wintercompanion | In low Bars

Title: In low Bars

Author/Artist/Vidder: amythest_n_ice

Prompt(s) used: Jack and the Doctor meet Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox

Rating: PG ish

Spoilers/Warnings: None Really.

Summary: The Doctor and Jack meet some strange people in a low bar on a Space Station.

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The Doctor grinned, allowing Jack to pull him along behind him in the direction of a bar in the lower levels of the Tarbin II Space Station. He had repeated his long ago instruction to ‘buy me a drink’ when Jack had flirted with him just before landing, and Jack had given him a very predatory grin, and dragged him out of the TARDIS the moment they had landed.

The Doctor did wonder if the TARDIS was in collusion with Jack, because when they had landed, it certainly hadn’t been on Velos V, which was the course he had set.

“Jack, how would you know such a disreputable looking place?” He asked with a smile as Jack hauled him inside.

“Years as a conman.” He pointed out, dragging him over to the bar and shoving him onto a stool.

“Barkeep.” He called up to the man polishing the other end of the bar.

“What? Oh it’s you. Double hyper vodka then, and your friend?” The man growled in a voice that sounded like it had been dragged over gravel.

“No, thanks Brax. Two Acturan brandies, please.” He grinned, putting a credit chip down on the counter. The man plunked two glasses of amber liquid down on the counter, and swept up the credit chip, before disappearing back to the other end of the bar.

“Cheers,” Jack said, picking up the two glasses and handing one to the Doctor, clinking them together.

“Cheers.” The Doctor echoed, taking a sip of the warm, velvety liquid.

“Nice,” he said approvingly as the liquid hit his stomach, sending tendrils of warmth through his veins.

“Only the best for you.” Jack said, offering a shy smile.

The Doctor put his glass on the bar, and laid his hand over Jack’s, opening his mouth to say something, but whatever it was never got out.

Two people walked into the bar, arguing loudly, over what sounded like forgetting where they had parked. One was maybe a shade taller than Jack, with two heads, three arms, and a laid back attitude that seemed to be infuriating his smaller companion. The second man was a little shorter than the Doctor and Jack, wiry with ginger-ish hair and a face that was growing steadily redder, which was clashing awfully with his hair.

“Zaphod, how could you forget where you left a ship that size?” The smaller one yelled as they claimed the two stools to the left of where the Doctor and Jack were sitting.

“Heeey, chill Ford. It isn’t going to wander off on its own.” The taller one said, holding up all three hands in a placating gesture, which completely failed to placate Ford Prefect.

“Isn’t that exactly how you got it in the first place, walking off with it?” Ford snapped back.

“Isn’t that the same way you picked up your whining pet ape?”

“Don’t talk about Arthur that way, it’s hardly his fault that he wasn’t psychologically prepared to be abducted by a friend who he thought was from Guildford, who actually turned out to be from outer space, and really not his fault that his planet was blown to atoms by the Vogons. Besides, you are the one who left him, Trillian and a suicidaly depressed android wandering this tin can alone. They’ve probably been eaten by something.”

“Well, then at least he would be right when he whined that he was going to die.”

The two headed man kept one set of eyes focused on the man he was arguing with, and the other head turned to look down the bar.

“Hey Barkeep, over here.”

“What?” The Brax growled his standard greeting.

“Three Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters.”

“We don’t sell that here, the fatality rate was too high. Strongest thing you’ll get on this station is hyper vodka.”

“Great, it will do.”

Jack watched with an amused smile as the smaller man banged his head down on the bar, leaving his loud friend to get drunk without any input from him.

The smaller man finally tilted his head in their direction while it was still lying on the bar, twisting his neck to look up at them.

“Hi, Ford Prefect, roving reporter for the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.” He said, awkwardly holding out a hand to the Doctor, who was the nearest to him.

“The Doctor, this is Jack.”

“Hi,” Jack said, giving a small wave, wanting to get back to what he and the Doctor had been talking about.

“The Hitchhikers Guide, I haven’t seen a copy of that in ages,” The Doctor said with a grin.

“The what now?” Jack asked irritably.

The Doctor turned, his grin fading at the mix of anger, misery and resignation in Jack’s eyes, and the Doctor realized with a start that Jack was starting to think that the Doctor had been leading him on again, getting his hopes up, to let him down again. The Doctor’s smile softened, and he squeezed Jack’s hand gently, pointedly sipping from his drink.

“The Guide is an electronic book, full of interesting things. Not always the most accurate, but without a doubt, interesting.” The Doctor smiled as the negativity left Jack’s blue eyes, and he got a shy smile from the young immortal.

“Quite, anyway, I research updates for the more glaring inaccuracies, and omissions.” Ford said, finally propping himself up on his elbows to take the glass of hyper vodka Zaphod thrust at him.

“Thanks.” He said grudgingly.

“Who are your new buddies there Ford?” Zaphod asked.

“Jack and the Doctor, this is Zaphod Beeblebrox.”

“Hi,” Zaphod said, waving with all three hands to show off.

“Hi,” The Doctor nodded.

“So, are you working for this guide too?” Jack asked.

“Zaphod doesn’t believe in work,” Ford snorted.

“Hey, I work very hard to be the cool, sophisticated role model that I am.” Zaphod objected.

Ford snickered and looked away from him.

“So what are you two doing in a place like this? You both look…… a bit well heeled for a joint like this,” Ford commented.

“This was always the best bar in the sector for conducting business.” Jack shrugged.

“Ah.”

Jack smirked, and took a sip of the brandy that sat beside his elbow.

“So, are you here on business now?” Ford asked nervously, glancing around. This bar had a dark reputation.

“No, different line of work now.”

“Ah, right.”

“So what are you doing in here?” The Doctor asked.

“He’s trying to avoid the rest of our party, he thinks they won’t find us in here. He just doesn’t want to tell them that he can’t remember where we parked.”

“So why don’t you remember?” Jack asked.

“Um, because I was still half asleep when he dragged me off the ship,” Ford said with a deep sigh.

“And the rest of your party won’t remember because?” The Doctor asked, curious.

“They were so eager to get over here, and have a look around, they transmatted over. Well, not the android, but he was sent to try to keep an eye on them. We were supposed to meet them in the mezzanine, two hours ago.” Ford shot a dark look at the two headed man beside him.

“Heeeey, nothing stopping you meeting them Ford.”

“Yeah, right, let them spend all the time having a go at me, so they won’t have the energy left to have a go at you, thanks, but no thanks.”

There was a metallic clanking noise, and the sound of overworked pneumatics, and a tall, blocky android came in, accompanied by a low rumbling sound, and followed by two humans. The first, a woman, had blonde hair, and wore a fetching red PVC cat suit. The second was a tallish, morose looking man, wearing of all things, a thread bare dressing gown, and a pair of striped pajama bottoms.

As this motley and bizarre group approached, Jack and the Doctor realized that the rumbling was really the android muttering to itself at low volume, perfectly set to be just on the wrong side of annoying.

“Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and what do they do, just ask me stupid questions, do you know where we are, why is that creature with big teeth looking at me, where are the others, where is the ship, why are they late. Find them Marvin, like a tracker dog. Here I am with a terrible pain all down the diodes in my left side, and do they care? Carry the parcels Marvin.” It said, the litany set in a loop from what they could tell.

The humans that were following it had pained, embarrassed looks on their faces.

“Hey, can it metal man.” Zaphod growled.

“What are you two doing down here? We waited at the mezzanine for an hour, then we waited in the docking bay for an hour. And where do we find you, down here, getting drunk.” The woman started on them.

“Trillian, Trillian, have a drink,” Zaphod said in his most charming manner, which earned him a dark glare from Trillian, who reached out, grabbed one of his ears and pulled him off the barstool, starting to drag him from the room without relinquishing her grip.

Ford gave Jack and the Doctor a tight smile, and slid off his stool as the dressing gown clad man came up beside him.

“Ford, there were strange creatures up there, looking at me like I was the dessert menu.”

“I know Arthur, I know. Let’s get back to the ship. Nice meeting you two, maybe we’ll see you around,” Ford said, lightly taking Arthur’s arm.

“Come on Arthur, come on Marvin.” Ford led the mismatched trio’s exit from the bar.

“Odd people.” Jack commented, idly swirling the amber fluid left in his glass.

“Yes.” The Doctor picked up his glass, and downed the rest of the brandy inside, nodding at Jack to do the same.

“So, before we were interrupted, I was going to say something,” the Doctor said, taking Jack’s hand again after he put his now empty glass on the bar.

“Yes,” Jack said, his voice, soft, nervous.

“I was going to say, does only the best include you?”

“What?”

“If you only want me to have the best, do I have you?”

“Oh God yes, for as long as you want me.”

“Forever sounds good to me, my beloved immortal.”

Jack blushed, and not caring who was watching, he leaned over and kissed the Doctor.

“Forever, I like the sound of that,” he said quietly.

“Good, then I suggest we get back to the TARDIS, because what I want to do to you now would get us arrested, even in this bar."

Jack laughed and slid off his stool, grabbing the Doctor’s hand and dragging him out as enthusiastically as he had dragged him in.

End

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Oh God, cringes. This was a lot harder than it should have been, considering I love both fandoms. I hope that it isn’t too awful.

In low Bars

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