Chapter 34: Is there a Doctor in the house

A/N: I own nothing. The characters all come from much more brilliant minds than mine. I am just playing with them, the way others may play with dolls.

Esme and I were waiting in Heathrow. It was twenty minutes before we would be able to check-in for our flight to Ireland. I was running through the phone call I had just received from Belinda at our travel agency. Benjamin had booked four tickets to go to our home. I wondered how he had been able to convince Amun to go, he had seemed pretty resolutely against it when we left.

I hoped our trip to Ireland would be easy. Siobhan and Liam and their companion Maggie were old friends of mine that I had lived with for a time. Proper friends. Amun and I had always had more of an easy truce than a true friendship. If only I had Alice's assistance to tell me where to look for them. I knew they were very careful when they hunted, travelling miles from their residence to do it. But I doubted whether they were still in the residence they lived in when I was there, but I would have to start there because I had no other leads. Maybe I could pick up their scent and track them – if it hadn't been too many years since I was there.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a shout, "Someone please help. I think he's having a heart attack."

I looked over in the direction that the shout had come from and listened intently to the heartbeats in that area and they were right, his heart was beating with the wrong rhythm. Luckily he was still inside the building so I didn't have to risk sun exposure to help him out. I ran to the man, a large man in his late fifties. A minute before I reached him a familiar voice take over the scene.

"It's alright, I'm training to be a Doctor."

"Martha Jones!" I called to her, "How are you?"

She looked up at me as she knelt down beside him. She didn't respond though, just started measuring his pulse and blood pressure. A clerk from one of the airline desks ran over with the mobile defibrillator and let us know she'd called an ambulance. As Martha worked she kept looking at me as if trying to figure out where I knew her from, but there was no recognition in her eyes. I realised my mistake then – this was Martha before she met the Doctor. Before she met me.

She had the situation well under control and it was time to check into my flight. I debated for half a second between the life of a stranger and my mission for my family. I was ashamed that I ran straight for the check-in desk. Just as I was about to walk through security I felt a hand come down on my shoulder. I turned and saw Martha right behind me.

"Excuse me," she asked, "How do you know me?"

"I'm a friend of a friend. I met you once but obviously you don't remember."

She narrowed her eyes and stared at me a little longer.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but I've really got to get to my flight. My wife's waiting." I pointed to Esme who had gone through security before me and was unable to get back out.

"Oh sorry, sure."

I turned and walked through security check.

As I did I heard Martha call out, "Hey, I'm sorry I don't remember you but what was your name again?"

I ignored her and kept walking. It wouldn't be good for her to know too much about me just yet.

Esme and I were statues during the flight to Ireland. The urgency of our mission seemed to press on us again as soon as we were in the air. She held my hand and told me it would be alright.

"How are we going to find them?" I asked for the fifteenth time.

Esme stroked my face, "I don't know, we'll have to do what you suggested though, just start where they were last time and try to find them from there."

It was the same answer she had given the last twelve times I'd asked.

I was just glad it was such a short flight. We arrived at the airport, ready to run but found three vampires standing holding up a sign saying, "Carlisle and Esme". Each of them with wide grins on their faces.

I recognised Maggie's bouncy red curls immediately. Siobhan and Liam stood behind her. They smiled at me, and I stared at them in shock.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I thought you wanted to see us?" Siobhan asked confused.

"I did... I do. I just, I didn't expect you to meet us at the airport."

"Yes, why are you at the airport?" Esme asked, sounding much more coherent that I felt at the moment.

"Didn't you send him?"

"Send who? Esme and I were coming to find him."

Maggie frowned a little, "You're telling the truth – you really don't know about the man. But he knew about you being here."

"What did he look like?" I had a suspicion now.

"He was about your height, brown eyes, brown hair and brown pinstripe suit," Siobhan said.

"Did he give a name?" I knew, I just wanted to be sure.

"Yes, but the name was a lie," Maggie scowled, "Everything else was the truth, your family is danger and you sought us. But the name was a lie."

"The Doctor?" I asked.

She nodded, her curls bouncing gently.

"I wonder how..." Esme asked.

"That's the Doctor I guess." I answered softly. I turned back to Maggie, "Did the Doctor explain anything?"

"No, are you going to?"

"I think it would be easier to understand if you travelled to our home."

"Okay," Maggie said cheerfully.

I blinked. I thought it would be easier with the Irish coven than it had been with Amun, but I didn't expect it to be this easy. "Okay?" I repeated.

She nodded.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you so quick to agree?"

"Because you're telling the truth. Whatever you want to tell us or however you want us to help you, it will be easier to understand if we travel to your house. So we will."

I looked at Liam and Siobhan, they shrugged, "Maggie's very good and making decisions like this, she's never led us wrong before. We'll travel to America."

"Thank-you," I said, fervent with gratitude. I passed them Belinda's card, "Call her, she'll arrange your flights for you. My family will help out with anything else once you get to them."

Then I pulled them into a big hug, one at a time.

"Thank-you again. "

Esme was already at the airline counter booking our flights direct to Cardiff. We had no need to explore Ireland any further. We would head home soon but I had one more stop I wanted to make first. Once I knew our flight details, I called ahead to let him know we were coming.

*****

It was a sunny afternoon when we arrived in Cardiff so we were stuck at airport for a few hours. We hid in the airport until night finally fell. Then Esme and I headed straight for Roald Dahl Plass in our rented car, as per Jack's instructions. We walked around to the river and followed the dock to the tourist information centre at the end. We pushed the door open. A young Japanese girl stood behind the counter smiling politely at us.

"I'm looking for Captain Jack Harkness," I said. I could smell Jack's scent in the area so I knew we were in the right place.

"I'm sorry, there's no one here by that name."

"He's expecting me."

She narrowed her eyes, I heard footsteps from wall behind me and felt the shifting of air around a gap. A false door. I turned to face it just as it swung inwards and Jack's face appeared.

"Carlisle, how the hell are you?"

"As good as can be expected with our situation."

"Yes, your situation... care to enlighten me on that?" He indicated we should follow him into the door. He turned to the Japanese girl, "It's okay Tosh – they're old friends."

She left the building via the tourist shop door, I heard it clicking shut behind her.

He led us down a long grey, concrete and brick corridor lit by fluorescents every few feet. We passed though a black door into a white room behind, the door slammed shut behind us. Suddenly the floor we were standing on started to shift downwards.

"Sorry, it's just our security measures. Can't have anything down there coming out after all."

"No, of course not." I laughed.

Jack turned around to face the back of the elevator as the floor moved. Once we stopped and a door in front of us slid open, half sliding into the ceiling, half into the floor. When we walked out there was a large circular opening in front of us, with a heavy-looking metal door that filled the opening slid into a crevice in the wall. Beyond the circular opening was an industrial looking room, or cavern might be a more precise term, with computers and metal and all sorts of alien equipment scattered throughout the room. Stair cases climbed up and down from the central area. Running up the centre of the room was a column which stretched right to the ceiling. There were at least five or six stories here, but because of the layout of ups and downs it looked like many more.

All the computers were on, even though no one was at them. Script was running up and down a couple of them, another had an image that constantly shifted up and down through a series of peaks and troughs, almost like sound waves. There was the sound of running water coming from above us and a dripping sound coming from all around. The area was dim, not very well lit – just a few more of the wall mounted fluorescents dotted around the place. It certainly had character.

"Welcome to the hub," Jack smiled, opening his arms wide around him.

As we stepped into the room the metal door slid back into the circular opening and a set of gates swung shut in front of it. A circular yellow light issued a warning that the doors were closing.

He led us around to one side and up a flight of stairs into his office.

"So, what's your situation?"

"It's a bit of a long story."

"Well, none of us are getting any older," he said chuckling.

"Well, you know Bella and Edward were married?"

"Yeah, what - four months ago now wasn't it?"

"Yes. They have a daughter."

He laughed, "Well that was quick."

"You don't know the half of it. She was born a month after the wedding."

"Huh," he mused, "I guess the vampyrne virus is more closely related to the Nostrovites than I thought."

"Why?"

"Fast pregnancies. Nostrovites find a host and their babies are born less than 24 hours later."

"Well, it wasn't quite that quick, but yeah. And Renesmee, the baby, is growing at a rapid pace."

"Sure."

I think he was misinterpreting my problem, "Do you know much about the history of my kind?"

"Bits."

"Do you know about the immortal children?"

"Sure, it's hard not to know about the havoc they wreaked. There're boxes and boxes of Torchwood files on the legends of them."

"Well, we had a visitor who saw Renesmee and thought she was an immortal child. They reported her to the Volturi."

"Ah." He said, leaving me with no doubt that he knew exactly who the Volturi were. "So you want the guns?"

"No, I'm not looking for a war with them. I just want them to pause for a minute. My family and I are gathering witnesses from around the globe to get them to pause long enough to see we are not a threat."

"O-K, but where do I fit into all of this?"

"You don't, as such, but when you were with us I promised you one story about the Doctor. I'm here to ensure that if I die, I die an honest man who never broke a promise."

He laughed, "Deal. But if you want the guns, just give me a call."

"If it comes to a war, I just might." I knew if it came to a war we'd most likely be dead before I could call.

We spent the next few hours talking about the Doctor. I didn't tell Jack about my latest encounter in Forks, or the confusing conversation I'd had with the Ireland coven. Focusing instead on stories the Doctor had told me. I told him the story the Doctor had told me about the Sycorax invasion. I knew Jack wasn't involved in those events so it shouldn't affect him to much to know. Or at least that's what I thought.

"He regenerated?"

"Umm, yeah I guess."

"Carlisle, what does your Doctor look like?"

"Brown eyes, brown hair, about my height."

"That's not the Doctor."

"Yeah, it is."

"That's not my Doctor."

"What's your Doctor?" But I already knew, I realised Jack had known the blue-eyed man.

"Blue eyes, big ears, northern accent."

"Yeah, I never met that Doctor. I saw him once, but his TARDIS told my daughter not to introduce us because it would create a problem."

Jack laughed, "Yeah, I messed up a few timelines in my day."

"When you were with the Time Agency?"

"Yeah," he seemed surprised that I remembered.

"What happened there? How did you end up with the Doctor and then stuck here."

"I went rogue. But a lovable rogue of course." He winked at Esme.

Esme chuckled.

"Why did you go rogue?"

"Woke one morning to find two years of my memory had been stolen. I tried to get them back."

"You're very interesting Jack."

He stood and walked behind me, "Oh, Carlisle, you have no idea."

"Can you show us around at all, Jack?" Esme asked to change the topic.

"Not really, but I can show you the back entrance." He raced over to the centre column and stood on a paving stone. Esme and I climbed on with him. There was a lingering scent that I recognised immediately, "Was the TARDIS here?"

"Yep, feeding off the rift – the Doctor uses the energy to charge the TARDIS. He parked here for a while and when the rift threatened to open, this stone was imprinted with some of the TARDIS's magic."

I scrunched my eyebrows at him, "What do you mean by magic?"

"Watch." We were halfway to the street level by now. When we reached the top I was going to step off but he shook his head, "Just wait."

There weren't many people around but those that were seemed to disregard us completely.

"Perception filter," he laughed, "It's part of the TARDIS's defence mechanism and it leeched into this spot. Now, let's go get a drink."

We spent the rest of the night with Jack filling him in on what else has been happening at home. It felt good to get our minds off the trouble for a little while at least. But before we knew it we were back at the airport, waiting for the plane that would take us home. To whatever destiny awaited us there.

A/N – I'm now on Twitter mpg82

Also – this fanfic has been nominated as a Top story for 2009 in 2 categories voting details http://forum(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/forum/CuriosityKilled_The_Cat/69076/

The categories are Best Cullen family story - http://forum(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/topic/69076/20907905/1/

And Best Crossover - http://forum(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/topic/69076/21486554/1/

There are some wonderful stories in many of the other categories, if you want to expand some of your reading check out the other categories.

In the next chapter we will be back for the Volturi showdown. Then it will be back to some Doctor Who eps & the visit from the mystery girl. Once I have posted that chapter I will have a companion piece to show the story behind the mystery girl, but if I post it now it will take away all the surprise.