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The Doctor rested on his thought-to-be chair in his library, thumbing through innumerable books and scripts which had been scattered all over the floor.
If you hadn't known that the Doctor's library was supposed to be a mess you would have suspected that several small explosive devices had detonated and had not only destroyed nearly every bookcase but killed the librarian as well.
Jack was standing in the doorway, leaning against it and staring at the Doctor motionless.
"You wouldn't give me some privacy, would you?" asked the Doctor without looking up.
He had put on his reading glasses while thumbed through a book restlessly.
"I'm not going to leave your side ever again" stated Jack coldly without taking his eyes off the Doctor. The Doctor sighed and tossed the book aside before choosing a different one from his lap and flipping it open.
"Then the next hours are going to be pretty boring for you, I suppose," the Doctor cleared his throat and sighed quietly.
Jack didn't budge; he didn't move a muscle.
The Doctor hadn't talked to him since Jack had found him lying on the pavement above Torchwood, bleeding, irritated, hopelessly and desperate... there wasn't even a word to describe the state the Doctor had been in when he'd been discovered.
The Doctor's wounds had healed soon, simply disappearing due to his healing powers.
The Doctor had refused to be treated by Martha. He had refused to talk to Jack about what happened and how he'd ended up in Cardiff in front of the giant sculpture in the middle of the night.
He wouldn't talk. He wouldn't reply. And most of all he didn't like being watched by Jack.
"If only you'd tell me what happened..." snarled Jack and shifted in the door.
"If you're bored you could try reading" replied the Doctor with a lack of interest. Jack hoped that at least the Doctor himself knew what he was searching the books for.
The Doctor moaned unsatisfied while flicking through several books at a time.
"I can't because it's Gallifreyan" mumbled Jack grumpily "and I've got more important things to do."
"Then why do you keep bothering me in my Tardis?" asked the Doctor icily.
His blunt reply hurt Jack.
"Because I don't want to leave you alone ever again, Doctor" answered Jack and folded his arms while straightening up a bit "Do you think I'm enjoying this?" "No, but neither am I," mumbled the Doctor and rolled his head into the nape of his neck, staring at the ceiling.
"I can't leave you, Doctor," underlined Jack empathically and stepped closer towards the Doctor "not after what's happened to you!"
The Doctor breathed in deeply and let out a long drawn-out sigh whilst closing his eyes. Jack could sense his desperation.
"Whatever it is..." Jack added quietly and folded his arms again.
"I never should have come here" the Doctor sighed and arose from his seat "I never should have come to Torchwood. This wouldn't have happened if I had stayed in my Tardis. No, I should have stayed in my Tardis and never, never ever return to you, Jack. And I never should have given you a key to the Tardis."
Jack looked aside and bit down on his lower lip.
He took a deep breath and tried to convince himself that the Doctor only intended to hurt his feelings because he had been hurt himself by whomsoever.
"Sorry" added the Doctor quietly. He buried his face in his hands before running his fingers through his hair once or twice. He evaded Jack's stare the same way Jack daren't meet the Doctor's glare.
The silence between them was driving Jack insane.
"Martha told me that you were forced to leave" snapped Jack. The Doctor stared at him starry-eyed and in silence. Jack grasped the Doctors shoulders and searched his gaze.
"Doctor, we need to talk about this. I can't keep on playing your little games, pretending that I don't care, pretending that I'm not worried about you."
The Doctor breathed in deeply and growled. "Here we go again" he grumbled "Humans and their thought-to-be undisclosed feelings."
"Doctor, I mean it" Jack couldn't think of anything beside hugging the Doctor and pressing his skinny chest against his own.
"You've got to stop playing hard to get. I want you to tell me what has happened to you. Right now."
The Doctor freed himself from Jack's tight grip and cocked an eyebrow at him after eyeing him up carefully.
He folded his arms.
"And if I won't tell you?" he asked provocatively. "What will you do to me if I refuse to talk to you?"
"Nothing, because I love you and would rather kill myself than hurt you" thought Jack to himself and bit his lip.
There was no other opportunity but pleading and the Doctor knew it.
"Doctor, please" Jack hissed, searching for the right words. The Doctor sat down on his fake chair again.
Silence filled the room once more. The Doctor had picked a random book which had been lying around on the floor and skimmed over the pages. Only the flickering from the lights above seemed to distract him from time to time.
"I was scared to death when I discovered your maltreated body, covered in scratches from head to toe" blurted out Jack. The Doctor didn't reply. The Tardis hummed annoyingly loud.
"My heart stopped beating when I recovered your bruised and broken body. I held you in my arms Doctor and thought you to be dead as you lay there, lifeless and cold. I guess it was simply too much..."
The Doctor hissed through his teeth; Jack stared at his feet. He wasn't quite comfortable with opening up to the Doctor, but after the events of the past few days...
"Good thing I can't die, eh?" added Jack quietly and tried to chuckle. The Doctor wouldn't reply this time either. There was a strange whirring and hum above his head.
Jack looked up and stared at the infinitely high bookcases before catching a glimpse of the Doctor again.
"Is she talking to you?" asked Jack with a muffled voice. The Doctor nodded quietly and probably wasn't even listening. He heard the Tardis. But it seemed as if he refused to listen to her, either.
"Shut up" he hissed finally and arose from his seat, before pushing Jack aside and storming out of the library "And don't you dare follow me!"
Jack ran after the Doctor and for the first time he was glad that the Doctor had been injured, otherwise he wouldn't have managed to catch up with him again. Jack smiled involuntarily.
The Doctor. No...his Doctor. Always running.
The Doctor rushed through a long corridor, opening several doors before smashing them angrily. Jack tried to keep a proper distance but bumped into the Doctor nonetheless when he had stopped in front of a door. The Doctor nudged Jack in the ribs, causing him to take two steps backwards.
"Why are you so complicated?" he hissed between his gritted teeth. Even here Jack could hear the strange humming of the Tardis. "Why are all women so complicated? I don't want to go back, I don't want to! All I want right now is a shower and then go back to bed."
The Doctor sighed and shook his head before leaning it against the door.
"Don't let me down old lady" he whispered and breathed in deeply "please."
He opened the door in front of him, shook his head in disappointment and stepped aside. The door was still ajar as the Doctor headed towards the end of the corridor. Jack stepped forward caught a glimpse of the room. It was the library. Again. It was the library the Doctor had been sitting in till now. Jack tried it himself and opened a different door. Behind it was also the library. Jack took a step back, unbelieving that he could take a look into the same room at the same angle through two different doors.
"Have a look at this, will you?" Jack heard the Doctor sighing and followed him to the newly opened door. Both of them were staring at the library, the Doctor in frustration, Jack in bewilderment.
"It's all she has in store for me" mumbled the Doctor and leaned against the doorframe with folded arms. "She won't reveal a different room."
"Why?" asked Jack who couldn't take his eyes off the library behind the door. He simply couldn't get his head around the fact that nothing in the Tardis was constant and everything could be anywhere because it hadn't a fixed spot where you could actually find it.
He wondered if he would appear in the room in front of the Doctor if he'd enter it through a different door. But he wasn't in an adventuresome mood and figured that sooner or later he'd cause trouble and destruction in the Tardis, as always.
He was glad that the Tardis tolerated his existence and he knew that it wouldn't get any better than that.
"She thinks I should have a look at the books," snarled the Doctor and stared at the ceiling, shouting "But I don't even know what I'm looking for!"
There was a rumble from above as if the Tardis was protesting. The Doctor snorted. "Haven't seen it in years. And I won't start looking right now. I'm tired."
He slammed the door shut and leaned his back against it, still shaking his head.
"What is she talking about?" asked Jack. The Doctor sighed and stared at him with weary eyes.
"Nothing" he replied in a huff "And it's none of your business!"
Jack sighed. He knew that the Doctor wasn't willing to talk to him. And he had been miffed for the past few days.
"Can I come to your place?" asked the Doctor.
Jack nodded his assent before the Doctor could continue"It's not that I want to stay with you... you know, I don't really like being in Torchwood, but as long as the Tardis is refusing to let me find a decent room..."
He kicked against the wall impatiently and snorted.
Beside him a door sprung open.
"Jack, can you take a look inside?" asked the Doctor; he was unwilling to budge from his current position in case the Tardis had revealed nothing but a new way into the library. Jack nodded quietly and caught a glimpse of the room. "Looks like a bathroom... sort of..." he replied quietly.
The Doctor dashed to his side "What do you mean 'sort of'?"
After taking a look at the bathroom he patted the door gently.
"You're a good girl" he smiled and would have kissed the doorframe if Jack hadn't been looking.
Jack didn't quite approve of the Doctor's relationship with his Tardis, the Doctor knew. Most of all he didn't understand it. But that was fine by the Doctor.
He couldn't explain platonic relationships to a human being from the fifty-first century.
Alright, humans from the twenty-first century probably wouldn't have understood it either.
The Doctor stepped into the bathroom and had the door nearly closed as Jack asked "Do you mind if I stay by your side?"
The Doctor smiled "Yes Jack, I do mind it," and slammed the door in his face.
The door got locked from the inside and he could hear the Doctor's muffled chuckling.
Jack sighed and leaned against the door. To him, the Doctor was a mystery.
But Jack couldn't know that the only reason why the Doctor wouldn't let him stay beside him was because he wanted to spare him the sight of his injured and patched up body.