Chapter Four
After Jack put him back in the jar, he put the lid back on good and tight and now matter how hard the hand tried, he couldn't budge it. After awhile, he finally gave up and resigned himself to his fate, figuring that since Jack was immortal and he was probably immortal, they were going to be together for a very long time. As the days went by, depression took over and he floated in the preservative, wishing more and more each day that Jack would just throw him in the incinerator and end his life.
One day the hand was floating lazily in his jar when suddenly Jack stepped into the room.
"Where are they with those coffees?" Jack said to himself.
The hand sighed inwardly and was about to go back to his own thoughts when suddenly he heard the dinging sound again. He shuddered inwardly. The last time he heard that sound, he watched Jack snort the Doctor's underwear. He really had no desire to see that again and wondered if there was a way he could block his vision before Jack started running the underwear back and forth between his crotch. Then he heard it along with Jack. The old thrilling familiar sound of the TARDIS materializing. For the first time in a long time he felt some hope that perhaps his former owner would return, see him and take him away from his randy jailer. He saw the huge smile on Jack's face and watched as he sprinted to his office. He returned a few minutes later with a duffle bag. He pulled off the wires that had been attached to the jar and opened the bag. The hand grunted when Jack threw him inside, zipped it up and put it on his bag. Then he felt him running hell for leather through the Hub.
The bag bounced around on his back and the hand grunted when he was jostled around in his jar. He finally had to put his fingers up to save himself from repeatedly smacking into the jar.
"DOC-TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!"
The hand wondered what the hell was going on as he listened to Jack's frantic screaming. There was no light in the bag so he had no idea where the lunatic was headed to. He bobbed up and down in the solution, trying to hold on while Jack bellowed the Doctor's name over and over. Then the pounding of Jack's feet ceased and he felt like he was sailing through the air. He heard Jack let out a pained grunt when he smacked into something. The impact slammed the hand into the side of the jar and he inwardly cursed Harkness for bringing him along.
"Doctor! Open up! It's me!" he heard him say.
The next few minutes he heard nothing except Jack screaming the Doctor's name at the top of his lungs and then everything went quiet and the hand grunted when the bag slammed hard into the ground. The hand floated in the solution, listening and trying to determine what was happening. He could hear the Doctor talking somewhere off to the left of him along with the unfamiliar voice of a woman. He could hear the woman's distress and listened while she told the Doctor he was dead. Then he heard a loud gasp and a startled scream from the woman. The hand continued to listen to the conversation while he tried to figure out a way to attract the Doctor's attention. He tried everything he could to get his attention. He smacked the side of the jar and tried to project his thoughts into the Doctor's head with the hope that they were psychically linked, but nothing worked.
His spirits sank again when he realized that unless someone opened the bag the Doctor would be ignorant of his presence. He only half listened to the conversation going on outside the bag while he kept on trying to think of a way to get a message to his former owner.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was some time later that the hand finally had a chance to communicate with the Doctor. He had been listening while they were talking to a professor Yana and suddenly, he heard the bag unzip. Light flooded in and he saw a black woman looking inside at him. Her curious expression became one of disgust and she seized the jar and brought it out of the bag.
"Oh my God!"
He realized that this was Martha when she said that. He saw the Doctor nearby looking at him in shock while Jack quickly hurried over to Martha's side. He watched while comprehension slowly dawned on the Doctor's face.
"But..that's my hand," he said.
"I said I had a Doctor detector," Jack said smugly.
The Doctor sat down beside him and peered in. The hand was unsure whether to make a move since everyone else was looking at him too. He wished fervently that some sort of telepathic communication existed between them. He stared at the Doctor's right hand and felt absolute envy that all this time the other hand had gotten to be dry and comfortable on the Doctor's wrist. He waited and watched while they chatted.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Finally, there was a free moment and the Doctor told Jack he would put the jar in the TARDIS.
"You found me, Jack. This belongs to me now," the Doctor said to him.
Jack shrugged.
"Suit yourself," he said.
The Doctor waited till he walked off before he bent back down and looked into the jar.
"I don't know where you got this hand, Jack. Frankly, I really don't wanna know but I'm not about to let you keep it as a souvenir," the Doctor muttered while he stared in at the hand.
He was about to grab the jar when suddenly he noticed the fingers flickering. He frowned and leaned forward, wondering if he had imagined the movement. Then it happened again. The fingers moved.
"Muscle spasms?" the Doctor muttered. "Can't be though, not after this long…"
He jerked his head back when the hand slapped the side of the jar. He leaned forward and watched in fascination as the hand waved at him. Unconsciously, he waved back before he caught himself. His eyebrow arched when the hand pointed up to the lid and froze in that position. The Doctor looked around but everyone else was busy and didn't notice what was going on. The Doctor pried off the lid and gasped when the hand grabbed the edge, hoisted himself up and came down onto the table. Perplexed, the Doctor watched while the hand got up on his fingertips and shook the water off.
"What is going on? Did Jack do this? Some kind of Torchwood technology that animated my hand?" he muttered.
The hand fell back on his wrist and signed, "No." to the Doctor. The Doctor's eyebrows rose almost to his hairline.
"You understand what I'm saying?" he said to the hand.
Yes, the hand signed to him.
The Doctor looked around again.
"How is it that you're living?" he asked him.
I don't know, the hand slowly signed back using the sign language alphabet. I came to life when I hit the ground.
"Can you see me?"
Yes, the hand signed. Will you please take me away from Jack? He creeps me out.
The Doctor chuckled.
"Yeah, well, I can understand that. He didn't do anything to you, did he?"
No, thank God.
"I'll take you with me. I'm not about to let Jack have you. But you have to go back in the jar for the moment."
He noticed the hand shudder at that and he gave him a sympathetic look.
"I understand but I want you to be safe and frankly I don't want Jack cottoning on that you're alive. I'm sure you feel the same way.
Yes.
"Once Jack is gone, I'll take you to my lab on the TARDIS and see if I can help you somehow. But I want you to stay in one place so I don't have to go looking all over for you, alright?"
Yes.
The Doctor noticed Yana was turning towards him. He gently picked up the hand and put it back in the jar.
"Just relax and don't let anybody else know that you can move. I'm taking you back to the TARDIS right now."
He frowned when the hand pulled himself up to the rim, pointed to his right hand and beckoned to it. The Doctor brought his hand up to the rim and he smiled when the hand patted it lovingly before he pushed himself back down into the jar.
"This has been one odd day so far," the Doctor muttered while he put the lid back on the jar.
