8
Gwen pocketed her phone. "Rhys!" she called, running her fingers through her hair and fluffing it a bit. "Are you ready?"
"Putting my shoes on."
"That was Ianto," she said. "He wanted to give us a heads-up. He says Jack may finally have caught his Doctor last night. Thought we should know in case, well, if we run into anything awkward. The Doctor is a bit skittish about sex, you know. Or at least Jack said once when he was good and drunk."
Rhys handed Gwen her bag. "You're kidding me! I mean, nobody ever actually told me Jack had the hots for the Doctor until you did, but it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure it out. I knew for months before you said anything. You only need to look at his face when the Doctor's name comes up. How long has Jack waited?"
"Over a hundred-forty years now."
"Jesus! Never thought of Jack as the type to hang on for any length of time."
"Most of the time he doesn't, but he does have a romantic side. Remember me telling you about Estelle?"
"Forgot about that. Still, over a hundred-forty…this is a little bit bigger than a notch on a bed post, isn't it?"
"I'd say so, yeah. More than a passing fancy…in fact, this is enormous."
Ianto, Gwen and Rhys waited while the great cog rolled, granting them access to the Hub. Their arms were full of bags filled with pastries, biscuits and other treats on the Doctor's list of preferred breakfast foods. They ferried them to the conference room, then went into the main area, casting about for any evidence of Jack and the Doctor.
A vase filled with roses sat on a table. Discarded packaging lay on the floor. Ianto picked up the packaging, smiling as he disposed of it. He went to make coffee. Rhys took a seat after sniffing the roses. Gwen went to her work station. She stood for a moment, staring. "Um, Ianto?"
"What?"
She was grinning. "Come and have a look at this."
Ianto walked over and stood behind her, looking over her shoulder. "Oh, shit. Jack must have turned it on and forgot. We really shouldn't be looking at this."
"You going to turn it off?" Gwen smirked.
Ianto paused a moment, then answered "No…not yet anyway."
Rhys went to stand with them, curious as to what was going on. On the screen was Jack and the Doctor. The Doctor sat straddling Jack's lap, bouncing up and down. He chanted, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"
"Bloody hell!" Rhys said. He reached over and turned off the cctv camera. "A little decency, you two! Jesus!" He walked off before stopping dead in his tracks. He turned and looked at his wife. "They must have been at it all bloody night!" He snickered. "Nasty buggers!"
The Doctor, freshly showered and wearing his pyjamas and one of Jack's too-big dressing gowns, fairly bounced into the conference room followed by a fully dressed and very smug Jack.
"Brilliant!" said the Time Lord, a big grin on his face. "I'm starving!"
"I bet!" muttered Gwen, trying not to laugh.
"Oi! Put two and two together yet, have you lot?" The Doctor waggled his eyebrows.
"More like you and Jack put one and one together, I take it?" Ianto said, handing the Doctor a cup of tea.
"Oh, yes!" replied the Doctor. He swaggered around the table and plopped down in a chair next to Jack, sighing contentedly. "And," here he gave them a wicked wink. "Still got it!"
Ianto looked at Jack, eyebrows raised questioningly. "In spades," Jack said in reply. "Just call me Happy Jack."
The Doctor loaded a paper plate up with various treats and set to it with a will. He grinned around a mouthful of donut.
"Look at the pair of you," Rhys chuckled. "So, you two…an item now, are you?"
The Doctor swallowed and chased his donut with a sip of tea. "In a manner of speaking."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"We have a pair-bond," Jack grinned. Like a Cheshire cat.
"And what does a pair-bond…what does that mean?" Ianto asked.
"Well, it just means Jack and I are joined now. We'll always come back together. It's…not exclusive. Not on Jack's part, anyway. Me? I'm a one-man kind of Time Lord. Just Jack, only Jack, nobody else. Personal choice. But Jack is still free to do whatever he likes, except when I'm around. Then he's mine. He won't be able to stop himself. Neither will I," He grinned, looking side-wise at Jack. "We're linked now. And it's permanent. Think you can handle that?" This last with an open and quite frank look on his face.
"I'm not that selfish," Ianto replied, seeing the happy look on Jack's face. "But you said when you're around. Does this mean you're leaving us?"
Jack slid an arm around the Doctor's waist. "We talked about it," he said, pressing smiling lips to his lover's cheek. "Not just yet. When he's ready."
The Doctor finished his third donut and grabbed a handful of biscuits. "I'm not nearly ready to leave just yet," he agreed. "But I'm getting there. Guess it goes without saying I'll be here more often, now, so you lot had better behave."
"Which basically means Jack will catch hell if we don't?" Gwen grinned. "Brilliant! I'd like to see Mister Jack Harkness get his arse chewed out for once!"
"And you're looking at the Time Lord that'll do it," Jack said, pre-empting the Doctor's no-doubt smart-ass retort. "But no worries, there. Anything he's got a problem with, we'll work out between us. It's not as though I haven't taken Torchwood in a whole new direction as it is. But make no mistake. Your boss is still Jack Harkness. And what I say goes, Doctor or no Doctor."
"We've agreed on that much, at least," said the Doctor, scooping up a Jaffa cake. He bit into it. "Mmm. Blackcurrant. Brilliant! Seriously, though…Jack is the head of Torchwood 3. I'm a guest, nothing more. If I have anything to disagree about, we'll work it out between us. Now, where is that cerebral degenerator? I've had an idea of what to do with it that's…well, seeing as I'm me, genius." He stood up, gave Jack a peck on the cheek and bounced out of the room. He ran straight back in. "Sonic?"
Jack tossed him his beloved sonic screwdriver. "Just hang onto it. I think you're good with it, now."
The Doctor beamed, pleased with Jack's confidence in him. "So I am!" He gave them a broad grin and a wink, clucking his tongue. He swaggered off.
"Well," chided Gwen. "That made a difference!"
"Maybe a little," Jack said.
"A little?" Ianto eyed Jack skeptically.
"Well, it helped," Jack said. "But don't let him fool you. He's riding a pink cloud right now, but I'm not ready to let him go just yet. He tends to put up a good front. So, I want him here for a few weeks. Just to be sure."
"I can hear you!" the Doctor said in a sing-song voice.
"Shit, I keep forgetting he has hearing like a fox." Jack grimaced.
"Yes, he does!" the Doctor sang.
"And how about you?" Gwen asked. "You certainly look like the cat that got the cream."
"Because I did," Jack said, smiling gently. "Took long enough, but it was well worth the wait. And I know you're still listening!" This last directed at the Doctor. From below they could hear the Time Lord chuckle in return. He lowered his voice to a near whisper, saying, "I'm happy, let's just put it that way. And don't ask for any details, you won't get them. Not for my sake, but his. I respect him too much to share the details. And…yeah, I love him. And he loves me. That's all any of you need to know. He's kind of…well, it's a bit dodgy to discuss without compromising his dignity, you know, he's a bit skittish about—"
"Sex, yeah, so I heard," whispered Rhys.
"Not when I'm having it!" came the sing-song voice of the Time Lord from below.
"Jeez, can't keep any secrets from you," Jack shouted. "How am I supposed to surprise you? What am I going to do about Christmas?"
"Wait until I'm away?" answered the Doctor.
Jack looked at Gwen, Ianto and Rhys. "Be right back," he said. He went downstairs. They heard him talking to the Doctor.
"Listen, should I just shut the door? I have a feeling I'm disrupting you." Jack snarked.
"Me? Jack, how silly of you, you should know better than that, to think, as long as you've known me, I mean really, you know I can do a gazillion things at once, a gazillion and one things, in fact, and Mmmmph!"
There was a long moment of silence followed by a soft moan from the Doctor.
"Now, do you think you can work without disrupting me?" Jack asked pointedly.
"Yeah," said the Doctor throatily. "Of course you know if I'm in the mood for a kiss I'm going to be disruptive again."
"Come here, you," Jack growled.
More silence followed by yet another soft moan.
"Think that'll hold you a while?" Jack said tartly.
"Until elevenses, at least."
"Good," Jack chuckled. "Oh, and you might want to get dressed. We might need to leave in a hurry. That tends to happen around here. Unless you don't want to be part of the action?"
"Point taken," replied the Doctor.
Jack came back up the stairs, and this time when he went back into the conference room he waited until Rhys went to keep the Doctor company and shut the door.
"Right," Jack said. "Now, what's on for today? Whose got the grafts for positive and negative rift spikes?"
Around lunch, the Doctor tossed the cerebral degenerator to Jack. "You'll want to have Ianto re-label this," he grinned happily. "It's now a cerebral regenerator."
"Pretty obvious what you mean by that, but could you give us a little more detail?" Jack said, turning the device in his hands.
"Meaning it repairs brain damage through a wide spectrum of species. Could come in very handy. Mind, it won't help a victim of say a very powerful handgun or a devastating blow to the head, but it will help in some instances. Mild to slightly severe brain damage. Should work on most any species, though of course we've no way of knowing for sure until it's tested."
"Brilliant!" Jack said with a wide grin. "Hope we never have to find out but it's good to know we have the option. What else have you been working on?"
"Oh, just sifting through stuff. Some of it isn't repairable, but you'll want to hang on to it for parts. Some of it I could actually use for spare parts for the TARDIS if you don't mind. Other stuff I've disabled or destroyed. Really, Jack, it's a wonder you lot haven't caused a massive explosion or a huge rip in space-time. Or started a plague or caused planet-wide sterility across all species or…" He glanced at Gwen and Ianto. "Please be careful in future, will all of you? And if any of you have any questions about any alien tech you people collect, I'll help. Promise."
"So what are you doing after lunch?" Rhys asked. "I thought we were going to play cards."
The Doctor grinned. "That's why I've been busy all morning! I wanted to get some work done before I take you to the cleaners."
Rhys took a fresh pack of cards out of his pocket and tossed it to the Doctor. "After lunch, then?"
"S'pose," the Doctor replied around a mouthful of pizza. "Don't see why not, seems nothing is happening here."
And of course that was when Gwen received a call from Andy. "Jack!" Gwen's face had gone ashen. "We've got another Nostrovite!"
A/N - sorry for the delay in the updates of this and Snacker...RL is in the way. Seriously.