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Link to Part 2
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Jack wandered through the seemingly endless corridors, trying to figure out what the hell he was going to do with his life now. His ship was gone, as were most of the possessions he had gathered on his travels since leaving the time agency. He was here on this amazing ship at the sufferance of the man, time lord, he corrected his own thought, who had been forced to sort out the mess his last con had become. The Doctor didn’t like him, that was clear from the look he got every time Rose smiled at him, didn’t trust him either, which wasn’t surprising considering what he had done. He felt a tear slip down his face, and brushed it away almost violently. He’d lost everything, again, and he was just too tired to start again while trying to dodge the time agency, and people trying to collect the bounty on his head.
“Rose’s room is the other way, if that’s what you’re looking for.” The voice made Jack jump, and spin round sharply. He could have sworn he had been alone in this long corridor, and he hadn’t heard the fall of the Doctor’s boots catching him up.
“I’m not looking for Rose’s room. I got the hands off message there loud and clear. She’s head over heels for you anyway, a blind and deaf person could figure that out minutes after walking in the same room as you two. She loves you, you love her, I get it, OK? Besides, I assume you’re here to let me know that you’ve found a habitable planet to dump me on. Well, I hope it’s habitable anyway. Does it have a space port, or are you intending to strand me?” Jack was aware his voice was showing his stress, but he was too tired to care, and his head ached unmercifully.
“Hey, I’m not here to throw you out, and if and when that time does come for you to leave, I won’t strand you.” The Doctor promised him, wondering where the hell the brash, confidant con man had gone. He noticed the younger man was trembling and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“I have a headache, and I’m tired, that’s all.”
“I thought Rose was going to show you where there was a bedroom spare.”
“She did, I lay down for a while, but I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was……”
“People with gas masks for faces?”
“Yeah.”
“Jack, you were stupid, there’s no way around that, but you came good when it counted.”
“That doesn’t make the pictures in my head go away.”
“So, what, you’re planning to stay awake until you collapse? And what if you’re responsible for Rose’s safety when that happens?”
“I suggest you don’t put me in charge of her safety then.” Jack snapped. He closed his eyes and rubbed one hand through his hair.
“Sorry,” he said quietly.
“Hey, you’re tired, I can understand you being a little cranky,” the Doctor said, using the hand that was still resting on his shoulder to pull Jack closer. The younger man stood tense for a moment as the Doctor pulled him into a light embrace, then his shoulders slumped and he allowed his head to fall onto the Doctor’s shoulder.
“I have no idea what I’m going to do now.” He whispered into the warm, butter soft leather.
“Well, you’re not going to think about it without a clear head, are you? You have to sleep.” He felt the body in his arms tense again at the suggestion of sleep and sighed, his long fingers gently stroking the dark hair at the nape of Jack’s neck
“I can drug you, to make you sleep tonight, if you want.”
Jack pulled slowly out of his arms, and offered him a wry smile.
“No, it will only make it harder to sleep in the long run. Been there, done that.”
“Come on, I’ll walk you to your room.”
“Going to tuck me in?” He asked, his smile turning saucy.
“Behave Captain Harkness,” he said, but there was genuine amusement in his tone.
They reached the room Rose had chosen for Jack, and the Doctor ushered him inside.
“Come on if you want me to tuck you in, into bed. If you’re really lucky, you might even get a bedtime story.” The Doctor teased.
Jack offered him a weak smile, and stripped down to his underwear, slipping in between the cool sheets. The Doctor grinned at him, and smoothed the covers, tucking them in under the mattress, earning himself a genuine laugh from the human.
“Do I get my story then?” Jack asked.
“No, but I will tell you this. It’s not the thought of you touching Rose that was making me glare at the two of you earlier, it was the thought of Rose touching you. The thought of her hands mapping your body. I want to be the one figuring out if you’re ticklish, figuring out your hotspots, I want to be the one doing this.” The Doctor leaned forward and touched his lips to Jack’s in a sweet, gentle, not quite chaste kiss.
He looked into startled blue eyes when he sat back up, and he worried that he’d misread the younger man for a moment, but then Jack’s tongue flicked briefly over where the Doctor’s lips had touched his.
“Do that again?” Jack asked huskily.
“Not right now. Go to sleep Jack, if we do this, I want to know you’re going into it with your eyes open, and your head clear.”
“OK. You’ll stay with me, until I get to sleep won’t you?”
“If you want me to.”
The Doctor took off his boots and climbed onto the bed, settling so he was sat against the headboard. Hesitantly, Jack came into his arms, and he drifted off to the sound of the twin heart beats, cradled securely in the time lord’s arms.
The Doctor sat there longer than he had intended, enjoying the warm weight in his arms, and by the time he thought of moving, he was too comfortable, and didn’t want to move. There was a soft whimper from the man he held, and looking down, he could see Jack’s eyes moving rapidly under the lids. Stroking his hair, the Doctor soothed out Jack’s nightmare, and cuddled him closer, deciding that he wasn’t going to leave him alone tonight.
He was half drowsing under Jack’s weight when the door flew open and Rose bounced in. The Doctor snapped awake, and looked at her standing wide eyed in the doorway, her mouth open. He pressed his finger to his lips to silence whatever she was going to say when her mouth moved, and slid out from under Jack. The younger man finally seemed to have settled into a deeper sleep, his nightmares easing off just over an hour ago, and the Doctor wanted to leave him sleeping if he could.
“What’s going on?” Rose asked, her eyes bright with unshed tears as he closed the door between Jack and the corridor they were now standing in.
“He’s been having nightmares all night, I think he’s finally settled, don’t wake him.”
“You looked very cozy, lying there with him like that.”
“Oh Rose.” He sighed, reaching out to brush a tear away as it escaped and ran down her cheek.
“You like him, don’t you, like like, the way…….” Another tear ran free as she avoided saying what she had been about to say, ‘the way I like you’. He heard it anyway, and sighed again.
“I’m sorry Rose, I know that you hoped that there could be something between you and me, but even if I were only as old as I look, I’m too old for you. I love you, I really do, but not the way you want me to, and not the way I think I could come to love him. I don’t want to lose you as a friend Rose,” he said, and she forced a smile.
“You couldn’t lose me as a friend, you don’t get rid of me that easy. So are you going to be, you know, together, with him?”
“I don’t know for sure yet, that’s something he and I need to talk about, and he was in no fit state last night. You will be all right with it won’t you, if Jack and I get together?”
“Of course, as long as you stop hassling me about looking at the good looking boys.” She said bravely.
“No problem.”
“You better get back to him, in case he wakes up, I just came to let him know that breakfast was on. Will you and he be along soon?”
“In a bit, Rose, in a bit.”
She nodded and headed back to the kitchen. The Doctor slipped back into the quiet room, and found tired blue eyes watching him.
“Sorry, you didn’t have another nightmare did you?”
“No. Not sure what woke me.” Jack croaked, rubbing his eyes. The Doctor came back and resumed his seat against the headboard, smiling as Jack came into his arms with no hesitation this time. Jack settled into the comfortable grip, yawning slightly.
“Rose came in, she was going to wake you for breakfast, she saw me holding you.”
“Is she mad?” Jack asked, tensing again.
“Not really, she’s a little upset, but she’ll be OK.” The Doctor sighed, tangling fingers in Jack’s mussed hair to tip his head back and kissed him. This kiss wasn’t even remotely chaste, the Doctor plundering the younger man’s mouth with his tongue. He smiled inwardly as Jack fought back, his own tongue entering into an energetic duel with the Doctor’s.
When they finally broke so that they could breathe, the Doctor was surprised that their positions had changed during the heated kiss. Jack was now on his back, pinned to the bed by the Doctor’s weight, both hands held over his head in one of the Doctor’s strong fists, Jack blinked to focus his eyes again, and gave the older man a dazed smile. The Doctor leaned down for another kiss, brief now, sucking the full bottom lip into his mouth as he rolled his hips gently. Jack gasped as their erections brushed teasingly through the restrictions of Jack’s shorts, the sheet, and the Doctor’s own clothes.
“Tease.” Jack growled, but he made no effort to break the Doctor’s hold on him, even though the Doctor suspected that he could do so more easily than he would let on.
“Yes,” he conceded, kissing the tip of Jack’s nose before rolling away from the younger man to the other side of the bed.
“We have to get a move on. Rose was making breakfast, and we shouldn’t keep her waiting, and we’ll be landing soon.”
“Landing where?”
“Not telling, but you’ll like it.” The Doctor grinned, rolling off the bed to his feet and straightening his clothes.
Jack laughed and got up, padding to the bathroom completely unembarrassed by the purpled tip of his erection peeping over the top of his shorts. The Doctor swallowed and left quickly for his own room before he did something rash, like throwing Jack back on the bed and chaining him there, hearing Jack’s laughter following him down the corridor.
He grinned to himself, his somber expression lifting slightly, however this panned out with the former time agent, the Doctor suspected that he wouldn’t be bored.
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Opinions folks, do I leave this as a one shot, or add another series to my stable? Let me know.
