for ambitious_woman The Bastille

[quitehomoerotic]

Relaxed.

Relaxed was something Jack Harkness rarely felt. In fact the concept of relaxation seemed an alien one to him. But yet here he was, that was how he felt. The muscles in his body were looser than they'd felt in far too long, and pains that had held there through stress and worry had, at least for now, melted away to nothingness.

It was morning, and he opened his eyes to a world he'd come to find he liked. A place that while it was nowhere that he belonged, he'd been surprised to discover that there was a space for him. A welcoming space with a welcoming face. He wasn't sure if it was something he deserved but for once, for a time, he wasn't going to worry about that.

When he woke, beside him he saw Reinette sound asleep. It made him smile and he pressed a delicate and small kiss to the skin at her shoulder. He stayed there a moment, just smiling and watching, and he whispered to her, "I'll be right back."

And so he rose from the bed. His intent was to find food. He'd take a morning walk, just a short one in the pleasant summer morning that he could see filtering through beyond the window, and then he'd venture to the kitchens and procure themselves something.

His clothes were near, and he dressed in them, item by item and then his coat (as if he'd go anywhere without it), and out into the corridors and halls of Versailles he went.

He wasn't on his guard, of course, why should he be? Short of clockwork what need he worry about right now? And really, should he encounter clockwork, he'd merely turn it off. No, here he felt happy, he felt safe, and so that guard he had learnt to keep up, was down.

And so it was his downfall.

He found his way to the rear gardens, nodding politely to footmen on his way (people that usually he made no effort to even acknowledge). But they had noticed him. In fact they had noticed him long before he noticed them. They had been noticing him for quite some time. They had noticed him in gardens and they had noticed him behind closed doors. And Jack had no idea.

And he wasn't prepared.

Entirely unprepared for the troupe of guards that met him in the gardens. It was as though they had been waiting, as though they had sought him out (and they had, of course). And as strong as Jack could be, he was not prepared, and so he could do nothing when he was met with a blow to the head, and another blow that knocked him to the ground. Another and another until he felt metal shackles on his wrists held behind his back and a tear of fabric between his lips to quiet his shouts.

And he was taken away.

Comments

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Only a good thing Jack? I think you discredit yourself." There was teasing there, of course. A careless warmth that was perhaps easier found out in the sun and the day. And it was a far cry from her unwillingness to allow that he was interesting. But it was the truth. And it he needed to hear it, she thought.

"Of course, I could be mistaken."

There was an ease about Jack that had not been there before. Reinette wondered if he was even aware of it. She suspected not. If he was she rather thought he would begin to try, again. To push. To push himself that much further and then, hopefully, past it.

Critically Reinette surveyed the scene. It was remarkable in its own way. In France there could never have been such a gathering. People were all together completely careless in the way they presented themselves. Children playing and sprawled on blankets and even to one side a woman exposing herself to the sun in rather large amounts.

Still she found a spot that seemed quieter than most but still afforded a view of the people about them.

"Here, I think."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack smirked, almost imperceptibly, and he glanced over at her, giving her a look that really required no words; knowing and a little laughter beneath the surface.

"As if I'd ever do such a thing," he said with a wink.

As they arrived at her chosen location Jack nodded. He nodded and placed down the basket, opening it and pulling free a chequered blanket. He lay it down on the grass and offered out his hand to assist her down.

"We've got sandwiches, bits and pieces. Help yourself," he said, being none too helpful with his descriptions.

He sat himself then and pulled from his pocket a pair of sunglasses, propping them up onto his face.

"All these people," he said, "and none of them have any idea. You know that never really grows old."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Of course not," she answered, far too much innocence in her tone. "Never, Jack."

Reinette accepted Jack's hand and found it quite simple to settle onto the blanket with out her usual hoops and skirts. It also startled her to realize she had not once longed for them of late. Not in the way she did in London. It was a strange thought.

At Jack's direction she explored the basket briefly, filling a small place and setting it next to her on the blanket. For the moment she did not eat, her gaze instead returning to Jack. She had seen glasses like his once before. They made it difficult to see his eyes but she found she did not mind.

"If you are not from here, Jack, where are you from?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

When Jack heard the question, it was perhaps the first time that he realised exactly what he'd already told her. That fact alone surprised him somewhat. When had he given that information away? And furthermore how had he done so without it being something he remarked on himself?

Funny.

"Bit of everywhere," he answered almost dismissively. "Nowhere."

And while that in a sense held quite a lot of truth, it wasn't the truth.

He watched her a moment longer and nodded.

"Long time from now," he said, "and a long way too. Tiny little place. Golden beaches as far as the eye could see. The Boeshane Peninsula, it was called."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

She collected it all, of course.

Reinette wondered if he even suspected.

Every word. Why that word might have been chosen over another. The tone in Jack's voice. They way they settled in lines about his mouth. What was said and what was not. And she held it all, piecing it together into something that accounted for the man before her."

"The Boeshane Peninsula," she repeated, tasted the way it sounded.

The place where the posters were from, she suspected. But those were mentioned in a moment of distress and she would not mention them now. It remained as it was before. Just another piece.

Reinette allowed herself a small portion of her sandwich.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"It was beautiful," Jack said with a nod. "A real community. Everyone knew each other, and there was no getting away with anything," he winked. "Because if you did something, rest assured it'd be around the city in five minutes."

He laughed, glancing off, caught in nostalgia.

"Long time ago," he said, shaking his head.

"Where was home for you, Reinette?" he asked. "Back before Versailles."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

To Reinette's ears, it all sounded rather like court. Word never spread faster than there. But there was a warmth in Jack's answer that suggested it was somehow not the same at all.

She wondered what that much be like.

"Paris," she answered after a moment. "It has never been anything but Paris. It is all I knew, all I have ever known."

Even after her father left they remained there, despite the scandal that it caused. Her mother refused to leave.

"I was sent to attend school, briefly. At a convent some distance away. But I was not allowed to remain there long."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh I spent some time at a convent once," Jack said with a glint in his eye. "Met a lovely woman. Lovely man too. Who knew priests could be so adventurous!"

He laughed, just gently. As always never clear if his teasing were merely that, or held a little more truth.

"Guess you've got a lot of time to make up for then, eh?" he said. "Sightseeing."

Still diverting from himself to some degree, perhaps. But better than he was before. Mere conversation as opposed to hiding.

"There's so much out there to see, Reinette. And you should see it all."

Some children were playing a short distance away, kicking a ball back and forth. One of them gave a somewhat more powered kick, and the ball came careering in their direction. Jack leaned forward in just enough time for it to narrowly avoid hitting Reinette in the back.

One of the boys ran over and looked at them, "Can we have our ball back please?" he asked.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Of course Jack," Reinette countered, willing to share in his humor. "So many narrow hallways and dark corners in which to get lost in. Of course there was adventure."

And school. And children her own age. The one time in her life Reinette had truly been allowed her youth. She could still remember the letter she penned, after her first true bout with illness, going so far as to bed her mother to allow her to remain.

Some things could not be regained. But she knew Jack understood that as well.

"I would see it all, Jack," she allowed, still conscious of saying his name as much as possible. "If I could."

The conversation was interrupted by children and play and still she could herself laughing quietly despite the inelegance of it all. She reached for the ball and returned it to the child's hands.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't the hallways I was getting lost in," he said with a knowing smile and a wink off in her direction. He obviously needed no explanation of exactly what he was.

His smile faded though at her next words, and his eyes glanced down and aside. It was on the tip of his tongue, the very tip, to say that she could. Two words that sounded so innocuous of course, but meant so very much. It was innocent, of course, how he'd looked into it. And he had looked into it.

Just idle curiosity, of course.

Of course.

"How's yours?" he asked, gesturing off towards the kids. "She doing well?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

At that she laughed. Full and unexpected and yet nothing truly remarkable in that it was just laughter. It should be the mundane. Of course it was not.

"No Jack, I imagine that is true."

Reinette set her plate aside then, following the direction of Jack's gaze towards the children. Boys and girls both played together, and she wondered again at how normal it must be to everyone else around them. It was so far from what she knew.

"Alexandrine?"

Her thoughts came back, organizing themselves at the sound of Jack's voice.

"Well enough. She certainly takes pleasure in speaking her mind, of late." And, of course, using that voice to inquire after Jack's absence. "It will be time to arrange for her marriage soon."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack was in the middle of taking a drink from a bottle of water when Reinette' last sentence settled in. He coughed, spluttering his water out.

"Oh you French," he said, recovering himself. "Married? Already? You lot, live life away before it's done!"

It was wrong of him to say that though, he knew. He knew what would happen to her daughter. He Almost let himself forget. But he didn't, no. He didn't.

"You know I went to this planet once where everyone got married off at birth."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Already Jack? Many marriages are arranged already. If I am to see to her future must be soon." She did not expound on the many reasons why. She expected Jack knew them well enough.

But the truth was the painting had confirmed what she already suspected. Yes, she would usher her daughter into womanhood, but only just. She would need to be cared for.

"I was very nearly ancient, you know. Almost twenty when I finally married. By husband had to be bribed to the alter."

Yet Jack was not completely inaccurate in his observations. They were French, and it was their way.

"Birth," she laughed softly. "Was it to good results?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, oh you're ancient. How're you holding up, Grandma?" he teased her, just a little. Teasing felt right.

"Well, they thought so," Jack said with a shake of his shoulders. "But then everywhere thinks their customs are right, don't they? Never met a king or a prince or a head of state who honestly thought he was doing the right thing. I mean come on, you're in politics, you know how these people get."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Politics is ruined by politicians."

The words were brief, firm and direct. Obviously something to which she had given a great deal thought before. If anything an opinion that had only become more narrowed in the recent months and through her altered role at court.

Reinette arched an eyebrow and glanced at Jack, though it was imporssible to meet his gaze with the glasses.

"You do know I am one of those people?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I've known politicians," Jack said, "the last lot had an order to kill put out on me and put a bomb inside me that exploded my home and my work, and before that it was a guy masking as a human but who was secretly a Time Lord and kept me captive for a year. Can't say I'm too fond of them. In general."

His words were spoken utterly flippantly, but their content of course was anything but.

"Of course I know," he said with a half smile. "Why do you think I said you'd know?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Her hands sat neatly folded on her lap, the fingers curling slightly inward that the observant eye would recognize as something almost protective.

"But you got it out, Jack? The bomb? You got it out?"

The idea that he was sitting before her now should have presented Reinette with her answer. But Reinette knew that was hardly enough. And something in Jack's gaze? Not now, of course. But when they walked or spoke or when night fell? Something in the darker, deeper corners gave her an answer she did not want to consider.

Still, she asked all the same.

It was all rather ridiculously naive.

"Not those people," she finally amended. "I am not one of them."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

For a while, Jack just watched.

A while of looking, no words, and that was answer enough.

But still, he gave it.

"No," he said in little more than a whisper. "No, I didn't. It was in my stomach. And it exploded. Taking out half the bay with it."

He paused then and took a drink from his water bottle.

"Still. Here now, aren't I?"

He shook his head again then, firm and certain. "No. You're not. Nothing like them."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

She had seen enough, now, that the fully meaning of Jack's words settled over here sharply. Fantastical they may be, they were all together too real. And Reinette could picture with particular clarity just what that looked like.

She had, quite literally, slept in that bed.

She had even assisted Jack in dying.

And for a moment, Reinette thought she might not be all that different from them at all. Despite her words to the contrary. Quietly she reminded herself it was at Jack's request. And that it had helped him.

"I need to walk," Reinette managed abruptly, standing. There was still too much anger coursing through her to remain still. "Would you like to walk?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack soon realised his error. He shouldn't have said anything. Some things were far too big even to imagine, let alone to share.

"I'm sorry," he said, standing with her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

He shook his head then, reached his hand out forward to touch against her arm. "I'm fine, Reinette. Look at me. It doesn't matter what happened because it happened, book closed, move on. And here I am."

He wasn't entirely sure that his words would help, but he didn't much else know what to do.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

She wondered at Jack's ability to section his life into books, bound and supposedly closed and set aside. Rather than the pages and chapters of her own. Was he truly, actually done with what happened before? Reinette could not help but doubt that.

The surprise was that in genuine moments he seemed convinced that he was able to. She thought them both far too self aware for that.

"Yes, Jack. You are here."

The corner of her mouth lifted, thought it could hardly be called a smile. Merely something in her reacting to something in him. The small ways in which people hold sway over one another.

She did not withdraw from his touch even as her body was still filled with coiled tension. Her eyes met his.

"Do not apologize, Jack. I would rather know than not."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"There's a lot I'd prefer you didn't," Jack said. It was honest, perhaps a little too honest. Jack didn't want Reinette to think he was hiding things, or think there was worse. But his past had been varied and dark in places; his own darkness as well as that of others.

He took a deep breath and slipped his hand from her arm to her hand.

"Still want that walk?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"I am afraid this is where I must inform you I never intent to cease trying to find out."

Reinette took a breath then. This is when it was more difficult. Without her own surrounds and her own clothing and her own armor. It was difficult to right herself, to pull herself back.

And she remained very, very angry.

If she could not pull that inward, to hide it behind familiar masks? There she much dispense of it in another manner.

"Yes. Yes, I think that I should."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Between you and me?" Jack whispered, leaning in a little, "I'd be disappointed if you did."

He wished in that moment that he could rewind the last few moments. Not have her have to deal with the horrors that happened to him. They shouldn't be her burden to bear, though it seemed that he made it now that so many of them where.

"C'mon," he said, giving her hand a squeeze. "We'll get an ice cream or something."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette tilted her face to allow her a better view of Jack's profile. She squinted slightly in the filtered sunlight. It was strange, she thought, to be outdoors without gloves or a parasol. She had not noticed until now.

There was a tilt to her mouth that stopped just sort of a smile. More an acknowledgment of his words.

"Keep your secrets Jack," she finally replied. "At least until the point you are ready to share them. I certainly have mine."

Of course, Reinette had firm opinions on when the correct moment arrived. But that was not for this conversation.

She did not glance down to the place where their hands met, but was highly aware of it all the same. There was something casual and informal about it that was unknown to her, even as she recognized the gesture. But she did not pull away.

Instead she simply, silently began their walk. Perhaps towards the ice cream Jack spoke of.