Closed Starter for @timeagxnt
It had been several weeks since Captain Jack Harkness had joined the Doctor and Rose Tyler on the TARDIS. What had at first been a tense relationship, had now blossomed into something... more. The Doctor was honestly still trying to figure that out.
He wasn't a fool, of course. He had seen how well Jack and Rose got on, how occasionally they'd appear in the console room giggling conspiratorially, but he tried not to pay too much attention. After all, Rose was young and brilliant and good; and the Doctor... well, he wasn't. The issue was that, more and more often these days, the Time Lord felt a familiar tug of jealousy whenever he saw Jack and Rose together... but not directed at the person one would have guessed.
Jack may have had a bit of a dodgy past, but since coming aboard he'd been... fun to have around. The Doctor found himself making excuses to spend time with him. Needing help with a TARDIS repair. Wanting his opinion on the next planet to visit. Small, inconsequential reasons to ask Jack to stay with him a little longer. Eventually, he ran out of tasks, and they parted ways for the evening.
So that's how the Doctor ended up pacing up and down the corridor in front of Jack's room. He'd managed to half convince himself to knock, but when he actually reached the door, he'd thought better of it and turned around. At the end of the hall, he stopped. This was ridiculous, he could knock on Jack's door. No big deal. So he turned around and marched right back. But again, before he knocked, thought better of it. The Doctor went back and forth like this for a good few minutes, with no sign of stopping.
Somebody needed to help him before he wore a hole in the carpet.
