Hell Bender || closed
Gwen nearly – nearly – lost the contents of her stomach on Jack when he took a step back, the sudden movement making the world spin in directiosn she did not want to contemplate.
Fortunately, she managed to get the muscles of her throat to work, and held out a hand while composed herself. “You must be Jack,” she said at last, eying him. Alright, so he was a bit handsome - or he would be, if he wasn’t looking like something had crawled up his arse and died.
And the Jack Harkness charm of legend was either severely overrated, or simply not present this morning.
“The puking isn’t exactly up to me,” she shot back. “Anyway, slow down. Tosh tells me you’ve basically been running around randomly. Are you searching systematically? Do you have any leads at all?”
–
John stayed silent while Clara and… the Doctor? Was this really the Doctor? argued. Standing very quietly, he eyed the exits and eased himself along the edge of the wall, trying to head towards the door.
“You’re using me as bait,” he said, glancing at the Doctor, and ignoring his little bit of banter. Was he trying to be friendly? Because it was achieving quite the opposite effect. “Well…” he drawled. “I’m afraid that I can’t really let you do that. Because, well. Reasons.”
His slow movement had brought him to the edge of the door, and he palmed it open, slipping out and took one step out– before colliding heavily into someone else. He tried to shove past and wasn’t sure what happened, but there was suddenly a foot right where his shin was, and he was practically falling arse over elbow onto the floor, his grand get away brought to a very sudden and premature end.
“Hello,” the newcomer said, bobbing into view. John took in the sight of bowtie and floppy fringe, frankly massive chin… then he met the other’s eyes. Something about them chilled him right to the bone, despite the friendly expression on the other’s face. “Sorry about that,” the stranger said, holding out a hand to him. “Are you alright?”
“Can’t say I haven’t been better,” John replied cautiously, trying to keep up the friendly pretense, at least for now. “In fact, I was just leaving, don’t mind me.” Grasping the stranger’s hand, he let the other pull him to his feet. “I’m John, by the way. Nice to meet you.”
“John! Good to meet you. I’m Will, Miss Bossy is Clara, and Eyebrows is the Doctor. So glad you could join us.” He clapped him on his shoulder, and John could have sworn that Will hadn’t been holding a thing, but he thought he felt a pinprick.
“Actually–” he started to say, but the world was tilting sharply, and turning odd colours. The floor seemed to list sharply, and he staggered, and it was only Will’s arm around him that kept him upright. What had he been saying? What had he been trying to do? He struggled to focus, thinking dimly that he saw Will exchange a look with Clara, but the bed - heck, the /floor/ was looking like an increasingly good option.
“Oh dear,” Will was saying, apparently from very far away. “I think he’s having a bit of a reaction to the sleep patch.”
A ‘bit’ of a reaction was a bit of an understatement. His limbs felt like lead. The Doctor had turned purple. The floor was the ceiling and the ceiling was the floor, and – the door. He needed to get to the door. He needed to get…
…his legs folded entirely, and he discovered that the floor was really rude and hard.
“And you must be Gwen.” He replied quickly, giving her a glance before looking everywhere else to see if he could possibly spot John.
He let out an irritable sigh before turning his full attention onto her. “I just lost my partner to unforseen circumstances. I know he’s alive but I don’t know if he’s been hurt or not. Of course I’ve been pretty erratic when it comes to looking for him!” He snapped, gritting his teeth and allowing himself to show just how on-edge he was being.
Seething, Jack steadied his breath and closed his eyes before holding up his hands in defeat. “I’m sorry, I’m just… I’m very worried about him and I don’t know who has him or how much time he has left.” He spoke more calmly as he opened his eyes and met her gaze. “Anything you can do to help, would be greatly appreciated.” He was close to begging, and fully aware just how vulnerable and desperate he was being.
—
The Doctor exhaled a sigh through his nose as John spoke. “Regrettable, but understandable.” He gave a nod and stood back, allowing John his freedom. He hadn’t actually intended to trap Jack, he simply wanted to talk to him, however… he could completely understand why John wouldn’t want to bring his partner here.
He turned to look at Clara and speak more with her, well aware that John was leaving only to be interrupted when the door swung back open and both Will and John came back inside.
He paused and raised both brows before frowning in concern when John began to stumble and fall. Rushing over to him, the Doctor caught his fall and slowly lowered him down as he turned to look up at Will.
“He was fine before he left the room. What’s happened?” Standing, the Doctor looked between both Clara and Will. “Do you realise what’s going to happen? That Jack Harkness is going to march in here now and do harm to us because he sees his partner is down!? And I thought Clara’s torture bit was bad enough…”
