InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "What's up...Doc?"

Rose M. Tyler (jeopardysfriend) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-09-17 10:08:00

Entry tags:

!active, day 23, jack harkness, location: gym, rose tyler

Who: Jack Harkness and Rose Tyler
What: Rose could use some common sense right now...who knew it'd be Jack?!?
When: Day 23, Late afternoon
Where: The Gym
Rating: Rated Jack for crudeness, swearing, and potential leering ;)
Status: Active

The bodies were gone, but the memory of them lying there still lingered. Rose could close her eyes and easily picture her best mate's future self, or Chris' dead mother. Who the hell were these people that they even had the ability to do it? And why, if they were so keen on studying people and their reactions, would they be so willing to let them die?

And the most terrifying thought in her head...could Chris possibly be next?

She'd been taking shifts by that point, watching over the sickly Whitelighter. She and Connor tended to switch on and off, but sometimes they sat and shared idyll chit chat. Why not? It was likely going to be a long night for anyone who cared at all about Chris. And there really wasn't much they could do except keep the wound as clean as possible and get fluid into him. At that point, it was basically wait and see.

But waiting meant time to think, and thinking wasn't exactly beneficial for her. She thought about the Time Lords, both of them, and what they meant to her future self. She thought about home and how much she missed her mum, and even Mickey. She thought about a future without the Doctor and hated Remy LeBeau all over again. Really, it wasn't a good day to be Rose, was it?

Leaving Connor at Chris' side, she wandered the gym, afraid to go any further than that. If the worst happened, she'd be there. She wouldn't be one of those who ran in fear when the darkness came. If travelling with the Doctor had taught her nothing, it was to face fear and pain and death head on. He'd survived the loss of his entire planet; she could face losing one person, no matter who it was. Even when the day came that it'd be him.

The thought caused her to choke up all over again. She stood at the front door to the gymnasium, looking out at the suffocating darkness. She was sure the sun would have to come back up sooner or later. But who would still be around to see it?

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capt_harkness
2009-09-29 02:59 am UTC (link)

It was a very deep statement, thank you very much! And Rose should have stuck her tongue out at Jack, he would have liked very much to take advantage of the situation. The funny thing, and it's nothing Jack will ever admit to -- but Jack may take a snog from Rose, but that's as far as he'd take it. Yes, the man had finally found the joy in a monogamous relationship. Thank you very little Vas Captio.

Jack shook his head. "I... have no idea. If I did, I'd be getting all of us out of here post haste." Jack threaded his fingers through Rose's hair with a sigh. Amazing how they could sit together almost like a couple but with very little sexual tension between them. That's not to say, of course, that if Rose's hands started wandering that Jack wouldn't be happy to oblige her.

"No, I haven't heard!" Jack grinned. Maybe his matchmaking would work after all. Jack just ignored that weird nagging feeling that the Doctor wasn't speaking at all to him. Lightly, Jack kissed Rose's forehead. He wasn't going to just tolerate her and send her on her way. That wasn't Jack's way at all -- he was here for her, no matter what. "You'll make it through, Rose. And if I have to hazard a guess, he won't leave you unless he had to. And even then it wouldn't be of his own accord."

No spoilers. REALLY.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-30 05:47 am UTC (link)

Too bad, Jack was better at keeping spoilers than Nine and Ten were. Someone also really needed to teach Rose the difference between the two. His matchmaking efforts were completely wasted. It wasn't the quiet, angsting man she'd been referring to at all. She'd gotten a hastily scribbled 'Stay safe', and that's the last she'd heard of him. Jack was, sadly, making much more progress on that front.

"He doesn't," she admitted softly, fear pricking at her yet again. "Leave me because he wants to, I mean. The Doctor--the one I know, I mean--already told me. We're separated. And..." Dammit, there they were. The burning tears trickling down her face. Easier to hide against Jack's skin than let him actually see, though he had to know based on damp cheeks alone. "And I don't know how to move on. I know it's not that time yet, and I know I should just...deal with it as it comes. I don't have any other choice. But I can't help thinking it just shouldn't happen."

There was, at least, some comfort in knowing it wouldn't be because he'd grown tired of her and just up and left her. After throwing her entire life in his hands, literally and figuratively, nothing would hurt more than just being left behind for no reason at all. "Sorry," she mumbled between sniffles. "I...just been a long day, s'all."

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capt_harkness
2009-09-30 06:11 am UTC (link)

Well, all of Jack's hard work of keeping Rose spoiler free was about to go out the window. Particularly when she started saying things like that. Jack refused to think that his matchmaking was going to waste at all and he was determined to get Rose and the Doctor back as they should be. He'd do it or die trying and well... so much for that threat, right?

"No need to apologise, love." Jack looked at her, gently brushing the tears away from her eyes with his thumbs. "You're separated because he sends you back to Earth because it's almost certain death that we're facing." Jack spoke without thinking, knowing that after everything, Rose finally has a right to know. "But you go back, Rose. You find a way back and you're the one who saves us all in the end." And damn me to hell in the process. Jack lightly kissed her forehead. "None of us ever travel with the Doctor and just... move on. I waited a hundred years for him to come back to Cardiff after you two left me on board Satellite 5. He told me later the TARDIS never would have accepted me on board because of what had happened."

This may or may not have been Jack's story to tell -- but something told him he was about to tell it anyway.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-30 06:21 am UTC (link)

Well, Rose knew that bit. Getting sent home. She gave a sardonic laugh, annoyance dripping from it. "Oh, I know that, alright. Getting sent home like a little kid. Don't sit at the grown-ups table for Christmas dinner, don't play with sharp objects, don't use the stove, don't stay and fight the Daleks with the people you care about." She shook her head, heaving a sigh. No, she knew it had been done for her safety. And a part of her knew it was because of how much the Doctor cared about her. If he hadn't, he'd have let her die with the rest of them. But he'd sent her home, to safety, to live a life he couldn't.

That didn't make her entirely less bitter. She just...was. A little. Still. But, if the bits and pieces she was putting together from Jack's tales and the Doctor's words were true, if she hadn't gone home and then returned, they'd have all died, all three of them.

But at least they'd have been together.

She winced, though, when he said he'd been left. "We just up and left you?" she blurted, annoyed. "But...there had to be a way. I mean, she can be finicky, but she's usually so accepting... He'd have found a way, wouldn't he?" She shook her head, a little appalled with what her trusted companion had done. Forcing Jack to fend for himself? Not pleased. Not pleased at all.

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capt_harkness
2009-09-30 06:32 am UTC (link)

Jack shook his head. "No, not like a little kid," Jack said, voice a bit harsher than he intended. "Or, at least, I highly doubt he'd have sent you home for such a reason. I'd have loved for you to be with us, Rose, but it was a suicide mission. He wanted you safe and if I have to wager a guess, he'd have made a bargain that he'd keep you safe. So, for that, you had to go home."

Jack still remembered his own reaction, thinking she had left her post in order to take a leak. Still, Jack had held out a bit of hope that they'd get through this okay -- but the moment Rose was gone, he knew they wouldn't be getting out of this alive. Hell, he'd known long before, why else did he give the Doctor and Rose that goodbye kiss?

"I see that stupidly noble look in your eyes. I'd made my choices long ago, I was ready to die. You, God Rose, you had so much coming. That's why he sent you back."

Jack swallowed at that, drawing his lower lip into his mouth. "Not... for a freak of nature," Jack replied softly. "What happened to me... when the Daleks were killed. Life was given and life was taken away, though I don't fault what happened any longer. You didn't--" Jack broke off abruptly and quickly changed directions with his story.

FUCK.

"I became a fixed point in time," Jack said in a rush, "and even now the Doctor doesn't like looking at me. Hell, when he finally showed up in Cardiff, I clung to the outside of the TARDIS. She went to the end of the Universe in an attempt to shake me off."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-09-30 02:19 pm UTC (link)

Rose's eyebrows lifted at his hurried change in subject. She knew the Time Agent, whether he liked it or not. Knew him inside and out, long hours spent chatting and flirting long before they'd come to this stupid place. She was on to him. "So you faulted it before, did you? The uh...person who caused it? Your...you know. The not dying thing?" She didn't what, Jack? She was going to get it out of him, and that's all there was to it. Had her return to the satellite somehow caused all he was talking about? The Doctor had said she'd saved his life. Had she somehow saved Jack, as well?

Despite herself, she smirked at the image he painted of himself, holding on to the TARDIS as she whirled through the Vortex. Probably got himself in more trouble than it was worth, knowing him. And her. Crazy blue box that she was. God, she missed it already. If it was this hard on her, it must have been hell for the Doctor. Both of them.

And that only reminded her that one day? She wouldn't be calling that box home. Dammit.

"She rejected you because you were hanging on to the outside of her, you git," she teased. "No woman likes that, surely you knew that." Would the TARDIS have allowed him inside? Surely, she would have. But only if the Doctor had trusted him. Hmm. Mysteries she couldn't solve without talking to that other Doctor. Not something she was thrilled about.

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capt_harkness
2009-10-02 10:27 pm UTC (link)

Really, did Rose HAVE to know him so bloody well? Really, they could go back to the old days when he was a con, out to get into her jeans and when she didn't know him whatsoever. Jack would be happy about that. Then again, he supposed it was his cross to bear: he knew the Doctor inside and out when he was hiding things, rose knew him. Not fair, but there you had it.

"I..." Jack drew his lips together, biting them while he considered his answer. "I did. It took me a long time to realise I couldn't die. I tried all manners of things from the simple to the extreme. And everytime I came back, I did curse what happened to me." And now to apologise without apologising directly. "Eventually I learned to accept and realised it wasn't such a bad thing." Jack had left enough clues that Rose should be able to piece it together. He just didn't want to be the one to tell her -- not because he didn't want to, but he wasn't sure he could get through it without his voice cracking or dong something else suitably embarrassing.

Jack rolled his eyes. "She did not. I'd been waiting a hundred years for him. I called out and he tried leaving without me, so I ran and I jumped. Figured there wasn't much that could kill me so why not try an otherwise suicide mission?" Jack flashed a grin, pulling Rose in close against his chest. "I thought women liked having a man wrap themselves around her. Silly me for assuming such." That smile morphed into a smirk. "So you'd try tossing me away if I tried wrapping my legs around you then?"

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jeopardysfriend
2009-10-03 06:51 am UTC (link)

Best to keep those thoughts to yourself, Jack. This lot here could probably make you relive that moment. And, as willing as Rose might've been, the Doctor would've still stood in the way, all possessive and wise and not allowing her to go making mistakes. And there'd be no Ianto, either. Besides, seeing him in full uniform again would probably just get constant chants of 'are you my mummy?' stuck in her head again. So he'd just have to settle for having Rose after she'd travelled with him on the TARDIS, talked to him for hours when the Doctor was tinkering with his hammer in the console room, and become closer to him than most everyone.

It did have something to do with her. He hadn't come right out and said it, and she loved him for it. Her Jack would never directly place the blame, not right to her. She couldn't imagine the hell he went through. Actually, no, she could. There'd been plenty of times she'd thought about it, how it must be to have to live so much longer than everyone else. Of course, she'd thought of all of that only on knowing the Doctor's age, and not his unlikeliness to die, but still. And for it, she merely remained silent, nestling in closer to Jack.

Which wasn't hard to do when he pulled her close, getting all sassy as Jack Harkness tended to do. She rolled her eyes, bending her leg to give him a light kick with her toe. "Women prefer to wrap themselves around a man, thank you very much. If you tried hanging on to me, I'd head to the end of the universe to be rid of you, too." Peeking up, she smirked before hiding her face again. "Cause you're too big and we'd both fall over, see."

Dangerous territory, Jack. Rose was in this place with far too many good-looking blokes for you to be using words and phrases like that around her!

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