Ch 14
The silence hung heavy in the air, like an early morning fog before the sun could burn in away. Jack poked absently at the fire while The Doctor packed and unpacked then repacked a metal box at his feet.
Finally the quiet got to Jack, "what's in there?" he ventured moving to sit next to the Time Lord.
"It was supposed to be dinner but I'm sort of sick of chemically altered or enhanced food," The Doctor admitted, "why don't we go into town for a meal instead?"
Jack laughed, "isn't that a hell of a walk?"
"You are not the most observant person sometimes," The Doctor teased, then standing up pointed down the ridge, "there's a town about three kilometres down there."
Jack stood also and by squinting he could see a church spire, "I thought we were out in the middle of no where!" he grunted.
"Where did you think I was getting all this firewood?"
"I thought you were chopping it yourself," Jack admitted.
"Hardly. No. I walk into town, buy it from this lovely old gentleman with more fingers than teeth, Clem is his name, and then bring it back here to burn."
Jack shook his head, "you never cease to amaze me," he grinned. Then leaning in, he smiled, "so is this a date? If you buy will I have to put out?"
"You wish," The Doctor laughed, "now," he pulled a list out of his pocket, "they have a Chinese place that sounds interesting, and oh, there's a Mexican place too..."
Jack wasn't exactly hungry but the idea of eating something that looked and smelled like real food and maybe a few drinks sounded like a great idea.
Walking back to the camp after dinner was a bit of a challenge. Jack had seemed to be on a quest to try every wine on the list and by about the fifth glass was making passes at everything within his line of sight, by the seventh, he was just calling out random offers to anyone within ear shot.
The Doctor didn't seem to be offended but some of the locals were less than enthused so he quickly settled to bill and guided the overly cheerful ex-Time Agent out of the restaurant. The chill night air sobered him up enough to get him to walk under his own power, but his insistence on holding onto the Time Lord's hand, and occasionally twirling him around for no readily explainable reason made their progress a bit slow.
"Why don't you get drunk?" Jack stopped at one point, trying to focus his blurry eyes on him.
"I don't metabolise alcohol in the same way," The Doctor explained patiently, "it would take a lot to effect me and I would get ill before I got intoxicated."
"That sucks," Jack sighed, shaking his head, as he did so he almost lost his balance. They walked the rest of the way in silence until they reached the camp.
As he fumbled with the tent's zip Jack turned back to The Doctor, "you didn't get me drunk just so you could take advantage of me did you?" he teased.
"First of all, I didn't 'get you drunk' you did that all on your own. Secondly, I hardly think if I wanted to take advantage of you alcohol would be required," came the amused reply.
It took a while for Jack to process that, "are you saying I'm easy?" he laughed.
"No comment," The Doctor chuckled, "but I'd say in your current state I give you ten minutes before you will be out like a light."
"I will not!" the ex-Time Agent protested. And in some ways he was right, it took him fifteen minutes after climbing into the still joined sleeping bags, and making a vague attempt to coax the Time Lord into some heavy petting before he was snoring softly.
The Doctor smiled softly as he sat on the edge of the sleeping bag and watched him sleeping. Off in the distance he heard the sound of the TARDIS unlocking and knew they would have to be going soon.
Looking around the dark tent he knew this trip would be one neither would ever forget.
After a while he crawled into the bag next to Jack he reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from the sleeping man's face, gave him a chaste kiss on the forehead and closed his eyes.