TITLE: Distantly in Love
AUTHORS: Gillian Taylor(Dark Aegis) & NNWest
DISCLAIMER: Don't own them. We just like playing with them...a lot.
AN: We're not quite sure where this came from, well, actually Gillian knows where (she blames it on one too many margaritas). Given that we've beta'd each other's stuff for a while (and know each other in RL), we figured it was about time we wrote something together. This is the result. Lots of shippiness, adventure, danger, and frozen concoctions follow. No margaritas were harmed in the writing of this fic. Great thanks to our wonderful beta chloe-az.
Chapter One
The tiny cove, nestled just shy of the busy beaches and resorts of Cancun, was empty of all but the most determined of beach-goers. Access to the cove was limited to either a tiny track that led through the trees to the more populated Playa Ballenas or via the water. A lone snorkeler fought the surf and tide as he swam slowly across the cove, stopping every so often to examine something underneath the clear waters of the sea. The relative silence of the cove, despite the gentle surf rushing against the shore, was soon broken by a high pitched wheezing sound. Had the swimmer paused in his examination of teeming underwater life, he would have seen the white beach of the cove gain a new feature - a strange blue box.
The harsh Mexican sunlight seemed to avoid the faux wooden panelling of the TARDIS - leaving it a deeply hued dark blue which was startling in its contrast to the brilliant white sand. Heat rose in visible waves from the sand and it was into this bright, hot world that the dark leather-clad Doctor emerged from his time ship. His blue eyes squinted in reaction to the light as he took in the view with a somewhat melancholic look. He had promised Jack and Rose a vacation to remember, especially since their last few trips had turned into death defying adventures. There were plenty of times wherein he suspected the TARDIS had a hand in taking them to places where only their unique skills could solve some sort of planet endangering problem. Then again, his lips quirked into a faint smile, he had always been a bit of a trouble magnet. However, this time he swore to himself that his companions would enjoy their holiday while he attended to other business. Crouching, the Doctor picked up a handful of sand and regarded it thoughtfully.
Sunlight caused the tiny crystalline grains to sparkle brightly within his hands and he closed them tightly for a moment, feeling the texture of each tiny granule against his skin. One of his previous incarnations had considered a sandy beach an apt analogy to his own mind - each grain was a memory, ever sifting, ever moving, ever changing from the motions of the wind and the surf. The analogy was still true, though the beaches of his mind were far more ravaged by time than the sands upon which he was standing. He opened his hands and watched the sand filter through his fingers to be blown away in the brisk breeze. With a sigh that was more for the sake of his newly emerged companions than for his own thoughts, the Doctor brushed his hands against his jeans and smiled. "Sun, sand, and surf. Just what the Doctor ordered."
Rose had not missed the melancholic look upon the Time Lord's face, but she chose not to mention it. "You still think you're so impressive. But I can tell you that this is definitely not Bermuda."
"I am so impressive," he told her, affecting an affronted look. "And I never said I was taking us to Bermuda. I just said to the Caribbean."
"You did say Bermuda," Jack corrected the Doctor with a grin, "but, Cancun can be just as nice." Before the Doctor could even ask, Jack pointed upwards at the biplane which was towing a banner declaring in English 'Welcome to Cancun. Eat at Joe's.' "I'll forgive you the three hundred kilometres or so that you're off this time."
"A difference of a few hundred kilometres is nothing on the scale of time." The Doctor shrugged. "I promised you a tropical holiday. Not exact geographic co-ordinates."
Rose shot him a look before grinning. "I'll forgive you, too, Doctor. Cancun does have some of the best shopping around according to Shareen."
The Doctor fought the urge to groan. "Rose, I bring you to the Caribbean to swim in the ocean, sun on the sand, and relax. And you want to shop?"
"It is relaxing," Rose protested.
"Go on then. Take Jack with you."
"What if I wanted to stay with my favourite U-Boat Captain?" Jack asked, winking at Rose.
"Remember how you first met Rose? Need I say more?"
"Good point," Jack said thoughtfully.
"Oi! There are no barrage balloons around this time, so I don't need anyone watching me."
Jack pointedly looked her up and down. "I'd say you do."
Reddening slightly at the implication, Rose sighed. "Alright then. What about you, Doctor?"
"What about me?"
"What are you going to do while we're out?"
"Oh, this and that. Mostly that." The Doctor grinned.
She fixed him with a sceptical look. "I know that expression, Doctor. You're planning on getting into trouble without us again, aren't you?"
"Me?" His eyes widened innocently. "Wouldn't dream of it. But, if you really must know...I need to fix the dimensional stabiliser. That last landing was a bit bumpy."
"A bit!" Rose asked, aghast. "My bruises have bruises!"
"Now children," Jack scolded them both, "don't make me separate you two. No, wait...I wouldn't mind being in the middle."
"Jack!" the two chorused.
"What?" Jack asked innocently. "I just tell it like it is."
Rose just shook her head. "C'mon, Romeo. Let's leave the Doctor to actually fix something for once. Oh, and Doctor? Don't hit the TARDIS too much, okay?"
"Yes, dear." The Doctor rolled his eyes.
With a wicked grin, Rose held out her arm to the former Time Agent. "Come on, Jack."
As the two walked away from the TARDIS, the Doctor suddenly grinned. "Have fun storming the castle!"
"I never should have made him watch that movie," Rose sighed.
The base commander for the Time Agency's Cancun complex looked up at the firm rap at his door. "Enter." The door swung open and an imposing blond man stalked in. Klein leapt to his feet with a crisp salute. "Herr Danninger! I was not informed you had arrived."
"Now you've been informed." Danninger waved to Klein to sit down. "This business is too important to manage via comm." Klein looked inquisitive, but said nothing. Danninger continued, "An Agent Jackson in Alpha Cent has sent word. We have a lead on Captain Harkness."
"Where is he?" There was a barely contained eagerness in Klein that made it seem as if would go after Harkness himself the instant Danninger provided his location.
"With luck, he's coming to us. You will find a Captain Janette Fischer has been transferred temporarily to this outpost."
"Harkness' former partner?" the grey haired man interrupted, surprise apparent. Danninger fixed him with an icy stare and Klein's blood ran cold. "I am sorry, Herr Danninger."
"She will be under my command during this operation. I will requisition further personnel as I need them."
"Of course, sir. You will have anything you require."
"Also, expect visitors. I want any intruders captured alive. They may prove to be valuable tools."
The sun dipped lower in the sky, threatening to drop below the horizon and rob the Mexican coast of its fading rays. Scrubbing ruefully at the oil stain on his face, the Doctor exited the TARDIS. After spending several "relaxing" hours repairing the dimensional stabiliser, the Doctor was more than ready to get to the business that had drawn him to this particular place and time. Unlike what he had told his companions, relaxation did not have anything to do with it.
On their last trip to the Alpha Cent system, he had run into a former Time Agent. From him, he had learned of the Agency's Cancun outpost where he might find a terminal that could connect him to the Time Agency's main records system. He hoped that he might find out more information on the two years his companion had lost - all, of course, without Jack knowing about it. That is, until he had found out something.
Before leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor had used the scanners to search for alien technology. "There's some Spock for you Rose." The Doctor smiled, knowing all too well that he would never use those scanners in her presence. There were some things, after all, that he needed to keep hidden to remain 'so impressive.'
Patting the side of the TARDIS, the Doctor spoke, "Wish me luck, old girl. I'll be back before you know it."
Somewhere, deep inside the TARDIS, a bell began to toll.
Chapter Two
"When did I agree to be your pack mule?" Jack asked from beneath a large pile of packages and purchases.
"When you agreed with the Doctor about me needing watching." She poked her tongue out at him.
His blue eyes glittered as an evil-minded smirk tugged at his mouth. "I can think of better places for that tongue of yours."
"Jack!" Though her tone was scandalised, Rose couldn't suppress the little thrill that the implication caused in her.
"That's my name, but I'm out of hands." Jack cast a glance at the setting sun. "How 'bout we go check up on the Doctor and I can put all of this down?"
Rose realised with a start that the Doctor had been on his own for over six hours. He had surely found a way to get himself in trouble by now, even if it was just inside the TARDIS. "Alright, then maybe we can convince the Doctor to take us to dinner."
"Shouldn't be hard to do."
"How do you know?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Rose resolutely told herself to not be jealous, though she was not quite sure who she was jealous of.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a rather menacing voice spoke from behind the Doctor.
With a barely audible sigh, the Doctor closed the filing cabinet and turned, one of his hands raised in a greeting gesture. "Oh, hello! I'm the Doctor, and you are?" The other hand was stuck in his pocket, fingering his sonic screwdriver.
"Holding a gun. So step away from those cabinets," the Time Agent instructed him, gesturing towards the far wall with a nod of his head.
"So you are holding a gun. Might heavy, isn't it?" The Time Lord grinned as he complied with the agent's instructions.
"Not at all. Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get in?"
"My, you certainly ask a lot of questions. So, introductions redux. I'm the Doctor. You're holding a gun. I'm just looking, and very carefully. I think that about covers it, don't you?"
The Time Agent's expression turned thunderous, "You're coming with me."
"Nope, don't think so," the Doctor replied and turned on his sonic screwdriver. The Time Agent's weapon fizzled and the Doctor ran out of the room.
A moment later, the astonished Time Agent gathered his wits and followed.
The Doctor chose one direction to run, not quite caring at the moment where he was heading beyond 'away.' He knew that there had to be more than one escape route from the complex and was determined to find it. He was rather aggravated that he had not accomplished what he had set out to do. Vaguely he wondered just how his enemies tended to show up at the most inopportune moments. Deciding that it was a curse of being him, he continued down the hallway.
At the next intersection, two bewildered Time Agents watched him streak past followed closely by one of their counterparts. Shaking his head at the sight, the taller Agent commented, "I didn't think they were running the marathon today."
Without bothering to reply, the other slapped an alarm button set into the wall beside him, filling the complex with the sound of a klaxon. The complex went to Condition Mauve.
"Oh, that's not good," the Doctor murmured to himself as he rounded another corner. He tried the first door on his left, found it opened easily and ducked through.
The Doctor paused as his eyes took in the obvious sight of a firing range. Several Agents, their guns drawn, turned to face him. With a slightly worried expression, the Doctor waved, "Ah, hello. Carry on." He spun on his heel and flung open the door, and was startled when he felt the door shudder in his hand as if something heavy had just run into it.
He slammed the door shut behind him and noticed the unconscious Time Agent sprawled on the floor. With a brief shrug, he pulled out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the door's latching mechanism. A few twists of the tool and a bright blue light later, the door's locks were fried. That was, of course, when he realised that he had probably just wasted valuable escape time. Like Jack, they had been carrying sonic blasters. An idea struck him and he bent down to drag the unconscious body in front of the door before tearing off down the corridor again.
Above him warning lights flared to life and bulkheads along the hall slowly started to descend. "Never rains, but it pours." He kept running, first ducking then sliding, beneath falling bulkheads until the gap was too small for even his lanky form. Sonic screwdriver coming to hand, he aimed it at the control panel beside the heavy barrier. The panel emitted a small shower of sparks and the bulkhead grudgingly began to rise. Without waiting for the partition to rise fully, the Doctor slid underneath. He repeated the procedure twice more without incident. The third panel proved particularly stubborn. With his usual flair for jiggery-pokery, he finally got the barrier moving only to find himself staring down the rather unfriendly looking barrel of a sonic blaster.
Glancing behind, he noted several more armed Agents approaching. He muttered a rather potent Gallifreyan curse before continuing in English, "I believe this is the part where I ask you to 'take me to your leader.'"
In the end, Rose had agreed to relieve Jack of half his burden as they wandered back to beach. The last of the day's light was fading and the sky was nearing complete darkness by the time they had negotiated the narrow path down to where the TARDIS was parked.
Bursting through the doors, Rose called out to the Doctor. Receiving no answer she shrugged, gathered the rest of her shopping from Jack and headed toward her room. After dumping the bags on her bed, she went out to find where the Time Lord had secreted himself. She checked his usual haunts before heading back to the console room.
"No luck," she said to Jack when she encountered him in the corridor near his room.
He smiled. "I could have told you that and it looks like we're out of luck for dinner. He left a note-"
"A note?" Her forehead crinkled in bemusement. "That's not like him."
"Maybe he's turned over a new leaf."
"Maybe he's gone out to find trouble without us," Rose countered.
Jack threw up his hands in a gesture that said, 'What can you do?' before he continued his previous statement. "The note said he finished work on the stabiliser and decided to spend some time in town. Also said not to wait up. So, I guess that's just you and me to find our own entertainment."
Seeing the touch of worry in her eyes, he reached out to comfort her. "Hey, the guy's 900 years old. I'm sure he's not going to find any trouble in Cancun that he can't handle." She nodded as he pushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face. "Now, come on. Get changed and we'll paint this town."
"Red?"
"Any colour you like."
Rose went back to her room and exchanged her shorts and t-shirt for one of the flirty dresses she'd purchased earlier. Checking her appearance in the mirror, she decided that the dress showed just the right amount of skin as she pinned her long hair atop her head with a tortoiseshell comb.
She returned to the console room to find Jack waiting for her. She couldn't help but notice how good he looked in the tight blue jeans and pale linen shirt he'd changed into.
"Sexy," he greeted her as his eyes skated over her admiringly. "You know, we don't have to go out." He smirked suggestively.
She giggled. "You should know by now you're not going to get me that easily." She poked at him playfully, laughing when he gathered her up to waltz her around the console.
"So, you can be had?" He smiled down at her, eyes aglow.
"Nope, you promised me a painted town." Even as she said it, a distant part of her wanted to answer 'yes'.
Jack sighed theatrically in mock disappointment and dropped a kiss into her hair. "If that's the way it must be, my love." He let her go, grinned widely, and grabbed her hand. "C'mon, I'm starved."
Chapter Three
"You've caused quite a ruckus," a tall, grey haired gentleman tisked as he paced in front of the restrained Time Lord. The laminated badge on his lapel simply spelled out his last name: Klein.
"It's a gift." The Doctor shrugged as he continued to test the strength of his bonds. Sadly, the Agents knew what they had been doing - not only were the bonds snug, they had also relieved him of his sonic screwdriver.
"Very funny, Herr Doctor. I'm most interested in discovering why you have decided to enter our facility and search through our files."
"I was curious. I'm thinking of buying a home around here, and thought yours had a wonderful floor plan. Tell me, how much do you pay for electricity?"
The Director of the Time Agency stepped forward and slapped the Doctor, rocking the chair to which the Time Lord was tied from the force of the slap. Klein smiled as if he had not even moved. "I think we both know that curiosity had nothing to do with it. Tell me, Herr Doctor, how is Captain Harkness?"
The Time Lord's eyes narrowed. "Who?"
The German laughed. "Ah, that won't work, Doctor. There is no use in playing stupid. We both know that Harkness is one of your companions. Your rather pointed questions of Agent Jackson on Alpha Cent merely confirmed it. And now?" His smile widened. "Now we get to move on to the next phase of our plan."
"Which is?" He mentally kicked himself for assuming that the Agent he had talked to on Alpha Cent had been retired.
"Quite simple. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but what is a mind but the sum of its memories? You've gotten far too close; you know too much, therefore there really is no other choice in the matter. I believe that amnesia will suit you quite well." Klein gestured for one of his Agents to move forward. "Get Doctor Alvarez and tell her to bring her device." Nodding, the Agent left the room.
"It'll be rather interesting to see if Doctor Alvarez' device will work on your rather unique physiology. It would be quite a pity if it ends up permanently damaging you." Klein continued, "Enjoy your memories, Herr Doctor, while you still can." With a low chuckle, he left the room.
A few moments later, a young, wavy haired woman stepped into the room followed by another Time Agent pushing some sort of mechanical device. The woman looked at the Doctor and he was surprised to find compassion within her dark eyes. "Hola Señor Doctor. This should not hurt, but if it does I apologise."
"You don't have to do anything," he told her, willing her to believe him. "You can just let me go."
She barked out a short laugh and it had a bitter sound. "Ah, señor, if only it was that easy. You have no idea." Doctor Maria Alvarez had her companion wheel the device behind the Doctor and she began to prepare the machine. "Leave us," she instructed the other Agent and he hesitated for a moment before leaving the room.
"It is that easy," the Doctor insisted. "We can forget this little jaunt ever happened."
"It is pointless to try and convince me to free you, señor. It can't work, not after what I've seen." Her cold fingers pressed diodes against the Doctor's scalp and face. "There will be a copy made of your memories, señor, if that can give you hope. However, you will not remember this conversation."
"Don't do this."
"Perdóneme," she whispered as she activated the device.
The storm lashed against the beach. Wind, rain, and surf all threatened to steal away the sand due to its merciless onslaught. However, the sand resisted. The beach remained the same despite the fierce storm. However, over the howl of the wind another sound rose across the beach - the sound of a man screaming.
The memory stealer emitted a high pitched whine before the light turned on to indicate the process was complete. Before she could touch the device to turn it off, the Doctor's eyes snapped open, "No," he said fiercely. "Let me go."
"Esto no es possible! You cannot be awake," Maria protested, her eyes wide. "You cannot have your memories!"
"I'm not like you," he said. Blue eyes met brown, but a moment later the brown eyes of Maria Alvarez looked away. With a soft sigh, he continued, "Do what you must."
"I...I cannot," she apologised as she activated the device again.
The Doctor's eyes widened and his mouth opened in a silent scream.
Rose lost track of what Jack was saying as the sound of a bell echoed through the restaurant, reverberating her to the core. She looked around her for the source of the noise, imagining it would be infinitely more at home in a great Gothic cathedral than the dark little bar Jack had found. The gong sounded again. Deep, rich, and resonant, its tone was vaguely ominous, like a warning. Rose was amazed to see that no one else reacted to or even seemed to notice the sound.
"Jack, tell me you can hear that," she said, dragging his attention away from the intensely bronzed blond across the bar with whom he'd been exchanging significant glances.
"Hear what?" he asked distractedly.
"The bell. A really loud bell."
"No..."
"Huh."
He looked at her, dubiously. "Rose, are you okay?"
"Hmmm? Oh, yeah." She shrugged, trying to push away the feeling that something was wrong. "Just feeling a little odd. Too much sun, or maybe it was the water."
"Well, you do know what they say about Mexican water - especially in this time period."
"Yeah." Rose sounded unconvinced. "Weird."
"You sure you're alright?"
"I told ya, yeah." She forced away her worries and smiled brilliantly at him.
"Okay." Jack threw one more look across the room toward his prey. "I'm going in. Wish me luck." He got up to leave.
"From what I've seen, you don't need luck," she called to him.
"You're right, I am a stunner." He flashed her a sparkling smile as she rolled her eyes in response.
Watching him cross the bar, Rose briefly hoped the Doctor was all right wherever he was.
A hurricane swept across the beach. Fierce winds and lashing rain ravaged the beachfront as one by one the tiny grains of sand were scattered upon the wind.
The Doctor screamed.
The wind swept across the beaches of the Doctor's mind, stealing away his memories.
The Time Lord screamed.
The gale wiped the beach clean.
The man screamed.
And all was silence.