time John finally couldn’t manage another bite, the sun was setting behind a mountain range and they moved over to collapse on a large soft lounger as the stars came out above them.

John turned his head suddenly to say something and surprised the serious expression on the Doctor’s face again, but he’d got it wrong before. It wasn’t tired so much as solemn, and a little sad and ancient.

“What?” the Doctor asked, as John just looked at him, “Do I have sauce on my chin?” he said anxiously.

“No,” John said, “no, you’re fine, you’re… how old are you?” he finished in a blurt.

The Doctor raised his eyebrows curiously. “Older than I look,” he drawled.

“Yeah, I’m getting that,” John said, eyes tracking from smooth unlined skin to those old, old eyes and back again.

“Yes, you are aren’t you? Interesting,” the Doctor said in a bemused tone. “In Earth years, I’m over a thousand,” he added quietly and John nodded helplessly, knowing it was true no matter how unlikely it seemed.

“You look pretty good on it,” he managed eventually and the Doctor gave a delighted chuckle.

“Thank you,” he said.

“A thousand years,” John mused. “What do you do with all that time?”

“Travel in the TARDIS, of course. I’ve been doing it for nine hundred years,” the Doctor said with a shrug.

“Wow. Is that what all your people do?” John said, imagining a race of time-travellers zipping merrily about the galaxies.

“No,” the Doctor said, sitting up suddenly. “Just me.”

“Oh,” John said, wondering a little at the tension in his voice. It sounded like a pretty good life to John, though if he was going to zip about in a TARDIS, he’d want at least Rodney with him to argue with and fill up that big room. “I guess that gets lonely?” he said tentatively.

“Sometimes,” the Doctor shrugged, “but I don’t always travel alone, and I get to meet a lot of interesting people along the way,” he finished cheerfully, giving John a meaningful wink and John smiled back and sat up too.

“The stars seem so close here,” he said after a minute, looking up and tracing random patterns. “Do you know what the constellations are?”

“Of course,” the Doctor said, “I think I know them from the point of view of three different cultures actually. Look, you see that group at about 2 o’clock, with the five above?” he said, pointing and John squinted and then nodded. “Well, if you ask the people who live here, it’s a fish. But there’s another culture who believe it represents the sad fate of a man who fell madly in love with his pet rabbit thingy…”

“Rabbit thingy?”

“…if I said the real name you just wouldn’t have any idea what it was, so yes, rabbit thingy, and another group says it’s part of a larger pattern that they named after their legend of unrequited love.”

“But not for a rabbit thingy?” John asked, keeping his face straight.

“Not as far as I know, though I can’t help feeling it would lend some much needed action to the story. It goes on for about a hundred stanzas before the sextet even meet…”

“Sextet?” John said, wondering a little how that would work for unrequited love.

“… it’s a polygamous culture,” the Doctor said, “try not to be all Earth-bound about it. Where was I? Ah, they meet, there’s another two hundred stanzas while they all moan that they can’t be together…”

“What, all six of them? Must have been some very complicated reasons.”

“The society has lots of rules,” the Doctor agreed. “And then there are three hundred more of them all weeping and wailing afterwards. Six hundred verses of legend and no sex anywhere, not even a hint.”

“No sex? Sounds crap,” John said, smirking at the aggravated look on the Doctor’s face as he complained about the lack of action.

“Yes, well the same can’t be said for that group of stars,” the Doctor said, tugging John around by his shoulders and leaning in to point again. “The really bright cluster over there, see it?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“According to local tradition, it’s an orgasm,” the Doctor said and smiled suggestively when John looked at him in surprise.

“You’re kidding,” he said.

“Nope. Dead serious,” and John noticed the arm round his shoulders and the way the Doctor was leaning into him before he spoke again.

“Doctor, are you trying to seduce me?” he asked lightly.

“Ah. No,” the Doctor said rapidly and seriously, sitting away slightly but leaving his arm where it was. “I’m wooing. It’s about the journey, not the destination.”

“Hmm,” John said, turning it over in his head.

“I’m a little out of practice,” the Doctor admitted sheepishly and squeezed John’s shoulder gently before dropping his hand down to rest on the lounger behind them.

John thought about journeys and all the places they’d been, the way he’d been touching the Doctor all this time without really thinking about it, having fun and laughing, and he thought about the sadness in the Doctor’s eyes sometimes and the hopeful look he had now.

“I think you’re doing pretty good,” he said. He twisted round, cupped the Doctor’s cheek in one hand, hesitated a little and then leaned in and kissed him. The Doctor froze for an instant and then kissed John back and John closed his eyes and let himself sink into it.

Soft and sweet and warm, just a tender little kiss, and then the Doctor tilted his head a little and stroked a hand into the hair at the nape of John’s neck and just like that it turned sensual and tantalising and John moaned quietly when he felt a tongue lick lightly across his lower lip. It had been so long since he’d had anything that felt this good, had the time to take it slowly and luxuriate like this and he hadn’t known he was missing that until now.

He murmured in protest when the Doctor pulled back and wrapped his arms around the other man’s narrow waist. “I’m just checking: are you going to have conniption at some point because I’m male?” the Doctor asked, his dry tone at odds with the flush in his cheeks and the way he was stroking his hands up and down John’s back. “Because that could really kill the mood.”

“No?” John said, trying for definite, but sounding more confused. He didn’t think so, he definitely wanted to kiss some more because the Doctor was really good at it, and did he have to think about this now? The Doctor studied him for a moment longer while John tried his best to look resolute, but his eyes kept dropping to the Doctor’s lips and the third time it happened, the Doctor gave a gleeful little chuckle and kissed him again and John stopped thinking with relief.

The Doctor tasted like spiced tea and John got distracted by chasing the flavour with his tongue and nuzzling into smooth skin and barely noticed when they shifted from sitting to lying again. The Doctor obviously had some sleight of hand going because John only noticed his clothes were gone when suddenly everything felt that much more amazing and then the Doctor was using the skills of a thousand years to take John apart, atom by atom and he arched up, babbling and pleading and the stars swirled crazily as he turned into one big throb of pleasure.

“Oh,” he said, coming slowly down and when he opened his eyes he was looking right at the orgasm constellation and he snickered helplessly.

“Oh very nice, just the reaction I was going for,” the Doctor said teasingly, but his eyes were shining and happy and he was petting John’s chest so John just grinned at him.

“Hey,” he said, and pulled him down for more kisses. “Show me what you like?” John wanted to make him feel like this too, and it wasn’t like he had much practice here.

“No idea,” the Doctor said, with an absent shrug.

“What?” John said.

“I’ve never done this before.”

Okay, that was clearly insane considering what he’d just done to John and he was over a thousand, he must have. He didn’t look like he was kidding though. “Ha ha, very funny,” John said uncertainly.

“Well, not in this body, anyway,” the Doctor continued blithely, wrinkling up his nose and then nibbling distractingly on John’s neck.

“Umm,” John said, then, “Wait, what, this body?”

“I said there had been some changes lately,” the Doctor said impatiently, like John should have known what he’d meant straight away.

“You changed your body?”

“Regenerated is the term. Things that would kill other races just hit the reset button in my kind. Bang, all change. New hair, new teeth, new personality quirks, new tastes.”

“Wow,” John said, studying the Doctor’s face all over again. That must be confusing as hell to start with.

“When I kissed you on Atlantis that was the first kiss this body ever had. Not bad for a first time, I thought,” the Doctor said smugly. “Anyway, I don’t know what I like yet. Want to help me find out?” he added with a playful leer and John nodded eagerly. He didn’t think he’d ever been someone’s first before, and it was flattering as hell to be the first for someone who’d seen as much as the Doctor had.

He rolled them over, starting the experiment with light sucking kisses down the Doctor’s neck. He startled a little when he felt more than one heartbeat under his hand then shrugged and carried on, letting the Doctor’s reactions guide him, finding the places that got sighs and lingering until sighs turned into moans and the Doctor said oh and yes and finally John.

John snuggled in while the Doctor caught his breath and smiled to himself. It really was typical of his life these days that his first time with a man would also end up being his first time with a real alien. Not that the Doctor was really that different, but it was still pretty cool.

They kissed lazily for a while longer but it was getting cool and they finally had to get dressed. John looked around the terrace again as he pulled on his t-shirt, memorising the details, and then looked up at the sky.

“Can we see Pegasus from here?” he asked curiously.

“No,” the Doctor said and John turned to find he was studying him pensively.

“What is it?” John asked.

The Doctor shook his head. “A foolish impulse,” he said with a rueful smile. “I was going to ask if you would keep travelling with me.”

John’s breath hitched in surprise and his mind was spinning with the possibilities, all the things he could see and do, but then he thought about Rodney and Ronon and Teyla; Elizabeth, Zelenka and the rest; a city that welcomed him; a fight that he could never walk away from. He bit his lip and shook his head slowly. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“I know,” the Doctor said. “You’ve already found your purpose. I just wanted you to know that I wanted to ask.” They looked at each other a moment longer and then the Doctor kissed John chastely and took his hand. “Come on,” he said, “Time to get you home.”

*

Hours of lingering kisses and quiet words later, John stepped out of the TARDIS and back into the conference room of Atlantis to a startled and relieved chorus of his name. He heard the TARDIS start up again, but he didn’t turn around to look, just put out a hand to stop Ronon from charging into it.

“So,” he said after the noise had died away. “How long was I gone?”

“About a minute,” Elizabeth said. “We were just trying to work out what to do.”

“I thought we were panicking,” Rodney disagreed. “And it was one minute forty seconds.”

“It was longer for you?” Teyla asked seriously, a hint of worry in her eyes and John made an effort to smile reassuringly.

“Yeah. It was a long, full day for me,” he said. “It was good though, he took me some fun places.”

“He shouldn’t have taken you anywhere at all,” Ronon said in an annoyed tone and John shrugged easily.

“We had a bit of a misunderstanding there. But no harm done and now I’m back. ”

“What’s that you’re carrying?” Rodney asked and John looked down at the metallic sheaf of slides he held in his hand and smiled for real.

”Give this to your arrogant friend,” the Doctor said. “It’ll make his year.”

“It’s for you,” he said, handing it over and just got his hands over his ears in time to block most of the deafening shriek Rodney gave as he read the first one and realised it was a set of instructions for recharging a ZPM.

*

John spent the rest of the day watching the science department have a collective geekgasm and then taking several hours to catch up on his sleep. He ended up at the impromptu party that had been going on since the news got out after dinner but wandered outside onto a balcony as night fell.

”Where will you go now?” he asked.

“Wherever the TARDIS takes me,” the Doctor said with a shrug. “There’re always places to go, people to meet. I’ll be having a whale of a time, don’t you worry.”

John smiled fondly then reached out and brought their foreheads together for a long moment.

“I’m glad I met you, John Sheppard,” the Doctor said as they parted.

John nodded. “Yeah,” he said, “Take care of yourself,” then he opened the door and stepped back into his life.

He looked up at Atlantis’ familiar stars and pictured a blue box tumbling on through space.

“I hope you’re not alone up there,” he said.

Then he went back inside to find Rodney and join in with the celebrations.