Title: The Missing Tardis - 1/2
Author: Takisys
Characters/pairings: Nine/Jack/Rose
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Spoilers/warnings: none
Beta: imzadimylove
Disclaimer: Still not making money out of this. Characters are still belonging to RTD and the BBC.
Summary: Just as Jack got his Tardis key the Tardis went missing.
A/N: Written for the OT3 H/C Bingo fic-a-thon. The prompt was "Missing Tardis"
Prologue
Jack and Rose were having tea in the Tardis library. This was definitely Jack's favourite room after the bridge of course. He was telling Rose some shameless anecdotes about his stay on Acaba and the different encounters he had there. Rose was of course laughing, and that was just fantastic. He had missed her laugh, missed her and the Doctor, not to mention the Tardis herself.
When he told the Doctor he would stay to help Acaba's children, and that, whatever it meant, he never hoped the Time Lord would come back for him. At that point, the Doctor was just beginning to trust Jack, or at least had stopped suspecting him of being worse than he really was. It had been obvious, from the beginning that the Doctor had saved him from the explosion of his ship only because Rose had cared.
So when he gave the Time Lord an opportunity to leave him behind with a good excuse, he never really even dreamed of ever see them again. Because, after all, Jack had been the one to ask it.
"Here's your key," the Doctor said joining them.
Jack stared at it, not daring to take it, as if he was afraid it was a lure and would vanish as soon as he tried to grasp it.
"Take it, it's yours," the Doctor said displaying a wide smile making him look like some sort of maniac.
Was it pride that crossed the Time Lord's face for just a moment, or was Jack making it up?
"You did good. It was a really a brave act," the doctor added.
'I'm afraid, it won't make much difference in the long run," Jack sighed.
"Why do you say that?" Rose asked, then turning toward the Doctor. "Why don't you tell him how proud you are of him?"
"We don't want his ego to get much bigger, even the Tardis is not that large," the Doctor bantered. "As to answer your question, Jack, it will make a difference and a big one."
"Are you saying that I provoked a paradox?"
"Yep."
"And you didn't stop me?"
"No."
"Why ?" Jack asked at a complete loss.
"As a time traveller, you know that time isn't a straight line," the Doctor said gesturing in a very funny way. "And all paradoxes aren't always wrong. In fact this one was meant to be."
"So why didn't you say so?" Rose asked. "Why did you try to talk him into not interfering?"
"One, because it had to be his choice. Two, because I didn't know he was the missing element of that multi-dimensional equation."
Jack was now playing with the key, still staring at it like a kid at a Christmas tree.
"Welcome aboard, Captain. You're now officially part of the team," the Doctor said.
...
The Missing Tardis
The Tardis had materialized in a very active street leading to fairgrounds. Beta Lambda was a large city rather nice, more futuristic from Rose's perspective and somewhat retro from Jack's. In the eyes of the Doctor it was obviously a fascinating place anyway. After a joyous stroll downtown, the three friends had stopped for a drink of také, a very popular local drink.
"It's imperative that you attend a Dafoe," the Doctor said, turning to Rose.
"What's that?" the young girl asked, a bit distracted by Jack's attitude. He was clearly flirting with a strange blue creature sitting at the counter.
"It's a kind of ritual dance, a kind of fertility dance. Go on without me," Jack said, glancing mischievously at the funny caterpillar, thus confirming Rose's suspicions. "When you've seen one, you've seen all of them," he added, casting an amused glance at the Doctor.
"I think what our young friend is saying is that he needs a little space," replied the Doctor, rising and inviting Rose to do the same. "We'll meet at the Tardis?" he said to the Captain.
"I'll be there," Jack replied sinking a little more lasciviously in his seat.
"Don't be too long. We might leave without you," the Doctor joked.
"Are you aware that you're bound to be stuck there for 4 hours?" Jack replied, sending Rose an eloquent glance.
"4 hours?" Rose asked a bit worried.
"More or less," the Doctor replied, taking her arm and dragging her off to the place. Jack waited until they were gone to make a sign to the alluring Béto from the counter to join him at his table.
...
Arriving on the outskirts of the circular plaza where the famous ritual dances took place, the Doctor looked upset. Two humanoids accompanied by a Teflan had attracted his attention; and were obviously not your ordinary tourists.
"Is there a problem?" Rose asked, seeing the shadows in the Time Lord's eyes.
"Just me trying to make up my mind," the Doctor replied, smiling from ear to ear, trying to distract Rose's concern. "Over here," he added, indicating some unattended seats in the bleachers arranged around the plaza for the sightseers.
Despite Rose's laughter, the Doctor had a hard time enjoying the show. He couldn't take his eyes off the suspicious trio. The Doctor wasn't alone in his curiosity: twice his eyes had crossed the Teflan's shifty ones. Did he feel the Time Lord's gaze? If not, what was he looking for in this motley crowd?
"Stay here," the Doctor said. "I'm just going to get us some drinks, I'll be right back."
"Yes, that's what you kept saying," Rose replied with a smirk, but quickly turning her attention back to the show.
The Doctor headed towards the bar where the Teflan was already in line. He arrived in time to see the feline handing over his payment. He was wearing around his hairy paw, a leather strap similar to Jack's: he had it right; these guys were Temporal Agents. The Doctor very politely let him leave and took his place to order two takés for him and Rose.
What were three temporal agents here for? Was he imagining it or was it Rose that they were watching now? The Doctor returned to his seat. The rest of the show was uneventful apart from a few funny looks but nothing more. Rose had had lot of fun, but she finally found it too long, so they made their way back towards the Tardis. Night began to fall along with the temperature, causing them to pick up their pace.
"I hope Jack won't stay out too long, and hasn't found himself in some new trouble," the Doctor banterer gently. They had crossed the square, now almost deserted, turning onto the narrow street where the Tardis was parked.
"Where is she?" Rose gasped, arriving near the big blue-flowered tree where the ship should have been parked.
The Doctor froze, transfixed by a flood of feelings that overwhelmed him all at once.
"What dirty little vermin," he muttered between his teeth.
Rose, more surprised than anything else, was trying to make sense of what was happening, checking her benchmarks. No, there was nothing wrong, they were in the right street in front of the right tree but there was definitely no blue phone box.
"It's impossible, the Tardis could not have left alone, right?" she finally asked the Doctor.
"No, not alone, she can deflect a trajectory, but can't leave on her own," he replied dryly.
Freezing cold had settled in his mind. His ship, his precious ship, his only true companion was gone. How could he have been stupid enough to entrust that cocky conman with a key to his ship. It was unlikely that these Time Agents would be able to control the Tardis, with any luck she wasn't far away and he would still have time to find her.
"We'll find her, she can't be far," Rose muttered echoing his own thoughts.
"Probably," the Doctor replied, and then noticing a hostel, he added, handing her his psychic paper: "It's getting cold, you'll better wait here."
"And what about Jack? He is bound to show up any time now." the girl protested.
"I doubt that we'll ever see him again," he replied blankly.
"What are you saying, Doctor?"
"That he has stolen the Tardis with his accomplices help."
"His accomplices? Who? And why?"
"Temporal Agents, I spotted three of them monitoring us all day long,. And as for why, simply because that's what he is Rose, a shameless crook working for an extemporal criminal organisation."
"Jack would never do anything like that! Certainly not to you, or me."
"Okay. Right. Stay here, if you want." he said annoyed. "I'll go and find my ship."
Rose shrugged. The Time Lord was way out of sorts, and it was useless to try talk to him. She would wait for Jack alone, and as soon as he arrived, they would try to make sense of it together. It was really starting to get chilly, so to warm up a little, she began to pace.
...
Jack's good luck ultimately didn't happen to be that good. He had suspected the trap and dodged just in time to avoid falling into the clutches of a fresh meat purveyor. His ego had taken a good hit, but as a fair loser he decided to look elsewhere. When he couldn't find anything interesting, he went back to the Tardis. He would take a dip in the swimming pool while waiting for the others.
When he arrived by the great crayeux, he had first wondered how he could have taken the wrong street. Then he had to face the terrible reality: they had left without him. After given him the Tardis' key, the Doctor had left without him. Jack looked at his key, his invaluable key he'd never had the chance to use. He wondered if it was even the real thing.
Why, why so much cruelty? What had he done to deserve this? He had not even asked for it, it was the Doctor who gave him the key. And why come back at Acaba to abandon him at the next stop? Jack walked aimlessly away heartbroken and his stomach in knots. This time they had left without him.
...
Night had fallen, and the street was almost deserted now. The arrival of a large maintenance vehicle had forced Rose and two other bystanders to retreat inside the hostel. It was the kind of cleaner whose bulk intruded onto the pavement. It seemed to move on airbags, taking its time, advancing silently. Rose watched suspiciously; had the Tardis not disappeared, she would have been in its path.
"Are the streets cleaned often?" she asked one of the bystanders.
"Once a day," the native replied.
"Always at night?" she asked with a sigh, as for just one moment she had solve the missing Tardis mystery.
"In the north-south-north way, yes."
"What?"
"Well because it's not that easy to handle those engines. When reaching the end of a street, it would come back trough the next one. At the end of the night it will have finished with all the parallel streets, then in the morning, he will attack the transversals," a patron explained.
"And what happen when something gets in its way?"
"It's taken to the pound," replied succinctly the hostel lady who was clearing a nearby table. "Like this morning, they boarded a big blue box that someone had left lying in the middle of the passage."
"A big blue box?" Rose asked amused and relieved, the Tardis had been taken to the pound as any stupid wrongly parked car. So much for the Doctor and his sudden panic.
"Yes, big like that, and the funny thing is that before the cleaner had struck it, no one had noticed it."
"And they shipped it to the pound?" Rose repeated, teary-eyed and ready to burst out laughing.
"Of course."
It was now completely dark, and neither the Doctor nor Jack had shown up. Hopefully the two men found each other and were running through the cold night, looking for the Tardis. They might spend all night, surveying the city through the freezing cold, like the two idiots they were.
"I'll have something hot, please," Rose asked settling herself by a table that had just been released. She would wait there, where it was warm. She had a clear view of the side of the street where they should return to.
To be continued.