Author: buggs
Recipient: Miladygrey
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Doctor Who & Farscape
Summary: It was just a little blip on the radar, really.
They were halfway into the sleep cycle when a persistent, high-pitched alarm sounded from the console room. By the time Rose had gathered up her robe and shuffled out, the TARDIS had already begun dropping back into time.
"The Doctor's found something fishy and decided to chase it." Jack handed Rose a cup of coffee as he headed back to get dressed.
"How fishy?"
"Nothing major, just a little blip on the radar, really." The Doctor, already shrugging into his jacket, gave her a pointed look.
I'll go get dressed then. Anything in particular I should prepare for?"
"Southern part of America, late October? Modern. No. Nothing in particular." He smiled at her and then gently shoved her toward the hallway that led back to the living quarters.
Five minutes later Jack was pounding on her door, telling her to get moving. She sighed in exasperation. "Just a minute!" She grabbed her light jacket, then headed out the door, pushing past him roughly. It'd be good to get outside. Cabin fever had begun to set in.
It was sunny and neither cold nor hot when they stepped out of the TARDIS and into a little piece of non-descript suburbia. The trees and bushes along the street were full of spider webs and ghosts, and the porches all had carved pumpkins that screamed at passers-by that this was Halloween.
They'd been walking about for a few short minutes when a Jack saw a Luxan dressed in a football jersey - driving a car. Very badly.
"That's a Luxan." The Doctor looked up from a newspaper he'd grabbed in time to witness the driver take out the stop sign.
"That would be a problem, yes."
"What's a Luxan?" Rose asked, hoping that there were no small children in the car's path.
"Warrior race from the interior of the galaxy. Amazing tongues, scary when mad; a bit stupid," Jack said with a wistful smile.
"Definitely your type, then," Rose said before turning back to the Doctor. "So what we gonna do?"
"He's not exactly going fast. I imagine we could catch him if we really wanted to."
"I'll head that way." Jack pointed down the street. "Something about this feels familiar." Then he looked at Rose. "You want to come with me this time?"
Rose looked up at the Doctor, her face bland, and waited for his decision.
"Fine by me." The Doctor headed north down the residential street, while Rose and Jack headed south.
"So why'd you want me to go with you this time?"
"You always go with him. I need a little love now and again, too." Jack winked at her, then stopped short.
"What?" Rose looked around. Jack tilted his head toward a gray-haired girl across the street, who was climbing out of the window of a nearby truck. Jack's eyes twinkled when the girl unintentionally but unashamedly flashed them. Rose smacked him upside the head.
"Perv. She can't be older than sixteen!" Rose swept the hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear.
"I'd say she's legal. Nebari always tend to look younger. She doesn't look cleansed, either."
"What's Nebari? And what do you mean by cleansed?" Rose asked and Jack pointed at the girl, again.
"Alien. Gray and frisky when in their natural state but they do this cleansing thing. Pull the eyeball out until it's barely hanging on and...not exactly sure how it works, but they go all stoic and boring. And obsessed with conquering the galaxy."
"Isn't everybody?" Rose looked at the girl's bright clothes and wild hair. "She hardly looks boring."
Jack's smile got wider. He pushed away from the tree he was leaning on and headed towards the girl.
"Nice costume!" The girl looked up sharply, then let her gaze slide down his body. She stared at him with half a grin, dark eyes sparkling.
"I'm Jack." He offered her his hand to shake.
She looked down at his hand. Her smile got wider. He couldn't help but laugh when, instead of shaking his hand, she boldly offered him her middle finger.
"Jack. Hi!" the gray girl shouted, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
Rose had to give her points for enthusiasm.
"You should be careful where you point that, ma'am. Someone may take you up on the offer." Jack waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Rose couldn't suppress her explosive snort.
The Nebari tilted her head like a confused puppy but continued to smile.
"I...Chiana."
"Chiana. That's a beautiful name. Not exactly common 'round this area, I'd imagine." Jack leaned against a car, looking for all the world like he planned to settle in and have a long conversation.
"Yes." Chiana said, moving closer. Before Rose could interrupt, the Doctor walked up to stand beside her.
"How's it going?"
"She's Nebari. Not the boring kind, though. The kind that wants to have sex with Jack."
"That's nice."
"You got a plan?"
"We leave."
"Just like that? We leave? What happened with the big orange guy in the car?"
"Big orange Luxan, and he's not important. This problem is already being fixed."
Rose couldn't tell if he was happy about that or not. "Fixed how? By who?"
The Doctor looked over at the gray girl and Jack. Another man was walking up to them, a huge, improbable smile on his face. "By him. He broke it and he's fixing it."
"That's new." Rose still hadn't quite gotten used to The Doctor's annoying brand of cryptic, but decided to let it go.
"Oy. This could get messy." The Doctor walked across the street, Rose at his heels, and put a hand on Jack's shoulder.
"Time to go, Captain."
Jack looked from the Doctor to the approaching man, and then back to the Doctor. "That's..." Jack tilted his head.
Rose looked closely at the man, attempting to find some indication of why he was mixed up with aliens. He looked like an average American male in a black t-shirt and jeans, a little older than Jack; and if he was too tired to be truly gorgeous, well, it didn't mean he wasn't nice to look at.
"Hi. Name's Fred. Fred Scarran, from the Gainsville Scarrans. I was just coming to get my sister. Aunt Leslie needs her to help with the potato salad." The man, Fred, put his arm around the Nebari. "You ready, Pip?"
"Nice to meet you. Happy Halloween." The Doctor grabbed Jack's arm and led him away.
"You know who that was, right?" Jack sounded a little shell-shocked.
"I don't." Rose piped up. She took hold of Jack's hand as they made their way down the sidewalk. "But I'm sure you'll tell me about it for the next few days."
"That man is a hero. John Crichton: The first human to make it out there on his own. Man's a genius. Brilliant. Crazy, but brilliant." Jack continued to expound on the virtues of John Crichton, "Astronaut Extraordinaire" as they headed back to the TARDIS.
"Where we going next?" Rose asked, once they'd settled in.
"We'll need to refuel soon, but I think we have enough for one more stop." The Doctor quirked an eyebrow Jack. "December 2003, United States sound about right?"
"What happens then?" Rose asked.
The Doctor gave her that look he'd get when he was thinking "Humans are stupid", but for once he didn't voice the complaint out loud.
That's when John Crichton and his merry band of aliens came back to earth. It had to have been all over the news. This isn't ringing any bells?" Now Jack was giving her that look, too.
"Maybe a little bit." Rose shrugged.
"Whatever. We're going to witness the beginning of true space exploration for Humans. Everything before that point was peanuts compared to what's about to happen." Jack's eyes twinkled madly as he bounced up and down with childish glee.
Rose smiled at Jack. "So we're going to make sure everything got fixed?"
"Nah. Crichton fixed it well enough. We're going so Jack can shag the Nebari." The Doctor smiled and started up the TARDIS' engines, the sound of their laughter echoed and faded as they dropped back out of time.