"Right, then," the Doctor said smartly, leading their way down the hallway from the medical bay. The lights pulsing softly in the walls seemed bright and somehow inquisitive as they went along. Ellie followed him into the wide expanse of the console room, looking with gaping mouth at her surroundings; despite her shock and horror she couldn't help but be in awe of this alien ship that pulsed with life. "Time to find your missing 'friend'." There was enough distaste in the Time Lord's tone to show just what he felt about said 'friend'. He stepped up to the console itself and with deft fingers swept the swiveling screens closer to read the information they were giving him.

His pausing in his movements caught her attention. She looked different than she had in the medical bay, he supposed. There was no longer an angry set to her mouth, no defiance in her eyes. She seemed smaller, hugging herself slightly in a vaguely defensive pose, and there was a wide horrified innocence in her gaze that lent her face a certain softness as she caught his eye.

"Unless," he continued slowly, "you want me to take you home myself."

She stiffened in surprise. Her eyes were flat. "You can do that?"

"Time machine," he reminded her. "I can take you anywhere in the time of this universe."

She was tempted. He could see that. He had broken her trust in his Metacrisis, and he could tell that she wanted nothing to do with the creature that had killed so much. As he should have broken that trust: better this woman find out about the destruction of the Daleks before she let his Metacrisis into her life.

She backed off. "I can't," she said softly. "I can't, I'm sorry, Doctor, but it's not… I wasn't captured because Hardy made sure I couldn't be. He was protecting me. And he and Jenny have been caught and I need to help them—"

"Jenny?" The question slipped out sharper than he had intended. He wondered what Jenny was doing without Vastra and why she was in Cardiff to begin with—but of course the Silurian and human girl were enigmatic enough to match his own levels.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah. Your daughter, Jenny."

0000000

Jack found the Tardis in true Jack Harkness fashion about ten minutes later—racing along the road and into the alley where he saw the ancient blue police box sat in the wet dusk and his coattails streaming out behind him. Its light through the door seemed dim but there was no real way of telling if there was anyone inside or not, not until he actually made it inside.

Knocking on the door was so incredibly tame and anticlimactic after what he had just seen with the torn up street and his friends nowhere to be found. He remembered seeing Alec there in the bar that (for him) had been over a century ago now but he knew that the experienced copper would have made sure to stay in one place until help would come. So the only option in his mind was that they had to have been detained by something.

And then he had caught a signal on his vortex manipulator that he recognized as the Tardis, a signal he had not seen for nearly six years. Excitement had been his first surge of emotion, tempered quickly however by the knowledge of what had happened in those six years, but still he approached the familiar blue box without hesitation.

The door clicked open just as he was about to knock on it. Thinking that the Doctor was about to step out he jumped back, trying to catch his breath, but when no one appeared he frowned and stepped up again, gently pushing the door open again.

The console room was empty. Taken aback by its appearance he gaped for a moment, taking in the wide dark expanse of gleaming silver circles and arching staircases. Clearly there had been changes since the last time he had seen the Doctor last; he wondered if the Time Lord was going to have the same face.

"Doctor?"

His voice echoed strangely in the yawning space, falling flat in the silence as it was swallowed by the walls. He heard the familiar whir of the Tardis as it registered his presence and he realized it had been the time machine that had let him in. A far cry from when she had travelled to the ends of time to try and shake him off.

Just as he was ready to call out again he heard the rush of footsteps to his left and suddenly the side door was sliding open and a grey-headed man was hurrying into view—with Ellie on his heels. Despite his pleasure seeing the Doctor again his attention was first brought to the woman who had been thrust so coldly into this world she was not a part of and realized immediately that this world had broken her just a little more.

He approached her and reached up to grab hold of her arms. There was a taped cut along her temple, the bruising brought down by advanced healing clearly wrought by the Tardis's hospital wing. "Are you okay? Where's Alec?"

She gazed up at him with dark, tired eyes and simply looked up at him blankly before her mouth abruptly twisted. "Did you know?"

For a moment his heart wanted to stop when he realized what it was exactly she was asking but he didn't immediately respond positively, wanting no part in this secret that his old friend refused to speak about. "About what?"

Anger spasmed in her expression and she twitched as if she wanted to shove him off her. "You know very bloody well what, Jack! Hardy committed genocide and you've known all along!"

The words hurt more than he had first thought they would and he winced inside for the friend who was not here to speak for himself. He swung towards the man he knew was the Doctor who was silently watching their exchange through a face he realized he knew all too horribly well. In his state he didn't think. "You!" he snarled, and pulled his pistol from its holster on instinct

"Jack!" Ellie's hands, stronger than he would have suspected, grabbed hold of his wrist, stopping him before he could finish drawing it. "Jack, stop it! What's wrong with you?"

"Put the gun down, Jack," the Doctor told him tiredly like a weary parent. The accent was different from the politician he recalled being one of those responsible for the Children of Earth. It mollified him slightly to realize that but it didn't lessen his anger. He rounded on the ancient Time Lord.

"Why the hell did you tell her, Doctor? Don't you think it should have been Alec's right to?"

"He wouldn't have," the Doctor replied shortly, his clear eyes darkening as his brows drew into a scowl. "He's not like that."

"You could say he's got that from you—"

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you have something that is very important to you to say, but right now I have to find my daughter." The Doctor quickly brushed him off and walked along the edge of the console, focusing his attention on the buttons and levers spread out before him.

Jack gaped at him for a moment, taken aback by his words before they registered. "When did you have a daughter?"

The Time Lord's actions faltered for a second but he didn't look up. "It doesn't matter. All that matters is that she's been taken and I'm going to find her." His voice was cold. A lever pulled down with a click and suddenly the Tardis jerked and shook as it faded in and out as it left the streets of Cardiff. Jack knew enough of the ways of traveling in the Doctor's blue box that he could brace himself but he reached out to steady Ellie as she stumbled back.

"She was in Cardiff," she explained hurriedly, the words slipping out without thought, and she was still looking at Jack in growing mistrust. "We met her there, she's been trying to find the Doctor."

He opened his mouth to call her out on the name she was so very carefully not mentioning but before he could the world stopped shaking and the thump of the Tardis landing told them they had reached their destination. Wherever that was.

The Doctor hurried around the console again. "Now, I've taken us to where Jenny's left the ship she was travelling in. We'll be able to pick up something to track her with."

"It can't be that easy," Ellie protested, pulling away from Jack to step up to the Doctor's side. "That only happens in the movies."

"Yes, but the idea is still there," the Time Lord replied, heading towards the door, "and that's the key."

0000000

The ship was smaller than Ellie had been expecting, no more than the size of the Doctor's mysterious blue box, and had clearly been grounded for quite some time. Jenny had luckily landed in land very similar to where Ellie and Alec had been sent to by the Angel, a wide expanse of grass far from the city that she could just see out in the distance. It was lying with its nose crumpled in and the land turned up around it, its sides streaked with dirt and ash from entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Jack and the Doctor immediately started to look into its mechanics, trying to find something that would help them find Jenny. For a moment Ellie wondered if they would ever be able to see either the Time Lord's daughter or Alec again and hastily shied away from the possibility. No, they were still alive. Both of them, they had to be.

"So what are we looking for, Doctor?" Jack was asking aloud when she shook herself back to the present. His voice was muffled from where he was leaning into the cockpit, but she could see his hands searching for something that could help them.

"Anything with her trace on it. Not just skin particles, we're going to need something with blood or her DNA trace on it substantial enough that the Tardis will be able to use it."

Ellie grabbed hold of a rail and pulled herself up on the opposite side of the Time Lord's grey head. "Doctor, she wasn't injured. She was fine when she met up with us."

His mouth was tight. "Then we'll find something else. There's always something else."

"There's nothing in here," Jack countered, straightening up and turning to them. "Ellie's right, Jenny hasn't been injured. It looks like she left as soon as she crashed."

The Doctor glared up at him. "If you're going to simply say we can't find her," he growled, Scottish accent thick, "then I'll leave you here."

"Yeah, just like you did before," Jack retorted, his anger surging. "Just like you did Alec, and Rose—"

"Don't you dare patronize me, Captain!" the Doctor exclaimed, stiffening and pointing an accusing finger at the seething man. "And don't you dare bring up subjects that are none of your concern—"

"None of my concern?" Jack exploded, stepping closer. "You haven't been here, Doctor, you have no idea—"

"Stop it!" Ellie shouted, frightened by their words and the darkness of their eyes. She slipped between them and let her temper run, letting loose all of her anger and fright and confusion. "Stop it, both of you! My god, you're like children. How is this supposed to help us find Jenny? Or Hardy? The more time you stand here and argue the less time we'll have to find either of them." She glared first at Jack before turning to the Time Lord, who looked entirely taken aback by her intervention. "Doctor, I know you need to find Jenny, but we can't find her this way. But there is a way we can track down Hardy."

The Time Lord's head cocked slightly as he paused, thinking of the possibilities of that. "How?" he finally inquired.

"The perception filter he built." She crossed her arms when he looked unconvinced and waited in silence until she knew she wasn't going to smack him. "C'mon, you know it can work. And he built it himself, he's probably put his DNA all over it. You can at least try it."

The doctor looked fairly unconvinced. "But it may not lead us to Jenny," he countered bluntly. "Or he may already be dead."

Well, at least he was honest. Ellie tried to hide the flinch his words brought about and steadied her gaze. "It's a chance, yes. But I don't think he'd leave her."

"No?" A challenge, that question. Almost contemptuous.

"He didn't with me." It was stated as a fact, indisputable. Behind her Jack grinned, pleased to hear that she was still fair enough to admit that. "Please, Doctor. Just try."

In the face of both humans' gazes the Doctor's stubbornness crumbled slightly. He scowled but finally nodded. "Alright," was all he said, and then he was moving away and back to the waiting Tardis.

"Ellie." Before she could follow, Jack reached out and grabbed hold of her elbow to turn her towards him. Her expression was guarded and still angry but he was heartened to see that she didn't seem to be as upset as she had been. Silently he cursed the damage the Doctor had certainly (deliberately) caused between Alec and Ellie. "Thank you."

"I just want the Doctor to have his daughter back," she retorted bluntly.

"I know. But the Doctor has a son, too, even if neither of them will admit it." There. He saw the walls spring up behind her eyes. "You do realize the trust Alec's placed in you, right, Ellie?"

She hadn't. Her face flickered with confusion and doubt. "And what is it exactly that he's trusted with me, Jack? Because it seems to me he's hidden a hell of a lot."

"He has," he admitted, "and I'll be honest and let you know that there's still a hell of a lot more he hasn't told you—hasn't told any of us, really. But if anyone outside of UNIT or Torchwood were to find out he's even part human he would have to run or the government would claim him as their property. If he runs he would be an outcast for the rest of his life. If he was caught by the government, by any government…" He shrugged helplessly. "Well, you know what humans do to understand things."

Ellie felt like she was going to be sick as the full implications of what Jack was saying to her sank in. "They'd kill him just so they could…" Dissect him. She couldn't speak it aloud, the thought was too gruesome.

Jack knew exactly what she was thinking and knew if he could only phrase what he needed to he would cause a crack in her disgust and horror of Alec's past. "That's why I started Torchwood up: it's our job to make sure the majority of humanity doesn't find out about extra-terrestrial life, both for their sake and for the sometimes for the alien's."

"Why the alien's sake?" Ellie's mind was still burning with the memories of those weeping angels sending innocent people to the past, and of the chimera from so many days ago whose only instinct had been to lash out and kill those around it. And of her boss himself, guilty of genocide. "Seems to me they're the dangerous ones."

"It does seem that way, doesn't it? I bet you were pretty shocked when you found out how Alec was created."

Ellie flushed. "I- wasn't expecting that," she admitted in a small voice. "To know that he's… not exactly human is…"

"Frightening?" Jack asked innocently.

Abruptly she remembered the (very) brief flash of horror she'd felt when Alec had told her his past. It had come and gone faster than she could blink but Jack's inquiry threw it back in her face all too clearly. For one moment she had been ready to run from Alec Hardy, even while stuck in the past, something in her gut screaming at the utter wrongness of his existence. Aliens were not meant to exist, and humans were not meant to be alien. For one moment she had been terrified and repulsed by him.

Oh. She swallowed down a sudden wave of shame as she realized the point the captain was trying to make.

0000000

Quietly Alec picked at the lock of the cell he and Jenny were still stuck in. He had none of his supplies with him that he usually had while working on locks and other security systems but, as much as he hated to admit it, he was still part Time Lord and part human: he was cleverer by far than most could ever hope to be. And he had picked a lot of locks in his time.

"Couldn't leave me a sonic in the suit pocket, nooo," he muttered between clenched teeth, concentrating utterly on his task that he didn't realize he had slipped into his old speaking habits. "Could've had a spare handy but he didn't think that far ahead. Do you realize how many situations could have been solved so much more easily if he had had a damn spare sonic on him, Jenny?"

She grinned softly, crouched beside him and watching his deft fingers as he worked. "You'll get us out," she told him in absolute confidence. "I know you will."

"Well, at least one of us is optimistic," he retorted softly, finding himself grinning anyway. "Haven't had to unlock anything in a while, I think I'm out of practice."

"But Dad always had his sonic, didn't he? So where did you learn how to unlock something manually?"

"Donna. Mum," he corrected automatically, referring to her as he did only in his thoughts. "She really was brilliant; I don't think she ever told him that she knew how to pick a lock, though."

Jenny's face sobered; when Alec had admitted to her everything that had happened, from the stealing of the thirteen planets to being left on Bad Wolf Bay, he had mentioned that Donna had been made to forget the Doctor's existence to save her life. Donna had not been any part of Jenny's creation but the fiery redhead had been the one to first accept her and provide the blonde with her name, and she could begin to understand the pain that fact would bring to her brother.

"Have you tried to find a way to bring her back?" she asked softly.

He glanced at her, eyes dark. "Yes."

And the lock clicked open. For a moment the two of them sat together in surprise but then Alec grabbed the door and swung it out an inch and he grinned over at her. Jenny's own smile grew with the excitement of running again and leapt to her feet. "C'mon. We're out, we can meet up with Ellie."

She helped him to his feet, trying to ignore the recent trauma he'd had with his heart, and grabbed hold of his hand, relieved to feel its warmth.