Pitstop [attn: Jack]

It wasn't often that Donna actually wanted to leave the Doctor behind, but tonight was one of those nights. The ride in the TARDIS had been rocky as all hell and he'd stepped on her last nerve hours ago. When the TARDIS landed and she opened the door she'd found herself smack in the middle of Cardiff. Fucking Cardiff.

Having squawked at the Doctor in her usual, annoyed manner - because, really...Cardiff?! - she'd stormed out of the TARDIS waving him off dismissively as he'd called out to let her know that they'd be leaving tomorrow night, once the TARDIS was refueled.

"Bloody Cardiff...there's nothing to do in Cardiff," she muttered angrily to herself. "So much for action and adventure. I need a drink," she added under her breath as she walked down the streets.

It was well into twilight and Donna figured a drink would be better than walking in circles. It wasn't as if there was much open for business, by now, anyway. She found herself drifting into the nearest bar and dropping down onto a stool in front of the bartender. After a short moment's thought, she ordered a Sex on the Beach. It had been a while since Donna had had a drink and she remembered that particular one to be fruity enough to go down easily on a first go.

Nothing, though, Donna was sure, could make her happy to be in Cardiff. She silently challenged the universe to prove her wrong.

It had been a very, very long day at the Hub, and if Jack had just wanted to drink, he probably could have stayed in and saved himself some trouble, but he had gotten restless. Night hours passed slowly when he didn't have anything particular to do with them, not even a Weevil to hunt or anything. He could have gone looking for one of their more persistent runaways, but at the moment getting a drink was a bit more appealing. Maybe later.

He reflected absently as he sat down at the bar that it was a hell of a life that his idea of fun was hunting fugitive aliens through the streets of Cardiff. But the adrenaline was one hell of an attractant, and anyway, it was his job. If he didn't need or want to sleep, he might as well make himself useful and pass some time (he had such an awful lot of it to pass).

Jack noticed that he was sitting next to a red-haired woman, but he didn't speak up except to get the bartender to get him a drink, with a smile.

Donna felt the man sit down beside her before she saw him and inwardly groaned. She was not in the mood tonight, not at all. So, she turned to look at him, opening her mouth to tell him to piss off; there were other empty stools at the bar plenty further away from her than he was right now. When she saw him, though, her mouth closed shut quickly, teeth clicking gently and she smiled. All right, Cardiff...if they all look like this I actually might not mind staying here, after all... she thought to herself.

Tipping her head to the side just slightly and taking a sip of her drink, she turned her stool completely to face the man. "Oi, what if I was expecting someone?" she asked, her tone carefully deadpanned, but her eyes completely betraying it.

It only took a moment for Jack to realize the woman beside him was talking to him, and he turned to her. Her tone told him little - if she was being facetious or serious. That was okay, though. He was pretty good at figuring things out.

"Then one of us would be disappointed," he told her smoothly, with a smirk. "Would it be me or them, though?" As if Jack would give up on a chance to flirt with a random stranger, anyway. It was sort of a nice routine he had set up with that. It was practically the only interaction he got with Cardiff's more normal human population, after all.

Which, by the by, didn't bother him in the least.

"Then one of us would be disappointed," he told her smoothly, with a smirk.

Donna raised her eyebrows a little. Oh, he was one of the sly types, then. That was fine; Donna could roll with that. It'd been a while, but she could still manage, she thought.

"Would it be me or them, though?"

Normally, that would be a good question. Tonight though...there was only one answer - them. After the row she'd had with the Doctor somewhere between 1492 in Spain (which had probably been meant to interest her when really she'd been bored to death with Columbus's proposal to Isabelle and Ferdinand) and present day Cardiff, Donna was more than happy to disappoint the Doctor. Not that he'd be coming in looking for her; she highly doubted that. It was possible, but unlikely.

"I suppose that depends," Donna replied to the man finally, allowing her eyes to take him in. Perhaps a little younger than she was? Not by much, she didn't think, and she'd never really been a stickler about ages, anyhow. "Which one of you would make it more worth my while, I wonder," she added, smirking back at him.

"Which one of you would make it more worth my while, I wonder."

Jack leaned one elbow on the countertop, perilously close to his drink but he was paying attention, regarding the new woman with a grin. "Depends," he told her, "I could hazard a guess, though." That was a bit audacious of him, wasn't it? But probably true, or at least likely. A hundred and fifty years of practice did come awfully close to making perfect.

He held out a hand to her, the one not elbow to the counter. "Captain Jack Harkness. And you are..?"

He was good and Donna was rusty, at best. This might not be as easy as it had originally seemed, but she wasn't going to give up, yet. Not this early, that was for sure.

"Captain Jack Harkness. And you are..?"

"Donna Noble," she replied. She arched a brow at him again as she took a nonchalant sip of her drink and then set the empty glass back down on the bar. "Depends on what?" she asked boldly. He'd said he could 'hazard a guess' and Donna thought that was a little cheeky, but he probably wouldn't be wrong. This was going to be fun.

"It's a pleasure." And he meant that; Jack did genuinely like meeting new people - and flirting with them, too, which just made this even more fun. It was always nice to go out for a drink alone and find oneself pleasantly surprised.

"Depends on what?"

"Who you're waiting for," Jack replied evenly, adding, "And how hard I'd have to try to be more worth your time." After all, if she actually was waiting for someone, that would imply that they had a prior engagement, and that usually made it a bit harder to keep someone's attention and time. Not that he minded - there were plenty of people in Cardiff, after all - but he was a little interested in this Donna woman.

Donna considered for a moment dropping the ruse entirely, but that would've made things too easy for Jack Harkness and Donna wasn't going to go down that way. He was far too good looking; to let him win would be to inflate his ego, if his suave manner was anything to judge by. That was something Donna made a point not to do. Deflating egos was Donna's MO, most of the time.

She shrugged a little and picked up her empty glass, looking down at it, slightly forlorn, before setting it down again and looking back at the Captain. "I'm waiting for my Doctor," she said, half-lying. "But Captain, hmm? That's possibly a bit more interesting..." she prodded, purposefully letting her voice trail off as she kept her hand wrapped around her empty glass, clicking her fingernails against it one by one in quick succession.

"I'm waiting for my Doctor. But Captain, hmm? That's possibly a bit more interesting..."

"Your doctor? Social call?" he asked, slightly teasingly (it didn't even occur to him that it could be that Doctor), taking a sip of his drink before addressing the latter part of what she said. Grinning, he told her, "Well, I do my best." He meant 'to be interesting', though he did his best on the Captain angle, too. That just wasn't relevant here. "Can I buy you a drink?" Offering, because he'd noticed her empty glass.

"Your doctor? Social call?"

"I suppose you could say that," she replied evenly. She'd considered telling a bit of the truth and saying that, really, she was here on a pit-stop, but thought better of it, figuring that would imply she wouldn't be staying long and thus no longer worth Jack's time. She wasn't willing to turn him away, not now. It had been a long while since an attractive man had taken up conversation with her.

"Can I buy you a drink?"

That made Donna falter, ever so slightly. She did her best to keep her composure, however much the thought of a man getting a drink for her reminded her of Lance and how stupid she'd been. "You won't catch me fighting anyone asking to buy me a drink," she replied instead, because it was probably expected that she accept.

She made a mental note not to let Jack touch her glass in any way, shape, or form, though. Donna wanted the past to stay the past and memories had a funny way of altering small parts of the person she thought she was, sometimes.

"Handy." Very few doctors made social visits, after all. Though he'd known a few-- anyway.

"You won't catch me fighting anyone asking to buy me a drink."

"I was hoping you wouldn't; it ruins the dynamic I was going for," he said with a grin. Flagging down the bartender was easy, since they were sitting right there, and Jack asked him to get Donna another of whatever she had been having. He couldn't be completely sure on sight, after all.

"I was hoping you wouldn't; it ruins the dynamic I was going for,"

Donna laughed a little and nodded at Jack as the bartender poured another drink. "That so?" she asked with a smirk. "Well, thank you for the drink."

When the glass was full, Donna picked it up and took a sip, resting it back down on the bar immediately after, but never taking her hand off it. Better safe than sorry. Not all criminals and weirdos were unattractive, after all, and even if she was attracted to Jack, she knew nothing about him and didn't feel the need to take any unnecessary chances.

"What are you the captain of, Jack?" she ventured.

"No problem," he said with a shrug. And it wasn't. A decent conversation - well, less the subject matter, using the word in a different way - was well worth the price of a drink. His team was great, but he did like talking to ordinary people, as well, and he didn't get many chances for that.

"What are you the captain of, Jack?"

He chuckled at her question, and, realizing that it was probably a strange way to react, he told her, "Long story." He contemplated his answer quickly, but with the sort of care given by a man very used to lying. "RAF," he decided, finally. It had the benefit of being the truth, at least for the man whose name he'd stolen, if not the man currently using it.

There was something about Jack that rubbed Donna a bit the wrong way, but she willfully ignored it in favor of his appearance and apparent chivalry in having bought her a drink.

When she asked, he'd said 'long story' with a chuckle and then simply stated, 'RAF,' which meant nothing to Donna, but she wasn't going to let on that she wasn't exactly clever in that sense. "Sounded like a short story," she teased, taking another drink.

She decided to turn the conversation in another direction. "What about you?" she asked suddenly, adding casually, "Are you meeting anyone here?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Jack asked, recovering admirably from his inward uncertainty of the previous moment. "Long stories are more interesting, don't you think?" And Jack had a lot of long stories. None that he could tell in ordinary company, of course, but telling them was always good for slow days (the looks on his team's faces at some of them were priceless).

"What about you? Are you meeting anyone here?"

He shook his head, still smiling. "Nope. Figured I'd find company when I got here." That wasn't, strictly speaking, true - he hadn't necessarily been intending on finding any company, but it was nice when it happened. Or else he would have been drinking alone, which was also fine. He always had plenty of things to think about.

"Long stories are more interesting, don't you think?"

"I do," Donna agreed with a smile. There was something he wasn't saying and she was dying to ask what. But, for better or worse, Donna knew better now than to pry when it wasn't entirely necessary. "I've got some time," she said instead, hoping that she could hide under the guise of simply wanting him to keep talking. Speaking of which...

"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked, finally making a verbal note of the accent she'd recognized as American straight away. She wondered what an American bloke was doing in Cardiff, of all places.

He shook his head, still smiling. "Nope. Figured I'd find company when I got here."

"All the more for me, then," Donna replied before she could stop herself. Her cheeks and ears burned red with embarrassment the moment the words came out of her mouth.

"I've got some time."

Jack couldn't help grinning at that. "Probably not long enough," he commented, before he could quite stop himself. Ah, well. Everyone had stories, right? It wasn't a completely left-field answer.

"You're not from around here, are you?"

You really don't know the half of it, Jack thought but didn't say. "I'm not. Came here a while back," understatement of the year, "Didn't end up leaving." He shrugged. It was close enough to the truth that it didn't feel like a lie saying it. That was a nice change.

"All the more for me, then."

Donna blushed when she said that, and Jack managed not to laugh. "And that's really for the best, isn't it?"

Donna had not meant to say those words aloud. She'd meant only to think them and it hadn't really worked out that way. Now she felt as if he'd won and, to boot, she felt a little foolish, if she was honest.

She wanted to ask what made him come to England, but decided against it. People tended to lie about things like that - either to hide something negative or boost something boring. Either way, she wasn't interested in a fabrication, so she decided not to ask at all.

"And that's really for the best, isn't it?"

That took her by surprise and she was back in the game, again, it seemed. Chewing on her bottom lip before lifting her glass once again, Donna locked her eyes on Jack's. "Is it?" she asked, seriously. Was that Jack being polite enough to humor her folly or was that Jack nudging their conversation into something else entirely? Either would be good, but Donna found herself secretly hoping for the latter.

"Is it?"

The question almost, just almost took him by surprise, though it was more the fact that she seemed to be asking it seriously that did than the words. "Definitely," he answered, with a nod. He liked this woman - Donna Noble - so far, and he wasn't going to work hard to cover that up.

Right, then, your flat or mine? she thought, somewhere between amused and frustrated.

"And why is that, Captain Jack?" she asked, her voice light and teasing to hide her honest curiosity as to why he was so confident that her time would be better spent with a stranger than a person - as far as he knew - she was already familiar with and waiting upon.

Donna raised her eyebrows at him and took another drink, never taking her eyes off his face. It was all in the eyes, as they say, so she figured she'd be able to call his bluff if she paid close enough attention to any possible contrast between a look in his eyes and the words coming out of his mouth.

"And why is that, Captain Jack?"

He didn't try to break the eye contact. If he did decide to lie, he was pretty good at it, and he trusted himself not to give it away. For the moment, though, it was hardly necessary. "Call it a hunch," he replied, voice even and with just the smallest hint of amusement. "Besides, you're curious, aren't you?" It might have been teasing, a little, but she was asking a lot of questions. And Jack was no stranger to people wondering about him.

"Call it a hunch," he replied, voice even and with just the smallest hint of amusement. "Besides, you're curious, aren't you?"

And there it was. Donna had been bested and she knew it. "Well, it's not every day that an attractive man will continue conversation with me, you see," she said, deciding to try and take the attention off her curiosity about him. "I don't get out much," she added - biggest lie she'd told so far - so as not to lead Jack to believe she was playing the pity card.

It was time to get it out there and see what he had to say. Donna didn't particularly care about Jack's history or what he did - small talk was just that. It wasn't like she'd be around for very long, anyway. The Doctor had said it only took twenty-four hours, give or take, for the TARDIS to refuel and then she'd be gone. No stranger was going to cause Donna to make the mistake of letting the Doctor leave without her for a second time, but she certainly wouldn't mind this particular stranger making her decision a bit more difficult, that was for sure.

"Are you a bit selective in with whom you flirt, Jack, or am I wasting my time?" she asked starkly after a long pause. Donna's expression was drawn and she was ready to either continue on with the niceties granted they would pay off or else head back to the TARDIS for some shut-eye, however uncomfortable it tended to be, sleeping there.

"Well, it's not every day that an attractive man will continue conversation with me, you see... I don't get out much."

"Really? That's a shame," Jack said, and he did, in a roundabout way, mean it. It was something you said when someone said something like that, yeah, but also, well, it was a little bit of a pity when people stayed in a lot, wasn't it? A lonely life, he supposed.

"Are you a bit selective in with whom you flirt, Jack, or am I wasting my time?"

"A bit selective, yeah." He grinned. No, she wasn't wasting her time, at least from his point of view. But then, people tended to see things differently than he did. "I really doubt you're wasting your time." She didn't seem the type to stick around if she thought she was, anyway. And that, he thought, would be a pity.

"Really? That's a shame,"

Donna let out a small laugh. "No, it's really not..." she countered wishing she could tell Jack just how wrong he was without making him think she was a complete and total nutter. "I don't mind, really. I'm not ever really alone, so to speak."

All right, that did make her sound a bit cracked, but it was already said and she couldn't take it back, so she started racking her brain for something to explain it away if he took notice of it and prodded.

"A bit selective, yeah." He grinned. "I really doubt you're wasting your time."

As good looking as he was, this one was a bit full of himself, wasn't he? Donna arched a brow. "Yeah? Right, then, Jack..." she said slowly, finishing her drink and setting the empty glass down on the bar as she looked back at him. "If I'm not wasting my time, that'd imply you're also not wasting yours. So, then the question is, what do we do to pass the time?" She smiled. Now Donna was being the cheeky one.