| Date: 16 December 2007
Characters: Susan Foreman, Jack Harkness Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #9168 |
 In the middle of the night, most people would be inside where it was considered safe, especially in an area where they were unsure of the quality of the residents. But Susan wasn't most people. So instead of being inside of the hotel building safe in one of its many rooms, she was seated cross legged on the ground, leaning back on her hands with her face tilted up and upwards toward the sky, studying the star formation with a confused yet curious and enraptured expression. None of them were familiar (odd considering she knew the constellations for several different galaxies and galactic positions by heart), but that didn't stop them from being beautiful. |
 Uneasy at being trapped in a building when he didn't even know which planet or reality he was in, Jack had wandered outside and along the street, in search of something that, if not familiar, was at least recognisable.
The girl sitting staring at the stars wasn't either, but he could definitely understand the fascination. Stopping a few feet away, he pushed hands into the pockets of his greatcoat and spoke softly. "Ever been there?" |
| "There?" Susan asked, pointing up at the sky with a slightly amused smile. "No, not there. Nothing familiar up there. It's gorgeous, though, isn't it?" |
| "Stunning," Jack agreed quietly, not moving any closer. "Even if I don't recognise a damn one of them."
Time for introductions. "Captain Jack Harkness." He freed a hand, holding it out towards the point. |
| "Susan," Susan said, grinning as she reached out and took his hand, shaking it happily before patting the ground next to her. "Pull up a bit of grass. It's a nice night," She said, giggling a bit before turning her gaze back up to the stars.
"Not a single one is familiar. It's almost like all of the galaxies were squished on top of each other so that all of the constellations just blur together," Susan said, tilting her head to the side with a slight pout. "Which just shouldn't happen." |
| "Not without serious disturbance to the continuum." Flicking his coat beneath him, Jack settled on the grass, one hand behind him for support, face turned up to the sky.
She had a point. Some of the stars did look kind of blurry, and there was no way that old age was affecting his eyesight. "Been here long, Susan?" |
| "Not too long. A couple days," Susan said, glancing over at Jack with a soft welcoming smile. "You?" She asked, peering curiously at him. His clothing seemed to scream World War II era, but there was something about his air that seemed to be...well...not.
Not to mention he was discussing time fluctuations like a pro. Someone from the WWII era would not be a pro at stuff like this. Even Hilter's occultist regime were just a bunch of hacks. It was an intriguing dichotomy. "Been trying to place exactly where here is. But it seems next to impossible," Susan said, tilting her head to the side and squinting. "Unless we're in the exact center of the entire universe, outside of any sort of galactic coordinates." |
| "Less time than that." It was as much as he was sure of. Sparing a glance from the distant mystery of unfamiliar stars, he looked across at her. Human, at least in appearance, but familiar with galactic co-ordinates.
"Or," he suggested, throwing another possibility out for consideration, "we're outside the universe somehow. East of the sun, west of the moon..." |
| Susan couldn't help but giggle, "Oh, you humans are always so quaint, thinking your solar system is the center of things," She said, glancing over at him with a wry smile. "Though, that's not a bad theory, outside of the universe. We're certainly between the cruxes of realities. But this isn't the Void by any means. Curious." |
| "Who says I'm human?" Jack countered. The little phrasing told him without doubt that Susan wasn't, though. And that she wasn't exactly uncomfortable with the notion of slipping outside the universe, or multiple realities. "Forgive me being forward on a first meeting, but what are you, if not human?"
She felt...different. Her mind felt different. Not that he was much in practise with mental communication, psychic talents rusty after too long in the twentieth century where anyone claiming them was pretty much guaranteed to be a crackpot. |
| "You certainly seem it," Susan said, grinning over at Jack before reaching out and fingering the hem of the coat. "Not to mention dressed like it. Circa 1940s if I'm not mistaken," She said before dropping her hand and turning her eyes back to the stars.
"I doubt you'll have heard of it," Susan said, glancing sidelong at Jack. "But I'm Gallifreyan," She said before lifting an eyebrow slightly at Jack. "And stop poking at my mind unless you're going to do it properly." |
| "Sorry," Jack responded, unabashed, offering an easy smile. "Out of practise."
Gallifreyan. Hell, yeah, he'd heard of it. From someone who'd seen it die. "I knew a guy from Gallifrey, once. Long time ago." Or maybe not. It was hard to tell, there. |
| "No worries. It doesn't come quite as easily to humans as it does some other species," Susan said, smiling a bit as the smile turned into a smirk. "That is, assuming that you actually are human. Either way."
Susan couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the 'long time ago' statement, "That's always the way. How long ago, if you don't mind my asking? I haven't seen another of my kind... Well, other than Grandfather... in nearly 16 years. Which is, to be honest, just a drop in the bucket to most Gallifreyans, but it can seem like a lifetime when you're just a child." |
| He studied her in silence for a few moments, passing no comment on his species because who the hell knew any more, anyway. "I wouldn't call you a child."
Young, sure, but not a child by any stretch of the imagination. "I last saw him a little under a hundred forty years ago. Got stuck living linear." Hell of a lot longer than 16 years. |
| Susan just grinned, "Whoever he was, he didn't tell you much about our life cycles, did he?" She asked, chuckling. "Gallifreyans are considered children until they reach two hundred, and even then, they're not considered productive adults unless they've either learned a useful trade or completed their education at the Academy for Time Lord certification. If not, then they're just Shobogan."
Leaning back on her hands again, Susan glanced over at Jack curiously at the statement of the length of time, "All right... You don't look that old," She said before a teasing smile crossed her face. "Don't tell me. Good genes?" |
| "He didn't talk about Gallifrey much at all," Jack confirmed, intrigued by the information on the mythical Time Lords. There was hardly anything generally available, and the Doctor hadn't exactly been forthcoming on the subject. "What's Shobogan?" |
| "Odd," Susan said, frowning softly. "Time Lords usually like to show off Gallifrey. It is quite impressive by many standards," She said, flopping back in the grass without any warning and pillowing her hands behind her head.
"Shobogan is what the outsiders are called. Mostly Academy dropouts who couldn't hack it," Susan said, glancing over at Jack with a slight grin. "What Grandfather would have ended up being. But he squeaked by his final exams with the Double Gamma. 51%, barely passing. I never understood why he kept failing all the simple things when his grades in the more complex subjects were at the top of the class." Susan shook her head after a moment, chuckling a bit, "Don't mind me. Rambling. He's a nice guy, Grandfather is. He's around here somewhere if you look hard enough. Big nose, floppy ears, leather jacket. Not quite the look that I'm used to, but it works for him." |
| Big nose.
Floppy ears. Leather jacket. Three versions of the Doctor, here, and a Gallifreyan woman - child, by her standards - claiming a man with a big nose, floppy ears, and a leather jacket as her grandfather. No way in any of the seventeen different hells that Jack knew of that any of that could be a coincidence. "Northern accent, carries a sonic screwdriver, got a thing about bananas?" |
| Susan's grin widened, "Got it in one," She said. "You know him, then?" She asked, chuckling a bit. "I guess he's developed a bit of a fondness for humans on more then just an intellectual level since I saw him last. About time. Ruddy old fuddy-duddy had a hell of a time trying to see the appeal of humans on a personal level when we first got to Earth." |
| "Oh, yeah," Jack responded slowly, trying to get his thoughts into some kind of order. Or something that didn't resemble the rift on a bad day. Or, hell, just thought would be nice. "Yeah, he was pretty...fond." |
| "I suppose, after awhile, you get to the point where you just need someone," Susan said, turning her gaze to Jack, peering up at his eyes, a thoughtful expression passing over her face before she started. "You've got that same look that he does. Eyes that have seen too much in a face that really doesn't show it." |
| "Sounds like your eyes see too much." Or more than Jack was comfortable with showing, anyhow. |
| Susan reached out and poked Jack lightly on the nose, smiling at him as she did, "Perhaps. Or perhaps your eyes show too much. Either way," she said, peering back up at the sky. "I bet he never mentioned me." |
| Nose wrinkling when she poked it, Jack reached up to wrap warm fingers around her hand to guide it away, and kept a gentle hold of it as he lowered their joined hands back towards the grass.
"He never mentioned you at all," he confirmed, studying her face for any sign of resemblance, which, okay, didn't make sense considering the Time Lord's ability to regenerate, but he looked, anyway. "You're his...daughter's child?" |
| Susan grinned a bit to herself when Jack kept ahold of her hand. She squeezed his hand as she nodded to his statement, "That I am," She said, chuckling a bit. "The oddity of an oddity. Grandfather never could do anything normal," Susan said with a grin before glancing over at Jack to explain.
"The population of Gallifrey is 90% male," Susan said. "Females are rare." |
| Jack wasn't entirely sure he could let go of her hand. She was...Christ, the Doctor had a daughter. And a granddaughter, and that was amazing. Logically, he supposed, the odds of a man - or a Time Lord - living over nine centuries and fathering no children were slim enough to be a twenty first century Western supermodel, but Jack had never even considered the possibility that the Doctor might had a family.
A family. And sitting next to him, looking up at the unfamiliar stars, was a genetic link to the man who'd changed his life. Who he'd loved and lost in the very best of tradition, and who was still the only man who held the answers Jack needed to hear. Plus, she really was beautiful. "I'll say you are," was all he could manage, voice the slightest bit thick. |
| "Are you all right?" Susan asked after a moment, glancing over at Jack with a deep concern in her expression. She hadn't said anything that should have provoked a heaviness to the conversation. Not that she could recall. |
| "Fine," Jack responded automatically, returning the look briefly before looking away again. If his eyes revealed that much, he wasn't exactly comfortable displaying them to a woman who could read too much. Not right then. "I just..."
He lifted her hand, holding it firm in both of his, and raised it to his lips for a light kiss to her knuckles. "I never knew he had a family." |
| Ah. Yes. Well, Susan could understand that. She figured that Grandfather would keep a lid on his own life. He never did like giving out more information than was necessary. "Grandfather's always been a very private person," Susan said with a soft smile and a chuckle. "Hell, he doesn't even tell people his name. I'm not surprised he didn't mention us."
Turning her head to the side, Susan offered Jack a broad grin, "But I've never had any problems with telling people about myself like Mister Need To Know." |
| "Never knew he had a name, either," Jack responded, with a wider grin. It was easier, somehow, to think of the Doctor as someone who used to have a name, than as someone who had a family.
Even with the evidence of that family teasing about her grandfather right next to him. "You've seen him? Here?" |
| "Oh, he does. But it's like most Gallifreyan names, impossible to pronounce after so long," Susan said with a slight giggle. "And I know he probably wouldn't appreciate me telling someone the nickname the family had for him since he did hate it ever so much," She said with a very playful smile.
"I've seen him, yes," Susan said with a nod. "He was the first person that I came across, actually." |
| "Oh, go on, you can't tease a guy like that and then not tell!" Jack chuckled, head tilting back to look up at the sky. A hundred and fifty years living linear, waiting for the Doctor to show up, and then falling out of time in a Cardiff club landed Jack in a place where the Doctor was. |
| "I can, and I will," Susan said with a smirk as she reached out her freehand and poked Jack playfully in the side. "Maybe I'll tell you later. Maybe." |
| "Hey!" Jack rolled away from the poke, catching the stray hand in his, trying for a glare. It wasn't easy when he was fighting an insane urge to laugh. "You're as bad as he is." |
| Susan wiggled her eyebrow at Jack with a wicked grin, "It's in the blood," She said, sticking her tongue out at him since he had a hold on both her hands. That made tickling him not an option. |
| Jack had no retaliation left for the tongue except to stick his own out in return. "How does that even work with the whole regeneration thing?"
The inheritance, obviously, not the tongue. He'd got some experience of how tongues worked. |
| Susan chuckled softly, "The superficial things change. The core stays the same," Susan said, slipping one of her hands out of his and tapping his chest where his heart was. "Thousands of years and 13 regenerations, and we always still stay basically the same person." |
| "If you're gonna start talking about souls, I'm not sure I'm gonna believe you," Jack warned. Thousands of years. He'd still got that to come, and hell if he knew any of it, now. Maybe the first century was the hardest.
Maybe he just needed to believe that it was. |
| "I wasn't going to, but now that you mention it," Susan said, trailing off and just smiling at him as she studied him for a long moment.
Her smile slowly faded into a thoughtful expression, and after a moment, Susan spoke you, "You know... You feel...different than most humans." |
| "Did I ever say I was human?" Jack let go of her remaining hand, risking poking or whatever the woman decided to do next, and let himself lie back on the grass, staring up at the sky. |
| Susan tilted her head to the side curiously, shaking her head, "You didn't. But you've got the undertones of humanity. There's just...more there." |
| "Nothing of my doing."
And it wasn't. He still had no clue whose doing it was, or what it was, but he was damn sure it wasn't anything he'd done. Turning his head toward Susan, he pasted on one of his trademark grins, and laughed softly. "What can I say, I'm just a really great guy." |
| "Hmm, no, it doesn't seem to be," Susan said, grinning right back at him as she raised a hand to poke his nose. "And it doesn't hurt that you're cute."
Shifting, Susan laid back next to him, turning her eyes back to the sky as she studied it vaguely before deciding to try something, reaching out mentally to poke at Jack's mind. It would be easier to determine what it was that she was feeling that way. |
| Shields slammed up automatically at that poke, though no sign of it showed on Jack's face, still staring serenely at the unfamiliar stars.
"Your Grandad never tell you that's rude?" |
| Susan just smirked, "He was never one to pay any mind to what was rude or not," She said, glancing over at Jack. "Besides, most people don't even notice. Obviously, you're not most people."
Turning her eyes back up to the sky, Susan allowed herself to relax a bit before stating, "But at least I figured out what it is that I'm picking up on that isn't human." |
| Jack had to acknowledge that the Doctor had different standards of rudeness to the rest of...well. To most creatures he'd met. Maybe it was standard etiquette for Time Lords.
"Hope it makes you happy." Because he wasn't about to admit to curiosity. "Is it that Famerxin trigender I hooked up with?" |
| "Nope," Susan said, a playful smile on her face as she rolled onto her side, pillowing her head on her hands. "And it does, to be honest. It's curious. Can't say I understand why it's there, but still..."
Susan reached out and poked his nose again, "Nothing you should worry about." |
| "It's my nose, right?" Jack swatted her hand away again. "There's something special about my nose." |
| "Other than the fact it's so pokeable?" Susan asked, laughing as she drew her hand back. "Nothing specific about the nose, no." |
| "Then what's the attraction?" Susan's laugh was infectious, and Jack found himself echoing it, low and apparently easy. |
| "Hard to say," Susan said with a teasing grin. "What are the reasons the other girls give?" She asked, winking at him.
He had far too much of a playboy air for there not to have been at least a few other girls. |
| "Oh, you know, the usual." Jack crossed his legs at the ankles and grinned. He was, oddly, enjoying himself suddenly. "My sense of humor, my eyes - get a lot on the eyes - my sparkling personality."
He rolled to face Susan, studying her. "I bet you get a lot of compliments on that smile." |
| "All very good points," Susan said, reaching out and poking his nose, yet again.
His last statement caused her to blush. She hadn't gotten that many compliments in her life, but she'd been so very young during most of their travels. It wasn't typical to compliment a fifteen year old girl. "You'd be surprised." |
| "Where have you been, among the blind?" Ignoring the nose-poke, because he was pretty much getting used to that, he lifted a hand to stroke her cheek, lightly, heat of her blush against his fingertips. "That's a beautiful smile. Lights up brighter than any one of those stars, makes your eyes shine...a smile like that deserves compliments wherever it goes." |
| If anything, that just made her blush that much more. "You're quite the charmer, aren't you?" |
| "Every word true, my lady." Withdrawing his hand, Jack laid it over his heart, finding a solemn expression from somewhere. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
Not that he could, anyway. |
| "You are such a doll," Susan said with a laugh as she reached up and ruffled his hair playfully. |
| "I'm really hoping you're meaning that in the American sense," Jack told her seriously. The hair, she'd touched the hair, and he was pretty sure the hotel didn't stock his favored brand of hair gel. |
| "Well, I certainly don't plan on playing dress up with you. So don't even bother to ask," She said, winking at him before laughing as she flopped back onto her back.
"So, how are you coping?" Susan asked. |
| "With your smile?" Jack mirrored her movement, keeping his head turned to watch her. "I think I'm doing okay with that so far." |
| "I meant with being more than human," Susan said, turning her head to look at him. "You don't seem to be too fazed by it. Either that, or you're very good at keeping your emotions undercover." |
| Ah. That.
"I've had a while to get used to it." His lips curved in something close to a smile. "Kind of a shock at first, though." |
| "Understandably so," Susan said with a very slight smile as she looked over at Jack. She wasn't sure just how much he knew, how much he could tell, so she wasn't going to go into too much detail. No matter how much she wanted to.
"I can't say I've ever seen anything like... Well," Susan trailed off, offering Jack a sheepish smile. "I just have to say, the whole thing is quite fascinating. I didn't even know it was possible." |
| Jack was beginning to feel like some kind of science experiment. "Guess I'm living proof of that." |
| Susan blushed again, diverting her eyes, "Sorry. Really, sorry. I just... I can't help my curiosity sometimes," She said, leaning back to the side as she studied him. "I suppose I get that honest, though." |
| "Nothing wrong with curiosity," Jack corrected mildly. He'd got a healthy dose of it himself. "Bottom line is, I don't have a clue what I am, so I just...am." He shrugged. |
| "You're you," Susan said, reaching out and poking his chest. "And that's all that really matters in the end," She said, offering him a reassuring smile. "The rest is all just circumstantial." |
| Circumstance was a hell of a lot more than just, as far as Jack was concerned, but he appreciated the effort. And the smile. "Y'know, if you'd stop with the poking thing, I could really like you a lot, Susan." |
| "I will make an effort to restrain myself, then," Susan said, grinning as she tucked her hands back under her head again. |
| "Good girl," Jack praised, and rolled back to look at the stars and just...be himself. |
| "I do know how to behave myself sometimes," Susan said as she shifted closer to him, turning her gaze back up to the stars. "When it really matters." |
| "Me too." Jack grinned, and stretched out a hand for hers. |
| Susan smiled as she took Jack's hand in her own, shifting and resting her head on his shoulder as she peered up at the sky. "Hopefully, this is one of those times," She teased. |
| "Depends if you want me to behave myself well," Jack teased back, settling his arm snugly around her shoulders. |
| "Well, you don't have to be a complete angel," Susan said, grinning up at him. "But you might keep in mind just what the Doctor would say if he learned you'd been putting the moves on his dear, darling innocent little granddaughter." |
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