Reconciliation.
Chapter One: Introductions.
Luke Smith drummed his finger on the monitor in anxiety, weighing up his options.
He had been debating the same thing for three days now: to mention or not to mention?
Rani and Clyde both suggested when he confided in them the first day that it only meant one thing, and Luke agreed. But Mum had mentioned once how He felt about Torchwood, which was what sparked his current indecision.
It was times like this when he wished more than anything that she was still here with him. She always knew what to do, no matter the circumstances. And regarding this one, Sarah Jane Smith would certainly want to investigate.
He missed her so much. She had found him, rescued him and cared for him; showed him so much of the Universe. And in return he had helped her. And the Doctor.
It was extremely hard to just forget it all.
But time was moving on. He had Sky his younger sister to look out for, although that was mostly done with help from Haresh and Gita Chandra (Rani's parents) and Torchwood to keep him occupied.
Luke reflected on how much he appreciated working for Torchwood as it made him feel like he was helping the Earth and Universe again. It was his duty. And it was somewhat some relief…
Just like that, everything seemed to click into place. And the decision was made.
"Jack, Martha. I think you might be interested in this."
o o o
Martha Jones was in the lab finishing up Luke's file.
Poor kid. After everything he's been through…
She had tried to protest to Jack against using him but to no avail. After all, they needed him. An alien superhuman genius complete with an alien supercomputer sidekick could be dangerous in the wrong hands… And that's precisely what the circumstances of his 'creation' had been.
She mentally shook herself. I'm making this sound way too much like Frankenstein's monster.. She thought.
Martha was still having difficulty working it out in her head. She knew the basics, and had even met Sarah Jane once before. It was truly inspirational what she had done and how many times too.
But the kids seemed too young. Luke's "sister" from the Tornado Nebula was what, 12? She looked it in human years anyway… And Luke's friends (Rudi and Clive was it?) were certainly under 18. Granted Jack had agreed to keep them out of harm's way, that didn't stop them from trying to help…
Speaking of the devil, Jack stuck his head through the lab door. "Martha Jones! Luke Smith would like the pleasure of our company," He said chirpily.
She couldn't help but smile. "I accept the invitation."
o o o
Gwen Cooper busied herself at her desk scanning through file after file of reported alien sitings from the Cardiff police. Andy really took advantage of their friendship sometimes…
Good thing she appreciated his help and support enough to bother.
Nearly all the reports she read were descriptions of weevils; nothing too urgent to worry about.
There were a selective few about an attack on some high school a few days earlier on the outskirts concerning a crashed spaceship. But Torchwood had that covered already: gas leak.
Believable due to the location of the reported siting: a physics classroom; with an active gas supply for use with Bunsen burners. Faulty gas pipes; simple.
The truth was a spaceship had crashed into the physics classroom and green goo had been scattered all over the canteen, meaning one thing: Slitheen.
And vinegar.
But who had done it?
Luke had insisted his friends didn't go to that school so it wasn't them.
This only left one suspect.
The Doctor.
But why would he not give any contact?
Jack knew the answer, this was obvious to Gwen. It was written all over his face but he wouldn't spill.
She'd get the answer out of him at some point.
She looked up and saw Jack, Luke and Martha gathered around the monitor.
Another mission smiled Gwen.
About time too.
o o o
"What's up Lukey boy?" Jack Harkness asked enthusiastically, swaggering up to him with Martha close behind.
Luke was a good kid; genius. And as alien as they came.
Jack noticed that he looked excited, but nervous at the same time. Sometimes he underestimated his own abilities.
"This." Luke said simply, pointing at a pulsing dot on the monitor.
"What am I looking at?"
"Artron energy."
"No. Way!" Jack asked seriously. Could it be..? "Give me the details!"
Martha looked confused. "What's artron energy?"
"Everyone who has ever travelled in the Time Vortex via TARDIS absorbs artron energy as a sort of background radiation." Jack reeled off, turning to Martha. "When was the last time you had a common cold?"
"Ermm.. I don't know. A while?"
"See, that's an effect of artron energy. It boosts your immune system making humans better at fighting diseases!"
"So what's Luke getting at?" Martha replied.
Luke pointed at the monitor again. "This is a map of Cardiff. I started running artron energy checks a while back just as a precaution but normally nothing shows. Then, three days ago this anomaly showed." He pointed to the dot which was located near the outskirts. "That's all I thought it to be at first, just an anomaly, from one of us travelling around but the energy shouldn't be that strong now if even there."
This was interesting.
"Three days ago?" Martha inquired. Luke nodded. "That correlates to that incident at St. David's college with the slitheen. Coincidence?"
"Well we have strong suspicions as to who was really behind that mess!" Jack piped up. Then another thought struck him. "Shouldn't it have disappeared by now if it was the Doctor?"
Luke continued. "Or for the remaining few isolated particles to have scattered; yes, exactly. We know the TARDIS isn't anywhere to be seen. I kept an eye on it but it still hasn't disappeared. And then I noticed something else. The energy moves to approximately the same places at the same times throughout the day, and is then repeated. Now it's late afternoon, see it's moving again towards the centre?"
Jack couldn't help but grin.
"So does that mean...?" began Martha.
"We've got ourselves a time traveller." Said Jack, nodding. "The Doctor's latest companion."
The monitor gave a high-pitched wail.
Weevils. Jack thought.
Gwen came running over. "What's the gossip?"
Martha filled her in. "Luke's picked up Time Vortex energy meaning there's another friend in town and now we've got weevils on the move near the bus station."
"How many?"
"Two by the looks of things, bound to be more the way they huddle..." Jack said. "Right, I'm going after them!" As he swung the huge tranquilliser gun over his shoulder, he contemplated how it always made him feel like a ghostbuster... "I also may get to track down this time traveller of ours, wish me luck!"
o o o
Ali couldn't wait to get home.
It had been one of those days where nothing had gone in her favour.
Firstly, she had spilled hydrochloric acid over her work in Chemistry, dissolving both hers and a class-mate's work, and putting a dent into one of the tables.
Then while in the cafeteria had tripped over a chair, sending her plate of spaghetti bolognaise flying. And the final straw was missing the bus, meaning she'd had to wait an extra half-hour for the next service bus to the centre.
Smooth…
St. David's college had been closed for two days to allow for emergency clean-up and repairs after the explosion caused by a 'gas leak'. Ali of course knew otherwise.
It had been a huge struggle keeping a straight, serious face whenever the subject had arisen during the day. And it didn't ever seem to stop, which really had not helped.
She had had some people, mainly her friends interrogating her regarding her disappearance immediately after the incident, but she had managed to keep it under wraps with the excuse that she had needed a walk to think things over.
Not the best excuse admittedly. She thought. But it's certainly more believable than the truth.
The bus reached the city centre station.
I can't wait to tuck into a takeaway.
Pandemonium.
People were running in all directions, screaming.
A few bays along was an unmistakable cloud of smoke coming from a double decker.
And an animal.
At least that's what it looked like from a distance.
A human in a mask?
Ali stopped and stared, curious.
It was certainly walking around on two legs.
No, lolloping.
It was definitely not human. Not with those sharp fangs…
The only creature Ali could liken it to was an ood, but with fangs instead of tentacle-like feelers for the mouth…
Instinctively she began to walk closer to it along the narrow stretch of pavement that divided the bays. She could tell the bus driver was dead and couldn't bear to look at the torn and mauled remains.
She realised too late that she had done the wrong thing. It turned around, sensing the warm blood pulsing in her veins, her cold nervous sweat.
Ahhh… she thought. Maybe this wasn't such a bright idea after all…
A man in a military trench coat appeared out of nowhere, a loaded gun in his hands.
A terminator sized loaded gun…
"A fan of aliens are we?" The man asked, preparing the gun to fire.
Ali took that as her cue to move. She didn't run, just took a few steps back until she was safely behind the newcomer.
One look at the man with the gun and the thing scarpered away.
"Captain Jack Harkness." The man declared, holding out his hand. "Who might you be?"
"Ali Hardy." Ali replied, shaking his hand.
"You appear to have a rather odd fight-or-flight reflex compared to everyone else in this area!" Jack said. "That interests me a lot! Let's go for a walk and you can tell me more about yourself."
He then pressed a finger to his left ear. "Guys, how's that signal looking?"
Ali faintly heard the words "it's right on top of you" coming from Jacks finger.
Jack grinned.
o o o
Mickey Smith was annoyed at being the last one to find out.
It was related to the Doctor for crying out loud, if anything he should have been one of the first to know…
I'm totally the tin-dog! He thought resignedly.
Now the whole team – minus Jack – was gathered around the monitor listening to the conversation through Jack's com. He had discreetly and conveniently left it on-line so they could listen in to what was being said.
From what they could gather, the girl was about Luke's age; late teens.
"My family used to live in Aberdaron on the North coast of Wales; tiny village. My parents ran the pub, where the locals would come to eat and drink, play pool and watch the football. I was just 10 years old at the time.
A pause.
"The children had nightmares every night."
"Nightmares are normal for children, you know." Jack mused.
Mickey couldn't help but agree despite the insensitivity.
"But these creatures from our dreams would come to life; every night. They would come to life and terrorise the village. There were these people at this old hospital… that used our minds to create their own Frankenstein monster to restore themselves to youth."
"And the Doctor stopped them?"
"Yeah. He had a friend, Rose. I helped her save the village with a screwdriver! But then they left…"
"Rose Tyler?"
There was an audible gasp from the team.
Rose… It had been a while since he'd heard that name.
"Yeah. The Doctor said you met her."
"How could I possibly forget her? Did he just mention me and Rose?"
Mickey sniggered. Trust Jack to ask for all the gossip knowing full well they were all listening.
The girl continued. "Oh no, he told me about lots of his other friends: Martha Jones who works for UNIT, even Mickey the idiot and also the DoctorDonna! But Sarah Jane was his favourite aside from Rose though. The Doctor talked about her so much. How she has a robot dog called K9 that he built for her and even a son called Luke, and how she carried on as if the Doctor never left with some of Luke's friends…"
"So what happened after the Doctor left? You obviously didn't stay in Aberdaron."
"We couldn't bear to. No-one could. One by one each family packed up and moved. My family were the last to leave; my parents didn't want to leave the pub, it was our family business. But a new location would mean a new start."
"So you moved to Cardiff?"
She hesitated. "No. London."
Ouch…
"Yeahhhh. You could say I've been pretty unlucky. We were there when the whole Canary Wharf Cyberman-Dalek fight kicked off. That was almost the final straw."
"What happened?"
"My mother left the house that morning to go shopping and didn't come home."
Double ouch…
"Then you moved to Cardiff?"
"Yepp. Dad and I had our normal life back. I went to secondary school, made new friends, studied hard and graduated. Moved onto college… and then the Doctor returned."
"Saint David's? But that was only what, a few days ago?!
"How do you…?"
"We were the ones who passed it off for a gas leak. So how did you end up travelling with him?"
"It wasn't just him who fought off the slitheen! I didn't know who he was at first as he had regenerated but I recognised his sonic screwdriver and ran after him. I told him who I was and reminded him of Rose and what they did back in Aberdaron. And it took off from there."
"Ali Hardy, would you do me the honour of accompanying me back to Torchwood HQ?"
"I shall!" came her reply as the com finally went offline.
There was silence in the Hub as the information they had just heard digested.
"Collector's item number four." Rex remarked.
o o o o
A/N: I'm sorry it's been so long, I wrote out this entire chapter three months ago but didn't like it and decided it wasn't what I wanted so scrapped it and started again... But please let me know what you think, thank-you!
