It was the year 2006, a lovely warm evening in August, and Captain Jack Harkness was just about to make the biggest mistake of his life.
"So, you're a fan of cars?" he asked, surreptitiously signalling to the barman for another two glasses.
His companion, short and good-looking and rapidly becoming very drunk indeed, laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. I, um, I present Top Gear on BBC Two." He frowned. "You don't have BBC Two in America, do you?"
The America with which Harkness was familiar didn't have much of anything; it had become completely uninhabitable almost a millennium ago. He didn't say that, though. What he did say was, "Are you interested in other forms of transport?"
Richard was staring at the glass in front of him, looking confused. "How did that get there?"
"It's a gift. Are you interested in other forms of transport?"
"If you've got anything that can beat Jeremy, that'd be nice."
The names 'Jeremy' and 'James' had come up several times during their conversation, and they sounded like interesting people. As far as Jack could tell, James was eccentric but reasonably sensible, while Jeremy was loud and insane and probably one of the most infuriating men alive. Jeremy had a bad back, apparently, but Jack didn't think that would be too much of a problem. If all went well, he hoped he would be able to meet them.
He smirked. "Beat a car? Well, I might have something."
"Really? We've already tried a plane and a train and a boat, so we should probably do something different to keep the viewers interested. What've you got?"
While Richard did seem like the kind of person who might take 'I've got an invisible spaceship' in his stride, Jack didn't want to risk scaring him off just yet. "If you come to Big Ben at midnight, I can show you," he said; and then added, not realising how much he would regret it later, "All three of you."
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"So, you're a fan of cars?" he asked, surreptitiously signalling to the barman for another two glasses.
His companion, short and good-looking and rapidly becoming very drunk indeed, laughed. "Yeah, you could say that. I, um, I present Top Gear on BBC Two." He frowned. "You don't have BBC Two in America, do you?"
The America with which Harkness was familiar didn't have much of anything; it had become completely uninhabitable almost a millennium ago. He didn't say that, though. What he did say was, "Are you interested in other forms of transport?"
Richard was staring at the glass in front of him, looking confused. "How did that get there?"
"It's a gift. Are you interested in other forms of transport?"
"If you've got anything that can beat Jeremy, that'd be nice."
The names 'Jeremy' and 'James' had come up several times during their conversation, and they sounded like interesting people. As far as Jack could tell, James was eccentric but reasonably sensible, while Jeremy was loud and insane and probably one of the most infuriating men alive. Jeremy had a bad back, apparently, but Jack didn't think that would be too much of a problem. If all went well, he hoped he would be able to meet them.
He smirked. "Beat a car? Well, I might have something."
"Really? We've already tried a plane and a train and a boat, so we should probably do something different to keep the viewers interested. What've you got?"
While Richard did seem like the kind of person who might take 'I've got an invisible spaceship' in his stride, Jack didn't want to risk scaring him off just yet. "If you come to Big Ben at midnight, I can show you," he said; and then added, not realising how much he would regret it later, "All three of you."