navaan: Travels in Boxes (Eleven/Jack) [G] - SUMMER HOLIDAYS, PROMPT 2

[wojelah.livejournal.com]

Title: Travels in Boxes
Author: navaan
Pairing: Eleven/Jack
Rating: G
Spoilers/warnings: This is set during Season 5. No big spoilers, but it touches on things happening in the early episodes.
Summary: He had dreamed about this, same man, different body, different set up, more than a kiss. Jack comes back to life and finds himself on board the Tardis – with an all new Doctor.
Prompt: Rogwath; Thirty-Fifth Cycle; Roaring Highway; cuisine

---

Strangely, coming back to life was always the hardest part of dying. Especially when he woke up and hadn’t the slightest idea where he was. Morgues were always scary, but this didn't look like a morgue. He had been dumped on a cold, hard metal floor and had no idea how he got there.

He sat up, gasping for breath. It hurt like hell.

Obviously he was inside some kind of space ship - and a posh one if the interior was anything to go by. He couldn’t see more than walls and railings above him, but he didn’t feel like getting up and exploring just yet. When he looked around his eyes fell on a metal coffin propped up against the wall.

The last thing he remembered was being stuck inside a sealed coffin that had been sent into space.

Suffocating was never fun. Suffocating again and again was even worse.

"I think your guest... lives," a woman’s voice called and he looked up to see a nice looking redhead standing above him, staring down over the railing. She was standing beside something that looked like a console or control panel that vaguely reminded him of the one he had seen in the Tardis so many years ago - just a little more chaotic if that was even possible. Was that a phone?

The woman kept staring at him, seemingly worried about something. It was likely she had never seen a corpse come back to life.

He tried to say something, to croak out an Hello, but failed miserably in his first attempt. His throat was strangely dry. Usually when he came back to life he felt like shit and energetic and healed all at the same time. Could this be a side effect of dying in space?

"Doctor! The coffin guy is alive!" the woman called again.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, Amy," a male voice answered from somewhere outside his view.

It took a moment until his still slightly sluggish brain had caught up with the new information. Doctor, chaotic, like Tardis...

"Doctor..." he croaked and sat up with some difficulty.

"Yeah, yeah. Hi, Jack." A young man joined the woman above him. "I’m slightly busy at the moment. Why don’t you say Hi to Amy?" He turned and walked away without giving him a second glance.

Jack blinked and turned his attention to the redhead - Amy- in surprise. The same amount of surprise was written all over her face, too.

"You two know each other?" she called over her shoulder. "Why didn’t you say so when we opened that box? Doctor? Are you listening?"

"Busy," came the muffled reply from somewhere out of sight.

She looked down at him, probably deciding, that there was no way to get more information from the Doctor at this point. "He's always like that, isn’t he?"

"Last time I checked. Although back then he looked a bit older and had this dashing coat..."

There was a strange noise from somewhere behind Amy's back and she turned around to look at what's happening there. When she finally turned back to him her brow was creased in a frown. "He looked older? Like what? Are you two meeting out of sequence, too?"

"Too?" Jack felt that maybe he had missed more than another regeneration. He did not bother hiding his confusion. After all he had been dead a few minutes ago – and being picked up by the Doctor of all people hadn't seemed very likely then. In fact he had not expected to see the Doctor again after all these years without a sign.

"It's complicated," Amy said. "It seems the Doctor tends to meet friends in his own strange and unusual ways." She emphasized with a telling hand gesture and then stared at Jack some more. "Are you going to get up any time soon?"

He looked down to where he was sitting on the hard metal floor, then he looked up at the girl again, taking in the changes that had been made to the interior of the Tardis. Things had definitely changed around here since he'd last been on board – a long time ago. "Give me another minute maybe." He was feeling better, but he wanted to take a moment to really get his bearings here.

"Do you do that often?" The girl was leaning across the railing in a casual, unconcerned way now. With the Doctor's assurances she seemed happy enough to believe that Jack posed no threat to her. He vaguely wondered how long she had been travelling with the Doctor. Strange things didn't seem to upset her for long. Had unusual already become normal for her?

He tried to finally get up and managed to szand, wondering how long he had been stuck in that coffin. "Do I do what?" His hands were sifting through his own pockets, checking his belongings and clothes absent mindedly, finding his Vortex Manipulator still strapped around his wrist and working, before he looked up at Amy again.

"Travelling in coffins."

"I've made a habit of travelling in boxes for a while." He chuckled at the way she frowned at him. "It's quite conformable, you know?"

"Well, this one is," Amy agreed with a hint of sarcasm and an unhappy expression on her beautiful face. He had been sealed away in coffin floating in space and not a police box that was bigger on the inside. Young Amy was not taking his jokes all that lightly, it seemed.

"Ah, the good old days," the Doctor said and reappeared at Amy's side. His hair was messed up pretty badly and there were smudges of something dark all over his face. He looked like a pretty young mad man with an old man's clothes.

Jack couldn't hold back his laughther. "There was more room for dancing around here then if I remember correctly."

"Hn. Maybe. There is plenty of room up here. Want to come up and look at her? She's one sexy beast. If you want you can dance around her all day." The Doctor's smile was that of a little school boy. It was an unreal moment to look up into a face so young and still immediately recognize the Doctor in these old eyes.

He knew his own smile was no less enthusiastic though. "Do you even have to ask?"

Minutes later he was still walking around the new and, messy and amazing new console and looked around in awe. "God, the red really is sexy."

"She is, isn't she?" The new new Doctor was wearing a smug expression and his mouth curved up in a little private smile.

Too many questions were running through Jack's mind and he had no idea where to start. What had happened? Who was this Doctor now? How had they found him?

In the end it was Amy who asked a question first. "Well, Doctor, I know it's cool to see old friends after a long time, but can someone explain to me what's going on here? We're on our way to this place you say has the best beaches in the whole wide universe - suddenly you say there is something wrong and next thing I know, we fish a coffin out of space. With a dead man who isn't dead. What did I miss?"

Jack felt his mouth curve up into a smile and looked straight at the Doctor. "I like her."

"You would. Don't bother using your charm on her. She's taken."

He turned to give the Doctor a once over. "You're still quite cheeky, aren't you?"

"Hn. I'm not quite sure yet. But I think so..."

Amy interrupted them before the Doctor could really start to talk: "He's also quite easily distracted. So don't sidetrack him, Jack - who travels in boxes."

"Jack Harkness," the Doctor said throwing his arm around Amy's shoulders, and Jack was quite fascinated by the movement, all lanky limbs and youthful energy – same but so different. "Meet Amy Pond." The Doctor was beaming at both of them expectantly.

But Amy wasn't about to let herself be sidetracked. "You have some really strange friends, Doctor."

"Some?" the Doctor asked confused.

"Well, the young lady isn't wrong, is she?" The grin on his face came easily and it was only a little flirty. Well, he wouldn't be Jack Harkness without any kind of flirtation, but he was trying to keep it down. "That's me? Wrong, you know?" Maybe he was overdoing it a little when he winked at the Doctor, deliberately gauging for an reaction.

He wasn't sure what he expected to get out of the young-old man before him, but he knew that it wasn't an answering grin. "Amy, you may have noticed, that Jack is special. Very special."

"You mean the surviving in boxes part?"

Jack chuckled, more than a little happy that Amy still seemed to be unimpressed. "He means surviving everything."

The Doctor just shook his head and said with raised eyebrows: "Actually, I meant Jack is special – special friend, special person. Just special."

"Uh huh," Amy nodded, taking it in stride. "He's nice enough to look at, I suppose." Looking back at him with a small smile she added: "If you go for the American film star kind of handsome, of course."

"Well, he's special," the Doctor repeated in a defensive tone, wringing his hands as if he wasn't sure what else to do with them.

The conversation had taken an unexpected turn. Jack had been trying to figure out who this new Doctor was, but honestly he had not expected this. It took the better part of his concentration to keep himself from staring open mouthed at the Doctor. He nearly missed Amy saying: "You'd say that to everyone who called your Tardis sexy. It's all about the Tardis with you. Honestly." She punched his arm lightly with a small fist and stuck out her tongue.

Jack's eyes met the Doctor's briefly. He wasn't flustered, not really. "You're flirty. I mean you always were a bit of tease... But this is really obvious flirting."

"I know." The Doctor didn't seem the least bit perturbed. "New, new me. Things change."

"I can see that! And I'm not disappointed, Doctor."

Amy cleared her throat to get their attention. "So? You know each other. I get it. But surviving in a box in space? Surviving everything? What is he on about?"

"Jack is a fact, Amy. Means he is something that is and always will be. Can't die. Not permanently at least."

It stood out to Jack how the words "unnatural" and "wrong" weren't mentioned once.

"Ooookay," Amy said and nodded. "So, he was dead and came back to life, yes?"

"Yes." The Doctor nodded enthusiastically.

A heavy moment of silence followed, but then Amy shrugged as if all this was just normal and nodded once more. "Okay then. So he's staying, yeah?" It was so beautiful in its simplicity, that Jack could only smile at her, remembering another young girl who had welcomed him aboard the ship a long time ago.

"If he wants to. The captain tends to be involved in his own kind of adventures." The Doctor wasn't looking at him now, but back at one of his monitors. Jack tried to get a better glance at it, but all he could see where Gallifreyan symbols moving around.

He didn't know what he was supposed to say now. There was still too much to take in, too many changes to observe and analyse - too many questions to ask. "So, hell of a coincidence, huh? You being in this part of space and time, right? Haven't seen you in years."

Another silence settled over them, with Amy shooting questioning glances at the Doctor and then staring at Jack again with a thoughtful crease of her brows, as if there was still something she really wanted to ask about. The Doctor cocked his head to the side, his face suddenly blank and his eyes too calculating to really be comforting. Then he nodded. "Yes, strange coincidence."

Jack just knew that something was left unsaid. But at the moment he was too happy to be inside the Tardis, not dying in space. And even better: The Doctor was alive. Jack had nearly given up hope and it had broken his heart.

"What happened?" the Doctor asked quietly.

Jack sighed. "Accident, really. I was an a Borgian Mining freighter. There was an explosion down in engineering and part of the life support failed. Last I remember was getting hit by a big chunk of flying metal and then I woke up in a box floating to space suffocating. You know how these people are around their dead. Can't get rid of them fast enough. I got caught in an inopportune moment. Bad luck."

Amy didn't say a word, but her eyes had gone wide, probably imagining what it was like to wake up sealed inside a coffin. He wasn't fond of the memory either.

The Doctor nodded again, watching his screens and monitors with squinted eyes, but strangely still. Jack could only hope that this didn't mean something was wrong with the Tardis. He'd had enough of malfunctioning ships for a while. But he was pulled from his thoughts when the Doctor said: "Bad luck indeed."

"Well, I was lucky you found me."

"Yes, lucky," the Doctor answered with a thin smile. "Not many ships come this way." Amy stayed eerily silent, still frowning at something and watching the Doctor carefully from the corners of her eyes. Jack didn't know what to make of it yet, but he was looking forward to getting to know her and this new Doctor better. He wouldn't have much time for it. He wouldn't be able to stay long.

***

Later Amy led him through the maze of corridors that made up the main part of the Tardis. Only now did it hit him, how much things had really changed. Nothing was where it had been when he had been travelling with the Doctor. By now Amy seemed more relaxed around him and chattered away about the different rooms and the pool in the library. Jack couldn't remember ever having set foot in the library although he remembered the Doctor – his first Doctor – talking about it. "Also, you should probably stay clear of the lab behind that door." She gestured into the direction of one of the many doors. "The Doctor says there was a little mishap and now the equipment is running wild."

"Right." Jack tried to remember how everything had looked once upon a time. Rose must have lived in a room around here. But it was hard to tell if this was the case. Because there had been no labs in the part where they had taken up their living quarters. Were these even the same rooms?

"I'm down the hall. The Doctor has like three rooms all over the place. Never know where he is staying now." She opened a door and looked around. "You could stay here, but there are many other rooms..." Then she shook her head and looked back at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course." He had no idea where this was going, but he didn't see reason to deny Amy a harmless question.

"You and the Doctor... I mean, were you close?"

The question startled him, but before he could really think about the implications, his mouth had started working again: "We were friends. Travelling together."

"Ah." Amy nodded. "Yeah, well..."

"Why are you asking?" Jack did meet her gaze and she didn't look away.

Another person might have blushed, but not Amy Pond. She shrugged. "I don't know. It's just the way we found you. It was a bit like he had been looking for you."

Now that was something to think about.

***

When he found the Doctor, the man was walking around the Tardis console, muttering to himself. "That is strangely familiar, although nothing looks like the scene I remember. Different man, different machine. Different jacket."

"Same Doctor, same Tardis," the Doctor replied, distracted by whatever it was his hands were doing on the controls. "Little make-over. Different jacket, too."

"Little make-over?" Jack gestured around. "This must have been epic. What happened?"

"Obviously I died. And went on living. Can't say I was happy about it at the time, but new me thinks it was for the best."

"Hmm." There was nothing more intelligent to say. After all Jack had experience when it came to dying and going on. "So you regenerated?"

The Doctor laughed at that and then smiled widely, spreading his arms: "What do you think?"

"You're cute," he chuckled. "Different, but still you." Jack was surprised at how natural all of this still felt. After all it had been nearly a century for him. "I wasn't sure I would ever get to see you again. That last good-bye was a bit strange."

"Well. I was dying," the Doctor nodded flippantly. "And back then I was fond of dramatic gestures." He waved it off with one hand and went back to what he was doing.

Jack edged a little closer to get a better look, again taking in the strange mix of instruments that makes up the new controls of the ship. Things had changed, but he was sure that he could get a handle on these controls if it came down to it. The underlying tech was still the same, advanced, but not impossible to manage. "I thought you might have been dying for good," Jack admitted, not taking his eyes from the controls, where the Doctor's hands were moving incessantly. The admission hurt a little. He had been in a hard place back then and he had never dared to inquire too closely what had been going on with the Doctor. If the Doctor was dead, he sure as hell had not wanted to know it. He needed that little ray of hope at least to get through eternity.

The Doctor turned around, leaning backwards against the controls. "So tell me, Jack Harkness – are you still calling yourself that?" He cocked his head to the side as if he was thinking about something. "You're still Jack?"

"Most of the time." They nodded at each other, smiling as if they were sharing a big secret.

There was something Jack desperately wanted to ask. But he couldn't find the right words to do it. His eyes were drawn to the Doctor's hands again, then up to the ridiculous bow tie. It brought another smile to his face. "So do you still do the running?"

"Why? Need some exercise?"

"It was always fun."

"Oh, it still is. Want to stay and find out?" The Doctor's eyes were twinkling with a mischievous light, his hands were resting against the metal of the console now. What is it with his hands, Jack asked himself, but still couldn't look away.

Suddenly his throat was dry and when he looked up at the Doctor's eyes again, he found the man watching him with interest. "Did you ever have sex in the console room?" he asked, not sure why this was the first thing his mind came up with in this situation. He gave a lopsided grin, hoping to make himself seem less desperate, less pathetic.

"Well." The Doctor said and folded his arms against his chest. "Once or twice. Never seemed the best place for it, really."

Once more Jack was surprised into startled laughter. "You really are cheeky."

The Doctor's eyebrows shot up, making his eyes seem bigger and more – beautiful. Jack couldn't believe his mind was going there again. This was the Doctor. He never got lucky with the Doctor. And there was just too much emotion - love - and disappointment mixed up in thoughts of the Doctor to trust a flirty comment. Banter, Jack thought. We were always good at that.

"Of course, it always depends on the the partner," the Doctor went on. "It works better when they catch on to the flirting." The Doctor rolled his eyes and threw up his arms. "I would never have imagined that you of all people would have a problem with that. It's the new face, is it? Or is it the hair?" He reached up to worry his floppy brown bangs. "I should feel insulted by now, shouldn't I?" He didn't sound insulted at all, not unhappy, but amused.

And that was what made Jack finally catch on. What better moment to ask the question he had wanted to ask since his little talk with Amy? "It wasn't coincidence?"

For the first time the Doctor's deceptively young face turned grave, the expression on his face not guilt exactly, but something complicated and sad. Jack felt his heart stop for the briefest of moments. Because this was real. Amy was right, he thought. "Coincidence. Yes and – well, no. You have no idea what it feels like when you die. It's like a tremor in time." He avoided looking at Jack, staring at the door instead. "We were in the Vortex ready to re-enter the timestream when I felt it. And the Tardis she recognized it immediately, knew it was you. And then you came back to life and died again. And again."

Jack nodded. It hadn't been one of his better days. But to think that the Doctor had felt echoes of his predicament.

"You were stuck in a cycle. I couldn't ignore it. Of course, I could have ignored it. But then things have changed. I have a pretty good idea of who I am now and I thought it might be good moment to – reach out."

"Reach out?" Jack wasn't sure what to say. He took a moment to think this over. "So you came looking for me?"

"Yes."

He had to swallow past his dry throat again, before admitting: "Thank you."

The Doctor shook his head, his mouth twisting, but when he finally met Jack's eyes again, his face was relatively unreadable again.

Time to lighten the mood. "When you say once or twice, do you mean...?"

He was rewarded with a chuckle, another roll of the eyes, and the Doctor's posture relaxing. "I meant once or twice."

"Well, she is a sexy sight, the old girl."

"She is," the Doctor agreed with a lazy, slightly self-satisfied little grin. And Jack was stepping closer, leaning against the console beside the Doctor, not trying to hide his intentions. It earned him another amused raise of the eyebrow.

By now there wasn't any need for subtlety, so he just bend forward, reaching out to grasp the Doctor's jaw and brought their lips together. He had dreamed of this moment - same man, different body, different set up, more than a kiss. The Doctor grew still against him, but let him deepen the kiss. Jacks free hand sneaked around the other man's waist to pull him flush against him. He was lost in the moment...

Until someone cleared his throat only a few feet away from them and Amy said: "Does River know you're snoging other men?"

"I'm sure she'd be delighted." The Doctor looked a bit dishevelled, but not in the least bit embarrassed.

"Who's River?"

"His lady friend," Amy answered. While the Doctor coughed loudly.

"Ah, that's why things around here have changed then?" Jack asked. "Wife wasn't happy with the interior design?"

He didn't expect the Doctor to nod and add: "Well, my other wife decided that it was time to change her looks all on her own. Or not all on her own. My regeneration kind of destroyed most of the interior first." He patted the Tardis console and the ship made a sound that sounded just like agreement.

Amy sighed. "At least now Jack knows what he's getting into." Jack burst out laughing.

"Oh, Amy, believe me. Jack knew that better than most. He and River will get along well. A bit too well, I fear."

There was a strange sound from his Vortex Manipulator, a red light was reminding him that it was time to check back in and face his life again. He couldn't stay here. He had a job to do. Jack sighed heavily. And leaned back against the console.

"You can't stay," the Doctor concluded, before Jack could say anything and he nodded. There was another beep, announcing a message.

Amy was observing them, obviously worried. "What am I missing this time?"

The Doctor looked at Jack for an explanation. "Torchwood?" he asked.

"Complicated. I'm not directly working with the Torchwood Institute any more in this day and age. But I'm trying to keep them on the right track. Not easy, believe me." He smiled at the Doctor reassuringly. "But it's not Torchwood. Someone is trying to set up a new Time Agency for non-altruistic reasons. Not a good idea. So..."

The Doctor smiled. "You have a mission."

"I guess so."

"Not the worst thing to do with forever," he smiled. "Maybe we can continue this another time. You could call me." He gestured to the strangely archaic phone on the console. "I have a phone."

Amy was shaking her head at them. "You know Rory and I just set up a date, you know. Helps with the dating thing."

Jack chuckled. He was beginning to really love this spunky new companion. "Not sure we do dates."

"Apparently, I do." The Doctor pulled something from his jacket pocket that looked like his sonic screwdriver, but different, and reached for Jack's arm.

"The last time I let you use that on my Vortex manipulator, you disabled it." That was not one of his fondest memories of the Doctor. But he held his arm out after some hesitation.

"If you want to do this you will have to learn to trust me."

The new screwdriver did its magic. When Jack checked his device, interpreting the coordinates for a place and time, he asked: "Rogwath? What's there beside Highways?"

"Brilliant food and service."

They were sharing a brilliant smile.

"It's a date then."

***

The Doctor was sitting at a restaurant table. Jack hadn't arrived yet, but for once in his life the Doctor was on time.

He wasn't sure yet how this had happened or how it would work out. But for the moment he was content to see how this new adventure would play out.