Title: The Great Escape
Rating: K+
Pairings: A little Doctor/Rose
Spoilers: Only Jack's presence

Author's Note: I probably should be worried that this was inspired by Chris' Top Gear appearance…


Rose skidded to a halt as they found themselves facing an imposingly high brick wall. The three of them turned back as one, seeing the door behind them bend and bow, on the verge of giving in as the men whacked against it, producing a steady stream of curse words and promises of what they were going to do to them when they caught up with the trio.

Clearly there was no escape that way.

"This is all your fault," Rose scowled irritably, glaring at Jack, "I want you to remember that if we die, alright?"

He held his hands up innocently.

"Hey," he complained, "How was I supposed to know she was his wife? She was young enough to be his granddaughter!"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"Shouldn't we play the blame game later?" the Doctor suggested with surprising calm, although the excitement of the chase was in his eyes, "That door isn't going to hold."

"Right," Jack agreed with a decisive nod, shooting Rose a cheeky grin, "If you think I've been a very bad boy you can punish me later, yeah?"

She rolled her eyes again.

Still grinning, Jack nimbly scrambled up some nearby stacked boxes, pulling himself to the top of the wall with little effort.

'It's alright for him,' Rose thought bitterly, 'He's not wearing a bloody dress'.

As nice as this 1940's garb was, it wasn't exactly practical running away gear.

"Come on," the Doctor said, reaching his hand for hers, and helping her to climb quickly up after the former time agent.

Above them, Jack was reaching down for her. As the Doctor hoisted her up, he managed to grab her hand and haul her rather clumsily to the top, half yanking her arm from its socket in the process. As she jumped down the other side, Jack following closely behind, she heard the loud splinter of wood breaking.

Then gunshots ringing out in the yard.

"Doctor!" she cried in alarm, watching as Jack hurriedly tried to climb back up the wall again but finding it too high and too sheer when he had nothing to stand on.

Much to the relief of both of them, the Doctor suddenly appeared, vaulting over the top of the wall and landing beside them with a huge grin on his face and clearly none the worse for wear.

"Time to run!" he insisted, grabbing at Rose's hand and pulling her along behind him as the three of them sprinted down the alleyway.

He was enjoying this just a little too much for her liking.

Emerging into the dark, deserted street, Rose looked around hurriedly. They were miles away from the TARDIS and safety and, by the sounds of things, their pursuers were still on their tail. This was not good.

"This way," the Doctor ordered, pulling her off to one side, leaving Jack to follow.

In took her a moment to figure out what he was up to. She only realised when he stopped beside the large black car and dropped her hand to get the sonic screwdriver out, running the blue beam over the lock.

Moments later there was a click and he yanked the door open.

"Get in," he said, a little redundantly.

Rose hurried round to the passenger door, whilst Jack got in the back. When they were all settled inside, doors slammed shut, the Doctor grabbed the steering wheel and turned to look at her.

"Right. What do I do?"

"What?" she asked, wide eyed.

"You mean you can't drive?" Jack asked disbelievingly, immediately picking up on what was going on.

"Course I can," the Doctor insisted with a scowl, "Learnt from this nice old lady back in the eighties."

Then he grinned and added, "I think she had a bit of a thing for me. She said I was a lovely young man and that I was a natural driver."

"Well, what's your problem then?" Rose asked hurriedly, glancing back at the alleyway to see if their pursuers had emerged yet.

"It was an automatic," he said a little sheepishly, "I don't do gears."

She looked at him with a mixture of horror and incredulity, "Oh you have to be joking me…."

He looked at her apologetically.

"You can drive a bloody time machine but not a car?" she exclaimed in frustration.

"The TARDIS doesn't have gears, Rose!" he pointed out, causing her to roll her eyes in exasperation.

She turned to glance behind her, "Jack?"

"Oh no, don't look at me," he insisted hurriedly, shaking his head and backing off as much as the back seat would allow, "I drive space ships, not this death trap."

She looked at him with dumb disbelief.

"They don't have cars in the 51st century, Rose!" he reasoned.

"Oh brilliant!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up, wondering why she sometimes seemed to have hooked up with the two most useless men in the universe, "Move over!"

"You drive?" the Doctor asked with a curious raised eyebrow.

"No," she admitted, "Not really. Mickey tried to teach me in his car but he was afraid I was gonna break it."

They both look at her sceptically.

"Well, it's better than you two clowns!" he pointed out.

The Doctor nodded, seeing her point and hurriedly got out as Rose scooted over and took his place.

"Hold these," she said, shoving her unpractical high heeled shoes into his hand as he replaced her in the passenger seat.

She fumbled down for the keys to start the engine before remembering there were none.

"Er…slight problem," she pointed out, indicating the empty slot.

The Doctor frowned slightly before catching on to her point.

"Oh right," he agreed, "Hang on."

Taking the sonic screwdriver out again, he leant down across her lap, passing the beam over the key hole, trying to find the right place to make it start.

Rose held her breath, knocked for six by the sudden physical contact.

"Hey, you guys," Jack teased, "Not that I'm not enjoying the show, but shouldn't you leave that kind of thing for a more appropriate time?"

"Shut up," the Doctor and Rose said simultaneously.

Moments later, the engine started with a growl.

"There," the Doctor said, grinning up at her from her lap, "Better?"

She nodded with an unusually nervous smile, "Much."

"Good," he said, still grinning.

Rose looked down at him, wondering why he hadn't made a move to get up. Not that she minded.

Seconds later there was a loud shout and the Doctor did shoot up back, much to Rose's disappointment.

"Time to go," he insisted.

Rose nodded, trying to remember what Mickey had taught her. Mirror, signal, manoeuvre. Put it in gear, find the biting point, take the handbrake up.

Of course, she'd never had to do it before when armed men were baring down on them.

"It's alright," the Doctor reassured, "Take your time."

"But not too much time, yeah?" Jack said with a nervous glance behind.

The car shot off jerkily as she released the handbrake, but much to her relief and surprise she managed not to stall it. The gears crunched painfully as she shifted to second and she tried to ignore the grimaces on the Doctor's and Jack's faces.

As she managed to drive them away she heard the shouts get even louder. Then the tinkling pepper of gunshots hitting the metal exterior of the car came next. The Doctor and Jack quickly ducked, the Doctor's hand tried to force her down to, but she fought against him, needing to see where she was going.

Once they were well on their way back to the TARDIS the three of them finally relaxed.

"So where we going next?" Rose asked, with a smile, getting used to driving even if it was slow and jerky.

"Somewhere Jack can't flirt with the locals and get us nearly killed sounds nice," the Doctor said with a smile, settling back in his seat.

"That doesn't leave many possibilities," she replied with a false sigh.

"Oi," Jack complained, "I can behave myself."

The Doctor and Rose threw him a glance.

"Sometimes," he qualified.

Rose giggled, "Anyway, isn't it obvious what was should be doing next?"

The two men shook their heads.

"Driving lessons!" she said with a bright grin.