(no subject)
Who: Rose, Jack, Ten
Where: TARDIS
When: Immediately after this.
What: Meeting up with the Doctor and finding out what's up with Jack.
Rose didn't waste a second, she was fumbling for the key - which she obviously still had - before the TARDIS had even finished materialising. The moment it had she unlocked the door and stepped inside with a huge smile. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face.
The Doctor blinked, "You could have gotten stuck, Ro-." stop. Pause. "Rose?"
Jack followed Rose after just a bit, but not quite right on her heels. He pulled the door shut behind him and then leaned against it, silently.
Rose ran forward and threw her arms around him in a huge hug. The Doctor. Her Doctor. At last!
The Doctor caught her, swinging her around, "What? How? What?...I mean, how...Jack what?"
"Long story involving a possibly homicidal scientist!" She beamed, and turned to Jack. And her face fell, slightly, suddenly remembering some of what he'd said. She calmed down and took the Doctor's hand, letting Jack talk. Or whatever.
Jack smiled, calmly as he looked at them. He walked forward slowly and then inclined his head. "May I cut in?"
"You're dead though?" he said, puzzled, holding out his other hand for Jack's.
Rose, ducked her head and looked away. The wall of the TARDIS was very interesting, yes.
Jack looked between them and then gently took the Doctor's hand and tugged him. "Come here." He was still smiling, still almost smirking. "Really. It's my turn. I didn't intrude in your moment." He was euphoric. Fucking FINALLY.
"We're dancing?" he looked puzzled, but let Jack pull him out.
Jack shook his head. "No." He put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, and then punched him with a right hook that wasn't as strong as it could have been had he not just been dead for two days.
"JACK!" Rose protested, getting between them. This wasn't exactly how she'd planned this, but she supposed she should've seen it coming.
The Doctor grabbed his jaw, stumbling backwards a little. He stared for a moment, leaning on the Tardis before carefully opening his mouth, shifting his jaw and blinking at Jack, "What's wrong?"
Jack wasn't at all surprised by Rose's reaction. It was milder than he'd expected, truthfully. The Doctor however is where his eyes were focused. "I'm two hundred years old," he bit out.
Because damn if that wasn't wrong.
Rose was still recovering from staring at Jack's dead body for several days. She didn't have it in her to fight him on much right now. "That's not his fault," she reminded Jack.
"Wait. What?" The Doctor flailed a bit, then shook his head, starting the Tardis and sending them off. "Stop. What happened?" He paused. "Did I cross the void again?"
Rose shook her head. "No. This is the right universe. I got thrown back. Jack..." She winced. "Time vortex, bringing life..." she trailed off looking at the console with interest.
Jack looked at Rose and put his hand on the back of her neck in what he hoped passed for a comforting gesture. "That's not what I meant by wrong," he said gently. The Doctor he just glared at. "You didn't cross the void - Rose did. She's been with me since. You - Why are you here now?"
"The rift," he said softly. "I didn't know."
"I know you didn't," Rose reassured. "Everything's just." She shrugged and stepped out of the way, leaning back against the console. Jack'd been waiting a lot longer than she had, as long as he wasn't going to throw any more punches she'd just. Let him have his time.
Except Jack didn't really have anything to say. It's a lot easier to hold onto composure and distance when you don't recognize the face the man was behind.
Except maybe he did. Just a little. "Did you even *use* the delta wave Doctor?" He shook his head. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter now."
"I cou- Jack." he shook his head, "How are you..."
He kept fighting to hold onto the aloof, or the anger, or anything. "It's been a rough few days," he said mildly. "More for Rose than me."
She glanced up, smiling very faintly. And forced herself not to make a joke. "Yeah, I'm not the one who had to deal with that thing, I mostly got to sit down." And deal with concussion, but that was neither here nor there.
"How long did you say you were there?" He asked more to make a point than get an answer. He even smiled at the Doctor while he was teasing her. Habit.
She coughed uncomfortably and it sounded a lot like 'three days'.
The Doctor rubbed his forehead, "Can someone please...what the hell happened?"
"My staff at Torchwood opened the Rift and let Abbadon out. I put him back. Rose hasn't slept or eaten in three days, and I bet she has to pee, too."
"Ianto brought me a sandwich," she argued. "And I think I drifted off a couple of times." Sitting by his dead body. Shut up.
"Oh that's not creepy at all."
Rose playfully smacked his arm - gently. "Shut up, Owen wanted to put you in the morgue. I had to threaten to fire people." Which considering she was not in charge, was fairly ballsy of her.
The Doctor sat down on the railing behind the console, "...can we go a little further back?"
Jack was starting to, against his better judgement, be mildly concerned about the Doctor. He told himself the reason he was so agreeable was because he wanted the Doctor to know what was going on. He was a decent liar. To himself, too, most of the time. "How much further back do you need to know? Ask questions, and we'll answer them - without tangents and teasing."
"What year is it?" he poked the console. "The Rift's not supposed to open until 2182 and it says it's 2008."
"2008. The Rift wasn't meant to be opened yet."
"There was this guy, he convinced the rest of the team to open the rift, they thought it'd get everything back how they wanted it or something," she shook her head. "It's a long story. We couldn't stop them." She looked at Jack. "But he stopped what it let out."
"How?"
Jack shook his head slight and walked around the console. "It doesn't matter."
Rose bit her lip. "Jack can't die. It's like he's got too much energy or something. Abaddon, it feeds off life. He... kind of gave it fatal indigestion?" she tried to explain as best she understood it.
The Doctor held up his finger, processing that, then shook his head, "Wait, what no?"
"I told you, it doesn't matter. He's gone, the rift is sealed again though it's not as stable as it once was." He looked across the console at them, eyes dark and serious. "When he went back everything that had gone wrong since it was opened went back to normal. And they lived happily ever after." He smiled, faintly.
He held his hand out for Jack, "But you're still punching like a little girl."
Rose choked on sudden laughter and covered her mouth, glancing at Jack in insincere, silent apology.
Jack flashed a quick grin at Rose's laughter. "I was dead for three days. I'm still a little off my game. I can try again later if you want." He took the Doctor's hand, gave it a quick squeeze. "I need you to fix this. After that, you and Rose - have the time of your lives. But fix this."
The Doctor stared at him for a moment, then started tugging him towards the infirmary, "What *part*, Jack?"
"The part where I can't sleep or stay dead," he answered. As he was tugged he grabbed Rose. Then just kept going.
"I can probably do something about the sleeping."
Rose let herself be pulled along, but she was quieter now. Honestly she was afraid that if Jack could die... She'd lose him. Soon. And was trying not to think about it.
"Sleeping really wasn't my primary concern, though Rose sleeping's up there."
"I sleep!" she protested.
"Not recently," he reminded her, automatically.
The Doctor held up his free hand, for all the world a father with squabbling children. "Right then. Rose, nap while I take care of Jack. Jack, trust Rose to know her own limits, please." Hypocrite.
"Jack would very much like you to tell him what kind of taking care of means, exactly."
He smirked. "And Jack does trust Rose to know her own limits - he does not trust her to stay within them."
Rose smiled and shrugged unrepentantly. "I'm still here."
"Jack will find out what taking care of him entails as soon as the Doctor figures out what the entailment is." He opened a door and pointed Jack to an early nineteenth century hospital bed. "Sit." He pointed Rose to the other. "Sleep."
She'd argue she wasn't tired, but the truth was despite the adrenaline she was utterly exhausted. For now she hopped up on the other bed. She had more sense than to ask about her room. Who knew how long it'd been for him, and she didn't want to hear if someone else had been using it recently.
"All that work just to get us in bed," he snarked. It was play, it was habit, and it meant absolutely nothing. But he sat on the edge of the bed, put his palms down against it and then realized what he was sitting on. "Have you ever thought of maybe modernizing?"
"Like it's work," he snarked back, then put on a complicated hate, "No, why?"
"You get what you pay for!" Jack made That face, the one he'd made at Tosh when asking about crime fighting. The disbelieving one. "Because the nineteenth century wasn't exactly know for it's stellar medical care, maybe?"
The Doctor sighed, then went to stand in front of Jack, nearly between his knees, "Trust me, Jack."
Jack flashed him a grin that showed his teeth, and his dimples. "With my life."
"Then sit back, shut up, and let me play Doctor." he grinned back with a bit of his predecessor's mania.
Rose watched the whole exchange... Trying not to feel like things were back to normal. At the same time, she was trying to remember all of it. A perfect moment of nostalgia in the now. She lay down on her bed and turned on her side to watch what was happening. She'd probably fall asleep any moment, but again she was trying to remember.
Jack gave a soft snort of laughter, and reclined back on the bed. "All right, but if your hands are cold all bets are off." He opened one eye again. "You're really a Doctor?"
He gave Jack a mock offended look, then poked his belly like the pillsbury dough boy. "Sorta."
Jack went 'tee hee' groan at him. "What?" he asked after.
"Not for humans." He pulled glasses down out of the hat, peering at Jack, "But then... you're not anymore are you?"
Rose closed her eyes at that and tried to will herself to sleep behind his back.
Jack reclined completely to give the Doctor whatever access he wanted. At the question he looked at Rose, a little worried and saw her eyes closed - assumed she was asleep and looked back to the Doctor. "No. I'm not."
"How much does she know?" he pushed the glasses up and cupped Jack's cheek, turning his face towards the Doctor's.
Jack turned passively at the hand against his cheek and looked at the Doctor's eyes. Damn eyes. "Too much." His cheek was a little cool but warming up perceptibly.
"How much do you know?" he asked softly.
Jack laughed. "Not enough." He wasn't entirely amused, but what are you going to do?
"I could plug you into the Tardis and we could would never have to go to Cardiff again," he said, bemusedly. "You're throbbing with time energy."
He stayed quiet for a minute, processing, thinking. "And time is limitless." Sort of.
He nodded a bit, "and. Well. I'd be careful about thinking too hard about any...particular time period."
Jack pushed up on his elbows and his eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened. And then stayed there.
"Now, Jack, that's a very attractive look, but you don't look too clever wearing it."
"You're saying you find stupid people attractive?" he asked. Only not. "You're telling me I'm a TARDIS."
"There are people" Romana "who have insinuated that." he half-smiled, then shook his head, "Not really. " Stop. "I. Wouldn't use those exact words."
"Damn," he said with faked disappointment because now he was the idiot and it was all his fault, not the doctor's and he. He didn't care right then. "What words would you use?"
"Well. There's no relative dimension." he hedged.
"What do you mean there's no relative dimension?"
"TARDIS stands for Time and relative dimension in space."
"I'm asking you to translate what it means to me, not tell me things I know." He was. overwhelmed. In an odd way.
"You're not bi-" he stopped. "Well. You are. But." He sat down next to Jack, "You can decide where you want to be."
"I'm very bi," he agreed with a leer. He sat all the way up. "That's either the most fantastic thing I have ever heard, or the most horrifying."
He patted Jack's leg. "Go with fantastic.'
"I always knew all that sex with your time machine was going to get me in trouble." His lips were twitching. It was still huge. Huger than he could wrap his head around. "And I swore to never get knocked up again."
Jack talked. Jack talked a lot.
"I told you not to flirt with my girl," he smiled a bit, "Do you want to sleep?"
He curled his hand around the back of the Doctor's neck. "Are you okay?"
The old Jack, the one with a sense of adventure and time and space at his feet was asking the question. There was spark there, and compassion and warmth. "And. How?"
"I'm fine," he smiled a bit, leaning in to Jack a little, and then grinning, "I am sort of a Doctor."
Jack squeezes his neck. "If you can put me to sleep without killing me - have at it. I wouldn't mind a nap." Especially with what his brain was doing to itself.
He grinned, "I can." He didn't look over, "Do you want something too, Rose, or can you manage it yourself?"
Caught, Rose couldn't exactly pretend to be asleep now. She could pretend she half was though. It wasn't that far from truth. She blinked her eyes open. "Hm?"
"Never mind," he smiled over at her, loving and warm, "Go to sleep. I'll carry you to bed after I get Jack settled."
He sighed. "She gets carried to bed, I get the hospital bed." He was teasing. He didn't care at all right now. "Settle me Doctor. It's Time." And past.
Rose wondered if that would be Her Bed or one in a strange or empty room. It took about two seconds before she was trying not to think about it and willed herself to try and sleep.
He went to a cabinet and picked up a long, silver tube, "Well, you could get your own bed, but I can't carry you, Jack."
"That's because you're a twig." At least he didn't say twink, but he thought it *really* loud. He held his hand out.
He looked offended, but he took Jack's hand, standing up, "Next time I'll be old and fat."
Jack had been reaching for the tube but didn't mind getting a hand instead. "Next time you can be an emu." He nodded. "Well?"
"Sleeping here or your own bed?"
"I have my own bed?" His eyebrows went up.
"Why would I get rid of your room?" his eyebrows went up too.
"Because I'm not using it?"
Meanwhile, Rose found it a lot easier to breathe. If Jack's room was still there, hers would be too.
"So?" The Doctor looked nearly comically confused.
"So, how long has it been for you?"
Rose opened her eyes for that one and looked up at the Doctor, she'd been wondering about it herself.
He counted for a moment, "roughly...does it matter?"
"Oh, it matters," Jack answered, a harder edge to his voice than had been there before.
"Four hundred twelve years, five months and roughly fifteen minutes since. Since I saw you die."
Rose stared. She'd thought maybe it might've been a while, but... She couldn't even comprehend that it'd been something like four hundred and eleven years since he'd seen her last. And she'd found Jack's 150 had to come to terms with. She found herself looking at Jack, looking for something she couldn't articulate yet.
Jack looked at Rose briefly then looked the Doctor up and down, in a menacing way. He stood up, slowly and then started advancing on the doctor with the menacing and without the vague.
Rose sat up, watching them and not at all sure what to do. Four hundred years.
The Doctor stared, "What?"
Jack grabbed the Doctor's shirt in both hands and shoved him into the wall of the TARDIS and held him there. "You know. I can understand it maybe taking you a while to get around to investigating. I can even understand not wanting to look back," he said conversationally with his nose inches from the Doctor's. "because God knows I haven't. Not knowing is a whole lot easier than dealing with the line of dead bodies and broken hearts. But I just can't get my head around how you went *four hundred years* without thinking about what happened up on that station, and why the hell you're pulling this happy to see you *shit* now."
Rose slid off the bed and stepped closer. She didn't say anything, or even really try and stop him, she just rested a hand on Jack's arm gently.
"I saw you die, Jack. I watched it happen. I lied to Rose about. But I saw it. What was I supposed to think?" He didn't fight. Didn't move at all.
His arm was tense under Rose's hand, but he didn't respond to it otherwise. "She didn't believe you," he informed the Doctor. "What happened up there?" He wasn't horribly aggressive or angry sounding about it but somehow he *has* to be holding the Doctor there. Really and truly needed to be.
"The Daleks killed you."
"After that."
"Rose came. She destroyed the Daleks and it was killing her."
"I told him that part," she murmured. "What I knew of it."
"Did you think maybe at some point finding out *just what she'd done* while she had the time vortex in her head would have been a good idea?" He was about half an inch from crying. It was fun. Oh well, no social norms for him saying men didn't cry, not really anyway. Went with the sex.
"I thought I knew!" he protested, hands going to Jack's wrists, holding on gently, "I wasn't exactly...I don't remember a lot of it."
He didn't even know if he wanted to trust the doctor or not. Much less if he did. "Four hundred years and I've still got a room here."
"Everyone has room here." he said quietly.
Jack looked at Rose. "Do you feel the need to hit him?"
Rose smiled at Jack with faint, sad confusion. "Why would I? I told you I knew about the others."
"No, I meant more about the four hundred years."
She dropped her hand and shrugged silently. Truthfully, she hated it. Truthfully, she wondered how he could've gone 400 years and not known she'd come back. Or ever tried to get her back. (Hell, if Suzie managed it...). She was a little bit surprised he'd even remembered her when he'd seen her. She did know things had changed more than she'd ever imagined they could.
Jack understood time and the knots and snarls in it fairly well, understood regret and loss and not looking back - he'd said something about that to her once - even if time's not a straight line you had to keep going forward. He nodded at Rose's shrug and leaned in and kissed the Doctor. He'd kissed him goodbye when he had been going to die and now that he couldn't die he did it again. It was bruising aggressive and almost punishing, but it wasn't for all the pinned against the wall-ness, the fact that Jack *bit* him, or even that Jack was Jack, was sexual. It was hello, it was demand, it was reconnection and it was starting over and picking up where he'd left off. Five hundred and fifty years later.
The Doctor didn't move, closing his eyes, at the kiss and taking it, like a punishment, but also acceptance. A reconnection but he was waiting to be let quite in again.
Sometimes Jack thought that sex was the most honest thing there was - any world, any time. So close there wasn't room to lie - when you could feel and taste them. His hands unfisted until his palms were pressed flat against the Doctor. Hands empty and open and undeniably a gesture of peace and maybe an offer for the same. The kiss followed, with Jack slowly backing off and opening to the Doctor simply by breathing. There was something almost flinching there, ready to slam down and closed again, but it was there. Forcing himself open for the Doctor again, in a way that had nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with just being better. Bigger. More.
The Doctor slid his hands up Jack's arms to his shoulders, mouth opening softly under Jack's, breathing with him, hearts beating wildly out of rhythm with Jack's, but beating hard and fast against Jack's chest,.
Rose watched them. She watched as the aggression thawed a little, melting into something more gentle and open, like she thought a kiss should be, especially between friends. She watched them, and swallowed, backing up a step. She wasn't leaving, just. She felt too close, like she was in their personal space. And this wasn't about her. Another couple of steps back and she could sit on the end of the bed she'd been using and look down at the floor her clasped hands, thinking hard.
Jack really was thrumming - almost literally - with energy. He could feel the TARDIS under his feet, the Doctor's hearts beating wildly under his hand and some answering surge in return. Still not about sex because it was completely alien. He slipped his hand into the Doctor's hair, gentled the kiss and then shallowed it before he pulled back. He kept the hand in the Doctor's hair. "All right, then."
The Doctor looked as stunned and rumpled as if he had had sex. He generally did after being kissed in this incarnation. "Right."
"That's a good look on you," he purred at the Doctor before he refocused his attention on Rose. He offered her a smile that was flatly apologetic. "Right. So. What's the tube again?"
She smiled back, slight but warm. Nothing to apologise for.
He tried to get his head back together. "The technical explanation or the euphemistic one?"
"I." He cleared his throat. "I think giving me a euphemism right now would be a bad idea. "
Rose smirked at him.
He launched into a complicated explanation that basically boiled down to locally stopping time. Anti-aging in another person.
"What would happen if it got dumped into the heart of the TARDIS?"
"I wouldn't recommend it."
"How fast is it going to work?"
"There was a reason I said I couldn't carry you, Jack."
"Fall down go boom?"
He nodded hugely.
"You are a beautiful, beautiful, man," he said with real light and love in his eyes and kissed the Doctor again. "I could make you come in your pants for that. Give it here."
The Doctor handed it over and stepped back before Jack could make good on that.
Jack's eyebrow went up. "How long will it last? " Last question, he swore. Meanwhile he was just looking speculative.
"Only about 10 hours. Any more is unsafe." Not for Jack. For the universe.
Jack, inexplicably, looked at Rose at that one.
Rose raised an eyebrow back, smiling. "What is it?"
The Doctor looked at Jack, eyebrow up as well.
"...you're kidding."
The Doctor looked at Rose, "You know, I thought I looked less funny now"
She smiled at the Doctor. Actually it was closer to a smirk. "Kidding about what?" she asked Jack.
Jack looked away from the Doctor and to Rose again. "I." He wrinkled his forehead. "That can't be right."
"What can't, Jack?"
Jack thought about fainting, but decided it wouldn't work. "I'm the -" He looked questioning, but it was less that and more basic belief that there was no way in HELL he was that. That. MUCH.
"You're not." the Doctor shook his head, taking Jack's hand. "It's more of a ...Jack. You're not the time stream. You're...just tied into it, like the Tardis. Like me."
Jack nodded slowly. "Do you sleep?"
"I don't like to."
"Why?"
"Because I have nightmares," he said honestly, "But if you don't sleep, Jack, you go insane. All sentient species do."
He looked at Rose and laughed, softly. "I know." He looked at the tube, stroked the shiny surface with his thumb. "Almost like you and the TARDIS but not quite," he murmured. "I'm going." He told them.
Rose hesitated - she hadn't hesitated to hug Jack in ages - but then stepped forward, hugging him tightly. "See you later," she smiled, pulling back to kiss him lightly and let him go. "Sleep well."
Jack hugged her back, hand going up into her hair and gripping carefully. "Don't let the universe fall apart while I'm gone," he said lightly but there was a really nervous look in his look over her head, to the Doctor.
"Promise," The Doctor said seriously, holding out his hand for Rose.
Jack let her go and left the room to find his room. He used the drug, and for the next 10 hours he knew nothing.
Where: TARDIS
When: Immediately after this.
What: Meeting up with the Doctor and finding out what's up with Jack.
Rose didn't waste a second, she was fumbling for the key - which she obviously still had - before the TARDIS had even finished materialising. The moment it had she unlocked the door and stepped inside with a huge smile. She couldn't wait to see the look on his face.
The Doctor blinked, "You could have gotten stuck, Ro-." stop. Pause. "Rose?"
Jack followed Rose after just a bit, but not quite right on her heels. He pulled the door shut behind him and then leaned against it, silently.
Rose ran forward and threw her arms around him in a huge hug. The Doctor. Her Doctor. At last!
The Doctor caught her, swinging her around, "What? How? What?...I mean, how...Jack what?"
"Long story involving a possibly homicidal scientist!" She beamed, and turned to Jack. And her face fell, slightly, suddenly remembering some of what he'd said. She calmed down and took the Doctor's hand, letting Jack talk. Or whatever.
Jack smiled, calmly as he looked at them. He walked forward slowly and then inclined his head. "May I cut in?"
"You're dead though?" he said, puzzled, holding out his other hand for Jack's.
Rose, ducked her head and looked away. The wall of the TARDIS was very interesting, yes.
Jack looked between them and then gently took the Doctor's hand and tugged him. "Come here." He was still smiling, still almost smirking. "Really. It's my turn. I didn't intrude in your moment." He was euphoric. Fucking FINALLY.
"We're dancing?" he looked puzzled, but let Jack pull him out.
Jack shook his head. "No." He put a hand on the Doctor's shoulder, and then punched him with a right hook that wasn't as strong as it could have been had he not just been dead for two days.
"JACK!" Rose protested, getting between them. This wasn't exactly how she'd planned this, but she supposed she should've seen it coming.
The Doctor grabbed his jaw, stumbling backwards a little. He stared for a moment, leaning on the Tardis before carefully opening his mouth, shifting his jaw and blinking at Jack, "What's wrong?"
Jack wasn't at all surprised by Rose's reaction. It was milder than he'd expected, truthfully. The Doctor however is where his eyes were focused. "I'm two hundred years old," he bit out.
Because damn if that wasn't wrong.
Rose was still recovering from staring at Jack's dead body for several days. She didn't have it in her to fight him on much right now. "That's not his fault," she reminded Jack.
"Wait. What?" The Doctor flailed a bit, then shook his head, starting the Tardis and sending them off. "Stop. What happened?" He paused. "Did I cross the void again?"
Rose shook her head. "No. This is the right universe. I got thrown back. Jack..." She winced. "Time vortex, bringing life..." she trailed off looking at the console with interest.
Jack looked at Rose and put his hand on the back of her neck in what he hoped passed for a comforting gesture. "That's not what I meant by wrong," he said gently. The Doctor he just glared at. "You didn't cross the void - Rose did. She's been with me since. You - Why are you here now?"
"The rift," he said softly. "I didn't know."
"I know you didn't," Rose reassured. "Everything's just." She shrugged and stepped out of the way, leaning back against the console. Jack'd been waiting a lot longer than she had, as long as he wasn't going to throw any more punches she'd just. Let him have his time.
Except Jack didn't really have anything to say. It's a lot easier to hold onto composure and distance when you don't recognize the face the man was behind.
Except maybe he did. Just a little. "Did you even *use* the delta wave Doctor?" He shook his head. "Nevermind. It doesn't matter now."
"I cou- Jack." he shook his head, "How are you..."
He kept fighting to hold onto the aloof, or the anger, or anything. "It's been a rough few days," he said mildly. "More for Rose than me."
She glanced up, smiling very faintly. And forced herself not to make a joke. "Yeah, I'm not the one who had to deal with that thing, I mostly got to sit down." And deal with concussion, but that was neither here nor there.
"How long did you say you were there?" He asked more to make a point than get an answer. He even smiled at the Doctor while he was teasing her. Habit.
She coughed uncomfortably and it sounded a lot like 'three days'.
The Doctor rubbed his forehead, "Can someone please...what the hell happened?"
"My staff at Torchwood opened the Rift and let Abbadon out. I put him back. Rose hasn't slept or eaten in three days, and I bet she has to pee, too."
"Ianto brought me a sandwich," she argued. "And I think I drifted off a couple of times." Sitting by his dead body. Shut up.
"Oh that's not creepy at all."
Rose playfully smacked his arm - gently. "Shut up, Owen wanted to put you in the morgue. I had to threaten to fire people." Which considering she was not in charge, was fairly ballsy of her.
The Doctor sat down on the railing behind the console, "...can we go a little further back?"
Jack was starting to, against his better judgement, be mildly concerned about the Doctor. He told himself the reason he was so agreeable was because he wanted the Doctor to know what was going on. He was a decent liar. To himself, too, most of the time. "How much further back do you need to know? Ask questions, and we'll answer them - without tangents and teasing."
"What year is it?" he poked the console. "The Rift's not supposed to open until 2182 and it says it's 2008."
"2008. The Rift wasn't meant to be opened yet."
"There was this guy, he convinced the rest of the team to open the rift, they thought it'd get everything back how they wanted it or something," she shook her head. "It's a long story. We couldn't stop them." She looked at Jack. "But he stopped what it let out."
"How?"
Jack shook his head slight and walked around the console. "It doesn't matter."
Rose bit her lip. "Jack can't die. It's like he's got too much energy or something. Abaddon, it feeds off life. He... kind of gave it fatal indigestion?" she tried to explain as best she understood it.
The Doctor held up his finger, processing that, then shook his head, "Wait, what no?"
"I told you, it doesn't matter. He's gone, the rift is sealed again though it's not as stable as it once was." He looked across the console at them, eyes dark and serious. "When he went back everything that had gone wrong since it was opened went back to normal. And they lived happily ever after." He smiled, faintly.
He held his hand out for Jack, "But you're still punching like a little girl."
Rose choked on sudden laughter and covered her mouth, glancing at Jack in insincere, silent apology.
Jack flashed a quick grin at Rose's laughter. "I was dead for three days. I'm still a little off my game. I can try again later if you want." He took the Doctor's hand, gave it a quick squeeze. "I need you to fix this. After that, you and Rose - have the time of your lives. But fix this."
The Doctor stared at him for a moment, then started tugging him towards the infirmary, "What *part*, Jack?"
"The part where I can't sleep or stay dead," he answered. As he was tugged he grabbed Rose. Then just kept going.
"I can probably do something about the sleeping."
Rose let herself be pulled along, but she was quieter now. Honestly she was afraid that if Jack could die... She'd lose him. Soon. And was trying not to think about it.
"Sleeping really wasn't my primary concern, though Rose sleeping's up there."
"I sleep!" she protested.
"Not recently," he reminded her, automatically.
The Doctor held up his free hand, for all the world a father with squabbling children. "Right then. Rose, nap while I take care of Jack. Jack, trust Rose to know her own limits, please." Hypocrite.
"Jack would very much like you to tell him what kind of taking care of means, exactly."
He smirked. "And Jack does trust Rose to know her own limits - he does not trust her to stay within them."
Rose smiled and shrugged unrepentantly. "I'm still here."
"Jack will find out what taking care of him entails as soon as the Doctor figures out what the entailment is." He opened a door and pointed Jack to an early nineteenth century hospital bed. "Sit." He pointed Rose to the other. "Sleep."
She'd argue she wasn't tired, but the truth was despite the adrenaline she was utterly exhausted. For now she hopped up on the other bed. She had more sense than to ask about her room. Who knew how long it'd been for him, and she didn't want to hear if someone else had been using it recently.
"All that work just to get us in bed," he snarked. It was play, it was habit, and it meant absolutely nothing. But he sat on the edge of the bed, put his palms down against it and then realized what he was sitting on. "Have you ever thought of maybe modernizing?"
"Like it's work," he snarked back, then put on a complicated hate, "No, why?"
"You get what you pay for!" Jack made That face, the one he'd made at Tosh when asking about crime fighting. The disbelieving one. "Because the nineteenth century wasn't exactly know for it's stellar medical care, maybe?"
The Doctor sighed, then went to stand in front of Jack, nearly between his knees, "Trust me, Jack."
Jack flashed him a grin that showed his teeth, and his dimples. "With my life."
"Then sit back, shut up, and let me play Doctor." he grinned back with a bit of his predecessor's mania.
Rose watched the whole exchange... Trying not to feel like things were back to normal. At the same time, she was trying to remember all of it. A perfect moment of nostalgia in the now. She lay down on her bed and turned on her side to watch what was happening. She'd probably fall asleep any moment, but again she was trying to remember.
Jack gave a soft snort of laughter, and reclined back on the bed. "All right, but if your hands are cold all bets are off." He opened one eye again. "You're really a Doctor?"
He gave Jack a mock offended look, then poked his belly like the pillsbury dough boy. "Sorta."
Jack went 'tee hee' groan at him. "What?" he asked after.
"Not for humans." He pulled glasses down out of the hat, peering at Jack, "But then... you're not anymore are you?"
Rose closed her eyes at that and tried to will herself to sleep behind his back.
Jack reclined completely to give the Doctor whatever access he wanted. At the question he looked at Rose, a little worried and saw her eyes closed - assumed she was asleep and looked back to the Doctor. "No. I'm not."
"How much does she know?" he pushed the glasses up and cupped Jack's cheek, turning his face towards the Doctor's.
Jack turned passively at the hand against his cheek and looked at the Doctor's eyes. Damn eyes. "Too much." His cheek was a little cool but warming up perceptibly.
"How much do you know?" he asked softly.
Jack laughed. "Not enough." He wasn't entirely amused, but what are you going to do?
"I could plug you into the Tardis and we could would never have to go to Cardiff again," he said, bemusedly. "You're throbbing with time energy."
He stayed quiet for a minute, processing, thinking. "And time is limitless." Sort of.
He nodded a bit, "and. Well. I'd be careful about thinking too hard about any...particular time period."
Jack pushed up on his elbows and his eyebrows shot up and his mouth opened. And then stayed there.
"Now, Jack, that's a very attractive look, but you don't look too clever wearing it."
"You're saying you find stupid people attractive?" he asked. Only not. "You're telling me I'm a TARDIS."
"There are people" Romana "who have insinuated that." he half-smiled, then shook his head, "Not really. " Stop. "I. Wouldn't use those exact words."
"Damn," he said with faked disappointment because now he was the idiot and it was all his fault, not the doctor's and he. He didn't care right then. "What words would you use?"
"Well. There's no relative dimension." he hedged.
"What do you mean there's no relative dimension?"
"TARDIS stands for Time and relative dimension in space."
"I'm asking you to translate what it means to me, not tell me things I know." He was. overwhelmed. In an odd way.
"You're not bi-" he stopped. "Well. You are. But." He sat down next to Jack, "You can decide where you want to be."
"I'm very bi," he agreed with a leer. He sat all the way up. "That's either the most fantastic thing I have ever heard, or the most horrifying."
He patted Jack's leg. "Go with fantastic.'
"I always knew all that sex with your time machine was going to get me in trouble." His lips were twitching. It was still huge. Huger than he could wrap his head around. "And I swore to never get knocked up again."
Jack talked. Jack talked a lot.
"I told you not to flirt with my girl," he smiled a bit, "Do you want to sleep?"
He curled his hand around the back of the Doctor's neck. "Are you okay?"
The old Jack, the one with a sense of adventure and time and space at his feet was asking the question. There was spark there, and compassion and warmth. "And. How?"
"I'm fine," he smiled a bit, leaning in to Jack a little, and then grinning, "I am sort of a Doctor."
Jack squeezes his neck. "If you can put me to sleep without killing me - have at it. I wouldn't mind a nap." Especially with what his brain was doing to itself.
He grinned, "I can." He didn't look over, "Do you want something too, Rose, or can you manage it yourself?"
Caught, Rose couldn't exactly pretend to be asleep now. She could pretend she half was though. It wasn't that far from truth. She blinked her eyes open. "Hm?"
"Never mind," he smiled over at her, loving and warm, "Go to sleep. I'll carry you to bed after I get Jack settled."
He sighed. "She gets carried to bed, I get the hospital bed." He was teasing. He didn't care at all right now. "Settle me Doctor. It's Time." And past.
Rose wondered if that would be Her Bed or one in a strange or empty room. It took about two seconds before she was trying not to think about it and willed herself to try and sleep.
He went to a cabinet and picked up a long, silver tube, "Well, you could get your own bed, but I can't carry you, Jack."
"That's because you're a twig." At least he didn't say twink, but he thought it *really* loud. He held his hand out.
He looked offended, but he took Jack's hand, standing up, "Next time I'll be old and fat."
Jack had been reaching for the tube but didn't mind getting a hand instead. "Next time you can be an emu." He nodded. "Well?"
"Sleeping here or your own bed?"
"I have my own bed?" His eyebrows went up.
"Why would I get rid of your room?" his eyebrows went up too.
"Because I'm not using it?"
Meanwhile, Rose found it a lot easier to breathe. If Jack's room was still there, hers would be too.
"So?" The Doctor looked nearly comically confused.
"So, how long has it been for you?"
Rose opened her eyes for that one and looked up at the Doctor, she'd been wondering about it herself.
He counted for a moment, "roughly...does it matter?"
"Oh, it matters," Jack answered, a harder edge to his voice than had been there before.
"Four hundred twelve years, five months and roughly fifteen minutes since. Since I saw you die."
Rose stared. She'd thought maybe it might've been a while, but... She couldn't even comprehend that it'd been something like four hundred and eleven years since he'd seen her last. And she'd found Jack's 150 had to come to terms with. She found herself looking at Jack, looking for something she couldn't articulate yet.
Jack looked at Rose briefly then looked the Doctor up and down, in a menacing way. He stood up, slowly and then started advancing on the doctor with the menacing and without the vague.
Rose sat up, watching them and not at all sure what to do. Four hundred years.
The Doctor stared, "What?"
Jack grabbed the Doctor's shirt in both hands and shoved him into the wall of the TARDIS and held him there. "You know. I can understand it maybe taking you a while to get around to investigating. I can even understand not wanting to look back," he said conversationally with his nose inches from the Doctor's. "because God knows I haven't. Not knowing is a whole lot easier than dealing with the line of dead bodies and broken hearts. But I just can't get my head around how you went *four hundred years* without thinking about what happened up on that station, and why the hell you're pulling this happy to see you *shit* now."
Rose slid off the bed and stepped closer. She didn't say anything, or even really try and stop him, she just rested a hand on Jack's arm gently.
"I saw you die, Jack. I watched it happen. I lied to Rose about. But I saw it. What was I supposed to think?" He didn't fight. Didn't move at all.
His arm was tense under Rose's hand, but he didn't respond to it otherwise. "She didn't believe you," he informed the Doctor. "What happened up there?" He wasn't horribly aggressive or angry sounding about it but somehow he *has* to be holding the Doctor there. Really and truly needed to be.
"The Daleks killed you."
"After that."
"Rose came. She destroyed the Daleks and it was killing her."
"I told him that part," she murmured. "What I knew of it."
"Did you think maybe at some point finding out *just what she'd done* while she had the time vortex in her head would have been a good idea?" He was about half an inch from crying. It was fun. Oh well, no social norms for him saying men didn't cry, not really anyway. Went with the sex.
"I thought I knew!" he protested, hands going to Jack's wrists, holding on gently, "I wasn't exactly...I don't remember a lot of it."
He didn't even know if he wanted to trust the doctor or not. Much less if he did. "Four hundred years and I've still got a room here."
"Everyone has room here." he said quietly.
Jack looked at Rose. "Do you feel the need to hit him?"
Rose smiled at Jack with faint, sad confusion. "Why would I? I told you I knew about the others."
"No, I meant more about the four hundred years."
She dropped her hand and shrugged silently. Truthfully, she hated it. Truthfully, she wondered how he could've gone 400 years and not known she'd come back. Or ever tried to get her back. (Hell, if Suzie managed it...). She was a little bit surprised he'd even remembered her when he'd seen her. She did know things had changed more than she'd ever imagined they could.
Jack understood time and the knots and snarls in it fairly well, understood regret and loss and not looking back - he'd said something about that to her once - even if time's not a straight line you had to keep going forward. He nodded at Rose's shrug and leaned in and kissed the Doctor. He'd kissed him goodbye when he had been going to die and now that he couldn't die he did it again. It was bruising aggressive and almost punishing, but it wasn't for all the pinned against the wall-ness, the fact that Jack *bit* him, or even that Jack was Jack, was sexual. It was hello, it was demand, it was reconnection and it was starting over and picking up where he'd left off. Five hundred and fifty years later.
The Doctor didn't move, closing his eyes, at the kiss and taking it, like a punishment, but also acceptance. A reconnection but he was waiting to be let quite in again.
Sometimes Jack thought that sex was the most honest thing there was - any world, any time. So close there wasn't room to lie - when you could feel and taste them. His hands unfisted until his palms were pressed flat against the Doctor. Hands empty and open and undeniably a gesture of peace and maybe an offer for the same. The kiss followed, with Jack slowly backing off and opening to the Doctor simply by breathing. There was something almost flinching there, ready to slam down and closed again, but it was there. Forcing himself open for the Doctor again, in a way that had nothing to do with sex, and everything to do with just being better. Bigger. More.
The Doctor slid his hands up Jack's arms to his shoulders, mouth opening softly under Jack's, breathing with him, hearts beating wildly out of rhythm with Jack's, but beating hard and fast against Jack's chest,.
Rose watched them. She watched as the aggression thawed a little, melting into something more gentle and open, like she thought a kiss should be, especially between friends. She watched them, and swallowed, backing up a step. She wasn't leaving, just. She felt too close, like she was in their personal space. And this wasn't about her. Another couple of steps back and she could sit on the end of the bed she'd been using and look down at the floor her clasped hands, thinking hard.
Jack really was thrumming - almost literally - with energy. He could feel the TARDIS under his feet, the Doctor's hearts beating wildly under his hand and some answering surge in return. Still not about sex because it was completely alien. He slipped his hand into the Doctor's hair, gentled the kiss and then shallowed it before he pulled back. He kept the hand in the Doctor's hair. "All right, then."
The Doctor looked as stunned and rumpled as if he had had sex. He generally did after being kissed in this incarnation. "Right."
"That's a good look on you," he purred at the Doctor before he refocused his attention on Rose. He offered her a smile that was flatly apologetic. "Right. So. What's the tube again?"
She smiled back, slight but warm. Nothing to apologise for.
He tried to get his head back together. "The technical explanation or the euphemistic one?"
"I." He cleared his throat. "I think giving me a euphemism right now would be a bad idea. "
Rose smirked at him.
He launched into a complicated explanation that basically boiled down to locally stopping time. Anti-aging in another person.
"What would happen if it got dumped into the heart of the TARDIS?"
"I wouldn't recommend it."
"How fast is it going to work?"
"There was a reason I said I couldn't carry you, Jack."
"Fall down go boom?"
He nodded hugely.
"You are a beautiful, beautiful, man," he said with real light and love in his eyes and kissed the Doctor again. "I could make you come in your pants for that. Give it here."
The Doctor handed it over and stepped back before Jack could make good on that.
Jack's eyebrow went up. "How long will it last? " Last question, he swore. Meanwhile he was just looking speculative.
"Only about 10 hours. Any more is unsafe." Not for Jack. For the universe.
Jack, inexplicably, looked at Rose at that one.
Rose raised an eyebrow back, smiling. "What is it?"
The Doctor looked at Jack, eyebrow up as well.
"...you're kidding."
The Doctor looked at Rose, "You know, I thought I looked less funny now"
She smiled at the Doctor. Actually it was closer to a smirk. "Kidding about what?" she asked Jack.
Jack looked away from the Doctor and to Rose again. "I." He wrinkled his forehead. "That can't be right."
"What can't, Jack?"
Jack thought about fainting, but decided it wouldn't work. "I'm the -" He looked questioning, but it was less that and more basic belief that there was no way in HELL he was that. That. MUCH.
"You're not." the Doctor shook his head, taking Jack's hand. "It's more of a ...Jack. You're not the time stream. You're...just tied into it, like the Tardis. Like me."
Jack nodded slowly. "Do you sleep?"
"I don't like to."
"Why?"
"Because I have nightmares," he said honestly, "But if you don't sleep, Jack, you go insane. All sentient species do."
He looked at Rose and laughed, softly. "I know." He looked at the tube, stroked the shiny surface with his thumb. "Almost like you and the TARDIS but not quite," he murmured. "I'm going." He told them.
Rose hesitated - she hadn't hesitated to hug Jack in ages - but then stepped forward, hugging him tightly. "See you later," she smiled, pulling back to kiss him lightly and let him go. "Sleep well."
Jack hugged her back, hand going up into her hair and gripping carefully. "Don't let the universe fall apart while I'm gone," he said lightly but there was a really nervous look in his look over her head, to the Doctor.
"Promise," The Doctor said seriously, holding out his hand for Rose.
Jack let her go and left the room to find his room. He used the drug, and for the next 10 hours he knew nothing.