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#or making the same unfunny joke 652 times
discordantq · 6 months
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The New Doctor
COUNT: 652 words
Pairing: Jack Harkness x Eleventh Doctor
Tags: Cute, Quick, fluff
CW: None
Content: Jack meets Eleven after he leaves Amy and Rory behind and they figure out what that means for them. Written because Eleven is my favorite doc and Harkness is my favorite character and they never got to be silly and cute together.
His head is the size of a cinderblock!
Jack stared at the man exiting the TARDIS and tried to think of anything else. He tried to cope with the trade-off of pinstripes for elbow patches, of deep brown for battered beige, and…what in God’s name was that on his neck?
And then he looked behind him, just a glance, just a nervous habit carved from centuries of running, and just like that, there was no doubt that this was Jack’s Doctor. The man who got away. And then came back later. And then got away again, and then came back earlier. And who then sort of got away but really never got away because if he had gotten away he would have to stop running and that wasn’t something of which the Doctor was capable of doing.
“Jack?!”
He staggered back, a look of daft surprise on his face, and then broke into a grin that couldn’t help but be returned.
“Doctor!”
The hug was short, passionate, and warm.
“How the hell are you? It’s been. Well, for me it’s been about 10 years. You?”
“It’s been a lifetime.”
“I can damn well see that. What have you been up to?”
“Oh you know. Travelling the time space vortex. Going interesting places, meeting interesting people and taking them on adventures. All in good fun!”
Jack felt his heart ache as it opened for the Doctor.
“That bad huh? What happened?”
“Oh,” The Doctor’s face fell, “The usual. What’s it been like over the Pond?”
“Good! It’s been good! Torchwood has officially been taken over by my second in command, I’ve been a free agent for the past decade! So, going interesting places, meeting interesting people and—”
“Dancing?”
“You got it.”
The Doctor smiled. Making him smile made Jack smile and they stood, smiling at each other for just a moment too long. Long enough for Jack to start wondering if the Doctor was thinking what he was thinking.
“So where’s the new model?” Jack asked
“What?”
“Ah don’t give me that, I haven’t found you once but you’ve had a new girl on your arm. Where is the lucky new starry-eyed sidekick?” Jack looked over the Doctor’s shoulder expectantly.
“I’m…I don’t travel with people anymore.”
Jack frowned, and struggled with a conflict. On one hand, something was definitely wrong. The Doctor never traveled without a companion. That felt wrong. Who would complete the three way flirtation dynamic they had always fallen into without effort or comment? Who would laugh at all his unfunny jokes and make the Doctor just a little jealous of him, or her? Who would stop the Doctor from being himself just a little too much and accidentally rewriting the laws of physics to save a small village in Kalaxi-4?
On the other hand, there was an answer to that question. It wasn’t an answer he had thought of for a long time, if only to protect himself from the truth. He couldn’t be the Doctor’s traveling partner. He couldn’t be his sole companion. It just wasn’t the done thing.
But why not?
“You don’t travel with people?”
“No, I’ve. Given up the habit.”
“Ah that’s probably for the best. Nasty habit, people. Terrible for your health.”
“I’m more concerned for theirs.”
“Well. It’s a good thing I’m not a person, and am instead a paradoxical fixed point in time that should probably be stamped out by one authority or another but who simply refuses to die. Isn’t it?”
A Devilish grin spread over the Doctors’ face. It was the last bit of confirmation Jack needed to be sure that while this was not the same man who had nodded at him from across the bar while he and Alonso had shared the first of many drinks together, that it was still, and forever would be, the Doctor.
“I was thinking the exact same thing.”
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