The Doctor's short lived joy at Hollie being alive and the Bad Wolf having receded ended as soon as he saw his son collapse hard on the floor. He sprinted to his Alfie's side and grabbed his wrist checking for a pulse. He can't be dead. He can't regenerate yet so he can't be dead!
"I can't find a pulse!" he yelped, terrified. Hollie had knelt down beside him.
"Calm down, I don't think you're doing it right," the young girl plucked the boy's skinny wrist from his father's and placed two fingers on it. She waited a moment and then visibly sagged with relief. "He's alive."
"Course I'm alive you dullards, I just fainted, that's all," came a slightly weak but exasperated voice and Alfie's eyes fluttered open. He smiled at them, "I did have like the whole of the time vortex coursing through me. I think I'm entitled to feel a bit woozy."
"Alfie!" the Doctor clutched the child in a crushing hug.
"Ok, can't breathe now," Alfie protested, muffled by the Doctor's shirt.
"Yay, now can I eat, I'm starving?" Hollie stood but halted as she caught sight of the frozen figure of Jack in the doorway. His jaw was ajar and his eyes were as wide as saucers, "Er…hi, Dad." She waited for a reaction but all the man could do was gawp. He couldn't quite believe it, his daughter was alive and….hungry? He blinked.
"Hollie? You're alive?"
"Well, yeah, I am breathing and my heart is beating so I guess I'm alive," Hollie replied.
"Oh, Christ!" Jack suddenly regained his senses and leapt forward lifting the small girl off the floor and sweeping her into his arms. He buried his face in her hair and held her tight, never wanting to release her. The ex conman let the tears of happiness run down his cheeks freely. He inhaled the sweet child scent of his daughter and kissed her on her forehead, "You're ok."
"Yeah, I'm ok, Dad," Hollie wrapped her thin arms around his neck and nuzzled her head into his neck, resting it on his shoulder. She felt warm and safe in her father's arms, "But I'm still starving."
"Right, food!" Jack turned around and headed out of the door. The Doctor helped Alfie to his feet and followed down the corridor to the kitchen.
Rose left the med bay; she found she was very hungry, she supposed the reason for it was that she was supporting six other lives inside her. She didn't want to bump into anyone particularly, least of all Jack. She didn't know how she could look him in the eye now knowing that he had just lost his only child and she had more on the way.
She wondered where Alfie had got too, probably grieving somewhere and trying to get his head around the fact that Hollie was dead. Rose didn't know how long he would be away for but she hoped he would come back soon because she felt very anxious that he could hurt himself as the injuries he had acquired hadn't had a chance to be properly healed.
Suddenly a very disturbing thought struck her. Why the hell hadn't she thought about it before?! The Daleks! They had just left but the Daleks hadn't been killed, they could still come after the TARDIS and kidnap Alfie again or maybe even her unborn children. She had to find the Doctor and fast. But where would he be? He could be anywhere on the ship.
She began jogging down the corridor hoping that maybe the TARDIS would give her a bit of help in finding the Time Lord as this was such an emergency. She flung doors open as she raced along. Strange sights met her eyes and several times, had she just been exploring, she would've stopped and gone into the rooms but she didn't.
Laughter suddenly reached Rose's ears. She frowned and skidded to an abrupt stop. Why would anyone be laughing at a time like this? The young woman looked to her left and spotted the door that led to the kitchen – where she had been headed in the first place. As she entered she froze. What she was seeing couldn't be possible. She must be hallucinating. Hollie, who was meant to be dead, was very much alive sitting at the kitchen table, a bread roll in one hand, giggling. Alfie was sitting beside her a huge smile on his face although he looked slightly pale. Jack and the Doctor seemed to be wrestling over a packet of biscuits. They looked like more jammy dodgers.
"What on earth?" Rose gaped and everyone in the room turned to look at her, "Hollie?"
"Oh right, yeah, we were meaning to find you and tell you, sorry about that, Hollie's alive," the Doctor looked sheepish.
"I can see that, but…how?"
"Well, to cut a long, well not long, longish story short, the TARDIS decided to tell Alfie about Bad Wolf and he then chose to see if he could use it to bring Hollie back. It worked, as you can tell," the Doctor babbled, "Now, give me my jammy dodgers!" He leapt at Jack and swiped for the packet, missing as the man pulled them out of reach.
"But…er…um…" Rose stuttered and then remembered with a sickening jolt the reason she'd been looking for the Doctor, "Doctor, what happened to the Daleks? They're still free to come and abduct Alfie and the sextuplets."
"Sextuplets, what?!" the Doctor yelped, "Wait, I'll ask you in a moment. Its fine, Rose, the Daleks are all dead."
"Huh?"
"I killed them. Before we left I did a bit of fiddling with some wires and planted a little surprise. As soon as we got far enough away and left the ship I blew it up," the Time Lord informed her.
"You killed them?"
"Yes, we're ok; they won't be bothering us, until they next come up anyway. Anyway, more importantly, sextuplets?"
"Er yeah, Owen did a scan and there were six little heart beats pumping away inside me," Rose smiled. The Doctor jumped in the air and clapped his hands but then halted, an eyebrow raised.
"Did you just say six heartbeats?"
"Yes, isn't it wonderful?"
"Ah, but Rose, aren't you forgetting a teensy weensy detail of the Time Lord anatomy?" Rose furrowed her brow, "Like the fact that we have two hearts?"
"Ooh!" the woman shook her head at her stupidity, "How could I be such an idiot?!"
"I dunno, but still, triplets!"
Jack was staying, he had finally decided after much deliberation and discussion with his team. Owen was to be in charge, he wasn't quite sure about that decision but he hadn't much choice. The Cockney had been warned that if he did anything stupid, like he usually did, then he should contact them on Rose's phone and they'd be there to sort out the mess.
As they landed in the Hub and dropped the gang off Jack said his goodbyes. Tosh had managed to keep a straight face, like usual, but there were pricks of tears in the corners of her eyes as she gave Jack a tight hug then retreated to her workstation. Ianto seemed nonplussed as he and Jack shared a formal handshake. Owen and Jack did the same, with the farewell of a student and his mentor.
The final goodbye Jack found a bit more difficult. The final member of his team looked heartbroken as he hugged her. Tears were streaming down Gwen's face. She couldn't believe that the man that had introduced her into this crazy, unreal style of life was leaving. The guy she had grown to love with his good looks, charm and out going, confident attitude to life. She had found it hard to get to grips with the fact that he had a daughter that was so alike to him and now he was leaving completely to go travel the universe. Part of her wished to go with him but for one thing she hadn't been invited and also she knew she wasn't an explorer, she belonged on Earth in the relative safety of her home with her boyfriend.
"Bye, Jack," she whispered.
"See you soon, Gwen, keep yourself safe and that dumbass out of trouble, ok?" Jack grinned, jerking a thumb at Owen.
"Yeah, I will."
"Good," Jack released the woman from the hug and turned towards the blue box behind him. Hollie was leaning casually in the doorway. Torchwood found it hard to believe she was alive. The girl now looked very perky now though, her cheeks were rosy and her sea blue eyes sparkled.
Jack stepped over to her and took her hand, leading her into the interior of the TARDIS. The door swung closed behind them and the time machine began its ritual of grating and grinding noises before dematerialising.
Its all turning out ok! Baby birth next chapter! yay! Please review and have a pizza!