"Captain Jack Harkness at your service, ma'am." Martha looked up from her position on the floor to weakly shake the hand the grinning man was offering. Seeing her worried expression, he changed tack. "You okay?" he asked quietly, settling down beside her on the floor.
"Is he okay?" Martha gestured vaguely towards the Doctor, who was slumped across the captain's chair, staring vacantly at the moving time rotor, apparently not caring one jot that someone else was piloting his ship.
"He's shocked."
"I got the impression she didn't like me."
"Rose is all right. She's just devastatingly in love with the Doctor, that's all. She's a good judge of character, and I think she liked you really."
Martha felt a light come on in her head and nodded, understanding. "I remember now. He's got pictures of her all over one of the libraries. I thought she was blonde."
"Yeah…" he muttered, looking anywhere but at Martha. "Well, things have changed, I guess." This was obviously something not to be discussed in front of a fragile Doctor, and they were quiet for a while before she asked another question. "I hope you don't think I'm being rude, but why does she wear that mask thing?"
Jack jerked his head in the direction of the captain's chair, and she mouthed a quick 'sorry' at him. "Nothing personal," he said, "but it's something he needs to hear first, and I don't think it's a good time."
"How did you get there anyway, Jack?" a voice piped up, surprising them both. The Doctor was wandering around the console; apparently back to normal, although clearly deep in thought. The question was voiced absently, and Jack wasn't sure he'd hear even if he got an answer.
"I was out on a job a while after I last saw you. Remember that whacking great rift over Cardiff? Well, it got bigger. I was the other end of Wales when it happened. It'd been dumping people on either side for months, and not all human people either. Had us running all over the country causing a national Retcon shortage. They usually got sucked back by themselves after a while, no damage. And there was usually a swap, one person vanished as another turned up, and it'd fix itself when they went back. We just looked after them in between."
"How come you couldn't get back?"
"Don't know. I didn't really want to, anyway – not after I found Rose and the people she had with her. God, listen to me. That's not even her name anymore, not really." The Doctor looked at him quizzically, and Jack knew at once that he'd said too much. "Anyway, I don't know, like I said. By the way, when we get there, can you drop me off in Cardiff? I want to talk to Ianto. I need to explain."
The nodded. He understood too well the look on Jack's face. "I was going to start looking there anyway. I'll leave you at Torchwood while me and Martha go and track down our mystery bride. Hope it doesn't turn out like last time, mind you…nearly ended up with the poor old girl exploding." He patted the console affectionately and was rewarded with a tremor that knocked them all to the ground. "Must be nearly there!" he yelled excitedly. "Hold on!"
The more violent part of the trip was surprisingly and mercifully short, and after leaving Jack with a promise to be back in twelve hours (more or less), the Doctor and Martha set off in the direction that a bleeping blue sonic screwdriver directed them.
"You know, this is getting boring, really," the Doctor said as they walked. "If anything interesting happens, it happens here. Which is okay, but for once why can't it be somewhere else…hold on!"
"What?"
"She's over there!" He spun on his heels with the screwdriver held out at arms length in front of him. "Over there by the TARDIS," he added, bemused. They approached and walked twice round it, and became even more confused.
"Where did you say she was?" Martha raised a sceptical eyebrow.
"She's in there." The Doctor pointed at the ship's doors. "What's a stranger doing in my TARDIS?"