Title: Second Chance
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Missing scene during Boom Town. What happens when the Doctor and Jack are left alone in the TARDIS whilst Rose is searching for Mickey? Can be read as slash but isn't. But there is angst galore.
Warning: Spoilers for 'Boom Town' (OBVIOUSLY!) and a slight one for 'the Doctor Dances.'
Disclaimer: I am NOT Russell T. Davies. I'm happy just being me: a penniless writer/actor who cannot afford to be sued.
Second ChanceJack, Rose and the Doctor had managed to close the rift in time. The planet was safe, once again.
"Nicely done. Thank you all." The Doctor thanked both his teammates but Jack didn't acknowledge himself to be a part of that.
"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked about the villain. There was no sign of the Slitheen, only her human skin-suit left discarded on the TARDIS floor. Jack offered his theory to Rose's question.
"Must have got burnt up. Carried out her own death sentence."
"No!" The Doctor cut Jack off severely. "I don't think she's dead."
"Then where did she go?" Rose asked. Jack wanted to reply but he bit back his words and allowed the Doctor to answer.
"She looked into the heart of the TARDIS. Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic, like I told you Rose. Gets inside your head, translates alien languages. Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thought."
The Doctor knelt down beside the skin-suit. His two companions walked over and did the same. The Doctor then, as if by magic, produced an egg from the skin-suit.
"Here she is!" The Doctor grinned.
"She's an egg?" Rose exclaimed.
"Regressed to her childhood." The Doctor explained.
"She's an egg?" Jack laughed, but the laugh sounded odd. He had either tried, and failed, to restrain it… or the laugh was forced.
"She can start again. Live her life from scratch." The Doctor's words seemed to be directed at Jack. The conversation seemed to take on a double meaning. The words and tone being light: but the double meaning being very serious indeed. "If we take her home and give her to a different family, tell them to raise her up properly, she might be all right."
"Or she might be worse." Jack had to voice his concerns about the nature of personality. Especially as he wasn't so sure, or fond, of his own.
"That's her choice." The Doctor insisted. Jack would have responded to that with cynicism but Rose interrupted the cryptic banter.
"She's an egg!"
"She's an egg." The Doctor concluded.
"Oh my god! Mickey!" Rose almost knocked over the Doctor as she ran out of the TARDIS, off in search of Mickey.
As soon as Rose had disappeared, Jack stood up and started to fix the TARDIS. The Doctor just sat, cross-legged on the floor, looking up to Jack. Studying him.
"What's wrong?" The Doctor asked. Jack forced a smile.
"Most of the TARDIS' circuits got fried when the rift was open. I think she'll be a lot more comfortable when I've fixed it." Jack never looked at the Doctor. His eyes were fixed on the TARDIS: looking, but not seeing.
"Leave it. It's not necessary. I'll do it later." The Doctor insisted but Jack continued working on the TARDIS. "Jack?"
"I'm fine!" Jack snapped. The cable he was reattaching slipped through his failing hands. Jack was shaking. He paused before he spoke. "You thought it was me." Jack's voice was barely a whisper.
"What!" exclaimed the Doctor as he rose to his feet.
"You thought I opened the rift." Jack continued before the Doctor could make any sort of protest. "I don't blame you, it made sense. I even gave you the dixdistance-electrorestrainers, the cuffs so you could go out with Margaret. That way I'd have the TARDIS all to myself. Of course you thought it was me. You can't say you didn't: I saw your face when you came in. You shouted at me. But it's not your fault, it was the obvious conclusion."
Jack shut up and concentrated on the TARDIS. Silence ensued, as the Doctor was… it was the first time he'd seen Jack like this. But Jack was so wrong. The reason he had been so short with Jack earlier was because he was so happy to find Jack alive. TOO happy. The Doctor was angry with himself but he'd taken it out on Jack because… it was easier that way. The Doctor was disgusted with himself.
"Jack…"
"Just ignore me Doc. I'm not usually like this in front of people."
"Well, I'm not exactly people." The Doctor replied with a grin but the concern never left his eyes. "Everybody takes you at face value, don't they? All the flirting and joking? But it's all just a distraction. Nobody really looks to see what's behind those beautiful blue eyes of yours."
"That's how I prefer it." Jack honestly replied, not looking as the Doctor was moving closer and closer to Jack.
"What are you so afraid of?" It was a rhetorical question because the Doctor didn't give Jack enough time to answer. "Because I certainly don't see anything to fear. I see someone who's lost, who's alone. He's so scared of being rejected. He never stays in one place for long because he's scared others might think that it's too long. He'll do anything to be wanted. He's always trying to prove something; he's always trying.
"He never sees that he will always be wanted, needed. He's part of a team and a team sticks together, no matter what. He's too hard on himself. He's a good man, despite what he thinks. But he's gonna end up killing himself one of these days if he keeps trying to prove what we all know, even if he doesn't.
"He was willing to die to stop a bomb from crashing into London during the Blitz. And I know he just absorbed countless volts of power trying to stop the rift from opening. I know he's in pain but he's still trying to make himself useful.
"He's a man of many guises: comedian, mechanic, lover. I wonder if he'll ever realise that we'd be happy if he was just his good ol' plain self. He doesn't have anything to prove."
The Doctor was now mere millimetres away from Jack, trying desperately to get Jack to look at him, look into his eyes, make Jack know he was being 100 honest and serious. But Jack never looked at the Doctor. Instead, he saw the T.V screen as it showed Rose about to enter. Jack scurried off to the opposite side of the TARDIS' control console, as far away from the Doctor as the console would allow.
Rose entered; her face was stained with tears. The Doctor put on a smile but he was till worried about Jack. Rose was upset: Jack was… it was more than that. The pain Jack bore was innate. The Doctor had just got a taste of the true Jack and it was a taste that was familiar. He was sympathetic to Rose, but thoughts of Jack were now running through his mind.
"We're all powered up." The Doctor announced in his normal excitable manner. "We can leave. Opening the rift filled us up with energy. We can go." The Doctor paused, before subtly asking for Rose's permission. "If that's alright?"
"Yeah, fine." Rose answered, distracted. Jack moved around the consol so his back was to Rose. He didn't want her to see him so bad, he wanted to protect her from the darkness he felt. The Doctor understood this intimately.
"Where's Mickey?" the Doctor asked cautiously.
"He's okay, he's gone." Rose sounded distant but the reply was what the Doctor expected.
"Do you want to go find him? We'll wait." The Doctor was being polite, but there was a more selfish reason. He looked at Jack. The Doctor wanted more time to conclude his conversation with Jack, which he could only do if they were alone. The Doctor had just caught a glimpse of Jack's personal demons earlier and he wanted to deal with them before Jack could hide them. Jack returned the Doctor's glance and the Doctor knew he may never see that side of Jack again. The Demons would still be there though, under Jack's skin.
"No need. He deserves better." Rose was upset but she had accepted it, and it would pass.
"Off we go then. Always moving on." The Doctor answered after a beat, accepting that he would have to find some other way, some other moment, to help Jack.
It was Jack who spoke next, his happy-mask on and his tone light. "Next stop: Raxecoraclephalipitorious." Jack forced a smile. "Now you don't often get to say that." Jack forced a laugh. The Doctor grinned, even though he felt like he could cry.
"We'll just pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance." Which the Doctor meant as, 'Jack: don't be too hard on yourself. At least give yourself the benefit of the doubt.' But Jack was deaf to all positive things said to or about him. A second chance would really be good but as far as Jack was concerned, he didn't deserve it.
"That'd be nice." Rose answered faintly. She stood there, lost in a dream world. Jack slowly smiled, a natural smile, and started to fix the TARDIS for fun and not just as a distraction. His arms still hurt but he could deal with physical pain. The Doctor helped Jack with the TARDIS, revelling in Jack's enthusiasm but not forgetting the Demons Jack bore. Rose slowly came too and watched as her two men were reduced to boys as they patched up the ship, technobabble whizzing past Rose's head.
Life appeared as normal inside the TARDIS.