Jack and Jenny have rescued the prisoners, and now they need to rescue themselves. Brief discussion of injury, not too graphic.
Beta: GoingToTheTardis
Jack wasn't sure whether he'd been more surprised by the fact that Jenny had kissed him or the fact that she'd avoided his lips altogether.
Not that this was really the best time to be thinking about it.
Jack jumped out of the way just in time as a guard shot past him, and he continued running through the hallways, darting left when he reached another junction. He kept watch for another left turn; he'd run long and far enough that he should be able to start making his way back toward where he and Jenny had split up.
How had she known those hand signals? He'd learned them while training to be a Time Agent. He was pretty sure his recent teleport had sent him only through space, not through time, which meant that the hand signals hadn't been invented yet.
Which meant she was a time traveler.
Well, either she was a time traveler or she'd been around someone who was, he supposed. Or potentially, she might have found a book that had taken a trip through time. Or maybe he really had moved through time and was just out of practice with the sensation. So really, it didn't have to mean that she was a time traveler, but still-
Jack swore under his breath as a projectile grazed his leg, and he ducked down another hallway. He forced another burst of speed as he came to consecutive intersections, taking them quickly and then ducking into a recessed doorway, holding himself out of sight of the guards who raced past down the wrong corridor.
He thought back through the turns he'd made, estimating how far he'd gone, calling on years, decades of experience in sneaking through buildings, then continued through the hallway when it got quiet. After just a few minutes, Jack saw he was approaching the intersection where he and Jenny had parted ways.
He didn't see her.
Making his way further into that section of hallway, he realized he didn't see anybody. The cells were empty. Jenny had clearly done her job.
So where was she? Had she left without him, without letting him know how to escape?
That didn't really seem likely, not since she'd broken in to save him.
Jack was nearing what looked like the end of the section of cells when he heard loud shouts from behind him. He ducked behind a pillar of sorts, listening to anger and confusion, not needing to understand the words to know the guards had found out that the prisoners had escaped.
This would make Jack and Jenny's own escape a bit more challenging.
"We're never going to get out of here if you just stand there all day."
Jack spun, weapon ready, to face the voice before realizing it belonged to Jenny, who was standing just out of his reach, a smile on her face.
"Which way's out?" he asked, lowering his gun.
"Behind you," she answered.
"You mean back with the angry guards?"
"The ones coming this way? Yes. Come on." Jenny took his hand, and they ran.
If Jack stuck with Jenny, he'd soon be in the best shape of his life.
"Know another way out?" he asked.
"Not a practical one, no," she replied, glancing back at him before returning her attention back to the corridor in front of them, "but I saw some supply rooms and think we can hide until the guards pass and search for us elsewhere. This way."
Jenny led them down another hallway, and then she let go of his hand and practically shoved him into the nearest closet as they heard yet another group of angry guards approaching.
The door shut heavily behind them, and Jack held his breath as he listened to them pass, watching the light that outlined the door flicker as the guards moved past.
"We should be safe here, for a bit," murmured Jenny.
She was standing between him and the door, facing him. The closet was dimly lit, bright enough for him to tell where she was, but too dark to see an expression. They had enough room to move around, but barely, and sitting would be possible only if they were okay with some tangling of limbs.
Not that Jack had any particular objection to that idea. In fact…
"How long are we staying?" he asked.
"Not long enough for that, thanks," she said, amusement in her voice.
Encouraged, Jack continued. "So if we had enough time, that would be a possibility?"
"You're bleeding," she said, her tone changing along with the subject.
Jack sighed. "Right. Forgot about that." Now that they were still and relatively safe, he felt the graze stinging, throbbing gently but persistently. "Isn't anything serious."
"Maybe not, but it's bleeding, yes? The Xark'nithians watch the ground, remember?"
"I don't think I left any for them to find," he said. He could feel the cool trickle of blood on his leg, but it went only from the wound on his thigh to just below his knee.
Jenny knelt in front of him, leaning close to examine his leg, and her caution, the unfamiliar feeling of being taken care of, was enough to override what might have been his normal reaction to a beautiful person kneeling at such a convenient height in front of him.
She was amazing. Jack wasn't sure he'd ever met someone quite like her. He'd need to be careful.
He'd never quite closed himself off entirely, but it got harder as the years went on, harder to lose people who mattered. Casual flings were easier, but Jack still craved deeper emotional connections and found himself too frequently involved with people who would pass on, who would leave him when they found out the truth. The longer he'd been trapped on Earth, the more he'd appreciated why the Doctor had kept Rose from getting as close as Jack knew he wanted her to be, why he'd kept people at a distance in many respects while delighting in them in other ways, why he'd lied to keep Rose safe.
~O~O~O~
Jenny understood why her father had been reluctant to accept her at first. People were so fragile.
She carefully assessed Jack's wound, grateful that he didn't seem to question her ability to do it properly in the near darkness. Her eyesight, along with most of her senses, was a bit better than most species', and it was yet another part of herself that she hid from others.
He really didn't seem to be badly wounded, and the bleeding had already stopped on its own. It was a little too dim for her to start searching the shelves without raising questions, and she didn't see any obvious bandages or cleaning supplies. It didn't seem that sort of storage area.
Instead, she saw what looked like miscellaneous mechanical parts.
Shoving down a surge of hope that she might have stumbled onto what she'd been searching for, she turned her attention back toward Jack.
"How are you feeling? Are you dizzy or anything?"
"From that small a wound?" Jack sounded surprised.
"Well, that and being shot a bit more directly, almost dying, and then all the running on top of it."
"Ah. No, I'm feeling okay. I recover pretty fast." He'd switched back to the flippant tone he seemed to prefer as default. "What about you? Get everyone rescued without getting hurt?" He reached down, took her hand, and pulled her back up to her feet, running his thumbs along her palm rather than releasing her.
"Very uneventful rescue, really," she replied, focusing on keeping her voice even, wondering why she wasn't pulling away. Letting people close had only ever resulted in pain, in one form or another. "I wasn't shot, and definitely not twice. You're a pretty effective distraction." She closed her eyes.
"I've been told that a time or two." His voice had slipped into a rumble, and she swallowed. "So, what brought you here?"
"To the planet, you mean?" she asked, finally pulling her hand away to rub her neck. "I didn't really have anywhere to be. I've been travelling, stopping anywhere that catches my fancy." She didn't add that she'd fancy finding someone who might know more about who she was, about the race she belonged to and yet didn't. "Didn't really mean to stay, not after realizing how the locals treat those who look different."
"But you stayed long enough to learn the language."
"Had a bit of trouble in landing," said Jenny. "One of those birds I mentioned? They didn't really appreciate a spaceship coming through their air space. My ship's pretty small, and the birds are not. I'm a good pilot, though, and a good mechanic, too, so I was able to repair most of the damage."
"But not all of it?" His voice was sympathetic.
"Not all of it. There are a couple parts I need, pretty common on other planets, but since they don't fly here…"
"They wouldn't exactly make ship parts, would they?" He finished for her, and she nodded.
"The shelves in here look promising, though. I want to wait a few more minutes before turning on a light, just in case."
Jack looked at her. "Why would they… Oh! If they confiscated the parts from their prisoners."
"Exactly," she answered.
"Do they keep a lot of people here? Weren't many where you found me."
Jenny's mouth pulled downward. "You were where they keep the dangerous prisoners. Those cells are emptied at least once a day. They don't bother keeping those who might be a risk. Feed them to the animals instead."
"So if you try to defend yourself…" Jack scowled, his voice tight as he continued. "And blowing this jail up would probably mean they just skip straight to killing people if they don't have anywhere to put them, wouldn't it?"
"I think so, yes." Jenny's frustration matched his own. "I built a beacon, though, and when we get off this planet, we can make sure others know not to come too close."
"How are we getting the rest of the prisoners off the planet?"
"My ship," she answered. "It'll be standing room only. I've got just the control room and my bedroom, but I saw some abandoned ships orbiting the planet, and probably some belong to the people we released, so it won't need to be that crowded for long." She let out an amused breath. "Probably should've taken the abandoned ships as some sort of clue to avoid the planet, I suppose."
"But what fun would that be?" Jack was grinning at her.
"That's true," she said, returning the look.
His expression shifted until he watched her more seriously. "Where'd you get your military training?"
Jenny rubbed her neck. "I was born into a war, born to fight. Didn't really try to learn most of what I know."
"So you grew up with it?"
"Something like that," she said, dropping her hand back to her side. "Left as soon as I could, though."
"And was that in this current century?" he asked.
What was his story that he would ask about time travel that quickly?
He continued. "I ask because the hand signals you used earlier, those don't come around for a couple of millennia."
Oh. Right. "On one of my first trips out, I had a disagreement with a Time Agent. Got stuck in this time instead."
He opened his mouth, but she interrupted him before he could ask more questions.
"I think we're safe to get some light in here," she said.
"We should finish talking about this later," he said.
She ignored him and pressed her ear to the door, listening carefully for sounds that might indicate anyone was nearby.
It was silent.
She flipped the light switch, wincing at the sudden brightness until her eyes adjusted, and she and Jack went to work, silently searching through the boxes of parts and supplies. In the end, they found not only the parts she'd needed, but duplicates and spares as well.
Jenny hoped she wouldn't end up needing the spare parts, but, then again, life was more interesting when it didn't go exactly as planned.