for ambitious_woman: Time for a party

[quitehomoerotic]

Follows this.

It had been five days since Reinette woke up. She was doing much better now, her health had picked up considerably and she had more colour in her cheeks than Jack thought he'd ever seen her with.

Still, he knew, time ticked on, and the better she became the more restless too. That, and as time passed yet more and more questions were raised as to her identity. Jack could deal with them, of course, but he much preferred that he didn't have to.

Of course, he wanted to take her home. And home, of course, he meant 1752. But that was hardly that simple, and turning up to take her back there now felt cruel. Jack could be cruel, of course. He'd been cruel on many occasions. But he didn't want to be, not to her, not after everything. So he needed an alternative.

Luckily, an alternative presented itself.

So it was with an idea fully formed and a oversized set of bags in hand that he walked into Reinette's hospital room, a grin painted on his lips.

"Bonsoir," he said. "How about a trip?"

Comments

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"I am well aware of what a costume is Jack." She purposefully matched his tone. "I am an actress, remember. I have worn enough more than enough of them in my time."

She was still smiling, yes. But indignant all the same.

"One should always pay attention to the details."

Which, of course, was the precise moment Jack chose to demonstrate the finer points of just how the gown would be worn.

"And what," she pressed, steeling her expression. "Is the intended function?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"To wear," he said, still amused, teasing her just as she teased him.

"Come on, it's got the boning in the lining, right? I asked for it. It's--" he reached forward, giving the gown a bit of a squeeze with his hand. "Well okay it's not perfect, but it'll do for a party. It's not like I'm asking you to walk into court with this thing on."

He stepped back a little and grinned

"And hey, at least it's no bin bag."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"The bin bag," she repeated, pulling the gown in closer and testing the weight of it. "I never did have the opportunity to try one of those."

With something of a resigned sigh Reinette brought the gown against herself, measuring. Whatever the finer points of this discussion might be, she could not fault Jack's assessment of her size. It would serve.

"Very well," she agreed, seeming to come to some sort of conclusion. "If this is what I am required to leave this place? I shall wear it. I would wear one of your bin bags. Or even what I am wearing now. It does not matter."

Or at least, she considered?

It did not matter much.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"You know, I'd take you in that," Jack said casually, "but I'm not sure they'd let us into the party."

He turned and grinned, taking up his own bag.

"I'll go change, you change, and I'll meet you back here. Don't go running anywhere now."

He shot her a wink and moved to the door, the bag in hand, and he left the room with a flourish.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette watched Jack leave, and allowed herself to release a slightly exasperated sigh. The man really was impossible.

"Where, Jack? Exactly would I run."

Not that he was there to answer. There was a moment, of course? A very brief moment at the height of her hurt and disappointment at Jack's refusal to remover her from the hospital that Reinette had considered running. In the only way open to her. In calling the doctors and nurses and guards back, and confirming that Jack was indeed upsetting her. They would have been effectively separated. And there was no way he could have returned her home.

It had been a fleeting thought, at best. Because she knew without doubt it would have emotionally severed whatever she and Jack had come to share. And she did not want that. So dutifully Reinette remained. Remained in a hospital and surrounded by doctors, her world and sense of self turned upside down.

They spoke and laughed and avoided now. Because neither wished to deal with the alternative. And that suited her.

More than the down.

Stripped of her dressing down Reinette noted how nearly all the bruises had faded from her skin. Only a few, faint lingering scars remained. She suspected they would always be there.

Placing the lose fitting cotton aside Reinette stepped into the gown, and zipped it up as best she could manage. The color was no less offensive on. To distract herself from it, she directed her attention to her hair.

Had Jack really intended for her to wear that wig?

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The corridors of a hospital were hardly where someone might expect to find a man head to toe in over the top 18th century French costume. But still, any walking along these halls this day would find exactly that. Jack, after taking far too long to get changed, and after a quick hop to hide his own clothes back somewhere safely, he was walking along, back to meet Reinette.

Never one to do anything by halves, Jack had gone all out on the costume. That said, it was still that, a costume, and as he dressed himself in it he couldn't help but agree with Reinette's earlier comments on the items.

He wore an outfit in full, no detail missed from the stockings to the wig that adorned his head. Nor the makeup that now covered his face, powdered white and detailed with a black beauty spot and a red heart painted over his lips.

He stepped in the room. and shut the door behind him.

"How do I look?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette turned at the sound of someone at the door, her hands still on the offending wig and her gown not entirely on. She very nearly dropped the wig.

"Jack..."

There was no time to contain or edit her laughter, and it filled the room bright and clear. It struck her then she did not feel as out of breath as she often did.

"Oh, Jack. What have you gotten into."

She stepped forward to survey him, completely a full circle through brisk steps.

"And what am I to do with the fact that you are now prettier than I am?" Her gaze narrowed.

"A beauty spot?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"What?" Jack asked, utterly sincere. "That's right isn't it. I've checked your guys out --in more ways than one--. I know what I'm doing, and this is right. Don't you go telling me it isn't."

He smirked at her and turned so that he faced her a little front on.

"And don't worry, I don't think we're in any danger of that now."

Taking one step back, he regarded her dress. "See, it looks... just right." She wore it well, of course, and he'd expected little else.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette could barely contain her laughter as she watched the painted heart on Jack's mouth move. It was not that she was unaccustomed to seeing such pomp and circumstance. But she was not at all used to seeing Jack wear it.

"It is right Jack," she agreed with as straight a face as possible. "Though I must warn you, you must take care not to kiss your heart away. It is always far too simple to tell who has stumbled into an alcove."

Her mouth pressed into a firmer line, still revealing an opinion of her gown. But she still turns to present the back so Jack might finish zipping her into it.

"If you would?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh you know me," Jack said with a smirk. "Never one to give my heart away so easily."

Rubbish, of course. They both knew that. In fact Jack gave his heart all too easily at times. But he would never admit to that, not even to himself.

He took a step forward and reached for her dress, lifting the zip the rest of the way. "You know, I'm more accustomed to removing these things," he said as he fixed it in place. "Though, gotta admit, this one isn't much of a challenge."

He leaned over her shoulder and smirked.

"Paris is waiting," he said.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

There was a definite sense of finished as Jack assisted her getting fully in the gown. For all its ridiculous shade, and suspect stitching? There was still a sense of familiar about it. She had her armor again.

And at that thought, Reinette smiled.

Her very carriage changed.

"I cannot address what is a chalange or not to you Jack. I only know you chose it. There might be some sort of meaning there, though I am not sure. A great many possibilities, at least."

But?

Paris.

She had missed her, though she was won't to admit it out lous. But she missed her all the same. With little preamble Reinette pulled her hair back, and affixed the less than perfect wig. It would do. She looked to Jack.

"Shall we?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

In the back of his throat, Jack laughed an incorrigible little laugh. "Oh Reinette I think we both know everything is a challenge to me."

He winked at her.

And he tried not to laugh at the wig. A perfect picture of a woman in costume. If only anyone knew.

"I think we shall," he said, and offered out his ready-programmed wrist strap towards her.

"Care to do the honours, Madame?" He grinned. "That button there."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

At the sound of his laughter Reinette could not help but match it with her own. He really was impossible. And she would have him no other way.

"Now Jack. I can think of one or two things at least that you would find positively dull. My husband being one of them."

She brought herself close again Jack, the required expectations of their journey now understood. She braced herself against the usual wave of nausea and thought back to the last time they had traveled thus together. A great deal had changed. For the better.

He seemed to be a great deal improved. Her smile now was small, and private as she drew herself across Jack to reach for the strap.

"One day Jack, I really will insist you teach me how."

And with that the button was depressed.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack merely smirked at Reinette. A knowing sort of smirk that said a great deal he suspected she already knew quite well.

And he liked that. That quiet conversation they could have without ever speaking. An understanding that would (and did) pass between them.

If he were to reply at all, it wouldn't be now, because where once was a hospital room, was now a small quiet Paris street. There was a chill in the evening air, but it wasn't cold, and the streetlights paved their way to their destination.

Jack shook himself, shaking off the sensation from the travel, and he offered her his arm.

"Shall we?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette's arm found Jack's naturally, as she breathed in deeply to center herself after the travel. Each time it seemed to bother her less, but it was still unsettling.

She could not help but be aware of how much less the cool air bothered her. Even now, she would have battled such temperatures with a roaring fire. Spring or summer it did not matter.

"We shall."

And she gave Jack another of her best smiles, one far less practiced.

As they walked, Reinette fell silent. It was one thing to see electric lights and cars and all the modern amenities she had come to understand in Jack's home. It was yet another to see her own home altered by them. She took it all in.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Luckily, Jack had programmed the manipulator with some degree of accuracy, and they were barely more than a street or so away from their destination.

As they walked, he shifted a little, his wig itching. He wondered how men coped with these things.

"You know one thing?" he said, tilting his head to look at her. "One thing about places. They always smell the same. Okay maybe not on the surface, with car fumes or factories or any of that. But smell a little deeper and it's all there. Doesn't change. Not over any time."

He smiled. "Paris will always be Paris."

And on that, they turned the corner, and ahead of them, was the Elysée Palace with people flocking around the doorway.

"Welcome home."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Paris will always be Paris."

Her entire person warmed at Jack's words. Even moreso because Reinette did not believe that had been Jack's original intention. It was his own love for travel and adventure. And his own deep understanding of the places that he visited that was in his words. That she felt them deeply as well was merely secondary.

He was not trying. He merely was.

It was one of the things she found most appealing about him.

"And Jack will always be Jack."

Reinette felt those words as well. It did not matter that it was not truly his name. Or the costumes and masks they both favored. Jack? Was simply Jack. There was very little chill remaining in the air.

Her gaze cast upward towards her home, now lit more brightly than she had ever seen. Reinette could not help the pride that swelled within her.

"She is still here, Jack," she said softly. "She is still beautiful."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Couldn't be anyone else if I tried," he admitted. And there was a strange truth in that. Over the many years, he had tried. He'd tried to hide from 'Jack Harkness', but somehow, he always found his way back to him.

While Reinette's gaze was trained on the building ahead, his was trained on her. He watched her as she took in her surroundings and the building ahead, and watched too how it settled on her features.

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "She is."

He wasn't referring to the building.

"Come on," he said, almost a childlike excitement in his voice as he gave her arm a tug. He guided her up to the gates and inside, handing the pair of tickets over to a man on the door.

Around them were people in costume, just like them, so many of them milling around, talking and drinking and having a good time.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette smiled at the playful tension that sat coiled in the whole of Jack's body. She could feel it even then. They way it traveled through their clasped arms and settled in her own core. She followed after him easily, her gaze still alert and taking in the changed in her home.

Did Jack even recall that this was where she had brought him to recover? Somehow she thought not.

The crowd was a strong one, all of them in costume and upon seeing them Reinette understood why Jack was so certain theirs would be acceptable.

She was fairly certain she caught sight of Marie, several Louis-- though all were far more portly than he was -- two Casanova's, Voltaire and....

Herself.

"Well then," she breathed.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Well then," he said back, watching her half cautious but half to simply observe her reactions. This was her domain now, and in more ways than one. And where those might tread and masquerade as people she once knew, they were merely reading from a story that she herself wrote.

"Come on," he whispered in her ear. "Lets go find the gossip."

He walked inside and a waiter stood with a tray of champagne. Rightly speaking, Jack knew he ought not be giving Reinette drinks. Not least when she'd been on so much medication. But then he doubted it would hurt, a glass or two, and so he lifted a pair from the tray, holding one towards her.

"Madame," he said, a glint in his eye.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Surrounded by so many strangers Reinette easily fell into her old, well-practiced ways. There was a cooler look in her eye, a harder tilt to her chin. Whatever concealed warmth remained was held for Jack, and Jack alone.

"It is not that different from the night we met, Jack."

That thought, however, was interrupted by the glass Jack placed in her hand. She took a sip of what was especially fine champagne before she took note of what it rested in.

Reinette's gaze narrowed.

"They are not using these glasses."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Better watch out for alcoves then," Jack said with a wink in her direction.

The night they'd met seemed so very far away now. So much time had passed since then with the woman he'd known both two years and yet still? A matter of weeks.

That first night, an opportune party, when Jack started to be watched because of cogs set in motion through actions he hadn't yet taken.

Jack saw Reinette's expression change and he laughed into his own glass.

"Oh yeah they are," he said, overly amused.

"You know to be honest," he said, holding his glass in his hand, and taking a good look at it, "I think they got the size just right."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Her gaze narrowed by very specific measures.

"You are very lucky Jack," she said through clenched teeth that were only partially show. "That this is especially fine champagne and I do not wish to waste it by throwing it in your face."

There was a smile there, behind her expression. But one had to search to fine it. She imagined that Jack would be able to navigate it easily enough. But to the rest of the room she would seem quite put off.

Pointedly ignoring him, Reinette turned to examine the room they now stood in. Her wallpapers were gone. Her furniture as well. She did not think it looked near so well as before but there was still great beauty there. And familiarity.

She moved to walk the perimeter of the room.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack wasn't put off by Reinette's expression or the tone in her voice; if anything he was spurred on. He continued to grin and laugh into his drink, the corners of his eyes creasing. He enjoyed that there was an expression that sat somewhere below her surface. It was like reading another language, and one Jack was quite confident he was now quite proficient in.

He supposed too that Reinette was quite proficient in readinghis language. But he found? He didn't mind. In fact, he rather enjoyed it. And that was quite the turn up for the books.

Following behind her, Jack looked up at the portraits and prints that had been hung on the wall for the occasion. In front of him hung a portrait of Marie Antoinette. Beneath it was a year 1783.

Jack immediately realised his mistake.

"Oh I've done it again," he said, touching his hand to his face.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette turned back to see precisely what Jack was commenting on, only to feel her back jostled quite sharply. She turned, only to find herself face to face with ---

Casanova.

Only, not entirely at all. His face was fainted like Jack's, only with a great deal less skill. And his mouth was an unnatural, garish red that was already somewhat smeared. She supposed his clothing what cut to call attention to particular endowments, but truly there was not a great deal there to note.

She was staring at a very poor caricature of a very dear friend.

Who was even now aware of her study of his person and misreading her intent.

"You, sir," she announced cleanly. "Are not Casanova."

The man grinned widely.

"Oh but I am!"

He seemed to fail to comprehend her meaning. His eyes crinkled with interest, and Reinette was briefly introduced to the notion that this man had imbued in more than champagne before his mouth closed over her own. She held herself perfectly still while the man attempted to further his playacting. Really, then.

When he pulled back, Reinette stared him gown her gaze unwavering.

"I assure you," there was no room for argument, and she was obviously unfazed and unimpressed with his kiss. "You are not."

For a moment he just stood there, color floding his cheeks through the make up. And then he was gone.

Reinette simply continued walking.