Reunited by Sian

Synopsis: The Doctor is surprised, not to mention a little shocked, to see an old friend in Cardiff
Characters: The Doctor (ten), Jack, Ianto, Martha
Episode/Spoilers: Doctor Who - 2 x13 Doomsday & some series 3 spoilers. Torchwood - 1x07 Greeks Bearing Gifts.
Rating: PG (some mild swearing & violence)
Notes: I've been writing Jack/Ten fics all summer (had to update this one after Torchwood started) - this is the first I've posted, there will be more.

Part One

The TARDIS landed with a jolt that sent her occupants crashing to the floor. "You alright?" the Doctor shouted as he jumped to his feet and ran back to the console.

"Yeah. Bruised, sore but no broken bones this time," Martha replied. She stood up, dusted herself off and walked over to the Doctor. "Is she okay?"

"Oh you know," the Doctor replied as he shut down the controls and studied the monitor.

"No, that's why I'm asking."

"She's tired, needs a break and some t.l.c, that last trip took it out of her a bit," the Doctor fondly stroked the console and then turned his attention to his companion. "She needs a rest. Do you want to go and get something to eat?"

Martha nodded and put her jacket on. "Where are we?"

"Earth - Cardiff to be exact, April 2009."

"Ah, Earth - the TARDIS's favourite planet."

"Indeed," the Doctor agreed. "What do you fancy? Chips? Pizza? Chinese? Indian?"

"Indian," Martha decided. "So she'll be okay then?"

"After a rest and some careful repairs, she'll be good as new. Well, I say new, I mean good as last week. She's not as young as she was you know."

Martha followed the Doctor outside and closed the TARDIS door behind her. "So how old is she?"

"Oh, erm, I've had her for about nine hundred years - ish, and she must have been a few hundred years old when I got her, so..."

"Let's just settle on old," Martha told him.

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After they'd eaten, they walked back through Cardiff, around the bay. It was a pleasant spring evening and as they walked they chatted, Martha reminding the Doctor that she needed to go home soon for her brother's birthday. By her calendar, the one on her phone that she kept set to the time and date her family lived in, his birthday was tomorrow. The Doctor promised to take her to London, but refused to go to her parent's house. Martha was teasing him about that, but the Doctor had stopped walking. He was staring at a man and a woman who'd just got out of a black Range Rover.

"Doctor?" Martha asked, but he ignored her. Instead he followed the couple at a distance, stopping to watch as they went down an alley and entered what looked like an old shop. He stood and stared at the building for a few seconds, before turning and walking back past the car - noting 'Torchwood' embossed on the side. He shook his head and muttered something that Martha didn't catch. "Let's go," he told her and walked off towards the TARDIS without waiting to see if she was following.

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When they returned to the TARDIS, the Doctor didn't seem too inclined to talk. He pulled an access panel open, climbed under the console and started making repairs. Martha's offers to help were all rejected, so she gave up and left him to it.

Under the console, the Doctor was brooding. He really had thought Jack was dead. Even as he was telling Rose that Jack was fine, was helping to rebuild Earth, he hadn't believed it, had just been trying to protect her - she was about to have enough to deal with watching him regenerate. But now it seemed he'd been wrong and he wasn't sure what to do about that.

When Martha returned an hour later, the Doctor was sitting on one of the chairs, feet on the railings, staring into space. She handed him a cup of tea and sat next to him. He managed a smile and a thanks, before he went back to staring at nothing.

"So who are they?" Martha asked.

"Who?"

"The couple we followed earlier."

"Oh, erm, I've never seen her before."

Martha waited for more and when it didn't come she prompted him. "And the man?"

"Someone I knew along time ago, different lifetime - literally a different lifetime. I thought he was dead."

"So... you don't look too pleased to see that he isn't, I take it he wasn't a friend."

"No, no he was a friend, a good friend in fact. He's a time traveller - a former time agent turned conman turned hero," the Doctor gave a fond smile that quickly changed back to a frown. "I could have sworn he was dead. In fact I'm a hundred percent positive he died. And yet here he is in Cardiff."

"If he's a time traveller, maybe it's him before he died?" Martha suggested.

"No, it's him now."

"How do you know?"

"I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor replied, and then remembered how much that answer annoyed Martha. "I can feel, sense... I just know," he sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "The question is, why didn't I know he'd been brought back to life?" He knew the answer to that though. Jack had died on the Game Station, the Doctor had felt it happen. But then Rose had returned, he'd absorbed the time vortex and died - his senses had been a little off for a few weeks after that. He had known something had changed, he'd sensed a ripple in time somewhere, but he couldn't work out where it was. Now he knew - it was Jack, alive when he shouldn't be. He also knew how it had happened - the vortex had been used in a way that it should never be used.

He made a decision. Swinging his feet off the rails, he jumped up and ran round the console. "What date's your brother's birthday?"

"18th of June 2008."

"Good. Then hold on, be there in a jiffy."

Martha looked worried. "And while I'm there, you're not going to do anything stupid are you?"

"Who me? Never!"

Part Two ...