| Date: 12 January 2008
Characters: The Ninth Doctor, Jack Harkness Location: outside, a TARDIS Link to IJ: thread #34075 |
 A dark haired boy with a Welsh accent had found him and told him to look for the crankiest Jack he could find. That was. Vague and disturbing enough that the Doctor actually started looking, combing the town. |
 Jack had to admit he'd (the other he) had a point about the necessity of finding the Doctor. Besides, he'd promised the guy he would. So, he was looking."Hey," he called from the hotel's roof. "Do you know me?" |
| "Jack, get down here," the Doctor called. |
| "Wonderful! Stay there." He disappeared from view, but a few minutes later he came out the front door of the hotel. |
| "Are you new?" The Doctor asked, eying Jack up. |
| He eyed the Doctor up. "Sorry, Doctor, I've already had my serial numbers rubbed off. We need to talk. Where's the TARDIS?" |
| "Down the street," he pointed, offering his hand automatically. |
| He put his hands in his pockets and started walking. "Great." |
| He frowned and put his hands in his own pockets, "Jack and Rose might be there." |
| "Fine, so find me somewhere they." He stopped and peered curiously over at the Doctor. "Rose is here?" he asked, almost reluctantly. |
| "Tiny little blond? Seen her, not talked to her yet." He opened the door of the TARDIS, ushering Jack through, "We can talk in the library." |
| "You don't know Rose?" He fell back and let the Doctor lead the way to the library. |
| "Nope," he said blithely, "I keep hearing that I should though." |
| "Yeah, you really should," he said, giving the Doctor a weird look. "Time's not passing here, right?" He wanted to stop and pet the TARDIS. He wanted to reach out mentally. He wanted to touch the Doctor. He wasn't going to do any of it, though. |
| "For us or outside of us?" |
| "For us." |
| "Time always passes, Jack." He shrugged, "Time doesn't stop. It can slow down and it has a bit here. I'd say down to roughly a quarter. Each hour's about !% minutes for our bodies. Like Tanko !@." |
| "Right, fantastic. I'm pregnant." |
| Pause. Pause. He grinned then, bright and manic, changing directions towards the sickbay. "Really? How far along then? To what species? What are you naming it?" |
| He stopped walking, closed his eyes and clenched his fists, before he pivoted directions and went with him. "Five months, give or take a week, something I keep referring to as Druids and aren't, and I haven't thought about it," he ground out, through his teeth. |
| "So you have...here, at least, about # months before you pop." |
| "Yeah, or it dies." |
| "Why would it die?" the Doctor pointed to a bed in the medbay. |
| He planted himself at the door and went nowhere near that bed. "Time being screwed." |
| "No," he shook his head, "It's not affecting your body or anything inside your body. It's just like. Time takes longer." |
| "How sure of that are you?" |
| He did some mental math, "Ninty-six point eight percent." |
| "Okay." He could take that, and he relaxed - well, his shoulders dropped some, anyway. "So why are we here, then?" He meant the medical lab. |
| "Because I want to see it! Don't you?" |
| "...What?" |
| He dug out what looked like an old fashion camera. |
| He lifted his eyebrows. "No, really. What?" |
| "Its a camera." The Doctor said with an air of disappointment. |
| "...I know it's a camera. What's it. Fine, fine." He held his hands out to the side. "Do your worst. Hurt the parasite and I'll shove it up your ass. That work for you?" |
| "I'm not going to hurt your baby," he sounded offended, half-pouting as he took the picture. |
| He flinched at the sound of the snap. The flinch turned into a grimace at the muscle cramp that wrapped around his lower back and side. "If only it were as protective." |
| "Can't help it yet, can it." He took the poloriod out, sitting it down to dry and coming over to try to put his hand on Jack's stomach. |
| Jack had his eyes closed, riding out what amounted to a hellacious cramp, and promising himself he'd be more sympathetic to women and PMS. He heard the Doctor approach, but didn't expect to be touched. When he was his eyes flew open, he snarled and grabbed his wrist. The baby flipped over against the Doctor's palm and settled again. Jack rolled his eyes. "God, sometimes I hate you." He didn't specify who you was. And he didn't let go. |
| "Fortunately, most of the time you love me," he said absently before cooing to Jack's stomach, "Hello little one." |
| Jack let the Doctor's wrist go and thumped his head back against the wall. |
| "You're going to get a headache," he warned. |
| "I've already got a headache," he growled, without heat. "If you don't know Rose, how do you know me?" |
| "Met you here.' |
| "Did I hit you?" |
| "Do you want to?" |
| "I asked first," he said, really bluntly. |
| "Yeah, a bit.' |
| "A bit? That's like me saying I'm a bit pregnant or a bit dead." |
| "Well, you're more than a bit pregnant." |
| "That was my point!" |
| The Doctor grinned at him, then went and grabbed the picture, showing Jack a curled up fetus under his ribs. |
| He took the picture and flipped it up to look at it. His head cocked to the side, his expression actually softened a little. It made him look younger, and more tired all at once. "Well, what'd you know." |
| "Kind of looks like a sea monkey," he said affectionately. |
| "Well, it's not quite done yet," he said defensively. |
| "That's true." He patted Jack's belly lightly. |
| He swatted the Doctor's hand away. "I'm going back to the hotel. Don't get yourself killed before you get me." |
| "You're going to be okay, Jack." |
| "Yeah, people keep telling me that and I probably will be, but right now I'm not, thanks, and I"m not going to pretend to be so you -or anyone else- can feel better." |
| "Didn't ask you to pretend." |
| "That's good." |
| "Come have a tea." |
| "I don't want any fu-" He stopped. 'All right." |
| "Thank you," he gestured Jack out. |
| He went. |