Spoilers for the Torchwood Series 2 finale...read at your own peril. This chapter is one of the most Torchwood-ey, it's mostly Doctor Who-ey for the rest of the time...lol! My version of 4x11 onwards. Includes reference and ideas from what was seen in Partners in Crime. Will feature Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Martha, Donna, Rose and the Doctor. Tell me what you think, I'm not too sure.
Captain Jack Harkness sat in his office, immersed in a pile of UNIT personnel profiles.
This had been so much easier when it had been somebody else's job.
Gwen and Ianto were fortunate in that respect. For them, the loss of Owen and Toshiko had meant losing two respected colleagues, two beloved friends.
For Jack it was another pair of lives gone because of his interference and after over a hundred years of such experiences he was used to this deep feeling of despair. Tosh and Owen had been the first people he himself had recruited for Torchwood. They had been the first to die, and the first to replace. It had been different with Suzie.
Suzie had been there; well, not nearly as long as he had, but long enough to have been employed by Jack's predecessor. Suzie had killed innocents before trying to kill Gwen, had committed suicide to no lasting effect and had tried to kill Gwen yet again before Jack had finished her for good. It was a completely different type of sadness he felt when thinking of Suzie.
It all came down to responsibility.
Gray had been Jack's responsibility and although he didn't even want to think of Gray right now, that, in turn had been the downfall of Owen and Toshiko.
So it was entirely one Captain Jack Harkness's fault. He could not place the blame on anyone higher and unfortunately, contradiction to popular belief, someone always had to take the blame. It was his fault, he quite simply accepted that, but he accepted this only because he ignored the guilt, ignored his brother, lying frozen in the Hub for all of time. Ignored his two employees, Tosh and Owen, dead forever. If not, instead of the norm self-destructing (which would be far more welcoming, if rather cowardly), he would instead drown himself in desolation for all of eternity.
Because life was life.
And life loved Captain Jack Harkness so very much. For life, Jack Harkness was like your favourite childhood teddy bear. Life wanted him to stay with it forever, regardless of what condition, from generation to generation, from century to century, he would be passed down, each little wear or tear giving him a story that would be remembered until the end of time; until the end of the line itself.
So, ignoring the latest wears and tears, with a firm jaw and a mind set firmly on the future, Jack flicked unenthusiastically through the UNIT hardcopies.
He didn't actually have permission to view these files stamped 'TOP SECRET'. UNIT didn't really like Jack; he was an unnecessary problem that would never, ever go away. Everything at UNIT was computerised nowadays but there were always compulsory hardcopy backups; supposedly down in a military basement somewhere gathering dust. Nobody noticed when that irritating man from Torchwood overrode the security settings and stole the backups that nobody would ever need, and nobody would ever look for.
That left Jack with several hundred extremely helpful stacks of paperwork now stored in the Torchwood basement that were a bugger to stifle through but were a good place to start when you wanted to employ someone with half a brain and an open mind.
That's how he had noticed Toshiko; on a prisoner list, stolen from UNIT on one of his annual trips to that forgotten library in the UNIT basement. The mention of a sonic device had caused him to stop, but when he read further; realising her genius, realising what she had done for her mother…..but, enough of that now, enough of the past.
This decade's defenders of the earth sounded pretty decent. Gazing down at the employee records, Jack was sure if he gave any of these people half a chance they would eventually be quite suitable for the job needed here in Cardiff. Yet he couldn't bring himself to read their profiles. He didn't want to, he didn't particularly care.
On autopilot he sifted through over four hundred profiles, employees, prisoners, people of interest. He had sent Gwen and Ianto out to check out the Rift levels at the recent explosion sites dotted around the city, expecting them to be gone for a few hours. It wasn't until he heard the familiar cog-door siren go off as it opened did he realise he had actually been sitting there for going on three hours and couldn't recall one name or one note worthy detail about anything that he had been reading through. Gwen's voice came from downstairs,
"Jack!"
He didn't respond, deep in thought about nothing in particular and a moment or two later both Gwen and Ianto entered his office looking slightly bedraggled but focused.
"What's all this?" Gwen asked, gesturing around at the various stacks of paper sitting around the room and strewn on the desk and across the floor.
"What…." Jack gazed up at her, only just realising the mess, "oh, nothing."
Ianto looked from Jack's empty stare to the floor before shaking his head and saying quite evenly, "You know, I am most definitely not cleaning this up. It took me two weeks of considerable effort to categorise it, before then moving it all downstairs. I refuse to do it again."
Jack let out a snort and finally turned to look at them properly, swivelling his chair slightly.
Feeling curious, Gwen bent and picked up a file off the floor, "But what is it?"
"Our UNIT database." Ianto said with a sigh, a slightly resigned look on his face as he automatically began clearing up.
Jack finally stood, hands on hips, glaring at Gwen who was opening the folder in her hand, "Note the word's 'TOP SECRET'," he said in a semi-mocking anger, snatching it off her and throwing it down on top of the desk.
"Oh, yes, so sorry,"
She sounded apologetic but her face betrayed her, a smirk playing on her lips as she tapped the top of the pile, "Yet did you noticed the words, 'For authorised UNIT personnel only'," she raised her eyebrows at him, "since when did you work for UNIT?"
"God knows with him." Ianto muttered as he stood with a pile in his hands and placed it on a shelf. He gazed around the room for a moment then asked the obvious question, "And what precisely are you doing with all this?"
Jack was silent for a moment, glancing between his two remaining colleagues; he leant against his desk for a moment, debating internally then responded tonelessly, "Looking at replacements for Owen and Toshiko."
He carefully gauged each of their reactions, not sure what the prospect of replacements would mean for them both. Ianto froze, half bent down to pick up more paper, before straitening stiffly. There was silence as Gwen clenched her knuckles, her eyes suddenly jet black and locked on Jack's. She looked miserably angry at him and he braced himself for a Gwen-like breakdown.
"It's a bit soon, isn't it?" Ianto asked quietly. Jack gently eased his eyes from Gwen as she crossed her arms and stared at him mercilessly, waiting for a response, her jaw moving slightly but her mouth remaining shut.
Jack sighed, "The truth is, any day now something else might happen, something significant, and we were barely getting by as it was. We need to get an actual team together. It can't be three against the world."
He dared to glance at Gwen again and she held his look for a moment before the fight quite suddenly went out of her and a tear leaked out of the corner of one eye, she nodded slightly, arms now not crossed but hugging herself, and, taking Jack quite by surprise, she said quietly, "What about Martha?"
It was the logical choice, yet when it came to matters of the heart, Gwen was not logical. Coming from Gwen, this demonstration of practicality in their present situation worried Jack slightly but in all honesty she made perfect sense.
They all liked Martha, Martha liked them. She was a doctor, she knew more about this kind of work than many of the others at UNIT. Most importantly she had what Jack classified as the 'Doctor' qualification, meaning not only did they share it in common but that if you had survived time in the TARDIS you could survive anything.
Yet, somehow Jack was hesitant to hire her. Perhaps it was because of that one fact they shared in common. That one man that would not let Jack hear the end of it if anything happened to her.
The sudden thought of that drained him and Jack felt very tired. The wariness washed through him in waves and although Gwen and Ianto were staring at him expectantly, waiting for an answer, he decided against trying to voice his non-existent reasoning and simply changed the subject, asking unenthusiastically, "How's the city doing? Anything residual with the damage to the Rift?"
Gwen shifted into work mode, seemingly happy for the distraction and pushed her hair out of her face, focusing on her job, not Jack's, "There's nothing lasting. The readings show that the Rift is slowly starting to settle down again…the city on the other hand….."
"They reckon they're up to £400 million in damages," Ianto cut in with a note of false cheeriness, "and then we ran into the mayor's entourage down at the now nearly non-existent council buildings. Apparently you're ignoring his phone calls." Ianto shook his head disapprovingly, "He wants to talk to you. Something about taking responsibility, paying for damages, actually explaining what happened." He checked these off of his fingers.
"Meetings with Mayors never end well," Jack said sourly, glancing at the time, then at Gwen, "you're good with that stuff Gwen, you go. And just make sure you say 'no' to anything they ask fo…."
He was interrupted by a sudden sharp wailing shrieking siren, waving in and out of volume and making normal speech impossible. He automatically put his hands to his ears, face screwed up in pain, his ears ringing "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"
A resounding alarm rang throughout the Hub, ear splitting in decibels which consequently resulted in the pterodactyl waking up suddenly and taking flight in panic, swooping far too close to the ground, which add to the general mayhem as the three remaining Torchwood members gave each other looks of confusion before simultaneously charging out of the office, ducking quickly as Myfanwy flew dangerously close to their heads.
Ianto raced down to Tosh's computer as it flashed red, pulling up the security programming, "Some sort of alarm," he hollered, "something's breached the Hub's security."
"Can we please turn it off before that stupid winged beast crashes into the rift manipulator and splits open the city!" Gwen cried her eyes following the crazed dino-bird as it flew record breaking panicked laps around the Hub, squawking in indignation.
"I'm trying!" Ianto yelled back, fingers whizzing across the keyboard.
Jack glanced furiously over Ianto's shoulder, trying to decipher what was happening when he froze, every bit of his body tingling.
For a moment he wasn't quite sure why he froze, but it took only a millisecond for Jack to locate the source of his alertness. Any normal person would not have been able to disassociate this particular noise from the orchestral mayhem all around but Jack's ears had had over a hundred years of practise waiting to hear this particular sound.
"Ianto, turn it off NOW!"
Gwen glanced at him in alarm, confused at the tone of his voice and Ianto's fingers moved even faster. Jack couldn't be sure, but he swore that over the top of that stupid alarm he could hear something, something electrifyingly spectacular.
"Got it." Ianto said, hitting 'enter' and immediately the noise dropped, leaving an eerie silence save for the odd squawk of indignation coming from Myfanwy and the…..
"Jack, what…."
"Hush," he put a finger to Gwen's lips, all his senses reaching out desperately, grasping longingly for that one sound.
And there it was. A smile spread across his lips, the first since Tosh and Owen had died, as his ears finally identified the last droning notes of a great engine. His finger stayed at Gwen's lips for a moment until he was certain there was nothing left to hear.
"Pull up all of the surveillance." He finally said softly, removing his finger from out of Gwen's face and placing a hand on Ianto's shoulder.
Ianto glanced at him, "Do you know what it….."
Jack gave his shoulder a squeeze, "Just do it."
Ianto quickly brought up the first six views and Jack let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding in as the middle screen showed the cells, four empty, one with a couple of forlorn Weevils and one with a big blue box sitting in it.
"Oh my god," Ianto exclaimed, zooming into the particular camera point and turning the chair to look at the smile plastered on Jack's face, "It's him."
Ianto looked half awed and Jack looked ecstatic. Gwen look confused, "Who?"
"The Doctor." Ianto said bluntly, sounding slightly shocked, slightly jealous.
Gwen immediately recongised the emphasis behind the title rounded on Jack, "Your doctor?"
"My Doctor." Jack nodded, already moving. Gwen looked at Ianto for a moment who was gazing after Jack, a look of sadness on his face. He glanced at Gwen, frowned and stood, straightening his suit with a determined expression before taking a deep breath and following Jack.
"Ianto, wait," Gwen hurried after him looking hurt and left behind. Ianto glanced after her but kept moving, heading for the cells after Jack. Gwen found her frustration growing, "I thought this doctor was a secret we all weren't supposed to know, except all of a sudden I now feel out of the bloody loop!"
Ianto finally slowed slightly so Gwen could catch up and together they walked down the hallway towards the cells as he tried to explain it to her, "He's a secret we all should know. He's the reason for our existence. Back before Canary Wharf every Torchwood employee was expected to know as much as possible about this Doctor……which actually wasn't very much at all. The Doctor is considered a threat to mankind, so says Queen Victoria in the Torchwood charter, yet, somehow, we apparently have the wrong impression."
Ianto gave her a shrug and he slid his security pass through the lock as they entered the cell block, finding Jack punching in the combination code to the cell in particular and hurrying in, "Doctor?"
As he banged against the TARDIS door, guilt suddenly cascaded over him as he realised the reason he was filled with such joy and excitement. Here was the TARDIS, and whenever the TARDIS turned up Jack would drop everything to join the Doctor. Normally that had been all right. Yet last time he had left behind a team of people that needed him; had needed him when he wasn't there and now here was the TARDIS again. It was a ready made excuse to forget about Gwen and Ianto, forget about Torchwood and Cardiff, forget about Gray and, most of all, forget about Owen and Toshiko. With these thoughts and the longing temptation of just disappearing into the TARDIS forever swirling through his mind the sudden presence of Gwen and Ianto standing behind him shook him loose of this lovely daydream and with it the grim realisation that this could and would only ever be a visit by the TARDIS, not a pick up point.
Gwen did not notice his internal struggle, only managing to simply stare at the TARDIS in a fair sense of wonderment. The words displayed along the top read, 'Police Public Call Box' but Gwen couldn't remember call boxes, either blue or red for that matter, ever having the ability to transport itself into the Torchwood Hub. She glanced at Ianto for his reaction as he stood leaning against the glass door watching Jack as he resumed his banging, calling out a final, desperate, "Doctor?" to no lasting effect.
"You know; some people go a whole lifetime desperate for a glimpse of this thing." Ianto said simply, "Yet I see it twice."
Gwen raised her eyebrows at him, confused and Ianto smiled, "He was there. The Doctor. That day at Canary Wharf, he saved us. He saved us all."
Jack grunted and took a step back, hands on his hips and said absently, "He does that quite a lot yet we never seem to notice."
His common sense told him that the Doctor should have opened the door by now and his instinct told him something was wrong, "Damnit!" He kicked out at the TARDIS but all that left him was a sore foot and he immediately sighed, putting a hand against the wood, patting it slightly, almost apologetically, before reaching with his other hand to pull at something around his throat.
It took a moment to unfasten the chain around his neck and to take hold of the key hanging off it, but once he had, as if well practised, he slotted the key into the TARDIS's lock and turned it.
Ianto straighten up suddenly, slightly taken aback, "You have a key?"
Ignoring that foreboding feeling niggling at the back of his mind, Jack gave Ianto a false grin, "Oh yes, I have a key."
And he pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Entering the TARDIS all over again always brought a rush of emotions. Memoires flashed before his eyes; Rose and the other Doctor, dancing and spinning, the TARDIS full of life, then the dangerous hybrid paradox monster the Master had turned it into, the Doctor's glorious machine oozing in death and destruction. But of course, that was the past and now the familiar long brown overcoat was hanging over the handrail and the TARDIS hummed happily, peaceful and content, nothing apparently amiss. Yet Jack still felt uneasy.
"Jesus Christ."
Thus was Gwen's initial response as she and Ianto followed him inside, staring around in amazement as Jack put a hand on the Doctor's overcoat, calling out again, "Doctor?"
A voice answered, causing them all to whirl around in alarm, "This is Emergency Programme Four."
Standing behind them stood the Doctor, or rather, a holographic version of him.
"Jack," the hologram seemed to stare right at Jack himself, the hologram a perfect image of the Doctor, his glasses perched on his nose and his hands resting in the pockets of his blue pinstriped suit, "I apologise for the intrusion and the lack of helpfulness in the next statement." He did look rather apologetic, rather weary too as he moved a hand to his brow and pinched his forefingers together, "You see, something's gone wrong."
Jack gave a snort, and the Doctor continued, an understanding smile on his face, "Sorry Captain, but if you're hearing this message then something has gone very, very wrong. Well, more so than usual."
Ianto and Gwen watched this one way conversation in silence, blinking in confusion as Jack snorted again and the Doctor rolled his eyes, "If something happens to me, something out of either the TARDIS's control or mine, I have programmed it to deliver itself to you in Cardiff. I quite reasonably decided what better place to hide the most advanced piece of technology on earth than with a man who has his own top secret underground facility and can look after my machine forever.
Now, don't worry about me," He waved a hand, as if shooing the thought away before he paused and frowned, only just then thinking about it properly, "well, no, actually, do worry about me but only after you can confirm that who ever I am travelling with by this stage is safe."
His slight grin became serious and the intensity of his gaze peeking over the top his glasses. Gwen couldn't drag her eyes away, mesmerised by the intensity as the hologram continued, "If the TARDIS locks into this programme then whoever I am with automatically gets transported back to Earth to the closest possible time. A safety measure. Promise me Jack, promise you'll take care of them," the serious look vanished and he raised his eyebrows gleefully, "and then the TARDIS is yours!"
The hologram shrugged and shook its head, a smirk upon its lips as it scuffed its foot on the grate floor, "Yet if I give you my truly magnificent ship you have to promise me that the first thing you'll do will not be travelling anywhere near the Edbar cluster. I know that's the first thing you'll think of, but woman like that are most certainly not permitted on my ship." He snorted and looked up at the ceiling for a moment before locking eyes with Jack again, "Oh, just have fun Captain, god knows we used to."
And the hologram self combusted, Ianto and Gwen immediately turning to Jack. Jack stood staring at the now empty spot where the Doctor once stood beginning to realise what several of the things the Doctor had just said actually meant.
Firstly; the false sense of bravado in his voice seemed to indicate that 'something is wrong' meant that either the Doctor was dead, close to death or the universe was about to implode and there was nothing anyone could do about it. None of those choices were good.
Secondly, the Doctor had given Jack the TARDIS.
Originally not being able to trust the Captain with his own measly Vortex Manipulator, the Doctor had now technically given Jack full power over space and time. Something meant only for the Timelords.
But if the Doctor thought himself dead, then there were no Timelords left and Captain Jack Harkness, the man that could never die, one of the few that could work the big blue box; well, it had seemed like the Doctor had passed the whole of time and space on to Jack.
"No way." Jack stated simply as he came to this revelation.
He could do it; he would do it if the situation arose, but most definitely not if he could help it and especially if there was still the minutest possibility that the Doctor was still alive.
Jack shook his head, realising he was still staring at the empty spot in the air and that Gwen and Ianto were still there, in the TARDIS, staring at him.
"Jack?" Gwen asked, slightly alarmed and very much out of the loop.
Jack shook his head, ignoring her and reaching across to pull the console monitor to face him, "No way," he repeated, furiously getting into action, "sorry Doctor, but you are so not getting off that easy!