for rude_not_ginger: Welcome back to the Universe, Doctor.
Follows thisJack carried the Doctor's limp body inside the TARDIS and shut the door behind him with a firm hand. In his mind he could feel the TARDIS bubbling away with worry and concern. She could feel it too, and she didn't understand. Was he alive? Was he really alive? Could he be? What had happened? What had Jack done
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"Oh, my head," he said, groaning as he tried to sit up. "Oh, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped."
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That said, he couldn't hold back the shaky breath when the Doctor spoke.
"Doctor," he said, reaching out and grabbing a hand tightly to his wrist.
"Oh God is it good to hear you. Welcome back."
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"Well, these things happen," he said, giving him a grin that felt far too large for his face. "Pretty fantastic, isn't it?"
Jack didn't seem concerned at all. Good old Captain Jack.
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Because there he was, the Doctor; alive and breathing and talking and smiling. And things would be okay, it would all be okay. Nothing had gone wrong, had it? They'd actually done it. All those years with him lying there dead and it had actually worked. The Doctor was alive, he was really alive. His Doctor.
Jack was quite overcome with emotion. He tried to keep it in, but he couldn't resist reaching out and touching a hand to the Doctor's cheek before pressing a small kiss to his lips. So good to have him alive.
"Look at you," he said.
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"So where are we?" he asked, brushing off his jacket and struggling to pull himself to his feet. He felt weaker than he expected he would. "Did we take off?"
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"Vortex," he said, standing up to move beside him. "No destination, just floating. Be careful you might not be strong enough," he reached his hand out, trying to support him. "Just take it easy a bit, okay?"
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He patted his knees, then his elbows. "Two legs, two arms, hair---" He put his hand to his hair. "Ooooh, big hair. And sideburns! Oooh, that's brilliant, I've always wanted sideburns. Bad skin, though. Feels like there's been a bit of bruising, I didn't expect bruising. And thinner. Blimey, look how thin I am!"
He turned to Jack and offered him a big grin. "And the most important question." He nodded.
"Where's Rose?"
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The Doctor thought he had just regenerated. This hadn't worked properly. All those years, centuries and adventures and so many things, all gone?
Jack thought then, suddenly, of the Doctor he'd spoken to on the phone. How ridiculous he'd found Jack's words. Back before there was that trust. And this? This was even further before that.
And of course, of course, Rose was the most important. Because back then? Jack was barely on the Doctor's radar.
"She's--" he started, struggling for words and a way to keep himself together. "She's gone home," he said.
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At least she was gone home.
"She's safe," he said. It wasn't a question. Jack wouldn't be here, calm like this, if she wasn't. "That's good."
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He reached a hand out and touched it to the console. The coral was warm under his hand and he knew it was the TARDIS trying to comfort him. She could see what had happened, and worried as she was, she was worried for him too.
"Everyone's safe," Jack found himself going on. "Her, her mother, Mickey..." and a whole list of people the Doctor wouldn't even know the name of.
Martha. Martha who had helped bring him back from the dead. He wouldn't even recognise her. The thought of that hurt.
"We should land somewhere," he said. "Best for the engines."
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He headed over to the console and began turning dials and switches. The differences in the decor only barely registered to him. After a moment looking, he almost imagined they'd been there for hundreds of years. A silly thought, of course. The TARDIS hadn't even looked like coral for more than a decade.
"And you?" he asked, peering over the console. "What happened to you?"
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"You tell me," he said. He didn't know what to say, or what to do, but he knew looking at the Doctor now, he felt like there was a brick wall between them.
This man? Simply didn't know him.
"I died," he said with a nod. "And then I woke up."
Not a lie, of course, just not as recent an event as the Doctor assumed.
He walked around the console a little and looked over at him. "You feeling okay?" he asked, gently concerned. "I mean, felling... alltogether, and all?"
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It explained a lot. The strange wrong wave that seemed to come from Jack, the odd way the TARDIS seemed attached to him. Rose must've brought him back using the heart of the TARDIS. Why couldn't he quite remember everything?
"Yep, I am completely here, I think," he said. He usually felt so young and revitalized when he regenerated. For some reason, he felt old and tired, now. His eyes widened in horror.
"Oh, no. Am I old?"
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"No," he assured. "No, you're... looking good. Change of clothes, do your hair, you'll be good for running."
That was what mattered. The Doctor, alive, running and saving the universe. Of course that was what mattered.
"No older than I am," he added. True too, but in ways of course the Doctor just wouldn't understand.
Absently, Jack reached his right hand to his left. He moved to twist the ring on his finger; something that had become a habit over the last few years. But his ring wasn't there, and he felt all that little bit more lost.
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"Am I...ginger?"
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"No. You're not."
He hated this. He hated all of it. It just wasn't fair.
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