Title: The Face of Danger
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Tenth Doctor/Mick St. John
Fandom: Doctor Who/Moonlight
Rating: PG-13
Table: Buffet 1, fc_smorgasbord
Prompt: 8, Trap
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my own imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own the lovely Tenth Doctor or Mick St. John, just borrowing them for a while. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor yanked at the straps that secured his hands to the table that he was lying on, realizing even as he did so that it was useless to struggle. He was bound too tightly to free himself; his captors had made sure of that before they'd left their laboratory.

How had he gotten into this mess? He and Mick had been led here by a message on the psychic paper, a message that he now realized had been a trap. The men who had separated the two of them and taken him captive had planned this very cleverly.

He should have known better than to go running into a situation before he and Mick had investigated things thoroughly. Wasn't he old enough to have known how easy it would be to play into his enemies' hands, how easy it was to make things look innocuous when they weren't?

He'd fallen for this kind of thing before -- but this was the first time he'd ever found himself in a situation like this. He hadn't known what his captors wanted him for at first, but listening to them talking to each other in the lab had made their purpose horrifyingly clear.

They knew that he was a Time Lord. They knew that he had two hearts. And they were obviously stark raving mad for intending to harvest one of his hearts as a Valentine's Day gift for a woman that they both fancied themselves to be in love with.

It wasn't going to happen, the Doctor told himself firmly, tugging at the restraints again. The bonds were no looser than they'd been only a couple of minutes ago, the last time he'd tried to free himself. He had no way of loosening them, or of getting out of here.

He would simply have to wait for Mick, and hope that his lover could find him and rescue him before it was too late. He'd also have to hope that they could find a way to put those two madmen behind bars, where they belonged -- or at least into a padded room.

Had they captured Mick, too? Did they know that the man he was traveling with, the man who was the love of his life, was a vampire? Had they wanted to lure Mick here as well as himself, to be used even as they planned to use him? He shuddered at the thought.

He didn't want to think of Mick being harmed in any way; his lover didn't deserve to be pulled into any of the bad situations that he managed to get himself into. If Mick had been harmed, if he had been captured and was even now being held prisoner, it was his fault.

He had no right to expect Mick to rescue him -- though he was hoping that was exactly what was going to happen. He didn't want to die here -- and he didn't want to leave this life without the chance to tell Mick how very much he was loved and needed.

What if he never saw his lover again? What if those madmen came back before Mick had managed to find out where he was, and they extracted his second heart? That would most certainly kill him; he couldn't regenerate into a new body if this one was mangled to that extreme.

Oh, he would regenerate -- but the body that he was in next wouldn't be able to survive for long, not when the body he'd left behind had been torn to pieces. He'd seen other Time Lords try to regenerate when they were in that sort of condition -- and it wasn't pretty.

He wouldn't want to even attempt to live like that -- with his body in such a mangled state that life wouldn't be worth holding on to. Not that he could, with only one heart, he told himself wryly. He didn't see how humans could get along with only one.

That didn't bear thinking about now, though. The Doctor took a deep breath, closing his eyes and trying to focus his thoughts. He had no idea where Mick was, but he had to hope that his boyfriend was here, that he was somewhere near, and that Mick would find him.

Mick was going to rescue him. He was going to show up in this horrible laboratory before those madmen did, and they were going to get out of here and go back to the Tardis, where they would come up with some kind of way to keep those men away from society.

A sound beyond the doorway that the men had exited out of made him raise his head, focusing on the doorway and wondering what could possibly be going on. It had sounded like a .... a roar. Like some sort of wild animal caught in a trap.

That was what this entire incident had been, the Doctor thought grimly, his muscles tightening as though he could somehow get up and back away from whatever might burst through that door at any moment. A trap. One set for him -- and one that he couldn't get out of.

The door burst open and three figures tumbled through it, all of them on their feet -- for the moment. The Doctor's dark eyes widened, a gasp frozen in his throat as he recognized all of them, the three people caught in what appeared to be a struggle to the death.

One of those figures was Mick -- but it was Mick as the Doctor hadn't seen him since the first night they met. His vampire nature was at the forefront; his eyes were a blazing red, his fangs extended. He didn't look like a man -- but like a ravening monster.

If he had seen Mick like this and not known him as a man when he had that hidden nature of what he was carefully controlled, he would have been terrified of what was in front of him. As it was, he knew that Mick wouldn't turn on him, even in his vampiric state.

Still, it was frightening to see the man he loved as he was now. Mick was wild, feral; the Doctor could almost feel the anger emanating from him. As he watched in horror, unable to stop what was taking place, his boyfriend savaged the men who had kidnapped him.

One of them was literally dangling from Mick's hand; a quick twist, and the Doctor could hear the snap of the man's neck as it was twisted and broken. Mick flung him aside, picking up the other man effortlessly with one hand and throwing him against the wall.

The Doctor wanted to tell him to stop, fearful that this was yet another trap to lure Mick into captivity in some way. But he couldn't make himself cry out; he could only lie there, wide-eyed, watching what was happening as though it was technicolor film rolling in front of his eyes.

Mick picked up the other man, snarling at him, baring his fangs. He kept raising his victim higher above him, holding the man by the throat; it seemed to take an agonizingly long time for the telltale snap that broke his neck and made his body go limp.

When Mick turned around to face the Doctor, he was no longer in his vampiric state. His features had returned to normal; there was no sign of the ravening beast that the Time Lord had seen mere seconds ago. He simply looked like a concerned man, nothing more.

He rushed to the table where the Doctor was strapped down, removing the restraints and gathering the Time Lord into his arms. The Doctor rested his head on Mick's shoulder, too relieved for the moment that he was out of danger to say anything about what had just happened.

"Coming here was a trap," Mick said softly, running a gentle hand through the Doctor's tawny hair. "We were lured here, Doctor. That's pretty obvious. The question is, by who? I don't think those two knew who and what you are. Not smart enough."

The Time Lord nodded, sighing softly as his glance fell on the bodies lying by the wall. "I'm sure that they probably heard someone talking -- and decided that getting to me first would benefit them," he murmured, hoping that his theory was the right one.

But Mick shook his head, frowning. "I don't think it's just that. They might have overheard someone talking about you, but how would they conveniently know how to use the psychic paper to lure you here? This is more than a couple of mental patients getting lucky."

"We can talk about it once we're out of here safely," the Doctor told him, glancing around with a frown. "I don't know about you, but I'd feel much safer back in the Tardis." And at least they didn't have to find a way to get those two back into a padded room, he added to himself.

Mick nodded, bending down to pick up the Time Lord's shirt from the floor where the two men had thrown it when they'd strapped him down to the table. "Yeah, let's get out of here. I've got a feeling there's somebody else behind all this, and I don't want to be around when he comes back."

The Doctor was in full agreement, though he didn't say so. He hadn't considered it before Mick had put forth his theory, but it felt more and more as though the Master was behind this; he wouldn't put it past that devious, tortured maze that the rogue Time Lord called a mind.

Once they were back in the Tardis and away from this planet, he would try his best to find out if his oldest enemy had been behind this -- though somehow, he didn't think that he would have to look very far to find the answer to that question.

Mick helped him pull his shirt on, then took his hand and led him towards the door before stopping, looking as though all of his senses were alert. The Doctor had seen this before; his boyfriend was searching for any sign of danger, any indication of another trap.

But there didn't seem to be one; after a few seconds, Mick relaxed and opened the door, leading the Time Lord down a long corridor and out of the building. The Doctor took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment before he followed Mick, both of them walking rapidly.

Now that they'd escaped that trap, the Doctor felt that they would both be much more careful before they answered any more distress calls. He couldn't help wondering just what the next one would be -- and if the face of danger would be the one that he expected it to be.

***