Chapter Text
“That should do it.” Jack scooped up the last of the leaves that had been drifting in the swimming pool and put the landing net aside. Putting his hands onto his hips, Jack regarded his work critically. The water of the swimming pool was clear, once more, and the stone tiles around the swimming pool had been freed of any weeds. If only the sun appeared for a few hours every day, for the next few days, then the temperature would be just right for them to take a swim. Of course, Jack would need to retrieve the sunbeds from storage first and…
Jack snorted and, shaking his head with a laugh, collected the landing net and made his way back towards the house. God, he was starting to sound like one of these American suburb Dads that were always cleaning the pool and making sure that their garden was in perfect shape. Of course, the pool had needed to be cleaned and Jack was looking forward to jumping in for a swim, but there was no need to get so invested. One could even call it dangerous to get so caught up in a situation that was bound to end sooner rather than later.
With a sigh, Jack stored the landing net away in the shed and turned towards the house, making an effort to ignore the beautiful, blooming rose bushes that lined the paved way back to the terrasse. They hadn’t been in bloom when they had moved in, but by now, their strong fragrance was tickling Jack’s nose with every inhale. If they stayed much longer, Jack would have to look up how to prepare the roses for lower temperatures, although he doubted that it would take quite so long.
“Hi there, girl.” Jack patted the exterior of the TARDIS on his way into the house. She hummed softly in reply, still happy with her place on the terrasse, surrounded by plants in flowerpots that were all in full bloom.
“You know, I’m damn sure that this flower is only supposed to bloom in the autumn.” Jack raised an eyebrow at the TARDIS and received the telepathic equivalent of a shrug and a chuckle. Even century-old time ships seemed to need a hobby to keep from getting bored.
“You just do your thing then, Beautiful.” An amused hum answered him, letting him know that he wouldn’t be able to stop her from it if he tried.
“Fair enough, just don’t get into any trouble and, speaking of trouble, I’ll check on our wayward friend, now.” Jack rested his hand against the smooth surface of the TARDIS for another second before he turned and entered the house through the double glass doors. He bypassed the lounging area with its soft leather couches and the huge TV screen, and only glanced briefly into the kitchen before he wandered farther into the house. One month of living together was enough for Jack to know just where to find his friend.
The door to the room was kept ajar and Jack pushed it open without knocking, leaning with his hip against the doorframe as he considered the scene before him. Most of the floor was covered in pages of paper, only a small path was cleared, leading from the door to the huge desk in the centre of the room where a young man sat hunched over his work.
“Doc… John,” Jack caught his slip just in time, although he was sure that his friend hadn’t even heard him. Jack was convinced that he wasn’t even aware of his presence, as absorbed by his work as he was.
Jack shifted his weight and leaned more fully back against the wall next to the door as he indulged himself by watching his friend closely. His hair was in complete disarray, either because it hadn’t yet seen a comb or because its owner had carded his hands through it multiple times. Jack’s money was on the latter option. The Doctor tended to mess up his hair while he was working, especially when he got frustrated and the crumbled papers that surrounded his chair spoke a clear language.
“Just a little bit.”
The murmur reached Jack’s ear and he watched mesmerized as the Doctor pushed his glasses farther up his nose while biting down on his lower lip in deep concentration, moving his right hand slowly over the paper. If Jack hadn’t known better, he would have readily believed that his friend was working on some complicated, temporal calculations in a room that the TARDIS had just created for him.
Jack blinked and pinched his arm to keep himself from following that train of thought any farther. He couldn’t lose himself in the illusion that John was the Doctor, even though they looked the same and shared many behavioural traits. At the end of the day, there was still a huge difference between them, namely that John was completely human.
Jack leaned more comfortably against the wall as he remembered how that had come about.
“It’s no use!” The Doctor hit the console in frustration and hissed when the TARDIS zapped him in retaliation.
“Doctor,” Jack joined his friend at the console and placed a hand onto his shoulder, relieved when it wasn’t shrugged off, “what’s wrong?”
The Time Lord sighed, but straightened a second later, a determined gleam in his eyes that had brought destruction to many a foe. “We need to shake them off, but to do that, I’ll have to become human.”
“Wait, what?” Jack jogged after the Doctor when he turned on his heels and hurried down a corridor of the TARDIS. “I thought, you’d dealt with the Family of Blood. Why’d you need to hide again?” Martha had told Jack the whole story about her time working as a cleaning lady in 1913 over cocktails and cheese pizza. Somehow, Jack wasn’t too keen on learning firsthand what dealing with a human Doctor meant.
“Of course, I dealt with them.” The Doctor had stopped in front of a cupboard and was busily inspecting its contents, shoving some parts back inside while others vanished in the depths of his pockets. “They aren’t after me this time, but the Shadow Proclamation is. Oh, not because I did anything wrong – well, nothing they are aware of anyway,” the Doctor elaborated after a glance at Jack over his shoulder, “but they are eager to learn more about Time Lords since they realised that they aren’t a mere myth.” The Doctor inspected a coiled wire closely before it joined the collection in his pockets. “I probably shouldn’t have shown myself to them, but desperate times and all that.”
“So,” Jack started slowly, trying to follow the Doctor’s thinking, “they are curious about you, but you don’t want to have anything to do with them, I get that.”
And he did, the Shadow Proclamation was necessary to uphold the intergalactic laws, but they certainly weren’t his friends and Jack doubted they only wanted to have a chat with the Doctor. Still, that didn’t explain why the Doctor thought he needed to turn himself into a human.
“They are scanning for my biological signature which is unique in all of time and space,” the Doctor explained as if he had heard Jack’s unvoiced question. “If my signature vanishes, they might just give up after some time.”
“Okay, but couldn’t they just go after you at another point in your timeline?” As far as Jack knew, the Shadow Proclamation possessed ships capable of time travel.
“Very good, Jack.” The Doctor flashed him a smile that never failed to make Jack’s heart helplessly flutter. “Of course, they could just pick me up at some other point if they wanted to risk a paradox. If it were anyone else, I wouldn’t put it past them, but the Shadow Proclamation won’t risk reality just to catch me. No, if they lose my biological signature, they’ll hopefully believe that I’m dead and give up.”
“Okay, I get that and it’s probably a better plan than trying to confront them, but,” Jack held up his index finger and ignored the Doctor’s amused expression, “before you turn yourself human, there are a few things we have to talk through beforehand.”
“Such as?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Jack, who held his gaze without backing down.
“For starters, I don’t mind wiping floors, but I’d prefer it if I was someone you trusted. Martha was merely a maid to you and she had to waste precious time on even making you listen to her. If it’s possible, I’d like to be a friend to you, someone you’d give the benefit of the doubt if he suddenly starts telling you that you’re an alien in disguise.” Jack didn’t want to break out of a closed institution – again.
“And while we’re already at it,” Jack continued before the Doctor could take the chance to interrupt him, “how will I know that it’s safe for you to change back? With the Family of Blood, Martha knew that she had to wait for three months, but I doubt that the Shadow Proclamation is that predictable.”
“Good points.” To Jack’s surprise, the Doctor seemed to truly consider his input for once, furrowing his brow as if deep in thought before he suddenly grabbed Jack’s left arm and put his sonic screwdriver to his Vortex Manipulator.
“Hey!” Jack protested but didn’t try to pull his arm back while the Doctor worked. “It’s already broken, you know.”
“Yep, but now, it picks up the signal of the scanner the Shadow Proclamation uses to search for me. If the signal vanishes, you’ll know.” The Doctor threw his screwdriver into the air with a grin, catching it midturn, and pushed it back into a pocket.
“About your relationship to my human self,” the Doctor turned back to walk towards the console room and Jack fell in step beside him, “I should be able to adjust some of the settings to control the backstory the Chameleon Arch will create for me.”
“If that’s possible, why didn’t you do it, last time?” Jack frowned at the Doctor, slightly disappointed at his friend for forcing Martha to work as a maid in a time and place where women had been considered inferior to men and the colour of her skin had made her a target for every idiotic racist of the time.
“No time for it.” There was an apology in the Doctor’s deep gaze when he glanced at Jack. “This time around though, we’ve got the time to plan.”
“So,” Jack started, suddenly seeing all the possibilities for a few nice, relaxing months, “if I’d want to buy us a huge house with a garden, a swimming pool, a whirlpool, and…”
“Knock yourself out.” The Doctor fished around in one of his pockets and finally retrieved a credit card from its depths. “Just make sure that the house has at least two bedrooms or you’ll be the one to sleep on the couch.”
“Aye, sir.” The Doctor only rolled his eyes at Jack’s mock salute and continued on his way to the control room.
“I’ll land us at the start of the 21st century in England, make sure you’re fast about getting that house of yours. The TARDIS can mask my presence as long as I stay inside, for a bit, but the sooner I become human the better,” the Doctor advised Jack even as he jumped up to the controls to send them out of the Vortex.
Jack nodded his consent, already plotting how and where to get a house to his liking while at the same time wondering what kind of man, the Doctor would be as a human.
The kind of man who drew children’s comics, Jack thought with a little smile when he resurfaced from his trip down memory lane. John had started working on the comic almost as soon as he had woken up after the Chameleon Arch had rewritten his biology.
A shudder ran through Jack’s body when he recalled the bloodcurdling screams of the Doctor while the apparatus had rewritten him on the cellular level. For a species as advanced as the Time Lords, their technology was rather barbaric sometimes. Still, Jack couldn’t think of any other species that had ever managed to turn themselves into a completely different species and lock the essence of who they were in a pocket watch.
Jack’s eyes flickered briefly to the innocent-looking object on the desk before his eyes were drawn to one of the drawings on the floor. That looked exactly like…
“Don’t touch that!”
Startled, Jack lifted his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. “Sorry, it didn’t look like there’s any system to your… order.”
“Pfft, of course, there’s a system to it. It’s not my fault if you can’t figure it out,” John huffed haughtily and Jack was unwillingly transported back to the one time, he had dared to criticise how the Doctor organized his toolbox. God, but in moments like this, it was hard to remember that John wasn’t the Time Lord.
“If you say so.” Jack winked at John before he turned serious. “You should take a break. You’ve been in here for hours by now.”
“I’m fine.” Thin fingers carded through thick, brown hair and messed it up even further. “I’m almost done here and then I’ll have breakfast.”
“John,” it was especially hard to remember to use that name when his friend was just as stubborn as the Doctor, “it’s past lunchtime.”
“Oh!”
Brown eyes looked at him in clear shock and Jack seized the chance to push: “Why don’t we go out for a bit? The weather is lovely, we could go to the park, eat some sandwiches on the way and then you can go back to your comic. How does that sound?”
For an endless long second, it seemed as if John would reject his offer but then he sighed quietly and nodded his assent. “Alright, a break is probably a good idea, my hand has already started cramping.”
Jack barely refrained from asking him why he hadn’t switched hands. Other than the Doctor, John wasn’t ambidextrous and it was better not to make him wonder why Jack would think otherwise. There was no telling how long they needed to remain in hiding and if John started to ask questions, it would only complicate matters.
“Awesome, I’ll meet you in ten at the front door.”
John only sighed at his enthusiasm, but Jack was certain that he spotted a small smile before he closed the door to give his friend some privacy.