Okay, well first off I'm sorry its taken me a month to post...that's a bit unacceptable considering I have quite a bit of this written. I even managed an ending of sorts...though there's something wrong with it - so it's still in progress.
I think Merlin's fogging up my brain...I have so many pages (upwards of 40) of different Merlin story starts because I keep abandoning and starting new ones and that's sort of been my focus - somehow I've decided that I can't write and that appears to be getting in my way. Funny that. But still that's not a good enough excuse, especially because I already had this waiting in the doc manager - but i forgot....so, here I am now. Yay.
Also WOW 30 reviews! I'm very thankful that you guys are continuing with the motivation - because i need it, I'm horribly undisciplined.
Thanks; KittyKatZorse , Lizzle09 , BananaDaiquiri and entelecheia.
entelecheia your review was what finally pushed me to post (the straw that broke the camel's back if you will)....I've been meaning to update for DAYS and just kept forgetting. So thank you. Good timing.
I don't own Doctor Who or any candycanes...as yet.
Last chapter: Cal returned to load up the dinosaurs I- uh they forgot about and Rose and Jack convinced him to come in for a tea and biscuits.
They settled around Jack's office; Jack sitting in his chair behind his desk, Rose next to him sitting next to the Doctor on a wide chair and Cal sitting on the other side of Jack's desk next to Trent. They each held a mug of hot tea, and bonded over a few anecdotes.
"And then of course I had to spend the next two hours removing the quills…we really lived it up back then." Rose said dryly. She leaned over and swiped a biscuit out of Jack's hand, taking a deliberately large bite.
"Hey, Goldilocks!" Jack yelped, "That was mine." He pouted and reached for another biscuit.
"Was being the operative word." The Doctor smiled as Rose shared her prize with him. He curled an arm around Rose's shoulders and sighed into her hair, "Don't pretend you didn't enjoy Jack having to strip off so you could play 'Doctor'." he smirked. Rose tilted her head, a slight blush growing on her cheeks and pursed her lips avoiding looking at anyone. "Come on, you even admitted to liking a man in uniform just today."
Rose sighed, trying to fight the smile on her face. "Must you remember everything I say so you can bring it up at the next available inappropriate time?"
"Yes." The Doctor answered simply. Rose giggled, looking at Jack for help.
He shook his head, "Uh huh, I'm not helping you. You stole my biscuit." He said wagging his finger at her.
"I should have let you pick your own quills out." She muttered, sticking her tongue out at him.
"So…" Cal interrupted "I think you were about to tell us how you all met…before you got sidetracked."
"Not, that that story wasn't amusing." Trent added.
"Trent, that's sweet of you but Cal's right, as usual." Rose smirked, she looked at Jack "Oh, where to start."
"The beginning's always a good place." The Doctor murmured into her ear.
Jack leaned forward onto his desk keeping Rose in his line of sight, "Well, Rose was hanging precariously a couple thousand feet in the air above a war zone-"
"What? Wait. Back up. What were you doing thousands of feet above the ground?" Cal exclaimed looking from Rose to the Doctor (who seemed to have an answer for everything). "War zone?" He added even more doubtfully, like he'd heard wrong.
Rose leaned forward, resting her head in her hands, "Well…It's kind of hard to explain." She gave Jack a plaintive look for help.
"Hanging from a barrage balloon." The doctor answered dryly. "What else would a teenage girl be doing that high up?" He asked sarcastically.
"Maybe if someone hadn't been chasing other things fallin' out of the sky I wouldn't have needed rescuing." Rose protested, turning her head to give the Doctor a look.
The Doctor glared at Jack. "Well, maybe if someone hadn't been trying to scam us I wouldn't have been chasing something in the centre of L-" Jack flinched.
While Rose sat up quickly and covered the Doctor's mouth, raising her eyebrows. She smiled tightly at Cal and Trent, "Sorry, he can get uh…carried…away." She said, the look on her face acknowledging that she wasn't being very convincing.
Cal nodded slightly, knowing that the Doctor had been about to reveal something that apparently he wasn't supposed to hear. "Right." He said slowly, his eyes shifted to Jack "Scam?" he asked hesitantly. Rose gave Jack a sympathetic look and the Doctor a disappointed one and he stopped his muttering from under her hand.
"Well…it was a long time ago. A lifetime ago." Jack tried to explain.
"Many lifetimes ago." The Doctor muttered quietly through Rose's hand.
Rose untangled herself from the Doctor, got up and settled onto Jack's knee, he shifted her to a more comfortable position and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I always knew you were a good guy." She assured confidently. "My own personal knight in shining armour."
Jack gave her a relieved smile and leant his forehead against hers, "At least someone saw me that way…I can die happy now."
Rose giggled, "Again…and again and again." She quipped, ignoring the puzzled looks from Cal and Trent. She bopped her head, "Hey! I'm the only one who hasn't died since we all met." She said realizing it suddenly. She saw Cal and Trent's eyebrows meet their hairline, "Ah, well…" she sighed trying to explain, "We're probably gonna say a lot of things that we won't be able to explain. So-"
"Get used to it?" Cal finished curtly.
The Doctor stared at him, "Others have managed before you. You'd be surprised the number of people we run into who have no clue what's going on around them." He took a sip of tea.
Rose wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders and leaned into him, "What are we going to do with him?" She whispered bemused.
"At least he's prettier to look at now." Jack smirked.
Rose gave him a serious look and whispered, "I'm really sorry he did that. Nobody should know anything about you that you don't want them to know." Jack pressed a kiss to her cheek.
"You saw something in me I wasn't sure was there anymore."
"It was always there, you just needed to wake up." She replied honestly. "If your offer still stands…" Rose looked down "The Doctor said it'd be okay."
Jack tilted her face back up, "I'm always gonna be there for you Rosie. Always." He promised.
The Doctor clattered his mug onto the desk and got everyone's attention. "You two have to be going, right?" He asked looking at Cal and Trent. "So I'll give you the condensed version of how we met, I ran into Rose in a basement and we hit it off straight away. We met Jack, well I say 'we' I mean Rose met Jack when he saved her from falling to her death. They even had time to for a dance and found their own song before coming to find me." The Doctor said standing up abruptly and grabbing one last biscuit; "So I assume dinosaurs wait for no man?" he added gesturing to the door.
Cal and Trent blinked surprised. Rose rolled her eyes to the ceiling and Jack shook his head. "We, are gonna have to work on that." Jack muttered to Rose.
Jack loosened his arms and Rose climbed out of his lap grabbing a tray and stacking some mugs on it, "And he says that in the politest way he knows how." She made a face, "He's still learning patience, unfortunately." She moved around the desk as Cal and Trent stood up, she took the mugs from their hands, placed them on the tray and passed it to the Doctor.
"And what am I supposed to with these?" He asked looking down at the tray in his hands as if he had never seen a mug before.
"Go do the washing up." She said waving him away, "If you ask nicely Mickey might help you." She opened the door and pushed him out gently. Turning back to the boys she sighed, "So, I say we eat a few more chocolate biscuits and then you guys can get going." She suggested, raising an eyebrow.
Jack and Cal grinned while Trent just shook his head in disbelief. "That's my girl." Jack said amused. Rose and Jack shared a look, taking each other's measure and then both launched themselves towards the packet of biscuits. Rose gave a cry of triumph holding the packet above her head and danced out of Jack's reach as he tried to edge quickly around his desk.
"Gettin' slooow in your old age." Rose taunted as they circled the desk. Rose passed Cal and he grabbed the packet out of her hand, she gaped at him.
"Hey, if you can't beat them join them." He quoted moving away from her, "And as far as I'm concerned you're all nuts…Kookier then a gaggle of escaped mental patients." He licked his lips, "But at least now I have the biscuits." He waved them back and forth at Jack and Rose mockingly. They both gave a yell and charged him, Trent sensibly sidestepped out of the way.
The Doctor glared at the crashes and laughter coming from Jack's office, he thrust the tray at a surprised Mickey. "Rose wants you to wash these."
I wrote this like so long ago that rereading it now...well it actually sounds good....and partially in character if I do say so myself.
I can actually be discerning - which is a lovely feeling. Hurray!
So hope you had a good chapter, I'll post sooner then I did this time. Thanks you for reading.