21...x
"I think so," Tosh said.
"Please do," Jack said.
He looked down at himself.
"Hey!" Rachel growled over at him. "Stop that," She looked over at Jack, he was bouncing on his toes making his breasts bounce up and down.
"OI!" Rachel yelled. Her voice louder then before."Some respect please," She asked. Jack stopped. "Thank you,"
"Wait, can I fly?" Jack said excited.
"It took me a year to learn how to fly, but why not, have a go." Rachel rolled her eyes. He would never manage it. It had taken her a year to learn how to control her wings and the threat of death to learn how to fly.
Jack scrunched up his face in concentration, nothing happened.
"Your still on the ground, genius," Owen laughed.
Jack looked down in defeat. Then his eyes lit up. He whispered something to Ianto. Ianto blushed as Jack let out a feminine giggle.
"Oh no! no way, you are not doing that!" Rachel snarled. She grabbed jack and dragged him away from Ianto.
"Not in my body, you are not shagging Ianto," Rachel snarled.
"But.."
"No,"
"But, I.."
"No way, god no. Ianto you wouldn't would you?" Rachel asked.
"You are very attractive," Ianto said.
Rachel faltered. "Aw, thank you." Then she came to her senses "But still no way. I will not let you use my body. You're staying here."
Rachel and Jack stayed out of everyone's way during the day. They both had check up's form Owen, who concluded that their conscious minds had swapped. Not their subconscious. At this Rachel looked worriedly at jack.
"The subconscious deals with dreams doesn't it?" Rachel asked. Owen nodded.
Then John looked up, over at Jack.
"I suggest you drink lots of Coffee Jack," John told him.
"Yeah," Rachel agreed.
"Why?"
"Well, my subconscious is a bit of a hell hole." Rachel said "And you've still got it,"
A couple of hours later Tosh let out a triumphant laugh,
"What?" Jack asked.
"Have you fixed it?" Rachel asked.
"Yes! But it needs charging," Tosh said.
"How long's that going to take." Rachel asked, put down.
"About 24 hours," Tosh told them.
"I've got to spend a whole day on the ground?" Rachel moaned, looking over at Jack and her wings.
"I think you got the better half of the bargain here," Jack growled. "I can barely walk without holding onto something, I have a voice chatting away in my head, I am in pain whenever I move and…"
"You need to calm down or you will have a new definition of pain." Rachel said calmly.
Jack took a few deep breaths.
"Hey, I know I got the better part of the deal but I go through what you are everyday," Rachel said.
"Then why do you want it back?"
"Once you can fly, it puts those things aside, come with me," Rachel took his hand and led him out using the lift.
They stood on top of the BT building, on the very roof, overlooking the city.
"Now, I spent 12 years flying in that body," Rachel said. "so you're body knows how to fly,"
"Alright," Jack said, confused as to why they were here.
"You just need a way to get your survival instincts to kick in," Rachel pushed him, he toppled off the roof, screaming.
"God, I hope this works." Rachel muttered. She looked down but her body was gone, she heard a whoop of joy, and jack came into view.
"Wow," He said, joy and excitement in his eyes. "What a rush,"
"I know," Rachel laughed.
"How do I stop?" He asked, Rachel laughed.
"Just," she grabbed at his feet pulled him to the roof, his wings folded back up against his back.
"come on," Rachel said, wishing she had her body back and she could fly, it was an amazing feeling.
Everyone had gone home, Rachel and Jack were staying at the hub, Rachel, on Jack's insistence, was in Jack's room, she was staring at the mirror opposite her. Jack, in her body, was upstairs on the couch.
General curiosity over took her as she pulled off the shirt and T-shirt jack wore.
She looked down at her chest and stomach, "Wow," She muttered. Running her fingers over her six pack.
"Ok, this is bizarre," She muttered, stopping herself, she didn't have it in her to look any further.
And she hoped jack had the same respect.
Jack wasn't necessarily bothered, he was more interested in the countless bruises and cracked ribs, his body was a constant ache, always tensed, and that meant that Rachel's subconscious had taken over that too, Jack was normally relaxed, so it felt bizarre to be hyper aware of everything around him. He could hear every noise the hub was making, down to a drop of water that kept dripping. Also, jack had noticed his temper was shorter, not his actual temper but how he re acted to different things. Yet, Rachel was always so calm.
Used to be so calm. Jack jumped at the demon's voice. That he wasn't used to.
Hello? He thought.
You're the pretty boy. Twinkle toes' lad.
A memory that was not jack's flooded his head. He saw it from Rachel's eyes. It was Ianto's flat, from the look of it , Rachel had been sat on the couch. Laughing at Ianto, who was dancing around the room with a glass of wine.
"Trust Jack to snag up all the nice boys in Cardiff," Rachel's voice had called to the dancing Welshman.
"Boy?" Ianto had asked. "I am a man," he stated. "A slightly drunk, camp man, who's dancing with a glass of wine," Ianto said. "But a man none the less, now dance with me!" Ianto had demanded, putting his glass down and pulling Rachel up.
After dancing they both collapsed on the couch.
"You are quite a dancer, Mr. Jones." Rachel had laughed.
"Thank you, Miss Falcon."
"Captain," She had corrected under her breath.
"Though, dancing makes your feet smell BAD!" Rachel laughed.
"Smelly toes," Ianto wriggled his toes at her.
"Smelly twinkle toes," Rachel had laughed.
Yeah, that's my Ianto. And what did you mean, "Used to be,"
She won't tell you this because she's too proud, but all this, isn't real, she's broken up inside, and I don't think it can be fixed. And you can tell, she's still hurting, two of our ribs are still cracked, for goodness sake, I'm just a native demon now, and I do care for her, I know she cares for me too, we just won't admit it.
Jack had noticed the change from she to our. When the demon spoke of the body it was plural, but when she spoke of Rachel, it was separate.
Against Jack's better judgement, he fell asleep. He was being shook awake, "Jack!" His own voice called.
His eyes shot open in panic, that feeling still running through him. Rachel, in jack's body engulfed Jack in a bear hug.
"Shh,"
"You…you, have that…every night." Jack asked, his voice breaking at the end.
"Shhh," She hugged him tight.
"Come on, let's get something to eat, I'm starving." Rachel said.
It was half four, so nothing was open. Rachel got some cold pizza out of the fridge.
"Jack, are you ok?" Rachel asked.
Jack looked up at her. A brief moment went through her. With his eyes so terrified, that's what Jack and everyone must have seen the first few weeks back in torchwood, when Rachel had been scared for her life.
"Yeah, it's kind of passed," Jack mumbled.
"It does," Rachel said.
"Can I ask you a question?" Rachel asked.
"Shoot," Jack said, his confident smile returning, on Rachel's face it looked ten times as cocky.
"When I was asleep," Rachel started, "I had a dream at that I was at the Olympics, in London. In 1908."
Jack looked up at her. He'd been there, that was the incident with the javelin.
"So, how exactly old are you?" Rachel asked.
"The simple answer, I'm immortal," Jack said.
"Alright," Rachel said. "Hang on, as in, you can't die?"
"I can die, I just can't stay dead," Jack told her.
"Hmm," Rachel nodded, taking this in. "No offence I can't wait to get out of your body," Rachel smiled at him.
"The feeling is mutual and why aren't you wearing a shirt?" Jack had only realised.
"I was in bed, plus I was curious,"
Jack smirked, leaning up slightly to see if she was wearing trousers.
"I wasn't that curious," Rachel snapped. "And I'm not that much of a pervert,"
"Were you tempted though?" Jack asked, still smirking.
"Little bit," Rachel smirked back.
Jack took a bite out of his cold pizza, he re-coiled at the taste, so did Rachel.
They looked up at each other, realising at the same time.
"Different Taste buds," they said.
"Please, for all that is good in the world, let this work." Rachel muttered.
Opposite her was her body, the look in her eyes was the same as Jack's as they both prayed that they would be happily reunited with their own bodies.
It had only been 24 hours. And Rachel wanted out, she was too big, she had to lumber around instead of her usual graceful walk. Her senses were very dull, her clothes were uncomfortable and she missed the little voice in her head. When she'd said goodnight to herself last night and there had been no reply she had been overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness. The demon was her permanent fixture, always there, always reliable. She wanted her voice back, she wanted her wings, her hyper-senses and even the dull aching pain of cracked ribs and bruised skin. With the physical pain, she had a comparison to her heart ache, and neither seemed so bad, with only one, it had slowly been crushing her.
Jack wanted rid of Rachel's body, he wanted this voice to get out of his head, he wanted rid of the tail, the wings, the too-aware senses that picked up everything and anything. He wanted his tall muscular frame back, he wanted to be back in his body, he wanted his American twanged voice. He wanted his balance back, even with his tail he had to hold onto things to keep steady, he wanted to relax, which Rachel's body couldn't it was too on edge. He wanted the aching pain too disappear. As he thought about what Rachel was going back to he felt bad. She could handle the voice and wings and tail. But the pain, and the relentless tension, that she shouldn't have to.
They both touched the machine that had started the trouble. Simultaneously, it flashed blue.
The world was loud, compared to the last day. Rachel allowed the noise to dim, smiling and open her eyes. She winced as she sat up, her ribs protested slightly. She grinned, opened her wings to their full wingspan, stretched her tail out and curled it back in.
So good to be back.
About time, enjoy your little human parade?
Far too boring, how've you been?
Rachel grinned. Standing up, her body was tense and rigid, but she had no control on that, her body had adjusted to situations around it, Drake. He was gone but his effect on her body was permanent. She ran her fingers over the back of her neck, the countless scars that tolled up rape. She shuddered and shook the memories away.
Went over to the body that had been hers minutes ago. Jack opened his eyes, met hers and grinned.
"Ha, ha," He said triumphantly.
Rachel helped him up.
"Everything back to normal?" Tosh asked.
"Yup," They both turned to the team with a grin.
"Good," murmured Ianto, walking to Jack and pulling him into his arms for a crushing kiss.