Hey, a new chapter! How awesome! While I wasn't able to actually finish NaNoWriMo for the first time in four years, I did get the beginning of the next adventure written and should have it finished soon! Thank you all! Hope you enjoy! It is a direct continuation from the end of the last chapter, a new thing for me in this story.O.O
~~~~~This is a Beginning~~~~~
A moment decidedly interrupted by the squeak of a small child. The Doctor and Rose separated, one sighing the other smiling. "Harry's gonna learn how to knock before walking into rooms," the Doctor said decidedly. Rose smiled.
"He's a kid, what's the worst that can happen?"
The Doctor raised and eyebrow. "His uncle is Jack Harkness. He has access and knows how to use most of the various pieces of technology used to capture images in about three dozen different formats and the ability to send said images to Jack Harkness. I would rather said Captain doesn't get a hold of some of them." Rose laughed.
"Turning into a prude in your old age, Doctor?" The Doctor's ears reddened.
"I like to keep my dignity intact, thank you very much. And what's happened to you, what happened to the blushing and turning red?" Rose shrugged a shoulder, smiled.
"After having to face down an invading army of squirming, giant pink fuzzballs in nothing more than a towel, you sort of lose that bit of modesty." Rose eyed the Doctor up and down. "And someday soon, I'll make sure the only thing your wearing is that tie." The Doctor flushed slightly, but smirked.
Harry peeked back around the door. "Dad, Rose, you done trying to suck each other's internal organs out through your mouths?" he asked, eyes shut tight. Rose laughed.
"Yes Harry, we are. Are you alright?"
"Fine. Headache's gone and everything. All good. Anyway, Dad, that diary of Rassilon's, the last few pages, did you see them?" The Doctor frowned, tilted his head. Shook it. Harry sighed. "They mentioned a few complications of the tunnel. As in, destabilization and time frames and leaking into the universal planes and the screen is starting to turn black so I thought I might want to warn you." Harry and Rose watched as the Doctor froze, then raced out of the room, mumbling under his breath.
"Of course, of course, how could I have missed it? How thick am I? I need a bigger brain!" Rose followed Harry, who had taken off after his dad and was dashing down the halls, at a more sedate pace. She was sure that whatever was happening, it would still be happening when she got there and she wasn't going to be able to contribute to the higher-dimensional mathematics in any way.
The hallways of the Tardis were still a comforting yellow shade, matching the coral of the console room. They still twisted and turned and folded out into various dimensions and directions. She missed this, the feeling of walking aimlessly in a circle while still accomplishing forward momentum and getting somewhere. There weren't very many places one could do this, except in the Tardis.
She made it to the console room not long after Harry and the Doctor did, only to find it in a state of absolute chaos. The Doctor stood at the console itself, frantically jabbing buttons and spinning knobs and pulling levers, all the while shouting to the suspiciously absent Harry.
Or so she thought, until she saw the pair of feet poking out of the floor in the general directions of yelps of pain and sparks. It also seemed to be the direction the Doctor was shouting in. The words, however, she wasn't quite sure she understood.
"Harry! You need to disconnect the flux capacitors and redistribute the positive flow with the dimensional stabilizers and plug the vortex transmogrifiers into the internal spacial reductional vents!" Rose kept herself to the back wall. Technology from 21st and 22nd century Earth she could handle with no problem whatsoever, having a century with plenty of free time meant taking things apart and putting them back together and discovering that this little wire right there would cause mass electrocution if misplaced. This dimension of engineering wasn't on her scale of feasible. She didn't have a century of taking it apart.
How Harry knew what went where, well, he grew up on the ship. It was only logical that he could recognize things. This is what she told herself to make sense of why the seven year old could engineer such a complex ship as the Tardis.
Harry's head popped back above the grill line. He smiled at her, face covered in soot and oil. "Alright dad, everything reconnected, the artron energy flow should be distributed amongst the dimensional stabilizers and manipulators, since you seem to forget those, and the vortex transmogrifiers should be compensating for the screw up in the tunnel's leakage." The Doctor beamed at the child.
"Brilliant Harry! Absolutely brilliant! Now, let's see if we can get her back through the tunnel before it collapses!"
Rose raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said it was a stable tunnel," she said, a hint of mocking in her tone. The Doctor scratched his head sheepishly.
"Yeah, well, it was, until I remembered I hadn't taken into account the lack of stabilization in the void dimension and the bleeding of time. I mean, before the war, the Void had been stabilized to allow for travel between the equations I used stabilized the tunnel but couldn't accommodate the space between the dimensions because no one knew what was there at the the time. When Tardis's could travel from dimension to dimension, it had taken an entire team working with some of the most advanced equipment to figure out the precise balances needed. It was only after they were lost that the equations and stabilizers were gone. I…didn't factor that into the calculations…." Harry snorted. The Doctor looked at him, a smile affixed to his face.
"It's something he would miss, wouldn't it?" Harry said to Rose.
"Oi!"
"Yep, it is indeed. Always forgetting the common sense," she agreed.
"Oi! Right here!"
Harry and Rose turned to the Doctor, mock astonishment on their faces. "Really? I didn't see you!" The Doctor huffed.
"Well, if you wanted to know, we're heading back now, so I would hold on if I were you," he said, sniffing. Rose smiled. Harry clambered into one of the chairs and pulled what appeared to be a seatbelt over his shoulder and clicked it into place. The Doctor grinned at her and she climbed up beside him at the console. She held onto the railing. "Here we go!" And he threw a lever.
The Tardis rolled. Literally, on its side, and the only one who didn't find themselves flung about was Harry, who had raised his arms above his head and cheered. The Doctor and Rose were holding onto the railing and grinning at each other.
"I missed this," Rose yelled over the noise and racket. The Doctor grinned wider.
Another turn, a bump, massive, and a dizzying spin, before they were set down with a none too gentle thump. Steam poured from the floor vents and the lights flashed red. Rose and the Doctor, now laying on the grill, and Harry, unbuckling and hurrying over, sighed in relief. Until the shrill scream of the siren had the Doctor and Rose jumping to their feet. Harry gave them a withering stare.
"Where are we?" Rose asked. Harry looked at her.
"Earth, 2009, about an hour after we dropped uncle Jack off. The Tardis defaulted to the most recent stop on Earth, easiest coordinates, closest to the parallels. But we have another problem." Harry gestured to the screen. "I can't read Gallifreyian that fast, but I got enough to figure out that time still isn't completely stable. It went all wonky with the transfer of dimensions. It's bleeding back into this dimension."
The Doctor's eyes were wide, reading, his lips reading out the words without sounds. Harry and Rose watched him, then he suddenly flared into life.
"Out, out, out of the Tardis! Now! Out out out!" Harry and Rose were forcibly evicted from the Tardis and the Doctor rushed after them, slamming the door shut. He sagged against it. Rose looked at him in concern.
"What was that about?" she asked. The Doctor looked at her.
"I dunno, but the warning lights….it was almost as if I had regenerated and she was trying to fix herself too…I dunno…Harry!" Harry had his hands pressed against the wooded shell and his eyes closed. His necklace was in one hand. "Don't…Rose, don't don't touch him." Rose had reached out to get his attention, but her hand froze inches from the boy's arm.
"What is he doing?" she asked. The Doctor sighed.
"He's, in effect, talking to the Tardis. They have a connection, through Harry's magic. They communicate, but Harry usually has to be inside for it to work properly. Outside, he has to have a physical connection and he can't have the necklace on, it restrains the intrinsic connection. But he's already had a massive shock to his brain and he hasn't quite recovered from it. The Tardis just dulled it until he could fully heal. Which means," he raised his voice as Harry stumbled away from the Tardis, "he shouldn't be messing with any magic of any sort whatsoever." Harry grinned at him, then winced, raising a hand to his head. A trickle of blood imitated a tear, rolling down his cheek. He swayed.
The Doctor caught him quickly, sighed. Harry's eyes rolled upwards to look at his father.
"She's…fixing herself….the travel…messed with her systems…she has to…change…slightly...locked up…for now." His speech was halting and slow, and he had a couple more shallow breaths before he fainted. The necklace was still in his hands, and the Doctor replaced it, the shimmering gold loops standing out brightly against the black of Harry's shirt. Then he bundled the boy up, holding him to his chest protectively. He looked at Rose.
"Torchwood is just over there. Jack'll have something for Harry and you two can catch up." He sighed, looked down at his child. "Why does he always manage to get himself hurt?" Rose snorted. The Doctor looked at her, eyebrows raised. "What?"
"All you have to do is look at his dad. I mean, always running into the thick of things, always in danger. The only reason you don't end up flat on your back every single time is you've got a millennium on him. Harry's seven, Doctor, but he's already trying to be like you. I'm not surprised, really." She paused. "And what's this about magic?"
"Hail Tardis!" A loud, masculine voice shouted out. The Doctor and Rose turned, and a giant grin spread over Rose's face.
"You are telling me about it later," she warned, then raised her voice. "Hail Captain Harkness!" A sound of someone stumbling over their feet as they tried to run reached their ears, and a tall, handsome man in a long grey coat appeared around the corner. His eyes were wide, disbelieving, as he stared at the blonde haired girl.
"Rose? Rose Tyler? Is that really you?" Rose grinned impishly at him. "But you haven't been gone an hour…damn Time Machine."
"Still have that coat, I see. Haven't blown it up yet?" Jack grinned.
"Got a closet full for the occasion," he joked back. He rushed forward, swept her up in a hug. "It's been too long. How…?" he looked over at the Doctor, then saw Harry, blood dripping down the boy's face, and frowned. "Tell me later. What I want to know is what happened to the little imp over there." He glanced up at the sound of thunder. "As soon as we get back to the office." And he whirled around, taking Rose by the arm as he did so. The Doctor grinned, Harry snoring softly in his arms and followed them. Jack was chattering happily to Rose, mostly inane, nonsensical things that amounted to weather talk, but the tight grip he hand on her arm, the quick, disbelieving looks he sent at her constantly, an almost in awe of her existence and also just checking to make sure she didn't vanish in the second it took to check that walking into a wall wasn't in their path. It wasn't so different from the Doctor's current attitude towards Rose's strange and wondrous reappearance into his life. With an abrupt finding of a book that led to the creation of a wormhole that brought them to her reality where she was still alive, it all seemed somehow too convenient to him, especially since the Universe wasn't on his side in most cases. Rose and Harry, he had them both? When had things ever worked out so well.
Jack took the scenic route into Torchwood headquarters, the descending platform. Rose enjoyed the trip down, despite the commonality of similar feats of technology she had had access to in her world. She was more interested in catching up with Jack, what he had been up to, why he was still running Torchwood, how he ran it and any other number of things. Jack laughed as he kept pace with her questions.
"Still run it from here, a central hub of information, really. Used to have a team, but well, you know what happens to Torchwood agents." She had told him of her own position. Rose nodded solemnly.
"Life span isn't long."
Jack smiled ironically. "And as I can't die, well, that always makes this job suck."
Rose smiled. "I can empathize."
Jack nodded, smiling, before he stopped, his mind backtracking the conversation.
"Huh?"
"Immortality sucks when you run an organization where the average life span in 5 years, but it seems appropriate, really. You can't die, you keep everything else in check." Jack squinted his eyes at her.
"You have got to be kidding me. Really." Rose shrugged. "Don't you ever look older? I mean, I find grey hairs her and there, I look slightly older. Granted, after a couple millennia buried alive, one would, but still."
"I don't ever look older. I'm frozen in time, really, is what it comes down to. My biological structure hasn't changed in a hundred and fifty years, a hundred and fifty seven years, to be exact."
The Doctor, who had been busy setting Harry down on a nearby couch and checking over the child's physical condition, looked up, eyes wide.
"What did you say?" he said, incredulity in his voice.
Rose looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Frozen in time. My biology hasn't changed since Platform 5 when I looked into the heart of the Tardis. About the same time I brought Jack back, I think. About the same time all of this stuff happened, really. About the only thing I can affect a change on is my musculature and my hair. Mostly I just stripped the dye away. Hasn't gotten any longer since then." She tilted her head, considering. "I heal up at a normal pace, for the most part. Nails grow back to their original form. If I die mangled, I come back with bleach blonde hair and ragged nails. It's rather irritating." The Doctor looked at her with wide eyes, then looked at Jack, narrowed them, looked back to Rose, and clapped suddenly.
"Oh, yes, why didn't I sense it? Oh I am daft!"
"Well known fact, Doctor. What is it?"
The Doctor ignored Jack and gestured expansively between the two of them and himself. "You know how I once said that you were wrong Jack, since you were a fact, a fixed point?" Jack nodded, smiling.
"Yep. Made me feel all tingly inside." Rose shoved him gently.
"You still feel wrong, in a strange sense, but it isn't bad, really, just odd. But Rose here, I never got that feeling, never. Not once. I mean, something should have happened to her, she looked into the heart of the Time Vortex, even I had to regenerate, but no ill effects, nothing, well, nothing noticeable. Not at first, really. But now, now that I concentrate, knowing that she's well, immortal, I can sense a difference in the time energy that flows around her. It's less like a stone in the middle of the river, like the good Captain here, more like well, more like the river, I guess, like, well, like the Tardis if I had to give it a name." He stood there, hand tangled in his hear, a confused expression on his face. Rose laughed.
"I'm being compared to an ageless ancient time machine. It doesn't get much better than that." Jack smiled, then looked directly at the Doctor.
"Now that that's sorted, how is Rose here, why are half the scanners in Torchwood going off and why is Harry unconscious and bleeding from his ears?" This last part was said as Jack got up and moved over towards the small boy. He knelt down next to Harry, gripped a small hand in his and looked up at the Doctor. The Time Lord sighed into his hands, leaning back against the wall.
"Started about a week ago, give or take. Took Harry to the Shadow Proclamation, boy wasn't that a fun trip." He said it with enough sarcasm to get his point across. Jack smiled, Rose laughed. "Anyway, we ended up in the library and Harry found a diary written in Gallifreyian, it's inside his jacket at the moment." Jack rustled through Harry's clothes until he came up with the book, then stared at it, eyes wide. The circles and lines and circles made his head spin. "Yes, that. It's Rassilon's diary, long before he was president of Gallifrey. Before there had been stable portals or Tardis's able to breach the Void to other Universes, and he explored the possibility in that book. When Harry got to the math, something he couldn't figure out, he gave it to me. Your alarms are going off because I forgot in my haste to account for the backlash of the Time and Space vortex mixing with the Void and seeping into the tunnel I created through into the parallel universe. Right now, and for the next few hours, there is a localized field of time disturbance about fifty feet from the Tardis. And I have to make sure it doesn't get any bigger or that no one stumbles across it." The Doctor sighed. Jack nodded.
"Well, that's how Rose is here, but how did Harry end up like that? Can't be just the travel, he's had worse." The Doctor sighed, screwed up his eyes, breathed deep.
"He took his necklace off too many times for his mind to handle." A hand swiped across a tired face as the Doctor related the last twelve hours, ending with Jack's arrival. Jack sat and listened, eyes flickering every so often, then he looked over at Harry.
Rose stood back and watched them, watched Jack with Harry and the Doctor. These two people, men she hadn't seen in far too long, people she was inexplicably drawn to. Jack, also immortal, actions caused by her own hand. The Doctor, who knows how old, still a mystery and still someone she cared for, loved (that picture she threw darts at was somewhere amongst her papers in her bags). And now Harry, a child, raised in the Tardis by the Doctor, seven years old and already trying to save the universe and be just like his dad. His dad, who was not someone to emulate, Rose thought. His dad who ended up in all sorts of life threatening trouble a seven year old shouldn't be in, who got out with his brain and nerve and sheer luck sometimes. Still, it was heartening, seeing the Doctor just that much happier, his eyes sparkling with delight when he looked at Harry, shining when he looked at her, so far from the sad blue eyes he had when he met her, the manic, somehow optimistic chocolate brown when he regenerated, and that ageless pain when she saw him again. He looked happier, like he had something to live for, rather than just counting the seconds until one death trap wouldn't be escapable.
"So then, what are we going to do about the scanners?" She interrupted the conversation that was starting to turn towards Jack goading the Doctor with flirts and eye rolls from the Time Lord. They looked over at her, and the Doctor cleared his throat awkwardly. She snorted.
"Well, I was going to use the equipment here, since the Tardis is all locked up." He looked at Jack for permission, and he gave it with a nod of his head. "Then I'll go take a look. Rose, coming?" Rose smiled and nodded. While it was a strange experience, giving up command after having it for well on a a hundred years, it was also a bit of a relief. Someone else in charge would probably rub her the wrong way eventually, but for now she would enjoy not having to make the first decision.
Jack held onto the tiny, cool hand a little longer. Such a small person, Harry was. He didn't seem all that small, not when he was talking and running and laughing.
He laid a hand on Harry's cheek, marveling at how small he was, how small his cheek was. His hand could cover most of his face, and Harry's own hand, Jack judged, would fit comfortably in his palm, all fingers outstretched and everything. Harry was so small, so much life in such a tiny body.
A body that ended up unconscious and hurt more times than he was comfortable with, especially for a seven year old.
"You've known Harry for a while, haven't you?" Jack whirled around, surprised. Rose stood behind him, leaning on the railing, hand crossed over her chest and a smile on her face.
"Make more noise next time, would ya?" he asked. Rose grinned.
"It's an art I rather enjoyed perfecting," she said. Jack chuckled.
"You would. Yeah, I've known Harry a while. He was three or so. Four years for him." Rose nodded.
"For you?" Jack raised and eyebrow.
"Not much longer, honestly. I only come back here sporadically, usually to make sure Britain isn't overrun with aliens and the like. Right now I'm reorganizing a new team. Cardiff needs one at the rift, I can't just drift without someone here, but I always feel bad leaving them alone." Rose nodded at his words. She probably would have felt the same, she was sure.
"They bring a lot of life with them, don't they?"
"Enough to fill the galaxy with and more besides." Jack grinned. "Isn't life so dull when they aren't around?"
Rose laughed. "Better believe it."
Jack smiled, then sighed. "But Harry here ends up hurt more often than I like, especially for a seven year old."
Rose snorted. "Look at his Dad, yeah? It's no wonder."
Jack tilted his head. "How so?"
"You know the Doctor, always running into any dangerous situation he can whenever he can, however he can, if it's to save someone. He hasn't changed, not one bit, no matter how long it's been. And Harry's always there with him, his whole life, by the side of that crazy man. He's trying to be just like his dad. You did the same when you were a kid, I bet, trying to be like one of your parents. I know I spent part of my childhood wanting to be just like my mum. Grew out of it," Rose said. Jack snorted, but he was nodding.
"I see your point. Everyone else he's ever had as a companion before were always old enough to take care of themselves without the Doctor around, had already grown up, huh?"
Rose nodded. "All except little Harry here, who was raised by him. Can you imagine that, raised by the Doctor? I love him to pieces, but as a father figure? He isn't the most self-responsible of people. When I met him, he was just waiting for something to kill him. I'm glad that impulse is gone."
Jack sighed. "It came back, after you got trapped in the parallel world. When I met up with him again, it was like he was still trying to find death." He wrinkled his nose. "By the way, what is our dear Doctor doing with my equipment."
Rose shrugged. "I have no clue. He started on what looked like a computer array set up to monitor the rift activity, then pulled out the sonic screwdriver and started taking it apart. Since I was obviously not going to add anything constructive, I was coming back to ask what you knew about Harry's magic. Now, however, it's been about twenty minutes since he's started and there hasn't been an explosion yet, so it's due any second…"
"ROSE! JACK! COME ON! WE HAVE A TIME RIFT TO CLOSE!" a shout which was immediately followed by the sound of an explosion, something electronic fizzing out of control. Rose smiled.
"Right on time. Well then Captain Jack, will you be my escort to world saving?" She held out an arm. Jack smiled, kissed Harry's forehead, and nodded graciously.
"Certainly Dame Rose, and may I say you look lovely for a spot of world saving." They giggled back down the corridor, and Harry slept on, healing slowly.
~~~~This is a Scene Break~~~~~
"So Doctor, you figure out what set the scanners off?" Jack leaned against the wall nearest the computer console the Doctor had taken apart. "I hope you can put that back together. The equipment is expensive." The Doctor waved a dismissive hand.
"Works better now anyway. And yes, I have figured out what set the scanners off. When we arrived back in this universe, the instability of the dimensional vortex that we created also messed with the flux of the temporal field that is already slightly out of synch with the main timeline of the area but that's caused by the dimensionality of the rift…" the Doctor and Rose watched the Doctor babble on for a few more minutes, going off on a tangent about the rift and something about crystallization of time before Rose stepped in, dragged the Doctor up and around and kissed him. The Doctor froze.
It wasn't a kiss meant to raise the temperature but more of a convenient way to get the Doctor to stop talking. It didn't hurt that it was the Doctor. Jack laughed and clapped.
"Wha…?"
Rose huffed. "We didn't quite catch the reason for the scanners screamin' and you started talking about time shards. It was an easy way to get your attention." She shrugged. The Doctor stared at her while Jack laughed in the background.
"Can I give that a shot next time?" the captain asked from behind Rose. The Doctor glared indignantly but Rose merely turned a winning smile on him, her eyes sharp. Jack laughed a bit nervously. "Alright, then, maybe not."
"Thought so. Anyway, Doctor?" The Doctor looked slightly dazed, before he shook his head and blinked several times.
"Alright, well, what I was saying"
"The shorter, human version that doesn't involve fifth dimension mathematics," Rose interrupted him, smiling. The Doctor frowned, then nodded.
"Well, what's happened is the instability of the portal also affected the rift, and the rift is a tear in space/time. The portal is connected to the void, which is basically nothing, though there's a lot of debate about what is actually there, but for now, nothing works. Anyway, this nothing is seeping into the rift, and it is bending the space/time hole and dragging things from it, or taking it away, or something. I'm not quite sure yet on what exactly is physically happening, but, well, it isn't good."
Rose and Jack looked at each other, then Jack pushed off the wall.
"You know, you always manage to bring as much trouble as possible whenever you arrive anywhere. Is this instability affecting the people in the area?"
The Doctor shuffled a bit. "Well, it will be, soon. Crystallized Time often has a detrimental effect on people, freezing them in place, stopping their entire history, erasing things,but it hasn't gotten there yet." He paused. "I think, which is why we need to go now. I need access to your storage rooms Jack, where you keep all the alien technology."
Jack looked at him pointedly, then waved behind him. "In my office, take the stairs down to the stone floor. It's all down there. But make sure you remember what you took! I have to keep the record…wait, stop! The log is behind…ah hell, he's not even listening is he?
Rose chuckled. "Doubt it. But while he's busy building some strange device to close the….whatever's opening, you can answer some questions for me."
Jack swallowed hard. Rose pinned him with her eyes. That golden stare, she knew, broke numerous hardened suspects and would have employees of Torchwood squirming and heading for the door. Jack took it slightly better than most, but he finally sighed.
"Go ahead. Ask your questions."
Rose grinned triumphantly. "Magic. The Doctor mentioned Harry has magic. What did he mean?"
"Well, you start out easy. Harry, from what I understand and have seen, is able to mentally manipulate what the Doctor calls psionic energy, or something really similar, though it isn't quite the same as other species with similar qualities. His people, the magical, can do just about anything with will, words and a specific motion of their wand, or, if they're powerful enough and have enough concentration, just by willing it." Rose blinked, raised an eyebrow.
"So, wand-waving wizards aren't just fairy stories then?"
"Nope. Harry's the real deal. Just, without the wand, from what I understand. Not that he always needs it." Rose nodded at this.
"And the golden chain around his neck. It isn't earth-made, and it seems to control his ability to sense emotions. What is it, and was he born with that ability?" Here Jack sighed deeply.
"Another straight forward question. Just a….tad harder to answer. There was a planet, the Doctor knows the specifics, apparently there was some bad history between him and the ruler. So Zeus, yes, yes, Zeus, took Harry as punishment. Did some things to his brain and his nervous system that really screwed with him. I have never seen the Doctor more pissed than at that moment." Jack swallowed. "He…I think, from what I understood of the situation, the Doctor basically tossed them into a dimension outside of our own, erasing them from the universe. It was a….well, terrifying is a good word."
Rose stared in the direction Harry was sleeping. "A three year old child. Three, three years old, and they…" she couldn't finish the sentence. She breathed deep, knowing that she couldn't do anything about it now except accept it and move on. It didn't mean she wasn't pissed. "Why did the Doctor take Harry with him?" she finally asked. Jack shrugged, smiled.
"Dunno. All I know is that his birth parents were killed when he was barely a year old and the Doctor somehow got a hold of him. For whatever reason, it was good for him, made him happier, saner, saved him, is what Harry did. I remember him after you were trapped, and after he left you again. He thrives on having people around him, they act as a buffer between him and himself, anything he can do to keep from living in the past. But you Rose, you changed him. I didn't notice it at first, not when he had those big ears and blue eyes, but after, after you were gone, he had lost something, something very very important to him. He was scary, Rose. Scary and dangerous and very much looking for a death wish. And now, now he has Harry, the tyke that makes him and just about everyone else smile. You're back too. I'm betting he's wondering what he did to deserve it, cause he can't believe he does. He's just too stubborn, too heard headed, puts his life last on the list."
Jack and Rose stared at each other, both knowing the truth in that statement, and Rose sighed. "I'm glad he found Harry before he deliberately flew the Tardis into a black hole then." She smiled at Jack, her eyes shimmering slightly. "It's good to see you again, it really really is."
Jack snagged her and pulled her into him, hugging her close, and Rose hugged back. "Good to see you too kid," he whispered into her hair.
"Oi, if you two are done, we've got a timeline to save!" Rose huffed and smiled up at Jack, then pulled away and started after the skinny, manic frame of the man who saved the world all too often. Jack trailed after her, shouting something that garnered a laugh from Rose and an eye roll from the Doctor.
~~~~~This is a Scene Break~~~~~
Harry blinked slowly, his head pounding and his ears ringing. He was laying…on Uncle Jack's bed? They were back from the parallel world, he remembered, they had made it. Then….then…oh, right, dad had realized there was a problem with the tunnel he had created…
So where were they? Why was he in Uncle Jack's bed? Had he fainted? Something itched his cheek, and he scratched at it. Blood came away, dried and cracking. He followed the trail up to his ear. He had overextended himself, he though ruefully. It wasn't as if he hadn't done it before, but he had…he thought about it. He had taken his necklace off and messed with someone else's emotions….twice, one of them major, after he had been drugged, and then the Tardis, he had to communicate with her. He wasn't supposed to take it off, not unless he had too. Now he was paying the consequences.
Boy what consequences they were too. His brain was trying to break out of his skull and he wasn't sure he was going to be able to hear anything in the near future. He also couldn't see his dad, or Uncle Jack, or Rose.
"Dad? Uncle? Rose?" he couldn't hear himself, his ears were full of bells and electronic white noise. Still, no one came into view and he looked around. There, a small blue cube, sitting on the other side of his pillow. His dad always left one, a voice recording, telling him where he had gone in case Harry woke up before he came back. He would have to wait until he could hear his hands clapping before he listened to it, but that's alright. His dad was fine, he could wait to figure out what had happened.
Now he could explore headquarters.
If his body would let him sit up. It took a few attempts, him finding the floor with his face before his feet, but he eventually ended standing up. His head spun. He grasped the bed he had been laying on, finding his balance, and when the world finally decided it would settle down into something resembling stability, he let go and toddled out towards the main room.
He rarely got to explore the Torchwood headquarters, his dad didn't like Torchwood and Uncle Jack didn't bring them here, not unless they didn't have any other choice. And he was never left alone either. But, from what he could see (he still couldn't hear) no one was here. He could explore to his hearts content.
If that blasted beeping would stop….He could hear again! And he could hear a high pitched beeping all around him, accompanied by a bright, flashing red light.
And he was sure his dad was at the center of it.
He walked unsteadily back to his bed and picked up the voice cube. A button on the side flicked it on.
"Harry, before you go haring off to find me and inevitably get into trouble, remember that you have a mild concussion and have damaged some of the synapses in your brain. So stay still. Sleep, read a book, write something, anything. I left the diary for you. Don't follow me, whatever you do. I don't want you to get even more injured. Stay in Jack's rooms, inside Torchwood. And don't mess with anything. Love you. Dad."
Harry sighed, staring at the now inert cube. Of course his dad would have him laying down and keeping it easy when there were interesting things going on. Then again, his head was still spinning. Maybe when it wasn't he would find dad and Uncle Jack and Rose. For now, he was going to wait till the ground was stable.
~~~~~This is a Scene Break~~~~~
Rose and Jack followed the skinny frame of the Doctor as he raced towards the Tardis, or the general area of the Tardis. Rose and Jack laughed amongst themselves.
"You know, no matter how long it's been, I will never get tired of this!" Rose yelled. Jack laughed.
"I know the feeling!" The Doctor suddenly vanished in a bright golden glow, and Rose and Jack halted suddenly. "Except when this happens."
Rose blinked, looked around.
"Doctor, Doctor!" She sighed. "I've been head of an institute that deals with aliens for the better part of a century and a half and he always manages to find something brand new no one's ever seen."
This had Jack blinking, thinking it over, before joining her in laughter.
"Isn't that the truth."
A sudden shout reached their ears. "Jack! Rose! Come here! This is amazing!"
Jack and Rose looked at each other, raising eyebrows, sighing in unison. "We can't go anywhere unless we know where you are Doctor!" Jack yelled into the swirling mist of gold light.
"What?" came back out of the light.
"Doctor, we can't see you. Where are you?" Rose qualified Jack's statement. Spiky brown hair, followed by shining eyes and a wide smile, popped out of the golden light.
"Come on then. You don't get to see time being crystalized all that often!"
"Are we gonna vanish into some random time if we head in there? Is it only for special Time Lord biology?" Rose asked, eyebrow raised but looking like she was ready to head into the swirling cloud.
The Doctor looked perplexed. "What? Why for? No, of course not, no side effects, well, none that I know of, well, nothing too bad, well, you two will be fine." He held out a hand, and Rose smiled, took it. She held out hers for Jack.
"Never fails to surprise me, you two," Jack commented. Rose and the Doctor grinned, and the Doctor pulled them into the Time Storm.
All around them, golden mist swirled and spun and filled the air. The Doctor held on to Rose's hand tightly, watching as she gazed up in wonder at the dazzling mix of color and light all around them.
"It looks like the light from the Tardis," Rose breathed softly. The Doctor grinned.
"Not quite. It's the vortex, but since it's been filtered through multidimensional space and the rift, the atron energy is being crystalized instead of swirling through this universe and messing with the timelines." He looked over at her, smiling, then froze.
Her eyes were glowing gold, echoing back to that moment on Platform 5. He shook her gently, but she didn't respond. Jack hurried over, worry in his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"She's glowing. A reaction to the vortex, but I don't know…" Rose's eyes blazed with power, and something spoke through her, a tone the Doctor would never forget.
"I am the Bad Wolf. Born from Time and eternal." Jack's eyes widened and he took a few steps back. The Doctor held onto Rose's hand all the tighter.
"Why are you inside Rose?" He asked, directing the question at the spectral energy. Golden eyes snapped to him. A small smile curved Rose's lips.
"I have always been here. The Past, The Present, The Future, Rose Tyler has been my child, just as you are, Time Lord." Rose's head tilted to the side. "My child is a vessel, Time Lord, a vessel for the will of that which you proclaim lordship over. She has always been, will always be and must always be, just like you will forever evade your fate, the immortal will strive towards death and why your young child will defy the universe."
The Doctor's eyes hardened at the mention of Harry, and he gripped Rose's hand all the tighter. "What are you doing to Rose? Why her?"
A soft laugh was the reply. "Because, Time Lord, the Bad Wolf must always have a vessel. Rose Tyler was a child born with the fate of the universe written into the fabric of reality. What more perfect host than she?" The Bad Wolf looked up amongst the forming crystals of golden time, condensed and capturing eternal moments. "These are the Crystals of Time, a result of the fusion of time and reality and the void, pieces of time taken from the timelines and frozen into perfect crystal shards. It must also be stopped, before it rips the timelines apart."
The Doctor nodded. "That's what I was planning on doing."
The Bad Wolf laughed. "I am sure, Time Lord, just as soon as you were done showing off and expounding on your knowledge about time and space and any other number of things. But we cannot wait for you to finish regaling your tales, this must be sealed."
"Doctor? What's going on?" Jack was standing back from them, pinned by a number of crystals and looking slightly panicked. "I can see the burning of the Library of Alexander in here Doctor!"
"Just…just a minute Jack, I'll get it fixed." He sighed, ran his free hand through his hair, looked back into the blazing gold eyes. "And what about Rose? Why can't she age? She isn't immortal, like Jack. It's something else. You are the Bad Wolf, you create yourself, what does that mean?"
A slow, easy smile. "You ask a lot of questions, Time Lord. Rose is the vessel of Time and until her task is complete, she will remain alive. And as for that task, that is self evident, my child. The Bad Wolf has and always will create itself. It is the nature of the vessel to create themselves, at some point, to come into their power. Rose created herself when she looked into the heart of the Tardis and thus I was created, yet I have always existed." Laughter at the look of confusion on the Doctor's face. "I shall enjoy watching you over the years. Your life is such an interesting one." Gold eyes looked around.
Shards of golden crystals were falling from the sky, crashing into the ground. Several other people had entered the swirling mist of disassociated time and a few were trapped within the crystals. The Doctor's eyes blazed.
"Now, Time Lord, your work here must be finished. Time should not be leaking like this, and I cannot help you. It is not my place. I was granted speech because of the saturation of time in this area, but I cannot fix it. That you must do. Farewell, Time Lord. We shall meet again."
The Doctor watch, helpless, as Rose's eyes closed and her entire body sagged. He lowered her gently to the ground, then stood up, cracking his knuckled, whipping his glasses out and holding some device he had Macgyvered. He looked at Jack, a wild grin on his face.
"Alright Captain, ready for the fireworks?"
Jack, bemused, confused and slightly concerned for probable outcome of this mad fix, just nodded. He wasn't really ready for anything, but he wasn't about to say that, not if the Doctor could get rid of this view of the Coliseum in Rome, somewhere between 15 B.C.E. and 25 C.E.
The Doctor marched towards the center of the spiraling band of gold energy, sonic screwdriver and strange contraption in hand. Jack was stuck helplessly between the bits of….crystalized time. His days with the Doctor never failed to end up strange and convoluted.
In the center was a rip in time and space, a crack created by the Tardis and exacerbated by the presence of the rift. Two (or more) points of time that shouldn't touch. Definitely more than two, since the crack spiraled outwards and had multiple cracks connecting to each other. He plunged his hand into the center of the cracks and held the device outwards, turning the sonic screwdriver on and hearing the boom of transfused energy reach out and touch the cracks.
They sprung wide open, pulling all that has slipped through back, the shards of time rattling, breaking apart and returning. People stuck within the shards were released, unconscious and possibly comatose. The Doctor grimaced but didn't stop. He couldn't, not now. The cracks were expanding, impossibly wider and hungry, drinking in the misplaced energy. The golden light was pulled from the air, yanked back into the cracks, and finally, it closed, sealing itself with nary more than a sigh.
The Doctor fell to the ground, eyes rolled up into his head, unconscious. Jack, now released from his prison, stared at the two unconscious bodies, and sighed. Then he looked around.
People were still and unmoving, there were tendrils of gold floating through the air, and one of the shards still lingered near Rose, touching her hand. He peered into it.
The image trapped inside was of a giant,flying lizard, soaring through the mountains of a time long since passed. A….a dragon? If he had to take a guess, that's what it looked like. He sighed, didn't touch it. He didn't know what it would do. He checked Rose's pulse, found it, and smiled. Alive.
Then the Doctor. He wasn't sure about the pulse, with a double heartbeat the Doctor could have a four beat pulse or no pulse at all. He was breathing, so that was a good sign. He started the rounds of checking for life signs of those who had wandered into the mist. A couple young children, alive. An older woman. Her pulse was thready and the sounds of an ambulance reassured him. A couple, one with a strong pulse, the other thready. The others were fine.
He concentrated on how he was going to get Rose and the Doctor out before the authorities showed up. He definitely didn't want to deal with the police or Unit, who would be called in without a doubt. He sighed, covered up the shard and shoved it into the Doctor's pocket before hoisting him onto his shoulder. The skinny man was way too light for his height. Then he reached Rose, picked her up as best he could, she had muscle on her frame, and headed quickly towards Torchwood headquarters, praying Harry hadn't messed with anything. He didn't think he could handle two unconscious people and a headquarters assaulted by the genius child.
When he finally made it down the stairs and to the nearest couch, where he set Rose down as gently as possible, then the Doctor on the next couch, he examined Torchwood operations. He smiled; headquarters was fine. Aside from the Doctor's tinkering, it looked as if it hadn't been touched. It was a relief, a small one albeit, but a relief, until he realized that might be because Harry was still unconscious. The notion was shattered when the child stumbled out of his office, holding onto the wall, blinked over at him.
"Uncle Jack, your back." He narrowed his eyes. "Dad's unconscious though. What happened?" Jack sighed. Sat down on the floor.
"I don't know kid. You're gonna have to wait until your dad wakes up to tell you." Harry sighed.
"Fine. Is Rose okay?" Jack looked over at Rose. He shrugged.
"I have no idea. If you asked me to recount the last hour, I wouldn't be able to with any sort of accuracy."
Harry grinned. "He has that effect, doesn't he?"
"If you're talking about your father, than yes, he does. And more. Makes him a real pain in the ass." Harry laughed weakly, hanging onto the railing as he slowly toddled down the steps. Jack looked over him, concern in his eyes. Harry waved away the inevitable questions.
"I'll just sit down here, help you keep an eye on them. Head's spinning too much to cause any sort of trouble." Harry gingerly sat himself on the floor, back against the couch, and turned hazy green eyes to Jack. "The scanners…are still showing something strange."
Jack stood up, nodding. "I'll go take a look. Thanks Harry. And stay still. You should still be sleeping, from what I understood of your injuries. Which you will tell me about in depth later. Imp."
"Ass," Harry replied. Jack smiled.
"When your dad hears I've taught you American slang I'm sure I'll get the longest lecture in the history of the universe, but it will so be worth the look on his face." Harry giggled, then leant back, sighed. His eyes fluttered shut. "Sleep well Harry. I'll go make sure nothing else is happening." Harry waved a hand, then nodded off to sleep. Jack paused to look at the three of them.
Little Harry, seven and full of bright life, with a home like no other and father that showed him the universe. The Doctor, an impossibility and a savior, wrapped in a pinstriped suit and smiling broadly. Rose, jeopardy friendly Rose who defies all logic. Seeing them, all together, made Jack smile brightly. If the universe was kind enough to bring back Rose, then they could face the worst the Universe could throw at them together.
Harry woke up on the couch, underneath a blanket. Quite different from where he went to sleep at, on the floor. And his dad wasn't anywhere to be seen. Though, when he sat up (thanking the universe for the lack of spinning) Rose was still asleep on the couch next to him. And Jack was puttering away at a nearby computer. But his dad wasn't anywhere to be seen.
He threw the blankets off and stood up, heading easily over to Jack. His head wasn't throbbing, his inner ear wasn't trying to tell him he was walking on the ceiling, or attempting to. His magic felt low, but it was better than a splitting headache and falling over his feet. Jack looked up at his approach, smiled.
"Hey sunshine, lookin good. How're you feeling?"
"Better than when I woke up yesterday."
Jack laughed. "Yesterday? Try two days ago. Though your dad only woke up about six hours ago, so he was out for a while too. I tucked you up onto the couch after you passed out. Couldn't let you sleep on the floor." Harry frowned.
"He was out that long? Really? What did he do?" He looked over his shoulder at the still sleeping Rose. "And Rose is still sleeping."
Jack waved a hand. "Nah, she woke up sometime yesterday, ate something, then went back to sleep." Harry's stomach growled at the mention of food and the boy grinned sheepishly. Jack smiled. "And it sounds like you're hungry. Whatya want?"
"Whatever you have, as long as it's not that weird purple vegetable you people seem to like." Harry looked around. "And where is my dad?"
Jack laughed. "I shoved him into the archives to reassign the labels. He did a number on my computer databases, so I thought it was only fair. Besides, he's probably having a field day down there. I've got alien junk that's fallen to Earth since the late 1800's." Jack beckoned for Harry to follow him. "How does grilled cheese sound?"
Harry nodded. "Good, so long as you have that tomato soup stuff to go with it. And no ham, please. I hate ham." Jack snickered, but didn't say anything about Harry's taste in food as he cooked something up. Harry took a seat at the improvised table. "So what happened yeste….whenever it was that dad did that knocked him out?"
Jack shrugged. "Something about a disassociated time stream and time being crystalized. I was too worried about being pierced by shards of time (and isn't that weird, shards of time? A literal shard of time) to pay too much attention. Though Rose started acting strangely for a while. It was odd, really. Your dad will be able to explain it better. Give me an alien invasion any day over some complicated time event. The Time agency, all those rules to stop paradoxes and loops and shifts. Then the Doctor comes in, skews your entire perception of time, stabs it thoroughly with the horn of a Phenisian Whale and sends it skittering across ten lanes of traffic on Vegas 5."
Harry giggled. "Sounds like dad. Thanks," he said as Jack plopped the grilled cheese in front of him, slopped some red tomato soup into a bowl and slid it across the table. Harry devoured it quickly. Jack laughed.
"I sometimes forget your seven and still growing, then you start eating and I can't help but be reminded of an insane dinosaur tearing through it's meat." Harry glowered at the comment, and Jack grudgingly whipped up a few more sandwiches and watched in fascination as Harry downed them all.
When he had gone through three and a half, he settled back and sighed. "Alright, time to find dad."
Harry headed towards deep storage, in the general direction Jack had indicated, and set about looking for the elusive, skinny frame of his father.
The Tardis let them back in after another day sulking and repairing in the alley, and by then Rose had woken up. She was still groggy and her head pounded, but she wasn't sleeping the day away on the couch.
~~~~~~~This is an Ending~~~~~
All of you reviewers are so amazing! Thank you for your awesome words and encouragement! When I hit the end of semester with four essays and two final exams, it was awesome to see that you all were still reading this and reviewing and letting me know that I could write. Thanks so much! To all my reviewers who don't have reply activated, thank you all. I try and get back to everyone personally but when I can't, I still want to let you all know that I sincerely appreciate all the kind words!
The next adventure should be up soon! I'm on winter break so I should have more time to write and everything!
Happy Holidays to everyone, whatever holiday you celebrate and where ever you may be! Hopefully some of you have snow (I think where I live has forgotten it is actually December, which means WINTER in the Northern Hemisphere and is instead hovering about 70 degrees. Which Isn't bad, but it doesn't help the holiday feeling here any. Reminds me of Guam, where we went to the beach on Christmas once. 0.0)
Kuroi