A Bit Off; For quitehomoerotic.
The Doctor was bored. Well, not bored. Okay, yes, bored. He'd left Rose and Jack in Kyoto to [hopefully just] sight see, and had decided to do some sightseeing of his own. After all, he'd seen Kyoto. Plenty. And there happened to be a fantastic Festival of the Shrieking Bells on the planet Dewfan that he'd been trying to get to for the past
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Jack had started out on transporters and mining ships, but he soon discovered that he couldn't pretend to be part of that world, and that even if he was trying to escape himself there, danger still found him, like that fire on Transporter 45. He'd read about that fire once. had no idea he was involved.
So he came here, maybe something to see or something to do.
The last thing he'd expected to see was him.
Well actually, no, to say he'd seen him would be nothing short of a lie, because he hadn't. But he'd heard him. And it was him, that voice. The one that he met lifetimes ago.
So he had to run. And run he did.
But he should have known it, he'd be seen. Or felt. Or whatever it was the Doctor could tell about him. And so halfway down a side street, he stopped. Stopped and closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
And he turned.
"Hi."
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"Hullo." The Doctor stopped about three feet from Jack, staring at him like he'd just grown a second (Jack only had the one) head. He was Jack, but not. Older, yeah, heavier behind the eyes, but that wasn't the problem. Like a bit of Jack and a bit of time, and that wasn't right at all. Nobody should be a bit of time, except a Time Lord. Time wasn't people (except Time Lords), it was events. And Jack had become an event. Or a Time Lord, but...
He sniffed the air. No, not a Time Lord. Something was off. Like a bit of meat left too long. He tried not to grin at what he imagined Jack's reaction to the imagery would be.
It didn't exactly work, so he ended up with an awkward half-grin. "I thought you didn't want to hear the Shrieking Bells."
Small talk. The Doctor could do it (much better than the Dewfanians), even if there were bigger, more important things he wanted to ask.
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Jack had missed any Doctor. He'd missed the Doctor since he last saw him and they towed the Earth home. He'd missed him since he'd never turned up when the world (his world) had fallen apart.
He missed him. And he wanted so much to see him.
But he'd forgotten just how much he'd missed this him. After all, all those years he searched and he waited, this was the man, this was the face in his mind.
Seeing him, even here, made his chest tighten and lift at the same time.
He wondered just how much of that played on his face.
He realised, somewhat belatedly, that he was being spoken to, and he urged his mind to catch up. Shrieking Bells? It sounded familiar. He supposed it should. And then he realised just why. And just when.
Maybe he could have this conversation. Pretend. But he was far too tired for that.
"I can't be here," he told him, instead. "Not with you. You know that. You must know that."
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So much had passed across Jack's face that he'd taken a moment to catch it all and process. A lot had happened in a short time. Or a lot in a long time. The Doctor wasn't sure, because he still hadn't figured out what was going on, exactly. Naturally, that bothered him.
"You're from my future. You ran, it's a bit obvious. Don't tell me, then. But," he leaned forward. "Tell me what happened to you. You're off, and you shouldn't be. You're not right."
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But he couldn't. Life was never that simple.
"It's good to see you too," he said with a half laugh, trying to make light and avoid. But even that didn't sit right. He was far too out of practise at being himself. And around this Doctor, well, himself was all he ever knew how to be.
"I can't," he said with a sigh. "I can't tell you." And again, to try and lighten it, "Wouldn't want to spoil the story for you."
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He tapped his forehead. "Even myself. I can do that, you know. When it's important. And this is important, isn't it? You being here, feeling off, like you're not working under the same rules the rest of them are."
Them, not us. The Doctor's rules are his peoples', their last legacy, and they've always been set apart from other species. But he wasn't lying; he could feel the weight of time being pressed through a crucible. He had to know. "I'm asking you. I can't order you." He shrugged, trying to seem unconcerned. He grinned his wide, false grin. "You can buy me some Dewfanian tea, make it up to me."
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"Not much for tea," he said, "more of a coffee kind of guy." More avoidance, but that would hardly work for... well, any longer than now, actually, because it wasn't working at all.
He let out a breath of a laugh. "Once upon a time a guy called Jack met a girl called Rose and a guy called the Doctor..." he gestured to himself.
"Then this happened. Soon, for you, actually. So, you know, look forward to that."
He wondered if he could ask him not to leave him when it happened. But he quickly pushed that thought aside. It was a pipe dream, and a history and a future he couldn't change.
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He shouldn't ask. He shouldn't know. He shouldn't even try to think about it. He should nod his head, grin madly, and walk away.
The Doctor has never been very good at doing what he should do. "I still want that tea." And an answer or two.
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But then the Doctor was asking him to do something he knew he shouldn't. He knew on so many levels that he shouldn't. But oh how he wanted to. He wanted to just sit and to laugh and to pretend. How nice that would be.
"Doctor, don't," he said quietly, his shoulders slumping slightly and that tiredness showing in his eyes.
But he too wasn't very good at doing what was always right.
"Just the tea?"
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The Doctor was, at the moment, shaken. Here was Jack, slumped in front of him, practically begging him to leave off the line of questioning. He had no intention of doing that, but he'd at least try a little harder to traumatize Jack a little less. At this point, he had to know.
"Yeah, just the tea. It's the best in this sector of the galaxy, and they have a special blend for the Festival." Which Jack should know, because the Doctor told him before he left Kyoto, trying one last tactic to get his companions to come along.
He wondered how many lifetimes, figuratively, of course, ago that was for Jack. "Just the tea."
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And so he took the steps forward to move himself closer to the Doctor. He was nervous to do it, maybe he'd notice the difference more when he was closer, maybe he'd sense his age or any manner of small things. Maybe just for himself it would be so much harder to be closer.
But he did it anyway.
"So how are you enjoying your day off from me and Rose?" Probably not the best question to chose to ask to divert. But he was doing his best.
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Maybe that was him, the Doctor, and maybe that's why Jack was so wary of him. The thought rested in his stomach like lead.
"Didn't mention you, though. See?" He tapped his forehead again, because tapping one's forehead for emphasis never got old or repetitive (and was also a fantastic way to focus the nerves on one point, on the head, far from the sinking stomach). "Told you."
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Yet somehow they were still having it. And for some reason that didn't really seem to make sense to him, Jack found himself letting out a laugh.
"No, you didn't," he admitted. "But that means nothing," he added, pointing a finger in the Doctor's direction.
He paused. And smiled.
"It's good to see you, by the way."
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The Doctor shrugged. "Tea can't destroy anything." He paused. "Most things." A scowl. "Not timelines."
He pointed his finger back at Jack. "Don't think you're getting out of tea just because your hair's gone funny and you're worried about timelines."
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"It looks good like this," he protested.
And huffed.
"And it's not the tea that might damage the timelines, Doctor. It's this," he gestured between them with a finger. Talking would never lead to anything good.
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He grabbed the door of the tea shop and held it open for Jack. "If you like that sort of thing."
The shop wasn't much to look at, but it certainly had plenty of tea. And right now, he was using tea to avoid other things. Bigger, probably scarier (not that the Doctor got scared, mind) things. He slid into a seat near the back, then waved impatiently at the counter. "This is fine. Let me decide when it's not. Tea?"
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