for quitehomoerotic: Welcome to the Sahara Desert

[rude_not_ginger]

follows this.

The Doctor woke only a few short hours later and found himself positively disappointed at his lack of dreams. He'd spent years asleep without dreams, and now, when he really wanted them, he still had nothing. No memories, no twisting nightmares, not even a good brain-dump of nonsensical mental garbage. Just nothing. He was asleep next to Jack on the bed, and then he was awake.

He sighed. His memory was still swiss-cheesed with missing parts of the last two hundred years, but there seemed to be more gaps filled in. And that was something, wasn't it? It meant maybe a few more nights of dreamless sleep and he'd be back to himself completely.

He just hoped there weren't more memories like Mars to discover.

He looked over to Jack, asleep next to him. This was what Jack loved the most, he said. Not sleeping alone. Not being alone. In that instant, the Doctor understood it.

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[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh well if Bea wouldn't want it I'll be off on my way then." Jack said somewhat sarcastically. Still, he was masking yet more jealousy. He wasn't first here. Not that he ought to be, but that didn't stop him from wanting to be.

But then the Doctor went on and to Jack it sounded distinctly like he was trying to get him out the way with a none too subtle push.

He turned his head towards him and frowned.

"What are you trying to say?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," the Doctor admitted. "I don't...I don't know what to do, Jack. "Never imagined being in a situation like this."

He cleared his throat and leaned back against the wall. "Really, really never imagined being in a situation like this."

He imagined seeing Bea again, one day. Maybe reconciling, maybe apologizing, maybe taking the slap he rightly deserved and moving on. But never this. He didn't have the faintest idea what to do. And he wanted to know what to do. He wanted to fix what he'd broken in a moment of loneliness.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Jack admitted in return. He had no idea. This was a new situation for the both of them. Strange, but it was almost too... human.

"Feel a little in the way," Jack said, his head ducked down again.

"Nothing ever goes right."

He let out a small laugh and reached a hand up, lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "I don't know," he repeated. "What do you want?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"You're not," the Doctor said, without hesitation. "Believe me, Jack, you're not. I think if anyone's in the way, it's me. Changing Bea's life by being selfish, changing yours by never properly going away."

He shook his head. "I want to be able to make this right. I want to make up for the things I did to her. And to you."

There was a bang outside the ship and the Doctor jumped.

"And right now, I'd like to know what the hell those storms are."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Never properly going away?" Jack rose an eyebrow. "Who's fault is that? Not yours. I'm the one that brought you back again."

The whole room felt like it rocked and the rain could be heard even from the distance they were at. The storm was getting worse still.

Jack stood and reached over to the door, pressing his hands to it and trying to see if he could loosen it. But this was a cell, and a good one.

"We need to get out there," he said. He looked back to the Doctor, concerned and quiet. "I could get out there. But this... this has to be your decision. All of it. This is bigger than me."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Throwing this all in my court?" the Doctor asked, incredulous. "I've just come back to life, lost and got back my memory, and learned that a woman I haven't seen in half a century is going to have my child. I think I'm not exactly in the right mindset for logical thinking."

He was lying, of course. He wouldn't leave her again and he knew it. He wanted to, because leaving was something he did, but not if a child was the result of what he'd done. Maybe he'd eventually learn to love Bea the way she loved him but...that would mean leaving Jack. He'd only just gotten him back. They didn't even have a chance for a hug before all of this started.

"Whatever we do, we can't leave the TARDIS."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh trust me, I'm aware of that," Jack said with a shake of his head. "I'm pretty acutely aware of all that."

He pressed his fingers again against the door and tried to fruitlessly push at the seam. It didn't give, and he didn't expect it to, but he felt he almost had to try.

"The TARDIS is yours," Jack said. "And if she travelled with you I'm sure she knows that. And she must be good or you never would have taken her on board. She'll give her back."

Outside there was a heavy crack of thunder and Jack paused while it shook and rumbled. He flicked his wrist strap open and pressed a button or two. "The TARDIS is on board. She's not far off. I wired this up to detect her. Was going to put a remote in next week. Guess I was pipped to the post."

He looked around and took a long slow breath. "God, I hate places like this."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor straightened and headed over to the door. He threw his fist against it a few times.

"Bea!" he shouted. "Bea! We know what the storms are, you have to let us out so we can help you!"

No response. It was, in reality, a lie, but it was a lie that was steeped in just a little bit of truth. They knew the storms were about them and not about her.

And, really, the Doctor was worried about Jack. He reached out and put a hand on his arm.

And, back to the door, he called again, "Bea! It's not just your life at stake here!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The touch made him almost jump, but he was glad of it. It evened out his breathing, even if only for a moment.

"Oh sure," he said. "That's a great idea. Patronise the hormonal pregnant woman. Doctor she isn't going to want to talk to me. She won't listen while I'm here. Let me go outside. Let me try and work out this storm. It's better than both of us being stuck down here like this."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm not having you leave, Jack, next thing I know a hundred years'll have passed and I'll have another hormonal companion to deal with. We're better off together."

He banged on the door again.

"Bea, don't be stupid! You know you can't sort this out on your own!"

Suddenly, there was a quiet click, and the door to the cell slid open.

"Easier than I thought," he said, quietly. "The storm must be getting worse, it's frightening her."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack let out a short laugh. "Oh so that's why you keep me around is it?" he teased.

He gave the door a dubious look as it opened, but he nodded and moved towards it. "Listen to that," he said. The rain could be heard outside, slamming down hard against the hull. It was heavy and hard and getting worse by the minute. The floor was damp where somewhere a leak had penetrated the skin of the ship.

"So now you just persuade her to let us help her," he said as he checked his wrist strap again. "No readings," he said, "the storm must be scrambling them."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was no small task, he thought, but if there was any way to do it, they would figure it out. It was what they were good at, after all. Helping people.

"This way," the Doctor said. He darted down the wet corridor towards where, presumably, the front of the ship would be located. He turned down another hallway and found an open door to the bridge, where the meager crew worked at stations, with Bea standing in the middle.

She turned to them, a cynical smile on her face. "Only you could make it rain in the desert."

"It's not just a storm," the Doctor said. "It's something that's been following us. Some sort of entity, I'm guessing. Something big and something that's trying to find us."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Beatrice, I take it," Jack said to her as he stepped in. He watched her for a moment, and she looked back at him, looking him up and down. She was curious, perhaps more than she let on. But then when you hear stories about people it makes them almost exactly that. A story.

"And you're Captain Jack Harkness," she said to him.

"In the Flesh." She stared at him a moment longer but her head soon turned towards the Doctor.

"So stop it," she said. "You brought it here, then send it away."

Jack turned his head back and looked for a moment before moving to one of the stations at the helm, moving the guard out of the way to start trying to deduce what was coming in on the scans. "23rd century, did you say? You know this stuff is pretty advanced."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yes, thank you, Bea, I have been trying."

He headed over to the nearest panel and pressed a few buttons. "You've been cannibalizing 43rd century ships," he said, tossing her a disapproving look. "Hardly the safest considering---"

"Considering what?" Bea said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Nothing." He slipped on his glasses and turned another dial. "Looks like the wind current is going to pull this ship up into it, it'll kill everyone on board. But if we can generate a large enough explosion at the core of it, we might be able to neutralize the storm's power centers. For a while, at least."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack turned his head towards the guard. "Okay I need ballistics, anything you've got on board. Fetch them and take them to a safe room. This place." He pointed out a room on the ships schematic. Far enough aft to keep the crew away from it.

He moved back to the screen and started pressing buttons, re-jigging the system to try and add power to the breaks and the rudder to shift them from the storm and buy them a little time.

His eyes flashed over towards the Doctor.

"Or..." he said. "We could just stop the storm."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor looked over and gave him a really, really irritated look.

"Yes, and if it were that simple, Jack, we'd have already done it."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack continued to work away on the panel. He didn't look at the Doctor but he spoke again.

"There is one way. You know there is." Because it went after them together. It had never gone after them apart.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, right, great idea, Jack. You zap away a billion light years off, and we wait a few hundred years to face them again. No, no, it's better to depower it and face it down."

Bea, now the one on the outside, stood with her arms crossed. "What are you two talking about?

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack looked up then and over at the Doctor. He stayed that way a moment, and then looked to Bea, standing there pregnant with the Doctor's child.

"Nothing," he said to her. "We're not talking about anything."

His eyes settled briefly on the Doctor before he resumed his work.

I could leave, he thought to him. It would stop it for good.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No, Jack, that's not happening," the Doctor said, not even realizing Jack was speaking to him in his mind. It was so clear, it could've been whispered in his ear.

"Right, Bea, get everyone off of this ship. Jack, you and Bea take the TARDIS. I'll set this ship to autopilot, we'll send it right into the storm," he instructed.

"You're not blowing my ship up!" Bea snapped. "Do you have any idea how much work---"

"Five months," the Doctor said. "Now, don't be stupid. Just go."

"There's a problem with that," one of the men in front of them said. "The autopilot doesn't work. We couldn't configure it."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack didn't want that to happen, of course. That was what he wanted about least, and so he didn't continue. He merely looked at the Doctor a moment, as though he was trying to work him out. He nodded and stepped forward and around Bea.

"Do you have a key?" he asked. "A TARDIS key, do you have one?"

She looked at him, annoyed. Didn't answer. And so Jack pulled one from his own pocket and thrust it towards her.

"Here, take this, get to the TARDIS. You'll be safe in there."

He moved up over to the Doctor and stood over one of the control panels, glancing up and over at the guard. "Yeah, well you didn't have us here before. Doctor, can we configure this thing?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Bea's men looked to her for guidance. She nodded. "Get to the escape drills, not the hovercars. The winds out there'll pull you right in."

She offered the key back to Jack. "This is my ship, I'm not leaving it."

"Yes," the Doctor said, "You are."

"What?" she snapped. "Because I'm a woman, I have to run off and be safe?"

"No, because you're not as familiar with this decade's technology as you think you are, you have to run off and be safe."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack looked at her a moment but didn't make to take the key back, merely turned right back to the panel and carried on working, trying to fix the auto pilot.

He stalled though as the Doctor started arguing with her, and he turned around and took a step over to Bea. He put both hands on her shoulder and stared at her imploringly. "Beatrice, you're pregnant. Now go. Let us help. Go."

She looked at him and then briefly at the Doctor before taking an exasperated breath and turning from the room.

Jack moved back to the Doctor in the midsts of everyone else leaving the room. "Okay," he said, "What have we got?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"She's right," he said, pressing a few more buttons. "The subactualization core doesn't fit up with their new autopilot. In order for the ship to explode inside of the storm, someone'll have to fly it."

He scratched the back of his head. "Course, it's not that important that we blow the ship up. We could just let it go, get Bea out of here. Get breakfast somewhere else."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack leaned over and took a look at what was in front of him. It was a mess. It had all been retrofit and badly done by people who were making the most of what they had.

"So I'll fly it," Jack said, without even thinking about it. It would kill him but he'd get over that. He put his hands on his hips and turned to the Doctor. "Or we go and we take us with her. Or you take her and I'll fly this thing in and get out at the last minute. Meet you somewhere."