vail-kagami: Wet, But Drying, Part 2a/2 (Jack/Ten) [PG]
Title: Wet, but Drying (2a/2)
Author:
vail_kagami
Beta: nightrider101, for whom this story was written.
Challenge: Stranded
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Summary: Thrown back in time without the TARDIS, the Doctor and Jack have no choice but to kill time with domestic life until they can go back to saving the Universe.
Jack’s jobs kept being sporadic, but at least he managed to earn money every once in a while. The Doctor remained the one who paid the rent, and for about everything else they needed. He seemed to have fun, most of the time. Jack got the impression that his alien friend didn’t really take their current life very serious. But then, neither did he. It was too absurd.
From time to time Jack also got the impression that the Doctor would like to leave their flat, walk away and never again stop for more than five minutes. If they hadn’t needed money, and thus work, he might have done so - explored this world at least, if the rest of the Universe wasn’t open to him. Being stuck here was hard for the Time Lord, especially since Jack knew that it wasn’t just boredom that kept him running all the time. But he hid it well, and used the little things in life to distract himself.
Like cleaning the flat. Or cooking, or shopping. Not the kind of shopping usually associated with women - necessary shopping, for food, and clothes, and toilet paper. The Doctor could make that an adventure.
They went shopping for clothes as soon as they had earned enough money to spare, as neither of them had more than one set of clothes in the local fashion, and what they had wasn’t really warm enough for this time of year. Jack enjoyed it greatly: he couldn’t get enough of letting the Doctor try different outfits. When his friend finally lost his patience and dragged him home, Jack looked forward to doing it again.
He got the chance in late spring, when it was getting too warm for him to keep wearing the long-sleeved stuff. The Doctor argued, as he had in winter, that he could cope with any temperature and didn’t need clothes for every season. Jack argued that he had to blend in, and keep the people from noticing he was different. Secretly he also wanted to see his Doctor in shorts and a t-shirt.
After the last ice had melted the Time Lord had lost his job as a waiter, as expected. He soon found something else - like Jack he got work on a building site. Unlike Jack his lasted longer than a few days each month.
In the evening, if they remembered to, the Doctor tried to teach Jack the language, though the human suspected that he did it mainly so he could laugh at him if he got it wrong.
The Doctor laughed a lot. It was a stupid language, Jack decided. No one could possibly get that right!
And apparently funny mistakes were even funnier if they got sung at the reading lamp.
The Doctor’s unease at their situation only became obvious when he had a few days off. He seemed unable to just sit down and relax, always had to do something, anything. He never insisted on Jack’s company when he went somewhere, but the human came with him anyway. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and besides, someone had to look after the Doctor. He got into trouble whenever he could, and the fact that their stay here had not yet been overshadowed by any major incident only served as fuel to Jack’s worries. Eventually something had to happen.
It was written into the laws of the Universe.
This time, however, he intended on choosing the destination for their weekend-trip himself. The Doctor would have two days off at the end of the week, and there was somewhere Jack had wanted to take him.
Outside the sun was just beginning to near the horizon. Jack had been out all day, ‘exploring the area’ as he called it. In other words, he’d taken an extended walk. Also, he had slept with a nice, attractive lady, who actually seemed glad that he didn’t understand a word she said. He’d not gotten any money out of it, though.
Summer had only just started, but the temperatures were already much higher than what Cardiff could offer him on most days. Even in the evening, Jack had found himself longing for a cool breeze when he walked back home.
At least it was cool inside. Jack sat on the couch for a moment, simply enjoying being out of the heat. According to the Doctor it would get worse - as cold as the winters were here, as hot were the summers, and the time in between was desperately short. Good thing the Time Lord could cope with it so well - he could work at his building site all day and never complain.
The men he worked with had made fun of him at first; skinny as he was, the Doctor didn’t look like someone who could carry sacks of cement around. But as soon as they had learned that he was a lot stronger than anyone would think looking at him, they accepted him.
The Doctor made friends easily. Jack thought of the men spending all day in the Doctor’s company, and was proud of himself for not feeling jealous. He had the nights, after all. And the future.
With a sigh, Jack got off the couch and his daydreams and walked into the kitchen. The Doctor would be back in less than an hour, and before then he wanted to have dinner prepared. And tea. His friend could easily do without food, but tea he needed to be happy. If there was none he might frown, or even pout.
Jack wondered when exactly he had developed into a housewife.
Fortunately this world knew tea, and the Doctor had found a number of new favourite flavours. They were lacking bananas, though.
Jack prepared a meal he knew the Doctor liked a lot -because he wanted to get the Time Lord into the right mood to let Jack drag him to his chosen destination the next day, but also because he didn’t want to eat alone. The Doctor didn’t need nearly as much food as Jack did, but Jack liked to see him eat none the less. If he didn’t - for whatever reason - Jack could never help worrying.
It seemed to him like the Doctor had been eating less since the summer began. But at the same time he’d been sleeping more.
Which still was precious little.
The first time, when the Doctor had fallen asleep on the couch, Jack had found him in the morning, gazing up at him in shock and confusion, momentarily disoriented from falling onto the floor. He’d seemed distressed, somehow, as if he’d been having a bad dream, but the Time Lord denied it. Yet he kept avoiding sleep as much as possible.
When sleep finally claimed him it was too deep for anything to disturb him. Knowing there was no risk of waking his friend Jack now carried him into the bedroom every time, and wrapped his arms around him to hold him close until morning. Maybe it was wistful thinking, but the Doctor seemed to be sleeping easier when he was doing it in Jack’s arms.
He didn’t even mind waking up to Jack snoring into his hair.
Today of all days the Time Lord was not on time. He came home half an hour late, as it happened sometimes because he’d been busy chatting with his friends from work or just got lost in his daydreams on the way back. Jack hated it when he did that - he could never tell if he hadn’t gotten into trouble after all. How could he? Anything could happen to the Doctor while he was gone and Jack would never know.
He had mentioned it to his friend once. His friend had told him not to be stupid.
Of all people Jack had known in his life the Doctor was the most capable. To Jack he also seemed like the most fragile, and he knew it was silly to think like that, but he couldn’t help it. Losing the Doctor would take so much more from him than the loss of anyone else.
Today Jack didn’t bring it up, and didn’t mention that he had already slipped into his shoes to look for the Time Lord when he’d finally showed up. Their dinner passed peacefully and with a very delighted Doctor, who prized the food and ate enough to convince Jack he actually meant it.
As usual the conversation was light and didn’t stray away from harmless topics. Stories of the past were exchanged often, but never those that hurt. It wasn’t like Jack didn’t want to share his pain and turmoil with his friend, but the few times he’d done so the Doctor had become quiet and sad, and looked as if everything bad that had happened to Jack was somehow his fault.
He never told anything in return. Jack had tried to get something out of him - to make him tell the human about all the things he told no one else, the experiences that had formed him into the man he was, but to no avail. The Doctor kept his past a secret.
“Any plans for tomorrow?” Jack asked after cleaning the table.
The Doctor leaned back in his chair. “Not yet. I’ll think of something.”
“Don’t bother. You’re coming with me.”
“Oh? You’re trying to be helpful?”
“Anything for you, darling.” Jack smiled sweetly. “I thought I’d spare you having to think for yourself.”
“Ah, nothing like a friend who knows what my weaknesses are,” the Doctor smirked. “Where are we going?”
“To the beach,” Jack declared. “We’ll take the bus to Bords and spend at least five hours swimming and lying in the sun.” Far too long since he’d last done that.
Jack expected the Doctor to complain - he wasn’t exactly a beach person. But the Time Lord merely shrugged, and smiled.
“The beach it is, then.”
-
In retrospect Jack should have known that for the Doctor ‘Let’s go to the beach!’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘Let’s go swimming!’ or even ‘Come have a good long look at my scarcely dressed body!’
“Aren’t you going to change?” Jack asked after the Doctor had settled in the shadow of the palm-like trees that grew on the edge of the beach.
“Into what?” the Doctor asked, puzzled.
Jack grinned. “I brought you boxer shorts!” He reached into his bag to take out the object in question and present it to his frowning friend. “Although you could also go naked. I certainly don’t mind.”
“I do,” the Doctor informed him. Instead of taking the offered piece of clothing he reached into his own back to take out a novel.
“There’s hardly anyone here. Don’t be like that!” It was true: the beach was nearly deserted but for them, probably because there was another, more popular beach closer to the city. “We haven’t come all this way for you to read a book.”
“I’m not keeping you from taking a bath. Have fun!” the Doctor replied cheerfully, already skipping though his book for the right page.
“I’d have more fun if you’re with me. Come on! I’ll even turn around while you change, if it bothers you that much.”
“It doesn’t bother me.” The Doctor sounded a little irritated now. “I’m just not going to do it.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you want me to?”
“Because...” Jack was at a loss for words. “Do you think I dragged you here so I can go swimming all by myself? And it’s hot! We need to cool down a bit. Please?”
The Doctor finally looked up from his novel. Maybe he accepted that it really was a little too hot to be comfortable, even for him, but it was unlikely: as much as Jack had wished to see him in a t-shirt, or even a tank-top, the Time Lord never even wore anything short-sleeved in this heat. In the end, Jack thought, it probably was the disappointment the Doctor saw in his face that, after a second, made him sigh like a long-suffering parent.
“Oh, well,” he gave in. “Go on, then. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Grinning happily, Jack tossed him the swim shorts and turned away to give his friend the privacy he craved. As he ran towards the water’s edge he kept himself from yelling ‘Yay!’
-
Just like any long-suffering parent the Doctor took his time. Jack dived into the cool water, swam against the current that tried to wash him back to the shore, and for one moment simply relished in being out of the heat. The water wasn’t cold, but compared to the air temperature it was cool enough to send a shock through his heated body.
After a minute of happily swimming around he returned to the more shallow water to stand up and look for the Doctor. The place beneath the trees was vacated, and the Doctor nowhere in sight. Jack looked around, expecting him in the water nearby, but found nothing.
He had barely time to frown before something below the surface grabbed his ankle and pulled him down.
Jack had forgotten that unlike most long-suffering parents the Doctor could also hold his breath for a ridiculously long time.
For a while they wrestled in the shallows waters, until Jack had to get some distance between them, wishing the water was a little bit colder. The next game they played was apparently called Chase Jack, and the Doctor was very good at it - Jack didn’t fail to see the irony, as he’d once spend more than a century playing the popular game of Chase the Doctor.
Once he’d given in and gotten into the water, the Doctor had replaced his reluctance with childlike joy. According to the looks they received, some of the few other swimmers found it slightly inappropriate for two grown men to fool around like little boys. Perhaps here people lost the ability to have fun once they reached the age of twenty.
Neither Jack nor the Doctor could care any less.
There was a dark bruise on the Doctor’s left shoulder blade. Another, decidedly less pleasant shock ran though Jack when he thought, for a second, that he had done it, in their playful wrestling. He scolded himself for being so protective just before the thought could reflect on his face. Even if he had caused that, the Doctor didn’t even seem to notice, and he was unlikely to suffer any harm from it after everything he’d been though in his life. If he’d read Jack’s thoughts right then he would have been more than a little annoyed. And rightfully so.
Forcefully shaking off his unnecessary worry Jack started another attack on his friend, in a vain attempt to steal his shorts.
They stayed in the water for an hour - when they finally stumbled back to the beach Jack’s fingers were wrinkled. He slowly licked the salt water off his fingertips with a suggestive smile at a young boy nearby and earned a blush. He repeated the gesture at the Doctor and earned a roll of his eyes.
Now they weren’t touching anymore the human didn’t mind the stirring in his pants that came with watching droplets of water trailing down the Doctor’s skin. Instead he openly grinned at the other man, who remained annoyingly ignorant of his arousal.
He was too thin, really, not at all the type Jack preferred. How someone so skinny could still be so desirable was beyond the immortal.
Then again, this was the Doctor. He would have still been desirable had he been turned into a goat.
They reached the palm trees, where they’d left their stuff. Jack wouldn’t have been Jack, the organizational genius, if he hadn’t brought towels for them. The beach wouldn’t have been a beach if the towels hadn’t been covered with sand now.
As the Doctor raised his arms to dry his hair Jack’s gaze fell on another bruise on the inside of his left forearm. It was circular, of the exact same form and size as the one on his shoulder, and a he looked closer the human saw that it was not a bruise at all, but apparently a tattoo of some sort. Or rather, a branding.
Somehow, it looked meaningful. Not like something the Doctor would mark himself with for fun.
Or at all.
“What is that?” Jack asked before he could stop himself. His voice sounded unpleasantly sharp.
The towel came away, revealing a Time Lord who was very ruffled. He followed Jack’s gaze to the mark on his arm.
“Oh, that. “ He shrugged. “It’s old. A reminder from a past life. Pay no attention to it.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means you should ignore it,” the Doctor explained patiently.
“I’m talking about the mark. Is there a meaning?”
“Yes, there is. Right now it’s telling me that you and I are not speaking the same language.” The Doctor slipped the shirt over his head and the mark disappeared from sight. Jack nearly sighed with relief, as it had made him strangely nervous.
“It’s only just past noon,” the Doctor suddenly stated. “Day’s long still. Let’s walk back home.”
-
By bus they had needed an hour to get to the beach, so Jack expected them to need about six or seven for the way back if they walked. He didn’t look forward to running through the midday heat for so long.
The Doctor didn’t seem to notice. Lost in his own thoughts he walked ahead, through a landscape Jack had to admit was quite beautiful. Apart from the temperature it was an enjoyable trip, especially after the Doctor had gotten over his moment of brooding and started talking to him again.
After three hours they passed though a small village and the Doctor treated Jack to a cold drink in a café.
“It should be me buying you a drink,” Jack recalled a conversation they had ages ago. Lifetimes. The Doctor smirked.
“We’re not going there,” he said firmly.
“Hey, it was you who suggested it!”
“And you who said it was too much work. You had your chance, Harkness!”
Jack laughed, because he knew the Doctor didn’t mean it.
“You mean, if you’d decided to sell your body after all, your customers would have gotten you for a bottle of beer?”
“It depends on my mood. On some days, I suspect, my customers would have gotten me for tea.”
“I doubt that would have paid the rent.”
“Hence me having picked a different job.” The Doctor sipped his tea. “If you’re hot you shouldn’t drink something too cold. You could get sick.”
If he got sick, Jack could just kill himself and be fine again. He knew better than to say that aloud.
“Cold is fine with me right now, really,” he answered sourly, and drowned his iced… whatever. He still didn’t know the names of all the food this planet had on offer. In his mind, however, he called this drink ‘beefsteak lemonade’.
It made him hungry.
“I should have brought some food,” he mused with a sigh. Five minutes later he was munching the sandwich the Doctor had bought him.
“Don’t you want anything?” he asked his friend with his mouth full of bread. “Swimming always makes me hungry.” And tired. He didn’t look forward to walking another tree hours, but refrained from saying so for the sake of the Doctor’s mood.
“Not me,” the Doctor told him.
“You look tired,” Jack tried, because it was true: The Doctor looked like he’d once again not slept in a week, though Jack knew for a fact that he hadn’t dreamt the Time Lord resting peacefully in his arms just three days ago.
(If he was completely honest with himself, one reason for demanding a trip to the beach was the hope that swimming, and the overload of sunshine, would exhaust the Doctor just like any other person, so Jack could snuggle against him once again this night. Naturally, he had not foreseen the walk home.)
“I’m not. Are you?” Suddenly the Doctor looked anxious, and what choice did Jack have but lie to him?
-
Contrary to Jack’s hope, a scarcely dressed fairy did not come down from the sky in a magical car to fly them home. Instead it took the expected additional three hours to reach their flat, walking all the way. Maybe he just didn’t believe hard enough.
His feet were aching when he collapsed onto the couch with a sigh. A rather lout one. It nearly drowned out the grumbling of his stomach.
Leaning back he closed his eyes and quickly began to drift away. In his dozing state he didn’t even register that the Doctor hadn’t joined him until a plate of food was placed in front of him.
“How did you know I was hungry?”
“Your stomach has been talking to me.” The Doctor winked at him, but beneath his smile guilt was written all over his face. “I’m sorry.”
Jack could have told him that he would have protested if he had not wanted to walk all the way, or pointed out that despite everything he had quite enjoyed their little unplanned hiking tour. Instead he reached up and pulled the Doctor down into his lap. The Time Lord didn’t complain, nor did he decline when Jack fed him half of his meal.
Exhausted though he was, sleep was the furthest thing on Jack’s mind when half an hour later the Doctor was dozing in his arms, the denied fatigue evident on his face. Jack was reminded of a cat he once had, though the Doctor raised feelings of an entirely different kind in him when Jack slowly trailed his fingers over the Time Lord’s arm, where he knew the mark to be below the sleeve of his shirt.
Confident that the other was asleep, he slit up the wide sleeve to have a better look at the symbol he hadn’t been able to get off his mind ever since he’d seen it.
It was circular, showing a stylized eight surrounded by lines and circles. Once again Jack wondered about the meaning.
“It’s meaningless,” the Doctor suddenly mumbled, as if he’d read Jack’s thoughts. The human felt a hint of shame, as though he’d been caught skipping through the Doctor’s diary, but he refrained from pulling the sleeve over the mark again.
“You said it was from another life,” he said softly. “Why didn’t it disappear with your regeneration?”
“Because it’s meant to stay there,” the Doctor answered, his voice quiet and devoid of emotions. “It was created that way.”
Jack didn’t ask for an explanation - he understood enough to know that any further question would have been cruel.
“Come on,” he murmured, and pulled the Time Lord to his feet to lead him to the bedroom. The Doctor changed into the shorts and the shirt he wore for sleeping, if he remembered to, and so did Jack. Out of respect for his friend he didn’t sleep naked when they shared a bed.
It didn’t happen often that the Doctor came to bed without Jack having to carry him there after he’d passed out in the living room. Now he curled up on his side, and one moment later Jack wrapped his arms around him from behind and pulled him close.
When he pressed a soft kiss to the other’s neck the Doctor was already asleep.
Part 1 <-> Part 2b
Author:
vail_kagami
Beta: nightrider101, for whom this story was written.
Challenge: Stranded
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Summary: Thrown back in time without the TARDIS, the Doctor and Jack have no choice but to kill time with domestic life until they can go back to saving the Universe.
Jack’s jobs kept being sporadic, but at least he managed to earn money every once in a while. The Doctor remained the one who paid the rent, and for about everything else they needed. He seemed to have fun, most of the time. Jack got the impression that his alien friend didn’t really take their current life very serious. But then, neither did he. It was too absurd.
From time to time Jack also got the impression that the Doctor would like to leave their flat, walk away and never again stop for more than five minutes. If they hadn’t needed money, and thus work, he might have done so - explored this world at least, if the rest of the Universe wasn’t open to him. Being stuck here was hard for the Time Lord, especially since Jack knew that it wasn’t just boredom that kept him running all the time. But he hid it well, and used the little things in life to distract himself.
Like cleaning the flat. Or cooking, or shopping. Not the kind of shopping usually associated with women - necessary shopping, for food, and clothes, and toilet paper. The Doctor could make that an adventure.
They went shopping for clothes as soon as they had earned enough money to spare, as neither of them had more than one set of clothes in the local fashion, and what they had wasn’t really warm enough for this time of year. Jack enjoyed it greatly: he couldn’t get enough of letting the Doctor try different outfits. When his friend finally lost his patience and dragged him home, Jack looked forward to doing it again.
He got the chance in late spring, when it was getting too warm for him to keep wearing the long-sleeved stuff. The Doctor argued, as he had in winter, that he could cope with any temperature and didn’t need clothes for every season. Jack argued that he had to blend in, and keep the people from noticing he was different. Secretly he also wanted to see his Doctor in shorts and a t-shirt.
After the last ice had melted the Time Lord had lost his job as a waiter, as expected. He soon found something else - like Jack he got work on a building site. Unlike Jack his lasted longer than a few days each month.
In the evening, if they remembered to, the Doctor tried to teach Jack the language, though the human suspected that he did it mainly so he could laugh at him if he got it wrong.
The Doctor laughed a lot. It was a stupid language, Jack decided. No one could possibly get that right!
And apparently funny mistakes were even funnier if they got sung at the reading lamp.
The Doctor’s unease at their situation only became obvious when he had a few days off. He seemed unable to just sit down and relax, always had to do something, anything. He never insisted on Jack’s company when he went somewhere, but the human came with him anyway. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, and besides, someone had to look after the Doctor. He got into trouble whenever he could, and the fact that their stay here had not yet been overshadowed by any major incident only served as fuel to Jack’s worries. Eventually something had to happen.
It was written into the laws of the Universe.
This time, however, he intended on choosing the destination for their weekend-trip himself. The Doctor would have two days off at the end of the week, and there was somewhere Jack had wanted to take him.
Outside the sun was just beginning to near the horizon. Jack had been out all day, ‘exploring the area’ as he called it. In other words, he’d taken an extended walk. Also, he had slept with a nice, attractive lady, who actually seemed glad that he didn’t understand a word she said. He’d not gotten any money out of it, though.
Summer had only just started, but the temperatures were already much higher than what Cardiff could offer him on most days. Even in the evening, Jack had found himself longing for a cool breeze when he walked back home.
At least it was cool inside. Jack sat on the couch for a moment, simply enjoying being out of the heat. According to the Doctor it would get worse - as cold as the winters were here, as hot were the summers, and the time in between was desperately short. Good thing the Time Lord could cope with it so well - he could work at his building site all day and never complain.
The men he worked with had made fun of him at first; skinny as he was, the Doctor didn’t look like someone who could carry sacks of cement around. But as soon as they had learned that he was a lot stronger than anyone would think looking at him, they accepted him.
The Doctor made friends easily. Jack thought of the men spending all day in the Doctor’s company, and was proud of himself for not feeling jealous. He had the nights, after all. And the future.
With a sigh, Jack got off the couch and his daydreams and walked into the kitchen. The Doctor would be back in less than an hour, and before then he wanted to have dinner prepared. And tea. His friend could easily do without food, but tea he needed to be happy. If there was none he might frown, or even pout.
Jack wondered when exactly he had developed into a housewife.
Fortunately this world knew tea, and the Doctor had found a number of new favourite flavours. They were lacking bananas, though.
Jack prepared a meal he knew the Doctor liked a lot -because he wanted to get the Time Lord into the right mood to let Jack drag him to his chosen destination the next day, but also because he didn’t want to eat alone. The Doctor didn’t need nearly as much food as Jack did, but Jack liked to see him eat none the less. If he didn’t - for whatever reason - Jack could never help worrying.
It seemed to him like the Doctor had been eating less since the summer began. But at the same time he’d been sleeping more.
Which still was precious little.
The first time, when the Doctor had fallen asleep on the couch, Jack had found him in the morning, gazing up at him in shock and confusion, momentarily disoriented from falling onto the floor. He’d seemed distressed, somehow, as if he’d been having a bad dream, but the Time Lord denied it. Yet he kept avoiding sleep as much as possible.
When sleep finally claimed him it was too deep for anything to disturb him. Knowing there was no risk of waking his friend Jack now carried him into the bedroom every time, and wrapped his arms around him to hold him close until morning. Maybe it was wistful thinking, but the Doctor seemed to be sleeping easier when he was doing it in Jack’s arms.
He didn’t even mind waking up to Jack snoring into his hair.
Today of all days the Time Lord was not on time. He came home half an hour late, as it happened sometimes because he’d been busy chatting with his friends from work or just got lost in his daydreams on the way back. Jack hated it when he did that - he could never tell if he hadn’t gotten into trouble after all. How could he? Anything could happen to the Doctor while he was gone and Jack would never know.
He had mentioned it to his friend once. His friend had told him not to be stupid.
Of all people Jack had known in his life the Doctor was the most capable. To Jack he also seemed like the most fragile, and he knew it was silly to think like that, but he couldn’t help it. Losing the Doctor would take so much more from him than the loss of anyone else.
Today Jack didn’t bring it up, and didn’t mention that he had already slipped into his shoes to look for the Time Lord when he’d finally showed up. Their dinner passed peacefully and with a very delighted Doctor, who prized the food and ate enough to convince Jack he actually meant it.
As usual the conversation was light and didn’t stray away from harmless topics. Stories of the past were exchanged often, but never those that hurt. It wasn’t like Jack didn’t want to share his pain and turmoil with his friend, but the few times he’d done so the Doctor had become quiet and sad, and looked as if everything bad that had happened to Jack was somehow his fault.
He never told anything in return. Jack had tried to get something out of him - to make him tell the human about all the things he told no one else, the experiences that had formed him into the man he was, but to no avail. The Doctor kept his past a secret.
“Any plans for tomorrow?” Jack asked after cleaning the table.
The Doctor leaned back in his chair. “Not yet. I’ll think of something.”
“Don’t bother. You’re coming with me.”
“Oh? You’re trying to be helpful?”
“Anything for you, darling.” Jack smiled sweetly. “I thought I’d spare you having to think for yourself.”
“Ah, nothing like a friend who knows what my weaknesses are,” the Doctor smirked. “Where are we going?”
“To the beach,” Jack declared. “We’ll take the bus to Bords and spend at least five hours swimming and lying in the sun.” Far too long since he’d last done that.
Jack expected the Doctor to complain - he wasn’t exactly a beach person. But the Time Lord merely shrugged, and smiled.
“The beach it is, then.”
-
In retrospect Jack should have known that for the Doctor ‘Let’s go to the beach!’ wasn’t synonymous with ‘Let’s go swimming!’ or even ‘Come have a good long look at my scarcely dressed body!’
“Aren’t you going to change?” Jack asked after the Doctor had settled in the shadow of the palm-like trees that grew on the edge of the beach.
“Into what?” the Doctor asked, puzzled.
Jack grinned. “I brought you boxer shorts!” He reached into his bag to take out the object in question and present it to his frowning friend. “Although you could also go naked. I certainly don’t mind.”
“I do,” the Doctor informed him. Instead of taking the offered piece of clothing he reached into his own back to take out a novel.
“There’s hardly anyone here. Don’t be like that!” It was true: the beach was nearly deserted but for them, probably because there was another, more popular beach closer to the city. “We haven’t come all this way for you to read a book.”
“I’m not keeping you from taking a bath. Have fun!” the Doctor replied cheerfully, already skipping though his book for the right page.
“I’d have more fun if you’re with me. Come on! I’ll even turn around while you change, if it bothers you that much.”
“It doesn’t bother me.” The Doctor sounded a little irritated now. “I’m just not going to do it.”
“Why not?”
“Why do you want me to?”
“Because...” Jack was at a loss for words. “Do you think I dragged you here so I can go swimming all by myself? And it’s hot! We need to cool down a bit. Please?”
The Doctor finally looked up from his novel. Maybe he accepted that it really was a little too hot to be comfortable, even for him, but it was unlikely: as much as Jack had wished to see him in a t-shirt, or even a tank-top, the Time Lord never even wore anything short-sleeved in this heat. In the end, Jack thought, it probably was the disappointment the Doctor saw in his face that, after a second, made him sigh like a long-suffering parent.
“Oh, well,” he gave in. “Go on, then. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
Grinning happily, Jack tossed him the swim shorts and turned away to give his friend the privacy he craved. As he ran towards the water’s edge he kept himself from yelling ‘Yay!’
-
Just like any long-suffering parent the Doctor took his time. Jack dived into the cool water, swam against the current that tried to wash him back to the shore, and for one moment simply relished in being out of the heat. The water wasn’t cold, but compared to the air temperature it was cool enough to send a shock through his heated body.
After a minute of happily swimming around he returned to the more shallow water to stand up and look for the Doctor. The place beneath the trees was vacated, and the Doctor nowhere in sight. Jack looked around, expecting him in the water nearby, but found nothing.
He had barely time to frown before something below the surface grabbed his ankle and pulled him down.
Jack had forgotten that unlike most long-suffering parents the Doctor could also hold his breath for a ridiculously long time.
For a while they wrestled in the shallows waters, until Jack had to get some distance between them, wishing the water was a little bit colder. The next game they played was apparently called Chase Jack, and the Doctor was very good at it - Jack didn’t fail to see the irony, as he’d once spend more than a century playing the popular game of Chase the Doctor.
Once he’d given in and gotten into the water, the Doctor had replaced his reluctance with childlike joy. According to the looks they received, some of the few other swimmers found it slightly inappropriate for two grown men to fool around like little boys. Perhaps here people lost the ability to have fun once they reached the age of twenty.
Neither Jack nor the Doctor could care any less.
There was a dark bruise on the Doctor’s left shoulder blade. Another, decidedly less pleasant shock ran though Jack when he thought, for a second, that he had done it, in their playful wrestling. He scolded himself for being so protective just before the thought could reflect on his face. Even if he had caused that, the Doctor didn’t even seem to notice, and he was unlikely to suffer any harm from it after everything he’d been though in his life. If he’d read Jack’s thoughts right then he would have been more than a little annoyed. And rightfully so.
Forcefully shaking off his unnecessary worry Jack started another attack on his friend, in a vain attempt to steal his shorts.
They stayed in the water for an hour - when they finally stumbled back to the beach Jack’s fingers were wrinkled. He slowly licked the salt water off his fingertips with a suggestive smile at a young boy nearby and earned a blush. He repeated the gesture at the Doctor and earned a roll of his eyes.
Now they weren’t touching anymore the human didn’t mind the stirring in his pants that came with watching droplets of water trailing down the Doctor’s skin. Instead he openly grinned at the other man, who remained annoyingly ignorant of his arousal.
He was too thin, really, not at all the type Jack preferred. How someone so skinny could still be so desirable was beyond the immortal.
Then again, this was the Doctor. He would have still been desirable had he been turned into a goat.
They reached the palm trees, where they’d left their stuff. Jack wouldn’t have been Jack, the organizational genius, if he hadn’t brought towels for them. The beach wouldn’t have been a beach if the towels hadn’t been covered with sand now.
As the Doctor raised his arms to dry his hair Jack’s gaze fell on another bruise on the inside of his left forearm. It was circular, of the exact same form and size as the one on his shoulder, and a he looked closer the human saw that it was not a bruise at all, but apparently a tattoo of some sort. Or rather, a branding.
Somehow, it looked meaningful. Not like something the Doctor would mark himself with for fun.
Or at all.
“What is that?” Jack asked before he could stop himself. His voice sounded unpleasantly sharp.
The towel came away, revealing a Time Lord who was very ruffled. He followed Jack’s gaze to the mark on his arm.
“Oh, that. “ He shrugged. “It’s old. A reminder from a past life. Pay no attention to it.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means you should ignore it,” the Doctor explained patiently.
“I’m talking about the mark. Is there a meaning?”
“Yes, there is. Right now it’s telling me that you and I are not speaking the same language.” The Doctor slipped the shirt over his head and the mark disappeared from sight. Jack nearly sighed with relief, as it had made him strangely nervous.
“It’s only just past noon,” the Doctor suddenly stated. “Day’s long still. Let’s walk back home.”
-
By bus they had needed an hour to get to the beach, so Jack expected them to need about six or seven for the way back if they walked. He didn’t look forward to running through the midday heat for so long.
The Doctor didn’t seem to notice. Lost in his own thoughts he walked ahead, through a landscape Jack had to admit was quite beautiful. Apart from the temperature it was an enjoyable trip, especially after the Doctor had gotten over his moment of brooding and started talking to him again.
After three hours they passed though a small village and the Doctor treated Jack to a cold drink in a café.
“It should be me buying you a drink,” Jack recalled a conversation they had ages ago. Lifetimes. The Doctor smirked.
“We’re not going there,” he said firmly.
“Hey, it was you who suggested it!”
“And you who said it was too much work. You had your chance, Harkness!”
Jack laughed, because he knew the Doctor didn’t mean it.
“You mean, if you’d decided to sell your body after all, your customers would have gotten you for a bottle of beer?”
“It depends on my mood. On some days, I suspect, my customers would have gotten me for tea.”
“I doubt that would have paid the rent.”
“Hence me having picked a different job.” The Doctor sipped his tea. “If you’re hot you shouldn’t drink something too cold. You could get sick.”
If he got sick, Jack could just kill himself and be fine again. He knew better than to say that aloud.
“Cold is fine with me right now, really,” he answered sourly, and drowned his iced… whatever. He still didn’t know the names of all the food this planet had on offer. In his mind, however, he called this drink ‘beefsteak lemonade’.
It made him hungry.
“I should have brought some food,” he mused with a sigh. Five minutes later he was munching the sandwich the Doctor had bought him.
“Don’t you want anything?” he asked his friend with his mouth full of bread. “Swimming always makes me hungry.” And tired. He didn’t look forward to walking another tree hours, but refrained from saying so for the sake of the Doctor’s mood.
“Not me,” the Doctor told him.
“You look tired,” Jack tried, because it was true: The Doctor looked like he’d once again not slept in a week, though Jack knew for a fact that he hadn’t dreamt the Time Lord resting peacefully in his arms just three days ago.
(If he was completely honest with himself, one reason for demanding a trip to the beach was the hope that swimming, and the overload of sunshine, would exhaust the Doctor just like any other person, so Jack could snuggle against him once again this night. Naturally, he had not foreseen the walk home.)
“I’m not. Are you?” Suddenly the Doctor looked anxious, and what choice did Jack have but lie to him?
-
Contrary to Jack’s hope, a scarcely dressed fairy did not come down from the sky in a magical car to fly them home. Instead it took the expected additional three hours to reach their flat, walking all the way. Maybe he just didn’t believe hard enough.
His feet were aching when he collapsed onto the couch with a sigh. A rather lout one. It nearly drowned out the grumbling of his stomach.
Leaning back he closed his eyes and quickly began to drift away. In his dozing state he didn’t even register that the Doctor hadn’t joined him until a plate of food was placed in front of him.
“How did you know I was hungry?”
“Your stomach has been talking to me.” The Doctor winked at him, but beneath his smile guilt was written all over his face. “I’m sorry.”
Jack could have told him that he would have protested if he had not wanted to walk all the way, or pointed out that despite everything he had quite enjoyed their little unplanned hiking tour. Instead he reached up and pulled the Doctor down into his lap. The Time Lord didn’t complain, nor did he decline when Jack fed him half of his meal.
Exhausted though he was, sleep was the furthest thing on Jack’s mind when half an hour later the Doctor was dozing in his arms, the denied fatigue evident on his face. Jack was reminded of a cat he once had, though the Doctor raised feelings of an entirely different kind in him when Jack slowly trailed his fingers over the Time Lord’s arm, where he knew the mark to be below the sleeve of his shirt.
Confident that the other was asleep, he slit up the wide sleeve to have a better look at the symbol he hadn’t been able to get off his mind ever since he’d seen it.
It was circular, showing a stylized eight surrounded by lines and circles. Once again Jack wondered about the meaning.
“It’s meaningless,” the Doctor suddenly mumbled, as if he’d read Jack’s thoughts. The human felt a hint of shame, as though he’d been caught skipping through the Doctor’s diary, but he refrained from pulling the sleeve over the mark again.
“You said it was from another life,” he said softly. “Why didn’t it disappear with your regeneration?”
“Because it’s meant to stay there,” the Doctor answered, his voice quiet and devoid of emotions. “It was created that way.”
Jack didn’t ask for an explanation - he understood enough to know that any further question would have been cruel.
“Come on,” he murmured, and pulled the Time Lord to his feet to lead him to the bedroom. The Doctor changed into the shorts and the shirt he wore for sleeping, if he remembered to, and so did Jack. Out of respect for his friend he didn’t sleep naked when they shared a bed.
It didn’t happen often that the Doctor came to bed without Jack having to carry him there after he’d passed out in the living room. Now he curled up on his side, and one moment later Jack wrapped his arms around him from behind and pulled him close.
When he pressed a soft kiss to the other’s neck the Doctor was already asleep.
Part 1 <-> Part 2b