Fic: Hands off the blonde! (3/5(?), Teen)
Title: Hands off the blonde!
Author: carly21
Characters/Pairings: Nine, Rose, Jack
Rating: Teen
Beta: naughtybunny23
Summary: While Jack still tries to fit into the team and solve the mystery that was the Doctor and Rose's relationship, Rose and him are getting kidnapped and thrown into a harem. Vanishing virgins, an alien far from its home and an interesting secret of the Doctor's soon put a test to their relationship...
A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, who even offered to beta in her holidays, this comes out a lot faster than expected :)
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
A bit more serious header image this time ;)
Chapter 3
Rose lay on the soft cushions in the harem room, completely lost in her thoughts. The doctor, the human one (or rather, the human-looking one, she never did ask what species the people on this planet were...), had assured her someone would look for her leather jacket-wearing friend with impressive nose and big ears. It had really surprised her how readily he had accepted her help. The man knew nothing about her and yet he had jumped at the chance to get her and her friends's assistance. Maybe, Rose thought, she had adopted more from the Doctor than she had anticipated.
Her head turned when the harem's big doors opened and Jack entered, dressed in his old clothes again and looking worse for wear.
“Oh, God... What has he done to you?” Rose exclaimed as she rushed to his side. He looked extremely tired and she thought she saw a purple bruise beginning to form under the neckline of his shirt.
“Don't you want to know?” Jack asked grinning, stretching out his hand holding her clothes. “They gave these back as I came out of the prince's quarters. What's going on, Rosie?”
She explained everything that had happened inside the doctor's office, all the while eyeing him out of the corner of her eyes. He hadn't said anything, but she was pretty sure he had been beaten up, most likely for saving her.
Jack rubbed his chin thoughtfully after she finished. “Vanishing virgins, green mist, unconscious guards... sounds exactly like-”
“The green Shadows of Mou,” a familiar voice finished his sentence.
Startled, Rose and Jack whirled around to meet the smirking face of the Doctor.
“Missed me?” he asked and Rose jumped up and into his arms. They hugged tightly and she smiled brightly at him when they pulled back.
“’Course I missed you! You took ages to get here!” she said laughing.
“Oi! Didn't ask you two to get kidnapped,,” he said indignantly, pulling further back to point at the guards with his thumb. “I asked around. Found an old lady who watched you two gettin' abducted in the middle of the day, arrived here, psychic paper in hand and all and what do they tell me as I approached? 'We awaited you,’”he finished grumpily, crossing his arms. He looked the very picture of disgruntled, annoyed Time Lord. “Care to tell me what's goin' on now?”
Rose explained their situation, how they got kidnapped and what she had found out about the ongoings in the harem. The Doctor's gaze darkened with every second of her tale, his ice blue eyes staring a hole into her.
“You two followed a stranger to the back of his shop?” The Doctor's voice dripped of disapproval and Rose swallowed. Now they were in trouble...
“It's my fault,” Jack suddenly said, causing Rose to turn her head and look at him in surprise. “I should have noticed something was off.” He obviously wanted to take the blame for her again and she inwardly rolled her eyes. Did everyone have to treat her like the damsel in distress?
“You are damn right, you should!” The Doctor's eyes shot arrows at Jack. “I entrusted you with Rose!” And there we go again...
“Oi! What am I? A baby??” Rose glared at him but the Doctor continued as if she wasn't there.
“How do you become a Time Agent, Jack? Written test? Smilin' prettily? Or did you just have to sleep with your boss?”
“Doctor!” she exclaimed at this low blow, watching Jack turning deep red while avoiding the Time Lord's eyes.
“What?” the Doctor asked. “Think about it, Rose! He nearly destroyed the human race just the other day and now he ended up gettin' thrown into a harem with you! Is that what a glorious Time Agent should do?” Rose winced at the sharp tone inside his voice and the smirk on his face.
“I made a mistake with the nanogenes, alright. But I saved you and the Earth in the end, didn't I?” said Jack finally and Rose took his hand to encourage him. He squeezed it before he continued. “I know I should have been more careful today, but you did say this planet was safe!”
Looking at the Doctor, Rose realised his gaze was locked on Jack's and her joined hands. When she felt Jack loosening his grip on her under the Time Lord's gaze, she held onto him even tighter.
The Doctor looked up, his eyes full of ancient rage and an emotion she couldn't quite grasp. “Safe? The planet is ‘safe’ when you walk on it with open eyes and don't stumble into danger every few seconds! Even on a 'safe' planet you can still fall on your arse, Jack. I expected more of a former Time Agent.”
“Doctor, it wasn't his fault!” Rose said. She stepped up to the Time Lord now, but still grasped Jack's hand in hers. “He protected me, alright?”
~*~
Jack watched as the Time Lord's fuming gaze turned to wonder in mere seconds. “He did?” the Doctor asked, looking at him without malice now. Seemed like 'protecting Rose Tyler' were the magic words for him...
“Yes, he did,” Rose returned angrily. She stared down the Doctor and not for the first time, Jack wondered how this petite girl managed to look that intimidating. “When the prince asked for me, he said I was sick and went in my stead.”
The Time Lord gave him a long look and he felt a sudden understanding form between them. Might be that Jack still antagonized him for catching Rose Tyler's attention, but he suddenly seemed to see the former Time Agent in a new light. Well, in a dim light instead of pitch black darkness maybe.
“He did, huh?” the Time Lord asked again and a grin slowly formed on his face. “Alright then! How about catchin' some Mou creatures now?”
Jack released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. The tension that lay between the three of them seemed to dissolve at the Doctor's grin and relief relaxed Jack's limbs.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one who felt that way because suddenly Rose let go of Jack's hand and jumped over to the Doctor, hugging his arm enthusiastically. “What are they?” Jack had to grin at the sudden joy in her voice.
“Not the kind of creatures you would like to cuddle,” the Doctor answered, still grinning like a maniac at her. “The green mist, that was them.”
Rose frowned. “They are gaseous?”
“Not always,” Jack replied. Now that the Doctor's dislike of him had lessened a bit, he was determined to show the Time Lord that he wasn't completely useless. “They’re shape shifters. Their normal form looks like green mist but they can take any form and appearance they like.” He grinned smugly at the Doctor who rolled his eyes in return.
“But how are we supposed to find them then? It could be anyone here!” Rose mentioned. She looked behind her as if expecting the shadow to be standing there. Jack had to grin again. Oh, she was so cute!
“Their smell,” he said, thoroughly enjoying himself and the glare he received from the Doctor. “They can change their appearance but still smell like gas.”
“And why virgins? What do they do with them?”
“Eat them,” the Doctor answered this time and Rose's eyes widened at his words. “They love the taste of innocent flesh. Normally, they go after young animals but sometimes some of them try human flesh and become addicted to it.” Rose paled as he explained but the Doctor continued without pause, his voice now sounding thoughtful. “What are they doing here, though? This planet is far away from Mou...”
“But Mou has excellent resources of fruits and vegetables. Maybe they hid on a trade ship,” Jack suggested. He laid a hand on Rose's shoulder to calm her down and leaned over to speak into her ear. “They like to keep their food fresh in cocoons, Rosie. The victims don't have to be dead yet...” he said quietly to her. Rose nodded and took a deep breath, smiling gratefully at him.
“Goin' to Mou is strictly forbidden by the Shadow Proclamation. Everyone knows how dangerous that planet is!” The Doctor glared at Jack like all of this was his fault alone and to see his mood shifting that fast again was depressing to say the least. So much for the dim light...
“Doesn't keep them from breaking the law, Doc. Food from Mou receives a high price on the black market... not that I know my way around those areas,” he said with a lopsided grin.
“’Course you don't.” The Doctor watched him with cold eyes. “Not a former conman like you...”
“Doctor, be nice, yeah?” Rose said before Jack could return something. “Jack is one of the good guys and you know that... Stop being jealous, yeah?”
A 'good guy'... He had been called a lot in his life but that definitely wasn't one of them. Still, he was happy she thought about him that way.
“Jealous? I'm not jealous! Why does everyone always say I'm jealous?! What should I be jealous of? Never been jealous in my life, me.” The Doctor crossed his arms and stared them down.
“Sure you aren't...” Rose and Jack said sarcastically and grinned at each other.
The Time Lord huffed. “Humans...” he murmured but the small smile that played around his lips wasn't lost to Jack.
~*~
Humans... they never ceased to amaze him. The Doctor had met a lot of people in his life but never two like those who stood before him. The Captain seemed to know a lot about Mou and its creatures... that wasn't surprising, though. No, he suspected the Time Agency had to follow through time quite a lot of criminals who dared to steal the planet's resources.
He would never admit it, but he had more faith in the lad's skills than he let on. Of course, he had teased him before, just to cool down his ego. No ulterior motives, there. And it had worked, hadn't it? The Captain was determined to show him what he had... he was ambitious, that one. The Doctor knew that from the start... and ambition was something that could make quite a useful companion out of that boy. If only he wouldn't try to shag every living thing in existence-and not be so damn cocky.
Oh, how they grinned at him, like they knew everything about him. But they knew nothing, that lot... nothing! Jealous... pah! As if! He was a Time Lord for goodness's sake! As if he would get jealous of a human. What did it matter that the Captain was on the pretty side? It was his hand Rose had taken in that cellar in Hendrik's! It was him who showed her the stars and a whole new life! It was him who made her smile more brightly than any sun, wasn't it? How could the boy ever hope to compete with that?
But... if it was, why did his hearts hurt so much when Rose held the Captain's hand?
“Doctor? Are you alright?”
He turned his head to look into the worried face of Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler who hugged his arm, her revealing clothing showing more than he ever had the opportunity to see before.
A smile slowly formed on his lips. “I'm always alright.” And for the moment... he was.
“Right,” he said. “We have to go back to the TARDIS. I need a few things to capture the shadow.”
“A transmission manipulator?” the lad asked. The Doctor looked at him for a long time, enjoying the other man's nervousness for a while before he nodded shortly.
“Exactly.” He tried not to let the Captain’s suddenly beaming face get to him. What did it matter that he looked a lot like Rose right now, after she had said something unbelievable clever and he praised her?
“What does it do?” Rose asked him curiously, her face shining with anticipation.
He smiled at her and took her hand. “The Shadows of Mou aren't easy to capture. You can get them when they take a physical form but they can change their appearance in mere seconds. A transmission manipulator hinders the transformation. It captures the creature in its physical body.”
“And then we can get it, yeah?”
“Yep, easy as that.”
“Not that easy, I'm afraid...” Jack mentioned, surprising him and Rose. “We have to get ourselves a bait.”
Oh... he so hoped the pretty boy didn't think of that. “Bait? What kind of bait?” Rose asked and the Doctor felt his ears growing hot. Did they have to talk about that?
“A virgin,” the other man answered grinning, clearly amused by it. “It's not like one of us is still a virgin, is it?”
Rose grinned and the Doctor cursed the Captain for asking exactly that question. “’Course not,” she said, laughing and he tried not to think why the mere thought of being untouched seemed funny to her. No reason to go that way...
Rose and Jack joked around for a while, the former conman telling in minute details how he lost his innocence at the age of fourteen. The Doctor stayed quiet the whole time. He crossed his arms and looked in a different direction, awaiting the inevitable. It only took his human companions a moment to notice his silence. He felt them staring at him, examining him.
“Doctor...” he heard Rose say, slowly,carefully and he knew what question would follow. “You aren't a virgin... right?”
It turned out, his superior Time Lord physiology wasn't that superior in moments like this. He felt his face grow hot and could see Rose's shocked expression without looking at her. “You are kidding, right?” she asked, clearly astonished. When he didn't say anything, she continued, “But you told me you've danced! And... and 'dancing' meant sex... didn't it?”
“I... did. In the past...” he began, forcing himself to meet her eyes. “I've done it before, but... not in this body.”
Rose frowned. “What do you mean 'not in this body?’”
“Regeneration,” Jack answered and for once he was glad the lad took over his speech. “Changing every little cell on the verge of dying...” He nodded his affirmation. “So, it's true then... not a legend.”
“Yes. This is my ninth body... and I haven't been long in it, which explains... the lack of dancin' I did.” He really didn't like where this conversation was going...
“Wait... what do you mean with 'ninth body'? You... you’ve had others?” Rose asked and her confusion didn't surprise him at all. Humans, especially those born before the fifth century when legends about his people weren't around, always had trouble understanding the concept of regeneration.
“Yeah. When I'm dyin', I'm able to change my whole body, every single cell. Most Time Lords are able to channel the regeneration energy and influence the process, but I have always been rubbish at this sort of thing.” He ignored the Captain's cheeky grin and continued, “I never know what I'm goin' to look like.”
“If you died... you would change your face?” Rose asked him and he nodded. “But... that's terrible!” Alright, that reaction surprised him.
“I could turn into a pretty boy,” he said with raised eyebrows.
“Wouldn't want that. I happen to like your face.” Rose crossed her arms and looked like she dared him to disagree.
The Doctor grinned broadly at her and took her hand. Threading his fingers through hers, he gave her hand a little squeeze and enjoyed the brilliant smile she gave him.
Jack cleared his throat to remind them of his presence. “I hate to break this moment of utterly cuddly cuteness but shouldn't we head back to the TARDIS now?” The man grinned cheekily at him. “We've got our bait, after all.”
“You can't be serious...” Rose said. She was staring at Jack like a Slitheen just crawled out of his skin. “We can't use him as bait!”
“Why not?” he said despite knowing the answer already. She was scared for him.
“Why not? Because it's dangerous, that's why!” She put her hands on her hips and looked as frightening as Jackie Tyler herself. A shiver ran down his spine at the thought. “I don't want you endin’ up getting killed and... and changing your face.” Disbelieving, he shook his head. She seemed to be serious about liking this daft face...
Realising that she was really worried about him, he cupped her cheek and looked deeply into her eyes, willing his following words to sink in. “Don't worry. Don't plan on dyin' any time soon, me.”
“But-”
“No buts. The plan is as safe as houses,” he said.. “What could possibly go wrong?”
Rose and Jack gave a collective groan causing him to raise his eyebrows in surprise. “What?”
Rose sighed. “We just really wish you hadn't said that.”
Chapter 4