He didn't know what exactly he had expected. He supposed he expected something that Banni would do—eyebrow raising to the sky, a frown and continuously louder repetitions of 'what?', hands running frantically through hair. James just looked like he'd been shot.

For a long time, he sat there, quietly. His eyes were wider and blank looking and his lips moved slightly a few times but he didn't speak. After a moment, he picked up the oxygen tubing and attached it to his face again, taking deep breaths.

James cleared his throat and closed his eyes for a moment, as if collecting himself. "Last I heard, the Master was dead," he said quietly. "Though coming back from the dead is a trick he's rather famous for."

The silence dragged on and Ganbri eagerly watched for the tiniest reactions from James. Ganbri could see his breathing change, the slight glimmer in his eyes and the way they kept moving. He felt a storm brewing behind a thick curtain, and James was trying very hard to keep it hidden. To another human, it might have worked, but Ganbri could feel the pressure.

Finally, James swallowed hard and took a quick breath. "Are you okay?" His voice sounded a little higher, a little uneven.

Ganbri blinked, uncertain. "I feel like I should be asking you that," he answered with an awkward chuckle. "What do you mean?"

"I know what kind of men they are," James answered quickly, eyes suddenly dark. "I know the way they think and the things they do. And I know that it's not normal for a boy your age to have regenerated. If you need help, you tell me. I'm human and old and sick, but I'm not useless and I'm not afraid of them. If you need help, tell me and I promise I will help you."

Ganbri blinked again, feeling something ugly and dark stirring in the back of his mind. James knew everything about them from before Tokrah got better—before they forgave each other. He knew every sin, every lie, every hidden shame. Were they really so terrible?

"I didn't know what they were really like," he admitted. "And then I heard some things and I still didn't really know . . . And then I saw it." He hadn't wanted to say it out loud, but the words seemed to crawl out on their own. Once they were out, he felt better, and suddenly he was saying everything.

He told him about Kahlia and the Nightmare's War. He told him about the childhood of training to ensure his survival. He told him about the people who died and the people who were tortured. He told him about the monster that Banni unleashed on hundreds of people and the vicious scars it left when he turned it on his Tokrah. He told him about feeling an anger and a hatred that he couldn't explain.

And James sat quietly and listened.

He never gasped. He never asked why. He never denied a thing. And Ganbri began to feel that anger bubbling up inside him again as James's reaction, or lack thereof, reminded him just how much he'd been lied to and how thoroughly he'd been fooled. Suddenly, he was beginning to think that J.J. had been right in his anger after all—he was always smarter than Ganbri gave him credit for.

He didn't realize that he was losing his composure until James shifted forward and, with a deep breath, swung his legs off of the bed so that they could sit side by side. "Come on," he said quietly, holding his arm out. "I'm new to the brother thing but I know that this is part of it."

Ganbri didn't hesitate to lean against him so that James's arm could slip around his shoulders and squeeze him tight. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to slow his hearts and settle himself. He listened to James's ragged breathing and his singular heartbeat pounding in his chest and, without a thought beyond instinct, reached out for his mind.

You're young, he heard James's pitying thoughts whispering. You're so young.

Connecting to a human always felt like trying to hold onto something slippery, like something he simply wasn't supposed to hold, but he could if he was gentle enough. He felt James notice his presence after a few seconds and, though Ganbri suddenly felt a stab of guilt for not asking for the connection, James did nothing to push him out. He felt a little bit like Banni, a bit like Donna, a tiny bit like Jenny, and even a little like Brody. It was strange and different, but it felt trustworthy.

"Maybe," James began again, quiet and hesitant. "The men you thought they were . . . were just the men that they were trying to be. And there's a difference between trying to be a better man and trying to trick someone."

Ganbri let the words sink in for a moment and they did make him feel better. He sat up straight again after a moment, letting James know that he could let go of him, and tried to pull himself together. He was supposed to be an agent of Torchwood—a soldier and defender of the Earth—and it wouldn't do to behave like such a child.

He looked at the man beside him and took in the details a little more closely. James had wrinkles around his eyes that Banni didn't have and hints of more at the corners of his mouth. There was grey hair in his sideburns, which were significantly shorter than Banni's, and peppering the edges of his hair all along to the back of his neck, with the odd silver strand here and there. He had a thin scar that started at the back of his ear, ran down his neck, and disappeared beneath his shirt. There was no scar on his forehead and all his fingers were straight and ringless, though his knuckles were heavily scarred. It seemed that his face's default expression was somewhat grim looking and his eyes made Ganbri feel sad to look at—they looked so burdened.

A human might think that Banni and James looked almost the same but, to Ganbri, the only features they shared were their noses and freckles. He didn't look like Banni, he didn't talk like Banni, and he didn't feel like Banni.

And Ganbri didn't doubt it at all when James said he would help him.

"We need to get to work," James said after a moment of patiently sitting through Ganbri's observation. "What with the potential end of the universe and everything."

"Sounds like kind of a big deal," Ganbri answered with a nod.

"I don't know about a big deal. I mean, Christmas dinner or the World Cup or adopting a puppy, those are big deals. I'd say this is slightly above average at best."

"You follow football?" Ganbri couldn't help it. "Do you play?"

James gave him a sideways grin, seeming to read his mind. "Bit too sick these days," he admitted, carefully getting onto his feet and picking up the portable oxygen tank. "Assuming we don't die, we save the universe, and my lungs don't give up on me, I might be able to teach you a thing or two. Now, grab my bag, would you?"

Ganbri did as he was told and followed James from the room. James began with long, swift strides but his lungs seemed to quickly disagree with him. He walked a little slower, lips parting a little to catch his breath, but he held his head high.

The others were waiting just down the hallway, standing around and doing nothing but shifting awkwardly and waiting. James didn't address any of them. He walked straight to Rose, the expression on his face setting into something harder, and took her hand.

He turned to Jack, nodding his head slightly. "I think you know who I want to talk to," he said quietly.

Jack nodded in return and turned to the team. "Presley, with me. Everyone else, back to work. I'll let you know when we have something to talk about."

Ganbri didn't care if he'd been asked to join or not, he did anyway. Jack shot him a look like he was going to scold him but Ganbri quickened his pace to walk beside James and that seemed enough. It didn't take a genius to know that, at least for this moment, James was calling the shots. Jack still looked at him like he was a little annoyed, but he chose not to say anything about it.

"Professor Mott fell unconscious yesterday after telepathically linking with Edmund," Kel stated as they walked. "Edmund has told me that he will wake up, though I can never be certain that he understands what he's saying."

"That's fine," James answered.

Rose was looking at him with a worried expression, gripping his hand tightly as they walked. "Are you sure you're up for this now?" she whispered to him quietly. "You just got back on your feet. You haven't slept. You haven't eaten."

"Information is key here," James responded quickly. "Sharing it is the first priority. Once Jack can get his team working, I can rest."

Rose's face didn't lose the worried expression, but she nodded and kept walking.

When they reached the right door, everyone froze. A few uncomfortable glances were exchanged and Ganbri could tell, even without reaching out telepathically, that James was reconsidering his decision to deal with this now. He wanted to run—Ganbri could see that in his eyes—but his expression hardened and, with an irritated grunt, he grabbed the door handle.

Banni was sitting in a chair beside Tokrah's bed. He looked half asleep but his eyes snapped wide open the moment James stepped through the door. Ganbri saw his father instantly bristle, every muscle in his body visibly tensing, and James didn't appear much more relaxed.

"My bag, please," James said before Banni had a chance to speak and held his hand out. Ganbri quickly handed him the bag and watched nervously as James put his oxygen tank down so that he could dig through it.

"James, I believe you and Doctor Noble have already met," Kel offered in the tense silence.

"Briefly," James answered sharply and pulled out the odd device he had been using earlier. Without another word, he held it out towards Tokrah's resting body.

"What is that?" Banni hissed, attempting to take it from James's hand. "What are you doing?"

"I'm making sure he's not going to kill us if he wakes," James snapped irritably, holding the device out of reach.

The device began to beep and, for a second, Ganbri thought all hell was about to break loose between his father and James, but James just scowled at the machine and did nothing.

"How did you get here?" Banni asked, crossing his arms. "How did you find us?"

"I'm clever," James answered simply without looking up, pushing a few buttons on his device. "And you haven't tried very hard to hide."

The machine stopped beeping and James lowered it. He spent a long moment staring down at Tokrah's sleeping form and the muscles in his face moved in a hundred subtle ways. Ganbri could feel that storm brewing again, emotions stirring and threatening to spill out of their carefully crafted containment. Banni watched him like a cornered animal, frightened and baring its teeth.

"How many relapses has he had?" James asked so quietly that it was barely above a whisper.

"None," Banni answered almost angrily.

"Honestly now."

"Not once," Banni answered again, his voice a little stronger. "The drums are gone. He's better now. He's a good man and a good father."

It was showing, slipping through the cracks in small ways. Ganbri saw James's lip tremble ever so slightly and his eyes glimmered with a thin layer of moisture. Ganbri could hear the questions spilling clumsily out of his mind. What happened? How was it possible? Was he like he was before? Why did he say such things? Why did he die? How was he back?

It was a moment of weakness that he knew only he and Banni could perceive—maybe James himself didn't even know it had shown. But then James took a deep breath and straightened his spine, and his face turned to a steel mask.

"It's tricky with the interference from Edmund but, as far as I can tell, he hasn't been touched," James said, his voice returning to a matter-of-fact tone. "At least not by the Bad Wolf. I don't know what kind of hold that thing out there has on him, but it seems different."

"How do we know it hasn't touched you?" Banni asked immediately.

"Because if it had, I would have already taken Rose and your son while you were in here sleeping."

The venom in James's voice did not go unnoticed and Ganbri immediately heard the snarl of the Beast in the back of his head. Banni stepped forward quickly, face twisted in anger and teeth bared.

"You listen to me—"

"Banni, don't!" Ganbri interrupted loudly. "Don't start fighting with each other! You're family!"

"Ganbri, please don't," James muttered darkly, his eyes hard and fixed on Banni.

"No, I'm not letting you two do this," Ganbri answered stubbornly. "I just saw what happens when families start to hate each other and now I have one less sister. Banni, you haven't seen him in over thirty years and the first thing you want to do is fight with him? You're supposed to be his father."

He hadn't really expected his words to have much of an impact but they did. Banni was blinking at him in shock. Ganbri glanced about and Jack and Rose were looking at him the same way. Kel was smiling, as always.

"Ganbri," Banni began. "I don't know what he's told—"

"I never said you were my—he came up with that idea on his own."

"If Jenny is my sister then James is my brother," Ganbri blurted out quickly. "I don't care what you say, that's the truth of it. That makes you his father."

Banni's mouth fell open. "Are you kidding? He looks like he could be my dad!"

"I don't look that old."

"You've got grey!"

"And you've got fat. What's your point?"

"I don't care!" Ganbri shouted over them. "You're both gonna suck it up and be fucking grown-ups! We've got enough shit going on and I'm not going to let you ruin the only good thing that's come out of it!"

A moment of stunned silence followed. James's wide eyes were staring at the floor in complete and utter disbelief and Banni was silently fuming. Ganbri didn't know how to finish or move on, so he turned to the other three in the room and made a face to urge them to say something.

Jack cleared his throat. "Kid's right," he said simply.

"Does that make Miss Tyler your daughter-in-law, Doctor?" Kel blurted.

Banni, James, and Rose's eyes all shot wide open and everyone began talking at once.

"We're not married," Rose answered quickly.

"He's not my dad!"

Jack smacked Kel hard in the shoulder. "Why do you always have to do that?"

"Ganbri, you should go find J.J. and leave us to deal with this."

James rounded on Banni, scowling. "Don't send him off by himself!"

"And who do you think you are to tell me how to handle my son?" Banni shot back.

"Well, apparently, he's my little brother so—"

"Big brother, actually," Ganbri interrupted.

"Hey, Lahrre."

James suddenly let out a yelp unlike anything he'd ever heard Banni make and leapt away from the bedside. Ganbri didn't see exactly what had happened, but Tokrah's hand was stretched out towards him.

"Harry!"

Banni flew to the bedside, immediately on his knees with Tokrah's hands clasped between both of his. Tokrah was blinking sleepily around the room, pausing on James with a confused expression. He looked back and forth between Banni and James, frowning with eyes slightly out of focus.

"Is it my birthday?"

Jack laughed. Banni didn't.

"Don't you even think about it," James hissed, quickly sitting down in Banni's vacant chair with a hand on his chest and suddenly struggling to catch his breath.

"Ah, Professor Mott," Kel said in his most pleasant voice. "Allow me to introduce you to James. We've just established that he's your stepson. Congratulations."

Jack hit Kel in the shoulder again. "Seriously?"

The sudden strain to breathe was painfully clear in James's voice when he quickly protested. "No. No, no, no, I'm drawing the line there."

"So am I," Banni agreed quickly.

"Oh, no, it's quite clear," Kel continued. "If James is Ganbri's brother, that makes him your son and, thus, Harry's stepson. Or just son, I suppose, considering you refer to Jenny as your daughter."

"Presley!" Jack snapped.

"James, they're just words," Rose was muttering frantically. "It really doesn't matter."

James had gone several shades whiter and was clutching the oxygen tank his hand tightly. "We're not talking about this," he said breathlessly. "This just isn't happening."

"Ah, the family has grown," Kel said happily. "Happy day."

Banni pointed an angry finger at the Zumecki. "There are words for people like you," he snarled. "And most of them are not fit for me to say in front of my son."

Kel tilted his head and smiled serenely. "Which one, pet?"

Ganbri didn't know what Banni had intended to do to Kel when he got up because James got there first. After Jack had managed to separate them, he sent Kel from the room to nurse his bleeding lip and sat James back down on the chair with firm instructions to stay there. He suddenly looked just as ill as he had when they first found him, ghostly pale and fighting to breathe. Ganbri hoped that he'd be okay once the excitement had passed.

Now they were all sitting in awkward silence, with James gasping for air, Rose fretting over him, Banni barely containing his fury, and Tokrah just looking at them all in a complete state of confusion.

"I mean, you could have just called him a troll," Jack said after a moment. "You kinda opened the door for him, didn't you?"

"Here's an idea, Jack. How about we just stop talking about it?" Banni growled.

"Yes, please," James agreed quickly, still sounding breathless.

"Alright," Jack switched his tone to that of the Captain and crossed his arms. "First of all, Harry, glad to see that you're finally awake. I'm sure the Doctor will want to examine you to make sure your health hasn't been impacted and James also needs to be sent back to Dr. Presley for treatment and a little T.L.C. but we need to figure out where we stand first. We need everyone to give us whatever information they have on the Bad Wolf or anything possibly related. We were hoping you might have learned something in your link with Edmund."

"I did," Tokrah answered without hesitation. "It's all a bit confusing. Edmund was clearly trying to communicate something to me but it's very hard to understand. I think I managed to work out some of it though."

No one else said anything and Jack gestured for Tokrah to go on.

"The images he gave me leads me to believe that Edmund isn't the only creature of his kind. There are several similarities between him and what we know of the Bad Wolf."

"Yes," James added eagerly. "From what I have learned about him, I think he and the Bad Wolf are the same or, at least, a similar species."

Tokrah nodded slowly and continued. "He also showed me that they go to great lengths to protect themselves from us."

Rose's eyebrows locked together. "From us? What can we possibly do to them?"

"I don't entirely know," Tokrah admitted. "But the image he gave me was of people in hazmat suits."

"Like we're a disease?" Ganbri asked.

"Like we can infect them," Jack suddenly chimed in, his eyes widening. He looked as if he was piecing something together but he didn't say anything else.

"But Edmund has willingly exposed himself to us for years," Banni added next. "He wouldn't do that if we were dangerous to him."

"Unless he's got a hazmat suit," Rose cut in, sounding a little too excited. "He might still be protected."

Ganbri looked at his Tokrah to find he was being stared at. Tokrah's eyes looking at him intensely, unmoving, seeming to see straight through him. He took a few deep breaths, sighing.

"I don't know what it all meant," he admitted quietly. "I don't know how much of it was my mind and how much of it was his."

"What do you mean?" Banni frowned. "What did you see?"

Tokrah's eyes didn't move away and Ganbri began to feel uncomfortable under the heavy gaze. "I think one of them was exposed to us. I don't know. If that's what he meant, then maybe he meant the Bad Wolf?"

"Well, I did absorb it," Rose added in, suddenly looking very uncomfortable in her own body, hands fidgeting and tugging at the hem of her shirt. "Did he mean that I infected the Bad Wolf with . . . with myself?"

"I don't know," Tokrah answered, finally moving his eyes away. He looked down into his hands, frowning.

"He was telling us we can kill it," Jack spoke up, voice firm and certain. "If the Bad Wolf infects someone, they die, right? What if Edmund is telling us that if the Bad Wolf gets infected by someone, it can die too? It's a two-way street. This is biological warfare and we're the virus. We figure out how it works, we infect the bitch, and we can all argue about technicalities in the family tree over some beer in our still-existing universe."

"Oh."

It was quiet, but everyone heard it, and all eyes turned to James.

James looked up to see them all looking at him expectantly and he took a deep breath. "Shit."

Jack waved a hand towards him irritably. "Wanna share with the class, James?"

James cringed, seeming to shrink down into his seat. "Well . . . you see, it's not good either way and, knowing these two," he gestured to Banni and Tokrah. "It wouldn't be an option anyway. Well, I mean, it's not an option. It's too risky and, even if it wasn't, we can't—"

"What is it?" Rose asked him eagerly. "James, whatever it is, it can't be more important than what's going to happen if we don't stop this thing. Just tell us."

James paused to take several deep breaths, fingers twisting the oxygen tubing nervously., He looked to Banni and Tokrah, eyes so heavy and burdened that they hurt to look at.

Then he looked to Ganbri, and it looked like every word caused him pain when he began to speak. "There was an old myth on Gallifrey . . ."