Defenders 2/3
Story: Defenders
Author: wmr wendymr
Characters: Tenth Doctor, Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler
Rated: PG13
Disclaimer: Put it this way: if they were mine, Jack would never have been left behind in the first place ;)
Summary: The question is: is it worth putting up with intrusive questions if it means you're not alone?
Third in the Watching Over series; sequel to Protector and Guardians. With very many thanks, as always, to dark_aegis for BRing, brainstorming, Ten-speak and invaluable support.
Chapter 1: Compromises
Chapter 2: Alien Influence
So he’s turned up at last. About damn time.
Looks like he and Rose might be okay after all, too - if Jack’s not very much mistaken, the two of them have just hugged. Although... wait a second... the Doctor’s looking like a puppy who’s just been kicked. What the hell?
Ah. He’s really not very subtle, is he? The Doctor’s gaze is fixed on his ring. And he’s holding Rose’s hand, one finger over Rose’s ring. So that’s it.
He could explain, but... no. See whether the Doctor’s going to change a habit of a lifetime - two lifetimes, really - and not avoid this one. And how he reacts, too, to a bit of competition. Turn and run... or fight for what he wants?
Jack throws one arm around Rose’s shoulders and the other around the Doctor’s. “Hey there, stranger! ‘Bout time you decided to show your face. Might’ve forgotten what you look like if you’d left it any longer.”
The Doctor blinks, then his expression clears. “Oh, it’s not been that long! And if you look at it in a relative sense, barely any time at all, even by linear time. As a proportion of your lifespan, Jack -”
“Oh, shut up!” Rose exclaims, shaking her head. “You haven’t changed a bit, Doctor, have you?”
“You have.” The Doctor’s sobered, and he steps back from the two of them, hands in his pockets. “Not that I’m saying change is bad. Good. Can be a good thing. Change, I mean.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You two.” Head to one side, smiling in a way that Jack recognises as completely fake, the Doctor adds, “See congratulations are in order. Could’ve invited me, y’know. Could’ve given Rose away, or been your best man, Jack. You two’d never even have met without me.”
For a moment, Rose looks confused, and then her face clears. “Oh!” Lifting her left hand, she shows off the ring. “Like it?” She laughs as the Doctor doesn’t immediately answer. “Course, ‘s not real. Well, s’pose it sort of is, but...”
“Rose.” The Doctor’s giving her his superior alien look. “Unless Torchwood’s discovered bio-dampers, or you’ve discovered the art of optical illusions, you’re wearing a ring on your finger. And, by a very strange coincidence, so is Jack.”
“Bio-what?” Rose begins, then shakes her head. “Oh, never mind. Look, there was this investigation. Believe it or not, we detected alien activity at the Registry Office, and the only way we were gonna get in and find out what was going on was have someone on the team pretend to be getting married. And... well, Jack an’ me volunteered.”
The Doctor blinks. “Aliens in a registry office?” He rakes a hand through his hair. “And the only way you two could deal with them was to get married? Thought you both had a bit more imagination than that, really.”
“Thanks,” Jack says, shaking his head. He glances around; the battle re-enactment is still in enthusiastic process and the crowd’s getting noisier. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Without waiting to see if the Doctor’s following, he turns on his heel, catching Rose’s hand in his as he does.
Though he knows he’s taking a risk; the Doctor he knows is just as likely to bolt in a situation like this as he is to follow them. It’s a relief when his old friend falls into step beside him a second later.
It’s an odd feeling, walking like this with Rose’s hand in his while the Doctor’s walking beside them. Years ago, in their TARDIS days, he was always the one walking solo. Now, while he and Rose have been an item for a while - and even exclusive, too, which is unheard of for him - this is the first time they’ve seen the Doctor since that happened.
So many tricky issues to navigate here. There’s the Doctor’s feelings for Rose - and is this Doctor as jealous as his previous incarnation was? And Rose’s feelings for the Doctor; she’s always loved him, even though Jack’s well aware that she loves him too. And, of course, his own love for both of them, which has always been secondary to their love for each other. Where does any of them fit in this new reality, with he and Rose immortal, the Doctor not entirely happy about that fact, and of course Rose’s unresolved disagreement with the Doctor?
Whether they’ll find answers to any of those questions depends, he’s only too aware, on the Doctor’s willingness even to acknowledge that they exist.
***
Jack’s taken them back to their apartment, rather than to the Hub. It makes sense, in a way; they are supposedly having a day off, the two of them, so appearing in the Hub wouldn’t be a good idea, and also the Doctor deserves to be treated as the friend he is, not as if he’s visiting on business.
The Doctor gives the living-room a cursory inspection before marching straight over to, of all things, an Inukshuk Jack picked up on a business trip to Canada a month or so ago. She doubts very much that he’s never seen one before. Right. Still avoiding stuff, then. And, too, pretending not to look at the photo of her and Jack together, arms around each other and laughing, that’s standing a few inches to the right of the Inukshuk.
“Doctor? Thought you wanted to hear about the aliens and the registry office and stuff?”
“Right! Yes!” He sounds as if he’s forgotten all about it, but she’s not fooled.
Jack throws himself onto the sofa, sprawling almost its entire length, and gives her an expansive wave. Her story to tell.
The Doctor leans against the mantelpiece, arms folded, as she begins. “It was one of those things that’d sound absolutely mad if you didn’t know what we know. Started with a report in the paper everyone thought was one of those silly-season stories - newly-weds turning into vampires on their wedding night. Well, one of them - always the wife. Biting her husband an’ almost drainin’ him dry. Blokes were lucky to be alive - one of them almost wasn’t. Anyway, turned out it wasn’t so silly. Police’d been called an’ the two women were arrested, but they each collapsed soon as they were in custody. Stayed unconscious for almost a full twenty-four hours, an’ when they woke they didn’t remember a thing. Doctors did all sorts of tests an’ couldn’t find anything wrong. They called us in once a third case happened.”
The Doctor’s eyebrows rise, and she can see a faint shudder run through him. “Vampiric possession? And you two decided to become bait?”
She shrugs. “Not as if either of us was in any danger of dyin’, right?”
“S’pose not.” He pulls a face. “Go on.”
“Anyway, we found out they’d all been married at the same place. We checked it out, scanned it thoroughly an’ couldn’t detect any alien life-forms, or evidence of anything alien. So the only thing we could do was try to replicate the circumstances of the infection.”
“By getting married.”
“Yeah.” Outside, she wondered whether it was just her imagination, but now she’s sure. He really is bothered by this. By the fact that she and Jack are a couple? Which he has to have worked out - he’s not stupid. Or is it that this, what he’s seeing here, in this flat - in this city, even - is too domestic, too redolent of a life he would never live, never want to live; one he’d run to the opposite end of the universe to avoid having to live?
“We watched film of one of the weddings,” Jack comments; his tone’s lazy, but he’s watching the Doctor carefully from hooded eyes, she notes. “Nothing obviously suspicious, though we did notice a split-second when something odd might’ve happened. Tiny dot of black - could’ve been a speck of dust, though we cleaned up the film and it was still there. So we signed up and got married.” He grins. “Right, Mrs Harkness?”
She rolls her eyes. “Thought we agreed you’d be Mr Tyler, to give you a name that’s not fake.”
Jack laughs. “Nah. Kinda have a soft spot for Harkness.” True. He’s told her why. “So, yeah, we got married. Rose was wired up to our tech so we could detect any changes during the ceremony - and we found it. Right when the registrar pronounced us married, that’s when the possession took place.”
“I felt it, too,” she adds. “Was weird - I could see how you wouldn’t notice it if you weren’t expecting it, but it was like I was seeing everything much more clearly. Sharper, more vivid, louder. We all ran tests soon as we got back to the Hub, but we could only see a faint trace of something alien. Couldn’t identify it at all.”
“We arrested the registrar, though,” Jack comments with a grin. “Let Simon loose on him. The tapes of that were fun to watch.”
“And Rose?” the Doctor asks, his voice tense. “You let her get possessed by an alien life-form you couldn’t even identify, but that could’ve been a vampire. You had no idea what it would do to her. What were you thinking?”
“Doctor.” Her tone’s sharp, and he looks at her in surprise. “I’m not a kid any more. In case you don’t realise, I’ve been tracking down aliens for a living for fifty-five years. If you think this is the first time I’ve been possessed, forget it. In fact, you know it’s not. Remember Cassandra? Or even before that,” she adds, considering. “The TARDIS.”
He flinches, glancing away.
“Rose was fine,” Jack says, his tone clipped. “And if you think I’d ever let her come to any real harm - anything she can’t cope with - you’re mistaken, Doctor. We were in complete control of the situation the whole time. Even later, when the alien did try to take over.”
Yeah, later, in the privacy of their bedroom. Making love - they’d agreed that it was probably sexual pheromones that triggered the vampiric impulses, not that they needed that as an excuse to shag. She felt the blood-lust rising inside her, and warned Jack; he followed the plan they’d prepared beforehand, pinning her down, using the tech they’d brought home and extracting and trapping the alien.
“The registrar was a host,” she continues. “Not human - the alien entity had taken him over completely. Not a vampire, something else - we never did figure out what. It thrived on sexual energy and blood-lust. It sent out... well, spores, that latched onto brides whenever it got hungry. Once it got what it wanted, the spores transported back to the host, bringing the energy back with them.”
The Doctor nods. He’s not commenting, but she’s guessing from his expression that he’s met things like this before. “So what did you do with the host?”
Jack shrugs, and his eyes glitter for a moment. “We were gonna try to send it somewhere safe, away from Earth, but once it realised the game was up it tried to kill two of my team.” He doesn’t add that Simon shot it dead, but the Doctor can work it out - well, that someone killed it.
And the Doctor clearly has, because he just nods. “How long ago?”
Jack shrugs. “Week or so.”
And the rest. Jack did say in the beginning, when they discussed the plan and knew it would involve the two of them going through a marriage ceremony, that they’d just dissolve it quietly later. It’s been more than six weeks now and he hasn’t mentioned it since. To be fair, nor has she. It just hasn’t seemed important. Yes, they wear their rings - and Jack’s not made any attempt to leave his off; he replaces it on his finger every morning after his shower - and their marriage certificate is in the safe along with their most precious possessions. But they don’t refer to each other as husband or wife; if anything, they still talk about each other as their best friend.
All the same, for a bloke who claims not to be able to do commitment, Jack’s not doing half bad. He quietly ended things with both Krista and Mark the day after the two of them slept together first, and dropped hints until she moved most of her stuff into his bedroom. That first night was four months ago now, and he’s not shown any signs of restlessness. Of course he flirts still, but she’s never had the faintest sense that he’s wanted to follow through.
They’re best mates who happen to be married, it seems. And so far it’s worked... but now that the Doctor’s back she’s got no idea what’s likely to happen. If anything at all.
She loves him still - would shag him silly in a heartbeat if he even hinted he’d like it - but though she knows, has always known, that he loves her (and she’s pretty sure that he loves Jack too, from what Jack’s told her over these months about how things have been since he found the Doctor again), but there are many kind of love, and even jealousy - which his previous self was very capable of feeling - doesn’t imply romantic love. If he’s jealous over what she and Jack have together, and her reading of him is that he is, it’s more than likely because she was always his, yet since her return she’s been with Jack. She chose Jack over him.
That means he could be as stubborn as she knows he can be and just walk away. Equally, he might accept things as they are, giving no hint of his real feelings, and try to stay in their lives as a friend who visits from time to time, just as he does now with Jack.
Or he could do what he did before, all those years ago, that first time he brought her home: make her choose. Come with him again - last chance - or stay with Jack.
And the trouble is that, much as she loves Jack (more than she ever thought she could love anyone other than the Doctor), much as she loves being part of his team and saving the planet, she still, after more than half a century, misses the travelling... and misses the Doctor. Even disappointed in him as she is for not explaining his actions, she loves him still. Him and Jack.
If he makes her choose, and if this were her last chance... she has no idea what she’d do.
***
Time to go. Well, really, he should have left long before now. Soon as he saw the way the wind was blowing, really. Well, has already blown. Maybe they’re trying to fool themselves that their marriage vows mean nothing, but why are they still wearing the rings in that case?
Not that he’s come for anything more than to settle unfinished business, of course. Rose wants an answer to her question. That’s what he’s come to give her, and to see that she’s all right. And Jack, too. After all, ultimately it’s his fault that the two of them are the way they are, so the least he can do is check on them occasionally.
He’s checked. They’re fine. Obviously very fine. More than fine. Together, settled, domestic. And happy. That’s something.
Oh, he should leave. He should really, really leave. Dematerialisation sounds brilliant, really. He was always good at running. But something stronger than that urge is keeping him here.
Once, a more foolish, thoughtless him ran from Jack. But since the end of the universe, since the Valiant, since the Titanic, even, that’s all changed. Jack’s a fixed point, a universal constant - but he’s his universal constant. Jack’s a port in a storm, a safe harbour, a place to go and someone to go to when he needs it. Jack knows him better than anyone else - almost better than he knows himself - and around him he never needs to pretend. Often, he doesn’t even need to explain.
Jack cleans up his messes, even when he thinks the Doctor has no idea he’s doing it. And Jack’s always there, never growing old and dying, never having to be replaced by yet another frail, short-lived presence. And he understands - just two years ago, the two of them attended Martha Jones’ funeral together, staying in the shadows like the ghosts of her past that they were.
He won't come back. He'll never come back. If he leaves now, that's it. No more. He'll be gone. No more visits. No more just popping in to say hello. Only one last goodbye. He knows himself well enough to be sure of that. Not that Jack wouldn’t forgive him if he left and didn’t come back for another ten, twenty, a hundred years; Jack’s forgiven him far more than that. But he wouldn’t forgive himself and he wouldn’t be back.
And it’s not just Jack; it’s Rose. He came because of their unfinished business, because he owes her an answer. Years ago, he’d have told himself he didn’t need to explain, that she wouldn’t be around long enough for it to matter. Yet even in their shared past there were times when he explained more than he wanted to.
My planet’s gone.
There was a war, and we lost.
Last week, he visited a cemetery in east London. Standing by the grave of Donna Noble, he told her about Rose returning. Finding out that she’s immortal too. About her accusations, her anger that he let her stay and abandoned Jack, leaving him to wander the Earth for well over a century and then running away from him again when Jack finally caught up with him. And then his refusal to give her answers... and to apologise, finally, for his sins. Even if that apology was unspoken, yet clear all the same, between him and Jack all those years ago on Malcassiro.
In the cold, biting wind that blew across the graveyard, he fancied that he heard an impatient voice say, “What are you waiting for? Just go and apologise to her, you stupid tosser.”
So here he is, watching his friends. Once upon a time, their lives revolved around him. And there he goes again, making assumptions. He knows better now. Their lives revolve around each other. He's the third wheel now, the unwanted and unneeded hanger-on. No matter. Really, really no matter. He came for a reason. Once that's finished, he can leave. Rassilon knows he can't stay.
Well, then. “You know, Rose, when you ask someone a question you really should stay around to hear the answer.”
“Wha - Oh!” She flushes a bit, and glances at Jack, grimacing - what’s that all about? - and opens her mouth to speak again. But, abruptly, her attention’s caught by something else, and Jack’s talking.
“Harkness. What’s up?”
Oh. Their earpieces. He never noticed, but Rose’s got an identical one to Jack’s.
The two of them listen, with just an occasional “Go on,” or “Repeat that,” for a couple of minutes, before turning simultaneously to face him.
“So much for our day off,” Rose comments wryly. “We’re needed. Alien life-signs detected near the waterfront. Possibly carrying weapons.”
Ah. Now, this he knows. This he can do. A broad grin he simply can’t stop spreads across his face. “Anything I can help with?”
Jack turns to rummage in a drawer for a moment, and then tosses him something. Catching it, he realises that it’s an earpiece identical to the ones the two of them are wearing.
As he meets Jack’s gaze, his friend is grinning. “Thought you’d never ask.”
***
Could this have happened at a better time - or a worse? It’s obvious that the Doctor was just about to give them an answer, finally, to what Rose asked him about last time. On the other hand, if his guess is right, once he’d given that answer the Doctor would’ve left immediately. This way, they get his help in an emergency and the Doctor gets to remember what a great team the three of them make.
As long as the three of them together still make a great team, of course; it’s been a long time since the Doctor and Rose have worked together. He and the Doctor have teamed up plenty of times over the past fifty-odd years, and Rose has been working side by side with him for almost a year. Well, guess that makes him the bridge that joins the three of them - up to him whether it’s make or break.
“Still have one of these from the last time,” the Doctor comments as he inserts the earpiece.
“Wouldn’t work. We’ve upgraded.” He’s checking himself down for the weapons he always carries; out of the corner of his eye, he can see Rose doing likewise.
“And you really think I couldn’t fix that?” Oh, right. Point to remember: never challenge the Doctor’s technical expertise. Not if you want to end the conversation any time soon.
“Aliens? Possibly dangerous, wandering around an area full of shops and restaurants, early on a Saturday evening when the place will be packed?” he reminds his friend.
Immediately, the Doctor’s all business. “What do you know so far?”
“Life-forms of extra-terrestrial origin. Species not currently in our database. Alien tech also detected - could be weapons, maybe not, but we can’t take that chance. And lives might be at stake, so do you mind if we just run?”
“Oh, I can do better than that.” The Doctor’s seized his wrist, and the sonic screwdriver’s already in his other hand.
“You’re fixing it?”
“Just the teleport.”
Right. And he’ll disable it again as soon as this is over, of course. “Because you don’t trust me to use it responsibly.”
Amused brown eyes meet his, at very close quarters. “I trust you more than you think, Jack. You can keep the teleport.” The Doctor glances away, extending his free hand to Rose while dragging Jack’s hand over towards the Vortex manipulator with his other hand. “As for your space hopper, if you want to travel in time you’ll just have to do it with me.”
What the-? He’s just about to demand that the Doctor says exactly what he means when suddenly Rose’s hand covers his and the Doctor’s on the manipulator and reality blinks. When it solidifies again, they’re standing a hundred yards or so from the Plass and facing Mermaid Quay.
“Could’ve done with some warning,” Rose complains, but she’s already breaking away from the two of them, weapon in her hand, circling and assessing their surroundings.
His earpiece crackles. “Location, Jack?”
He gives Simon their precise coordinates. “Location of our visitors?” He can check on his wristcomp but, fifty-first century tech or not, the Hub’s equipment is more sophisticated than his device.
“You’re close. Scanners pinpoint them in the vicinity of the statues at Mermaid Quay.”
The three of them turn in unison to face the Quay. “Got it,” Rose says. “On our way.”
“Right. Chelle, Mark and Krista left here a few minutes ago - they should already be there.”
He and Rose both have weapons in their hands now. As they start walking, the Doctor’s hand lands on his shoulder suddenly. “Your people did say alien tech. Nothing about weapons. Could be they're simply out for a stroll, admiring the view. Admittedly, they could also be planning to take over the world. Just no unprovoked shooting, yeah? Else I’ll just leave you to it.”
“You know me better than that, Doctor.” He throws an impatient glare the Doctor’s way before lengthening his stride, taking the lead.
“You should trust us,” he hears Rose say. Reflected in the window of the shop he’s just passing, he can see that she’s taking the Doctor’s hand. He’s not resisting.
“It’s been a long time, Rose,” the Doctor says, quiet and resigned.
“Yes, and we’ve changed. That it, yeah?”
“You have. Well, we all have. Me, too. Nothing stays the same, Rose. Turn your back for a few minutes... a few months... and who knows what’ll happen.”
“Like me an’ Jack getting married, right?” There’s gentleness in Rose’s tone, and even as he’s scanning the vicinity for the aliens they’ve come to track down Jack can’t help but notice that.
She’s used gentleness with the Doctor before - their first Doctor, at times when the memories threatened to overwhelm him and he desperately needed comfort, even when he wouldn’t admit it. But this is different. This isn’t a young girl, way out of her depth, acting purely on instinct and getting it right because her naïve compassion is just what the Doctor needed. This is a mature Rose, mixing tenderness with the kind of strength he’s never known her to have around the Doctor.
“Bit of a surprise, that, yep. But it wasn’t real, you said. Just a field op. Could wonder, though, why you’re still wearing the rings...”
He’s deliberately eavesdropping now, because they’ve never talked about the marriage thing. Never discussed it, or the fact that, every day, they put their rings back on and neither of them’s made the slightest move towards dissolving a marriage that would never have happened if it wasn’t for the vampire thing.
In the window of the restaurant he’s now passing, Rose shrugs. “I love him. Seems pretty simple, really.”
Yes. For a second, as he processes that, his attention’s distracted from the creatures he’s supposed to be searching for. It is as simple as that. They love each other. Neither of them has any sexual or romantic interest in anyone else - well, anyone attainable, at any rate. So why not stay married? And anyway, if he’s honest with himself, that thought was in his mind all along. Why else would he have put so much effort into their rings, rather than just having Simon buy something cheap from the local Zale’s?
“Love you, too,” Rose is saying, and he’s nodding. They both do. “Told you that, each of the last times I spoke to you, in case you’ve forgotten.”
And the next second he’s forgotten all about the aliens they’re supposed to be here to find, because Rose is doing something he’s imagined doing so many times over the years, but never dared.
She’s reaching up, tugging the Doctor’s head down to hers, and kissing him.
***
tbc