| Date: 29 December 2007
Characters: Jack Harkness, The Ninth Doctor Location: hotel bar, a TARDIS Link to IJ: thread #21594 |
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 "Pokin' your nose? How is that not sweet?" |
 "My nose doesn't think it's sweet." |
| "Didn't bruise?" |
| "It...that's not the point!" |
| "...What is then?" |
| "She poked me!"
...which sounded rather ridiculous when he said it out loud that way, but that wasn't about to interrupt Jack's glare. |
| The Doctor's lips twitched. |
| Jack's glare intensified. |
| "Okay, you two don't have to sit next to each other." |
| Jack wasn't going to be able to hold against the ludicrousness much longer, but he was going to have a damn good try.
Although it probably still wasn't a good idea to mention that Susan was a fine flirt. "I doubt," he bit out precisely, "that was ever going to happen anyway." |
| "No family trips in the RV?" |
| "Is mommy coming along, too?"
Yeah, he wasn't above prodding at a possible weak point. |
| "Pretty sure my wife has been dead for longer than you've been alive." |
| Wife. Okay, for some reason, that wasn't the word Jack expected to hear, heavier and falling between them.
He forced his shoulders down, unclenching fists, and drew a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "I'm sorry." |
| The Doctor frowned, watching Jack, "It really was a long time ago." |
| "Yeah, well." Jack shrugged. Maybe he'd meant more than just that, maybe not, he wasn't sure himself. "Still sorry." |
| "Yeah, well." He shrugged, "You really don't like Susan?" |
| "Did I say that?" |
| "You implied!" |
| "I don't like the poking," Jack emphasized, quietly. "Susan's amazing." |
| "...She did just poke your nose, yeah?" |
| Jack just grinned. |
| "...Is this somethin' I want to know?" |
| "She's a hell of a girl, your granddaughter." |
| "She's amazing." |
| "Isn't that what I said?" |
| "Yes, but it's different because it's granddaughter." |
| Jack paused, re-ran that sentence in his head, and gave up on it making sense. "How?" |
| "I have to think my granddaughter's awesome." |
| Jack raised an eyebrow, wondering what force was powerful enough to affect the Doctor's thinking that way. "And I choose to think it. She is, Doctor. Credit to the family." |
| The Doctor smiled suddenly, "Well, that's why I think that, isn't it?" |
| "Because it's true?" |
| "Genetics." |
| "Genetics?" Jack repeated, lost again. Giving in, he crossed to the seats over by the console, and sank into them, feeling more like the stupid ape the Doctor used to classify him as than he'd done for years. "Okay, I give. D'you wanna maybe try that at a level carbon-based lifeforms can interpret?" |
| The Doctor grinned, "Do you want coffee first?" |
| Coffee. Oh, Christ, coffee. Ianto. Ianto and his team, and no - time would resume when he returned. So it didn't matter how much time he was gone, they couldn't get into any trouble. No matter how hard they tried.
Even Owen. "Doctor," he said sincerely, "I would perform obscene acts on a politician in return for coffee right now." |
| The Doctor held out his hand for Jack, "Let's hope it won't come to that." |
| "I hope not." Jack took the Doctor's hand, familiar and new and memory at once, the strength in blunt fingers, the oddly cool touch of skin that wasn't - quite - human temperature. "Have you seen any politicians lately? Not the attractive types." |
| "Can't say I pay much attention," he shook his head, pulling Jack towards him easily. "How much attention do you pay politicians?" |
| "Get stuck in a place long enough, you start paying attention." Jack grinned. "Guess you've never had to worry about that one." |
| "Politicians tend to change faces when I do." |
| Jack laughed aloud at that. "Trust me, politicians change faces a lot more than you do." Even if not physically. |
| "Yeah, I can believe that," he lead Jack towards the kitchen. |
| Jack followed, keeping a firm hold of the Doctor's hand. "General elections next year, not that you'll get affected, guess I will when I get back. You know they've set me up so I can vote now?" |
| "You technically exist in the UK now? Huh." |
| "Worse." Jack heaved a melodramatic sigh. "I legally exist in Wales."
Not under the name Jack Harkness, of course. That one was already claimed. |
| "Wooooow. Do you vote?" |
| "I vote," Jack confirmed, and then grinned. "I'm not gonna tell you who for. People died for the secret ballot, y'know." |
| The Doctor saluted him sloppily. |
| Jack raised an eyebrow. "Not guilty. At least, not personally." |
| "Impersonally?" |
| "How the hell d'you die impersonally?" |
| "In a crowd?" he offered. |
| Jack shook his head, relieved to see the kitchen ahead of them. He'd been beginning to wonder if it had moved. "Death's always personal." |
| "How many times have you died?" |
| "Lost count." |
| "No vague guess?" |
| Jack paused in the doorway, considering. "More than ten, probably more than a hundred, less than a thousand. I tried pretty hard for a while." |
| "Why?" |
| "Wanted to see if it would stick." |
| "You know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results." |
| "I never claimed sanity, Doctor." And besides, he hadn't done the same thing over and over. He'd tried guns, knives, poison (not fun), drowning (really not fun), fire (never doing that again) and throwing himself off cliffs. That one had kind of led to drowning when the tide came in sooner than he'd anticipated. |
| "That's true," he acknowledged, thoughtfully. "I just assumed." |
| "Dangerous things, assumptions." Like, apparently, assuming that the Doctor had ever bothered to learn to make coffee. |
| "No kidding." He handed Jack a biscuit. |
| Jack eyed it dubiously. "Does that mean it's dangerous to assume I can eat this?" |
| "Could be, at that," he shrugged. |
| Jack ate it anyway. He was pretty certain that the Doctor wasn't trying to kill him, and poison was, at least, usually pretty quick. |
| The Doctor hit the pot a couple of times in the process of making the coffee, but. Hey, there was coffee. It was terrible. He handed Jack a cup. |
| One mouthful, and Jack grimaced, forcing himself to swallow. Probably not poison, but not exactly coffee. "Definitely dangerous to assume that's coffee. Thanks. I need to introduce you to Ianto." |
| "Ianto?" he questioned. |
| "My general factotum, and a hell of a lot more besides." Jack leaned back against the counter, looking contentedly around the kitchen. There was something very comforting about feeling the touch of the TARDIS again. "Makes fantastic coffee, too." |
| "I think you might have just insulted my coffee." |
| "I think you might have just insulted my taste buds." |
| "Coffee has a taste?" |
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