InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You don't like pie do you?"

Rose M. Tyler (jeopardysfriend) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-08-18 23:40:00

Entry tags:

!shelved, day 19, jack harkness, location: gym, rose tyler

Who: Rose Tyler and Jack Harkness
What: Rose wants answers
When: Day 19, around 10:00pm
Where: The gymnasium (or just outside it)
Rating: Be safe, go with R
Status: Active

Rose read Jack's reply and closed her journal. It had been a long day. A good one, overall. Spending the day playing dragons and Ninja Turtles and Tag and reading stories and having snack time... She really had enjoyed the day surrounded by six year-olds. Each one so different, each one having fun in their own ways, depending on where they were from, and what time period.

Now, though, it was late, and nearly all the children had worn themselves out. Rose walked through the room, pausing at each cot and making sure if the child wasn't asleep, that they didn't need anything. From time to time she stopped, rubbing Dora's back gently or brushing back Andy's wild curls. With any luck at all, this would go like most experiments and in the morning, they'd wake to find the children had resumed their adult forms. But for now, she would make sure they were taken care of.

But her eyes kept drifting, and she stopped and watched the little boy from Gallifrey sleep. It was definitely John Smith's miniature. From his little brown trenchcoat to the itty bitty red Chucks on his feet, if he were any more John Smith she'd probably cry. But she couldn't disregard what she'd read in his journal, either. She couldn't detect the hearts beating beneath the tiny blue suit, no, but how many from Earth knew of TARDISes? And what were the chances that she'd learn more of Gallifrey from a six year-old than the man she'd traveled with so far?

She longed to touch him. To smooth back that lock of brown that fell into his face, or to soothe his sleep in some way or another. But she feared he might be a light sleeper, and there'd be far too many questions to answer. Questions Sarah Jane could apparently answer but she couldn't.

But there might be one person who could. The one other person besides the Doctor that she trusted. And she didn't trust herself to ask the Doctor. Not without exploding in temper, waking the children, and having even more questions to answer.

So she made her way outside and sat against the wall, close enough that she could hear if someone from inside called her, but far enough outside that she could breathe. And she waited.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 04:23 am UTC (link)

Jack, however, was about to be blind-sided and he had no idea what was coming either. Hence the term: blind-sided. Jack for his part, thought Rose just wanted to see him and he had every intention of continuing to horrify her with stories of his sex life: both with Ianto and every other being he'd slept with over the past few centuries.

Not that she could know how old he was, mind. He could just gloss over some of those details.

Greatcoat waving in the wind, there was a decided bounce to his step as Jack headed towards the gymnasium, keeping his eye out for Rose. He caught sight of her sitting near a wall and gave him a small wave, picking up his pace as he went. "There's my favourite little Time Traveller."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 04:29 am UTC (link)

But would he still say that if he'd come face to face with the little boy inside? Rose doubted it. Her sweet Jack. He seemed so happy tonight. If his joking was truth, she knew the reason why. Only Jack could be kidnapped to a horrible place and still have such a voracious appetite. And not for food.

"'lo," she mumbled up to him, then looked back down at the ground. Interesting grass they had here. Not quite what was back home. But it certainly wasn't red, either. What must that place be like? "Bout time you showed up. Could've used your skills in there. Think one or two of them tried to climb the roof."

There. Start off easy.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 04:41 am UTC (link)

It was hard to say if he would have felt the same way had he seen Mini!Ten inside. Jack was happy -- it was a strange thing to see to be honest. Here they were in a survivalesque place and his relationship with Ianto was stronger than ever. If anything, this place had been good for them, surprisingly.

"Simple enough, just tie 'em up. And not in that sense of the word either," Jack quickly added. "Either that or threaten to take away candy for a week. That's the only way we could ever calm Alice down."

Whoops.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 04:45 am UTC (link)

"It's not like we had a lot of candy to offer--" And then she paused. "Alice?"

Oh, Jack. Can of worms? Opened. Rose wasn't about to let that rest. Get ready, because that was just secret number one of many you were going to have to spill that night. Might as well get comfortable, really. Rose was out for blood. Well, answers. But she was willing to draw blood if that's what it took. As happy as she was that Jack was happy? Rose wasn't. And maybe knowing the truth wouldn't make her happy, but she was damn sure going to try.

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	capt_harkness 2009-08-19 04:53 am UTC (link)
	"I thought I heard there was some at the gas station?" Jack supplied, suitably ignoring that whole question of who Alice was. No, Jack Harkness was not willing to go there. Not in the slightest. "So how bad were the little rugrats?" Jack asked, quickly changing the subject. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 05:02 am UTC (link)

"Not even, Jack Harkness." For the first time in hours, her voice was harsh. "Alice? Who's Alice and why were you calming her down? You said you didn't deal with kids." Hazel eyes darkened to near-brown in her anger. No, not anger. She wasn't mad at him, not really. She was simply tired of all the half-truths and outright lies all around her. "Maybe I was wrong to come to you in the first place," Rose mumbled, looking away from him. Pulling herself to her feet, she made to head back into the gym.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 05:13 am UTC (link)

Jack winced, hearing that tone in her voice. He knew when he had been caught and caught well. Jack reached for Rose's hand, grabbing it and pulled her back down to sit beside him once more.

"Alice is my daughter. The one you scoffed at and called me a liar about. The one you said was impossible for me to have." Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "That's why I know how to deal with children. I have one of my own."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 05:17 am UTC (link)

Well, that wasn't what she'd expected. And yet... It felt right. "Ah," she said softly, breathing in. "Not a little Slitheen egg at all, then, huh?" Her hand still gripped his and she laced their fingers together.

Leaning up, she kissed his cheek gently. "Was that so hard?" she asked, her voice matter of fact. "Was that really so bad? Telling the truth? Why can't everyone just...do that." Her mum had been wrong all those years ago. Stupid Pinocchio. No one's nose grew when they told a lie. Rose would have half this town pinned down if they did. "What's she like? I'll bet she's wonderful."

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 05:21 am UTC (link)

See, Rose? For once Jack was telling the truth about things. It didn't happen often, mind, but he did know how to tell the truth. When it suited him, mind.

"Yes, actually, it was," Jack replied. "I don't often talk about her. Not even Ianto knows." Which... felt strange to tell Rose before he told Ianto but there it was. "I honestly haven't seen her for a long time," Jack replied. "At least, not since I've been here. Otherwise, I usually see her every couple of weeks. It's... difficult."

No, Jack didn't want to open that can of worms -- nor did he want to confess that his daughter was older than his lover.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 05:26 am UTC (link)

"But why?"

Well, that part should've been obvious. Of course she was going to ask. "It's just a child. People have them. Plenty of people. Sometimes, those people have girlfriends, boyfriends, whatever. I'm sure it wouldn't kill Ianto, or anyone else, to know you had a daughter. Hell, I'd date a bloke with a child and I'm not even twenty!"

Of course, Rose had no way of knowing that Jack's daughter had been conceived long after she'd left him on Satellite 5. Nor did she have any way of knowing that the woman had come around before Rose's birth. Ah, time. "And why don't you see her? You don't strike me as the deadbeat dad type."

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 05:33 am UTC (link)

That was the thing, Rose -- Ianto didn't know how old Alice was. Or that there was a grandson in the picture as well. That was what Jack was more concerned about. He knew Ianto could accept a lot from Jack, but Jack also knew there was a breaking point and he wasn't sure he wanted to get Ianto to that point either.

"Yes, people have them. And I'm sure you're thinking with the amount I fuck around, it's not surprising I don't have my own legion of children." Jack drew in a deep breath.

"I'm not. She... wants it this way." Because it was going to become harder and harder to explain to Steven why 'Uncle Jack' didn't age.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 05:38 am UTC (link)

"The thought crossed my mind," Rose admitted, rubbing his knuckles with her thumb. "But I always just figured you were smart about it. But her... You make it sound like you were involved. Calming her down and all."

There was much, much more to this. She knew it, and she wasn't letting him get away with it. No, he'd started it, he'd let it slip, he was going to own up to it. And somewhere inside, Rose knew that getting the answers she'd dragged him here for started with getting him to talk about Alice. "Who's her mum? How old is she? What's she look like?"

Sorry, Jack. A day spent with Dora had Rose asking questions at a million miles a minute, too. Love her though Rose did, the girl could play a game of Twenty Questions without pausing to breathe.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 05:47 am UTC (link)

Jack usually was smart about it, but when he was married, it was clear that children were supposed to be part of the picture. Well, married to a female, that is. Jack's pregnancy was alien in nature and was something he never wanted to go through ever again. Never.

Yes, Jack had let it slip but he was hoping that Rose was going to let it go and not badger him about this. Hoped, prayed, and didn't get his wish. Buggering hell. "Her mum's name was Lucia Moretti. Italian woman, absolutely beautiful." Did Rose expect anything else from him?

Maybe that would appease her. Jack deserved some good today.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 05:56 am UTC (link)

Of course that wouldn't appease her. Jack had gotten off without wiping sticky sweet covered hands and playing I Spy all day. He wasn't about to get out of this that easily. Badger truly should've been Rose's middle name.

"Where'd you meet her? And...well, how?" Time to fess up that she wasn't quite as oblivious as everyone still probably thought she was. "I know you're not from the same point I am. In time, I mean. Are you very far in the future?"

As if trying to sweeten the talk a bit and maybe earn a few points in her favour, she rested her head on Jack's shoulder, her fingers still firmly laced in his. Anyone who walked by not knowing better would assume the pair were a couple, snuggled up as they were.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 06:06 am UTC (link)

Hey, one could hope though, right? Jack squeezed the hand that was in his own, turning his head and lightly nuzzling her temple. All those little things he liked to do that would, hopefully, keep distracting her from the point at hand.

"Through Torchwood," Jack replied. "She was an operative as was I. Met, fell in... love..." The word was hard to say even in reference to Lucia. "And the rest is, as they say, history." Jack shifted, drawing the coat more around his body. "No, I'm not from the same point in time. You should have figured that much out by now. Fifty-First century male, at your service." Jack, however, knew that wasn't what Rose was referring to either.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 06:11 am UTC (link)

"Jaaaack," she whined, thought she enjoyed the nuzzling. Hell, he was a good looking older man, she was practically still a hormonal teenager, who wouldn't? "I know when you're from originally." The tone she used was proof she'd been around kids all day. It was so the 'duh, I knew that, tell me something I don't know' voice. It was also the 'yes, Mum, I did clean my room', or the, 'of course I won't wander off, Doctor, how old do you think I am?' voice. "When are you...you know. Since the last time you saw me?"

It was a bit odd to hear Jack say he'd fallen in love, but Rose reveled in it. The love story she so desperately wanted for herself? Well, she was willing to live it vicariously through him. For the moment, at least.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 06:17 am UTC (link)

Jack shuddered at the tone in her voice. Alice had loved pulling that tone on him and, like Rose, he couldn't refuse her anything when she got that tone. Jack was, however, going to do his damnedest to get out of this unscathed. Hopefully.

"I can't tell you that," Jack said softly. "I promised him that I wouldn't. His Timey-Wimey ness and the fear that it could royally screw with things, more than it already is." Jack drew in a breath, unable to meet Rose's eyes. "I want to tell you, but I can't. Please... just drop this."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 06:24 am UTC (link)

She had him. Rose had him and she knew it. Most importantly, he'd admitted there was something he couldn't tell her. That was the thing she'd needed to hear so badly. From there on, everything else was icing.

"Please, Jack," she said, just as softly. Her hand squeezed his. If she was going to get any answers without confronting a Time Lord...either one...it would be from this man. She knew in her heart that were it up to him, he'd deny her nothing. Though in honestly, she'd once thought that about the Doctor, too. "I'm so tired of being lied to. I'm so, so tired of the secrets and the sneaking around and the shifty looks I get when a certain subject comes up." Her eyes misted over, but she blinked the tears back. Now wasn't the time to look weak. Or maybe it was, but she refused. What good would it do to show just how badly it had all hurt her?

Playing her final card, she took his chin in her hand, tilting his face to meet hers. "I know, okay? I'm not entirely stupid, no matter what the lot of you might think. That boy in there told me nearly everything I needed to know. Remy My Middle Name Should Be Arse LeBeau finished it off. I just... I just want the truth, Jack."

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 06:30 am UTC (link)

Yes, Rose did have him by the proverbial balls. All it took was one final squeeze and he'd be writing in her hand, ready to tell her everything and anything she wanted to know. Damn women. This was why he was enjoying fucking men so much lately -- none of these bloody mind games.

If it were up to him, he already would have told her but in this, he was respecting the Doctor's wishes. Jack knew about time and knew about how the smallest thing could fuck it up. However, he was also the man living out of time and was bending more and more of the rules as time went on. Now, it seemed, he was ready to bend one more, hopefully not until it broke. "It's not lying, it's withholding the truth." At least, that was how it was with him. He couldn't say for certain what the others did.

"What... all do you know?" Jack asked softly. "I don't want to repeat what you already know." It was his way of testing the waters. Besides, she could know only a few scant things and otherwise Jack could keep things quiet. He did, however, growl softly at the mention of Remy's name. Why was it that man could fuck up a one man parade?

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 06:37 am UTC (link)

"Oh, please," she scoffed, though her voice was still weak. "You don't want to repeat what I already know? Don't kid with me. You're trying to get out of it." Her head shifted, her hand pulled away, and she crossed her legs, dropping her elbows to her knees and her chin to her hands. This was ridiculous. She should storm off. She should fume and rant and throw things around the museum until someone, anyone, told her what she wanted to know.

"I know that sometime in my life, I know him. John Smith. Sometime I don't know because it's in my future. I know that the Doctor can live thousands of years, by cheating death. I know that John Smith isn't John Smith. He's Sigma Theta, and he's from Gallifrey. Some day, when he answers all the Hermit's questions? He's going to be a Time Lord." Taking a deep breath, she plowed on. "And thanks to Remy, I know that he's not just any Time Lord."

If that wasn't what Jack needed to know Rose knew the majority of the truth behind their little secret, she didn't know what was.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 06:48 am UTC (link)

"No, no I don't. And I also don't want to be any more in trouble than I already am either. The Doctor can be fucking frightening when he's pissed." Not as bad as Jack could be, mind, but close enough. She pulled away and Jack shifted closer, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her in towards his body. Jack figured she was less likely to flail and hit if he was holding her close.

Well, she knew enough, so why not tell her the whole damn thing. "I'm from... approximately a hundred and twenty years into your future." Jack looked at Rose and sighed. "Of all the people to tell you, it shouldn't have been Remy. He had absolutely no right to tell you any of this. It was up to me, the Doctor or Sarah Jane... or even Ianto, though he doesn't know everything as well as we three do." Jack wouldn't tell her that the man she knew as John Smith was really the Doctor.

And time for the other bombshell.

"I haven't seen Alice in a long time because she wants it that way. Because she can't explain me to her son."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 06:54 am UTC (link)

At first, she resisted his hold. She didn't want to be held or comforted or cuddled. She wanted facts. Cold hard facts. But his body was so familiar and she so desperately needed someone to lean on that she molded into him, her tears dripping on to that famous greatcoat. Which, she had to add, looked a thousand times better on him than it ever could on anyone else.

"No, you're right," she agreed, her voice bitter despite their posture. "It shouldn't have been him. It shouldn't have been him making me feel like some science project of the Doctor's or telling me how he's taking my place and not giving it up... And it sure as hell shouldn't have been him telling me..." She couldn't say it. She could barely write it, what made her think she could speak it out loud? "Dammit, Jack, it should have been one of you. It should have been him!"

Oh, now she was just a wreck. Her fists clenched the fabric of his coat, grateful she couldn't stain it with mascara since she no longer had any with her. But his next words gave her pause and she looked up at him with a hiccup. "Why? What's to explain?" She didn't want to know. God, she didn't want to know.

But she really, really did.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 07:07 am UTC (link)

At first, Jack could feel her stiffen and not want to lean into his hold. But he didn't relax his grip, not until he felt her finally begin to soften. Jack turned, pulling her in close as if he could protect her from the world. Really, who he needed to protect her from was himself. Jack threaded his fingers through her hair, giving his hands something to do while she spoke.

No, it shouldn't have been Remy and the fact that it was pissed him off to no end. He knew there was an infatuation there, the Doctor had told him so much the day before. But this? Was this Remy's jealousy coming out which made him spill the beans to Rose? Jack had wanted to tell her, on more than one occasion, but it was his respect for the Doctor that kept his mouth shut.

So if Remy felt so strongly about the Doctor, why would he blurt these things out? It made no sense to Jack in the slightest. "He made us promise not to tell you. That it would fuck with time and the Agency side of me agreed with him. But it's clear that so many things here are from out of time that it shouldn't have mattered at all."

Jack pulled Rose into his lap, rocking back and forth with her in an attempt to soothe. He didn't want to tell her, he wanted to leave her in the dark forever on this point -- but then again, maybe it would help knowing that no matter what this place held, he would always be there to keep her safe.

"Why I look the same now as when he was born nine years ago." Jack held up a hand. "It's not because men age slower than women in a lot of cases. I look the same now as when Alice was born."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 12:00 pm UTC (link)

Whatever in her had thought that Jack would make a poor parent was put into its place right then and there. Because only someone with a loving instinct would hold her as close as he did and soothe her and make her feel like a four year-old, sobbing in the arms of the father she'd never known. Poor Alice. How any woman could not want this man in their life was beyond her.

"It shouldn't have mattered," she hiccoughed, burying her face into his chest. She should've been furious with him, but she needed this so badly. What Rose needed was the truth, and she was finally getting it, even if in tiny bits and pieces. She'd wanted to know why everyone seemed to tiptoe around her, around certain subjects. And like it or not, she was finding out.

She'd get back to that bit about him making people promise to leave her in the dark. In fact, once he was an adult again-all nine hundred and whatever years of adult-she'd tell him off and good. But he'd sparked her interest. Refusing to budge, refusing to look at those eyes that she knew looked so much older than when she'd first met him, she whispered, "How? I know you're good-looking and rot like that," finally, a tiny smile, "but that... Jack, that had to have been at least, what thirty years ago?" Assuming Alice was a young mum. Ugh, maths. She was done fighting with them.

Rose was about to learn knowledge that couldn't be given back once it was received. Learning her own power could possibly be dangerous for the entire city of Vas Captio. If she could ever stop crying, that was.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-19 04:38 pm UTC (link)

Give the man his due, he knew how to comfort people -- usually because he had a hard time taking comfort from others himself. Granted Ianto could usually fill that bill, but one's lover should be able to do that. Call it a paternal instinct or just being a man who knew how to hold a woman; either way it described exactly what Jack was doing. Ah Alice, that was a story that was far too hard to tell, Rose -- though it seemed Jack was going to have to tell it soon enough.

"It shouldn't have, but it does. You know the man, Rose, how seriously he takes his role in protecting time. With all of us from different times, we could learn something about our future and try to change it. That butterfly's wings will flap and the future will never be the same. That's why he didn't want to tell you. It was for your protection... for the protection of all of us."

See, give the man a chance, and even he could sound like the Doctor. The only problem was the the flirting tended to come out first and Jack never was able to command that same all encompassing respect the Doctor did. So he did it in his own way.

Jack saw that tiny smile and swiftly kissed her, hoping to let that distract for a bit and give him time to put his thoughts into some semblance of coherency. "Thirty eight years ago to be precise. I know you've worked out that I'm from a bit in the future, not just the Fifty-First century part. But I'm from... well... it's complicated." I've lived through my own timeline twice now and am older than even the Doctor. Yeah, no easy way to say that. So Jack would come out and say it as bluntly as he could, the way he usually told others.

"I can't die." And it's because of you.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-19 06:15 pm UTC (link)

"Do I?" she asked, her face still hidden. "Do I know him, Jack? I thought I did. I honestly thought I did and now? He's a complete stranger to me." Jack really did sound like the Doctor when he wanted to. But then, they were both galaxy men with knowledge of time beyond that of anyone else Rose knew. It only stood to reason that they'd have similar qualities when it came down to it.

But that was neither here nor there. The fact was, they'd lied to her. Whether they meant to or not, they'd hurt her. If one was to keep a secret, perhaps they ought to consider covering their tracks a bit better than those two had. And anyone and everyone else who was involved. In fairness, Jack was just as involved, keeping the secret the way he had. But Rose was distraught and he was at least giving her answers.

The kiss, though sweet, didn't make her smile as it usually would have. It was such a typical Jack move that it broke her heart. All she wanted was for things to be normal again. She, Jack, and the Doctor, back in Cardiff, back on Raxacoricofallapatorius, or back on the TARDIS. Back together, with her knowing nothing more than she was crazy about both of these men and could trust them with her life.

Now? She wasn't as sure.

She let Jack's words sink in and blinked. She didn't reply right away. Instead, she added it to the list of facts that she'd had to glean from other people and things. "How," was all she asked, giving him the chance. He could tell her as he chose.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-20 07:07 pm UTC (link)

"You do," Jack replied. Well, she did mostly, right? There wasn't too much of him that had changed dramatically. Personalities but deep down, both men were still the same Doctor. "He is and he isn't the same man -- but he'll always be the Doctor. I don't think he could be anything but no matter how strange it sounds." Jack would have loved to hear that Rose thought him similar to the Doctor in their words.

They hadn't meant to hurt her and Jack had never intended it to hurt her so badly. And, really, the fact that Jack was in on it should have told them they should have covered their tracks a lot better. Jack was involved, but was following orders -- a man Jack thought more of than anything in the world. Rose should have known Jack would do whatever the Doctor said.

He could tell the kiss didn't make things better, but for once didn't try to push his luck further. Instead, he just held her, whispering words of comfort in her ear and wishing he knew a bit more Welsh. That was what always calmed him down any more.

"I can't..." Jack shook his head. "It's from your future. Your very near future." Jack closed his eyes, resting his chin against the top of her head. "You won't look at me the same."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-20 07:31 pm UTC (link)

"But I didn't know he could... He never told me. I thought... And the other day I asked, and he said he could... But not...like this." Her words were broken, her voice was weak. None of this made any sense.

But in some ways, it made all the sense in the world. All of the pieces were coming together, finally. The picture in the middle of the puzzle was visible, and though she didn't enjoy the image, she felt some comfort in knowing it was there. "It really is him, then," she said quietly. "They're the same man. He's the one who comes after the death cheat."

She leaned her head against him, quieter now as she thought. He couldn't die? And it was an event that had happened in her time. "I was there?" she said quietly. "When...this happened? All of it?" Fine, he couldn't give her details. Whatever. She still wanted to know. "I'd never look at you differently. Not a bit."

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capt_harkness
2009-08-20 08:25 pm UTC (link)

Her words were broken but Jack didn't know what to say that could pull Rose back together. All he could do was hold her close and hope that bit was enough... even if it didn't feel like it was. Jack rhythmically rubbed her back, trying to pass on whatever bit of comfort he could give her, but feeling as if he were failing in that regard.

"Yes, they're the same man," he said simply. "One in the same."

But the Doctor had said no more lies, by omission or otherwise. So, it seemed, Jack was going to be the one to break the bad news to her. He just hoped she could completely handle it.

"You were there, but I don't think you ever remembered it later," Jack replied. "I don't even know what all happened. The Doctor sent you back to Earth and I ran off to die. Last man standing I was..." He looked away from her, staring off into the distance, talking about something he constantly relived but never wanted to remember. "One of them killed me and all there was... was Darkness. And then? Then I came back. Woke up and I thought, maybe it had missed me. Maybe its power was dying and I wasn't actually killed. I ran after the Doctor just as the TARDIS disappeared." Jack held up the fake wrist strap and shook his head. "Took one last trip and managed to make it back to earth in about the eighteen-hundreds."

Now for the kicker.

"About ten years later I travelled to Ellis Island. Was shot in the chest. Woke up a few hours later in the morgue. Few more deaths later, one by a javelin... and I learned the awful truth: I can't die."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-20 11:19 pm UTC (link)

She genuinely didn't know what to say. He'd silenced her tears, at least, as she listened to the terrifying tale. Jack, her sweet, loving Jack, could never die. And she knew how some would consider that a blessing. Immortality, being able to live through anything... It would sound brilliant to some.

But he looked about the same age as his own daughter. His grandson would grow older than Jack would. His wife, who he'd obviously loved, had died. And Ianto, and Rose herself, would someday die, leaving him entirely alone.

Rose had been forced to come to terms with her own mortality throughout the last two days. Knowing the Doctor would live on long after she'd died, certainly put things into perspective. "What happens now?" She asked, though she knew her words had no true answer. "I don't even know what to say to him. Either of them." That took some thought, too. She had to face not just one Time Lord, but two. And she truly had no idea how.

"I love you, you know that?". Yes, a part of her was angry. But she knew there'd been a reason for Jack to keep his secrets. "I told Ianto you'd gone from Con Man to hero...I just had no idea how much."

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capt_harkness
2009-08-22 06:02 am UTC (link)

Someone needed to say something because Jack was just about all talked out. He didn't know what else he could say, other than wanting to know what was running through her mind right now. The silence wasn't good for Jack, not in something like this.

There was a time when Jack would have thought immortality was really fucking cool. Right now, though, Jack hated it. He hated the number of friends and lovers he'd buried over the years. He hated knowing that everyone he loved was going to die one day and he'd keep soldiering on. He was just as much the lonely angel as the Doctor -- he just hid it a helluva lot better than the Doctor did. Dance with enough people and one builds up the perfect illusion that you don't care. Jack had his system all worked out.

"What happens now?" Jack shrugged. "I really don't know. I don't know what you should say to them and I wish I had that answer. Maybe Ianto'd know, he's the one who, supposedly, knows everything. Or at least that's what he keeps telling me." He sighed, closing his eyes and just took a moment to himself. It was so rarely that he talked about what happened on Satellite 5 that, really, only Ianto knew the truth -- and he didn't even know the whole truth.

Jack opened one eye and then the other, looking down at Rose. "I do know," he said softly, bending down to kiss her forehead. "Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't better off as the Con Man." He shook his head and sighed, thinking of the man who was in the bedroom back at the museum. But had he stayed the Con-Man, he'd never have gotten Ianto in his life, as sappy as that sounded.

"And I love you too," Jack said, the words coming surprisingly easier than they were to say to his lover. Fancy that. "You understand, though... why I didn't tell you, right?"

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-22 06:17 am UTC (link)

Rose nestled into his hold once more, smiling a little. It was tiny. It was far from the cheerful woman she usually was. It was even a far cry from the bubbly caregiver the children in the gymnasium had witnessed. But still, it was a smile at least. A start. The truth was out, and slowly but surely, the healing would begin. No one could say how long it would take her to come to terms with the secrets revealed in the last forty-eight hours. But at least it could start.

Maybe some wouldn't, but Rose could understand why it was easier to say those special words to her than to Ianto. They weren't intimately close. It was the sort of love one had for a brother or sister, or a very close friend...just with the occasional kissing and the understanding that each found the other unreasonably attractive. That's just the way they were. Time and space and Daleks and dimensions and all sorts of other things between her time and his had torn the two apart, but nothing could ever truly keep her from caring deeply for Captain Jack Harkness.

Did she understand, though? "It wasn't fair," she told him, looking at him carefully. "Putting you in the middle the way he did. And... I know that...well, we shouldn't even be here. Knowing what I do...there should be...I think they were called reapers. Trying to mend the inbalance of time." Boy, did she remember that. She'd never forget the horror that rose into her throat, thinking the Doctor had been attacked for good, dying for her and for her parents. And all of time.

"There's something really wrong about this place, Jack," she finally said quietly. "More than the usual 'we've been kidnapped, oh no'. It's... It's weird. We should probably all be dead for knowing what we do. It doesn't belong, you know? Sigma...you know. Little John. Doctor Junior?" She rolled her eyes despite the situation. "He said how much they could destroy if they really got ahold of the TARDIS. How much trouble are we in, really?"

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capt_harkness
2009-08-25 05:50 am UTC (link)

It felt like part of the crisis had been averted with the way Rose cuddled against him once more. It was like he would always be able to calm her down and make her see reason and with an arm around her shoulders, the two of them could face the world head on and come out on top. Jack had told the Doctor from the get-go that he needed to tell Rose the truth and that hiding this was going to be bad for all the parties involved. Turned out (as always) Jack Harkness was correct. As always.

No, they weren't intimately close -- though Jack would argue that he wouldn't mind such a relationship existing between the two of them. But she was, at the very least, like a sister to him and one that he would protect until his dying day. And given just how long that was from happening... Still, Jack may love to kiss Rose but, deep down, his heart was tied to the Welshman back in the museum. Flirt and screw around as he did, his heart was firmly in the hands of one Ianto Jones -- he just wasn't up to admitting that point yet.

"No, perhaps it wasn't," Jack allowed, "but usually the middle is a very fun place to be." Why yes, there was a bit of a leer there. "That's why he didn't want to tell you. And I accepted those reasons because, for all my faults, I know what I was taught at the Time Agency. You don't fuck with Time. That was rules one through six, eight and fourteen point six. But learning about this place as we have? That's why we took the chance." Jack sighed, shaking his head. "He'd risk your ire with him for the rest of your life in order to keep this rag-tag group of people safe. Because he knows that, once you've cooled off, you'll understand."

What the hell? Jack Harkness, marriage counsellor?

Jack shuddered and nodded. "There is. None of us have put it together but part of me thinks they do have the TARDIS under their control. There are different races here and people shouldn't be able to understand one another, and yet we all can. If someone actually fixed the chameleon circuit the Doctor never wanted to fix, the TARDIS could be here and right under our very noses... and we'd never fucking know the difference."

And that, right there, was one hell of a scary thought indeed.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-25 02:24 pm UTC (link)

Oh, the crisis had definitely been averted where Jack was concerned. He'd fessed up. He'd confirmed her belief, and her worst fear, and he'd held her through it. She'd survive this, if only because of him. It was more than either of the Doctors could say. And they'd pay for that, if only through her silence and anger.

"Okay, I get it," she all but growled, but the fight was gone from her voice. Fact was, she was exhausted. The emotional strain of the day on top of caring for a bunch of shorties had taken its toll. And then there was little Theta Sigma. Damn him for being precious and winning her heart. "I get it, the world would've, should've fallen apart for me knowing. That doesn't mean I'm not mad, Jack. If it mattered so much, he never should have come near me. He should have kept to himself. And the other one..." She could've even call him her Doctor anymore. That was why 'John Smith' had gone around calling him that. He was the one she knew, John's Doctor wasn't. Dammit, she'd been blind.

Still... "It can't be under our noses," she said with the tiniest hint of a grin. "Or our resident Time Lord would've found it. And I don't mean the adult. I found little Sigma checking out every single doorway we had in this place," she said nodding to the gym behind her. "If they have it, it's concealed some other way. Maybe just above us." Rubbing her temples, she sighed. "I don't know, Jack. We talked and...he's right. Even at his age he knows the power they have if they've got the TARDIS. But how?" Nothing pissed her off more than not knowing. And now there was something new to not know. "She only responds to him. She always has. And he only gives a key to a select few, you know that." Hers was currently on a chain around her neck, where she'd carried it since the day he'd given it to her.

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capt_harkness
2009-08-27 04:56 am UTC (link)

And for that, Jack was very glad. There were a few people here he couldn't deal with being pissed at him and Rose was one of them. Besides, they were like girlfriends and how could they stay pissed off at one another? They couldn't, that's how. Jack, however, didn't know what was going to happen with the aftermath with Nine -- Ten had said he could tell her but it was hard to say about the other Doctor.

Jack could hear the note of defeat in her voice and instead of keeping her where she was, Jack gathered Rose into his arms and settled her into his lap. He murmured sweet nothings in her hair and rubbed her back and did all the things a good lover would do for his woman. "He tried keeping away from you, Rose," Jack said softly. "I know he did and I know he wanted to. All the men in your life will say the same thing." He gently kissed her forehead, tilting her head up so she was looking at him. "That you are an unstoppable force of nature we're all drawn to irrevocably. Yes, even me."

However, Jack had his lover: a man he was absolutely smitten with beyond words.

"Trust me, I know the Doctor's torn this place apart -- six year old self or not. And I don't know the how or what the did to conceal it -- only that they must have and it's driving us all batty. And the more they do to us the easier it is to freak out about things and good god when did I become a voice of reason?" Jack shook his head and sighed. "I know. And when he doesn't give you a key, you latch on to the outside of the TARDIS and hope for the best."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-08-27 05:14 am UTC (link)

He really was wonderful. Yes, he was physically good-looking. Bright simle, beautiful eyes, and a great arse if she was being honest with herself. And he was strong, too. Both in the physical and mental sense. He'd fought for her, he'd died for her though she didn't know that yet, and she loved him in a way she'd let few others in on. In her currently vulnerable state, it'd be easy to harbor little girlish images of falling in love with him and him staying with her and maybe, at least once, indulging in what she'd denied herself on the TARDIS.

But she adored Ianto. He was one of the sweetest men she'd met, and that meant ever. And she knew he respected her friendship with Jack, and she'd never let herself ruin that. Even if Jack had made his typical lewd comments about her joining in.

That didn't, however, mean she wasn't immune to a bit of coddling. She was only human, no matter who she travelled with. And, at the end of the day, she was still just a teenaged girl. She nestled into Jack's hold on her, allowing her arms to slide around him. "I'm not all that," she defended, blushing slightly. Oh, the things Jimmy had done to her self-confidence. It would take more than some sweet words from Jack and the very occasional compliment from the Doctor to build that back up. "He could have. If it had meant enough to him. Either that or thinks I'm an idiot and couldn't possibly put together the hundreds of clues he dropped in my lap." Still, she remembered the image he'd drawn in his journal. The sketch that little Sigma had pointed to. Why hadn't she looked for it before? And if that woman meant so much to him... Damn him.

"Latch on to the outside?" she blurted. Forget the hiding the TARDIS bit. What? "What the hell? You can't... The Time Vortex!" Oh. Right. Jack couldn't die. Huh. She'd never really thought of that as an option, personally. After all, she'd never once been refused admittance to the TARDIS. She loved that old box, and she knew the machine cared for her, too. Ha. That sounded weird even to her. A machine that could care? But she knew it did. The TARDIS was as alive as anyone there, and if they were using her, she had to be furious.

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