Title: Star Crossed
Rating: PGish
Characters/Pairings: Kirk, Spock, implied K/S, Captain Jack Harkness, The (eleventh) Doctor, Amy Pond, mentions of McCoy, Scotty and Chekov, and Ianto Jones, and implied past Jack/Ianto.
Summary: The Enterprise receives some special visitors, and Jim makes a new friend.
Warnings: Spoilers for Doctor Who up to well, whatever the current episode is, and Torchwood (all), and Star Trek XI. (Also this is not beta'd so forgive me if it's OOC or there are mistakes.)
Notes: This idea has been in my brain forever, and while I am aware there are a lot of STXI/DW/TW crossovers, none have really dealt with any actual character development. So here's this.
The room is spinning. Jim knows this is technically impossible, but the feeling of vertigo that threatens to knock him over when he tries to sit up is enough to convince him that maybe he should stop drinking.
He hears a groan and turns his head towards the company he was entertaining. A few hours ago, a purplish-blue box had just...appeared in Engineering and out popped a redheaded girl, a young looking man with a bow tie, and a tall, dark, incredibly handsome man with a long, flowing coat.
Apparently the bow-tied man, known as The Doctor, was some sort of alien who travelled through time, and the others were his friends.
The redhead, Amy, had quickly struck up conversation with Scotty, their Scottish accents thick and peppered with slang words that he didn't understand. Chekov and the Doctor started talking about quantum physics or some subject that Jim knew was dry and definitely not in his taste.
Which left Captain Jack Harkness all to Jim.
The first thing that Bones said when he met Jack was "Oh God, there's two of them."
Jim had to admit the similarities were striking. They both had blue eyes and blondish brown hair, both were Captains, and both were incredibly handsome and charming. Later, as they talked, Jim even realized they were both very much into romancing anything and everything. Including, Jim hoped, each other.
So Jim got out the Scotch that his chief engineer had given him as a gift and they started drinking. However, instead of getting it on like Jim fully intended, they had ended up drinking themselves into a stupor. Both were sprawled (fully clothed) across Jim's bed, staring at the ceiling, their glasses and the now empty bottle long abandoned on the floor.
"Jim?" Jack asks, titles forgotten sometime after the fourth glass.
"Hmmm?" Jim slurs in response, using way more effort than he felt was necessary to turn his head in the other man's direction.
"Have you ever been in love?" Jack's eyes look sad, like they're a thousand years older than they should be.
Jim closes his eyes and thinks for a moment.
He was in love, at this very moment, with his first officer. Spock. God, if he only knew...
Jim opens his eyes.
"I have been. I am."
Jack rolls over so he's half on his side and half on his stomach.
"Have you told them? That you love..."
"Him. And no, I haven't."
Jim watches as Jack stares down at his bedspread, as if trying to calculate a response. After a few minutes, he finally begins to speak, but his eyes never leave the bed.
"I knew a man, who worked for me at my old job, and he was absolutely the most gorgeous, genius, amazing man I have ever met. And I fell in love with him." Jack's voice seems to catch for a moment, but he takes a breath and continues. "I never told him that, and he died in my arms."
Jim can feel his own eyes filling up with tears at the lifeless, defeated tone that his companion's voice had taken. Jack's eyes flick up to catch his own and Jim can almost feel the desperation in them.
"Jim, you need to tell him how you feel, before it's too late. Don't make the same mistake I did."
Vaguely, in the back of his head, Jim remembers a time a while ago when memories were pushed into his head in a cold cave, memories that he should never have seen. Two beings so in love, one of them dying while the other watched helplessly...Jim knows that the chances of that reality happening again are slim, but he doesn't want to risk it.
He reaches a hand out and places it on the other man's shoulder.
"I'll try, Jack." He waits a beat for adding, "I'm sorry for your loss."
Jack actually laughs, weakly.
"Nothing you could have done," he murmurs, before abruptly sitting up.
"I better go check on the Doctor," he says, mostly to the air around Jim, before grabbing his coat and heading out the door.
Jim sits and stares down at the floor for a few seconds before jumping up and heading out of his room. He doesn't see Jack anywhere in the hallway. In fact, he doesn't see anyone, since it is kind of late.
He turns to his left, to the door that leads to Spock's quarters. Taking a breath, he reaches out and knocks on the door. After a beat, it slides open.
"Captain, what is-"
Spock is promptly cut off my Jim wrapping his arms around his neck and tugging him into a kiss.
Unbeknownst to them, Jack is quietly watching from around the corner. He smiles as Spock pulls Jim into his quarters and the door slides shut behind them.
"Atta boy," he cheers, and doesn't jump when he hears the Doctor speak up from behind him.
"Are you happy now?"
Jack turns to the man whose face he has seen changed twice now and feels a genuine smile come on to his face.
"Yes, actually."
The Doctor smiles back, although he can tell that his friend is still hurting inside. He regrets never actually meeting Ianto Jones, and more than anything he wishes there was something he could do to bring him back. But he knows he can't. Still, he can see why they were brought here.
Jack was able to help someone else, to prevent them from making his mistake. That little bit of a good deed was enough to lift Jack's spirits a little, at least a little more than when the Doctor and Amy had run into him sitting by himself and moping.
In retrospect, the Alonso thing wasn't one of his best ideas.
"Where's Amy?" Jack asks, interrupting the Doctor's reverie, and the Time Lord shrugs.
"She fell asleep talking to the Scottish engineer."
Jack puts his hands on his hips, a motion the Doctor has long recognized as something he does when he's unsure.
"So....should we leave now?"
"Without saying goodbye?"
Jack's eyes softens.
"We both know I'm not very good with goodbyes," he sighs, and the Doctor shakes his head sadly.
"I guess not. Well, alright then. Let's be off."
They walk quietly down the hallway and into the lift, where they reemerge into the engineering deck and find Amy, curled up in a chair and covered with the Doctor's coat. Jack scoops her up easily and they retreat back inside the TARDIS, where with one final look, Jack shuts the door and they disappear into the night.