Taking Chances
FESTIVE TITLE BITCHES YO: Taking Chances
AUTHOR WHO AGREED TO THIS INSANITY: thaddeusfavour
RECIPIENT WHO HAD BETTER BE GRATEFUL BECAUSE I SPENT TIME THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN HAVING SEX WRITING THIS SHIT: lefaym
SUMMARY: Jack’s been getting into a lot of trouble lately and the Doctor thinks he knows why, and how to fix it.
BETA: DEFINITELY FOXY! 51stcenturyfox
RATING: FESTIVE SEXY
WARNING: IMMA REALLY CRAP WRITER AND YOU'RE ALL MUCH BETTER THAN ME. I HAVE WRITTEN THE WORLD'S SHORTEST SEX SCENE. DEAL WITH IT.
SPOILERS: JESUS PEOPLE IT'S JUST ABOUT THE DOCTOR, ROSE, AND JACK TRAVELING THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
DISCLAIMER: THEY'RE NOT MINE. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE. IN MAH PANTS.
Taking Chances
Jack looked out the window. It was narrow and high, with a stone ledge that he could barely reach. He was balanced on his toes at the edge of the bed, fingers gripping the stone to peer out. Nighttime; no moon; he couldn’t see a thing except the flickering of torches and lanterns as the guards made their rounds. He’d read about things like-.
Actually, he hadn’t. Late 20th century was his specialty. The only stuff he could remember before that was people painting themselves blue and attacking a guy named Custer at the Little Big Horn Diner. Not helpful. What would have been helpful was a pamphlet stating kings of England named Henry did not like being propositioned by other men.
Shame, that. Young and athletic, Henry the… eighth was it? Henry was Jack’s type. One of Jack’s many types actually. Seemed to like Jack’s bravado too, at least until Jack leaned close and slid a hand down Henry’s thigh.
“Unfair,” Jack said, murmuring quietly into the cold night fog through the window. “The way they were all acting at dinner, what’s a guy to think?”
The bed Jack was balanced on shifted under his weight and he teetered precariously. With a sigh, he dropped back to the ground upsetting the bed and getting a glare and a growled, “Quiet in there!” from the guard passing by on his rounds.
Good move, Jack. It hadn’t taken him long to get himself into this one. The only question was whether the Doctor and Rose would come to get him out of it. So far, he’d been lucky. Six planets, six rescues. No, five. He couldn’t actually count the birdcage thingy. He’d got himself out of that one.
“Captain Jack Harkness, no birdcage can hold him,” Jack said. A faint smile crossed his face as he stared into the darkness. Nothing yet, but there was still time for a rescue before morning. Righting the bed, he lay down, wrapping himself in the thin blanket and rolling over to face the wall. If he woke up the next morning and the room was still empty, he’d have a few more seconds of hope before he found out he was still alone. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.
Long before dawn came, the sound of the TARDIS arriving filled the room, waking Jack up. He sat up grinning as the door opened and Rose stuck her head out to look around the room.
“Welcome to the Tower of London, Rose Tyler,” Jack called happily. “I bet you never thought you’d end up here.”
“They give tours in my day,” Rose said. “Never took one though.” Grinning, she stepped out and looked around. Her nose wrinkled and she put a hand up to her face. “It probably smelled better then.”
“Will smell better, you mean.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.”
“Hurry it up, you two!” The Doctor leaned out of the TARDIS frowning. “Can’t stay here all day.” He disappeared inside, save for one leather-clad arm that hugged the doorway, seeming to pull him back out. “Come on!” he said, and was gone again, arm and all.
Jack bounced to his feet with a laugh, and Rose grinned as Jack offered her his arm with a cheery, “Milady?”
“Don’t mind if I do!” she said, taking his arm. “So, did you really feel up Henry the VIII?”
Jack was just launching into the story as the door closed.
<><><><><><>
“He looks happy,” Rose said. She watched as Jack managed to coax a third partner onto the dance floor. The club they’d stopped at was an exciting mix of sizes, shapes, and colors, and Jack seemed intent on working his way through most of the options available.
Sipping her purple drink through a purple straw and holding her purple glass, Rose pointed at the Doctor with the little purple umbrella that had come with it. “See? Some people know how to have fun!”
The Doctor watched Jack, who was making some decidedly sexy dance moves with his partners. He sighed, and sipped from his own drink, which was served in what appeared to be an over-large banana.
“Well, you know what they say. Looks can be deceiving,” the Doctor said, eyes fixed on Jack, who was now dancing with an overgrown bipedal fern.
“I’m not surprised you don’t know what happy looks like,” Rose said.
“I’m happy!” The Doctor toasted her with the banana and took a huge drink as if to prove his point.
“More like brooding,” Rose said. Jack’s laughter reached them over the noise of the club. Rose turned to see him dancing, sandwiched between two of the ferns with some suspicious-looking frondy bits wrapped intimately around his thighs. She turned back to the Doctor and nodded towards Jack. “Now him? He’s happy.”
Rose leaned closer to the Doctor, slipping her hand over his on the table. Maybe Jack had the right idea. The Doctor liked dancing. She remembered dancing with him on the TARDIS, the scent of leather as he’d twirled her, pressing his chest against hers. She smiled as the Doctor turned his hand to grip hers, his thumb brushing lightly across her knuckles before he pulled away. She sighed.
Taking a final pull from the straw, the Doctor put down his drink and pushed it aside, leaning across the table towards Rose.
“How many planets?”
“What?” Rose asked, baffled by the question.
“How many planets have we been on in the last two weeks?”
“I don’t - seven, I think.”
“Seven. And on how many of those planets have we had to rescue Jack after he got himself into some kind of trouble?”
Rose shifted, glancing at Jack. The Doctor was watching her, his gaze intense, urgent. It always made her think she might have missed something, something important, something she really needed to know. She considered the question carefully and was surprised by the answer.
“Seven.” Rose thought for a moment. “Six, really. He got himself out of the bird cage thingy.”
“And when is a rescue not a rescue?”
“What?” It took Rose a minute to catch up with the Doctor’s mental gymnastics. “When it’s… something else?”
“Right! I’ll meet you back at the TARDIS.” The Doctor leapt to his feet and headed for the door.
“Wait! What else is it?” Rose asked, following him.
“Don’t know. Jack knows. You’ll have to ask him.”
“So, I should ask Jack?” It took her an extra moment to get out of the club through the people making their way inside. She pushed past another of the large fern persons, and dodged around a group that looked like giant stick bugs. The Doctor was already halfway down the street.
“Doctor!” Rose watched as he waved to her over his shoulder. She stopped, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I hate it when he does that.” She turned and headed back to the club. Jack was fine. She’d just find him, they’d dance, have dinner, and maybe - maybe - come in before dawn. If the Doctor wanted to stay home and brood, he could do it alone.
The only problem was, Jack wasn’t on the dance floor any longer. Rose began moving about the edge of the crowd, straining to catch a glimpse of him. After three propositions and one proposal, she finally asked one of the waiters if he’d seen Jack. With a hurried, “Try the back room” and a jerk of his head towards the rear of the club, the waiter disappeared into the crowd before she could ask him anything else.
Making her way in the direction indicated, Rose found a dark hallway that ended in a door. Cautiously pushing the door open, she found the back room. It was huge and brightly lit, filled with color, lots of color, and people who were grouped together in various areas - around tables, near the wall, next to odd devices and strange video screens.
“You going in?” someone asked behind Rose.
“Sorry!” Rose moved past the doorway, and then turned to talk to the tall, four armed person who was just entering, “Excuse me, but… what is this?” She waved a hand towards the rest of the room.
The fellow grinned and Rose was unsettled by his rows of sharp teeth. “If you don’t know, you probably shouldn’t be here.”
He would have pushed past her, but she’d been traveling with the Doctor and really, rows of shark-like teeth or not, he wasn’t getting away from her like the waiter had. She moved quickly to block his path.
“Sorry, but I’m looking for someone. I was just wondering if he’d be in here,” she said.
Shark eyed her for a moment and then shrugged. “Does he gamble?”
“Gamble?”
“Color Mark? Wheels? Over-Under? Cubes?” Shark pointed rapidly at various tables and devices. “Or,” he smirked nastily, “you might try the kiddy games over there. Maybe Guess the Wavelength is more his speed?” With that, he reached out and set her firmly aside before heading deeper into the room.
Looking around carefully, Rose moved to stand near one of the tables with a huge lighted wheel next to it. The table had squares of color just like the wheel. Bright colors. Purples, reds, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, but no browns, greys, or tans as far as she could tell. As she watched, small, decorative shells where shoved onto various colors on the table, and the light wheel began to flash crazily until it finally settled on a single color. There were groans from some of the players as the person wearing the club uniform pulled all the shells off the table and into a storage bin.
“House wins,” Rose murmured. Roulette.
Rose wandered through the room, pausing occasionally to watch a game and try to figure out what was being wagered on. All the games seemed to have something to do with color. There were wheels, cards, and fish, among others, all with bright, unique colors. The mouse maze captured her attention for several minutes. There was a small creature that was sort of mouse-like, and really cute, moving through a maze with various colored exits. She enjoyed watching the “mouse” trot along and wander about… at least until she saw the little device pop up outside of one of the exits and frighten the mouse away. Apparently, the maze was rigged with random mouse scarers to make the game more interesting. She supposed she should be glad the game wasn’t about which mouse would be eaten once it escaped. With a shudder, she moved on.
She’d been exploring the casino for around half an hour without any sign of Jack, when she came to an area with free-floating view screens and people gathering about them. Each view screen showed someone’s head wearing an odd electronic headband - six colored lights in a row that flashed in no sequence she could discern. Two screens, two competitors, and a row of shell symbols on one side of each screen that must correspond to the betting. Even after watching for awhile, she couldn’t tell how the bets were being placed, but the shell symbols would go up and down until someone won the game, then there’d be the usual excited cheers from some of the watchers and dejected congratulations from others.
Rose was just turning away to look for Jack in the rest of the crowd, when the view screens changed. Rose stared, taking in the fact that Jack was one of the competitors, wearing the odd headband. His opponent was one of the overgrown fern people she’d seen him with earlier; at least she thought it was the same one. It was hard to tell. People started to gather around the screens again, and the row of shell symbols started to light up on both of the screens. Rose moved closer to Jack’s screen, thinking about what the Doctor had said, and worried that maybe this wasn’t just a game. She had no real reason to worry, but… seven planets, and now this.
“Eight planets,” Rose said softly, watching as the headbands lit up and the game began. “Jack, what have you got yourself into now?”
<><><><><><>
Finally!
The Doctor turned off the outside monitor and jumped to the other side of the console where he began fussing with some of the controls. It had taken Rose and Jack longer to return to the TARDIS then he’d expected, but it wouldn’t do to have them think he was worried. Though, the way Rose was helping Jack along the street confirmed his suspicions and had he worried, a little, about what had happened. Still, no spurting blood had to be a good thing.
The Doctor kept his head down as the door opened.
“About time. I was beginning to think you weren’t coming. So, where to now? I know a great little planet that makes the perfect banana daiquiri only 200 years from now. Tropical too. Nice view. All Oceanside.”
He kept up the patter as the door closed and Jack’s rather too deliberate footsteps approached him. Jack’s hand appeared in his field of sight and placed a small device on the console in front of him.
“Thought we could use this to repair the redundant failsafe circuit,” Jack said in an overly cheerful voice that was nonetheless layered with exhaustion. Might have fooled anyone else, but the Doctor had excellent hearing. The pattern of the words and the frequency of the tone were off by just enough. “Tomorrow?” Jack continued. “I’m gonna get some sleep.”
The Doctor reached out and picked up the Z’ylan adapter module, examining it as Jack made his way out of the room at a still too steady pace, with only a slight bobble at the entrance to the hallway.
“See you two later,” Jack called. His footsteps disappeared down the hall, most likely heading for his room.
The Doctor raised his head at last, catching Rose’s concerned look.
“Where did he get this?” the Doctor asked.
Rose walked over and leaned against the console looking at the Z’ylan device.
“He won it in some kind of game. The entire back of that club was a casino.”
“Ah. Right. I forgot this place is known for their love of games. Lots of colors?”
“Yeah,” Rose said, turning to look in the direction Jack had gone. “I think you were right. About Jack.”
The Doctor turned the module over in his hand. It was in perfect condition and rare in this century. Valuable. He set it down on the console.
“What did Jack wager?” He knew that gambling here was safer in some ways than in others, and he knew some of the commodities people liked to trade in.
“They had some kind of device that could sort through your memories and select the one you wanted to trade. Jack wagered the happiest day of his life against that thing.” Rose glanced at the device lying on the console. “Doctor? Was it worth it?”
“What? This?” The Doctor looked at Rose. “Nope. Not a chance.”
“What are we going to do? Talk to him?”
“Talking won’t help. Jack uses words -“ the way I do. Too many that meant nothing and hid the real meaning when they meant something. Right.
Rose was watching him, carefully. She was too good at reading him.
The Doctor began flipping switches and setting dials. That island planet would be a good start. Absolutely no trouble Jack could get into on it.
“Doctor? If we can’t talk to him, then -“
The Doctor leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
“This. We show him.”
Rose pushed back, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Show him what exactly?”
“Look, I know it’s unconventional, but Jack’s a 51st century kind of guy. This,” here the Doctor waved one hand between the two of them, and then pointed down the hall, “will let Jack know we want him to stay. If he knows we want him to stay, he’ll quit trying to prove that we’re going to leave him behind anytime he gets into trouble.”
Rose blinked. “That’s what he’s been doing! So, a rescue’s not a rescue when it’s… reassurance?”
“You lot said it best. Actions speak louder than words.” The Doctor turned back to the console and continued adjusting the settings. “I’m just suggesting we use really loud actions before he manages to get himself killed. Or us.”
He turned back to her with his typical wide grin. “Besides, it’ll make him happy.”
“Doctor,” Rose said. He waited, but she didn’t continue. Instead, she braced her hands on his shoulders and, reaching up on tiptoe, gave him a gentle kiss in return.
Her own grin was positively blinding as she turned away and headed down the hallway.
The Doctor cocked his head in surprise and watched her go. Seems like it would make Rose happy also. With a shrug, he once again went back to adjusting the TARDIS. For all its complex controls and inner workings, it was always easier to understand than a human.
<><><><><><>
Jack came out of the bathroom toweling his hair. As much as he enjoyed rolling around on the beach, it was nice to get rid of the sand at last. He had no idea why the Doctor had kept them on the sun, fun, sand, and waves planet for the last week. Nothing happened, there was absolutely nothing going on, and he could swear the Doctor was beyond bored for the last few days. Rose had liked it, though, and maybe that was the reason they’d stayed. Well, nothing wrong with a little non-hazardous recreation every now and then, as long as it didn’t become a habit.
Jack gave his damp towel a toss to land on the bathroom floor and, still completely naked from his shower, strolled across his room to the full-size mirror. Turning side to side, Jack gave himself a thorough examination. Not bad. Grinning, he fell back onto his bed and lay across it with his arms behind his head.
Of course, it was always possible that the Doctor was finally tired of pulling him out of danger and had decided to say good-bye with a final fling on planet sun. Could be the next time he saw the Doctor and Rose, they’d be politely handing him his coat and telling him he’d overstayed his welcome. He’d been expecting it, after all. Maybe-
The lights went out.
Jack waited a moment. They didn’t come back on. That was odd.
“Lights,” Jack said.
The room stayed dark. Jack heard the door open. It was dark in the hallway. Not just odd, that wasn’t right. Jack sat up quickly, heart pounding at the soft sound of a footstep.
“It’s all right, Jack,” Rose’s voice came from near the door. “It’s just us.”
“Rose? Is something wrong?” Jack started to get up, but a strong hand pushed gently on his shoulder keeping him on the bed.
“Doctor?”
A heavy weight settled onto the bed beside him. It was too dark to see anything, but he could feel them, the Doctor beside him, Rose right in front.
“Jack,” Rose whispered close to his ear. “All you have to do is say, ‘No.’ Do you understand?”
Jack nodded, then said, “Yes.” His voice was a throaty rasp, his heart still pounding. Fear, excitement, anticipation… need.
“Do you want this?” Rose asked.
“Yes,” Jack said again. Then, just to make sure she understood, he reached out, fumbling for her hand, lifting it to his mouth and kissing her palm, rubbing his cheek against it, licking her wrist, sucking -
Rose laughed, pulling her hand away gently. “I’ll take that as an enthusiastic yes.”
Arms reached around him, shifted him, and a strong body slid in behind him until he was held firm in strong arms, cradled between strong thighs. He could feel a bare chest against his back, but he could still feel a light, soft fabric against his legs. Only partially naked then; he wondered if Rose was -
The bed shifted again and she kissed him, her body laying across his, her smooth flesh covering his thighs and belly, taut nipples and soft breasts pressing into his chest. Rose was naked.
Lips touching and pressing became tongues and mouths exploring. He started to lift a hand up to touch Rose, but the Doctor pulled it down again, holding him still. Jack moaned. Rose smiled against his lips. He felt her fingers move down his body to wrap around his already hard cock, gripping firmly, moving. Jack gasped, turning his head and pressing his face into the Doctor’s neck. He breathed in the scent of warm flesh. Jack licked the skin and felt the Doctor tighten his grip ever so slightly, pulling Jack closer.
Rose’s silky hair brushed his chest and shoulders as she began to plant kisses along his jaw. Jack felt her skin slide across his as his breathing quickened and her hand began to move faster, pulling firmly, her thumb rubbing along the underside, and then brushing lightly across the tip.
Jack felt rocked between the Doctor’s breaths and Rose’s hand. The faint scent of leather mingling with the light flowery scent of Rose’s shampoo. Surrounded by them, he felt himself starting to come, and then Rose’s hand gripped firmly, holding him in, prolonging the moment as the blood pounded in his ears and he gasped against the Doctor’s chest. She released him and the intensity burst, melting him until he lay limply between them.
Rose still lay against him, her hand rubbing gentle circles on his thigh. He felt the Doctor’s head move and lips brush against his ear. A soft word whispered into it.
“Stay.”
One word promised him all he needed. Jack nodded and the arms that had held him in place released him. He could leave if he wanted. Anytime he wanted. But he knew, if they were willing to take a chance on him, he’d stay forever.
AUTHOR WHO AGREED TO THIS INSANITY: thaddeusfavour
RECIPIENT WHO HAD BETTER BE GRATEFUL BECAUSE I SPENT TIME THAT I COULD HAVE BEEN HAVING SEX WRITING THIS SHIT: lefaym
SUMMARY: Jack’s been getting into a lot of trouble lately and the Doctor thinks he knows why, and how to fix it.
BETA: DEFINITELY FOXY! 51stcenturyfox
RATING: FESTIVE SEXY
WARNING: IMMA REALLY CRAP WRITER AND YOU'RE ALL MUCH BETTER THAN ME. I HAVE WRITTEN THE WORLD'S SHORTEST SEX SCENE. DEAL WITH IT.
SPOILERS: JESUS PEOPLE IT'S JUST ABOUT THE DOCTOR, ROSE, AND JACK TRAVELING THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
DISCLAIMER: THEY'RE NOT MINE. EXCEPT WHEN THEY ARE. IN MAH PANTS.
Taking Chances
Jack looked out the window. It was narrow and high, with a stone ledge that he could barely reach. He was balanced on his toes at the edge of the bed, fingers gripping the stone to peer out. Nighttime; no moon; he couldn’t see a thing except the flickering of torches and lanterns as the guards made their rounds. He’d read about things like-.
Actually, he hadn’t. Late 20th century was his specialty. The only stuff he could remember before that was people painting themselves blue and attacking a guy named Custer at the Little Big Horn Diner. Not helpful. What would have been helpful was a pamphlet stating kings of England named Henry did not like being propositioned by other men.
Shame, that. Young and athletic, Henry the… eighth was it? Henry was Jack’s type. One of Jack’s many types actually. Seemed to like Jack’s bravado too, at least until Jack leaned close and slid a hand down Henry’s thigh.
“Unfair,” Jack said, murmuring quietly into the cold night fog through the window. “The way they were all acting at dinner, what’s a guy to think?”
The bed Jack was balanced on shifted under his weight and he teetered precariously. With a sigh, he dropped back to the ground upsetting the bed and getting a glare and a growled, “Quiet in there!” from the guard passing by on his rounds.
Good move, Jack. It hadn’t taken him long to get himself into this one. The only question was whether the Doctor and Rose would come to get him out of it. So far, he’d been lucky. Six planets, six rescues. No, five. He couldn’t actually count the birdcage thingy. He’d got himself out of that one.
“Captain Jack Harkness, no birdcage can hold him,” Jack said. A faint smile crossed his face as he stared into the darkness. Nothing yet, but there was still time for a rescue before morning. Righting the bed, he lay down, wrapping himself in the thin blanket and rolling over to face the wall. If he woke up the next morning and the room was still empty, he’d have a few more seconds of hope before he found out he was still alone. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.
Long before dawn came, the sound of the TARDIS arriving filled the room, waking Jack up. He sat up grinning as the door opened and Rose stuck her head out to look around the room.
“Welcome to the Tower of London, Rose Tyler,” Jack called happily. “I bet you never thought you’d end up here.”
“They give tours in my day,” Rose said. “Never took one though.” Grinning, she stepped out and looked around. Her nose wrinkled and she put a hand up to her face. “It probably smelled better then.”
“Will smell better, you mean.”
Rose rolled her eyes. “To-may-toe, to-mah-toe.”
“Hurry it up, you two!” The Doctor leaned out of the TARDIS frowning. “Can’t stay here all day.” He disappeared inside, save for one leather-clad arm that hugged the doorway, seeming to pull him back out. “Come on!” he said, and was gone again, arm and all.
Jack bounced to his feet with a laugh, and Rose grinned as Jack offered her his arm with a cheery, “Milady?”
“Don’t mind if I do!” she said, taking his arm. “So, did you really feel up Henry the VIII?”
Jack was just launching into the story as the door closed.
<><><><><><>
“He looks happy,” Rose said. She watched as Jack managed to coax a third partner onto the dance floor. The club they’d stopped at was an exciting mix of sizes, shapes, and colors, and Jack seemed intent on working his way through most of the options available.
Sipping her purple drink through a purple straw and holding her purple glass, Rose pointed at the Doctor with the little purple umbrella that had come with it. “See? Some people know how to have fun!”
The Doctor watched Jack, who was making some decidedly sexy dance moves with his partners. He sighed, and sipped from his own drink, which was served in what appeared to be an over-large banana.
“Well, you know what they say. Looks can be deceiving,” the Doctor said, eyes fixed on Jack, who was now dancing with an overgrown bipedal fern.
“I’m not surprised you don’t know what happy looks like,” Rose said.
“I’m happy!” The Doctor toasted her with the banana and took a huge drink as if to prove his point.
“More like brooding,” Rose said. Jack’s laughter reached them over the noise of the club. Rose turned to see him dancing, sandwiched between two of the ferns with some suspicious-looking frondy bits wrapped intimately around his thighs. She turned back to the Doctor and nodded towards Jack. “Now him? He’s happy.”
Rose leaned closer to the Doctor, slipping her hand over his on the table. Maybe Jack had the right idea. The Doctor liked dancing. She remembered dancing with him on the TARDIS, the scent of leather as he’d twirled her, pressing his chest against hers. She smiled as the Doctor turned his hand to grip hers, his thumb brushing lightly across her knuckles before he pulled away. She sighed.
Taking a final pull from the straw, the Doctor put down his drink and pushed it aside, leaning across the table towards Rose.
“How many planets?”
“What?” Rose asked, baffled by the question.
“How many planets have we been on in the last two weeks?”
“I don’t - seven, I think.”
“Seven. And on how many of those planets have we had to rescue Jack after he got himself into some kind of trouble?”
Rose shifted, glancing at Jack. The Doctor was watching her, his gaze intense, urgent. It always made her think she might have missed something, something important, something she really needed to know. She considered the question carefully and was surprised by the answer.
“Seven.” Rose thought for a moment. “Six, really. He got himself out of the bird cage thingy.”
“And when is a rescue not a rescue?”
“What?” It took Rose a minute to catch up with the Doctor’s mental gymnastics. “When it’s… something else?”
“Right! I’ll meet you back at the TARDIS.” The Doctor leapt to his feet and headed for the door.
“Wait! What else is it?” Rose asked, following him.
“Don’t know. Jack knows. You’ll have to ask him.”
“So, I should ask Jack?” It took her an extra moment to get out of the club through the people making their way inside. She pushed past another of the large fern persons, and dodged around a group that looked like giant stick bugs. The Doctor was already halfway down the street.
“Doctor!” Rose watched as he waved to her over his shoulder. She stopped, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I hate it when he does that.” She turned and headed back to the club. Jack was fine. She’d just find him, they’d dance, have dinner, and maybe - maybe - come in before dawn. If the Doctor wanted to stay home and brood, he could do it alone.
The only problem was, Jack wasn’t on the dance floor any longer. Rose began moving about the edge of the crowd, straining to catch a glimpse of him. After three propositions and one proposal, she finally asked one of the waiters if he’d seen Jack. With a hurried, “Try the back room” and a jerk of his head towards the rear of the club, the waiter disappeared into the crowd before she could ask him anything else.
Making her way in the direction indicated, Rose found a dark hallway that ended in a door. Cautiously pushing the door open, she found the back room. It was huge and brightly lit, filled with color, lots of color, and people who were grouped together in various areas - around tables, near the wall, next to odd devices and strange video screens.
“You going in?” someone asked behind Rose.
“Sorry!” Rose moved past the doorway, and then turned to talk to the tall, four armed person who was just entering, “Excuse me, but… what is this?” She waved a hand towards the rest of the room.
The fellow grinned and Rose was unsettled by his rows of sharp teeth. “If you don’t know, you probably shouldn’t be here.”
He would have pushed past her, but she’d been traveling with the Doctor and really, rows of shark-like teeth or not, he wasn’t getting away from her like the waiter had. She moved quickly to block his path.
“Sorry, but I’m looking for someone. I was just wondering if he’d be in here,” she said.
Shark eyed her for a moment and then shrugged. “Does he gamble?”
“Gamble?”
“Color Mark? Wheels? Over-Under? Cubes?” Shark pointed rapidly at various tables and devices. “Or,” he smirked nastily, “you might try the kiddy games over there. Maybe Guess the Wavelength is more his speed?” With that, he reached out and set her firmly aside before heading deeper into the room.
Looking around carefully, Rose moved to stand near one of the tables with a huge lighted wheel next to it. The table had squares of color just like the wheel. Bright colors. Purples, reds, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, but no browns, greys, or tans as far as she could tell. As she watched, small, decorative shells where shoved onto various colors on the table, and the light wheel began to flash crazily until it finally settled on a single color. There were groans from some of the players as the person wearing the club uniform pulled all the shells off the table and into a storage bin.
“House wins,” Rose murmured. Roulette.
Rose wandered through the room, pausing occasionally to watch a game and try to figure out what was being wagered on. All the games seemed to have something to do with color. There were wheels, cards, and fish, among others, all with bright, unique colors. The mouse maze captured her attention for several minutes. There was a small creature that was sort of mouse-like, and really cute, moving through a maze with various colored exits. She enjoyed watching the “mouse” trot along and wander about… at least until she saw the little device pop up outside of one of the exits and frighten the mouse away. Apparently, the maze was rigged with random mouse scarers to make the game more interesting. She supposed she should be glad the game wasn’t about which mouse would be eaten once it escaped. With a shudder, she moved on.
She’d been exploring the casino for around half an hour without any sign of Jack, when she came to an area with free-floating view screens and people gathering about them. Each view screen showed someone’s head wearing an odd electronic headband - six colored lights in a row that flashed in no sequence she could discern. Two screens, two competitors, and a row of shell symbols on one side of each screen that must correspond to the betting. Even after watching for awhile, she couldn’t tell how the bets were being placed, but the shell symbols would go up and down until someone won the game, then there’d be the usual excited cheers from some of the watchers and dejected congratulations from others.
Rose was just turning away to look for Jack in the rest of the crowd, when the view screens changed. Rose stared, taking in the fact that Jack was one of the competitors, wearing the odd headband. His opponent was one of the overgrown fern people she’d seen him with earlier; at least she thought it was the same one. It was hard to tell. People started to gather around the screens again, and the row of shell symbols started to light up on both of the screens. Rose moved closer to Jack’s screen, thinking about what the Doctor had said, and worried that maybe this wasn’t just a game. She had no real reason to worry, but… seven planets, and now this.
“Eight planets,” Rose said softly, watching as the headbands lit up and the game began. “Jack, what have you got yourself into now?”
<><><><><><>
Finally!
The Doctor turned off the outside monitor and jumped to the other side of the console where he began fussing with some of the controls. It had taken Rose and Jack longer to return to the TARDIS then he’d expected, but it wouldn’t do to have them think he was worried. Though, the way Rose was helping Jack along the street confirmed his suspicions and had he worried, a little, about what had happened. Still, no spurting blood had to be a good thing.
The Doctor kept his head down as the door opened.
“About time. I was beginning to think you weren’t coming. So, where to now? I know a great little planet that makes the perfect banana daiquiri only 200 years from now. Tropical too. Nice view. All Oceanside.”
He kept up the patter as the door closed and Jack’s rather too deliberate footsteps approached him. Jack’s hand appeared in his field of sight and placed a small device on the console in front of him.
“Thought we could use this to repair the redundant failsafe circuit,” Jack said in an overly cheerful voice that was nonetheless layered with exhaustion. Might have fooled anyone else, but the Doctor had excellent hearing. The pattern of the words and the frequency of the tone were off by just enough. “Tomorrow?” Jack continued. “I’m gonna get some sleep.”
The Doctor reached out and picked up the Z’ylan adapter module, examining it as Jack made his way out of the room at a still too steady pace, with only a slight bobble at the entrance to the hallway.
“See you two later,” Jack called. His footsteps disappeared down the hall, most likely heading for his room.
The Doctor raised his head at last, catching Rose’s concerned look.
“Where did he get this?” the Doctor asked.
Rose walked over and leaned against the console looking at the Z’ylan device.
“He won it in some kind of game. The entire back of that club was a casino.”
“Ah. Right. I forgot this place is known for their love of games. Lots of colors?”
“Yeah,” Rose said, turning to look in the direction Jack had gone. “I think you were right. About Jack.”
The Doctor turned the module over in his hand. It was in perfect condition and rare in this century. Valuable. He set it down on the console.
“What did Jack wager?” He knew that gambling here was safer in some ways than in others, and he knew some of the commodities people liked to trade in.
“They had some kind of device that could sort through your memories and select the one you wanted to trade. Jack wagered the happiest day of his life against that thing.” Rose glanced at the device lying on the console. “Doctor? Was it worth it?”
“What? This?” The Doctor looked at Rose. “Nope. Not a chance.”
“What are we going to do? Talk to him?”
“Talking won’t help. Jack uses words -“ the way I do. Too many that meant nothing and hid the real meaning when they meant something. Right.
Rose was watching him, carefully. She was too good at reading him.
The Doctor began flipping switches and setting dials. That island planet would be a good start. Absolutely no trouble Jack could get into on it.
“Doctor? If we can’t talk to him, then -“
The Doctor leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
“This. We show him.”
Rose pushed back, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Show him what exactly?”
“Look, I know it’s unconventional, but Jack’s a 51st century kind of guy. This,” here the Doctor waved one hand between the two of them, and then pointed down the hall, “will let Jack know we want him to stay. If he knows we want him to stay, he’ll quit trying to prove that we’re going to leave him behind anytime he gets into trouble.”
Rose blinked. “That’s what he’s been doing! So, a rescue’s not a rescue when it’s… reassurance?”
“You lot said it best. Actions speak louder than words.” The Doctor turned back to the console and continued adjusting the settings. “I’m just suggesting we use really loud actions before he manages to get himself killed. Or us.”
He turned back to her with his typical wide grin. “Besides, it’ll make him happy.”
“Doctor,” Rose said. He waited, but she didn’t continue. Instead, she braced her hands on his shoulders and, reaching up on tiptoe, gave him a gentle kiss in return.
Her own grin was positively blinding as she turned away and headed down the hallway.
The Doctor cocked his head in surprise and watched her go. Seems like it would make Rose happy also. With a shrug, he once again went back to adjusting the TARDIS. For all its complex controls and inner workings, it was always easier to understand than a human.
<><><><><><>
Jack came out of the bathroom toweling his hair. As much as he enjoyed rolling around on the beach, it was nice to get rid of the sand at last. He had no idea why the Doctor had kept them on the sun, fun, sand, and waves planet for the last week. Nothing happened, there was absolutely nothing going on, and he could swear the Doctor was beyond bored for the last few days. Rose had liked it, though, and maybe that was the reason they’d stayed. Well, nothing wrong with a little non-hazardous recreation every now and then, as long as it didn’t become a habit.
Jack gave his damp towel a toss to land on the bathroom floor and, still completely naked from his shower, strolled across his room to the full-size mirror. Turning side to side, Jack gave himself a thorough examination. Not bad. Grinning, he fell back onto his bed and lay across it with his arms behind his head.
Of course, it was always possible that the Doctor was finally tired of pulling him out of danger and had decided to say good-bye with a final fling on planet sun. Could be the next time he saw the Doctor and Rose, they’d be politely handing him his coat and telling him he’d overstayed his welcome. He’d been expecting it, after all. Maybe-
The lights went out.
Jack waited a moment. They didn’t come back on. That was odd.
“Lights,” Jack said.
The room stayed dark. Jack heard the door open. It was dark in the hallway. Not just odd, that wasn’t right. Jack sat up quickly, heart pounding at the soft sound of a footstep.
“It’s all right, Jack,” Rose’s voice came from near the door. “It’s just us.”
“Rose? Is something wrong?” Jack started to get up, but a strong hand pushed gently on his shoulder keeping him on the bed.
“Doctor?”
A heavy weight settled onto the bed beside him. It was too dark to see anything, but he could feel them, the Doctor beside him, Rose right in front.
“Jack,” Rose whispered close to his ear. “All you have to do is say, ‘No.’ Do you understand?”
Jack nodded, then said, “Yes.” His voice was a throaty rasp, his heart still pounding. Fear, excitement, anticipation… need.
“Do you want this?” Rose asked.
“Yes,” Jack said again. Then, just to make sure she understood, he reached out, fumbling for her hand, lifting it to his mouth and kissing her palm, rubbing his cheek against it, licking her wrist, sucking -
Rose laughed, pulling her hand away gently. “I’ll take that as an enthusiastic yes.”
Arms reached around him, shifted him, and a strong body slid in behind him until he was held firm in strong arms, cradled between strong thighs. He could feel a bare chest against his back, but he could still feel a light, soft fabric against his legs. Only partially naked then; he wondered if Rose was -
The bed shifted again and she kissed him, her body laying across his, her smooth flesh covering his thighs and belly, taut nipples and soft breasts pressing into his chest. Rose was naked.
Lips touching and pressing became tongues and mouths exploring. He started to lift a hand up to touch Rose, but the Doctor pulled it down again, holding him still. Jack moaned. Rose smiled against his lips. He felt her fingers move down his body to wrap around his already hard cock, gripping firmly, moving. Jack gasped, turning his head and pressing his face into the Doctor’s neck. He breathed in the scent of warm flesh. Jack licked the skin and felt the Doctor tighten his grip ever so slightly, pulling Jack closer.
Rose’s silky hair brushed his chest and shoulders as she began to plant kisses along his jaw. Jack felt her skin slide across his as his breathing quickened and her hand began to move faster, pulling firmly, her thumb rubbing along the underside, and then brushing lightly across the tip.
Jack felt rocked between the Doctor’s breaths and Rose’s hand. The faint scent of leather mingling with the light flowery scent of Rose’s shampoo. Surrounded by them, he felt himself starting to come, and then Rose’s hand gripped firmly, holding him in, prolonging the moment as the blood pounded in his ears and he gasped against the Doctor’s chest. She released him and the intensity burst, melting him until he lay limply between them.
Rose still lay against him, her hand rubbing gentle circles on his thigh. He felt the Doctor’s head move and lips brush against his ear. A soft word whispered into it.
“Stay.”
One word promised him all he needed. Jack nodded and the arms that had held him in place released him. He could leave if he wanted. Anytime he wanted. But he knew, if they were willing to take a chance on him, he’d stay forever.