Chapter 10

"You're a Time Traveller?" Ianto was incredulous, as were most of the Torchwood Team.

"Yeah." The Doctor grinned, and wiggled his eyebrows. "Shocking isn't it?" He hadn't showed them the interior of the TARDIS, although he had allowed Lyrai to seek some refuge in there; she'd had a long day and he would have to talk to her after this. "Jack was a time traveller too, until I put him back here with you lot."

"But don't you cause glitches in time wherever you go?" Toshiko asked, thinking of the few problems they had had with time. "Step on a butterfly, that sort of thing."

"Why do people just assume I cause trouble wherever I go?" The Doctor muttered darkly. "No I don't, as a 900 Time Lord I know what I'm doing.?" He hadn't quite anticipated the reaction from the others who all looked suspiciously at him.

"You're not human?" Owen asked, even more suspicious. He had assumed the Doctor was from Jack's time. Apparently he was wrong

"Well not technically, no. Well, not at all actually. Can't really be helped."He gave a sort of rueful shrug. "Why does it make a difference, I'm a strange man who's just appeared with an alien girl in a blue box. That's just a small detail."

"Why did you want to find Jack anyway?" Owen said.

"Oh no real reason" the Doctor waved a hand in the air vaguely, "Just wanted a quick chat, about Harold Saxon actually." His eyes had gone dark, but he managed to keep on smiling. "But it can't be helped if he's gone gallivanting of in god only knows where" A frown creased his forehead. "But he must have had a reason for fixing it. I told him no" He let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm going to go back in the TARDIS and see if my friend is alright" He said, scanning their bewildered faces. "That's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space" He added. "I won't go anywhere" He caught the suspicion on their faces, and hopped down from the chair he was sitting on to stroll off towards the blue box.

"He's mad" Owen muttered to Gwen, "Absolutely raving."

"He doesn't half look god though" Commented Gwen, watching his beige coat vanish into the TARDIS. Owen snorted.

"He doesn't look very alien" Tosh peered at the box. "Neither did his friend for that matter."

"I would run a scan on them but I doubt they'd allow it" Owen commented. "I can't believe Jack left us for that ." The disdain was evident. "True he can travel in time, but that bloke is completely off his head."

"Jack was never exactly "Sane" though" Tosh mused. "I wonder why he never told us about the Doctor."

"Maybe we wouldn't have believed him" Ianto commented, privately agreeing with Gwen's earlier comment. "I know I probably wouldn't. A man who travels through Time and Space in a little blue box. Hardly believable is it?" There was a murmur of agreement from the gathered team.

"Either way" Owen said "All we can do is wait."

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"We need to talk" The Doctor said, sitting down beside the teenager. "About what happened to your planet."

"It's nothing but ash now" Lyrai said sourly. "Burnt to the ground. Nothing survived. I can remember everything now, it's all clear. Memories that I haven't had for two years. I'm not the same person I was yesterday."

"Oh, I don't believe that" The Doctor said. "I's not only memories that make up a person, you know." He said wisely. "It's your opinion, and outlook on life." She was silent. "I mean, it's difficult , losing anything, but we have to move on."

"What about Rose." Lyrai said, turning to face him "Have you forgotten her? Have you moved on?" The Doctor looked guilty. "I'm going to help you Doctor, because I may be the only one who can, Dreamers are rare as you know, only a few per species, but if we can't, then you'll have to let go too."

"I would know how you felt even if I hadn't met Rose" The Doctor said distantly, his mind wandering back to his own planet. Gallifrey.

"How could you know how I feel." She snapped, standing up angrily, "You travel through time and space, you can change things. Bring back what you've lost."

"Rose is a prime example that I can't. I lost my planet too. Gallifrey." She stared defiantly at him. "It's gone, and I'm the only one left- 900 years old and still going strong" His own mind was now thinking of the Master. If only he wasn't dead. His mind burnt with the memories. But it was too late now. The Master wasn't coming back. A single tear had left a trail down his face, and he realised he'd started to cry- the Master seemed to have that effect on him.

"Why did you want to talk to Jack?" Lyrai said, gently now, placing he slight hand on top of his own.

"There was another Time Lord, a little while back, the Master... He chose to die instead of stay here as my sort of prisoner... But even though he was my enemy I wanted him to live, and keep me company... He was there when it happened, I was going to talk to him about it."

"I can understand that" They both sat in silence for awhile, the soft sound of the TARDIS humming around them. "Do you miss him?"

"Yeah. It's weird, getting your memories back seems to put everything back into perspective, suddenly everyone is important. I might go find another friend of mine, Martha, soon. I forgot all about her for a whole day, and I had barely thought about her before that." He looked sad, understandably. "Anyway, that lot out there must be wandering where I am" He said sheepishly, standing up. "You'll be alright in here?"

"Yeah" She said quietly, for some reason feeling eased, knowing there was one other person out there who knew how she felt.

"This is it" Jack and Rose were stood outside the Millennium Centre, watching the water fall from the pillars. "Are you ready"

She nodded, her mouth set in a grim line of determination. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently, before placing both his arms around her so he could work the device while remaining in contact with her.

"Hold on tight."

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The planet was on fire. Every inch of it screamed in agony as the war raged around it. She hid deep under the earth, while outside, the other children of her planet burnt. She knew she was being a coward: she should be fighting by her father's side. But was scared, the fear was consuming her until she couldn't breathe. She had to hide. She was safe here.

Eternity seemed to pass deep under the earth, sometimes she was wolf, other times she was human, but eventually hunger forced her to burrow her way out and face the planet.

The fires had died down, and life was non existent. Where once lush green forests had stretched across the earth, there was nothing but the grey shadow of ash on the ground, as far as the eye could see. She called for help, but no one was there. She was alone. Deep inside, she knew she was the last of her kind.

She travelled for awhile, her kind could survive for a couple of weeks without eating, so although she was in discomfort, she bore it and continued. Everywhere was nothing but ash- the whole planet reduced to nothing. It was by chance the Slave ship found her, searching for anything they could pillage from the ruins. She remembered the final smell of ash and burning, then nothing.

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"Doctor" someone was pounding on the TARDIS door, before he had had time to move. He let the TARDIS doors wing open, and stepped out, hands in his pockets.

"Hmmm?" It was Owen, who looked shocked and scared. "Jack's back, with a girl. Blonde. We told him you were here, and he got all excited, but she's not in a good state. She was barely breathing, and he won't talk about what happened, or leave her side. Told me to come and get you."

"Well I'd best go and see him then." The Doctor was pleasantly mollified as he followed Owen down to the medical bit. "Jack?" His hearts almost gave out as he saw who was lying on the medical table. "What on earth is Rose doing here?"

"I brought her back for you Doctor" Jack said, "but she's not in a good shape. Her heart's still beating, but it's faint, could give out any minute, thought you were the best man for this."

"She's been dragged across the void" The Doctor snapped rushing over to Rose, and checking her pulse. "She's probably suffering severe trauma to the body. Why is she here?"

"I used the teleportation device" Jack explained. "Pulled me through the Rift, across the void."

"The Rift..." The Doctor was amazed. "It never even crossed my mind. The Void stuff attracted to each other?"

"Yeah. Not sure how it got there in the first place though."

"Must have rubbed off me when I was fixing it. Unusual but not unheard of. Let's get Rose back to the TARDIS and we can talk there. It's the safest place for her." Together they lifted her off the bed, and placed her in her old bedroom of the ship. A room that had been locked for over two years.

"There we go." The Doctor stared at her sleeping form, willing it to wake up. Lyrai had appeared at one point, eager to offer assistance, but there had been nothing she could do but hold the door open while the two men lifted her in.

"So this is Rose" She murmured, thinking of the girl she had seen in the Doctor's dreams. "Good for him." She turned and walked back into the control room, where Jack had retired.

"So the Doctor's picked up another friend then?" She blushed as the American adressed her, not sure how to react.

"Yes... I'm Lyrai" she said sheepishly. "You must be Jack."

"The Doctor spoke about me?" He seemed surprised.

"Once. We came to see you but you weren't there."

"I doubt he'll remember why once Rose comes around. I just hope they find what they're looking for in each other."

"They will" Lyrai assured him. "I've watched them dreaming. They need each other. It's clear, just from their consciousness's."

"If Rose hadn't been having those dreams I'm not sure if we'd have got across" Jack mused. "If she hadn't said she'd been meeting him... I wouldn't have let her go. Too risky." He glanced at her "So I suppose I have to thank you"

"No problem".

They were both silent as the Doctor came through, clearly weary. "She's still asleep, or unconscious, but she's going to be fine." He glanced at Jack. "Thank you Captain. If it wasn't for you, she'd still be there." The words didn't seem to convey the enormity of what he'd wanted to say.

"I did it for you" Jack said. "Because you were dying without her."

"I know. But I couldn't bring her back. There was no way I could have brought her back. You must have found some minuscule hole Jack. A Hole even the TARDIS couldn't detect."

"Impossible people do impossible things"

The Doctor let out a dry chuckle and stretched. "I guess all we can do is wait." He said, leaning against the TARDIS controls. "What are you going to do next then Jack? My invite is still here..."

It was Jack's turn to laugh. "I think my team might kill me. After this I'm going to be on a much shorter leash."

"I thought you were the boss."

"You would think so. Ever since I came back they've been more... controlling. I guess that's what happens when you vanish for a year that never happen-" His sentence was cut off as he spotted a blonde girl step into the control room, and he knew everything was going to be fine.

I always wanted the Doctor to meet Torchwood. I imangined it would be slightly ruder, but I don't swear in my writing... Please Review!