Author:
scap3goatTitle: One Step Closer
Rating: PG
Pairing: Ten/Jack
Prompt: #17: Home at
20_est_relshipsSummary: “I’m one step closer, with my arms opened wide. I’m one step closer and willing to try.” - One Step Closer, Bon Jovi
But, actually, it’s only breakfast.
Disclaimer: Title by Bon Jovi and characters belong to someone else, too. I own not much and especially not the people in this.
Dedication: For
planetkiller who inspired this.
Jack watched the slender hand picking up an egg and smashing it violently against the edge of the bowl twice. The hand jerked when the egg’s cold innards touched the pale skin. Quickly the egg white and yolk were dropped into the bowl and the two shell-fragments somewhere on the kitchen counter. Another egg was picked up and Jack smiled to himself. It was a weary smile but the Doctor’s habit of opening the eggs with only one hand and then absentmindedly shaking it because he just couldn’t stand the sticky egg white just amused him. Every time.
“How are ya?”
“Same old,” replied Jack, slumped in a chair. He received a nod in return.
“Same old for breakfast, then?”
Jack nodded. Another egg, a brown one, was picked out of such an ordinary carton that Jack wondered whether the Doctor had stopped by a supermarket before. Five. Six.
The pan on the stove was crackling when the water between it and the heating hot plate began to evaporate. The Doctor quickly washed his hands and - hands still dripping - opened the fridge to look for a package of bacon.
The bacon slices where quickly cut into smaller pieces and thrown into the pan. Next came an onion. While he was still adding the hand-ful of awkward onion pierces to the bacon the hyperactive alien turned around again asking, “Tea or coffee?”
“Coffee,” replied Jack, amazed by the energy radiating off the alien.
Still folding the coffee filter to fit into the coffee machine Jack could see the Time Lord’s mind being elsewhere - picking up the coffee tin from the fridge.
For a moment Jack’s eyes rested on the coffee machine though. He preferred using this method. It reminded him Ianto and his resentment of anything that was a coffee machine with filters and roasted and grinded coffee beans. Ianto, who had long since perished. He couldn’t forget. He couldn’t forget the pain and fear in those eyes although they also showed that he knew the truth - that nothing could be done to save him. Jack closed his eyes, feeling every decade of his life. He had loved Ianto. He loved so many and still this was the only place he could return.
Jack opened his eyes abruptly when the memories began to hurt too much. He saw the Doctor dancing between fridge, stove and coffee machine - putting a few spoons of coffee powder in the machine, whisking the eggs for a moment before turning to the fridge again, looking almost like he wanted to crawl into it. He came out with a can of maize in hand, frowning before opening it and sprinkling it over the onions and bacon. He almost hopped over to the coffee machine again, added a roughly measured amount of water and turned to the fridge again.
“Do you plan on seeing anyone?” he asked.
“No, do you?” Jack asked, his actual comment dead on his lips, “I want to spend a week in bed with you.”
“Good, because I found a clove of garlic,” grinned the Doctor, holding up his prize when he emerged from the depth of his kitchen equipment.
He chopped it up just as awkwardly as the bacon and the onion before adding it to the pan. The eggs got company from a splash of milk, as well as salt and pepper - Jack was sure that it was enough salt, if nothing else - and where whisked again.
The Doctor frowned at the yellowish substance in the bowl for a moment and then unconsciously shrugged his shoulders.
“I forgot to water the basil,” muttered the Doctor when carefully plunging the few still lush leaves off the plant. “Too late for that,” he went on and yet gave the basil a bit of water anyway. The basil was the last thing to get into the pan before the Doctor picked up a sponge.
“Same old here, too, I see,” grinned Jack when we surveyed the mess the alien had managed to make in the few minutes he was working in the kitchen.
“Yeah, right,” came the slightly confused answer and Jack knew that his comment hadn’t sunken in. The Doctor was on the outlook for the last few blotches on the kitchen counter, be it egg white, milk or something else.
Finally, when he settled for stirring the pan’s contents he seemed to calm down and looked at Jack.
Now the man dared to ask, “How long?”
“Nine and three quarters. You?”
“About seven? Seven and a half? Not eight, I’d know if it’d been eight.”
The Doctor nodded and parted from his pan for a moment. He walked over to Jack and was pulled into a quick hug, strong arms around his waist and his fingers in dark hair. It was hard for them to take part in each other’s lives. But here they were, still together, still in the TARDIS kitchen, about to have breakfast.
When they parted Jack’s expression was grimmer, his eyes fixed on a wall.
“That’d be everything?” the Doctor wanted to know, gesturing towards the pan.
“I think so,” replied Jack, his voice hoarse from all the held back tears. He watched the whisked eggs settling into the pan with a familiar hiss that was muted when the eggs covered the bottom of the pan entirely.
The next moments were silent, apart from the strange scrambled eggs in the pan. In fact it was peaceful enough to startle Jack when the Doctor opened the dishwasher and pulled out two mugs. One he filled with a bit of milk - not without making a mess - the other he put in front of Jack right away.
After putting two plates on the counter he took two slices of bread out of their package, looking carefully and sniffing before declaring them not mouldy and putting them into the toaster.
Jack chuckled. So crazy and strangely domestic.
“Any minute now,” the Doctor then announced. “I know that you like them when they’re still a bit... slimy.”
Jack nodded, “Yeah, that would be great.” He went silent again, just observing, not commenting, when his Time Lord divided the eggs on the plates, added a toast to each and then poured coffee into both mugs before getting cutlery and the plates.
When he sat down at the table Jack was lost in thought again.
“Your meal is getting cold,” stated the Doctor. Jack grinned.
“I don’t have to worry about developing a deficit of sodium chloride as long as you’re cooking,” he grinned after tasting his eggs.
The Doctor just grinned in reply.