m_findlow

Title: Checked out
Fandom: Doctor Who
Characters: Rose, Jack, The Doctor (nine)
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,046 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Juliet316's prompt "Doctor Who, Jack/Rose or Jack/Martha, "It's not every day you see a girl get a tall guy like me in a headlock"" at fic_promptly
Summary: Jack's about to find out what happens when you cross Rose Tyler

Rose stared up at him from the board, realising what had happened. 'You stole my bishop!' she cried.

'No, I didn't,' Jack protested

'Yeah, you did,' she said, pointing at it sitting in amongst the collection of white pawns.

'Oh, that old thing? I captured that ages ago, you just don't remember.'

She didn't remember because he'd slipped it off the board the minute she'd had her head turned.

'Is there anything you don't cheat at?' Rose said.

'Who me?' he said, lying back, folding his arms innocently behind his head.

'No, the other bloke,' she said, hands on her hip. 'The one with the leather jacket and the funny northern accent. Yes, you.'

'Rose Tyler, are you suggesting that I would be anything other than completely appropriate and above board?'

She slowly slinked over to where he was lounging on the sofa opposite their chess table.

'I'm suggesting that you are the most remarkably dishonest individual I've ever met.'

'But also the most remarkably handsome,' he added.

'The most remarkably conceited, too,' she countered.

'Oh ho!' he said, leaning forward. 'Conceited is it? This coming from the "natural blonde"?' he said, using quotation fingers.

'Oh, you picked the wrong girl to mess with, buddy.'

'That sounds like a threat.'

'It's meant to be. Now give me back my bishop,' she demanded, holding out her hand for it.

'What bishop?' he said, turning his hand around and opening up his palm, revealing nothing in it.

She crossed her arms at him, looking suitably annoyed, yet smug.

'Nice magic trick. Do you take party bookings?'

He chuckled at the comment, trying to maintain the upper hand in their tete a tete.

She got her back up. Mickey used to do that as well. 'Are you laughing at me?'

'I'm only laughing because I'm two moves away from checkmate, and you're a sore loser.'

'Give me back my bishop, Jack. Or I'll check you out.'

He stared her down, smiling all the while. 'I can take you, any day of the week.'

'Bring it on, Captain,' she teased.

He leapt up from the sofa with surprising speed.

'You're gonna have to catch me first,' he said, bolting away towards the corridor.

'You can run but you can't hide!'

'Why would I hide something as sexy as this?' he yelled back.

Rose chased after him, screaming obscenities whilst she could hear his laughter echoing down the halls. Jack was like the annoying older brother she'd never had. Everything about travelling with The Doctor had been brilliant and exciting, but Jack had added a whole other level of fun into the mix. Ever since that first meeting, there'd been no awkward sexual tension between them at all; they'd simply become best mates overnight. Jack knew she only had eyes for The Doctor, and whatever his own feelings were, he wasn't about to let them get in the way. She loved knowing he would look out for her, even if she always claimed she could take care of herself. She didn't ever want to stop having fun with the both of them. If it wasn't for her mum back home, she'd never want to go back, ever.

She zipped down one hall, then another, Jack's battle cries giving him away, though they were growing fainter as he put distance between them. Just when she thought she was going to lose him competely, she turned a corner and caught a glimpse of his heel duck around the next corner. She knew the TARDIS pretty well now, and skipped through the opposite doorway, down a completely different hall, before coming face to face with him as the next doorway opened, putting her right into his path, blocking him into a corner.

'Hey, you cheated!'

'I didn't cheat,' she replied. 'The TARDIS might have, though.'

'No fair that she likes you better,' he sulked.

She prepared to lunge at him, edging closer, backing him further into the corner. Jack feinted left, then right, but Rose had played this game before. She'd been to more soccer matches in her life than she could count. She knew a fake when she saw one, diving the opposite way and catching him as he tried to slip past her. She wrapped an arm around his neck and managed to haul him to the ground. She held him there for a good fifteen seconds before he managed to grab her waist and pull her down with him. The play fought for a while, but by the end of it they were both lying there in a fit of giggles, unable to keep going, and having forgotten the reason they were there in the first place.

'Having fun?' The Doctor said, leaning up against the TARDIS wall, arms folded, having watched the entire spectacle play out.

Rose turned over, looking at him from upside down, grinning from ear to ear. 'Hello.'

'Hello,' he chirped back. 'Have you two quite finished?'

'Oh, we're just getting started,' Jack crooned. 'Care to join us?'

'Thanks, but no thanks. Last thing I want is to have you on top of me.'

Jack clutched at his chest. 'You wound me.'

'Oi, I was the one who came out on top!' Rose complained.

'She's got a point Doctor, it's not everyday you see a girl get a tall guy like me in a headlock.'

Rose struggled to her feet, still a little out of breath, brushing her wayward hair back into place. 'Do you need something?'

'No, but I thought you might,' he said, holding out the chess piece in between his fingers. It wasn't her white bishop, but a black queen. Jack's queen. Her eyes lit up with rapturous excitement, a huge smile breaking out as she took it in her hand.

'Ha!' she cried, shoving it in his face.

'And you people say I cheat,' Jack complained, still lying upside down on the floor. He went to sit up but Rose tackled him back to the floor, pinning him down as she sat on top of his chest, and pushing his head back against the floor with her index finger. She rested the queen on his forehead and cocked her head at him.

'Checkmate, Jack.'

'Excellent,' The Doctor clapped. 'Who's for chips?'