Title: Chips!
By: Cae
Pairing: Jack/10
Rating: PG
Note: This is a kind of slashy Jack/10 story, not overly-so, but the implication's there so best not to read if slash isn't your cup of tea (:
Summary: This is a sequel to "Well...Isn't This Just Great?"

***

"Mmmm! Doctor! Oh God!"

"Like?"

"Love! These are divine!" Jack groaned, popping another chip into his mouth.

"Told ya" the Doctor crowed smugly, leaning his elbows on the cold iron rail of the pier and looking out towards the sea.

"You certainly did. We're definitely coming here for our dinner from now on."

"As long as we stick to the twenty-first century," the Doctor frowned. "The quality really went downhill from the twenty-second onwards. Besides, if we do that, you'll end up the size of a Slitheen."

"Or that Absorbatron guy who was after you," Jack chuckled.

"I think he preferred to be called 'Absorbalov'."

"Well whatever his name was, it certainly seems that you attract the oddest creatures."

"Unlike you, who attracts...well...everyone."

Jack leaned back against the railing, silently observing the myriad people milling around the brightly-coloured seafront shops and arcades. Young couples holding hands, older couples yelling at, screaming at and threatening their children with bodily harm if they even looked at anything breakable. Something painful twitched in his stomach and he turned to regard his companion, studying the sharp profile for a few seconds. "Almost everyone," he sighed.

The Doctor smiled and Jack could have sworn a slight blush crept over his friend's features as he turned and stole a chip from Jack's cone.

"Everyone" the Doctor muttered, pointedly not looking at Jack.

"Oh really?" Jack grinned, eyebrows raised.

"Let's go for a walk."

"Wh..." the Captain began, sighing again as the only answer he received was the rear-view of his friend walking away; long coat billowing in the breeze. "I can't believe you made us go back for that!" he called, tossing his chip cone into the bin and hurrying to catch up.

"It's my coat," the Doctor frowned.

"We nearly got caught."

"But...It's my coat. Plus the look on Hainek's face when we materialised in his bedroom was classic!"

"Not as classic as the look on your face when you realised what he was doing to your suit."

"Hence me washing it five times," the Doctor shuddered, slipping his hands into his trouser pockets.

"Six," Jack reminded him. "The first time you made me wash it. You wouldn't even touch it."

"Neither would you until you retrieved a pair of rubber gloves and some wooden tongs from the TARDIS."

"Can you blame me?"

"Not really. Actually I didn't know I had any rubber gloves; or tongs for that matter."

"You have all sorts of kinky stuff hidden away in there" Jack grinned, as they turned to amble down a small flight of wooden steps, leading to the beach.

"What's kinky about rubber gloves?" The Doctor frowned.

"Oh Doc" Jack chuckled, slipping his arm across his companion's shoulders. "Nine-hundred years old and I could still teach you a thing or two."

"I have a feeling that ignorance is bliss in this case."

"So...Where to next Doctor?" Jack muttered, looking over towards the large wind farm at Scroby sands. There was something very peaceful about those huge white blades cutting through the air. It almost seemed as if the Earth was trying to take off.

"I dunno" came the reply, as the Doctor sat himself down in the sand, bringing his knees up and resting his elbows on them. "Do you want me to take you back to Cardiff?"

Jack's immediate thought of 'I'm getting ditched again' faded as he looked at his friend's bowed head and sombre features. "Trying to get rid of me already?" he half-joked, sitting close enough that their arms brushed together. Something inside him knew that the Doctor needed this contact. Or maybe it was him that needed it.

"No, I just...You said it yourself, you have responsibilities. It wasn't really very fair of me to waltz in and drag you off like that" the Timelord reasoned quietly, laying back fully onto the sand and staring with unseeing eyes up at the sky.

"Oh Doctor" Jack sighed, Laying himself sideways and propping his head up with his left hand. "I'm not..." he began, sighing again in frustration at the words that seemed less than inclined to formulate in his head. He looked down at his right hand as his fingers began idly playing with the buttons on the Doctor's suit jacket, almost of their own accord. "I..."

"Its okay" the Gallifreyan smiled slightly, bringing his own hand up and intertwining his fingers with Jack's. "You're under no obligations, really. It's okay."

"No, it's not. I'm happier here, with you, than I've ever been. I'm not here because I don't want you to be lonely. I'm here because...Well, as idiotic as it sounds, the only time I'm not restless, or feeling something's missing, is when I'm with you."

The Doctor looked up at him, his hopeful gaze registering no small amount of surprise at the heartfelt words.

"All the flirting and silliness aside," Jack continued, "You're my friend, my family. You're not alone, even though you think you are. Hell, you haven't been alone since you met me."

Glancing quickly at their joined hands, the Doctor brought his gaze back up to study Jack's eyes, seeing the open vulnerability there, mirroring his own. "Thank you," he whispered steadily.

Jack responded by laying his head on his friend's shoulder, breaking their mutual hold and sliding his arm around the slender waist. After an unsure moment, the Doctor's hovering hand finally settled on Jack's forearm, rubbing it slightly as he relaxed, staring at the sky once more.

"So, if I took this opportunity to cop a quick feel, do you think that would qualify as 'breaking the moment'?" Jack muttered.

"Probably, yeah," the Doctor grinned.

"'Kay....That still leaves the question though" Jack began, lifting his head and leaning over his companion. "Where do we go next?"

The steady, coffee gaze was acting like a magnet to the Captain. He couldn't help it. He'd wanted him for so long. Slowly and carefully, Jack lowered his face, his entire body tingling with anticipation as his lips came within a hair's breadth of the Doctor's.

A distant rumbling that had barely registered with Jack's senses, grew louder until it could no longer be ignored, seeming to shake the very sand they were lying on.

"Wha..." the Doctor frowned, leaning to the side and gaping in shock as the clouds parted, revealing a large, triangular-shaped, rusty-brown spaceship. "Uh..."

"Jesus!" Jack yelped, scrambling to get himself upright and dragging the Timelord with him.

The ship was large enough to engulf the beach, the pier and the majority of the little seaside town, in the darkness of its shadow. It ground to an ear-shattering halt above them, creating pandemonium as it sent people immediately into panic-mode, screaming and scurrying in all directions in an effort to get away.

"Well...we could stay here for a bit."

"Sure."

***