AUTHOR: NNWest
DISCLAIMER: Sadly, none of them are mine...but I like playing with them.
AN: Set in loneraven's girl!Doctor universe over on LiveJournal. I think this stands alone okay, but for back story, read the fic over at the LJ girl!Doctor community. Thanks to my beta Dark Aegis!
As the Doctor leaned across the console, Jack caught himself taking in an eyeful of shapely bum. Inwardly, he chuckled at himself. It was amazing how quickly he had adjusted to this new Doctor. He was also amazed that someone so different could be the same person he'd known before, how easily he could see this woman was Doctor.
When he met up with Rose again and she introduced the spritely brunette she was with as the Doctor, he swore. In fact, Jack remembered ruefully, he swore more than a little. He really hadn't lied when he told her the change didn't bother him. Okay, maybe a little, but he was only human after all. Even in the 51st century gender change was not very common and certainly never happened spontaneously--at least not in humans. Even so, there was little stigma attached to it. Mostly, his early qualms had to do with the good old-fashioned human fear of change. Anyway, he had a sneaking suspicion that the Doctor had sworn too when she woke up from her last regeneration and found that she wasn't a he anymore.
"Are you just going to stand there and stare at my arse? Or, are you going to help me fix this?" the Doctor asked, a hint of amusement evident in her voice.
"Given the choice, I'll stare a bit longer thanks." He favoured her with his perfect smile.
"I'd call you sexist, but you've always been interested in my bum."
Ah, the acerbic wit is still there, Jack noted. And, she was right; his staring at the Doctor's ass was certainly nothing new. He'd done the same thing to the dark man in the leather jacket. This Doctor just offered a few more curves on the visual menu, including a set of very nicely turned legs showed off by the skirt she wore. His smile broadened into a grin. "So you noticed?"
"Yes, he did." She laughed musically at Jack. "Get over here." Her ready laughter was a nice change as well. The Doctor had shaken off almost all of the sorrow that had plagued her past lives since the Time War. Gone was the haunted look that had always lurked in the shadowed eyes of the Doctor that Jack had known previously. Her bright eyes now glittered with the love of life and mischief.
As Jack moved to help, the Doctor sighed. "I just don't know why she does this to me. Why is it every time I turn around another of her systems has broken down," she asked rhetorically.
Jack just chuckled. The TARDIS certainly hadn't changed, but the Doctor's complaining about having to fix the time-ship was new. It was difficult to keep the previous Doctor out from under the grating that surrounded the control console. Tinkering with the TARDIS had seemed to be his safe haven, a way of avoiding difficult conversations for the most part. This female Doctor appeared to be a bit better at the repair game, though. But, Jack mused, it may also be that she just spends less time fiddling--read trying to escape--and gets straight to the problem at hand.
Leaves her more time with Rose, he thought. There was another constant, the Doctor's love for Rose. Jack had easily seen that the Doctor and Rose loved each other from the moment he saw them together in war-torn London. Quite frankly, he had been floored to find that they had not been boinking like bunnies; a state he had tried, in vain, to remedy. When he'd found out upon his recent return that Rose and the Doctor had finally made the transition to being lovers, he'd cried out in joyous triumph and bundled them both into his arms, kissing each on the forehead. That manoeuvre had earned him Rose's annoyed elbow in his ribs and a glare from the Doctor before all three of them broke into fits of laughter.
It was in that moment Jack knew he had come home again, that even though a lot had changed, nothing important had.
"And what's got you grinning like a madman now?" The Doctor was looking curiously over her shoulder at him.
Jack realised he had been lost in his thoughts and hadn't been paying attention. "Nothing much. It's just good to be home."