Here Be Captain Jack!
“I’ll be back before you know I’m gone. Time machine, remember? I promise.”
Rose smiled at him, still hesitant but genuine. “I don’t think I need to warn you about letting the dinner get cold.”
A complex expression emerged on the Doctor’s face as he contemplated the various possible reactions that Jackie Tyler would have to him arriving late for dinner. He imagined saving the world didn’t count for much with a woman like her, and that he’d probably get slapped again.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” the Doctor grinned, and he ducked back into the TARDIS.
It shouldn’t have been so creepy for someone with his experience, but something about it was absolutely terrifying. Jack Harkness walked the corridors of Satellite Five, feeling as if he should be walking on tiptoe. The only other sounds were those of air and water moving through pipes and ducts around him. He was the only human being left alive, and he was afraid to even whisper. His footsteps echoed on sacred ground.
He rubbed his arms, touching gooseflesh. He’d done the best he could with the bodies on floors 496 and up - the people he’d lied to, led to their deaths. He laid them to rest in what dignity he could manage, side by side. Except for Lynda. The Daleks had shattered the protective shields and broken into the room, exposing her to space. She was out there somewhere, floating dead in the vacuum, frozen and alone. She deserved so much better.
Now, Jack was leaving floor zero. For a while he’d simply stood there, staring at the heap of a hundred bodies until the image was carved permanently into his memory. Closing his eyes now, he could still see every detail of their faces, and was sure he would be seeing them every night for a long time.
He wondered for the hundredth time how many had survived the attack on Earth, nearly twenty-four hours ago now. Maybe he was the only living human being in the solar system. He felt shaky and sick to his stomach. He had woken up believing he was dead, just in time to hear the familiar harmony of the TARDIS engines. It was especially confusing because he’d thought the Doctor had sent Rose home on a one-way trip. But apparently the TARDIS had returned, and then left again without him, and he didn’t know why. It was one of a long list of questions he didn’t have time for right now. He’d answered the relevant ones:
Was he dead? No.
Had anyone else survived? No.
What had happened to the Daleks? It didn’t matter; they were gone.
He was a practical man at heart. Sometimes, you had to leave bodies behind. That’s just the way it was, so he turned his attention to the situation at hand.
The power would only last so much longer, and when it went, he wouldn’t have much chance for survival. The air would go, and the gravity, and the heat. Worst of all, the lights; somehow, that was the one thing Jack did not think he could stand. He had to find some way to get out of here, as fast as possible. That was the only thing that mattered.
Of course, all the ships had been taken away for the evacuation. These thoughts were getting him nowhere. He had to find a working communications panel, one that hadn’t been torn apart in the attempt to build the Delta wave. He had to at least try to reach someone living, or he was going to stay stuck here. True, he might survive for years if he kept the power going and found the food stores. The thought of spending that much time alone on the satellite provoked a wave of cold nausea, and Jack leaned against a wall for a moment, steadying himself.
He made his way back to the top floor of Satellite Five and began digging through the gutted communications console. First he had to determine what was still working, and what needed repairs.
It didn’t take long to discover the entire inside of the console had melted together. Given the damage to the satellite, it looked unlikely that he’d ever get communications back again.
Jack rocked back on his heels and cradled his head, as if this would help him to concentrate. He didn’t want to die here. He’d never in his life really wanted to die, but never before had he wanted so badly to live. He still didn’t understand how he was alive now; as many close brushes with death as he’d had, this one was different. There was no possible way he could have survived - was there?
“Maybe a coward really does die a thousand times before his death,” Jack said aloud, and began laughing. He was well aware that laughter at this point was neither appropriate nor entirely sane, however, and shook his head as if to clear the hysteria away. He wasn’t a coward anymore, anyway. The Doctor had seen to that, and left him behind in all this horror as if to prove it.
There was another option. He could teleport out with his vortex manipulator and try to meet up with the Doctor and Rose, presuming they’d gone back to London in the 21st century. It was a long trip, though, and upon examination the manipulator looked like it had been damaged in the battle with the Daleks. It might send him to the wrong place, which given the entire universe, was statistically likely to land him in a vacuum or the middle of a supernova. Or it could send him to the wrong time, and he might never meet up with the Doctor and Rose again. He could even simply be killed in transit, failing to ever rematerialize whole again.
Well, there was only one way to find out. Jack began programming the vortex manipulator on his wrist, double and triple-checked the coordinates, and held his finger over the “send” button. He took a deep breath, hoping it wouldn’t be his last.
Just then, a familiar sound filled the room. Jack spun around, his heart pounding in his chest as he watched the TARDIS materialize just a meter away.
Jack leaned forward in nervous anticipation. He wondered if he’d done something wrong. Maybe lying to those people, maybe the Doctor blamed him for everyone the Daleks had killed. Maybe -
Then the door opened, and the man who stepped out was no one Jack had ever seen before. He took his pistol from its holster - it was out of ammunition, but only he knew that - and leveled it at the stranger.
“Hello, Jack.”
“Who are you?”
“Oh, long story, ah… I’m the Doctor. New body, bit different. But it’s still me.” The stranger’s tone of voice was quiet and gentle, but it spoke with a London accent.
Jack’s heart did a flip in his chest. The Doctor? It didn’t make sense, but even just hearing the name made him feel…he wasn’t sure what it made him feel. Something overwhelming. Something like dread and hope tangled together until neither could be distinguished from the other. “If you’re him, where’s Rose?” he asked, distrusting.
“Home safe, with her mother and Mickey. They’re getting dinner ready. Happy Christmas, by the way!”
A range of emotions crossed Jack’s face: relief, confusion, joy and hurt. He settled on confusion, but lowered his gun. Jack examined the new face. It wasn’t a bad face, he decided. Not a bad body, either, even if it was a bit skinny. Still, he felt a pang of loss he didn’t fully understand.
“You’re really him?”
The other man scratched his ear. “I seem to recall a little adventure in Kyoto where you ended up dressed as the least convincing geisha I have ever seen, and that includes Western tourists in the 21st century, to sneak you into the warlord’s keep in order to seduce his son and convince him to clear Rose of all charges of defiling that temple? Don’t think I’ve forgotten you accidentally-on-purpose tripping in your little sandals and landing in my lap. You’re heavier than you look, by the way. What have you been eating?”
“Doctor… okay, I don’t really get it. But it’s gotta be you.” Jack’s expression was a grin that might’ve been mistaken for a grimace, if not for the look in his eyes.
“Hello,” the Doctor replied, with a smile and a little wave.
Jack’s smile faded quickly, however, and his shoulders slumped. “Doctor, everyone’s dead. I lied to them, and now they’re dead. Rose… is she really okay?”
“Oh, yeah, she’s brilliant. Well, we had a bit of trouble with some aliens invading the Earth and enslaving one third of the population, I got in a fight with their leader and got my hand cut off, then I had to deal with some political drama all the while wearing nothing but jim-jams and a bathrobe, but everything’s fine now. I’ve got my hand back, and Jackie’s not looking like she’s going to hit me or anything, so I figured it was safe to come back and get you while we waited for the turkey.”
“I thought you were gone for good,” Jack said in a choked voice. Hardly able to take in whatever the Doctor was yammering on about, he simply rushed forward, catching his friend in a tight embrace.
“Could say the same about you,” the Doctor replied, returning the hug with open affection. He kept one arm around Jack, leading him back into the TARDIS and closing the door behind them. “I’m sorry I left you behind, Jack.”
“You did what you had to do,” Jack said evenly, looking him in the eye. It was clear to both of them that he was willing himself to believe this for the sake of their friendship.
“Well. I suppose I did, didn’t I?” the Doctor said, frowning at the metal grating of the TARDIS floor. Jack got the distinct sense he was holding something back, and something important.
“Doctor-” he began, but he was silenced by the forbidding expression on the Doctor’s face. Fine, then. But there would be questions, later. They were going to have to talk.
“Come on, then. Let’s get back to the Powell Estate,” the Time Lord said, his mood reversing instantly.
“We’re going to meet Rose’s mother?” Jack asked, nearly squeaking. “How do I look? How’s my hair? Do I smell bad?”
The Doctor frowned at him appraisingly. “Weeeeellll… you’re not the prettiest crier, really, it’s made your face all red, and your hair’s a bit greasy. And you do smell a bit. Kind of like a chemical smell. Like swimming pool chlorine and, I don’t know, sort of burnt rubber-and-ozone. Were you crawling around in a melted console or something? But it doesn’t matter, I’m sure you’ll be - ”
Jack dashed off to the TARDIS bathroom, finger-combing his hair as he went. The Doctor shrugged, scratched his neck, and started playing around with some part of the instrument panel. The engines started up, and he listened for a moment with a look of satisfaction. Considering what she’d been through, the old girl was holding up fine.
“Well, Doctor?” Jack peered around the corner after a moment, grinning broadly. His bare shoulders, along with the fact that he was Jack Harkness, suggested he was probably naked. “Aren’t you going to come lather me up?”
A victim of Jackie Tyler’s aggressive hospitality, Jack spent that night on the Tyler’s living room sofa. They’d all been invited to stay through Boxing Day, and Jackie had insisted at least the humans among them should sleep in a proper home even if the Doctor refused.
Jack, however, was not doing very much sleeping. He sat up instead with the blanket wrapped around him, thinking.
He was exhausted beyond measure, but restless. True, life was looking a hell of a lot better than it had just a few hours ago on Satellite Five. Jackie was a great cook, and Mickey was a pretty cool guy once you got to know him. Christmas dinner with two of the people he loved best- even if one of them was a bit different now- had been so wonderful and comforting, he’d wanted to cry with the joy and relief of it.
Still, everything was not okay. There were so many questions that had yet to be answered. He hadn’t quite been able to wrap his head around this new Doctor concept, and from what he could tell, neither had Rose.
Just as he was thinking of her, the door to Rose’s bedroom opened and she stepped out clad in striped flannel pyjamas. She glanced at Jack, beamed as he made a show of looking her up and down, then came and sat next to him on the sofa.
“Can’t sleep either?” he asked.
“Nope. Not a wink. Tired, though,” Rose said, demonstrating with a yawn.
The thought crossed mind, as it frequently did, that Rose Tyler was one of the most adorable people he’d ever met.
“I heard I missed seeing the Doctor swordfight in his jammies,” Jack mused.
“It was quite a sight,” Rose agreed. “Too bad I didn’t get pictures.”
“So. New Doctor and all. Are you okay?”
“More or less, yeah. Fine,” Rose said. “You?”
“Not really,” he confessed, “but I will be.”
Rose leaned her head against Jack’s shoulder, placing her other hand across his back. “I’m glad you decided to come back,” she said. “I missed ya. The Doctor said you had to stay back and rebuild the Earth, but I was afraid that… maybe you didn’t make it.”
“So was I,” Jack said, pulling her in closer. He squeezed her as if he hadn’t seen her in years, more grateful for her warmth and aliveness than she would likely ever know.
After a moment, Rose moved slightly to give him a slow, lingering kiss on the lips. Jack recovered quickly from his surprise and leaned into it just as she pulled away.
“Tease,” he said, eyes sparkling with humour.
“Goodnight, Jack,” she said, a tiny, impish smile on her lips. “Merry Christmas.” She went back to her room then.
Jack grinned into the darkness. It had been a rough one but, all things considered, he’d had worse days.