Chapter Text
“Jack, you just don’t understand!” Rose pushes her hair out of her face impatiently.
“No, I don’t! That’s why I’m asking!” Jack throws up his hands in frustration.
“Can’t you just accept it?” Rose snaps.
“Not unless you explain-” Jack snaps back.
“Jack, leave her be.” The Doctor says tiredly. He hates it when his companions fight. Especially when he agrees with them both. “No pressurin’.”
“I’m not-” Jack stops. The Doctor can see in his eyes that he’s replaying the last minute in his mind. Jack takes a deep breath and relaxes his stance with a visible effort, taking half a step back. “Sorry. I’m not trying to pressure you, Rose. I’m sorry if I got a bit worked up there.” He looks at her openly, honestly. “Really, I am. I would never want you to do anything you don’t want to.”
Rose sighs. “It’s not that I don’t want to, exactly…” She shrugs vaguely, turning away from him. The Doctor sees different emotions warring on her face: some desire, a lot of exasperation, but mostly guilt and shame.
“But that’s just it! You want to, the Doctor wants to, I want to – god, do I want to – so why can’t we?” He’s keeping his voice calm and quiet, but his eyes show turmoil.
“It’s just… wrong.” She hunches her shoulders.
“Why? Why is it wrong to do something that would make us all happy?” His voice drops an octave. “And I swear, I could make you very happy.” Oh no. Completely the wrong move right now.
Rose cringes visibly. “But I can’t… do it… with him sometimes and with you other times. That’d make me a…” Her voice trails off.
Jack looks completely confused. “With him sometimes and with me other times?”
The Doctor realizes that what Rose thinks they’re talking about is not what he and Jack were thinking. But how to bring up a thing like this in such a charged atmosphere? He shuffles his feet, uncomfortable. “Jack…”
“I get why you want that, but…” There’s a mixture of dejection and disgust on her face. But there’s longing, too, or is that just wishful thinking on his part?
The Doctor knows he really should speak up, defuse the situation somehow, but all he can think is “Whatever possessed me to take two apes on board, and then go and fall for them both?” Somehow, he doubts that’d be a helpful comment at the moment.
“But… I don’t want that.” Jack shakes his head.
The Doctor tries to make an unobtrusive shushing motion. If Rose is this upset over what she thinks Jack’s asking, he doesn’t want to know how she’ll react once she realizes…
Now Rose looks equally confused. “Wh- but then what- you know I can’t choose you over him!” Oh, hell. Jack is gonna tell her, isn’t he? A distraction. His TARDIS for a distraction.
“Choose? No, of course not, I’m not asking… but… Why go back and forth?”
Too late. The Doctor squeezes his eyes shut tightly, waiting for the explosion.
“What other w-” Her jaw goes slack. “At the same time? Is that what you’re saying? You want all three of us to… at the same time?”
“Well – obviously! Why the he-”
The Doctor opens his mouth, about to interject, but now it’s too late. Rose explodes.
“You swine! You utter bastard!” She takes a few steps towards Jack, who backs towards the wall in shock. “What kind of hussy do you take me for? I thought we were friends!”
“We ar-“
“Is that how you see me? Just a bit of fluff available for all kinds of- ugh, Jack Harkness, you’re despicable!” She turns and storms out of the console room.
Jack is standing against a coral strut, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.
The Doctor stares at the doorway where Rose just disappeared. No point trying to talk to her now. And Jack looks as if he’s had the breath knocked out of him. Which, in a way, he has. He turns to the younger man. “Well… didn’t go too well that, did it?”
Jack looks at him, his eyes hooded and dark. “What just happened?”
The Doctor sighs. “’M sorry. Saw this coming a mile away an’ was too embarrassed to say anything to stop you two.” He smiles sheepishly. “Rubbish at domestics, me.”
Jack turns away, leaning against the strut. “Well, now that we know I’m a despicable bastard, maybe she should just choose you and I should find somewhere else to-”
“Oi! Don’t even say it.” The lad’s always so hard on himself. He walks over to him and cups his neck in one hand. “Jack, you’re not despicable. She shouldn’t have said that. But you really don’t get it. An’ you don’t even get what you’re not gettin’.”
“Yeah, I’m beginning to get that much, at least.” The rueful grin doesn’t reach his eyes. “So, care to tell me how much of an idiot I am?”
The Doctor sighs. “Aw, c’mere.” He pulls him into a hug. “You’re not an idiot. You’re a healthy fifty-first century bloke who fancies her rotten.”
“Not just her,” Jack mutters against his shoulder.
The Doctor rubs his neck but doesn’t comment. He can feel himself blush, which is silly. Of course he knows what Jack feels for him. He drops a kiss on the lad’s forehead. “Rose, on the other hand, is a twenty-first century lass who fancies you – us – an’ feels like a slut for it. Did they teach you nothing about twenty-first century mores at the Academy?”
“Well, yeah, but… Guess I didn’t think it was really this bad. Not since her Majesty Queen Vic.”
The Doctor laughs. Well, Jack would have had to study many millennia of the histories of many different worlds, of course. Can’t expect him to get all the nuances. “Take it from someone who’s been there – the Victorians were simultaneously the most repressed and the most debauched Brits ever. Things are a lot better by Rose’s time – but still conservative from your point of view, I s’pose. Also, our Rose hasn’t had the most cosmopolitan upbringing.” He snorts at the thought of Jackie Tyler. Harpy that she is, and as many paramours as she may have had after Pete’s death, she certainly took pains to instill in Rose what she considers “strong moral values.”
“Conservative? Try antediluvian.” Jack looks up, grinning lopsidedly. But his eyes still show pain and confusion. “So, what do we do?”
“I’ll talk to her once she’s had a chance to calm down.”
“Good, maybe you can get her to see-”
“No, Jack, not about that.” The Doctor shakes his head determinedly. That would only turn her against him, too, and then communication would break down completely. Things have to move at Rose’s pace from now on – as agonizingly slow as that may be. “We’re neither of us opening that can of worms again. I’ll talk to her about you, an’ about respecting your views the way she wants you to respect hers.” He holds Jack’s by the shoulders and looks at him seriously. “And on that note-”
“No more pressure. I swear.” He looks down. “And I’ll read up on twenty-first century society. Don’t want to hurt her by accident again.” The Doctor squeezes his shoulders affectionately. He’s a good lad. Just a bit over-eager sometimes. And in this case, he really can’t blame him.
“You do that. But if we’re gonna talk about this at all, it’s going to have to be on her terms. Else we’ll never get her to see it our way.”
“Our?” Jack asks, hope in his voice.
The Doctor sighs. Does the bloke think he’s the only one who’s been taking cold showers for weeks? “Bloody hell, Jack, it’s not like I don’t get where you’re coming from. I have urges, too, y’know?” He grins. “Just got better control over them.” Well, he can fake it, at least.
Jack looks sheepish. “I don’t suppose there’s any way you and I could…?”
The Doctor immediately feels a puddle of warmth starting to collect in the area under his belt. He tells himself to snap out of it. Outwardly, he rolls his eyes. “Don’t tempt me. If we do that, Rose will never talk to either of us again.” No need to make the lad think he wouldn’t want to. But he has to understand that this will have to be all or nothing.
“Right. Back to ‘just friends,’ then?”
“For now.” He lets his regret show in his eyes, but keeps his voice determined.
“What about cuddles and kisses?”
“Jack!” Incorrigible little ape.
“What? We’ve been doing that anyway.”
Well, true, they have. Ever since Jack came on board, they’ve danced together many a night, curled up together on the sofa more and more often, and, finally, exchanged kisses – first chaste, then less so. He honestly couldn’t tell at which point they all fell for each other. But fall they did. Hard and fast. And if it weren’t for Rose’s ridicul- no, if it weren’t for Rose’s outdated, but very real to her notions – they’d have landed in bed together weeks ago. But this little scene right now has changed things. And he has to make that very clear to Jack. “That was before she called you despicable,” he reminds him, his voice sorrowful but stern. They both cringe at the mention. “Keep your hands – and lips – to yourself unless she approaches you.”
Jack’s staring at his feet. He nods.
The Doctor tips up his chin and claims Jack’s lips with his. “I’ll still be here for you. But best not rub her face in that, either.”
Jack smiles at him, looking a little less unhappy. “Aye, sir.”
He quirks an eyebrow at him warningly.
“I’ll be good.” It’s said with complete honesty.
The Doctor nods and gives Jack another brief hug, finishing with a firm pat to Jack’s arse. That gets him a genuine grin. The Doctor grins back. “Get to work tuning the aft radiation detectors. I’ll go and talk to Rose.”
*****
The Doctor knocks on Rose’s door and waits. Rassilon, please let her not be crying. He can’t stand to see Rose cry. If she’s crying, he won’t be able to go through with what he came here to do.
“Who’s there?” She sounds pissed off. Good. Much better than tears.
“It’s me,” he says loudly.
“By yourself?”
He snorts. “Yes.”
“Come on in then.”
He opens the door and enters. Rose is sitting on her bed. She looks up at him, defiance and anger in her eyes.
“If you’re here to talk me into letting Jack apologize-”
On the offensive, then. Well, two can play that game. “Am not.” He keeps his tone neutral.
“Good. I-”
“Am here to make you apologize to him.”
“What?” She jumps up, her face full of incredulous betrayal.
He looks at her sternly. His instinct to protect her feelings is very strong, but Jack has a right to his protection too. “He’s a good lad. A good lad who’s currently devastated because his best friend called him a despicable bastard.”
She raises her chin defiantly. “He suggested-”
“I know fully well what he suggested. You, Rose Tyler, have to realize that the Powell Estate is not the whole world. Not even your world, not to mention other worlds in other times. Where Jack comes from – an’ in many, many places and times – what he suggested is considered perfectly normal. Romantic, even.”
He can see her swallowing that thought. “But-”
“I know it’s different where you come from. But your standards aren’t everyone’s standards. You do things, too, that seem despicable to others, an’ expect them to accept that.” He indicates her tank top and tight jeans with a gesture. Not that he minds, of course, but they’ve been to worlds where those drew quite some disapproving stares, which always prompted Rose into tirades of “It’s my body and it’s my business what I do with it.”
Rose is chewing her lower lip now. He can practically see the wheels in her head turning.
“Jack came on a bit strongly, yes. Talked to him ‘bout that. But calling him ‘despicable’? Not exactly the kind of respect an’ tolerance for personal feelings you expect from him, is it?”
Rose looks at her feet. “It’s really – normal in that many places?”
“Yes. Hell, for all we know, Jack may have grown up with three parents. Or more.” And why doesn’t he know that? The Doctor mentally chastises himself for not taking more of an interest in Jack’s background. Will have to rectify that. He often talks to Rose for hours, explaining things, making sure she’s dealing with new impressions all right, but Jack is too often just expected to keep up and follow along. Of course, he unfailingly does, but he owes the lad some more personal attention than he’s been giving him.
“More than three?”
“Most cultures that’d be ‘modern’ from Jack’s point of view, there’re no limits on number, species, or gender. Long as everyone’s adult, sapient, an’ in it voluntarily, nobody cares.”
He can see that sinking in. Since Rose first joined him on the TARDIS, they’ve been to many worlds where the standard relationship is not what she’s used to. But he now realizes that none of those were predominantly human worlds. So Rose apparently wrote the concept of polyamory off as “utterly alien.” Damn. Maybe he should take her to some human worlds in Jack’s time or further on. Except if he does it now, it’ll look like he’s pushing.
The defiance is back in Rose’s eyes – but now it’s mixed with a deep unease. “That doesn’t mean that I have to…”
“’Course it doesn’t.” He’s careful to look her straight in the eyes, to leave no possibility of doubt in his tone. “There is no ‘have to’ here. Jack told you he’d never want you to do anything you don’t want, and neither would I.” He takes a step closer – almost takes her by the shoulders, but then doesn’t. It’s natural with Jack, but with Rose, it might seem too intimidating right now. “But it does mean you can’t go round callin’ Jack nasty things ‘cause of it. The lad’s eager, but he has a good heart. An’ you know it.”
Rose is blushing now, not looking at him. “Yeah, I do. Shouldn’t have said that to him.” She looks up at him. “’M sorry.”
It takes effort not to smile. But it’s not his place to forgive this. “Not me you have to say that to.”
Rose shoulders slump, but she nods. “I’ll tell him.” She looks at him searchingly. “Is he very angry?”
“Not angry. Gutted.” No point sugar-coating this. Jack deserves for Rose to know what she’s done to him.
Rose gulps. “He in the console room?”
The Doctor nods.
“I’ll go right now.” She hesitates. “Give us a few minutes?”
He nods. “I’ll make us some tea. Join you later.”
*****
Rose walks towards the console room very slowly. There’s a tightly curled knot in her stomach. God, she hurt Jack, and that was awful of her. The Doctor was right to tear a strip off her. She looked at Jack’s suggestion through her own prejudices and told him off the way she would have told off Mickey had he suggested what Jack did. It didn’t even cross her mind to look at it from his perspective. She just equated threesomes with the dirty DVDs and magazines Jimmy would sometimes insist on looking at while they…
But Jack was thinking of it as an act of intimacy – of love. And unless she misses her guess very much, the Doctor sees it that way as well. It’s only her and her twenty-first century upbringing that-
But she can’t. Could never. It may be the way of other worlds, other times, but it’s not her way. She just can’t. Being in one bed with the Doctor and Jack, bodies entangled, exchanging kisses with both, hands all over her – it just seems dirty. Disgusting.
Though...
Though now there’s heat in her stomach in addition to the knot. She mentally shakes herself and focuses on the task at hand.
Apologize to Jack. She’s always been a believer in confessing and asking forgiveness when she’s screwed up. And Jack is unlikely to make it hard on her. Still, her heart is in her mouth as she enters the control room.
*****
Jack looks up, expecting the Doctor. But it’s Rose standing in the doorway, looking at her trainers. He stops. What can he say that’s neutral but friendly? What would be too pushy? What would seem like he’s in a snit?
He finally settles on a “Hi,” and a shy smile.
“Jack, I…” She’s still not looking at him. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He gets up quickly, wipes off his hands on his jeans. “Of course.” He starts walking towards her, then stops. Better to give her space.
Now she looks at him. There are tears in her eyes, but her voice doesn’t waver. “I’m sorry for what I said.”
He smiles, and oh, it’s so hard not to just sweep her up in a hug. “It’s all right. I’m sorry I upset you.”
She looks away. “My answer’s still no.”
He nods. “Your choice. I respect that.” He means it. He doesn’t understand, but it is her decision.
She looks back at him, and there’s sadness in her eyes. “Thank you.”
He smiles warmly, but stays where he is.
The awkward moment is interrupted by the Doctor arriving with a tray full of tea and biscuits. He looks at them both searchingly. “All right?”
“Yeah,” Jack nods. “Everything’s fine.” He smiles at Rose warmly.
Rose’s smile is shaky when she smiles back. “Yeah. Fine.”
The Doctor ponders them a moment longer, then he smiles. “Fantastic. Let’s eat. Jack, help me with the cups.”
They settle down to enjoy tea and biscuits. Jack is especially careful to avoid any touching, deliberate or accidental. It’s hard – he’s used to being physical with people he cares about. But he doesn’t want to make Rose uncomfortable. As it is, she barely looks at him. But he’s sure she’ll relax around him again as soon as she sees he’s really giving her space.
*****