The Doctor locked the Tardis door and the noise faded to nothing. Jack watched him, his every precise movement as he gently stroked the control panels on the ship. Jack knew the Tardis was somehow alive but he had never seen the Doctor touch it like this. It was as if he were caressing it, soothing it.

"Rose isn't back yet?" Jack asked the question. He was leaning against the railings. He wanted the Doctor to talk to him. He wanted things to be easy and simple.

"No," the Doctor gave a short answer. "She's still out partying with the other dumb apes." He continued to look at the control panel.

Jack gave a half-laugh. "Dumb apes? Is that what we are?"

"Sometimes," the Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and looked at it carefully. "Dumb drunken apes."

"I'm so sorry that we like to drink," Jack replied. He knew that the alcohol was slowing him down and it was making him angry. Also making his angry was the Doctor's dismissive attitude towards him. Sometimes he was so condescending.

"It must be so hard being a genius amidst all our stupidity," Jack continued. His ire was growing and suddenly he no longer wanted to apologize for the argument earlier.

"Sometimes," the Doctor replied in the same neutral tones. The sonic screwdriver continued to interest him greatly.

"Oh come on Doc," Jack snapped at him. "You're not so different. I mean, you like the same things as the rest of us. Look at you and Rose."

"Enough about Rose!" the Doctor turned on him, the anger there in a blink of an eye. "I care about her, I love her dearly but that is all there is to it. Do you think I want to see her attached permanently to someone who is not worth her?"

"In your opinion you're the only one worth her!" Jack answered back, anger turning to rage.

"No I'm not," the Doctor yelled. "You miss the point, as usual, fly boy."

"Fly boy!"

"Rose may have casual associations with whomever she wishes but she is not to live with someone who cannot make her happy." The Doctor delivered this with a steely determination.

"And I suppose me just being a fly boy will never make her happy?" Jack shot back. He was almost shaking with rage at being told he didn't meet the Doctor's standards.

"You stupid ape," the Doctor shifted round the rail so that he was nearer Jack. "When did I ever say that?"

Jack, who was quickly sobering up, stood straight to face the Doctor. "If you don't think that then why do you always keep us apart? Whenever I go near Rose you are always there, needling me, pushing me away, telling Rose how you and her are the dream team."

The pair of them was standing eye to eye. Jack was red from shouting and from anger and was trembling with what he could only identify as desire. As much as he hated the Doctor that minute he wanted him still. Being told he wasn't good enough only increased the longing he had to grab the Doctor and show him just how good Captain Jack could be.

"And you shout at me for calling you a stupid ape!" the Doctor carried on, his voice getting slightly higher with his anger.

"What are you talking about?" Jack screamed again, rage and desire and incomprehension driving him insane.

And then the Doctor reached across the final gap that separated them and clamped Jack's head in his hands and gave him a deep, passionate kiss that surprised Jack so much he almost forgot to respond. Then Jack started kissing the Doctor back and all the heat of the night and the energy of the crowds was suffused into the two of them.

Eventually the Doctor pulled away, "Do you understand now fly boy? I wasn't keeping you away from Rose."

Jack looked at him and smiled in amazement and nodded. "Yes."

The Doctor smiled back, a grin of absolute happiness. "And as for being like you stupid apes, well," he took Jack's hand and, without saying anything further, led him away, to his bedroom.

That night the Doctor showed just how human he could be and Jack learnt exactly what nine hundred years of experience could teach you. After hours of connection in the dark they eventually fell asleep, entangled in one another, tired, satisfied and happy.

A couple of hours later a sobered up Rose let herself into the Tardis. She looked a little more disheveled than when she had left and was expecting the Doctor to be waiting for her. She was surprised when he wasn't there with a mock-serious lecture.

"Hey, I'm back," she called.

There was no answer and she was puzzled. Perhaps they had gone out as well? After all, the Tardis was now humming away to itself. In fact, Rose thought it sounded more harmonious than she had ever heard.

Walking through the ship she put her head round the door of the Doctor's room to see if, by some strange occurrence he was still sleeping. She gasped when she saw the two bodies entwined; Jack's slightly tanned limbs set off the paleness of the Doctor well. Rose grinned to herself. It was about time the Doctor had some fun. Shutting the door quietly she undressed and got into bed, letting the happy purr of the Tardis lull her to sleep.

The End