how the time lord got his groove back
title: how the time lord got his groove back
pairing: jack harkness/tenth doctor
rating: PG-13
challenge: sixth sense at wintercompanion
disclaimer: a wandering minstrel i, a thing of shreds and patches. i own nothing.
author's note. follows to a certain extent from my last month's fic, tomorrow is another day. Could probably be read as a standalone, i suppose, if you just take it as given that 1. CoE never happened and 2. Ten is trying to be less of a jerk after Rose got lost to the magma clamp. However, Ten is skittish about the follow through (as always) so this fic also features a TARDIS that takes matters into her own hands, whether the Doctor (initially) likes it or not. :)
A Time Lord's TARDIS is a great and many-splendored thing. There is no limit to the number of her rooms; her delicate control over the vast wastes of spacetime is absolutely astonishing. (She can't help much if the Doctor does have trouble driving. He's a dear, but sometimes she'd like to hit him with one of those mallets.)
Like, for example, right about now. If she had had teeth, she would have gritted them and stared him down. She didn't, so she just half-patiently prodded his mind with her own psychic tendrils, sending an image of someone that should have been an appealing distraction for him.
"Not now, old girl." The Doctor tried to immerse himself in tinkering, but she wasn't having any of that. Not only was she sick and tired of his constant avoiding of Jack after that one day in the 1960's, but he'd re-sautered the same connection four times now for not paying attention. It didn't exactly hurt, but there was the principle of the thing, and it was starting to itch. She zapped him back to awareness.
"Ow! - What was that fo - oh, oh, I'm sorry, i'm so sorry." He turned the screwdriver away. "Seems my mind was wandering a bit."
She cast him the mental equivalent of an eyeroll and hummed quietly as she projected a variety of images of Jack into his mind - complete with smells, pheromonones, the aching throb of Jack's want hard against the Time Lord's lower back...
He pulled himself away, visibly shaken. "Look, is there a point to all this?
She sent him the equivalent of a TARDIS-raised eyebrow. 'Of course it is, you know very well, are you daft?'
The Doctor sighed and paced around the console, his hair a wild mess. "Look. Just - don't make me want things I can't have."
'Jack is the last thing you can't have'
'Shouldn't, then.'
'So why did you bother saving him from' here the TARDIS displayed a sort of compressed flash-forward version of Jack's old timeline, the kind of thing 'easily understood by creatures of time - ' if you don't intend to do anything about it?'
The Doctor's jaw dropped slightly; he had no answer. The TARDIS went on, kindly but mercilessly. 'And what about Rose? What do you think she'd want for you?'
"Yes - uh - but -"
"She was always terrified that you would never find anyone else. More than anything."
The Doctor's jaw worked silently. He was saved from replying by a knock at the door. "Doctor?"
"What? What? What?" The Doctor ran around the console room, distracted from his silence. "We're in the Vortex!"
'I took us out of the Vortex. We're on Earth.' More than a trace of smugness was in the TARDIS' voice. 'You were never going to do it.'
"Doctor?" Jack's voice rang through the door. "You in there?"
The Doctor froze for a long moment, his face locked in an expression of sheer terror: then he took a deep breath and nervously stalked toward the door, throwing it open. "Jack?"
"Doctor." Jack put his hands on the Doctor's shoulders and kissed the Doctor soundly, staggering through the door and pushing the Doctor back against the console. His mouth was warm, firm, pliant, and the Doctor couldn't help but kiss him back for a delicious several minutes.
"I don't know why I just did that." Jack pulled back, breathless. "It's like - I couldn't think of anything else all morning except kissing you -" His voice dropped to a more seductive register - "And feeling you against me, and stripping that beautiful suit away from you and figuring out exactly what differences are between this body and the last one, so please tell me I can come with you this time, because I don't think I can stand staying behind."
The Doctor could only nod, blushing.
The TARDIS hummed to herself, pleased.
pairing: jack harkness/tenth doctor
rating: PG-13
challenge: sixth sense at wintercompanion
disclaimer: a wandering minstrel i, a thing of shreds and patches. i own nothing.
author's note. follows to a certain extent from my last month's fic, tomorrow is another day. Could probably be read as a standalone, i suppose, if you just take it as given that 1. CoE never happened and 2. Ten is trying to be less of a jerk after Rose got lost to the magma clamp. However, Ten is skittish about the follow through (as always) so this fic also features a TARDIS that takes matters into her own hands, whether the Doctor (initially) likes it or not. :)
A Time Lord's TARDIS is a great and many-splendored thing. There is no limit to the number of her rooms; her delicate control over the vast wastes of spacetime is absolutely astonishing. (She can't help much if the Doctor does have trouble driving. He's a dear, but sometimes she'd like to hit him with one of those mallets.)
Like, for example, right about now. If she had had teeth, she would have gritted them and stared him down. She didn't, so she just half-patiently prodded his mind with her own psychic tendrils, sending an image of someone that should have been an appealing distraction for him.
"Not now, old girl." The Doctor tried to immerse himself in tinkering, but she wasn't having any of that. Not only was she sick and tired of his constant avoiding of Jack after that one day in the 1960's, but he'd re-sautered the same connection four times now for not paying attention. It didn't exactly hurt, but there was the principle of the thing, and it was starting to itch. She zapped him back to awareness.
"Ow! - What was that fo - oh, oh, I'm sorry, i'm so sorry." He turned the screwdriver away. "Seems my mind was wandering a bit."
She cast him the mental equivalent of an eyeroll and hummed quietly as she projected a variety of images of Jack into his mind - complete with smells, pheromonones, the aching throb of Jack's want hard against the Time Lord's lower back...
He pulled himself away, visibly shaken. "Look, is there a point to all this?
She sent him the equivalent of a TARDIS-raised eyebrow. 'Of course it is, you know very well, are you daft?'
The Doctor sighed and paced around the console, his hair a wild mess. "Look. Just - don't make me want things I can't have."
'Jack is the last thing you can't have'
'Shouldn't, then.'
'So why did you bother saving him from' here the TARDIS displayed a sort of compressed flash-forward version of Jack's old timeline, the kind of thing 'easily understood by creatures of time - ' if you don't intend to do anything about it?'
The Doctor's jaw dropped slightly; he had no answer. The TARDIS went on, kindly but mercilessly. 'And what about Rose? What do you think she'd want for you?'
"Yes - uh - but -"
"She was always terrified that you would never find anyone else. More than anything."
The Doctor's jaw worked silently. He was saved from replying by a knock at the door. "Doctor?"
"What? What? What?" The Doctor ran around the console room, distracted from his silence. "We're in the Vortex!"
'I took us out of the Vortex. We're on Earth.' More than a trace of smugness was in the TARDIS' voice. 'You were never going to do it.'
"Doctor?" Jack's voice rang through the door. "You in there?"
The Doctor froze for a long moment, his face locked in an expression of sheer terror: then he took a deep breath and nervously stalked toward the door, throwing it open. "Jack?"
"Doctor." Jack put his hands on the Doctor's shoulders and kissed the Doctor soundly, staggering through the door and pushing the Doctor back against the console. His mouth was warm, firm, pliant, and the Doctor couldn't help but kiss him back for a delicious several minutes.
"I don't know why I just did that." Jack pulled back, breathless. "It's like - I couldn't think of anything else all morning except kissing you -" His voice dropped to a more seductive register - "And feeling you against me, and stripping that beautiful suit away from you and figuring out exactly what differences are between this body and the last one, so please tell me I can come with you this time, because I don't think I can stand staying behind."
The Doctor could only nod, blushing.
The TARDIS hummed to herself, pleased.