Fic: The Taste of Gingerbread
Fic: The Taste of Gingerbread
Author: wmr / wendymr
Characters: Rose Tyler, Duplicate Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness (Pete's World)
Rated: PG
Summary: "What's this? Am I an engagement present for the two of you to share?"
Written for wojelah as part of fandom_stocking.
The Taste of Gingerbread
If Jackie Tyler imagined that her daughter and said daughter’s half-Time Lord boyfriend would stay out of danger now they no longer have a TARDIS, she’s realised by now that she was very much mistaken. There are still alien invasions to foil, inventions to create that might or might not do what their creator intends them to do but frequently lead to explosions regardless, and strange incidents that the two of them can’t help stumbling into and becoming embroiled in.
There’s very little strange in it for the Doctor and Rose. Neither of them would be happy with a quiet life anyway, though they protest to Jackie that it’s not as if they go looking for any of it. Somehow, adventure just seems to find them.
“Oh yeah? If you’re not actually looking for danger, why aren’t you ever surprised when it happens?” Jackie asks, often enough that the Doctor’s taken to miming it behind her back.
But then one day something really does surprise them.
***
Jackie and Pete have insisted on throwing a surprise engagement party for them, “now that he’s finally managed to get his act together and propose an’ we’re gonna have a wedding at last,” Jackie says to Pete. (Little does she know that it’s actually Rose who did the proposing; the Doctor had apparently been blissfully assuming that since they’re sharing a house and a bed and that Jackie clearly considers herself his mother-in-law they’re already married).
The surprise engagement party isn’t what surprises them - the Doctor heard Jackie booking the venue anyway, and Rose knows her mum well enough to expect that something of the kind might happen. The fact that intruders burst into their party halfway through and steal most of the women’s jewels doesn’t surprise them either.
Not even the fact that one of the thieves, a handsome, roguish sort, kisses both the Doctor and Rose as he holds a weapon on them (a highly anachronistic weapon, the Doctor complains later) is what surprises them.
No. The surprise, the thing that leaves the two of them staring in breathless disbelief, is that their roguish, amorous thief is a dead ringer for Jack Harkness.
***
It’s not possible to disrupt an event hosted by Pete Tyler and get away with it. The thieves are all intercepted long before they make it out of the house, and all the jewellery returned to its rightful owners.
The Doctor draws Pete aside as he’s about to give orders for the police to be called, and makes a quiet request. Pete’s long ago learned that it’s usually wisest to take his almost-son-in-law’s requests as the closest thing to commands, so he rolls his eyes faintly and nods. “All right. Not happy about it, though. What’s to say he’s not dangerous?”
The Doctor grins. “He’s only dangerous to himself, is Captain Jack. Don’t worry, Rose and I will be fine.”
Pete acquiesces, and when the police arrive one fewer thief is handed into custody, though official records never reveal otherwise.
***
Jack, hands cuffed behind his back, is shown into the Doctor and Rose’s guest suite a short time later. His lips curve into a wicked grin when he sees the two of them. “What’s this? Am I an engagement present for the two of you to share?”
She should be telling him not to be so cheeky. But Rose finds her breath is becoming shallow. The Doctor, she notices, actually grins at Jack’s comment, and he can’t take his eyes off the other man.
A moment later, the Doctor’s calm. “Nice to meet you again, Jack Harkness. Or are you using that name yet?”
Jack blinks, the roguish leer completely vanished. “How do you know...?”
“Parallel universe. Oh, gingerbread houses and all that, but we still couldn’t resist finding out if you were anything like the Jack we knew.”
Jack’s staring, wide-eyed now, at the two of them. Rose grins. “Can’t decide if you’re drooling or catching flies.”
His jaw snaps shut. A wistful look appears in his eyes as he continues to watch them, and finally he says, “I don’t know anything about gingerbread houses, but I’m thinking that I really hope I’m like the Jack you knew.”
“Let’s find out,” the Doctor says.
***
The robber gang was, it turns out, just a temporary gig for Jack: he needed to raise some cash fast, and he’d agreed to help only after receiving assurances that no-one would be hurt. He confesses that he’s not too sorry that they were caught; “I’m a conman, not a thief.”
“And what were you before you were a conman?” the Doctor asks, his voice deceptively casual.
Jack glances down. “You’re gonna find this hard to believe... a law enforcement agent.”
“A Time Agent,” Rose supplies. “How long have you been in this century?”
A denial seems about to spill from Jack’s lips, but then he gives them a resigned smile. “Most people here wouldn’t believe time-travel exists. How did you know?”
“Apart from gingerbread houses, do you really want me to count all the anachronistic things about you? Quite apart from the obvious, like your Vortex manipulator and that blaster you aimed at us.”
“I’d never have used it.” The protest is immediate and clearly genuine.
“Nah. You used a more lethal weapon instead,” the Doctor comments with a grin. Rose catches his eye and grins as well, remembering.
Jack frowns. “I don’t understand.”
The Doctor stands and moves towards him, then bends his head and kisses him. Rose joins them, taking over the kiss after a few moments, and the Doctor sonics off Jack’s handcuffs, allowing him to participate more fully.
“Definitely a lethal weapon.” Rose grins, her tongue sliding between her teeth as she looks at the two of them.
***
Within weeks, Jack’s moved into their house. Within months, the Doctor’s complaining to Pete about anachronistic laws that mean marriages can only be between two people.
Jack proposes using his Vortex manipulator, go to a time and place where triad marriages are acceptable. But Jackie puts her foot down. She was promised a wedding, and a wedding she insists she is going to get. She gives Pete a deadline of six weeks to make it possible.
Rose, of course, is a beautiful bride. It’s not at all her fault that her grooms are peacocks who love to outdo one another and end up almost upstaging her.
In the end, though, none of it matters. The gingerbread cake is delicious, Tony’s thrilled when he catches the bouquet, and the bride’s mother makes all the front pages - but only because Pete buys up all the pictures of the newlyweds. “Couldn’t they at least have waited until the honeymoon?” he grumbles to Jackie.
Jackie giggles. “If I was bein’ snogged the way Jack was the two of them, I wouldn’t want to wait either.”
Pete glowers, and spends the next hour plotting his sons-in-law’s next assignment. To Siberia, if he can manage it. Though, knowing his luck, the Doctor’ll manage to fix Jack’s Vortex manipulator, and the three of them will end up in the Caribbean instead.
Then Jackie snogs him - and how the hell did she learn how to do that with her tongue? - and thinking becomes irrelevant for the rest of the night. In fact, week.
- end
Author: wmr / wendymr
Characters: Rose Tyler, Duplicate Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness (Pete's World)
Rated: PG
Summary: "What's this? Am I an engagement present for the two of you to share?"
Written for wojelah as part of fandom_stocking.
The Taste of Gingerbread
If Jackie Tyler imagined that her daughter and said daughter’s half-Time Lord boyfriend would stay out of danger now they no longer have a TARDIS, she’s realised by now that she was very much mistaken. There are still alien invasions to foil, inventions to create that might or might not do what their creator intends them to do but frequently lead to explosions regardless, and strange incidents that the two of them can’t help stumbling into and becoming embroiled in.
There’s very little strange in it for the Doctor and Rose. Neither of them would be happy with a quiet life anyway, though they protest to Jackie that it’s not as if they go looking for any of it. Somehow, adventure just seems to find them.
“Oh yeah? If you’re not actually looking for danger, why aren’t you ever surprised when it happens?” Jackie asks, often enough that the Doctor’s taken to miming it behind her back.
But then one day something really does surprise them.
***
Jackie and Pete have insisted on throwing a surprise engagement party for them, “now that he’s finally managed to get his act together and propose an’ we’re gonna have a wedding at last,” Jackie says to Pete. (Little does she know that it’s actually Rose who did the proposing; the Doctor had apparently been blissfully assuming that since they’re sharing a house and a bed and that Jackie clearly considers herself his mother-in-law they’re already married).
The surprise engagement party isn’t what surprises them - the Doctor heard Jackie booking the venue anyway, and Rose knows her mum well enough to expect that something of the kind might happen. The fact that intruders burst into their party halfway through and steal most of the women’s jewels doesn’t surprise them either.
Not even the fact that one of the thieves, a handsome, roguish sort, kisses both the Doctor and Rose as he holds a weapon on them (a highly anachronistic weapon, the Doctor complains later) is what surprises them.
No. The surprise, the thing that leaves the two of them staring in breathless disbelief, is that their roguish, amorous thief is a dead ringer for Jack Harkness.
***
It’s not possible to disrupt an event hosted by Pete Tyler and get away with it. The thieves are all intercepted long before they make it out of the house, and all the jewellery returned to its rightful owners.
The Doctor draws Pete aside as he’s about to give orders for the police to be called, and makes a quiet request. Pete’s long ago learned that it’s usually wisest to take his almost-son-in-law’s requests as the closest thing to commands, so he rolls his eyes faintly and nods. “All right. Not happy about it, though. What’s to say he’s not dangerous?”
The Doctor grins. “He’s only dangerous to himself, is Captain Jack. Don’t worry, Rose and I will be fine.”
Pete acquiesces, and when the police arrive one fewer thief is handed into custody, though official records never reveal otherwise.
***
Jack, hands cuffed behind his back, is shown into the Doctor and Rose’s guest suite a short time later. His lips curve into a wicked grin when he sees the two of them. “What’s this? Am I an engagement present for the two of you to share?”
She should be telling him not to be so cheeky. But Rose finds her breath is becoming shallow. The Doctor, she notices, actually grins at Jack’s comment, and he can’t take his eyes off the other man.
A moment later, the Doctor’s calm. “Nice to meet you again, Jack Harkness. Or are you using that name yet?”
Jack blinks, the roguish leer completely vanished. “How do you know...?”
“Parallel universe. Oh, gingerbread houses and all that, but we still couldn’t resist finding out if you were anything like the Jack we knew.”
Jack’s staring, wide-eyed now, at the two of them. Rose grins. “Can’t decide if you’re drooling or catching flies.”
His jaw snaps shut. A wistful look appears in his eyes as he continues to watch them, and finally he says, “I don’t know anything about gingerbread houses, but I’m thinking that I really hope I’m like the Jack you knew.”
“Let’s find out,” the Doctor says.
***
The robber gang was, it turns out, just a temporary gig for Jack: he needed to raise some cash fast, and he’d agreed to help only after receiving assurances that no-one would be hurt. He confesses that he’s not too sorry that they were caught; “I’m a conman, not a thief.”
“And what were you before you were a conman?” the Doctor asks, his voice deceptively casual.
Jack glances down. “You’re gonna find this hard to believe... a law enforcement agent.”
“A Time Agent,” Rose supplies. “How long have you been in this century?”
A denial seems about to spill from Jack’s lips, but then he gives them a resigned smile. “Most people here wouldn’t believe time-travel exists. How did you know?”
“Apart from gingerbread houses, do you really want me to count all the anachronistic things about you? Quite apart from the obvious, like your Vortex manipulator and that blaster you aimed at us.”
“I’d never have used it.” The protest is immediate and clearly genuine.
“Nah. You used a more lethal weapon instead,” the Doctor comments with a grin. Rose catches his eye and grins as well, remembering.
Jack frowns. “I don’t understand.”
The Doctor stands and moves towards him, then bends his head and kisses him. Rose joins them, taking over the kiss after a few moments, and the Doctor sonics off Jack’s handcuffs, allowing him to participate more fully.
“Definitely a lethal weapon.” Rose grins, her tongue sliding between her teeth as she looks at the two of them.
***
Within weeks, Jack’s moved into their house. Within months, the Doctor’s complaining to Pete about anachronistic laws that mean marriages can only be between two people.
Jack proposes using his Vortex manipulator, go to a time and place where triad marriages are acceptable. But Jackie puts her foot down. She was promised a wedding, and a wedding she insists she is going to get. She gives Pete a deadline of six weeks to make it possible.
Rose, of course, is a beautiful bride. It’s not at all her fault that her grooms are peacocks who love to outdo one another and end up almost upstaging her.
In the end, though, none of it matters. The gingerbread cake is delicious, Tony’s thrilled when he catches the bouquet, and the bride’s mother makes all the front pages - but only because Pete buys up all the pictures of the newlyweds. “Couldn’t they at least have waited until the honeymoon?” he grumbles to Jackie.
Jackie giggles. “If I was bein’ snogged the way Jack was the two of them, I wouldn’t want to wait either.”
Pete glowers, and spends the next hour plotting his sons-in-law’s next assignment. To Siberia, if he can manage it. Though, knowing his luck, the Doctor’ll manage to fix Jack’s Vortex manipulator, and the three of them will end up in the Caribbean instead.
Then Jackie snogs him - and how the hell did she learn how to do that with her tongue? - and thinking becomes irrelevant for the rest of the night. In fact, week.
- end