Jack

The phone call had been interesting, it wasn't often that Martha Jones admitted that she didn't have a clue what was going on. Jack was in turns baffled and concerned, Donna's grandfather had called Martha and asked for help, which either meant that either the Doctor was in trouble or it was a Doctor shaped problem and he was the next best thing. Tell Jack he has to come. Now Jack wasn't entirely sure he was comfortable with this situation, but he owed it to the Doctor if something was going wrong. What could honestly happen in Chiswick that would need his help?

The house was unassuming and it was hard for him to believe that someone as loud and brash as Donna could have come from it. The old man who opened the door looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, his skin looked slightly grey and he walked like a man who was struggling to hold him self up. 'Jack?' He asked and Jack gave him a toothy grin.

'That's me, Jack Harkness.' He invited himself in, the old man didn't seem like he could formulate much thought to do it himself. 'I hear you wanted to see me.' The old man nodded and then shook his head.

'Not me. Someone else.' He said and gestured for him to follow him to the kitchen. Jack noticed that the telephone in the hall had been unscrewed and the carcass left on the table. He opened the door to the kitchen, which was unless you counted the guts of most of the household appliances strewn around the worktops.

A young woman with dark hair was sitting at the table and Jack took stock of her for a moment before sitting down opposite her. She was intent on what she was creating, nothing was impinged on her thoughts until he coughed. She looked up and gave a smile. 'Jack.' She said warmly. 'You know, he made this look so difficult but did you know you could make a sonic screwdriver just using the bits and pieces found in the regular home. He thinks he's so clever.'

Jack furrowed his brow, flicking through a list of people he had met via the Doctor and Torchwood. A little light bulb flicked in his head and he stared at her. 'No way!' He said in disbelief before looking into her face more closely and she grinned.

'And here's another one who thinks he clever.'

'Donna?' He asked and she nodded. He stared at her for a long time and he leant back in his chair taking stock of her. 'What happened?' He asked and then shook his head. 'I mean, well obviously regeneration but that's impossible. Isn't it.'

'Well he obviously seemed to think it was.' She said with a grin, obviously enjoying his disquiet.

'Who did?'

'The Doctor.' She said patiently as if speaking to a child and Jack frowned at her, not really understanding, when he had left to go back to Torchwood Donna had been with the Doctor, had left with him to explore the universe.

'Where is he?' Jack asked, the tone of his voice a little dark as a niggling doubt came to his mind.

Donna sighed softly. 'Gone.' She told him honestly and her tone was a little pained. 'The metacrysis went bad.' She explained. 'It was burning me from the inside, I could stand it for a while, but there was too much. So… I imagine he thought he was saving me. Saving silly Donna from the knowledge she was too weak to handle.' There was bitterness in her tone and Jack watched as she blinked her tears away.

'He never thought that of you.' She took a deep breath and nodded.

'Well, I have a few things to say to him about that anyway.' She smirked and Jack found himself grinning.

'I'll have to warn him.' She held up a screwdriver up threateningly and Jack put up his hands in mock surrender. 'So tell me what happened.'

'He took my memories from me, it was the only way to save my life, or at least he thought. But the metacrysis, I gave the hand in a jar humanity, he gave me, well, this.' She gestured to her new body and then grinned. 'What do you think?' Jack grinned and gave an artful leer.

'How does it feel?'

'Weird.' She stated definitely. 'And also not. Like this was meant to be.' She grinned. 'I need to get used to a few things. Like being shorter.'

'So what do you need me for?' He asked, but had the horrible feeling he knew.

'Oh I need Torchwood's help, I need to find a way to get in touch with the Doctor.' Jack took a breath.

'We're not exactly a public assistance group.' He hedged his bets.

'I'm not a member of the public Jack. I'm a time lord… lady, or what the hell else it is.' Jack blinked.

'You mean it changed you that much?' Donna nodded and took his hand placing it on her left breastbone and he could here the steady heartbeat before she moved it to the other and she gave a smile as the feeling of dual heartbeats thrummed against his hand. 'That's… interesting.