A/N: I know, I know, I'm late, sorry folks. I won't ramble. I will only say (nearly two weeks late) 'HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO OWEN AND TOSH?!' and "Miss Tyler get your butt back to that street!" Oh and "GO Donna, you tell him!" lol.

Chapter 2

"'The Jews and the Doctors will get all the blame, but it's only May playing his dirty game'"

"Doctor, what are you doing? You've been sat there for hours," Rose said finally, rising from the bed. She looked around for her clothes and found that the Doctor had hung them in front of the, now roaring, fire to dry off.

"I just don't understand where this energy came from." He rubbed his eyes and slumped in the chair.

"Then stop." She placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

"You should be sleeping." He looked up at her.

"I would be, but someone still has a lamp burning and keeps muttering and buzzing."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, taking her hand from his shoulder and pressing a kiss to her knuckles.

"Come on. Come keep me company, even if it isn't your night for sleeping."

The Doctor smiled and allowed her to lead him to bed.

"How did you manage to convince the others to share a room?" Rose asked.

"I didn't do anything. That was down to Jack. He doesn't sleep all that much and is the only other person who can be seen. Two grown men sharing a room might've raised eyebrows so he decided to keep an eye on his lot and have them with him." The Doctor stripped his jacket, shirt and tie, throwing them over the bed rail before removing his shoes.

"You can take those damp trousers off too! I'm not waking up in damp sheets," she laughed.

"Yes mum." He rolled his eyes and jogged over to the fireplace hanging them on the back of a chair beside Rose's clothes.

"How were you not cold sitting in snow soaked clothes?"

"Didn't notice."

Rose smiled at him as he slipped under the blankets beside her and curled her into him, with a soft satisfied moan.

"This is much more comfortable than that chair."

Rose turned to look at him properly. "So, no theories at all?"

"Oh I know how it got here. Someone made a tear in time somewhere and consequently managed to suck the entire city of London through. Who and why is still a mystery and why Victorian London. That's added to the; what have they changed? Something doesn't feel right."

"You mean other than the fact we're sleeping in a coach house that probably doesn't exist anymore in our time and the TARDIS has vanished?"

"Mmm, there's something in the air Rose. It's like it's vibrating inside of me but I don't know what it is. Something is changing."

"Maybe they're a time traveler and they got stuck?"

The Doctor frowned at her. The theory was so simple it hadn't occurred to him.

"Well, maybe not, I was just thinking that if they got stuck there and they didn't belong, couldn't they have used whatever equipment they have to open the rift? It might explain the 'changes' you're feeling."

The corners of the Time Lord's mouth twitched. "But the rift doesn't run through London."

"Okay, well…. what if they weren't aiming for the rift, maybe it's some kind of fault. Maybe they were just time hopping or whatever and brought London with them by accident."

The Doctor's face broke into a huge grin as he stared into her eyes.

"What?"

"When did you become so smart?"

"Always have been, just like letting you think you're the brains of the operation!" she poked her tongue between her teeth.

"Ooo Rose Tyler! You injure me with your words."

"Aww, poor love." She giggled and pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose.

"Now you're just patronizing me," he accused with a laugh in his voice.

"I would never patronize you. Wouldn't dream of it!" Rose told him with mock indignation.

They narrowed their eyes at each other before they both giggled.

"You should be sleeping, not talking to me," he told her.

"But I like talking to you."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere so there's plenty of time. Sleep."

"You're not going to go off exploring without me are you?"

"Not a chance," he assured her, kissing her lips so softly she couldn't help but sigh.

Rose closed her eyes and snuggled closer, so that her head was resting in the crook of his neck, the softness of his t-shirt caressing her arms.

"Oh and Rose?"

"Mmm?"

"I love it when you're smarter than me."

XxXxX

Owen had managed to commandeer the arm chair and was dozing quietly, his legs thrown over the arm, while Ianto had pulled the cushions off the window seat and fallen asleep on his make shift bed.

Only Jack was awake, watching over his sleeping team. It's true he rarely slept but he did find that he slept more in the TARDIS than he did anywhere else. Maybe Rose was right; she'd once told him that she was so used to the humming in the big blue box that she couldn't sleep properly without it when she was away. Maybe that's what was happening to him. He thought of the police box, out there, lost in invisibility and he felt his stomach tighten. He knew then, positively and without question; the TARDIS was his home now and going back never sounded better.

He lay back down on the rug by the hearth and listened to the fire crackle and spit, a smile crossed his lips as he heard a muffled giggle that was undeniably Rose. He'd missed that sound. He'd missed the warmth that their laughter filled him with. His team laughed quite a lot but he'd never felt like he was in on the joke and didn't really want to be. They were his friends and he loved every one of them. They were all special and that's why he'd chosen them. They had so many traits that would be useful to Torchwood and originally that's how clinical it was. But as time went on he grew to love them all as his friends but they had never become his family which was something he craved.

The Doctor's laugh drifted through the wall, it was a sound that still surprised Jack even now. He was used to this Doctor, in fact he would go so far as to say that he understood this Doctor far better than he ever did the last, although he'd like to think he'd had a pretty good handle on him too. One thing both incarnations did was hide behind the hard front when it suited them. And despite how talkative, the big brown eyes said far more than any words the Doctor could pick out of the ether.

Jack found all of the encouragement and understanding he ever needed with just one look from the Time Lord sometimes and despite his years Jack still needed that. He'd lost some of his confidence in himself over the centuries and despite their disagreements the Doctor had become like a brother to him. The older brother he'd never had that guided him and made him a better person.

A muffled voice penetrated his mind. "Night Captain, try to get some sleep tonight."

It was the Doctor and Jack chuckled to himself.

"You're the one with the distraction," he told him. "And a lovely distraction she is too."

"Stop it."

"Just saying."

"I'll have you know that she is now sound asleep."

"How did you manage that?"

"Time Lord charm."

Jack heard the chuckle in the Doctor's voice.

"Ah yes. We're all a sucker for that. So Doc, what's the deal?"

"We find a way to get London out of Cardiff and get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Any closer to figuring out how they got here in the first place?"

"Actually I might be. Rose came up with a great theory."

"But?"

"But what?"

"That wasn't the end of that sentence."

"I just can't shake the feeling I'm missing something."

"Such as?"

"I don't know. I have a horrible feeling history has changed a little but I don't know how."

For a while there was nothing but a kind of static in Jack's head which he'd grown to understand happened when the connection was open and the Doctor was puzzling over something. But it was what he said next that made Jack shiver.

"'Eight little whores, with no hope of heaven

Gladstone may save one, then they'll be seven.

Seven little whores begging for a shilling,

One stay in Henage Court then there's a killing.

Six little whores, glad to be alive,

One sidles up to Jack; then there were five.

Four and whore rhyme aright, so do three and me,

I'll set the town alight ere there are two.

Two little whores, shivering with fright,

Seek a cosy doorway, in the middle of the night.

Jack's knife flashes, then there's but one

And the last one's ripest for Jack's idea of fun.'"

"What the hell was that?"

"Allegedly, Jack's own words. My mind keeps bringing them forward."

"Fun."

"Mmm."

"Why do you say 'allegedly'?"

"They're from the diary of Jack the Ripper although it's never been proven by man to be the real murderer's work."

"But you know different?"

"Well…put it this way, only two people could have written it, the murderer or a policeman involved. There are too many details in it that weren't public knowledge at the time it was written for it to be a lucky guess."

"In other words you know and you're not telling?"

"Exactamundo! It's no fun when a mystery is solved. Trust me."

"So what else does the diary say?"

"'The man I have become was not the man I was born.'"

"So there were how many suspects? Eleven at least and not all male. Well you can discount anyone without a medical background."

"Don't be so sure Captain. Don't forget that in this century anyone with a book and a knife could be a surgeon. It's just a matter of knowing where to cut."

"But this guy knew what he was doing. I mean he took her insides out!"

"Doesn't take a genius, just a lot of rage."

"I'd seen the old black and white pictures before but seeing it right in front of me…I dunno, I guess it just didn't seem real until now. I mean, Doc, he cut out her stomach and placed it on the bedside table, cut off her breasts! He even stole her heart!"

"Yes, Jack, thank you for that," the Doctor groaned. "I've seen it all before thank you."

"You've seen it?"

"Me and inspector Abberline were good friends for a while, until the opium habit took hold. I really think he would have solved it if he wasn't off his face the whole time."

"Wait, he didn't know who it was but you did and you never told him?"

"And be the reason history changes? No thank you. Saving the universe I will do, outing one of the luckiest criminals in the universe, no way. Besides he got his comeuppance in the end."

"How?"

"Apparently his wife killed him. Well that's what the rumour mills decided and that's what she was convicted for. 'Course she didn't know the he was the Ripper, she just wanted out of the marriage so she could run off with her lover."

"And divorce was too hard?"

"No inheritance, she was cheating on him. She'd get far more if he died."

"So how was she supposed to have done it?"

"Drugs over dose, Arsenic."

"Arsenic?"

"Very popular drug in those days. Still used in the 21st century in various forms to treat all sorts of things."

"Like what?"

"Leukaemia, brain cancer. It's a very useful element, used in the right way."

"So what about this guy? Was he just using it for fun?"

"No. He contracted Malaria while in the Americas and the medication contained Arsenic. Of course he could have accidentally killed himself with an overdose or maybe even done it on purpose. No one will ever really know. Can't exactly ask him."

"Well you could."

"No, Jack, I couldn't."

"You know, for a guy with a time machine you're not much fun sometimes."

"I'm a Time Lord, Jack; I have to keep events in history as accurate as possible. That's my job, to make sure that history as you know is stays as it should. Past, present and future, they have to stay a certain way. In the old days it wouldn't have mattered, we could have sat up on Gallifrey looking down at you all and keeping tabs without interfering but since we lost soul control over Time Travel I don't have a choice."

"So you're saying if it wasn't for the Time War then you lot would have control over where someone goes where and when?"

"Pretty much. 'State your name and purpose' sort of thing."

"Wow. I didn't realise that's how long your lots reach was!"

"That's why I had to stop the Daleks. All of creation was at stake."

"And only you standing between them and power."

"Yeah," the Doctor sighed.

"Well this is a cheery midnight chat! From serial killers to war. Man, we throw a good slumber party!"

"Certainly do, Captain."

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Start again. Try and track down the TARDIS for one."

"I miss that ship."

"Mmm, right now I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be…… Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Is everyone else in your room asleep?"

"Yeah. Why?"

The Doctor carefully extracted himself from Rose and grabbed his trousers from the chair.

"Doc, what is it? What's wrong?"

XxXxX

Next Time:

The Doctor struggled to his feet, gulping air into his bruised throat. "Leave her alone," he growled, not wanting Rose to wake and witness any of this, he could feel blood trickling down, seeping into his t-shirt.

"What's the matter? Haven't learnt to share?"

The Doctor moved towards him unsteadily, his muscles vibrating with effort, but he stalled when he saw the glint of a knife in the man's hand.

"Uh, uh. One more step and I slit her from top to toe."

A/N:

There you are, an update. Please review, you know how much I like getting them!! It keeps me happy and writing!