TITLE: Not Just a Dance

AUTHOR: NNWest

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, none of them are mine...but I like playing with them.

AN: Set in loneraven's girlDoctor 'verse. Great thanks to my beta, Gillian Taylor (Dark Aegis), who kept giving me ideas that I never used.

"You realise you're leading." He'd slipped into the submissive role easily. He wasn't bothered by it; truthfully, he hadn't even thought about it. This was the Doctor after all. She led, he followed. That's the way it had always worked: during their adventures, dancing--real dancing, she'd never indulged him in the other and though he flirted, he'd never been forward enough to ask--in everything since they'd met and she was a he. Now he only brought it up because they were drawing looks.

"That a problem?" she asked.

Jack grinned. "Not at all. Just checking because it looks like the locals weren't expecting it, is all."

The Doctor swept a glance around them. They were indeed garnering some nervous attention from the other dancers. This time period is just a little too conventional for this, she mused. It was the reason she wasn't dancing with Rose. "Ah," she said. "See what you mean." A little sheepishly, she looked up at him. "Problem is I don't know this one from the other side."

"Want to learn?"

Now she grinned. "All right. Switch."

Without breaking step, they unclasped hands and rearranged, clasping hands on the opposite side, her hand going to his shoulder, his settling at her waist as he took the lead. With the change, an idea surfaced in Jack's mind and he almost laughed out loud at the thought.

With a sudden jerk, he pulled her closer, holding her tight against him, his hand sliding to the small of her back. The Doctor's mouth quirked and her eyes glittered with mirth at his brazenness. With a wry smirk, she said, "Cheeky."

"All part of the lesson," he countered wolfishly. "Just doing exactly what any rakish playboy would do when presented with a lovely lady."

She laughed lightly at him. "And you play the role well, Captain."

He chuckled. "Thank you."

Another step and Jack found they turned so he could see Rose seated at their table, watching them. Her shoulders were shaking and he saw that she was grinning wildly behind her hand. She was laughing at them. No doubt she had seen their swap and his subsequent manoeuvre, and found great hilarity in both. He grinned back at her and she threw him a kiss in response.

"Now, as part of this exercise," the Doctor was saying with an impish smile, "am I supposed to play the accommodating damsel and succumb to your devilish charms? Or shall I take my usual tack against unwarranted attention?"

Jack stopped and pulled back from her a little with a mock grimace. "I would have to say that, in your role, it is entirely your prerogative to decide. Both are certainly viable options. But, as the recipient of said action, I know I would prefer the first." She settled against him and they started moving once more. "Frankly, the thought of your boot heel connecting with any part of my anatomy isn't something I'd like to contemplate," he finished.

She laughed at him. "Where's your sense of adventure, Jack?"

"Must've left it in my other pants." He smirked. "But I didn't think this was an adventure. Just a dance."

"Is anything with you 'just a dance'?"

"It can be," he said carefully. "Sometimes it has to be."

She regarded him seriously. "And this?"

"Has to be."

"Why?"

He swallowed deliberately. "You and Rose..." he trailed off.

She waited for him to continue. When it was apparent he wasn't going to, she prompted, "So?" This close to him, she could hear that his heart rate had quickened, feel the tension in him under her hand; she knew he was terrified.

"So? What are you saying?"

"You've always loved Rose. Always loved me," the Doctor pointed out.

They were now standing stock still in the middle of the dance floor, gazing at each other. Pinned under her scrutiny, Jack felt as if time had stopped, the moment stretching into an eternity while the other dancers moved effortlessly around them. "I died for you." His voice was barely above a whisper. It was something he'd never voiced to her.

"I know and I don't know if I can ever repay that," she replied gently.

He shook his head curtly. Pulling her close, they started to move again, but not before she saw the beginnings of tears shining in his eyes. "You do, Doctor, every day. Just by being there, doing what you do. What we do."

They danced for a few minutes more before she asked, "What do you want, Jack?"

"Me? I've got everything I hoped for." He answered lightly, but she could hear he was fighting to keep his voice even.

"And what about what you've dreamed of and never dared to hope for?"

He went silent for a moment. Eventually a glimmer of a smile graced his lips. "That way lies madness," he whispered. "Why now?"

They stopped again, this time at the edge of the floor, and the Doctor looked up at him into his eyes. "I was scared before," she told him honestly, "my ninth self too damaged. There was just so much pain, too much to deal with after I lost Gallifrey. And though I longed to, I couldn't tell Rose, couldn't tell you that I loved you. Tell you how grateful I was to you both that you saved me from myself, gave me a reason to live again. Jack, I'm sorry we lost you for so long."

"And now? What about Rose? What will she-" He was cut short by the sudden hand on his back and he found Rose at his side.

"Rose loves you too, Jack," Rose said with a warm smile and a gentle press of her lips to his.

He glanced in astonishment from her to the Doctor and back, not sure whether to believe this could be happening. Jack closed his eyes as Rose's arms and then the Doctor's wrapped tightly around him. His arms settled around them and he hugged the two women he loved more than life itself just as fiercely.

He could feel the Doctor smile into his neck. "What do you say, Jack," she said softly. "Are just going to stand there speechless or are you going to let this be more than 'just a dance'?"

He opened his eyes and beamed at her. "You sure you can handle me?" he asked suggestively as they released him.

"I think we'll manage," she assured him dryly before grabbing his jacket lapels and pulling him down into a solid kiss. Jack was left a little breathless when the Doctor let him go, and she laughed at his expression as she grasped Rose's hand and his. "Now, let's get off this dance floor before we shock the natives again."