FIC: Good to Go - Doctor Who - Jack, Ten
Title: Good to Go
Author: Jinni (jinni.tth@gmail.com)
Rated: Pg13
Disclaimer: All things Doctor Who belong to the BBC, et al.
Notes: For the Tenth Doctor Ficathon, written for hlynna who wanted the Doctor tasting something, Jack Harkness, and kissing. She did not want PWP. Credit goes to booster17 for the last line, which he kindly gave me when he didn’t think I’d ended this right.
It was very tempting to do the Doctor tasting Jack Harkness while kissing…. But I wasn’t sure if she wanted something slash-y or not. Chica, you let me know if you want some Ten/Jack slash and I’ll see what I can come up with in the near future. In the meantime, hope this doesn’t disappoint.
Spoilers: Doomsday
Summary: Grief shared is grief lessened.
x x x
So calm. Just sitting there, like he expected this. The Doctor frowned, looking down at the viewscreen at the man that had once been his companion and now was something that he couldn’t yet classify. A part of Torchwood - but what did that really mean? Not necessarily bad, he reminded himself. Just because the London branch of said organization had royally fouled things up and almost caused the destruction of the entire human population did not mean that the Cardiff branch was in the same boat.
He wanted to believe that, just as he wanted to believe that he’d be greeted warmly when he stepped out of the Tardis; but he’d long ago learned not to hope for the impossible. If the impossible were possible, then Rose would be here. Then again, the impossible being possible was something he once thought he could make happen with just some quick thinking, a bit of arrogance, and the Tardis. That was before he spent months trying to figure out how to get to Rose, only to decide that maybe, just maybe, this time the impossible really was just that.
Impossible.
Moping, sulking, he hadn’t really intended to look for Jack. Going back for the Captain was something that he’d planned on all along - but that was while Rose was around. After… well, after he hadn’t really wanted anyone in the Tardis. The sound of a voice in her hallowed halls was too much to take if it wasn’t going to be the one that he had thought - really and truly thought - would be there for years to come, maybe even longer. A decade - two? Yes, that would have been just long enough.
Maybe.
He hadn’t even realized that he was looking for Jack until one night when, as if breaking down some sort of subconscious wall, he had found himself tinkering with the Tardis’ controls, dead set on finding him. It had been just that quick. One second he wasn’t sure that he wanted anyone around and the next he’d known there was only one person that could make things even a little better.
Besides, Jack deserved to know what had happened, if he hadn’t read it in a file somewhere. Even then, the Doctor seriously doubted that Torchwood had done Rose justice in its files. Doubted that they had played up her contribution to keeping this world alive and kicking, right up to the point where she had been willing to sacrifice herself to do so.
Jack deserved to know - because the Doctor wasn’t blind. He knew how Jack had cared for Rose.
Still, looking into the viewscreen, the Doctor couldn’t tell what kind of reception he was going to get from the good Captain. The other man hadn’t moved other than to shuffle some files around on his desk, pick one up, and start flipping through it. As if he hadn’t a care in the world. The Doctor felt a little put off, to be quite honest. Tardis sitting right in front of him and Jack acts like he couldn’t care less. Anger, elation - those things were all well and good - but plain old indifference?
He didn’t like that one bit.
Nothing to do but go out there, however. Standing here, watching, was getting him no where quickly.
Pocketing his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor strolled down the ramp leading to the doors of the Tardis. He forced himself to smile when he pushed open the door, determined to be cheerful even if Jack was well and thoroughly irritated with him. He deserved to be. That business with leaving him on the Game Station - while necessary - hadn’t been nice. If he could do it all over again -
Oh, who was he fooling? If he could do it all over again - and he supposed he could if he wanted to risk paradox - he’d pretty much have to do it just the same way he’d already done it. Leave Jack there to hitch a ride back to help rebuild the Earth. All of that had become set in stone the moment Rose resurrected the Captain. He’d seen it. In the vortex as it flowed from her to him, then back to the Tardis. In those moments before and after his regeneration when he was literally bursting with energy, he’d seen Time rearrange itself to cope with this addition that should have been a deletion. Jack Harkness, a part of that world, that time.
Leaving him there had been all he could do.
And he would make Jack understand that, he swore to himself, in that last second before the door opened.
Jack looked up and the Doctor stepped out of the Tardis, hands shoved down in his pockets.
“Doctor - what a surprise seeing you here.”
“Liar,” the Doctor admonished; though now he was the one that was surprised. Surprised at the playful teasing. Surprised at the welcoming smile. Just…surprised.
Jack shrugged. “Knew you’d come for a visit eventually. It was inevitable, I guess.”
The Doctor wouldn’t have put it that way, though perhaps Jack was right. Inevitable that the two of them meet up and pick up where they left off. Inevitable that -
“I knew you’d want to see what our little branch of Torchwood was up to.”
Thoughts slamming to a screeching halt within his brain, the Doctor cast an incredulous glance at Jack. “You think I’m here to check up on Torchwood?”
Jack’s grin grew. “No. Not really. Not at all, actually,” he amended. He laughed. “Just wanted to see the look on your face if you thought I believed it.”
The Doctor scowled, but he knew it was spoiled by the grin that tugged at the corner of his mouth. “So - I assume that since you know that I’m the Doctor, you’ve read or seen -“
“The file on what happened at the London branch?” Jack cut him off. The good humor was gone from his face in an instant and the Doctor almost regretted bringing it up. Still, it was the purpose of his visit, at least on the surface, and he felt it best to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. No sense putting it off. “I read the file, watched what was left of the security tapes. I saw you on there. And the Tardis. And -“
He trailed off, looking away. The Doctor sighed and took a seat across from the desk, stretching out his legs and crossing them at the ankles. There was a scuff on his trainers. Well, lots of scuffs, actually; but this one seemed new and the temptation to try to figure out when it had happened rather than have this conversation with Jack was almost overwhelming.
This conversation had to happen, a part of his mind said. Jack deserved to know what had happened to Rose and Rose… well, she deserved for everyone that would listen to know how brave she had been.
“Rose,” the Doctor finished for him. He smiled a bit, nodding; remembering the events of that day oh so clearly, even now. Wishing he could forget had done nothing during the six months since that horrible day had concluded to dull the memories. Still fresh. Still painful and hurtful and achingly sad. He almost hated to ask, but he needed to know how much Jack didn’t know, “What did the report say?”
A shrug, then a sigh. “That we messed up. Torchwood, that is. That we poked and prodded and did things we shouldn’t have done. I came on as director of this office two or three weeks after it happened, you know. They made me read the report straight from the start - as an example of something we never wanted to happen again. Ever.”
The Doctor nodded. All of that made sense. If Jack had been around when Torchwood was screwing with the very fabric of reality, he would have said something or stopped it somehow. Wouldn’t have let them create a big gaping rip and let through the monsters. Not Jack.
“I read that you and Rose stopped it… that it’s assumed that she died during…everything,” he bit out. Bitterness laced his tone with an undercurrent of pain and anger that showed an emotional wound gone rancid. “I almost left when I found that out - that she’d died because of these idiots. Then I figured that someone had to stick around, make sure they didn’t really screw things up next time.”
There was only one thing that the Doctor could say to that. “Rose isn’t dead.”
“What?” Jack sat up a little straighter. “But the report said you left alone. That you showed up with Rose and her mother -“
The Doctor winced - so that had gotten into the report, after all!
“- and that you left alone.” Jack continued. “A lot of people died that day. I assumed Rose and her mother were two of the casualties.”
“They’re both perfectly safe - in the alternate reality,” the Doctor assured him.
“What? Then… why?”
The Doctor doesn’t need the question to be completed to know what Jack is asking. He sighs. “Because it isn’t possible.”
“Doctor -“
“It. Isn’t. Possible,” the Doctor repeated, more firmly. “You know me, Jack. Don’t doubt for one moment that I didn’t do everything in my power to try to get back to her. I would never - never! - have just abandoned Rose there if I could help it. Not when she made it very clear that this was where she wanted to be.”
Here, with him. And she never would be.
The Doctor looked away once again from Jack’s imploring eyes, knowing that he couldn’t give the other man what he wanted; couldn’t make Rose reappear in this reality. He would have done it already, if he could.
“I understand.”
Two little words and yet they meant so much to the Doctor. He turned back to Jack, seeing the evidence of that understanding in the pain in his eyes.
“She helped save everyone, you know.”
Jack laughed. “I don’t doubt that. Rose couldn’t stand to see other people getting hurt - not if she could stop it.”
And so it was that the Doctor found himself with a glass of the cheap scotch that Jack had in his desk, reminiscing about Rose with the other man. One hour. Two hours. Long enough to drink three-quarters of the bottle.
“Remember that time -“
It seemed like all of their stories began that way. Remembering one time or another that Rose had either found or created trouble, just by trying to be the kind-hearted person that she was. He’d called her a stupid ape in his last incarnation. The right term should have been ‘kind’. Kind ape. Gentle ape.
Sweet…. Wonderful…
Oh, yes, sometimes impetuous and definitely not learned in the ways of the universe.
But still the same sweet Rose, nonetheless.
He set his glass down, eyeing the clock. Neither he nor Jack were drunk. Well, he definitely wasn’t. The Captain was somewhere in between sober and drunk, and looked quite happy to keep talking all night.
That’s when he noticed something, peeking out from under a medium-sized stack of files.
“Wait… wait a second!” the Doctor reached for the sliver of metal and put it to his tongue. Metallic, with a hint of spice. He licked it again, savoring the almost coppery taste of it. “What’s a piece of yinium from Trivin Six doing on Earth?”
“Better question,” Jack countered. “Did you just -lick- that?” He made a face.
The Doctor nodded, putting the sliver of metal back on Jack’s desk. “Oral fixation this time around. Least, that’s what Rose kept telling me. I suppose she might be right. S’only because this tongue is so sensitive.”
Jack snorted.
“What?” the Doctor asked. His eyebrows lifted.
”Nothing. Just… well, oral fixation. You ever get to try it out on Rose?”
The Doctor felt his mouth go a bit slack. He was evidently out of practice on keeping such subjects away from Jack’s flirty little mind, because he had, in retrospect, walked right into that one.
“I’ll have you know that the only time I kissed Rose was right there on the Game Station - same place you did.”
“Huh,” Jack grunted. “So…never with this body?”
Eyes rolling, the Doctor shook his head, “That would be what that meant.”
“So you never got a comparison, then. You know - this body to that one.”
Pointing out to Jack that Rose hadn’t remembered the kiss between herself and his previous self anyway would not have served a point. Instead, the Doctor found himself offering Jack a teasing smile, “Why - offering, Captain?”
Jack looked shocked. That was good - because that was exactly what the Doctor himself was feeling at that moment. He hadn’t come here to flirt with Jack. Hadn’t come here to do anything other than lure him back to the Tardis as his companion at the most. At the least, he’d needed to relay what had happened to Rose, maybe commiserate. That part, at least, had been accomplished.
It was just the luring back to the Tardis part that he was not hitting the mark on. And now this flirty comment was just hanging out there and Jack was slowly starting to get up.
The Doctor swallowed, but refused to show any other outside anxiety. Four steps. That’s what it took for Jack to get to the other side of the desk to stand in front of him. Four steps and then Jack was bending down, staring into his eyes and the Doctor thought that, for one moment, he forgot to breathe.
A press of lips. Not soft. Not rough. Lips on lips and mouth to mouth. It was nice, the Doctor thought belatedly as Jack pulled back, looking far too pleased.
“Better.”
“Better?” the Doctor asked, forgetting the question.
”You’re better this time around. The lips are… better.”
“Yes, well - new, new me. I’ve got a mole, too.” He didn’t know why he was offering that bit up, but he did so.
Smirking, Jack leaned against the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “Am I going to get a chance to find it?”
”I could just tell you.”
“Where would the fun be in that?”
He had a point. The Doctor felt a smile slip over his lips. It felt good to smile again.
It felt good to have Jack around again.
And he was going to keep him around, if he had any say in the matter.
“You’re welcome to try to get the information out of me,” the Doctor began slowly. “However, I do plan on being stubborn about it. Might take a while.”
Jack grinned. “You know - I heard that you have a time machine.”
With that, the deed was done. At least, to the Doctor it was. He hadn’t had to ask, after all.
“Did you, now?”
Jack rolled his eyes and pulled a sheet of paper out of from a file on his desk. He held it up for the Doctor to see before putting it on top of everything else and reaching for a pen.
It had read, quite simply, that he was resigning from his position. Spots to fill in the date and for Jack to sign. He’d had it all written up and ready.
Perhaps the Captain really had known that this day would come.
“You never did tell me why you aren’t mad at me for leaving you.”
Jack finished signing his name and looked up. “I was a part of the timeline. Give me some credit, Doctor - I know how these things work. Yeah, you could have dropped in to say hi - but I figure you can be forgiven considering the fact that you were dealing with the whole regeneration.”
The Doctor had told Rose once that he only chose the best to travel with him.
That hadn’t changed.
“So - where to first, Captain?”
Jack grinned. “Well, I figure I should probably buy you that drink before we play ‘find the mole’.”
The Doctor knew just the place. “Altair Six, then? Rose always did like that bar....”
END
Author: Jinni (jinni.tth@gmail.com)
Rated: Pg13
Disclaimer: All things Doctor Who belong to the BBC, et al.
Notes: For the Tenth Doctor Ficathon, written for hlynna who wanted the Doctor tasting something, Jack Harkness, and kissing. She did not want PWP. Credit goes to booster17 for the last line, which he kindly gave me when he didn’t think I’d ended this right.
It was very tempting to do the Doctor tasting Jack Harkness while kissing…. But I wasn’t sure if she wanted something slash-y or not. Chica, you let me know if you want some Ten/Jack slash and I’ll see what I can come up with in the near future. In the meantime, hope this doesn’t disappoint.
Spoilers: Doomsday
Summary: Grief shared is grief lessened.
x x x
So calm. Just sitting there, like he expected this. The Doctor frowned, looking down at the viewscreen at the man that had once been his companion and now was something that he couldn’t yet classify. A part of Torchwood - but what did that really mean? Not necessarily bad, he reminded himself. Just because the London branch of said organization had royally fouled things up and almost caused the destruction of the entire human population did not mean that the Cardiff branch was in the same boat.
He wanted to believe that, just as he wanted to believe that he’d be greeted warmly when he stepped out of the Tardis; but he’d long ago learned not to hope for the impossible. If the impossible were possible, then Rose would be here. Then again, the impossible being possible was something he once thought he could make happen with just some quick thinking, a bit of arrogance, and the Tardis. That was before he spent months trying to figure out how to get to Rose, only to decide that maybe, just maybe, this time the impossible really was just that.
Impossible.
Moping, sulking, he hadn’t really intended to look for Jack. Going back for the Captain was something that he’d planned on all along - but that was while Rose was around. After… well, after he hadn’t really wanted anyone in the Tardis. The sound of a voice in her hallowed halls was too much to take if it wasn’t going to be the one that he had thought - really and truly thought - would be there for years to come, maybe even longer. A decade - two? Yes, that would have been just long enough.
Maybe.
He hadn’t even realized that he was looking for Jack until one night when, as if breaking down some sort of subconscious wall, he had found himself tinkering with the Tardis’ controls, dead set on finding him. It had been just that quick. One second he wasn’t sure that he wanted anyone around and the next he’d known there was only one person that could make things even a little better.
Besides, Jack deserved to know what had happened, if he hadn’t read it in a file somewhere. Even then, the Doctor seriously doubted that Torchwood had done Rose justice in its files. Doubted that they had played up her contribution to keeping this world alive and kicking, right up to the point where she had been willing to sacrifice herself to do so.
Jack deserved to know - because the Doctor wasn’t blind. He knew how Jack had cared for Rose.
Still, looking into the viewscreen, the Doctor couldn’t tell what kind of reception he was going to get from the good Captain. The other man hadn’t moved other than to shuffle some files around on his desk, pick one up, and start flipping through it. As if he hadn’t a care in the world. The Doctor felt a little put off, to be quite honest. Tardis sitting right in front of him and Jack acts like he couldn’t care less. Anger, elation - those things were all well and good - but plain old indifference?
He didn’t like that one bit.
Nothing to do but go out there, however. Standing here, watching, was getting him no where quickly.
Pocketing his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor strolled down the ramp leading to the doors of the Tardis. He forced himself to smile when he pushed open the door, determined to be cheerful even if Jack was well and thoroughly irritated with him. He deserved to be. That business with leaving him on the Game Station - while necessary - hadn’t been nice. If he could do it all over again -
Oh, who was he fooling? If he could do it all over again - and he supposed he could if he wanted to risk paradox - he’d pretty much have to do it just the same way he’d already done it. Leave Jack there to hitch a ride back to help rebuild the Earth. All of that had become set in stone the moment Rose resurrected the Captain. He’d seen it. In the vortex as it flowed from her to him, then back to the Tardis. In those moments before and after his regeneration when he was literally bursting with energy, he’d seen Time rearrange itself to cope with this addition that should have been a deletion. Jack Harkness, a part of that world, that time.
Leaving him there had been all he could do.
And he would make Jack understand that, he swore to himself, in that last second before the door opened.
Jack looked up and the Doctor stepped out of the Tardis, hands shoved down in his pockets.
“Doctor - what a surprise seeing you here.”
“Liar,” the Doctor admonished; though now he was the one that was surprised. Surprised at the playful teasing. Surprised at the welcoming smile. Just…surprised.
Jack shrugged. “Knew you’d come for a visit eventually. It was inevitable, I guess.”
The Doctor wouldn’t have put it that way, though perhaps Jack was right. Inevitable that the two of them meet up and pick up where they left off. Inevitable that -
“I knew you’d want to see what our little branch of Torchwood was up to.”
Thoughts slamming to a screeching halt within his brain, the Doctor cast an incredulous glance at Jack. “You think I’m here to check up on Torchwood?”
Jack’s grin grew. “No. Not really. Not at all, actually,” he amended. He laughed. “Just wanted to see the look on your face if you thought I believed it.”
The Doctor scowled, but he knew it was spoiled by the grin that tugged at the corner of his mouth. “So - I assume that since you know that I’m the Doctor, you’ve read or seen -“
“The file on what happened at the London branch?” Jack cut him off. The good humor was gone from his face in an instant and the Doctor almost regretted bringing it up. Still, it was the purpose of his visit, at least on the surface, and he felt it best to get it out of the way sooner rather than later. No sense putting it off. “I read the file, watched what was left of the security tapes. I saw you on there. And the Tardis. And -“
He trailed off, looking away. The Doctor sighed and took a seat across from the desk, stretching out his legs and crossing them at the ankles. There was a scuff on his trainers. Well, lots of scuffs, actually; but this one seemed new and the temptation to try to figure out when it had happened rather than have this conversation with Jack was almost overwhelming.
This conversation had to happen, a part of his mind said. Jack deserved to know what had happened to Rose and Rose… well, she deserved for everyone that would listen to know how brave she had been.
“Rose,” the Doctor finished for him. He smiled a bit, nodding; remembering the events of that day oh so clearly, even now. Wishing he could forget had done nothing during the six months since that horrible day had concluded to dull the memories. Still fresh. Still painful and hurtful and achingly sad. He almost hated to ask, but he needed to know how much Jack didn’t know, “What did the report say?”
A shrug, then a sigh. “That we messed up. Torchwood, that is. That we poked and prodded and did things we shouldn’t have done. I came on as director of this office two or three weeks after it happened, you know. They made me read the report straight from the start - as an example of something we never wanted to happen again. Ever.”
The Doctor nodded. All of that made sense. If Jack had been around when Torchwood was screwing with the very fabric of reality, he would have said something or stopped it somehow. Wouldn’t have let them create a big gaping rip and let through the monsters. Not Jack.
“I read that you and Rose stopped it… that it’s assumed that she died during…everything,” he bit out. Bitterness laced his tone with an undercurrent of pain and anger that showed an emotional wound gone rancid. “I almost left when I found that out - that she’d died because of these idiots. Then I figured that someone had to stick around, make sure they didn’t really screw things up next time.”
There was only one thing that the Doctor could say to that. “Rose isn’t dead.”
“What?” Jack sat up a little straighter. “But the report said you left alone. That you showed up with Rose and her mother -“
The Doctor winced - so that had gotten into the report, after all!
“- and that you left alone.” Jack continued. “A lot of people died that day. I assumed Rose and her mother were two of the casualties.”
“They’re both perfectly safe - in the alternate reality,” the Doctor assured him.
“What? Then… why?”
The Doctor doesn’t need the question to be completed to know what Jack is asking. He sighs. “Because it isn’t possible.”
“Doctor -“
“It. Isn’t. Possible,” the Doctor repeated, more firmly. “You know me, Jack. Don’t doubt for one moment that I didn’t do everything in my power to try to get back to her. I would never - never! - have just abandoned Rose there if I could help it. Not when she made it very clear that this was where she wanted to be.”
Here, with him. And she never would be.
The Doctor looked away once again from Jack’s imploring eyes, knowing that he couldn’t give the other man what he wanted; couldn’t make Rose reappear in this reality. He would have done it already, if he could.
“I understand.”
Two little words and yet they meant so much to the Doctor. He turned back to Jack, seeing the evidence of that understanding in the pain in his eyes.
“She helped save everyone, you know.”
Jack laughed. “I don’t doubt that. Rose couldn’t stand to see other people getting hurt - not if she could stop it.”
And so it was that the Doctor found himself with a glass of the cheap scotch that Jack had in his desk, reminiscing about Rose with the other man. One hour. Two hours. Long enough to drink three-quarters of the bottle.
“Remember that time -“
It seemed like all of their stories began that way. Remembering one time or another that Rose had either found or created trouble, just by trying to be the kind-hearted person that she was. He’d called her a stupid ape in his last incarnation. The right term should have been ‘kind’. Kind ape. Gentle ape.
Sweet…. Wonderful…
Oh, yes, sometimes impetuous and definitely not learned in the ways of the universe.
But still the same sweet Rose, nonetheless.
He set his glass down, eyeing the clock. Neither he nor Jack were drunk. Well, he definitely wasn’t. The Captain was somewhere in between sober and drunk, and looked quite happy to keep talking all night.
That’s when he noticed something, peeking out from under a medium-sized stack of files.
“Wait… wait a second!” the Doctor reached for the sliver of metal and put it to his tongue. Metallic, with a hint of spice. He licked it again, savoring the almost coppery taste of it. “What’s a piece of yinium from Trivin Six doing on Earth?”
“Better question,” Jack countered. “Did you just -lick- that?” He made a face.
The Doctor nodded, putting the sliver of metal back on Jack’s desk. “Oral fixation this time around. Least, that’s what Rose kept telling me. I suppose she might be right. S’only because this tongue is so sensitive.”
Jack snorted.
“What?” the Doctor asked. His eyebrows lifted.
”Nothing. Just… well, oral fixation. You ever get to try it out on Rose?”
The Doctor felt his mouth go a bit slack. He was evidently out of practice on keeping such subjects away from Jack’s flirty little mind, because he had, in retrospect, walked right into that one.
“I’ll have you know that the only time I kissed Rose was right there on the Game Station - same place you did.”
“Huh,” Jack grunted. “So…never with this body?”
Eyes rolling, the Doctor shook his head, “That would be what that meant.”
“So you never got a comparison, then. You know - this body to that one.”
Pointing out to Jack that Rose hadn’t remembered the kiss between herself and his previous self anyway would not have served a point. Instead, the Doctor found himself offering Jack a teasing smile, “Why - offering, Captain?”
Jack looked shocked. That was good - because that was exactly what the Doctor himself was feeling at that moment. He hadn’t come here to flirt with Jack. Hadn’t come here to do anything other than lure him back to the Tardis as his companion at the most. At the least, he’d needed to relay what had happened to Rose, maybe commiserate. That part, at least, had been accomplished.
It was just the luring back to the Tardis part that he was not hitting the mark on. And now this flirty comment was just hanging out there and Jack was slowly starting to get up.
The Doctor swallowed, but refused to show any other outside anxiety. Four steps. That’s what it took for Jack to get to the other side of the desk to stand in front of him. Four steps and then Jack was bending down, staring into his eyes and the Doctor thought that, for one moment, he forgot to breathe.
A press of lips. Not soft. Not rough. Lips on lips and mouth to mouth. It was nice, the Doctor thought belatedly as Jack pulled back, looking far too pleased.
“Better.”
“Better?” the Doctor asked, forgetting the question.
”You’re better this time around. The lips are… better.”
“Yes, well - new, new me. I’ve got a mole, too.” He didn’t know why he was offering that bit up, but he did so.
Smirking, Jack leaned against the desk and crossed his arms over his chest. “Am I going to get a chance to find it?”
”I could just tell you.”
“Where would the fun be in that?”
He had a point. The Doctor felt a smile slip over his lips. It felt good to smile again.
It felt good to have Jack around again.
And he was going to keep him around, if he had any say in the matter.
“You’re welcome to try to get the information out of me,” the Doctor began slowly. “However, I do plan on being stubborn about it. Might take a while.”
Jack grinned. “You know - I heard that you have a time machine.”
With that, the deed was done. At least, to the Doctor it was. He hadn’t had to ask, after all.
“Did you, now?”
Jack rolled his eyes and pulled a sheet of paper out of from a file on his desk. He held it up for the Doctor to see before putting it on top of everything else and reaching for a pen.
It had read, quite simply, that he was resigning from his position. Spots to fill in the date and for Jack to sign. He’d had it all written up and ready.
Perhaps the Captain really had known that this day would come.
“You never did tell me why you aren’t mad at me for leaving you.”
Jack finished signing his name and looked up. “I was a part of the timeline. Give me some credit, Doctor - I know how these things work. Yeah, you could have dropped in to say hi - but I figure you can be forgiven considering the fact that you were dealing with the whole regeneration.”
The Doctor had told Rose once that he only chose the best to travel with him.
That hadn’t changed.
“So - where to first, Captain?”
Jack grinned. “Well, I figure I should probably buy you that drink before we play ‘find the mole’.”
The Doctor knew just the place. “Altair Six, then? Rose always did like that bar....”
END