A.N. - I couldn't help but take this metaphor further. If you recall, once Rose realized that Jack batted for both teams, she was slightly shocked, and then the Doctor used the word 'dancing' as a metaphor for, well, sex. And then she and the Doctor danced at the end of the episode and they did it very well together, which just gave me some ideas...so, tell me what you think!

Dancing

As the Doctor and Rose danced, Rose was silently impressed, but unbeknownst to her and the Doctor, Jack Harkness was watching them. With an extremely careful eye that caught onto every minute detail of the scene before him, silently cataloguing every gesture, every touch.

He remembered his conversation with the Doctor about dancing, and he'd overheard his and Rose's conversation about dancing, and what the metaphor was all about.

It had been a very thinly veiled metaphor, mind you.

And it seemed, in that moment, that the Doctor was staking his claim on his woman.

All it had taken was a quirk of his eyebrow, a slight smirk, and she had left Jack behind and headed straight into the Doctor's arms.

Jack admired them as they moved together fluidly, with such an ease that made it seem as though they had done it a thousand times before. As he thought that, he couldn't help but think about the metaphor and what it meant for the two of them.

Would they be just as compatible in…other ways, as well?

He couldn't help but wonder about the Doctor. He was an attractive man…well, Time Lord. And he wouldn't mind a tumble with him, that was for sure, but he knew that the Doctor had eyes for only one person.

And that person was decidedly female.

At first when he'd started watching, he'd been resentful. Rose wasn't your typical knockout girl, she had a few extra pounds on her and wasn't exactly girly or graceful in any pleasing way, but there was something about her that simply drew him in and made him want to claim her for his own. But it seemed that the ever present Doctor had gotten to her first.

There was a look that she gave him, one that she had not given Jack, which spoke volumes.

He remembered it vividly.

They had walked into the Tardis…and then the Doctor turned to both of them, one hand on the console, a slight gleam in his eye, and Jack had a slightly nervous feeling, especially when he heard the Doctor suddenly exclaim, "Hey, Rose! I've just remembered!

She looked at him in confusion, her brow furrowed.

"What?"

He deftly flipped a switch and some big band music came on, mysteriously sounding throughout the time-traveling ship that had no speakers in sight, and he began to snap his fingers and move to the beat, perfectly, Jack regretfully thought, to the rhythm of the song.

"I can dance! I can dance!"

Rose moved around in front of Jack and to his other side, almost wary, keeping him slightly behind her.

"Actually, Doctor…I thought Jack might like this dance."

For a few brief moments, Jack felt triumph. There was no person he could not win over; they fell to his charm eventually. It just took time and a little patience…and dancing, apparently. The smug grin stayed on his face as the Doctor tried to cajole her and she didn't move.

"I'm sure he would, Rose. I'm absolutely certain…" Jack was confident, but then the Doctor added, "But who with?"

And then he'd done the eyebrow thing. The slight smirk appeared on the corner of his lips as he said the words, and Rose let out a slightly unladylike snort.

Aaand…his image was shattered.

What was most annoying about his words was the fact that they were true. He would take the Doctor up on his offer if he was actually offering the dance to him.

And then the look appeared on her face and she stepped forward…

Almost eager, Rose grasped the Doctor's hands and they started to dance… which led Jack to where he was right at that moment, watching the two of them dance around the center of the Tardis; well, the power source, at least, if not the actual geographical center.

Yeah, he had to admit it to himself, the Doctor had moves. Smooth ones, to be sure.

As soon as they reached the end of the dance, and the Doctor dipped her down, Jack was suddenly certain of the idea that had been slowly forming in his mind about their relationship.

They were both ridiculously in love with each other, but they both seemed to know in the back of their minds that they couldn't do anything about it.

The Doctor was a Time Lord, and Rose was simply his human companion. The Doctor could cheat death for eternity…and Rose was only mortal and could age and die. They were both smart enough to realize it and never say anything about it.

So, in all truth, dancing would be the closest they could ever get.

So, Jack let them continue to dance.

They danced to another swing tune, and then a slower song came on. When it did, he saw them both hesitate for a moment, but then start to dance once more.

And he let them.

As they danced, he let his eyes linger over the beautiful picture they made. Her left hand in his right hand, their fingers deceivingly loosely entwined to the casual observer, but to Jack's scrutinizing gaze he could see that they were fiercely locked together. The Doctor's left hand, which had originally resided on her waist at the beginning of the song, was now further around it, his fingertips caressing her lower back, subtly drawing their bodies closer together.

The two of them were so uniquely different from any other person or being that Jack had ever known…and yet that was what made them so similar. So compatible. So remarkably mysterious in so many ways, and yet they both seemed so transparent at times.

And yet, at that moment, Jack knew that this was bittersweet for both of them.

He could tell from the way that their eyes never quite met the other's, but slid past each other at the moment they might actually lock gazes, like ships passing in the night, even though the rest of their body was probably telling the other what they could not say with words or exchange in a single glance.

As his mom had once told him, "Dancing is the vertical act of a horizontal wish…"

Horizontal wish, indeed, he thought to himself, and smiled.

He knew that they probably both had that wish deep in the back of their hearts, but it wasn't just any kind of dance. For them, it would have been one of passion and love.

That phrase was so very right in this instance, and he loved his mother for it. Without her insight, he might never have caught the connection between them, and might have ruined a moment for the two of them that they might never have again.

But who knew…

When it came to the Doctor, you never knew what might happen. Maybe they would get the chance to dance again.

After all, what was life but one long glorious dance?

THE END