The first thing Steve Hopson saw getting out of the TARDIS was desolation. Sheer nothingness for miles. The second thing he saw was light. Out of this nothingness rose a mighty city that lit the desert aflame, much like the Las Vegas that Steve remembers.
"Where are we?" He asked, murmuring, as he was caught in the beauty of it.
"Perhaps you should be asking when," came a familiar voice from behind him.
"Jack!" Steve exclaimed, turning, and grabbing the man in a hug, which lasted a little longer than necessary, but no one there minded.
"Good for you, Jack," the Doctor said, "but one could call that cheating."
Jack just laughed, in that mischievous way that he had that always made Steve smile. Still smiling, Steve tried again. "Fine, when are we?"
The Doctor smiled as a teacher would to a curious student, "Welcome to the year 3000, boys."
"3000?!" Steve stuttered, trying to comprehend that this was almost 1000 years from when the Doctor had picked him up.
"Yep." said Jack, laughing at Steve's reaction. "This is the beginning of the first Great Earth Empire."
"First? How many were there?" Over his initial shock, Steve was determined to learn all he could while they were there.
"Woah there, buckaroo," Jack said smiling, grabbing Steve's hand. "One interrogation at a time. Let's go check out everything this fine city has to offer, huh?" He smiled wider and gave Steve a wink.
The Doctor laughed, watching the two of them. "That sounds like a grand idea, let's go."
Steve rolled his eyes at Jack, silently thinking that the Doctor had blatantly avoided the point that he really wasn't invited.
As they began wandering the streets, Jack and Steve fell back, content to talking with each other, mostly Jack teaching Steve about this world and the way it functioned, now that it was a unified empire opposed to many nations. Somewhere along the way, they lost the Doctor, and Steve found himself being pulled into a side alley by Jack.
"What the..." he started, but his sentence was smothered by Jack's lips on his, in a sweet passionate kiss.
"Well it's about time, you two," came a voice behind Jack's bigger frame.
Jack laughed and turned to face the Doctor, "well, maybe I'd you'd left us alone sooner, Pop."
Steve found himself joining in, "Yeah, I mean, 'sounds like a grand idea?'"
"OK, OK, now that we finally got that figured out, where do you two lovebirds fancy traveling to?"
Jack and Steve looked to one another, and Jack spoke for them both when he said "How about somewhere alone for five minutes?"
Leaving the Doctor, hand in hand, they ran through the streets, just them.