Title: Sleeping through your past
By: Librarian In Leather
Pairing: One/Jack
Rating: PG-13
Warning: WiP
Summary: The Doctor first met Jack back when he was still 'Theta'. He always knew Jack would do something he shouldn't with time but he wasn't going to stop him.

***

He was in his ninth body by the time the Doctor finally met Jack Harkness for the 'first' time and by then he was starting to wonder if their first meeting in his time line, just over 800 years ago, really had been the accident Jack had pretended it to be.

But then, in a hospital full of gas-mask people, in 1940's London, Rose introduced him to the last person he'd expected to meet.

Captain Jack Harkness. A Captain Jack Harkness, who hadn't met him yet.

Over the years and encounters, the Doctor had got quite good at telling when Jack was lying and it had been clear to him that this version of his Captain was a much younger, much less broken man. And then he'd had a horrible thought.

If Jack wasn't broken before he met the Doctor, maybe it had been the Doctor who had broken him...

That would explain a lot...Bloody hell.

***

He was harsh with Jack, didn't need Rose's reproving looks to tell him that, but it wasn't for the reason she thought. He was harsh because the more he looked at the Captain, the more he interacted with him; the more he noticed the differences and wondered if he'd caused them.

But even with all the differences, this was still Jack and he was the one person the Doctor had never been able to resist, in any regeneration.

It was different from the last time, but that was ok, because so was Jack. This time the Doctor topped him, made sure Jack knew who was in charge, but it didn't really matter because for Jack, the last time hadn't happened yet.

The Doctor was full of contradictions and, without him meaning to, they bleed over into what he was doing with Jack. It was violent; with dominance and frustration, because this wasn't his Jack and yet gentle, because he knew he would be, eventually.

He tried to love this Jack for himself but it was difficult when his brain refused to stop comparing him at every turn with who he would become, was becoming.

And when he came the Doctor called out his Captain's name.

Jack looked up at him, hair mussed and naked skin shining with sweat, "You called me Jack," he grinned so openly that it made the Doctor's hearts break just a little more, "You never call me Jack."

The Doctor stared down at him and cursed himself inwardly. He never called the Captain 'Jack' because he wasn't his Jack, not yet. And it felt like a lie, was a lie, because what the Captain was taking as a sign that the Doctor was letting him in, was actually a sign that he was being pushed further away. Because it wasn't his name the Doctor had cried out when he came. He'd cried out for his Jack, his beautiful, broken Jack. It was just a coincidence that the two happened to be the same person.

Sometimes time travel even got confusing for Time Lords.

***

In 22nd century Cardiff, Jack sat behind his desk and grinned at his vortex manipulator. He'd finally fixed it; almost 100 years after the Doctor had broken it again when Jack had decided to go back to Torchwood.

Now all he had to decide was what to do with it.

Jack was bored. Not bored with life, not really, just bored with Earth and Cardiff in particular. That was why he'd fixed it, because the only sure way Jack knew to stop being bored, was to find the Doctor again and to do that he needed some means of travel.

But now it was time to make a decision, he wasn't so sure about the reception he would get. Maybe he should have some Jack Harkness type fun before he found the Doctor again. Take the scenic route back.

And then he had the most wonderfully stupid idea he'd had for a long time.

He knew the Doctor was almost 1000 years old; surely the one he knew about couldn't have been the Time Lord's only regeneration? Jack had never known much about the Doctor's history, maybe now was his chance to find out.

***

Theta sat in a bar on an Earth colony world drowning his sorrows with enough alcohol to kill several humans. He'd had another argument with Koschei and this time he thought it was probably serious; the other Time Lord had taken off in his own Tardis three days ago and hadn't come back yet. Since Theta knew his lover could pilot a Tardis down to the second he knew the delay was deliberate.

The Time Lord who would soon become the Doctor looked up as the barman slid a fresh drink in front of him.

"From the man down the bar," came the gruff reply to his silent query.

Theta looked round, startled and met the gaze of the human male sitting a few stools away, grinning slyly at him.

The man in the military great coat picked up his drink and came to sit down next to Theta.

"You looked like you could use some company."

Theta smiled at him thankfully and took a sip of his new drink, eyes never leaving the man's very handsome face.

"I'm Captain Jack Harkness but you can call me Jack, and who might you be.'"

So, there was a title to go with the coat, Theta thought before finally speaking to this strange human, "You wouldn't be able to pronounce my given name, but people call me Theta." He thought he might as well get used to the name; Koschei wasn't going to stop calling him it any time soon.

The man —Jack, Theta mentally corrected himself— seemed startled for a moment but then he smiled again and the young Time Lord decided he must have imagined it.

"So, Theta, you seemed miserable, anything I can help with?"

What was it about this man that seemed to turn everything he said into a double entendre? Theta decided to ignore the slight shiver that ran up his spine and take the question at face value. "I had a fight with my, friend," he cursed himself, as he saw Jack smirk at his hesitation before he said friend, "and now he's gone off and I don't know where he's gone or when he's coming back, if he's coming back." Theta sighed, "Koschei, that's his name," he explained when Jack frowned, "or, at least it was, I suppose I should call him 'the Master' now."

Jack froze. Theta noticed and his shoulders slumped. "Ah, you've heard of him, what's he done this time?" His voice was resigned and was getting more depressed by the minute.

Jack didn't know what to say, telling Theta that the Master had taken over the Earth, killed most of the population, created a paradox machine out of the Tardis, killed Jack repeatedly and then refused to regenerate after the Doctor, Theta's future self, had beaten him, probably wasn't a good idea, even though Jack was planning on him not remembering this meeting in the morning.

Theta seemed to sense his problem and came to his rescue, "Never mind, it doesn't matter, it just proves that he's an immoral bastard and that I'm not nearly drunk enough," He raised his hand to beckon over the barman, "I've got stronger stuff back at the Tardis."

He paid his bill and then looked at Jack and said, far too casually, "Care to join me?"

Jack grinned as he replied in the affirmative; everything was going according to plan.

***

As Theta and Jack approached the Tardis, Jack was struck by the sudden realisation that this probably wasn't such a good idea.

The fact that she wasn't a police box threw Jack for a minute, he was about to comment on the fact when he remembered he wasn't supposed to know anything about her yet, let alone what she would become in the future.

And what if she recognised him? The Tardis had apparently flown to the end of the universe to get rid of him, what if that happened again, or she simply wouldn't let him in?

As Theta unlocked the door, however, Jack felt the familiar hum of the Tardis penetrate his mind. He was surprised at the difference he could feel; she was younger and happier and somehow less...broken. And she hummed into his mind like a cat being petted. So much for her rejecting him.

He supposed he should make a token effort at being shocked.

"Bigger on the inside."

Theta, however, looked at him confused, "Of course, why wouldn't she be."

Jack raised his eyebrows, "Never mind, you said something about a drink."

Theta grinned, wolfishly, "This way."

Jack followed him further into to the Tardis and marveled at the fact that she could feel so familiar and yet look so different.

When they finally reached a bedroom Jack thought the same thing about the Doctor. Theta was younger and less experienced but he was still the Doctor and still the man Jack loved.

It made it both easier and harder to slip the Retcon into Theta's post-coital drink and then slip away unnoticed.

***

Theta woke up the next morning with a splitting headache and a question that was bugging him. Last night, when Jack had come, he hadn't said anything out loud, but Theta had been inside his head just enough to pick up broadcasted thoughts.

Jack had cried out, inside his head, the name 'Doctor'. Theta would have got annoyed except, the name seemed to be directed at him, like Jack was calling him 'Doctor'. Maybe there was more to Jack than he'd thought.

Theta grinned, if Koschei could have a new name, then so could he.

The Master came back two days later to find, not the moping and contrite Theta that he had expected but an excitable, impatient Time Lord who called himself the Doctor and wanted to save the multi-verse one person at a time. Starting with the Master. And whoever was responsible for the change, if he ever found them, they'd count themselves lucky that they could only die once or, of course, thirteen times if they were a Time Lord. The Master hoped it was a Time Lord; just dying once really wasn't enough punishment for causing this living hell.

***