Chapter five
At least the universe had the decency to give Megan the time to grab her towel. She'd squinted her eyes closed when she'd jumped, as if that would stop others from seeing her as well. Cold metal materialised beneath her feet. Oh fuck, she was on a spaceship, wasn't she? Naked on a spaceship. With a towel. Even Arthur Dent had more than that.
"Can I help you?"
Megan slowly opened her eyes to find herself face to face with none other than captain Jack Harkness. "Oh this is mortifying," she mumbled, heat rising to her cheeks. Her eyes darted around the ship (which she thought she recognised from the empty child?) and back to Jack, who was staring at her with a mixture of bewilderment, amusement, and intrigue. He was also holding some sort of futuristic gun. "Please tell me we know each other."
He smirked. "Unfortunately, no."
"Please tell me you know the Doctor."
He frowned. "Doctor who?"
"I was afraid you'd say that. I'm Megan, I-" she blanked. How in hell was she supposed to explain this if Jack didn't even know the Doctor? "...am a bit lost. I'll try to explain, I will, but can you at least give me some clothes?"
Jack eyed her up and down and slowly got up. Megan flinched when he raised his gun, but then he slowly put it on the console before taking off his trenchcoat and tossing it to her. Megan caught it with one hand and the two stared at each other for a second, neither of them moving.
"Could you at least give me some privacy?"
Jack grabbed the gun and turned around. "You know, usually people want less clothes involved after meeting me. Speaking of which, who the hell are you?"
Megan rolled her eyes as she wrapped the coat around her. "I'm Megan. I am… a time cop. Agent! Time agent. And I am now…" She tightened the belt. "Decent. Thank you for the coat."
"Nice to meet you Megan." Jack turned around. "I'm captain Jack Harkness. And now worried, you can always give that coat back to me later," he said with a wink.
"That is-" Megan eyed jack. "We'll see. I got separated from my team, there was an incident."
"In which you…"
"Lost my clothes, yes. But my colleagues should be showing up soon."
"You were tracking the warship?" Jack asked, and she nodded. "I know where it is. It's safe, at least for now. But it was jumping time tracks, might be a while before your team gets here."
Megan could feel her eye twitch. "Of course. That's fine. I'll… wait."
"If that's what you want. Or…"
"Or?"
"We get you some clothes, I take you out for dinner?"
The place Jack had chosen was by no means the fanciest, but he'd insisted that it was where the "real fun" happened. Megan couldn't lie, when he pulled aside the bead curtain and the sound of jazz combined with the chatter of people reached her ears, a chill went down her spine. She was in history. Actual, living history.
They sat down at a table in the back, a grin slowly developing on Megan's face as she watched the band perform. Jack remained silent, aside from when ordering drinks, and waited until the song was over.
"In my experience, being a time agent can be so sanitised. You're never really where the real history happens, mingling with the people."
Megan smirked. "Oh, I bet you're a fan of mingling." She then frowned as the vaguest hint of a memory gnawed at her consciousness. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? What do you do?"
"Ah, well-"
"Excuse me. Excuse me." a familiar northern voice came through the speakers. Megan's head snapped around to see the ninth Doctor standing on the stage. "Could I have everybody's attention just for a mo? Be very quick. Hello!" He said with a grin and a wave. "Might seem like a stupid question, but has anything fallen from the sky recently?"
It was dead silent for a second, then the crowd erupted in laughter. Megan downed her drink, figuring she could use the courage. "We have to go. That's my ride."
Jack raised his brows. "That's your ride?" He said with a nod towards the Doctor, who was still talking.
"Yes, it is. Him and-" The blood drained from Megan's face as an air raid siren started ringing. "Rose. We have to leave, now!" She grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the Doctor. As everybody had gotten up to leave, she had to push through, getting squished left and right. "Shit, shit, shit, shit," she muttered. Her heart was pounding in her chest and it felt like her throat was being clamped shut. "Doctor!" she yelled over the siren.
"Meg!" He jumped off the stage. "Someone's gone native." He said with a nod to her clothes. Jack had gotten her a female officer's army uniform. She did not want to know how he'd obtained it.
"Yes, haha, listen: Rose is hanging from a barrage balloon. On a rope."
The Doctor's expression fell. "Where?"
"Should be relatively close to where you've parked."
Jack stepped in. "Excuse me, what's going on?"
"Who's this?" the Doctor asked, already moving towards the door.
"Captain Jack Harkness," Megan and Jack answered at the same time as they followed suit. The Doctor looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at Megan, who was suddenly very interested in the colour of the staircase.
"Did you say someone is hanging from a barrage balloon?"
"Yes, that's Rose. Our other Time Agent colleague," Megan said loudly, so the Doctor could hear. They arrived outside, where there was no barrage balloon in sight. "Shit."
"This Rose, what does she look like?" Jack asked.
"Blonde hair, wearing a union jack t-shirt." Megan answered as she watched the Doctor stalk off into the darkness. Should she be following him? Was he mad at her? Did he even know that she'd changed the timeline? Why couldn't Jack just have done the champagne next to the big ben spiel with her?
Jack chuckled, seemingly oblivious to her internal panic. "So much for blending in. I'll see what I can do." He pressed a button on his watch and disappeared in a shimmering light. Megan blinked at the spot where he'd been standing, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Okay," she whispered, and took a deep breath before running after the Doctor.
A/N: ... suprise? Felt like writing, conjured this, no idea how I'm going to get the episode back on track. Feel free to leave your thoughts/suggestions/whatever in a comment!
