Jack wasn't with him in a minute. Actually it took him half a minute to get out of bed, another half minute to get dress and another minute to find his vortex manipulator, which turned out to be still on his wrist.
Then he ended up in two wrong time zones and centuries before finally arriving in front of the Tardis.
He unlocked the door and stormed in.
The Doctor was still lying on the floor, coughing and pressing his hands against his stomach. Jack helped him to get back on his feet again and put his jacket around him.
"Please Jack" whispered the Doctor voiceless, "I need to get out of here."
"As you wish, Doctor" replied Jack and started pressing buttons on his wrist strap again.
"Oh, no, no, no, no...!" the Doctor didn't manage to get it out properly before he was falling to the floor again, but this time in a small room which looked as it would belong to a pretty cheap apartment. Jack caught him quick-reacting.
The Doctor breathed in deeply, hanging in Jack's arms.
"I told you I hate this bloody thing" mumbled the Doctor "It gives me a headache every single time you use it. It really makes me dizzy..."
Jack placed the Doctor's body carefully on a bed. The Doctor managed to sit up again.
"We were in the Tardis when you used it, weren't we?" asked the Doctor irritated.
"You told me to get you out of there" replied Jack "What's happened?"
"You used the vortex manipulator in the Tardis? In the Tardis, Jack?!"
Jack snatched his jacket from the Doctor's shoulders and gave him a blanket.
The Doctor clinged to the only subject he was comfortable with right now:
"My poor Tardis. Can you even imagine what you've done to her? She must be really upset now..."
"What happened?" Jack leaned against a writing desk and eyed him up cautiously.
The Doctor sighed and snuggled into the blanket.
"You don't want to talk about it right now" assumed Jack. The Doctor shrugged.
"Would you care for a cup of tea?" Jack asked.
The Doctor nodded and evaded his gaze.
The tea was cold but the Doctor didn't mind it at all.
Jack watched him carefully and sat down on a chair opposite to him.
"Jack" the Doctor put the cup down with shaking hands, "Jack I swear to you there is someone in my Tardis."
"But that's impossible" replied Jack disbelievingly. He sat down on his bed again. "Where could they be?"
"Anywhere" replied the Doctor "Do you think I check on every room in the morning? There are floors I haven't set foot on in years!"
"But how should they have gotten in?" asked Jack "You never leave it unlocked."
"Somebody else must have got a key to it..." mumbled the Doctor.
Jack gave him a blank stare.
Then he got the hint.
He pulled a silver necklace out of his shirt and over his head. He handed it the Doctor.
"Do you think I would give it out of hand for a second?" he asked unnerved, "Don't you think I know what a privilege it is to be allowed to enter your Tardis whenever I want to?"
"Jack, please" the Doctor sighed, "I didn't mean to offend you. It's just... don't you think that your friends in Torchwood would die for laying their hands on this item?"
"They're doomed to die should they ever dare to lay hand on this or you, Doctor" replied Jack promptly.
The Doctor tried to smile. He felt tired.
"So... what are we going to do?" asked Jack, "You know... I could scan for alien tech in your Tardis. Or something like that. I don't know."
The Doctor sighed.
"Jack, you're gorgeous, you're the most impressive man I've ever met and you know how much I love you, but Jack you're an idiot. You can't use your device to locate alien traces inside of the Tardis; the Tardis is as alien as I am. Do you know what would happen?"
The Doctor stared at him with a penetrating gaze, which would probably have been arousing under different circumstances.
"I assume that you believe that I don't want to know" replied Jack after observing the Doctor's face for a few minutes quietly.
"Exactly. Could harm the Tardis seriously. And I don't think she would let you enter ever again."
Jack smirked. It was one of those smirks the Doctor hated. He handed Jack the cup.
"Do something useful and make me some tea" he snarled. Jack left the room, still chuckling.
"Why do humans always have to be so disgusting?" shouted the Doctor and made sure that Jack was still within hearing range,
"What is it with you? How can you make a smutty remark about my Tardis? My Tardis, Jack! That's just... revolting!"
The Doctor pressed his hands against his pelvis.
He couldn't bare the pain any longer. He just couldn't.
It seemed as if his body wasn't able to regenerate fast enough.
Or something was blocking it...
He sat up straight again and stretched carefully.
Something was preventing him from repairing himself. Something suppressed the natural healing mechanism...
Jack entered the room again "Oh, Doctor you don't have to sit up straight, just lay down, you can have my bed; just make yourself comfortable, you know, curled up into a foetal position..."
The Doctor turned pale suddenly and his eyes widened.
Foetal...
Foetus...
He turned around and gasped. Jack stroked his back carefully.
"Doctor? Is everything alright?"
"Yes Jack, don't worry, everything's alright but I'm afraid I'm about to throw up..." he mumbled and stormed out of the room.
And suddenly he knew what was suppressing his immune defence and preventing him from healing himself.
Foetus. He had kept talking about a foetus.
He was carrying a...
The Doctor had collapsed in front of Jack's basin after puking out what felt like his guts; he had to admit that he wouldn't have been irritated at least a bit if he had managed to do so now; after all a mad man had been fiddling around with his intestines.
Jack picked him up and dragged him into the shower with care.
"You really should have told me that you weren't feeling well..." He tried to pull the Doctor's shirt over his head and supported him while standing in the shower. The Doctor refused to let himself get touched by Jack.
The Doctor turned on the tap; Jack watched him sighing while he got soaked to the bones; his clothes adhered to his skin.
"I guess Time Lords are different" mumbled Jack, "it's not only the thing with the two hearts or the complicated mind. You never told me that Time Lords take a shower while keeping their clothes on."
"Shut up" hissed the Doctor and pressed his hands against his chest, "My clothes are covered in vomit anyway?"
Jack eyed him up eagerly. Something wasn't right. Something was terribly wrong about this.
"I don't mind you staying with me" Jack tried to pick up the conversation once more "I guess there's enough room for both of us."
The Doctor nodded absent-mindedly.
Warm dense fog filled the room slowly. The Doctor pressed his back against a cold and tilled wall, folding his arms in front of his chest.
Jack took off his shirt, but didn't bother removing the rest of his clothes before stepping into the shower as well.
The Doctor seemed uneasy. He assumed that, if he didn't want to be naked himself he might as well feel unsure about Jack being naked as well.
The Doctor tried to resist his touch at first, but Jack managed to get behind him and embraced him.
The Doctor sighed, turning his head over one shoulder and snuggled up to Jack, pressing his cheeks against his.
Jack intensified his grip and nibbled on his ear.
"We're still in Torchwood, are we?" asked the Doctor after a while.
Jack nodded behind him and pressed his forehead against the Doctor's neck.
"So... you live here?" assumed the Doctor. Jack rubbed his wet hair against his neck again.
"Can't afford an apartment, I suppose" smiled the Doctor.
"I'm here because work never ends" explained Jack "as long as there are aliens out there... as long as people are threatened... someone has to watch over them, you know. Even at night. I barely sleep. I work, Doctor. I work really hard."
The Doctor turned around to face Jack.
Now he was smirking.
"So you CAN'T afford an apartment, then" chuckled the Doctor. Jack sighed and kissed his neck and shoulders. He was relieved to hear the Doctor laughing again.
He had him really worried... calling in the middle of the night... mumbling something about not being alone in the Tardis... asking him for help... him for help!
The Doctor had always been the one who knew what had to be done.
How could he ask him for help?
Following his guts, Jack suspected nothing but the worst.
"Are you willing to talk to me now about what happened?" asked Jack bluntly.
The Doctor freed himself from his grip.
"I'm tired Jack" mumbled the Doctor and tried to get out of the shower. He tried to evade Jack's questions; and Jack himself as well.
"You can sleep in my bed if you want to" replied Jack and turned off the tap "as long as you can get comfortable there."
As long as it's no operating table and there's a surgeon around I can get comfortable everywhere, thought the Doctor.
He felt terrible. His stomach hurt. His body hurt. And it felt as something inside of him was moving...
He collapsed onto the bed and gasped for air. Extrasystoles. He'd had extrasystoles. Again.
Nothing ever before had caused his hearts to skip a beat.
Something terrible must have happened.
Something must...
He groaned and curled up, hiding his face in a cushion.
It was getting harder to breathe for him every minute. Something tried to change him from within. Something within changed.
His intestines felt as if they tried to rearrange themselves. He sobbed into the cushion and dug his nails into the sheets.
As soon as Jack entered the room the Doctor ordered him to leave.
He wanted to see no one.
He wanted to be alone.
He gasped for air, pressed his hands against his abdomen and tried not to scream.
He felt like dying.