SquidgeWorld Archive

The Doctor was quite pleased with himself. He'd saved the universe yet again from the threat of Dalek invasion, and was now contemplating a nice cup of tea and a lie down in the TARDIS. It had gotten a little hairy for a while * as it always did with Daleks * but luckily, Turlough had come to his rescue. //He really was a much better assistant than Tegan//, the Doctor mused to himself. //All she really did was stand there in her bad eighties fashion and scream.// He'd taken Tegan all round the galaxy and she still insisted that blue frost eyeshadow and too much gel looked all right. He remembered the time they'd taken a pit stop in 2015. He rarely got embarrassed, but with Tegan's 'keen dress sense', he really did with that the remaining seven lives he'd had left would all come to an end right there and then.

//Yes//, thought the Doctor, //Turlough really is shaping up to be a fine companion.// There was just something*different about him that set him apart from the other companions he'd had across the years. Hell, even something different from the other *male* companions he'd had across the years. He paused from fiddling around with the TARDIS's control panel to contemplate what was actually so different about Turlough.

He wasn't a girl, that was a start, he thought to himself. And he didn't wear a dress like Jamie had, and even though Jamie insisted it was a 'kilt', the Doctor suspected he was just trying to hide his cross dressing tendencies. He wondered briefly if Jamie had sorted that out yet. It just wasn't right to hide away such a big part of your personality like that. The Doctor had encouraged Jamie to wear as many pretty little frocks as he liked, the Doctor and Zoe wouldn't mind at all, but Jamie had just called him a 'dirty old man, and if he'd known there was a price, he never would have come'.

What worried the Doctor most though, was the way Turlough seemed to stare at him, hang onto every word he uttered. He was used to his companions staring at him * especially in his new, youthful incarnation * but it was always from his *female* companions. The Doctor paused; seemed to hang on the edge of a great discovery * when Turlough himself chose that moment to enter the console room.

"D'you want a cuppa, Doctor?"

The Doctor thrust his hands in his pockets. "That would be wonderful, Turlough, thank you."

Turlough beamed. "Great. I'll get it together and I'll meet you in the Zen room."

The Doctor nodded absently. //The Zen room?// He thought to himself. Was there any particular reason Turlough wanted tea in the Zen room? They usually only went in the Zen room on special occasions. Well, he *had* just saved the galaxy. //That was special enough, I suppose,// he thought, shrugging.

He put the TARDIS into Temporal Orbit and wandered over to the Zen room, wincing slightly as the walls wobbled, as if they were made from cardboard or cheap fibre glass. Turlough was already there, smiling hugely.

"That was quick," the Doctor said.

"I wouldn't want to keep you waiting, Doctor," Turlough replied. He poured the tea into cups, and handed one to the Doctor, blushing slightly as their hands touched.

"You really are a godsend, Turlough," the Doctor went on, after sipping his tea. "I really don't know what I'd do without you." He smiled warmly, as his companion flushed with the praise.

"Ah, it was nothing. I know you've had a hard day. You just might have a hard night as well," Turlough added, raising an eyebrow.

//What on Gallifrey could he mean by that?// The Doctor thought genuinely puzzled. //Perhaps he just means the aftermath of the attack.// "Where's Tegan?" he said instead.

"I think she's already gone off to bed. So it's just you and me, Doctor. Just the two of us."

"Well, that'll be nice, won't it?" the Doctor said jovially. "A little 'men only' time, eh, Turlough?"

Turlough placed his chin in his hand. "Really, Doctor. It's as if you read my mind."

"I may be a Time Lord, but I certainly can't read minds!" He replied, all attempts at subtlety lost on him. "This is jolly good, though, isn't it? Feel like doing anything?"

"Oh, you could say that."

"I know what would be terribly blokey!" The Doctor exclaimed. "Would you like a cigar?"

"In a manner of speaking," Turlough replied, smiling enigmatically.

"Great! I'll go get the cubans, shall I?" The Doctor made to get up, as Turlough reached over and held him in place. "Turlough, what are you doing?" The Doctor asked, confused.

The companion looked into the Doctor's eyes, while still keeping a firm grasp on his hands. "All the 'cigars' I want are right here in this room."

The Doctor furrowed his brow. "But I keep all the cigars in the rain room!"

Turlough sighed. "Doctor, I don't think you're listening to what I'm saying."

"Of course I'm listening! It's just that you're not making any sense. There's no cigars in the Zen room, Turlough, unless you think you can smoke the incense. Well, you probably could, but it would give you an awful headache. Sarah Jane tried it once."

Turlough reached out and began stroking the Doctor's hair. "You're such a pretty blonde thing," he murmured. "It's a wonder you're even still single. Some big man should have snaffled you up years ago."

The Doctor had no idea what his young friend was talking about, but he was starting to get decidedly uncomfortable. "Look, Turlough, perhaps we should just go to bed."

Turlough's eyes lit up. "So you *have* been paying attention, then," he growled lustily, looking at the Doctor in a way the Doctor *definitely* wasn't comfortable with.

"Of course I have!" He said indignantly. "I always do!"

Turlough's face was now a centimetre away from the Doctor's own. "I should have known you were just playing hard to get," he whispered.

"What?" the Doctor fairly whimpered. There was no denying it * Turlough was scaring him so much his twin hearts were hammering like a bad techno song beat.

"There's no need to play anymore, Doctor," Turlough murmured, smiling. He reached out, and it one smooth moment, had the Doctor's white with red trim jacket off his shoulders.

"What are you *doing*?" the Doctor gasped.

"You've got two hearts. Any other vital organs you've got two of?"

***

Alone, in her room, Tegan could hear the Doctor screaming. She shook her head. She'd told Turlough, but he wouldn't listen.

She *knew* the Doctor wasn't gay.

Oh, well. Looked like Turlough owed her fifty bucks.