Inside Torchwood Three, Jack Harkness was standing at the hub's main computer system, typing away at something that made sense only to him. Gwen had wandered over toward the cages holding the Weevil, and Ianto was in the kitchen, making a cup of coffee. Everyone was silent, wrapped up in their own thoughts – it had been rather quiet since Owen and Toshiko had passed away.

Jack's attention was diverted from the research he was doing by something that was happening in the upper left-hand screen, where the outdoor camera showed the public area above the hub.

A flash of light… the sound of grinding circuits… a faded hint of blue…

Jack suddenly grinned.

"Gwen! Ianto!"

Gwen came running immediately. "What? What is it Jack?" she demanded, looking worried. Ianto poked his head out of the kitchen door, frowning.

But Jack turned his smiling face toward his employees. "Feel like meeting a certain Doctor friend of mine?"

Gwen and Ianto looked at each other.

~/~

The Doctor strode here and there around the TARDIS console, leaving Amy and Rory to do nothing except hold on for dear life.

"Next stop: the planet Aysha Vector!" The Doctor announced as he worked the incomprehensible buttons and switches. The whole TARDIS shook horribly as it took off. "You two will love it – everything, literally everything, is alive! The animals, the plants, the ground… even the air is living, so it would be inhumane breathe it. We can only observe the planet through a massive glass ship called the Queen Alexandria, which is held in suspended animation inside an oxygen enclosure. But still, the scenery's gorgeous… all glittery blue and whatnot…"

"Do you think he'll shut up if we put him in an oxygen enclosure?" Amy grumbled to her husband as the TARDIS gave a particularly nasty jerk. Rory smirked.

Suddenly, the spaceship gave an even bigger lurch, causing Amy, Rory, and the Doctor to go flying to the ground. Lights flashed and sparks flew from the console, a groaning, grinding sound getting louder like an alarm bell.

"What?" The Doctor exclaimed, leaping to his feet. He staggered as the TARDIS wobbled dangerously again, and quickly seized the zigzag plotter. "What? What's happening? Why is she doing this?"

"Doctor?" Rory shouted uncertainly, pulling himself and Amy off the floor, only to fall back down as the whole place shook dangerously again.

"Hush Rory – I need to concentrate!" The Doctor demanded, pushing several more buttons, pulling a lever, then yanking the monitor over toward him, checking the stats. "Oh dear…" he muttered, his eyes widening as they peered at the screen.

"What is it?" Amy screeched, managing to grab a railing before she fell over again. Sparks showered over them all again, and steam began to billow from the console.

"Never fear – I've got it all under control!" The Doctor typed feverishly on his typewriter and pulled a few more levers. "Hold on!" He yelled, and slammed his whole hand on a giant orange button, causing the TARDIS to convulse even more, shaking and grinding with obvious distress. The entire ship was spinning faster and faster, careening toward something at astronomical speeds – they were going to land, and it wasn't going to be pleasant.

"GERONIMO!" The Doctor bellowed happily. Rory and Amy screamed.

~/~

"What the…?" Gwen stared at the blue phonebox, which she could have sworn had just materialized out of nowhere. It was now positioned about twenty feet in front of her. She and Ianto were standing side-by-side outside the hub's front doors, watching their boss, who had taken a few steps ahead of them, moving closer to the enigmatic blue box.

"Has that always been there?" Ianto asked, raising his eyebrows.

Jack turned to look at him and grinned. "Probably longer than you've been alive."

Ianto blinked, slightly bemused, and Jack smiled again before turning back around to continue looking at the small blue box. Gwen did not look remotely amused, however.

"Jack, seriously – whatever joke you want to play on us would be fine any other time–" she began peevishly, but was cut off.

"Look!" Jack pointed toward the phonebox, which had finally opened.

A billow of white smoke and a red-haired girl came spilling out first; the girl coughing and sputtering like crazy. A second person, a young man wearing a jumper and a red vest hopped out next, almost bent double with the weight of his hacking coughs. The third man, an exuberant-looking fellow with dark hair, a tweed jacket and a bowtie, however, was breathing quite normally as he followed the other two out. He was holding an old silver fire extinguisher and directing the nozzle toward the inside of the TARDIS, whose extravagant interior was clouded and distorted by the immense amount of smoke issuing from it. This man was talking to the other two:

"… so basically, the TARDIS's main operating system was stuck in a paradox: I tried to move it to Aysha Vector, but the mainframe was stuck on Earth in the twenty-first century – I tried everything, but I couldn't reverse it. So in order to prevent a universal collapse, I deleted the coordinates to Aysha Vector, so the TARDIS would move where it originally intended, but obviously with some, uh…" He waved the billow of smoke away from his face, scrunching his nose, "… side effects."

"Well, that's good," The red-haired girl deadpanned in a heavy Scottish accent. "We nearly die in a pan-dimensional spaceship crash, but at least the universe is still okay."

"That's right, Amy – look on the bright side." The man nodded distractedly, staring fixedly at the TARDIS. "But the question is why…"

He trailed off, his gaze moving away from the blue box and over the area they had landed, though not noticing the silent sentinel standing twenty feet to their left. He frowned.

"Have we been here before?"

"I've been wondering when you were going to come back, Doctor," Jack spoke up.

The three travelers suddenly whipped around to see who had spoken. They finally noticed the handsome man in a trench coat standing slightly ahead of two other people, a young man and a dark-haired woman.

The Doctor stared at the man who had just spoken, his face frozen in surprise. He pushed past his two companions so he could move closer to him, staring as if he could hardly believe his eyes.

"Captain Jack Harkness!" He suddenly exclaimed, a huge smile popping onto his face, lighting up his unfamiliar features. Jack couldn't help but grin hugely back.

"Doctor," he nodded, still smiling.

"My, you haven't changed a bit!" The Doctor moved forward and threw his arms around his old friend. Jack hugged him back, laughing.

"Can't say the same about you," He moved away from the Doctor and held him at arm's length, examining his facial features. "Man, how much did I miss?"

"Oh!" the Doctor's eyes widened, his hands jumping to his face. "New regeneration, I completely forgot. I had a another run-in with The Master... wasn't as lucky this time though. Bit of a long story…" The Doctor's eyes strayed to the two people standing behind Jack, and his face lit up again. "… And it's the whole Torchwood Team!" He whipped his head around toward his companions still standing uncertainly beside the TARDIS, pointing at Gwen and Ianto excitedly: "Look! It's – it's Torchwood…" he suddenly trailed off, noticing their expressions.

He dropped his hand. "Oh, how rude of me – I forgot to make introductions! Amy – Rory…" The Doctor motioned for the two to come closer, which they did, though slowly. "This is Cap –"

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack interrupted, moving forward to shake Amy's hand. Her uncertain expression quickly turned to a blush as he looked deep into her eyes and smiled. "Former travel companion of the Doctor… pleased to make your acquaintance." He winked, and Amy actually giggled.

"No – come on!" The Doctor groaned. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"

"What? Say hello?" Jack raised an eyebrow as he moved over to shake hands with Rory. "…Oh," he paused, his raised eyebrows mounting slightly higher as his eyes traveled over the younger man. "…And I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance… Rory was it?"

"Um… yeah," Rory looked uncomfortable at Jack's unwavering gaze as they shook hands. Amy cleared her throat loudly.

Jack smirked as he motioned for his team to move forward, which they did. Ianto was looking between Jack and Rory, a small frown on his face.

"Doctor, may I introduce Gwen Cooper…" Jack motioned to Gwen, who smiled and waved. Jack then turned to the man on his other side, clapping a hand on his shoulder and smiling, "…and Ianto Jones."

"We've heard a lot about you, sir." Ianto held out his hand toward the Doctor, polite as ever. The Doctor seized his hand, shaking it happily while gripping Ianto's arm with his other hand.

"Torchwood Three: the Great Defenders of the Universe!" The Doctor announced, still grinning like a maniac. He actually took Ianto's head in his hands and pressed his lips to his forehead before moving over to Gwen and crushing her in a hug. Ianto recovered from this unprecedented hello by clearing his throat slightly and straightening his tie.

"Well, come on then! Off to the hub," Jack laughed, motioning for the Doctor and his companions to follow them inside. The six then moved away from the TARDIS, which still smoked slightly through the door's frame, and began to make their way to Torchwood Headquarters.

A/N: Hey everyone! So this is my first attempt at a Doctor Who fic, so please be gentle! I apologize if I got any of the TARDIS references wrong – I just got into the show about two months ago, so my information may not be as good as most.

Anyway, please review! I will love you forever if you do!:)