for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to Woodstock, 1969

[rude_not_ginger]

Follows thisSomewhere fixed and somewhere sunny. And, the Doctor decided, somewhere they could have a good time. So, scratching off a number of natural disasters and wars, he picked out a particularly famous and particularly fixed large concert in New York

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[quitehomoerotic]

"You know you should have seen me in this time!" Jack grinned back at the Doctor, hands shoved into his pockets.

"I was in my element! Free love? See that's when I thought humanity was starting to get the idea! Enjoy life while you have it. Live and love and party. These guys? They've got it all right. More people should take a leaf from their books."

He turned around and walked backwards as he looked at the Doctor, still grinning at him. "Very nice. Not sure about the tie though. Looks more like you got dressed in the dark. But at least you're making an effort."

[rude_not_ginger]

"I think I was acting a bit too old around this time. Like you do when you're young," he said. "Though I start my exile next year. Everything changed by then. And even when Jo followed it, I could never understand this movement. Love is never free. Wouldn't be worth it if it was. Come on, we can probably find a spot over here."

He headed onwards and ignored Jack's comment about his tie. The Doctor liked this tie. He couldn't remember where he'd gotten it from, but he could probably make up a fantastic story about it later.

Music blared from the stage, and young people either too drunk, too high, or just too excited to care, danced and sang along around them. Quite the sight. How long had it been since the Doctor had made it to a concert? The last time he tried was with Majenta, when they'd aimed for the Beatles and ended up in Transylvania.

"You know who else I've never met?" he said. "The Beatles. That's another group on my list to meet, right under Bowie."

[quitehomoerotic]

"Oh see there you go taking everything too literally again!" Jack laughed and stopped, turning again to walk beside the Doctor and gently nudge his shoulder with his own.

"It's not love as in love. It's enjoyment! People letting themselves go. Just feeling good about themselves and having bit a fun. And don't pretend you don't know how to do that, I've seen you, I've got proof."

He smirked a little and nudged him again, laughing as if sharing a joke with himself.

Looking over towards the stage and squinting through the sun to see it, Jack smiled. This was great. This was Earth, somewhere wonderful, and with the Doctor. What more could he ask for?

"If you want to be under Bowie, I'm sure that could be arranged," he said with an eyebrow raised before belatedly agreeing. "The Beatles. Hey! Maybe we can meet Ravi Shankar here and get him to introduce us to George Harrison!"

He beamed another smile and nodded forward towards the spot the Doctor had gestured towards. "Come on, Doctor. We are starlight, We are golden and all that."

[rude_not_ginger]

"You didn't work at UNIT in the 70's," the Doctor said with a disbelieving snort. "Especially if you worked with Captain Yates. Everything was a bit too literal."

A group of hippies swayed nearby. This was the sort of concert that defined the time period. He wondered why he'd never stopped off here before. The mud, most likely.

"So where are you now?" he asked. "Still in Cardiff? Staying firmly away from UNIT London?"

[quitehomoerotic]

"About now? Yeah, in Cardiff, getting too involved with the Torchwood staff... for a change. Never did really get the hang of not doing that, did I? Lucia Moretti. Fiery, Italian, oh she had me like a fish on a hook. And I got in, oh, way over my head. But then I always do."

He laughed and shook his head, but it wasn't at all funny, not really. Lucia had changed him in ways he didn't really know he could be. His experience with her had been bitter sweet.

"Seventies --'specially the late seventies-- I was a bit more... off the rails. Reaching for something, I guess. Not sure what though. Tried to have too much fun. And got fed up of Torchwood in the process. I was back and forth."

Jack looked over at some nearby revellers, a pair of people spinning in circles without a care in the world. It made him smile.

[rude_not_ginger]

"Have a feeling you've always been a bit back and forth with them," the Doctor said. "And not without good reason."

A girl with a big bundle of daisies walked by, handing one to the Doctor and one to Jack. the Doctor tucked his in a buttonhole on his jacket and grinned. A little more mud and they'd properly fit in.

Lucia. That was his daughter's mother, wasn't it? He was never very good following his own lineage, much less Jack's. There was a lot of pain in his relationship with his daughter. He didn't know if Jack wanted to bring that up now.

"Now, Italians, that I can understand," the Doctor said with a nod, deciding to give Jack an out to talk about other things, should he want to. "I once knew a Roman soothsayer. Blimey, she was beautiful. I said it would never work out. She said she knew. Well, she would. Soothsayers and all that."

[quitehomoerotic]

"Oh and more back than forth," he confirmed. "Wasn't until really the nineties that I got more involved. Alex Hopkins, good leader, good team. Really started to enjoy it. Well, until he killed everyone else and then himself. That's when I took over. New Century and a new Torchwood. Or that was the idea."

He took the flower from the girl with a smile and a wink, and he tucked it up behind his ear. Rather belatedly he considered that a military coat was perhaps not the best dress for this sort of occasion. Oh well, never mind.

Jack was glad of the out, whether it was intentionally provided or not, and he laughed, "See! Sly old fox! Just how many mouths have those lips kissed, Doctor? Because they're certainly well practised." He teased him slightly, and grinned.

"See, I've got you worked out," he continued, still teasing, "this whole aloof thing of yours, it's all just a big old rouse really isn't it?"

[rude_not_ginger]

Before the Doctor could really consider the consequences of his question, he asked: "Just killed everyone? No reason?" There were a lot of suicides in 1999, the Doctor knew. Not as many as in 2012 (though the Doctor had never been quite sure why), but still. And someone Jack looked up to.

He shrugged. "Oh, I've been around 900 years, Jack. I'd like to think I've practiced once in a while."

He looked over to the concert stage. Ah, Santana. He knew he'd landed at a good time. Not when he'd really wanted to, but the TARDIS was being difficult. Well, more difficult than usual. A light hit the sky just above the stage. Brief, momentary, shattering the fixed nature of the concert for only a moment, before it solidified. No one seemed to notice.

"Aloof? What?"

[quitehomoerotic]

"Bit of kit that came through the rift, Alex used it, he saw the future, God knows what it was he saw, but he said it was a mercy killing. Said we weren't ready. Guess we weren't. I was there and there was nothing I could do. Way to roll in the new century, huh? Midnight December 31st, 1999. Bang. Quite literally

[rude_not_ginger]

That light. He definitely saw it. Something that didn't belong in this fixed place.

"No," he mumbled to himself. "I am not getting involved this time. We're here to see a concert. That's all."

But what was it? What could it be?

He stepped towards where Jack sat, then looked back to the stage.

"Let's get a little closer, yeah?"

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack looked up to the Doctor and oh, he knew that expression. "What is it?" he sighed, laboured, and falsely put upon. He stood back up, pulling his coat with him.

"Fixed and sunny, remember? Can we not just for once sit and relax and maybe meet some musical legend that we can later brag about. And I'm tired! I only had one hour of sleep. Do you have any idea how cold the TARDIS made my room last night?"

He moaned but it wasn't real complaining. In truth if there was something worth checking out, he'd want to be right there beside the Doctor giving it the once over, and he was sure that he knew that.

Walking along he continued, "And you know there's food too. And we coul--" he stopped, and frowned. A noise entirely out of place for the era, and apparently emanating from the Doctor.

"-- are you ringing?"

[rude_not_ginger]

He definitely saw a light. And if he knew Jack, he knew that he'd be curious, too, and all they'd have to do was---

"What?"

He fumbled in his pockets for a moment, eventually producing the slim mobile that had once belonged to Martha Jones.

A UNIT number.

"Oh, she just had to pick now, didn't she? Right in the middle of 1969." He popped it open. "Hello?"

After a moment, he sniffed. "All right." He handed it to Jack. "For you."

[quitehomoerotic]

"What do you mean for me?!" Jack took the phone and gave a quick scowl in the Doctor's direction.

She. There was only one she that Jack suspected that could be. A she that had left her phone on the TARDIS. And that she, Martha Jones, Jack had neither seen nor spoken to since seeing her at her wedding. Nor had he spoke to her after it happened. He ignored calls and attempts to contact. He ignored everything any everyone and now...

"--Hello?"

[imnot_hisgirl]

"---Doctor? Are you----"

Martha found herself grinning at the familiar voice. Finally someone who would at least be somewhat amiable.

"Sorry, he's never more than a few words on the---and I figured he might be the only one who would know where you are." Martha said in a rush. She didn't honestly expect the Doctor knew where he would be, it was just a last-ditch effort.

[quitehomoerotic]

Jack shot the Doctor a second half glare, and took a step or two away to conduct the phone call.

"Hi, Martha," he said quietly, wiping a hand up over his face. It was nice to hear her voice, he had to admit. He'd missed Martha, like he'd missed so many people.

"Yeah, we're... he found me."

He took a deep breath. So she'd been trying to find him? She must have been in contact with Gwen, she must have known he'd gone completely, so what could she possibly want to find him for? What would matter?

"You're looking for me?" he asked, more businesslike than chatty, as though he's not sure how to be casual with her like he once could.

[imnot_hisgirl]

The switch in his tone caused an immediate switch in Martha's tone. Gone was the blabbering girl from moments ago, now she was the medical supervisor of UNIT.

"It's Alice."