On the journey back to Earth, Jack and Jenny talk, and secrets are revealed.

Beta: GoingToTheTardis

Jenny woke a few hours before Jack, who snored gently while she checked their route to Earth for any potential hazards or distractions. It looked like a relatively boring trip, really, though it would take a couple weeks even at her little ship's top speed.

She patted the dash fondly. She'd love to have faster transport, the sort she might have access to after fixing Jack's vortex manipulator, but this ship had seen her through some rough patches, had held up amazingly well despite her rough treatment.

She lay back down next to Jack, taking a book with her. Reading wasn't always her first choice of activity, but it was definitely one of the best ways to pass time alone on a spaceship.

Not that she was exactly alone at the moment, but her company was still snoozing contentedly.

She made her way through much of the book before her bedmate stirred, grinning up at her when he saw she was already awake.

"Hello, gorgeous," he said, his voice still rough with sleep.

"Hello, Jack." She set her book on the recessed shelf that served as a bedside table.

"Been awake long?" He stretched, his shirt pulling up to reveal his stomach and the hint of definition on his abs. Jenny bit her lip and focused on his face instead.

Not that his blue eyes were much safer territory. Okay, the man was gorgeous. It still didn't mean she had to do anything about it.

"Little while, yeah. Don't sleep all that much if I can help it." She glanced at his jacket, which was slung across a bookshelf, then crossed one booted foot over the other, feeling ridiculous in her sudden shyness.

"I must've been out for a while then. I only sleep about six hours most nights, and you look fully rested." He propped his head up, resting it back on his hands against the pillow, and looked her up and down.

Jenny laughed. Somehow, she was more comfortable with his flirting than without it, and her hesitation faded. "My legs look rested, do they?"

"Definitely." He grinned, eyes sparkling. "Seriously though, the lack of sleep is impressive."

"It's always been that way for me."

"Does it run in the family?" He looked at her curiously, his forehead creasing when her face fell. "Sore subject?"

"Something like that." She tried for a light tone, but he sat up fully, watching her.

"Is this what you're hiding? Something about your family?"

"Jack…"

"Look, I know everyone's got secrets, but I've been screwed over by a partner before, and I've just got this feeling that whatever you're hiding, it's going to change things. I've had a lot of experience, and I don't always get gut feelings, but when I do, I listen. I really want to get this talk over with before we decide to stick together on purpose instead of just because it's convenient."

Jenny sat forward, wrapping her arms around her knees. From the corner of her eye, she saw Jack's posture relax slightly, his head lower.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Believe it or not, I'm not trying to upset you, especially when I'm kinda at your mercy here."

Jenny thought back to every time people had found out about her, about her age, her non-human status, her creation, any of it. Maybe she'd just had horrible luck with those she'd tried to let in, but the reactions had been hard to deal with, and she hated the idea of seeing confusion or revulsion on his face because of what she was.

"You said everyone's got secrets," she said finally. "What about you?"

Jack sighed and leaned back again, and Jenny rested her cheek on her knees so she could see him.

"Okay. I can go first. That's fair." He rubbed his neck. "I'm not looking for a whole life story, right? Just things that are likely to be relevant to a partnership."

Jenny nodded.

"Sorry, I know I'm coming across like a bit of a jerk." He took a breath and then released it. "This isn't exactly something I share with people." He tilted his head up toward the ceiling. "I was traveling with this couple for a while, right? I mean, not that they called themselves a couple, but they were. They had this thing where, I swear, they touched each other and everything else faded away. You know that feeling with a teleport, that hook through your belly?"

Jenny nodded.

"I teleported them, and they didn't even notice, they were so wrapped up in each other. And it wasn't sex, either, it was just… Them." His eyes remained trained on the ceiling, but a small smile crossed his lips.

"I'm not sure I've been around a pair like that."

"I haven't either, other than those two," he said, continuing. "Maybe I should've expected it, but I mean, just because I was the third wheel, it didn't…" He paused, seeming to try to get his bearings, and Jenny shifted so she could place a hand on his arm. He glanced at her, smiling tightly, before looking away again. "There was this fight, end-of-the-universe sort of thing, and he sent her away to keep her safe, only she must have come back. There's not really another way to explain it, the bad guys defeated and them both gone."

"They left you?" Jenny felt a surge of empathy; she knew what it felt like to be left behind.

"To give them some credit, they might have thought I was dead."

"Why did they think that?" She felt her mouth dry. How similar was his situation to hers?

"Because I was, for a while." He looked directly at her, finally. "I came back, and since then, I can't stay dead. I can die, I can feel the pain, but then I come back."

The events of the last day or so flashed through her head. "You died when they shot you earlier, didn't you?"

He nodded. "And that doesn't freak you out? Make you want to torture me or use me for experiments?"

What kind of life had he had to go through? She shook her head emphatically. "I can relate to some of it. I mean, I don't think I come back to life when I die, but I'm not exactly about to test it."

"I didn't test it on purpose, believe me. Not at first."

"How long…" She moved her hand to take his. "How long has it been since you got left behind?"

"About a hundred years." He squeezed her hand.

"Wow. You were right, you are older than you look." She smiled to soften any sting her words might carry, then took a deep breath of her own. "For me, it's been three years since I was left behind."

~O~O~O~

He could tell it was hard for her, and Jack felt another surge of regret that he'd pushed her into opening up. It didn't look like it was any easier for her to speak than it had been for him, and at least he'd had a century to get used to the idea.

"By your family?" he asked.

"Yeah, sort of." She pulled her hand away, wrapping her arms around her legs in the way she had earlier, the way that had made him feel like such an ass. She looked so vulnerable, at odds with the confident, smart, capable woman he was getting to know. "I wasn't born into a family so much. I was made."

Jack blinked. "You mean like cloning?"

"Sort of. A single biological parent, but I'm not a copy."

She refused to look at him, every bit of her body telling him people didn't usually take this information well. The narrow-mindedness of so many of the people from this time… Sometimes, the naivety was amusing, endearing even, but other times, it made Jack miss his native century.

Not that there weren't idiots in every time period.

"That's not so unusual in certain time periods," he said. "Pretty common in some, even."

She didn't seem to hear him, continuing, "My dad, he wasn't trying to be a parent. I was forced on him, wasn't something he wanted. We didn't even have a full day together. By the end of it, though, I thought maybe he might accept me anyway."

Jack made an effort to relax; his getting upset wasn't likely to be much help. "What happened that you only had the day?"

"Same as you." The smile that pulled at her lips held no humor. "I died. When I came around, he'd already left. I didn't exactly fit with the people I could've stayed with, so I left, too."

"Do we need more than two of us to make a club? 'Those who died but didn't stay dead and got left behind'?"

She chuckled and leaned against him, and he put an arm around her shoulder. She kept her eyes trained on the doorway of the bedroom as she spoke.

"It does seem we have a fair bit in common."

"Why didn't you fit in where you were?" He asked after a moment, getting the feeling she wasn't done. She sighed.

"I'm not exactly human. I look it, I know, but I'm not. They were trying to build a new world, trying to get two different races to mesh, and I just mucked things up."

Jack pulled her closer to him. "I doubt you've ever made things worse instead of better."

"Thanks for saying." She looked up at him, eyes bright, her cheek against his shoulder and her lips so close that he had to hold himself back. "It doesn't bother you that I'm not human?"

"Not in the slightest." Jack grinned. "I wouldn't exactly fit in with the locals where we met, even if I was the same species. I've probably slept with more non-humans than humans." Pieces of her story worked themselves together suddenly. "So that makes you just a few years old."

He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, more so when she pulled away.

"I'm not a child." Her eyes flashed, and he held up his hands.

"Didn't think that for a minute." He let his gaze rake her body, intent unmistakable. "Believe me. I only meant it seems like you've been through a lot in just a few years."

She nodded, caution still in her eyes, and he wanted to kick himself.

"Your age doesn't matter to me any more than the fact you're not human. We've got more in common than most, and I don't want anything like that getting in the way of whatever we might have. Do you?"

Jenny watched him for what felt like ages, then shook her head, releasing her anger in a breath. "No, I don't. I've felt like we were connected from the start." She bit her lip before her eyes darted toward Jack's mouth, and he felt a rush of anticipation. "I think I'd like to stop talking for a bit now."

Luckily, she didn't wait for his okay as she adjusted so that she could lean forward and press her lips to his in an enthusiastic kiss that he returned with equal fervor.

Jenny kissed the same way she seemed to live; at full speed, and with all of herself involved, and the kiss felt more intimate than a lot of the sex he'd had.

When she pulled away long enough to remove her tight shirt, he licked his lips. She was going to be the death of him.

It was going to be worth it.

He pulled her toward him, his hands caressing the skin of her back, sliding upward appreciatively. He paused before he was sure why he did it, pressing his forehead against hers as her heart pounded into his hands.

Both of them.

He felt the double heart beat, wondering only briefly whether she just had a particularly strong heart before more pieces clicked into place: the familiarity when she was at the console of her ship, her physical abilities, her lack of sleep, the coolness of her skin.

"Jenny?"

"Yeah?" She sounded slightly out of breath, and he squashed down a surge of pride that he'd winded her when all their running hadn't.

"Your father," he said, trying to choose his words carefully in case he was wrong, "did he say what he was, if not human?"

"Yeah, but I've never been able to find any trace of them." Jenny sat back on her heels, her body still angled toward his. "He was a Time Lord. He called himself the Doctor."