A/N: Penultimate! We are SO NEARLY THERE.

Chapter 37 – A Good Day

Braxiatel stepped out into Torchwood, seeing everyone standing by the Hub door staring at the CCTV monitor. He joined them just in time to watch Jack slam the door after the Master.

"Uncle Brax," Leah said suddenly from somewhere below, tugging on his trousers.

Brax looked down at her, standing there looking up at him with those big brown eyes. "Yes?"

"Is he gone forever now?"

Brax paused for a moment, thinking about that. "... Yes," he eventually decided, mostly to assure his four-year-old niece but also partly a promise to himself. "He's not going anywhere near you. Not while I'm here."

Jack reappeared through the Hub door, clutching a tied up brown package. He moved to Leah and Alex straight away, kneeling down in front them.

"Do me a favour? Go to Daddy in the leisure room and give him the biggest hug you can manage, all right?"

"Okay!" Leah enthused, taking her brother's hand and running with him back into the TARDIS without any hesitation.

Jack got up, looking at Brax. "How is he?" he asked anxiously.

"You know," Brax muttered vaguely, slicking back his hair.

"Please don't be angry at him."

"Of course I'm angry at him," Braxiatel responded sharply. "He made our people almost completely extinct. How can I not be angry?"

"I understand, but..."

"Jack, you don't understand," Braxiatel replied abruptly. "To find out my little brother is the Renegade..."

"Is a privilege," Jack finished. "Why the hell aren't you proud of him?"

"You know he should be executed."

Everyone simultaneously flinched, and Jack's hand immediately snapped to his holster. The room temperature seemed to have risen about ten degrees almost instantaneously.

"Stop," the Doctor's voice suddenly came from the doorway of the TARDIS. His eyes were red, his cheeks stained with tears, and even as he walked he seemed to shrink slightly as he got closer and closer to his brother. "Braxiatel..."

"Theta Sigma," Brax interrupted sharply, turning back to his brother. "You know I am fully within my rights to execute you."

"Go on, then," the Doctor invited the older Time Lord in a sob. "I won't run."

"Don't you dare," Jackie growled at Braxiatel. She moved to the Doctor, seemingly protecting him in a way the Doctor could have never imagined was even possible with Jackie Tyler. With her the entire crowd shifted to him, forming a type of protective bubble.

"No, no, no, of course I'm not going to," Brax said quickly with his hands in the air, a little winded at how evil Jackie's look had been. "I do not blame you, Theta. I understand."

"No, you don't," the Doctor choked out.

"Okay, I don't," he quickly conceded. "I can never understand, because I wasn't there. I just want you to know that I accept what you did and now we can move on."

The Doctor's eyes shined with tears. "What?"

Braxiatel extended a single hand and rested it on the Doctor's shoulder. "I believe that what you did was the best thing you could do in the situation. I know you, Thete, I've known you since you were a tot, and you have always done everything for the right reasons. You are not a bad person, no matter how much you seem to want to believe it. I can't even begin to imagine the horrors of the War and what exactly happened. But you made the right decision, I am sure of it. Of course I'm angry, but that will pass."

The Doctor swallowed. "But I deserve to be executed."

"You really don't, you know," Brax insisted.

"Father wanted me in the Oubliette of Eternity."

"Father was a projection made by a zinox buried inside your brain," Braxiatel pointed out. "You're not going to base your life morals on something a parasite told you, are you? Besides, father was a bit of a plungboll in his later years anyway."

The Doctor suddenly choked out a laugh among his tears. "He tried to kill me."

"Sounds rather accurate of father," Braxiatel joked with a shrug and a smile.

The Doctor laughed again, and Braxiatel's smile broadened.

"Now go and spend some time with your family. I'll do the medical afterwards."

The Doctor nodded, just the once. "... Don't go anywhere."

Brax chuckled. "Where exactly have I got to go? I'll be here."

The Doctor nodded again, and finally looked around at his friends. "Thank you."

"Pleasure," Martha assured him. "Now go."

The Doctor turned and waved them all good bye over his shoulder. "Back tomorrow," he promised, a slight spring in his step as he disappeared inside his ship. Seconds later, it churned out of existence.

"The Master'll be back, won't he?" Mickey realised dully.

"Yes," Brax said quietly.

"I wish he'd leave us alone," Martha moaned, hand on her forehead.

"He won't," Jack murmured.

"One of them has to die first," Brax said seriously.

Jackie's eyes widened. "What does that mean?"

"Thete and Koschei are perfectly-matched enemies," Brax told her. "They've been at each other's throats for hundreds of years. They've both been the main cause of each other regenerating many times. They were friends for too long, they know each other far too well. They both know each other's strengths and weaknesses." He looked at Jack, who was nodding. "You saw them in the lift, Jack. It's why they make such a good team. One day one of them will kill the other one for good, and I couldn't tell you which one."

The crowd of people all nodded in sync.

"But Koschei's on his own. He hasn't got anyone to help him. While he's got his schemes and his mind and his full-blooded Time Lord edge, Thete has got his mother's human genes and all of you to match. They all used to say his human tendencies made him weak, but I think it makes him stronger. He's fragile on the outside compared to Koschei, but his mind is far superior. And as long as he's got all of you I think he's in pretty safe hands."

They all nodded in sync again, perking up slightly at his words.

"Well," Braxiatel continued, clapping his hands together. "I might go and explore Earth. It's been a while. Where am I, exactly?"

"Cardiff," Martha told him.

"Never heard of it," Braxiatel admitted, shrugging slightly.

"I'll show you 'round," Jackie said quickly, stepping forward.

"Oh, thank you," Braxiatel replied, frowning at the amused looks the others gave him. He was even more confused when Jackie slipped her hand into his and pulled him out of the door.

Jack went to his office, taking a seat in his old familiar chair.

He set the metal package down on his desk and popped it open. Inside was something wrapped with brown paper.

He pulled it apart carefully and pretty soon the toy Obi-Wan Kenobi revealed itself nestled inside the paper, fully mended. Jack couldn't help but laugh in delight, gazing at it for a moment before placing it ever so carefully on his desk beside the phone. He then reached down to his drawer, pulled out his whiskey, and took a hearty sip.

It had been a good day.

"How's Brax?"

The Doctor looked at his wife, standing still in her pyjamas in the doorway to the TARDIS corridor.

He smiled briefly. "He's fine."

"... He's okay with you?"

The Doctor nodded.

"Good," she said, moving forward to hug him again. "Let's just go somewhere and have fun, yeah?"

He nodded again. "Ten minutes. There's one last thing I have to do first."

One year earlier, Jack watched the TARDIS disappear as the Doctor, Rose and Leah with newborn Alex went to take some well-deserved TLC. He took a few moments to finish his thoughts, then turned to go to bed. He was just about to climb down into his room when there was a sudden buzzing at the Hub door – someone wanting to be let in.

He frowned slightly, straightening up. Who the hell was that at this hour?

All the same, he checked his gun was in his holster and slowly moved to the door, cautious. He pressed the button and the wheel rolled back to reveal...

"Hey, Jack," the Doctor said, grinning.

Jack blinked. "You, umm, you just left."

"Yeah, I know," the Doctor replied, still grinning. "Perfect timing, if I say so myself."

Jack stared at him for a moment. "Err, you wanna come in?"

"No," the Doctor answered. "I've only got a few minutes, I need you to give me a message from me."

"The other you?"

"Yeah. Almost exactly one year from now on the 10th December, when the clock hits 6pm exactly, you need to tell my other self that it's a code ten, and give him this."

The Doctor held out a piece of paper, which Jack took, frowning. "What's a code ten?"

"A warning to myself."

"Saying what?"

"Can't say. Just promise me, 6pm on 10th December you will tell him it's a code ten and give him that piece of paper. Don't wait for anything. Scream and punch him if you have to. He has to know, and he has to know then."

Jack nodded. "Promise."

"Don't forget," the Doctor warned. "You're going to have a completely barmy year, but 6pm, 10th December 2012, you tell him."

"Okay, I got it," Jack assured him.

"The entire universe is in your hands, Captain Jack Harkness... Sure you don't want to at least write it down somewhere?"

"I'll remember!" Jack insisted.

"If you're sure," the Doctor replied, a little unconvinced. "You couldn't remember the right date to give Martha for labour day."

"I thought you said the 11th!"

The future Doctor just sighed and rolled his eyes. "I have to go, thank you."

He turned to leave.

"Wait," Jack said quickly.

"6pm, 10th December 2012!" the Doctor snapped, exasperated. "Write it down!"

"No, not that bit," Jack replied quickly. "But you're from the future... How about you give me a little bit of the future? Give me a clue to what happens?"

The future Doctor didn't seem very happy with the idea of that, but Jack noted he wasn't saying no...

"Go on," Jack encouraged, smiling his most charismatic smile. "Just a tiny bit. Little clue."

The Doctor sighed. "Fine," he said, and with that he grabbed Jack's face in both hands, wrenched it forward, slammed their lips together and snogged the life out of him for five very long and very lovely seconds.

He finally drew back, letting go of Jack and simply letting him stand there feeling as though he was going to collapse at any second. Then the Time Lord simply turned, and walked towards the exit.

"Wait! Doc! Is that the future?" Jack asked, breathless.

The Doctor kept walking towards the exit.

"Doctor! You can't just walk out! Was that a joke? Do I have sex with you? With Rose? Both of you? At the same time?"

The Doctor had gone.

Jack sighed as the Hub door rolled closed in front of him, staring into the metal before raising the piece of paper the future Doctor had given him, considering it. Well, what was the worst that could happen? He wasn't telling the Doctor for a year anyway. He opened the paper, and read it.

The reign of Echo will begin.

Well, what was that supposed to mean?

He shoved the paper into his pocket, noting to put it in his desk tomorrow morning. Then he left to bed, anticipating some lovely dreams.