A/N: And here's orignal chapter number 2! My muse was going non-stop with this, though I do apologize if the quality of detail isn't as good. I tend to miss things when I write new chapters and I don't have a Beta-Reader. Hope Jessica impresses in this one!

And thanks to all my loyal reviewers and followers! I love you all! Send me your questions and feeback, please! I love 'em!

A Date ... With Angels

Part 2

Neither of us spoke as Jack tore through the streets of London. Blue and red lights flashed against my face. At least his official government stuff came in handy.

A thirty minute drive took maybe twelve, but twelve minutes gave me time to pull myself together. Not calm down, by any means. No, the Doctor's warning gave me no room to just be complicit about it. Bag, then changed into something I could run in, then pelt some answers out of my boyfriend.

Yes, I'd just called Jack my boyfriend. Only in my head, since he'd never called me his girlfriend. Not yet, anyway.

Jack nearly hauled me out of the car and up the stairs to my apartment. His soldier background screaming from every tense muscle, every glance of his eyes. "Wait," he murmured once I'd unlocked the door. "Let me go first. Just in case."

I nodded, gnawing on my lower lip for all its worth. Waiting for Jack to come out had me dancing on the balls of my feet. I couldn't feel anything inside the apartment, but it would be just my luck that there would be an alien who could hide their emotions better than I could.

"We're clear."

I burst inside. Jack already had my bag in his hands, though he didn't look. "As much as I love seeing you in that dress, I think you'd better put something a bit more practical on."

"You sure you'll be okay?"

The traditional Jack Harkness smirk managed to smooth even more of my nerves. "Please. You're just tossing on whatever's on the bed, right? I'll be fine for a couple of minutes. Now scat."

Oh, Jack knew me way too well. That's exactly what I'd planned. Didn't matter if I ended up wearing poka dots and stripes. As long as the clothes in reach were relatively clean and easy to toss on, they were fair game. I ended up tossing on almost the same clothes I'd worn when I went to Downing Street. Maybe I was thinking about the Doctor, maybe not. All I knew was that the trench coat and converse made me feel even more ready to meet whatever was coming.

"So," I began, leaning on the couch behind Jack. "Tell me honestly. What kind of alien requires you to not blink? And I want the truth, Mr. Harkness. Not some reassurances that we'll be fine when there's a good chance tha we won't."

Jack groaned, massaging his face into his hands. "I'm sorry, Jess. You shouldn't have to deal with aliens; I've tried very hard to keep it that way."

The weariness in his voice brought me to sit next to him. "Jack, what's wrong? Trust me, I can take it, whatever 'it' is."

"Have you ever seen those angel statues in cemetaries? You know, the ones who cover their faces?"

"Um ... yeah. Aren't angels supposed to be in cemetaries?" I had no idea where he was going, talking about decorations when he was supposed to be telling me about aliens. But Jack always told me the truth, even when he didn't want to.

The grimace on Jack's face brought a sick feeling into my gut. "That's the thing: not all of those things are simple statues. Ninety percent of the time they're Weeping Angels. The most annoying sons of ..." He reigned himself in with an effort.

I swallowed past a dry throat. "So ... some angel statues are aliens. Right." Well, at least they weren't alien looking like the Slitheen, so I kind of knew what they looked like already.

"They're only 'alien' when you're not looking," Jack corrected, a distant look entering his eyes. "The way it was explained to me is that they turn to rock when anything living looks at them. Something about a biological adaptation or whatever. They're insanely fast, though, so in the fraction of a second it takes you to blink, bam, they zap you into the past. Or kill you outright if they're really cranky."

"Wait, they what?"

"If they send you far enough into the past and you're stuck, they eat the energy of the days you might have had if you'd stayed in your original time period." He grimaced, waving a hand around. "Don't ask me for the mechanics. I just know the basics and fankly, I don't want to know anything beyond that."

I sank back into the couch, tapping my fingers against my face as the wheels in my head spun a thousand miles an hour. "So that's where the 'no blinking' comes in. What happens if they see each other? Or see themselves in a mirror?"

"Now that I have no idea," Jack grinned and shook his head, a chuckle lightening the mood a bit. "You always think of the wierd questions, don't you?"

"It's not wierd! I mean it: what would happen, you think?"

He shrugged, draping an arm over my shoulders and pulling me to him. "I don't know. Maybe it'll be stuck as rock for the rest of time? The only way you can kill a rock, I think. Make it stay put forever."

I tore into my bag, my heart leaping up in my throat when my hand closed around one of the more random items. I pulled out a decent-sized hand mirror. "Think this'll work? What?" I protested as Jack stared at me like I'd grown a dozen more heads.

"What are you doing with that thing?"

"Um ... I get crazy hair?" I tried, another blotchy red tinge making its way up my neck and onto my face.

Jack laughed. "This pathetic excuse of a mop?" He reached over and ruffled my very short hair before I could do anything. "You don't need to do anything with it except give it a good shake in the morning."

Fighting a laugh of my own, I raised my hand to smack that pretty head of his. He caught it by the wrist before I came even close and pulled me close, claiming me in a kiss that drove all thoughts of a race of killer stone angels from my mind. I felt myself relaxing. My fingers threaded themselves through his hair as my lips parted just a fraction.

Ever the gentleman, however, Jack pulled away long before I was ready to. "As much as I really want to keep this going, I think we have some aliens to look out for." The regret saturated his words as well as the scrunching of his face. "As much as I don't like him, the Doctor would have my head if you got hurt or killed while we were ... uh ... busy."

I sighed. Jack made annoying sense, as always. That didn't keep me from one final kiss before settling back on the couch, though still pretty close to him. "What is it with you and the Doctor, anyway? You almost hate him and that ... I want to know what happened. Why do I feel such strong emotions from you whenever we mention him?"

"Ah ah. Don't ask questions you can't have the answer to," Jack murmured, running his fingers through my hair. The uneasiness bubbling beneath the surface receding somewhat. He'd started trying to keep some of his darker emotions under control. I appreciated it, but that always gave away that whatever brought up those feelings was prety bad. "You'll figure it out soon enough."

I'd opened my mouth to say some smart-alek remark about that when a wave of malice rolled over me. Such a mothball and cottony taste entered my mouth that I shot upright with a violent shudder. My head snapped around, following the increasing feeling of dread to a point just behind Jack.

"Shit!" I'd never sworn a day in my life, but at that moment, I had every reason to.

A stone angel. With bared fangs and vicious, claw-like hands reaching out.

Jack sprang to his feet faster than I did, pulling a gun from one of the many pockets in his coat. "You left the balcony unlocked again, didn't you?"

I winced. One of a few sources of debate between us. I always thought the Doctor would need a way to get inside if he had to. Stupid idea from a childhood movie, but I couldn't help myself. "Sorry, I didn't think it ..." Whatever I'd been about to say was choked out of me.

A hand closed around my throat between one moment and the next.

Double shizzles.

Jack's head snapped my way. Thankfully I kept my eyes on the other one. After a violent string of swear-words, Jack lowered his gun. "Why couldn't they just zap you into the past? Why did they have to be the murderous ones? Jess, I ... I don't know how to get out of this one. Um ..."

My lungs burned; I could barely draw any breath. A burn started in my eyes as I continued to stare at the other Angel. "Couch," I managed, fingers twitching. A lightbulb in my head kept going off.

Understanding began to light Jack's eyes. Ever so slowly, he inched downwards, keeping his gaze on the Angel behind me. He palmed the mirror. "Okay, guys. We've never met, so I can only guess at what looking at your reflection can do to you. Let ... Her ... Go ..."

"Um ..." I managed a weak smile. "They can't do that while you're looking at them."

In the back of my mind, I could feel someone else's fear mounting. Not mine or Jack's. Beneath which there lay something else. Like ... I didn't want to admit it ... it felt like sorrow. But the Angels were killers. Jack said so with so much confidence. Who was I to say otherwise?

But a race that could never look at each other. To never be flesh and blood when they wanted to ...

"Jess, you can't expect me to ..."

"Just blink, Jack, cause frankly, I need to very soon and in order for the Angels to do as you ask, then you'll have to as well."

"But ..."

"Trust me." The fear inside me had already begun to change. It felt more along the lines of pity. "Just blink, okay?"

We shared a look. One that made me trust my instincts even more.

We blinked.

In that insane ammount of time - just a fraction of a second - the hand around my throat vanished and the Angel behind Jack did, too. Gasping for air, I lurched for Jack and the mirror before spinning around. The Angels had moved next to each other near the wall. Hands over their eyes.

"Hey, you okay?"

I nodded, my mind working fast. "Okay, boys. I'm going to keep blinking, but you'd better not move cause if you do, I've got a mirror with your names on it. You too, Jack, kepe blinking. I have an idea."

We blinked again. The Angels didn't move.

Okay. Time to be clever.

Though their anger and malice still pretty much overwhelmed everything they were, another emotion still wiggled beneath the surface. I frowned, trying to understand what it was. My head felt wierd, like I was pushing a muscle I'd either never used before or rarely used it at all. I kept searching, though, trying to be gentle, though I had zero control over what I was doing.

"Jess? What's this great idea? This won't work forever, you know." Jack gripped my shoulders in support. Also probably trying to keep me from doing anything stupd.

Too late for that.

Finally, I sighed, lowering the mirror. I hadn't gotten very far with finding out what the Angels were hiding, but I knew they hadn't come after me by choice. Or choose their nature, for that matter. I didn't even know if they had individual personalities or not. Maybe they'd owe me one in the future.

"Jess, what are you doing?"

I shrugged out of his hold, taking a few short steps across to the Angels. I was being incredibly stupid. Who said instincts were supposed to make sense, though?

"Look, I don't know why you came after me and Jack. Right now, I don't care. Please take this chance and go. I'll be more prepared next time, so think twice about coming back."

I could hear Jack spluttering behind me.

Louder than that, however, was the growing disbelief and caution coming from the would-be assassins. I could freeze them into stone for a very long time whenever I wanted. No, that wasn't what I wanted. I was no killer.

"Go on. Get out before I change my mind." I backed up and turned to face Jack, who, though still spluttering in outrage, never took his eyes off them. "Jack, close your eyes for me?"

"But, Jess! They ... they just tried to kill you!"

I managed to smile a little. "I know. But like you said, we can't kill stone and I'm not going to trap them like that forever." I reached up and rested a hand on his face. "Trust me on this, Jack. We'll be fine."

Jack sighed heavily through his nose. Then after only a couple of seconds, he leaned into my palm and closed his eyes.

A gust of wind made me whirl around. The doors were flung wide open.

Both Angels were gone.

Jack spun me back around again in a crushing bear hug. "That was the most ... stupid, senseless, most ... most ..." He gave up with a noise and kissed me so fiercely, I couldn't think straight.

I couldn't belive I'd just faced down two aliens on my own. Well, not on my own with Jack, but definitely without the help of the Doctor. Perhaps I wasn't so useless after all.

A few minutes of serious making out later, we were jolted apart by a frantic beeping coming from my bag. I groaned. "I need to take that," I mumbled, barely pulling away from him as I reached over the back of the couch. "Could be school. Or work."

"They can wait," Jack grunted, trying to pull me back in.

I managed to dodge him, though. "So can you." My hand closed around the offending, beeping object and all the good feelings I'd had vanished in smoke.

Couldn't I have just an hour or two of peace?

"So? Who is it?"

I pulled my bag onto my lap; we'd forgone standing a while ago. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. "It's ... it's not my phone." I pulled out the Vortex Manipulator.

All the lights and buttons were glowing red and flashing.

Jack sprung upright. "What the ... Jess, it's ..." He swallowed visibly, the fear spiking out of control. "Okay, there's nothing I can do right now to stop it. Put it on."

"What?"

"Just put the damn thing on!"

Adrenaline once again coursed through my system as I fumbled with the straps. Jack stood, messing with his own. "Okay, now, this is going to hurt. I"m sorry, but I can't do anything about that. Just ... don't panic, okay? I'll track you down, I promise." Jack darted in for a quick, passionate kiss that scared me more than the rapidly pulsating beeps.

"Jack, what's going on?"

A sick, twisting sensation I'd felt before began growing in my gut. Air began pressing down on every inch of me.

Jack's face was grim. "You're about to time-travel. I know you can handle it, but I'll come find you and bring you back, I promise."

Then everything whirled around me. Pressure increased until I lost my grip on conciousness.