rude_not_ginger | for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to the Boeshane Peninsula

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for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to the Boeshane Peninsula

Follows this.

When the Doctor woke, he was prepared to feel stiff and uncomfortable. Usually, when reaching that point of exhaustion, he usually found himself on the floor or on the console, in some sort of an awkward position that left him sore for the next day. This morning, however, he was out of his clothes and stretched out on his bed, under the covers with a heating blanket.

A breathing heating blanket.

He raised an eyebrow and looked to where Jack had an arm around him as he slept. The previous day came rushing back. Pearl Harbor, the goodbyes, the return of Gallifrey, being captured by the Shadow Proclamation, and finally nearly killing Jack. They came so very close. Too close.

Without really thinking about it, the Doctor found himself wrapping an arm around Jack's shoulder. Jack, who was ready and willing to die the previous day. And the Doctor was willing to give him that. He had been willing to give him that. Not anmymore.

Where could they go, now?

Onwards, of course. It was the only way they could go.

The TARDIS wasn't moving anymore, and the Doctor slowly extracted himself from Jack's embrace. He grabbed his trousers and shirt and threw them on quickly, heading towards the console, hopefully before Jack woke.

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"Well, when they say the 'Aye's have it," the Doctor said. He turned to Jack, made a face, and shook his head. "Maybe not."

The screeching started back up again for a moment, and then stopped, the screech coming out with a word like 'Jack', and then continuing. The Doctor concentrated.

"You have done much, and you will do much, and the universe is grateful, as so we are grateful. We will leave your world, Jack. We see through your mind that there is a----I'm not really sure what that word is, but I think it's a moon---that is close, we will use the nutrients there before we leave. And we will offer you a gift."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow and turned to Jack. "I think they just said 'yes'." That was a first.

Jack smirked, just a little, before telling himself that right now was hardly the time for humour and attempting to straighten his face, clearing his throat.

He listened again, raising an eyebrow as the words sunk in and processed. It seemed too easy, almost. But then did things always have to be that hard? Maybe they'd just got used to that.

He turned himself, looking at the Doctor, his expression mirroring his. "I'll do much, apparently. And we get a gift."

Looking again at the creature, he nodded. "Thank you. We appreciate it. The whole planet appreciates it. Trust me, I speak on their behalf. And really, we don't need a gift, your saving this place is enough. I just want to keep it protected."

The creature shut its eyes quickly until it was a moving mass again. The tips of its tentacles glowed as it, one would assume, processed Jack's request. There was a screech, and the Doctor winced.

"We will watch and protect until our resources on the moon wear out," the Doctor translated. "That will be----"

Oh. He took a breath and whispered. "Timey-wimey indeed."

He looked over to Jack. "Four years."

Four years.

Jack's childhood life seemed to flash before his eyes. The creatures that always passed the planet by. They never knew why. Never knew why they stayed away until that day that they just didn't. Until they appeared on that horrible day he lost both his brother and his father.

And it was him. It was now. He did that. His words here, now, held them back.

He looked to the Doctor, a little like he'd been winded. It was a shock. But then when he processed it? It wasn't bad, was it? His doing this held the creatures back. Could it be that he was truly saving his own planet? If only for a while.

"Four years," Jack repeated back, an echo. "Of course."

He looked back up. "Thank you," he said, most emphatically. "Thank you, I'll remember this."

And then again, he looked to the Doctor. "It was me. They stayed away because of me."

"They did," the Doctor said, staring at the moving mass. "You saved your world, Jack. It's the only thing you wanted, and it was what you got."

The creature moved, as if in affirmation of their words. It opened its eyes and turned to the Doctor, letting out a screech that made his blood run cold. No. No, it couldn't be.

And then it vanished, dropping down to the depths. There was the sound of scraping, and the Doctor swam back to the mouth of the cave. Dozens of other rocks broke open and more of the creatures followed the first's lead, joining together like a giant bait ball, swirling and swirling and vanishing.

It was overwhelming. Jack had effected things before, but he'd always seen it as bad. Things he had damaged or hurt. It was perhaps a rather darkly tinted way of looking at things, but he couldn't help but feel that way.

But here, Jack had helped. He'd saved Boeshane. That felt pretty damn good.

His reactions were slightly delayed but he still caught the screech in the Doctor's direction, and caught the way his expression changed.

"What?" he asked sharply, "Doctor what did it say to you?"

The Doctor thought about not telling him. About keeping it in, keeping it a secret. He did it for long enough, and it was good, then. It was good to keep Jack safe.

But now, there was more going on than just being safe.

He looked over to Jack. "He will knock four times."

It should have all been over, that. It should have ended. They thought it had ended. But then nothing really ever did, did it?

Jack felt a cold chill run up his spine.

He didn't know what to say. What could he say? Say that it terrified him? Say he was sorry? Nothing was right. None of it would be. And so he just moved in the water and wrapped his arms tightly around him, giving him one fierce hug.

"Come on," he said gently. "Lets go home."

The Doctor spoke aloud what Jack was thinking. "It was supposed to be over. It was supposed to be done. We beat it, you and I. We beat it."

Jack was right, though. They needed to go back to the TARDIS. They needed to run. Well, the Doctor needed to run. He needed that control.

He looked back towards the mouth of the cave. It looked wrong somehow. It looked...foggier. And the fogginess was moving towards them.

"The rocks are crumbling!" the Doctor cried. "Jack, get back!"

"And we'll beat it again," Jack said, trying to sound assured. "I promise you, Doctor. It is done."

He gripped his arm again, a tight hold. He would be there, and he wasn't going to leave him this time.

As the Doctor's head turned, Jack followed his gaze and saw the haze ahead, the cloud growing and moving closer.

Closer and closing in around them.

It wouldn't be a surprise to learn that if there were going to be any way Jack would be trapped, just about the least he would like would be in a confined space underground (well, under water, but there'd be plenty ground on top of him).

"No!" Jack called out, the panic in his voice. "Doctor don't go that way."

He fumbled, trying to open his wrist strap to get them out of there, but he dropped the light pearl and the area grew even darker.

"It's crumbling from above, Jack, we have to go down!" The Doctor grabbed Jack's arm and gave him a tug downwards. At the very least, they could get to some sort of temporary safety and use Jack's wrist strap to get out. But for right now, down was the only way to go.

Jack grew dimmer in the light, until they were in darkness surrounded by moving darkness. The Doctor thought of the Hub, of being under where that submarine was. Death loomed there for them, too.

"Come on," he said. "I've got you, Jack. We will get out of this."

he hoped.

Jack closed his eyes a moment and took a deep breath. Focus, because that's what he needed, and so he concentrated on how the Doctor held his arm.

And he swam.

Around him he could feel the water changing, growing thicker with the dust from the falling rocks. It was darker and harder still to see.

He didn't speak, just swam. Focussed on moving and getting out, finding a different way, down and down, lower into the depths of the cave.

He glanced again to his wrist strap, but he could barely even see it.

"Doctor," he called then, "it's too dark. I can't programme in the co-ordinates."

"We'll find that light source," the Doctor said. But, even this deep, he couldn't see the glimmer of a light pearl anywhere. He was just swimming in blackness.

He fished his sonic out and pointed it straight ahead. Oh, he could only hope he wasn't pointing it at Jack. He took a breath and squeezed the button. A burst of sonic energy came from the screwdriver, blasting into a rock and setting it ablaze with temporary blue energy.

Also, setting alight the fact that they'd swam down into what appeared to be another bait ball. Fish blasted around the Doctor, frightened by all the light and movement. He cried out as one of them knocked his sonic free of his hand.

"Jack!"

If Jack was worried or panicked (and he was) there was only one sure fire way to push that utterly to the side: Think the Doctor is in trouble.

He saw the light like a flash and heard the Doctor call. He turned then, his head twisting sharply to look out for him.

It felt as though time slowed down (and maybe it did, maybe it was part of that creature's promise, protecting as it said it would), but Jack turned his head back, and in the blue light he could see his wrist strap well enough to reach out and programme in the co-ordinates. He shouldn't have had time for it, it shouldn't have been time to do that and turn and still have the Doctor close, but he was there, and it seemed the light was only just fading as he reached for him.

And then, like a snap, as his arm reached out and grabbed the Doctor tightly around the waist, time seemed to catch up again, and it was just in time because as Jack pressed down the button on the wrist strap, the rest of the cave above collapsed in.

They were gone.

Gone, and mere moments later re-appearing on the beach, a few feet away from where the TARDIS sat half embedded into a sand dune.

The Doctor collapsed the moment he felt his feet hit sand. The nausea shot through him immediately and it was pretty much everything he had not to vomit the lovely lunch he'd had with Jack earlier.

He really, really hated time travel without a capsule.

"How many sonics is that, now?" he asked, cracking his neck as he moved back to his feet. "Too many. Way too many. If it wasn't me destroying them, I'd start charging myself.

Jack attempted to catch his breath. He looked out at the ocean and it seemed to lap strangely beneath the waves. The surface clouded with the destroyed rock face underneath. It was hardly anything, and nobody would ever know.

He looked then to the Doctor who was being over dramatic about travelling by vortex manipulator. Really, he should be used to it by now.

"Yeah well I'd rather lose a sonic than you," he said as he stood himself up and reached his hand out towards the Doctor. "And trust me, I won't be doing that."

He nodded ahead towards the TARDIS. "Lets go," he said, "clean up, and go get some dinner or something. Moving on."

"Busy life," the Doctor agreed. Never stopping, never slowing. That was them.

He stepped next to Jack and patted his back. "So! Jack Harkness, protector of Boeshane. I think you owe me a drink."

He pulled his key from his pocket. "And I happen to know a great bar on Milliways 5."

"Protector of Boeshane," Jack repeated, "you know, I kinda like the sound of that." He smiled, because that was good. There might be some things that weren't. Some pretty terrible things. But some that were pretty brilliant too.

He looked back to the city, one last look at his childhood home. It looked a little gloomy with the darkened clouds ahead. Must be rain coming.

Time to go.

"Oh I think I can stretch to that," he said with a smile. "Treat me nice I might even buy you dinner," he added, shooting a wink in the Doctor's direction.

He waited at the door, ready to step in behind him.

"Goodbye Boeshane, hello Milliways 5!"

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