DAY ONE AS LEADER
I am still nervous about it, even though I'm the only person in the team. I'm hoping that this will become massive, improving the lives of many children. I'm still working on that, of course.
That evening, a meteor crashes. Jack tells me to let Torchwood deal with it; they'll call me for backup if necessary. "Is this what it's always going to be? Waiting on Torchwood the whole time?"
"You won't have to do that in anywhere else. If you leave Cardiff, you don't have to obey Torchwood."
"What am I going to do, set up a new base?"
"Maybe. If you want to help children, we need to target cities with the biggest crimes, with London being the top of our list."
"See you in the morning, Jack."
The next morning, Torchwood is called out to a murder scene, in which the victim was killed by sex. I thought I'd heard everything.
Jack starts looking at where the meteor came from when Gwen asks us if any of us have any partners or family. Tosh mentions her mum, Ianto mentions his sister. Owen and Jack say they don't have any. I tell her about my parents. They begin researching the girl. I find her address and leave.
When Carys opens the door, I see she is still in her dressing gown. "Sorry to disturb you," I tell her.
"Not at all," Carys replies. "Can I help you?"
"Can I talk to you, please?" Carys nods, and we head inside.
When I tell her about what happened, she nods. "You deal with aliens?"
"Yes, we do."
"Can you help me sort out what got inside of me?"
"I'll try, I can promise that. What did it make you do?"
"It made me kill that man." I put my arm around her as Carys starts crying. The doorbell rings again.
"Do you want me to get it?"
"I'll get it," Carys replies, drying her eyes. Suddenly, she grabs her stomach, screaming. "Help me, Emma! Help me!"
"It's okay, lie down here, I'll get the door." Carys nods as I go to answer it.
"Parcel for Carys Fletcher?" The man asks.
"I'll take it, thank you," I smile. The postman hands it over to me and heads on his way. When I close the door, I put the parcel down and go back to Carys as Torchwood breaks in.
"Emma, what the hell?" Gwen asks. I explain to the others what Carys told me as she sits there in shock.
"I promised that I would try to help her," I finish.
"Well, first thing's first, we get her back to the Torchwood Hub. Emma, if you want Child's Torchwood to take on the case, then that's fine by me." I nod, turning to Carys.
I stand outside her room as she is getting dressed. "How long will I be gone for? My dad will get worried if I'm not here when he gets back."
"Gwen's leaving a note for him to explain that you're out and that it was urgent."
"Shall I pack some of my things just in case?" I turn to Jack, asking him how I should answer.
"We'll provide everything for you," Jack tells her. Carys opens the door, fully dressed. Jack produces the handcuffs, but Carys argues that she'll come with us willingly.
While she is in the car, she sits beside me. "Thanks for listening to me, Emma," she whispers.
"Any time," I smile back. "Now, when we get there, we might have to run a few tests and question the thing inside you."
"So, I'll have to let it take control?" I nod, sadly.
When we get to Torchwood, I take her into one of the Child's Torchwood cells and ask Gwen to help with the questioning as she was there when the gas escaped. Gwen tells Carys the name of the man the gas made her kill, when Carys starts screaming, fighting for control. When it stops, Carys is walking differently. "You broke my ship."
"Come on, then," Gwen replies. "Where are you from, and why are you trying to invade Earth? You can forget about enslaving us."
"Who said anything about enslaving?"
"Gwen, not all aliens want to enslave humanity. Why did you kill that man?"
"I want the energy, the climax. I live off that energy."
"You travelled here to feed off orgasmic energy?"
"There's nothing else out there like it. You taste so good; you're the best hit there is." Carys starts screaming again. When she hits the wall, Gwen immediately unlocks the door and rushes into the cell.
"I'm going to get help," I say, running into the main area, calling for Jack.
"Emma, what is it?" Jack asks.
"It's Carys. The thing inside her is taking her over. Gwen is checking on her, but she might need some backup."
"Thanks. Tosh, with me." The two run downstairs. I head into Child's Torchwood, so I'm out of the way when I get the shock of my life.
Mum and Mummy turn to me, smiling. I run into their open arms. A boy around my age is standing nearby. He takes my arm and leads me away to a corner. "Do you remember me?" He asks. I shake my head, shocked. "I thought you would, Emma."
"I don't, sorry."
"I'm your twin, Luke."
"Right," I sigh. "Did you hear about our Great-Aunt Lavinia?"
"When Mum and Mummy arrived," Luke agrees, sadly. He takes my hand. "I want to show you something. The Bane you communicated with, Mrs Wormwood, she changed me, I can look any age I want. As we're human-Qetesh Hybrid twins, she didn't realise that it also passed over to you."
Before my eyes, Luke changes from a six-year-old boy to a fourteen-year-old. "Now you try it," Luke suggests. I nod, closing my eyes. When I finally open them, I find that I am the same height as Luke. "See?" He asks, triumphantly. "Anything you have learnt or acquired, I also have." I return to my room to get some rest, only to find a woman in my room.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?"
The woman turns to me, smiling. She is wearing a lilac trench coat, a dark blue t-shirt with rainbow strips across the chest, and a white jumper underneath. She is also wearing high-waisted teal blue capri trousers, held up by mustard yellow braces. "I'm the Doctor," the Doctor smiles. "I parked my TARDIS in the corner; I hope you don't mind."
"Of course not." I wonder why I feel so calm around this woman, considering I don't know her. Someone knocks on my door, and I tell them to come in. Mum is standing in the doorway.
"Hi, Emma, I wanted to make sure you were-" She stops when she sees the Doctor. "Doctor, it's great to see you again."
"It's great to see you too, Ruby!" Mum pulls the Doctor into a hug. "How are you?"
"Well, Sarah and I are no longer on the run, which is fantastic."
"That's brilliant!"
"We also found Luke before coming here to find Emma."
"Oh, yes, how is he?"
"As well as he can be after alien squids kidnapping him." The Doctor chuckles. "I see you've met Emma."
"That's right. I thought that as we're together in the future, I should check up on Emma's past, you know."
"Excuse me?" Mum asks, a little annoyed.
"Did I say that out loud? I didn't mean to give anything away."
"Too late," I say — the Doctor groans in annoyance.
"I need to think before I open my mouth. What was I thinking? Great!"
"What do you mean about you being with my daughter?"
"As far as I know, there's only one interpretation for that. It means that your daughter and I are dating."
"Sarah's going to be thrilled. I'd better go and tell her." When Mum exits, the Doctor turns to me.
"You're not angry with me, are you? I think it went well. I don't know, do you think Ruby took it well? Probably not, she didn't look thrilled by the prospect."
"Doctor-"
"Sarah might be worse. They see me as a friend, not a possible daughter-in-law."
"Doctor-"
"I need to find a way to make this right, or as close as I can to making things normal."
"DOCTOR! Don't worry about that right now. Do they accept you in the future?"
"Yes."
"Then don't worry about them accepting you now. If what you say is true, then you'll need to take me on a date at some point."
"Let me guess, saving the earth is out of the picture? After all, you do that every day, and-"
"We can save the earth if you want."
"We should take things slowly for the time being."
"But I'm a teenager!"
"You're six!"
"By Qetesh hybrid standards, I'm a teenager."
"Where did you read that?"
"In the official book."
"Yes, but you can't do what we do in the future unless either you turn ten or the gas that is using Carys as a host enters one of us, and I don't want that to happen."
"I'm not surprised; she looked like she was in pain."
"Jack, Carys is out of her cell," Tosh says over the comms.
"Sneaky b**** took my swipe card," Owen calls back.
"You do know that I can hear, right?" I ask. Jack laughs.
"Honestly, Emma, what would we do without you? Tell Owen that he needs to work on those abs a bit harder. I'll find Carys. Child's Torchwood, go into lockdown until I tell you it's safe." I press the lockdown button before telling my parents and Luke what happened.
Even the TARDIS is stuck, so the Doctor has to stay. "The lockdown has locked the TARDIS in the hub," she explains when she exits the police box. "At least the sex gas can't get in here."
"Is that what it's called?" Luke asks. The Doctor nods. We all sit in the central area, trying to work out what to do. "Shall we play a game?"
"Let me check on Jack first," I switch my comm back on. "Jack, can you hear me?" I hear interference. "Nope, he can't." I turn it off. "Okay, what shall we play?"
After a night of playing games and watching kid-friendly films, we are all asleep when Jack connects to my comm. "Emma, can you hear me?" I am the first one awake, so I grab it.
"Yeah, I can hear you."
"We sorted out the sex gas thing so that you can unlock Child's Torchwood." I press the lockdown button again, unlocking the base.
"I better get going," the Doctor says at ten in the morning. "It's been great seeing you."
"I enjoyed seeing you too," I agree. "Take care."
"Oh, I never do. I'm always prepared for anything, me. I suggest that you do the same."
"Why? Is something coming?"
"Something is always coming. The best we can do is prepare ourselves. Now, you'd better take care of your parents and brother. I'm relying on you."
"I will." The Doctor steps inside the TARDIS, smiling.
"You're going to love this bit." She closes the door, and the TARDIS fades out of sight. I stand in my room, smiling.
"Is the Doctor gone?" Jack asks. "I was hoping to say hi to him."
"Her," I interrupt. "She must have changed. Do you know what she calls it?"
"Regeneration," Mummy says. "When the Doctor's body dies, it heals, but changes in the process. We don't know what version of the Doctor that was, so all we can do is that we hope to see her again."