"Have you ever heard of the Daleks?" Jenny froze, resisting the urge to shudder. She was thrust without warning, into that memory, teetering on the edge of nothing, so sure she was going to die, but then Jack's voice sliced through her memories, blurring everything together and bringing the here and now into focus. "Looks like you have, based on your face."
Jenny forced herself to relax. "It's silly. I didn't even come in contact with them, just what they left behind, but…" She trailed off when she felt Jack's hand on her shoulder.
"Trust me, Jenny," he said, an undecipherable look in his eyes. "I know." Then he went over to the far wall of the rather roomy storage cabinet they were in and pushed a shelf away to reveal a set of large tin doors where a wall should have been. "I stared down the barrel of a Dalek's eyestock once." Jenny blinked, taken aback.
"And how did you survive?" She asked, while Jack fiddled with the lock. The door broke open with a mighty boom, revealing a long hollowed out tunnel. He shrugged.
"I didn't." He cocked his head to the left, as if to say come on, and started walking. Jenny shook herself out of the surprise and ran to catch up with him.
"What do you mean you didn't survive? You're fine now, aren't you?" Jack laughed and slowed down, ever so slightly.
"You could say I had a hell of a friend."
"Oh, come on, you're gonna give me more than that, right?"
He relented. "I died and she brought me back, and now I can never die again," he said, too quickly, too matter-of-factly. There was a beat as Jenny processed this.
"Were you and her-"
"Oh, no," he cut her off. "Her and the Doctor were - your dad, I guess -"
"Oh." Another silence. "You know, I died, too." Jack stopped in his tracks, and Jenny, taking his cue, stopped too. She could see the question in his eyes and so she decided to answer him. "I was shot. He held me. Then, when I woke up, he'd just gone."
Jack released a warm gust of breath. "And then?"
"Well, he'd told me about other worlds. Donna, his friend, she said he saved mighty civilizations. And then, I dunno. Guess I wanted to keep up with the family business."
Jack let out a low whistle and grinned. "Noble pursuit," he breathed, and then started walking again. Jenny felt electrified. She'd forgotten what it was like. Her father and her were the same; he understood her. It felt like years had passed since she'd seen him. She'd been alone, but she'd didn't realize she'd been lonely. Then here was Jack and he was like her too and he got it. Jenny wanted to cry with happiness, but she just kept walking next to Jack in comfortable silence.
Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel, where there sat a small yellow-lit room. When Jenny saw what was in the room, she wanted to run back down the hall, screaming. And she would have done just that had Jack not stopped her. In the room there were rows and rows of what looked to be about 30 Daleks.
"Jenny, Jenny," Jack said, grabbing her shoulder. "They're empty." He banged on the closest one and Jenny flinched, but all she heard were three tin echoes. "See? Hollow."
"But how-" Jenny had to take a second to find her voice. "How did you get these?"
"There was a really bad invasion here just a few years ago. Countless humans died, but the Daleks died too. I had my team round up all the Dalek shells in case we ever needed them. That invasion was the last time I saw your dad. In order for the Doctor to come, there needs to be a crisis. So… let's make one."
