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wintercompanion2013-07-09 07:27 pm
trobadora) wrote in wintercompanion2013-07-09 07:27 pm
Entry tags:
navaan: A Good Thing (Ten/Jack) [G] (SUMMER HOLIDAYS PROMPT 5)
Title: A Good Thing
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
navaan
Pairing: Ten/Jack (mostly gen/romantic friendship), mentions of Jack/Ianto
Rating: G
Spoilers/warnings: Set after Journey's End and Exit Wounds , so no spoilers for current episodes. Part of the Age-series, but can be read on it's own. Only thing you need to know is that the Doctor drops in on Jack a few times.
Prompt 5: 20, China, The Chief Executor, The Death of the Wyrm
**
“So this is what you normally do with your friends, yes?”
“Yeah, Doc. Drinking in a pub can be considered normal. For some. Well, you know? What's normal?”
“Hn.” The Doctor leaned a little forward, leaning over the bar to get a better look. He looked around, considering. “Well, I’ve been to so many pubs and bars and restaurants all over the universe for so many reasons and somehow this still doesn’t feel normal.” He looked around again, then fixed his gaze on Jack. “Cosy, but not normal.”
Jack cocked his head to the side, trying to get a glimpse of the Doctor’s face. “I would ask what you normally do with friends, but I've done the running part already.” He gave a cheeky smile to show that he was joking.
The Doctor frowned. “We didn't only run! We did normal stuff all the time!” he said indignantly. He looked around again and added : “Right?”
Jack dissolved into bouts of laughter, drawing bewildered looks from the other guests. “It’s really not a problem, you know? I’m not doing normal that often either. You of all people should know that. Not normal is comfortable.”
The Doctor had been in a good mood since he’d left Cardiff, where Jack had taken him to a pub and they had both enjoyed some easy banter only a week ago. It had been one of his sudden surprise visits and for some reason he'd been right on time to cheer Jack up. He hadn’t asked what had been wrong, but had immediately decided to do something about Jack’s strange mood. He could be nice and do that once in a while. Cheering someone up wasn't so hard. Apparently he wasn't complete rubbish at this friendship thing.
And he hadn't even run into trouble since then.
Well, not real trouble. Not even if you counted the little scandal he had caused on Granvia Prime. How could he have known, that sideburns were considered that indecent by Granvians?
He probably should have known... But really were was the fun in checking the Tardis database before going outside? Exploring the unknown was so much more fun.
And it had been no big deal anyway. Just simple fun. The incident had in all likelihood only helped with his own good mood. Adventures always made him happy.
But now he was constantly thinking about telling Jack about how his sideburns had caused a near riot in a very respectable place. Yes, Jack would be the right person to appreciate the story. He was sure about it. He would laugh at the Doctor's misadventure and then tell a lewd story of how he actually started a riot through scandalous behaviour. The story would feature nakedness, outrageous situations and a big getaway and Jack would tell it with twinkling eyes and laughter in his voice.
Even thinking about the ensuing banter was enough to make the Doctor smile.
Maybe he should visit again.
You shouldn't be alone. The thought flashed through his mind and he was already halfway to the console to set coordinates, but then the very same thought made him hesitate anyway. The voice saying it sounded so much like Donna that it made him second guess his own instincts. Was he just missing her? Trying to fill the void she'd left in his life?
Maybe he should learn how to be alone again instead.
“So, you just thought, 'Why not go to Cardiff?'”
He gently moved his head from side to side in a nervous gesture. “You told me to come.”
“Yes,” Jack said with a near soppy smile, shoving his pint around the table.
“You didn't think I'd come,” the Doctor said, realizing the truth.
“But it makes me insanely happy that you did.”
When one of the particle scanners of the main console stopped working and he discovered that he didn't have the suitable spare parts around he considered to drop in on Jack again despite his decision to stay away.
The Captain had extended an invitation to take a look at all the tech they stored at that Torchwood base of his. Up until now the Doctor had avoided setting foot inside said base, but he couldn't deny that the prospect of sifting through a presumably big assortment of technology that had come through the rift from all over space and time had sounded delightful.
Whatever Jack thought about his refusal to enter Torchwood, it had nothing to do with the past history of the organisation. He'd heard the name too often in many different contexts - in what was still the future of Jack's little team - not to have realized that Torchwood and their knowledge about alien tech would be a driving force when humans finally would make their way into space to meet the rest of the universe. One day nearly all inter-species relations would be made easier by the work of the Torchwood institute.
Sure, it was still basically a militaristic defence unit at Jack's point in time and the Doctor would never like that, but he wasn't as disapproving as he had been in the beginning. This Torchwood was trying to be better than all that and no one could find fault in that.
But meeting Jack's team outside of a crisis, really meeting them, would just feel so... normal. He wasn't sure if he would ever be ready to be formally introduced and then have to suffer through nosey questions. At least that was what he was telling himself. It sounded domestic in a very non-domestic way if that was even possible. Meeting your friend's friends. And in a linear fashion, too.
No, he shouldn't look Jack up for that spare part. He really shouldn't...
“Want me to pay?”
“Naaah. Maybe next time we’ll make it a date and then you can buy the drinks.“
Jack had smiled at the Doctor, “You sure about that? Do you have any money?“
He pulled out some loose pound notes from his suit pocket with a triumphant grin. “I came prepared, Jack. So no date and no buying drinks today.“
“Hmm. But next time?“
“Yeah, maybe next time.“
“Will you come prepared then, too?”
The Doctor made a choking sound. “Only if you work on your stupid pick-up lines.”
“Good night, Jack,” Gwen called up to his office and he gave a short wave. He smiled down at her and waved back, then turned back to his work.
He could hear her leaving via the lift instead of leaving through their fake tourist office. Thus the sound of the returning lift came as no surprise, but there was a sudden screeching sound in the main area of the Hub. Thinking that Gwen might have forgotten something, he got up to take a look down. There was no movement in the main area but he had no clear view of the lift, which was still descending. But their resident pterodactyl was howling through the hall. Jack looked at her, quietly asking himself what could have put her off.
There was a whiff of something sweet and spicy in the air, something strange and familiar. He couldn't place the smell at all. But it made his stomach growl in protest. When had he eaten last? This morning?
He looked around suspiciously. Ianto would have told him if he'd left food for him, right? It would be typical for his lover to have noticed that he hadn't eaten anything yet. Jack was used to unasked for take-away. But Ianto had left over an hour ago to get some well deserved rest. Why would he be back with food now?
Jack made his way down into the main area of the Hub, watching the upset pterodactyl suspiciously.
Then he saw a lean shadow sitting on the paved platform that is their “invisible” lift and to his own credit he didn't give away his surprise.
The Doctor was sitting there, his coat wet and hanging loosely around him. He was looking around the interior with a worried expression. Beside him there were two bags with something that looks like the take-away food he had smelled earlier. He stared at the bags and the Doctor's eyes finally settled on him.
“Hello,” the Doctor said, waving one hand in greeting.
“Hello,” Jack repeated dumbfounded and raised an eyebrow at the suspiciously foreign bag. “How did you bypass the alarm?” he asked, confused at the surprise visit inside the Hub.
The Doctor delivered his answer with a gleeful smile. “You call that a security system? Really, Jack, you of all people should know better.”
“Hey, it serves its purpose most of the time.”
The smile turned a little more mocking. “Most of the time, huh?”
“Yeah. Most of the time the aliens don't really want to come in. Only the exceptionally cheeky ones do. And then our system usually works as unfailingly as the temporal scanners of your Tardis.”
“The scanners work fine, Jack,” the Doctor stated smugly. “Certain people just don't know how to read them.”
“Meaning? I can't read them? Then you can't read them either!”
The Doctor laughed at that. “I just don't bother most of the time. Doesn't mean I can't.”
And Jack thought that might possibly be true, too. His stomach grumbled and reminded him of the enticing smell coming from the plastic bags.
“Food?” the Doctor asked, holding up the bags as an offering.
“How could you possibly have known, I'd be hungry?” He was already reaching for the food. The Doctor passed him one and got up by hopping down from the platform.
“You are always hungry,” he stated in a matter of fact tone and followed him, as Jack made for Ianto's little kitchenette to grab cutlery. The smell was making his mouth water. It was oddly familiar, but it couldn't be Pakistani. “Don't tell me this is fried Lorn? You went all the way to Vendrizi to get this?”
“Time machine,” the Doctor shrugged as if it was nothing - and for him it probably was. “You and Rose seemed terribly fond of it when we visited the planet.“
“Fond?” Jack laughed remembering how they had been stuffing themselves with this dish for the three days they’d been staying there for the local festivities to the Doctor's utter disgust. He motioned for the Doctor to follow him up to his office where he pulled out a chair for his guest and they sat down comfortably around his desk. He couldn't wait to open the strangely coloured take-out box that was so obviously alien and taste the delicious food. “What have you got?” he asked unwrapping the food. The Doctor pulled out a very much not alien package of chips and Jack raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. “You go all the way to Vendrizi to get me something you know I'll like and then what? You go to the local chippie?”
The Doctor shrugged, already munching on his chips. “All alien food to me anyway. I never liked that dish,” he explained with a huff. “Tastes too much like pears with cheese. Didn’t like it when we were there last either, remember?” He scrunched up his nose a little and went back to eating his chips out of the Styrofoam box.
“I remember,” Jack said fondly, not pointing out that a lot had changed since then. And the memory made the gesture all the more endearing. “Although I think last time you claimed you couldn’t eat anything that looked like blue tomatoes.” The smell of the food was overwhelming. He took a bite and the taste was as exquisite as he remembered. Alien spices and alien vegetables. It was pure bliss. He felt a strange nostalgia for the future. And all of it felt strangely normal: Eating take-away at home - even if food was from another planet and home was a secret underground base.
“This feels a bit like the old times, doesn’t it?” the Doctor said, looking a bit amused.
Jack chuckled. “Yeah, but a bit more domestic.”
“Hmm.” The Doctor put another chip into his mouth and started chewing with a slightly forlorn expression. “You mean not eating it while the Chief Executor gives away little china plates commemorating the death of some monster or other is domestic?”
“It is,” Jack insisted. “Although I’m not exactly considered an expert on all things domestic.”
The Doctor sighed. “Are you trying to make me uncomfortable? Because I thought the china plates were very domestic.”
“Am I succeeding?” he asked unconcerned, because the Doctor didn’t look uncomfortable in the slightest. The way he was lounging at Jack’s desk now was in fact making it seem as if he felt right at home here.
“So did you just tell me you’ve settled down? Here?” He gestured widely around and Jack wasn’t exactly sure if he meant the Hub, Cardiff or Earth in general. Could be any of these really. “You’re living here, right? No house, no flat?”
“No. Tried all that before. Works for a time, but in the end it’s not really for me.”
“Hmm.” The Doctor nodded, his attention apparently focused on the food.
Jack wanted to savour his own dish, but it tasted so good that he couldn't slow down. Hunger and the strange sense of longing the food had awakened in him weren’t exactly helpful either. The food was vanishing too fast for his liking. The Doctor leaned back in his chair looking at him amused, leaving some of his chips untouched.
“They’re not feeding you enough here?”
He shrugged. “The problem is all mine. Ianto is trying to make sure all of us get enough food during missions. But you know how it is, right?”
A nod was his only answer. “So, Ianto. Seems he is good for you.”
It was a casual remark, but Jack was taken by surprise by the focused interest. He hadn’t exactly discussed his current situation with the Doctor and wasn’t sure why his friend would bring it up now. He took a napkin to clean himself up and leaned back in his own chair to get a better look at the Doctor's face. “It’s complicated,” he said then, cautiously phrasing his answer. “His last relationship ended with traumatizing loss.” He didn’t want to bring up Torchwood One and the Cybermen. It hadn’t only been traumatizing to the humans involved in that fiasco. After all the Doctor had lost Rose that day. They had never really discussed that and Jack didn’t want to push his luck there now either.
“So, you’re good for each other? That’s what counts.” The Doctor sounded genuinely interested and a little wistful. He was still travelling alone, Jack remembered and felt a bit worried about that for a second. Then he took a moment to examine his own mixed feelings at the Doctor's statement. Yes, Ianto was good for him. After Jack had come back they'd even started dating. But since he had finally understood that Ianto felt unsure of his own position, he wasn’t sure if he was really good for Ianto in turn. After all he was a 51st century guy - and Ianto wouldn’t be the first human he had met during his time stuck in what to him was the past who'd had trouble understanding the way Jack lived and loved.
“Something wrong?” The Doctor looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a curious expression. “Did I make you uncomfortable now?”
He shrugged. “You may have hit a nerve, yeah.”
The Doctor looked at him for a moment, questioning, a hint of worry in his eyes that was gone before Jack could be sure he'd really seen it. “You don't want to elaborate, I guess. Fine. I wouldn't want to either.” He shrugged. “Not easy to be out of your time, right?”
It was Jack's turn to shrug. “Says the notorious time traveller?” He couldn't suppress a soft chuckle. “You never seemed to have problems with adjusting.”
“Neither did you,” the Doctor pointed out. The Doctor leaned back and gave him an infuriatingly smug look as if to say he already knew exactly what was wrong.
And he probably did, smug bastard. “It's different when you live a linear life for so long.” He wanted it to sound like an accusation, but the Doctor just nodded.
“Yeah. Which is why I'm not doing that again. Doesn't mean it has to be an unpleasant experience.”
“Do I want to ask?” The truth was that he did want to ask. He wasn't sure if the Doctor really wanted to tell him.
A smile tugged at the Doctor's lips. “Let's just say that I didn't always have a working Tardis at my disposal.”
“Sure thing. I wasn't always a time agent either. Still different, is it? You weren't stranded.” That did sound exactly like accusation. He didn't really mean it though and wished he could soften it somehow. When he looked up, the Doctor was smiling wistfully again and he had a feeling there was no need to say more.
“There was that one time when I spent five years turning a restaurant into an renown gourmet temple in hopes of getting back to my Tardis. And there was that other time when I nearly got stuck with Rose and...” He stopped thinking. “There were quite a few times when I was stuck for a time, really. Still not the same thing, I guess. A little uncomfortable at the time. An inconvenience.”
“You owned a restaurant?”
The Doctor waved his hand dismissively. “Long story. Doesn't really help you. Entirely different dilema.” He leaned forward putting his arms on the desk to get a closer look at Jack's face. “I asked you to come along twice now and you declined. You're not really sorry about being stuck here. So what is it?”
“Always being right – doesn't that get old really fast?” he asked, because the Doctor had hit a nerve again. He just didn't know how to put into words what was going around his head.
“No. No, it doesn't. It's fun.” He sounded too smug for Jack's liking.
“Okay. I need a drink.” Already reaching for his glass and the bottle of scotch on his desk, he added: “How about you?”
The Doctor just shook his head and leaned back, waiting.
When had their roles been reversed? Jack had been sure he was supposed to be the one who listened in this friendship.
He took a sip of his drink. The alcohol had a strangely calming effect. Maybe he should just say what was going through his head, the way he used to do when he was younger. The Doctor had come all the way to share alien take-away after all – he wouldn't be scared away by the truth, right? Only one way to find out. “Ianto thinks I'm in love with you.”
The Doctor's expression didn't change at all. “So? Is he wrong?”
That hadn't been exactly the question he'd been expecting. There was only one answer though: “No.”
To Jack’s utmost surprise the Doctor didn't look scared or worried or exasperated. That's what he would have expected from someone who had left the girl – woman, really – he so clearly loved with his own clone in another universe, because the more human him could give her what she was looking for. That was what had happened, right?
The Doctor folded his hands in his lap with a neutral expression on his handsome face. “Is that the problem?” he asked. “He thinks we're more than friends?”
“I told him we're not. I'm not sure he believed me.”
His friend nodded. “21st century. You can't expect them to understand your upbringing. Or the way you love. Not without trouble.”
Jack nodded. The problem was that he'd kept his own life a secret for so long. He'd scared away lovers and friends with his immortality, his 51st century morals, his looks, his alien knowledge and sometimes with his capacity to just love. He could be himself, but only if he paid the price. So in the end he had opted to keep most of his secrets.
“I don't expect them to understand, really.” He was thinking about Gwen: The way she felt clearly attracted to him, but wouldn't act on it because her feelings for her husband were as true as her feelings for Jack. No problem to have a fling with Owen, because he had never been a true threat for her love for Rhys, but a problem because she truly felt something for Jack. Jack knew the mechanics, but he didn't truly understand that. Whatever his team thought about his supposedly loose morals, he didn't work like that. There was no hierarchy of feelings for him. When he loved he truly loved with all his heart and without borders - everything else was only sex. He wouldn’t want to miss it, but the emotions involved were totally different and couldn’t be mistaken for love.
“Ah,” the Doctor said. “It's never easy, is it? Living with all the expectations. The question you have to ask yourself is: Is it worth it? You were like them once. Different upbringing, broader horizon, but human brain and human life span. You have time now, Jack. For you it doesn't have to be all or nothing any more. Believe me you have time.”
„Is that how you live, Doc? I had a feeling it was all or nothing with you?“
The Doctor shrugged. „I'm an old man, Jack. I'm the only one of my people left alive. Sooner or later you stop expecting people to really understand you. That doesn’t mean you can’t have friends or lovers or even relationships that count. Just remember you have time, but they don’t. So cherish the moments you can have, Jack, otherwise you’ll be sorry..”
Again Jack had the urge to ask the Doctor how well he practised what he preached. But there was something strangely open in the Doctor’s eyes just now and he had the certain feeling that the Doctor was just waiting for the questions. Rose, he thought again. He’s talking about Rose. It hurt a little to think about the love the Doctor had felt for that one special girl, while Jack had been left behind so easily.
Thinking about Rose never brought jealousy with it. After all he had loved her, too, in his own way. She’d been so easy to love. But every time he thought about her he just had to ask himself why he had been rescued by her and left behind by the Doctor - without a word or explanation.
“Believe me Jack, you’ll be sorry.” The Doctor’s eyes darted around the desk and settled on a picture that Gwen had stuck to his pin board: Gwen, Owen and Tosh sharing Pizza, Ianto standing in front of them with an astonished expression. Jack had taken the picture to test a slightly tuned camera. He remembered the moment well, only days before Martha had joined them for a time, before Owen had died and he’d brought him back. Now Tosh and Owen were gone.
And Jack realized the Doctor wasn’t talking about Rose, but about all of them, friends, family, companions, all the people the Doctor had known and travelled with.
He had come to understand regrets like these. So much time to lose people, colleagues, friends and living on and on and on through everything. Every time he was allowed to see his daughter, now his grandson who’d never be allowed to know their true relationship, he felt he’d missed the opportunity for a family. “I see what you mean.”
“Good,” the Doctor said. “Mission accomplished then.”
“It’s hard though, isn’t it? There is always a sort of wall keeping you apart from other people. I’ve grown up so differently from people around here, seen so many different things and...”
“And? Do you think you’d still fit in where you’d come from? You’re...” He stopped, searching for the right word with a cute wriggle of his eyebrows and settled on something. “Different.”
Jack shrugged. “I’ve always been different,” he said with a smile that was obviously meant to be flirty.
“Yeah, yeah,” the Doctor said, waving his hand in front of him dismissively. “You’re just full of yourself. 51st century people often are. See? Not so different. Anyway, what I’m saying is: The problem is as much yours as it’s Ianto’s, so maybe you shouldn’t throw it away because you hit a problem. He has expectations that differ from yours and now you have to deal with it.”
“I can’t believe you are giving me relationship advice!” He laughed. “Interesting development.” Still smiling he took a sip of his drink.
“I’m a married man,” the Doctor said with conviction. Jack very nearly spat his drink over the table. It was a very satisfying reaction for the Doctor, who’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Apparently,” he added like an afterthought. “Don’t know her that well just yet.”
Jack laughed again, coughing a little from his moment of chocking. He had reason to suspect that the Doctor was telling the truth this time, that he wasn't just joking. He had a way of telling the truth in a way that made it sound like an outrageous story. Or, well, often the truth was an outrageous story when it came to the Doctor. So he was married - or would be? Did that mean he was more open to relationships in general now? Because he’d met his future?
“So it’s not all or nothing with you any more?”
The Doctor shrugged again. “I have no idea. Hasn’t happened, yet. Although, of course, I’ve been married before. Maybe I still am?” He looked confused at his own thoughts.
Jack leaned back to stare at the table, to take in the lingering smell of alien food again, to better take in the picture the Doctor was making, slouching in his chair totally relaxed and at ease with himself. “Interesting,” he sighed. He’d always figured the Doctor was a loving, romantically oblivious, no-relationship type of guy. “Maybe your old age makes you realize that closeness is something that’s to be cherished.”
“Tell yourself that if it helps, Jack. You’re the ancient thing here.”
“I’m not sure if the years I was either buried or frozen really count.”
“They count.”
Banter. Jack loved it.
This was as nice as their little outing to the pub had been the last time the Doctor had visited. Maybe they could settle for a strong friendship now. They’d both be living for a long time and there weren't many constant to their lives. Wasn’t it better to have someone to meet up with once in a while?
And maybe one day he'd still get his chance.
Or maybe not. The Doctor was unpredictable sometimes and Jack liked it that way.
“So how did you enjoy your normal time hanging out with a friend in a pub?”
“It wasn't my first time hanging out with a friend in a pub, Jack. Been there, done that. Done a lot.”
Jack chuckled, enjoying their short walk in the evening air. He was feeling more relaxed than he'd felt in a long time and he really wished the evening wouldn't have to end.
But the Doctor was in a hurry again and Jack understood what was driving him to go back out there to the crazy life of a lonely Time Lord across time and space. For the Doctor it was always easier to go on without standing still, to experience more and to get into trouble.
“When was the last time?”
“I think I met Brax in a pub a few hundred years ago.”
“Who's Brax?”
The Doctor went quiet, some of the good mood draining away. “A friend,” he finally said. Then he looked up and smiled again. “Maybe we should do it more often.”
“Yeah, maybe we should,” Jack said lightly, trying to ignore how his heart was jumping in his chest at the thought. “I think we're getting old.”
“We are old. By comparison,” the Doctor said. “Between the two of us, you're the old one, of course.”
The Doctor was looking at the assortment of alien tech with a slight frown and some visible excitement. Jack didn't bother to hide his own amusement.
“The rift is throwing a lot of stuff at you,” the Doctor said to him after a moment. He still looked mostly excited, but he'd been looking at some weapons with a disapproving twist of the mouth just a second before. “Some useful, some dangerous. Some both.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You better take care of this place.”
“I'm trying,” he said, growing more serious. “It's my task.”
“One day there'll be a Torchwood Institute working throughout the universe,” the Doctor offered. “I think they were trying to do good.”
“That's a relieve,” Jack said with a nod, knowing a bit about that from his past that was this world's future.
“You'll probably not stay with them forever.”
“I don't think things go on forever, even for people like me.”
“I suppose that's true,” the Doctor said and nodded. Something sad passed over his face, but was gone again the next minute. Then the Doctor took up a piece of a broken Churian particle scanner and nodded to himself. Then he held it up for Jack to see and asked: “Do you need that? I need a replacement.”
“Doesn't the Tardis usually repair stuff like that herself?”
“She does. But sometimes it just speeds up the process to give her some new hardware to play with.”
“Take it,” Jack said unconcernedly.
“Thanks.”
“Take it as an anniversary gift.”
“Anniversary?” The Doctor actually sounded confused.
Jack smiled fondly. “Well we're three month into this friendship thing.”
The Doctor shook his head. “More like five.” He turned to look at Jack. “Do people do friendship anniversaries?”
“I really don't care what people do. Just take it.”
They were standing in front of the Tardis and the Doctor had a hand already on the door handle.
Jack sighed and said: “Find someone to travel with.”
“Aren't you afraid that I'd not come back then?” The Doctor was looking at him over his shoulder distractedly.
“I'm sure I'll see you again.”
“Till next time then.”
“Until then,” Jack echoed. And the Doctor was gone. A moment later the Tardis had vanished as if she'd never been there.
“Time to go!” the Doctor said, when they came up to the Plass.
“Yeah. Time for you to go back to travelling time and space.” He smiled, but some of his own longing for the stars must have bled into his voice.
The Doctor just looked around for a moment and then nodded. “One day this life will be over and you'll go back to the stars, too. You can whenever you want to.” He reached for Jack's arm and Jack was surprised when he touched his vortex manipulator to activate it. With the other hand he got out his sonic screwdriver and did something. The vortex manipulator beeped and when Jack looked down on it he stared at it in awe.
“What happened to you not trusting me with it?”
“It wasn't you I wasn't trusting,” the Doctor said, fidgeting a little. “I don't like the thought of someone else getting their hands on it.”
Jack raised a questioning eyebrow, not sure if he should believe this explanation or his luck, so he just nodded. “So, now things have changed?”
“Things change,” the Doctor said and this time he looked really uncomfortable. “I feel things are changing. Things might change for me very soon. So take care of it. Take care of the life you have here. And when things change for you, you might be glad to have a working time travelling device.”
He was honestly speechless for a moment and then echoed the Doctor's words from earlier: “Thanks.”
“Call it an anniversary gift.” The Doctor smiled, his cheeky and less wistful smile. “Until then,” he said and made a one handed salute at Jack, before opening the Tardis door and stepping inside.
Jack followed him with his eyes. “Until next time.” He felt strangely like he'd missed part of a conversation, but also bewildered at the Doctor's sudden willingness to repair his vortex manipulator. “Good-bye,” he said, before the Doctor could fully close the door.
He got a last glimpse of swinging brown coat and a smile thrown back at him over a shoulder. Then the Tardis was fading back into the vortex and Jack was left with the realization that he could just jump back and follow her if he wanted to do so.
“Thanks,” he said again to the quiet night around him.
Something had definitely changed tonight.
And it felt like a good thing.
Author:
navaanPairing: Ten/Jack (mostly gen/romantic friendship), mentions of Jack/Ianto
Rating: G
Spoilers/warnings: Set after Journey's End and Exit Wounds , so no spoilers for current episodes. Part of the Age-series, but can be read on it's own. Only thing you need to know is that the Doctor drops in on Jack a few times.
Prompt 5: 20, China, The Chief Executor, The Death of the Wyrm
**
“So this is what you normally do with your friends, yes?”
“Yeah, Doc. Drinking in a pub can be considered normal. For some. Well, you know? What's normal?”
“Hn.” The Doctor leaned a little forward, leaning over the bar to get a better look. He looked around, considering. “Well, I’ve been to so many pubs and bars and restaurants all over the universe for so many reasons and somehow this still doesn’t feel normal.” He looked around again, then fixed his gaze on Jack. “Cosy, but not normal.”
Jack cocked his head to the side, trying to get a glimpse of the Doctor’s face. “I would ask what you normally do with friends, but I've done the running part already.” He gave a cheeky smile to show that he was joking.
The Doctor frowned. “We didn't only run! We did normal stuff all the time!” he said indignantly. He looked around again and added : “Right?”
Jack dissolved into bouts of laughter, drawing bewildered looks from the other guests. “It’s really not a problem, you know? I’m not doing normal that often either. You of all people should know that. Not normal is comfortable.”
The Doctor had been in a good mood since he’d left Cardiff, where Jack had taken him to a pub and they had both enjoyed some easy banter only a week ago. It had been one of his sudden surprise visits and for some reason he'd been right on time to cheer Jack up. He hadn’t asked what had been wrong, but had immediately decided to do something about Jack’s strange mood. He could be nice and do that once in a while. Cheering someone up wasn't so hard. Apparently he wasn't complete rubbish at this friendship thing.
And he hadn't even run into trouble since then.
Well, not real trouble. Not even if you counted the little scandal he had caused on Granvia Prime. How could he have known, that sideburns were considered that indecent by Granvians?
He probably should have known... But really were was the fun in checking the Tardis database before going outside? Exploring the unknown was so much more fun.
And it had been no big deal anyway. Just simple fun. The incident had in all likelihood only helped with his own good mood. Adventures always made him happy.
But now he was constantly thinking about telling Jack about how his sideburns had caused a near riot in a very respectable place. Yes, Jack would be the right person to appreciate the story. He was sure about it. He would laugh at the Doctor's misadventure and then tell a lewd story of how he actually started a riot through scandalous behaviour. The story would feature nakedness, outrageous situations and a big getaway and Jack would tell it with twinkling eyes and laughter in his voice.
Even thinking about the ensuing banter was enough to make the Doctor smile.
Maybe he should visit again.
You shouldn't be alone. The thought flashed through his mind and he was already halfway to the console to set coordinates, but then the very same thought made him hesitate anyway. The voice saying it sounded so much like Donna that it made him second guess his own instincts. Was he just missing her? Trying to fill the void she'd left in his life?
Maybe he should learn how to be alone again instead.
“So, you just thought, 'Why not go to Cardiff?'”
He gently moved his head from side to side in a nervous gesture. “You told me to come.”
“Yes,” Jack said with a near soppy smile, shoving his pint around the table.
“You didn't think I'd come,” the Doctor said, realizing the truth.
“But it makes me insanely happy that you did.”
When one of the particle scanners of the main console stopped working and he discovered that he didn't have the suitable spare parts around he considered to drop in on Jack again despite his decision to stay away.
The Captain had extended an invitation to take a look at all the tech they stored at that Torchwood base of his. Up until now the Doctor had avoided setting foot inside said base, but he couldn't deny that the prospect of sifting through a presumably big assortment of technology that had come through the rift from all over space and time had sounded delightful.
Whatever Jack thought about his refusal to enter Torchwood, it had nothing to do with the past history of the organisation. He'd heard the name too often in many different contexts - in what was still the future of Jack's little team - not to have realized that Torchwood and their knowledge about alien tech would be a driving force when humans finally would make their way into space to meet the rest of the universe. One day nearly all inter-species relations would be made easier by the work of the Torchwood institute.
Sure, it was still basically a militaristic defence unit at Jack's point in time and the Doctor would never like that, but he wasn't as disapproving as he had been in the beginning. This Torchwood was trying to be better than all that and no one could find fault in that.
But meeting Jack's team outside of a crisis, really meeting them, would just feel so... normal. He wasn't sure if he would ever be ready to be formally introduced and then have to suffer through nosey questions. At least that was what he was telling himself. It sounded domestic in a very non-domestic way if that was even possible. Meeting your friend's friends. And in a linear fashion, too.
No, he shouldn't look Jack up for that spare part. He really shouldn't...
“Want me to pay?”
“Naaah. Maybe next time we’ll make it a date and then you can buy the drinks.“
Jack had smiled at the Doctor, “You sure about that? Do you have any money?“
He pulled out some loose pound notes from his suit pocket with a triumphant grin. “I came prepared, Jack. So no date and no buying drinks today.“
“Hmm. But next time?“
“Yeah, maybe next time.“
“Will you come prepared then, too?”
The Doctor made a choking sound. “Only if you work on your stupid pick-up lines.”
“Good night, Jack,” Gwen called up to his office and he gave a short wave. He smiled down at her and waved back, then turned back to his work.
He could hear her leaving via the lift instead of leaving through their fake tourist office. Thus the sound of the returning lift came as no surprise, but there was a sudden screeching sound in the main area of the Hub. Thinking that Gwen might have forgotten something, he got up to take a look down. There was no movement in the main area but he had no clear view of the lift, which was still descending. But their resident pterodactyl was howling through the hall. Jack looked at her, quietly asking himself what could have put her off.
There was a whiff of something sweet and spicy in the air, something strange and familiar. He couldn't place the smell at all. But it made his stomach growl in protest. When had he eaten last? This morning?
He looked around suspiciously. Ianto would have told him if he'd left food for him, right? It would be typical for his lover to have noticed that he hadn't eaten anything yet. Jack was used to unasked for take-away. But Ianto had left over an hour ago to get some well deserved rest. Why would he be back with food now?
Jack made his way down into the main area of the Hub, watching the upset pterodactyl suspiciously.
Then he saw a lean shadow sitting on the paved platform that is their “invisible” lift and to his own credit he didn't give away his surprise.
The Doctor was sitting there, his coat wet and hanging loosely around him. He was looking around the interior with a worried expression. Beside him there were two bags with something that looks like the take-away food he had smelled earlier. He stared at the bags and the Doctor's eyes finally settled on him.
“Hello,” the Doctor said, waving one hand in greeting.
“Hello,” Jack repeated dumbfounded and raised an eyebrow at the suspiciously foreign bag. “How did you bypass the alarm?” he asked, confused at the surprise visit inside the Hub.
The Doctor delivered his answer with a gleeful smile. “You call that a security system? Really, Jack, you of all people should know better.”
“Hey, it serves its purpose most of the time.”
The smile turned a little more mocking. “Most of the time, huh?”
“Yeah. Most of the time the aliens don't really want to come in. Only the exceptionally cheeky ones do. And then our system usually works as unfailingly as the temporal scanners of your Tardis.”
“The scanners work fine, Jack,” the Doctor stated smugly. “Certain people just don't know how to read them.”
“Meaning? I can't read them? Then you can't read them either!”
The Doctor laughed at that. “I just don't bother most of the time. Doesn't mean I can't.”
And Jack thought that might possibly be true, too. His stomach grumbled and reminded him of the enticing smell coming from the plastic bags.
“Food?” the Doctor asked, holding up the bags as an offering.
“How could you possibly have known, I'd be hungry?” He was already reaching for the food. The Doctor passed him one and got up by hopping down from the platform.
“You are always hungry,” he stated in a matter of fact tone and followed him, as Jack made for Ianto's little kitchenette to grab cutlery. The smell was making his mouth water. It was oddly familiar, but it couldn't be Pakistani. “Don't tell me this is fried Lorn? You went all the way to Vendrizi to get this?”
“Time machine,” the Doctor shrugged as if it was nothing - and for him it probably was. “You and Rose seemed terribly fond of it when we visited the planet.“
“Fond?” Jack laughed remembering how they had been stuffing themselves with this dish for the three days they’d been staying there for the local festivities to the Doctor's utter disgust. He motioned for the Doctor to follow him up to his office where he pulled out a chair for his guest and they sat down comfortably around his desk. He couldn't wait to open the strangely coloured take-out box that was so obviously alien and taste the delicious food. “What have you got?” he asked unwrapping the food. The Doctor pulled out a very much not alien package of chips and Jack raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. “You go all the way to Vendrizi to get me something you know I'll like and then what? You go to the local chippie?”
The Doctor shrugged, already munching on his chips. “All alien food to me anyway. I never liked that dish,” he explained with a huff. “Tastes too much like pears with cheese. Didn’t like it when we were there last either, remember?” He scrunched up his nose a little and went back to eating his chips out of the Styrofoam box.
“I remember,” Jack said fondly, not pointing out that a lot had changed since then. And the memory made the gesture all the more endearing. “Although I think last time you claimed you couldn’t eat anything that looked like blue tomatoes.” The smell of the food was overwhelming. He took a bite and the taste was as exquisite as he remembered. Alien spices and alien vegetables. It was pure bliss. He felt a strange nostalgia for the future. And all of it felt strangely normal: Eating take-away at home - even if food was from another planet and home was a secret underground base.
“This feels a bit like the old times, doesn’t it?” the Doctor said, looking a bit amused.
Jack chuckled. “Yeah, but a bit more domestic.”
“Hmm.” The Doctor put another chip into his mouth and started chewing with a slightly forlorn expression. “You mean not eating it while the Chief Executor gives away little china plates commemorating the death of some monster or other is domestic?”
“It is,” Jack insisted. “Although I’m not exactly considered an expert on all things domestic.”
The Doctor sighed. “Are you trying to make me uncomfortable? Because I thought the china plates were very domestic.”
“Am I succeeding?” he asked unconcerned, because the Doctor didn’t look uncomfortable in the slightest. The way he was lounging at Jack’s desk now was in fact making it seem as if he felt right at home here.
“So did you just tell me you’ve settled down? Here?” He gestured widely around and Jack wasn’t exactly sure if he meant the Hub, Cardiff or Earth in general. Could be any of these really. “You’re living here, right? No house, no flat?”
“No. Tried all that before. Works for a time, but in the end it’s not really for me.”
“Hmm.” The Doctor nodded, his attention apparently focused on the food.
Jack wanted to savour his own dish, but it tasted so good that he couldn't slow down. Hunger and the strange sense of longing the food had awakened in him weren’t exactly helpful either. The food was vanishing too fast for his liking. The Doctor leaned back in his chair looking at him amused, leaving some of his chips untouched.
“They’re not feeding you enough here?”
He shrugged. “The problem is all mine. Ianto is trying to make sure all of us get enough food during missions. But you know how it is, right?”
A nod was his only answer. “So, Ianto. Seems he is good for you.”
It was a casual remark, but Jack was taken by surprise by the focused interest. He hadn’t exactly discussed his current situation with the Doctor and wasn’t sure why his friend would bring it up now. He took a napkin to clean himself up and leaned back in his own chair to get a better look at the Doctor's face. “It’s complicated,” he said then, cautiously phrasing his answer. “His last relationship ended with traumatizing loss.” He didn’t want to bring up Torchwood One and the Cybermen. It hadn’t only been traumatizing to the humans involved in that fiasco. After all the Doctor had lost Rose that day. They had never really discussed that and Jack didn’t want to push his luck there now either.
“So, you’re good for each other? That’s what counts.” The Doctor sounded genuinely interested and a little wistful. He was still travelling alone, Jack remembered and felt a bit worried about that for a second. Then he took a moment to examine his own mixed feelings at the Doctor's statement. Yes, Ianto was good for him. After Jack had come back they'd even started dating. But since he had finally understood that Ianto felt unsure of his own position, he wasn’t sure if he was really good for Ianto in turn. After all he was a 51st century guy - and Ianto wouldn’t be the first human he had met during his time stuck in what to him was the past who'd had trouble understanding the way Jack lived and loved.
“Something wrong?” The Doctor looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a curious expression. “Did I make you uncomfortable now?”
He shrugged. “You may have hit a nerve, yeah.”
The Doctor looked at him for a moment, questioning, a hint of worry in his eyes that was gone before Jack could be sure he'd really seen it. “You don't want to elaborate, I guess. Fine. I wouldn't want to either.” He shrugged. “Not easy to be out of your time, right?”
It was Jack's turn to shrug. “Says the notorious time traveller?” He couldn't suppress a soft chuckle. “You never seemed to have problems with adjusting.”
“Neither did you,” the Doctor pointed out. The Doctor leaned back and gave him an infuriatingly smug look as if to say he already knew exactly what was wrong.
And he probably did, smug bastard. “It's different when you live a linear life for so long.” He wanted it to sound like an accusation, but the Doctor just nodded.
“Yeah. Which is why I'm not doing that again. Doesn't mean it has to be an unpleasant experience.”
“Do I want to ask?” The truth was that he did want to ask. He wasn't sure if the Doctor really wanted to tell him.
A smile tugged at the Doctor's lips. “Let's just say that I didn't always have a working Tardis at my disposal.”
“Sure thing. I wasn't always a time agent either. Still different, is it? You weren't stranded.” That did sound exactly like accusation. He didn't really mean it though and wished he could soften it somehow. When he looked up, the Doctor was smiling wistfully again and he had a feeling there was no need to say more.
“There was that one time when I spent five years turning a restaurant into an renown gourmet temple in hopes of getting back to my Tardis. And there was that other time when I nearly got stuck with Rose and...” He stopped thinking. “There were quite a few times when I was stuck for a time, really. Still not the same thing, I guess. A little uncomfortable at the time. An inconvenience.”
“You owned a restaurant?”
The Doctor waved his hand dismissively. “Long story. Doesn't really help you. Entirely different dilema.” He leaned forward putting his arms on the desk to get a closer look at Jack's face. “I asked you to come along twice now and you declined. You're not really sorry about being stuck here. So what is it?”
“Always being right – doesn't that get old really fast?” he asked, because the Doctor had hit a nerve again. He just didn't know how to put into words what was going around his head.
“No. No, it doesn't. It's fun.” He sounded too smug for Jack's liking.
“Okay. I need a drink.” Already reaching for his glass and the bottle of scotch on his desk, he added: “How about you?”
The Doctor just shook his head and leaned back, waiting.
When had their roles been reversed? Jack had been sure he was supposed to be the one who listened in this friendship.
He took a sip of his drink. The alcohol had a strangely calming effect. Maybe he should just say what was going through his head, the way he used to do when he was younger. The Doctor had come all the way to share alien take-away after all – he wouldn't be scared away by the truth, right? Only one way to find out. “Ianto thinks I'm in love with you.”
The Doctor's expression didn't change at all. “So? Is he wrong?”
That hadn't been exactly the question he'd been expecting. There was only one answer though: “No.”
To Jack’s utmost surprise the Doctor didn't look scared or worried or exasperated. That's what he would have expected from someone who had left the girl – woman, really – he so clearly loved with his own clone in another universe, because the more human him could give her what she was looking for. That was what had happened, right?
The Doctor folded his hands in his lap with a neutral expression on his handsome face. “Is that the problem?” he asked. “He thinks we're more than friends?”
“I told him we're not. I'm not sure he believed me.”
His friend nodded. “21st century. You can't expect them to understand your upbringing. Or the way you love. Not without trouble.”
Jack nodded. The problem was that he'd kept his own life a secret for so long. He'd scared away lovers and friends with his immortality, his 51st century morals, his looks, his alien knowledge and sometimes with his capacity to just love. He could be himself, but only if he paid the price. So in the end he had opted to keep most of his secrets.
“I don't expect them to understand, really.” He was thinking about Gwen: The way she felt clearly attracted to him, but wouldn't act on it because her feelings for her husband were as true as her feelings for Jack. No problem to have a fling with Owen, because he had never been a true threat for her love for Rhys, but a problem because she truly felt something for Jack. Jack knew the mechanics, but he didn't truly understand that. Whatever his team thought about his supposedly loose morals, he didn't work like that. There was no hierarchy of feelings for him. When he loved he truly loved with all his heart and without borders - everything else was only sex. He wouldn’t want to miss it, but the emotions involved were totally different and couldn’t be mistaken for love.
“Ah,” the Doctor said. “It's never easy, is it? Living with all the expectations. The question you have to ask yourself is: Is it worth it? You were like them once. Different upbringing, broader horizon, but human brain and human life span. You have time now, Jack. For you it doesn't have to be all or nothing any more. Believe me you have time.”
„Is that how you live, Doc? I had a feeling it was all or nothing with you?“
The Doctor shrugged. „I'm an old man, Jack. I'm the only one of my people left alive. Sooner or later you stop expecting people to really understand you. That doesn’t mean you can’t have friends or lovers or even relationships that count. Just remember you have time, but they don’t. So cherish the moments you can have, Jack, otherwise you’ll be sorry..”
Again Jack had the urge to ask the Doctor how well he practised what he preached. But there was something strangely open in the Doctor’s eyes just now and he had the certain feeling that the Doctor was just waiting for the questions. Rose, he thought again. He’s talking about Rose. It hurt a little to think about the love the Doctor had felt for that one special girl, while Jack had been left behind so easily.
Thinking about Rose never brought jealousy with it. After all he had loved her, too, in his own way. She’d been so easy to love. But every time he thought about her he just had to ask himself why he had been rescued by her and left behind by the Doctor - without a word or explanation.
“Believe me Jack, you’ll be sorry.” The Doctor’s eyes darted around the desk and settled on a picture that Gwen had stuck to his pin board: Gwen, Owen and Tosh sharing Pizza, Ianto standing in front of them with an astonished expression. Jack had taken the picture to test a slightly tuned camera. He remembered the moment well, only days before Martha had joined them for a time, before Owen had died and he’d brought him back. Now Tosh and Owen were gone.
And Jack realized the Doctor wasn’t talking about Rose, but about all of them, friends, family, companions, all the people the Doctor had known and travelled with.
He had come to understand regrets like these. So much time to lose people, colleagues, friends and living on and on and on through everything. Every time he was allowed to see his daughter, now his grandson who’d never be allowed to know their true relationship, he felt he’d missed the opportunity for a family. “I see what you mean.”
“Good,” the Doctor said. “Mission accomplished then.”
“It’s hard though, isn’t it? There is always a sort of wall keeping you apart from other people. I’ve grown up so differently from people around here, seen so many different things and...”
“And? Do you think you’d still fit in where you’d come from? You’re...” He stopped, searching for the right word with a cute wriggle of his eyebrows and settled on something. “Different.”
Jack shrugged. “I’ve always been different,” he said with a smile that was obviously meant to be flirty.
“Yeah, yeah,” the Doctor said, waving his hand in front of him dismissively. “You’re just full of yourself. 51st century people often are. See? Not so different. Anyway, what I’m saying is: The problem is as much yours as it’s Ianto’s, so maybe you shouldn’t throw it away because you hit a problem. He has expectations that differ from yours and now you have to deal with it.”
“I can’t believe you are giving me relationship advice!” He laughed. “Interesting development.” Still smiling he took a sip of his drink.
“I’m a married man,” the Doctor said with conviction. Jack very nearly spat his drink over the table. It was a very satisfying reaction for the Doctor, who’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Apparently,” he added like an afterthought. “Don’t know her that well just yet.”
Jack laughed again, coughing a little from his moment of chocking. He had reason to suspect that the Doctor was telling the truth this time, that he wasn't just joking. He had a way of telling the truth in a way that made it sound like an outrageous story. Or, well, often the truth was an outrageous story when it came to the Doctor. So he was married - or would be? Did that mean he was more open to relationships in general now? Because he’d met his future?
“So it’s not all or nothing with you any more?”
The Doctor shrugged again. “I have no idea. Hasn’t happened, yet. Although, of course, I’ve been married before. Maybe I still am?” He looked confused at his own thoughts.
Jack leaned back to stare at the table, to take in the lingering smell of alien food again, to better take in the picture the Doctor was making, slouching in his chair totally relaxed and at ease with himself. “Interesting,” he sighed. He’d always figured the Doctor was a loving, romantically oblivious, no-relationship type of guy. “Maybe your old age makes you realize that closeness is something that’s to be cherished.”
“Tell yourself that if it helps, Jack. You’re the ancient thing here.”
“I’m not sure if the years I was either buried or frozen really count.”
“They count.”
Banter. Jack loved it.
This was as nice as their little outing to the pub had been the last time the Doctor had visited. Maybe they could settle for a strong friendship now. They’d both be living for a long time and there weren't many constant to their lives. Wasn’t it better to have someone to meet up with once in a while?
And maybe one day he'd still get his chance.
Or maybe not. The Doctor was unpredictable sometimes and Jack liked it that way.
“So how did you enjoy your normal time hanging out with a friend in a pub?”
“It wasn't my first time hanging out with a friend in a pub, Jack. Been there, done that. Done a lot.”
Jack chuckled, enjoying their short walk in the evening air. He was feeling more relaxed than he'd felt in a long time and he really wished the evening wouldn't have to end.
But the Doctor was in a hurry again and Jack understood what was driving him to go back out there to the crazy life of a lonely Time Lord across time and space. For the Doctor it was always easier to go on without standing still, to experience more and to get into trouble.
“When was the last time?”
“I think I met Brax in a pub a few hundred years ago.”
“Who's Brax?”
The Doctor went quiet, some of the good mood draining away. “A friend,” he finally said. Then he looked up and smiled again. “Maybe we should do it more often.”
“Yeah, maybe we should,” Jack said lightly, trying to ignore how his heart was jumping in his chest at the thought. “I think we're getting old.”
“We are old. By comparison,” the Doctor said. “Between the two of us, you're the old one, of course.”
The Doctor was looking at the assortment of alien tech with a slight frown and some visible excitement. Jack didn't bother to hide his own amusement.
“The rift is throwing a lot of stuff at you,” the Doctor said to him after a moment. He still looked mostly excited, but he'd been looking at some weapons with a disapproving twist of the mouth just a second before. “Some useful, some dangerous. Some both.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“You better take care of this place.”
“I'm trying,” he said, growing more serious. “It's my task.”
“One day there'll be a Torchwood Institute working throughout the universe,” the Doctor offered. “I think they were trying to do good.”
“That's a relieve,” Jack said with a nod, knowing a bit about that from his past that was this world's future.
“You'll probably not stay with them forever.”
“I don't think things go on forever, even for people like me.”
“I suppose that's true,” the Doctor said and nodded. Something sad passed over his face, but was gone again the next minute. Then the Doctor took up a piece of a broken Churian particle scanner and nodded to himself. Then he held it up for Jack to see and asked: “Do you need that? I need a replacement.”
“Doesn't the Tardis usually repair stuff like that herself?”
“She does. But sometimes it just speeds up the process to give her some new hardware to play with.”
“Take it,” Jack said unconcernedly.
“Thanks.”
“Take it as an anniversary gift.”
“Anniversary?” The Doctor actually sounded confused.
Jack smiled fondly. “Well we're three month into this friendship thing.”
The Doctor shook his head. “More like five.” He turned to look at Jack. “Do people do friendship anniversaries?”
“I really don't care what people do. Just take it.”
They were standing in front of the Tardis and the Doctor had a hand already on the door handle.
Jack sighed and said: “Find someone to travel with.”
“Aren't you afraid that I'd not come back then?” The Doctor was looking at him over his shoulder distractedly.
“I'm sure I'll see you again.”
“Till next time then.”
“Until then,” Jack echoed. And the Doctor was gone. A moment later the Tardis had vanished as if she'd never been there.
“Time to go!” the Doctor said, when they came up to the Plass.
“Yeah. Time for you to go back to travelling time and space.” He smiled, but some of his own longing for the stars must have bled into his voice.
The Doctor just looked around for a moment and then nodded. “One day this life will be over and you'll go back to the stars, too. You can whenever you want to.” He reached for Jack's arm and Jack was surprised when he touched his vortex manipulator to activate it. With the other hand he got out his sonic screwdriver and did something. The vortex manipulator beeped and when Jack looked down on it he stared at it in awe.
“What happened to you not trusting me with it?”
“It wasn't you I wasn't trusting,” the Doctor said, fidgeting a little. “I don't like the thought of someone else getting their hands on it.”
Jack raised a questioning eyebrow, not sure if he should believe this explanation or his luck, so he just nodded. “So, now things have changed?”
“Things change,” the Doctor said and this time he looked really uncomfortable. “I feel things are changing. Things might change for me very soon. So take care of it. Take care of the life you have here. And when things change for you, you might be glad to have a working time travelling device.”
He was honestly speechless for a moment and then echoed the Doctor's words from earlier: “Thanks.”
“Call it an anniversary gift.” The Doctor smiled, his cheeky and less wistful smile. “Until then,” he said and made a one handed salute at Jack, before opening the Tardis door and stepping inside.
Jack followed him with his eyes. “Until next time.” He felt strangely like he'd missed part of a conversation, but also bewildered at the Doctor's sudden willingness to repair his vortex manipulator. “Good-bye,” he said, before the Doctor could fully close the door.
He got a last glimpse of swinging brown coat and a smile thrown back at him over a shoulder. Then the Tardis was fading back into the vortex and Jack was left with the realization that he could just jump back and follow her if he wanted to do so.
“Thanks,” he said again to the quiet night around him.
Something had definitely changed tonight.
And it felt like a good thing.
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Lovely line in a lovely fic.
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