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Jack’s head is resting in her lap, near her left hipbone, his feet curled around hers. His hand is a heavy, comforting presence higher on her stomach, grounding her at her middle. The Doctor’s hand is there too, running absentminded circles into the back of Jack’s hand while his other arm is bracketing Rose’s chest, resting just below her left breast. He’s a cool contrast on her right compared to Jack’s furnace on her left, but it balances out.
Rose knows Jack’s asleep, she can feel his even heartbeat and soft breath (and, at the back of her mind, she is immeasurably grateful that he doesn’t snore).
Rose doesn’t know if the Doctor is asleep or not. The twin heartbeats throw off her estimates, and even when she accounts for them she doesn’t really know how his biology works (does he sleep, ever?) to be able to tell if he isn’t just resting comfortably, knowing that both Rose and Jack are safe.
She thinks she can just about read the both of them. Jack’s content-happy and sated and probably a little smug (not that she blames him, since she feels much the same way). The Doctor is relieved, mostly, with a smidge of barely concealed happiness (she doesn’t know why he’s trying to hide it, but she’s not going to push it, at least not yet).
Rose is, among other things, bewildered- deliriously happy- a little like she’s experienced her fever dream fantasies and is going to very unfortunately wake up soon.
But time passes. Even, out of sync breaths patter against her opposite hip and collar bones, and yeah. This really, really happened.
Thank fuck.
Rose breathes a sigh of relief, burrowing further into the sinfully soft covers.
She feels... trapped. But in a good way. Rose didn’t know that was something she could feel, but the past few months have done nothing if not show her the impossible.
In this exact moment, she knows she is cared for. Between the Doctor and Jack, she knows she is the safest person in the universe, because both men would first blow up a solar system before letting her get hurt, and if that isn’t a terribly powerful feeling she doesn’t know what is.
Rose takes a deep breath, taking in the mixed scents in the room and the fading smell of sex, and finally lets her eyes fall closed.
That night, she sleeps better than she ever has, the soft hum of the TARDIS in the background watching over the three of them.
~ ~ ~
The Doctor isn’t quite sure what he sees when he looks at Jack.
Firstly, because there really isn’t anything special about Jack to see, exactly. He looks like a completely ordinary, even if exceptionally attractive, 51st century human.
And yet.
And yet something about Jack makes the Doctor’s time senses pick up and notice him, like an itch at the back of his eyes. When the Doctor really looks at Jack closely, he feels like there is something very important he isn’t seeing.
Like all time travelers, Jack’s timeline is complicated- springing in all directions, some strands hitting dead ends while others collapse in on themselves, new wisps constantly branching out and decaying. The twist and twirl in twelve dimensions, dancing around the timelines of those people Jack has met, would have met, and hasn’t yet had the chance to not meet.
But, unlike timelines of others, Jack’s timeline ends. Not death, exactly- the end of Jack’s timeline almost reminds the Doctor of the end of his own: the present moment that he can’t see past because he is too close to it. Except Jack’s timeline feels like it hits a wall, all of those wild and untamed strands of potential flowing towards the dark and opaque barrier that would fundamentally change something about the lad that not even the Doctor could predict- or hope to prevent.
It is... addicting in a way. The Doctor could never deny his inability to ignore a mystery.
It is at least a part of the reason why he let Jack aboard his TARDIS in the first place.
It was just pure luck that Jack turned out to be a decent lad that would protect Rose just as fiercely as himself without treating her as lesser, and was actually clever enough to help out with TARDIS repairs (and the TARDIS even liked Jack a lot, although the Doctor thinks that is mostly because Jack flirts with her even more than he flirts with himself).
When the Doctor and Rose finally tumble into bed with Jack (and really, only because Jack is there, because the Doctor knows he would never have given in by himself), it feels like a beginning.
~ ~ ~
Between the three of them, nights on the TARDIS weren’t always the most peaceful.
Most nights, the Doctor slips away for at least a couple of hours, right after Rose and Jack fall asleep. Usually, he’s back by the time they wake up, sometimes even in time to still be in bed with them. Rose isn’t sure whether it’s because he actually needs less sleep or because of something else, but she knows that when a cool presence settles at her back it’s time to wake up.
Rose herself sleeps like the dead, with soft and peaceful dreams she assumes are the TARDIS’ doing. Most nights she plays the jet pack to Jack’s little spoon, and it is only when the Doctor’s coolness isn’t balanced with human heat she wakes up.
She blinks her eyes open, adjusting to near-darkness, trying to figure out what’s wrong while being still half-asleep. No alarm going off means no danger, but she also doesn’t feel the same perfect contentment from before falling asleep. Rose wiggles a little, trying to sit up but finding herself wrapped too tightly in an embrace much cooler than she’s used to.
“Doctor?” She mumbles, then swallows and repeats with more confidence, “Doctor?”
The Doctor’s eyes blink open in a single, focused movement, settling on Rose’s face. “What’s wrong?” His sleep-rough voice betrays the facade of alertness.
“Jack’s not here.”
The Doctor grunts a little before sitting up, hand on the the wall behind the large bed.
Mumbling under his breath, the Doctor gracefully fumbles with the sheets twisted around his hips, brows furrowing.
“Doctor?” Rose asks, now concerned. She knows that look. It’s the Doctor’s “something’s wrong” look.
“Hmm? Yeah, Jack is fine. You stay here and I’ll go get him, how’s that?” The Doctor doesn’t bother to wait for a response before quickly pulling on a pair of trousers and padding out of the room barefoot.
Rose sits still for a moment, staring at the space he left, “He doesn’t really think that’s going to work, does he?” She asks the TARDIS, which makes a sharper humming sound that Rose takes as agreement.
Rose hastily wraps the sheets around her, pulling them under her armpits like a towel before following out after the Doctor.
The TARDIS seems to be helping her, pulsing in specific ways when Rose comes to an intersection, hopefully guiding her towards the Doctor and Jack.
Soon she finds herself passing through the control room and stopping in front of a door that had been left ajar. Light shines through the crack, illuminating the darkened hallway.
Quietly, Rose pushes the door open.
Despite having not known what to expect, she is more than a little surprised when the room turns out to be some kind of an observation deck, except it was made entire entirely of a see-through, glass-like material so that Rose feels just for a slip second like she had just walked out into space.
Jack is dressed in only a pair of sleeping pants (although they had all gone to bed naked), leaning against the railing further into the room. The Doctor is nowhere to be found.
“Jack?” Rose calls out carefully, concerned but not worried.
Jack doesn't even flinch. He hadn’t seemed to have heard her at all.
Rose calls his name again, slowly making her way towards him. As she does so, Rose notices that all sound started to slowly dimm until she could hear nothing at all from behind her, only the hum of empty space and her own heartbeat.
“Jack?” She whisperers.
Jack startles, hand going to his waistband immediately until he turns just enough to catch sight of Rose, relaxing as he realizes it’s just her.
“Rose!” Jack grins, but he is whispering too. “Come on, here.” Jack pats the railing, and Rose goes to him as if pulled.
“Is everything alright?” She asks him softly as he wraps his arms around her and beds his head to rest on her shoulder.
“Of course.” He says into her hair, prompting her to hum in disbelief. Of course she knows he is full of shit, but she isn’t going to push this time. Maybe she would later, or maybe she’d just leave the pushing to the Doctor.
“The Doctor was coming to find you. He left just before I did.” Rose says, remembering how the search for Jack had originally started.
Jack hums noncommittally. “I guess you found me first.”
“Lucky me.” Rose says sarcastically, even though she absolutely means it. She feels so, so lucky. Most days.
“Lucky you.” Jack answers, pressing himself fully against her back. Usually this would lead to sex, as things did between them, but Rose feels no press of an erection, and Jack still seems a little off-kilter.
“…completely unreasonable!” They both turn around at the sound of the Doctor’s voice, finding him just outside of the room and apparently arguing with the TARDIS.
Also apparently, the TARDIS is winning.
Rose giggles, which makes Jack chuckle, and suddenly they were laughing for no reason at all.
When they finally manage to take hold of themselves, the Doctor is staring at them with an unamused but fond expression.
“Come join us, old man.” Rose beckons, pushing her tongue against her teeth.
“Old! I’ll show you old.” The Doctor proclaims, prowling towards them.
Rose squirms, but Jack tightens his arms around her minutely, exposing her shoulder by pulling the sheet down with his teeth. She can’t see Jack’s expression, but she definitely sees the Doctor’s eyes darken.
And if afterwards when they all lay together in bed Jack made a point to squirm himself between Rose and the Doctor, pulling the both of them almost to lay on top of him, then Rose definitely wasn’t going to complain.