amythest_n_ice | After the Dancing is done.

In response to

josettegroversaying she would like to see a fic where Jack has taken something prior to boarding the TARDIS, I wrote a fic where Jack had taken something prior to boarding the TARDIS.

Hope this is what you had in mind.

Missing scene from the Doctor Dances.

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Jack tasted the martini and wrinkled his nose slightly at the taste.

“Too much vermouth,” he told the computer with a smile.

“See if I come here again.” He grinned, closing his eyes as he felt the slight burn on his tongue from the extra ingredient in the martini. The poison would make sure he was dead before the bomb exploded. He wasn’t afraid of dying, but the thought of seeing the fireball flying towards him, the possibility that the hull would breach before it got to him, extinguishing the fire and leaving him to die in the cold vacuum, the thought of dying like that scared him.

He heard strains of the music he had loved on Earth, and turned in confusion. The far end of his ship seemed to have changed, there was now a door down there, standing open and showing a strangely lit room where the music was coming from. He thought he was hallucinating until Rose and the Doctor danced past the doorway.

“Come on if you’re coming.” Rose called with a giggle as she was swept past.

Jack found himself on his feet and moving toward the doorway without conscious thought, but the hesitation when he realized this was brief, if he was hallucinating, then it was a better way to die than worrying about the bomb.

Stepping in through the doorway, he looked around the cavernous room in awe, smiling to himself as the Doctor tried to spin Rose, and was berated for performing a half nelson instead.

“Shut the door will you, your ship is about to explode, there’ll be a draft.” The Doctor’s sharp command cut through the buzz in his ears, and he obeyed numbly, leaning back against the doors.

He was aware of bantering back and forth with the Doctor and Rose on autopilot as the ice started to spread through his limbs, making them heavy and uncooperative. He was vaguely aware that he had missed a conversational cue, but he wasn’t up to working out what it was now, and sparks were starting to spin and dance at the edge of his vision.

Suddenly there was a face in front of his own, a generous nose, topped with cropped hair, and pale blue eyes that seemed to burn into his soul. Big hands cupped his face, and the thin lips in front of him were moving, but he couldn’t hear anything now.

Rose stopped giggling when the Doctor moved quickly to stand in front of Jack, who had just ignored something that had been said to him.

“What is it?” She asked, taking a step back as the Doctor shot her a dark look.

He cupped Jack’s face in his hands, feeling the clammy chill to his skin, and looking deep into the unfocussed blue eyes.

“What have you done?” He growled.

Jack blinked slowly, and then crumpled so fast that the Doctor almost didn’t catch him in time to stop him cracking his head on the edge of the raised platform around the console, although he was starting to suspect that a potential concussion would be the least of his worries right now.

Leaning close over the fallen human, he could smell the faint trace of a very effective poison overlaid slightly by the traces of alcohol in the drink he must have swallowed it in. Prying open Jack’s mouth, he could see the tell tale traces of burning inside his mouth, and down his throat.

“What is it? What’s wrong with him?” Rose asked in a trembling voice as he gathered the dying human up in his arms.

“I think he poisoned himself. Stay here.” The Doctor growled at her shortly as he carried the unconscious man quickly out of the console room.

The TARDIS had moved the med bay for him, and as he hurried in and laid the young human on the couch, he saw vials of a viscous blue liquid and a pressure hypo already waiting for him.

“You knew?” He asked the TARDIS as he grabbed the first vial and loaded the hypo, pressing it to the side of Jack’s neck and delivering the drug straight into the vein there.

He felt the faint touch at the back of his mind, the assent, and a vague impression of the AI on Jack’s ship. Ah, the ship had told the TARDIS, he indicated his acknowledgement, and focused on trying to fan the faint spark of life that still flickered within the young human in front of him.

He was sitting beside the bed, watching over his patient when he heard hesitant footsteps in the doorway an hour later.

“Come on in Rose,” he said quietly.

“Is he alright?” She asked as she came to a stop beside him, looking at the pale figure on the bed.

Jack was almost as white as the medical gown the Doctor had dressed him in, and the charcoal of his eyelashes stood out starkly against his cheek. She fiddled with the light blanket covering Jack as she waited for the Doctor to answer.

“I think he will be. He’s stabilizing anyway,” the Doctor finally told her.

“Why would he do that?” She asked, her voice shaking a little as she cautiously took the cool hand in hers, lightly stroking Jack’s fingers.

“He was going to die anyway Rose, that bomb would have killed him if we hadn’t taken him off the ship. Maybe he just preferred to choose his own method.”

“So he didn’t trust us to rescue him?”

“There was no way he could know we were capable of rescuing him Rose, he hadn’t ever seen the TARDIS. And even if he had, I didn’t exactly give him cause to think that I’d go out of my way to save him, did I?” The Doctor sighed.

The figure in the bed moaned slightly, shifting against the mattress, dark lashes fluttering as he fought his way back to consciousness.

“Jack?” Rose whispered near his ear.

Blue eyes snapped open and flashed around in confusion. The Doctor leaned over as Jack opened his mouth.

“Do not try to talk, your throat is going to be pretty raw for a few days.” The Doctor tipped the couch into a sitting position and held a cup of something thick and white to Jack’s lips. He was met with a raised eyebrow, and he found himself smirking.

“Considering the crap you drank before we got to you, I don’t think you’re in any position to worry about what I’m giving you. Besides, all the time and effort I put into saving you, I’m certainly not going to poison you again.”

Jack gave him a faint smile and drank the liquid, which instantly soothed the burn in his mouth, throat, and down to his stomach.

“I still need you to stay quiet, it’s only numbing the discomfort, you still need to rest and let the burns heal.”

Jack nodded tiredly, and the Doctor reached out without thinking to smooth the mussed dark hair.

“Get some rest.” He ordered, moving to usher Rose out of the room.

A surprisingly strong hand reached out and caught his, and Jack closed his eyes, concentrating. The Doctor realized he could actually feel formidable psychic barriers dropping away, and a warm, soft mental voice slid into his mind.

*thank you* the voice said.

Jack smiled faintly at the Doctor’s startled look, and drifted to sleep, his barriers automatically rising once more. The Doctor was grinning to himself as he shooed Rose out of the room. He was going to like having this new human around, he suspected that figuring out his secrets could be fun.

The End.

After the Dancing is done.

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