Hi lovelies! Don't have much to say this time around except for have a nice day and enjoy this next chapter!
Replies to Comments:
bored411: They do deserve some fluff! Honestly, they seem like they're always struggling or fighting or something, they deserve a little break. And oh goodness, replying as Twelve. I feel like I'm probably going to be writing and rewriting this response for a week, Twelve is always the Doctor I struggle to keep in character the most, but I will try my hardest to make up for the lack of Twelve in the series so far.
Fakira: I agree. That exchange between the Doctor and Constantine is absolutely heartbreaking. Well, every time the Doctor mentions having lost his family is heartbreaking, but that one in particular always gets me. I think it has to do with the fact that it shows how much losing his family has to do with why he's so dedicated to being 'the Doctor', which I think is an integral part of his character and is really sad and important. I'm glad you liked Audrey and the Doctor's interactions! They truly are best friends first and foremost and they hold so much love for each other (platonic or otherwise) and they're really the most important person to each other. I did Ten for the question, I hope that's okay!
Doctor's Q&A Corner:
bored411: *Twelve* Foreknowledge, absolute power. Knowing what is, what was, and what could be. And a time machine to go and change it all. That power should not rest in the hands of anyone. The power of foreknowledge itself would be a curse and all too tempting. You see tragedy after tragedy, knowing that you had the prior knowledge to have stopped it all along, and you give in, you reach the point where you say 'no, not today, this cannot happen today' so you go back, change it. We try to convince ourselves that we'd use it justly, that, if in the right hands, it could be used for good. And we always assume we are the 'right hands'. But we're not. No one knows what causes changing something might bring, no one knows who will be affected. No, give me ignorance over power any day, and I'll help those I can with the knowledge I have now.
Fakira: *Ten* Oh, well, loaded question, I suppose. I'd go to any lengths I needed to. Audrey'd kill me if she heard that though, so let's try to keep that amongst ourselves. She'd want me to say I'd go to any lengths that don't cause harm to myself or others, but, truthfully, I can't honestly think of one thing I wouldn't do. Audrey has been in my life for longer than anyone else, she's seen me at every angle, she's stood strong through every tragedy, and she's helped me through every struggle. If I spent the rest of my life trying to make up for that, I'd never even scratch the surface. But she deserves for me to try. Audrey deserves more than she gives herself credit for and I'd do anything to make her happy.
The threat of being transformed into one of the gas mask people loomed over the four timetravelers with every step the patients took. Every step was punctuated with the word 'mummy' called out repeatedly. By the time the patients were within touching distance, each of them was wracking their brains in search for an idea that might save them.
"Go to your room!" The Doctor said, firmly yet still calm. Audrey shot him a questioning glance, but was surprised to see the patients halt in their step. The Doctor then took on the role of an angry parent as he addressed them, "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!"
Then, the patients bowed their heads and began retreating to their beds. The Doctor didn't let go of his act until they were all back in their rightful places, and no longer posed a threat to anyone else.
"I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words," The Doctor said.
Audrey started at him, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words to say. The Doctor smiled at her speechlessness, a rare occurrence in and of itself.
"I…I don't even know what to say," Audrey told him honestly.
Later, the group had returned to examining the patients, though they remained cautious in case something set them off again.
"Why are they all wearing gas masks?" Rose asked from where she was crouched down by a patient.
"They're not. Those masks are flesh and bone," Jack told her. He was the only one of them not actively working to find a solution. Instead, he was sat at the nurse's station with his feet kicked up onto the desk.
"How was your con supposed to work?" The Doctor inquired.
Jack shrugged, "Simple enough, really. Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his own money, and we discuss dumb luck. The perfect self-cleaning con."
"Yeah. Perfect," Audrey said sarcastically, gesturing around to the ward, "Except the part where you screwed up and caused this."
It was odd. Despite his actions, Audrey was still getting the feeling that she could trust him. The longer she was in this universe, the more she was beginning to see that whether a person was trustworthy or not was not as tied to their actions as she had once thought. All the people that she had felt she could trust in this universe turned out to be trustworthy, even if their actions didn't always support that.
No matter what she felt, Jack Harkness had a hell of a way to go in making things up before she would truly trust him. She understood that he might've thought the ship was harmless and that this whole situation was a mistake, but that didn't mean he was not to blame. The first step was admitting his fault, and then working to fix it. Only then would she be able to really trust him.
"The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii's nice if you want to make a vacation of it though, but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day," Jack laughed. When he realized that none of the others were agreeing with him, he stooped, "Getting a hint of disapproval."
"Take a look around the room," The Doctor said, pointedly, "This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."
"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty," Jack argued.
"Obviously, it wasn't, Harkness," Audrey replied sharply. Jack looked at her with narrowed eyes and clenched his jaw while Audrey stared back evenly.
"Audrey, Rose," The Doctor called as he turned and headed for the door. Audrey gave Jack one more meaningful look, a look that said, 'you better fix this', before she turned and followed the Doctor.
"Are we getting out of here?" Rose asked, going after them.
"We're going upstairs," The Doctor answered.
"I even programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no-one. I don't know what's happening here, but believe me, I had nothing to do with it," Jack insisted. Audrey wasn't sure if he was trying to convince himself that he was innocent, or if he was trying to convince them. It was starting to sound like a bit of both.
"I'll tell you what's happening. You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day," The Doctor told Jack. From outside the hospital, a siren rang out.
"What's that?" Rose asked.
"The all clear," Jack responded.
"I wish," The Doctor said grimly, before exiting the room. Rose and Audrey shared a look and then followed after him. From inside the ward, they could hear Jack's footsteps as he hurried to catch up with them.
The Doctor wasn't in the hallway outside the ward, and seemed to have disappeared from sight. The three of them ran down the hallway, shouting out for him. They ran past a staircase, unaware of the Doctor standing on the landing.
"Have you got a blaster?" The Doctor called down. They stopped running, nearly bumping into each other in the process as they back tracked to the bottom of the stairs.
"Sure!" Jack said. He checked his coat pockets as he ran to join the Doctor at the top of the stairs. When he came up empty, he turned to a smirking Audrey who was standing behind him, "Trust me enough to give me back the gun or am I still too aggressive?"
"Don't push your luck, Harkness," Audrey warned him. She pulled the blaster out from beneath her coat where it was fastened, aware of the look she was getting from the Doctor and Rose.
The Doctor looked between the two of them, "Why'd you have his blaster?"
"He nearly killed me, so I confiscated it," Audrey explained. The Doctor's eyes widened and he turned to Jack angrily.
"He what?" The Doctor exclaimed.
Audrey rolled her eyes, "I handled it. Let's get back to the plan, yeah?"
The Doctor glared at Jack, but nodded and returned to the task at hand. He led them to a metal door that didn't have a doorknob, only a key hole.
"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt. This is where they were taken," The Doctor told Jack.
"What happened?" Rose questioned.
"Let's find out. Get it open," The Doctor instructed, gesturing to the door. Jack gave a small laugh before using his blaster on the door. Audrey watched as a small beam of blue light shot out from the blaster. Okay, so maybe Jack had been right when he said she wouldn't know how to fire.
"What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?" Rose asked, wondering why he hadn't used that to open the door like he always did.
"Nothing," Audrey laughed, "He's just nosy."
Jack's blaster left a square-shaped hole in the wall where the lock had been and the door swung open. Audrey let out a low whistle, impressed.
"Woah. That was cool," Audrey commented, "I should've kept it."
"Sonic blaster, fifty-first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?" The Doctor guessed.
Jack looked surprised, "You've been to the factories?"
"Once," The Doctor answered shortly as he observed Jack's blaster.
"Well, they're gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot," Jack explained.
"Like I said. Once," The Doctor said, handing the blaster back, "There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."
The Doctor and Audrey walked through the door, leaving Jack and Rose lingering around the outside. Rose glanced over at the hole the blaster had left in the door and nodded in approval.
"Nice blast pattern," She told Jack, gesturing to the square in the metal frame.
"Digital."
"Squareness gun."
"Yeah."
"I like it," Rose commented, smiling at him over her shoulder. She followed the Doctor and Audrey, Jack staring after her with his own smile on his lips.
The inside of the room was torn apart. The four of them had to be careful where they stepped, seeing as the whole floor was littered with papers and ruined equipment. An observational window divided the room, one half being set up for a team of doctors possibly and the other half inhabited by a small bed. The glass of the window was shattered and strewn around the room. Audrey came to a stop at the desk in front of the window and picked up a shard of glass, twirling it around in her fingers.
"What do you think?" The Doctor asked.
"Someone broke out of here, for sure. This looks like it was broken from the inside," Audrey said, tossing the glass back onto the desk.
"Yeah. And?" The Doctor directed this question towards Jack. Whether it was because he wanted his opinion or wanted him to confront what his 'harmless space junk' did, Audrey didn't know. Though, she was betting on the latter.
"Something powerful. Angry," Jack supplied.
The Doctor nodded, "Powerful and angry."
Audrey stepped into the room on the other side of the glass. Beside the bed that she had seen originally, there were a child's toys scattered around the floor. A teddy bear here, a rocking horse there. All the walls of the room were covered in drawings, each of them depicting a woman.
"This was a kid's room," Audrey noticed, looking around, "Well, guess that explains 'Mummy'."
"How could a child do this?" Rose wondered and Audrey had to agree. Smashing the glass alone would take incredible force, a kind that not many children had.
"Depends on what happened when the ambulance crashed," Audrey pointed out.
At the desk, the Doctor switched on a tape recorder. An older man's voice, one that the Doctor recognized as Doctor Constantine's, and the child's voice could be heard over the tape.
"Do you know where you are?" Doctor Constantine questioned.
"Are you my mummy?" The child asked. Audrey stiffened as she heard this. It was the same question that they had heard the patients asking over and over again. Of course, they'd known the whole thing was tied to the child and the crashed ship, but how much? And what importance did that question have?
"Are you aware of what's around you? Can you…see?" Constantine continued.
"Are you my mummy?"
"What do you want? Do you know-"
"I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy! Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?"
"Doctor, I've heard this voice before," Rose spoke up.
"Me too," The Doctor replied.
"Always 'are you my mummy?' Like he doesn't know," Rose said, thinking out loud. The tape continued with the child repeatedly asking that question over and over. Rose's eyebrows furrowed, "Why doesn't he know?"
The Doctor walked into the room. He began pacing up and down the length of the small space, seeming to grow more and more agitated by the moment. Every now and then his eyes would dart to a picture on the wall or a toy on the ground, but for the most part he was trying to work through his thoughts and theories.
"Can you sense it?" He asked, sounding on edge.
Jack shook his head, "Sense what?"
"Coming out of the walls," The Doctor said urgently, "Can you feel it?"
"Mummy?" The child's voice on tape called out. At this point, the Doctor turned to face the others and realized that none of them were on the same page that he was.
"Funny little human brains," He mused, "How do you get around in those things?"
"When he's stressed, he likes to insult species," Audrey told Jack, who looked confused. She'd noticed that habit with each Doctor she'd seen so far. No matter the danger or the situation, his first fall back was the insult humans. Which she shouldn't find as funny as she did.
"Audrey, I'm thinking," The Doctor interrupted.
"He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than," Rose said.
"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites. They come out during air-raids looking for food," The Doctor started.
"It was a med-ship. It was harmless," Jack cut in, quietly. Audrey glanced over at him, seeing the look on his face. She could tell he was starting to see the reality of the situation, he was starting to see his fault.
"Yes, you keep saying harmless," The Doctor said, annoyed, "Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"
"Altered how?" Audrey asked, not liking the sound of that.
"I'm here!" The voice of the child exclaimed.
"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful. It doesn't know it yet, but it will do," The Doctor went on. Then, he stopped for a moment and grinned, "It's got the power of a god, and I just sent it to its room."
He looked over at Audrey, the two of them sharing a small laugh. Rose gave them a look, one that said, 'now wasn't the time'.
"I'm here," The child said, "Can't you see me?"
"What's that noise?" Rose questioned, referring to the clicking noise that rang out around the room. The smiles dropped off the Doctor and Audrey's faces.
"End of the tape. It ran out about thirty seconds ago," The Doctor told Rose.
"I'm here, now. Can't you see me?" The child called, giddily.
"I sent it to its room. This is its room," The Doctor realized. He whirled around, coming face-to-face with the gas mask child.
The only thing that separated them was the wall where the observation window had once been set. If they hadn't already seen that the child was capable of terrifying things, the wall might have been a comfort, but they knew better.
The child stared at them, "Are you my mummy? Mummy?"
"How about leaving? I like the sound of leaving," Audrey piped up. Her eyes darted around the room for an exit, only to find that the one exit was behind the child.
"Leaving's good," The Doctor agreed with a nod.
"Okay, on my signal make for the door," Jack instructed. There was a beat of silence before Jack jumped into action and aimed his blaster at the child. "Now!"
With his shouted signal, they were supposed to make for the door, except Jack's blaster had been replaced by a banana, and he was now aiming a fruit at the child. Jack looked over to the Doctor, who grinned. The Doctor pulled Jack's blaster out and made a square hole in the wall for them to make their getaway.
"Go now! Don't drop the banana!" The Doctor shouted, ushering them through the hole while he kept his eyes on the child. The three of them hurried through and stumbled into the hallway.
"Why not?" Jack exclaimed.
"Good source of potassium!" The Doctor replied as he followed them.
"Give me that!" Jack snatched the blaster out of the Doctor's hand. As the child rounded the corner of the room and started to approach the hole in the wall, Jack aimed his blaster at the wall and repaired it.
"Digital rewind. Nice switch," Jack added, tossing the banana back to the Doctor.
"It's from the groves of Villengard. I thought it was appropriate," The Doctor said.
"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?" Jack inquired, disbelieving.
"Audrey and I had a contest," The Doctor explained, bumping his hip with Audrey's, "Things tend to blow up when she wins."
Audrey grinned, "Sounds like fun."
"Oh, it was."
"Can't wait."
As the two of them were laughing, the wall they had just come through started to crack.
"Doctor! Audrey!" Rose said, grabbing their arms to get their attention.
"Come on!" The Doctor yelled, leading them down another hallway. They ran after him, eager to get away from the creepy child with super strength.
Racing down the hall, they were cut off by a swarm of gas mask patients coming out of the ward. They turned back around and ran the other way, only for it to happen again. Now, they were back where they started in front of the cracking wall and they were also surrounded by patients.
"It's keeping us here till it can get at us," The Doctor said, not seeing a way out of the situation.
"It's controlling them?" Jack asked. He spun around, aiming his blaster at whichever group of patients seemed to be getting closer.
"It is them," The Doctor corrected, "It's every living thing in this hospital."
"Okay, is there good news? What do we have?" Audrey questioned frantically.
"Okay. This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon, and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter," Jack reported, before looking over at the Doctor, "Doc, what you got?"
"I've got a sonic-" The Doctor started off confidently before faltering, "Er. Oh, never mind."
Audrey pulled her own sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and held it up. When the Doctor saw her, he pushed her arm down and shook his head. She gave him a questioning look as he lowered his sonic too.
"What?" Jack asked.
"It's sonic, okay? Let's leave it at that," The Doctor answered defensively.
"Disrupter? Cannon? What?"
"It's sonic! Totally sonic! I am sonicked up!"
"A sonic what?"
"Screwdriver!" The Doctor shouted, turning to show Jack. Audrey managed to catch the confused look on the man's face, before the child broke through the wall.
"Going down!" Rose warned, grabbing Jack's blaster and aiming it at the floor.
A square-shaped hole appeared in the floor and the four of them tumbled through the ceiling of the ward beneath them. Before any of the patients from above could get in, Rose took the blaster again and aimed it at the ceiling, this time closing the hole.
"Doctor, Audrey, are you okay?" Rose checked.
"Could've used a warning," The Doctor grumbled, pulling himself off the ground. He offered Audrey a hand, which she took gratefully.
"Oh, the gratitude," Rose muttered. Audrey patted her shoulder and gave her a smile.
"That was a nice move, Rose," Audrey complimented, sounding sincere. Rose looked pleased that the other woman was on her side.
"See. At least Audrey appreciates me," Rose told him. He rolled his eyes at the pair of them as they smiled at each other.
Jack shook his head, "Who has a sonic screwdriver."
"I do," The Doctor said.
"Me too," Audrey added, holding up her screwdriver. Jack looked between the two of them with a disbelieving look as Audrey observed the tool, "It actually comes in handy."
"Lights," Rose said to herself as she looked around the room, "There's got to be a light switch."
"Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooo, this could be a little more sonic?" Jack mocked.
"What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"
As the two of them continued bickering, Rose was feeling around the edges of the room for some sort of light switch. She managed to find it after a moment and she flipped on the light for the whole ward. All together the patients in the ward sat up in their beds.
"Mummy. Mummy," The patients cried.
"Door," Jack commanded, rushing towards the end of the ward.
They followed after him, stopping when he tried his blaster on the door. Every time he tried to get the door open, the blaster failed and the patients kept drawing closer.
"Damn it!" Jack cursed. Where Jack's blaster had failed, the Doctor's screwdriver worked. The door was open in a moment and the Doctor hurried them through it.
"It's the special features. They really drain the battery," Jack tried to explain.
The Doctor slammed the door shut behind them and he and Audrey got to work sonicking it shut. No matter how strong the gas mask people might be, it was going to take them a while to get through that door.
On the other hand, the room that they were now trapped in wasn't very promising either. It looked almost like a supply cupboard and was filled with useless things like broken wheelchairs or ripped diagrams. Plus, there was no other exit.
"The battery?" Rose scoffed, "That's so lame."
"Doctor, one. Harkness, zero," Audrey snickered.
Jack glared, "I was going to send for another one, but somebody's got to blow up the factory."
"Oh, I know," Rose told him, "First day I met them, they blew my job up. That's practically how they communicate."
"Hey, I haven't done that yet," Audrey protested.
"Yeah, but you still did it," Rose pointed out. Audrey opened her mouth to argue, but fell short for an answer. Instead, she settled on making a childish face at Rose, to which the girl only laughed.
"Okay, that door should hold it for a bit," The Doctor announced, joining them in the middle of the room.
"The door?" Jack repeated, "The wall didn't stop it!"
"Be a little more optimistic, Captain. They've got to find us first," Audrey said.
"Come on, we're not done yet! Assets, assets!" The Doctor encouraged them.
"Well, I've got a banana, and in a pinch, you two could put up some shelves," Jack said sarcastically. The Doctor ignored the other man's attitude as he continued to search for a way out or at least something that gave them an advantage against the gas masks.
"Window," The Doctor suggested, hopping onto the desk in front of the only window in the room.
"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories," Jack supplied, unhelpfully.
Audrey sighed, "And no other exits."
Jack set back in a broken wheelchair and gave them a snarky smile, "Well, the assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?"
"So, where'd you pick this one up, then?" The Doctor asked, looking pointedly at Audrey and Rose.
"She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship," Jack answered, referring to Rose. Then, he turned his attention to Audrey and smiled, "And then she just appears out of nowhere. I never stood a chance."
The Doctor visibly bristled, and then turned back to the window, "Okay. One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"
"Yeah. Jack just disappeared," Rose cut in. Audrey and the Doctor turned around to see the wheelchair Jack had been sitting in was empty and the man was nowhere in sight.
"Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?" Rose asked mournfully. A laugh bubbled up from Audrey's mouth, but she disguised it as a cough when she caught the Doctor's look.
"I'm making an effort not to be insulted," The Doctor responded plainly.
Rose patted his shoulder, "I mean…men."
"Okay, thanks," The Doctor said, smiling sarcastically, "That really helped."
"Don't look so put-out, Doctor," Audrey told him, putting her arm around his shoulders. She gave Rose a teasing smile, "Rose is just having a bit of fun with the Captain."
"And you?" The Doctor questioned, looking over at her. The question was simple, and they both knew that Audrey understood what he meant, but she was still confused. How was that any of his concern?
"What about me?" Audrey asked instead. The Doctor looked like he wanted to answer that question, and the fire in his eyes told her it was likely going to be the start of an argument, but he was cut off by the radio in the corner as it turned itself on.
"Audrey? Rose? Doctor? Can you hear me?" Jack's voice called through the radio. The Doctor jumped up and headed to the radio. Rose and Audrey were close behind, watching as he picked up the radio's wires and saw that they were unconnected.
"I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry I couldn't take you. It's security keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."
"How're you speaking to us?" The Doctor questioned.
"Om-Com. I can call anything with a speaker grill," Jack answered.
"Now, there's a coincidence," The Doctor said grimly.
"What is?"
"The child can Om-Com, too."
"He can?" Rose asked in surprise.
"Anything with a speaker grill," The Doctor confirmed, "Even the TARDIS phone."
"What, you mean the child can phone us?" Rose inquired.
"And I can hear you," The child's voice added happily over the radio, "Coming to find you. Coming to find you."
"This is beginning to sound more and more like a bad horror movie," Audrey noticed, looking at the radio with distaste. Creepy children, check. Abandoned building, check. And, to top it all off, they had the threat of German bombs looming over them. Audrey thought she shouldn't be enjoying this as much as she was.
"Doctor, can you hear that?" Jack asked, evidently the same message from where he was.
"Loud and clear," The Doctor replied.
"I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do," Jack told them. The child's voice came over the radio once more, before it was overpowered by the sound of a certain song, "Remember this one, girls?"
As the sound of Moonlight Serenade became louder, Audrey laughed.
"How sentimental of you, Harkness," Audrey said, smirking. She felt eyes on her and turned to see the Doctor with a hard look on his face, so she tried to explain, "It's our song."
"You have a song now, do you?" The Doctor asked.
Audrey's eyes narrowed at the tone in his voice, "Maybe. Problem?"
"Yeah. Several, actually," The Doctor bit out. From the corner of her eye, Audrey saw Rose move to the edge of the room distracting herself with sorting through the items on a desk.
"Okay, what's with the attitude? You're being snippy," Audrey said, crossing her arms over her chest.
Audrey understood that the situation was stressful. They were trapped in closet by a freaking toddler, for God's sake! However, that wasn't a reason to act like this. Every other time they were in danger, they figured it out, and they would figure this out, Audrey was sure of it. But they all had to work together to do so and they couldn't do that when he was being snippy.
"Am I?" The Doctor asked, sarcastically, "With how much you're flirting with him I didn't think you'd notice."
She reeled back, "What?"
"You're flirting with him!" The Doctor exclaimed, gesturing to the radio in a way that Audrey assumed meant he was talking about Jack.
"I'm entitled to flirt with whoever I'd like. You're not the boss of me," Audrey pointed out.
The Doctor scoffed, "You sound like a child."
"I'm being a child?" Audrey asked, "You're the one shouting at me without even giving me a reason!"
"I can't," The Doctor responded, suddenly going quiet. He seemed to withdraw from the argument in a way that was noticeable to Audrey and in a way, that made her stop as well.
They were at this point, a point that they always seemed to come to, when he would look like there was something he wanted to tell her, but there was always something holding him back. In every regeneration, he had that moment and Audrey never knew what to say. How do you even begin to understand someone who knows every detail about you but offers none about themselves?
"Why not?" Audrey asked, sounding almost desperate. If they could just move past whatever it was he was keeping from her, things would be so much easier.
"Because," The Doctor replied shortly.
"Because," Audrey repeated, shaking her head slightly. Was he ever going to tell her? Were they going to live hundreds of years having this same argument that she didn't even know the start of?
Audrey rolled her eyes, feeling frustrated and fed up with the entire situation. She turned away from the Doctor and moved to the end of the room where Rose was sitting in the wheelchair Jack had occupied.
While her back was turned, she didn't notice the regretful look the Doctor sent her way. She didn't get to see just how hard it was on him, too.
The arguing had stopped, but the tension was still there in the air. On one end of the room, Audrey and Rose were sitting in wheelchairs while Audrey told Rose a story about an adventure she and the Ninth Doctor had had after their run in with Dickens. The Doctor was on the other end of the room, scanning the window with his sonic screwdriver. Not a minute went by where one of them didn't glance over at the other. It may had escaped their notice, but Rose saw it.
"What're you doing?" Rose asked when the sonic gave a loud whirring noise.
"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," The Doctor explained, not looking away from the task at hand.
"He's coming back," Audrey said matter-of-factly. She could see the Doctor's shoulders stiffen, but he still didn't turn around.
"Wouldn't bet my life," The Doctor replied.
"Why don't you trust him?" Audrey questioned, wheeling her chair around to look up at him. To an extent, Audrey could see where the Doctor was coming from. He had been the root cause for what was happening here, but he was starting to make up for that. The Doctor always gave second chances, even to the bad guys, so why was Jack so different?
"Why do you?" The Doctor countered.
"Because he's done nothing to suggest otherwise. Yeah, the crash was his fault, but it was a mistake, and he's trying to make it better. I think that's pretty trustworthy," Audrey answered and the Doctor gave a huff in response.
"Plus, he saved my life," Rose added, "Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except with dating and dancing."
This made the Doctor turn around. He looked over his shoulder at them briefly, before rolling his eyes.
"What?" Rose asked.
"You just assume I'm-"
"What?"
"You just assume that I don't dance."
Audrey raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying that you do?"
"Nine hundred years old, me. I've been around a bit. I think you can assume at some point I've danced," The Doctor said. Both women were now leaning forward in interest, whether it was from the confession that he had danced, or the defensiveness in his tone.
"You?" Rose questioned.
"Problem?"
"Doesn't the universe implode or something if you dance?" Audrey teased.
"Well, I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast," The Doctor told them.
The girls shared an amused look as an idea formed in their heads. Audrey nodded towards the radio in the corner and Rose walked over to it. As if sensing that they were plotting against him, the Doctor looked cautiously over his shoulder. Rose turned the music up slightly and then held her hand out to the Doctor.
"You've got the moves? Show me your moves," Rose challenged.
The Doctor looked between her and the window, "Rose, I'm trying to resonate concrete."
"Oh, come on," Audrey joined in, "Jack'll get us out."
"The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances," Rose said.
The Doctor looked between the two women who were ganging up on him and sighed. He tucked the sonic screwdriver back into his coat pocket and stepped down from the desk. Instead of taking Rose's hands and dancing, he paused and flipped them palm side up.
"Barrage balloon?" He asked.
Rose furrowed her eyebrows, "What?"
"You were hanging from a barrage balloon," The Doctor reminded her, flipping her hands over to find some sign of damage. Realization dawned on Rose's face when she realized what he was referring to.
"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left me. Thousands of feet about London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest."
"I've travelled with a lot of people, but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly. I think Audrey's a bad influence on you," The Doctor said, sending a pointed look in Audrey direction.
"I see a whole lot of talking and not enough dancing," Audrey pointed out, looking bored. She did another spin in the wheelchair, nearly knocking over a diagram in the corner. The Doctor's gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before he looked back down at Rose's hands.
"Hanging from a rope, thousands of feet above London. Not a cut, not a bruise," The Doctor said, showing Rose the palm of her hands.
"Yeah, I know. Captain Jack fixed me up."
"Oh, we're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"
"Well," Audrey drawled from where she sat, "His name's Jack… and he's a Captain."
"He's not really a Captain, Audrey," The Doctor told her, smiling sarcastically. Audrey returned the smile in much of the same fashion. Rose could see the beginnings of another argument brewing so she hurriedly cut in.
"Do you know what I think? I think you're experiencing Captain envy," Rose suggested, taking the Doctor's hands and forcing him to dance with her, "You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."
"If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked," The Doctor continued loudly, making sure Audrey heard him.
"Yeah? Shame I missed that," Audrey said. She tried to sound casual, but her tone was filled with spite.
"Actually, I quit. Nobody take my frock," Another voice piped up.
Rose and the Doctor pulled away from each other, taking in their new surroundings. They were now in Jack's spaceship, with the man sitting at the captain's chair as he typed something into the controls. Audrey, who had noticed where they were while they were still talking, was standing behind Jack.
"Most people notice when they've been teleported. Aren't they just so sweet?" Jack asked, turning to Audrey, "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."
"You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship it is," The Doctor told him.
Jack sighed, "Oh, I do. She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."
"This is a Chula ship," The Doctor realized as he looked around.
"Like the ambulance," Audrey said.
"Yeah, just like that," Jack confirmed, "Only this one is dangerous."
Audrey scoffed, "And the other one wasn't?"
The Doctor snapped his fingers. The Nanogenes from before circled around his hand, creating a glowing ball of energy.
"They're what fixed my hands up. Jack called them, er-" Rose faltered, looking to Audrey for help.
"Uh, nano-somethings," Audrey said, failing to recall the name.
"Nanobots?" The Doctor guessed, "Nanogenes."
Rose nodded, "Nano-genes, yeah."
"Sub-atomic robots. There's millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now. They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws," The Doctor explained, before batting the Nanogenes away. He then turned to Jack with a serious face, "Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."
"As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable. Carry on with whatever it was you were doing," Jack encouraged, giving Rose and the Doctor a suggestive look.
"We were talking about dancing," The Doctor defended.
"It didn't look like talking," Jack pointed out.
Rose shook her head, "It didn't feel like dancing."
It was a while later and they were still stuck in Jacks ship. The Captain was trying to get the nav-com back up as he had said, but it was taking longer than expected.
"So," Rose started, "You used to be a Time Agent now you're trying to con them?"
"If it makes me sound any better, it's not for the money," Jack told them as he worked on the control panel beside his chair.
"For what?" Rose asked.
"Woke up one day when I was still working for them, found they'd stolen two years of my memories. I'd like them back," Jack explained.
"They stole your memories?" Audrey questioned.
"Two years of my life. No idea what I did," Jack replied, his glancing shifting towards the Doctor, "Your friend over there doesn't trust me, and for all I know he's right not to."
Audrey couldn't begin to imagine what that was like. Most people had an idea of the person they were, whether they liked who that was or not. She couldn't even think how hard it must be to know that there was a time of your life that was missing, things you don't remember doing. In Jack's eyes, she could see the fear of who he might've become, and that wassomething she could understand.
"Don't worry, Harkness. I think you're a pretty all right guy," Audrey said, sincerely. Jack looked up at her, seeing the honesty in her eyes, and for a moment, they understood each other. It didn't matter if they had just met or if they hardly knew each other, they understoodthe other's pain. That was the moment Audrey truly trusted Jack Harkness, and that was the moment she knew they'd be good friends.
"Just all right?" Jack asked teasingly, trying to lighten the mood.
Audrey was about to reply when Jack's eyes drifted to a sight over her shoulder. The Doctor stood a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest, he was looking at Audrey with a mix sadness and something else Jack couldn't place. When the Doctor caught Jack's gaze, he glared and the look was replaced with annoyance.
The Captain cleared his throat before Audrey could get her words out and he looked back to the controls, "Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"