Post Pomp (12/22)

[amberfocus]

 A/N:  Chapters 11 and 12 were too long to post together, but I'm still posting two at a time. *smiles*

Chapter Twelve:  Two Hundred Forty-Five Days

“Rose, do you trust me?” Jack asked her. He had been taking her on twice daily walks and today she had managed to reach the conservatory under her own power. It was evening and usually Rose had her supper in the infirmary following their evening walk.

She smiled at him and bumped her shoulder against his. “Always have, Jack. Always will.”

“Enough to see the stars tonight?” he asked.

Rose gave him a startled glance. “Stars?”

“I’ve planned something nice for you,” he said, “But it all kind of hinges on your ability to look up at the stars.”

She bit her lip, torn. On the one hand, she wanted to see what he had planned for her. On the other hand, she didn’t want anything to remind her of the Doctor right now. Jack had made her feel so cherished these last few weeks. Seeing the stars always made her think of the Doctor and that made her feel anything but cherished. But she did trust Jack and if he wanted her to look at the stars, she would do it to make him happy.

“If you’d like me to,” she said.

Jack smiled, sensing how hard it had been for her to say that. “Close your eyes.” She did. He threw open the doors to the conservatory and ushered her through, hand at her elbow before closing them behind her. “I got everyone else to shove off so we have the place to ourselves tonight.”

She could hear the sound of crickets and running water before they were covered by the soft, rising swell of music. “Can I open my eyes yet?” she asked.

“In a minute.” He led her towards the center of the room and then said, “Now.”

Rose opened her eyes and gasped in disbelief at the dimly lit room. All of the plants were illuminated by twinkle lights, most of them white but here and there some very pale pink and blue lights were visible. The fountain on the back wall bubbled high, it's cascades lit from within by rotating soft green, blue, and red lights.

Overhead the ceiling was a canopy of stars and she could recognize the image of Earth’s moon shining down on her. She knew it wasn’t real but it didn’t take away from the splendor of the vista in any way. A candlelit table was off in one alcove, spread with a blue-checked tablecloth and a sumptuous feast.

“Is that why you were hounding Mickey about all of my favorite foods?” she asked him.

“Guilty,” he laughed. Her hand slipped into his and she gave it a gentle squeeze.

“It’s lovely. All of it, it’s lovely. Thank you.”

He held out her chair and scooted it in for her when she sat. “You make me feel like a princess.”

“Stick with me, sweetheart, and you could be one,” he said with such seriousness that Rose giggled.

“You certainly look the part of the dashing prince,” she said.

“You have no idea.” He shook out his serviette and placed it across his lap and Rose followed suit. The meal was wonderful, the food divine, and the company…well, Rose rather thought the company was marvelous. She was almost sad when the repast ended.

“I suppose it’s time for bed now.”

Jack raised an eyebrow and gave her such a searing glance that she gulped. He hadn’t looked at her like that since she’d first met him, the older and not necessarily wiser, Jack Harkness. “Really, Rose? On the first date?” he teased lightly.

She laughed a little shakily as her stomach flipped over. “Now what I had in mind was a little dancing. You do like to dance, don’t you?”

Rose flushed. Dancing. Dancing with Jack. As she’d done before. Or dancing with Jack, as she’d never done before. Her mind whirled around her as Jack rose to his feet and held out one hand to her. She took it and stood up slowly, still a little shaky. Not from her time on the Madame, either, but from the effect his slow grin was having on her.

She felt like she was floating as his arms encircled her and they gently swayed to the music. It was wonderful but after a couple of songs she just didn’t have the energy to do more. “I’m sorry, Jack, but I don’t think I can do this much longer.”

“Take off your shoes,” he said, “And step onto my feet. I’ll do the work. You just stay there in my arms, darlin’.” Rose found herself blindly obeying him. She didn’t even worry about hurting his feet. Even without the strong boots to protect him, she barely weighed anything at all since the Madame.

She remembered that she had done something similar with Grandpa Prentiss as a little girl. He had waltzed her around the dance floor at the wedding of some cousin and she had felt very much the prettiest girl in the room.

Jack made her feel just that important, but definitely without the grandfatherly connotations. His feet moved her smoothly around and she was utterly enchanted. It would be so easy, so very easy to fall for Jack. She’d almost done it once, when she’d been a little bit confused over the Doctor’s behavior.

Now, though, she was beyond confused at the Doctor’s behavior. She had known her own heart this time around. And the Doctor had taken that heart that he had held in his hands and thrown it away. Jack had never hurt her, not in her past, his future, and not in the time they were sharing together now.

She had made her choice a long time ago. It had never occurred to her until this moment that she might have made the wrong one. She sighed. Trying to banish all thoughts of the Doctor from her mind, she stepped off Jack’s feet and put space between them as the next song ended. “That was lovely, Jack. Thank you, for all of it. You have a way about you of making me feel like I’m worth fighting for.”

Jack’s heart leapt at her words. “You are, Rose,” he told her. “You are worth fighting for. You’re worth living for and dying for, too. Don’t ever let anyone make you think differently.”

He could tell that she was deeply affected by his words as her eyes became teary. As one fell free from her eye, he brushed it away with his thumb. When she shivered under his touch he stilled. “Rose?” His voice had deepened, fallen into his throat, and he could feel his heartbeat pick up speed.

“Jack, I think--.” She broke off her sentence as he closed the distance she had put between them.

He picked up her hand. “What do you think, Rose?”

“I don’t remember,” she said, looking at him, unconsciously moistening her lips as she gazed at his mouth.

Slowly he reached for her, giving her every chance in the world to move away from him. “You are so beautiful,” he said, as his mouth descended on hers. The light brush of his lips on hers made his heart skip a beat. When her hands fisted in his uniform and pulled him closer it about stopped beating altogether.

This time when he tentatively brushed his tongue across her lower lip there was no hesitation in her response. Her mouth opened for him. Kissing her was as sweet as he’d imagined and he had to firmly reign himself in. Rose was no short-term conquest to be overwhelmed with powerful kisses. She was more than that.

And so he made love to her mouth, gently stroking and sliding against her tongue, never rushing or fighting for dominance, never bruising or forcing, simply, gently, giving her every corner of his heart in that one long and heated moment. And when the kiss ended, he was surprised that it was he who had come up for air first.

Her hands remained fisted in his shirt for a long moment before slowly releasing him. “I think,” she said slowly, “That you’re going to have to carry me back to the infirmary. I’m not sure I quite remember how to make my legs work.”

Jack simply nodded at her as he swooped her up in his arms. He knew how she felt, only with him it was that he couldn’t quite remember how to make his brain work. Fortunately for him, at that moment he didn't have to.

9.  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/41561.html
 

Comments

[selene01.livejournal.com]

Wow! This story just keeps getting better. I almost want Rose to stay with Jack.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *smiles* Yeah, that almost wanting Rose with Jack thing gets a bit stronger at times as it goes along. Rose will certainly be torn.

[grissom500.livejournal.com]

T_T I only see this getting worse. I was mad at him for leaving Rose in the actual episode, you're reaaally punishing him here. XD

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, he deserves it. He never should have done what he did, from flirting with Reinette in the first place, to abandoning Rose without thought to the consequences.

[grissom500.livejournal.com]

I really do agree. He was a bit of a bastard. I sort of refuse to watch that episode because he made her cry...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I've only watched it all the way through once. I went back and watched the last ten or so minutes of it when I was writing the end of this fic but that's all. It's just too painful despite the beautiful sets and costumes and writing,e ven.

[grissom500.livejournal.com]

I find it to be like a really drawn out version of Doomsday. Like...I can watch it with friends on a superficial level, but I can't ever watch it alone because I get all depressed. I'm glad you're punishing him <_<.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I haven't even watched Doomsday since the dvd first came out. I've seen it three times but not in ages. Unless you count youtube vids. But GitF was even more torture than Doomsday because in Doomsday you knew they loved each other. In GitF it just totally came out of left field. There was no warning, none. Suddenly the Doctor was flirting with some other woman and it was just so wrong right after what he'd said to her in School Reunion. Like none of it had meant anything at all.

[wiggiemomsi.livejournal.com]

*GURGLE*

Even without my beloved *smut*, your scene between these two sizzles!

“You are, Rose,” he told her. “You are worth fighting for. You’re worth living for and dying for, too. Don’t ever let anyone make you think differently.” -- Wow. Just, wow.


I think the Doctor is going to have to have some reallyreallyreally good reason for not coming back to his Rose. Even waiting to intercept an earlier self and using that TARDIS to go back...uh, forward...to Rose, he could have come to rescue her!

Eagerly awaiting your next chapter(s)!

*Hugs*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Young!hot!Jack is an idealistic romantic at this point in time and yet he has shades of future Jack and he will always be convinced Rose is worth fighting for or dying for.

Well, you'll see how it goes. He's in a bit of a...well he's kind of...I'll be posting it soon, so I won't spoil it here.

[brilliantomega.livejournal.com]

(http://pics.livejournal.com/brilliantomega/pic/0008ez1d/)

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Pretty.

[maniacalshen.livejournal.com]

“That you’re going to have to carry me back to the infirmary. I’m not sure I quite remember how to make my legs work.”

XD Aww. Oh, Jack, I wish there was a way for this to end well for you, but I can't help but think about those years missing from your memory...

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I do, too, but...the story ends up back in canon, so hearts will be broken. These aren't actually the missing years. I deal with the missing years in Andromeda Rising, all of his missing years take place during the Andromeda stories (forthcoming for more than the first) in the Jack's Path series, and a little bit of it is discussed in To Call Our Own. There's another reason for him not remembering this when he meets Rose and Nine in the blitz.

[tanzachick.livejournal.com]

I kind of want Rose and Jack together now. He's such a sweetheart and I really want him to punch the Doctor....sorry I'm feeling a bit violent towards him at the moment!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

It's hard not to root for Jack and Rose at this point. *smiles* And it's really easy to be angry with the Doctor, too. He kind of deserves it for putting Reinette before Rose to begin with.

[bippy24.livejournal.com]

Aww! I'm still really feeling the Jack/Rose love right now. Jack's really charming Rose, that's for sure, and vice versa really. The Doctor's going to have some groveling to do!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

He is, but he's fallen head over heels in love with her. The Doctor has his work cut out for him.

[clarice-cat.livejournal.com]

You know, I was a little shaky on how I felt about this fic the first few chapters, but then I remembered that I'm addicted to angst. Love this fic, and love the last two chapters especially. Jack/Rose is love, any chance of some Ten/Rose/Jack action? *g*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Well, the stuff at the beginning had to completely shatter Rose so she could be coming from a place of doubt and uncertainty and in recovery from the horror when Ten pops back in at chapter fourteen. Kind of has to be that way for the whole rest of the fic to work. I'm like that, though. The set up can leave a person wondering and unsure but by the time you get to chapter five or six you're so far gone you never look back. Or so I've been told. *grins* Not sure quite what that says about my build up, but hey, as long as people keep reading I'm happy.

I've tried, but I can't write OT3 successfully. *shrugs* My Nine and Ten are just too possessive of Rose for me to get it to work right. They're quite unreasonable about it. *laughs* Plus, this particular fic is one of my rare PG ones, so not even any smut ahead, just romance and kissing.

[brittybee3.livejournal.com]

This is my fave story at the moment...I seriously hang out for it to be posted- I'm in Australia, so as far as I can tell you post daily - is there a certain time that you put it up? Keep it up :)

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Yeah, I'm posting two chapters daily. Ummm...I'd say between 8:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time is usually when this one gets posted, but usually closest to midnight. I did just put up 13 and 14. Feel free to friend my journal if you like so it'll pop up on your flist. *smiles*

[ageless-aislynn.livejournal.com]

“Take off your shoes,” he said, “And step onto my feet. I’ll do the work. You just stay there in my arms, darlin’.”

*politely boots Rose out of the way and takes her place* Okay, that was rude, wasn't it? Rude and not ginger... :P ;) Sorry, Rose. You've been through a lot. *gets Rose a nice, comfy couch to sit on, maybe a blanket, a glass of milk and some cookies* There.

*continues dancing with Jack myself*

:D Oh Jack! The "darlin'" just slayed me! *fangirly sigh* I have no doubt that we're going to end up with a Doctor/Rose ending (unless you're really going to pull something out of your hat, lol! ;) ) but I'm really enjoying the Jack/Rose detour along the way! ;) Hey, maybe this will inspire you to throw in a Jack/Rose story somewhere along the way, since you clearly write them so well? :D *feeds your plot bunnies cookies* ;) ♥!

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

*sporfles* Poor Rose and after all she's been through, too. Dunno. I tried to write a Jack/Rose story once and it kept going off track. They seriously did not want to cooperate with me. Rose was firmly convinced she belonged with the Doctor and the Doctor kept interupting them every time they were alone. I think some things are just impossible for me. *shakes head* I can't write OT3 for the same reason.