Setting Cardiff Millennium Center Halloween Eve
A trio walked hurriedly by Millennium Plaza, in Cardiff, Wales. Winds were picking up and the sky was crackling with thunderbolts.
"Hurry up, guys. A storm is picking up. Just a small run and we will be warm and cozy inside Torchwood." Mickey waved to his friends with one hand while the other held his coat zipper closer to his body.
"Good. I could use some heating. I'm beat." Martha pulled her leather jacket closer to her body as well.
Mickey stopped by the lampposts at the Plaza and stared at them and at the empty center.
Jack stopped by his side. Wind blew his military long cape like it wanted to rip it from him by force and messed his black hair wildly.
"Mickey…."
"I know Jack! He is not coming back. Martha and I saw how he was like, when he saved us from that Sontaran. He didn't even come close enough to say hi." Grief covered Mickey's eyes.
"He was saying good bye, Jack. He was dying. I know him. He never liked endings." Martha had grief in her eyes as well. Her voice was coarse. "It hurts. Hurts so much, like I never thought it would. He doesn't even have a grave we could visit and feel closer to him when the loss get too unbearable."
"He wouldn't want that, Martha, to stay in just one place, for us to cry over his tomb if he ever had one. He would want us to have a fantastic life. Besides we know he can regenerate. Maybe he's somewhere up there." Jack looked toward the heavens. " And we will meet him in our timeline."
"No. Jack. This time there was something different. I felt it. You saw him regenerate. Did he mind being so far away when he changed? Would he leave without even saying hello?"
Jack shook his head. "He would stay at a distance safe enough for his exploding body to hit us. But you are right. He would not stay that far from us. Last time I saw him , he was at the bar door I usually go to. He didn't come to see me. The barman gave me a note he had sent. He stood there just long enough for me to know it was him who sent the note and then he left."
"See? It's not like him, Jack. He always was the first to hug us when he knew we were down, to have a friendly, encouraging word, to try find out what problem was and do everything to help. For him NOT to have done those things can only means he was in serious trouble, not just any regular regeneration. I fear it was his last one and he knew it. He did so much for us and we couldn't even help him in his last moments."
Mickey hugged her tightly. "Makes sense. He wouldn't stay far away and leave just because of a regeneration."
Jack smiled. "Cheer up, guys. He wouldn't want to see us crying for him. Let's remember the good times." He looked at the Plaza. "Those had been fun times, no doubt. We had a blast. I wonder how that Slitheen is doing- if she found a decent new family."
"I thought the Doctor and you guys had taken care of that." Mickey looked at Jack, puzzled.
" We put her into a hatchery. We can only pray a decent family has adopted her. It's not as if we handed her directly into the hands of a Raxacoricofallapatorian family."
"I thought that was the kind of thing the Doctor would have done." Martha protested. "He would make sure her mistakes were not repeated."
She felt better recalling her friend's energy. It was like somehow he was wrapping her with his own regenerating energy and boosting her spirits up.
"But he didn't break planets customs. People in don't knock on each "Raxacoricofallapatorious other doors and hand eggs to families at chance. They have hatcheries for such situations."
"You do like pronouncing this unpronounceable noun, don't you Jack?" She teased.
"Its fun!" He gave a big grin.
"Life with the Doctor was like an addiction. It took you to heaven and hell, but we just couldn't drop it, could we?" Jack smiled. " Things are boring here without him."
"Boring? We almost became alien supper Jack" Martha protested.
"Occupational hazards. It's part of the job. That Crickaton was small stuff. Not even close to a Dalek or a Weeping Angel. Man, the Doctor always got the best of the space stuff!"
Mickey and Martha looked at each other. *He's insane! Missing encountering a Dalek or a Weeping Angel?*
Martha crossed her arms to her chest protectively.
"But of us all you are the only one can meet him again! Anytime you want!" Mike emphasized the anytime. "Don't you meet them in another timeline, now and then?"
"I wish! " Jack laughed well humoredly. "But that little bastard disabled my temporal vortex bracelet last time we met. He didn't trust me traveling in time."
"Gee. I wonder WHY. " Martha teased. "I guess he didn't want you going around genociding entire races."
"You talk like I was some race purist, Martha that could not stand another life form!" he had genuine hurt in his voice.
"You don't have race superiority issues, Jack. I'll give you that. But you are not very forgiving either. Since we started working with you, you've exterminated so many aliens that the Doctor would have your hide!"
"They were threats, Martha!" Jack snarled annoyed.
"And some could have adjusted to live among humans if you just had given them another opportunity."
" Martha does have a lot of Rose speech. She would certainly have told me the same thing."
Mike chuckled again. "No doubt on that either."
"Rose and Donna had much more sense than you guys! I was honored to meet her, even under such harsh circumstances."
Jack walked toward the water fountain tower in the plaza. "Lets get inside. "Martha and Mickey followed him.
Martha was shaking. "I'm freezing here. I'm dying for a cup of hot tea, dry clothes and a bed..."
Jack turned to Martha at her last comment and gave her a glee smile. " I will be glad to warm you up, cupcake."
"Hey it's my wife you are talking to." Mickey snarled annoyed.
"So you better start treating her like a princess. Someone else might admire and take away what you don't value!"
Martha laughed. "I already have company, Jack! And I mean Mr Sandman! Those aliens don't seem to have day-night body cycles but I NEED a shut eye."
They had reached the sidewalk rim. Mickey snapped his head up in attention. The wind had picked up earlier and had been whistling more wildly in their ears.
His companions looked at him puzzled.
'"Come on, Mickey. It's bloody freezing out here There's a bloody hell of a storm on the way. Can't you hear the thunderbolts crackling?" Martha called annoyed. "Lets get INSIDE."
"Yes… but listen…. There is something else blowing in the wind…"
Martha and Jack stopped listening. Their eyes were large in surprise and the three of them slowly turned their heads back, toward plaza.
The haze had come with all his might and it was hard to see under the wind, while the plaza glistened with lights and water.
Air shimmered with the storm and then something more seemed to shimmer in the center. Slowly something took form in the middle of the plaza: a 1960's police blue box.