A/N: SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR EXPLANATION BEFORE READING!

So, yes, this is another version, but I ask you read the note on the first chapter before freaking out. Sorry about that. :(

I Run Into Jack

"Face it, Jessie, you're obsessed."

Squinting in the glaring headlights, I did all that I could to keep my simmering temper in check. "I'm not obsessed, Sophie. We never got that Doctor's name or Rose's last name. Don't forget that Jack Harkness guy ..."

"Who, according to all records that an average Jane can read, doesn't exist!" Sophie's huff of annoyance puffed in my ear, stupid Bluetooth. "How long has it been? Four moths? Five?"

"Nine."

"Nine months! If you were going to find them, you would have by now, and I'm not saying you haven't tried. You're like a blodhound, but still ... I think they're gone."

I ground my teeth, glancing over at the stack of folders on the seat next to me. The dashboard lights glimmered off of two paper-clipped photographs: Jack and the Doctor. I'd had to spend weeks digging up information just to get those grainy immages. I couldn't give them up. Not even the few pages of information on each of them I'd managed to print out. Curiosity ate at me from every direction. I had to know more about them. Solve the mysteries surrounding them.

"Jessie?"

Right, my call still connected. "Soph, Jack said I'd meet him again. Not how or when or where. The Doctor ... he helped me more than any other doctor and shrink I've been to. I owe him a proper thank you, don't you think?"

"Well ... yeah, but don't you think this is a little ... stalker-ish?"

I'd barely opened my mouth to reply when the air just down the road twisted, rippling like water. I stared, dumbfounded. I had to be seeing things. No way did air just ...

The air flashed so bright, I couldn't see a thing. With a cry, I slammed on the brakes. Tires squealed, I could feel the car fishtailing. A solid thump hit the car like I'd run into something. The windshield cracked.

I couldn't move for several moments, maybe a minute, even after the car spun to a stop. My heart thudded so hard in my chest, I could've sworn that it would burst at any moment. My knuckles turned white around the steering wheel, but I couldn't feel the ache.

Did I just hit something?

The belated realization spurred me into action. Free from the paralysis of shock. Right, go out and see what happened. Best thing to do right now. Get out of the car.

Cold, late night air smacked my face as I stepped out. Carefully, in case more glass had broken than I thought. With white spots still flashing in my eyes, I trudged to the front of the car.

"No, no no no no no!" M yvoice rose higher as horror dug itself deeper into my gut. A body lay on the road. A body. A human body. I'd never even hit an animal and I'd just run someone over? My legs carried me the few feet before I'd realized it. "Oh, please, please don't be dead!" I gently rolled the body over, and the blood roared in my ears until I felt like I'd faint.

Jack.

Of all the things, of all the people that I could've run over, I had to run over Jack. I shook as I sank onto the road. Tears stung my eyes. All he'd ever done was be kind to me - and maybe creep me out a bit - but nothing that deserved this. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

As if I hadn't already had a near-heart attack, the previously dead Jack Harkness gasped for air, surging upright.

I couldn't help it, I shrieked, backing away from ... whatever I saw in front of me. Not possible! The dead couldn't come back to life! Well, only one guy I knew for sure could, but not normal people!

"Oh, ow. Hit by a car, that's a first." Jack rolled his shoulders, practically jumping to his feet. "Not to self: never do that again." Only after a few seconds did he notice me. "Jess! Now why am I not surprised? Of course you'd be the one to kill me ... again."

I scrambled to my feet, jabbing my finger at him. "You! Just ... just stay away from me until you explain yourself, Mr. Harkness! How can you just ... walk away from taking a hit like that? Who ... what are you?"

Jack frowned, looking at me up and down. Realization dawned as a thunderclap. "Oh. Oh, I'm so sorry, Jess. You haven't seen me come back, have you?"

Digging my fingers into my scalp, I tried to bring my head back together. Wrap it around what I'd seen. "No. No I haven't! I've only met you once! And you were creepy enough as it was. Yes, you're a time-traveler, but this?" I shook my head, turning away to lean heavily against the car.

The seconds crept on. Hesitant footsteps crunched on the road behind me. "Look, I'm sorry. I really am. Sometimes my mouth runs faster than my brain ... sometimes. Ah ..." A shadow moved on the hood of the car moments before Jack's hand rested awkwardly on my shoulder. Not in a wierd I-just-met-you way, but with the gentleness of a close friend. "I really suck at saying hi, huh?"

A giggle managed to worm its way free, carring a hint of hysteria that I quickly put a lid on. "Oh, you have no idea." Inhaling slowly, I straightened and turned to face Jack, who for once looked like a kid who had his hand caught in the cookie jar. For a moment, I thought of yelling at him some more, but I just couldn't. Something about Jack managed to keep me from being mad at him for too long. Perhaps it came from his boyish good looks or the stark-naked guilt that came bleeding from every pore in his body.

Or perhaps I'd become too much of a softie.

"Fine," I eventually managed with a sigh, though I crossed my arms. A last-minute self-defence thingy. "I'm calling a tow-truck."

"What?" If I'd been in a better mood, the look on Jack's face would've been hilarious. "No questions? Yelling? Smacking me on the head?"

I shook my head, digging out my cell phone from my pocket; the bluetooth had flown from my ear and had lost itself in the car. Somewhere. "Nope."

"Not even a little?"

I raised my eyebrow at him then turned my back. Okay, a bit of me still held onto the annoyance and anger at having to face something completely unexpected from a guy who knew everything about me yet again. The brief conversation with the tow truck agency didn't help either and I ended up slamming my phone against the car roof.

Jack had resorted to leaning against the other side. "Problems?"

"No need to sound so smug," I grouched. "They can't get here for two more hours."

"Good, that gives me time to explain everything."

"Mr. Harkness, I told you ..."

Jack's face grew serious, the boyish nature I'd come to expect from him completely vanishing. "Jess, stop. If it's true that you've only seen me once, then it's a sure bet that you'll be seeing me again. You of all people deserve an explanation."

I chewed my lip, fixing Jack with the most mature stare I could muster. Inside, I wrestled with the overwhelming need to know how he'd come back to life and the part of me that absolutely didn't want to. Opening the barriers I'd been using just the tiniest crack, I tried to get a feel for why he needed me to know. While I didn't get a void from him like with the Doctor, I got very little. Another person who knew how to keep me from going crazy.

With a very loud sigh, I pointedly sat down on the hood. "Oh, very well, but no hints at what I haven't done yet! I hope you have a very tood filter between that brain and your mouth."

With a chuckle, Jack sat next to me. "Trust me. I don't want future you to come and punch me for messing up your own timeline. This is bad enough, though, I guess you already knew this would happen." He winced as I lifted a warning hand. "No no, don't worry. Not spoiler-ish at all, I promise."

Two and a half hours later, my head felt ready to explode. All the things Jack had said were inconsequential to the ammount of things I felt hadn't been said. There'd been pauses where I could tell he'd been working around information I couldn't know, which both irked me and made me grateful every time.

Not nearly as grateful as I felt when Jack stormed to the late tow truck and started giving him the berating of the century. I groaned, rubbing my temples as I began gathering up my things from inside the car. So much stuff to fit in at once!

So Jack came from the 51st century. Not that hard to believe with his wrist thing.

He couldn't age or die. Slightly harder to believe, but since I'd practically murdered him already, I could put some stock in that claim.

All that and more clamored for attention that I couldn't give at that moment. Shaking my head as if to shed it all off, I stood aside as my poor car finally got hitched. Paper and pen awaited me at home. I just knew I wouldn't get any sleep until I'd written it all down. More notes to add to Jack's "file" while the Doctor's remained annoyingly thin. Self-concious of said folders in my arms, I held them close to my chest when Jack finally came over.

"There." He mock shuddered. "I absolutely hate truck-drivers."

"And I bet they hate you too," I grinned. "I'm surprised you haven't been sued or gotten a bloody nose yet."

Jack's grin lit the area around us. "Nah. That I leave to you." He glanced over to where the driver had begun gesturing at us impatiently. "Hey, can I see your phone for a second?"

I lifted an eyebrow, or tried to, even as I held it out. "Why do I get the feeling that I should look for trouble when you sound like that?"

"It's just my number, promise," Jack insited, thumbs flying over the keys. A triumphant smirk flashed over his face as he handed it back. "There. The guys owe me a round of drinks when I get back."

"What?" I glanced at the phone. A practical list of phone numbers.

Jack shrugged, guiding me toward the truck with a hand on my arm. "They said I'd have to force you to give up your phone to give you my number. I said all I had to do was ask."

Great, not only did he knew me far better than I knew him, he made bets with his friends about me. I made a face and stuck the phone back in my pocket. The easy banter between the two of us felt completly natural. A person who hadn't seen the Doctor or had the ability to read people's emotions like I did would've freaked out long ago.

I still might. Later.

Once up in the cab, I glanced down at Jack once again, who stood a little awkwardly on the side of the road. "You'll be okay? I mean, won't the ... the thingy mess you up again?" Guilt at leaving him like that began eating away at both my annoyance and near-freak-out.

Jack grinned a little lop-sidedly. "Nah, I'm beginning to think that the little accident was your fault to begin with. I'm sure it'll work that out just fine." He stepped back and gave a little wave before sticking his hands deep in his pockets. "Just don't get into too much trouble, okay?"

"Oh stop it with your half-hints and nonsense!" I stuck my tongue out and closed the door firmly, though I couldn't keep a grin from working its way onto my face as the truck luched and groaned back onto the road. Setting the files on my lap, I glanced at the two pictures and froze.

Pasted with a bright neon-pink sticky note onto the Doctor's picture were words I didn't remember putting there.

TRUST THE DOCTOR. HE'LL TRY TO PUSH YOU AWAY, BUT YOU MUST STAY WITH HIM. HE NEEDS YOU MORE THAN HE KNOWS. TRUST HIM. LOVE HIM.

The handwriting was my own.