A Question of Time

Of course, the Master wasn’t going to allow his mate to live in any old apartment, even one as nice as Ianto’s… so Jack was installed in the second largest bedroom in the Saxon Estate, next to the Master’s bedroom and across the hall form Ianto.

Ianto had thought that he would be left behind by Jack Harkness and the Master, only to find himself transferred from his old job at Torchwood One to working directly under the Master… apparently the Time Lord thought too much of Ianto to allow him to toil under Yvonne, and the Master also felt that Jack could use a sort of companion of his own, since the two humans got along so well.

When the Master learned that Jack had been pregnant before… and that he’d suffered a miscarriage, the Time Lord wasted no time in getting Jack a proper medical exam… despite the damage done to Jack’s body by the long ago miscarriage, the child was healthy and strong. A quick scan showed the child, small but perfectly formed… the Master smiled as he declared that Jack was carrying a girl.

“A little Time Lady,” Jack smiled as he ran a hand over his stomach, laughing when his unborn daughter kicked at the pressure. “How is it all determined?”

“What do you mean?” The Master blinked in confusion at the human.

“Well, Time Lords regenerate… so does she get the looks of all your forms? Or just the one which your wearing when she was conceived?”

The Master laughed. “You know, I never thought to ask anyone!” He pressed his hand against Jack’s stomach to feel his daughter kick before he attempted to answer Jack’s question. “I believe she’ll receive the looks of whatever form we’re wearing when she’s born.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Master knew that holidays never went smoothly, as far as the Doctor and aliens attacking planet Earth were concerned… so one Christmas morning, when the Master received a call from Torchwood, informing him that aliens were invading and holding large sections of humanity… well, he wasn’t that surprised.

What did surprise him was, just as he was about to leave the house to help deal with the crisis, he’d heard Ianto screaming in terror. The human had taken to bringing Jack breakfast in bed as the pregnancy progressed, and that morning he’d found Jack writhing in pain and lying in a pool of his own blood.

Jack had gone into labor… and something had gone terribly wrong. While aliens threatened the Earth, the Master tried to figure out what was wrong with Jack while Ianto tried to comfort his friend… they couldn’t give Jack any pain medication because the only ones they had were ones that Time Lords were allergic to. Most Time Lords could absorb and negate the effects of pain medications, but the little girl Jack was carrying was too young.

In the end, after several hours of listening to his mate's agonizing screams, the Master had no choice but to cut the child out of Jack’s body… while Ianto washed the blood off of the little girl, the Master tried to stop the bleeding and stitch his mate back up… only to fail. The only reason that Jack survived was because whatever had brought him back to life appeared to have brought him back for good… he couldn’t stay dead.

Jack snapped back to life with a gasp, looking up at the Master in confusion as the Time Lord struggled to explain what had happened to the young man… before giving up and accepting his daughter from Ianto. He quickly glanced over the little girl, who was whimpering for her mommy, before announcing that she was healthy, if a bit small.

As the television announced the aliens had been driven off, Jack held his daughter close, smiling as the little girl’s bright blue eyes looked around the room, blinking with curiosity.

“Have you thought of a name?” Ianto asked the two men as he looked down at the little girl.

“Rachel… Rachel Harkness,” Jack answered, before passing the little girl over to the Master, so that he could hold his daughter. “She’ll have a human first and last name… but a Time Lord middle name. So what will it be, Master?”

The Master looked down at the little girl, smiling as he saw traces of Jack, himself and what must be the Doctor’s latest form in her small face. Softly he whispered to his daughter in Gallifreyan, causing Rachel to laugh as she reached up to grab the Master’s tie and nibble on it.

“Rani,” the Master decided, freeing his tie from his daughter’s mouth and passing her back to Jack.

“An old friend of yours?” Jack asked, tilting his head to one side like a curious puppy.

“An amazing Time Lady, smart and powerful...a renegade like myself and the Doctor,” the Master replied.

“Rachel Rani Harkness,” Ianto whispered, looking at the two men and the little girl. “Welcome to the world, little one.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Jack loved his little daughter, but even the overwhelming love of a mother needed a break from the constant demands of a baby… which meant that Ianto got pressed into babysitting duty, which Ianto actually enjoyed. From the moment Ianto held Rachel, the human had felt a connection with the little alien girl, and it seemed like Rachel felt the same, as if Ianto were actually related to her rather than just being her mother’s friend.

It was a good thing that Ianto was there to take care of the little girl, since the Master was hesitant to leave his daughter with a regular human babysitter. After all, humans tended to notice an irregular heartbeat when holding a child, and it would take forever to explain that it was normal for Rachel to have two distinct heartbeats and no, it wasn’t a birth defect.

When Ianto asked the Master what would happen when they found the Doctor, the Time Lord just shrugged and remarked that someone would have to watch the baby when her parents dashed off to save the world. Ianto had found himself smiling and holding the little girl closer to him, glad that he would be able to stay with the strange little girl that he’d come to love with all his heart.

Although Ianto and her parents loved her, none of them could deny that Rachel was a little odd… cute, but odd. The most immediate thing that anyone noticed about the little girl was her oral fixation, which was equal parts endearing and aggravating. The Master and Ianto were always pulling their ties out of the little girl’s mouth, while Jack grew used to his hand or a baby toy being sucked on by his daughter. Once Jack had even found that Rachel had stolen the Master’s Laser Screwdriver without the Time Lord noticing!

After a few weeks, one of the reasons behind this oral fixation was revealed, when Jack found that Rachel’s teeth were starting to come in. A quick medical check up with the Master, and the little family knew the reason why… apparently the mix of Time Lord and Human genetics had resulted in Rachel developing faster then a normal human child.

While Ianto concerned himself with the little girl, the Master and Jack began to feel the tug of the mating bond they shared with the Doctor… this resulted in each man having, for a few weeks at least, a strained relationship with the other, as Time Lord and human tried to figure out what the next step was in their relationship…

It didn’t take long for the Master to decide that he would have to lead the dance… and so Jack found himself lying on the Master’s bed, looking up at the Time Lord who had pinned him there. The Master smirked as he pressed Jack down against the soft fabric, before leaning down and kissing Jack deeply as he ran his hands down the human’s body. Jack whimpered, his eyes closing as the Master nipped at his neck, his mouth opening in a moan as his clothing was gently removed.

In the space of a few seconds, Jack found himself crying out in pleasure as the Master started his exploration of the human’s body… easily finding the secret places which made his mate squirm with pleasure and those hidden spots which could drawn screams of pleasure from the beautiful man.

It was Jack who pulled the Master closer, who cupped the Time Lord’s cheek as they kissed, simply enjoying the feeling of being together after so many years spent alone… eventually neither man could take it any more, and the Master moved to prepare his mate, laughing at the small noises of pained pleasure which escaped from Jack’s open mouth.

Jack screamed as the Time Lord thrust home, his nails digging into the Master’s shoulders as he struggled to get even closer to his mate, the two men’s minds twisting together as Jack sobbed in pleasure and the Master whispered in Gallifreyan to his mate…

It was the language of the Time Lords which drove Jack over the edge, causing him to scream out his completion, his voice seeming to echo with the Master’s as he also reached his completion and practically collapsed on top of Jack.

The two lay tangled together as they tried to catch their breath… satisfied and happy in each other’s arms, both man knew that something was missing… or rather someone was missing.

“We’ll find him,” the Master whispered as he held Jack close. “Don’t worry.”

TBC