(Part 3)
He found that having a room so close to Jackie and Pete in his current condition was not good. Not good at all.
This was the second time tonight that he'd been woken up by Jackie's loud cries of "OH yes! Pete!" Not to mention the loud grunts and, once, a wail of pleasure..He couldn't remember ever having been woken up by them before. He could only suppose that they were normally a lot quieter about their love making when Tony was in the room next door to them (and not sleeping at his friend's house). Wasn't it an accepted fact that human males had a refractory period? That they weren't able to get erect again immediately after having sex?
Thinking about erections was really not helping when he was sporting one so hard it was painful. He wriggled about, closing his eyes as a grunt of his own escaped him at the friction of his pyjamas against it. Time Lords weren't this sensitive. Weren't really sensitive down there at all. This was different. Nerve endings were alive with sensation and every tiny movement was driving him nuts.
He threw off his duvet, blanket and sheet and lowered his pyjama bottoms.
Tiny muscles were twitching in his thighs, his pelvis and around the base of his penis making it bob slightly. He let out a sound that was half surprise, and half frustration. He felt extremely hot, like when he'd had that cold just before Christmas.
Feeling a bit dirty at his own actions, he slowly lowered his hand and swiped it over the head of his penis. He had to bite his other hand so as not to let out a moan as loud as the people further down the landing. He didn't want them to know what he was doing.
God! That had felt incredibly good.
He sat up, putting the pillows behind his back to support himself, planted his feet, took a deep breath and wrapped his hand around himself.
"Bloody... hell!" he whispered, closing his eyes and trying not to make any more noise. He had a new respect for the Tyler's managing to stay as quiet as they normally did. He was a vocal person by nature; it was going to be difficult for him to stay quiet.
By the time he started actually moving his hand he was panting harshly. He let his head roll back as he pressed his feet deeply into the bed, and his body compensated by bucking up into his hand. He curled his free hand into the sheets beside him and began to thrust. He couldn't help himself.
The hand around his shaft sped up, his panting became more ragged and he began to sweat. His eyes rolled up and his eyelids fluttered closed; his jaws clenched shut. His entire body was tightening up so hard; he wondered if it could kill him. For a few seconds he stopped breathing altogether, the only thing that moved, could move, was his hand.
His mad rhythm faltered for a second and then his body released itself, his head hitting the wall with a bang. A loud cry escaped him as most of his muscles relaxed, while the ones vital to reproduction and... well, this, continued to spasm.
A long, drawn out moan of relieved release ripped its way out of him but his hand kept on, moving slowly, until he felt like he was going to collapse into a pile of mush, and stay that way forever.
It took him a few long minutes to catch his breath, and when he did, he found that he couldn't stop himself giggling. He looked down his body, saw what a mess he'd made and laughed out loud.
The only experiences with sex he could remember having were from a Time Lord's perspective. He'd never once had sex with a human, or as a human before. Heck, he couldn't even remember doing this when the Doctor had been John Smith and had had Martha to watch out for him.
With Time Lords sex was a much quicker thing. They merely controlled the blood flow to the penis to get it erect, inserted into a female, then triggered ejaculation. That was it. Pure and simple.
He'd never had an orgasm before. It felt more than a bit good.
The Doctor had no idea what he was missing out on.
He cleaned off the mess with a corner of the sheet, not caring that the cleaners would probably notice. They'd been cleaning up after him for days now anyway.
For the first time since this whole sex thing had started, he had a good night's sleep. And waking up was just as pleasant.
It wasn't until he was eating breakfast that he realised that he had maybe been a bit louder than he had meant to be. No one said a word, but those sorts of facial expressions were fairly universal. His face flushed red hot and he picked at his eggs, afraid to look back up.
"You know, you don't have to get all embarrassed about last night," Pete said eventually.
"Me? I'm not the person who woke 'other people' up" he muttered, letting himself get as small as he could in his seat as he continued to pick at the food on his plate.
Jackie let out a bit of a cough, looked at him and blushed herself. "Sorry, that was my fault. Pete does this thing... Drives me mad. He only does it when Tony's not home."
"I can't even begin to understand why that might be," he replied, as sarcastically as he could muster.
"Oh, stop being smart. We heard you. It sounded like you were enjoying yourself to me."
He scowled. "Oh yeah, because I bloody love having no control over my body's reactions. Wizard that is."
"You were giggling for half an hour, Doctor."
He slammed his hands down beside his plate, pushed it angrily out of the way and stood up, glaring at Jackie. "Don't call me that! I'm not him. I'm me. I'm just Jack now, alright? Just take the 'i' and the 'e' off your own name. That should be easy enough for you to remember!"
She stared up at him in surprise, and it was only then that he noticed he was breathing hard and his hands were clenched into fists on the table. Had he just shouted that out loud? He hadn't meant to. He'd just wanted them to know.
He turned around and marched off to his room. Today was a Friday, so he had nowhere else to go but around the house and grounds. He wished he had classes or, even better right now, that punching bag.
He used his pillows instead. Screaming helped too he found, the Doctor's home language spilling out of him in a rush. He sulked for a half hour after he had stopped before he felt calm enough to venture out of his room without going into a rage again. He really needed to apologise for going off on one like that to Jackie.
He found her in the family room watching Eastenders. Some things really didn't change at all. He sat down next to her, and waited for the programme to finish.
In the end, he didn't have to wait that long, Jackie sighed loudly, flicked off the television and turned to him. He shifted slightly, and at the same time, they both said, "I'm sorry."
He laughed, nervously, and shook his head. "No, really, I'm sorry. I was embarrassed, and then you called me Doctor. Being called that upsets me Jackie, a lot. I just... I lost it completely. I'm sorry."
Jackie frowned and shook her head in return. "No, don't apologise for getting angry this time. It's our fault. We were teasing you, and we shouldn't have done that. It was juvenile."
Sighing, Jack let his head flop down to rest on the back of the sofa. "It was my first time experiencing that, by the way. Ever. I knew the basics of it, obviously, I've been around a long time, but the feelings and the mess and everything that goes with it? All new. I think I have the right to be embarrassed when all I get is teased for it."
"First time? Oh, god, I'm sorry. We didn't know."
He shook his head. "You didn't have any way of knowing. Things are a lot different with Time Lords. I'm only now getting that, now, because now I'm living it. And I don't mean that only in a sexual way either. Everything is different and new, and I'd appreciate it, I really would, if you tried helping more rather than cracking jokes."
Jackie nodded glumly at him. "Sorry, sweetheart. You just... Well... I look at you and I see him. I can't help it."
His face fell, and he let out a slight whimpering sound that made him feel pathetic. "Jackie... I'm so angry all the time. And I'm afraid, god I'm so afraid, that he was right. That I am some homicidal maniac in the making. Born of blood and anger. He's such a hypocrite! And I hate him for it. Hate him!"
Taking a deep breath, Jackie pulled him to her and began rocking slowly, at the same time running her fingers through his hair. And, in that moment, he wanted, more than anything, his own mother. It took him a few seconds to remember that he didn't have one.
"I hate him too sometimes, for taking Rose away," muttered Jackie, "she was my little girl, and I'll never see her again because of him."
He wrapped his arms around her in reply and buried his head as far as he could between her neck and shoulder.
"She was supposed to choose me. She didn't. It's my fault! I wasn't good enough, because I wasn't him. I told her I loved her, because I felt the same way he did. But she left anyway! She'd made her choice before I was even born. And I'm going to start crying again, now."
"You and me both, yeah?" came Jackie's reply, and it was a relief to him to know that he wasn't completely alone in his misery.
* * * * * * * * * *
Despite making up with Jackie, he spent the rest of the weekend feeling almost as miserable as when he'd first arrived and, when Monday morning arrived, he found he couldn't even be bothered to get out of bed. Jackie and Pete had obviously had enough of him because, though they had each come by to try and get him to get up, they'd then left him alone for the rest of the day.
It was early evening before there was another knock on his door and, sighing, he dragged himself out of his bed and opened it a peek, so he could see who was there. He thought it would be one of the Tyler's again, so he was kind of surprised to see Katie standing there, looking worried.
"Hey you! I've brought you the work we did in class today. I thought you might like some help with it, since you missed class. You alright?"
He grimaced. "Couldn't get out of bed."
"Why?"
"I couldn't be bothered. Why should I be? My whole life is a lie... I might as well be dead."
He saw alarm in her eyes. "Don't say things like that!"
He rolled his eyes, closed the door on her, went back over to his bed and flopped back down onto it, only to find she'd followed him into the room. Well, that was extremely rude of her. Obviously some people really didn't value other people's privacy. He sighed. "What do you want?"
"I wanted to see what was wrong."
He looked at her then, and shrugged. "What's wrong is I'm not even supposed to be possible, let alone exist. Yet here I am, and all I can do is suffer. Nothing good ever happens to me! Why not? All I want is... I want to be real, I do, but right now I feel like everything is just... here to make me feel more fake."
Katie came and sat next to him, putting her hands on his shoulders and squeezed lightly. "If you weren't real, could I be touching you right now?"
"Believe it or not, it is possible. An illusion can seem very real to the people seeing it. When you've been attacked and almost killed by an idea, then we'll talk about what is real and what's not."
Her grip tightened on him at that, and he squirmed, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. It was the first time that he'd felt like that around her.
"You are real. I can touch you, and I can feel you. You're alive, breathing and very much here.
He began to shake, and couldn't stop it from happening. "I just want to wake up now, and find these past five months have all been one hell of a bad dream."
"I don't want to be part of a dream. I want to be in your life. I'm your friend, you know this, Jack."
He shook his head. "But my life is a... "
She stopped him from saying any more, by putting a finger to his lips. "You're real. If you're not, then no one is. And then we'd all be fake together."
He blinked at that, and opened his mouth to say something else, before snapping it closed with a loud click.
She grinned down at him. "Yeah, that's better. Think about it, and don't let me catch you talking like that again."
Sighing he shook his head. "I can't stop. I want to stop but... I can't help it. It isn't something I can just turn off. I can't control any of the reactions this stupid body has."
They were silent for a few minutes before Katie took a deep breath and blurted out, "It's true, isn't it? All that stuff about a TARDIS and travelling through time and space. Is that why Jackie told me? Because you couldn't, but you needed someone to know?"
He shrugged. He still had no idea why Jackie had told her. "What does it matter anymore? It wasn't me. It was him. The other me. I'm nothing but a bad duplicate of another person. A part human duplicate, with added 'Donna'. You try being someone else! Two someone elses... "
Katie shrugged, smiled and squeezed his shoulders again "Oh, I don't know. I like you the way you are. You're a bit... under the weather right now, but give it some time and I'm sure you'll begin to feel better again."
He scowled at her and shrugged out of her grip. "Again? Do you think you've ever seen me feeling better than 'this'?"
She stared at him, as if trying to let him figure it out for himself, and sighed when he stared blankly back. "You were all smiles and nervous giddiness our first day of classes; you were quite happy when we were shopping together... There's got to be other times you've been happy."
He glared for a few seconds, before looking at the wall and ignoring her. She tried to get his attention back, but he refused to listen to her anymore. He didn't want to be reminded that he had been happy a few times in this life. Genuinely happy. Right now he felt like happiness was something he'd never feel again.
After a while, Katie sighed and left him to his misery.
He didn't eat the dinner the maid brought up for him soon after. He had no appetite whatsoever.
Right then, he would have been happy starving to death.
* * * * * * * * * *
He rested his head on the basin of the toilet and tried to catch his breath. Having caught it, he lunged forward, and his body expelled more of the food he had eaten that day.
The nausea had just sprung up on him in the middle of a Communications Lesson, and he'd had to make a dash for the nearest toilets before he threw up all over the floor. He'd now been vomiting for the past five minutes, and he felt like something was going to burst or be lost if he went on like this much longer.
"An anti-emetic would be nice," he sputtered out, after his stomach had stopped its angry spasms, and settled down a bit.
"A what?" Belinda asked, from outside the door. She was his work partner for the day, and had taken it upon herself to follow him into the staff room loo.
"Something to make me stop vomiting. It's quite disgusting you know. Not that I think there's anything left in my stomach mind... Oh, god."
His stomach felt like it was trying to turn inside out and escape through his mouth, as he started heaving while not bringing anything up. Something was seriously not right here. He needed a doctor. Or a nurse.
"Nurse. Please."
"I'm not a nurse," Belinda stated, her voice high and shrill.
"Go get a nurse! I really don't... " Maybe it was something he'd eaten? Or maybe it was his body rebelling against something, maybe he was allergic to something? His stomach settled for a bit again, and he whimpered. "Please... "
The girl nodded and was gone. Thankfully the nurse's office was in the same building as they were. He really didn't think he was going to be able to move very far after she got there. Not that he wanted to move. The bowl of the toilet was cool against his heated forehead, though he was disgusted with wanting to put his head on it in the first place.
Belinda was back a few minutes later, with the nurse in tow.
"You're the fifth one since lunchtime! Did you eat the pasta at lunch?"
He nodded, carefully. He didn't know what her name was but she was a nurse, just having her there made him feel a bit better.
"I think it might be some kind of food poisoning. The front desk has called for an ambulance – the college doesn't want to take any chances. Is there anyone I should contact?"
He groaned, Jackie had recently taken to driving him to college every day so he couldn't skip any more classes. "Oh god, Jackie! Jackie Tyler. She needs to know. She'll be hanging around in the town, somewhere, waiting."
"The Jackie Tyler? As in Pete Tyler, the millionaire's, wife?"
"Know any other Jackie Tyler's?" he asked shortly, holding his stomach and rubbing it to try and ease the pain and sick feeling. It wasn't working. Quickly, he gave Jackie's number to Belinda and sent her out to call it. There was no need to upset her any more than she already was.
His stomach made a gurgling sound and he realised right that he needed the toilet for another reason. And he couldn't move... "Oh god. Get me up, now!"
Thankfully, she managed to get him in the right place at the right time, though he had to be propped up to stop from falling off. He started crying. "What the hell is this?"
He wouldn't regenerate if he got too close to dying; it was like a light switch going on in his brain. He'd just be dead. And in that moment, he wanted desperately to stay alive. "I'm dying, oh god, I'm dying," he choked out, before clutching at the nurse.
It was shortly after he'd said that that Jackie came bursting through the door and hurried over to him. "Oh god, what's wrong?"
"He couldn't stop vomiting," replied the nurse. "He's feeling a bit tired at the moment, and an ambulance is on its way now."
"An ambulance!" shrieked Jackie, grabbing hold of him tightly.
He grunted in pain. "Too tight, Jackie."
She whacked him on his arm, and glared. "Stop worrying me like this."
He sighed, and grimaced. "I can't help it you know... I don't even know what's wrong."
The ambulance arrived a few minutes after Jackie, and soon enough he found himself sitting on a trolley in A&E with a drip stuck in the back of one hand to keep help him get rehydrated. He was going to live, it just didn't feel like it.
He slept for three hours before he woke up; he lunged to one side to vomit... He really hated dry heaving.
It was only then that he noticed he had an audience. Jackie, Belinda and Pete were there. He coughed, and grimaced. "Hello. Bleh."
"You alright now?" Belinda asked, staying away from the bed. He nodded, not really feeling like speaking. Still, he was thankful to the girl. She had helped him a lot through this little bit of mess. His jaw, throat, head and stomach were hurting but the pain wasn't too bad. The Doctor had felt worse, before.
He hadn't known being physically sick like that could be so exhausting. After Pete had gone home to look after Tony and Belinda had left (he hadn't really expected her to stick around after he'd said that he was feeling better) he managed to sleep for the twelve hours until morning.
He woke up still feeling a little nauseous, but not half as bad as he the day before, to find Jackie asleep propped up in a chair beside him.
The nurses took him off the drip after he managed to keep down the water they gave him to drink. He didn't think he would be sick again, but they told him to rest for the day, once he was back home, just in case.
Jackie only had to stop the car once on the way back home, but his bout of nausea soon passed, leaving him with general feeling of malaise, like he'd had with that cold.
He slept most of the day, still rather exhausted from the day before.
When he woke up Jackie brought him a small meal of chicken soup(she loved to feed him the stuff when he was ill, this time it lacked corn) and told him that Katie had called to see if he was alright.
Katie.
He had oddly missed her at the hospital yesterday; he had half expected her to go with him. He had no idea why he had expected that, except that when he felt miserable, she was always near and usually made him feel better.
He'd have to invite her over tomorrow to catch up on what he missed out on for that day's work.
He didn't really need it though. He was finding the course ridiculously easy. He had said, off hand, that he was a genius. And he was. He didn't think the other students believed him, but his tutor and teachers did. They had made him sit through an IQ test. Twice. The second time looking over his shoulder, just to make sure he wasn't cheating.
He was just about to doze off again when his door creaked open and a pair of fast feet came running into his room. Then Tony bounced onto his bed and, more unfortunately, onto him, and elbowed him in the stomach. He was curled into a foetal position for a bad five minutes, trying to not to show how much pain he was in, while trying not to upset Tony, who had started bawling loudly the moment he had landed.
He caught his breath, not sure he wasn't going to start crying himself, and lifted Tony into his arms and rocked him. "Shhh, it's alright, my stomach was a little sore already that's all. You didn't hurt me."
Tony sniffled for a bit, before getting comfortable in his arms and giggling. "Mummy says you were sick."
He raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and that's funny is it?"
Nodding, Tony giggled again, wriggled around until he was sitting in his lap, then picked up a dropped children's story book that Jack hadn't noticed before. "I can read!"
The words weren't as small as he was expecting. He didn't know how advanced human children should be though. He'd been reading by the time he was six months old. And hadn't stopped. He loved reading.
Well, he supposed, technically he was six months old 'now', who he really meant was the Doctor.
Would that always be so confusing? Being two different people at once? With a dash of a third just thrown in for good measure and species definition.
He shook his head and listened as Tony read aloud from the small children's book.
It was a good little story, not in the same league as Earth's Harry Potter books, butit had all the elements that children generally loved. It even had a little mystery in it. Alright, so the main character had lost his dog and went on a search for it.
In the end the dog died. Jack realised that this story was one that Tony read when something was upsetting him. "You alright?"
"Uncle Mickey would read to me. He did voices and everything."
Smiling, he pointed to where his cheap collection of this universe's sci-fi stories was. "How about something a bit bigger, hey? I'll even do voices."
Nodding, and smiling widely, Tony rolled off his lap, and went over to the bookshelf, picking out one of the books at his height and bought it over. Jack was just glad it wasn't one of the adult adult ones.
It had been a long time since the Doctor had read to a child, the last time being to his youngest child, who had got bored of him doing it soon after he had learnt to read for himself. But he took to it like a duck took to water.
Tony was fascinated by the book. There probably weren't too many children's science-fiction stories after all, and Rose obviously hadn't talked about her travels with the Doctor to Tony, possibly thinking they might be too scary. Space, planets, UFOs, the book was opening up a whole new level of awareness to the boy, and Jack was thrilled.
He'd have to tell him about the Doctor's travels. He could make it sound like fiction even, since most people hearing him would think that's exactly what it was. He could talk to the boy about what the Time Lords had been like, what the Academy had been about when the Doctor had gone to school there, and how hard it had been. He could talk of them being gone forever, and of being alone. And, as long as he was careful, he could even talk about the Doctor's past companions without too much fear of getting the boy upset.
When Tony fell asleep in his lap, head lying over his one heart, he smiled down, bookmarked the page they were on and, as carefully as he could, picked Tony up and took him off to bed.
Jackie had been right. Tony soaked information up like a sponge. Better, he took on what he saw before deciding what to think and how he felt about it. He understood things.
And that was marvellous!
He decided then and there that, more than anything, he wanted to be a teacher.
* * * * * * * * * *
"I know what I want to do now." He stated first thing, right before breakfast.
"Yeah? What'd that be then, sweetheart?" Jackie asked, as she sat down at her place at the table.
"I want to teach. Either young children or adults. The ones that want to learn."
She had stared at him until breakfast was served, and stayed quiet. She was probably thinking he'd change his mind later, but he wouldn't. His mind was set, and he was truly happy to have decided upon a goal. He had something to look forward to in the future.
* * * * * * * * * *
By Sunday the malaise was gone, and while he was still in a bit of pain, it wasn't that bad, and he was still in a happy mood. Katie was coming over for a few hours, so he could catch up on the work he had missed out on Thursday. Thankfully it was just the one day he needed to catch up on. His head hurt.
He'd been having headaches regularly since his little trip into the hospital three days ago. Well, truly they had started yesterday. Still, at least he wasn't sick anymore. And a little headache wasn't going to stop him, but he had taken some of Jackie's paracetamol anyway, just to be safe.
He was in the family room, drawing idly in a notebook, while he waited for Katie to arrive. He had found he didn't really like television that much, and preferred to draw instead.
He drew a lot nowadays. He didn't often have a lot to do on his weekends and it helped pass the time. Pass the time... There was something wrong about just sitting down and being idle. He couldn't stand it.
Right then, he was drawing Tony, drawing. And Tony was only drawing because he was.
He felt rather important about that. That he could help nurture and care for the boy. Not like a parent, but as a friend and an honorary uncle, like Mickey had been.
Uncle Jack he was. He loved it. He had read Tony another of his books last night, and he knew that it would probably be their little ritual from now on.
"Bloody hell, this place is huge!" Came a familiar voice from behind him and he grinned, turning around to face Katie.
"You get used to it after a while. Still, the TARDIS is bigger. On the inside. The outside, of course, she's a blue police box. God, I miss her."
Katie smiled at him and sat down.
"So, anything interesting happen? I mean on the day I missed?"
Kate shook her head. "Nope. Everyone was asking how you were though. Poor Belinda, she was really worried that she might have made it happen at first."
Frowning, Jack shook his head in reply. "Nah, it was just my immune system playing up on me a bit. I'm still adjusting to this body being human."
She seemed to ignore the human part of his statement and got right on to the work part of the deal. Sort of. "Do you actually need to catch up on anything? Because if not, we could veg out here. You could give me a tour? I must admit, the last time I was here I didn't exactly see much other than your bedroom."
He grinned. "Sure, we can skip it. I don't think it will really matter. I'm sure I'll be able to catch up next lesson."
Katie laughed at that. "Whoever would have thought?"
"Actually," he continued, "I've got a bit of a headache anyway. My brain just isn't used to all these hormone changes, and what with all the information stored inside it." He shrugged. "I've got the better end of the deal though, the other person involved ended up with my mind in a human brain. Her head's probably exploded by now... "
Katie grimaced. "That sounds messy!"
"That's my best friend you're talking about," he snapped at her. He couldn't help it, Donna had been there for him through the whole of the Earth's journey back into its own solar system.
He was pulled into a hug and he let out a sigh. "Sorry. Venting I suppose. Didn't mean to take it out on you. It's just... She really was my best friend for a while, there, and I don't even know if she's dead or alive. She'll either have had her memories of the Doctor and me taken out of her mind, or died. It's hard, because really, I think she would have preferred to die. And so would I, sometimes. Forgetting everything would be the ultimate punishment in the universe. Both of them. Probably all of them. My life isn't half weird and complicated."
She punched him lightly on the shoulder, and he grinned slightly. If Katie could forgive him for being too weird to be 'human', then that was good. She really would have been a really good companion. If he had a TARDIS of his own, he would have asked her to come with him for sure.
"You think too much sometimes, you know that, Jack? Just... relax for a bit. Enjoy a hug."
He chuckled. "Who said I'm not. And you smell nice. Like vanilla."
Without much thought to his actions, he ran his tongue up the length of her neck. She squealed, laughed and punched him on the shoulder again. "What was that for? You shouldn't go around randomly licking people, it's rude!"
He grinned and laid his head on her shoulder. He liked it there; the scent of vanilla was calming and rather comforting. "Sorry. I just wanted to see what it was you had used to smell like that. But I can't tell. And I just remembered whatever it was might not be for human consumption. I've really got to kick the habit of licking random things."
"What's that mean, 'See what I'd used'?"
"As a Time Lord, the Doctor's senses are a lot sharper than a human's. He'd be able to taste whatever perfume you've used was made out of, down to the very last little ingredient. And not be poisoned. I'll really have to stop doing that now. Or I'll probably get sick again, with something far deadlier than a stomach bug or virus."
"You're insane."
He grinned and made a happy noise. "Sometimes." When she said it, it didn't sound too bad. Like when Rose, Martha or Donna had said it to the Doctor; it was normal for his companions to think him mad.
They didn't end up doing the tour of the house. They stayed in the family room most of the day talking about random, everyday things. It was so domestic, he would normally have hated it but, since it was Katie, it was good to do.
By the time Katie left, he was having a nice, comfortable doze on the sofa. In fact, he barely even realised that she had gone.
He woke up for dinner a few hours later, to find a blanket had been thrown over him, still feeling the same calmness.
For the first time since he'd been in this world, he felt like he was truly wanted by someone, and that there might be people, other than Jackie and the rest of the Tyler's, who cared about him.
* * * * * * * * * *
A month later, when spring had truly begun to show, and the weather had started to warm up, he asked Katie out on a date. And she accepted; rather happily, too.
The tears that he cried that day had nothing whatsoever to do with sadness and everything to do with hope and happiness. He was finding his own feet as a person. An individual. A being separate from the Doctor. He now felt like Jack Noble Jones. And it felt good.
It felt right.