Rose and Jack entered the hotel separately and reunited in the hotel café. They ordered a few items to share along with their tea.
"What do you know about Jason's memories the TARDIS gave him?" Rose asked after placing their order.
"Jason has never wanted to talk about it much," Jack explained. "I don't think he ever opened up to Lynda either. One night, not long after I was brought here to watch over him, he got drunk. He broke down and sobbed about a village that he could have saved if he hadn't been such a coward. He mumbled something about innocent women and children. Other than that, I don't know what memories the TARDIS gave him. I suggested once that he see a therapist, but he never did. He was too proud to admit that he might need professional help. And I think he assumes I know the details about what happened because he thinks we were in the military together."
"Well, at least that gives me a place to start," Rose noted. After a few moments lost in thought, Rose shook herself from her thoughts of how to help Jason, and changed the subject. "Well, now that I know the truth, I'd love to know more about you, Jack. Got any stories from before your arrival here?"
"Well, there was this one time on Trividia Prime when…" Jack began.
"Preferably a story where you don't end up naked and in a compromising position," Rose grinned.
"Aw, Rosie! Where's the fun in that?!" Jack laughed.
The time passed quickly as Rose and Jack sat in the café laughing and enjoying their newfound friendship. During a brief lull in the conversation, Rose glanced at her watch and realized she had an hour to get cleaned up and ready to meet Jason for dinner.
"Thanks for today, Jack," Rose said, reaching out to put her hand on his in a platonic gesture. "For taking me to see Jason's TARDIS and for the laughs this afternoon. I've missed the friendship I had with my Jack, and I hope that this is the beginning of our own friendship."
"I'd like that too, Rosie," Jack replied, placing his free hand on top of hers. Rose was truly happy to have found the parallel version of her best mate. Between her blossoming relationship with Jason and this new friendship with Jack, Rose hadn't felt so relaxed and happy in a long time. As she smiled at Jack, she noticed movement in the doorway between the café and the hotel lobby. She tilted her head to the side to get a better look and saw the young woman she recognized from the front desk pointing in her direction. Standing next to her was Jason, holding a bouquet of flowers and gold box, presumably containing chocolates. Rose wondered why Jason was early, but was happy to see him nonetheless. She smiled and waved her free hand at him. He smiled goofily back and began to walk towards her when he suddenly froze, looking down at the table where her hands were clasped in Jack's hands.
And then it happened…Jack turned his head to see who Rose was waving too. The Oncoming Storm raged across in Jason's face when he saw Jack. Jason stared unbelieving for a moment before he quickly turned and stormed out of the café.
"Shit!" Rose said, jumping out of her seat to follow Jason. If he was anything like her Doctor, Jason's jealous tendencies would be over the top and Rose was sure this was proof of that. "Jason, wait!" She called out to him, but he was already gone. She followed his trail out into the lobby and out the front doors of the hotel. Flash bulbs and shutter clicks swirled around her, but Rose didn't care. She had to catch up to Jason before he got too far away. Rose saw Jason walking swiftly away, throwing the flowers and chocolates into a rubbish bin he passed. She ran to catch up to him. "Jason, STOP!" Rose yelled.
Jason froze, not turning around to look at her, but instead speaking to her over his shoulder, "What do you want, Rose?"
Now, fully aware of the front row seats the photographers had to this interaction between the pair of lovers, Rose pleaded, "Let's go back inside, yeah? So we can talk?"
Jason was about to reply when Jack's footsteps jogged up from behind Rose. "Jason, buddy, what's going on?"
In a flash, Jason spun around, his right fist connecting loudly with Jack's jaw, sending Jack collapsing to the pavement in pain. "Don't you DARE call me your 'buddy'!" Jason growled.
"What the fuck was that for?!" Jack yelled from the pavement. Flash bulbs blinded the trio with growing intensity.
Jason ignored Jack's question and turned to Rose. "You know, for the first time in my life, I thought maybe the universe had finally decided to be kind to me. This last week has been the happiest of my life, but now I see that it meant nothing to you. I don't know why I thought someone as wonderful as you could want to be with someone like me. Good bye, Rose. Have a fantastic life."
Before Rose could respond, Jason turned on his heels and jogged away. Rose knew she should follow Jason, but he needed his time to brood. John always denied it, but Time Lords liked to brood and pout, especially this leather-wearing version. She decided to give Jason his space and instead helped Jack up and brought him back into the hotel to take a look at his jaw.
In her hotel room, Rose got a bottle of vodka from the mini-fridge and handed it to Jack, who quickly opened the tiny bottle and downed it in one gulp. Rose laughed, "That wasn't for you to drink. You're supposed to put it on our face like an icepack. But, I guess either way will numb the pain a bit." Rose took out her sonic and adjusted the settings. "Well, nothing broken," she told him.
"Except my pride," Jack replied. "My ass knocked to the ground by my best friend will be all over tomorrow's covers."
"Well, at least it's a nice ass," Rose laughed. "Let's see what we can do about those bruises," Rose said, as she adjusted the sonic and ran it over Jack's face for a few minutes.
"I guess I should have seen this coming," Jack explained. "He's always been the jealous type. Just never imagined his jealous rage would be pointed at me."
"Don't worry about it, Jack. We'll get it sorted. If there's one thing I know about jealous Time Lords, it's how to make that work in my favor." Rose said with a wink. "After we've got these bruises taken care of, I'll head over to his flat and try to talk some sense into him. He needs time to brood for a bit before he'll be in any condition to listen to reason."
"I'll go with you. After all, I have to return his car to him." Jack grinned.
As Rose worked the sonic over Jack's jaw, she chewed her bottom lip thinking over everything Jason's TARDIS had told her. Jason's universe was gone and he needed Rose to help save him from himself. Rose couldn't help but notice how once again, her job was to help yet another Doctor heal from the psychological wounds sustained in battle. In the end, she realized that she loved the Doctor, whether it was her first Doctor, her regenerated Doctor, her metacrisis husband, or a parallel Doctor. She loved them all, and soon it would be time to tell him for the first time. Again.
An hour later, Rose and Jack pull up to Jason's flat. A handful of photographers were camped outside. "I'll take care of the photographers, Rosie. You focus on Jason."
Jack escorted Rose to Jason's front door and then turned around to distract on the photographers. Rose knocked on the door, ignoring Jack's persuasive conversations with the photographers behind her, trying to convince them to give Rose and Jason some space.
"Jason, it's Rose."
Nothing.
She knocked again, "Come on, Jason, it's me. Open up."
Nothing.
"Please, come open the door. I know you're in there."
Nothing.
"If you don't open this door, I'll just let myself in."
Nothing.
Rose activated the sonic in her pocket and heard the lock click open. She opened the door just wide enough to sneak in. She closed and locked the door behind her. "Jason?"
Jason appeared in the doorway to his bedroom, his face flat and emotionless, but the anger and betrayal behind his eyes made Rose's heart ache.
"How did you…?" Jason started.
"Sonic," Rose explained, holding the sonic up as evidence.
Jason shook his head and mumbled, "I've gotta get me one of those." After a moment's pause, he looked back up at Rose, "What are you doing here, Rose?"
"I want to talk to you."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Like hell there isn't," Rose raised her voice a bit. She expected him to be stubborn, but that didn't mean she wouldn't get a bit frustrated about it. "Don't tell me that you think you can punch your best mate, tell me to have a 'fantastic life' and then run off and I'll just let you go." Rose paused and took a deep breath before continuing. "Look… if you don't want to talk, that's fine. But I've got things to say and you're going to listen."
Rose walked over to stand in front of Jason, who stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall of the hallway. "I don't know what you think you saw back there in the café, but here's what it was. Last night, Jack told me about a crashed alien ship he knew about near Shrewsbury and I asked him to take me to see it. That's my job, remember? And when we got back from Shrewsbury, I asked Jack to have a cuppa with me. He's your best mate and I wanted to get to know him better. If you're going to be an important part of my life, then I ought to know your friends a bit better, yeah?"
Rose took a step closer to Jason. Rose continued, "Sure, Jack is attractive, an insatiable flirt, and probably an impressive shag," Jason arched an eyebrow at Rose and she saw the storm brewing again in his eyes. "But I don't want Jack. I want you," Rose said with a fierce determination in her voice. She squared her shoulders and reached her hands out to grasp Jason by his biceps. She used all her strength to push him flat against the wall and his arms flew out to his sides to steady himself. His eyes grew wide at the unexpected aggression from Rose and his pupils began to darken with lust. She pressed her body flush against Jason's, pinning him in place. Rose jabbed her index finger three times into his chest to emphasize her next words. "I…. am…. yours."