"You really should, Jack. You are the closest thing he has to a parent while we are at sea."

"He came to you with his questions, Stephen. No doubt they were brought on by your nature lessons. And I could not possibly."

The debate had been going on like that for some time, and while they had reached something of an impasse, neither Jack nor Stephen was willing to yield.

Of course, deep down, they also rather enjoyed each other's discomfort with the subject at hand - Lord Blakeney's recent inquisitiveness about human mating habits.

"And why not, Jack?" the doctor demanded stubbornly.

"Why not what?" Jack had become somewhat distracted by the contemplation of both his ship's surgeon and the topic they were discussing. The two combined were a rather heady mixture, he thought, shifting a little in his chair.

Stephen gave a long-suffering sigh. "Why could you not possibly answer the boy's questions?"

"I am his commanding officer." Jack knew at once from Stephen's frown that his reasoning was faulty, so he decided to take the offensive instead. "My dear Stephen, you are the expert in anatomical matters. You know about... well, these things."

"And you do not?" Stephen chuckled.

Jack smirked when a lesser man might have blushed. "Of course. But we have been at sea so long, I can barely remember."

"Ha!"

Jack chose to ignore that. "Why not tell Blakeney about the birds and the bees instead?" he suggested, thinking the idea quite clever, considering the boy's recent interest in Stephen's creatures.

Oddly enough, the simple suggestion made Stephen look rather uncomfortable.

"Stephen?" Jack grinned at the doctor across his desk.

"I already did."

"And?"

"He listened with great attention, though he seemed unsure how my lecture applied to people. And Jack, I think I may have made a terrible mess of things..."

"How so, Stephen?"

Jack was much too amused as far as Stephen was concerned. The doctor glared at him before reluctantly explaining, "I might have gone into too much detail about the male of many species being more attractive and colourful than the female, for he asked me why then would the males not be more interested in the other males, instead of..."

He got no further than this, for Jack began to roar with laughter, and for a good minute, Stephen could only sit there, sulking.

Finally, Jack managed to gasp out, "He is a smart lad."

When Stephen's eyes widened at this, Jack realized he had been given a momentous opportunity. With his eyes fixed firmly on Stephen's own - they were a rather astonishing blue, as he had recently discovered - he rose and moved around his desk toward his friend. It would be no exaggeration to say that the grin on his face was positively predatory.

The doctor, after a moment's confusion, decided it might be in his best interests to retreat toward the nearest bulkhead. "Jack?" he asked cautiously, bumping into and then side-stepping a small sea chest. "Why are you looking at me like that? Jack?"

Jack followed undeterred until Stephen could go no further, and placed both hands against the wood on either side of his friend's shoulders. He noted with great delight that Stephen's breathing was decidedly unsteady. "I think," he said huskily, his gaze fixed on the pulse thrumming visibly at the base of Stephen's throat. "We ought to put Blakeney's theory to the test."

"You do?" Stephen croaked, then yelped when Jack bent his head and a tongue rasped across the fluttering skin which so fascinated the captain.

With a low groan, Jack pressed hard up against Stephen. "And so do you, my dear." He proved his point beyond doubt with a brief flexing of his hips.

Stephen whimpered pitifully, and while Jack's lips and teeth marked their territory along the length of his throat in a stinging trail, he managed to whisper, "In the... oh, Jack!... interest of science. A... and education..."

Jack growled something that sounded suspiciously like, "Not to mention my sanity."