A/N: Thank you for the new reviews and favorites this week.
Lana finally got the Doctor to lead her to his bedroom. "Here we are, Doctor." She continued to speak to him in a soothing voice. Being an older sister, she had always had a bit of a natural maternal instinct, and her general experience was that most drunks were very much like overgrown children.
"Lana," he said, somehow slurring her name into five syllables.
"Yes, Doctor?" she said, still soothing.
"Sing for me?"
"I thought you didn't like it when we sing," she said with a hint of amusement.
"I like it when you sing," he insisted.
"I'm going to remember that," she said. "If I sing, will you promise to go to sleep?" The Doctor gave a wobbly nod in agreement. Lana could tell clearly that the Doctor would likely pass out at any moment, so she chose something soft and repeatable to sing. "If you're lost, you can look and you will find me, time after time; if you fall I will catch you, I'll be waiting, time after time." She repeated the soft chorus while she gently coaxed the Doctor to lie down and she took off his shoes for him and set them at the foot of the bed. As she pulled a blanket over him, she saw that his eyes were closed and his breathing had slowed to a relaxed restful pace. She removed the bow tie which was hanging at a limp strange angle and set it on a bedside table then unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt. She hoped it was enough that he wouldn't strangle himself if he rolled over wrong while he slept. She thought he looked rather peaceful as he lay there and she realized that she had developed a certain feeling of affection for this strange alien man she found herself traveling with. She gently brushed a stray wisp of hair that had flopped over face and leaned down to kiss his forehead. "Good night, Doctor," she whispered, and then left him to his rest.
Lana returned to the console room to find Jack and her sister kissing passionately and also having apparently suspended their need to breathe. She stood there for a moment waiting for the couple to notice her and when it became evident that they weren't going to, she cleared her throat loudly. The pair stopped kissing and looked in Lana's direction, but didn't pull away from each other. "Now I know for a fact that there are a number of private rooms in here, I've seen them" she said with a raised eyebrow. "You have, too," she added with a nod toward her sister. "And I suspect that you have as well?" she added the last with a questioning glance in Jack's direction.
Annie took that as her cue to pull slightly away from Jack. "I told you she was going to interrogate you," she said to Jack.
"So you did," said Jack with an amused grin that seemed to never leave his handsome face. He took a seat and looked completely at home. "Well then, Lana Anderson, what would you like to know?"
"How did you meet the Doctor?" she asked without preamble.
"I was a conman and a coward, and then we stopped a bomb together," he answered. "I traveled with him for awhile. Like you do now I assume."
"That sounds like an incredibly simplistic answer," Lana accused.
"That's because it is," Jack answered. "But I think you know that nothing with the Doctor is that simple."
"So you traveled with him for awhile, and then when you were done he just dropped you back home in Cardiff?" Lana asked.
"Well, not the first time," Jack said with a casual shrug. "And I'm not originally from here; it's just where I live now."
"The first time?" said Lana. "And if you're not from here then where are you from?"
Jack ignored the first part of the question and just went for the second. "I'm from the Boeshane Peninsula. 51st century."
"So he picked you up in 51st century wherever that is, and he dropped you off here?"
"No, he picked me up in London in 1941," he answered, clearly amused that his answers were only raising more questions.
"Wow, you get around almost as much as he does," said Lana.
"Can we move this along?" asked Annie impatiently. "I was in the middle of something, and as you've pointed out, there are a number of private rooms in here." She looked meaningfully at Jack.
"Actually, as appealing as that sounds," said Jack returning Annie's meaningful gaze, "I should probably go. I don't think the Doctor will be happy to see me in the morning under these circumstances."
"Well you don't have to stay all night," said Annie. "There's hours before morning."
"Well in that case," said Jack with a grin, "I still think a swim sounds like an excellent idea. What do you say Lana? We could all have a nice skinny dip and you can keep interrogating me?" He winked in her direction.
Lana raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not going to skinny dip with you while my sister is present."
"I'll have to arrange some time for you later then," he answered.
Before she could respond to this, the TARDIS abruptly went into motion, the three of them having to hold onto the nearest railing to keep from falling over.
The TARDIS came to a stop and the three gradually got their bearings. "What just happened?" asked Annie. "It's like she flew herself."
"She probably did," said Jack.
"Where do you think we are?" said Annie.
Lana was the closest to the monitor. "It looks like a space ship. But it looks abandoned; that's weird."
"We should go get the Doctor," said Annie.
Lana raised a skeptical eyebrow at her sister. "I'm sure he's still drunk. And once that wears off he'll probably have a wicked hangover."
"Exactly," said Annie with a self-satisfied smirk. "Payback."
Jack laughed at that. "You're going to wake him as payback for cutting your girls' night short?"
"And for making us fight evil in the morning," Lana added in. "Long story," she said, seeing Jack's questioning glance.
Lana giggled to herself as she rounded the corner about to go rouse the Doctor. Annie was right. It would serve him right for the morning incident alone. But before she made it to the corridor, the Doctor appeared and ran smack into her.
"Oof," the Doctor let out a sound and gently grabbed Lana's arm to steady her. "Did I just feel the TARDIS land? How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with her?" He threw an accusing glare in Annie's direction. His hair was bedraggled and he hadn't replaced his bow tie or his shoes, the top two buttons of his shirt were still unbuttoned and the shirt was now half untucked. Overall, he looked a bit disheveled, but he was acting like his normal self.
"Shouldn't you still be drunk?" asked Annie suspiciously.
"I'm a time lord, we metabolize alcohol quickly," he responded.
"I put you to bed 20 minutes ago," said Lana in disbelief.
"Very quickly," the Doctor added in.
"How much did you drink to get that drunk?" asked Annie, absolutely flabbergasted.
"I'm not sure," responded the Doctor. "Made some new mates in a pub and got challenged to a drinking competition. Don't remember much after that."
"And now you're just fine?" asked Lana, completely shocked.
"Yep, just fine," said the Doctor. "Never better, in fact."
"I hate you," said Lana and Annie in unison.
"No you don't," said the Doctor with a confident grin. At this, Jack started laughing at the scene and the Doctor noticed him for the first time since he had woken up. "Jack?" He sounded just as shocked to see the other man and Lana and Annie had been at his sobriety. "What are you doing here? You know this is what I meant by PEOPLE," he said rounding on his companions and then looking them up and down. "And you're still dressed like that!"
"Of course we are," said Lana, indignantly. "Do you remember the part where I said we've only been back for 20 minutes? And you were quite a handful, I'm not sure we could've gotten you back here without Jack's help."
"And he doesn't seem to mind what we're wearing," added Annie throwing hungry glances toward Jack.
"Well that's where you're wrong," Jack interjected. "I would love to see you out of those clothes."
"Do you see what I mean?" said the Doctor. "I let you out on your own and you bring him back to my ship and then fly off in it, and you could've just listened to me and changed your clothes."
"We didn't fly off, the TARDIS flew herself," Lana said. "We appear to be on some sort of abandoned space ship."
"Now that is unusual," said the Doctor, looking at the monitor, with excited curiosity beginning to spread across his face. "We should investigate." He quickly ran off down the corridor and reappeared a minute later in a clean shirt and bow tie. "Right then, let's go!"
Once outside the TARDIS, the Doctor did a quick scan of the room with the sonic screwdriver. "32nd century technology. No signs of life," he said. "But why not?" He continued to scan around the room for anything that would give him a clue. "Right then, let's split up and look around. Jack, you and Annie can look that way and Lana can come with me."
"No, I'll go with Jack," Lana interjected. "If you leave those two alone, they'll just end up making out somewhere and won't find anything out."
The Doctor looked at her quizzically. "Have you met Jack before?"
"No, but I know my sister," she said. Annie huffed a bit at that but the look on her face said that Lana's assessment was accurate.
"Fine then," said the Doctor. "Lana, go with Jack and Annie come with me. Try not to get into any trouble."
"With you around?" said Annie. "I think that's impossible."
"Not impossible, just improbable," said the Doctor. "So give it a try, eh?" And with that, the group split off into their respective directions.