I'm a bit embarrassed to publish another story now when I haven't even finished the first one that I started. But I promise to all of the readers that I will write this through and I will even upload one chapter per day if I have time to do that! And sorry if there are grammar mistakes, English is not my native language and I have no beta. Long story short: enjoy the story! SPOILERS from all the series!
"Here we are!" Yelped the Doctor as the Tardis made its stop abruptly. "Cardiff, year 2011."
"You said we were going to somewhere exiting." Amy said, not even trying to hide the disappointment from her voice.
"But this is! Did you know that a rift of time and space runs through Cardiff?" Doctor asked but didn't even wait for Amy's reply. "Of course you didn't. No one ever does."
"And what is a rift of time and space exactly?" Rory asked this time, secretly glad to be back at Earth after so long.
"It's a…" Doctor would've explained gladly about the rift, but a low rustle from the Tardis's monitor caught his attention.
"What's going on?" Amy asked as she and Rory came behind Doctor to watch the video that had started playing on the screen and revealed woman's face. "Who is she?"
"There is one thing I always wanted to ask Jack…" The dark haired woman said. They couldn't see her face properly because of the bad lighting on the video.
"…Back in the old days." The woman continued. "I wanted to know about that Doctor of his."
Both Amy and Rory turned to look at Doctor, who didn't even notice. He just stared at the screen with intense look.
"The man who appears out of nowhere, saves the world; expect sometimes he doesn't. All those times in history, where there was no sign of him. I wanted to know why not... But I don't need to ask anymore. I know the answer now: sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame."
There was a pause.
"I'm recording this in case anyone ever finds it. So you can see… you can see how the world ended."
Then the screen went black. For a while they all just stared at it as if she would appear on it again at any time.
"What was that all about?" Amy finally asked and turned to look at the Doctor. "She was talking about you and who is this Jack she mentioned?"
"She's Gwen Cooper… Torchwood. But why is her video here and what is she talking about?" The Doctor pushed some buttons, trying to get the recording back but didn't succeed.
"Torchwood?" Rory asked this time.
"Yes, it was originally established to defend the Earth from me, but when my ex-companion started to rule it, it became an institution which protects the Earth from aliens." Doctor explained as he ran to the other side of the Tardis's control panel.
"Protect the Earth from you? Are you kidding me?" Amy laughed as she tried to make sense of it all. "But that still doesn't explain why she sent this video to you."
"She didn't send it. Somehow the Tardis kind of downloaded it from somewhere. It must have something to do with the rift."
"What was she talking about world ending?" Rory felt a child down his spine.
Doctor kept pushing more buttons and then stopped.
"Good question, Rory. Because that video has been recorded over a year ago and the world is still okay. But why did the Tardis showed it to me then?"
He started to paced back and worth, a frown on his face.
"Over a year ago…?" Amy searched her memory for a while.
"Wasn't that the time when all the children stopped?" Rory remembered.
Both Amy and the Doctor looked at him and nodded in unison.
"That's it! The 456 incident!" The doctor returned between Amy and Rory to use the monitor again. "The video was recorded exactly 10th of July 2010. But why did she say that I should be ashamed of the human race? That was the most heroic day for them! All those people turning against the alien threat together!"
The Doctor talked in such nostalgia, that he didn't notice a look that Rory and Amy shared with each other.
"Because of that day, I am the most proud of the brave and oh, so loving, human race. Protecting their children even if it costs their own extinction…" He would've rambled on but Amy interrupted him.
"What are you talking about? That was one of the scariest days I have ever lived through."
"What? Why?" The Doctor turned to look at her with confusion written on his face.
"I still remember walking by my local school when dozens of yellow busses drove to the yard and armed men started to pack the students inside. A mother of some children was screaming and crying outside as her children were taken." Amy couldn't possibly understand Doctor's vision of the most heroic day of the world because that had been a nightmare and full of confusion.
"NO! No, no, no, no!" Doctor suddenly yelled and started to tap Tardis's controls again. "That doesn't sound good… not good at all. But how…"
When he found a news article about that day, he stopped.
"Oh no…" Doctor exhaled slowly as he kept on reading.
"What?" Rory asked. "What is it?"
"I need to find him." Doctor stated as he started to prepare the Tardis for a travel.
"Who?" Amy took hold of the railing as the Tardis started to waver.
"Just hold on tight!" Doctor yelled as they were off again.
The Tardis materialized in the middle of a machine room. The Doctor jumped out and was soon followed by Amy and Rory.
"Where are we?" Amy asked, coughing when the smoke entered her airways. She was frustrated for asking questions all the time, but she hated being in the dark.
"Ah, lady and gentleman, welcome to the universes largest crusader ships in the whole wide galaxy… so far." Doctor turned around and opened his arms to present the dim lighted and not very beautiful machine room to them.
"Well, this engine room certainly is big… I can't even see where it ends." Rory scanned their surrounding and could only see smoke and lots of weird looking and extremely large equipment's.
"Yes, like I said, largest. Now, follow me! The universe is in danger." Doctor called out and hurried forward towards an exit, wherever it was.
"Thank you for notifying us about that little detail." Amy groaned as she and Rory followed him.
It took them way too long to find a way to the passenger's residences. But when they did, they headed straight to its noisiest place: the bar.
"A bit unusual place to go with you." Amy smiled as she watched the Doctor, surrounded by drunken people… and aliens, mostly aliens.
"Look at all these creatures. I've never seen so many aliens at one place." Rory whispered to Amy's ear as they tried to push through the crowd.
The Doctor scanned the area for a familiar face but in vain. Last time he had seen him, was on the bar but no such luck tonight. Then he recognized a man who walked right pass him with two glasses of hyper vodka on his hands.
"Alonso! Just the man I needed! Or no… let's say the second best man I needed." Doctor said as he grabbed the man by his arm.
Alonso turned to look at him with a shy smile.
"Oh, sorry, but I'm kind of busy right now. How do you know my name?" He said and tried to yank his arm free.
"What? Oh, sorry, you don't recognize me, regeneration and all that." Doctor babbled and as the man still looked confused, he decided to introduce himself: "It's me! The Doctor!"
"Doctor? But how…"
"New face, long story. Remind me to tell you about it sometime, but right now I'm a bit busy myself. Where's Jack?" Doctor scanned the crowd at the same time he was speaking but couldn't find his old companion among them.
"Jack? Oh, you mean that guy you introduced me to? Said he was an easy catch?" Alonso looked a little betrayed.
"Yeah, exactly! Now where is he?"
"No idea. We talked hours before he seemed to get sick and left. Said something about seasickness, whatever that means. If you want my opinion, he was making an excuse to get rid of me." Alonso sighed but soon his eyes caught a man who was waving at him from across the bar. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I got to go."
"Oh, okay. Maybe I'll find Jack somewhere else. It was good to see you Alonso!" Doctor patted him to the shoulder and started to push his way back to the exit. He met Amy and Rory half way there, staring at an alien who looked like a mixture of a hedgehog and four headed human. "Come on! No time to waste. We need to find Jack. Let's ask people if they have seen a man with a military greatcoat."
"Right." The couple said before going on different ways.
After ten minutes they all met at the same location.
"That guy told me he saw him walking upstairs." Amy informed.
"Yeah, same here." Rory nodded.
"Let's go then. He isn't too hard to spot I think."
When they went up the stairs and both Amy and Rory gasped in wonder. They had stepped on which seemed like a deck of the ship. There was only a sky of stars above them.
"That's beautiful. But how can we breathe?" Amy asked as she stared up.
"There's a very tiny slide of pressure-proof glass between us and the space, so we can breathe just fine. You can't see it. It's just been invented by the universes wackiest scientist of all time. I met him once and I've meant to take the next person who calls me weird to meet him." Doctor explained. "So can you see him?"
"What? The scientist?" Amy asked, still fascinated about the stars. Every now and then she could see a shooting star speed above them.
"No. Jack. Remember: greatcoat, tall, dark haired man." Doctor said and walked around. The deck wasn't even nearly as crowded as the bar had been but he still couldn't see Jack.
"Is that him?" Rory soon asked and pointed to a man who was leaning against the invisible glass. There were no realign between the deck's edge and the space and it seemed like he was going to fall down at any moment.
"Captain Jack Harkness!" The Doctor shouted as they were only meter away from the man.
Jack straightened himself but didn't turn around until Doctor had called his name twice.
"Yes?" He then asked as he moved to look at them. His eyes were puffed and red rimmed which he probably had tried to hide before turning around. Doctor felt an odd feeling in his guts. He couldn't remember Jack looking so sad and… defeated the last time he had seen him. Although he had been quite overwhelmed of emotions himself around that time.
"It's me! Doctor!"
Jack frowned. "What? But we just met… I knew you were regenerating soon but I didn't think you would come and see me right away."
"No, it's been a bit longer for me. But I needed to find you and this is the only place I knew you would be. Oh, I'd like to introduce you to Amy and Rory. They are travelling with me."
Jack gazed at them wearily, soon noticing engagement rings on both of their fingers.
"I didn't know you… do couples." Jack smiled wryly at Doctor.
"I don't… I mean I took only Amy at first but Rory just happened to… get along."
Rory huffed to him but didn't say a word.
"Right… So what do you need from me?"
"Let's get boarded on Tardis."
Jack felt a wave of nostalgia when he stepped inside the Tardis, but at the same time he felt tired and sad. Once upon a time he would've done everything to get on board and travel with the Doctor again but not anymore. The only one that would make him feel joy these days was long gone.
"Gwen never told me anything about a video." Jack said after the Doctor had told him about it.
"No? That's not good. What happened?" Doctor asked, knowing that Jack would understand what he meant.
Jack felt an uncomfortable twist in his guts. He turned to look at the Doctor.
"Where were you?" He then asked, voice blank, but his face begged for the Doctor to explain. He wished that he would have a good explanation of what the Doctor was doing while Jack's world fell apart in a few short days.
Doctor was taken aback by the question. He thought Jack knew the answer but something told him he didn't want to hear what he was going to say: "I'm sorry, Jack."
"That's not good enough." Jack whispered, shaking his head.
"But I am."
"Where were you Doctor?" Jack asked again, almost shouting this time.
Amy and Rory glanced at each other. They didn't know this man and weren't sure what he was capable of doing.
"Jack, there was nothing I could do. It was meant to happen." Doctor saw now that Jack was only half the man he used to be. There were no smiles, no flirting, nothing. Jack looked broken and Doctor knew that feeling.
"They threatened to take ten percent of the children… It was hell." Jack felt like suffocating, he needed to get out. "I got to go."
He stormed towards the exit but Doctor stepped in his way.
"Jack, please. I need your help. It was meant to happen but I think something went wrong and now the Earth's whole evolution is in danger."
"Wrong?" Jack laughed bitterly.
Amy felt a chill go down her spine.
"Couldn't you just call Martha and ask her what went wrong, because I'd say everything." Jack tried to push through Doctor again but the time lord put a hand on his chest.
"Just tell me… please."
Jack stared at the Doctor, only now really noticing him. The man's hair was even more out of place than before and his fashion sense was getting worse. Ianto would've hated that bowtie. Jack felt the familiar lump in his throat when he thought about the Welshman.
"Okay." He finally said, knowing that Ianto would've wanted him to help the Doctor even though Jack himself didn't feel any desire to keep the human race's evolution in time.
"Brilliant!" The Doctor shouted and waved for Amy and Rory to come closer as if to listen for a good night's story.
Jack started to tell about the twelve children back at the 1965, then the Hub's explosion, government trying to hunt them down, moving to London, discovering what the 456 wanted and Lois recording with the contact lenses but he didn't have the change to continue when Doctor interrupted him:
"Aha! So you sent the footage of that conversation to the world!"
"No." Jack corrected. "We meant to but in the end we didn't go through with it."
Doctor's face fell. "But why? All the parents in the whole wide world would've fought to keep their children. That's exactly what was supposed to happen."
"We were defeated Doctor. The 456 showed us how the virus worked. Me and… Ianto." Jack paused, trying to control his feeling after saying his name aloud. "We went to the Thames House, to threaten the 456. We said we would fight against it, but it released the virus to the building and everyone inside died."
"Yes I remember! The Thames House incident was supposed to happen but you still should've sent the footage, keep on fighting."
"He died, Doctor!" Jack looked him straight in the eye. "Ianto died inside and there was nothing I could do. The virus spread so quickly and… I couldn't get him out."
"Ianto…" Doctor mulled the name aloud, it sounded so familiar.
"You don't remember him, do you?" Jack was hurt but he also knew that Ianto wanted to stay in the shadows and had only presented himself to the Doctor quickly when he had something important to say.
"Oh! Ianto Jones!" Doctor yelled when he remembered the man. "He was part of that team of yours, right?"
"Yeah." Jack simply stated.
Doctor was surprised. Martha had called him during and after the events and she had mentioned that Jack had lost a member of his team. She had sounded shocked herself but he hadn't known that it might have affected the whole chain of effects.
"So something went wrong that day. He wasn't meant to go inside the Thames House." Doctor said and started to pace around.
Jack stared at him. Was he hearing right? Jack feared to ask the question but he had to before his hopes would rise just to be shot down again.
"Doctor." Jack said, stopping the time lord. "Are you… are you saying that we should stop Ianto from going to the Thames House?"
"Yes, exactly! I'm just wondering why he went there in the first place if he wasn't meant to." Doctor continued his walking.
Jack felt tears rise to his eyes and a twinge of hope in his chest.
"Let's do it then!" He stepped closer to the Doctor and the Tardis hummed as if for agreement.
"Yes, yes, but we need to go through that day very precisely. Try to remember Jack. When you went to the Thames House, was there any time when you and Ianto were separated so we could delay him without you seeing us?"
Jack had gone through those days in his mind a million times over. He remembered every word that was said and every glance that they shared so it didn't take him long to realize that during their road to their doom, they hadn't been separated at any point.
"No… we drove almost the whole way there but when the traffic stopped us, we had to walk couple of blocks. But he was right there behind me, for the whole way." Jack felt disappointed.
"That would make it a little trickier then, but I suppose we could still make some havoc so Ianto would have to stay behind."
They went through the plan for many times. Jack showed Doctor the road they took to the Thames House and at which points Ianto talked to his phone. He didn't want them to interrupt his call to his sister so she wouldn't send her children to the school.
They had almost invented a solid plan to keep Ianto away from the Thames House when Jack realized something and his heart sank.
"No." He whispered. "It's not going to work."
"What? Did we miss something?" Amy asked.
"Yes: me. I would've never gone inside the Thames House without Ianto." Jack hated himself for saying that. He wanted nothing more to get in to the past and keep Ianto in safety but he knew the truth.
"Why wouldn't you? You had a plan." Doctor looked baffled.
"Yes, I know. But it was for granted that Ianto went with me and not Gwen. I needed his support and I couldn't have gone in there and demand to go to a war with the 456 without him." Jack's voice shook as he spoke.
"But it must be you to go in there and declare war. No one else could've done that. That must mean that Ianto Jones must've gone inside the Thames House." Doctor started to pace around again.
"What if we just stop us from going in and I go there myself." Jack suggested. He wouldn't mind of dying again if he only could save Ianto.
"No, we have to intervene as little as possible." The Doctor just shook his head. "It's fixed, Jack."
"So Ianto must die?" Jack felt his hope grumble again.
"I'm afraid so." Doctor whispered, not even daring to look Jack in the eye, knowing that the man must be heartbroken.
"I'm sorry." Amy whispered to Jack. She felt sorry for him; this Ianto must've been very dear to him.
Jack just shook his head. He wanted to scream and break something. Was it really so that he wouldn't have gone through with the plan if Ianto had been unable to follow him?
"How long were you together?" Doctor suddenly asked.
Jack frowned at him. Doctor went to the control panel and tried to look busy by examining Tardis's monitor. Jack wondered that he wasn't really watching it.
"It was… complicated." Jack answered after a long pause. He hated to describe his and Ianto's relationship with that word but he couldn't say an exact date when they had started to be together.
"Approximately." Doctor said and looked very uncomfortable.
"About two and a half year." Jack said carefully and examined Doctor's reaction. "Why?"
"Just… asking." Doctor said quickly. "If I've understood right you have the ability to give away your life-energy to other people?"
"Sometimes, yes." Jack answered and his thoughts wondered to the time when he had kissed some of his life-energy to Ianto when Lisa had nearly killed him.
"Did you try to do it here?" Doctor asked and turned the monitor towards Jack, Amy and Rory.
Jack froze when he saw the footage on the monitor. It was the recording from the Thames House at the time when he and Ianto had died. It was playing the part when Jack had taken Ianto by his shoulders and stared at his face with terrified expression.
"There's got to be an antidote. There's got to be something!" Jack said with panic.
"It's too late." Ianto answered. "I breathed the air."
"Then I take it all back. I take it all back, but not him!"
Jack couldn't take his eyes off the screen even if he wanted to. There was his Ianto, still alive, but soon he collapsed to his arms. The footage went on but Jack couldn't see it anymore. Tears clouded his vision and he only heard their muffled conversation: Ianto's love confession and his Don't. He wanted to tell the Doctor to stop it but the lump in his throat had grown too big and no sound came out. He still could feel the suffocating feeling, the same that Ianto had. The feeling of Ianto's weight in his arms and the look of defeat when life left him.
"Here." Doctor pointed the screen when Jack gave Ianto the last kiss. "You gave him your last breath of life, didn't you?"
Jack wiped the tears from his face.
"I tried, but in vain." He said with a hoarse voice.
"Of course, because you were dying." Doctor stated in matter of factly and closed the video.
Jack stared at the black screen for a while feeling anger rise in his guts. Why did the Doctor have to show it to him only to state the obvious?
"Before you say anything you're going to regret, Jack. I have a theory…" The Doctor started. "…but I need you to tell me a little bit more details about those last days. How was your relationship?"
"What is it with you and my relationship with Ianto?" Jack started to get annoyed now. "In my opinion it's none of your business."
Doctor sighed. This was going to take a lot longer than he had wanted. Why couldn't Jack just answer his questions? And since when Jack didn't like to talk about his conquests?
"Jack, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important." He then said with a pleading voice. "All the next alien contacts that the human race is going to have will change, and I recon, not for better if we can't fix this somehow."
Jack glanced at Amy and Rory. He had always considered his and Ianto's relationship as personal so he never really shouted it out to the world. Maybe he should've had. When he thought about it, maybe which even caused all the stupid conversations they were having about the word 'couple'. But even though Doctor had changed, he always knew he should trust the man and so he did.
"Fine." Jack spat. "Like I said, our relationship was complicated. In few short years we had gone through a lot of ups and down which I'm not starting to tell you. But the thing is, when all the children in the world started to speak in unison, we were arguing quite a lot. Stupid little things if you ask me." Jack cleared his throat. "Anyway, when the hub blew up and I was taken imprisoned, Ianto and Gwen busted me out. Or dropped me… but that's not the point. We were so busy that we had no time to talk. Next thing I know, we were inside a freezing warehouse without food, equipment or money and because of the government thought us as criminals so we became one. We stole credit cards, laptops and cars. All three of us packed inside that warehouse with no privacy or good night sleep. It wasn't very pleasant. The day when Ianto… died, I told him that I had daughter and a grandson."
Doctor looked shocked; Jack was more like him than he had ever known.
"The government had taken them imprisoned too, when they learned that. I though he wouldn't trust me anymore. I know I wouldn't trust someone who hadn't told something so big about himself. But he did and he followed me to the Thames House, only to die."
Jack stopped his monologue and waited for the Doctor to say something.
"You have a daughter and grandson?"
"Doctor." Jack warned.
"Okay, okay. So you had no privacy. Umm… so you didn't, you know… do… anything for days?" The time lord stuttered which made everyone look at him weirdly. He looked really uncomfortable at that moment.
"Do what?" Jack frowned.
"Oh, you know Jack. Any couples in relationship things."
"You mean kiss and have sex? No." Jack said without a blink of an eye.
"Okay..." The Doctor said, quickly searching the monitor again.
Amy tried to hide her giggling behind Rory's back who tried to hide his smile.
"Remind me again, Doctor, what does my sex life has to do with anything?" Jack asked and leaned to the Tardis's control panel. It was a little amusing to see the Doctor so tense, but the fact they were talking about him and Ianto made Jack irritated.
"Like I said: only a theory. So you didn't have any privacy. Not at all?" The Doctor averted Jack's gaze.
"No… well we would've had if Rhys had left when we asked him to." Jack smiled sadly when he remembered Ianto's words. "Bloody beans."
"What did you say?" Doctor now looked at Jack.
"Beans… Rhys, Gwen's husband, had bought some beans and wouldn't leave the warehouse before those were ready." Jack stood up and frowned.
"That's it! BEANS!" The Doctor yelled, making his companions jump.
"Beans? What do those have to do with anything?" Rory asked with a baffled look.
The Doctor laughed manically: "Everything!"