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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[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack rolled his eyes. Yeah, put it off as ever. Maybe one day he'd actually get something out of him. He certainly wouldn't stop trying.

He looked down at the food in the Doctor's hand. Really, the experience hadn't been the best one, but Jack was hungry. His stomach felt as though it was digesting itself. Well, that's what you'll get when you get a brand new stomach.

"Hmm," he said looking down at it. He had learned to control it last time. Or was that just that it was wearing off.

"Well, I'm game if you are."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

This was a really, really, really bad idea. But he thought he could control the poison, considering he knew it would be there and could control his own metabolism fairly well. Well, better than fairly well, he was a Time Lord. He started to break the food in half. Jack, on the other hand...

"We might be better off starving," he said. "If this takes us over again, one of us, or both of us, could be immobile for a while."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"What? Worried I'll pin you against a wall again?" Jack smirked. "Well don't worry, that's not remotely on my mind." Well that was a lie, he always had a little part of his mind that had space for pleasant imaginations such as that, but he didn't expect it would cause a problem. He had too many other emotions he could focus on.

"Doctor, technically, I've never had a meal. This stomach really needs a proper christening. And like you say, it's going dark, we can hardly walk around out there when it's pitch black, we need to wait a while anyway. What harm can we really do in a cave?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor looked back at Jack's bruised face. Quite a lot of harm could be done in a tight space like this. Though there was really no way around it, they would need sustenance in order to make it the last leg of the journey to the Tower.

He handed half of the block to Jack.

"I have the feeling that we're going to be regretting this later," he said. He broke off a corner of the food , closed his eyes, and popped it into his mouth.

Still tasted like cardboard.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack took hold of the 'food' and grinned over towards the Doctor, "Probably," he agreed with a smile as he popped a piece into his mouth, "oh well, it'll give us something to look forward to."

He finished off the food quickly. Unpleasant as it was it'd hopefully fill a gap and stop his stomach from consuming itself, which really, had to be a bonus.

He dusted his hands together and glanced over at the Doctor. "So, should I fit you with your boxing gloves yet?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Very funny." The Doctor finished off his food as well and waited for the unpleasant swirl of the cave around him. Nothing yet, but it would be on its way, he imagined.

"I just feel tired," he said. "I can't sleep yet. Another day or two, I think. But I'm tired."

Gallifrey was the final straw. First nearly losing Jack, then the TARDIS, then re-seeing the Master, feeling him out there, fighting Jack, and now Gallifrey. It was too much. It was all just too much to deal with at once.

He had the strangest urge to cry, then. It wasn't the time or place and he could hold himself together (for now). But it was briefly there.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack could understand that. He could empathise with that. Being tired. Jack had spent so many years tired and searching. Worn by the things he'd seen, the things he did. They'd had a heavy few days, so many different emotions, it was hard to imagine it'd only been a few days really. That it'd only been a few weeks since the Doctor found him in that bar.

A lot really had happened.

"I know," Jack sighed and reached his hand out to touch the Doctor's leg again, giving a gentle squeeze. "But you'll be home soon. Back to the TARDIS, and she'll be glad to see you. And then you can curl up and rest as long as you like, in that big old bed of yours. Assuming you've got a big old bed that is."

He felt a sudden wave of sadness that he'd never step foot on the TARDIS again, that even as they were, they were writing a final chapter of a story that he didn't want to end. Oh this really wasn't an emotion he wanted to take over.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Nah, reasonably-sized," the Doctor said. "Four-poster, wood. Carved for me by the gnomes at Villanguard about...Ooooooh, six hundred years ago? Very well put-together. Had a fan try to buy it from me for £2,000, once, but it's far too nice to give up that easily."

He felt relaxed, talking about that, which was odd. He didn't often talk about the things he owned. Maybe the drug was taking a different effect this time, loosening his tongue.

So long as he didn't hurt Jack again, he could cope.

"Though, if the last few weeks are any example, I'll be sleeping on the floor of the Zero Room again."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Four poster? Is that so? Very nice, Doctor, very regal. I like it. And Villanguard, I don't suppose you picked up any bananas while you were there?" he laughed warmly, and it felt nice. "Fans? You've got fans? Oh and don't you dare say I'm one of them because I won't be held responsible for my actions."

Jack felt warm, like he was being heated from the inside, a little like the afterburn of a nice brandy. It was pleasant, and he smiled, nudging the Doctor playfully by the shoulder.

"Hmm, either that or with me," he teased.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No, no, you're not a fan, Jack, you have a reasonably sane appreciation of me. Remember LINDA? Drove me mad through four incarnations, that lot. Terrible what happened to them, though." He chewed on the inside of his lip as he thought about them. They had a lot going for them, but none of it seemed to work out.

He raised an eyebrow and found himself smiling lazily over at Jack.

"Hmm. I had thought about that. Course, it would require actually figuring out some way to properly apologize or ask you back onto the TARDIS properly and I really think that this time around the drug in the food is making me talk rather than simply think."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Reasonably sane?" Jack laughed, "Well, I suppose I did keep your hand in a jar, I'll give you that one. LINDA? What that group of kids? I had a phone call from one of those once, haven't a clue how they got my number."

The Doctor's smile made that warm feeling swell even more, and his head buzzed as though that one brandy was more like ten.

It was the words though, rather than the look that really made him happy.

"Is that an invitation?" he asked, grinning like a fool. And then belatedly, he realised what else the Doctor had said.

"Oh you'd thought about that? What, inviting yourself into bed with me now are you? Careful, Doctor, you're getting as forward as I am."

Jack shifted on the ground, turned his body a little to twist and face the Doctor a little more full on.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I had several. Don't even want to know where they got my number! Not to mention the offer for the bed! She said she wanted to sleep somewhere I'd slept. Lonely Assassins and Vashda Nerada have nothing on that woman."

That sort of a grin, that was something he'd missed since the flat back on Cardiff. A real, genuine Jack grin. Before he could stop himself, he found he was saying exactly that. "See, that's what I missed. Smiles like that, we need more smiles like that from you."

He found himself feeling suddenly terribly embarrassed by that admission. "That's not the sort of thing I say," he said. "It's the sort of thing that ends up thought not said, and I'm saying these things anyway. Fairly embarrassing, actually."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Maybe they found it in the yellow pages," Jack suggested sarcastically. "Would it be under D for Doctor or T for Time Lord?"

Jack laughed at the admission, and his glance fell down, still a smile on his face, a private little happy smile. He didn't think he'd get any more of those with the Doctor again. It was nice that he was. Very nice.

"Well you do make me smile, Doctor," he said, reaching his hand up to find the Doctor's.

When he blinked, his eyes swam and yes, that's definitely the effect he was getting this time, a drunken happy high.

"Between you and me?" he whispered as though it would be more private that way. "You don't have to worry what you say to me. I mean, I think I've said kinda a lot to you, don't you?"

Jack could quite easily take advantage of this situation, he thought. What would he like to ask the Doctor? What wouldn't he like to ask the Doctor would have probably been a shorter list. But it would be wrong to take advantage, wouldn't it?

Jack never claimed to be perfect. "So you want me to travel with you, do you, Doctor? Or would you prefer I travel with you?" He laughed, well, giggled. Oh he really did feel happy.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Oh, now you're just being difficult," the Doctor replied with an embarrassed pout.

But Jack's happiness was infectious. He found himself smiling, despite his own embarrassment. He imagined that if they were struggling to go through that maze or out amongst those monsters, both of these effects would've put them in a fair amount of peril. Fortunately, hidden here? They were safe. For the moment.

And, of course, that entire line of thinking came spilling out of his mouth.

"...hidden here, we're safe for the moment. I really don't think I like this effect at all. I'd like whatever's happening to you, that looks like fun."

He tugged off his coat and bundled it under his head like a pillow. The cave was just wide enough for him to stretch out his legs. He couldn't sleep, but he could at least rest.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"No," Jack corrected, almost slurring, "you're being difficult. And you know if you do want me back on the TARDIS you're going to have to actually ask me, and you're going to need to give me a new key, and you're going to have to make my room bigger."

Jack shifted too, following the Doctor's lead he moved out of his own coat and lay it out in front of him, lying on top of it on his side, lounging as though he were in front of a fire and not in a dank old cave.

"Mmm it feels fun," he nodded, "bit like I've had a drop too many. Which, considering my proximity to you and our behaviour lately... could be a little bit dangerous."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Such demands. Though, I think we both know all I have to do is ask and tell you about somewhere in the right sort of tone and we'll be off. Besides! Didn't I already mention a cruise?" Ugh. That was not the sort of thing to think aloud to get Jack back on the TARDIS.

"It's nice to watch you, happy and relaxed. I don't think we get enough of it, even when I promise a simple breakfast in the 50's or a trip to Barcelona, everything ends up with one of us or both of us running. And I do like the running and I suspect you're not too adverse to it, either, but once, just once it would be nice to land somewhere and not have anything terrible happen."

And, finally, as a response to what Jack said rather than a flowing stream of consciousness, the Doctor said, "And you haven't had much to eat, probably worsens the effect---that would've been really funny if I hadn't had to say everything beforehand!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Demanding, maybe, but so worth it," Jack smirked over at him. The Doctor was right though, and he laughed knowing how true it was. "Oh stop it," he said, playfully smacking the Doctor's leg, "so you've got me wrapped around your little finger. No need to rub it in."

He started to blush a little as the Doctor went on, and he glanced down, playing with a bit of the fabric on his coat. "You know I think I like the effect it's having on you too," he told him. "I like you being honest with me. You don't do it enough, but I think you should. You do the whole stiff upper lip thing that I do with everyone else. Now I know why they get so annoyed with me. It's infuriating. I might get you high on this stuff more often."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Ugh, I hope not," the Doctor said. "I'll lose all my secrets, lose all my mystery. Won't be worth anything to anyone. And if it's one thing I learn from you in the future, it's you can't have enough mystery."

He paused. "No, should not be talking about that, should alter subject now."

"Or perhaps now."

He groaned. "Uuuugh, I keep saying what I'm thinking I can't think at all!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"What?" Jack said, lifting himself up a little. Were he a little puppy, his ears would most definitely have pricked up sky high.

"You've met me in the future? What am I like? Am I-- No. No actually, no. I don't want to know. Do I still have all my hair? No, don't tell me that either. Tell me something else."

Were he feeling less drunk and more together, that nugget of information might worry him or give him more cause for thought. But as it is, his head is too fuzzy for that. Later though, he might remember.

"And don't worry, you'll always have your mystery," Jack said, leaning himself back down, grinning over at him, "and you'll always be worth something to me."

Shifting himself over on his coat, inching closer to the Doctor, he flapped his hand out a little and smacked it against the Doctor's leg, his movements all a little delayed and drunken. "Go on," he urged, "tell me something nice. I'll even retcon it out of me if you're that embarrassed."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor winced a little. "Still healing, Jack, be careful. Though I know you don't mean it and it doesn't hurt that badly, it's probably best not to dislodge the primitive stitching. Stitching! Honestly!"

He was going to need to figure out a way to stop talking. Immediate thoughts came to mind that if he leaned over to Jack and--no he forcibly quelched that thought before it came out of his mouth.

Instead, he wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulder, pulling him closer. "You're warm," he said. "And I like that, so, you're going to stay here, and keep me warm. This thought is---what is retcon, exactly? I don't think I've heard of that one? Sounds like something being recanonized."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh stop moaning. A few hours ago, I didn't have any legs, you've just got a scratch, who do you think wins?" he moved his hand back though, and gave the Doctor's leg an apologetic look. It was him after all that'd caused that. Shooting him! What was he thinking?!

"Good," Jack grinned wide and wrapped around the Doctor in turn, tugging him against him to share his body heat.

"Retcon? It's an amnesia drug," he let a hand fall lazily against the Doctor's hair, and twisted a strand gently around his finger. Far too cosy really. It was very comfortable. "Pretty mild one. Usually used to forget a few hours or so. Torchwood used it, though it was my special recipe."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"That's terrible, Jack. People are a sum of their memories. You can't just take that away from them!"

He shook his head at Jack's touch to his hair. "Stop that, now, I'm being unhappy with you, if you keep that up, I won't be able to."

He really hated this drug. Any second now and he'd start going on about---

"Blimey, you're warm. I hate noticing how warm you are in moments like this because I'm trying to be angry. And this drug is ridiculously embarrassing."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Maybe, but if you have to stand and watch a Weevil rip apart a member of your family, or have your world turned upside down by knowing something you shouldn't, most people would welcome the chance to forget." He knew it was wrong really. He knew that very well. What was Jack if not memories? He'd made promises that relied on memory. He'd had his own memories stolen, a fact the Doctor knew only too well. "Trust me," he said, shifting up more comfortably, bringing his leg up to curl over the Doctor's a little, "I've got first hand knowledge of what it's like. It's not a drug I use haphazardly."

And well, that wasn't quite true either. But he did his best, didn't he?

With another grin and a pleased little drunken laugh, Jack shook his head. "Oh well in that case I'm definitely not going to stop."

He raked his fingers up into the Doctor's hair and watched as he did it, smiling dumbly to himself, "I love your hair you know, you've got some amazing hair." He'd never make such a silly observation usually (or at least he'd like to think), but he was feeling more than a little fuzzy.

"Stop trying to be angry," he suggested, "just relax for once. And it's not embarrassing. Doctor it's me. Seriously, I don't think there's anything you could say to me that'd be embarrassing.""

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"They may think they want to forget," the Doctor said. "But they shouldn't."

He sighed.

"You don't know half of my Academy stories," the Doctor pointed out. "Some of them involving the Master and those can be very embarrassing, depending on which they were. Sometimes for me, generally for him, though he was pretty good at getting back at me."

He let out a groan and dropped his head back, irritated. "You had to, didn't you? You had to use a word like 'love', because now my train of thought is going to go straight back to that room in the TARDIS and that conversation and I can't stop myself from talking about it. That's cruel, you know."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Should and shouldn't isn't half as black and white. Sometimes we have to make tough calls." He let out a breath and shook his head. He didn't want to talk about that, it'd get all too serious and neither of them should be talking morality right now.

"Getting back at you?" Jack raised an eyebrow and started laughing again for no particular reason. "Quite the prankster, were you, Doctor? You naughty naughty man you."

Jack rolled his eyes a little, perhaps slightly over dramatically, and leaned his head up on his elbow. "That wasn't my intention, Doctor. You really think I'm trying to highlight the fact I told you I loved you? And look, now I've said it again! See! And it's not like my head's quite straight here either, you know. Wouldn't say that again for one if it was."

His own tongue was loosened by the drink, perhaps not quite in the calculated and precise way the Doctor's way, but in it's own way, forcing his secrecy down. It gave him the courage too, to go on.

"But seeing as you are thinking about it, please don't let me stand in the way of you talking."