ent_alter_ego: Locked Out 1/2 (Ten/Jack) [PG]

[ent-alter-ego.livejournal.com]

Title: Locked Out

Author: ent_alter_ego 

Challenge: Domesticity

Rating: PG

Spoilers/Warnings:  None besides the Thing About Jack

Summary: The TARDIS locks the Doctor out, forcing him to learn such tidbits as the limitations of late twenty-first century dishwashers.

Disclaimer: Property of the BBC; no profit is made from this story.

Boston, 2092

THURSDAY

Jack had been cooped up doing paperwork for three days. He hated paperwork, and the latest incident had resulted in more than usual. So he was enjoying a leisurely walk around the Commons when he heard a familiar voice say, “Don’t be ridiculous.”

He whirled around and, sure enough, there was the Doctor, standing outside the TARDIS in his brown pinstriped suit. “Doctor?”

“Jack, hello.” The Time Lord was obviously distracted.

“Problem?”

“The TARDIS won’t let me in.”

A full minute later, when Jack had stopped laughing and cleared the tears from his eyes, he was facing an even more irate Doctor. “So glad I could amuse you,” said his friend with a scowl.

“Right.” He finished pulling himself together with one last snigger. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t know! I saved North America, now it’s time to leave. But she won’t let me in.”

Jack frowned. “North America was in danger? UNIT didn’t know about it.”

“I took care of it. You’re with UNIT these days?”

“Needed a change of scenery.”

The Doctor accepted the explanation without comment. “She won’t even tell me why.”

“Better come stay with me then.”

“Jack, now is not the time.”

He hadn’t intended that as flirting. “Let’s just say that unless you’ve taken up several vices recently, you won’t fit in with the crowd here after dark.”

“Oh.”

Looking around, he asked, “Anyone with you?”

“No.”

“Come on, then.” The Doctor fell into step behind him, uncharacteristically silent. Not for the first time, Jack was glad he’d opted to actually have a place of his own this time around.

It wasn’t until they passed a large and vocal anti-war demonstration that the Doctor spoke. “Peace demonstrations, one of the best things about humans. So many species lack them, it’s appalling. Which war are they protesting?”

“India.”

“Nasty one, that.”

Jack, who didn’t particularly feel like discussing politics, changed the subject. “Do you need a toothbrush or anything?”

“Nope. I always carry a toothbrush. Although bananas might be nice.”

There was a corner store two blocks from his apartment. The Doctor immediately headed for the produce section and picked out one of the largest bunches of bananas. Jack thought nine bananas might have been a bit much for the two of them, but decided to go with it.

“Fair wage bananas. Brilliant! Where are you going?”

“To get bread.” He didn’t have much left and the Doctor was fond of toast.

The Doctor tagged along, stopping now and then to examine something more closely. When Jack had his bread, he found the Doctor looking incredulously at a display of crackers. “They make crackers out of fish?”

With a grin, Jack shook his head. “They’re just shaped like goldfish.”

“Hmm.” The Time Lord pulled out his glasses and proceeded to read the ingredients. Jack grabbed the bag and headed over to pay. Just in time, he remembered to get some tea bags for the Doctor.

While he paid, the Doctor amused himself reading the papers posted on the bulletin board. On the way out the door he shared his conclusion. “People seem to have a hard time keeping track of their cats around here.”

Honestly, Jack never paid much attention to lost cats. This time, however, he had a pretty good idea what had happened. “I doubt those cats are coming back. Our latest visitor had an appetite for small animals. We barely kept it from getting a kid.”

The Doctor frowned slightly.

“I’ve only got one bedroom, but you’re welcome to the futon.” Unable to resist a little teasing, he added, “Unless, of course, you feel like keeping me company.”

“I don’t need to sleep tonight.”

Neither did Jack, strictly speaking, but he’d learned over the years that it was easier to sleep a few hours every night – barring emergencies. This way kept him from crashing at his desk. Besides, it gave him a semblance of normalcy. “You’re welcome to it anyway.” When the Doctor said nothing, Jack asked, “So, how long has it been for you?” That was the most disconcerting aspect of time travel, even though Jack was more or less used to it.

“Ten years.”

“I’m gaining on you.”

The Doctor rolled his eyes. Jack turned and walked up the steps to his building, then up the flight of stairs to the second floor.

“Home sweet home,” he said, opening the door. The Doctor strode in and placed his bananas on Jack’s kitchen counter. “This is the kitchen. Down the hall” – Jack led the way, Time Lord in tow – “is the bathroom, my bedroom, and here’s the living room.” It was a small apartment, but he didn’t need much space.

The Doctor looked out the window. “I can see the TARDIS. Stubborn ship.”

“Maybe she just needs some time alone.”

“Are you implying that my ship is sick of me?”

“No.” That was even the truth.

“Good.”

He left the Doctor sulking and went to heat up some soup.

FRIDAY

One handy thing about being immortal was that he could stay up until four in the morning trading stories with the Doctor and still wake up just after dawn, perfectly refreshed.

The Doctor was sitting on the couch, motionless. “Doctor?”

“Jack!” Oops. Considering the way the Doctor half-jumped to standing position, Jack had really startled him.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

“I was just trying to get through to the TARDIS.”

“Any luck?”

“No.” The Doctor was actually pouting.

“Tea?”

“I’d rather a cooperative ship, but yes.”

Jack set some water to boil and started his coffeemaker, then put bread in the toaster and took out a jar of jam. “There are worse places to be stuck.”

In response, the Doctor raised his eyebrows and countered, “I don’t want to be stuck anywhere.”

“You could make yourself useful.”

The Doctor perked up at bit at this. “Oh? Have you got artifacts you need identified? Unexplained phenomena to be examined? Missing people to track down?”

“Actually,” said Jack, “I need a date.”

That was how he accomplished one of his lifelong goals, namely, stunning the Doctor speechless.

“There’s a private ceremony this afternoon, and I could really use a date. So to speak.” He poured water into a mug and handed it to the Doctor, who was peeling a banana with more force than the task really called for.

“Jack, I don’t -”

“It’s kind of a big deal.”

At least that got the Doctor to look up. “What kind of big deal?”

“Well, since you asked,” here he sat across from the Doctor, “I’m getting the Presidential Citizens Medal. It’s going to be low-key, considering what it was for, but I’d really like you to come.”

“Congratulations! That’s brilliant! So, you’re a US citizen now?”

Only the Doctor would ask that first. “Have been for fifteen years now.”

“So, what happened?”

“Will you come?”

“It’s not a date.”

Jack grinned. He grabbed his coffee, put the toast on plates, and began. “There was a Raxacoricofallapatorian family…”

***

The Doctor didn’t care for planes – which were admittedly not as convenient as the TARDIS – but he was obviously pleased. “Jack, I’ve never been much for awards – Time Lords generally weren’t – but you deserve that medal.”

Medals didn’t mean that much to him either, but he smiled. “Thanks.” Not that he’d ever admit it, but he was glad the Doctor was there, and glad the Time Lord thought he’d earned the medal. He glanced down at it, where the president had pinned it to his chest.

“I was a coward. Regeneration sickness, yes, but still a coward.” The Doctor looked directly into his eyes. “And you probably don’t want to hear this, but I can’t regret it, leaving you. Because Earth needed you, Jack Harkness.”

It wasn’t an apology, exactly, but then again in a way it was. Jack didn’t know what to say, so he simply nodded. He certainly wasn’t going to tell the Doctor how, after all those decades, he still needed to hear that.

“But things get pretty quiet on Earth now. So, if you want to come with me, when the TARDIS lets me, the invitation’s open.”

“Maybe.”

The Doctor didn’t push for anything more than that. Instead, he predictably changed the subject. “Posh dinner they fed us.”

“You’re just happy we got bananas flambé.”

“Maybe a little.”

One of the flight attendants came on over the speakers. “Please fasten your seatbelts and return all seatbacks to the upright position in preparation for our landing in Boston.”

The Doctor probably had planned on another morning of standing around the TARDIS silently arguing with her, but Jack thought that was not only boring (which it was) but obviously pointless. It took him a moment to come up with an alternative that might interest the Doctor, as he was currently not facing any menaces. “The Boston Aquarium just reopened after their expansion. If the TARDIS isn’t letting you in, we could go tomorrow. It beats standing around arguing.”

“Is it one of those aquaria that try to sell you fish sticks for lunch?”

“I’ve never actually been.” Well, he’d been on the roof once chasing some kind of genetic experiment gone wrong and dumped on Earth, but he was pretty sure that didn’t count.

“Come to think of it, I’ve never seen a penguin.”

Briefly, Jack wondered what he was getting himself into.