Title: The Wolf at the Door (Prologue)

Author: Liz / surrexi on LJ

Fandom/Pairing: Who-verse / Ten/Rose, Ten/Rose/Jack

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers/Timeline: This is set immediately after (my reworking of) the TW S1 finale and picks up in the Who timeline in the first minute or so of "Utopia" before veering off into a complete (sadly-lacking-in-the-Master) AU.

Word Count: 311 (this chapter)

Summary: Rose slipped through a hole in the universe and was reunited with Jack in modern-day Cardiff. So what happens when the Doctor and Martha make a pit stop?

Notes/Disclaimer: So, a million years about a year ago, I wrote a fic called Pawns in the Game, which was a rewrite of the Torchwood S1 finale that reunited Jack and Rose. I promised a sequel, which I diligently began working on almost immediately. Things were going well, until I hit a massive wall in the story. Thanks to the moral support of my fantabulous beta, Nikki (tinuviel428 on LJ) I managed to work through it and am finally ready to post the story. It isn't strictly necessary to have read Pawns in the Game to read this fic, but I think it helps. There will be ten chapters in addition to this prologue, and I'll post them every few days depending on what else I've got going. If Doctor Who were mine, I'd never have needed to write this in the first place ;)

Side Note: I really hate how all my punctuatioother than periods and select commas disappeared on me. Grr.

Prologue

"And..." the Doctor was saying in his distracted way as he pushed buttons and pulled levers. "Welcome to..." One last button, and Martha felt the TARDIS land. "Cardiff," the Doctor finished proudly.

"Cardiff?" Martha repeated, her tone disbelieving. "As in Wales?" It was so normal.

The Doctor nodded absently. "The city is built over a rift like the San Andreas Fault in California, only in time and space instead of rock." While he spoke, he looked over the energy readings. "The rift gives off energy..." An odd reading caught his eye, breaking the rhythm of his speech. "I just park, open up the engines..." Not just an odd reading. A very odd reading.

"Like a pit stop?" Martha asked.

"Uh, yes, exactly. Shouldn't take long... rift's been active lately." He squinted at the console. "Really active, actually." He paused, looking worried. "That sort of energy shouldn't be... could mean... or it could be... Be right back!" he exclaimed suddenly, running out of the console room.

Martha, who had glanced down at the monitor for her first look at Cardiff, called out for him to wait as he sprung away. But he was down a corridor and out of earshot mentally if not physically before Martha could tell him that it appeared that the TARDIS had materialized inside a huge, gadget-filled room. She watched as a dark-haired man struggled to zip up a large black backpack while a blonde woman tugged on his sleeve.

"Doctor!" Martha tried again. The couple was now jogging towards the door of the TARDIS. The Doctor's only response to Martha's shout was to increase the volume of his continued stream of technobabble, and Martha caught something about voids and ancient energy before her mouth dropped open in shock.

The blonde had pulled out a key.

A TARDIS key.

Martha was openly gaping when the door burst open.