for rude_not_ginger Terra Novus: Outpost 7

[quitehomoerotic]

Follows this.

Smack.

Jack landed on the marbled floor with an unceremonious fall.

"Yeah, but you missed it," he said finishing the sentiment the Doctor started before he activated the manipulator.

He pulled himself up from the floor and stretched himself out, looking over to the Doctor to make sure he was okay and all in one piece.

"We're about 800 years to the left," he said as he checked his wrist strap. "Set it on random, thought it'd be more fun that way."

He grinned over at him, and stretched his neck out a little more as he looked around.

What he saw, was nothing short of spectacular.

The walls looked to be made of stone and were decorated with gargoyles and elaborate gold filigree flourishes. Ahead of them, up on the wall, was a vast round glass stain window. Small lights illuminated it around the circle, but just about visible through the other side was the vague starlight in the distance. They were still in space, not on a planet surface.

"Well this is new... what is this, some sort of space monastery?"

Comments

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I sincerely doubt I'm like anyone you've ever met before," the Doctor said. There was no real false confidence to his voice. He was just brilliant and he knew it.

He shook his head and tried to get back to his feet. His legs were a little wobbly, but he managed to stand all right. "Temporal distortion effects are starting to fade. Whatever's been changed in the universe must've been a doozy."

Oh, he hoped it wasn't Time Agents again. He hated dealing with the Agency. Or maybe the Eternals, he hated the Eternals. Or the---the---

He knew there was a newer time sensitive species out and about, but he couldn't remember for the life of him what it was.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack was all but ready to argue the fact. Jack did a lot of things. He met a lot of people, and he was convinced he had met someone like him. Someone just like him, in fact.

But no. No, he supposed this man was right. He was unique, and Jack was sure of that. Sure of it but not entirely sure why he was so sure.

"Careful," Jack said, slightly warily as the Doctor stood. He looked up at him with a slight frown.

"If things are changing in the universe, that can't be good. They don't change themselves, not for any reason, so that means someone did something to change them."

He wiped a hand up over his face and shook his head. "Okay. Well. Guess I'd better find out what. You just... get back to your box."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I don't think so," the Doctor said, firmly. "You're a fixed point, Captain. Whatever affects the universe might not affect you. I'm the only way we'll find it."

If he could find it at all. Something like that would be all but impossible to find on a good day, much less a day where he was losing his memory and stumbling to keep track of himself. And whatever he found might not be there moments later.

"Tell you what," he said. "You can help me out, we'll figure out where this started, eh?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I am, so I'm the only one here who's going to have the clarity not to get muddled, now aren't I?"

Jack protested to the Doctor as he stood up and stood tall, attempting to make his presence known and act with some sort of authority.

But it wasn't quite right either, was it? He did feel muddled. Or at least off. Something wasn't right. Something was missing.

"How about you help me, and we'll work it out that way."

It was perhaps childish, and most definitely stubborn, but he didn't really care.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor barked out a laugh. "Right, haven't got any plans to follow a fixed Time Agent." He paused. "That almost sounds vaguely inappropriate. Anyway! I can handle this on my own, I just thought having you on my side might make it a little faster."

Now it was the Doctor being both childish and stubborn. Not that he minded too much. He was a genius, after all. And perfectly capable of taking care of himself, even in a situation like this.

He was...better off on his own, really. Mistakes would always be made, but he was the only one who could get hurt in this case.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I am not a Time Agent!" Jack snapped back, seemingly very annoyed by the insinuation. "Not any more. You've got no idea who or what I am, so get off your damn high horse."

He huffed out a long breath. He didn't like being judged. Well no, that wasn't quite right; people made opinions about him all the time and he didn't give a damn what they thought. But the idea of the Doctor forming incorrect opinions about him just rubbed him up the wrong way.

"Look, are we gonna do this or are we just gonna stand around talking about it. Because really if there's work to be done I'd rather just do it. So, Doctor if you think you should be in charge, go for it. Take the stage."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor preferred seeing the world from his high horse, actually. It was easier to manage than being on the level with the people around him. He thought that there was a reason he'd come down from there after Mars but---no, no, he had no responsibilities, no one to answer to. No reason to be kind when cruelty was really enough for him.

"Fine then, I will," he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the sonic. With a little flair, he turned and aimed it towards Jack's vortex manipulator. The tiny attachment fizzled and sparked, breaking instantly.

"Driving me mad, that thing."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack opened his mouth to speak when the sparks flew and shot out in different angles, rending the Marquis tracker useless.

"Oh you did not just do that," he said, seeing red and trying not to show it.

Inside he felt a completely unwarranted panic try and bubble up. He had no real idea why. He didn't even know what the chip was, let alone why it should worry him for it to be gone. But he was worried. Very worried.

"Do you see me going up to your stuff and damaging it? Do you see me going up to that stupid box of yours and setting it on fire? No!" As he spoke his voice got louder, and he stepped forward, into the Doctor's personal space, pointing in his face.

"I don't know who you think you are, but I know one thing, you don't deserve another minute of my time. So Doctor, it's been fun, really, I mean really great. But I've got better things to be doing, like oh I don't know, my job!"

And what job that would be, he wasn't quite sure. But he had a job, in Torchwood. Helping people. Stopping things. And he wasn't going to do any of that with this idiot.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the outburst. It wasn't what he'd expected at all, but he wasn't sure what to expect from this strange man. But, if the Doctor had ever seen a confession, that was it.

"So you did do this," he said, shaking his head. "Whatever that was attached to, you were using it to calculate time around yourself, change what I know about you. That's why I've got your things in my pocket, is that it?"

That had to be the answer, didn't it? Of course it did! "You've done something, and now you're removing yourself from my memory. But what you're doing is causing holes in the fabric of reality, you're killing the timeline."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack rolled his eyes dramatically and laughed.

"Oh sure right because you're really that important, aren't you?" he scoffed. "You know you really seem to think a lot of yourself, but between you and me, I really couldn't care less. So by all means, you go right ahead and think you matter enough for someone to change time, but trust me, you don't."

He laughed again, and shifted his hands to his hips. Utterly incredulous and somewhat amused at just how ridiculous it was.

"And anyway!" he went on, adding justification even though he was sure he didn't need it. "If I was wasting my time messing with your memory, you really think I'd mess with my own too?"

Hmm. He hadn't quite meant to say that.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Ooooh, I think we both know better than that, Captain," the Doctor said. "Look at you! You're fixed! Nothing would affect your memory. Certainly not a low-scale time alteration by a cheap Time Agent."

That had to be it. Sure, the low-scale time alteration probably wouldn't hit the Doctor at all, but this man must've been clever, to catch the Doctor so off-guard.

He pointed at Jack, unimpressed with his attitude. "You're trying to play with me, and I'm not the sort of man to be played with."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Then I guess we can rule out a low-scale time alteration by a Time Agent then, can't we!"

Jack shouted at the Doctor, fumed at him. How dare he make assumptions and jump to conclusions like that. He'd come a long way from the Agency, a very long way.

"Oh don't flatter yourself," Jack said, unamused. "You should be so lucky, and really, you're not. Now why don't you take your stupid sonic toys and go wherever it is you were going, because you're wasting my time. Because if something is happening here, someone has to stop it, and I don't think that someone is you, Doctor."

He got even closer to him, shouting in his authoritative tone, right in the Doctor's face.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor stood there for a moment, a little stunned by the venemhence in the other man's voice. Then, he smiled. A victory smile.

He held up the sonic and said. "I don't think I told you this was sonic. So, if you don't know who I am or anything about me, how did you know, hmm?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

For a moment, Jack looked completely confused. He looked at the sonic and back to the Doctor and... yes, how did he know it was sonic?

But he recovered as quickly as he fell and he retuned a patronising smile of his own.

"Oh come on. You think I'm that stupid? I've been around a while. I've seen a lot of things. I can recognise sonic technology when I see it."

But no that really wasn't it, was it? He knew that device was sonic. How did he know? Did they salvage one at Torchwood? Oh that must have been it. It must have been some alien tech that fell through the rift.

"And I've seen one before," he added in a scoff.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"No," the Doctor said. "This is unique. I made it myself. And no matter what knock-offs you might find floating around UNIT headquarters. Added the little finger-holder myself. Trying to catch up to where I should be."

He sighed, looking back at the new sonic. He hadn't perfected the red settings yet, and part of him didn't want to. Red settings meant truly giving in to what the future was telling him he'd have to experience.

"So! Tell me who you really are," he said with a note of finality, stuffing the sonic back into his pocket.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh so you've heard of UNIT, have you?" Jack laughed. Sure he could go around throwing names about like he understood them, but there's no way he did, no way at all.

But as he looked at the sonic, he smirked. It was as though something was in his head that just hadn't been there before. And it wasn't a remarkable change, just an obvious one.

"And really, if you think it's unique, you might want to go back to the hack that sold it to you."

From his pocket, where he knew it had always been (or did he?), he pulled his own sonic pointer (because that's what it was called, wasn't it), and he held it up..

"Doesn't look too unique to me."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor gaped. "But---That's mine."

How was that possible? It wasn't, that was for certain. It was not possible that the man had his sonic, he---he---what did he do with his old sonic?

He felt that stabbing in his gut as his mind tried to compensate for the missing data. He melted it down and put it into the TARDIS. That was right, wasn't it? Because he--he had to---

He collapsed forward again and grasped Jack's arm for support. He cried out in pain, equally for the time distortion and for the wrong feeling of Jack.

"What are you doing to me?" he demanded.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack was all for bickering and arguing and acting superior. In fact he could be very good at all of the above when the time called for it (and often when it didn't). But the moment the Doctor fell forward his mind seemed to click into a different mode.

Protective.

He reached out and caught hold of him.

"You're okay, you're okay. I've got you. I've got you."

He lifted one hand and cradled the Doctor's face a moment, stooping to look at him and check he was okay. Far too intimate a gesture really, but then that was just him. And it came naturally.

"Look," he said, "whatever this is, it isn't me. Now Doctor, let me help you, come on, sit back down."

He guided him back towards the bench and for the first time, spoke the Doctor's name without the sarcasm.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor jerked back from the intimate gesture. It was something he reserved for companions and lovers, neither of which had been part of his life for a long while. But it came naturally to Jack. Not a slap or a shove, but a gentle touch.

If the Doctor were a genius, which he was, he would think that such a touch would be a sign that he'd known Jack, as a friend at least. Feelings were difficult things to rip away with a temporal distort, but if Jack was a fixed point, it might've lingered.

It would explain the sonic and the lapel pins. Well, not explain explain, but it would at least give them an idea where to start.

"Options," he said. "We need options and theories. Who could do this, first off, then why."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack settled the Doctor back on the bench and sighed. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you."

He was used to rejection, in a round about way. Or being left behind. Left behind by friends, or left behind when people die, but to be jerked away from so obviously... well, it was a little chaffing.

"Well we can tick me off the list," he said as he sat himself down. "Okay... some sort of Time Sensitive. And they're effecting you so I guess that you're one too? What are you? And it's effecting both of us. I mean... it could be that we just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time but hell of a coincidence, don't you think?"

He wiped a hand up over his face. "How about we start again?" He offered his hand out towards him, "Captain Jack Harkness. Human. Well, mostly."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Time Lord," the Doctor said, rubbing his head. "And I could do this, but I wouldn't. The nausea's worse than vortex manipulation aftershock."

He looked down at his finger, where the cufflink had pricked him. "I don't think so, Jack. Somehow, we know each other. And however we know each other, I managed to give you that sonic. And I don't just give my sonic to anyone."

He couldn't figure out why in the world he'd give it to Jack, though. The man was cheesy, and he had the feeling his name wasn't even Jack. But the Doctor had trusted him, once.

"And I've come to discover that very little in my life is coincidence."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack looked at the Doctor, his mouth slightly agape. "You're kidding, right? I mean... I was just joking when I said that."

The Doctor wasn't kidding though, Jack knew that somehow. He didn't know how he knew. But he knew.

"So what did?" he asked with a sigh and looked down before adding, "Yeah. Yeah I think we do."

He looked back at him, and for a prief moment, he smiled. He didn't know why. It just felt natural, smiling at the Doctor.

Under his breath, he whispered. "I think I've always known you."

So okay, he thought, need to work this out. "Right," he said, tapping his hands against his legs and looking back up again. "How about we start with the last few days? Because I can't quite remember where I've been. It's like... like I've taken retcon or something --that's this drug, retcon--. Just drawing one huge blank."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor thought back, but suddenly that wave hit him again and he leaned forward. He was out for a walk in the TARDIS---but those memories weren't right, somehow. They were what was making him sick? Maybe?

"I think that's what it is," he said. "I think we did something or opened something together and we've forgotten it. Every time my mind tries to make up something new, it hurts."

Through the pain, he looked over to Jack. Always known him. He couldn't understand the sentiment, but he didn't think he remembered as much as Jack did. Jack's touch wasn't familiar to him.

"Focus your mind," he said. "Try to remember. I think of the two of us, you would be the one who could."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack shook his head. He was sure there was nothing he could see, sure of it. "I don't, I can't--"

But quite against his words, he tried anyway. He glanced down at the floor and closed his eyes, focusing his thoughts. He thought about his life, and as he thought about it he realised so much of it seemed wrong. So much of his long life seemed to not make sense.

And then... then he saw the memories that mixed. He saw people, remembered people he knew, but then he remembered them again, and he was there, the Doctor. He remembered Martha and it wasn't Martha and that UNIT officer (why would it be, when he thought about it?) it was Martha and him.

But even then, it didn't make sense. He thought of his memories and saw them for what they were, but the longer he held each memory in his mind, the longer it seemed wrong. The longer it seemed like the Doctor should have been part of it. And these memories... they went back as long as it mattered. Right back to...

He opened his eyes sharply and looked at the Doctor. "You knew Rose?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"How do you know about Rose?" the Doctor snapped, irritated. He did very well not thinking about her on a daily basis. It had been long enough that walking past her room didn't hurt anymore, but it would be a long while before he was fully past her. It always left a scar, being with people he loved. Losing them.

"I can't have known you that long," the Doctor said, but he already felt the nausea settling around him as he tried to think back. "I can't have."