Engendered Change

With a wheezing cry, the TARDIS tore into Cardiff where a lone man stood waiting, leaning casually against a wall. No one else was there to see the police box’s appearance. Jack waited for the doors to open and for the Doctor to invite him inside. They didn’t open. Finally, he sauntered over to the doors and knocked with one brief rap before he pulled out his key.

“Hello?” he called as he stepped inside, “Doctor, you home?” The room was empty. Jack walked a full circuit around it just to be sure the Doctor wasn’t knocked unconscious on the far side of the console because it wouldn’t be the first time the TARDIS had given him a rough ride though usually he was good at hanging on, or lucky enough to land on the cushioned seat. The Doctor wasn’t there.

“Where is he, girl?” he asked out loud, patting the TARDIS’s wall. He could feel her humming, both beneath his hand and inside his mind. She sounded concerned, but not direly so. Something had happened, but the real danger was past. Jack didn’t know what to think, whether he should be worried or not. If the Doctor was fine, why wasn’t he here to greet Jack? And if he wasn’t, how did he manage to drive the TARDIS in the first place to pick him up? Then the TARDIS gave him a faint nudge towards the corridor and he started walking in search of the elusive Doctor.

He finally found his feet sticking out from a panel. At least he assumed they were the Doctor’s feet; they were missing the familiar converse and looked a tad…different. He wasn’t quite sure why; it wasn’t like he had made a study of the Doctor’s feet (at least no more than the rest of him) but he was almost certain they were too small. He wasn’t at all sure this wasn’t a companion, except to wonder why a companion would be hiding under a panel. It suddenly occurred to him there was another reason the Doctor would look different.

“Doctor?” he asked, worried now.

“Jack?” the Doctor answered, his voice sounding odd but still familiar. He couldn’t have changed that much if he still had that accent. “I’m a bit busy,” the Doctor said, “I don’t suppose you could fly the TARDIS and let yourself out?” Now Jack knew something was wrong.

“You want me to fly the TARDIS,” Jack said. “Your TARDIS. Alone.”

“Er…yes?” the Doctor answered.

Jack opened his mouth, then closed it again. He stared at the feet. One was moving nervously, tapping against the other. “Alright,” he said at last, and he turned to walk back to the consol3 room. He counted to seven in his head before he heard movement behind him.

“Jack!” the Doctor cried. “Wait!”

He turned back around. He could still only see feet.

“Yes?” he asked, trying to hide his grin. He knew there was no way the Doctor would really let him pilot alone. He heard a sigh from behind the panel.

“Alright, just…close your eyes,” he said.

Jack frowned. “Come on, Doc, you’re beginning to scare me here,” he said, “Whatever it is can’t be that bad.” To which the Doctor mumbled something that the TARDIS didn’t translate, but he finally began to shift himself out of the panel.

The panel looked quite small from the outside, far too small to hold an entire person, but the feet were most definitely attached to legs, which in turn came out to reveal a torso. Before his mind had more than a few seconds to realize something really didn’t look right there, the arms followed and a head ducked out. The Doctor stood quickly and then stared defiantly at Jack, daring him to say something.

Jack stared appraisingly. Oddly enough, the first difference that registered wasn’t the height, or the softened features in his face, or even the most damning evidence billowing from his chest. It was that he had changed out of his usual outfit. Jack had grown used to the suit and it was strange to imagine him in something different. Of course, the rest of the changes soon caught his eye and he couldn’t help but sweep his gaze up and down his (her) new body.

“Doc?” Jack asked, trying very hard to keep his tone neutral. "What happened? Did you…die?”

“No,” he/she answered shortly. The change in voice was even more obvious now that it wasn’t muffled by the wall. The Doctor was shifting from foot to foot now, a movement not at all characteristic with his/her tenth form. Jack couldn’t quite stop the grin or the thought that he/she looked rather cute like that, despite the worry that still coursed through him. The Doctor was acting out of character; even taking into account the shock and probable embarrassment of becoming a woman.

“Well?” he/she sudden snapped after a full minute had gone by while Jack just stared, “Aren’t you going to start with the innuendo? Comment on how pretty I look?” Jack held out his hands in a submissive gesture.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he insisted, and he wouldn’t. Well, not out loud. Not until the Doctor had stopped radiating this nervous…fear. That’s what it was. The Doctor actually looked a bit afraid. Surely not of him? “Doctor,” Jack said again, “what happened.” He/she slumped slightly, looking down. Then with a painfully obvious effort, the Doctor stood up straight and strode with bouncing steps towards the console room.

“Just a bit of a run in with some scientists, you know the kind,” the Doctor answered in a purposefully light voice. If he/she had been speaking to anyone but Jack the Doctor might have gotten away with it, too. But Jack had always had a knack for seeing right through the Doctor’s upbeat masks.

“What did they do?” Jack demanded, refusing to let the Doctor hide. The Doctor froze for one brief step, his/her back still to him.

“You can see what they did, Jack,” he/she answered, and he/she was walking again.

“Come on, Doc, you know what I mean,” Jack answered, reaching out a hand to grasp the Doctor’s shoulder. He/she froze and flinched away, before walking away faster. Jack’s concern tripled. Something really really wasn’t right here.

The Doctor refused to look at him as he/she started to set the coordinates to take him home. Nothing was going how the Doctor had hoped, though not as bad as he/she had feared. It had been a stupid idea in the first place, trying to hide from Jack. He/she should have marched out with a light step to meet him, let him ogle and make jokes and come-ons, and then dropped him off before he could get too suspicious about his/her attitude. But he/she had hidden, and flinched, and now the Doctor knew it would take a miracle to get rid of Jack. He/she tried anyway, sending the TARDIS flying through the vortex. Jack uncharacteristically stood back and watched, not offering to help.

He was acting different than the Doctor had expected. The Doctor had expected flirtatious Jack or teasing or lude suggestions. Which wasn’t to say there hadn’t been a gleam of appreciation when Jack had looked him over, not really much different than how he always had looked at the Doctor. And there was something disconcerting, almost disappointing, about a Jack who wasn’t really flirting. The Doctor had almost forgotten that, as over sexed and flirtatious as Jack generally acted, he did know how to be discreet when the situation called for it. Jack apparently felt this situation warranted. Then the TARDIS landed and the Doctor practically ran to the door, hoping that it would open on an empty plaza. It didn’t.

Which was not to say he faced hordes of old companions, his main worry. There wasn’t even Martha, or Jack’s team, or perfect strangers. The difficulty was, it hadn’t opened on the plaza either.

Behind the Doctor, the console sparked and started to give off smoke.