For innocentsmith by Ximeria

Ray watched as Fraser emptied his bag. He was glad to have his partner back, but it also meant the 'talk' he'd promised himself would have to take place.

"Are you all right, Ray?" Fraser's voice broke the silence.

Ray rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I'm good, Frase, don't worry."

"I merely ask because..." Fraser began.

"No, Fraser, I'm good. I've been keeping busy with the old jeep in the barn while you were gone." Ray forced his annoyance down again. It wasn't Fraser fault that he was nervous. "I like it up here, Fraser, don't worry. I can entertain myself while you're out on patrol." He reached down and rubbed Dief's ear, and somehow it seemed the mutt knew better than Fraser why Ray was so jittery.

"I never thought you couldn't, Ray," Fraser said softly. He shot Ray one last assessing look before pulling something out of the bag, wrapped in a blanket.

Ray swallowed hard and walked over to the table where Fraser was unpacking. "What's that?" he asked curiously, trying to make conversation while he found enough backbone to phrase his question to Fraser. The one that would most likely be the first step of his return to Chicago and the rest of his life, Fraser-less.

Fraser frowned. "I don't know," he replied. "I'm not even sure how I found it. Chance, perhaps." Unwrapping the blanket, Fraser put a gleaming metallic thing down on the table. It was smaller than a football, but had the same shape. The surface was completely unmarked and it just sat there, shiny and odd.

Ray rubbed his fingers through his hair, torn between curiosity and wanting to get his little dilemma out of the way.

Fraser picked the thing up and turned it over in his hands, shaking his head while hmmming to himself.

"Frase, I sorta need to talk to you about something," Ray finally said, reaching out and taking it out of his hand to put it down on the table. He shivered as a small current of electricity went through his body. It wasn't actually unlike that - he could remember having been zapped by a bug zapper as a kid. Made his fingers smart.

Ray dropped it on the table and stuck two fingers in his mouth, glaring at the thing. That fucking hurt! Looking up, he caught Fraser staring at him with an odd look on his face.

The next thing Ray knew, he was pressed down onto the table, the wood groaning under his and Fraser's weight. Not that he had much time to think about it, as Fraser was trying to eat him alive.

Fraser rutted fast and ruthlessly against him and Ray had to wonder what was going on. Not that he was against having any sort of sex with Fraser. Far from it, but at the current speed it would a) be over before Ray could even enjoy it and b) they were both still fully clothed.

And the table was fucking hard to be pressed down on like that.

It should have been great. Really, it was what Ray had been thinking about for ages, yet... Fraser seemed almost in a trance, so very focused on what he was doing.

"Frase, no, hang on," Ray tried to say, but Fraser was so very one track minded that he was not getting through to him.

Dief was barking his head off, but Ray wasn't sure what the wolf was trying to say. He had his hands full as it was, what with Fraser having lost his marbles.

How Ray managed to get Fraser down on the chair and how on earth he managed to bind him with Fraser's own rope from his backpack, was beyond Ray's understanding, but he did. Ray leaned back against the table, feeling tired and confused as he stared at Fraser who was writhing in his ropes to get loose.

Ray didn't quite get the knock at the door at first. They were out in the middle of the Canadian wilderness, there should, theoretically, not be anyone out there to knock.

Exchanging a quick, puzzled look with Dief, Ray tried to ignore the way Fraser's eyes seemed to be burning into him and went for the door.

"Oh, let us in, will you," a female voice rang through the cool air. "It's colder than a well digger's arse out here."

Ray stared, or well, he did, until he was unceremoniously pushed aside by a redheaded woman, who was wearing a jacket way too thin for the outside temperature.

"I eh..." Ray began as he stared after her, but a moment later, he turned to close the door and found a man looking at him. Tall guy, skinny and no better dressed for the weather. His hair was, if possible, more experimental than Ray's used to be when he still had the hair dressers of Chicago to go to on a regular basis.

"Let's get inside, shall we?" the man said, grinning madly at him. "No need to let all the heat out." Stepping forward and around Ray, the man stopped, more or less nose to nose with him. "I'm the Doctor, by the way. The lady's Donna and oooh, nice doggy."

Ray blinked in confusion and wondered, if he pinched himself hard enough he might actually wake up to a perfectly normal day. Closing the door, he turned around to watch Dief making way too nice with the... Doctor, who the hell he might be.

Ray pinched himself and winced. Okay, not a dream then.

Finally managing to find his voice again, Ray steeled himself and opened his mouth to yell at the newcomers.

"What's wrong with this one?" the red-head, Donna, asked. She was bending forward and staring into Fraser's face. Fraser, who was still staring at Ray, like the two others weren't even in the room.

"Just... who the hell are the two of you?" Ray asked, feeling his anger rise. He was in the middle of a crisis with Fraser acting very un-Fraserish and then these ...lunatics turn up out of nowhere.

The man turned around and watched him with some amount of concern. "I just told you. I'm the Doctor, this is Donna. As far as I know that Kirillian re-programmer isn't supposed to cause short term memory loss like that."

"The whats-it's not supposed to do what?" Ray asked.

The Doctor waved at the object Fraser had brought home with him. It was laying on the floor, pushed off when Fraser had thrown Ray onto the table top.

"What the Martian's trying to say," the red-head cut through, "is that your boyfriend here, who's by the way, drop dead gorgeous, has had his personality reprogrammed."

That didn't exactly help Ray with his confusion. For all he knew, they could have been speaking Inuktitut and that might have made more sense.

The Doctor stepped up to Fraser, obviously not expecting Ray to reply to that explanation. He pulled a pen-like thing from his inner pocket and waved it in front of Fraser.

Ray itched to drag him away from his partner.

Then the pen was waved under Ray's nose, the bright blue tip making Ray go cross-eyed to follow.

"Hmmm, it doesn't seem to be affecting you," the Doctor muttered to himself. As he turned back to Fraser, he stopped, then tilted his head to the side. "You wouldn't happen to have a cuppa, would you?"

Ray blinked. "Cuppa what?" he asked, feeling a little dumb. There was something about the manic guy that just... made him feel a little inadequate.

"Tea," Donna said, giving him a look like he was an idiot.

"Frase's got some twig stuff in the cupboard," he said slowly. "What exactly are the two of you doing here, anyway?"

"Be a darling and make us some tea," Donna said. "I'm sure the Doctor can fix this."

Ray shook his head and found himself heading toward the kettle. Pouring water from one of the bottles standing on the back of the kitchen worktop. He was beginning to understand how Alice must've felt falling through the Rabbit's hole.

He kept looking over his shoulder. Ray couldn't help but worry about Fraser. He had never seen him like this. A non-speaking Fraser who tried to have sex with him on the table? Well, apart from the no talking, Ray had had that fantasy more than once in the past.

It didn't escape Ray's notice that no matter where he moved in the cabin, Fraser's eyes followed him. Actually, by now, the other man was practically panting; sweat coating his forehead and darkening his shirt by the armpits. As he waited for the water to boil, Ray decided that he wasn't going to just sit around and let... what had she said? Martian? Ray shook his head.

"Hey! Tell me what's wrong with Fraser?" he demanded. If nothing else worked, he thought to himself, get pissed.

The Doctor looked up and beckoned him over. Donna took over his place by the stove and Ray stopped caring about tea.

"He's had a bit of a bad run-in with a Kirillian re-programmer," the Doctor said, as if that would make it any clearer to Ray.

It didn't.

"He'll be right as rain, you'll see," the Doctor continued, picked up the thing that Fraser had brought back and tapped it with his blue penlight. It didn't escape Ray's notice that Fraser looked a little sick now, instead of just hot and bothered.

"Ah, there's the tea," the Doctor said, shaking Ray from his worries.

"I prefer coffee," Ray said with a snort.

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "I have a friend who's like that too, though that might just be the guy who makes his coffee. Never took to the stuff myself, although there's this marvellous little cafe in the Castillian Cloud where they serve this drink that's sort of like coffee, but with something like hot choclate mixed in..."

"Oi, Martian man, stick to the point," Donna told him sharply as she sat the cups with tea down on the table.

Ray stared at Fraser who was slumping in the chair now, eyes almost fully closed.

"Give him a cup of tea when he comes around. Which should be in ten minutes or so," the Doctor said. He paused and looked down at Dief. "Yes, quite," he said. "Tea is full of good things that will help with his recovery and no, I'm sure there was nothing you could have done to prevent him from picking it up, out there..."

Dief moaned something and the Doctor nodded again. "It's a very common mistake." Then the Doctor looked up, slightly to the left of Ray. "No, I don't think you can hold it against either of them," he said with a frown. "No, not the half-wolf either. It doesn't reprogram so much as ... No. I don't think you can put it that way."

Ray wondered if the guy had gone completely around the bend, because he was talking to thin air.

"Who's the old guy?" Donna asked him curiously.

Ray blinked. "What old guy?"

Donna gave him an odd look. "That old guy," she said, pointing at the spot the Doctor was still jabbering at.

Ray put a hand against his temple and wondered if his head might explode. Ray was torn from his contemplations by a groan from Fraser. He looked less feverish and his eyes were open, if only a little. He looked about as dizzy as Ray felt. Focusing on Fraser, Ray knelt by his side.

"Can I untie him?" Ray asked quietly, not taking his eyes off Fraser. He wanted to get those ropes off, so badly. It hadn't been Fraser's fault and he was so glad he'd stopped him before they'd ended up having sex. He wasn't sure he could have looked Fraser in the eye afterwards, knowing what he knew now.

"Yes, of course," The Doctor said. "Brilliant little thing," he continued, pocketing the re-programmer. Ray briefly wondered how it could fit into the pocket without making his pocket bulge. "But really not meant for humans. It's meant to enhance emotions already present and make the act of love more intense. Unfortunately, human metabolism sort of starts to go crazy when affected by it. Shag till you burn yourself up," he explained with a sort of endearing scrunch of the nose. "If you don't shag, it'll burn you up anyway, just faster and more painfully. Unless the machine is reversed.

Even if they hadn't had sex, Ray still felt like he'd taken advantage of Fraser, because he'd wanted it so badly.

"I'm sorry, Frase," he mumbled, still kneeling at the chair, untying him.

"It's all right, Ray," Fraser mumbled, trying to focus on Ray, though he wasn't succeeding all that well.

"No, it's not," Ray replied. "I almost took advantage of you."

"Didn't you hear the alien? It enhances what's already there." Donna shook her head, looking at them like they were idiots. Ray was beginning to wonder if that was her default expression when dealing with people.

Ray stared at them. He was torn between throwing them out and thanking them for the rest of his life.

"The machine can't create emotions, just amplify them. Speaking of which, I wonder why you weren't affected by it in any way. You should have been in the same condition as he is," the Doctor said with a frown.

"I have no idea," Ray said tiredly.

"Have you ever been in contact with alien hardware before?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Eh... no," Ray said, refusing to even think about the alien abduction thing.

"Oh well," the Doctor said, standing back and putting his pen into his pocket. "I think we should get going. The two of you have more than enough to discuss, I'd say," the Doctor said with a huge grin. "Don't get up, we'll see ourselves out."

He took Donna by the elbow and turned toward the door.

"Do you think we should drop that thing off in Cardiff?" Donna asked as they opened the door. "Them having a secure archive for all this sort of stuff?"

"Goodness, no!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Do you have any idea what the Captain could do with something like this?"

With more friendly bickering, the door was closed and Ray was once again left with Dief and Fraser as the only company. Dief went over to the stove and lay down, watching the both of them closely. Ray stayed on his knees by Fraser's chair.

He tried not to wonder why they had been talking to thin air. He needed to focus on Fraser.

Testing the waters, Ray put a hand on Fraser's arm and kept it there. He tried to ignore the minuscule flinch. If he knew Fraser well enough, the man would start spouting apologies and before Ray knew it, he would be on his way back to Chicago, 'for his own good'.

Ray leaned up and pressed his lips to Fraser's, just as Fraser opened his mouth to start talking.

As kisses went... it wasn't particularly well executed.

Fraser closed his mouth and their lips were pressed together. Neither of them moved and Fraser sat stiff as a board on the chair.

Just when Ray decided that it wasn't going to work, and he began to pull back, Fraser's hand came up to curl around his neck, holding him in place.

This time the kiss was a lot better. It was warm, a little slicker, a little more movement. Then Fraser parted his lips and Ray couldn't help but moan and follow suit, fitting his mouth to Fraser's.

Ray's knees ached, but he couldn't care less about the pain. Fraser was kissing him back, and...

Ray broke the kiss and held Fraser back against the chair. "You're you again, right?" he asked worriedly.

Fraser lifted an eyebrow and tore his eyes from Ray's mouth. "I would like an explanation later, but right now, I was... erm...," he coughed lightly. "I should very much like to continue what we were just doing."

Ray felt laughter bubble up inside. "You're you alright," he said softly before standing up and offering Fraser a hand up as well. "Please don't ever change." With that he put his arms around Fraser and was thrilled to feel Fraser holding him just as tightly.

What had happened today could have been his imagination if not for the cooling tea on the table and Fraser nuzzling his chin.

The third kiss? Was perfectly Fraser and perfectly perfect in every perfectly damned way.

The End