STORIES

THIRTYTHREE

"Grasshopper?"

"Yes, Teacher?"

"As you already know, we need to get to Cardiff. I will want you to create a nice little secure subspace bubble and include The Doctor's TARDIS inside of it, along with yourself, of course, and take us there posthaste."

"Yes, Teacher. Let me know when you're ready."

Wil looked over at The Doctor and smiled a little too sweetly. "No more energy cell shenanigans as long as I'm around."

He smiled right back at her, "Yes, Teacher."

Jack looked around and crossed his arms over his chest. "Wow, five of us. Almost a full compliment, eh, Doctor?"

The Time Lord nodded. "That's assuming Wil isn't going to disappear."

"Oh, snap!" was Wil's response to the catty remark.

"But true enough," grinned John as he sidled over and kissed her on the cheek. "You weren't by any chance planning on going somewhere else, were you M'Lady?"

She shook her head solemnly. He knew she'd never lie to him, and yet… There was nothing he wanted more at that precise moment than to run far, far away – in the exact opposite direction from wherever it was they were heading. It wasn't cowardice, it was common sense! Why should she be any different?

John reckoned perhaps it would be prudent to move the topic of conversation away from fleeing. His eyes traveled to Jack's face. "It seems so improbable, all those things that had to happen just so. Too many of them to remember! Any one of those things could've gone the other way and the outcome would've meant my permanent death."

Jack shrugged, "Anthropic principle."

John's eyes went slightly unfocused, "Still, I can't quite believe I'm alive."

"Anthropic? What's that?" asked The Doctor as he pulled a face.

It was John who answered him, "If anything had been a little different, I would be dead – and so I wouldn't have a brain to remember it with."

"Hmm… Singularly unsatisfying," sniffed the Time Lord. "And a tautology. Conditions that are observed in the universe must allow the observer to exist..."

Jack rolled his eyes but knew John Hart's ruminations were the closest he'd ever get to gratitude from his friend for saving his pathetic, threadbare life. It was almost comforting: the more things changed, the more they stayed the same…

John caught the Captain's eyes with his own and he nodded, maybe even winked. "Thanks, Jack," he said softly.

You could've knocked Jack Harkness over with a feather. He looked at John, then at Wil and then finally back at John. "Wow. I think she's done you some good, Captain Hart."

John's face pinked up a little but he rebounded quickly, "Nah, it's just that I know how much you really hate water, Captain Harkness."

Jack smiled wickedly, "Not as much as I hate EVA-ing!"

John leaned in close to Wil's ear and whispered just loud enough so that the rest could plainly hear, "He gets seasick you know, worst I've ever seen. Simply show him a boat and he barfs all over the…"

"John!" snarled Jack.

"You ever see him go near a bathtub?" John's eyes were sparkling.

"JOHN!" Jack yelped.

The others laughed but to be honest all of them felt like they were eavesdropping on a private conversation. They all felt a little uncomfortable, as if they were unavoidably intruding on something exclusive, intimate, special. Yes, they were a little uncomfortable… and maybe more than just a little bit envious.

It was The Doctor, of course and apparently as always can be expected, who broke the spell. "If you're feeling up to it," he looked levelly at Wil, "shall we be on our way?"

"What you mean feeling up to it?" both John and Jack remarked simultaneously, in one voice.

Wil shot The Doctor an extremely nasty look, "Nothing, he means nothing," she huffed.

John was standing beside her and didn't catch the nonverbal part of her response, but Jack had clearly seen her face and its venomous expression. "What's going on here?" the Captain growled.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Wil's eyes darted from The Doctor to John to Jack and then back to The Doctor, where they stayed. Ianto, standing as an observer slightly outside the group, thought the woman had a vaguely – hell, a distinctly – guilty look about her. He also felt as if there was a definite potential for a sudden psychic eruption, although he wasn't quite sure who would be doing the erupting. He took a deep breath and got himself mentally prepared to perform triage if the circumstances came down to that.

Again it was the Time Lord who figuratively stepped into the center of the fray, this time in an attempt to diffuse the situation – or was it? "I'm sorry," he said, mostly sounding like he meant it. "I'm referring to a private conversation I had with Wil. I had no right to bring it up in public and I apologize for sticking my nose uninvited into her business. It was wrongheaded of me."

Jack was patently not amused. "You suck at apologies, Doctor, you always have, you always will, and that one sucked more than most. And you know… you're not one who should be talking about someone else's health, not after the stunt you pulled earlier. You've got some explaining to do, but I'll leave that for another place and another time."

The Captain took a step toward Wil. Without thinking she reached for and grasped John's hand. Although his face was fierce, Jack's voice was calm, a half-whisper. "Grasshopper informed us, as she so exquisitely and ambiguously phrased it at the time, that you were more damaged than you appeared. Do you want to tell us about it?"

Wil's face went ashen as she shook her head.

"Why not?"

"Jack…" This was John, and his growl was just as ominous as the Captain's.

"Yes, John?" Jack's steely blue eyes flashed.

"Leave her alone."

"Are you telling me what to do?"

"Drop it, Jack." John released Wil's hand and took a step toward the Captain, his arms at his sides but his fists clearly clenched. In John's book retreat was never an option when it came to Jack Harkness being a jerk.

"John, no!" Wil's voice was horror-stricken.

"Stay out of this, it's between him and me," John seethed.

Jack settled into a fighting stance, bared his teeth in a fierce wolf's smile, and with a flick of his fingers dared John to come closer. "Oh yeah, bring it!"

It was Ianto who stepped in between them. "Sir, sirs… I think both of you should stop and count to ten."

The Captain scowled at him, "What are you, my grade school teacher?"

"No sir. Yes sir. If I need to be, sir. The two of you need to walk away from this, whatever this is. John, Jack," he looked at the two of them, "I know you have a history and I respect that. But Wil is also deserving of respect, Jack. She has a right to her privacy, no matter what."

Jack shook his head, "Not if she's jeopardizing the mission."

Ianto's voice was calm, rational; a perfect counter to the Captain's simmering rage. "I don't think she is, Jack. It seems to me what's going on now between you and John – the man who I just heard you call your best friend, the man whose life you just saved single-handedly when both The Doctor and I had given up all hope – is much more of a danger to the mission."

Jack relaxed his stance and the tension in the room eased, but just barely.

Ianto Jones then turned to John Hart, a man he knew mostly from the innumerable amazing and thoroughly frightening stories Jack Harkness had told him. Stories he'd thought were exaggerated, but now was realizing maybe if anything had been understated. "John, it's true. You know it already. You wouldn't be alive without him."

John looked at the floor and then up at Wil. She nodded her head and did her best to smile.

"Bygones?" Ianto asked, looking at the two men.

"You're not gonna make us shake hands are you?" was Jack's snarky reply.

"No… No I wasn't," Ianto's eyes narrowed. "I was actually thinking more along the lines of a hug."

The Doctor snickered out loud. Jack turned on him, raising an index finger into the air. "You're still going to get yours, Time Lord, so laugh it up while you can."

The Doctor clamped his mouth shut but pursed his lips in a smile.

John Hart also smiled, "Did you really call me your best friend, Jack?" It was a fiendish smile.

The Captain sighed. "Take us home to Torchwood, Grasshopper. Now. Please!"