sahiya: The Rest of the Story (Jack/Eleven) [PG] - SUMMER HOLIDAYS, PROMPT 11
Title: The Rest of the Story
Author: sahiya
Challenge: Summer Holidays 2
Prompt Group: 11 - parent - nurture - vulnerable - blame
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jack/Eleven
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for the first half of "The Eleventh Hour," but it goes significantly AU after that.
Summary: Of second chances, TARDIS repairs, and cupboards full of never-ending art supplies.
Author's Note: Many thanks to fuzzyboo03 for cheerleading and kivrin for the beta!
The Rest of the Story
Amelia Pond was bored.
She'd wanted to come with the Doctor because life in Leadworth was boring, and he said he had a time machine and could take her anywhere she wanted, anywhere in all of space and time, as long as it was amazing. What he never mentioned, but which she probably should've guessed from how they met, was that sometimes time machines break down a little - not a lot, the Doctor said, but a little - and then they'd end up in boring, boring, boring markets on worlds where the weather was a lot like Leadworth.
"Look at this!" the Doctor exclaimed, holding up a part. He whipped out a magnifying glass and eyed it. "It's a perfect temporal coupler, do you know how rare these are?"
"Nope," Amelia said.
"Very rare. Very, very, very rare."
Amelia sighed. "Doctor, I'm hungry."
The Doctor blinked at her. "Didn't you just eat?"
"That was five hours ago. Look, there's a place over there and it smells like roast chicken. Can I have some money?"
The Doctor stood on tiptoe to peer over the heads of the vendors and see the cart where hunks of meat hung roasting on spits. "Not roast chicken, but it's close. Here." He handed her a handful of funny-looking bills and coins. "Come straight back. It's safe enough round here, but safe enough isn't the same as safe."
"Got it." She stuffed the money in her pockets, pulled her hat down over her ears, and set off, giving anyone who looked at her a narrow-eyed glare that said, I may be little, but I can be mean. And I bite.
The not-roast-chicken smelled even better up close. Amelia ordered enough for her and the Doctor, who forgot to eat a lot of the time. If it tasted like it smelled, he probably wouldn't even spit it out. Probably.
She reached into her pocket for the money the Doctor'd given her and realized that she didn't know how any of it worked. The bills were different sizes and so were the coins, but none of them had numbers on them. She looked up at the man serving the meat and thought about just handing it to him and saying, "Take what it's worth," but she knew how that would end. The Doctor wouldn't care if she came back with empty pockets, of course, but she would.
"The blue bill with the shiny ends," a man's voice said, very close to her ear. Amelia jumped and spun around, and found herself looking into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. They were so blue they would've been silly, except they were also the saddest eyes she'd ever seen.
"Thanks," she said, handing the blue bill over.
The man straightened up. "One more of the same," he said to the man. The man grunted and turned around to hack another piece of meat off the slab roasting on the spit. The blue-eyed man looked down at Amelia. "You don't look like you're from around here."
"Neither do you," she said, giving him a toned-down version of her glare. "What's your name?"
"Jack. What's yours?"
"Amelia Pond. Jack what?"
The man smiled. Sort of. His mouth smiled, but his eyes didn't. "You're from Scotland. How'd you get here?"
"A mad man in a box," she told him, just as the the cook handed over her food. She turned and walked away, but not before she'd seen Jack go completely still, those impossibly blue eyes widening. Too late, Amelia realized that telling the truth even that much might've been a mistake. She kept walking, waiting for him to call out after her, but he didn't.
She reached the Doctor just as he was paying for the parts. "And that's the last of it!" he announced. "No more boring markets - well, not for awhile. I hope. Oh, thank you," he added, as Amelia handed him his half of the food. They headed back towards the TARDIS, eating as they walked. For not-roast-chicken, she thought, it tasted an awful lot like roast chicken. The Doctor, of course, talked with his mouth full, because he always talked with his mouth full, no matter how many times Amelia had told him it was disgusting. "We'll need to hang about in the vortex for a couple days, hope you don't mind. Minor repairs, nothing too heavy, just a few . . ."
His voice faded. They'd rounded the corner to the alleyway where they'd parked the TARDIS, and there she was, big and blue and still the most magical thing Amelia'd ever seen. And leaning against it was blue-eyed Jack from the food cart.
"Jack," the Doctor said, sounding somehow unsurprised.
"Doctor," he replied.
The Doctor tossed his empty container of food into a nearby bin. There was no sign of the food Jack had ordered, Amelia noticed. "Thought I felt you round here. You could've let yourself in."
Jack shook his head. "No key. It got lost with . . . everything else." He pushed off the TARDIS. "How long for you since the bar?"
"Six months, give or take. Yourself?"
"Longer, I think. Not sure." Jack looked away, swallowing hard. "I appreciated the gesture for what it was worth."
"Not much, I know. Best I could do at the time. Changed my face about ten minutes later." The Doctor glanced down at Amelia. "Sorry! Sorry, sorry. Jack, this is Amelia Pond. Amelia Pond, this is Jack Harkness."
"I know," Amelia said, rolling her eyes a little. "We met at the food cart. He helped me with the money."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Did he."
"Yeah. Can we go in?" she asked. "It's cold out here." If the Doctor wanted to stand around talking in code with Jack, he could at least do it in the TARDIS, where there was tea and a cupboard full of art supplies that never ran out or got boring.
"Oh, yes, sorry," he said. He snapped his fingers and the doors swung open. "Jack? Care to come in?"
Jack hesitated. He wanted to come in, Amelia could tell, but he wasn't sure he should, for some reason. "I'm not -"
"Oh, don't be stupid," Amelia said, impatient because the tip of her nose had gone numb. She grabbed his hand and hauled him inside the TARDIS. He could've shook her off, but he didn't. He let himself be hauled.
Jack sucked in a breath when they came through the doors and she looked back to see him staring around with his mouth hanging open. "Different," he managed, in a weird voice that Amelia was pretty sure meant he might start crying.
"I regenerated and so did she," the Doctor said. He was watching Jack and he looked like he might start crying, too. That would be just too weird. "Amelia," he said, not looking at her, "go put the kettle on, will you?"
"Yup," she said, and escaped gladly. The kettle was going to take a really long time to boil, she decided. And maybe by the time she came back, neither of them would be crying.
***
The Doctor waited until Amelia had gone. Then he turned to Jack, whose eyes had suddenly got very wet. The Doctor sighed. "Jack . . ."
"Please don't," Jack said, half turning away. "You had to be kind to me, didn't you? You had to invite me in and actually mean it, and the TARDIS had to be magnificent, and you had to have a little girl with you. God, what are you thinking? You're going to get her -" his voice caught, helplessly "- killed."
The Doctor reached out and put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Jack. Come here, please." Jack let himself be turned around and pulled into a hug. He let out a stuttering breath and buried his face in the Doctor's neck. "I'm sorry," the Doctor said. He could have controlled his voice, but he chose to let it crack. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." Jack mumbled fixed point into his shoulder. The Doctor tightened his arms. "Yes. But after. I should have been there. Jack, I'm sorry."
Jack nodded against his shoulder, but didn't move. The Doctor kept holding him until finally, long after Amelia should have returned with the tea, Jack pulled away. He rubbed his face; the Doctor pulled a blue checkered handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it over. "Thanks," Jack said, and wiped his eyes.
"Come here. Let's sit for a bit." The Doctor led him over to the pilot seat and jumped up.
"What about Amelia?" Jack asked, settling himself beside him.
"She's all right for now. The TARDIS'll look after her."
Jack looked down at his hands. "I shouldn't have said that. Before."
"No, you're right. TARDIS isn't really any place for a little girl, is it? Or wouldn't be, if that girl weren't Amelia Pond." He shrugged. "Her parents are dead and she could probably be gone a week before her aunt noticed. I won't say I was thinking very straight at the time, but by the time I was, here we were!" He flung his arms out and then brought them in with a shrug. "Besides, she's Amelia Pond. Fed me fish custard the first time we met. How could I say no?"
Jack laughed, albeit weakly. "Sounds like fun."
The Doctor let his feet swing. "It was. It is." He paused. "You know, I've got some repairs to do the next few days. Could use a hand, if you don't mind."
Jack shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. "What I wouldn't give . . ."
"As it happens, you don't have to give anything. Except time," the Doctor added after a moment, "and it's not as though you're short on that. Afterward I'll take you wherever you like. Or . . ."
"What?"
"Or you can stay. With Amelia and me. She is a handful. I could use the help."
For a moment, the Doctor feared he'd said exactly the wrong thing. But then, Jack barked a sudden laugh. "I can't imagine anyone less suited to being a parent than you."
The Doctor straightened indignantly. "I did all right before." Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "All right, no, I was rubbish at it. I didn't really mean it to end up like this, you know, but I can hardly take her back to Leadworth now."
Jack was quiet for awhile. "What are you going to do?" he asked at last. "Kids change so fast. A couple years with you and her aunt won't even recognize her."
The Doctor grimaced. "Haven't thought that far ahead yet. And you're avoiding my question. Come with us, eh, Jack?"
Jack looked at him. "All right. But just for the repairs."
The Doctor broke into a grin. "Brilliant!" He jumped down, rubbed his hands together, and spun around. "Right, then. Help me take us into the vortex and we'll see where Amelia's got to with the tea."
"Right here, Doctor," Amelia said, clamoring down the staircase with a tea tray in hand.
The Doctor put his hands on his hips. "Amelia Pond. How long were you listening at the top of the stairs?"
"Long enough to know Jack's coming with us," she said, unperturbed. She grinned at Jack. "I'm glad." She nodded in the Doctor's direction. "He's a handful, and I could use the help."
The Doctor sputtered indignantly. But Jack smiled, and the Doctor knew that Amelia had succeeded where he hadn't, quite. He'd take a bruised ego if it meant Jack might stay.
Jack helped take them into the vortex as best he could, considering the controls were completely different from the last time he'd done it. Drifting comfortably at last, they sat on the floor together to drink their tea and eat their biscuits. Then they cleared away the tea things, and Amelia went to get materials for a collage while the Doctor showed Jack around the new TARDIS console. He watched Jack touching the console, smoothing his hand along its edge and smiling up a the Time Rotor as at an old lover, and marveled at the nature of second chances.
Hours later, after Amelia had fallen asleep on the console floor and the Doctor had carried her to bed, he found Jack wandering the main corridor of the TARDIS. "Tired?" he asked.
Jack shrugged. "I don't sleep much these days."
The Doctor studied him. Jack looked older than he ever had before. He might change over time, but it would be on a glacial scale - it shouldn't be noticeable after only a few months or even a few years. Which meant that what looked like age was most likely bone-deep weariness, no matter what Jack said. "Me neither," he said with a shrug. "But I think it's good to keep up the habit. Otherwise you find yourself keeling over at the most inopportune moments. Want your old room back?"
"No," Jack said instantly. "No, no. Anything will do, really."
The Doctor nodded. "I'm sure the TARDIS could rustle something up. Or we could share."
Jack glanced at him sharply. "Share?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Big bed, lots of room, sometimes I get lost in it. Wouldn't mind sharing, especially with you."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying, Doctor? Because it sounds like you're propositioning me."
The Doctor leaned against the wall. "What if I am? Brand new body, you know. Lots of things I've never tried before. Speaking of which, you haven't said yet. What do you think of the new me?" He reached up and straightened his bowtie, smiling.
Jack said nothing for a moment. Then he slowly undid the bowtie and pulled it from beneath the Doctor's collar, leaned in, and kissed him, softly but certainly not chastely.
He pulled away. They stared at each other. The Doctor smiled. "Good answer."
***
Jack woke and immediately held his breath, unsure where he was and if he'd been asleep or unconscious. The hum of the TARDIS soothed him and he relaxed. He was more comfortable than he could remember allowing himself to be in a long time. He'd snogged the Doctor, he recalled with a sudden smile, and the Doctor had snogged him back. Enthusiastically. They probably would've done more than snog, except that Jack, exhausted from too many days in a row with no safe place to sleep, had started to doze off on him.
"Doctor?" a small voice whispered, and suddenly Jack understood the reason the Doctor had insisted on lending him pajamas before letting Jack fall asleep in his bed. He cracked one eye open and saw Amelia, clad in her own pajamas, shaking the sleeping Doctor's shoulder.
Doctor opened his eyes. There was no gasp or mumble or jerk, he was just all at once awake. "Amelia," he said, sitting up and turning on the bedside lamp. "Another nightmare?"
She nodded, face crumpling. "The crack in my wall again." She shivered. "You made me go back to Leadworth, and it was still there, only no one believed me, and I waited for you to come back and you never did." Her voice broke.
"Oh, Amelia," the Doctor sighed, and the mattress jostled as he pulled her up beside him. "Remember what I said to you before?"
"'Five minutes,'" Amelia said, sulkily. "Only it wasn't five minutes, it was days, and I thought you'd never come."
"But I did. And remember what else I said?"
Amelia sighed. "'Trust me. I'm the Doctor,'" she said, in a reasonable imitation of this Doctor's accent.
"Exactly. And I promise you, Amelia Pond, that if I say I'll come back, I will always come back." The Doctor pulled Amelia close and kissed the top of her head.
"And what if you don't say it?" she whispered.
"What?"
"What if you take me back to Leadworth and you don't say you'll come back?"
The Doctor went very still. "Well, that's . . . that may happen. All things end, Amelia, even the good things."
"But why?" she demanded. "Why do they have to? Why does everyone have to leave?" This last was a muffled wail, as she pressed her face into the Doctor's chest. The Doctor sighed, and to his credit, didn't try to reason with her, just held her as she sobbed herself out. Jack decided it was useless to pretend he was sleeping through this, so he opened his eyes and caught the Doctor's gaze. This Doctor looked almost ridiculously young - much younger than either of Jack's previous Doctors - but in that moment he appeared impossibly old.
At last Amelia's muffled sobs quieted and her breathing evened out. She opened her eyes and caught sight of Jack. She turned her face away, like she was embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to . . ." She paused to sniffle and rub a hand over her eyes, smearing the tears across her cheeks. "I didn't know Jack'd be here."
"Of course not," Jack said, propping himself up on his hand. "Do you have a lot of nightmares?" he asked quietly. She nodded, looking down. "Me too," he confided.
She looked up, clearly interested. "Mine are about the crack in my wall," she said, still leaning heavily against the Doctor. "What are yours about?"
"Oh," Jack said with a shrug, wondering what he could tell her without adding to the nightmare fodder, "lots of things. I'm older than I look. I've had a lot of things happen to me, good and bad. People leaving me, though - that's a big one. But my point," he said, sitting up, "is that I know a lot about nightmares and what helps, and I think the best cure for a nightmare is to hear a really good story."
Amelia nodded. "Sometimes the Doctor tells me stories to help me get back to sleep."
"The Doctor's a good storyteller." Jack leaned in to whisper in Amelia's ear. "I'm better." She grinned. "I know a really good story. It has romance and danger. Parts of it are spooky, and every bit of it is true. How does that sound?"
"Good," she said, snuggling into the Doctor's side. "What's it about?"
Jack looked up and met the Doctor's eyes. "It's the story of how I met the Doctor."
The Doctor smiled. "Jack's right. That is an exceptionally good story."
"You can help me tell it," Jack said, with exaggerated magnanimity, and was rewarded with a roll of the eyes from the Doctor and a muffled giggle from Amelia. He settled himself in comfortably, his his head just leaning against the Doctor's shoulder, and took a deep breath to begin. "It was 1941, the height of the London Blitz. I was on the run from the Time Agency, with just the clothes on my back, some psychic paper, and a pilfered Chula warship. The Doctor, who had a much bigger nose and far less hair at the time, was traveling with a woman named Rose. Rose was beautiful and kind but had made a rather unfortunate fashion choice that morning . . ."
Amelia was asleep before Jack and Rose had even managed to reach the hospital. The Doctor gathered her up in his arms and carried her off to bed. He returned to crawl back in beside Jack. "Thank you," he said, leaning in for a kiss.
Jack obliged, briefly, and then pulled away to smile at him. He shook his head. "She has your number. I've never seen anything like it."
The Doctor grimaced. "Yes, well . . . we've got a few things in common, Amelia Pond and me."
"You and a seven year old? I believe it."
"Oi!"
Jack laughed and then stopped, suddenly, startled. The Doctor raised questioning eyebrows at him. "Nothing. It's just . . . it's been awhile. Since I laughed."
The Doctor sighed and pulled him close. "It's okay to laugh. And it's okay to sleep."
Jack avoided his gaze. "This should hurt more than it does."
The Doctor pulled his head up gently, forcing him to meet his eyes. "Jack, listen to me. What happened to you was terrible. What you had to do was terrible. Grief is one thing - all three of us have our moments there. But if you're looking for someone to help you keep punishing yourself, you won't find it here. I won't do it and I won't have it around Amelia. If you want to be here, you have to try and get better."
Jack looked away. "I haven't said if I want to be here. Not yet."
"That's why I said if." The Doctor frowned seriously at him. "Think about it."
Jack nodded. "I will." He looked steadily at the Doctor. "You know, I was wrong before. When I said I couldn't imagine anyone less suited to parenthood. You're actually pretty good at it."
The light was dim, but Jack could tell the Doctor was blushing. "Amelia makes it easy." Jack snorted. "All right, no, she doesn't. She's sharp as a tack and I can't lie to her about anything."
"Annoying, is it?"
"Deeply, deeply annoying," the Doctor agreed. But then he smiled, stretching out with his hands behind his head. "I love it. This is the best I've felt in ages. Which is why I'd like it if you came with us. I can't help wanting to share the wealth."
"I'll think about it," Jack said. But he knew, somehow, that his mind was already made up. After all, he owed Amelia Pond the rest of the story.
Fin.
Author: sahiya
Challenge: Summer Holidays 2
Prompt Group: 11 - parent - nurture - vulnerable - blame
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jack/Eleven
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for the first half of "The Eleventh Hour," but it goes significantly AU after that.
Summary: Of second chances, TARDIS repairs, and cupboards full of never-ending art supplies.
Author's Note: Many thanks to fuzzyboo03 for cheerleading and kivrin for the beta!
The Rest of the Story
Amelia Pond was bored.
She'd wanted to come with the Doctor because life in Leadworth was boring, and he said he had a time machine and could take her anywhere she wanted, anywhere in all of space and time, as long as it was amazing. What he never mentioned, but which she probably should've guessed from how they met, was that sometimes time machines break down a little - not a lot, the Doctor said, but a little - and then they'd end up in boring, boring, boring markets on worlds where the weather was a lot like Leadworth.
"Look at this!" the Doctor exclaimed, holding up a part. He whipped out a magnifying glass and eyed it. "It's a perfect temporal coupler, do you know how rare these are?"
"Nope," Amelia said.
"Very rare. Very, very, very rare."
Amelia sighed. "Doctor, I'm hungry."
The Doctor blinked at her. "Didn't you just eat?"
"That was five hours ago. Look, there's a place over there and it smells like roast chicken. Can I have some money?"
The Doctor stood on tiptoe to peer over the heads of the vendors and see the cart where hunks of meat hung roasting on spits. "Not roast chicken, but it's close. Here." He handed her a handful of funny-looking bills and coins. "Come straight back. It's safe enough round here, but safe enough isn't the same as safe."
"Got it." She stuffed the money in her pockets, pulled her hat down over her ears, and set off, giving anyone who looked at her a narrow-eyed glare that said, I may be little, but I can be mean. And I bite.
The not-roast-chicken smelled even better up close. Amelia ordered enough for her and the Doctor, who forgot to eat a lot of the time. If it tasted like it smelled, he probably wouldn't even spit it out. Probably.
She reached into her pocket for the money the Doctor'd given her and realized that she didn't know how any of it worked. The bills were different sizes and so were the coins, but none of them had numbers on them. She looked up at the man serving the meat and thought about just handing it to him and saying, "Take what it's worth," but she knew how that would end. The Doctor wouldn't care if she came back with empty pockets, of course, but she would.
"The blue bill with the shiny ends," a man's voice said, very close to her ear. Amelia jumped and spun around, and found herself looking into the bluest eyes she'd ever seen. They were so blue they would've been silly, except they were also the saddest eyes she'd ever seen.
"Thanks," she said, handing the blue bill over.
The man straightened up. "One more of the same," he said to the man. The man grunted and turned around to hack another piece of meat off the slab roasting on the spit. The blue-eyed man looked down at Amelia. "You don't look like you're from around here."
"Neither do you," she said, giving him a toned-down version of her glare. "What's your name?"
"Jack. What's yours?"
"Amelia Pond. Jack what?"
The man smiled. Sort of. His mouth smiled, but his eyes didn't. "You're from Scotland. How'd you get here?"
"A mad man in a box," she told him, just as the the cook handed over her food. She turned and walked away, but not before she'd seen Jack go completely still, those impossibly blue eyes widening. Too late, Amelia realized that telling the truth even that much might've been a mistake. She kept walking, waiting for him to call out after her, but he didn't.
She reached the Doctor just as he was paying for the parts. "And that's the last of it!" he announced. "No more boring markets - well, not for awhile. I hope. Oh, thank you," he added, as Amelia handed him his half of the food. They headed back towards the TARDIS, eating as they walked. For not-roast-chicken, she thought, it tasted an awful lot like roast chicken. The Doctor, of course, talked with his mouth full, because he always talked with his mouth full, no matter how many times Amelia had told him it was disgusting. "We'll need to hang about in the vortex for a couple days, hope you don't mind. Minor repairs, nothing too heavy, just a few . . ."
His voice faded. They'd rounded the corner to the alleyway where they'd parked the TARDIS, and there she was, big and blue and still the most magical thing Amelia'd ever seen. And leaning against it was blue-eyed Jack from the food cart.
"Jack," the Doctor said, sounding somehow unsurprised.
"Doctor," he replied.
The Doctor tossed his empty container of food into a nearby bin. There was no sign of the food Jack had ordered, Amelia noticed. "Thought I felt you round here. You could've let yourself in."
Jack shook his head. "No key. It got lost with . . . everything else." He pushed off the TARDIS. "How long for you since the bar?"
"Six months, give or take. Yourself?"
"Longer, I think. Not sure." Jack looked away, swallowing hard. "I appreciated the gesture for what it was worth."
"Not much, I know. Best I could do at the time. Changed my face about ten minutes later." The Doctor glanced down at Amelia. "Sorry! Sorry, sorry. Jack, this is Amelia Pond. Amelia Pond, this is Jack Harkness."
"I know," Amelia said, rolling her eyes a little. "We met at the food cart. He helped me with the money."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows. "Did he."
"Yeah. Can we go in?" she asked. "It's cold out here." If the Doctor wanted to stand around talking in code with Jack, he could at least do it in the TARDIS, where there was tea and a cupboard full of art supplies that never ran out or got boring.
"Oh, yes, sorry," he said. He snapped his fingers and the doors swung open. "Jack? Care to come in?"
Jack hesitated. He wanted to come in, Amelia could tell, but he wasn't sure he should, for some reason. "I'm not -"
"Oh, don't be stupid," Amelia said, impatient because the tip of her nose had gone numb. She grabbed his hand and hauled him inside the TARDIS. He could've shook her off, but he didn't. He let himself be hauled.
Jack sucked in a breath when they came through the doors and she looked back to see him staring around with his mouth hanging open. "Different," he managed, in a weird voice that Amelia was pretty sure meant he might start crying.
"I regenerated and so did she," the Doctor said. He was watching Jack and he looked like he might start crying, too. That would be just too weird. "Amelia," he said, not looking at her, "go put the kettle on, will you?"
"Yup," she said, and escaped gladly. The kettle was going to take a really long time to boil, she decided. And maybe by the time she came back, neither of them would be crying.
***
The Doctor waited until Amelia had gone. Then he turned to Jack, whose eyes had suddenly got very wet. The Doctor sighed. "Jack . . ."
"Please don't," Jack said, half turning away. "You had to be kind to me, didn't you? You had to invite me in and actually mean it, and the TARDIS had to be magnificent, and you had to have a little girl with you. God, what are you thinking? You're going to get her -" his voice caught, helplessly "- killed."
The Doctor reached out and put his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Jack. Come here, please." Jack let himself be turned around and pulled into a hug. He let out a stuttering breath and buried his face in the Doctor's neck. "I'm sorry," the Doctor said. He could have controlled his voice, but he chose to let it crack. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." Jack mumbled fixed point into his shoulder. The Doctor tightened his arms. "Yes. But after. I should have been there. Jack, I'm sorry."
Jack nodded against his shoulder, but didn't move. The Doctor kept holding him until finally, long after Amelia should have returned with the tea, Jack pulled away. He rubbed his face; the Doctor pulled a blue checkered handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it over. "Thanks," Jack said, and wiped his eyes.
"Come here. Let's sit for a bit." The Doctor led him over to the pilot seat and jumped up.
"What about Amelia?" Jack asked, settling himself beside him.
"She's all right for now. The TARDIS'll look after her."
Jack looked down at his hands. "I shouldn't have said that. Before."
"No, you're right. TARDIS isn't really any place for a little girl, is it? Or wouldn't be, if that girl weren't Amelia Pond." He shrugged. "Her parents are dead and she could probably be gone a week before her aunt noticed. I won't say I was thinking very straight at the time, but by the time I was, here we were!" He flung his arms out and then brought them in with a shrug. "Besides, she's Amelia Pond. Fed me fish custard the first time we met. How could I say no?"
Jack laughed, albeit weakly. "Sounds like fun."
The Doctor let his feet swing. "It was. It is." He paused. "You know, I've got some repairs to do the next few days. Could use a hand, if you don't mind."
Jack shook his head, looking up at the ceiling. "What I wouldn't give . . ."
"As it happens, you don't have to give anything. Except time," the Doctor added after a moment, "and it's not as though you're short on that. Afterward I'll take you wherever you like. Or . . ."
"What?"
"Or you can stay. With Amelia and me. She is a handful. I could use the help."
For a moment, the Doctor feared he'd said exactly the wrong thing. But then, Jack barked a sudden laugh. "I can't imagine anyone less suited to being a parent than you."
The Doctor straightened indignantly. "I did all right before." Jack raised an eyebrow at him. "All right, no, I was rubbish at it. I didn't really mean it to end up like this, you know, but I can hardly take her back to Leadworth now."
Jack was quiet for awhile. "What are you going to do?" he asked at last. "Kids change so fast. A couple years with you and her aunt won't even recognize her."
The Doctor grimaced. "Haven't thought that far ahead yet. And you're avoiding my question. Come with us, eh, Jack?"
Jack looked at him. "All right. But just for the repairs."
The Doctor broke into a grin. "Brilliant!" He jumped down, rubbed his hands together, and spun around. "Right, then. Help me take us into the vortex and we'll see where Amelia's got to with the tea."
"Right here, Doctor," Amelia said, clamoring down the staircase with a tea tray in hand.
The Doctor put his hands on his hips. "Amelia Pond. How long were you listening at the top of the stairs?"
"Long enough to know Jack's coming with us," she said, unperturbed. She grinned at Jack. "I'm glad." She nodded in the Doctor's direction. "He's a handful, and I could use the help."
The Doctor sputtered indignantly. But Jack smiled, and the Doctor knew that Amelia had succeeded where he hadn't, quite. He'd take a bruised ego if it meant Jack might stay.
Jack helped take them into the vortex as best he could, considering the controls were completely different from the last time he'd done it. Drifting comfortably at last, they sat on the floor together to drink their tea and eat their biscuits. Then they cleared away the tea things, and Amelia went to get materials for a collage while the Doctor showed Jack around the new TARDIS console. He watched Jack touching the console, smoothing his hand along its edge and smiling up a the Time Rotor as at an old lover, and marveled at the nature of second chances.
Hours later, after Amelia had fallen asleep on the console floor and the Doctor had carried her to bed, he found Jack wandering the main corridor of the TARDIS. "Tired?" he asked.
Jack shrugged. "I don't sleep much these days."
The Doctor studied him. Jack looked older than he ever had before. He might change over time, but it would be on a glacial scale - it shouldn't be noticeable after only a few months or even a few years. Which meant that what looked like age was most likely bone-deep weariness, no matter what Jack said. "Me neither," he said with a shrug. "But I think it's good to keep up the habit. Otherwise you find yourself keeling over at the most inopportune moments. Want your old room back?"
"No," Jack said instantly. "No, no. Anything will do, really."
The Doctor nodded. "I'm sure the TARDIS could rustle something up. Or we could share."
Jack glanced at him sharply. "Share?"
The Doctor shrugged. "Big bed, lots of room, sometimes I get lost in it. Wouldn't mind sharing, especially with you."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying, Doctor? Because it sounds like you're propositioning me."
The Doctor leaned against the wall. "What if I am? Brand new body, you know. Lots of things I've never tried before. Speaking of which, you haven't said yet. What do you think of the new me?" He reached up and straightened his bowtie, smiling.
Jack said nothing for a moment. Then he slowly undid the bowtie and pulled it from beneath the Doctor's collar, leaned in, and kissed him, softly but certainly not chastely.
He pulled away. They stared at each other. The Doctor smiled. "Good answer."
***
Jack woke and immediately held his breath, unsure where he was and if he'd been asleep or unconscious. The hum of the TARDIS soothed him and he relaxed. He was more comfortable than he could remember allowing himself to be in a long time. He'd snogged the Doctor, he recalled with a sudden smile, and the Doctor had snogged him back. Enthusiastically. They probably would've done more than snog, except that Jack, exhausted from too many days in a row with no safe place to sleep, had started to doze off on him.
"Doctor?" a small voice whispered, and suddenly Jack understood the reason the Doctor had insisted on lending him pajamas before letting Jack fall asleep in his bed. He cracked one eye open and saw Amelia, clad in her own pajamas, shaking the sleeping Doctor's shoulder.
Doctor opened his eyes. There was no gasp or mumble or jerk, he was just all at once awake. "Amelia," he said, sitting up and turning on the bedside lamp. "Another nightmare?"
She nodded, face crumpling. "The crack in my wall again." She shivered. "You made me go back to Leadworth, and it was still there, only no one believed me, and I waited for you to come back and you never did." Her voice broke.
"Oh, Amelia," the Doctor sighed, and the mattress jostled as he pulled her up beside him. "Remember what I said to you before?"
"'Five minutes,'" Amelia said, sulkily. "Only it wasn't five minutes, it was days, and I thought you'd never come."
"But I did. And remember what else I said?"
Amelia sighed. "'Trust me. I'm the Doctor,'" she said, in a reasonable imitation of this Doctor's accent.
"Exactly. And I promise you, Amelia Pond, that if I say I'll come back, I will always come back." The Doctor pulled Amelia close and kissed the top of her head.
"And what if you don't say it?" she whispered.
"What?"
"What if you take me back to Leadworth and you don't say you'll come back?"
The Doctor went very still. "Well, that's . . . that may happen. All things end, Amelia, even the good things."
"But why?" she demanded. "Why do they have to? Why does everyone have to leave?" This last was a muffled wail, as she pressed her face into the Doctor's chest. The Doctor sighed, and to his credit, didn't try to reason with her, just held her as she sobbed herself out. Jack decided it was useless to pretend he was sleeping through this, so he opened his eyes and caught the Doctor's gaze. This Doctor looked almost ridiculously young - much younger than either of Jack's previous Doctors - but in that moment he appeared impossibly old.
At last Amelia's muffled sobs quieted and her breathing evened out. She opened her eyes and caught sight of Jack. She turned her face away, like she was embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to . . ." She paused to sniffle and rub a hand over her eyes, smearing the tears across her cheeks. "I didn't know Jack'd be here."
"Of course not," Jack said, propping himself up on his hand. "Do you have a lot of nightmares?" he asked quietly. She nodded, looking down. "Me too," he confided.
She looked up, clearly interested. "Mine are about the crack in my wall," she said, still leaning heavily against the Doctor. "What are yours about?"
"Oh," Jack said with a shrug, wondering what he could tell her without adding to the nightmare fodder, "lots of things. I'm older than I look. I've had a lot of things happen to me, good and bad. People leaving me, though - that's a big one. But my point," he said, sitting up, "is that I know a lot about nightmares and what helps, and I think the best cure for a nightmare is to hear a really good story."
Amelia nodded. "Sometimes the Doctor tells me stories to help me get back to sleep."
"The Doctor's a good storyteller." Jack leaned in to whisper in Amelia's ear. "I'm better." She grinned. "I know a really good story. It has romance and danger. Parts of it are spooky, and every bit of it is true. How does that sound?"
"Good," she said, snuggling into the Doctor's side. "What's it about?"
Jack looked up and met the Doctor's eyes. "It's the story of how I met the Doctor."
The Doctor smiled. "Jack's right. That is an exceptionally good story."
"You can help me tell it," Jack said, with exaggerated magnanimity, and was rewarded with a roll of the eyes from the Doctor and a muffled giggle from Amelia. He settled himself in comfortably, his his head just leaning against the Doctor's shoulder, and took a deep breath to begin. "It was 1941, the height of the London Blitz. I was on the run from the Time Agency, with just the clothes on my back, some psychic paper, and a pilfered Chula warship. The Doctor, who had a much bigger nose and far less hair at the time, was traveling with a woman named Rose. Rose was beautiful and kind but had made a rather unfortunate fashion choice that morning . . ."
Amelia was asleep before Jack and Rose had even managed to reach the hospital. The Doctor gathered her up in his arms and carried her off to bed. He returned to crawl back in beside Jack. "Thank you," he said, leaning in for a kiss.
Jack obliged, briefly, and then pulled away to smile at him. He shook his head. "She has your number. I've never seen anything like it."
The Doctor grimaced. "Yes, well . . . we've got a few things in common, Amelia Pond and me."
"You and a seven year old? I believe it."
"Oi!"
Jack laughed and then stopped, suddenly, startled. The Doctor raised questioning eyebrows at him. "Nothing. It's just . . . it's been awhile. Since I laughed."
The Doctor sighed and pulled him close. "It's okay to laugh. And it's okay to sleep."
Jack avoided his gaze. "This should hurt more than it does."
The Doctor pulled his head up gently, forcing him to meet his eyes. "Jack, listen to me. What happened to you was terrible. What you had to do was terrible. Grief is one thing - all three of us have our moments there. But if you're looking for someone to help you keep punishing yourself, you won't find it here. I won't do it and I won't have it around Amelia. If you want to be here, you have to try and get better."
Jack looked away. "I haven't said if I want to be here. Not yet."
"That's why I said if." The Doctor frowned seriously at him. "Think about it."
Jack nodded. "I will." He looked steadily at the Doctor. "You know, I was wrong before. When I said I couldn't imagine anyone less suited to parenthood. You're actually pretty good at it."
The light was dim, but Jack could tell the Doctor was blushing. "Amelia makes it easy." Jack snorted. "All right, no, she doesn't. She's sharp as a tack and I can't lie to her about anything."
"Annoying, is it?"
"Deeply, deeply annoying," the Doctor agreed. But then he smiled, stretching out with his hands behind his head. "I love it. This is the best I've felt in ages. Which is why I'd like it if you came with us. I can't help wanting to share the wealth."
"I'll think about it," Jack said. But he knew, somehow, that his mind was already made up. After all, he owed Amelia Pond the rest of the story.
Fin.