| Date: 28 December 2007
Characters: Jack Harkness, Rose Tyler Location: hotel dining room Link to IJ: thread #20665 |
 After some wandering and a few wrong turns, Jack finally found what appeared to be a dining area. He would have kept going if it weren't for his stomach rumbling a protest and demanding attention, so he took a detour near a cart of snacks and coffee, pouring himself a cup and grabbing a muffin. No sense in trying to figure out what was going on with an empty stomach, and a couple of Adric's crisps hadn't done much more than get his appetite started.
Taking a swig from his coffee (not bad for the afterlife), he turned and ran full-on into whomever had been standing behind him - a bit too close, he added belatedly. He managed not to spill any coffee on his uniform, but it was a near thing. The other person, however, wasn't spared. |
 "Jack!" Rose glared, looking at him, then at her shirt. "Damn it, I like this shirt."
She looked back at him and the glaring shifted, subtly, puzzled, "Did you find your room, then? Those are your clothes, aren't they?" |
| Jack froze, properly speechless for all of 2 seconds before he opened his mouth to speak and realized he had no idea what to say, other than, "Rose!" and plunked his muffin and cup down on a nearby table, grabbing a handful of napkins to dab futilely at the spilled coffee down Rose's front. His eyebrows were carrying on a conversation of their own as he waited for her protest at basically being felt up under the guise of helping with the mess. "Haven't found my room, no," he smiled. "Have you found my room?" |
| She bapped at his hands lightly, mostly laughing at him and taking the napkins, "Thank you."
She shook her head as she cleaned her shirt, wiping ineffectually, "No, not yet. Everything's jumbled in there. But." She frowned, "You changed." |
| This time Jack really did freeze, grin taking on a plastic edge. "Changed?" He doubted he was the only thing that had changed, if this place was real and not just vestigial memory connections firing in his brain, like an after-image of a bright light. |
| She plucked at her shirt sleeve, looking at him worried before asking, very carefully, "Jack? Have you seen me here before?" |
| "Here? No. You were with The Doctor-I took the bomb out into space. And then I ended up here." His eyebrows were nearly into his hairline by now. "Have you seen me here before?" |
| "We had tea," she said with a sheepish expression. "You. We picked you up from your ship. Before it exploded, we came and got you." |
| "You did?" He asked, leaning down to look into her eyes. "That's great! But I don't remember the tea." Perhaps the future just hadn't happened yet, and back on his ship, he was just waiting to be rescued. Didn't explain much for the here and now. "A kid I saw earlier told me time's gone wonky here. I think it's possible you didn't have tea with me, or at least not yet. Obviously you got to me before the bomb detonated, or I wouldn't be here. And honestly?" He leaned close to her ear, lowering his voice, "I have no idea what's going on here." |
| "No, I mean. Here. We had tea. Or. Me and another you." She sounded confused, putting her hand familiarly on his waist, completely comfortable and absently showing it. "And. Time's all messed up here." |
| Jack laughed low and soft, covering her hand with his and mirrored her grip with his other hand on her hip. "Yeah, I think you're right. Or maybe there was something in the tea besides tea?" He was smiling, glancing past her to take in their surroundings again. "Because these are the same clothes I've been wearing since I put them on - and I've only just arrived. Anyone else here you've recognized?" |
| "I met another me," she said cheerfully enough. "Older though. Kinda bitchy." |
| "Another you?" Jack frowned. "Maybe you just caught her on a bad day...so two yous and maybe two of me. May be more than time gone wrong here. What's the last thing you remember before this place?" |
| "...Complicated." She looked shifty. |
| "Well, then we won't worry about the small details," he grinned. "Have you seen The Doctor around?" Which Doctor, he wasn't going to add, because he was already getting the feeling it was possible they might not be talking about the same one. |
| "Not the one we know." She'd come to accept the man in the suit was the Doctor. |
| "How well do we really know him, though," Jack said, pushing a lock of Rose's hair behind her ear. "You may not be the same Rose I know, either." He tilted his head, studying her closely. "You look like her, you sound like her... so that's enough for me. Maybe it's the same way with the doctor, just the other way around. He may not look like him, or sound like him, but it's still The Doctor." |
| "It's weird," she wrinkled her nose, "But what isn't with him?" |