FFYAOA: Chapter Four

Rose moved her wrists gingerly, glancing around the room that her and Jack had been tossed into without so much as a reason given why. She sighed and then laughed. Some things just didn't change, alternate reality or no. Traveling with the Doctor was hazardous and guaranteed to be exciting. They hadn't been off the Tardis for more than ten minutes when they'd been hauled away for only God knew what.

"What's so funny?"

She shook her head, still laughing. "Nothing," she waved off the question. "Nothin' at all." Her laughter trailed off into snickers and then to nothing and finally she could speak again, "S'just, first trip w' the two of you and look where 'm at already."

"It's not the nicest as prison cells go," Jack said with what looked to Rose like a reassuring smile. It only made her laugh a bit harder, though she was polite enough to try to stifle it. He was only trying to be helpful. "But don't worry, we'll get out."

"Oh, yeah, no worries at all," she agreed when at last she had her laughter under control. "'m just marveling at how quick being with the Doctor put me back in dangerous situations. Was all – step off the Tardis, get hauled off to jail this time. Didn't even have a chance to look 'round the bazaar for more than five minutes."

Jack caught on and a slow grin spread over his lips. He nodded. "He does tend to have trouble following him wherever he goes, doesn't he? This one time, on Thrishnic, he and I were just looking for spare parts for the Tardis, when out of nowhere a local crime lord up and decides that he looks like the man that owes him fifty thousand docets – that's the money on that planet – and we both get jumped and pushed into the back of a hovercraft before we know what's happening. Next thing I know –"

Rose leaned against the wall, listening to Jack's story. It could have been something that happened to them. Her Doctor. Her Jack. And… her. That's how familiar it all seemed. This Jack liked to tell tales, too; just like hers. From that recounting of adventure, he launched into another and then another all over again. She had a feeling it was half wanting to keep her mind off the fact that they were imprisoned and half because he just liked to entertain. When her legs grew tired, Rose slid down the wall and sat on the hard floor, wincing a bit at the coldness that almost immediately seeped through her jeans to the bruise that she'd gotten while struggling to get free from their captors.

She must have winced, because Jack was by her side in a second. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said.

"Your tone says otherwise."

Rose sighed and shrugged. "'s nothing, okay? Just a bruise and the floor's cold." She stopped and thought for a long moment about when they first were shoved into the room. "Come to think of it, it seems like its getting colder in here. Was warm at first."

Instead of denying her spur of the moment assessment of the situation, Jack nodded grimly. "I had already noticed. Not sure what they're doing. The ruling class of this planet during this time period are sort of… well, sick in the head is probably the best way to describe them. They take amusement from the suffering of others." He sat down next to her, so close that she could feel some of his body warmth. It was all she could do not to lean into him, like she would have with the Jack she had known.

"You don't seem cold," she pointed out more to make conversation than anything else.

"The humans of my time are slightly more advanced than they are in yours," he shrugged. "We don't get sick, hot, or cold as easy."

Rose snorted. "Must be nice. Bein' all superior."

She shivered, feeling the room's temperature drop even further. Her breath was coming out now in little foggy puffs. Wriggling, Rose pulled her hands and fingers up into her sleeves. Her toes were starting to feel the chill through both her trainers and socks. Hands still covered by her sleeves, Rose rubbed at her arms.

"Come here."

And then she was being pulled right up alongside Jack, his arm around her shoulders pressing her to him. She thought about protesting for one long second, but didn't. He was warm and sharing that warmth. In moments, her shivering had died off until she was only trembling.

The trembling had nothing to do with being cold, however. Rose licked her lips, careful to keep her eyes off of Jack's face, head down so that he couldn't see the confusion sparking in her eyes. She'd always liked Jack in her own universe – had been heartbroken when he hadn't been with them anymore.

In a way, she had always thought that maybe the two of them could work something out, even if her and the Doctor never got around to it. Or maybe, she had fantasized in more than one dream, all three of them could come together as one, happy unit.

Happy unit, ha! That was why it had been a dream and nothing more. The Doctor would never have gotten domestic. Not her first Doctor, anyway, and by the time her new Doctor rolled around, Jack was out of the picture.

Being here now, pressed up against Jack, breathing in that faintly spicy smell of his cologne, Rose knew again what it was to want. So she didn't try to pull away, didn't try to put some distance between them, and it wasn't just because she needed the warmth. It was because, after missing her Jack for so long, this Jack was good enough. The thought worked its way down, deeper into her mind, until – just for a few warmth-filled, happy moments – she was okay with it.

And then reality hit.

This was not her Jack. Not her world.

And certainly not her Doctor that she was praying would save them, though any savior would do just fine at that moment.

Rose sighed.

"So, this is it, then. They just leave us in here to freeze to death? That's the plan?"

Finally, after a long moment, Jack spoke, "I don't think they'll let it go that far. Not much fun to watch your captives freeze to death." He paused. "I think we're probably already giving them what they want, actually."

"What's that?" Rose asked, turning to look at him. From this angle, all she could see was his profile. The hard set of his face, the tic in his jaw that she knew meant he was either really angry, really irritated, or both. She was sure, right at that moment, that it was both.

"Interaction with one another. Watching how we react to the situation as it changes," he offered in a low voice that she was sure was meant for her ears only. Rose nodded slightly.

"So they won't kill us?"

"No clue, darling," he admitted after a second's pause. "I just don't think that's the goal right now."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," Jack said. He pulled her closer to his side and Rose burrowed her face into his shoulder, refusing to look out the room. Maybe if she just ignored it all, this would end and she wouldn't be here stuck in this room, getting colder and colder by the minute, torturing herself with memories of the past and longing for what should never be.

"He'll be here soon," she whispered into Jack's shoulder. "I know he will."

Jack didn't respond.

x x x

"Rose, honey, wake up."

"Jack?" Rose muttered, tired. "You get that power coupling hooked up for the Doctor?"

He laughed and she felt strong hands on her shoulders, gently jostling her. Rose swallowed and opened her eyes. Why was Jack waking her up when she needed to sleep?

Oh, right, Rose realized the second the sleep had cleared from her eyes. This wasn't her Jack. She blushed. "Just ignore me, was dreaming."

"About me fetching a power coupling for the Doctor?" Jack smirked. "Yeah, I got that."

"Was the other Jack…other Doctor," she defended herself testily. "Wasn't dreamin' about you."

"Yet," he teased. "Give me half a shot and I'll give you things to keep your mind in sweet dreams for at least half your life."

"Only half?" Rose rolled her eyes and pulled away from him. It was then that she noticed that she wasn't cold anymore.

"They turned the cold air off maybe half an hour ago. It's been getting warmer since then."

She didn't dare ask how much warmer it had gotten and how quickly, afraid that she would be told that it now looked like their captors were swinging from cold to hot. Instead, Rose forced herself to really look around the room for the first time. It didn't look like a jail cell. There was a bed and the floor was carpeted, if not very thinly. On the other hand, there were no windows and only a single steel door that they had heard being locked when they were first thrown in.

She was really starting to wish the Doctor hadn't gone off to a different part of the market. Had they been missing long enough for him to even get worried? She couldn't tell. Time was all so fleeting when she had nothing to measure it against. It was sort of like being in the Tardis, except without that feeling of home and security.

Sitting up, Rose stretched out her arms and legs. "How long was I asleep?"

"Maybe an hour? Hard to say."

Just as she'd thought. So it had been about two or three hours since they'd been tossed in this room.

"Would it help if I promised to try to get him to take us somewhere safe and restful after this?"

Rose laughed before she could stop herself. A short bark of sound that rang through the room. She bit the inside of her cheek at the mock-hurt on Jack's face.

"What?" he asked.

"D'you know how many times we said that? The three of us? Next time it would be safe. Next time it would be fun. Next time it would be restful. Never was," she laughed. "Well, 'cept for the fun part. Always did enjoy runnin' for my life with the two of you. I mean, with my Doctor and my Jack."

"I knew what you meant," he assured her. "And I'm glad to see that we've lived up to your standards so far. Anything I could do to raise the bar a bit?"

She grinned. "Dunno, could you put us in real mortal danger? Not just this up and down temperature thing? It's creepy, but hardly life threatening."

The door to the room swung open as Rose finished speaking and she sucked in a breath. Two guards, like the ones that had captured them, stepped into the room while two more remained in the hall. Four guns were trained on them and Rose felt menace descend over the room.

"Hey, Rose," Jack asked in a quiet voice, taking a step closer to her under the watchfully hateful eyes of their captors. "Remember that old saying about being careful what you wish for?"

END CHAPTER