This is just a fun chapter to keep you reading, plus I promised someone a Jack cameo. I just started watching Torchwood, so I have no idea where this is or possibly could be in that series. Thanks for all you support.
Chapter Seven: Where the Wild Things Are
When Captain Jack Harkness heard his phone ring, he knew immediately that it was going to be bad news. And it had been.
It was the Doctor. Well, he went by John now but Jack still thought of him as the Doctor. It was hard not to.
"Get over here now." John said and hung up.
As Jack quickly got dressed he thought about how upset John had sounded. He was angry, that was clear, but beneath the initial anger, there was fear.
Just eleven minutes after the phone call, 7:41, Jack knocked on the door where John, Jackie, Pete, Tony, and Noble were all living since Earth's invasion.
Pete opened it, his face grim. When Jack first walked in, the first thing he saw was that everything that could be broken in the room was broken. The television looked like someone had stepped through it and was smoking slightly. There were broken dishes everywhere, a few cracked picture frames, and a smashed mobile.
And Jackie Tyler was crying as she held on to her young son who looked scared. Noble sat next to her grandmother, holding a little dolly. She didn't look scared, she looked thoughtful. Jack had always been a little scared of how alike Noble and her father were. They always had the same expression of knowing all there is to know on their faces and on a three year old with Rose's eyes, that was saying something.
"What's happened?" Jack finally asked after waiting for someone to speak.
"Torchwood I has launched all of its escape pods."
Jack turned and faced the hard voice of John Smith. He was standing off to the side of the room. He looked tired. Jack knew he hadn't been sleeping all that well, but looking at him now he wondered if he had been sleeping at all.
"Why?" Jack asked, knowing the answer.
"Apparently we've lost all hope." Pete answered.
John didn't know how to respond to that. He'd lost hope before and right now he didn't need to go to that dark place. "When do Rose and the others get here?"
"Most of the pods have already arrived."
"So they are already here?"
John shook his head curtly. "According to various sources, Rose and the others stayed back with 30 or so others."
"They're going to fight?"
"Rose gave everyone the option of going home."
"Only 30 stayed." Pete looked disgusted. "Only 30 stayed to fight an invasion."
"Then why aren't we preparing to go to them?"
"Because Torchwood II is under lock down: No one gets out, only the…survivors of Torchwood I are being allowed in."
Jackie let out a bit of a squeak on the couch as she fought back the tears. Pete sat down next to his distressed wife and son.
Noble watched this with a curious expression.
"Daddy, where is mummy?" she asked in her little wise voice.
John opened his mouth but said nothing. Jack had only seen this reaction on the Doctor's face once, when the Children of Time had all been with him, threatening to blow up the planet and the Dalek ship. He had looked hopeless, yet proud.
"Daddy?" Noble walked over to her father, her little doll dragging behind her. John picked his daughter up and held her to him.
"She's saving the world, just like always." He said burying his head on her shoulder.
Noble's response was to pat her father's head and tell him that everything would be all right.
"What happened to Rose's back up plan, to find the Doctor?"
"I don't know. We've told you all we know."
Pete shook his head. "They won't tell us anything else, not even me."
Now that was something that struck a chord with Jack. If the Government wasn't even telling it's President anything then there was something to be concerned about.
"I bet you're wishing you had stayed on Original Earth now Jack." The Doctor laughed a bit, his eyes red as she hugged his daughter.
"I could really use a drink." He said in response.
"I broke all the glasses; you'll have to drink from the bottle." Jackie said, speaking for the first time since he entered the room.
To be honest, Jack had figured that it had been John who had done the damage. Rose had expressed to him her worries that if anything ever happened to her or Noble he would become the Doctor born in battle again, instead of his carefree, almost Donna like persona now.
"That's works just fine." Jack said as Pete pulled a crystal decanter (possibly the only glass object in the room that was not broken) out of a drawer in the half destroyed coffee table.
Jack took a swig and the brandy burned his dry throat.
"What do we do now?" it was Noble who had spoken. Jack took another nervous mouthful of the liquid. It was almost eerie how she spoke like she was twenty years older.
John shifted his daughter on his hip and looked at her and smiled, but Jack could see the smile didn't reach his eyes. "You are going to go to bed, while we go and get mummy, Auntie Donna, and your Uncle Mickey and Aunt Martha." He looked at Jackie. "Why don't you take the children to their room and read to them?"
Jackie nodded and came over and got her grandchild quietly.
"How exactly are we going to get the rest of our little family?" Jack took another swig. Pete took the bottle from him and took a drink as well.
"I have absolutely no bloody clue."
Jack nodded and just to say something, he said "Do you ever worry about how smart your daughter is?"
To his surprise, the Doctor nodded. "It scares the hell out of Rose and me. Sometimes she takes books from us when we are reading to her and tells us that they are not "reliable information". The other day she made me read out of one of Rose's physics books."
John was laughing now. This made Jack smile and he offered John the bottle. And again, surprising him, he took it and took a great gulp from it.
He made a face afterwards of course. "You could power a rocket with this."
All the same, he took another drink and handed it to Pete, who looked at the diminished bottle sadly.
"Are we giving up?" Pete asked.
"No." John and Jack both snapped.
"Then what are we doing?"
"We are waiting." John said.
"For?"
"A message from Donna." Jack clarified.
Donna had told John about her "déjà vu" feelings and John had told Jack. A few nights ago, Donna had messaged John about something she had been seeing lately, but wasn't completely clear yet, like it was foggy. But it was about Rose, Donna had made that clear.
After John had explained this to Pete, Pete asked what makes them think that Donna's "vision" would be any clearer.
"When something very shocking or out of the ordinary happens, it triggers different parts of your body." The Doctor said. "Mostly your mind and you heart. Donna's heart and mind are connected more than a normal human's because of the Time Lord energy running through her. So she has more visions about people and places she cares about than of people and places she has no true connection with."
"So you think that the impending, for the lack of a better phrase, death of all the people she cares about is going to give her vision clarity?"
"Basically, yes."
"And tell us how we are supposed to save Rose and the others." Jack added.
"What makes you think that?"
John laughed. "Well, they're not going to die."
"That makes no sense."
"Think about it: If they die, the universe ends, and since that's not going to happen, they are not going to die." John explained as if this was obvious.
Before, this had made sense to Jake, but now listening to John say it out loud he realized how much they had deluded themselves. Pete could see it too, but said nothing. Jack felt ridiculous; he had put so much faith in Donna's premonitions that he hadn't even considered what could really happen.
Jack took another drink of the brandy as they stood there in an almost awkward silence.
Suddenly, Noble's voice sounded at the end of the hall.
"That is not a logical opinion gram!" she sounded very exasperated, again, not normal for a three year old Jack thought.
"But it says right here that the cow said she had no more milk!" Jackie shot back, arguing with the two foot tall Einstein.
"Cows cannot talk!" Noble shouted back.
"I told you so." John headed toward the room. "Noble, it is a children's story, just let it be!"
As soon as John was out of earshot, Pete turned on Jack. "Have you lost your damned mind?"
Jack nodded. "Yes, care to help me find it?"
Pete took the almost empty decanter from Jack. "We have to tell him that it's not going to work."
"And what will that accomplish?" Jack countered. "You want to tell the dangerous and easily angered Time Lord that the women he loves and all his friends are going to die—if they aren't already dead, that is. Please be my guest, but if he becomes cross and kills you, don't come crying to me."
Pete said nothing.
"I realize that our plan is completely mad, I do, but do not tell him that. Let him come to grip with it on his own terms."
"Do you really think she's going to die?"
Now Jack was silent. Pete Tyler had never really shown any fatherly feelings towards his "almost" daughter. He hadn't even walked her down the aisle when she married John. But looking at him now, you would never even think that this was the same man who had told Noble, only yesterday, that it was best not to call him grandpa.
Before Jack could begin of how to respond John came back out smiling.
"I gave her the periodic table picture book you gave her for her third birthday, Pete." He clapped his hands together. "She just loves it by the way; though she still can't pronounce "periodic" without sounding it out."
Jack thought that that was funny. The child could already recite the times table up to 100 and spell Neptunium but couldn't say periodic without breaking it down.
Jack sat down on the couch and waited, this the thought that was keeping him sane.
Almost 45 minutes later the chorus of "Super Freak" sounded from his pocket. This was Donna's ringtone.
He put it on speaker.
"You there?" he asked.
"Yea, so's Mickey and Martha." The connection wasn't good, but it'd have to do. "I—"
"Is Rose safe?" John asked before Donna could finish.
"For now."
Pete and Jack exchanged a look as John moved closer to the phone. "What does that mean?"
"John, I…I…" Donna's voice broke.
"Donna?" the John's tone was hard.
"I saw what's going to happen, it became clear as soon as Rose got back from searching for the Doctor."
"She found him?" Jack asked before John could respond.
"She did."
"So he's there?" Pete looked a little relieved.
"No. He wouldn't come."
Even John was silent.
After a moment Jack heard Martha's voice. "Did we lose you?"
"Our connection is bad; it sounded as if you said you the Doctor wasn't coming." Pete said, but even he sounded like he didn't believe it.
"Rose said that she found him but he wasn't interested in helping. She came back alone."
"But…" John looked more confused than his two companions. But he also looked hurt.
"What about your vision?" Jack asked, trying to move the conversation along.
"I saw Rose send a message."
"That's all?"
"Yes."
"Do you know who too?"
"No, I couldn't understand her that well, but she said something about River Song."
The Meta-Crisis Doctor looked up at this. "Did you say River Song?"
"I told you the name was familiar." Donna said this to her friends on her end, but to John she said "Where have I heard that name before?"
"You and the Other Doctor met her at the Library. She knew him. She knew him very well, but he didn't know her."
"The frizzy archeologist?" Donna asked, sounding almost amused.
"Yes." John made a face. "The archeologist."
"John, there's something else." Donna's voice was regretful.
"What?"
"She was hurt and crying and I think she was…I think she was saying good-bye."
John said nothing.
Mickey's voice was quiet but determination dripped from his next words. "But we're not going to let it happen, I promise you Doctor, we're going to get her back to you and Noble."
"How are you going to do that? All the escape pods have been registered as gone?" Pete asked.
"There is an unregistered pod used for quick escapes." Mickey said. He sounded regretful. "We didn't tell Rose about it because we knew she would have sent us on it ages ago."
"You bring my wife home, but you promise me that you three will be on there as well." John said looking at the phone intently, as if he was seeing the three on the other side of the call.
There was a moment of muffled discussion and then Jack heard Mickey said. "So we are agreed: We make sure all of us are on that last pod, no matter what?"
"Then we need to make a plan." Pete said.
The plan was simple and direct, if not a little too easy Jack thought. He couldn't be the only one who thought Rose would never fall for it. But he said nothing to the others.
Rose had called Donna and they ended the conversation so Donna could take the call without drawing suspicion and promising to call as soon as she could.
Pete was called away by his security guard for a well past due debriefing, leaving Jack and John alone except for the now sleeping Noble who had snuck out and fallen asleep in her father's arms, the periodic table book off to the side.
"What will you do if Rose doesn't make it back?" Jack finally dared to ask, breaking the silence for the first time since Pete had left.
John looked around the shattered room, slowly stroking Noble's soft blonde, head. "I know everyone has been worried that I'll go mad if I lose Rose. I can see it on their faces every time Rose says she has to go on another mission, without me."
Jack watched the sad man's handsome face as he spoke.
"They all think that I'll become nuclear and destroy everything." John looked over at Jack. "I'm not the man I was when the Other Doctor left me on that beach. I'm changed. I've been changed since I first told Rose I loved her and she said it back. I changed again when we got married. When my daughter was born and when I found my first gray hair. I'm changing every day into a different man."
But if Rose doesn't come back…I'm terrified that all that change won't be enough." John looked down at his daughter. "Not even for Noble."
Jack thought about this. "Then she better make it back."
John said nothing but finished off the brandy.
"Why do you think the Other Doctor didn't help?"
John looked at Jack with his old, old eyes, his face shadowed with stubble from not shaving the past few days.
"Whatever it was must have been something incredibly important and powerful."
"Why do you say that?"
John did not respond and Jack did not question him any further. They just sat in silence, listening to Noble breathing softly as she dreamed.
So I hope that no one is getting bored with the plot. If you can find a plot. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I hope that you are still enjoying this as much as I am. I shall have the next chapter up as soon as I finish it. Any questions or comments, please leave them, and I will get back to you.
Love,
Lost