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Tweak says, "Laugh and grow fat"

Martha Jones (notrosesshadow) wrote in marinanova,
@ 2013-06-12 01:30:00

Entry tags:

daniel osbourne, jack harkness, martha jones, sam winchester

Day 223: Video Closed to Jack, Sam, and Oz
[Private to Jack] [Martha's been keeping her distance from Jack, and aside from the panic of the tentacles and moving prisons, she's seen very little of him. Right now she's making sure he's OK. And reaching out to let him know she's ready to talk if he wants.]

I didn't see you at the other prison. Just wanted to make sure you're still around. I haven't seen you much other than Defense duties. Are you holding up all right?

[Private to Sam] [She never actually told him she solved her werewolf problem and that he probably should stop looking.]

Hi Sam. I just wanted to make sure you made it through the previous few days all right. Also, I should let you know I met the werewolf who attacked me. In human form. And yeah... you don't need to go looking into it for me anymore.

Private to Oz] [Now that she knows what he is, and now that she's still working through her fear of him, Martha also wants to keep up on Oz and make sure he's OK.]

You handling all the random changes OK?

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	notrosesshadow 2013-06-24 02:06 am UTC (link)
	((OOC: Martha hasn't dropped the news about Tom to Jack yet. And she does feel a little bad since the last time they saw each other, she had purposely led him to believe she and Ianto were sleeping with each other. I know he was keeping his distance from her and avoiding asking questions the first day they met. So we could explore that if you're willing.)) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foreverjack
2013-06-24 08:39 pm UTC (link)

((OOC: Okey-dokey, thread it is! :-) ))

Jack arrives first, gets himself a coffee and settles on a low, comfortable couch to wait for Martha.

When he sees her, he gets to his feet again, though, hesitates a moment and then opens his arms to hug her. Not quite sure of himself, still, with her.

"Hey, you. Let me order you a drink - I couldn't remember how you take your tea so I thought I'd better wait till you got here."

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	notrosesshadow 2013-06-25 03:19 am UTC (link)
	Martha notices the hesitation and instantly feels bad about it. She walks into the hug with a smile though, grateful for the hug. "A little sugar is all," she mentioned as she asked for Earl Grey. "It really has been a while since we actually talked." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foreverjack 2013-06-25 06:47 pm UTC (link)
	Well, at least he still gets a smile and a hug. He keeps it fairly brief, though, and then lets her go so she can get her tea, and waits while it’s brought to her. “I kept you a seat warm,” he offers, gesturing to the sofa and folding himself back down onto it. “How are you, now that we’re back to relative comfort again?” (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-06-25 07:19 pm UTC (link)
	"Alive and coping," she says with a smaller smile. Martha looks fairly calm as she says it. "It's been a bit of a whirlwind since arriving honestly. I've barely had time to think." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foreverjack
2013-06-26 01:42 pm UTC (link)

There’s something there that he’s missing, he thinks, but he doesn’t know what. To be brutally honest, he’s been rather industriously trying to keep out of Martha’s affairs since all that stuff with Ianto – because that all ended up unexpectedly well and, somehow, he kind of doesn’t want to jinx that.

“Yeah?” he asks, a little awkwardly. “What’s been keeping you so busy?”

He can be rather spectacularly bad at all this interpersonal business.

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notrosesshadow
2013-06-27 03:00 pm UTC (link)

Martha set her jaw at the question as she though about what she wanted to tell him. "The first few days were just trying to settle in. Learn my way around and the like. That kissing bot thing happened almost directly after my arrival. It wasn't the most... welcome thing at the moment. And then there was the attack. Next we ended up in another prison. All seemingly normal for my life, but I just haven't been in the right headspace I guess."

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foreverjack
2013-06-27 10:15 pm UTC (link)

He'd forgotten all about the kissing bot thing. It really wasn't the sort of thing that bothered him (hell, he'd actually exploited it!) and he hadn't thought about the impact it might have had on someone who felt things as deeply as Martha. Especially as he realised he still didn't really know what point she'd actually come from back home.

"Just because it's normal for you doesn't mean you have to be okay with it all, you know," he said gently, because that much, at least, he did know. "Hell, that other place rather threw all of us!"

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notrosesshadow
2013-06-28 03:23 am UTC (link)

"It was bad. Better than Japan though. Japan was..." She trailed off remembering where Jack had been during the whole thing and elected to take a sip of her tea instead.

One thing Martha hadn't exactly foreseen when she suggested that she and Ianto make it look like they were shacking up was this awkwardness that had popped up between her and Jack. Granted, at the time she was really more upset about other things, but still. Things just didn't feel right. So she deflected.

"How's Ianto? Did he make it through the other place all right?"

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foreverjack
2013-06-28 06:32 pm UTC (link)

"Japan looked pretty terrible even from a distance, yeah," he agreed easily. "I'd imagine it was a lot worse close up. I'd like to think that nothing this place could throw at us could rival that."

He noticed the deflection, of course, but he was hardly one to call someone on that.

"Ianto's fine - he got through it with his usual stoicism." He leaned in to murmur humorously, "I'm not sure which of us had it worst, actually: me without my wriststrap and coat or him without his suit and tie!"

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notrosesshadow
2013-07-01 12:52 am UTC (link)

Martha chuckles. "I think taking away both of your identifying clothes would be pretty bad. I'm sure you suffered equally as poorly. I on the other hand had nothing important to lose in the new place. Except some scars. That was nice. They're back now."

She absently rubs her wrist and then picks up the tea again to keep her hands occupied.

"The stitches should be coming out soon though. And I found my attacker. So that's nothing to worry about anymore." Martha really doesn't want to let on who her attacker was. Is. Was Oz still an attacker? Either way, she figures she should steer Jack away from that portion of the discussion well before he even thinks to ask about it.

"Jack? There's... something that's been bothering me. And I think you can maybe help with it. But um... you might have to break some timey wimey stuff..."

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foreverjack
2013-07-01 03:48 pm UTC (link)

His eyes narrow when she mentions her scars disappeared, because he has his own theories about that other prison and whether they were actually ever really there at all, and then he’s about to ask about her attacker because honestly? Saying she’s ‘found’ her attacker seems like a bit of an odd way to put it, but then she’s asking for his help and Jack can never resist that so he lets the rest of it go until another time.

“Of course, anything I can do to help!” He leans forward slightly, eyebrows lifting curiously. “When you say ‘break’, though…?”

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notrosesshadow
2013-07-01 04:12 pm UTC (link)

"Break... I just need you to tell me something. I mean... if you know of course. But I think you're ahead of me in our time line, and if you are, you know things. And if you don't know them, that's fine. That's good. But I need peace of mind."

Martha pauses, takes a sip from her tea, trying to steady herself for the question she needs to ask. Why does it hurt so much to talk about him?

"Tom. Did he and I... did we ever work out?"

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foreverjack
2013-07-01 07:39 pm UTC (link)

Ah. Okay. Jack takes a breath, then takes a sip of still-hot black coffee while he surreptiously (well, as surreptitiously as Jack ever does anything, which is not very) watches Martha and makes up his mind what to tell her. He has few qualms about breaking the space-time continuum - not here, where nothing they do seems capable of disrupting anything - but he does have qualms about breaking Martha.

In the end, he lifts his eyes to hers and says slowly, "I don't know. I do know that in my time you're not together any more. But I don't know what happened between you. It's... it had been a while since I'd seen you, back home."

Because he'd been incommunicado himself, for the last six or seven months, grieving for Ianto, and Steven, and Alice, and all the futile, wasted lost lives.

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	notrosesshadow 2013-07-01 07:59 pm UTC (link)
	It's what she was expecting. It doesn't make the knowledge hurt any less. Martha closes her eyes and keeps herself as neutral as possible. Still, it's obvious she's fighting to keep her voice steady when she finally speaks again. "That's all I needed to hear... I figured I probably wouldn't be getting him back." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	foreverjack 2013-07-02 11:53 am UTC (link)
	He gives her a rueful smile, full of understanding. After all, if there’s anyone who knows that relationships doesn’t always last forever, it’s Jack. “That’s the way it goes sometimes, I’m afraid. It doesn’t mean there’s not someone else waiting around the corner, though. Sometimes, whoever comes next is even better.” (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

notrosesshadow
2013-07-02 06:54 pm UTC (link)

"I know that. But Tom was the guy around the corner. And... and maybe I should have told him. I mean, he handled it all very well before. But that was different I suppose. I just... I was packing my stuff to move out when they took me Jack. He'd broke off the engagement barely an hour before. And unless there's a clone of me continuing to pack my stuff, it's all just going to sit there and he won't know where I am."

She took a deep, shaky breath.

"And this damn place. There's never a chance to think. It's either kiss these people here, or shit there's a werewolf chasing me, or oh no we're getting squished by a giant squid, "

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foreverjack
2013-07-03 07:20 pm UTC (link)

"You poor old girl, you've been having quite a time of it, haven't you?" he said sympathetically, shifting up next to her on the sofa and sliding an arm around her. "It might make it easier if you just believe the clone thing? Or else that at some point you escape and return to the same point in time? For what it's worth, I don't remember you being missing at all."

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notrosesshadow
2013-07-04 10:19 pm UTC (link)

Martha leaned into the hug. Jack wasn't the first person she told. Somehow, he was actually the fourth, but that was mainly due to a very unfortunate set of events and a serious lack of judgement that resulted in her not talking to him much.

"Just, you know. After the Doctor, I thought I could do something different. Go back to normal. And that didn't work so I tried to live both lives. And that clearly didn't work. And I don't need a man in my life. That's not what I'm saying at all. It just... it was nice."

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	foreverjack 2013-07-05 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	"It's nice to have someone, yeah," he agreed easily. Jack, of all people, was a great believer in having someone around to share your life. "I don't think it's ever really possible to go back to normal, though," he mused. "However hard you try, you can never really see the world in the same way again." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

notrosesshadow
2013-07-06 03:20 am UTC (link)

"No... I suppose you're right. Normal will never be a possibility. And secrets are never good either."

She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry about Ianto. I shouldn't have taken him away from you for those few days." Yes she was going there. She did need to apologize for that. She wouldn't tell him what happened. That was for Ianto to do, if he ever did. But she was wrong.

"You are a very lucky man though Jack. Very lucky."

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foreverjack
2013-07-07 07:38 pm UTC (link)

Jack was, honestly, somewhat taken aback. He'd been trying everso hard not to pry into whatever the hell had been going on back there, and had more or less resigned himself to never knowing.

"I know I am," he said, the smugness of the words countered by his obvious sincerity. It was still a very recent discovery.

He squeezed her a bit. "And really, don't worry about it. These things happen, and in the end, turns out it was worth it!"

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notrosesshadow
2013-07-07 10:44 pm UTC (link)

Martha looked up at him and smiled. He was happy and she was glad for him. But it was time to steer into a less dangerous or depressing topic.

"I know you've been here longer than me... not much but still longer. Are there regular prison wide attacks usually? I mean, there was that day that everyone was off emotionally and then the giant squid. It's less than comforting."

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	foreverjack 2013-07-08 09:31 pm UTC (link)
	He glanced at her, noticing the subject change but not commenting on it. "I don't know," he said easily. "There does seem to be enough going on to keep us on our toes, doesn't there? Though honestly? After Torchwood, this is practically a holiday! I mean, we can go through entire weeks without any threat of dying or being invaded!" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	notrosesshadow 2013-07-09 02:37 pm UTC (link)
	He has a point. Still. "I don't know. I found it easier at UNIT. Granted, I'm fairly certain you had way more encounters than we did. And ours always involved me getting in a pretty wicked row with the chief. Travel with the Doctor was much easier. On the days he remembered how to fly properly, we had some nice relaxing spells between imminent demise." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)