Remembering (Part 1) - Old Friends and Comrades
Synopsis: Jack needs the Doctor's help, but
first they have some unfinished business.
Characters:
The Doctor (ten) and Jack
Episode/Spoilers:
Anything up to new series 2, Doomsday and vague spoilers for
series 3 and Torchwood, Small Worlds.
Rating:
PG
"You're going where?" Gwen asked.
"Lancashire," Jack replied as he locked his desk drawers.
"Why?"
"Something I've been working on."
"And you can't tell me what?"
"Not 'til I get back. Don't want to look a complete idiot if I'm wrong and it turns out to be nothing do I?" Jack gave her his best smile, the one that lit up his face, the one that had got him out of more sticky situations than he dared remember.
Gwen watched her boss and, even as an argument formed on her lips, she knew he had her, knew she was going to cover for him. This was the fourth time he'd done this in the last few months. He'd stroll up to her desk, ask her to cover for him (which of course she always did) and then disappear for a couple of days. The last three times he'd come back in a foul mood, so finger's crossed this time he'd find whatever it was he was searching for.
"So you'll cover for me?" Jack asked.
"Don't I always?"
"You do, you know I'd be lost without you."
"Try not to get into any trouble," Gwen cautioned as Jack left the Hub.
After a five and a half hour journey, that involved changing trains at Bristol and Preston, Jack finally arrived at his destination, a small railway station on the Lancashire coast. He checked, found the TARDIS was still in the town and followed the directions the device, a piece of alien tech he'd borrowed from Torchwood, gave him.
Ten minutes later, he was on a busy promenade, just along from a pier, and sure enough there was the familiar blue box. He bought a portion of chips and a drink of tea in a polystyrene cup and settled down in a shelter to wait.
After three hours, the day trippers had mostly gone, the donkeys had left the beach and the sun was starting to set over the Irish Sea, but there was still no sign of the Doctor. Jack didn't care, he'd waited so long for this moment that a few more hours were nothing.
For the last four years, since the Doctor had abandoned him, he'd checked everywhere he went for that blue box. Then, six months ago, Torchwood had come into possession of a device that he'd discovered could scan time and space for anything he wanted. There was only one thing he wanted.
The TARDIS has shown up four times since then. The first three - twice in London and once in Aberdeen - Jack had arrived too late, but this time, here it was. And wherever the TARDIS was, the Doctor wouldn't be far away.
The Doctor bought a portion of chips, peas and gravy from the same shop Jack had used. He'd seen Jack leave the chip shop three hours earlier and he wasn't surprised to see him still sitting on a bench in a shelter, trying to look inconspicuous and failing miserably.
It had been two years since he'd last seen him, he wondered how long it had been for Jack. How long had it taken him to get back here? He ate his food, threw the tray in a bin and walked along the promenade to where Jack was waiting.
"Are you going to sit there all night?" the Doctor asked. "'Cos it looks like rain to me and the wind's getting up a bit."
Jack wondered why the stranger cared. "I'm waiting for a ... friend." He almost laughed at his own word. Friend? Some friend.
The Doctor heard the tone in Jack's voice change when he said 'friend', but he chose to ignore it. "Alright. But, just in case he doesn't turn up, I'll leave the door ajar."
"What?" Jack asked.
"The door," the Doctor said as he started to walk away, "I'll leave it open."
Jack watched as the man walked up to the TARDIS and let himself in. What the hell? he wondered. Doctor? He followed at a jog, but stopped quickly when he reached the TARDIS. He'd been waiting for this moment for four years, had been planning what he'd say and what he'd do when he met the Doctor again. But he hadn't expected the Doctor to have changed. How the hell had he changed? he wondered.
"You're letting the heat out," a voice called from inside the blue box.
Jack steeled himself, took a deep breath and walked through the open door. "Doctor?"
"Yes."
"Really?"
"I've changed a little, but it's still me." The Doctor stopped checking the console controls and turned his attention to Jack. "Go on then. Say what you've got to say."
Jack expression hardened as he remembered his time on a Game Station once the TARDIS had left, and the struggle for two years to find a way of leaving the shattered planet. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to get off that satellite? How long it took me to get back to Earth, to this time? You left me there!"
"I didn't know you were alive, at least not at first, I thought everyone had died."
"And you didn't think to check?" Jack asked angrily.
"I wasn't..."
"I was on that God forsaken hole with dead bodies everywhere. The planet was in chaos. Where the hell were you? We needed you, Doctor, and you just got back in your ship and left us to it." Jack walked across the console room, stopping when he was toe to toe with the Doctor. "Got nothing to say? Wasn't I as good as Rose? Didn't I deserve saving?"
"Jack..."
"Forget it," Jack interrupted. "I don't know why I came." He turned away.
"Yes you do," the Doctor said.
Something in the Doctor's voice, the calmness maybe, finally made Jack snap. He turned back and swung a punch at the Doctor, getting him firmly on the cheek. The Doctor's head snapped sideways, but he stood his ground. Jack took another swing at him, and then another. The Doctor fell back against the console, but he didn't fight back. Jack lunged for him, pulled him up and held him by the lapel of his suit jacket. He stood staring at his one time friend, the man he'd trusted with his life. But the anger was fading and he let him go.
The Doctor slumped back against the console and winced a little. "Feel better?"
"Oh yeah, I'm just great." Jack sat on one of the chairs and studied the Doctor. "You could at least have had the decency to fight back."
"That usually ends up with me getting more hurt," the Doctor replied.
"That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing."
"Maybe not for you." The Doctor stood back up and straightened his shirt and jacket.
Ten minutes later, they were sitting in the TARDIS kitchen with mugs of tea, neither speaking, the silence tense and uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry," Jack offered. "I shouldn't have hit you."
The Doctor shrugged, "You're not the first and I doubt you'll be the last." He gingerly touched his cheek and eye. "You do have a mean right hook though."
"You left me there."
"I know."
"I don't even... I ..." Jack struggled to get his thoughts in order. "I was dead, I know I was. But then I was alive and... just as I got to the TARDIS, you left."
The Doctor frowned and scratched the back of his head. He didn't approve of resurrecting the dead, it was of the few Time Lord laws he actually agreed with. Not that he didn't see the hypocrisy of that. How could a man who regenerated to cheat death, complain about someone being brought back? But in his mind it was different. The dead should stay dead, history should not be tampered with in that way. Except, and here was the flaw in his argument, Jack had only been dead for a minute or so and he was only dead because he'd followed him, because he'd trusted him.
"You still with me?" Jack asked, a small note of humour in his voice.
"I am sorry. If I could have stayed and helped I would have. But I couldn't."
"Why?"
"Rose had opened the TARDIS, looked into her heart and the TARDIS took her back to the station."
"Yeah?" Jack smiled. "She has spunk that one."
"She was dying," the Doctor told him and Jack's smile faded. "She had the energy of the time vortex running through her. I took it from her and it killed me instead."
Jack had heard rumours about the Time Lords' powers. "You regenerated? I thought that was a myth. Mind you I always thought the Time Lords were a myth as well. So you absorbed the energy and died? But then you regenerated and you were okay?"
The Doctor knew where this was heading, and his cheek and ribs ached enough already. "I didn't know what she'd done, that she'd bought you back..."
"Rose did that?"
"Yes. But I didn't know until we were back in flight. By then it was too late. The regeneration had started and I couldn't control it. You're not the only one who suffered," he added a little sharply.
"Oh yeah, getting a new body and choosing a new wardrobe, that's on a par with being stuck thousands of years out of time on a space station crewed by the dead."
"The regeneration went wrong. When I say I couldn't control it, I mean me. I was out of control. I knew what needed to be done, deep in here," he touched his head. "But I ... I was out of control," he repeated. "I tried to crash the TARDIS, almost did. Tried to make her jump out of the vortex. Luckily she fought me."
Jack supposed that was a good explanation, if it were true. And from the look in the Doctor's eyes it was true. "Does it hurt?"
"My face or my ribs?"
"Regenerating?"
"Yes. But that wasn't the worst. I spent two days being looked after by Rose's mum and if you'd ever met Jackie... " he tried to joke it off. This last regeneration had been far worse than any other. He'd had no idea where or who he was. Had felt nothing except fear and pain. Of course mentioning Rose and Jackie wasn't a good way to joke anything off these days.
Later, Jack had told the Doctor how he'd eventually managed to get back to Earth in Rose's time. They'd found a bottle a whiskey and made themselves comfortable in the sitting room, the Doctor lying across an old sofa and Jack sprawled out in a recliner that had seen better days, but was extremely comfortable.
"Have you ever considered decorating?" Jack asked, "Getting new furniture maybe?"
The Doctor looked around. "You don't like the decor?"
"It's a little ... grungy, I think that's the word."
"It's what she chose, the TARDIS, it's what she chose last time she redecorated."
"Your ship redecorates itself and you let her choose the decor?"
The last time the ship had been redecorated it had been because she was damaged, badly damaged, in the war and in saving him. At the time he hadn't cared what the inside looked like and anyway, he thought he owed it to her to let her choose for herself. The new look had suited both their moods at the time, and now he just liked it. He gave Jack a shorter answer though. "Yep."
"Fair enough," Jack replied. "So you going to tell me where Rose is? The records show that her and her mom died when the Cybermen came, but I don't believe that."
"Officially they died," the Doctor agreed. "Actually they went with her dad and Mickey through the void, to the parallel universe."
Jack was shocked. "And you just let her go?"
"You think I had a choice?" the Doctor asked angrily.
"I don't know." Jack sighed and shook his head, because he did know. "No, I guess you mustn't have."
"Was the only way to keep her alive."
"There's no mention of you being at Torchwood Tower that day. You wiped the record didn't you?"
"Yes. The last thing I need is Torchwood anywhere near me." He opened his eyes and looked across at Jack. "No, tell me you're not ... you're working for Torchwood aren't you?"
"Sure am," Jack replied brightly.
"Wonderful," the Doctor sighed.
"They're different now."
"Yeah? Turned over a new leaf have they? No more, 'if it's alien it's ours'?"
"We're looking for alien tech, sure, things that fall to Earth. We don't steal it and we don't shoot down defenseless ships that are just passing by, not anymore."
"Is that the company line?"
"It's the truth."
"And do they know who you are? A renegade Time Agent from the 51st century? Do they know you know me?"
"God, are you kidding! Can you imagine?" Jack laughed. "It's best not to mention knowing you."
"Good."
"You know it's thanks to you that Torchwood was founded?"
"So I've been told. I don't know why though."
"You don't know Torchwood's history? Okay, the potted version. Queen Victoria visited Scotland in 1879, she was going to Balmoral and stopped off at Torchwood House. While she was there she was attacked by a mythical beast. She also met two strangers. A man, who seemed to randomly change his voice from Scottish to English, who called himself Dr James McCrimmon and a, and I'm quoting here, half naked wild child called Rose. Sound familiar?"
The Doctor had sat up, was staring at Jack with a shocked expression. "You're joking. Torchwood was set up because of what happened with the werewolf?"
"Victoria founded it to investigate occurrences like the one she'd just experienced. She made a provision when she set it up, Torchwood's biggest enemy was to be the Doctor."
The Doctor was stunned. "If Rose and I hadn't gone there, Torchwood would never have existed?" he asked. "The void ship would have stayed in the void and the cybermen would have had no way of coming through."
"Or, looked at another way, Queen Victoria would have been bitten by the werewolf and the Empire of the Wolf would have begun, Earth's history would have changed completely."
"Maybe."
"And the cybermen and Daleks would have still found a way through the void, with or without Torchwood."
The Doctor nodded, he wanted to believe that, but he knew it wasn't that simple, time didn't work that way. "Why work for them though? In fact, why come to 21st century Earth?"
"You can talk!" Jack laughed. "I knew you'd turn up here." His expression was suddenly serious. "I was looking for you."
"I'd be flattered if I didn't know that you were looking for me to hit me." The Doctor poured himself another glass of whiskey. "You want some more?"
"Yeah, this is good stuff. Where's it from?"
"Flabia III."
"They have the best parties," Jack enthused. "I went to wedding there once. Lasted three weeks, that's three of their weeks, which would be almost five weeks on Earth. If I ever get married I'm going there." He looked at the Doctor, "Unless someone's destroyed all their distilleries and replaced them with banana groves, that is."
The Doctor grinned, "I missed you."
"Really? Well maybe if you hadn't left me behind on the Game Station..." this time Jack was smiling though. "So what did you miss? My good looks? My cute little butt? My sparkling personality?"
"Never noticed your butt to be honest."
"Yeah, right," Jack laughed. "Well, if you ever want a closer look, my room's right along the hall from yours."
"Not anymore it's not. The TARDIS likes to move things around when she's bored. Anyway, who said you were staying?"
"Yeah, 'bout the reason I was looking for you. I need your help."
"Not 'cos you missed me then?"
"From the bruise that's forming quite nicely around your left eye, I'd say I didn't miss you."
"You have strange way of asking for help."
"Seriously, I need you."
"It isn't a good idea."
"You don't know what I want."
"You want to find out what happened in those missing years."
"Yeah. I have to know."
"What if it's something too painful to remember? There could have been a good reason for wiping them from your memory?"
"Nothing could be that painful."
The Doctor's eyes were suddenly dark. "I wouldn't count on that."
Jack studied the Doctor. "Would you want someone to come along and, without asking your permission, just erase all memories of the time war?"
"Yes."
"No you wouldn't. It's a violation. Whatever happened, I have the right to know and the right to decide whether I want to remember."
"We can't decide what we do and don't remember," the Doctor argued. "How do you know that you didn't request the memory wipe?"
"I wouldn't."
"How do you know?"
"I don't," Jack conceded. "But this is driving me nuts. I have to find out what happened. Will you help me?"
"I'll think about it." The Doctor lay quietly on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling. He could feel Jack watching him. "It's a really bad idea."
"What else would you be doing?" Jack asked.
"I have plenty things I could be doing," the Doctor replied. Jack could sense the Doctor was giving in though, knew him well enough to know that he'd relish the challenge and the danger involved. He was proved right when the Doctor said, "Yeah alright, why not. Just as long as you know you can't change anything."
Jack was beaming. "I know, I promise I won't interfere with anything. Thank you."
"Don't get carried away, we mightn't be able to find anything."
"Sure we will." Jack refused to have his mood dampened. He picked up the now empty whiskey bottle. "Do we have anymore of this?"
"We?"
"''Cos there's a Bargain Booze round the corner, I can nip out and get some Earth whiskey."
"There's a bottle in the cabinet over there." The Doctor pointed across the room.
"You think it's weird that every planet seems to make it's own whiskey, wine and beer?" Jack asked as he rummaged through the cabinet. "Do you ever tidy out these cupboards? Ah, got it." He returned to the recliner, opened the bottle and poured some for himself and the Doctor. "Where's this one from?"
"Scotland," the Doctor replied. "It says it on the bottle."
"So it does."
"How'd you find me?" the Doctor asked.
"Ahh." Jack grinned. He leaned over the side of chair, retrieved his jacket and pulled a small metal device out of the pocket. "This."
The Doctor put his glasses on and studied the machine. "Where'd you get this?"
"Torchwood had it. No one there could figure it out, took me while but I got it in the end. Tell you something weird though. Since being in the TARDIS, I've been able to read alien languages, which comes in very helpful at times, but I couldn't read the writing on that."
"Yet you managed to use it."
"Sure. I was borrowing alien tech long time before I met you, you just made it easier. I've gotten rusty, it took a few weeks to decipher it. So what's with that?"
"The TARDIS doesn't translate my language."
"It's Time Lord tech?"
The Doctor nodded. "It scans time for, well for anything you want really."
"Is it yours?"
"No, never had one of these."
"It was found in a lake in Cumbria. So, that means other Time Lords have been on Earth."
"Yeah," the Doctor agreed. He put his glasses back in his pocket and handed the device back to Jack.
"You don't want to keep it?"
"No."
"Good, less paperwork." Jack placed the device on the coffee table. "I did find something strange when I was looking for you. I thought I'd found you in the 22nd century, but when I checked more thoroughly, turned out to be a female and I don't think she's a Time Lord, but she has a very similar physiology to you, she certainly isn't Human."
The Doctor stared at Jack. "Someone from my planet?"
"I guess."
"On Earth?"
"Yeah," Jack smiled. "See you're not the only one."
"I didn't dare think... I mean, I'd hoped but I didn't want to believe..." the Doctor jumped to his feet and laughed. "She survived."
"You know her?" Jack asked in surprise.
"Oh, I should say I know her. You don't how many times over the last few years I've thought about going to check on her. Ha! She made it. She's alive!"
Jack watched the Doctor as he practically bounced around the room. "Who is she?"
"Susan," the Doctor beamed but then his smile faded a little. "I thought, when the Time Lords were wiped from the timeline that she might have gone as well."
"But she's not a Time Lord," Jack pointed out.
"Part of her family were Time Lords. When they ... ceased to exist, it was possible that she would have as well. You were a Time Agent, you know about temporal mechanics."
"That would have been a possibility, a distinct possibility," Jack agreed. "Why didn't you just go and check?"
"Because sometimes hope is better than truth. Sometimes it's just better not to know. Something you might discover if we go on this quest of yours."
"Who is she?" Jack asked again.
"My granddaughter."
Jack gaped at the Doctor. "You're a grandfather? Hell, I didn't know that," he laughed.
"I'm a little older than I look," the Doctor reminded him.
"You're also a little older than you told me and Rose. This device your people created is pretty clever. You're eleven hundred and forty five."
"I am? Well you stop counting once you hit four figures. What year did you find Susan?"
"It's in the device's memory, early 22nd century. You going to go and see her?"
The Doctor sat down, picked the device up and then put it back down again. "No."
"Why?"
"Maybe. I don't know. It's been a long time and I've changed a lot. She isn't going to recognise me."
"Sounds like you're looking for excuses. Don't get mad at me."
"Don't give me a reason to."
"You don't think she has a right to know what happened to her home."
"Earth's her home."
"You know what I mean. Don't you think she should know?"
The Doctor sat back down and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes of course she should. I just don't ... how do you tell someone their home planet's gone?" More to the point, he thought, how do you tell someone that you destroyed their home planet, their family, their history and heritage?
"I don't know," Jack replied. "But I think you should find a way."
The following morning, a rather hung over Jack found the Doctor in the kitchen, eating peanut butter and jam on toast and drinking a mug of tea.
"Morning," the Doctor said chirpily. "Oo, you don't look well. Hang on I've got something for that." He took a sachet out of one of the cupboards and added warm water to it. "Drink it in one go."
"Will it make me puke?"
"No. Well, maybe, but you'll feel much better afterwards. Trust me, I'm..."
"A doctor?" Jack asked.
"I was going to say eleven hundred and forty five and I've had my share of hangovers. Just drink it, stop being so Human."
Jack took a hesitant sip of the orange coloured drink. "Tastes of fish," he complained and then drank the rest in one go. "What the hell was in that?"
"Erm, best you don't know. But you're starting to feel better."
"No."
"No? Oh. Give it a while. Actually it might not work on Humans. Try a coffee instead."
"So you made me drink fish for nothing?" Jack made himself a coffee and sat down across from the Doctor. "Have you decided?"
"About what?"
"Susan?"
"I'm going to go and see her. Might be really bad idea, but if I don't do it now, I probably never will. Just have to choose when"
End Of Part One
Part Two, The Lasts...
