CATEGORY: Humor/Drama/Gen/Het/Slash. Oh, and some angst. Any other questions?
RATINGS/WARNINGS: PG-13 for Captain Jack
CONTINUITY/SPOILERS: This takes place during Season One. No spoilers except for the existence of Jack.
NOTES: This is a belated birthday present for Seimaisin.
The time rotor was silent and no alarms rang or lights flashed. So, Rose thought as she wandered into the console room yawning, this was going to be a boring morning.
She didn't even pause at the sight of Jack and the Doctor waving hands and arguing over something, since that could be anything up to and including the exact setting of some boring bit of equipment with a long name.
"Right, Rose?" Jack said, pointing at her.
The Doctor crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Maybe," she said. "It depends on what we're talking about, doesn't it?"
Jack grinned his best con man's grin. "I'm trying to convince the Doctor we should celebrate his birthday."
Rose yawned again, her mouth feeling like it would split open. "Mmm. Sounds fair enough. When's the big day?"
"That's what I've been trying to tell him," the Doctor said, uncrossing his arms. "Time Lords don't celebrate birthdays. We travel in time."
"So why not celebrate it today?" Jack asked.
The Doctor shook his head, expression mulish, and Rose rubbed her temples. Had she actually thought today would be boring?
"Besides, Doctor, this is a time machine. We can celebrate on any day we choose." Jack smiled brightly and the Doctor stared at him.
For whatever reason, this was obviously important to Jack, so it was probably best to just roll with it, even if he wasn't making sense.
"Sure," Rose said with a shrug, "why not?"
"Why not?" The Doctor spluttered, giving her a look that clearly said 'Traitor!'
Rose sauntered over to the console, ignoring the Doctor. She leaned back against the railing. "What did you have in mind?" she asked Jack.
"Well..." Jack leaned forward.
"Oi!" The Doctor waved his hands. "Is it my birthday or not?"
"Yes, Doctor," Jack and Rose chorused.
"Well, then." He nodded.
There was a pause.
"Doctor?" Rose said. "What do you want to do?"
He blinked. "I have no idea."
Grinning, Jack rubbed his hands together. "I have just the thing. Before I joined you, I made a reservation for a cabin on Mirabilis III for Arkon Week, 2162, and I haven't used it yet."
"Mirabilis III?" The Doctor's eyebrows shot up. "The pleasure planet?"
"Pleasure planet?" Rose choked a bit on the words.
"Not that kind of planet," Jack said. He paused, his eyes going distant. "Well, not just that kind of planet."
"Right." Rose shook her head.
"They've got everything," Jack said. "Skiing, live theatre, games, zero G gymnastics, music, incredible libraries..."
Now the Doctor's eyes went distant. "I've heard they have an entire library devoted to archaeology. And a museum just for art of the Third Age."
"That's the place," Jack said. "Shall we?"
"Right," the Doctor said, leaping at the console. "What are we waiting for?"
Jack and Rose grinned at each other. "So," she asked, "what does the well-dressed time traveler wear on Mirabilis III anyway?"
"Whatever you want." Jack looked innocent. "As little as you want."
Rose jabbed him in the side with her elbow as he laughed.
Mirabilis III was everything Jack had promised.
The Doctor disappeared into a library as soon as they arrived, so Jack and Rose shrugged and decided to see how many restaurants they could find in a five-mile radius and then played a game of one-on-one football. Or a game that was something like football, if the ball could levitate itself. And kept score for you.
Rose learned that Jack was good at games, she loved Rigellian fire stew, and Fordian fungus was the nastiest thing she'd ever eaten.
That evening, they tracked the Doctor down in a remote corner of a different library with a stack of books over three meters high next to him and a grin a kilometer wide.
They made him eat a piece of birthday cake over his loud protests and then all three strolled the streets, listening to the music of a thousand planets and half a million cultures. Rose was especially interested in an instrument that looked like an electric violin with several sets of strings.
"I could get you one," Jack said, stepping to one side to avoid three furry orange creatures running down the street. "They sell everything here."
Rose sighed, looking wistfully behind her. "Yes, but I'd need a third hand to play it."
Glancing at the alien playing the instrument, he shrugged. "I could probably get you that too."
"Ugh." Rose grimaced. "No thanks!"
"Your loss."
The Doctor rolled his eyes and led them down another street to listen to some Venusian opera he claimed to have helped to write.
When they were tired, they went back to the luxurious suite Jack had charmed them into and Jack showed them how to play a game he'd picked up on a planet he couldn't remember the name of. The game involved a lot of changing rules and slapping of hands on the table. The Doctor was terrible at it, complaining that it didn't make sense.
"It's completely logical," Rose said, trying to hide her laughter.
"It's logical if you're a human," the Doctor retorted.
Many hours later, Rose yawned, stretching her arms over her head. "I'm off to bed, gents."
"Alone?" Jack asked, touching her hand as she walked by.
"Yes, alone." She grinned at him and continued to her room. About to shut the door, she stopped, remembering she'd wanted to ask Jack about the zero G gymnastics he had mentioned.
"Why?" the Doctor was asking, and Rose paused, hand on the doorknob, holding her breath. She didn't know why, but she felt the answer was significant.
"Why? Because I can." Jack noisily shuffled the deck of cards on the table. "Another game?"
"Why do this?" The Doctor's tone was intense and through the thin sliver of doorway, Rose could see him leaning forward and studying Jack.
The card sounds slowed and stopped. "Why?" Jack's carefree tone was gone. "People die. People disappear. Years of my life are gone. I just...need to celebrate sometimes."
The Doctor closes his eyes. "I understand." He reached out, putting a hand on Jack's arm. "I won't die."
"But you'll disappear. Someday. Everyone does."
"Jack, I--"
"Don't. I'm fine. We're here now and that's what's important." The grin was back in Jack's voice. "Now let me beat the pants off you in another game of plada."
The Doctor snorted. "You'll have to work harder than that to get my pants off."
Rose smiled and went to bed.
--end--