//------------------------------// // Ch. 2: Jack // Story: Time and Space with other traits // by DetMan //------------------------------// I felt my chest at the news the old nurse gave me. That’s just not possible, two hearts? I felt the left side of my chest, same as usual, but then I felt the right side. There was another beat that’s in sync with the beat on the left. The left beats first, then the right, then the left, then the right... A man in a long black trench coat, along with white clean suspenders and dark blue dress shirt, pants, and shoes shoulders open the door without even knocking. He looks at me, nodding, and then looks at the nurse. The nurse was about to use the phone before he came in, and she looks him in the eye. “Excuse me, sir, but i’m a bit busy.” The man grins, and says, “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to let you know that you're just dreaming!” The nurse blinks, and says, “I’m quite sure that i’m fully awa-” The man then uses the side of his hand in a kind of karate chop, and hits her in the back of the neck. The nurse’s eyes roll up to the top of her head, and she falls to the floor. I gasp in surprise when he does this, and then he says, “Jenny, mind if you go and wait outside? I gotta put this old lady to bed.” I stand up, and yell at the man, “Who the hell do you think you are? You just... just knocked that poor old lady out cold with some sort of move that only works in the movies! What’re you-” He turns to face me, and then I recognise his face. I know that smug grin anywhere. Jack. “Look, you can complain later, but right now, I don’t think that we want anyone to know what’s going on with you, and also with Dana.” I cross my arms in frustration. “Ja- Jack! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?” “Saving your life from being inside of an isolation cell somewhere in the bowels of an extensive research facility!” My face was plastered with confusion and anger. “Excuse me? Not only does that not make any sense right now, but do you have to do it by hurting old ladies?” “She’s not hurt, she’s just out cold for a few hours!” “Does it matter?” Jack lifts the lady up finally, and places her down on a cot in the corner of the office. He throws a blue blanket over her, and turns to me. “She won’t remember a thing when she wakes up anyway, now come on, I can explain on the way.” I yell at him, “No! I want to know what the hell is going on, Jack! Who are you?” “I’m Jack!” I make an “Ugh!” sound while Jack opens the door to the hallway, which is still empty of students. I say to him, “Where do you think you’re taking me?” He looks back after he looks both ways down the hallway, and says, “I’m taking you to a town not far from here. Should be relatively safe, considering that no one should know who you are there.” I squint at him, but follow him down the hall to the left, out of the office. “And, why, am I going to go there? What’s so dangerous?” Jack glances back at me, and says “You.” then looks back towards where he is walking, which is the door leading out to the parking lot. I glare at the back of his head. “Me? What’s going on with me?” Jack lifts up his hand in the middle of the hallway, near the exit. Footsteps are echoing from the hallway behind us, and Jack turns towards the noise. He scrunches up his face, then looks at me. “Run!” He begins to run towards the exit, and I look back to see if I couldn’t get a glimpse at what was so scary about the footsteps. I could see a man in a blue suit and tie walking down the hallway, casually. I decide to not question it, and run to catch up with Jack, who was waiting by the door. He pushes open the door, and I step outside. The parking lot was empty, except for two cars. One was a jet black four seater, which looked like it was an old model, and the other was a red sports car. Jack, to my disappointment, went for the black car, and opened the door which was unlocked. He points at the passenger seat, and slides behind the wheel. I jump in after him. I look at Jack while I fight my seat belt. “Why are we running? I’m really lost as to what is going on here!” He takes out a key and turns the slot, revving up the engine and the car springs to life. “I’m being followed. That guy,” he points at the door we left from, “Is from the U.S. government. He’s following me all over the place, because the alien department of the FBI wants to take a good look at me.” I look at him like he’s a world renowned criminal. “And why would that want to do that?” He pushes the car into drive. “I can’t die.” With that in my head, he slams on the accelerator pedal and the car’s wheels screeches into action, leaving behind burnt rubber. The agent was out the door when we drove onto the street. Jack was driving like a maniac, swerving left and right, and once even down an alley. No one was following us at this point, as far as I know. As we drive, I ramble on, “You can’t die? That’s impossible, more importantly, that’s just wrong! No one on this planet can’t live forever!” Jack just chuckles. “You remind me of before you were like this. I guess I should expect that, hehe.” I look at him again. “Before I was like this? What do you mean? Who the hell are you!?” He pulls out his wallet in his coat pocket. He opens it up, while driving mind you, and shows me an ID with his face out front, and a symbol that is a capital T made up of honey comb shaped circles. It read, “Cpt. Jack Harkness” “Harkness? You told me your last name was Clark!” He does that damn grin again, and says, “Yeah, sorry about that! Had to make sure no one recognised me out here.” He takes a sharp turn at a corner, and keeps driving. “Obviously, it didn’t work out too well, eh?” I nod at him quickly, “Yeah, obviously!” Jack quickly glances at me, then behind us. A car was following us from the back. It was the red sports car. “Ah, well I tried to get away normally. Hey, Jenny, hold my watch, will you?” Jack keeps holding the wheel, and shakes away his right arm sleeve to reveal a black device on his arm. He crosses his arm over himself towards me, and shakes it in my face. “Press, ah, those two buttons right there at the same time! Make sure you hold on tight!” He lets go of the wheel for a split second and points at two larger buttons on the device. I look at him like he’s crazy. “I don’t think that synchronizing your watch is a top priority right now!” He shakes his head. “No, no, just trust me! Press those buttons at the same time, quickly!” I glance at the car behind us, and decide to, screw it, press the buttons at the same time. … It hurt a lot. I just saw a flash of several shades of blue and a lot of pain everywhere. It felt like I hit a wall and bounced right off of it at the speed of sound. That was only just for a moment, though. Soon after, I found myself lying in a dirty puddle in the middle of an alley way. Did the car crash? I hold my head as I sit up from the muck, and look around. It was getting late, the sky was turning a deep orange, and the alley wasn’t looking any better in the lesser amount of light. It was a small place, filled with old, rotting cardboard boxes and tin trash cans. No one was here, not even Jack. To be honest, I was glad he wasn’t around. He was starting to give me a headache, because he lied to me ever since we met. Not only me, but to his girlfriend as well! Did he even love her? For all I know, Dana was in on it too! That’s just dandy to think about. My hands drop to my knees and I push myself off the wet ground. When I get back, i’m going to have to burn these clothes with a hot furnace. Nothing will be able to get rid of this mess all over my back. The exit to the alley was just a few steps to my right, and I peek out before I do to check if anyone was around. There were a few people walking back and forth down the sidewalk, but they paid no attention to me. I step out into the dusk and look around. This doesn’t look right... last I remember we were driving down an empty road with a crazy FBI guy tailing us, and now it looks like a whole new place, not only that, no sign of the car or that FBI agent. I pull out my phone in my left pocket and check the time. 7:38 P.M. I don’t know how long I was out, but hell, the days fly by. As much as I hate it, I need to find Jack and figure out where I am, so I can get back home and deal with it myself. I don’t need some crazy guy that, and this is coming from him, apparently can’t die. What, does that mean he’s immortal, or something? Great, my friend is in love with a god. “He-ow, hey!” There’s Jacks voice, he’s somewhere nearby. It came from the alley, so I turn back to walk down it again to find a dumpster calling out for help. I knock on it and say, “Gee, what is it Mr. Dump? You want some garbage for dinner?” Jack inside knocks on the top door harshly, and says, “Very funny, now unlock the latch, i’m stuck in here!” I squint at a padlock on the lid. Who locks dumpsters? More importantly, how did Jack just fly into a dumpster, and it magically locks itself? Whatever, I need something to break it open with. I look around the alley, and find a reasonably sized hammer. I walk back to the dumpster, and wind up for a swing. Jack squirms inside to avoid the shock wave of the hit as I bring it down several times on the lock. Thankfully, it’s old and rusted, so it fell away quickly and easily. Jack pushes open the door and takes a desperate breath for air. I grin and say, “I’d imagine the air in there wasn’t the most fresh?” He looks at me with a forced smile and says, “Oh, don’t be such a smartass. We’ve got a few more things to do before we can laugh and joke around safely.” He climbs out of the dumpster, and takes off his trench coat. He flaps it around in the air in the same way you would get rid of a bunch of dust on a rug. A few tin cans and general muck fly out of it, and Jack swings it over his shoulder. “Let’s get going then.” We step out of the alley, back onto the street. We take a right and continue down the sidewalk, passing by a few people who look at Jack in disgust, but pay no mind to me. Jack ignores their comments of how smelly he is, and looks at me. “Dana is in an apartment just down the road. She already knows the circumstances, so don’t be surprised when she starts yelling at me.” I roll my eyes. “I would be yelling at you if it weren’t for all these people.” He throws his head back a bit, and says, “Well, they shouldn’t be able to notice you. You still have that key, right?” I reach into my right pocket and pull out the average looking key. “Yeah, what of it? What’s it for?” He opens his mouth, but stops for a moment. He says soon after, “It has a perception field around it. No one should be able to notice you if you just act normal and not try to get into their straight view. Keep it on you, like I said awhile ago, you're going to need it. I don’t think you want to be noticed for a while.” I look back at the key, and examine it closely. It’s just a normal key, nothing wrong with it here. I say to Jack, “It’s just a key though, how can it make me less... noticeable?” Jack shrugs. “I don’t know, that’s your tech you're dealing with here, not mine.” I began to say something, but Jack points over at a decently sized complex. “There it is, I found a reasonable apartment to stay inside. We should be fine.” We walk across the street and head over to the glass security door. Jack hits one of the many buttons on the intercom, and waits. Soon enough, Dana’s voice emits from the speakers. “Helloooo~?” Jack leans into the microphone. “Dana, it’s me. Let me in.” Dana gasps slightly in the intercom, then says, “What? No, you lying jerk! Go away!” Jack rolls his eyes, and says, “I have Jenny with me, right here. Say hi, Jenny.” He moves out of the way for me to lean in too and I say, “Hey, Dana. Could you please let us in?” Dana stays quiet for a moment, then says, “...Okay. I’m opening the door.” After a moments pause, the door clicks while emitting a low buzzing sound, and Jack pulls open the door before it stops. The main room was a hallway, with doors on either side. An elevator was at the end of the hallway, with a door to the right set aside for fire escape from the upper floors. We head over to the elevator, and I hit the up button. The elevator hits our floor, and it opens up to a small box with mirrors all over the walls, making an infinite tunnel of reflections. We step inside, and Jack hits one of the buttons, but I wasn’t paying attention. I was busy looking at the many me’s in the mirrors. Awkward silence ensues as the elevator reaches the floor Jack hit. I follow along to one of the doors and he knocks. A muffled, “One second,” comes from inside, and Dana unlocks the door, opening up for us. Jack puts on a grin, and Dana slaps him across the face. “Ow! Hey, i’m only trying to help...!” Dana ignores him, and goes over to hug me. I return it, and she says, “It’s so good to see you, it felt like ages, even though it was just earlier today...” I pat her back sympathetically. “Same here. Can we get inside before we get emotional?” Dana releases me and says, “Oh, right, come in.” Both Jack and I step inside to the apartment. The place still looked like the owner just moved in a few seconds ago, with boxes and large furniture laying about. Dana looks around, and says, “Most of this was just borrowed. Well, Jack says ‘borrowed’, I say stolen from a yard sale.” I look at Jack, pulling off a poker face pretty well, and I go to sit on a black leather couch. “Well, at least the worst is over. Jack, why are we here?” Jack sits in a reclining chair opposite of me and motions for Dana to sit. After a moment, Jack says, “As far as I know, you, Jenny, are turning back into an old friend of mine. Though I should say you shouldn’t even exist here... but things happen, I guess.” I lean in towards Jack. “What do you mean? You’re being the most vague person right now, just spit it out!” Jack sighs, and says, “If I do that, i’m afraid I might burn your brain to a crisp. But, let me just check something...” Jack pulls out a stethoscope from his jacket, which he discarded on the floor next to his chair. He gets up, and places the ear pieces in his ears. “What the hell are you doing?” I ask, as Jack gets closer. “I’m checking to make sure what that nurse said was true, now hold still.” I sat there as Jack prodded my chest with the cold piece of equipment. Jack makes several faces, confused, skeptical, interested, then happy. “Haha, yep, it looks like it’s happening. To be honest, I really don’t know what the hell is going on, but you’re turning back, that’s for sure.” I feel my chest at the four in sync beats that are bursting out softly. “Turning back? God damn, just tell me already!” Jack puts away the stethoscope, and says, “Fine, you want me to name who you are? Alright, sure, first off, you are actually an alien. You’re not from Earth.” I make a sort of confused look at him. Of course i’m from Earth! I remember everything from my childhood, the memories are not that of an alien planet. “Second, the race of aliens you are turning back into is called a Time Lord. Not only that, you are the last of the Time Lords. Two hearts, and a brain thats so expansive, even I cannot comprehend most of what you would know.” I stand up, Dana glancing back and forth between me and Jack. “I don’t know what’s going on, but aliens and shit are not something I can believe, Jack. Do you even know what the hell this-” I pull down the side of my pants to reveal my thigh, plus hourglass. “Is?!” Jack stares at it, then back to me. “I have absolutely no idea what that is, Jenny.” Dana speaks up. “It’s called a cutie mark, Jack. From that show, you know, My Little Pony?” Jack nods. “Okay, so you got a tattoo? I would never imagine the Doctor getting a tattoo-” I yell at him. “No, not a damn tattoo! It just appeared there, same with Dana! She’s got a bunch of bubbles on her! Do you know what the hell is going on!?” Jack slowly shakes his head, and I throw up my arms. It was starting to get darker outside, and a wall clock next to me said, 8:12. I sigh reluctantly. “I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me when things start to get normal again.” I walk off in a haze of anger and confusion, past a scared Dana and a confused Jack. There was a small room with a bed, and I just flop down on it, pulling up some covers. The room was slightly tinted blue from the curtains that hide what is left of the sun as it finally hides behind the horizon. I take one more breath to calm myself down, and fall asleep. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was a dreamless sleep, and I sat up awkwardly in the morning light. I stretch my arms out lazily as I take a moment to reacquaint myself with being awake. I just felt off today, like I just got considerably heavier. Oh well, I guess sleep does that to you. I get up and stand to stretch my legs. I was stil wearing the muddy clothes from yesterday. There was a box filled with clothes, and one caught my eye. It was actually not clothes at all, but a green tie. I shrug it away from my thoughts, and dig through another box. I found a white blouse with a light brown jacket. I’ll take that. There was also a pair of dress pants at the bottom, and since I couldn’t find any other pants, I threw that onto the bed, along with the blouse and jacket. I’ll leave that there, and try to go and take a shower to get rid of this stench. I step out into the hall. Jack was still fast asleep on the couch and Dana was awake, watching some show on T.V. I murmured a soft “Morning” and head for the bathroom. It already had a towel sitting on top of the toilet seat, and the shower was at the end of the small room. There was a sink with a mirror over it, as well. I glance at myself in the mirror before turning on the shower and stripping down to get in the shower and wash away the mud and grime from yesterday. While in the shower, I thought about everything that Jack had said yesterday, about Time Lords and perception filters, which was the correct name for it- wait, what? Was it the right name? Ugh, I don’t want to start off the morning with confusion. I quickly wipe off the mud and, sure enough, that hourglass was still there. I scrub at it, actually thinking it would come off, but no. I give up eventually, and step out of the shower while it was still running to dry off. I just like listening to the shower run, the white noise of water hitting porcelain flooring was soothing to my ears. I step up to the sink to brush my teeth, and thankfully, there was a toothbrush waiting for me. I ran it under the water, and scrubbed madly at my teeth in front of the blurred form of my reflection. As I rubbed my teeth without toothpaste, I began to notice something off about the reflection in the mirror. I squint at it through the fog of the hot water, and I wipe away the condensation. My hair was several shades darker than before. It’s now becoming a shade of dark brown. I run my fingers through the strands of hair as I look at them curiously. Then I notice something a bit more strange... my eyes were blue. I use my finger and thumb to pull away my eyelids to get a better look at them. Blue eyes? I had brown ones, what the hell? Did someone put those weird colored contacts in my eyes? I pat the back of my head over the sink to see if they would fall out, but nothing plinked out of my eye. I squint at myself in the mirror. I’m having actually a bit of trouble seeing myself. Maybe I do need contacts... I wrap the towel a bit more tightly around myself, and turn off the shower. Enough wasting water, I need to get dressed. I step out into the hall, and thankfully, Jack was still asleep. Dana was also still watching some show. I didn’t bother to check what it was, and I step back into my room to throw on the clothes. Once dressed, I head back out to find Jack finally stirring, and Dana jumps slightly, switching the channel after glancing his way. I walk out to sit next to Dana, and Jack sits up as he squints at me. “Huh... you’ve got blue eyes. That’s... not right.” Dana looks at me, and I say towards Jack, “I know it’s not right. My hair is turning a dark brown too, and-” I look at Dana, something catching my eye. Her hair was also a bit different. It was a kind of like the color of bleached sand... and her eyes were gold. Is that supposed to be a normal color? Dana scratches the back of her head, and says, “Yeah... I woke up like this too.” I quickly do another look at her, then back at Jack, who was scratching his head with a bit of a confused look on his face. He says, “No, no... what I meant is... the person I am thinking of doesn’t have blue eyes. They are brown.” I stand up, and walk over to a window. “I’m not some other person, Jack. I’m me, and I intend to stay that way.” Jack looks at my feet, and says, “Why are you walking on your toes?” “Huh?” I look down at my feet. I was indeed on the tips of my toes, yet it felt pretty damn normal to me. I try to force them back down onto my heels, but it was actually kinda hard to do. I do manage to do it, but that just makes me feel a bit uneasy. It’s like my weight has shifted severely. Jack shakes his head, and stands up. “Something isn’t right here. I need to go check up on a few things today, though. Uh, Dana, is there any clean clothes I can wear?” Dana points towards a few boxes, and Jack starts digging through them. He eventually finds a black button shirt with jeans, and he hides away in the bathroom to change. As he does, I look at Dana, who looks back at me. Just looking at her, I could feel something is wrong. I was about to ask about it before Jack came out of the bathroom and bellowing “Right, well, i’ll be back! You two, don’t leave this place until I get back, it could be dangerous.” I just look at Jack with lying eyes, “‘Course Jack, we’ll be fine. Won’t we, Dana?” Dana looks at me, then realisation hits in her eyes. She turns to Jack, then says, “Yeah, we’ll stay here and gossip about boys and all that.” Jack looked a bit uneasy about that comment, but nods. “Ookay... see you guys later.” He leaves out the hallway, and soon enough I could hear the elevator in action going up... and then down. Dana looks at me, then says, “So, where are we going to go?” I shrug, and look out the window at the town. “I suppose we should look around and see where we are, it’s obviously not our town. Do you know? I never got to ask.” She shrugs as well, then says, “I don’t know either. Jack had this weird watch thing on his wrist that, and this is his exact words, ‘bounces you through the time vortex, and places you in a whole different location’. I cringe a bit. Jack is getting more mysterious by the day here. Watches that teleport you through time and space? Yep, my mind is burning now. I need to get out of this cramped place. I sigh, and turn towards the door. I put on my shoes quickly, and the while I say, “Well, we should get going then! I saw a few shops in town, and I want to take a look at them! Come on, Allons-y!” I jump up and bounce around the place happily while Ditzy was just sitting there with her mouth agape. I look at her with my hands behind my back, and say to her, “Ditzy, you alright there? We don’t have all day! That crazy time agent will be back here sometime in a few... oh I don't know... hours? Yeah, maybe three. Or four. Or maybe-” “J-Jenny!” “Hm? Who's that?”