Entry tags:

captain jack harkness, dr. gregory house, fragment, gwen cooper, nick fury, owen harper

Fragment- Paradox II
I've gotten a bit of writing done over the last few days, though half of it was just editing a few pieces, and getting down another plot bunny that popped up.

The rest was just me letting a few characters talk as I tried to figure out why Nick Fury was in Paradox II.


When your crossing multiple fandoms in one fic, there needs to be a reason for characters to be there. I was curious as to why I had Fury there (outside of a plot device because I needed an organization to take the place of UNIT.) Letting the characters ramble let me realize Jack's just Jack to Fury. In cannon, Jack was betrayed by his team, then killed by Owen, then killed again when the team opened the Rift and released Abbadon. Jack did forgive them-- after being dead for a few days-- but he didn't give them time to come to terms with all of that. Instead, Jack took off to catch the Doctor, only to discover that the Doctor has changed and then he tells Jack that Jack is wrong, then they run into the Master, who tells Jack he's an abomination, and who then goes on to have some fun testing Jack's immortality over the next year. Then, in my timeline, Jack has to kill someone he knows, then fails to destroy the Paradox Machine so the Doctor's plan to save the world doesn't work, then meets his Doctor again, only to find his Doctor also considers Jack wrong, then meets the lover of the man he had to kill, who actually understands why Jack had to do it though it doesn't make things any easier between them, and then he's reunited with his team, who still haven't had a chance to deal with what they did to Jack, or apologize for what they did.

Poor Jack, I guess I just needed to give Jack one person to interact with who didn't have any issues with him. (That, and it is fun having someone who's known Jack for a long time.) Don't know if the first scene with make the final cut, but the second one probably will.

---

“What are you doing out here, Harkness? Did you get lost as soon as you walked through the door?” Gwen jumped at the sound of Nick’s voice right behind her; even though he was a big man, Nick knew how to sneak up on a person.

Nick frowned thoughtfully at Gwen as he walked around her chair and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Jack. He studied her a moment, causing Gwen to sink nervously back into her chair, before he turned to look at Jack. “You’ll find Jones in the master bedroom,” he said, pointing with his drink, “last door on the right.” He watched Jack as he took a sip of scotch, his cigar held between two fingers of the hand holding the drink.

After swallowing, he gestured again. “And do I need to remind you that this is a SHIELD safe house, which means all the rooms are soundproof?”

Jack laughed. “No, you don‘t need to remind me of that.” The laughter quickly died, and Jack let his head fall back against the couch, closing his eyes as he said, “I’m fine Nick.”

“The hell you are.”

Unable to resist, Jack opened an eye and asked, “You offering?”

Nick gave him a look. “And have Jones cut off my coffee supply? You’re out of your mind Harkness.”

Jack smiled and closed his eye again. He knew Nick was just joking around; if Nick thought he needed that kind of stress relief, they would have been testing the soundproofing of one of the bedrooms by now.

Wouldn’t have been the first time.

Nick knew how to read people. He had an uncanny knack of seeing through the masks people wore, and after spending the last year watching over his team, Nick would have learned what made each one of them tick, learned their strengths and weaknesses-- and learned how to manipulate those strengths and weaknesses-- and would know exactly who it was Jack needed right now.

Apparently willing to give Jack a few minutes to get moving before pushing him on his way, Nick shifted his gaze to Gwen and said, “And what’s got you all in an uproar this time, Cooper?”

Gwen looked away, blushing. “I was just trying to apologize to Jack for what we did.”

“What did you do?”

Chewing her lip, Gwen said, “We killed him.” She winced. “Twice.”

Nick scowled. “So? Not like it was gonna be permanent” At Gwen’s astonished look, Nick turned to Jack and said, “Hell, I’ve killed you what, five times now?”

“No, you’re up to six now.”

“Six?”

“Yeah. You’ve shot me three times, threw me off the Helicarrier once, there was that javelin incident, and then there was that time with the grenade.”

“The grenade was your fault.”

“No it…” Jack thought about it a moment. “Okay, yeah, maybe that one was my fault.”

“And has me killing you made any difference in how we treat each other?”

Jack smiled. “Nope, can’t say that is has.” He gave Nick an amused look. “You don‘t exactly lead a normal life though, Nick.”

“Nether does your team.” Nick‘s good eye narrowed as he pointed a finger at Jack. “And you need to start dealing with things, Jack. I don‘t have time for you to be wallowing in self-pity right now.”

“Hey!”

Jack watched with interest as Nick turned his glare at Gwen. “You have a problem with that, Cooper?”

“Yes, I do! Jack‘s been through hell…”

“And you haven’t?” Gwen opened her mouth to argue, then slowly closed it and backed down; Jack was proud of the fact Gwen didn’t just crumble under Nick‘s scrutiny. Most people would.

Smiling, Jack pushed off the couch and rose to his feet. There was a hint of a smug look in Nick’s expression as he took another sip from his glass. As soon as Nick moved the glass out of the way, Jack leaned over, bracing himself against the back of the couch for balance so he could kiss Nick. He could taste the scotch, the lingering vapors causing a comfortable tightness in his throat as they lazily kiss, and Jack amused himself by imagining the shocked expression on Gwen’s face as she watched them.

When he pulled back, Nick said, “Of course, if Val stops by, I’m kicking you both out of that room.”

Jack grinned and pushed away. “Fair enough.” He raised an eyebrow and added, “Though you know you’re always welcome in my bed.”

Fury snorted. “Think you might need to discuss that with Ianto first.”

Jack laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Night Nick.”

“Night Jack.”

Jack laughed again when he heard Nick ask, “And why the hell are you still up anyway, Cooper? Don‘t you have someone warming your bed? Get the hell out of here.”

---

“Those things will kill you.” Owen said, making a show of waving the cigar smoke away from his face.

“If I had a dollar for everyone who’s told me that.” Fury muttered.

“It’ll take a hell of a lot more than a cigar to kill him.” House glanced up when Jack continued. “As a matter of fact, Nick will be ninety in,” Jack paused, then smiled, “actually at the end of the week if I‘m not mistaken.”

Nick straightened and crossed his arms. “Thanks, Jack,” he said, scowling, “was hopin to keep that little gem to myself.”

Jack grinned. “Glad to be of service, Nick.”

“Ninety?” Owen asked, astonished.

“Yep. First met Nick during World War II.”

Owen rolled his eyes then looked at Fury. “Great, so shooting you is about as useless as shooting him then?”

A dangerous smile crossed Fury’s face. “Feel free to try your luck, Harper.”

“Uh, yeah, right. Not entertaining any suicidal thoughts right now, so I’ll just take a rain check on that, thanks.”