| Date: 13 January 2008
Characters: Jack Harkness, Diane Holmes Location: hotel bar Link to IJ: thread #35440 |
 He was sitting in the bar, with a martini in hand. He was at a table instead of the bar proper, leaned all the way back in his chair, feet propped up on the table. His talk with Jamie about it being like vacation had been accurate - he'd gotten comfortable here. Comfortable enough to let himself have a (one) drink.When he heard footsteps pause behind him, he pushed himself back to look up. "Do you know me?" Didn't matter if he recognized them or not. It was a standard question around here. |
 "Oh, I should say so, Captain Harkness."Diane smiled, coat folded over her arm, hand extended. It was a relief to find a familiar face, for a change. "Do you know me?" |
| He flashed a grin at her, straightened and stood. "Diane, it's good to see you," he said, as he took her hand. "Can I interest you in a drink?" |
| "You most certainly can." Shaking his hand, her smile widened, and she glanced around, laughing a little ruefully. "I have to say, this wasn't where I was expecting to end up." |
| "Traveling by temporal anomaly's always a risk." He pulled his chair out for her. "If you'll excuse me for just a minute, and tell me your pleasure, I'll be back with that drink." |
| "I'm learning that one. Thank you." She sat, with a nod of acknowledgement for his manners - the same manners she'd had to train Owen into, though Captain Harkness had always seemed much more of a gentleman. Which is probably why she'd ended up in Owen's bed. "Gin and tonic, thanks." |
| He acknowledged her with a two fingered, casual salut, half a nod and then stepped back away from her to pivot and go to the bar. He was back in those two minutes with her drink, which he passed over before taking his own. "How long ago did you leave Cardiff?" he asked, as he resettled. |
| Two minutes which Diane used to settle her coat over the back of the chair, and look around the bar. Quiet, conversations carried out in low voices, occasional bursts of laughter, and she tried hard to relax. Enough to appear relaxed when Jack returned, anyway. "Two days ago, and I arrived...here." |
| "Have you been here for those whole two days?" he asked, taking a sip of his own drink and keeping an eye on her. Not because he was afraid of her, or what she might do, but because he was worried about her. |
| "Yes," she allowed, after a moment. "Gipsy's low on fuel, I can only manage another short flight, so...we're here!" It sounded brighter than she felt about it. |
| "Damn," he said, with feeling. He paused, and chose his words, carefully. "You may end up moving without your plane, next." |
| Diane stared for a moment, and then took a rather large sip of her drink. "Why?" No point beating about the bush. And she wasn't going to leave Gipsy behind. |
| "Because I don't think it's the rift that's actually responsible for people being brought here, and I am sure it's not how they're getting out again." |
| Another sip, and Diane's jaw tightened noticeably, chine rising defiantly. "Well, I'm not leaving her." |
| "I don't doubt it for a minute," he said with a quick grin. He really didn't. |
| "So whatever is bringing people here is going to need to take us together to...somewhere new." Her expression softened a little, touch of wistfulness entering her eyes, remembering her last departure. "I don't...no." Stopping herself, she shook her head, chuckling a little at her own foolishness. No, just because Jack was here didn't mean that Owen was. "No, I'm sorry. How long have you been here?" |
| "I've been here a few weeks." He took a drink from his glass, eyelashes fluttering at the barely-remembered burn of it. "You don't what?" he prompted, gently. |
| A few weeks. Well, at least it hadn't been longer. Diane wasn't quite sure why that felt reassuring, but it did. "I don't..." Well. Maybe it wasn't so foolish. After all, perhaps Owen had mentioned..."I don't suppose that Owen's here, too?" |
| He smiled, quick and bright and just broad enough to show his dimples. "Owen's here." |
| "He...oh. Oh!" Hearing that was enough to spread Diane's smile into genuine warmth, with the slightest hint of hesitation. Owen hadn't been exactly happy that she'd left, and, well... Shaking her hair back, Diane lifted her glass. "Thank you, Captain Harkness. To old friends?" Because that was the closest term she could think of to fit. |
| He smiled, warm and bright, and lifted his glass. "To old friends." |
| Touching her glass to his, she returned the smile, and sipped thoughtfully. "How was Emma, when you last saw her?" |
| He took a single drink from his own glass, then returned it to the table and held it between his palms. "Doing well," he said, with a ghost of a grin. "She's going to be just fine, I think." |
| "Good. That's good." Two weeks. Two weeks that Jack had been here, and two days that she had, which meant..."How long, I mean...oh, this sounds silly." Shaking her head, she laughed, setting her glass on the table. "I'm afraid the time travel thing is always going to confuse me. How long has it been since you last saw me?" |
| "It's pretty headache inducing, even for us veterans." He tried to reassure her with a grin, and looked up at the ceiling, eyebrows up, and tried to calculate. "A few months, give or take. I'm afraid being here makes it a little hard for me to pin-point, too." |
| A few months. She couldn't accept it. Academically, from what she'd learned since arriving, she knew he could be right. Had to be right, because what reason did he have to lie to her? But from a couple of hours to a few months, like time had...had shortcuts or something... At least it was long enough to know that Emma really had settled down, and John...John was...well, considering the nature of time as recently revealed, who knew where John was. She quirked a nervous smile at him, right index finger tracing small, repetitive circles on her glass. "No, thank you. A few months is as accurate as...I can accept a few months." |
| He watched her carefully, and when she said she could accept it, he kept the skepticism out off his face. "If you need anything - " He left the offer there. He didn't know what, exactly, he could do, and he sure as hell wasn't going to make any grand proclamations, but if he could, he would. |
| "I'm fine." Her answer was a little too fast and a little too definite to be entirely believable, but she was determined that it would become truth very soon. "I'm fine, Captain. Thank you." Though now...or soon...she'd need to find Owen. "How much do you know about this place?" |
| H'd had a bit of experience with letting himself be lied to, and he accepted her answer - too fast and sure though it was - with a nod. "You're welcome. Is there something specific you want to know about this place, or just in general?" |
| "Well, since it's the second place and time that I've landed unexpectedly within a week..." She shrugged, resisting the urge to down her drink and fetch another. Getting drunk wouldn't help her work out what was going on, or how to fuel Gipsy. "General would be a good start." |
| "There's not much I can tell you," he admitted. "Just that there's a lot of people from a lot of times landing here, and that time here doesn't seem to be passing normally. It's a little. Sluggish." |
| "Sluggish," she echoed, sceptically. |
| "Dragging ass?" he offered, and took another drink from his glass. |
| Her lips primmed, and she looked away. "I hardly think that's suitable language, Captain." |
| He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "God save me from independent women." He was trying very hard not to grin. |
| "I don't think you're going to be in luck with that one. How is Gwen?" |
| He looked back to her and stopped fighting the grin. "Gwen is. You know, I haven't seen her around here lately, but over all she's doing all right, I think." |
| "I'm glad." Diane took a very careful, very measured sip of her drink, and waited for the apology. |
| It took him a minute, because he was Jack and he was slow. "Oh. Right. Sorry." |
| "Thank you, Captain." She offered him a warm, genuine smile. "So, people are drawn here at random? Were they all travelling?" |
| He shook his head. "It seems to be very much random. As far as I'm aware everyone was doing something - moving, somehow- but that's about it." |
| "And they're moving again when they leave." It wasn't so much a question as a comment, mulling over the possibilities of that. |
| He nodded. "Yeah. Staying in motion seems a good idea, unless you're real comfortable where you are. There's probably a life lesson in there, somewhere. I'm not going to try to find it." |
| "If I'd been comfortable where I was, we'd never have landed in Cardiff." |
| "I can't imagine you're going to be comfortable for anywhere for long, Diane.' |
| "No, well." Her smile faltered a little, and she looked down into her drink, mildly surprised by how low it was. "Eternal wanderer, I suppose. Free spirit." |
| "You remind me a lot of someone I know. He's one of those free spirits - except what he actually is is homeless and lost." |
| "He sounds like an interesting man." And she wasn't sure about the implication that she was homeless and lost. |
| "Alien, actually, but he's pretty amazing. He's around here, somewhere. I think you'd like him." |
| "An alien?" She was immediately caught by the concept, leaning forwards over the table. "Is he...well...green?" She felt a little foolish for asking, but, well, it was what the pictures suggested, and the books she still wouldn't admit to borrowing from her brother to read. |
| He blinked, not quite getting why she was asking and looking a lot like a confused puppy for a second, before he caught on and laughed, softly. "No. He just looks like a guy. Big ears and leather, or floppy hair and sneakers. He calls himself the Doctor." |
| Nodding, she mentally filed the name. "Never big ears and sneakers?" It sounded like an odd thing to be an alternative. |
| He shook his head. "Never. It's. I don't know what it is, but it's always leather and ears or hair and sneakers." |
| Hopefully more than one or the other, since Captain Harkness had described the Doctor as looking like a regular man, but she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to know if not. Besides, a pair of floppy haired sneakers would be quite easy to spot. "Maybe his species is forbidden big ears and big hair at the same time," she suggested. |
| "I suppose it's possible," He admitted, thoughtfully. When he found himself seriously considering it, he looked warily into his glass and wondered if maybe the drink had been a bad idea. |
| Following the direction of his glance, she laughed. "I don't think you're drunk quite yet, Captain." |
| "I hope not. If I was, drunk would have gotten a lot less fun than I remember." |
| "Has it been so long that you don't remember?" |
| "It's been a while." |
| "Then maybe," she suggested mischievously, draining her glass, "you need practise. My round, I believe - same again?" |
| He nodded. "Same again," he agreed. |
| "Of course." She pushed her chair out herself - independence obviously had a price - and went over to the bar to fetch the drinks. |