Call Home 2/2
Story: Call Home
Author: WMR
Characters: Ten, Rose, Jack
Spoilers: All the way to Christmas Invasion
Rated: PG
Summary: He knows he's the only survivor. Everyone's dead, including those he loves. Except that there's one person left he could contact... if he dares. AU from the new series.
This story is a birthday present for my dear friend
kae_nine. Hope you enjoy it!
With many thanks, as always, to
dark_aegis for BRing and encouragement.
Call Home Chapter 1
Chapter 2
It wouldn’t hurt, would it? Calling her?
It’s not as if he needs to tell her anything that will hurt her. He just wants to hear her voice. Any voice, actually. A friendly voice.
The biggest problem is the logistics of time, though. If he does call her, when will he find her? In their timeline, as opposed to the timeline of 200,100 and 2006, now? Or a week ago? A month ago? Before she even met him? Or days, weeks, months from now? When she’s settled back into her life on Earth, mourning the Doctor, and maybe him, too, as dead?
Dangerous. One way could lead to her finding out things about her future that she shouldn’t, that might change her future. She could die as a result of one simple, selfish phone call. Another way could re-open old grief, when she’s on the way to learning to live with it.
Best if he doesn’t. Best if he just gets on with finding his way off this satellite, getting back to some sort of civilisation and some sort of a life.
Examine the tech. He already knows what’s available in the front control panel. Time to see what the Doctor was working on. What he used to build the Delta wave.
The Doctor.
A lump fills his throat as he moves over to where the two of them were working. Somewhere here the Doctor died.
The floor is covered with little piles of ash. Has to be Dalek remains. Has to be the effect of the Delta wave. Though that still doesn’t explain how he is alive.
Little piles of ash. And, just as Rose was reduced, or so they thought, to a little pile of ash mere hours earlier, so has the Doctor been. One of those piles is him.
His legs refuse to hold him up any longer. He collapses to his knees, and finds that his fingers are trailing through ash. The Doctor, earlier; him now. As the Doctor mourned Rose, so he mourns the Doctor.
There’s a lump in his throat as he visualises the tall, dark, sometimes saturnine Time Lord as he was the last time he saw him. Standing very close to here, a fixed and not very convincing smile on his face, his eyes holding the knowledge that death was coming for all of them.
The tender, but too-brief, kiss he got in response to his own.
The Doctor, dead. He and Rose, alive. But it’s all for nothing if the Doctor’s dead.
He was willing to die to save Rose. To save the Doctor. Now, if he could, he might even swap places.
His gaze falls to his wristcom again. And his fingers tap in a sequence on the keypad.
He holds his breath. It rings.
*******
She’s holding her breath. His lips are coming closer, closer... Hers part in anticipation...
Her phone rings.
The Doctor jumps back as if stung.
Startled, frustrated, she stares at him. He stares back, expression confused, then he blinks. “You should answer that.”
“Oh.” She fumbles. Her mobile’s in her pocket. She takes it out and automatically looks at the display before hitting answer. And then she stares, and her heart skips a beat.
“It’s Jack!”
The Doctor moves like lightning, and is staring at the screen beside her. Her shock is mirrored on his face. “You don’t know when he made that call,” he says then, quietly. “Could’ve been weeks ago.”
Her hand is shaking. “Yeah, I know.” Jack’s dead. And she’s going to hear his voice again.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself as she thumbs the answer button. This is Jack from their past. He could even be on the Game Station when they first got there, searching for her.
“Hi, Jack.” She’s proud that her voice doesn’t shake one bit. The Doctor is standing right next to her, head bent towards her so he can hear.
“Rose! Great to hear your voice!” He sounds so clear he could be standing right next to her. And there’s something in the way he says that, a note in his voice that sounds sad.
The Doctor’s gaze is on her. She knows what he’s warning her about. Don’t say anything that could let Jack know his future. Don’t risk changing history. And she knows that’s important. She might save Jack’s life, but she could end up letting the Daleks win.
“You too,” she tells him. And it is. So good. “Where are you?”
He hesitates. After a few moments, he says, “Kinda difficult to say.”
“What, you don’t know?”
“Hey, sure I know.” And that’s the Jack she remembers, laughing, sounding so sure of himself.
“Okay, then, where are you?”
“Hey, you tell me where you are.”
“I asked you first!”
Oh, the teasing - she remembers it so well. He was always ready with a joke; always knew just how to cheer her up if she was down. He could even, sometimes, tease the Doctor out of his bad moods.
He’s quiet again for a moment. “Thing is, Rose, I don’t know when you are. We kinda got... separated. And we might be in the same time, or we might not. So I don’t want to end up accidentally telling you something that’s in your future.”
Oh, god, Jack... if only you knew...
“Actually - ” Her voice breaks and she has to halt for a moment. “I’m more likely to be in the future from where you are. So ‘s better if you tell me, okay?”
*******
Why is she so convinced she has to be in the future from his timeline?
But - wait. He can hear the pain in her voice. This has to be Rose after the Doctor took her home. She knows the Doctor’s dead. Actually, she thinks he’s dead, too. Of course she does. He told her he was going off to die. He said goodbye.
So she’s talking to a man she thinks is dead. No wonder she’s upset.
Will it hurt her more or less to know that he’s alive? That he survived, but he’s stuck almost two hundred thousand years in her future so she’s unlikely ever to see her again? Well, unless he manages to get a timeship, or talk someone into giving him a ride back to 2006.
Will it hurt her too much to know that he survived but the Doctor didn’t?
He’s no fool. Sure, Rose loves him, but she loved the Doctor more. Far more. The two of them were more in love with each other than he’s ever seen any two people before. The crazy thing was that they never actually did anything about it.
He lets some ash spill through his fingers again. And he makes his decision.
“I’m on the Game Station, Rose. You know what I’m talking about?”
“Yeah. I do.”
There’s definitely a choke in her voice. This is Rose from after the Doctor took her home.
He swallows. “He took you home, right?”
“Yeah.” And now he’s convinced he can hear a sob.
“Rose.” He’s trying to choke back the lump in his own throat. “I... It’s all over. The Daleks are gone. The...” He trails off. How does he tell her that the Doctor is dead?
He takes a deep breath. “I don’t know how, but I’m alive. I’m the only person left alive on this whole satellite.”
*******
She almost drops the phone.
Jack’s alive?
But the Doctor heard him die. He said so.
She turns to stare at the Doctor. He’s staring at her, his expression disbelieving.
He reaches for the phone, but she shakes her head. Covering the mouthpiece, she murmurs, “You can’t, Doctor! He won’t recognise your voice.”
He can’t be alive. It’s just a misunderstanding. Has to be.
“Jack. Tell me that again, yeah? What happened?”
There’s another pause. And then, haltingly, he says, “Everyone died, Rose. The Daleks came - they killed everyone. Apart from the Doctor, I was the last man standing. Then they killed me. And I don’t know how, but about a half-hour ago I woke up. Alive.”
He pauses again. She’s stunned into silence.
“I know I was dead, Rose. I know it sounds crazy, but I remember dying. And my chest still hurts where the bolt hit me, so I know I’m not imagining it. Anyway, looks like I’m the only one alive here. The Doctor...” She hears him draw in a shuddering breath. “Rose, I’m so sorry. The Doctor’s dead, too.”
She’s about to protest at that, to tell him that the Doctor’s alive and well and standing next to her. But the Doctor shakes his head vigorously, waving with his hands as well. She gives him a wide-eyed, questioning stare. But he’s already moving away, towards the controls.
He’s taking them back to get Jack. And, for the first time since he told her that Jack was dead, she smiles.
*******
“I’m sorry, Rose,” he says again. He knows how much this will hurt her. Even if she’s already resigned herself to the Doctor’s death, to know that he survived and the Doctor didn’t has to make it far worse.
She still doesn’t speak.
“Anyway,” he continues quickly, feeling his heart sink again. This conversation needs to end. Obviously it’s too hard for her to talk to him, in the circumstances. “I guess I just wanted to say hi. And make sure that you’re okay - that you’re safe.”
“I’m fine.” And now she’s smiling. He can hear it in her voice. Putting on a brave face for him? “Jack, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll be fine Don’t worry about me.” For her benefit, he forces a grin to his face. She’ll hear it in his voice. “You know me and technology. Few hours, I’ll have rigged up something to get myself off this satellite. Make my way to Earth, find somebody who needs my talents... I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah.” She’s still smiling. “I know you will.”
“You take care, now, Rose.” He has to say goodbye. To let her go. And delete her number from his wristcom, just so he’ll never be tempted to call her again. Kinder to her that he leave her to get on with her life.
“You too. And, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
The choke’s back in her voice suddenly. “I love you. Should’ve told you before.”
“You didn’t need to. I know. Love you, too.” He swallows. God, he has to end this. Now. Talking to her is too much a reminder of all he’s lost. All they’ve lost, too, with the Doctor dead.
It’s getting worse, too. Now, his subconscious is playing tricks on him. He thinks he’s hearing the sound of the TARDIS materialising.
Imagination. Definitely his imagination.
“Gotta go, Rose. You take care, you hear?” Goodbye, Rose. Have a great life. See you in hell, maybe, one of these years.
“See ya, Jack.” And then he just hears the buzzing of a disconnected call.
Except that he’s still hearing the TARDIS’s engines. And that’s impossible.
*******
The Doctor looks up at her. “Almost there. Just another few seconds.”
“Good.” She swallows. Although she’s happier than she can say to know that Jack’s alive, it was so hard to hold it together at the end of that call. He sounded so... lost. Alone.
He was putting a brave face on it. She could tell. But he was depressed. Believed the Doctor dead, of course.
She had to tell him she loves him. It’s true, of course. But, apart from that, she wanted to give him some comfort. Even though she knew they’d be with him in a few minutes, she wanted to let him know that he wasn’t forgotten. Wasn’t unloved.
The Doctor’d glanced up at her when she said it, simply raising an eyebrow. She gave him a questioning stare in return, but he just smiled and nodded. Obviously he did approve.
He’s still looking at her now. “You better go out first, Rose. Think you can explain about me?”
Well, she’s had to do it before - to her mum and Mickey. She can make Jack understand. “Yeah, no problem.”
“C’mere.” He’s holding out his hand to her again. She takes it. “Never been so glad I jiggery-poked your phone,” he says with a grin as he tugs her closer to him.
She flings her arms around him and hugs him tightly. He’s alive. They’re together. And Jack’s alive and they’re about to get him back.
He’s looking down at her as he returns her hug, his eyes alight, looking as happy as she feels. And suddenly, his lips descend, press hard against hers for an instant, then he raises his head again.
“Go.” He gives her a little push, and she realises that the TARDIS has stopped groaning. They’re there.
She walks to the door. Her head’s spinning. The Doctor’s just kissed her, and she didn’t even have a chance to react. And Jack’s alive. He’s alive, and he’s just outside the door.
Fantastic.
*******
It’s really the TARDIS. He’s not imagining it.
It’s materialising mere feet away. He drags himself to his feet, staring, disbelieving.
How can it be here? He saw it leave. And the Doctor’s dead. Rose is back in London. So how...?
The door is opening. And it’s Rose. She’s looking around, and then she sees him and a huge grin breaks out across her face.
He stumbles towards her, even as he’s asking himself how she can possibly be here. She doesn’t know how to fly the TARDIS. Hell, even he doesn’t know how, though he can do some of it.
They collide by the main control panel, arms coming around each other, clinging to each other. He buries his face in her soft hair.
“Jack... god, I thought you were dead!” And she’s laughing and crying at the same time.
He pulls back just far enough to look at her, and then he dips his head and kisses her. It’s not even planned. It’s just that she’s there and he’s alive and they’re together and he thought he’d never see her again and he’s not alone any more and he loves her and she loves him and even if the Doctor’s dead they’ve still got each other.
She’s kissing him back and he can taste the salt of her tears.
Understandable. The Doctor’s dead, and she’s grieving.
Because he has to know, he breaks the kiss. “How did you get here? The TARDIS...?”
And then, unbelievably, she’s smiling. Grinning. “Jack, the Doctor’s not dead. He’s here. He brought the TARDIS here as soon as we realised you’re alive.”
The Doctor’s...?
Not dead?
Then where is he? Why isn’t he out here?
Rose reaches up, catches his face between her palms. “Jack, there’s somethin’ I need to tell you. About the Doctor.”
That sounds... worrying. “What?”
“He’s... changed.”
“What do you mean, changed?”
She chews her lip for a moment. “You ever heard of regeneration?”
Regeneration? Sounds vaguely familiar, but... He shakes his head. “No. Not that I can remember.”
“ ‘S something Time Lords do.” She frowns a little. “See, the Doctor did die, but when he dies he gets a new body an’ comes back to life. That’s why he didn’t come out with me - he wanted you to know what to expect first.”
He can only stare at her. A new body? “You mean he’s a different guy?”
“No!” She almost exclaims it. “He’s still the Doctor. He just looks different. Sounds it, too. But it’s still him underneath.”
The Doctor, alive. Alive, but different. Changed. It’s almost too unbelievable to be true.
“Jack.”
A different voice. An accent something like Rose’s, light, with a touch of humour. He turns in the direction of the speaker.
He’s younger-looking, now early thirties in appearance rather than forty-something. Brown hair, and lots of it. Tall and lanky, even thinner than before. And are those brown eyes?
Different clothes, too. Very natty pin-stripes. And a tie?
He’s handsome, too. More classically handsome than before, though there was just something about that dark hair, narrow cheekbones and all-knowing expression that was an incredible turn-on.
He feels a stabbing to his chest again, emotional this time, at the knowledge that he’ll never again see the enigmatic leather-jacketed man who’d become his friend. More than his friend.
But this is still the Doctor. Rose says so.
He moves away from Rose, begins to walk to the man who’s waiting just outside the TARDIS. “Doctor?”
The man smiles, and his eyes are warm. “That’s me.”
He holds out both hands to Jack - something he could never imagine the Doctor doing before. Previously, he was rarely physically demonstrative or affectionate, reserving most of his touching for Rose. An occasional clap on the back or approving hand to the shoulder; that was about his limit as far as Jack was concerned. He’d been surprised that the Doctor had accepted his farewell kiss.
He takes the Doctor’s hands, meeting the gaze of this man who’s a stranger and yet one of the two people who mean most to him in the universe. The eyes are different, and yet there’s something familiar about the expression they hold, the way that dark gaze seems to see right inside him.
“I’m sorry we left you,” the Doctor says. “If I’d known you were alive - ”
But he cuts him off with a shake of his head. That’s not important. Explanations - the Doctor’s regeneration, how he and Rose met up again, exactly what happened to the Daleks, why he is alive - can all wait. What matters is that they’re all alive and still together, something he thought was impossible until just a couple of minutes ago.
He drops the Doctor’s hands and pulls the Time Lord into a hug, a joyful embrace that reminds him of the one he shared mere hours before with a Doctor who looked different but is the same man.
And then the Doctor draws back, looks at him and, in one swift, breathtaking movement, kisses him.
It doesn’t last long and, as the Doctor straightens again, he’s grinning. “Thought it was my turn,” he says, before turning his head to the side.
Rose is there. In unspoken co-ordination, they open their embrace to include her. And two are three once again.
Something else hasn’t changed about the Doctor, Jack sees as he watches the Time Lord smile at Rose, and then bend to kiss her softly. He still loves her as much as before. Only now he understands that he is loved, too.
The Doctor pulls away from their embrace. Standing a couple of feet from them, a proud but fond smile creasing his youthful face, he extends a hand to each of them. “Let’s go home.”
Accepting the Doctor’s hand, Jack returns the smile. He already is home.
END
x-posted to
better_with_3
Author: WMR
Characters: Ten, Rose, Jack
Spoilers: All the way to Christmas Invasion
Rated: PG
Summary: He knows he's the only survivor. Everyone's dead, including those he loves. Except that there's one person left he could contact... if he dares. AU from the new series.
This story is a birthday present for my dear friend
kae_nine. Hope you enjoy it!
With many thanks, as always, to
dark_aegis for BRing and encouragement.
Call Home Chapter 1
Chapter 2
It wouldn’t hurt, would it? Calling her?
It’s not as if he needs to tell her anything that will hurt her. He just wants to hear her voice. Any voice, actually. A friendly voice.
The biggest problem is the logistics of time, though. If he does call her, when will he find her? In their timeline, as opposed to the timeline of 200,100 and 2006, now? Or a week ago? A month ago? Before she even met him? Or days, weeks, months from now? When she’s settled back into her life on Earth, mourning the Doctor, and maybe him, too, as dead?
Dangerous. One way could lead to her finding out things about her future that she shouldn’t, that might change her future. She could die as a result of one simple, selfish phone call. Another way could re-open old grief, when she’s on the way to learning to live with it.
Best if he doesn’t. Best if he just gets on with finding his way off this satellite, getting back to some sort of civilisation and some sort of a life.
Examine the tech. He already knows what’s available in the front control panel. Time to see what the Doctor was working on. What he used to build the Delta wave.
The Doctor.
A lump fills his throat as he moves over to where the two of them were working. Somewhere here the Doctor died.
The floor is covered with little piles of ash. Has to be Dalek remains. Has to be the effect of the Delta wave. Though that still doesn’t explain how he is alive.
Little piles of ash. And, just as Rose was reduced, or so they thought, to a little pile of ash mere hours earlier, so has the Doctor been. One of those piles is him.
His legs refuse to hold him up any longer. He collapses to his knees, and finds that his fingers are trailing through ash. The Doctor, earlier; him now. As the Doctor mourned Rose, so he mourns the Doctor.
There’s a lump in his throat as he visualises the tall, dark, sometimes saturnine Time Lord as he was the last time he saw him. Standing very close to here, a fixed and not very convincing smile on his face, his eyes holding the knowledge that death was coming for all of them.
The tender, but too-brief, kiss he got in response to his own.
The Doctor, dead. He and Rose, alive. But it’s all for nothing if the Doctor’s dead.
He was willing to die to save Rose. To save the Doctor. Now, if he could, he might even swap places.
His gaze falls to his wristcom again. And his fingers tap in a sequence on the keypad.
He holds his breath. It rings.
*******
She’s holding her breath. His lips are coming closer, closer... Hers part in anticipation...
Her phone rings.
The Doctor jumps back as if stung.
Startled, frustrated, she stares at him. He stares back, expression confused, then he blinks. “You should answer that.”
“Oh.” She fumbles. Her mobile’s in her pocket. She takes it out and automatically looks at the display before hitting answer. And then she stares, and her heart skips a beat.
“It’s Jack!”
The Doctor moves like lightning, and is staring at the screen beside her. Her shock is mirrored on his face. “You don’t know when he made that call,” he says then, quietly. “Could’ve been weeks ago.”
Her hand is shaking. “Yeah, I know.” Jack’s dead. And she’s going to hear his voice again.
She takes a deep breath to calm herself as she thumbs the answer button. This is Jack from their past. He could even be on the Game Station when they first got there, searching for her.
“Hi, Jack.” She’s proud that her voice doesn’t shake one bit. The Doctor is standing right next to her, head bent towards her so he can hear.
“Rose! Great to hear your voice!” He sounds so clear he could be standing right next to her. And there’s something in the way he says that, a note in his voice that sounds sad.
The Doctor’s gaze is on her. She knows what he’s warning her about. Don’t say anything that could let Jack know his future. Don’t risk changing history. And she knows that’s important. She might save Jack’s life, but she could end up letting the Daleks win.
“You too,” she tells him. And it is. So good. “Where are you?”
He hesitates. After a few moments, he says, “Kinda difficult to say.”
“What, you don’t know?”
“Hey, sure I know.” And that’s the Jack she remembers, laughing, sounding so sure of himself.
“Okay, then, where are you?”
“Hey, you tell me where you are.”
“I asked you first!”
Oh, the teasing - she remembers it so well. He was always ready with a joke; always knew just how to cheer her up if she was down. He could even, sometimes, tease the Doctor out of his bad moods.
He’s quiet again for a moment. “Thing is, Rose, I don’t know when you are. We kinda got... separated. And we might be in the same time, or we might not. So I don’t want to end up accidentally telling you something that’s in your future.”
Oh, god, Jack... if only you knew...
“Actually - ” Her voice breaks and she has to halt for a moment. “I’m more likely to be in the future from where you are. So ‘s better if you tell me, okay?”
*******
Why is she so convinced she has to be in the future from his timeline?
But - wait. He can hear the pain in her voice. This has to be Rose after the Doctor took her home. She knows the Doctor’s dead. Actually, she thinks he’s dead, too. Of course she does. He told her he was going off to die. He said goodbye.
So she’s talking to a man she thinks is dead. No wonder she’s upset.
Will it hurt her more or less to know that he’s alive? That he survived, but he’s stuck almost two hundred thousand years in her future so she’s unlikely ever to see her again? Well, unless he manages to get a timeship, or talk someone into giving him a ride back to 2006.
Will it hurt her too much to know that he survived but the Doctor didn’t?
He’s no fool. Sure, Rose loves him, but she loved the Doctor more. Far more. The two of them were more in love with each other than he’s ever seen any two people before. The crazy thing was that they never actually did anything about it.
He lets some ash spill through his fingers again. And he makes his decision.
“I’m on the Game Station, Rose. You know what I’m talking about?”
“Yeah. I do.”
There’s definitely a choke in her voice. This is Rose from after the Doctor took her home.
He swallows. “He took you home, right?”
“Yeah.” And now he’s convinced he can hear a sob.
“Rose.” He’s trying to choke back the lump in his own throat. “I... It’s all over. The Daleks are gone. The...” He trails off. How does he tell her that the Doctor is dead?
He takes a deep breath. “I don’t know how, but I’m alive. I’m the only person left alive on this whole satellite.”
*******
She almost drops the phone.
Jack’s alive?
But the Doctor heard him die. He said so.
She turns to stare at the Doctor. He’s staring at her, his expression disbelieving.
He reaches for the phone, but she shakes her head. Covering the mouthpiece, she murmurs, “You can’t, Doctor! He won’t recognise your voice.”
He can’t be alive. It’s just a misunderstanding. Has to be.
“Jack. Tell me that again, yeah? What happened?”
There’s another pause. And then, haltingly, he says, “Everyone died, Rose. The Daleks came - they killed everyone. Apart from the Doctor, I was the last man standing. Then they killed me. And I don’t know how, but about a half-hour ago I woke up. Alive.”
He pauses again. She’s stunned into silence.
“I know I was dead, Rose. I know it sounds crazy, but I remember dying. And my chest still hurts where the bolt hit me, so I know I’m not imagining it. Anyway, looks like I’m the only one alive here. The Doctor...” She hears him draw in a shuddering breath. “Rose, I’m so sorry. The Doctor’s dead, too.”
She’s about to protest at that, to tell him that the Doctor’s alive and well and standing next to her. But the Doctor shakes his head vigorously, waving with his hands as well. She gives him a wide-eyed, questioning stare. But he’s already moving away, towards the controls.
He’s taking them back to get Jack. And, for the first time since he told her that Jack was dead, she smiles.
*******
“I’m sorry, Rose,” he says again. He knows how much this will hurt her. Even if she’s already resigned herself to the Doctor’s death, to know that he survived and the Doctor didn’t has to make it far worse.
She still doesn’t speak.
“Anyway,” he continues quickly, feeling his heart sink again. This conversation needs to end. Obviously it’s too hard for her to talk to him, in the circumstances. “I guess I just wanted to say hi. And make sure that you’re okay - that you’re safe.”
“I’m fine.” And now she’s smiling. He can hear it in her voice. Putting on a brave face for him? “Jack, what are you going to do?”
“I’ll be fine Don’t worry about me.” For her benefit, he forces a grin to his face. She’ll hear it in his voice. “You know me and technology. Few hours, I’ll have rigged up something to get myself off this satellite. Make my way to Earth, find somebody who needs my talents... I’ll be fine.”
“Yeah.” She’s still smiling. “I know you will.”
“You take care, now, Rose.” He has to say goodbye. To let her go. And delete her number from his wristcom, just so he’ll never be tempted to call her again. Kinder to her that he leave her to get on with her life.
“You too. And, Jack?”
“Yeah?”
The choke’s back in her voice suddenly. “I love you. Should’ve told you before.”
“You didn’t need to. I know. Love you, too.” He swallows. God, he has to end this. Now. Talking to her is too much a reminder of all he’s lost. All they’ve lost, too, with the Doctor dead.
It’s getting worse, too. Now, his subconscious is playing tricks on him. He thinks he’s hearing the sound of the TARDIS materialising.
Imagination. Definitely his imagination.
“Gotta go, Rose. You take care, you hear?” Goodbye, Rose. Have a great life. See you in hell, maybe, one of these years.
“See ya, Jack.” And then he just hears the buzzing of a disconnected call.
Except that he’s still hearing the TARDIS’s engines. And that’s impossible.
*******
The Doctor looks up at her. “Almost there. Just another few seconds.”
“Good.” She swallows. Although she’s happier than she can say to know that Jack’s alive, it was so hard to hold it together at the end of that call. He sounded so... lost. Alone.
He was putting a brave face on it. She could tell. But he was depressed. Believed the Doctor dead, of course.
She had to tell him she loves him. It’s true, of course. But, apart from that, she wanted to give him some comfort. Even though she knew they’d be with him in a few minutes, she wanted to let him know that he wasn’t forgotten. Wasn’t unloved.
The Doctor’d glanced up at her when she said it, simply raising an eyebrow. She gave him a questioning stare in return, but he just smiled and nodded. Obviously he did approve.
He’s still looking at her now. “You better go out first, Rose. Think you can explain about me?”
Well, she’s had to do it before - to her mum and Mickey. She can make Jack understand. “Yeah, no problem.”
“C’mere.” He’s holding out his hand to her again. She takes it. “Never been so glad I jiggery-poked your phone,” he says with a grin as he tugs her closer to him.
She flings her arms around him and hugs him tightly. He’s alive. They’re together. And Jack’s alive and they’re about to get him back.
He’s looking down at her as he returns her hug, his eyes alight, looking as happy as she feels. And suddenly, his lips descend, press hard against hers for an instant, then he raises his head again.
“Go.” He gives her a little push, and she realises that the TARDIS has stopped groaning. They’re there.
She walks to the door. Her head’s spinning. The Doctor’s just kissed her, and she didn’t even have a chance to react. And Jack’s alive. He’s alive, and he’s just outside the door.
Fantastic.
*******
It’s really the TARDIS. He’s not imagining it.
It’s materialising mere feet away. He drags himself to his feet, staring, disbelieving.
How can it be here? He saw it leave. And the Doctor’s dead. Rose is back in London. So how...?
The door is opening. And it’s Rose. She’s looking around, and then she sees him and a huge grin breaks out across her face.
He stumbles towards her, even as he’s asking himself how she can possibly be here. She doesn’t know how to fly the TARDIS. Hell, even he doesn’t know how, though he can do some of it.
They collide by the main control panel, arms coming around each other, clinging to each other. He buries his face in her soft hair.
“Jack... god, I thought you were dead!” And she’s laughing and crying at the same time.
He pulls back just far enough to look at her, and then he dips his head and kisses her. It’s not even planned. It’s just that she’s there and he’s alive and they’re together and he thought he’d never see her again and he’s not alone any more and he loves her and she loves him and even if the Doctor’s dead they’ve still got each other.
She’s kissing him back and he can taste the salt of her tears.
Understandable. The Doctor’s dead, and she’s grieving.
Because he has to know, he breaks the kiss. “How did you get here? The TARDIS...?”
And then, unbelievably, she’s smiling. Grinning. “Jack, the Doctor’s not dead. He’s here. He brought the TARDIS here as soon as we realised you’re alive.”
The Doctor’s...?
Not dead?
Then where is he? Why isn’t he out here?
Rose reaches up, catches his face between her palms. “Jack, there’s somethin’ I need to tell you. About the Doctor.”
That sounds... worrying. “What?”
“He’s... changed.”
“What do you mean, changed?”
She chews her lip for a moment. “You ever heard of regeneration?”
Regeneration? Sounds vaguely familiar, but... He shakes his head. “No. Not that I can remember.”
“ ‘S something Time Lords do.” She frowns a little. “See, the Doctor did die, but when he dies he gets a new body an’ comes back to life. That’s why he didn’t come out with me - he wanted you to know what to expect first.”
He can only stare at her. A new body? “You mean he’s a different guy?”
“No!” She almost exclaims it. “He’s still the Doctor. He just looks different. Sounds it, too. But it’s still him underneath.”
The Doctor, alive. Alive, but different. Changed. It’s almost too unbelievable to be true.
“Jack.”
A different voice. An accent something like Rose’s, light, with a touch of humour. He turns in the direction of the speaker.
He’s younger-looking, now early thirties in appearance rather than forty-something. Brown hair, and lots of it. Tall and lanky, even thinner than before. And are those brown eyes?
Different clothes, too. Very natty pin-stripes. And a tie?
He’s handsome, too. More classically handsome than before, though there was just something about that dark hair, narrow cheekbones and all-knowing expression that was an incredible turn-on.
He feels a stabbing to his chest again, emotional this time, at the knowledge that he’ll never again see the enigmatic leather-jacketed man who’d become his friend. More than his friend.
But this is still the Doctor. Rose says so.
He moves away from Rose, begins to walk to the man who’s waiting just outside the TARDIS. “Doctor?”
The man smiles, and his eyes are warm. “That’s me.”
He holds out both hands to Jack - something he could never imagine the Doctor doing before. Previously, he was rarely physically demonstrative or affectionate, reserving most of his touching for Rose. An occasional clap on the back or approving hand to the shoulder; that was about his limit as far as Jack was concerned. He’d been surprised that the Doctor had accepted his farewell kiss.
He takes the Doctor’s hands, meeting the gaze of this man who’s a stranger and yet one of the two people who mean most to him in the universe. The eyes are different, and yet there’s something familiar about the expression they hold, the way that dark gaze seems to see right inside him.
“I’m sorry we left you,” the Doctor says. “If I’d known you were alive - ”
But he cuts him off with a shake of his head. That’s not important. Explanations - the Doctor’s regeneration, how he and Rose met up again, exactly what happened to the Daleks, why he is alive - can all wait. What matters is that they’re all alive and still together, something he thought was impossible until just a couple of minutes ago.
He drops the Doctor’s hands and pulls the Time Lord into a hug, a joyful embrace that reminds him of the one he shared mere hours before with a Doctor who looked different but is the same man.
And then the Doctor draws back, looks at him and, in one swift, breathtaking movement, kisses him.
It doesn’t last long and, as the Doctor straightens again, he’s grinning. “Thought it was my turn,” he says, before turning his head to the side.
Rose is there. In unspoken co-ordination, they open their embrace to include her. And two are three once again.
Something else hasn’t changed about the Doctor, Jack sees as he watches the Time Lord smile at Rose, and then bend to kiss her softly. He still loves her as much as before. Only now he understands that he is loved, too.
The Doctor pulls away from their embrace. Standing a couple of feet from them, a proud but fond smile creasing his youthful face, he extends a hand to each of them. “Let’s go home.”
Accepting the Doctor’s hand, Jack returns the smile. He already is home.
END
x-posted to
better_with_3