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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.
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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From:
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His eyes cracked open slowly and reluctantly. He reached out his arm and he expected there to be a body there, but there wasn't.
He was alone.
Not by far though, that he was sure of, and so will a roll of his eyes, he climbed from bed and tugged lazily into his clothes, heading out into the console room with his shirt still unbuttoned.
"You know after the effort I went to to get you out of your clothes, you'd think you'd do me the decency of sticking around that way for a bit."
He smiled over at him.
"Morning, Doctor."
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Which was nonsense, of course, because the TARDIS had no such air leaks or cold spells, unless she was angry at one of or both of them. Which she wasn't, the Doctor knew. She was cautiously relieved.
As was he.
"How're you feeling?" he asked.
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He stepped over towards him, buttoning up the buttons on his shirt as he walked.
"I'm fine," he said gently, "I'm good. I'm... feeling terrible for what I put you through last night. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot."
He nodded towards him and rested a hand against the console, she felt warm to him again. "And you, Doctor, how're you feeling?"
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He nodded to Jack's apology. "In the past, Jack. Nothing to worry about."
He flipped on the screen nearest himself and pulled it around to face Jack. "It seems the TARDIS has taken us on a holiday. Somewhere to relax. During the 1990's on Earth, no less."
He had utterly ignored Jack's last question, because he wasn't even sure he knew the answer to it. How was he? He was refreshed and awake, but he was still lost in everything that had happened the previous day. Good things and terrible things.
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He watched him with caution. He wanted him to be okay. He wanted him to be okay probably more than he wanted anything at all.
"No," Jack said, "we're not doing that any more. Not just in the past, what I did... what I almost did..." he shook his head. "Just talk to me. Okay? Talk to me. We're not going to end up there again. We're just not."
He reached his hand out and touched it over the top of the Doctor's, squeezing it slightly before looking distractedly at the screen.
"90s Earth, sounds good. And we've got sand by the looks of it."
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He would not suppress, but it didn't make opening up any easier.
He tapped the screen. "It's the 1990's on Earth, but the TARDIS didn't land us there," he said. "I think she's more worried about you than she's been letting on.
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"What, you think I wouldn't keep food in?" he asked, "This is me you're talking about. Me and food go hand in hand. You're fully stocked, Doctor."
He looked again at the screen, and didn't take his hand from the Doctor's, his other he touched against the coral.
"What?" he asked, frowning. "Well if we're not there then where are we?" He looked to the doors (those doors, they didn't scare him now) and back to the console. Another wave of guilt hit him.
"Yeah, guess I must have given her a scare. Sorry about that," he said, patting the coral where his hand touched it. "Never again."
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"Throw on some clothes, we'll hop out and take a look," he said, giving Jack an excited smile. "This is somewhere I've never been."
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He looked around, trying to recall where he'd thrown his coat the previous night; it was still in the Doctor's room.
"I'll get my coat," he said and started to turn to go, but he stalled and turned back again, allowing the impulse to take over, and he kissed him, just once.
The Doctor would just have to learn to put up with it.
He flashed him and grin and he did turn then, but not before spotting a flash of leather on the console and catching it in his hand. His wrist strap. He put it back on his wrist, just where it should be.
Dashing off, he went to fetch his coat and soon after he was back in the console room, dusting himself down and ready to go.
"So," he said, heading over to him, "where's outside?"
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Jack looked better, but was he? How much stress would push him back to that edge again? How much leeway did the Doctor have? He panicked, just for a minute, while Jack left to change and fetch his coat. He'd gone too far with Jack, just like he went too far with everything.
If he left him, now, Jack would never have the chance to die again. But could he really leave him? After all this? After all the trust he gave him before?
Jack's voice broke him from his thoughts, and the Doctor put on a smile. "Now, I can't spoil the surprise! Wouldn't be a surprise, then! This way!" He slipped on his coat and hopped towards the doors.
"Just what we need, I think."
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He smiled and nodded to the door, looking at it then discreetly to the Doctor. He worried about him, and though he himself wore now a smile and held a spring in his step, there was concern beneath it. He was good at wearing different faces. The Doctor was too, they had both perfected it. He just hoped he wasn't doing that now.
But maybe this would do them good. This place beyond the door, wherever that was.
He pressed his hand to the door beside the Doctor, opened it, and stepped out. Out into the sand dunes outside.
And he knew it.
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"It's 1995 back on Earth, but here, it's---" he did some math. "56E? Something like that? Never very good with that whole conversion. Anyway!"
He put a hand to Jack's shoulder and watched his reaction carefully. "Welcome home."
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But this? This was everything. There was the mix of the Ethelblossom and a faint whiff of something a little way off, an almost sweet smell; Jack knew it to be the sea, the tide always smelled like sugared lemons as it brought in the residue of the citrus bark on the rocks that sat under the waves a short way out. It was how you knew the time of day there, just by the smell.
Oh he knew it well.
He'd never expected to be back here. Not to see the dunes or the sea that he knew was just over the ridge. So close. The encampment where he lived. He could feel it all, his youth, so many buried memories.
Home.
It was only then, only after he spoke and a little while more of just remembering, did he look at him at all. And he turned his head to him, still surprised.
"I've never been back," he said. "Not since-- Not for a very long time."
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He felt a surge of envy for Jack. The Doctor could never go back, not like this. Nowhere would be home for him.
"Come on, then," he said to Jack. "Show me around!"
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"You smell that?" he asked the Doctor, watching him with a half smile. "That's the ocean. Must be about late afternoon from the smell of it."
It was nice to be somewhere he knew, somewhere he knew entirely. He felt as though he knew each individual grain of sand.
He gave an emphatic nod and stepped forward, before jogging ahead in the sand, moving up over the dunes to reveal what was ahead; the vista of the peninsula. Ahead he could see it all, the sea the towers of the buildings.
He looked back over his shoulder towards the Doctor.
"Doctor? Welcome to Boeshane."
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The Doctor followed slowly behind him, grinning as they went over the dune. It was breathtaking, the sight of the city and the sea. No two worlds were alike, and Jack's homeworld was amazing.
"Looks like there's a westernly wind," he said, licking a finger and checking the air. A storm seemed to be darkening the sky far off, but other than that, it was a clear day.
He nodded. "Where should we start?"
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"We won't blend in in here," he said, gesturing towards the buildings in the distance. It wasn't like Jack ever usually cared about sticking out like a sore thumb, but he cared here. Everyone else always dressed in their shades of sandy browns and creams.
"Might get away with it for you, especially with the coat but me? Well I'm far too... blue."
There was not too much wind, and that was good, else the sand would catch in their eyes and they'd need goggles. But with the weather as it was, calm and pleasant, they'd be fine.
"The sea?" he suggested, "You know I used to sit down there for hours. I'd play in the dunes, hide and seek with all my friends and then we'd go sit on the beach."
He nodded over the way and started walking, "Come on, sea!"
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The sea. The Doctor wouldn't deny Jack, of course. He followed with a slight hop, catching up easily. The breeze was comfortable, but not too strong. The sun blazed against his head, but it wasn't too hot. A sand-and-sea paradise, it was.
Why did Jack leave, he wondered. He obviously loved his home.
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"I look good in it," he said by way of explanation, a small smirk with his words; he knew it was true. More than that though, it had started off as uniform. Uniform and then some sort of mask, some sort of protection and a persona, and it suited him. He liked it. And it had become as much who he was as anything else.
They reached where the water lapped against the sand and Jack crouched down, touching his fingers against the edge; making sure it was real.
"Why do you always wear the same two suits?" Jack asked, looking back over his shoulder. "It's not like you're not the adventurous sort."
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He had a whole cabinet full of different colors of the same suit. It was what fit him, what looked good, and it was easier than trying to go through the wardrobe room every day. He could've probably chatted for ages about his sartorial taste (and his choice of hair products), but they were somewhere new. Talking about this place was far more important.
"Are those Cretonian trees out there?" he asked. He didn't think so, but they were similar.
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He ran his fingers through the sand beside him, feeling it shift and move. If he closed his eyes he could almost feel young again.
"Hmm?" he asked, looking over to the tree. "No idea," he said. "I left here by the time I was 15. Never was quite the botanist back then. I can tell you though I broke my wrist falling from that tree. See the big one? Wanted to get to the top and kept falling down. Had a pretty bad fall once, ended up with my arm in a davis sling. Two weeks later I was at it again. Made it to the top of course."
A pause. "Its a cretavis tree I think, same family."
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He tried to imagine a young Jack climbing to the top. He could only imagine him being gleeful inside and quietly smug on the outside. Ah, youth. For the Doctor, it seemed so long ago. He wondered if it felt the same way for Jack.
"So! Where did you live, then? Back in the city?"
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"Oh I'll never learn my lesson," Jack said, looking back to the Doctor, squinting slightly in the sun. "Wouldn't want to," he added. "And like you say, we wouldn't."
And Jack was glad they were. As ironic as that seemed considering the previous evening.
"Yeah," he said, sitting back up a little again. He pointed his hand out towards the city ahead. "You see those buildings at the bottom to the left? The first set of windows? Well see the little bit cropping out there? That's my house."
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While always a tourist, the Doctor loved places like this. The places away from the big city, the places only a local might find. They were better than any tour route could be.
"I like it," he said. "Where it all started. Little Jack Harkness, running about and breaking wrists. This is what traveling should be about. Seeing where the big slices of universe begin."
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He was glad of that.
"I'm a big slice of universe?" Jack asked, teasing. He shook his head though, sifting a little sand between his hands. "You're wrong though. No little Jack Harkness here." A sigh and a breath, "But, there was a little boy called Skye, once. And he was a bit like me."