After the ship blew up, The Doctor, Rose, Donna, Jack, and Gwen realized something important: The teleports no longer worked, and they were far from the factory where their vehicles were.
Sighing, Gwen pulled her mobile out of her pocket and asked Jack how to contact UNIT. A few minutes later, she announced that they were sending a jeep to pick them up.
She spent the time waiting, worrying about Jack. Physically, he was fine, of course. He always was. Bloody immortal. Mentally, he'd just been kidnapped and watched a version of himself die, so there was no way he could be okay. She rubbed his back in what she knew had to be a pathetic attempt at comfort, glad that Rhys was nowhere around to see her rubbing the almost naked man's back.
Rose was still angry with the Doctor for his stunt. She might not have known the Sontarans as well as he did, but she knew they wouldn't have taken the chance the Doctor offered. She couldn't even remember a time where the bad guy took the chance. She loved that he gave them a chance, but it wasn't anywhere near worth killing himself to do so, especially when she could think of at least two other alternatives without even trying.
She was also worried about Jack. She kept coming back to the image of him lying on the floor, dying slowly. She knew he'd died before- she'd even seen it once, on the day she married the Doctor, but this was different. This time, he wouldn't be coming back. The thing was, it wasn't even him, just a clone with a lot of his memories.
It didn't stop her from sneaking glances at him to reassure herself he was still alive, though.
Donna was also ticked off at the Doctor. If Rose hadn't smacked him upside the back of his head already, she would've done it. Her anger warred with her mourning of the young man who'd just gone on the Sontaran ship and died and the worry about her family. Her grandfather was of special concern. He was getting up there in age and she wanted him around as long as possible.
With both the Doctor and Jack brooding, though for different reasons, the group was quiet.
When the UNIT jeep got everyone back to the ATMOS factory and the TARDIS, Donna asked to visit with her family before they went anywhere else. Knowing that she'd have wanted to check on her own mum, Rose readily agreed before anyone else could say anything. Not that anyone else would have said any different.
"Could I come along for a while?" Jack, now fully dressed and in the World War II trench coat he'd originally worn when he first met them, requested, fairly sure that Rose would agree at least. "Just a trip or two."
"Course you can!" Rose agreed, throwing her arms around his neck excitedly.
"Sure your team won't mind?" the Doctor asked, putting his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels.
"Nah. Told Gwen that I was taking a little vacation," he replied with a wink.
"Right, because running for your life is so relaxing," Rose teased.
"You ain't even joking! Couldn't we make a trip to some kind of alien spa planet, where the massage boys have got four hands or something?" Donna suggested, wiggling her fingers in a horrible imitation of a massage.
"Ooh, I know just the place!" Jack began.
"No, Jack. I think I can come up with something a little less X rated than your version," the Doctor interrupted.
"First, let's make sure Donna gets to visit her family before we go anywhere. And I'll help look through the spa planet options," Rose insisted before the Doctor could absentmindedly take them into the Vortex.
Donna wasn't gone very long. While she was gone, the three seasoned travelers found a nice, relaxing destination with a spa Donna would love and a rather unique geological feature Rose and the Doctor both wanted to see as soon as Jack told them about it. Apparently, he'd wanted to go there, to visit the nightclub that took up one quarter of the Leisure Palace, but had never gotten a chance to.
The door opened, and Donna came in, holding her key. "You know, you'd think I was fourteen sometimes," she grumbled in a low voice.
"That's mums for ya," Rose replied, pushing down her bit of sadness at the reminder of her own mother. "She's worried. It's only natural."
In an attempt to change the subject, the Doctor stepped in and turned attention to Jack. "Now, before we take off, you need to know some things. This one here likes to think himself a bit of a Casanova." He pointed at Jack.
"Oh, that's where you're wrong, Doc," Jack interrupted, leaning against the console. "Casanova thought he was me."
"Aaaannndd, he's -" the Doctor started, ignoring Jack's cocky tone. Before he could finish, however, he was interrupted again.
"Our friend, family," Rose finished firmly. "Yeah, Jack might be a flirt, but he's a great guy," she told Donna and Jack came up behind her, hugging her.
"Aww Rosie, I knew you loved me," he said, kissing her cheek. He let go quickly.
"'Course, I do, you numpty," she responded. "'Course, he's also a lecherous old man," she continued, ignoring his protest and the Doctor's snicker. "If he ever gets too flirty for ya, just tell him you ain't interested or to stop, and he'll stop, I promise."
The Doctor snorted at that. "I tell him to stop all the time, and he never stops flirting with you."
"I was never told you weren't interested," Jack countered. "In fact, I seem to recall being told to buy you a drink first. And there was that one time-"
"And, we're off!" the Doctor suddenly said, slamming down the last lever of the dematerialization sequence he'd already started. Everyone held on as the Rotor began moving and the TARDIS shuddered, signalling its entry into the Vortex.
"Two? Three?" the Doctor asked Rose suddenly.
"Two and we'll see what happens," Rose responded.
"Two what?" Donna asked.
"How long we'll be there," Jack responded. "When traveling, I never stay in one place for more than a few days, unless I have a damned good reason."
"Yeah and we all know why," Rose joked and immediately ducked out of the way of Jack's lunge. He kept going, and in seconds, he was chasing her out of the console room, both of them laughing.
As soon as they disappeared down the hallway, Donna turned to the Doctor. "Um, Doctor, who exactly is Jack?"
The Doctor laughed a little. "Donna Noble, you have to ask the hard questions, don't you?" He sighed and thought for a second. "Pick just about any descriptive, and it would have probably fit him at some time. Flirt, clown, cheat, show off, but loyal, brave, smart, and fun all fit as well. When we first met him, he was running a con. Saved Rose's life at the time."
"Sounds a bit all over the place."
"No, not really, just complex," the Doctor responded.
"But who is he to you and Rose? 'Cause, I don't get it. They act like, I don't know, like they grew up together? Brother and sister? Then there's the flirting, but I know you, Spaceman. I've seen the way you act when another man pays too much attention to her, but I see none of that now. Not that I'm judging or anything. You're all adults, but-" She stopped when the Doctor started chuckling. "What?"
"No, nothing like that. Jack's just a really, really close friend. Though Jack wouldn't mind," he mused. "And I sometimes suspect that Rose wouldn't mind if I-"
"Nope, nope, don't wanna hear any of that," Donna interrupted, throwing up her hands. "Sorry I asked." She narrowed her eyes at him. "You did that on purpose," she accused and the Doctor didn't deny it.
"In all seriousness, though. Jack's had a horrible day and Rose is trying to get his mind, and I suspect her own, off of it."
At his words, Donna remembered that Jack had been in a hospital gown and there had been another one of him, but she hadn't seen him long. She was about to ask what had happened when it hit her like a ton of bricks. The other Jack had been dead. It hadn't clicked at the time. She'd been rushed away to the chaos at the mansion in the country.
The Doctor nodded at her. "Allons-y, Donna Noble. You've got a couple days of relaxation to pack for."
As soon as she left, the Doctor sighed and leaned back against the console. He went to fiddle with a little, blue knob he'd installed just for the purpose of fiddling with, but the knob, that wasn't connected to anything, shocked him. At the same time, there was a surge in the disapproval he'd been feeling from the ship ever since he came back, but that moment was the first time he'd been alone.
"I know!" He exclaimed. "I know I screwed up. Rose has already made her feelings known quite well."
##########
Rose breathed deeply of the lavender scented air that surrounded them. She and Donna were currently being massaged to bonelessness in the serene environment of the spa. Everything was pristine and white, the sunlight from outside filtered through the protective windows of the entire complex. Despite all of that, the softness of the light and lightly scented air was extremely relaxing.
Donna moaned softly as another knot in her muscles loosened and Rose smiled over at her.
"What do you think, Donna? This trip a little more your speed?" Rose teased.
"You said it, Spacegirl. This would be my goal. Travel the universe and compare every spa to see which is the best," Donna told her, not even opening her eyes.
"Well, nice as this is, I think that would get a little boring after a while. I like to explore new places and they won't even let us outside here," Rose responded.
"Yeah, but you can't go outside exploring a space ship either," Donna argued.
"Suppose. But there's plenty to explore inside. I'm not really an 'obey the keep out sign' type of girl," Rose laughed.
"I've learned that much about you two. I wanted to ask you though, the Doctor didn't explain it very well. What is it with you and Jack?" Donna asked.
"What you mean?" Rose wondered.
"I mean you and him act like brother and sister one minute, then you're flirting with each other like no tomorrow, but it doesn't bother your husband at all," Donna explained.
"I do think of Jack like a brother. And believe me, the flirting used to bother the Doctor plenty. He's just come to realize that Jack won't stop doing that with me, but nothing will ever come of it really. He trusts me, and he trusts Jack. Jack used to travel with us and he and the Doctor worked well together. Called ourselves Team TARDIS," she told her with a laugh at the fond memories before the Game Station.
"Alright. Not much more of an explanation than your husband gave, but I guess that's all I'm going to get. The Doctor said he saved your life when you first met him? How did that happen?" Donna questioned, ready to listen to a story.
Rose laughed. "Well, it started with us chasing something dangerous and mauve that crashed into London during the Blitz, and me trying to help a little boy by accidentally grabbing onto the rope from a barrage balloon," she began and told Donna the entire story of how Jack first came to travel with them after his ship exploded.
##########
The four of them met up for dinner that night before going their separate ways again. Jack was going to hit that nightclub and might not be coherent in the morning. He invited Donna along, but she blushed and said she was knackered and was going to go to bed.
Neither of them said anything about how little Rose spoke to the Doctor.
Rose, who hadn't been swimming in a while, despite having a pool on the TARDIS, got into her bathing suit and dived in. She swam laps back and forth, practicing with her respiratory bypass, something she didn't use nearly enough. It had been just shy of a year since she'd changed, and she was only just starting to get used to some of the things that were different about her body.
As she swam, she thought about the things that had happened that day: Jack's mortal doppelganger; the Doctor, once again, trying to get himself killed. What the hell was his problem? Hadn't they gotten past that?
When she couldn't hold her breath any longer, she surfaced just before the end of the pool and pushed her hair out of her eyes. Immediately, she saw the Doctor standing there, right at the edge of the pool where she would have stopped had she gone all the way to the edge. He wore only his oxford and a pair of swimming trunks, which was something she'd never seen outside of the TARDIS, if you didn't count when he was human for a couple of months.
"Nice use of respiratory bypass," he praised.
She noticed that he had a bottle of wine and two glasses sitting next to him. "You know, glass by a pool is usually a very bad idea," she told him, nodding at the glasses. "As is drinking."
He bent down, picked up a glass, and smacked it against the ledge of the pool, making Rose wince. Instead of the crashing sound she'd expected from experience, the glass made a dull tinking noise.
"Toranti glass, developed on the twenty-eighth century. Doesn't break, well, it can still break, but not like the glass you're familiar with. When it breaks, it breaks much like a plastic cup. Long lines and it holds together in one piece. The bottle's the same. All the benefits of plastic without the detractors, like the taste." He scrunched up his nose.
"You think you're so impressive," she teased, though her hearts weren't in it. He was acting like nothing had happened and it just made her angrier at him.
"You're still angry," he realized.
"Ya think?" She swam over to the ramp that went down into the pool and stepped out, dripping water. "After what you did today? What were you thinking?"
The Doctor looked around and noticed a couple of women had just entered the pool room. He put the wine bottle in the crook of his arm and held both glasses in the same hand. He extended his free hand out to Rose and wiggled his fingers.
"I've gotta dry off a bit before we go anywhere," she told him, grabbing a towel from the back of the lounge chair where she left it.
"Nah, you don't need it." He led her to a small alcove with a half wall that provided a bit more privacy. Behind the wall sat a hot tub. It was round with steps across the front quarter and was still, but when the Doctor stepped in, it immediately started bubbling. He removed his shirt, draping it over the half wall, sat down at the other end, and opened the bottle.
Rose hesitated for just a moment, but decided she was being stupid. He obviously wanted to talk to her and thought the setting would help relax her. She stepped in after him, sat down in the warm, relaxing water, and accepted the glass from him. She could smell that it was a sweet wine, made from something other than grapes.
"Is that pineapple?" she asked and tasted it. As she thought, it was sweet, and she could taste the high alcohol content as well as the sugar, yeast and other ingredients that had gone into it, changed by the chemical process of fermentation.
"Close enough. It's actually a fuzzy little fruit from about ten light years thataway." He pointed over his shoulder. "Prized by humans for being so similar to the pineapple of Earth."
"Why did I have to keep you from dying today?" she asked bluntly, not feeling like listening to his gob right then.
"Our way of life is dangerous. You know that," he replied quietly.
"Don't. You know exactly what I'm talking about. There's dangerous situations and then there's tryin' to commit bloody suicide!" she growled at him. "I thought-I dunno what I thought." She looked away from him for a moment and shook her head. "Are you ever gonna stop tryin' to leave me?" she blurted, hating the way her voice cracked when the words came out.
"Leave you? Why would I leave you?" he asked coming closer. "I don't want to leave you. Rose?" He cupped her cheek with his hand and gently turned her head so she'd look at him.
"You were gonna sacrifice yourself and you knew it too, sayin' goodbyes to everyone. But you weren't savin' anyone. If I hadn't stopped you, you would've blown yourself up an' I'd be alone, for no reason."
"I had to give them a chance," he replied apologetically.
"I know, but we both know they'd have never taken it."
"I had to try," he said at a near whisper. He sat back and poured more of the wine into his glass. Even with himself closed off from their telepathic link, she could feel the sorrow he always had when life was lost.
"It's one of the things I love most about you," she told him sincerely. "That you'll give anyone a chance."
"Yeah?" he asked, brightening up a little.
"Oh, yes. Gave me one." She grinned and started moving toward him. She didn't move quite as gracefully as she had wanted to in the water, but it was still seductive, she hoped. She climbed into his lap, straddling his waist, but when the Doctor leaned forward for the kiss he thought he was getting, she pulled back.
"Next time, take a second to put a delay on the device, yeah? We go up together, give them a chance and leave before it explodes."
"Yes, ma'am." He leaned forward and kissed her soundly, but, to her surprise, pulled back and put his forehead to hers. "I love you," he whispered and let down his guard so she could feel it as well.
He so rarely actually said the words. Rose kissed him softly, repeating his sentence back to him one word at a time between pecks. The kisses changed into a heated embrace and Rose ground down on him, forgetting they weren't in the most private of places at the moment.
The Doctor gasped and pulled back again. "Rose, we're not alone," he reminded her.
The reminder gave her a devious thought. "That's half the fun," she whispered in his ear and nibbled on the lobe. She then started moving down his neck, across his chest, and finally, she took a deep breath and went underwater.
"What are you-? Ooh," the Doctor groaned when her mouth went around him. It was something she had thought of doing before, but had never gotten around to it. After a second, his hips started moving slightly and she could feel his pleasure. His hand went to the back of her head and he put his fingers through her hair.
She discovered that putting her mouth on him underwater wasn't nearly as easy as she had expected. Every few seconds, little air bubbles would escape her mouth as her lips slid over the vestigial bumps on his length. Lubrication was an issue as well. One would think under water would be more slippery than in the air, but it wasn't. It washed away the natural lubrication from her mouth.
Suddenly, the Doctor's pure pleasure turned into near panic. He sat up a little straighter and pushed her hair down to keep it underwater. Rose didn't know what was going on at first and was about to ask him when she heard, distorted through fast moving water, Jack's voice.
At that moment, she had another impish thought and sucked his length hard, twirling her tongue around him. He squirmed a bit and kept her in place with a warning squeeze on her shoulder.
"You guys are gonna love this. There's this sapphire waterfall, and they take you out in this truck to see it. There's protective shielding from the xtonic rays, but they say the view is spectacular!" Jack told the Doctor excitedly.
"Yup," the Doctor squeaked. "Sounds great, Jack. We can do that tomorrow then."
"Something wrong, Doctor?" Jack questioned, acting like he didn't know exactly what was going on.
"No! No, nothing at all. Why do you ask?" he responded gritting his teeth to keep from groaning at the magnificent things Rose was doing to him with her tongue.
Jack eyed the two glasses of wine by the hot tub and asked, "Where's Rose?"
"Hmm? Oh, umm, ladies' room," the Doctor lied.
"Right, well, see you tomorrow, Doc," Jack replied and walked back around the barrier that separated the hot tub from the main pool area.
The Doctor sighed with relief and pulled Rose up out of the water, giving her a chastising look. "We are taking this elsewhere before I do something that will make them have to drain the water from this pool," he insisted.
Rose licked her lips teasingly and the Doctor growled as he pulled her against him for a fierce kiss. They both gasped when they heard Jack laughing behind them, his head poking out from the entrance.
"Caught ya!" he laughed and left them to their play. He had a date to get to. Lovely couple.
###############
"Let's give her one more chance before we go," the Doctor said the next day and walked over to a courtesy telephone.
"Donna, last chance." He listened for a moment. "Sapphire waterfall. It's a waterfall made of sapphires. This enormous jewel, the size of a glacier. Reaches the Cliffs of Oblivion, and then shatters into sapphires at the edge. They fall a hundred thousand feet into a crystal ravine," the Doctor said in a voice that held wonder. Rose had never been able to deny that voice, not even when it was gruffer and Northern.
"Oh, come on. They're boarding now. We need someone to occupy Jack. Not like that. Four hours, that's all it takes."
"You be careful, that's Xtonic sunlight," he warned.
"All right, I give up. I'll be back for dinner. We'll try that anti-gravity restaurant. With bibs."
"Nah. Taking a big space truck with a bunch of strangers across a diamond planet called Midnight? What could possibly go wrong?"
"You did not just say that," Jack groaned.