20 Captain Jack

Jack doesn't take Rose to his favourite chippy around the corner from the Hub. He takes her to one that's several blocks further into town. He's completely uninterested in running into any of his team at the moment; too many questions. He's been waiting to see the Doctor and the TARDIS for more years than he cares to admit, and he has part of his goal. Something is seriously wrong, and even though he's angry, if he can help he will. He'll set aside his gripe with the Doctor…for now-for Rose.

Sitting at a table after ordering, they're both quiet, feeling a little awkward, and unsure of where to begin. Rose is about to start, when their chips arrive, and she uses the hot greasy treat to distract herself from the situation.

"Ohhummmmm, these are GORG-eous! Nowhere has chips like good ol' Earth!" she says affecting a bit of their Doctor's Northern burr. Seeing Jack look away, Rose feels guilty. Of course, he has no idea what happened to their Doctor, to her; the Time that has passed—her story.

/Might as well get it over with; this isn't going to get any easier,/she thinks. Opening her mouth, she closes it again, when Jack beats her to getting the ball rolling.

"What just happened Rose, on the Plaz? Oh, and by the way, you're supposed to be dead at Canary Wharf." He's looking at her thoughtfully, but she can see the wariness in his expression, and she knows she caused it.

"Right. We'll need to back up a lot before the answers to that question actually make sense." Jack blinks at her in surprise a couple of times before he blurts out, "Your accent, it's different—really different. How long has it been?"

"Oh Jack. Linearly, from the point of the Game Station, I guess…three years, but I have another three years added into there. It isn't the time though…it's so much more than just the Time. God, where to start."

She's deciding where to begin when Jack blurts out, "A hundred and thirty-nine."

"What?" she asks, confused.

"I've been here waiting for 139 years," Jack says with unshed tears glistening in his eyes.

"Oh my God, Jack. I am so, so sorry." Rose replies with obvious guilt.

"What are you apologising for? He's the one who left me."

"Because of me! Jack it's, well it's all so complicated."

"Isn't it always? 139 years, Rose. Waiting here; knowing he would have to visit the Rift at some point."

"Jack, I'm sorry. He's sorry. Look, I want to explain everything to you, but…," and here she takes a deep breath. She knows he's going to want to help, and he can't; not yet, anyway. He will have to wait a little longer. "But there are conditions."

"Okay, what conditions? I've lived a long time, Rose and died more times than I can count. I can wait some more, but not forever."

"I don't want you to!" She's so sincere, that some of the ache in his heart lessens. "But I'm afraid that is exactly what needs to happen. I need you to wait a little longer."

He stares at her. She can feel the conflict within him. He's so hurt, and he's so much older than her new Jack, who's sleeping away his little human life back at the TARDIS.

She feels him come to a decision, and she starts smiling before he even begins.

"Well, I've waited this long. Give me what you got. This place is 24 hours, so we have as long as you can stay." He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back in the bench, expecting this to take a while.

Laughing at him, she reaches out a hand to him. Quirking an eyebrow at her, he leans forward to take it, gazing for a moment, at the small unusually cool hand resting in his palm. Looking back up at her quizzically, Rose grasps his hand firmly and leans forward over the table. Jack's eyes get big at the strength in her grip. With a soft smile and a look that is half amusement and half sadness, she locks her gaze with his and says firmly, "Jack Harkness, Raxacoricofallapatorious."

Jack's eyes roll back in his head and Rose catches him, laying his head on his crossed arms, so he can process all the memories she just unlocked. She had already decided that she would save her new Jack's memories for him to have again, and use this password and mental push to unlock them. Unfortunately, this was much earlier in her timeline than she had planned on releasing them, so she would have to keep him from telling her more than she could know yet.

Dammit! She really wanted to know that everything would work out. Well, she's the idiot that made this decision, and it was too late now, to do anything about it. Gritting her teeth, she settles in to wait for Jack.

Luckily this chippy is busy, otherwise having a guy slumped at her table would probably look weird. Well, maybe they'll think she's waiting with him because he's pissed drunk. Grinning to herself at the thought, she watches the people around her. She can feel the buzz of their chattering minds all around her. It's oddly comforting, being surround by all this oblivious life. She envies them their innocence. And what seems to her to be alarmingly often, Rose has another moment where her understanding for her Doctor deepens. She really wants to reach out to check on him, but she has no idea where he is relative to her at the moment, and that could be dangerous. The Doctor keeps saying crossing your own time stream is bad news. So she reigns the impulse in, and pretends he's fine; still asleep on his way to Mars. Sighing to herself, she looks back to Jack, seeing him start to come around.

"Oh God. Did anyone get the name of that lorry?" He rests his head in his hands a moment before shaking it, trying to clear some of the fog away. Raising her hand to forestall anymore questioning on his part, Rose says, "So here's the first rule for tonight. As you may be about to guess, you've received this information before I intended you to have it, but you're so bloody well…you," she announces with exasperation. "And that means you have more knowledge than I do currently, and I can't know it yet. So keep your mouth shut on anything after going to sleep in the TARDIS the night we left Mars 2059. Got it?"

She can see his wheels turning, digesting what she's said and finding the memory. His eyes get wide again, and he actually grins at her. /Oh thank every God in Heaven, it turns out alright,/ she thinks with relief. A knot that had made itself a home in her belly releases, and she breathes a little easier. He wouldn't be smiling like that if it was all bad.

"Geez, Rose that's all the way at the beginning; that's no fun at all!"

"You realise that you've just told me a whole pile of things just by reacting this way, right?"

Eyes getting wide again, he actually clinches his fist to his mouth in apology and looks back at her with horror. Laughing at him, she lets him off the hook, "You big goof, it's okay." Taking a deep cleansing breath she feels relaxed for the first time in days. "It's actually great, because I've been so worried."

He just nods, eyes still wide and glued on her, fist still at his mouth.

"You think you have a handle on everything now?"

"Yeah, I think so. Holy shit, Rose—you're a Time Lady!" he says as he takes his hand away from his mouth. Cracking an enormous grin, he teases her, " And the Doctor regenerated into a hottie! Wow, that hair! Just makes you want to grab handfuls, don't it?"

Blushing to the roots of her own hair, she nods, "Umm, yeah—it does." Giggling, they chat about the Doctor before their conversation gets serious again.

"So you know why he left now? And Jack, I am so sorry for doing this to you. I had no idea." Rose says to Jack wanting, to make sure he understands.

"Yes, we actually talk about it in depth just before you take these memories from me. Rose, you never need to apologise for loving me so much, you couldn't stand to let me go. It took some getting used to, but it has its benefits. We also talked about how you wanted to find a way to cancel the unpleasant effects of my being a living, breathing fixed point."

"Exactly, and I did that tonight! Brilliant, me!" They both smile this time at the memory of their first Doctor.

"That was the singing! You used Bad Wolf to harmonise a chord that would cancel out the feedback I cause in the fabric of the Universe," Jack states looking, suitably impressed.

"Yes! That's exactly what I did, and I currently have it playing on a loop in the back of my mind. Good thing I like it," she says with her teasing grin. "I plan on having the Doctor incorporate it into a bio-dampening device. I don't know yet if it will work better for us to wear it or you, but when you see us again, we'll have it. I think I'll call it the Harkness Harmonising Adapter or something," she says, laughing.

"That will be great, and it will really help a lot. Any time-sensitive race we encounter, which are not many mind you, but they all react oddly to me, and won't negotiate if I'm in the room. Since I direct Torchwood now, that gets a bit awkward."

"Yeah, I'm sure it does." At the mention of Torchwood, her mien darkens.

"What's up, doll? You suddenly got very closed off," he says as he leans forward touching her hand.

"It's Torchwood. I forgot you're Torchwood here. That probably means you don't want to join us, when we come back. You're busy defending the Earth now—have a team and all depending on you." She tries to hide her disappointment, after all that was exactly what she had done in Pete's World. She feels a twinge of sadness at the thought of her family and friends.

"This is not the same Torchwood that was screwing with the Rift. God, Rose, when I saw your name on the wall of the Canary Wharf dead, I nearly came unglued. Yvonne Hartman, that stupid, stupid woman!"

"Oh Jack, I'm so sorry. She did help out in the end, even after being converted. That's how strong her convictions were; they were wrong, but they survived the process. She took out quite a few Cybermen in the end."

Not ready to feel charitable toward Yvonne Hartman just yet, Jack shrugs, "Well at least she managed something decent."

"Yeah, so you'll want to stay?" Rose prods. She'll understand if that's his decision, but she hopes it won't be.

"Well, you're right, I do have a team, like you did on Pete's world, but Rose Tyler you have a time-machine. Of course I'll come, you'll just have to bring me back periodically to keep them on their toes until I can train up a replacement. Which won't be easy let me tell you! I've been running this place for over a hundred years." He tells her and her grins lights up the room brighter than the approaching dawn.

"Jack Harkness, I knew you wouldn't let me down. You can get started right on that replacement finding, then. We won't be back till we're done gallivanting around the Universe with the younger prettier you. We'll drop him off so he can be a swindler for a while, and catch that silly girl mid-air during the London Blitz with his 'oh so impressive' Chula War ship." Tongue firmly caught in teeth, Rose grins at him cheekily.

"Rose Tyler I should put you over my knee! Prettier, seriously? I haven't aged a day since I last saw you." He answers her grin with one of his own. Ordering more chips, they reminisce about their first Doctor while Rose waits for the TARDIS.

Three hours, 42 Minutes, and 16 seconds later, Rose knows it's time to head back to the ship. Jack sees her reach that decision, and stands, offering her a hand. Taking it politely, he pulls her into another hug. They stand like that for long enough that the few patrons left start clapping thinking they just got engaged or something. Grinning in mutual embarrassment, they leave arm in arm to head back to the Plaz and the TARDIS. In the early morning light, they reach the corner where the evening had started, and Rose turns to give him another hug.

"You keep an eye out for us, Jack Harkness. We're coming back for you."

"Oh I'll know when you come back with the Doctor."

"How's that?" Rose can't imagine how he would know whether or not the Doctor was with her.

"I have a Doctor Detector," he announces with a wink. "A hand fell from the sky right before Yvonne blew the Sycorax ship up. That hand belongs to a Time Lord. Since there was only one of those at the time, I assumed it was the Doctor's. I have it stabilised in a jar. That's how I knew the TARDIS was here, though I think it would have reacted more strongly if the Doctor had been with you."

"What?!" she asks incredulously. "That's…that's so weird and a bit disgusting. Well, it was weird and disgusting at the time when he grew it back. First 15 hours after regeneration or something like that. Wait till the Doctor finds out, he'll probably be all fascinated. Might even try to grown another one of himself from it…God, the whole Universe would probably explode from the extra ego involved." Laughing, she can't get the picture of the Doctor's hand in a jar out of her mind. It's so mad scientist, utterly ridiculous.

"Oh, I don't know. Two gorgeous Time Lords for the price of one, sounds like a great idea to me!"

"Cheeky!" Oh, she hadn't thought of that yet. "And hands off Harkness, he's all mine."

With a wave and another grin, she bounces off toward the TARDIS. He can almost hear Her singing to him. With a wave and a new bounce to his own steps, he makes his way back the Hub and a team filled with questions about the pretty blonde, and was that the TARDIS?