Lucy took the long way to her suite. She couldn't bear the thought of staying there until Harry got back, but there was no knowing when he would get back and he expected her to be there when he did. She lingered longest at the open windows. Since they were above the clouds, there was always sunshine streaming in, which Lucy loved. She stood in the puddle of warmth with her eyes closed, drinking it in. The feeling of the sunshine on her skin was lovely.
With a sigh, she snapped back to reality. She had to get to her suite before Harry, or he would be angry. It was only a short way to them now, but Lucy was reluctant to go. Harry had insisted they decorate all in white, and she found the effect stifling.
She pushed open the double doors, and was surprised to find the room already occupied. It was one of the Jones girls. Harry had been so angry, and raged and hurled things at walls when the other one had gotten away. This one was pretty, despite the horrible maid's outfit Harry forced her to wear. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face, and her eyes snapped with energy as she dusted. Her name was… Tish. Yes, that was it. She had been one of Harry's assistants for his campaign, and Lucy had always liked her.
A wave of longing to talk to someone, anyone overcame Lucy. She was so isolated on the Valiant. The workers treated her with respect tinged with fear, but never allowed themselves to have conversations with her. It was as if she were the Queen, but there were no courtiers or ladies in waiting to talk to. And of course, everyone else hated her for who she was married to. She suspected that was the reason she enjoyed talking to Jack so much: he talked freely, and was not afraid of what he said to her. But Harry had been keeping her on a tight leash lately, and her chances to steal down to the engine room and talk to Jack were infrequent these last weeks.
"Hello," she said hesitantly to Tish.
Tish looked up, her dark eyes taking in Lucy all at once.
"I'm working," she said, the thinly veiled sarcasm in her voice standing out "Please don't bother me."
You're doing a good job," Lucy ventured, looking around the room. "I know it must be hard, keeping white clean. I wish there was more colour in here. Sometimes I feel like it washes me out, but Harry says – "
Tish, who until now had been turned the other way, now wheeled around to face Lucy.
"What do you want from me?" she demanded. "You want us to be friends? You want to talk like nothing's wrong? We could have a nice cozy chat while my sister is out there risking her life? I'm here doing bloody housework while your husband ruins the world. So what do you bloody want from me?!"
"I just wanted to say hello," Lucy said, regretting speaking. She rushed to think of something that would placidate the angry woman. "How… how is your sister?"
"How should I know?" Tish snapped. "We don't exactly here anything from her, do we? How could we, when she's in danger all the time and your psycho husband is trying to kill her along with the rest of the world?!"
Lucy shrank back.
"I'm sorry, I just thought…"
"Well you thought wrong, Mrs. Saxon," Tish said, somehow making the title a sneer. She stomped out of the room.
The silence seemed to eat away at Lucy. That wasn't what she had expected at all. She didn't know what she expected. She sank down on one of the plush white chairs and fought tears. She couldn't cry; Harry might come in at any moment, and he would want her looking fresh and pretty.
Time was she had lots of friends chattering and laughing around her. She had always surrounded herself with high-spirited people, who could talk and make her easy. She used to be quite a popular girl – her money and her looks had made sure of that. And now she couldn't even carry on a conversation with a servant. She wasn't supposed to be talking to the Jones girl in any case.
She tried to stifle her tears, but they fell anyways.
--
Jack was sleeping when Lucy came, carrying a plate with food heaped on it in one hand, and the usual antibacterial solution in the other. His head was slumped forward on his chest uncomfortably, and he hung weakly by his shackles. Lucy winced in sympathy. It must not have been very easy to sleep like that, but Jack didn't really have a choice.
Placing her plate on the floor, she took the wet cloth out of the bowl of warm water, and began to wash the dried blood away from his face. He twitched in his sleep, but didn't wake up. When all the blood was gone, she squirted antibacterial solution into the water, and carefully began to clean his cuts.
He stirred.
"Owww!" he groaned, his eyes fluttering open. "I thought you were supposed to be the cure, Lucy, not the instrument of pain."
Lucy smiled.
"Stop being such a baby and hold still," she instructed. She had been to visit him every moment that she could, bringing food and bandages enough to (hopefully) sustain him till her next visit. He was always teasing her, always flirting, and Lucy wouldn't admit that she enjoyed the playful banter.
"Wait till you have deep cuts," Jack grumbled, "And I'll pour lemon juice on them and pretend it's helping."
Lucy stifled a giggle. Now was not the time to encourage him.
"It's antiseptic and you know it. Otherwise your cuts will get infected."
Jack shrugged.
"It's not like I'll die of gangrene or anything," he said.
"No," Lucy agreed. "But it will hurt a lot more."
Jack gave her a mega-watt smile, dazzling her for a moment.
"What would I do if you weren't here to take care of me?" he asked.
"Well you wouldn't die, that's for sure," Lucy shot back good-naturedly.
Jack pouted.
"Not funny," he said. He eyed the food sitting on the floor. "What did you bring me, my angel of mercy?"
"Hardly an angel," Lucy said, putting the bowl down and picking up the plate.
Jack's eyes ran over her. Lucy blushed under his scrutiny.
He smiled, but didn't comment, except to say "What have you brought me today, Angel?"
"Bacon and toast from breakfast. It's all I could find," Lucy said apologetically. She knew if she asked the cooks for more of anything, they would get suspicious. Her only way of sneaking extra food was to not eat her own breakfast. But she wasn't about to tell Jack that.
"Mmmmmm… bacon," Jack replied, grinning. He opened his mouth, and Lucy popped a strip of bacon in for him. As he chewed, she took stock of him. He was a lot thinner than he had been when they first brought him here. She knew they weren't feeding him enough, just to be cruel. He couldn't die of starvation, but that didn't mean they wouldn't push him to the brink.
"Toast please," he requested. Like a mother bird, Lucy held the toast up to his mouth. He took a huge bight, and munched happily. Nothing seemed to dampen his spirits, even being chained like this.
"Dif if goot!" Jack muttered around another bite of toast. He swallowed. "But you know what I really want right now? A big juicy hamburger. You Brits don't know how to make a real juicy patty with tomatoes and lettuce and mustard on a big crusty bun with a huge plate of onion rings, and… what?"
Lucy was fighting to contain her laughter.
"That's so American," she giggled.
Jack pouted.
"What's wrong with that?"
Lucy just laughed.
Jack smiled.
"It's good to hear you laugh, Lucy. You don't laugh enough."
"You make me laugh," she replied. "You're so ridiculous sometimes. What else do you want?"
Jack looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Milkshakes. And ice cream. And marshmallows dipped in chocolate. Pizza. Waffles dripping with maple syrup. Eggs fried in butter." He was obviously warming to the subject. "Tortillas. Macaroni and cheese."
He opened his mouth and Lucy offered him another bite of toast. He swallowed it, took an offered drink of water, and continued.
"Chinese take out. Sushi. Hot dogs with relish and hot peppers."
"Is that all?" Lucy asked, smiling.
Jack grimaced.
"When you're stuck here with nothing to do, imagining food becomes a good pastime."
"What's wrong with this?" Lucy asked, feeding him the last of the toast and another couple of strips of bacon.
"Nufing," Jack said, his mouth full again.
Lucy wrinkled her nose at his lack of manners.
"So… Tish told me about your little meeting," Jack said when he had finished chewing the last piece.
"She yelled at me," Lucy said, embarrassed. She hadn't stopped to think how Tish felt about talking to her when she had started the conversation, but she had had plenty of time to think about it since. "I mean, I didn't expect her to be friendly, but I was trying. I just… don't really have anyone to talk to."
"You'll have to excuse her," Jack said. "There are reports coming in all the time that say they're on the verse of finding her sister Martha. Her whole family is on edge about it all the time. Martha's our only hope."
Lucy thought about the dark beauty that she had only seen once.
"Tell me about Martha?" she asked Jack. "What is she like?"
"Beautiful," Jack commented, grinning smugly.
"And…?" Lucy prodded, rolling her eyes at his comment.
She wasn't sure why she cared so much. Harry had been furious when she had escaped, raging and screaming. He had been sparing no expense trying to find her, but as yet there were only rumours of where she was going to be. She was smart; moving from place to place and never staying long. Although Harry insisted that they were close to finding her, Lucy knew that they were no closer than when they started. This girl certainly was interesting, and Lucy wanted to know everything about her that she could.
"I don't know her very well," Jack confessed. "I went to the end of the universe with her, but I hardly know her. How's that for irony?" he paused for a moment. "I know that's she was training to be a doctor, and she's brave and she's seen a lot of things. She may look like a wall flower, but she's the Doctor's companion, which means she's made of sterner stuff than people gives her credit for. If she's anything like his previous companions, then she's fantastic. Brave, loyal, smart, resourceful. She'll stop at nothing to save the world and rescue the Doctor."
"Companion? What do you mean, companion?" Lucy asked. She remembered that Harry had called her his 'faithful companion', and she had been discomfited by it. "Has he traveled with other ones besides Martha?"
"Sure. Lots of them. I was one of them myself. As far as I can make out, Time Lords are solitary. They probably don't like other Time Lords interfering or something. But they also don't like to travel around time and space alone. At least, the Doctor doesn't. He picks up companions to go around with him and share his adventures. You see, the Doctor's not human. Sometimes he forgets human traits like mercy and patience. That's why he needs a human around. To keep him from becoming too like the people he is fighting against. Or, his last one did. She was…" he paused, "is fantastic."
"What happened to her, if she wasn't Martha?" Lucy asked, fascinated in spite of herself.
"She's… gone now." He must have caught the sympathetic look on Lucy's face, because he added hastily. "Not dead, just gone. Trapped, and we can't get her back," Jack chuckled a little bitterly. "The truth was we were both in love with her, me and the Doctor. And now… well, she's better off where she is. Especially with all this going on."
Lucy's heart ached for Jack, losing this girl that he obviously cared so much about. But a small part of her felt hurt, even though she knew she had no right to. It stung to know that Jack had cared for someone else. She turned away, confused. This was not how she was supposed to feel about Jack. She had felt pity for him, of course, and a desire to talk to him and ease his situation. But lately her feelings for him and become more and more muddled. It was getting harder to sort them out.
"I have to go," she said, gathering up the empty dishes hastily.
"Don't forget I said about Tish. Just give her time." Jack said.
Lucy nodded, slipping away.
--
Lucy found Harry in the main room. The 'throne room' as she was already calling it in her mind. He was gazing gloatingly out the window. He turned as she entered.
"My love! I've missed you! Where have you been, Darling?" he was smiling, moving eagerly towards her, and Lucy's heart was warmed.
It was hard to know what she felt towards Harry these days. He could be cruel and unkind to her, and downright tyrannical to Jack, but there were moments when Lucy really believed that he loved her.
She felt as though she was seeing two images of Harry. The one when she was with him, and the one when she was with Jack. It was hard to know which one was the real Harry.
Harry pulled her into his arms, and held her close.
He stroked her hair gently, the motion soothing Lucy.
"I've missed you," he murmured in her ear.
Lucy closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest. Next to her ear she could hear the twin thumping of his two hearts, beating out a perfect rhythm against each other.
"It's been such a long day, Dearest. Why don't we retire to our rooms?" Harry suggested gently.
Lucy nodded, but stayed where she was, her eyes closed.
Harry tipped her chin up, and kissed her.
Jack's face rose to her mind, unbidden.
Author's Note: Believe it or not I've been doing a LOT of thinking about this story lately. The chapters are darn right hard to get down on paper right now, but I have a lot of ideas for subsequent chapters. And each is darker than the last. But dark in a good way, you know? You have been warned.
As for you people out there who said you also wanted to write a Jack/Lucy story… go for it!! We can create our own ship and sail it right along with all the popular ones. Jack/Lucy has the advantage of being totally new and interesting and slightly off the wall. There are so many plots that could be written, and none of them have been done yet, so they are not cliché. Think about it.
