Title: You Can't Be Here
Author: Time Phobia
Rating: PG
Characters: (Jack, Ianto, the Tenth Doctor, OCs)
Pairings: (series: Jack/Ianto)
Summary: Jack and Ianto have taken off on their own.
Timing: Post-CoE, Post-Waters of Mars
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or make a profit. They are owned, for the most part, by RTD and BBC.
Warning: Mentions of cannon character death. Don't worry. Death is only a beginning.
Author's Note (for series): I've got a long detailed spoiler-rific post
here Traveling by wrist-strap always felt like falling through air. Exhilarating and fun, sure, but the landing was the hard part. Jack was prepared for the kick in the gut that meant a solid and firm time and space. He caught himself on a nearby wall.
Ianto wasn’t so graceful. He landed and crashed to his hands and knees. Luckily he hadn’t eaten because he dry heaved twice now.
“Sorry,” Jack managed, even as he was trying to catch his breath, “didn’t have time to warn you about how much that could hurt.”
Ianto still needed to catch his breath.
Gently, Jack reached down and helped Ianto stand.
“We make it?” Ianto asked.
“Not to our final goal,” Jack replied. “We can’t travel like the TARDIS. We don’t have that much protection from the time vortex. That was pretty much the limits of how far we can make one jump. It’s why it hurt so much when we landed.” Though the Doctor could have manipulated this thing into taking us farther.
Ianto nodded. “What’s our final goal?”
“The Doctor said that another Time Lord constructed the Void and the last place anyone saw her was a planet called Minevra in the 78th century. We made it to New Cardiff in the 59th.”
“New Cardiff?” Ianto asked.
Jack shrugged. “I thought it’d be poetic. Went with a bigger time jump than space jump.”
“The glory of time travel,” Ianto muttered, “we don’t know when he’ll catch up.”
“You’ve got a point, but he’s always late. Even if he does get his computer running and traces the jump, he’s probably going to miss us. Especially if the TARDIS is still on your side.”
“Don’t we need his help finding the Time Lord?”
“Maybe,” Jack said. “It’s a whole planet full of people, so probably. But we can always start before he gets there.”
“Why don’t we go to when and where she is for certain?” Ianto asked.
“Timelines could be ruined that way. If we start talking about the Void and she hasn’t even constructed the idea, we could end up destroying the timeline where she makes it.”
“You think that could happen?”
Jack shrugged a little. “Tell someone that they send every soul in the universe to hell and expect them to follow through? Few people would cause that much suffering just so the living universe could keep on going.”
“The Doctor would,” Ianto murmured.
“Yeah,” Jack admitted, “to keep the timeline and keep life going, he would.”
Sighing, Ianto said, “So what do we do now?”
“We’ve got at least twelve hours before we can jump. The wrist-strap needs to recharge and run the calculations for the next jump. I’m not sure we’ll be able to make it the whole way in one jump,” Jack replied. “For now, we blend in with the locals.”
“How? I don’t even have shoes. And we don’t have any money.”
Jack grinned. “Who do you think you’re traveling with?”
“What, you’ve got money now, too?” Ianto asked.
Winking, Jack told him, “I’ve got money everywhere.”
*-*
Finding an ATM wasn’t difficult. It didn’t require a card, but it needed the thumbprint and eye scan of a user. Jack gave the machine what it wanted and it gave him what he wanted in the form of a card.
Ianto had gotten a glance of the balance and couldn’t help staring at it a little. Jack’s loaded, he thought to himself.
“I’m going to run and see if I can’t find a store real quick,” Jack said. “Get you some shoes and something else to wear.”
“Are you going to find something for yourself?” Ianto asked.
“After I get yours.” Jack still managed to grin at him. “Don’t want to lose you again.”
“I’ll be here,” Ianto told him. “Basically. I think it’d still be odd to be waiting next to an ATM, even in the future.”
“Good call. I’ll be back soon. Promise.”
Ianto moved down the side street a little and sat down against the wall. His stomach growled at him and he sighed. Reaching out with his mind, he looked for Jack’s. Once he found it, he said, “Could you find something to eat too?”
He heard chuckling from Jack. “No problem.”
About thirty minutes later, Jack reappeared at the end of the side street. A few people had come by the ATM during the time, but no one had noticed Ianto.
“You’re stressed,” Ianto noted.
“Reading my mind?” Jack asked, trying to sound amused.
“Feelings,” Ianto muttered.
“So you’re an empath too?” Jack said as he handed Ianto the smaller of the bags.
It smelled gloriously of food. Ianto dug into the bag. Fish and chips. Some things never change. “Suppose.”
“Anything you can’t do?”
“I think all my ‘powers’ are psychic,” Ianto told him. “I’m pretty sure I can’t fly or anything like that. When the TARDIS made me solid, I think whatever you and the Doctor believed at the time defined what I can do in this form.”
“Or flying just takes a lot more energy than reading minds,” Jack suggested.
“Maybe. But let’s not throw me off any buildings trying to find out,” Ianto drawled.
Chuckling again, Jack sat down next to him.
“So what went wrong while you were out?”
“My English of this century is rusty, my Welsh even worse, and I forgot to repair the translating function of the wrist-strap.”
“Didn’t stop you from getting what you wanted,” Ianto said.
“No,” Jack replied slowly, “but if you happen to know it, it’s going to make tonight a lot easier on us.”
“Don’t know if I do,” Ianto answered. The food, despite being fast food, tasted amazing. Better than he remembered. “If I don’t, I might be able to learn it.”
After Ianto finished the meal, Jack handed him the other bag. Opening it, Ianto found a pair of shoes and a neatly folded suit, along with a thin metal tube. He pulled out the tub and frowned at it.
“Shower in a bottle,” Jack said. He took the tube and pulled off a cap to reveal a spritzer. “Thought you might want to clean up before changing. It’s not the best, but it’s something.”
“It’s enough,” Ianto said with a smile. “Though, do they have bathtubs here?”
“We’ll try to find a hotel with one later,” Jack offered. He pointed at the tube. “Be careful with that thing. It lets out a downpour if you press too hard.”
“Right.” Ianto glanced at the end of the side street. “Could you watch for anyone coming by?”
“Yeah, sure,” Jack replied. He stood and started walking to a better vantage point.
Ianto took a deep breath and started changing.
Onto Part 14