Andromeda Rising: Chapter Thirteen

[amberfocus]

Title:  Andromeda Rising
Series:  Jack's Path, Compatible with Time Eternal
Author:  Amberfocus
Characters/Pairings:  Jack Harkness/Andromeda Harper, Ten/Rose Tyler, Cassi Tyler Harper/Daniel Harper, Dare Tyler/Martha Tyler-Jones, Teganna Tyler, Xanderius Tyler, Marsden Tyler-Jones, Devora Tyler-Jones, Rapheal Harper, Gwen Cooper Williams/Owen Harper
Genre:  Action/Adventure, Romance, fluff, angst, smut
Rating:  Adult, R
Beta:  jeprdyfrndly
Summary:  Andromeda Harper, the granddaughter of the Doctor and Rose, has run away from her family, determined to make her own way in the universe.  She and Jack Harkness cross paths and there is no looking back for either of them despite the significant age gap between them.  Unknown to either of them, Andromeda has become the target of an Orion Hunter, a prince who will stop at nothing to claim Andromeda as his very own, and is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way, including Andromeda herself, if she says no.  Set during Jack's two years of missing memories.

Previous chapters:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/275070.html
 
Chapter Thirteen:  Questions and Answers

As the bellhop placed their bags inside their room and Jack took care of tipping the creature with numerous appendages that put her in mind of some land-based octopus, Andromeda looked around the inside of their room in the green sandcastle. As she touched the walls she realized that it wasn’t all that different in texture from the coral hotel they’d stayed in previously. And although the castle had been a deep forest green on the outside, the inside was more the color of Earth moss.

Jack closed the door and came up behind Andromeda and pulled her body back against him. She turned in his arms and kissed him sweetly before pulling away. “I…um…got us two bedrooms again,” Jack said, looking down at his feet almost shyly. “I didn’t know…if you were…well, the bonding…I just…” He trailed off.

Andromeda could tell that he was used to being completely in charge of himself and that this new uncertainty bothered him. “One bedroom will be fine from now on, Jack,” she said quietly. “We’re bond mates.”

“I just wasn’t sure,” he said, raising his eyes to meet hers.

“You called me your wife, Jack. I thought you were pretty sure,” Andromeda said.

“I know I did, and in my heart I feel like you are, but honestly, we haven’t even known each other that long. Just because we’ve…” He broke off again. “I can’t explain it,” he said in frustration.

“You’re right. We don’t know each other very well. And yet our lives are forever joined because of the bonding. You’re afraid to assume that I want a full relationship with you, you’re worried because I’m young and inexperienced and you’ve had more experience than you think I’ll be comfortable with, and you think that I’m going to get tired of being tied to an older man and eventually run off and leave you. You think if you assume that I want to be in your bed every night that it’s pushing yourself on me, and you think that you’ll go crazy if I’m not in your bed every night,” Andromeda said.

“That about sums it up. How’d you do that?” Jack asked.

“Aside from the bonding link, telepathy and empathy run on both sides of my family. I can feel what you’re feeling. Maybe not read the words, I can only do that with direct contact, but I can very strongly feel your fears and uncertainties. I want you. I want to know how your mind works and if you can sing. I want to know your favorite color and if you have any brothers or sisters, if you like your parents, what your job is, why you’re on a six month leave of absence, how you won your spaceship in a poker game and if underneath the bonding’s power, if you like me, not just the chemicals that have linked us.”

“Of course I like you,” he said. “You’re amazing.”

“And not just because of the bonding sex?”

“If it were just that I wouldn’t have fought it for so long. We would have made love that night we ingested the aphrodisiac. I didn’t want to push that until we knew each other better. It’s why I locked you in that room and told the computer not to let me in. I wanted you to be ready and I wanted to know you better. You’re different than any girl I’ve ever known,” Jack told her.

“Well, you’re different from every man I’ve ever met. You rescued me and took care of me and didn’t try to take advantage of me when we first met. I think you’re wonderful. And that’s not just the chemicals talking.”

Jack smiled and took her hand and led her over to the sofa. “So questions and answers. What is your favorite color?”

“Red,” said Andromeda. “Yours?”

“Green. And yes I can sing. Can you?” Jack asked.

“I think so. How many brothers and sisters do you have?”

“Six,” said Jack. “One full brother, two half sisters, and three foster brothers. And I like all of my parents.”

“How many parents do you have?” she wondered.

“Biologically I have two, but they’re in a marriage quadrad, so in my culture that constitutes four parents, all of which have a hand in raising the child. Then for several years while my home world galaxy was in upheaval I was sent to live with distant family who fostered me for many years. In a lot of ways they’re more my real family than the one I was born to,” Jack said. “What about you?”

“I have a brother named Raphael. Rafe and I get on quite well, though he’s a lot younger than I am. And two parents. My dad is human and old Irish on his mum’s side. It’s where he gets his gift from, telepathy and precognition. Dad’s great. He’s very calm and understanding and loving.”

“What about your mum?”

“We don’t get on well. Mum’s temperamental and argumentative and always has to be right. She thinks she knows what’s best and damn the consequences if she turns out to be wrong. Which she is a lot, but she’ll never admit it. It was a very frustrating way to grow up. I love her, but sometimes…well, sometimes I don’t like her very much,” Andromeda admitted. “She makes it hard to like her.”

Jack reached out and hugged Andromeda. When he let her go, she changed the subject. “So do you have any nicknames?” She asked.

“Jack is a nickname. My real name’s Jonathon Ashford Kensington.  The initials became JAK and from that I changed it to a more common spelling. What about you?” He wanted to know.

“Dromee. Most of my family calls me Dromee.”

“Do you want me to use it?” Jack asked her.

She looked up at him and blushed. “I like the way you say Andromeda,” she admitted. “It sounds…sensual.”

Jack smiled at her and said, “Andromeda.” She grinned at him.

“See?” she said, melting into him and giving him a searing kiss. When she broke away she said, “So what was your favorite subject in school?”

“History,” said Jack.

“Me, too. What kind of job do you have?” she asked.

Jack went still. He hesitated for a long while. “It’s sort of…rescue and recovery and law enforcement and undercover detecting all rolled into one. We’re not really allowed to talk about what exactly it is we do.”

“How come you took a six month leave?” she asked him.

“The last case I worked on was pretty harrowing. I had a lot of leave time accrued and I wanted to distance myself from that last job, go out and have some fun and live a little bit,” Jack told her. “Never dreamed I’d meet the girl of my dreams, though. Do you work?”

“I’ve just finished my schooling not too long ago, though I have done some…historical work for my grandfather. But most of my life has been spent travelling with my parents and sometimes my grandparents,” Andromeda told him.

Jack’s stomach gave an embarrassingly loud growl and Andromeda laughed. “Hungry?”

“A bit, yeah,” Jack grinned at her.

“So shall we go out and get something to eat?” she asked him.

“I’d rather order in,” he said, his eyes heavy as they looked at her. She smiled. “All right, but tomorrow we’re going to go explore this city. You can’t take me to a city made of sandcastles and then not show it to me!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He kissed her slowly and passionately. “Although I think takeout can wait just a little bit longer.” He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the nearest bedroom.



Philia materialized on New Earth behind the largest hospital complex Cassi and Daniel had ever seen. “It’s run by the Sister’s of Plenitude,” Cassi said, reading from a book. “They’re a sacred order of healers and they happen to be cats.”

“What? Like kitty cats?” Daniel asked.

“Not exactly. They’ve evolved into a bipedal life form. They’re mostly like you or me only feline in origin.” Cassi sighed. “Well, here goes nothing. Let’s go get me checked in to that place.”

“It’ll be all right, Cass,” said Daniel taking her hand in his.

“Daniel, what if they can’t do it? What if I lose this baby? Or have to regenerate? What are we going to do?” Cassi asked. He pulled her into his arms and made soothing noises.

“We’ll find a way, Cassi. The baby will survive one way or another.”

“But if I regenerate, I’ll be a pretty different person. What if…what if I don’t love you anymore?” she asked him. “Sometimes feelings don’t carry over from one incarnation to the next. Or what if you don’t like the changes? What if--what if--?” Daniel silenced her by bringing his lips down on hers. He held her tightly until he felt her body lose its tension.

“That’s something I’ve talked to Rose about,” Daniel admitted. “She’s been through it with your father. His emotions carried over. But regardless, Rose says once the bonding link is in place it overrides all other emotions.”

“When did you talk to my mother?” Cassi wanted to know.

“After Rafe was born, when you were so sick with that fever,” he said quietly. “You came as close to dying as I ever care to see. Your parents both thought you might have to regenerate to shake that fever off. Fortunately it ran its course but it was touch and go a few times.

“How come no one ever told me that?” she demanded.

“It didn’t happen, love. And no one wanted to worry you. We all know what you’re like when you’re worried and we barely had the energy left to take care of you and Rafe between the three of us. Thankfully Dromee went to stay with Dare and Martha because you and our son were more than enough of a handful,” Daniel told her.

“I’m not a handful,” Cassi said, a bit offended.

“Of course not,” Daniel said with a slow smile. “More like two.”

“Oh, you,” said Cassi. “I am not.” Daniel raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “All right, fine. I am. But I was ill.” Daniel grinned. “Fine, I’m always a handful. But you knew what you were getting when you married me.”

“Yeah. I was getting you. And that’s all I wanted so I think it turned out pretty well.” He kissed her again, then pulled away and took her hand. “Come on,” he said. “No more stalling. Let’s go and see a cat about a cure.”

They made their way to the front of the building and entered the main doors. “Not very welcoming,” said Cassi.

“Quite…sterile,” Daniel said looking around at the too white interior. He pointed to one side. “That looks like an information desk.” They made their way over to the desk and after a brief word with what was indeed a human-sized cat were sent over to the admissions desk.

“Bultungin virus?” asked the woman behind the desk when they’d explained the illness. “That’s a rarity.”

“We know. But can it be cured?” Cassi asked.

“Everything can be cured with the proper treatments. It will take some time.” The receptionist pressed a button and a few moments later a cat in a nun’s habit glided up to them.

“Hello,” she said. “I am Novice Hame. Will you come with me?” They were taken through decontamination, which had Daniel gasping and Cassi saying impolite things about her father for not warning them about the thorough soaking, wind tunnel drying, and huge puffs of powder. Coughing to get the powder out of their lungs, they emerged onto one of the treatment floors.

Cassi was tagged with I.D. and led to a private room. “I’ll just be taking a blood sample and we’ll begin the process,” said the cat nun.

It was several hours before Novice Hame returned. “There is good news,” she said, “For your babies. We can treat them.”

“Them?” Cassi said with a bit of shock.

“Oh, didn’t you know? Your blood shows traces of shed male and female fetal cells. You’re carrying twins.”

“No,” said Daniel. “We didn’t now.”

“Ah, well congratulations. Now, we can treat the babies, but unfortunately we cannot treat you, Mrs. Harper. You’re simply not human enough for our cures to be effective. But your offspring are seventy-five percent human and they will respond positively to our treatment.”

The nun looked away for a moment then returned her gaze to Cassi. "For the duration of your pregnancy you cannot be on any planet that has a full moon. If you…change during this pregnancy it will counteract the medication and the babies will become reinfected. Then there will be no countermeasures we can take and eventually the pregnancy will either terminate or end in still births.”

Cassi nodded. “Let’s get on with this then,” she said.

Novice Hame nodded and hooked up an I.V. bag to Cassi’s arm. She injected a green vial into the clear liquid and it slowly began the process of dripping through the tube and into Cassi’s arm. The nun left them alone.

“Avoiding planets with a full moon for the duration of the pregnancy is not going to be easy,” Cassi muttered.

“We’ll manage,” Daniel said. “To keep them safe.” He pointed to her stomach.

“Well, it’s something anyway. But Daniel, what am I going to do? There’s no cure for me.”

“You can regenerate once the children are born,” he said. “That’ll kill the virus.”

“But I don’t want to regenerate!” Cassi burst out. "I’ve already lost one of my lives before I was even born. I’m not quite forty years old. I haven’t even lived out the amount of a human life and now I have to give it up?”

“You don’t have to. But if you don’t, you’ll have to avoid full moons for the rest of your life. You know you can’t be around the children if you turn. Or me,” Daniel said.

“I would never hurt you or the children,” Cassi said indignantly.

“Not how it works, love. The human, or in your case, Time Lady, mind is completely subsumed by the werehyena mind. I’ve done my reading. You wouldn’t be yourself during the change.”

“Maybe Dad will find a cure. He did say he was going to keep trying and you know how smart he is,” Cassi said hopefully.

“And I’ll help him. Maybe between the two of us we can develop an effective anti-viral,” Daniel said soothingly.

“I hope so,” said Cassi. “I really, really hope so. But, Daniel…working with Dad? Can you…can you do that? After everything?”

Daniel stroked the hair back from Cassi's face tenderly. “Don’t you yet know, my beloved, that for you I would move mountains?” He kissed her tenderly on the forehead then settled back into his chair to wait.



“I don’t understand it,” said Lycoctonus to Acheron as Arctophonus piloted the solar sail boat across the ocean swells. “The signal says they should be right here. We’re on top of them.”

“But it’s said that for the last fifty klicks,” argued Cisseta. “There’s no sign of them.”

“How can the transponder be giving off a strong signal the entire time? Isn’t it supposed to get stronger the closer we get to it and weaker when we move away? Maybe it’s the equipment,” Dromis suggested.

“It’s not the equipment,” Arctophonus and Lycoctonus snapped in unison. “It’s state of the art, brand new, and was functioning just fine when we approached the planet,” added Arctophonus.

“I need to think,” said Acheron. He studied the transponder signal’s readout for a long time then gazed out at the open ocean. After a half an hour he said, “Let’s return to shore. I believe they are submerged and the signal is bouncing back and forth between the sides of an underwater chasm. We’ll rent a submersible and return.”

Acheron smiled and stretched until his joints popped, releasing tension in his muscles as well. The couple was giving him a good hunt, but in the end he always managed to track his prey down. This time would be no different. Soon enough he would have what he wanted most desperately. The girl would be in his possession. And then…then the fun would really begin.

Ch. 14:   http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/307022.html

Comments

[doctor10-crazt.livejournal.com]

Oo, yay, you updated it!

I'm liking this. I'm liking this a lot.

*eagerly awaits the next one*

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. *smiles*

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

I was so excited to see this! It's been a bit and I really missed the story.

I love Jack and Dromie and this whole mad crew.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Yeah, it's really a back burner sort of fic. Sorry about that.

[10-rose.livejournal.com]

Yay for Andromeda Rising! Great chappie as always :D

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[angelab85.livejournal.com]

Is this the same as the teaspoon version? I've read it through chapter 15 and have been wondering what else young Jack and Dromee get up to.

[amberfocus.livejournal.com]

I've made some changes so it's not exactly the same. I've been updating the changes there as I go. It's not as significant as the changes I've made to Just Another Shop Girl, though, which I haven't updated there yet.

[dragonmom64.livejournal.com]

Yay! New chapter! And the cat-nuns! I just love how you bring canon elements and characters into your stories!

Eagerly anticipating more...



That said, I've been behind on my f-list, and only just read of your recent losses in your family...my deepest sympathies.
And I hope you get well soon...that walking pneumonia is nothing to mess with!