Time's Heart: Fiery Twin
A Doctor Who Fanfiction
Rating T

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any related characters and/or quotes, nor any corporate entity mentioned herein. However any original characters are mine, and are available for use with permission.

AN: I always did think that the Master was a bit creepy, and the warning at the ending of Planet of the Dead just confirmed it for me. I mean that man has more lives than a house full of cats. It makes me shudder. Anyways… It's time for Rose to be in the story again. Hope you like.

X Fiery Twin X

Perhaps his parents felt as Victoria did. Broken hearts.

"It's time to go home for a bit. I think we might be able to get the girls back."

"There you go. I can taste it. Oestrogen. Definitely oestrogen. You take the pill, flush it away, it enters the water cycle, feminises the fish. Goes all the way up into the sky, then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain. Love this planet. Still, at least I won't get pregnant. Never doing that again." – CJH Torchwood ep01.01

X Fiery Twin X

Pete's World, July 2019

Flashing lights and blaring sirens welcomed Ianto back into consciousness. The last he remembered, Jack was shoving him onto the lift.

"Oh, God, I'm dead."

Lifting his head from the cold floor he came face to face with a young woman with old looking brown eyes.

"No you're not." She smiled. "You're in Torchwood Three. I'm Rose. You?"

"Jones, Ianto Jones."

Rose pushed herself up and sat cross-legged on the concrete floor. "Well Jones, Ianto Jones, welcome to Torchwood."

Ianto's head swam as he pushed himself up to sitting. Touching a hand to his temple revealed why. He had a lump the size of an egg and blood covering the side of his face. "Oh."

Rose motioned to the small woman behind her. "Let's get you cleaned up. This is our doctor Toshiko Harper."

The Tosh whose face he looked up into was nearly a decade older than the one he had watched die in Jack's arms not two weeks prior. "Tosh? How?"

"You seem surprised to see me. You must know me." Tosh was careful not to make any sudden moves as she set her bag down. Pulling a small penlight out, she shined it in his right and then his left eye. "Your eyes are reacting normally, so no concussion."

"You're really Tosh?"

The petite doctor giggled. "Yes I am really Tosh. You sound like Owen when I do something he doesn't expect."

Ianto's eyes widened in shock. "Owen's alive."

"Yeah. Doctor Owen Harper, my husband. I'm guessing from your reactions, that you know the both of us."

He nodded, his breathing heavy as tears started to well up in his pale blue eyes. "You're both dead. I was there, two weeks ago when you died."

Rose and Tosh shared a look over the distraught man's head, as Tosh took him into her arms to comfort him. "Ianto, can you tell us what year it is, where you come from?"

"2009. Why?"

Tosh gasped and Rose simply smiled. "You're on the other side of the Rift Ianto. You're on a parallel Earth. Whatever happened over there never happened here. Tosh and Owen are both still alive."

Pulling a sanitary wipe from her pocket, Tosh swiped at the tears running down his cheeks. At his hiss of pain she apologized. "Sorry. Looks like you've got a cut under all that blood."

"Tosh."

"Yeah." Wiping more blood off, she frowned to see a fist sized bruise and a two inch gash.

"I missed you."

She smiled sadly. "I'm not your Tosh."

"I know." His lips quirked up into a tiny smile. "But you're still Tosh."

Tosh's smile faded a bit as a thought occurred to her. "How did you get here? The crossing has been almost entirely closed for more than a decade."

"There was a bomb. Jack…" Ianto swallowed hard and stared at the floor, tears once again in his eyes. "He tried to get me out. I just remember heat and noise, and then I woke up here."

"What about the Doctor, or Scribe, or the Physician?" Rose asked quietly.

"Scribe is still missing. The others all left over a month ago, after Gwen and Sarah Jane were returned and the Doctor's TARDIS was fixed." Pulling away from Tosh he sat up straight again. "Sardit was still in the Vault, so she should be all right. I've only ever seen Valencia once, right before they left."

"What happened?"

"Physician came back with, whatever it was that he got from Queen Victoria. He only told Jack and the Doctor what it was. Said that Owen and Tosh didn't need to know. Jack says that a lot actually. I chose not to know." Ianto smiled again before shrugging. "Whatever it was, he gave it to the Doctor and two days later they were gone. The girls were back an hour after they left."

Rose nodded. "Sounds like them." She rose to her feet. "Well Ianto Jones, you are more than welcome to stay here at Torchwood Three, or you can come back to London with me and Tosh."

The decision wasn't hard for him to make. "I think I'll go with you two. At least then I'll be with people I know."

X Fiery Twin X

May 2009

The sound of TARDIS engines broke the late night quiet of the Hub, rousing Ianto from the light doze he had fallen into. Raising himself from the couch with a yawn he pulled his mobile from his pocket. After sending a quick text to Jack, he moved to stand in front of the new police box's front doors. A minute or two later, he shrugged. Moving away, he called back over his shoulder, "I'm getting coffee. Let me know if you want any."

Three hours later he was woken again, but this time in a more pleasant manner.

"Good morning sleepy beauty." Jack smiled as the other man blinked up at him sleepily. Noting the half filled coffee cup on the end table, he yawned. "Late night?"

Ianto nodded. "I was waiting for you. Physician arrived a couple of hours ago, but no activity otherwise. The Doctor left shortly after you did. He said that the girls were sleeping and that he was going out to get chips."

"OK. Since you're up anyways, would you care to join me in my office?"

Ianto quirked an eyebrow. "Are you propositioning me?"

Jack grinned at his lover's question. "No. But what would you say if I were?"

"The same thing I'd say if you weren't."

Laughing he helped Ianto to feet. "Physician finally came out from hiding, so it's time for you to meet my nephew."

"What's he like?"

"I don't know." He pointed at the two ships that took up a corner of the Hub. "First time I've ever seen Valencia too." He sighed, a distant look coming into his ancient eyes. "The Doctor figures that I'm the reason that they were able to survive the other universe. He thinks that those four days I was in a coma last year were…" he paused unable to find the right words. "I gave him a copy of the recordings. I've been going through them in my spare time. Haven't even made a dent."

Ianto nodded as he threaded an arm under Jacks' coat in a half hug. "Well if Tosh is right, and she usually is about these things, then we got nearly a decade's worth of recordings in just those four days."

"I haven't even gotten through a year of it." He shook his head, leaning into Ianto as he tried to smile. "It's hard listening to them sometimes."

Deciding that they had both gotten more than melancholy enough, Ianto asked a question that went in a totally different direction. "So, how old is he?"

"The Physician?"

"Yeah I mean is he closer to my age, or yours?"

Jack laughed and shrugged. "You know what, I don't know."

"You don't know." Ianto laughed as he moved out of Jack's arms. "It's rare to hear you say that."

"Yeah, well it's been known to happen." Jack shrugged again. "I do know that he is young. But for a Time Lord, young is anything under about two to three hundred."

"I'm one hundred eighty-six years old on my last birthday."

The softly cultured voice startled the two men. Turning to look behind them, they saw a young ginger haired gentleman dressed in Victorian era garb.

"You must be Theseus."

The young man nodded with an elegant tilt of his head. "And you must be Uncle Jack." Turning to the other man he smiled. "And you are?"

"Jones, Ianto Jones. I work with Jack. Um… I mean obviously." Looking very flustered he turned to Jack and pointed at the office behind them. "I'll meet you in there sir."

The two older men watched as Ianto beat a hasty retreat into the board room. Jack shook his head with a smile as Theseus burst into laughter.

"Oh. He's adorable Uncle. How'd you think he'd like it if I started calling him Auntie?"

Jack laughed. "He'd probably shoot you."

"Uncle it is then." His head tipped to the side as he listened internally to a call few could hear. "Dad's on his way in. Should be here in a few. We should probably go in and wait. He's about to get the surprise of a lifetime."

X Fiery Twin X