Settling In [ota, tag River Song]

[a_fixed_point]

Jack was still not over everything that had happened with Torchwood and those he cared about, but one could hardly have expected him to be when months before he'd even appeared in the village hadn't been enough to dull the pain. Still, he was settling in here, making plenty of friends. And friends with benefits, but that went without saying where

Comments

[everybodylives]

River had days when she avoided the exhibit. And days when she decided to dismantle it and closed the doors and started taking everything down. And days when she wandered around remembering, only the happy memories and she felt less alone now that she had neither Amy nor Rory nor the Doctor (or the one who knew her) in the village.

Today was none of those days, she was simply working, hair in a messing bun as she bustled in and set to work opening a mostly empty case and arranging items from a box. She sensed movement and glanced over curious (ironically there was usually no one in the exhibit), then she blinked.

"Jack? Jack Harkness?"

[a_fixed_point]

He'd been so engrossed in the exhibit, he didn't hear at first. Then he turned his head, eyes wide in honest surprise, "River?"

[everybodylives]

It was momentarily shocking to have someone recognize her, and when she smiled it was dazzling. She moved toward him, eyes alight as she did so.

"I don't know if I should hug you or slap you."

[a_fixed_point]

Jack couldn't help but laugh, momentarily distracted from his picture on the wall, "Most people have that reaction, honestly..."

[everybodylives]

She decided as she got close enough to hug him, since this time around he didn't seem inclined to be priggish and mean, so she hugged him.

"At least they aren't armed."

[a_fixed_point]

He hugged her back, still laughing a bit, "Couple times they have been."

Once the hug broke he looked down at her, perhaps at a bit more than her face, "Seems like there are quite a few familiar faces in this place."

[everybodylives]

"More for you than me, or maybe more that recognize you." She mostly had Donna on the list of people who knew her.

"There have been more who knew me, my parents, my Doctor.. John."

[a_fixed_point]

Jack stared a moment. John...

"Hart?" he asked, unsure what he thought about that. They're last parting hadn't exactly been a good one.

[everybodylives]

"He was here for over a year, he... got his happy ending." Since it would be too difficult to explain all that had happened. "I miss him, but then he always did like me."

[a_fixed_point]

'At least someone did', was all Jack could think at that news.

"Of course he did." They were similar in a lot of ways after all, "How long have you been here?"

[everybodylives]

Exactly her thought.

"You don't want to know," she laughed and stepped back, slipping her hand in his to hold their arms out so she could look at him. "Nearly four years. How about you? And when did you come from?"

[a_fixed_point]

He was looking at her too, hands in hers, but his eyes dropped slightly at the question, "Been here a few weeks. Was in Cardiff before I came. But I was leaving. Getting away for a while..."

A long long while.

[everybodylives]

She nodded and gave his hand a squeeze, he didn't need to explain. She was nosy about the other companions.

"I'd just died, when I arrived. Not to be morbid or anything."

[a_fixed_point]

Jack was silent a moment, then he just shook his head, sighing at that news. Everyone was dying. You'd think after hundreds of years he'd start to get used to it.

"At least you're alive here."

[everybodylives]

"I suppose, but I sacrificed myself in a blaze of glory and really... it's somewhat anticlimactic to pop back up in people's lives."

[a_fixed_point]

"I know the feeling." it had happened to him more than once. Especially with his first death. He'd known he was done for, but he was going out protecting Rose and the Doctor.