for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to the 27th century

[rude_not_ginger]

Follows this.

It was one thing, watching your companion be ripped apart.

One very terrible thing, mind you, but one thing. The Doctor stayed prone on the ground, the sound of Jack's death screams ringing in his ears as that thing, whatever it was, tore him into several unpleasant pieces. It reminded him of the Year That Wasn't, of Jack's screams while the Master tortured him and the Doctor's frail body keeping him from helping. That was torture, far more brutal than anything the Master's tools could produce.

Once the loud stomps of the creature faded away, the Doctor struggled to get to his feet and limped to the place where Jack had been.

It was another thing, having to find his body for it to regrow.

It took some time to find his upper torso, limp and lifeless. It didn't take too terribly long to drag said upper torso to a safe, empty cave not far from the forest's edge (after all, what Jack no longer had in height, he also lost in weight. It didn't take long for time to start snapping around him and his body to start to regrow.

That was something else all together. Muscle and bone formed out of nothing, and while Jack wasn't coherent, he was still alive, screaming and thrashing as he reformed. The Doctor pressed his fingertips to Jack's temple and tried to take away the pain, but when that failed, he pressed his mind into a quiet, comatose state.

While Jack repaired, the Doctor covered him with his coat and sat, waiting. For all that they'd fought, for all that the Doctor swore he'd never want Jack back on the TARDIS again, he did care about him. He wanted him happy, even if he wasn't certain he could handle having him so close. Jack was willing to die for the Doctor, and this was just another example of how he could.

But the Doctor wouldn't leave. Not this time.

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[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Might not be a bad idea to get you some sort of clothing," the Doctor agreed. "Who knows what situations we'll end up in here? Especially with you half-naked. Puts our danger levels at more than double."

He said the last with a small smirk. They needed to relax. Too many high emotions and fearful escapes. So, the Doctor did what he thought was best in 'should-be-relaxing' situations. He began to talk.

"I've been doing some thinking about our friend the Time Marquise." Very little else to do while Jack slept, actually. "On top of having a ridiculously pretentious name, the Marquise seems to be genuinely time-sensitive. Probably how he or she or whatever found us. And, probably how they contained us outside of time. With no Time Lords around, maybe the Marquise feeds on potential time disasters and prevents them to consume their possible damage. But time was passing around the extradimensional field, which means the Marquise might've been trying to stop any other time malfunctions. Like a certain very large and very unpleasant paradox occurring, at the time, right over our heads."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh and I've been in quite a few situations half naked, believe you me. But don't worry, it usually helps more than hinders," he smirked back at him, settling slightly into his old comfort zone of very nearly but not quite flirting.

"So the paradox cancelled the actions of the Marquise out?" Jack questioned, "That's why the sub-dimension we were trapped in collapse? One couldn't sustain the other?"

It made sense, he thought. The paradox that the Master created was huge, and held together by the TARDIS. The paradox machine was strong, and the Master a time lord, he doubted the Marquise had the power to overcome that. The Doctor himself barely did.

"And while we're talking pretentious names, Doctor..." he joked.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I know! Marquise! Wonder what that even translates to in their native tongue. Replacement-Time-Lord, most likely," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "I wonder where it came from, though. To be that strong and have stayed under the Time Lord radars for so long."

He rubbed the back of his neck in thought. "Eternals, maybe? Maybe some offshoot of the White Guardian? Seemed benevolent enough, though not nearly manipulative for White Guardian material..."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Doctor..." Jack started to interrupt as the Doctor went off on his tangent. "Doctor" he repeated with a slight smile.

"Doctor you're losing me. I've got no idea what you're talking about." he laughed slightly. "What's the White Guardian? You're going to have to help me catch up here a little."

Jack could usually be counted on a little more knowledge of the universe at large than the Doctor's usual companions. Or at least more than people like Rose and Martha. But for everything he did know the Doctor knew a hundred things more, and sometimes Jack was reminded of just how in the Doctor's shadow he was.

"Start again?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Eternals," the Doctor said. "Extraplanar creatures with extraordinary physical manipulation capabilities and mind-reading. They don't exist in our universe, they exist in eternity. Well, they did. They fled to the Void during the Time War and they haven't been seen since. For a while there, the Time Lords used to worship a few of them as Gods."

He sniffed and leaned his head back against the wall, reminiscing. "The White and Black Guardians are two of their most powerful. The Black Guardian tricked me into finding all of the pieces of the Key to Time once, but I figured him out, had it destroyed and scattered. He then made a pact with one of my companions to kill me. He outsmarted the Guardian, though."

Ooooh, but that was so very long ago. "I was told once that we'd have a third encounter. I wonder why we haven't."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack listened with interest. Sat looking at the Doctor like a little boy being told a bedtime story. He took in the information, nodding and storing it away for later use.

"Made a pact with a companion to kill you?" Jack repeated back to him, incredulous. "You're kidding right? Someone that travelled with you would be willing to do that?" He shuddered at the thought. Oh and he outsmarted him did he. Jack bristled with something that were he anyone but himself, would most definitely be jealousy. But it wasn't, of course.

"Told you'd have a third encounter?" he asked, pulling a face. "What is that. Laying it on a bit thick isn't it. All oooh we will meet again. Give me a break. You wouldn't catch me pulling that." Or maybe you would, one day. "But plenty time for more meetings, Doctor, you're not going anywhere."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Very troubled, Turlough. Wanted desperately to be off of Earth, figured he'd get two things he wanted. A trip away, and a chance to run his own TARDIS. But he was always better than that, he just didn't admit it to himself until the choice came to kill me or give up the prize he'd worked for." The Doctor smiled, remembering that day. "I didn't try to sway him. I knew I didn't have to."

He forgave Turlough all of his faults, in the end. And there were many, many faults to forgive. The Doctor's hand went back to his leg. This wasn't so big a fault, if he thought about it. The wound wasn't so deep he couldn't forgive.

He raised an eyebrow at Jack's words and smiled knowingly. "Nah. Not your style. You don't go for the textbook enigmatic." One day, he'd be someone the Doctor was curious about, could never properly understand. But for now, nah. Now, he was just Jack.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"So what happened after that day then? He carry on travelling with you?" Okay, Jack was definitely jealous. The Doctor forgiving a man he travelled with. Talking fondly about him. Hmph.

Oh Jack Harkness, what's wrong with you? He thought. Getting jealous! And jealous over the Doctor of all people. How ridiculous.

"Hey! I can do enigmatic!" he said defensively. "I've had people try and write books about me I'm that enigmatic. Come on, guy from nowhere, doesn't age, doesn't die, doesn't have a real name. That's got to be a bit enigmatic, right?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Bloke from nowhere, doesn't age, doesn't die, doesn't have a real name..."

The Doctor shot Jack a look. "You really are trying to be me, aren't you?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh shut up," Jack laughed and picked up a pebble from the floor, throwing it over at the Doctor.

He dropped his head a little and felt his cheeks redden ever so slightly, and when he glanced back up he smiled. "Yeah, well. Learned from the best, didn't I."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, you did," the Doctor replied, grinning smugly. Well, most of those facts about Jack came on his own, though the Doctor had never met someone quite so like himself before.

He thought back to Jack's question about Turlough. He'd purposefully avoided answering, but shook his head. he should answer. There was no reason not to. "He left, after a while. Went back to his home world and his family. I don't think I expected to miss him as much as I did."

Then it had been himself, Peri and Erimem. And then, just himself and Peri. Until he left Peri on a strange world with no one to watch over her but herself.

"I'm really rubbish at this whole 'taking care of my companions' thing, I think," he muttered aloud.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack laughed at the Doctor's smugness. Somehow it managed to be endearing and not annoying. Maybe simply because Jack knew it was well placed. The Doctor deserved to be smug, whether he truly was or not.

He didn't expect the Doctor to answer his question, so he was perhaps a little surprised when he did. He ducked his head a little. "So he stayed on board a while then," he asked, but more a statement than a question. Made a pact to kill him, but didn't get kicked off. That knowledge really stung.

"Yeah, well," he sighed, "always miss them when they're gone."

He looked down at the ground and played with a pebble or two between his fingers, just to give himself something to focus on, but glanced up again hearing the Doctor's words.

"No you're not," he said fondly. Too fondly, and reached his hand out to touch the Doctor's arm. "You're pretty damn good at it, actually."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Says the man who just grew back half his body," the Doctor pointed out. "I fail too many of them."

He'd failed Jack, too. Which is how they ended up here. Tried to create a paradox he should never have had to need, and then failed at even doing that.

"Speaking of which, I think the sun's up." He winced as he pulled himself to his feet and peered out the mouth of the cave. Large, slimy insects crawled along the outside, but they didn't peer in or bother them, as though they were held back by a forcefield.

"Think you can make it?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I didn't see you pushing me in front of that creature. Stop blaming yourself. I've got a mind of my own, Doctor, I make my own mistakes, you don't make them for me."

He let out a long suffering sigh as the Doctor stood. Always so good at changing the subject, wasn't he?

"Yeah," he nodded, dragging himself a little unsteadily to his new feet. Ideally he'd take hold of the Doctor and lean on him, but he wouldn't do that. His legs hurt, ached to the core. They weren't quite ready, weren't quite finished, but he'd manage.

Miraculously, his own coat was still mostly intact. The teeth of the creature had gone straight around his legs and bypassed the coat as it hung off him. It was utterly sodden with blood and various things that used to be inside his body, but he could ignore that to pull it around him and fasten the buttons up to give himself a little coverage.

"Right," he said, attempting stability and offering the Doctor's coat back towards him, "which way are we going?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No idea," the Doctor said, catching his coat. "Figured your tech search on that wriststrap of yours might help a bit."

He shrugged the coat over his shoulders, trying not to take too much notice of the blood along the inside from where it covered Jack's regrowing legs. Nothing a trip to the laundry couldn't fix, and Jack's coat would need one, too.

"Careful," he warned, leaning down to pull his modified TARDIS key from where it lay on the ground just outside of the door. "This cave is about to get fairly busy."

He lifted the key and the large insects from the outside crawled along the ceilings and walls, reclaiming the home the Doctor had shooed them from.

"Most of them are harmless, I think," he said.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh God," Jack pulled a face as the multiple oversized creepy crawlies starting making their way into the cave. He instinctively curled his toes into the ground and shuddered a little.

"Why for once can't it be something nice, like a giant teddy bear or a rainbow or something."

He shook his shoulders back and flicked open his wrist strap, pressing a button or two and trying not to look at the thing with mandibles above him.

"According to this there's a base of some sort just beyond the ridge. Shouldn't be too far to walk. What it is though I've got no idea. Could be good, could be something even worse." Prodding the side of his vortex manipulator he considered, "You know if I can just find the right part then maybe I can just fix this and get us- you, back that way."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"One way or the other, we'll get back," the Doctor agreed.

He looked down to the large twenty-legged spider that crawled past his leg indifferently. "You know, some of the nicest people I've met in the universe have been insects. Some of the most difficult, too. Remind me to tell you about Sarah Jane and I on Metebelis Three. Now that was a difficult time."

He gently toed the insects out of the way for Jack to have a clear path out of the cave. He judged the depth of the forest and pointed to a clearing not far out.

"Might be best to take that, give us plenty of room to run if we need to. Not that I'm anticipating we'll need to."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, we'd better."

Jack kicked his feet around as the insects crawled over in his direction, trying to get them to stay away. "Sure," he said, not really listening, focusing on making sure nothing was crawling up his legs, "you can tell me all about it when we're safely back on the TARDIS."

Hmm. He needed to remember not to say things like that now. He tried not to draw attention to it. Maybe the Doctor wouldn't notice he said it at all.

Jack walked ahead, his feet feeling slightly tender under foot. "Run," Jack laughed, amused at the thought. "I need to learn to walk first."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor nodded sympathetically and stepped back to wrap an arm around Jack's shoulders. "Know how you feel. Here. We'll lean on each other."

He led the way out of the cave, following the path he'd marked for himself. While he was grateful to not have to see the bits of Jack he couldn't carry with him back to the cave, it was also a little disturbing that there was no sign of his attack at all. Even the blood splatter along the cave rocks had vanished.

"Well, running might not be a good idea," he said. "But! If that base is as close as you say it is---" He sighed. "What am I saying? Knowing my luck, we'll have to run anyway."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack spun his head to the side, surprised, but pleasantly so. He nodded a little and reached his arm around the Doctor, supporting himself on him in turn. Leaning on each other, yes, that was good.

He looked around at the landscape in the half life, and between the trees ahead that they were walking through. It all seemed relatively straightforward, and well, that was a bad sign if ever there was one!

Jack laughed gently and nodded in agreement, "Yeah it does tend to work that way, doesn't it. You know if we turn up somewhere looking like this we're likely to cause mass panic. I mean, come on, a guy covered in blood and wearing no trousers, and you with a bullet wound in your leg covered in just as much blood as me. Doctor what were you doing, rolling on me?"

He teased him slightly and smiled as they made their way forward. It was better this way.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I did ask politely for you not to bleed on me, but you didn't seem to want to listen," the Doctor replied, his voice just as light.

This felt good, despite the incredible pain in his leg and his stiff, blood-soaked clothes. It felt good to be talking and teasing, not fighting and running. Well, the running would come, but not the same sort of running. Good, positive, life-or-death running.

He wanted to blame Jack for the discomfort between them. If Jack hadn't crossed that line, asked him to give him more---but why wouldn't he ask? Hadn't they mutually crossed many of the Doctor's previously-asserted lines?

A caw from a large animal overhead made the Doctor pick up the pace. "Quick, into the trees."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Well next time speak up a little!" he chastised, teasingly, "You know it's not very easy to hear when you're dead."

Jack beamed a smile over at the Doctor, and squeezed happily on his shoulder as they hobbled along the road together. He laughed to himself at just how ridiculous they must look to anyone. Certainly not like the heroes they usually are. Two men limping down the path together.

If it could stay like this, Jack thought, maybe things would be okay. Not that he'd be invited back, no, he didn't expect that. But parting the Doctor knowing the Doctor didn't hate him so much was a whole ton better than parting and thinking he did.

Jack ducked instinctively as he heard the noise above, and looked to see where it had come from. "Yes, sir," he nodded, and moved with him under the canopy and away from the path.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor pulled him into the forest, which, even right at the edge, seemed impossibly thick and deep. The black trunks shone with vibrant mosses, and the leaves rustled with unpleasant-sounding creatures.

"I'll walk ahead," the Doctor said. "Keep an eye out for things you could step on."

He was loathe to lose the support of Jack's arm, but he would've been worse off with Jack dead or worse from something in this place. The Doctor took carefully placed steps ahead, one foot in front of the other.

"More of those insects, but they don't look so docile," he warned.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack nodded in thanks, and squinted to see between the thick trees. "You know those old B movies you see," Jack mused idly, "the ones where there's always a deep dank forest and the characters go into it to find a short cut and come across something infinitely worse than if they'd just gone the long way round? Any of that seeming familiar to you right now?"

He poked his toe against something that looked like a worm that had been put in a microwave and noted to himself that he now had toenails.

Around him he could hear echoes of the local wildlife as the birds called to one another, and rustles through the trees as the insects moved.

"Don't suppose I ever thought to mention I don't like creepy crawlies, now did I?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Just ignore them and they'll ignore you," the Doctor said, firmly, pushing further into the woods. "At least we can see them coming."

Which was, of course, the point in which something very large and very unpleasantly snake-like dropped from one of the branches, its fanged jaws missing the Doctor's head by inches.

There may or may not have been a girlie scream in there from the Doctor, though he'd never admit it. He leapt ahead, grabbing the nearest branch he could and taking a swing at the snake.

"Look out!"