The Queen threw her insect-like head back and made a dry clicking sound that Rose supposed to be laughter.

"Goodbye, Traveler," she said. Then, she turned to the drones standing at attention behind her. "Dispose of them."

The drones surged forward, clicking ominously as they took aim with their stick-like weapons. The form members of Team TARDIS took measured steps backwards.

"You know, Rose," the Doctor remarked in a disinterested tone, "There are several fascinating features of Mabinogian physiology that I've picked up over the years."

"Yeah?" Rose said, fervently hoping that one of those fascinating facts would save them from dying at the hands of space insects.

"Yes. You see, Rose, Mabinogian hearing is much more acute than human hearing. They are much more sensitive to high pitched sound waves."

"Like, say, sonic waves?" Martha asked.

"Exactly," the Doctor answered.

Rose felt a grin spread over her features, although her eyes never left the advancing drones. She could see where this was going.

"Distraction?" Jack asked.

The Doctor smiled unassumingly.

"Please."

Jack sprang into action, pulling out the small silver gun that the Doctor had been so averse to his bringing. With a smooth and practiced movement, Jack brought the gun up and fired. It hit the closest drone with surprising force, knocking the space bug to the ground. It went down with a shriek.

The whole room was instantly thrown into chaos. Drones charged forward while their Queen screeched orders. The Doctor, whose movements went unnoticed in the ensuing pandemonium, whipped his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and twisted the settings.

A high pitched wail filled the room, making Rose wince at its volume. She fought the urge to cover her ears. But if the noise was uncomfortable for her, it was a thousand times more so for the Mabinogians. Within seconds, every space bug in the room has fallen to its knees and was clutching its ears in agony with its pincer-like hands.

"Stop! Stop!" screamed the Queen. "Mercy!"

The Doctor's dark eyes were carefully blank.

"You had your chance," he said, "I said I wouldn't ask again."

He didn't turn off the sonic screwdriver until the last Mabinogian had keeled over onto the floor.

There was a moment of tense silence. Rose was slightly shocked at the Doctor's behavior. She had known him to harsh with his enemies, but she had never known him to be merciless.

Martha broke the silence.

"Are they dead?" she asked, hesitantly nudging one with her foot.

The darkness in the Doctor's eyes disappeared, buried once again.

"Nah," he drawled. "Just unconscious. Noises pitched at that frequency leave them passed out for several hours."

Rose glanced around the room at the giant aliens scattered all over the floor , and shuddered. Martha was still nudging one of them with her foot, looking interested. The Doctor was fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. Rose frowned.

"Where's Jack?"

Martha looked up.

"I thought he took cover after the firefight," she said.

Rose's frown deepened.

"Yeah, but why hasn't he come out yet?"

A sense of foreboding settled in Rose's chest. Her eyes swept the floor, almost afraid of what she would find. She gave a sharp intake of breath as she found it.

Jack's body lay crumpled on the floor, his limbs twisted into a distorted position. An energy blast had hit him squarely in the chest, and the burn remained, dark with blood.

Rose dropped to her knees, frantically checking for a pulse. But there wasn't any.

"Jack… he's… he's…" but she couldn't say it. Tears burned in the back of her eyes.

Martha had the strangest look on her face as she turned to the Doctor.

"You didn't tell her?"

The Doctor sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"There wasn't time," he said.

With tears blurring her eyes, Rose brushed the wisps of dark hair off Jack's forehead.

The Doctor knelt down beside her.

"Rose? Love? There's something you need to know about Jack."

Rose tore her eyes away from Jack's still face.

"Is now really the time?" she asked softly.

The Doctor shifted uncomfortably.

"Actually, now is the perfect time. You see, Jack is… different."

Rose was about to ask what he meant by different, when she already knew so many of Jack's quirks. But a sudden noise behind her made her turn.

Jack's finger twitched.

Rose jumped back, stumbling into the Doctor, who steadied her.

With a groan, Jack sat up.

"What'd I miss?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

The Doctor helped the shocked Rose to her feet, and put his arm around her.

"But… how?" she gasped. "You didn't have a pulse. You were dead."

Jack got to his feet and brushed himself off, grimacing at the hole in his shirt.

"Yeah, that happens to me a lot," He fixed the Doctor with a glare. "You didn't tell her?"

"I was about to before you so rudely interrupted," the Doctor grumbled.

"Well, excuse me for being dead," Jack shot back. "I can't believe you wouldn't tell her. You shouldn't scare her like that!"

"Tell me what?" Rose asked.

"I didn't mean to scare her. I was honestly just about to tell her before you decided to grace us with your presence," the Doctor said, annoyance practically dripping off his words.

"Tell me what?" Rose demanded, glaring at the Doctor.

The Doctor had the decency to look sheepish.

"Jack… he's… well, he's different since the last time you met him."

Rose looked Jack up and down, and he grinned at her frank appraisal.

"Like what you see, Darlin'?" he drawled.

Rose smiled, and shook her head.

"He seems the same."

"Well, when you knew him before, he was – ah – well, he was mortal. That is to say… he was just an ordinary time travelling human. Not that there's anything ordinary about time travelling humans. But Jack, you know, is from the future, and in that future it's ordinary. You see…"

"What the good Doctor is trying to say is: I can't die," Jack cut through the Doctor's ramblings.

Rose blinked.

"Come again?"

Jack smiled sympathetically.

"I can't die. Ever. Every time I do, I come back again. It's been happening for years."

"Why?" Rose asked.

Jack grinned at her.

"It's your fault, actually."

"My fault?"

"Or rather, Bad Wolf's," the Doctor cut in, giving Jack a glare. "The Bad Wolf brought Jack back to life. But that kind of power wasn't meant to be contained inside a human, and you couldn't control it. It was too strong for you. Jack was brought back to life, but it was permanent."

"Forever?" Rose asked, staring at Jack in disbelief. "You'll live forever?"

The Doctor and Martha exchanged wary glances.

"As far as we know," the Doctor said evasively.

Martha gave Rose an understanding smile.

"I know, weird isn't it? Gave me a turn as well, when I first found out."

"As I remember, you were kissing me," Jack said.

Martha rolled her eyes.

"I was giving you mouth to mouth." She made a face, then drifted over to Jack's side. "You're a mess."

"Let's kill you, and see how you look," Jack retorted.

The Doctor shook his head at the two bickering humans, and turned to Rose, his arm tightening on her waist.

"You alright?" he asked.

Rose shook her head to clear the cobwebs from it.

"Just when I think I'm getting used to this stuff again," she murmured. "I forgot that travelling with you is way weirder than a desk job at Torchwood."

The Doctor gently kissed her cheek.

"You're doing wonderfully," he said.

Rose smiled.

"I will be. Once we get Jonathan back."

The Doctor flashed her a trademark grin.

"We will."

He kissed the tip of her nose, and then bounded away towards a control station. He scanned the writing scrolling on the screen.

"Now then," he said, looking up. "Let's find those kids, shall we?"

He began to push seemingly random buttons, zapping the control with his sonic screwdriver when they didn't seem to be cooperating.

"Just a few more… ahah! That should do it. I've got 103 human life signs, and two Time Lord life signs."

He twisted a knob, and there was a ray of blue light that washed over the room. In its wake it left a lot of very surprised looking children. The room instantly filled with the babble of shrill voices all talking at once.

"Hey!" the Doctor yelled over the din. The children quieted, looking at him with frightened eyes. "It's alright. I'm the Doctor, and I'm here to get you home."

"Dad!!" came a yell from across the room. The kids parted to let a small boy run forward.

The Doctor extended his arms just in time to catch Jonathan as the boy barreled into him. He dropped to one knee, holding the boy tightly.

"I knew you would come for me," Jonathan said, his voice muffled in his father's shoulder. "I just knew it."

"Jonathan," Rose choked out.

"Mum!"

Jonathan let go of the Doctor and launched himself into Rose's arms.

Rose was laughing, tears spilling down her cheeks as she kissed Jonathan over and over.

"I was so scared for you," she said. "I love you. I'm never letting you out of my sight again."

Jonathan clung to her, his arms around her neck and his legs wrapped around her waist as if he was a small child.

The Doctor put his arms around them both, feeling his hearts expand with love for both of them. If felt as though they couldn't possibly contain any more love for the two people in front of them. Jonathan put one arm around his father's neck, and all three shared a hug together.

After a few moments, Jonathan pulled away, wiping tears of his own cheeks with embarrassment. Rose laughed shakily, and pulled her son into another hug. The Doctor stepped away, letting them have a moment of their own.

A tug on his sleeve made him look down.

A small girl with brown curls tumbling over her shoulders looked up at him, her big eyes full of anxiety.

"What are you going to do with us?" she asked.

The Doctor knelt down so that he was level with her.

"I'm going to send you home to your parents, of course," he replied in his gentlest tone, smiling at her.

The girl grinned back, revealing a gap where her front teeth should have been.

"Thank you," she said, putting her small arms around his neck and hugging hm. After a moment of surprise, the Doctor patted her small back, and then released her.

"You go on," he said. "I'll figure out a way to get you home."

"I know you like 'em young, but this is getting ridiculous," Jack said.

The Doctor straightened up, and watched the small girl disappear into the crowd of children.

"She just wants to go home," he said.

"Should I be worried?" Rose asked, coming up beside him, Jonathan still holding firmly to her hand. The Doctor put an arm around her, and kissed her temple.

"Maybe in a couple more years," he joked.

Rose gave him an indulgent smile.

"Now," said Jack. "What about sending all these kids home and calling it a day?"

"Right," the Doctor nodded. Reluctantly, he slid himself out of Rose's arms and made his way over to the main console. "Shouldn't be a mo'," he muttered.

To Rose's surprise, Jonathan let go of her too, and made his way to a girl in the front, who was fiddling nervously with one of her crooked pigtails.

"I guess you're going home then," he said to her.

The girl's eyes were fixed on the Doctor's back.

"He came for you. You said he would, and he did."

Jonathan nodded.

"He always comes."

The girl raised her eyes to meet his, and they were filled with tears.

"I guess this is goodbye," she said. "I'll be sent home, and you'll go back with your mum and dad. We'll never see each other again."

"Sure we will," Jonathan objected. "We can come visit you any time we want. My house is in a flying phone box."

"A flying phone box?" the girl's skepticism was evident.

Jonathan shot her an appraising look.

"We're on an alien space ship run by giant bugs. Flying phone boxes are nothing. Besides, it's a time machine too." As if that cleared everything up.

The girl giggled.

"I guess," she paused, and then looked into Jonathan's face, a slight blush creeping over her freckled cheeks. "So you'll come and visit?"

"Yeah," Jonathan promised. He smiled his widest smile at her, inherited from his father, and leaned over to brush a kiss on her cheek.

"Thanks for helping me, Emma," he said.

The girl turned bright red, and stared at the floor.

"Welcome," she whispered.

Rose fought to keep her composure as Jonathan made his way back to her.

"Friend of yours?" she asked, the corners of her lips twitching.

Jonathan gave her a look almost identical to the one the Doctor gave her when he thought she was being stupid. Before he could say anything, however, the Doctor cleared his throat. The room quieted.

"Ok, that does it. When I push this button here," he indicated the one with a flourish. "You will all return to where you came from." He paused for a moment. "Well, the nearest large, solid landmass." He amended. His face then grew sad. "And I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. But you won't remember any of this. It's better that way."

"None of it?" Jonathan's friend asked, her eyes on Jonathan.

The Doctor shook his head.

"You can't. Earth's not ready to know about aliens yet. And it wouldn't be fair to you to ask you to keep this kind of a secret. I'm sorry."

He reached over to the button.

"Ready everybody? On the count of three. One. Two."

Jonathan waved to the girl, and the girl waved back, a sad expression on her young face.

"Bye," she said.

"Bye," Jonathan echoed.

"Three."

The whole room was suddenly empty, leaving the four adults and Jonathan standing there alone. Along with the assorted insect-like Mabinogians, still unconscious on the floor.

Martha was again the first person to break the sudden silence. Such silences obviously made her uncomfortable.

"Well, that was just like old times," she said.

"I'll say," Jack agreed. "Rescuing people, knocking out aliens. 'Everybody lives!' Get's the ol' blood pumping, doesn't it?"

"You still have blood?" Rose asked curiously.

"Sure do, Darlin'," Jack said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Martha made a face.

"Jack! Ew!"

"Well she asked!" Jack defended himself.

"We'd better get going," the Doctor said, turning away from the console he had been fiddling with. "They'll be waking up soon."

"What are you going to do with them?" Jack asked, indicating the unconscious Mabinogians.

The Doctor's smile was predatory.

"I've sent their nav com on a dead-lock sealed path to the Delta Quadrant. I think there's a species there that they'd like to meet. One that shares their perspective on self- preservation at the cost of other species."

The gleam in his eye made Rose think there was more to it than that, but she didn't say anything.

The Doctor gave her an disarming smile, and walked to the door, opening it with a sweep of his arm and a flourish.

"Doctor! I didn't know you cared," Jack teased, winking as he walked through the open door.

The Doctor winked at Jack.

"Buy me dinner first."

Martha laughed, and followed Jack through the door.

Rose shook her head, smiling at Jack's easy banter, and how familiar it all seemed after so long.

"Come on," she said to Jonathan, holding out her hand to him.

Jonathan walked forward from where he had been curiously examining a nearby console, his arm outstretched to take her hand.

The next few minutes seemed to happen in slow motion for Rose. As Jonathan passed on of the space bug drones, it suddenly sat up, and pulled from its side a small, hand-held weapon. Before Rose could call out a warning, the drone had fired it.

The force of the energy blast knocked the little boy off his feet. He uttered a small noise of surprise, before collapsing onto the floor and lying very still.

Rose screamed. The world suddenly began to speed up, as if compensating for its momentary slowness. Jack pulled out his gun, and fired off two quick shots. The Maginogian drone fell back, dark green blood oozing from several wounds.

The Doctor sprinted back into the room towards Jonathan, but Rose was quicker. She frantically checked for a pulse, desperate to prove to herself that Jonathan was still alive.

Martha shoved Rose aside, starting CPR as soon as she had ascertained that Jonathan wasn't breathing. Her chest compressions didn't seem to be doing anything.

All Rose could do was watch, her eyes wide and the Martha continued to pump oxygen into Jonathan's small form, and the Doctor frantically buzzed his wound with his sonic screwdriver. Long minutes went past, and still nothing.

Everybody lives? Maybe not this time, Jack.

Author's Note: Please don't kill me. It's all for the furtherance of the plot, remember.

Yeah, as you can see, I pretty much love writing Jack. He's so much fun! The last story I wrote with him in it was really dark and he was all serious. So I'm compensating here. His constant stream of flirting and innuendo makes me laugh.