A/N: You know it's been so long since I wrote a fanfic that I don't know if disclaimers are still popular or not. Well, I disclaim this.
1960 years later
The TARDIS warped into existence just outside of the Torchwood hub. The old girl needed a good fuel up. Just happening to answer Jack's call had no influence on the trip to Cardiff whatsoever. The Doctor had less then a foot out of the TARDIS before he heard Jack's greeting.
"You know I called two months ago."
"Yeah, well, riding woolly mammoths was a bit more interesting at the time. That and helping Picasso with his Blue period, inventing a cure for the common cold and being crowned King of the Carlacks. Interesting people the Carlacks, bit too beardy though."
The old friends gave each other a warm hug before stepping onto the hub's invisible lift to head down into the main base of Torchwood Three. "Gwen, Ianto! Time to behave yourselves, we've got company!"
Gwen looked up from the latest map of Weevil activity to see Jack and the Doctor descending. "Hello Doctor! Jack I didn't think we needed to bring out the heaviest guns for Weevils."
"Gwyneth, Gwen, good to see you girl," the Doctor returned the greeting as he hopped off the platform. "Nope, Jack just happened to leave an elusive message that apparently I'll find interesting. But then again, that's me, everything's interesting! Shiny object, yep it's interesting."
"I've got it up in my office. Gwen, I want that report on my desk yesterday."
The Doctor gave Gwen a mock salute as he followed after Jack up to the second level office. Jack finally asked the tough question when the Doctor had closed the door behind him. "Still no one? Not even in passing?"
"Oh their always in passing," the Doctor replied. Jack gave him a look. The Doctor sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, probably the closest thing to a comb that it had seen recently. "Martha keeps an eye on her. She's doing well, temping again, boyfriend, - "
"So where's the special artifact that you were so keen to show me?" The Doctor as usual had no interest in speaking of things that would do nothing less then rip his hearts apart.
Jack didn't say anything as he pulled a large square object covered in cloth out of his locker of the most valuable – and dangerous - alien artifacts. "We got our hands on this two months ago, right before I called you. It made quiet the local stir. A couple of archaeologists found it near the location of a supposed Roman outpost. Standard stone block of course, what made the stir though was this." Jack had set down the stone on his desk and took off the cloth. The Doctor put on his glasses and took a look at the stone that Jack was so keen on. There in large dark reddish black letters were four words: "PLEASE SAVE US, DOCTOR."
"Now that, that is definitely not Latin," the Doctor said as he looked at the stone.
"It was considered a hoax, that the archaeologists were frauds. But we double checked with our equipment, including several alien ones. The words are written in a mixture of blood and dirt and the date is the same as the stone. Close to 50 AD."
"Now this, this is interesting Jack. Looks like I'm headed to 50 AD as soon as the TARDIS is done refueling." The Doctor whipped off his glasses and headed towards the office door.
"Doctor," Jack called. The Doctor stopped his hand on the door knob. "Was there something else? A tea kettle from the future with my name on it?"
Jack tried to think of something, anything to say, but found that he couldn't. "Have a safe trip," he ended lamely. The Doctor smiled and headed off.
Later that day Gwen brought her report to Jack. She found Jack sitting at his desk fiddling with a rubber band and staring at the stone, an uncharacteristically grim look on his face. Since losing Tosh and Owen, Gwen had felt the ability to bring any sort of comforting words to the team leader slowly slipping away, but for once she wasn't going to let the new habit of silence stop her, even if the words couldn't be a comfort. "I'm not going to say that I know him well, but he doesn't seem like himself. There's a falsehood behind those eyes now that wasn't there in the brief moment I met him before."
Jack tossed the rubber band onto his desk before wrapping up the large stone. "I get the feeling that he blames himself. Donna was a true equal to him, one he probably hadn't had in a long time. And now, with her gone, I think he's feeling the weight of all their lives." Gwen didn't ask why that last part was in the plural. From her own research about the Doctor, there had been many who had shared his travels. Had all their lives changed as completely as Martha, Jack, and Donna?
"You only showed him one stone? What about the other?" Gwen asked as Jack put the stone away.
"The other one would have counted as a spoiler," Jack replied and shut the locker.