A/N: So here's my first original chapter in a while. I hope I did okay, but please let me know what you think!

Thanks to masterdude94 for helping me with ideas! I needed someone to bounce them off of!

As always, please read and review!

A Date ... With Angels

Part One

"So tell me, Miss Gale, how old are you?"

I giggled as Jack's breath tickled my ear. "You're one to talk, Mister I'm-several-hundred-years-old. Aren't you supposed to know already?" I planted my elbow in the blanket and rested my head on my hand, staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

I couldn't get enough of staring at Jack. The steady wind in the park had his hair constantly bristling and flopping in his face. His eyes were gleaming in the way that hinted at mischief, one I usually paid a wary attention to. Just looking at him made my heart flip over itself.

Nine months.

Nine whole months of nothing but the two of us. No Doctor, no aliens, nothing.

Jack claimed he liked it that way. A normal life and relationship helped him forget about his work.

How could I refuse?

Jack grinned. "Well, I have a guess. You always look the same when I see you and you've never said."

"A lady's got to have some secrets."

He tugged on my hair and twirled a bit of it around his fingers. "True, but for all I know, you could be older than I am."

I raised both eyebrows at him, the underlying emotions beneath the flirting making me giddy as I raised myself a little higher. "Am I supposed to take that as a compliment or an insult?"

Jack braced himself on his elbow, though my head was still higher than his. "Oh a compliment, never doubt that for a second." His face was only a few inches from mine.

I leaned over him a little closer, but was stopped by a wagging finger.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not until you tell me how old you are."

"So mean," I pouted, but the grin on his face was infectious as most of his were. I didn't really see what my age had to do with anything, but if it got me that kiss ... "Fine. If you really want to know, I'm twenty-one in three months. That answer your question?"

Jack's eyes widened even farther than when I'd first kissed him. "Wow ... um ... yeah. Sorry," he added, shaking his head and most of the stunned look away. "I'd thought you'd be older than that."

Well, if he was going to play that game ... I started to roll away from him. "So you're saying I look old now?"

He rolled me back over and kissed me so deeply that I forgot to be annoyed with him.

Dinner made Date Number Twenty-something. I'd forgotten what number we were on, but again, Jack insisted on paying no matter how I protested. By this point, I argued about it just from a habit, kind of like a ritual that both of us now expected. It had us both laughing by the time he'd handed the card to a very annoyed waiter.

Before we left, I ducked into the ladies room, the sparkling cider (my only form of alcohol I'd ever drink) having gone right through my system. Then my phone rang. I didn't even bother to check the caller ID.

On hindsight, I probably should've.

"If this is who I think it is, I'm a little busy right now," I sighed, balancing my phone between my head and shoulder while washing my hands. The bathroom acoustics were unfortunately good. Hopefully I didn't sound like I was in a bathroom.

"Catch you on a bad day, love?" Crowed a guy's voice at a level that nearly blasted my ear off. "Finally patched the phone to the console room like you told me to. Useless? Me? Ha! Though, to be honest, You-Know-Who almost dumped me out to space to remind me. It's almost as bad as having you nag at me."

Rubbing my ear, I glanced at the ID.

BOW-TIE.

What in the world?

"Um ... I think you've got the wrong number." Instinct began nagging at me, just like with that Doctor with a trench coat. I frowned; it couldn't be, could it?

The guy made a noise. "Nope! Have you on speed-dial. the TARDIS always knows where you are, which is quite annoying when I don't even have a clue ..."

"Doctor, shut it!" I yelped, jumping what felt like several feet and backing into the wall. My hand pressed against my chest where it felt like my heart was trying to pound its way free. Only one other guy knew about the TARDIS that knew me as well.

"Hold on, did you just tell me to ..."

"Not one more word, mister, or you'll say something I'm not supposed to know yet!"

The silence on the other end didn't hide a long, frustrated sigh followed by a low stream of technobable involving a time-circut or something. "Sorry," the Doctor eventually bemoaned. I could almost see him beating himself up. "I thought for once, I'd gotten it to work right. When are we?"

This definitely didn't sound like Doctor Trench-Coat-And-Glasses. With my pulse returning to normal, I pinched the bridge of my nose. Well, he sounded younger at least, but that wouldn't save him from a verbal scathing. "You left me behind, you stupid idiot!" I almost shouted, but managed to curtail it to something lower in the decible range.

"Uh ... besides that. What did we recently do? What did I do?"

Ha, the Doctor was scared of me.

"You're really an idiot. Downing Street? Slitheen? You telling me to shut up every five minutes?"

"It wasn't every five minutes!" The Doctor protested, sounding exactly like a defensive child. "Ten, maybe, but ..."

"Doctor!"

"Right. Thanks a lot, Sexy!" He hollered, though no one responded. "The one time I need you to get it right and you call her too early!"

I struggled with the annoyance that began rolling in my chest. My mind was just barely coming to grips with the fact that there could be different looking versions of the same Doctor. I didn't have time to think about who could earn such a nickname from this one. A version that seemed even more thickheaded than the one I'd actually hung out with, if that were possible.

"So ... how long's it been?"

He sounded so abashed that I had to relent just a little. I mean, I couldn't make him feel properly guilty unless we came face-to-face. "Just around nine months. How long has it been for you?"

"Spoilers. Wait, nine months? Are you sure?"

"Uh, pretty darn. I'm counting every day until I can smack Mr. Grumpy's shiny bald head, why?" No way would the Doctor find out about me and Jack when I hadn't even met the guy properly.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry, Jessica. You have no reason to trust me right now any more than you did in Downing Street, but I'm gonna have to ask you to."

The tone of his voice set my pulse skyrocketing again. He knew something about tonight, which meant I told him about what happened. At least I'd live, though the fact of possibly encountering something alien and dangerous almost scared me to death.

"Okay. Hit me."

"Are you alone?"

"Um, I'm kinda in the bathroom, but I have someone waiting outside for me." Yep, not telling him about Jack, since the Doctor hadn't mentioned him. "Why?"

Again, that pained noise from the back of his throat. "I can't ... I can't tell you; your Rules. All I can say is to keep that bag of yours handy and ... and don't blink when you see them. Got that?"

I inhaled sharply. The immage of my bag sitting on my couch at home a screaming accusation in my mind. "Yep," I managed, keeping most of my nerves from reaching him over the phone.

Pops and bangs sounded from his end. "Hey, hey, hey! Stop that! I'm getting off the phone right now, so stop your complaining! Sorry, love! The Old Girl's one time-circut shy of a major temper tantrum. Good luck and don't kill me!"

As the line went dead, my hands began to shake. So he knew I kept odds and ends in that bag for emergencies both real and immagined. Something really bad was coming. I had to get to Jack. Warn him.

Thankfully, Jack stood right where I'd left him, for once ignoring the way a couple of women were oggling him. His smile, which usually made me forget the whole world, barely dented my worry. "There you are. Did you get lost or ... Jess, what's wrong?" A frown began on his face when I didn't respond to him.

I shook my head, grabbing his arm in a vice-like grip. "Not here." I nearly hauled him outside, an increasing urgency growing under my skin like a never-ending stream of adrenaline. I could only walk so fast in heels, though.

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a second," Jack protested as I almost ran to his car.

Hurry. Get home. Get the bag.

"We need to get out of here," I tossed at him. "There's going to be trouble. Alien trouble."

"Wait, what?" Jack stopped abruptly and spun me around, the strength in his arms halting my rush. Seriousness had darkened his eyes. "Jess, talk to me. What the hell is going on?" His tone had gotten lower but much more calm.

I took a deep breath, trying to mimic his control, but I couldn't keep my eyes from darting around us, trying to see through the dark. "I ... I got a call from the Doctor. Don't worry," I added quickly as the frown on his face became something else. "I stopped him from saying anything. Apparently, he hadn't meant to call me Now, but in the future. He ... he warned me that something bad was going to happen and I should have my bag with me. Which is at home," I growled, beating my forehead into my palm.

"He called ..." With a noise similar to the Doctor's, Jack whirled away, both hands pulling at his hair. "Can't keep his freaking hands to himself for one minute!" He began cursing every other word, muttering something about the TARDIS, time-travel, and how the Doctor couldn't keep his hands off me.

The prickles on the back of my neck grew worse. We didn't have much time. "Look, Jack, I don't know what's going on, or will go on between you and the Doctor, but he seemed actually scared. He ... he told me not to blink, if that makes any sense." I kept my tone as calm as I could, though I felt close to panic.

Jack went so still, I was reminded of the first time I saw him in that pizza place in California. "Shit."