FIC: The Hell You Won't, Doc! (1/1)
Title: The Hell You Won't, Doc!
Series: There's The Door!
Rating: T
Author: tkel_paris
Summary: When the Doctor thinks of dumping the Duplicate in Pete's World, he doesn't count on the time senses of one Jack Harkness. He knows better than anyone that such a fate is too much for one with the Doctor and Donna's minds in him.
Disclaimer: Did Jack raise a protest or even try to stop things in canon? Then not mine still.
Dedication: tardis_mole gets this one, because I doubt I would've created the idea without our various email exchanges and the talks about Boe-Kind nature.
Author's Note: Listen to me snicker as I imagine the look on the Doctor's face had this actually happened. :D
The Hell You Won't, Doc!
Started May 29, 2012
Finished February 6, 2013
As the Doctor piloted the TARDIS, with the still celebrating Children of Time inside with him, one of them suddenly became very silent. Jack Harkness' heritage meant that he could sense timelines a bit, and his suddenly flared where the Duplicate Doctor was concerned.
Actually, he wasn't a duplicate anything. That was dangerously close to being called a clone, and Jack hated that on general principle - he wasn't going toward the more personal reasons he held. He then realized the Doctor wasn't seeing that, blinded by frustration and grief over yet more genocide.
I must make him see, Jack decided promptly. If I have to, I'll drag the Duplicate out to Torchwood to protect him. Oh, would the creators be shocked at how things have changed under my leadership.
He paused a moment, trying to find another name to call the new person by. He was the Doctor's old right hand once. Handy? Benny?
Oh, it occurred to him, I should ask the person in question. He cleared his throat. “Well, we need to give this new guy here a name. So you're part Doctor and part Donna Noble. What would you like to be called? I can only think of two names: Handy or Benny?”
The man in question flinched.
“Oh!” Donna exclaimed. “Born from the Doctor's right hand! Well, there you go! Benjamin!”
Rose scoffed. “You're not saying he's your and the Doctor's son, are you?!”
From the way the Doctor's eyes widened, Jack could tell that the idea hadn't occurred to him. “Well,” he began as the silence stretched on, “he does seem to be half-human. And just because he looks like the Doctor doesn't mean he has the same mental maturity. He looks to me like he needs family to guide him through the complicated mess of his creation so he can become his own person. People with the patience and love to help him through the rough patches and encourage his progress. And I think he couldn't have asked for a better mom.” He finished with beaming smile toward Donna.
She narrowed her eyes. “Oi! You wouldn't hug me until after the Meta-Crisis! Just coz I hugged you just now don't mean you're forgiven!”
Jack play pouted.
Donna snorted, rolling her eyes. “Well, that said, I think you're right. I can live with having a virtually grown instant son.” The light fell from her eyes. “I nearly had an instant grown daughter,” she whispered.
The Doctor cringed, eyes slamming shut as he remembered Messaline.
“So,” Donna continued, hoping to distract everyone - except Martha, since she was there for the first and final acts of that tragedy - from noticing the Doctor's pain. “How about those names, son?”
He was thoughtful, although eying the Doctor out of the corner of his eye. He suddenly sensed that Jack was deliberately bringing this up, but couldn't yet figure out the reason. “I kind of like Benjamin. But don't call me Benny! I'm too big for that name! I'll take Ben for short, if you must call me something else.”
Sarah Jane laughed before anyone else could. “Careful. Your behaviour reminds me a lot of Luke's.”
Ben groaned. “Oh, please, Sarah! Maybe I'm not so mature as I look, but I do try to think about others!”
The Doctor stared at him suddenly. He found himself looking at the being he'd dubbed his duplicate in a new light. Was he really something different? Someone who deserved something other than what he'd had in mind for him? Someone who was even younger than Rose was still mentally?
Jack suppressed a smile. He could see his efforts were working. Stir the pot a bit more, and Ben would be safe from Pete's World. “So, Doc, how does it feel to have a kid? Bet your only real regret is that he didn't get Donna's hair.”
“Come off it!” Rose exclaimed. “He's no one's son! He's just a clone of the Doctor with some human mixed in!”
Everyone looked at Rose in shock, but four faces gave her harsher glares.
Rose noticed the stares, but was most puzzled over the Doctor's and Jack's. “What?!”
The Doctor blanched a bit when Rose was looking at Jack. She really had no idea who she was talking to. He wondered if Jack was playing dirty to stop him, but now he saw why the Boe-Kind was doing it - Jack saw things that he, a Time Lord, was blind to
because he was too close to them.
Rose had caused Jack's immortality. Rose's liking the power the Bad Wolf gave her had forced the Doctor himself to sacrifice a life to stop her. And he'd let her travel with him after committing genocide herself.
Oh. He really did need to think his ideas for punishment through sometimes. This time, he was in the wrong.
Jack didn't dare breathe a sigh of relief as he watched the Doctor go pale and then grim. Yes, the message had gotten through. Now Ben was safe.
He'd dared to stand up to the Time Lord, and done it in such a way that he couldn't be mad. Hell, he might even be grateful one day. After all, it gave Donna an entry into motherhood, and Jack suspected that she would reward the Doctor for that.
Jack hid a grin behind his hand. He kinda wished he could know what exactly the reward was.
THE END