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Stuck On The Slow Path
Jack spent three days helping the Doctor with the Tardis. They had to rig Jack's vortex manipulator to transport the machine off of the Valiant, because the Doctor was unable to get it moving. The Time Lord's distress was palpable and so many times Jack wanted to hug him and say it would be alright. Unfortunately, after three days had passed and the Tardis remained a Paradox Machine, it became clear that the Doctor would be stuck on the slow path for the foreseeable future and Jack didn't know how he could possibly cushion that blow. It had been hard enough for him, a mere Agent of Time, how much worse would it be for a Lord?
"I might have some parts at the Hub," he suggested tentatively. He wasn't very optimistic that Torchwood possessed the items required by the Tardis, but at least the search would drag the Doctor from his mutilated machine. The pulsing red walls and sickening noise of the Paradox Machine were making Jack uncomfortable, who knew what the environment was doing to the Doctor's psyche, bonded to the Tardis as he was?
"I expect your team will probably be wondering where you got to," the Doctor said, aiming for his usual cheer but failing. It was impossible to be happy in the blood-red glow. It was like the Master had warped the soul of the Tardis. At least the Doctor had made it through the year with his sanity intact, although whether that would hold was another thing altogether.
Without any more conversation, Jack wired the vortex manipulator up to the Paradox Machine. The Doctor worked his magic with the sonic screwdriver and the whole thing was relocated to the Cardiff rift.
The night air was refreshing and Jack breathed it in deep, feeling like he'd escaped from a prison. The Doctor followed him out, locking the door and tucking the key into the pocket of his long, brown coat. He glanced around, looking a little lost. Impulsively Jack took his hand. It was a measure of the Doctor's state of mind that he allowed the friendly touch.
"I'm assuming you don't want me to introduce you to Torchwood as the Doctor." He was still officially their enemy, after all.
"Doctor John Smith is generally what I use." The most normal human name he could conjure to mind. How predictable. He'd clearly never had training in subterfuge.
Before Jack could comment on the ill-fitting and transparent pseudonym, his phone rang. He glanced at the screen before answering. It was Toshiko. Time to stop being a Companion and start being a Leader. "Hello?"
"Jack! Oh god, Jack!" He held his phone away from his ear until she calmed down and became less shrill. "Where have you been? We saw you at the President's assassination and then nothing for weeks…"
"Now there's an unwelcome claim to fame," Jack muttered. "Hang on, I'll be down in a minute. We'll talk then."
He ended the call and put his phone back in his coat pocket. He noticed the Doctor was still staring into the night sky, possibly looking at the stars that now lay out of his reach. Wanting to pull him back to Earth and keep him close, Jack squeezed his hand gently. "Hey, you ready to meet the Torchwood team?"
The Time Lord sighed. "I'll need to talk to Martha…" Another sigh. The world on the Doctor's shoulders seemed especially heavy tonight. "It might take me a while to fix up the Tardis."
"You can stay with me," Jack offered. The thought of it made his stomach twist in ways both pleasant and unpleasant.
"I'll stay in the Tardis." Jack glanced back at the phone box and fancied he could see the red light pulsating in the windows.
"I really don't think that's a good idea, Doctor." He started to walk to the main entrance of the Hub, still holding the Doctor's hand. "It's wrong and I don't think you should spend too much time around it."
"And spending time with you is somehow better?" The Doctor drew his hand from Jack's grip and rubbed at his eyes wearily. "I'm sorry, Jack. That wasn't fair. I'm just tired."
Jack said nothing until they were standing outside the door to Torchwood Headquarters. "Am I still wrong, then?"
"I'm working on it. It's my problem. You can't help what you are, I just have to accept the fact that you feel a little… odd."
Jack grinned as he opened the door to reception. "But Doc, you've barely felt me at all."
He held the door open for the Doctor, then both men stepped into the reception room. Gwen, Ianto, Owen and Toshiko all stood there, staring as though Jack was an apparition. Ianto was the first to step forward. "Jack?"
Wanting to avoid confrontation and complicated explanations, Jack smiled widely at them. "In the flesh, wanna check?" A cheeky leer, then he was moving past them, dragging the Doctor with him into the main area of the Hub.
"Welcome to Torchwood," Jack said proudly.
The Doctor looked around indifferently, his gaze lingering on certain alien artefacts. "It's not as shiny as the old one."
"But also not as evil," Jack pointed out, his enthusiasm dented slightly.
"There is that, I suppose," the Doctor said begrudgingly.
"Come on, let's head to the vaults and see what's there." Secretly and with more than a little guilt, Jack hoped Torchwood possessed none of the parts, so the Doctor would have to stay. There would be something deeply gratifying about having the Doctor in his territory for a change. He'd have Torchwood and the Doctor, all at once.
"Quite a collection you have here," the Doctor said disapprovingly. The Time Lord sifted through the alien technology on the shelves and in boxes. Jack made a mental note of the objects that were discarded carelessly and he also paid special attention to the artefacts handled with extreme caution. Perhaps he ought to procure some 'Handle With Care' stickers for when his team inevitably came stampeding through here like bulls on an important mission in an alien china shop.
"Anything useful?"
"Bits and pieces that could be handy if I fix them up and connect them to a hundred other things we don't have."
The Doctor buried his head in his hands and let out a muffled yell of frustration. Jack went and knelt beside the Time Lord, hoping his presence was a comfort to the man. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he snapped his gaze to the doorway, where Toshiko was standing watching them. A glare sent her scurrying off.
"I can't take the slow path right now Jack, I just can't."
A few sniffs acted as the prelude to five minutes of sobbing. Jack couldn't bear space between them any longer and he wrapped his arms around the crying Doctor. He knew this despair wasn't entirely due to being stuck in Cardiff in 2007. The Doctor had not grieved at all for the Master since his initial outburst on the Valiant and Jack suspected there was a lot of pain being bottled up. He rubbed the Doctor's back in gentle circles until the Time Lord pulled away and climbed to his feet.
"Sorry Jack. It's not like me to fall apart like this."
"Don't worry about it." Jack stood up but stepped back out of the Doctor's personal space. "You know, all sorts of things turn up in the Rift. If the parts can be found, Torchwood will find them first. I promise." He'd use all the resources his position commanded to get the Doctor out of this depression.
"It could take years," the Doctor said gloomily, tapping his sonic screwdriver against the wall.
"It won't." Jack's confident assertion had absolutely no reason behind it. He simply could not imagine the Doctor staying in one place for any serious amount of time. No matter how much he wanted it to happen, his imagination just wasn't that good.
The sound of a throat being cleared in the doorway brought their attention to Ianto. "Would your guest like some refreshment? Tea or coffee?"
"I'd appreciate a cup of tea, thank you."
It was as good a time as any to make introductions. "Doctor John Smith will be working with us for a while. Doctor, this is Ianto Jones, my most versatile employee."
"Nice to meet you." The Doctor shook Ianto's hand. Although both men were smiling politely, Jack could see the veiled suspicion in their eyes as they evaluated one another.
"Likewise. Sugar in your tea?"
"Please."
When Ianto left them, the Doctor seemed to be smirking.
"What?"
"A pretty man in a suit described as versatile by Jack Harkness? Does the poor man even have a real job description or is his title something crass like 'personal assistant'?"
"Do you really think I would employ someone for purely sexual purposes?" Jack asked, concerned that the Doctor had such low expectations of him. The fact that he'd called Ianto pretty could be dissected and over-analysed later.
"Well, I'd have to taste the tea to be sure," the Doctor said with amusement in his dark eyes.
Usually, Jack would have defended his and Ianto's reputations, but it was so nice to see the Doctor on his way to a better mood that he just allowed the implied accusation. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."
Hands in pockets, they both walked up into the main area of the Hub. Ianto was off making the tea, Toshiko was tapping away on her computer and Gwen was chatting with Owen at the briefing table. When they saw Jack and the Doctor though, they stopped speaking and Toshiko stopped working. Apart from the sounds of Ianto pottering about in the kitchen area, there was silence as they waited for Jack to explain the mysteries he'd produced in the past weeks. After a few seconds of consideration, Jack decided it would be safer to give out as little information as possible.
"This is Doctor John Smith. The incident with the Prime Minister has made it necessary for his presence here. He'll be working with us indefinitely." The team seemed to take this in their stride, with minimal curious glancing at the Doctor. Stranger things happened in Torchwood on a daily basis. Ianto walked in with a tray of mugs and dealt out tea to his grateful co-workers.
"So Harry Saxon was an alien, then?"
Jack nodded in response to Owen's question. He looked sidelong at the Doctor, worried that the subject might be upsetting the Time Lord. If it was, the Doctor didn't show it. He was watching Jack's team calmly and the Captain knew that he was appraising them, wondering if they could be trusted. Jack had been through a similar process during his early days on board the Tardis. The Doctor looked different, but his wariness remained the same. Once he decided you were worth it he would pretend to be happy and human, but until then he would assess you with a detached superiority. Right now, that gaze had settled on Gwen and Owen, though they had not noticed it yet.
"What sort of an alien was he, Jack? Are there more out there like him? How much danger are we in?" Gwen was voicing sensible concerns, but right now they were not easy questions.
"None. His species are gone now, we've got nothing to worry about." That had been a bit too blunt, judging from the Doctor's sharp intake of breath, quickly disguised with the determined sipping of tea. Toshiko wandered down the steps to better participate in the discussion.
"But what was he? Was it a man possessed by an alien spirit? A shape-shifter? He looked human on the television broadcast…"
To Jack's surprise, the Doctor chose to speak up on the matter. "He was from a planet called Gallifrey. The Gallifreyans look like humans, but there are internal biological differences."
There was a pause before Ianto made a hesitant enquiry.
"If you don't mind my asking sir, what exactly are you a doctor of?"
"Ooh, all sorts," the Doctor said with a smile. Ianto raised an eyebrow, distinctly unimpressed with the evasive answer.
"That's his friendly way of saying his personal information is classified," Jack said with a meaningful look at the Doctor. It would be interesting to see if the Doctor could make any pretence at professionalism while he was here.
"So is he from… higher up?" Toshiko said with a brief gesture supposed to indicate the mysterious upper levels of the Torchwood organisation.
"Classified," Jack said, pre-empting whatever rambling answer the Doctor might have given.
"So is that where you went?" Gwen asked. "You went off on a classified mission to deal with the alien Prime Minister?"
Jack nodded. "That's right. If I could say more I would, but it's all on a strictly need-to-know basis. Since the situation has been resolved, nobody needs to know." He tried to steer the conversation away from recent events. "What's rift activity been like while I've been gone?"
"A bit odd, actually," Owen said. He picked up some reports from the table and brought them over for Jack's perusal. "There was a brief surge here, but that dissipated quicker than I've ever seen."
The Doctor put on his thick-framed glasses and leaned over to get a better look at the graphs. "Oh, that'll be me, ignore that."
Jack chuckled. "You only love me for my Rift."
The Doctor smiled slightly then trailed his finger along the graph line. "This one here would be…"
"Now that," Owen interrupted, "would be the biggest instance of Rift activity we've ever seen, including the time it was open."
Jack hissed in a deep breath. Oh well, he was bound to find out at some point. Best to get it over with. He faced the Doctor's glare. It was similar to the one he'd received when he'd mentioned working for Torchwood.
"You opened the Rift?"
"I was against it personally, but I suppose I'm responsible."
The Doctor glanced over at Jack's team, seeing them fidget and look around awkwardly. "Oh, I see. They did it."
"But they're my responsibility," Jack said, preparing himself to face the Doctor's disappointment once again.
"And you're mine. Remember?" The Doctor sighed. "I suppose that makes this whole thing my fault indirectly." He went back to the graph, staring intently at the massive spike of activity. Before Jack could say anything, the Time Lord had switched subject again. "Ah, I know what this is."
"The Toclafane?" Jack guessed. It was weird, being one of the few humans who remembered the rain of metallic death.
"That's part of it. The rest is everything else. The paradox machine, the resetting of reality, it all caused instability in the Rift. Should settle down to its usual level with time." He sipped at his cooling tea, apparently ignorant of Jack's team staring at him. They weren't used to people other than Jack having that sort of knowledge. Then he beamed at Jack. "Do you have an office or something? I've got a few questions to ask. Classified business."
"Oh. Um, yeah sure." He went up the stairs, trusting the Doctor would follow. When they were both in his office he closed the door and gestured for the Doctor to take a seat. "So what's up?"
The Doctor sat down in the chair and pinned Jack with a serious look. "Tell me what happened."
"You mean with the Rift opening? It's kind of a long story." And he didn't particularly want to explain how his most trustworthy friends had turned on him in an instant.
"I'm not going anywhere," the Doctor said with a shrug that looked too casual to be anything but forced. "At least for the time being. So tell me what happened."
"It's not really important…" Jack tried, wincing as soon as he heard himself say it. The Doctor didn't even dignify that with a response, so Jack really had no choice.
He started with his brief foray into history with Toshiko.
"A localised time portal? Well now that's interesting. I wonder if there are many others in the vicinity of the Rift…"
He skimmed over his encounter with the real Captain Jack Harkness, though the Doctor's sympathetic pat on the shoulder showed he understood the significance. Once he'd reached the part of his and Toshiko's return, Jack had to ask. "Don't you want to know my real name? I thought you'd ask."
"That would be a bit hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?" The Doctor smiled slightly. "When we met I was the Doctor and you were Jack. That's how I knew you, it's how you knew me. If I gave you another name for me now, would you stop thinking of me as the Doctor?"
"Probably not," Jack conceded. "I can't call you John. It just doesn't work for me at all. You're not a John Smith."
"No? What would you choose for me then?"
"I don't know. Let me get back to you on that."
So he continued on with his story, making sure to include the great emotional stress his team were under and how whatever they dealt with had exploited their vulnerabilities to trick them into opening the Rift.
"And what about you?"
"Me? I didn't see anything." This was just as well, because if the Doctor had appeared before him and said 'open the rift', Jack would have done it in a heartbeat. Even if it had been for the best though, the immortal couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't seen a vision. Wasn't he human enough for these things to work on him anymore? The thought scared him.
He continued with his story, understating his own efforts to stop the team. The Doctor had looked sympathetic up to this point, but now he seemed unconvinced. "Why are you protecting them from me? What do you think I would do to them?"
Jack sighed. Was he that bad at lying? To the Doctor, perhaps. "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about them. They're brilliant people, I wouldn't replace any of them."
"What about the one that shot you?" Jack hoped that was protectiveness in the Doctor's voice.
"Owen can be a bit of an asshole, but he'd been through a lot. His girlfriend got swallowed up by the Rift for god's sake and he tried to commit suicide with a Weevil. This job gets to people. Sometimes I think humans aren't psychologically equipped to deal with this stuff."
"What about you? You must be the most long-lived Torchwood employee there is. Doesn't it get to you?"
Jack shrugged. It did get to him, some days, but he forced himself to be fine. He had a long life ahead of him, he knew he had to learn to cope. "I can handle it."
The Doctor chewed his lip thoughtfully, unaware of how much Jack wanted to kiss him then. When he said nothing, Jack went ahead with his tale of woe. The Doctor continued his silence through the rest of the story, letting Jack speak without interruption.
"…so I jumped, grabbed the Tardis, then we all know what happened next. Oh, that reminds me. Don't talk about my personal life with the team. They don't know much about me and I think it's better that way. All they know is that I'm immortal and that I served in the wars." The Doctor was still quiet, staring at nothing in particular on the floor. Jack leant forward. "Doctor?"
"And then you went from one hell to another…" the Doctor murmured sadly, turning his dark eyes up to Jack. "I'm so sorry. Life's been such a chore for you."
Jack smiled, hoping to ease the Doctor's mind. "Nah. I enjoyed a lot of it. A peaceful day, now that would be boring." His smile turned to a charming leer. "Unless someone was willing to pass the time with me."
The Doctor sighed, but the mood had clearly been lightened. "Thought you were sleeping with that Ianto chap?"
"Only in a casual way. We're not exclusive, so I can flirt all I want." Which wasn't to say Ianto wouldn't get a tiny bit jealous, but jealousy could lead to great sex.
The Doctor's gaze went back to the floor. "What's down there?" he asked, nodding towards the large gap.
"My bedroom. Yours too, if you like. It's small, but I have a sofa I can sleep on and the bed's comfortable enough."
"You sleep under the base?" Jack hadn't expected the concern in the Doctor's voice. For him the Hub was home now, it was familiar and comforting.
"What's wrong with that?" he asked, a tad defensively.
"Well, nothing I suppose. I just expected a flat or apartment or something. Somewhere outside in the bustle of Cardiff. I didn't think your life would revolve around your alien-hunting."
"I was waiting for you," Jack said by way of explanation. "I didn't like to be away in case you showed up. It took me a hundred years to get this close, I wasn't about to miss you just because I took an apartment fifteen minutes away. Anyway, I'm used to it now. And it does mean I can lay in without being late for work." He grinned. "We both can."
"You're giving me a job too?" the Doctor asked with one eyebrow raised. Jack realised he might have been a little presumptuous in thinking the Doctor would work for Torchwood. For him.
"It's on offer if you want. Only we don't know how long you'll be here and you might need some cash. Torchwood could use your expertise, too. I know it's kind of weird, considering you're officially our number one enemy and all that, but it's something to consider."
"What would I have to do?" the Doctor asked, looking a little worried at the idea of working for a living.
"Just let me know whatever you know about the creatures we come into contact with. I've got a fair bit of experience to call on, but I don't always have the answers." The Doctor still looked dubious, so Jack played it dirty. "You could also help us deal with threats without violence. At the moment we're pretty much limited to shooting alien threats and I'm not entirely comfortable with it. You could help us find peaceful ways to resolve conflicts." Jack watched with satisfaction as the Doctor's expression went from doubt to resolve.
"Alright. What's the pay like?"
"Very good," Jack assured him. Even better for the Doctor, who wouldn't be put on the official payroll. Jack would just draw something from Torchwood's ridiculously large budget as subtly as he could.
"Do I get to boss anybody around?"
"Well…" Jack considered this. "Since you'll boss people around whether I say yes or no, I might as well make it an official privilege. The team are under the impression you're my superior anyway, we might as well let that continue."
"So I can boss you around as well?" the Doctor looked positively gleeful.
"You say it like you've never given me an order in your life. You know if you say 'jump' I say 'how high, Doctor sir'. I don't need an official job title to know my place with you."
The Doctor sighed and shook his head, but Jack didn't care. The Time Lord needed someone consistent and through the warping of reality that had made him immortal, Jack could be that someone. The Doctor would never admit he wanted that stability in a person but then he never admitted anything.
He checked his watch. "It's late. I'm gonna send everyone home. I don't like it when they work too hard."
"This job's sounding better and better," the Doctor said with a grin as Jack left the office. Maybe the smiles were forced, but Jack was willing to believe the act for now. They could both use a little cheer after the year they had just lived through.
As he went down the steps to where his team were gathered though, it felt like he'd only been gone a few hours. He clapped his hands together to draw their attention. "Okay guys, time to head home. You know how I feel about unnecessary overtime."
"We just wanted to make sure you were alright," Gwen said. "We were worried when you disappeared, you know. We thought we'd lost you again." Her voice shook and Jack remembered how they'd all been when he last came back from the dead.
He stepped forward and drew Gwen into a hug. "I'll never disappear without warning again unless I can help it. I meant to leave a note last time, but it was all a bit of a rush." The lie tasted nasty on his tongue. The second the Doctor-Detector had started to register the Time Lord's presence, Jack's thoughts had left Torchwood so fast that he'd been to the End of the Universe and back before he'd even started to miss the people who had been the biggest part of his life. The Doctor had that effect on him. He'd tried to fight it, back in the dark days when he'd hated the Time Lord so much for his negligence, but he'd never managed to stop loving him. It was easier to give in to his feelings. They normally steered him well.
Gwen and Owen departed, Toshiko running after them like a loose third wheel. Ianto hung around awkwardly. "Something the matter, Ianto?"
"I was just wondering if your guest had accommodation or if you required me to book something, sir." Even now, after all their intimacy, Ianto called him sir. Possibly he knew how much of a turn-on it was.
"I'm gonna put him up here for a while until he adjusts to Cardiff better. His previous address is classified, but I can tell you it was a far cry from this city. He's a bit overwhelmed."
Ianto was frowning slightly now. "I wasn't aware we had a guest room."
"We don't. He can take my bed, I'll have the sofa."
Ianto's adorable frown became more pronounced when he heard this, but he quickly covered it up with a calm expression. It was worrying how easily he could do that. "If you like you could stay with me."
Here it was, then. The first choice. Steamy 'I missed you' sex with Ianto, or watching the Doctor sleep. He'd never seen the Doctor sleep, but he'd had sex with Ianto loads of times. Also, the Doctor could leave any day, whereas Ianto would still be around and hopefully willing in months yet to come.
"I'd rather not leave him alone here. Maybe once he's familiar with the place."
Ianto didn't comment, just nodded and wished him good night as though they were nothing more than colleagues.
Jack went back to settle the Doctor in, wondering when he'd start regretting his choice.