Yo yo yo, here we are with another chapter! Thanks for the reviews last chapter, you guys :) I don't know why, but 'Nine' by La Dispute feels like the song for the last thousand or so words of this chapter. So listen to that while reading if you want, don't if you dont.
Disclaimer- Honestly fuck capitalism and the idea of definite ownership. Anarchism is the way to go.
"Jack, really, just come home with me."
"...Don't wanna leave Doc alone." the Immortal replies, voice slurred.
Ianto sighs and the Doctor arches an eyebrow as he leans against the large metal door leading into the Hub.
"Tuesday night." he reminds the Welshman. Ianto shoots him a glare but says nothing, turning back to face Jack.
"Honestly, now-"
"I can look after him tonight." the Time Lord interjects.
"You really don't need to."
The Doctor gives a half smile.
"Go home. Get some sleep. We'll be alright."
Ianto looks skeptical, glancing over the unwell men.
"Really." the Doctor insisted. "Take the night off."
"...If you're sure."
"Very." the Doctor confirmed. Ianto ran a hand through his hair.
"Thanks." he says, and means it. The Doctor gives a slight nod as Ianto straightens his jacket and starts towards the door, albeit a bit awkwardly. A code is entered and the metal entrance rolls open. He glances to the Time Lord.
"I'll, ah, see you tomorrow then."
"I imagine you will."
Beat.
"Goodnight." he says.
"Goodnight, Ianto Jones."
The Welshman starts down the dimly lit hallway and the entrance rolls back into place with a solid thud.
The Doctor turns to Jack, who is leaning heavily on a desk.
"Are you usually like this, or is it just when I show up?"
"What?" Jack asks. The Doctor sighs.
"Nothing." he mutters.
An uneasy silence consumes the pair.
"Time 's it?" Jacks asks after a moment.
"One o' seven." the Doctor answers without hesitation. Jack opens his mouth to say something but the Time Lord cuts him off before he can start.
"Bed ror you, I should think." he says, voice firm. The Captain gives a nearly unperceivable nod, then pushes himself off the desk and nearly falls over. The Doctor is by his side in an instant, steadying the Immortal.
"Easy there, Jack." he murmurers. He takes a step forwards, both hands still on his friend's shoulders, and Jack takes the step with him. Slowly, the pair begin towards and up the stairs leading to Jack's office.
"Doc?"
Beat.
"Are you gonna leave t'night?"
The Doctor is taken off guard by the questions. It's a good three stairs before he answers.
"No."
"You lyin'?"
The Doctor blinks.
"No."
"You sure?" Jack asks, sounding dubious. "'Cos you do that a lot. Lie t' me."
"...I am so sorry, Jack."
The Doctor sincerely doubts that Jack will even remember that this conversation took place come morning, but he still feels the obligation to apologize, to try to make up for what he can, while he can.
"Just want you t' be safe." the Captain mutters. "Happy. Why's th't so damn hard?"
A lump rose in the Doctor's throat and he did his best to swallow it.
"I-" he cuts himself off. "I am happy, Jack." he says after a moment, forcing a sickly grin.
"...Lyin' t' me again, Doc."
The Doctor stiffens as he and Jack ascended the final stair. He clenches his jaw slightly but doesn't argue. He doesn't really feel like arguing with Jack in the first place, and it wouldn't do much good either, with the Captain as he is.
He wouldn't be fooling anyone anyways.
They manage their way over to the door to Jack's office. The Doctor rummages in Jack's heavy coat, and withdraws a key. It's the only key he can find, and sure enough it fits into the lock and turns with no trouble. The door is pushed open, the room entered, and Jack led over to the cot onto which he collapses. Within a few seconds he was on his side, curling into himself. Silently, the Doctor pulls a blanket, crumpled at the end of the cot over Jack, then turns from the other man and starts to walk away.
"You should sleep." he hears Jack call, and he stops. He should sleep. He really, really, should sleep. He's exhausted and about ready to keel over, and if there's one thing he should do, it's sleep-
Memories of the last night flash through his mind, and quite suddenly, he thinks he's never been more awake than this.
"...Slept last night." the Time Lord. It's not as blatant of a lie as it could be, at least. Probably he slept half an hour. Probably he got enough sleep to keep his laughs sharp and his smiles bright for a little while longer, at least.
Probably.
"Doesn't mean you sh'ldn't sleep t'night."
"I'm fine, Jack."
A moment passes and Jack gives a slight grunt, clumsily shifting his body into a more comfortable position. The Time Lord waits with baited breath, but nothing else seems to be forthcoming from the Captain. He gives a curt nod and steps outside the door, closing it behind him as quietly as he could manage.
He seems to have convinced Jack of his well-being for the moment, at least. A heavily intoxicated, utterly exhausted, and very confused Jack that it, but still.
The Doctor can't quite help but wish that it was always this easy.
~oOo~
Nine Hours Later
"...Holy fucking Christ..."
The Doctor's attention snaps from the desk papers he'd been reading to Jack, who was now sitting up in his cot, head in his hands.
"Mmm, not quite." the Doctor says. "Just me."
Jack glances to the Time Lord.
"Don't let me drink that much again." he says. The Doctor shrugs.
"Talk to Ianto about that."
For a moment, Jack is quiet, glancing the Doctor up and down.
"What, are you surprised I'm still here?"
Pause.
"No." he decides. The Doctor arches an eyebrow. That didn't exactly match up with what Jack had said last night.
Beat.
"Should I be surprised?" the Captain asks.
"Not really."
"...Why'd you ask?"
"Why not?" the Doctor dismisses lightly. Jack doesn't look convinced, but says nothing.
"What time is it?" he questions.
"'Bout ten thirty.
Jack grunts slightly.
"Anyone else here?"
"Not sure."
"You been sleeping?" Jack asks, arching a skeptical eyebrow.
"...Yeah." the Doctor replies after a moment.
"You sure about that?"
The Doctor nods.
"Alright." Jack pauses. "You sure there's no space cure for hangovers?"
Despite himself, the Doctor smiles slightly.
"Pretty sure, yeah."
The Immortal rolls his eyes some and stands up from the cot. Though he's not entirely steady, he's much better than he'd been last night. The Doctor, too, stands up and together they walk out the office. As it would turn out, the rest of the team had arrived and were sitting, coffee and tea before them, at the conference table, talking amoung themselves.
"Ianto!" Jack calls. The Welshman's attention turns to the Captain. "Any coffee left?"
Ianto nods and Jack gives his thanks.
"You want any, Doc?" Jack asks as they walk down the stairs.
"Nah," the Doctor replies. "Cuppa tea would be nice though."
"'Course."
The two dissolve into silence as Jack pours his coffee and the Doctor waits for his water to biol.
"This...this kettle, Jack.
Jack glances to the Doctor.
"Yeah? What about it?"
"It's not exactly of earth origin, is it?"
"Well...not exactly, no." Jack admits, rubbing at the back of his neck with his coffee free hand.
"Welcome to Torchwood," the Doctor began with a vague motioning of his hands. "We're supposed to be a high security government agency dedicated to protecting the earth, but in reality we play basketball and nick alien tea kettles."
Despite watching him, Jack can't quite tell what the intent of the Doctor's comment was and settles for a small smile as his response. It fades as he glances to the Doctor once again.
"As happy as I'll be when I can say I've gotten into my clothes, I really am going to need my jacket back, Doc."
The Doctor gives a nod, taking the kettle off the heat and poured the water into a readily available mug, brewing his tea.
"That's Owen's by the way." Jack notes. "Drop it and he will kill you."
Pause.
"Funny, he never struck me as the sentimental type." the Time Lord remarks. "Speaking of which, whatever happened to my suit top? I like that top."
"Took you a while to ask." Jack says.
"Been a bit preoccupied." the Doctor retorts.
"To be fair, it was pretty torn when we found you."
"Jack."
"Ianto and I...we cut it off."
The Doctor nods.
"Sorry 'bout that."
"Well, you need your jack, I need mine, my top apparently doesn't exist anymore, and these pants aren't exactly clean." the Doctor says, voice brisk. Jack can't quite tell how genuine that note of alertness is.
"I assume you've got stuff in the TARDIS?" Jack asks, catching onto where the conversation was going. The Time Lord nods.
"Yep."
"Where is the TARDIS, anyways?"
"The Plass."
Jack blinks.
"We'd have noticed." Jack says bluntly.
"You've been occupied, too, Jack."
"Yeah, but we'd have still noticed a police box in the middle of the Plass, Doc."
The Doctor quirks an eyebrow.
"Perception filter."
Beat.
"Oh."
"Shall we, then?" the Time Lord starts, walking towards the Hub's exit. Jack jogs up next to him and the two men walk through the hallways leading to the Tourist Information Center in relative silence. They walk outside and work their way to the Plass, a strong, salty breeze blowing with them.
And then Jack notices the TARDIS.
It's just sort of there. In broad daylight, no efforts to be even remotely hidden, though no one is taking notice it, is the TARDIS.
"...You know, the last time you landed here the TARDIS seemed to have a spacial disagreement with the spot and now there's an area that nobody notices." Jack remarks. The Doctor gives a slight hum.
"Yes, well, we also opened and closed the Rift then, so there was bound to be a little extra damage." he says, voice mild as he unlocks the ship's door.
"Hey, Doc?" Jack asks as he steps into the TARDIS.
"What?"
The Captain hesitates.
"How did you get from the, ah, TARDIS to my office?"
He asks the question as carefully as possible, but there really is no delicate way around it, and the Doctor's step falters.
"I walked." he says steadily. It's a very intentional non-answer and Jack thinks that he's had enough of those for a while at least.
"You didn't seem like you were in good enough shape to be walking that far." he presses.
"Well I didn't bloody waltz over there, Captain!" the Doctor snaps and Jack is taken aback. The Doctor twitches and screws his eyes shut, leaning heavily on the console. "No, I'm sorry, Jack."
Jack takes a careful step forwards.
"You okay?"
The Doctor glances to Jack and pushes off the console.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine." he replies, an edge of impatience in his voice. Jack doesn't believe it for a moment and is about to say so when the Doctor continues.
"I just-" he gestures to the TARDIS hallways. "Give me a few minutes, I'll be back."
He's gone before Jack can stop him.
The Immortal gives a sigh and circles the console, finding the captain's chair and sinking into it.
He doesn't believe the Doctor's facade of words casual nonchalance, isn't falling for his assurances of being fine, doesn't even believe the Time Lord's claim of having slept the night before. Honestly, he's finding it harder and harder to believe a single word coming from his friend. He thinks the Doctor knows that.
He runs a hand through his hair and lets it fall to the arm rest. It's only a few seconds before Jack notices something crusted underneath his fingers. Jack lifts his hand and glances to the arm rest.
The substance isn't exactly difficult to identify, but it still takes him a minute to process.
Dried blood is covering most of the arm rest.
"Shit," Jack mutters. He stands up and turns to face the chair. By and far, most of the fabric is stained with rust colored blood. It takes Jack only a moment to decipher the scene before him.
He can see the Doctor, suit torn, hair caked with blood, body ruined, stumbling around the console, can see him making haphazard calculations with a shattered mind, can see him, utterly taxed, collapsing into the chair, far past giving a damn about the irremovable stains that would surely follow his actions. And all of a sudden the Time Lord's claim of having simply walked to the Hub seems a lot less unbelievable and a lot more valid.
Shaking his head, Jack circles around the TARDIS console slowly. He doesn't dare touch anything, lest he twitch something the wring way and send the ship into a temporal collapse. Rather he paces and thinks.
Primarily about exactly how worried he should be about the Doctor's health, physical and otherwise, and also the matter of how he should confront the other man about the scars on his body, the sleep he hasn't been getting, the food he's barely been eating, and the quite frankly worrying glint he sometimes gets in his eye.
This is made considerably more difficult by the Time Lord's lack of inclination to talk about anything important with anyone, his tendency to flee the conversation with a quickly found tangent and a grin, bright and brittle. Jack sighs. He remembers back to the last time the Doctor had shown up to Torchwood, weary and sleep deprived. How Jack had actually managed to get him into a bed and sleeping with only a solid grasp on his shoulders and a firm command. He thinks that perhaps that tactic could pull through again, get the Doctor to talk-
Jack laughs.
Last time, the Doctor had been shaky and unwell, but he'd not been...shattered.
The word sounds pathetic, like it's reduced the Time Lord to something small and fragile, but it's all he can think of. Last time, Jack had not found the other man dissolving into a mess of tears and forgotten languages, hiding in the archives. Last time, there had not been a nearly animal fear present when Jack had reached out to touch him.
Last time, the Doctor had done a much worse job pretending to be okay, and this scares Jack to no end.
For the next thirteen minutes, the Immortal chases these thoughts in circles, cycling through and through again, no solutions forthcoming.
After fourteen minutes, the Doctor finally emerges from the hallways, clad in a fresh brown suit and his jacket, cream converse on his feet, wearing entirely unnecessary glasses, hair spiked up. He looks much better than he had just a while ago, put together, almost himself.
The Doctor walks to the console, standing next to Jack.
For a moment, both are quiet.
"Took you a while." Jack points out. The Doctor shrugs.
"There were, y'know, buttons." he motions vaguely to the suit. Jack gives a grunt.
"...Noticed your chair." the Captain notes. The Doctor's breath hitches.
"Jack-"
"You can't avoid this forever, Doc." warns Jack, and his voice is steel.
"I don't have to stay here." the Doctor counters. "You can't keep me here. I could leave right now."
"But you won't."
"How the hell do you know what I'm going to do?!" the Doctor demands. He's facing Jack now, and the space between the men feels like miles.
"Because I know you!" Jack exclaims.
"You don't know me!" the Doctor spits, adapting a more defensive stance. Jack doesn't fail to notice it, but knows that, even like this, the Doctor won't take any physical action and keeps his own position the same.
"Oh?' he questions, skeptical. "I don't know you?"
"You've no idea the things I've done!"
"And you think I'm innocent?!"
"Comparatively, yes!
There's a silence that ensues, heavy and taut.
"...I- I'm trying...to help you, Doc." Jack says after a moment.
"I don't want your help." the Doctor snarls. He shoves past Jack, stalking over to the TARDIS doors and throwing them open. He looks first outside, then to Jack. "You. Out. Now."
Jack sputters indigently.
"You think I'm just going to leave you like this?" he challenges, disbelieving.
"Why not? It's what you do to everyone else." the Doctor smirks and though there's something not quite right with it, Jack isn't looking for that now.
Jack flinches as though struck at the Doctor's words as he continues.
"How many agents, friends, have you lost over the years? Dozens? More? Hundreds? Then you abandon your team to come with me, not a second thought about what might happen to them. Is that how you cope now? You just abandon people? Friends? Family? Why not me, too?"
Jack swallows. Opens his mouth. Closes it. Strides across the console room, every step carefully controlled.
He steps just outside of the TARDIS and fixes his gaze on the Doctor.
"Fuck you."
The door slams shut.
Welp. I think a lot of stuff happens next chapter? Who knows. Definitely more sad things and some stuff might get sort of get resolved, i honestly forget. Oh well. Review if you so please, if you listened to the song mention if you think it fits the last part of the chapter or nah. Thanks for reading, have a great day, and DFTBA! (honestly i dont even know what a nerdfighter is i just saw that somewhere and started using it)