Log
As much as he wanted to get out, Jack had to admit the hotel had some advantages. Fantastic food, for example; he was enjoying food for the first time in years, it felt like. Definitely better than take-out at the Hub. Besides, he needed to take breaks sometimes, right? All work and no play made Jack a dull boy. On the other hand, all play and no work left him stranded in a pocket dimention inside a hotel. He filled a tray with things that looked good and found an empty table- easy, as they were all empty.
Izzie had been eating more lately since, well, food was good and even the depths of her emo couldn't keep her from comfort eating. She headed down for lunch, loading up a tray with tons of goodies before scouting around a place to sit. Well, there was empty seat, empty seat, empty seat...oh hey, there was a guy!
Izzie hadn't seen this particular guy before and she needed to meet new people anyway (that was a good idea, right? Getting out and about?) so she plunked her tray down with little ceremony as she settled into a chair across from him.
"I'm Izzie," she said around a mouthful of food. She never did put much stock in table manners.
Jack looked up, slightly surprised but not at all unhappy to find an atttractive blonde opposite him. The hotel seemed to be some kind of magnet for good looking people, no complaints there from him, none at all. He nodded and swallowed before answering.
"Captain Jack Harkness. Hi."
"Captain Jack," she said, winking. She liked the sound of that, actually. Kind of fun--like a pirate. He didn't look like a pirate, but she guessed she could pretend he was. She figured it was a military captain type thingie.
"What brings you to the pleasure prison? Pleasure because it doesn't suck and prison because of, well, the can't leave thingie," she said, gesturing around them before flashing him a quick smile.
"Pleasure prison's as good a name for it as any." He smiled. "A gilded cage is still a cage, isn't it? I drove down, zigged when I shoulda zagged. Wales to California in no time flat." He shrugged. "You?"
"Little more zagging," she said, laughing at his metaphor. "I was headed for California, but I ended up here and now I can't leave. I just wanted a few days of Sunny Cali before going back to Washington."
"Well, I'm guessing you've got that vacation now, at least. I've seen more sun in the past week than in the six months before it." Nice weather was also an advantage here. "Washington, huh? You're in government?"
"Seattle, not DC," she said, smiling sadly. "More coffee cups and less cherry trees. I'm a surgeon at Seattle Grace Hospital."
"Ah..." He nodded. Idiot that he was. The accent might sound American, but he hadn't been there himself in at least twenty years. "Sorry. Wow, a surgeon. I bet people love having you as the last thing they see before going under."
Izzie grinned and blushed. "Flatterer. I modeled before I became a surgeon, so the pretty face gets me in trouble sometimes when patients recognize me." Izzie took another bite of food, washing it down with water before speaking again. "Wales, you said? What do you do in Wales?"
"I speak nothing but truth." He grinned, "At least, when it comes to gorgeous women. I'm in government work there." Reporting directly to the Queen counted, more or less. "Top secret, sorry."
"Oh, so it's all dashing and exciting, huh?" she asked, propping her chin in her hands as she watched him. "Hell of a lot better than being worked to death as a doctor and so tired that you fall asleep in on-call rooms."
Jack considered that, comparing 36 hour long shifts in the A&E with being constantly watchful, always on standby, falling asleep once every two weeks or so when he had a free evening. He smiled again. "It's a pretty good life. Intense. I'm guessing you save more lives than I do, on an average week."
"Saving lives is fun, but I like to be social too. I don't get much of that anymore, so in that way being stuck here is kinda nice." Izzie smiled, sipping at her water again. "I would never have time for this at home."
"Yeah? Are there enough people for a real social life here?" Jack bit thoughtfully into a piece of chicken. "I've only met a handful so far."
"Point," she said, shrugging. "You're...the second I've met. I've kinda been doing this room holing up thingie with a side of emo. Thingie."
Izzie had always had a blunt and slangy way of expressing herself and it was something that even years of school hadn't bred out of her. You can take the girl out of small town life, but you can't take the small town out of the girl, right?
Jack blinked, chuckling. "Emo...I think I've heard that before." Tosh had called Owen that once, and he'd thrown a test tube at her so Jack assumed it was a bad thing. "What's it mean?"
"Emotional," she said, feeling smart for a moment. "Really, it means bitchy, whiny brat. Usually applied to teenagers, but I'm still practically a teenager with the way I act sometimes so it still totally works for me."
She did look pretty young, but doctors needed years of school so he guessed she was somewhere near 30. Of course, a lady;s age wasn't any business of his unless it was Torchwood business, so he didn't ask. Bitchy, whiny...
"Sounds like you're suffering from stuck-in-here-itis." He suggested. "Can you be bitchy and whiny alone? I mean, I hear that misery loves company, and in my case, I'm a fan of any company, miserable or otherwise."
Izzie grinned then, brighter than before. "Do you wanna hang out with me? I mean, we could go swimming or something and anything is really better than being by myself. My mom always told me that I could keep company with a potted plant with as much as I talk but God, it's just not as fun without someone else around, you know?"
"Absolutely." Jack pulld out his most charming grin for the occasion. "Potted plants don't tend to answer, and if they do you might've smoked the wrong sort of leaf." Or possibly you were talking to a resident of Tika IV, but he hadn't met one of those in a good century or so. "I'd love to...hang out. It's a novel idea. I don't think I've done any hanging in a long, long time."
"Maybe we can do this lunch thingie again?" she suggested, "followed by the appropriate thirty minute wait and then some swimming? No fun to go swimming alone--nobody to throw into the pool then."
Jack's grin turned into a leer. "I don't wanna sound too forward, but I'm not sure the hotel provides us with swimsuits." He had no problem with that, but she looked maybe a little too good to give that a shot. Certainly not on their first 'date'. "Anycase, my afternoon's free. I think I've frustracted myself enough for one day, trying to find a way out."
Izzie leered back. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," she said, not one to back down from a challenge. "As long as we have enough towels to keep from committing a felony, I'm totally game for nude watersports."
Oh, he was going to like her. "I don't think a hole in the middle of nowhere counts as 'public'. If anybody has a problem, they can go swim in their own bathtub." Sounded pretty good. "Whenever you like."
"Well, you never know. I wouldn't want to offend some old lady or something with all my fantasticness just out there," she said, laughing hysterically. "You know, Captain Jack, you're kinda flirty. Are you always like that?"
"So they tell me." He nodded without a hint of apology. "You don't have a boyfriend I should be looking out for, do you? Girlfriend, maybe?" He smacked the back of his own head lightly, "I always forget to ask that first."
Izzie giggled. "I can totally do girl on girl," she said as a warning or an enticement, whichever the case may be, "but I usually prefer a guy. And I'm uh, recently single."
Wow. This was kinda the first time she'd even entertained flirting since Denny. Maybe the month of moping had done her good in a weird way?
"There's enough of me to occupy two girls." But he shouldn't brag, should he? Jack's expression went from joking to sober again. "I'm sorry, then." Whatever the reason, breaking up sucked.
"I can't be a mourning widow forever," she said softly, smiling a little. She tried her best to regain the teasing, fun manner of earlier by widening her smile and laughing. "Enough about me, I guess. Nobody wants to talk sad times on a first 'how do you do,' do they?"
"I don't know. Sometimes it's best to lay it all out on the table." He shrugged. "Easier to talk about it, too."
"Yeah, that's true. I had a fiance who died," she said, shrugging. "Hence the emo and the moping and the sad
But I don't want to be sad Izzie anymore. Denny would have wanted me to be fun Izzie."
"Fun Izzie can still remember." Jack said sympathetically. "Look, Izzie...you're a gorgeous, funny woman. Twenty minutes in, I think I like you. But don't rush, ok? Sadly, we have all the time in the world." Wow. Was he turning down the chance of immediate romping with a hot woman? Damn.
cerieblue: Izzie nodded. "Probably a good idea. Still, you totally owe me naked swimming some afternoon and I'm completely collecting. Objectively speaking, you're hot."
"Thank you." He nodded, smiling again. "And you're free to collect whenever." He pulled a pen from his pocket and scribbled on a napkin. 'To: Izzie Stevens. IOU one afternoon naked swimming.'
"Here." He handed it over. "I'm in room 209."
"I'll be there," she said, winking and smiling flirtily. She pocketed the napkin. "It was fun being your lunch buddy, Jack."
"Ditto." He returned the smile. "It's been a pleasure, Izzie Stevens MD."