FIC: Doctor Who - The Universal Constant

[fajrdrako_fic]

Title: The Universal Constant
Author: fajrdrako
Pairing: Jack/Nine (with reference to Jack/Nine/Rose)
Part: 1/1
Disclaimer: Not mine, never mine.
Words: 726
Notes: General spoilers for Doctor Who season one; set before "Bad Wolf". Cross-posted to doctorslashjack.



The Universal Constant

It was foolhardy to say anything about time to a Time Lord. Jack knew that, but sometimes he liked to be reckless.

Time was their enemy and their friend. Aboard the TARDIS, they had an infinite amount of it, and used it to advantage in the large white bed that was their favourite. It seemed the Doctor also had an infinite supply of sexual energy, but Jack - for all he had always prided himself on his stamina, and sometimes staked his life on it - was only human.

Not long ago, Rose had fallen asleep, awakened, kissed them both, and had gone in search of food, laughing and dodging Jack's hand as he tried to pull her back to the bed. "Distract him, Doctor!" was her parting shot, and the Doctor did. Quite effectively.

Lying at last in boneless bliss, his body shimmering with the aftermath, Jack lay with his cheek on the Doctor's chest. He could hear the thrumming double-heartbeats and smell the Doctor's skin, cooler than his own, always cooler. If he had the strength to move his lips a quarter of an inch, though he did not, he could have tasted it too.

The Doctor ran lazy fingers over his head. The touch on his hair was unimaginably sensuous.

Jack asked dreamily, "Will it still be this good ten years from now?"

The Doctor's fingers paused in their movements, then rested, motionless, on Jack's back. Jack was sorry he had said anything. Though the Doctor did not at first answer, he could feel the change in mood, a vague psychic shift impossible to identify or understand. After what they had done - with such pleasure - it could not be regret. What was it, then?

Finally the Doctor kissed the top of his head. "Enjoy the present. Let the future take care of itself."

Jack could handle anything. He had learned the value of courage. He just wanted to know - to be prepared. This was one of those forbidden questions. He knew it. But it was always the forbidden questions that most needed to be asked. He was not afraid of answers. "What's wrong with us in the future, then? I'm not going to leave you. Am I going to die?"

He got a smack on the back of the head for that. "Ape-brain! Of course you are. Nothing lasts forever. And don't ask when. What do I know about it? Not a thing. Even if I knew every gory detail, I wouldn't tell you. Go bother some other omniscient genius."

"Yeah, sure, just tell me where I can find one with a little humility."

"After what we just did, I've earned some pride."

If Jack's death was not what the Doctor could foretell, then what was it? His own? No, Time Lords didn't die, they regenerated. So... would a regenerated Doctor not want Jack any more? Why not? Sheer pain pushed him to pursue the question. "Why won't we be together, then?"

"Did I say that?"

"So we will be?" He expected the Doctor to tell him again that time was an irrelevant concept. Within the TARDIS they were masters of time, not its slaves. But that wasn't the point, and both of them knew it. Jack was mortal. He would age, either in the TARDIS or out of it.

"Don't -"

"Tell me what you know!"

"I know better than to answer stupid questions."

"I won't ever leave you."

"I know."

"Will you send me away? Lose me? What?"

The Doctor touched his face. "Think, Jack. The future won't plan itself by your desires. You can't just choose your future. You create it minute by minute. You approach it one step at a time. Everyone does. Even me."

"You're saying you don't know?"

"I'm saying...." There was a long silence. The Doctor gathered Jack more tightly into his arms, and at first Jack thought he was going to say nothing more. He was wrong. The Doctor spoke lightly, which meant it was important.

"I'm telling you a truth known to all Time Lords, when they were around to know this kind of thing. There's only one constant in the cosmos, Jack, only one thing you can be sure of. Good or bad, in the long term or in the short..." He lowered his voice, and breathed the last words softly into Jack's ear.

"Everything changes."

~ End ~