"It's all fun and games until someone loses a sonic screwdriver."
AN: This ran away from me a bit. It was supposed to be lighthearted and fun, but it got a bit heavy near the end. So I let it do its own thing, I just hope it reads okay.
"Hurry!"
Jack paused at the door of the TARDIS, holding back so that Rose could get through and to safety first. But it took him only a split second to follow her.
"Doctor!" she called out to behind them, using the same tone of voice she employed to hurry him along when he was being agonisingly – and often deliberately – slow about making the tea, or fixing the ship's temperamental heating facility.
He was running only a few steps behind them, but was slowed by the necessity of waving his sonic screwdriver at their pursuers. Neither Rose nor Jack was entirely sure what it was he was actually doing with the device, but whatever it was it seemed to be working, so they didn't question the matter.
"Start her up!" he yelled as he threw himself backwards through the doors of the sturdy ship. The screwdriver went flying.
Jack was at the controls in a second, hitting the appropriate knobs and pulling the right levers. He smirked as he glanced over to the entrance of the ship, where the Doctor and Rose were untangling themselves from each other with as much dignity as they could muster. He set the TARDIS on a safe course as the other two straightened up, groaning and inspecting for injuries. Rose's left arm looked like it had been grilled; she rubbed it with a scowl on her face, trying to rid her skin of the small square imprints.
"What?" the Doctor asked when he met her accusing stare. "You shouldn't have been in the way!"
Her stare turned to one of vague disbelief. She blinked. "You – you're just…" she turned away and walked over to the other side of the room, where the sonic screwdriver had landed. "Mental… want this?" She held the small silver object out to him and grinned as surprise, followed by confusion, followed by suspicion flickered over his features. He took a step towards her.
"What?" she asked innocently, opening out her hand and letting the screwdriver roll onto her palm.
Jack leaned back against the console, settling himself with his arms crossed and an amused smile on his lips.
"If I were a betting man," he murmured with a shake of his head.
"Don't pretend you're not, flyboy." The Doctor's eyes never left Rose's as he spoke.
Jack chuckled, but said nothing.
"Rose, can I have my screwdriver back?" the Doctor asked, in a tone of voice that was so friendly and cheerful that Jack knew it did not bode well for Rose. He also knew that she could give as good as she got and so he continued to watch in silence, grinning from ear to ear.
"Of course you can," she drawled.
He took another step. "Jack, go and make the tea."
"Don't be ridiculous," the younger man laughed, staying quite firmly where he was.
"Rose."
"Yes Doctor?"
"Give." He extended his arm, hand outstretched, so that his fingers were nearly touching hers.
She said nothing, merely continued to stare at him in wide-eyed innocence. The air in the dark console room was heavy with tension.
Jack raised an eyebrow as the Doctor lunged at Rose suddenly, his hand closing over her fist as she side stepped and let him move past her. She grinned, eyes gleaming.
"Oh, this is good," Jack said to the TARDIS.
But Rose was at a major disadvantage now; the Doctor pulled on her arm roughly, bringing her crashing into his chest, the screwdriver still clutched tightly in her hand. Big brown eyes stared up into cool blue ones as he slowly but firmly prised her hand open, closing his own around the sonic device.
And Jack's wild movements must have caught Rose's attention at the very last moment, because she grinned and snatched the screwdriver away again, took a long step back, and unceremoniously dropped it down the front of her top.
"What the –"
At the sound of Jack's gleeful laugh, the Doctor whirled around to face him. He hurriedly removed his hands from his chest and held them behind his back, trying to keep a straight face as he flashed the Doctor a chaste smile.
The Time Lord rolled his eyes and sighed wearily. "Traitor."
Jack held his hands up. "Just trying to make it interesting, Doc." He grinned.
"Okay Rose, stop messing around now. Hand it over." He held out his hand as though he expected his authoritative tone to actually carry weight with her. She only shook her head slowly, biting her lip teasingly and taking another couple of steps back, coming to rest at a curving pillar and leaning on it, hands behind her back.
Jack's view of her was now obscured by the Doctor, so he stepped down towards the interior doorway where he stood, lounging against the doorframe, face lit up in delight. Rose caught his eye and winked minutely.
"Rose…" The Doctor's voice came out almost in a growl as he walked up to her. Jack couldn't see the look on his face, but judging from the one on Rose's, it was one he had thought about many times.
He'd often pictured them, the cool, piercing blue eyes, narrowed slightly, darkening, unblinking. He'd imagined what it would be like to feel that gaze fall on him, to feel the intensity radiating from the older man. And yet he'd known almost straight away that his fantasies would go no further. The Doctor may have had two hearts, but they both belonged to one woman, whether their owner knew it or not. So Jack had contented himself with conspiring with Rose, subtly drawing out little hints and admissions from the Doctor and relaying them back to her, sitting up with her at night when she was upset or angry because of something the Doctor had said or done, or more often, not said or done. He loved them both, and the scene playing out in front of him, as well as being extremely entertaining, made him happy in a way he hadn't known for a very long time. They may havebeen fighting over a sonic screwdriver, but at least they were being honest with each other, making contact with each other.
He watched as the Doctor stepped up to Rose, pressing his body against hers and smirking as her breathing grew just a little more shallow. She brought her arms up to her chest in a halfhearted effort to stop him from getting at the screwdriver, but he simply grabbed her wrists with one hand, holding them up over her head. He placed his other hand on the side of her neck, stroking his thumb along her jaw line softly.
Smiling to himself, Jack had been about to turn and leave them to it, when the Doctor suddenly dipped his hand into Rose's cleavage and retrieved the screwdriver in a decidedly business like manner, letting her go and walking off without so much as a glance at either of them.
He stepped past Jack and disappeared into the interior of the ship, chuckling to himself as he tucked his toy back into the safety of his jacket pocket.
Jack turned to a somewhat bewildered looking Rose. "Well," he offered, "points for effort."
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