Chapter 4 - 01.10 - The Doctor Dances
Rose watched the nanogenes fly off into Jack's ship with just a dismissive wave of the Doctor's hand.
The Captain, himself, reappeared then, climbing back up from below the ship's deck to make some more adjustments on the main control panels.
Rose was reeling, and not just from having been teleported. There was Jack - gorgeous Jack - who, it seemed, would probably make a move on any girl he came across to get whatever he wanted at the time. Here was the Doctor, who she had thought would never make a move to save his own life - least ways nothing beyond flirting with his beautifully goofy grin... The Doctor, who (thanks to Jack's moves) had made it very - sort of? - clear that he possessed some rather impressive moves of his own...
"Take us to the crash site," the Doctor ordered Jack. "I need to see your space junk."
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online," Jack reiterated. "Make yourself comfortable," he invited from the command chair. "Carry on with whatever it was you were... doing."
Rose fought a blush at the way Jack's eyes moved over her and the Doctor, his voice dripping with innuendo.
"We were talkin' about dancin'," the Doctor defended.
"It didn't look like talking," Jack countered.
"It didn't feel like dancin'," Rose observed. What it had felt like... She wasn't sure she was ready to qualify it. Somehow, the feel Doctor's hands on her own, inspecting her lack of rope burn, was seared more tantalizingly into her memory than any typical encounters on a dance floor - or spaceship hull.
Jack swiveled back out of his command chair, flashing them a smile. "Here, allow me," he said, flipping one last switch on the control panel. The Glen Miller music started up again as he ducked back below deck.
Rose watched Jack go, feeling the Doctor's eyes on her. She turned around, swaying slightly in time with the music as she stepped towards him. "Doesn't seem to be sufferin' any 'Doctor envy', him," she said, reaching for the Doctor's hand in an attempt to resume their dancing pose.
The Doctor gripped her hand lightly in his own and complied, placing his other on her waist. "Basic psychology, Rose," he lectured, while moving his feet in little more than a slow shuffle. "He's just overcompensatin' for his vast insecurities by actin' like he couldn't care less. Whereas me?" He shrugged.
"Ya really are jus' that impressive?" Rose finished for him, smoothing her hand over his leather-clad shoulder.
"Wouldn't wanna boast; doesn't mean I haven't got the right, fifty times over. I mean, look at this ship -"
"Thought we were talkin' bout men, not your toys," she interrupted.
"So I count as 'men', now, do I?" The Doctor asked.
He had drawn her in closer, and Rose shifted her hand from his shoulder to the collar of his jacket to match. "How 'm I s'posed to know what to expect from a time-travelin' alien, considerin' I'm just a simple human -"
"Jack's a simple human," he corrected her. "Runnin' a simple con to turn a simple profit. But you..." He released her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear and gently shook his head. "Hardly simple," he said, his eyes sweeping over her face.
Maybe there was something to the Doctor's psychology, thought Rose, as she rested her free hand against his lapel, her thumb just brushing the fabric of his jumper. Instead of Jack's brash come-ons and physicality, the Doctor exuded an unshakable confidence that didn't need to be proven. With one hand at her waist and the other sliding down to her elbow, still the Doctor didn't actually pull her to him, but only inclined his head before Rose was quite willingly meeting his lips.
"Okay, this is more my style of 'talking'," Rose heard Jack announce upon his return.
The Doctor didn't pull away; neither did she, smiling into their kiss.
"So sweet," Jack went on, despite being pointedly ignored. "Still, I gotta ask: is there room for me to cut in?"
Or, even better than that...
To be continued...
Romance aside, I liked how this moment captured both Rose and the Doctor with incomplete first impressions of Jack. My first thought for this chapter was to do the storeroom dancing scene, but it seemed almost too easy/expected. I thought I might be able to do... better than that ;)
Oh, what's that you say? Echoes of Han Solo's "I'm nice men"? Hadn't noticed.
I don't own Star Wars!
