So much for the innocence of the 1100 year old man's boyish face.
Chapter Two
"Well I have to say, this has gone from an incredibly boring evening to the most fascinating night I've had in a long time," Jack is nearly preening as he watches the exchange between the Doctor and Clara. His grin is from ear to ear. "You two are definitely the best thing to happen tonight, and it's still only 9:00."
Clara's arms unfold, "It's only 9?"
The Doctor is fidgeting uncomfortably, "I wanted us to have enough time to enjoy the party before midnight."
Jack leans over with a wiggle of his eyebrows to elbow the Doctor in the gut, "Yeah, enjoy the party. It's only just getting started."
"Oi," Clara snaps. She feels like she's now trapped with two teenage horny boys. "I need another drink," she sighs.
"I can arrange that," Jack puts out an arm for her to take. In the face of the Doctor's obviously jealous frown, Clara agrees to take it. "Don't worry, Doc," Jack waves him away. "I'll take care of your little companion. You go get us a viewing room."
Clara watches the Doctor fade into the crowd with a simmering green expression as Jack leads her up to another bar that reminds her of a nicer sit-down pub of London. The music isn't too loud, and the customers are chatting in friendly but serious tones. "What do you mean, a viewing room?" she asks Jack.
He winks, "For the fireworks, of course."
"Fireworks in space?"
"Welcome to the year 4999, my dear," Jack chuckles. He orders them both rum and cokes and seats them at the barstools. "I like it old school," he explains with a warm smile. "So, when are you from?"
"2013.."
"Wow, the Doc sure doesn't travel too far from home."
Clara frowns, "What do you mean?"
"Well," Jack drawls, looking a little embarrassed. "The Doctor seems to have a pension for 20th and 21st century England, Earth. He travels there pretty often. I would even go so far as to say that it is his home away from home." There's a questioning in his eyes, as if he's wondering how much she knows of the Doctor's origins. He tries to hide it by taking a sip of his drink.
Clara nods, "I see. You mean, since he doesn't have Gallifrey."
"Right," Jack seems to breathe a little easier.
"We saved it," Clara blurts out.
"What!" Jack nearly spits out his drink. He's deadly serious now, "What the hell do you mean, saved it? Saved Gallifrey?"
It's a difficult story to tell, but Clara manages to give him the main points. She skips over the three days of a morose and sullen Doctor afterwards, and explains her reasoning for asking the Doctor to bring her here. By the end of her tale, Jack is working on his second drink.
He clears his throat and scratches his chin, "So you've met previous regenerations of the Doctor?"
"Yes," Clara's voice is small but firm. "I know all about the Doctor's regenerations, but I don't want to sound like a know it all. Obviously there's so much about him that I have absolutely no knowledge of. But I think.. I probably know him better than anyone else he's ever traveled with."
Jack raises an eyebrow, but is quiet for a moment. "How old is he now?"
"1100 years. This is the eleventh incarnation of the Doctor."
"And he's the Doctor directly after the two I've also met," Jack muses. "Every time, he looks a little bit younger. Makes me wonder when that's going to bite him back."
Clara smiles softly, "Sometimes I can see the age in his eyes."
"..You're not still mad at him, are you? For not telling you about the necklace?"
"It's hard to stay angry with the Doctor for very long," she takes a long swig of her drink.
Jack nods his head, "Sounds as though.. you really like him. I know what that's like."
"Oh.." Clara stumbles on her words. She gives Jack another good look. He's clearly an older man, but she can't tell exactly what his age is. There are wrinkles around his eyes and laugh lines framing his mouth, but he's still dashingly handsome. When he talks about the Doctor, there is a bittersweet affection that he seems to sigh out, and Clara realizes that she doesn't know anything about Jack, or how he fits into the Doctor's long and complicated life.
The Time Lord had warned Jack not to flirt with her, yet the American seems to have a pining romanticism in the way he views the Doctor. Clara also can't help but notice when Jack occasionally glances down appreciatively at her cleavage. Is this what the Doctor meant by liberal pheromones?
It's hard not to be attracted to the charismatic captain, and Clara finds that as she sips generously at her drink, she has no wish to fight the lustful feelings starting to grow in her belly.
Jack simply gazes at her with a relaxed and knowing grin.
"What about you?" Clara asks, leaning a little closer to him. "How do you know the Doctor?"
Jack takes in a big breath, eyes skyward, as if recalling something from the distant past, "I first met the Doctor during the second World War."
"You time traveled here just like us?"
"Oh no, I went the long route this time."
Clara's eyes nearly bug out of her head, "What?! But that was.. thousands of years ago."
"Yep," Jack winks at her. "And I'm not doin' too shabby, am I?"
This would explain his enigmatic presence, experience and skill matured over so many years radiating from his every movement and turn of phrase. She shakes her head in amazement, "That would make you older than the Doctor."
His eyes are cold for a brief moment. Clara gulps. "That is true," Jack puts it simply. Slowly, he warms up with that one-sided grin and looks almost bashful, "But don't tell him that, he'll get self-conscious." His knee brushes hers gently, "You have a thing for older guys, huh?"
Clara laughs and the tension is dissolved. She throws back his sarcasm with her own, "You have a way with women, don't you, Jack?"
"And more," he chuckles cheekily.
They sit in amiable silence for a few minutes, nursing their drinks and pondering the information they just received. Clara's curiosity about the man sitting next to her hasn't been satisfied. In fact, it just got a whole hell of a lot worse. She wants to know everything about this impossible man beside her and the mad man of wonders she knows they both desire.
The party rages around them. There are dance competitions, strippers on poles, prostitutes on the prowl, karaoke, barmaids and waiters weaving through the crowds with huge platters of drinks and snacks, and everywhere people are chatting up a storm. It would seem the party truly is just getting started.
Clara eyes a few people of a species she doesn't recognize exiting the main dance hall and going into a private room. In fact, there are doors scattered along the walls of the entire place.
"Do those doors go to the viewing rooms for the fireworks outside?" she breaks the silence between them.
Jack's eyes follow her pointing finger, "Yep. Shockingly expensive. This place is like a giant disc, the inner area is this dance hall and bars, while the outer rim is composed of small private lounges and hotel-like rooms that allow viewing of the planet and the fireworks. Hopefully the Doc has a few tricks left up his sleeve to get us one."
She grins, her voice gaining a slight slur, "It's the Doctor we're talking about. He just makes it up as he goes."
They laugh and Clara takes yet another gander at Jack. Who wouldn't? The man is impeccable! Okay now she's letting her mind wander maybe a bit too much.
"Jack," she might be feeling overly confident, and so tries to reign herself in. "What brings you here to.. to Rainbow 7 on this New Year's Eve specifically?"
His grin slowly fades and he considers her question seriously. "I've lived a long time, Clara. And I've seen a lot of shit. Shit you probably wouldn't believe. Tonight, let's just say.." his eyes cast downwards like he's trying to hide something. "..I wanted to let loose."
Clara nods in empathetic understanding. Sounds similar to what she's trying to do for the Doctor.
"But it just wasn't clicking for me. I've been to plenty of parties, and this is a great one, to be fair. I've gone on my own to parties more times than I can remember, so that's not a problem for me. I just.. was missing something."
He looks so pained that Clara immediately feels compelled to comfort him. She places a hand on his leg and gets close to his face with her own. "Did you find it?"
"Find what?" he breathes.
"What you were missing?" she can't help but smile into those blue eyes of his.
He smiles back, and it's as though they're communicating through the energy between them. They're more alike than Clara thought possible, considering the strange man that brought them together.
And then his lips are pressing onto hers, and his arms encircling her body. She's holding onto him with everything she's got and kissing him back, and nothing she has ever experienced has been this good. He's warm, soft, strong, yet somehow she can feel a restrained gentleness. She feels like she's been given a taste of a wonderful drug, and now she knows she'll always crave for more of it. Clara's eyes are still closed as he pulls back, her face in his hands.
"Clara, you are a beautiful woman, and the Doctor is lucky to have you," he tucks her hair behind her ear, bringing her back into the present.
"He has me, but I don't have him," the words are out before she can think about what she's saying.
Jack shakes his head, "He looks at you differently than I've ever seen him look at someone. You do have him, in more ways than you think."
"What if I don't want just him?" she is seriously reconsidering the whole drinking thing. It is making her say ridiculous things.
His smile reassures her, "I wouldn't blame you, because I know how that feels, too." He takes her hand and pulls her off the barstool. "Come on, let's have a dance before the old man finds us."
They giggle together in a shared camaraderie. The music picks up a beat as their feet find the dance floor, and Jack leads her into the middle of the swaying and hopping crowd.
They dance with hands together, and he spins her around in ballroom fashion. His left hand comes to the middle of her back and her right hand rests on his upper arm.
They dance like its 1945, surrounded by a crowd of drunken deviants of the 51st century.
Clara laughs as Jack lowers her into a swooping pose, and then his lips find hers again. She can feel a fire starting to burn low in her abdomen when his tongue grazes her own for a brief but tantalizing moment. When she stands up and pulls back a little, she senses rather than sees his smile.
"Sorry, can't help myself," he gives her another peck and twirls her again, and she gets the distinct feeling that he's not sorry at all.
They keep dancing and Clara is left longing for more. Jack's arms are strong as he holds her. She almost can't believe how this night is turning out, and wonders why the Doctor is taking so long to find them.
Of course, that's when Jack spins her around to face in the other direction and she finds another set of familiar arms reaching out to hold her.
His green eyes are burning with starlight and indescribable power. Clara is totally caught off guard and nearly falls over, but he quickly catches her and stands her upright in his firm grasp.
And then they're dancing again, but not like before. This isn't the care free dance of two friends who've just been through hell together. Clara can feel the friction of a sensual energy between them. She can see the way he looks at her and it's just like Jack had said. This Doctor isn't the bubbly goofball with flailing arms or the sullen madman with a clenched jaw and hunched shoulders that she's seen so many times. He's a different beast altogether, moving with a calm and controlled smoothness.
His hands are wandering up and down her back, her arms, and her hips, and it's as though he's casting a spell on her muscles, making them loosen and relax.
She wonders if he saw her kissing Jack.
The thought sends her head spiraling like she's dizzy, and she can feel her arousal dampening her upper inner thigh as they sway in time to the music.
The Doctor's expression is hungry, his lips parted as he breathes hot air into her ear, and his eyes are focused and dark. Clara can barely keep eye contact with him from the intensity of his gaze. It's like he's trying to read her mind, but can't bring himself to really look. His eyes flicker down for a moment.
He reaches up suddenly and touches the Tardis key around her neck, and it's as though she's been burned. Clara hisses at the pain and falls more deeply into his arms as her knees give out.
The Doctor picks her up and carries her bridal style out of the crowd of people, who sidestep out of their way. Jack follows closely behind.
"Doctor, I'm fine, I can walk."
"No, you're not, and you cannot," is his barked answer.
They're marching toward a door nearby into one of the viewing rooms that Clara assumes the Doctor has managed to buy. Jack opens up the door and they step inside.
The music is softer in here, a sultry jazzy voice and guitar. The room is one massive lounge, everything in vibrant shades of red, with several couches spread out with dozens and dozens of pillows, and the floor is soft as a mattress. The door clicks shut behind them.
The Doctor lays Clara gently onto one of the couches. She glances around and sees that the fourth wall in front of them is a huge glass window. The planet Earth glows in the distant darkness.
"Don't move," the Doctor orders her. He reaches down and yanks off the collar.
Clara nearly yelps, but resorts to biting her lip. Tears well up in her eyes. "What did you do?" she asks as she licks the little bit of blood that forms on her bruised lower lip.
The Doctor slides the key off the collar and sticks it back into his pocket. He's back to being the normal jittery madman with expressive hands, "It's my fault. I hadn't put any sort of protection on the key. That much energy around your neck over time would have been too much for you to handle."
"I was handling it fine until you touched it," Clara frowns.
"I simply reminded you that it was there, burning into your skin," the Doctor's voice is quiet and guilty in tone, and he begins to pace back and forth in front of the couch.
She shakes her head, "But it was cold.."
"Not actual temperature, the perception filter attached to that key is a distortion of time, and extremely powerful. Without any kind of dampening of that distortion, as I normally do before handing anyone a key to the Tardis, it would gradually drain you of all energy and you would fade from time itself," the Doctor's voice is lowering into a snarl.
Clara looks up at him, feeling weak, "Why are you angry with me?"
He stops his pacing abruptly and gazes down at her in wonder, "Angry with you? I'm angry with myself. I brought you here, I put you in this situation, I put that damn key on your neck, look what I've done!" He bends down to her level, "You, Clara Oswald, are brilliant. You shouldn't put up with a ridiculous old man like me."
They share a moment of silence, looking each other deep in the eyes, searching for something neither of them want to explain to the other.
Jack, meanwhile, has tossed his long coat in a corner and perched himself up against the window. "What a sight," he sighs.
The blue Earth below them is a shimmering orb of light suspended in a black sea of stars. White clouds cover most of the surface, but some land is visible from this height. Other satellites orbiting the planet can be seen all around them, but the silence that radiates from the never-ending darkness is deafening.
Jack shivers slightly, "I wouldn't have been able to afford this view if you hadn't shown up Doc. I owe you one." He turns to look back at the two of them frozen at the couch. "But there's more to this private room than the view, isn't there?" his voice is tinged with humor and slyness.
The Doctor and Clara end their staring competition by glancing at Jack's coy grin.
"What more did you buy, Doctor?" Clara asks him. "Other than me," she adds with a little more bite than she had intended.
The guilty and sullen look on the Doctor's face chastens her. "I would never buy you Clara, and I would never put you for sale. The Pixmie collar was a mistake, and one I shall never repeat. Please forget it ever happened," he turns away from her and walks toward Jack. "I paid for the full package deal. I never like to go half-way with anything. This night only happens once in the history of the Universe," he gazes back at her for a brief moment, "I suppose we should make the most of it."
"Agreed!" Jack heartily claps the Doctor on the shoulder.
"You don't owe me anything, Jack," the Doctor's voice is sheepish and quiet. "Not after everything you've done to help me."
Jack's expression is warm and affectionate.
Clara observes this serious moment between the two men with amazement. She thought she would be jealous of anyone coming in on her time with the Doctor – the way she had felt when introduced to the woman named River Song. But there's something different about Captain Jack Harkness. He makes her feel human again, running alongside an ancient alien in a world indescribably far away from home, and he brings out a mature side of the Doctor that he rarely shows in his eleventh form.
Not to mention the way Jack danced with her, or the way he kissed her like she has never been kissed before.
She reaches up to soothe the skin of her neck to find there is no wound there, only a tingly sensation. The pain is completely gone, but she can still feel some of the alcohol in her belly affecting her.
"I need food," she grumbles.
A loud clap comes from the Doctor's hands, "Yes. I think we're ready." He glances at the clock that reads 10:12pm New York City time.
Immediately, two nearly invisible doors on both side walls open up and waiters appear holding platters of exotic and extravagant food and drinks. Several men set out tables in front of the couches and set down plates, forks, and cups for the three of them.
Clara sits up and gazes longingly at the entire splendor now before her on the table. She feels her belly rumble with hunger. "This is amazin'.." she whispers.
The waiters disappear from the doors they had entered and the music is turned up just slightly.
Jack and the Doctor join her on the nearby couches to dig in to the buffet of food. There is seafood, beef, chicken, fruit and vegetable platters, juice, sodas, cocktails, and desserts scattered across the tables. Some of it Clara can recognize as human recipes, but some plates are filled with bizarre alien delicacies she has to work up some courage in order to try.
"Oh ho, oh boy, this is going to be a good night," Jack whistles as he picks up a wooden cup of frothing blue foam.
The Doctor's voice is almost scolding, "Be careful, Jack. Pace yourself."
Clara can see Jack's questioning eyebrow, and understands his intention. She picks up a similar wooden cup of the same drink and raises it in the Doctor's direction. She smiles, "Doctor, a toast?"
The Time Lord gazes at her with hesitation, and then he slowly returns the smile with a shake of his head, "My Clara. Do you forgive me?"
"For what?" Clara shrugs her shoulders with a roll of her eyes. Inwardly she feels a pleasant thrill to hear him call her his Clara. They share a friendly grin of truce.
"Now I do have to warn you about this drink," the Doctor informs her with a wave of his arms. She carefully decides to listen this time. "Take it slow, it is an incredibly strong Appalapachian liquor. It won't affect you in the same way Earth liquor does. I wouldn't call it a hallucinogen, but it has properties of something similar."
Clara catches Jack putting one hand to his head and then miming an explosion with it from his brain with a "Boom!" whispered from his lips. He winks.
"I understand, Doctor," she nearly wiggles in her seat with excitement. "And I mean that this time. I know and accept what I'm getting into. A toast!"
"To what?" the Doctor asks.
"To Gallifrey," Jack's tone is deep and resonating with meaning.
Clara sucks in a breath, and after a moment of silence, none of them daring to move, she adds with a breaking voice, "To Earth." She glances at the Doctor for his reaction.
The Doctor's eyes are red and raw. Clara nearly swallows her tongue with the intensity of emotion in the room when he whispers, "To home."
And then they tip back their heads and drink.
To be continued...
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Please follow to receive notice of updates! And please do leave a short note of what you think of it!
