A/N: Ooo lookie another chapter! I am doing well, and almost a week after the last update!!! So where were we? Oh yes, Doctor and Rose are being naughty and uncharacteristically at that! Well what will Jack and Martha do?
Chapter 4
"Everything okay?" Martha asked as Jack dashed for the control panel.
"He's awake. He said to search the skies right before he told me to run."
"Run?"
"Well to be fair I did shoot him. He's still in there Martha he's just coming out less and less. It's a bit Jekyll and Hyde, only Hyde is winning the battles.
"So what are we searching for?"
"Anything alien."
"Why didn't we do that before?"
"I did, there wasn't anything. I dunno, maybe the Doctor can sense something getting closer or whatever it is that's infected him and Rose has given something away to him." He began tapping away at the keyboard as his phone rang. "Harkness."
"Jack? Just thought I'd phone and see how things were."
"Gwen now really isn't a good time."
"Is everything alright?"
"After a fashion, depends on what you mean by alright."
"What's wrong this time?"
"Oh nothing, just a case of Jekyll and Hyde on the good ship TARDIS." Jack looked at Martha and sighed. She was giving him that look, the one that told him to ask for help.
"You know he's not going to stay locked up for long," she reminded him.
"Gwen get Tosh and Ianto to search the skies for anything unusual. Ship, signals anything. The TARDIS is working on it but there are something's she just won't translate."
"Jack what's going on?"
"Rose and the Doctor are ill. Something's sending them crazy."
"Jekyll and Hyde?" Gwen confirmed.
"Right."
"You guys really like finding trouble don't you?"
"Not really, it seems to find us."
"Do you need help?"
Jack looked at Martha who just raised her eyebrows.
"What do we do when he comes looking for Rose again?" she asked.
"We keep him away. I'll make him come after me, anything we just have to keep them apart."
"We can't keep hiding Rose from him, it doesn't work."
"It buys us time," Jack growled, staring aimlessly at the monitor.
"For what? All it does is make him angry and more determined to find her. It doesn't help us really does it?" Martha could hear her voice getting louder.
"I'm trying Martha, but without the Doctor I'm still flapping in the breeze until we find whatever is in the sky and even then I don't know if we can stop it."
She could hear the badly hidden distress in his voice and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him.
"Then let us help you Jack. You're not on your own in this," Gwen assured him.
"Can I get back to you on that one?"
"You're safe right?"
"Honestly? I don't know. Martha and I are keeping them separate at the minute. It won't last long though. It's like trying to keep vengeful God's apart, will move heaven and earth to find each other." Absently he pressed a kiss to the top of Martha's head
"I think some of us should come down and help you."
"No, no we'll come to you, if I can get the TARDIS to fly. She keeps letting the Doctor loose so I'm not sure how she'll behave."
"I hope you have your running shoes on," Martha whispered nodding to the corridor. They could hear the Doctor's muted footsteps echoing down the hall.
"Took his sweet time," Jack muttered. "Gwen, I'm going to try and come to you, have the portable cell and anti-weevil clamps ready. If we can get close enough to the pair of them we might be able to use them. I'm going to see if I can lose him in the corridors for a while. Gwen; gotta run honey, literally."
"Be careful."
"Martha," he pulled back from her and took her by the shoulders, "remember what I said, stay close to the doors and if you have to, leave and hide."
Martha nodded moving round the consol so that it was between her and the corridor. "Be careful Jack." Her voice wavered slightly with worry.
"Oh Jaaacccck," the Doctor's voice sang through the air. "You're playing hide and seek with someone else's property. That's not friendly. Neither is shooting me. So I'm going to give you to the count of ten to run and hide before I come to find you. And you are not going to like my prize when I do."
XxXxX
Jack ran turning corner after corner putting as much distance between him and the Doctor as possible. The TARDIS had ignored his co-ordinates. He could no longer control her, it was like she too was infected, just like the Doctor and Rose. But if he could get enough of a head start he could teleport to Torchwood without the Doctor suspecting and get help. Martha was right; they couldn't do this on their own.
"Oh Jaaaackk. You can run but you can't hiiiiide." The Doctor's voice sang along the corridor, seemingly closer every second. How did the Doctor keep up such a speed without losing breath? Jack tried to pump his legs harder whilst programming his teleporter but he found himself flagging.
"There you are Captain."
Jack froze but not with fear. One minute he was running then he was frozen to the spot but completely aware of everything around him, including the Doctor giggling behind him.
"Getting slow in your old age Jack. Although you're infinitely younger than me." The Doctor rounded to the front and stood nose to nose with the former Time Agent. "Well, I say infinitely but that would be impossible wouldn't it? Infinite is without end and you're about what? Seven hundred years younger than me? That's not infinite is it? Still you'd think that you'd have figured out that annoying a Time Lord is a very bad idea." He grinned as he saw a mild panic flicker across Jack's eyes. "Well I'm going to leave you now, wondering what I've done to you. Ta ta!"
With that the Doctor disappeared down the corridor leaving Jack suspended mid-stride.
XxXxX
Jack had been gone for what seemed like hours and Martha didn't know whether to be relieved or worried. She was definitely relieved that the Doctor hadn't come for her but she was worried that she hadn't heard from either of them. She didn't like being scared of the Doctor. Would he really hurt her?
"Hello Martha."
Looking up she saw the Doctor standing in the doorway, hands stuffed in his pockets. He'd changed his suit which made him look even more like a stranger. Gone were his friendly brown and blue suits. In their place was a black pinstripe suit with a black shirt and a shocking red tie. Martha didn't think she'd ever seen the Doctor look so sinister.
"Now then you and I need to have a little chat wouldn't you say? But first I need to claim my girl, again." He looked at the repair hatch under the control panel.
Martha took her chance to sidle towards the doors.
"Uh, uh, uuhh! Martha Jones, where do you think you're going?"
"What did you do to Jack?"
"Jack's fine, he's just a bit….. slow off the mark." His eyes narrowed as they focussed on her and she felt like everything was speeding up around her, everything except the Doctor. He moved to her side. "Bad idea annoying someone who can control time and space wouldn't you say?" he crowed circling her. "It's a form of suspended animation; you are moving just a thousand times slower than the world around you, such a wonderful thing." He winked before walking back over to the repair hatch and pulling it open. "Rosie?"
The Doctor disappeared from sight below the control panel, climbing down the ladder to the switch room.
XxXxX
Gwen looked up as Jack appeared in the middle of the hub.
"What the?" Owen walked towards his colleague with mild amusement. "Where'd he come from?"
"Is he running?" Gwen asked, getting up from her seat.
"He was."
"Is he alive?" Ianto asked rushing towards Jack and stopping in front of him, looking for signs of life.
Then without warning Jack ran straight into him, knocking them both to the floor with a grunt.
"Sorry, you okay?" He panted, staring down at Ianto.
"Fine, Sir. You?"
"Never better."
"Glad to hear it, Sir," Ianto breathed staring up at Jack.
After a few moments Jack pulled himself off his man and sat heavily on the floor.
"What was that?" Owen asked crouching down, looking Jack over.
"Suspended animation. Doc still has a few tricks hidden."
"The Doctor did that? What did you do, flirt one too many times?"
"He's not himself so I sort of shot him and hid Rose."
"Woah, woah. You shot him?"
"Relax it was a tranquiliser. Like I said, he isn't himself. Neither is Rose which is why I'm here. They're ill."
"How are you here?" Gwen asked.
"My wristcom has a teleporter. I'd set it with a delay hoping to run round the corner and disappear out of the Doc's view so he'd carry on chasing blindly down corridors. Unfortunately he's faster than I thought and caught up with me before I could teleport here."
"And he put you in suspended animation?"
"Right. Must've taken a while for my body to catch up once I left the TARDIS."
"I take it you couldn't get the TARDIS here?" Gwen surmised.
"No. Looks like we're on our own while the Doctor and Rose are loco. The old girl doesn't want to play nice; she's too fond of them to do anything against them."
"Just as well you've got us then."
"I need that por …." Before he'd even finished his sentence Owen dropped a small box onto the floor.
"One step ahead of you. Moment you came close to admitting you might need help Gwen called me. So what's the plan?"
"I go back to the TARDIS and catch them both in the portable cell, tie them up with the weevil clamps and pray it all holds until I find the solution. I've got to get back. I've left Martha alone with a mental Time Lord and Bad Wolf."
"Bad Wolf? THE Bad Wolf?" Ianto finally broke his silence.
"Yeah, Rose is Bad Wolf. Long story and I really don't have time. If he gets bored on board god knows what he'll do."
"I'm coming with you," Owen told him, face set and determined. "You can take more than one on that thing right?"
"Yeah but,"
"I might be able to help. At the moment it's two on two, right? Well the way I see it you could use some extra muscle."
Jack started to laugh.
"Oi! Okay I might not be as strong as you but I've got the brains and you said they're ill. Seems to me you could use all the help you can get."
"I'm coming too," Gwen announced. "I'm no good here, at least I can try to help you and Martha and I know how to fire a gun."
"You're never going to let this lie if I leave you behind are you?"
"Nope," Gwen and Owen answered in unison.
"Ianto, can you continue the scans? Phone if you find anything at all. Right, this isn't going to be a comfortable ride so you have been warned. I've never travelled with three fully grown adults." He looked Owen up and down. "Well almost fully grown."
"Oi! Don't push your luck or I might just find myself helping the deranged Time Lord. So what should we expect?"
"A randy pair inviting you to join in the fun."
"Sounds like my kind of enemy. What's the problem?"
"When they get bored they could end up destroying the universe."
XxXxX
Next time:
Rose moved beside them, watching her lover intimidate the girl with interest.
"It was always how you felt when I thought about Rose, when I was reminded of her, when I wasn't bouncing around with you as the centre of attention for all of five minutes. Did you ever once consider how I was feeling? How I was dying inside? No, you just nursed your crush, letting it grow. Trying to turn me into something I'm not. That Martha Jones is why this little game of yours is pointless." He was standing nose to nose with her now. She could feel his breath on her cheek as he leant to whisper in her ear, pinning her to a pillar with nothing but his tone. "You see, each time you hide Rose Tyler you just present me with a challenge, and you know how I love a challenge. Tell ya what though, you keep turning her into a damsel in distress and she's gona wear me out with gratitude. But what better way to regenerate than with a huge smile on my face." He pulled back and gave what Martha thought was meant to be a smile but instead it looked like a sneer. She could feel herself trembling against the pillar, her knees ready to give way.
"But the real point of it all is, Martha Jones; you couldn't handle me even if I had given you a chance."
"Oh no?" Her voice was shaky but defiant.
"You don't believe me?" The smirk was back and she wanted to slap him as he looked at Rose then back to her but all thoughts ceased as his lips descended on hers.
A/N:
Ahhh, Jack has friends! Had to bring Torchwood into it somewhere, it wouldn't be right for them not to feature in this series somewhere, plus they're handy characters! Any who, Looks like Martha finally gets a taste of the Doctor, literally! Let me know what you think
"Catch ya on the flip flop!"
