The Doctor woke with a groan, and raised his hand to the side of his throbbing head. He winced as his hand touched the bruise on his temple. So much for not hurting me he thought sourly. He knew she had done it on purpose, which saddened him slightly. What had happened to that shy, happy girl he had met? The one who didn't like going off on her own, who needed him? How had she changed so much? She thought you left her. Said a voice in his mind. You broke her heart…
He became aware that someone was watching him from over by the door and sat up groggily. It was Rachel.
"Sorry" she muttered, opening the cell door. "Look, Jack wants to see you, ok?"
"Jack?" the doctor still looked confused. Rachel felt suddenly guilty. Had she hit him harder than she thought? But the next second his trademark demented grin was back on his face "Jack! Brilliant!"
Ianto sat up suddenly, heart pounding, looking around him wildly. Where was he? Where were they?
"Hey, hey, it's ok."
He flinched as someone touched his shoulder, then looked up and realised it was Jack. He looked around him properly and realised to his relief that he was in Jack's office, back in the Hub.
"What happened?" asked Jack softly, sitting down next to Ianto and putting his arms around him.
"I – I was looking round the school like you said." The young man was clearly still terrified, still in shock. Jack hugged him tighter. It killed him to see Ianto like this.
"Anyway, I was in one of the classrooms when the head came in, wanted to know what I was doing in the school. I had to make up some cover story, b-but I wasn't sure he bought it. I turned around to leave and then something hit me in the back of the head." He drew a deep, shuddering breath. "When I woke up, I was – they – they…" he seemed unable to continue.
"Shh, its ok, you're safe now. I've got you" Jack lifted the younger man's head, gazed into his clear blue eyes.
"I thought I was going to die, Jack."
"I wouldn't let that happen." He bent his head and kissed Ianto, who responded at once, his hands gripping Jack's back, their tongues entwining. It was a kiss filled with relief and passion, and a joy at just being alive…
"Ahem. Err…nice to see you, Jack" the men broke quickly apart and stared at the newcomer.
"Doctor!" Jack stood up at once and went to greet his old friend. It felt like a lifetime since he had seen him last. In fact, it felt like several.
"Jack, who is this?" Ianto frowned slightly as he looked at the tall, skinny man shaking Jack's hand. He felt sure he had seen him before…
"Ianto, this is the Doctor. Doctor, Ianto Jones."
The Doctor grinned at him, and held out his hand. "Doctor…" Ianto's eyes widened and he turned to look at Jack. "The one you disappeared off with for 2 months?" Jack nodded. Ianto stared pointedly at the Doctor's proffered hand. He wasn't too sure he was happy with Jack being off with this man. He was kind of cute if you liked that sort of thing…
The Doctor's grin faded slightly, and he withdrew his hand. "So…" he looked around "this is the new and improved Torchwood, is it? Must say it's much nicer than the one in London. Mind you, when I saw that it was full of Daleks and Cybermen, which can't have helped the decor…"
"Excuse me" Ianto said, hurrying from the room. Rachel threw the Doctor a filthy look before running after him.
"What? What did I say? I… oh." He looked at Jack. "He was the one you told me about, isn't he? He was at Torchwood One."
"The one who's girlfriend became a homicidal cyberwoman, yeah."
The Doctor groaned. "I'm not very popular round here, am I?" he peered through the glass wall. "Why do they all keep looking at me by the way?"
"They're curious. I never actually told them where I was that time I was with you, just that I had found my Doctor." He looked out at the people below. "I mean, what else could I tell them?"
"Not exactly a year you want to re-live."
"Exactly." The two men stood in silence for a few minutes.
"So" the Doctor turned to grin at Jack. "You obviously have a nice, healthy working relationship with Ianto over there, what about the rest of them? Can I meet the team?"
"So, you're the one who stole our captain?" Gwen smiled at the man in front of her. He had a certein, disarming quality about him, making it almost impossible for her to display any of the anger she had felt at Jack's disappearance. He was cute, in a skinny kind of way. "Hope he wasn't too much trouble."
"Oh, you know. Not as bad as he used to be for sure" the Doctor winked at Jack, who flushed (much to Ianto's annoyance).
"So, tell me about this alien threat" the Doctor said. "Jack said something about cloning or shape shifting? Zygons?"
"Huh?"
"Oh, they're big, horrible…weird taste in food. Notice any armored cyborgs around? Maybe some bottles of lactic fluid next to the captives? No? Oh well." He sighed. "What else can you tell me?"
Owen explained what they had already found out, about the large amounts of DNA replicated. Jack then told him about what he had seen down in the hideout, and about how when the claxon had sounded, it was like they were being chased by something…invisible. and that he had felt something smash through his skull when he died, but not like a bullet… he looked around for Rachel so she could back up his story, but she wasn't anywhere near them. She and Ianto were huddled to the side, talking about something in urgent whispers. She glanced over at the group and saw Jack looking at them. She instantly flushed red and put a hand on Ianto's arm to silence him. Jack felt his eyes narrow slightly.
The Doctor was thinking hard. "I know this; I know this... anything unusual in the building plans?"
"Not that I could find" said Toshiko, emerging from the board room and speaking for the first time. "There's an old World War II bunker underneath the school, I suppose it could branch off from that…"
"Dr Sato!" the Doctor looked thrilled. "Always so helpful! Didn't know you were here!" Toshiko blinked at him.
"Have we met?" she asked, frowning, trying to place him.
"London! Musta have been, ooh, 2, 3 years ago now! Alien space ship crash landed in the Thames! Of course, I looked a bit different back then. Bigger ears…" he stopped and tried to re-gather his train of thought, oblivious to the look of complete bemusement on Toshiko's face, and the slight smirk on Jack's. "So where was I? Aliens, aliens…" he snapped his fingers suddenly. "Shadows! That's it!" he hurried over to the computer terminal and reach into his pocket. "Ah. Has anyone seen my…thank you!" Rachel had taken a slim silver tube out of her pocket and handed it to the Doctor. Jack knew he had recognised the blue buzzing light earlier. "Where's yours?" the Doctor turned to Rachel as he sonic-screwdrivered the computer.
"Died, didn't it? I have no way of charging it."
"Oh." He turned back to the computer. "Oh no." his face fell.
"Problem?" asked Toshiko, hurrying over to take a look.
"You could say that." He sighed and ran a hand over his face. "It's Neorrets"
"And those would be…?" Rachel asked him.
"They're old, almost as old as the universe. It's said that they come from the Dark Place, just beyond the furthest star. Neorrets are spirit creatures, so they need to steal physical forms from other species, like a parasite. They turn their offspring into the person they steal then, when the time is right to seize control of a civilisation, they 'wake them up'. I thought they were all gone, but…" He spun the computer screen round so they could see what he'd been looking at. He had somehow managed to alter the schematic of the school, which now showed a large underground warren of tunnels, leading to a huge open space about 50 metres down.
"I don't get it. How can you tell from looking at that that it's these – Neo rat things?"
"They have a very distinctive burrow pattern." Said the Doctor, vaguely.
"Really!?"
"Nah" the Doctor grinned at Owen, but he looked worried. "Well, sort of. That and what Jack said about when they killed him. Neorrets can – solidify, for want of a better word, if they need to protect their offspring. They die once they've done it of course, sort of like bees." He looked at Jack. "You must have caused quite a stir in the hive if they felt the need to resort to that." Jack shrugged. The Doctor turned back to the computer screen frowning. "From the looks of this, I'd say your lot had been here for quite a while. But why start this now? What disturbed them?"
"That's not really important. What is important is how do we stop them?"
"Well, killing the original 'body' works…but that isn't exactly the most practical thing." He thought hard. "If I remember correctly, they rely on the DNA stealing device to maintain their stolen bodies. If you could corrupt it somehow…"
"How do we get to it though? We can't just wander in."
"Yes, we can." Jack turned to stare at Rachel. "Think about it Jack. As far as they're concerned Ianto and I are one of them. That's probably why they gave up chasing me earlier after they'd killed you. We have a way in."
"You two are not going in there alone. No way."
"We have to, Jack."
The captain turned to stare at his young lover. "You can't. It's too dangerous."
"And how else are we going to stop this? We don't have any choice!"
Jack blinked. When had Ianto become so forceful, so brave? It was a good look on him, Jack decided. But at the same time, it confused and slightly saddened him that his young lover could change so much without him noticing. Rachel's influence? "Ok." Jack looked at the Welshman. "Ok. But make sure you have weapons, headsets. I – I don't want to lose you." His gaze flickered over to Rachel. "Either of you."
He turned back to the Doctor. "Do you have anything that can help them? Anything we don't?"
"Well – I can check the TARDIS stores if you want" he looked doubtful. "I don't want anything broken though, ok?"
"I'm sure they'll be fine" Jack looked for Ianto again, hoping to have another 'word' with him before he left, and saw him over in the corner with Rachel again, seemingly having a whispered argument about something.
"Ianto!" the young man turned at the sound of his name and, throwing an apologetic look at Rachel, walked over to Jack.
This mission was going to be dangerous, he reflected. He couldn't afford to leave any lose edges lying around. Not at this stage. Not when the stakes were this big…
Rachel watched the two men disappear into Jack's office, unaware of the Doctor's eyes upon her. She jumped suddenly, as though startled, and pulled her vibrating phone out of her pocket. Her eyes widened as she looked at the caller ID then, almost involuntarily, she looked up at Jack's office. The Doctor frowned slightly as she answered the phone, turning her back on the rest of the Hub and whispering into it, clearly desperate not to be overheard. Who was she talking to? But the next second, Toshiko distracted him, asking questions about his sonic screwdriver and how it had altered the system. By the time the Doctor had finished explaining, Rachel's phone was safely back in her pocket and she was examining hardware, ready for what lay ahead.
Reviews/comments very welcome, as always :p
