Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or Torchwood.
Last time…
"This is what the key's for, Gwen," he said, unlocking the door and pushing it open. Then he stepped inside, leaving the door open and a very confused team outside wondering how this blue box was big enough to be a space ship!
Standing inside the TARDIS again, for the first time in months, Jack gazed around the vast console room. It hadn't changed at all, it was just as welcoming as always, the TARDIS's familiar humming engines telling him that she'd missed him.
Chapter 7
After a minute, when Jack didn't come back out of the box, the team glanced at each other, wondering what to do. Understandably, they were hesitant about following Jack into the 'ship'. But in the end, fed up with waiting, Gwen stepped through the still open door…
What she saw inside stopped her in her tracks. For a second, she stared… that was all she could do. A million and one thoughts raced through her head. How could all this fit in the box? How was it possible? No answers coming to mind, she turned straight back round again, and stumbled back outside.
Seeing her shocked face, Tosh asked her, "What's wrong?" And at the same time, Owen asked, "What is it? What's in there?"
"It's—it's…" Gwen couldn't think of how to verbalise what she'd just seen, "It's bigger on the inside!" was all she could say. Then she proceeded to walk up to the police box and run her hands over each of the walls. I had to be some kind of trick!
"What?! It can't be," Owen said sceptically, and leaving Gwen outside, he, Tosh and Ianto went to see for themselves.
A second later, Owen, Tosh and Gwen were all walking around the box with identical expressions on their face. They simply couldn't believe that it was possible for something to be bigger on the inside than it was on the outside! Surely it broke all the laws of physics!
Ianto however, remained inside. While he had been just as shocked as the others, and during his time at Torchwood he hadn't seen any more than the others had, he'd just come to accept that not everything in life could be explained and that there would always be things in this world that he didn't understand.
Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor were just two of those things, and apparently, this ship was another. Somehow, from what Jack had told them of the Doctor, and just being around him, Ianto got the idea that in his presence, unexplainable things always happened, and you just got used to it.
So, looking around at his surroundings, instead of running back out into the hub to try to deny that it could exist like his colleagues, Ianto looked around. It was a huge domed room with organic, coral-like structures and beams. The floor was a grating like you'd expect to find on a ship, and in the centre of the room was a round control panel with a clear, glowing cylinder reaching up from it to the ceiling.
But it was more than just how it looked. This place, it was… there was just something about it… Something in the humming of the engines that made it feel like a welcoming place and gave it a friendly atmosphere.
At this point, the other three members of Torchwood returned inside, still mystified about how this ship could exist. Ianto wasn't surprised to hear Owen say. "But—but this is just impossible. It can't exist!"
"Oh but it can, and it does!" the Doctor called, bounding over to them. He and Jack were both grinning at the looks of confusion on the team's faces. "So, what d'you think?" the Doctor asked.
For a second, none of the team answered. They were still trying to comprehend what was going on, not liking not understanding it.
Knowing that no one else was going to answer, Ianto said, "It's beautiful."
Clearly, this was the right answer to give, because at this, the Doctor laughed delightedly, and the lights in the ship flared up a notch before dropping back to their usual glow. The Doctor looked around, and then at Ianto, "That she is," he agreed, "and she's taken a liking to you!"
"Excuse me," Gwen asked, "How can this ship exist? I mean, we saw the outside… and the inside's bigger! How is that even possible?"
"Temporal physics," the Doctor answered as if it was something everyone knew.
But before they could ask any more questions, he continued, "Anyway, moving on… Jack!" he addressed the ex-conman, "You've got a slight immortality problem I believe?"
"Jack nodded, and the Doctor said, "Right here's the plan, we find out what's wrong… and then we fix it! Sound good?"
"Simple and effective," Jack agreed, "My kinda plan."
Wanting to seem useful, Owen volunteered, "We've got a lab back in the base if you want to use that."
"That won't be necessary," the Doctor said, turning to Jack. He was more serious by now. It was a bit unnerving how quickly his mood could change.
"It won't?" Jack, asked, a little confused, and more than a little apprehensive.
The Doctor shook his head, stepped in front of Jack and placed his fingers at his temples, just like he had with Reinette all those months ago. Then he closed his eyes and said, "Anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door, and close it."
"Wait, you're reading his mind?" Owen asked incredulously, "Jack, are you insane?!"
"Most probably," Jack answered, not worried at all any more. He trusted the Doctor. He could feel him in his mind, amongst his memories. And he trusted that he'd find what was wrong, and be able to fix it, just as he'd said.
Jack could feel all that the Doctor was feeling while he was inside his head, and now he knew, without a doubt, that the Doctor cared deeply about him, maybe even loved him. Jack was tempted to go into the Doctor's mind, while the Doctor was busy in his… just to find out more about the mysterious Time Lord. But in the end, he resisted. It would only stir up awkward questions, and the Doctor might even consider it a breach of trust. He'd let it go for now.
Inside Jack's mind, the Doctor was looking for the memory of his death on the game station. He had to know how it'd started, so he could end it. But annoyingly, there were no closed doors in Jack's mind. He was a complete open book. It was usually very helpful if there were doors, then he'd know where to not bother looking, because memories weren't stored in any particular order, contrary to what you might think.
The Doctor cleared his throat and said in a slightly embarrassed voice, "Jack, I'm seeing a few doors you need to close."
The Torchwood team grinned to themselves. They hadn't known Jack for very long, but from all Jack's flirting, it didn't take a lot of imagination to figure out what the Doctor was talking about.
"That's ok, Doc," Jack drawled with a flirtatious grin, "I don't mind."
"Yeah but I do!" the Doctor protested indignantly, "Those aren't things that I want to see! If I were in some American sitcom, by now I'd be screaming 'My eyes! My eyes!'"
But a second later, the grins had dropped off both their faces. The Doctor had found Jack's death. Seeing it, the Doctor felt a surge of pain. How could he have let this happen? He was supposed to look after his companions.
The Doctor shook off the feeling, there was no time for that now. He still had to find the problem, and he had an idea of where to look.
On the surface, Jack's mind was just how you'd expect it to be, full of life, brimming with emotions, memories, thoughts… But deeper down, it was a completely different story. It was dark, cold… and dead. The Doctor didn't understand at first… but then he saw it…
A spark of gold in the black. It was the tiniest wisp of the heart of the TARDIS. Rose had been surrounded by it, and now there was a spark of it in Jack… and it was sucking the warmth from around it, trying to stay alive inside him.
Evidently, when Rose had brought Jack back to life, she'd wanted him to stay alive. So that's what this spark was doing. Every time Jack died, it brought him back to life. But to do that, it had to stay alive itself… and it was using Jack to do so. And while it wouldn't kill Jack (after all, it's purpose there was to keep him alive), it was making him feel dead inside.
So, the Doctor withdrew his mind from Jack's, and opened his eyes, "I know what's wrong with you," he said.
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A/N: yeah, sorry guys, another mini chapter… but more Doctor though, that's got to count for something, right?
So, my exams are over for now, and I don't think I failed, so it can't all be bad, can it?!
And, the next chapter is more or less finished as I'm writing this… and it is the last chapter – yay!
So, the quicker you all review, the sooner I post, because I'm not going to update until I get at least 10 reviews for this chapter!!! – Optimistic I know, but that's how I'm feeling right now! So please review!
