Morning of Endless Delays

John Smith and Jack Harkness were one of the first couples to marry after the gay marriage law had been past. They had been together for twelve years had a daughter. John's daughter really but Jack had adopted her when she was eleven, she was now twenty. John --as a teacher and Jack was a writer. They had moved to Cardiff from London for a number of reasons 1)John had been offered a good job there in a very good public school 2)Rose, for reasons unknown to either John or Jack, had had her heart set on going to collage in Wales 3)Cardiff city was set on top of the Rift in space and time so when the TARDIS had randomly chosen a time and place it wasn't really surprising that she had chosen her power source as an ideal place to bass herself for however long it would be this time.

Apart from number three all of this is a lie. There is no such person as John Smith. However, the only people who know this are Jack and Rose.

When John woke, Jack was already up. He thought his strange because Jack worked from home and wasn't really a morning person. By the time he had showered and dressed Rose was already sitting at the kitchen table eating-

"Pancakes, what's the occasion?" He asked sideling up behind Jack and kissing the back of his neck. And he could have sworn-just for a second-that his husband flinched. But as soon as the thought crossed his mind Jack was turning around and kissing him.

"Erm, guys." They both looked at her. She pointed behind them. They looked. A tea towel had been left on the edge of the stove, it was on fire.

"Oh Shit!" Jack yelled. He grabbed the tea towel and through it in the sink. Unfortunately there was no water in the sink at the time and the flames stared to melt the supposedly 'heat proof' container that was waiting to be washed.

"Shit!" Jack and John shouted in unison. John reached over to turn on the tap. This put out the tea towel but as he was doing it his sleeve cot.

"OH FOR FUCK SAKE!!!" Jack yelled. He grabbed Rose's glass and emptied the contents over John's sleeve.

During all of this Rose had been pissing herself laughing. Her head was on the table and her face was red for hysterics.

"Rose it's not funny." Jack told her, his face cracking into a huge smile as he did so.

Rose looked up at him. At this point she was incapable of speech so she just pointed behind him. Jack looked. The pancake he had been cooking for John was billowing smoke. He rushed over and turned off the stove, then he turned to John. "Babe, your breakfast got a little burned."

John was doubled over having a silent laughing fit. Jack slumped back against the sink, tears running down his cheeks. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed so hard. They stayed like that for a long time. When they had all finally sobered a bit john looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Oh shit, I'm late" he groaned.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! I'm going to be a father!" Jack squealed. Then he added to Rose "No offence sweetie."

"None taken." She replied. They both cracked up again.

John shot them both a wicked smile. "Actually there is something that I've been meaning to tell the two of you."

They all collapsed back into hysterics.

A couple of minutes later when they had reached something that resembled sanity again John said, "Okay, now I'm really late."

Jack opened his mouth to say something but John gave him a 'don't even think about it' look and he quickly closed it.

"So am I." Said Rose mournfully. "I'm not going to be able to get another bus." She bated her eyelashes at her 'father'.

He sighed. "Would you like a lift?"

"That'd be great, thanks!" and she ran out of the room.

"We have to go now." He shouted after her.

"Two seconds!" She called back.

"I shouldn't have offered." he said to Jack.

"You had to; she'd never have let you hear the end of it if you didn't." He told him.

"Its twenty minutes out of my way." he complained.

"The things we do for love." he had said it in a light-hearted way but John thought he saw a fleeting look of sadness cross Jacks face. Just for a second, the next second it was gone and Jack was saying, "Are you going to change you're shirt?"

"What? Oh…no, I'll just keep my jacket on." He looked around the room. "God damn it, where's my jacket?"

Jack smiled, "You'd better find it."

"Yeah…" John went upstairs in search of his jacket.

Jack went and stared out the window without really seeing the little back garden beyond it.

Rose bounced into the room. "Where's Dad?"

"Gone in search of his jacket" Jack informed her turning around.

"Oh right" she glanced over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't coming, then stepped towards Jack and in a lower voice said "Jack, this is really weirding me out."

"I know Rosie." he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "We just have to grin and bare it until the heats off."

"And when's that going to be? We have no idea what the Family is doing or how many of them there are. And it just really weird. He thinks I'm his daughter."

"Rose you've got it easy." Jacks temper was rising "At least he still treats you the same as always but he's…we…"

"Jack, I-"

"I found it." The two companions separated quickly. "It was in the cat's basket; look at the state of it!"

Jack fixed his smile back onto his face. "It'll be fine, no one will notice. Now go on, you're both going to be dead late."

John looked at the clock. "Shit. Come on Rose."

"Hey I was ready before you." she gave Jack a peck on the check and he whispered to her "hang in there baby." "I'll see ya later." she called over her shoulder as she ran out the door.

"I'm so late. They're going to fire me this time." John complained as he slipped on his jacket that now looked like it was completely made of cat hair.

"With a cute face like that," Jack gave him a chaste kiss, "how could they? Now GO."

"Right. Bye." John ran out the door.

As soon as he was sure they were gone Jack started his morning ritual of banging his head against the wall wondering how the hell they had gotten into this mess.

A/N; Way longer than the last chapter, maybe too long I dunno. Anyway, the end is written I just need to figure out what goes in the middle. Yes I know that I have manipulated all the rules of the Doctors humanness that were in the show and that John Smith's personality is completely different but what can I say?