Chapter Twenty-One

"If this thing only worked," Jack said, smacking the strap on his wrist.

"Give it to me, then." Catherine put her transmitter down on the loose and broken pavement.

"Catherine, you can't—"

"Wife. Give."

Jack sighed in resignation and gave it to Catherine. "It's thirty-one centuries beyond your experience…"

"And so are you, and I manage with you just fine." Catherine attempted to open the device, made a face at it, and then whacked it repeatedly.

"Just like managing Jack, huh?" Gwen asked, looking about for anything that could be useful and/or dangerous.

"Difficult and involving a lot of hitting?" Catherine looked in her apron pocket and found a piece of bread and a butter knife. She shrugged, sat down, and went to work with the knife. As for the bread, she ate it. Jack hovered over her shoulder, earning himself some wifely glares.

Gwen peered around corners on high-alert.

She was waved at.

"Jack, I think you're going to want to see this…" Gwen pulled her gun out and waved to Jack in turn, peeking around the corner of the house at a woman with exceptionally curly hair and… Jack.

"No touching," Jack told Catherine, going to look around the house.

"You must be Gwen Cooper." The curly-haired woman walked toward Gwen, a strap on her arm matching Jack's.

"How do you know my name?"

"Spoilers." Her eyes flashed to the other Jack. "How am I to tell you two apart?"

"Who are you?" the first Jack asked.

"You can trust her," said the Jack who had appeared with the woman.

"And how do I know you're really me?"

"Jack, are there two of you now?" Catherine called.

"Yes, Catherine," they chanted. The woman's Jack smiled as he said so.

"Well, come on, we've got to save the world." The woman tsked. "Are all of you satisfied that we can be trusted?"

"No," said the first Jack.

"Jack, do we have any other choice?" Gwen asked.

"No," they both said. The pair of Jacks exchanged glances.

"Jack, don't either of you do what I think you're going to do," Catherine called.

Nobody could quite keep a straight face after that.

"Wait," said Gwen, "Are you River Song?"

"I am," she said.

"Tosh said we could trust her," Gwen informed the first Jack.

"Mrs. Harkness, would you come here?" River Song asked.

"Jack, dear?"

"I think we can trust her," Catherine's Jack said.

Catherine came around to the back of the ruined house, holding Jack's wrist-strap and the transmitter. "I didn't break it, you know."

Her Jack took it and put it back around his wrist. "I knew you wouldn't."

"Well, I did take a knife to it… Hello, other husband."

"Hello, Catherine." The other Jack waved with a pained smile.

Catherine shifted, eyes flitting from Jack to Jack. After a deep breath, she rushed to the other Jack and pulled him into her arms. He had clearly expected her, closing his eyes and holding her.

After a moment, River Song coughed. "Need a ride back to 1910? If we stay here much longer with all of you here, we might do the Trickster's work for him..."

"I believe we have to save the world back then. What was it we needed to do, dear?" Catherine asked, pulling away from the other Jack and grabbing his hand.

"I think I was going to sing at them," Gwen said.

"Pretty much, yeah." Catherine's Jack shrugged.

"I'll expand the field of effect," said River Song, fiddling with the strap on her wrist. Catherine was peering over her shoulder in an instant, scrunching her face at the device.

"How does it work?"

"Spoilers." River Song smiled at Catherine. "Everyone, closer to me? I can't expand the field that far… Jack, other Jack, where do we need to be?" Catherine's Jack leaned over and poked in some coordinates. They crowded around the woman, and quite soon they were in an abandoned and dusty- though in far better repair than the house- street, nearly under the Dari ship. A shot went over their heads, shattering a drainpipe into metal shards that clattered all around them.

"Transmitter?" Catherine's Jack asked.

Catherine put it on the ground and smacked it. "Done!"

"All right then… Gwen?"

Gwen took a deep breath. "What note is it you need?"

"Mi."

Catherine snorted, and Gwen took a deep breath. Saving the world by singing. "Do re mi…"

The effect was instantaneous. The ship flew off in random directions before finally falling, unceremoniously, into an emptied street.

Catherine grabbed her Jacks and kissed them, one at a time.

"Gwen, back to 2008 with us?" River Song asked, starting again with her wrist.

"The world's saved?"

"The Dari attack never happened in the original timeline, so, yes." She smiled. "Come on, then. We've still got Mr. Harper, and Mr. Jones to pick up."

"Good to see you," the older Jack said, smiling at Catherine.

Taking the hand of her Jack, Catherine smiled with damp eyes. "Goodbye, Jack. I love you."

The older Jack saluted in the moments before he, the mysterious River Song, and Gwen vanished.

(A/N: Only three chapters to go! I'll probably post them quicker now. Reviews are definitely nice!)