Title: A Matter of Trust

Characters/pairings: Nine/Jack/Rose

Chapter Rating: PG-13

Spoilers/warnings: none

Beta: imzadimylove

Disclaimer: Still not making money out of this. Characters are still belonging to RTD and the BBC.

Summary: From the end of The Doctor Dance and Boomtown, Jack and the Doctor went from hostile suspicion to reliable friendship, how did this happen?

Author's note: About Jack's pheromones you can read The Poisoned Gift which is the chapter 5 of the Archives but can be read as a standalone.

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Prologue

These small particles that were incredibly smart Chula nanogenes dispersed to do their job and fix their previous mistakes, operating a few small miracles in the process.

"Everybody lives, Rose! For once, everybody lives!" the Doctor happily exclaimed.

"What about Jack?" Rose Asked.

Jack, a mere conman who had put the future of mankind and his own life at risk by playing with fire, was somewhere, alone, trapped on board his own ship with a bomb ready to explode. The Doctor had already forgotten, ready to move on. But Rose was there, again, to awaken in him a heart too numb by time and events.

Saving Jack would be easy. Turn back and run away was tempting; this guy was clearly a source of trouble. The Doctor could feel it. This man blurred things, he was a liar and it was deep under his skin like a raison d'être. His Time Lord's instincts screamed at the Doctor to slip away and let the lost Temporal Agent to fend for himself. He could have lied to Rose, telling her Jack was long gone home; he had a vortex manipulator...

But he should have lied to Rose.

The Doctor knew he would regret it, deeply regret it, but he entered the coordinates with the secret hope that the Tardis would choose her own way and take them far from the Chula ship. She didn't. In fact, the Tardis made a strange humming before materializing just in time before the incredulous eyes of the Captain.

They saved Jack and invited him on board.

Jack had given up the bravado, he was clearly unsettled. The Doctor wondered if he had finally taken the measure of the consequences of his actions, or if the young lonely wolf simply didn't expect to be saved. Jack wasn't as easy to read as the Humans that Doctor was accustomed to go around with. He had a very strong psychological barrier.

They danced. They celebrated together the victory over death.

"So you're from the future?" Rose asked.

"Yes, fifty-first century." Jack replied without elaborating. He didn't want to lie, but the Doctor and his strange ship were making him feel uncomfortable. He found the man attractive in many respects, but he could also felt his hostility. He pretended to believe Rose was the only reason, but Jack had the feeling there was something else going way deeper, more visceral.

Rose decided to innocently ignore the hostility and the tension hanging in the air. It was still the best way to relax the atmosphere she could think of by forcing a light conversation between the two men to tame each other.

"And what does a Time Agent do, exactly?" she asked.

"In fact, we study history, the past, mainly." Jack replied. "Where I come from, a lot of historical knowledge has been lost or corrupted, but it's mainly about studying the way people were living and how civilisation evolved."

"And how would you do that?" Rose asked.

"We go back to a chosen point, place and time, and we share the locals' life for a while, blending in as much as we can. Just watching, listening and taking a lot of notes."

"So you're a sort of Indiana Jones?"

"Huh?"

"A sort of archaeologist, plus the adventure and more!"

"Uh, yes. You can see it like that."

"So you're saying you'd be an archaeologist? And why would the Time Agency erase one of their archaeologists?" the Doctor pointed out, knowing very well the Agency didn't form only archaeologists.

That was something Jack had often pondered about and it was clear he was not going to convince the Doctor just by telling him that. In fact a lot of things could have happen during those two years. It was more than just bothersome for Jack. He had run through a lot of possible scenarios of what could have happened. He couldn't find one he would be ready to deal with so he'd run away before finding himself trapped in some rehabilitation program.

"I have no idea." Jack replied. "What's that?" he asked, indicating the patties Rose had put before him.

"Mena petals stuffed with meat ctor, it comes from Vénusia 7," Rose replied with a sidelong glance at the Doctor.

Then they reached an agreement to mutually talk about gastronomy and cooking, a much less slippery subject. Once the adrenaline subsided, Rose was quickly being overtaken by fatigue. She tried not to show it, she didn't want to leave Jack alone with the Doctor. The hostility was so obvious she could have sworn she could actually feel it.

"Rose, you're no longer holding up, you should go to bed," the Doctor finally said. "I am sure our young friend, needs to rest, too. You should show him the guest room."

Jack didn't protest, he was glad to postpone the confrontation that would inevitably occur at some time or another. Anyway, he didn't intend to stick around, at the first opportunity, he would thank his hosts and disappear.

"It's nice, very spare, and Zen," Rose commented discovering his room with him.

"Am I the first guest to be allowed here?" Jack asked a little surprised.

"No, but the last time it wasn't like that. Good night, be a good boy," Rose said, leaving Jack puzzled in his room.

The room was as big as the cabin of the ship he'd just lost. On the way from the bridge to the kitchen, they walked through a large lounge and a library. Coming from the kitchen to the bedrooms, they had passed by a gym and a swimming pool! How big this ship could be?

The room was peaceful, reminding him of Boeshane and his parents' flat. It wasn't just the furniture, but also about the light and scents. He felt the bed, it was firm, just as he liked. What about those bed clothes? It looked familiar, but it couldn't be, it was as if the sheets were made of kholp *! He felt them with his fingertips, and examined the pattern more closely, and even sniffed. He wasn't delusional, it was kholp.

"She spoiled you. She likes you," the Doctor said.

He was standing in the doorway. Jack didn't hear him came in and was surprised. What was the Doctor talking about? Jack didn't have a clue. He was at a complete loss and feeling like a kid waiting to be reprimanded. He had long passed the age, but the Doctor intimidated him in a way that Jack couldn't explain. Jack just stood there, beside the bed, not daring to reply, or move.

The Doctor watched him curiously until returning his attention to the decor.

"Are you from a sea planet?" the Doctor asked, looking at the water wall separating the bedroom from the hygiene room.

"Yes. Why?"

"Funny. Most of the time she doesn't care that much about my passengers unless I ask her."

"What do you want me to say, or to do? What do you expect from me?" Jack asked, feeling tired and getting upset.

"I just wanted to see. Just trying to understand," the Doctor replied, casting a last glance at the room before setting his piercing eyes on Jack "Is everything okay?"

"Uh, yes," Jack replied like an intimidated kid.

"It's been a long time since anyone has reached out to you, right?"

Jack didn't know what to say. He felt stupid. He felt petty and ugly. Not physically, of course, but inside.

"Get some rest, you need it," the Doctor said and with that he was gone, leaving Jack with his questions.

The Doctor was puzzled, taken aback by the Tardis' reactions; Rose being sensitive to the Captain's pheromone-enhanced charm wasn't much of a surprise. As charming as she may be, Rose was only human. But his ship?

Continued ...

* Kholp: algae only grown on Boeshane for the textile making.