Things finally slow down enough for the duo to talk. How much of their history will come out? Some mentions of sex, nothing that should bump up the rating, but maybe don't let your boss read over your shoulder.
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Beta: GoingToTheTardis
She was hiding something. Not that he was exactly sharing everything, not with someone he'd just met, but still.
Jenny was clearly unwilling to share a specific something with him, not yet, and since she'd seemed fairly open otherwise, Jack was a little wary about it.
They'd taken the ship parts with them through their escape shaft, with very few puns on Jack's part. The trek from where it let out to where Jenny had holed up took longer; many of the former prisoners were either out of shape or had never been in shape in the first place, and walking across uneven roofs or jumping from one building to another when the pathway crossed an alleyway wasn't exactly an easy trip for the inexperienced.
Now, he played the assistant, handing her the tools she needed, advice where he could, as she repaired the ship, the others waiting below in her temporary living space. His attention shifted as he registered that she'd slowed down from her earlier efficient pace.
"The hand signals," she said without further context.
"Come again?"
"You said the hand signals I used earlier wouldn't come around for another couple of millennia." She slid out from where she'd been working on the ship. "How do you know?"
"Picked up on that, did you?" Jack chuckled. "Used to be a bit of a time traveler myself." He hesitated. How much should he tell her? "A Time Agent, actually, so it was sort of funny you mentioned them."
"'Used to be'?" He saw her eyes flit to his empty wrist; he'd left his vortex manipulator at home. Torchwood was a good deal more interested in alien and futuristic technology than he liked, so he didn't bring it with him on missions unless he was headed somewhere that there was a chance for repair.
He'd have to start wearing it again, just in case. He never knew what was going to happen, and his wrist never felt quite right without it, anyway.
"They took a couple years worth of my memory." So many years later, and that still gnawed at him. "So I took my vortex manipulator and left." He looked at her, her eyes bright with interest even in the dim light she was working by. "There was a bit of an incident, and it burnt out. I got stranded on Earth for years."
She looked him up and down without her apparent interest fading. "It can't have been too many years you were stranded, not unless they hire children to be Time Agents."
"You'd be surprised. People don't always look their age."
She laughed, a clear sound he wanted her to repeat often. "I suppose you're right about that." She smiled at him, then ducked back behind the panel of the ship before continuing. "So how'd you get here, then, if you were stuck on Earth?"
"Funny story, that." Jack looked around automatically, scanning for threats before getting more comfortable, sitting close enough to Jenny that he could still hand her parts or tools if she needed them. "I was investigating some disappearances for this company I work for occasionally. Every time they sent an agent, the agent disappeared, too."
"So they asked you to try?" The clanking and ratcheting noises continued.
"Right. We figured it was kidnapping, possibly, or maybe she was just really good at hiding the bodies." He leaned back, resting his weight on his arms. "She seemed interested in me right away, so I went with standard seduction tactics. You know, see how much someone's willing to share with a lover."
"Do people really tell you what they've been about during pillow talk?"
Jack chuckled. "If they've had a good enough time, sex can be better than a truth serum. Anyway, it didn't work. Things were going fine, and then it was like a switch flipped with no warning. She started yelling about betrayal, pulled a weapon, and forced me into the basement. Didn't seem to appreciate my quip about going to the bar together, either. It was brilliant, let me tell you. Instead of backing off, she grabbed this remote and then there was that familiar feeling…"
"Interplanetary teleportation device, right. You mentioned that right after you landed."
"Mhmm. Hadn't done it in ages, but I knew I'd been teleported further than just somewhere else on Earth."
"Do you think that's where the other agents went? They got teleported?" she asked.
"They weren't in the group we rescued," he answered, "so if they got sent here, I was too late. I can hope they were sent somewhere else instead."
"I hope so, too." The sounds of metal on metal stopped. "I think I'm done here," said Jenny, and Jack stood as she joined him. "Do you still have your manipulator?"
"Not on me, unfortunately," he said.
"That's a shame. I'm pretty good with most technology, and I think depending on what burnt out, if we can get ahold of that teleportation device for some spare parts…"
"...We might be able to fix it? Jenny, you are a genius." He took her face in his hands and planted a kiss firmly on her mouth.
~O~O~O~
His lips were warm against hers, the kiss much too brief as he pulled away just seconds later.
"I am a bit, actually," she said, blinking before she grinned. "Come on, let's go make sure she starts."
Jenny led the way into her ship, licking her lips as she opened the door. It had been much too long since she'd last had a fling, she decided. That had to be why her body was reacting so strongly to Jack's open advances.
She somehow knew she could tell him to stop. He might not quit thinking about sex, but he'd stop being so obvious about it.
But why should she tell him to stop? Besides the fact that she still felt so pulled toward him, that the nausea and discomfort receded further the more she got to know him, that crossing that line with someone she genuinely liked might make it harder when he left.
It sounded a bit too perfect, really. He could almost keep up with her physically even after being wounded, he kept things interesting, and he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes. She was pretty sure, too, that she'd just volunteered to take him back to Earth, infiltrate someone's home, and repair his vortex manipulator.
After all that, would it really make a difference whether they'd gone to bed together? She shook her head and turned her attention to the ship before she had to change her mind about which one of them, Jack or herself, was more focused on sex.
Her fingers flew over buttons and keys, flipping switches and entering sequences that were automatic to her.
"Everything seems to be working. I think we did it." She turned to look at Jack and saw him watching her, bemused. "What?"
"Déjà vu." He stared a moment longer, then looked around. "I've been in a ship a lot like this one, a lot of years back. Where'd you find her?"
"She found me, sort of." Jenny read through the various screens of data while she continued. "After I got sent back in time, and on a fairly boring planet no less, I needed a ship. I found a high-stakes game of cards and goaded one of the players into betting his ship. When the players realized I was good at body language, good at guessing what cards might be next, they decided I was cheating and chased me out. I hid in the first ship I found, and when I realized it was his, the same ship I'd technically won, I took it."
"Do you believe in fate?" A glance at the man now standing next to her in the rather small cockpit showed that he was more serious than his tone indicated.
"Maybe. I don't know." Finding Jack, being able to save him, feeling that pull toward him and finding out they'd both been stranded in times they didn't belong to, did that count as fate? "Sometimes it seems like it. Coincidences too big to just be chance. The number of times I've landed on a planet just as a society-changing riot has erupted, for instance." She looked at him again. "What about you?"
"It can depend on the day." His eyes were firmly on the monitor in front of him. "Most of the time, I have to wonder what it says about me, what I've done to earn my fate." He looked at her, eyes much older than they'd seemed earlier, and then grinned, his whole face lighter almost immediately. "Then again, there are other times I end up in a ship that's meant to be piloted by two and has only one pilot, and a stunning one at that. How have you managed to fly her?"
"I'm very quick," she said. "It'll be easier to fly with two, though, if you know how."
"I do." His tone was confident, his smile easy, no trace remaining of the man who'd looked at least twice his age, who'd spoken of fate as if it was his personal punishment.
"Brilliant. Let's go get our passengers."
~O~O~O~
Forget pillow talk. Jack was fairly certain Jenny was going to get everything out of him before they'd even had a real kiss.
A real kiss that would be fantastic if that brief peck earlier was anything to go by.
He watched the last of the passengers crowd into the ship, then he squeezed inside, shutting the hatch behind him and making his way to the copilot's chair, only to find it occupied.
"Right then," Jenny's voice echoed over a speaker system that Jack was surprised was even present on so small a ship. "I know it's a tight fit, but I need everyone to be patient. It isn't safe to try to get off the planet more than once, so we're doing this in one go." She paused to gesture to Jack, indicating he should stand next to her in front of the flight panel. "We've got just the two chairs with seat belts, and there are safety restraints on the bed that should hold at least two more."
"It'll hold three," said Jack, smirking at her raised eyebrow. "Just trust me."
Jenny sighed and continued. "Three more, rather, can be safely restrained in the bed. The ride might get a bit bumpy, so I want the weakest in those safest places. Everyone else, find something or someone to hold on to."
~O~O~O~
As Jenny disengaged the speaker system, she could see Jack visibly resisting an inappropriate comment about what people could hold on to. She shook her head with a smile, and she saw him grin to himself. They went through their pre-flight sequences quickly, working together in a way that felt practiced, while their passengers rearranged themselves, those who were able to buckle in doing so.
The flight to get off the planet was mercifully uneventful, with only a glimpse of the dangerous birds that had stranded her there. Once in orbit, and with some of Jack's charismatic help, they were able to figure out who had ships nearby, and who was headed somewhere convenient to those who didn't have any other available transport. Finally, the ship was empty save herself and the captain.
She was tired. She didn't need much sleep, really, but she hadn't gotten any while rescuing everyone, and she'd skipped it the night before in favor of reading. Jack looked tired, too, and Jenny realized he probably hadn't had proper sleep in at least a day, either.
She weighed her words before deciding on the clearest way to express herself until she had figured out whether she was willing to get physical with him.
"I could really use some proper sleep, and it looks like you could use the same. There's just the one bed, but if you behave, you're welcome to join me."
He smiled, appreciative rather than lecherous, and Jenny felt herself relax. He gestured toward the cabin. "Lead the way."