My Last Tango
The timeless sound of Glen Miller reverberated round the TARDIS, The melody echoing across the control room. The Doctor sat alone at the controls, a dreamy lost look in his eye as he hummed along to the soulful trumpet. He was so lost in the timeless music that he didn't notice Jack enter. It was only when Jack rested his hand on the Doctor's shoulder did the Time Lord perceive anything apart from his own solitary sadness.
"You didn't think you'd get away without a dance did you." Jack said, uncharacteristically awkward at the sight of the haunted look in the Doctor's eye.
The Doctor got up, the look in his eyes hinting at a laugh at Jack's bravado.
"What happens if Rose walks in to see you and me dancing?" He looked around the room as if his favourite companion could be hiding.
"She doesn't know what you 51st Century guys are like."
Jack gave a huge grin as he leaned across the controls to turn the volume up.
"Rose is sound asleep." Jack informed him firmly as he offered a hand for the Doctor to take.
"I'm not even going to ask how you know that."
The Doctor rolled his eyes with a smile, resigned to his fate. Jack and the Doctor swayed gently, not to close, friendly. They were both so lost in their own thought to get lost in the music.
"So, where you planning to go next?" Jack asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Ever been to the Glass Pyramids of San Kloon?"
Jack nodded; the Doctor was confused by the depressed look on the Captain's face.
"What's the matter?"
Jack took a deep breath "I can come with you, can't I?"
"Why would you think you're not?" the Doctor asked, furrowing his brow.
"I've done a lot of… bad things." Jack sighed, closing his eyes to see the consequences of his past actions emblazoned into his nightmares. "I don't deserve this, Doctor." He spread his arm out to highlight the splendour of the TARDIS.
"Believe it or not I've done things that haunt me. Seen things that would..." he trailed off. The weight of the world lay on the Doctor's shoulders like an old friend.
"It's called a second chance Captain. We all get one even if we don't deserve it"
Jack stared deep into those piecing eyes. They were too sad, too lonely. Idly, Jack wondered if his eyes would look like that if he had lived as long as the Doctor.
He stepped away from the Doctor. Letting the strange intimacy between them drop.
"Thank you."
"What for?"
Jack walked to the door, a smile on his lips, almost a spring in his step. He shrugged.
"Everything."
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Jack sat at his desk, staring into the middle distance but really seeing the control room of the TARDIS the day he joint. The old gramophone that had sat in the corner of his office for to long now had pride of place in the middle of the room. The table it sat on was covered in cobwebs, LP sleeves, their colours barely visible, were crammed into a battered cardboard box. It took his a moment to realise someone was about to enter the room. Tentative steps sounded along the gantry. They as much music to Jack as the tune emitting from the Gramophone.
Ianto had barely been working there a month but he seemed to be so much a part of the furniture already.
"Felt a bit nostalgic." He said in slight explanation, not turning to look at Ianto. He could visualise him perfectly. He'd be leaning on the door frame, hands in his pockets, letting the smart façade drop gently. The tie round his neck loose, the top button undone like a rebellious school boy, revealing the smooth suggestive curve of his collar bones. The way this stressful day would have ruffled his hail like a lovers desperate fingers.
Jack heard the footsteps behind him, reaching out a hand to take the glass of brandy he knew Ianto would be proffering.
"Long day?" Ianto asked, sitting on the edge of the desk. Jack took a swig of his drink. Putting of the moment until he looked at Ianto, to almost drink in the sight.
"Yep, where were you this morning, by the way?"
"Archives." Ianto replied smoothly. "You wouldn't be interested."
"You've got me there." Jack conceded, draining the last dregs.
They'd had sex the night before. The memory was fresh in Jacks mind and the flush in Ianto's cheek. The word 'sex' was a compromise in Ianto's diary, 'shag' was to crude and when Ianto thought the phrase 'made love' he always thought of Lisa.
"You seemed miles away sir." Ianto said. "I didn't want to disturb you."
"Just remembering."
"Nice memories?"
Ianto was vaguely wondering if he'd crossed the line between sleeping with Jack to protect Lisa or for his own gratification. Business or pleasure. Light or dark. Although he wasn't sue which was which with the latter? Lines got blurred.
A song Jack knew to well started to play. The high keening notes that Make Glen Miller so memorable.
"Shall we dance?" Jack smiled, standing up from the desk, offering the startled teaboy his hand. Ianto warily took it.
"I can't dan…" Jack placed a finger on his lips, killing the excuse, he placed Ianto's arms around his waist. They swayed in time, Ianto's arms shyly wrapt round the Captain.
"Imagine you're in the middle of the Blitz." Jacks murmured in his ear, his soft breath tickling Ianto's ear, his lips caressing his flushed cheek.
"The nights only just began. But you know its going to pass like sand through your fingers because you don't want it to end. You're this'll be the last time you dance with him because he's leaving in his plane tomorrow. You want him t o remember tonight because, in the sky, stuck in that little cockpit, he's going to be so alone."
Ianto shivered in spite of himself, as Jacks hands stroke under his shirt.
"but not as alone," Jack murmured, punctuating every word with a soft kiss, travelling along his neck. His tongue tasting the slight sheen of sweat that was building on the slight dip between his collar bones, "as you'll be if he doesn't come back."
Ianto turned to meet Jack's waiting stare.
"I can't," he whispered breathlessly "believe you were ever the one waiting for you're lover to come back."
Jack shook his head, "Oh I've spent a long time waiting. But the problem is that even if I know he's survives what danger he's got himself into, I don't know that he'll ever come back to me."
Ianto stepped smartly out of Jacks arms.
"Do you think 'he' knows your fighting for him?" Ianto asked, Jack was confused by the question.
"I hope so." He answered slowly, taking a slow step to pull Ianto back, keenly feeling the warmth that Ianto had taken from him.
"Then he'll come back." Ianto said gently. "I think sir." He added as a sort of afterthought.
"Would you?" Jack asked.
"Perhaps."
Trumpets died and the record span to an end. Jack took his newest recruits face in his hands and they kissed like a fluff movie cliché. Ianto finally let himself run his fingers through the hair of the man who would have been his lover if they'd lived in the Blitz. Perhaps.
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please reveiw you guys make my day.