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amythest_n_ice) wrote2008-02-22 04:21 am
After the Dancing is Done (Part 9)
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/36584.html
Link to Part 8
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/39652.html
Link to Part 10
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The Doctor sat beside Jack’s bed in the chair he had dragged over from the corner of the bedroom, watching the young man sleeping. He’d managed to send Rose off to settle her mother and Mickey down without having to explain what had happened beyond the TARDIS helping Jack to rescue him. He had used the excuse of needing to keep an eye on Jack to put her off for the moment, but he knew he was going to have to tell her more come morning. He wanted to talk to Jack first though, he wanted to know what the Council had done to him, and why.
Jack sighed, turning over with a yawn, stretching as his blue eyes drifted open.
“Glad you could join us,” the Doctor said, trying for his standard sarcasm, but knowing he didn’t pull it off when Jack smiled faintly.
“Where are we?” The younger Time Lord asked.
“Back in
“The TARDIS and I decided to rescue you, she put enough of her energy into me to use me as a beacon, so that she could find her way back to her ‘body’ after she had dealt with the Daleks.”
“That’s not what I meant. How did a barely 100 year old Time Lord come to be found wandering as a human child on a colony planet on the far edge of human influenced space?”
“Oh, that,” Jack said with another sigh, turning onto his back to stare at the ceiling.
“I wasn’t even that old, I had a pushy mother, and they weren’t going to say no to President Romanadvoratrelundar when she said she wanted her son accepted at 90. She had after all made sure I was engineered to be the best at everything, highest Psi scores, highest intelligence, highest physical conditioning.”
“Romana was your mother?” The Doctor choked, startled. He had never imagined her having a child.
“You knew her?” Jack asked, equally startled, turning his head to look at the Doctor.
“A very long time ago, when I was in my fourth regeneration, and she was running from ‘the establishment’. She didn’t want to follow the path that had been laid out for her.”
“Ah, that explains why she caved so easily when I told her there was no way in hell I was going to train for the Council. She bullied the Academy into taking me early, and for a year, it seemed like everything was going so well, then the war turned bad, the Daleks broke through, and it looked like they were going to take Gallifrey. The Council decided to get as many of the students from the Academy as they could changed to humans, and sent out to safety on the human colony worlds that had spread through space, they were after all the children of the elite, the best of the best,” Jack said a little bitterly.
“So what happened to you?”
“Mother was afraid that I would be recognized. That if Gallifrey won, before they could reclaim their scattered youth if I was alone, undefended, and not knowing who I was, I could be captured or killed. She ordered them to force regenerate me before they put me into the arch. That was one time they did try to argue with her, I was too young, they didn’t know what the consequences would be of forcing me to regenerate, but she insisted. The forced regeneration turned me into a child, but that didn’t stop my Mother walking me into the Chameleon Arch and watching as it stripped away everything I knew, everything that made me who I was.” Jack whispered, a single tear slipping down his face.
“The bad regeneration must have been what made the memory alterations so sloppy, residual interference. That’s why you remembered the vacuum training you did, and why you were drawn to the Time Agency.”
“And why Rassilon sounded so familiar when you said it.” Jack agreed.
“I wonder if that means there might be others out there, sleeping, not knowing who they are.”
“They were all older than me, they appeared older even after they were changed. Some will have died of old age, some will have lost their watches, some will have been sent to worlds that were destroyed in the destruction wave. There might be a handful left, scattered on distant worlds, but what are the odds of any of them figuring out what the watches are? If I hadn’t met you, then I would have just kept right on thinking of it as a lucky charm, and nothing more. It was the TARDIS who made me open it, and she is the last one, so none of the others are likely to run into a TARDIS.”
“I suppose. Jack, Rose is curious, about what the watch was, about how you and the TARDIS got the idea to help me. What do you want to tell her?”
“The truth, there is no reason to lie, is there?”
“No, no reason to lie. You should try to get some more sleep Jack, you really wiped yourself out earlier.”
“Stay with me?”
“I’ll be right here,” the Doctor said, going to lean back in the chair.
“No, here. I just, I just want to feel someone close to me right now,” Jack said, pulling back the covers.
The Doctor hesitated, but Jack looked at him pleadingly and with a sigh, the Doctor pulled off his boots, and dropped his leather jacket over the chair he’d been sitting in. Another pause and he skinned out of his jeans and jumper too, slipping into the bed in his boxers and t-shirt. Jack settled against him, feeling secure as the Doctor enfolded him gently in his arms. As Jack drifted back to sleep, the Doctor felt the younger mind reaching for his own, Jack’s barriers temporarily weakened by the events of the day, and he reached out to enfold Jack’s mind as securely as his body.
As he lay watching the younger man sleeping, the Doctor’s mind raced, thinking about the closeness that was still growing with Jack. He was very young by Time Lord standards, only just old enough for first courtships to blossom, but he had lived 30 years as a Human, had more life experience at 120 than most Time Lords had by the middle of their lives. The Doctor was uncertain where things would stand, now that so much had changed. He felt the TARDIS’s impatience in his mind, and a very clear message let him set the pace, he is old enough to know what he wants, who he wants. He has feelings for you, just let him decide when he’s ready.
Taking the old girl’s advice, the Doctor stopped obsessing over what he couldn’t do anything about, and settled down to sleep against the younger man.
***
Rose came back to the TARDIS after breakfast, a still annoyed Jackie and Mickey in tow. They found Jack and the Doctor in the console room, working together to safely disconnect the extrapolator from the TARDIS.
“We want an explanation, what was the big idea of going off yesterday without warning?” Jackie demanded, striding over and poking Jack hard in the chest.
Jack caught her wrist to stop her poking him, looking down at her coldly.
“We did what we had to do to save the Doctor, he brought Rose back so that you would know she was safe, didn’t he?”
Angered by his coldness when she had been so worried about Rose, she swung her other hand up, intending to slap him. He caught that wrist too, before she could connect, looking down at her.
“I had just gone through a fairly traumatic alteration of my body and mind, and the main focus of my attention at that time was rescuing the Doctor. Stopping to say we were going wasn’t a priority.”
“Let her go.” Mickey yelled, starting toward Jack. Surprisingly it was Rose who stopped him.
“What alteration, what happened yesterday Jack?”
“I woke up,” he said softly, gently pushing Jackie away from him with a warning look.
“That isn’t an answer Jack, you were acting so strange after you opened that watch, after the light entered you. Your eyes were so old, like the Doctor’s and you spoke that language that the TARDIS doesn’t translate. What woke up, what happened?”
“You just answered your own question, if you think about it Rose.” The Doctor prompted quietly.
“Like you, he was like you. Are you saying that you’re a Time Lord Jack? How is that possible? I thought you were the last, Doctor?”
“It seems that some were sent away from the fall, made Human. Yes Rose, Jack is a Time Lord.”
Rose stared at the two men standing together, quiet and calm, and wondered if there was any place for her on the TARDIS now, with two Time Lords. Shaking her head, she turned and ran for the doors, her heart breaking.
Mickey turned to go after her, and Jack caught his arm, stopping him.
“I’ll go after her, you stay here.”
“Push off, she’s upset with you lot, you’re the last person she’ll talk to.” Mickey started for the door again, only to freeze in place until Jack had gone out of the door.
“What the hell was that?” Mickey asked.
“Telekinesis.” The Doctor grinned, realizing that Romana really had made sure her son was engineered to the highest levels. Having Jack aboard was going to be fun.
tbc
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"You should try to get some more sleep Jack, you really wiped yourself out earlier."
Love this. Love, love, love.
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