Danny Tyler checked the Torchwood equipment for what seemed like the millionth time. He had to make sure all of the equipment was set up just so. After all, sending transmissions to a parallel universe wasn't exactly a regular habit of Torchwood's—it was just something his sister had spent that last five years if her life working on after Torchwood had found the black hole. He remembered how enthusiastically she worked on her little project, occasionally getting him or their Dad or Mickey to help when she needed it, and how her already determined efforts doubled when she found out about the cancer. It was as if she the last thing she wanted to do with her life was to finish her hologram transmitter.
Danny chuckled at himself as he ran a hand through his perfectly groomed blond hair, returning it to its usual unkempt condition. "Come on, Danny, you know better," he chided himself as he returned to the control panel. "It wasn't finishing the transmitter—it was having a chance to talk to him."
He approached the panel and began to look over all the readings for one more look before he gave the thing a go. If this worked, he'd be able to send a communication into a parallel universe. If it didn't…well, he'd most likely blow up the Torchwood Institute and put a pretty sizable hole in London itself, but hey, it would give the zeppelins something different to look at.
As satisfied as he supposed he was going to get with the read-outs, he hit a button on the intercom on the wall. "All set here, I guess," he said into the hidden microphone, "How's the power coming?"
"Ready when you are," Angelo, a Torchwood engineer, responded. "But are you sure about this, Danny? I mean, if something goes wrong—anything—this Chula engine core could blow us all to kingdom come. It might anyway if it gets overheated, I suspect. It just seems like a terribly big risk…"
"It would to you!" Danny snapped, "But you aren't still in the tuxedo you wore to your sister's funeral, are you??"
"Down boy!" Angelo exclaimed. "I know, I'm sorry, we all loved Rose and we will miss her deeply, but is that really a good reason to risk getting us all killed?"
"Well, I don't know," Danny heatedly responded, "she built the brunt of this thing. Don't you trust her judgment?"
"That depends—did Rose remember to use her calculator?" Angelo asked.
"Angelo!"
"Right, sorry! Bad time to make fun of her math skills," he sighed, "I just want to make sure you know what you're doing, kid…"
Danny swallowed hard. The truth was that he wasn't too sure about it himself. But he'd already steeled himself to do this on his way from the cemetery. He had to. For her sake, and for his own. "Yeah, I know," he said, "It's a risk, but I don't think it one that we have to worry about. It'll work. You'll see."
"It better," Angelo threatened, "Else I will hunt you down in the afterworld and slowly maim whatever is left of you."
"Dually noted," Danny replied, "Now power that thing up all the way. We're going to give it a go."
"Okay, Daniel—you just better know what you're doing," Angelo said, and then the intercom clicked as the communication broke.
Danny exhaled deeply and ran his hand through his hair again. "So do I," he admitted to the empty room.
There was no turning back now, though. The Chula engine core was powering up, generating immeasurable amounts of excess energy. He'd need it and the main Torchwood power supply, as well some of London's electricity if he talked too long, to generate enough power to send a hologram through a black hole, even if it was only a few light-years from Earth, and into a parallel universe. Danny humorlessly snorted—no wonder Angelo was so worried.
Turning to the control panel, Danny began flipping on the switches that would activate the transmitter. All the transmitter had to do, according to Rose's theory, was get the signal to the black hole itself. After that, the hole's gravitational pull would draw it in the rest of the way and out to the other side. How she knew it lead to the right universe, or that it would be picked up by the right party, Danny hadn't a clue. To be honest, he wasn't sure she did know. He figured that she was just hoping. He couldn't blame her for it, because he was hoping now too.
The lights dimmed as the transmitter kicked off and began sending its signal from the top of the Torchwood tower. Danny watched the readouts. So far, it seemed the signal was probably interfering with all kinds of satellite and radio reception, but it was strong and stable. Good—now it just had to stay that way. Quickly flipping on another switch to activate the hologram recorder, Danny ran to stand in front of it before the signal failed or the Chula engine core overheated.
Once he was sure he was being recorded, he began to speak: "This is Daniel Tyler of the Torchwood Institute based on the planet of Earth that is parallel to your own. If the owner of a ship known as the TARDIS is receiving this message, please respond."
He fell silent and waited. He considered calling his intended party by name, but decided it was wiser not to. He didn't know what he looked like after all, and so if Danny used his name anyone could pick up the transmission and claim to be him.
No response. Danny began to get worried. "I repeat. I am a member of the Torchwood Institute based on an Earth parallel to yours. If the owner of the TARDIS is receiving this message or if anyone knows how to contact him, please--"
Suddenly a choppy hologram image of a man in a trench coat began to emerge in front of him. Danny gasped inwardly—it was working!
"Bugger it all, I heard you the first time!" the man was saying. "It just took me a moment to piggy-back on your signal. How did you manage to get a message out here?"
"I'm not all that sure myself," Danny admitted, "I just know it had something to do with the black hole and the amount of energy we put behind the signal. Are you the owner of the TARDIS?"
"I am," the man said, then added, "I'm the Doctor. What did you say your name was again?"
"Danny—I mean Daniel Tyler," Danny said, his heart pounding so fast he thought it was going to leap out of his chest. It worked. And it was really him. He was talking to the Doctor. Rose, you determined pill, you were right! "My sister is Rose Tyler. She…she's a friend of yours, I believe."
The hologram of the suited man shoved his hands his pockets, but didn't react at all otherwise. No recognition, no remorse, no happiness—nothing. It was as though he'd suddenly become stone. "Yes, she is," the Doctor replied somberly. "We traveled together for a while." He paused. "A long time ago it seems, if you're the baby Jackie was pregnant with last time we spoke. What's happened? Is she okay? Is she in trouble? And how did you get this transmission through the void without collapsing the universe?!"
Danny swallowed hard. Oh, this was going to be so hard. "No, Doctor," he said, straining with all his might to keep the emotion out of his voice and failing. "She isn't in trouble. Not anymore, at least. I just thought…I just thought…" Danny swallowed again and took a deep breath. This was just too hard. "I thought you'd want to know…that she died…"
Danny watched as the choppy hologram of the Time Lord let this information roll about his head. Even through the flickers and blinks of the hologram image Danny could see his stone face crack slightly and deepen in melancholy. Danny frowned deeply. The Doctor's expression seemed to be a far too well practiced one.
He watched as the Doctor swallowed. "How?" he asked softly, though his tone was still casual.
"Cancer," Danny explained with his own voice soft but full of the hurt he had felt since the night of her passing, and would continue to feel for the many months and perhaps years to come. "First it was a spot on her ovary. Then it was her uterus. Then the liver, kidneys, lungs, skin…" Danny looked down as he choked, remembering those last months as the disease ravaged her.
"When?" the Doctor asked, his voice still soft yet casual.
Danny forced himself to look up. "Four days ago," he said, "The funeral was today."
The Doctor took a deep breath and sighed, looking down as he did. Danny wasn't overly surprised at his reaction. Rose would often keep to herself when she was extremely upset as well. Mum never understood it because she said Rose didn't used to be that way, and no one else in the family was either. Now Danny understood it was something she'd learned from him.
"If she'd been with you," Danny suddenly said, "you could have saved her, couldn't you?"
The Doctor looked up at Danny. "Does it matter?" he asked quietly.
Danny was shocked. "Does it matter?!" he exclaimed, suddenly horrified. "Well, no, I guess technically it doesn't, but…but you aren't so supposed to be so…so…defeated when you say it!"
"Defeated?!" the Doctor's hologram stiffened a bit, then narrowed his eyes at the blond 20-something man before him. "How would you know when I sound defeated? How would you know anything at all?!" he demanded. "And for the love of bananas, how are you even able to bother me with depressing messages about Rose from another universe to begin with?!"
"What do I know?!" It was Danny's turn to be defensive. "You want to know what I know, huh? Well then I'll just tell you what I know!
"I know that once, when Rose was 19, she had one of the dullest jobs in the universe working at a shop. I know she had a happy but absolutely boring relationship with Mickey, and she lived in a quaint and mundane flat with Mum in the Powell Estate! I know that one ordinary, boring day, she went to deliver the lottery to the electrician and just like that, her dull, boring life became strange, terrifying, and exciting when she was attacked by a shop dummy that tried to kill her, and was saved by some alien man with a sonic screwdriver, a Police Box that wasn't a Police Box called the TARDIS, and a bomb that he used to blow up the entire building!"
Danny glared at the Doctor now, paying no heed as the Time Lord's eyebrows slowly crawled up his forehead and a very slight smile began to sneak across his face. "I also know," the blond continued, "that he had the dumbest name that wasn't really a name, like, say, The Doctor, and that when he was done killing off an alien species made out of plastic that was trying to invade the planet, he whisked her away in his time and space machine to all kinds of amazing, breath taking, terrible, wonderful, horrifying and exotic adventures all over the universe!
"I know that she traveled with him everywhere, to places and times only thought of in dreams! I know that he showed her amazing things like nanobots and the Ood and satellites that broadcast life-or-death reality shows…"
"It was just one satellite," the Doctor corrected, now truly grinning.
"Whatever!" Danny fumed, unaware that the Doctor's attitude had changed. "I know about it! And I also know about the Gelth, and the Slitheen, and the Wire, and the Abzorbaloff!"
"From Klom," the Doctor added, grinning madly as he heard Danny rant on and clearly being extremely amused by the seen.
Danny just glared at the Doctor. "I even know about the Daleks and the Cybermen, and about the day your Earth thinks she died!"
Now the grin faltered a bit, and for the first time since diving into his tangent Danny realized he was having an effect on the Doctor. He even realized that he'd struck a nerve. His body language softened, as did his face and tone, but he progressed just the same. He needed to finish this.
"I know about the invasion," he said, now his voice quiet and reserved rather than loud and accusing, "I know about your Torchwood and about the ghosts that weren't ghosts at all. I know about the Void, and how she nearly fell into it. I know about how Dad managed to save her. And I know, how when it was all said and done, about how the hero Doctor burned up a sun just to say goodbye."
He paused then and watched as the Doctor sank back into the saddened, but stone-hard face he'd started this conversation in. Danny remained quiet a few moments longer, waiting for some sort of reply, but received none. He swallowed again, and then he continued.
"I know all of that and everything in between. But you know all of that, too, I guess," he said quietly. "So let me tell you some things that you don't know. Such as, I bet you don't know that when I was very little she would tell me stories about you and the TARDIS. I loved those stories more than anything else, and I even had a little flashlight that I put blue cellophane on and pretended it was my own sonic screwdriver. I bet you don't know about how she and Mickey were always very close, but that they fought all the time and they never got married, they never even moved in together. I bet you don't know that when she started working for Torchwood all the things she learned from you helped her save this Earth more than once. I bet you don't know she stared at the stars and sky every single day and night and every time she did she looked so beautiful and sad that it broke many hearts over the years. And I bet you don't know, that on top of everything else, the very last thing she said…though she was delusional, weak, and on more drugs than I thought even existed…the last thing she did before she left this world forever…was lift her arm towards an empty wall as though someone were standing there and whisper 'Doctor' with the last of her strength."
Danny fell quiet again, watching the Doctor's reaction. His posture and expression hadn't changed much, but his eyes had some. How Danny couldn't be sure for the flickering of the hologram, but he knew that they had changed somehow.
The intercom on the wall clicked as it was switched on suddenly. "Danny!" Angelo exclaimed over a loud, whirring noise in the background. "The core is starting to heat up, and the whole of London is starting to loose power from the transmission!"
Danny turned to the intercom. "I'm almost finished!" he said.
"Just hurry it up!" Angelo snapped back, and then the intercom clicked again.
Danny looked back to the hologram. "I'm running out of time," he said to the Doctor. "If that engine core overheats it could explode and that'll destroy the entire tower. So I just have to say—"
The Doctor held up his hand in a stopping gesture and, like magic, Danny fell silent. "Almost this entire time you have done nothing but rant, ramble, and seeming to accuse me of not caring enough to know anything about your sister," he explained, then sighed and removed a hand from his pocket to rub his temple. "Which, by itself, is proof enough for me that you are Jackie Tyler's son," he added. "But if you only have a few minutes left, I think it time you hear a bit of my side of the story. Yes, I remember all those adventures—the Ood, the Gelth, the Abzorbaloff, and so on—but none do I remember as well as the combined attack of the Cybermen and the Daleks."
The Doctor sighed as he recalled the event. "Nothing like that had happened in a very long time, and never as far as those two killers were concerned. I knew what I had to do as soon as I saw how Torchwood was activating the ghost shift, and I knew how I was going to do it the when they showed me the magnets. But I didn't do it then. I waited. If I had gone through with it then, the Dalek ship would have been drawn into the Void with the Cybermen before they had a chance to reveal themselves. But I didn't." The Doctor lifted a brow and looked Danny up and down in a scrutinizing fashion. "Do you know why, Mr. Know-It-All?"
Danny considered for a moment. He thought and sighed when nothing popped into his head, and was about to admit such when he realized the answer. "Rose."
The Doctor nodded. "Rose," he agreed. "Rose had been through the Void, same as me, so if I activated the gateway she would be sucked in along with everything else."
"But the magnets…" Danny argued.
The Doctor shrugged. "Unreliable," he said, "I wasn't sure if she would be able to hold on." He scoffed a bit, and then added. "I wasn't sure if I would be able to hold on. And if I thought there was a possibility I could be killed in a situation, I wasn't going to expose Rose to it if I could help it."
"So you waited," Danny said.
"Until I knew how to keep her safe," the Doctor continued. "When Pete and Josh showed up with their fancy little universe-hopping buttons, I knew. True, I still think it was extremely stupid and dangerous that they had tried such a thing to begin with and kept using it every time the idea struck them, as humans are want to do at times, but I was relieved nonetheless." He looked Danny in the eye. "I suppose you know that I sent her with Pete, Jackie, and Mickey the first time?"
Danny found it difficult to maintain eye contact, even though it was just a hologram. It was almost as disturbing as what he'd just heard. "No," he said, "I didn't know that…"
"Well, someone mark a calendar, the golden child doesn't know something!" the Doctor mocked. "I did, and she came right back. She refused to leave, to go back, even though she knew she would be cut off from her entire family forever. I knew I should have made her, but I couldn't. You see, Danny, something else you may not know is while I look out for your entire race and your planet and your history—" The Doctor paused, "Well, maybe not your planet or your history, but you know what I mean—while I do all of that no one, not ever, has looked after me. I am alone, Danny. I don't mean that I am the last Time Lord; I don't mean that I have no one with me. I mean that even when I am surrounded by friends, and even when I was surrounded by my own people on my world, I had always been and always expected to be alone. Even the people who cared about me always had some kind of condition attached. But not Rose." The Doctor sighed, and for the first time Danny saw true emotion as his hologram recorder picked up a glint from the Doctor's much too shiny eyes. "Not Rose."
"Rose didn't want anything from me," he said, "By that time she didn't care about where I could take her. She didn't care that I was a Time Lord. She didn't care about the TARDIS, and she didn't care that I was going to save the world, again. All she cared about was that I didn't send her away again." The Doctor, who had moments before been staring straight through Danny, now looked far away and didn't seem to see him at all. "She just couldn't leave me alone again. And for the first time in my very, very long life…I wasn't."
The Doctor stopped, but Danny knew it wasn't because he expected a response. He wondered if the Doctor even remembered he was there. Not that it mattered right then. Let the tower blow up for all he cared. Right now, as he watched this image of his childhood hero vanish into himself, into a place where few had probably ever touched him and after hearing how his sister once did, the whole blasted world could go up for all he cared. He wasn't even aware that he was crying.
Without warning, the Doctor snapped back to himself so suddenly that it actually made Danny jump. "Of course," the Doctor said casually, "She did eventually end up with the rest of you lot when Pete rescued her from being sucked into the Void, like I thought would happen in the first place. And yes, you're right, I did burn up a sun to say goodbye—I had to. It was my last chance, and I didn't even use it properly, blast it. On our Earth she was considered dead, and on yours she lived out her life as a Torchwood employee and with a loud-mouthed little brother from the looks of it. And I went on about my usual wanderings. I mourned her, I thought of her, and I missed her. I still do. But I moved on."
The Doctor seemed to be winding down as he stuck his hands back in his pockets. "I ended up helping a woman in a wedding dress named Donna, and I took a young lady named Martha about the universe for a while, but Rose never left my mind for very long. I thought of her and how she was doing, of what sort of life she was leading. If she was happy…If she missed--" The Doctor shook his head. "I comforted myself in the knowledge that she was safe there. Safe from me, anyway. Because if she'd stayed with me, Danny, she probably would have died long before now. She likely would have died on some distant planet far from anything else she knew, and she probably would have been alone save for me, and I would have had to witness it. This way she died on her own planet, in her own city, surrounded by friends and family that are not afraid to show her that they love her."
The lights in the room began to flicker, as did the Doctor's image, and Danny realized he was almost out of time.
"You asked me if I could have saved her, had she been with me," the Doctor said hurriedly, seeming to sense the situation, "The answer is yes, I could have. I would have taken her to a time and place where cancer is as likely to kill you as the common cold. But she would have been alone, in a strange time and place, with absolutely nothing familiar around her, and she would have lived the rest of her days the same way. So I asked you yet again…does it matter?"
"Yes!" Danny suddenly exclaimed, but before he could continue the intercom clicked on.
"Daniel!" Angelo yelled over the now deafening whirs of the Chula engine core, "Turn it off! The core's going to go any minute!!!"
"Not yet!" Danny screamed back, and then spun around to the Doctor. "Yes, it does matter! Because she wouldn't have been alone, Doctor, she would have been with you! You speak of yourself like you're some kind of plague upon the universe, but I know better! I know that you brought my Mum and Dad together, and I know that you gave Mickey a reason to be brave, and I know that you made me feel safe when I was a child, and I know that you made my sister happy, happy enough that she spent the last five years of her life building this machine so that she could talk to you again! I don't know much, Doctor, and I know that I don't, but I do know one thing else. I know that when we read Rose's will, that you were mentioned in it. Do you know what it said??"
The Doctor shook his head. "No, but forget it! Turn off the transmitter before you get yourself killed!"
Danny ignored him. "She asked me to use these machines to contact you, and when I did, she asked me to tell you something…"
The Doctor stared at the blond as though trying to decide if he was suicidal. "What?!"
"She wanted me to tell you," Danny said, eyeing the switch on the control panel that would turn off the transmitter and save everyone in the tower from engine core, "To have a fantastic life."
Danny took one brief instant to see the absolutely shocked look on the Doctor's face. And then he lunged for the panel and switched off the transmitter.
The lights came back up, and The Doctor's choppy image disintegrated.
Danny was breathing heavily and gulped as he reached to the intercom. "Angelo?" he said, warily, "Everything okay down there?"
"Oh, yeah, sure," Angelo grumbled, "Everything's just fine. I always enjoy praying for my life, and I'm going to love explaining how we just blacked-out London and melted the Chula engine core doing that…"
Danny sat up. "We melted it?" he asked, bewildered.
"Yeah," Angelo said, "Apparently, Chula technology doesn't explode—it melts. At least we learned something out of all this, huh?"
Danny turned around and looked at the empty area where the Doctor's image once stood. "Yes," he agreed somberly, "we most certainly did."